Another Start of Term Thread (OPEN!!!)

When Hunter had arrived at Hogwarts at the beginning of last term, he was the same person he'd always been - fun, friendly, carefre, and most of all, happy. By the time he'd left the castle for summer, none of those words could really define him anymore. Instead, he'd become harsh, irritable and bitter. And the change in his personality definitely took a toll on his happiness. But, as Jack had suggested, spending the summer away from Hogwarts - and away from certain redheaded people who drove him crazy - had helped Hunter immensely. Being able to spend time with his family and his friends from the village without having to worry about what had happened at school had helped him to realize that it wasn't the end of the world. So going into this new school year, while Hunter hadn't completely shed his new, short temper, he was pretty sure that he'd found a reasonable medium between his good and bad qualities.

For the past two years, Hunter had exited the train and made his way to the great hall with a bright smile, with the knowledge that he'd get to see Aoife again - if he hadn't already sat with her on the way there. That fact alone had been enough to light up his face. But this year, things would be different. Because Aoife's presence was no longer a cause for happiness or excitement - just confusion and embarrassment and indifference. But Hunter was determined to not let her presence ruin his year. Not again. And he'd convinced himself that he was over her - but convincing himself that he didn't miss her was a lot harder. But either way, when he entered the great hall, he wouldn't look for her. He'd look for Ariel, or Blake. And he'd look for Seren.

Hunter was a little surprised to find that the thought of seeing Seren again brought some of the excitement that seeing Aoife used to bring - not all of it, but it was there. They'd gotten much closer at the end of last term, and Hunter was genuinely excited to see where they would go now that he'd stopped dwelling on what had happened. And as he entered the great hall for the start of term feast, his eyes naturally scanned the room for Seren's dark hair and sharp, blue eyes. But it seemed that he was the first of his friends to arrive, so he made his way to his usual section of the Gryffindor table and threw a leg over the bench so that he was straddling it. Unfortunately, there wasn't any food on the tables yet. There never was until the sorting was over. Luckily, Hunter had come prepared and pulled a pack of haribos from his pocket. He popped one in his mouth and waited for everyone else to get their lazy asses off the train and into the Great Hall.

Aoife felt great. Her long, bright blue hair fell loosely around her shoulders. It didn't exactly look great but she definitely stood out. Her parents and sister had been so mad when they saw what she'd done to it while they were out. It was okay, though, because she didn't care about what other people thought. It wasn't meant to look good, it was meant to keep certain people away. And show people that she was absolutely NOTHING without her fire hair, like Matthew might have thought. Wait... that wasn't the point. It was just an awesome statement sort of thing. Anyway, her brothers thought it was brilliant. Her brothers were pretty cool sometimes, when they backed her up because she had blue hair and stuff.

When she got on the train, she received a few odd stares, but that was only to be expected. She found a compartment near the back of the train and made herself comfortable. Luckily nobody joined her, so she just slept again for most of the journey. She'd had hardly any sleep during the holidays. Staying up all night was fun, but to actually get those good grades this year she needed to get a few hours sleep every night. Aoife woke up just before the train arrived and skimmed through her new spell book for the year, just as something to do until they got to Hogsmeade station.

By the time they were back to school, she was SO hungry. Rather than look for one of her friends, she went straight towards the Great Hall to find some food to stuff her face with. Very few students were already there. Familiar short, ugly hair caught her attention. There was Hunter. Unfortunately she couldn't have food yet, but a pack of haribos stood right in front of her. Even though she sort of hated him at the moment, he was her only chance of food, and good food at that, so she was going to sit next to him. Anyway, she was being mature and friendly now so she should sit there anywhere. "Hey Hunter!" she chirped, enthusiastically considering that she was VERY HUNGRY. "So... do you want to share those haribos with me?" Of course he wanted to share those haribos with her. Because of her awesome hair.

Leaving home had been both a relief to Ariel as well as one of the hardest things she'd ever had to do. Her mother had seemed so lost on the station. Her eyes had been so sad. Maybe having her kids home had made her able to sometimes forget about the fact that her husband was dead. Ariel felt terrible for leaving her behind in their home, all by her lonesome. But at the same time, it felt so good to leave, to get out of the depression that had raged the house. She might be able to get distracted from her constantly thinking that her dad was gone. But the train ride was not the time to be laughing.

Ariel had been latched to Darcy the entire ride back to Hogwarts. They had been seated together, completely silent, and now Ariel was leaving her behind. It was time, though. Time to get back to life. Ariel walked into a carriage with three other unknowns. She wondered where Blake and Hunter was. Honestly, right now, those were the only ones she wanted to see. And perhaps Nina. She could talk to Nina tonight, perhaps. She would know what it felt like to lose someone so close.

