"Oh, well you have to sometime. It's so different, even the land, the food. I don't really get to interact with the locals. My dad's always afraid I'm going to have a magical explosion or something. Lyra rolled her eyes. Partly because her dad was too worried about everything and partly because she hadn't had any magical abilities until she was nine and magical mayhem wasn't exactly a treat during most of their trips. Not that she'd ever admit that to her friends. She didn't want them to automatically think she was bad at magic.

Tobi glared at Cale. "I'll stop if you shut your pie hole!" Tobi hissed.

If not, Tobi was going to beat Aggie to pounding Cale into the dirt. Tobi was a good foot taller than Cale the puny, it would be nothing.

Tobi's face burned bright red - Gryffindor red. What a time for a girl he barely knew to say hello! "Hullo Aura," he mumbled, "Nice holiday?"

Tobi grinned back at Sho, possibly a conspirator in any future plans of retribution against Cale. So far their impromptu game of Cale-ball had worked out well enough.

Listening with interest, Lasca focused on what Lyra was saying. "Turkey. Me and Papa have been there a few times. I love to travel. Antropoplogists? Pardon me, but what is that?" She made a mess of trying to pronounce the word with her accent. Blushing slightly she looked to Lyra for the answer. Curiosity. It will be the death of me one day.

Aura heard the first year girl near her talking to her friends about pictures, and sighed...in a low whisper that only Lyra could hear she spoke, "If you ever need any help with your classes I can help you...I used to butcher magic all the time because I had too thick of an accent." Aura rubbed her arm, remember a burn she got in her first year, "And I won't tell anyone if you don't want me to...besides, I'm Auralie Deveraux my mum's in the ministry..."

Aura looked over to Tobi, noticing how Cale and Sho were acting it made her chuckle..."Oh my holiday we pretty good, and yours?" She asked smiling kindly.

"Of course not," Mariel smiled at Nathaniel, even though her father let her use magic outside school. As long as it was supervised of course. "I meant that your father could... I still don't get that about him." Why would anyone not love being a wizard.

Frowning at his next question, she stated flatly, "No." She did not feel the need to say that she was a gold digger or any other words she used to describe her.

Mariel listened intently as the three discussed vacations and travel, feeling slightly left out because of her sheltered life. She wanted to absorb as much information as she could because when she was of age, she planned on travelling the world.

"I can't help it, he makes it so easy." He plopped some mashed potatoes on Sho's plate as he leaned in and whispered. "I think he and Aggie..." he trailed off figuring the names would lead Sho to his own conclusions.
"Hiya Runrise!" Cale said sitting up and shaking a hand with a fork at her in an attempted wave. "Nice holiday and all?"
"I'll shut my pie-hole," Cale said grinning like a Cheshire Cat "If you pass me the pie on your left." Honestly, Cale hadn't any clue what Tobi was getting so defensive! But man, seeing how red the boy could get was quite fun.

Lyra felt a little embarrassed, knowing that she didn't know enough about the subject to explain it thoroughly. "Well, he's a professor at a university, so mostly he teaches. But the subject itself.... it's just the study of humans, or muggles at least, past and present. How they acted, what they ate, where they lived....In Turkey they mostly dig up old cities."

Lyra hoped that she had explained it correctly. "What kind of stuff did you do in Turkey?" she asked Lasca.

Qaz was already on her way to the front of the hall...she didn't know who had called her name....and she wasn't going to let it stop her.....

Better off if they weren't involved....

Nathaniel looked at Mariel with a raised eyebrow. He had a suspicion that she did use magic outside of school. He ran his fingers through his hair as he spoke. "Well I'm sorry that you don't like her. Father is dating some muggle lady that I don't much care for. I don't think he's told her that we are wizards.". He bit his lip as the girls talked about their travels. "So Mariel you said you lived on an Island.. right? So where is that at exactly". Nathaniel sighed. "I hate wearing the school uniform... a lot" he took his robes off. Underneath them he had one of his favorite muggle band t-shirts and a pair of jeans.

Sage listened to the conversation of Lasca and the other girl as he dug into the food; piling potatoes, chicken and anything else that looked good, onto his plate.
Anthropologists? Now that's a interesting career. Shoving his mouth with food he figured if someone were interesting in what his parents (or parent, rather) did for a living they would ask.

Sho watched the potatoes fall to his plate as Cale gave him the names. His eyebrow rose in it's classic fashion as he looked at Cale and then to Tobi. Tobi was acting rather defensive, but that didn't mean Cale was right, right? He just picked up his fork and ate some of the potatoes before he could bring up any questions. It was his final year and he wasn't about to get himself in any situations due to his questions.

"Right," he said swallowing the mouthful. "Well I vow to not get involved in all that then!"

Lyra listened to Nathaniel, nodding."Mmm, languages. I wish I had learned some while traveling, it feels so weird speaking only English while everyone around me soeaks something else."

Lyra realized that it was rude to talk about traveling when Mariel had never been able to do so, so she changed the subject. "Do you think you'll try out for Quidditch this year? You were an alternate last year right?"

Aura couldn't help but laugh when Cale called her 'Sunrise' or more, Runrise...mouth full and everything. She chuckled, and waved back, he was definately being manhandled by his peers, which made her laugh to herself... Aura was just the type of person who liked to laugh and liked to be friends with everyone.

walking back from the frnt of the hall, Qaz found an empty spot in the table and sat down....

grabbing a chicken leg in each hand, she started gobbling away, tears running down her checks....

