Salt.

Tobias was a genius. Salt was definitely a possible ingredient for potions, and when he dumped his Herbology gear back in his dormitory after grabbing the ginger root, he'd checked his potions book. Yup. Right there. Salt.

And he was right near the kitchens as well. Perfect.

Going by information he'd learnt from eavesdropping on overhearing some other students, the kitchens were very close to the Hufflepuff common room. Tobias wished there was some decent food so he could follow the smell, but in reality he was pretty confident he would find the place.

And here he was.

Quite sure that he was running out of time, but not owning a watch and therefore being unable to check, Tobias resolved to move quickly. After this, he still had one more ingredient to find.

He eyed a saltshaker not too far away on a counter and considered taking the entire thing... but then figured that if he was caught he'd probably get into a ton of trouble, seeing as the castle seemed to be grasping at every last knut. So Tobias drew from his pocket a tiny vial that he'd stolen borrowed found just lying about in the common room, and poured a decent amount of salt into it before stoppering it up.

And then he turned on his heel and hurried out, counting on his hyperactive nature to fuel all this rushing around and not allow him to run out of steam.

"That is an awesome idea." Nigel replied. They should totally have some bananas in this. Plus they should use as many flavors as possible. "How many flavors do you think are here in the kitchen because we should use all of them."

Nigel started to scoop out the strawberry ice cream Ronnie just brought and start to make the mountain. Since the base was already finished. Now he wanted to use his favorite. Cookie Dough. He picked up the tub he had saved for now and started just adding it to the strawberry Ronnie was putting on.
This might be the most messed up and awesome ice cream mountain ever.

Sophia looked up from her house-elf when she heard Medea's vampire accent. Normally her hands but slowly make their way to her neck but today Sophia had a witness and they were really close to the kitchen.

They weren't so broke that they didn't have garlic right? Because that..that would be really unfortunate.

"Medea.." She acknowledged her and then looked at her elf."I'm showing Marley around the castle. He's here to help us out with our little situation."

Marley did another very low bow."Marley is pleased to serve whenever he is needed."

Oh? This one was Sophia's?

Looking down to the elf, Medea smiled and nodded slowly. "Oh, how vonderful." She didn't particular like the whole house elf situation in general, though whatever helped give the students a decent environment to learn...she wasn't going to complain out loud. "Suppose ve could use all the help ve can get, right?"

Chuckling softly, she passed by the two and headed to retrieve a bowl and some ICE CREEAAAM!

Oh... and... and now the house elf was holding both of their hands. That was weird. And probably uncomfortable.

Anya nodded a few times. Salad. That was easy enough. She knew how to make salad. Although... it was kind of sad that the salad only had 'leafies' and baby tomatoes.

After receiving some pretty self explanatory instructions from the house elf, Anya washed her hands. She then washed the leafies. She grabbed one of the bowls in the closet, then found a counter for her and Jake to work on. Once she was all situated, she began to break off the pieces for the salad.

Were they allowed to sing again...? Or have ice cream while they worked? OH! Or both?! That would be great.

At first she thought it might have been a lost cause where Benjy was concerned because of just how miserable he looked but she didn't miss the slight change in his expression. The fact that his smile was growing and he didn't seem as down as when she'd first seen him. All signs that things were going well!

She led him down to the kitchen, filling the whole walk with her chattering about everything and nothing. Mostly the ice-cream seeing as that's what they'd be coming for. "I don't know how many flavours they have, I only take the chocolate." CHOOOCOLATE. "But I'm guessing lots of flavours because everyone who's had some likes what they have."

She tickled the pear then entered, gesturing for him to do the same before she went on talking.

"What flavour do you like best, I'm sure it'll have it." Lex walked over to the counter that held the machine and flung the small door open. There were some extra bowls in here, not many but there were and she kept them clean for days like this where she wanted ice-cream but couldn't find Aidan; he had her plates and such.

Benjamin was actually rather grateful for Lex's chatter as they went down all those stairs. It was nice and distracting, and he tried to keep up with some agreeable noises along the way. Mostly, it seemed that Lex REALLY liked ice-cream.

"Chocolate's good," Benjamin agreed, for the first time in their journey replying why understandable words. Though, he wasn't sure he'd only ever take chocolate. Wouldn't that get boring?

He hadn't been down to the kitchens before, so he watched curiously at she tickled the pear on the picture. And he was meant to do the same? He sort of roughly ran his fingers over the surface, trying to copy with Lex had done. It must have worked, as he soon followed the girl into the kitchen.

