Gazing over at Janelle she couldn't help but beam at the address. She was not technically a professor anymore but it felt nice so Helena didn't correct her. "I did, quite uneventful though aside from reading some transfiguration texts I hadn't seen before. I always end up missing the chatter and voices to the halls all you students bring to the castle.."



This was disturbing Helena concluded as the young first year had her mouth gaping open again. It was very un-ladylike too. Should she consult a prefect? This was worrying. But before Helena could catch the attention of any of the prefects she actually got a response out of the girl if only a reverent whispered hi. "I'll hope you'll come to like it here where we treasure a ready mind and a thirst for knowledge."



"It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance young Jasper." Helena responded to the newly sorted boy. Nodding she affirmed. "Rowena Ravenclaw was my mother." If he wanted to know more he could research in Hogwarts. A History. "Did your parents attended Hogwarts too?"



Oh how silly of her to not recognize her and think she was a first year like those who sat next to her. Helena said with a slight inclination of her head. "I'm sorry Chloe. You are of course starting your second year of magical education. What subject are you most looking forward to?"

It was awfully nice of her sister though to have done her hair up like that.



"It's a pleasure to meet you too Azura. Are you perchance related to the other Kennedy girl that got sorted into Gryffindor by the name of Dora?" Helena queried curiously. Many families sent more than one son or daughter to attend Hogwarts at the same time after all like the infamous Weasleys.



"Same here Austin. Just having the other ghosts and house elves of the castle for company makes for quite an unexciting summer. Gives me time to read though." Helena added thoughtfully. "Any class your most looking forward to attending?"



"You may ask young eagle, but I can't promise i'll answer all of them." Helena responded to Rachel. It was her privelidge as a lady to chose what she answered and not. Some things she avoided talking about even with those at this school who knew her best. Her gazing drifted to the Bloody Baron and then to Sir Nicholas before she refocused her gaze on Rachel. "I do not regret it no."



"That is your right Thornton. I shall ask you again at the end of the year to see who of us was right." Helena commented to the prefect. He hopefully would grow more confident in his ability to lead as the year passed. But he would have to do the work on his own. She couldn't do it for him.

"I'm glad you are back too Thornton." Helena smiled. "The castle is pretty grey and dull when you students aren't here. You bring life to it."

"That's good to hear." At least she had books to keep her company. He was sure that having the same people to talk to every day could get boring.

"Potions, most definitely. I'm always looking forward to new recipes." Was it strange to be so excited about a school subject? For Austin it wasn't, mainly because he had been excited about it since his first year. He never thought it could come across as strange.



Austin chuckled at the mention of his eyes. "Why thank you. They tend to run in my family as well." A lame attempt at a joke, but at least Austin was attempting. Which was more than he's done in a long time. "And let me be one of the first to welcome you to Ravenclaw." Was he one of the first? He wasn't really paying attention to who everyone was talking to. Although maybe now he should.

"There's a lot of blue here, but after a day or two you tend not to notice. Just wait until you see the common room." It was a bit of a trek up to the tower, but it was well worth it. The ceiling looked like the night sky, and the chairs were so comfortable you could sleep all night in one. Which was something he had done once or twice. What could he say? The fireplace was very warm.



As the last of the students found their way to their respective tables, Austin recognized one small girl from the candy shops. Thankfully, they had just spoken her name, so he didn't have to try and remember it. She sat roughly nearby, and looked a little nervous.

"Hey, Ryland!" He gave a small wave, to signal that he was the one who had called. "Why don't you pull up a seat?" The teen patted the seat next to him, hoping she would join in on the fun. Plus, it was always nice to have a familiar face nearby.



Finally, the feast was about to begin. Normally there would be the typical speech, and then they got to feast. But this year, there were new professors, and even a new headmistress. Hopefully her speech didn't take all night. There was food to be had! But instead they were all moving around... Weird. Although the joke did get a good chuckle out of the fifth year. Maybe this wasn't going to be so bad.

