It was breakfast time and Sam wasn't feeling too hungry. This was a good thing because she was going to be part of a little experiment thanks to a certain Gryffindor Second Year. She sat down and poured herself a glass of pumpkin juice then grabbed a couple of shiny, red, crisp looking apples. Had it been the apples that made her go fast yesterday? Maybe it was inner magic?

Sam was about to bite into an apple but then decided she would wait for Angel to arrive.

Angel had nearly forgot about the experiment it wasn't until she was doing her hair she remembered all about it. She rushed over to the Ravenclaw table and she sighed as she saw Sam. "Sorry.. hope I haven't I haven't kept you waiting." Angel had her parchment and quill with her.

Angel looked at Samantha as she put her stuff down. "I've been thinking, I think that it would be fun if I got involved, so I thought I'd have a normal breakfast and you can have the apples and we'll see who's the fresher throughout the day."

Samantha gave Angel a small smile as the younger girl apologised for her lateness. "Oh, that's okay. I was not waiting long." As Angel told her the idea for the experiment, Samantha looked at her thoughtfully. It was an idea that was easy for her to manage. Sam silently hoped that the day's activities were not going to be strenuous.

"Okay then. Your idea sounds good. I'll get started then," Sam said as she took a small bite out of an apple.

Angel started to write a few things down on the parchment as she watched Sam. "Yeah you need to eat three apples." Angel then got what she would normally have for breakfast. "As you can see this is a normal breakfast." Angel looked at the juice and drank a bit of it before writing down what she was going to eat. "This test is going to be awesome." Angel was totally wanting to know the results and she wanted to know them now but she knew she had to wait.

Three apples? Sam hoped she was hungry enough to do so. "Oh am I allowed to have a drink with my apples? It is just that I need a drink to wash the food down." Samantha had finished her first apple and was onto her second as she watched Angel get herself some breakfast.

Angel looked at Sam and smiled. "Oh yeah, but we should record it." Angel giggled, "that way we know what everyone had." Angel was totally happy with this experiment. It was going to be awesome.

"Brilliant. I'll be drinking pumpkin juice with my apples," Samantha said to Angel as she took a sip of juice. Sam was taking a little break after eating her second apple. As she picked up the third apple and took a bite, Sam said, "Last apple." Samantha ate the apple slowly, not only to savour its flavour but because she didn't want to accidentally choke on her food.

Finally getting his trunk set Cyprien made his way down to the great hall and sat at the Ravenclaw table...he wanted to get something to eat before he made his way to DADA...from what his mum had said that would be one of his favorite classes. He saw an older Ravenclaw and an older (although not by much) Gryffindor sitting a little bit farther down the table. Cyprien wasn't sure what was going on but from the sound of it they were talking about pumpkin juice and apples.

If anyone took time to stare hard enough they would recognize the dark haired girl that moved with ease and grace around the Ravenclaw table, after all she had been a proud Claw for three years now. However, it wouldn't hurt her feelings if no one did recognize her or confused her for a new girl. She would correct them.

She was Hope Evans after all!!!

She sat down in an empty seat and grabbed a few things to eat and slowly chewed as she looked around the room for a familiar face or two.

Ophelia sat down next to someone random and poured herself some pumpkin juice, smiling widely at this unknown kid. He was about her age, possibly a first or second year who had stopped in for some food. Just like her. So they had that in common. And they're both young. And Ravenclaws. And they had hair and a nose. So yeah. What the blonde was saying was that they had a lot in common.

"Hey." Sipping some juice and grabbing a piece of toast with strawberry jam, she took off a big bite and smiled, chewing slowly and rubbing the sleep from her deep brown eyes. Too early. It was always too early. Ophelia usually woke up at eleven during the summer and ran around the woods before taking a nap and then doing the same thing again. And surprisingly, she wasn't homesick anymore. It was too far in the year for that, and too much was going on with that Gryffindor head girl. Whats her face going crazy might have been just the thing to get her over her homesickness and into the groove of Hogwarts. Or the sort of groove. What passed for normal in this place?

