General The Gryffindor Table 2018-2019

@Leila Katz

"I think there is," Isaac pondered, squinting his eyes in thought. He had overheard a gossiping group of second-years earlier talking about it. They were going on and on and on about dancing and the new club and blah blah blah. He had zoned out after the first few sentences, but stored the knowledge away in case it would become useful.
"It'd probably be somewhere higher up," he said with a vague wave of his hand. After all, the castle seemed pretty tall. No doubt new clubs would be meeting somewhere on the higher floors.

He was more interested in the Explorers' Club himself. What mysteries lay within the old school? Sitting at the table was making him fidgety, especially at the thought of adventure. Isaac was already itching to find forbidden corridors and banned objects. He hadn't heard much of them, but ever since he had arrived, he had an undying curiosity to figure out just what a magical school could offer. After all, if there were ghosts in the hallways and talking paintings on the walls, who was to say that there weren't secret treasures or deadly creatures? It reminded him a lot of the fairytales his father used to read to him.

@Isaac Ambrose
@Georgia Chapman

“Maybe I’ll check that out!” Leila said excitedly. “Up like in a tower?” She asked him.

She had so been hoping she wouldn’t have to stop dancing when she came but none of her brothers had known if there was a place to dance.

“I’m really looking forward to exploring the castle properly. My goal is to find at least one secret passage.” Leila knew there were a bunch of them but she had refused to let her brothers tell her where, she wanted to find them herself. She would have to find a time to explore the castle without people around, perhaps after curfew, she mused. Not that she wanted to get into trouble so soon after arriving but she didn’t want to be stopped by any professors or students who saw her searching.

She was planning on getting her bearings and experiencing all of her classes and meeting new friends before sneaking out of her dorm. Everything was more fun when you weren’t supposed to be doing it. That was one of Leila’s policies. She did a very good job of seeming like an innocent good girl, but out of the eye of teachers she completely changed.

Willa grinned wickedly- her parents would not be surprised. Willa was always a kind girl, but her parents called her dynamite for a reason. She hopped off of the stool, walking over to the cheering table clad in gold and red with her head high and a friendly smile on her face.

She took a seat, watching all of the other kids get sorted. She, of course, thought about what her parents would think. Her mum, a muggle, would probably just tell her she got into the "best" house as she knew very little about it. Her dad, however, who was a Ravenclaw, would be genuinely proud of her and that thought brought a sincere smile to her face.

Her expression was kind, with a gentle smile lifting her lips as the sorting ended, her heart-beating in excitement as she thought about all of the adventures she and her future friends would go on for the next seven years.

She pushed her pale-blond hair behind her ear, looking around at her fellow Gryffindor first years, looking for one, or a few to talk to.

The only sightly intimidating thing about the petite girl wasn't even intimidating, it was exciting. Her eyes, an ocean-blue, were filled with an unknown emotion.

An emotion her whole family would be able to identify as mischief.

Hannah looked at the petite girl joining the table “hm she seems nice” she thought to herself “excuse me” Hannah asked shyly to the tiny girl sitting near her “welcome to gryffindor my name is Hannah and before you ask I’m a first year” Hannah chuckled being 5”3 Hannah could be mistaken for a third or fourth year. “Well” Hannah said awkwardly “oh gosh Hannah keep it together” she told herself under her breath. “Sorry about that”Hannah chuckled “I never talked with or in front of so many people before” she added nervously you could tell from her body Hannah hated being in crowds and preferred being in quiet places.

Willa sent the taller girl a smile, "My name is Willa, it's nice to meet you." Her voice was sincere, and she grinned before looking the other girl up and down, before her ocean-blue eyes met Hannah's. "You're height is wicked cool! I wish I was tall."

As the ceremony continued, she found herself on a bench of her House. She wondered how exactly long it took because the whole conversation with the Hat seemed like a couple of minutes to her.

Someone told her it took around 10 seconds (she even didn't dare to raise her eyes), which made her realise she had asked a question out loud and not to herself.

"What? 10 seconds?!" she couldn't believe she could even think that fast, "Oh, never mind. And thank you."

She couldn't recall a single fact about Gryffindor or about people from Gryffindor, so it seemed the hat laid down a completely new and unexpected journey for her, full of surprises and challenges.

She could already predict what her father would say: "Heh. At least now you won't have an opportunity to get bored."
And he'd be 100% right.

