"Then stop acting like a spoiled little brat." The urge to punch her was getting stronger by the second. And he certainly didn't need her to point out that she was not polite, he had worked that out for himself. She reminded him of Rhodes and he wasn't too sure how he felt about that girl just yet.

If she thought he was going to be horrified that she wanted to go into Slytherin than she was sadly mistaken. Michael shrugged his shoulders. "No one in my family has ever been in Gryffindor either. And the hat wanted to put me in Slytherin but I told it that I wanted Gryffindor." He could see his father's face already and he knew that he was going to be disappointed with what he had done.

"Did you ever think that being in a different house from your family means you don't have to live up to any expectations? My dad was a Slytherin. he was here only two year and everyone tells me that he was a legend." So how was he supposed to live up to that? "And mum was a Hufflepuff and a Prefect." And apparently the toughest female ever to hit this school. He was glad that he had broken from the trend.

Seeing the outstretched hand, he took it with his own and gave hers a gentle shake. "Michael Toussaint."

His gaze landed on the older girl who was talking to him and he grinned. Apparently she already knew his name. "Nice to meet you Sarah." He paused to consider her question. "I'm not French. But I think my ancestors on my father's side is French." He really needed to look up his family tree, this was the second time he had been asked about his family and their history.

"What about you? Obviously you're not French, but what's your story?"

Christmas nodded and said "Course i will race you and i won't go down without winning" Christmas was falling for Nashville he was easily embrassed by the blushing and well she like that in a guy

He would win hands down but if it came down to the point where she wanted to win he would totally let her win and he would lose for her. What if she did beat him without him even having to lose for her? THAT WOULD BE SO FRACKING AWESOME! He would just be there and give her a hug and maybe a kiss on the cheek and say Congrats you awesome person you. The though of Nashville kissing Christmas on the cheek gave him those really good butterflies and turned his cheeks bright red once again. "We will let the best magical person win." Nashville flashed her a little wink.

"At least you didn't throw the hat at the ground because I did that and it made me feel a lot better but I don't really know what a Hufflepuff is."

The name Hufflepuff is so much different from Slytherin, Gryffindor and Ravenclaw, it's like they are the outcasts of the whole castle.

"So if I had told the hat to sort me in Slytherin then there would have been a change that I would have been in Slytherin and not Hufflepuff? My father never told me that."

Nashville took a seat right next to the first year girl.

"Nice to meet you Amara, I'm Nashville."

Christmas blushed as Nashville winked at her and said "Yeah let the best magical person win" Christmas's stomach was doing butterflies what was this she was feeling

Nashville bit his bottom lip slightly, his feels were over the moon and he didn't know how to control them....blushing, butterflies in his stomach and the though of kissing Christmas on the cheek...there those butterflies...wait nope...his stomach started doing flips and his heart began to race. He chuckled a little bit. "Yeah..." he blushed again.

Dora's wandering eyes gave Alice an excuse to look, too, except no one was there. No one she wanted to see, anyway. She subconsciously adjusted her friend's face again as her eyes scanned all the other tables, finally landing on Hufflepuff and giving her a glimpse of.. yeah. Okay.

Why had she looked again? No more looking for the rest of the day, she decided. She continued shooting the badger table looks of sheer skepticism while she spoke. "You can look if you want. It doesn't really matter anyway." Alice finally tore her eyes away and focused them back on Dora, face still exceptionally blank. "How was the train? Who'd you sit with?"



"Where's my frog?" Alice demanded politely as soon as Lex was in hearing range, ignoring all other comments. Because Frank was important. "You didn't put him in the luggage compartment, did you? Frank doesn't like it in there. Best keep him on your person." She nodded seriously and ignored the cookies, waiting for her pet to be delivered into her hands instead.



"Hey Shark Bait," Aliice greeted her favorite seeker, saluting her with two fingers as she spoke. "I'm hungry. We need to start bringing food to these things, okay?" Totally ignoring the fact that Lex had brought cookies, you know, because she still hadn't gotten a frog back.



"Hi Melanie." Alice beamed at her roommate, and then back to Dora. "This is Dora." She gave Melanie alook, too, so she knew Dora had been pre-approved by her beforehand. "She's sitting with us today." And they'd get along nicely and it would all go well and things. "How was summer? You never told me too much about you job," she said, trying to keep her eyes from flickering to other tables and focusing all her attention on Melanie instead.

Because she was so much more important, mhm.



"Hey Ronnie, trying out for Quidditch this term?" Alice let her eyes go back over to the Hufflepuff table for a few seconds before focusing them on the older girl again, not missing a chance to recruit players. Because, you know, Quidditch and all. Selina had left and that meant they had a very important position open. And speaking of.

