Tiger's tail swished back and forth, eventually giving up on whatever was going on through his mind having to do with the portrait, and trottled back towards his owner mum lady with his head held high. Stroking behind the tabby's ear, Savannah looked up to meet the gaze of a sixth year friend, smiling brightly to see her. It had been forever, hadn't it? "Jess! I know, it's been too long! I'm great, enjoying my last year" She nodded, answering the seventh year question. "How are you?" And in came an upset younger student, one of their new first years. Savannah looked concernedly over to the small boy, torn between talking to him and leaving it alone; She didn't want to accidentally make his mood any worse, but if she could help somehow.. "Hey there," Vannah waved slightly, making sure it was obvious who she was greeting. "Everything alright?"

Jake looked up, a little calmer than before, and saw Gabben, the guy who Jake had obviously shared an opinion with in History of Magic.

"Not really, and yes it was," Jake stated, matter-of-factly. "Gabben, right?"

History of Magic... grrrrr.

"Hello," Jake responded before shaking his head. "Not everything, no..." And before he knew it, the words just tumbled out. "I'm just... totally not used to this type of learning. Like, we have all these different teachers and they all have totally different standards. Half of the time, I'm afraid I've said something that's going to get like points taken, because that's what happens with certain professors. And everything seems backwards..." Jake couldn't believe he was complaining about this, but it wasn't a complaint about getting points, just the way it seemed. "In my opinion, History of Magic didn't go well, I got into arguments about stupid little cards and someone thought I was arguing with them for the sake of it, so it seemed like a bad lesson... then, afterwards, I found out I got points..."

Jake took a breath, and tried to get his words to make sense. "So I have to get used to the fact that each class is so different..." he explained in a nutshell. "And, at the welcoming feast, a prefect got docked five points for doing something helpful, which is just weird. It's not much... just the principle."

Wow... talking really does help... Jake turned round and stared straight ahead. "I feel better now."

Haha. Awesome. She never knew Eva was also not-so-good in her worst subject. Ah, how much Kaika disliked Herbology. But maybe, just maybe, there will be a slight change in that. Who knew? It was a new Professor after all. Hopefully it wouldn't be that old one, who was also quite scary-looking.

She laughed a bit, "I can't say about the creatures..."she started to say, "...it depends on which one we study" she ended, though she could spend her whole life studying dragons if it were up to her alone, "My dad works in the Magical Creatures Department back in the Ministry" she nodded, quite a change for a Quidditch player, but he did seem to enjoy his work..."But he doesn't work with creatures, really, mostly House-elves and Goblins" and werewolves, so, yeah, not the creatures they get to study in school.

"Umm...I'll be right back" she said to Eva, as she stood up.

Her face turned towards a new figure that seemed to be entering the Common Room. Someone that was probably onto the news but since Kaika didn't know she decided to approach her still.

"Vannah!" she exclaimed, and took the piece of parchment out for the seventh year to read, "I think you may or may not..." it will depend on whether she'd heard the news or not, "...find this...interesting" she said, a smile on her face.


She handed over the piece of parchment, instead of reading the thing out loud.

Savannah was abit surprised the first year opened up so easily, but pleased. Talking helped when someone was upset, talking to friends and people you trusted made you feel better. Of course, he hadn't met her formally and visaversa but she was still a house mate and did care.

Leaving her messenger bag by the couch, Savannah got down on the floor and scooted a little closer, leaning her back against the couch as she listened attentively to the boy telling her the problem of which she completely understood. It reminded her of when the Ministry Officals had taken over, everything was different and the littlest of things was point deductable.

When he was finished, the brunette chuckled. "I'm glad you feel better, it's good to let your thoughts out." She spoke encouragingly, nodding ever so slightly. "First year is overwhelming for everyone, you'll get use to each different Professor with time and learn how best to stay on their good sides. Some are more strict than others, and others are more patient, it just depends on the person. The rest of us are on the same page as you with the new Professors this term so even when you think you are, you're never alone." Savannah said, smoothing out her uniform skirt over her knees that she tucked in close to her side. Ocean blue eyes then moved to stare into the fireplace, she went on "In most classes we're encouraged to discuss the topic that we're learning about, and everyone has their own opinions which is perfectly fine - it's respecting others thoughts that's not always easy; But you can be polite and still disagree, without arguing."

"Try not to worry so much about accidentally losing points, or about making an uptight Professor mad. You can only do your best, and although the house points race is a fun competition between the four houses, it's not everything. Plus, you can always earn back any points you lose later. Follow the rules but still have fun and enjoy school, you know?" Savannah couldn't stress the last part enough, when she was younger she never understood what the older students meant by cherish your years at Hogwarts while you can. Now she knew exactily what they were talking about, because time really flew right infront of your eyes.

