Hungry hungry hippo! But when was Chance NOT hungry? Hardly ever. He was a growing boy! Growing boys needed food! And lots of it! Besides, it didn't hurt that this ood just so happened to be some of the best food ever made in exsistence. Rock on elves! So when Chance ran into the Great Hall, his mind was on the food. Practically knocking down people to get to the table... well.. they were in his way. Him and his own true love.... Food.

Sliding onto a chair, he looked at all the food before him and his mouth started watering. He felt like he had just eaten but yet could eat a whole horse. Figuratively speaking of course Grabbing pumpkin juice, he gulped some of that down first before grabbing some peach looking something.... and MMMMMM that was delicious!

Food. Food. Real food.

This fourteen year old girl needed real food but she wanted to eat candy 24/7 and of course nothing but. She has a real problem but she doesn't think she has a problem. It wasn't her fault that candy was just so amazing. The bubbly blonde skipped into the Great Hall and over to the Gryffindor table. It wasn't that packed in at the table but she didn't want to sit along. The fourth year wore her brand new light blue strapless dress with a brown cardigan and her brown cowgirl boots. She loved to over wear her cowgirl boots because they were so comfortable and she had brought a lot of different colors of her cowgirl boots with her this term. Emmylou finally made it to the person that was the only one sitting at the table.

The Gryffindor lioness waved at the boy and smiled. Now she just had to ask him if she was able to sit with him. Why were things like this so hard to do? "Erm....may I sit with you?" The twang in Emmylou's voice was thicker than it already was because she was nervous about this boy saying no to her but she would be nervous with anyone else here too. Even if she knew the people she would be nervous.

This food was amazing. Ohmygoober. Amazing. Chance was in his own little world of pumpkin, turkey, and something squishy with a flavor that hadn't really been too familiar with Chance until he came to Hogwarts. Now it had to be on his plate at least once a week.

Hearing a voice beside him, Chance looked up to see a cute country girl standing nervously beside him. "Take a seat." Chance said, and really it sounded like, Umph a eep. Chance's mouth was full and he wasn't apologizing one little bit. besides, he was intrigued by the accent that she had. He hadn't quite heard one like that before.

Mackenzie walked into the great hall and only saw two others at the Gryffindor table. However, she didn't think she knew these two. oh well, time to make new friends. Slowly she paced down the aisle to make sure she wouldn't be intruding. "umm.. Hello, mind if i join you two?" She smiled. Unlike the other female she wore her traditional robes. Ya know, she had other clothes but for now she needed to be in her robes. COMFY.

She stood by waiting to be welcomed into their group... she wished Ronnie was still here, things were always easier with her.

Emmylou rocked back and forth on her heels as she waited for the boy to give her an answer. Maybe she didn't have to be nervous at all? Maybe the boy was nervous because he looked new here or she had just never seen him before? He was enjoying his food and who wouldn't this food was amazing! The best food in any school ever.

The fourth year relaxed more when she heard him say 'take a seat' that made her feel a lot better. Emmylou sat in the free space next to him. "Thank you." She looked at all of the food and smiled and started to put some food on her plate. It wasn't candy but it was almost just as good. "I'm Emmylou Duchannes." she smiled at the boy as she put some more food on her plate. Her daddy had always told her that she needed to introduce herself before starting any conversation because it was polite and Emmylou of course is very polite to people and very kind and caring until you make her mad. This girl didn't get mad that often but when she does it's best that you run.

Chance waited to swallow what was in his mouth before he asked the question he had been wondering about since she first opened her mouth. "Your accent. Where are you from?"

Oh wait. That was rude. He introduced herself. "Nice to meet yoou!"

((Sorry so short! At work!))

Zahra was sprawled out in her space, several plates lined up, her elbows out and her face propped on her hand. It was pretty clear that she wasn't having very much fun. She flopped a spoonful of potatoes in her mouth without enthusiasm, chew chew swallow - then repeat.

Blerrrrrrrfffffffffff.

