General The Ravenclaw Table 2017-2018

Alice smiled slightly at the nickname "Dymph" How cute, I wonder if she'll like it though? she thought, but apparently the other girl didn't seem to mind. She was so preoccupied with this thought that it didn't even occur to her that the last name "Vale" was the same one that appeared on her little brothers favorite muggle book series, or that her muggle grandparents had read them to her as a child. Instead she focused on her two  new friends and the impending problem of the dorms. 

"Maybe they'll be posted on the doors when we get there?" She suggested, feeling as though this solution might be too simple. Just then another thought occurred to her. 

"What are we supposed to do when we're done? Are there bins to throw the food away in or will someone come take them..?" She trailed off, looking around the great hall. All she saw was the Professors table and the house tables. Not a bin in sight. She took a bite out of peculiar looking dessert that she didn't remember being on her plate and swallowed absentmindedly, paying more attention to what Dymph and Grace were saying. 

It seemed natural for Grace to follow Dymph's lead as she too finished a few more bites of her food, having officially tried a little of everything within reach, before she'd pushed her own plate to the side. The tumultuous nature of her stomach wasn't interested in filling itself at that moment, now that she was so acutely aware of what came after dinner. Their dormitories awaited them upstairs, and soon they'd be rooming with strangers -- there was no way around that. Groups of girls that they'd never met before and that they'd be living with for the rest of the year, if not the rest of their time at Hogwarts. Grace thought that there was a lot of pressure associated with making that choice, she liked having time to think things through and to ponder the consequences. It was hard to do that without all the given information.

"I suppose so," Grace hesitantly agreed with Dymph's placating comments, the blonde was right after all -- they were all in the same house and in the same year, it was highly unlikely that they wouldn't run into each other at some point. Whether they were put in the same dormitory together or not. "Yeah, we'll probably be in the same classes at the very least." She repeated, more determined and self-assured this time.

The confusion and questioning around knowing which dormitory they'd been accepted to was a little concerning. After all, it hadn't been included in their acceptance letter or mentioned to them by any teachers. Grace distantly recalled somebody mentioning that the Ravenclaw common room had a bulletin board -- perhaps the room assignments had been posted onto there? It wasn't far off what Alice had suggested and she hummed thoughtfully to show that she agreed with girl's statement. Though, they wouldn't find out if they continued hanging around in the Great Hall now would they?

"Well, why don't we go and find out, then?" Grace said, a much more cheerful grin finding its way across her pale features. "And I think we can just leave our plates," She'd seen quite a few students just up and leave in the middle of eating -- their plates left unattended. If the food appeared by process of magic, then theoretically it should disappear by it too. "C'mon, I really hope we're all together!" Grace was looking more and more enthusiastic as she stood up from her seat. Cheerfulness appeared to be a state that suited her more than deep or serious thought, she acted more like an actual eleven year old when she was excited by something.

OOC: Shall we move this to the dormitory? c:

[I've continued in the common room, here, closed to Alice & Grace.  ]

 The more-than-happy blonde girl sat down between two people at her new table, her brown eyes taking in everything around her, from the color of the table to the food on it, to the bench that she was sitting on and the blue banners above the table, marking it as Ravenclaw's. She tucked her hair behind her ears to hold it out of her face, happily putting a good portion of each kind of different food that she could get her hands on, on to her plate. 

 She had witnessed plenty of the past events while standing, waiting for her turn to get sorted, already. She opted to sit further away from where the source of conflict seemed to be, hopefully unincluding herself from any other disasters that seemed to want to come up. She reached over to grab the salt - but alas, her legs were far too short to simply let her reach over. She grumbled a little bit, standing up, and leaning across the table further to successfully grab the salt, and put it on her mashed potatoes, which were in a corner of her plate. She placed the shaker down, then looked around.

 Each table looked lively - despite the people who'd experienced hair loss. Their moods dampered the room, but regardless, she could see that they were happy to be there. After all, there were ways to magically grow your hair back. weren't there? Felicity could only assume so. She had yet to learn much, but the possibility of learning something like that intrigued her beyond words. She looked around at the people whom surrounded her, as well. They seemed to be minding their own business, and such, and she was feeling more unincluded than she hoped to make herself. 

 Oh well, the first year Ravenclaw thought to herself, taking a bite of her mashed potatoes adorned with salt and gravy, I'll find people to talk to in my own time, hopefully.

Lara bashfully walked towards the Ravenclaw table, taking great care not to trip or stumble in front of everybody in the Great Hall. She had never had so many eyes on her before. Her last school had maybe 100 students there at the absolute most. There must have been at least double that amount here. This was terrifying.

She spied a place at the end of the table and sat down, bewildered by the sheer amount of food in front of her. She had eaten most of it before, but never seen it cooked in such vast quantities. Feeling anxious, as though the eyes of a thousand people were burning into her back, she took only a small amount to nibble on as she looked around the room taking in her surroundings.

