A/N: yes, i am aware that i called Zack 'Head GIRL' last chapter, i'll fix that one of these days.. once i'm done laughing at the face he would make if he heard that.. lol... ok, yes, back to the story now, eh?
Chapter 2: the first Feast
Rubbing her badge one more time with the cuff of her sleeve, Rakka took the empty seat beside her cousin, who had been easy enough to spot, with a bright green headband her hair, which was halfway between a dark blonde and a pale auburn, a muddled strawberry blonde, chopped close to her jawline, flipping out all around her lightly tanned face. Isamu's emerald eyes were smiling mischiefously as her older cousin, who was her complete opposite, with pale skin, hair the color of a purpley red wine, and eyes like dark chocolate.

"Who's our new Head of house?" she murmured to Rakka. "He's kind of cute."

Rakka had to agree with Isamu, the young professor was definately handsome, and the open stares and giggling murmurs of several girls nearby seemed to support the thought.

"Poor bastard, stuck with us," Tomas, Rakka's brother, shook his head, his bold red hair as askew as ever, shading eyes as green as their cousin's.

"Watch your mouth, Tomas!" Isamu waved her finger pointedly.

"What are you gonna do, cast some lame curse you learned last year on him?" Rakka's other brother, Zekiel, who looked exactly like Rakka would if she had been a boy, shook his head, laughing at the girl, who fumed.

"You're the Head Girl, Rakka! Shut them up!" Isamu pouted, enraged by their cruel put-downs. Of the three siblings, and their older brother and sister, Rakka was the only one who didn't pick on their younger cousin.

"Yeah, squirt, shut us up!" Zekiel stuck his tongue out at Rakka, who sighed.

"For someone who's less than two minutes older than me, you sure seem to let it go to your head," Rakka retorted.

"She's got you there, midget," Tomas grinned, seeing Zekiel's eyes narrow to slits of anger.

"You, shut it!" Zekiel huffed. "Four lousy minutes doesn't give you any authority over me, older or not!"

"It gives him twice the authority that you have over me," Rakka smirked. "Now both of you, as Head Girl, I demand that you can it. Now. Dumbledore's going to start his speech any minute."

"And as Head Boy, I'm going to shut up of my own free will, thank you very much," Tomas smirked.

"Blah, blah blah," Zekiel stuck his tongue out at Rakka, who smirked.

"Sorry, Zeke, but that's not legal, we're related, in case you forgot," she grinned, and he pulled his tongue back into his mouth quietly and leaned back, for lack of a good response. Tomas laughed.

"Boys," Isamu shook her head. "I can barely deal with those two, and I don't even live with them. I don't know how you manage."

"We're triplets," Rakka shrugged. "We've all had to deal with eachother since even before day one."

"Oi," Remi, on Rakka's other side, laughed. "You crazy chickens."

Everyone looked at Remi as though she had sprouted several heads, which, even at Hogwarts, was a rare occasion.

"What?" Remi asked, pointing her spoon at Rakka. "You're all nutters, I swear."

"Says the one who just called us 'crazy chickens.'" Zeke shook his head.

"Shut up, lady!" Remi stuck her toungue out.

"Did you just call me 'lady?'"

"Yes, yes I did, LADY!!! Hehe Zeke's a laaddiieee!!!" she wailed, until Rakka clamped her hands over Remi's mouth, tryign to quiet her as Dumbledore cleared his throat to get everyone's attention. Remi bit Rakka's hand, making her yelp in pain, and earning a sidelong glance from Professor McGonagall.

"Students!" Dumbledore smiled, extending his arms a bit as though he meant to hug the entire room before clasping his hands and resting his arms on the table. "Welcome back to another year at Hogwarts! As you look around, you may notice some new faces up here beside me. I would like to introduce to you Professor Snape, the new Potions teacher and head of the Slytherin house," Dumbledore stood and gestured for Snape to do the same, which he did, to be met by a loud ruckus from the Slytherin table as they all rose, whooping and clapping.

"Go, cutey!" Isamu laughed loudly, knowing no one besides Rakka could possibly hear her over all the noise. Rakka held her hands at about her own eye level, clapping respectfully, watching Snape, who seemed a bit bewildered by the sudden show of enthusiasm from the table of strangers. His eye caught Rakka's,and they both smiled. Rakka didn't even notice, as they all returned to their seats, that her three surrounding family members were watching her with mischeifous grins plastered to their faces.

