Start of Term Feast (All Hogwarts Residents)

[Headmaster Severus Snape]

Severus Snape sat at the tallest chair behind the staff table. Though most people when given a new job as big as headmaster of a school would look thrilled, or at least a little bit happy, Snape's expression was impassive and didn't waver. He watched as the students filed into the great hall in their traditional school robes and head for their house tables where they all began whispering among themselves.

He glanced down the staff table. McGonagall, being the deputy headmistress, sat on his left. She was sitting up straight with pinched lips and a stern expression. He turned the other way. Amycus Carrow, the new Dark Arts teacher was seated there with the exact opposite demeanor, slouched over with a broad grin on his doughy face.

Snape returned his gaze to the students. Any minute now, McGonagall would rise and go get the first years and then he could make his speech.

[Ariana Shallow]

Ariana walked in the Great Hall with a curious look on her face. Her eyes fell on the semi empty room compared to what it was usually and she let out a great sigh. Her robes hung on her body, all of it was new. Even though she was normally all high and mighty with her posture, now she looked around curiously to see who would come back to Hogwarts. A couple things are for sure.. Finn, Lindsey, and Blaise are coming back but she hasn't yet to see them. Frowning inwardly as she looked at the Slytherin table and made her way to go sit down on the dark colored tables. Nothing seemed as cheery as it normally did. Curious of who was the Head Master she turned her head only to see Snape siting in the seat. Her gray eyes fluttered towards McGonagall and she sighed, "Thank god I'm leaving this year..." She muttered to herself. McGonagall always had something against her and her Slytherin house... But Ariana was yet to be sure if Snape would go easy on them for points, instead of the Gryffinodor house.

Lifting her head up from her hands she looked around for people she knew. Not really sure if they would come and sit with her. Part of her didn't want to exactly be alone while they ate. But then again, she was used to it. Besides a few nerds who came up to her in awe of her look. All she would really do was say no harshly and they would leave her alone. Sighing when she saw none of them she put her head back in her hands and looked down at the table, not in thought but just nothing.

[draco]

Draco sauntered into the great hall with Crabbe, Goyle, and Pansy in their usual places crowded behind him. Everything felt right again. He strolled lazily over to the slytherin table, pausing briefly to look up at Headmaster Snape who he could have sworn was staring back at him, and then moved on to take a seat next to one of the only other occupants that had taken a seat. Most kids were still milling about, talking to friends about their summer or glaring towards the staff table.

"Ariana." He nodded politely to her. They weren't the best of friends but he knew her and had classes with her obviously. He noticed that Pansy was the only one sitting from his little group and gestured tiredly to the seats opposite them. "Well sit down." Crabbe and Goyle exchanged a look then shrugged and sat.

[Blaise Zabini]

Predictably, Blaise's entrance to the Great Hall was made on his own. And if he could have managed it, he also would have been holding a book and trying to look uninterested in the changes around him. Being as it was he noted that Draco had been right about the things that he said that day in the Leaky Cauldron. Whether these changes that Blaise initially thought might be good actually were so, he had yet to find out.

He wasted no time in choosing his seat because it was where Draco and company were, and it was where Ariana was. The two of them had hardly spoken until the summer when his mother had invited Ariana and her mother over. It was uneasy up until the end, and when they had made some progress, even possible friendship, that was when dinner came and they were forced to sit awkwardly alongside their mothers. As for Draco, while Blaise did think he was stupid for being a Death Eater, a small part of him admired that he had known about the changes before any of the other students.

“Quiet, isn't it?” Blaise observed to no one in particular, glancing around. He was secretly pleased that whatever Dumbledore supporters were around would be, at this point, terribly upset that Snape was the new Headmaster. After all, he'd tormented everyone that wasn't in his own house.

[Shalie Matsuoka]

Shalie predictably felt miserable when she went to the Great Hall. She didn't know who, if any, of her friends would be attending this year. More than a few of them were muggleborns or blood traitors, and Harry was... off doing something. She did feel a little better though when she thought about the fact that she didn't need to stay home and consider all the things that had taken place before the school year started. Even in its current state, the castle called to mind more good times than her father's house did.

