#4 Breakfast

 Genevieve entered the Great Hall for breakfast, looking very much to be still asleep. The young girl had not gone to bed till quite late due to the party, besides even when she finally went to bed... Due to her excitement, sleep refused to come to her. 
Gen seated herself on the table, pouring herself a cup of tea, liberally filled with several spoonfuls of sugar before taking a sip. She let out a loud long yawn and it took her a few moments to realise that there was an owl trying to get her attention. 

Sleepily she stroke the owl as she fumbled for the letter attacked to it's leg. The small redhead opened the letter after a few moments, her blue eyes flicked back and forth across the parchment as she read the letter from home. It took her two attempts before she was awake enough for the contents to sink in. It was always good to hear from home, Genevieve folded the parchment up and pocketed it. With a weak smile, she pulled a bowl towards her and filled it with some cornflakes. Another yawn escaped the Grynffindor who appeared for all the world to be about to fall asleep in her seat.

He looked at Ryan. "Are you any good at flying, Ryan?" Maybe he could help him beforehand. Gerald had never flown before, but it seemed at least a useful skill.

Blinking with surprise, he noted just how free their morning was. If he had realised this beforehand, he'd have slept in. "I don't really have anything planned, maybe we could try having a study session?" Maybe they could try doing some more dares?

Gerald liked spending time with Ryan, maybe he could get all his friends together? It could be fun, right?

Yesterday had been a blast from start to finish. Tiana's housemates ended the night by throwing her a bash in the common room and it wound up an event she'd never forget. She spent the night dancing until she physically couldn't anymore, practically needing assistance to her dormitory when the celebration died down. While last night was the definition of a great time, this morning was the opposite. Tiana's feet were dragging slowly, her eyes heavy with weariness. Maybe breakfast would help her shake the sleepiness, but she deeply doubted it.

Thomas sluggishly entered the Great Hall, shielding her eyes from any light. She needed more rest and it weighed heavily on her mind, so heavily that a headache began to form behind her eyes. She walked to the Gryffindor table and flopped lazily onto the bench, not even noticing that she ended up beside Ronan. She heard a good deal of commotion at the Hufflepuff table but was too tired to even attempt to find out what it was about. “This morning is a rough one,” she muttered, holding her head together as if it were falling apart into a hundred tiny pieces.

She finally looked up to see Abigail Maples sitting across from her and flashbacks from the night before came back in waves. “Fun night last night. Wouldn't you say, Abs?” she asked with a pathetic smile. Just by looking at her you could tell she was tired, but Tiana was going to do her best to overcome it. She served herself some pancakes and cut them at punitive angles; her movements were slow. Tiana made doleful jabs at the pieces with her fork, as she looked at the Daily Prophet in front of her. “Anything interesting?” she asked before reading herself.

"Of course not" Elara replied in an equally overly dramatic fashion in response to Luckett's denial of his involvement in the previous nights food fight. He could deny it all he wanted, but she knew the truth- if he wanted to play dumb then that was him. At his question, she picked up a piece of bacon from her plate and began to nibble at it "It's a little hard to sleep when your stomach is empty" she wasn't mad, not really- there was plenty of time to make up for her lack of supper (providing no one else attempted to start another food fight).

The familiar screeching owls alerted Elara to the arrival of the morning post and her gaze flicked up to watch the ceiling as dozens of birds flew overhead. A copy of the daily prophet landed in front of her, but today she didn't receive any mail from home. A little disappointed at not receiving a letter from her family, she turned her attention to the prophet and began to hurriedly read through the latest news.

She was pleased to see that Quidditch was the leading story of the day, although she wasn't a supporter of the Scottish team, the Colwyn Crossbills, the excited chatter of those around her told her that they had their fair share of fans at Hogwarts. She was particularly interested in the news of the Magnora broom- what she wouldn't give to possess such a broom, unfortunately she doubted her parents would be willing to fork out the cash to buy her one, even if she made the Hufflepuff team this year.

Closing the paper as she heard a familiar voice close to her ear and shifted over slightly to give Hanna room to sit beside her. "Hey" she returned the greeting, her gaze flashing in concern at the appearance of her friend. They hadn't had a chance to speak properly after their defence against the dark arts class the previous day and she was interested in getting to the bottom of other girls distress.

