Destiny could only nod her head.

Yeah, she KNEW licking the spoon was disgusting! But she had to make money some how, right? And it was one of those jobs that didn't require strenuous activity. She just hoped the grime disease that she had acquired wouldn't make her to forget that galleon Evelyn promised. Shrugging her shoulders, she turned away from Lafay.

The Professor was in her 'I'm going to take points away from her OWN house' mood. And Destiny didn't want to lose points for staring too long.

And that was not what she wanted Evelyn's answer to be. She was expecting another answer like before! The whole galleon giving answer. If she had two galleons, she would be able to buy even MORE chocolate frogs. Which reminded her, this being her last year at Hogwarts, she needed to go around the entire castle and collect all the chocolate she had hidden.

She didn't want to leave one piece behind!

Silently mocking her friend, because she KNEW it was her own spoon, Destiny placed it back on the table. "Who invented the spoon anyway? It's such a weird word. Spoooooon."

Spooooon.

She was still mouthing the words when Mia came over and.. well, she thought she wouldn't see the girl for a while. After the summer they spent together. Destiny was still a little upset with her. She wouldn't let her take any of the animals home with her! Like the other zebras would really notice if one was missing. There were about a million of them!

Smiling anyway, she gave her friend a wave and her eyes traveled over to the badge pinned on Evelyn's robes. Ohh! Did anyone SEE!? Destiny had a badge of her own, and she shifted herself in her seat to show off her Gryffindor Quidditch Captain's badge. She even began straightening out her robes, so it would be more noticeable.

It didn't seem Mia cared about that, though.. whaaat? "What did those house elves tell you!? Whatever they said I did to them, they are lying." But.. they probably weren't.

Raven raised up her glasses and said "I see. Does your brother work? I also have an elder brother."

"Hmm.. the last I heard he wanted to be a mediwizard, but it's been awhile since I last spoke with him." Lana did miss her brother, but she wasn't sure on how to contact him. She had asked her parents before, but ignored her question. "Really? You're brother came here right? And what is he doing now?"

"Thanks!" exclaimed Elina "What year are you in?" asked Elina. She was hoping the first so her and Nora and her could take their classes together. Hopefully they would become good friends!

"He works in Department of International Magical Cooperation." said Raven, then she drank her pumpkin juice and saw professor Lafay's face

"I bet she is not a friendly woman." Raven whispered carefully to Lana. "I saw her and she was very angry with a third year student who threw bubble gum and took more points from Slytherin."

Lana followed the direction of Raven's eye. "Who is she?" Did she just hear right? Points were already taken from Slytherin?! But it's still the Start of Term Feast. Already? "Throwing bubble gum?" she asked in disbelief.

Only the first day of a new term and he had already had a study partner, not bad but it would have even better if he didn't hear of points being lost due to some of his housemates acting rather inappropriately. But there wasn't much that could have been done about that one now. "Well, it's definitely better than studying by yourself don't you think? I mean, with this idea you'll actually be able to ask questions if you're having issues understanding the material or a question." Matt really didn't have much problems studying as it was, but if Dia wanted to work with him then he wasn't going to turn it down. I wonder what Raven would have to see about this.. knowing her she'd make some outlandish assumption that there's something else going on when there really isn't.

"Well.. the dungeons are usually dirty but that's no fault of the elves; that's just because they're meant to be as such and there's no point in trying to clean them in that case. But, I completely agree with what you're saying. It shouldn't be completely up to them to look after the castle, there's hundreds of students here.. if everyone did their fair share of the work then it would make the elves' lives easier." He wasn't sure how many people were going to agree with that idea but it didn't matter, it was the right thing to do since four house elves should not have been the only ones doing the work.

Before he could continue the conversation with his new friend, Matt looked up at the staff table and saw someone familiar, someone that shouldn't have been here.. at least so he thought. Wait.. is that? No it can't be, she's supposed to be at Beauxbatons. I have to be seeing things to actually think that Stella's here. But if it was indeed a figment of his imagination, then how was it possible he could still see that she was actually standing there talking to some of the professors? This was just way too weird.

