"Fina can you fetch the oatmeal and raisins from the cupboards?" Leo asked as he continued to stir around the mixture. It would be oatmeal raisins with chocolates. It would be delicious he predicted.

Putting down the spoon as things got serious Leo said "I propose we go visit the Headmistress right now. I think we need outside help to go to the bottom with all the suspicious aches and other ailments. Maybe Cece has some insight too? We could send her a patronus on our way to Annie?"

It seemed like Leo would have to take a reign check on baking cookies.

Oh good. The librarian was in agreement with her about the raisins. Beaming and nodding at him, she headed over towards the cupboard and opened it, frowning. Now what kind of CRUEL person would put the raisins way up there on the top shelf? House elves were shorter than her, even. Reaching the oatmeal with no problems, she stood on her tip-toes and outstretched her arm for the raisins. Little help? Fina glanced over at Cos - surely he could help with the reaching bit even if he didn't cook.

Hmm... wait... what? "And I almost got the raisins down too." Fina mumbled, seeing Leo set his spoon down. "But yes, we should probably contact Cecelia, as well as Annie. Good call."

Leaving the cupboard door open, Fina turned from it and toward exiting the kitchen. Cookie-baking with Leo could wait.

Josette smiled instantly when Ella said that they could use the same spoon & bowl. After she'd measured the appropriate amount of sugar that Ella told her to, the little girl was soon watching Ella move about the kitchen. She couldn't help but think of her almost like a mother figure of some sort...well that is what Josette thought a mother would be doing in the kitchen at least. It at least said so in most of her stories she'd read back at home.

Wait, sorry Ella..

She had just caught what Ella had said about adding the vanilla and the egg. She nodded before she offered in a soft tone, "Did you want me to do anything?"

Pulling off his flowery apron as Cosgrach and Fina agreed with his plan Leo hung it up on a peg on the nearest wall. He'd go back and bake after they'd talked to Annie and Cece about the very alarming situation.

Following Cosgrach and Fina out the door Leo shot the nearest elf an apologetic glance. He'd made a mess that he at the moment wouldn't and couldn't clean up. Hopefully they understood.

The situation was grave.

After adding in the vanilla and the egg, Ella leaned back against the counter and thought for a moment about what was next. Her memory was a bit foggy but she'd made these cookies a lot recently and seen her Gran make them hundreds of times before that. She just needed to take a second and th--Oh! She knew what was next.

"Butter. Could you add the cup of butter? And then if you don't mind mixing this while I measure out the flour, baking soda, and salt, that'd be brilliant."

The Head Girl just hoped she wasn't being too bossy. Honestly, she was used to baking by herself and it was awesome to have help. She just hoped that Josie was enjoying herself and not feeling left out as Ella buzzed around the kitchen getting stuff and measuring things.

"Do you bake a lot at home?" She asked softly as she 2 1/4 cup flour carefully.

Josette continued to be very mindful of everything Ella was doing. All of these new things she was learning was very VERY intriguing & she was hoping that she'd be able to remember all of this for future reference. Or, she could possibly ask Ella to teach her how to bake some more..that is if the older girl wanted to. Because the little girl would absolutely understand if she didn't want to, she was very pretty and very nice..so she must have had better things to do than teach a little girl how to bake cookies.

Big blue eyes lit up as she found out that she could help Ella some more. Adding the cup of butter? SHE COULD DO THAT! YES, SHE COULD DEFINITELY DO THAT!

...At least she thought she could..

Taking the butter into her tiny hands, the first year was in the middle of pouring it into the bowl when she'd heard Ella ask if she'd baked at a lot at home. Josette bit her bottom lip before she slowly shook her head. "Um...No..It's...This is my first time baking..." Back home, father never was never perfectly happy with the idea of her baking..especially by herself, for fear of her burning down their house. Not saying that she would have...not intentionally anyway..

And besides she wasn't doing it alone now...So...that's good right?

....Right?

Flour was measured and then added in. Next came the baking soda and salt. All the while Ella hummed faintly, today's song of choice being Blackbird. It'd been stuck in her head since she woke up and so she couldn't really help the humming. Hopefully Josie wasn't the sort to find such things annoying.

Pausing her humming, she smiled as the younger girl added in the butter, noting the lip biting and wondering if she was nervous or uncomfortable with the question Ella had asked. The badger hadn't meant to make her feel uncomfortable, y'know? The girl's answer did cause Ella to smile, though. "First timer, huh? Well you're doing brilliantly, y'know. I'm impressed." Truly.

And guess what it was time for? "Chocolate chips!" The eighteen year old held the bag out to the younger girl and took the spoon, turning the dough cheerfully. "You want to pour them in while I stir?" She could add lots, Ella wouldn't mind.

