With his morning already full of activity, Corey was looking forward to breakfast and beyond that was a little less...drama-filled. Although he supposed the excitement of the tournament was making everyone a little crazy and this might not subside for quite a while.

Corey entered the Great Hall for breakfast and realized that he was one of the early risers. With the school and the visiting delegations enjoying a free day before classes started,  he imagined most people would be trying to sleep in while they still could.

The seventh year found himself a seat at the scarcely populated Beauxbatons table, A few of his female classmates sat well enough away from him, their heads bent over a magazine. Every now and then, they would giggle and whisper something in their native tongue.

Corey hardly paid them any mind as what he heard amounted to gossip about various celebrities they were reading about among its glossy pages, clearly something he had little interest in.

And yet, as he filled his plate up with food, Corey suddenly became aware that they had grown eerily quiet. Though he wasn't prone to caring about their opinion, Corey's first thought was that they had spotted him and that somehow his leisure ensemble for the day had met with their disapproval. That too would not have been unusual, as Corey was the one Beauxbatons student least likely to care about what he was wearing. As long as it fit properly, it was clean, and it was function for what he was doing, he was satisfied.

It didn't take long for Corey to realize that he was not the object of their obsession this morning. He saw that the whole lot of them were looking someplace else. Corey slowly followed their gaze to the table beneath the Hufflepuff banners. And sitting there alone was an older girl from the House. He couldn't fully see her face from where he sat, but Corey felt that there was something familiar about her that he could not quite place.

And clearly the Beauxbatons girls knew that there was something interesting about her too because they were watching her with wide eyes and whispering like little nitwits.

You would expect someone like Ollie to be spending time in bed, and normally you would be right if this was last year. Ollie was never an early morning riser if she could help it. Here at Hogwarts there was not the same luxury of waiting to rise later when breakfast was scheduled. Some might be able to sleep until noon and stroll down for lunch (and yes Ollie could do that) but that would mean she would miss out on bacon. When Ollie was at home she could fry up some bacon whenever she liked but here at Hogwarts she was required to drag herself out of bed. She definitely wanted the comforts of bacon today, considering the fact in four days time she would be howling at a full moon. Plus there was the added issue of the fact that she was freshly back at Hogwarts and she was bound to face a few people who were less than pleased. Her worst fear was running into Sasha and experiencing that terrible awkward feeling again that she experienced at the quidditch party.

No, she didn't have to wait for Sasha to give her that awkward feeling. She was sitting munching on some bacon when she felt like people were staring at her. It was such an eerie experience feeling like eyes were on her watching and judging. Ollie brushed some of her wild blond hair behind her ear and peeked over in the direction of the Beauxbatons girls who seemed to be staring at her but trying not to be obvious. (They were failing at that) She was not a total idiot as to not know why she was being stared at. It was obviously because they knew she was one of the werewolf girls. Ollie did wonder if they knew the whole story? She tried to focus on her plate of food, well really it was a plate of bacon and some side dishes.

Corey's ears perked up as the chatter of his female classmates got a little louder and because it was louder, he could actually pick up the content.

Mid-bite of his potatoes, his eyes went wide and he turned to look over at them.

"Don't you know who that is? It's one of those werewolf girls..."

"I know! I can't believe they would let her be here with all of us!"

"What if she gets hungry and decides to take a bite?"

The girls then erupted into a fit of giggles. Narrowing his eyes in their direction, Corey was somewhat thankful that they were speaking in French, because it would cut down on the number of people who might be able to decipher what they were saying. Still, he was embarrassed by their words and once it was clear that they had no intentions of stopping, his embarrassment turned to anger.

"Tais toi!" His abrupt command for them to shut up was accompanied by Corey slamming his fist down on the table. It wasn't a forgiving table, but Corey hardly registered the pain. Instead, he stood up and reached out to grab his plate of food in a jerking motion. His eyes blazed at the girls dressed in Beauxbatons colors. As he walked by them and around the end of the table, he hissed, "You should be ashamed of yourselves. Don't you have anything better to do than to gossip?"

One of the girls giggled and shot back, "Well, if you're so noble, go sit with her then."

Corey gave them all one last look of disdain. "Yeah, I already planned on it," he huffed.

He moved with swiftness over to the table where the Hogwarts girl was eating and he slid onto the bench next to her. He set his plate down a little more forcefully than he had planned and picking up his fork, he began to stab at his potatoes again.

Realizing that his sudden presence might be a little alarming, he turned to the girl and murmured, "I apologize." He paused and nodded to his classmates. With a clarifying declaration, he said, "For them. I hope you don't mind that I sit here with you."

