For those who belong in Ravenclaw House, in the middle of the Great Hall is where your table awaits. Blue banners containing an embroidered bronze eagle float above the polished table in honour of the wise Rowena Ravenclaw. 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 until it is time to sink your teeth into the hearty and delicious meal prepared by the house-elves.

She was back!

The train ride was standard, but the horseless carriages were a new experience this year, and of course, Cat had spent the entirety of the ride trying to figure the whole thing out.

She was still working on it. She’d have to ask Marina.

Meanwhile, she would enjoy the feast (she’d been looking forward to it). Since she was near the front of the students, she wiggled shoved politely made her way through others and toward the Ravenclaw table. She slid onto a bench near the front of the Great Hall, close enough to study the first years when they came through for their sorting.

When did the food show up, again? She was starving.

Mira was back at Hogwarts for her second year with two pets instead of one sent up to the eagle dorms, along with the rest of her luggage. Entering the Great Hall in the sea of other returning students she was pushed, no shoved sideways by someone wanting to cut ahead in the queue. She almost shouted out 'Hey, watch it', but then thought better of it. Mira didn't know who had pushed her, and she wasn't hurt so why bother? Plus it'd just lead to the prefects coming over, and it'd turn into a scene.

Taking a vacant seat next to Cat at the Ravenclaw Table some minutes later Mira beamed in greeting to her friend and peer. "Hey Cat! Did you have a good summer break?" Remembering the bottles some guy had given out on the train station she asked "Cat, would you like to dye your hair with me? I've got two bottles of bright blue eagle color?" Unless she had gotten a quick hair growth formula instead?

Grateful that she didn't have to wait long to find someone she knew (or have someone she knew find her, rather), Cat turned her upper body toward Mira, grinning back at her housemate. "It was okay," she answered easily, "But I'm so excited to be back here. Do you know how those horseless carriages work??" Clearly, she wasn't about to wait to speak to Marina to get her question answered. Hopefully.

She blinked a bit in confusion when Mira asked her next question, but quickly pushed the confusion aside and answered, "Yes!" Impulsivity was Cat's strong suit. As was curiosity. "Why do you have two bottles of bright blue eagle color?"

Henry Levi was here too and so enthralled by the horseless carriages that he spend the time reading his Hogwarts History book to learn about what really pulled the carriages. Ironic hearing Cat's question but also one that he was fully prepared for. "They're pulled by a creature called thestrals, that apparently you can only see once you've seen death." Kind of weird if you asked him.

What wasn't weird was his sister asking about dying her hair blue. He rolled his eyes. "You should save it for the first Ravenclaw quidditch match."

The Sorting Hat’s last bellow of a word was still ringing in his head as Harvey descended upon the Ravenclaw Table. He shook his head vigorously for a few seconds as though attempting to shake away that ringing in his ear. It seemed to work for the chattering and other noises came back into focus. He ignored the Ravenclaws for a bit, peering over at the Slytherin table instead, in an attempt to catch JT’s gaze. He hoped his brother would not be too disappointed that he hadn’t been Sorted into Slytherin.

A Ravenclaw Harvey was now. He was okay with being one; Harv hadn’t had his hopes set on being Sorted into a particular House. He offered up a smile to those closest, a way to acknowledge them welcoming him. There was so much talking going on too… he was a reasonable conversationalist but at the moment, he wasn’t looking to butt in on anyone. Especially not the conversation two girls {Mira and Cat} were having about hair colour. But at the boy {Levi} mentioning Quidditch, he could not help but pipe up, “Or Gobstones.” Because Gobstones was just as important, ya know.

Mira didn't get the chance to open her mouth, and reply to Cat's question before Levi like usual cut in, and answered that they were driven by thestral creatures, and that you could only see them if you had seen death. Giving her brother a stare like 'that was too much info' Mira turned her eyes to Cat and focused on the excitement she saw in the other girls eyes and voice which mirrored her own as she shared with her friend excitedly bubbling. "I got the hair dye bottles for free from a guy who passed them around in the entrance hall. We can make it a festive opening night. Shall we drink them now Cat?" Giving her brother a glance she said "If I like the hair dye then I can see if Professor Cox can teach me how to brew the potion before Ravenclaw's first quidditch match." It was then that a boy that was just sorted piped up something about gobstones and Mira turned her attention to him with a warm welcoming smile. "Hi there! Welcome to Ravenclaw! I'm Mirabelle, who are you?"

