[Kitchens] Midnight Feast A Bit Early

[Amara Conway]

Amara had felt peckish as soon as she had gotten into the common room after dinner. She had had a late lunch because she had needed to complete some homework she had forgotten about. Simply taking what she could lay her hands on when she ran into the Great Hall had been easy but her mind had wondered away from her growling stomach and onto her work. Realising a few hours later that she had not yet eaten it, she did so didn't have much of an apatite at supper so hadn't eaten much but as soon as she set her feet into the common room the hunger kicked in.

A frown was on the usually cheerful girl's face the whole evening as she could not decide when it was best to go down to the kitchen. It was around ten o'clock when the cramping in her stomach wouldn't let her concentrate on the book she was reading so, checking that no one was watching her, Mara put her book down on the chair she had been sitting on and moved towards the door. Exiting the room, unnoticed, Amara hurriedly made her way towards the kitchen. The lights were still bright so Mar figured she had some time yet before she had to be back.

As she walked the long corridor towards the painting that was the entrance into the Kitchen, Amara fished in her pocket a moment before moving her hands to catch up all her hair and tying it up. The painting flew open and the Claw walked in. The house elves didn't notice her at first but as soon as they did they were around her in a flash. Smiling at the happy courteous creatures, Amara moved to the mini version of her own table and sat down. "I didn't have any supper," she explained in a small voice, "and I was wondering if there were any leftovers."

As soon as her words were out of her mouth the house elves immediately began to rush around the large kitchen and bring back plates and plate of food. One small elf put a plate and a knife and fork in front of Amara and the girl thanked her kindly. And just as soon as the elves had come to her they were back at their work, leaving Mara to eat in peace. Smiling at all the food around her, Mara took small bits of everything. As soon as she started culling her piece of chicken, her stomach rumbled with appreciation.

[Harrison Greg]

“Ok so five butter beers, some pumpkin pasties, custard clusters; some left of sandwiches and what was it you wanted?”
“Anything with chocolate in it!”

Harrison nodded his head as he was slowly backing his way out of the common room towards the painting, his back was soon against the wall with the on coming storm of fifth years getting ever closer. Finally the fat lady opened the portrait and he stumbled backwards and into the main corridor.

“I will be back with your order ladies before you know it.”

With a wide grin Harrison gave the gaggle of girls a small bow and started to run down the stairs, a grimace soon appearing on his face as he wondered how he got himself into these situations almost daily. With a quick glance over his shoulder he could still see the girls standing watch giggling as they watched his give them a small salute. He was going to have to take shelter in the kitchens for a little longer then he thought.

***

The portrait swung open for him and Harrison walked into the large kitchen letting the smell of the foods fill his lungs. Blowing his fringe of his eyes Harrison had a better look around and saw that the table where littered with food, not that he was actually going to take the girls anything, he was just looking for something interesting to eat.
It was not until he was biting into a rather delicious looking apple when he heard a noise that was not naturally and finally his eyes fell upon a Ravenclaw sitting at one of the many tables. A weary smile filled the Gryffindors face and he walked over towards the bench way she sat and dropt down next to her, his back leaning against the table for support and his feet sticking out getting in the way of the passing house elves.

“Now I am no doctor, but that stomachs should not make those noises.”

[Amara Conway]

Taking more of her chicken, Amara looked up at the boy who came into the kitchen, glade it was not a teacher that she would have to explain herself to. Mar couldn't rightly say she had taken to eating at funny times that day because it sounded suspicious, no matter how true it was. The boy made his way towards her and Amara continued to chew her mouthful but then remembered where she wass and smiled.

Swallowing, she turned back to her plate of food and began to cut another mouthful. He sat down next to her and Amara continued to look down at her plate, concentrating hard. Putting the chicken in her mouth, Amara looked to the boy who was sitting next to her. She swallowed before speaking. "That would be the whole reason I'm here," she chirped cheerfully, smiling boadly. "But I notice you look well fed and watered." Mar's eye brows lifted questioningly.