And looking over with her brown eyes, she saw a random girl just a bit older. Well, it was never a harm to make new friends. Especially since it led to less awkward train rides home and to Hogwarts and gave you people to talk to. So hello, Ravenclaw girl.

And besides being someone the eleven year old hadn't met yet, she also looked nice. And maybe it would introduce her to mor people, and maybe they would be able to tell her about all of the cool facts of Hogwarts. Like what teachers were cool and which weren't and what to expect on your OWLS and NEWTS. Those would be happening soon.

"Hello. How are you today?" Taking another bite of toast and chewing it slowly again, the firstie started looking around for more food, taking some bacon. Bacon, like meat candy but her mom pet her have it.

Hope looked at the girl who spoke to her and gave a kind smile. She missed those days. Being a young one. New to it all. Boy was she a pain in the buttocks in those days. Could it really only have been two years ago? Sigh. Time flies.

"Hello." She grabbed another slice of cinnamon raisin toast and placed another smather of apple butter upon it. Yum! Breakfast! She leaned on her elbows and chewed slowly. Looking around once more she realized a few people had actually left as of the last year. Maybe new friends had to happen. "I'm Hope. Hope Evans."

Hope liked to look around a lot. A curious one? Just like her. And she apparently liked toast. Yay! Toast was like her huge thing. Toast and candy. But not together. Gross. There was only a few things in this world Ophelia would not try to eat, and that was one of the selections. Or maybe later, when she knew she had a strong stomach and nothing to lose. Hmm, she would have to see where lunch took her. Could be like a new experiment. And there we go. If anything went wrong, that was her excuse.

Finishing up her toast and deciding not to have more, Ophelia brushed the crumbs off the table and onto the floor, trying to get the space around her clear. It was one of her bad habits, that and biting her nails. Taking a swig of pumpkin juice from her cup and fixing her blonde hair -should she get bangs?- Ophelia listened to Hope Evans talk.

"Hello, Hope Evans. I'm Ophelia Clarke. But you can call me 'Ophie. So, what's new with you? Any bands or anything you like?" Nope, she wasn't sorry if she sounded weird right now. Because friendship. That's why. If she was making the effort to meet people at Hogwarts, she was going to unapologetically make that effort. And this was what being unapologetic looked like.

Hello. Cyprien had always been a little shy but making new friends was something that both his parents thought would be important. Especially since he would be going here for the next 7 years. Plus the girl looked friendly enough. I am doing pretty good...still trying to get adjusted, really big place. My name is Cyprien.

SIGH. Eden was homesick. She never felt homesick at Durmstrang, but for some reason, this school made it so. Or maybe it was just..a confusing time in her life and she really just wanted her Mam ALL the time. She was currently sending her letters every day. And she usually got one back about every three--but her mother was busy with working overtime and whatnot. Her dad had even sent her a few letters, which was nice.

Her cousin, Iwin, was being super nice, too. He was sending her lots of treats and he liked to send her money, which was SUPER nice, because she had Christmas presents to buy, and since it was family, she didn't mind taking it. Iwin was loaded anyways. She knew if his parents found out, though, he'd get into trouble, but he would soon be the head of the family. Well not SOON--but soon enough that it seemed he didn't care about stuff.

Purebloods were complicated. Eden was happy she was half-blood, because all the rules Iwin needed to follow were dumb. She plopped down, having just jogged--not joined by Bart today, unfortunately--and she filled her plate up with lots of eggs...LOTS of sausage...enough to feed an entire ARMY....

Maybe not that much.

But Eden certainly ate a lot. Hadn't she wanted to go on a diet? UGH but it was SO hard to do that. SO hard. Food was much too good. She glanced around for Clara or Layla--Paloma? And even Jun a little. Nope. No one was here yettttt.

Come on, friends. GET IT GOING.

Mornings were the absolute worst. It was the time of day - along with evenings, right before sleeping - that Clara found emotions hit her the hardest and often overwhelmed her. That was probably due to her being tired and her barriers were somewhat down. She hated, hated, hated them, but ... waking up and school were things that had to happen, so ...

Huh, and this morning in particularly was bad.

