Ravenclaw Table

Posts : 32 Join date : 2010-12-11

Another school year and Kiku was more than happy to be back. He loved Hogwarts, unconditionally so. Perhaps one day he'd teach here. Or maybe even found his own wizarding school in Japan. They were possibilities, but the fact remained, Kiku was ecstatic to be back for another year, and he had no intention of leaving any time soon. The good thing about not being Christian, is that his parents didn't even bat an eye when he told them there were no breaks in term. When he had been younger lying to his parents had seemed such a horrible sin, but now that he was older, it always seemed like a decent option. As horrible as that made him sound, he didn't regret it one bit. Spending a week with his parents now seemed like he was being suffocated. They didn't believe in the things he did, and they no longer had the same values. It was hard to live with people who thought you were ruining your life, and were constantly trying to make you realize it. Kiku had been thankful for the summer school in Osaka, so that he hadn't had to live in Tokyo, cold distant metropolis Tokyo where everyone cared about themselves and not much else. Tokyo was Japan's jem because it was so much like every other large city; big, informal, distant, and cold. The more time Kiku spent away from it, the more he hated it.

The natural beauty that surrounded Hogwarts, the history that you could feel in your bones, it was all here. Kiku had remembered feeling history when he was younger when he had visited shrines and older districts in Tokyo, but the more time he spent away from it, the less he could feel. At large, it distressed him. Japan to him was so regimented and structured and harsh. Kiku wished that one day he could go back to it, and it would be the beautiful, bountiful, spirited place he had once thought it to be. Maybe that place had never existed, but in his deepest of hearts, he wanted to believe that it still did exist, and that he just could no longer see it.

Someone shoved past him, and Kiku blinked. He must have stopped moving in the hall, because now that he looked around, the rest of the students were leaving him behind. Kiku hummed softly to himself and smiled sadly. Somethings were best left to contemplate at a later date. He hurried on to his table and took a seat. He nodded to some of his fellow students, but saved a seat next to him so that when Heracles did finally come to join him, he would have a seat.

As the ceremony started to get under way, Kik stole a glance over towards the Slytherin table. He caught eye of green-eyed pure-blood and shifted his eyes back to the front. Arthur was still there, that much at least, was a relief.

Subject: Re: Ravenclaw Table Sat Apr 16, 2011 9:32 am

There were lots of people that have gathered at the Great Hall already. There were those first years that are all lined up to the Sorting Hat and Dumbledore was there, as always, along with the professors trying to manage the students. The Great Hall, which is very spacious when not occupied by people, seemed to be a flowing sea of people trapped in a box.

Heracles discreetly made his way amongst the sea of students, towards the table of Ravenclaw. In his mind, he knew that his teacher might blurt out in anger saying that it is rather unlikely for a Ravenclaw to be this tardy when it happened that most of the First Year students have already been sorted out to their respective houses and the Dining Feast was about to begin. Nevertheless, he lazily scoured away towards his house table, looking every now and then for Honda Kiku amid all these hustle and bustle going inside the Hall.

Sadly enough, his expectations were put into disdain when he could not seem to find Kiku, and he was already being blocked by the students from passing any further. And blaming it on his tardiness, Heracles seated himself on the farther side of the table where he would most likely be surrounded by first years, not that he disliked first years but it's just not in his personality to be all open, approachable and friendly, but it did not matter. As far as possible, he would rather distance himself; away from the crowd. Unfortunately, the Hall was very much fully occupied so any place would still be surrounded by people causing much disturbance to his level of comfort. Also, as much as he wanted to leave the place, the doors were already guarded by the professors, to which escaping outside would seem very futile, and their teacher could not get more infuriated with what the students are doing, not much discipline at all. Still, he did not want to miss out on the food. After a long journey from Greece to the British Isles, he certainly needed to fill his stomach. He surveyed the long table lined with all sorts of food. As usual, it was typical English food. Although he does not hate it, and would eat it from time to time, he would still prefer the food back home at any given time.

