Hufflepuff House Table
 

This table seats the loyal students of Hufflepuff house.

Here he was... the Hufflepuff table.

Well, actually, this wasn't as reassuring as it had felt in past years, considering the Great Hall now held memories for everyone about that particular... incident.

Patting the flier to make sure it was still safely located in his pocket, Jake hitched up his, again overly large, jeans (he'd changed then after the whole *PUKE**KICK**RUUUUUUN* incident) and headed down the Huffe table. He found his favourite place to sit, up near the staff, and folded his hands on the table in front of him, ready for the looooooong wait before bedtime.

And this was one of the few times she arrived as one of the first Huffies into the table. How...odd. It felt awful, actually, seeing not-too-many people around. But watching the sorting was always fun, when she didn't arrive late.

She was entirely wondering what the Headmaster will be saying this time. All things considered.

He was there!

"Jake!" this time she walked over to him, "I'm sorry I...left you in the train" she said, sitting down, though, truth be told, she couldn't remembered what had happened after the first year, Ti, well, after he ruined Willie's shoes.

Kaika couldn't believe she was finally here. Quidditch was close. And bedtime was close. It was alllll good. Right?

"Did anything happen after I left the compartment? Did you stay in the same one?" simple questions, nothing more, to keep Jake awake during the feast.

Jake, whose eyelids had been sloooooooowly drooping, suddenly jerked up when his name was called out by someone. "Whazzamaddurr?" he asked stupidly, blinking up at the Quidditch Captain for a few moments before he realised who she was. "Oh... haiiiiii Kaika."

Oh, Merlin... she was saying stuff. FOCUS JAKERS!

"Errr... Willie went mad... I tackled him, then he kicked me and me and Tibi ran," he said, keeping the explanation simple as the pink-haired boy made a whole range of faces that might force his eyes open. Just then he let out a small yawn. He was tiyahhhhd.

Ella wandered off to the Hufflepuff table. Boy, she had friends in all the houses. She saw her friend Jake, at least she thought she could call him a friend. Not taking a seat, but just coming over to say hi, Ella approached him with a flip of her hair.

"Hey, sleepyhead," she smiled.

Oh, no. He was falling into dreamland. No! No!

Er, Jake was always sleepy during the start-of-term feast...it shouldn't be a surprise to Kaika that he was positively going to fall sleep under the table.

It would be a fun sight. Yes. But she wouldn't want that to happen, because then his back will be hurting the next day. And it was Jake. Jake shouldn't be hurt by the hard floor. Nope. Silly hard floor.

Her eyes widened in surprise. Willie was...weird, wasn't he? That boy was one to be looking out for. "Oh...he did?!" she said, sounding alarmed, of course, "Well, at least you...escaped from him" however, wasn't it better to confront him? Willie? Probably not.

"I'm glad nothing happened to the first year, then" because he'll never return to Hogwarts if something unpleasant happened to him.

"Ghihihihhiiii!"
Miranda, was hyper. She was giggling like crazy as she stepped inside the Great Hall. Ah, another year at hogwarts. She was a big girl now, yes totally. 4th year here I come!

She scanned the tables and grinned instantly when she saw her captain, Kaika. Oh and there was Dominic and Jake too!

Skipping towards the Hufflepuff table, she greeted her friends with a "Hiiiiiii!" and a wave - in their face.
"Kaikaaa!" Miranda almost yelled and gave her fellow Huffie the biggest hug she could manage. "How are you?"

Reese walked into the Great Hall, stopping at the door to quickly glance over at the Slytherin Table. Did she really want to go sit over there with her fellow housemates? Nope, not one bit. Instead, she wanted to go sit next to Torin Hotty McHotty. Her brown eyes shifted over to the Hufflepuff Table to see if Torin was already there. Hmm. She didn't see him, but oh well. She could always just wait for him to come.

She advanced towards the Hufflepuff Table and as she got closer, she noticed someone looking like they were hiding. And...oh my. That was TORIN! He wasn't trying to hide from her, was he? "Torrrrrrin. I seeee you," she said as she made her way over to him and sat down. "Torin, dear. Why did you leave me in the compartment with Em? I missed you so much."

'Twas herrrrrrr! The evil nudging firstie! =O

Lifting a lazy hand in response, Jake smiled dopily at the girl, looking a right royal fool. "Haiiiiii Ellaaaaaaah," he grinned, twiddling his fingers in a wave of greeting.

"Yeah..." Jake nodded, balling up his fists and rubbing his eyes. "Only I gotta share a dormitory with him, dun I? So... yeahhhhhh..." he slurred, shaking his head to try and shock some life into himself. Then something occured to him. "Kaika... what year are you?"