However, before she could begin getting to the bottom of it, the table around them began to quieten and she herself drew quiet as she realised that Professor Sprout was nearing their section of the table. Their head of house stopped opposite Luckett and Elara smiled as the implication of the conversation sank in. Finally, a new Quidditch captain. That meant the Quidditch season would soon be upon them and with it try-outs.

Elara opened her mouth to congratulate her housemate once he'd taken his seat again but before she'd even had the opportunity to get the words out, she watched as Hanna smeared peanut butter across his cheek and then- AND THEN- proceeded to lick the substance from the boys cheek. Elara stared, her mouth hanging open in a mixture of shock and revulsion.

Luckett's response only made things worse. Was he flirting? No, no, no, NO. This was not happening. "Suddenly, I'm not very hungry" she muttered, pushing her plate away from her forcibly and fixing a glare on her friend. One of accusation. At Luckett's question, she tried to turn her attention back to the new Quidditch captain and forced a pained smile "Hm... How would you define friend, because right now I'd say she's more of an acquaintance"

Munching happily on her plate of eggs on toast, Rubes started hearing talk of Lucky becoming Quidditch captain. She scanned the table until she spotted the back of her older friend's head.

"Hey, Lucky! What's this I've heard about you becoming our new Quidditch captain?! Congratulations! Maybe tonight we could all have a little get-together in the common room to celebrate."

Helping herself to a goblet of juice, Rubes waited for Lucky's reply. She was certainly glad the Hufflepuff team finally had a new captain. Hopefully, they'd do well during this year's Quidditch season.

Mathias straightened in his seat when he spotted Nyx. He tucked away the Daily Prophet he'd been reading - as curious as he was to finish the article about the decline in Saint Mungo recruitments, after having caught up on the Quidditch news and sought anything new about the daymoth outbreak. She was much more interesting right now than all of that.

'Thank you, mi'lady.' Mathias accepted the book, giving it a brief check over out of habit. He was right about Nyx; she could certainly be entrusted with his books. 'No, I've not finished it yet. I do look forward to it.' He didn't comment further, not sure he wanted to reveal any shortcomings regarding his inability to focus on written words for long periods of time. 

He finished his breakfast and gave Nyx his full attention, shifting closer to her on the seat to peer at her own copy of the Prophet. He should have kept his out, but couldn't be bothered extracting it from his stuffed pocket when hers was right there. 'I have, yes.' He nodded. 'Quite interesting too, I must say.'

Oh, she meant the broomstick part. 'It's pretty cool that Magnora's only in Hogsmeade. Pretty close by. Imagine the poor owl who has to deliver it from halfway around the world.' Mathias sipped his pumpkin juice, regarding Nyx thoughtfully as she tinkered with her badge.

'Are you...' He hoped it wouldn't sound terribly rude. 'Pardon me, but do you think your family would get one for you? Or are you planning to save up yourself? Not that it's any of my business.' Mathias wanted to explain why he asked, but decided against it. Maybe he shouldn't have said anything at all. What if Nyx thought he was prying or something awful? He fiddled with the corner of his timetable to avoid making eye contact. 

Thankfully, they were joined by one of Nyx's friends - Kat Maples. 'Morning,' he said politely. 'Not much, really. Have you read the Prophet?' Mathias asked, indicating to Nyx's copy that he couls easily read over her shoulder from where he sat. He tucked the book away in his bag, realising too late that he could have just put his own newspaper copy in there rather than his busy pocket. Why did this always happen?

Ryan tried to read the newspaper that almost got dropped in his breakfast, but a lot of it didn't make sense to him at all. He sighed, putting it away and wondering what Quidditch was like or if they really could encounter some scary moths. He stared up at the ceiling and was actually glad it was raining, though hoped it didn't last into the afternoon when they had their outdoor lesson.

'I don't know.' Ryan shrugged at Gerald's question. 'I've never been on a broom before. Have you? Is it hard?' He fidgeted, both nervous and excited about their upcoming lesson. At least there was a lesson, and he wasn't expected to just know all that stuff already.

'Studying?' Ryan pulled a face. 'We have all this free time and you want to study? Are you mad?' He rolled his eyes, shaking his head in disbelief but not unkindly.

It was a weird thing to want to do, even though Ryan had considered doing something like that when waiting for Gerald the day before. Maybe it wasn't so weird, then. He was anxious about falling behind in their classes, but he also just wanted to do something fun today.