The train ride had been quite uneventful, but that was not an issue for him. To Caiden, having an uneventful and common day was ideal. He had found a compartment near the back of the train where he could sit alone and sleep until they arrived at Hogsmeade, when he swiftly changed into his school uniform and, after a quiet carriage journey up to Hogwarts, found himself placed at the Great Hall's middle table.

He was starting to get hungry now that he knew the House Elves were going to magically materialize food on the table when the Headmaster finished his speech. He looked over to the staff table before picking up a goblet off the table and began to pour in some orange juice for himself.

After a trainride spent with sitting with Aryan and Emma and other's Emmeline was getting hungry. She had eaten some candy on the train like pumpkin pasties, and jelly slugs, but that didn't fill up her stomach now. Holding a hand over her eagle blue robe covered stomach she prayed that her stomach would stop growling so loud. Coming over to the Ravenclaw table Emmeline smiled brightly over at the fifth year boy already seated. "Hi Caden! Did you have a good summer break?" Feeling and hearing how her stomach let out a big growl again she blushed an apology to Caden. "Sorry, I'm hungry. I wish the sorting could go quick this feast."

She was baaaaaaaack!

Just in case anyone hadn’t realised that the bright and bubbly and strangely awake (for someone who had barely slept the previous night) Ravenclaw had entered the Great Hall and situated herself somewhere in the middle of the table. Perhaps it was a distraction to herself over how much harder it was becoming to leave her growing family behind every September combined with the excitement over seeing friends she hadn’t managed to see over the two month break. Either way, Aurora was her usual beaming self as she not-so-subtly waved at each new Ravenclaw who joined the house like the eagle welcome wagon.

That wasn’t to say that she was ignoring those already at the table whose conversations she was desperately attempting to listen into for fear of being left out. “I think they make the Sorting Ceremony purposefully longer so that we are all extra hungry when the food finally comes and there’s no leftovers. So that we don’t offend the House Elves” she offered to Caiden and Emmeline. There was nothing worse than a sad House Elf pulling at their own ears because they were disappointed that their hard work hadn’t been wholly appreciated.

Caiden reached into his robe pocket while he waiting and looked around the Great Hall, feeling the plastic of one of his self-made acrylic keychains in his hand. When the fifth year heard his name, he pulled his hand from his pocket and rested his elbow on the table before turning to face Emmeline. "Hi Emm" She didn't mind having her name shortened, right? "It was alright, plans changed halfway through as my uncle had to get a knee surgery so my nephew and i helped out on his farm for the majority of the summer" he said.

He was about to ask her how her summer had been when he heard a faint growl. The Ravenclaw initially mistook it for his own stomach as he started to feel hungry as well, but when Emmeline apologized, he laughed a bit. "Same" he replied, turning his head to look at Aurora near them. "Hmm...I doubt that is the reason, but it makes sense" he replied, picturing the House Elves' hard work in the kitchen. "Did you two have a good summer?" He asked. It was best to talk about random topics while they waited.

So Ravenclaw it is. Kyoya was not sure what just happened but it happened. It all seemed so fast, one minute he was putting on his school robes the next he's being sorted into a new house. He did enjoy what the sorting hat had to say about him though, it was definitely a first for him too. He waltzed towards the table with the other Ravenclaws and smiled to the ones who were already there (Caiden and Aurora). Kyoya feels a bit shy especially when he's not sure how to approach people. He gets a little bit flustered from time to time. Snapping back to reality, he shook his head for a bit and tried to calm his head down. Calm down, there's no need to worry, he thought to himself.

He distracted himself with the plate and silverware in front of him. Right, he knew there will be food soon. He's definitely excited about that.

"Hi Aurora," Emmie greeted with a bright smile as the fifth year bubbly blonde sat down at the table. "Did you have a good summer break?" she wondered as the sorting ceremony commenced near the staff dias, and she noted with a small sigh of relief that all her favourite professors were up there including her aunt. It felt safe and reassuring. Turning to Caden she made big eyes at his revelation. "I hope y ou're uncle is okay now? What kind of magical creatures do you keep at the farm?" Or maybe they just grew crops and fruits?