Cinna was exhausted. Lessons lessons. Well she suppsosed that it was all part of the whole school thing. It was. At least classes were over for the day and it was dinner time. Hopefully the house elves had prepared something good. They usually did but in case they didn't she had a back up plan.

The fourth year headed over to the Gryffindor table with her school bag around her shoulder. She plopped down in a seat sitting her bag down on the floor. She poured a glass of pumpkin juice. Food come here.

If there was one thing that Abbi made sure Hogwarts was boasted for, it was the food. Because like GOSH what else made a place so amazing? HMM? What? It was clear that she enjoyed such and it was clear that at meal times the only place you'd see the fourth year was at the great hall nomming about.

OM NOM NOM.

A chicken leg was in her hand whilst she ate it and scanned the table she was at. Some ate like her, but the others well they FOR SURE didn't know how food needed to be eaten. Like the blonde over there... What was it with her grumpy sitting position and all? She was going to get taught a lil something called Abbi style. MHMMM.

"Yoh!" She called in attempt to get the girl's attention. "Food is HELLA more exciting than that." Totally, okay??

Zahra scratched her nose, chewed up more potatoes, and glanced unenthusiastically at a fellow Gryffindor. She had a point; food was pretty exciting. It wasn't the FOOD that was the problem.

"Yeah... I know. And the House Elves here are UHHHHHMAAAAYYYZING at this whole cooking thing. Mind. Blowing. Potatoes. For real." Zahra put some on her fork and totes offered some to olewhatshernamegirloverthere. Here, TRY SOME girl.

Mind blowing potatoes. YES. THANK YOU. That sounded MUCH better Ms Blondie. MHMMM.

Oh..wait that was for HER? Gosh. HOW KIND. A quick beam was given and her chicken was put down before om nom nom, Abbi took her nibble at the potato before her. It was, as always, AMAZING. Like her taste buds had just exploded from the delicious taste. WOW.

"Them elves. Mind blowing potatoes. You can say that again. Best. Potatoes. Ever. " Cept that wasn't where this conversation would stop; cause you know if the girl agreed the food was good and she didn't eat it the way one, who thought so, would well then CLEARLY SOMETHING was wrong. "You okay? Like I mean you look all EH when you should be YEAH. You get what I'm saying?" Did she?

THEM ELVES. Exactly. This is why Gryffindors were best. They got things and appreciated things appropriately. Awesome. Zahra grinned and plunked her fork right back into her potatoes.

"... yeah. Just things suck this year. Nothing to do about it. Then I lost more house points and it wasn't really... I didn't even do anything this time." SO ...just... kind of bummed.

What Ruby needed was a place with lots of good light, with a table, and space where she could WORK. Not like, Homework or anything of that sort because ew no, but rather she wanted to do her nails again and it was best to be able to spread out for that and she was kind of sick of the Slytherin common room and the lighting in there wasn't great and-- hey! Zahra! Oh and Abbi!

"Helllooooo ladies!" Ruby made herself comfortable, sitting down not far away and spreading out everything she needed from her nail kit. "What's the goss?" Was there any? Ruby wouldn't know, she'd been busy in detention and snogging Grayson in dark corners. Hadn't heard a single bit of interesting gossip in fact.

Oh boy. Please like no. Abbi didn't do this..well she did at times and so did she deal with it when it came to Donny when he was all sad. BUT WHY. Why could people not just forget about all the junk that was so unnecessarily bringing them down? COME ON.

"If there's nothing to do then forget it, NO? " Abs looked towards the girl, hoping she wouldn't take things the wrong way. She'd understand, she had to. "Ugh. That's the UTTER worst. When people just go and blame you like that. What happened?" Cause when were details not important? Never. Obviously.

OH RUBY!

"Hey, hey!" Beams were given along with the greeting. As for the gossip. Well she kinda had nothing. She was too busy with her fort hibernating. So head shake there and a hopeful look over to Ms Blondie who was nameless to her at the moment.