[Harrison Greg]

Harrison looked on at the Ravenclaw in quite amusement as she carried on chewing on her food, swallowing it and then talking to him. Good manors were hard to find these days, if it had been him with a mouth full of chicken he would have talked through it and let the other participant in the conversation see the dismembered chicken in his mouth. Her answer made him smile however, in recent days he seemed to have come into a lot of contact with Ravenclaw’s and they all were quick witted like the stereotype suggested.

“Of course I am fed and watered.” Harrison grinned at the girl “I am not stupid enough to miss my dinner.”

With a chuckle Harrison took another large bite out of his apple and let the juices fill his mouth with every crunch. A few house elves were starting to slowly approach him with arms full of his normal supplies which he would then take to the common room. Still munching on his apple Harrison shook his head and watched as they slowly stepped backwards putting the stuff back, they really were random creatures, they were some of the purest hearted creatures you would find but Harrison doubted there intelligence.

Turning his attention back to the Ravenclaw Harrison threw his half eaten apple from one hand to the other with out looking. Seeing as it looked like they both would be spending some time in the kitchen together he might as well make light conversation with the girl.

“So tell me…why are you eating your dinner at such a late hour as this?”

[Amara Conway]

Amara watched the Gryffindor with great curiosity. He didn't seem to want the house elves' help or hospitality but he was in the Kitchen. He clearly wasn't hungry but he was in the kitchen. It was a puzzling situation and by his answer he wasn't likely to be hungry soon either. But there he was, sitting next to her and eating an apple. It was a puzzlement that Mar knew she wouldn't soon puzzle out so she turned back to her food, smiling to herself.

The gripe about missing dinner made Amara bark a laugh. She wasn't sure what he was insinuating but she was certain she didn't like it. She had not technically missed dinner but she had missed out on the meal. Did that means she was only half stupid and fully stupid in the eyes of the boy to her side? She didn't like the thought of being considered stupid at all and chewed thoughtfully on the matter, a miniature pinch to her brow.

Looking back to the boy, Amara smiled. "It's a long story but I didn't miss Dinner," she informed him, "so I'm not stupid as you put it. I just wasn't hungry then." She felt it pertinent to make that point clear. She, being a Ravenclaw, was clever but proud too and couldn't have any thinking she was stupid. This, she knew, didn't stop people from thinking that about her but she didn't give them any reason to think so. That was out of her control. This wasn't and she could rectify this misunderstanding.

[Harrison Greg]

Harrison watched on with some form of amusement as the Ravenclaw seemed to take his comment about being ‘stupid’ to heart. She did not scream at him like a Gryffindor would or hex him like a Slytherin she did the typical Ravenclaw thing and thought about it. How could he tell she was thinking? Well she was silent for a start and there was a small crease in her forehead that could have been mistaken for a frown, but Harrison had had plenty of experience with Ravenclaw’s and knew that to be their thinking face.
Slowly she answered his question and set down her defence for how she had not missed her dinner and so was not stupid.

“I am sorry if you took offence by my comment.” He grinned “I was not accusing you individually of being stupid, I was using it as a general term to summaries the group of people who missed their dinners.”

Harrison took another bite of his apple and munched on it thoughtfully as he ideally looked around the kitchen. He had spent a lot of time in here over the years and still he managed to amaze him the scale of the operation of feeding the entire student body of the school…as well as the miserable staff. Swallowing his mouthful of apple Harrison looked back at the Ravenclaw, ready to finish off his own small argument.

“But only someone with a guilty conscious would defend themselves over such a small matter…maybe you are in denial about your own intelligence?”

[Amara Conway]

Amara could tell he was watching her, the Gryffindor who thought he was all that and a bag of Every Flavour Beans. The Claw continued to eat her meal, knowing that she was not particularly going to enjoy this. Amara was generally a friendly, happy girl except when she was hungry. When she got hungry, she became cranky and snapped easily and quickly at people for small things. And though she was eating, and so doing satisfying her hunger, the boy had caught her before she began to feel less hungry and so cheery again. His fault his timing was off.