Emmie felt a little better when Caden said that he too was hungry. Her growling stomach was okay. Hearing Aurora's theory about the sorting ceremony being extra long to make them eat more food to honor the house elve's hard work Emmie shrugged. "It makes sense sort of, but doesn't the sorting take longer or shorter depending on how many new students the hat has to sort?" And of course if some students were easy to place or hard. Before Emmie could answer Caden's question about her how her own summer had been they were joined by a newly sorted student (Kyoya). Smiling wide she greeted him "Welcome to Ravenclaw. I'm Emmeline, third year." Then Emmie turned her attention back to Caden to answer his question. "My summer was good. I got to visit a magical zoo with my aunt Amelia. It was awesome. I got to pet, and feed some baby creatures.

Aurora was feeling surprisingly patient for her food tonight, maybe because she had snuck on a few snacks for the long train journey knowing that this process could take a while. Not SO many that she’d prove a disappointment to the House Elves however, they were always deserving of her appetite. “It might not be the reason but it is a reason.” she responded to Caden. A perfectly logical one in her head too, perhaps she was a true Ravenclaw after all.

As for the number of students to sort, it hadn’t seemed to fluctuate too much year by year. “More like how much the Sorting Hat has to say about each one. Sometimes he..” Was he a he? Aurora had never thought to ask before. “..likes to talk a lot and really dive into their heads and sometimes he just says it instantly. Like for me he thought about it for a while and I think he was considering Hufflepuff but I kinda asked for Ravenclaw a lot sooo..” Not that anyone had asked but she felt like she owed Emmeline an explanation. “My summer was GREAT. I volunteered at this creature sanctuary place and the owners were amazing and although I didn’t get to do all the complicated stuff I got to meet SO many magical creatures.” She’d take poop-scooping duty any day if it meant she got to be that close to some of her favourites.

Before she could continue on with her rambles over her summer adventure, an unfamiliar face (Kyoya) joined the table eliciting an excited wave from the blonde. “HI! Are you new? I’m Aurora, I’m in my fifth year. Did you transfer? You look too tall to be a firstie.” So. Many. Questions.

Could Headmaster Winterbottom get on with his speech already? Emmie was getting more and more hungry by the minute. When the sorting finally seemed to end she looked over at Aurora before the headmasters speech began with a reassuring smile. "You belong in Ravenclaw...You're super smart Aurora. My sorting took a while too. The sorting hat...is it a he? Anyway he lingered on whether i should have been put in gryffindor or hufflepuff too. Luckily he didn't consider Slytherin for me." Emmie would have said more but then Headmaster Winterbottom stood up and gave his speech announcing what she had already guessed that they had a new Herbology Professor and Professor Fergersnout was their new head of house along with Prof Khanna as groundskeeper. What brought a big bright, and wide smile to Emmie's lips was that her aunt was going to teach flying lessons. Yay! Awesome!

In seconds the food and drink magically appeared on the eagle which of course brought the attention of her new pet that she had completley forgotten that she had stuck in her robe pocket. With in moments her new black grass snake a gift from one of her cousins slithered up onto the table among the goblets to sniff at the food which caused Emmie to cry out in exasperation and panic "Mr Snakie No!!!!!!!!! Get back here!" as the snake started to move its way among the plates and goblets stopping to lift his head up to look at each of her housemates as if it was saying 'Hello! I'm Mr Snakie nice to meet you!' before it slithered along.

While summer was an absolute hoot - every day holding a precious memory that she was truly grateful for - Molly was overjoyed to be at her second home, Hogwarts. A second year, nonetheless, pretty much an expert in all things witchcraft and wizardry. Or so, she thought. She had every intention to help every new student with absolutely everything. The redhead’s uniform was spotless and her hair, despite being down and not styled other than a butterfly clip, still looked tidy. It had grown at least 2 inches since her first year.

