Jogging up to the staff dais before any students got there, William ran a hand over his smooth cheeks minus the small cuts where he messed up his shaving and paused to admire the empty Great Hall. Ahh. The place looked great. Hogwarts hadn't changed a BIT.

Except that he had a much better view up here than he'd ever had from the Slytherin table. Heh. Now to get down to business. Will smirked to himself and moved down the table, slipping a nice, large red whoopie cushion onto the seat of a certain Ancient Runes professor, and then quickly casting a disillusionment charm on the filled-up cushion. Then he moved down toward where the History of Magic professor usually sat and quickly dumped a vial full of... something clear into his empty goblet.

His mission filled (for now), Willy settled into his chair and stretched out his long legs happily. Home sweet home.

Bouncing into the Great Hall with a great deal of exuberance, Seren managed to somehow, 1. not knock anyone over, 2. not trip over and 3. not squeal in delight... yet. Though seeing as the night was young, anything could happen.

If there was anything that made her nervous, it was her new role in the school. What with the absence of Kimber, she had been asked to step up to the plate and fill the role of Gryffindor Head of House, which was a great honour indeed. The only thing that Seren found remotely distressing about the idea was seeing the students reactions. Namely the Ravenclaws, who she had grown so close to over the last couple of years, and also the Gryffindors. At any rate it wasn't going to be a boring night... or a boring term at that.

Having made it to the dais, Seren walked along the long staff table, doing a double-take as she went. A new colleague. Smiling brightly, and fidgetting with one of the flowers in her hair which was threatening to escape, Seren offered the man a small node, "Welcome..." was all she could manage. Was it just her? or did this man look rather familiar?
Deciding it would be rude to linger and stare, Seren continued down the table to her seat and plopped herself into it gently.

Hecate had been sitting at her seat, fork in hand and her sparkling emerald ring on her ring finger. Yes. She wasn't going to hide it anymore. An engagement was a happy thing...

She just didn't like all the attention.

This would be a good year. A very good year. There were no more obstacles. She made sure of that.

Fork in her hand, moving around her peas on the table. She was here, yes. But her mind was elsewhere.

The thought of returning back to Hogwarts, never crossed his mind when he was a seventh year. If you had told a younger Dash that he would teach at Hogwarts he would have thought you were crazy. And if you had told him even three months ago that he would be back to teach for another term he would have rolled his eyes.

Yet here he was.

Dash briskly made his way through the great hall and up the stairs to the staff table. "Hello, evening." He said to no one in particular. Whoever was listening he guessed. "Hecate." He gave a nod and a small smile to the woman as he passed her.

His eyes landed on Will as he took a seat in his chair. Dash gave the man a stiff nod before turning his head to the Herbology Professor with a small smile. "Good evening, Seren." The man leaned back in his chair and pointed to her hair. "There are flowers in your hair." He said in a slightly bored tone. "...and usually women are quite upset when nature interferes with...anything." But Seren was a herbologist and they just weren't normal.

Bloody hell!!

William was already here. Oliver had been planning on doing wacky stuff to his friend but he couldn't very well do it now. He looked at each placings as he walked down the table and a grin spread across his face when he reached Cece's chair.

Leaning over, Oliver dropped 'something' into her goblet. See how you like that Ms Tillstrom. You're not being ignored now, are you? Hehe. This was going to be a sight to see when she took a drink.

A pity Waylan wasn't here yet because he had plans for him as well. His friend had probably forgotten the time or where Hogwarts actually was. Oliver shook his head as he continued to walk along the table.

Oliver gave the back of William's head a flick as he passed by him in way of greeting and finally took his seat at the far end of the table. Did the Headmaster already know what he was like? So he had put him far away from everyone.

He pulled out his chair and sat down. The moment his butt hit the cushion a very loud..."BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRT!" could be heard.

His face went a nice shade of red and he gritted his teeth as he turned to look at his SO CALLED FRIEND. "I am going to kill you for that!"

Seriously?