Death?? That was unexpected. Cat stared at the boy - Levi, that was his name - for a moment before deciding to move on from that topic. She’d look thestrals up in the library later. It gave her a good place to start for her extracurricular learning this term.

She was about to respond to Mira when another boy joined their conversation. Cat leaned around Mira to look at the boy. She had no idea why these two boys thought their opinions on her and Mira dyeing their hair was important, but she wouldn’t be rude. “Why not all three?” She questioned. She’d never dyed her hair before, but she was twelve now and after the summer she’d had it seemed like a step in the grown-up direction.

“Let’s drink them now,” she said with a nod, turning her attention briefly back to her friend before she allowed herself to forget. Then, back to the new boy, she said, “Yeah, welcome to Ravenclaw. I’m Cat. What’s your name?”

So... she wasn't a Gryffindor like her brother, but a Ravenclaw she couldn't help not fo feel sad. Despite he told her no matter what house she's in he'll always be around for her. She loved her big brother dearly and looked up to him, looking over at his table he smiled warmly at her and gave her a thumbs up. That made her giggle and smile giving him a beaming smile and a thumbs up as well. If he could see his friends from other houses, he could definitely see her so she wasn't worried now.

Walking towards her table a bit shyly she took a seat looking around the place, wow Joey was right this place is big! Seeing people know each other, Serenity bit her lip taking out a book reading her favorite muggle fantasy novel. Before she gotten into Hogwarts, she always read books about dragons and power wizard who was saving a princess from evil who wants to takeover her kingdom.

Had the Great Hall always been this loud?

Sittig stiff-backed at the Ravenclaw table, fingers wrapped around the spine of a book she absolutely should be reading and absolutely could not focus on right now, Iris gnawed fervently on her lower lip - a horrid habit she had picked up over the summer. Theoretical Differentiation Between Hexes, Curses, and Maledictions: Intent, Structure, and Ethical Degradation lay open before her, dense with footnotes, marginal runes, and diagrams that required at least three uninterrupted hours and a clear head to properly digest. Which meant, of course, it had been glaring at her untouched since the moment she'd boarded the Hogwarts Express and yet she kept it on her person an opened nonetheless.

Sweet Morgana, she missed macabre literature.

Iris had forced herself to put it all aside just a few weeks into the summer, stacking those volumes neatly in one of her trunks in favor of OWL preparation. Necessary. Sensible. More miserable than she had anticipated - and maybe not entirely because she was stressing herself out over examinations and their implication towards her future.

Hogsmeade had lingered with her far longer than it had any right to. An entire summer spent replaying conversations she should have handled better, reprimanding herself for panic disguised as pragmatism and hesitance masquerading as responsibility. Stress had become harder to hide the longer the weeks went on, though mum's perceptiveness was mercifully diverted by Nyle's far more visible emotional unraveling, which had overwhelmed her Sight entirely. Iris suspected, however, that dad had noticed far more than he'd ever hinted at. He always did. He just… chose silence and coaxed confessionals out through his observational skills.

She exhaled slowly, turning a page she still had not read but needed to look at something other than a diagram of curses for a bit.

Movement nearby caught her attention briefly and she gladly turned her attention away from the pages towards a first-year girl hovering at the edge of the Ravenclaw table. The fifth year followed her line of sight instinctively, noting the warm exchange of smiles and thumbs up between tables, and something in her expression softened despite herself. It reminded her of Nyle their first feast...annoying as it had been in the moment.

Without thinking too hard about it - thinking too hard was what had landed her in this emotional stalemate to begin with - Iris shifted, sliding her bag beneath the bench and herself along it to move away from conversation about hair dye, mentions of quidditch, and the persistent romanticized misconception that witnessing death was the threshold for thestrals, rather than grief being processed and emotional understanding of what death means achieved - an nuance people unknowingly treated like a permission slip and something she had spent a good chunk of the summer reading about to the point she had been dreading riding the carriages.

