Ellie smiled at her. "Well you still got two years to figure it out, so I think you're fine." She said with a light laugh. Ellie nodded because she, too had never left Europe before. Though she really wanted to. She raised her eyeborws at Skye's next comment. "Guitar, really? That's really cool. Well maybe if you really do end up as a receptionist, you can sing to all you're clients." She joked with a laugh. "I'm only kidding. Yeah, of course I think you'll go far. I mean, you've got the determination of a bull, woman!" She exclaimed. Ehh, was that weird? Long day...

Yikes, what about her? "Well... This may sound kinda... weird." She said with a little nervous laugh. "But I want to travel to the world and paint. Paint everything I see from people, to buildings or, oh I don't know... Fountains." She said with a laugh. "And then I want to have a portable gallery. Like, have an open gallery wherever I go for people to see the world through my eyes. Oh, I also want to play piano in the background while they're looking. Set the mood, y'know?" She looked back at Skye. Okay, she got a little excited about the future. Sue her. She just wanted to move on.

Skye returned the smile widely. "Thanks! I'm sure I will figure it out," she said. Then she laughed. "YEAH, THERE WE GO!" she said. "They'll get a mini concert for free while they're waiting to get their teeth cleaned." She shook her head, smiling. "Nah. I'm actually very shy, but i'm trying to push past it. I assume it's working, then?"

Ellie wanted to travel the world, too? "Oh, we can go together!" she said with a small laugh. "It'd be nice to have a friend along." And a painter as well? "Oh, how exciting! An artist! I used to be able to draw, but it's been ages," she admitted. Oh, and she also played the piano? Hey, maybe they could start a band! Skye laughed to hgerself. "Well, I thik that would be a very admirable career," she said.

Natasha sat down at the table nearest to the corner and opened up her History of Magic book. Though she was usually one to save EVERYTHING for the last minute, she decided to read it a bit because she was bored and had nothing else better to do. She was also feeling a little homesick, but she would never admit it to herself. Also, History of Magic was a ridiculously impossible subject. There was simply too much to know and compared to all of the other subjects she had, it was too boring! But still, being the overachiever she was, she was determined to remember most of it. However, she wasnt the most focused of overachievers. So it was no surprise that she only read about 2 sentences before she unknowingly began to gaze into the distance... daydreaming, again...

Charley wandered into the common room, trying to find somewhere to sit and study. Nearly all the seats were filled. Finally she saw one at the table nearest to the corner. There was a girl already sitting there, but hopefully she wouldn't mind. Charley adjusted her hair ribbon and made her way over to the table, trying to avoid bumping into anyone.
She noticed the girl seemed to be daydreaming, so she reached over and gently touched her shoulder.
"Hello, I'm Charley. Do you mind if I sit here?" she asked, gesturing towards the chair next to the other Ravenclaw.

Ellie laughed at the idea. Yeah, live gigs at the dentist? Never heard of that one before... She smiled widely. "You'd probably make lots of money." She said with good smirk on her face. Skye? Shy? Ellie shrugged. "Well the way you handled Enya today... You convinced me!" She said with a laugh.

Travel together? What a brilliant idea! "We could tour the world together, have gigs every night we stay somewhere, I could have an art gallery and we could put on a show together to attract more attention!" She exclaimed. Hot daaamn, they were brilliant! "Well, I thank you, Skye." She said with a little curtsy and a laugh.

Emily looked up as she heard a family voice greet her.
Claire had taken a seat on the floor beside her. Grinning Emily replied, "Hey Claire, not much, just thinking." She could tell Claire was uncomfortable, but didn't say anything.
"How've you been?" she asked. It had been a while since they sat down and had a good chat.

Skye smirked. "Yup, that's the life...dentist entertainment!" she said, shaking her head and smiling. She raised her eyebrows at Ellie's next remark. "Really? Cool. It's working then."
Skye grinned. "Yeah, sounds awesome," she said. "Let's start a band and get world-famous, mmmkay?"

Pulled from her daydream by a gentle touch to the shoulder, Natasha looked up and saw a pretty girl about her age, who was asking to sit next to her.

"Sure thing!" she said enthusiastically, trying very hard to not be shy. "I'm Natasha. It's a pleasure to meet you Charley! I really like your ribbon."

