Quote:

Originally Posted by Ameh

As Raiden returned to his seat, he chanced a glance at Madiison's face. Why... did she look like she was afraid he was going to beat her up? He frowned and averted his eyes immediately.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" he mumbled, picking up his fork again and poking at the leftover lasagna in front of him before sticking a bit more in his mouth.

The house elf bounded up; this task had taken a little longer than the last, it seemed. The little creature held the tray over her head, her bouncing subdued for a moment so she wouldn't spill the contents. Mumbling his thanks again, he took the items off the tray and set them on the table.

A pitcher of apple juice, a smaller pitcher of milk, and... a plate with half a chocolate cake on it.

"You said chocolate would help, right? Before?"

"No reason." The redhead answered, her voice hitting a higher note than usual before she got on with eating her food when the house-elves returned -OOH NO. Here came the ambush- with ... chocolate cake.

PHEW. At least there was no ambush.

Internally, Madiison felt a liittle ... idiotic and ... stupid for thinking this had anything to do with AMBUSHING her. She had imagined he would get them to stuff her into an old broom cupboard or something equally horrid (he was a prefect -SQUEEEE- after all). But they were here with dessert.

"I did." Beam. "Dad told me it had some ... things in it that cheered you up." Singing helped too.

The redhead's face brightened considerably. He was LISTENING to her advise! And he got her juice ... and milk?

Umm ....

"... Milk?" Di cocked her head a little and looked at him, genuinely confused.

Why was she so surprised over milk? His gaze went back up to her, even though his attention was still focused on his plate and finishing what was left on it. She was confused over milk. When there was cake like right there next to it.

"What do you drink when you have chocolate cake?" he asked, confused. He pushed an empty glass across the table to her, and filled his own with milk. He liked milk. "'sides, milk's good for you, and I couldn't ask for pumpkin juice."

He was done with the lasagna; his stomach was reasonably content now, being mostly full. He actually... felt quite a bit better. Still a bit grumpy, but the sleepiness wasn't as prevalent as it had been when they'd gotten here. A quick cleaning charm cleared off the plate in front of him, and he looked from her to the cake.

"About done?" Because it would... be rude to eat the cake before she was done with her other food. He was starting to remember his manners again.

Blink.

"Umm ... I don't drink anything with chocolate cake." STARE. He had MILK. With chocolate cake? Was that NORMAL? "I just have ... the cake ... Without ... anything ... ?" Now she was confused. SHOULD she have milk with chocolate cake? Her mother never gave her milk with chocolate cake.

BEFORE cake, yes. Almost ALWAYS. But never with.

"Can't argue with that." Madiison said gently pushing her own plate of lasagna away from her as she wrinkled her nose when she heard PUMPKIN JUICE. Yuck. Di never liked pumpkin juice. It tasted ... weird. Still, she was curious. "Why couldn't you ask for pumpkin juice?" It was everywhere. Everyone had it. Personally, Di never understood why people liked it in the first place.

It was a vegetable.

Vegetable juice was ... BLAH.

"Yup. Done."

...really? Nothing? That was an oddly surprising answer, and Raiden's eyebrows arched to express it. Nothing, with cake?

"Doesn't your mouth get kinda like... sticky and stuff though?" That was why he had... milk... Madiison was weird.

Raiden busied himself with casting a cleaning charm at her plate before cutting off a piece of the cake and nudging it onto it. Pushing it back toward her, he nudged the milk pitcher toward her as well. TRYYYYY IT. TRYYYYY IT.

"'m allergic to it," he mumbled, cutting himself a piece of cake as well. "Quite a bit. Makes my stomach go all horrible."

Which wasn't a good topic right now. They were eating.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ameh

...really? Nothing? That was an oddly surprising answer, and Raiden's eyebrows arched to express it. Nothing, with cake?

"Doesn't your mouth get kinda like... sticky and stuff though?" That was why he had... milk... Madiison was weird.

Raiden busied himself with casting a cleaning charm at her plate before cutting off a piece of the cake and nudging it onto it. Pushing it back toward her, he nudged the milk pitcher toward her as well. TRYYYYY IT. TRYYYYY IT.