Raven raised her glasses (again). "Professor Lafay is our head house. She teaches potions too. Don't you see a teacher came to our table and yelled to some students about throwing bubble gum? Yeah, I know it's still the Start of Term Feast but.. Rules are rules." She wishpered and carefully looking around perhaps nobody knows.

"I'm so sleepy." She yawned "When will the feast over? I want to reach bed SOON."

A smiled tugged at the corner of his lips at when Harlow used the term family. Someday he hoped he could look back to that vacation and use that term with certainty, but for now "Actually I went on an Asian tour during the summer-- took backpacking holiday with my... girlfriend." Yeah technically she still qualifies as that heh "She owns a house in France and thats where we got our supplies together before heading out. But yes France is a lovely city, my mom is there often and I got a chance to spend my Christmas holiday there too."

Brows creasing, his eyes darted at Sierra as Harlow explained what happened. "Sierra spitted at-- who's hand?" he inquired, trying to keep the disbelief from his voice. He knew Sierra was a tough little cookie, but to do something a little debasing was something new to him. "You girls didnt get Sierra angry over something didja? I mean I dont know her to behave rather roughly... maybe except when she plays Quidditch."



"Hear what?...." Salander stated dumbly before realizing "Oh! You mean the hat calling out your name during the Sorting?"he chuckled awkwardly. The simple answer was no, most of the older students would usually do the catching up on the fresh blood when they get to the common room or during classes, if they cared at all but for this kid's sake "Sorry.... I must've missed that" he replied then shook the young one's hand when he uttered his name "Pleased to meetcha Ash." Does he go around greeting every new kid? Again simple answer was no. But.... " Well, lets just say that my stay here at Hogwarts has taught me the value of welcoming people with a open hand..." as opposed to his usual closed lipped, closed fisted version. Ah how far he's come.



Brows goes up "Named after a mountain huh? Thats pretty cool, seriously it is." he nodded, certainly a lot better than taking the name of a violin. He dont care how prestigious its supposed to be. "Well yeah, most people does call me Sal, or just Salander. I dont mind either way. Sal." he snickered. This is gonna be hilarious when they got joint classes,

Ah a transferee AND a bit of a school hopper. He was starting to get the strange dejavu feeling of seeing himself in younger students. "Actually no I also transfered to Hogwarts in my 4th year, did a.... school tour Stateside before hopping across the pond and tried my luck here." yeah school tour sounded so much better than kicked out repeatedly.



He glanced momentarily at Marilyn, angling his head at her then at their smudgy dinnerware. Ok that sounded like a complicated spell. Didnt help that he has never heard of it before, never mind knowing what the wand strokes are. But the loud POP got him to look around. He knew an elf was around.... but given its size he could only follow the silverware clattering and floating about as it was cleaned. He smirked as he leaned back in his seat "No sweat. See the Elves got it."



He was keeping himself from snickering between Evelyn and Destiny and their seemingly confusion over the Big Top and Lafay blew her top. Uhoh. When the dragon lady starts he knew what to do best-- sit down, shut up and hope that she misses singeing your head off. But then she started with the house points. Salander's eyes grew large and spun his head towards the hourglasses slowly as if stuck on bullet time, watching in horror as Slytherin became the first house that lost points for the term.

Nooooooooo! [/LukeSkywalker]

He was trying to find in himself the calm callousness of not caring about house points. But after the glorious threepeat last term and the little metallic badge now weighing heavily on his shirt, suddenly those little emeralds were all he could think about. They lost 12 points from right under his nose.

And suddenly a strange, guttural snarl was heard from the HeadBoy.

Corey looked a bit pathetic when he finally got to the table. Sure he'd eaten a whole lot of that Harlow kid's food on the train, but Corentin was GROWING every millisecond and so very hungry. The boy shoved in and sat in a gap at the table and looked around.

?

"Where's the food?"

He was going to die of starvation.

