"Well, then you will have 6 more years in order to use your organization skills!" she said with a laugh. "Well, I'm used to taking on big jobs, we'll get through this!" she said brightly. She laughed with him, while also taking a piece of pie. "So, where do you think this food came from?" she asked, poking the pie before her with a fork.

Still laughing softly Lizzie said Oh no. I'm fine. No heartattack, grinning at her friend. Yeah sure I'm in. When? she asked, happy at the thought of a party. This term was just getting better and better every second!

"This weekend. On me, at the Three Broomsticks or just about anywhere. I'll leave the dancing here this time." Chalice elated.

Lizzie smiled happily, saying Oh that sounds like fun. I'll be there. Thinking for a second she said So how do you like being second year Chalice? I love it.

Fred was still on the ground not sure how to react after seeing the ghost. On the good side his stomach wasn't upside down anymore and he was breathing. Looking on each side, he pulled himself back on his feet and sat back in his place. He mentally congratulate himself from picking a place at the opposite of everybody. Since nobody seems to have noticed his little embarrassing moment, nobody could teased about it.

Slowly, he picked a piece of bread. Maybe if he was eating just a bit some color would come back to his face.

Finally someone friendly: "Oh, Hii! I'm Pandora Black! Nice to meet you!" said Pandora with big smile. She was so eager to meet new housemates, and find some friends, at last she didn't know anyone!

She saw familiar face sitting across table! "Hey! My book friend, how are you?"

Begrudgingly, Daphne Hopton still found herself sitting at the Gryffindor table, surrounded by her eager peers. Their glistening excited faces, some marked with perspiration on their foreheads, others possessed taunting nostrils invaded by a cheeky booger or two that waved at her improperly.

Unable to stand the sight any longer, Daphne pushed away the terrarium that held the nameless tree frog she bought last year captive to pick up her book. Hiding her chubby cheeks behind the hardcover text of "The Art of War", Daphne attempted to analyze and digest Master Sun Tzu's words in his first chapter: "Detail Assessment and Planning".

The art of war is of vital importance to the state, Sun Tzu said. It is a matter of life and death, a road either to safety or ruin. Hence it is a subject of inquiry which can in no account be neglected. If Daphne was the state then she would need to perfect the art of war to the point of being remarkably invincible.

Grinning to herself, she crossed her short legs underneath the table, conjuring her enemies to her mind's eye. As it was, there were five things to consider: her mission, the climate in which she battled, the ground on which she battled, her leadership and lastly the methods she would resort to in order to complete her mission.

Unable to concentrate properly with the din invading her eardrums, Miss Hopton simply uncrossed and recrossed her legs once more underneath the table. For the time being, dramatizing acts of social destruction in her head would have to do.

Winnie sat, head bent, red bow obscuring her face scrunched in concentration. She scribbled away at her notes; so much going on in the Great Hall, almost too much for her.

-Be wary of forks.
-Be wary of new all professors. Best to only speak to them when spoken too. Less likely to lose points this way.
-mouth cells/ germs?
-Willie Crocker - evil or simply misunderstood?

She picked up her head and looked around, tapping her quill absentmindedly on a corner of her paper, accidentally (and obliviously) sending flecks off navy ink onto her jumper and her nose. Daphadill Hopton was sitting nearby, engrossed in some book or another, conspiracy and secrecy etched in every curve of her plump face. Winnie might be a little intimidated by Daphne, but she had a lot to learn from her. She craned her neck, looking past the pumpkin juice jar for a glimpse of the book cover.

Maybe she's reading something about the menfolk.

He didn't know how he did it, but he managed to crawl his way from the Ravenclaw's table to the Gryffindor's. Of course, he didn't know that this was the Gryffindor's table. All he knew was that he moved from one table to another, searching for his brother.

Blinking at a pair of feet that were in front of him, Willie tilted his head. He wondered if he could ask this person where he could find his brother. Placing his hand on the girl's leg, he gave it a pinch to get her attention. (Winnie)

"OIIIYY."

Jake smiled; understandable. Jake hated it when his true friends got hirt and it always showed. Except of course when it was Cameron... because that was just comical. Cameron in general was just excellent at making Jake laugh.

"I'm Jacob Upstead, or Jake, I don't mind what you call me," Jake explained. He was began to wonder when he should just start introducing himself as Jake.

Oh, galloping guff granolas.

