"It is," Ellie agreed with Vashti, smiling. But the smile didn't last long. Why would she try to give it to Jacob? "Oh, no, he's seen it already." He kinda had it for the past..however long. And Ellie admitted herself surprised that he hadn't lost it.

She obviously didn't think Jacob a very responsible or capable person.

And the Jacob plopped onto the ground. Heh. But it was confusing Ellie more and more. Did he not understand what happened? She thought she'd figured it out pretty well.

"What happened," she began, crossing her arms again. No, she wasn't going to sit. She was taller than the both of them this way. "Was that Vashti's badge ended up in your envelope." Simple enough. "Who cares why? Owls get mixed up all the time. Simple mistake."

So NOW, let's try again, "Congratulations Vashti. You'll be great." BEAM.

"Wow, that must be great! Your parents must have told you all about Hogwarts, then!" she exclaimed, smiling widely. "Oh, it's alright with me," she said, hearing the girl's statement. "Well, my father's a muggle, and my mom's a witch. She used to be in Hogwarts, too." she said, her face becoming more animated. "I also have an older brother, but he's a muggle."

Brielle stopped then, suddenly becoming more curious about her newly-met friend. "How bout you? Any siblings?" she asked.

"Oh, and I'm Brielle by the way." she added, extending out her hand for a shake.

Ellie smiled. "Friends are always good to have around." She said. Older friends were even better. Good protection devices, they were.

Awee, Fee blushed! "Oh, come on tell me who it iiis! I want to know!" She said and giggled like a little girl. Oh, now it was her time to blush. She just knew Fee meant. "I know what you're thinking, Fee." Oh, there was no use in lying. She knew Fee would be able to see right through her. She bit her lip. "Well..." She sighed dramatically. "Oh, I think you very well what's going on in my life. Alex and I... I mean yes. I like him. But we're just friends... Right now." she said with a smile.

"Ooh, then maybe we'll play against each other!" She said, although she couldn't really picture herself really competing against sweet little Fee. Hmm. "Good luck with tryouts then! Maybe you and I can practice with Alex. I think he's trying out too." she suggested with a smile.

Ellie laughed as Draven told her of his and Alex's somewhat friendship. Interesting bloke. She smiled to herself. Interesting indeed. "Yeah, I suppose things could be a little awkward because of that. But Tay and Alex are good people." She said. "And so are you." she added with a smile.

She raised her eyebrows and laughed. "Dating? Oh. Well - I... Draven!" She spluttered, nudging him back, maybe a little too hard. "Way to be subtle." She joked. Though she couldn't help keeping the image of her and Alex out of her mind... Sigh, silly boys.

Salina looked for an empty spot. Ooh, there's one next to that sweet girl with Alice embroidered on her robes. She looks like a first year too. Yay! Dorm mates!!!

"Hi!" she said excitedly while sitting down next to Alice delicately. "I'm Salina Thomas. Mixed blood witch. My dad was in Slytherin too!"

Fiddling with her straight platinum-blonde hair, she continued, "And... erm... yeah, this is kinda touchy, but my mom's a Veela, thus explaining the hair and eyes?" Salina blinked her large icy blue eyes.

"Are you a first year too?" she asked, while rummaging in her satchel for the muggle notepad that she had bought the other day and started scribbling furiously in it.

"Four sisters," Dallin corrected, his eyes widening to put emphasis on the horror of the statement. "Four older sisters." Bleck. "But only two of them are witches," he added, his voice more natural and less horrorstruck.

Dal couldn't help but follow her gaze toward the Slytherin table. Had he met any of them? ...He couldn't remember. He mostly remembered meeting Ravenclaws. "All I know about Slytherin is that their mascot was a snake." And although he was sure that the people weren't as bad as their symbol thingy, it didn't make him feel very good about them.

Hm. He made it a goal to meet some Slytherins and decide if they were as freaky as their serpenty mascot. "And thanks," he added, smiling again when Ellie told him she was his friend. He had already kind of assumed that... but it was great to be told for sure.

