Main Story Ending Ceremony Year 2017-2018

The clacking of her boots was lost in the boisterous noise of hundreds of students filling the Great Hall. Her bag bounced on her hip as she strolled through the entrance to the magnificent hall, likely created centuries ago. She scanned the celebrating crowd, all organizing themselves to their appropriate tables. 

The Brave and Stubborn Gryffindors adorned in red and gold. She had met a small number of members of the illustrious house, all on good terms so far. The Kind and Loyal Hufflepuffs sporting yellow and black, much like those of the wasps Luna feared so much. However, unlike the evil little creatures, Luna had only found warmth and kindness from members of the seemingly ill-fated house of her first year. The rumors involving fires and other terrible happenings for the members of the house had spread far. Then there was the Emerald and Silver Slytherins, the house that bore an admittedly unfair reputation. Luna knew that a strong part of her fit in with the ambitious house, and her cold logic was the only thing that had kept her out of it. She had made only one enemy, who happened to belong to that very house, but it was of little consequence. And they had shown their ambition and drive by nabbing the House Cup this year. Luna couldn't fault them for results, they had succeeded. 

She finally turned to face her own house. The Blue and Bronze, home of wit and intelligence. It had become her home, and she had made a couple friends within her own house, cementing the feeling. She moved to an open spot at her table, seating herself so she could listen to the various speeches that would no doubt decorate the ending ceremony. 

She listened thoughtfully to the Headmaster's speech, making mental notes of important information, and trying to read in between the lines for anything she could extrapolate. Sadly, there was little to derive from the oration. What she did get, was that whatever was going on, it hadn't been solved yet, and students themselves were in danger. Luna hoped that the Professors would respond logically to the situation. Teach Luna and her fellow students more practical spells to defend themselves, as Luna thought it odd that they hadn't learned any healing spells yet. She gave a small shrug, as it wasn't too worrisome yet. For now, she trusted that the staff had everything handled. 

As she finished the last of her food she thought about how her first year had gone. A few friends had been made, as well as her new obsession being born. Overall the year had been a success. Each class had been plenty of work to keep her occupied. The next year would be even more challenging, but the wily girl relished the thought. Keep it coming, and she would show them what she was made of, why she was worthy. She had a golden opportunity before her. And she was not throwing away her shot.

Blaze's year had been so many things he didn't even know how to explain it nor where to start. It was a great year that's what he was sure of. He had done so much and met so many new people everything was just great. Never before had he been so happy so... he hadn't even gotten in trouble. Not that he usually got in trouble. Nothing bad happened... ok maybe some bad things happened but the good things combatted the bad ones so Blaze had totally stopped thinking about them. He didn't want to...

Then all these things that had happened through the year started coming back to him. From one of his first nights on top of the Astronomy tower where he had met the first few fellow students that was fun. He had met some other boy and they had gone through some strange night together. They were so scared they had almost gotten really hurt but it ended up ok. After that, they stopped talking but Blaze had heard he has also become a second year so he would probably meet up with him. 

He remembered laying a chess game with a different student. He had met a ferret which was super friendly. He had done so much. He had done a lot of other things but the thing that he remembered the most was... that rock. It had started a lot of hecticness but at the same time started a bond between him and two other students. That was probably the best time of the year the time he spent with these two friends. 

Quinn's year had been in an interesting year to the say the least. True he didn't make too many friends, and yes there wasn't really a person he would consider as a best friend. However he still met some new people he considered he friends, despite not being able to see them often. Most likely due to the fact that he now worked for the Hufflepost news team, and his insistent need to attempt reading every book in the library. As Quinn sat down at his table, he noticed a few familiar faces, but for the most part he sat with people he did not know.

At the same time, as he listened to the headmaster, he remembered the fun pillow fight he participated in on in the Hufflepuff common room. He also remembered the days at the library and the few misunderstandings that unfortunately happened there. Quinn also remembered the great maze, oh how fun that was, though he wished he had taken the lead more and contributed more then he did. Lastly Quinn was reminded of when he opened up to a person he now considered a good friend Ami. She listened to him on a day when he was quite sad and depressed and tried to cheer him up. For that he has always been thankful. His thoughts were brought back to the present as the Headmaster finished up his speech.

