General The Ravenclaw Table 2017-2018

Louisa's jaw dropped slightly at the girl's confession - Hogwarts really was just full of surprises! "You're joking! That's even better!" she exclaimed excitedly, her grin widening (if such a thing was possible). "I don't suppose you've ever heard of Brew Who before? Cringy, I know, but it's the name of my parents' coffee shop in Central London."

The girl introduced herself quickly afterwards and Louisa giggled slightly at her response. She waved a hand somewhat carelessly in the air. "No worries, it's a pleasure to meet you, Clary! You can call me Lou, if you really want to. I don't mind - my mum prefers to shorten my name, to say the very least." She shook her head as Clary continued, her nose wrinkling as the other girl mentioned the 'annoying' reputation that Ravenclaws had supposedly been given. The rumour rang a bell and Louisa couldn't help but scoff slightly.

"Please," she began with a roll of her eyes. The young girl cocked an eyebrow. "The only people calling Ravenclaws annoying are those who can't stand how amazing we are in comparison to them." Louisa stretched out her arms to exaggerate the flamboyancy of her words, grinning at the funny looks some of the other students dared to send her. "Seriously, though, don't worry about it. Just be yourself and I'm sure you'll fit right in."

Picking up (yet) another slice of toast, Louisa began to butter it when Clary spoke up again. She nodded her head once to confirm her name, listening as the other girl proposed taking a trip to the school library. A smile spread across her face in memory of her prior journey and she nodded her head again. She glanced briefly at the other girls - no doubt they'd meet again in the common room. "Sure! I'm definitely up for it! Both of my parents are Muggles too, so I'm just as new to all of this as you are!"

Clary's eyes widened in amazement. Not only was this girl also a so-called "muggle-born", as the other witches and wizards called it in this society, but she also already had some form of connection to Clary outside of the fact that they had both been thrown into a school full of witches and wizards having absolutely no idea what they were getting themselves into.

"Are you serious? Brew Who is my mom's favorite place to go out! She's an artist... we have a little shop outside of the lower part of our apartment building, but I always catch her slipping away there for coffee." She was appreciative of the girl's reaction to her words, feeling a bit more comfortable at her words of assurance that Ravenclaws weren't all as bad as they were made out to seem. Claryssa finished munching on her lightly-buttered toast and downed the rest of her pumpkin juice, setting the empty goblet gently on the table once she was done.

Noticing Lou's tilt of the head in the direction of the others, she hesitated for a moment. "If you want to stay and hang out with them, feel free. If you come with me, we'll probably just end up getting lost together, but I think I'm in the mood for a little bit of adventure." She grinned, reaching into her cloak, and produced a small slip of paper. "But if you want to come now, you better hurry! I don't want to miss any classes."

Claryssa re-folded her schedule and pushed off from the table, abandoning her now-empty glass and plate. She turned, waving for Louisa to follow, and danced off past the crowds of students towards the exit to the Great Hall. Adventure awaits, and now she needed to figure out how to track down the library.

Louisa stared at the girl before her in amazement - she started to ponder the extent to which magic could be involved in her life, certainly before she'd begun at Hogwarts to say the least. It couldn't have been that much of a coincidence that Clary's mum had so loved attending her own mother's coffee shop, right? Louisa shook the thought away quickly, although she made a mental note to scout the library for books on the matter - it was certainly worth investigating, to say the least.

The eleven year old barely had time to blurt out a response before the other girl had already hurried off. "G-goodbye!" she stumbled out with a slight wave, watching in amusement as Clary's black robes disappeared behind the tall wooden doors at the entrance of the hall. She giggled to herself ever so slightly, wrapping a couple of spare pieces of toast in a napkin and pocketing the package. It was unlikely that Hogwarts would provide a 'break' period, or, at the very least, a period in which she would be able to grab a snack, so she decided to prepare herself for such an occasion.

"I'm going to head off to the library with Clary, so I'll see you guys later on!" Louisa blurted out to the other girls, her tone slightly apologetic. She would have loved to have continued their conversation, but Louisa knew that she'd see two of them in her dormitory later that very same night, and Arty would surely be lurking around in her classes. No reason to worry. Jumping to her feet, the eleven year old hurried out of the Great Hall after her new friend.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Louisa. And thanks! Guess It makes me kinda different round here, ha." She whispered over to her, "And don't sweat it bout ramblin', I'm guilty of the same fault. Going on and on is kinda a thing I do." She laughed, grabbing another bite of food and more scribbling down tallies to track how many new people she was meeting. Louisa...Clary... more laughter. good day so far. classes haven't even started yet. And...then they were leaving. Huh. Arty thought for a moment. Two seconds she was writing something down and then they were talking about some music stuff. Personally she liked the Weird Sisters, but, hey, they were already skipping off before she could voice her opinion.