Looking up at their houses quidditch captain as she came over, Savannah's face lit up happily. "Kaika! How are- Ooh, really?" Before she could finish asking how the girl was, curiousity overcame her and she had to see what the parchment Kaika offered her was about. Silent while reading over the purple script, she wasn't very far into the letter when realizing exactily who it was from. The seventh year laughed at a part or two, rather amused how their fellow - now former, - badger could still express herself in the same hyper, goofy style through even a letter. It was nice, needless to say. "Aw, I miss her" Vannah giggled, handing the parchment back. "I'm so happy for her, that's wonderful. Thank you for showing me! I had no idea,"

Lyra made her way to the Huffie common room as she began her poster hanging here first. Why not start with the one common room that she knew? She placed the poster on the board with her famous sticking charm that she loved and adored from past experiences then moved throughout the castle making her posters known to everyone.

Yes. Kaika missed Punz a lot too. This will be the first time she'd have to enter the Pitch without Rapunzel, since she'd been on the team since her first year, and so had her former Captain.

But she still was happy about her, it was pretty much a dream for Punz. Her own dream come true.

"I know...it's like...the best that could happen to her" she nodded, a smile on her face, "And being with Ryan too...it's simply amazing" not to mention what Miranda had said about 'getting tickets' to see the Cannons play. Huh. She'd never asked Miranda if she had seen a professional Quidditch match.

Kaika shook her head, as to make that thought go away for a moment, she'll ask Miranda when she'll get the chance to do so. "Oh, it's not a problem...I thought you should know" and there are a few that haven't read this yet, but they'll have to wait, she was tired of looking for them.

*He smiled and nodded.* "Didn't like the first class I take it?

"Well I have talked to Myrtle but when I wanted to talk to her a professor came and took her to the headmaster's office. I wonder if she is back... For that we need you to talk to her as you are the girl and can get the girls bathroom on the second floor. So what do you think?" Ray asked.

Varius made his way through the Hufflepuff Common Room once more, but what was different about this particular trip through the common room was that he was intending to stay for a small period. He had sent an owl over to one of the Prefect's asking her if she would like to carry out part of the History of Magic homework with him - they had made a small discussion during the class, so he thought it appropriate to ask her.

He took himself over to the study tables in the corner of the cosy Hufflepuff den. He removed his History of Magic text and began to read some whilst he waited on... Kayla, was it? He hoped that she managed to get his owl. Those animals could be so unreliable sometimes... probably part of their plan for world domination. Tsk Tsk.

To say she had been surprised to have an owl deliver her a letter while she had been out walking was an understatement and from the little first year Varius no less. But rather happy all the same, at least one of her first years was not out causing chaos and mayhem.

Kayla entered thee common room and stopped to look around and there he was tucked away in the corner. It reminded her of that muggle movie 'Dirty Dancing' something about leaving baby in the corner...yep something like that. She headed over to the table and sat down. "Hello Varius, I got your letter" well that was obvious otherwise she wouldn't be there right now. "So where would you like to start?"

Varius had been engrossed in a chapter about Bortimeus Bradford Buster Blackwood and how he spent his life trying to hug every whomping willow in existence. What a task! But Kayla turned up and startled him, "AH!" he practically screamed as she made her presence known. "Oh, it's only you," an image and feeling of being whacked by one of the willow's branches had crossed his mind when she gave him a fright.

"Sorry, I had been a little more engrossed than I thought," he stood up and rubbed her head, as was custom with Varius when greeting and bidding someone farewell. "Thanks for coming."

"Well," he began, trying to get over his fright, "Maybe we should compare our two cards first. Who would win in a duel, cook off and so on. I got Perpetua Fancourt, what about you?"

Kayla jumped back and almost fell off her chair when Varius screamed, she gave him a peculiar look as she straightened back up again. "Merlin Varius, I didn't think I was that scary" she pulled out some parchment from her bag and bit her lip to keep from laughing.

"No problem" she answered. Yes Kayla found it weird that he rubbed her head but she decided not to make comment on it. She had been around long enough to know that there was many strange people at Hogwarts.

"Right well I have Hengist of Woodcroft" she couldn't help but look around to make sure that Jake Bloody Upstead was not around. "Right your girl was known for inventing the lunarscope and my boy was known for creating the all wizarding village of Hogsmeade. Hmm...I think my boy would win in a duel, he was driven out of his home by muggles so I would say he is a bit of a fighter."

