With the capture of Verandi Farley and several high-ranking Trossach members, the British wizarding world has finally caught a break. The rate of rogue werewolf attacks have started dropping at a steady rate and, hopefully, things will stay that way. The Ministry is starting to loosen some restrictions, like not arresting werewolves standing on the street for loitering, however there’s still an obvious power imbalance between wizardfolk and werewolves.
The Cotswolds pack are continuing to advocate for the rights of werewolves and petitioning to change the legislation that has been set in motion by the current Minister for Magic, whilst the remaining Trossachs members are trying to stay out of the spotlight and keep a low profile… for now.
Whilst the British wizarding world seems to have calmed down, the same cannot be said for over in Northern Europe where a rebellion of magical creatures has risen. The state of things has gotten so bad that the European Ministry has enacted protocols to protect those under eighteen whilst their adult witches and wizards fight to keep control of their countries.
Students from Durmstrang have been sent to Hogwarts to keep them safe and those not old enough to attend school have been sent to live with relatives or designated British Ministry officials outside of Europe for the time being.
Will the low rates of werewolf attacks in Britain continue? How long will Durmstrang students stay at Hogwarts? Will the creatures usurp the wizardfolk in Northern Europe? Only time will tell.
SEPTEMBER 2019 It's been a very long, eventful summer in the wizarding world. A baby was stolen, several high ranking Trossach members were imprisoned, and werewolf attacks have drastically dropped as a result. What will happen now school has returned?
MAY 2019 An attempt to capture the beta of the Trossachs has been launched. Were the Aurors successful in their mission? Go read more here!
From his seat at the grand table towards the front of the Great Hall, Jack smiled courteously as the very last child was sorted into "HUFFLEPUFF!" by the sorting hat, watching as they moved towards their assigned table. It was time for him to break the news to the student body of Hogwarts, to announce that this year? Things would be... different, than they had in years past.
Clearing his throat and rising to his feet, Jack wordlessly and wandlessly cast the 'sonorus' charm on himself. It was a handy charm, one that ensured that when he parted his lips to speak, his deep, Irish-lilted voice cut clearly and loudly above the murmurings of the students. "Good evening everyone, and welcome back to another year at Hogwarts. Before we dig into our feast that the elves have so graciously prepared, I have some news to share with you that will be effecting your school lives over the course of the next few months."
With a wave of his hand, the entrance door swung open and in filed a hundred or so students, donning the Durmstrang uniform. "As some of you may or may not be aware, for the last few years, Northern Europe have faced some... issues with magical creatures and today, during Durmstrang's welcome back luncheon, things came to a head. Not in the school itself, but in the outside world, and the European Ministry of Magic had to enact certain security measures to keep the younger members of their society safe. One of these measures was relocating their students and so, for the time being, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry will be housing them. Whilst they have not been officially sorted into houses by the hat as this is a temporary relocation only, the students have been randomly assigned houses where they will be sharing your common room and dormitory spaces which have been adjusted to fit them accordingly."
Gesturing to the table on the right of him, Jack nodded at several of the new faces that had joined the Professors table. "We also have a few new Professors who will filling in for some of our own Professors who are on leave or left their position over the holidays. On top of that, there are Professors who will also be teaching some of their own elective courses. I expect you all to award them with the respect that we expect you to give our other Professors," he said, voice taking a slightly sterner tone. He knew that in the sea of students... there were several who were likely already planning on giving the new staff members a tougher time, perhaps planning pranks on them, and he wished to nip it in the bud whilst he could.
Smiling warmly at the Durmstrang students, Jack's hand gestured at the tables they'd been assigned to - an emblem pinned to their robes indicating which houses they were to join - as a sign for them to sit. Once they had settled in, Jack announced, "Now, let's dig in and eat!" And in a blink of an eye, the tables filled with mountains upon mountains of food.
NOTES: Inter-house mingling is okay and encouraged!
