General The Ravenclaw Table 2017-2018

**Alice & Grace**

Sitting at the end of the table, it was easy to ignore the commotion that was going on between Ravenclaw and Slytherin. Instead she kept herself busy, piling her plate with plenty of vegetables and writing a letter to send home later in the day of the good news. Her mother, a Ravenclaw herself, would surely be thrilled. At the mention of classses and clubs, she couldn't help that her attention drifted towards the two girls sitting across from her. "Book club?" She asked, "How lovely." Clubs weren't something that she had thought about yet, having only been excited about the classes and beauty of the grounds before.

"Are all of the clubs welcoming of first years, do you reckon?" Dymphna was leaning towards the girls now, hoping they could tell her more about the available clubs. If possible, she was planning on joining as many as she could and was interested in, excited to show that she was outgoing, sociable and interested in a great deal of subjects. Already, she was feeling at home in Ravenclaw with these strangers that she knew nothing about, but they seemed to be knowledgeable and friendly. "Oh, I'm sorry. I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Dymphna," she pronounced it as well as she could but longed for a nickname. Her parents may have chosen her name for a reason and while she liked the uniqueness of it, she wished that it wasn't so darn hard to pronounce for non-Irish speakers.

[Her name is pronounced Dimf-nah. It means fawn or poet. Her namesake is the patron saint of mental illness which her mother is a Healer so I figured it worked in a way lol.]

Alice watched as Grace piled her plate high with food, a small smile of amusement coming onto her face. She's so tiny, how is she going to eat all of that? Alice thought, eyes following Graces hand as the girl talked about all the classes she was excited for. Alice smiled wider, her excitement growing as she realized she had found a kindred spirit.  

"I can't wait for the clubs. I don't think I'll do dueling club, I'm not much of a fighter, but book club sounds interesting and-" she was cut off as another first year leaned across the table, saying "Book club? How lovely." Alice looked the girl over, slightly taken aback due to the fact that she forgot there were other first years at the table, all searching for new friends like she was. Although she failed to cover her initial expression of shock- hiding her emotions wasn't Alice's strong suit, after all- she fixed a smile in place and greeted the girl warmly. 

"Nice to meet you, I'm Alice Livery, and this is Grace" Alice motioned to her new friend, who had just taken a bite of what looked like potatoes, "Er, I don't actually know your last name. We met on the train" she concluded, turning back to Dymphna. 

Steadily, the young man made his way to the table. Many students were sitting here, many of them his age, but most of them much older. He didn't really care much. He just sought a place to sit, which he found after looking around awkwardly for a few moments and made himself comfortable.

The collar of his cloak was a little too stiff and a little too big for his small and round head, so often one could only make out his blue big eyes, which were gazing and observing all around the room. He didn't seem very excited or anything. The look on his face seemed to be rather disinterested, even though he wasn't. He was feeling a little anxious, but most of all he was excited and curious. He had just been sorted to a house.

A house of curious ravens. Ravens that got pranked by snakes, or so it seemed.

It wasn't so bad for him to wait so long for the talking Hat to shout his name after all. A few moments earlier and he would've lost his hair as well. He felt sorry for the now bald students.

"I am pretty sure there is some kind of hair regrowing potion.", he noted in the direction of the bald ones and hoped someone heard what he said. He wasn't a loud person and he found it difficult to get the attention of people in such a loud environment.

He then directed his eyes to the contents of the table before him. There so many different things, he couldn't decide what to take, so he settled for something colorful to drink. At least he hoped it was something to drink.

It seemed that there was a similar, shared sense of passion for knowledge between the two eleven year olds -- kindred spirits indeed. Alice was quick to catch onto the meandering line of conversation, steering it back towards clubs and where her own interests laid. Grace couldn't help but wonder whether they'd end up in the same clubs together, and she couldn't hide the sense of excitement she felt at that. Beyond their clubs and classes, Grace hoped they'd be placed in the same dormitory, it'd be nice having a friend who wasn't one of your guardians.

Another voice suddenly broke through the atmosphere of the table, cutting Alice's reply short and instantly catching both girls' attention. Pale green eyes flickered up from her plate, settling on the other Ravenclaw across from them, another first year girl by the sounds of things. Despite the abruptness of her comment she was quick to apologize and introduce herself as Dymphna, which she said with what Grace could only describe as a longing expression. Some of Grace's cousins wore the same one when they had to introduce their own, first generation Irish names. Lips curled up into an amused but fond expression, Grace was happy to allow Alice to conduct the introductions, only interjecting when she fell short on her last name.

"Grace Vale, pleasure to meet you, Dymph." She supplied, the soft lilt of her Northern accent making the given nickname sound more mystical than silly. Grace was always a little hesitant when it came to revealing her last name, though she doubted many -- if any -- would know of her father's works. 'The Adventures of Sally Green' had been a hit among muggle families, the story following a silly blonde girl as she went on exciting sea-side adventures, and befriended monsters in the stead of teaching children manners. But Grace lived in hope that the wizarding world was too remote to notice such things as children's books.

"I'm sure that most clubs will be open to first years," Grace continued, pushing aside her concerns of surname as she answered Dymph's original question. "Though, there'll probably be some closed off to us." It made sense that more and more clubs would open to them as the years progressed, though as of right now Grace wasn't sure how many were open to them. "After dinner we could all go an inquire into what clubs are available? What dormitories have you two been accepted into?" Grace added, suddenly recalling that they'd need to venture upstairs eventually.


OOC: Dymph, like Nymph but with a 'D'.

What lovely, elegant names they had! Dymphna gave a sigh of relief when the pale haired girl gave her a nickname of her very own. Hopefully it would stick. She gave her a thankful glance before looking to Alice as well, "It's nice to meet you both." She was glad to have had some friendly interaction already. Being away from home didn't seem quite so bad when one was in good company.

