Louisa just waved her hand dismissively at the girl who went on an apologizing spree, "It's alright. This is more urgent, you say?" And so the Taylor spoke. The Ravenclaw paid close attention to the stuttery explanation, noticing how the girl seemed to be really in some kind of difficult psychological state. Then the rescuer confirmed what the traumatized Taylor explained and Louisa took a moment to ponder this. HMMMM.

"Well, I didn't really understand your story. But I got that you broke up with your boyfriend? And whenever you see him or talk to him you're so mad but then you don't remember being mad after a while? Is that it?" She was assuming this was the problem. So... she took a deep breath and shifted slightly on her seat, "I think this is some kind of emotional state. Maybe if you made sure to stay away from him for a while, you'll cool down and all's good?" She could share her personal experience with the girls if they wanted too.

Then her young buddy showed up, in one piece! Louisa gave Lily a bright smile as she patted her arm, "Hello Lily, I'm glad to see you unharmed. Are you okay? How did the Portkey go for you?" She knew the girl's family wasn't really one to use Portkeys so this must be new experience to her. She would've grabbed her along if Louisa wasn't already handling others. Sigh.



The Ravenclaw nodded her head, "Yep. They got married last month." Was that a look of surprise on Erin's face? Louisa chuckled and shrugged, "I know that you don't understand this, and to be honest neither do I." Heck, Louisa barely had a boyfriend for a year and a half which didn't really count that much because Joao was almost all the time MIA during that... which resulted in them not reaching an agreement or truly falling in love. "They're in love, though. So..." Another shrug from the Head Girl.

OH! As if the girl had read her thoughts, there was Enya. "Yeah. She graduated last term and gone off to some art school. You know how much she loved to draw and doodle." The newly red-head chuckled, "I haven't heard from her though. You know how she is.." A faint sigh escaped her lips as she rested her back against the chair.

As for the cats plan, Erin seemed to be quite excited about this. YAY! Oh and Louisa bowed her torso at the girl when she said she was truly a Ravenclaw, "Why, of course I am." Then she was asked about her new kitten, "It's a she. Grey and white, I noticed that she loves to sleep a lot and loves to cuddle." So maybe they could look for a name together for her? "And of course we'll make a small announcement in the common room about the cat house so that everyone can personalize it in one way or another." Yep the tension was almost forgotten now. Louisa almost wondered why her back and shoulders even felt this light without her hair loosely lying around like a red mane.

Louisa smiled at the mention of an intact strong family, very lovely and she definitely would love to experience this. Just not in this life, heh. "Sounds pretty fun to me. I don't have grandparents but I know that they're usually... kindhearted and fun." She cleared her throat awkwardly then and shrugged at the girl's question, "I'm good. Today has been quite... busy and I just want to dive in the food now before I flop on my bed." Chuckling faintly, Louisa had never been this eager to sleep at the opening feast... or the closing one. She usually was bouncing with energy. Heh.

He landed on his chest? Ouch! Louisa's face mirrored her concern as she looked down at his body expecting to see the bruises from under the uniform. "I'm really glad that you're in one piece," another nervous smile was offered and.. yeah... she opened her mouth to start another pointless topic when he looked somewhere, and she followed him with her gaze. IT BETTER NOT BE A GIRL. Oh it wasn't a girl, just the Healer. Who was all over a Ravvie girl and deducted ten points, TEN for who knows what. Louisa scowled after the woman, "It's alright, girl, we'll get them back soon." She called out to the girl when the healer was back at the staff table.



Louisa's mouth twitched on one corner in a small smile, "It's alright. Her boyfriend had already patched up her wound so I just had to deal with her hallucinations." Which were actually pretty amusing, the mere memory made the Ravenclaw chuckle. Oh and Max seemed to have played the hero as well, she raised her eyebrows slightly and nodded impressed, "Yeah, I expected the ickle ones to be in need of most of our help." However, the older students turned out to be JUST as reckless. Heh.

As for his next question, Louisa NEEDS to be closer to him and not sitting a half meter away with student chattering all around them. She tried to streeeeetch all the way toward his seat but.. there was a better idea. She eyed the little space between him and the person sitting next to him before announcing, "Make some more space, I'm coming.." POOF! She slid under the table and crawled toward the opposite bench where Max was sitting. She turned around once she was right when she should emerge and leaned on him, grabbing the table's edge and proooooopped herself up. VIOLA! She was sitting next to him... crammed next to him because apparently she just invaded the space. Not that she minded, she'd rather talk to him about HER in private. Somewhat.

