Fiona was experiencing a feeling of excitement mixed with nervousness as she sat down at the Slytherin table. After all the turbulence of her previous year at Hogwarts/Beauxbatons, Fiona was mentally preparing herself.

Casually looking towards the staff table, she spotted unfamiliar faces and familiar faces including that of the Beauxbatons Care of Magical Creatures professor.

"What's he doing here?" the young snake thought to herself as she waited for more students to arrive.

Curtis was already sitting at the table, he was glad that older students didn't have to go through this sorting hat process with the other kiddies in public. Could you imagine being apart of the tiny eleven-year-olds waiting in front of everyone and then having to explain that you're older than them? Talk about embarrassing. Frankly, he was bored. His chin resting on an open palm while his other set of fingers drummed the table.

Curtis scoped the staff table and of course saw the familiar face, how long would it take for others to know? Probably a day or less, but that's okay. He had to get to know the other professors though. The two professors at the very end of the staff table started to give him some ideas. Hmmm...

In the corner of the room, all the way down one end of the Slytherin table - at the end farthest from the staff (at which he had indeed noticed a familiar face) - sat Kaiser. He was doing a pretty poor job at keeping himself distracted, but just couldn't bring himself to force any socialising. Tomorrow, he kept telling himself. I'll start pulling things back tomorrow. Everything will go back to normal.

Of course, he had no reason to believe he'd actually manage it. Didn't even know what the 'normal' was that he wanted to go back to. But as long as he told himself things would change for the better, he had something to focus on. At the very least, he was glad to be back at Hogwarts, a place he felt suited him much better than Beauxbatons ever would have.

Fiddling idly with the table knife at his place, Kaiser cast his eyes around the Hall. He wasn't sure who to look for at first, but eventually found himself scanning the Gryffindor table, looking for Kodee. Just to see if he could find him, really, though it was unlikely that he'd flag him down or anything. Kaiser knew he was a huge downer to be around at the moment, and wouldn't want to inflict that on his friend. It would just be nice to see a friend who remained at school, and with whom his relationship had not drastically changed over the past year or so.

Isla had just finished getting sorted and now was headed, still in a state of shock, to the Slytherin table. She still understand how this had happened. Her, a Slytherin. Still, she was determined to make the best of things. She really didn't know what to expect of her new house and housemates. For all she knew, they might be some of the best friends she's ever had.

Wandering all the way down the table and sitting in the middle or Merlin forbid the end was out of the question. She settled for one of the seats right toward the front of the table, finally giving her a feeling of blending in rather than being put on the spot. Her nerves started to calm down, and she was finally able to look around at her new housemates. "Hey," she managed to say. "I'm Isla Bellchant." A first year Slytherin, in case they hadn't caught on to that.

Claudine felt as though she was only now beginning her first year rather than her second year. She had tried to observe as much as possible as she was shepherded along to the Great Hall in the sea of students. She was quite grateful, actually, seeing as she had never set foot into Hogwarts prior and did not know her way around as yet. The Slytherin House table could not be missed because of all of the House decorations.

"Hello, everyone,'' the girl mumbled and hurried to take a seat far away from them. She ended up on the bench opposite to Kaiser whom she nodded to then turned her attention to the Staff. Familiar faces included de Nostredame (this was interesting). Claudine stared at Schmoe. What was he wearing? How unusual.

The Staff Dias lost her interest for the moment for she hated seeing so many new faces there. Instead, Claudine took the time to study the Hall.

Having had a rather nice last train ride to Hogwarts, Gunnar was feeling pretty good as he walked into the Great Hall for the welcoming feast. He was pleased to be back for his final term, and once he made sure the new students knew where to go (there were twice as many this term, since technically the second years were new to Hogwarts too), he found his own way to the castle and made a beeline for the Slytherin table.

The Head Boy opted for a seat not quite at the middle of the table and not quite at the end, but somewhere in between. As he lowered himself onto the bench, he spotted Kaiser down at the end and spared him a glance, but that was all before looking away. Because as far as Gunnar was concerned, they were no longer friends. Not when Kaiser could seem to so easily throw their friendship away over what he could only describe as a misunderstanding, and when Gunnar was so selective about who he was friends with in the first place. And after months of trying to mend things between them only to be continually met with either avoidance or tepid civility, he was done. He'd rather have nothing at all than being held at arm's length.

