The Kitchen
 

The house elves are hard at work preparing your next meal but, they're always willing to prepare an after-hours snack to those students who are brave enough to tickle the pear and enter the kitchens.

Marie had received an owl from Carter asking her to meet him in the kitchen for a midnight snack. Since she couldn't sleep anyway she figured she'd sneak out and show him that she was still alive... even though she didn't go to the feast earlier.

Well she would be alive as long as Lafay didn't catch her. At least she didn't have as far to go as Carter did so less chance for her to get caught.

Once she finally made it to the entrance she tickled the pear then quietly went into the kitchen and sat at one of the counters. Now to wait for Carter to show up. Hopefully he wouldn't get caught making his way all the way down there.

Carter made his way all sneaky like down to the kitchens. He couldn't believe he was already sneaking out of bed. It was only the first night!

It made him feel... dangerous.

He smirked as he finally made it to the hallway outside the kitchens. He made it!

He spotted Marie already heading into the kitchens. When he got to the painting the doorway was already sealed. He tickled the pear and entered the kitchens.

"Hey." he said quietly to Marie. "I didn't see you at the feast..." he began. "I just wanted to make sure that everything was alright..."

It was true that she didn't enjoy eating as much as he did --- but still, missing the opening feast was kinda a big deal.

For Phyre :glomp:
 

<333
 

Realising she forgot her glass of milk, Ariadne returned from the door and walked back to the table atop of which her glass stood. She took it and again started to leave, but then noticed an older girl eating chocolate. 'Chocolate! Why didn't I think of that!' the girl exclaimed loudly, contemplating that no cookies can be better than chocolate, the supreme sweet.

Therefore, she asked the elves for some, slightly blushing for disturbing them so much. Then she walked to the girl and addressed her like she would anyone else. All the people she had met at Hogwarts were very approachable, so why not? 'Hi, I guess I should thank you, if I hadn't seen you eating chocolate it wouldn't have crossed my mind to ask for some. I'm Ariadne, what's your name?'

Ariadne was an observant child. She noticed when people didn't like her or when they pretended to be nice. However, she was also a Gryffindor, who liked to push things and didn't back off easily. So she was determined to continue talking.

'Chili powder in chocolate? I don't think I'd like that.' she grimaced. 'Mine is a simple milk chocolate.' she added, taking her first bite. 'Eirin? A very beautiful name, though I must admit I've never heard it before. What year are you in? You could probably tell I'm a firstie.' the girl went on no matter what.

Noticing Eirin's accent didn't seem to represent any of the British provinces, Ari ventured in asking her another question. 'Where are you from, if you don't mind?' She was sure the if you don't mind bit sounded annoying, but didn't care that much.

Ariadne nodded. 'I suppose so. But how come you got used to it? I've never seen this type of chocolate before, can you find it at the sweet shop on Diagon Alley?' Not that she wanted to try. No. The girl just asked questions because it was in her nature to be curious.

'Graduating this year? Wow! Are you nervous about the N.E.W.T s? What do you want to do afterwards?' And other questions. Brilliant. 'So you transfered. But you were a first year yourself, you must remember what it's like.And aren't all first years kind of obvious?' This one didn't count as a real question, because it was rhethorical. Hehe. 'Brazil sounds amazing. How come you came to England?' And the grand finale-another QUESTION.

Marie didn't have to wait long at all for Carter. She had only been there a couple minutes when she seen him coming through the entrance. "Hey Carter." It felt nice to be friends with him again. For the longest time she was sure they were never going to speak to each other ever again. It's funny how finding one little note changed everything for them. "That's because I didn't go to the feast... I wasn't hungry." Well that was part of the truth anyway. "Yeah, everything's just... great." She had decided that even though she was hurting she wasn't going to let it show.

Carter tilted his head to the side. There wasn't anything convincing to what she just said. Or maybe he just knew Marie better than she thought he did. Whatever it was he didn't blame her for not telling him. There friendship was, after all, pretty new. Plus they didn't exactly have the best track record for communication.

He smiled warmly and patted her shoulder. "Well... how about we get you a little something to eat?" he offered. "You shouldn't skip a meal like that, it's not good for you."

He then began to walk absentmindedly around the kitchen looking for a house elf to wake up. Not finding one he turned and faced Marie. "Well... Destiny and I have wandered around this place plenty of times. I'm sure I could find something for you. What are you in the mood for?" he asked heading straight toward where he knew some desserts were kept.

