Maxwell laughed and nodded. "Okay, we can start on Transfiguration whenever you want to. I never got out of that rhythm." He said with another laugh.

Tay rolled her eyes, "Okay, how about in a week also. Not my fault i lost my rhytm but i spent most of my days and nights at Lori's." She laughed and smiled.

Minerva smiled "Okay then. I will catch you later." she gave another weak smile and headed back to the puff table.

Ahem. Now Kurumi felt really really...stupid? That was sort of a foreign concept to the Gryffindor and she suddenly felt rather big headed for thinking such things. While she may be the top point earner and the one that people went to when they needed tutoring, she wasn't perfect. She knew she wasn't, but in other areas. So, right now, Tag had given her a rather humbling experience. He should get another dozen cookies for that.

"Oh..." she replied, blushing furiously. "That...that makes a lot more sense now..." Even if she now felt ridiculously awkward. "English...is technically my second language, so some of the expressions and plays on words that are use are...unfamiliar to me." Another one to add to memory however.

Kurumi giggled. "Well, then I guess I will be seeing you in the Hogwarts kitchens often. Would you like me to show you where they are sometime?" Not that they were all that hard to find though. She had showed August where the kitchens were when he had first transferred...which had been a rather unfortunate experience since, well, the kitchens had been closed that year. "You can be another one of my taste testers."

With Toddles running around again...Kurumi was starting to get a little worried. The kitchens BETTER be open...

Again, Kurumi's cheeks flushed a little bit when Penelope complimented her name. To be honest, Kurumi found all Western names to be pretty... 'cool' sounding as the first year had put it. So unlike anything she had heard growing up. Maybe that was why she wasn't too partial to nicknames and preferred to call Jonathan by his name instead of something else like Lime. "Oh, um, thank you," she said with a small bow of the head. "It...can translate to Walnut in English...unless you are translating the individual kanji that are used to write my name." Blah blah blah...this girl probably wasn't interested in a mild linguistics lesson.

Especially when one considered how she was eyeballing the dancing cookies.

"Help yourself. Although, I think the Headmaster will be giving his speech soon." She hoped at least. She wanted her pumpkin juice!

Awkward looks aside, Kurumi was just glad that Anya's face was in tact and that the orb hadn't caused too much damage to the table. Kurumi thought that maybe she had seen the orb before...somewhere...but maybe she was just imagining things.

Why would she have been playing with an orb? She disliked Divination almost as much as Potions.

Kurumi was a bit started by Anya's comment, but returned her bright smile nonetheless. Well, it wasn't the same wattage as Anya's, but Kurumi's smile did brighten a little more. "I'll be sure to keep that in mind." And probably come find the second year sometime tomorrow....after she met Jonathan in the pathways.
Kurumi smiled a little more, trying to put on a brave face after THAT question had been asked. Merlin, she should have prepared herself a little more for questions regarding summer. Eyes watering every single time it was mentioned...wasn't exactly how she wanted to spend the feast. "I'm alright," she nodded. Truth. "I'm just glad to be back at Hogwarts and seeing everyone again." Truth. "How about you?"

Kurumi was back to nodding in agreement. She had actually pondered going to see the Headmaster regarding Muggle Studies and how she felt that food was giving a false representation of the world - especially since things really were not THAT different. Jonathan had even mentioned that the manners they had learned were the same as the ones his pureblood family practiced. "I grew up entirely nonmagical," she replied. Nope, still couldn't actually use the word unless it was followed by 'studies'. "But...food is food, you know?" She picked up a fork that was sitting on the table. "A fork is a fork no matter where you are." Unless is was a spork...then those were just weird.
Looked like her and Sarash were sort of along the same lines of thinking when it came to this term. Ready as I'll ever be sort of attitude. "Of course there will be," Kurumi nodded at the Quidditch question. Not that she would be trying out. Her Seeker days were long over. "But, you should probably direct those questions to Selina," she explaining, pointing to her redhead best friend. "She is the Quidditch captain."
Covering her mouth slightly, Kurumi giggled. "I really enjoy the flavor. It is so unique and not like anything I've had in Japan." That had been one of the first sort of culture shocks for the Gryffindor when she had arrived in Diagon Alley and bought her first ice cream. It had been pumpkin juice flavored and, well, after that there was no turning back. "You mean like in Cinderella?" she asked, cocking her head to the side. "I can't say that I have...although I think that would be a fun Transfiguration lesson. Performing tricks that are seen in fairy tales...like turning a pumpkin into a carriage." Which made her wonder why Muggle Studies and Transfiguration hadn't had a joint lesson doing just that. SO much better than just a party and eating food in her opinion.
Oh Merlin....

