She was trying not to let the cake distract her with its rich smell of cocoa. She was trying not to allow a warm sensation on her stomach distract her from glaring at Garret's attention seeking freckles one more time. She was also trying to ignore the Ravenclaw girl behind them, throwing pointed looks at her cake...obviously salivating with anticipation.

"You're still here?" inquired Daphne with a flourish of her hand, wishing she could strangle something. Anyone. If only it would get Garret from stop being so stubborn! It would happen sooner or later whether he liked it or not! Daphne wouldn't allow him to live his life building castles in the sky!

It wasn't going to happen. He needed to move on to more approachable girls. For instance, this Ravenclaw girl was totally within his league. Daphne Hopton, clearly wasn't. "Yes, why don't you get her to help?" she replied sourly, folding the top of the bag of sweets neatly. "Give her the cake while you're at it too."

Sienna looked from the cake to the voice that seemed to call to her.

D'you wanna help?

Did she want to? DID SHE WANT TO?!

Hopping up with the bag of chocolate chips, Sienna grinned. "Oh yes, please." She said, putting aside the bag of chocolate and practically skipping towards the delicious piece of heaven, her tiny nose sniffing the air with a little sigh, as she lingered maybe half a foot away from the awkward couple, waiting to see if the girl would maybe claw her into shreds.

Or something.

Garret was now regretting his impulsive decision to invite the Ravenclaw to help them, clearly Daphne wasn't happy about it. She probably wanted to bond with him over decorating the cake, so she could make up stories in her head and plan the rest of their lives together.

On second thought, he was glad that the Ravenclaw was here. She could act as a buffer between him and Daphne's insistence to talk about her emotions and other girly things like that.

"You could help slice the strawberries in half," he said lamely, sliding the knife and bowl of strawberries over to her, "And er, Daff... er... You want to squeeze the icing out?" He held up the paper tube of chocolate icing out to her, more than a little scared about what she would do.

Oh? So he really was moving on fast. Her lips thinned as she pressed them tightly against each other. "Don't want to," she replied quickly with pursed lips. Go bond with your little blue friend.

"Daaafneee..." he whispered, nudging her with his elbow, "C'mon, please?" She was probably throwing a jealous fit, all because he was inviting another girl into the loop. He still held the icing cone out to her, hoping she'd take in and stop putting him through this miserable apology loop.

Sienna watched confusedly as the girl declined to take the icing. And why not? Icing was good. If she did get the icing tube, she could totally snag a few licks of icing.

Well, then again, that was Sienna. She didn't know so much about the bossy girl.

Sienna stayed quiet, watching the two with a confused look, her eyebrows furrowed. What the hippogriff was going on, anyways?

No matter how much those freckles stared back at her she wouldn't give in to their egotistical selfish wants! Turning her face to the side, pretending annoyance despite the rouge circling her cheeks decoratively, Daphne played with her fingers. "I thought this was your apology cake? If this if your way of apologizing then you should do the work yourself."

BAAAAAAAAAAAAAH.

In frustration, Daphne pulled at her own pigtails.

Sienna raised her eyebrows. Oh, she got it. Bossy girl didn't want her there.

"Well, if you don't want me here, you could just say so." She said, staring hard at the bossy girl. She didn't have to be rude, did she? She was a tad annoyed now, her hands on her hips.

Sienna wasn't just upset 'cause she was so rude. She was upset 'cause now, she wouldn't get any cake.

Letting loose a sound of frustration, Garret held the icing tube up above the cake and squeezed hard. This was how he longed to wrap his fingers around Daphne's neck right now, and squeeeeeeeeeze.

Then the smell of the chocolate icing mixed with the freshly baked cake rose and tickled his nostrils and suddenly he wasn't so annoyed anymore. Although, if he turned his head slightly and looked at Daphne's profile, he'd probably get angry all over again.

Girls were so unreasonable! You do something nice for them, and all they wanna do is talk about their feelings and make you feel like you've done something wrong and then shut you out til you end up apologizing, even if you didn't know what you had done wrong in the first place.

Daphne took a deep breath. The way she saw it she had two options and she didn't like either them. Running her fingers nervously through her hair, Miss Hopton pretended not be interested in what they were doing, casting her honey eyes elsewhere--like the lumpy looking house elf scrubbing the pans.

"The kitchen isn't mine to say who stays and who goes," replied Daphne quickly. "Besides, I can't just push you away. I'd be doing something selfish."

And possibly hindering herself in the process. This girl was her one shot of ridding herself of Garret's unwanted attention. "My name is Daphne Hopton by the way, what's yours?" inquired the third year, whose voice had suddenly turned sickeningly sweet.

Still not saying a word, mostly because he didn't trust himself not to shout at both girls, Garret drew the bowl of fresh strawberries to him and started slicing them into halves which he then placed over the cake decoratively.