Ollie leered at the group of girls awkwardly, almost wanting to push her mop of hair in front of her face so she could peer at it through the strands. Ollie would hope it would hide the fact she was staring at them and watching, but that was just likely to draw more attention. Her eyes were on them and the feeling of insecurities were rising. They had to be talking about her right? Ollie wished in that moment she was fluent in French just so that she could stand up for herself, or at least know the gossip they were spreading. Maybe she should be thankful she didn't know, as it was likely they would cause her to be uncomfortable. Particularly the comments of getting hungry and taking a bite. Comments of her biting someone always hit home hard, ever since she lost control that one and only time. It was the first time that being a werewolf really was horrid. It had always been something that she was but it never defined her. She never saw the evil, or acknowledged the danger since she never put herself in the position to allow the danger to arrive. Now that she had slipped up, it all seemed more real, and more frightening. Ollie was keeping her head up high, and wasn't going to be ashamed of who or what she was. Being a werewolf did not define her, but it sometimes frightened her since March.

Ollie was lost in her thoughts, all brought on by these chattering girls in a completely foreign language. She was making up ideas as to what they were saying, which was only making her examine her affliction more closely. Ollie hated doing that, she preferred not to think about it and just longed to be a normal teenage witch. But she would never get that opportunity and she knew that, despite how much she tried. Once a month she turned into a beast, but she preferred to focus on the other 29 days of the year when she was just a normal girl with normal teenage problems.

Her attention quickly snapped from her thoughts to the boy as his fist met the table. "Ouch!" She said for him but mainly to herself. She looked over at him with some stunned confusion as to what was going on. Was it about him? Was he attempting to defend her? Bollocks, she really wished she knew that language. But then he was striding over to her and sitting down. What the heck? Ollie was completely lost in all of this, but she did have her suspicions.

Apology, huh? There had to be a confused look on her face because he was soon clarifying for her. "Oh." She said a little down trodden at first. She shrugged her shoulders and flashed him a smile. "I guess they were talking about me, the beastly werewolf." Ollie was doing her best to take Sophie's advice and not worry about it. She knew she would be faced with difficulties and judgement. After all she had been expelled for being a werewolf last year, so even without the foreign students there would have been enough gossip. Sophie was right that she just had to deal with it and move passed it. If she could continue to be cheerful then she had nothing to worry about. Right? Nothing people said had any baring on who she actually was as a person. "It's okay. I hate to say I am used to it." Her voice rang in a thick Irish accent. "I'm Ollie!" She said, dropped some bacon from her hand and held it out. "Oops one second." She took a napkin wiped her hand and then held it back out. "Ollie Foley, well technically Olivia but Ollie is preferred."

Corey watched the foreign girl intently, wanting to know (for his own benefit) how she was handling the situation. He was angry, of course. But it wasn't really about him, was it? He was still concerned though, because what the Beauxbatons girls had said was not very nice at all. Corey had been subjected to their years of gossipy torture and he didn't feel like he was overreacting.

"Oui," he responded in French when she asked if they were talking about her. Then he quickly returned to English, which she would certainly understand without question. "Yes. They were being mean like they usually are. So I would not take it....oh what is the way you say it? Personal? They just fear what they do not know very well. And for them," he paused dramatically and looked over his shoulder to the group he was talking about. "They don't know much outside of how they grew up."

Sighing, Corey looked back at her with sympathetic eyes. "I am used to it too because even though it is harder to tell, I'm also not like them." He touched a splayed hand to his chest. "I'm an orphan. And a muggleborn one at that. So, I have two reasons for them not to like me at a school like Beauxbatons."

Seeing that she seemed to be letting their comments go quite easily, Corey finally smiled in response to her introduction. He laughed when she cleaned off her hand of bacon grease to shake his hand. "I am Corentin Gaubert. But I prefer Corey." He gave her hand a firm shake. Then, his eyes still regarding her quite curiously, he ventured to ask the question his classmates were too scared to ask themselves. "So, Ollie....how did you become a werewolf?"

Ollie had to admit she was rather relieved when he switched to English, she thought they would have a better chance at communicating this way. She had no idea what she would have done if he had not spoken English, at least to some degree. Though he had a nifty little French accent to pair along with his words. It brought a smile to her lips she had little control over. "Well, I try not to take things personal, and since I have no idea what they actually said I might have a good shot at that." Ollie said with a slyish smile. She had to admit it sounded about right that most people knew little about what they were not used too. "I admit most people are not as worldly into the magical beings as I am." Ollie said with a little chuckle.