"Why can't we have Moussaka? *sighs* Well at least they have olives." he sighed in disappointment but then just shrugged his shoulders seeing that at least there's still a part of his home here, even if it's just in the form of olives. He was picking on the olives one by one like something to pass by the time. He suddenly shifted his gaze to Dumbledore and the Sorting Hat. It has already been four years since he first had that Sorting Hat on his head. Back then, even as a First Year, he always looked dozed, with those lazy-looking eyes that made him look as if he was always too bored, too sleepy or just plain uncaring.

"You have a passion for Philosophy and you have a knack for History, yet you always have this calm disposition." And after some moment of silence, the Sorting Hat yelled, "Ravenclaw!" There were slight murmurs and whispers but he didn't bother.

And as for Dumbledore, Heracles was lucky enough to be just late such that he was able to miss out on Dumbledore's speech and the Sorting Hat's never-changing song. When he was a First Year, sure it as fun-looking and everyone seemed very gullible about it, but having it repeated for the last four years, not so much. With each passing year, his tardiness worsens towards the attendance of the Sorting Feast, just for him to not be able to listen to the same old things he has been hearing for the last four years. He suddenly remembered that he still has two more years to endure, and with that, he just placed his head on the table and covered it with his arms in disarray.

"How long is this supposed to last? I'm certain that with each coming year, this Feast just gets slower and slower. I want to sleep already." he murmured. After some time, he sat up straight again and noticed the student in front of him looking at him in a rather peculiar way. He gave the student a curious stare as an answer back which made the student very awkward thus looking away.

After the sorting was finally done, and all the students were already seated in their respective house tables, the pathways were now less crowded than before so Heracles stood up in order to finally look for Honda Kiku which is obviously sitting somewhere in the Ravenclaw table. He stood up and fussed about until he finally found him and was touched that he reserved a seat for him.

"Thank you for saving me a seat. I'm very sorry that I am late. I happened to have overslept." he said to Kiku in utter shyness. Finally he was already comfortable enough with the person he knew the most, and with that, he helped himself with a good plate of lamb and fruits and vegetables, mostly olives. Every now and then, he looked up to admire the grandeur that is the Great Hall at that time, not only in the architecture itself, which he has always enjoyed looking at even from the start, but with the very impressive and intricate decoration as well. Certainly, these were just some of the things that never failed to make him happy, most often when one has nothing better to do than just gaze upon everything, oddly finding happiness on the various things therewith.

He was scanning the whole vicinity of the hall and it just so happened that as he was looking at the Gryffindor table, he saw a white-haired male that shoved a handful of mashed potato grasped in his hands unto his house mate's face. Seeing as it could only result in ultimate chaos, he prepared his wand, hiding it inside his coat, attempting to do a deflecting s[ell if ever there comes a chance that a flying peice of food is headed straight to his face.

Posts : 32 Join date : 2010-12-11

Kiku schooled himself not to look towards the Slytherin table again, or even to have looked relieved when he had. As tempting as it was to ogle Arthur as much as possible, now was not the proper time for it. Kiku had seen him sitting there, and that was enough for now. As far as Kiku could tell, a decent amount of death eaters died every year, especially those that had more free thinking ideas, like Kiku knew Arthur had. Even though Kiku didn't even slightly suspect his Arthur had officially joined the ranks of the death eaters, the danger involved was not lost on him.

He wouldn't admit it, but Kiku had spent a good portion of the summer worried about the whole situation at large. With absolutely no way of contacting Arthur without giving themselves away, Kiku had been forced to wait and worry. If it had been possible, he'd have had the Daily Prophet delivered to him every day, but that was simply not available to him. Thank the Gods that the London Times was obtainable, even if it was often late in reaching his shores; franticly searching the muggle papers for any mysterious deaths or disappearances had become a daily ritual that he sometimes repeated more than once in a days time. Though that had never really helped, it always made him feel somewhat better about their situation.

