"Nice to meet you too!" he replies brightly. "I know, so many kids our age, don't believe he's real. But I totally disagree."

Grinning at her, as she made glitter shimmer down on them, he nods making some of the glitter fall from the wreathe on his head. "That is the best part. I can't wait to go home for a few weeks."

MMmmmm, corn bread stuffing, sweet potatoes, stuffing... just thinking about the delicious foods, makes his tummy rumble. Grabbing a couple candy canes from the bowl, he offers one to Satine, and unwraps the other sticking it into his mouth.

"O I completely agree, Santa has to be real...I mean we have elves so he must have special elves too that do amazing things like ours here at Hogwarts." she said looking over the table and at the snacks that just always seemed to be there for them. "And if he's not real, well then it's still a pretty cool idea and tradition." she said with a smile imagining her dad dressed up as Santa and placing the gifts under the tree as she took the candy cane being handed to her. She unwrapped it and put it in her mouth savoring the peppermint flavor. Something about decorating the tree had brought her to life again and seemed to clear the fog that had been looming over her thoughts the past few days. She was slowly feeling like herself again.

She glanced up at the tree....

Tree

"Well what do you think?" she asked her new friend as she stepped back and put her hands on hips to take in the whole picture.

so have you taken any classes yet?" emily asked looking at the girl.

Placing the bulbs on the tree, and listening to Satine nodding in agreement. "Absolutely..." even though he wasn't sure if the elves were the same ones Santa had, or not, he still knew they did an awesome job in the school.

Looking up at the tree, as he put the last gold bulb on the tree, he stands back to admire it as well. "Very nice! I think we make a good team." he adds with a grin.

"I only got my time table today." she said, taking it out of her bag and handing it to her.

Tiberius had settled down at the table for a bite to eat when he looked up toward the staff table and saw a bunch of students playing with trees. Some were up on ladders and others were decorating from the floor.

Smiling - he loved Christmas trees - Tibi took his camera out of his bag and backed up. He had to get the entire front in the shot. Satisfied with what he could see in the viewfinder, Tibi took the picture, hoping the flash wouldn't distract anyone.

oh very cool" emily said looking at the sheet "i don't remember when my classes are i just follow my friends to know when haha" emily said.

Cold, pale and tired.

It was a typical day for Jule at Hogwarts. Holidays were sadly over and she now had to focus on school work. Like if she ever did. She walked in to the Great Hall, her curly, long brown hair, swaying as she walked. her hair never stood in one place, so Jule would usually wear a hat. But no hat today, nothing to do outside anyway. She walked towards the house table and sat down. Jule ruffled her hair and gather some food, as she looked around. She saw other students, mostly Firsties, chatting and laughing together. Where was Laura or Izzy Bella when she needed them?

Keeley dragged herself into the great hall, fresh from a lesson of DADA. She was tired and a little lonely, not knowing where the heck Bella was at the moment. She looked up at the beautiful Christmas decorations, they were spectacular! But, they didn't brighten her mood at all, it meant she would soon be towed back home- no, not home. Hogwarts was home, that place was not! She turned her hair a dull blue, matching her mood perfectly. Plopping down at the table, she looked around the table for someone to talk to.

__________________________________________________ _____________________________________
Back from getting her pink fuzzy sweater from the ravenclaw common room, Bella was still a little cold from the Quiditch lesson. Oh, she saw Keeley and some other faces.

"Oh hello,"said Bella taking a seat at the ravenclaw table, then put down her book she had lost earlier. Ooooo she was almost done with it! ok back to reality-

"So what did you think of Quiditch practice today?" she asked the students that were in the class.

Nia slid into a seat at the Ravenclaw table, book in her right hand. Actually, the book wasn't just in her right hand, it was held open with her little finger and thumb, and she was reading it intently. It was a habit she'd taken to recently.

When sat comfortably, glanced around the table and put some food on her plate. Satisfied with her rather large portion of chicken stew and dumplings (well, she had quidditch practice later) Nia turned the page, picked up her fork and began to eat. It might be a slow process, eating with one hand, but she'd been waiting to read this book awhile.

Elan, after having wandered the castle aimlessly, found himself back in the great hall. He looked around, a slightly expressionless look to his eyes and saw a familiar figure hunched over her bowl, with a book in hand. That was something he knew, something he was comfortable seeing.

He walked, no...more like shuffled over to the table and tapped her on the shoulder and asked if he could sit down in what could only be described as a voice like one who faced death.

Nia was totally in her element, taking occasional bites and absorbing the story. And then someone had the audacity to tap on her shoulder. She finished her page slowly, and got ready to glare at whoever is was that was disturbing her (especially if it was Theo - couldn't they see she was busy?).

It was as she slowly tore her eyes from the book however, Nia realised it wasn't in fact Theo, or anyone else annoying, but Elan. Her face softened as she marked her page, before her expression turned to worry as she focused on him properly. It was his voice that shook her though. There was something cold and distant about it.

Swallowing slowly, Nia nodded, and started to gesture for a hug. Would that actually help though? She left the choice to him, and left her arms hovering. "What's happened?" she asked, a frown of worry etched on to her face. "You don't look too good..."

Elan looked at Nia and could see the concern there. He just collapsed on the seat next to her and fell onto her and just started crying. it wasn't a great esponse and certainly at his age, not a "manly" one, but it happened.