Normally, Josephina would have been thrilled by another year starting. At least she had been the past couple years. But this one - felt different. It felt . . . surreal, almost. Was it really September 1st or had someone like just fast-forwarded the whole world?

Or maybe put it in slow motion, as the Arithmancy Professor walked slowly up the way from the entrance hall. Though she did spare some glances at her Hufflepuffs on her walk up to the staff dais to check on them behaving and scope out the new ones.

Ah, some of the professors had already beaten her to the dais, but that one ... seemed shady over there by the Healer's chair. Did he just .... ? Squinting up at the table, she frowned as he dropped something in the healer's goblet and then followed the gentlemen to where he was seated. If there was going to be some poisoning at the feast, at least she knew who was guilty.

Couple more steps.

Brushing a strand behind her ear, she gave a smile toward Seren and even Dash - pleased the History professor had decided to return despite his attitude - and finally took her customary seat. Second from the end. Hazel eyes on the guy who may have attempted to poison the new healer, for some unknown reason.

The guy who was sitting next to her. Who seemed to have ... no that wasn't a fart, she was sure of it.

"That's what you get for attempting to poison someone." Fina said nonchalantly, taking a quiet sip from her own goblet and fixing her eyes back on her house table.

A certain individual got ignored. The rest of her co-workers that had arrived got smiles or polite nods.

Oh.

Familiar faces. New faces. But familar. Not that Althea Schirmer said hello. She simply sat, supposing that hellos would be appropriate after the near-yelling and bodily... err... noises, were finished with.

Ahem. She did manage to look disapproving though.

Stirring a lump of sugar into her tea, Seren sat back in her seat, breathing calmly. Why calmly? Well because this seemed to be a rather awkward occasion-- even as exciting as it was.

The new staffers were... familiar and yet highly immature. On a whole it should make for an interesting term. Seren didn't give it another thought though, she had other things to worry about.

Dash's arrival managed to distract her from her woes, even if only temporarily.



"Evening Dash," she replied smiling. Though his comment about her flowers earned him a raised eyebrow.
"On the contrary, my hair seems to be interfereing with the flowers." Who was he to say otherwise? Her fingers swiftly flew to one of the flowers again, in an effort to hold it there. Perhaps she should learn HOW they must be worn, fashion and... hair stuffs were not exactly up her alley.
"Had a pleasant holiday?" she asked, making an effort to stop fidgeting.

Deciding to savour her tea, Seren raised the cup to her lips and took a generous mouthful of the sweet, aromatic liquid.
Her gaze drifting over the student tables came to rest briefly on a particular Ravenclaw... Eino.



Feeling the pit of her stomach drop into an abyss, Seren lowered her cup and offered him as bright a smile as she could manage and a small wave.
He didn't know yet did he?....

The prospect of disappointing students, and disappointing Eino was becoming unbearable. Seren crossed her fingers beneath the table, hopefully the Lions wouldn't object to her.

Willy's attention was quickly caught by the arrival of his coworkers, and then the students, in the hall. He recognized the first woman at the table immediately, if not because she had been in his year, but also because she had flowers in her hair.

"Hello," he greeted Seren with a nice smile, his eyes twinkling at the flowers. Heh. Wonder what would happen if some lovely bees started pollinating those flowers? Hmm?

Will was about to comment on her lovely hairdo when he noticed Hecate and Dash arriving. He shut up quickly enough and merely nodded to the other former Slytherins, turning his attention toward the other end of the table instead. He didn't want to be caught staring when Dash took a drink, after all. Smirk.

Olly arrived next and Willy's smirk just broadened at the sight of his oldest friend, despite the head flick and all. Will casually rested his elbow on the table, his hand covering his mouth as Oliver sat down jusssssst in time.

PERFECT. "Making death threats already?" he got out in between his half-covered guffaws. "Oliver Jenkins. What kind of example are you setting for our precious students?" William gestured out toward the House tables and continued smirking, hardly noticing who sat down next.

"Hello," he turned toward the woman beside him, who was unfortunately not sitting on his other side. Had she been to his right, she could have functioned as some sort of human shield... but alas.....