"Man, this seat is awkward," she shifted and got her arms on the table to spare more space for her... butt. On the bench. "Anyways, I'm feeling good, you know. I mean I was a total mess this morning, and I'm sorry that you had to see me like that." She jumped when he nudged her but now she was sandwiched between him and whoever was sitting nearby. "It could be either the series of these unfortunate events that got me really busy and... not thinking about... certain unpleasant stuff." She swallowed, her hand automatically going to touch the hair bun on the back of her head. It STILL felt weird having her usually loose hair all tied up like that... she felt less.... wild. Or something to do with limits. "Or maybe it's the familiar faces... I feel like I want to absorb everything from every student at every moment. I don't want to miss anything..." she was looking at his face all this time and she just now dropped her gaze and gave a weary sigh.



Louisa had no idea that 1) her few-seconds of innocent staring at the new girl would draw Max's attention 2) he'd practically gawk at the girl that he blew the whole secret staring process 3) he'd stumble on his words apologizing and 4) the girl's ears could blossom nargles.

And what an interesting friendly way this girl took this staring spree like, this was such a BAD thing. Because it meant 1) the girl must know she was pretty enough to be stared at 2) she'd already been in this situation before and 3) she wasn't one of them explosive girls who'd snap at every possible moment, which means she COULD be a good girl. That's very very bad.

Louisa's mind took a rest and her thoughts slowed down as she was introduced by Max, the Ravenclaw girl offered a small smile and was about to speak when Vickers introduced the, wait for it, BRAE-BRANXTON's daughter. That made the seventeen years old blink and straighten up more, surprised. Just her luck! BAD luck because 1) she can't compete with someone who comes from such a great family background 2) she promised to make the girl feel welcomed AND 3) Vickers was obviously her friend outside school which definitely mean BEFORE he knew Louisa.

Okay, deep breath and no more lists.

"Oh, hi. I've met your mom on the train," she wasn't going to mention that special favor. That... could be used later when Louisa got to know the girl more. "Sorry I was staring, by the way, I was just trying to remember if I saw you before or not. I must've missed your sorting." Not that her tone was apologetic, but it was friendly enough. "So..umm.. welcome to Ravenclaw and... uhh... you can talk to me whenever you need something or want to ask about someon-- I mean, some place. This.. castle is very... lost-able." Could the headmistress please stand up nooooooooow?

THANKYOU.

Louisa relaxed next to Max as the headmistress started her speech, introducing the school to the Board of Governors. Welp, she had already met them - well, most of them, except for the wet trunk-screeching lady, Lainey. "The headmistress was looking for her," Louisa whispered to Max before falling silent again listening to Truebridge giving them promises of new approaches in Hogwarts and formal boring stuff like that. The distraction from the house-elves provided some entertainment and Louisa couldn't help but chuckle at the pink plant, she was positive that this would get Spikey all happy and hyper in a heartbeat. Pity he was probably sitting on the far end of the table, sigh.

When finally the food appeared, Louisa let out a sigh and re-straightened up, clapping her hands once and her eyes gleaming at the mashed potato dish across the table. She was definitely starving, and needed to get some tension out by stuffing her face with THAT. So, naturally, her torso leaped forward snatching the mashed potato dish and with a very hungry look she started scooping half of it to her own plate before putting it back to where it was.

Then she dug in.

"It's not that." Ariana was now flustered "her head is hurting and she's having memory loss, she bumped her head lightly on the train but nothing to be causing this.. i suspect Foul play." Ariana said sounding like a detective

Yeah he had a good point right there. If he hadn't left when he did then he probably would been thrown across the compartment....or through the window depending on where he might have stood had he stayed. That was actually a scary thought but an intriguing one nonetheless. She couldn't help but wonder how cool it would have been to get thrown through the window...where would she land....?

She laughed at the clear cut confusion on his face and in his voice. "Ah yes, gravvy because I'm sure the hat is not all that tasty or chewy so I need something to help with that." Nod. But then she figured she would explain the need for wanting to make the hat more edible in the first place. She looked to the staff table and pointed. "You see that woman up there? The one that was introduced as Lainey? Well she said that I wouldn't be a Ravenclaw--she sniffed me and knew...right so I argued against that then she said I'd have to eat the hat if I wasn't a claw." And there was the explanation. It was all the woman's fault.


Her eyes went wide when she heard Vickers say what he said. She turned to Vivi immediately, shock still quite clear on her face. "You're the daughter of that other woman up there?!" Not that it mattered much seeing as she was hopeless when it came to politics and following it but meh, she liked making reactions while they were still applicable and for once she wasn't the last to know!....er....or was she...?

