The Slytherin Table 2022-2023

WC: 208
Open to any interactions! :]

Attire: Usual schoolday attire: robes, shirt (buttons mismatched), tie (undone), kilt, neck ring, no shoes. Nothing fancy!

Reducio

Colin was sad. His heart ached still from the news he'd gotten by owl whilst on the train. Liam, his twin, lay dead in St. Mungo's. The only people who knew were Clair --- thank God she stayed with him on the train! --- and a couple of first years. One was really cool and helped him find a place to be, and somehow managed to invite Clair to be with him. He remembered now that he met this girl and one of the other first years in the Leakey Cauldron the day before. Back when Colin's world was still bright!

Clair had been there too, sitting with them, just talking. Colin's heart had been racing yesterday in her presence! And today it had been just as heavy and again she was with him. He wondered about that. He --- he liked her. A lot! He knew that the day Slytherin raced Ravenclaw in London. She was really very beautiful, he thought, and she was a brilliant racer too! And smart! Of course, a Ravenclaw girl!

But now he padded along behind the bench where Slythering students had already gathered. He walked up towards the front and found quite a lot of empty space. He didn't want to sit alone tonight and when he caught sight of Quinn, he gave her a nod and sat down near her. They'd have to talk soon! Colin drew his bare feet up onto the wooden bench and began watching the proceedings. Often his gaze strayed over towards the Ravenclaw table. Clair caught his eyes the most --- but he couldn't help but notice Sophia's brilliant blue hair as well! Oh boy! There were so many things they needed to talk about!

And then --- Colin acted! He stood up on the thick wooden bench and called out over all the exuberant chatter of the Hall: "CLAAAAIIIRRR FERNANDEZ!!! OWOOOOOOOOOOO!!!"

He hoped she'd heard him!

He really did come to like her a lot over the last few weeks!

He sat down and soon enough the ceremony started! He watched as the first years marched in, and remembered back to last year when he himself walked in with Liam at his side. He recalled how that dratted Sorting Hat separated them into different houses --- himself into Slytherin followed by Liam into Ravenclaw. He lost track of the present for a moment as his mind wandered back to his own sorting. But the cheers from the other tables rang out and brought Colin to the present.

And wasn't one of the first students sorted into Slytherin! A girl. Lily Blaze.Colin found himself cheering for all the new Slytherins! But he also clapped and cheered for the new Ravenclaws and even Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors as well.

Lily sat down between himself and Quinn and introduced herself. Colin couldn't help but smile. Hadn't he and Quinn done much the same last year? "Heyo, new Snake!" he said. "Lily, right? I'm Colin!" He bowed his head slightly to his new housemate and wondered who else out of the sea of first years would be chosen for the Noble House of Slytherin!

Open to Interactions, especially with first years! @Lily Blaze, perhaps @Seven Corigault-Seto, perhaps @Marisa Fraser? || Mentions: @Clair Fernandez | @Sophia Nelson | @Quinn Root

Mentioning @Leonard Oaksworth, @June Selwyn

Post Summary: Seven is in a state of shock after Sorting, and he approaches the Slytherin table, but he doesn't know where to sit, so he just stands near the table, frozen.

After sorting, Seven was in a daze. A raucous roar had gone up at the Slytherin table when the hat had announced his house, and now he was walking across the Great Hall and all its eager, breathing students, making his way toward the table. He twisted his fingers in his other hand, still shell-shocked from how intimate and surreal the Sorting had been.

And now the Slytherins were grinning at him as he approached, and he didn't know where to sit, so he slowed his walk, but he couldn't slow it forever-- and now he was too near, so he stopped ten paces away and just kind of stood there, uncertainly, scrying the table for someone he knew like Leonard or June-- they were both Slytherins, right?-- and he didn't know why but he felt a little close to tears. He wanted to call his mom, or his dad, but cell phones didn't work here, and what kind of baby called his parents after the Sorting instead of the celebrating jubilantly with his house?

So Seven just stood there, frozen, as the Sorting Hat bellowed someone else's House and it carried across the Great Hall to another House's enthusiastic outcry, and Seven didn't, couldn't choose a place to sit, not here where everyone knew each other, where he'd had just been told he belonged, and he was standing, waiting, frozen, frozen.

