Chris came into the great hall. With out even thinking he went right to the Gryffindor table. Which was weird cause Lena was a Slytherin. But anyways he found her there just like he thought he would. He went and sat down next to her. "Hello Miss. Crawley." He said and smiled towards her.

Helena chuckled slightly and quickly swallowed the bite of biscuit she had in her mouth before saying. Hello Mister Kaplan. Fine weather we're having, isn't it? She returned his smile as well as the absurd-yet-highly-amusing formalities.

Chris chuckled."Yeah totally great weather." He said to Lena smiled. "Sorry for not being all formal and stuff. It was kind of weird." He said to her and laughed. God how good it felt to laugh and joke around again.

Helena laughed and took a sip of pumpkin juice before replying, No problem - you need to stop apologizing so much, though. She chuckled slightly and took another bite of biscuit to cover it up, though the muffled laughter didn't die from her face as it did from reverberating through the air.

Chris nodded. "Alright alright. I know that's something I have to work on. And I promise I will." He told Lena and smiled. He then took a sip of pumkin juice. "I have been saying sorry I lot haven't I?" He asked thinking more about it.

Helena sighed slightly, smearing some marmalade onto a piece of toast, but she nodded. Yeah, but like I said - no sweat. She shrugged lightly and bit into the piece of toast without really paying much attention to anything; she wasn't exactly sure why she was more comfortable knowing that Chris liked her.

Naomi sat down at the table starving. She piled her plate with macaroni and cheese. She then looked around for someone to talk to.

"Thanks." Chris said to Lena. Then looked around the Great Hall. Why did he think it was going to be so hard to tell her? He knew that if she she really his friend-which she was-then she wouldn't get mad at him, or anything like that. But what ever he just felt much much better he finally told her. Chris turned his head to Helena and smiled.

As Chris caught Helena's eye, she returned his smile and took a second bite of toast. She set it down as she chewed and poured herself a cup of coffee, glad that that was one thing that Hogwarts wasn't absent of. She sipped it black and her smile widened.

Chris watched as Lena poured coffee?? Oh gross! And plus it was black... He made a disgusted face. "How the hell can you drink that? And black?" He asked Lena. "Come on you don't find it gross???" He asked raising an eyebrow slightly.

Ancient Runes textbook in one hand, Fehu rune in the other, Anna Greingoth took a seat at an empty area of the Gryffindor house table. She stopped to wave at a few friends who were talking a good ways down, then focused herself on the task at hand. Flipping through her book, she came to a page she thought might give her an idea on what she could possibly do for her Ancient Runes homework assignment. She'd considered the growth of a plant, but after figuring that just about everyone else would go that route (or so she imagined), she'd gone back to the drawing board.

A good ten minutes later, Anna still sat, flipping through her book and jotting down a few notes here and there. "Arghhh," she half-whispered, getting frustrated with her progress, or lackthereof. She clamped her textbook shut, sighed, then rested the side of her face in the palm of her hand. She'd thought she'd be done by now!

"Annaaaaaaaaaa." Celandine drew out her friends name and slid into the spot next to her. "What are you... OH Runes homework! EEEEEP!" Cela sighed, "I am SUCH a bad Ravenclaw."

She reached for an apple and bit into it, leaning over to peek at Anna's notes. "Fehu. Fehuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu. You know... we could do something with that together maybe? It does have two meanings since..." Cela reached over and flipped the book upside down, "Merkstave and all?"

"Celadine Toussaint! Boy am I ever glad to see you!" Anna said, perking up at not only a welcomed interruption, but an interruption from one of her very best friends. "Yes, Runes homework, and I'm doing a foul job of it at the moment, if I do say so myself. I've given up for the time being." She laughed lightly at that last note, then shoved her rune into her pocket. "A bad Ravenclaw? Hardly, Cela. Hardly."

"Together?" Anna asked, thinking that one over. Working with someone sure would make the process a lot more fun, and maybe Cela had some ideas that'd help her...since, well, Anna had none. "I'd like that, actually. So, one of us could go with the normal meaning, while the other went with the reversed meaning. That'd be interesting to see those results." She glanced over at her book, then pulled her rune back out of her pocket. "Alright, so, any ideas?"

"I so am! I just... homework." Cela made a face and flailed her hand. There were far more pressing things on her mind than homework.

"It would be interesting. Would they be... directly against each other or just a comparison or..." Celandine looked at Anna speculatively. "When was the last time you were in the dueling arena?"

"Cela, would you believe I'm behind on homework, too? I think it's last school year and all. Maybe we burned ourselves out or something," Anna said, making a face at her textbook. "I've got to step up my game, though. I have NEWTs this year. Arghhh." Anna threw her hands up in the air, then dramatically laid her head down on the table. When was it all going to let up? Oh, yeah...summertime, which was a loooong ways off. That thought in mind, she lifted her hand and listened to Cela discuss a possible usage for the Fehu runes.