She jumped up on to her seat really quickly, probably not noticeable from the staff table, still. "OI. All new Gryffindors, Captain speaking here. Be interested in playing Quidditch, okay? Tryouts are soon. Only chance to prove you're awesome all year." She gave EVERYONE at the table significant looks before sitting back down and resuming other conversations. Ahem.

Also. Ascanius Stark. Slytherin.

LOLOLOL.

She was giggling.

Budget cuts? Jake frowned and shook his head. "That doesn't make sense." He poked at his plastic cup, his eyebrows still furrowed in confusion. "Unless they buy new silverware every term or something. Or they decided they can't wash things." Which could be possible. Maybe. You never really knew what was going on with Hogwarts, as the current situation proved.

He resumed staring around the rest of the great hall, now deep in thought. But that didn't last long... because there was a taptaptapping right next to him that was very hard to ignore. Blinking, he looked over at Anya. "Um... babe? What are you doing?" Besides being weird. But hey, it was cute. It wasn't like Jake wanted her to stop. He was just curious.

He was also curious as to why a small boy with a very loud voice was yelling at their table.

Jake leaned back slightly to get a good look at the boy, then laughed a little. He'd seen this boy's sorting. He was a first year and brand new lion. Waving a bit to get the boy's attention, Jake spoke up in the best friendly tone he could. "Welcome to Gryffindor." He almost said something about liking to eat in peace, but since there was no food on the tables yet, he supposed that might be a little rude. Plus, the boy was probably just excited and stuff.

NO, ZEKE. IGNORE HER.

His jaws clenched, trying to control his annoyance at that......poking. In an attempt to get away, he casually moved further back to get out of her reach. If that would ever be a successful way to shake her off.

Keeping his eyes shut closed, he BREAAAAAAAATHED in and out. They say that helps to calm you down? Yeah. Inhales and exhales. After several attempts of "calming down" through that breathing exercise stuff whatever, Zeke opened his eyes again. No, not to look at the poking girl.

He quickly twisted his body so that he was facing the other tables. His eyes were on one specific table only though. Ravenclaw. And naturally, it would only be one person he'll be actually looking for as well. Gwen. Ashfdasfjsakdlfjdsk. Memories of the end of the term feast come to mind. He slowly SLOWLY turned his head to see if Alexa was still at it at pestering him.

Hmm..

Christmas smiled again and said "Cool i will give a tour of the castle if you want so you don't get lost that easily"

A tour...of the castle? That would be so great! Nashville knew he would need a tour of the castle because it was so huge and he always get lost. He got lost in his house one day and it's a small house. Nash is also a klutz too but he's still worse at getting lost. "You would give me a tour?" his eyes lit up as he said those words. "I would love that and I hope it would be a bother." He knew people thought he was a bother and his father had even told him that he was a bother once. Sometimes it was true but he never means to be a bother towards anyone.

Okay so maybe she wasn't THAT good at not looking. Dora only got the tiniest peeks before she felt her face being turned back to Alice and noticed that SHE was staring too. Not allowed. "No, I won't look and you won't look." She gave her friend significant looks. "We both won't look for the rest of the feast." She'd just think about him lots.

"The train ride was alright. I was looking for you again to sit with, but I couldn't find you, and I was sharing Theo." Pause. "So I sat with Mo. We took pictures and talked." And she would just tell her the rest with more details later. "How was your ride?"


Loud.

Dora was making observations at this table, and the very first thing she noticed was that it was loud. Gryffindors were loud. But she was kind of used to Alexa's loud. She smiled at her brightly. "Brilliant summer. I got to see most all of my friends. How was yours?"

She bought THREE books? "Really? What's the titles? I guess that means I'll be teaching you more than last year." Dora didn't mind really, so long as the younger girl never forgot the rules.

While Alexa was being all loud, and distracting her bestie, Dora pulled out a piece of parchment and quill.


"Yeah, it was really good." No complaints from her. Not really.

Except maybe it could have been longer.

She eyed the plastic for a moment longer then scribbled a note on the parchment she pulled out. "How was your summer?"

"What she said. I'm Dora." She smiled at the other girl all friendly like, observing that she wasn't as loud as the other ones. Maybe it was a younger gryffie trait. "Good to meet you. The utensils are weird, right?" She gestured to the one Melanie was holding with her quill before pocketing the writing instrument.

Dora was folding her parchment into a bird when another girl she didn't know talked to Alice. Her best friend was so popular, she wasn't surprised. But she did kinda wish there weren't so loud and excitable. "I'm Dora. I'm with Alice, and I'm not a Gryffindor." She gestured to her robes in case the girl couldn't tell.

