Breakfast [open]

[Dane Carnahan]

Dane sat in the Great Hall, calmly grounding a bit of pancake between his teeth. He chased the food down his throat with a bit of pumpkin juice, pushed his glasses further up his nose, and set about repeating the movements. The Great Hall was nearly empty, the result of getting up too early. He liked to eat early; he felt uncomfortable being watched when he ate.

Another pro to waking up early was that his brother was never up, assuring a nice breakfast without having his food stolen from off his plate. It was an odd habit that Garrett had perfected over time, and Dane was his favorite target. Actually, Dane was a victim of more than just food snatching; he was also shoe-less, his only pair of shoes being glued to the ceiling of his bedroom via some sort of potion. It was impossible to remove them by magic, so he either had to wait for the potion to wear off, or ask one of the resident potion masters if they knew anything that could the shoes from the ceiling. He decided he would rather wait for the potion to wear off.

Speak of the Devil, in walked the shoe-stealer himself. Garrett strode down the aisle between the house tables, seemingly oblivous to the death glare his brother was shooting at him. He plopped down next to the younger Carnahan, picked up a sausage off Dane's plate, and bit into it. "What?" he asked, casting a confused look towards his brother.

"You know what." Dane snapped in response. Garrett sighed and placed the half-eaten sausage link back on his plate. "No, I want my shoes back." Garrett grinned and shook his head.

"Can't do that. Don't worry, they'll fall down in a week or two." Dane mumbled something incoherently and returned to glaring at his plate.

[Ping Yan Lin]

Ping felt her way into the great hall for breakfast. She still wasn't used to getting around. Nothing was farmiliar to her, as it should have been. She felt for a table and sat down. Wrong table. She was pushed off the bench by a group of Slytherins. She fell to the floor getting up and eventually finding the right table.
She sat down and began clumsily serving herself. She felt like she had to learn everything all over again. She didn't understand why different groups were separated or why she was pushed off the bench. Obviously she'd have to learn the loopholes. This was supposed to be her second year here, but she couldn't remember a thing.
She began to hum quietly to herself, very oblivious to the rest of what was goin on around her. To everyone else she might have seemed a little up in space, but that didn't bother her. Besides, she couldn't see the smirks.

[Dane Carnahan]

Dane and Garrett had gone into a bout of bickering, whispering furiously back and forth and not allowing the other to finish their sentances. The two of them exchanged empty threats and promises to hurt the other, although both of them knew the other would never go through with it.

A slight comotion caught Garrett's eye, causing him to place his hand over Dane's mouth and look towards the noise. A Ravenclaw had sat down at the Slytherin table, and the Slytherins had retaliated by shoving her off the bench.

"Oi!" Garrett called out, leaping to his feet (and knocking Dane's plate into his lap in the process). With a flick of his wand, the Slytherin who had pushed the girl flew off the bench and onto the floor. "Don't like it, do you?" Dane's arm flew out and grabbed the wand from his brother.

"You can't do that!" he protested, using one arm to hold Garrett off and the other to hold the wand out of his brother's reach.

"Can too!" Garrett whined, grasping feebly for the wand. "I'm a teacher, I can punish students. It's my job."

[Ping Yan Lin]

Ping heard the teacher casting spells and punishing a student. But she had no idea why. She could ony guess, but her guesses were always a bit out-landish. She didn't think that whoever had pushed her of the bench deserved punish ment. It was only natural for her to take that sort of crap and to care for everyone. There was no revenge in her world.
Yes, I said 'in her world'. Ping saw the world differently than others. She was almost completely in her own world. No one deserved punishment, no one derserved to be caged, no one deserved to die. Her politeness and love for all humanity, believe it or not, got her in a few knots. Talk about freeing the imperal dragon! She couldn't remember this very well, but could faintly recall a soft voice. Deep and pleading.
As she more carefully ate she began to get curious. What was going on that she couldn't see? She didn't know and was always wondering. Being blind was as much an advantage as a dis-advantage. She didn't mean to, but quite loudly she asked out loud: "what's going on?"

[Dane Carnahan]

The sudden question from the Ravenclaw made Dane look towards her. He opened his mouth to answer, but the sudden distraction was just what Garrett needed; he snatched his wand from his brother, grabbed his arm, and twisted it up behind his back. "I win!" He let him go and returned to pointed his wand at the Slytherin, who was getting up. "Ten points from Slytherin." The boy just scowled in response. Grinning smugly (and oblivious to the fact that the Slytherins hadn't accumulated any house points yet), Garrett sat back down and bit into a biscuit.

Dane rubbed the arm that had been pinned behind him as he made his way down from the teacher's table to the Ravenclaw's. "Why did you sit at the Slytherin table?" he asked, looking down at the girl who had caused all the trouble in the first place. She hadn't been sorted at the ceremony the night before, so she had been to Hogwarts before. Didn't she know that no one from another house was welcome at the Slytherin table?

Garrett had taken up watching the Slytherin table, grinning at every glaring Slytherin who turned to look in his direction. It was obvious that the occupants of the table already didn't like him, which was fine by his standards. He hoped none of them signed up for his class.

[Ping Yan Lin]

"So that's where I sat then" replied Ping. "It's hard for me to tell. Maybe if there was a sign I would remember where my table was, but for now I guess I'll just have to count. Guessing doesn't seem to work." Ping didn't look at the professor as she said this. She couldn't tell where the voice was coming from and so, like with everything else, she guessed.
She figured that she'd started all the comotion and felt slightly guilty. She never meant to cause a scene or anger someone. She was hungry, she wanted something to eat she sat down. She didn't think that she'd get pushed away because of her simple mistake. The more she thought about it, the more it angered her. But then again she should have made a better guess. Maybe it was her fault. The guilt came back.
Slowly she added "But I didn't mean to make such a mistake. I didn't realize it mattered so much... I'll try harder next time. Sorry." She lowered her head and shrugged her shoulders.

[Garrett Carnahan]

"Oh, no, it's alright!" Dane amended quickly. "Garrett's just... eccentric. He probably would've him just for existing. Don't mind him." There was a loud "I heard that!" and suddenly a biscuit was flying across the hall. The flight path was disrupted by the younger Carnahan's head being in the way, causing the baked good to collide with his temple. Dane stood abruptly and aimed a glare at the teacher's table.

"You had it coming, mate." was Garrett's only response. He swiped another biscuit from the platter and took a chunk out of it. He then proceeded to grin smugly at his younger brother, ignoring the small stream of students trickling into the hall.

"If you excuse me," Dane growled softly, straightening up. "I'm going to become an only child." He bent down and picked up the baked good that had previously colided with his head. He tossed it into the air and caught it once before leaning back and lobbing the roll towards his brother, looking like a baseball pitcher.