She watched him place his hand to his chest as he mentioned how he was different. Ollie's eyes went a little wider, but the smile on her face showed she wasn't alarmed by his differences. "I'm an orphan too. Well, not anymore. I was adopted a long time ago." Well in the grand scheme of things it wasn't that long ago if you compared it to the expected life time of a person. Though she wondered what this boys situation was like. It was kind of nice he had taken the time to divulge some information for her. Made her feel like she could trust him just a little bit more.

Finally she got a name as their hands connected and they shook. As they shook hands she smiled at him. "Nice to meet you Corey." Yes, she would definitely go with Corey, as she was sure she would butcher his true name only catching a sense of how to pronounce it through his accent. Maybe if she could manage to befriend a Beauxbatons student she might be able to learn a language with this opportunity. It was in this moment that Ollie really was thankful to the effort put into reconsidering her situation. It was an exciting year to return for. Not only was it great to be back in the Hogwarts halls she was experiencing the Treta-Wizard Tournament.

"So, Ollie....how did you become a werewolf?" those words rang in her ears. Wow, someone actually had the courage to ask the question not many did. Honestly, the number of times she had told the story was small. Funny how most people just didn't want to ask thinking it wasn't polite or something like that. She smiled over at Ollie and shrugged her shoulders. "Honestly, all I know is from second hand stories." She paused and took a sip of pumpkin juice. "But I can tell you what I have heard. I don't remember anything really from the attack which I suppose is for the best." She awkwardly laughed. "I was four at the time I was attacked, one of the youngest werewolf attacks on record with a happy ending." Many would debate whether this was a happy ending or not. "I survived, as I am told not many of them survive if they are young too much of a shock to the body I suppose." Ollie felt like she was sharing too much, but yet she kept talking. It was kind of nice to get it all out there when she really didn't get the chance to do so. "Anyway, as the story goes my mother and I were attacked on the full moon in Scotland." Ollie wondered if this would be confusing giving her awkward Irish accent attributed to growing up since she was five in Ireland. "My mother was taking me home from grandparents house. The Thames had a large property or something there was a cabin on the property we lived in. I do believe. It was in this walk that we were attacked by the werewolf. My mother accordingly saved my life. As I was bitten she attacked with hexes or something and drew the werewolf to here. She didn't survive." Ollie spoke of this in a very matter of fact tone, it had limited emotional pangs on her heart nowadays. "My grandparents found us and took us to St. Mungos. It was sad my mother was dead upon arrival and I was in critical condition. And was definitely infected. So that was the day I became a werewolf." Ollie said with a shrug. "Grandparents didn't want to raise a werewolf child so I was placed for adoption. A difficult task, one could imagine." Ollie laughed awkwardly.

Unless he asked she would leave out her adoptive mother and what she did. Ollie knew on some levels adopting her had been both for a child and her career benefit. Though admittedly it had turned to be more than that. Emma was her mother in her mind, and the research Emma had wanted to do took a back seat. Emma just raised a werewolf, which is where the subject of her book came from. "Anyways, yes. That is how I became a werewolf. So as you can assume I know no life different really. I don't have many or really any memories of the time before the orphanage to be truthful." She paused, "But thanks for asking. And sorry I basically gave you my life's story."

"It doesn't matter what they said," Corey told her quite seriously. "They all think they are more important than they really are." He finally began to eat again, although there was still some annoyance in his movements as he stabbed at his food. "We'll see how important they feel in the real world..."

His voice trailed off as he turned his attention more to what the werewolf girl was saying about her life. It was quite clear that they already had a lot in common, beginning with being orphans.
That alone allowed Corey to feel a deeper connection to her, despite the fact that they had just met. She could understand him in a way that others never would and that meant that there would be some things -- or feelings rather -- that he wouldn't have to try explaining.

"I am glad for you....that you became adopted," Corey began quietly, his fidgety movements with his food slowing a bit as he became more thoughtful. He didn't say anything for a bit and finally swallowed hard. "You are lucky. And I do also....envy you? I never was adopted. I spent a lot of time going from family to family. But they never were my real family. " He sighed and his brow furrowed. Does that make sense?"

Even when there were people like Fidelia, there was a part of Corey that never felt completely at home whenever he was with his foster families. He never knew where he really belonged and his stays with them always felt temporary until someone else could take him in or until he was old enough to take care of himself.

Corey's thoughtfulness continued as he listened intently as Ollie told him about becoming a werewolf and he was surprised that she had been one for nearly as long as she could remember. So it was very much part of who she was. Perhaps what he just said really did make sense for her too.

He chuckled when she apologized for talking so long. He waved her off. "Oh no, that is O.K." He took a bite of his food. "It's nice to have someone to talk to. And even....nicer? When they are not like everyone else who is around. C'est vrai?" He gave her a sheepish smile and translated, "Do you think it's true?"

