Summer, for once, had been absolutely rejuvenating, despite its business that had kept her schedule hectic. You could see this in the slight spring in Hadley's step as she bound her way into the Great Hall and over to her House table. It wasn't exactly anything you could put a finger on, but it was there.

Oh and look at that? The table was already filling up. She greet everyone as she headed down the table, because it was a lot easier that way. "Mason! Did you have a good summer? Kitty! Good to see you again. Sammy, Cassie, Kirk, how were your summers?"

Oh, what's this? A couple of new Ravenclaws already? She smiled warmly at Aurora and Lorelei. "Welcome to Ravenclaw. Excited? I know that I was when I first got here. Oh, I'm Hadley, by the way. If you need help with anything, or..." Hads glanced around conspiratorially and leaned in a bit closer, "or just want to mess with our resident Rooster, come see me, okay?"

Oh, and there was Jessa. Her sister was that auror chick, right? Hadley frowned at the thought of Alexa, but still, kid sis could be handy. "Hey, Jessa. Might have something you can help me with. Your sister is an Auror, right? Know anything about inventing new hexes?"

And speaking of Resident Roosters...just going to ignore that he even...Something caught Hadley's eye and she stopped dead. Then she backed up a few steps to be sure she saw correctly. "You!? They made you Head Boy!? I mean I knew Hogwarts was mental, but this?" Oh, joy. This was a great start to a superb year.

With her mood sufficiently soured, Hads trudged on and plopped down next to Teddy. She didn't know him all that well, but he seemed like a cool guy from what she knew. "Can you believe that?" She thumbed a hand in Rooney's direction, then shook her head. "Nevermind, don't want to think about it. Did you have a good summer?"

Her conversation with Aslan from the table just across from them fizzled as the girl caught sight of Dora giving her a wiggly fingered wave and that grin....that grin that warned of nothing good. Once again, the girl found herself sinking lower in her seat. Just don't respond Jessa...pretend you don't see...except....what if she thought THAT was rude??

Merlin she was so confused. Tentatively, her own hand rose and she gave something of an uncertain wave back. Don't question it. Nothing at this school made particular sense and the people were no exception.

Thankfully there was Mason to distract her with his talk of exams--and more importantly to distract her. "I guess that makes sense..yeah. You won't forget to have fun though, will you? Otherwise you may very well suffer from some amount of insanity by the time the exams roll around. I don't imagine you'd do well if you've gone bonkers." On the other hand, they did say the smartest people were often a little touched in the head....

Curiously, she looked on at Kirk. Much like Teddy, he was preoccupied with something other than the table's many conversations. "What're you looking for?" She asked, her gaze now on the ceiling too.

They stayed there until her name brought them over to Hadley. Oh? "I know a few things about spell creation, yeah, but not because Lexa's an Auror." Charms was one of her favourite subjects. Naturally she did a ton of reading for it outside the lessons. "Why? What did you have in mind? I'd love to help!"

With a smile at Mason, his dormmate, Rooney went on over to ask him how his summer was before everything got hectic in the great hall and the food got here. He was just about to drop into the seat beside the boy when a Gryffindor girl passed him and sat there. He didn't immediately know who it was, but just had just caught the glimmer of red on her robes. "Oop, sorry." He hadn't actually realised that Mason had girls visit him at their house table. Nor that Mason was close with any girls. Was it that his dorm mate had a girlfriend and Rooney was none the wiser?

"How long have you guys been together? Or is it a new thing since summer? Mase, you never told us." Hah. The boys in their dorm weren't really that close anyway, but there was some sort of mutual respect as it went between Vincent, Chris, Mason, Luke and Rooney. "Details in the dorm later, Mase. I have stuff to tell you guys anyway." About the looooooooooove of his life being soooooooo wonderful.

It was becoming a habit of Rooney's to only properly talk to some of his housemates at the feasts either end of the school year, and Cassie was one of those housemates. "Thanks, Cassie! How was your summer?" He remembered that they had discussed their plans before leaving school and he hoped that she had gotten to do the things that she had wanted. "I just hope I can be a good Head Boy for the school." Lots of hoping here, especially now he had to use it to the best of his ability to get into a university to continue his education before his Olivia graduated and they could continue their forever, together.



