Nightingale stood before the rows of seats, his hair down, his long white robes touching the floor making him appear as some sort of priest, but he never minded--the first years were not as easily convinced he was a Professor without proper attire, and for this Gale conformed to the school's standards.

"Welcome back," He spoke to each one as they passed through the doors, but his stance never faltered. He followed many of them with his eye, but remained as stiff as he board when it came to making sure he got the point across he couldn't be pushed over. Crazy many called him, and that wasn't far from the truth. However, he did adore his students, and wouldn't be standing there at all if he wasn't fit enough to instruct them.

"I would suggest you take your seats quickly, the second part of the year doesn't begin as easily as the first. And I do hope that you all had a wonderful break, but now is when the real work begins."

Alexandra walked into the classroom with a smile, a half smile. She didn't want to appear overly happy about this class; but she liked it because the professor was different. Like her. And there were too many people in her class who didn't like him, and that just wasn't fair. It was a hufflepuffly stand point, liking others who were different, but it was her own opinion.

She took a seat and set her bag down on the floor next to her. There weren't any directions on the board, nor did the Professor say anything to them when they walked in about what materials to take out; so Lexi settled with just a quill for now. She twirled the midnight black feather in her hand, waiting for class to begin.

There was a bit of a sigh that she held back, how much harder could it be in the second term? Thank Godric she hadn't failed first term, it had been more than tough adjusting; and even worse when she missed classes. (Especially the Astronomy classes held on full moons. She wished she could go to one but she never would be able to!)

Gold eyes scanned the room for any sign of a lesson set up, or for any fellow classmates looking like they were going to be troublemakers in class. She leaned back in her seat, wondering if anyone thought it weird that she hadn't said anything to anyone yet. Everyone had there own thing that changed them over break; but the estrangement from her mother and the murder too close to home didn't sit well with the first year. Maybe this class would make her forget about those negative thoughts. Maybe.

Sophia's entire attitude towards classes changed, and ever since her poor grade in Professor Storm's class she vowed to never again let such a mark leave this school with her. She moved into the classroom with all the grace and dignity of a swan, and took her seat right up front.

"Hello Professor, it's good to see you again." She said before opening her book, and waiting for the class to start. Taking out her quill, she didn't even notice that there were other students as she was simply wearing her 'game face', and beyond ready for this term.

Lucas came into class groaning as usual about how early the class was. He hated having to get up this early. One of the few things he -did- miss about home. He was yawning and rubbing his eye, having been up the night before discussing potential pranks with Thales. They wanted to hold off for a couple weeks before they started up. They had a marvelous idea for a prank. It had to wait though.

"Morning Professor Kesali," he said as he walked in. "Morning, Sophia," he said with a smile. He made his way to the back of the class. He thought about sitting with Sophia, but she was in the front as usual. If he sat in the front today, he would be expected to sit there the rest of the semester. He didn't want that. Who knew what was going to be in store for the rest of the semester. He leaned back in his chair, crossed his arms behind his head, and closed his eyes. Stupid early class.

Alice hurried into the Charms classroom, saying a quick hello to the professor, and sliding into her favorite seat. Middle column, front row. It allowed for perfect vision so she could get the clearest notes, and it was close enough where she could read the board without much struggle. She was excited to get back into the swing of things, and had missed class dearly. Her break had been nice, aside from the terrible thing that happened early into the break with Jack. She hadn't really gotten to talk to him since they got back to Hogwarts, though it was on her to do list. Other than that, her break had been pleasant, though sadly, she had only read two books that break. How was she ever going to read through the entire Hogwarts library when she couldn't even read more than two books in a single break?

As Alice withdrew her things for class, excitement raced through her veins. She loved Charms almost as much as she loved History of Magic. It was her second favorite class. Alice set up her desk as she did for every class. two bottles of ink in the upper right hand corner; a red and a black. Her white quill to the right of the blank parchment that she placed, her book at the top left corner, her homework-tracking parchment on top of the book, and her wand to the left of the parchment. It was how she always set up her desk, as it always seemed to make the most sense that way. Everything was within reach that way.