Had she said something to Isaac that he didn't know about? He was definitely going to find Isaac and ask him. Her absent hand wave had him smiling though, the enormity of the question would surely make her focus again. Her reaction was expected, but the silence was killing him. His eyes were wide as he stared straight at her. Say yes. Say yeeeeeeeeeeees. She'd already agreed to go on dates with him, so that would work in his favour, RIGHT?

He breathed out a sigh of relief when she said yes. EEE. He was so happy! YAY! HE HAD A GIRLFRIEND! This year was definitely going to be memorable! Beaming, he turned his head to look up at the staff table and listen to the speech.

Train incident? Was that how she described it? He would have called that a fiasco. A mess. A complete shambles! He eyed the redhead, so she was headmistress. It made so much more sense now. An eyebrow raised at her promise that he was sure she couldn't keep unless there was one of her for every single student. Ooh. Hogwarts, a home. He was finally here, but it'd just been a completely awful day for him up until five minutes ago. Was that how one would describe a home? A place that holds the key to your happiness?

Changes? As long as they didn't involve something like three headed dogs giving them homework or a stupid rule that stopped him spending time with Nell, he didn't mind. He was just about to open his mouth to ask Nell if she knew anything about these changes, but was instantly distracted by the food.

He was starving! Without a second of hesitation, he started to pile food onto his plate - he hadn't eaten since that morning. A sideways glance from him showed he was watching Nell to see if she ate anything. He'd understand if she didn't after her earlier eventful trip, but considering she'd plastered the ground by the platform with the contents of her stomach, it was possible she'd want something to eat.

Elise was hungry. Like seriously hungry. Couldn't the headmistress hurry up and start talking so she could EAT?! Her arm wasn't making things better, either. It was going to be so awkward, eating with one hand. She wasn't sure she even knew how to.

But she stopped scowling and looked up when someone randomly said hi. "Hey!" Elise grinned. He seemed cool! Really really cool. Like ice cream! Not knowing what else to say, she just beamed. "I'm Elise."

Yeah. And who are youuuu, stranger?



And the boy was still sulking? What was with him?! It kinda made Elise wanna stalk over there and manually push the corners of his lips upwards. But that wouldn't be very nice, though. So she just sat there. And smiled. Maybe he'd decide to smile back.

"Nice to meet you too," she grinned. Well, he seemed nice. "Theo's a cool name." Well, it was! She once had a bunny named Theo.

But then the headmistress finished her speech! Oh, finally! Clapping enthusiastically, Elise looked over to the Gryffindor table to see Alice. Maybe they'd go find the healer together?

Elliot merely nodded. Sure. But it was probably...mostly...Elliot's fault. She wasn't one to go out there and be all...*scoff* friendly. Her blue eyes scanned the Slytherin table once more...no sign of either Hannah OR Ezra. Ugh.

Great, was it? Elliot wouldn't call it great. Or even nice. Just...weird. No, not weird...just a talk. Nor nice nor not-nice. The blonde merely eyed her suspiciously. She was too friendly. And it was WEIRD.

"Uh...yeah. Jayden...Fishface...it's whatever you want to call her..." she said with a small smirk. No, Jayden would probably NOT appreciate that, but eh, oh well. Elliot thought it was soooo funny! "She was my first friend here." Or maybe second..COra was first...ah, well, Elliot didn't know or care too much.

"I don't really even know who you're friends with...so forgive me for being lame at moving the conversation forward," she told her with a raised eyebrow.

She was still withholding judgement on Beezus.

And what kind of name was Beezus, anyways? It reminded Elliot of beez-wax. Ew.

And yaaay! foooooood! Elliot's stomach was about to eat itself...she immediately grabbed the nearest plate of salad. "I'm vegetarian," she half explained, before Beezus could comment about it.

Yep. And she only really drank tea and water.

Ew.

No hand-holding, PLEASE. She eyed Jared again, still a bit apprehensive. Hmph. At least she had known Cael...and liked him.

"Don't make any promises for me, Jayden," she as she raised her eyebrows and stuck a leafy fork of salad into her mouth.

Because Elliot couldn't promise to play nice. Nope.

Quote:

Originally Posted by kayquilz

Elliot smirked. She was sure? Okay then.

And Lottie was sooo welcome here. Yep. "You're always welcome here, Lottie." She said softly...but waaait. Elliot was being WAAAY too nice...so she nudged the girl a bit..."And hey, don't expect me to always be nice, kid. You caught me in a decent mood!" she said with a wink and a smirk.

She merely watched as younger girl talked to Vickers...who she was refraining judgement on for now. She didn't know if she liked the guy. He was...different than she was.

The nudges? She didn't mind at all. Good thing she had a brother? That probably had nothing to do with it. Wisteria girls women were rather strong and could take almost everything.