Not a gryffie.

She tapped the parchment with her wand but didn't watch it as it flew off.

Dora was being good (sorta) and turned her eyes back to Alice.

Christmas smiled and said "Yeah it would be no bother at all to give you a tour and it would be good for you to go and introduce yourself to some of the professors as well they are all lovely and friendly"

Nashville beamed at the girl.

"So are the students and the staff really close to each other?"


Being here was like being in a whole new world, it was just so different with some different rules and things to go by and the student were possibly friends with the staff? That was awesome.

Christmas smiled and said "Yeah some of them are but just watch you don't do anything you shouldn't it could cost you house points or even gain you detention in the dungeons"

Aphrodite reached out to the senior who had just joined them, "Hello, my name is Aphrodite Dragongrass. You can call me Aphrodite or Fro for the shorter one. Pleased to meet you, Sarah," she said with a cheerful face.

Many people are asking what is the meaning of her given name by her parents: "Well, my parents gave this name because I was the first girl that was born in the Dragongrass family for 150 years, and Aphrodite is the Greek goddess who symbolizes beauty. My parents wish I could be as beautiful and as noble as she is, "she said with a smile. "What about you, Sarah?" Aphrodite asked her.

As soon as Amara said that, Aphrodite know that she doesn't get into the house that she want. She patting Amara's shoulder and glanced at Natasha with a smile, "Amara, what Nats said is true, the more important thing is we stay together. What about Zyanya? I heard she was placed in Ravenclaw," she said to Amara.

"Does this have anything to do with the house elves?, And Ronnie, does this ever happen?" Aphrodite asked the curious to the red-haired pretty girl.

What did she mean by that? What is off limits? Not allowed to date others or something along those lines or like really, really, really bad, bad stuff? It really made no sense to him. What about the dating thing? Are you allowed to? I don't see why not? As long as you don't do really bad stuff that comes with relationships during the school year? Right? Is that what she meant? What if Nash's future wife was here? He would really want to get to know her and maybe even date her and stuff like that or maybe make sure that no one would steal her from him before he even got the chance to date her and get to know her. But he was only sixteen no need to think about marriage and adult stuff like that! "What do you mean by that? Do you mean like not allowed to date?" He was just so clueless but he really wanted to keep talking to Christmas.

Christmas smiled and said "Of course we are allowed to date, just not allowed to kiss and stuff in public like around the school"

"Well thats okay, yet having ancestors on your father's side who were French will explain the surname." she said. About herself, Sarah did know some things, being very interested in geneology, history and all. "Well on my father's side, they are a wizarding family that have been in England for a few centuries. Yet my mother is muggle born so it is more interesting, my mother was born in South Africa, her ancestors came there from eastern Europe in the early 1900's, yet I think they lived about 1000 years ago along the Rhine river, so they must have lived in France and Germany at some point, yet that was around the time of the fall of the Roman Empire. Formally we are unable to trace past the 1700's my family tree so all that took place before that is assumed." Sarah had read some history books over the holiday and done some surfing as well. "so where are you from on your mother's side?" she asked

"I think Fro is easier, I am never good with pronunciation" Sarah said. It was true, most of her problems with spells came due to mispronunciation.
"WOW!" said Sarah about the explanation. "I like that! I am named Sarah as I have six older brothers, so when a girl was born I was the princess of the family. As Sarah means princess. My mother and I have a theory about princesses, we think that it is all in the mind. Like in the book, 'A Little Princess'. So I always try to make sure to behave in a manner befitting of a princess, watching my speech, dress and all, yet I always fail when it comes to manners, especially table manners".. Just giving out a warning to people queer enough to mind about how another person eats. Sarah always ate the way that was most natural ofr her, and all others should mind their own business.

What just happened here? Did she just say what I think she said? OHMYGOODNESSBATMAN!! She said we! Right? Yes? Nashville's heart skipped a couple beats and began to beat really fast. "We?" was the only thing that he could say.

Christmas blushed and said "Well it's crazy i have only just met you Nashville but i think i would love to date you this year as long as you don't mind me studying cause i have my OWLs at the end of the year but you just the right man for me"

Aphrodite was shocked when she heard Sarah had six, yes SIX older brothers. "You have six older brothers? WOW .. I have four older brothers and I was also the only girl," she said in disbelief. During this time she thought that five siblings already is one of the largest families in which, it turns out Sarah is seven siblings. "Will you tell me about your family?" she asked the pretty girl in front of her.

