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**Wilber Winterbottom** · #1 (**permalink**) 12-27-2022, 12:45 AM

For those who belong in Gryffindor House, on the left side of the Great Hall is where your table awaits. Red banners containing an embroidered golden lion float above the polished table in honour of the brave Godric Gryffindor. Already placed on the tables are silver plates with accompanying cutlery and goblets. All that is missing right now are the mountains of food and pitchers containing your favourite beverages.

Though your stomach might be growling as you take a seat on one of the long benches next to the table, it is important to not get hangry -- gnawing your arm away or jabbing your fork repeatedly on the surface of the table will do no good whatsoever. Give everyone some time to get settled in and wait for Headmaster Winterbottom to deliver his speech. Keep yourself preoccupied by catching up with your fellow housemates or those who are visiting from the other tables until it is time to sink your teeth into the hearty and delicious meal prepared by the house-elves.

FearlessLeader19 · 05-02-2026, 10:58 AM

Viano plopped himself down at the Gryffindor table, slightly dreading the year ahead of him. Major exams did that, raising his anxiety. His fifth year… it had been a slight challenge to manage it but now… two years later, Vi was doing much better. Amidst his concerns for the exams, he still felt that he could manage all that he needed to. His thoughts randomly turned to Vesper. He just might bug his sister to help him with studies. Of course, there was Vasco and Vera too… yep, he had options. The reminder made him happy… happier. It was enough to make him grin slightly as he turned his attention to the Sorting.

Eloy was here, everyone!

Still bouncy with excitement from the Sorting, the extrovert made his way to the Table cheering for him. Not the actual Table, duh; the people at it! “Thank you, thank you!” Pausing at one end, he bent from the waist up in a little bow. “Hey, guys! What’s up? Eloy here!”

El took up a free spot, looking keenly at the cutlery. How long until the food got there? His stomach was making some embarrassing noises.

*Samia* · 05-02-2026, 11:27 AM

The Great Hall glittered like it always did at the start of term -and Marina walked in like she belonged to it.

Which she did.

Obviously.

Her chin was tipped just slightly higher than necessary, steps light and deliberate as she made her way toward the Gryffindor table, eyes flicking over familiar faces, new ones, the whole spectacle of it all. Third year. That meant something. It had to mean something. You didn’t just survive two years of Hogwarts and come back the same.

Still... there was a strange sort of tightness sitting just under her ribs, like something unfinished had followed her all the way back from summer and decided to unpack without asking.

She slid onto the bench, smoothing her robes in a quick, practiced motion before reaching for a goblet she didn’t actually want yet. Her eyes flicked briefly toward the staff table before snapping back like it hadn’t mattered at all. “Well,” she said, a little too brightly, turning toward the nearest person like she hadn’t just been staring into absolutely nothing, “if third year doesn’t come with dramatic personal growth and at least one life-altering event, I’m going to be very disappointed.”

Her smile came easy. Too easy.

“Hi Eloy” she added, as someone introduced himself, “excited for Hogwarts? you certainly look it”

sweetpinkpixie · 05-02-2026, 10:39 PM

Did someone call for a life-altering event!?

"Yoooo — Griffin’s Door — let’s goooo!"

CJ hit the ground from the dais like he'd just been subbed into a match... meaning that his energy was already dialed up, grin wide, and absolutely riding the high. He made a beeline for the table, weaving between people and sitting knees with zero hesitation and a whole lot of confidence that may or may not have been earned.

"—whad up, whad up—" he added on the way in, tossing out a couple of easy fist bumps to anyone within range (that includes you two, bros ― Doom ＆ Gloom and Fellow Bouncy Ball) like they were already teammates. "Good crowd, good crowd — happy to be here —"

And then—

Mid-stride.

He stutter-stepped.

Not subtle. Not graceful. A full, visible hitch like someone had yanked an invisible string.

Because ooooooooooooh.

"—no WAY," he said under his breath, blinking once as recognition hit like a solid bludger to the head...or maybe the chest...or maybe a double whammy. His head tilted slightly, eyes narrowing just a fraction as he pointed — trying for subtle, missing by a mile. "Coin Calculator."