She went to the Ravenclaw table. There were familiar faces, but she had never been friendly with everyone from the house. Given her awkward social situation in the first few years of school and her inability to just be satisfied reading and being academically gifted, problems had arisen quite early for her. Not everyone in the house was like that, luckily. It could be worse. Ravenclaw could have housed Zacharias Smith instead.

Noting that Severus Snape was indeed in such a position that he must be Headmaster, Shalie glanced at the Slytherin table. So it hadn't been a lie. She still felt like she made the right decision in not telling Harry after all what she'd learned that day. She absentmindedly began to play with a lock of hair; it was a nervous habit that was new to her, less accidentally destructive than her old one of running her nails along her arms. It didn't cause damage, really, but certainly made her look insane.

[Ariana Shallow]

In her thoughts, Ariana looked at the table before looking up to see Draco. Her eyes fell on him and she nodded slightly, "Draco." It was a short hi but it was definitely better than not answering at all. To be completely honest, she wasn't in the best mood for talking to someone she barely knew, having her nose shoved in something else than someone else's face she moved her thumb irritably when the four left to sit on the other side of her. In her mind she was pleading that they wouldn't be doing anything stupid or laughing about how much Harry Potter blah blah blah... Ariana was sick of hearing that name from anyone, even if they were trashing him. She lifted her head to glanced around and a smug look came to her face, Little if not none of the muggleborns are here. She had a half smile on her face until she looked up to see Blaise walk in the door. She turned back to the table and thought for the time being.

If they haven't of spoken over the summer because their mothers dragged them to speak to each other he wouldn't even have spoken to her much in the school year. Ariana almost laughed to herself about them fighting in her head. It was to the point where she cried just a little... but after that everything seemed to go like it didn't happen. Even though it was a main aspect of why they have spoken like that, she still enjoyed complaining to him. Then they had to sit and listen to their mothers speak, even though she felt her mom's eyes piercing them the whole time as if expecting them to talk freely at dinner. Her gray eyes looked at Blaise when he sat down and she nodded as a greeting, not sure if he forgot about her after that or if they were still in the tidal waves of friendship, somewhere.

His voice broke her from her thoughts and she moved her body to sit up straight, away from the elbows and slouching. Her eyes went to the rest of the tables and a smirk came to her face, "Thank god. If you ask me." Her voice sounded cold, but really if you listened to the tone of it, it was relived that people were quiet. But some part of her wished that it was louder so she could hear drama freely and also talk freely without many people noticing.

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[neville]

Neville entered the great hall by himself. He had been sitting with Ginny and Luna on the train but somehow they had gotten separated. This didn't bother him so much as he knew he would be seeing them again soon. What bothered him was having to walk to the grffindor table which was the absolute last table, the farthest from the entrance, with everyone staring at him. Of course, not everyone was staring at him, hardly any were actually, but Neville was being paranoid.

And the fact that one of the people staring at him was Snape was highly adding to that paranoia. He passed the other tables, his eyes on the ground. He only looked back up once he had reached his destination and plunked himself down between Lavender Brown and Seamus Finnigan. He scanned the rest of the table. Several people were missing, the most noticable being Harry, Ron, and Hermione.

Neville wasn't completely stupid; he knew that Harry couldn't just walk into Hogwarts and sit down at the gryffindor table like nothing had changed, but it was still a huge damper on his spirits to see that, in fact, things were changing. A lot.

[shava44]

Lindsey wasted no time. Knowing her suitcase would go to her room, as soon as they debarked she strode to the Library and seizing the opportunity, found it unlocked. A quick peek told her the Librarian had to be inside there somewhere in the shelves so her slipping in was risky at best. Still.... She pulled the dark hair net over her head and moved as quietly as she could inside around the walls, eyes alert. Not seeing any movement yet, she was halfway around into the nearest stacks when she heard the books being replaced in one of the aisles. She froze, fearful of being caught with one of the restricted section's books in her bag and waited, wondering whether to retreat or advance.

In a few seconds everything changed.

