Welcoming feast - Open to students/teachers

[KINGSLEY AVIDORAS SHACKLEBOLT]

How long had it been since Hogwarts had that fateful battle so long ago that determined the victor of the Second Wizarding War. Kingsley honestly couldn't remember even as he donned his old robes, and put them on for the first time in a while. The casual purple robes he wore while he worked under the Ministry as a senior auror at the time until he was asked to be Headmaster of Hogwarts. It had been an honor to have been nominated this position, and now he was busy setting up for the Welcoming Ceremony. Luckily there was enough room for everyone considering it was the greatest hall to have been formed, but he knew that here was the resting place of Voldemort. As far as he knew, he had no need to worry about rivalries forming while at the Welcoming feast, and hoped it would all go smoothly.

Tipping his hat as he soon sat down at the center of the Head Table where the other Professors would join him, and then let his purple robes flow a little as he stood up. Clapping his hands together while the usual scenery in the Great Hall was just like that of the sky outside. The floating candles in the air and the whole place was decorated while there was food on the table for everyone. As was with the welcoming feast, but their plates were empty for now as Kingsley had set it up just as Albus Dumbledore had when he had been in command. This time, however, Kingsley was the respected hero of the school, but sometimes hated carrying the title hero of the second wizarding war. Unlike others, he was now smiling towards all the students as they were slowly filing into the great hall.

It had taken a bit of preparation to get everything ready, but once everyone was seated he could begin his speech. "First of all, I'd like to welcome our new students to Hogwarts, and hope they enjoy their stay here. May you find a home here no matter which house you're played in. Please follow the rules and there will be no need for concern," he spoke, letting a silence fall over the hall as everyone was listening to him intently it looked like. Good, this was much better than last year it seemed, without any interruptions so far, but he wasn't done making his speech. It was also a pause to let him catch his breath to drink another glass of water, so he could actually speak clearer. There was a gold embroider on the inside of his robes too, as he continued speaking, "I advise you to follow these rules, first off, the Forbidden Forest is off limits to students and you are advised to stay away from there at all costs or else be docked house points for your disobedience if you're caught," he continued on.

"Now as you all may know, this year is one of our special events, the Hogwarts House Tournaments where you can enter your names into the Goblet of Fire to compete, only two champions will be chosen from each house. Now, this is a very dangerous tournament, so only fifth years and up please, the goblet of fire is enchanted if any of the lower years try putting their name in. There will also be an age line placed in front of it, so if you try to cross it, there will be consequences," he was looking left and right as he then moved his hands to the goblet in front of him. Lifting up the Goblet and showing it to the students as it was now easy for them to see, "This will be placed to enter your name into, and please be respectful of those who are chosen as it's random, please stay away from the restricted section of the library as well. That site is off limits to students unless you have specific permission from a teacher to be there," he spoke in his deep raspy voice again.

It was clear he was almost done talking as he took another drink of the water, looking at all the students, and they sorting ceremony had already ended earlier. So now it was just time for everyone to enjoy the festivities and chat amongst themselves, "WELCOME TO HOGWARTS!! EAT UP!!" were the last words he said as he sat down, then waved his hand in the air as food appeared all along the table along with fluids pouring into the glasses on their own.

Kingsley hoped he hadn't overdone it as he sat down and was smiling at the rest of his staff, turning to most of the table nodding towards them. He hoped this was going to be a good year without trouble.

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[LYRA KARA THORNTON]

lyra dashed down the girls dorm steps, hufflepuff robes swirling around her as she hurried her way through the empty common room, just having the intelligence to notice an armchair right infront of her before she sprawled across it. lyra quickly skirted around it, shaking her head. stupid first years messing with the furnature.

but she was late - no time to set things right as she ducked out the common room and rushed for the stairs. she knew that the welcoming feast was begining... all of five minutes ago, and lyra bit her lip, positively sprinting down two flights of stairs before she dared breath again. upon the third staircase, she almost tumbled right off as it suddenly swung away from the corridor and made to change to another. cursing, lyra gave herself a split second to decide between taking a detour...and leaping for that corridor.

impatience and implusion got the better of her, and she sprinted the last four steps and lept across the space between the corridor and the darned moving staircase, scrambling onto the solid floor and luckily avoiding plummeting to the ground floor metres below. well....at least she might have gotten to the great hall quicker....even if a broken neck had been involved - which could have even surficed for her lateness

shaking her head at herself and quickly getting over the mad leap to victory, she took off again, slipping to a stop just as the great doors slowly closed.... only to find that she wasn't late at all, and infact people were only just sitting down. sighing in annoyance, lyra steadied herself, caught her breath, and then headed over to the hufflepuff table, taking a seat by herself for now and wondering where her friends were.

