When it was your favorite food on the line, knowing the ingredients themselves was pretty easy - maybe outside of the spices. And while his mind was probably decently okay with memorization of instructions too, much like in potions there's no way he'd ever be comfortable free forming it. There was a great comfort in having the steps written down before you. It was assurance of doing what you were supposed to. Wouldn't it have been nice if life had one of those too?

Evan smiled at the thanks and gave a nod of his head. "Making sure you drink a glass of water is like.. the bare minimum of repayment I could do for how much you've had to look out for me." It was a small smile, but fully sincere. Evan wasn't blind to the fact he had to have been difficult to be a friend too, with how hard of a time he'd always had letting people in. Jude had always gotten the farthest, and Evan was most comfortable with him. But he wasn't a fool, and the more relaxed he felt this term and had an easier time with others, he also realized how difficult of a time it must have been for Jude. As the next instruction was given, Evan nodded his head in understanding, abandoning his manual peeling to let the spellwork take over while he cut those that were finished into the instructed quarters. "Like this?" He looked for clarification a couple of potatoes in, just in case. He continued on with his work, chuckling softly at Jude's tease before shaking his head. "My brain only was successful with OWLs because I ate, slept and breathed studying. It wasn't healthy and I probably would not recommend to anyone." Nor was he planning on replicating the performance for NEWTs, even if that meant less than perfect scores. "Besides, you did really well on your OWLs as it is."