Selina kept her eyes down at the table as she munched away on the cookie she had taken from the pile. If she was not so avid on keeping distance between herself and Kurumi she would so be digging into another cookie being that her current cookie was almost gone. From what her blue eyes could tell in her peripherals Selina could see a herd of firsties scattering around the Great Hall toward their newest houses. Even Gryffindor was seemingly gaining a few students here and there.

Then she took her final bite of her cookie and she rested her hands in her lap. She desperately wanted another one, but to look up to grab one would mean that she would have to find Kurumi. By doing that it would completely defeat the purpose of her avoiding Kurumi. Not that Selina would be able to avoid her for forever, but she could deal with doing it for now.

As soon as she had come to terms with this fate laughed in Kurumi's face. Another delicious and red cookie sat in front of her downcast face. Her greedy hands reached out to grab it and when she looked up to thank the gifter her blue eyes met Kurumi's purple. Merlin! She did not want to do this right now. So she took the cookie and just looked at her best friend in shock, but before she could utter anything else Kurumi spoke.

In three small sentences Kurumi made all of the difference in the world to Selina's current predicament. They had much to discuss and Selina's had a lot she had to tell her friend, but the fact that Kurumi was willing to still be her friend was amazing.

She stuttered, "You don't think I'm a monster?" She leaned forward out of her seat and hugged Kurumi, "Thank you. And we'll talk later. I have a lot I have to tell you and then we'll have no more secrets between us." Part of Selina was shocked how easily she accepted what Kurumi said, but it felt right to have her best friend by her side.

Paulie initially wondered why the girl bowed at him, but then he soon realized that that was probably her custom or something. So, he smiled and tried out bowing back at her in a similar fashion. "Well, that's real cool," he remarked with a nod. It was especially cool because he had heard that the prefects got to use some fancy bathroom, just for them. Kurumi. Now that was a name he didn't hear everyday. "Kurumi," he repeated, to make sure that he'd gotten it right. "Nice to meet you - I'm Paulie."

But yes, he and Adam had been lucky enough to score the same house! Same house, same year. Couldn't get much better than that. "Who woulda thought, eh?" He grinned, then rolled up this sleeves to his elbows. Pffft, working with animals for the rest of the summer? No sir-eeee. "Hah! My summer was good, though I didn't happen to work with any creatures, no." Especially at traveling carnivals. "I did happen to find a frog in the living room of our place, though. I honestly donno how it got there.." And it was still a mystery. His mum had been rather suspicious of him, but he eventually convinced her that it was not a joke. Or, at least not his joke. "How about yourself, anything eventful?.. Parents uprooting the family and moving to a new well-to-do neighborhood?"

Seventh Year. STUPID seventh year. Lexi was a very unhappy little bunny. HMPH.

Strolling over, avoiding eye contact with EVERYONE, she plopped herself into a seat and just GLARED at her plate. HMPH FOR LIFE. The last thing Lexi wanted to do at this point was sit through yet another feast.

Looking up long enough to glance over toward the Slytherin table she frowned moreso. STUPID FEAST. STUPID BADGES... STUPID EVERYTHING. Lexi Kennedy was sure this term was the term for her to rebel... buck the system... get into a fight. SOMETHING SCANDALOUS.

Selina was already starting to warm up to this new term. She had patched things up with Kurumi, she had eaten two cookies and was working on her third and all of the new Gryffindors seemed to be a fine group of people. That would be important in the coming months and years in Selina's case. But the hat always chose wisely so Selina was not too worried about all of that.

As she took another bite of her large, Gryffindor cookie her eyes started to flit around the Great Hall. She was genuinely curious where her "brother" had scrambled off too. Back at the Platform she had seen him for a minute maybe, until he had been dragged off by his friends and his girlfriend. Not that she minded, she ended up having an... interesting experience on the Platform.

Ronnie looked around, and while she looked around she noticed an older Gryffindor who didn't look as happy as her! She wondered why. She didn't know about walking over to her, she looked like she could beat the small little Weasley up! But she took up the courage to walk over. She quietly sat down beside her. She cleared her throat. "Hi there, I'm Ronnie Weasley." she said in the best soothing tone she could. "I couldn't help but notice you seemed a bit down, is there something bothering you?" she asked.