"I guess there's only one way to tell, and that'd be to...," she started to say, but stopped when Cela asked about duelling. "Yeah, that's what I was about to say. The only way to find out would be to test it out in a duel. Last school year, by the way. Against Cope, come to think about it."

"I don't know if I burned myself out, it's just that there are SOOOOOOOOO many distractions now." Celandine wrinkled her nose. "NEWTs." Sigh. At least by then hopefully she wouldn't be as distracted.

"That might be fun." Celandine chewed her lip thoughtfully and froze at mention of Copernicus. "Ugh. I bet he won." She put her head down on the table and turned her face to bite her apple again. Copernicus Kettleburn was good at EVERYTHING.

She sat up again and looked at Anna thoughtfully, "Would we... we'd have to mark the rune on our wands but I don't know if I like the idea of carving it... wand paint? And we'd have to like... do all the blessings and stuff too right?"

"Distractions? What's up, Cela? Everything alright?" Anna asked. She'd been so busy that she and Cela really hadn't spent a lot of time together since the school year began. "I've been a horrible friend, haven't I? I'm here now, though. Do you need to talk?" If Cela needed someone to talk to, Ancient Runes could wait for another minute... or hour (or century, as far as Anna was concerned). "Or do you think duelling it out might help?" she asked, with a laugh, referring to their plan to incorporate a good duel into their homework assignment.

"Yeah, we have to use the rune on whatever it is we're working with. I don't like the idea of carving either. Wand paint is a good idea," she said, with a nod. She thought about the blessings and stuff, then added, "I don't really know. You might have to help me with that part. You're the genius in this friendship."

"Fine. Just fine." Celandine answered quickly, adding in a hair flip to prove the point. If Anna didn't know, then she didn't need to know. Nobody did. Like... ever. Celandine bit her apple again, eyed the glass of water in front of her and frowned. Bleh. That wouldn't be enough to fight of her thirst.

"Wand paint it is then! I'm pretty sure the blessings are all in my textbook."

Blink blink.

The head girl just called HER a genius.

Cel just sighed. "I have red wand paint, pretty sure Fehu is supposed to be marked in red, at least it always is when it appears on oracle decks in divination."

"If you say so," Anna said, eyeing Cela suspiciously, then shrugging the situation off. Celandine Toussaint could get herself into more dramatic situations that anyone else Anna knew. Something was definitely up, but if Cela didn't really want to talk about it, then Anna wouldn't push it. "Hey, Cells, wanna be my bridesmaid, by the way?" she suddenly asked. Yup, that was abrupt and sort of straight to the point, but this was Cela Anna was talking to. She didn't really see the need to drag the matter out any further.

"Okay, then, so we're all set to go with the wand paint and textbook explanations. Man am I glad I'm doing this assignment with you. That sorting hat sure wasn't lying when it placed you," Anna said. She'd like to pretend she knew all about blessings and Fehu being red and oracle decks, but yeah...she didn't. Cela did, though, so whatever she said sounded like a plan!

"Yeah okay. Bridesmaid." Cela mumbled against her apple, still eyeing the glass of water, and finally getting annoyed enough with herself to vanish it. "Evanesco!" Ha. Take that, glass of water.

Sigh.

"Where else would it have put me?" Celandine agreed, "The other houses weren't good enou... right for me." She actually managed to catch herself and beamed at Anna a little apologetically. "Okay so what do we know about Fehu? And Fehu reversed? We should... write a hypothesis." Cela was fond of those.

Helena chuckled and set the cup down. She spooned a teaspoon of sugar into it and then stirred in a little milk for good measure. She raised the cup back to her lips and took another hearty sip before saying playfully, Better? She set it down and smiled slightly. Coffee was one of the only drinks besides water at my house when I was young, she shrugged lightly. This is how I usually do it up, though. She motioned to the light tan liquid. The black was just to wake me up.

Feeling slightly bored, Lilly decided to get something to eat. so she walked down the table and plopped herself down. then she grabbed herself an English muffin and buttered it. yum yum. she thought to herself as she chowed down. she really did love Hogwarts

If there was something Hogwarts could easily beat my home in a competition, it's definitely food. Then again, Manami's inability to taste did interfere with her cooking ability a lot... Selena thought as she reached out for a cup of milk, her hand unconsciously twitched millimeters towards the pumpkin juice. She took a bite off her chocolate cupcake, and couldn't help but marvel at the satisfactory.

Chris watched as Lena added milk and sugar. "A little. But I don't get how you like it." He said. "You do know if you drink coffee a lot it makes you short." He told her and laughed. "Ok yeah I get what your saying. I just think it just has a weird taste to it." He said and shrugged.

Short? Helena raised her eyebrows. She had never heard that one before. Are you pulling my leg? Gosh, I must have been about seven or so when I started drinking it, and I'm not that short. Actually, she had never really thought about her height. She frowned, Am I?