"How comes I didn't know I could get in here?" he pondered aloud, as he turned on the spot and surveyed the room. All that time he had gone hungry already this term, and he could have just come he instead. Sure, bottomless ice-cream wasn't the healthiest of meals, but combined with his aunt's food parcels, he was sorted for the rest of the year!

"I really like honeycomb..." he said, though doubtful the machine would have it. "But otherwise I like pretty much any flavour. We could make me a sort of ice-cream sundae and then I can try a few?"

Yep, Lex had worked her magic. His mood wasn't totally lifted...but he was certainly distracted.

She knew she liked this one. He understood the fundamental prinicple of life; chocolate was good. Understand that and you basically understood the world, you understood life and most importantly, you understood her. Chocolate was welcomed by her in all forms but most preferred when hopping around, though of late, this ice-cream held more appeal, still, CHOCOLATE.

"Hm...?" She mumbled distractedly reaching toward the back of the cupboard. Yes the back. If they were in plain view everyone would use them, someone would lose them and NO ONE would want the blame while she'd be left without a her extras.

Yeah...how's about no?

Finally, she pulled two bowls up and two metal spoons she'd kept from the tea party in the RoR. "Oh the kitchen! I went my entire first year without knowing where this place was but kept hearing people talking about it so I got to asking questions." She rested both bowls on the counter then turned to look at him, grin still in place. "Brilliant method of hiding might I add. I would never have thought to tickle a piece of furniture."

And another shot of brilliance, sundaes!

"That'll work just fine! There's bananas over there, you could go grab some," she said, pointing just across the room, "and there's chocolate syrup here as well." There were tons of things for sundaes!! GRIIIN.

What WAS she doing in the back of that cupboard? Benjamin watched, bemused. Did the icecream machine need switching on or something? Hmm...

And then she appeared once more, almost triumphantly. Aha! That was CUNNING. It actually hadn't even cross Benjy's mind that he'd need something to put the ice-cream in, so he was really rather impressed at how she'd found a way to keep a couple of bowls handy.

"But I'm a fourth year..." Benjy said, shaking his head in disbelief. Maybe Ravenclaws were just to studious to be bothered to go to the kitchen on a regular basis? It was a long way, after all. And some Claws practically seemed to live in the library. "Oh, definitely," he agreed. "I'd have thought it was just off the Great Hall rather than here." Unless here WAS just off the Great Hall somewhere, and his Hogwarts geography was messed up. To be honest, it was almost certain his Hogwarts geography was messed up - he blamed the moving staircases for that. Every time he thought he'd been going the right direction in first year, he ended up going in a completely different one.

Looking where she was pointing, Benjy nodded. "Awesome!" Oh yeah, he was totally going for a banana split. Grabbing the bananas, Benjy laid them on the counter near to the bowls. "Is there any whipped cream?" You know, that squirty stuff that kinda looked frilly and shot out when you pushed on the nozzle. Benjy never got the stuff at home, but it sure looked fun!

She gestured for him to place the bananas by the bowls while she listened to his reason behind his disbelief. "That's true I guess but maybe you had no reason to know where this place was before now? I'm a Gryffindor, food is one of our bestfriends, naturally we'd ask Hufflepuffs about this place or even go looking ourselves." She was about to mention that most Ravenclaws preferred the library but thought it was too stereotypical and seeing as she'd gotten him to stop sulking, she didn't want to chance anything.

Lex pointed just next to the machine. "Yup, right there. There's been whipped cream handy every since this machine got here." She should know and it was wonderful.

"You can just grab that while I get the sprinkles and the syrup." both of which she and promptly brought back to the bowls. She paused reflectively looking at what they had so far before turning him again, her face giving away her eagerness to have these made.

"There are nuts too but...are you allergic to those?"

This was meant to take his mind of whatever had happened earlier, not land him in the hospital wing. She could only imagine that he'd never listen to her again if he had to see Healer Tillstorm unnecessarily today then she would have lost an ice-cream buddy.

That would have been a pity.

Ella shivered a little as she entered the kitchen, thoughts of tea and tasseomancy on her mind. She frowned slightly when she noticed how empty the kitchen was. It just didn't feel right without the bustling house elves everywhere. It was oddly quiet in here now and cold too. She managed a small smile for the elves she did see but chose not to bother them. They were carrying a heavy load these days and best left to their work.

Placing her Divination book down on the counter, Ella set to work boiling some water. The tea leaves available to her were the same ones from class but she didn't mind. The warm liquid would do just fine to warm her bones and allow her to get her homework done.

Hopping up on the counter near the stove, she leaned her head back and closed her eyes. She had a minute or two to kill before the water was ready so why not rest. It was early, after all.