Open to interactions from anyone!
Would like / is planning to, at some point, interact with @Colin McCoire.
Also, ideally looking for someone to invite Seven to sit near them or next to them!

Poor Lily looked a bit lost! Colin smiled at her. "Don't worry, lass! I'd never seen so many kids before in my whole life, when I first got here! I know everyone says you get used to it --- but really, it's still a bit of a shock to me! But you're here now and, well, we'll try to help you get used to it!"

He remembered that not many friendly faces greeted him last year and that he sat alone. Perhaps he'd just fallen through the cracks, but he didn't want any of the new kids to feel abandoned.

When Lily asked about Colin's interests, he laughed! "Oh my! Well, I really like Dark Arts and Astronomy here. And also Charms." He looked around conspiratorially before continuing. "I really kind of suck at Potions! Um. I like to read and draw! And I write stories."

Colin felt much happier now that the sorting was under way and his mind could be taken off of deep sorrow.

And then another name was called for Slytherin --- Seven Corigault-Seto! --- and Colin cheered with the rest of his housemates. Colin sat up straight as the boy walked over towards the table. There was something about the way he carried himself. Something familiar. Something --- in the blood. Colin stared at him. Seven.

Why did the boy just stand there? Frozen. Like a rabbit waiting for the wolf to seize him. Colin grinned. No, this was no timid rabbit! Colin felt sure now. He looked around to see if he could find Henry --- didn't see him. He caught sight of Leo and Dan and June and a bunch others, though.

Colin didn't quite know what to do, so he just acted. He stood up and called over to the boy: "Oi! Come o'er here laddie and sit down!"

Colin sat back down, still watching Seven, waiting to see what he'd do. Would he accept Colin's invitation or perhaps collapse into the Ravenclaw table?

@Lily Blaze | @Seven Corigault-Seto

274 words
Open to interactions from anyone!

Open to Interactions! | Interacting With: @Seven Corigault-Seto, @Colin McCoire, @Lily Blaze, @Marisa Fraser, & @Quinn Root| Dialogue Hex: #143314

In Leonard Oaksworth’s perpetually-in-need-of-being-humbled opinion, the glass was neither half full nor half empty, but a tempered weapon obscuring one’s senses behind the promise of clarity, a faux-crystal chandelier sparkling with a specialised poison. His life, astonishingly longer than a flobberworm but doubtlessly destined to conclude before his descendant could be traumatised by thestrals, was an odious ordeal of seeing things in the wrong way, because really, the glass was just a glass. He was tired, so tired, of being wrong where it mattered, and he couldn’t sleep his humanity-induced stupidity off as one sweated away a fever. Life, death, those had options for rest, the option to put a lid over one’s eyes and seal the thoughts in for eternity. Leonard was stuck in the purgatory of sight, suffering for the mistake that was his walking, talking, breathing, being. Leonard was stuck in the midst of overenthusiastic weanlings, overly edgy dormmates, and his overly dramatic monologues about the million reasons why Azkaban would be a better place to live in.

In the end, Leonard forced himself to be, because there was no other way for him to be better. An indentured servant to sentience, he stayed and steadied himself and viewed with the objectiveness of a judge and the judgement of the proper. His patience for the ceremony waning, the snake in him went to slither over to entertain the possibilities of his Pwnie peers joining him in studying stress the following year, though he was only successful in finding what might’ve been the top of June’s head and what could’ve maybe been Maggie’s foot. His foot tapped against the floor, a rhythm only he could hear among the clamoring cheers of the crowd. How many names were going to be called before–

“CLAAAAIIIRRR FERNANDEZ!!! OWOOOOOOOOOOO!!!”