Peeves, still annoyed about not being allowed in at a feast came through the wall and began screaming at the top of his lungs. The Librarian, moving faster then any student had ever seen her, came out of the aisle like a vulture, zapping spells at him as he began a series of ducks, dodges, and twists avoiding her aim by near misses. Lindsey on instinct and knowing she would get no better chance, ran for it as quiet as she could to the restricted section and found it locked. As another scream came, this time from the Librarian as the sound of falling books came clearly across he room, she whipped the tome out of her expandable bag and wedged it between the bars carefully, pushing it as best she could.

As a scream of pure rage "PEEVES!!!!" was heard she yanked out her wand and expanded the bars with a spell, shoving the book through hard enough to slide across the floor. Now with her wand she levitated it and got it wedged in the spot it had been in before the summer pushing the other books back to their places from where she had moved them around to hide the spot. It was at that moment that disaster actually struck and she was there to witness a horrifying sight...

[shava444]

Glancing around, Finn walked quietly into the hall. Unlike most of the Slytherins or indeed most of the students period, he checked out the tables as people came in and sat. He had not seen any of the Gryffendor trio on the train or in the station which surprised him. He spotted the Weasley girl instantly and scanned the other tables spotting others known to be Potterites or Dumbledore's Minions, or whatever that name was they went by. Although sure of none of them, it was logical that those cloest to him were part of the rumored group.

Not having Potter here would certainly relieve the tension immensely.

Only when he was sure of it did he make his way to the table, slipping into a seat next to where Draco and his set were located. He looked up and found himself across the table from both Blaise and Ariana and he gave them both a slim smile and a nod. The Bloody Baron came down the table middle deciding on where to sit and from beside him Crabbe got up and moved to sit on the other side of Pansy opening up the seat next to Finn in an effort to keep the ghost away from himself.

The ghost noted that and made a point of sitting down opposite the group just to make them uncomfortable which effectively made everyone...uncomfortable. Since that meant he was sitting only two seats away (empty seats indeed as no one would have dared to take them) from Ariana, she couldn't be pleased by this much. Finn met her eyes and made a motion that he could sit there if she prefered, waiting to see what she would do...

[shava44]

As she turned her head she heard the slamming noise and gasped as the first set of shelving toppled over into the next. She froze in place unable to move as she watched a domino effect of bookcases go toppling over into the next, one after the other before Madam Pinch (who was screaming things between spells which Lindsey thought sailor's would be impressed by and write down) was able to stop them with a spell. Peeves' cackling could be heard loud and clear over the racket, his revenge done.

A large explosion near his face made him think different and he flipped backwards through the wall still taunting her with laughter. Enraged, the Librarian actually ran out into the hall and started firing jinxs and hexes down the length of the hall trying to hit the poltergeist and instead wrecking nearly half the corridor with toppled items, paintings all fleeing into their neighbor's spots, and Ms Norris doing a backwards leap and darting under the rug.

Lindsey stole the unlooked for distraction and fled out of the Library with no need for silence as the screams of the Librarian and the taunting from the Poltergeist made more then enough cover. Racing down the stairs she slipped in with the last students entering the Great Hall several minutes later and just barely in front of Mr Fitch who hustled up to the Headmaster's place to whisper in the man's ear. Taking the first seat she saw (imagine that, right beside the baron who looked mightily displeased to have her there) Lin nodded at Finn, said quietly to both Ariana and Blaise "Watch this, Snape just had his first disaster on his hands...."

She then turned to the Bloody Baron and said quite clearly "Hey, Sugarbuns, missed me? I thought about you..."

[Headmaster Severus Snape]

Snape's cold black eyes found and singled out several students, among them being the Weasley girl, Longbottom and several slytherins including Draco. At about the same time his scan was complete, McGonagall was standing to go get the first years. It was also right about now that the doors burst open again and Filch came hobbling down the middle of the great hall, out of breath, gasping something about peeves and the library.

When he had finally reached Snape and was able to breath again, he explained it all in a hurried whisper. Snape looked towards the ceiling as though it might offer some sort of help or at least a reason why his life was turning out the way it was. He had expected issues to arise when the student body saw who their new headmaster was, but he had been hoping that the revolts would begin after the welcome feast and not by the librarian.