Dal put an elbow up on the table, his chin in his hand as he listened to Ellie. He played absentmindedly with a loose thread on his shirt as she talked, a frown line furrowing between his eyebrows. He looked up at her when her tone changed, and his frown left his face. He raised an eyebrow at her sudden change of mood, then chuckled. "Hey, I think it's interesting," he said with a one-shouldered shrug.

"So you've known about magic your whole life?" Okay, yeah, dumb question. Meh. When was the food coming?

Grumble. Bubble. GrumbleBubblepopgrumblewheeeze.

That was the sound Janie's stomach was making, because well there wasn't any food on the table as of yet. The girls brow was furrowed in consternation; How the heck was this a feast when there were no eats?

In order to distract herself, she busied herself with eavesdropping on the conversations of older students around her, rolling her eyes whenever she heard the unmistakably drippy, sappy tones of flirting. Bleeeech boys were smelly, dull and weird. Why did older girls fawn over them? Dating?!? DISGUSTING.

Resigning herself to boredom since all her friends were at other tables (THE HORROR) Janie took to trying to perfect spells she'd learned last year; Wingardium Leviosa, Accio...mostly because those were safe spells. Ones...that wouldn't, well, light something on fire or flood the table.

" Accio cup," She sighed, head dramatically placed on her free hand whilst the other lazily pointed her wand at her cup.

SIGH.

Alice took Brielles OH where are you from by the way? I'm from Canada!" She said excitedly. hand and smiled, "Well I don't have any siblings, I have had to entertain myself my entire life! I love reading and learning new things!
"Hello Salina, my name is Alice, pleasure to meet you!" Alice said when a new girl came up. "I am a first year" she said to answer the question.

"Yea, they are good people. For sure" he said.

He could of swore he made her blush when he brought up the idea of them dating which made him giggle as she nudged him where he almost fell off the bench.

"Hey hey, you brute" he joked smiling at her.

"Yea.....i can be pretty straight forward about things. Tends to get me in trouble sometimes. But i hope i didnt overstep my bounds Ellie, i meant no disrespect to you. I was just merely curious" he said thinking about some of the trouble he had gotten into over the summer.

"So Ellie? tell me a little about yourself. I dont know much about you, where you from? What is your family like?" he said with great interest trying to change the subject in case she felt awkward about the talk of Alex.

Brielle looked up in surprise as a strange sound caught her attention. Looking up, she could see another girl sitting in front of her. A higher year? she asked herself. Then, the girl brought out her wand and levitated a cup towards herself, answering Brielle's question. Well, either that, or the girl was a really, really intelligent first year to have taught that to herself. But, well, they weren't sorted to Ravenclaw for nothing.

"Hi." Brielle blurted out, before even thinking. Then her face reddened deeply. She wasn't used to speaking to people older than her--if the girl really was. "I--I mean," she hesitated, then smiled instead. "I'm Brielle," she decided, extending out her hand. Well, she might as well meet new people... besides, she needed to talk to somebody while waiting for the food.

"Wow! What's it like in Canada? And I'm from Ireland" she said, proudly. "Ah, well, books are pretty useful." she giggled. "And at least you've got your parents to teach you so many amazing stuff!"

Alice smiled, why was it that when she mentioned her country that everyone got so interested, was she really the only Canadian in the lot? "Well, there is a lot of forests, and prairies, in the north there is a lot of snow. But I come from Prince Edward Island where the dirt is red and the potatoes are amazing!" Alice said laughing. Then Alice said "Well actually my parents have full time jobs, and by full time I really mean full time. We are the representational family for the Victorian Historical Society. They started a few years before I was born so when I was born I was automatically raised Victorian or, well, as Victorian as you can get nowadays." Alice said smiling.

"So, as I was saying, I always had to make my own fun and do things on my own. We have a library room in my house and I spend half of the day in there reading, the other half outside or helping mother and father give tours of the house and to explain Victorian life. I am so used to seeing tourists upon tourists upon TOURISTS!" she said laughing, "In prince Edward Island, at least my part, Cavendish, most of the tourists are Japanese, which has given me a love for the Japanese culture. I usually play with the children when they come for a tour because my parents invite the parents for tea usually."

A silvery figure floated through the massive double doors that marked the entry into the Great Hall and glided gracefully to the table where the Ravenclaws were seated. Not wanting to scare anyone, the graceful ghost floated over the heads of the students and hovered where the newly sorted First Years were seated.

