TERM 7 - And We're Back! - Gryffindor Common Room - Hunter, Blake, Aoife, Kynan, Lyra, Ariel

Of all the places in the whole castle, Hunter loved the Gryffindor Common Room the best! That wasn't including the grounds, of course. The grounds were the best! But if Hunter had to be stuck inside the castle, he preferred the comfort of the common room. Term had only just started, and classes hadn't begun yet. Tomorrow, their schedules would pick up. After spending the day in various locations around the castle, Hunter had finally retreated back to the common room just before curfew.

It would make sense to get to bed early so that he was wide awake for classes the next day - but what fun was that?! It was his last night before classes started. He certainly wasn't planning on spending it sleeping! So instead, Hunter ran up the stairs to his dormitory and grabbed an armful of candy, some bottled cola that he'd brought from home and a deck of cards and ran back down to the common room. Sure, he could stay in his dormitory, but in the common room he had a better chance of someone joining him! He dropped the sweets onto one of the tables and used incendio to light the fireplace. He grinned as the flames escaped his wand and went basically where he wanted them to.

There wasn't anyone else in the common room, so Hunter would just have to entertain himself for a while. Ripping open a chocolate bar and taking a bite, Hunter opened the deck of cards and started to build a card-castle. If Hunter were at home, he would have found some awesome video game to play, but at Hogwarts there was no such thing as electricity. Which was stupid. So he would just have to settle for building a house of cards. He built it up a ways before it fell, and wondered if there was some spell to make them stay put. If there was, he didn't know what it was, so he just started again, determined to build the most awesome card castle ever! There wasn't much else to do by himself.

Blake returned to the common room, feeling mixed emotions towards it. He had missed it and the companionship it had offered over the summer, but on the other hand sometimes it had got too crowded for him. And this sometimes frustrated Blake as he enjoyed his own company. What he had learnt over the summer though, was that he definitely preferred the company of others. Especially the students at Hogwarts. That was why Blake ended up grinning broadly to himself when he entered the common room and spotted a familiar face. Granted, that face was stuffing himself full of chocolate and sweets and looked comical as he built himself a card castle. But, it was still a friendly face!

"Hey Hunter!" Blake greeted the Gryffindor boy with a big smile. He had only ever really greeted Hunter with suspicion before, but that had changed after their last meeting. "Cool card castle!" Blake complimented as he tried to avoid knocking it down as he took a seat next to Hunter and began helping him stack the cards, before he remembered that he didn't have a steady hand at all and Hunter's attempt came crashing down around them. Blake laughed, hoping that Hunter wouldn't mind. "Sorry about that." Blake grimaced as he tried to keep a straight face as Hunter had seemed determined to stack all the cards. "So have a good summer?" He asked, tactfully changing the conversation as he didn't feel tired enough to head off to bed. Plus, Hunter had a gigantic stack of sweets!

Yes, someone else had arrived! Hunter grinned broadly when he saw that it was Blake. He had decided last term that he liked Blake, and was pretty sure they would wind up being good friends this term. "Hey Blake!" Hunter greeted the boy back through a mouthful of chocolate. "Thanks!" he said brightly as Blake complimented his amazing work of art - which was about a foot and a half tall at the moment. He concentrated carefully to stack another card onto the top of it as Blake joined him, and didn't comment when Blake picked up a card to add to the pile. He could use some help.

Unfortunately, Blake was clearly the worst card castle builder in history, and knocked the whole thing down on his first attempt. Hunter sighed as it fell to the ground, but couldn't help but laugh at Blake's pathetic attempt to keep a straight face. "You need practice," Hunter chuckled, not even bothering to pick up the cards that were now scattered around the common room. Instead, he grabbed a soda from the pile and opened it, taking a swig. Not nearly as good as butterbeer, but better than pumpkin juice in Hunter's opinion.

"Here," Hunter said, grabbing another chocolate bar from the pile and tossing it toward Blake. "Take whatever you like. We can restock if we run out - I heard that there's a way to get into the Kitchens! They're in the basement, under the great hall! We have to go look for the way in sometime!" Hunter told Blake excitedly. The discovery that the Kitchens were accessible by students was particularly exciting for Hunter. If he figured out how to get in, he'd never run out of sweets! "Yeah, it was great!" Hunter responded enthusiastically. "It was nice to see my family. But it's good to be back! Yours?"

