Aria had had quite the delightful time on the train. A prank had been played, she'd had her fill of laughter and now she was hungry. Settling herself at the homey Slytherin Table, it was only then that she remembered about food. The excitement of having Caes with her coupled with the adventures on the train did that to a princess.

Speaking of Caes... Aria couldn't wait to give him a grand tour of the Castle. Tomorrow, of course. For now, he would need to be Sorted. Fingers and toes crossed for him being placed in Slytherin House!

It didn't take long for Caes to find his sister (Aria), she wasn't hard to spot given the lack of jewelry on the others nearby. "So.. you had to sit through this for five years now?" Was the first thing he asked as he sat down by her with a small smile. Luckily he only had one more year of this ceremony to endure, because it seemed like torture.

"How's the food?" He was starting to get hungry. They were allowed to snack, weren't they?

Heading over to the snake table, after a good train ride Bella wasted no time as she plopped herself down oppsite Aria and an unfamiliar guy at the green table. "Hi Aria! Did you have a good summer?" Bella greeted her snakette buddy with a friendly smile before turning her black eyes to the boy curiously. "Hi I'm Isabella, but everyone calls me Bella. Are you new?" Had the sorting ceremony already begun? Had she taken too long in the toilets so she had missed the start of the sorting? Anywho, was anyone new up at the staff table? She wondered as she turned her eyes and attention to the staff dais.

When Caes was declared a Slytherin, Aria immediately leapt up onto the bench she had been sitting on, stuck two fingers in her mouth and whistled quite loudly. There was even applause to accompany that. Yes, Ms. McLeod was making a spectacle of herself on her brother’s account. It was only when Caes arrived at the Table did she carefully climb down from the bench. #SorryNotSorry, Headmaster Kazmi, for the disruption.

“I sort of knew you’d be a Slytherin,’’ Aria remarked brightly. “And I am VERY happy to be proven right.” Seated once again, her fingers merrily drummed away on the Table. “Yes. It gets boring when there are lots and lots of Sortees. Needless to say this year has been the best since mine.” Can you guess why, brother dearest? “Oh, the food more than makes up for the Sorting Ceremony. You’re going to have quite the time sinking your teeth into all the morsels.”

It was only now that Aria properly paid any attention to other Slytherins. “Hello, Bella! It was the best summer everrr.” That was putting it all mildly. “And you? Had any more of those Gobstones training with professionals?” Her eyes swept to Caes when he was asked if he was new. Aria really tried to hold her tongue. Alas, this was not to be. “He is, Bella! This is my brother.” Umm. At least you get to tell Bella your name, Caes.

Violet strode into the Great Hall and seated herself up at the head of the Slytherin Table, as was proper for a seventh year. She was immensely pleased with herself and with the world. She looked and dressed more confidently, no longer permitting her family to pick out school-girlish clothes for her but finding her own style. The first installment of her story had come out in Witch Weekly over the summer, with two more to follow, and she had even received some Galleons for her effort! (when, truth be told, she would probably have paid them for printing it). She's ignored her grandfather and Uncle Heraclitus' wishes and published under her own name, causing one of their spirited Blackthorne family "discussions" over dinner one night. But even though her grandfather grumbled, Violet could tell he was secretly proud of her, not only for her story but for standing up to him. Violet now knew her family really did love her, so she could overlook an argument now and then.

Violet had greeted Bella and Aria (Could a girl who stood on a bench and whistled right in the middle of the Opening Feast really be one of the subtle Slytherins? It must be true, because she was). And now Violet watched with curiosity as one of the newly-sorted snakes (Caes) came over to join them--not a first year, though, must be some sort of exchange student or something. But...this was Aria's brother? Violet didn't even know the other girl had a brother! But he seemed far less pushy exuberant than his sibling. Interesting...

It sure felt nice having a cheerleader someone so supportive without being intrusive. Could a sister be anymore perfect? Nah. "Oh really? What tipped you off on that?" Caes grinned. Though he didn't really need to hear it, since his previous reputation more than made up for his house choice. "Well, that's promising. We were served mostly beef and soup type dishes at Koldovstoretz. It's not horrible at all, but does get old after a while."

He managed to suppress a chuckle at Aria being ready to show him off, "Hey Bella, I'm Caeson, but Caes is just fine. I was at Koldovstoretz beforehand." Was it okay sharing why he ended up here? Maaaybe some details wouldn't hurt. "Our grandparents decided that I should get a chance living out here before I graduate," There, that seemed to sum it up without giving all of his complicated history away. "Could say Aria and I are making up for lost sibling time," Plus he liked having a little mystery in the meantime.