she didn't pay much attention to proffessor shacklebolt. after all, she'd heard the speach six times before now, but she did sit a little straighter, turning her head and feeling her blonde waves tumble over her shoulder as she looked at the headmaster. what had gotten her attention? the goblet of fire of course. she'd seen it before, and it was truly magnificent and all ... but this year she'd finally be able to compete. last year and the time before it hadn't run, and the time before that she'd been too young but ... this year she was definetly going to try for it and hopefully, she'd be picked. she wanted to prove herself, make a name for herself...make people proud and show those other houses that hufflepuff were worth something.

once the speach was made she turned to her plate, watching as the food magically appeared as always and smiling lightly and she went to put a few things onto her currently empty plate, hoping that this year things would be all good, and that her last year at hogwarts would be her best.

ooc , wooo welcoming feast! POST PEOPLE POST... lyra can't be all by her ickle self (;

[izzy]

Isabell blew into to the great hall, pulling her cap from her head and shaking her rich locks. They fell in a messy tangle over her face, and she paused a moment to give a laugh before brushing them from her eyes and making her way toward the professor's table. She had apparated into town from her apartment in New York a week ago, so her office was still a jumble of boxes and loose papers. She had been on a quick run to Hogsmeade when she realized that she was going to be late for the welcoming ceremony. Isabell had loved the ceremony from the very first day she started as Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, and sprinted the whole way down the long trail back to Hogwarts. After a moment to catch her breath and marvel at the summer storm brewing outside, she slid inside and dashed to the hall. To her great delight, she had found that she was not late at all, and in fact was a tad early. Cheerfully, she strode down the aisle, greeting a few of her past students as she did so. Isabel was getting excited for this year. The lesson plan she had worked out was an exciting one, and she hoped her students would enjoy it as much as she would.

At Isabell's heels, Milo, her tabby cat, trailed. He observed the students carefully with round, golden eyes, dodging the reaching hands of the new First years who had not yet learned he hated being touched by strangers. He followed Isabell as she strutted up to the professors table and took her seat, flashing Kingsley a smile before respectfully waiting for his speech to begin and end. The guy knew how to command respect, that was for sure, she thought all the students fell into a hush when he spoke. Isabell too listened carefully, though she broke out into an excited grin at mention of the Hogwarts House Cup Tournament. As he finished she started the applause which gave way into bright chatter as the kids dug into the fist.

Isabell poured herself a glass of honey mead and took a sip before serving herself some food - roasted chicken and creamy potatoes with a fresh side of broccoli and mozzarella. The house elves had really outdone themselves! Izzy would have to make a point to mention it to them. She took up conversation with her neighbors, but as she finished her meal, grew antsy and decided to go see her old house - Hufflepuff. Rising, Isabell sashayed over to the table and looked proudly over the Hufflepuffs, her hands on her hips.

"Well, gang?" she chirped, "I think is the year Hufflepuff takes the House Cup. How about it, eh?"

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[SEIZEL AURA CAPPER]

It was another year to him, but he had arrived from the usual way as the Hogwarts Express had been rather boring to him. Deciding to switch it up by actually apparating instead since he really didn't feel like dealing with anyone on the Hogwarts Express. The seventh year Ravenclaw was wearing the common robes all the students wore on their first visit, of course he had the robes covering his Ravenclaw vest, as well as the dress pants underneath. Brown curly hair wavered slightly on top of his head as he turned the corner to enter the great hall, having arrived a little early so he could get the best seat in the house. Right near the head of the table, but that didn't mean much compared to the others that were there. The defense against the dark arts teacher was here, beautiful as always, he mused to himself.

Sure, he did have a crush, but that didn't mean he was going to act on it since she was way over his age or something along those lines. Shrugging his shoulders as he nodded towards the others at the other tables, and then merely avoided looking over at Slytherin's since a few of them were rude no matter what he did. If one of them had something to say to him, they could at least come up to his face to say it instead of trying to provoke him from far away. A simple hex would have them cowering on the ground in no time. It was amusing to see them struggling to get back up from that one simple spell they could have easily avoided in the first place. Already having signed up for Quidditch the first instant it had appeared on the board outside as the captain, of course he usually was anyways.