"Hi," Jake bit his lip. "Thank you... I hope to make Hufflepuff proud." Smiling, Jake wondered what exactly the next answer was supposed to be.

"Erm..." Jake stalled. "No... only you."

Well... it was true, but Jake meant no malice to go with that statement.

Winnie heard a rustling sound beneath the table (why are there noises coming from under the table? Calls of discreet romance made with the feet of the young and impetuous? Like crickets? ) and ducked her head to investigate. Just then, she received a pinch to her leg; she screeched like a bird of prey and fell backwards out of her chair in surprise. Bow askew and skirt rumpled, she placed her hands on the bench and raised her head slowly, wondering what she might find that had pinched (bitten? taken a chunk out of?) her leg....

and found herself eye to eye with WILLIE CROCKER.

Her heart jumped into her throat.

"W-wi-" she struggled. "It wasn't me I didn't do it PLEASE DON'T HURT ME!"

She was so young...had so much research to look forward to...she couldn't be eaten alive. Not now.

The Moral Law, according to the Master, causes the people to be in complete accord with their ruler, so that they would follow him regardless of their lives, undismayed by any danger.

The very prospect of having followers willing to receive a snot bomb to the face in her place made her shiver with sinister pleasure. "Without constant practice the general will be wavering and irresolute when the crisis is at hand."

Daphne couldn't afford to be wavering and irresolute.

However, she did find her concentration was wavering more and more by the second. There was an uneasy feeling covering her body. That boding sensation of being watched by invisible (or not so invisible) eyes. Peering above her book, not willing to relinquish its shield-like qualities completely, Miss Hopton frowned at the improper person, navy hued polka-dots decorating her grubby face, reading the cover of her book.

It was that Dust Cloud named Winnie Ferguson.

"Lost something dear?" inquired Daphne with a crooked smile, uncrossing her legs. In the process of moving her legs, Hopton inadvertently kicked something(one), causing her to frown. As Daphne's hazel eyes fell on Winnie's lavish red bow, Hopton held back a giggle.

Clearly, her fashion and common sense.

Next thing she knew, the little dust mite had ducked underneath the table and Miss Hopton was left with nothing but thin air to smile at mockingly. That was, until there was some shrieking and much moving about. Holding on to her book with one hand, the terrarium with the other, Daphne cringed.

Not another catastrophe with the possibility of being injured with germs. "Who's trying to eat you?" interrogated the blond with disbelief, before placing her items on the table. "I hardly believe there's a cannibal lose at Hogwarts." Surely, this kind of intel she would have been warned about by Davis. Plus, there was no way she was going to let a fellow Gryffindor female be eaten by a disgusting cannibal.

But...his incompetence wasn't something she wasn't aware of.

Raising a pale brow, the chubby girl swept her head downwards, towards the source of the trouble to see--a curly haired hufflepuff boy which oddly enough reminded her of another curly haired hufflepuff boy. "I'm sorry. It seems to me you have crawled underneath the wrong table. Please return to your respective place. Goodbye."

He held in a giggle as the girl fell backwards out of her chair. That was funny, for sure. Willie waited for a few moments for her to regain herself so he could speak to her, and then when she sat up and was eye to eye with him did his green eyes widen in shock.

Whaaaaaa?

Blinking for a few moments, Willie suddenly grinned a little too mischievously. "I dun know whatchu talkin' 'bout, Mith." He told her with a firm nod. "So I ain't gunna hu--" But before he could continue what he wanted to say, he looked up at another girl who seemed a little too... fussy.

"Huh?" Willie didn't understand a word she said. The only thing he did understand was that she told him he had the wrong table. So she must know Garret!

"Oiii, Mith. Ye know where me brothe' ith?" He questioned her, rubbing his nose which still ached him from the fork. "Thee, I lotht 'im. Acthually, 'e lotht me. 'E ain't a good brother, I'll tellth ya that."

"Hmm, I'm not sure," James said, now staring at his food in wonder. He cautiously picked up his fork and poked the food, quickly pulling his fork back, afraid of what might happen. But nothing happened. He frowned and took a bite out of some pumpkin pie, chewing it slowly and thoughtfully. Pumpkin pie was his favorite food, other than cheese of course, so he was pretty much an expert in judging pumpkin pie. He swallowed, put his fork down, and rested his chin on his hand thoughtfully.

