After a long walk around the grounds, Callidora found herself in the kitchen, sitting on the ground near the fireplace. She was fairly sure she wasn't really suppose to be in the kitchen, and wasn't suppose to be sitting in front of the fireplace, but there she was.

Rubbing her hands together, because they were cold from her long adventure, Callie bent her knees to her chest and crossed her arms over them. She had originally wanted ice cream, though she was already frosty, and had remembered she needed to send a letter off to Delphi and Nathan - though that had yet to happen either, - before planting herself where she was now.

The letter could wait. And the ice cream was being debated on.

Lawson didn't really have much to do. And with his mind racing to many places and mainly back to London, the seventeen year old decided to walk. Walking always helped him get distracted - it was his just his thing, you know?

But apparently that too was not helping - his mind kept going back to where it was not allowed to go.

He had been pacing for a while now and that was when he noticed a new person come into his sight. Lawson contemplated and just then decided to do it. He marched forward and spoke: "Hello."

He needed distraction. D I S T R A C T I O N could also be a girl.

Callidora heard the somewhat loud footsteps behind her, and didn't bother to turn. It definitely wasn't a House Elf, because they were practically silent at all times (in her experience, atleast) and she didn't know a whole lot of students. Just Schuyler, really.

And that probably wasn't her, behind her, because she wasn't heavy enough to make those footfall noises, and there were way too many students to count around the castle so the chances were slim.

"Hello back," Callie said, turning her head a bit to look over her shoulder at her fellow peer. It was a boy. A random one, that she hadn't seen before. Hufflepuff, by the looks of his robe. And she barely knew what a Hufflepuff was. Was he going to mention how new she was, too? .. "Please don't say something like you must be new here, blah blah blah. I know it's probably written across my forehead in some ink only invisible to me, but I've gotten enough of it by now."

Blink.

"No. I was most certainly not going to say that," he told her truthfully. "I was just wondering if I could start a conversation with you," Lawson added, "I am bored, you see," he finished, his shoulders shrugging lightly.

Honesty? Good approach.

Oh. Good.

Start a conversation with her? Well, that was a weird approach. "I'm not all that interesting, but go ahead." Callidora gestured toward the piece of floor next to her. Sit? If he wanted. She didn't particularly mind either way, but she was not going to continue staring over her shoulder, or up at all. She was going to get a cramp in her neck.

"My name's Callidora, by the way. Callidora Suvari." And he could feel free to call her whatever he liked, like most did. IF she cared for him at all, of course. If not, this would be the shortest conversation of her life.

He didn't understand why would she need to tell him she was not interesting. Wasn't he suppose to decide that? So far, his interest was holding.

"Callidora. Nice name," he commented, sitting down beside her. "What does it mean?" Yep. He wanted to sit. "I am Lawson Knight," he introduced himself, after settling down.

Nice, or strange. It was debatable most days. "Thanks," She finally said after a moment, because yes, her mother did raise her to have manners. He wanted to know what her name meant? That was a first. He wasn't one of those name nerds, was he? One of those people who could tell you what your name meant off the top of their head, except names like hers. The different ones.

"Gift of beauty." Callidora answered, not having to remind herself of the meaning but knowing it by heart. "Well, what brings you to this quiet corner of the kitchen, Lawson Knight?"

Gift of beauty.

Wow.

Lawson wasn't sure what to say to that. But he had expected something like this to be the meaning of her name. Her name had just that kind of feel to it. Her next question made his mind rushing back to what he was running from again. "I just ... was walking. And I was bored."

Was that a valid reply?

"And you?"

"It's Greek," Callidora informed him, casually. She was half-Greek, and left that out because it was probably obvious by now between her looks and her name, and if it wasn't, that was great too. "My mum picked it because of the meaning."

Because she was her mum's gift of beauty, or so her mum had been telling her since as far back as she could remember.

Callidora was careful to ignore the feeling in her chest, the hurt and longing - and kept completely normal on the outside.

She missed her mum.

"So you said," Callidora pointed out, before shrugging her shoulders. She wasn't really sure how she felt about him talking to her simply because he was bored, but then.. didn't most people do that? "Boredom as well. And I wanted ice cream."

Greek? Oh. He liked it. He nodded idly when she told him about her mum naming her.

He wondered of another name - and how it was completely randomly picked out and with not much consideration.

Focus on d i s t r a c t i o n.

"What kind of ice cream are you getting?" he asked, suddenly feeling the need of going and getting her one.

What kind of ice cream? "I don't know," Callidora admitted, looking back at the fire for a moment. She didn't even know what kind of ice cream Hogwarts had, if any. "I guess that depends."

And truthfully, she wasn't sure she wanted ice cream anymore. Ice cream would just melt if she continued sitting by the toasty warm fire, which she still wasn't confident she was suppose to be sitting in front.

Foods for studentsies! Soups and pies and potatoes cooked in 52 different ways for all the students to enjoy! Soon though, because, as Algamus said, dinner was soon, and they couldn't let the poor dear students get hungry, no no no!

Argyle was making leak and potato soup first, and with another click of her fingers the ingredients she needed separated themselves from her big vegetable cloud in the air and from around the kitchen and all came together in a cooking cauldron. Argyle put that cauldron over the fire and began tending to it whilst she readied other ingredients. She liked to be a good elf, and those studentsies needed feeding after the elfsies hadn't been around to cook nice meals for them last term!

"Delicious soups for studentsies! Argyle loves to cook for the little dears, she does," the old elf muttered happily to herself as she worked.

Curious as always, Tora wanted to see what a house elf actually looked like. She had seen pictures of course, but had never actually seen one. In real life. What were they like? Were they mean? Were they nice? Were they like humans in that they were both mean and nice? She didn't know. So she went to the one place where she knew she could find one (or several). Last year she didn't want to bother the single elf working there because she felt that she would be a nuisance, but with the Hogwarts elf population back, she thought that she could pay them a visit.

Knocking politely on the kitchen doorframe before stepping inside she gave a big smile at the smell of good things cooking. "Um hello," she said aloud to no one in particular. "I was curious and just wanted to meet you guys. How are you?" she asked, staying by the door just in case. She didn't know where she would be out of the way or where she was allowed to go in the kitchen. Maybe the house elves could tell her.