ooc:sorry for the late posts again everyone. I was running errands.



Alyssa laughed when she heard Penny's ordeal with the Slytherin Quidditch team."So they love to play rough huh? Hmmm....well if/when I'm on the team, I'll show them what we "Yanks" call rough. We know a thing or two about playing rough...and how to get away with it too," she winked at Penny. "We have new teachers?" Alyssa asked Penny when she heard her talking about that with her friend Aurora. "What happened to the old ones?".



"I'm right behind you, no worries," Alyssa said eager to meet more new people and especially some from the House that her Dad had been once.



"So where do you live?...and I'm sorry, I missed your name?", Alyssa asked the girl again.



Alyssa was glad that Faven had explained to the girl who had yelled out earlier. She didn't want the girl AND the house to be punished for her swearing but at the same time, she understood the girl's disappointment for she too had hoped that she had been placed in Gryffindor. But now that she was in Hufflepuff, she had begun to see why the Sorting Hat had placed her there. She knew this girl would learn...hopefully soon...that there was ALWAYS a reason why the Sorting Hat did what it did.



Alyssa was glad to hear Elodie say that. "I guess she learns fast," Alyssa smiled to herself. I'll make sure that she'll learn to love Hufflepuff as much as the rest of her housemates did. "Hi Elodie, my name is Alyssa and welcome to Hufflepuff. You know what? I didn't know that about our common room being near the kitchen. Now that's another good reason why I'm glad that I was placed in this House," she grinned at the girl while rubbing her tummy that had begun to growl again.



Alyssa was glad that Elodie was beginning to make friends with her fellow housemates. "Somehow I think that there's going to be a lot of kitchen raiding", Alyssa thought to herself. "We'll just have to make friends with some of the house elves, so that we don't get caught".



"Wow! You MUST be really good at Quidditch. You're only in Fifth year and you're already the Quidditch Captain," Alyssa exclaimed. "The only other person I know who was a Quidditch Captain at that age, was my gr...uh...was uh!...uh!..oh shoot! I forgot their name,"Alyssa quickly corrected herself when she realized that she was about to reveal a name that she wasn't supposed to mention, if she could help it. "I hope that someday I'll be as good as you. Yes I'm going to try out for the team this year, if I'm allowed. I'm not sure how good I am, but I'm going to try my best!!", Alyssa told Isobel.

Potions? Elodie wrinkled her nose. I'm terrible at cooking so I can't imagine I'll be much good at Potions, plus I really don't like the idea of using all the gross dead things as ingredients! She repressed a shudder at the memory of the apothecary she'd had to visit Diagon Alley where the beady eyes of poor dead creatures seemed to stare out at you from every jar..
To be honest with you, I don't know a lot about wizarding history. I mean, I did try to find out some stuff over the summer but let's just say the magical resources in my local library leave a lot to be desired!" Elodie laughed, but something Aurora had said had piqued her interest and asked innocently
"Did you say the pureblood families are inter-related? Why? Why do they all inter-marry, why don't they marry muggles or half-bloods or anything?"
She was beginning to understand just how ignorant she was of the wizarding world and was eager for Aurora to explain what seemed to be such a strange concept.

Isobel shrugged. "I think it was because I was one of the oldest people on the team when the former Quidditch Captaon graduated, and the oldest person became Prefect." Last year there was Kita, who was a seventh year that term? Isobel thought she was. "I'm sure you'll be great," she said with a smile. They needed more people on the team, since Simon was not going to be on it. Humph. "Of course you'll be able to, everyone can try out if they want."

FOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD

Oh gawsh how Sammy had missed her Hogwartarian food. In Sammy's PERSONAL and most HUMBLE opinion the food was the greatest thing about Hogwarts. The next greatest thing would be the people. Because most of them really didn't seem to mind how much Sammy ate. Well, except for one but that was last year. And besides, Sammy had decided that this year she was going to be civilized about how she ate and how much she ate. Except on her birthday, Christmas and when she would sneak into the kitchens for a midnight snack, but those times didn't count, right?

SO, with her brand new and completely civilized out look on food she load her plate with only the greatest food in the world, pasta. More specifically, spaghetti. As she started to eat she noticed one wee little thing, EVERYONE WAS TALKING Why were they talking? There was food in front of them. Weirdos.

"Oh you are too modest. I believe that you were picked to be Captain because you have good leadership qualities. Oh thank you, I will definitely try out. I heard that Kita was on the team. I would love to play with her. How many places are there vacant right now? I believe I met Penny who is the Seeker right?...and I know another 2nd year, Daisy, who might be trying out for the Beater position", Alyssa asked.