Hey! She laughed, softly, "I'm not always nice either," surely the Hufflepuffs will be able to pick up on that and let her be whenever she's bound to be between them. She didn't wink back, though. Granted, she was almost always nice to those she liked. Unless she didn't agree with something.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steelsheen

His attention shifted to Lottie, whose mood seems to have improved. "Why yes.... quite exciting and memorable " those were a choice set of words that got him to smile despite the fatigue. "Certainly quite different from how I've been coming here to Hogwarts over the past three terms. And quite memorable for you too isnt it Lottie? You enjoyed the boat rides?" he hoped so, would've been awesome if his first trip into the castle also started with a boat ride.

See? She knew that's how his last year was going to start. His last year and her first year.

The past three terms? "You transferred." She wasn't asking, she was merely stating the obvious. Of course, she already knew he was from New York, but she didn't know if he'd started from as a first year or not. "Where from?" Her family consisted of Hogwartians. Not a single one studied somewhere else. So, that was quite an interesting fact to keep, just in case.

Definitely memorable.

She'd already seen where that boy had gone off to. Ravenclaw. And he was sitting rather close by too. Ironically how she'd thought he'd be in Hufflepuff instead. At least one of the passengers of the best boat will be sleeping in the yellow House.

At Vickers question, her eyes traveled to the boy in question. The one who was sorted into Ravenclaw...

Text Cut: DUSTIN, KING OF THE BEST!BOAT!!

Quote:

Originally Posted by cake.ninjak

With no food to occupy his focus, he turned his attention back to the girl he had squished in next to. "Mm? Lake? Oh...yes. I was trying to be the King of the BEST!BOAT," which you were not in....shame "and the girl I was sharing my boat with KNOCKED ME IN! Well, not quite knocked so much as facilitated my swim, but all the same." He nodded, shaking lake water all over. He may not have had long hair, but his curly hair sure could hide a lot of water.

Quote:

Originally Posted by cake.ninjak

He couldn't help but chuckle at the girl's question. "Would that make her King of BEST!BOAT? Surely not. She was a GIRL. If anything, she'd be Queeeeeeeeeen. But even still, no she was NOT! She did not win the boat!throne fair and square. Those were the rules." No matter that he had made up the rules right there on the spot.

"You like to giggle..." he observed. "DO YOU LIKE ME?!"

Smoooooooooooooooooth.

Quote:

Originally Posted by cake.ninjak

EXCUUUUSSSSEEEE ME?! "And why, exactly, would that go to you?!" He was so shocked by her UNRIGHTFUL CLAIM that he almost dropped his fork (attached to which was an entire loaf of bread). "And my boat was best because....because....WELL ISN'T IT OBVIOUS?" He ripped a chunk of bread out of the loaf with his teeth to hopefully avoid answering a future question about why his boat was best. It just WAS!

He chewed and chewed and chewed and chewed and swallowed again before adding, "You get the throne by being the BEST in BEST!BOAT."

....and she laughed. A very light, sweet laugh.

"Very memorable." She said. There was SO MUCH she wasn't saying. Like, how the boy kept on TALKING AND TALKING the whole ride, so...she had to get ride of him. He was keeping the Squid away! Lottie considered mentioning this to Vickers. How she nudged him towards the water as he claimed to be the King of the Boat. Sorry, King of the Best Boat.

He was talking nonsense, but the cold water didn't seem to slow him down either.

So...instead of telling Vickers she was the QUEEN who had pushed the boy into the lake...she simply smiled and said, "It was a very nice ride. I waved all the way." You know, to the Merpeople and the Squid. And that same hand also nudged the Ravenclaw boy overboard.

....


Her face turned to Elliot for a moment before whispering, "I pushed that boy off the boat. He talks too much, and too loudly." Just so she knew. Someone had to know.

And no other girl was about to become Queen, either. It was either Dust or her. Though, clearly, Dust was bound to be called 'King' instead of 'Queen'.

Glad she heard it, Addy leaned around Vivi and smiled sweetly at Lex. She would only get whacked with a newspaper if she was REALLY poorly behaved. HEHEH.

Finger wiggles for you, Lex.

SIGHS. Okay. No newspaper whacking of the first year. She was awfully cute, that one. Like a pet. "Just a suggestion." SWEET SMILES.

Annie? So the President's daughter knew the Headmistress personally. Yes, Jacks had long since made that connection, but she wasn't going to treat Vivi any differently. Nope, nope. Jacks shifted her eyes toward the staff table and tilted her head to one side. "I am getting used to the crazy. I bet she'll be great." SHE WAS A GINGER AND THAT COULDN'T BE A BAD THING. Hehe.

