General The Gryffindor Table 2018-2019

Erin's legs were placed on the table rather crudely, her little legs just barely towering over the plate in front of her. She had omitted the thought of eating in her haste to meet her fellow students, but her hunger was slowly building up. She silently cursed herself for not buying the box of pepper imps that the woman offered her on the train to the school. She eyed the discoid plate in front of her, then the balmy turkey that lie only a few inches to her left. She usually abhorred turkey, its bland, meaty taste always leaving Erin feel disappointed. The dish looked a lot better than it actually tasted.

Begrudgingly, she picked up her knife with despair as she came to terms with what she was doing, if she didn't eat something then she would likely collapse on the way to her dorm. Erin's knife slid into the turkey with efficiency, the juices of the turkey slightly spilling out as her knife dug deeper and deeper. Finally, the piece came off of the turkey and almost fell onto the wooden surface of the table. Not missing a beat, Erin's fork quickly came in and stabbed the piece, saving the table from contact with the well-seasoned turkey.

The food slowly found its way to Erin's plate, but it was clear that it was an unwelcome visitor. Erin grimaced at the turkey like she was looking at a corpulent hippo bathe itself in mud. She took a quick gander at the rest of the table and saw some students scarf down the turkey, they resembled hungry hyenas crowding around a fresh water buffalo. If they liked it, she had to like it...right? Erin tried to fool herself, but inside she knew that the fact other students enjoyed the food was de minimis to whether or not she would like it.

She would brace herself for what she was about to eat with a deep inhale, inside she wished that there was more to choose from in terms of the main course. Erin would look at her fork and nod slowly, confirming to her culinary comrade that it was time to dig in. The utensil would stab into the piece of food for the second time that night, slipping in like the two were meant to be. She would then slowly push the fork through her lips. The heat would blanket her mouth akin to an arid breeze covering a desert town with sand and humidity.

She could smell the spices that had been used to season the bird, turmeric and basil seemed to be abundant in the magic kitchen or wherever they got it from. As her tongue met the dry skin of the turkey, her nose would visibly wrinkle in disdain. It tasted like it had 6 years ago, like the gods of flavor had left the earth and this is all that humanity was left with. Her teeth came down onto the morsel and started to grind it into a digestible substance. Before she knew it, the food had entered the gates of her esophagus and passed into the confines of her stomach.



Erin continued to eat the turkey with a look of displeasure, her body tensing up each time she took a bite. She never though that one of her first experiences at Hogwarts would be almost throwing up as she begrudgingly ate turkey. Maybe the magic budget surpassed the culinary budget, or maybe the chef was just mentally visually impaired. Whichever one it was, it didn't really matter, she just hoped to learn a flavor charm in the near future. She had to take small sips of the grape juice between every bite, cleansing her mouth of the tasteless turkey.

Through her misery, Erin had barely noticed a new face arrive at the Gryffindor table. She quickly used the sleeve of her robe to wipe her face of the turkey crumbs and grape juice splotches. She heard the girl say, "Hullo, d'ya mind if I join you all?". A mischievous smile formed on her face as she realized the girl had a British accent. Finally Erin's dream since she had arrived at Hogwarts had come true, the new accent rang through her ears and danced on her eardrums like a graceful ballerina.

Erin looked up to the girl, her mischievous smile now turned into a welcoming one, and motioned for her to sit down. She wasn't one for proper introductions and filtering what came out of her mouth, instead words rocketed out of her mouth before the logical side of her brain could even proofread them. This was displeasing to a lot of people that she interacted with, but it also helped her find close friends quickly. "Not at all lassie! The names Erin, and that red-headed gom next to ye is Sean." She would say, looking at Sean and sticking her tongue out to show she was joking.

The food might've been bad, but so far the people were nothing but cordial... well except for Slytherin house. She couldn't help but harbor a little resentment for the house, to be fair they probably didn't like her too much either. Erin could tell that the sorting hat had chosen right, these people were definitely the types that she loved to be around. Erin had always thought lions were cool animals, so she didn't mind being a lioness. And just like a lion, she felt a newfound sense of loyalty to the house.

Hogwarts was going to be a completely new experience for the muggle-born wizard, magic was only introduced to her shortly before she arrived at the school. She had grown up favoring a life of crime and fighting, not really knowing what a prestigious lifestyle entailed. Erin had been thrusted into this world with only money and limited knowledge, but she was starting to adjust to it quickly. It was going to be a long journey before she had completely adapted to this foreign environment. But having loyal friends along the way would help keep her on the right path, one day she would happily call Hogwarts 'home'.

Sean grinned appreciatively at Erin, basking in her praise. He had always prided himself in his phony Cork accent...his parents hated it, and well....anything to get his parents' knickers in a knot. He could also do Cockney and Bronx.

