[Great Hall] Eighty-Eights! [Open to all]

[Dean Hogarth]

If there was a time of day where everyone would appear and gather in one room it would be lunch time. The bell would go to signal the end of class and hordes of students would pour out of their classrooms, their noses leading the way as the stampede headed to the great hall. The sound of talking and laughter had blurred into one rumble of noise and as Dean wondered in through the large oak doors it took a few seconds for his ears to get used to the noise. As the Hufflepuff’s grey eyes scanned over the ranks of house tables a small smile tugged at the corner of his lips as everything seemed to be just how it always was. The Slytherin’s all had their heads bent low while whispering to one another, most likely plotting some new way to disturb the peace in the castle. The Ravenclaw’s where laughing, reading and in all honestly looking like the perfect house as the watchful, beautiful eyes of Professor Dia Hubbles seemed fixed to her blue robed students. Then there was of course the Gryffindor table where the typical jesters where in their full flow, girls seemed to swoon over them and in all honestly Dean saw nothing special he did not even know their names, it was something like Adam and Greg. And then last but not least, well maybe least in terms to the other houses and the activities going on was the Hufflepuff table.

Slowly Dean made his way down the long benches to reach a clear spot and join the normal gang of people. He was not sure why he sat with them really, they were not really his type of people, but then they did let him join in with their conversations from time to time so that was something he had to be thankful for. Placing his bag on the floor and swinging his legs over to the opposite side of the bench dean nervously shuffled in, timidly looking around the table at everyone before reaching out and picking a juicy green apple form the fruit bowl.

“Honestly I have no idea what he see’s in her.” The recognisable voice of Girty Hubbles seemed to be conducting the conversation as normal around the small group. “I mean yeah she is beautiful but what else does she have?” There was a snort of laughter from beside her as Jamie-Syrus almost shocked on his pumpkin juice. He quickly placed the goblet down on the table before looking over at his older cousin with wide eyes.
“Haven’t you seen her?” He sounded astonished that Girty could be so blind. “She is not just beautiful, she is gorgeous! Honestly Girt you don’t need a personality when you look like that!”

“Who is beautiful?” Dean tried to find his voice and join in with the conversation, he was interested to whom this mysterious beautiful woman was, but it seemed that the other two were too lost in their bickering to hear his small voice. That was one problem with sitting with Girty and Jamie; they were very…well very opinionated. Neth always said he had no idea why Dean even tried to sit with these students, although he often teased it was because who Girty’s sister-in-law was. This was a comment that he tried to shake off with a slight frown and maybe a small snap comment (depending on how well his Astronomy paper is going) that he hangs around with him just as much as he does. In the end it was just the natural Hufflepuff thing, if you share a commonroom for so many years at some point you are bound to talk to one another.

Dean however never got his answer as on the Gryffindor table a commotion started to occur.

“What the devil!” The shout of Harrison somehow managed to be louder then that of hundreds of students and before even the fastest of people could divert their gazes too the Gryffindor table the 7th year was standing upon the table with a rather long French Baguette in his hand. The sandy haired Gryffindor was branding the stick of bread like it was a sword and pointing it directly at his best mate Blake. “You insult me sir! Come draw your weapon and let us fight this out like men!”

The other Gryffindors that were surrounding them at their house table were in hysterics and Harrison was also finding it hard to keep a straight face as he held the French loaf in the face of Blake. Harrison truly was an attention seeking so and so and he would do anything to bring a smile to the face of those around him and have the rest of the student populations eyes fixed upon him! But it was not just the students eyes that were fixed upon him, his little dramatic performance had struck the attention of the teachers sitting high up at the staff table.

“Dan, you should do something.” Dia’s blue eyes had been forced to look away from the Ravenclaw table to stare at the Gryffindor before looking over at her husband.
“Nothing better then a bit of lunch time entertainment.” Will leaned from the other side of Headmaster Hubbles to look over at his childhood friend with a wide grin.
“Will!” Dia was slightly shocked by the Potion masters outburst but then she should not have been surprised. “Darling you should stop this.”

For Dan it was like the devil and angel, Dia was his bright angel that was telling him to do the right thing but then his best mate was the devil, sitting on his left telling him to have a bit of fun and…well...Dan did like having fun.
“No harm is coming from it of yet sweetheart.” Dan reassured Dia although he could tell from the frown that started to crease her brow this was not the response she had wanted. With a slight groan Dan knew he could not bare the disappointment of letting Dia down and she had a point, he did have to state his authority.

