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Harlynn’s nudge had the effect desired as Echo settled back down, refusing to let any more emotion show. Yari evidently didn't get the same message, sobbing unbecomingly into Echo’s shoulder. Echo nudged Yari pointedly, but didn’t pull away, taking her other hand and holding it tightly under the table.

The Sorting ended soon after that, as though even the professors recognized how cruel tearing Milan from them was and wanted to get the whole thing over with. Food sprung up on the plates before them. Echo was distracted for a moment by the feast of smells but her expression quickly frowned again. Yari seemed to have a similar thought. Echo wondered if she could protest the unjust sorting by refusing to eat. This had happened in history, where monks would starve themselves to protest an unjust government. Echo Angharad was certainly no monk, but aside from being dreadfully dull, the monk aesthetic seemed at least effective. ”Throwing food is positively barbaric, Yari,” Echo chided. ”That said, I must refuse as well. In protest.”

Refusing food didn’t mean refusing drink through, and she reached for the goblet. She had expected sparkling water, but was instead surprised when the goblet filled with a light chocolate scene--chocolate milk! She sipped daintily and turned to the two first years that had introduced themselves: Daphne and Benji, was it?

”Pardon me dear,” Echo Anghard said, flashing a polite if patronizing smile. ”Yes, I’m sure the year will be plenty of...fun. Our family is magical, yes...oh honey, you’re in for an absolute...delight then.” Oh great. She’d have to put up with Daphne getting excited over every little thing. Look, this thing levitated! Daphne probably still squealed over her wand, silly girl Not to say Echo didn’t smile a little every time she felt that familiar warmth from her wand.

Echo was about to ask about Daphne’s family and interests--exactly how vapid was this girl-- when Benji casually interjected with ”Say, are you guys triplets or something?”

”Quadruplets,” Echo snapped immediately, turning a thin smile on the boy. ”And yes, the three of us are identical, unless you have some other explanation for how we three have the same age, last name, and face?” Her sentence turned up at the end, as though it were a genuine question, but her glare was cold and challenging. She raised an eyebrow over her goblet for effect, daring the boy to do anything but apologize.

The Sorting Feast had poor memories for Echo Angharad. A year ago this day, her quadruplets were separated by a stupid piece of oily headwear. Thankfully, there didn’t seem to be much qualms with Milan sitting at the Slytherin table, and the girls often kicked their roommate out to have weekly gossip meetings.

Still, Echo Angharad chose a spot on the Ravenclaw-side of the Slytherin table. She didn’t care to watch more people get screwed over, and wanted to instead spend the time reviewing her notes from pre-reading this year’s textbooks. ”Harlynn, would you like Potions notes instead of listening to that rubbish dunce hat?” She also handed a set of notes to Yari, chiding quietly ”At least look over the first two weeks of material, Yari. I won’t be responsible if you get confused by Transfiguration in the first week. Honestly it’s very basic.”.

She couldn’t possibly let it be known that Echo Angharad Wellbelove studied for her straight Os though, much less studied diligently behind closed doors. Thus, she instead flipped through the latest issue of Witch Weekly, frowning whenever she disagreed with an article or found something unfashionable. She did occasionally lean over to ask Harlynn what she thought of a design before assiduously making notes on those.

Echo did finally relent when the feast started. Last year she hadn’t partaken out of protest of Milan’s sorting. This time, she started again with a sip of her chocolate milk as she surveyed the feast, looking to see what there was. She looked up, searching for a certain third year student she had good experiences with towards the end of the year, but instead locked eyes with one Daphne Greensborough. Ah. Yes. Their….unfortunate space-sharer. ”Daphne, how... lovely to see you again, hon. I trust you had a satisfactory summer? Also pass me the lemon asparagus, would you? There’s a dear.”

Summer had kept Echo quite busy, thank you. She had entirely missed two nannies– no big loss– due to spending most of her time studying in preparation for the upcoming school year. She was very nearly done reading through at least the first half of the material for all her classes. Echo was…exhausted.

But it was the first day back! And they were starting electives this year! Milan was going to give the Daily Dragon a makeover. And in just a few days, Echo would be back out with the Order of the Stick, ready to whack someone in costume. Anyways, the point was there were things to be excited about and things to be nervous about this year.

It was the first year the feast didn’t seem…weird. She was still upset at the troll-hat for separating Milan from his quadruplets, but as he had proved, they wouldn’t let the opinion of one piece of scrap-cloth determine their interactions.

As she smoothed her skirt out in preparation for the Sorting Feast–Echo found herself sitting next to Daphne Greenborough. Not even a few seats down, but next to. Ah. She thought she might have a few hours before they ran into their unfortunate roommate. ”Oh Daphne, good evening darling. How was your summer? I see you got a new haircut?” Echo turned a closer eye on the girl. Her face seemed…even more ugh than usual. With a dainty hand on her immaculately ironed tie, Echo lowered her voice in a gasp. ”My goodness, my dear, you look…swollen. And your skin and eyes. Whatever happened to you?”

Daphne mumbled a reply, earning a disapproving frown from Echo. At least Daphne used to be able to articulate her words, however pointless they were. She covered her mouth as she replied, only making Echo more suspicious. ”Do speak clearly, my dear. Did you develop a lisp or something over the last three months alone?”

My, my Echo knew that Daphne’s childhood and home life was surrounded by muggles, but she hadn’t thought that Daphne would lose her ability to speak in just a few months! ” My summer was exactly fine, my dear,” Echo replied. ”Were you able to sign up for the electives you wanted without trouble?”

Daphne lisped that she wasn’t lisping, then sighed, seemingly resigned. She set her hands in her lap and admitted her mum had gone on a shelf-care journey–what did the cabinetry have to do with her sudden inability to speak?--and which led invariably to getting braces. And without her hand to cover the offending wires, Echo noticed the little bands of purple and blue in Daphne’s teeth.

Echo chuckled heartily, but not so loudly as to disturb the relative quiet of the Sorting going on. ”Oh sweetie, why so much hemming and hawing over a few wires? Granted it is surprising you’ve finally decided to work on yourself, but it’s hardly shameful. Now let me see you.” she tapped the smaller girl’s shoulder. ”Purple and blue. Not a terrible combination, I suppose. And the lisp means this installation was quite recent?”

Echo flashed Daphne a smile. ”A touch of foundation and blush will have you looking tragic as usual. And if you’d let us work some actual magic on you, we might even be able to do something lovely.” Oh this was exciting! Was Daphne finally recognizing the power of fashion and looking good?