Samuel walked to the table and sat down after being sorted. he looked up and down the table but recognized no one, because all his friends seem to have been sorted in ravenclaw so far.

Throat clearing. Really? Lexi looked up with a quirked brow and a frown etched in her face. "Pleasure." Of course THAT was yet to be seen. HMPH. "I am not 'down' thank you very much. I am just unhappy and unpleasant to boot. You may have a seat if you so wish to," Lexi said in a haughty tone.

Having a seat did NOT mean that Lexi would converse with her... Just saying.

Charner had often dreamt of the Great Hall. Great dreams of the Great Hall. But nothing she could even imagine compared to the greatness of great before her.

....Maybe the spoons. And the forks. And well the whole table layout. That, admittedly, was a little disappointing. She had imagined something a bit more polished and less, well, sad looking. There had to be a culprit. There had to be ----

B. I. N. G. O.

Walking purposefully over to the SULKY older girl, lion, person, sitting at the table and plopped down beside her, giving the other girl that had chosen to inquire about the situation a slight nod. "You know, huffing and puffing releases a lot of carbon dioxide into the air which makes it hard to think. Given there are no plants in this room and thus no fresh oxygen, I would think it wisest if we conserve our supply with as little brooding as possible." Her eyes flicked down the the utensils. They were magic right? "Plus, your making the table decorations look sad."

Ronnie looked away. She felt like a jerk....she sighed. "Right...I'll just go back to my seat. Hope you feel better..." she said walking back to her spot. She sat down, and waited for her mates. That was sort of stupid of her to go and make that person worse.

Reaaaaaaally? Lexi gave the other girl a faint scowl and chuckled a bit. "Well that's right rude of you, you know? That would be the same as me telling you the tone of your voice grates my nerves like the sound of Peeves blowing raspberries... but I would never do such a thing." Except she kind of just did. Heh. "You are making my brain unhappy little person." Yeah. So. Grrrr.

...

Lexi shrugged a bit... SHe had told the girl to have a seat hadn't she? Oh well. Some people didn't GET that she was being as nice as she could.

Adjusting his red and gold tie, Christopher scurried into the Great Hall with the happiest look on his face. He was glad to be home, back at school where he truly belonged. The lion was incredibly excited for his fourth year; for some reason it made him feel much older and much more mature- though he probably just thought that do to teenage hormones and what not. Scanning the Gryffindor table, it didn't take long for his eyes to fall upon the person he was looking for.

Sliding in next to a girl with bright red hair, Christopher grinned at his little sister. "Ah! Sel, I can't believe we're back! It's been so long- an eternity. Not to mention the fact that I thought last semester was my last...." he trailed off, trying not to think about that very dreadful point in time. "Anyway! Where were you on the platform? I talked to your parents and then found Violet and hung out with her for a while, but I didn't see you. And she ran off to find you on the train, and I ended up sitting with Elyon, Chunk, and Baltimore in a compartment of our own. We ended up just reading the whole time, though that darn cat snored so loud...."

Selina looked up from her cookie to see Christopher slid into the seat right next to herself. Before she could even say anything she was cut off by Christopher going into depth about his escapades on the train and Violet's search for Selina. That latter of the previous statement was odd; she did not see Violet for the entire train ride. Then again Selina was hiding from a certain Gryffindor prefect at the time so it did not surprise her that the small veela girl could not find her. She was, after all, hiding from one person, which in turn made her hide from everyone.

The moment Chris took a breath Selina snuck in a sentence, in fear that if she did not she would not get a word in, "I was around. I actually kind of sat by myself the entire train ride, you know? It was nice and comforting there and I got in a good nap. Didn't want to head into the Great Hall exhausted on the first day. That would just be horrid, honestly."

Then she pressed on and asked, "You ready for this term?"

Adam noticed that the girl's cheeks had flushed slightly with embarrassment...perhaps he was just as good at taking compliments as he was...which was not good at all. "Um...thanks, I appreciate that," Adam said with a little smile. So there was one more person he could go to if he got horribly lost.