“Mr Greg! What in Merlin’s name are you doing?!” The hall hushed up slightly as the sound of the headmaster voice echoed around the stone walls.
“This vagabond called my mother a lady of the night.”
“Ah, well don’t hit him too hard then Mr Greg.”
“Of course Sir.”
Dan did not say anything else; instead he shrugged and turned back to Dia who was looking even more frustrated with the lack of interested and authority form her husband. “The boy is just defending his mother.”
“And drawing the attention to himself.”
Dan did not respond to that, instead he turned his attention back to his jacket potato finding it hard to not laugh along with the low rumble of chuckling that was coming from Will next to him. Slowly the low rummble of noise from the hall started up once more!

(lol so I have no idea what is happening in this thread to be honest. So do whatever you wish! No one will get into trouble lol!)

[Prudence Russo]

There was a funny thing about intimidation. There were times when it was thrown about for show, intended to scare people off or even to attract them as a sort of rebellious peacock act. But then there was the sort of intimidation that was unintentional and brought about by other's fear of you. Society simply feared things that it did not understand and thus avoided it. That was the fate of the two Russo twins, who's only fault in life was that they were a bit too insane for most.

But, to be honest, who wouldn't lose it a bit if they had to see your face walking about on another person every day of your life? You loved it and hated it all at the same time, and yet everywhere around you people would fawn over you with jealous sighs of 'oh you're so lucky, i wish i had a twin!' Lonely people really should invest in their friends if they're going to be jealous of someone constantly around to steal your favorite things.

At the moment, however, the siblings were at peace in the lunch room. The Gryffindor table was alive with colors of gold and red and the boisterous people were oozing with pride. The two with the same face were sat next to each other, near the wad of Quidditch and "popular" gryffindor students but their attention belonged solely to each other. They were sharing stories of their own days, but spoke in a code that only the other woud understand to keep people out of their business.

"Oh, yes.. Garfunkel was quite put out with me today, as well. If I had been in a bad mood I would've said -- I would've sad 'Garfunkel. I will throttle you the day before you're fifteenth birthday'. But luckily, I was quite cheery and they escaped with simply a smile."

The story was followed by a sip of pumpkin juice that was rudely interrupted by some screaming. Not entirely unusual for Gryffindors, but it was quite annoying that attention was being brought from the nasty snakes all the way to their table. Couldn't they learn to keep their filthy eyes to themselves? Prue reaction was instinctual, and she stood up to do what she felt she did best. Yell about it.

"Jerry! You better not waste one crumb of that bread smashin' it up on his head!"

She said with an accusing finger. You couldn't exactly tell if she was joking or not, she herself wasn't even sure. Prue just liked to yell about things and let her competitive nature get the best of her. And she sure as hell did not much an audience being there when she did ... why else would the girl play Quidditch?

[ hi.. um.. hope this is cool. ]

[Adelaine Russo]

The competitive nature of some people was strange, almost as if they would die if they lost any particular challenge. Others simply didn’t care if they won or lost; they were far too lazy to worry about the outcome. And then, there were people like the Russo twins. Some categorized their attitude as simple arrogance, but it was much more than that. Striving against someone who matched you in strength and intelligence was more difficult than anyone could imagine. Every step that one of the pair would gain, the other one would over reach in a few moments. It was a constant battle to be an individual, when sharing the face of another.

Perhaps that was why the girls’ personalities were so…eccentric. A passive personality would quickly be overshadowed in a house like the Russo’s. Insanity was commonplace and no Russo went through life being simply ‘ordinary.’ It just wasn’t done. A new sort of determination would immerge from her competition with her siblings. Drea took down a troll? Well, Addy would have to go find a giant and take that one down wouldn’t she?

Constant competition kept her on her toes, always striving for more, always trying to be the best. It just wasn’t against the other students of the school, she was facing someone who was almost completely like her in every way. Her equal, her catalyst, her enemy, her twin. The only person that really understood her, and the only person who she was so keen on proving herself to. With this in mind, it was strange how well the twins worked together. People often blamed it on “twin telepathy,” but neither believed that was true. They had grown up together, side by side all through childhood, no wonder they could predict their counterpart’s thoughts and actions, almost as if they were their own.

