........

Was it bad that she'd elected to not attend dinner on her first proper day back at school? Was it even worse if she admitted that, right now, she didn't care? Charlie couldn't decided, but was sliding towards the 'yes' answer. Especially to the not caring: she just couldn't deal with the people. All of the people. So many people.

Yet not the people she wanted to be eating with. She wanted some Caterina Moretti meals in her life, again, please and thank you. And holding hands with Tristan at the dinner table. And all the good stuff that came with not being at school.

For now, though, however hungry her body was telling her that she wasn't, Charlie decided that it was best to go and get food, anyway. Hence being in the Kitchen probably very close to or after curfew and making herself a sandwich. They totally counted as a full meal, right? So she could have fudge, too?

Okay, so, there was food and party things in the common room, but Phoenix was in search of lemonade. So he'd announced to everyone that he'd be back in a moment, and then come down to the kitchen, getting himself thoroughly lost on the way.

But he was here now, and he looked around, a huge grin on his face. FOOD! This is where all the FOOD lived. Awesome. But did they have lemonade? Phe hoped so...

Ooooooooh there was someone else in here. "Hey!" Phoenix gave a quick wave, his eyes still searching for... a fridge or something. "D'you know where they keep the drinks in here?"

This was a serious lemonade craving he had going on. It needed satisfying.

After finishing sandwich making (with the help of lots of cheese and lettuce), Charlie pulled herself up onto the counter and began picking at the crusts of the bread. She knew she should eat, but she wasn't in the mood. Hunger struck at the stupidest of times. And there was a voice. A person. Something she couldn't really be bothered with. Not that she'd show it, of course, unless he really got annoying.

"Hi," she managed, smiling back and nodding in response to the wave. And he was in search of drinks? "Erm, there," she added, pointing in the direction of what we're assuming is the magically made cold cupboard, whilst swinging her legs about a bit. "They have pretty much everything. If you can't find what you want, ask an elf."

They're probably go out of their way to get if for you, too.

Ah, awesome. "Thanks!" He bounced over to the cupboard and looked inside it. Leeeemonade lemonade lemonade... Hmmm... There was pumpkin juice... but nothing fizzy looking... which sucked. Did wizards not drink fizzy drinks? Were they not magical enough? WHAT WASN'T MAGICAL ABOUT THE AWESOMENESS OF SUGARY, CARBONATED JUICE SYRUPS, HMM??? "Elves..." Phe paused. "Well, I always thought it was unnecessary if you could do something yourself." You know, he didn't want to bother the poor things. They already had hundreds of students to look after... why bother them about lemonade...

HE REALLY WANTED SOME THOUGH.

"You okay? Down here on your own and all?" He didn't get why people did the whole... lonesome thing. He liked to be around people and activity and friends and affection. In fact, he was kind of itching to get back to the party, but he liked to see people happy. "There's a party in the Gryffindor common room, bet you could come if you're bored..." Unless she WAS a Gryffindor? He figured probably not, or he'd have recognised her from the feast... or... something... right?

"We can't really do much ourselves, though." Charlie just had to go and be a smart alec about that, didn't she? She didn't even know the boy, and perhaps she was turning out to be the annoying one. "It's not possible for us to go out and get food whenever we need it, let alone have everyone cook for themselves - imagine how full the kitchen would get!" And her little place of sanctuary would be doomed. She wasn't going to mention that she did indeed come here and have Cat cook for her cook for herself fairly often, though. "Besides, the elves really enjoy helping us.

She wasn't quite sure why, though.

The Ravenclaw raised her eyebrows a bit - maybe, from the seemingly hyper attitude she should have guessed he was a Lion, but nevertheless. "Sweet of you, but no thanks. The 'Claws are having one, too, but I'm not in the mood for mattress surfing." And she didn't exactly know any Gryffindors, bar Lex, so that probably woulda been hella awkward.