What did worry him, though, was the new potions professor. Well, all the new professors tended to worry him especially the old hag. New professors meant having to be introduced. And that just meant more for Austin to be nervous about. What if they didn't like him? What if the potions professor didn't like him? He wanted to be able to get into the lab to practice a few potions he had trouble with. But if the new professor put up stricter rules, then he may not be allowed.

Austin's nerves were about to take over his new found confidence, when food had appeared on the plates in the middle. Suddenly all he really cared about was getting food. He grabbed a few wings, a bit of shepherd's pie, and even some mashed potatoes. And as soon as he filled up his goblet, he was ready to eat.

This thing just kept getting longer and longer...
 

Very slowly, this O____O became this OuO , and she whispered, “I will.”

She would ask all the questions. Maybe, by this time next year, she’d even be able to talk to the ghosts the same way all the other students were.

Julia inspected the black nails dutifully, and couldn’t help exclaiming, “Oh, but Dugray is so pretty! It has such a poetic feel to it, don’t you think? As if you were the tragic heroine, locked in a tower and unable to escape except by her own wits!”

She certainly thought so.

O____o

Coof?

…something told her that wasn’t going to be on her word-a-day calendar. At least there was a greater chance of her remembering Ailsa’s name, now that she had something memorable to place with it. She leaned across the table to shake Ailsa’s hand, thinking to herself how very formal and grown-up everyone was being. She was pretty sure she’d exchanged more handshakes today than she had in the previous year, and never with so many people her own age before.

“Nice to meet you, too.”

Julia turned back to Janelle, forcing the creeping overwhelmed feeling of being talked to by so many people away. Culture shock was happening, and there was nothing for it but to adjust. The sooner the better, and from what Janelle was saying it sounded very possible indeed.

“Mine are opposite!” she blurted. “Except my house is sort of both. Potions and magic plants and things. Nothing like this though.”

She gestured to the hall again. This. Just… all of this.

Julia wasn’t exactly sure what a prefect was, but he was wearing a badge so she supposed it was some sort of… big brother... type… person. That made it all the more important that this be one of the names that stuck in her head. Thornton. Thornton, Thornton, Thornton.

There.

“I’m Julia.” She noticed that Thornton wasn’t holding out his hand for a shake, so she held out hers. Since that was apparently what they did at the Ravenclaw House Table. “It’s nice to meet…”

O___O

After watching the professor turn tomato red and collapse, Julia turned back to Prefect Thornton, “Um…? Does that…? Happen… a lot?”

Should they be concerned about it?



…apparently not. Oooookay then!

Julia followed along with the instructions, by now thoroughly accepting of the fact that the culture of Hogwarts was barmy and it was best to go along with it until she learned the ropes. Although, she did giggle when the Headmistress did.

She doubted she would remember any of the professors who were introduced until she actually met them in class, but she listened just the same. And then FOOD APPEARED MAGICALLY IN FRONT OF THEM, WHAT?!

Julia gaped at all the food suddenly on the table.

Chloe didn't mind that the Grey Lady didn't notice her. She was usually hidden behind a curtain of hair and kept to herself. Unless it was to tell certain people, namely boys, that they were wrong. About everything. Ever. Girls were smarter and Chloe was even smarter than most girls. It didn't make it rude if it were true.

She was surprised when the Grey Lady kept talking to her to the point where she even turned around to check if there were another Chloe behind her. Truly. The fact that the Grey Lady was talking to her was kind of strange. "Uh," she began quietly, "Probably Herbology." She liked Herbology and potions and was open to all kinds of magic, really.



Chloe turned back to basically editing Dora's comic when the boy kept talking to her. Loads of people were talking to her today. She wondered briefly if it was her hair? It being tied back and off her face probably sent out more of a welcoming message than the curtain of blonde locks usually did.

