He blinked. "Have I... um." Blink. "I, erm, haven't really thought about it." Yeah, there were a few girls that he liked. But he didn't know if he liked any of them. "Um, no. Not yet." Okay, he was done rambling like an idiot.

"I'm fifteen." he said shortly, shaking his head to get rid of thoughts about 'fancying' girls. (By the way, what kind of word was fancy?)

He looked around the room as she gestured to it. He looked back to her and raised an eyebrow when she brandished balloons. It looked like he was having a birthday party right here in the Hogwarts kitchen.

Pretty awesome, actually.

"Here, I'll blow some of those up." Dallin smiled as he reached for a balloon. He caught a house elf looking at him, and asked for a birthday cake instead of a cupcake. The elf seemed happy to oblige.

"We've got ourselves a deal, then," announced Braeden with one of his goofy smiles as Evangeline agreed to keep his 'secret'. He had taken a piece of french bread as Evangeline sat down by the table and did the same, reminding him that the secret passageway he spoke of was right by her common, one, and two - even if she didn't know about it, he'd just told her. Braeden gave her a 'oh-yeah-remind-me-of-my-failure-why-don't-you?' look, though there was the hint of a smile on his lips. He couldn't believe he'd seriously been so slow.

"Alright, that doesn't count," said the boy. "But there's other places in the castle that I know about and you don't," he insisted childishly. "You just… have a better memory than I do. That's all," he decided. Yeah. There was no way a girl that had just transferred from another school could know more about the castle than he, who had spent six years there!

Oh. Hmmm. That was a bit disappointing. Ellie was hoping for some juicy something of sorts.

"Me too! Wait, does that mean you're a third year, then?" Just like her! Unless there was some fancy business that mixed his years up when he came from America.

Pshh, America.

Ellie gave him a few balloons to blow up. She was mighty thankful, too. Her lips would HATE her if she blew up all of them herself. Of course, they might have been able to get some house elves to blow them up....

She wrinkled her nose at the thought. Elf saliva.

Nah, they'd blow them up themselves. Besides, the elves would need to concentrate on making the best birthday cake ever.

"Fourth year," Dallin corrected, nodding. "I started school when I was ten, I'm repeating my fourth year..." He shrugged. It was weird, he was sure. Most wizards started school at eleven, right?

He took the balloons and immediately started stretching one. After a moment, he put it to his mouth and blew. He watched the house elves hurrying around the kitchen as blew. Once it was a good size, he tied the end and hit it into the air. Then he started working on another one.

"So," he said, talking around the rubber as he looked at Ellie. "Um, how've you been? Anything interesting happening in your life?" Great conversation starter, huh?

"It doesn't? That doesn't seem fair." She said. "Really? 'Cause personally, I think I know the castle pretty well. I've been exploring quite a bit, so name a place and I bet I'll know exactly how to get there." Evangeline said. Not to brag, or anything. It was just simple fact.

Braeden's dark eyebrows rose as Eva assured him she knew her way around rather cockily, an amused and goofy smile curving his lips and exposing his pearly whites. "You're not very modest, are you, Hollywood?" he asked. "I suppose that's just part of being a famous actress, though, right?"

As he stuffed his face with bread, Braeden proceeded to sit down opposite Evangeline. He tried to think of a place that was completely secret in the castle, a place she wouldn't be likely to find easily... but where? Hmmm...

Just as he was thinking about this, the house-elf from earlier arrived with all of Braeden's requests on a silver platter. With a grin, the boy immediately began to dig in, stopping only once his stomach felt like it might just burst, at which point the Gryffindor boy proceeded to lean on the back legs of his chair lazily. "What aboutttt..." he started, a thoughtful expression on his face. "What about the room of r--AAAHHH!" BAM!

He fell. He leaned too far back, and fell flat on the floor. Clumsy!Brae strikes again.

When the short burst of light was emitted from Ronnie's wand Preston found himself under a table a few feet away from the stove that Ronnie had mentioned the flashlight was under. Braving the fact that he wasn't sure where he was going now that the light in Ronnie's wand had dissappeared after a few seconds, Preston began to crawl on his hands and knees towards the stove.

"D-D-Do l-l-lumos a-a-again." Preston whispered as he stopped suddenly, running into a stool and knocking it over. It made a racket of a sound and Preston reached as quickly as he could to make it stop moving. He sat it back up on it's legs and moved it out of his way, hoping there weren't any more in his way.

"I-I-I'm a-a-almost th-th-there." Preston told her, there wasn't a need for Accio right now. Plus, he didn't even have his wand with him. He had left it in his dorm, once again.