Also known as Seventeen-Twenty-Nine when he referred to her in his thoughts and letters back home to teammates and friends. ~~Scary Girl~~ Daunting Damsel to mom and dad ― she was able to overlook a couple things since he used one of her smart people words to describe his blonde peer.

"Yooooo!" he called, already moving again, closing the distance with that loose, easy stride. "I don’t know if I’m in luck or if I should be running the other direction!” He slid into the seat across from her in one quick motion, a little too fast, knee bumping the underside of the table before he settled. He leaned forward just slightly, bracing an elbow on the table, still riding that amused disbelief. "Weeeeeeeell, fancy meeting you here. Come here often?" he grinned, gesturing vaguely around at the Gryffindor table. "Would just be my luck that I get sorted and immediately found the one person who can expose me for not understanding the currency."

*Samia* · 05-03-2026, 06:58 AM

Marina had just lifted her goblet - purely for something to do, when the noise hit the table like a rogue bludger with opinions.

Her eyes flicked up.

That energy.

That voice.

…oh no.

The recognition landed a second before the nickname did, and her expression did something very specific - somewhere between disbelief and you’ve got to be kidding me. The goblet paused midair.

“Coin - ” she repeated, flatly, lowering it back to the table with slow, deliberate care. “Calculator.” Of course the universe had the sense of humor to do exactly this to her. Why stop at summer? When her luck could carry to the new term as well.

She refused to lose to it though, not the time or place. So instead, she leaned back slightly, folding her arms as she looked him over properly this time, one brow arching. “You,” she decided, giving him a look that tried very hard to be unimpressed and only half succeeded, “are… a lot to run into at the start of term.” There was no real bite to it. Not quite.

But then he went on to be as charming as she remembered him to be, because running?

From her?

Marina blinked once, thrown just enough for it to show before she quickly recovered, straightening a little in her seat.

“I - you don’t need to -” she tried again, then stopped, lips pressing together briefly as she recalibrated. Because she knew exactly why he was saying such a thing - the awful mood she had carried over the summer had carried into their first meeting as well. BUT - things were different now. They were in hogwarts. Things were better. They simply had to be.

“That was a one-time situation,” she settled on, a touch too quick, brushing a strand of hair back behind her ear in a way that was almost pointedly casual. “I was having a - a very specific mood. Which is not my usual setting, just so we’re clear.”

Her chin lifted a fraction, composure stitched back together with visible effort.
“So no,” she added, a little more evenly now, “you don’t need to run.” She glanced at where he’d nearly taken out the table with his knee, then back to his face. “…also, this is the Gryffindor table,” she continued, gesturing around them like that should answer everything. “So yes. I do, in fact, ‘come here often.’”

HONESTLY. Why, universe, why?

*squidnie* · 05-03-2026, 06:21 PM

Cat waited what she deemed was an appropriate amount of time before politely dismissing herself from her own table and making her way to the Gryffindor table. She was in desperate need of best friend time after probably the longest summer of her life, and she did not want to wait until the next day to see Marina. She wouldn’t stay long, probably, but a hello and quick catch-up were in order.

So focused was she on the task at hand that, as per her usual, she was quite unaware of the rest of her surroundings. She found her friend as she neared the table and kind of hop-skipped the remaining distance to culminate in a rather hurried, gigantic hug around the other girl’s upper body.

“Marina!” She exclaimed, happily seating herself right next to her. “I couldn’t wait, it’s been so-”

Wait.

Eyes narrowing slightly, Cat allowed the rest of the world to take shape around her again. As she did, her gaze fell on the boy that Marina had likely been speaking to prior to Cat’s ambush.

“CJ,” she greeted, tone only somewhat betraying the unwarranted suspicion bubbling up in her. By the time she spoke again it was gone though, and in its place was her usual cheerfulness. “I see that I was right about the Gryffindor thing.”

sweetpinkpixie · 05-04-2026, 12:41 PM

CJ was already leaning in a little too comfortably, grin wide and effortless on his face like he'd known her longer than the half hour at Quidditch Quality Supplies and the past 15 seconds. Messy hair fell into his eyes as he tipped his head, dark strands refusing to stay put, and he pushed them back with two fingers like it was an afterthought rather than a habit.

