Nodding as she quickly glanced down the table to the girl Lasca was gesturing towards, Mariel turned back to Lasca and said, "Yes, I believe she is the new captain this year. Although I do wonder what happened to Ryan. I don't know her well, but she was a good beater last year."

Looking over at Sage, she added, "I'm from just outside London, too. I'm surprised we haven't met before." Well, not completely surprised given her sheltered childhood, but they could have run into each other at Diagon Alley, she was there so much.

Glancing up at the staff table, her green eyes lingered on the man that had just seated himself in the center seat. "Is Professor Bontecou the new Headmaster?" she mused aloud, more to herslf, eyes widened slightly in surprise to this revelation.

"Valentine!" She called out and whipped her head around when she saw Tobi find his way through the crowds of people. She chuckled softly as she shook her head and the boy sat down next to her. She smiled and shook her head. "Feeling better?" She asked as he tugged gently at her hair. The last time she had seen the boy was on the floor of the joke shop between terms.

Valentine tugged at her own hair too, still not sure if she should stick with the blond and blue, or if it was time to jump back to her dark black hair. "It looks horrible doesn't it." She laughed softly.

Nodding her head at her friends musing, Lasca studdied the girl in question. She seemed a very no non sense person. She had the build for a Quidditch player from what she could tell.

Lasca was only barely paying attention to the exchange between Mariel and Sage. Her comment on the Headmaster got her attention though. She snapped her head up to the staff table to study the man in question. Without taking her eyes off him she posed her friend with another question. "Professor? What is it that he taught?"

Cela slipped into a seat and immediately poured herself a drink, humming to herself innocently.

"Do I really look like the sort of person who was plotting something?" Copernicus lifted an eyebrow at her in disbelief. Most people believed he was incapable of subterfuge, which was why he'd make an excellent mastermind should he ever choose to do so.

"Are the Slytherin house people natural born troublemakers? Seems a bit unwise to stick them all in one place."

"Better than you saw me last, to say the least."

Tobi grinned, Val -Valentine was easy to get a rise out of too, but it wasn't quite as satisfying as needling Aggie. Still, it would do, he'd give the 6th year a break for the moment, they had the whole year ahead of them, and Ed would surely get annoyed if Tobi poked at Val too much.

"Nah, it looks good," Tobi assured her, reaching for a basket of rolls "want one?- I mean, it's going to take some getting used to, I only knew you with your dark hair before now, but it's cool. And when experiment with our looks if not when we're young? I myself got the greatest pedicure, you should see it." Tobi pulled a face at her.

"Hm?" Mariel was snapped out of her reverie by the voice next to her. "Oh, yes, Professor Bontecou...," she told Lasca, smiling as she fondly remembered his class. "He's the potions professor. And it would seem that he's now the Headmaster," she added, as she inclined her head towards the seat he was occupying. She was somewhat surprised, but not unpleasantly so. "You'll like him," she assured Lasca. "He's quite pleasant." Even if a bit flighty.

Sean sat down and looked around. He saw new faces and old familiar faces. He liked seeing everyone, so happy and excited for term to start. He wonders what amazing things he will learn this term. He sips his pumkin juice and people watches.

"I see." She was scanning the staff table taking in all of the faces. Lasca lingered on the older gentlemen who looked loke he would burst into dust at any moment. She giggled at the mental picture and then shook herself mentally. It was rude but now that it was in her mind it kept replaying like a broken record. Soon, she was in a fit of giggles and she was trying despritely to get herself back under control.

She took her eyes off the older man and moved to another. She spotted one that was surrounded by student girls. He was quite handsome and had an athletic build. "He is the Quidditch Mediator, no?" She posed the question to her friend, Lasca hoped that Mariel wasn't getting tired of answering her questions.

Nathaniel didn't understand why people in his own house didn't like him. Maybe he really didn't belong there. Maybe the hat was wrong.. Could the hat be wrong? He thought about all of that as he made his way over to the Ravenclaw table to talk Mariel. He found a spot across from her and sat down. "Hey stranger." he said with a smirk as he looked at her through his glasses. He didn't mean to interrupt her conversation.

Mariel watched Lasca curiously as she began giggling uncontrollably. Following her gaze, she looked up at the staff table, but didn't see anything out of the ordinary. That didn't matter as laughter was usually pretty contagious to Mariel and soon the young Ravenclaw was stifling laughter when she didn't know what was quite so funny in the first place.

