Yes, the headmaster was actually on time (nay, early) for the Start of Term Feast. He was sitting in his chair before the doors opened to admit the first students returning from summer vacation. Will wonders never cease? First, he survived a brutal attack by a werewolf and now he seemed to be able to find his way around the school. Of course, those two might not be mutually exclusive wonders. More likely his new, wolfy, counterpart had something to do with his increased sense of... direction. Ah well. All he needed to do now was get Less to crack a smile in his direction and all would be right with the world again. Headmastr Bontecou smiled to himself and watched the students.

Having accidentally knocked his fork off the table, Constantine finally reappeared, not after rapping the back of his head on the bottom of the table. After a few choice swear words, he finally reappeared and sat up straight. He put the blasted fork onto the table, returning to watching the students file in. He couldn't help but sigh though. He really wanted his baby girl.

Antonio shuffled over to the staff table, surprised to see that Headmaster Bontecou was already there. This surprised him a bit, the man was definitely becoming more and more punctual lately, for some reason. The groundskeeper, Neo, was there as well, and Antonio smiled towards both men as he took a seat. He knew that Neo had a young daughter as well, even younger than Antonia, and that gave them something in common. He missed Antonia and knew how hard it was to be here at the school with a young child at home. It was hard, but it was their job, and Antonio knew the students here at Hogwarts needed them, too. It was just the way it was.

Antonio waved towards the Gryffindor table, at the students who had shown up. He could imagine how much they were looking forward to the term. He wished all the students well, but had a special interest in the Gryffindors, being their head of household.

Funny that Lars had already worn his new purple robes nearly as much as all his other new robes combined, especially considering how he preferred to wear dull tones. But he did not really blame himself--the purple were the most comfortable robes he owned. And at the moment, they were both clean and unwrinkled (or they had been when he abandoned his redecorating to head for the feast). He had been sitting at the staff table for some time now, though, so it was only a matter of time before he accidentally ripped a hem with his fork or dropped pudding on his lap or something.

Now that the students had begun to arrive, Lars decided that sitting as still as a statue was probably not a good idea. Instead, he removed his watch and began twirling it between his fingers. It was a mildly entertaining enterprise, for all its simplicity.

'Now that that was sorted out...' Professor Morgan thought with a smile. Walking arm-in-arm with Alessia, she started through the large double doors. Her scarlet robes billowed around her as she made her way through the house tables and up the dias. "Good evening, gentleman," she said with a polite nod to the men at the table before taking her seat.

Max was preoccupied with the sports section of the Daily Prophet and was oblivious to the sound of student voices that filled up the Great Hall. But he did pay attention to the sorting. When it was over, he went back to the British & Irish League news.

Alessia tried not to look at Pepe. She was trying to hide behind Ili's side, he had wanted to talk to her... but she had tried to avoid him as much as possible. But she needed to be polite. "Hello Pepe..." She told him quickly. She smiled at the men seated and greeted them with a simple, "Nice to see you again, gentlemen." She said and took a seat, dragging Iliana to sit beside her.

Max heard her. "Hey, there Less. What's up?" he asked and his paper rattled slightly as he flipped to the next sports page with a smirk on his handsome face as he tried not to laugh out loud. Injury reports. Exciting. Oh, poor itty Colin MacKenzie got a splinter. Boo hoo.

It was feast time and Marcus knew that he was going to be late. He was usually late to things but he had been getting better over the years. If he didn't have to check every single one of his chocolates for a sleeping draught, he probably would have been here hours ago. But seeing how he had been caught out at the end of last term he was not about to chance it again.

Once upon a time he would have made a grand entrance but not anymore, so Marcus sidled into the Great Hall and quickly made his way up to the staff table. His eyes were firmly on Alessia and Iliana who were already seated. Moving along the table, he grabbed a chair and promptly sat himself down in between the two women. He gave the other professor's already at the table a quick nod before greeting the two women. "Good evening Iliana...Alessia. How are you two doing this fine night?"

