Taking a seat beside Max, Macadrian glanced up at him and smiled, "Thank you for putting in a special request for my meal. It looks delicious. Smells delicious too. Almost as nice as that new cologne you're wearing." Macadrian stared gratefully at Max before turning to her food and the group before her. "As for being good at cards, well, being good with numbers helps in that department."

Picking up a glass of cranberry juice, Macadrian finished off all 16 oz in one large, long gulp. "Ahhh. I love cranberry juice. I didn't realize I was so thirsty! Must have been the traveling." Refilling her glass with the pitcher on the table, Macadrian offered, "Would anyone like some juice?"

Macadrian looked up from her food to answer Caleum's greeting with a friendly smile, "Good evening Caleum. The goat was my traveling companion, actually." She laughed heartily and then explained, "Fabian was unable to transport Fex to Hogwarts this term," actually, he forgot the goat at his front gate, "so I assisted him by bringing Fex with me."

Macadrian grinned from ear to ear with intrigue, "Favors, huh? Hmmm. I do think these winnings will be even better than any monetary reward. Count me in! How is this going to work with the favors? Each bet we offer some favor we'll do for others in the group?" Macadrian was curious how the logistics would work of this game.

Fabian and a goat, how charming and something he would have to see later. "If I would have known you needed a traveling partner, you could have called upon me. I would have helped you out, or Max here would have too," Caleum joked lightly keeping a smile on his face. "Speaking of Fabian, he was here then disappeared. We could have already played a few games with the amount of time that man has been gone." He was getting a little tired and was thinking of heading up to his room early. He mood was changing and he really didn't want to be here at the moment.

Macadrian drizzled lots of honey over a biscuit on her plate, raised the biscuit to her mouth, and devoured the whole thing without hardly breathing in between bites. After swallowing and washing the biscuit down with a sip of cranberry juice, Macadrian responded to Caleum, "Well, thank you very much for your offer, Mr. Myers. If ever I need a traveling partner again, I'll be sure to keep you in mind." She smiled kindly at him before taking another large bite of carrots. Continuing their conversation, Macadrian explained, "Fabian said he'd just be a moment. Was going to bring Fex up to his office and then head back down. I'm not quite sure what is taking him so long. Maybe he's spending some quality time with Fex." Macadrian chuckled as if to suggest that was silly, but fully knowing that Fabian was entirely capable of neglecting this group for his goat.

"We're not waiting for Fabian," Max said and began to shuffle the cards. "So what game did we decide on? Blackjack or poker?" He glanced over at Macadrian's plate and saw that she had yet to touch the plate of desserts. "Save me a brownie, doll," he winked at her.

"I think we had decided on poker, with bets being favors." He set the pad of paper down with a muggle pen. "Sizes of favors and some specific ones." He glanced about the room. "Unless I am mistaken?"

Max was rolling up his sleeves and nodded. "Sounds good. Do we want to play with a single or double deck?" he asked and reached into his pocket. Another new deck was placed on the table and a green visor that he immediately put on his head.

Macadrian secretly hoped it was blackjack. It was so much easier to ensure a win by counting cards when playing blackjack. Not that Macadrian usually looked for an easy way out, but tonight, with her feeling as tired as she did, blackjack seemed an appropriate escape for her mind.

Macadrian finished off another honey-smothered biscuit and then moved onto the baked potato. It wasn't until Max mentioned a brownie that Macadrian even noticed the dessert plate. She grinned and replied cheekily, "You beat me in cards tonight and the brownie is all yours, big boy. Til then..." Macadrian picked up one of the brownies on the plate and took a greedy bite, then winked in Max's direction and washed the brownie down with milk.

"Oh, don't be cruel like that, Macadrian. One bite, that's all I ask for. Pleeeaaase?" Max asked and batted hs baby blue eyes at her.

Drago gave a low chuckle. "Macadrian, stop teasing the man so we can play." He looked over to Max. "One deck, if you don't mind. Getting a 5 of a kind with a joker is strange enough."

Macadrian smirked at his pitiful display to guilt her into sharing her brownies. She feigned an exasperated sigh and retorted, "How can a girl resist that adorable face?" Macadrian held out the brownie she'd already taken a bite from and reached toward Max's mouth, while laughing. "One bite. And don't chomp off my fingers."

Macadrian glanced back toward the familiar, yet slightly different voice, of the Herbology professor. She fought back a smile and replied, "Oh, alright. I suppose I'll cut the man some slack for now. But the favor I'll expect of him when I win is for him to bake me lots and lots of brownies. And he MUST wear an apron." Macadrian raised her brow and glanced sideways at Max.

Angela glanced back and forth between Mac and Max. Now this was certainly..out of character. What was up with those two? Either they had grown extremely close over the summer or something else was going on.

Momentarily distracted by the mention of Fex, Angela's mind cast towards Fabian again. She'd definitely have to speak with him after the game. But at least Fex had made it safely back to Hogwarts. Fabian had seemed quite distressed when he realized that he had forgotten the goat at home.