While she was watching Ella add the flour, baking soda & salt she'd caught notice of something. She was humming something. A song perhaps? Josette wasn't entirely sure, she'd never actually heard this song before. But she definitely didn't mind hearing Ella hum at all. In fact, she actually liked it, a lot. Although, she did have to admit it was sounding like something of a bit of a lullaby to her, it was beginning to make the little first year feel a bit drowsy. She couldn't take a nap right now could she?

-NO, not now, they were baking cookies...right!

Josette nodded her head to Ella's question. Well...actually, technically, it was her second time. Who could forget Josette's failed attempt at trying to bake a cake earlier before Ella had come to her rescue. Josette knew she definitely wouldn't forget. It was pretty sad actually. But what was that though? Ella was impressed? Really? Alright, well that definitely caused Josette to smile.

Chocolate chips?! Josette gasped eagerly as she watched Ella hold out the bag of chocolatey goodies to her! She could pour them into the bowl?! Really?! Josette smiled as she took the bag into her hand. Before she did anything else, she'd snuck her hand inside the bag and took two before popping them into her mouth.

Nom Nom Nom..

Oh, right sorry Ella! Josette then held the bad over the bowl and tilted it allowing the multiple chips to fall into the dough as Ella was stirring their concoction. Did Ella mind if there were a lot because by the looks of it, there were A LOT of them going in & judging by Ella's silence, it seemed that it was quite alright! YAY CHOCOLATE!

For Jenn
 

So it was no secret that he liked food, like a lot he was a growing teenage boy and that was his excuse. So naturally he was in the kitchen, eating pizza alone and content away from everyone else who in the castle, that is until a girl came in and began shifting through things, making something he assumed but it didnt matter, not to him anyway cause he was not all about new people. not even if there was a mutual thing of food happening, he wouldn't have it, so he stared down at his few slices of pizza, just stared and nibbled on the slice in hand. He was also wishing that she would just ask an elf to do it and leave, please leave, it was awkward enough being around stranger let alone eating in front of them.

he looked up briefly at her and what she was doing, looked like she as still gathering things, a bowl and flour and such. Maybe she was baking something,even still he wasn't ok with this. Strangers, N O.

Anna looked up seeing another boy sitting on the other side of the room from her... He seemed to be eyeing her. Did he not like her being there? She mentally shrugged, oh well, he could deal with it, after all, she was just trying to make something for her friend. She tried to shrug him off and went back, mixing in all the different ingredients and started stirring them up. She hoped Romulus would like them. She got that stupid goofy smile thinking about him again. Annaleecia missed him actually, she'd only seen him a few times but every time they had a chance to talk Rom just seemed to understand her and always said the right thing to cheer her up... Unlike Kace, who said they were fine after her slip up and then acted like she was the plague and never wanted to be around her anymore... And thinking about Kace now was getting her aggravated, thinking about her still somewhat crush that she wished she could just forget.

She looked at him as he still eyed her and she couldn't help getting slightly annoyed, "Take a picture, dude... It'll last a lot longer." She rolled her eyes to the slightly older looking boy. She'd had enough trouble without him being weird and watching her bake.

He really wasnt staring at her or being creepy at all. He merely glanced up at her the exact same times she happened to glance at him and well if that didnt make him want to crawl in a hole and never been seen again he wasnt sure what would. Slouching in his chair a bit more the second time they locked eyes awkwardly he just felt like he could of melted from embarrassment, or maybe just the look she gave him, that was enough to kill him.

OI! he wasnt staring, and he surely didnt want a picture! blinking and furring his brows he looked up at the girl. "wasnt looking at you." not like LOOKING looking anyway. just glances over when she happened to make loud noises and she shuffled through things i mean gosh.

he could die now.

She shrugged and gently started to cut the circles out of the dough she'd made. Anna smiled slightly again, maybe after she gave him the cookies she could ask Romulus if he felt the same way about her as she felt about him... Maybe, it would be nice... but then he might turn her away same as him... She wasn't angry with Kace, after all, it was her fault... but for someone who wanted to be her friends still he avoided her... She glared and the thud of her cookie cutter was getting louder with every thought of that night came up.

Annaleecia looked at the boy as he tried to act like he wasn't looking at her. Right, she wasn't stupid, she knew what she saw, and he could deny it all he wanted, "Yeah, ok, sure." She fought her urge to roll her eyes, which really was a challenge when she was annoyed like she was. The thirteen year old started to straighten the dough again trying to calm down again.

THUD. THUD. THUD.


was she making something of beating the dough!? Jeremiah, afraid to look up fully, glanced at her briefly. "the dough didnt do anything." unless it did, he didnt know, she could have something against cookie dough and enjoys taking time out of her day to mix dough up just to beat it to a bloody pulp. he didnt know her life, or what she did with it, though if that was what she choose to do then so be it. He took another bite of his pizza and as he did so some toppings came tumbling off and onto his shirt, his nice new shirt and ASDFGHJKL!

"crap." he mumbled more incoherent words to himself as he reached over for the napkin he thankfully had on hand. hopefully his shirt wasnt stained already.