Adam gave Paulie a little smile. "I wouldn't have...honestly I had no idea what house I was going to be in, so this came as somewhat of a surprise." But Adam could tell by the other people that had been sitting down at the table that they were definitely going to be his kind of crowd. Friendly, not too crazy...except for one girl who had a look to kill. Perhaps if Adam thought that it would help she would ask the girl if she was alright, but he decided that maybe she just wanted to be left alone.

"Aww...bummer," Adam said with another little laugh. He was taking a sip of water when Paulie mentioned finding a frog in his living room. Adam couldn't stop his eyebrows from going up surprise. "Well...isn't that an interesting thing to find in your living room." Adam supposed there were worse things one could stumble upon...but still...a toad was rather odd. "I actually bought a puppy," Adam said with a little smirk as he set his goblet down. "I'll introduce him to you once we get up to the common rooms...and don't worry, he doesn't smell." Adam made sure to give JB a bath right before they left for the train...after all no one would appreciate him having a pet if the pet smelled as awful as the pen at the wizarding carnival had.

Adam gave Paulie a little smirk at the comment about the neighborhood moving. "So far they're still at the same house, but we'll see when it's time to go home for a break." Of course, Adam's parents hadn't even been there to say goodbye, so he wasn't even sure if they knew when the next time he was returning was going to be.

Charner shrugged with little concern and pushed the utensils back into a bit of a proper order. Poor utensils. So unloved....

"Rude, but truthful. Just as your words are from your point of view." A slight grin made it's way onto her face as she tilted her head a little. "I make my brothers unhappy and they make me unhappy." In other words, deal.

"Nice to meet you Kurumi. My names Valerie."

Valerie bit into her cookie and her eyes widened considerably. She could have sworn she was melting into a puddle of happiness. Never had she eaten a cookie baked to such perfection as this one.

"This cookie...it's so good. Did you bake these?"

Lexi Kennedy wrinkled her nose up as the little person continued to speak in that DREADFUL tone. UGH. She had to give it to the kid, though. Lexi tended to intimidate small persons. Heh.

Smoothing her features out she finally gave the girl a proper look and smirked for a moment. "Rude, but truthful, eh? Sounds like something I would say." A SLIGHT praise, that was. Even if the kid didn't know it.

"I am not quite sure what your siblings have to do with the situation at hand..." Lexi trailed off and leaned in closer to see if the child had vacant eyes. THAT was the sign of a crazy person. She wanted to be sure... one can never be too safe at Hogwarts.

"Name's Lexi Kennedy. You are??"

Supressing a grin at Selina's look of worry that he would've give her a chance to talk, he nodded. "I know exactly what you mean. Solitude is so nice. It's the main reason why I don't mind not having many friends. How come you didn't sit with Violet and Elektra? It's unusual for the trio not to be together..." That was very curious. Normally the three of them were inseparable. Oh well, he couldn't blame the girl. Sometimes hanging out alone was just really nice.

"Oh yes. Fourth year is going to be incredible! I heard they really try to prepare you for O.W.L.S next year. All the information we'll be able to take in; it's all so exciting!" he chirped, sounding incredibly nerdy. But he was who he was, and nerd was a part of the main description. "And you? Are you ready for third year? Not going to lie, it's pretty awesome," he smirked. He felt it almost a joke- while third year was great for most, his previous year had been very stressful and well.... Yeah. But a majority of that was behind him and he was ready to start the term as an average (well, maybe a bit above average...) teenage nerd again.

"I am debating the wiseity of sitting next to you if you are going to stare at me like that. No wonder the spoons are all shriveled." She didn't care if it was something this Lexi would say or not, she did not like faces in faces. Except in paintings. If done well....

"I was checking to see if you had a vacant look to your eyes, kid. Are you crazy. Like in the clinical sense? There is only room for one crazy person in my life... and that's me." Just you know... FYI.

"You keep on about the utensils... you got a fork THING or something? That's right odd." FYI again. By this time Lexi had gone back into her own personal space. There, odd child, no more Lexi in your face.

"And I asked you your name, child. What is it?"

