Rain or shine, the Great Hall continues to be the hub of the school. Four long tables, one for each House as defined by the banners floating above them, are stationed in the enormous room facing the raised table reserved for the school staff. Already placed on the tables are silver plates with accompanying cutlery and goblets. Mountains of food and pitchers containing your favourite beverages are at your fingertips.

Whether you arrived for breakfast, lunch, or dinner on time or late, feel free to dig in as the headmaster has no speech to give. Keep yourself preoccupied by catching up with your fellow housemates or those who are visiting from the other tables while sink your teeth into the hearty and delicious meal prepared by the house-elves. Just remember to display proper eating etiquette and don't get any funny ideas. Food is to be eaten, not thrown across the dining room. Wasting food will come at a price that you will not like to pay.

It was dinner time and Solomon went to every effort to get to The Great Hall early and get his hands on the good stuff. This somewhat went to plan, arriving after a handful of other students. Greedy buggers. He didn’t mind really, and it hadn’t diminished his good mood.

Solly in a good mood?????!! It apparently gave him the confidence to sit himself at the Hufflepuff table - something he did occasionally when he wasn’t formally obligated to sit with his own housemates. Okay, usually he was accompanied by OTHER Hufflepuffs whenever he did that, so…

…

Yeah, guess a lone Slytherin sat here was a bit weird.

Thankfully absolutely none of this entered his mind and he was quite happily tucking into some gammon.

"Move move move movemovemovemove-" Reuben mumbled under his breath as he approached the Great Hall, zipping in between other students in order to get there first. Occasionally he stumbled, and every now and then he got distracted by a pretty face, but it didn't last long before his stomach was growling and he was off again.

Yeah, this Hufflepuff was starving. But when he reached his table, he drew up short. Because there was a Slytherin there, and it made him do a double-take. For a moment, he stood still, eyes darting between the other students sat there, the Slytherin table, and the colours surrounding each one. And eventually, he let out a sigh of relief and slipped into a seat opposite Solomon.

"I thought I'd gone mad for a minute there," he said, pulling some food onto his plate.

By this point, Solomon had an obscene amount of food on his plate which was barely touching the sides. He was so pleased to be completely unaware of everyone around him.

But the sudden presence of Reuben made Solomon feel quite awkward about having the ridiculous amount of food in his mouth that he did. He quickly swallowed and wiped his face with a napkin, as he thought about what Reuben had said.

He absolutely had a large piece of red lettuce stuck between his two front top teeth.

Which was WEIRD, because Solomon would never willingly put lettuce in his mouth.

“I haven’t perfected the colour changing charm to use on my robes yet.” He attempted a joke. More so he couldn’t be bothered. If a Hufflepuff had a problem with him sitting here then Solomon would give them a piece of his mind! “My table is boring.” He explained.

What other reason would he have to sit here, hmmmmmmmm????

What some may have called an obscene amount of food looked perfectly respectable to Reuben. He didn't bat an eyelid at it as he sat down and began to emulate the boy opposite him - by also piling as much onto his plate as physically possible.

Reuben was stupid. This was a well known fact. As such, he didn't understand that Solomon was joking and so he blinked, a small crease appearing between his eyes. "Why do you need the colour changing charm?" The idea that it had something to do with being sat at the Hufflepuff table went right over his head. "You are allowed to sit here, you know." Like, if Sol was trying to get into trouble, this was NOT the way to go about it.

Spares a glance at the Slytherin table and, not seeing Bonwen, nods his agreement. "Super boring. You don't have me there." Beams widely and stuffs some potato into his mouth, before spotting the lettuce in Solomon's teeth. Starts gesturing wildly with his fork at the other boys mouth.

He'd understand what he was trying to say whilst his mouth was full, surely.

He was quietly mortified that Reuben didn’t understand his sarcasm. It wasn’t even a proper joke, it was a DUMB comment, so explaining it would just be pointless. Solly stared vacantly at the Hufflepuff for a few seconds as he scrambled upon what to say, “Yeah… I was just kidding. I sit here all the time.” Or the Ravenclaw table with Rora. This was the first time he had done so this term, though. Something was holding him back from venturing from his own table for a while. Solly solitude.

He had hoped that Anna would be here by now, and he briefly looked to the doors for her because he could feel a sweat coming on. Although he wasn’t entirely sure about how her arrival would help, since he’d probably end up having to watch Reuben trying to badly flirt with her, or something.