"Oh," Amara snapped, whirling her gaze onto him with anger in her dark gaze, "so you're lumping me in a group with idiot then. Well, in that case, I feel much better." Rolling her eyes, Mar began to shove mash and peas onto her fork and angry stuffed it into her mouth, purposefully not looking at the ignorant boy. Who was he to call her stupid? No one. He didn't even know her so why was he attacking her like this? He didn't have any case, none at all.

His next comment made Amara freeze in her scooping action with more mash and more peas. She stopped dead, frozen in her anger. Slowly she turned her gaze onto the boy. Her narrowed eye fell upon the confident face. It boiled her blood that he could sit there, smug as a Slytherin hovering over its prey, and judge her. "You think you know me," she said quickly, "but you've scarcely scratched the surface. I'm plenty smarter then you are, ya great lummox. Denial indeed." She rolled her eyes and looked back to her food.

She could not believe that he would suggest such a thing. A Ravenclaw doubting their inelegance? The very idea was absurd. She barked a laugh again. "Indeed," she repeated, as she vigorously cut the last piece of her chicken. Shaking her head so her pony tail swung along, Amara turned back to the Gryffindor and snapped, "and I'll have you know that I was at supper I just didn't eat anything. Does that count as me missing dinner?" The question might have sounded rhetorical but she did want an answer to it.

((oh this is fun. I haven't written a good argument in ages )

[Harrison Greg]

Harrison could not longer keep the laughter in, not when such a display of built up frustration and weariness was being shoved in his face. He felt the laughter building up in his stomach and slowly make its way out, his ribs started to hurt and his smile was so wide it was painful and then as soon as the words ‘lummox’ filled the air around them he lost it. The laughter seemed to explode out of him and he was literally bent double laughing, every time he tried to look back at the Ravenclaw he stared to laugh even more. The Gryffindor took a few deep breaths and managed to compose himself to hear her last remark.

Looking down at his apple it suddenly did not seem appetising, the areas where he had bitten into were already starting to turn brown and the juice had dripped over his hand causing it to go all sticky. Placing it down on an empty plate on the table behind him Harrison rubbed his hand on his trousers to clean it off still chuckling to himself.

“Oh well sitting at the tables with the food in front of you is fine.” Harrison resorted sarcastically while flicking his fringe out of his tear filled eyes and looked back at the girl. “But why did you even bother going into the Great Hall if you were not going to eat anything…that is just as stupid as missing dinner.”

With a smirk Harrison pushed himself off the bench and he walked down the edge of the table looking for something sweeter to eat and maybe even something to drink. His eyes fell upon a bowl of custard on one of the far tables, with a nod of his head at his decision Harrison jumped up onto the table walked across it and jumped off the other side and picked up the bowl and shovelled the yellow liquid into his mouth with the spoon that was already in the bowl.

(haha I think this will be interesting as Harrison will not give in, he enjoys jesting with people!)

[Amara Conway]

The Gryffindor laughed. He actually laughed out loud, and very loud at that, in her face. Had it been funny, Amara wondered. Has what she said amused him? Had the term lummox proven her stupidity to his mind? Whatever it was, Amara didn't know but she didn't like it. They were having a perfectly rational argument and he had to go and do something as completely irrational as laugh without explaining the joke. Amara's chewing slowed as she watched him closely. The laugh wasn't forced, not in the slightest. And there was nothing funny about it.

He set his apple aside and Amara knew that he wasn't finding amusement in the situation any more. Perhaps boredom? Perhaps some inherent desire to annoy young girls drove him to ... annoy her? He did a good job of it too, all but saying 'you are stupid, stupid head!' came to her in the answer she knew would be the one she would receive.

And before Amara could retort he stood up. He stood up! And retrieved a bowl of something that Mar couldn't see. She put her knife and fork down on the plate and watched him. He was an interesting lummox, that was for sure. From where he was standing, Amara could tell he had lost interest. "A four second attention span as well and a blundering lummox," Amara commented loudly to herself, "boy Mar, you sure can get picked." She knew he had been the one who had approached her, he had said to opening words so he had picked her.

