“Ah, thank you Mister Adallette.” Headmaster Galanfrey said while resting a goblet of wine on her podium. She stood before all of the students and staff in the great hall ready to introduce herself and the incoming year ones. This was going to be a tricky year for her, with the dead students and four teachers in training. “I come before again, as I always have to induct you into Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and it is my personal pleasure of welcoming four new staff members to our school. However, as you may have heard, near the end of the last year a tsunami struck and seemingly abducted several students and two staff members, but I assure you the investigation is being handled by the Ministry of Magic and needs no interference from students or staff at the school. Any students caught interfering or withholding knowledge of the event will be subject to immediate punishment and possible expulsion.
A few changes in the curriculum are going into effect this year as well. We welcome four former students this year as teaching assistants as well as the addition of two new classes for those in their sixth and seventh years. Charms class will still be taught by Professor Gianni, with the addition of his teaching assistant Mister Adellette, Care of magical creatures will now be taught by Miss Page, who also will be assisting Professor Dew in Defense against the Dark Arts., Muggle studies is being taught by Mister Vedit who is also acting as a teaching assistant for Professor Kovac in Potion making,and Transifguration is taught by Professor Wentworth, assisted by Mister Dogg.
The new classes will be Archaic charms, a class centered around the summoning of bound beings from other realms taught by Mister Dogg, and a spell writing class to assist wizards in not injuring themselves when making a spell taught by Mister Adalette. These classes are exclusively for students in their sixth and seventh years. We hope you enjoy your time at Hogwarts, and please do not interfere with the investigation of the missing students. If a body is found, report it immediately to the investigators found around school grounds. DO NOT stop to let others know and do not observe the bodies.
We hope you find the changes to be easy to adapt to and expect nothing but excellence and obedience from all of you.” She motioned for the sorting hat to be brought foreward. Now, without further waiting we will begin the Sorting Ceremony!” She said with false excitement, knowing of the ministry’s watchful eye on her.

Julius finished pouring wine into the Headmistress’ cup and took his seat. He loved the sorting ceremony, it brought him joy to see the disappointed faces of those who felt they were sorted wrong. The hat was never wrong, though. He counted the amount of Slytherins and hoping it would outnumber those in Ravenclaw or Gryffindor. His face lit up every time a Slytherin was named. He eventually stood up to take a walk around to observe the Slytherin students. He passed by the first years and turned one of their goblets into a hummingbird and watched as the poor student tried to grab at it before it flew away. He continued on his way, moving toward the seventh years. He loudly announced, assuring the students of other houses could hear “I trust you all uphold the pride of Slytherin, it IS the best house after all.” He continued his walk, with several former goblets-now hummingbirds following him.

Kurt always wondered about the sorting ceremony. What was the criteria, anyway? Half the sortings didn't seem to make sense to him. He'd seen some good people forced into Slytherin, and he'd seem some downright mean bastards go into Gryffindor. He wondered if it was on a randomizer of some sort... That would be have to looked into, someday. Assuming he found the time between procrastinating and teaching.
He glanced at the Hufflepuff table. New arrivals arriving at a steady pace, like usual. It was only the other groups that seemed to get much of a change in member influx. He wondered how many of them would take Muggle Studies one day. Maybe one day, in class, he could show off an AK-47, scare the pants off them. That'd be fun. But he'd be kicked out for 'reckless endangerment' or something like that. Decisions, decisions. He chuckled to himself at that thought, and began searching for his friend Terrence. He'd probably get a kick out of the AK-47 idea.

While his two friends managed to keep attention on the ceremony and count how many first years were slowly and randomly sorted into one of the four Houses, Terrence found himself unable to tear himself away from his book. So he sat at his House's table, very calmly turning through the pages of his book while occasionally pausing to push his glasses up when they began to slip down his face. He did, however, listen to the Houses called in the sorting. A sort of slow trickle for Ravenclaw, but that was fine. No need for large amounts of students if it meant less quality students. He tore his eyes away from his book to look up through the crowd after being reminded of Kurt after hearing a Hufflepuff being called. Terrence scanned the mass of bodies for his friend.

Aloysius was to busy to pay attention to the sorting ceremony, he was going over his notes. Soon Al set about his experiment, coughing Aguamenti under his breath to fill his goblet with water and taking out a few small corked test tubes filled with coloured liquids, pouring and mixing each one. After about fifteen minutes Al had made a sweet amber drink. It was his liquid toffee, not melted toffee that would set when cool, not a gooey or chewy toffee that got stuck in people's teeth, but a liquid toffee that he could drink like water.

Al had a sip and couldn't stop from smiling. It was pretty great, but he was biased, Al liked anything sweet really. Still objectivity is important in any test, meaning he couldn't just give to someone he knew. Thankfully he knew few people. Adjusting the bandages and pulling his sleeve over his right hand to be less noticeable Al slowly stood, taking his goblet of toffee with him to look for someone willing to taste an unknown drink presented by a complete stranger. Shouldn't be too hard, it smells pretty good.

