Selina nodded to Kurumi's question, "Yeah, I would like to play for the Harpies one day. But honestly, and this stays between us, I wouldn't mind taking over for Vindictus after he retires. I love this school and leaving it behind is kind of a sad thought. So maybe one day, when Vindictus does finally retire, I could take up the post. That is kind of a silent hope though. You know?"

Thinking more deeply about what she had just said Selina continued, "I just love flying so much. There is a burning sensation every time I get up on that broom in the pit of my stomach. It aches for me to just go and fly. The wind, the rush, the breathlessness. It really is like nothing else in the world. And if I could inspire others to just... love it as much as I do. Not even that, just open their eyes to how beautiful it is then everything I feel about Quidditch and flying would mean more. Because then I would have inspired others to be weightless."

Cove smiled. "Thanks, I appreciate it." Cove said. "Kurumi, do you play any sports?"

Cove laughed with William. "Sweet, yeah, my brothers thought I could use it for just in case purposes for practice." Cove rolled her eyes. They were dumb. "Yeah, now I'm excited." Cove smiled and bounced a little. Italy sounded like so much fun.

"Hi, Cove Brett. Nice to meet you Zara." Cove held her hand out for a shake.

Evie was distracted form her thinking when a young girl spoke to them. "Um, Hi Keira its nice to meet you, sure you can join us." Evie replied "oh, my names Evie and this is Janet" she said as she motioned towards Janet. Evie wanted so badly to make friends and make others feel welcome that she tried not to think about her father. 'i can worry about that another time, for the mean time i just have to smile and be friendly' Thought Evie to herself.

After Evie spoke to the Keira she answered Janet. 'I may as well tell her what happened to dad she seems friendly enough'. "Thank you for your concern, you see my father was killed and i'm just having trouble getting over it." she paused for a brief moment it felt good to tell at least someone about dad, she then continued talking to Janet. " I'm half and half mums a witch and dad was muggleborn, and no I haven't signed up for quidditch yet but i'm thinking about it." Evie liked this girl and appreciated her friendliness. "I'm assuming you signed up for quidditch then?". She turned to Keira, "What about you Keira, did you sign up for quidditch?"

"Hmm maybe it isn't new. I just probably didn't see it last term..." Hmm why hadn't she seen it!?! "Well anyways I;m glad I saw it this term! It's really awesome!" She said enthusiastically. "Yeah it really is because everyone goes to the lake!" Everyone. You can't resist the awesomeness! "Yeah I love hanging out with all of my Gryffie buddies! We are all so close it's really nice. It's like we're a family you know? I doubt any of the other houses are this close. Maybe hufflepuff but that's it." Surely not Slytherin though.

"I'm still not very good at writing them, but I'm working on it." She admitted. "I like singing covers too. And songs from my favorite musicals because I love them!" Even the older ones. "What's your favorite song?"

"Well that's nothing to be upset about!" She said waving it off. "You know what? How about I teach you how to ride a bike? Maybe we can use some sort of transfiguration to turn something into a bike and i'll teach you! That way we can get transfiguration practice and you can learn how to ride a bike at the same time!" Killing two birds with one stone. Pretty good idea Nika.

Evil. There are words for evil and Lafay is one of them. "Yeah just don't make the mistake of talking to much in her class alright Ari? I don't want you making the same mistake I made last year." That was bad... "Just keep your head low and answer her questions the best you can. That's all I can really suggest to stay on her good side. That is if she even has one..." *SHIVERS*

"I guess Lafay isn't half bad compared to 'just' SHAW though." Not Professor Shaw it's JUST SHAW. Yes. Permanently etched into her brain like it was permanently etched into the board with the chainsaw. "He was pretty weird..." At least she was on team shaw with the rest of the gryffies though. That made it better.