He flinched into the back of his seat at the sound; sound, of course, being a generous term for whatever just echoed throughout the nation of Scotland. He regained his composure quickly enough, but by the Great Hall’s candles above could he have jumped past all the other stages of life and straight into haunting whoever might’ve thought that Clair Fernandez was worth howling one’s heart out in the middle of Sorting. He found the culprit easily enough, considering that the boy’s noise might’ve caused an Earth-encompassing magnitude 10 earthquake had it been a decibel louder. Merlin, for all the medicine of normality he’d hoped to soak in during the first month of summer, his people-induced headache had started to come back twice as strong not even a week after his arrival to school. He didn’t know who Clair Fernandez was, he didn’t know what caused the outburst if there was any cause at all, but what he did know was that Colin had ought to stick to writing letters to acknowledge Clair’s existence before he found out how to make a howler without use of an envelope. Leonard flicked the wood, a combination of absentminded and severely aware all his own while nearby conversation flicked and flicked at his eardrums. The pandemonium of a sea crashing over his being, endlessly ending itself and beginning again; he had to drown it out before he drowned himself, leaving nothing behind except a flimsy tie with one end too tight and a boy with punctured eyes.

He shook the thought away, sitting up straight with a soldier’s attention as a near-and-dear sort of name was called. Leonard did not find Seven’s fashion sense to be near or dear to any trends after the 1500s, as the dorky bob had only grown dorkier and the misshapen mould that all eleven-year-olds found themselves stumbling out of had been less than kind to Seven’s proportions. He found it endearing, though. Adorable in the way that youthful accidents were. Yes, he thought, Seven seemed far too clever for the likes of the lions, and while he seemed kind enough to have a chance for Hufflepuff, sweater vests were oft the uniform of the Ravenclaws. Patient now, he waited for the hat to call out an inevitability.

The hat hated him, and Seven was a Slytherin. Normally he’d have applauded obligingly along with the rest of the house, figured that someone with a number as a first name might’ve been a peculiar pureblood experiment meant to be the perfect android snake, figured that someone with the surnames Corigault and Seto had to be a fancy piece of work, figured that Seven was a perfectly normal first year Slytherin type. Instead, his jawbone took a page out of their house mascot’s extensively edgy tome and extended past the realms of the universe. His brain felt frazzled, static electricity (his nervous, spindly fingers spinning up a story through his hair gel). The applause was deafening. The light was blinding. Quite precipitously did Leonard find himself wanting to gulp down every bit of pumpkin juice in the kitchens and toss the liquid’s acidic remains everywhere.

Quite sensibly did he decide that such action would be unsensible. Still, he had been jolted out of his mortal coil, jilted at the mentally stable altar by some dusty, musty, crusty piece of patchwork, and henceforth could he have been considered an outside observer to the situation unfolding by virtue of the sins with which he’d inflicted upon fate and fate had inflicted upon Seven. He did not want to be in this situation so much as he wanted to be present for it, present as an exemplary example of upperclasshood was supposed to be for their kiddish counterparts, but this was not a situation wherein he could raise his hand in accordance to a teacher’s roll call, wherein he could sign his name on some paper slip and be done with his duties as a friend. His duties, his reputation, his need to be needed, somewhere deep inside his lanky onion body.

He shut his brain up. This was about Seven. Deserves-better, latte-named, literal-child Seven. Maybe he could have thought of more flattering descriptors had Seven not royally wronged the hat in some horrid manner to the point where the glorified leather triangle bestowed upon him the worst punishment known to wizardkind. Leonard walked to Seven in a manner so brisk he could have very well survived a magnitude 10 earthquake brought on by Clair Fernandez’s continued being, which he would have very well been proud of if this was about him. But it was not. It was about Seven. Poor, petrified, Slytherin Seven.

It was also about him proving that he was capable of feeling empathetic towards people under the age of dead, which was Seven adjacent and good enough.

“Congratulations.” His tone was very tactfully in the tone of a very formal e-mail about to tell an employee that they were about to be fired. “It’ll be a bit overwhelming at first, but you’ll get settled in quickly enough.”

Boyish, Scottish brogue once more banged on his eardrums. At least Colin was being welcoming. More welcoming than his e-mail voice was, anyhow. Who even wrote e-mails? Why didn’t people just stew and simmer in their emotions until they reached the age of dead more?

“That’s Colin,” he waved a hand in greeting with a careful grin towards the boy, a calculated construction of barely-fitting blocky LEGOs that broke apart the second he turned back to Seven. He didn’t want to be the catalyst in the great escape of Seven Corigault-Seto by initiating a chilly welcome, but he also didn’t want to be the catalyst in a magnitude 10 earthquake that would leave nobody but Clair Fernandez standing. “A little strange, a lot chatty; fairly nice, I believe.”

