Blaise waved idly toward the table, looking very much like a monarch who had condescended to associate with his subjects. "If your Gryffindor pride can stand being seen here, I'm not inclined to stop you," he replied.

As loathe as he was to deal with his cousins and Blaise at the same time, they seemed to have been keeping each other well distracted from Hitoshi. If he was lucky, maybe he could slip away and not have to deal with either of them just yet.

Hitoshi took the opportunity to duck under Blaise's leg -- the older boy had taken to using his shoulder as a foot rest -- and slip across the aisle to the Hufflepuff table. The seat next to Hitomi was taken by another girl, but the seat next to Alex was empty, and more importantly, it was a little father from Blaise and his cousins, and Hitoshi wanted no doubt that he had no involvement in anything that very well could (and most likely would) happen, if his cousins spent too much time around the Slytherin table. It was a powder keg waiting to happen.

"Best to just leave them well alone," he murmured, glancing back at Alex.

-----

"Glad to hear that." Reed glanced at his sister out of the corner of his eye, his face neutral. He set his fork down beside his plate. "What about Defense Against the Dark Arts? You haven't been antagonizing Professor Snape, have you?"

Alex shrugged and turned around to the table.

"Why are your cousins antagonizing the Slytherin table? Or whatever it is they're doing," he amended in a low voice. He didn't think any of them were paying enough attention to care. "There isn't some sort of actual House rivalry thing, is there?"

He regretted the words the moment they left his mouth. "No, sorry, silly question."

---

"No," she said with some force. "I... just came in late. I wouldn't do it intentionally."

She looked up at him and squirmed in her seat a bit, not knowing how to react to the question he'd left dangling. She'd just wanted to see him, really... was he trying to chide her for teasing him about being lonely when she was the one who didn't know anybody, or did he just not want to answer?

"Uhm-" she was about to ask another question when she noticed the business going on further down the Hufflepuff table, and leaned over to get a better look, cake forgotten in her hands.

Hitoshi looked back at Alex, his expression soft and unreadable. "It's not as bad as it used to be," he said quietly. "It's been getting better. Slytherins got the worst of it. I suppose if you went your whole life being told you were going to be evil because you got put in Slytherin, you might start believing it." Hitoshi frowned, then glanced back at the table and took a drink of his pumpkin juice.

"Gryffindor and Slytherin are the worst," his sister continued. "They've always resented each other. There's a bit between Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw as well, but it's not nearly as bad as that. And, well, Hufflepuffs are a bit looked down on in all the other houses. Ravenclaw gets off pretty easy, really. To be chosen for cleverness and wisdom... Well, doesn't every witch and wizard want to be seen as wise? No one wants to be a Hufflepuff."

-----

Rudeth took the seat on the other side of the blond girl, only aware in the most peripheral parts of his mind that the boy or his brother were even there. He'd completely forgotten why they had even come to the table except that he was fairly certain it had something to do with pudding.

The girl glanced over at him and tucked a strand of long golden hair behind one ear, a soft smile touching her lips. "Hello. Are you Hitoshi's cousin?" she asked, in what was certainly the most beautiful voice Rudeth had heard in all of his thirteen years. "You must be Professor Gilespi's children, then. That must be lovely, she's so very nice." She extended one dainty hand to him. "I'm Crystal Clearwater."

Rudeth stared at her hand blankly for a moment, splotches of pink quickly staining his cheeks. He should be saying something at the moment, or doing something, or... "H-hello," he mumbled. "I, er, I'm..." He paused for a long moment, attempting to find some manner of intelligent reply, like his name. "...Hello."

Crystal giggled, and Rudeth hid his face with his hands. Why couldn't he say anything intelligent?

-----

Reed opened his mouth to respond, but fell silent when he, too, noticed the rather peculiar occurrence toward the end of the Hufflepuff table -- or rather, at the Slytherin table across from it. Two young Gryffindors, third or fourth years from their appearances, had wandered over to the Slytherin table and taken a seat, and though it seemed civil enough for the moment, such things typically spelled disaster in the near future.