"Oh, yeah, I meant, y'know, like now." He grabbed a bottle from the cupboard and held it up. He could look after himself in this moment, if not always. "I don't get why they enjoy helping us so much though, I mean, helping people is great and all... but... so's self care, y'know?" He was all talky, sorry world. It was the whole party.

Soooo she was a Ravenclaw, cool. "Wait, mattress surfing?" Phe brightened a little. "Aww, we don't get to do that." he said, a tiny sad tone to his voice. "We've got s'mores though..." Which was fantastic. "Want me to leave you to it?" She seemed to be doing the lone brooding thing...

And she'd already managed to become the awkward one. Charlie managed to hold back a blush as she moved her sandwich around the plate. "Oh, right. Well, did you find what you were looking for?" Because clearly that was the make or break as to whether or not they all needed the help they got offered. She shrugged a little at the mention of helping people. "It's their nature, and nurture, isn't it? They're natural helpers, and they're raised to be so. I'm sure there's an angry rogue elf around somewhere that'd rather you waited on them."

Heh. That would, actually, be quite amusing. Maybe Charlie would find said creature: there was always an anomaly in a bunch, wasn't there? Chance. "Yeah, mattress surfing." Nod nod, well done for listening. "What're s'mores?" The question was out before Charlie even knew she was asking it, but never mind - the kid could think whatever he wanted about her, for she'd be gone in a year.

"I don't mind. I expect you want to get back to your party." If he wanted to stay, he could. She was actually enjoying the company of just one person.

Phoenix rarely noticed awkward situations. He didn't get himself into them very often, what with him being totally cluelessadaptable to any situation. "Yep, nectar of the gods." He tapped the bottle of lemonade, a big smile on his face. "I want to meet this rogue elf." Phe's brain whirred a little as he imagined a little house elf with a mohawk and a bunch of piercings and a pillow case with a punk band on it... That'd be so cool.

"S'mores? They're like... biscuit, melted chocolate, melted marshmallow, biscuit." He motioned the layer-age with his hands. "Kinda like diabetes in a sandwich. They're delicious." And awesome. And he was going to eat at least another three before he went to bed later tonight.

Back to the party... or cheer up someone who was looking lonely... or maybe she wanted to be left alone? But she said she didn't mind. Phe wasn't really sure... "I guess I should get back... I told them I'd only be a minute, but I got lost on the way down here." He still had to get back upstairs without losing himself again... at least he had lovely lemonade this time.

'Nectar of the gods'. Well, that was a bit of an exaggeration, but it made Charlie laugh a little bit, all the same. "I think I prefer orangeade, to be honest with you." After taking a look at the label, she felt he had to be informed. Especially that Muggle stuff, Fanta, that her sister seemed to stock the house with. Mm. "I doubt he's working here, but I'm sure if you hunt hard enough, you'll find him." A good start might be the Department of Magical Creatures - she was sure that there would be a record of an odd elf in their paperwork, somewhere. She had an image of a house elf in a manor, now - everything elf sized, being served by humans.

Hehe.

"Biscuit, chocolate and marshmallow?" She repeated, frown clearing a little as he motioned to the layers. She laughed again at the idea of diabetes in a sandwich, and shook her head a little bit. "It sounds like something I should avoid." And before he thought that she was some diet paranoid chick which she actually was it was more her teeth she was concerned about - it sounded like the kind of thing you couldn't just have one of.

Got lost. Wow, Charlie remembered that time well. "You're new here, then?" And a Gryffindor, he had mentioned that, hadn't he. "I could show you the way back to the seventh floor, if you wanted." Save him getting lost again, and actually make sure she didn't just sleep in the kitchen overnight.

"Yeah? I just love lemonade. It's like drinking sherbet." Which was his favourite thing, by the way. For various reasons. Mainly that it was basically edible glitter. Second only to popping candy in that department. And popping candy was both impractical and way more expensive than sherbet... and Phe preferred to spend his money on clothes and actual glitter, thank you very much. "I'll make it my life's mission." To find this elf. Though, realistically, he was going to forget about it the minute he got back to the silly string fight that was going on upstairs.