“You don’t have to talk to the entire school immediately. Just try your best to be polite to everyone, and if one of them turns out to be some insolent blood purist, I’ll take care of it by year’s end.” Leonard continued, whispering and spewing out statements that were as truthful as saying that he was an avid appreciator of having the name Eyebatch Pwnie stick to his side like a malformed growth. Was he willing to take care of anyone who dared bully Seven for all the reasons that he silently bullied Seven? Yes. Was he ninety-nine point nine per cent sure that an ant could body him in fist-to-fist combat? Also yes.

He turned to his audience: three brunettes, one Colin, all younger, all people he needed to impress with an inspiring, humourous, lighthearted speech. In short, he needed to change everything about himself. “Hello, then! I trust that everyone’s having a good night, getting sorted into the house of great ambition and all that? Whether your determination’s going to be put into world domination or, you know, studying, you’ve managed to get into a house with a better name than that of the Pukwudgies, so congratulations indeed. If you've been here for a while, then congratulations on not being expelled so far.”

He flashed another grin at Seven. Less LEGOy, this time, though whether that would change in an instant remained to be seen through the poison-holding glass.

Interacting @Leonard Oaksworth, @Colin McCoire, @Lily Blaze |
Mentioning: @Marshal Mozor |
Permission given for detailed descriptions of how Leonard's mental state is coming across

Post Summary: Seven appreciates Leonard, responds to Colin and Lily's invitation to sit, and sits down at the table.

Scarcely had Seven been standing there for—seconds—twenty seconds, maybe, before Leonard came striding up to him. His expression was—flattening itself, subtly stricken, and Seven’s relief turning into a nest of writhing snakes, twisting themselves into knots. What was—was something wrong? Something was wrong. Plainly or maybe less plainly and Seven was just getting to know Leonard better, something was wrong—was it the Sorting? Was it Marshal? Was it Slytherin?

Leonard congratulated him with the intonement of someone who was trying to optimistically read out a will. It—negated.

And then a messy-haired boy sitting at the table called out to him— tall with pond-green eyes and a black choker—(barefoot? In the Great Hall?)—and he had a long straight scar across his left eye, too—a scar that had movement and velocity aimed behind it when it had met the boy’s face—was this a fifth year, maybe? He looked like he’d lived—

An invitation to sit! And the smaller girl near him, with dark hair and hazel eyes called out encouragement—she was a first year too! Oh, gee—yeah, how nice, what the heck. Okay. Yeah. Seven would Sit.

Leonard explained that the boy was Colin, and then he threatened violence on Seven’s behalf, in case Seven ever met Magical Racists. A warmth bloomed in Seven’s chest—like, wow. And he knew, somewhere many miles away, his mom had been visited by a random Feeling of Contentment.

Then, Leonard gave a rather sweeping speech to the people who had turned their attention Seven’s way. He didn’t sound rickety, but Seven could smell the rickety—like sourdough, or the plume of dust off an old hardcover. Seven smiled at the callback to the name of the Pukwudgies, from earlier today on the train ride here, before Seven had known he was a Slyth. And then. He grinned at Seven. And this time, it looked genuine. And that was great.

So. Here Seven was. The Slyths here. Were friendly. And Leonard was here. And his heartbeat was still hammering but it was slowing. And things seemed alright.

Seven caught Leonard’s eye. He felt the anticipation of feeling ridiculous a millisecond before he opened his mouth, but he wanted to be silly, to bring levity, to do whatever. So Seven said: “I’m gonna put my goose in the offered caboose.” Then, meaningfully: “You are completely free to join. As um. Is obvious. Yeah.”

Then he walked near Colin and sat down at the table. He said, to Colin and the brunette girl: “Thank you for offering a seat.” He kind of wanted to hear the Scottish accent again, too. It was cool. It sounded nice.

And Seven looked back, hopefully.

Open to interactions from anyone! Currently likely to be entering more interactions with Colin / Lily / Leonard.

Colin smiled as Lily chatted about what classes she thought she'd excel in and nodded encouragingly when she said she wrote stories as well. He raised an eyebrow when she said which house she thought she'd be in. He figured her for a Ravenclaw, and indeed she said as much. Either that or Hufflepuff.