6'0". IRISH. BIG HEART. LOYAL. BRAVE. WORKAHOLIC. BISEXUAL. SINGLE. distinguishing features: a big scar runs across jack's left cheek credit for award goes to ollie! <3
Post by FLEUR WEASLEY on Apr 20, 2020 11:28:44 GMT
F
leur smoothed the front of her robes and clapped politely as the final new student found their way into Hufflepuff and her colleague rose to his feet. It was always a satisfying time, this feast at the beginning of the term, with the future full of new and exciting possibilities, and the prospect of another year of work ahead of them. For Fleur, as, no doubt, for many of her colleagues, it was a chance to size up the incoming students, and the blonde particularly enjoyed making mental predictions about them. The little brunette was a chatterbox, the tiny blonde a shy mouse, the plump boy a Potions genius and the redhead next to him a Charms whiz. Of course, her accuracy was limited, to say the least, but then she was not a Seer and she made no claim to having any skill in divining the future. The students would turn out as they turned out; there was precious little that anyone could do about it, and so where was the point in worrying? Of course, if you were going to have a year full of troublemakers on your hands then that was rather different; it was best to start your mental preparations as soon as possible, but at this stage, even all Fleur's experience was of little help to her in discovering that.
She regarded the students who entered through the main doors with a contemplative air, wondering what she would make of them. Of course, Durmstrang always had suffered from something of a reputation, and she didn't doubt that there would be one or two making trouble, if only as an attempt to assert themselves in this new environment, but they did not, for the most part, look like bad kids. What worried her was the inevitable power struggles; these students were being inserted into every year, arriving in a new environment of which they had no more experience than the first years, but, in some cases at least, with a desperate need to prove themselves as being more than the scared children who had only just taken their seats at the House tables for the first time. There would be friction as dynamics were worked out and adjusted, and Fleur knew enough of children to be well aware that there would be more than a touch of chaos as a result, whether that was midnight duels in the corridors or rampant disruption in the classes.
Still, it couldn't be helped; the Durmstrang students were here, it was her job to educate them, and as such, that was what she would do, irrespective of all their efforts to the contrary. It could at least be considered in the light of a social experiment.
As Jack's speech came to an end, and the man sat down, Fleur glanced over in his direction, offering him a pleasant smile. "Well done," she remarked. "You managed not to say please be nice to the invaders."
I do have standards, you know. Just... not high ones.
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Post by SOPHIE DUNSTABLE on Apr 20, 2020 12:02:16 GMT
I
t was always sad when the summer holidays came to an end; apart from anything else, they represented the only chance she really got for lounging about in a bikini, which was an activity that Sophie felt she should be able to indulge in far more often. Perhaps not in the winter, because even she couldn't make goosebumps look attractive, but there were still at least a few weeks ahead which she felt she could have devoted far more successfully to lounging than she would to schoolwork.
Still, there was no point in complaining about it; Sophie was well aware that that would get her nowhere, and she had previous experience of the faculty's complete lack of sympathy when it came to the importance of even tanning. All that she could do was keep her head down and hope that at least an afternoon or two presented themselves as free over the next few weeks so that she could find some secluded area of the grounds and remove a few layers, the better to allow the rays of the sun to reach her skin. It was good for you, wasn't it? She was sure that she'd read that somewhere, so her professors could hardly deny her the opportunity to use her own time in improving her health. That would just be cruel and unusual punishment.
A matter to deliberate later, perhaps. For now, there was the Feast to focus on, and she needed to catch up with all the various people that she hadn't seen in what felt like forever. The brunette waited impatiently as the Deputy Head rattled on and on about all the boring things they already knew, but the opening of the doors could hardly fail to attract her attention, and certainly not when she saw who was coming through it. Most of the eyes around her widened, but Sophie's narrowed infinitesimally as her mind ran through a number of possibilities and probabilities. The words fresh meat most certainly did not pass through her brain, because Sophie was not nearly so crude as that, but had they been inclined to do so, they would not have felt particularly out of place.