And his head was drooooooping... droooooooping... droooooping...

WHAM!

"Ahhhhowwwwhowhowhowww," Jake suddenly exclaimed, pouting as he brought his hand up to massage his forehead. He'd ended up getting so sleepy that his head had whacked the table. And now he was awake.

Eyes watering, Jake glanced around in search of the owner of the familiar voice. "Hey Dom... wazzat?" he asked suddenly, pointing at the neeeeew badge on Dominic's chest.

CRAP! She had spotted him.

He adopted a fake smile when she asked him why he left her. "I went off with Brody to spend some time with her. I.. missed you too?" He really didn't want to say that to her but at the same time he didn't want to make her even more upset.

He could still miss her without liking her. Yeah. Not that he missed her. He missed the old Reese. That one didn't look at him like he was a piece of meat. Shudder.

"Ahah, you're weird," she laughed, then ruffled his pink hair. She shrugged and looked at him. "I couldn't resist, Jaakeeeelake!!"

Brody. Brooooody. Reese looked away from Torin when he mentioned her name to her. That was the girl that was standing between her and Torin. There was also Jack, but she could always just deal with him by herself. A little 'this won't work out. Sorry.' would do the trick with him. Because, if she liked Torin more than Jack, what was the use of still dating him?

Picking up a cookie, she turned back to Torin when he said he missed her too. "You did? Well, Torin, you shouldn't leave me next time," she told him. She scooted over closer to him and smiled. "So, are you ready for classes this year?" She asked.

*evil*
 

Some girl greeted Jake. Hmmmm. Sleepyhead? Did he fall asleep on the train?! It was a good thing he didn't fall asleep while flying on a broomstick, otherwise, well...Kaika wouldn't be so nice.

A new figure coming to the table. That was as much as Kaika could see, without leaving the former focus of her eyes.

Until...

She knew that voice, and a much widened smile appeared on her face. "Dominic!" she exclaimed, she haven't seen him since...er, last term? "How was your summer? Did you spend some time with Willow?" she asked, the first question...entirely expected...the second one...not so much, but made out of simple curiosity.

Her eyes went from his face to...wait...why is he not wearing his Prefect badge? Was he...demoted? That's weird. Oh, no....waaaaaaaiiiiiit....that's Clifford's badge! Why is Dominic Denton wearing Clifford Carden's badge?! Oh, no! That's right! Clifford...left. And now...Dominic was taking his place. Kaika couldn't help to narrow her eyes at the silly badge, he'll have more control over things NOW!

"Oh, congratulations" she said, frowning. Yes, the word and the expression on her face didn't match at ALL, neither did her tone, because this meant...he was leaving...and she was leaving...and Jake was staying...and so was Miranda...

This was not great.

Speaking of....

"Miranda!" she said, still struggling to breathe while one of her favorite Huffies hugged her.

"Oh, dear Merlin, how have you been? How was your summer? How's everything?" because there weren't enough questions to ask, but surely many answers. "Me? I'm...fine...happy to be in Hogwarts" even if she was slightly sad about that same thing, but there was no way she was pointing it out...not to Miranda.

What?! Oh, that's right, because Willie was in his same year and all. "I don't like that...maybe Professor Shackleton can do something about that" she didn't like the idea, and Jake was staying with...Willie...and Kaika wouldn't be around. Yes, she didn't like that.

"If you're ever in need of help...call Dominic" she suggested, because...well, can girls get into the boys dormitory? She wasn't sure. "Or yell for me...or whatever" yes, of course, she'll be more than willing to help Jake out of Willie's hands...or mouth.

She froze.

That question.

Dominic's badge brought that same subject up in her mind, but she didn't want to face it right now.

She smiled, a bit sad, but didn't answer.

Willie sat down at the table, his expression grumpy and a little disgusted. He had walked through the train, into the carriages and into the halls with no shoes or socks to wear. It was absolutely disgusting. His feet smelt of dirt and poop (maybe the Therstals poop? Did they even poop? Invisible poop perhaps that only people who'd seen the dead can see them. Yes, yes.). His pants after being cleaned by the two girls (Celandine and Daphne) was dirtied yet again. Next time, he wasn't even going to sit with a first year.

Ugh.

The curly haired boy placed his hand under his cheek, his elbow on the table, a bored expression on his face. When was this all over? He needed a good shower and he also needed to wash his shoes. Sigh.

