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The great hall. Once a place of wonder and excitement, a promise of new adventures, had become just another place to get work done.
Selina brushed a loose strand of her pin-straight black hair away from her face, glaring slightly when it clung to her hand from the dry September air. She barely was aware that Dumbledore was talking at the head of the hall anymore, it was always the same speech about what Hogwarts could promise you. She had heard this speech five times and had lost interest after the second. Nothing had happened in awhile anyways that constituted an adventure, not since that gryffindor in her year had tried to hatch a dragon on campus. What was his name again? Brett? Bill? Whatever. All she knew about him was he had the most ridiculous red hair that looked just like his brother's, who had started this year. Selina had a feeling his name was something like Peter.
She rolled her head to catch her friend's eye at the Hufflepuff table. The mass of out of control curls weren't hard to find at all, no matter how many times she tried to put it in that bun. It always ended up being a blonde mess halfway down her back.
Selina dared a wink at her friend, and a wave of a wand. Enough to promise trouble later on. Her friend stuck her tongue out in response. Not in an angry way though- not at all. Emily knew the best places to hide out when something they tried went awry, and with OWL exams to write this year, they'd surely be up to plenty this year.
Selina darted her eyes to the front of the hall. Years of peace.... something about Voldemort being gone.... something about that boy who lived that no one seemed able to shut up about. Still nothing interesting from Dumbledore.
Emily had turned back to listen to the speech, fiddling with her fork in impatience. Hopefully it would be over soon and everyone could eat and be on their way. There was some house elf techniques for preparing food one of the elves had promised to teach her. She spun her fork between her fingers, feeling strangely aware of magic in the air that didn't feel like it had been there a moment ago.
Her fork began to shake in her hand.
Then it begun to float.
Emily slammed it down on the table a little too loudly, causing a few glares from around the table. The magical feel from the fork vanished though, and Emily opened her mouth to comment on students messing with spells. A sneer from the Ravenclaw table caused her to close her mouth again though. A girl a year older than her stifled a comment about wanting to disturb the entire hall, and how important this was for the first year students.
Two tables down, Selina stifled a laugh. She had learned non verbal spells from her big brother over the summer. He was in this year’s graduating class, and was surprisingly good at them. Lucky for them both, the affinity for the skill seemed to run in the family.
The quiet chuckle earned her a poke in the ribs from her brother's wand. She turned to glare at him, but his eyes sparkled with pride. Almost enough shine to make it easy to ignore the absurd amount of grease he had in his hair to keep it slicked back in that wave he so fancied. Selina wrinkled her nose at him, and he just raised his eyebrows and pointed her back towards Dumbledore.How typical of Eric to think he's so important just because he was an adult now. All the same, she rolled her eyes and turned back to half- listen to the remainder of the speech.
Finally, Dumbledore raised his arms with a flourish and what Selina assumed to be some generic phrase of grandeur. She wasn't listening. The glittery appearance of food on the tables was much more exciting.
In retrospect, she might have wanted to pay more attention. This year was OWLs after all, and those only dictated the rest of your life. Or at least academic life,which people treated like they were your entire life. Hi
Her mouth watered, and she caught her brother's eye. They both recognized the cannoli appearing on the table, a favorite that their family used to make back home in Canada. Hopefully it would have more flavor than the English food they had gotten so used to.
She scooped a generous helping onto her plate, more than excited to try some food with real flavour. Scooping a large mouthful, she smirked. The spice she was used to had been toned back for everyone who wasn't used to spicy food. It was a shame she had forgotten the charms Emily knew that changed food flavors… all the same. Food was food. She ate as much as she liked, making small talk with her brother about how the meal should have been served.
Dinner was over fairly quickly for Selina, if nothing else because Emily had forced herself in beside her at the Slytherin table before Selina had the chance to finish eating. Her dear friend was clearly very excited about something or rather, her precarious bun was reduced to a tangle atop her head with multiple strands falling down across her face, yet her face was lit with an excited sparkle in her eye. Talking almost too quickly to understand, Emily said something about house elves and real food, and how they should sneak out early before everyone else was finished eating.
But how could you ever turn down a face like that?
With a laugh, Selina shoved the last of her food in her mouth and let Emily drag her away to the hallways.