The food was delicious; I had never tasted anything so good. I even had a second helping of roast potatoes. The children spoke loudly and laughed with the people on their tables, the whole room filling up with laughter.
"So," Jake said, the boy who was sorted earlier. "I'm Jake; it's nice to meet you."
Tiffany shook hands with him over the table, nearly spilling her drink.
"Hi, I'm Tiffany." She said, smiling.
"And I'm Hannah," I said, giving a small wave. "It's nice to meet you too."
We all waited expectantly for the other boy to say something, but he just looked at Jake and Tiffany, and then me, and went back to eating his meal. I thought this rather rude and a bit odd, and so I kept talking to Jake and Tiffany.
"Did you get any pets in Diagon Alley?" I asked them, popping a roast potato into my mouth. It was the best potato I had ever tasted; we never got food like this back at home.
Jake nodded. "Yeah, I got an owl! His name is Zeus!" He said, grinning. He looked very proud of the name that he had chosen. "Did you get an animal?"
"I got a black cat," Said Tiffany, clapping her hands together in delight. "His name is Riley!" She giggled, sticking her fork into around her tenth roast potato. "What about you, Hannah? Did you get anything?"
I nodded, trying to swallow a piece of turkey. "Hagrid brought me a barn owl!" I said finally, after managing to swallow the delicious slice of meat. "He's called Bartholomew. What? What's so funny?" I said, looking at both Tiffany and Jake as they giggled to each other. I even saw a grin spreading on the other boy's face.
"Did you get an animal?" I said to the boy who was sat next to Jake. He looked up from his dinner, surprised that I had spoken to him. Tiffany and Jake fell silent and looked at him expectantly.
"Er, yeah, I did," He said, turning towards us shyly. "I got an owl too – his name is Pippin." He smiled. I smiled back at him, glad that he could feel as though he could talk to us.
We heard a couple of clinks on a glass, and everyone in the hall fell silent, as Professor McGonagall stood up at the front of the hall. She cleared her throat as she began to speak.
"We have a couple of new teachers here with us this year," She started, projecting her voice throughout the room. "The tragic death of Albus Dumbledore has left me as Headmistress, and I will no longer be able to teach Transfiguration." There were moans from students around the hall. "I would like to introduce our new Transfiguration teacher, Mr Allanon Arsenius!"
As we clapped, a short and stout fellow rose from his table, although it looked as if he was still sitting, as he was so small. He had a large round belly, and a yellowish beard and moustache. He wore a matching suit, and a tweed jacket that was buttoned across his waist, and it looked as though the buttons were about to burst any second. He was very pink in the face, and sat down very quickly after taking a small nod of his head.
"We also have another teacher this year," Continued Professor McGonagall, after waiting for the noise to die down. "Last year, our Potions teacher, Mr Severus Snape, was killed."
"Wow," Jake turned to us and whispered. "A lot of people have died here." We nodded, and looked back at McGonagall, who was still talking about Snape's death. Suddenly, I didn't feel safe at all.
"..We had another teacher, Professor Slughorn, but he left due to circumstances that we will not go into today. The death of Albus affected him in the worst possible ways, and so we advised him to take a break from teaching. So, please give a warm welcome to our new Potions teacher, Loxius Raistlin!"
A very tall and slim man slowly rose from his chair. He carried the same dark, toneless features that Snape once had. He wore black clothes, making his features even more distinguished. He looked around at us all clapping unenthusiastically, his facial expressions not changing at all. He did the tiniest nod of his head before returning to his seat.
"Our last teacher has accepted our request for a Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher on very short notice, and so I would like to welcome Professor Nora Knoxburn!"
A slim, tall woman stood up elegantly from her seat at the teacher's table. She wore an emerald green dress and robe, which trailed down to the floor. Jake sighed and propped his head on his hand as he looked at her in awe. Tiffany and I couldn't help but giggle.
"Jake," I said, nudging him with my elbow. "She's way out of your league."
Jake looked at me and stuck his tongue out at me, and I did the same back, smirking.
"Please return to your meal. Afterwards, you will be sent to your common rooms, and First Years, please follow your Head Boy."
We returned to our meals, which was still piping hot. We looked at the food in the bowls, and to our astonishment, they had been refilled with more delicious food. Jake served himself at least six more roast potatoes, as did the other boy.
"Waste not, want not!" Jake said, winking at me with a mouthful of potato. Tiffany and I were helping ourselves to more turkey and chicken.
"Who's our-" Tiffany said, trying to swallow a mouthful of meat."- Head Boy?" We looked up and down the long table, trying to find the Head Boy of Ravenclaw.
"That would be me," Said a voice not too far from where we were sitting. We looked along the table to see a tall, lanky boy smiling and waving at us. "I'm William, Head Boy of Ravenclaw. It's nice to have some new faces at the table!"
We introduced ourselves to William, and carried on eating our dinner. After we had finally cleaned our whole plates, and there was no more food left to be seen, we exhaled a large breath.
"That-" Jake started, before burping. "-was the best!"
"I've never been this full in my life!" I laughed, rubbing my stomach.
"Do we get to eat like this every night?" The boy next to Jake laughed, and we joined in, before stopping because it hurt our stomachs to laugh after eating the feast.
"Your attention please?" Professor McGonagall's voice was heard above the chatter. We fell silent. "It seemed like you all enjoyed the feast?" Satisfied moans and groans were heard from around the room, everyone talking about the delicious spread. McGonagall put her hand up for silence. "Your Head Boy will take you back to your common rooms. You will find both the Girls' and Boys' dorms on the staircase leading up from the common room. There, you will find your belongings by your bed. Girls' and Boys' dorms are separate.." She said, looking around at us all with a quizzical look over her spectacles before continuing. "Head Boys, please lead off your houses."
And with that, we rose from our seats and followed William out of the Great Hall and into a long corridor, full with students trailing sluggishly back to their common rooms, after the most magnificent spread we had ever tasted.