"I am, yes." She may have forgotten the badge, but Neal was just noticing it, and her sudden interest in him made a lot more sense. As one of Ravenclaw's leaders, it was only natural that she'd zero in on a new face that didn't belong to a first-year student, "I was homeschooled before now, but that wasn't particularly helpful for my social life."

As in, he didn't actually have one; but since he'd been told time and again that they were quite useful, he was aspiring to create one for himself, "My name is Nealan Cosgrove. Most people just call me Neal. I'll be starting in the fifth-year classes." Seeing as he couldn't really call himself a fifth year, could he? Not yet, anyway.

He smiled at her welcome, following her gaze up to the staff table. From this distance, it was impossible to tell anything about them save for the fact that the chairs were occupied. He presumed they were talking to one another, but as he knew nothing about their teaching positions or personalities he didn't even have the option of making up their conversations in his head. Soon enough that was going to change.

A smile lit up Marie's face. "Maybe sometime you could tell me more about your sister."

Homeschooled and not into social life that much? She'd met someone so close to the boy last term. Louisa nodded understandingly. "I hope you'll find Hogwarts as great as most do." Louisa herself adored the place, and she was picky. "Is there a reason you were homeschooled? You have anyone in the family that went to Hogwarts at all?" He should know that she asked a lot of questions all the time by now, no? "You seem aware enough of the system going around here, I think." She gave him a thoughtful stare. Uh-huh, he was sitting at the right table after the sorting, right?

"Nealan Cosgrove," she repeated getting the name into her head. "Nice to meet you, Nealan." And she said it quite seriously so that he knew she didn't really compliment people around. "Fifth year. Oooh. You have OWLs this term then." Louisa shot him a pitying look, she'd suffered last term coz of those nasty exams. "You need any help with that, just tell me. I practically lived at the library last year so I know where you can do excessive research or extra reading." Unless he was a non-typical Ravvie, like their captain Ellie. D:

Yes, he was indeed catching on that Louisa asked a lot of questions, but they were good questions, meaningful questions, and so he didn't mind them in the slightest, "It was just a convenient thing to do. My family has a wide enough skill-set that no part of my education was lacking, and I offered them fresh perspective on their work." Especially when he found something wrong with their research or theses, but that was a rare occurrence.

"Yes, those are part of the reason why I enrolled here," he admitted. "You lose something when you have to study for critical exams alone, I think. I had mock OWLs last year with another homeschooler, and it was ghastly. Completely different studying skills. Here, there's bound to be a better selection for a study group."

But... she knew where to go for extensive (for it could never be excessive, in his eyes) research, did she? If Neal were less defensive of his dignity, the look on his face may have been allowed to reach 'child about to receive chocolate cookie' level. As it was, however, it stayed at a highly-interested smile, "You seem to have bounced back remarkably well. Hardly any lingering horror about your face at all."

Tirnity sat at table and began to eat.Hello miss can pass me the green beans.

Marie looked at the girl who had just sat down. "Sure," she smiled, passing the bowl of green beans. "I'm Marie."

Hello Im Trinity McIntyre.Thank you very much.Nice to meet you.Im Taylors twin sister she smiled.

Marie smiled. "It's great to meet a fellow Ravenclaw." She grinned. "I met Taylor at the platforms."

Maxwell smiled at the mention of his sister, thinking about how proud her was of her now. "I'll have to, she's brilliant I'm sure she'd be a Ravenclaw if she were at Hogwarts. She's very much like our Mum..." He said trailing off at the thought of his mother, the person he loathed the most at the moment, he wasn't about to unload his troubles on a first year at the feast, no matter how smart and mature she came across.

"She sounds pretty cool." Marie smiled. She noticed that he stopped talking after mentioning his mother. That'd be for another time. "Is she anything like you?"

Wow, he sounded so confident. Louisa smiled at him, "That's promising for us." And she would've winked at him if she was easy-going like that, but she didn't. Also the fact that Louisa had lost THREE of her Ravvie friends - two of which were bright in collecting points for the house, made her quite happy to have yet a new student who looked as interested in study as she was.

Louisa's jaw dropped open at the next confession. He enrolled because or the OWLs? MERLIN'S FILTHY SOCKS! She contained her surprise as quickly as possible and chuckled nervously, "Seriously? I mean, I was indeed excited to prove myself in every subject but.. it wasn't really a walk in the park." Snort. "Anyways, with that attitude I guess you'll do just great." Another non-complimentary nod.

His expression didn't go unnoticed, the Ravenclaw found it highly amusing. She grinned at him in a knowing way. Bounced back well? Heh. Yeah. Right. He didn't see her before Adam, did he? Exactly. "Yeah, my friends were great to help me go through the pressure, I guess." No, it wasn't a guess. She knew it for a fact, but he should know too that Louisa didn't really go around confessing feelings to people. Nu uh. "My boyfriend, Adam, played a great part in that too." Beam.

Glancing over at the staff table again, she murmured, "I wish headmaster Tate just give his speech and get it over with. I'm starving." She needed to smuggle some dessert to Beezus too.

Mika was looking around the table when she spotted the girl with the giant blue P on her robes. The pin meant something. It could have meant putrid but that didn't sound right because the girl didn't look putrid...she looked pretty.

Not knowing what on earth the BIG P stood for - because she wasn't looking at the word on it just the GIANT letter she scooted closer to the older girl. "What does that P on your robes mean? Does it stand for pretty - putrid - punctual" she trailed off before she listed every other P name she could think of.

Her hand was fumbling with the Cauldron cake she had bought earlier on the train. Placing it down on the edge of her fork - the flat end she simply leaned forward and let her elbow jab the other end. The cauldron cake was airborne flying through the air and - at good height.