"Oh yes, I remember him from the class. Quite an extraordinary thing to be remembered for. I think your guy would win too, Perpetua looks like she had one too many pumpkin pasties so wouldn't be a very agile dueler and she looks too happy and innocent to be violent." Varius' loved Perpetua's fiery red hair.

"On-topic of one too many pumpkin pasties, that would maybe indicate she would win the cook off in a versus match? Unless Hengist was a chef before being torched away from his home," he gave out a small laugh, followed shortly by a snort. He sometimes snorted when he laughed... it was very unpredictable and uncontrollable. "Sorry," he tried to hold back even more laughter.

Kayla wrote down Hengist's name as the duel winner. She then looked at Varius for a moment, too innocent to be violent? Well that just put a whole new light on things didn't it. "How do I look to you?" she asked curious as to know what he saw just by looking at her.

Oh she could see this was about to be an all nighter. "Hmm...are you saying Perpetua, would win the cook off because she looked like she had been well fed or because she was a woman? Remember Hengist, founded Hogsmeade and the Three Broomsticks was his home. There was nothing mentioned about him being married, so he had to have learnt to cook for himself and for those who stayed at the pub?" Kayla raised an eyebrow at the snort but said nothing, she herself had done it.

Varius blinked for a couple of moments, rather unsure how to answer he question. Was it a trick question? What if he answered in a way that would offend her! He didn't want to pee off his prefect! "Erm... well, I think you look nice enough on the outside and approachable and all... but, I get the vibe that if I were to annoy you wouldn't find it hard to thwack me silly."

Now Varius was curious, "What do you think of me?"

"Well, it could possibly be both. Perpetua didn't exactly grow up in times of incredible equality and being well fed could be an obvious clue. However, you are correct about the Three Broomsticks, but he could have hired a staff? A man with enough Galleons to create a village, I would think, would have enough to pay a couple of cooks."

Kayla watched as Varius, did a lot of hard thinking. She knew he was going to say all the things she wanted hear, she was however surprised that he seemed to get that vibe from her. Lovely. Did everyone get the same vibe? She stifled a small laugh, she sure hoped they did. "Very true indeed. I ask that because you said Perpetua, looked innocent. Of course you can look innocent that doesn't stop you from being a good dueller. Although I still agree, she was simply too fat to be able to move around."

She took a moment to scrutinise him. "You seem to be a nice guy, with a few quirks. You're smart definitely but I do detect a mischief maker there as well. So long as I don't catch you at it, there will be no need to thwack you" Kayla gave him a pleasant smile but she was totally serious.

"He could have indeed" Kayla agreed. "But you're right back in those days, the women did all the household chores and more. So Perpetua would win the cook off" she looked at the list again. "Okay so who would win the debate?

How did he end up here? Sebastian had actually been aiming for the kitchen, but... How..?

Pushing the door to the common room open, he looked around it for a bit, paused, and entered, then walked across to an the stone threshold by the fireplace. Putting his hand towards it, palm up, he let some of the flames from his hand congregate with the ones in the stove. It was so hypnotic. Removing his hand so he didn't freak anyone out, Sebastian stood back up and looked down at it.

Yup. Defiantly hypnotic.

Crashing down into a chair that overlooked the fire, he kept staring at it, the yellows, reds and oranges reflecting in his pale blue eyes.

"Mischief maker, eh?" Varius smiled. If he were likely to get into any mischief, he would probably be doing it under the impression that he wasn't actually creating mischief. Varius was one of those people who was completely ignorant of his own actions and the consequences that would be derived from those actions. Probably what gave off some of his weird vibe. "And smart? Thank you," he winked, deciding to ignore the thwacking reference. Gulp.

He wrote down what they had discussed thus far, before pondering over the debate face-off. "This ones hard. We don't really know what these people were like when they were alive, simply what they were famous for. But debating could be seen as a form of dueling? Particularly for muggles I would assume. Maybe it would be Hengist as well... after all, building a village isn't likely to go without problems... i'm not too sure. This one is tricky - what do you think?" he began stroking his parchment with his quill feather, still thinking.

"You're welcome" Kayla replied simply. Well he was the smartest first year she had come across so far. Grudgingly she had to give second place to Jake, even if he was slightly annoying.

"True but then again Perpetua, would had to have had a lot of discussions over her lunarscope. I mean she would have at least had to convince people that her invention worked and get people to try it. I'm sure she would have had plenty of opposition wouldn't you say? On the other hand Hengist, as you said built an all wizarding village and so he had to convince people to live there and be against muggles. Hmm...I think Hengist, as well. He must of had great influence as Hogsmeade still stands as an all wizarding village after all this time."

Kayla looked at the list again and had to giggle. "A dance off? Somehow I can't picture Hengist, as a dancer. So I'll give this one to Perpetua, maybe she did a moon dance or something."