'Grits twrble, new profs donest even thinker acre...bloddy...kidsss...'

Then Qaz grabbed a bowl of fruit...

'There's supose to care.....bettern dad....Proffs....'

"Oh well that can be tricky," she said grimly in regards to the Muggle woman. "Hiding magic, I mean." Not that she knew why anyone would want to or why his father seemed intent on living such a Muggle-ish life. None of that was her business however and as such, she kept her mouth closed.

Was he serious? Mariel laughed a bit before responding. "Nathaniel," she said giving him a very amused yet pointed look. "I live in London. I just meant that Great Britain is a large island. We're surrounded by water."

Raising an eyebrow as he pulled off his robes, she said, "I'm not sure that's allowed, at least not at the feast. You wouldn't want to lose points already." Squinting to try to read his t-shirt, she said, "What does that say?"

Aura looked over to Qaz, and began to speak Need help confrunting the Administratio? Aura asked politely, she didn't want to freak Qaz out because Aura had a tendency to do those kinds of things.

Glancing away from Nathaniel to hear Lyra address her, she nodded. "Yes, I was on the reserve last year and I do hope to try out this year." She had all but made up her mind to go against her father's wishes. "What about you? Give it any thought?"

How awful.....she came all the way to Hogwarts to have a better life.....

Falling Professors, unhappy Ghosts, bleeding First Years.....

It wasn't supposed to be like this....

This was her haven....

Qaz just couldn't take it anymore...

so she crawled under the table, wishing that she hadn't sent her tabby, HiJinx, up to the bed...

...and cried.....

"Busy," Tobi replied, still blushing, "But mostly good."

And Cale was not helping the blushing. Like, AT ALL! Tobi grabbed the plate of blueberry pie on his left and passed it to Cale. He was tempted to push the little prefect's face into it, but that would be the beginning of another food fight for sure, and he wanted to earn more points than he lost for just ONE term, and this was his last chance. It's not that he meant to lose his house points, he just had a knack for finding trouble and being in the middle of it when it went down...

"Now would you PLEASE let the subject of Aggie and I drop? There is no Aggie and I, and that's final!" Tobi hissed as he took a mammoth size piece of the pie for himself.

THANK THE DRUIDS! Tobi didn't stop to think how odd it was that Sho of all people was minding his own business, but it was a blessing, and Tobi wasn't about to look it in the mouth. Instead, he concentrated on stuffing his own mouth full of pie.

Now where did the vanilla ice cream get to?

Nathaniels face flushed red "Well thanks for that one Mariel!" he said as he tried to hide his face. "Well smarty pants. There are LOADS of people that live in Great Britain and have never seen the ocean!". He looked at his shirt and looked at her. "It says.. The Dresden Dolls. They are from Boston,Massachusetts.. the States. And they are pretty awesome. Fine. I guess I'll put those horrible things back on." as he sighed he put his robes back on and looked at Mariel. His face was still red as everything and his hair had changed a deep shade of indigo.

Well, it appeared that Sho wasn't going to be any fun this year. No help for the weary it seemed. Cale was going to have to give Tobi a hard time all by himself. That was, unless Eddy magically appeared and joined in. One could always count of Eddy, should he be attuned situation, to join in on heckling.
Cale eyed Aura eying Tobi and chuckled. It appeared, Tobi was gaining a fanbase. He doubted that Aggie would like that, but who was Cale to point it out?
"What do you mean there's no Aggie? She's right over there?!" He pointed in the direction of the Gryffindor table where Aggie was busy enjoying what appeared to be a puddin'. Cale quickly shoved some pie into mouth and leaned back so that Tobi couldn't smack him upside the head. "Alright, I'm done. I'm done." That last line had been way to easy, and Cale just couldn't walk away from it.

Lyra leaned over to Mariel and whispered, "I can't believe I did this, but I bought a broom- my dad doesn't even know. It's not the best- a Firebolt 546, but it will do. I'd like to at least be on the reserve team, but if not, I guess there's always next year."

Cela had been sitting there, through all the drama, keeping herself entertained with her candy and new pets. She peered under the table.

"Why are you crying? What's under there?" She extended a handful of chocolate, "Have some, it will make you feel better." she offered helpfully.

Qaz was curled up under the table....hiding beneath her robe....

She LOVED Hogwarts....why does it feel so strange....

Professors falling, first years bleeding.....it wasn't the secure place that it used to be...

Now, she'd lost points, alienated a Professor...

why, oh, why did she send her only friend away....

huddled under her robe....she began softly whispering a song...

Please, little HiJinx come to me....mom
my needs you very desparately

--------------------------------------------------------------

Qaz thought she might have heard somebody talking to her....

but she was sure it was just her imagination....who would want top talk to her....

maybe her cat.....certainly nobody else....


Prrrrrownnnn...ooowwwwwwnnnnn

Sho cut into some steak as Cale and Tobi argued after getting over the slight shock that the boy wasn't going to be nosy this year. Yep, he wasn't going to stick his nose where it didn't belong. No Murder She Wrote moments this term!

He chewed on the piece of steak he had cut for himself, trying to calmly deal with the need to pipe up. As he swallowed he turned to Cale and Tobi, but then just smiled and held up his fork.

"Steak's good, huh?" he asked them.

This was going to be hard...