Helena slowed as she made her way to the Ravenclaw table, searching for friendly faces. She saw some, but it seemed as if they were all otherwise engaged in conversation, and she didn't want to interrupt them. So she chose a seat a couple feet down the bench, and waited for a lull in the conversation, so she could introduce herself.

Kellen stared at her; what a horrid little girl.

"Stop that!" he hissed, "Let her talk to someone else!"

"That's what Trog does." Kellen tried to shift and block Allison from the Friend of the Trog's view, "He gets harmless girls as friends and then attacks when they're distracting other people."

Which wasn't exactly true, but without Chaucer there Kellen was feeling dramatic and in the mood to spin a tale.

"In fact, when..."

He shut his mouth as soon as he heard her talk and put a rather lack-luster smile on his face. I probably look like I have a toothache. Please don't recognize me from the train. Trog hit Chaucer, not me. And... and then he saw her Prefect badge. Of course the Trog has an authority figure on his side. And she'd have to be in my house. Great.

Ellie fidgeted with her school robes. All summer she had gotten used to overalls and T-shirts, and now she had to readjust to the Hogwarts uniforms. "Didn't miss these, though," she frowned, pointing to the attire. "Why can't we just wear regular clothing?" she complained.


"I did a bunch of yardwork," she explained. "Since I'm on a farm, I gotta do my part, you know?" Then Ellie shook her head, her blond ponytail swinging behind her. She had loved her slingshot and missed it dearly. "Me mum took it away, I accidentally sent a pebble through our window. Maybe I'll get another one here..." her voice trailed off as she wondered if someplace in Hogsmeade would sell something like that.

Nina sat down at the table a little ways away from other people. Too shy to talk to anyone, she waited, maybe someone would talk to her first.

Allison's view of the girl was immediately blocked with Kellen. It so happened that she bumped her head with his shoulder and the impact left her a bit dizzy. Nonetheless she gave him a frown and poked his ribs with her wand, that only bent slightly due to it's flexibility.

"Waz joo problem eh?" Allison spoke in a small cute voice to look more innocent, then her frown turned into a smirk when she saw she had succeeded and the girl was on her way.

Immediately Allison hid her wand and turned to Cela.
"Oh Cela it's so nice to meet you!" Looking over her left shoulder Allison caught Kellen's eyes and rose her eyebrows in a taunt. Changing her facial expression she returned to Cela and gave her genuine smile, "I'm Allison Scott. I remember you from the Ice Cream Parlor at Diagon Alley! I had no idea you were a Ravenclaw!"

Finally, deciding that waiting wasn't going to get her anywhere, Nina stood up and walked over to a couple girls. "Hello. My name is Nina", she said to Allison and her friend.

And just when Ian was slowly beginning to lose his faith in humanity and its ability to create sane eleven-year olds, Allison did something right.

She called the girl with the shiny badge.

He really wouldn't have to spend a KNUT on her mum's birthday gift.

Dim-witted as he was, he was not even THAT worried about the older girl's possibly dangerous friend. Naah. Leave those concerns for someone with the money to buy their mum a shiny birthday present.

Oblivious as he was, however, Ian did not fail to notice the waves of discomfort coming from the nameless guy. Looking at him quizzically as he listened to the story, Ian shrugged his shoulders. For no particular reason, really - Ian had no idea why he was shrugging.

"Have you ever faced It? Tr---"

--Ian stopped mid-sentence when Trog's BFF really did come to join them. See? Girl was perfectly harmless and even friendly. Giving the guy an encouraging look and then trying to suppress a few snickers at his expression, Ian gave the clearly older girl a small grin, and nodded in recognition.

And that was all he was doing 'cause ... he couldn't tell her his NAME in front of the little psycho that Allison was. "What's the Badge for, Cela? Is that your name or is it some kind of nickname?" Head tilted to one side, he examined the shiny badge with a looooooot of interest.

It was, after all, going to be his mum's present, so it was necessary.

Cela blinked a bit vapidly and smiled at Allison. "I remember you too!" She laughed at the Ravenclaw comment. She was like the Ravenclaw, top points earner in HISTORY and all.

Top tree climber too.

"Its nice to meet you, you're lucky you've been sorted into the best house, I hope you're going to help me bring the house cup home!"

Because she totally missed it and couldn't do it on her own as proved the previous term.