And rather than acknowledge the anger still bubbling inside him over the thought, he pushed it down very deep, refusing to let it ruin his good mood or his last welcoming feast. The Slytherin turned his eyes to each of the other tables respectively, looking for a specific friend or family member at each, before lifting his eyes to the staff table. So many new faces, but no surprise there. There were always new faces. But one familiar face in particular gave him pause, surprised that he was there at all. He'd have to get on his good side though, for reasons.

Nothing says like home sweet home than being back at Hogwarts. They finally returned and this was something that Jillian looked forward to the minute summer came after Beauxbaton. It was one hell of a year but everyone made it through and thank Merlin so did their Headmaster. Best thing about Hogwarts? Of course their Slytherin common room- one they didn't have back at Beauxbaton. Sigh.

But all of that is now in the past and she is just happy that they're all back here.

Jillian spotted a few familiar faces (Kaiser, Claudine and Fiona) in the Slytherin table and some new ones (Curtis and Isla). Spotting also their Head Boy (Gunnar) who doesn't look like he's in a good mood. Still, Jillian gave him and the others a polite smile before taking a seat at the middle. She's quite shy around new people and that doesn't help her now that she's coming back as a prefect. She needs to be more comfortable in just taking the leap- talk to people. They're not going to bite... hopefully not literally.

Today would be a great way for her to start. "Hi, welcome to Slytherin" she greeted the new faces. One looked like he was bored? Or perhaps ready to eat? Could be either, could be both. Jillian can relate to that, she's also hungry right now. The other one, looks a bit shy- a behavior that most first years show because it was a new environment. "Hi Isla." she flashed her a smile "I'm Jillian Kim."

As the seconds turned into minutes, Isla started relax a little more. She looked around her, still not believing that she was surrounded by a sea of green and silver. Her stomach let out a low grumble, and she wished the food would appear. Ever since her chocolate frog had hopped away on the train, she'd been more than ready to eat dinner.

She looked up when a girl close to her age (Claudine) greeted the whole table at once. "Hello," she said, but the girl had brushed past her so quickly that Isla wasn't even sure she'd heard a reply. She wished she already had a group of friends to sit with. It would have made this whole thing so much easier.

That was when an older girl (Jillian) welcomed the new ones to Hogwarts and even greeted Isla by name. That made her feel so much better. "Hey, Jillian," she said with a smile. Jillian didn't seem so bad. Maybe what they said about Slytherins wasn't true after all. Maybe they weren't all bad guys. "I'm a little shocked to be here. I mean, Slytherin seems amazing, and I'm proud of my new house, but I had looked over the houses and what they stood for, and I never expected myself to be a Slytherin."

She thought about what the Sorting Hat had told her. It had said she was determined to succeed. Something like that. Is that what had made her a snake?

Austin piled in with the other students. He took a seat at the Slytherin table and glanced around at his fellow house mates. He also noticed one of the French teachers was here.
Huh. Why's he here?

Fiona watched the newly sorted Slytherin sit down. "Hey, Isla. My name's Fiona Jenovick," she greeted with a small grin. "Welcome to Slytherin."



Fiona spotted Claudine and quickly flashed her a small wave and smile. "Hey, Claudine."



"Hello, Jillian. How are you?" Fiona greeted with a quick grin.



Fiona noticed Austin sitting down and when she caught his eye, she gave him a quick wave.

Blake had lost Bernadette in the shuffle .. plus she would be going to sit by her own house at the start of the feast. Blake was so excited to actually be at Hogwarts this year. Seemed so odd that though he had one year of education under his belt he was just as green as the first years coming in.

Being in the actual great hall for the first time was fun. He was determined to break out of shell a bit more this year, he was going to make new friends and not be such a stick in the mud. Maybe he'd even break some rules this year ... no .. okay .. well no he probably wouldn't do that, but none the less he was going to make his mark!

And with that he plopped a pile of mash potatoes on his plate and began to look around. Was Claudine in he hall yet? ...... what about that other kid he met on the train?? What was his name?? What house did he even end up sorted into.