And then another girl was chosen for Slytherin. Marisa something or other, Colin didn't catch her last name. She didn't say a word. Just sat quietly and mostly paid attention to the empty platters. Colin couldn't help but laugh just a bit! This one should have certainly been a Hufflepuff!

And then there was Leonard. He hadn't changed much since Colin first met him last year. A bundle of teen age hormones and angst. Leonard stood in stark contrast to these first years, and even to himself and many of his friends. He always struck Colin as a typical Slytherin. He was certainly cunning and devious; fashionable and proud. Colin learned that mostly what went on in Leonard's head were calculations. Everything he did seemed to be prefaced by precise cost and benefit analysis, continually updated by new data, and was hashed over afterwards by series of internal debriefings, reanalyses and more calculations.

Colin often wondered how the poor lad even got up in the morning! Surely the balance must always tip for him in favour of tightening the blankets over his head and remaining firmly attached to his bed! But today Leonard did something extraordinarily unexpected! He actually got up and went over to the boy that Colin had just invited to sit! Both eyebrows raised in curious observation. “Congratulations,” he said to Seven. “It’ll be a bit overwhelming at first, but you’ll get settled in quickly enough.”

How very singular! Leonard always struck Colin as observationally standoffish, preferring to assess and reassess a situation before taking an action so insignificant as shifting his stance to continue observing from a slightly different angle. But there he was! Actually engaging with a younger student! He even introduced Seven to Colin! “A little strange, a lot chatty; fairly nice, I believe.” Well, if Colin was a little strange, Leonard was certainly behaving as if someone had cast the imperius curse on him!

"Leonard! I am quite --- relieved --- to see you still among us!" Colin grinned at his elder housemate.

That got Colin thinking. Out of all the people he knew, very few seemed to actually fit the houses they were assigned to, according to the traditional way of thinking. Quinn --- his fellow snake, he always thought she'd make a grand Gryffindor. Kim --- he made a far better Slytherin than Colin did, and yet he was a Gryff! Sophia --- she'd have made a good Hufflepuff rather than Ravenclaw. FyreAngel was a little harder to determine --- while she makes a fine Hufflepuff, Colin always thought she should have been Ravenclaw too.

Leonard --- yeah, that Hat clearly got him right! Colin's thought turned again to Clair. Yes, she was kind and compassionate, as he'd so happily discovered on the train ride, but she's smart and loves learning! He thought she was in the right house. As the strangely familiar boy sat down and Leonard began issuing an impromptu declaration to the first years, Colin mulled over the behaviour of the Hat.

And it struck Colin like a bolt of lightning! A sudden epiphany, a realisation that he had been thinking about the Hat wrong during the whole of last year! He thought: what do we know about the Hat? Well, it's ancient; it is in some way sentient, though not properly alive; and it is said to be able to remember everyone it's sorted. He remembered his Da telling him and Liam about his own sorting. Into Ravenclaw, of course, with his uncle Colin! Back then, it seemed almost like you could know where the Hat would sort someone based on their family. Blacks and Malfoys: Slytherin. Potter and Weasley: Gryffindor.

All of last year, Colin thought that the Hat had gone mental. Clearly, he should have been in Ravenclaw with Liam! Obviously, Kim should have been sitting here with Leonard. But no! The Hat messed everybody up. Yet now, Colin found himself utterly reversing his former position! He began to wonder if the Hat didn't have some kind of devious plan of its own. Or perhaps some group of dark wizards were controlling it!

Surely, the last thousand years had seen the establishment of a fairly well balanced magical world with four houses each one both complimenting and opposing another; the whole system in balance. Plus, he thought with a rueful smile, here in the snake pit, you knew where all the rotters were! But what if the Hat had decided to upset the balance? What if it had decided to throw the wizarding world into chaos, by increasingly mixing the houses? Might the next Dark Queen be the charming Hufflepuff girl who the badgers were now applauding for? Colin laughed out loud! That charming girl who was destined to be the next Dark Queen was none other than Alma Stoll, who he'd met the other day!

And a thought struck him: if a dark wizard could rise from Hufflepuff of all places, then could not the heroes who would stand against her rise from Slytherin? Or Ravenclaw? How would anyone know what a person was like if they were unlike their house? Was that the Hat's goal? To do away with the house system? That didn't seem right at all!