What he had to say was both foreboding and intriguing at least to Quinn. It was a shame he would have to miss the main summer camp though. He rather liked that idea, but he missed his family more. Especially his little sisters, and parents. When the last feast of the year appeared on the table he began to chow down, not skipping a beat. Whatever challenges arose when he came back, Quinn would tackle it head on. That was a fact.

Amadea entered the Great Hall. She still couldn't believe that her first year at Hogwarts was already over. It had flew by so quickly and it was all still so surreal. It felt like just yesterday that Amadea was receiving her letter from Hogwarts inviting her for her first year. Now it was all over and Amadea wasn't sure if she was ready for it all to be over. Of course, she would be back soon for her second year, but she didn't want this year to end. 

As she sat down at the table, she began reminiscing about all of the adventures she had participated in and the wonderful people she had met. Never before had Amadea felt as though she belonged somewhere, but finally, she had found a place. This was her place. She never wanted to leave. Sure, it was a sappy thought, but it was a true one. Amadea really didn't want to leave. She didn't want to have to go back and face her family whom she had been conveniently not thinking about. She didn't want to have to go back to living a life alone with no friends. She wanted to keep learning more things about the wizarding world and go on more adventures with her friends. She wanted to meet new people and try new things.

She forced herself out of her thoughts for fear of breaking down into tears. It would be a bit embarrassing if that happened, so Amadea forced herself to listen to the Headmaster's speech. She listened closely to his words of advice about being cautious around the castle because of the threat. If Amadea was being honest, she hadn't paid much attention to it. Sure, she had participated in that one little meeting in the library where they had begun to try to deduce who the masked figure was, and she knew of students that had come face to face with the masked figure, but Amadea didn't really have any close encounters with them, so she didn't really worry about it. Of course, this was probably not the smartest decision on her part, but there wasn't much she could do about it now. The year was ending. 

The Headmaster's speech had sufficiently distracted Amadea so she no longer felt like crying as she dug into her food and began eating. Like always, the food didn't disappoint. Tasty and delicious, Amadea savored every bite of it. She finished quickly, looking around at the other students who seemed to be as sad as Amadea was. She would miss the school and everyone in it so much over the summer, but she knew that it would just make her that more excited when she came back. With a newly determined mindset, Amadea vowed to make her second year even better than the first. It would be an amazing adventure.

The Great Hall was already starting to get full of students. Gosh, had the first year of Hogwarts ended already? It felt like she had only been here for a week. All of the friends and experiences she had made here would never be forgotten, even as she graduated up and moved on from the first year. 

Frost smiled as she filed in, sitting at the Hufflepuff's table with the rest of her fellow Huffles. The headmaster started a speech that she was sure would be a powerful one. The girl flipped through memories in her mind as if they were files in a file cabinet. Some of the adventures were dangerous, (cough Lock-in cough) but most of them were just about having fun. The girl had made a few friendships along the way, and thankfully, no rivalries. 

The school year was ending, but Frost didn't feel sad or unhappy. Actually, quite the opposite of that. The girl was happy for the things she took part in and the people she had met. Memories couldn't be wiped out by just the school year ending. They would stay with you and make you who you are. 

Even though there was a dangerous masked figure, Frost didn't freak out or anything. She had decided to put her trust in her profesors and headmaster. Even if she wanted to do something herself about it, it was much smarter to let them figure it out. The girl didn't know how to deal with it. For sure, she would do as the headmaster said and have caution wherever she went. It was for the best. 

The headmaster's speech had taken it's end. Chatter started to fill the walls until all Frost could hear were the ambient noise of indestinct conversations. She took a bite of her food, which was delicious as always. The ginger ate and got lost in her thoughts. 

This next year would be much better than this one. She would make sure of it. 