In all honesty, she paid next to no attention to most of the rest of the professor's speech, entirely distracted as she was, but the second that he finished speaking, she turned to her neighbour so sharply that she might have given herself whiplash. "Hey, gorgeous Grace... So, what do you think, hmm?"
Post by GRACE LONGBOTTOM on Apr 20, 2020 13:20:54 GMT
Grace was disappointed that the holidays were over. Not just because this year was going to be far more stressful than any other she had faced before - which was wild when she thought about how stressed last year had gotten her, and sent her heart racing in her chest - but because she no longer had any precious free time to herself... free time that, in the break, she had spent with a certain someone sitting over at the Ravenclaw table who got her heart pitter pattering for all different kinds of reasons.
Biting her lip as she cast a small glance at that certain someone, Grace tried to be as furtive as possible. Why? Because her brother - someone who she had sworn up and down to people wasn't going to repeat - was back for yet another year at Hogwarts, sitting mere metres away from her at the Gryffindor table, and he definitely did not know what Grace had been doing in the holidays with Aiden Valentino. If he found out... Grace was more than just mildly concerned that Arthur would launch himself over the table at Aiden, the thought of which knotted her stomach.
Before she could think too far along those lines and throw herself into a hypothetical tizzy, however, the sound of first years entering the hall made her light up because she loved watching the Sorting Ceremony play out. It was oh so exciting, if you asked her, seeing such a tradition that would set the tone of the young people's lives. "I hope we get a good batch of Hufflepuffs this year - I mean, we will, of course, but I hope that none of them are overly cheeky," she murmured in a hushed tone to Sophie before falling silent and watching the ceremony commence, sending an encouraging smile to any of the students sent her way towards the Hufflepuff table.
After all was said and done, including Professor O'Connor's speech where he introduced the Durmstrang students who would be staying with them for an indefinite amount of time, Grace swallowed hard. It wasn't that she had anything against them - of course she didn't, she didn't even know them - but the presence of new people always set her a little bit on edge. Turning to Sophie, cheeks flushing at the 'gorgeous' part of her dormmates speech, words started tumbling out before she could stop them. "I - I... do you think they'll like us? The... do you think we'll room with people who are lovely, or people who disapprove of the way we've set up the dormitory? I mean, we have to accommodate them, right? What if they don't like my collection of plants, or the posters on the wall near such and such's bed? Do you think we'll have to make adjustments? I mean, we can. Of course we can. I just don't think it will happen tonight after I show the first years around because I may be too tired to swap things around... I hope they don't think I'm rude. Do you think they will?"
I do have standards, you know. Just... not high ones.
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Post by SOPHIE DUNSTABLE on Apr 20, 2020 13:43:32 GMT
S
ophie regarded her long-time roommate with more affection than she was prone to show for most people. Truth be told, she was still not at all sure how the girl had managed to make it so far in life when she got so worked up over the smallest of things; Sophie could only assume it was because the blonde was so sweet that no one had the heart to take advantage of her, but for one so steeped in cynicism and worldliness as the brunette, that was a supposition which took some hard work before she could begin to think of believing it. Grace was lovely, it was true, and on the rare occasions that Sophie had been forced to take advantage of the fact, there was no denying that she had felt guilty about it, but she had done it nevertheless. Perhaps she was more hardened to it than most people; after all, she and Grace had been sharing a dorm for six years, and were about to embark upon the seventh; she had had plenty of time to grow accustomed to it, and had grown to expect it.
But she still couldn't quite believe that someone with such optimism, such naivety, such innocence, had somehow managed to make it into her seventh year at Hogwarts without having all that shattered. It was by way of being a minor miracle, and Sophie was not credulous enough to believe in some things which she saw every day, much less miracles. There was something here in need of explanation, but Merlin only knew what it was, and Sophie was not the person to do it. Innocence was not her area of expertise, except so far as ruining it went, and, for whatever reason, she seemed not to have managed that with Grace. Quite bizarre.