One final tea reading, and there was no better place to do it than the kitchen. Mo almost expected the kitchen to be completely empty, so it was a pleasant surprise to find Ella there. "La bella Ella? Are you cold?" He dragged a stool around to the counter so he was sitting just a few feet away. "Can I join you?"

It was obvious she was about to do her tasseomancy homework, and perhaps she would prefer to have some privacy. Maybe her question was deeply personal or something. Or maybe... oh, MERLIN, she was going to drink that terrible terrible tea.

"Don't drink that stuff. Please. I think it's bad for you. Look, I brought some with me." He dragged the tin out of his satchel and offered some loose tea leaves to her with a sort of desperate expression. "I'll trade it to you for some hot water, okay?"

La Bella Ella? Only one person called her that. "Hey Mr. Mo." Shrug. "Only a little. The castle is a bit drafty these days." Had he noticed? Was he cold too? She offered him a small smile and nodded her head in response to his question. "Course you can." The more the merrier.

The water was just about done, wasn't it? Ella could see the steam pouring out from the spout and she jumped down from the counter, skirting around Mo to get to it. She didn't want the whistling of the kettle to disturb any of the few elves that might be lingering around.

"The tea we had in class?" Blink. That was bad for you? Merlin! No wonder she was cold. Perhaps she was coming down with something? "I'll accept your offer." She decided with a thoughtful expression, reaching out to take a few tea leaves from the boy's tin. "Thanks for this. Oh and your water. Have you got your cup or shall we use whatever they've got in the kitchen?"

While she waited for his response, she retrieved her own Hogwarts issued cup and plate from a nearby cabinet, placing them both on the counter. "Don't tell anyone about my hiding spot, okay?" Though she wasn't sure who'd want her cup and plate.

"It's cold, but I just put on more sweaters," Mo offered his very helpful and sage advice. So that was to say that he noticed the cold and had decided not to be bothered by it. Easy as pie. Was pie easy?

He rummaged in his bag before pulling out a blue teacup and mismatched paisley saucer, setting them on the counter so Ella could fill it. "Maybe not bad for you, but things that taste bad probably shouldn't be eaten. One of those mental things. It will impact your whole reading." Or so he thought.

"Your secrets are absolutely safe with me, La Bella," Mo vowed as he removed a tin from his satchel (lotsa stuff fit in there) and offered the loose tea to Ella. He dumped some of the leaves into his own cup while he waited on the water.

A grin spread across Benjy's face. "All sorts of food...or mainly just that of chocolate ice-cream variety?" he asked, eyebrow quirked. His first choice would probably be cake. Or toad in the hole, dripping with onion gravy and served with a HUGE pile of mash stacked up beside it. Mmm, proper mash. Not like that runny horible stuff they'd gotten at the opening feast. That stuff was worse than that fake powdered mash Muggles had.

BLEH.

OOO, cream. How had he not spotted that before? There it was, in all it's tinned squirty glory. "Good stuff." He grabbed a couple, and put them down in their totally uber cool sundae making area. He was SO looking forward to devouring this. When he'd made it, of course.

"Hmm?" he said distractedly, still thinking about the awesome sundae he was about to build. "Not that I know of..." So nuts would be a good addition, yes.

"Since you seem to be the ice-cream expert..." Benjy beamed at Lex, worries of before totally forgotten for the short term. "...you want to show me how it's done?" He had theories and all, but nothing beat expert tuition, right?

GRIN.

More sweaters, right. "Blankets help too. I might just carry one around with me from now on." Might help with the shivers and such.

Ella handled the kettle carefully, waiting for Mo to set down her teacup and saucer. "I know what you mean. It's hard to concentrate on the important questions in life when your fighting the urge to spit out your tea." Just one of those things, yeah?

"I appreciate that," Ella said cheerfully, giving the boy a broad smile before pouring some hot water over his tea leaves. She added some leaves to her own cup as well before adding the water and announced, "Two minutes." Time for meditation or something, right? Ella closed her eyes and let the steam fill her nostrils, smiling a little as thoughts of her family filled her mind.

OH HEY A GRIN!!!! YES! Progress was good and it had her grinning too. "All kinds of food will do, so long as it tastes good and can be consumed!" That was the only rule when it came to food as far as she was concerned. "But when I think about it, I do have a preference for things of the chocolate variety." And she beamed a bit. Chocolate, chocolate made her happy.

She set the things more neatly on the counter and gestured to the spot he was meant to place the whipped cream. This all looked real organized and just made it all even more legit.