"Well I'm a mess when it comes too flying. Football is just so much easier. You stay on the ground the whole time." She explained. "So Ari anything new lately? Any boys?" She asked wiggling her eyebrows.
Nika was a bit shocked at the sudden drop of the candy. She caught the candy that Alice threw over. "Thanks." Well that was random. She said as she looked over to see what had happened. "Herbology is nice." Well hopefully it would be now that they have a proper professor. Not like she had anything against the flying professor, just that he's better off as just a flying professor.

"The new Car of Magical Creatures professor seems pretty nice. I talked to him for a few minutes at the feast." She replied. "Saylen." She was something different. "She was funny. It was a lot of fun to get on her nerves." She said with a chuckle. "She never really liked me. The one class where we had to dig in buckets of poo she made me stay afterwards and clean them up, but she told everyone else they could go." Unfair.

Alice had jumped so hard at the sound of a girl shrieking in what Alice assumed was anger that she nearly fell off of her chair. Alice quickly made a move and grabbed onto the little round table next to her, using it to pull the half of her body that had fallen off back up. She turned her face to look at the rather frustrated and red faced Gryffindor somewhat skeptically before turning her face to the boy who was obviously the cause of her distress. Interesting relationship the two seemed to have...

"Thank you," Alice said with a little smile. "I don't really go looking for a relationship...I figure it'll happen when it happens..." That was good to hear that Rex was trying to restart things with an ex, and Alice couldn't help but give the cute little first year a smile. "Well congrats on your relationship!"

Alice gave Nika a little nod, as if to say no problem, while still keeping her eye on the bowl uncertainly. "Perhaps I'll go down and introduce myself to him," Alice said with a little smile. She did like going to meet the new professors when she got a chance.

Alice did like Professor Saylen and the two of them got along relatively well. Alice couldn't help but chuckle when she remembered the bowtruckle incident with Salander last year...hehe. Poor Salander!

Arabella-Marie wandered into the common room and sat down on the couch she was lost in thought and didnt really want anybody to disturb her

"Hi Cove," she smiled and gave Cove a handshake. "Nice to meet you, too." What else could she say? Hmm. "So, how are you?" Zara groaned internally. Of all the interesting questions in the world, she'd have to go for the most common one. Plan and boring 'how are you.' Great, brilliant move for making a first impression.

Oohh, cookies. Well, that was a good reason. Everybody loved cookies, well everyone HAS TO. Or else, Zara'd be mad at them. Hihi. "That's so cool! You knew how to bake ever since you were little. I wish I could do it too." She smiled, her mind imagining herself baking, wearing aprons and all that. But as she opened the oven and took out what she was baking, it was burnt. Gee, nice imagination. She shrugged out of her reverie.

"Thank you," she was touched by Kurumi's approval. Zara hoped deep inside that her mother would really like it. But she had to make some revisions before handing it over to Eirwen to deliver back home. Snacks? Seems like a great idea! "That's very thoughtful of you, Kurumi." Yup, the thought made Zara hungry. "But, who's Twinkle?"

Ariadne loved being a Gryffindor more and more. For one, because her housemates were amazing! She hadn't met one single Gryffindor who wasn't nice. And she hoped not to. 'Cute? I don't know...But it's better in a way. My full name is just so...Greek.' she chuckled. 'Okay. Josh or Joshua. Got it.' the firstie nodded.

She was beaming when Josh nodded at her while she was naming her favourite places at Hogwarts. Ari loved having some sort of approval. 'So you go swimming even in the late fall, before it snows? Wow...that's very brave.' she said with admiration. No wonder the boy was a Gryffindor.

Ariadne laughed along with her housemate. She couldn't help it; when someone laughed, she did too. It was contagious. 'Well then...when was the last time you had a completely ordinary day?' That would be interesting to hear.

Ariadne listened to Kurumi speak and smiled. 'I had no idea which house I would get, but over the very short time I've been here, I've already developed a huge pride in being a Gryffindor. I suppose housepoints have a way of making us love our houses even more.' the firstie mused.

Kurumi's comment on life experiences made Ari wonder if the girl had been through a rough time. 'Did...anything bad happen to you?' Gosh. That sounded so very childish. Not to mention, it was an inapproppriate question.