"Hey, thanks," he said, like she'd just handed him an trophy instead of a passing comment. His fist rapped against the table like a gavel sealing her sentence. "I hear that a lot, so it's good to know I didn’t lose my brand crossing continents."

There was a visible flicker when something in her phrasing landed in his brain and clicked into a veeeeeeeeery specific mental filing cabinet.

"Ahhh — no, yeah — say noooo more," he said quickly, holding up both hands like he was stopping her from having to elaborate. "I got you. Very specific mood. I've heard about those." He leaned in a fraction, lowering his voice just enough to suggest this was Insider Knowledge™. "Back at Ilvermorny, the cheerleaders used to go hard on this one thing before pep rallies sometimes — like, pickle slices on chocolate donuts. Or — wait — no — it was fries in a chocolate milkshake? Wait, sorry chips and a chocolate milkshake." He snapped his fingers once, convinced. Then immediately looked less convinced. "Or... maybe it was a rotation month to month." He shrugged. "Anyway, seemed to help perk them up so maybe you ought to try sometime. Could help."

And just like that, he was back to normal volume and like all that hadn't been a deeply unnecessary contribution.

"Also, FYI, I do happen to like running," he added, rolling his shoulders. "So, you know, not a problem if I ever have to."

He gave her a quick and deliberate wink.

"Though," he continued, glancing around the table before tipping his head slightly toward her, "if this is where you 'come here often,' I guess we'll be… running-but-not-running into each other."

—and then Cat 5 hit (geddit?).

CJ blinked once as the hug landed next to him, instinctively leaning back just enough to not get caught in the impact zone.

"Whoa — okay — enthusiastic entrance — respect —" he half laughed as he steadied himself with a hand on the edge of table. And then he actually looked at her and recognition blessedly flipped his expression instantly — like someone had lit a switch behind his eyes (and in his brain where one may have questions if had been anyone home). "Hey! Lemondrop!" he lit up, like this was the best possible development of his evening, pointing between them like he was connecting invisible dots. "Oh, and that makes Seventeen-Twenty-Nine, Marinara! Yooooo, awesome."

He leaned back slightly to take the two of them in properly, still smiling as his gaze flicked between them, catching icy vibe in Cat's demeanor that hadn't been there even while she had been eating cold ice cream. Maybe she was having her very specific mood?

"And yup, you nailed it," he nodded. "From Pukwudgie to Griffin's Door. Full journey... or something.”

*Samia* · 05-04-2026, 02:23 PM

Marina had been holding it together.

Holding it.

By threads. By sheer, stubborn Gryffindor willpower and the desperate hope that if she just… stayed very still, very composed, very normal, this entire conversation would stop spiraling into whatever it had decided to become.

It did not.

In fact, it got worse.

Pickle slices.

Chocolate donuts.

Running.

Her eye twitched.

Her stomach dropped in that awful, hollow way - embarrassment first, sharp and hot, blooming up her neck. Not the soft kind. The kind that made you hyper-aware of your own hands, your posture, your face. Because he’d taken a blurry impression of her on a bad day and decided it was a full portrait, framed it, and was now presenting it to the table with commentary.

And then there was Cat.

Her best friend crashed into her like sunlight with elbows, arms wrapping around her and for a split second - just a flicker, Marina did light up. But she couldn't bring herself to say anything. Because he was STILL TALKING.

Marina pulled back from the hug just enough to breathe, her hands still half-lifted like she hadn’t decided what to do with them yet. And the blonde menace kept going.

Marinara.

Seventeen-Twenty-Nine.

Something in her snapped - not loudly, not explosively, but irritated enough to cut. “Can you - ” she started, voice tighter than usual, and then stopped, pressing her lips together like she was physically trying to hold the rest back.

