Hecate closed the potions lab to the children and posted a sign on the door that read

"POTIONS LAB CLOSED - RETURN TOMORROW"

She struck all the regular equipment, and made up the potions lab into a dining room. A large table covered with a pretty old fashioned tablecloth. A present from her first marriage. The china was bone, Royal Albert, Caroline... antique... really very pretty. A gift from her second marriage. And the crystal was Waterford. As was the silver. Another gift from her second marriage. For all her yelling at students for her classes not being cooking class, Hecate was a talented cook. She cooked artichokes, stuffing them with cubes of Italian bread, garlic, oregano, parsley, parmegiano, romano and pecorino cheeses melted on top and drizzling olive oil over them. As a first course, a light cream base sauce with caramelized onion, mushrooms and peas, over a straw pasta she made from scratch. Her second course was as beautiful to look at as it probably was tasty. A crown rack of lamb, stuffed with candied grapes, and accompanied by roasted baby carrots, new potatoes, cauliflower and asparagus. This way is anyone was a vegetarian, they could still have a full meal. Dessert was a decadent chocolate mouse, served with strawberries and topped with whipped cream. On the table were a few lemons, salt and pepper, some mint pesto, a light gravy, shredded cheese, fresh baked bead and plenty of elf-made wine as well as two pitchers of water.

This better go well...

Lexi really, really felt as if she shouldn't be here. After all, this little 'date' was the dinner Sage and Hecate had been planning for what seemed like months, and Lexi just knew she'd end up feeling like a third wheel. Not only that, she'd likely be miserable watching Sage and Hecate dine together. For some reason, when she was around both of them, she always ended up really moody.

So it was with a soft sigh that she knocked on the lab door, gently pushing it open a moment later. Oh--lovely. She was the first to arrive, with no one else in the lab except for Hecate. Lexi knew she should have stopped by Sage's quarters and waited for him first. Clearing her throat, she said, "Good evening, Hecate. The place looks lovely!"

She could at least be polite, couldn't she? She practically willed Sage to come along soon, though.

Try as she might the 'Oh. It's you' face that came over her, was hard to hide. "Lexi..." she said with a smile. "Have a seat... please. Pour yourself a drink. We ladies are obviously always on time."

Why was he doing this?

Why hadn't he packed a few important supplies and emigrated to Australia already? Or why hadn't he simply told Hecate he didn't want to do this anymore, like Lexi had told him to? Easy. He just didn't have the courage.

So here he was. Palms already sweating nervously as he approached the Potions laboratory.

It was just dinner with a few colleagues, right? Completely normal. At least he and Hecate weren't going to be alone ...

"Uhm... hi," the Herbology professor squeaked as he slowly pushed open the door and edged on in. He'd been dreading this dinner for months.

Hecate smiled as she saw him. "Sage..." She said approaching him at the door and grabbing his arm and pulling him in. She would have probably kissed him had Lexi not been there. "Please, let me pour you a drink, you will sit at the head of the table, next to me..." she said "at the other end Lexi will be beside Risu. I hope you don't mind, he couldn't stop talking about you Lex... he's really quite fond of you." So maybe she embellished a bit...

Well, then...

Hecate sure did look pleased to see that Lexi had arrived. Yeah, right. Lexi nodded just once then turned to take a seat. Suddenly, she felt really uncomfortable, and she eyed the door in hopes that Sage would arrive sometime soon. Although, she sort of still thought that he may apparate to another country as a means of hiding out until this evening was over and done with.

"Oh, thank you," she finally replied, eying the pitcher of water. "I think I'll take some water." She started to pour some into a glass but stopped short when the door opened...

...and Sage walked in.

Lexi tried to smile at him. Really, she did. It was hard to be happy for him, though, when she imagined that he was actually rather miserable right about now. Any other time, she'd be happy for someone who was out on a 'first date'. "Hey, Sage," she said, as she forced herself to give him a small smile. She thought that doing so just might make him a little more comfortable than he appeared to be.