So poker it was. Hopefully, she wouldn't make a complete fool of herself.

Max took a huge bite of the brownie that Macadrian was feeding him and then turned to Drago. "One deck it is," he said in a muffled voice since he spoke with his mouth full. A few crumbs fell on the table as he began to deal out the cards. "She loves the brownies I bake! Very rich and chocolatey . . . hey! Why an apron, Mac? I didn't mess up the kitchen too badly last time I baked 'em!"

Macadrian looked at the crumbly mess Max was making and leaned over to clean it, placing one hand on the edge of the table and sweeping the crumbs with the other. With playful skepticism, she retorted, "The kitchen was fine, but you were covered in brownie batter, as if you don't remember. And then I had to wash all your clothes so that we could go out in public to get dinner!"

"Well, you kept on fussing over me like I was five years old so it was no wonder that I got brownie batter all over myself," Max grinned and sat back to look at his hand.

He cleared his throat slightly, becoming uncomfortable. "Forgive me for being something of a downer, but if you two wouldn't mind..."

Macadrian glanced at the cards in her hand and immediately began calculating her odds based on the number of people playing. She shook her head and replied, "I wasn't fussing over you. I just wanted to lick the batter of the spoon and you were taking forever to get to the batter stage. Not my fault it took you twice as long to mix ingredients as any normal person. And then you didn't wanna share the spoon! So what else could I do? Bugging you was my only option!" Macadrian hmphed jokingly and took a large bite out of a raspberry danish.

"Sorry about that Drago," Max grinned and focused on his cards. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Macadrian sucking the raspberry filling out of her danish. "Shall I get you a straw for that?" he joked.

Macadrian cleared her throat softly and mumbled, "Right. Sorry." Turning her attention back to her cards and her danish, Macadrian narrowed her eyes as she surveyed the body language of her colleagues. Just when she'd cleared the filling out of her danish, Max made a smart aleck remark and Macadrian replied simply in a slightly higher pitch than her normal voice, "No thank you! A straw will not be necessary. That filling is long gone. You want a cookie? Anybody want one?" Macadrian munched on the remainder of her danish, then picked up a peanut butter cookie.

Caleum watched Macadrian devour the honey covered biscuit with wide eyes and an opened mouth. Clearly this woman was hungry and it was one of those 'no one put a hand out in front of her and steal the food or she would bite and leave marks' kind of hungry. "Su-rree," he hesitated wondering how long it had been since she ate. "Ummm, Max, I think she needs to be fed more often and doesn't need to bring Fex next time so that she doesn't miss a meal."

And then he witnessed the closeness between Max and Mac but didn't think anything about it at the moment. The three of them, along with Fabian, always seemed to be together and nothing was out of the ordinary. Plus he was a man, he didn't take notice to things like that, but the food thing, no one could help but notice the intake of food. He then sat back and waited for the card game to begin with a smile on his face.

"I've not been one for cookies, but thank you. Oh yes, as we are sharing..." He pulled a fairly decent-sized block from his pocket that was wrapped in a plain brown paper bag. Opening it revealed to be a block of fudge. He pulled something from his pocket to cut away bits with. "Take caution, it is rather rich. But it is home-made."

Macadrian glanced to Caleum and handed him a cookie, "Here, eat up. And believe me, now that I'm here I fully intend to eat more regularly and not skip meals. I can't be skipping meals anymore. It just isn't healthy for my body, especially now." Macadrian wrapped her hand around a chocolate chip cookie and began nibbling around the edges.

When Drago pulled out fudge, Macadrian's eyes grew wide and her mouth began to salivate. "Oh my. I've such a sweet tooth and that looks delicious! Thank you for sharing. I'd love a piece, please. It is very kind of you to share this. If it were mine, I can't say whether or not I would have selfishly hoarded this for myself." Macadrian chuckled lightly as she smiled gratefully at Drago.

Angela glanced towards Macadrian again, still feeling slightly disconcerted over her behavior with Max. However, she felt as though she did not know Mac well enough to inquire about it. At least not here.

"Fudge looks delicious." She commented, forcing herself to act normal. "Though those peanut butter cookies look even better. I think I'll have one of those and save the fudge for later, if there's any left." She remarked with a slight smile.

Selecting a cookie, she bit into it, savoring the taste for a few moments. Delicious.

Max nodded in agreement. "You should know better by now," he said and patted her hand. "Now, lets focus on playing cards. Angela, you look confused. Need any help?"

Angela glanced over towards Max as he questioned her. With a chuckle of obvious chagrin, she shook her head. "A bit, I suppose. I'm not entirely sure about the game of poker. Anyone mind sharing some tips?"

Macadrian sighed, "I know. Oh, and by the way, before we get into the cards and I forget," Macadrian leaned over and dropped her voice a bit lower, "Last word from Mungo's was an early spring due date. Please make sure you're prepared. Have the bags ready and whatnot." Macadrian then returned to her chocolate chip cookies and the cards in her hand.