"'m allergic to it," he mumbled, cutting himself a piece of cake as well. "Quite a bit. Makes my stomach go all horrible."

Which wasn't a good topic right now. They were eating.

He was surprised she had nothing with cake. She could TEEEEEEELL. He thought people had STUFF with cakes. Stuff to drink. They did NOT. Not anyone she knew, anyways ... except for Damion, her little brother. He had something to drink with EVERYTHING. Stuff like butterbeer. And milk. And orange juice.

"Sticky?" Blink. "Not that I noticed. Nope." DID IT?! Madiison never paid attention! She watched her new friend, for surely he was her friend now, cut some cake and nudge it into her plate. Then he pushed the glass of milk towards her.

He wanted her to try the milk with cake?

This was so ... weird. She was having MILK. With CAKE. Carefully cutting a small portion of the cake with her fork, the redhead popped it into her mouth and chewed thoughtfully.

Sticky? "Not sticky." She confirmed. Raiden was weird. Milk with cake. But she did what he asked. The petite girl grabbed the glass of milk and siiiiiipped.

...

Well, it DID help wash away the smaaaaaall bits of cake left in her mouth. Maybe it HAD been sticky and Di just never noticed.

And milk with cake was kind of ... yummy.

SMIIIILE.

"You were right. It IS a little sticky." A LITTLE. Only.

Allergic? "Oh." Madiison didn't THINK she was allergic. "I don't like pumpkin juice. It does weird stuff to my stomach too." She had thrown up when she had it once a while ago. The red NEVER touched pumpkin juice again. Ever.

But that had more to do with taste than allergies. "I am not allergic though." She clarified. "I just ... don't like the taste."

...

Why were they talking about pumpkin juice anyways? YUK.

Chocolate cake was a wonderful thing. Distracting, in the very least. One didn't want to have it fall apart and get nothing into their mouth. And it was good. That chocolate frog had nothing on chocolate cake. He'd have to remember to thank the house elves on their way out.

His mood. It was improved.

Ah-HA! And she liked it. He knew she would. Who wouldn't like chocolate cake with milk. It was like cake and ice cream; they just went together perfectly.

The corners of his lips twitched, a trace of a smile presenting itself. Almost as if hiding it, he shoved a forkful of cake into his mouth, chewing it slowly and deliberately. Maybe... Madiison wasn't weird. She was just funny. Odd. Like... well like all of his friends, really. They were all really weird.

"Would I lie?" he asked. "Icing, you know."

He pointed his fork at the icing on the cake that remained between them. The source of mouth-stickiness. It surely was. Yup. Swallowing, he took a swig of milk to wash it down. Yummy yummy.

"Mmhmm. I found out when I started here... I had some and then started feeling sick on my way upstairs. Got stuck on the moving staircase, Nico had to levitate me and everything."

Nico. Who he had to write to. But... well now he wasn't sure if he should. His anger at Nico's... sister... Meh.

He felt all warm again. Getting angry wasn't nice. So... he focused on just... eating.

Madiison missed the little twitch of his lips as she was faar too busy gulping down cake ... and milk. Pity. That would have been the first time she would have seen a TRACE of a smile on his lips. Or, a real smile anyways. She sort of remembered the attempt at smile from the compartment ... if that's what it was.

Maybe he had been making a face at her.

Huh.

Licking a small drop of milk off her own lower lip, Di put the laaast bit of cake on her plate into her mouth and gulped it down. before peeeeking at her new friend. He seemed happier. Or at least less gloomy.

Why did people have to be GLOOMY? Being GLOOMY was ... depressing.

And bad for their health.

Madiison's gaze followed the fork and she eyed the icing. MMHMM. Stealing the knife from the plate, the girl caaarefully wiped some of the icing off the cake and wiped it onto her own plate.

Then she ate it.

What? She was too full to actually eat the cake.

AWWWW! Poor poor poor Raiden. Sniff. Sniff. "Well, I always thought vegetables were evil." There. Proof. Poor Raiden.

Not that she didn't LIKE them. She did. But that didn't stop them from being EVIL.

Rhea beamed at Wesley as she started giggling too. She couldn't believe how much she had grown.