"Well, I don't know where it's from, but it's really good! I'm pretty sure it's safe to eat. Unless, someone bewitched it to taste really good, so that people wouldn't be able to resist! And then we'll be stuck here forever, because we can't stop eating the food. And then we'll die from too much food!" James said, his eyes getting bigger and bigger as he became more and more excited. "But, seriously, it didn't say in Hogwarts, A History and my dad's never told me, so I've no idea where it's from."

Winnie could barely believe her luck. Her grey eyes widened above her navy blue freckles. She wasn't going to be eaten alive?! And he had called her "miss"! Well... "mith". Same thing innit? Willie Crocker could be polite! Wow. Suddenly his glistening fangs retracted, and it turned out that he actually had pleasant green eyes, not an angry, blistering scarlet. Why...he was almost cute. And that grin...so...sincere....

"Oh well, that's alright, Willie," she said, calmly as she could, taking her seat and smoothing her skirt, tugging her at bow. "You just...startled me, is all. I'm afraid I haven't seen Garret, not even on the train. How is your nose?"

"Daph- Miss Hopton," Winnie began, "I was just wondering what you were reading. You seem so engrossed, is all." And I think you might be the one that I could take all my social cues from!

She lowered her voice an octave. "This is Willie...Garret's brother," she whispered, leaning forward, eyes wide. She cocked her head toward young Willie.

Daphne considered her climate as she stared with slight disgust at the boys' moving lips, the gap between his front teeth mocking her resolve. It was chilly, for night had already fallen (thank you, Enchanted Ceiling), and the light wasn't all that great for interrogation procedures. The distance between her and the new found enemy was short, an escape wasn't a solution to either of them. The space between the bank and the table itself would make it troublesome for her to join the child underneath the table if need be.

Although, she'd much rather stay seated. He didn't look much like a cannibal what with the lack of proper meat tearing teeth. The chances of coming out alive: 100%.

The first sentence she understood well enough. The second part of his speech proved troublesome. Daphne wasn't' sure if the boy loved or lost his brother even if he was a bad brother.

So it seemed.

"You see, child," spoke Daphne quirking her left brow yet again. "Knowing your brother would be a difficult task seeing as I hardly know who you are to begin with."

The dirt magnet's voice commanded her above the table and she politely obliged, showing her small smile as a sign of peace. "You're interested in what I'm reading?" asked the third year redundantly. Was anyone really interested in the words of the Chinese militarist Sun Tzu? "The Art of War," answered the blond shortly, flicking an unruly wave over her shoulder. "It's a book on strategy. Any ambitious person with a purpose has read it." At least that was her thinking.

Choking briefly, Daphne averted her round honey eyes away from the ogling ink specks on Winnie's nose. Willie. That was the kind of name a mass murderer would possess. "Really? Another Crocker at Hogwarts?"

This was bad news. A plan of attack had to be made soon. "I don't know where your brother is but he certainly isn't here," responded Daphne with a frown. "Nor would he...ever be." If he knew what was good for him.

"YES! I love not being the baby any more. We still have like five more years together too then the rest of our lives to be friendsies! Yay!"

His green eyes shifted from screaming girl to fussy girl and then back to screaming girl again. He tilted his head, furrowed his brows and scratched the back of his head. Where in blazes was Garret? If screaming girl hadn't seen him on the train, then... no it wasn't possible.

Was it?

His green eyes pooled with tears as the thought of his brother not riding the train at all frightened him. He couldn't have left Willie all alone at Hogwarts, could he?! He didn't think that Willie could actually fend for himself, coud he?!

He looked up at fussy girl, sniffing. "I ain't a child, ye futhy perthon." He snapped so suddenly. He did hate to be referred to as a child even when he actually was one. He wrinkled his nose, watching the girls whisper amongst themselves. Pft. Girls. Always whispering, he thought a little sourly.

Crawling from under the table, he popped up beside Winnie. Placing a hand on her shoulder, he tugged her a bit back as if telling her to move to let him sit down. His other hand was holding onto his pants, afraid they'd fall down in front of fussy girl.

"What'th wrong wi' 'avin' Crockerth at 'Ogwartth, eh?!" He frowned, eyeing the girl in front of him. "Ain't nuthin' wrong with Crockerth!" His throat was stinging him once she had told him she hadn't seen his brother either.

Where in the world could Garret be?

"Hmph. Thtupid... THTUPID. GARRET CROCKERRRRRRRRRRR!" Willie yelled, getting really tired of looking for his brother. "GAARRREEEEETTTTT!"