She'd heard both Eden and Layla leave the dorm separately a short while ago, but she'd decided to stay in bed for as long as physically possible because moving involved thinking and thinking was just ... bad right now. It caused no end of anxiety, memories, flash backs for her and it was just ..... horrible. For ALL involved ... and that included her dormates, unfortunately. The amount of times she'd woken up screaming, thrashing, or crying was ridiculous and she felt so guilty because it dragged them down too.

THEY were the ones that had to wake her up when she was lost to a nightmare.

And THEY were the ones who had to deal with an unnecessary amount of stress because of it.

None of it was fair, but that was life she supposed. With one final sigh, Clara dragged herself out of bed and into clothes. Then to the bathroom. Then to the mirror to tie her hair up into a ponytail. Everything she did seemed almost mechanical. It took her much longer than it usually would, but she managed it and before long she was walking into the Great Hall.

It didn't take her all that long to spot Eden because she tuned everyone else out. As soon as she did see her, she traipsed over to her, lacking any energy and happiness. Poor Eden, she was going to have to deal with that for a while. "Denny. Hey," she said, forcing a smile. That was all. She sat down next to her best friend before folding her arms on the table and resting her head on it. Maybe she could do the sleep thing here, too.

Eden was a good way through her eggs....when she started on her sausage. And her morning tea. Jogging made her so hungry. She hoped she had managed to get all clean in her shower earlier--because if not that'd be GROSS. But she was ALL ready for the daaaaay. And classes. And being productive.

Her eyes glanced up at the ceiling, trying to see if any of the morning post was for her...hmm. No letter today? Poop. Fine. She siiiiighed in disappointment and then looked up as Clara took her place next to her. Eden shot her the biggest, toothiest smile ever. "Hi, Clarisse." She winked and continued eating.

Clara hadn't been sleeping. Eden never said much about it, mostly because she didn't want the girl to be upset, but she did feel bad. "Did you ever get back to sleep last night?" she asked softly, not really looking up from her food at all. She hoped so. Her friend had seemed so...upset. "Maybe we should invest in some sleeping potions--they'd help, right?" she asked, wide eyed and peering at Clara worriedly.

Suddenly a letter dropped on her food, splattering the eggs all over her lap--and a LITTLE on Clara's--and she glared up at the dumb owl. DUMB OWL! Eden shook her fist at it but siiiighed. "Sorry. Have to use the mean school owls because we don't have one at home." SIGH. She dapped a napkin at her lap and at Clara's. Oops? She tucked the letter in her pocket. She would read it later yeah. Uh HUH. Plus she didn't like reading family stuff in front of people--and not Clara. She wasn't stupid. She had gathered that Clara didn't have parents...

Adjusting was haaaard. She knew that. In fact, Ophelia would never ever tell anyone this, but the first week she was here, she fell asleep with the stuffed animal Newton gave her as a congratulations present. Because homesickness. Even though home wasn't one of her favorite places to be, it was still sad that she couldn't see her brothers and sisters and mother. No communication with her only family! Except now the blonde was getting over it, and still had yet to reply to a letter that had been owl'd in a week ago. That probably had to be done. Getting the pen and parchment out of her bag, she nodded about the adjustment thing.

"Adjusting seems to be the hardest part. It's like home, which is cozy and cute with all of your family, then like boom! Big castle with lots of people and stuff. But it gets better, I think. I mean, I'm a first year too, but it seems to be getting more fun with time." At least he was doing well now. Seeeeee? Adjusting WAS easier when it wasn't the first week away from your parents in a long time.

Also Cyprin was a cool name. Very cool. Why couldn't she have been named something cool like that? Her name was stupid and formal. Ophelia. Gross. She wanted a name like Cyprin! Okay, whatever.

"Hi, Cyprin. I think I told you this before, but I'm Ophelia. Ophelia Clarke to be exact. I'm a first year too. This place is sooooo COOL, isn't it!

Ophelia was an awesome name...he hadn't really heard of that name before. I mean his dad's name was John, thank Merlin he hadn't gone with that but instead went with his mum's suggestion of Cyprien. "It's really cool. My mum always kept telling me about this place and how much fun it would be. Never really believed her though. It's so huge. Almost got lost on the steps going up to the Ravenclaw common room. Everyone has been really helpful though so it helps a lot. How are the classes going for you?" Cyprien had homework but it was so much more interesting to talk to people and make friends.