Being the sticky-beak first year that she was Claire responded, "Whatcha thinking about?".. then after a second added, "On second thought I don't know if I want to know."

The last thing she needed was disturbing mental images of her best friend and her brother... together.

"I've been good, getting used to balancing classes and social life now."
"Quidditch on the weekend! Can't wait to see you play", she said grinning broadly.

Emily couldn't help but laugh out loud as she watched Claire's facial expressions change within seconds of each other.
"Mmmm", she muttered.
"Um Claire... you might not see me play." she said.
"I'm only a reserve."

Claire's jaw dropped...
"Really?!" she said, her tone outraged.

.... after a few moments of deep breathing Claire realised it wasn't so bad.
"Oh well, then at least you can watch it with me", she said though she was sure Emily would much preffer to be out there playing.

"We should probably do our Aristmancy home work soon", she said.
Though Claire didn't like arithmancy she thought it was important for them to do it... so that Ravenclaw could get some points.
"Did you want to partner up with me?" she asked, though she didn't need to. Technically Emily didn't have a choice but to partner up with her. After all they were practically family.

"Mmmm, its not too bad, I mean as long as Ravenclaw have a strong team I don't mind."
Deep down Emily kind of missed being in the team. She had plaed in her first and second year as beater. She had loved it, but her parents discouraged her from playing so that she could focus on her studies. Now however she was getting good marks in each subject, was sure she would do well in newts and felt she could still play.
"Yep, I'm planning on dusting off my pom-poms", she said grinning broadly.

Claire suddenly changed the topic to aritchmancy.
"Yikes, yes we should gte onto that. I've got the chien tung sticks in the dorms, do you want me to get it now? or should we do it tomorow? maybe go to the lake and do it there?"

Vanessa entered the common room. She had missed the start of term- due to family affairs, but had returned to complete her final year.

As she entered the familiar surroundings which she loved- more than her own home- she saw Emily by the fire with a small girl- obviously first year.
By golly... she only just realised it was Claire!

"Hey Em!" she squeeled half running over to meet them.
"Claire!... I didn't think you started till next year!" she added as she saw took in the sight of the small blonde.

"What have I missed?" she asked taking a seat besides Emily and linking her arm through hers.

Emily looked up from her onversation with Claire as she heard an all too familiar voice.
"VANESSA!" she screamed shrilly trying to get up so she could hug her friend.
It had been a while since she saw her.
"How are you? When did you get here? How is everything?"
All the questions came in a flurry and it took every ounce of strength to control her tongue. Resisting the urge to pummel her with more questions Emily paused to let Vanessa catch her breath. She took her friends arm in hers and pulled her closer. Her long lost friend, her sister.

Vanessa grinned.
It was great to be back, she had missed Emily terribly.
"I'm ok, just now, and everythings good", she smiled as she answered each of Emily's questions smugly.
"How are classes going? I couldn't help but notice your our top points earner"
This didn't surprise Vanessa at all. Emily had always been smart, very witty, of course she would do well.

Emily sighed. Of course it was only natural for Vanessa to reply with one word answers or short phrases, she wasn't one for long conversation. She had always been the quiet, cool-tempered, easy going one.
"Classes are ok", said Emily bluntly. Truthfully, she wasn't enjoying them as much as she otherwise would have been.
"The ministries been interfereing..." she began, glancing around the common room nervously almost expecting Gevrik or whatever his name was to pop up out of thin air.
"... the curriculum in every class has a muggle focus on it. Seriously every lesson feels like a mugle studies lesson." she complained. It had indeed been getting on her nerves.
"And there is a man from the ministry- in charge of security I think.... security of what- I dont know. But either way he's been keeping a close eye on the teachers. Had a go at Professor Tate's lesson the other week. Nasty man..." she trailed off, imagining all the hexes she would love to use on him.

After a minute of silence she nudged her friend in the ribs.
"Of course I'm top point scorer- for now..." she grinned.
Emily was two things. Firstly she was clever, and secondly she was competitive.

Willow entered the common room tiredly. She sat down on the ground, her back against the wall which was gradually getting warmer from the fire. She allowed her eyes to flutter shut, and to fall asleep.

"We can do it tomorrow? by the lake sounds good."
ooc: after you finish work?