"Marginally less overwhelming on this end," she said quietly to the first year girl, voice gentle but certain, a practiced tone she'd perfected through years of tutoring younger students. If she had been paying attention to the Sorting then she surely would have caught the girl's name - but alas. "Welcome to Hogwarts, by the way."

Iris adjusted her glasses and looked back down at her own text, determined now to at least pretend to study - or at least read an actual sentence. Reading meant focus. Focus meant not looking across the Hall. Not noticing where the Slytherin table was (which was literally JUST over THERE). Not letting distraction (human or otherwise) interfere with an already fragile equilibrium.

Hearing a voice that was quiet she coild bearly hear it, but she caught it and nodded. She heard the others talking about things from hair dye to death? How in the Phoenix feathers did it go from that dye to death so quickly? Was that a common thing to talk about here? Her brother did say weird things happen at Hogwarts at times, weird unknown things.

Putting her book down she looked at the girl and smiled shyly at her. "That's for sure, although how do conversations start with hair dye and then death?" She asked softly tilting her head in curiosity of how a conversation can take a turn like that. "Thanks, although I'm a bit sad I'm not in the same house as my brother but suppose it'll give me a chance to grow and spread my wings?" Get it? Wings seeing how she's a Claw and a baby one at that, so she was exploring the new world. Although she had to get used to the way they spoke and did things, being in America for ao long she was used to their language and ways so she had a Brooklyn accent to her.

"Whatcha reading there, anything worthwhile?" She loved reading books of all kinds, probably why she was a Ravenclaw her thirst for learning new things as the sorting hat told her. Maybe the hat knew what he was talking about, after all he sorted Merlin knows how many people before her and wasn't wrong.

So much for reading.

Iris huffed softly and closed her book with one finger marking the page for now. It wasn't as if she would really lose her place anyway - she was barely five pages into the text. "Conversations tend to… escalate rapidly around here. Honestly a shorter leap than some I've had the unfortunate pleasure of overhearing." Especially not when her uncle was brought into the conversation - could she please transfigure herself into a fly so she could be on the wall for when they dared ask him to teach them to brew a hair dye solution?

The fifth year adjusted her glasses and nodded. "My twin is in a different house too. Really not as dramatic as it sounds when you consider meals, classes, clubs, the library… you end up tripping over each other constantly. Houses just decide where you sleep, not who you keep." Which would have been the moment to inspire a glance over at the Hufflepuff table to check on Nyle, but she couldn't risk it and allow her gaze to wander towards the emerald and silver.

She paused, briefly considering ending the conversation there... but that felt a touch too cold, even by her own pragmatic standards and especially with a first year. Iris softened almost imperceptibly. "What about you?" she asked instead. "What are you reading?"

It had always seemed to her that you could learn an astonishing amount about someone from the books they chose. Sharing a title was a bit like sharing art: an unspoken invitation into how a person thought, what they lingered over, what parts of the world (or themselves) they were drawn to. A small glimpse of the soul offered between covers and binding.

Sylvie Fraser arrived at the Ravenclaw table with the quiet confidence of someone who knew exactly where she belonged and had for years now. Seventh year. The thought still felt strange, like a song she’d been practicing forever and was only just now ready to perform in full.

She slid into an open seat, smoothing the sleeves of her robes before resting her elbows lightly against the table. Her sharp grey-blue eyes flicked briefly up toward the enchanted ceiling, tracking the stars as if committing them to memory. Hogwarts always felt different at the start of term; charged, buzzing, full of possibility, but tonight carried a heavier weight. Final year. Final feasts. Final everything.

The noise around her faded in and out as she listened, snippets of excited first-years, familiar laughter from classmates she’d grown up alongside, the hum of anticipation threading through the Great Hall.

She tucked one leg beneath the other on the bench, posture relaxed but attentive, fingers idly tracing patterns into the wood as she watched the rest of the house filter in. There was a thoughtful calm about her tonight, a sense that she was already storing these moments away, like verses to a song she’d one day play and remember this place by.

For now, though, Sylvie simply sat at the Ravenclaw table, present and observant, a small, knowing smile curving at her lips as the feast continued.