Oopsies. It was RIGHT over the Slytherin table...

Yes it is she said with a smile.well thats good i didnt have chance to meet since walk off.

"Not really, She's much smarter than me. We don't look anything alike either, but that's not too weird. We have different fathers." His sister looked very much like his mother, but she was kinder, sweeter...but not by much.

"So what do you like to do for fun?" Marie asked.

"Is she with your mom?" Marie asked quietly. She shook her head. "Never mind, we can talk about that later." Marie looked at Max, a smile on her face. "So did you do anything fun this summer besides the wedding?"

I like to read,sing,dance,write and much more she smiled.Taking a drink of butterbeer she asked.do have many friends yet.

Maxwell shook his head to the first question. "She's in France, it's her first year a Beaxbaton." He said proud of his sister. Then nodded to the second. "Well, My Dad and Elizabeth eloped so Taylor and I weren't there. But we went to New York during the summer, it was fantastic. I couldn't believe how much i missed America...I wanna go back at Christmas time, assuming I don't just stay here."

"I thought about going to Beauxbaton, but Momma didn't want me to go too far." Marie smiled sadly. "Daddy helped me convince her." She looked at Max. "Why don't you just go? What's keeping you here at Christmastime?"

"Not many, just you and Taylor, Max, Damon, Minerva and Ella." Marie smiled. "What about you?"

Daichi had still been looking at the Staff table and wondering who the new professors were that he had not seen that Indy was beaming. He clutched on to his stuffed duck and let out a small sigh.

It was strange sitting at another houses table instead of his own. It was not far away from each other because the two tables were next to one another with a path in the middle for the first years to enter. Daichi now looked up at the ceiling and watched the stars above. No matter how many times he had seen it , it was still fascinating.

"Eh? you like Roslund too? YAY~!" yes he had just said YAY out loud. "He was my favorite Professor cause he liked my duck feet!" Had she been in that lesson where every student got a pair of his duck feet to wear? "I really hope he's just late..but.." he looked at the staff table again and his eyes landed on the CoMC professor. "But Williamson is cool too!" despite that he had come face to face with his boggart in his class and despite that the Slytherin had literally punched him last term..eeh..

Maxwell nodded. "I kinda wish she would have came here, I think she would have loved it here." He shrugged. "I don't know, I haven't spent Christmas at home since before 1st year." He said thinking. "I just don't know what I'd do at Home, Although i will wanna see my dad. So maybe i'll go."

Wait, that sounded promising? Was this some sort of interview, and if he failed he'd get ousted to a different house?

...

...no, that was ridiculous. The Sorting Hat had already done its work, and everything he'd read about Hogwarts indicated that its decision was final. Though that did make him wonder if there were some slack Ravenclaws about. Slackerclaws?

At first he didn't understand her shock -- hadn't she just said his studying was promising? -- but when he did he clarified, "I didn't enroll over OWL excitement, no; I'd have to take them even if I continued homeschooling. I enrolled to take them here, with other people."

Made sense to him, anyway. He nodded his way through her explanation of her friends and boyfriend -- that was why he wanted to acquire friends, after all -- but when she started murmuring he just sort of... sat there. Was the murmuring still directed at him, and she didn't want other people to hear? Or was she now talking to herself and he was supposed to pretend, out of politeness, that he'd gone temporarily deaf until such time as she started speaking in a normal tone again?

To help pass the time, he poured himself a glass of water.

"I'm afraid you'll have to refresh my memory." He shrugged, "I remember us talking about why we were upset... You said something about arguing and I tried to comfort... Honestly can't remember a word I said..."

After her little awkward moment with Taylor and Maxwell, Violet went over to a first year that had been sorted just now. She wasn't going to deal with anything with her ex-friend or Taylor ever again. Maybe Taylor after how their "chat" will be like after the feast. She sat down beside the new girl with a big smile on her face. "Hey! You're a new Ravenclaw right? I'm Violet and a second year. It's great to see you here!" The girl looked quite scared. How was she going to make her feel welcome? Awkwardly, she stuck her arm out to the girl expecting a handshake from her keeping the bright smile on her face.

Mika looked up at the girl who had just moved closer to her. She looked nice - atleast that was a plus.

"H-hi" she smiled over to you. "Yeah I am new - I'm Amelia Johanson - my sister was a Ravenclaw here last year...India she was a - jerk" she finsihed. Mika didn't like her. "Sibling rivalry she always tried to change my clothing to pink." She chuckled.

That was funny cause they would change back. Mika looked down at the extended hand and tentatively took it - shaking it she just smiled over to her. "Can I call you Vy" she asked excitedly.

Indy had kind of noticed that Daichi was going a little dazed, like he wasn't paying attention. That was okay though. Because Indy didn't mind that much. She kind of dazed off, having little day dreams herself too. But she did wonder what he was thinking. She couldn't ask though, because that would be rude. And Indy wasn't rude. He was looking up at the ceiling too. Hmmm. Was there something wrong with it? Indy mused, looking up at the ceiling. Oh it was looking fine. Hopefully it wouldn't like fall on them or something. That would be not be good. She didn't want her head to be hit in the head by the ceiling.

"I dooo!" Yes. Roslund was a better subject. Indy liked talking about him. But she was going to be sad if he had left. "I love astronomy." Indy nodded with a big smile. One of her favorite subjects. "I do too..." Because she didn't want him to not be there. "He iss! I love his subject too." Indy nodded with a big smile, as she held onto Pink Ted again. Pink Ted liked it too. "I like charms too....I hope the new lady is okay" Because Indy had pretty much loved Schrimer. So. This new lady had big shoes to fill.