"Hello Kay" Marcus called out and gave her a wave back. "I did have a great summer, thank you for asking. And how was yours? All ready for another year at Hogwarts?"

Marcus was just about to pop another potato into his mouth but the look on the boys face stopped him. "Exactly what is it that you are scared of Lysander?" Of course he could understand, the two years he had spent at Hogwarts had been...eventful.

Yeah that was one way of putting it.

"Pfft...Melbourne? No way dude, Sydney has the best beaches in Australia." Well he hadn't actually been to Melbourne so like he really couldn't truthfully compare between the two cities but from what he had seen of Sydney's they were really quite beautiful.

Marcus let out a small chuckle, "You sound like Ethan Truebridge. He sure likes dragons as well. What is your favourite dragon?"

Spooky? Well that was one way to describe the man. Marcus had another word but yeah he would keep that to himself. "Ah don't look so worried Cy, I am now the new Muggle Studies professor and I am quite looking forward to it."

Yeah so long as they didn't go camping.

Turning his head to the sound of a new voice Marcus gave the young girl a warm smile. "No, I'm not Australian but I did spend some time there over the summer. And actually the summer before that as well." He peered at her a little more closely and could see that she looked a little nervous. "It can be a little overwhelming at first but you'll be just fine and you can come and visit me anytime. My office is on the first floor."

Miranda was still wondering what was up with Ryder, but he looked pretty confident that everything was allright, so Miranda let it go...for now.

Urgh, classes.
"No, I'm not..." She made a face and sighed. "Are you ready? I dont' like the classes...well, exept for DADA...Flying and Muggle Studies, I guess. But the rest is just-" She made a long snoring sound as she dropped her head to make it seem that she had fallen asleep.

But then suddenly something spooked her! Whipping her head around she saw it was Brant. "Oh, Brant! Don't do that again..." She put a hand to her heart as she started to breathe deeply. Be calm heart, it was nothing serious. But she smiled at the boy so he'd know she hadn't taken offense or anything. And that wink. Hmmm.

She did notice the slightly cool exterior of her Chaser buddy as he greeted the Gryffindor Captain. She took turns to look at Ryder, then Brant, then back again, trying to see if there was something going on there.

"Gosh, the chicken is AWESOME!" She grinned and watched him take a seat besides her. "Did you try the pie? It was DELICIOUS. I'm going to try and eat some more, once the food I've eaten settles down in mah belly." Hehehe.

Miranda turned to Ryder again. "Hey, where's Sarah? I haven't seen her since the train?"

Oliver settled back down in his seat, squirming around a bit just to be annoying and shrugged at Miranda's question. “mdunno. Jus' some muggle dance.” Pffft... how should he know the names of these things – he only learned them from watching one of those muggle goggle boxes.

Has he seen Loch Ness? What a stoooooopid question. “No. I'm from outside Edinburgh. I've never been to Loch Ness before. I think my brother has.” He shrugged. Who knew what that idiot got up to.

Oliver's whole body language went from self assured to defeated He wanted to cryyyy! No flying professor meant no flying which in turn meant no QUIDDITCH! He couldn't stay here.. simple as. He would be writing home about this as soon as he got to the Common Room and would expect to be collected immediately What was the other option? Salem school – that would have to do seeing as he couldn't go back to Durmstrang. Huff. He sat and took a few controlled breaths then looked at Miranda. “I''m fine.” He said flatly. He reached out for his glass of water and took a large swig.
_________________________

What are you doing? More stupid questions which didn't even warrant a reply as the next second she found out EXACTLY what he was doing. Nobody wiped spittle on Oliver Greenwood's FACE!

Uuuuuraaagh!

The girly shriek didn't stop the dirty laugh which came out of Oliver's mouth. He pointed at her and laughed some more, a hand splayed across his chest. AH REVENGE! REVENGE IS MIIIIINE!

Mwhahahaha!