Surprisingly, Isobel had not been that hungry. Usually, she was starving and could not wait for the feast to begin. This year, she might have missed the food appearing if it had not been after the Headmasters speech; that would be very hard to miss.

When she food appeared, however, she realized that she was hungry, and she wanted food! She grabbed some chicken legs and put them on her plate, because she liked chicken legs. She ate two of them then looked around at her housemates.

Look! 'Twas Sammy! She was still unsure whether or not Sammy was a zombie. Maybe she was a vampire. "Hello Sammy," she said cheerfully. She must really like spaghetti, because she had a lot of it. "Are you sure you have enough spaghetti?" She asked with a joking smile.

"Well everyone has to try out, even people who were on the team last year; they aren't guarranteed a spot. So, technically, every spot is vacant." She smiled and looked around for something to drink because she was thirsty. She found some chocolate milk and took a big drink. "Nope, last year Treyen Lockhart, Hufflepuff's prefect, was oour seeker. Penny was the beater, in one game she was the chaser." Speaking of Penny, where was she? Isobel liked talking to that cheerfull Puff.

"Oh I didn't know that...about everyone having to try out all over again." Alyssa said. "Oh dear, I don't want someone to lose their spot because I took it,"Alyssa thought,"but I guess if those are the rules, those are the rules,"she sighed to herself.

"Oh yes, now that I recall, Penny did mention that. Speaking of Penny, I wonder where is she? I know that I spoke to her earlier", she told Isobel. "I wonder where Kita is too. I saw her a moment ago".

"Well if your better than them, then it's fair." That sounded kind of weird. She didn't want to be mean to anyone, but it was true. She wanted the best people on the team, so they could win. She wanted to beat Slytherin that year.

"She has a little sister?" OMIGOSHTHATWASSOCOOL! Isobel wanted to meet her. She wondered if the girl was like a little mini Penny. She liked Penny's personality, so that would be cool. And the girl's name was Kinx? That was epic. Isobel would not rest until she met her. "I have two little sisters," she said conversationally. "And an older sister, and two brothers."

"Hola" Sammy said, looking up from her food to see ISOBEL. Hopefully she didn't still think Sammy was a zombie O___O Because, Sammy hadn't eaten any brains, only human food. Like spaghetti. WEEEEEIIIIIRD.

SERIOUSLY. Again with the amount of food. Sure it was more than most people could eat in a day but she was hungry. She hadn't bothered to get anything on the train so WHATEVER. "This is like, seven eights of what I would usually eat" she said a little defensively. She was cutting down, very smally and slowly but that was still cutting down. ANd it was Spaghetti, how on earth was she not going to have a good helping of it?

Was Sammy spanish now? Isobel hoped not, because she had no idea how to speak Spanish, the only language she could speak other then English was French, and she wasn't fluent in that. She supposed she could lean a little bit of Spanish though, so she could talk to Sammy. But then, she spoke in English and Isobel was relieved.

Seven eights? That was close to eight eights. Isobel considered that for a moment. "Well, spaghetti is good." It was one of her favorite foods, depending on the day. Some days chicken was her favorite, other days she loved hamburgers. She liked chicken on that day, but she still thought spaghetti was good. Now that her chicken was gone, she put some spaghetti on her plate and poured sauce on it. Nom nom nom. "It is better than brains at least." She stopped eating and considered that for a moment. "Well everything is better than brains." Except maybe bugs, like cockroaches. She wouldn't know, because she had never eaten a brain or a bug.

Alyssa knew that she had better correct herself. "I'm so sorry. I mixed up Penny with Nessie. It's Nessie who has a younger sis, Kinx. I've met so many people today, that I lost track of who's whom," she told Isobel apologetically. "Great!! Alyssa. Talk about major boo boo. I bet she's going to think I'm a nincompoop", Alyssa thought to herself.

"So you have 5 siblings? Wow! you have a big family. Are you all close? I have 2 older brothers and a sister. We're all close but that doesn't mean that we don't fight though. We do alot...especially my brothers and I. They love messing with me and and I love tackling them back", she told Isobel grinning.

Alyssa then turned to Isobel's friend who seemed to be enjoying her spaghetti. She heard the friend say "hola". "Hola", Alyssa replied "C'est Habla Espanyol?" she asked her. "Mi nombre, Alyssa".

"That's still cool," she said with a smile. "I don't know Nessie that well, but I met her on the train home last year." She knew that Damien knew her though. Damien. Where was Damien? She looked around, but she could not see him. She frowned, because she hoped Damien would show up soon. "Kinx is a really cool name."

"Yeah, I love them all." She grinned. "Two of my siblings go to Hogwarts, one of them is a hufflepuff second year, and my brother is my best friend's boyfriend." She didn't spend all that much time with Sara anymore, since she was of age and had her own house. She saw Addie and Andy when she was home for half the summer.

