General The Gryffindor Table 2020-2021

@Kieryn Rodriguez, @Ivy Bellamy @Ashwaria Nair, @Scarlett Aden, & @Aemadall Zarcovich
Apologies for a terribly late response!

Piérre shook himself from his reverie. It had been peculiar, almost like sitting in a white static area... Disassociation, he supposed, nothing especially new. He had forgotten to take his meds... or 'Forgotten'. Sometimes Piérre didn't know which side he was on. Oh well, time to go back to the present, where it seemed that he had slipped behind in the conversation. It was lucky that the lad was a very uninhibited extrovert; a more shy person such as his brother Romeo may have shirked away from the limelight. Fortunately for the Britalian, he tended to revel in it... perhaps a bit too much.

"Aw, well, this place is a little crazy at first... perhaps in more ways that one... but you get used to it after a bit, Kieryn!" The boy had contemplated perhaps mentioning the fact that the school had a streak of bad luck, especially when he had been a first year, but Piérre thought it better to only confront that fact if it was directly questioned. No need to put worry into the mind of a kid. "If you have any questions, concerns, need to confide in anyone, don't hesitate! I'm no prefect, and there are no detentions for having too much fun!"

That didn't make sense.

I know, that's the point.

"Oh, it's Piérre! Pronounced like, please don't laugh too hard, Pee-air. Marchonné, Marr-shone! Nice to meet you, Scarlett!" Piérre bobbed his head and smiled.

Another girl asked a few rapid fire questions, about how the goblets refill themselves, how she was going on an adventure for the rest of her life, and Piérre smiled. That had been exactly like him when he had been adopted by Maddie. The magic and explaining why he had been so peculiar all his life had brought joy and awe into his life, more than what he had started with. He was so excited, so happy to help other acclimate to the world that was waiting up for them. "Magic! You're going to learn a lot of magic while you're here, Ash!" Piérre purposefully shortened the girls name... Truth be told, it was a bit easier to remember... and though he was Italian, and they had a penchant for extravagant names.... even that one was a little hard to remember and pronounce correctly. "'Course the House Elves also help out, prepping food and things for occasions not as fancy as this, but for the most part... magic! You'll love it here, it'll be just like a second family! Hi Ivy!" Piérre called back to his fellow second year.

It was good that it wasn't just him greeting the first years... every person counted, especially with acclimating Muggleborns and some Half-Bloods to the world. Piérre himself had had to learn the difficult way, having been raised by Muggles... yet having not been a Muggleborn as far as he knew. He was an Unknown, a special grey. Even to this day, Maddie was doing research, looking and scanning every record for any sign of a missing family (many of them) or missing children (sadly, also quite a few). Piérre was praying to God above that somehow he would be guided in the right direction.

But until he was found, he would help other find themselves.

Out of the corner of his eye, Piérre spotted a rather glum looking individual Hello Aemadall!, nibbling down on a bit of meat...

"Hi there!" Piérre tapped their shoulder. "You feeling alright?" He offered a reassuring smile.

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INTERACTIONS│@Ashlyn Winters, @Remi Yao
MENTIONS│Ashwaria Nair

If Ashwaria had been looking to get a rise out of Ivy, then she would be disappointed. The second year chose not to react, forcing herself to stay calm and turn away - although she was sorely tempted to reach across the table and throttle the girl. Had she been this annoying? She certainly hoped not. A newfound appreciation for the older students ran through her as she picked at her plate, thinking about the year she had ahead of her.

Why had she even come back? She could have opted out. Her parents would have withdrawn her from Hogwarts straight away if she had asked. They had wanted her to go to Beauxbatons in the first place - it had been her father's school, one he often spoke highly of to his family, and her cousin Serafina was currently in her sixth year there. Or she could have left for Durmstrang, another school her parents deemed acceptable due to its low acceptance rate of Muggleborns. Ivy had also met a few of the Durmstrang students at camp, so transferring there would have been a little easier.