"Well that's true too," he agreed as Kayla argued Perpetua's case. He hated all this dubious-ness - why couldn't this be simple? Thankfully they agreed to give this one to Hengist and could move on.

He was surprised when the Hufflepuff prefect began to laugh, "What?" he asked with a smile on his face, looking down at his own parchment with the assignment on it. "Oh, dance off," he repeated as she read it allowed, beginning to laugh also.

"I think Perpetua would have a pretty mean moon dance to show off to the world. I could see Hengist being a ballroom dancer in secret, but no points for those who hide their abilities! So Perpetua it is!" he began to laugh again, Professor Truebridge was turning out to be his favourite Professor so far. He was serious, but fun.

"Well," he said, coming slowly back to reality and getting over the dance off silliness, "That is the last of the listed questions. It says we can create our own, or we could both choose a new card to represent and do the same four versus questions for them if you want. You decide." Who knew homework could be this much fun. Although it was history, and history was obviously fun.

Kayla was still giggling as she pictured Perpetua, in all her round glory dancing. "Oh yeah I bet she could really shake her booty" oh and she always thought homework was a serious affair. She just hoped the rest of the Professor's had this much imagination.

"Ooh before we start on the new ones. I have one more versus between our lovely guy and gal. Who would win the Triwizard tournament, having the same contests as Harry Potter did back in his day?" When she first thought of this question, the answer seemed obvious to her but as she thought about it some more, it wasn't quite so black and white.

Kayla reached inside her bag and pulled out some fudge...caramel of course because that was her favourite. She held out some for Varius. "Brain food. If that doesn't work then the sugar rush will leave you on a high" she chuckled softly.

Varius let off somewhat of a cackle and a snort at the mention of the word 'booty'. He hadn't heard someone use it in quite some time, and even then he always laughed at the mention of it. Such a silly word to refer to one's rear, but who was he to chastise those who made up such words?

"That's a goody!" he accepted the offering of fudge with a small "Thanks" as he remembered back to what the tasks actually were - one of his favourite bedtime stories when he was little. "Maybe, to tackle this question we should take it task by task. So first of all, the Dragon. Got to have a lot of fight in you and bravery... but also the smarts in order to distract the dragon. I think I am going to say... Perpetua. As an inventor I think she has a bit more intelligence and therefore a lot more to work with whilst improvising her attack and trying to grab hold of the egg."

He ran his tongue across his teeth, trying to unstick the fudge which had attached itself to his molars. "But we did say Hengist would be the better dueler. So it's more of a question of whether or not the task needed more physical strength or intelligible skill... I still think I would stick with Perpetua, though, just as this fudge seems to be sticking to my teeth," he chuckled.

Jake leaned his head back and nodded, staring at the ceiling. Blah... new school, new people, new classes... "I just don't want people hating me for losing pointa I lose any points. My mother always told me I was never the most tactful of people, so I'm afraid I'll say something and lose points... it's probably me being all anxious about something silly..." Jake pulled his head back up and shook it a little. He really was panicking about nothing... Jake hadn't lost any points thus far.

"And the same with the classes," Jake went on. "I don't like disagreeing witth people, or making them angry... it gets scary, you know?" Jake looked over at the girl. His brow furrowed. "Sorry, but I didn't tell you my name... it's Jacob- erm... Jake," he had been close to reciting his whole name again. Jake smiled a little. "And I intend to enjoy these years of my life."

Jake shrugged. "Ah... it was ok, I guess... and in retrospect it was better than I thought it would be. Just, a little confusing... and with the new dates and people, suddenly learning them all instead of learning through life..." Jake thought for a second. "It's a good thing I decided to read loads when I found out I was a wizard, I suppose all the real muggle-borns would get more lost in that class than me... But, saying that, the professor taught it really well," Jake admitted. Gah... I'm just slooooooooow.

Jessica smiled, looking closer at Vannah's cat. "You've got a lovely pet there. So this is Tiger, right? I heard you calling him before." she said.
"I'm fine too, happy to be back at Hogwarts, but not too eager to do homework, for that matter." Jess laughed.

"Have you heard that the ghosts returned to the castle?" she asked her friend. "There are all kinds of rumours. And I've seen Moaning Myrtle in the bathroom. However, no one knows why they're back." she elaborated.

"I wonder why a professor took Mrytle to the Headmaster's office? From what I understand she doesn't cause too much trouble. I mean no one likes using that bathroom, but that's no reason to punish her. I think we definitely need to talk to Moaning Mrytle and find out what happened in the headmaster's office. Did you make it to History of Magic class?" Abby really needs someone to help her with the home work.