To cover it up, Ariadne started talking about her own family situation. 'Anyway, I know what you mean. My life started with a bad experience, but I don't know what it was meant to teach me.' the tiny brunette sighed. 'I've never met my father. He left my mother 4 months before I was born, when he finally found out she was a witch. My mum tried to contact him after I was born, she wrote to him many times in the first few years, but never got an answer, so she gave up. She destroyed every photo of him, but I saw my dad on Muggle TV at a friends house. He's a prominent politician in the Muggle world, apparently.'

Wow. She had never told this to anyone, except her best friend. But something told Ari that Kurumi could definitely be trusted.


Ari liked the sound of that. 'Yeah, that'd be great! There's plenty of space on the grounds, and if you really don't mind teaching me...' her voice trailed off. 'But the Transfiguration part will be difficult. I haven't been able to learn anything from Shaw, except that he's mad.' Ariadne sighed.

'Thanks for the advice. I sometimes talk too much, but only with friends.' Yes, with persons of authority, it was a whole different story. She was typically more reserved in those situations.

'Football? You know how to play? Not many girls do, right?' she asked, admiringly. The firstie didn't know much about Muggle sports, unfortunately. 'Boys?' she raised an eyebrow. 'I have a lot of time for that, I'll wait for them to stop being so immature.' she explained. Boys were the last thing on her mind. 'How about you?' she returned the question.

Braeden had the most smug of looks on his face (which was looking a little funny with his nose all black-and-purple and covered in a band-aid) as Ruby merely stared at the photograph with pure shock, horror, and disgust on her features. Oh, how lovely it was to see her angry. So lovely, indeed. Especially when he was actually giving her a reason to feel that upset. Life was goooood right about now.

And then the girl turned to him with a grin.
Kind of like the ones she'd given him at Diagon Alley while she'd been under the influence of the street salesman's magic perfume (which Brae still hadn't figured out to be the source of all that craziness back then). Uh… well… that was… weird. Wasn't she pretty much breathing fire two seconds ago?! Blinking in confusion, Braeden stared at the girl, one of his dark eyebrows raised questioningly.

Aaaand then she was playing along with his plan!
WHAT?! No! No, no, no, that's not how it was supposed to-- "OW!!!!!" The boy winced as Ruby crushed every single bone in his foot. Just when he thought the pain was at its worst and highest point, the girl squished into his foot some more, getting the boy to yelp in pain.

Oh no! She was asking for the picture! "I know what you're up to, Blair," muttered the teary-eyed boy through narrowed eyes, trying his best not to burst into tears of pain any second. Obviously, Ruby only wanted the picture to tear it apart into a million pieces, but there was no way Brae was going to allow that. Sure, there were dozens of copies on the bulletin board, but who's to say she won't set fire to the whole common room just to get rid of them? He had to protect the only copy he had on him.

He had to get her out of here before she left him invalid and burned down the whole common room. "C'mon, we should get going now, sweetie. We have that date at, uh… the… by the lake, remember?" he said, trying his best to sound calm and cheery (even though inside he was crying a thousand rivers). Limping, the boy began to drag Ruby toward the portrait hole with him.

Erm, right! She had been called a lot of things but cute from a first year girl was a first. Trying to smooth over the awkawrdness Sophie simply said "Thanks!" it seemed the most fitting. The first year then confessed that she was too shy to talk to anyone. Oh no that wouldn't do. Smiling warmly Sophie asked "Sorry i didn't catch your name? Was it Sarah? The best thing is to try an break the ice by talking to someone who seems nice and friendly, and then take it from there."


As Zara came over elated by the raining candy and thanking Sophie for making it happen the lioness formed an idea in her head. Looking from Sarah to Zara she motioned Sarah to come over to them. "Zara, this is Sarah. And Sarah this is Zara. You are in the same year. Have you two met before?" Hopefully they wouldn't get irritated at her for trying to get Sarah to break out of her shy shell and actually talk to some of the girl's in her own year. The prefect figured that that was a good stepping stoen towards being able to in the future talk to any student older or younger.