The laughing continued even as she hurled herself at him, and still only stopped as he toppled backwards, pulling her down with him. “Ow!” He whined. He squeezed his eyes shut, his face screwing up as she wiped the potato in his face. “Arrgh.” He mustered but the potato went in his mouth. Ew. Which he abruptly snapped closed. “Get off! Get off me!!” he yelled helplessly... because he wouldn't hurt a girl.. no matter how mental he may seem at times.

“You started this!” He hissed. Oliver was innocent. Innocent I tell ya! She was jabbing at his ribs and he was flinching at every single poke. He hated that. He HATED HER! So much for their budding friendship. “GERROFF ME YOU MAD MOONCALF!”

HEEEEEEEEELP!

Nunually returned to her seat and looked down. She wasn't sure going over there was going to do well, she was impressed how much self control the girl showed. Nunually would have cried and left the hall way She was so impressed and she smiled as it wasn't made into such a big deal she looked over at the girl who had asked for the pastries and she saw that she seemed to be enjoying herself and Nunually smiled. As she heard the boy scream because he was getting poked Nunually wondered if everyday was this exciting. She sighed for some reason her energy seemed to be draining, so she moved her plate of food and put her head down. So sleepy, whats going on? I had energy a second ago...

"I don't think that's boring at all! My dad teaches Muggle history at a high school. I love reading about history, both magical and non-magical. My mum's work is really cool. She works in Correspondence between Beasts and Muggles. Recently, she worked with the New Zealand government to stop boat travel near a merpeople settlement. My older brother and his wife do the same thing, too. They live in India, making sure the Muggles don't clear areas of jungle where Centaurs live. My brother loves dragons the most though. He still works with them whenever he gets an owl that they need someone," Evelyn took a deep breath and smiled.

"I want to do the same sort of work as my family some day. I love living in different countries. I want to work in Romania or Italy. Or maybe just Ireland if I don't want to move too far away." Evelyn smiled. She really felt like she was making a new friend. What did it matter if Scipia was a few years younger than her? "And what else did you ask me? Something about the school?"


Evelyn's head shot around and she smiled as she heard a student and a professor mention Sydney beaches. The coast of New South Wales had been where she'd spent the past five years of her life. I wonder if there are others here who have lived there? Maybe I should keep an ear out. She smiled even bigger at the thought. While Evelyn had been living in Australia, she had felt so British, but now that she was back in England, she was beginning to realise just how Australian she had become.

"Did someone say that they had been to Sydney?" she mumbled in the groups direction. Evelyn didn't usually talk so boldly to people she didn't know (yes, a mumble is bold for her), but she was feeling so festive and comfortable here. Everyone is just so friendly. And even the unfriendly ones are at least interesting.

"I spent some of the summer there too with my grandparents. They are muggles, so it was fun being a way from the wizarding world for a while." Sidney doesn't know what to make of the gentleman's comment. "It is that. I just... well the Hogwarts my father describes is somewhat different. I don't mean to be rude, but is the man who just spoke really the headmaster? I don't mean any disrespect, but he's just not what I expected. By the way, my name is Sidney, Sidney Marlowe." Sidney extends her hand. Her mother says she should always try to be polite and introduce herself to the staff as soon as possible. Sidney's not sure why that's inportant, but she tries to do as she's told.

"Yep." Emily said and nodded. "Do you forget people's names easily then?" she asked curiously. "Im the same, but not with names, with mostly other things. If someone tells me to remember the number 57, Ill remember it for the first 5 seconds then it's gone." Emily explained. "What time I forgot how old my brother was." she added, grinning widely.

"Oh heelllooo." Emily said as a boy next to her introduced himself. "Im Emily Stryker, first year." she said, grinning widely still.

Cy laughed, and quickly shrugged at Lawson's assertion. "Okay, Sydney is great. I grew up in Melbourne though... no place like home I guess." Living up in the Alice was definitely different, but it was better than living in London whenever his father served as a Department Head in the Minsitry of Magic.

Wandering Diagon Ally EVERY. SINGLE. DAY got repetitive and boring.