Here she was sitting across from a lad from Beauxbatons named Corey, and she would never expected to feel on the same page as someone. Sure she felt close and like she understood Sophie, she was her best friend and all. Sophie understood Ollie's condition and what was going on in her life, just as Ollie understood Sophie. Though Corey understood something on a different level and Ollie had never actually found that in another person. Maybe it was the whole orphan thing? Ollie really couldn't put a finger on it.

"It makes sense to me," she nodded her head. "I have my family but it doesn't feel quite right." She knew why she had been given up and she understood that. Ollie couldn't say she would have done anything different, but of course she wished she could say she would never have done as her grandparents had. Ollie often wondered how different life would be if her grandparents had kept her. Or even if her birth father knew she was alive. But in these moments of wondering she rarely thought of herself without the affliction of being a werewolf. She couldn't imagine a life different like that.

"Agreed." Ollie said as she took a bite of food with a smile. "Being normal is boring." Ollie laughed a little before looking down at her plate. "So are you excited to be here for the tournament?"

Corey had finished his breakfast and he was tempted to fill his plate with more food. But instead he pushed his plate away and focused his full attention on Ollie. His intent was not to make her nervous, but it was simply a matter of wanting to hear everything she had to say. In the short time he had known her, she made the impression that she was interesting enough to want to know.

And Corey did not feel that way often in the halls of Beauxbatons. So to find a student in this new school whom he already felt was a kindred spirit was comforting.

He smiled over at her. "I am glad we understand each other, Ollie." He paused and looked up at the ceiling in the Great Hall and then to the stone walls. "It makes coming to a new place like this less..." He wasn't sure what word he wanted to use to accurately describe what the Tournament experience had felt like since the moment he had heard about it. He frowned as he offered her something. "Bad?"

He laughed lightly at his own uncertainty. "I am excited about the Tournament and I am not. There is still time for it to go one way or the other."

"But in the meantime," he said as he leaned forward. "Maybe you can tell me what not-so-boring-un-normal people do around Hogwarts for fun."

Ollie perked up with a smile, "Well, I am glad to make it not so bad." She had to admit she probably wouldn't like going to another foreign school too much. She like the comforts of Hogwarts, which were admittedly not as homely as they once were to her. Everything was different this year because everyone knew. If you didn't know you had to be dense. It was gossiped about and basically proved with her expulsion. Though, Ollie really did not wish to dwell on that thought.

"You know I am pretty excited to see the Tournament in action." She said with a nod her head before she went and got a bit more of her food. She was a big eater and she wasn't done yet. She had more bacon to go and you never wasted bacon. Munching she looked up at Corey and brushed hair behind her ear.

"I will have to remember," she said after she swallowed. "It has been some time since I was in these halls." She looked up and around the great hall. "But I can safely say outside is kind of run. The grounds are good to explore. Not to mention playing a few games. I also like the pitch as it is a good place to cloud stare, but some people frown upon the idea of you lying in the middle of the pitch." Ollie said with a chuckle.

"It will be interesting," Corey said of the tournament. Grinning when he saw her get more food, Corey did so as well. It was refreshing to be around girls who had hearty appetites, since his school tended to frown upon overindulgence. And most of his female classmates just ate like birds for the most part. He felt like a beast among them when he could eat his own portion plus most of theirs.

Corey listened to her describe her school, a grin hovering on his lips. "Cloud stare? You do that often?" He paused and looked at her curiously. "Maybe I can do it with you sometime."

"I do cloud stare," Ollie said with a nod of her head and smile appeared on her face. She washed down some of her food with some pumpkin juice and considered going for some tea. She looked over at Corey and wiped the back of her hand across her lips. She ran her tongue of her teeth making a double check for any food that might have felt the desire to linger. "We could go cloud staring today, if you have the time." Ollie had not really planned much for the day and cloud staring probably would take place. She also anticipated spending some time with her best friend of course but there was always time for a new friend and some cloud staring. "Of course if you have other plans or things you need to do, we can cloud stare another day."

Corey grinned over at her. "I think cloud staring sounds like a great way to spend the morning day. I have nothing planned, really," he said with a nonchalant shrug. "I mean, who has anything planned before the first day of classes, right?"

All that he said was true. When he had woke that morning, he had no solid plans for the day, other than to be outside. And more than likely, he would have met up with the likes of Cecile or Elodie and planned to do something together but he thought this was just as well. Afterall, part of the reason for being here was to meet students from other schools, right?

"Oui....yes...Cloud staring sounds perfect."