At the mention of dormitories, Dymphna pushed her plate away, suddenly feeling rather nervous again. "I'm not sure. I hadn't even thought that far. I'm assuming our trunks have already been moved into our rooms." The thought of having to leave her potential friends was a daunting one. "Maybe, if we aren't all assigned the same room, we'll see each other in clubs and classes? Like you said, Grace, we could see what's available to us and perhaps join one together." She wouldn't want to join a club that she had no interest in and didn't expect them to want to do so either, but there was a chance that they could discover they shared something in common. "How do we find out which dorms we've been assigned to?"

Alice smiled slightly at the nickname "Dymph" How cute, I wonder if she'll like it though? she thought, but apparently the other girl didn't seem to mind. She was so preoccupied with this thought that it didn't even occur to her that the last name "Vale" was the same one that appeared on her little brothers favorite muggle book series, or that her muggle grandparents had read them to her as a child. Instead she focused on her two  new friends and the impending problem of the dorms. 

"Maybe they'll be posted on the doors when we get there?" She suggested, feeling as though this solution might be too simple. Just then another thought occurred to her. 

"What are we supposed to do when we're done? Are there bins to throw the food away in or will someone come take them..?" She trailed off, looking around the great hall. All she saw was the Professors table and the house tables. Not a bin in sight. She took a bite out of peculiar looking dessert that she didn't remember being on her plate and swallowed absentmindedly, paying more attention to what Dymph and Grace were saying. 

It seemed natural for Grace to follow Dymph's lead as she too finished a few more bites of her food, having officially tried a little of everything within reach, before she'd pushed her own plate to the side. The tumultuous nature of her stomach wasn't interested in filling itself at that moment, now that she was so acutely aware of what came after dinner. Their dormitories awaited them upstairs, and soon they'd be rooming with strangers -- there was no way around that. Groups of girls that they'd never met before and that they'd be living with for the rest of the year, if not the rest of their time at Hogwarts. Grace thought that there was a lot of pressure associated with making that choice, she liked having time to think things through and to ponder the consequences. It was hard to do that without all the given information.

"I suppose so," Grace hesitantly agreed with Dymph's placating comments, the blonde was right after all -- they were all in the same house and in the same year, it was highly unlikely that they wouldn't run into each other at some point. Whether they were put in the same dormitory together or not. "Yeah, we'll probably be in the same classes at the very least." She repeated, more determined and self-assured this time.

The confusion and questioning around knowing which dormitory they'd been accepted to was a little concerning. After all, it hadn't been included in their acceptance letter or mentioned to them by any teachers. Grace distantly recalled somebody mentioning that the Ravenclaw common room had a bulletin board -- perhaps the room assignments had been posted onto there? It wasn't far off what Alice had suggested and she hummed thoughtfully to show that she agreed with girl's statement. Though, they wouldn't find out if they continued hanging around in the Great Hall now would they?

"Well, why don't we go and find out, then?" Grace said, a much more cheerful grin finding its way across her pale features. "And I think we can just leave our plates," She'd seen quite a few students just up and leave in the middle of eating -- their plates left unattended. If the food appeared by process of magic, then theoretically it should disappear by it too. "C'mon, I really hope we're all together!" Grace was looking more and more enthusiastic as she stood up from her seat. Cheerfulness appeared to be a state that suited her more than deep or serious thought, she acted more like an actual eleven year old when she was excited by something.

OOC: Shall we move this to the dormitory? c:

[I've continued in the common room, here, closed to Alice & Grace.  ]

 The more-than-happy blonde girl sat down between two people at her new table, her brown eyes taking in everything around her, from the color of the table to the food on it, to the bench that she was sitting on and the blue banners above the table, marking it as Ravenclaw's. She tucked her hair behind her ears to hold it out of her face, happily putting a good portion of each kind of different food that she could get her hands on, on to her plate. 

 She had witnessed plenty of the past events while standing, waiting for her turn to get sorted, already. She opted to sit further away from where the source of conflict seemed to be, hopefully unincluding herself from any other disasters that seemed to want to come up. She reached over to grab the salt - but alas, her legs were far too short to simply let her reach over. She grumbled a little bit, standing up, and leaning across the table further to successfully grab the salt, and put it on her mashed potatoes, which were in a corner of her plate. She placed the shaker down, then looked around.

 Each table looked lively - despite the people who'd experienced hair loss. Their moods dampered the room, but regardless, she could see that they were happy to be there. After all, there were ways to magically grow your hair back. weren't there? Felicity could only assume so. She had yet to learn much, but the possibility of learning something like that intrigued her beyond words. She looked around at the people whom surrounded her, as well. They seemed to be minding their own business, and such, and she was feeling more unincluded than she hoped to make herself. 

 Oh well, the first year Ravenclaw thought to herself, taking a bite of her mashed potatoes adorned with salt and gravy, I'll find people to talk to in my own time, hopefully.

Lara bashfully walked towards the Ravenclaw table, taking great care not to trip or stumble in front of everybody in the Great Hall. She had never had so many eyes on her before. Her last school had maybe 100 students there at the absolute most. There must have been at least double that amount here. This was terrifying.

She spied a place at the end of the table and sat down, bewildered by the sheer amount of food in front of her. She had eaten most of it before, but never seen it cooked in such vast quantities. Feeling anxious, as though the eyes of a thousand people were burning into her back, she took only a small amount to nibble on as she looked around the room taking in her surroundings.

It was incredible. The candles were actually floating. Not on thin wires like at the old school, actually floating. The plates of food were seeming to replenish themselves, too! She hadn't seen anybody take away old plates and bring back newly cooked food, but there it was. She sat there patiently, quietly in awe, as more and more children were given their respective houses and found their way to their tables.