He glanced back at Kathy. "Do you know any of those students?"

"Pfft," Thrall waved his hand and sat down in roughly the spot Hitoshi had vacated, a smirking grin pasted across his face. "You don't scare me." He threw his cousin one last half-hearted look over his shoulder, then decided to grab some food while he was here.

"So, ah, you're-" Weren't they here for some reason involving Hitoshi? "-French?" Damnit, that was not what I wanted to say- agh, go with it, don't just- "I mean, you sound French, sort of. Where're you from?"

"And do they sit on tables there?" he couldn't stop himself from adding.

---

Alex's lip twitched in annoyance, not quite making it into a grimace; he glared at the last bits of his chicken salad sandwich, for lack of anything less problematic to glare at.

"I wanted to be in Hufflepuff," he said with as little resentment as he could muster. "It's dumb walking around being expected to be this or that all the time- by who? And you only get sorted once; what if you're a really good person at first, then you turn evil? Or what if you're really smart and bookish don't do anything brave, but then you get someone you really care about and it makes you change?" That happened- he'd seen it in books and movies enough, he was pretty sure that it happened, anyway.

"I don't know what's going on. Every time I think I've figured out something, I realize I don't know something else." He sat his sandwich down for the moment and spooned a little more food and some dessert on his plate, before it was all gone. Stupid cake looked absoutely delicious. "But I'd rather be here because we all have to go to school than because I have to have everything color-coordinated to feel special; I'm going to do amazing things, and no stupid magical hat-"

At that point, he realized he was ranting under his breath and blushed a little; then, realizing how his words sounded, glanced at Hitoshi. "Ah, I'm sorry- I don't mean you, I just-" he trailed off for a moment, trying to think of something that'd change the subject. "It's dumb being expected to be anything, when you can do whatever you want."

"D'you want some cake? It's supposed to be delicious." He smiled a little, then glanced back at Hitomi. "I'm not always this angry. Sorry."

---

Kathy looked them over; they were obviously brothers, but she hadn't exactly been memorizing the names of the older Gryffindor boys in the past 24 hours. None of the others talking she'd even seen before. "Uhmm, no."

"D'you?" she asked curiously. Her brother had an odd look on his face, to her eyes.

Blaise raised one delicately arched eyebrow at the other boy, plucking a handful of cherries off of the plate of the boy on the other side of the table. The First Year huffed indignantly, but if the blond noticed, he gave no indication.

"My mother is Parisian," he said importantly. He spat out a pit between words and flicked it at the ear of a Third Year boy. "My father is from the city Seoul, in South Korea. We moved to Liverpool a few years ago, when my father got promoted. And," he added, "I sit wherever I please."

Blaise pulled the stem off of a cherry and tossed it on the floor. "And you? Your accent does not sound English. You are...Irish, no?" Blaise held out the handful of cherries to Thrall as an afterthought. "Would you like one?"

-----

Hitoshi watched Alex curiously throughout his entire monologue, his head tilted slightly to the side, not quite sure what to make of it. It was certainly a new side to the quiet, obedient boy Hitoshi had walked through making his potion.

"You're right," he said simply, pushing his plate away. "The house system has been a part of Hogwarts for over a thousand years now, and it's a big part of the school, but people shouldn't be defined by it, or judged by it. That's what the Headmistress wants to stop. Some people think that if it wasn't for the pressure put on the wizards sorted into Slytherin, that Voldemort never would have become as powerful as he did. My mother said that out of all of his known followers, all but one of them were Slytherins."

Hitoshi considered Alex for a moment, and he pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "If you want to read up on the school, I have am updated copy of Hogwarts: A History you can borrow. It covers everything through the last Quidditch World Cup."

-----

Reed shook his head. "No," he murmured. "It's just odd to see a pair of Gryffindors at the Slytherin table. That usually spells trouble."