Meanwhile, he did feel (Violet's) eyes on him. Should he acknowledge her? His eyes did settle in her direction for a moment. "Hi.. and you are?" Clearly observant and that was no problem with him.

"Violet Blackthorne," Violet replied, finding herself smiling rather involuntarily. "Welcome to Hogwarts, and Slytherin." Then she just sat there a few minutes looking at this newcomer, who she realized she found rather attractive, quite unexpectedly. Well, why not? Her summer romance turned to long-distance relationship with Einar had fizzled out, as she'd expected, so she was free to do anything she pleased.

Realizing she should say something else, she came up with, "Koldovstoretz! I've never met anyone who went there--what was it like?"

Aria and subtle? Neverrr. Okay, maybe for certain shifty things but in general? Not really. Besides, why in the name of Merlin’s wrinkly old face would she want to be subtle about Caes being Sorted into Slytherin. Aria chortled at that rhetorical question he tossed at her. “Come now! I refuse to speak of that when there are so many inquisitive ears around.” Was she throwing shade at Violet? Maybe. “Besides, that means you’ll be the mysterious, cool new guy that everyone wants to hang out with.”

Ms. McLeod’s nose wrinkled at the mention of Koldovstoretz staple diet. “That sounds… tasty.” Not really. “Thank the good, great Merlin you’ll be having a wider choice of foods to select from.” Yes, it was better off that Caes was here in Britain. Thank you, grandparents!

Opting not to babble away in the midst of Caes and Bella’s conversation, Aria remained quiet observing Violet whom she had greeted earlier. There was something different about the seventh year. She seemed more… pompous? Happier? More confident? Whatever it was, you go, girl. Do you.

Except…

WHY did Violet seem unable to take her eyes off of Caes? Aria looked from her brother to the older girl as they spoke. “It must be terrible if they serve only soup and beef dishes,’’ she butted in quite waspishly.

Serena was a bit late to the Feast. She had taken her time making her way here, thinking. Her fingers played with a parchment—folding and unfolding. Thalia had been so short with her. Typically her friend from Durmstrang would write paragraph after paragraphs of random things, but this time around the letter was roughly two paragraphs. Serena knew something was off, and it all started after she went to visit Jasper at his home. It was as if Thalia had been in disbelief that Serena actually went over. Serena had even asked her if there was an issue and instead of answering, Thalia changed the subject.

Serena hated it. She hated Thalia being upset with her.

This made the Slytherin’s mood plummet. She didn’t even bother hiding it as she sat at her usual spot after telling a first year to scoot. What a great start to a new term.

Violet was aware of her House mate, Serena, arriving at their table, obviously in a "mood", but she kept her focus on Caes. She noted Aria's becoming suddenly a little irate, no doubt because Violet was trying to chat up her brother, but this only amused her. "Well, soup and beef doesn't sound so bad," Violet remarked, laughing.

Hmm...

Something appeared to be inkling between the two with Aria and Violet. Cae's small smile remained, "Nice meeting you Violet," returning the politeness since she was welcoming him. He couldn't read minds, but from his quite happy sister having a different tone affiliation suddenly peaked the signs. Was there something about Violet he should know? Other than her being easy on the eyes? Oh... something was clicking. Didn't his sis have a certain friend who he was supposed to meet in the break thanks to her? Interesting. Well, no use thinking about them now. He was a free bloke. Also, his current vision resembling a fork neglected his notice of (Serena).

"Well, the school has a thing with trees, I'll say. Sometimes it feels open, sometimes it doesn't around campus," Since she asked about the school. Of course, he wasn't going to tell ALL about it. Maybe over time he would. Maybe. "Didn't you say Aria that there's other ways to get some of the best foods around here outside meal time?" The school already felt free to him in that case. Maybe Violet had other things he should know about that was mentioned yet.

Geode had been homeschooled up until now, and walking up to the Slytherin table felt like a half-dozen secondary school tropes had leapt out of her books and into her present life.

Or: where the heck did she sit? There weren't many other first years (were there any, yet?) and the table didn't seem to conveniently trickle down in age as it got closer to the front like she'd kind of expected.

She didn't want to stand around trying to decide, and the seconds it took her to get from the stool to the table weren't enough to navigate a political minefield like deciding where to sit on the first day.

