Schmoop was being a good elf he was. Schmoop help take the studentsies' trunks to the dorms, mmhmm. But first, sorting the trunks into the proper houses and years. That was important, yep. Otherwise, how would they ever get to the right dorms?

And the first trunk was a second year Hufflepuff and went into the Hufflepuff pile, yes it did. All levatated and placed neatly.

Being closer to the entrance way, allowed Quinn to hear the slight, muffled noises of luggage moving. She glanced up from her book with a smile, and sat watching the house elf sort luggage for a bit. Then finally she got up, slipped her book in her pocket and made her way over. "Hello. I'm Quinn. What's your name?"

With a POP, Tinka entered the hall. Her body shook with anger and her fist was tightly wrapped around her prized whisk. It was not where she wanted to be.


"Tinka not like studentsies' trunkes." She mumbled as she eyed Schmoop happily working. She began beating the trunks with her whisk, sending them to their proper piles. She would do as instructed, but she was not going to be happy about it.

Bel was heading into the great hall of course, it was feast time and she was both excited and nervous for what was basically going to be the full reveal of her captaincy. It had been different so far, because it had only ever been to a couple people at one time, and not to everyone. But before she could set foot inside the hall itself she noticed a couple of the elves seeing to the trunks, and one of them didn't look happy about it. Or sound happy for that matter, because Bel just happened to appear right at the moment to hear what the little elf was saying.

"Are you alright, Tinka? Do you need help? I could help you both if you wanted." She offered brightly, looking between Tinka and Schmoop. In fact, what did the elves usually do when the feast was on? Did they get to privately feast too? A little house elf gathering given they worked so hard to prepare all the food for the students? Was there something that Tinka and Schmoop had to look forward to for when they were done with the trunks?

The whole house elves doing things for everyone was still a bit weird to Bel, but she had been told they liked it... only Tinka didn't seem to be enjoying herself...

At the sound of the student's voice, Tinka's big pink eyes looked up. "Tinka move trunksies, Mistress Macindoe. Tinka not need help. Mistress is too kind to Tinka." Her little hand gripped her precious whisk even tighter. "Tinka no like Mistress Macindoe miss feast." She gave a little bow and began beating the trunks with her whisk once again, mumbling complaints under her breath.

Ah Hogwarts, it felt like an eternity since she'd last been here, despite it not being more than a few months. That was what a summer away in a tropical place did. For her, she'd lost all sense of time and urgency. Nothing outside of the warm summer afternoons and days down by the river seemed to matter.

Of course, that wasn't the case anymore.

It was back to the castle and back to every responsibility she now had. A year ago, that might have given her a ton of anxiety but she'd learned ways of dealing with that and found the prospect of returning not nearly as daunting as it could otherwise have been. Longingly, the Ravenclaw looked up the giant stairs. Soon she would be back in her lab and would be able to continue her work. Not tonight of course. Tonight was for welcoming the new claw babies and making sure they didn't get lost.

A year ago tonight had also been for other things...things she now did her best to forget. In the end, it was better not to consider something like that when it was no longer a possibility. THAT would definitely bring some anxiety. The walk up equally so.

Jessa paused just outside the door to the Great Hall, watching the exchange unfold. Did the elves need help? Would they even accept it.

"I could too.....if it's alright with you." No beating themselves in the head please.

*POP*

Toddles did not want to carry trunks. Trunks were boring. The elf wanted to go sit with the studentsies and hear about their summer, or cause a little mischief to make them laugh.

Toddles huffed, his ears drooping with obvious disinterest at the task at hand. "Maybe Toddles should go help some place else. Toddles not good at trunksies." He whined, entirely unhappy with his current preoccupation. Teenagers didn't like a lot of work and this teenage elf was no exception.

He brightened at the sight of two students, immediately abandoning the trunk of a Slytherin third year. "Miss Bel! Miss Jessa!" He remembered them of course. "Tinka might want you at feast but Toddles loves helps! You can grab this trunksies here and," Large eyes looked to the new one he did not know. "Miss Quinn, Toddles and other elfsies would happy if you helps too." He glanced briefly to Tinka and Schmoop hoping they would agree without Algamus around to spoil the fun.

Help? Oh, uh...Quinn smiled at Toddles, pleasantly. She had honestly only intended to come say hi and meet the house elves. She flicked a brief glance at the other girls, and looked back down at Toddles. "Alright. Yes. I can help." Just keep in mind she was a first year and her wand could be temperamental. "What do you need me to do?"

