General The Gryffindor Table 2020-2021

Interactions: @Anastasia Beckett @Cosmo Keith @Ivy Bellamy

"Speak to me again and I will remove your tongue," It was directed at the redhead and not her, but Cosmo still felt her blood run slightly cold. There was a definite intent behind the older girls eyes. Then she turned to Cosmo, and there was nothing to do but shrink back as far as she could.

"Love, if I were taking things out on anyone, you would know," She was scoffing, and it certainly wasn't a threat like the other first year got so Cosmo pushed some panic away. "Just to clarify, since you clearly aren't the most intelligent, it generally takes the form of me setting the irritant on fire." Cosmo knew a lot of other people would feel slighted at the jab to her intelligence, but she almost felt her lip quirk up in a grin. This girl reminded her of a very angry bear, and who would poke a bear with a stick?

Just as the angry bear (as Cosmo had christened her) was returning to her morning drink someone cut into the conversation from behind them, and Cosmo jumped. She turned to she see another older girl with dark hair sliding in between the redhead and grumpy bear.

"Oh, for Christ's sake, you two need to shut the fuck up," she directed at Cosmo and the other first year. "That's like, kind of rude," her voice was mocking and Cosmo felt her stomach clench with distaste. It was one thing to have a rude tone when offering an opinion, and another completely to mimic someone else. The new girl wasn't done talking and Cosmo was already gearing herself up to say exactly what she thought, but the next thing added caught her off guard.

"Can you not see that she wants to be left alone? You really ought to mind your own business, you know." It rang with a sense of truth, and despite her hurt feelings Cosmo could not ignore that. "You as well. She wasn't taking anything out on anyone. She was reading, geez." Cosmo felt her cheeks flushing in shame. What had she been thinking? She should have known to leave the situation alone. It seemed that was deemed enough scolding though, and rude girl turned to talk in quieter tones with grumpy bear.

It seemed that they already knew each, which made more sense as to why there might be such a strong feeling of protection between them. It seemed that the newest addition to the conversation was also being pushed away by grumpy bear, and Cosmo felt a twang of concern rush through her again.

Apparently the redhead was not as content to back away from the scene as Cosmo, and joined the conversation again. Cosmo felt her eyes growing wide with each new word she uttered. Everything that either the rude girl or grumpy bear said paled in comparison to the redheads monologue. After she finished spitting venom at the older students, she faced Cosmo and gave her a mean smile.

"Let's not let these ninnies ruin our night, yeah? I mean, I was just trying to strike up a conversation, make some small talk, but obviously, they're not in the mood. And for the record, I'd say you're about ten times smarter than she is." Cosmo did not smile back, in fact her face probably had disapproval written all over it.

"Actually, I don't think we should have interrupted, I know I wouldn't want to be talked to if I didn't feel well," Cosmo swept her eyes over the two older girls again, "I think those two have some catching up to do, and maybe we have some thinking to do." Her tone was even, but firm, and she turned her attention back to her dinner, hoping to persuade the redhead to do the same.

Interacting with @Lydea Wayland mentioning @Ivy Bellamy @Anastasia Beckett

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INTERACTIONS│@Anastasia Beckett @Lydea Wayland @Cosmo Keith
MENTIONS│lol no one

Ivy pursed her lips with displeasure as she watched the redhead mouth off, insulting and threatening her doppelganger carelessly. She couldn't see this ending well for any of them - Ana wasn't exactly well known for her patience, and with all the rumours about the Becketts following her around, Ivy wouldn't be surprised if she was even more short-tempered this year. If the first year knew what was good for her, she'd back off and let Ana read in peace. "Careful there," she warned the redhead quietly, taking a step towards her. Although Ivy was on Ana's side, she didn't want the first year to wound up in the Hospital Wing on her first night here. "You really don't want to mess with her - us. This would be a great time to apologise and leave." It was sound advice from Ivy's standpoint. Ana had a tendency to set things - and people - on fire, and Ivy was pretty sure that the first year didn't want to go up in flames.

Ana's haughty dismissal threw her off balance. Ivy hadn't been expecting it, that was for sure, and her insides twisted with hurt and surprise. Her face fell, smile melting away and eyes dropping to focus on the wooden table, her mind already scrambling to find an excuse for why Ana was acting this way. However, she had been offered almost no information when she went to visit her doppelganger in August, and so she focused on the next thing her mind brought up. Why had she thought Ana would act differently? Had Ivy messed up with social cues again? The insult stung far more than it should have, far more than she should have let it. It was a stupid thought, but Ivy had believed that Ana would have taken into their friendship into account before speaking so cruelly. It was as though... Ana expected her to understand what she was going through. As though she expected Ivy to read her mind and know exactly what she wanted.