The only good thing about sitting at his house table at the moment was the fact that Jade had been sorted here - and he was still more than a bit salty by the fact that he had found out that she was even coming to Hogwarts at all when he had spotted her by chance on the train ride here. Considering that he had been mostly reclusive on said ride, right now was his first look at any new prefecting appointments for Slytherin. Gunnar came as a no brainer to him - he would have been personally offended if the older snake hadn't been appointed with that badge - but for some reason Jillian took him a bit by surprise. He would offer his congratulations to both later, perhaps, once he was done feeling some sort of way about badges in general.

Everything, literally, seemed to set him more on edge. From the absence of certain respectable professors to that one new first year babbling on about how shocked she was to be here but still so proud of a house and its people that she knew nothing about...Eiji was ready for this feast to be over. Which was precisely why he sat himself down across from Kaiser who, from his observations, could appreciate silence as much as this sixth year could. Never one for idle chatter, he was even less inclined to indulge anyone at the moment - and hopefully his siblings would keep to their own house tables and spare him for the remainder of the evening.

At least Missa was looking in her element. That was nice to see, he supposed.

Her mood had quickly turned sour as a result of events on the train and the strange carriage ride spent with Evan Eastwood. Nina was fundamentally annoyed, but more than that she was very upset and it had nothing to do with recent events. Though... She would pretend it did. So with the horrible feeling that she had at the pit of her stomach, she made her way towards her house table and did a quick scan of who was sitting where. Normally, she opted to sit with her boys, but that was the last place she wanted to sit tonight. She didn't have the energy to pretend. It was typically exhausting, but more so when your energy was already depleted to begin with. She had already caught up with Calloway on the train ride over and she'd surely see Ethan in the Common Room anyway.

And so she made way for the far end of the table. Once reaching it, she took note of Eiji Rasting and Kaiser. Sitting in.... silence.

It was perfect.

So Nina silently took a seat on the bench too, next to Eiji.

To the right, to right, all the food you want to eat will be on the table to the right. King hummed to himself making safe passage to the right side of the Great Hall.

This place was pretty spectacular, now this was impressive to him. Sure it could use a little more shades of black and dark green but this will do.

There were about three tingles of anxious nerves in his hands, being new to any school was Barry (haha get it?) anxious-provoking for any human, witch or wizard. His green eyes wandered all over the scenery around him and also searching for areas that would suit well for exits in case of lets say a fire? Or troll just spontaneously occurring. Heck he would use every single human in this place as a shield in the instance of emergency to assure his safe escape and maybe if he’s feeling kind, save like one or two people, three if it’s a good day.

By this time King was feeling H A N G R Y in all six languages he was fluent in. SADNESS. "Later we'll all die said the gator to the fly!" Pressing his forehead down on the table he whined at the starvation he was enduring.

He wasn’t like his auntie Silver who would go on ridiculous juice cleanses and didn’t eat solids for a certain amount of days. Garbage! His auntie Silver was once a proud Gryffindor back in her day, not that it mattered since he got sorted in the BEST house at Hogwarts. No regrets.

Kaiser had spotted Kodee alright, and it looked like the boy was already Kodee-ing, which was... well. You know. You know? After watching the proceedings over at the Gryffindor table for a couple of minutes, Kaiser had let his gaze drift instead to the Hufflepuffs. He spotted a face or two (well, no, definitely just the one) that he would have preferred to have not seen at all, but passed over them with no discernible reaction. Finally, he found Tomasz... just as the boy seemed to be leaving. The idea to get up and join him crossed Kaiser's mind for a split second - less - but he ultimately stayed exactly where he was. Wishing he was anywhere but at this feast was exactly the reason he forced himself to stay put and suffer through it. It made sense. It did.

Turning his attention to those at his own house table, Kaiser found himself turning the silverware over in his fingers a little more frenetically. The now-second-year Claudine got a nod in return, and Kaiser spotted Jillian, from the year below, sporting what was unmistakably a prefect badge. Filing this information away, Kaiser glanced further up the table and caught sight of Gunnar. He didn't look at him for very long, mostly because... well. Because it hurt.