WHOA WAIT. Will did a double take. Was that....? No, it couldn't be. "Thea?" he muttered in surprise. "Well I'll be!"

"Right..." Dash didn't see a difference. Either way there were flowers in her hair when flowers belonged in a pot in some old lady's home, or in the greenhouses. "Well I hope your hair and the flowers are happy interfering with each other." He reached for his goblet and took a sip of the water.

That didn't taste right. Dash made a face. It tasted a bit like...soap. "Magic might work best you know." He said addressing Seren, as he looked into his goblet with the weird tasting water.

His holiday? "It was...eventful." To say the least. "Yours?"

And of course a civil conversation could got go on with William Williamson at the staff table. He shook his head at the interesting noise Oliver's chair had just produced.

Before he could say anything about it Dash let out a loud burp. As the burp escaped out of his mouth came a large pink bubble shaped exactly like a bunny rabbit.

Bouncing Blueberries!

Yes, that face was definitely familiar, and judging by the other new arrivals at the table, this term was going to be a long, possibly tedious trip down memory lane.

Why was it that the graduates of 2065 seemed to be gravitating toward Hogwarts? Granted, she was here first. It didn't go unnoticed that of the four of them that graduated that year, neither of them shared the same house. It struck her as odd that they should all be reunited again, and at Hogwarts no less.

As more welcomes and hello's were exchanged, Seren turned her attention back to Dash...



And of course he was being a troll...
"I'm sure they're perfectly happy." Or at least as happy as was possible for flowers and hair. Did hair have feelings?

Seren sipped on her tea some more, watching as Dash helped himself to some water. Perhaps she should have offered to serve him... just to annoy him, seeing as he was the 'independant' type. She had been about to chide the grown man for burping at the table, when rather suddenly bright pink bubbles escaped his mouth.

Attemping to hide a smirk, Seren turned away... boys.

The students were settling into their seats as Headmaster Gaellen Tate took his seat. It was a pleasant sort of chaos, one that he would loathe by the end of term feast, but one that he could put up with his good-natured grumpiness in the present moment.

Neither of his nearest neighbors were yet at their seats, and Tate nodded politely to Seren and Althea a few seats down on each side. Hmm. His stomach was growling. Short speech on the menu.

Oliver dragged his death stare away from William and let his gaze fall on the woman who had taken the seat beside him. "Touché." he drawled, picking up his goblet and then immediately putting it down again. Merlin, only knew what else Willy had done.

"Don't worry, I didn't touch yours." He glanced at her goblet for a moment before returning his gaze to the woman. "Well I don't think I did...all the goblets look the same." Bwhaha!

He extended his hand towards her. Probably not the best idea to alienate all the staff members at once. "Oliver Jenkins."



And just when he thought he was getting over the embarrassment, Oliver noticed the woman a few seats up from his and he groaned inwardly. Althea Schirmer, the girl he'd had a crush on at school. Only she wasn't a girl anymore, she was a very beautiful woman.

He was going to kill William Willamson.

SLOWLY!



Oliver's gaze went back to his friend and he narrowed his eyes at him. "I'm going to show them how to stick a wand up someone's nose." It was an idle threat of course because Willy was his BFF and they often pulled pranks on each other but he had to appear as though he was going to do something.

But as soon as he saw his friend start to talking to Thea however, well Oliver changed his mind and decided to actually DO something. He drew his wand out and with a nice 'swish and flick' he levitated William's goblet of pumpkin juice to the edge of the table and then deftly dumped the contents onto his friend's lap.

Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted large pink bubbles floating through the air and he burst out laughing. Apparently William had already gotten to Dash.

Was it just her or did it seem like all the new staff people knew each other already? Had there been some mandatory gathering over the summer that she missed the memo about? Or perhaps they were just truly extroverts on every level.

Death threats? She looked from the gentlemen two seats down to the one next to her. And back to the other one.

