Headmaster Bulla

November 25, 2006 1:28 AM
The sorting for the year officially over, Manfred stood and waited for things to quiet down. The first years, as the tradition went, had each been given a chalice a clear, bubbling potion to drink as they entered the hall were and instructed to drink deeply. And, just like every other sorting in the history of the school, the result had been that the first years had all turned the main colour that represented the house they were to join; bright blue for Aladren, deep red for Crotalus, muddy brown for Pecari and sunshine yellow for Teppenpaw. The colour change lasted a few minutes only, but for the time it was in effect it tended to get some interesting reactions from the new first year students. It had been ever so since the foundation of the school and would ever be thus.

But now that that was over and the students settling into seats, it was time for the second important part of the Opening Feast.

"Welcome," he said when things had quietened down. "Welcome to a new year at Sonora Academy. To our new students, I am Headmaster Bulla. I hope that you enjoy your time here, work hard and do your new houses proud. To our returning students, I'm sure you've all had wonderful holidays and it is good to see you've all returned. I would ask Mr Zack Dill of Aladren, Miss Chrysanthemum Mathers of Crotalus, Miss Mia Kerova of Pecari and Miss Kaylie Brockert of Teppenpaw to all come to the front please."

He moved around the staff table, holding a small box which he opened when the four had arrived.

"Congratulations," he informed them in a quieter voice. "You have all been selected to serve as Prefects for your houses. Remember this is a position of both privilege and responsibility. You will have the power to give and take points, and will be expected to assist your Head of House if a situation arises. I'm sure you will all do us proud."

He handed them each their prefect badges, bronze metal embossed with the badge of Sonora and the word 'prefect' underneath then straightened himself up a little more to address the school once more.

"Congratulations to our four new prefects. Now, I expect that you are all waiting ravenously for the Feast. Wait no longer."

With a wave, the food started to pile up on the tables and jugs of drinks appeared, all ready for the students and staff to tuck in. Manfred, instead of returning to his seat paused a moment, just in case any of the new Prefects wished to say or ask anything.\n\n
Subthreads:
39 Headmaster Bulla Opening Feast 2 Headmaster Bulla 1 5


Nath

November 25, 2006 1:24 PM
Nath wandered into the hall, taking mental notes to relay to Orlando later that night. Somebody pushed a goblet into her hand and she raised it to her lips without thinking, then carefully swirled it around and smelt it. It didn't smell like any of the poisons she'd come across, but then again, she didn't know that many.

Still, how likely was a school poisoning its pupils within the first five minutes? Her question was answered rather too quickly when a girl next to her flushed deep red.

'Well,' she thought, 'here goes. Let's hope I'm not red!' Luckily, she stained a murky brown instead. Taking her place with the other kids that were brown, she accidentally bumped into one.

"Sorry." She muttered. "I'm Nathalie, by the way."\n\n
0 Nath It's like some sort of bizarre rainbow 0 Nath 0 5


Derek Samonns

November 25, 2006 6:03 PM
Derek jumped happily into the Cascade Hall, awaiting the drink his father said was served to you that determines your house. He was simply positive he would get into Pecari, like his dad, but what would indicate that, Derek wasn't sure. He had asked his mother if she'd tell him, but he had forgotten she was a Muggle and therefore never went to Sonora, so there was no way she knew.

Taking a confused sip of the drink and tried to guess its taste. Would that tell? Texture? Hm, what? He closed his eyes and scratched his blonde hair, moving his glasses a bit when he noticed a little discoloring. Derek took a closer look at his hand and noticed it was now a muddy brown. He smiled, that was it! Derek looked at the house colors. Yes! Pecari!

Derek jumped up and down happily, then landed and took an accidental step back. Bumping into another brown girl. Turning he smiled and hugged her. "Its okay, my fault," he said, releasing her. "I'm Derek, nice to meet you Nathalie. Looks like we're in the same house!" Now that he had his house, he could make friends from said house!\n\n
0 Derek Samonns Rainbows are cool 0 Derek Samonns 0 5

Saul Pierce

November 25, 2006 6:44 PM
Saul was excited. New terms were fun in any case because it meant new people and new classes and a fresh start on the House Points. Not to mention, another ride on the covered wagons which was somthing that couldn't possibly be emphasized enough. There was nothing cooler than a ride on a flying covered wagon. So much better than the portkey Neil had to take to his school.

