Arrick had heard THAT pun too many times to even bother with rolling his eyes anymore, so he ignored it. He wiped his toast crumb and sugar-flecked mouth with his sleeve and eyed the first year girl. Again, the girls. He knew there were first year boys lurking around, but they at least had the decency of minding their own business.

"Prob'ly. We're in the same House, ernt we," he finally said, reaching for the milk jug and pouring himself half a glass. He refused to touch that pumpkin juice stuff. Pumpkin juice. That just ern't natural.

Arrick stared at the girl. "So what if," he drawled. She made it sound like he just said he disliked breathing. "Pumpkins ernt belong in juice. It's odd, it is. They should be in pies n' pastries. Normal food. Not for drinkin'."

What was this, perpetual Halloween, where everyone had too many pumpkins going ripe in a storeroom somewhere? Or was Hogwarts a place where all the world's unwanted pumpkins went after October? Were they so desperate to get rid of them all that they pulped the whole lot into juice for everyday consumption?

It was just easier on everyone's sanity that Arrick didn't voice these thoughts and kept it at a much simpler conclusion: pumpkin juice was odd.

"Odd means odd," Arrick said simply. In Arrick's books, odd usually lead to something bad as things out of place attracted unwanted attention, or things that weren't as they should be. If it was undeniably bad, Arrick wouldn't hesitate to say so. Made no sense to substitute meanings for words which already had meanings, after all.

Arrick made a face, the first memories coming to mind being of oversized cornish pixies, a giant man with an even further inflated ego, and a class half-dissolved into student fighting over the werewolf status of their professor. Nevermind the werewolf thing to begin with. "Drop Astronomy," he finally advised, taking a gulp of milk and a final bite of messy toast. He was getting buttered fingerprints all over the glass, but it didn't concern him. "He ernt teachin' anything proper. It's all a joke, it is. Wonder why he ernt sacked yet, but the staff's all balmy so maybe they think it ernt odd, havin' a big tosser teach stuff he knows nothin' about. Vomited all over the class, he did." Arrick scrunched up his nose at the memory.

"Better not get sick either since the nurse ernt do anythin' much but bake cookies," he muttered, more to himself than Kylie. "This place is a joke, it is. Nurses playin' at bein' bakers."

Abigail walked into the great hall and headed towards the Hufflepuff table. She’d just taken her first picture for her muggle studies homework, and the sight of the snow from the owlery had made her really happy. Winter was her favourite time of the year and she desperately wanted to go and build a snow mad! She just needed to find someone to do it with her.

As she walked down the table she found Tammy, Kylie and Arrick. “Hi guys! How’s everyone?” She hadn’t been speaking to Arrick since there magical creature class -he hadn’t been very nice to her even though she was just trying to be helpful- but she decided it was time to start talking to him again. “Does anyone fancy going outside and making a snow man, I want to take a picture of it for muggle studies? And we can do it the muggle way as well because it’s a lot more fun!” She felt like she had eaten too much sugar she was that hyper, but it was just the snow. Abigail didn’t get hyper very often so it was a rare sight.