Celynne Flores whispered the words to herself as she slid into a seat on the bench of the Great Hall's Ravenclaw Table, running her hands over each other with a sort of nervous energy. She cut her eyes toward the front of the room, toward the back, and then returned her gaze to her hands. The tables seemed nearly filled to her; it had been difficult to find herself a space to sit in, but she had, and there was near naught else to do but stare at her distorted reflection on the surface of the shining plates spread meticulously along the length of each table.

Her head snapped up as the Headmaster began to speak. She strained to maintain diligence, not wanting to miss a single word from the first year of her stay in this school, but her alacrity was overridden by thoughts of reminiscence: Kaegen, Eris, Luna; their faces swam in her mind. Professor Valtome and Professor Wright, her favorite professors... the terrifyingly exhilaration of standing on this table in front of her, table knife in hand... the grip she had grown accustomed to clutching her chestnut wand in... the world, last of all, that she had familiarized herself in, like something from one of her stories.

Her skin prickled as she heard Professor Blackburn mentioned danger-- she quite liked the Headmaster, too, a fact she was reminded of as he remarked on his decision to not hide the presence of the menace within the walls of the castle from the students. The notion had drawn her attention back, enough so that it had not been distracted enough to miss his words of well-wishing to them all and the snap of his fingers prompting the sudden appearance of food on the long dining tables.

"Bittersweet," Parker had told her after a moment of thought, illustrated on his parchment by the blot of ink in his script that gathered as he paused his quill on the parchment when she'd asked him once in a letter what word he would use to describe going away from Hogwarts. "You'll hear that a lot. I'll give you another word to describe it, not an adjective, but a noun: Hiraeth. When you come home, I will tell you what it means." And she knew that he had known then that Cel would not be able to resist her curiosity, that she would find out on her own.

Hiraeth. Acerbumdulce, Latin for bittersweet. Both she could feel as little pinpricks across her mind, but both she embraced, for she knew she would be back next year. This feeling... she could not imagine it in her Seventh Year. She could not imagine that year coming at all in the future, near or far. This would be her first experience of this acerbumdulce in her life, the first one that she remembered.

Her eyes caught on the food that had appeared in front of her eyes-- celery sticks, a little cup of molten chocolate, and... a platter of gnocchi, gnocchi of Rome, the kind so rarely found, yet the kind that she could remember she had eaten someday back in her memory... but she would not flashback now, today, her last meal as a First Year of Hogwarts.

Delicately she closed two fingers around the cool, fibrous surface of a stick of celery, dipped an end into the chocolate, and bit down on it, hearing the familiar crunch of breaking celery. Delectable as always. Scrumptious in a way that Hogwarts provided her with, that she would come back to next year.

What had she learned? The girl had learned Herbology, Potions, Astronomy, Transfiguration. She'd learned a hex, a jinx, so many charms, and yet those were not the only things she had learned. She had learned to know a few people as friends, learned of the awe of magic, learned a new world... and it was worth every second of her time, including the headache-ridden hours spent in the Hospital Wing.

All she wondered was what would come of her next year. She would no longer be a First Year, new to this life-- no, another group of students would take her place. A strange sort of feeling ran down her spine at the idea-- she would be a Second Year next year, and who knew what sorts of excitement that she didn't want to partake in awaited them... and what would come of the so dangerous news that the Headmaster had the great sense to not hide from the gigantic group of Gryffindors, Slytherins, Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws before him.

Her last meal as a Hogwarts First Year-- this she would savor. A piece of gnocchi entered the awareness of her taste buds, and a smile adorned her features for a second before it vanished. She'd enjoy a nice break from the school of magic, back in Oxford with its gothic architecture and Parker and peace.