And now here they sat, with the supposed “popular” Gryffindors. Normally they wouldn’t be on this side of the table, but with their new found Quidditch pride, they were accepted into the “prestigious” group. It seemed that the twins hardly cared though, because Adelaine and Prudence weren’t paying attention to anyone else. Their attentions were solely for each other. It was another one of those twin moments that no one else could seem to decode.

“Really? Quite lucky that Garfunkel caught you on one of your good days. I just got a letter from Artichoke today, and you know what he told me? The yard was run over with those little gnomes! Said Wilson and Dominica had to take off of work to chase them away! Lucky we had them two there though, cause I’m sure the ‘rents were runnin’ around the house like peacocks with no heads.”

Addy reached over the table to grab another piece of fruit when a shout erupted from the table. Prue reacted first, locating where the commotion was coming from and standing to confront it. It took Adelaine only a moment later to respond. She snatched up the banana she had been reaching for and stood up as well, jabbing the banana in the direction of the two dueling boys.

“You heard her Giles! I’ll not see that magnificent piece of bread go to waste.” The noise in the hall had started up once more, but children were still looking back to see the commotion that had been caused—once again—by the Gryffindors. The crowd of eyes was somewhat of an annoyance—especially when it wasn’t just those of her own house watching. Addy rested one arm on her sister’s shoulder and placed her hand to her forehead in a mock salute. “Come on mates, at ease. Duel for your mum’s honor some other time, you’re disruptin’ my munchin’ time with all this hullabaloo.”

[Ellie Rook]

Ellie had been sitting in the great hall for over an hour now. Her head was down amongst her books which lay open on the wooden table. Above her the colors of her house shown in black and yellow banners, the badger proudly positioned in the center. Ellie could not see the banner however, her face was in her folded arms, nose touching the book below her.

For the past four nights, Ellie had accumulated three hours of sleep. She sat up in her bed at night, starring into the darkness of the room. For some reason, she couldn't sleep. It was like she had consumed mass amounts of caffeine and her mind would not rest. Ellie thought all night. She thought of things she had to do, things she had forgotten to do, the lessons she learned, professors, friends, and Dan. She thought of Dan at least three things a night. A smile would come over her face as he thought about his red hair and blue eyes.

The lack of sleep had made Ellie funny. She starred blankly ahead in class, and didn't talk t many people, except for Dan. She always saw him in between classes, and she would walk with him when the crowds cleared and she would be late to most of her classes. She didn't mind though, it was well worth it.

Ellie wasn't sure if her strange behavior was being noticed by anyone or not. After all, she wasn't exactly unknown in the school. Being the Hufflepuff Prefect and Quidditch captain, she was actually pretty well known, and Ellie thought, well liked. Ellie could really tell if she was being watched and questioned, because she didn't really have the energy to notice much more than Dan.

Ellie wasn't sleeping, she was just resting her eyes. It was impossible for her to drift away in her bed, let alone in the Great Hall, which as the time neared lunch time, began to grow louder and louder. Ellie sat up, seeing the her Hufflepuff table had grown to be crowded. No one had sat with her, though she could see a few people she knew not far away. Girty and Jamie-Syrus and Dean were talking and Ellie hoped they didn't see her. She didn't want to talk to anyone, not really.

Ellie was wondering where Dan went during the day. He must have classes, Ellie was sure, but he never talked about them. As a seventh year, Ellie guessed he was busy with NEWT type stuff, but she couldn't be sure. Ellie was brought out of her stupor, not from the challenge of Harrison, but the sound of a much more familiar voice. Ellie's eye darted directly toward the staff table and directly toward Dan Hubbles the elder. Ellie couldn't tear her eyes away from him for some reason. Something in her gut wouldn't let them. In a second, the Professor locked eyes with her, and she held her breath, fear in her eyes. Ellie broke the gaze in a second, and went back to starring at the table, numb to the commotion around her.

[Hope you don't mind the slight god-modding Lizzy-kins]

[Blake Adams]

What else was to be expected, than the general commotion of the great hall that was feeding time! It was quite lucky for the house-elves that they were not tasked with taking the food to the table manually. Otherwise they would be lacking digits by the time they had returned to the kitchen. As usual the four main tables were full with students crowded as ever. Well besides from where Blake sat of course, not just anyone sat at the ‘A-list’ section on the Gryffindor table, so it was much more spacious. It was not that they would not allow them to sit there, just the fact they never did. There was plenty of room for many a pretty lady from any house as far as he was concerned.