Alice glanced around the room, looking at the other kids, giving a nod of a hello and a friendly smile, her standard greeting in class. Many professors did not like students to speak before class, but she liked to let the other students know that she acknowledged them, so she'd always give a nod and a smile. Alice hadn't gotten on bad terms with anyone this year, except for that one older Ravenclaw, and a few Slytherins. It wasn't even that she got on to bad terms. They just didn't like her for her upbeatness and optimism. But with her grade, she was quite close, known as the shy, kind and smart Hufflepuff who liked to smile.

Dione's appearance in the Charms classroom was as silent as ever. In fact she'd been shadowing Alice Hunter for the last half a floor and the near-sighted Hufflepuff hadn't even noticed. She hovered momentarily in the door, taking stock of the room and allowing her noisier classmates to snatch up their desired seats. Then she made her way in, pausing only to curtsy to their professor in greeting before claiming the seat beside Sophia Knight, whose elegance she fancied a fair match for her own.

Observing their professor in his long white robe, Dione thought he seemed a bit...oddly tense, she supposed was the right phrase. Certainly Kesali was prone to his mood swings and odd gesticulations, but as far as she knew sullen stillness was not normally among them. She slid her eyes to catch Knight's gaze and quirked her head curiously, wondering if the other girl had noticed the Professor's stiffness as well.

Ted, meanwhile, dashed into the room mere seconds before the final bell. He hit a slick spot on the floor that sent his trainers sliding out from under him and toppled forward with a yelp right at the front of the class, catching himself on the first thing he could grab onto, which turned out to be the blackboard in one hand and Professor Kesali with the other.

"Sorry -- Professor!" he gasped, trying to catch his breath. "Didn't want -- to be late. Left my -- whew -- left my book in the common room. It's a long run. Whoo. Gimme a second."

He leaned over his knees, nearly waist-length hair falling over his shoulders like a waterfall. Bugger, it was still white too. He hoped Kesali wouldn't take that as some sort've insult. He'd only been practicing the style because the professor had an interesting look. Still leaning over, Ted scrunched up his face and pulled up the first color that came to mind, a sort of icy blue that matched his current choice of eyes. The color spread out from his roots as the hair shortened rapidly, eventually cutting jaggedly off at his shoulders.

He popped up once it was done, offered the professor a bright grin, and hurried to claim a seat with his fellow Gryffindors, calling a few quick good-mornings before the class got down to proper business.

Noah sat with his wand sitting perpendicular on the desk, his quill revolving in circles lazily atop the tip. He had had little to do over the break aside from practice and read, and so was quite glad that it was over. Even simply walking through the castle was much more lively with everyone back. However, the few times he went out to explore some of the castle's passages he had found it did add an odd mysticism to it... like some temple or tomb.

He blew lightly at the quill, making it spin faster on the axis before surveying his classmates and how they seemed to have faired from the break.

Rowena didn't want to be back to class quite yet. She still wanted to be curled in bed at home with Boudicca poking at her with little paws. Break hadn't been nearly long enough and she missed home already.

But she had to do well! And pay attention and take notes and to braid her hair in a fashion that wouldn't be falling out already later. It was getting in her eyes again. So she'd made sure to be there on time! "Good morning, Professor," she said before taking a seat in the row behind Sophia.

Once there, she very carefully set out her quill and parchment for notes. Waiting was hard and setting them out gave her something to do with her hands.

"Morning, Professor!"

Thales walked into the classroom with a smile on his face, even if he was tired. Charm was one of his favourite classes, as many of the pranks that he and Lucas made demanded quite a bit of charmwork, so anything he learned in that class had a practical application. That, and this class would be a nice opportunity to ask the professor about the charms necessary to pull off the next prank.

"Morning, Sophia! Noah!"

He waved at them before sitting next to Lucas, and looked at him slightly preoccupied. Lucas wasn't a morning person, that much everyone knew, but he had spent the last night talking with him, rather than sleeping. Thales supposed that he was a little more resistant when it came to skipping nights of sleep compared to Lucas.

"Hey, Lucas. If you need to sleep, I can pass my notes to you later."

He let a light yawn escape, and got his wand, notebook and quill ready.