Yes Marcus, was indeed in a good mood tonight. It seems he had been cleared of the whole assembly fiasco of last term and he'd had a very good summer indeed.

Many more staff members were showing up to the table now. Antonio smiled politely at all of them. Last season had been somewhat weird, it had ended very strangely, too, but Antonio would prefer not to focus on that. This term was going to be a better one. This would be a great year, and Gryffindor was going to win the house cup, he was sure of it.

Right now there were more males at this table then females, a lot more, so the addition of Professors Lupa and Morgan were welcome ones. "Greetings, ladies," he called out. He was feeling in a particularly joyful mood at the moment, for some reason.

Iliana laughed quietly as Marcus plopped himself down between them. "Well hello to you too, Marcus," she said with a grin. She winked over at Less and replied, "I'm lovely, Marcus. Thank you for asking. You?"

She turned her attention to Dumont when she heard his greeting and gave him a big smile. "Thank you Antonio. It's great to see you." If these men and their good moods didn't cheer Alessia up, nothing would.

She gave everyone who greeted them a polite not and began eating... She needed to eat. Tonight was full moon and she needed to fill her tummy. She looked over at Pepe's plate... he had eaten some, but she couldn't tell how much. She sighed and took a roll. "Nothing much Max," she said taking some water, and then looked over at Marcus and smiled. "I'm doing great, thanks for asking." She lied.

"Hey Less," Pepe grinned, holding nothing back, though he couldn't really twinkle at her when she was avoiding him and not really looking at him. He turned back to his goblet and glanced discretely down at his watch to check the time as he reached out to take the goblet in his hand. He bent his neck first to the right and then to the left, causing it to crack a couple times, and then downed the goblet of water. He was getting twitchy. He just had to get through the speech and then he could go upstairs and pace in his office.

Bouncing in his seat slightly because he just couldn't seem to sit still. Of course that probably had something to do with eating a whole box of chocolates before the feast. He had to hand over his other ones to the Ministry and he wasn't about to waste anymore. So Marcus Lawson, was on a leeeetle bit of a sugar high.

"Yes you are" he agreed jovially and bounced again. "I am feeling really, really good right now. You know the excitement of the kiddies is infectious." he turned and looked Iliana full in the face. "You know I never attended Hogwarts as a kid. I wonder what house I would have been in? Do ya reckon I could try the sorting hat on?" Hmmm...what house would he have been best suited too. Certainly not Ravenclaw that's for sure.

Turning at the sound of Alessia's voice, Marcus gave her a broad grin. "Aww come on Less, no need to look like that. It's the start of a new term. What's not to be happy about that?" He was totally oblivious to the fact that it was going to be a full moon, which meant hard times for Less. "Here have a chocolate...they're reeeeeallllyyyy yuuuumy." he held out the box to her. Oh oops there was only two left. Ah well women didn't like to eat too many sweet things...something about calories.

She took a chocolate and then looked up at him. Was Papa Valon right? Was he at fault for her potion? and now was he trying to give her a sleeping chocolate? She put the chocolate down. "My stomach isn't feeling well."

Aww! Did she just hear him right? She blushed at his compliment and gave him the type of smile that lit up her whole face. "I can tell," she said, wondering what had brought on this VERY cheerful mood. Iliana looked over at the sorting hat and grinned. "Why not give it a go then?" she asked. "It's just sitting there waaiiitiiing for you to try it on."

As secluded as possible from the werewolf end of the table, Anastasia listlessly swirled the water around her glass, resting her chin in her hand. Of course she was sneaking glances out of the corner of her eye and watching Marcus so conveniently placed between Alessia and Iliana.

If he wanted to go gallivanting around with mutts and their filfthy friends, FINE. Not like Annie cared. Nope. She could pretend Axe didn't exist. That tactic had worked for a while. Annie could look at more interesting things, like Lars' purple robes or the shifty-ness of the Headmaster or even the students.... where was Ethan anyway?