Winnie's jaw dropped, a dull flush creeping up to her hairline (bowline?). She just kneeew it. Daphne was the one to watch. The one to learn from. The mum that wasn't her mum that would serve as her mum while she was away from her mum. Ambition? PURPOSE!? These Winnifred Ferguson had in spades. She was to learn everything about society, about menfolk, about young romance calls, about mouth cells...this was not a task to be taken lightly. SHE MUST HAVE THIS BOOK.

"Where did you get it?" she asked nonchalantly. Or tried to ask nonchalantly.

Garret Crocker, not ever be here? But, he was a student here as well, surely. Confunding. Her eyes widened as Willie used her shoulder to right himself; she straightened her back to keep from falling out of her seat again. She scooted over on the bench to make room for a clearly agitated Willie. When Willie began to howl, she felt the old fear creep its way up her spine, and a bead of sweat gathered on her temple.

"It's-it's going to be all right, Willie, he can't have gone far," she said in her best consoling voice (despite it trembling with nerves). "Why don't you have a bite to eat and erm...relax?"

Lizzie giggled. Yeah I know I love that we know so much now. Like, I didn't have to ask anyone how to get to the great hall today she said with a laugh.

"Muggle bookshop?" answered Daphne dubiously. Honesty be served, she didn't know where the text had originally come from. The book had been stolen from her father's library. The very same one she wasn't to access without his consent. Oops?

Then Crocker was being an insolent little boy with his ever annoying lisp and his eerie big green eyes. "Please forgive me for stating the truth," she spoke with a sarcastic smile. If he wasn't a child than Daphne didn't have controlling impulses. "And there is absolutely nothing wrong with having Crockers at Hogwarts," emphasized Daphne pouring a glass of pumpkin juice for herself and two more for her conversationalists friends. Except that it's Crockers.

Chapter One, page 19, The commander stands for the virtues of wisdom, sincerity...

"Well," quipped the blond pushing a glass towards Winnie and the other towards Willie, both across from her. "You got that right about Garret. His intelligence is questionable."

Benevolence, courage...

"However, after the feast is done we'll help you look for him," relinquished Daphne with a small shudder. "No matter how tedious the task may be." That Garret and his dirty hands were enough to send her into a fit.

And strictness...

"But first you must stop crying. Big boys don't cry."

"Yeah, I've been a beater on the Gryffindor team since my first term here." she told Jake. "Do you play too?"
She could just imagine how ridiculus, and little he would look on the flying around the pitch. But then again, she was smaller than him in her first year, so she really couldn't say anything about it.
Ugh, and then he went again. Why couldn't he just leave it?
"It does matter actually. It matters to me." she said. "And what does it matter if I would still have soem grievance towards you or whatever? Its just polite to apoplogize!"
She turned away from him, then back to Jake, waiting for his reply. But then Dominic just came strolling over and sat next to Jake. He really just refuses to go away doesn't he?
"Not really, Dominic. Just Quidditch, and I really dont see how it concerns you."
Allie blushed a little against her will, and nudged Jake in the ribs very hardly once he had said they were talking about him.
"Well not really you. Jake here came over to make sure I was alright, and that you didn't hurt me, then the topic changed to quidditch."

Willie twitched, his grasp on screaming girl's shoulder tightening. What did she mean by 'Crockers' when she was clearly emphasizing on the word? Was she making fun of his lisp?! Was she?! "Shut up!" He snapped at screaming girl as she suggested that he should sit down and relax. He was not in the mood to eat and surely, he wasn't in the right mood to relax.

"I ain't cryin!" Willie practically yelled at her as she calmly told him to not cry. Why did she think he was going to cry?! Did she think he was a baby?! He was not a baby! "Ye jutht think ye tho thmart, dontcha? Tellin' me not to cry and ye know I ain't gunna cry!" Willie told her, lifting up his pants with his other hand while he still held onto screaming girl's shoulder tightly.

His nostrils flaring, Willie tried to take deep breaths. His mother did tell him he had the worst temper of all, and he knew she was right sometimes. Feeling a little calm, he let go of the girl's shoulder and sat down , grumbling some incoherent words. "Thtupid Garret. Bloody idiot."

"Ye thay one word about me cryin' again, I'll bitechu." Willie spoke, glaring at the girl. "I ain't afraid of bitin' no futhy girl like you."

Marcus walked up to the table with a nervous little smile. Hi Lizzie he said to his friend, happy to see someone he knew. Is it ok if I sit with you?