Lauren watched as the ceremony proceeded from the her place at the Hufflepuff table, where she'd sat down after the choir had finished its performance at the very beginning of the evening. She let her eyes wander down the table, smiling when she met the eyes of fellow students she recognized, then looked at the front to watch the sorting ceremony, like most others. As usual, the other three houses seemed to be having a bit of a battle going on about the first years that joined them. Hufflepuff was always a little different there. They welcomed anyone, and so far, Lauren had observed that the children that joined them were usually always happy with that choice. The sorting process was a bit of a mystery, but the hat was always right in the end, no matter how the student himself was thinking of the choice at first.
She looked down at the table to grab her drink and took a few sips, her mind wandering off to what her timetable would look like, what classes she'd have this year. The headmaster had mentioned two newly introduced ones. It sounded interesting, but still, she was hoping it not to be too much extra work, since she already had plenty of that as it was. Which reminded her that she still hadn't gotten around to going through her Herbology notes from the end of the year before. Things had gotten pretty crazy at the end and she had forgotten to bring them home with her. She'd have to make sure to do that in the next couple weeks, when classes were only just starting and she would still have enough time for that.

Throughout the whole of the welcoming speech, Jimmy had been tapping his foot restlessly in time to the growls of his stomach. While he'd spent most of his loose change on the trolley (and still had sweets to spare in his book bag, which was left on the train for the house elves to move) it was never enough for a growing boy, clearly, at least not in the way that a meal of red meat and white meat and brown sauce and brussel sprouts were.

He wasted very little time in tearing into the feast as if the plates didn't magically refill, his fork nearly stabbing into another Gryffindor student's hand in his haste to get the first slice of turkey. Who cares about the missing students or the new classes? Jimmy thought savagely – and a little insensitively, given he had known some of them – around a mouthful. And why, in Merlin's name, is that Ravenclaw just stoating around when he could be eating–

“Do I smell toffee?” the Gryffindor asked aloud to the rest of his corner of the table, looking around as if expecting the desserts to have already replaced the main course. He cast a suspicious eye towards the wanderer with the goblet in hand. If it's strange, it must be a Ravenclaw's doing.

Even after Alex received her acceptance letter and began packing her parents were still hesitant to send her away. Her parents were active in the news of the wizarding world, they had heard about the strange tsunamis abducting students. They tried to convince Alex to wait one more year, to just let the ministry of magic sort out the strange disasters and make sure it's safe to send students once again. But Alex was never one to give up on what she had set her mind on. She was already packed and ready to go on an adventure. Her parents reluctantly agreed that it was safe enough to send her.

And now was the sorting ceremony, something Alex only knew about through the whispers of excited students. She didn't know how the process worked, all she knew was that the hat never misplaced a student. Even if the student thought the choice was wrong, eventually everything would fall into place.

She sat at a table with several other new students, all of which looked as excited and maybe even overwhelmed as she was. Alex listened with excitement as the sorting process began, her emotions not at all dampened by the news of the abductions. While she waited for her name to be called she looked around at the other tables. All the different houses. Some of the students listened and payed attention to the sorting ceremony, clapping wildly when a new student was placed into their house.

Some of the other students didn't seem to be paying any attention, some read or chatted with their friends. Others walked around, observing the new recruits. Alex watched with wide, joy filled, eyes as an older student turned an unsorted first year's cup into a hummingbird, and then did the same to many others. Alex smiled, swinging her legs under her table.

There had been a mention between her friends that she had been late, though for the most part Artemis's friends and fellow teachers in training would be amongst themselves doing what they did best.

At that moment so was Artemis.

Not long into the sorting hats obnoxiously choicey decisions there was a gust of air as something zipped past the students tables and straight in front of Julius. With its pause, its shape became known. A bronze intricate key with humming bird wings on it, seemingly animated enough that it legitimately had to pause and pant in a tiny, tinny sounding voice. The next thing that happened no one expected.

"JUUUULLLIIIIUUUUSSSS!!!"

With the scream of utter anger ripping through the great hall, which already had great acoustics even for those with a soft voice, the large doors of the entryway burst open, earning a gasp from a myriad of the student populace. A hyppogryph reared its head before zipping on its feather clad wings straight for the chair Julius sat in. On its back, a wild eyed young woman with her unnaturally blood-toned hair trailing behind her. Around her flew several miniature sized dragons, babies she had to tend to with her messenger dragon experiments, and in her hand, her wand which she had transfigured into a silver blade. The hyppogryph careened upwards as it came near the back wall, changing its flight pattern as the woman rolled off of its back and onto the floor in front the long table separating the teachers from the students, her small dragons following. She ran up to Julius where he was wandering and would bowl him over, gripping the front of his shirt and pointing the tip of her blade to his throat, the silver only reflecting his smug-ass face.

"Miss Page, What is the meaning of this?!" One of the ministers shrieked as she stood, outraged, began to step toward the mess Artemis had created with her wand drawn. Proffessor Gallanfrey only sipped from a goblet with the utmost grace and raised a hand to the minister as though to say 'let them be.' The minister at this point knew only too well the mess of a relationship these teachers in training had. She only glanced at the tanglement of bodies with Artemis's sword at Julius' throat.