It was simply something he had to do. He was a worrier by nature, though most people wouldn't know it to look at him. Kiku hid his insecurities well, his game face was unrivaled and not even those closest to him could see through them. Not even Heracles, his best friend, realized just how much Kiku fretted over things. This whole secret relationship with a future death eater really wasn't good for him in the long run, and he knew it. But really, what could he say? He was young, reckless, and wanted to defy every convention that had ever been placed on a 'muggle born' and most importantly, he had a genuine affection for Arthur that he wasn't about to deny himself.

The thought would have brought a smile to his face, but Kiku was not allowing such things. He had worked to hard to keep this whole affair a secret just to give himself away with a stupid love struck smile and kaleidescope eyes in Arthur's direction. No such thing was going to happen here, or any time soon.

Kiku hummed to himself softly, banishing his previous train of thought. Such things would do him no good now. Arthur was close enough that Kiku wouldn't have to worry, and that in and of itself was a relief.

He shifted his gaze from the spread of food in front of them as a distraction. There was a good amount of it, but nothing he was particularly fond of. Truly, western food was lacking in style and taste, and he could already feel the impending stomach problems he went through after returning every year. He missed rice already. Even if rice was served, it was never plain, wonderful steamed rice. It was always this flavored junk that they called rice. And the quality! It was absolutely atrocious. If he ever missed home for one thing, it was the food. The British couldn't even get curry right, which in and of itself was a crime against nature as far as Kiku could see it. At least there was a healthy amount of vegetables and fruit to be seen.

It was as Kiku critically analyzed the content of their coming meal, that Headmaster Dumbledore took his place behind the podium and cleared his throat, effectively silencing the hall. Kiku turned forward to regard their Headmaster, and fought down a frown. Heracles still was not here. How rude of him to miss the Headmasters speech - Kiku thought - but that was just Heracles. He was probably sleeping in the common room, curled up with a cat on his lap. Despite the 'deviant' behavior, Kiku kept the smile that wanted to spread across his face to himself. That was just Heracles, and he didn't mean to be rude by it, so there was no need to be displeased with him. From the owls they had exchanged over the summer, Heracles had flown in from Greece on the same day that he had been made to catch the Hogwarts express. If Kiku thought back on it, he'd thought that Heracles arrangements had been far to rushed for his best friend to catch. Kiku had never seen Heracles move exceptionally fast, except for maybe on the pitch. Perhaps he had missed the train entirely? No, that couldn't have been it. Granted, they hadn't met on the train like planned, but that didn't mean that Heracles had missed it.

His best friend was known to set up roost in the strangest of places and pass out. Kiku had suspected that, and nothing else. And even now that Heracles wasn't there, Kiku suspected that he was just sleeping somewhere comfortable.

As Dumbledore started his speech, Kiku righted himself and watched the headmaster, like the good student he was. He listened with interest, and when Dumbledore had finished, he clapped passively with his peers. The speech had taken him away from his previous thoughts, and now that the Sorting hat was starting its introduction, Kiku could not recall what he had been thinking before at all. It was all just as well. It would either come back to him, or it was not important, or so he tried to convince himself.

Instead of dwelling on it, Kiku gave the sorting ceremony his undivided attention. When he heard the familiar 'Kirkland' name called Kiku prevented the smile from spreading across his face. The more he thought on it, the Kirklands weren't all that detestable. Una Kirkland was Head Girl this year, and a highly respectable woman. She held herself with pride and respect - as all Kirkland's Kiku had ever met did - and she wasn't exceptionally cruel in any way. In fact, she was highly more appealing than his own Arthur, who on the outside was horribly prickly. This new one - Peter? - was the spitting image of Arthur as a younger student.

Back then, Kiku had felt nothing but animosity towards the Kirklands, and their affinity with the death eaters. But now that he was significantly closer to all of it, Peter looked like quite the charming child. He had that Kirkland grace that he hadn't quite grown into yet, but his eyes burned with all the pride in the world. It really did bring Kiku back, and he worked hard to keep his face just as impassive.

