The Slytherin Table

[Headmaster]

The Slytherin Table

[Blake Deimos]

Entering the vast chamber, the enchanted ceiling that mirrors the sky outside flickered contently as the crowds rolled by. Four long tables for the four houses spread themselves along the room, closest to the doors from the Entrance Hall is ends of every table of each house: Slytherin, then Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and next to them, Gryffindor. The teachers sit at the High Table, a table on a raised platform at the front of the room.
There is a door behind the staff table allows a person to enter the Great Hall from outside without going through the main entrance though it isn't clear if this is the same door as the one leading into the antechamber. There are windows into this room from the lawn outside.

[Blake Deimos]

Blake came into the Great Hall and sat himself on the far side of the table with his back to the wall so that he may survey the filling hall at his leisure. Students were always coming and going but the girl he wanted to see was no where to be found. He wasn't feeling very hungry from the tea he had consumed not too long ago but he did nibble at a slice of dry toast.

[Charlotte Eldridge]

Charlotte walked into the Great Hall, her eyes and feet moving immediately towards the Slytherin Table. She spotted Blake and walked over to him, relieved to be able to get her journal back so quickly. She sat down next to him. "Good morning," she said.

[Blake Deimos]

Blake looked up from his tender sliver of cake and delicately brushed crumbs from his moist lips with his cloth napkin. He smiled politely to Charlotte and pulled the journal out, "Good morning Ms. Eldridge, I do believe this belongs to you?" Setting the journal on the wooden tabletop was all he did when he placed his two forefingers upon it and slid it smoothly toward her.

[Charlotte Eldridge]

"And this, to you," Charlotte said, setting his on the table in front of him, just as gingerly. Charlotte longingly took her journal. She opened up the cover to see her familiar handwriting and hugged the small book that held her life to her chest in relief.

[Blake Deimos]

Blake took his journal gladly. His fingers wrapped around the spine and he caressed the book tenderly, "Ah, my love, you return to me like the sun returns to its heavens, and the moon to its secluded cavern. I thank you Ms. Eldridge though..." He looked down and sighed heavily, "I must beg your forgiveness for I fell into the temptress Curiosity's arms ever so willingly. At first," he looked back up and regarded Charlotte with heavy, indigo eyes, "I resisted and shut it immediately when I saw it was not my own writing, but the longer I had it, the worse the call got and-- and I did the unthinkable, I skimmed your thoughts. I truly apologize, I really do, and I know there is no excuse but I felt I needed to tell you anyhow."

[Charlotte Eldridge]

Charlotte did not know what to say. She felt intruded, knowing that this boy, this stranger, had read her innermost thoughts. She wondered how much he read, how much he knew about her. Breaking the promise she had made to herself the previous evening, she said to him, "I must admit that I did the same."

[Blake Deimos]

Blake blinked quite shocked though that blinking was the only thing that expressed he felt anything at all. "It seems we both have insatiable curiosities." He went quiet after a while and just held his journal, "How.. how much did you read, if I may ask?" He truly wanted to know as he was sitting next to the only person in the world to read his journal, even if it was one of many. It was a strange feeling he was embracing.

[Charlotte Eldridge]

"Just the first couple entires," Charlotte said. "How much did you read of mine?" she asked, hoping, foolishly, that he would not lie like she did.

[Blake Deimos]

"I skimmed about..." Blake honestly thought about what he skimmed, "the first two pages. Up to where you had a cluster of notes off to the side, because I remember semi-reading something about a blind heart." He felt relived to know it was only the first few entries of his long journey at Hogwarts as a second year, "I really am sorry Ms. Eldridge, I wish I could make it up to you somehow."

[Charlotte Eldridge]

"So could I," Charlotte said to him, apologetically, " But I suppose we're sort of even? Since we both read a little bit?"

[Blake Deimos]

"I suppose you are correct Ms. Eldridge, we are even." Blake properly removed the cloth napkin from his lap and cleaned his hands as well as possible then dropped the napkin upon the plate as he swung his legs over the bench in one motion and fluidly stood with practiced grace that now just flowed like silk, "I must attend my first class of the day. I thank you deeply for caring for my child, may we meet again." Blake took her hand and kissed the back gently, looking to her eyes to smile very slightly, then dropping her hand to disappear among a crowd of students making their leave. He was gone with his belongings and all in a matter of seconds.

[Charlotte Eldridge]

"As should I. Thank you for caring for my journal, as well," Charlotte said. She stood with him, and, after he had kissed her hand, walked off for Transfiguration. She was extraordinarily grateful of the boy to have her precious book back, but a bit taken aback at how quickly he left. She couldn't help but take it personally.

[Blake Deimos]

Blake returned to the Great Hall to find himself some dinner for once during the actual dinner times instead of at odd hours in the morning. He spread a cloth napkin over his lap like he habitually did so and began to reach for ladles and fill his plate at a relaxed pace; he did not feel the pressures of time at the moment nor was there an ever ominous ticking of a clock so he found himself enjoying his solitude vastly. His journal was safely tucked away into the deepest folds of his bag which only served to assure him that all was well and nothing was amiss.