General The Gryffindor Table 2019-2020

_{"GRYFFINDOR!" The hat roared and Ariana beaming, flounced off to the table where she could see the gryffindors cheering happily for her. Surveying it up and down with her bright green eyes, she noticed a boy was sitting alone near the end of the table, picking at his food. Ariana tilted her head slightly, then glanced back to where her group of friends were beckoning her to sit with them. She smiled at them, gestured that she would meet them later, and then sped off to the end of the table to meet the boy. She sat down in the chair beside him and opened her mouth to speak but at that moment he turned to look up at her. Ariana noticed his soft kind features and his piercing bright blue eyes. For a minute she was lost for speech and her words got lost somewhere at the back of her mouth. Wow, she thought, he has really pretty eyes. She snapped back from her daze and felt her cheeks burn slightly with embarrassment, she must have looked very silly with her mouth hung halfway open. "I-I uh sorry, um Im Ariana. Ariana Walker'' She reached out a hand for him to shake, smiling, her cheeks still slightly pink.}

Bex sat down at the Gryffindor table the morning after being sorted. She still wasn't sure what to do, or the dress code. She knew what clothes she had to wear, but could she let the pink in her hair show. She originally dyed it as a form of rebellion against her mom, but then was too scared to tell her. She was the only one who knew about the pink highlights. And she realized that she was focusing on this to avoid interacting with her new classmates. 

She started to talk to the person on her right, but stopped herself. She hid her uncertainty behind her anger and rebellious attitude. This is why you haven't made a friend since moving to Europe three years ago. Just talk to someone, the worse they can do is ignore you. Encouraged by her internal dialouge, she started to talk to the person again. However she stopped herself again. They're probably busy with something else, best not to bother them right now. You have all year to make friends. 

She sighed and started putting food on her plate for breakfast. She would go outside and find an animal to connect with. Animals had always more sense to her than people, anyways. Even though that was true, Bex couldn't help the strong desire to make a friend here in the new school. She just needed to figure out how to make herself either talk to someone or seem more open to conversation. 

Percy had sat down almost immediately after being sorted to Gryffindor, only to avoid the glares of his siblings. Why did this have to happen to him? He looked around the table and all he could see where fellow witches and wizards who were actually happy and content about where the hat landed them. Percy knew that Gryffindor was an okay house like the others but it could have been an okay house without him in it, that hat had to be wrong. Gryffindor? Nah.

He really just wanted to get his mind off of the current situation so Percy began just loading his plate up with savory food, first it was a few chicken legs with a glob of mashed potatoes. Percy got a goblet of pumpkin juice and smiled slightly, the thought of this table was already leaving his mind. The new Gryffindor had heard about the grand feasts at Hogwarts where it was pretty much an all you can eat buffet crafted by the one and only house-elves and the feast lived up to his expectations, surpassing it quite a bit too.

Scratch what he thought earlier. There was a girl right next to him that Percy hadn't noticed before and she was pretty quiet, different from a lot of the table. That was refreshing and reminded him of one of his siblings but then he stopped thinking about them again because this was meant to be a happy moment. "Ello. I'm Percy." A simple introduction was all he was going to do for now, if she wanted to engage in more conversation then she could. The girl's hair was pretty awesome too, his parents would feed him to Flobberworms if he ever dyed his hair so he just had to admire for now and that Percy would do.

Bex continued to eat without paying attention to the loud people all around her. She really enjoyed the food, but she wished for some comfort food from home to deal with this strange day. She noticed that someone had sat down next to her. It was a boy around her age. She glanced at him trying to see what he looked like, but was afraid that he would think she was staring. 

"Ello. I'm Percy." Bex glanced around to see if the boy was talking to someone else, but he seemed to be talking to her. Bex was torn, what if he's not talking to me and thinks that it's weird that I answered him. Then she thought to herself you were just hoping that you could finally make a friend here, here's your chance. Deciding to answer the boy, and deal with the embarrasment if he was talking to someone else, she said, Hi. I'm Bex. Nice to meetcha. I'm not used to this much food or magic. What about you? 

She hoped that he didn't make fun of her American accent, but she didn't try to hide it anymore. It was part of her identity and she wasn't going to let people make her feel self conscious about it anymore. She started playing with her unconsciously while waiting to see if he would respond. 

His smile grew slightly, she replied. This might be the beginning of some sort of friendship but then again Percy might be getting ahead of himself. He quickly noticed that she had an American accent as it stood out against everyone else's accent, especially his own clearly Scottish accent. It didn't bother him, only amused him actually. "Mhm, it's quite nice. I can't relate, I'm used to it as my entire family uses magic. At least everyone that can does." Percy didn't say Pureblood straight out because he was a bit afraid it'd make him seem caught up with blood purity but that wasn't him, it was Ervin. His oldest brother.

"So you're American and not used to magic? How do you like it here? In Europe and in Hogwarts that is, I imagine it's a breathe of fresh air." Percy was not one to judge, he was just curious as since he was of complete Pureblooded decent he had not seen muggles. He knew it wasn't like they were some rare species it was just extremely different to relate to how they grew up and to understand how they see the world, magic or not. That was probably because both the wizarding world and the muggle world were different in countless aspects.

Percy ate more food and wondered if Bex knew about house-elves and if she even knew some were here. Owning a house-elf wasn't something to flaunt around because nobody is supposed to know it's there but still, he wondered about it. A little curiosity never hurt anyone. "Your parents muggles? No offense, I'm just curious what it's like."

