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[Allison Cassidy Rose]

Ok ok...lets see...it was...newt..no..toad! That was it, toad was the last ingrediant. Allison scribbled this down and blew on the wet ink to help it dry. That was one assignment down...three to go. A typical monday morning. Instead of being smart and using the first weekend of the school year to do any homework, she let it slip away and was now struggling to stay afloat in the sea of assignments. What was next? Allison had to think. She nibbled on a piece of toast as she searched through her bag that was next to her on the bench at the Hufflepuff table of the great hall. History of magic...she hadn't even started. Allison reached into her bag and grabbed a sheet of parchment, then spread it out in front of her next to her breakfast. Now what was it...a half page on Emeric the Evil. Oh fun... Allison dipped the quill in ink then put it in the page, but her hand remained stationary. She was so tired of last minute assignments. She wanted someone to talk to...surely there had to be someone else eating breakfast in the great hall.

[Edwin Cooper]

Adjusting to Hogwarts was difficult for a great number of reasons, but the homework was definitely at the top. Edwin had never been to school, so having homework to do was new to him and it was made many times more difficult when he had a hard time reading. At home he didn't have the time nor the resources to devote any significant time whatsoever for reading. He could get by alright in everyday life, but being expected to read from a textbook was very different.

He sat at the Hufflepuff table, his History of Magic book open in front of him and his head resting in his left hand. His fingers were clenching his too-long hair in frustration as he tried to work through the paragraphs they'd been assigned. He had to fellow the text with his right index finger, which moved slowly, and his lips moved as he read the words, as Edwin had not yet mastered reading without having to articulate the words as well.

Edwin looked up from his reading in frustration, somehow the work of reading was as exhausting as any manual labor he'd done. He almost laughed at this thought, he doubted that his friends would be all that sympathetic if he told them that. As he looked around at the emptying hall he noticed one of his housemates looking about as frustrated as he felt. "Bit more work than I bargained for." Edwin said conversationally to the girl, motioning at their mutual piles of homework and books they each had in front of them.

[Allison Cassidy Rose]

A fellow Hufflepuff spoke to Allison. she cracked a smile. "And it get's worse each year. Don't professors have lives? Or do they enjoy grading homework? I think it would be a win-win situation to just stop giving homework." Allison knew professors would never go for the idea, but Allison thought it sounded like a good one. She looked to the assignment the boy was doing. He held his History of Magic textbook in one hand. "You can't really tell yet by the sheet of parchment being completely blank save for this ink blot, but I am also doing History of Magic homework. The class is so dull..." Hopefully he felt the same way.

[Alistair Bauldaugh]

Toast… No, biscuits, definitely… Maybe not. Alistair thought long and hard every morning about what he would eat for breakfast. It was the best meal of the day in his opinion because it was the first. Also, it would stick with you all day. If supper wasn’t good, you didn’t have to think about it for too long because you would just go to sleep within a few hours anyway. Breakfast was very important. Just as Alistair slid in next to Allison he firmly decided on an apple and toasted bread, which he began piling on his plate.

“Morning,” He greeted, his hand hesitating over the two containers each holding a different flavor of jam. Perhaps he should pick a new favourite meal as this one seemed to come with too many choices. Finally reaching for the strawberry mixture, Alistair cast a glance at the girl next to him and noticed the book in her lap.

“You know, the only thing History of Magic is good for is helping you get to sleep at night. Try reading it during dinner instead.” It wasn’t until then that he realized one of the new first years had been talking to Allison. Had they met yet? Well now was as good a time as any.

“Hi there, I’m Alistair.” They very well could have met the first night or any other meal since then, but Alistair’s memory was quite awful. “Are you doing your homework too?” Alistair could just see the top of the hardback cover hiding behind the table. “What’s the professor got you two reading?” He asked in a carefree manner as his knife slid back and forth over the toast.