"What the fuck, Ana?" Her voice was louder than she thought it had been, and her eyes were still focused on the table, mind still a mess of different thoughts. Ivy looked around self-consciously and lowered her voice to almost a whisper, so only Ana would be able to hear her. "I don't understand why you're acting like this. Did I - did I do something wrong? Is it because of something I said in our letters?"

And of course, the redhead had to interrupt and comment on something. Again. A combination of anger and annoyance rushed through Ivy's veins as she turned her attention back to the first year. She forced it down and listened to the redhead's rant, her expression unimpressed. Keep calm. Keepcalmkeepcalmkeepcalm. Rise above it. When the girl finished, Ivy let the silence swallow them for a few seconds before proceeding to speak, tone bored and rather condescending, like one of a wise, calm adult speaking to a child throwing a temper tantrum. "Are you quite done yet?" she asked dryly, raising an eyebrow. "Both my parents' teaching methods and my relationship with Ana are none of your business. Perhaps you're the one with problematic parents, since you seem to have no problem throwing tantrums and overall acting like a brat in public," Ivy suggested. Her voice was still even and her anger was still contained.

"You know, you have some nerve, talking to your seniors like that," she continued calmly, "considering that we know spells that you don't and actually know how to use our wands." Ivy had been casually twirling her wand by her side for the past few minutes on purpose, and she really, really hoped that the first years would take notice and piss off before she lost her patience and actually hexed the shit out of them. She gave a half-smile, one that didn't quite reach her cold grey eyes.

Ivy had expected the girl to shut up and stop spitting venom at this point, so when she overheard what she was saying to the brunette, she nearly spat out her water. So now she and Ana were ninnies, were they? Forget hexes, Ivy was seriously contemplating slapping that pathetic little smile off her pathetic little face at the moment. Who the fuck did she think she was? She was a little nobody, a firstie, the bottom of the food chain here at Hogwarts. Heck, the redhead didn't even know any spells, so it was really quite brave of her to speak like that about someone as dangerous as Ana - to her face. Actually, scratch that. It wasn't brave, it was plain stupid. She was practically asking for it at this point, Ivy thought to herself darkly. "You might like to watch your mouth, or you'll find yourself unable to speak." The second year had contained her fury reasonably well in order not to draw any more attention to this... delightful little group, but had let enough of her anger show for the first years to hear the murderous intent in her voice. Her eyes narrowed, cutting right through them. She didn't want to cause a scene here or ruin their first night here, but some of them really needed to learn when to shut up.

The brunette seemed to have some common sense, at the very least. She had chosen not to smile back at the other girl, instead turning back to her dinner with a look of disapproval on her face. Smart girl. Ivy let out a short huff of laughter, these first years were really quite hopeless. "Probably should have thought of that before you started talking, sweetheart. But you are correct, you two should probably shut up and start using your brains for once. The Hospital Wing is not a very nice place to spend your first night."

The Gryffindor turned back to Ana, her confident smirk melting away and replaced with a look of concern. She lowered her voice again. "Ana, stop pushing me away. Talk to me! I can't help you if I don't know anything." Ivy had no idea what was going through her doppelganger's mind, and as she searched Ana's face and tried to read her expression, she wondered why she was even trying. It was clear that she didn't want her help, although Ivy couldn't fathom why not. It was like she was purposefully digging herself into a hole, deeper and deeper - who would do that to themself? Ivy didn't understand. She wanted to, but Ana didn't.

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Interactions: @Lydea Wayland | @Cosmo Keith | @Ivy Bellamy

Ana was done. Completely done. She was barely holding it together and these first years were begging for her to hex them into oblivion. Now, just to decide which hex. Most of her preferred spells, such as Flipendo and Incendio, were extremely flashy and dramatic, which unfortunately was not the best course of action here. She deeply loathed the idea of having to spend her first night back at school in detention, so causing a scene was out of the question. That eliminated a fair amount of her attack spells as well as straight-up tackling the girl out of her seat, but she still had room to work.

The girl continued to natter and babble and Ana laughed at her words. They would have been far more intimidating if Ana wasn't half a foot taller and significantly more muscular from years of flying and ballet. Ana generally wasn't the type to get into physical fights, vastly preferring witty insults or well-placed spells. However, she had discovered at the Blossom Ball that she was more than capable of throwing an effective punch should the need arise.

She didn't even dignify the words with a reply beyond scoffing. Who the fuck cared about cursing? They weren't in high society, and she had also just attempted to criticize Ana for sounding too prim. Ana and Ivy who had been brought up in a world where things like that mattered were far more capable to make that judgemental than whoever this ill-bred ferret was.