Bex noticed that Percy's smile grew slightly when she responded. Bex was excited that Percy was talking to her, but she tried to hide her excitement so that she didn't scare the boy off. His accent wasn't one that she was very familiar with, but she thought it could be Scottish. She needed to get better at recoginizing accents. Pecy said that his entire family used magic, which she thought was pretty cool, but it made her wonder if he would be much better at magic than her. 

Percy asked her how she liked in Europe and Hogwarts, which made Bex much less excited. She knew that people would want to ask her about the United States soon, but it was still so painful for her to think about the move. However, she needed to get over it. It happened three years ago, for goodness sake. Bex noticed that she had been quiet for far too long, and Percy probably thought she wasn't going to respond. 

Europe is much different than the United States, but since my family moved from a suburb to another suburb it wasn't that bad. Yeah, they're both Muggles, and they teach history at a University around London. I haven't really got used to Hogwarts yet, but I think I will really enjoy it. Did all of your family go here, since they're all magical?

Bex didn't know if the boy would respond, and she hoped she didn't ruin it. 

Ida happily took her seat at the Gryffindor table as soon as she was sorted into it. Gryffindor was the brave house, right? She observed the other witches and wizards at the table - from what she could tell, most were as pleased to be there as she was, though she can't just make assumptions. The feast that had been laid out on each table was more food than she had ever seen in her whole life.

With eyes bigger than her stomach, Ida piled up pieces of chicken, roast potatoes, Yorkshire puddings and took a tankard of... butterbeer? Is that what it's called? Regardless, she considered everything that was happening and how she would tell her parents about it back home. Without it sounding like a rambling mess of nonsense, that is. Taking a delicate sip of her butterbeer - which tasted of sweet butterscotch, rather than actual beer - Ida glanced over to the duo next to her. A young boy and a young girl, presumably her age. She could pick up that the girl's accent sounded very American, which was strange but it didn't matter too much. In any case, now is a perfect time than any to start making friends with the other people in her house.

She cleared her throat. 'Um, hi, I'm Ida - I hope I'm not interrupting anything,' she said, trying to mask the nerves in her voice. 'I'm quite new to this wizardy... witchy... stuff, but it's really cool. I think so, anyway,'

Ida's heart started racing, thinking of all the scenarios of how she might embarrass herself on the very first day in this new environment.

Um, hi, I'm Ida - I hope I'm not interrupting anything. I'm quite new to this wizardy... witchy... stuff, but it's really cool. I think so, anyway. 

Bex looked over at the girl who had said that, and was concerned about the amount of food on her plate. If the girl ate it all, Bex would be seriously impressed. The girl looked to be around her age, so she was guessing this was her first year here as well. Bex was also secretly excited that someone else was new to this whole wizarding world, and that she wasn't alone in the newness. 

Oh, you weren't interrupting. I'm Bex. I'm fairly new to this wizarding stuff too, so maybe we can learn all the secrets together. I grew up in the United States, but moved to England three years ago. How about you? Bex said with a smile on her face, that she hoped looked more warm than insane. 

Bex couldn't believe that two people had talked to her already, what a difference from the last three years at her school in England where the kids either ignored her or picked on her accent. She noticed her hand creeping up to the pink highlights in her hair to twirl it around her fingers. It was a nervous habit that she was desperately trying to break, especially since her parents didn't know about the pink highlights. 

Ida listened to the girl - known as Bex - and was enraptured by her accent. In any case, it was nice to have a friend who was also new to this situation. The offer to learn about what magic has to offer seemed so appealing. Teamwork makes the... magic work... that sounds correct. Besides, Ida found Bex's smile warm and inviting. She didn't want to make deductions too fast, but it's nice to have acquaintances and friends like that.

She took one of the pieces of chicken she took, politely swallowing before answering Bex. 'Me? I've grown up in England my whole life,' she said. 'But the United States sounds pretty fun!'

It was only when Bex wrapped a lock of hair around her finger when she noticed the secondary colour within - in her opinion, it was a pretty shade of pink and suited the other girl. 'Ooh, did you colour your hair yourself? It looks really pretty!' she said. 'I've always wanted to dye my hair another colour but I think my mum would kill me if I did,'

As much as she joked, the worry about what her parents would think was a recurring thought. She would never hear the end of it if she decided to dye her hair in such bold colours, like the pink in Bex's hair.

Bex laughed at Ida's statements. Oh her mother would kill her too, if she knew about the pink highlights. Bex wondered what part of England Ida was from, and if it was kinda close to Surrey. Maybe they could hang out when the term was over, but Bex was getting ahead of herself. She literally just met this girl, she probably wouldn't want to spend her time with Bex once she was on summer holidays. 

I loved the US. I grew up in Pennsylvania, near Philadelphia. My parents teach history, so anytime we went on a vacation it was to a museum. Bex scrunched her nose to show her displeasure for museums, but she secretly loved looking at the artifacts from the different time periods. And yeah, I did dye my hair. Thanks! I always wonder if pink is my color, or if I should try a different one. Yeah, my mom will kill me once she notices the dyed hair, but it's been a few months and she has yet to notice. 

Bex hestitated, wandering how to keep the conversation going without seeming to desperate. I have enough dye that I could give you some, if you wanted. No pressure, or anything. 

Bex waited a beat, and decided to ask another question in case the hair dye thing was too weird. I kept looking out the window of the train to see something cool and magical, but I didn't. Did you?