General The Slytherin Table 2017 - 2018 Closed

Rather eager to eavesdrop more than actually talk with people, Kevin through himself into a free seat in a section he thought to be the most lively section of the table. Sure, it would make it easy to join in on conversations too but given his status as a newbie he felt it better to listen and learn first. After all, much like normal school there would be group and power dynamics one could expect from any gathering of people. His family left him no stranger to how the wizarding world at large behaved, but that didn't necessarily mean the same divides and behaviors would be true - adults were adults after all.

Still his idea despite seeming good on the surface was quickly ruined by a simple detail he'd forgotten: there were enough people that simple background noise made it near impossible to clue in to any specific conversation. Sure certain details stuck out - further up the table he could have sworn someone shouted a name...though he couldn't tell if it was theirs or if it was calling for someone. Left with little other recourse, he could only shrug and eat while he resorted to the next best thing in figuring out how life would be in his new House: people watching. Far from an expert, he couldn't exactly learn anything concrete this way, but it was still entertaining.

Her shoes tapped lightly against the hall's shined floors as Kira headed her way towards an empty seat at the Slytherin table, her tied up blonde hair swaying lightly as she walked. She pulled the chair from under the table and sat, unbothered by whoever her seat mates were. 

Crossing her legs under the table and taking a relaxed, leaned position against her seat, Kira took a glance at her fellow Slytherin wizards. There were many wizards and witches alike, all fresh faces new to the school. Kira herself was new, of course. A first year. It was quite exciting, in all honesty. A new life at a new school with a new title. Just imagine all the possibilities of what coming to this exquisite school would bring her. 

Kira leaned further into her seat as she continued to inspect her new housemates. Most of those around her were chatting continuously with each other. Bright smiles and cheeky grins on their faces. Laughter and giggles and occasionally arrogant snorts could be heard throughout the table, and as well as the room.
The great hall was definitely lively tonight, due to all the fresh students right off the boat. 

A feeling crept through her just then.
Someone was staring at her.

She turned her head towards a fellow wizard seated beside her. The wizard had a small, warm smile on their face, and a hand outstretched towards her. Kira raised her left eyebrow in question, and slowly reached out and shook their outstretched hand. 

"Hey." The wizard said.

"My name is. . ." 

Kevin's wandering eyes ended up staying too long on a girl next to him, for some reason something about her stood out. At first he wondered if the girl herself was famous, and shook the idea from his head as he kept looking. Then the idea hit him that perhaps the girl was the child of someone famous instead. Still, he just couldn't place what about the girl was making him so sure that she wasn't just a simple face in the crowd. Unfortunately, the girl caught on to his staring before he could solve his little conundrum. Rather awkwardly, his half smile adopted a warmer quality while lifting his already extended arm for a handshake.

"Hey," he began some sort of effort to be less weird. "My name is Kevin, Kevin...Reagan, sorry, I thought  you looked familiar." His last name came out as a mumble after a bit of hesitation before rushing out the rest of the sentence at top speed. The fact she actually shook his hand was less reassuring than he had hoped.

"Lively table isn't it?" He weakly followed up in hopes of denying her a chance to follow up her own introduction with a substantive question. His emerald eyes darted from her face as he sought to hide a little embarrassment and secretly cursing her hair for not being long enough to hide behind.

The wizard quickly introduced himself with with a smile, which Kira assumed was the awkward kind. She was unsure. She wasn't one for knowing how to read one's facial expressions. 

And before Kira could even ask him why she looked familiar, or even introduce herself, the topic changed. She raised an eyebrow in question. Odd, she thought, but went with the flow.

"It is quite lively. Livelier than I've expected, actually." Which is the truth. She wasn't expecting large groups of students laughing and seeming like they enjoyed life at the Slytherin table. She'd always imagined wizards from Slytherin were all gloomy and grumpy. Stereotypical, yes, but that's what she was lead to believe. 

Her eyes darted around the table for another quick glance, and indeed, mostly everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. She spotted a few with arrogant expressions, and others with small frowns on their faces. Kira found herself relating to the latter ones. 

She then trained her eyes back on..what was his name again? Ken? Evan? Oh dear, she's already forgotten. She mentally face palmed. Names. One of the few things which she can never remember at the start. 

She gave a small, awkward smile, however she said nothing else to help with the conversation. She wasn't exactly a good conversationalist. 

Kevin found himself inwardly sighing with relief when she addressed the follow up remark which kept things within the realms of his comfort zone. Though her looking around the table in the process triggered an inkling of something. It wasn't a dangerous something so much as a feeling of walking a fine line. A very faint memory, a face on a paper - someone powerful since his family remarked on 'good blood'...but it was a...political piece? At any rate the girl's attitude didn't seem too enthused about his intrusion into her meal - or was it her being specifically at this table? She also didn't give her name, and he couldn't tell if it was because of his family's...academically eccentric reputation or just her just following his dodge in their earlier exchange.

"Sorry if I overstep," given her glance around that table had been a quick one he broke the growing silence. "But it seems like you're less than thrilled about our table Miss... sorry I'm afraid I didn't catch your name." While still trying to safely probe the conversation he directly asked her name. If her family had issued with his, then he'd have been told to watch out for her. So he guessed the Reagan reputation for 'collecting' research wasn't an important factor.

"Kira. Kira Callaghan."

She told him her name, still having forgotten his. She shifted in her seat and followed up on his statement before. "And, no. I am actually quite thrilled about being at this table. My mother herself was a Slytherin." She stated simply. 