Nope, he wasn’t going to be a third wheel to that, but he was intrigued to know what he thought of her. “Not seen Anna tonight. Have you?” There. His attempt at a conversation starter, although he was feeling much less chatty than normal today apparently.

For the first time this evening, Solomon actually chuckled, but reined it in before sounding goofy. “Hmmm…” he tapped his chin with his fork, “if you say so.” Solomon would not yet have an answer as to whether Reuben was fun to hang around with or not. Glancing over to the Slytherin table again as well, he felt a bit bad for slandering it when thinking of his gal pals, Sage and Rowan. And he, too, would agree that Bronwen was super nice.

His smile didn’t last long as Reuben was making some weird gesture with his fork at him. Solomon frowned, raising one brow a little higher.

“What’s wrong with you?” He asked rudely.
Oops.

"Oh, yeah! I've seen you here before." It was as though the memory had been jolted from him by Solly's comment, and now Reuben could picture him sitting with Anna quite vividly. It didn't even occur to him to think that that was who the other boy might be waiting for, though. He glanced around before turning back to Solomon and shaking his head. "Nah, she's not here yet. Might come later. Might be busy." It was one word he found fitted Anna quite well, though, given she was always flitting from thing to thing, and going about each one with enthusiasm. Quite like a butterfly, really - or at least that was what she reminded him of. Maybe he'd tell her. "We've got a date tomorrow, though, so I'll see her then."

Reuben swallowed (most of) the food that was in his mouth before tilting his head, wondering how best to answer Solomon's question. Oblivious as always, the Hufflepuff missed the rude nature of it and settled with a shrug. "That really depends who you ask. My mum has a list." Which was true, but he also knew that his mum was mostly joking, and still loved him despite thinking things were wrong with him.

OH. "You've got stuff in your teeth, by the way," he added, with more weird fork gesturing.

Solomon didn’t really want to talk about Anna with Reuben, but what he said next had him stunned. The Slytherin blinked and raised an eyebrow.

“A date? Anna has a date with you?” His questioning came with a hint of disbelief. Mostly because his best friend hadn’t informed him of this development, but also because he just couldn’t see them as a match. “Since when did you like Anna? I thought you fancied… someone else.” He said quietly. Who, you ask? He didn’t know exactly but was sure it was every other girl that attended Hogwarts??

Pfft.

He dropped his knife and fork onto the plate, indicating he was finished and in a mood, with a louder CLANK than he intended. Time for some pudding, but first, he had to sit and think.

Solly snorted and shook his head a little. If Reuben was anything, he was amusing, whether he intended to be or not. The penny soon dropped and he realised that the reason the Hufflepuff was jabbing his fork around because Solomon had food in his teeth. Immediately he covered his mouth, frowning, with his hand and used his blunt fingernails to dig whatever it was out. It only took a few seconds before he felt as if he had gotten all of it.

Still frowning from concentrating, he bared his teeth wide to show Reuben. “Thanks, uhhh... better?” Merlin, please be all gone.

"Yeah, a date," Reuben nodded happily, helping himself to another forkful of food, completely missing the disbelief in the other boys voice. "We've been going on dates for a while, now." Which, in his mind, was perfectly accurate, because that's what he called the times when they hung out one on one, and she'd never corrected him on it. Though he figured they hadn't kissed yet, and that would make the dates even more date-y. Maybe he'd ask her tomorrow. "Huh?" He swallowed his mouthful, a little surprised. "'Oo did you think I fancied?" The answer was that he fancied a lot of people. Namely ninety percent of the female Hogwarts population. But the idea that Solomon had someone specific in mind was... what was the word? Curious.

Again, the clank signalling that the other boy was in a mood went right over Reuben's head, and he continued eating without giving it much thought. When he bared his teeth, it took the Hufflepuff a moment to realise what he was asking, and then he nodded enthusiastically. "Ye! All gone."

Aurora loved being a Ravenclaw. She loved following in her parents footsteps and she quite enjoyed that the automatic assumption was that she was book smart (which was far from the truth but nevermind) but there was also that underlying feeling that she might’ve been even happier in another house like Hufflepuff where her friendship group was considerably larger. It wasn’t even like she didn’t get along with her housemates, she found it impossible to not like anyone, it was just that she had a lot less in common with them than she’d liked.

Still, the fourth year did her duty for her house and sat at the Claw table at lunchtimes and attempted to socialise with her intellectually superior companions as if she knew what they were going on about. What she did excel in was emotional intelligence as well as the ability to hyperfocus on a subject and talk about it until she was blue in the face. Today she had found herself very much alone as the blonde plopped herself on the bench somewhere in the middle of the table and indulged in a warm pasty.