"So our new professors are pretty exciting, especially Professor Duskurk." Celandine gushed to the table in general.

Cela grinned back.

"You look familiar." Celandine commented, little smile on her face.

"Oh. The badge is on account of I'm a prefect this term." She explained. "Cela is short for Celandine." She added with another trademark smile.

He nodded as she spoke. Right. of course Em would have told her all about the school. "So how is your cousin?" He had always liked Em even if he hardly knew him. He was a good guy.

"Cordoba?" He had never heard of that before. He wasn't sure where that was. But she was sad. Aww.

"He's having fun, at America...and studying a lot, like he always liked to do..." Hehe, Annie just liked to make his geekness something funny, but she was also a geek herself, so...no more comments about that.

"The place where I was born, raised and..." She was explaining a lot about her hometown when the kitten woke up again. "Where this little kitten comes from, too..." She commented, taking the little kitten out of the pouch.

"Copito...say hello to Torin..." Not such a good idea, but let's hope the kitty doesn't bite Torin.

As she walked toward the Ravenclaw table, looking for a seat, Vashti noticed a girl who looked like she might be around her age, sitting there quietly. Taking a deep, calming breath (she noticed she was doing that a lot lately, but hey, it helped her nerves), she sat down next to the girl and offered a friendly smile. "Hey. I'm Vashti. Who're you?"

Ian was shooting hopeful looks at the staff table, especially since the boss man had stood up. Yes, speech was DEFINITELY coming soon which meant his stomach would soon be getting some food, too. Hmmmmm. "Familiar?" Distractedly, his response came. He looked back at the girl with a small frown, that didn't last long. "Does that mean we've met before?" Hmmm. Unabashedly, Ian looked at her.

Nope, she didn't look familiar.

"Celandine like the flower? Interesting." Her badge was more interesting, though. Yep. That she was a prefect, though, was not interesting at all, considering she'd been one of the suck-ups crowding the teacher's table. Ian let that Prefect atrocity pass but decided to keep an eye on her. And her badge. "It's a pretty cool badge. All blue and bronze and ... shiny. Have you had problems with thievery lately?"

Allison looked over at the girl and blinked. had she been there before? No she had just walked up. Surely she couldn't just appear. Was she going as crazy as crazy Mysterious iColby and building-burner Kellen? No. Allison refused to admit to that and immediately looked at the girl once or twice over. She loved to take in details, she was good after all with them.

"Nina! Wonderful, please tell me you're a first year!" Allison pleaded. The girl looked as young as she did and that gave hope to Allison from escaping the boy's wrath.

Although Cela was beginning to provide that already.

Allison caught Mysterious Possibly iColby's ogling stare and wondered why he looked like he was about to steal something from Cela. Before she could say anything he asked about Cela's badge, giving Allison motive to think that was what he wanted to steal.

Shifting closer to Cela Allison looked expectantly at Mysterious Possibly iColby, she was making sure he understood Cela was now hers.

Not that Allison could own her, but if it was up to her, she'd get Cela to adopt her as her little sister or something and then defend her from Mysterious Possibly iColby's crazy tactics. That is if his brain permitted him any.


Gleaming with new-acquired Ravenclaw pride, Allison gave Cela a delighted smile. "Of course! I feel blessed to have been taken here." Which was a complete lie, since she was barely getting adjusted on accepting the fact, she had been sorted into the dreadful house ALL the Scotts had been sorted to. That, in her opinion, did not speak well on her.

After all Allison had lived her life trying to avoid having anything to do with the Scotts. Her mother and brother had instilled in her that the last name Scott was not something to be proud of.

"I'll try my best on the House Cup!" on that Allison was not lying. She loved competition...unless it involved sports.

Then something happened that Allison wasn't expected, she began to admire Celandine like she would admire her brother back home Seth. She was older, pretty, a prefect, and so it seemed she had her head where she wanted it. She was already Allison's hero.

And with admiration Allison looked at Cela and asked something she had been meaning to ask any Ravenclaw, "So how is our Quidditch team?"




Allison looked over at the new Headmaster and listened. She found him...quite odd. Nonetheless she paid attention and wanted to give a nervous laugh when he mentioned deaths that year. And perhaps you'll actually learn something? What? So this WAS a school of crazies. No need to learn when you are already insane. Yes, her mother deserved a howler...so did her brother.