Looking around the table to see any other fellow seventh years that were on the quidditch team too, and waving to them as well as the rest of the Ravenclaws. Surely, this year was going to be a blast as he soon heard the speech from Kingsley, merely smiling, and then the mention of a House Tournament intrigued him. First of all, he had no interest in entering since he didn't want to steal away the glorious of other members of the house of getting a chance to prove their skill. Seizel already proved his skill at Quidditch, and then as the speech ended watched the food fill up the tables. "Just like I always remember, man I'm going to miss this school, hopefully we have a great year just like the last few, cheers" he said to his other mates at the table.

Raising the goblet up into the air as it was filling and almost spilled it on the person next to him. With a quick flick of his wrist and the right spell it instantly returned to his glass as he downed it on the spot. Giving out an audible gasp of having quenched his thirst.

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[rose]

It was time to start another year at Hogwarts. Rose had done everything exactly the same as the last five years. She was much like her father, a last minute packer, so her trunk was completely packed at the last minute the night before she went off to catch the train. Year after year her parents and her aunts and uncles all brought them to catch the train to school. Rose wished that there was another way for her to get to school, the train was nothing special and she found herself to be quite bored most of the time while on it. Finally she was at the castle and soon it would be time for the welcoming feast. Before heading to the great hall she ran up to the Gryffindor tower and entered the common room. Rose had already signed up for quidditch she was on the team every year, and this year she was even captain. Already sign ups had appeared on the board in the common room and it made her excited for when they could actually start practice. The first week of school would probably be good. Maybe the other teams would be taking it easy the first week and that would give Gryffindor the advantage.

After making sure there was nothing of interest to her on the board she decided she better head down, she didn’t want to be late for the feast. She had very little to eat that morning and already the chocolate she had on the train to fend off her hunger was starting to not work. Hurrying through the halls she entered and made her way to the end of the Gryffindor table, where some of her friends from her year and even some of her cousins would be sitting at one point. That was the one good thing about being in Gryffindor, she had a lot of her family and her best friend around most of the time. Although she hadn’t been early she hadn’t been late enough either so she found herself happy when Professor Shacklebolt finally started his beginning of the year speech. Although she very much doubted the school rules would be closely followed. Her own parents had ventured into the forbidden forest a time or two during their school years. Her father’s stories of giant people eating spiders was enough for Rose to stay away herself.

Her interest grew when he mentioned a house tournement and for a second Rose wished that she could enter. Well technically there was nothing stopping her but she had quid ditch to worry about, not to mention her mother would be none to pleased if she didn’t work hard preparing for her N.E.W.T.s although they were still well over a year away for her. So Rose imagined herself entering for just a moment before pushing the thought away. Quidditch would always come first for her and there were plenty of Gryffindor’s she’d like to see enter and compete. Determined to make this one of her best year’s ever she was pleased when the speech finally ended and the food appeared on her once empty plate. Only at Hogwarts did these things happen regularly for her. Usually they all put their food on their plates themselves at the Hovel.

Rose began to dig in as everyone else started to do the same. She couldn’t wait to see and talk to all of her friends. She had missed them during the holidays.

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[scarlett]

Once again it was the start of another school year at Hogwarts. Usually Scarlett came back to the castle the week before to prepare for her classes. And to make sure everything was ready for the returning students as well as the third years who may have signed up. This year however Scarlett had wanted to enjoy extra time at home before returning to the castle. Most everything could have been preparerd anyway. All she really had to do was get the magical creatures to the class on time. Everything else was prewritten from year to year. And nothing usually changed. The ministry had standards for education and Scarlett made sure she was always within those regulations. She loved her job teaching too much to do much to risk it.

So she was surprised to find she was actually running a bit late. More late then she had intended to be. Still when she arrived at the gates she was in no way ready to head to the great hall. Heading to her rooms she changed into the standard black robes that she wore over her jeans. Finally feeling she was at least presentable she entered the great hall right before Kingsley stood to start his speech. Passing the Ravenclaw table she paused to speak to them. “Let’s see Ravenclaw take the house cup this year.” As a teacher she wasn’t really to take sides but as a former Ravenclaw she hoped to see them take home the cup this year. Even though she wasn’t their head of house. Taking her seat as Kingsley started his speech she allowed herself to tune him out.

As both a student and a professor she had heard welcoming speeches many times over now. Most of the time they didn’t change although it varied a little bit from headmaster to headmaster. There was to be a house tournement this year and Scarlett wished they would have had these things when she attended. Finally the speech was over and it was time to eat. Scarlett started to eat as the hall began to fill with the sounds of eating and talking.