"He does?" Cy's mouth gaped a little bit. WHY--- had they not had such a conversation? But dragon's, oh yes, Cy could talk about them all day. He could talk to a wall about them all day. "At first it was the Antipodean Opaleye, but they ah' SO common down undah'. But FINALLY my pop's let me see a Hungarian Horntail. VICIOUS creature, has to be kept away from everything else. So cool, and," Cy stopped himself, he knew he was about to go into a long unnecessary story. "Scary though." And that was NO lie.

OH! Muggle studies, well Cy was a big fan of muggles. "Ace! Some of my best mates are muggles. Whenever I hang around the beaches that's just about all there is. I still don't understand them. Crazy folk." Crazy folk indeed, they probably thought the same of Cyrus.

Cyrus' eyes COMPLETELY bugged out of his head. "You from Sydney?!!!!!" If she was, then Cy would dance on the tables. He had yet to meet another Aussie from Hogwarts.

Bwahaha, Jake only wished he could reveal the disasters they'd had whilst camping, but the boy was sworn to secrecy... he wasn't allowed to reveal how hopeless Lawson really was at camping.

It was bloody funny though.

When the girl described where she lived, Jake sat and listened with wonder, staring wide-eyed at Arya. Heeeee wanted to live in a place like thaaaaaaat. "I llllive in Luhh-london," he explained, which was a simple enough explanation as to why he didn't have many pets. He was always scared they'd get hurt in like traffic or something. "I l-lived in London all muhh-my life," Jake added proudly. "I kn-kknow the place llllike the bbback of my hand."

But the camping with Lawson had definitely NOT been in London... which was disorientating.

And here was the man himse-

Glad?

School?

Really?

Looking straight at Lawson, Jake gave him a look that quite clearly said the man needed his head checked. "No," he said, sounding just a tiiiiiny bit miserable. "I wwwwant to guh-go hhhome."

It really was just that simple.

Watching Lawson, Jake scooped up Charlie from the table and sat petting him.

Looking falsely surprised for a moment or two, Jake gaped at Ema. "It's th-the Wwwwhomping Willow? Ruhh-really?! I hhhad n-no idea!" he exclaimed, being uncharacteristically sarcastic... before he winked at the girl. He kept up his argument in his mind, though... he'd not died yet, so there was no evidence indicating he would.

"Don't wwworry," he added softly, still uncomfortably with the fact that Ema was being quite... un-Ema-ish. When the girl looked at the decorations, Jake glanced up at the ceiling to check the sky. He'd totally missed the opening speech.

Was someone talking to her?

Reese turned around to face this girl that was sitting on the bench a few people down from Jake. Why yes she was talking to her. "Well, sort of...I guess you would say," she replied. Not that she would have a choice since she had fallen backwards off the bench. She looked looked back up at the ceiling and nodded her head to the girl's question. "They are pretty," she answered. "Uh..." Constellations? She tilted her head as she glanced over the pattern of the stars. "I'm horrible at finding constellations," she admitted. "Oh, wait. Is that one?" She pointed her finger to some stars in the sky.

She took her attention away from the stars and back to the girl. "I'm fine," she told her. "I'm just scared of spiders, that's all." As she said that, she took a quick glance towards Jake's tarantula and shuddered. "I fear spiders," she corrected herself.

Reese moved the ring around in her hand a little bit more before she placed it on her 4 finger on her right hand. The ring hand to resize itself just a tiny bit to fit her finger. "It's beautiful," she commented as she held her hand out in front of her to examine the ring. She looked over at her brother and smiled.

She lowered her hand when Jake lowered his gaze. He did deserve that disappointed look, because she didn't even know WHY he wanted to put Charlie on her in the first place. For some reason, she thought it had to do something with her giving him his present late, but she wasn't going to ask him if that was the reason.

"It's fine," she accepted the apology. "Let's just not put Charlie on your sister ever again, okay?" She watched him closely when he placed the tarantula on the table and reached his arms out to her. Her eyes stayed on the tarantula and she only hugged her brother when the girl near him picked the tarantula up to hold him. "I love you, Jakers," she whispered.

How could she stay mad at her brother? Putting Charlie on her didn't do any major harm, right? Right.

