Declan had been planning this for a while. He decided that he should get the ball rolling before school ended, so that he could figure out who was interested and whether or not it was worth carrying over into the following year. With news of the impending Tri-Wizard tournament, he decided that student relations was important. His classes were going to attempt to teach them more about interhouse relationships, and he wanted to do something to improve the understanding between muggleborns, halfbloods, and purebloods.

There was a muggle exploration club already- teaching the wizards about muggles. But what about teaching the muggleborns about wizarding heritage? There was only so much a person could learn from History of Magic. There was more to wizard culture than their history- and Declan was hoping that this club could help with that.

He knew how it was going to look. He was an O Morain after all, a pureblood- ousted from society. But he wasn't here to propagate purist views or to look down on those who weren't pure. This was a genuine concern for his students, and he thought it would also give the wizard students something to enjoy and excel in. It was only fair, if there was a club for muggles, that there be a club for witches and wizards as well.

Declan had made a few announcements during his classes and posted a few notes on bulletin boards around the school. This was just a trial run- to see if he had generated any interest, and to explain to students what he was planning and how he wanted to go about things. Just make sure everyone knew that this wasn't a place for purebloods to gather- it was a place for everyone.

He had decided to settle himself in the empty classroom on the ground floor- that way if younger years were interested, they wouldn't have to hunt all over the castle for the appropriate empty classroom. He had rearranged the room to make it more comfortable, transfiguring a lot of the old desks and chairs into comfortable arm chairs and sofas. Hopefully he'd get at least a few stragglers before long and this whole idea wasn't for naught.

Eirene was so excited. This was the first club she'd expressed interest in that her parents actually wanted her to join! It had nothing to do with muggles, divination, or Dungeons and Dragons, and everything to do with wizards! She was determined to get to the classroom first, and headed straight for the professor when she walked in.

Declan O Morain, Deputy Headmaster and Care of Magical Creatures Professor! A very important person. Eirene beamed at him, half glad that she didn't have to look up too far.

"Hello, Professor O Morain! I'm Eirene Antonopoulos. First-year Ravenclaw. I told everybody in the common room that they should come to the club meeting, and I told all my friends!" All meaning Pax and Noriko. Eirene looked at him hopefully. She'd heard he could be rather stern, just like a professor should be, and really wanted to get on his good side.

There were only a few places less likely for Figaro to turn up voluntarily.  A Saturday extracurricular sit-down meeting about purebloods hosted by a professor who made no illusions about being endlessly ticked off with him.  Perhaps Figaro was under and Imperius Curse?  Trying not to look like it was a big deal, Figaro meandered in as casually as any other place and sat behind and to the left of the bonkers little first year.   His hands were in his pockets, and he was out of uniform as was common for a weekend.

Figaro was a half-blood although both his parents were wizarding.  His grandmother on his mum's side was a muggle, and she'd married a muggleborn.  His dad's side was pure for only a couple generations.  He'd taken Muggle Studies for all of one term before dropping it, confused and bored.  What drew him to a Wizarding Heritage Club? It was something like a What Am I Going To Do With My Life scenario.

"Is there food?" he asked

Tynan meandered in to the classroom, sticking somewhat to the back. Of course Eirene was here - he'd heard her chirpy 'impressing the teacher' voice from down the corridor and almost turned around.

But...he wanted to take O Morain's class so badly he could taste it, and well, this club or meeting was something he could actually identify with. Maybe it was because most of his close friends were Muggleborn, but Tynan wanted to hear about this stuff. He'd be able to identify with it and maybe his own family'd get mentioned. It'd help combat his homesickness, he hoped.

He found a chair to sit in, a little unsure of himself. He did, however, make a note to shoot Eirene a look - just to make it clear he was not here to brown-nose the Professor. That was her territory and frankly, Tynan did not need to stoop to such...whatever brown nosing was. Stupidity. That'd work.

"Bloody fykie," he muttered, as the boy near him piped up about food.

Eveline wasn't sure why she wanted to come to this meeting. As far back as she could recall, her parents...especially her mother...had harped on and on about what was expected of a well-bred girl from an old wizarding family. Which was nothing more exciting than to marry into some other  old wizarding family...one not too closely related of course...and raise more little Purebloods.

Somehow it seemed to have escaped the Chanceliers' notice that there had been a war about whether or not non-Purebloods should be allowed to become wizards, and that the Purists had lost. Not that her parents would ever admit to being Purists, of course. They would never have tolerated one of their offspring using the M-Word...that would have showed incredibly Bad Breeding.  They even said it was A Fine Thing for Muggle-b0rns to be acculturated into wizarding society. They just didn't want their daughter marrying one.