Ariel was in the girls' dormitory, looking around with happy eyes. She couldn't believe that this place was going to be her home for the next seven years. WONDERFUL! She laughed happily and jumped up from the bed she was sitting on. She took a spin and laughed loudly to herself, knowing she was scaring her cat. She had bought a cat. Darcy had said that she could simply use her owl when she needed to send a letter or something.

And then she jumped up and down. And looked to the door. Okay, she wanted to socialize. Maybe there were people in the common room? She hoped so! She rushed to the door and opened it quickly, jumping down the staircase. She beamed as she saw two other people there, both of which she knew.

"Hunter! Blake!" she said happily, and fell down on her back in a couch. "I love this place," she said, breathing out in joy. "I love it!" she exclaimed, both her arms in stretched up above her head. She then looked at the cards they were building. "Oh, what are you doing? Making house of cards?" she asked, smiling widely, rolling to her side to get a better view.

Hunter turned around as he heard footsteps coming down the stairs from the girl's dormitory. He watched curiously for whoever it was to emerge. Maybe it was Aoife! He hadn't seen her for most of the day. It wasn't Aoife that emerged from the spiral staircase, though. It was Ariel! Hunter felt that now-familiar jolt in his stomach that he'd gotten used to from seeing Darcy around at the sight of her, but grinned at her as she greeted them in a much less awkward way than the first time they'd met. He found that now that he knew why he had such a weird reaction to the Wilde sisters - and that it wasn't just him - it was much easier to talk to them. Or at least to Ariel. Darcy was still a bit more terrifying.

"Hey Ariel!" Hunter replied, laughing slightly from where he was sitting on the floor as she collapsed on a couch and declared her love for the castle. "I know what you mean," he agreed, grabbing a handful of bertie botts and leaning back against an armchair. "It's pretty amazing here." He popped a bean into his mouth and made a face as the taste of broccoli exploded onto his tongue, but swallowed it anyway. "Ready for classes to start?" he asked her. "I know I'm not."

He laughed again when she asked about the card house. "Something like that, until Blake tried to help," he said jokingly, grinning at the other Gryffindor boy. "Card houses are just a failure by default," he added, shrugging. "Their existence defies gravity... I'll find a spell to make an awesome one some day though!" he said brightly. "Go ahead and take some candy if you want," he told Ariel. He'd plundered as many sweets as he could from the welcoming feast just for this purpose, not to mention brought plenty from home, and didn't mind sharing.

It sucked how Lyn was in Hufflepuff. That house wasn't bad but it wasn't as cool as Gryffindor. There must be some sort of rule that ensured twins were always together. Her sister was totally cool enough to be in the most awesome house with her! But now they wouldn't see each other very often. She was alright, because she had Hunter, but Lyn was probably very lonely without anyone to talk to. Aww.

But it was stupid to be sad and moody all the time, so she she'd just have to be smiley and happy and hope Lyn was alright. It didn't take her long to get back to the Common Room since she ran as fast as she could. It would be weird at Hogwarts. No chickens to feed and bacon to moan about. Poor Jack would have all the chores himself now. Oh well. He deserved it for teasing her that one time. And that other time. And the other one. Yeah, he deserved it.

Hunter was there, it seemed, with a couple of other students. Looked like he'd started a little party. Stupid. Boring. But it had sweets, so she was staying and not saying anything about it being stupid. "Hi Hunter!" she said excitedly, smiling at the other two. Lyra grabbed a packet of sweets. "Classes start tomorrow! You aren't setting a good example to younger students with super hyper foods!"

"Who said you could have any?" Hunter asked teasingly as Lyra joined them and took a pack of sweets. It was still strange seeing the twins around Hogwarts. He was still getting used to it. "Oh please," he said, nearly rolling his eyes, when Lyra said he should be setting a good example. "If that's what you think, you can give me my super hyper food back! I on the other hand, am taking advantage of the fact that mum isn't here to take it off of me!" That was another huge advantage of Hogwarts. No parental supervision.

"I'm surprised you didn't sneak Lynnie in here with you," he said to Lyra. Hufflepuff was a good house, and Hunter could see how Lyn belonged there, but it was still a bit of a downer that she couldn't join them in the Gryffindor common room. He hoped that she was at least making some Hufflepuff friends to spend time with after curfew.

Then, turning back to the others, Hunter figured he'd introduce his sister. "Lyra, that's Blake," he said, indicating the other boy. "And Ariel, but you might have already met her. She's a first year, too." Then, to Blake and Ariel, "Lyra's my sister."