Spaghetti is not good.

IT IS GREAT

O_O

Anywho. Sammy made a bit of a suspicious face when Isobel started talking about brains. WAS SHE TRYING TO COVER SOMETHING UP?! It all made sense now. Isobel was a zombie and she was trying to cover it up by accusing Sammy of being a zombie. And also being eating human foods. BUT WAIT. WAS SAMMY HER NEXT VICTIM? Sammy didn't wanna be eaten, that would suck royal hippogriff! So she pulled out her mega defense mechanism "Please don't eat my brains" YEP. Pulled out the big guns.

Amethyst caught a familiar face from the corner of her eye. Was that...? Nah...she was probably busy talking to some other Snakes. She missed her friend Sarah. She was her first friend, and she felt it necessary to call her a best friend.

She finished talking to the other Puff she had met. She sat down, her hands holding her face. And then she noticed. It was Sarah all along. She smiled wide and jumped up, running to Sarah, nearly making her fall. "SARAH!!"

Amethyst giggled softly, nodding. "Well, I only know the places around the Orphanage! So, I'm guessing yeah! What about London?" She tilted her head softly.

She blushed softly bowing to her. "Nice name--Isobel! And I hope I didn't offend you with the 'Miss'..It's a very bad habit.." She smiled softly looking down at her feet.

"That's so cool that your siblings are also here in Hogwarts. I wish that my brothers and sister had come when my parents brought me here. I would have loved to have had them here with me too. But they chose to stay back in Salem. Oh well...their loss, " she grinned back at Isobel.

"Uh, Isobel, you're friend over there who seems to love spaghetti....a lot!!...does she speak Spanish? I heard her say hi in Spanish. I learned a little when I was hanging out with my friends back in California," she asked Isobel.

Eat her brains? Isobel was not a zombie! "I won't eat your brains," she promised. As long as Sammy did not eat her brains. But, she could not eat Sammy's brains if Sammy had already eaten her brains. Then she would be dead. "I'm not a zombie; you are. Maybe." Probably not, but maybe.

"Are you in league with Cove? She's an assassin." A surfing one, but that was beside the point. She highly doubted two of her friends were plotting to kill her, but she wanted to be on her guard just in case.

Isobel smiled at her. "Thank you, and what is your name. It's okay," she said in response to her apology about calling her 'miss.' "Are you a first year?" She hoped she was, because she would not want to guess and get it wrong.

"Salem," Isobel repeated, testing the word out on her tongue. It sounded familiar but she was not quite sure why. It was on the tip of her tongue but she could not place it. Oh yeah! It was a wizarding school in America. She wasn't sure where in America it was, and she wondered if that was where Maybelle had gone. She didn't think so, Maybelle had gone to a small school in California. "Did you go there? What year are you in?" She had thought Alyssa was a first year, but she might be wrong. "I went to Beaubaxtons for two years, and I came here for my third year."

Isobel shrugged and glanced over at Sammy. "I don't know, everyone knows how to say hi in Spanish." Everyone. "Sammy, do you speak Spanish?" She asked.

Aurora's eyebrows shot up, "It's not that weird, you just have to think of them as ingredients rather than anything else. And I can't cook." she added, shrugging. "But potions is so much cooler! And if you don't like it... don't complain in the class..." Hmm... Lafay wouldn't like that at all... Aurora doubted that Elodie had ever heard of the Potions Mistress setting kids on fire... she didn't mention it.

"Well, you learn a lot in History of Magic... if you can manage to keep your eyes open, that is." Aurora explained, not that she'd ever successfully managed to do this... but she supposed if you really cared... or not.
"Well... sort of. It's not like, we're all cousins or anything. But a lot of pureblood families want to keep the magic in the bloodline, if you get what I'm saying." Aurora frowned a little in concentration. "It's just, I guess it's kind of a snobbery." She shrugged, and fiddled with the end of one of her ribbons uncomfortably. "I can't really explain it any other way. Um, say I brought a muggleborn home and announced we were getting married... Father would be horrified and Mother would have a heart attack. It's just a... I don't know." She shrugged. "I guess people think it dilutes the magic or... dirties it. Like the term 'Mudblood.'" Aurora scratched the tip of her nose and looked away, she had used that word too many times...

LOL WUT? "I don't speak Spanish" Well Sammy didn't. Were only Spanish people allowed to speak Spanish? Someone should have told Sammy that because she was just going off what she found on Google.

"I'm not a zombie either" Sammy said, quite confused. SHE WASN'T A ZOMBIE. "You're acting awfully suspicious" she said, like she was Sherlock Holmes. Which she totally was. On Tuesdays.