Eveline blushed slightly, thinking of that. It never occurred to her that the love of her life was anything but a Pureblood...but all the same, her parents would surely not approve of him. Ari was too old, too dodgy...and he'd been in Azkaban. If Eveline had been a bit more self-aware, she might have wondered which of those things appealed most to her. But being still rather young for her age, she just thought it was that he was so devilishly handsome...

She scooted in behind Sellaphix, feeling comfortable with him after their recent misadventure. She smiled when he asked if there was food. Somehow it didn't seem O'Morain's style to bribe people with refreshments. But while she wasn't exactly here to brown-nose the teacher...she was hoping she might end up a little on his better side than before. She still felt that Detention was more the fault of the idiot facilities manager than it was of the students. Honestly...the man was almost as bad as the stories she'd heard about Filch. Next he'd want to manacle students to the wall in the dungeon....

But...she'd decided O'Morain wasn't to blame either. And ever since that day...today included...she had dressed precisely to code. Black trousers, white blouse, House tie. Her boots were even polished.

She smirked a little at the chirrupy first year. Once upon a time she supposed even she must have sounded like that...

"What's a fykie?" she asked the other boy as she heard his comment. She'd seen him around before, but never up close. She cringed as she saw the scars; but she forced herself not to avert her eyes. That would only be adding insult to injury.

Declan smiled at the first year. She was, at least, enthusiastic. "Good morning, Miss Antonopoulos. And I'm very glad you did. Hopefully we'll see a few more coming in." He was glad that he didn't deal with first years in class. Not that there was anything inherently wrong with first years- they were just... special. "Find a seat and make yourself comfortable," he told her, motioning toward one of the smaller armchairs.

It wasn't long before a few more filtered into the room. The professor had to strain not to roll his eyes when Sellaphix asked if there was food. "This is not the great hall, Mr. Sellaphix," he said to the Hufflepuff. "This is a club meeting. If you would like a snack, I suggest looking elsewhere. However, if you're interested in hearing more about the wizarding heritage club- then you are welcome to stay."

He blinked when he saw the young MacFusty enter the room. Since he grew up on a magical creature farm, and this was his area of expertise, he was aware of the MacFusty clan and thei reputation. The boy's face was badly scarred, and he wondered if this was one of the first years that the Ravenclaw mentioned inviting. That first year was soon followed by Miss Chancelier- one of his least favorite students. The girl was hardly likeable, in Declan's opinion.

"I'm glad to see a few of you have decided to come see what the Wizard Heritage club is about. It's still early yet and I'd like to give stragglers a chance to find us." Odd, coming from Declan O Morain, because he did not tolerate tardiness in his classroom. But this was different, and he wanted to give everyone a chance. "Make yourselves comfortable and we'll get started soon."

Josh was the next to turn up, admittedly more to see what, exactly, the point of the club was than any particular need to find out about wizarding heritage. He knew the old traditions. looking around, he saw Antonopoulos was there, Fig was there, MacFusty was there and Chancelier was there. "hello Fig"Josh said, smiling at the...spirited hufflepuff's actions.

The blonde Hufflepuff who'd sat near him gave his face's scar a startled look, which Tynan did his best not to be annoyed at. He was used to it, mostly - though when he stumbled into the doors or beds at night, the snickers from his dorm mates still ticked him off.

Thankfully, his moment of annoyance didn't show on his face - mostly due to his perpetual thoughtful frown. He did shift away from her slightly, however.

Then she asked what a fykie was. He looked at her for a long moment, thinking of long winded explanations in his head, possibly with gestures - and then he looked at Eirene and nodded to himself. He frowned, then turned to Eveline and said with deadly seriousness, "A fykie is what Eirene is." He spoke just loud enough he knew Eirene would hear it.

Eirene wasn't sure why Figaro Sellaphix and Tynan MacFusty had invaded the room, because it seemed all Figaro cared about was food (maybe she should have brought that fruit basket) and Tynan was Tynan, and he would ruin everything. However, she smiled back at the professor and took a seat, like a good club member should.

Of course, two seconds later, Tynan said something foul and Eirene fidgeted in her chair, face pinched, trying not to react in front of the professor. But what if Eveline, the cool and collected Hufflepuff, believed him!

"Am not!" Eirene huffed at Tynan, turning around to glare at him.

"No one even knows what it means!" She whispered at Eveline in her defense. "He just makes up words! And no one can even understand what he says, most of the time! He should just stop talking," she decided, shooting another look at the boy.

Charles had been busy in the library, and so was later than his older brother to the Wizarding heritage Club. He came in just in time to hear Tynan and Eirene arguing. He groaned. this agian. there was alwasy some argument, normally with Eirene apparently being the one being wound up. She certianly tried to give as good as she got, but it was irritating to watch. "can you both knock it off? you don't have to bother each other here, and I hear Ó Móráin's strict." Charles said in exasperation, he got enough of this in class.