"Grace, don't worry so much," she admonished, patting the other girl on the shoulder. "It'll make you frown, and then you'll end up with wrinkles all over that beautiful face before you're twenty, which would be such a waste, don't you think? Everything will be fine. If they want things moved, I'll move them." Well... She might. If she was in a good mood, if they asked nicely, if they made it worth her while in other ways, and if it was a reasonable request in the first place, but she certainly wasn't going to ruin her last year in a Hufflepuff dorm by mucking the place up to suit a load of Durmstrang witches. "And no one with more than half a brain cell to their name could think you were rude; don't be ridiculous." She sighed, looking out at the range of dishes arrayed across the table. "Now, sweetheart, do you think you could manage to pass me the curried rice, or are you too busy fretting?"
Post by CATHERINE 'KITTY' DENNISON on Apr 20, 2020 14:03:13 GMT
K
itty hummed faintly to herself under her breath as she settled into place on the long bench, looking up and down the table with a bright smile on her face as she attempted to spot a few of her particular friends. It was so exciting being back at Hogwarts! Of course, every new year was exciting, but this one was especially so; she was going to be a fifth year! It meant OWLs this summer, which meant that next year she would be choosing her NEWT courses and then not long after that she would be graduating, and it would be so sad to leave Hogwarts and all the lovely people she knew behind her, but she was going to be an adult! In three years! Of course the blonde still didn't have the faintest idea of what she was going to do with herself then, or even of which courses she would be choosing next autumn when the time to select her NEWTs came around, but that was a problem for later; for now, she was back at Hogwarts with all her friends around her, and she was more than ready for a new term to begin! There would be clubs and there would be Quidditch and there would be lessons, and she would get to find out all sorts of exciting new things about loads of subjects, and she was practically jumping up and down in her seat just thinking about it!
Professor O'Connor stood up and started to speak, and the blonde reined herself in a little to make sure that she was taking in what he had to say; she really liked the Defence professor, who had an awesome accent apart from anything else, and his subject was really cool, too, and he really seemed to know what he was talking about, which was a good thing, obviously, but then all the professors seemed to know what they were talking about and they weren't all as awesome as Professor O'Connor, so obviously there must be something more to it than that, though she didn't really know what it could be; it was hard to put words around it, and she had a sense that it would have sounded better in another language, though she didn't have the first idea which language that would be or what the translation was anyway... did he say Durmstrang?
He did say Durmstrang, and Kitty, always a bundle of compressed energy, straightened in her seat, straining as high as she could to get a glimpse of the students walking in through the main door of the Hall. They looked very impressive in their uniforms, not least because they were awesome uniforms, and why couldn't Hogwarts wear stuff like that? Fur and cloaks and things, it was cool. Or probably very warm. Maybe that was it; she wouldn't want to be wearing all that in the middle of summer, and what kind of fur was it, anyway? She hoped it wasn't from an endangered animal; that would be awful.
lapping vociferously at the end of the Sorting Ceremony, and sending a dutiful smile in the direction of the group of first years further down the table, Skye engaged herself for a moment or two in idly plaiting her hair as the Deputy Head stood up and began to speak before she suddenly realised that, as a prefect, she was probably supposed to be setting an example, or some such tripe, and so she combed her fingers through, straightening it out, then set her gaze towards the man at the head of the room and allowed her brain to switch off while her face paid attention. She was quite sure that it would be nothing more than the usual stuff about the Forbidden Forest and please not breaking any rules- a sentiment with which Skye wholeheartedly agreed because it was becoming worse with every passing year, and if she had to tell one more first year off for deciding that it would be a good idea to build a fort with all the desks in the Transfiguration classroom, or to try and climb the Whomping Willow, or to attempt to break out of the school and go to Hogsmeade when all the older students did, then she thought she might just burst a blood vessel, which would do her no good at all.