"Welcome to Ravenclaw!" the Grey Lady exclaimed and hoped that no one would scream.

"Hey!" Alice exclaimed, "You're the grey lady aren't you? Ravenclaw's house ghost!"

"Yes, I am!" she politely replied. "I trust that everyone had a pleasant journey on the train, and am sure that you're all eager for Headmaster Tate to deliver his speech so that you can eat."

Janie looked over, dropping her cup, her mouth open. " Huh?" She said, obviously not paying attention. Oh. Someone was saying hi to her. Studying the newcomer, Janie opened her mouth to reply when quite suddenly, there was a floating dead person at their table.

GHOST?!?!?

Blue eyes wide, Janie craned her neck back, looking up at the tall apparition. " You're a ghost." She said, seemingly awestruck and then she grinned. Lulu and Greer were most decidedly NOT at the cool table tonight, no siree!

" Is is weird being dead? Is it cold? " She asked, impertinently, of course. Janie knew no other way of doing things.

Rex looks for Joey and Victoria.

"Well isn't that the truth!" Alice said smiling, "I am so terribly hungry, I didn't eat on the train." Alice said then paused. "I was wondering, because it doesn't say in any books I have read, How long have you been a ghost at Hogwarts?" She asked.

"I've been in this form for many centuries," the Grey Lady smiled. "Weird - is that slang for oddity? Nevermind, dearie. I'm afraid that we ghosts do not feel temperature fluctuations like humans do."

"Wow..." Brielle exclaimed, dreamily. "That must be sooo amazing, growing up in a place like that! But, isn't Canada pretty far from here?" She asked wondering. Then, her friend continued her story, answering Brielle's question. "So what does it feel like? Being raised as a family like that? They seem pretty busy." she added. "And, are there any other Wizarding school near Canada?" she asked, wanting to know more about her new world.

"Well, that's good then! At least your familiar with the cultures of other countries," she said, admiring Alice more and more. "Oh, Japan." Brielle whispered, gettinng dreamy again. "My granfather is Japanese, actually." she explained. "So my father told me all this great stories about Japan, but we never really had a chance to go there." she said, regretfully.

Janie was silent, not sure how to respond to all that. The Grey Lady was using some pretty big words. " I see," Janie nodded, not understanding the ghost entirely. Her understanding was fuzzy around the edges or something like that. " I'd always thought it might be cold, considerin' people are always going on about how spirits make rooms colder when they're in them." She said, poking at her cup with her wand again. " But is it strange? Floating around, being...not of this earth any longer?" She made a dramatic face, eyes wide and eyebrows raised very high.

She then turned to the girl who'd said hello earlier. " Bri? Bri...soemthing?" Janie heard a few weird words. " Canada? What on earth is THAT?" She said, her eerie, ethereal expression having been replaced with an indignantly confused one.

Alice smiled to herself, "Well it was a pleasure meeting you." She said.
Alice laughed, "Yes Canada is quite far from here, but my parents side along apparate me to the station and to London for shopping at Diagon Alley." Alice said with a twinkle in her eye. "There is a wizarding school in Canada actually, my parents wanted me to go there, but I saw their pictures of them when they were in Hogwarts, they met on the train when mother was a third year and father was a first year." she said smiling. "Mother was actually the age of a second year though, she was a year ahead." Alice sad, then realizing she was going off on a tangent again she reared her story back to what she meant to say in the first place, "Anyway, I begged them to let me come here and they said yes. I had received letters from both places you see. The Canadian one because I am, after all, Canadian and Hogwarts because mother and father are, as i have said, alumni."

Oh! her grandfather had been Japanese? How amazing! "That is so cool that your father would tell you stories of Japan, all I know is from what I read in books. You know, I heard that some people my age don't usually read books, I find it a downright shame!" she said, "Some tell me they like to play the com- the compu- the computer? Is that right? I don't know what it is so whenever I ask them they just say it's like a Teevee, but I have never seen one of those either." Alice said feeling bad now, because she knew that she was probably the only student in the whole school that was like that. She used to feel special and important for being so different but now she just felt very out of place.