Shifting uncomfortably in her seat Allison looked down in her plate and saw the food appear. "Ohhh, about time!"

"Yes, I am." Nina replied. She had obviously walked into an awkward conversation, but was glad that her prescence was accepted. Not knowing what to say next, or thinking she might say something stupid, she listened to Allison's quidditch question. She was very curious about that as well.

Quote:

Originally Posted by fire_faerie

Just as she was about to go into another one of those nostalgic moods she was frequently having, she heard a VEEEERRRYYY familiar voice and grinned broadly as she turned her head to look at-

*clears throat*

THE HEAD GIRL AKA LIVVY aka her bestest friend EVER- make a short speech to the Ravenclaw. AWWW! Ecstatic that Livvy now rightfully held the most powerful position in the school (alongside some boy whose identity was not known to Rachel at the moment) the seventh year put her hands together and clapped loudly, not caring if she was the only one.

It was worth it for Lobster.

"Heya back, Head Girl Zhang," she grinned broadly as Livvy walked towards and enveloped her friend in a return hug. "So - how does that badge feel?" she asked, eying it with delight. She could NOT be happier for Livvy, really.

Plus - having the Head Girl as a best friend really didn't hurt. Hehe.

Fine everybody. Ignore the Head Girl. HARUMPH.

Though... she was sort of glad no one responded to her. Less trouble meant less work for her. But work was actually fun! After all, Livvy would rather have them ask questions about the rules, rather than go about and breaking them without knowing that they had done so. Score!

But Livvy grinned when Rachel clapped. Her soul supporter. Probably the only one that actually cared about her existence! Amazing how long their friendship had lasted. She had missed the girl so much, even though they had seen each other various of times at Diagon Alley, it wasn't even funny. It was quite a pity that Rachel wasn't Prefect no longer... and it was even surprising that Livvy was HEAD GIRL. EESH. Freak out!

The girl just shrugged and smiled. "Not too shabby, I'd have to say. Though the little extra weight is something to adjust to. Not that I mind doing so," Livvy said, grinning and winked at her BESSTTTTIIE.

Years of associating with Chaucer and practicing facial expressions in the mirror aided Kellen now, and as soon as he realized Icoguy was going to be social to Frie... er, Cela... he gave her the nicest smile he could, feeling completely irritated on the inside.

But then the food appeared. FOOD!

And that was the end of his irritation at Icoguy and Allison and wariness of Cela. Time to eat!

"I don't think we have." Cela shook her head until her blonde hair bounced on her shoulders.

"Yeah! Like the flower!" Celandine agreed enthusiastically. She still hadn't grasped the fact that this boy hadn't introduced himself.

"It is shiny." She agreed with a smile. "Thievery? Of my badge? Of course not. For starters, I'm super good with charms and I've already put a locating charm on my badge." She shrugged matter of factly.

"Oh good." Cela smiled in relief. "Every point counts you know?" She smiled at the other first year too and whispered, "I'm Cela."

Cela paused in the conversation to listen to the new Headmaster's sort-of-speech. Oh yay! Foooood!

She started with mashed potato of course, lots of gravy.

"The Quidditch team." Cela sighed a bit sadly. "Last term wasn't great, we had a really new team, this term it will be even newer and more inexperienced. But Ravenclaw has a history of great Quidditch, we have Vindictus for our head of house after all and he's kind of an inspiration. He expects only the best. But I still cheer madly." Celandine laughed.

Choluna entered The Great Hall and looked around for her friends Bella and Keeley. "Hey, Bella!" said Choluna as she ran to meet her friends Bella, Keeley, and some other girls with them. "I like what you did with your hair! It's very cute short!" Now Choluna looked at the other girls, "Hi, I'm Choluna! What's your names?"

"Hi Cela." Nina nodded toward the other girl.

"I hope our team steps it up again." Nina said helping herself to the chicken that had appeared on the table. "I'm excited to see the games, anyway. See, I'm muggleborn and have never watched a match. It must be frightning to fly so high in the air."

Allison needed a little bit more to drool with the nice smells of the food. Noticing that her mother's butterfly charm had finally stopped circling Kellen's and Mysterious Possibly iColby's heads Allison smiled.

It was one thing for her to enjoy teasing iColby and a complete other for her mother's charm to like iColby AND Kellen.

With the butterfly now situated on her shoulder Allison reach over and grabbed a little bit of everything onto her plate.