Fee chuckled at Elliot's answer.He probably thought she was totally complicated now.But oh well it was nothing she could explain."I am not sure why though",she laughed,"i guess its just the weird mind of a girl."Yes the blonde had just admitted that girls were strange sometimes.But only sometimes.She was the queen? Woohooo finally someone that agreed."Yees and now in only need a king",the blonde laughed.Where was the king of randomness anyway? Fee hadnt seen him in daaaays.

The Slytherin shook her head at Elliots comment.Really? It was the cutes thing ever."Dont say that",the blonde told her friend,"its insanly cute.Tell that the girl you like and she will melt."what girl wouldnt aww at him being afraid of houselves?!"You have been alone most of the time?",she asked shocked,"but what did your parents do?"This sounded rough. Really childhood without really parents?Meeeh."I knoooow but that doesnt mean we cant be brave",the second year winked,"bravery and Sneakyness is the succes."Slytherins just combined all good properties.Hehe.

Cass looked around and sure enough, there really wasn't a lot of house elves to be seen.

"Well, its either Headmaster Tate had taken to promoting serving oneself while in the kitchen, or the house elves are in their quarters or around Hogwarts, trying to make the castle livable" She explained with a smile.

Ronnie jumped when she heard the sound, "Preston what was that!" She was still shaking, but Ronnie willed her wand to behaved. She needed the light to stay on for longer than a few seconds. "Lumos!" She said and her wand light...she felt different about it this time...she knew it was going to stay lite.

"Can you still see??" She asked him sitting down on her legs trying to give him has much light as she could. She REALLY hoped they hadn't woken up the house elves! They would be in ALOT of trouble otherwise.

Preston stopped dead in his tracks when he heard something rustling at the far end of the kitchen. He held his hand up, signaling Ronnie to stop talking. After a moment, Preston concluded that it was a mouse. If it had been a house elf they would have already came over to them. "I-I-I kn-knocked a-a st-stool d-d-down." He whispered as he continued to crawl the short space between him and the flashlight.

Laying down flat on his stomach, Preston reached his hand out for the flashlight, but it was just out of reach. He scooted his body a little closer to the stove. Reaching his arm out once more, though this time he couldn't see where he was reaching, Preston could feel the flashlight in his hand as he grasped onto it tightly and pulled his arm out from under the stove.

"Ohh, I see." She didn't, really. But it was whatever. Unimportant.

Ellie continued to stretch the same balloon she had. "I've been..." SIGH. To tell the truth, or not to tell the truth. She didn't really feel like he needed to know every small detail in her life. So...half truth. "'M glad Quidditch has picked up again." TRUTH.

"And yourself?"

...Right. Okay, Quidditch. That was... well, it was better than nothing. "Cool," was Dallin's genius response to her statement. Well, what else was he supposed to say to it? "What position do you play?" Because obviously she was on the team, right? Most likely.

"I don't play Quidditch." he answered simply, blowing a lungful of air into the balloon. "Not on the school team at least." Another blow. Then his finger slipped, and air went out. He eyed the balloon for a second before trying again.

Ellie nodded. Quidditch was cool. It was the only thing that made her happy now. It was the only thing that hadn't left...it had actually come back. Interesting.

"Beater," she said, nodding some more.

"Oh? Why's that?" If he played, he should totally try out for the team. "You play out of school then? What position?"

She turned to look at him on the last question...when his balloon pfffttttttted.
Hah. Hahahaha.

Ellie laughed at him. LAUGHED.

As he handed her the plate Dozer couldn't help but noticed the expression that crossed her face. She had smiled and then looked down at the food with a wary look. Almost like it was some poisonous animal that might bite her if she made a wrong move.

Shrugging, he picked up his own plate and dug in. He hadn't eaten much at dinner but had suddenly found himself craving some good ole' fashioned cooking. He was halfway through his plate when he noticed that she was studying him. Though, he wasn't sure if the studying was in a good way. She was watching him like she expected him to go into a fit of seizures or drop dead or something.

He was just about ready to make a comment when she picked up her own fork and took a bite. A tentative one anyway. She chewed slowly, critically assessing every taste, or at least that's the way it looked. Miraculously, a smile spread slowly across her face as she ate. Dozer had a similar smile as she finally complimented him.

He chuckled a little and shook his head. "Thanks. My mom taught me the recipe though I added in the garlic. Somehow it adds to the flavor." He took a few more bites of his own food, not willing to admit how much he was enjoying her company. He took a long swig of his tea and then his curiosity got the better of him again. "So what other foods do you enjoy?"

So it wasn't a deep soul searching answer that would reveal something amazing about her but it was a start. Besides, he was pretty sure she never revealed too much about herself. However, his mom always said that good food was a universal language that could bring together even the most stubborn of people.

Beater? Dallin raised an eyebrow, looking at her curiously. Hm. He wouldn't have guessed she played that position.