Selina looked aside from Christopher's eyes. She did not want to really talk about why she had not spoken to her friend's on the train. If she did it would bring up the question as to why she was avoiding Kurumi, which would spur on the question as to why Selina had run away from Kurumi on the Platform, which would give way to the question why Selina had killed her sister. It was all questions that she did not want to face right now, especially not with Christopher. Telling Kurumi, although she had fled right after divulging her past, had been truly very difficult. In fact, Selina had sworn to herself that she would never tell a living soul about Danny and yet she did. So telling Christopher about her sister was most likely a fate that would never happen if she could help it. Therefore, she did not want to talk about why she wanted solitude so she just gave Christopher a weak half-smile and listened to him talk about third year.

"I'm excited for the most part. Everything about it sounds great and all, I'm just curious as to how everything is going to fall out. Especially with Quidditch. Without Simon being here I'm very nervous about try outs. Kurumi and me both are."

Kurumi giggled and tried not to blush too much. Her only saving grace at the moment was that Cookie Hater wasn't around to scowl or glare at her. Hopefully, the now Head Girl had gotten that out of her system on the train. If not...well...then this was going to be a reeeeeeeeeeeally awkward term. Especially when one considered that it was obvious that Walnut was in kitty love with the girl.

"Well, you have been known to land yourself in detention," she teased, sticking her tongue out slightly. Not that Kurumi would really be able to do that to Josh. She was pretty sure she didn't have that in her. "Oh, I nearly forgot...father says thank you for the letter...but....why did you even write my father in the first place?"

Over the course of everything that had happened last term, Kurumi had forgotten that she had asked her father to send bath supplies. Then again, she had no idea just how MUCH the man had sent.

"Glad to hear that," Kurumi smiled. She saw that Ronnie was focused on the Sorting taking place, so she ought to not bother the girl for now. It was always something fun to watch. "Enjoy the feast."

Kurumi offered the girl one last smile before continuing her way down the table.

"Nice to meet you Charles," she replied with a bow of the head. "You're welcome. Baking has always been a hobby of mine, so it makes me happy to see others enjoying them." Her smile brightened just a bit more. "My name is Kurumi and I hope you enjoy the feast. Let me know if there is anything I can do to help. I am sure more first years will be joining us at the table. Many have already." She gestured down the table a bit.

Kurumi's smile faded. Yep, still the queen of terrible first impressions. His laughter went unnoticed by her as she looked down at her black school shoes. "S-S-S-Sorry," she stammered, flailing her arms around just a bit. When he had explained himself, Kurumi felt even worse. Of course that is what it had meant. Why would someone be given a nickname based on Audio and Visual? "Oh, um, right..."

Akward.

"Oh, well welcome to Hogwarts as well," she smiled, momentarily forgetting the awkward conversation from moments earlier. It was now that she noticed just how disgusting the dishes were. "You...don't suppose Scourgify would fix this, do you?" she asked picking up a dirty fork and turning it over in her hands.

"I would be a hypocrite if I did," she said, obviously relating to their abilities. Having been called one all her life, how could she possibly do the same to her best friend? That idea seemed utterly ridiculous. "And of course," she giggled, taking her wand out of her pocket. "And I'll make sure that no one else can hear." The spellwork was simple enough.
Kurumi nodded. Yep, he had it right and had even bowed back a little. Kurumi blushed just a bit and tried not to let her giggle become audible. "It's nice to meet you Paulie." For some reason, his name reminded her with that of a bird, but that would cause yet another silly first impression that she really didn't need nor want.

LEXI! Merlin had Kurumi missed her. She had enjoyed taking care of Rufus over the summer, and didn't really want to part with him, but, he was Lexi's monkey and not hers. She hadn't had time to give the now seventh year the gift she had bought in New York for her, but the look on her face right now signaled that the lioness might not be too excited about it anyway.

Still, Kurumi wasn't sure when she would get the next change to do so. No time like the present, right?

"Lexi!" she chirped as she walked up behind the blonde and tapped her shoulder. "I...I never got the chance to give this to you back when I gave Rufus back."

She handed Lexi a small parcel.


"Valerie," Kurumi repeated, taking extra time to make sure that she said the V properly. "Nice to meet you."