Reese pulled Jake out of the hug, and then she turned her attention to the girl holding Charlie. She was going to stay 4 feet away from her. She took a step back and then smiled. "It's nice to meet you, Arya," she said. "I'm Reese Upstead. Jake's brother and Slytherin Prefect." She knew the girl knew she was related to Jake, but it didn't hurt to say it again.

Reese wanted to sit back down next to her brother, but that girl was still holding the tarantula. That meant if Reese sat down, she would be only inches away from the creature. It just wasn't going to happen. She shifted her weight to her left leg and placed one hand on her hip. If she just acted cool and like she wanted to stand up, people wouldn't assume that she was a coward when it came to an fuzzy, 8 legged creature...right?

Upon hearing a familiar voice, Reese turned to face Lawson who had joined the Hufflepuff table. "Hello Professor Lawson," she greeted the man. "Yeah, it's good to be back at school. Did you have a good summer, sir?"

What is up with his body movements? Did he have to move that much!? THERE ISN'T ENOUGH ROOM to SQUIRM! Oh yeah? He wanted to squiggle, well Miranda could do that too! Her elbows tight agains her sides, she began to wiggle in her seat. Yeah, let's see how he likes that!
"Muggle dance? Are you muggle then?" Because Miranda was half-and-half, and she doesn't remember seeing that stuff.

Oh, too bad. "Aw. I'd like to see her one day. I hear she's friendly." She had forgotten that she was ANNOYED at the boy and with a serene smile, she began to think about cute Nessie. So he had a brother! "How...How many siblings do you have?" This she asked carefully, knowing she was treading dangerous ground getting all personal with Obnoxious Boy over here.

"You don't look fine." Her head shook and she watched the boy drink his water. Oh he'd better not pass out or anything, she did NOT want to get the blame for this...beast.

_____________________


Her rage multiplied as she could still hear the boy laughing, mocking her now potatoe smothered face.
She wasn't actually sure she was running the right direction because she had suddnely gotten potatoe in her eye. But she felt triumphant as she felt the collision and then the ground dissapeared from under her. Eeeeeeeeek!

Rub-a-dub-dub! "How do you like that!" It wasn't a question. Miranda yelled as his mouth, which she didnt even notice was open, suddnely snapped shut and she almost lost a finger to it! DANGEROUS!

SHE WOULD NEVER GET OFF! Mwahahahaha!
Okay well, someday ofcourse... But not right now! Poke, jab poke-poke. Miranda was starting to feel her arms getting tired as she jabbed one finger here, and JABBED another there. Dangit, she'd better get her Chaser arms in shape before tryouts! "Not..." Pant. ...until you...APOLOGIZE! Yeaaaaaah, maybe he will look good with potato in his curly hair! Rub rub rub.

Miranda laughed, sounding slightly mad. "Oh no, Ollie, a Mooncalf's got nothing on this BADGER!" Badgers attacked if provoked... "Oh, why don't you try and slither away?" That wasn't a question either.

And for good measure, she licked her finger again and poked it into his EAR. Yes ladies and gentleman, that, she had learned from her big brother. Thankyou.
Okay, ew. She hadn't thought if it would be all wazy in there...but she guessed it didn't matter since her hand was all potatoed.

Hi, Emily. Do you have any family here? I don't know anybody here. I'm half-blood. My father was a wizard but he died a long time ago. How about you?

Marcus turned at the sound of a new voice and there was a huge smile on his face. "That was me. I've been there on a few occasions." He hadn't seen this young girl before and he though it best to introduce himself. "Marcus Lawson, your illustrious Defen-Muggle Studies Professor." Ah he must remember that. He no longer taught DADA anymore. "Are you from Sydney, Miss...?"

The headmaster hadn't been what Marcus had expected either but he was not about to say that out loud. "It's a pleasure to meet you Sidney. My name is Marcus Lawson...well that is Professor Lawson to you I guess." He had never minded the kids calling him by his first name but with a new head now in charge, it might now be appropriate.

Marcus shook the girls hand and shrugged his shoulders, "Hogwarts was never one for doing anything normal. The new Headmaster may just be what the place needs right now."

