Ravenclaw Bread, Jam, & Company: House Cup Party

These stairs would be the death of her. Sorrel ran up the stairs, two at a time, blue skirts dancing out behind her, as she sprinted up the stairs, bird cawing loudly on her shoulder. A couple of days ago, Sorrel would rather die than face the humiliation of being caught spiriting up the stairs, but at this point, it was time for a work out, and she was already late for the Ravenclaw house party. Sorrel had no idea why she had decided to show up to the party, but the strange fondness she felt for the Ravenclaw house was only growing by the minute. Children were gross, often rude and uncouth, but they were funny, small, and in need of someone to guide them. Who better than Sorrel? She could feed them treats, and train them..no wait. That was how dogs worked, not children.

She'd like a dog, not a child. Sorrel reassured herself, hopping up the last stair before the trapdoor. Finally, at the top of the stairwell, Sorrel allowed herself to relax, smoothing the blue skirts of her gown out, grateful no other children had showed up yet. Absent mildly, Sorrel brushed a curl of her hair. It wasn't like she cared about her appearance because of the new, and extremely pretty, professor who was hosting the party, or anything like that.

No, she simply wanted to..show the children what looking good was like. Totally. Entering the classroom through the trapdoor, Sorrel spotted the two other Ravenclaw staff members, both looking regal and mature, unlike the woman who had just burst through the trap door with a cawing bird on her shoulder.

At once, Rhys took off to perch on some poor student's shoulder and Sorrel made her way over to one of the walls of the room, leaning against it with a bemused expression. It was strange, but she felt herself actually feeling pride for her adopted house. Maybe ravenclaw wasn't so bad, Sorrel mused to herself, wishing her bird was around, instead of terrorizing students.

Even though the house wasn't all that bad, Sorrel still strayed away from the party, and the people, waiting by her wall to be invited to talk to someone, cursed by her shyness.

Sorrel is open to interaction, and her bird is currently perched on a student's shoulder. (feel free to godmod Rhys and claim it's your shoulder.)

If Celynne had the time, she would go through the meaning of each word in that phrase in her head. She would write down each declension as a review, the synonyms for each word, the different ways the words could be placed, and how each word had evolved into English insofar. Everything changes, nothing perishes, it meant, from Ovid's Metamorphoses.



Quite a good thing, it was, that the Divination classroom was close enough to the West Tower for her to traverse to quickly. For once she hadn't been almost-late, although other than that she'd appeared just as she normally would: robes over an off-shoulder dark blue shirt since it was hot, sneakers, hair uncombed, sash tightened around her waist, a book and knife tucked into the slip of leather.

She'd only just entered the room for close to thirty seconds when she felt a pair of claws on her shoulder, the flutter of feathers on the wind, and the elegant caw of an Augurey beside her ear-- there was no doubt as to who it was. "Hello, Rhys," she murmured, offering a faint smile and a gentle stroke down the soft feathers of his back. "Where's Professor Wright?"

Mere moments later she found the Herbology professor, not with the other professors but alone-- just as Cel herself would usually do. Some did not like Professor Wright for her harsh grading scale, but to her, Professor Wright was one of the best teachers in the school, and her report card was not a problem.

"Hello, Professor," Cel greeted as she stepped up toward the wall. She was not one to initiate a conversation most of the time, but then, neither was Professor Wright, from her observation. Perhaps she could go speak with the other professors later. "I believe you've lost your bird."

Odessa walked into the Divination classroom almost completely out of breath due to the extensive amount of stairs. As she walked into the classroom, she noticed that there indeed was a gathering going on. She was late to the gathering. "Oh man, I'm late" Odessa thought as she frowned. She stood in the doorway hesitating. "Okay Odessa" she spoke to herself quietly, "There are professors and prefects here, this is your chance to make a good first impression and create quality relations". Odessa had gotten into the habit of talking to herself in order to get herself motivated. It worked most of the time. "Okay, let's go and make new friends!" she thought to herself as she put on a smile and walked into the classroom.

As she walked in, she took in the scenery. The large drapes and carpets surrounding the tables with purple lush table cloths on them. "What a grand room." she thought to herself. She saw small groups of students chatting with each other and one of them had a bird on their shoulder. There were professors standing around quietly, occasionally greeting a student or two. She could tell which students were prefects and which weren't as well. "Hmm, I don't know whether to start by talking to a prefect, or a professor first" she thought. She sniffed the air and food and that is when she realized how hungry she was. "Maybe I should just grab some tea and a biscuit first". Odessa walked over and grabbed a biscuit and tea and stood by the table eating quietly.

Muriel stood in the doorway completely overwhelmed. She’d only seen the Divination Classroom once when she’d explored the castle on her first day of arrival and always wondered why it was so much bigger compared to the others. Now she knew why. It was the perfect place to hold a party, but social gatherings simply weren’t her thing. The only reason she’d even decided to go was because she knew she needed to improve her social skills. But it seemed she was already a bit late.

With one final deep breath, Muriel left the doorway and quietly headed to a table full of cups of tea. She carefully took one from the platter, not wanting to risk causing a scene by dropping it. She took a few sips of the beverage before she spotted the silver trophy displayed on another table, proudly shining with Ravenclaw’s victory. She couldn’t help but feel a bit proud of herself; sixty points wasn’t that bad for her first earnings at the school, but she knew she’d have to work much harder if she ever wanted to take a jab at top student.

As she continued to drink from her cup, Muriel scanned the room, observing who was present so far. She immediately noticed the professors and quickly looked away, hoping they wouldn’t see her; she still had some homework that she hadn’t turned in, fearing that it wasn’t quite good enough yet. She also noticed the two prefects, recognizing Celynne who she’d briefly met in the common room on her first day. Other than that however, she didn’t really know the other few students present. And so, she wandered towards the window to gather her bearings; open places always helped her think better.