That whole stupid situation. Kaiser still got angry sometimes when he thought about it, but he wasn't entirely sure who it was he was angry at anymore. Even after his initial rage over the matter had burnt out, after the red mist had finally cleared and he'd been able to think about it all logically, he still couldn't fully bring himself to believe Gunnar's story. Why else would Alessandro have-... No. No. He couldn't think about it. Because if he thought about it, he might start thinking of ways that Gunnar's explanation might actually make sense, and at this point it was just so much easier to keep him at a distance, which in turn was easier when he didn't believe him. Kaiser had got a taste of how badly things could go wrong with people, and knew he wouldn't be able to bear it happening again; he had long since convinced himself that it was better this way. For everyone. With everyone.

Kaiser stared intently at the stretch of table in front of him, trying not to focus on the Gunnar situation and ultimately thinking of little else. He began to wonder about the dormitory situation. Maybe it would be better if he found somewhere else to sleep, to avoid any... well... anything. Awkwardness. Conflict. Or, if this term would be anything like the last (and he had a suspicious feeling it might even be worse), he'd only need somewhere to sit and while away the hours until daybreak...

How long he had been stuck in his thoughts, Kaiser couldn't say. All he knew was that, the next time he remembered himself and looked up again, Eiji and Nina were sat across from him. He felt... strange, detached, like he was coming out of a weird fever dream, but managed a slight incline of the head which served as a greeting for the both of them (all the while glad that neither had greeted him verbally... unless they had, and he'd completely missed it), before glancing once more back up the table.

Strange. So strange. Some of these kids were just... on another level. Enthusiastic, relaxed, content. The younger ones, especially. The gulf between them felt wider than ever, and Kaiser couldn't seem to remember a time that he'd been anything like that. Had he ever even felt anything other than what he was experiencing right now? It didn't seem possible.

THE SPEECH!

It was the moment Isla had been waiting for! Not to be dramatic or anything, but the speech meant that the food was about to be served, and Isla was beyond starved by this point. Even still, she listened to the speech. She had no idea what to expect at her new school. As a matter of fact, she didn't even know the man's name that was giving the speech. All of that would come in time, but the important part she took away from the speech was that they'd have to clean the castle.

Okay... The house elves couldn't have whipped things into shape? She felt kind of mean for thinking that, but what else did they have to do just hanging around the castle day after day? He said it wasn't up for debate, though, so she decided to let it be. No way was she brave enough to go around complaining on day one at Hogwarts. She'd save that kind of thing for day two.

At least she was learning some of the names of her professors. The new ones, at least. The Herbology professor's last name was Rainwater? Well, if that wasn't a job position destined from birth, she didn't know what was! Well played, sir. Well played. As for the Forbidden Forest, he could be rest assured that Isla wouldn't be making her way into that. She didn't even know how to cast light from her wand yet, let alone save herself from being eaten. Thanks, but no thanks.

At the sound of a clap, the tables filled with food, and the first year began filling her plate with a little bit of this, and a little bit of that.

The first years, Claudine noticed, were being welcomed to Hogwarts by some like Jillian. But where was the welcome for the second years, who had never set foot into Hogwarts until now? Weren’t they taken into consideration? Claudine was really not taken aback by the lack of thought of others but a welcome would have been nice.

Now that she was seated, she took the chance to study the few that had greeted her back. There was the new face (Isla) whom Claudine was looking forward to observing the girl to form an opinion of her. Fiona got a small smile. “Thoughts on Hogwarts so far?’’ Then there was Blake. Claudine hadn’t seen him over the summer but not that she cared. She carefully avoided his eyes. Was that first year (King) going to survive? Claudine was entertained by his dramatics.

The second year focused on the speech, her eyes never wavering from the Headmaster. Her gaze hadn’t changed from the previous school year: it was still an intense and serious one, enough to make anyone feel uncomfortable. Claudine wasn’t even concerned about them having to help the elves; Hogwarts would be completely restored to its full glory one day. The food finally arrived and she helped herself to roast beef and tried to ignore the sinking feeling about all the Staff changes.

Any change could be difficult for some like her to adjust to, especially if one had grown fond of what was there before. Like Barlow. The man had grown on her even though he kept getting her name wrong.

the speech was over. Austin half grinned and started to fill his plate with food. A spoonful of corn, another spoonful of corn. Okay. Cool.