He half-smiled and shrugged. "I dunno, I've just never been on a school team before." Well, that was half of the reason. "Aaaand... I don't think I'm good enough." Muggle sports, he could admit that he was pretty good. Quidditch, though? Well, he actually didn't really know.

"Yeah, I like playing for fun. Keeper, usually. Sometimes Chaser." He glanced over at her when she started laughing at him. He smirked, but started laughing too.

Ellie could tell he was eying her. She could FEEL it. It was that 6th sense thing. Ya know? Yeah, that. And she just smirked to herself. She loved when people seemed surprised by the position she favored. Like, when her father first let her use a beater's bat on a real bludger... And then tryouts first term.. Good times.

"You should try out. Maybe next year?" Since Jacob had closed sign ups for this term already.

She nodded....she should stop doing that. Really. Find something else that showed she was paying attention without looking like one of those ancient muggle bobble heads that her grandpa had in his garage. "Chaser's my second favorite."

"This is silly," she said, bringing a balloon up to her lips. She needed to learn a...charm or something that would aid them in this. Maybe another visit to Little Professor was in store.

"S..so does mean I came come in here and cook when I wish to. As these students are?" Chisato looked at Cass curiously, hoping that was true.
It made it much easier then asking the elves.

"Yeah, maybe next year." Dallin agreed. Although he really didn't know if he would. He didn't know if pressure was the best idea for him. Especially since he had a short attention span and would probably get distracted in a really important game and... yeah. Maybe not next year.

"I think Chaser's fun. You getta do a lot more flying around than Keeper." Not as much as Seekers, but Dallin could not be a seeker even if he wanted. "Plus, I look pretty good in Keeper gear." Yupp. True.

He grinned as he finished blowing up and tying the balloon. "Nah, don't worry about it. Two balloons is great." It was more than he thought he'd get at all. "And the cake's probably almost ready!" Right? How long did it take to bake a cake?

Ellie BEAMED. She loved when people said they'd try out. It made her feel like she was convincing them. Single handedly putting a team together.

Oh yes. "That's why I like Chaser as well. Keeper's too....stationary. And Seeker comes with," she raised her eyebrows for effect, "waaaaaay too much pressure for me." She has RESPECT for Seekers.

"Two balloons? Nooo, but that's not even a number? What is two?" Seven's a pretty cool number, not to mention it's as many number of players on a Quidditch team. Thirteen is nice as well. Fifteen is how old he was. Two....two's nothing.

Dallin smile-grimaced (yes, it was a thing) at Ellie's expression before looking away quickly. He felt almost guilty for not really wanting to try out. So now, he probably would, even if he didn't really want to. Dang girls and their... ways.

"Exactly." he agreed, scooting further back on the counter so he wouldn't have the urge to swing his feet. "But I'm best at Keeper. Just one ball to worry about most of the time. And I... probably wouldn't be good at Beater." Come to think of it, he had never tried. He always tried to stick with Keeper or Chaser.

He chuckled. "How many do you have, then? I can blow them up, since you seem to be having difficulties?" He raised an eyebrow; an invitation for her to disagree.

Ellie shrugged, "You wouldn't know until you tried." She was a living, breathing example. Though, she'd really wanted to try Beater back then. But everyone thought she'd be terrible because she was ickle. Well, they were WRONG. Mwaha.

"Ermmm..." She pulled three more balloons out of her pocket. "That's all." Not really, she had at least two more, but she was keeping them. For....just in case. You never know when you might need a balloon. "And I am NOT having difficulties." HMPH. "I'm simply..." Procrastinating? It was totally silly to blow them up the muggle way anyway. "talking. If you stopped interrigating me, I'd have them blown up by now."

Blame the boys. It's always the right thing to do.

Elyon darted into the kitchen, her braids flying behind her. She turned around waiting for her friend. She smiled at one of the house elves and started getting out ingredients for cookies. She hadn't made cookies in quite some time, so she forgot many of the ingrediants. Plus she wasn't sure what they were even making. She smiled with a dreamy quality as she twirled back in forth through the kitchen.

"Yeah." Cass said as she grabbed a croissant from the counter and poured herself a cup of tea "My friend, Kurumi, she comes here all the time just to bake cookies."

Selina walked into the kitchens and saw Elyie dancing. For some reason it brought a smile to her face. She really liked this girl because she was different. Everyone else she had met thus far, with a few minor exceptions, had motives and goals. All of those ambitions were great, but there was something soothing in just being okay with the world. And Elyie had that quality.

She walked beside her friend and leaned down to the house elf. "Excuse me? Could you get out the ingredients for red velvet and peanut butter chocolate cookies please?" Sure red velvet was not traditionally made for cookies. But when they had the right crisp to them and were covered in delicious cream cheese icing nothing was better.

"So you ready, Freddy?"