Thanks, that sounds awesome! I may take you up on this sometime as well (:

Mei turned to Beth, trying to hide her embarrassment. "Oh. No, never," she said quietly. "Is it very different from... muggle chess?"

"Oh, no, I'm sorry I screamed," Mei said, tugging absently at the sleeves of her robes. Her face still had not cooled, and she bet her ears were red. "I'll just sit and watch, if that's all right?"

She picked a seat near their table and sat down, trying to make herself as small as possible.

(For the logic puzzle, it helped me a lot to draw out a chart: with the names of four students and the four houses as rows, and favourite subjects and four houses as columns. Then I would cross out combinations that were ruled out by the clues and work from there. It also helped me to go back and re-read the clues every time I had crossed out a possibility, to see if I had missed something or if one of the clues that didn't tell me much before now told me what to rule out next from the narrower pool of possibilities.

Good for you getting the assignment done though! I'm actually stuck on the second question. The answer is probably somewhere obvious and I've just missed it, lol xP)

Mei glanced over as the girl with the cute rabbit talked about her family and how she had started learning magic. A small sense of relief settled over her that she was not the only one who had grown up around muggles. "That's lucky! Is your grandfather a wizard? I don't think anyone in my family are wizards. When we got the letter, my dad thought it was a prank." She laughed nervously.

"The only difference between Wizard's Chess and Muggle chess except the chessmen are animated. I think Wizard's Chess is more enjoyable than Muggle chess. I like that we can interact with the chessmen," said Beth.

Setsu stepped into the common room, observing the game of wizard chess from the entryway for a moment. "Hi, I'm Setsu. Nice to meet you all" she gave a small wave, and moved over to a chair and sat, tucking her skirt in around her.

"Hi, Setsu, I'm Beth. Have you played Wizard's Chess before?"

(( If you're interested in drawing things as well as people, you might be able to earn Ravenclaw some extra house points by making hourglasses for the houses!

See the bottom of this post:

There is a note that someone has drawn some already, but specifically says they are the first and not the only, and still has the offer up there. :) ))

Kainra walked into the room and looked around. He didn't know what to expect, since his parents refused to tell him anything about Hogwarts cause they wanted the experience to be new to him. He saw the chess board and walked over. "Playing some wizards chess, I see?" Kainra remarked. 'My name is Kainra. Kainra Wolf"

(Yay! 15 people accepted! Thanks for making the ping group @ Italia :) Also thank you for the ping to the career challenge thread. I hope everybody is having fun:) @ Voice EEEEEEEEEEEEEE!! Were in the same house! Were in the same house!o uo)

Setsu smiled at Beth, nodding. "Yeah, I'm no good at it though. Never really had anyone to practice with, no one in my family likes it." She sighed softly in exasperation at the thought.

(( OOC: CONGRATS EVERYONE! WE'RE IN FIRST PLACE! I can't believe we jumped from 3rd to 1st place in just a week. Great job, everybody! :D ))

"Amanda () seems to be really good at it. I haven't played Wizard's Chess in years. I use to play it all the time with my sisters. What's your favorite game to play? "

"Hi, my name is Beth Hale. It's a pleasure to meet both of you" she said with a smile.

"Hi George" she said as she pet the orange cat.

"Do you like playing Wizard's Chess?" she asked Kainra ().

Beth turned to Hannah (). "I love what you're wearing. Did you just say that you changed your hair color? Are you Metamorphmagus?" asked Beth with interest.

Kainra nodded. "Wizard's chess is my favorite." He responded enthusiastically to Beth. "Planning a few moves ahead, thinking of strategies, trying to think of what your opponent might do and how to counter that, then seeing what your opponent actually does. It's a game I really enjoy!"

Kainra turned to Setsu, after hearing what she said, "I don't think I got your name, but I'm Kainra. If you want, I can play a few games, between studying, if you'd like. Shame nobody in your family likes wizard's chess. Sounds like how my friend, who got sorted into Hufflepuff, and I are. I love playing wizard's chess, but she, on the other hand, doesn't." Kainra said and sighed. "I told her she was missing out, but she said otherwise. Still, she has fun doing other stuff and, I admit, I have fun with her so I guess I can't complain much. I always had, at least, my father to play Wizard's chess with, when he was home from work."

"Oh, and nice cat." Kainra said, turning to Hannah. "He doesn't bite, does he?"