S'mooooores. "Yep. Pretty sure they were invented in the states. I'd never heard of them until a couple of years ago on a camping trip. We at like, a hundred, and then we all got stomach aches so... yeah. They're still awesome though." And FULL of sugar. Not like Phoenix ever actually needed any sugar. He was an energy machine. "You should definitely try one at some point in your life..." Even if it was just the one... cause... yeah... awesome.

Hmmm... a guide? Could be kinda helpful. "Yep, started this year. My last tutor quit and my brother kinda drew a line and said he wasn't gonna hire another one if I kept driving them off but it's not like it's my fault they were all boring and couldn't take a joke." TALK TALK TALK. He'd had a lot of sugar already tonight, could she tell? He was bubbling with energy... "That'd be dead helpful, Ravenclaw's in one of the towers too, right?" Cause birds or whatever...

Heading down to the kitchen Cassie was excited. They had never tried their newly found cooking skills in a big kitchen like this. Though they still were just doing boxed things, Cassie just knew her and her best friend would be making more things like cookies from scratch very soon.

Once in the kitchen she looked around. Now what were they going to try to make today? Maybe she'd wait for Nessa to figure that one out and hopefully the house elves would have something like Mac n Cheese or instant mash potatoes for them to practice with.

Glancing around the room she looked into the oven. One could never be too careful to check and make sure shoes were not in there before turning it on. She had learned her lesson over the summer. So many shoes lost their lives that day.

Nessa was so excited as she made her way down to the kitchen that she was suppressing girlish giggles. She and Cassie had just embarked on their cooking adventures over the summer and she thought she was ready for them to try something a little more daring. In the big castle kitchen. How could she be anything but excited? And not only that, but she had a surprise for her BFF that even she didn't know about yet. That made it all the more exciting but she was able to keep the giggles at bay.

Once she made it into the kitchen, she found the blonde already there, poking her head into the oven. "Cassieeee," she beamed as she sang out her friend's name in greeting. "You're not starting without me are you?" She tilted her head to peer into the oven, seeing nothing inside. Perhaps she was testing out the equipment.. that was probably a good idea! "I have a surprise for youuuu!" Nessa pulled a box from her oversized tote bag. "I think we're ready to graduate from macaroni and cheese." Could her wide smile show that she was any prouder of her find? "And everything is included.." She glanced at the box. "Except for the water." And that would be easy to get.

Hearing her name Cassie looked away from the oven to her best friend. "OHMYGOSH these ovens are huge. Oh and FYI there are nooo shoes in them. I was just checking to make sure." She had learned her lesson, so if any little house elves had cute little heels in them, they would have would have been safe. A thought crossed her mind of how adorbs those shoes would be and so small. Maybe she should by them cute shoes for Christmas. How fun would that be! All the house elves were getting little elves shoes, yep she just so decided that.

"A surprise!!" She just loved surprises and her green eyes watched as Nessa pulled out a box meal. "EEEEP! It's like a full meal, this is just ah-mazing. We are so going to rock this!" No way could they get this wrong. They had been practicing. Plus everything was in it!

"Well we have a sink and our wands so I think we got this!" They totally got this! Bouncing towards the counter she pulled out a bowl. "Is this big enough for what we need?" THey needed a bowl to mix things didn't they? She remembered with the mash potatoes they needed to mix things. So this was probably the same.

Leonard, following the Head Girl's advice to him, had immediately set himself the task of finding the kitchen, and surprisingly managed to succeed after asking multiple people and wandering around aimlessly for about the last 2 or so hours.

By now he was just thirsty, and a little bit hungry, but overall really thankful that he'd found it.

Now... house elves...

Where were they? And what would they be like when he actually found them? Would they let him make something for himself? He was kind of in the mood to bake actually and he was hoping that they would allow him to do so...

He just hoped they also had the ingredients as well...

But first, he needed a drink...

Desperately.