Um HELLO person with a badge. A very handsome person with a badge at that... Addy batted her eyelashes and sighed a bit before turning to Beezus with a smile.

OF COURSE it was nice to see her. HEHEH. "Oh I am sorry to hear that, Beezus. Maybe you will get to have grand adventures soon," she said with a giggle. Or she could hide her grandmother's cane and run off. Clearly Addy was not the person to ask for advice on that matter...

Train ride. "I am appalled by that train ride actually." HMPH.

Vickers. OH VICKERS. Jacks picked her fork up and made a stabby motion toward him when he gave her a LOOK. No looking at me like that, sir. Eyeball stabbing will commence if so.

Addy shrugged... she didn't know her name. She didn't CARE. Averting her eyes she just... kind of didn't answer. And he seemed to slap that label "friend" on a lot of girls... hand holding and kissing and such didn't equate to FRIENDS.

"Why would I be mad with you?" she asked as she looked him in the face, finally. She would just... let it go. She had been silly to think a boy like Nathan would be interested in a silly old ging like her.

Waving a hand she shook her head. "No, no. It's fine. There's nothing going on. You should go to your friend, though. I am going to grab some food."

What was... that smell? Ew. Was someone in need of deodorant? BLEGH!

And... it was clear that Addy had found a new first year pet. LOOK AT HIM. He agreed with her and stuff. PRESH! Addy approved of this one. She even offered him some pudding with a smile. SHe could call this one Rover.

OH! And he was getting shouty with the Captain. BAD ROVER!





HEHEHEHEHE. Addy!Jacks covered her mouth with her hand and leaned into Vivi as Louisa apologized... ish. Whatever that was. It was CLEAR being Vivi's friend was going to be interesting to say that very least. HEHEHE.

"Erm, is it not hard being a vegetarian?" A bit curious, she asked. Because..well..she couldn't quite imagine herself living on chewing leaves. Meh. Being a goat wasn't on her wishlist.

As the short-haired brunette started grabbing literally any food that was close to her (she was VERY hungry!), she allowed her ears to stay focused on her conversation with Elliot. What did she just say about Jayden? Ohohoho. She called her fishface!

Beezus wanted to laugh so bad but she didn't want Elliot to think she was making fun of her friend. So she settled with merely staring...then she cleared her throat. "Fishface? You call her fishface?" She chuckled a bit. Jayden wasn't someone she could ever call her friend. More like frenemies. "Fircht fwen ah?" She repeated, munching on a croissant. Munch. Munch. Gulp. Water first. "You two must be pretty close by now." Her first friend would have to be Mordred...no, actually it was William. But naah, last time she saw him was on her second year.

"Oh, that's alright." She nodded although her eyes were concentrated on the meat she was slicing on her plate. Beezus looked at Elliot and gave the girl another smile. Really, she didn't mind. It wasn't like she was famous or anything for the girl to know her friends. "..But you do know Erin, right? Erin Heyman? She's also in our House." Or maybe Indy?


Leaving her conversation with Elliot for a minute, she turned to the redhead. SMILE. SMILE. She really liked her.

"Naah, don't be. I won't be spending my next summer with her." Oh, yeah. She asked her Aunt and the woman agreed that she stay with them at Japan. "Although I'll miss her. And her cat." Sigmund might be a nasty feline much like her Grandma, but there were times when the two of them were overly sweet towards her.

Beezus laughed. Appalled, was she now? It wasn't the normal alright, but it wasn't that horrifying...at least for her. "Well..at least we're all here now. Safe and feasting." Then she did some sort of gesture as if to point the food around them.

Hallucinations? Now THAT could have been a fun patient to tend to. "That's good. I'm glad she seems to be okay."

Suddenly Louisa disappeared, and... popped up right next to him, making him slide down the bench and squish uncomfortably close to the person next to him. "Sorry," he laughed to the Ravenclaw, and just gave Louisa a smile. "It wasn't awkward until you said it was." Right? Isn't that how awkwardness worked? Max followed suit and rested his arms on the table in front of him to make more room for their bodies. While she spoke, Max looked straight into her eyes and gave sympathetic, understanding nods at the appropriate times. "You don't need to be sorry," he shook his head, and frowned when she mentioned 'unpleasant stuff.' He still didn't know what she was referring to, but he assumed it was the same 'stuff' that had her so wigged out on the platform.

"I definitely understand not wanting to miss anything... we're in the same boat with that one." It was almost the END. "But it'll be okay. Keep that mindset - that every moment is precious, but don't... overthink it. Treasure the moments. Don't freak yourself out over running out of time and miss out on the fun that could be had."