It didn’t work. “Can you just stop talking for a second?” she said, the words coming out faster than she’d intended, sharper too, her eyes finally snapping up to him properly. “I don’t - I don’t know why you keep deciding things about me and then announcing them like they’re facts,” she went on, one hand lifting in a small, helpless gesture before dropping again. “I’m not- - ” she cut herself off, exhaling sharply.

Not scary.

Not whatever that was.

“Just - Cat, please tell him to just stop,” she said, turning to look away deliberately from him like if she didn't look at him the entire situation might rewind itself. Instead she focused on her best friend, who was clearly friendly enough with him already.

Maybe she needed to skip the feast altogether.

*squidnie* · 05-05-2026, 12:02 AM

It was a bit like watching a tennis match, the way that Cat was trying to observe both CJ and Marina to the fullest extent. She realized that, of course, he’d already met her. Marinara. She should’ve known.

The bigger concern, though, was the way that Marina appeared to be shutting down. It brought memories of the end-of-term feast last year, after the issue with the professor. Though, this was a bit different. Shutting down was maybe the wrong word, maybe it was-

Well, exploding. Yeah.

Panic flared hot in her belly at the tone in her best friend’s words. She reminded herself that they weren’t directed at her (and honestly, she sort of agreed that CJ did talk a lot), and focused instead on what actually was directed at her. A plea for help. Help that Cat believed she could provide.

She looked at Marina, really looked at her for a long moment, trying to convey wordlessly that she was here and completely supportive of her and that this boy would not affect that. Then she turned to said boy.

…how was she supposed to tell him to just stop? “Um,” she started, “It’s not great to talk to people like that. Like you know them when you don’t, actually. You know?” She glanced, unsure, at Marina before plunging ahead. “Like, it would be super rude of me to just decide that you’re unintelligent and start making assumptions about you because of it. Because I’m sure you are smart, but, like, your behaviors kind of…” She trailed off, suddenly hyperaware of the territory she was entering.

She was floundering here. Clearly, confrontation was not her strong suit. She was more used to simply joining in on Marina’s own behavior than telling off someone else. And she didn’t want to hurt CJ’s feelings or anything, but the best friend loyalty was strong.

“So, anyway,” ANYWAY, “Just, like, stop doing that.”

…didshedothatright,Marina?

sweetpinkpixie · 05-05-2026, 01:20 PM

CJ blinked.

The grin didn’t disappear so much as… stall. Like it had been mid-flight and suddenly realized it had lost the runway entirely.

"…oh," he said, softer this time.

There was a beat where he just looked between them both. Marinara turned away, Lemondrop trying very hard to… do something, and he sitting there like he’d just realized he might’ve missed a crucial page in the script of reality.

"Okay — wait — haaaaaaaaaaaang on," he said, hands coming up a little, palms out—not defensive, just trying to slow the moment down. "I — don't think I'm deciding anything, I'm kinda just going off what you said?" He glanced toward Marinara, even if she wasn’t looking at him. "Like... you said specific mood, I said yeah, I know that vibe. I wasn't trying to—" he made a vague motion, like grasping for the right word and not quite catching it, "—catalogue you or anything."

He shifted his weight, the energy in him misfiring into awkward rubbing at the back of his neck.

"But... I can scale it back," he added quickly, nodding once. "That's not a problem."

He pantomimed zipping his mouth shut with exaggerated care, fingers tracing the invisible zipper from one side of his mouth to the other. For a moment he held still, nodding solemnly as if pleased with his own self-restraint... then his eyes flicked sideways, the silence visibly unbearable, and he quickly reversed the motion.

"…after one thing." He held up a finger. "Banana. Cut in half. Peanut butter. Little sprinkle of chocolate chips," he said, very serious about it. "That was another of the things and the one I actually used sometimes for pre practice snack times. Potassium is, like... important, and chocolate helps. Really helps."

He then gave a satisfied nod like he had just contributed something genuinely useful and restored balance to the world.

"Okay. Done."

He lowered his hand and then Lemondrop's words caught up with him. There was a visible pause as he processed - you could practically see the equations floating around his head.