As expected, the young Kirkland was placed into Slytherin, and he bounded down from the sorting hat, quite sure of himself. The poor dear didn't make it. Instead he slipped on something, and crashed to the ground. For a second, Kiku knew that concern flashed through his eyes, but the second he realized, it was gone again. There were a few laughs from various people in the hall, mostly from Gryffindor and Hufflepuff, but there were a few from his table, and even some from the Slytherin table as well.

Poor Peter dashed from his spot on the floor to his table and sat impassively. It occurred to Kiku at that moment, that such a name couldn't be easy to maintain. There were expectations and preconceptions already in place, simply because Peter was a Kirkland. And as Kiku well knew, a Kirkland was enemy with more than half of the school, teachers often included. Expectations, pride, all of it reminded him of home, and the life he had largely left behind himself to be here.

It was a dangerous topic to be internally monologuing about, and Kiku shoved it from his system. He turned back to the front, where the sorting ceremony was continuing. Though, he couldn't keep himself from looking at Arthur once more. The Slytherin looked about ready to murder someone, could perhaps Peters fall have been orchestrated by someone? Kiku allowed his gaze to linger for far to long, though it couldn't have been more than a few seconds. Arthur leaned in to speak with Peter and Kiku shifted his gaze back to the front.

As the ceremony continued, Kiku caught eye of Heracles sitting down by the first years. Perhaps he had not noticed Kiku? That seemed the most reasonable answer, and as the sorting came to a close, Kiku found that he was right. Heracles caught sight of him, and came wandering over to sit next to him. His best friend offered a shy apology, which was well received. Heracles knew how Kiku disliked all things rude, and it was nice of him to apologize. In exchange Kiku offered him a soft smile.

"Ah, it is alright, Heracles. I didn't see you come in." It was nice to see him after the long break. They had exchanged owls every once in a while, but it paled in comparison to spending actual time together. And they were the sort of friends that only need to be in each others presence to enjoy one another. Minimal talking was actually preferred between them. Though it was a model that most could not understand in the slightest, it was one that fit them perfectly.

The sorting finished, and with that Heracles started to pile things onto his plate. Kiku watched as his friend did so, then turned to his own empty plate. Nothing looked particularly appealing, and he was reminded that earlier he had had a lengthy conversation with himself about how he despised this food. Kiku banished the thought and reached for an ear of corn and his fork. He had started to pry the curnals from the butter covered ear onto his plate, when sounds behind him started to grow.

He was a little curious as to what the commotion was, so he placed the corn down on his plate - frowning slightly at the excess of butter on perfectly good corn- and turned around to see what the trouble was. To his surprise, the Gryffindor table had erupted into a food fight of sorts. Kiku had turned in time to see jello flying before Professor McGonagall erupted in displeasure. Kiku watched impassively as the culprits were verbally lashed, and sent away from the feast. Such disturbances were truly juvenile, and unacceptable, even in Hogwarts laid back setting. If it had been his choice, they would have lost significantly more than that. But Professor McGonagall was a kindly woman - though many would argue with him, she truly was.

They had gotten off easy, and if it had been his choice, their out burst would have cost them dearly. But the thoughts swirling in Kiku's head remained only thoughts. He turned back to his plate, and took a drink of punch before continued his previous task. Such disturbances really were unacceptable...

Subject: Re: Ravenclaw Table Thu Apr 21, 2011 7:42 am

Heracles was well aware that utter disturbance was well on it's way. However, he knew better than to intervene or bother too much of a care. Instead, he just enjoyed the olives that he was eating and taking his time in doing so. The Sorting Feast is about to come to an end, thankfully, and his eagerness to have a good rest is rising once again. Once the feast was over, he would scurry towards the dormitory and tend to the cat that he found some time ago and probably sleep with it as well, that is, if it's still there. Perhaps the cat would've left already, or maybe a new cat showed up. Heracles was already drifting into a daydream when suddenly, he heard a firm and loud voice that was unmistakably coming from Professor McGonagall. He has already forgotten about the ruckus that was happening on the Gryffindor table until his attention was shifted to the sudden enraged teacher. All that he saw were food that were scattered on the table and a couple of students headed their way outside the Hall. These must be the troublemakers. After the tension has suppressed, he resumed to his previous activity that was, eating olives. He then shifted his gaze to his best friend, Kiku.