Her eyes then followed Lasca's gesture as she spoke. Biting her lower lip before flashing Lasca a grin, she nodded and said, "Yes, that is Professor Vindictus. He's also the flying professor and our Head of House." She could tell Lasca would probably be a Vindictus fangirl just like Mariel, and probably quite a few other girls in school.

Looking up at the sound of another familiar voice, Mariel smiled to see Nathaniel sitting across from her. "Hey, Nathaniel," she greeted him. "How are you enjoying the feast? We were just discussing the new Headmaster." She gestured towards the staff table.

Nathaniel's shaggy hair was in his eyes again. He moved it so he could see the girls again. "Hey Lasca".
"I swear I think I was sorted into the wrong house. Nobody over there likes me." he said glancing at the Grffyindor table with a frown.

Lasca shook her head when Mariel looked at her curiously. She didn't want to explain that her laughter was rude so with great effort she finally got herself under control. Looking up at the staff table she gave Professor Vindictus another critical scan and then went to studying the other professors.

The flourish of someone sitting across from the two Ravenclaw girls caught Lasca's attention. It was Nathaniel and since he hadn't greeted her she simply gave him a polite nod. At the mention of the Headmaster she went back to watch the events unfold as students went up and were talking to the professors.

Taking the seat Rian offered next to her, Liz sits down, with a grin. "It's awesome to be back!"

"There seems to be a lot more students then usual...not just first years I mean." Liz comments as she's looking around the hall.

Spotting the boy down the table again. She whispers to Rian "Any idea, who that cute one might be? I think he's in our year or at least 5th. I don't remember him being here before..." she trails off.

Juniper glanced up and down the table. Now where was Melly? Juniper had not seen her since Diagon Alley. There was Kovac again, right in her line of view. The fourth year grimaced. Hopefully she would be able to avoid anti-nature girl this term, or at least not have to think about her anti-nature…ness. Actually, she hoped she would be able to avoid any anti-nature attitudes from anyone, ever. Yes, that would be quite excellent.

Then Issy tugged on her arm, and Junipter snapped out of her daydream about life without anti-nature feelings. “Wha? Oh, I met Copernicus,” Juniper said, nodding politely at him. “He helped find Nakato when some little boy stole her.” Silly little lemur thief… ruining a perfectly good day such as that one.

Resuming her examination of the Ravenclaw table, Juniper spotted Celandine. The curly-haired brunette raised a hand to wave at her… and then realized that the younger girl was looking the other way. And while it would not be difficult to get her attention… Juniper considered calling down the table to be slightly impolite. But who would really care? Nobody that Juniper saw. “Celandiiine!” Juniper grinned at the girl and beckoned her to come to join herself and Issy.

The more people she knew than strangers, the better, right?

Mariel shook her head. "No, you're a definite Gryffindor," she told Nathaniel, wondering where this self-doubt was coming from. Narrowing her eyes and frowing slightly, she said, "What do you mean no one likes you? I'm sure whatever it is, it's just a misunderstanding." Mariel never knew Nathaniel to have such low self-esteem. Something weird must have happened at his table.

"Well, you're welcome to eat with us if you want," she told him, gesturing to the food. She was sure no one would mind as the different Houses often mingled. Glancing quickly at Lasca, Mariel noticed she was observing the staff table again. Looking in that direction herself, her eyes lingered on the several new faces there, wondering who was teaching what, and how the classes would be different this year.

Nathaniel smiled at her. "Nobody really talks to me is all. I make the effort and they just brush me off. Some 5th year who is new year acted like he was better than me.It was ridiculous." He looked towards that 5th year. "So I kinda practiced my Metamorphmagus stuff this summer." Nate said as he turned his black hair to blond and made it longer. "Whatcha think?". He figured that he could eat over here. Wouldn't do any harm. "Thanks." he said as he spooned some mashed potatoes onto his plate.

Cela looked up, innocence plastered on her face. She had been here all along. Not at any other tables. Or under them or anything like that.

She smiled brightly at Juniper and stood up, skipping happily over to her and smiling around at the others; all of whom she recognised, but most of whom she didn't know. She grinned at... Copernicus? Yeah thats right. She nodded to herself and took a seat with the group.

She studiously avoided looking at the staff table and addressed everyone as a whole, "Anyone got a jelly slug?" she coupled the request with a sweet and hopeful smile, totally keen to ruin her appetite with candy.

Qaz wandered into the hall and found a seat with the other Ravenclaws. She hoped that her tabby, HiJinx, would go unnoticed. Some people had an aversion to cats in the dining hall. so after she was seated, she patted the bench next to her, indicating where HRH could sit.