She sighed, "No, it didn't..." Anna looked away from the dough, suddenly her mood worsening. She shook her head slightly and got the cookies that were cut out onto a cookie sheet, then started the process over again, trying to not be so loud as the last couple times, "But getting annoyed, cooking's always been a good escape from the idiots in the world." No, honestly she normally wasn't like this. She was normally happy go lucky but the thing with her so called 'friend' and then also getting a letter that if she tried to write her parents again they'd ship her even further away... Yeah, good mood just didn't exist right now.

She looked over at him as he got something on his shirt... Maybe she'd been rude, but hopefully he understand that people couldn't be happy and friendly all the time, "Need some help with that?"

Penelope laughed a little too. "Yeah, it is." She'd just come out for some fresh air, but already she felt like she'd had more than enough. Warmth was needed a lot more now, yeah? So she hurried quickly with Delilah back to the castle without another word, slowing only once they'd reached the kitchens and was finally starting to warm up.

"Much better now, yeah?" she said with a grin. And it'd be even better once they got the hot chocolate going.

Dylan entered the kitchen with Lux after joining her in delivering her letter at the owlery. He felt as if he was starving now and he couldn't wait to get his hands on some ice cream. What better to fill your stomach than ice cream? Hehe.

The second year took his friend over to the counter and took out two bowls. "Did you want some ice cream too?" he asked, looking over his shoulder at her before taking the bowls over.

Yes, the kitchen!

After what seemed like thousands of years, or more than fifteen minutes, Jun finally made it to the kitchens. A hungry boy needed to eat and the sooner, the better. Even though his whole body was aching, it was a bit better to move around instead of staying bed all day. Plus, everyone he was close to was affected by the aging bug so he couldn't ask them to get him food. Sad life, man. Either way, the boy walked into the kitchen and began to think about what to eat. Cereal? Ehh. Maybe he'll just cook something up.

But what was he going to cook anyway?

Ella got excited about chocolate too so she completely understood Josette's reaction to chocolate chips. The blonde smiled back and stifled a giggle when the younger girl took some chocolate to snack on. She approved. And so the eighteen year old reached over and snuck a few out of the bag for herself.

WOW. Lots and lots of chocolate. Ella just continued to stir, not bothered in the least by the amount that was being added in. Only when it started to get difficult to stir did she look up and stop the younger girl. "Alright, I think that's good." Nodnod.

Cookie sheet....cookie sheet...had she had one before? The blonde looked confused for a minute or two, glancing around at everything they'd taken out. It took her a second but finally she spotted it and abandoned her stirring duties to grab it and bring it back. "Okay, so we're going to scoop spoonfuls of batter onto the cookie sheet and then we can bake them!" BEAM! You know why that was exciting? Because once they baked them, they could eat them! The Head Girl cleaned a spoon and held it out to Josie. "Want to scoop out the dough?"

Yummy. Food.

Lux loved food, so she was really happy to be in the kitchen again. It was one of the best parts of being in Hufflepuff; she had hardly any distance to go from her Common Room to where all the delicious food was.

Walking after Dylan over to the counter, she took a seat and watched as he got out two bowls. "Do you even need to ask." Beam. She loved ice cream, and she wanted lots of it now.

Ice cream was the best. Especially cookie dough.

Dylan chuckled at Lux's response. "I take that as a no, then?" he joked with a wink as he set both bowls on the counter. "Only joking." he added, in case she had thought he was serious or something. Right. Back to ice cream. He went and found the spoons and returned to Lux shortly after. "So, what kind are you in the mood for?" he asked with a smile as he leaned his elbows on the counter and rested his chin in his hands. He wasn't sure what he was in the mood for, there were so many good flavors! Perhaps strawberry...hhmm...

Hahaha No.

Lux rolled her eyes in amusement at Dylan and playfully shoved his arm some. "You are so funny." And there was no way that anyone would ever refuse ice cream, because it was so nice. It was sad for the people who couldn't have dairy, because they couldn't experience the wonderfullness of ice cream.

Oooh, what did she want? That was a good question, because there were so many amazing flavours that she loved. After a moment, she had made up her mind though. "I want cookie dough. What about you?"

"OWWWWWW MERLIN'S BEARD OW!"

Stairs were often the downfall, pun fully intended, of many old people. But would this old-young lady be left alone to meet her downfall?

It was certainly looking that way, as her whimpers echoed straight into the kitchens where the house elves were working.

Bay and Lux had finally made it to the kitchens.. phew.. placing down his walking stick he sat down which his hands instantly started to rub his knee.. ughhh so painful.. oh well it will get better eventually right??? right???

looking at the counter he saw cupcakes… yes he thought.. picking up a sugary sweet he started to much…. this satisfied his stomach for now.. but he was thinking a nice big sandwich is what he needed "what are you hungry for?" he turned to Lux… maybe he could make her a sandwich too if thats what she wanted.