Blake gratefully dived for the pile of sweets which Hunter had offered to him. They were muggle sweets which he had obviously brought from home so Blake recognised them. He grabbed some of his favourite jellies and began stuffing his mouth full of them. “Oh really? I never heard about the kitchens being open to students. But we really do have to go in search of it!” Blake managed to say between mouthfuls of sweets being stuffed in his face. God, he thought he was stuffed after the back to school feast. Blake couldn’t wait to go in search for the kitchens he was always up for an adventure, especially one which involved free food at the end of it. “It was ok, I guess.” Blake shrugged. He couldn’t really count it as a good summer, but the fact that he knew he was returning here made it a lot better than previous ones. Also, he had made a new friend which was another reason why he was excited to be returning to Hogwarts. Hopefully he would get the opportunity of running into Tilly soon; he hoped that she would remember him.

The arrival of Ariel was welcome as Blake didn’t have to elaborate on his summer any further. “Hey Ariel!” Blake greeted, scooting over to make room for her beside him. “I’m glad you love it!” He knew that she would, he had yet to come across someone that didn’t like Hogwarts. “Have you come across Darcy yet? And isn’t Gryffindor the best?” He asked, delighted that she had been sorted into the same house as him. “Hey, I was helping!” Blake exclaimed. “And if it wasn’t for gravity it would have been a complete success!” He agreed with Hunter’s reasoning, grinning at how fast he had ruined Hunter’s amazing castle.

Another girl approached them then and Blake smiled back at her. “So, are you Lyn or Lyra? I’m never going to be able to tell you two apart!” Blake knew that they were Hunter’s siblings before their names were even called out at the ceremony as they had a lot in common with their older brother in regards to facial features. Blake also knew that the twins weren’t identical, but he still couldn’t remember which was who. Oh, so it's Lyra. He tried to remember that as Hunter introduced him to her.“So is your other sister upset at not getting into Gryffindor, at least one of you were sorted into our house. You’re obviously the cool one then!” He joked. “So what’s it like having twin sisters now at Hogwarts to annoy you, Hunter?” He asked, scrunching up his nose pretending to think it was an awful idea as he joked with the new addition to Gryffindor.

Kynan couldn't sleep. He had eaten to much at the feast, so his tummy was too full. He rolled around in bed, trying to get comfortable, but he couldn't. Also, mostly because some git in his dormitories snored very very loudly. In the end, he gave up and got out of bed. Putting on some warm, fuzzy socks, he decided to sit by the dormitory window. It was night already, and the moon was up high in the sky. He was staring down at the grounds when he heard some footsteps in the stairs. He ignored it, until he heard some more. More footsteps. Who'd be in the common room at eleven at night? Wouldn't everyone be asleep by this time? To get up bright and early for classes and not be late and all that junk?

I hope they have food.

Deciding to make the best out of the little sleep-less night, Kynan stood up and left the boys' dormitories. Jumping down the stairs, he ended up in the common room. There were four students. The only one he noticed was Hunter, but there was a little girl who he remembered from the Sorting Ceremony with the surname of the VanDerberg. That had to be his sister... Lyn? Or Lyra? The two twins looked so alike that Kynan was bound to get confused at one point. There were also two other kids he didn't know, a pretty blonde girl who kinda looked like Darcy. And a guy he did not know.

"I smell food!" Kynan joked, with his teasing smile. Looking at the bunch of sweets on the table, he grabbed a packet of Haribos and started eating them without asking. Anyone who knew him should know by now that he'd eat their lunches behind their backs. "Hi Hunter!" Then he looked at the little Hunter clone. "Hello little Hunter!" Then he looked at the pretty blonde girl. "Hello girl that looks like another girl in my year but can't possibly be her because you are too much younger!" Then to the other bloke. "Hello dude with nice brown hair!"

"Well, I don't think that students are supposed to go there," Hunter explained, shrugging in an unconcerned way. It didn't matter if they were supposed to be there, only if they could be there! "But apparently students can get in, if they know how! Of course, I don't have a clue how... or what the entrance looks like." All problems that would be solved somehow, of course. Because the goal was food, and that meant that Hunter would work tirelessly to figure it out.

Blake didn't elaborate much on his summer, and Ariel's arrival cut that part of the conversation short anyway. "Helping. Right," Hunter laughed when Blake tried to defend his extremely terrible card house building abilities. Then Blake was joking with him about having sisters at school to annoy him. "Well, I suppose it means that my stash of sweets will disappear twice as fast as usual, for starters," he responded, shooting a mock glare at his sister as she ate his candy - though, half of it had come from home, so it was kind of hers too.