Well that was unexpected.

Salariel blinked in surprise when a kid shoved himself into the seat directly across from him and immediately started grumbling about food. Tilting his head, he looked from the boy to the table, then back again before murmuring quietly.

"'s not out... but there's a girl licking cutlery, maybe Hogwarts has some system where you magically absorb your nutritional needs that way." If that were true, Salariel and this castle were going to have a long, tedious chat. Idly, he picked up the spoon sitting on the table in front of him and tapped it on the tabletop. "Either that or they expect we're all rich enough to fill up on the train."

His stomach growled.

...this boy was making him hungry.

Staring down at her clean plate, Evelyn stared at her reflection, scoffing quietly as the taking of points started to echo in her mind. She didn't even want to look at the hourglass. That would have been just too much.

Hmmm...

Fixing her bangs since she practically had a mirror right there, the Slytherin girl muttered some inaudible reply to Destiny and her miniature rant about how weird spoon sounded before speaking up a little. "At least it's not like fork." she said, turning her attention away from the plate/mirror and to her clean fork. "It sounds like...dork."

Rofl. Just insulted the fork.

Meep! Looking over her shoulder at the sound of her name, half expecting it to be Lafay, she slowly let out her breath as she relaxed from the sudden tense state she was in. Mia. "Thank you." GRIN!

Ignoring the stuff about Destiny and elves, Evelyn glanced down to the badge pinned on her robes, smirking at it. It looked rather good sitting right there where everyone could see it. Actually, now that Mia was here, it suddenly reminded her of Josh and how HE could possibly see this badge if he decided to come over here right now. What if he HEARD MIA SAY THAT!?

Gasp!



Just about to turn in her seat to see where Josh was currently seated, Evelyn's eyes widened a bit at the noise that JUST came from Salander. What...was...that!?

Glancing over at the kid that just complained about there being no food, and then the other one that Salander was talking to...his stomach was louder than Lafay's yelling...the Slytherin girl just...

Stare. Jeez.

They needed food over here! All the boys were going to turn into BEASTS!

" Are you ok?" William asked Louise. " Do not get into it 'Willaim informed Louise. " Let's go and discuss it at your table" William said to Louise.

"Why ain't it though?" Really, it was supposed to be a feast wasn't it? Corey didn't even bother looking for any cutlery licker, he just sprawled forward on the table, looking decidedly pathetic. Obviously wasting away before the very eyes of his new housemates.

Pitiful. He made eyes at the world and his stomach growled too. Corey turned his head and looked pathetic in the direction of that badged one. He needed eats, or he would EXPIRE!

Clearly this kid had some sort of evil powers. Salariel looked down at his stomach, biting his lip as he became aware of just how empty his insides were. A single Cauldron Cake wouldn't hold a guy for long, and he'd been under the impression that the train wouldn't take long to get to Hogwarts, so he hadn't really eaten all that much beforehand.

"I think my stomach is trying to have a sound battle with yours," he announced, looking across the table at the-

...was he dying?

"...Medic!" He leaned over the table and prodded the boy's shoulder. "You'd better not die yet. I heard only Yellow House is supposed to do that."

"Don't look too impressed...I mimicked it from a Professor." Reaching towards her goblet, she snatched it up. It looked clean enough...Marilyn had always wondered if cleaning charms like Excolo disinfected, as well...

Breathing deeply, the blonde offered him a huge smile. "It smells sooo good." Was her tone going dreamy? Perhaps...She was just excited that the offending odors were GONE!

Growling stomachs...Which reminded her...She was starving herself. When would they be served? The dishes were clean...What was the hold up?!?!

Harlow giggled when Sal mentioned his girlfriend. She wanted to sing that annoying song she sang when her brother talked about the girls he wanted to kiss but somehow she didn't think Salander would take it any better than her brother so she refrained. "Oh we own a house in France too. My mom likes to go there during the fashion stuff. I just like to go for the desserts." she admitted. "But I've never been anywhere in Asia. I've been to to Saudia Arabia plenty of times though. My cousins live there." she was really wishing the food would come. She didn't realize how hungry she was. "Are they going to give us dinner?" she asked Salander. Surely he would know with that shiny badge on his robes.