Swallowing for a moment, Kurumi braced herself for impact as Lea Carter made her way to the table. Kurumi never had been able to figure her out, whether or not she actually liked the prefect or if she had made it her life's goal to torture her. Josh wouldn't let her do that, would he? Not that Josh was here though...

Flicking her wand again, Kurumi charmed one of her Gryffindor house crest cookies towards Lea and offered her a small smile.

Ella needed to stretch her legs so the second year started to walk and found herself by the Gryffindor table, not surprising really. She had spent some time here and grown fond of Gryffindors. One in particular but...shaking her head, she looked around hoping to see a familiar face. Ronnie was a Gryffindor wasn't she? Craning her neck a bit, she hoped to find the older girl.

Ronnie spotted Ella walking around. She smiled and waved her arm around to get her attention. "Ella! Over here!" she said.

Ella smiled when she heard a familiar voice and turned to see Ronnie waving at her. She walked over and greeted her friend with a smile. "Hey, how are things over on Gryffindor's side of the Great Hall?" The second year asked, smirking.

Ronnie smiled. "Hi! Things are pretty...lonely!" she said chuckling and looking around. "How are things...over at the Hufflepuff side?" she asked with a giggle.

"Lonely?" Ella repeated with a frown, wondering why that was. It took her a moment to realize that Ronnie had been gone for a term and might have felt a little out of the loop being back. "Well you're not alone anymore!" She said, smiling. "Things on the Hufflepuff side are great!...and crowded. The table is packed with people." Not that this was necessarily a bad thing, it wasn't. It was just hard to talk to friends when you were competing with other conversations going on right next to you. "So how do you feel? I mean being back here and everything. Excited for classes to start?"

LATE?!

Jeez Louise. Bad luck must have found its way to Paulie Foster because RIGHT as he arrived at Hogwarts, his fruit punch decided that it would be much better ON his robes than IN his stomach.

-______-

However, Paulie was determined not to let a silly spill mess up the ever-anticipated start-of-term feast! Especially not when he got to wear a shiny red and gold badge at this one.

So, with a nice and untainted set of robes on, he strode into the Great Hall and set his sights on Gryffindor table.

Now to see the new - and returning - Lions!

Ronnie nodded. "Yeah." she said. She then smiled. "You're so sweet, Ella! Thanks." she said. "Packed?" Ronnie asked, looking over Ella's shoulder at the Hufflepuff table. She chuckled.[B] "It is quite backed over there!" she said. "Oh I feel great!" she said. "Very excited! I can't wait to learn to spells and learn new potions and well...everything!" she said giggling.

Looking up, Kurumi's face brightened just a bit as their Head Boy made his way to the table...covered in goo? Merlin, what all had happened between getting off the Hogwarts Express and him arriving at the Great Hall? Some sort of initiation process that she didn't know about?

Wrinkling her nose just a bit, Kurumi hopped out of her seat and made her way towards Paulie, wand out at the ready. "Hey there Head Boy," she smiled, eyeing the mess that was on his robes. "Tergeo." There, that should do it. They couldn't have their Head Boy looking a mess the first night - even if the sight might make the first years a little less nervous.

Ella smiled. "You're welcome and thanks! I do love to eat sweets so I guess that makes me sweet." Shrug. The second year watched Ronnie glance over at the Hufflepuff table and laughed at her reaction. "Right? We seem like quite the popular table these days." Maybe it was cause Hufflepuffs tended to be friendly? "I'm excited too! Mostly for Care of Magical Creatures and Defense Against the Dark Arts. Those are my favorite classes!"

Maxwell smiled and nodded not caring about the comment on staying at Lori's since it was Lori and not Damon she mentioned. "Okay, sounds good. I'm having Minnie work with me on my Animagus studies." He said happy.

Maxwell nodded. "Yeah it's more things like the telephone or TV and stuff like that, or cars. My girlfriend Taylor's never spent time in the muggle world till summer when i took her around the muggle parts of London, there was so much we had to know."

Tay smiled, "That is good." She nodded, "Minerva is such an amazing friend." Taylor laughed, "Good luck on your Animagus studies."

Ryffinblorr seemed to be where it was at, Toddles knew this in his tiny elf head. Yep!

The shiney was hidden in his little pillowcase as he snuck between the studensies feet from the green table and tried to find his way back to the red table where people knew how to play catch liek a baby house elf asked. Did they not like having fun or something?

No one would try to take the Shiney if Toddles kept it hidden like this, he would just need to pick better catch partners.