She looked at Wesley a little surprized as she heard her tummy and laughed.
"Looks like you're tummy beat you ti replying," she said chuckling. She laughed again as Wesley barraged her with questions in the unique way Wesley always did.

"Yeah I'm trying out for quidditch and Irial is O.K he's not coming back I'm afraid." She sighed.
She really missed Irial and wished he had come back to Hogwarts, but he just didn't like it here anymore.
"Most of everything dried up ok but some of my pictures were ruined. I can't even fix them with magic and yep I am very hungry too." She took a deep breath and smiled at the younger girl.

Shoving a cupcake in her mouth, Destiny turned to face Evelyn. Where were her cupcakes? She wanted to see what they looked liked. She shook her head, because her mouth was full. She was sure there was a spell that kept the food good, but she didn't learn that. Maybe she would owl her mother, but by the time she would receive a response, the cupcakes would spoil.

'Do you think she is in her office now?' she asked once her mouth was empty. She really didn't want to give the cupcakes to the Professor in front of a whole class. Destiny would get embarrassed! 'I think we should do it now, before I eat them all.' and she shoved another one in her mouth.

She was already eating them!? 'I thought she liked pie...' Evelyn thought, completely confused at the moment. 'Wait, jeez. Of course she could like both. Ugh.' Snapping out of her blond moment, she scooted the tray of cupcakes away from her friend and hopped up on the counter again. Soo much fun sitting on the counter...

"I don't know where she is." she said truthfully. It's not like she tracked the professor's every movement. "Yea, alright. Let's give them to her now." Hopping back down to the ground, she was just about to go over and get her three cupcakes when she remembered...she could NOT present these cupcakes to their Head of House looking like THIS! Strawberry cake powder ALL OVER herself! "Deeessstttiiiinnnnyyyyy!"

Quote:

Originally Posted by Faerilicious

Madiison missed the little twitch of his lips as she was faar too busy gulping down cake ... and milk. Pity. That would have been the first time she would have seen a TRACE of a smile on his lips. Or, a real smile anyways. She sort of remembered the attempt at smile from the compartment ... if that's what it was.

Maybe he had been making a face at her.

Huh.

Licking a small drop of milk off her own lower lip, Di put the laaast bit of cake on her plate into her mouth and gulped it down. before peeeeking at her new friend. He seemed happier. Or at least less gloomy.

Why did people have to be GLOOMY? Being GLOOMY was ... depressing.

And bad for their health.

Madiison's gaze followed the fork and she eyed the icing. MMHMM. Stealing the knife from the plate, the girl caaarefully wiped some of the icing off the cake and wiped it onto her own plate.

Then she ate it.

What? She was too full to actually eat the cake.

AWWWW! Poor poor poor Raiden. Sniff. Sniff. "Well, I always thought vegetables were evil." There. Proof. Poor Raiden.

Not that she didn't LIKE them. She did. But that didn't stop them from being EVIL.

"The icing is good," he commented, the ghost smile coming back when she started taking bits of it off the cake. He was pretty much finished as well; the last bit left was the large wedge of icing that he'd left there intentionally, so he could eat it last. Scraping it up, he stuck it into his mouth.

Sticky, sticky, NOMMY chocolate.

"My stomach's not making dying animal sounds anymore," he mused, looking down at it. "And... vegetables in general aren't evil, really. Just pumpkins. And... well probably turnips too, just because they look it."

Picking up another cupcake, Destiny lifted it to her mouth but stopped when Evelyn started dragging out her name. Usually that only happens when she is in trouble and she wasn't in trouble now, was she? No, of course not. She hadn't done anything wrong..yet. She placed the cupcake back on the tray to see what her friend was doing.

Oh boy, Evelyn was pink. That wasn't good. Covering her mouth, Destiny played off her laughs as coughs. Works every time. 'Just clean yourself off.' Evelyn did remember the cleaning spell, right? 'Unless you want me to do it.' Ehh. Without waiting for Evelyn to answer, Destiny drew her wand and pointed it at her clothes, 'Scourgify.' There. Easy peasy, chocolate cupcake. 'Can we go now?' Because soon, Destiny would run out of cupcakes.

