Hearing the Headmaster mention the word Healer, Gabriella diverted her attention from Kade to Tate. What were the names of these men? Certainly she wasn't meant to call them Kade and Tate...was she? Maybe she was meant to call the Headmaster by his title and surname, but Kade? Hmm...must be a guy thing. If the Headmaster had indeed said Healer, though, he'd moved on from whatever he was conversing about and focused his attention on a few students instead.

Gabriella followed his gaze to the two Ravenclaw prefects, a Hufflepuff girl, and a young man introducing himself as the Head Boy. Wait a minute...Head Boy? Gabriella knew this young man! He'd nearly mowed her over in the streets of Diagon Alley a few weeks ago. "Hello again," she politely said to him. She took turns glancing at all four students before properly introducing herself. "I'm Healer Gabriella Ashford, and thank you for the welcome to the castle." She hadn't, of course, introduced herself to the Head Boy when they'd met in Diagon Alley. At the time, she knew him to be no more than some random child she'd happened upon in the streets.

She turned towards the two Ravenclaw prefects and the Hufflepuff girl and gave all three a smile. Gabriella thought it to be nice of them (as well as Mr. Fritzera) to come and say hello and introduce themselves. For a moment, she thought back to her Hogwarts years and wondered if she'd been the type to go to the staff table and make introductions. She'd like to believe she had, but she honestly couldn't remember one way or the other. "It's nice to meet you three," she said, focusing mainly on Celandine and Fia, since the one who'd introduced himself as Miles seemed to be talking with the Headmaster at the moment.

Miles looked behind him as he heard someone else coming up to find Cela making her way. Smiling to her he noticed how she positioned herself slightly ahead of them and hid a laugh with a cough. Good 'ol Cela. This was going to be an interesting term indeed.

Looking back toward the Headmaster he saw the slight amused look as he leaned forward and smiled back. "Yes well...we ARE the smartest," he said with a teasing smirk and looked toward Celadine. Hearing the Headmaster start to introduce himself by his first name he waited curiously until he heard his last name. "Sure thing, sir. Keep things safe...orderly..." and most importantly the Ravenclaws in the lead.

Meeting the Headmasters case he nodded slowly. Odd. Directly to him? Was that a good thing or a bad thing? Hmmm...or something to figure out. AWESOME. Their new assignment...find out what makes Tate tick. He was laughing on the inside and it showed in his eyes but he kept a straight face. "Yes sir. Directly to you." And Vindictus of course. He wasn't going to snub his own head of house. But...was he anticipating trouble that needed to be kept hidden? Hmm...curious...most curious....

His eyes barely glanced over toward Jack as he came up and he nodded, "Hey mate." And smirked as he repeated almost the exact same words he had said moments before. Well the Ravies WERE the smartest.

Miles turned toward another professor that he'd just barely heard introduce herself as Healer and smiled, "Hello ma'am. Pleasure to meet you." Holding out his hand to her in greeting he grinned, "I'm Miles..." well she probably already heard that part. Duh. "Welcome to the school. Hopefully you won't be seeing me up there. Quidditch can be a bit rough sometimes though." He'd been lucky last term. So did that mean he'd decided to try out? Hmm...

Fia's head snapped towards the one person who introduced himself as HEADMASTER. Wowwwww! She was quite impressed...until she heard the musical words of HEALER coming from another new face at the table. Her head snapped towards the one who introduced herself as Healer Ashford and smiled.

"You are our new Healer?" She was now totally drawn towards the lady, especially knowing that she, too, wanted to pursue the road towards being a healer herself. "OH! Healer Ashford, if you don't mind me saying...if you need anyyyyyyy help, I did help Melita last term." At what, she had no idea, but she was there to help. It made her feel proud to help out as much as she could there and questions...the girl had questions to ask, that was for sure.

"Maybe after the feast, we can chat." Fia placed on a big grinning smile, almost forgetting those who were around her...except for Miles of course.