He felt like he was preaching more to himself than Louisa.

Text Cut: Viv

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cassirin

Well, if people 'round here were going to stare at every new person, she'd better just get used to it. Vivi leaned across and offered her hand to shake.

"We haven't met. I'm Genevieve." And now she knew the name of the eye-stabbing Head Girl too. She got an eyebrow quirk from Vivi before the girl turned her attention back to Max.

"New Ravenclaw. I'm surprised you didn't notice me hulking above all the adorable firsties."

Genevieve. That was quite the elegant name. Max reached across the table to shake her outstretched hand, "Well, it's a pleasure to meet you, Genevieve. Welcome to Ravenclaw." GRIN. He tried to keep his outward excitement to a minimum, but he was elated to have a new potential friend. He hadn't been paying much attention to the sorting, he wasn't going to admit aloud - he had been more concerned with staring at the empty plates before him and hoping he could make some mashed potatoes appear on his plate with his mind. "What year are you?"

Text Cut: Vickers

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steelsheen

And THEN he noticed it. The glaring/ eye-stabbing thing between Louisa and Vivi, with added soundbytes by Max and Addy Jacks. He gave Jacks the dont-stir-the-pot side-glance and nodded at Max introducing Louisa by name. He should do the same the other way around "Uhm yes Louisa.... this is Genevieve Branxton, newly transferred from Beauxbatons Academy of Magic and President Rae-Branxton's daughter."

And then... Vickers further introduced her. Genevieve Branxton. President Rae-Branxton's daughter.

Max's facial expression didn't change, but he quirked his head to one side slightly at the plate in front of him. The Genevieve Branxton... who was kidnapped along with her twin when he was a baby? The one his parents had said would probably be in his year during his first term, along with her sister? HUH. So she was at Beauxbatons. But why... would she transfer here so late? Did her mother have something to do with it?

When the thought crossed his mind, his eyes drifted up to the Staff Table. Huh. HUH. That was weird. Cool, he supposed - he felt bad for anyone who missed out on the Hogwarts experience - but still a little odd. Not that he was complaining - he could have a new FRIEND.

"That must be interesting," he told Genevieve. Interesting... to have the former Headmistress as a mother, and interesting to grow up as sort of a... celebrity, perhaps.

Text Cut: Louisa part two

Quote:

Originally Posted by Magical Soul

"Oh, hi. I've met your mom on the train," she wasn't going to mention that special favor. That... could be used later when Louisa got to know the girl more. "Sorry I was staring, by the way, I was just trying to remember if I saw you before or not. I must've missed your sorting." Not that her tone was apologetic, but it was friendly enough. "So..umm.. welcome to Ravenclaw and... uhh... you can talk to me whenever you need something or want to ask about someon-- I mean, some place. This.. castle is very... lost-able." Could the headmistress please stand up nooooooooow?

THANKYOU.

Louisa relaxed next to Max as the headmistress started her speech, introducing the school to the Board of Governors. Welp, she had already met them - well, most of them, except for the wet trunk-screeching lady, Lainey. "The headmistress was looking for her," Louisa whispered to Max before falling silent again listening to Truebridge giving them promises of new approaches in Hogwarts and formal boring stuff like that. The distraction from the house-elves provided some entertainment and Louisa couldn't help but chuckle at the pink plant, she was positive that this would get Spikey all happy and hyper in a heartbeat. Pity he was probably sitting on the far end of the table, sigh.

When finally the food appeared, Louisa let out a sigh and re-straightened up, clapping her hands once and her eyes gleaming at the mashed potato dish across the table. She was definitely starving, and needed to get some tension out by stuffing her face with THAT. So, naturally, her torso leaped forward snatching the mashed potato dish and with a very hungry look she started scooping half of it to her own plate before putting it back to where it was.

Then she dug in.

Max watched Louisa curiously as she fumbled over her words in an attempt to welcome Genevieve. Lostable? He let out a very slow sigh next to the Head Girl. Well. That was embarrassing. Luckily, the beginning of the speech helped remedy the awkwardness of the moment for all eyes were drawn to the head table.

Looking for Lainey? Max whispered back, "Well, she found her - Professor Lainey was in the Food Trolley - I was there, too - and the Headmistress found her just as the train started having problems."

After a slight commotion with the house elves, the Headmistress wrapped up her speech, and... FOOD!

Louisa appeared to be just as hungry as Max, it seemed, and he laughed as he took the mashed potatoes after her. So. Good.

Neil watched the boy curiously. He was odd this one. Odd to the point that the word odd wasn't suffice to explain him. He was... strange. Yes, that could be a world to claim on him. Strange.