Kurumi blushed a bit as she watched the girl much on her cookie. Perhaps the most satisfying part of it all was having others enjoy. Eating cookies alone was always kind of sad.

"I did," she nodded. "Baking has always been a hobby of mine."

Elsie walked to the Gryffindor table. Gryffindor! She has been sorted into the house she wanted! She sat next to a very nervous looking boy.

"Hi I'm Elsie" she said holding out her hand. "Aren't we lucky to be in Gryffindor?"

Christopher cocked an eyebrow at Selina's response about the train. He may not have been a mind reader, but something was definitely up. She wouldn't meet his eyes, and the half-smile she'd attempted was the most pathetic he'd ever seen from Selina. She was looking rather distraught, and she was silent. Selina Skylar was not one to often stay silent. After his analysis and conclusion, he shifted in his seat to get a better angle toward her and asked gently, "You all right?" He wasn't going to force any issue upon her, but if she wanted to talk about it, or even just needed a little comforting, he'd be there for her in a second without hesitation. He hoped she knew that.

And if course. Quidditch. Leave to Selina to be most worried about Quidditch. With a joking eye roll, he said, "Selina, do you ever not think about Quidditch?" He hesitated, then added reassuringly, "But seriously, don't worry about it. You both are great. I know you'll make the team without a doubt."

Selina smiled at Kurumi graciously when the girl further reassured her that she was not filled with hatred against Selina. Deep down Selina knew that Kurumi should be furious with Selina and disgusted at what Selina did, Merline knew Selina herself was, but she was glad that her best friend was deciding against harboring that emotion. It would have killed Selina to lose Kurumi even though she knew that she didn't deserve a friend like her after what she had done.

Kurumi further showed that she was okay with Selina by simply touching her left shoulder. In the small touch Selina knew that Kurumi was not afraid of her.

Suddenly her eyes shot open with fear. Kurumi had mistakenly touched her left shoulder where the tattoo she had received last year via a vision had been imprinted in her skin. The tattoo was simple. Since she had been stuck in a vision the tattoo gave her the ability to go in and out of visions at will. Although Selina was not exactly sure how it worked still she was starting to have an easier time with her visions. But now that Kurumi had touched it she could feel herself slipping under and into the future. Her head was pounding, her heart was racing and she could feel that this vision was going to change a lot of things in the upcoming year.

The dream like world started to form in front of Selina's eyes and everything she saw had a strange yellow-tinted hue to its coloration. As the shapes stared to form coherent objects the room began to make sense. The Great Hall of the present was washed away with the spitting image of the Great Hall of the future. In all honesty, the two pictures looked almost identical, even some of the students were sitting in the same place that they had been sitting in the present.

Suddenly a figure emerged at the front of the Great Hall. He was standing there watching the room with a general excitement that was reminicent of a child out front of a candy store. His eyes scanned the room for familiar faces until he found a pair of faces that he had been looking for. With a sense of excitement renewed in the figure he started to walk down the pathway in the Great Hall between the Gryffindor table and the Ravenclaw table toward the two other figures.

Then in a flash the face of the figure became completely clear. It was so shocking that Selina was thrown from her vision into the present.

Her worried eyes met Kurumi's and she could not even speak. Then her blue eyes flitted toward the entrance of the Great Hall where the doorway was empty. Maybe her vision was wrong, until suddenly the figure stood in the doorway and her vision started to come true.

"Oh no," was all she could utter.

Chirping grated Lexi's nerves, too. Meh...

Turning to see exactly who she thought was making that racket she smiled briefly and then her eyes fell on the badge on the girl's robes. Her nose immediately wrinkled in disdain. Greaaaaat she was going to have to watch her step with EVERYONE she was close to apparently. What a DISASTER this was. HMPHS FOR LIFE.

Lexi took the parcel and said, "Thanks, Kurumi. How was the rest of your holiday?" Lexi couldn't lie... she did not care much if she was honest with herself. She was being selfish and obnoxious and loving every moment of it.

Opening the package she... looked at the shirt for a moment before furrowing her brow and holding it up to inspect. "What's... a barbie?" What RUBBISH is this is what she THOUGHT. Yeah.