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

Sophie had changed into a fresh set of house robes and was walking down from the Girl's dormitors when she heard loud yelling. Jumping down the last stair steps the lioness prefect rushed into the Common Room expecting a fist fight or something worse. What she found though was a girl who was yelling at her boyfriend or other for something that looked like a picture in the boy's hand. Shaking her head Sophie raised her voice and tried to get the two student's attention "Would you mind keeping your voice down? Your yelling can be heard loud and clear in every dormitory. Unless you wan't everyone to know everything your discussing with your boyfriend over there i suggest you go to the lake or something to work your differences out." *sigh* If that didn't happen then she would have no choice but to report the girl to Madam Donovan.

" I see you love to disagree with yoru brothers" William told Cove. "I am excited as well" William said to Cove. " I will see you in the USA and you will see me in Italy' Willaim explained to Cove. " Ws should tell each other the city, state, toown or province to where the other one is going" William laughed.

" Yes, the tree is awesome" Willaim agreed with Nika. "WEll, the lake is a great place to hang out with all of yoru friends" Willaim said to Nika." Yes, Gryffindor is family, the best family at HogWarts" Willaim told Nika. " You know Professor Lafay is a bit scary" William explained to Nika. " She does teach us a lot of things" William smiled.

" Well, a pretty girl like you should have a boyfreind in no time" William told Alice. " You are right, sometimes relationships just find you" Willaim agreed with Alice. Thanks and she is in our house, it is Witsy" William explained to Alice.

" Excuse me, you are the girl prefect for our house, right?" William asked her. " I was just wondering sincewe are losing points from older students if there is something the whole house can do to prevent it?" Willaim asked her. " I am William Montcenaggio, but please call me William Starr" He introduced himself to her. " There seems to be a couple of older boys that seem to be out of control and one especialy in Professor Lafay's class" Willaim expalined to the girl prefect.

'Sarah? Zara? Awesome.' She thought to herself, as she grinned widely. She looked at the prefect, "We haven't, actually." She said, unwrapping a candy and throwing it in her mouth. *Chew, chew, chew*

"Hi there, Sarah. Cool name." She smiled, then her mouth continued chewing.

Carter laughed and jumped back down on the ground in front of her. "Well. On purpose or not, it is pretty much the best thing that's happened to me all day." he said still laughing. "And in all honesty, I think it should do this at least once a month... and perhaps once a day during exams."

"Carter." he said sticking out a hand. "Carter Phillips. 6th year." he said introducing himself. "And about that whole... 'best Prefect ever' thing... that's our little secret."

He'd hate for his mate Patroclus to get jealous. Unless... to trump his female counterpart he made it rain cheesecake... in which case Carter would be the first to shout out he liked Sophie better.

Ruby laughed silently as she watched him groan in pain, his eyes almost tearing. Ohhh, sweet pain! Maybe she'd break his foot and then he wouldn't be able to walk...oh but the Healer could fix that in a jiffy. Darn it.

As he muttered to her, Ruby bared her teeth at him. "When I get my hands on you..." She said through her bared teeth, but before she could tell Brae exactly what she wanted to do to him, they were interrupted.

By some girl, who appeared to be the Gryffindor Prefect. As if Ruby actually cared about authority figures at this moment. Ruby was about to ignore the girl's raised voice until she heard what the girl had actually said. Ruby sputtered in her direction, her eyes bulging.

"Boy--boyfriend?!" She spat, completely appalled by the word and especially since it was being used for Goofball. Never, in a million years...OH MERLIN. Ruby turned and looked daggers at Brae before turning back to the girl. She couldn't lose any time, she simply had to get that picture and burn it into ashes and then burn the ashes and then bury the whole mess in Transylvania. Yes, bury the horrid proof.

"He is not my boyfriend, for your information, and we were just leaving, thankyouverymuch!" Ruby yelled at her. Prefect or not, no one could ever say that about her and Brae. EVER. She shuddered at the thought and was almost sick to her stomach.