Yeah well..... "Hard to forget you had a right hand," Zahra replied, meaning Mikey Toussaint. It was more about learning to live without it than forgetting she had had a right hand. So far, it wasn't easy, wasn't fun, and was all suck.

As for her points, Zahra managed a smile. "Nothing to do about that either, so let's just forget it. Just don't touch Professor Morgan's balls or she'll go nuts on you." Even though Zahra hadn't actually TOUCHED it... whatevs. Whatevs. Psshhhhhhhh.


Zahra didn't have any gossip. She'd been kind of on her own when she wasn't hanging with Mari.

"I got nothing," Z admitted.

Gwen entered the great hall. Who knew there were so many stairs that she had to take to even get down here? There had to be a faster way. Secret passages or something of that nature. She was determined to find something too.

She plopped her butt down on the seat across from an older looking girl. She'd seen her around the common room, but hadn't really talked to her before. "Hey." Older friends were good right? "I'm Gwen."

Hey it was that girl from Divinations….mist-writing person! Puck sent the girl a cheeky grin before making her way over to the group of girls she was talking to. One of them was the girl who so unfortunately got detention…for skirt lengths. Really. That was…pathetic? Not on her part.

Nope.

The skirt length rules were the pathetic thing in this case.

“Hey,” she grinned to Zahra and added waves to the other to. Of course she had heard the talk about the balls and nodded, ”yeah she went a bit crazy about that didn’t she?” she offered with a consoling smile as she popped in.

”so…any fun things around here?” she asked as she grabbed a portion of food and began to pick at it…she was hungry but not hungry?

What? Nothing? No gossip? Weren't they Gryffindors? Wasn't that the house where things supposedly happened? And she KNEW that Abbi had dramalamas and so did Zahra for that matter so honestly! Where were the updates? For instance, to Abbi, nudge nudge, "Have you decided yet?" She was still of the opinion that the one that wouldn't kiss her, regardless of any of his other qualities, was the one she should chuck. Ruby didn't even know the boys NAMES but obvy kissing was very important.

And youuuuu, ZAHRA: "Did Mikey like the pictures?" BROWS. DID HE?

Oh and another Gryffindor girl had just joined them. Ruby rummaged through her nail polish, selecting colours and smiled at her.

"Not according to them!" Sad sacks! Honestly. How was it that she, who was suffering through nightly painful detentions, was more cheerful and upbeat than those two?

As for the balls thing, Ruby giggled a bit and made crazy eyes at Zahra. Oh she knew why.

OH HEY! Hey! That girl named PUCK. Or something like that. Zahra liked that one and made room for her. Plus, she was offering condolences for how crazytown Morgan went and that helped.

PLUS RUBY still, who was sort of like her legit Mikey replacement process. Z was definitely feeling better about potatoes.

She opened her mouth to ask Abbi and Ruby what on earth they were going on about, but then Ruby went and ... asked that. Brought up Mikey.

".... I dunno. Durmstrang is a long way away. The owl might have died or something." In other words, she hadn't heard from him it yet. She would though, Zahra would just wait.

"Ruby is fun. Do'ya know Puck?"

HUH?

Oh wait..she was using that metaphorically. Or so Abs thought, cause looking at the blonde's hands now she was pretty sure she saw both of them and neither missing, never mind right or left. "Where did it go?" The person or whatever it was she meant.

Uh..yeah that was UBER strange to say, but HEY she wanted to hear now, even if forgetting was her advice. She totally took that back now cause it sounded interesting and come on she needed the entertainment. OH. Somebody else would entertain her though. HELLO. "Yeah? So she is nuts?" her eyes lay on the of the three as she spoke. "I think all those future telling people are. They think they're like hippies but sorry those are way more cooler." Divination had always been somewhat intriguing to the fourth year but Abbi felt it was more the giggle sesh type of class because some of it seemed so silly.

So NOBODY had gossip. Geez. Shocker. At least Ruby had the sense to ask about stuff, but Abbi had a better idea like why couldn't they START gossip. Genius, wasn't it? ".....Nope. Still trying to think what cow has the better milk," she responded. Apparently it was talk in metaphor day because that's exactly what she did, just as blondie had a moment ago.