Ariel was finally dropped off by the entrance gates and walked into the entrance hall. It was weird to be back. It was like a completely different world. Or aura. Nostalgia filled her. Nostalgia of a time where nothing was anything. Now nothing was her dead father. She took a deep breath. She was going to have fun tonight. She had to. And tomorrow, she was going to find Peeves. Get her plans in motion.

Sorting. She wanted to eat. Food was still her favorite pasttime. But sorting certainly wasn't. She was in her third year, and had only watched it once before. But it had been dead boring. She just wanted to eat and sleep and start normal days tomorrow. But she shouldn't. She should have fun today. Like she had decided. So she walked along the Gryffindor table in search of her two best friends. But she didn't see them. Until she spotted blue.

Ariel blinked and for a split second she thought that maybe it was a metamorphmagus who had changed her haircolor. Ariel's color was a constant brown now. But then she got a good look at the bluehead. Aoife. Ariel blinked. And blinked again. What was this? Some sort of 'I don't care what happened last year, no matter what my hair says'-thing? It certainly looked like it, as she was indeed standing and talking to Hunter.

Ariel sighed and walked over putting on her mask. "Hey guys! Nice hair, Aoife!" she said with a grin. She didn't care what color people had on their hair, if they thought it was cool, then it was cool. It wasn't her problem. Ariel sat down opposite Hunter and Aoife and did her best to keep her mask. Being a metamorphmagus, this wasn't a very difficult task. But it was still weird. She wanted them to know. Just not now. Not here.

"So, sorting, huh? I wish they'd get on with it. I want to eat!" Ariel said, her voice enthusiastic, and she truly meant it. Besides, seeing Hunter and Aoife again did actually improve her mood. Some things just stayed the same no matter, and for now, Ariel was grateful of that.

Hunter had gotten a little distracted by a scene up at the teacher's table, in which Professor LeBlanc started lecturing the teacher beside him about how they'd sat down on their chair too hard and probably hurt it's feelings. He was busy laughing at the scene and hadn't heard anyone approaching him, but when he heard someone sit down right next to him he wasn't surprised. He'd expected Ariel or Seren or one of his other friends to seek him out - but the light, chirpy voice that floated across the space between them didn't belong to Ariel or Seren. It belonged to Aoife. And hearing her greet him in such an enthusiastic, normal way made the realization of how much he'd missed her flood back into his mind.

He hesitated for a moment, pretending to still be watching the staff table so that he didn't have to look at her. Why was she talking to him so normally? And why was she sitting with him? And how was Hunter supposed to respond? Knowing he couldn't put off answering her, he turned finally in her direction. Trying to put the same level of enthusiasm into his voice, he greeted her back. "Hi Aoife - " Blue!? Hunter's words died in his throat as he took in the girl sitting next to him. It was Aoife - only it wasn't. Because her hair wasn't red. It was blue.

"What the hell did you do to your hair?" Hunter asked incredulously, his eyes scanning her new appearance in confusion. It was strange - all wrong. It wasn't even that it made her look less pretty - though it did look ridiculous - but it definitely made her less... Aoife. Hunter hadn't realized how fond he was of her hair until this moment, and he suddenly understood how he'd upset her so badly by cutting his own. But he wasn't supposed to care about Aoife now, and that included whatever she did to her hair. So he tried to rid his expression of his disappointment and went on in a more casual, less horrified tone. "Why'd you change it?"

Ah, so she did have an ulterior motive. Hunter should have figured that the Haribos in his hand had something to do with her joining him. Before, Hunter might have made some kind of joke, or teased her, or refused for a while to see her reaction. But they weren't friends anymore, despite how much it felt like they could be in this moment. So he just snorted in slight amusement and held out the pack of sweets for her. "Yeah, go on," he said, trailing off into a slightly awkward silence.

Thankfully, it didn't take too long for someone else to join them, and Hunter almost released an audible sigh of relief when he realized that it was Ariel. She was the perfect person to disperse the weirdness of the situation, and he beamed happily at her when she sat down across from them. "Ariel!" he exclaimed excitedly, grinning. Surprisingly, of the first things she did was compliment Aoife's hideous hair. "Oh come on, don't encourage her," Hunter scolded her in a joking manner. Thankfully, it was much easier to be himself around Aoife with Ariel there. So maybe he wouldn't come off as a complete git to her for the first time in a while. Or maybe he would.

His eyes lingered a bit longer on Ariel than they usually would, and not because of her captivating Veela qualities. Maybe it was because of how obnoxious Aoife's new hair color was in comparison that he hadn't noticed right away, or because she looked just as beautiful either way, but Hunter realized that Ariel's hair had changed as well. Her once blonde locks had darkened to a dull, depressing brown. Hunter felt his smile falter slightly as his eyes searched her face - Ariel had confirmed that her hair changed in accordance with her mood. And he couldn't help but wonder what had happened to cause it. But for now, he didn't mention it.