Saul gave Simon a grin and a wave as he got off the wagon, then headed in to the Hall. He took a seat at the end of a table and shooed away everyone who tried to sit there, saying he was 'saving it for the firsties'. The kids in question soon appeared and started drinking their potions.

Spotting two in brown, Saul waved over to them, "Pecaris! Over here!" He pointed at the seats he'd reserved. "Welcome to Sonora!" When they got a little closer, he added, "I'm Saul Pierce, a third year. If you have any questions, be sure to ask."\n\n
1 Saul Pierce swooping down on the firsties 82 Saul Pierce 0 5


Nathalie

November 26, 2006 11:53 AM
'OK,' Nathalie thought. 'He's hugging me. I don't know him, but that's OK.'

"Hi, Derek. Nice to meet you." Derek appeared to be quite...jumpy...and wasn't the kind of guy Nathalie would normally talk to but it was her first day, and she didn't want to make any enemies.

"Pecaris! Over here!Welcome to Sonora! I'm Saul Pierce, a third year. If you have any questions, be sure to ask." A taller (but then everyone was taller) guy shouted, and Nathalie wandered over, hoping Derek would follow her. Saul seemed to have saved them seats, so Nath took one. Questions, questions...

"Yeah, I've got one. Where's our common room?"\n\n
0 Nathalie Aren't they just! 0 Nathalie 0 5


Derek

November 26, 2006 1:38 PM
"Nice to meet you too, Nathalie," Derek grinned. Yay! He was making friends already. This was fun. Derek opened his mouth to say more, but then and older boy jumped in and called them over. Derek made his way, with Nathalie, to Saul Pierce, the third year thought.

Did he have any questions?

Before he could say, Nathalie asked one. Where was their common rooms. Hey, that was a good question. "Yeah!" Derek agreed. "And do we all have seperate rooms?" He had asked his father over and over if they would share rooms or get their own, but Derek's father never answered him. He hoped they would share rooms. He'd like to meet more people.\n\n
0 Derek Rainbows rainbows :) 0 Derek 0 5

Saul

November 26, 2006 3:20 PM
Saul grinned at the kids as they joined him at the table. They looked even smaller than last year's batch, but then, Saul himself was four inches taller than he'd been as a newly minted second year, so that probably made sense. Now firmly past the five feet mark, measuring up to 5'4" now, the thirteen year old was quite pleased with his vertical progress.

On the social scale, however, there were still a whole year's worth of new kids who didn't know him yet. He hoped that would soon change, and it began with these two. "The Pecari Common room is the best one." He looked around to make sure there weren't any spies from other houses nearby, then continued in a whisper, "You get there from the Gardens."

Raising his voice back up to a normal volume, he pointed out the Potions professor at the staff table. "That's Professor Connell, she's our Head of House and she'll show you the way after the feast. The entrance is a secret for anyone not in Pecari, so don't tell anyone where it is."

Looking to the boy as he moved on to answer that one's question, he continued, "Inside the Pecari area, there's a common room, which is what you walk into first. From there, there's two sets of stairs, one for girls, one for guys. Off each set of stairs are seven rooms, one for each year. You'll be rooming with the other first year boys," he told the boy, "and you'll be rooming with the other first year girls," he told the girl.

"I can show you which one is yours later," he added to the boy, then gave an apologetic look to the girl, "but boys can't go up the girls stairs because of an enchantment on them, so I can't show you yours." Looking back at the boy, he finished, "But I can show you the Corridor Ride, as Stephen calls it, which is what happens when a boy tries to go up the girl's staircase. It's really fun."

Having exhausted the important highlights of the living situation the two new kids would become used to over the next seven years, he asked again, "Any other questions, comments, concerns? But first, I've got one: what are your names?"\n\n
1 Saul Pot of Gold 82 Saul 0 5


Nathalie

November 27, 2006 1:31 PM
Derek did follow her over, and despite the fact that he seemed to be rather eager (though it was the first day), Nathalie found she didn't really mind.