"What?" Rakka hissed as she turned, seeing six eyes watching her.

"You've got a crush on professor Snape, don't you?" Isamu asked.

"No!" Rakka hissed. The boys giggled, interrupted by applause from Hufflepuff as their new head of house, Professor Ganner, theDefense Against the Dark Arts teacher, was announced, a rather sickly looking man with olive green eyes.

"Rakka likes Snapey, Rakka likes Snapey!" Remi taunted a little too loudly for Rakka's liking. For lack of a better way to quiet her friend, she smacked her lightly over the back of the head.

"Owwie! Meanie!"Remi huffed, then laughed.

"Then why were you blushing when he smiled at you?" Zekiel asked with a grin, elbowing Tomas to get his attention when Rakka grumbled, slumping over the table.

"Don't you ingrates have anything better to do that watch me all the time?" she groaned.

"You're our Head Girl, you're supposed to be setting an example," Tomas grinned like an idiot. "You're lucky all Slytherin eyes weren't on you just now."

"Ughh.. you two just can't stand that your little sister got to be Head Girl, can you?"

They both fell silent, pretending to be listening to Dumbledore. It was true that both of them had been in utter shock when she had been selected as Head Girl, more than the rest of their house. Most had expected Tomas to get his title, since Durrendell had obviously favored him, for reasons even Tomas didn't fully understand. When not only the eldest of the triplets had been acknowledged by Dumbledore's decision, much of Slytherin was shocked, Rakka included.

"Well, enough of me talking! Nitwit, blubber, oddment, tweak, and let the feast commence!" Dumbledore announced. And with that, the food appeared, and the feast exclusive to the upperclassmen began.

"Rakka loves Snaaappe!" Zekiel drawled between bites of pheasant, only to recive a firm kick to the shins from Rakka.

"I can report you to him, you know, for harassing me, so don't push it," she snapped, pointing her fork at him with a glare that could kill.

"It's all just a bit of fun, Rakka, lighten up," Tomas waved her off, reaching across on a diagonal (he was sitting across from Isamu, to Zekiel's left, whereas Rakka was directly across from Zekiel, to Isamu's right) to push her fork down with the tips of two fingers, so that it wasn't aimed at him. Rakka growled.

"Get your grubby hands off my fork," she wiped the part he had touched vigorously with her napkin. "I don't have a clue where those fingers have been, and I don't want to find out."

"Oooohh!" Zeke and Isamu both grinned at her comeback before falling into a fit of maniacle laughter, which got a laugh even out of Tomas, as they all returned to other subjects of discussion.

"I'm so sick of Professor Binns' class," Isamu grumbled. "I wish I could just not take it."

"Just do what I do," Zeke grinned. "Sleep through class, and steal Tomas' notebook the night before the tests!"

"You little snot!" Tomas shook his head in disgust. "Don't be giving her any ideas. It's bad enough that you're always in trouble, I don't want you rubbing off on her."

"So, Rakka, you're playing Quidditch again this year, right?" Isamu asked.

"Yeah, definately," she nodded. She and both her brothers were on the team, and had been since second year; Tomas was Keeper and this year's captain, Zeke was a Beater, and Rakka was the team Seeker.

"I think I might try out, too, for a Chaser," Isamu shrugged. I'm not sure yet, though. It looks like a brutal game... but at the same time, it looks like so much fun!"
"Well, since Elanora Wickett and Sam Autumn left, we do have two open spaces for Chasers on the team," Tomas shrugged as well. "I was hoping you would show up for tryouts. When you practiced with us this summer, you showed quite a bit of talent, I must say."

"Really?" Isamu beamed. Tomas laughed.

"I just didn't tell you at the time because I didn't want you to try for the team just because you thought I wanted you to. I was making sure you really wanted to play," he smiled, cutting into his potato.

Isamu was absolutely beaming the entire rest of the banquet. It looked like the Darkflame triplets were going to have a great final year at Hogwarts.

But what Rakka didn't understand was... why couldn't she get her mind off her new Potions teacher?