"That is true" Marcus replied, although he grew up in Kent and quite frankly he could quite happily leave it. But yeah Sydney was so totally cool, not only did they have great beaches but they had an awesome night life and the best pubs in town. Marcus would occasionally play his guitar for the patrons.

The boy really should have talked to Zan about dragons, Marcus liked them well enough but he was not obsessed like his friend had been. Hmm, he wondered how Ethan was doing in Egypt? "I prefer Chimaeras myself." Hence the reason for the name of his band.

Marcus lent down and spoke to Cy in a low voice, "I totally agree with you. Did you know that when they go camping, they actually sleep on the floor in a bag?"

It had been one of the most horrifying experiences of Marcus' life.


Marcus gave Jake a 'look' that could just have said about anything. "New year Jake. New exciting adventures to be had." And he was certainly not talking about an adventure at St Mungos either. Now that was certainly something he didn't want to repeat.

"Besides you know I am going to need your help with my new subject." Hopefully it would go so much better than their camping trip.

That had been...

an experience!!

Mmmhmm.


"Oh yes I did, very much so. Thank you for asking Reese." Marcus gave the girl a warm smile, he liked her because she was nice and she looked out for Jake when Marcus couldn't. "I hear congratulations are in order. I am sure you will do an outstanding job as Prefect. Slytherin should be proud."

Nunually nodded, "Its not just name its birthday, numbers address, dates." she said smiling and counting them off one by one. Nunually hadn't noticed that boy had sat next to Emily she felt horrible for ignoring him. She looked down sadly she had tried to make everyone feel cared for but she hadn't succeeded . "Hello." Nunually looked at Emily and giggled. "How did he take it?" she asked smiling. "I don't have siblings, just me and mommy is it nice having some?" she asked Although the hat told me that I do, maybe it was playing with my head she thought.

Cedric smiled back exultantly. "Haha.. glad to here that." Cedric said, gazing at Miranda with curiosity. She seemed nervous and all and he knew why. "You seem nervous. Don't worry, I know you'll do great." Cedric muttered, lowering his voice and tone a little bit so Miranda was the only one who could hear what he'd said. "I'm good, thanks. And France.. It was fantastic. It was so nice to be back home. Next time, I'll take you there." He winked at her. It would be great if he'll bring Miranda there, and he's sure that Miranda will enjoy France.

Jace walked into the great hall, expecting to see something like his school cafeteria. He paused as he stepped through the wide double doors. Was this the right place? Yes, it was. There were students, old and new sitting around, talking with friends. He glanced around and went to sit as his appropriate table. He gazed up at the celing, hoping nobody noticed him sitting alone.

Chimaeras. Cy had only read about those type, and heard stories from his pops. From what he heard though, they were relentless. THEREFORE---- they were absurdly awesome. "Wouldn't mess with one of those." The third-year mused.

Wait. a. moment.

Sleep on the floor in a bag? That was easily the dumbest thing Cy had ever heard of. Cy thought surfing was odd at first, until he tried it and enjoyed it. But sleeping in a bag? That was DUUUUUUUUUMBBBB. "WHAT! What a bunch of jokers." The Aussie shook his head at the thought. Wow.

Looking across the great hall, Cy spotted someone he hadn't seen in ages. Cy's short attention span had officially kicked into full power. "Ah I gotta run, great chattin' Professah! See you in class!" With a respectful salute, the Hufflepuff had darted off yet again.

He was, as usual, all over the place.

Arya grined at the Professor, seeing him eyeing her pie."Would you like a piece Professor?" She said this in a child-like voice, cutting a slice of pie and sliding it towards Professor Lawson.

"Really, is it fun living in London? I've only been here for two days, I live in the states." Arya had just finished her second slice of pie and was now spooning mashed potatoes into her mouth with carrot sticks. Looking up Arya heard Jake say that he wanted to go home, causing her to eye him with a puzzled expression.Why on earth would anyone want to leave Hogwarts?It was none of her business but she still wanted to know."You don't like being here?"