He sat down on an empty table away from everyone at Ravenclaw and watched them. Hugo didn't mind being a forever alone at the moment because he was observing Ravenclaws behavior. Something like they do on television.

Of course he grabbed food because he wasn't here just for free. A bagel would do for now. He took a big bite and chewed it slowly while looking at all them students. Yes, I am watching you Ravenclaw people.

THIS is what happens when you are bored.

Paloma sat down on her House table, eating her porridge and wondering if she could handle eating those ham and eggs plate that was not far away from her sight. Maybe she could, but...her mind said that she would regret that during her ballet practice.

Then, she noticed a couple of eyes spying on the group from her table. She focused her sight, trying to remember if she had ever seen the kid...

....

...

.

"Hugo." She chuckled, stood up from her chair and walked over to the table where the boy was, pretending that she would actually leave later. "Anything interesing worth watching?" She asked him once she arrived, putting a jar of blueberry jelly in front of him. "That bagel, it is a crime to eat it without this homemade jelly...well, made by the House Elves..." The boy had to learn the tricks, right?

He was not only observing the Ravenclaws behavior, but mostly the older kids behavior. You know, they are weird...some of them, especially girls. However, all this thinking stopped as soon as someone said his name. He turned his head to see who has been. Oh...that girl. "Hey! You are the girl who was talking by herself in the train, right?" yeah he remembered and she had a cool name. "Pa-...umm, your name was spanish so, don't blame him. "Not really" he answered her question "But it could get, you never know when some kind of drama can happen which was fun to watch but not to be involved.

About his bagel. "In fact it's not a crime, because it's not against the law" true dat. "Besides jelly can be overly sweet and I don't like that" said as he took the last bite from his bagel. "But thank you" see? He did have manners.

Paloma raised her eyebrow. Oh no. She was not going to explain again to this kid what she was not doing. Her mom and her nephews were there, she was not crazy! "My name, Paloma, but you can call me Pal, like...a friend..." She stretched out her hand again, to introduce herself, because it was the nice thing to do, even if you got a little annoyed for being called crazy and your name being forgotten...like always.

"It's against pastry laws. And this jelly was made by the House Elves, their own conserves, sour, and not sweet blueberries, but suit yourself. That bagel may be salty enough to clog your arteries..." She smirked, taking a seat in front of Hugo. "Anyways, how is Hogwarts treating ya?" She asked, actually interested.

"Exactly, Paloma" he knew it, just needed a little remainder and nodded at her suggestion. Pal will be. Oh and she was doing the same greeting as before. Nope "Old people way to greet" he pointed out again. He waved at her instead. Though, he did that just to annoy her. Hehe.

Hugo raised his eyebrow "There's not such thing as pastry law" not that he could remember. "I'll give it a try" that's the least he could do after turning down every suggestion or greeting from her. He was nice. Hugo opened the jar, inserted his finger and then into his mouth. To his surprise it wasn't overly sweet "It's good" nodded.

He grabbed a bit more of the jelly before answering Paloma. "Amazing!" it was perfect "The food, the place and some of the classes are so cool!" could she notice his excitement? "What about you? This is the first time I see you around" well, if you didn't count during the classes.

Paloma chuckled as Hugo rejected, once again her greeting using her hands. "Fine," she said, then waved back at him. Kids, why were they so against growing up. It wasn't so...bad. "You have to get used to, you know. One day a very older person will really look at you with serious eyes, and those..." She shivered, "...those make you shake the hands." She was serious. Some older people had that mind power.

She gasped. "Seriously, Hugo. I have been in pastry and baking courses, and something this good, without a jelly, or some kind of cream, is a crime." She said, taking a bagel herself and putting jelly on top of it, nodding to his agreement.

Smiling, she kept eating, then took a sip of orange juice, "That's good...and any new friends?" She hoped that the boy felt welcome, because like for everyone, Hogwarts was to become his home from then on. "Oh, I spend my free time somewhere, practicing ballet...it's my reliever." Sure everybody had their own, right.