Instead, he kept his thoughts to himself and held his usual grin. "I hate the sorting," he commented, rolling his eyes. "They should at least have some food already out before it starts so that we don't have to starve to death - here," he added, snatching his Haribos away from Aoife and offering some to Ariel as well. "I wonder how annoying the first years are this time," he said. "Though nobody could be worse than that Ryan git - remember him?" Hunter hadn't seen the kid around though, and he was glad for it.

Phineas had an aweful summer. His mother and father were always fighting, his father had hit him for sticking up for his own self, and most of all, he had to see. Aoife, or any of his friends all summer. Sure he had meant to write, but he had gotten a little busy with all of the family stuff. He had tried looking for Aoife on the train, but couldn't find her anywhere, so settled in a compartment by himself. On the ride over, he watched the hills roll by, and imagined shapes in the clouds.

This was the most peaceful time he had had all summer. And he was thankful for it. For the start of term, he had combed his hair back, and tried to not look like a first year. Even though his father didn't diserve it, he wanted to at least try and earn some affection from him.

He had plans to join the Quidditch team, get high marks in all of his classes, and hopefully get a girlfriend. And if that didn't work, he didn't know what to do. The train pulled in and they had soon arrived at the castle. He was still amazed by it and wondered if he would always get this feeling when looking at it.

He walked into the great hall by himself, and looked towards the Hufflepuff table and saw that he was the first one from Hufflepuff to arrive. He took a glance at the Gryffindor table to see if he could spot Aoife. Then, his eyes caught something blue as he was skimming the table. He did a double take and noticed that it was... No... It couldn't be. It was her...

His eyes went wider. So wide he felt that they would pop out of his head. He wanted so badly to go over and say hi, but she was sitting with that Hunter git. He could've sworn Hunter had told Phineas that they weren't on speaking terms.

But he wasn't in the mood for it. So he sat by himself at the Hufflepuff table and decided to scan the professor table to see if there were any new faces this term. As he did, he saw one familiar blond head. He got a little excited, but nervous at the same time. For sitting next to Professor Gra-Chloe, was his very own Uncle Chad. This just went to show that this was going to be a very interesting year. Especially with his uncle as a teacher, and Aoife with her new blue hair.

Aoife was glad that Hunter didn’t answer with any less enthusiasm. She really, really didn’t want them to completely ignore each other this year. Whether they were friends or mortal enemies didn’t much matter to her, but she missed talking to him. Casually talking or arguing bitterly, at least there would be no more awkward tension where they steered clear of each other. That was cowardly, and she was anything but a coward. But then the awkwardness was back, because he looked up and saw her blue hair. She couldn’t hold back a giggle at his face. “I dyed it, duh!” she beamed. Awesome, this was going to work. Judging by his reaction, anyway. “I don’t know. Why did you change yours?” Yes, she could reverse it to make it about Hunter’s hair too.

More awkwardness. Was it so hard to make fun of her for coming over just for the haribos? Then conversation would be so much easier. “Thanks!” When she got hold of the sweets, she immediately started shoving them in her mouth. Why hadn’t she bought haribos and skittles this holidays? She would have to write home and get her family to send some for her. Wizard sweets were still awesome, but nothing could beat the solidified pieces of sugar that were muggle sweets.

“Hi Ariel!” she said, her mouth full of haribos. That never stopped her talking. “Thanks! I like yours too!” Honestly, Aoife had preferred the younger girl’s hair when it was blonde but she would look amazing whatever colour her hair was, so it didn’t really matter, she supposed. Was everyone going to change their hair this term? That would be fun. But her hair would always be the ugliest, no matter the competition. It was BLUE! She just couldn’t get over how different she looked with her odd hair.

“Yeah, I know,” she agreed. A really long train journey was bound to make students hungry, so why didn’t they give them food straight away to eat while the boring sorting ceremony went on? Hunter spoke her thoughts and she nodded. “They don’t look TOO annoying,” she commented, staring at the bunch of them waiting to be sorted. “But they probably are.” Aoife snorted at the mention of Ryan. “It was funny how much you hated him. He was way too big for his- hey, my haribos!” Her haribos! It was so mean of him to steal them away from her. Poor babies. So far, she was doing quite well with her acting normally.

A smaller figure caught her attention, smoshed between crowds of older students. Phin! She just waved to him. She imagined that he wouldn’t want to be here near Hunter and she didn’t plan on moving when there were sweets with her name on them over here. If she could get them back. Yes, she was going to get the sweets back. Ariel should just take a few and return them to their rightful owner. Aoife.