Sara timidly walked up to the Huffelpuff table and timidly sat herself down. This was going to be a long and lonely night. All of the friends she had made in Diagon Alley and on the Hogwart's Express had been sorted into other houses. In fact, she looked to be the only Huffelpuff 1st year to be seated at the table.... She was in for a long game of "Hurry up and Wait"!!!

Whew, Luminous was delighted that she was not the only first year. She walked briskly to her table and sat down right in the middle of the action.
After all, how do you meet new people unless you just throw yourself in there. Hoping secretly they would accept her, she put on her best smile and said, "Hello fellow Huffies, I'm Luminous and delighted to meet you"
Then she sat and waited for the fun to begin.

Girlfriend time? Psssh.

"You should make room for Reese time, too," she said and then nodded her head. As she slowly began to tap her right hand fingers on the table in front of her, she nibble the cookie that she was holding with her left hand. It didn't take long before before the cookie disappeared and then she pulled a chocolate frog out of her pocket. She unwrapped the frog and stuck it in her mouth. Mmm, this chocolate reminded her of that lovely cake Torin had made for her. "Darling, seriously. You need to make me another cake one day," she told him.

She listened to him as he talked about Herbology and Professor Bunbury. Before she could reply, he winked at him! HE WINKED AT HER! She began to batter her eyelashes at him, just like she did on the train, and then she scooted even closer to him where there wasn't any space left between them.

gotta get up in 6 hours D= niiiiiiight
 

Now fully allert, Jake was aware that a first year had ruffled his hair and called him... Jaakeeeelake?!

O____________O

"Yeah... I'm weird, I know!" Jake smiled, poking his tongue out at the girl.

Pretty much staying quiet in response to the talk that included Willie (mainly because the boy was now present at the table) Jake remained tight lipped and answered the girl with a non-committal jerk of the head.

Wait... why wasn't she answering him? That was what HE was doing.

NUUUUUUU!

"Erm... Kaika?" Jake asked, biting down on his lip, not sure he wanted to hear the answer anymore.

Miranda giggled. One of the best things about coming back to Hogwarts was seeing her team and friends again. She knew that every year she would walk into this school, they would all be there.
"I'm good thanks!" she said sitting next to Kaika, "Summer was great, my family took a trip to Sweden, it was pretty cool!"

Miranda sensed a bit of hesitation in Kaika when she said 'fine'. Maybe her summer had been busy?
"That is great to hear, Kaika! How was your summer? Did you get to fly alot?" Quidditch, ah one of the best things in the woooooooooorld.

Congratulations? Why was she congratulating Dominic? Had he and Willow gotten married? Miranda snorted at the thought.

And then.
The badge. Miranda had followed her captains gaze. There it was, the Head Boy badge. Her jaw dropped. Dominic had more power now!?
"Oooooooooohhh, Dominic, congratulations!" she smiled. She was sure that he had matured over the summer. He did look taller too!

Heather walked into the great hall. It was as gorgeous as ever. She walked down the length of the table, before finding a seat next to someone she didn't know. Heather turned her head up, and stared at the floating candles: her favorite part of the day. They were just magical.

lol...Willow and Dom married...*priceless*
 

Uh-Oh. There was the unpleasant boy again. Well, of course he would be here, he was a Hufflepuff. A very weird one, to say the least. Perhaps a personality disorder of the sorts.

Anyway, Kaika tried not to stare at him, because she was with Jake, and she wouldn't want Jake in any sort of trouble with this boy. Well, not if she could help it, that is.

Her eyes turned to Jake, and the weird girl that messed up his pink hair. Yes, he should get rid of that pink hair.

She knew she didn't answer his question. Kaika didn't want to. Just the thought of saying it out loud was frightening her. She wasn't ready to leave, then again, some seventh years aren't.

A smile popped into her face as he mentioned her name. "Yes, Jake?" she asked, as if there was nothing wrong.

Awww. She was so excited to be back! And, Kaika too, just...slightly saddened thanks to Dominic and Jake. Mostly Jake.

"Sweden? Really? That sounds awesome...did you learn something while you were there?" like new creatures or new anything? And, Kaika chuckled when Miranda asked for hers, "I...It was pretty amazing...I did get to fly a bit" she said, and chuckled again, "I went to a Quidditch Camp in America" life couldn't get better during the summer, right? "It was...just incredible..I totally recommend it" yup, because they got to travel a lot, and she was away from England, so, yes, summer rocked!

Miranda also congratulated Dominic. Perhaps she didn't know the hidden meaning the badge held. Or at least the meaning it had for Kaika. Thanks to Jake bringing up the years.