[Edwin Cooper]

Edwin smiled at Allison's comment about how the professors shouldn't give homework and nodded in agreement. "Wouldn't that be nice." He remarked, though he too doubted that that would ever happen, not matter how much a professor disliked grading. Their joy of making students work must outweigh their own dislike of grading the poor results. Edwin nodded in agreement again when Allison said that History of Magic was dull. "I thought I'd like it since I don't know nothing about magic, but it's stuff from ages ago and I don't understand why it's important to us," Edwin said, clearly frustrated by the class.

While he and Allison talked another boy joined them, one who Edwin judged to be a couple years older. Edwin laughed lightly when the boy said History of Magic reading would put them to sleep, though he was pretty sure that any kind of reading would put him to sleep, it was exhausting. "Hi Alistair, my name's Edwin." Edwin said, returning the greeting. "Goblin Rebellions." He answered, grimacing. "Normally I should think I'd find it exciting. Battles and that, but this book makes it so boring." He said, waving his hand vaguely at the book in front of him. He was going to have to memorize all those dates too.

"What about you?" Edwin asked Allison, peering over at her piece of parchment, though of course, as she had said, it was empty.

[Allison Cassidy Rose]

Allison nodded in agreement as she and edwin discussed their school work, when suddenly a boy slid in next to Allison. The familiar and very welcome voice of Alistair greeted the two. Allison turned to give him a smile. "Good morning Alistair!" Allison said, hoping that her hair hadn't gone astray since she brushed it about oh...fifteen minutes ago. Allison laughed at Alistair's joke about History of Magic. "Too bad it's due today," Allison said frowning at her blank page of parchment which somehow would end up resembling an essay.

Edwin explained that good ol' Professor Binns had him reading about Goblin Rebellions. Allison gave him a look of pity. She remembered the slow dull lectures and the reading from last year. "It's Emeric the Evil for me." she said as she tried desperatley to remember the last lecture. She had beaten her own personal record and had paid attention to over half of it...still all the facts excaped her in her time of need.

[Alistair Bauldaugh]

“Hi, Edwin.” One of the best aspects of the Hufflepuff house was the overall friendliness of your housemates. Even if you were meeting someone for the very first time, there were very good chances that they were going to be polite and happy to make your acquaintance. Alistair didn’t know if other houses weren’t that way, but his house was certainly a great house because of that.

Goblin rebellions had been a difficult subject for Alistair. After taking a bite, he offered, “All that you really need to know is the order they were in and the years. Who started them, what they were fought over, and how it turned out doesn’t become important until later on.” That really sounded like everything but Binns actually gave a lot of extra information that was never tested over. “You could try making a funny saying out of them. For example, Urg the Unclean thought therapy to be thoroughly tactless in thirteen thirty nine.” He was fairly certain that that was the right year.

“The only actual noteworthy thing about Emric was the fact that he lost against another wizard that started with an E.” It was Elmer or Egton or something like that. “But that’s how I kept him separate from Uric the Oddball, who was actually much more interesting to learn about.” Alistair was surprising himself. Perhaps he was better at History of Magic than he had let himself believe.

Alistair finished his last bite and wiped the crumbs from his fingers. “How are you enjoying quidditch, Edwin?” House tryouts were coming up and the game was all he could think about lately. Subsequently, most of his conversations were about it. Hopefully Allison wouldn’t mind. “I don’t think I’ve ever asked,” he said, turning to the girl. “Do you like quidditch?”

[Edwin Cooper]

The chattiness and friendliness of his two housemates helped Edwin to relax about his homework a little. It was so easy to feel overwhelmed, but in his house most of the students were friendly and it made things seem a lot easier to bear. Though he hadn't had any preferences upon entering Hogwarts, not knowing about any of the houses, he was glad that he hadn't been sorted into any of the other houses. He thought Hufflepuff suited him just perfectly.

Edwin listened to Alistair's insights about History of Magic and laughed at his rhyme about Urg the Unclean. "I'm gonna have to try that. It's sure nice to have older students to ask." He said sincerely. It really did sound like a good idea. Maybe that would be easier than trying to memorize everything by reading it. If he could make rhymes and sayings out of them than he could repeat them to himself without the need to labor over writing it down. He would have to remember the advice.