Toddles already had one studentsie asking how to help. He knew the other two would too because they said they wanted to so the elf pointed to the trunks. "This one is Slytherin dorms. Toddles was take to dorm but Miss Quinn can take it instead. Make sure not get names and dorms wrong." He stepped aside, not at all taking her size or magical skill level into account. This work needed to be done and he did not want to do it.

"Then Miss Quinn can takes this one to Gryffindor--takes ALL these to Gryffindor." There were a lot of them and more still to be sorted once the studentsies were sorted. He did not want to wait that long, he wanted to do something fun.

Toddles began gathering trunks about the girl, stacking them until they were almost as tall as her, encasing her in a small square. "When that done, you and Toddles can take these." And by that, he meant she could too.

Several issues here. She waited quietly for Toddles to finish his plan, shifting her weight from one foot to the other. Okay she really did want to help, but...well, "There's a slight issue with this plan, Toddles. Several in fact. I just got sorted. I don't know who anyone is," which made putting the luggage into the correct person's dorm problematic. She continued, "I don't know where any of the common rooms are," which made getting them to said dorm rooms in order for the first issue to arise, problematic. "And aren't we prohibited from enter another house's common room? Uh, Toddles?"

She watched, patiently, as the trunks floated around her, stacking higher and higher until she was trapped in a small cell made entirely of student luggage. None of them hers. So even if the other issues somehow resolved themselves, Quinn wasn't going anywhere like this. "You don't work closely with humans much, do you?" It wasn't truly a question, as she knew the answer.

There was also missing the food, and...well, she didn't honestly care if she missed the headmistress's speech, but the food. "Is there another way I can help?" Preferably where she'd be able to eat at some point, so staying in the Great Hall would be an appreciative bonus.

Also she'd like out of this enclosed cell of luggage, and wasn't above potentially damaging the trunks to free herself if Toddles didn't free her first. Quinn couldn't see the Great Hall anymore. A lovely view of the night sky if she looked up, however. "Little help, please?"

"I won't miss it." She reassured the elf. "All this will get done a lot faster if we help." And yes, she made it a we now that Jessa was there and this little first year was apparently being roped into helping too.



Oh Toddles. Bel cut a little look toward Tinka and Schmoop and wondered if the reason Tinka was less than enthused about this task was more due to the fact that Toddles had apparently been assigned to do it with them, but Bel took a deep breath and stepped forward.

"We're deffo happy to help, Toddles, but I was thinking, maybe we could sort the trunks down here, and you three could use house elf magic to get all the trunks to their right rooms? You're much better at that sort of thing, but I reckon we could sort everything pretty quickly, and then it'll be done real fast, and we can get on with the feast and you three and any other elves that are coming can go and do... whatever you were planning to do next and maybe take a break and.... have an elf party or something?" Yes that would work, right? The Australian girl suggested hopefully.

"And I dunno about Jessa and--" What was the new girl's name again oh yeah, "--Quinn, but I'd love to see how ace you are at moving things to the right dorms after we've helped sort everything, Toddles. I reckon house elf magic is bonza." And well, the fact that Quinn was now trapped in a cell of trunks was a good example of that right? Hang on a sec there, Quinn.

And just like that, she started wishing she'd kept walking afterall.

It wasn't the whole "we" stuff that Bel was mentioning, because the badger was right, she would be happy to help too and with getting things sorted here, the elves might've had a better time of it....but this....this whole asking them to take the trunks TO the dorms then locking a Firstie in with them.........eh....no, this wasn't the sort of thing she wanted to have to deal with on the first night back.

Was it too late to keep walking and pretend she hadn't seen anything. Of course it was. Bel had seen and it'd have been a rotten example to set for the newer girl too.

Merlin, Toddles, of all the nights to do a thing like this. "Bel's right, Toddles." She offered, non-verbally levitating the trunks up and away so they were no longer barricading the poor girl in. Looking at each tag, she set them in some sort of order--easy enough when most had been Gryffindor trunks as the elf had said--before looking to the little guy again. "Seeing the elf magic would be wicked and you wouldn't want any of us getting in trouble for going where we aren't meant to, yeah?" Gryffindor dorms right now was simply a no for her--and not necessarily because it'd make Marchand unhappy either.

Jessa looked to Tinka and Schmoop, kinda non-verbally signaling them to come get their baby elf...er...not so baby elf....just how old was Toddles anyway?

Busy…busy…busy.