"Hello," she greeted back, when he finally acknowledged her. Where was Edvard though? He should be sitting between them, and she was sure the extra person between him and the other guy would aide in subsiding their childish behaviors. "Josephina Hadley, Arithmancy Professor." Just because he didn't have the decency to introduce himself, didn't mean she would follow suit.

That was when she heard it. First there was the farting noises next to her and now a BURP?? But only this one wasn't from new staff person. Dash?

Honestly. Shaking her head at him and his pink bunny rabbit, she sighed. Would these boys ever grow up? She barely knew them, but with their bodily noises, she wished it was even less.


Did he just admit to poisoning the healer? Fina stared back at the fellow for a moment and shook her head, hoping to Merlin he was kidding or just messing with her.

"Good. Because I think it'd be a pity to poison a total stranger's drink." You should at least wait to exchange names and then decide to poison them depending on if you've heard of their name or not. WAIT! What? Spitting her water back into her goblet, she frowned. "Well thanks for that. I'm not thirsty anymore." She wasn't taking chances.

A glance toward the Hufflepuff table and some loud commotions from first years told her she might be needed.

"Josephina Hadley." Wait. Did him sitting there mean that the Runes position had actually been filled? She had actually grown accustomed to the chair on the end being vacant during feasts. Not that she minded the company.

Even if he did have some sort of . . . vendetta with the other guy, as he dumped the guy's juice on his lap. Just in time for Fina to catch the Headmaster take seat from the corner of her eye.


He was several seats away, but with all the childish banter going around the staff table, she was sure she could catch a word. Glancing sideways down the table, she gave him a brief nod.

"I didn't know hiring children was on the agenda." Honestly, some of the students acted more mature than what she'd seen thus far. "How was your break, Headmaster?"

She hid a small smile.

"Dub." Althea nodded a polite sort of greeting, but she was still caught up being all disapproving at various antics. And conspicuously ignoring someone that wasn't easy to ignore considering the.... bubbles.

Right.

"Care of Magical Creatures? I never would have guessed." No she'd have thought he'd have ended up doing something less.... respectable.

She returned the polite nod, it was a touch frosty though. It would be interesting to see how much nonsense he put up with. Mmhmm.

She was about to say something else to Dub when suddenly there was a... a mishap. Althea scooted back a bit and blinked. A small amount of pumpkin juice had splashed her. She used a napkin to dab it away.

At the sudden laughter from Hadley's end of the table, she looked and then sighed quietly to herself. Right.

Right she should have guessed.

Althea gave Oliver a polite little wave and a half smile (did he recognise her?), then offered her napkin to poor Dub.

REALLY. Had it been a student, she'd have taken POINTS.

Alyssa was making her way up to speak with her House Mistress, Professor Hadley, when she heard a loud burp from Professor Scabior, her History of Magic Professor. She turned in his direction just in time to see a pink bubble shaped like a bunny rabbit come out from his mouth. Alyssa quickly turned away before she was caught giggling, because giggle she did, when she realized that someone had played a prank on him. She wondered who it was. She decided that she would speak with Professor Hadley later because right now she couldn't stop giggling. Just the memory of seeing the Professor with a Pink Bunny rabbit bubble coming out of his mouth, set her off into another series of giggles.

A pink bubble...shaped like a rabbit. Really he knew his goblet had been tampered with. Withdrawing his wand Dash opened his mouth to say a spell when another (much smaller) pink burp forced its way out, this time shaped like a ladybug.

Shutting his mouth completely he tapped his wand against the glass, cleaning it of whatever had been mixed in the water.

Right.

Was the feast over yet?


"Back to your table now." Dash barked once he caught sight of the giggling Puff. Ugh. At least he didn't burp again.

Edvard was LATE!

After getting to the school, he lost himself in unpacking and fixing a few things in his office. Which was why he came up to the staff dias from the convienient back door. Scanning the quite full dias of staffers Edvard nodded and waved hello to all of them as he trotted over to his seat.

Sliding into his seat next to Josephina he greeted her "Good evening, Josephina. How was your break?" Taking note of the slight tanned skin he enquired "Have you been to a warmer place than Scotland recently?"