And here started coming the youngsters, the newbs, the baby claws. Rooney offered a large smile as they joined the Ravenclaw table, making sure that there were spaces for them to sit down. "Welcome, welcome! Congratulations on being sorted into Ravenclaw!! I'm Rooney Bronwyn and I'm one of your house Prefects and Head Boy this year! Kitty and I" he gestured to the other Ravenclaw Prefect with a pass of his hand, "will be here for anything you need throughout the year. When the feast is over we'll lead you on up to Ravenclaw Tower and get you safely to your dorms."

Looking towards the staff table, he then pointed out Professor Hirsch. "The Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor is our Head of House, Professor Hirsch. He's great and will give you any sort of advice you go to him about. I've never encountered a more professional Professor in my time at Hogwarts." He had a whole lot of love for the man, he was practically a second father to the Bronwyn boy.

"Any questions?"



Rooney immediately headed in the direction of Miss Jessa Cambridge when he saw her, giving her hair a playful ruffle as he did with his younger sister also. "Hey trouble. Not planning on getting lost this year, are you?" He always found the ones that got lost around the school for some reason. Maybe he was the only student leader on the lookout for them or they all waited for him to be on patrol, but he vividly remembered finding this one in her first year completely lost. Also Christopher Montmorency was another of the lost ones that Rooney had found before. He looked quickly around to see if that was another student that had returned this year.

"Parents not keeping you away from the castle after last year? Your sister is an Auror, right?" It was nice to see that despite the Hogwarts community banding together at only one time in the year, parents had still most of them back with trust in their Headmistress. Maybe this year if something went wrong, there would be some sort of rescue attempt from the get go. And not when it came to two first years. All reasons why Rooney was grateful to have his new position as Head Boy, because he was going to make sure that the Headmistress was kept up to date on how things should have been happening and that he was kept up to date on what was happening. Instead of being left in the dark, as it had seemed for the majority of last year.

Communication, please.

Roo grinned at the congratulations coming from Miss Sam Tyler, giving her a thumbs up and a wave that almost promised that he would pop over a little later to catch up with her. And once again thank her for the thing in the common room with Kitty. It meant more to him than anyone was properly aware as he had been in a very bad place then. Now, he was in a much better place with his path ahead carved out beautifully, with a beautiful young woman on his arm for the rest of his days.

Rooney expected the hostility from Hadley Denaker and was in no mind to care what she thought. She had a problem with everything that happened in the castle purely because she was full of the green monster: jealousy. Hadley Denaker wanted to be Prefect more than she wanted to breathe on a daily basis and she couldn't handle the fact that Rooney had dreamed every day for it and got it, and was now being rewarded for his service and dedication to the castle with another position. A more important position - that of Head Boy.

He rolled his eyes, pocketing his hands in his robes. "They continue to let you be educated in the castle, Hadley. I think we all knew how mental they were at that very decision." Perhaps she was just looking for a retaliation, but she wasn't going to get one today. Not sorry.

Of course he was fine, Dora. Sam hadn't actually been questioning his need for food. More the dramatics from them both. She shook her lightly and chuckled. "It'll come soon enough." Although a glance at the sorting queue suggested not for a little while longer. "I do hope there's Yorkshire pudding tonight." Yorkshire puddings with lashings of gravy. Or toad-in-the-hole. That worked too.

Oh dear. Just the tone of Dora's mimicking made her wince. "Don't tell me...they then went on about her awesome their summer was before you got a word in edgeways?" Oh, how she was glad she was sorted into Ravenclaw. She was much better suited to life here, even if two of her closest friends were Lions.

And given Dora's comment, Sam could only smile at Mason's question about her summer. "Pretty sure you're meant to be far more into it than that, like exaggeratedly interested," she commented with a wink. "But it was good, thanks. Got to do a bit of everything I wanted. How about yours?"

Sam returned the wave with a smile and a nod. She was sure he'd be busy with his responsibilities through much of the feast and tonight, but a catch up would be pleasant indeed. She sure hoped he'd had time over the summer to refresh and relax, but took the fact that he was here, as Head Boy, as a very good sign indeed. It was always nice to have a Ravenclaw at the top.

Except, hang on...what? Oh no NO no no NO! What a misunderstanding.

A terrible, terrible misunderstanding.

Sam snorted loudly despite herself, and laughed. "You better not let Casper hear yeh talkin' like that," she said, resting her elbows on the table and giving Dora a look. "He might have something to say about you insinuating stuff about his very taken girlfriend."

Where was Casper anyways? Hadn't they been sitting together on the train?