"The joker's okay," she found herself saying, "But he's only really scary because he's chaos. You can't predict what he's gonna do next. It's not that he as a person is actually the scariest. You kind of always expect crazy from a guy dressed like a clown. Much scarier people are the people you never expect." She shrugged. That was what she thought, anyway.

And Catwoman was way better than the Joker by leagues. Just by virtue of existing.

Anyone?
 

Jace quickly took a scan of his new house, and was DELIGHTED to see familiar faces. He gave them all a quick wave, and sat on an empty seat, having the intention not to disrupt their conversations. Merlin, he wasn’t aware that the Hogwarts Express could carry such amount of students in one go! The castle’s jam-packed if he may add.

As if the noise from his own table wasn’t enough, Jace was distracted by how...dramatic some of his teachers were. The eleven year old looked just in time to see a man in a suit faint...and the old hag from the train tormenting the other teachers. The Ravenclaw couldn’t believe his eyes. She was going to teach them?! Jace tried to form words, but nothing came out of his mouth. This...this is insane.

Jace turned to face the table again, not wanting to talk to anyone right now. There were so many things that need to be understood around the place, and he thinks that he’ll be needing more than just tonight to understand everything fully.

A booming voice came next, and this made the 11 year old whip his around to listen. How did she do that? A person can amplify one’s voice? That’ll be so convenient when he’s competing in a Kendo match! His kiai would scare off his opponent, definitely. As instructed, the newly minted Ravenclaw stood from his seat, took a step on his left, back...and back to his seat. Was it...customary to do such dance before a meal? Jace blinked as he returned his attention back to the woman, and grinned at her. So she’s Meredith Moxley. He’d seen her name while he read the Daily Prophet on the train earlier. Jace kept track of the faces and names...and his eyes lingered on a woman with a Japanese name.

Wait, really???

Jace craned his neck, to get a better view of her and grinned at the thought of speaking to her in Japanese. It looks like he wouldn’t miss home that much now, eh? The grin however faded, when the Headmistress acknowledged the old, scary looking witch as their Divination professor.

It’s official then, eh?

Sighing, and trying to accept this hard fact, Jace turned to face the table again, and was surprised to see the table FULL of food. The table was so full, it only had room for their arms so they could eat comfortably.

Picking up his fork and knife, Jace wondered which one to pick first.

This is aimed at Penelope and Thornton but ANYONE can be hit too
 

I've been here all along. Mhmmm.
 

"Glad to have you with us," he added, nodding. "If you need anything, let me know." Thornton observed her for a bit, before deciding she seemed settled. Others to check on...

Thornton nodded. Perhaps he would seek her out soon and ask her for her perspective. She'd obviously seen centuries worth of prefects. Maybe she would have some advice.

"I look forward to it, Lady Ravenclaw," he said.

"Good to meet you, Julia," he said, extending his hand to take hers. Her sudden question, though, caused him to look up toward the staff.

"Er, not usually, but Professor Flamsteed is..." how to put this diplomatically. "Somewhat excitable. I'm... sure he's fine."

Maybe.

But then the Headmistress had them up and out of their seats and moving and... Thornton had better find an actual seat for the feast.


But before Thornton Baines could get settled in a seat and actually get any food for himself, a mix of mashed potatoes and peas rained down on him, covering his head and shoulders.

No. No no no no no no no no. This was not happening. There were firsties everywhere and they were all about to be covered with gravy and mash and all sorts of other things. Or so he thought, not realizing yet that it was a targeted attack. Spinning around, much as he had during that food assault in Astronomy, he cast a shield charm hoping to spare as many people near him as possible.

"No one throw anything back," he said, voice raised, potatos dropping from his head to his shoulders. Ravenclaw would not get drawn into this. No. No no no.

Oh. Hey. Hugs and cuddles. Kaycee knew that coming over to the Ravenclaw table was a good idea. Also. Hair. It was short now.

"You feel cold." Just saying.