She shouldn't skip a meal... Pfft. This wasn't the first and most likely wasn't the last meal she had skipped. It wasn't going to kill her. "I'm still not really hungry." She said as she watched him wander around the kitchen.

Him and Destiny?

"Really? You and Destiny spend a lot of time in here together do you?." It seems Destiny had failed to tell her that she was still friends with Carter... even when he had been ignoring her. Then again, she should have known something like that was happening. After all Destiny was the reason Carter broke up with her.

Now she really had lost her appetite.

"Look Carter, it's nice that you seem to think I need to eat, but I know that can't be why you asked me to meet you. So out with it... why this midnight meeting?" Why the secrecy here?

"Are you sure?" Carter asked poking his head out from inside a cabinet. "Because I found the cheesecake and ice creaaam." he said in a bit of a sing-song voice.

"No. Not in a long time." he said. "We were on the food committee for the dance a few terms back. So we spent a few of the meetings cooking. And one time we even spied on Evelyn. But that was a long time ago." he explained.

He then turned to face her. She was ticked at him. He could tell. He'd seen that look pretty often lately. "Listen. Don't be mad. I didn't see you at the feast and I was worried." he said running a hand through his hair.

"I just wanted to make sure you were alright. I thought it was kinda weird you didn't show up to the feast."

He stopped and took a deep breath.

"I know that you're still... you know... forgiving me about screwing up before. And I really, really just want things to be okay between us."

He took another breath and once more ran a hand through is hair.

"Honestly. I'm just glad you're talking to me. And I figured if you wanted to explain to me why you skipped the feast you'd want a private place to do it."

mind her...or don't mind her XD
 

Kurumi's.Nerves.Were.SHOT.

She was trembling so much that she looked as though she were standing on top of a jack hammer as she made her way into the kitchen. Bowing awkwardly to her house elf friends, she made her way towards her usual baking station and summoned two large bowls, a spatula, rolling pin, and measuring spoons before taking her cookie notebook and flipping through the pages until she found one of her more complicated cookie recipes.

She needed to make cookies...lots and lots and LOTS of them....NOW!

Yeah...yeah...this would do...keep her mind off what she had just done...

Turning around, and managing to whip herself across the face and whacking herself in the eye with her ponytail, she stumbled towards the spice cupboard to look for some cinnamon and vanilla sticks.

Hand on the cupboard, she swallowed and felt as if she were going to faint. It was all Selina's fault for bringing it up...Kurumi wasn't the best flyer there was and she had only JUST mastered taking off and the occasional 7.0 landing. How in MERLIN'S SCRATCHY BEARD was she going to be able to handle this?!

Yet...there was nothing she could do about it now. She had written her name down on that ruddy sign up sheet for Quidditch try outs.

Put one feet in front of the other, and there we go. Guess where Hugo was going after the quick visit to the dungeon? That's right. The library. It was his sanctuary. Clutching a book he was going to return to his chest, he hopped over through the kitchen level. He shrugged at the Hufflepuff common room entrance and almost walked past the other sanctuary. Not his though. Kurumi's sanctuary. He doubted he'd find Kurumi here with all of her unpredictable behaviour but still he peaked his head through the door opening. And tharr she was. She was looking quite stressed. But Hugo needed to talk too.

He put his book on the counter and walked up to Kurumi. "Whatcha making?" Hugo asked, looking at all of her cooking equipment in her hands. What was she so stressed about? Her problems should be bigger than his. "Is something wrong?" Hugo asked.

Ariadne was very happy to see her multiple questions were receiving decent answers. More than decent, actually. 'Do they? Wow, so everything that pops in your head, you ask them and they have it?' Ari was more and more impressed by Hogwarts every minute. 'I feel sorry to bother them, though, they're working so hard.' she pitied the elves.

Ariadne envied Eirian for not being nervous about exams. The firstie worried too much even about regular homework. Of course, she had no idea why the older girl wasn't worried. 'That sounds like a fabulous life plan. I want to travel a lot too. I love travelling. Have you seen many countries so far?' Ari wondered.

Only when Eirian told her she was living with her grandmother did Ariadne feel slightly ashamed for asking so many questions. However, she couldn't help but ask:'But what about your mother?' Maybe she had died too, and this made it the most inappropriate question ever. Now Ariadne felt lucky for at least having her mum around. 'Never mind, you don't have to answer that.' she added quickly.

Hmm... cheesecake and ice cream? "Wellll... maybe I am just a little hungry." The only thing she had eaten all day was half a chocolate frog on the train.