"That doesn't sound too bad," Mei said as Beth explained Wizard Chess to her. She decided to sit back and watch for the time being, waving shyly at the new students who had arrived.

(Yay first place! Nice work everyone. ^_^ Going to have my character step back for a while since things have gotten really busy irl and I might not be around as often.

Hey, nice to see new faces! Welcome to Ravenclaw!)

George began to purr rubbing against Beth's hand. "Hi Beth, Nice to meet you too! Thank you and yes, I am a Metamorphmagus. I haven't mastered it entirely, hope to soon though." said Hannah to Beth.

"Thanks, he only claws at people if they try to take his tea bag away. Who might you be?" asked Hannah looking at the boy talking about George.

Hannah waved to the girl waving to her. (Thanks! It's great to be here in such a great house:D Awww I wanted to hear more rp from your character:c I guess until next time.)

((Sorry I disappeared for a few days, I got in a car accident!)) Setsu smiled, nodding. "I'm Setsu, nice to meet you. I'd love to play and practice with you, that sounds wonderful. I don't really play many games, I usually kept to myself and read books."

((Oh my! Are you okay? Car accidents are scary.)

"Are there any other games you like to play?"

((Okay. I hope everything is all right. Can't wait to hear from you later. c:))

"Are Metamorphmagi common in your family? I've never met a Metamorphmagus before."

((Yeah, I'm mostly fine. Some bruises, a couple of scrapes. My car on the other hand is most likely totaled, but everyone involved walked away fine.))

(Sorry I haven't been around! Went to a wedding! OMFG FIRST PLACE! Hells yeah!!!! Go us!!)

Amanda moves one last piece and she thinks she has finally gotten the right combinations of moves to win the game. Her chess pieces are yelling obscenities at Beth's king, who was standing defeated on a black square. She giggles a little bit at the silly chess pieces before saying, "Good game, Beth! Let's rematch soon."

(Here's our common room!)

@ Italia "Not common, but there are a rare few that are." Hannah replied to Beth. Oh shoot, I got to go! Hannah thought to herself. "I'm going to bed, great game." She replied to them. She ran up to her bed and made sure no one was in the room. She took out a small thin metal pan, a piece of parchment, a quill and ink out of her trunk. She wrote down some stuff onto the paper and folded it into an origami turtle. She then put the origami turtle into the small metal pan and said, "Incendio." As she watched the flames on the turtle grow she smiled and thought of her great grandmother who taught her about the tradition before coming to hogwarts. After a while she thought she heard voices coming so she said, "Wingardium Leviosa," and took it to the window along with the pan. The fire had died and barely anything was left or legible to read. She tosses out the decayed turtle and the ashes. Then quickly put the pan back into her trunk, locked it and smiled at the two students who came in.

((Good to hear that no one was seriously hurt. I'm sorry about your car.))

[IMG align=left]http://i59.tinypic.com/spzmyp.jpg[/IMG] "Definitely. Next match won't be as easy," Beth said grinning. ((I love weddings! Hope you had fun at the wedding))

"Good night!" Beth managed to say before Hannah ran off.

Beth pulled out some parchment, a bottle of ink and a quill from her bag.

[img align=left]http://s26.postimg.org/r97izp18p/Fade2.png[/img] Practically tripping over the threshold of the common room, the short robed kid with light hair chuckled nervously to himself before glancing around. It was hard to tell but his hair had gone darker for just a moment before fading quickly with his blush. Leaping into the room effortlessly behind him, a skinny Bengal cat made a quick hop up to the kids shoulders. Reaching up the kid scratched the cat's chin and grinned nervously back at the faces looking up at them. "Uh, hi... Sorry." His hair darkened again and this time the blush that washed over his cheeks was not quick to diminish. Feeling slightly overwhelmed he crossed the room quickly and hastened up the stairs towards the boys dormitory.

A while later he reemerged and stealthily maneuvered himself into a comfy chair by the fireplace. Sure maybe it was a little warm outside to be sitting by the fire, but the smell was calming. Careful not to disturb any of the other students he quietly dismissed any curious stairs. The skinny cat wasn't far behind and it happily nestled into his lap as he began pouring over a stack of crumpled papers that he pulled from the folds of his robes. This was Fade's second year, but it was hard to tell by looking at him. He still hadn't hit any growth spurts, and his timid nature made him seem younger still.