Her footsteps were loud, pounding against the stone slabbed stairs with a vigorous recklessness that Eris possessed so fevertently and so often. The new shoes, which were crimson red and still smelled of factories while squeaking their protests when Eris did not lift her feet up, were slammed down hard enough that it almost seemed that the brightly red painted soles would leave an imprint on the stairs. The stairs stopped their moving for nobody, not even Eris Fawley, as her unbuttoned robe and unkempt hair were furiously buttoned and tugged at with deft fingers, while red shoes pounded against the stairs, relishing the feeling of lifting her feet back up and down, over and over again. Eris wished the stairs would adhere to her will, dropping her off at the foot of the Great Hall in mere seconds, but she had a while to go.

So her feet pounded even harder, tiny legs working up a sweat, as Eris flung herself down the stairs. She had woken up late for the end of term feast, burned out from the final exams that every single class had demanded of her. Eris had heard that before her years at Hogwarts, the end of term finals had been cancelled many times because of the rule breaking of Harry Potter and co. Oh, how Eris wished she had been granted the honor to be at school with Harry Potter. She would of been his best friend or maybe even his girlfriend, if it wasn’t for that other girl, Gemmy, right? Eris idolized the boy and wished to be an auror, and part of her even had a crush on the man. Or his son, to be honest. Harry Potter was way too married and way too old for Eris.

Still, there was no Harry Potter at her school, so there was no cancelation of exams. Between pretending to study in the Common Room (Which really just lead to Max and Eris choltering while Dorian attempted to study or intent conversations with Rhea about Quidditch, along with the occasional glare at Alan.) and actually taking the exams, while practicing flying and being a ‘popular’ girl, Eris was exhausted.

She had not meant to nap through the start of the feast but it happened, and she was paying the price, as Eris burst into the Great Hall, hair unkept and robes barely buttoned. The strands of her hair were a dark yellow, a color that Eris had learned to mean she was embarrassed. Most people would think red, like the color of her blushing, would be the color of the strange metamorphmagus who couldn’t control her hair colors and how they changed with her emotion. Strangely, a cruel trick of nature had made the strands of Eris’s rebelling hair decide that yellow benefited her embarrassment even more, which was true, as the child wanted to shrink away from society everytime the bright neon color found its way to her head.

Eris did not shrink away when she walked into the Great Hall, narrowly avoiding being the last student in the room. She was most certainly the shortest, even in the group of Gryffindor first years that she joined in sitting at the end of the Gryffindor table.

There was no food on the table, as the magical dishes waited wherever magical platters dwelled before being devoured by hungry children. Sliding into her chair, Eris managed to get there just in time for Ackerley Blackburn to start his end of term speech. Eris found herself booing when it was announced that Slytherin had won the cup and hoped the rest of her house would echo the call, as Eris glowered at the green banners with snakes on them, floating on the ceiling with the glorious candles. Gryffindor should of won. Dorian and Eris should of won, with their points each in the 20o point range, even though both children were troublemakers, with chaos lingering under their small satures. Even though Dorian was pretty tall, which everyone was, compared to Eris. Besides Delilah Stewart, who was freakishly short, to the point where Eris wondered if she was a gnome.

At once, Eris could tell that the man was getting serious, and the rest of the hall could, as whispers flickered out. Some had gotten hurt? That was an understatement. Eris couldn’t help but rub the phantom burns on her face and the prickles in her arms were the blood had poured. ‘I will find you.’ flashed through the girl’s mind again, and Eris violently shuddered, searching for a friend’s face to help her calm down, but when the headmaster stated that the situation was still critical, Eris’s eyes filled with angry tears. The staff was stupid, the fact they couldn’t help was repulsive. They had done nothing to help after Eris had nearly died and after Dorian’s arm had bleed. She felt no relief regarding the ministry. The staff and adults of the wizarding world were useless, and Eris and her friends had almost died because of that. They would have to get hurt again, because there was nothing to stop the menacing forces at Hogwarts. There was nothing standing in the way of darkness and disorder, nothing besides Eris and whoever else wished to help her.

She had vowed many times over the course of the year. She had vowed not to leave Rosie Parker, she had vowed to avenge those the masked figure had hurt, but Eris vowed again. She would be the force that stopped the figure, if the professors were so dumb that they couldn’t do it.The first of the figures might have been caught, according to the rumors, but if the school was still worried, Eris would be ready.