"The what? the who? the how?" was she talking about the silence or soemthing? Because that would make sense. Kinda. "Are you part of the Silence? AND YOU'RE TRYING TO KILL ME" D: SHe didn't want to die, though then again if she was gonna die, dying because something Doctor Who related wasn't too shabby.

"Okay, so neither of us are zombies." Satisfied with that conclusion Isobel took a biiig bite of Spaghetti. But then she heard Sammy say she was acting suspicious, and had to hurry and swallow so she could talk.

"I am not suspicious, and I don't even know what the Silence is, so how can I be a part of it? Maybe you're the one part of it." Even though she still did not know what it meant.

"Amethyst--My name's Amethyst.." She smiled softly to her as she replied to the question. "Yes..this is my first year..and I'm nervous but excited!" For the first time since she got to Hogwarts, her long black hair fell into her face.

"Yes I went to Salem, which is in Massachusetts. That's on the East Coast of the United States. I went there last year. I'm in 2nd year this term." Alyssa told Isobel. "Oh wow! you went to Beabaxtons? You must speak fluent French. I would so love to speak French. I almost ended up going there this year, but somehow my Dad managed to get transferred here instead and wah-lah....here I am."

Alyssa quickly replied,"Oh no no. I just overheard you say hola and assumed that you might speak Spanish. I'm sorry", she told Sammy.

Alyssa turned to Isobel, "I'm sorry and you can tell me to stop being nosey, but is your friend alright, Isobel? The reason I'm asking is that her conversation with herself and is very funny," and with that Alyssa busted up laughing. "I'm so so sorry. I don't mean to laugh at either of you, and I don't mean to offend you both for laughing, but I've been hearing your conversation for the last few minutes and I think that the both of you are the most unique people I've met", she told both Isobel and Sammy.

"Now, Amethyst is a cool name." Much cooler than Isobel, in her opinion. Of course, she didn't think her name was that cool, since it was her one name. She thought it was a little weird. She had never met anyone else named Isobel. She had known people to have the name Isabel, or Isabelle, and she liked that name. But she had never heard the name Isobel on anyone but herself.

"You'll love it," she said with a smile. "When I was here for my first year, I wasn't a first year; I was a third year. I spent my first two years at Beaubaxtons." It had been weird transferring, and sometimes she wished she could go back to Beaubaxtons. "What do you think of Hogwarts so far?" She had only seen the outside, the entrance hall, and the Great Hall, but still.

"I've been to the United States a few times," Isobel mused. "My cousins live there, and my Aunt is American, so I learned all about it." And she said American words like soccer, instead of football. "I'm not quite fluent, but I am pretty good at it. I practically grew up in France with my Aunt. I miss it sometimes when I come to Hogwarts." But she also loved Hogwarts, and she had a lot of friends there.

Was Sammy alright? That depended on what you were asking. Was she crazy? Yes. Was she a zombie? Maybe. But those same answers applied to Isobel too, except she was not a zombie. Or part of the Silence, whatever that was. "It's not offensive," she assured Alyssa. "I take pride in being called insane." Unigue was Alyssa's polite way of saying she thought the two of them were off their bonkers.

"Dirties the blood?"
"Dirties it?"
Elodie felt stunned, numbed even, by what she had just heard. The appalling discovery that some people thought.. she couldn't take it in. Aurora looked slightly uncomfortable but Elodie was at a loss for words.
"Purebloods think," she managed after a moment "they think that muggles and muggleborns..like me.. dirty their blood? That we're.. what did you say, mudbloods? Our blood is like mud, dirty and horrible?" Her voice had lowered to almost a whisper and her tone was that of disbelief, almost pleading with Aurora to tell her she'd completely misunderstood and that people of her birth were not prejudiced against and seen as of a lower status just because of how 'pure' their blood was? Surely that would be ridiculous?

"Hey there, Amethyst,"Alyssa called over. "I was wondering where you wandered off too. Are you having fun?"

Aurora looked away, she'd never been confronted about this before, especially by a kid two years younger than her... "Well, not all of us do..." she said, looking down and playing with the sleeve of her robes. "I... I don't." Anymore... she thought, her brain adding much... without her permission.

"I... it's not so bad anymore. But if anyone ever calls you a mudblood... tell someone." she said, quietly, adding "Tell me." as an after thought. For some strange reason, Aurora was coming to like the little first year. She made a mental note not to tell Mordred... he'd probably scoff at her or something... Maybe it was Hogwarts... or maybe it was because she was just growing up and forming her own views, but Aurora was beginning to learn the most important lesson of all. Other people have feelings too. She looked back up to Elodie, "Don't judge all of us on that..." she said, meeting the girl's eyes.