Alice's eyes got VERY wide, "What is Canada? Why it's a country!" she said shocked that this girl didn't know what this was.

Salina looked at Alice once more and added the finishing touches to her drawing. Then, pushed it over to Alice. "What do you think?" she asked, capturing Alice's wavy hair and blue eyes perfectly.

"It's a hobby I picked up while I was younger. I started with my mother, then went on to places and other things." she explained. "My father was seldom home, I can hardly remember what he looked like."

A lone tear rolled down Salina's cheek. "Papa passed 3 years ago. After which I immersed myself into drawing and reading and I seldom ate. Mama was the one who actually raised me," she said, smiling at the memory of the Veela's weird tales. "She used to tell me all sorts of funny stories."

"I was born in Australia and moved to London only last year." she said, her subtle accent no longer suppressed. "I'm starving. You?" she asked.

"Oh, and hi, Brielle." she said, grinning in Brielle's direction.

"I've always wanted to come here, to Ravenclaw. The Gray Lady's awesome." she said to noone in particular. "It's a dream come true."

Alice's eyes widened "Oh my Salina! That is an amazing talent!" She said smiling. "I am also hungry, but I bet if they have potatoes they aren't as good as from home..." she said suddenly going into a dream like state.

"Oh, it's a great thing your parents allowed you to come here then! If not, I may never have met you!" she said, taking her friend's hand, before listening intently to the story she was telling Brielle. She had been transfixed by it, already imagining the scene of Alice's parents before she stopped. "Don't stop." she said, insisting. "Tell me more of your parents! It seems so interesting!"

Brielle smiled. It was very rare for her to meet somebody else who also appreciated the Japan culture. "Really? Some people don't read??" she asked, infuriated. She had grown up, also surrounded by books, but this she didn't tell Alice. Brielle knew she would understand her, anyway. "But books... they're amazing! The stories... the characters," she said, drifting away again. "Sometimes I can even see myself in books!"

"Oh, computers?" she giggled. "Well, those things I know all about. My brother loves playing those, and other little muggle toys, too!" She explained. Then saw that Alice's demeanor suddenly changed. "What's wrong?" she asked, worried.

"Hi Salina!" Brielle said, grinning. She had heard Alice mention her name earlier. "Me too! My mother was sorted into Ravenclaw when she was here, and it's all I've even wanted since."

Then Brielle noticed the drawing Salina had been fussing over earlier. "Wow.. that looks great!" she exclaimed, looking at the drawing with wonder. "Unfortunately, I have ZERO talent in drawing." she said, shaking her head.

Hey rex joey hugged him.I have to meet some teachers.

Alice was glad Brielle was interested in her stories, "Well my mother is English and my father is Canadian, but when they went to school father lived in Ireland, so naturally they both came to Hogwarts." She said smiling. "My mother went into her first year and did so much studying she skipped all of her second year classes, all of her professors were amazed that she was a Hufflepuff and not a Ravenclaw. Now this sort of confusion happened with my father too, He went into first year and was sorted into Slytherin, but he was the nicest person anyone could know. Now his professors were amazed he wasn't in Hufflepuff. They both arrived to the train that day just before it left, in fact it started moving the second father got himself into the corridor on the back of the train. Mother had just gotten into the last empty compartment and was putting away her things when father knocked on the glass and asked if he could share with her. She, of course, said yes and he came in. Now, they didn't really talk much most of the way, but mother looked at father over her book a lot. She was at, what she calls, the age where girls start to 'like' people in 'that way' and my father intrigued her. Now father didn't notice her until she dropped her book and they both bent down to pick it up and their hands touched..." Alice said trailing off heaving a sigh, oh the romance!

"Oh yes, I love to read, as you can see from how I talk about my parents, I just picture myself there, and what is a book but someone imagining something... only on paper!" She said smiling.

Alice then addressed the final question, "Well... I just realized I am probably the only student here who has grown up not knowing what a computer is or what a teevee is... never having a conversation on a telephone..." She said with a sigh, "I don't feel like I had a bad childhood, nor do i feel left out because I think I can get along just fine without them but I suddenly feel very... alone, if you know what I mean."