"…wait," he said, looking at her now. "Is that how I'm coming across?" His eyes went wide in instant, theatrical offense, mouth parting in a gigantic O that bats may as well have been flying out of. "Like — I'm calling Marinara unintelligent?" he asked, gesturing loosely toward his fellow Gryffin's Door, and then back to Lemondrop. "Or you? I didn't — I wouldn't—"

Were the girls girls here operating on an entirely different frequency than the ones back home? Or had he somehow forgotten how to speak 'girl' on the journey over. Or maybe he just didn't speak European girl?

His hand drifted up, ruffling his own hair with growing distress as if the answer might be tangled in there somewhere and just fall into his lap if he tussled it enough.

"I'll stop," he said, genuinely. "I just... don't fully get what I'm doing that needs stopping, so I might need, like… a clearer version of that."

He made a small, vague circle in the air with one hand, as if trying to diagram his own misunderstanding. It didn't work.

"But also, real talk, whatever I did wrong, I'm sorry, Marinara. Just—" He hesitated, eyes flicking briefly between both girls as if searching for the correct emotional setting. "Just enthusiastic confusion. That's kind of my whole thing."

*Samia* · 05-06-2026, 06:19 AM

For a second, Marina didn’t say anything.

She just… breathed. Not evenly. Not calmly. Just enough to keep herself from completely short-circuiting right there at the Gryffindor table.

Cat’s voice cut through first and Marina latched onto it. Not the words, not immediately, but the effort. The trying. The very Cat way of stepping in like a shield made of good intentions and slightly wobbly logic.

Her eyes flicked to her best friend, really looking this time and something in Marina softened - just a fraction, just enough to reach back. Her hand shifted, brushing Cat’s arm in a quick, grounding squeeze. A silent thank you, a please don’t leave me alone in this, all bundled into one small, fleeting touch. She even nodded - slightly, almost imperceptibly - like yes, you’re helping, I see you, I appreciate you.

But - CJ kept talking.

Marina tried. She really did.

You could see it - the way her brows pulled together, the way her gaze dragged back toward him despite herself. She tried to follow the logic, to piece together what he meant versus what he was saying, to meet him halfway across whatever chaotic conversational bridge he’d built out of bananas and peanut butter and… everything else.

For a moment - just a moment, it almost worked.

He wasn’t… malicious. Just loud. And wrong. And -

Marinara.

Marina tried. She did.

He wasn’t cruel. Just… a lot. Her fingers stilled. She inhaled through her nose, slow, measured. Let it pass.

Marinara.

Her jaw tightened. Her gaze dropped briefly to the table, like she could press the irritation flat if she didn’t look at him.

Marinara.

Something in her expression flickered - thin patience stretching, fraying at the edges. And then the line snapped. Not loudly. Not explosively.

Just clean.

Her spine straightened, sudden and precise. The embarrassment still burned under her skin, the frustration still sat heavy in her chest - but now it had somewhere to go. Her hand tightened once more against Cat’s arm - one last anchor, and then she turned.

Fully. No avoidance. No looking away. Just him.

“My. Name.” She gritted out, glaring, each word placed carefully, deliberately. “Is.” And then it broke through, sharper now, edged with everything she’d been holding back - “Marina.”

*squidnie* · 05-06-2026, 05:01 PM

Was that how he was coming across? “Yes-” Wait. “No, you’re-” But he kept talking. Had Cat really not been clear that he was coming across as if he was unintelligent? For all her worry about not being nice to him, she was now disappointed that her meaning had clearly gone over his head. He obviously wasn’t insulting Marina’s intelligence. He was-

Oh.

… this was messy.

Cat went very still. Again, she kept most of her attention on Marina, trying to determine where her assistance was needed. Her friend appeared to have everything handled, though. It was an eerie calm that was quite unlike the sides of her that Cat was usually privy to.

Cat stayed quiet, counting on her presence alone to be a support at that point. She did nod, though. Just to help a little bit more.