Her natural instinct was to break into random conversation with him, but it was sort of hard to do so considering this was his date with Hecate. She didn't really see an easy way to converse with him while he was technically with Hecate, so she returned her attention to the water and said nothing else.

That is, until Hecate happened to mention the fact that Risu was coming--and apparently sitting at the opposite end of the table with Lexi! "Uhh, what?" she asked, thinking she just may have not heard the woman correctly. It sort of sounded as if Hecate had tried to set this up as a double date, with Lexi dating Risu.

"R--Risu's coming?" she asked. As my date? "I...okay. Well, umm, Risu seems like a really nice person." Lexi casted a what-in-Merlin's-name glance in Sage's direction. Surely he hadn't known about this little set-up. He'd have told her, right? "We haven't had the chance to actually hold conversations with one another yet, but...I guess there's a first time for everything..."

So now she fully understood just why she was invited along. Great.

So, Risu was a bit late. He'd underestimated just how long it would take him to find the Potions Laboratory. Of course, as a student he'd been forced to attend Potions many times, but while the memory of a pair of signed eyebrows was hard to shake off, the location of that unfortunate incident seemed to be long-forgotten.

And thus he'd wandered around for a good five minutes, trying not to look lost when students passed. Most of them were, of course, Slytherin, and he had a sneaking suspicion they had figured him out. They were smart kids.

He reached the wooden door to the Laboratory. He could hear murmuring behind it, so there were people there already. Such a shame Avery couldn't make it - he would have liked to introduce her to some of his colleagues. Perhaps another time, he thought, knocking briskly twice and opening the door.

Against his expectations (after all, what kind of place for a dinner was the Laboratory), Hecate had fixed it up nicely. "Good evening, Hecate, er... Lexi." He decided just to go for her first name. She had an oddly expectant look on her face anyway. "Hello, Sage." He smiled happily at all of them. "How are you?"

She could smell no roses... Just like Risu, to forget what she told him. Red Roses Risu... how hard is that... She quietly and discretely send an orchideus charm to Risu's hand... which was conveniently held behind his back.

Eli walked up to the door of the potions lab, noticing the sign said the lab was closed. But he was certain he had seen the potions mistress enter the room, and it wasn't like he wanted to brew something, so...

He knocked on the door and waited for her to answer it.

As Risu reached behind himself to give the door a shove to close it, something slightly odd happened. Instead of the rough wooden texture he'd expected, his hand was suddenly full of flowers. That made him pause - he'd have thought that his spontaneous-magic phase was nearly forty years behind him now.

Instead of just pushing the door shut, he turned around, pretending to close it more carefully. This gave him the opportunity to inspect the flowers. Of course, he wouldn't put it past himself to forget he was bringing a bouquet with him, but... red roses? No, that wouldn't happen. There was only one person who had recently been the recipient of those.

With a puzzled look on his face (it wouldn't be until later that Risu remembered about the Orchideous charm), he looked around for some place to put them. As it happened, this turned out to be Lexi, who was sitting on the chair closest to him. He handed her the bundle of flowers rather carefully. "Er... A vase, perhaps?"

"How nice Risu... I'm sure Lexi appreciates these... and Red, her being the new Gryffindor head of house, how thoughtful." She said and turned to Sage... "what is it that Roses mean in the language of flowers?" Oh... she knew...

Hecate's head whipped to the child entering. "Master Jarod, unless this is an emergency, the lab is closed until tomorrow. If you need remedial reading classes, do go see the headmaster or your head of house." She said and waited for him to speak.

Eli stopped short - apparently this was some sort of weird Professors event, like a dinner party of something. Maybe it was a potion tasting thing? Straaaange. Ooh, and the Charming Professor was there. Why were all the girl professors so pretty?

But LaFlame had spoken to him. "No, ma'am, I wasn't going to brew anythng, and I can read really well, I even won an award for most books read at our town library last summer. I just saw you come in here and I wanted to talk to y-- is that lamb?" his mouth began to water as he smelled Delicious Food in the air. "It smells like when my mom cooks lamb. I miss it..." and her. He looked down, scuffing his toe, wishing he could join them. He loooooooved lamb. And he was technically dressed for the occassion- after all, he was wearing a tie.