He gestured to McGonagall to continue on her way to get the first years ready. Then he rose himself to address the virtually silent hall. "Attention" he droned, having perfected the knack in his potions classes of making any noise die out with a single spoken syllable. "I will be right back to make the start of term feast and Professor McGonagall will be right back with the first years to be sorted. In the meantime you are to sit quietly at your assigned tables. The Carrow siblings will be watching and will report any infractions..." His eyes lingered on the gryffindor table. "...to me." With that being said, he swept from the hall.

[draco]

Draco hadn't been expecting any huge long reply from Ariana so it suited him fine when all she did was simply say his name. Next it was Blaise who was entering and remarking about how quiet it was as opposed to previous years. Ariana was agreeing and then another boy from their house was there...Finn something or other. Draco had never really been bothered to learn his whole name.

He tuned out whatever else was going on and scanned the hall instead. It really did seem as if half of the students hadn't even bothered returning which was fine with him. His eyes were drawn to the gryffindor table, following Snape's gaze during his little announcement and he smirked. Those gryffindorks were always the ones picked on and it was enjoyable to watch.

What would have been more enjoyable to watch would have been Potter trying to enter the school like every other year and being grabbed at the entrance and taken away. Now that would have been entertaining. He happened to catch Longbottom staring at him and raised a pale eyebrow as if to say 'what are you looking at' which normally would turn the boy's face bright red and have him studying the ground as though it was just invented but this time he just stared cooly back, which was a little unnerving.

Draco tuned back into the conversation to find that he hadn't actually missed anything. The bloody baron was scowling at Lindsey and that was the extent of things. How boring.

[ginny]

Ginny entered the Great Hall quietly. She had little idea why she was even here when a good number of those she loved were not. She noticed Neville off by himself and smiled softly. She went to join him at the Gryffindor table, glaring soundly at Malfoy and the other Slytherins as she passed. She glanced around a moment before she sat, so many faces missing in the paltry crowd of what was left of Gryffindor. "Hi Neville!" she attempted a smile she didn't quite feel.

She and Luna had gotten distracted by conversation and had fallen behind. The smile faded, "seems a bit bare doesn't it?" She motioned around. The only table that seemed to be even more full than the previous year was the Slytherin's, though that was to be expected, the whole school being under the death eater's thumb and all.

[neville]

Neville had barely turned away from scowling at Malfoy when he was joined by Ginny and his eyes lit up to see such a friendly face. He had felt a lot closer to people like Ginny and Luna since the fiasco in the department of mysteries two years ago. "Hey Ginny". His returning smile was just as feeble.

As Snape left the hall to deal with whatever he needed to deal with, he leaned closer to the red-head to whisper, "Do you know where they are?" He didn't even need to gesture to the places they generally would be; it was fairly obvious who he meant.

[shava444]

And then out of no where, Moon came in and slipped into the chair making Finn smile grimly. While it solved the problem neatly, he didn't find the girl great company at all really. However there was no other person in the school who could irritate a ghost faster then Lindsey Moon. He was not sure how she did it, but he had seen the expressions often enough on different ghost's faces to know when something bothered them when she was talking to them. How did she do that?

She spoke softly enough to the others he didn't know what had been said, but his eyes caught Filtch at the Headmaster's place talking excitedly and saw Snape stand. At his announcement and exit from the Hall (even though he was curious who the Carrows were) he knew something big had happened somewhere. A student? Teacher? Someone else? As soon as Snape was gone, the quiet murmur of voices began nearly everywhere, not loud enough to draw the stranger's attentions to any one spot, but enough for students to discuss what had just happened.

The Baron looked around, probably seeking a distraction or reason to move.

Remembering his years at the school, Finn could remember clearly having been fascinated with the petrification of the Gryffindor ghost. What would it take to recreate the fact? Was it possible to invent a spell or potion you could splash one with? The idea of re-killing a ghost in some fashion, even if only for a few months or decades, was riveting and many months had been spent trying to think of a way. Maybe he should try it again now that as a student whose mastery of potions was so high he could get permission for the restricted section now. Imagine being able to get rid of a ghost for someone; that would enhance his reputation as an assassin quite easily.