Her initial reaction was to cartwheel down the hall to greet her classmates, the social part of her brain told her to refrain. She loved to be her authentic self and sometimes this definitely crept up on her, but she also knew that sometimes people didn’t think she was very cool. So, she took a deep breath to speak but instead, listened intently to what Aurora was saying. Aurora was definitely a friend, and hopefully she wouldn’t mind a benevolent one eavesdropping behind her.

“Woah! You volunteered at an animal sanctuary! Awww, you’re so kind and caring!” Molly paused, “Now I feel guilty for spending my summer on the beach, and also trying every flavour of ice cream at Floreans.” It sounded like she was making a joke, but no, she did really feel bad.

Before she could even greet anyone, she stared in surprise as a student started shrieking about a snake. It wasn’t long before she noticed the said snake on the table, and Molly let out an extremely shrill SCREAM, which would have filled the entire room.

Drawn by the sight of the snake and the students’ cries, Norman appeared at the Ravenclaw table in an instant. “Keep calm, Miss Wyndham,” he said, giving the girl a reassuring look. “We’ll soon have this sorted out.” First things first, try to catch the snake. He moved down the table ahead of the creature, extending an arm for it to slither up if so inclined.

His bluish-green eyes scanned the table, assessing the situation. He presumed the snake was Vance’s, as he heard her cry out too, And unless his ears deceived him, he thought he’d heard her name it. “Miss Vance, I take it this is yours,” he said, giving her a stern look as if warning her not to lie to him. “How did it get here?”

The way he handled the situation would depend greatly on the answer to that question. He could think of more than one way for a snake to get into the Great Hall… An ill-timed attempt at snake conjuring? Perhaps it snuck into her bag without her noticing? Or followed her inside of its own accord? Unlikely, but he wasn’t going to jump to conclusions and/or punishment without having all the facts. For now, he’d give the benefit of the doubt.

Smart was.. subjective she supposed. Aurora had never considered herself intelligent in the literal sense. Lessons often went in one ear and out the other. But when she was interested in something, she could become truly engulfed. “I don’t think I’m what most people think of as a typical Ravenclaw” she replied to Emmeline. But then again she supposed that others might have thought the same about her Mum’s. “There’s amazing people in every house, I don’t think it really matters where we are sorted.”

Whilst the Headmaster rambled away with his usual speech, Aurora tried to pay attention to but the excitement of being back around her peers was too much. Instead she found herself glancing around the Great Hall in an attempt to pick out her friends from amongst the crowds. Her eyes first headed to the Slytherin table since that was closest only to see that Solomon was clearly not in the mood to socialise, then across to the Hufflepuff table to be disappointed by the lack of sight of a curly-haired bestie and finally to the Gryffindor table where a lonely looking Freddy was skulking and became the recipient of a finger wiggle wave. It wasn’t the happiest looking start-of-term she’d seen.

The mood was thankfully lightened by the arrival of an equally bubbly little Ravenclaw. “I have to give all the credit to my bestie, she volunteered last summer and then suggested me for this time.” Poop scooping was much more fun with a friend by your side. “Usually my family go to the beach too” she giggled. Ander was just that little bit too young to travel right now.

Oh the poor little guy didn’t deserve that reaction! He was probably just as scared and confused as the humans were about why he was here. “It’s okay Molly, he’s harmless.” Or at least she guessed he was, her expertise on reptiles wasn’t as good as it was on magical creatures but it would be a fair assumption that a student wouldn’t have a dangerous snake with them. In fact she wasn’t aware that they were allowed to have a pet with them that wasn’t a cat or a toad or an owl or a Pygmy puff.

Thankfully, for the sake of the snake in all the commotion, Professor Carton appeared to figure out the situation. Although she wasn’t sure how exactly they were going to capture a creature who maybe didn’t want to get caught. “Are you a Parseltongue, Professor? Or maybe Professor Paton is? She’s got lots of snakes in the Reptile Room. Maybe one has escaped?!” Oh the TRAGEDY.