As Sean was trying to quickly think up some witty reply, another girl joined them at the table. Erin wasted no time in verbally accosting her, and Sean rolled his eyes and twirled one finger around his temple, indicating Erin's craziness.

"Pay no attention to this bowsie here," he told Riley, laughing, "She's a right scanger."

Sean glanced over at Erin, noticing for the first time that she looked like she was trying to choke down a dog turd. Sean turned to his own magnificent plate, one eyebrow screwed in puzzlement. No one in their right mind would find this food undesirable, right? He looked back towards Erin....she most definitely didn't seem to be enjoying it.

"Erm....are you alright?" he asked in a puzzled tone, "Ye look like yer tryin' to swallow something that came outta a dog's arse. Riley! Don't ye think she looks like she's chewin' on a mutt's turd?"

As he continued to stare at her, Sean dug his spoon into his moutain of potatoes and gravy, and lifted a heaping mass of it towards his mouth. Opening as wide as he could, he shoved all he could into his mouth, bits of potato squeezing their way out from the corners of his mouth and plopping back down onto his plate. As he tried to work his jaw around the great mass of food in his mouth without allowing it to dribble back out between his lips, Sean continued to stare at Erin, greatly exaggerating his chewing.

Renae looked at all of the smiling faces at the Gryffindor table as she slowly approached it. She saw a few guys and girls laughing and she saw the prefect in conversation with a few others. She didn't know what to say or do. She quietly found a small space she could sit at between a boy and girl.

As Renae sat down she continued to scan the room. Everyone was very delighted, filled with joy. She smiled slightly at the glance at the buzzing room. She knew that this was her home. She turned around to find a someone across the table asking "Hi! What's your name?" Renae hesitated and blinked saying "It's uh Renae. Renae Everett." The girl across Renae smiled and said her name but she didn't realize how hungry she was. 

Renae looked at all the food up and down the table in awe discovering that she didn't notice it. The girl across the table said "Oh! You're hungry! Dig in and take what you want Renae!" Renae looked at the food in her reaching range and grabbed some turkey, bread, vegetables, and a small slice of pie to celebrate her attendance at Hogwarts. She dug in while listening to conversations and rumors about anything and everything and she was intrigued. As Renae was finishing up, the girl across from her said "I hope you like it here." and Renae replied "I already do!"

When the sorting hat was placed on his head Clarke found that his mind went blank. He heard rumors about the way the hat could read your thoughts, maybe even take your wishes into consideration but Clarke had no wishes. As he sat in front of the hall staring out at everyone else he had questions, about his identity, where he even belonged in this world.

For a stunningly long second he had a flash of fear that the sorting had would reject him entirely, scold him for not being special enough to even be at Hogwarts. It was terrifying. He couldn't recall a time that it had ever happened before but then being the first would traumatize him even further. He shuddered to think what would happen to him if the sorting hat cast him aside. He was so happy to finally get away from his family and start his own life, be his own person, if the sorting hat sent him back now where would he be, where would he go how would he....

"Ah yes," The sorting hat said in a slow drawl, "Jeremiah Laredo's boy are you anything like your father? Hmm, let's see." Clarke went to answer but was interrupted as the hat continued, his voice echoing through Clarke's head, "seems you resent the similarities you have with your father. He was a great Slytherin, as cunning and ambitious as they come. But you, you don't have any ambitions it seems."

Clarke bit his tongue. He wanted to fight back, argue with the hat. He had ambitions he just didn't know what those were yet. He hadn't even started at Hogwarts, didn't know what he was good at, didn't know who he was beyond his father's son. If the hat just gave him a chance he could have...

"A fiery personality I see," The hat said, "yes, yes I see a lot of both of your parents in you. But let's try something else out this time around eh..." The next words the hat said was outloud, in a booming voice to the rest of the hall, "GRYFFINDOR!"

Clarke blinked in surprise as a sea of red and gold started their applause. He couldn't think beyond being surprised and walked over to the Gryffindor table in a daze to sit with the other first year Gryffindors there. His family was full of proud Slytherins, and he couldn't begin to guess what their reaction to this would be. Being the first of his lineage to wear the red and gold colors, to reject the snake entirely could cause any number of problems for him.

But still, as he sat at the table and looked around all he could think was "thank god," because the hat had seen something in him that made him unique. Where ever he'd go after this, was dictated by him not his parents.

Hogwarts was already feeling more like home than he ever could have hoped.

Aiden's pulse finally began to slow down by the time the sorting ceremony was ending. Questions about his father still buzzed about his head, but he figured he had to put it out of his mind for now and just enjoy the feast. This was, after all, his first meal at Hogwarts!