But no matter how many bad memories Hogwarts held, it was still home. It felt more like home than the Manor ever did, and she was unwilling to leave it.

Turning her head to one side at the sound of another conversation striking up nearby her, Ivy took in two of the new arrivals - one with dark skin, the other with pink hair. Her grey eyes lingered a moment longer on the pink-haired girl's face, a voice in the back of her mind whispering that she had seen her somewhere before. Perhaps this girl was the daughter of one of the pureblood families who attended the parties her parents threw? There hadn't been one at Bellamy Manor for a while, and Ivy never took care to memorise everyone's names, but the regular attendees' faces did stick around in her mind.

"Welcome to Gryffindor. I assume you two are new?" Ivy gave the two of them a half-smile in an attempt to mimic Piérre's welcoming tactics. "I'm Ivy Bellamy, second year." Her next words were directed fully at the pink-haired girl, grey eyes scrutinizing as she tried to work out why she was so familiar. "Have we met before?"

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JULY 19TH
@Ivy Bellamy @Piérre Marchonné
Sorry for the incredibly late reply! My laptop crashed and I forgot to save a draft and now it's gone and I have to rewrite it

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Well, the boy's name was Piérre - that was close enough to Peter, right? Piérre - what was that he said? - Marshown? It was probably another French name, ridiculously hard to spell, at least for Scarlett. She knew plenty of French people, however. They seemed to be scattered around Hogwarts with their Bonjours, and C'est Biens, showing off their skill in their native tongue. Scarlett vaguely wondered if Piérre was French. His name certainly sounded like he was from the land of baguettes.

She stifled her laughter at that thought, taking a sip of pumpkin juice before tilting her head and replying, "Nice to meet you too. Anyway, don't listen to anyone who calls you Pee-Pee, or Airhead. Nicknames are useless things anyway, and it just shows that those people have no creativity with their insults."

Anyway, Piérre seemed to be very much occupied with a crowd of first-year girls; which was admittedly a bit funny. He looked quite at ease in the crowd however. The younger students were asking the second-year boy a lot of questions and generally breathing in awe and excitement - you would expect huge stars to be in their equally huge eyes, like in those tacky Muggle cartoons.

Scarlett picked at her food - there weren't a lot of options for vegetarians here. Not that she was one, of course, but maybe the Hogwarts menu could be a little more...inclusive, perhaps? She ate a bit, after all, that was what a feast was for, but didn't feel particularly hungry. She and a few other girls had already stuffed themselves full with sweets and Chocolate Frogs on the train. It was quite strange. Last year, Scarlett had been a bit too eager to eat and not talk or remotely make contact with anyone on the Gryffindor table, but this year she was all too willing to abandon her food completely in favour of social interaction.

Obviously, a lot of changes were underway for all the students. A lot had happened in one year, and if anything, the atmosphere at the school was even more uneasier than last time.

A few minutes later, Scarlett was in conversation with Ivy, who had slipped a smile on her face after looking clearly annoyed with a few first-years, judging them with her intelligent grey eyes. Scarlett bit back her amusement, and simply shrugged and smiled when Ivy sent her a look of disbelief. To be honest, this was probably what the older years were doing when Scarlett herself was a first-year - Scarlett could definitely see some of her more arrogant classmates getting on the nerves of the third-years.

One would expect someone from a pureblood family like the Bellamys, someone who was currently friends with a girl rumoured to have murdered her parents (of course, the notorious Anastasia Beckett) would have an eventful summer after camp, but Ivy just went with the generic 'not really' as the answer to Scarlett's question, before briefly touching on going to France. Perhaps Ivy was from the land of baguettes as well?

"I mean, I guess Transfiguration will be fun," replied Scarlett. "but we're only a year away from choosing our electives! Which are you planning on taking?"

Scarlett herself had been filtering out the ones that sounded just not suitable for her - Arithmancy was a no-go, but she was still debating on Care of Magical Creatures. Maybe she would take Muggle Studies just to annoy everyone by getting good grades - her knowledge of Muggle culture was quite alright.