He practically stuffed his mouth before speaking to Neil. Neil found this quite outstanding. The boy's nose simply moved as his mouth in a way that was out of the norm. Wonderful.

"Uhm. I don't, uhm, remember saying anything about plumbers. Uhmmm, maybe you, uhmm, heard me wrong?"

However, before the boy replied, he suddenly yelped of someone taking his own piece. Neil was aghast. What a poor creature to have his food taken from him.

A sudden thought stroke Neil. What if he was one of those pets that were transformed into animals by their owners so the owners would feel as if they had children? He'd heard his parents fawn over this at some point. The poor thing. He must be an ecstatic puppy.

And so it was that this made Neil reach out and gently pet the boy's head. "It's alright," he whispered with his eyes wide open. "You'll get, umm, another piece."

Elliot nodded. "Good. Nice people finish last." Something else her father always said. Why was it that every time she was with Lottie, she became a walking fortune cookie or something. She supposed it was because she felt wise or something, being older than the girl.

Elliot glanced at the boy...tiny little bugger, he was. AND soaking wet...BECAUSE OF LOTTIE. Elliot shot her a grin. "I like the spunk...how did he like his little swim?" she asked, staring back at the younger boy..."What's his name..."

A smirk crept onto her face.

She stared VERY INTENSELY at the boy...hoping to have some fresh prey, right? "And greeeaaat, he's in my house..."

Loudness. Elliot couldnt stand it...

Elliot shook her head. "No. I don't like many things, anyways, so I figured might as well be vegetarian. I'm not a big fan of..." she watched with revulsion as Beezus ate...very much disgustingly..."...food. Which clearly we are in a disagreement in." Because the brunette SURE WAS shoveling down food by the...tons.

How could a girl, or any person, really, EAT SO MUCH?!

"How is humanly possible that you can eat that much?" she asked, her face crinkled.

She picked up a napkin and placed it in front of Beezus...she didnt care if she was being rude...she never cared.."You might need that." Smirksmirksmirk.

"And yes...because of her last name..." Troutwater. See, Elliot was clever..right? RIGHT. "And I know OF Erin...but I've never spoken to her either..."

She turned away for a minute to glance at the Snake table AGAIN. WHERE WAS HANNAH? Her closest ALLY at the moment? She looked back at Beezus, eyeing her critically. "Are you friends with Jayden? Because she's never talked about you." GLARE.

Elliot was just too occupied with the girl's horrid eating habits to really be nice right now.

Nell loved that smile. If he could smile like that once a day because of her she would be a happy camper. He was her boyfriend now! It would take a while to get used to it but she was ecstatically happy. Edmund was hers and she was his. Now maybe she could lay her stupid insecurities to rest.

A loud voice caught her attention and she turned toward the front of the room. A woman in pink was addressing the crowd. Looking at her had a memory swimming to the surface of her brain and it took everything she had not to burst out laughing. Her new headmistress was the pink princess!

With some effort Nell managed to focus on the speech she was giving. She talked about the "incident" on train and that did make Nell snort. Incident my foot that was a debacle! Board of Governors? Now that was new. The woman talked about changes and what not. What did she have planned? Well one thing was for sure...they would all find out eventually.

Finally the speech came to a close and food appeared on the table. Her stomach gave an answering rumble but some of the smells gave her pause. No doubt it was a side affect of the concussion. Carefully Nell put a few things on her plate that were light and guaranteed to go easy on her stomach.

Nell caught Edmund looking at her and smiled. "What? I'm going to eat something. Maybe only a little but I'll eat." She shouldered him playfully. It was nice to have someone worry about her.

Still hoping Terry would look past her last statement and would join her at the table, Cora's eyes widened. People didn't normally remember Cora. At least she didn't think so. She was too quiet. Until recently, Cora had thought this was the only reason for being forgotten. After a chat with Elliot, though, she realized it was probably because Cora was too ... nice. Of course Elliot would say that, and Cora smiled, wondering where Elliot was.

Turning her attention back to the girl who had just sat down next to her, Cora smiled. "Yes, we did meet. I'm Cora, by the way." Cora immediately liked the girl sitting next to her.

"Oh, I have no idea about that," Cora added, in response to the girl's question. Cora was too embarrassed to mention that she had been reading a book the whole time and didn't even notice the train stopping. "Why would there be ministry members on board?" Cora asked, not necessarily looking for an answer. "Another mystery. Have you heard any rumors?" Cora was beginning to think that Hogwarts always had some sort of drama surrounding it.

Now the comment she'd made on the platform about him being her boyfriend was true! Teehee!