"Healer." Cela repeated, a little sadly. But yay for meeting someone new even though Cari was all gone. "Well hi and welcome! Call me Cela. Its Celandine Toussaint." Even as she spoke, while she was smiling, Cela was looking at the other new staff and trying to figure who was taking what. Charms, Transfiguration and DADA were the priorities for her to work out, but she was just as interested in who was going to be teaching Astronomy.

Cela peeked at Fia as she mentioned helping Melita and made a face. "Healer Melita left a first year in charge of the hospital wing." She gave this new not-Caroline-Avalon healer an obviously upset look as she recalled not only her own time doing her best to help, but also her own experience as a patient. "It was kind of horrible."

There were four new faces so far, one the healer, one the headmaster... was he only the headmaster or did he teach? There were at least three subjects to replace, plus the whole thing with Professor Lawson going to a new subject and Cela hadn't seen Madame Kohan at the end of last term... so who was doing what? She was trying to figure it out already.

Gabriella was more than just a little surprised to hear the young man refer to her as ma'am. So far, the four students she'd managed to meet had all seemed very polite and well-mannered. She wondered how long that would last before she managed to find herself right in the middle of the chaos of her very first school year---as a staff member, of course. She remembered her Hogwarts years all too well. They'd only been thirteen years ago. Not...that far back. She extended her hand and shook the young man's in return. "Yes, here's hoping you don't find yourself ill or injured. Oh, and good luck with quidditch." Quidditch---now that was something Gabriella really missed.

"Mmhmm," Gabriella replied, gently pulling her hand away from the young man's and sitting up straight once again. "I'm indeed the new Healer." She smiled at the girl's enthusiasm then studied her for a moment before speaking again. This one definitely desired to become a Healer, as well. Gabriella could see it all over her young face. "I'd love to chat with your after the feast. My office is always open, even if you're not ill or injured." She smiled at the young girl, happy to be in the presence of someone so...bubbly. Or at least that was the impression Gabriella got.

Gabriella merely nodded, picking up on the sadness in the Ravenclaw girl's voice. Had something...happened? She perked up and smiled again when the girl greeted her and welcomed her. If something had happened, Gabriella assumed it had come and gone last school when she wasn't employed at the castle. "Thank you, Miss Toussaint. I---." Whatever it was Gabriella had been about to say was abandoned when she heard mention of some eleven-year-old child running the Hospital Wing last school year. So Gabriella was...replacing...an eleven-year-old? Surely there was more to the story than she was piecing together.

There was a white yogurty substance gripping to the mans greying beard as he stared into a tall glass of kefir (almost looking down upon it). With the graying beard and hair, and a pair of small spectacles perched on his face, Kapoor looked a bit older than before, though a youthful brightness about him still lingered. The sort of sport who was not and never would be done exploring the world.

"Antonio! Glad to see your face again! Heard you inherited my old office, my friend. Congratulations!" He boomed enthusiastically at the younger wizard while giving him a warm pat on the back. There was no one he could think of that would do a better job at teaching Divination.

His enthusiasm for Antonio's new teaching position cascaded over onto the student body when he saw Celandine Toussaint's prefect badge. Things were already going fabulously. Not bad. Not bad for opening feast.

Sarah had been on her way to the Hufflepuff table, when she made a detour after spotting Cela and Miles up at the Dias.Better introduce myself as well, I suppose, she mused as she semi-confidently strode up towards the staff.Hmmm the staff.There was only a handful that she recognised, and that...Headmaster? looked a little young didn't he?.....

Finally she reached the area where everyone was stood, and cleared her throat with a stong -ahem-.Smiling broadly she greeted her fellow Prefects first, with a friendly "Hey Miles, Cela.Had the same idea then huh?" Of course she meant coming up to where they were now.Turning her attention to the Professors, Sarah's smile got wider. "Hello, sirs and...madam," she began hesitantly, and ever so politely, checking that there was only one woman she didn't know. "I thought I should come and introduce myself as well, and welcome you to the school.I'm Sarah Griffin, one of the new Hufflepuff Prefects.Welcome." She stretched out her hand, just waiting for at least ONE of them to shake it.