She rolled her eyes at being called a ninny. What was this girl, a grandma? If that was her best attempt at being witty, then her opinions on Ana's prissiness and Ivy's language were even less a concern for Ana. The dark-haired first year didn't who had started all of this seemed to be backing down like a coward, which only irritated Ana further. What the hell was she doing in Gryffindor if she couldn't even finish an argument that she started?

She rolled her eyes at Ivy's warning to the first year. As if it wasn't already far too late for the little ferret. Ivy was visibly stung by her words and Ana felt a small twinge of guilt. Ana refused to even look at her, trying to ignore the hurt in her voice as she asked what she had done wrong. If Ana was in any sort of good mood, she would have assured Ivy that it wasn't Ivy's fault and that she was sorting through somethings that she had to deal with on her own. But Ana wasn't.

Ivy's tongue lashing of the ginger ferret amused Ana, but she had already set herself on a course of action. She slowly took out her wand and begun spinning it from finger to finger the way a drummer might idly play with a drumstick. When Ivy was finished, Ana cocked her head slightly, smirked in a way that would make any sane person flee, and stopped spinning her wand.

"Are all of you immature clowns finished bloviating?" she said, her voice still utterly disinterested. "Actually, it's occurred to me. I don't actually care whether or not you think you're done. I say you're done. Mimblewimble!" With a sudden flick of her wrist that contrasted sharply with her lazy movements from a few moments ago, she cast the tongue-tying curse on the irritant.

"Ivy, keep pressing this and you're next," Ana said cooly. She didn't want Ivy's help and she knew that it wouldn't do either of them a bit of good for Ivy to know the truth. She couldn't imagine how it would feel to discover that the man that Ivy had just learned was her father was also a suspected murderer. She snapped her book shut sharply and stood. She was so done with this and frankly saw no point in remaining any further. She would demand a professor escort her to the Common Room if anyone said anything about her being alone.

Anastasia Beckett will be exiting this thread unless stopped.

Interacting with: Nobody! Open to interactions...
Mentioning: @Logan Gonyea @Anastasia Beckett @Josette Rutledge @Kira Rosenburg

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[font=times new roman]SEPTEMBER 1ST
Interacting with @Phineas Avery
Mentioning @Anastasia Beckett @Cosmo Keith @Lydea Wayland

Scarlett watched with a more interested than critical eye as Ivy slid out of her seat with a quick apology. That was said and done and perfectly fine. At least Ivy had had the decency to notify Scarlett of her exit. Some rather hot-headed people just stormed off without a word, in search of their friend/enemy/detested nemesis. Of course, Scarlett wouldn't do that.

Ivy had pushed her way between the two pestering first-years, who reminded Scarlett a bit like buzzing fruit flies, or maybe moths, flying around like an irrelevant annoyance trying to offer advice and sickly-sweet words. They spouted crappy nonsense like how it was okay to be tired, but no one should take that out on others and some downright blunt sarcastic phrases, interjecting the word 'like' between words to make them (or her, in this case) sound like uneducated gossip girls.

The girl the two first-years were buzzing around was a pretty one, like every girl at Hogwarts. It was rare to see any student here looking like an average human being. It was just an endless stream of actresses, models and goddesses. She had brown hair and brown eyes, a description which seemed dull at a glance, but not so dull when you saw the owner of these features in question. An undeniably, illogically beautiful student with a pretty face and messy hair. She dressed in a wannabe emo sort of way. As much as she could with a Hogwarts uniform, obviously.

Scarlett watched the interaction between Ivy, the other girl and the two first-years. Normally, Scarlett would've stood up in defence of the other girl and backed up Ivy. Today, the food was calling her. She ate and watched the scene inconspicuously out of the corner of her eye. It looked like Ivy - who looked suspiciously like the girl she was helping - was talking to the first-years. Scolding them? And the 'other girl' was flaring back at Ivy. Really, in the words of a particular sappy first-year: "That wasn't very nice." Then Other Girl pulled out her wand and hexed the redheaded first-year with a skilled tongue-tying curse. Scarlett's gaze became more critical as she watched this Other Girl. She seemed like a fiery spirit to rival her own.

As Other Girl left the feast, Scarlett rolled her eyes, took a lamb chop and placed it on her plate, turning to whoever was next to her now that Ivy had left, vacating the seat. She saw a first-year boy Phineas Avery.

"Well hello there," began Scarlett, her tone neither friendly nor rude. Just plain neutral, though certainly approachable. "I presume you're a first-year?"

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