"I dunno." Leticia said with a shrug, "He just doesn't like me I guess. He broke it the first time in Ollivander's, but that wasn't nearly as bad."

"Okay. I've heard so many nice things about this place, but so far things haven't been going very well. I just hope the year gets better."

Lettie shrugged again, "He just doesn't seem to be a school student. I mean, I thought he was a child of one of the staff at first...he's just not very mature I guess."

"No problem," Clifford smiled at the younger girl, watching as she piled pasta onto her plate and then proceeded to drown it in cheese sauce. A waft of cheesy goodness floated in his direction and the seventh year sighed longingly. Oh gaawd, that smelt heavenly.


"EWwwWwww," Clifford pulled a face of clear distaste. That was just plain GROSS! He didn't want Eddie poop all in his bed! That was just.. EURGH! "Maybe he's toilet trained!" He suggested, unconsciously glancing at Dru's pasta. "Maybe fruit bats just now how to poop in the toilet."

Theo's mouth dropped open. He had a genius bat. His eyes widened at the thought. "Eddie is a genius. I am going to look after him forever and ever." He would snuggle him and love him, and feed him raisins and pumpkin juice.

Skylar was done eating and done with people for right now. She just wanted to read her book. She pulled her book out of her robes and opened it under the table. She flipped open to a random page. It was guarenteed that she'd not read the page before.

James Hunter poked at his noodles. Oodles of noodles are fed to the poodles, he thought, then smiled. It was one of his mother's nonsense rhymes that she sang to herself. The smile drifted away as he remembered that she was currently in the mental ward of a private hospital due to a spell misfire. He hadn't wanted to complete his transfer from Durmstrang, wanting to stay closer to home, but his father had insisted. And what his father wanted... well, his father got.

Suddenly not hungry at all, he pushed away his plate and eyed his goblet of pumpkin juice. He hated pumpkin juice. Maybe he could convince the house elves to send up something else... Of course, first he'd have to find the kitchens, and it was a well-known fact tht he got lost trying to find his way out of a room. He dropped his head to the table with a dull thud. He was doomed.

Jude heard a thump from somewhere close by, and once again lifted his shaggy head, this time laying eyes on yet another boy a little bit off.

Glancing toward his friends, he shrugged and slid over a bit, seemingly ignored by everyone around him. Boy, this kid looked almost as miserable as Jude felt. "'Ey dair... Y'alroight?" He asked, keeping his hands firmly clasped in his lap.

Twitching some hair out of his eyes, he giggled a little. "Sorreh. Oi 'ope ya dun moind meh intruden' an' all..." he said smiling a little.

Hayley marched back over to the table, tears still streaming from her eyes. Darn it all, why won't they STOP, she thought to herself. She hated this place already, with its mean, stupid teachers, and stupid teachers...and those mean evil professors! She just let the tears fall, no longer bothering to wipe them away...and she finally sat down next to a boy (LESLIE!!!!!!!) who had his head on the table.

Tell you guys what I well go find the potion professor and ask." Mystic said.

Roland laughed at this. "Can't he grow up? He's gotten enough fuss as it is. As if there weren't enough drama queens here already" he said looking at the boy as though he had never seen anything like and he probably hadn't. "Head boy though well done" he said, "I'm Roland Baims by the way" he held out a hand to the new Head Boy.

Jude glanced over as someone else, Hayley, he saw, came back over to the table. She looked more than upset. She now looked equally miserable as him and this new kid.

"'ey 'ayley..." he said, nudging her foot a little with his own. "Wha's wrong? Shhhh stop cryin' an' tell meh wha's goin' on?" he said, wishing he wasn't so disgusting at the moment. Afterall, hadn't she been one of the ones attempting to comfort him earlier? He couldn't really remember anything... he didn't even know how he got back to the Slytherin table from the Gryffindor floor area.

James turned. "Neh, it be fine." He made to hold out his hand, then noticed the somewhat disheveled look of the other boy and reconsidered. "I danna mind the company. Helps keep the mind off things, neh?"

He poked again at his goblet with a finger, the other hand reaching up to tug at his dark hair before he continued, almost babbling with nerves. "Where you be from? Liverpool or something?"

Hayley sniffled and looked towards the voice that was talking to her. It was Jude..."I was sittingunderthetable with Willie, and a bigmeanboy went and toldonWillie cuz Willi's facewasinthepuddingbowl but I wastryngtohelphimstop, but thenWilliegotstucktothediasandameanteachermademesa dandshewasmeanandmademecrryyyyyyyy," Hayley wailed..."Everything is just soo terriibllllleeee!!!!!!!"

"You see?" Leticia said quietly as she scooted closer to Ott, "This is why you should be patient. Hayley and I were getting through it alright...I think you just wanted it to end right away, correct? Sometimes people need more time."
She put a hand on the boy's shoulder, "You know what you have to do after the feast right?" And by 'have to do', Leticia was referring to apologizing. "What's good is that you'll know better for if it ever happens again."

Clifford grinned at Theo and Eddie the genius. He sorta wished he had a toilet trained genius fruit bat now. But hey, he was pretty happy with Orion. "My owl can't control his tummy.. he's like a little poop machine. I think maybe I feed him too many human foods." Poor Orion.

