Welcome Back Feast

"Wow, who would have thought!" Rachel let her guard down, and she was thoroughly impressed. She dumped a pile of chives on top of her potatoes. She then pointed a fork at the boy sitting next to Amanda, and then back at her.

"She's related to Harry Potter! Who even thought this was possible?" she exclaimed.

~

Max was piling a load of food on his plate, as he chatted away happily with this Irish boy next to him. But, out of the corner of his eye, he was captivated by the blonde girl across from the Brown girl he was next to.

~

Boris was eating. He had a large steak, taking up half of his golden plate. The other half was filled with broccoli and a baked potato. Not butter was on it.

Amanda began to raise her finger to her lips in an attempt to hush the girl, but her hand quickly dropped- it was obvious that quieting this girl down would be impossible.

Also the garlic bread was coming her way. She needed both hands free to make a grab for the basket.

Mel glanced up from her plate, which was taken up almost entirely by a large heap of desserts -- primarily, sticky pudding. She thought someone had spoken to her. "What?" she asked the general direction she thought it had come from.

___

Wallace sat -- deliberately -- right next to the boy he'd sat with on the train. He took no food. Only sat, a hint of dejection dangling from his rosy pink lips.

"U-uh, I said something." Krad sat up a bit straighter, trying to catch her attention.
"I said my name is Krad. It's nice to meet you.."

"Oooh, garlic bread! I LOVE garlic bread!" Rachel said happily. She stuck out her hand right towards Amanda, not even giving her an opportunity to grab some.

Clyde cast a glance towards the boy sat beside him, inwardly lamenting the face that he was most likely going to be attached to Clyde for the next few weeks. In reality, Clyde was just refusing to admit it would likely be vice versa, but alas.

After a mouthful of surprisingly decent salad, Clyde turned towards the boy.

"I'm Clyde, by the way. Clyde Fannings."

~

Amanda cringed, biting on her lip as the basket began to move in the opposite direction. 'It's just bread, it'll come around again.'

"Mm, I bet it tastes lovely." Amanda spoke slowly as she glanced down at her plate of mashed potatoes and crushed dreams.

Nicolas looked from Rachel to Amanda. He leaned in and whispered in Amanda's ear (at risk of sounding stupid by saying it aloud), "Um... is there something special about being a Potter?"


Libby piled some mashed potatoes onto her plate. "I've got a couple of siblings that are upperclassmen," she said as she loaded her potatoes with butter and bacon bits, "and they say that the staff are flawless about bringing luggage up to the rooms. Nothing's ever lost or broken on the way up. How nice of them, eh?"

"Wallace Ferdinand Vainglory III." The dejection fell from his lips and splashed against Clyde's eardrum like an inappropriately grandiose trumpet call.

___

"Oh." Mel took another forkful of pudding. "That's a strange name," she murmured.

"Ohhh, I'm sorry! How rude of me! Here, take my extra piece! I'm Rachel by the way. You sort of look like Harry, but not quite. Your mouth is prettier. Ohh-who are you again?" she looked at Nicolas, with a pair of raised eyebrows.

"Oh, that's wonderful. Thank you for telling me, I would've been worried about my blush since I got sorted. I mean, if it cracked.." Serenity shuddered.
"God forbid." She took another bite of her biscuit.
"So, are you excited to be a Gryffindor? I certainly am!"

~

Krad stared at her for a moment, before piping up again. "Well, uh.. Thanks. What's your name?"

Amanda shrugged, as she dejectedly took a bite of the mashed potatoes.

"It's a, uh, kind of minor detail. No big!"

She looked up, halfheartedly grinning at Nick, and that grin slowly turned into a genuine smile as Rachel offered up the bread.

As Amanda took the bread, her face lit up. "It's no biggie, and thank you!"

~

To  Clyde, that magnificent trumpet call was translated to the pompous call of a mournful bird. That bird possibly used to be a king, maybe someone stole his throne or something along those lines. It would make sense.

"Mmm. It's nice to meet you, Wallace. Quite the title you've got."

Libby didn't really get why this girl was so hung up on her blush, but she just ignored it. "Yeah, I am! It seems like a great house! What about you?"