The redhead let out a little sigh to herself and looked out over the Sorting Hat toward her old House table. She spied a shock of pink hair and almost growled to herself, tightening her grip on the water glass in front of her.

This was just going to be a delightful term.

"Oh that's too bad Less." Marcus almost pouted as she put the chocolate onto the table. Well!! If he had of known she wasn't going to eat it, he wouldn't have offered it to her. He eyed the chocolate for a moment thinking of a way to get it back without her seeing him. "Well I hope you feel better soon Less." He lowered his head and dropped his voice. "I really am glad that you are doing better Alessia, you know that you are a very good friend."

Marcus gave Iliana a wink, "Maybe when the feast is over I just might do that. Sooooo..."he bounced in his seat once again..."do you have exciting plans for the kids this year?"

A movement out of the corner of his eye caught his attention and he moved his head slightly and a smirk spread across his lips. Anastasia Bunbury had made her entrance and as much as she said that she couldn't stand him, she was always looking at him and who he was with. Marcus, leaned back in the chair and put one arm around each woman and stared at the red head. More fun times ahead, so it would seem.

Max put his paper down with much fanfare and gave Less a puzzled look. Then he happened to catch the expression on Annie's face. Odd. Women are just ODD. But they were fantastic for advice. However, it was important to get their attention first. "Hey, Annie. Did you know that scowling causes wrinkles?" he leaned over and whispered into her ear.

"Professor Bunbury, looking stunning as ever! Mind if I have a seat?" He said, taking one anyway. It wasn't that he disliked either the Headmaster or Professor Lupa, but Professor Lupa had taken her potion that day and tripped out nonetheless and it WAS a full moon. He did care about seeing his 69th in peace. One piece. Besides, he wouldn't also liked to see if he could sweet-talk the Herbology professor into lending him a few sprigs of this 'n that for a class or two.

Rather intently staring through her waterglass now - oh what funny shapes it made the people on the other side have - Anastasia nearly jumped when Max whispered to her. And of course that only made her scowl more deeply.

"Mmmhmm well... maybe if I had your anti-wrinkle cream, Max, I wouldn't have to worry about that," she answered the Quidditch official in a dark tone. She continued staring at her glass and didn't even look up when a dark shadow covered her plate.

"Professor Kapoor," she murmured, folding her hands on her lap politely and glancing toward the man. "Be my guest. As far as I know, we don't have assigned seats." Though perhaps now she was wishing they did.

Kapoor smiled at what he observed to be Anastasia's fine ladies manners. He dug into his robe pocket and looked down at the empty seat besides him.

Flop-op-op-popop! Went the inflated whoopee cushion as it made itself comfortable on a chair he hoped Ian Ashby would assume.

Alessia looked over at Marcus confused... Then her eyes glaced over to the rabid bunny and she understood. Weird though... She leaned forward and took more food for her plate. Maybe she was being paranoid, but there was a weird vibe in the air.

She looked over at the Slytherin table and caught the end of what seemed to be a disagreement between her godfather and her quidditch captain... her quidditch captain... that was still odd. She smiled seeing her godfather converse with a new transfer student. He was a piece of cake that man... even though he had a gruff exterior.

Macadrian sat at the Staff table, perfectly lined up with the Hufflepuff House table so that she could keep a watchful eye on her students should they need her. She listened to the Sorting Hat and watched the sorting with delight, then resumed her fascination with picking the robin's egg blue paint out from under her nails. Sure, a simple cleaning charm would remove the paint, but then what would she do to keep herself entertained for the next hour or two?

Professor Shackleton-Clark (that's right kids, she finally married!) glanced left and right up the table. Spotting Anastasia, Mac remembered that they needed to meet to discuss the advising of the Quill. Their newest issue would soon be released, but it needed some finishing touches. She'd have to flag down Bunbunz later.