Oh god... was this a firsties club?  Figaro's stomach got instant indigestion at the thought he'd accidentally shown up for some 12-year-old patty-cakewalk.  They seemed to be multiplying by the moment, and getting shriller by the second.  Figaro didn't well know what a fykie was, but he did have enough sense to know what an Eirene Antonopoulis was. 

But no, there was Eveline.  And here was Josh.  "Lo, mate," he greeted as his friend from Gryffindor took a seat next to him.  His little brother Charlie trailed in afterwards, every bit the spitting image of Josh and just as... spirited.

Professor Ó Móráin's call to task was a mild one in comparison to the good professor's normal timbre, so Figaro didn't think much of it.  If there wasn't to be food, his attention span would just be shorter, that's all.  All the worse off for everyone else when he started getting antsy. 

"So, your family's wizarding how far back?" Figaro asked Josh.  "I've got a muggle cousin.  Met her a few times - she showed me her iPod.  's like a pebble that plays music.  So we're not purebloods anyway, but our shop's three generations old." 

He spoke casually, matter-of-factly, more to hear himself talk and to occupy the time than to really communicate.  He didn't get too fussed about blood stuff, although his cousin really was weird.

Tynan glared death at Eirene - a look he was quite apt to give, with his scars. His frown morphed into a scowl. While normally, he'd have argued out loud, he didn't want to get himself on O Morain's bad side, not now - from what he'd heard a year of school wouldn't be enough to repair any respect lost.

He crossed his arms instead and kept his tone quiet, measured, reasonable. "O' course, Harcroft," he told Charles. "This inna the place fer it, anyhow. I apologize, Antonopoulos," he added, nodding to Eirene. Brown-nosing? No, it wasn't. It was simply being smart. He'd just make it up later and embarrass her somehow, if she bugged him.

It was good Keegan and Mairead weren't here, though. They'd never have let him live it down.

"Professor O'Morain didn't say no one was allowed to talk while we're waiting," Eveline said mildly.

She didn't really mind First Years, though it wouldn't be good if this pair turned the meeting into an arguing match. Of course the way things had gone with SAWS last term, she supposed she ought to be used to that by now...

She glanced from Antonopoulos to McFusty and back . "I can understand what he says all right," she told Antonopoulos." I mean...it sounds different from what I'm used to, but then I didn't learn to speak English myself until I was nine years old, so everyone here sounds different to me."

She still  wasn't sure what a fykie was, but having watched Antonopoulos in action she could guess. In French the word was enquiquineur. In English it was fussbudget.

Then again...until they got Detention together, her cousin Bella had always thought the same thing about Eveline. So...there might yet be hope for Antonopoulos...

He watched as both Harcrofts entered the room. The youngest one seemed as much as a Gryffindor as his elder brother- and promptly told the other first years to stop being obnoxious. "If you're only here to pick fights. Mr. MacFusty, I will dock points and send you on your way," Declan said- reiterating the younger Harcroft's point about his strictness.

But it seemed that the younger boy was already apologizing, and he gave Eirene what he hoped was an encouraging glance, just wanting them to stop bickering.

But of course Chancelier had to put in her two knuts worth. "I did not say there was not alking, however- if I must make a list of every little thing you should or should not do, then perhaps attendance to this club isn't the place for the witches and wizards who need that. Although they are only first years, it should be common sense not to pick fights with another student in front of the deputy headmaster."

He cleared his throat loudly then. "Alright everyone- settle down," he called out. "I suppose we can get started with the basics, and the others can catch on as they come into the meeting."

"First- I would like to assure all of you that I do not have a purist agenda with this group. Although purebloods are welcome and encouraged to participate, I would very much like to see halfbloods and muggleborns getting involved as well. My hope with establishing a Wizarding Heritage Club is to enlighten young witches and wizards about the history and evolution of wizarding culture- the main goal being to encourage healthy relationships and interactions between witches and wizards of all blood backgrounds."

Eirene looked disappointed, bordering on crushed, when Eveline seemed to side with Tynan. And by side, she meant that Eveline wasn't being extra nice to her or pointing out Tynan's horrible misdeeds to the professor. Charles commented on their behavior, and Eirene's expression quickly turned annoyed as she glanced at him and stuck her nose in the air.

Then Tynan apologized!

She was skeptical of his sudden change in tone, but after a pause announced, "I accept your apology."

Though the professor didn't give her house points, he did at least look at her, so she sat up straighter in her seat and smiled at him. When he started the meeting, she began making notes on parchment, underlining the words 'not purist', and nodding in agreement. 'Purist' was almost a bad word. Of course they wouldn't be anything like that.

Eirene wasn't sure she understood what he was talking about, however. Halfbloods were alright, but did they really want muggleborns at a wizarding heritage meeting? If Tynan brought Mairead to the next one, she could just imagine those two sitting in back and chanting 'fykie' at her.