Maxwell nodded. "Yeah, she's been really great. It's really easy to talk to her about stuff.." He said hoping she didn't take it like it wasn't easy to talk to her.

Tay nodded and laughed, "I bet she has been and yeah it is easy to talk to her about things." She smiled, agreeing with him.

Maxwell smiled. "Yeah, so have you decided which electives you're taking this year?" He asked.

Tay nodded, "Yeah of course.... dont you need to decide before well.... the year begins?" She laughed and smiled at him.

Hmm. It would be AWESOME if the rest of the staff would help with this rather fruitless search for the tiny little house elf and his... stolen toy. He wasn't about to crawl under the tables, but Tate whistled a bit as he paced the length of the tables.

"Has anyone seen that baby elf thing? Toodles? Tables? Baby thing? Anyone?" He whistled again.

"Hey yourself, Perfect Prefect," Paulie grinned. 'Cause Kurumi totally WAS the perfect prefect. He followed her eyes down to his white shirt and he realized that there was STILL some fruit punch on the shirt. Really? REALLY?! But, then..... it was gone! He lifted his head and smiled at Kurumi. "Thanks. I had just thought that I might wear my fruit punch to the feast, ya know? Don a little extra red.." Heh.

Considering that this was indeed the feast, Paulie wondered.... "Soo, did ya happen to make any of those cookies of yours this year?" Hmm, hmm, hmmmmmm? Poor Paulie's stomach was becoming almost embarrassingly grumbly.


A single eyebrow lifted in curiosity as Paulie spotted a tiny lil' house elf who seemed to be hiding something in that pillowcase of his. Huh. He wondered what the little goober was up to, but he didn't say anything. Yet.

Hehe!

The studensies feet weren't very smelly like some of the old House Elves Toddles knew. And the kitchens didn't always smell nice like food-stuff, nope not in the late night times.

Getting ready to jump on top of the table again, and maybe get a drink of water since Toddles was very thirsty, when he heard the big man.

O___O

"Whoopsies! Toddles needs to hide!" The house elf scurried further into the middle of the darkness under the table and wrapped his arms over the concealed orb. His toy that was going to be stolen.

Despite his slight fear, Toddles couldn't help but giggle...he liked hiding games almost as much as catching ones.

Kurumi nodded. This is why she missed Professor Zookara so much. They had had a lesson on baseball where they had played an actual match at the end of it among other things. Not to mention that he had an amazing rubber duck collection in his office. She missed him... a lot... not to mention he was the first professor she opened up to about her family. She should write him again soon.

"Yeah..." she nodded, sort of just lost in her own thoughts.
Perfect Prefect? That certainly had Kurumi's cheeks a bright pink color. She opened her mouth to tell him that Kurumi would be just fine, but he was Head Boy. He could technically call her Perfect Prefect if he wanted to.

Ignore that she was far from perfect.

"Well...that is one way to show how spirit," she laughed. Weird and potentially very messy, but....as Tag had taught her earlier... whatever floats your boat!

Nodding, Kurumi flicked her wand again to charm another Gryffindor crest cookie towards Paulie, summersaulting and twirling as it made its way towards his face. "Certainly did."
SQUEEEEEEEEEE!

TODDLES WAS BACK!!!

Could she hug him again? Please? PLEEEEEEEEEEEASE?!

"TODDLES!!" Kurumi chirped, deciding to charm a cookie in his direction. House elves liked cookies, right?! Besides, maybe the cookie would earn her a hug!

Oh? What was this? He had a pillowcase with him now? Wasn't that just the CUTEST thing ever? "Toddles, what all do you have in there?" Or was he going to take a nap on the Gryffindor table?


Oh! The Headmaster was here too! Did he want another cookie?

Nope. At least not judging from his question. Looking around, Kurumi tried to find Toddles again so she could hug him but soon brought her attention back to the Headmaster. "Toddles," Kurumi said, placing a little emphasis on the elf's name. Honestly, Tables? Baby thing? Shouldn't the Headmaster, as a father, be a little more caring when it came to names? Toddles might start to cry! "Was here earlier, Headmaster, throwing something around. And...I swear I just saw him again now... with a pillowcase..."

Where did the little guy go?

Oh wait! "There he is!" Kurumi chirped, pointing her finger at the something that had moved under the table. Honestly, if the elf hadn't said anything she probably wouldn't have noticed.

Ducking down a bit, Kurumi peered into the darkness that was under the table and wished that the candlelight in the Great Hall were a little brighter. Where was the cutie?!

Maxwell laughed a little. "Are...we?" He asked unsure...He didn't really know which one's to pick.