"You've been abandoned by the whole house," Mercer dropped into a seat across from Aurora, since it would be absolutely rude to sit anywhere else at the table and pretend as if she wasn't there. He gestured up and down the bench at all the empty seats. "Or maybe you're a trendsetter. I think we should go with trendsetter."

The table was always groaning under the weight of food, and Mercer gave it all the happiest of happy examinations. "So, trendsetter. What should I eat today? If you say all of it, I promise to be extra extra nice to you." Not as if he had a 'not nice' setting, but still.

The blonde was mid-bite through her pasty when the voice came seemingly out of nowhere. She sort of paused with her mouth clamped over her food as her eyes darted towards the source and quickly released her toothy grip as her lips fell into a smile. “Hi Mercer!” Her cheeks felt a teeny bit warmer at the sight of the seventh year joining her, not enough for it to be completely noticeable but it was there. Mercer had called her a princess once and it was enough to rope the fourth year in entirely. “I guess no one is as hungry as I am today. Or maybe I’m supposed to be somewhere else..” It was completely possible that Aurora had somehow missed an important meeting for she wasn’t the best at checking the noticeboard nor was she that great at remembering things. The only other explanation was that she smelled and well.. she’d rather not think it was that.

In her opinion, the House Elves could do no wrong with their cooking and absolutely everything that she had tried throughout her four years at Hogwarts had been delicious. Anything was better than the ‘clean eating’ her Ma favoured at home. “The Cornish Pasties are so good. You should have one of them first and then you can eat everything else.” She might’ve been small but her appetite was mighty, who was she to comment if Mercer wanted to try absolutely everything. “Just as long as you leave room for pudding!” She beamed. Which was arguably the most important meal of the day.

"Hmm, good advice," Mercer did take a pasty, although he also piled a bit of everything else on his plate for good measure. Didn't want to hurt anyone's feelings by not giving them a fair introduction to the old palate. "D'you know a secret? I sometimes do the pudding first, just to make sure I don't miss out."

He somehow managed to stack chicken and potato and salad onto his pasty before taking the first big bite. Yep, just about perfect. "You been down to Hogsmeade this term?" If he had any idea that faint blush was for him, he would be fully puzzled over the idea. Calling Aurora princess was just factual.

Aurora was not the kind to offer bad advice, not intentionally anyway. She didn’t understand why people would want others to suffer from something she had said or done, such was the perpetually positive attitude that this Ravenclaw exuded. “Aren’t they great?” she grinned, picking up the pasty by its crust and nibbling from the inside outwards as was the supposedly traditional way. In her opinion they were better than Pumpkin pasties, she’d never really got the Wizarding world’s hype with the orange gourd. As much as she wanted to stuff her face with extra helpings of potatoes and whatever else wonders the Elves had cooked up, she was only a petite person and her hollow legs couldn’t take much more.

She was adamant that there was the existence of a separate pudding stomach solely for the purpose of making room for dessert even when she was full up. “You can do that?” she gasped. It wouldn’t be unheard of for Aurora to skip dinner entirely and go to the kitchens for sweet indulgence but she assumed there would be some rule that you couldn’t touch dessert until your dinner plate was clean. Maybe that was too two centuries ago in thinking?

Hogsmeade had been visited on several occasions, or namely Honeydukes had. “Mhmm. There’s a sixth year that pays me to deliver his letters to the Owlery for him. I think it’s because he’s scared of owls and won’t go anywhere near them.” She felt truly sorry for him, her relationship with owls was great. The bird kind, it had remained to be seen how she would deal with the exam kind. “But anyway, I went a little crazy at Honeydukes.” So now she was a sugar filled Princess.

"Aurora. M'lady," Mercer gave her a pitying look. She was still living by rules of people who weren't even here. There wasn't a professor in the castle who cared what they ate. No one measuring their veggie intake or pulling back third helpings of cake when they really needed to eat something that had come from the ground. No one to make sure they actually drank water at some point in the day. On the one hand, it was a little terrifying to realize they had to take care of themselves, but on the other... liberating. "You can do anything you want to do. Who's to say otherwise?"

But he did need to puzzle over this information about being paid to visit owls. First, who was afraid of an OWL? And second... why didn't she do it for free, since she already got visiting an owl out of the trade? "So you get your pocket money by being a owl-in-human-skin, and then you spend all of it on sweets? Do I have the plan correct?"

