[Great Hall] Glumly pondering.

[Sophie Hargreaves]

Sophie sat on the Gryffindor table her head in her hands, though her problems were really quite few she felt quite incapable of solving them. Throughout lunch she had been uncommonly quiet and her friends had asked kindly if anything were wrong, but she knew they would just laugh and not take what she claimed seriously, so she had replied in a cheery tone that she was fine, though the looks she gave to the food surrounding her, proved that quite wrong. She had thankfully kept her wand tucked away, otherwise her nervous habit of her wand twiddling through her fingers would have evidently shown her discomfort. Slowly but surely her friends had left calling for her to join them, saying simply she would catch them up, they had walked away muttering unhappily and wondering quite what was wrong.
Of a sudden she became aware that the Great Hall had nearly fully emptied, about to rise slowly and go to her lesson she scolded herself muttering "pull yourself together girl."

[supermassive]

Liam hung his head forward, in a less than ecstatic mood. His manticore had died the previous night of starvation. No matter how hard he tried to feed it, it seemed the only thing it would eat was the goop from the forest that Daniels had discovered and with the Ministry keeping a close watch, it was nearly impossible to escape into the forest anymore.

He had planned to set the horrid creature on the Slytherins, but found that he couldn't bare to depart with the ugly thing in such a manner. He (or she) deserved better than that, having been a loyal (lazy and vicious) pet for the majority of the past few months.

Letting out a sigh, he stood up about to go to his lessons when he saw someone talking to themselves. Looking stricken, he walked up to her.

"Feeling alright there?"

[Elijah Ellerby]

Breakfast had been on for roughly an hour, Elijah having been there for the whole duration, anxiously awaiting an owl from his contact. Although the ministry were stationed heavily throughout the grounds and surrounding hills, Red Rose League birds were quite talented in remaining out of reach of any nets that were set for suspicious looking birds. The barn owl had arrived some fifteen minutes ago, her feathers ruffled although there was no sign on the magical seal on the parchment around its leg having been broken in any way. It had left swiftly to avoid detection, leaving Elijah to unravel the code within the message.

Of course, any urgent news was never good news, and the spy now sat with the letter subconsciously half-dipped in his scrambled eggs as he stared, harrowed, at the table cloth. How could this have happened? he thought in disbelieve. They were sure there was no chance of a mole!

Running his hand through his hair anxiously, Elijah made to put the letter away. He was startled from his thoughts however when someone close by stood up swiftly, their messenger bag almost knocking him over the head as they attempted to leave. Not having expected it, Elijah had whipped out his wand and hexed the letter to burst into a small ball of fire immediately, so wound up he had somehow expected the girl to have been trying to peer how his shoulder at the code. Several people stared as the remains of the letter crackled and smoldered away in front of him, and he looked up at the girl, his eyebrows raised.

[supermassive]

Before any reply could be given, a burst of flame had erupted from the boy just a few paces away. Widening his eyes, fully expecting the boy to turn around and aim that wand at the girl - for hitting him on the head accidently with her bag, of all things - he let out a breath of relief when the atmosphere relaxed again.

"I hate getting letters from mum too, mate," He said, still a bit stunned. "But, I mean, there's a line and you may have crossed it." The humor in his voice was evident as he turned back to the two with a slight smirk.

Explosions early in the morning were exactly what the Gryffindor needed to settle his mood. He wondered if it were the same for the girl, and turned to her with a questioning look.