"Did he put wings on your key again?" She asked, an eye roll nearly present in her voice.

"YES and it's the LAST TIME he does it!!!" Artemis answered with her teeth grit, pressing the blade closer to Julius' throat in warning. Her hair wasn't up as it usually was and fell with a bit of frizz around her to midback and over her shoulders.

Sky was busy talking to her new friend who sat beside her at the Ravenclaw table to pay any attention to the ceremony. Well at least, when the occasional Ravenclaw was sorted she would clap along as well. Then she would go back to doing whatever she was doing. As the sorting ceremony was taking place, students were either paying attention to it or doing their own things. Like say, the boy who sat opposite her who brewed a toffee drink. The toffee smell was deliciously sweet. He was now walking around with the goblet of the drink. Nonetheless, the hall was quite noisy, if not a little.
In an instant though, the place went silent after the gasps from some students when a loud, anger influenced scream boomed through the Great Hall, screaming, "JUUUULLLIIIIUUUUSSSS!!!"

Bursting open the large doors of the hall, in came a young woman with bloody red hair and a blade in hand, riding a hyppogryph, and had several miniature sized dragons flying around her, charging at one of the seats where the teachers sat. The young man on the seat only smugly grinned. Sky supposed he was this Julius, probably one of the teachers in training the headmaster talked about.

While he made his way with his growing flock of birds, he caught the attention of some of the first year students. He bet some of the muggle-borns would be impressed with this feat of magic. He continued to walk the Slytherin table when the room fell silent. The doors swung open and Artemis burst through the door shrieking his name. "About time. She's late you know." He mumbled to a nearby student. Artemis rode a hippogriff inside the great hall, chasing a key with wings on it, and promptly rolled off of it and drew a sword she got from god-know's where and pointed it at his neck.
A new one for Julius, having a girl hop off of a hippogriph and instantly put a sword to his neck. He wasn't worried, it was just Artemis afterall. He smiled possibly the most smug he ever had and tightened his grip on his wand. "What, me? Why would I put wings on a key? I assure you, that it was definitely T Dogg." He didn't try to move anything but his wand arm. He waved it in the shape of what could be described as a pair of legs and before finishing the motion, looked into the eyes of his assialant and uttered "Since we're already so close, I figured I'd ask for just one last dance?" And with that, he pushed hismself back and said "Tarantellegra." A green bolt shot at Artemis.

Lauren watched the entire scene with more amusement than shock or surprise. In a school full of mostly immature wizards, it wasn't exactly unusual for crazy things to happen, though she had to admit she had never heard about someone entering the Great Hall on the back of a hippogryph. But then again those weren't students quarreling, but teaching assistants, so they might just be on a different level with their possibilities. That also meant though, that there was no real need to worry since they would surely know the limits. And it was quite the entertainment for the first years, Lauren observed as she let her eyes wander a little. They were either really shocked or really fascinated by the whole thing.
Lauren's eyes were caught by something zipping around by the candles hanging in the top half of the hall, illuminating the room. It paused, and she could see it was animated key the girl had been chasing. It's hummingbird wings were flapping so fast you could barely make out more than a shape as it moved on, dipping lower towards the students, dodging hands trying to catch it from time to time as it made its rounds through the hall. Lauren watched. She was still easily fascinated by the incredible things magic could do, especially when she had just gotten back from home. Her siblings being much younger than her, her parents had decided that it was better not to tell them about Lauren being a witch and hogwarts not exactly being a normal school either. So magic was pretty much forbidden at her home, especially in front of the kids, which hadn't mattered until she had turned eighteen three months ago anyway.
In the next second the winged key moved past her, so closely that she felt like the the wing's feathers had actually touched her cheek. She wondered if it could be caught if you tried an 'Aresto Momentum' spell on it. But she wasn't about to try, because you had to be bloody fast if you actually wanted the spell to hit this target, and while she was pretty good at Charms, she wasn't that fast.

Alex watched the excitement in the hall with wide eyes. Clapping along and laughing with the rest of the unsorted first years. They hadn't even been in the school for a full day and all this crazy magic stuff was going on! She watched as the girl on the hippogryph flew through the crowd, jumping off the creature and landing upon one of the older slytherin students and knocking him to the ground. She felt a little nervous, upon seeing the sword in the girls hand, but figured that the adults in the room would be quick to defuse the little argument between the two students.

Meanwhile there was still a strange object zipping around the hall, dodging in between students grabbing hands. One of the unsorted first year next to her began to laugh, trying to grab the flying key, and Alex found herself doing the same.

Kurt watched disinterestedly as Artemis made her entrance. This one was okay. Maybe six out of ten. Artemis has such a penchant for over the top entrances it had become almost mundane. He watched as she tackled Julius and threatened him. Mildly entertaining, to be sure, but not entirely out the ordinary. Probably quite the spectacle for the students, however.
Kurt walked through the great hall, reaching the Ravenclaw table, looking through the sea of heads for his friend. He smelled a wonderful toffee smell coming from somewhere, and was about to go investigate, when he spotted Terrence in the hordes of other Ravenclaws. He started pushing his way through people, making his way to his friend.