Greatly to her surprise, however, it transpired almost immediately that this was not the standard start of term rigmarole to which she had become accustomed, and the redhead's eyebrows climbed steadily further up her forehead with each word that came from the Defence professor's mouth. It made sense objectively, she supposed, but Merlin only knew how it was going to work out in practice, and she wasn't at all sure that any of them would like the consequences if it didn't go well. Would Durmstrang students care about having points taken from the Houses that they were only occupying temporarily? She doubted it. Would they pay attention to prefects, to the Head Boy and Girl, even to the professors? Well, that remained to be seen; perhaps that was why they'd brought some of their own professors with them. Either that or Durmstrang objected to the principle of paying them for not teaching- or, perhaps, it was a choice between this and losing their jobs. Who knew?
As the usual wide selection of dishes appeared on the table and the redhead reached out for a leg of chicken from the dish closest to her, she turned to the boy next to her. "Well, this is going to be an experience," she observed. "It takes enough time telling all the first years to go; are we going to end up giving directions to all this lot as well?"
Post by EVELINE LINWOOD on Apr 20, 2020 18:30:26 GMT
E
vie's eyes were wide as saucers as she watched the Durmstrang students filing in and taking their seats at the tables. One sat opposite her, and she offered the boy a hesitant smile, to be met by a total lack of expression. Well, they seemed like a friendly bunch, she reflected wryly, but it wasn't worth making drama, and so, reaching out to grab a leg of chicken from a dish which filled itself magically as she watched, the redhead got to her feet and, head ducked in an attempt to avoid attention, made her way over to the Hufflepuff table, where she dropped onto a space on the bench opposite a familiar face. "Hey, Sally!" she greeted the other girl brightly, offering her a bright smile before biting into the chicken leg with evident relish and chewing for a moment or so before swallowing and returning to conversation at full velocity. "How was your summer? Did you have a good time? Get any Quidditch practice in? Oh, and what do you think about all the Durmstrang students? I smiled at one and he just stared at me, it was really weird."
"Thank bloody hell!" Sally exclaimed, unabashedly loud, as finally, finally food appeared in front of them on the Hufflepuff table. It felt like she'd been waiting for a lifetime to eat, having to sit through all those fancy schmancy speeches, and she was starving. Her ma said she was hungrier than usual lately because she was going through a 'growth spurt' just like Liam and Leo had done, but Sally didn't reckon that logic applied this time.
No, she was so hungry because the Sorting Ceremony took especially long this year with so many of the firsties putting on the waterworks like babies after getting sorted, unhappy with the house they'd ended up joining. Then there was the whole Durmstrang nonsense which, for the most part, Sally was okay with so long as they stayed the heck away from her Quidditch position and didn't touch her belongings.
Looking in front of her on the table, tummy letting out a loud bear-like grumble, Sally had only just managed to grab the bread roll she wanted and shoved it in her gob when there was a flash of redhead beside her. "Linwood!" she said through a mouthful of food. 'Swallow before you speak,' her ma's voice chastised in her head and for once, Sally listened. She finished what was in her mouth before answering the onslaught of questions Evie had shot her way. "Summer was kick arse. Literally - I kicked so many butts, especially when I was practicing Quidditch. There was this one neighbourhood kid who came over for a game practice and he ended up crying because even though I'm not a chaser, I managed to get, like, ten million quaffles past him and into the goals. It was awesome."
At the question of what Sally thought about the Durmstrang students, she shrugged before grinning. "Maybe staring's just something they do in Europe. Like, that's their thing. They just stare. Or maybe you had gravy in the corner of your mouth and they were wondering what it was," Sally joked, nudging Evie in the side.
Standing in the crowd gathered by the entrance doors of the Great Hall, waiting to enter the musty, outdated room with the same tacky night sky decor they had every year, Vinda silently seethed from where she was standing, her foot tapping impatiently on the ground.