HiJinx jumped up on the bench next to Qaz and immediately climbed onto her lap....one circle, two circles and then he curled up in a ball and fell right to sleep.

Elizabeth walked into the Great Hall, feeling like she was late, but couldn't control it. Bella had acted up again as soon as she had been forced to go back into her basket to be transported up to the dormitory, and Elizabeth had wanted to try and calm the cat down and prevent destruction of the common room or something. Before heading over to the Ravenclaw table, she glanced at the staff table. It appeared some of the new professors were already there, and one of them caught her eye as looking familiar for some reason. Shaking the feeling off for now, pushing figuring it out until later, she turned to her house table as her name was mentioned. By a familiar voice.

"Hey Mari," she said, walking over. Then she saw who Mari had been talking to, and smiled. "Hey Ludo. Don't even think of eating the plate," she teased the tall boy sitting there. "Food'll come soon enough." She started to head toward them, and then was distracted by another familiar voice, which sounded dangerously controlled. Robert. Good to know he's at least trying, she thought, before turning her head to look over at the exact time the girl from the Quidditch store knocked his chair legs out from under him.

Her green eyes widened as she changed direction slightly to go over to them. "What's going on here?," she asked the tiny girl, who now that she was closer she could see was a Slytherin. Then she reached a hand down to Robert, helping him up before picking the chair back up, then looking at the Slytherin again. "I don't know what the problem is between you guys," she said quietly, "but I didn't hear anything that should have resulted in people being knocked to the floor." She made sure her face stayed in a neutral expression, especially since she didn't know this girl.

Qaz gazed up at the staff table. There seemed to be several new Professors. Hopefully, kind ones that didn't have all kinds of weird problems. There had been enough of those over the past few terms. One of the new Professors looked ancient.....probably teaches History, as he looked old enough to have first-hand knowledge of most of it....

and looking up and down the Ravenclaw table, there appeared to be a bumper crop of first years. My goodness, were we really that small when we first entered this hallowed hall...

He hadn't worn his clothes neatly. In fact, his tie was tied on his head, his shirt untucked, his pants' buckle not fastened and his robes were dragging on the floor. These were yet again hand-me downs, and they had once upon a time belonged to Garret. But Garret being much bigger than Willie when he was a first year had his robes shortened to be his height as they were also a hand-me down from a cousin. Willie hadn't bothered asking his mother, but now he was feeling a bit bad for not doing so.

Holding onto his pants, afraid they'd fall down he wiggled, making sure he wouldn't step onto his very long pants. "had ter be a dummy and not athk mum, eh?" he muttered darkly to himself, his eyes looking quite murderous.

Looking around the hall, he wiggled towards a table that seemed like fun. Once there, he eyed the students sitting there. They all looked so huge! How was he going to fit in between them? Looking at a big girl who had blonde hair, he poked her shoulder rather roughly. "AYE," he practically yelled in her ear. "Could ye move a bit? I ain't got no plathe to thit in, dontchaknow."

After Damian was sorted into his house he went to the table. Leah wasn't sorted yet. He looked arround the great hall. *that's better than in the book*

He sat down and watched the other students of his house.
"hy, I am Damian. First Year", he said to the others. He was really nervous and intimidated.

Cela turned and blinked wide-eyed at the boy that was littler than her. Littler than her! Cela offered a bright smile and shifted over enough for the boy to jump up. Spending a few minutes examining him she vaguely recognised him... he had been clinging to Garret that day in the street when she found out about... must not think about Will. She distracted herself from getting sad by noticing the tie around his head. Oh neat!

Cela immediately untied her own school tie and redid it as a headband, holding back her long blonde hair. "Hi, I'm Cela." she paused, "Short for Celandine. Welcome to the Ravenclaw table." Cela grinned and reached into her pocket for candy, a doleful expression appearing on her face when she realised she had none.

She pouted and her eyes shone puppy-like.

Willie grumbled under his breath using words only he understood (a language he created). He wanted to jump in, but with the condition his pants were in, he was unable to do so. So slowly picking up his pants, he sat down next to the girl and looked up at her. He tilted his head as she seemed to be... looking at him? Odd.

He grinned once the girl did the same as he did with his tie. So he was right! That's how it was worn. "Thela?" Willie blinked, never hearing a name such as that before. He nodded his head slowly as she explained her name, still not getting it. Oh well.

Willie watched her as she reached into her pocket to pull something out. A pout and puppy-like eyes made his eyes widened and his body lean back. "Why 're ye lookin' at me that?" He asked her, keeping a close eye on her. "Ye ain't gunna cry now, 're ya? I ain't got a tissue, ya know."