He just looked at her curiously when she took some food from the table, hiding his smile as best he could. It was good she was eating. He put his hands up in a surrendering pose and chuckled at her defensive reaction to him worrying. "Eat what you like, boss lady." Yes, they'd been boyfriend for all of two minutes and he was already calling her the boss. He had a feeling she'd use that against him later in the year when he got up to his usual antics.

Sitting down at the table, Annabeth looked around for Sam, she hadn't seen him at all, not on the train nor on the carriages. Shrugging she looked for anybody that she knew, which wasn't a lot of people really, she liked to keep to herself, anyway, nobody really knew she was there, sometimes, she felt as if she was invisible and nobody could see or hear her apart from Sam. Annabeth had the worst summer ever! To begin with, she had been locked in her room, and not allowed out, she was actually being starved, and then just two weeks before term started, she had run away from her guardians, the Chases, to live on the streets.

Hopefully someone would talk to her this year, then maybe, finally, she would have a new friend to talk to.

"Im Olivia" she replied. "I have no idea" , she had only heard rumors and not seen anything happen. She knew it was a retorical question, but how else was she supposed to answer?

" I was talking to some people in the carriage, that's whare I heard the rumor about the ministry members, and we thought that they stopped the train to let people on or off".

Cora twirled her hair nervously. Her mother had better not hear about this. Cora dreaded thinking about being taken from Hogwarts again if she overreacted.

"Honestly, this was only my second time on the Hogwarts Express. So I didn't really notice anything out of the ordinary right away." Cora wondered if Olivia would notice Cora was not a second year and question it. Enough people had that Cora was actually ready to answer it, but she was always a bit nervous. "It's nice to meet you, Olivia. Hopefully we will find out what that was all about soon. Although I never really hear rumors about things."

Nathan usually came off as a very indifferent person. But wherever Addy's direction of mood was heading - it made Nathan kind of irritated. He simply could not understand what was bothering her.

Delphina?

"Funny .. she was actually suggesting you liked me," he said it, kind of wanting to defend his best friend. Delphina wasn't bothered about Addy. Why should Addy be bothered of her?

Shaking his head, he gave a small sigh before adding: "Have a nice evening," And the sixteen year old walked away.

Cora noticed someone sitting across from her, and couldn't help but notice the signs that she was a bit like Cora. Shyly, Cora decided maybe the other girl could use a new friend, too. "Hi. I'm Cora." Cora said quietly, with a smile. Meeting new people made Cora nervous usually, but something about the girl made her think she was someone Cora could relate to.

Wondering if the girl would ignore her, she stared down at her plate for a moment. Cora could really use more friends.

"Oh really, that's cool?" Olivia said, she must have gone to another school for the first two years. Cora didn't seem like a second year, Olivia wouldn't be talking to her if she was!
"Ya, Im sure we'll hear more about what happened on the train. I mean, this is Hogwarts and tons of mysterious stuff happens all the time". She was happy that Cora was listening to her, Olivia was used to being ignored with she entered conversations.

"And I'm Olivia" Olivia wasn't the most approachable Slytherin; but she was fun to be with once people got to know her better.

Annabeth had been staring at her plate, when she heard somebody talking, she looked up to see a girl around her own age sitting across from her, she had been talking to a group of people previously, when she introduced herself as Cora, Annabeth smiled, "Hello Cora, I'm Annabeth, but you can call me what ever you like,"

Making friends was hard for Annabeth, but Cora seemed nice, someone quite but that will talk to people.

Chuckling Nell ate a few bites of her food. When her stomach didn't rebel against it's new contents she ate with a little more confidence. Boss Lady. Nell rolled her eyes but smiled at Ed. They hadn't been together longer then an hour and the nicknames were already flying. It could be worse considering how much of a klutz she was.

She giggled as she remembered what she had wanted to tell him. "So, I figured out who the pink princess is." Nell's smile was both mischievous and self mocking.

Jared studied Elliot closely. An interesting person. He didn't like how much control she seemed to have over Jayden's (My new girlfriend!) life."Personally, I'm fine sitting over here! I don't exactly conform to all of my house's stereotypes." He winked at Jayden. "But, it's just to you, I don't want to force you to be anywhere you don't want to be."

It was pleasing to see her eat. His eyes widened as he realised he was acting a bit strange, like trying to force her to eat, oyyyy, he didn't want that. No way. His focus instantly turned to his plate, he had his own food to eat. Picking up some chicken with a lopsided smile at her eye rolling, he took a bite.

Chewing, he raised his eyebrows curiously at her and swallowed the chicken before asking "Really? Who?" That mischievous smile looked so darn cute on her! And it gave her an air of danger that he liked.