And then she let Brae drag her out of the Common Room, trying to get out of his grip every step of the way. She'd come back later and burn the rest of the pictures.

"Wow," Lucas said. "You can do just about everything, can't you?" He grinned. "I play guitar, but I wasn't ever trained by anyone."

Septimus sighed. "Things seem to get more and more complicated for us, don't they?" If only Kurumi knew just how complicated his real life was. "If this girl is famous, I can use her to my advantage. In more than one way, seeing as she knows Adam. And maybe the both of us can if..." If I told you all that I know, he continued in his head.

"Y-Y-You're welcome," Kurumi blushed offering the first year a shy smile.　"I have been meaning to bake some Halloween cookies for everyone. I have been a bit...distracted by other things though." Namely FREAKING out over actually signing herself up for Quidditch. She had even forgotten to go to the library to continue her research. She really needed to get on that soon. "No, it's just a hobby," she replied shaking her head. "My home is part kendo school though. But no bakery."

"I am a terrible flyer," she blushed tugging on her hair some more. Sure, Selina had been teaching her and had actually been training her...and somehow told her that it was a good idea for her to try out for the team, but that didn't mean she was any better at the ruddy task. "You can play the guitar? That's fantastic. My father can play," she nodded. THAT was an entirely different story that she didn't really want to get into. "Did you teach yourself?"
"House points can drive a person crazy," she giggled remembering herself as a first year and having mild panic attacks over them. She still got those, she suppose, but now it was more about her flailing to keep up with the points Josh, and now Legend, were losing.

Her smile faded at the first year's next question. "Lots of bad things happened to me," she said slowly flicking her eyes towards the fire for a moment. "In my town, being different meant that you were an outcast, and treated terribly. By different, I don't mean being magical, I mean not being pure Japanese. My father is British and my brothers and I were bullied because of it..." She paused not wanting to turn this into another pity party for two over her life. Scissors to her hair, mud in the face, kicked and beat with whatever her classmates could get their hands on, it was the darkest times for her, but she was living in the lightest of times now.

Kurumi's frown deepened when she heard Ari speak about her family. "I'm so sorry," she said resting a hand on the girl's shoulder. It really must be terrible not knowing your own father, and being left for the reason they were. Kurumi's mother feared magic above everything else, being non-magical, but at least her love for her father was enough to make her stay. That, and the love she felt for her children. "Many people are afraid of things that are different...and it really does hurt when your own family reject who you are. My mother won't look at me unless I have my brown colored contacted in," Kurumi explained pointing to her violet eyes. "I think, that you and your mother are very brave and strong people to be able to pick yourselves up after he left. This may be a bit forward of me, but if he left just because you are magical...then I don't think he really loved your mother."

Kurumi squeaked and covered her mouth.

"I'm sorry, that came out a little bit too strongly," she squeaked again. "I guess, I just have little respect for people who push others away so easily simply because they are different."
"I can teach you if you'd like," Kurumi offered. She really needed a sign up sheet of some sort to keep track of who she had invited to bake with her. "I was just telling another first year that I have been meaning to bake some Halloween cookies for everyone. You can help me bake and decorate."

Kurumi blushed and covered her cheeks with her hands. "Oh, s-s-s-sorry! I forgot you hadn't been down to the kitchens yet. If you do, you really should meet Twinkle. She is one of the house elves that works there. She often helps me bake."
Kurumi's face went white at the mention of sports and her mind flew to Quidditch. Best to not be thinking about that right now or she might just pass out on the couch. "I play kendo," she said with a little faintish sway. "It's a form of Japanese sword fighting."
"You would be a brilliant Flying professor!" Kurumi exclaimed throwing her arms up in the air and perhaps drawing some unwanted attention from students who were silently reading over at the study tables. What? It WAS true.

Although, Kurumi wished she shared in Selina's love of flying...

Kurumi nodded. "Nothing in life ever seems to be easy." She then looked at Septimus very VERY confused. Use her to his advantage? That didn't sound sketchy at all...