He looked back at his sister then, and his features softened. "Try not to be late to any more of Professor Snape's classes. He might be horribly strict, but he usually doesn't go after people unless you actively make yourself a target. And he's always looking for excuses to knock points off of Gryffindor. You're just lucky you've got class with Ravenclaw and not Slytherin." Reed passed Kathy a plate of meat dumplings and gave her a faint smile.

Thrall stared blankly at Blaise, hearing something or other about Seoul and cherries in between the cherries he was asking. Questions. He blinked. "Oh." He paused, trying to process what Blaise had said, and tried again: "Well ah, good to have you here, instead of at Beauxbatons, I guess," he mispronounced, taking a cherry.

"Yeah, we're Irish," he said with a hint of pride. "We're Gilespis- you've probably met mum already."

God, he was a gorgeous prat. Thrall felt completely out of sorts.

---

"Hmm." Alex considered Hitoshi's words through slightly angry bites. He didn't think a stupid rivalry could cause a war, but then maybe that should be another thing on the list of stuff he didn't know much about.

"Oh? All right; thanks." He smiled at the other boy. "Do you read a lot?"

---

"I won't!" Kathy protested, though she sprouted a grin once more at her brother's smile. "I didn't mean to be late to any of them."

"Well, if you're doing all right, I should go back." She took a couple of dumplings and dropped them onto the now-emtpy plate she'd brought. "I've got a friend, I think. She's cool, and she's from Los Angeles."

Kathy stood up, hesitated, then hugged Reed's shoulder and began to head back to the Gryffindor table- preferably without passing the Slytherins.

"Oh, yes. I've met her." Blaise wrinkled his nose. "She was very nice until she sent me to the headmistress' office. It wasn't even my fault. That American was being stupid."

Blaise noticed Professor Snape's eyes boring into him from the Head Table. Blaise had no idea what he'd done this time, or even he had even done another at all, so he flashed the professor his most charming smile before turning back to Thrall. He didn't see Snape's reaction, but he got the distinct impression the man was probably rolling his eyes.

-----

"A fair bit," Hitoshi admitted. "Do you read much? I wouldn't mind letting you borrow some of my books, if you like, as long as you take care of them. I have one about the war, if you want to read it, and a book of everyday Charms. The Defense Against the Dark Arts textbook is also an interesting read, if you just want to learn a little more about the differences between the muggle world and our world."

Hitoshi dug Hogwarts: A History out of his backpack and handed it to Alex. The dust-jacket featured a picture of Hogwarts over the lake, the mist swirling gently around the castle. The cover announcing in big, bright letters that it was now updated with even more information, including (but not limited to) exclusive interviews with Harry Potter and other survivors of the war.

"I do," Alex replied. More fiction than that sort of thing, though. It was about what he'd thought Hitoshi was like. He would have to glance over the Defense Against The Dark Arts text after classes.

He took the book from Hitoshi and sat it with the rest of his things. Actually, that was an interesting thought. "So what do people do here after classes...?"

"Dunno," Hitoshi admitted. He shrugged. "Most people spend a lot of time in their house common rooms, but there's also the library, and the courtyard outside."

"The weather this time of year is quite lovely, too," Hitomi added, anxious to rejoin the conversation. Hitoshi was surprised that she had stayed quiet for so long. "It'll start getting cold and rainy soon, so I want to enjoy it while I can." She looked back at Hitoshi and bit her lip thoughtfully. "I know you were wanting to go to the library, 'Toshi, but do you think we could do our homework outside today? Please?"

Hitoshi hesitated, glancing from his sister to Alex. He honestly would have preferred the peace and quiet of the library to the loud, bright courtyard. Warm and sunny weather meant the entire school was bound to be outside, whereas the library would be empty but for a handful of Ravenclaws and the librarian. Still, the nice weather would only last another week or so before it started to get chilly.

"Alex, what do you think?" he asked.

He shrugged. "I'd like to go outside; I've never been this far out in the country before, and from what I can see out the windows, it's beautiful."

Alex noticed people starting to leave the lunchroom, and made the decision to take the last thin slice of cake. "Is it almost time for class already?"