Aurora saw another new Ravenclaw girl who didn't seem to know anyone either. At least, she wasn't gossiping and sharing summer adventures like the other kids seemed to be doing.

Working up her courage, she finally offered her hand to shake and said, with more courage than she felt, "Hi, I'm Aurora. I'm new, too."

"Hi," Aurora answered, shocked to be addressed by the older student. "Are you in Gryffindor or Ravenclaw? I saw you sitting over there and then come over here. Not that I mind, I think it's cool that you can sit wherever you want, I just wondered. All my family were in Gryffindor - until me."

"Hi, Rooney. Thanks - I'm so thrilled to be in Ravenclaw. No questions right now, except maybe how do we get to our common room?"

"Hey Hadley" he said to the Ravenclaw as she arrived at the table and held up his hand to greet her. "Oh, my summer was relaxing, how was yours then?"

Turning to Jessa, he nodded his head as she asked if he planned in some free time. At first he wanted to mess with her and ask what free time was. But then decided against it. "I got some free time scheduled each day, no worries." And no, they weren't for in the night when he was supposed to be sleeping.

Mason could not help it. He rolled his eyes at what Rooney was asking. He did not even get flustered when he flat out mentioned him and Dora being a couple. Because it was not true. "Don't get too excited, Rooney. She's just a friend" and believe him, it was difficult enough to become friends in the first place. The Gryffindor had quite a temper. He had learned that the hard way. He then nodded his head to agree meeting up at the Dormitory and then turned to the next student.

Now, Sam's questions did cause an eyebrow raise. What did she mean by that? And why was it that when a guy spoke to him he knew what he was talking about but when a girl spoke to him it was as if it was in another language? He would probably look stupid if he asked what she meant so he kept his mouth shut and shrugged his shoulders. "Spend time with my family, nothing much"

SPEECH! Finally! That meant that the food would appear after. Unless she announced that something had gone wrong downstairs in the kitchen and the food would be delayed again. Or worse. They got nothing....

Mason turned away from Sam and gave his full attention to the Headmistress as she spoke. He clapped his hands whenever she announced a new teacher and their subjects and when that was over he turned back to look at the table. Still no food... Usually food had appeared by now... He was about to whine about being hungry when he heard that there would be a sort of tournament. Held together with another school. The seventh year Ravenclaw looked back again but this time there was curiousity in his eyes.

So a female and male from each house got to enter the competition? It did narrow it down when she mentioned that only fifth years and up got a chance to participate. He would be lying if he said that he wasn't interested.

Let's see, there was the big dipper of course. But Kirk was determined to find the right stars tonight even if he had to look out the window in his dorm room later. Hm? Oh, someone was addressing him as he turned his head over to look at her. "Hey Hads, my summer was alright. And yours?" Oh, look at her and the new Head Boy go at it. Was it bad luck to wish him luck? Nah, "Congrats Rooney.." He slipped out once the tension wasn't so high.

Rather than the usual pleasantries someone else was showing interest in what he was looking at. Kirk glanced over at Jessa to see her looking up as well. "I'm looking for Cygnus. The stars are starting to form and Autumn's the best time to see them." Pointing up at the forming of constellations. Not many were interested in the stars though, so he left it at that just in case she wasn't either.

The sound from the staff table however forced Kirk to remove his back off the table and turn over to face the Headmistress and her speech instead of the ceiling. It wasn't particularly interesting with the start of it. He already knew of Professor Vance taking over his Uncle Justin's spot as Slytherin's Head of House, the rest he didn't so he paid more attention to the rest. He wasn't as close with any of the new additions after all. What interested him however was some sort of competition.

Kirk raised his posture in an effort to listen more closely. They were facing against the American school? Wait.. fifteen was the minimum age requirement. His face shifted from interest to a blank expression. Kirk wouldn't be fifteen until November and he had a strong feeling he wouldn't be allowed to even sign up despite such a close birthday. Hm. Well then.. he would have to hear more about this competition before deciding to be relieved or envious.

At least the food was here. He could now tuck into some mince and tatties, before casually asking the older guys nearest him, "So are you going to enter Mason? Rooney?" Or anyone else for that matter. He just had to know who to root for.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaniDiNardo

They stayed there until her name brought them over to Hadley. Oh? "I know a few things about spell creation, yeah, but not because Lexa's an Auror." Charms was one of her favourite subjects. Naturally she did a ton of reading for it outside the lessons. "Why? What did you have in mind? I'd love to help!"