With a snap of his fingers, the Headmaster made hundreds of plates of food appear on the tables throughout the hall. There were large, sizzling roasted ducks, juicy briskets, cavernous bowls of mashed potatoes and many foods Aiden had never seen before. He grabbed a bit of everything and began stuffing his face. He hadn't eaten since breakfast as he forgot the lunch his mother had packed him for the train and thought the food on the Hogwarts Express was horrendously overpriced.

After taking a few bites of a drumstick he had managed to fish out from a platter of chicken, Aiden looked around for any first years that had been sorted with him earlier. Strangely, he couldn't find any. He wondered where they were. Though he was slightly anti-social, he knew that if he were to survive his years at Hogwarts he would need to at least because familiar with his fellow classmates.

Aislyn gave the table a quick look over before sitting down. "Hiya! Just call me Ash." She spouts in a chipper tone. Moments later she realized that she had not really paid the ceremony any attention, and as such didn't actually know any of her new classmates' names. The sight of food caused her to dismiss the worry, they were likely to introduce themselves at any rate. The food did look good, but Aislyn had opted to not do her daily exercises this morning, she had felt that the day would likely be an already tiring experience without the added weight of physical exhaustion, so she grabbed a smaller than normal portion to nibble upon.

Now that she thought about it, the school did not seem particularly encouraging of physical activity. Sure there was flying and Quidditch, but that was an unreasonably small section of the school. There was no indication of any sort of physical education on the class list. 'Do witches and wizards use some kind of magic to not get fat? If so, where's the fun in that...' As she thinks about the mysterious weight management of the magical community she decides that even were that the case, she'd continue running just for fun. Suddenly remembering she was potentially in a social situation, she returned her focus to the chattering students around her.

Dot was in a serious shocked state. Students around her were chattering and talking excitedly, but all her ears could hear was a distant 'buzzz'. She was walking numbly toward the Lion's table, not believing it's what she was doing.
How could this happen? Even tears didn't come.
As soon as Dot got to know about Hogwarts, she had a special likening to the house called Ravenclaw. She had studied about it and and had known that this house was for her. It was where she belong. All the way to Hogwarts in the train, she kept saying confidently, "Hi, I'm Dot, a born Ravenclaw." And why not should she say this? She was a very bright kid, after all. While the students her age read the textbooks of her class, she always stayed ahead and read about the upper grades. She always got full marks on any given topic, even in Maths, which she partly disliked. She was her muggle school's star student.
And how could such a brilliant witch get sorted in Gryffindor instead of Ravenclaw? She had no idea.
The Sorting Hat is mean, she thought numbly as she slumped down in an empty seat, not looking at anybody.

Anastasia was in shock when the Sorting Hat placed her in Gryffindor. Her family had always, always been in Slytherin, and she had no idea what she would tell her parents about this. How could she be a Gryffindor? She made her way over to the red and gold table, her hands shaking a bit. She clasped them together so that nobody could tell this wasn't exactly what she had hoped for. Like her parents said, never let them see you sweat. It was a Muggle phrase, but her parents liked it. She pasted on a smile as she approached the table and sat down. She'd just have to make the best of things. Widening her smile, she sat down at the first available seat she saw. She sighed a little before beginning to take some food. She nibbled at her fish, but it wasn't quite the same as the food at home. Of course, their House Elf, Dinky, was a marvelous cook, and she had rarely tasted anything that held a candle to his cooking. She poked at her food with her fork, not much wanting to eat, due to the churning in her stomach. How could she have ended up in Gryffindor? There had to be some mistake. She had hardly considered the possibility that she would end up anywhere other than Slytherin, but had thought she would maybe go to Ravenclaw if she somehow wasn't in Slytherin. Oh, well. Might as well try to make some allies.

Jane didn’t sleep at all last night, it was simply too much to take in. Their guardian would get very very angry at the fact that they got into Griffindor. Griffindors were supposed to be bad, right? Just as they were about to take a seat at the Griffindor table owls came in a rush, Jane couldn’t believe it. A small folded letter with a small, black wax seal dropped right on top of their head. Jane grabbed it from their head and took a seat, a small odd feeling started to form in their stomach. Eh whatever. If my guardian gets angry at me I’ll just make sure to make his life miserable. Jane thought opening the wax seal.

Dear Jane,
I hope you are doing well in Slytherin and have made a friend or two already. Do not worry about anything at Hogwarts, homework will be easy! I’d expect straight Os from you too. Anyways... Why hadn’t you sent me a letter? Too busy talking to your dorm Mates? Well then I don’t mind. Don’t forget to send me a letter!
From
Sir Victoria

Oh it was scary alright. Jane was completely doing the opposite of everything written in the letter. Homework hasn’t been given out since it’s only the morning of September 2nd but Jane was probably going to not have straight Os, though they were pretty sure they would get grades. Putting away the letter Jane took out their book and started reading.