Nessa glanced into the oven again. They were huge.. so much bigger than the one they had at home. "Oh, good!" she exclaimed, noting that there were no shoes in them at all. Saved them the trouble of finding a place for them, though she wasn't completely sure who would be leaving their shoes in there. Certainly the children kept them in their dorm rooms, but perhaps the elves could. Hmm.. that was certainly an interesting thought and she began to wrap her mind around that one for a moment, forgetting everything else. Until Cassie exclaimed again.

Oh, yes! The surprise! Nessa looked down at the box in her hands before beaming back up at her BFF. "It is a full meal. We are going to be such amazing cooks! Look.." She turned the box over and stepped a little closer to the Divination professor. "It has all the instructions right here." Ok, she could admit that it looked a little more complex than the macaroni and cheese they had been practicing with over summer. And totally mastered, BTW. But she was fairly confident that they could handle it. Well.. the biscuit part did look kind of tricky.. but how else would they get better if they didn't try progressively harder things?

She glanced up as Cassie pulled out a bowl. Did they need that? She looked down at the instructions again. "I thiiink.. yes.. and we need a square pan to put it all in." Was one of those around here? Nessa started to look for a pan when she saw a smallish boy wander in. A first year, most likely.. especially since she didn't remember him from any of her classes last year. She gave Cassie a look that said, Isn't he the most precious thing? before beaming back at him. "Hello! Are you hungry? Professor Cassie and I are just about to make the most delicious dinner!" Ooooh, cooking for another person.. what a test that would be!

While Leonard had not really known what to expect, he definitely hadn't expected to find two he assumed they were Professors in the kitchens... and absolutely no sign of the house elves that he had been told about, and seemed really intrigued by.

And he froze for a moment when one of them spoke to him, mind whirling while he tried to figure out what the proper response to this was.

"Uh... yeah I'm a bit hungry" the Italian murmured, scratching the back of his neck. "What are you making?" he finally offered, thinking that that might be the best thing to add to the conversation. He still needed to wrap his head around all of this though.

A full meal, were they ready for that? Of course they were. “Oh this is going to be soooo fun! I told Leo I’d try to make him something sometime to practice. He said he’d teach me how to bake.” She giggled a bit as she snapped excitedly. “We are going to be such Ah-mazing cooks.” Should they get started on all the fun filled cooking they had to do? She took the box and looked it over. It seemed easy enough. Just like potions really. She had only screwed up one or two of those in her day.

“Oh got it.” She made her way towards the cabinet to find the pan. Hmm which would be the right one. Did they have sizes on them? “What size pan do we need, does it say?” There were soooo many sizes in here. Glancing as she heard someone come in she gave Nessa the ooooh he is precious grin.

They were going to cook for someone else! OHMYGOSH, this was exciting and such a big step. They were so ready to cook for someone. “It is going to be fab, you should totes join us.” She snapped in the excitement. Hearing the boy say he was hungry just made it even better. This was just the best. “OOOOH this great dinner right here.” Yep she showed him the box that the dinner was in. It was going to be delicious.

This whole having last year's bunch of students graduate SUCKED. That group had all the chefs. Now, now there was no Cat to bake and make food for everyone and there wasn't even a Mo to make some of his super famous, super huge sandwiches for her to become a glutton on...and Cassia...Cassia was always willing to make her food. What did she have left? Aidan usually had Cat make him food so he was a dud and Lottie...she didn't actually know where she'd gotten to but no doubt she'd have told Lex she wouldn't cook for her, she would only help. Not what Lex was looking for right about now. No, the Gryffindor was feeling hungry but she was ALSO feeling laaaazy.

Lex moved about the counters of the kitchen, trying to find something ridiculously easy but satisfying. So far she wasn't liking options. All of this would require effort and the wait to eat would only drag on.

Where was a darling little elf when she needed one?

Thornton peeked into the kitchen timidly. He had never been allowed to bother the house elves at home. Snacks were put out at designated times and if one found themselves hungry, they needed to wait.