Seren's summer had been lovely! All of her siblings had shown up to greet her at the platform, and Seren was surprised to see how much some of them had grown over the time that she had been gone! Her brother had to have gained three or four inches, and Arwen had let her hair grow out. Of course, Seren's parents had taken them on a VERY EXPENSIVE vacation to the Caribbean over the summer. And Seren had enjoyed herself immensely! It had been nice to spend time with her siblings. Seren's brother, Aidan, was only a year younger than her, but had chosen to go to Beauxbatons. Arwen was the next oldest, and still had another year before she could start school.

As much as Seren didn't really want to leave her ANNOYING, STUPID SIBLINGS behind, she was quite happy to be returning to Hogwarts. But at the same time, Seren WAS a little nervous to see everybody again. Things had been so uncertain last term between everybody. Particularly, between Seren and Hunter and Aoife. What would they be like now that everyone had spent months apart? Would Hunter still like Seren? What if he had made up with Aoife over the summer months? Where would Seren stand then?

When the train rolled to a halt, Seren took her time departing from it. She just had to get through a few more pages to finish the chapter in the book she was reading. Finally, she snapped the book closed and took off at a brisk walk toward the castle. The sorting never got started right away, so she didn't have to hurry. When Seren stepped through the large doors of the great hall, she scanned the room for Hunter. And she found him quickly, but mostly because he was sitting right beside A GIRL WITH DISGUSTING BLUE HAIR! Was that Aoife? What had she done to her hair? AND WHY WAS HUNTER ALWAYS SURROUNDED BY GIRLS?

Maybe they HAD made up over the summer. Seren felt a bit of confusion, but decided to join them. Flipping her hair over her shoulder, Seren strode over to the small gathering and didn't hesitate to take a seat on the other side of Hunter, close enough that her arm brushed his. "Hi Hunter," she said, beaming at him. "Hello Ariel," Seren added to the girl sitting across from them with a smile. Seren didn't know her well, but she was close with Hunter and seemed kind.

"Hey sheep freak," Seren said, using the same greeting she had last term when she'd encountered the girl in the owlery. This time, though it was a casual greeting, her tone held a hint of warning in it. Because Hunter was HERS. Seren didn't comment on her hair. It was hideous, and there wasn't much more to be said about it. "I'll have to go back to my table once the sorting begins," she told Hunter. "But that shouldn't be for a bit yet."

Ariel felt a pang of joy at their reaction to seeing her. Just what she needed, to hear that they were bloody happy to see her. She felt her smile become less forced and gave Hunter a shrug at his comment of not encouraging the ex-redhead. "Sorry, Hunter, but you know how haircolor is the least of this world's problems," she said lightly. Her hand reached unconsciously for her hair as Aoife complimented her back. "Thanks," she said, but she absolutely hated it herself. But the dark cloud looming above her was anything but easy to shake. She could change her hair back to blonde, but it would take her focus to keep it that way, and she honestly couldn't be bothered.

She had researched some metamorphmagus' over the summer, the most popular one being a woman called Nymphadora Tonks. Apparently she had gone around with jolly happy pink hair, apart from a time when it was a dull mousy brown when the one she loved didn't want them to be together. (Gee, what a problem…) But Ariel envied her the ability to walk around with pink hair without forcing herself to keep it like so. Not that Ariel would've gone for pink, but still. A livelier color, only. She had only been blonde. Maybe her life was a bit heavier? It certainly was now. BUT ENOUGH! she screamed at herself.

Ariel sighed. "I remember him from my first year. I haven't seen him around though," she said and gave a laugh at Aoife's outburst as Hunter snatched the haribos away from her and gave them to Ariel. Ariel accepted with a smile and took a few. Then she kept it in her hand, giving Aoife a mischievous smile.

She looked up when Seren came and joined them, greeting them. "Hey Seren," Ariel said with a pleasant smile. She hadn't talked to Seren before, but this certainly was an opportunity. She didn't say anything about Seren's greeting to Aoife and simply took some more haribos, watching carefully, but not scrutinizingly. She wouldn't want to be caught looking as though she was at the movies watching a highly interesting triangle film. She was looking at Hunter though, in a very scrutinizing manner, to see what his reaction would be.

And then she decided to speak up. "I know. And that's actually the worst part! They wait for, like, ages before they even start the sorting! They could've at least started it at once so it wouldn't take so damned long," she said with big eyes and enthusiasm; she really wanted to eat!

And then, for the hell of it, she turned the package of haribos upside down and spread it on the table that they sat on. "Now, they're all up for grabs!" she said, giving Aoife a very innocent grin.

Derek sighed. He was in a stupidly long queue of people to be sorted by an ugly old hat which probably wanted to eat his brains because it looked like an evil weirdo. Really, he just wanted to eat because all those sweets on the train hadn’t been enough and he could still eat LOADS more. Unfortunately his surname was Lawrence which meant he was half way through the lot of them. Eventually, the time came for his sorting and he bounced towards the stool.