~~You tell him, Marina!~~

sweetpinkpixie · Yesterday, 01:05 AM

CJ looked between the two girls like he was trying — genuinely trying — to locate the exact point where this had all gone off the rails. Which was difficult when the rails themselves seemed to have vanished somewhere around banana recommendations... or maybe before them. Solving a puzzle with half, or all, the pieces upside down would have been simpler.

He caught the squeeze Marinara gave Lemondrop's arm and the tension at the table had shifted again. While his housemate's expression had gone sharp enough to cut glass, CJ still looked mostly… confused.

Concerned too... but confused first.

CJ blinked.

There was a beat where the correction seemed to land ― like actually land ― and his face brightened instantly, relief washing through him like they'd finally untangled the misunderstanding.

Words and CJ had never really operated on a reliable system ― which was probably why mom had him doing those fancy pants word-a-day things. It wasn’t even a British-versus-American thing either — although that was making matters more difficult for sure. Nope, this problem had existed loooooong before he crossed the Atlantic. His brain just.... autocorrected things wrong sometimes and then permanently committed to them. And once the wrong version settled in...it was basically a permanent resident.

Somewhere along the line, 'supposedly' had become 'supposably', espresso had gained an 'X' and lose an 'ES', 'scapegoat' had spent years as 'escape goat', and he still couldn't cast 'Expelliarmus' without first shouting 'Asparagus'.

He usually knew the words were wrong eventually, so that wasn't the issue...is. The issue was that his brain had already emotionally bonded with the incorrect version and at that point trying to say it properly felt like steering a shopping cart with one busted wheel.

The Raven's Claw could probably pinpoint the exact moment Marinara's remaining patience left her body.

Meanwhile, CJ kept going with the doomed confidence of someone whose brain and mouth had long since stopped working as a team.

"Yeah," he chirped, nodding quickly with a grin. "That's what I've been saying! Marinara!"

Boy was he glad they had cleared all that up.

*Samia* · Yesterday, 07:43 AM

The moment hung there. Cat still beside her. The table warm with feast-light and noise and chatter that suddenly felt impossibly far away. And CJ smiling. Smiling,like they’d finally solved it, like this had all been some harmless little mix-up.

Yeah, that’s what I’ve been saying! Marinara!

Something broke then, not dramatically at first. Just… internally. Quietly. Like a thread pulled too tight for too long finally giving way somewhere deep in her chest. Because it wasn’t just him anymore. It was every swallowed feeling from the entire summer rising all at once, ugly and hot and impossible to keep buried. Her parents whispering about Adrian in rooms they thought she couldn’t hear. Her mother exhausted, the baby that hadn’t even arrived yet but was already taking up all the space in the house.

The constant Marina, not now.

Marina, sweetheart, can we do this later?

Like she was the easy child. The manageable one. The one who could wait. So she had. She had waited and smiled and swallowed things down until they calcified somewhere under her ribs. And now this boy sat here grinning at her while saying her name wrong over and over and over again after she had told him. Like it didn’t matter enough to get right.

Like she didn’t.

Cat’s presence should have helped. Usually it did. Usually Cat could pull her back from almost anything just by being there, warm and steady and hers. But right now even Cat sounded far away. Everything did. CJ’s grin was still there. That was the worst part, he was just oblivious. And somehow that hurt more. Marina stared at him for one long, terrible second. Then another. And then -

The goblet left her hand. Not tossed. Not dropped. Thrown.

It was a sharp, violent movement before even she fully registered making it, metal flashed through the warm feast-light as it flew straight at him, sending pumpkin juice spraying everywhere in a spectacular golden arc - everything was definitely dramatic then. And somehow Marina was already on her feet. Breathing hard. “You think this is funny?” she snapped, voice shaking now, not with fear but with something far messier. Her hands were clenched so tightly at her sides her knuckles had gone white. There was hurt under the anger now. Raw enough that it split straight through the fury. “My name is MARINA!”

*squidnie* · Yesterday, 03:27 PM

She was out of her league here.