She nodded fiercely. "Sierra spit her gum out in Tori's hand and then threw a tantrum and she threw gum everywhere," she spread her arms big and wide to indicate just how far the gum traveled. "I didn't do anything to her." she said hurt that he would think she would do anything to upset someone else.

Mia was just about to tell Evelyn that there was no need for thanks when the girl started looking at her badge and smirking. What was with that? She leaned in a little closer to her friend and spoke in a low voice. "Perhaps you should put that badge to good use and get back the points your house just lost."

No point in just staring at the thing.


Yes Mia had noticed the badge on her friends robes but decided not to make anything of it. Since the girl wasn't even in Gryffindor, she had clearly stolen the thing from someone else. Apparently she had thing for shiny red badges.

And stealing things.

She gave Destiny a look and almost scoffed. "You realise you just about admitted your guilt right there. And not only that I remember last year in the kitchens." Mia knew her friend didn't like the elves. She had this crazy notion that the elves were out to get her. Maybe this was her payback.

"I think you should apologise to them."

Even if it wasn't her fault.

Forget turning into beasts...they were going to turn into puddles soon enough, and Evelyn didn't want to have to clean that up.

Huffing quietly at the look THAT one was giving her, the seventh year turned her attention back to her sparkly clean plate, about to go back to making sure her hair was perfect when she heard...THAT one.

Did that one leaning over the table not see Lafay there? Calling for a medic, whatever that was, would probably just irritate her, wouldn't it? It looked like their Head of House was in one of those moods. The not good one.

Dramatically sighing, Evelyn took out the taffy some Gryffindor gave her on the train ride, which she was saving so she could burn later, and gave it a light toss over to the two boys. Whichever one got it first could have it.

Meh. If it got them to stop complaining...

...

Yea, her smirk faded.

The narrowing of eyes had replaced it. "What am I supposed to do? Take points from another house and put them into Slytherin's?" Hehe.

COULDSHEDOTHAT!?

Lorelai raised her eyebrows at Maria. A nice person? Yeah, to her friends but Maria was not a friend. And if wasn't Lorelai's fault she had no idea what this girl was talking about. She'd been banging on about family matters like she was the only girl in the world with problems. Well she wasn't. Most people Lorelai knew had a problem of some sort but they didn't go round trying to get sympathy from complete strangers. "If you don't like me, why you still talking?" she replied. It was a question she demanded to know the answer to. And a very good question too. Lorelai pushed her long, wavy, brunette locks over her should and crossed her legs. She glanced up at Maria and rolled her eyes. Yeah, she really wasn't going to get on with this girl, was she?

But she'd have to try. She actually seemed relatively upset. Lorelai sighed and tilted her head to the side resting it on her open hand, her elbox firm against the table. She couldn't believe she was actually going to do this but she was. She needed at least one friend, right? And at least she'd kinda have a prodigy. Yeah. That'd be fun. Providing the girl didn't try to be Lorelai. She took a deep breath and turned her body so she was facing Maria properly. "Look, I come from a closed family. Anything that goes on, not even I know about. All I know about my mum is that she's a struggling singer. And as for my dad, I hardly see him. Partly the reason I came here. That and I actually wanted to make friends..." she began. She wasn't doing very well so far, was she? But then Maria was the only person she'd actually met so far. "...I'm sorry that I don't understand what you and your family are going through but I've never had to deal with anything like that. Not even with my friends..." she continued. And her friends depended on her. She still couldn't believe they considered her their role model. That was probably a contributing factor to the way she was. "...I'm not saying I can sympathise with you, but I'll try my best to understand. And be there if you need me" she concluded.