Saul told them where their common room was, and explained that they'd be sharing a room, which was a bit of a nasty revelation, though not really a surprising one. Nathalie had hoped to get her own space - she wasn't really used to sharing a room, what with being an only child. Still, the common room sounded OK, and Saul himself seemed friendly.

"I'm Nathalie, Nathalie Grant." She said, sticking out a hand. "And this is Derek...sorry, I forgot your surname." She added, turning to Derek.\n\n
0 Nathalie If only!! 0 Nathalie 0 5


Jaeven Dimitri

November 29, 2006 4:51 PM
OOC: As an author, I apologise in advance for Jae's spastic-ness. And complete disregard for most common courtesy. Its him, I swear!

BIC:

Jaeven Dimitri skidded, late, into the hall, gulped some sort of liquid, and turned brown. COOL! This was even more awesome then that Star Wars scene, with Anakin winning that totally MAD COOL race. He looked around at the rest of the students. All of the ones fading brown seemed to be clumped in groups, so he decided to join one.

Half skipping, blond dreadlocks swinging, Jaeven approached two kids who looked around his age, and an older kid. He was grinning ear-to-ear, and his diamond earing sparkled in the Hall's light. Coming up behind the older kid, he hugged him and then skipped to the side.

"Hi! I'm Jaeven Dimitri, but you can call me Jae. I just turned this totally mad weirdo colour! Its AWESOME! Who're you guys? What does that colour mean?" he ran out of breath and drew another one, then sat down in an empty seat and helped himself to some stuff that looked relatively like vegetables, then grinned up at the other people.

This weird new school was going to be FUN!\n\n
0 Jaeven Dimitri Spastic firstie coming through.... 104 Jaeven Dimitri 0 5

Saul Pierce

November 29, 2006 6:47 PM
Saul was committing the two names, Nathalie and Derek, to memory (there was a lot of power in a name) when arms suddenly wrapped around him and squeezed. Shocked silent, Saul's mouth opened without anything emerging as some kid he'd never met before skipped right around him and took one of the saved firstie seats.

While his backbrain was still trying to decide what to do about getting a sudden and impromptu hug without any sort of warning, his frontbrain was committing a third name to memory. Jaeven. Jae. Nathalie, Derek, and Jae.

And while his front and back brains were busy with hugs and names, his face and tongue were following their training because the show had to go on. He was grinning at the kid, and his tongue was answering, "Heya, Jae. Brown is for Pecari, which is the House you just got sorted into. We're all Pecaris, too. I'm Saul, that's Nathalie and Derek."

His backbrain had finished up its task, deciding that the appropriate course of action had already been taken, and his frontbrain reported in that he had the names down pat.

Continuing on, Saul added, "I'm in the third year." Widening his grin to include Nathalie and Derek again, he finished up with, "Any questions about the school, the teachers, the classes, magic in general, Quidditch, the wizarding world in general, or really, just about anything, I'm your guy. If I don't know, I'll direct you to someone who does."\n\n
1 Saul Pierce The more the merrier 82 Saul Pierce 0 5


Jae

November 29, 2006 9:02 PM
Jaeven inhaled all the food on his plate and went back for more. He was growing, slowly but surely. A few inches in the past year may not appear to be much for most people, but for him it meant admittance to a relatively normal height zone for his age. Jae was happy. He was in a new school, which meant his evil principal wouldn't be trying to get him in trouble for excess physical contact, either. And there were PEOPLE at the new school!

Pushing up the short sleeves of his t-shirt, Jae paused long enough in his eating to look up at the older boy and ask, "What's this wizarding stuff you're talking about?" before returning to the meal.

Then he looked around again and fiddled with his earring, noticing the lack of brown about him. PECARI-NESS! Whatever that was, it sounded insanely cool. He grinned widely and dove back into his plate, waiting for a response with green eyes glued on Saul.\n\n
0 Jae Merry is FUN! 0 Jae 0 5

Saul Pierce

November 29, 2006 9:27 PM
Saul grinned as Jae demolished his first plate and didn't even slow down when he refilled it again. That was what food was all about. Not the picking and frowning and asking 'does this have dairy products in it?' that his family had devolved to. Like it mattered if there was dairy or meat in it. It was food. It was good. It had taste.