Even though Heracles was still embarrassed about his tardiness a while before, he believes that Kiku would take it into consideration and he was reliefed that he did so. During the previous school year, upon reaching it's end and heading towards summer vacation, Heracles and Kiku promised that they would keep in touch, just like what they always do from the years beforehand, and send letters to each other via their owls. During the first few weeks, the frequency of the letters that they had sent to each other were quite high and it was rather constant. However, as the days drew closer towards another school year, the letters sent by Heracles grew less until such time that he wasn't able to write a response anymore. He knew that Kiku would've been rather glum due to his inability to write back to him during that time, but as much as Heracles wanted to, he grew to busy making preparations for the incoming school year. And he was also doing several jobs at that time so that he could have a decent amount of money that would be quite useful if the time comes.

The Sorting Feast was nearing it's end. However, Heracles noticed that from time to time, Kiku would shift his gaze somewhere, though Heracles never looked at the same place in order to know what it specifically was. Also, Kiku remained his stoic expression so Heracles doesn't have any idea wether something was really bothering him or not. Could it be that he was looking for an item? Or another person, perhaps? In his curiosity and worrying, he faced Kiku and asked "Is something the matter, Kiku? You seem to be a tad bit uneasy."

Posts : 32 Join date : 2010-12-11

Heracles had called Kiku on his stairing, but it was more of a dazed sort of look than one focused and alert, so Kiku wasn't all that concerned about it. Heracles wasn't the suspicious sort. "The new Kirkland, he looks quite put out about the slipping incident."

It wasn't entirely true, but it wasn't entirely false either. Slipping on your first day was a nightmare for almost any first year, and right when everyone was looking at him too. Kiku could related, he knew very well the feeling of being laughed at and mocked, and Heracles knew he was sympathetic to such a plight. That would do, Kiku surmised.

"Silly of me to worry, about a pure blood no less. I must be getting soft in my old age." Kiku smiled softly at Heracles, and instead decided to change the direction of the conversation. "How was the train ride? I seem to have missed you somehow..."

Guest

During the course of the Feast and Sorting Ceremony, Natalya looked up from her book only twice. Once, so she could fill her plate with food, and again to look over at the the Hufflepuff table, catching sight of her best friend. As soon as she was sure Katyusha was there, Natalya's eyes fell back down to her book.

She'd spent most of the ride to Hogwarts skimming over her books from last year, and she'd finally moved on to her current books. The one currently in her lap was a book of rare herbs. This year, she was determined to do better in Herbology. She would bite her lip, and force herself to actually work. And pray that the grime and dirt didn't ruin her hands.

While the sorting Ceremony went on, interrupted once (by the Gryffindors, she was sure), she ate her food, and read over the proper way to grow and ready coltsfoot for a particularly complicated exlixir that could heal the common cold, mostly.

Once the ceremony ended, and all the first years were sorted and in their places, Natalya snapped her book shut and stood up. Plate empty, and her page finished, she brushed off the ebony uniform skirt briskly, tucked her book under her arm, and started to leave. She paused by Heracles Karpusi, standing beside him, and waiting. When he looked at her, she spoke quickly, “Our first practice will be in three days, I've already reserved the pitch, so be sure not to be late. Right after classes, understood?”

Subject: Re: Ravenclaw Table Sun Jun 12, 2011 3:04 pm

Heracles was quite surprised for Kiku to have some sort of mild concern for a pure blood, seeing as they are ruthless when it comes to discriminating those that are not of their blood-line, stereotypically speaking. However, being that it was about that kid who had slipped for reasons he does not know, and even being a First Year, he shared the same sympathy.

"Don't think of it that way, Kiku. I share the same concern as you do. You just have a good heart, that's all." He gave a timid smile, hoping that Kiku would brush off that silly thought from his mind.

" Ah, yes. The train ride was... Uhmm... It was rather... In fact, I don't know how it was since I was asleep the whole time. ^^"" The locomotive that he rode was quite comfortable, and his cabin being peaceful, he fell asleep halfway while reading a book.