She nodded at the elder girl. This girl seemed so..enthusiastic? And she thought changing was not possible and that she must talk to someone and also make best use of it. Gee, she does think a lot. Could make a good Claw.

Amara lingered around the suggestion. The girl suddenly stopped speaking and she looked up to see what was wrong. What was she waiting for? Punch line?

"I...uhm...." she trailed. She decided to try and be polite this time. "Thanks" she managed to say, with stiffness ofcourse. "I will...try..to make...the best" People did seem to genuinely try and talk to her. Maybe she could share the manners. Maybe.

Amara looked defiant. How dare he? Proud, egoistic.. She was beginning to wonder where this conversation would go. She lowered her head, and looked at the funny plates with discrete scrutiny, in an urge to resist slapping him. She was already not very found of Gryffindor. She didn't want any drama there. How fine it would be. The anti-lion girl slapping one of the pride? Wonderful. I might as well get a month's detention. And she definitely didn't want to spend her first month there doing detentions at the dungeons or grounds or whatever.

Spoiled brat was I? She turned back to him. The boy was giving her a strange look. What was he thinking? Establishing the spoiled brat story.

"I'm-not-a-spoiled-brat" she said, pausing each word. The message had to sink in. She had some opinions and views, that didn't make her a spoiled brat did it? And she hadn't even bargained for this talk. She turned to look at another pleasant direction

She wasn't usually brooding over things. And hey! This wasn't even...and she turned back to face the boy. "I really acted like a spoiled brat?" she asked, piqued. She didn't like spoiled brats and was definitely not planning to be one. Her expressions changed from anger to confusion to regret to miserable faster than the muggle traffic signals.

"I..uhm.." she broke mid-way, cleared her throat. "Didn't mean to..not really.." Why was she feeling bad right now? It was her thing, feeling bad. "I'm fine with all the houses..." Yes, she was. "And no expectations.. My dad is really fine with anything" Yes, he was. "It...Okay. I always wanted to be Slytherin.." Savvy? "Childhood fancy?" she said, hoping that would clear everything.

She was beginning to wonder what she felt now. She really did want to strangle the guy the moment he talked, but now she wasn't willing to do that. Erm, awkward. "Sorry..I mean.. you really like this house" Asked the hat to place you and all. She was being sorry, again not her thing. She really didn't know how she felt about the evening.

The boy shook her hand gently enough. She was thinking he might try and crush her fingers. She gave him a small smile. "Hi Michael.." she said, withdrawing her hand slowly. "Uhm..." What now? So what was this, some kind of friendship? She didn't know. Only it was really messed up, with all those heated moments.

"You did?" she asked, her eyes wide. That was impossible...and cool. She suddenly took interest in his words. How happy she would have been to do that. "And no one saw?" she asked. If they did, boy, you would enjoy a long detention.

Didn't know Puff? "Uhm..it's a house" He obviously knows that. "A good house...." she trailed. "..with lovely people" That's what mum said. She hadn't really seen many Puffers, but this guy was Puff and he was good. So, point resolved.

He sat down next to her and some thought just struck her. "Are you..are you new here?" she asked, doubtful. He didn't seem to know many and yet was very older than her. Huh?

She gave Fro a weak smile. Yes, she was happy the three of them made it into the same house. But it really didn't matter did it? They could always had caught up, anytime and anywhere. Still, it's an encouraging thought.

She nodded and gave a low sigh. Zyanya. "Yeah...I saw her walking to the Claw table" she said, remembering the happiness on her twin's face and the way she had turned to look at her. Defeated Amara. Zyanya had got what she wanted. Without much problem at that. She turned to spot her twin in the midst of a small group. She was trying to talk to people. She smiled. Atleast one of them got what they wanted. "She'll be fine" she thought aloud.

What? Huh? He needed to clean out his ears. Did she just ask him out? OH MY GOODNESS SHE JUST DID! Nashville didn't know what to do he was frozen but happy and shocked and had a whole bunch more feels than that. He had to be dreaming right? No girl ever wanted to date him because they all assumed that he was stuck up and full of it and just another heartbreak but he really never did any heartbreaking of his own. "I'm the man for you? Really? So...we're dating...yes?" Nashville said, shocked but very happy.

Next year? Lex shook her head at that. "We have a feast at the end of the year too and depending on what happens during the term they can be pretty long too. Like...my first year two Professors got eaten, so did Mr. Shiny Ground's Keeper's wombat. The Headmistress had a lot to say then but last term, with a good amount of luck, no one got done in and I guess I'm willing to say it didn't last as long. Either way, you spend a lot more time wishing for food than actually eating at these feast." They kind of made up for it though...the food was amazing and they even had ice-cream last term!! She threw just as much of it as she ate. Best ice-cream fight eveeeer.