-

Nicolas nodded, but made a mental note to ask her later when nobody else was around. "I'm, uh, Nicolas," he said to Rachel. "It's nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet, too." Rachel replied off handedly. He attention was drawn away from her food and up towards the sky. She could make out Pisces and Hercules easily from her spot.

"Look at this place! They have a goddamn enchanted sky! Where the hell do you find a castle with an enchanted sky?!" Rachel said. She was smiling so widely she might have burst.

Amanda looked up as she ripped a piece of the bread off, and her eyes widened. She never was brave enough to sit outside at night long enough to appreciate the constellations that hung above her.

"In all honestly, I was too concerned with sorting to look up. Those are really brilliant!"

Nicolas nearly dropped his fork. How could an eleven year old girl use such language?! Taken back by her abrasiveness and not sure if her question was completely rhetorical or not, he mumbled "Idunno..." under his breath and returned to his food, occasionally glancing up at the ceiling. He had ogled it on his way in, and thought it was amazing, but under no means would go to the extent to curse in God's good name to express his awe over it. Goodness. Hopefully he wouldn't see much of this girl - she seemed like a bad influence, as Nicolas' parents would say.

"I'm SO excited. Gold really flatters me, I'm going to look fantastic for my entire school career! Isn't that just so exciting?" She asked, grinning brightly at Libby.
"Plus, red and gold are such powerful shades. And when Angel and I stand next to each other, our robes will make Christmas colors!" Her eyes looked like she was looking very far away.
"We're going to get married, you know."

"Don't mention it," said Wallace, brushing a stray curl from his eyes, which seemed all at once to capture the ceiling in its entirety in their small pupils. Supernovas in black holes. "I'm sorry for being so standoffish on the ride here. It seems we'll be spending an inordinate amount of time to..." He trailed off.

___

Mel chewed for a while. "Melenie Astor?"

For a moment, Clyde was almost hypnotized by the display of stars occurring in Wallace's eyes. And then he immediately realized he was staring and holy shit that was weird wow those mashed potatoes look rather delicious yeah let's focus on those.

"Like you said, don't mention it."

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Melenie!" He exclaimed, nearly knocking over a bowl of corned beef to thrust his hand out, to shake hers.

"Red and gold look good on me too!" I think, at least. I mean, I wore a red shirt today. "Is that the same guy you were talking about on the train?" Libby asked politely, trying to keep conversation.

"Really, you were scared?" Rachel looked genuinely surprised. "I was actually relieved that we only had to try on that stupid hat. I was imaging we had to create fireworks with our magic, or wrestle a Mountain Troll with one of our hands behind our back... or..."

Rachel took a bite of potatoes forlornly. "This is weird, but when I was on the train, I was imagining that we had to do a three legged race around the school's fucking grounds. And when you finished the race, you got to pick your house. So Gryffindor would obviously fill up quickly, and Hufflepuff would be where the leftovers go."

She already knew that they were leftovers, but she did not say so. She only ate her food solemnly.

"Oh, uh-huh! I'm so glad you remember, this will make everything so much easier. After all, I need someone to tell first when we have our first kiss together.." She trailed off, before nodding briskly.

"Uh-huh. I mean, besides Melenie, but she's his sister, so she really can't count as my confidant. What if she tells him, after all? Besides, since you're in my house, we can have sleepovers!"

Amanda's eyebrows went up quizzically, but she nodded along.

"Mmm, that almost makes more sense than a talking, psychic hat that burrows its way into your memories."

"Sure! Sleepovers are fun!" Libby grabbed a couple of rolls and began to butter them while she talked. "How did you and Melenie meet each other, anyway?"

-

Nicolas was silent and just focused on eating his food. This girl was insane! Perhaps it was best if he just tried not to associate with her.

"Oh, I used to go to her island and swim around, on vacation.. It was so nice, I miss it a lot, actually. That's how I met her, and Angel. Oh, and Elroy, but he was always mean. Convinced me there were cannibals.." Serenity murmured, frowning at the memory.
"Anyways, Angel and Melenie were always lovely to me."