"Aww. That sounds awesome." She then grinned. How was her summer? "Well... you know that camp I went to LA? One of the instructors got food poisoning, so I got to fill in! It was AWESOME!"

Jazzy, Thorton, Austin, The Grey Lady, Jace, Rachel and speech!
 

Azura felt her own cheeks warm a bit as Jasper spoke about hugging her. "No, you didn't.. I was just teasing you Jazzy." She said with a warm smile as he looked at her shyly. He was so cute! He really was!

She put her elbow on the table, and propped up her head in her hand as she looked over at him, she couldn't get over how they had both gotten into the same house! She wanted to squeal!! But she didn't! Instead she just smiled, her purple eyes sparkling..

"Ahh Hufflepuff! I guess that wouldn't have been a bad house, but it's so far away from the Ravenclaw tower! She assumed of course, it would have been awful if he had ended up there! What if she tripped and died on her way down to see him?

EEEKK! She didn't want THAT on his conscious! Yes.. much better they got into the same house!

"Oh no! You ran out of Sugar Quills?" She looked at him, her purple eyes wide in horror.. before she reached into robes and pulled one out..

"Well, now you have one." She said with a nod as she handed it to him, she made a mental note to ask her parents to send some more! She wasn't sure if her stash would be enough for the month!

He liked Sugar Quills too? He really was perfect.. wasn't he?



Azura smilled and nodded her head as Thorton spoke.."That makes a lot of sense, thank you so much for explaining that to me. I'm so happy to be in this house." She said with a warm smile at the prefect, before glancing over at Jazzy, it made perfect sense why he was here too! His drawing, and his guitar playing! He was so creative and smart!

She smiled at him more. "Thank you, for checking up on us.. I hope we can talk more later." She said with a wave as he moved off to check on the other students.



Azura smiled at the Grey Lady, but she shook her head at her question. "No Lady Ravenclaw I am not, I don't have any siblings." She said with a smile. She wished she did though! "I might have to meet her though! If we have the same last name, that would be really cool." Azura's purple eyes sparkled happily at the Grey Lady!

She never thought she would be having a conversation with a ghost! But she was! She loved Magic!!



Azura laughed a little as Austin said HIS eyes ran in the family as well. "Well that's fun." She said with a bit of a smile. Though hers really did! And hers weren't even the brightest in her family! That honor went to her Aunt! "Thank you so much. I'm so excited to be here! And she was! She was so excited to get into this house! Her mother had gone here and her Aunt!

"Blue is my favorite color actually, so I'm really enjoying all of the blue." She said with a nod as he spoke about the common room. "I can't wait to see it, though I'm a little wary of the trek up there! She said with a soft laugh..

She wasn't the more coordinated of people, she hoped she didn't kill herself on the stairs!



Was that.. Jace?

Azura's purple eyes turned towards him with a warm smile. 'Jace! Did you get sorted into Ravenclaw too? Welcome! Wow! So many people were in her house! This was going to be an amazing year!

She waved back at Rachel, she wanted to talk to her later, but she assumed they could probably chat in the common room.. After her talk with Jazz of Course..

And then the speech..

And finally!

FOOODD!!!!

Food Fight Things
 

Abby wasn't going to throw food was against her nature and plus she didn't want to go against Thornton's orders anyway so she stayed put and hoped that it would pass by quickly

a reply to Julia, just before Kitty explodes.
 

Kitty's eyes widened in slight surprise as Julia complimented her real name. It made her seem like a princess? "Wow, I never thought of it like that. Do you really think it sounds like a name a princess might have?" Maybe it did, but it was hard to find a princess or a tragedy in the name "Dugray." "Okay, I guess you can call me Dugray if you want to. I'm going to ask my mum about it in a letter."