Claire couldn't believe her eyes! Finally Vanessa was back at Hogwarts.
"Hey Ness", she greeted as she hugged her with one arm. She couldn't help but giggle.
"Yes well, I thought I'd surprise you", she said sarcastically. Of course she hadn't expected Vanessa to know how old she was, she wasn't very skilled with numbers.

Claire listened and nodded as Emily filled her in on what had been happening since term started, making all the right noises at all the right times.

Charley smiled. "Thank you!" she responded, touching her hair with her right hand.
"Pleasure."
She pulled a chair out from the table and took her bag off her shoulder as she lowered herself into it.
"Are you enjoying lessons so far?"

Ari's short, feather-like hair was dusted lightly with snow, matching her pale face. She opened the door to the common room, and the warmth of the room immediately caused the tiny flecks of snow to melt.

She was wearing a knee-length velvet skirt with black leggings underneath. For a top, she wore a white shirt under a Ravenclaw longsleeved shirt. And around her neck was a thin, but effective, silver scarf. Over her left shoulder was her beige bag that hung next to her hip, and in her right hand was her wand, pointed just in front of her feet, which were clad in grey boots. And, of course, her black sunglasses were pressed close to her eyes.

She srtode over to her favorite chair, which was empty, and set her bag down next to it. Flopping down into the armchair, she tucked away her wand, unzipped the bag, and pulled out a book, finding her bookmark, and opened it. Keeping the book in her lap, she turned her face towards the sound of the fireplace, pursing her pink lips together for a second, and propping her left elbow up on the armrest.

Willow woke up with a start. God, that had been one weird dream.

She frowned as her neck stiffened from the awkward poisition. She noticed another girl nearby.

"Hi." She said. "I'm Willow. What're you reading? Is it good? My book's great. It's a muggle book. Wuthering Heights."

Satine hopped into the CR. She wasn't sure why she was in an exceptionally good mood, but she was. She glanced around the busy room. She usually just passed through on her way to the dorms because well it was usually so packed that she wanted to scream. But today it didn't look too bad. She glanced around for some familiar faces but wasn't sure if she really recognized any of them.

With a little shrug of her shoulders, she pulled on her purple bag on her shoulder and found an empty spot at a table. She reached in her bag and pulled out some markers and glitter and went to work being creative and making signs. She glanced up occasionally to see if anyone new was walking through the door.

Really, Skye didn't seem like a shy person. Which was good. Ellie smiled back at her and laughed a little. World famous? Oh yeah, you know it. "Sounds like a great idea!" She raised her hand for a high-five. Because you know, she was 10 years old again.

Suddenly, Ellie yawned. She looked at the clock and raised her eyebrows. "Wow, it's late. I should probably get to sleep." She rubbed under her left eye and left a black smudge on her hand. Oh right, she was crying not 30 mintues ago. "And clean off this makeup." She muttered.

Ellie was about to turn to walk up the stairs to the dorm, but she stopped herself and looked at Skye again. "Thank you, Skye. For stopping Enya and I from blowing each others' heads off and... taking my mind off things. I really appreciate it." She told the other Ravenclaw honestly. Ellie really meant it, too. At a time when Ellie really needed a friend, Skye was there even when she didn't know her.

Dallin yawned, trudging down the stairs from his dormitory and into the common room. He had given up on the sleeping thing, even though he was incredibly tired. He didn't even know why he was tired, he just was. But since his nap idea had failed, the couches in the common room seemed the second-best idea.

He swept his gaze over the common room quickly, his eye catching a whole bunch of purple. He changed his course for the table she was sitting at instead of the empty couch that was practically calling his name. Plopping down in a wooden chair opposite Satine, he put his elbows on the table and his head in his hands. "Whatcha workin' on?" he asked curiously, eyeing the signs she was writing on and totally forgetting to say hi.

Jacob walked into the common room, and took a seat on his favorite couch, making sure that his wand was in the holster and not his back pocket. He fell back, let out a huge sigh of releif.

He quickly took out a large book he had gotten from Flourish and Blotts, an OWL prep book. He quickly turned to the History of Magic portion, the part he had stopped at. Nobody wanted to bother him. He was completely stressed between Quidditch and academics, and OWLS, he was getting really stressed. And being ravenclaw didn't help that fact