It was incredible. The candles were actually floating. Not on thin wires like at the old school, actually floating. The plates of food were seeming to replenish themselves, too! She hadn't seen anybody take away old plates and bring back newly cooked food, but there it was. She sat there patiently, quietly in awe, as more and more children were given their respective houses and found their way to their tables.

After being sorted, James approached his house's table, clutching onto the strap of his bag he had got from home. Inside were the essentials for class: Books, potion materials, that kind of thing. He sat at the wooden bench like many of his other fellow ravenclaws. James took out a small brown journal with writing on the front saying "Hogwarts Notes." Inside was a set of notes about the houses and his peers that he had started taking all the way back at platform 9^3/4. He had almost matched the houses with their colors & attributes, but still couldn't memorize this stuff by heart. James continued to take notes on the event, writing in personality traits & mannerisms he observed. He reached into the large, brown sack that carried all of his things and looked for a book that would help him understand these things. "Hogwarts: A History... This should do the trick." He said, pulling out the book along with a quill and journal to continue taking notes of his surroundings. He read through the first few pages before putting it away to eat. He wrote in more and more in his journal, and then decided to eat. 

He gazed at the shining, gold plates in awe. He had only ever used plastic food trays in cafeterias where they serve you whatever they have at his previous schools, so to see such a wide variety of foods was shocking to him. He watched as the houses all got new additions, while trying to eat his food & take notes on the behaviors of students and professors. He tried practicing magic while reading a few of his books, but failed to do a single spell. He thought to himself, "Maybe I just need some time. I'm sure most people born to non-wizarding families struggle with this stuff too." He then continued what he was doing, and tried to avoid anyone out of fear they might see his journal and think lowly of him. He hid away his journal back in his bag, and looked around the hall in amazement at the sights in the large, candle lit room.

Lily sat down at the table after she was sorted, confused to say the least. Why hadn’t she been in Slytherin like her mother? Or in Hufflepuff like her father whom she resembled much more than her mother? Now she had something to think over and try to figure out, at least? She looked around, and tried to determine exactly what she was supposed to be doing. Eventually she reached for a cookie, and popped it in her mouth. Oh boy that tastes so good... With a slight grin she waited to see if anyone else had even acknowledged her presence yet, and popped another cookie in her mouth.

Then she started to think about classes. Astronomy sounded like it would be a blast, and they would have to stay up late in order to do that, which would be really cool. Charms seemed pretty fun as well, although she had yet to see much spellwork be done for her to watch and observe. What had really interested her, though, was DADA. She kinda just silently hoped that she would be able to take it, since she had her doubts. Hadn’t her mother been expelled in that class? Then again, her mother was rather crazy, so she pushed the unpleasant thought out of her mind.

Ravenclaw, the sorting hat said, the word vibrated through his ears bearing weight down on his shoulders like he was carrying the world. His father would be so upset if he found out. While his family was caring and sweet, his entire family had always been Slytherin. Proud, and slightly pompous, while Ryan always felt different he didn't think it'd be this different. People clapped and cheered as Ryan quickly scurried to the table, sitting abruptly. Welcomed openly by his peers, he did not dare speak to anyone as he thought how his father would react. Ashamed and surprised, Ryan sulked quietly and put on a fake smile so no one would know. The girl across from him looked surprised as well, he tried to make eye contact with her to maybe get her attention but no dice. She just went on eating cookies, still Ryan couldn't shake his doubts, even if everyone looked so happy to have found their new home.

Why Ravenclaw? He thought as he looked up that the floating candles. The hat said everything true about me, I'm ambitious, prideful, I want to be a great wizard like my father, and I do want to do well in the DADA classes. So what is in Ravenclaw that swayed me from my families' house. Well, not much I can do now, I'll show these other Ravenclaw students that I'm here to do my best. He thought what he can do to make his mark. He stood up abruptly, "My name is Ryan! I'm one day going to be a great Auror!  Ravenclaw please aid me in this quest...." he shouted and then he sat back down slowly. There his mark, and statement were made. Hopefully, some would find it in their interest to be his friends.

Felicity was surprised when she heard a shout from down the line at the table. A boy was speaking - he was her age, she could tell, from the simple black robes that had yet to get their house's crest on them, and his appearance was kind of a give-away - but then again, so was her own. She watched him sit back down, and as the person that sat between the two got up, retreating from the table to exit the Great Hall, presumably, she slid over to sit next to him, and brought her plate along with her. She clasped her hands in front of her. Her plate was half-finished, and she needed time to digest what she had already eaten, so talking seemed like an alright idea.

 "So, you would like to be an Auror?" She asked curiously, her green eyes trailing over to the boy who had shouted just a few minutes beforehand, the tip of her nose tinging a bit pink in her seriously confident attempt at socializing. She wasn't the best at it. "I would like to be one too, one day. Maybe we can be study partners, or something?" She suggested, shrugging her shoulders slightly as a small smile crept across her lips. "Oh! I should introduce myself. I'm Felicity Greenwich. And you are?"