Just then several small clumps of mashed potato rained down on Kitty's head. "GAAA!!" She gasped in shock and anger and threw her arms over her head to block any more. "Who did that?!" she shouted angrily, looking for the person who had dared to ruin her appearance after she had spent all that time on the train putting make up on. Normally Kitty was a very nice (and even shy) person, but this was too much - even if she was not the only one hit. But then the prefect was ordering them to not throw anything back. For a split second Kitty considered disobeying, but she didn't want to get punished. So instead she shot a very, very foul look at the boy. He'd be sorry if he DARED to throw anything else at her.

Haddie frowned at the question, just for a second. A small slip then the frown was gone. "I have an older brother, and... a twin sister. But neither are magical, so they're not here." She smiled at Kitty before her attention was drawn to Ailsa.

Her cousin was having way too much fun trying, unsuccessfully, to tease Haddie. Amateur. But judging by the reaction to Haddie introducing Ailsa as Elsa. Oh, yeah. Teasing her cousin was going to be way too easy. She grinned, almost unable to contain the laugh. "Chill, Elsa. Just... let it go."

And there was her best friend trying to make sure she was as happy as she could be always. Rachel truly was a great best friend, even if they didn't always see things eye to eye. "It is too. But don't worry, I'm cheered up. And no," she shook her head. "You didn't, but Paige, the Hufflepuff girl from, um," she sheepishly lowered her voice, "the Scribbulus incident... She told me." Rachel knew all about that, and had used it against Haddie a few times already. "We'll see though, how it compares to my Mom's cooking."



Before Haddie could say anything more, or ask Penny the Prefect, who was still standing next to her, why they wouldn't get ice cream tonight, a sudden commotion at the Staff Table drew her attention in a snap.

Some teacher screaming his head off about suits and then fainted. She stifled a nervous laugh and looked around confused, but the mixture of reactions made it clear enough that this wasn't that out of place. This school was weird and she loved it!

Haddie turned back to continue her conversation with Rachel, when she had to again turn her attention back to the Staff table where they were instructed to stand, and take a couple of steps. It was somewhere between the small dance they had just done and the Headmistress's reason for it that Haddie decided she actually kinda liked the Headmistress. Kinda. That didn't stop her from ignoring the rest of the speech though, once it became clear it was just a run-of-the-mill welcome and these are your teachers speech.

But then there was food, and delicious looking food too! It smelled wonderful too. Hadley dug her fork into to the food on her now full plate and-------


Splat! The consequence of being next to the intended target. A huge glop of mashed potatoes were firmly plastered to the back of her head and right shoulder.

"Fat chance of that!" She stood, and grabbed a double handful of her mashed potatoes herself, and scanned the Great Hall for the culprit. It wasn't hard to figure out who was responsible, but unlike the boy, Haddie actually knew she was terrible at throwing. Before either prefect could do anything, she marched away from her table and to the Gryffindor's table...

Chris looked up as someone said his name and spotted Thornton now to be known as Prefect in front of him, "Um...yeah...I'm Chris." He shifted in his seat and shook his head, "No, but I will be."

His thought was cut off as he spotted food flying and a professor fainting. What in the world.... He shifted and went under the table to prevent flying food from hitting him. And after the events of 1st term this was his safety zone. This was how he didn't die last time.

Austin was about to respond to Azura when food began flying. He turned around to find a few students, dressed in red, with handfuls of food. And it didn't take long before students from his own house were grabbing food. He wasn't in the line of fire, but food still found its way onto his robes. Getting this out was going to be a nightmare.

"Guys! Come on! Is this really how you're going to treat the new headmistriss on her first day!?" To be honest, he wasn't sure if anyone had heard him. There was so much commotion in The Great Hall, that most of the first years focused on the food fight. He wasn't sure how the prefects, let alone the professors, were going to handle this.

Although this wasn't as bad as the one year he had an all out brawl with Gregoire, it was still pretty bad. And as more food flew, more students became upset, and stormed off. At this rate people might get hurt. Unsure of how to handle things here, Austin got up and headed towards the staff table.