[Harrison Greg]

Harrison felt her gaze upon him all the while he was eating the custard, he normally found the constant gaze of a female nice after all is what he always aimed for. But the looks he got in the common room was that of admiration and the glazed looks of younger girls crushing on him…but when this Ravenclaw watched him it felt like she was studying his every move, analysing him with every second that ticked by. It was only when she finally spoke up seemingly talking to herself (although a little too loudly) Harrison’s fears where realised.

“Ok first of all…” Harrison still had a mouth full of custard and he was shaking the spoon around causing spots of yellow to appear on the floor and table around him. “…I do not blunder; I glide. And second of all I have not idea what a lummox is but for some reason I do not think it means charming or handsome.”

Harrison gave a small grin and walked over towards the Ravenclaw once more slamming the bowl down on the table making a few glasses topple over and his half eaten apple to roll onto the floor. Immediately some house elves ran over to pick it up and he shot them all an apologetic smile for causing a mess. When the final elf had vanished Harrison looked back at the Ravenclaw and dropt down on the bench opposite her before eating another spoonful of custard. All the while he kept his gaze fixed upon her almost challenging her to say something else.

[Amara Conway]

She had scarcely finished talking before the tables had turned in her favour. The lummox jumped at the oppertunity her silence presented to defend his honour and it needed all the defending the boy could give it if it was to have any standing after he had done. With a nasty, Slytherin like smirk on her face, Amara glanced up lazily at the boy as he moved towards her jabbering on. He wasn't happy and Mara loved it.

At every word, Amara had seven to counter but she thought that might just crush him so hard he mightn't feel like continuing the discussion. So, deciding that would not do, Mar smirked at the boy as there was a clatter on the floor. She glanced down to it, smirking more horribly. "First of all," Mara said, watching the elves tidy his mess, "you are a lummox with as much charm as a boil. And second of all, if you call lumbering like you did over tables 'gliding' I'd hate to see you actually blundering. That would be a disastrous sight but one I would suffer watching just so you could prove to me that what you did there was gliding."

Amara had found her feet again. She had found a soft target, the boy's pride, and it was left unprotected by the massive expanse that was his ego. It was too easy but never the less fun to taunt and tease the poor boy. The boy who had called her 'stupid'. What was Amara doing, feeling sorry for him? He deserved to be pegged down a few notches. Mar was certain that not many didn't swoon at his very presence. Perhaps this would be a good experience for him.

[Harrison Greg]

Pulling the spoon out of his mouth Harrison looked over at the Ravenclaw not liking the look upon her face one bit. It was the look he saw in the eyes of many of his Slytherin adversaries, the look of wanting to knock him for six, to crush his ego into a small lump and this was to be done by attacking his pride. However there was a small problem with this angle of attack…Harrison had such self belief in himself that very rarely did he ever doubt himself. But then how was this poor Ravenclaw meant to know that? He would be kinder on her, make her feel like she, for a while, had the better of him.

Placing the spoon next to the bowl of custard Harrison shuffled on the bench and looked down at the bowl of yellow liquid letting his fringe once again flop over his eyes while he thoughtful stroked the stubble on his jaw. He was going to have to pick the insult he would focus on, but which?

“The charm of a boil?” Harrison questioned actually shocked that someone would even put him in comparison to an overgrown spot. “Well I guess it all depends on the boil you are liking me to, I mean if we were to compare it to the one on your forehead then I think I would win.” He gave a soft chuckle and studied the girls face a little more. “However…I think the one on your left cheek would give me a bit of competition.”

With a cheesy grin Harrison reached over the table and picked up the girls goblet and took a swig out of it. Licking his lips Harrison peered inside to have a look at what he had actually been drinking before placing it back from where he got it from. His plan was that for every insult the Ravenclaw threw at him Harrison would try to out smart or out charm his competitor even if it took him all night.