Blake was quite contented sitting consuming his lunch; however Harri seemingly had other ideas, winking at Blake with a cheeky grin that suddenly turned to a stony expression. He could not help but raise a quizzical brow as his friend rose to stand upon the table, brandishing nothing other than a baguette into his face. This amused Blake greatly however there was one small factor that annoyed him greatly, he had stood on the bacon, the sheer outrage! Though he had been about to stand and defend himself and the bacon, and keep this charade moving, he was interrupted by none other than Dan Hubbles.

For a moment all that could be heard was the swivelling noise of students’ derrieres upon the benches. The noise in the room dropped to lower than it had been when Harri had challenged him, not a single laugh surrounded them now, simply silence.

As soon as Harri had uttered his explanation Blake jumped to his feet and onto the table, to stand a foot in front of his friend. Shouting as he did so, “Poppyc0ck! You Harrison are a lying scallywag! I think you simply misunderstood me, for it was you that I called a lady of the night, not your dearest mother.” Blake stopped for a moment and turned to their audience, and with a slight smirk stated loudly, “Which as we all know is true. We have all seen you walking around in a dress and heels after hours.” A low hum reverberated of the walls as laughter broke around the room. Though some still uncertain after seeing Professor Dia’s expression once her husband had allowed the commotion to ensue.

It was then that the Russo twins stood up one after each other and attempted to defend the baguettes. This amused Blake greatly, however nothing was going to stop this, let alone two fifth years. With a charming smile Blake took up a baguette that was being passed to him by an eager looking third year. Bless. Then addressed the Russo twins, “My Dearest ladies, I totally agree with you, however I must defend myself from this effrontery; and indeed, the very bacon that he has destroyed under him clumsy feet. I am sure there is a way that we can meet both of our requirements.” He suggested with a calm matter-of-fact tone. Musing it over for a few moments, he then stated “Ah, I think I have it!” and within a matter of seconds had withdrawn his wand and placed a protective charm upon the baguettes. “They shall not suffer a scratch, and I shall even promise you that we shall eat them afterwards. Is this pleasing enough?” He did not break eye contact with twins after this, not even to look at his friend whom no doubt would have a small smile tugging at the corners of his mouth simply because of Blake’s quick thinking, and of course general charm.

(... I hope that was okay dudes? :S)

[Professor Daniel Hubbles]

Dan listened to the rumble of noise increase in the hall as his attention was mainly focused upon his Jacket Potato, he dared not look over at Dia in fear of her glaring at him for his previous actions. The problem was that he could still hear Will chuckling next to him and that just spurred Dan on some more and when he had his best friend laughing so the chance he would listen to his wife was slim to none. It seemed however that although his light warning the Gryffindor was not going to back from his duel, in fact the other lions seemed to be joining in. Blake seemed more then keen to step up to the limelight and join his best friend on top of the table burnishing his own baguette and before long the Russo twins were joining in! It did not take a genius to work out that Dia’s gaze was burning into the side of his head, he knew that was a sceptical raging on in front of him and as Headmaster he should be keeping peace and order but that was just too much hard work…and his dinner would go cold.

“You are not going to look at me are you?”
“Nope.” Dan’s cool blue eyes remained fixed on his potato.
“And if I voiced your opinion you would not listen to me will you?”
“Sweetheart, when do I ever listen to you?” With a small cheeky smile Dan looked up and finally turned to look over at his wife only for the smile to falter slightly as he saw the look on her face. It was good that she was sensible as it kept him in line at times like this when he was willing to let the world around him take its own course. “They are kids.” He sighed as he turned away from the piercing gaze of his wife to his potato. “Let them be kids.”
“On your head be it.”

But this time Dan did not look up at his wife but back towards the Hufflepuff of Ellie Rook. Their gazes had met earlier only for her to look quickly away, which was odd for her, maybe…well Dan never got to finish his train of thought as his gaze passed back over towards the Gryffindor table where more commotion was occurring.