UGH. Time to start fun. YEP.

"I rate we start a rumor." Brows were given to each girl.

As Emmylou munch on her breakfast she was waiting for the question that everyone asked her and she was sure that this person was going to ask the gold question because it wasn't like people to hear an accent like hers in this part of the world. It was actually really strange for people to hear her accent if they lived outside of America. "I'm from Alabama." she said with a small smile.

Did he say his name and she didn't hear him? Emmylou blinked. "It's nice to meet you too." She would fin out his name sooner or later.

Puck gave the nail-polish-girl a quick smile as well, she seemed…interesting, she’d have to tell her that the skirt thing was ridiculous later…maybe stage a short-skirt-revolution one day? Maybe they could do it at the end of the school year so that they couldn’t be kept for detention?

”Yeah its Puck – and I don’t think we’ve officially met,” she smiled at Ruby, ”Ruby I’ve got to say I’m sorry about that detention thing…that is ridiculous the skirt wasn’t even that short as is” she rolled her eyes and then smiled to the other girls at the table.

She took a bite of her food - chewed it to death and swallowed...cause talking with mouthfuls was gross? "y'know it would be awesome if say they had another easier method of messaging between schools...something that you know wouldn't die on the way there" she commented and sighed. "but i'm sure whoever you messaged whatever it was will get back to you as soon as they get it" some people were good like that.

Zahra didn't want to bring this little meeting down, or herself, anymore so she just shook her head a little at Abbi. Maybe another time she'd tell her about her right hand named Mikey.

She also shied away from clarifying what Ruby had asked about Mikey when Puck brought it up,too. No, no, not right now. Zahra moped enough on her own without doing it in such FINE Gryffidnor company!

It WAS nice to have these two girls just seamlessy be on their team though. YES apparently the SIGHT people were nuts and mean and YES that skirt detention WAS the most ridiculous thing of all time. Zahra chewed and nodded to agree at all of that.

"A RUMOR? Pfff I'd rather make a rumor true. Like, let's all go and DO something." Anything, at this point, to keep Zahra out of her misery.

"Oh he probably has them but is recovering from a heart attack, you know." Ruby winked at Zahra cheerfully, showing no particular indication that she was still upset about her own situation. Or maybe she was just hiding it well. No point dwelling. One day of feeling terrible was enough, and after that Ruby was inclined to pretend she was happy about things until she'd convinced herself everything was sunshine, roses, and hot boys.

She looked at the Puck girl upon Z's intro and smiled back at her. "Ugh don't get me started. I have another one tonight, except in her office or whatever." Seriously. Over it. Bellaire should see the REST of the clothes that Ruby wore. As in the non-uniform stuff.

She listened to Abbi, but Ruby wasn't so convinced about divination being lame though. "I liked the crystal gazing, except I just decided to make up what I saw. Saw it in my imagination I mean. And then it came true. I control my own destiny." Mhmm. Or she was psychic.

Listening to Puck respond to Zahra, Ruby exchanged a quick look with Z and stifled a giggle. Whatever it was indeeeeeeeed. She was soooo sure that Michael Toussaint would implode. Boys tended to do that, she'd noticed.

"So far, Abbi, I think you need to invest in better cows." Totally. They weren't worth all the drama from what she'd heard so FAR anyway. Not that Ruby had met Lucas, but she had met Bart and she wasn't convinced that situation was anything more than a snog hangover on Abbi's part, who was clearly severely lacking in the snog department. Like honestly, what was WRONG with the fourth year Gryffindor boys? They needed to be taken in hand and trained. It was tragic.

but luckily not Ruby's problem.

BUT GASP! Make UP rumours? Scandalous! "About who though?!" She was clearly all for it. Ruby began applying a shimmering purple polish to her nails and glanced at Zahra. Orrr they could do that. "You want to be talked about, Z?"