Another thought came to Colin, though. He was going to be participating in a welcoming activity for the first years. Maybe the two things were connected in some way? After all, his house had a very bad reputation --- what if the Hat wasn't doing away with the house system, but in stead was perhaps focusing on other aspects of one's personality! Maybe the Sorting Hat had seen a quality in Colin that it didn't see in Liam? Could that be it? Perhaps it decided to send him to Slytherin on some lesser, maybe deeply hidden trait in Colin's heart? Maybe it was the same with Kim and AngelFyre!

Rather than stuffing the kid into a stereotyped house, the Hat was trying to break the stereotypes by sorting kids based on house qualities other than the main ones! That meant his new friends must have some snakey quality about them that Colin couldn't see as of yet! He wondered too what the Hat could have seen in him to place him here --- that would bear some serious thinking!

At last the boy spoke: “I’m gonna put my goose in the offered caboose. You are completely free to join. As um. Is obvious. Yeah.”

Colin had no idea what that meant! But it rhymed and sounded kind of silly, so he smiled, shook his head like a dog and laughed in response! "Wh---What does that even mean!? Though I'm happy we're all joined!" As he came closer to Colin, his nostrils flared and he caught the boy's scent. He stared at Seven, realisation dawning.

"WHOA!" Colin instinctively knew better than to say anything --- unfortunate --- here in the open. But he knew exactly where and when he would confront this, most curious boy, this Seven Corigault-Seto! But in the mean time, he gave Seven a big grin. "Hey! I'm Colin --- good to meet you." Colin gave Seven a friendly punch on his shoulder. Looking from Seven and back to Lily, he said: "Er. Yeah, I really hoped for Ravenclaw myself. Liam, my twin bro---" Colin caught himself with a sharp intake of breath. He clenched his fists, took a deep breath to calm himself down. He'd already broken down once today, and he had other duties now.

"Um. My Da and uncle were both in Ravenclaw. Was hoping to be sorted there too! But --- well, here I am! And you know what? It's really not that bad, after all! So, what about you, Seven? What will you excel in here at Hoggys?"

@Seven Corigault-Seto | @Lily Blaze | @Marisa Fraser | @Leonard Oaksworth || Mentions: @Clair Fernandez | @Sophia Nelson | @AngelFyre McCubbin | @Kim Sato

Alora felt shaken as she made her way from the small stage down the steps and towards the wall where a table of students sat. Emerald and silver clearly the colors of honour, and the only thing more impressive than the moving portraits and floating candles, was the welcome she received. Those claps, the smiles. She felt a flush in her cheeks as she moved forward. She nodded towards a brunette (Quinn) and the first year that took a seat beside her (Lily) chattingly acknowledging her as well. There was a neat looking lad (Colin) that seemed like she could easily get along with, but he was already calling out to someone named Clair.

She moves on a bit further, passed a brown-haired boy that seemed dazed (Seven), and a smiling girl (Marisa). She waved and smiled and moved on, looking for a place to sit. It seemed the table had filled up with old hands, which left little for newer hands to squeeze into. Then there was one boy that stuck out, he seemed confident. She liked that, she could use guidance, especially if she was to fit in, and though she had made one on the train Effy was a Ravenclaw, which meant she wasn’t exactly sitting with him at the table. It hadn’t stopped her from cheering him when he was sorted, or giving him a smile and a wave as he joined his house to encourage him.

“Hi, everyone,” she greeted the lot with a soft tone and a gentle smile, finding an open seat finally not too far from the upperclassman. She wasn’t too far from anyone really, in fact, she could easily hear all the chatter going on, though she certainly didn’t want to impede anyone’s conversation. Still, it felt rude not to introduce herself. “I'm Alora,” she added, though that had obviously been spoken before a hat had been placed on her slightly curled hair. She'd undid her braids on the train over an hour ago and what was left was a bit of a mess.

Open to any interactions
Mention/Interaction: @Quinn Root, @@Colin McCoire, @@Lily Blaze, @@Marisa Fraser, @@Seven Corigault-Seto, @Leonard Oaksworth
With a mention of @Efelion Berrendow