Hadley grinned. Perfect. She was right to think of Jessa for help on this, then. "Awesome. I've got a few ideas for hexes I'm hoping to create. Nothing that would probably help out in a duel, though. Mostly of the fun, prank variety. Like turning the target into a fashion victim, things like that. Let's meet up and discuss once we get settled into classes and all that."

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shanners

He rolled his eyes, pocketing his hands in his robes. "They continue to let you be educated in the castle, Hadley. I think we all knew how mental they were at that very decision." Perhaps she was just looking for a retaliation, but she wasn't going to get one today. Not sorry.

"What?" That stopped Hadley in her tracks actually, though she didn't look mad, she looked...impressed. "Rooster, that was the first decent comeback you've ever made. Respect." She gave him a nod, though she herself was still only half believing such a moment could ever exist between them. "I think I might be rubbing off on you." But, seriously, let's not make it a habit, yeah?

Quote:

Originally Posted by DuckyLinJi

"Hey Hadley" he said to the Ravenclaw as she arrived at the table and held up his hand to greet her. "Oh, my summer was relaxing, how was yours then?"

Hads high-fived Mason's hand. It probably wasn't what he was intending when he held up his hand, but Hadley was never one to shake hands. That was for boring adults and people trapped in the last century. She gave high-fives, or the occasional fist bump if she was so inclined. "Good. Relaxing is good." Unless you happened to be her, apparently. Something she was starting to learn. "My summer was great. Busy, but in a good way. Mom volunteered Natalie and I to work as waitresses all summer at her restaurant." She shrugged. "Tips were good though. My Grandpa married my best friend's Grandma over summer, so now we're cousins. It's been great. What about you? Anything special or interesting happen?"

Quote:

Originally Posted by Charely Potter

Let's see, there was the big dipper of course. But Kirk was determined to find the right stars tonight even if he had to look out the window in his dorm room later. Hm? Oh, someone was addressing him as he turned his head over to look at her. "Hey Hads, my summer was alright. And yours?" Oh, look at her and the new Head Boy go at it. Was it bad luck to wish him luck? Nah, "Congrats Rooney.." He slipped out once the tension wasn't so high.

Yep, look at her go with Head Boy Rooster, business as usual with them. With that sorted though, Hads returned her attention back to Kirk. "Just alright? Shame. I think your summers should be incredible." She wished that for everyone really, especially the people she liked. "My summer was over all great, I guess. I mean it had its ups and downs..." There was a whole thing about her best friend and now cousin kissing her other best friend and crush at the end of last year's school term, that she had to get over. "Had to work at my Mom's restaurant which was boring, but the tips were good, so. And my Grandpa got married to Melbourne's Grandma, so we're cousins now." Which, all things considered was awesome. They had come up with a number of plans for this term that would likely send Rooney on a warpath if he ever found out. Fun times.

And then the speech began, and Hadley quieted down to at least pretend to listen. Normally she started to tune it out midway, but this year had a bit of a surprise to it that held her attention. A competition against what would have been her school if Mom hadn't gotten the Head Chef position at La Nouveau, the five star restaurant in downtown London.

Hadley Denaker was definitely interested. "What about you, Kirk?" She asked. "You gonna sign up?"

Rooney became aware very quickly that he had spoken out of turn and that he had definitely gotten the wrong end of the stick about Mason and Dora - whom he was now in knowledge of who was sitting with his dormmate as he got a closer look. Glad that Dora hadn't thrown anything nearby at him, Rooney offered her an apologetic smile as both Sam and Mason jumped to tell him that nothing was going on between them and that Dora was in fact dating another boy. Yikes, poor Mason. Being friendzoned was...the worst.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I just thought-- nevermind. My apologies. It would be nice to see Mason in a relationship, that's all. I'm sure your boyfriend is lovely, Miss Dora." And now if the floor could swallow him whole, it would be delightful. Or maybe he would just hide under the table and quit drawing uneccessary attention to himself before the food even got here.

Looking back to Aurora, Rooney smiled. "We walk. It's a lot of stairs, but you'll never suffer with being a couch potato using them every day. Kitty and I will walk you up there after the feast ends. Just stick with us." He actually had grown to love the walk from the Great Hall to Ravenclaw Tower every day. It was a nice time to be with his own thoughts or just to walk with Olivia uninterrupted. Some days, when he was busy with everything the school was throwing at him, those walks were the only time he got to spend with her. Now that their relationship was back on and cascading a million miles per hour into their future, Rooney was just going to MAKE time for her. For his lady love.