Alessia was not sitting at the left of the headmaster's chair as usual... She was at the end of the table. She'd not noticed any of the new professors... but she knew by the scent, Pepe and her godfather were not in the room. Ili and Marcus were together, and although she loved them, frankly she couldn't stomach any newlywed couple for more than a few minutes...

The rest of the scents were mostly familiar... She and Tate had been in school together... though knowing he took Pepe's place at the table gave her a lump in her throat. There were people she did not know, though for some reason, she was too distracted by her own thoughts to introduce herself to them. Maybe she could disappear behind the table... maybe she could excuse herself right after the speech.

For the first time, Kiri's journey back to Hogwarts had been a let-down. Unable to find any of her friends, she'd holed up in a compartment somewhere at the back of the train, and cracked open one of her new books. That turned out not to be a great idea as she found herself too distracted to focus on it, and her inability to understand what the book was saying made her feel annoyed at herself.

Things didn't improve once she reached the Great Hall. One of the first things she saw were Raiden and that clingy girl, Neptune, sitting together at the Slytherin table.
She sat down at the very end of the table, right next to the raised dais where the professors held court, and resolutely looked the other way. Mostly. Every time she glanced around, she felt worse.

One upside - admittedly a very small one - was that she'd not spotted Lord Borr anywhere. In fact, there seemed to be a lot of unknown witches and wizards sitting at the staff table. A few of the students, by the looks of them mostly prefects, had already walked up and were chatting to the new arrivals. Were they the new teachers? Kiri tried to figure out by looking at them who would be taking Astronomy, but in the complete absence of any clues, such as, say, a faraway glance at the skies above, visible through the enchanted ceiling of the Great Hall, no such figuring-out was possible.

Rather than just sit around at the table, where she would sooner or later start glancing at Raiden and Neptune again, Kiri got up and climbed the dais. She wandered past a few teachers - two of them, Lawson and Morgan, looking oddly happy - until she stood next to where Professor Lupa was sitting.
"Hello, Professor," she announced herself, smiling. "How, er, are you?"

"Two inches." Really, they were of a height, but it was nice to fall back into the easy jibes of a long friendship. "But I'll grant you wiser."

Quote:

Originally Posted by Celandine

After smiling at Jack, Cela made a slight face. The new Headmaster obviously wasn't a Ravenclaw himself. Didn't he know that they absolutely had to KNOW stuff? Starting with who the new faces were of course!

Besides... why was HE Headmaster? Cela looked around in obvious confusion for a second and then when he continued to speak Cela blinked.

Report to the Headmaster?

"I usually... um... report?" Like a spy?? "...Report... to Professors Vindictus and Kazimeriz sir." She explained earnestly, untouched by the bossman look. "I just wanted to come say hi."

"I appreciate loyalty, my dear, but if you don't report trouble to the Headmaster, how will I know about it?" She was just a precious little thing, wasn't she? And looking all concerned as if he'd asked her tell tales on her professors and friends. Young too... couldn't be less than a fifth year with that badge, but she wasn't much older than that.

"Perhaps you could report trouble to the good Professors as well as to me?" Just so long as he wasn't intentionally left out of the loop by the two men who had the greatest claim to the office he now held.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cinn-O-Bun

Miles looked behind him as he heard someone else coming up to find Cela making her way. Smiling to her he noticed how she positioned herself slightly ahead of them and hid a laugh with a cough. Good 'ol Cela. This was going to be an interesting term indeed.


Looking back toward the Headmaster he saw the slight amused look as he leaned forward and smiled back. "Yes well...we ARE the smartest," he said with a teasing smirk and looked toward Celadine. Hearing the Headmaster start to introduce himself by his first name he waited curiously until he heard his last name. "Sure thing, sir. Keep things safe...orderly..." and most importantly the Ravenclaws in the lead.

Meeting the Headmasters case he nodded slowly. Odd. Directly to him? Was that a good thing or a bad thing? Hmmm...or something to figure out. AWESOME. Their new assignment...find out what makes Tate tick. He was laughing on the inside and it showed in his eyes but he kept a straight face. "Yes sir. Directly to you." And Vindictus of course. He wasn't going to snub his own head of house. But...was he anticipating trouble that needed to be kept hidden? Hmm...curious...most curious....