Frank waved and said a restrained, "Hello," to the strange white-robed Professor with just one eye.  He was a hard man to predict and that unsettled Frank a bit who liked to know what was going to happen.  He hurried past to sit with his friends from Ravenclaw.  He took the desk in front of Lucas and Thales. 

He turned round in his chair and immediately started whispering.  "Did you guys hear about Jack?"  He was talking about the Gryffindor boy named Jack Windell.  "His dad murdered his mum!" he whispered with a grim look on his face.  It had been in the paper.  "Do you think he'll be here?"

Frank got on with Jack pretty well and they'd been owling over the holiday and were going to hang out it yeah.  That didn't end up happening.

Lucas opened an eye and looked at Thales with a smile. He knew Thales would pass the notes to him. Thales was awesome at taking notes. Always thorough and detailed. He didn't want to take advantage of him like that though. Thales was always offering to help him out and do things for him and cover for him. But Thales was his best friend for reasons other than that. He just didn't feel right about it.

"Thanks, but I'll be alright. Gotta pay attention anyway. We actually -need- to know this stuff. It's one of the most important classes for what we do. I appreciate it though."

He reached over and put a hand on Thales's shoulder and gave it a light squeeze. He pulled his hand  back to himself and crossed his arms back behind his head and closed his eyes again.

"I'll wake up when class gets ready to start. Don't worry bout it."

He turned his attention to Frank when he started talking to them, only opening one eye again. Thales didn't really know Jack. He also didn't believe most of what he read in the papers.

"No idea. I don't even know the guy. I'm sure we'll find out though."

Annette scowled as she walked by Frank Sellaphix, the situation back at home over break was hard enough as it was, but now everyone was talking about it. She felt terrible, but she couldn't imagine what Jack was feeling. But the fact that the boys were talking about it so openly made her blood boil. She had had a rather good break, other than the Windell murder, James had seemed rather chipper and he was much nicer to her than usual, maybe it was just the holidays that got him in a mood.

Annette sat behind Alice and took out a piece of parchment and a quill with cracks in the feather, they sort of ended up like that, she would rush out of one class, shove everything into her back and rush to her next class, and she'd repeat as the day went on, she was surprise she hadn't lost anything with the way she was organized.

She also liked sitting behind Alice in case she tuned out during class, or got confused, she could just peak over Alice's shoulder and see her neat writing and take down her own notes according to Alice in her own chicken scratch. Anni released a sigh of relief as she settled into her seat, she was glad to be back in her school robes, not the horridly tight dresses her father made her wear over break.

Annette leaned forward. "It's great to be back, isn't it?" She said to Alice, knowing her roommate would be as chipper as ever.

Rico swooshed into class, his tie loose and his hair not it's normal spikey-ness. He had slept in and missed breakfast. He normally never slept in, you have to get up at dawn to clean hippogriff pastures and hike through the woods in the bitter cold. Something was off today though, maybe it was the climate or something. Anyways, Rico put his newly organized back down near a group of other boys and sat down.

"Wait, someone was murdered?" Rico said in a hushed tone, not wanting to draw attention to himself. He didn't do amazingly well in Charms class, enough to pass, but he mostly keep his nose in his books and doodled animals with big heads when the professor wasn't looking. But, there was something Rico liked about Professor Kesali, even though he was probably the oddest man he had ever seen.

He put an inkwell on his desk while he leaned in to hear what the other lads were saying.

Mercedes was rocking a new 'do' she had mastered over the holiday. Her hair was brightly gold with shining silver streaks. She had it pulled into a high ponytail and her glasses rested on the bridge of her nose as usual. She wasn't terribly excited about the second term, but it was better than waking up at home to the same dull routine of playing the flute and learning french.

Mercedes sat down next to Dione and nodded politely into the direction of the professor. There was something not right about that man, despite his appearance. Sadie was very into appearances and even though Nightingale Kesali was an odd ball indeed, she didn't trust him for some reason, but it was probably just her conscious playing games with her.

She pulled a hippogriff quill out of her satchel, her father refused to let her write with anything else and put her wand on the desk, stopping it from rolling with an inkwell of iridescent black ink. "Here we are again." She said to no one in particular.