---

After a few minutes, when the ceremony ended and they were allowed to start chewing stuff (magically appearing in front of them and accompanied by loud awe from first-years), when she realised this was all real, she raised her eyes from the table for the first time and looked around at the people sitting next to her. And now she had to make friends or at least get acquainted with people, who had a similar direction of thinking.

"Okay, can anyone name famous Gryffindor people and what they are famous for?" she asked in the most friendly tone she could manage while stuffing her plate with the spiciest food she could find around to inject some clear-mindedness into her brains.

@Meenauh Silmataurea

Willa smiled, tilting her head at the odd question but answered anyway.

"The most obvious person who comes to mind, of course, is Godric Gryffindor- famous for bravery, founding this school, and..." She leaned towards the girl, pale blond hair falling a bit in her face as her ocean-blue eyes danced with mischief, "as some people believe," she continued, voice lowering into a whisper, as if what she was about to say was some huge secret, "fighting Salazar Slytherin."

She jumped back almost immediately, giggling at her own display before smiling kindly at the girl. "That's just a rumor though. Headmaster Dumbledore was also a Gryffindor and he fought Grindelwald, Harry Potter was a Gryffindor and he fought Voldemort. Many famous wizards have come from Gryffindor."

As she finished off her statement, she took a bite of a dinner roll, smiling once more at the girl sitting in front of her at the table.

Interacting with @Willa Capulet

She patiently listened to the girl, who was counting the famous Gryffindor wizards, starting from Godric Gryffindor himself (Meenauh deducted her personal points from herself for having such flaws in memory).

The food was delicious, but it kept stopping in her throat every time someone said the word 'Gryffindor'. She couldn't help it, because she couldn't still recover from the unexpected sorting, which happened to her earlier.

"The path to glory," she thought, "the place where I belong, where I'll find happiness."
It didn't sound right. It didn't sound right to her at the moment. People in Gryffindor are brave and have the potential of becoming great heroes. That could be the glory part. But are those people happy? And how does it all even apply to a bookworm like herself? Will reading the whole Hogwarts Library lead her to glory?

After the blonde girl finishing recollecting the names and reasons-to-be-famous-for, Meenauh analysed the list and carefully stepped in: 

"So, based on the people you've mentioned, I can assume that the most famous Gryffindors were fighting some dark foes. So, they're fighters and most probably potential heroes? Or not necessarily, but just chances are higher? Were there any famous researchers or professors from Gryffindor?"

@Meenauh Silmataurea

"Oh, of course! My dad's a Ravenclaw, but my grandpa's a Gryffindor, so I know a bit about it." Willa smiled, taking another bite of food. The intuitive girl could see the debate going on in the other's head, and hoped she could make her feel less anxiety about being a Gryffindor.

"Gryffindor is where the brave dwell, right? And while that seems very daunting, the truth is, you can be brave in a lot of ways other than just fighting and being reckless. Bravery can come in the form of writing something controversial to bring light to an issue.

"In fact, Professor Minerva McGonagall, the most famous Transfiguration professor other than Headmaster Dumbledore, himself, got all Os on her O.W.L.s and became a professor! There's also a section of aurora, one my gramps was apart of, that focused solely on using logic and tactics to plan attacks on dark wizards."

Willa smiled kindly at her, hoping to clear up any misunderstandings. "Gryffindors are more likely to go out and fight people, but they are also more likely to rebel quietly, with books and writings, that's what me gramps told me.

"For every Gryffindor that punched a death eater, there was a Gryffindor who used their intelligence to map out where said death eater was that directed the fist-happy Gryffindor."

Interacting with @Willa Capulet

Meenauh attentively listened as the blonde girl was speaking about her relatives and all the Gryffindor stuff. If she had to believe everything the girl was saying as the ultimate truth, then it turned out the bravery flourishes not only in the heat of the battle and directly facing the opponents but also in the masterminds, who planned how to achieve the goals in the most effective way. There was no obvious way to test it, so if at least the history could confirm that, then it did sound like optimization ("And I'm good at that.").

"Thank you for sharing. Now I think there is a certain probability that Houses are just a mere classification of some persistent personality trait. Like four temperaments: there can't be a single person that is 100% a sanguine or choleric. There's always a mix and some of its ingredients brighten and fade at different times. So, maybe there's a Gryffindor in any student of Hogwarts, but just in different proportions. I am Meenauh, by the way."

Surprised how casually she was making the introduction, she finished her meal and was now looking at the blonde girl, who didn't stop smiling for a second.

Leaving the thread