Saul took a leaf out of Jae's book and consumed the contents of his own plate with gusto. Soooo much better than tofu.

As he was winding down to the scooping up the gravy with his bread, Jae asked another question. One that identified him positively as a muggleborn. Saul grinned. "Wizarding stuff is cool. There's a whole world that people without magic don't even know about. Like, this," he waved around the Hall. "We're in the middle of a desert, but the walls are made of waterfalls. Magic is like that."\n\n
1 Saul Pierce I liked Pippin better 82 Saul Pierce 0 5


Jae

November 29, 2006 9:39 PM
"Magic?" Jaeven nodded thoughtfully. Sounded fun. He had read some books about magic last year in school. It looked to be some pretty cool stuff. And water in the middle of a desert was definitely cool. They didn't have much but swimming pools and resovoirs up in Boulder. There was an awesome mall there, though, with street magicians. His aunt said it was just sleight-of-hand, but it was still COOL!

"How? When can I start? And why did I change colour? What does Pecari mean?" Jae rattled off as he filled his plate again, having consumed the second plateful almost as quickly as the first, but slowing down a bit now. There was also some weird juice in front of him that tasted like Halloweeen. "Do we have to wear those green dresses?" Jae rather liked his cargoes and t-shirts, and would be fairly disappointed to give them up.

"And what classes do we take, and when?" he continued without drawing breath. "And what is this stick for?" Jae asked, removing his wand from his pocket and using it to poke at things with his non-eating hand.\n\n
0 Jae I dunno...Hobbits are just generally creepy 0 Jae 0 5

Saul Pierce

November 30, 2006 5:32 PM
Wow, the kid had a lot of questions. Sure, Saul had just offered to answer everything and anything they could throw at him, but he'd sort of thought they'd come one question at a time. He couldn't help if there were more where this flurry came from or if Jae was going to exhaust his supply of questions before Professor Connell had a chance to solicit any. Saul wouldn't want to deprive her of her own fair share.

He was about to cut off the seemingly endless font of them when the last one came and made Saul lunge forward and snatch the wand out of Jae's hand. "Hey! Hey! Don't go poking that around like that!" Giving it back, in spite of his doubts that Jae should be allowed to have one before going through his first day of classes, he said, in a forcibly calm voice, "Gotta be careful with wands." His heart was beating frantically and sweat had broken out on his forehead in response to the near disaster.

Geez. Half of Saul's family couldn't even do magic, but even the nonmagicals (it was too difficult to determine whether they were muggles or squibs given the complicated mess of geneology that was the California Pierces, so the family used more general terms) had known since infancy that you do not go pointing wands around haphazardly.

In his panic, Saul had forgotten most of the questions Jae had asked, but he wiped his forehead with the heel of his hand and tried anyway, "You turned brown because you drank a potion. Potions are one form of magic. Charms and Transfigurations, which use your wand," he emphasized the terminology there, pointing to Jae's, because it was just wrong to call it a stick, "are two other forms. Those are three of the classes you'll be taking this year."

He took a breath, and kept going on the classes theme. That had been one of the questions, right? "The others are Defense Against the Dark Arts - everyone calls it dayda," well, Saul did, that was close enough, right? "or DADA, and Care of Magical Creatures. That one's called Comec," by him, anyway, "or CoMC. Comec is all about different animals that have magical abilities, and Dayda is sort of a combination of wandwork and creatures so you can defend yourself against dangerous magicks."

He was pretty sure he hit most of the questions. "Um, was that it? I didn't lose you guys, did I?" he asked, looking to Nathalie and Derek, too, so hopefully they wouldn't feel completely overwhelmed.\n\n
1 Saul Pierce I still think Pippin's cool; good name, too 82 Saul Pierce 0 5


Derek

December 01, 2006 10:00 AM
OOC: Sorry for the delay

Derek looked at Nathalie. "Samonns, I'm Derek Samonns. It's okay, you'll get to remembering my name soon!" Derek gave her a grin and turned to Saul. "So we do get to share rooms? Sweet!" Derek liked knowing there were people near him. That's why he always liked having the same room with his little brother, Liam.