That’s what Argyle was as she popped back into the Entrance Hall after checking that the latest batch of trunks had made their rightful way. Mix-ups galore could happen with house-elves and house-elf magic flicking around the castle between studentsies belingings and feast. Argyle liked this time very much. Very lonely when masters and mistresses not there.

“In feast, studentsies be,” the house-elf half-squeaked as she noticed a few seemingly dawdling around with her fellow elves. Schmoop…Tinka and her whiska…and Toddles. Mussa keep eyes on Toddles.

Quirly had been busy, yes Quirly had. There was feastie things to work on, and there was trunksies to get to dormsies. Quirly had gone to the kitchenses first, but with a loud pop, Quirly had appered in the Entrance Hall to see lots of trunksies still there!

"Mistress Bel, Mistress Jessa! You should be at the feast!," she wailed, waving Quirly's spatula around devastatingly. Wide eyes went to the new little mistress too, surrounded by trunksies. And Toddles. No, this wasn't good at all! What would Headmistress think?!? What would Algamus think?!? This wasn't good at all!!!

Oh good, more elves, and Jessa had freed the first year, something Bel hadn't been able to do so... yeah no, she hadn't tried what wouldn't have worked out for her.

More hands meant light work though, so the saying went, didn't it? And really, it wasn't as if it was usually this much of a delay or problem with the trunks, this was definitely unusual for the Hogwarts elves.

"Its okay, we're not missing anything. Food isn't out yet, and we'd hear it if the speech was happening." She reassured the newly arrived elves. At least Quinn had already been sorted, that would have been a bit of a drama if the first year had missed that.

But more elves meant it should get done sooner right? So.... "Are you all sure it will be okay? We really don't mind and there does seem to be.... more of a hold up than usual?" See? Jessa was already helping with the sorting out the piles. Bel could double check them easy enough.

There was a strange auditory effect happening from being enclosed on all sides by walls of trunks. She could hear voices, hear distinct talking, but the words were muffled beyond recognition. And Quinn was getting impatient. Alright, so she hadn't actually been enclosed for all that long, but still. You try being trapped in a cell of trunks and see how fast you grow impatient.

Right, then. Quinn rolled up her sleeves, getting ready to use every ounce of weight her 144 centimeter frame had in it to shove one of the walls over. She'd get herself out!

As soon as she pressed her hands to the trunks, they were suddenly lifting of their own accord, and floating just a little distance out of the way. And just beyond that, Jessa, her prefect, with her wand out.

Quinnlin looked the prefect up and down, as if reevaluating her initial impression of the girl. Then she smiled, genuinely. "Thank you." It might not have been life or death, sure, and a second or two later, Quinn probably would have gotten herself out at the expense of a lot of people's trunks, but still. Jessa had freed her and that meant something to Quinn.

Oh, and there were more elves. Quinn gave them both a wave. As long as they didn't cage her with luggage everything was fine. On second thought, "Feast, right." She nodded in agreement to Argyle and Quirly. "That sounds like a good plan." There wasn't luggage at the table.

Bel wasn't wrong, they definitely would have heard the start of the feast and by the looks of it, they weren't missing a thing. Jessa looked to the new arrivals, Quirly and Argyle, finding them equally inclined to hurry them along but equally as unwilling to get Toddles in line. The Ravenclaw had a feeling that going inside wouldn't stop him from trying to solicit help from others...which was...understandably...problematic....

"No problem. He means well, I think. Just doesn't know how to go about it." She replied with a small nod toward the First Year who seemed suddenly keener on joining the feast than staying to help.

Couldn't say she blamed her. There was no telling what to really expect with Toddles. He was still growing and probably didn't know what to expect of himself either. However that worked. She was no elf expert and hadn't ever tried to be.

"We can go if you'd really like." She offered, again, sorta piggy backing off Bel, "but it also wouldn't be a problem staying."

She levitated another two trunks over to the Gryffindor pile, kinda demonstrating how potentially useful they could be. It wasn't like she had anything better to do.

Toddles see Argyle and Quirly arrive to make the studentsies go away and it made the elf huff LOUDLY. "Miss Bel and Miss Jessa and Miss Quin is fine." He insisted, ignoring the way the Ravenclaw Prefect had removed his half wall around the First Year girl. "Don't have to leave, don't have to go feast. Toddles feed after!" What he left out was the condition of Algamus being alright with it and he never really liked studentsies in the kitchen. Toddles didn't care to consider such things.