"Good man," Tate was satisfied that Miles, at least, would be a good ally in keeping the school safe. "I'm hoping to meet with the prefects and Head Boy and Girl soon..."

No sooner had he said that then the Head Boy was there, introducing himself to the Healer. Well. Boys did like attractive young women, and Healer Ashford looked like she was barely out of school herself. He nodded to the boy. Jack, was it?

"So I'll definitely be seeing you two again. And it was nice to meet you, Fia." The one who had plans to be a Healer... he admired her focus. At least the students he'd met so far had been well-behaved and undemanding.

"Huh?" She said turning around to see the Slytherin captain beside her at the table. "Oh... Miss Starstalker. Nice to see you again." She said with a weak smile. "First day back... always happy to see the student." Although in her mind, it was the truth, she wasn't very happy.

So.... maybe... it was time to meet the new professors and Headmaster and introduce herself as the Head Girl? Mhm. Maybe. Just maybe.... Livvy found herself walking up to the Staff Table, a table which she had NEVER in all her life approached. But she also found that she wasn't the only one to go up there. Goody!

Livvy smiled over at Jack, Miles, Cela, and any other prefect that was there... with a bright smile and waved at them as she walked up closer. "Hey!" she greeted and stood by them for a moment, staring up at the new people that she had never seen before in her life. Of course some of them had taught last year, but a good majority were people that had never stood in her presence. Well... that was in fact, the definition of meeting "new" people.

So it seemed like they were taking turns? Once other people had introduced themselves, Livvy spoke up. "Hello everyone! I'm Olivia Zhang and I'm the Head Girl. Welcome back to those that were here the previous term and welcome to the newcomers. I hope you like it here," she said, rather over-enthusiastically. Maybe the first day of duty was getting to her head. Or maybe she just had too much candy on the train.

Of course Livvy wanted to meet each and EVERY professor... but the one that mattered to the seventeen-year-old the most... was the Healer. Nor... where was this lady? Or... man. Healers could be male.

"Erm, nice to see you... too..." Even through her own distress, Kiri could see that the professor appeared to be very preoccupied. Maybe something was happening at one of the house tables? She glanced around. Students were still filing in, but everything seemed to be fairly calm and orderly.

Odd. Kiri's smile disappeared slowly as she studied Professor Lupa's face closely for a moment, hoping not to be too obvious. Kiri was never going to be the best reader of people, but even she could see that something was troubling the professor. She looked... sad. And maybe Kiri was imagining it, but she thought she could see dark rings below Professor Lupa's eyes, as if she was not getting enough sleep.

Could it be because of her condition? Kiri glanced upwards quickly, but she couldn't spot the Moon, and she wasn't able to remember when it last had been full.
Maybe it was something else, then?

"Are you, er, okay, Professor?" she ventured uncertainly, thinking that this surely had to be an inappropriate thing to ask. "You look a bit, um, tired."

If the Staff Table was quiet before, it certainly wasn't now. Gabriella felt sort of overwhelmed as she glanced from professor to professor to student to student. There were so many people to meet at once, and she could only hope to remember at least half of their names. She glanced to her left and caught sight of Headmaster Kade and Professor Tate---or was it Headmaster Tate as Professor Kade? All she could think of when she glanced their way was "Sneezy and the Old Man." She bit her lip and held back a laugh on that note. She'd have to learn their proper names at some point.

At the sound of someone clearing their throat, Gabriella turned to see another Hufflepuff girl approach the table. Being a Healer, Gabriella was accustomed to looking someone's way at the slightest ahem or cough. This ahem, though, was more or less announcing the girl's presence. Ohh, Madam. Someone had clearly taught these students manners before, hadn't they? Yet once again, Gabriella found herself wondering how long this would last before all chaos broke lose and someone crushed their leg or suffered from some unfortunate spell damage.