Okay then! “You smell,” he commented, wrinkling his nose when the mouldy old hat was placed on his head. “Can we make this quick, please? I need some food and I don’t want to be stuck with a stinky old hat on my head for hours.” The hat wasn’t very impressed. Derek was sure he made the process longer than it need be, just to get on his nerves. Well, the lesson in all this was to always be nice to horrible old hats that decided your entire fate at school.

“Ravenclaw!” it finally shouted.

Grinning, he leaped off the stool and headed down to the blue house. These were obviously the cool kids here at the school. They just looked so intelligent. He took a seat at the end of the bench, only to be disappointed when there wasn’t any food out yet. Why was there no food out yet? Outrageous! What was he supposed to do now? Not only was he hungry, but he was bored too, because what was interesting about the old hat shouting out house names over and over again? Shun Hogwarts! Shun shun shun!

Even though the Ravenclaws were the cool cats, it seemed as though there was a bit more action at one of the other tables. Gryffindor, he was almost certain from Hogwarts: A History, the book he’d read during the holidays. With a little salute to show respect to his awesome housemates, Derek was off in the direction of the adventure opportunity. It did look interesting over here. There were sweets spread on the table, a Ravenclaw housemate with curly hair, a ridiculously beautiful girl and a girl with blue hair. But… the girl with blue hair was Aoife, from the ice-cream shop! Why did she have blue hair? And the boy was Hunter, her soul mate! And they were talking! Why?

The only way to find out, he supposed, was to take a seat here. “Hi!” he grinned to people in general, not directing his words towards anyone in particular. He had more chance of some responses here.

Her hair was blue. BLUE! Who the hell dyed their hair blue? Why blue? What was wrong with the way it was before? It was awesome and red and perfect. Hunter just continued to stare at her as if she'd grown an extra head - honestly, that would have been less upsetting, so long as both of her heads had red hair. When she said she'd dyed it, her words sliced into Hunter's confusion and he was able to stop staring.

"Yeah, I can see that," He replied, his shock diminishing enough for him to act normally again. When he asked her why she'd done it, Aoife went and turned it right around on him. And suddenly, it all made a bit more sense. So, though it went against his better judgement, he answered her bluntly. "To piss you off." It wasn't as though they didn't both already know that. He'd just never admitted it. Was that why she'd changed hers? To piss him off back? Hunter absentmindedly ran a hand over his too-short hair - he'd actually been planning on letting it grow back in. It hadn't grown on him at all, and he missed his longer hair a little.

Hunter rolled his eyes when Aoife started devouring the haribos. As messed up as everything had been, it seemed like some things never changed. No matter what happened between them, he could always count on Aoife to eat his candy. Ariel, however, seemed - different, even with her new hair color put aside. She was acting normally, but Hunter could see that she was less enthusiastic than usual. It was strange with Ariel - he hadn't realized that he'd gotten so close to her, but he actually knew a lot about her. And he could tell that something was wrong.

Hunter grinned as Aoife exclaimed in dismay when he took his haribos back from her. "No, my haribos," Hunter reminded her, shaking his head. And it seemed like Ariel was going to hang onto them. Good. Then someone else was joining them, and her presence instantly put a smile on Hunter's face. "Hey stranger!" he said enthusiastically - a natural enthusiasm, not the slightly forced type that he'd had to use with Aoife - and nudged her playfully with his elbow. "How was your summer? Did you miss me?"

Hunter turned back to Aoife momentarily to reply to her comment about Ryan when it suddenly hit him - this was probably the most awkward situation he could be in. Seren sitting on his left and Aoife on his right. How was Aoife going to react? He definitely didn't want to ruin this now that they'd gotten off to such a decent start. But he couldn't deny that he was friends - or more than friends - with Seren because of Aoife. He looked to Ariel quickly to see if she could offer any insight, but realized he'd have to say something eventually. So hoping that his momentary confusion wasn't too obvious, he went ahead and kept talking as though there was nothing unusual going on.

"Yeah, well, he was a git," he said, shrugging, referring to Ryan. "Though you're right, they don't seem all that annoying this time, do they? Hopefully it stays that way." Hunter wanted to point out that last year had also produced an annoying first year - Phin - but he didn't. Because Aoife liked the stupid kid. Then, Ariel went ahead and dumped the whole pack of haribos on the table, and Hunter grinned and reacted instantly, his arm reaching out to sweep at least half of them in his direction. He had a feeling if he waited, Aoife would probably dive onto the table and engulf all of them. She didn't need to know that Hunter had another pack in his pocket.

Then, the sorting was starting. "Just stay here," Hunter suggested to Seren, remembering how she'd said she should go back to her table at the start of the sorting. "Nobody will care." Hunter lazily turned his attention to the front as kids started heading up to the front to try on the hat. One of the first was a little dark haired kid with the last name Bennet - must be Oliver's brother. The child was sorted into Slytherin. Hunter quickly got bored less than halfway through the sorting and stopped paying attention.