"Awesome!" No nut allergies! This would be the best sundae she'd made in a while. She'd have to tell Alec about it, he'd be so proud! He'd want to try it too. Lex had a bounce in her step as she walked over to another set of cupboards and pulled a jar of nuts from a top one. These tasted wonderful on ice-cream. She'd only tried them once before but that was enough to convince her.

The next thing he said had her beaming even more than earlier. "I don't consider myself an expert, not as much as I would were this concerning candy but sure, of course!" She beckoned him closer so he would see. "First we slice the banana's." Lex peeled the first banana then drew her wand. "Diffindo!" and repeated with the second so they were both split length wise.

She placed each split banana into either bowl. "Now we add the ice-cream." After doing that she returned to his side with an unusually bright glow in her expression. "Now comes the fun part, whipped cream, syrup and just about everything else made of sugar!!" She handed him the can of whipped cream. "All yours."

"Emphasis on the good," Benjy said, still thinking about the slop that had been served as mash. Really, how hard was it to boil some potatoes and make them into lovely, creamy mash? Even he could do it! And that was saying something, given the fact that he was never allowed near the kitchen at home. That was for their House Elf and his mother only.

Hmm. "Just chocolate, or any candy?" Admittedly, Benjy knew very little about Lex and her preferences, and with Christmas just round the corner, now was a good time to start, right? Or, disregarding the Christmas thing, just to be sociable. He could be sociable. Garrick might want to a be a recluse, but Benjy didn't have to be. He face might have faltered a little at that last thought, but it was soon forgotten as Lex produced a whole jar of chopped nuts.

HOW HAD HE NOT KNOWN THIS PLACE EXISTED?

WHY HAD HE STARVED FOR SO LONG?

Okay, not totally starved. But stomach rumblings in class did get a little awkward. And he was a growing boy.

Benjy joined her at the counter, and watched attentively. "You're a candy expert? You tried everything in Honeyduke's yet?" Because if she hadn't, he was totally advocating that they should start to next Hogsmeade trip. He still had some birthday money to be able to pick up a few things to start with...

Anyway, bananas! Luckily Lex had the sense to use diffindo on them, so he didn't have to go scrabbling around for a knife - or worse, have to run back to the dorms and find his one. And soon she'd added the ice-cream too. "Mmm, looking good already." Whipped cream in hand, Benjy gave it a good ol' shake, and giggled as the white fluffy stuff came out with a lot with speed and forced then he intended, and completely missed bananas, ice-cream and bowl. "Ooops," he said with another giggle, wiping it up with a finger, and licking it slowly. The second attempt was much more successful, and he rather zealously added a thick zig-zagging layer of cream to his sundae. "Reckon that's about enough," he said, handing the cream out for Lex to take if she wanted to do her own.

"Something tells me your staple diet is, well, sugar," Benjy said with a wry smile. "I approve. Though I doubt my mother would." Or Garrick, for that matter. Right now, it didn't matter in the slightest though.

Now, a sprinkle of nuts. And LOTS of syrup. And then some more.

YUM.

"You'd look silly," Mo was ever helpful. She probably was joking about wearing a blanket, but she ought to know that very few people could get away with a blanket as a fashion statement. Ella might be able to do it, but then again... it was hard tos ay.

Speaking of important questions in life, though... that was one of those difficult issues he had every time he did this tea leaf reading thing. AND Mo had already exhausted most of the questions he could think to ask. Maybe he should ask something a little less 'important' just to get through this last round. Like... what should he eat for breakfast tomorrow? Or... should he get West a Christmas present this year in spite of... reasons?

Yeah, he'd ask that one. OH TWO MINUTES. Mo closed his eyes and tried to slip into the Beyond, although he couldn't much past his own nose at the moment. It was early and he was tired, after all. Mental ohm-ing commencing.... NOW.

"Well but...I'd be comfy." Which was much more important than looking silly, by the way. "Cozy too." Which was also more important. WAY more. Besides, Ella didn't care much what people thought about her fashion choices. She hoped they'd think about what kind of person she was instead.

What news is Dad going to tell me over Christmas? It was the question floating around in Ella's brain and though she was a bit scared of what she might find at the bottom of her cup, she really wanted answers. A clue at the very least would be nice. Cryptic Dad could be cryptic sometimes and some kind of Divination help would come in handy right now.


Ding.Ding. And no, there was no timer around but Ella had been keeping track of the time and she opened her eyes, peeking at her tea. "Erm...I guess it's time?" Ready or not.

The blonde sipped her tea most of the way, leaving a little at the bottom. 3 swirls now, yeah? Yeah. Swirl. Swirl. Swirl. Then dumping out the remaining liquid, she peered at her tea leaves and raised her brows. "Hmmm."