[Harrison Greg]

If you wanted to be a popular big head then by George you had to act like one! You had to be willing to stick your neck out and step into the firing line of even the head of the school but once you had that cocky attitude and the arrogance to match it would be hard for even the most determined of Professors to stand in your way. Today was just another example of how Harrison Greg liked to believe he had the staff of the school wrapped around of his little finger…of course he did not even contemplated the idea that the headmaster was a lazy sod who took pleasure on watching the students act like utter fools.

Of course Harrison did not think of himself as an utter fool, far from it and as he stood on the plate of bacon, his loaf of French bread pointing at Blake he was just enjoying the attention. It seemed that his mate was also on the same wave length and accepting his weapon from a keen naïve. The Gryffindor stood with his weapon held in front of him listening to his friend’s accusations Harri was finding it hard to keep a straight face, it had seemed Blake had got in most of his words of the day; at this rate he would win the competition! The highly competitive Harrison could not have that.

But before he could respond however the Russo twins had stepped up to the mark and were trying to get there own moments of being in the spotlight. However being the honourable gentleman in which he was Harrison stood, with a raised eyebrow, and listened to what his female housemates had to say. But as always Blake had such an eloquent way of putting things and despite his attempt of a cool demeanour he could not help but let a small smile appear on his face. “Aye, how does that sound my ladies?” Pulling out his own wand Harrison too cast the protection charm on the bread.

“I am sure it will not damage the bread. For example…” Raising the bread in the air he quickly brought it down on top of Blake’s head, feeling the vibration of the contact run through the loaf and into his arm. Harrison then quickly brought the baguette up to his eye line to study the golden brown surface. “See my ladies, not a crumb out of place. So you can cease your worrying and just enjoy the entertainment.”

Harrison offered a small bow to the identical twins before turning back to his opponent, baguette poised and ready, legs slightly bent ready to pounce and a wild glint in his eyes. “For my honour!” With a quick move Harri lunged his French loaf forward!

[Daniel Hubbles]

What would be better; being trapped in a photo for your entire life or having to sneak around a castle in fear of bumping into your older self or anyone who might possibly recognise you? This was the problem that had faced this particular Dan Hubbles. The seventeen year old had been free from his 2D prison for almost a week and there was nothing like the feel of the cool wind on his face, the smell of food cooking from the kitchen floating up through the corridors and more importantly the ability to socialize, albeit with a very limited group of people. As a result however of not bumping into his older self Dan spent most of his time out in the castle grounds or in Hogsmeade, in fact he would only venture into the castle to be with Ellie in-between lessons but today, well today he was going to put his neck on the line and risk everything simply cause he needed some money.

That was a problem with being a person who, due to unexplainable reasons, had simply appeared out of a photo...Dan had no wand or money! He had only got by recently from picking a pocket or two and swiping the odd thing from the shelves in the shops, but he needed some real money so that he could get different clothes to the ones he always seemed to be wearing.

Before the young Hubbles entered the Great Hall he had pocked his head around the door just to double check two things; first if Ellie was there and the second if the Headmaster was in sadly the later was true long with the first. However it looked like luck was running on his side today as the experiences cool eyes of older Dan Hubbles seemed routed to the Gryffindor table where two students seemed to be having a stand off with sticks of bread. Nice to see things had not changed. With a small lopsided smile Dan made his way down the long Hufflepuff table towards the place where Ellie was sitting…or at least he tried.

“That is totally inappropriate Marcus!” There was a small squeak as a young Hufflepuff shot up off the bench and charged down the aisle not really looking where she was going and walked straight into him. With a small bump they simply bounced off one another although it gave Dan time to slip his hand into her robe pocket and claim its contents.
“Alice!” A small red haired boy chased after the female Hufflepuff as she barged past Dan, stomping off out of the hall unaware her pocket was that little bit lighter as he had… ”Beans!” Dan groaned as he looked at the half full bag of Bertie Botts Beans he now had in his hand.

“Hey there beautiful!” Dan could not help but grin as he sat down on the bench next to Ellie, sliding the small bag of beans towards her. “Have some sugar, it will give you an energy boost, you look like the living dead.” He was only jesting and that was clear from the light hearted manor that he grinned over at Ellie, his attention on her, although he could not help but let his gaze wonder over towards the staff table. There was his older self gently kissing the blond haired woman next to him and even from this distance he could tell he was muttering the words ‘I am sorry.’ So he was a wuss when he was older but at least he could still bag a good looking bird! “So how has your day been so far then Ellie?”