Selina giggled and covered her mouth at Kurumi's outburst, "Shh. The older students are starting to study for OWLs and NEWTs. It is October Kurumi. Only we don't have that much work yet. All of the upper classmen do."

Then when everything calmed down Selina said, "Kurumi, do you really think so? And this stays between us."

"...wait, didn't you say you wanted to teach at Hogwarts? Kurumi, what if we were both Professors??"

Edmond walked in to the common room. He still couldn't believe that he was back after a whole year. He really wanted to see Adam and Kurumi. At Durmstrang he had mates but he couldn't call them friends. He knew that they would back stab him any chance they got but not here. He could trust his friends.

CeCe walked into the common room. Everyone, well Kurumi mostly seemed to be busy or gone or talking to someone, so she just sat on the couch and pulled out a album of pictures her costars had given her before leaving Mexico City to come here. She flipped through it without much care, not feeling at home at all- though it was much nicer here a gap was left in her heart.

"Hola."CeCe greeted the boy near her.

Ed faced the person that had spoken to her. They had spoken him? He was confused. The girl said Hola, Spanish right? "Hi." he said. He understood Spanish, but he never tried to speak it. Ed also didn't remember seeing her here his first year. Was she new or did he just not notice her? "I'm Edmond Malfoy, third year Gryffindor." he said.

"Hi Edmund...That name is rarely heard of ..I'm CeCe Madera, 3rd year also.."He looked confused, to CeCe at least, so she turned around half expecting someone to be standing by the entrance- someone he was expecting, but no one stood there.
"I never saw you here...Are you new also, like me?"

It was Edmond, but he didn't say anything about it. He's had so many nicknames that another one wouldn't hurt. "Nice to meet you, CeCe. You're name is rarely heard of where I'm from." he said. She was new that was good because it would be embarrassing if he forgot her. "Yeah and no." he said. "I came here first year and went to Durmstrang my second." Ed explained. "What school did you go to before Hogwarts?" he asked.

She could kind of tell he didn't want to talk about his school life, so she didn't press the matter. Why make it worse if it was not wanted in the first place.

"Oh..Well I just lived in Mexico City- I never went to a magical school until right now...In fact I never knew I had magical blood until a few months ago."CeCe explained. How much she wished they hadn't had figured out, she would've never been forced out of her entertaining job.

Nika looked over at the bowl once too... Just in case. "Yeah. I'm not completely sure if I like him or not." She said slowly. "His personality is a bit weird. One moment he's all funny and the next he's angry. A bit hard to follow, you know?" Talk about being bipolar. Or maybe Nika was just imagining things.

"Yeah it'll be fun!" She said cheerfully. Now the transfiguration... that would be hard. "Maybe we can go visit SHAW together to ask him for a spell that we can use to transfigure something into a bicycle." She wouldn't mind going to ask by herself, but this was Shaw we're talking about. For all Nika knew he could jump out of his room and attack her with his chainsaw. Yeah better go as a pair.

Not many girls play? Huh? Nika thought about it for a moment as she raised an eyebrow. "Oh!" She said as realization hit her. "Wait are we talking about the same football? I know that they call it Soccer in other parts of the world." But then again football/soccer more popular among boys. "But I guess not many girls play football and especially not American football." Nika thought that was unfair. If she had a big build then she might've even tried playing American football just to prove a point.

"Yeah I think so too." She said agreeing with the firstie. "It's fun having a crush though, but I don't think I'm ready for a boyfriend." Not even close to ready. She's only a second year after all. Maybe next year or the year after, but now? Way too soon.

Nika raised her eyebrow at the sudden change of subjects. Rex and Willie although related were not very alike, except for their thoughts about Lafay. "I swear, Rex told me the same thing last term." Agh Lafay. She is something else. "I don't know. She does teach us a lot of things, but it wouldn't hurt being nicer. I'm not even asking her to bake rainbows and dance with butterflies. Just asking for her to be a little bit kinder." It shouldn't be that hard to do.