"So you aren't a part of it?" Allison said between swallows. Rule number one in her household was, 'We payed etiquette lessons so use them and do NOT speak with your mouth full!'

"It's a shame really that I'll only be cheering. I'd love to try-out for the team," another small lie. Allison was doing her best of being in Cela's best graces, due to the fact that in Allison's mind she had already adopted Cela as her big sister. The truth was, she was terrified of trying-out for something she was really mediocre at. She loved flying--sort of, but playing a sport was another thing entirely.

"You know Nina, you might just be my first 1st yr friend in Ravenclaw. I have met a few others but none have shared a meal at the same table as me," Allison gave her a friendly smile while she cut a piece of bread--with utensils of course. "I've gone two of my besties at the Hufflepuff table though. Maybe you'll get to meet them as well!" Listening Allison felt at home, "Muggle-born eh?! Excellent, I had one too many muggle friend's back home!"

"Thank you!" Nina said, slightly embarrased by the comment, but more happy to be able to call someone a friend.

"You're the first people I've met. I managed to find an empty compartment on the train, and well... it stayed empty." She could feel herself blushing but gave a small smile.

Allison was so creepy and the looks she was shooting at him were not far behind either. Shuddering as discreetly as he could and attempting to ignore as the little girl sucked-up on Celandine the prefect, or as the other guy called her, the Friend of Trog.

Making a face at the mention of Quidditch (Ian McKensie did NOT play Quidditch because Quidditch involved FLYING and that was something he did NOT do), the boy did her best to focus on the headmaster's speech. He didn't catch a word of what the man said, however, because Ian was too busy remembering how familiar he looked. Hmmmm.

... FOOD TIME.

"Oh." Ian's face fell a little when Celandine mentioned the charms she had set on her badge. Greeaaaat. To cheer himself up, he helped himself with a lot of mashed potatoes and roast. Mmmm. He dug in. "That's smart, I guess." Yeah, real smart. Something one would expect from the teacher's pet.

As he chewed down a especially large amount of mashed potatoes, Ian carefully studied Miss Prefect. He didn't think he liked Celandine much anymore.

Huh. No more grins for her.

Speaking of which, the 'smart' part sort of tugged at something in his brain ... From under the table, he gave the guy with no name a very slight kick on the shins, to capture his attention. "Hey, man - Ravenclaw is the house for what people again?" Undetermined, surely, but that still didn't sound quite right.

Only when the butterfly stop fluttering around his head did Kellen realize it was there at all. He paused in his eating to watch it flap its wings in place on Allison's shoulder, raised an eyebrow as if to ask if it had a purpose or was just for show, and then helped himself to more salad. Chaucer had made a remark on the train about scurvy, and while Kellen was a fan of Treasure Island he had no desire to end up looking like Long John Silver.

Kellen paused from eating and shrugged, "The hat said smart people, but I think it's for curious people too. Or people who like to cause trouble in complicated ways." He sent a sidelong glance at Allison, "So not pyromaniacs."

He noticed a plate of something he'd not yet tasted next to the boy's shoulder and indicated it with a hopeful wave of his fork, "Could you pass whatever that is, Icoguy?"

And then winced. He'd just called him Icoguy out loud? Oh well, he thought, not my fault. He should just tell me his real name.

"It isn't all that frightening to fly." Cela explained earnestly. "The flying part is easy. Its the landing that I think is hard."

Yeahhh despite Vindictus' lessons, Cela still tended to just crash into the ground more often than not.

"Nope! I played one game, because we were short players. First time I'd ever played ever." Celandine giggled. "I guess if they needed me to fill in I might, but like wellll... I prefer cheering from the stands rather than from on a broom." She tipped her head to one side, quizzically. "Why don't you try out? First years are allowed to try out, its just that you have to use a school broom." Cela explained.

Cela smiled at the other firstie.

"You're lucky then, its not easy to find an empty compartment on the Hogwarts Express!

"Of course." Cela agreed. Of course it was smart. It was like, what she did and stuff. "You want to see my badge? You can if you like." Cela unpinned it and placed it on the table in front of her, nudging it with her little finger toward the boy whose name she still didn't know.

She reached for a stick of celery and used it as a fork for her potato.

Nina gave a small smile to Cela, "I guess." she said.

"So you're a prefect, then?" she asked. "That must be a ton of responsibility. You also must be a good student, right?"