Deciding to be polite and mannered he turned to the man on his other side (WWW) and offered out his hand "Hello, I don't believe we've met? I'm Edvard Roslund, Astronomy."

Alyssa quickly walked back to her table before the Professor decided to deduct house points from her. She did however need to speak with her a House Mistress, but she figured she'd wait until after the feast began. Just to be on the safe side. Hopefully, Professor Scabior would have forgotten her by then.

Finally!

Cece had made it to the staff table and who should be the first one she passes? None other that I'll ignore you if your not drop dead gorgeous Oliver Jenkins. Looking at the woman sitting next to him she immediately felt sorry for the woman having to sit next to... him.

Not saying anything to either of them she moved on when she seen William a couple seats away. And of course, there was commotion at the staff table too. Poor Willy had a lap full of... well what exactly he had a lap full of she wasn't sure. What she was sure of though was it had to be the handy work of I'm still a kid Olly.

"You really do need to find better friends." She was tempted to take out her wand to dry his pants but figured that would only embarrass him even more than he probably already was having to have the healer dry your pants for you in public like this. Instead she would let the woman sitting next to him help. She would however have a little talk with him later about his choice in friends.

And then there was a man sitting next to him on the opposite side... offering his hand to shake. Really? Could he not see that Willy and the other professor had just been doused with something? Now probably wasn't the best time for introductions.

Observant one he was now wasn't he.

Her cheeks were tinged a slight shade of pale pink as she made her way down the long tables and up to where most of the staff were currently seated, eyes cast downward to the ground as she did so. This was the last time she was getting lost in the castle.

And that was final.

Apparently it was grand luck that her office was situated on the first floor. Could one imagine if she were up on the fifth or seventh?

Moving around to her seat, pace slowing considerably, Medea finally looked up to scan the table she was to sit at. Pink bubbles. A ladybug from the looks of it. And oh did it get looks from Medea as she just as slowly sat in her seat next to a blond woman. Perhaps it was best she did come in late.

Making her rounds and greeting people she hadn't seen all summer Presley passed the staff table. There were a lot of new people there, or so it seemed to her. And did Bentley look...nervous? As she skipped past Presley aimed a bright smile and a cheery wave at her favourite Herbology teacher, glad that she at least was still there.

Waylon did not forget about the opening feast, he did not!

And even if that was the case, which it wasn't!, he had an excuse all ready to use. Did they actually expect him to arrive on time, or early even? His hut was like..fifty miles away from the castle! And not being one of the quickest walkers, it would take him a good amount of time to get himself there. But luckily, as he FINALLY arrived in the Great Hall, one look around the room and the lack of food on the tables told him that he wasn't even late. So there was no need for his excuse.

Shoving his hands into his pockets, he made his way up to the staff dais, nodding his head at the students and other staff members he passed before throwing himself down in his seat. He tried his best to ignore the going ons around him, but with the bubbles, and Oliver down at the other end singing his own rendition of the school song, not even using his mouth, he was finding that very difficult to do.

Oh, look. The Headmaster was sitting on a THRONE! That would hold his attention for a little while.

Beezus was nearing the Staff Table now and it was all because of a dare. A dare. But nonetheless, she thinks it's not a very bad thing to do. First, she adored Professor Lafay who in her opinion became quite blooming this term, probably because of that sparkling little thing on her finger? It was rumored that she was getting an engagement. Yes, engagement. Though, she was not certain if it was true.

Moving on, Beezus arrived at the Staff Table and she quickly proceeded to where the Potions Mistress was. Bowing, she said, "Professor Lafay. Good to see you this term." And a wide smile. "Oh. And I hope the Snakes would do their best to win the cup again this term." She added. That was the bitter part, that was the part of the dare which she did not like very much.

But so much for that. That ring was really trying to catch her eye. "Errr, Professor.." Beezus started. The ring? Is that an engagement ring? Are you really engaged? Come on Beezus, ask her that! "Uhm...have a great meal." She said instead and quickly diverted her attention to the Herbology Professor. "Hi Professor Seren!"