[Amara Conway]

The boil. The Gryffindor had chosen the boil-comment as his focus. As soon as he mentioned it, Amara laughed, her cheeks turning pink with joy. Boils were particularly nasty, pesky things and no doubt the Gryff would never admit to having had any though Mar could imagine that he had had several magically removed from his bottom from chafing. It wasn't a pretty thing to picture, Mar would tell you, but it was still funny and when it came to this Gryff she would bare the nasty pictures in her head.

Informing her that she had boils on her face, Amara carefully dropped her hands below the table onto her lap. She emphasised her shrinking shoulders as she slowly pulled her wand out and left it on her lap. Putting the back of her hand to her forehead and acting all faint, she shrieked, "Oh dear! A boil! Whatever shall I do? I wish I had a big, strong lummox to look at to frighten them away." She sneered at the Dor. Never in her life had she come across such an arrogant little boy.

Her hands were below the table again, her face sneering bitterness at the boy. "Please," she said, brushing her fringe out of her face, "I've heard better insults come from my three year old cousin." Her other hand curled around her wand. She didn't have anything in mind as of yet but if she had to use magic she would. She didn't mind, Mar was very good at some jinxes and defencive spells. The boy wasn't to know that but if he pushed her far enough he may find out.

[Harrison Greg]

If Harrison knew that Amara was thinking about his behind I am sure it would have done his ego no harm at all, even if she was thinking about it being covered in boils….she still picked his bum. But Harrison was not a mind reader and so he did not know this and instead he could only respond to what she said to him and had Harrison not been such a strong willed person he might have took offence to what she said.

“Hang on let me have a look.” He glanced over his shoulder and around the room with a slight smile on his face. Eventually his eyes landed on the Ravenclaw once again. “I am sorry there only seems to be me…but I seem to qualify for the lummox part from the amount of times you have called it me tonight.”

With a cheeky grin Harrison picked up his spoon once more and continued to eat the custard not paying any attention to what Amara was doing or saying. The yellow liquid had transfixed him and he was in utter amazement how after all this time had passed it was still warm. His ears slowly zoned in and he heard the odd word from the Ravenclaw and in automatic mode like he did so often in the common room.

“That is nice…what is your cousins name?” he looked up and thought a bit more about what to say a grin appearing on his face and he managed to get his words out in between the laughter. “I bet they are not stupid enough to miss their dinner.”

[Amara Conway]

Mar glared at the Gryffindor for a moment before taking the final bite of her piece of chicken. He found himself amusing, that much was clear, and Amara wanted to let him know she didn't find him in the slightest bit amusing. "You think your funny, don't you?" she tilted her head to the side, her pony tail catching on her shoulder and hanging there. She laughed mirthlessly and shook her head. "Typical!" she chuckled, her head still shaking from side to side, illustration her disappointment.

He clearly wasn't listening to her because he asked what her cousin's name was. "What?" she said, frowning intently. "What has he got to do wi..." The boy finished his joke and Mara's features smoothed over. A smirk came to her face and it turned to a snear. "He's three," she pointed out, "he would forget to pull up his pants was his mother not there. Do you still need your mother to pull up your pants for you?" She snorted and smirked. "It's doubtful so don't go comparing others with him."

Amara had finished her dinner. She had thought that it would have helped but as she put her knife and fork together on her plat she was still a little hungry. Two house elves ran to her, one taking the plate away and the other blinking at her before saying in a small voice "can I get you anything else?" Amara eyes the Gryffindork's custard for a moment before leaning towards her and whispering in her ear. The little creature smiled, looked at the Gryffindor and laughed before trotting off.

After a moment's silence, Mar lent her arms on the table in front of her and smiled at the boy. She held that pose for another moment before saying, "Martin." The little house elf that had laughed with the girl a few moment's before came back, carrying two bowls of custard. "Thank you," Amara said taking them from her. She set the two bowls in front of her and started with the first bowl, taking a mouthful.