C-Box

[Professor Axtus]

Lights of orange and white shook in front of Ethan Axtus as he sat in the Great Hall, his eyes trying to adapt to the light change and the noise. He blinked, shook his head and then looked up at the oncoming students each one showing faces full of fear, aprehension and excitement.

His mind fell back to the meeting with the Minister of Magic earlier that week, the meeting in which Ethan had quite obviously said that he disagreed with the ministers decision to imprison Harry Potter, but, for the umpteempth time the minister had ignored Ethan's opinion.

Sighing, Ethan looked up as the sorting began. In the ceiling above, he could see wind blowing clouds above at tremendous speeds and whipping against the windows. He watched the sorting slowly and then when it had finished he clapped his hands to summon the feast.

[Amy See]

Amy watched as the sorting began, and clapped when Hufflepuff received new house members. A timid first year girl sat down not far down from where Amy was, so Amy smiled encouragingly at her, clapping. However, once the sorting was done, and the food appeared, it had her attention. She pulled a plate in front of her, and piled it with mashed potatoes and gravy, as well as corn and a few meatballs. She topped it with some popcorn chicken. Practically drooling, Amy dug in, scanning the tables for her friends.

[Gwendolyn Jones]

Her hair was tangled in a windswept mess, as Gwen hurried into the Great Hall. At a run to the Slytherin table so she could get the brush out and do her hair. She cared little for the feast and the sorting, though perhaps food would do her good, she hadn't eaten much all day. Sweets on the train did not appeal to her.

Eventually, though half of the sorting had finished, she managed to tidy back her hair, with an extra few waves of her wand and sat watching the sorting, clapping whenever someone was sorted into Slytherin.

Then, it was time to eat. Hogwarts food was always too filling and made her sluggish and tired. Though it may get her eager for tomorrows lessons she doubted that if she had to do anything active tomorrow, she wouldn't be in a good position to do it, if she ate a lot tonight at any rate.

[Samantha Crickmore]

Samantha sat at the head table, along with her fellow professors. The speech seemed extra long this year, or maybe it was the fact that she was riding on an empty stomach, and the thought of the feast that was only moments away was almost too much to bear. So Sam took a swig from her flask, then tucked it back into her robes, and finally, the feast had begun.

She pulled a plate towards her piling it high with practically everything that was available in front of her. As she was reaching out to grab a biscuit, her hand collided with the professor's next to her, who was also reaching for a biscuit, and Samantha muttered an "Oops, sorry" before turning back to her dinner.

[Zach Clifford]

Zach was really looking forward to tonight. The reunion of the teachers, and a few drinks in the pub after the feast. It was a perfect night. He wasn't looking forward to tomorrow to be fair, but that would come when it did. What mattered now was eating, he wanted to make sure he had enough to eat before he went out after the feast.

Taking a bit of everything, Zach began to eat. He looked around at all the other students, chatting merrily and joking with friends. It made him smile, wishing he was that young, with nothing to worry about except homework and whether their crush would go to the Christmas ball with them. He sighed and went for a biscuit, only his hand collided with somoene else.

It was Samantha, the Charms teacher and head of Ravenclaw, Zach chuckled to himself. Sam was a very good friend of Zach's and, though he had been slightly annoyed that she had got the Deputy head job before him, he still appreciated her.

'Hey, that's my biscuit!' he cried jokingly.

'How are you anyway Sam, we haven't had a chance to speak for a while... how was your summer?'

[Samantha Crickmore]

'Hey, that's my biscuit!'

Sam would recognize that voice from anywhere. Zach had been one of the first people Samantha had met upon accepting the Charms Professor position, and they had been good friends ever since. And when Sam had been asked to take the Deputy Head title when Ms. Wimprey had retired at the end of last year, she had been thankful that Zach hadnt gotten hateful about it. She would have hated to lose her drinking buddy.

So Sam glanced up, then mock-glared at her fellow Professor. "Nope. Mine." Reaching out, she took the biscuit from his plate with a giggle, then speared it in half and began to butter it, glancing back at Zach. With another small chuckle, she placed half of the biscuit back on his plate, and half on hers. "There. Truce." She winked at him, then took a bite of mashed potatoes.

"Yea, I went on vacation this summer. Sorry I didnt answer your owls." Samantha frowned slightly. Every summer since Sam had started working at Hogwarts, her and Zach had gotten together for a drink at least once over summer break. "I went to Egypt with my parents. We moved around so much, exploring and such, that only one or two of our owl messages actually reached us." She giggled. "What about you? Have a good break? Didnt miss me too much did ya?" She was teasing of course.

[Zach Clifford]

Zach laughed hoarsley. How had his summer been? Oh dear, well he could have easily told her but he didn't know how long he had, for so much had happened to him that summer, so much that he didn't know what to say, or what he could. So he smiled grimly said simply 'just... stuff I suppose. Nothing to ehm... taxing.'

He took a sip of wine and looked around the room. As Sam apologised for not responding to his owls. He didn't mind. Sometimes things like that happened, sometimes he didn't have much of a choice.

Nevertheless he smiled to himself and back to Sam.

'Not to worry, Egypt eh? Any good?'

Not that Zach as planning to go, but he had heard people going on an on about Wizarding Egypt and how very interesting it was. Zach didn't really care about the history, but if there was a good bar in town he'd certainly consider it.

[Samantha Crickmore]

Samantha nodded slowly, but didnt ask her colleague to ellaborate on his summer. Maybe there was too much to tell, or something happened that he didnt want to talk about. Either way, she knew that Zach knew she was always around if he needed to talk about something. How many times had they gotten drunk together and ended up spilling secrets? Sam shook her head slightly. Good times, good times.

Samantha smirked, took a bite of her mashed potatoes, then turned back to Zach. "Only one of the best bars I've ever been to." She whispered excitedly, knowing that that would get her friends attention. "Let me tell you. Whereas around here, we only have five different drinks, they had, like, hundreds, in Egypt." Hundreds was an exaggeration, but they had had at least fifty or so different alcoholic drinks. "They had everything from Muggle brands to high dollar brands that you can only get in the expensive shops. I had a ball!"