Before Derek could ask about anything else, some new kid came over and talked about turning colors. Obviously like Derek and Nathalie did, that chose that they were in Pecari. Like Derek's father. And also started eating food frantically and playing with his wand. Derek moved back a bit, afraid of what the wand would do. This kid was Muggle-born, like mom. Except mom wasn't a witch, and dad actually showed mom that wands weren't toys.

Derek was glad when Saul warned this Jae guy. Then Saul went to answering the boy's questions, which Derek found slightly confusing. "Dayda? Comec? Why do people call them that?" Derek asked. "And no, I'm not lost, nice to meet you Jae," Derek said, acknowleging the boy who was more crazy than he normally was.\n\n
0 Derek Wow, I've sure been out of it 0 Derek 0 5


Nathalie

December 01, 2006 11:45 AM
OOC: That's fine, nice to see you again. Can I also ask we refrain from using the term 'spaz' which is a actually a derogatory way to refer to disability? Thanks.

Jae was weird. And, apparently, a bit of an idiot. Nathalie hadn't even known about magic before she went to Italy, but even she wouldn't ever have poked stuff with a wand. Still, at least she'd had a chance to learn all the class names in English, not Italian, and so hadn't had to ask.

Jae was still shovelling his food down, though Derek hadn't even touched any yet. Looking around, Nath decided she could probably get away with eating and not looking greedy and began delicately selecting food and cutting it up. Still looking around the table, Nathalie tried to spot any other first-year girls.

"Can you lot see anyone else?" She asked, accidentally interrupting Derek.\n\n
0 Nathalie You two've been busy!! 0 Nathalie 0 5


Kaleb Heindrich

December 01, 2006 3:56 PM
"Hi!" Kaleb said cheerfully to the rest of the table. "My name is Kaleb Heindrich. You might know my BIG brother, Guenther. What are your names?"

He gave everyone a wide grin. He was in a good mood today and he wanted everyone to know it. Though, a good mood for him was usually a bad mood for everyone else. Pranks were what he lived for.\n\n
0 Kaleb Heindrich Hello there.... 0 Kaleb Heindrich 0 5

Saul Pierce

December 06, 2006 12:50 PM
"Dayda? Comec? Why do people call them that?"

"Can you lot see anyone else?"

Saul grinned, pleased that the kids hadn't been too overwhelmed by the amount of new information. A little clarification was evidently neccessary for the class names, but overall, everyone seemed to be following.

Well, except Saul himself wasn't exactly sure who Nathalie was looking for. He turned around in time to see a fourth kid join their end of the table, grabbing one of the last of Saul's saved seats.

When the new arrival finished introducing himself, Saul shrugged at Nathalie and commented, "Well, I see Kaleb." He stole another look around the Hall and found most of the other kids had, by now, found seats. "I think that's everyone."

Turning to the new kid, he gave the boy a wide grin and made introduction for them. "I'm Saul Pierce, I'm a third year like Guenther is. That," he pointed first to Nathalie, "is Nathalie. He," Derek, "is Derek, and he," Saul finished up with a finger pointing at the blond kid, "is Jae. They're all firsties, er, first years, like you. I was just saying that I'm here to answer any questions you have."

Picking up his fork again he took another bite of his meat and relished the taste. When he was done chewing and swallowing, he looked back at Derek, "To answer your question about Comec and Dayda, I call them that because that's what their abbreviations spell out and Dayda sounds more mature than Dada. 'Sides, O'Leary would hex you if you tried to call his subject Dada."\n\n
1 Saul Pierce Howdy 82 Saul Pierce 0 5


Nathalie

December 06, 2006 1:30 PM
"Well, I see Kaleb." Saul said. Nathalie wasn't exactly looking for Kableb, but she smiled and nodded anyway when her name was mentioned. Poor Saul looked as if he just wanted to eat, and so Nathalie bit down her next question (who's O'Leary?), assuming someone else would probably answer it in due course anyway, and picked at some more food.

Continuing to around at the table, Nathalie noticed just how...friendly...every one seemed to be. She hadn't really noticed any defined cliques yet, and each group of friends apparently just merged into the next. The Hall itself was overwhelming, and beautiful. She'd just never seen anything like the sheets of water that poured down, and she committed every part to memory.

"It's just so beautiful." She whispered without even realising it.\n\n
0 Nathalie Hola! 0 Nathalie 0 5