Harvey was sitting there, his eyes darting between his now Housemates and his brother. Something was clearly up with JT; even without that awful bump on his forehead, Harvey could have seen that. He was tempted to up and out of his conversation to check on JT but the other boy did seem to have concerned friends around him. The first year glanced towards the staff table. Surely the Slytherin Head of House would intervene once they realised what was going on? Or at least, JT would have the sense to check with the Healer?

Mira’s words had his gaze darting back to her, his eyebrows raising in some judgement. Was she really that naive and trusting to want to take free stuff from some guy? But at least she seemed nice enough. “Hi,’’ Harv said nonchalantly. “Thank you, Mirabelle. Call me Harvey. Are you always so trusting?” He nodded towards the hair dye. “What if it actually makes your hair fall out?” He wiggled his fingers at Cat as she peered around her friend. “You’re trusting too,’’ he told her. “I suppose that’s a good trait, to an extent. Hi, Cat. Thank you. I was given the name Harvey at birth.”

At that moment, the boy recognised a fellow first year {Serenity} as he had seen her among the other first years. He offered her a nod; it was his way of acknowledging her joining Ravenclaw. At least she had some company in the form of the older girl {Iris} who had a book in her possession currently. A true Ravenclaw in that sense, perhaps? Then there was another older girl {Sylvie} who seemed to be lost in her own world. Did she want to be disturbed? Was she smiling at him? Harvey didn’t know so he just stared, without realising it.

Mira was about pull out the cork of her believed to be hair-dye potion when another newly sorted eagle arrived at the table. "Welcome to Ravenclaw Serenity! I'm Mirabelle by the way." Further down the house table Mira saw that some senior eagle girls had arrived, and they both got waves and greeting from her, as was accustomed. "Hi Iris, are you excited for OWL year?" After a short pause she added "Hey Sylvie, are excited for your final year at school?"



Furrowing her brows in response to Harvey's question Mira said thoughtfully since the question had some validness after all. "No, I'm not super trusting usually, but tonight I wanted to have some fun with a dear friend so I take the risk. If something were to go wrong then I'm sure you or my brother could run up and fetch a staffer. It shouldn't be needed though, its just hair dye." It wasn't like they were growing an extra pair of teeth or changing their appearance, just a simple coat of paint to their hair.

Uncorking her potion Mira waited for Cat to do the same before she said eyes on her friend and not on her brother who she knew had a dissapproving set to his brows. "Let's do it on three Cat! 1,2, Drink!" And with that she downed her hair dye potion in one go since it didn't taste super sweet. "Now we wait for the effects that turns our hair bright eagle blue." Mira said excitedly and with a smile pursing her lips.

She was trusting? Cat tilted her head slightly, considering the boy's words. Maybe he had a point, and she should be more wary of the potion. Mira appeared certain, though, and she trusted Mira, so there was really no reason to not drink the potion (probably). "Thanks," she said to Harvey, sounding only slightly put-off. "I was given the name Cathryn at birth." Since they were sharing.

She took the second bottle of hair dye/horrible scary mystery potion from Mira and uncorked it. She didn't bother to point out that Mira did not, in fact, count to three, and swallowed hers in one big gulp. She kept her eyes on her friend for a moment longer before turning to the small audience of naysayers they had apparently gathered (namely; the two boys). See? Nothing even happened.

Except... then she felt her face-skin start to tingle a bit. She frowned, pulling her hair out of its braid behind her back so that she could inspect it. It was... BRIGHT BLUE EAGLE COLOR. She beamed then, turning to Mira again. "It work-"

Oh. Oh no.

Something in her periphery caught her attention. Hair was sprouting from her chin. Thick, BRIGHT BLUE EAGLE COLOR hair, that was rapidly extending toward her belly button. She shrieked, tugging at it, which effectively caused a surge of pain throughout her jaw.

It was attached.

She had a beard.

A BRIGHT BLUE EAGLE COLOR beard.

Levi nodded when Henry, a new young Ravenclaw, had chimed in with gobstones. But before he could comment too much, his sister was going off about how she got some hair dye potion for free from someone who was passing them around. UH WHAT??? Clearly Levi had got the sensible Draguar genes because his sister had definitely lost her mind.