There. That was her attempt at befriending Maria. Not that she'd take the apology. Because Lorelai didn't think she would. But it was worth a shot, right? Lorelai closed her eyes and opened them again, her eyes watering. Wow, that was one of the most heart-felt attempts at befriending someone she'd ever given. And she meant it. But if Maria wasn't interested, she'd understand. She hadn't been very kind to Maria when she told her about everything. But who told a complete stranger about their personal problems?

He waved one hand. Who cared who died? As long as he, Corey, got fed, he didn't much mind what happened to people sitting at a different table.

Unless they fed him, then maybe he could bring himself to feign concern.

He groaned a bit at the shoulder prod and continued to look pathetic and adorable and all of those things that usually got him fed if there wasn't food nearby to feed himself.


...


"MINE!"

Corey reacted right away, and caught the -hey! Taffy!

He peeled the thing and actually growled at the other boy, shoving it in his mouth before anyone could think to ask for some.

Hmm.

Chewy.

Was that pretty chick throwing stuff at them? Salariel opened his mouth to say something (and maybe even reached to snatch the thing up and throw it back), but when the boy growled at him and shoved whatever it was into his mouth, all thoughts of revenge on the Green House Hottie Girl were lost.

...this boy was clearly possessed. Salariel watched for him to chew, almost relieved when he did, and then waited for his head to start spinning around on his shoulders.

Or maybe he'd start barking next. Maybe he was a werewolf and was slowly changing! Growling, and making strange chewing noises as he gave into his hunger for human- ...taffy.

He wanted some taffy now too.

Salariel quickly turned on his own big, pathetic, 'help me pretty lady or I might get kidnapped by a stranger or die' look and directed it at the girl.

What would his prize be?

Well now, she just couldn't decide which one these boys would turn into. Puddles? Or Beasts? Perhaps both considering that one there that caught the taffy just growled, and the other one was giving her that look that said he completely thought she had more candy. She raised a brow at that.

Tough luck for him though, she didn't have anymore.

"You lost out." she said with a HINT of a smile as she shrugged her shoulders. A smile...yes, because it was amusing. "I don't have anymore." They were lucky she had that one taffy with her.

Spoooon. Spoooooooooon. Spoon.

Bwaha! There were so many funny words, that Destiny didn't know which were the funniest. Really, who came up with them? She had just opened her mouth to ask Evelyn that same exact question when.. fork happened. She simply stared at her friend for a moment before bursting into a fit of laughter.

Foooork. Fooooooooork. Fork.

She probably shouldn't say that word like that out loud.

O_O

Destiny was not pleased with Mia.

And this time, her displeasure had nothing to do with all the animals she had not let her steal back on their safari. No, this time it was because she had failed to compliment on the badge she was wearing. She complimented Evelyn's! Pfft.

Placing her hand over the badge, just in case Mia didn't see it, but she was sure she had, it was BIG and RED!, Destiny began straightening it out. Hmph, there! Perfect!

It was Mia's turn to get a look. Look, look, LOOK! Destiny didn't realize anything. "But I didn't do anything!" Well, she didn't do anything to the house elves. Not yet anyway. But after this, she just might have to.

"And I will not apologize to them. They were carrying forks," that funny word, "and I saw them poking eachother with them. Have you ever been poked with a fork?"

Joanna just sighed. She couldn't say she was relieved by the fact that not every year the dishes are gross because now they are gross and she expected that they would be clean, for the feast. 'Oh, JoJo you are so spoiled,' she thought to herself. She needs to be a little less narrow-minded, and think about the poor house elves that need to cook and clean so many plates and knifes for the students. "Maybe the house elves want to show us that they aren't our slaves," she suggested with the small smirk on her face, knowing that she is wrong because she assumes that they are treated well at Hogwarts, and they probably prefer working here than, working at some egoistic wizards family.

"Excolo?" the Ravenclaw said raising her eyebrow. She never heard of such spell, maybe it was an advance spell that pupils her age are still not mature enough to learn. "I thought scourgify is the cleaning spell?" she added, not knowing from she knew that information. Maybe, when she got sorted into Ravenclaw she became smarter?! COOL.