Yea, uh huh. That was sooooo a cough. Narrowing her eyes and shaking her head, she placed her hands on her hips and was just about to say something...but Destiny beat her to it. Clean herself off? How was she going to do that? No way was she walking all the way to the Slytherin dormitories again...actually Professor Lupa's office was like right next to them so she would have to walk there anyway. Eh, though she didn't have to do that now. Destiny already fixed her pink problem. Yay!

"Thank you." Evelyn mumbled, walking back over to where she had her brilliant cupcakes. "Yea, we can go. To Professor Lupa's office right?" Picking up the three PINK cupcakes that were on a plate, she moved to the door, waiting for Destiny. "And stop eating them! They are supposed to be for the Professor."

Evelyn really needed to learn that cleaning spell. Destiny wouldn't be there all the time to clean her off. 'One day you will learn that. Even if I have to force it into your brain.' How she would do that, she had no idea. But it sounded good at the moment.

'To her office.' Ehh, doesn't she have two offices? They would just go to whichever one was closest. Good idea. 'I'm just gonna eat this one, since I breathed all over it already.' Lupa didn't need Destiny germs. She shoved the germy one into her mouth and picked up the tray that was holding the rest. There was still nine of them! Destiny didn't eat the all. She would have had a belly ache. 'Okay, let's go.' Holding the tray carefully, so she wouldn't drop any, Destiny walked out of the kitchen. It still smelt good!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ameh

"The icing is good," he commented, the ghost smile coming back when she started taking bits of it off the cake. He was pretty much finished as well; the last bit left was the large wedge of icing that he'd left there intentionally, so he could eat it last. Scraping it up, he stuck it into his mouth.

Sticky, sticky, NOMMY chocolate.

"My stomach's not making dying animal sounds anymore," he mused, looking down at it. "And... vegetables in general aren't evil, really. Just pumpkins. And... well probably turnips too, just because they look it."

Madiison was done with the cake. Or with eating in general really for the redhead was sure that if she tried to put anything more into her mouth it would come right out through the same direction. Which was not good. In fact, it was downright disgusting. Now what she needed was to rest her head onto something soft and SQUEEEESHY and rest.

Like ... a pillow.

Or her brother's leg.

Why was Adrian not around when she needed his leg? HMPH. Baaaad brother. Bad, bad, baaad brother.

Di watched Raiden as he nommmmed the rest of the cake ... and ALMOST SMILED! SHE could SEE it! His lips were twiiitching. In a good way. Giiiiiigggle. So he COULD smile after all. Or, at least he could TRY to.

... dying animals? BLAH. Why were they talking about turnips? And dying animals? Madiison lost track. "And bitter gourd." EW EW EW EW. "And radishes ..... "

Well, they DID look just as evil.

Di didn't want to get off the chair. She could just rest here for a while and ...

Once done, Raiden gathered Madiison's plate and his own; he didn't bother with a cleaning charm, as the elves would just redo it anyway. He stacked them, put the utensils on top, and set them aside before picking up his glass and downing the last of the milk left in it. Wiping the back of his hand across his mouth, he looked at Madiison again. She... looked sleepy.

Too much cake?

"Well anything with bitter right in its name is probably a bit evil," he relented, scratching the back of his head. "And I consider radishes to be... mini-turnips. So yes, them too."

Why were they talking about evil vegetables?

"I think it's... time for a nap." He nodded and stood. "I didn't... sleep last night so it's... time for a nap."

Or for him to sleep for 16 hours straight.

He motioned to Madiison. "Coming?"

Nap sounded good. Nap sounded realllllly good.

Coming?

NUUUUUUUUUUH. She didn't want to leeeeeave! Or rather, she didn't want to get up. She didn't MIND leaving, really. In fact, it would be nice to get away from all the food smell. It was starting to get to her.

"HMMMMMMMMMM." Raising both her hands, the redhead held them out for Raiden, waiting for him to pull her to her feet. She would have gotten up herself but she just didn't have the ENERGY anymore.

Slouch. Slouch. Slouch.

...eeeeeeeeeeeeh?

Raiden looked behind him at the sound Madiison made. Why was she holding her... hands out... like that? Like a little kid that wanted to be picked up.