Alistair went on to talk about Emeric the Evil and Uric the Oddball and by this time Edwin was completely lost again. This was second and third year stuff, they hadn't gotten to it yet. It did sound like it was going to get more and more difficult keeping the names apart as he went along, he thought. I'd better start on those rhymes before we move on.

Edwin had heard the other students talking about Quidditch, but most of them were older and Edwin was too embarrassed to ask for any clarification on what, exactly, it was. Alistair seemed very nice though and unlikely to laugh at his ignorance. "Dunno what it is, honestly." He had managed to gather that it was a sport played on broomsticks, but beyond that, he was lost. "Seems like everyone's excited 'bout it, though."

[Allison Cassidy Rose]

Allison tried desperatly to remember last year in History of magic as Edwin and Alistair discussed it, but it really was her weak subject. She would need to remember that stuff for OWLs in her fifth year...but she could worry about that later. She then nodded. "Thank you, I will keep that in mind." she said to Alistair as he gave her vital information about Emric. He seemed to really know his stuff.

Allison's face flushed. Qudditch. Little did Alistair, or anyone else for that matter, know but Allison loved qudditch. The feeling of the ground speeding beneath you as the broom sped over the grass after a small golden ball that zoomed in every direction, so quick that it was all but a blur at times. Allison thought back to the neighborhood street games she had played with others as a child when her parents were away. She was seeker. Always. No one had objected to her claiming the roll, she had been the only kid with enough experience and control of the broom to stand a chance of catching the nimble prize. Allison had never told her love of the sport to anyone here at Hogwarts, though. 'Quidditch was a sport for men' or something similar woould be her Mum's reaction to her expressing any intrests. Allison had heard of house quidditch teams but making the team was a distant dream. Regis had almost discovered Allison's facination of the sport when they met at a quidditch match over the summer. Regis had spoken of trying out for his house team and Allison had promised to support him.

Alistair was probably expecting an answer. "I do enjoy the game." Allison said softley as she looked anywhere but at Alistair. Think how much he would tease her! Sure he would only be joking, but what would he say if he knew a second year was dreaming of being the house seeker? No, she could not tell people.

[Alistair Bauldaugh]

Alistair’s food was gone faster than he thought it should disappear, but that just left his mouth open for talking without being rude. He was glad he had steered the conversation away from History of Magic. He wasn’t too confident in his abilities in that class even if he just proved that he had retained some of what he learned. “No problem,” he told them both, but was careful not to offer any more aid at the present time.

The first time Alistair had heard a wizard say he didn’t know what quidditch was, his jaw nearly hit the floor. In the two years since then, he had been reminded several times that muggle borns just had a little more than others to learn. “No worries, there’s a great book in the library I can show you some time, or you can just go to the games, they are rather self-explanatory.” Of course, that wouldn’t have satisfied his curiosity when he was eleven, so Alistair tried to give a quick synopsis of the game.

“But so you have an idea, there are seven players on each team. Three chasers work to get the biggest ball, it’s called a quaffle, down the pitch and into the other team’s baskets. If the quaffle goes in, it’s worth ten points. The baskets are guarded by a team’s keeper. Then there are two beaters, they have little clubs and try to knock people off their brooms by aiming bludgers at them. Bludgers are another type of ball; made of metal. They do a good job of knocking people about without the beater’s help. Anyway, the last player is the seeker. He is responsible for catching this very tiny and fast ball called the snitch. The snitch is worth one hundred and fifty points. The game doesn’t end until the snitch is caught. Games have gone on for days!” Edwin could probably tell from Alistair’s excitement that quidditch was clearly the greatest thing ever invented. “But really, you’ll have to see it for yourself. Even Allison likes it, and she’s a girl.”

There was much more to it than Allison just being a girl. Cecile was a girl and Alistair bet she could fly circles around him if she tried. It was more that Allison wasn’t the type of girl to play an actual sport like quidditch. She was better at – well, whatever it was girls were good at. Talking? Yea, she was good at that. She and Alistair talked all the time. “Did you go to the dance club meeting?” he asked, not wanting to leave her out. Truthfully he couldn’t recall if he’d seen her there or not.

[Daniella Cruz]

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