"Oh! Ok! See ya guys later!" She waved back, smiling. Wait...she'd said Filius Flitwick dorm, right? Arty scratched her head, looking through her notes from earlier. Yeah, she WAS in Filius Flitwick dorm. Or whatever it was called. "Looks like I'll be seeing her later..." She smiled, scooping up some more eggs and talking to herself. She then stood, addressing the other people around her. "Well, I should probably start heading to class, too. I'll see you later! And thank you!" She packed up her bags quickly and rushed out of the Great Hall.

Clara could remember the scarf her father kept from his Hogwarts' days. It was usually draped over the back of his office chair, bronze and blue vibrant, and Griffin Mulligan joked that someday, Clara or her sister might be able to wear it as a Ravenclaw. He'd brought his scarf to his wedding day, and one of Clara's favorite photos was of her mother in her wedding dress with her father's Ravenclaw scarf over her shoulders.

In the deepest part of her heart, Clara had hoped that she would be a Ravenclaw. She didn't want to get her hopes up. She truly didn't. But then the Sorting Hat spoke, and her heart jumped as her hopes and dreams came to life even more than when she found that letter on her bedside table.

"Ravenclaw!"

A beaming smile crossed Clara's face as she jumped from the seat, shoes clicking against the stone floor. She knew exactly where she was going. Deep down, she'd hoped that she would end up in Ravenclaw. Her father was a Ravenclaw, her aunt and her grandmother and even a great-uncle. There were others, a Gryffindor and even a Slytherin and Hufflepuff, but she was a Ravenclaw.

She was Clara Mulligan, Ravenclaw.

Clara sat down at an empty spot on the bench, her face hurting from her smile. Her eyes sparkling as she looked around, she took a deep breath, just trying to calm down. She was there. She was a Ravenclaw, she was at Hogwarts and this, perhaps, was the start of the rest of her life. She was ready for this.

Lance slid into an empty spot on the bench, eyes fixated on one of the flickering candles hanging above the table. He resisted the impulse to feel around it for strings and wires, still not quite believing that magic was real and that he himself was a wizard. As he watched, a drip of wax fell from the candle, only to vanish soundlessly. His eyes widened in disbelief. During his chemistry phase a year ago, the Ravenclaw had read far, far ahead in the textbooks about the conservation of mass. The very laws of nature were being broken before his very eyes, and Lance wasn't quite sure how to feel about that. The only consolation he could find was the fact that the wax had to have reappeared at the top of the candle or something, since none of the candles looked anywhere near used up.

Shaking his head in disbelief, Lance chose to ignore the vanishing wax for now and instead focused on his food, which was delicious. Even if the school didn't have vanishing wax and vanished ceilings, he would have stayed just for the food alone. That being said, where had the food come from? One minute the serving plates were empty, the next they were full of steaming meats and vegetables.

Lance groaned and dug in. Confound it all.

Amelia felt as if she’d never get over how beautiful the Great Hall looked, how magical the feeling of being at Hogwarts was. She had walked over to her table after watching quite the chaos ensue between a couple Ravenclaw and Slytherin students. A spell had been cast that wiped out more than half of people’s hair, and no one could tell where it had come from. There were quite a number of upset students, especially what appeared to be mostly females, and it kind of took the good mood out of most of her table when she approached—or so she thought. Finding an empty bench seat still relatively close to the High Table so she could see what was going on, the brunette took a seat and let out a breath she didn’t know she’d been holding. She was happy she’d been sorted into her mother’s house, it felt familiar and more like home. Glancing up at the professors and headmaster, she watched for a moment while the remainder of the students were sorted. It didn’t take long for the aroma of food around her to take her attention far away from the sorting ceremony.

Gazing across the table, the eleven year old found a feast that was fit for royals. She had it pretty well off at home, but this was on another level. Roast turkey and potatoes were the two things that caught her eye to begin with. Her stomach made a noise she hoped no one else could hear over the cheering and grandeur of the ceremony. If there was one thing that people knew about Amelia, though, it was her love of sweets. She could never seem to resist and as her eyes caught the layout of different deserts, in all their chocolate goodness, she almost couldn’t stop herself from grabbing desert first. Looking around the table, she was about to blurt out the question on whether they could eat while students were still being sorted, but from the look of the rest of her house, it was fine to do so. Grabbing a serving of the aforementioned food, Amelia dug in and didn’t pay much mind to the students around her.

Trailing into her own thoughts, she wondered why a professor or someone of authority hadn’t stepped in to stop the madness at this point. The fight between the students had now become petty and somewhat boring. Amelia thought both of them were in the wrong, so she didn’t bother trying to stand on either side of their debate. Growing up, the first year hadn’t been much of a social witch at all. Though she had the cheeriest of attitudes and a smile that lit up a room, she found more interest in being alone and honing her various skills and pursuing her interests. So it was normal for her to not start conversation with those around her, and she continued to stare with her big brown eyes around the Hall, admiring its beauty and enjoying the good food wholeheartedly.