Look, the fourth year didn’t intentionally try to get herself into trouble and following the rules of the school was included in that ideology. She had just assumed that there would be some rule against consuming pudding before dinner, that maybe the House Elves were responsible for enforcing said rules. Or the ghosts. Or the portraits! Hogwarts had eyes EVERYWHERE. “I guess so..” Her head tilted in thought. As for who was going to tell her otherwise, she’d like to indicate the aforementioned list of potential enforcers plus the faculty. But then again Winterbottom did seem to favour baked goods himself.

Technically Aurora had never insisted on payment and would have done it for free had Freddy not insisted on it. Such was her desire to help people, especially those with such a sad fear as being afraid of her feathered friends. She could kind of understand hesitation over visiting the Owlery though, it was a bit of a mission to avoid being pooped on when walking under the roosts. “Pretty much!” she grinned, proud of her own plan. Her Mum’s didn’t like to encourage confectionery consumption and this way they would never know. “I don’t mind though. It’s a lot closer to Ravenclaw tower than it is to the Slytherin dungeons. Can you imagine walking up aaaaaall those stairs just to send a letter?” It was already effort enough to walk up and down all day to attend lessons. She never understood why the common rooms hadn’t been located somewhere in the middle of the castle but Hogwarts didn’t seem to have been designed with practicality in mind.

“Hogwarts needs an escalator. Or a slide!”

"I'd feel worse about Slytherins having to walk so far to send a letter if I didn't have to attend Potions in the dungeons multiple times a week. Same amount of work, and it's non-negotiable travel. If I paid you to carry me to class, would you add it to your fundraising plan?" Since they were talking about pudding, Mercer did pull a plate of tartlets closer. He considered adding them to his pasty stack, but there were bounds even to his appetite.

"What's a... esca-thingy? I know what a slide is, but the other... it's like a Muggle version? Does it shoot you into space?"

That was true. Although she did find it a lot easier to go down the stairs than she did to climb up them. Going down she had that momentum that when she started she couldn’t stop until she reached the ground. “You’re much taller than me.” Being 5’4 had its disadvantages which included making it impossible to carry a full sized seventh year. “But my arms are getting much stronger. My sister taught me how to box.” By that she meant Ariadne attempted to teach her whilst Aurora gushed over how cute the baby pink gloves were and constantly missed the bag entirely.

Both of her parents might’ve been magical but her grandparents on her Ma’s side were all muggle and so she often forgot that some students at Hogwarts didn’t have a clue what she was going on about. The blonde also spoke so fast that it was likely difficult to keep up even if she did explain nor did she explain in the simplest of terms and tended to go off in a tangent before coming to her conclusion. “It’s like.. electric stairs. So the stairs move instead of you having to climb. You can just stand on a step and it’ll take you allllllll the way to the top.” Or the bottom, the direction wasn’t mutually exclusive. “I don’t think anyone’s invented one that can take you to space. I can’t imagine it’s very easy to breathe up there.” And Aurora was sadly not in possession of a space suit nor did she think that space would be for her anyway.

"Imagine how strong you'll be after carrying me to class a few times. I'm going to pencil in piggyback rides to my schedule. Don't let me down, m'lady," Mercer gave her a quick smile to assure Aurora that he was kidding. Mostly. It wasn't like he'd turn down a chance to see if she really could give him a piggyback ride, but he would never expect it.

As for the esca-thingy, it sounded a bit like the moving staircases they already had, except more... organized. "Sometimes you can ride one of these staircases from top to bottom, but it almost never works out that way. I guess maybe Muggles know what they're about, even if they can't get us to space."

The thing was that now Mercer had said it and had effectively made her promise it, she felt obliged to do it and Merlin knew that her petite self would not be up to the task. But Aurora, much akin to a House Elf, hated to be a disappointment and always felt the need to be helpful. Perhaps she’d have to enlist the assistance of some of her friends and they could accomplish it together. But who was likely to say yes without question why? Well Anna obviously but she was just as small as she was.

It probably took a second or two for Aurora’s expression to change from that ‘deer in the headlights’ as she was lost in thought over logistics. She’d also completely missed that reassuring smile. “I’ll try my hardest.” No word of a lie, she really would. “Just as long as I can go down the stairs and not back up.” She could barely carry herself upwards let alone another person.

“I’ve never managed to get all the way up without being redirected some floor elsewhere.” It was honestly a hindrance and a surprise that she hadn’t been late for classes because the staircase had other plans for her. “But on an escalator you don’t even have to step, the steps move FOR you.” Lazy? Yes. Convenient? Also yes.