"And yes, I have missed you too. It has been quite a while since we last heard from each other apart from now. I'm very sorry I wasn't able to write back to you as often as I did before." Just as he was about to speak another word, he saw Belarus, their team captain, walking towards their direction. If Belarus was to ever talk to her, it would undoubtedly be about Quidditch. And he knew that there would be another set of rigorous training for the next Quidditch Cup. Massive preparations have to be made, and the long span of time must not be put to waste.

"Yes, I understand it perfectly."

Guest

Nodding curtly to Herakles once, Natalya glanced at his companion for a moment, then left the Great Hall, book tucked under her arm. She gave the room a once over, one more time, before walking away from the Ravenclaw table. As she moved, she pondered over whether or not to stop by the library on her way back to the common room, and opted not too.

She had quite the collection of books to go through on her own, and had no plan to risk losing track of time in the library again. She would not, under any circumstances, be caught returning to Ravenclaw tower after curfew again.

It didn't look good on her records, and worked against her. Not acceptable.

Subject: Re: Ravenclaw Table Wed Aug 24, 2011 8:04 pm

Another year just starting and Matthew had his nose buried in a book already. He paid all of his attention to the Headmaster’s speech, but as soon as the Sorting Ceremony began, his violet eyes focused again on the pages in front of him. It wasn’t as if he could do much else anyway, his friend Kiku was already talking with someone else and he hated to interrupt. He watched Kiku for a bit anyway, carefully. That’s what he did most of the time, he spent it watching people. Observing a world that often didn’t regard him was the way he learned and experienced empathy, sympathy, sometimes even happiness and sadness. It was through the eyes of others though, never through his own; and that Matthew knew, was not a good thing. It was a good skill sometimes, he had to admit that. You got to learn a lot about the people around you when you simply watched as opposed to just listen; the eye can see the lie the ear won’t.

He watched Kiku when he had patiently waited for his Greek friend, and then as he slowly turned around to face elsewhere. And that… that was strange, Kiku wasn’t one to stare. Instinctively, Matthew turned his gaze to where he thought Kiku had looked and his eyes landed on the Slytherin table, where his fifth year classmates where sited. A small frown appeared on his face and his mind started to instantly race through all the possibilities as to why was Kiku looking at that particular table.

Matthew didn’t hate Slytherins, but as a muggle born wizard in a time where ancestry defined you as a person, he had learnt to keep his distance from those who thought him inferior. He just thought Kiku had done the same, especially after tutoring that Kirkland-guy last year. Old pureblood families were by far the worst. Maybe something had happened during that tutoring that made Kiku change his mind though.

At the end, he decided to brush everything off as his own crazed delusions probably caused by hunger and turned around to the plate in front of him again. As soon as the food appeared, he grabbed a bit of everything he could find that was close enough to him and put some on his plate until it was full.

He ate slowly, fork in hand as his eyes scanned the pages of his new addition to his prided book collection. It was a book about blood magic, its uses, advantages and disadvantages. Something Matthew knew almost nothing about and something that fascinated him. Every culture in the world had some kind of blood magic. Bonds formed by ‘blood brother’ rituals across Asia and Europe. And the various forms of initiation or protection rituals back home. The chief of the reservation had taught him once for example, that The Sun Dance required a blood sacrifice, an object piercing the skin of the dancers as an offering to the ’Great Mystery’. He wasn’t part of the tribe though and that kept him from ever seeing any of their rituals; a shame, he was sure he could learn so much from it. Matthew thought that maybe he could learn some of it at school then, Blood magic wasn’t taught in any class at Hogwarts due to its potentially dangerous nature, but he had already spoken with professor Flitwick about doing some practice with simple rituals and spells. His teacher trusted him; after all he was the best on his class and had allowed him to do some experimenting and report back anything he had found interesting. The problem was, blood magic was rarely done in solitary, and there was hardly anyone Matthew trusted enough to ask. Kiku had seemed like the best option, he just needed to find the right time to ask.

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