She would protect what was hers with fire and blood, or whatever it took to rid the castle and the wizarding world of danger. For now, Eris didn’t worry about that, as the food appeared in front of the students, and Eris started to stuff her face.

Taking his seat at the Gryffindor table, Scott couldn't help but to compare it all to the first time he'd done so. The most significant difference, of course, being his ability to recognise the numerous faces around the table and around the room. It certainly had been his most important achievement this entire year, getting to know all these people, and so he smiled and nodded towards them without any particular person in mind.



It was the headmaster who'd begun talking, and so Scott turned his head to first look at Ackerley, and then over at the Slytherin table to start clapping for them. Good job. He straightened his back and was probably about to whistle or something, perhaps a little too enthusiastic as he often was, but had to decide not to as the room went significantly quiet significantly fast as the headmaster's face changed.

And on he went to inform them about something very, very grave, and very, very unexpected.

Scott sunk back into his seat as the Headmaster proceeded, and didn't know exactly what to do. He remembered speaking to his friend about how different times must've been at Hogwarts only some twenty years ago, how it was safe now and never was back then. He had been disappointed about it, the boy. How very first year of him.. How very first year Gryffindor of him.

But things would be fine now, it had to. Scott trusted a lot of people and among them were the teachers of Hogwarts, even the more reserved or snarky ones.. perhaps even them in particular.
So if it was the table before him, filled with brilliant witches and wizards, that were to protect him, then he saw no reason to feel anything but safe.

..Plus, there was food on his plate now. That always helps.

Best friends were supposed to sit next to each other, right? Wasn't that a general rule of thumb? Well, why were the seats next to Amadea filled? Sighing heavily, Ami took the seat across from her closest friend, rather than at her side. Her head hurt, she wanted to sleep, and she maybe didn't hate Hogwarts anymore?

Originally, when she came to Hogwarts, she didn't want to be here. She wanted to be at Jameson, a music academy, rather than a school that taught you magic. Magic, and thing that she had never realized was real. Magic, something that not everyone had access to. Magic, an unfair advantage. However, over the course of the year... things had changed. She had changed.

Maybe she kind of, possibly, sort of was looking forward to her second year...? No, that was her little secret. As far as the rest of the world knew, she still didn't want to be here. This would be just another school with too much homework to humanly handle, not an escape where she could finally learn about her mom's side of things.

She had never actually met her maternal grandparents, although judging by the pictures kept around the flat by her mom, they were still alive and well. From what her mom told her, as well, they had quite obviously attended Hogwarts in their youth as well.

And yet, they had kept their distance from their only granddaughter. They hadn't swooped in to cuddle her, to tuck her into bed, to clap as she finished a piano piece with a grand, improvised flourish. And Ami was... pretty bitter about it.

But, there were more pressing issues. For one, Headmaster Blackburn was at the podium, obviously demanding everyone's attention to be on him. His first words, a congratulation towards Slytherin's academic prowess, weren't very welcome, but of course, it had to be said.

Slytherin could just stop. Winning all those House Cups? Didn't they have anything better to do with their time, like... like how about actually work on their house newspaper? That was still a thing, right? The next bit really didn't concern Ami at all, although to be completely truthful, it should have. She, however, had not been attacked, and really hadn't heard much about the attacks in general. A bit of danger, however... well, that was certainly nothing new to her.  

A, uh, summer trip? She heard no mention of this- oh, the summer camp. The one that she was attending, the one that she was legitimately excited to attend. Hopefully, it wouldn't turn out to be some sort of massive letdown where everyone was too sleepy and lazy to actually do anything.

As the food appeared in front of them, Ami sighed in exasperation as she examined the meat in front of her. While she changed, while she grew as a person, some things... well, some things would always remain the same. With a heavy sigh, she stood up with her plate, walking down along the table to find some acceptable things to eat... say, like, vegetables, or fruits.