Hunter casually began to gather some of the cards that had exploded over the ground into a pile when he heard someone else coming down the stairs. When he saw that it was Kynan, Hunter grinned. Kynan was cool! And since Hunter was kind of friends with him, that made Hunter just a little bit cooler, too! And naturally, Kynan's first comment was about the food. "I figured something had to draw you down here," Hunter joked, not saying anything when Kynan stole Haribos from the pile and helped himself to him.Hunter laughed at Kynan's greeting to the others that he didn't know. "Lyra, Ariel and Blake," Hunter said, not bothering to go through a full introduction. "This is Kynan," Hunter said. "He's a fourth year." Then to Kynan, "And yeah, she's Darcy's sister."

As Hunter watched Kynan throw some Haribos into his mouth, he suddenly realized something. "Kynan! You love food!" he exclaimed, a grin spreading over his face. Kynan loved food! Of course! His earlier problems were solved! "How do you get into the kitchens?!" Hunter could have asked if Kynan knew how to get into the kitchens, but come on, why bother. It was Kynan. If Kynan didn't know how to get in, nobody would.

Aoife was feeling reaaaaally hyper, after all the sweets she had eaten in the past twenty-four hours. So her plan for the last night of homework-less before classes began the next day was to go back to the Gryffindor Common Room, eat more sweets and stay up all night. Maybe hang out with some other cool people who didn't plan on sleeping either.

So it was a nice surprise when she saw someone had started a cool little party there already. "Hey Hunter, Blake, everyone else! Are you staying up all nigh- YOU HAD HARIBOS AND YOU DIDN'T TELL ME HUNTER I HATE YOU!" How could he? She skipped towards them and took as many packs as she could carry. Then she settled down in a chair happily, munching on her sweets.

Ariel nodded vigorously at Hunter. "So ready!" she said happily, "I don't know what I'm most excited for, the classes or the food." She laughed at that and jumped up again, having so much energy. And then she laughed some more at Hunter's comment about Blake. Then she looked at the candy. "Don't mind if I do," she said jokingly.

She turned her attention to Blake as he asked her if she had met Darcy yet. "Nah, haven't talked much with her. I saw her at dinner, and I got a hug for being in the same house, but I haven't seen her since," she said with a shrug, sitting down next to him, after helping herself to some familiar mugglecandy that her friends always brought when they had movie night.

Ariel looked up as a girl her own age joined them. "Hey Lyra! I'm Ariel!" she said, remembering the girl from dinner. She had a lot of fun watching Lyra and Hunter being all sibling-y and she playfully rolled her eyes at Blake to Lyra, showing the girl that Ariel was on her side.

Then the exclamation of 'I hope there's food' made Ariel turn as a older guy walked into the room. She giggled at his greeting to her and nodded as Hunter introduced. "It's nice to meet you, Kynan. I'm Ariel," she said softly, making sure there'd be no confusion to Hunter's way of introducing. She did once again react a bit to being Darcy's sister, but she knew it had to be said. And the quicker it was said, the quicker it would be over with.

She looked curiously at Kynan as Hunter asked about how to get into the kitchen. She then jumped slightly as a girl walked into the common room. She couldn't be much older than Hunter. Probably the same age. And Ariel grinned at her. And then something changed in the girl's face within a nanosecond. And then she was shouting. And Ariel had to bite her lip not to give a laugh. The girl seemed cool.

"You're my brother!" she shrugged, sticking her tongue out. "Everything's that's yours is mine, and all that junk!" Therefore, the sweets belonged to her. So she could have as many as she wanted. "BUT EVERYONE HUNTER LOVES HIS MUMMY SO MUCH HE'S TOTALLY MISSING HER A LOT!" And the hyper food was hers. Since she'd already shoved a load of sweets in her mouth. They were definitely suitable for vegetarians. She always checked.

Yeah, sneaking Lyn in would have been fun. "But I don't know what wizard rules are! It might be impossible! She might get blown up if she sets foot here!" Lyra smiled, slightly sadly. "Hi Blake and Ariel! I'm totally the cooler twin but Lyn deserves to be Gryffindor too!" He commented on them annoying Hunter. "We're going to drive him mad! 'Specially me! He definitely likes Lyn more!" she joked. Except it didn't really sound as...jokey as she intented.