But then, a new face popped up at the table! It was a first year! But Hunter was fairly sure that the last kid was sorted into Ravenclaw.If he'd been sorted into Gryffindor, the table would be cheering. But maybe he'd missed it? He wasn't paying attention after all. The child seemed completely comfortable sitting down at their table and said hello happily. Hunter raised an eyebrow at the kid and shared a confused look with the others, but responded lightly. "Er, hi. You didn't get Gryffindor, did you?" Hunter was sure it wasn't Gryffindor.

It was him that asked. Obviously he had noticed. She was being sarcastic. Why had she never minded Hunter being stupid when they were best friends? She’d been so blind to all of his many, many faults. Like his stupidity and arrogance. “Exactly,” she murmured. “I didn’t do it just to piss you off, there were other reasons. But that was a big part of it.” It seemed a bit stupid now. “I suppose it was pointless. I mean, why should you care?” It wasn’t as though she had CUT OFF HER BEAUTIFUL FLOPPY HAIR.

“Hey frizzy,” Aoife responded, just as casually when Seren arrived at the wrong table. Was she lost? Or was she just here to cling on desperately to Hunter like the annoying brat she was? “Ravenclaws sit over there.” There was no malice in her voice, because she was mature and nice. She pointed towards the other table, which had no cool people there. Aylee was gone. Other than her, Ravenclaws were boring or mean and really overrated. She held back a smirk when Seren mentioned having to move when the sorting started. It would be SUCH a shame to have her gone.

Then she forgot about Seren, because the haribos were on the table. She gasped dramatically and shot a glare in Ariel’s direction. Things seemed to go in slow motion next, as she stood up and lunged towards the table, grabbing as many sweets as she could before HUNTER took them. “Eh, they’re more mine than yours,” she shrugged once she’d gathered all that remained on the table and that Hunter hadn’t stolen. “Because I am Haribos Queen.” Forever.

Now that she had some sweets, she could carry on eating happily. And she had to try not to stare too hard at Seren and Hunter, who were happily conversing. Hunter wasn’t at all awkward and weird around her. But she needed to remember that the events of last year had changed everything. It still hurt how happy they were together, while she sort of had nobody as close as that, but she imagined her mask of indifference was concealing the train of emotions she was feeling at the minute.

The sorting started then and Aoife was glad to turn her attention to the kids getting sorted there. She wasn’t paying much attention, just occasionally clapping when they got a Gryffindor. A name was called then, Derek Lawrence. Derek! HogsmeadeKid! She’d forgotten he was coming this year. Beaming, she sat up straighter and waited for his house. Ravenclaw? Boring. Poor child. The hat must be wrong there. It didn’t surprise her much when he came over to the Gryffindor table instead. If Seren could do it, why shouldn’t he?

“Derek!” she grinned. “Uh… congratulations.” Sucked to be him. Hunter looked confused, so she answered for Derek before he could get a word in. “He’s in Ravenclaw, but he understands we’re better and he is attracted here by my hair.” It was BLUE!

Seren's concern about the seating arrangements seemed to be for naught, because the moment she joined them Hunter seemed very excited to see her. Enough that he completely turned his attention away from the blue-haired freak and started talking to Seren. Her tension eased as she realized that things between them hadn't changed after all. Seren smirked back at Hunter when he asked if she'd missed him. "Yes, of course," Seren said with a sarcastic tone, rolling her eyes. "I don't know HOW I've managed to survive the holiday without you." But then Seren gave him a genuine smile, because in truth she HAD missed him.

Ariel greeted Seren pleasantly, and Seren decided that she could easily tolerate her presence. While the girl was too pretty for her own good, and Seren should feel threatened by her, she wasn't concerned about her being friends with Hunter. She was far better than Aoife, by any means. And speaking of Aoife, the girl greeted Seren with a new nick-name that Seren hadn't heard before. Seren pursed her lips and allowed her gaze to set into a glare, but didn't retort. She just tilted her head thoughtfully, considering Aoife's words. The insult had been uttered just as casually as Seren's not-so-friendly greeting. And hadn't she wanted Aoife to get back into the habit of insulting her so that life wouldn't be so boring? Yes, she had.

"Can't you do any better than that?" Seren questioned, a haughty tone to her voice. "And my hair is NOT frizzy, by the way," she added defensively. "It JUST has a lot of VOLUME!" At least it wasn't blue. Sheep freak had no room to talk. Oh, and she was kindly telling Seren to go back to her own table. "I'm aware, but I'm fine here. But thanks for your concern" Seren said with an annoyed edge to her voice, flipping her BEAUTIFUL AND NOT FRIZZY curls over her shoulder.