"Elf magic nice." He agreed with Miss Bel and Miss Jessa but he did not currently give a thought to any trouble they could get into. All he saw was a lot of work he did not want to do. "But all magic better with magic help. Toddles already know how to sort. Here." Once again he moved a trunk, this time a Slytherin one to the Hufflepuff Captain (shiny shiny new badge). "This you know where go." And because he was sure she did know, he levitated another of similar kind to her. "These in tower. Miss Jessa can climbs tower and have friends up there. She know where these go." So he added another to the pile of Gryffindor trunks the Prefect just made. "You good at magic too, Toddles sees all the time. Miss Jessa can make these go with magic too."

But Miss Quinn was leaving!? "WAAAIIIITTTTT!!!!!!!" Toddles threw himself to the ground at her feet in true dramatic elf fashion. "You no go, Miss Quinn! There's still worksies that needs doings! Miss Quinn stay." He did not care for her excuse of not knowing where common rooms were and what was allowed. "Toddles show you Common Rooms. Toddles show you eeeeverything." Then maybe studentsies even help with laundry this term too! Fun fun fun!

Quinn stopped and shifted uncomfortably as Toddles, so dramatically, pleaded for her to stay. She liked elves. She was particularly close with her own house-elf, Keesey, who was basically the one that raised her. But she was starting to discover that, apart from Keesey, she hadn't really had much exposure to elves. It was painfully obvious, in fact.

Quinn looked up at Jessa questioningly. What should she do now?

"I'm sorry, Toddles, truly. But I don't know any magic yet," that wasn't exactly true, but she didn't know any that could help out much, "and I can't get into any common rooms except Ravenclaws. Not the way I assume you can. I'm afraid I'll just be in the way and not a lick of help to you." She continued backing away, lest Toddles try and box her in again, or worse, grab on to her legs like petulant child. "I'm sorry," she repeated, then she spun back toward the Ravenclaw table and picked up her pace.

Tinka shook her head. She could not believe what she was hearing. Toodles asking the studentsies to move the trunks. With her whisk raised and shaking "No. No. No. Miss Bel and Miss Jessa and Miss Quinn go feast." Her anger was directed towards Toddles.

Her pink eyes looked up towards the young ladies "Studentsies be at feast please. I move trunksies. You not help. You eat." She was careful to not wave her whisk at the girls. Then she banged her whisk on another trunk, sending it to the proper pile and kept an eye out for the Headmistress. This would not make Mistress happy.

Nimma popped into the Entrance Hall and was shocked at what she was hearing!

"Toddles!" she said, with a warning tone. "Let the studentsies be!"

Then she looked with a smile to the poor young witches. "Yes, please enjoy the Feasties! Nimma will take care of these." If Nimma were a bit more bold, she would have started pushing the studentsies into the Great Hall herself! But... Nimma was not, and these trunksies needed to get to the correct places!

It....didn't seem like they'd be coming to any sort of consensus here.....

Toddles was adamant they would take the trunks, the other elves were adamant they attend the feast and she was now adamant that this couldn't go on much longer. There was some relief at Quinn heading inside the Great Hall and at this point the Ravenclaw figured she would have to do the same. Stay and Toddles was likely to get more ridiculous.

"We'll have to get out of your way, Toddles. The other elves wanna get to work and we'd just slow you lot down." With very few exceptions, there was actually no way she would be able to get the trunks there any faster than the elves would've been able to. That being the case, and as she REALLY had no intention of seeing the inside of Gryffindor Tower tonight, Jessa also turned and began inching toward the Great Hall.

"We'll see you later when it's done. You can come sit with any of us." Whether the other elves would let him or would remind him of his other responsibilities was up to them.

Once close enough to the large double doors, the Prefect turned and headed inside.

"We really can't miss the whole feast, Toddles." Bel said apologetically. Even if he was nice enough to offer to feed them afterwards, it wasn't about the food part. And then Nimma arrived and joined in the urging for them to head in.

"If you're sure, Nimma, Tinka." Bel said doubtfully. She hoped her own trunk would be in her dorm by the time she got there herself anyway. "Thanks for all your hard work!" Though she wasn't sure if Toddles was part of that hard work, but she hoped everything would work out. She smiled brightly and then headed into the Great Hall too.

Toddles recoiled visibly at Nimma's reprimand, this time giving no protest when the studentsies began heading into the Great Hall. "Toddles only wanted help. Oh! Toddles will go help in kitchens!" His elf ears perked right up at the idea of not sticking around to do this boring sorting and moving.

"Toddles go make sure other elvsies have everything ready."

More importantly, Toddles would not be staying here. "Nimma and Tinka and Argyle and Schmoop carry trunksies. Toddles go get food."

Yes?