There were two new arrivals then. An older boy called Kynan and a small redhead who she didn't know the name of yet. "HI I'M LYN HUNTER'S SISTER." He better not correct that. The more people she could confuse with the help of her twin, the better. More fun.

"We'll if we manage to get free food I don't mind risking getting into a bit of trouble!" Blake replied confidently to Hunter. He was sure they'd find a way. Sure they had the whole year to work on it now.

"That's good. I'm sure you'll see Darcy around. Sure you'll probably end up sick of seeing her now that your both in Gryffindor!" Blake responded. "Oh and how are you with directions? You'll want to learn fast here! I'm still getting lost!"Blake laughed, remembering the last time he got lost thanks to some dodgy directions from some paintings on the wall.

Blake presumed he was 'the dude with nice brown hair' "Oh and guy with weird nicknames!" Blake knew Kynan was a few years older then them and was pleased that Hunter asked him about the kitchens, "yes, maybe you could show us them?" He jumped at the opportunity, he loved exploring and finding new places, even if his sense of direction was so off he could never find his way home.

Aoife then joined them next and he jumped from his seat as she started screaming about Haribos. Way to wake the whole of Gryffindor up, Aoife!"Hey Aoife," Blake greeted just as she made her way off with virtually all the Haribos. He had just been eyeing them and was about to have a packet next. Damn her!

Wow, Lyra was almost as loud as Aoife. Blake could see those two getting on well together. "I honestly don't know how you put up with her" Blake joked, turning to Hunter laughing as Lyra was pretending to be Lyn. "And there's two of them!"

Hunter grinned widely at Blake and nodded his agreement concerning the kitchens. It was pretty cool to have a guy friend that he could do awesome guy things with like sneak around the castle and look for the kitchens and everything. Not that there was anything wrong with Aoife. But she was a girl. Well, okay, Aoife was some weird sheep turned human monstrosity that had no filter - but she looked like a girl, and sometimes, on the very rare occasion, she acted like it. The point was, she wasn't a boy. And Blake was. And they were going to be awesome friends and do awesome things and be cool.

"The food," Hunter clarified instantly when Ariel said she wasn't sure what she was most excited for. "Definitely the food. Dinners here are amazing. Classes aren't anything special, unless you like that sort of thing." It was true. Hunter had yet to experience a Hogwarts feast that wasn't amazing. Blake asked Ariel about Darcy, and Hunter only half listened. Darcy was always a bit of an uncomfortable subject for him - it was easier just to avoid it altogether if it was possible.

Lyn pointed out that since they were siblings, all of his things belonged to her. He popped a bertie botts bean into his mouth and ignored his sister's annoyingness. Of course, he should have figured she wouldn't make it easy to ignore her, and she went off loudly about him missing his mother or some rubbish, and then started going on about how he liked Lyn more. "Ha Ha, very funny," Hunter said sarcastically. "I'll have you know that I find you both equally annoying." He knew Lyra was just joking. He loved both of his sisters - but Lyra was definitely the louder of the two. "Hufflepuff's good for Lyn. But I dunno how she's taking being by herself. She's probably upset." Hunter grabbed a few bertie botts beans from off the top of the pile that looked like they might be bacon. "Here," he said, offering them to his sister. "Try these, I think they're chocolate." Honestly, they could be chocolate. Who knew?

Hunter laughed when Blake gave Kynan an obnoxious nickname of his own. Blake seemed just as eager to get the kitchen information from Kynan as Hunter, which was good. Shortly after Kynan joined, Aoife turned up. "Aoife!" Hunter exclaimed happily when he saw her - he'd missed her over the summer! It was so good to see her that he just laughed at her outburst and watched on in amusement as she grabbed every bit of haribos in sight and took them over to an armchair for herself.

He sighed as Lyra jumped at an opportunity to introduce herself as Lyn, but didn't say anything. When Blake said he wasn't sure how Hunter put up with the girl, Hunter couldn't help but ask jokingly, "Which one? My sister or Aoife?" Both were equally fair questions. Of course, he knew Blake was talking about Lyra. "You get used to them after a while. The other one's a bit milder,"" he explained with a grin, referring to Lyn who was much more timid than Lyra.

Ryan nervously walked into the Gryffindor common room. THis would be his first time meeting some of his house mates. He was so nervous. He looked around the red and gold room to see everyone talking and laughing. He decided to just avoid the awkwardness and sit on the couch. Maybe if he was lucky, someone would notice him and come over and talk to him.