"Master Jarod, this is a private meeting." She looked over to Sage... ok... so sending a knockback jinx on the kid would look bad... "Look... I'll send you some of the leftovers to your room with a house elf. You can have some lamb then..." she said and looked at him as if to say: 'Now Gooooo!' and helped him out of the lab. Closing the door behind him.

Too much was happening at once.

Hecate was going on about seating arrangements. At a dinner he didn't want to be attending. Risu was here. Apparently as Lexi's 'date.' Had she invited him...? Heck, he'd even brought along flowers for her. Red roses.

"The red rose," Sage mumbled, feeling his ears turn redder than the flowers in question, "symbol of love and beauty." He conveniently avoided Lexi's gaze at the statement and instead eyed the hideous china while Hecate seemed to be dealing with a student..

"Well, it's nice of you to join us, Risu.." he cleared his throat and shuffled his feet uncomfortably. Honestly.. this whole mess was the Astronomy professor's fault. Who was it that had set him and Hecate up at the alumni ball last term? Yes, Risu.

Hmph.

Well, Lexi just couldn't be rude to Risu, now could she? It wasn't like this whole dinner date thing was his idea. Or was it? Hmm, probably not. Lexi and Risu barely even knew one another, so she imagined that he had been invited much in the same way she had--to believe he was coming alone then to find out he had a surprise date upon arrival. "Risu, how are you?" Lexi replied, giving him a polite smile. If nothing else, they could actually use this 'dinner date' as a means of actually properly introducing themselves to one another. It was funny how they could work on staff at the same school for two years, yet never actually talk.

That is, until things became a bit awkward when Risu handed her a bouquet of red roses. Wasn't red the color for... Oh, nevermind. Lexi tried not to think along those lines but instead gave her 'date' a small smile then conjured a vase to put the roses in. "I...uhh, thanks...thank you, Risu," she managed to say. Exactly what was going on here, hmm? Lexi had a feeling Hecate was behind some of this, if not all of it.

...and of course Hecate just had to bring up the color of the roses. Lexi sort of hoped no one actually knew the meaning of red roses, but Sage was a Herbologist, of course he'd know. She sort of eyed Hecate then turned her attention to Sage. Please don't bring it up, she tried to say to him.

Or not.

Lexi's face turned the same color red Sage's usually did when he got in awkward and embarrassing situations. She could almost see her ears burning red, too. Although, she may have just been over-imagining things and may not be as red as Sage tended to get, after all. She said nothing in reply to the whole love and beauty talk. Sage wasn't even looking her way anymore, for some reason. Love and beauty weren't exactly his two favorite things to talk about, she knew.

Oh, good. Topic change. Lexi perked up a little, glad to be talking about something else other than those red roses. "Yes, it's nice of you to join us, Risu. Did, uhh...Hecate invite you along, as well?" she asked.

"I did." Hecate said looking over to Lexi. Didn't she tell her she hoped she didn't mind, and all that stuff about the talking and the being fond of her? "Please set, I don't like the warming charms over the food for too long... it takes from the real flavor." She served the artichoke, one on each plate, and then said "I tried to keep the meal vegetarian friendly, if any of you are... If you don't eat the lamb, I won't be offended and Jarod will have more." She said with a nervous laugh.

Sage quickly took a seat. At the head of the table where Hecate had instructed him to. He didn't really want to sit.. he wanted to get out of this laboratory sharpish. His knees though, were starting to feel awfully weak with nerves and he DID feel slightly better sitting.

Just slightly.

He was still a nervous wreck.

"Oh, this looks great.. 'specially the lamb," he said out of politeness, eyeing the artichoke on his plate. "You're a natural chef." Why was he paying her compliments!? She'd probably laced it with poison..

He was never going to see the light of day again... never tend for his flowers again...