Maybe she’d finish her tea first and then decide who to go and talk to. Ya, I’ll just drink this first, then socialize..., she thought as she deliberately began to sip at her drink more slowly.

Interactions: Amanda Sparrow

Flat, so flat her joke/statement/thingy did fall. No worries, it was fine. She would pretend it never happened, easy. Taking another bite of cake Rylet shuffled her feet, and of course, mid chew, the girl asked another question. Speeding up her eating process one more she finishing. clearing her throat as she prepared to speak.

"Ya definitely. It's pretty awesome to become a part of something you thought could only exist in books." She murmurer, blushing with the validity of her statement. Even talking about all that she had gained upon admittance to Hogwarts caused excitement to unfurl in her stomach, as if she was experiencing her first roller coaster.

Cecily smiled as the Divination teacher congratulated them. Cecily had been so happy about them winning the house cup, that she almost missed the party and was a tiny bit late.
After Professor Benoit finished her speech, Cecily smiled and headed over to the snack table first. After hanging around there for a cuople minutes, Cecily became bored and looked around hoping for someone to talk to. She didn't recognize any people there (or maybe the people she did know where hidden), but did recognize their Herbology professor. Cecily almost started to make her way over to her, but then realized that someone was already making a move to interact with her.
She probably wouldn't want to talk to me anyway, Cecily thought after she became disappointed. Cecily liked Herbology, but didn't get the best grades. There were a couple of pieces of homework that she could have worked harder on.

Almost everyone was talking with each other, which Cecily was a little surprised about. She would have thought all the Ravenclaws would be sitting down, most of them shy and not wanting to socialize.
Then Cecily noticed a girl (Muriel Carroll) by the window sipping her tea. She looked quite lonely. Cecily, wanting to not be shy to go up to people and talk to them, decided to go up to her.
"Hi there, uh, my name is Cecily. Cecily Queen," Cecily said. "You enjoying the party? I can't believe Ravenclaw won the house cup! I'm so glad!"

Interactions: Cecily Queen

Muriel was still deep in thought about what to do next when a girl she’d never seen before approached her out of nowhere. She wasn’t expecting nor prepared to start a conversation with anybody yet which caused her to freeze with her cup still up to her face and her eyes as big as saucers. Oh no oh no oh no oh no oh no, her mind rang with panic as she slowly brought the cup back down and gave a very timid smile. “Oh, umm... hi... my name is Muriel... Carroll. And uhh, yes... I like the tea...” She began softly, her words coming out as delayed fragments rather than a smooth sentence due to her nerves.

“I’m also really glad Ravenclaw won... we uhh... worked very hard...” She finished on an awkward note, but was honest with what she said; the Ravenclaw House did work very hard this month. Muriel couldn’t recall one night where she’d seen the common room completely empty; there was always at least one person in there doing their homework or practicing a spell. And with that, she rose her cup back to her face in an attempt to recover and think of something else to say, though she wouldn’t be surprised if the girl would want to walk away after her sad excuse of a reply. “Umm... how’s the party going for you? I hope we can keep our streak... it’d be nice to have another party like this in the future...” 

Interactions: Muriel Carroll

Other people who were shy always made Cecily feel more shy and awkward. Cecily tried to cover this up, and smiled at her.
"Uh, hi. Hi Muriel. We did work very hard."
She paused. "I'm so glad everyone worked hard. And yes, I suppose, if we work the same as we did this month, we can win again, which would be wonderful. I've never been to one of these parties, and I'm enjoying it so far."

She paused again, looking around the room. There were so many other people enjoying interacting with each other, having fun, looking very relaxed. If only Cecily could act that way every time she spoke.
"So, uh, do you have any siblings?"

INTERACTION: Adam Harringtom

Cecily made her way from the West Tower to the Divination room for the celebratory house party, late as usual. She wasn't typically the party type, and even missed the majority of the grand BlossomFest Ball, but she was willing to spend some time with her housemates to celebrate this enormous achievement. Her excitement and pride at winning the house cup didn't show through her composed façade as she made her way through the halls, but it threatened to burst out with every step.

Quietly slipping into the room, Cecily took in the food, decorations, and, most importantly, cake. She made her way towards the refreshments and poured herself a cup of tea before scanning the room. It shocked her that she wasn't as late as she had thought, as most of the Ravenclaws hadn't even arrived yet. She recognised their Head of House, Professor Yornikovych, as well as Professor Wright, and saw Luna's pale hair and the contrasting dark of one of their Prefects, Celynne.

Cecily began to carefully make her way though the tables and people, holding her teacup with both hands, once she saw another Prefect: her friend, Adam Harringtom. He was standing to the side of the party, seeming to just take it all in.

"Hey, Adam!" she exclaimed upon reaching the boy. Adam had been busy as a Prefect since he was appointed, so the two hadn't talked much since the Ravenclaw lock-in besides quick greetings in the halls and the common room. Cecily was eager to hear about how the rest of his year went, and if he had any plans for the summer-- all the regular end-of-the-year stuff. "How have you been?"

Sorrel laughed, able to recongize the child as one who her bird had naturally taken a liking to. The girl, Celynne had also achieved all O's in Sorrel's class, which was a feat that the professor knew was near impossible.

"Hello Ms. Flores." Sorrel chuckled, shaking her head. "I do believe I've lost Rhys. He'll show up at some point, I suppose, when there aren't new faces to caw at."

Interaction with Celynne Gray [currently Flores].