Okayyyyy, that wasn't what Nia was expecting. Somehow Elan was now fallen across her and was crying. She bit her lip, wondering what to do. Without knowing what had happened, it was a bit difficult to know where to start. All she knew was that something terrible had obviously happened. Where, why and who she wasn't sure she was going to find out very quickly.

And this was the next issue. Nia wasn't good with crying. She'd learnt to get past Theo's constant crying by teasing him, but she'd grown up now, and knew that wasn't acceptable. She just, well, wasn't good with extreme emotion. And seeing Elan crying was just that. But more so, because she cared for him. A lot. So it hurt part of her too.

Taking a deep breath, Nia stroked Elans shoulder in what she hoped what a reassuring way. "It's okay," she said softly. "I'm here for you. I'll help you."

As he lay there crying, he felt the comfort that she offered. He know he probably looked like a great, big baby but he couldn't stop and it was made worse as she spoke reassuring words, not knowing what was going on yet.

Nia sat there, now really unsure what to do. He didn't seem to react at all. Well, at least now visibly from Nia's point of view. She continued to rub his shoulders, hoping if nothing else it might have a relaxing effect. Nia might be good on the quidditch pitch or in class, but at this minute she felt completely out of her depth.

Leaning across to eat a spoonful of stew - despite the fact she no longer seemed hungry - Nia looked down at Elan in her lap. He'd given no clues what was up, and she wondering whether if he had wanted to find her, or just stumbled across her by chance. "Elan?" she whispered. "Elan? I want to help. Please tell me what's wrong."

Hannah turned when she heard someone crying and her blue, concerned eyes found Nia and Elan. She got up and moved over to them and knelt besid Elan. "Are you okay?" she asked gently.

Adrienne had gotten to the Great Hall early, simply because she expected the packages to arrive and, given what had happened before when Ainsley had gotten her half, she wanted to intecept them before they raised too many questions. Like, why were two girls getting so many packages almost at the same time. Stuff like that. So there she sat, her feet, clad in simple Tory Burch flats, tucked under the bench, sipping some pumpkin juice and waiting.

She was saved having to wait much longer by the arrival of the post owls, and her blue eyes calmly followed the first couple owls winging toward her with a nondesript package, making sure her glass was well away from where they dropped it, followed by several more. She contemplated trying to figure out how to send a message to the other three, letting them know, but in the same respect, odds are they'd have to eat breakfast too, so they'd show up at some point. She just had to look unsuspicious until then.

With a yawn, Ainsley entered the Great Hall having woken up and made her way downstairs for breakfast. Walking down an aisle and heading towards her house's table, she was about to sit down on an empty bench when she spotted a few owls enter with packages.

The Gryffindor watched each's path and findin out that one headed towards a familiar face, she stopped from sitting and walked over to the Ravenclaw table just as the owl was joined by others with similar packages. "On to round two," she replied quietly as she took a seat besides Adrienne, givin the appearance of just being a friend of the girl's from another house.

Adrienne glanced over briefly as she sensed someone taking the seat next to her, smiling as she saw Ainsley. At least her thought that the others would show up soon wasn't entirely inaccurate. "It seems that way," she murmured, continuing the act that they were just friends from different houses that it seemed the other girl had started. That would be the easiest way to remain out of suspicion.

"You ready?," she then asked, knowing that the second round of deliveries meant their plan was going to be put into action sooner than later. Which was good, because then they could get things over with and Copernicus's second wave could take place.

Miles sat down at his own house table with a sigh. This wasn't the way it was supposed to be. He wasn't supposed to be mad at Fia but he was. She had been out of line and what was worse is she didn't realize it or just chose to ignore it. And Brody didn't help any at all. Pulling a plate toward him he stared down at it blankly not feeling hungry and instead put his head down on his arms on top of the table with a sigh. Things just plain sucked. Twirling his finger around and around in a circle he watched as a fork followed the same pattern idly.

Fia walked into the Great Hall. She'd been coming in here all day long and yet, he still wasn't here. He had to eat sometime and...there he was, sitting at the Ravenclaw table. She walked up behind Miles with a pitiful look on her face. She was more than sorry for her actions but she didn't like having him mad at her. She cleared her throat. "Miles?" She didn't know if he wanted to talk to her or not so she was going to tread carefully.

Continuing to twirl the fork around in a circle he rose his finger higher to see it lifting up off the table. As he heard his name he stopped the motion with his finger and watched as it dropped with a metallic twang. "Yeah?" he asked as he simply turned his head on his arms to look up at her.

When Kiri entered the Great Hall two days later, she headed straight for the Ravenclaw table. As they'd expected, Adrienne's boxes had arrived. The girl was almost hidden behind the large amount of rectangular objects, plainly wrapped as instructed. Ainsley was there as well. Perfect...

Kiri knelt down on the bench opposite Adrienne and Ainsley so that she was able to look over the top of the boxes. "This is the second batch, right?" she asked flatly. No answer was necessary, it was obvious from the looks on Adrienne and Ainsley's faces. Kiri nodded, an evil glint in her eye. "Good," she stated forcefully. "I'll help you carry them up to your common room. Reese and I hid the other ones in our dormitory."

She drummed her fingers on the table for a moment. Then, apparently coming to a decision, she said, quietly, "I think we should do it tonight. I'm sick of waiting, I want to do something!" Kiri glanced at the staff table and snorted derisively. "We need to show people we're not happy with how things are being done here. Come on." Kiri picked up several of the boxes. In her normal state of mind, she was not a big fan of physical exercise (unless it meant carrying books around, maybe), but now she was holding the boxes with a look of grim determination on her face.