"Oh, yes, definitely." Lex said with a firm nod, popping the lid of the peanuts opened. She helped herself to a few of them, still nodding a bit in thought. Food wasn't technically food unless it tasted good. Not to her anyway. Food was meant to be eaten and if it tasted terribly then it would have problems carrying out this function.

......She didn't have to think that other part through for long but she still paused before responding. "All candy is adored but chocolate's my all time favourite, I could eat it all day if I was allowed." Lex leaned against the counter and gave him a curious look. "What about you?" She popped another nut into her mouth. "What would you say you have a preference for?" Did it also have something rooted in sugar??

That'd be neat.

Her face lit up involuntarily at the mention of candy experts. "I am, I know everything about them, best choices, which ones fit a low budget, the type you buy when you're trying make a statement." She knew the whole lot! "And I regret to say I haven't." You'd think with an addiction like hers she'd had gone through them all but her father only gave her so much money and before she knew it most of it was spent on chocolate frogs and other things that ranked high on her list.

"It's a interesting thought, I'll give you that. Maybe I'll work towards that." A new goal where candy was concerned. Her father wouldn't be very happy but SHE was positively tickled pink by this.

CANDY.

She watched on at him shaking the whipped cream, at no point did she expect it to suddenly start gushing from the nuzzle the way it did, missing the ice-cream and getting a few spatters on her face and...was there some in her hair? She reached up and felt just a bit...

"Giiiiiiiiiggle. "Nice one." Heheheheehehehe. "You're good on the cream, here, this goes next." She took the can and handed him the bottle of chocolate syrup. "See that you hit the actual sundae this time." She teased with another giggle. In the meantime she got an unhealthy dose of whipped cream onto her own sundae. Almost done, then they could FEAST!!!!!

Lex grinned over at him. "You wouldn't be the first to guess that and it's true!" Much to her father and doctor's dismay. "So very glad you approve." GRIN. "Let's hope you adopt this eating habit one day."

Mo sipped his tea as well, falling into a remarkably comfortable silence with Ella. Or maybe it was just because they were both dwelling on their questions for the tea reading and too busy for conversation. Either way, Mo didn't feel awkward about sipping tea and mentally ohm-ing and practically ignoring Ella. She didn't seem to mind either.

At the bottom of his cup, Mo swirled the splash of liquid three times and turned it upside down into the saucer. Leaving it there, Mo tried to peer into Ella's cup too. He didn't know her question, so he wouldn't know everything, but maybe she had something really awesome in there.

"You get anything good, la Bella?"

Blobs. The tea leaves just really looked like blobs to Ella but she tried to tap into her imagination and see beyond that. "A pyramid looking thing..." SQUINT. "A...house? And that could be a mask, I suppose." Shrug. "What about you?" She glanced up at Mo and gave him a small smile before reaching for her notebook and textbook. She had some recording to do, yeah?

Scribble. Scribble. Scribble.



When she was done writing, Ella looked up and frowned slightly. "How accurate do you think these readings are, Mr. Mo?"

Mo shrugged as he picked up his own cup. "I'm sure they CAN be accurate. I mean... some people really do have the gift, right?" He didn't elaborate much, though, because it was possible neither he nor Ella had that particular gift. "I think the hard part is that pyramids look like triangles and houses look like boxes and masks... look like anything blobby. It's a best guess, which sometimes means you're gonna pick what you want to see instead of what you do see."

Too much thinking going on, really. Mo turned his attention back to his cup, tilting it toward Ella. "I see a circle at the bottom. Maybe a donut... or a ring? I guess a ring. And then up by the handle, I see a pointy thing. A long triangle, although it's sort of funny at the end. A knife, I guess. That doesn't sound good, does it? And kinda here at the top." He paused and squinted at it. "I'm going with a train. Because I really want a train." See how that was done?

He watched her jotting down her own answers before tugging out a bit of parchment and writing out his own.



He glanced up at Ella. "Are you happy with your reading, then?"

Ella nodded as Mo explained his view on the whole tea reading thing. He was a smart guy, Mo was, so she was inclined to believe he was right.

"A knife?" Shudder. "Nope, doesn't sound good at all." And hopefully Mo's reading wasn't a bad one. He was a nice guy so he deserved nice readings as far as Ella was concerned. "Trains are nice. I see a train too." See? She could do this too.

Ella finished up her notes and piled her things up neatly before washing her cup and plate. She then placed them back in her hiding spot and leaned on the counter, watching Mo finish up. She didn't want to interrupt him or anything.

"I guess? It's not too terrible or anything so if it actually comes true I won't be too gutted." Shrug. "Are you?"