"Wait. Don't." Henry had tried to tell them what if it made their hair fall out, but before Levi could counter and stop his sister and her dormmate from taking the potion, they'd already taken it. He had been too slow.... too preoccupied in his thoughts that hadn't spoken up sooner and now Cat was sprouting a blue beard that would surely be matching to Mira in no time at all.

He shook his head. "I mean... I suppose it's not the worst thing that could have happened."

When Levi piped up wait, dont she had already downed the whole potion. She did though mouth back in response "Sorry, Levi." since she understood his feelings and thoughts for her safety. It was then that she saw how Cat begin to frown, and tug at her hair. Mira felt then how her own hair, and the skin on her face too began to itch, and tingle super much. Pulling her hair out of its braided crown Mira excitedly saw the bright blue color on the strands that were usually blonde, and elated piped to Cat, Harvey and her brother who was nearest. "Look, it ----" but she cried too early since her face was growing facial hair, and within seconds Mira was sporting a shiny bright goatee beard that felt so itchy, and weird to wear. Turning to Cat she beamed excitedly "It worked! We look awesome with our blue hair and beards don't you think? I wonder what my beard is called?" It did though feel like her hair wasn't done growing which was odd. She had just wanted a hair dye that would go away after awhile, and a beard nothing more.

Levi and Mira were absolutely no help. Cat gaped at the two of them. Not the worst thing?? She was a twelve-(TWELVE)-year-old girl with the beard of a very wise, very hairy ninety-year-old parrot or something.

She tugged at the beard again (which now appeared to be satisfied with its length ending somewhere around her knees), and winced when it continued to pull on her face-skin. Still attached, then.

She set her arms on the table and leaned her forehead on them, closing her eyes briefly. She took a deep breath then lifted her head again, a bright field of blue catching her attention no matter where she looked. She was most certainly not beaming back at her dormmate.

“It’s a goatee.” She said flatly, in response to Mira’s wondering. “My dad has one.”

Iris' attention was finally and irrevocably pulled from the page and her first year companion when the situation escalated from unexpected pigmentation to full avianfolk beard manifestation. She shut her book with deliberate care, sliding a bit of parchment between the pages to mark her place before her eyes tracked the spread of blue with clinical precision. "Right," she said quietly to herself.

Only then, thanks to the jolt of shocking blue, did Mira's earlier question catch up with her.

"OWLs?" Iris echoed, glancing back toward her with a smile that was trying a little to hard to be breeze. "Oh, yes. Absolutely. Thrilled. There is an unexplainable comfort in the knowledge that the next nine months will determine the trajectory of the rest of my academic life." She gave a light little huff of a laugh, waving a hand as if to dismiss the weight of it all. "I've got a study plan, color coded revision parchments, and a perfectly reasonable sleep schedule. Completely manageable."

Her gaze drifted, just briefly, toward the Slytherin table before she could stop herself. She looked away at once.

Perfectly manageable.

Iris listened to Headmaster Winterbottom with half an ear, her attention skimming the speech the way one skims a passage already memorized - house unity, fresh paint, safety warnings, all the familiar rhythms dressed up with glitter and enthusiasm. None of it lodged for long; it felt less like guidance and more like a politely choreographed interruption between her and the far more tangible work waiting in her satchel. When the tables filled, she accepted the cue gratefully, reaching for a personal pot pie with quiet precision. If the Headmaster's words were meant to inspire reflection, they mostly served as a reminder of time lost. Minutes she would now reclaim while eating, planning, and already turning her thoughts back to spells, notes, and the steady, comforting order of study.

Still, the flashes of brilliant blue around her were awfully distracting. Iris blinked, refocusing on the present - namely on blue beards and a situation that very much required intervention.

Aloud, her tone stayed light as she straightened her posture a bit. "Well," she added, reaching for her wand in her pocket, "I'd recommend not drinking anything else tonight that wasn't prepared by a house elf. And someone really should alert a professor before this becomes a case study."

That someone, she decided, would be herself. Iris drew her wand free with a practiced flick. "Periculum," she proclaimed with a soft, weary sigh. A clean flare of red light burst from the wand’s tip, slicing upward through the air before dissolving near the enchanted ceiling and sprinkling the candles with its glow.