"Nice to meet you, Miss Griffin. I'm Healer Gabriella Ashford," she said, still finding it a bit difficult to refer to herself by her full name and not just Ellie. Ellie seemed so---unproper. It'd started when she was a child, and most people who knew her well, i.e. family and close friends, still referred to her as Ellie rather than Gabriella. She thought it wise to enter into her new job as Gabriella rather than Ellie. Although, she wondered how long that, too, would last before she broke down and went back to her usual nickname.

When another student approached the table, Gabriella knew by then that she'd never remember all their names. Not at first, at least. Her gaze flickered from the Head Girl to a Slytherin Girl speaking to another professor on down the table. The Slytherin seemed to be deep in converstion, so El---Gabriella would speak with her later. Miss Zhang seemed outgoing and full of life, Gabriella noted. Ahh, to be a teenager again. Gabriella paused for a moment, thinking how she'd hit the big three-one on Christmas Day, which was only about...ohhh, three months away. Age...Merlin! "Good day, Miss Zhang. I'm Healer Gabriella Ashford. It's lovely to meet you," she finally said.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Anna Banana

When another student approached the table, Gabriella knew by then that she'd never remember all their names. Not at first, at least. Her gaze flickered from the Head Girl to a Slytherin Girl speaking to another professor on down the table. The Slytherin seemed to be deep in converstion, so El---Gabriella would speak with her later. Miss Zhang seemed outgoing and full of life, Gabriella noted. Ahh, to be a teenager again. Gabriella paused for a moment, thinking how she'd hit the big three-one on Christmas Day, which was only about...ohhh, three months away. Age...Merlin! "Good day, Miss Zhang. I'm Healer Gabriella Ashford. It's lovely to meet you," she finally said.

Ooh. Someone was speaking to her. Livvy turned her attention over to this VERY pretty woman with ravishing blond hair. No wonder Jack seemed to be giving googly eyes at the pretty lady. Er... maybe it wasn't googly eyes. But if it was, Livvy would make sure it would never reach Reese's ears. That girl would throw a huge fit of jealousy and if it showed the school that prefects could, then the students would think THEY'D be able to toooo... and that wouldn't be good. No worries Jack! Livvy would spare him a few arms so he could play Quidditch, even if he was Head Boy.

HEALER? Did she just say she was the HEALER?! Look no further! Livvy found the one that she was looking for.

"Hullo Healer Ashford. You have a pretty name. You can call me Livvy. Unless... you prefer to call me Miss Zhang.. then I have no objections what-so-ever." After all. What Professor says... goes. Livvy would NEVER be able to argue with such a nice lookin' Healer.

Grin grin. "It's nice to meet you too. I was just about to look for you too! I have MUCH to say to you. But I think I'll leave that 'til later so you can enjoy your meal."

Thomas waited as long as he dared. He would not risk anything so undignified as a tug on his leash. So, with most of the professors already seated, Professor Duskurk slipped into the great hall via the opening of a secret passage behind a tapestry (handy things, tapestries) and seemed to just appear behind his chair. He was good at subtle little tricks like that and they came as naturally as walking. He was wearing a conservative suit with a red tie. The robes of his suit were unwrinkled, black, and neither constricting nor billowing. Conservative. He did his best to smooth his expression into something that was, if not friendly, then at least not thoroughly disgusted.

He took a chair away from the headmaster amongst some of the other staff (no need to seem completely unfriendly), though he gave the much younger man a nod before taking his napkin off his plate and making a big production of unfolding it and smoothing it onto his lap. The place was crawling with students who didn't have enough decency to remain in their seats where they belonged. In his day students knew their place. Thomas gave a snort of disgust in response to his own internal ruminations and reached for his glass. Mr. Social he was not.

Forced to attend yet another feast surrounded by happy people and happy children and happy, married couples, Anastasia had decided to seclude herself. She had so many more important things to do than sit in a stupid chair and pretend to want to socialize. She didn't even like any of these people, and definitely not any of the new ones.... whoever they were.... like she cared.... she would just pretend not to look around and not care.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Droo

Alessia was not sitting at the left of the headmaster's chair as usual... She was at the end of the table. She'd not noticed any of the new professors... but she knew by the scent, Pepe and her godfather were not in the room. Ili and Marcus were together, and although she loved them, frankly she couldn't stomach any newlywed couple for more than a few minutes...