Indeed, her mother was a Slytherin during her time here at this fantastic school of wizardry. Most of her family actually hailed from the same house. Kira was quite proud of herself for following up on the family 'traditions'.  

Kira then stared at the boy seated beside her, who she had already deemed decent enough to have a small, pleasant talk with again in the future perhaps. So far, the conversation has been alright. There was a small, awkward tension in the air, however. But perhaps Kira just imagined it and the boy was actually enjoying the small talk he was currently having with her. She doubted it though and scoffed at the thought of someone actually enjoying the time spent with her. No one ever has. 

She shifted in her seat and uncrossed then crossed her legs again. Another odd habit she did, which she wasn't quite aware of. She looked at the boy and offered him a half smile, her upper right lip tugging upwards in hopes of lighting up the awkwardness in the air which she still probably imagined. 

The name served as the final straw to recognition - he recognized the girl through her mother. Of course the notion of admitting it in those words was a little embarrassing to him; but given the old noble like mindset and habits longstanding pure-blood families hadn't entirely managed to shake off it was still somewhat normal to associate through pedigree. The Slytherin pride remark that followed it up just made him more certain.

"So you're the daughter of Khloe Callaghan - my father's something of a fan so no wonder I thought you seemed familiar." Old inter-family gossip proved useful for something after all as he chuckled at his own bad memory. "Sorry for not realizing sooner, Reagan social graces have a reputation for being bad but I didn't mean any offense. The family thinks having youngsters learn magic is more important than learning to socialize."

He hid behind the bad reputation of his ancestors to avoid being called rude directly. The girl's shifting and leg crossing in her seat got him thinking she found him uncomfortable since he directly implied THAT Reagan family as opposed to a different one.

"Just because my ancestors had a reputation for being crazy alchemists, researchers and magical thieves doesn't mean it's true." He said with what he hoped counted as a playful wink as he teased the girl a little. "I'll tell you before copying any notes after class, House Honor." He intentionally made an X marking over his chest with the comment.Hopefully the exaggerated show of sincerity in contrast the...Machiavellian reputation of their House would earn a laugh or something to put her at ease.

So he knew of Kira's father then. She shouldn't be the least bit surprised, as her mother was quite a well known witch in the wizarding world. 

The boy also mentioned of Reagan, which she immediately assumed was his last name. She repeated the name multiple times in her head so as not to forget it. Again.  

Kira racked her brain to see if she could remember anything of the Reagan family and history. She didn't know much, except that they were known to be alchemists or thieves of some sorts. She really should be paying more attention to her mother's tiring lectures about all those other wizard families, both mud blood and pure blood. 
Her assumptions relating to the Reagan family were then confirmed with the boy's next statement.

A small chuckle then escaped Kira's pink lips as the boy winked, promised, and made a cross over his chest playfully. This lightened Kira's dull mood a tad bit, and she mentally thanked him for that.  

"Sure thing." She replied with those two words and a small, curt nod, as she literally could not think of anything else to say. Not even a witty remark or comment. Nothing. This is how pathetic her conversing skills are. She mentally scolded herself for ignoring her grandmother's cries at her lack of skill in this department and her attempt at helping Kira improve by taking her to after school clubs and what not. 

However, at least Kira didn't seem as tense and awkward as she was at the start of their conversation. She hoped the boy would notice this just so he wouldn't think Kira was nervous or anything of the sorts, and stop conversing with her. She surprisingly found herself finding their conversation comforting, as coming to this new school had put her a bit on edge.
 

So she CAN laugh the rather rude thought voiced itself when the little chuckle occurred. As reassuring as it was to learn that he wasn't talking to an emotionless mass, he began to question his sense of humour...after all, what if he WASN'T funny. That was pretty much the only thing he had going for him socially.

"Then I'll be sure to take you up on that." He replied to her voiced permission to helping himself to her notes before realizing he was running out of trivialities to discuss. He took a quick drink from his nearby goblet while doing some quick thinking before recognizing he'd have to work on his ability to hold nonsense conversations.

"So given the...academic successes of our families," he slowly started while placing the empty goblet down. "Mind if I ask the reason you opted to attend Hogwarts? Was it tradition, chance to dodge the folks, making connections of your own or a goal more interesting?" It was effectively a question of her aims and ambitions phrased more innocently. After all attendance wasn't exactly mandatory and he listed more than a few bland reasons some families press on their kids. But he was the sort to bet very few actually bought such boring talk at their age.

"Personally, I'm just using this as a stopping point while looking for things more interesting." His expression grew mischievous at the confession.

Alex would half-shocked walk over to the slyterhering table. When he was under the sorting hat he had simply wished for the best house for him and he knew he had some of the qualities needed to go in Slythering. Still from what he had read from Hogwarts a history there had onlly been ver, very few muggleborns to go into Slytherin.

Nevertheless Alex as confident as he could, which was not exactly rather confident at the moment walked down to the table and sat down at one of the empty stools. Still even with what had just happened Alex could not help but be amazed with what he saw around him. From the flying candles to the food that magically appeared in front of him. He slowly grabbed a piece of pork as well as some potatos and a few brocolli. He did not like it much but his parents had told him to eat enough vegetables and at home the brocolli was rather good, though it was questionable wheter food here at hogwarts was prepared the same way here at hogwarts. After grabbing his plate Alex began to go into tactical mode and began looking up and down the table, mentally designating in four categories. Intelligence, Martial capabilities and power which all culminated in the possible threat level. 

For now Alex would be a bit silent and would slowly start eating.