Arya noticed that Reese wasn't to fond of Charlie and for the life of her couldn't understand why.How could anyone not love this cute little guy.Dipping her carrot into her mashed potatos she smiled at Reese."Hey Reese, your a Prefect that's cool.I'm a first year." Unable to think of anything else to say she bite into her potato covered carrot.

Quietly Arya said the levitation charm so that no one would hear, landing the paper crane on Allison's shoulder. Then she sliped her wand back into her wrist holister and returned to her meal.

"Yep, just an older brother, he's in 5th year." She said, and smiled gently. "Really? Im also a half blood, except my mom was a wizard and my father a muggle."


"Not really, when you have a brother like mine, you wish you feel like your an only child. " Emily said, turning towards Nunually. She smiled widely, happy that she had made several friends already.

"Oh hello." Emily said as another fellow Hufflepuff that looked like a first year sat down near them. "Im Emily and this is Samuel and Nunually." She said, motioning towards them each. "Are you a first year?"

As Emily spoke about her brother Nunually's eyes saddened, she had no siblings from her mommy, but her real mommy had children, at least that's what the hat had told her. She really didn't care about her real blood siblings, "I only have mommy now, adopted daddy left us because he couldn't handle my abilities, then mommy got cancer a year later, and she has half a year to live, I wish I had siblings." she said sadly yet softly. It was more of a mumble but it was loud enough for someone to hear. She swallowed and took a drink from her water and quickly got rid of her sad expression and gave a huge adorable smile. "Hello," she said as Emily introduced her to a new person. She then looked at Samuel, "I am sorry for your loss but hey at least you will always have the memories you shared together." she told him and raised her index finger to her cheek and smiled. "You can't say that anymore Samuel now you have us, Emily and Nunually here," she told him and continued to smile. Her terror of boys was coming slowly to and end

Jace looked up as a girl spoke to him. He pushed his shaggy brown hair out of his eyes and smiled nervously.
"H-Hi Emily, Samuel, and Nunually. I'm Jace, and yes I'm a first year. Nice to meet you," He held out his hand to Emily.

"Are you okay?" Evelyn asked Nulu, the girl who had kindly passed her the pastries. I hope she's not sick, Evelyn worried, she did say she had food allergies.

The professor (Professor Lawson, Muggle Studies - Evelyn repeated the name in her mind so that she would remember it) and the student both heard her mumbled question, and wanted to know if she was from Sydney, "Yes. I moved there when I was seven. But I'm back in England now. I love Australia, but I think I like it better here. Or maybe it's just Hogwarts that I like. I'm Evelyn, by the way. Evelyn Rochester. It's nice to meet you both."

We will have a great time in Hogwarts" Rex told Emalyn. " What is your favorite class here?" Rex asked Emalyn. " By the way, there are plenty places for us to be clumsy here I hear" Rex laughed.

" Hello kita. nice to meet you mam" Rex told her. "Wow, I knew you would protect me in potions class but also Dada class, mam, what a bonus" Rex said to Kay. "Why wouldn't I like a watermelon honey?" Rex asked Kay. Rex fed Kay a bit of her sandwich. " When do I get to meet Sarah?" Rex asked Kay.

Nunually nodded. She hadn't picked up her head for the conversations that she was in she just looked at the people and smiled. "Yeah, I think so, I'm just I don't know." she thought for a bit. "I might be homesick, or maybe the sugar rush finally left." she told her. "Or I think it might be both" she told her and smiled. "I'll be okay, I think if I don't feel well I will go to the nurse, or find a way to get to the nurse since I don't know this place yet." She said scratching her hand were a little pumpkin juice had landed her.

"All this excitement can be pretty exhausting. I'm sure that the second my head touches my pillow, I'll fall fast asleep." Evelyn didn't feel tired yet though. She was having too much fun eating (How many pastries have I eaten? I lost count after the third one...) and talking to people.

"If you want to just rest your head on the table, that's probably a good idea. I won't disturb you. But if you start to feel unwell, then make sure you see the nurse, okay?" Evelyn rolled her eyes and chuckled at herself. She was always mothering people, giving advice and making sure they were all right, sometimes even people that were older than her.