The rest of the scents were mostly familiar... She and Tate had been in school together... though knowing he took Pepe's place at the table gave her a lump in her throat. There were people she did not know, though for some reason, she was too distracted by her own thoughts to introduce herself to them. Maybe she could disappear behind the table... maybe she could excuse herself right after the speech.

Annie started her pretending to not care by looking firstly to her left.

Alessia Lupa. Lovely. How had Annie wound up in this chair? Why wasn't she sitting by Max or... that suave gentleman with the red tie there? Bunz found herself sitting up a little bit straighter as she stared down the table with a little more interested expression.

Hmm. Max had a mustache, Kapoor had food in his beard, Iliarcus was being disgustingly cute as usual and.... oh wait, wait wait wait,

wait,

wait,

WAS THAT ANOTHER REDHEAD?!!!!!!

"Maybe a little tired..." She said trying to perk up. It was hard sitting at the table... Who was beside her, anyway... Bunzilla. Of all the rotten luck. Oh well... "How was the rest of your summer?"

Oh someone had actually responded to her! Sarah was beginning to think that the male members of the staff saw through her, nice to know she wasn't invisible.Smiling warmly at the woman, Sarah placed her hand back down by her side.So the nice looking lady was the new healer? Good.She certainly looked the most pleasent person there, the sort of person you want treating you if you were ill, or hurt. "It's nice to meet you, too, Healer Ashford.Settling in well so far? Hopefully the feast will pass without you needing to step in for anything." Chuckling slightly, Sarah's attention was momentarily drawn to the man that suddenly appeared from behind one of the many tapestries....

She felt a chill go down her spine as he approached the table and sat down.Taking a huge gulp, she tried to tear her eyes away from him, but couldn't.He wasn't the most cheerful looking of souls, and Sarah was worried about which subject he would be teaching. Please don't be one where we can get hurt, she muttered in her mind.It was the snort he made that drew her back to her senses.Shaking her head, she turned back to face Healer Ashford and the rest of the nice looking people.

Just tired? That didn't seem to be the whole story, but even if the person Kiri was talking to hadn't been a professor, she probably wouldn't ask further. She was pretty much unable to deal with her own problems, what kind of advice could she offer another person?

More teachers were taking their places at the staff table now. The seat next to Professor Lupa was being taken by Professor Bunbury. She did not look too happy, either. Kiri wondered what everyone had been up to over the holidays if they came back looking so preoccupied. Maybe it was because so many of Professor Bunbury's colleagues had left, colleagues she might have been... friends with or something.
Kiri tried, anyway. "Hello, Professor Bunbury," she said friendlily, before turning back to her Head of House.

"Rest of the summer..." she mumbled. "It was okay, I guess." She shrugged. "I spent it at home, more or less, waiting for term to start."
Kiri hadn't returned to Diagon Alley again, afraid that she'd run into... people again. With a sigh, she said, "I wonder if the wait was worth it, though." She stepped aside and pointed in the direction of the Slytherin table where Raiden and Neptune sat next to each other.

Reese had never, in all her 7 years of being here, seen so many staff changes in one term. It was weird! She also didn't like the fact that she didn't see Truebridge sitting up at the staff table. He was truly going to be missed. At the thought of Truebrudge, she wondered who had taken over his place for History of Magic. Her eyes scanned the staff table, but she couldn't make out which teacher taught which subject. She was either a) going to have to ask around to find out or b) find out when the class comes around.

The girl finally decided to head up to the table where all the staff were seated at and introduce herself to the new Professor since she was, after all, the Slytherin Prefect.

As she got closer to the table, she noticed a few other students were there as well. She headed over to the area where Livvy, Kiri, Jack, Miles, and Cela were standing and then turned her attention back to the staff table.