She sat an empty seat near the middle. Before she could introduce herself, an older student (Serena) arrived and made her scoot over, which Geode did without objection. This was the second mean-looking redhead she'd encountered in the last hour - the other sat towards the end of the Ravenclaw table.

Aria was just being… protective? Territorial? Hmm. INTERESTING. This was a new emotion for her. “I guess it's not that bad?” The fifth year was struggling to release that protective feeling she had. After all, she’d had Caes all summer to herself but now that she realised she had to share him… was this feeling a thing with all siblings? Or was it because she always seemed to think that Violet didn’t like her and in turn didn’t think that the seventh year would be a good match for Caes? “I suppose it does get boring though.” She cleared her throat in embarrassment, hoping Violet wouldn’t hold the earlier rudeness against her. “You seem different. Exciting summer then?” Probably started a romance with someone who wasn’t Caes?

“The Kitchen!” Aria almost shouted, but rather enthusiastically still. “Yes! The House Elves, bless their little hearts and souls, are always willing to weigh you down with food that could feed an army!” She snapped her fingers excitedly. “I know! I’ll take you there tomorrow!” Another brother/sister date, if you please!

A certain fourth year - Serena - looked awful. It did not suit the girl’s pretty face. But Aria did not want to pry and find herself muddled in business that was not hers. Besides, it might be about boooring romance stuff. Aria had no interest in that sort of thing, to be honest. “It’ll work out, Serena.” Whatever IT was. “Little Miss First Year {Geode}. You shouldn’t let anyone bully you like that.”

Now sat at the table, Serena sent greeting nods at certain people. It was a wonder how a bad mood kept people away from interacting with her. It was a talent, honestly.

She turned her attention to the first year (Geode) and nodded at them. “Thank you.” Her gaze, sharp yet solemn, turned to Aria. “It’s not bullying. I expressed my gratitude.” Serena could show her bullying. It also wasn’t her fault the first year didn’t stand her ground if she wanted to keep her seat that much.

Tossing her red curls behind her shoulder, Serena added, “Besides, I don’t know what you’re talking about. Everything is okay.” Everything was worked out. Even it wasn’t, Serena wasn’t going to admit the opposite.

Ah, so the social disaster that was her upbringing was really making an appearance tonight. That was okay. Geode could work with it. The idea of not scooting over hadn't even crossed the first year's mind - nor had the thought that she was being bullied, which she still didn't feel was true.

Geode looked between the two older girls (Aria and Serena) as they spoke. "I don't think she was being a bully," the eleven year old shrugged and pushed her glasses up. If anything, the older girl's attention just seemed preoccupied with something outside of the Great Hall. "I'm Geode. It's nice to meet you both." She wanted to be polite, and also to give them something to call her other than firstie, but she also more-than-half expected the girls to ignore her for what seemed to be a more interesting conversation.]

If Bella had seen how Aria had stood on the bench and whistled during Caes sorting, then she would have wondered what had gotten into her fellow snakette. Aria didn't make spectacles of herself. Focusing on Aria she beamed excitedly "I did get to practice with some gobstone professionals at summer camp this summer, but the best of all is that I will be on the same junior quidditch league team as Apollo from now on." To be on the same team as her BFF was awesome and it'd make things easier. No more gob in her hair or feeling bad about her team winning over Apollo.

At Aria's reveal Bella looked from one sibling to the other as she now saw the McLeod family resemble. She had missed it at first. Beaming she said "It's nice to meet you Caes," Aria's big brother. "How much older than Aria are you Caes?" Because they weren't twins that was obvious. "You went to Koldovstoretz, cool! Did they teach you russian there?" Was it hard to learn another langage? Bella didn't ask Caes, because it probably was. Hearing the extra details she looked to Aria and stated "I'll envy you this year Aria. You'll have a brother here that can help you study for owls. I don't have any siblings that I can ask advice from." All though her parents had talked about trying to giver her a sibling, it had never had happened.



Switching her gaze to Violet as the older girl joined the table Bella said with enthusiasm and delight. "Congratulations Violet! I read your story in Witch Weekly, It was great. I didn't know that kids could get their stories published in magazines?" It was rare wasn't it? To Bella's knowledge children didn't get their stories run in papers or magazines just like that. This was a special event.



Bella watched as a newly sorted firstie snake girl took a seat in the middle of the table, but was immediatly made to scoot over by Serena. That wasn't very nice of Serena. Feeling bad for the newbie Bella shot her a kind smile as she introduced herself. "Welcome to Slytherin! I'm Isabella, fifth year and you are?"