The one thing that snapped Amelia out of her day-dream state was when one of the Ravenclaw girls from earlier stepped back into the Great Hall with the cure for those with hair loss. 'Well, that was definitely quick and efficient.' the first year thought to herself, admiring her housemate for a moment before her mind bounced back to food and what she could choose for desert at the table. Looking around, she realized she’d had to probably move seats to get in better range of the good sweets. There was a small group of students all chatting about clubs and classes and how they felt about such things, and all of them seemed to embody the area she wanted to get to. Hesitantly, Amelia spoke out to the group, not to anyone in particular, and said, “Could one of you perhaps pass me some of that treacle tart? It looks too good to pass up.” A small, tentative smile curved the corners of her lips up in what she tried to make look friendly.

After she got sorted Rita happily skipped away from the stage, beaming and shining with pride. Prior to putting on the Sorting Hat, she had been so fixated on getting sorted, specifically getting sorted into Ravenclaw, she hadn't even taken notice of the four sprawling tables furnishing the Great Hall. Or really anything about the Great Hall. She would step down from the stage with the exact same tunnel vision, thoughts filled with nothing more than sending word back to her mother about the good news. At best, she spared the the magnificent feast a passing, disinterested glance as she practically sprinted to the exit of the Hall. It wasn't until she was greeted by a professor, insisting that she at least eat with her peers, did she take account of any details regarding her current location. She had been directed to the table that was dedicated to her house, which she scanned, albeit with a scowl, for an empty seat. Upon finding the one closest to her, she grumpily slid in between two fellow Ravenclaw, interrupting a conversation, the topic of which Rita knew little about, and cared even less.

With great indifference Rita lazily scooped up a small amount of food that was within her limited reach, paying little mind to whatever landed on her plate. She lifted a plain, undressed slice of bread to her lips, nibbling at it with the same level of disinterest that she had claimed it. From behind her glasses her eyes hazily drifted from subject to subject, student to student, object to object, none of them really interesting enough to break her out of her mesmerized state. From what she could make out, was apparently some sort of chaos. Vaguely she could tell that someone from a different table had come over to yell at someone from hers, though the exact nature of the conflict was beyond her.

Quickly growing bored, and figuring she would likely be here for some time, or at least more time than she liked, she figured she would at least do her best to be prepared for the days ahead. From her possessions she plucked a book, simply titled "Book of Spells", and began surveying it with greater interest than anything else up to this point. So much interest, in fact, that when one of her peers made an innocuous request for a tart, it inadvertently fell on deaf ears, at least as far as Rita was concerned.

Midas had just been sorted into Ravenclaw, along with many others. He didn't really know what he felt about being sorted here - after all, his parents and all of his relatives had wanted him to be in Gryffindor, like the rest of his family. What would they say when he came back home? Then again, his parents hadn’t really been with him for most of his life. It was unlikely that when he arrived at his home that his parents would even be home. This was because Midas’ entire family worked in the Ministry, and barely ever made time for him. Not only that, he was expected to work in the Ministry as well.

He looked down the Ravenclaw Table, and he didn’t see many empty seats. “No one would want to sit next to me…” he thought. He looked around for an empty seat, preferably without people near him, and saw that one end of the table had much fewer people than the other end.

He walked to this end of the table, sometimes being bumped into by others. He then looked around for an isolated seat. Spying one 5 seats from the end of the table, he sat down, hoping no one would notice him.

Upon sitting down, he noticed that some other Ravenclaws had been staring at him, probably because he took so long to sit down. Embarrassed, he began dumping food onto his plate hoping to blend in. He didn’t really even pay attention to what he was putting on his plate. The bowls holding the food suddenly refilled themselves.

Midas wondered how this was possible. After all, he had read something about Gamp’s Law of Elemental Transfiguration. You can’t create food out of nothing. Perhaps the food was multiplied? Or maybe it was summoned from the kitchens.

Soon, seats around him began filling up as more people were sorted. It seemed that someone was definitely had to sit next to him. Midas began eating faster, hoping to be done and then leave to the dorms. At least, that was until someone tapped his shoulder.

Xeno sighed in boredom. He had been sitting at the Slytherin table for a while now, he had eaten a little, but there was no one to talk to. Casting his eyes across the room, his mouth twitched into a slight mischievous grin, his eyes sparkling with mirth, as an inkling of an idea began to take shape in his mind.

He schooled his face into a neutral expression, putting down his knife and fork. Standing up, he walked confidently across the room, towards the Ravenclaw table. He got more than a few surprised and suspicious looks as he approached their table, but, technically there was no rules against sitting at another house's table, although no one else was doing it.

A niggling feeling in his mind was telling him that this was a bad idea, but he ignored it, determined to have a little fun, even if it did involve introductions. Besides, perhaps he could make some new friends. Seeing a boy sitting a small way away from his classmates, he approached him.

He appeared to be a little shorter than him, with slightly messy, dark brown hair. Xeno tapped him lightly on the shoulder, smiling as he asked politely "Excuse me? Do you mind if I sit here?"

Now that really got him some looks, with a lot of the other Eagles openly gaping at him, clearly in shock. Xeno just kept smiling, loving how confused they all were, waiting for the boy's response.