FINALLY! Rooney looked to the staff end of the Great Hall, glad to have the exquisitely crafted face of Headmistress Hawthorne looking back at the students once more. His eyes wandered to the new faces at the table, pleased to see that last years events had not put off any new adults wanting to teach here. The news that Headmistress Hawthorne herself would be teaching Ancient Runes left the Bronwyn boy feeling particularly discombobulated, but he would at least give her class a shot given that he was intending to take the class through to his NEWT exams. Like every class taught here. Rooney didn't believe in dropping classes, although he had toxic relationships with some of them. The speech moved on to mention what would be happening this year and the eyebrow of the Head Boy rose.

No extra curricular sporting? Did that include duelling? That was going to be quite sad to not finish his Hogwarts education on good terms with his duelling skills. Last year had been difficult and due to the things happening, Rooney and Professor Hirsch had decided it was best for him to not continue until he was in the right head space. However, having something to focus on for the school year would be great to take away his thoughts from the negative opinions about Olivia and his recent decisions.

Plus, if he were to be selected for this...it would look GREAT on his resume and university applications, which he would be filling out after the students from Ilvermorny arrived. It would be nice to have a new batch of students to interact with that may also be in their final year and therefore become friends that he could visit when he moved to New York in time. As the speech came to a close and the food arrived, Rooney quickly checked out the reactions to the news around the room. The younger students looked particularly upset that they would not be able to take part and the older students seemed to have a mixed reaction. Interesting..

With a smile at Kirk, Rooney nodded. "Probably, yeah. Would be something fun to take part in if we're not having those extra curricular things. Could learn a whole lot about myself and magic, too. How about you? You're fifteen this year, right?" That would be a complete storm of apologies if that wasn't the case. Roo was just glad that his sister was not fifteen until next July and therefore was no way going to be taking part. Brinlee didn't need everyone to know about her problems.

Of course, as he was just about to put some food onto his plate, Hadley Denaker happened once more. Rooney smiled anyway, glad that she hadn't taken offence to his comment. "You'll find that I've always had a sense of humour, you just haven't deserved it." He shrugged. "I'll take your acknowledging my new position as a congratulations, though. So thank you, Hadley."

So Hadley basically worked and went to her grandfather's wedding. "Neat, at least you got paid for your time." Serving others didn't sound fun at all, so at least she was positive about it. The coincidence though on her and Mel's family now connected did make Kirk chuckle a bit, "Haha, really? Now that's cool." As for his summer, "I went to a few Gobstones' matches with my dad and helped babysit Mr. McLeod's daughter." That was usually how his summers went. "Yes, I'm hoping my birthday isn't too late for signing up."

Kirk could only nod at Rooney's take on the competition. "That's true, sounds like not even flying lessons may happen.." Since he also asked about his age. "Well, I won't be fifteen until November but maybe they can make an exception for me." Sure, the Headmistress didn't say the birthday deadline or when it would be starting, but he was prepping for the disappointment just in case. The upcoming term did look promising for Kirk after all.

Lorelei smiled and shook Aurora's hand. "I'm Lorelei. It's good to meet you." Finally, someone who's just as new as I am! she thought, relieved. She remained quiet for a moment, trying to think of something else she could say. "So...what are you looking forward to studying the most? My dad is something of a historian, so I think I'm going to enjoy History of Magic. And Charms. I love seeing how Charms work as well."

"My family is big in herbology, but I have two black thumbs," Aurora told Lorelei. "I'm looking forward to Charms as well. I've been studying the theories until now, but my father and two older sisters are squibs, so they haven't been much help."

"Is the rest of your family in Ravenclaw?"

As she said this, she remembered the pins her grandfather had given her and she would get the Ravenclaw eagle put on her sweater as soon as she got to her room.

"I'm excited about watching the tournament, too," she added, "but I'm going to miss not being able to play Gobstones."

"My father was in Ravenclaw." Lorelei replied, taking a sip of her pumpkin juice before putting a couple of chicken drumsticks on her plate, followed by a spoon of mashed potatoes."My mother was in Gryffindor. She'll be a little disappointed that I wasn't put in Gryffindor, but she said that if I had to go anywhere else, she prefers Ravenclaw, so she'll be happy."