Cat had resisted the very real urge to facepalm at CJ’s startling lack of self-awareness. She had shoved down all the words she wanted to throw at him about respect and kindness and listening. She even held back the near-overwhelming desire to ask Marina to just let it go.

Alas, she still ended up covered in pumpkin juice.

She felt calm about it, somehow. She knew that the real troubling reaction from Marina had been throwing the goblet. The pumpkin juice had simply been fallout (no pun intended). Cat had, unfortunately, just been in the path of destruction. She hadn’t been the end goal. The target.

She was very, very aware of the stickiness of the pumpkin juice as it soaked through her shirt. Her nose wrinkled in distaste.

She did not think about what happened at the end of the goblet’s path. She’d get to that later. She did, however, notice that her friend was now on her feet, voice shaking, hands clenched.

Oh no.

Cat jumped to her own feet, moving to stand in front of Marina. Putting herself in the crossfire. She did not want to see Marina landing herself in detention on the first night of the term.

“Hey,” she said, setting her hands on Marina’s arms, voice soft and hopefully more soothing than she felt truly capable of right now, “let’s deal with this later, okay?” Maybe when all the professors and every single student in the school weren’t in earshot. “Let’s just go to your dorm.”

She’d take a beard again, at this point.

sweetpinkpixie · Today, 02:46 AM

CJ did not have nearly enough time to process the incoming goblet.

One second he was grinning. The next—

*BOINK*

The metal goblet connected with his face in a spectacularly accurate direct hit to the nose and, honestly, Marinara had an arm on her.

The impact snapped his head backward so fast the rest of him got dragged along for the ride a half-second later, momentum carrying him clean over the Gryffindor bench in a catastrophic tangle of elbows, knees, robes, and unresolved momentum.

There was a tremendous *WHUMP* as he hit the floor flat on his back.

One leg kicked upward on instinct. The other followed a moment later like it had received delayed instructions from headquarters. Then gravity reclaimed both and they flopped back to the stone with all the grace of dropped spaghetti.

For one long second, CJ simply starfished there beside the table staring up at the enchanted ceiling while trying to determine whether he was seeing actual stars or just the decorative ones overhead. Pumpkin juice dripped steadily off the bench beside him, forming a small puddle beside his head. Somewhere nearby, a goblet rolled in a lazy little circle until the skin crawling scratching of metal on stone stopped.

"…whoa," he wheezed eventually.

Slowly, with all the drama of a wounded soldier returning from battle, CJ lifted a hand to his face and pinched his nose. Can we all say 'immediate regret'? "HHHSSSSK — okay — yep — yup,” he hissed through clenched teeth and looked down at his hand. There may, or may not, have been blood. Honestly, hard to tell while being in the middle of a pumpkin juice crime scene.

With a groan, he sat up enough to peer over the bench toward the two girls, hair a mess, expression dazed and despite everything — there was still a flicker of impressed disbelief there that miraculously outweighed any anger. Scary Girl had a THROW. Like genuinely terrifying chaser energy. The kind that made keepers wake up in a cold sweat.

Meanwhile somewhere behind him, food had finally appeared at the tables and the smell hit him immediately... which was somehow the real tragedy. The smell hit him immediately and CJ’s face crumpled with sincere heartbreak as he stared mournfully at the feast from his position on the floor like a fallen warrior watching paradise slip away.

"…man," he muttered. "I literally just got here."

He sniffed...and then immediately recoiled from the sharp burst of pain shooting through his face. Using the bench for leverage, CJ hauled himself upright in stages, wobbling briefly before catching balance again with one hand still clamped over his nose... and the adrenaline was finally starting to curdle into actual irritation and anger.

He pointed accusingly at Marinara while backing away from the table. "Okay, Horntail," he muttered nasally, wiggling a finger at her. Then his gaze slid briefly back toward the Raven's Claw ― who SO wasn't a Lemondrop as much as maybe an Acid Pop, maybe.

And then, with all the dignity he had left — which was not much — CJ shuffled off toward the boys’ bathroom to inspect the damage and retreat before the Horntail decided to finish the job and breathe fire at him too.

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