Seren smiled at Ariel. "Yes, I'm not really sure what takes them SO LONG to get started," she responded. "But you would THINK that they would have a few snacks on the tables... or at least some pumpkin juice!" It was PREPOSTEROUS that Seren was not provided with refreshments. She was THIRSTY. Didn't the staff understand that? Well, they should FIX IT! She watched with interest as sweets were dumped onto the table, but didn't try to capture any of them. Instead, Seren simply reached over and grabbed a few from the ones Hunter had collected. It was MUCH easier that way.

"OH, it's starting!" Seren exclaimed. "I'd better go." But just as Seren was about to stand up to leave, Hunter turned and told her that she should stay. Seren hesitated, but nodded. "Alright. I suppose that it's fine." Even though Ravenclaw was MUCH better than Gryffindor and Seren should be sitting with her house.

The sorting began, and Seren watched without much interest. She DID like to know who was who, though. So Seren tried to remember who was sorted into which house. In the middle of the sorting, a child by the name of Derek was sorted into Ravenclaw. Seren clapped along with the rest of her house, but watched in surprise as the child didn't go over to the Ravenclaw table, but joined them at the Gryffindor table instead. She was going to tell Hunter what house he was sorted into, but Aoife beat her to it. So Seren just glared at her for a moment before speaking to the new first year. "Yes, congratulations!" she said, glad that Ravenclaw had gained a new member. "I'm a Ravenclaw as well. It's a wonderful house!"

Ariel watched Hunter and Aoife's responses to the hair problem. Ariel found it stupid. Not as in, they were stupid, but they were being so childish. Hair was hair. It wasn't the window to the soul or anything... Ariel realized that as she thought this, she really wasn't in the position to think that. Her hair was the window to her soul. She almost laughed at that thought.

When Hunter looked to her for advice on how to handle the situation, Ariel just looked innocently up in the roof; this was his own predicament, and she wouldn't be helping him out of it. It was too funny. And then there was a war on who got the most haribos. Ariel was completely unphased by Aoife's glare and once again turned on her nonchalance face and simply looked on as Hunter grabbed quite a few before Aoife basically devoured them. This did make Ariel laugh.

Ariel nodded in complete agreement to Seren. "I know, right? Seriously, we could die!" she exclaimed overdramatically and then gave a joking grin, "Or, at least, get severe stomach-aches." She found that she liked Seren. And she liked Aoife. And she liked Hunter. Seren liked Hunter. Aoife liked Hunter. Hunter liked Seren. Hunter liked Aoife. HOW WAS IT POSSIBLE FOR THE TWO GIRLS TO NOT LIKE ONE ANOTHER?!

She turned more serious as Aoife seemed to be thinking harshly about something. Ariel didn't need to guess, and was fairly certain that it had something to do with Hunter and Seren and the whole couple-y thing going on at that part. She was about to try to start a conversation when the sorting suddenly began. "Finally," she murmured and turned her attention to the hat, staring at it with her best glare, willing it to find the houses of the kids as quickly as possible.

And then the Hat had the nerve to be lingering extra, freaking long on a small kid. Why, Hat, why?! Ariel groaned and her head hit the empty plate: AS IF SHE NEEDED A REMINDER. She didn't look up again before a guy greeted them. Ariel gripped her napkin that lay folded by her plate's side. This was the guy. The guy that had prolonged the sorting with what had felt like HOURS. And he was certainly not a Gryffindor. Gryffindor's weren't that selfish. She looked at him with small eyes. And then Aoife recognized him and said he was a Ravenclaw. She sighed, her stomach groaning this time.

"Hey," she said lowly, trying to give him a friendly smile, which she probably succeeded at.

See, Gryffindors and the Ravenclaw girl were very nice. Derek beamed. Aoife’s soul mate was the first to greet him, the floppy haired boy who he knew the name of in the least stalkery way possible. “No!” he answered. “But I didn’t think there was a rule against sitting at other tables! You just looked like you were having fun over here, so I decided to come here until they give me some food.” Anything to keep his mind of the huge angry hole in his stomach which demanded the food that he didn’t have. “Hey, don’t you work at Zonko’s?” He was fairly certain Hunter worked at Zonko’s.

“Aoife!” he grinned, just as enthusiastically. “Thank you! I like Ravenclaw. Ravenclaw people are cool.” Her blue hair got less and less pretty the more he looked at it, but at least his eyes adjusted to the bright colour. Aoife totally had Ravenclaw pride. The older girl proceeded to mention to Hunter that he wasn’t a Gryffindor. Derek liked these lion people, but they weren’t actually that cool. Not really.

Speaking of the real cool Ravenclaw people, here was one! A pretty girl with pretty hair. He liked her hair, just like he used to like Aoife’s. She was very nice too. Some people had it all. Pretty, clever, nice and in Ravenclaw. Like him, he supposed. Although, he was more handsome. “Thanks!” He nodded at what she said about Ravenclaw. “I definitely get your rift,” he said, in that cool little way that cool people did. “I mean, they just give this cool vibe out all around them and you can tell how great they are even before you talk to them!”