Okay, so maybe she had jumped to conclusions... again. Could you blame her though? Destiny was the reason for Marie and Carter breaking up. Her and that stupid love potion. "Oh, well it sounds like you two had a fun time." And why was it she was just now hearing about it? After all, her and Carter were still together at that time.

"I'm Sorry Carter, I'm not mad. I'm just having a really bad day. I... broke up with Finlay on the train today. That's why I didn't go to the feast." She knew that if she seen him she was not going to be able to pull off acting like she didn't care about what had happened. Kinda like she was failing at it here right now. "Thanks... for caring Carter. That means a lot to me" He was the only one to actually seek her out to find out what was wrong and why she had skipped the feast.

Feeling her eyes start to sting a little she quickly looked away from Carter. She really didn't want him to see her cry if the tears should happen to spill over.

"That's more like it." Carter said with a huge smile. He headed back toward the desserts to get two bowls ready for them.

He nodded as Marie said that it sounded like fun. He was tempted to say fun happened all the time back when everyone hung out... but decided against it. Now was probably not an appropriate time for him to confess that he missed hanging out with all the she-snakes.

In fact, there might never be a right time to confess that little secret.

Carter looked up at Marie as she said what was really bothering her. "Oh..." was all that he managed to say. After loading the two bowls up with cheesecake and ice cream he returned and sat next to her. "Well. Maybe this will help a little." he said placing the bowl in front of her. He then took a bite from his bowl. "It's pretty good." he said.

But then again, cheesecake was his favorite food. It was always good.

He was going to ask if she was alright, but decided against it. He wasn't sure how much she was hurt or if she hurt because it was new. Honestly, he didn't want to know. He had a feeling that it would be weird to talk about it.

Oh no. She just turned away. That could only mean one thing.

Carter had to do some quick thinking.

"You know, I think you're a great girl. And despite whatever may have happened and how you're feeling now... you'll be fine." he said. He then gave her a soft little nudge. "And I would know. That comes from personal experience." he said with a little chuckle. He then smiled hoping that that cheered her up a bit.

Kurumi threw the entire bowl of flour up in the air when she heard a voice seemingly come out of no where. Fantastic...now it was snowing and she had a rather large mound of the white powder on her head.

Slowly turning around, she saw Hugo and had to cover her mouth to prevent herself from bursting out into a fit of giggles right there on the spot. The Ravenclaw looked like a rather splotchy ghost thanks to a healthy covering of flour.

"S-S-S-Sorry," she stammered as she began her ritual of bowing in apology. She really ought to Scourgify the two of them, but situations like this called for a picture first. "I-I'm making Iced Apple Soufflé with Caramelised Apple Cookies...well, they are really more like mini soufflé I suppose..."

Kurumi reached into her bag and pulled out the camera her father had given her for her birthday. She just couldn't get enough of the wizarding camera and Treyen had told her to be sure to take it everywhere she went just in case the perfect candid opportunity arose.

Setting it on the counter and adjusting the self timer, she jumped to Hugo's side.

"Say cheese for the yearbook!"

It happened in a second, and there Hugo was standing across from Kurumi covered with flour. He wasn't sure if he still was worried, because he felt like he could burst out in laughter any second now. It was even more hilarious now that he had his reading glasses still on, so the flour covered his glasses and he couldn't see a thing. He took them off, wiped them clean and put them in his pocket. He coughed awkwardly, but the flour he blew in the air made it even funnier.

"It's okay," he chuckled and walked up to Kurumi and looked at her recipe notebook thing. "Sounds... Complicated," he said, squinting his eye at the recipe. Then he looked around at the kitchen elves, looking around confused at the mess. He couldn't help but smile. The situation was all in all quite funny.

As Kurumi pulled out a camera he raised and eyebrow while smiling, not sure what she was doing. Oh, she wanted to take a picture. Hugo chuckled as the self-timer started beeping and Kurumi jumped to his side.

Beep beep beep.

Smile.

"CHEEEEEEESE!"

Flash!

Hugo blinked at the flash and coughed some more flour around. What was that thing he wanted to talk about? He totally forgot. Oh well.

POOF! FLASH!

"Thank you for humoring me," she laughed walking over to the camera and removing the polorid and setting it and the camera a good distance away from the flour mess. "I suppose we should clean this mess up?" she winked taking out her wand and casting Scourgify on the counter first. "You look good in white. Well, better than purple anyway."