A little surprised, Clifford listened as another boy spoke up. He wasn't really sure what he was going on about, but nodded and shook his hand, grasp firm. "Nice to meet you Roland.. I'm Clifford Carden." But if he knew about the Head Boy thing, he mighta known that already too. Eh. That was kinda creepy.

James turned his attention from Jude to this new girl, somewhat stunned by the sudden rush of people now sitting by him. "Er, hi." He stammered, more than a little taken aback by the tears streaming down her face. "You be all right?"

Jude saw the slight movement of the kids arms. "Sorreh... Oi'm a bit.... meh hands... dey... dey aren' vereh clean a' de momen'... Bu' iss noice ta meet ya anehways... Meh name's Jude... Wha'd ya say yers was again?" he asked, wondering if he had even said what his name was. He couldn't recall it happening... maybe this kid DID really want him to leave? Oh dear.. what if those meanie-faced Gryffindor kids were... RIGHT?!

"An' yeh, Oi am from Livahpoo'... 'Ow'd ya know daht?"

Jude blinked in utter confusion as Hayley slurred all her words together and he barely understood anything except "Willie" and "everything is just so terrible" at the end. He decided it would be better not to voice such facts, and instead say something soothing.

"Aww... 'Ayley... Oi'm shore i' ain' all daht' bad..." he said, really wishing he could pat her arm or do something else comforting. But that'd be more rude than comforting if he did that now. Later. Later he'd do something.

Xehanna walked over to the Slytherin House Table and tried to find a seat. She finally found one and sat in it. She poured herself some coffee and sat. She took out the letter from her robe pocket and put it on the table. She stared at it trying not to cry and just sipped her coffee.

Hayley looked over at the new voice, lips quivering, eyes streaming, luckily, however, her nose was not a flowing river of snot.
"I'm okay, I guess," she mumble/sobbed. Gosh, she couldn NOT quit crying! Trying to put on a brave face she said, "M-m-my name's H-h-hayley."

"It is that bad," she cried, pointing to the dias where her two new friends were tied up and being absoutly humiliated infront of the entire student body and staff, "It's just so wrong," she wailed.

"Nice to meet you too" said Roland shaking his hand. "Seventh year then.Tell me, are NEWTs hard? Do you know what you want to do when you leave Hogwarts" he asked. It made a change to not talk to someone who wasn't a first year. They just kept whinging all the time. If they were having a hard time why not square up to the Gryffindors or tell the head of house.

"It's James. James Hunter. I just transferred in from Durmstrang." James sighed inwardly. Mentioning his old school brought a wave of homesickness. He missed his friends there, and his favorite teachers.

Soldiering through the feeling, he mustered up some of his old charm. If he was going to be stuck here, he wanted some new friends. "I could tell by your accent. I vacationed there once. Me mum's a big fan of the Beatles. She wanted to see where it all started. Nice place."

Jude's big, blue eyes followed Hayley's little finger up to the front near the staff table. Oh dear. That was not good. "Okeyyy... Wha' did Jaike do?" he asked, trying to get normal conversation started again so she wouldn't cry. "Yeh... it's wrong... an' mean... an'... an' terribuh... bu' Oi'm shore i' won' last fer vereh long... i' can'..." he said. Only until the end of the feast. He knew, but didn't want to tell her that. That might start a new set of tears.

"OK" Aaron said giving a small smile back.

Aaron was suprised. "Right now? OK, cool!"

James pulled a green hankercheif from a cloak pocket and offered it out to her. "Hi, Hayley. I'm James. Er..." At a loss for words and not quite sure how to comfort a crying girl, he snatched at his goblet and took a long drink, then choked as he realized that the pumpkin juice contents had not magically changed in the last five minutes.

"I dunno.. I haven't taken them yet," Clifford grinned with a shrug of his shoulders, "I'm guessing they'll be tough though, I'm certainly not looking forward to them, that's for sure." He was going to have to knuckle down, and fast. Fun. NOT! And what did he want to do when he left? Rubbing his neck, Clifford thought for a moment, "Quidditch has always been my dream.. but whether that'll become a reality, I'm not sure. I hope so."

Nodding, Jude's eyes went wide. It had been AGES since anyone at Hogwarts even knew who the Beatles were. "Realleh? Tha's realleh cool... if Oi dun live dair... Oi'd wanna see i' too... Oi mean..." he blushed, "Sorreh. Oi talk a lo'... I's jus' tha' no' a lo' o' folks know 'bout dem these days..." he said sighing, "'Specially no' de magical ones." He blushed deeper, realizing what he'd just done.

"So sorreh, me manners are gone... I's noice ta meetcha, Jaimes." He added, forcing a smile and trying to ignore the bright pink feeling in his cheeks.

Upon seeing James make a fairly disgusted face at the pumpkin juice, he giggled a little and reached toward the pitcher of water and passed it over, forgetting that his hands were a bit icky. Oops.

"'Eh mate... dat stuff's gross... you wanna 'ave some watah insteads?" he asked, pushing it forward again with one of his fingers.