She shrugged a bit. "No problem. Most times Gryffindors are down in the kitchens anyway so chances are I'd be headed down there on any random day." It was something she'd noticed. Most, if not all the Gryffindors she knew, including herself, were power eaters. They ate the most of any people she'd ever met! It was kinda impressive. Heh.

Oooooo, 'giving advice to Firsties' time! she'd been preparing for this. Like legit, yup. "Well I'd probably say...pay close attention in DADA, you'll need most of the stuff you learn in that class." FACT. Lex was grateful for every jinx, hex and curse she'd learned since coming here. "If you want to eat the sorting hat, gravy won't help, try something else. The whomping willow--this super cool killer tree that you have to meet--can be your best friend or that annoying kid that hits you even when you haven't done anything to him. Socks will disappear by end of term, invest in learning the accio charm." Nodnodnod. "If you see a kneazle walking around, he's looking for a snack, hide anything he might find edible." Felix needed a warning label. She wasn't in the mood to comfort anyone just because her lovely ate someone's pet. Now let's see...what else...?

Alexa shook her head at this one. "Everyone smirks, the reason behind the smirks are what separate us from each other. 'Claws smirk when they know something you don't, Snakes smirk when they're getting their way, Puffers smirk to freak everyone out and us lions...we smirk because we can." That being the case, there was more smirking.

Ding ding ding!

Finally, we have a winner! "That's right, you live with it! You wear the scarlet and gold around like their the best colours you've ever seen and you hold your head extra high so you can see if some tall kid's blocking some form of adventure." Tall people did that. They got in the way. "You'll love this house and the people before you know it." Oh and now she was smiling and introducing herself. "Alexa Cambridge, put her there." She stuck her hand out at her. Shake?

Lex looked over when she heard someone else talking to her. Sarah! They were meant to run into each other and look, they did! The perks of being in the same house. Mhm.

"Did you? I don't think I care how long she speaks, it's all too long for my attention span." She sighed and but nodded in agreement with her. "They should feed us first but I guess they really can't. Think about it, the moment half of us are fed we'll fall asleep then there'll be no one to listen to her." And they both knew the Headmistress wouldn't have been very happy with that.

"You want a cupcake or some cookies?"

Why wasn't she taking the cookie?? They were good! Have one! Seriously!!! People who ate were less likely to suddenly lash out violently!!!!

Alright, she was going to lie to herself. "You don't want cookies, I get it." because she was ignoring Alice's question for now. "I have cupcakes too! Good ones! Some even have toppings that swirl but they're smushed I guess 'cause of the bag, doesn't mean they won't taste good though. I had one of them on the way up. Still VERY delicious! She fished around in her bag, more than a little panicked. Now that the moment was here she realized just how unprepared she was to die. There were still so many chocolate frogs she hadn't eaten--terrible example considering the circumstance but it was TRUE.

"You know, my summer was really good, how was yours?" She pulled out two cupcakes and held them out to her. Take them pleeeeease.



Blink. Blink.

Okay...so he stared at her then wanted to completely ignore her afterwards. That was more than just a little odd. She poked him just once more before realizing that he really was in fact bent on ignoring her. Well. She supposed that was fine. She still had her bag of pastries and candy so she could ignore him too.

Lex sat in her seat once more and helped herself to another cupcake. Ignoring was a game she played well, just ask her step-mum. She could pretend he wasn't there and didn't exist too and in fact that was what she was now doing. She didn't even see him looking over at her again.

Her attention was on her cupcake.

"Oh! That would make it brilliant! Does that mean you got to go to that Quidditch match or something with Alice?" Or did that not happen? Everyone always made summer plans, but sometimes they didn't happen because of irrelevant people, such as was her case for a part of the summer.

"Mine was good, I got to see my friends too but then my step-mum got really annoying and wouldn't let me do anything or go anywhere." The thought almost had her rolling her eyes. The woman was lucky there were laws in place for underage magic and the like.

But on to HAPPIER things!! "Yup! Bought them when I went to get my school books. Let's see...I got...Jinxes for the Jinxed, Basic Hexes for the Busy and Vex oh and this one with a really long title but it was on curses." Lex beamed at this. She wasn't usually one to be beaming because of books but COME ON, who wouldn't??? Those were the best three books she'd read in forever--fdbkjdfvdfk!!! "You mean it?? YES!!!" She wasn't gonna learn even MORE. GRIIIIIN.

Christmas smiled and said "Yeah course we are dating Nashville and i hope that we can have fun together in school like seeing each other and spending time together"