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[KINGSLEY AVIDORAS SHACKLEBOLT]

Kingsley was impressed with how well the audience seemed to take the news, but as he looked down at the food forming on the table, he honestly wondered if this year would go smoothly. Some odd feeling in his gut told him that there was much more at work here than just the House cup, and he could sense some turmoil broiling within some of the students. Even so, he had to keep a close eye on everyone just to make sure they were keeping up with their assignments. Being such a stern man, he knew there were bound to be some no-good evil doers this year trying to get away with whatever they can. Shrugging his shoulders, the year had begun and he had stressed out over getting the school ready for the House Cup.

Putting up the food on the tables was easy and the house elves would gladly take any special requests as they were at the ready. Luckily for Kingsley they still complied with almost every wish he had, and then looked down at the splendid pumpernickel bread as his wine glass filled up completely. The hall was riveted with activity and the sorting had gone just as smoothly as it did every year he had been here. A few attacks the last few years though had brought his attention to the House of Slytherin, as they seemed to be rather snide whenever it happened. Yet, no one would admit to the attacks at all, but he was wary. Even in his seat, he was just smiling and nodding to the other faculty that were showing up at the table.

Sighing softly, and then letting his smile replace the frown that had instantaneously showed up for a mere moment, there was no need for concern. After all he was at the welcoming feast and then he turned to his staff at the table thanking each one of them for making it. "To us, and may you have a great year as well this year. Hopefully we'll see some entertaining results," he said softly while raising his glass to some of the other Professors in cheers, clanking them to whoever would respond to his toast.

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[RAYCHEL MAE ENTWHISTLE]

Raychel seated herself comfortably at the Ravenclaw table. She was head girl, something she didn’t think she would get, in fact she hadn’t held her breath she thought it might have gone to her best friend, but it was a surprise when she had opened her Hogwarts envelope for the last time to find the shiny new head girl badge. She smiled as she spoke to a few other Ravenclaws, laughing along with them. Merlin she was excited and she couldn’t wait to see the new Ravenclaws. She always enjoyed the welcoming feast.

The headmaster when on about a tournament between the houses. Weren’t they meant to have house unity not divide them, still the idea of the tournament sounded good and she begun to wonder if she should put her name in it. She vaguely heard the guy next to her saying that he'd miss the school after the year was finished before hearing liquid. She turned watching as his drink spilt out of his cup.
"Hey," she spoke up before watching him return the liquid. Gazing up at the guy, her smile widened.
"Hey," she spoke again, this time without the anger in her voice.
"Ready to take both the house and quidditch cups this year Seizel?" she asked but never got the chance to hear his answer as Headmaster Shacklebolt spoke up as some professors made their way towards the professor's table.

Grabbing her own goblet she took a sip of the water before reaching over to grab some food, laughing, cheering and general chatter seemed to fill up the room like it did, this year was going to be a blast, she could feel it. She raised her own glass.
"To Ravenclaw, may we be the best house this year," she spoke down the table in a loud clear voice, the smile never leaving her face.

[bonbon]

Hughes hesitantly found his seat across from Raychel and Seizel. The entire experience had been awkward and somewhat confusing for him. He wasn't a first year, but at the same time he was. It felt weird going through all of the first year process again with the little kiddies. Sorting was the worst with everyone staring at a sixteen year old getting sorted like a first year. He was not surprised that he was sorted into Ravenclaw however, as he was in a similar house back in America. He was glad to have found an empty seat with older students at the Ravenclaw table. After looking around a little, he turned to the girl and the boy sitting before him and let out a soft but friendly, "Howdy." His mouth spread into a smile and he extended a hand for shaking. "Name's Hughes," he drawled in his Southern American accent. "Just came in from America. My folks had to move here fer work. So er... I'm a sixth year, promise!"

He took a look around the table and started to grab some of the food onto his plate...well a lot of food onto his plate. "So er, we're 'sposed to be the smarts of this school huh? I don't imagine it'll be hard to take home that cup with all the brainpower we've got. 'Cept of course...there's always some other factors affectin' the points and all, ain't there?" Hughes began eating, no scarfing down the food on his plate. Because he was still getting used to the different time zone, he ended up waking up late and had to rush to make it to the train station on him. No breakfast. Then there was still that hold up with the bank transferring his gold from America to England, so Hughes didn't have any money for any food on the train. No lunch. It's suffice to say that he was pretty damn hungry by the end of the day.

Of course, Hughes wasn't completely without table manners. He chewed with his mouth closed and swallowed his food before speaking, "So like since I'm new here. Is there anything I would need to know about this place, y'know to keep my behind outta trouble..or worse?"