The ridiculously pretty girl said hi. She was just so pretty. No, beautiful. She had a nice smile. She must be a veela. Derek had never encountered a veela before but he’d read about them. And this girl’s enchanting beauty meant she just HAD to be a veela, or a part veela, more likely. “Heeeeeeeey,” he finally said. He had been too busy staring at her to remember to greet her in a nice PoliteDerek way.

So he'd suspected correctly - or at least partly. The blue hair was meant to irritate him. Hunter raised an eyebrow as Aoife pointed out that pissing him off wasn't the only reason that she'd done it. "Well then, do tell," he replied, putting an elbow on the table and leaning his face on his hand in an act of mock-interest. "I'd love to know what else could have possibly driven you to dye your previously awesome hair a hideous shade of blue?" He frowned, his confident demeanor wavering a bit at her next words. "I guess I shouldn't care," he agreed slowly. But he did care, and that was frustrating. Then again, the same question could be turned around - why did she care enough to still want to annoy him?

Hunter grinned at Seren's sarcastic comment. "I can imagine how hard it must have been," he agreed, playing along. He listened silently to Seren and Aoife greet each other, and looked between the two briefly in slight confusion. Was it just him, or did they not seem completely hostile? When had that happened? Sure they had insulted each other, like always - but it hardly sounded malicious on either end. Aoife pointed out that the Ravenclaw table was across the room, but Seren stayed anyway.

Hunter glared silently at Ariel when she completely ignored his plea for help. At least Ariel and Seren seemed to be getting along - Hunter supposed that was more important at this point than the interaction between Aoife and Seren. Because in a way, Ariel had fallen into the empty spot Aoife had left in Hunter's life. They weren't nearly as inseparable, but Hunter definitely considered Ariel one of his closest friends. So it was important that she was able to get along with Seren, who had definitely captured Hunter's attention.

Aoife answered his question about the first year, whose name was apparently Derek. Hunter snorted in amusement. "Believe me, your hair is definitely not responsible for attracting extra people to our table," he pointed out, shaking his head. "There isn't a rule against it," Hunter confirmed with a shrug when the kid said he thought sitting at other tables was allowed. He raised an eyebrow at the boy when he asked if Hunter worked at Zonko's. "Yeah, I work there," he said. "How'd you know?"

Hunter looked more carefully at the kid's face, but didn't recognize him in the slightest. Maybe he'd been in the shop before, but Hunter didn't pay attention to many things, least of all customers' faces. "I'm Hunter," he added in a friendly tone. As a rule, Hunter didn't like first years. But so far this one seemed alright, so the least Hunter could do was not be rude to him right off the bat.

Then Ariel said hello to Derek, and Hunter couldn't help but burst into laughter at the look on the kid's face when he noticed her. Not that he could talk much - he knew the feeling. "Is that what I looked like the first time I saw Darcy?" Hunter asked Aoife, grinning. He was pretty sure his reaction had been even worse. "I was so confused by Darcy for my entire first year," he reminded Ariel, still laughing.

Nosy git. “First of all, my hair was only awesome before because it looked like fire. Otherwise it was nothing special,” Aoife pointed out. “I don’t know… I guess I’ve had red hair all my life, so I got sick of it.” Lie. “I like blue, so I picked that. There wasn’t much choice in the shop anyway.” Lie. “I’m cooler than all of you now because I’m so unique.” Sort of lie. She had really taken Matthew’s words to heart about fire hair and what it really meant to be unique. He was so smart and deep for eleven. Where was he? She should have paid more attention to the sorting. It didn’t look like he was a Gryffindor, shame. But at least her house was safe from his pyromania.

“No,” she admitted. “I’m way too hungry to waste effort coming up with good insults. It’s not like you did much better, anyway.” Surprise surprise, Seren had to go on about her hair and how it was nice and not frizzy and whatever. “Yep, whatever you say. I won’t pretend to care about your volume-y hair.” Hey, that sort of rhymed. Fun! “Suit yourself,” she shrugged, casually chucking her last haribo (a BEAR!) into the air and catching it in her mouth. Skillzzzzzz.

Then the girl was about to leave because of the sorting and she rolled her eyes when she stayed anyway. Silly girl. For some reason, she received a glare when she congratulated Derek, but she just shrugged innocently. All she’d done was be polite, what was so wrong with that? “Yes,” Aoife said, agreeing to the boy’s statement. “They are almost as cool as Gryffindor.” That was a lie, but it was so she didn’t hurt someone’s feelings so it was okay. “Actually, Hunter, my hair gives out a glow that makes people want to come and stare at it. I’m practically a VEELA now,” she grinned.