Why? Because she didn't want to be here, in this place filled with students who kept casting her looks of disdain, distrust, and even worse from some... glances of sympathy. But even worse than the looks were the snide little comments she'd been enduring ever since she'd boarded the Hogwarts Express this morning. The ones that said, 'that slag cheated on her boyfriend last year' and 'no, they were engaged, didn't you hear? But Anderson dumped her' and 'I heard she caught something from Wagtail's willy' and were spreading like wildfire.
Letting out a patented sigh - inwardly, of course, she couldn't let the others see how much their comments were scratching at her skin - she glanced around for something, anything, to do and then her eyes fell over Arthur Longbottom, standing there with his blonde hair in the most perverted version of a halo she'd ever had the displeasure of seeing. It was truly an eyesore, and if it wasn't considered 'nice' of her, she'd pass him a detangling comb so she wouldn't be forced to look at it.
Sidling up next to the buffoon, Vinda let her gaze rake over him slowly, judgmentally, before she said in the most off-handed tone she could muster, "I heard you went for a new record, Longbottom - most Trolls received in one's NEWTs. Do you think you can break it this year, or will you need to repeat another in order to do so?"
Post by EVELINE LINWOOD on Apr 21, 2020 11:20:40 GMT
E
vie grinned, happy to see that the Hufflepuff was pleased to see her- or at least wasn't openly disgusted by her presence, which would do her just fine. It wasn't that she didn't have any friends in her own House- or at least, she sincerely hoped that that wasn't the case, considering that they all seemed to have disappeared since she'd got off the Express at the station- but Sally was just a bit more awesome than any of them, in her humble opinion. After all, she played Quidditch! And she was a Beater, which was, like, totally awesome, cause Sally wasn't that much bigger than Evie was, and the redhead didn't think she would even be able to lift one of those bats, much less hit a big metal ball with it. She'd stick to her Chasing, thanks very much.
"That's definitely awesome," she agreed with a solemn nod, though she couldn't help thinking about the poor kid in the hoops while Sally fired Quaffles at him with, she imagined, her customary vim and vigour. "Maybe you're playing the wrong position." The redhead grinned. "If you were a Chaser, you wouldn't be able to fire Bludgers at me whenever I've been annoying you." Though that was actually quite a good idea... but no, Evie would never have a chance; her aim with a bat was atrocious.
She frowned, putting her hand to her mouth and rubbing across it before inspecting her fingers critically. "I don't think..." Evie turned her head sharply, her hair fanning out and catching the boy behind her full in the face. "Oops- sorry! Look, can you see anything? I'm paranoid now." Maybe it was something on her nose... could she have got ink there already? Or, oh, Merlin, it could be something in her hair. She really hoped not; it would take forever to get it out...
the sorting was mostly the same every year, it lost it's magical feeling by the third time brayden had seen it happen, sure he was excited to see the new people be welcomed into slytherin but he couldn't wait until the feast came. but until then he was left to mingle with others, not entirely listening to professor o'connor. the idea of new electives was daunting, but brayden was looking forward to it, there's nothing that he wasn't too afraid to tackle. even if he wasn't sure what he wanted to do with his future, he still had another two years. he still couldn't believe how fast last year had happened and how this year was the year of his O.W.Ls. being alone was almost natural to brayden though he was sad that he had nobody to talk to, the food was more than entertaining.
"how many slytherins do you think we'll get this year?" brayden didn't want to mention his younger sibling was starting this year, though he was excited at the prospect of them being in a house together, he wouldn't be too disappointed if they were in a different one. drumstrang students would also be a change, something he was excited for, while hogwarts and drumstrang both being european their magic styles differed slightly and the idea of learning new magic excited him to no end. "and what do you think of the new students? don't you think drumstrang is exciting? i got told they have a different educational methods than us and i can't wait to find out what they are."
Post by GRACE LONGBOTTOM on Apr 22, 2020 5:25:18 GMT
Grace had shared a living space with Sophie for the last six years - a reasonable chunk of time, if you asked her - and she still wasn't accustomed to the casual compliments Sophie dropped when she spoke, addressing her with affectionate terms such as 'sweetheart' and referring to her as 'beautiful.' It made Grace squirm, want to protest because no, she wasn't any of those things, she was average. But on top of that, the words made Grace's cheek flame up without fail every time because apparently Merlin had decided upon Grace's birth that she'd never be able to conceal a single emotion with her body and they would be as plain as day for everyone else to see.