But being here? At Hogwarts? All that climbing up and down to and from Ravenclaw Tower had made the boy HUNGRY. He'd heard that you could get snacks here in the kitchen, but he hadn't heard specifically how.

Looking around the space, Thornton spied an older girl rummaging around. Approaching cautiously, Thornton cleared his throat. "Um. Excuse me, miss? I'm wondering if you could help me find a cookie or something?"

Lex must had hit her fifth cupboard when she heard a noise just behind her. Strange how she hadn't heard anyone come in. Must have been too wrapped up in her search for things that wouldn't require a whole lot out of her. Turning she spotted one of those little people she was always looking for...and he decided 'Miss' would be the right approach. Yeah.......no.

"You can just call me Lex, it's a whole letter shorter too." She corrected with a solemn nod. 'Miss', 'Lady', 'Ma'am', she would pass on them all thanks. "As for the cookies....I..." She spun a few times, trying to remember where she'd seen the jar of them. "Oh! Right, there." She indicated to the high cupboard across the room with a nod of her head. "They were sugar cookies last I checked."

Alexa paused, giving this one a once over. "How good would you say you are at sandwich making?"

"Oh, ok. Lex it is." He got a little dizzy watching her spin, but when she'd finally settled and pointed, it was with an answer! Thornton smiled and walked over to high cupboard. "My name's Thornton." Streeeetching, he grabbed what he assumed was the cookie jar. Bringing it down to the counter, he lifted the lid and stuck a hand in.

Victory!

Pulling out a cookie, he took a bite, turning as she asked him about sandwiches. Mouth full of cookie, he considered a moment. "I've never made one, but I think I could figure it out..." Crumbs were stuck to the edge of his mouth. Mother would be so proud...

"Fancy." She commented at the mention of his name, but only mostly because she didn't know any other Thortons. Meant she'd never get him confused with anyone else, yeah? Lex would go with that one. The Gryffindor, however, was less than impressed with the notion of letting a 3 year old (He could be three, they were all so tiny these days) who'd never made a sandwich before, try his hand at one for her as simple as the task was; there was a method, OKAY? "We'll...make this a learning experience then and next time I run into you in the kitchens you can make me a proper impressive one. Sound good?"

Alexa didn't make a habit of creating her own sandwiches but in this instance, the ends justified the means so she would suffer through it.

"You a fan of meat? Cheese? Unhealthy stuff?" All essential components for the types of sandwiches that made her stomach do that happy kind of dance that you only told your closest friends about. Just no one else's business, y'know?

"If you think that's fancy, you should hear how I was taught to introduce myself," Thornton laughed before taking another bite of cookie. Slipping two more cookies into his robe for later.

Moving back over toward Lex, he considered her question. "Um, well, our sandwiches at home were pretty simple, healthy. Turkey, cheese, that sort of thing." He would pay a lot of attention, though, because she said the words 'unhealthy stuff' and also that he would make her one later.

"What do you like to put in yours?" He stood on his tiptoes to be better able to see.

"Yeah?" A look of amusement crossed her features. Lex plucked a cookie from the jar he was now holding then leaned against the counter, hazel eyes locked on him. "Let's hear it then." The fancy introduction, that is. It should have been entertaining at the very least and in this troubled time when a Gryffindor was forced to pull out all the stops and make her OWN food, some entertainment was greatly appreciated.

Simple sandwiches? "And you enjoyed them?" She was genuinely curious. Lex liked to be impressed by her food. The moment it lost its appeal, it lost her attention and a simple cheese sandwich would never have worked for her.

She shoved away from the counter, shoving the last of the cookie into her mouth before grabbing the bread then making a beeline to collect the colder ingredients. "I like having at least two kinds of meat at any time, cheese, mayonnaise--of late I've learned that toasted bread is the way to go as well--maybe a sprig or two of lettuce if I'm trying to make things look healthier than they really are." Basics but she liked them all piled high and THICK.