"Hello," she greeted everyone. "I'm Reese Upstead, the Slytherin Prefect for this term. I just wanted to welcome you all to Hogwarts." The last sentence was mainly said towards the new Professors.

Chris Potter had glanced up from his place at the Gryffindor table to notice that almost every Prefect was up at the Staff Table welcoming the new Professors and welcoming back the returing ones. He was excited to meet the new ones and really excited to say hit to the others.

As he stood up and reached the dias, he joined Reese as she too walked up there. He waved quickly to Cela, Miles, Fia, Reese, Sarah, Jack, Livvy, and all the others and then turned to face the staff table he was standing close to the other students in front of the new Headmaster, he wanted to know this guy.

"Hello Headmaster, and new and returning Staff. I just wanted to introduce myself to those who do not know me. I am Chris Potter, 6th year, male Gryffindor Prefect. Welcome to the castle and I hope you enjoy your posts here, I can't wait to get to know you." He then shook each of their hands and waited at those who were currently in a conversation. He didn't want to intrude, that would not be a good start. As he went he also welcomed back the other returning Professors.

Well now...this one was just full of compliments, wasn't she? She seemed really excited to see Gabriella, too, which, for a moment, slightly confused the Healer. In the end, Gabriella decided that since the girl appeared to be older...seventh year, she'd guess...she was probably an aspiring Healer and just wanted some career guidance. Now that Gabriella could do. If it hadn't been for the healer that had been here at Hogwarts when Gabriella was a sixth year, she might not even be sitting here today. That'd been the woman who had guided Gabriella into the job she held today, after all.

"Well thank you, Miss Zhang. You're certainly a pleasure to be around," she commented. That same little nagging thought, the "How long would the politeness and calmness last?"---crossed Gabriella's mind for the third or fourth time. "I'm glad you found me, and I'd enjoy a visit from you. My office is always open." Well, almost always open. Hopefully the children wouldn't come knocking for a simple one A.M. snack. They wouldn't, would they?

When all grew quiet again, Gabriella happened to glance down the table and notice a professor---a latecomer---edging his way to the table. Well, at least it hadn't been her who'd been the late one. Merlin she still feared messing up on the job. Especially on the first day. This man, though, didn't seem to mind that he'd been the last to join the party. As a matter of fact, Gabriella sort of got the impression that he didn't even want to be here at all. What was up with the man around this place? "Hello there," she simply said, giving him a small smile. It'd be horrible of her to ignore him altogether.



Gabriella nodded in reply to Sarah's question. "So far, settling in has been the easy part," she commented, thinking about how busy the Hospital Wing would get once the classes, quidditch games, and...well...everyday started. Soon afterwards, two additional prefects approached the table, making it to where nearly every prefect had approached the table to greet the staff. Clearly, the Headmaster must have pulled this group aside for some etiquette lessons.

One glance over at Tate---or was he Kade?---and Gabriella changed her mind on that. Not that the Headmaster seemed like some wild imbecile, but Gabriella didn't picture him holding etiquette lessons either. She turned her attention back to the two prefects she hadn't spoken to. The female she recalled meeting in Diagon Alley. "Nice to meet you, Mr. Potter. I'm Healer Gabriella Ashford," she said. "Oh, and lovely to see you again, Miss Upstead." She was starting to sound like a broken record, repeating the same introduction over and over and over again. She assumed it could be worse, though. It could have been pin-drop quiet in here. Now that would have been awkward.

"My name is Professor Duskurk," he told the impertinent young lady who called him 'there'. Respect your betters was something everyone in this school would need to learn. He took a sip from his goblet and dabbed his mouth with his napkin.

Stay sturdy Waz.. and get to the teachers quick! it was an emergnancy! Warren was carrying his injuried sister to the front where the staff were.. Torin was by his side as he helped him. Alex was suffering from having broken ribs from the hefty kick on the train. ''Ergh.. Nearly..There'' He was a strong lad, but his arms seemed to feel slightly weak. He was also shaking due to being worried about her.. ''Your gonna be okay Alex.. '' He walked down the aisle determind to get his sister healed by the nurse. He was just glad that Torin was there with him for more support.