As soon as a voice was close enough for him to register, he knew who it was. It wasn't every day that he was greeted by a ghost, and not every day that a ghost recognised his height difference when he was seated. Looking away from the staff table, Roo looked at the Gryffindors and found himself smile at hearing Miss Charlotte's voice before looking at Helena. "That would be because I'm taller. A whole five feet and four inches now." He sighed though, and gave her a smile because it wasn't in his best interests to start the year off like he was feeling.

"I went to drama camp and saw friends." So..it had been nice, sure. But he still wasn't the greatest fan of the ghost and was glad that he was over his first year crush on her.

Rooney had taken back to looking at the sorting when a surname peaked his interest. Kettleburn? Someone related to Miss Charlotte? The person that could answer his question immediately was a few seats down and so Rooney tried to flag his attention. "DaaVIEEEEEEEEE." Yes, cooooeeeeee. Here, please. "Callum Kettleburn? Miss Charlotte's brother? What is he like? Why isn't she pretending to be a Ravenclaw anymore?" Answers ASAP, Truebridge.

ANSWERS.

A boys love life rested on it.



It was an understatement if anyone thought that Rooney Bronwyn was going to accept a WHOLE splodge of mashed potatoes and gravy landing on his notebook. It was an understatement if anyone thought that Rooney Bronwyn was going to take this lightly. "MY NOTEBOOOOOOOOOOOOK!!!!!" His poor, poor, ruined work of art. This was years in the working. He had pages on everyone and pages on everything and he had so many lists that he still needed in there and it had been GRAVIED.

Ever the dramatic, Roo lifted the notebook to the air (a la circle of life) and stood on his seat with a wail.

His beautiful words about beautiful things. His poems about daffodils. His plans to woo Miss Charlotte. His GOALS. His DREAMS. His ten year plan! "RUEEEEEEE THE DAY YOU GRAVIED MY ANGEL! RUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE THE DAAAAAAAAAA-- EEYACKKKKKKKKKH!" In the middle of his scene he had been hit with a pumpkin pasty, and was now wearing the contents of it, the outer part sat on his ear almost like a cuff.

First his notebook.

And now him.

WHY.

Why couldn't they have just waited until he was in bed??! Which he wished he was now. How was he going to explain the mess he was in to Miss Sophie Brown?!

Her mouth hung open as her new friend disobeyed the prefect's order and stormed off to give the Gryffindor boy what he deserved. She watched as Haddie slammed potatoes into him - just before getting attacked by another student. Kitty couldn't take it any more. She grabbed a large clump of mashed potatoes and followed Haddie over to the Gryffindor table.

from the staff table FOR EVERYONE
 

Food Fight RainSPLOSION
 

Abby jumped as all of a sudden it started to rain in the great hall and she knew that it would have had something to do with the food fight that she did not get involved in as she did not want to lose points at the very start of term

Azura and food stuff XD
 

With an arm hovering over the pile of chicken legs in front of him, Jace paused to turn and acknowledge the voice that called him out. “Azura-san!” the eleven year old waved at the girl and gave him a series of nod. “Yes, just like my papa.” He said. “Oh and you too!” he said, observing that her robe had been charmed to sport the Ravenclaw house crest. “Congratulations!”

With a grin, he turned his attention back to the pile of chicken legs when all of a sudden a ball of mashed potato and gravy crashed on it. “...” Jace blinked, and looked up just in time to be hit by a cauldron cake. “...ack!” the eleven year old immediately wiped his face with the back of his hand, and wiggled his way underneath their table.

So far...Hogwarts isn’t that much different from his old muggle school.

As Jace remained under the table, he wondered about the reason behind the food fight. What was it for? Who...was it for? The Ravenclaw would take a peek from time to time, and he managed to see a boy throw food at the Staff table.

Jace wanted to cry. This is not the Hogwarts his papa told him about.

He went back to his spot underneath the table and had his hood up. Was it too late now to board the Hogwarts Express back to London?