The vibe that generated from Serena wasn't exactly festive and bright. The fourth year was in a visible bad mood which made Bella wonder what had gotten her feathers ruffled. Serena usually wasn't short with newbies. "Hey Serena," Bella called over in greeting. "Is everything all right? Want to talk about it?" If the other snakette felt like talking about whatever it was that was the cause of her bad mood then Bella could lend an ear. It was the least she could do on the first night of the new school year.

“Oh! That sounds SMASHING, Bella! I am very happy you’re doing what you love.” As an afterthought, she added, “And that Apollo is going to be joining you.” Aria hadn’t a best friend though she got along with most persons. Darius had probably been one of her closest friends.

You can be sure there was no physical resemblance when it came to herself and Caes. It was definitely their personalities that matched. There was a chuckle from her when Bella mentioned that Caes would be able to help with OWL studies. “I wouldn’t count on it, Bella. Caes prefers to amuse himself with… other activities.” Cue her eyeing the brother with amusement of her own. “But you and I, Bella, we can be a study team if you like. Not to mention if you have any other fifth year friends you might want to ask to join?’'

Aria rolled her eyes sarcastically. “Sure, whatever you say,” she remarked with a mocking smile to Serena. That reply applied to both aspects: the thing with the first year as well as claiming not to know what Aria spoke of. With that, she opted not to give the fourth year any more attention.

“Whatever you say as well, little miss.” But Geode got a beam from her. “Love your glasses! They’re very stylish.” Aria was always absolutely THRILLED to meet the new Snakes! “Welcome, Geode! I’m Aria. Fifth year.” AKA an OWL student. Bleh. “What are you excited about now that you’re at Hogwarts?”

Violet finally turned her gaze to Aria, becoming aware that it would look strange if she just sat there staring at Caes all evening. "Yeah, I guess--well, not exciting, exactly, but it just seems like everything has been going my way lately, for a change. And I finally accomplished a goal I've been working on for a while now." Violet paused--she didn't really want to mention her story, because that just seemed too abrupt out of the blue, but at the same time, she kind of wanted people to know about it. Well, her name was on it, so they'd know about it if they read Witch Weekly.




Okay, Serena, everything is okay...NOT. Violet was well aware of what saying things were okay in that tone of voice meant, because it was a remark she often used herself. Something was definitely not entirely right with the other girl, but Violet declined to comment on it; she herself hated people prying into her personal business unless invited in.




"Hi, Geode, welcome to Slytherin," she greeted one of the newer members of their House. "We can be a snarky bunch, but you'll find we encourage and stand up for each other." Most of the time. Even if that meant "tough love."




Children! hmph... Violet grumbled to herself, but aloud she said, "Well, at eighteen" (nearly nineteen, thank you) "I think I count as an adult in both the Wizard and Muggle worlds. But thanks! I've been trying to get something published since I was a child, and it finally happened.

And then all of a sudden, Headmaster Kamri was standing up to make his speech, so Violet cut out the chit chat to listen. New professors, welcome to Hogwarts, don't go in the Forbidden Forest, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera....Wait a minute! There was a new part of the castle they weren't allowed to go in? Kazmi knew that saying that just made them want to go check it out that much more, didn't he? And what was that about a party, or was it a dance, in the spring? That would be great! A perfect ending to her senior year.

Oh, this school had house elves too. Well, they sure sound happy from how Aria described them. Caes nodded, "Sounds good to me, hope they're great with desserts," He thought that he was much too young to be only eating healthy food all the time. He quite enjoyed all the sweets his new parents made over the summer.

As with Bella, "About two years, I'll be eighteen this month," It was another coincidence sharing the same birthday month. "Well, I already knew Russian at birth, it was my English that I learned over there. They offered other languages to learn such as Mandarin, Ukranian.." It was like the school knew the students could end up elsewhere in the world. As for studying, he grinned. Me? Study? That's a good one. "We would be on different course work too, since I'll be sitting for NEWTs next year." Supposedly.

Oh, it was speech time. Caes had only descriptions on certain Professors but look wise, none of them seemed to stand out to him as he looked lazily listening to the Headmaster. There was mentioning of a dance sure, but forbidden areas peaked his interest. He glanced at his sis again over that and then back at Violet about the dance. Hm... maybe. There were other things higher on his priority on what to do here before that... like the food that just appeared before him.

"... you weren't kidding." Where could he start now?