Eli was not altogether shocked at the fact that he wasn't asked to stay; clearly this fancy repast wasn't meant for lowly students. Oh well, that was life. He had wished that he could have spoken to LaFlame in the presence of other professors, though. She would be less likely to kill him in front of her colleagues.

There was no way he would eat their leftovers, though. She would probably poison it. She pushed him out the door, and he could not help but shudder... ew, she TOUCHED him with her Evil Hands! And with that, the door was unceremoniously slammed in his face. He shoved his hands in his pockets and left the corridor.

Oh, that's right. Lexi had grown so awkward and nervous in the past five minutes that she'd completely forgotten that Hecate had told her she'd invited Risu along. Get it together, Carlton. It's just a dinner with colleagues. "Oh, that's right. I seemed to have forgotten that you mentioned it," she said, possibly turning a bit brighter shade of red as she spoke.

With some of her food now in front of her, Lexi tried to distract herself by glancing down at the artichoke. She wasn't sure if she'd like the big green dish or not, so she experimentally poked her fork into it, finally pulling out a small piece a moment later.

It was alright. Maybe it'd be an acquired taste. "Oh, it's great, Hecate," she politely said, turning toward the hostess with a smile.

...and then, she fell into something that had almost become too natural--conversation with Sage. "Oh, Sage, won't you come by my office in the next day or two? I need a little help naming that ferret I was telling you about. The one I got for my birthday," she said, doing as she normally did and having random conversation with him.

Only, a second later she sort of remembered what kind of setting she was in, and she glanced nervously away and looked at her food again. "I mean, umm...this artichoke is really good, Hecate," she said again. "Wouldn't you agree, Risu?"

Awkward date talk. Ugh.

"Thank you," She said with a soft smile to Sage... "I enjoy cooking, it relaxes me." She added and then turned to Lexi. Really? She was asking Sage to her office? Really? To name a ferret? Eww... "How old if your ferret?" Yes... lets talk about this looooong rat...

When Lexi started rambling on about her ferret, Sage felt himself relax ever so slightly. "Oh, of course! I'd love to meet the little critter!" He exclaimed spearing at his artichoke and giving it a taste. Hecate might've been on the scary side, but she apparently had many talents in the kitchen.

This put his little picnic in the student gardens last term to shame.

He hadn't been to an awful lot of dinner parties but had the vague feeling discussing ferrets over the dinner table wasn't entirely customary. Anything to distract Hecate though. And besides, it beat talking about red roses and what they symbolised.

Oh, thank Merlin!

Lexi breathed a sigh of relief as she realized that the mention of her new ferret had taken the attention off other things--like red roses, love, and beauty. Sure, Lexi loved all three of those things, but...they all seemed sort of out of place right now. Even more so than the ferret talk, and that was saying a lot.

How old was her ferret, though? Umm... "Actually, I'm not really sure. My birthday was only a few days ago, and one of the students surprised me with it. They'd heard how much I'd been wanting one," she answered, looking at Hecate as she talked. Now this was the type of conversation Lexi could sit through. Hopefully there would be no more mentions of red roses and love.

Lexi smiled and nodded when Sage mentioned that he'd love to meet her new ferret. Now? she wanted to ask, but she didn't figure that would go over too well. So instead, she, too, turned back to her artichoke and distracted herself with it once again.

Sage seemed to be enjoying dinner... good. Lexi was fixated on the rat... "I'd be very careful around the teeth... they are razor sharp. Even the most domesticated ferret will turn on it's master if it feels inferior... or about to be stepped on..." She said and continued with the artichoke.

Pets seemed to be a safe subject. Hadn't they spoken about pets back in the staff room over summer too? Lexi's little dog, Prince Charming and Hecate's creepy looking cat, Mephisto... Apparently the Potions Mistress wasn't a fan of ferrets. Razor sharp teeth!?

"So how was your birthday?" Sage asked, table manners thrown out of the window as he spoke up with a mouth full of artichoke. Yeah, he REALLY hadn't been to many dinner parties. "I'm sorry I didn't get you a gift.." he probably should've. Even one of the students had remembered!