She didn't... expect him to... noooo.

"Madiison, come oooon," he half-whined. She was really lucky he was in a better mood, and more aware of being polite, or else he would have just left her there. "Honto ni? Aish."

Moving back toward the table, he took one of the outstretched hands and tugged. Come on. COOOOOOME ON.

Pout.

She just needed a little HELP and he wasn't giving it to her. He was her FRIEND. Friends helped each other. HMPH. And what was that he said in ... uhh ... Chinese? Japanese? Korean? "HUH? What?" She eyed him. Which one of those WAS he anyways? She couldn't really even tell the difference. "What was that you said in ... umm ..." Guess. GUESS. GUESSSSSS. "Chinese ... ?" Huh. What if she was wrong? "Japanese?"

Korean?

Any other language?

But then he came back and tugged on her hand. See? It wasn't that hard! All he had to do was TUG. She clasped her other hand on his and pushed herself out of the chair, letting out a giggle on the way as she let go of his hand. "Thaaaank you."

Aaaaand she was up. Raiden took his hands back as she dropped them; he'd become more aware of girls grabbing them lately, considering that sometimes... they didn't let go. Gesturing toward the door, he took a few steps toward it, pausing to glance back. Now that she was on her feet, would she actually walk? How could she be more sleepy than he was? He hadn't actually gotten any sleep last night, surely she had.

"Japanese," he supplied, his ears going red. Ooops. "I don't really speak much Chinese, it was Japanese."

Time to gooooo. She had a much, much longer walk than he had.

Madiison did not miss that he hadn't told her what he had said in Japanese, but she DID notice his ears turning red. Giggle. With a siigh the redhead followed the fifth-year out of the kitchen. "So, you are Japanese then?" She asked as they left.

The girl felt a liiittle BAD about the Chinese-Japanese confusion (she hadn't actually SAID Korean out loud so she didn't feel guilty about that).

The Hufflepuff was smiling until Rhea got to the part about Irial not coming back. The rest of the older girl's words faded into silence as the 13-year-old tried to wrap her mind around this awful event.

"Wait! What? How can he be O.K. but not be coming back?" Wesley did not understand. "Did his parents pull him out because of the...deaths?"

Was he at Durmstrang too?

Or was it something else? Like Professor Truebridge, or Nurse Avalon, or Professor Kapoor?

Wesley frowned, squeezing her eyes shut for a second before opening them once more.

There was Irial. He was standing next to Rhea with his long black haired tied back and smiling in his silent, mature way. And next to him was Mariel, who was frowning. Oops! Wesley had forgotten about her Muggle Studies Homework.

Then the sound Kitchen door banging shut caused her to blink, vanishing Mariel and Irial.

Sarah said people were always with you in your heart. Wesley wished they were always in front of her, where she could see them.

"Is he not coming back ever?" She asked sadly, looking up at Rhea.

Fia slipped out of the Hufflepuff common room and walked over to the kitchens. ICE CREAM! The girl CRAVED the soft, juicy ice cream, especially since she had been promised by boy after boy but none came through.

...Except for one...

FINALLY! The girl just didn't ask the right person for a scoop of lemondrop ice cream and well little did she know it would take a SPECIAL PERSON to give her just what she wanted. She walked into the kitchen paying no attention to anyone else except for the one person shew as going to meet here.

Miles walked in with a smile on his face and...a flower behind his back. Okay so the girl in the Headmaster's waiting area had given him an idea. Walking into the kitchen after tickling the pear he spotted Fia and ran up to her. Wrapping his free arm around her tightly he gave her a hug and brandished the flower out to her like a trophy. "Ta daaaaaaaaaaa."

Fia gasped and was about to turn around to the fast moving footsteps but was caught off guard by a sudden arm that wrapped around her followed by a single flower that was held out. Her eyes stared for a moment, giving her brain time to catch up with the item that was in front of her.

"A flower? For me?" Her fingers reached out, picking the single flower from Miles' grasp with a wide smile that began to curve on her lips. "OHMYGOD! I love ittt!" She turned back and kissed Miles on the cheek then leaned her head against his. "Thank youuuu," she sang happily to him.