Pushing past the urge to refute Sophie's compliments, Grace tried to focus on what she was saying instead because she wasn't in the mood to put up a small protest today - one that would undoubtedly leave her even more red-faced than she already was. "I... I think worrying's my natural state, you know? Like how some people are naturally upbeat all the time, I'm just naturally anxious and on edge. Like... like a, um... bunny," Grace tried to explain. Sophie's offer to move things if the Durmstrang students asked lifted some of Grace's worry though because okay, thank goodness. At least someone would accommodate them if Grace wasn't able to do so themselves. "You're so lovely, Sophie. Kind. I'm sure they'd be awfully grateful if we followed their... you don't think they'll try and take my bed, do you? I quite like my bed. It's in the best position to wake up with the sun in the morn - oh, but perhaps that's selfish of me, right? To keep my bed. Maybe one of them would like to wake up with the sun too, do you think?"
Grace was having a severe case of the word vomits this evening, it appeared, and after fiddling nervously with her necklace, she decided to make a conscious decision to stop or at least... try not do it as much so she wouldn't bother Sophie. "The curried rice?" she said, eyes scanning the table in front of her before she located the dish. Passing it to Sophie, she asked, "Your summer - was it good? What did you get up to?"
seems that i have been held in some dreaming state/a tourist in the waking world, never quite awake
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Post by GRETA ROWLE on Apr 22, 2020 16:12:50 GMT
in some dreaming state
To tell the truth, when Greta had sat down, between all those first-years, to let the hat be lowered onto her head, she had been expecting Slytherin. Why wouldn't she? As far as she knew, that was the only option for someone like her, someone not just pureblood but from a well-known family, a family that had existed for centuries, as she'd been told time and time again. They were always in Slytherin. The hat should know.
Her father would be so disappointed if he found out.
But he wasn't here, and so she stepped off the stool and down to the table of blue scarves and pins, her heels clicking on the floor as she walked. They sounded out loud on the stone floor, echoing through the hall, and she was only half-regretting wearing them, because it was better not to be mistaken for a first-year. They were short, but so was she; she didn't want people to think she was even younger than she actually was.
She paused at the table, blue eyes sweeping over the crowd, trying to decide where to sit. It seemed an important decision, figuring out who was best to talk to first at Hogwarts. Finally, she decided on a spot in the center of the bench, all the better for getting to know who she would be living with for the next four years. With practiced grace, she spooned rice onto her plate as soon as it appeared on the table, still observing her new housemates.
ith a slight shrug to herself, the redhead turned to one side, noting a younger girl whom she didn't recognise at all. She'd spotted the girl looking somewhat uncomfortable during the Sorting Ceremony and when the Hat had called out the name of her own House, she had made a dutiful little note to herself that she ought to make sure the new girl was all right, especially with all the Durmstrang students as well- she wouldn't want the blonde to get lost amidst all the other newcomers. Or at least, she probably shouldn't let it happen irrespective of her own personal feelings on the matter.
Skye shook herself slightly. Merlin above, she'd never been so jaded before, had she? Or maybe it was just more noticeable now that she'd come back to Hogwarts alongside all the new people she knew so well, and, apparently, the ones that she'd never met before in her life. Of course she was curious- it was a rarity, seeing someone join the school at this late stage- but she wasn't nearly so nosy as some people, naming no names, and she could restrain that in favour of making her new Housemate feel, if not at home, then at least not totally ignored.
"Hi," she began briskly, giving the small blonde her friendliest smile, which was admittedly not saying a great deal. "My name's Skye. Are you OK? Know what's going on?" The chance would be a fine thing; Skye wasn't sure that she did herself just at the moment.