"Done." He spun the cake around to check everything was alright before putting it in front of Daphne, "There, hope you're happy..." he gritted out the last part, "Darlin'."

Darlin'.?!



The word echoed eerily against the kitchen walls as if the house elves had suddenly dissipated into nothingness, taking away their peculiar odor, nose and ear hairs with them. Nervously playing with her fingers, she stepped forward and hesitated to reach for the cake.

If she took his cake...what would it mean to him? It would be so rude and mean for her not to accept the cake. He'd taken the time to prepare the batter and bake the cake, decorate it all pretty and such, seeing as she had refused to help him and he was still offering it to her.

Clearly, it was because he was desperately in love with her.

"Well," drawled Daphne, buying herself time. If she accepted the cake, would he think she was also accepting his feelings for her. Clapping her chest roughly, going into a coughing fit, Miss Hopton was sure that she didn't really have a choice here. It was either accept the cake or reject Garret in front of the Ravenclaw girl who would surely run out and start spreading malicious rumors about what an evil heart breaker she was.

If Celandine found out, she'd tell Nicholai who in turn would want nothing to do with her. Bracing herself, Daphne forced herself to smile. "Thank you....darlin'."

Again, Daphne shuddered.

Garret turned away immediately after those damning words left Daphne's mouth, so he didn't see her shudder which mirrored his own perfectly. Here he was humouring her by calling her darling, and honestly... it was just a joke. He had only said it out of anger, in an attempt to throw her own words back at her...

But Daphne Hopton, as always, had taken things too seriously.

She was probably right this second, naming their children and planning the decor in the second guest bedroom. He wanted to dive into the freezing cold Black Lake and force Barty to swallow him whole. That way he wouldn't have to deal with breaking the news to Daff later... that they weren't actually a couple.

How on earth was he going to be able to do that without ruining their friendship forever? He let out a whimper, which sounded oddly like Copernicus. He needed the wise Ravie's words of advice right now.

Sienna's voice became an octave higher, surprised now. "Sienna. Sienna Reeves." She said suspiciously, watching as the girl got the cake. She looked a little pained to be recieving the cake right now - huh. Whatever.

Turning around and facing away from the two, Sienna returned to the half-empty bag of chocolate chips, taking another handful and placing them carefully in her mouth.

Delicious.

Oh, disgusting! Thought Daphne as she turned her head away from Garret as he himself turned away from her. He was clearly so touched, he couldn't face her and was now wiping happy tears from his oddly bright eyes. Miss Hopton let out a little wail, hoping Davis would pop out of the oven and rescue her with his ninja skills.

There was a tightening in her chest as she saw her promising future of Gryffindor socialite, graduating, carrying her Papa's company and of course, marrying Nicholai Toussaint, come crashing down on her in cake shaped confetti.

"So," whimpered the girl, trying to break the uncomfortable silence and meet her duties of pitiful and unwilling girlfriend. "Want a piece of cake?" Then turning upon hearing the girl introduce herself. Bloody hell! She needed to speak up faster! Now she was doomed to an eternal life of wiping boogers from the coffee table. "You want cake too, Sienna Reeves?" Social Life killer.

Sienna frowned. "No, thank you," She declined politely, turning around again. "I'm sure your boyfriend would want you to eat the cake, not me." she added rather pointedly. Another handful of chocolate was in her fist, and if things got dirty, she was definitely ready to pelt someone with the chocolate chips.

Note to self - never ever come to the kitchens again. 'Specially on Valentine's Day. Enough said.

Garret had lost all appetite for sweet things. He couldn't trust himself to put a piece of cake in his mouth and not have it come out the wrong way up in his current condition. Somehow or other, he found himself shackled to Daphne Hopton.

The words running through his mind right now were WHAT THE HELL?!

And then she started offering him cake, and Sienna cake in that sweet, house-wifey voice. He resisted the urge to slap his hand on his forehead at her behaviour. She was already playing the role of attentive wife, and he was still only trying to get over the fact that he was now her boyfriend.

"No, thank you." He picked up one of the extra pieces of strawberries and held it up with a pained expression, "I'm set."

Daphne nearly cried out and lunged the chocolate cake at Sienna's head for her impertinent outburst. Instead, Miss Hopton took another deep breath and forced herself to smile, which turned out more like a painful grimace.

"In that case," began Daphne, wondering what she was going to do with an entire Love Cake--Oh! "I guess I'll see if I can find Celandine and offer her some cake."

And beg her for help.

Sienna shrugged. "Suit yourself." She replied, swallowing the fistful of chocolate that had now turned into one single chunk of mush, licking her rather browned, dirty fingers off now.

She politely turned around again, this time facing completely away from the awkward duo.

Naomi was lost.She had walked into a door off the entrance hall when her cat had decided to run off.She had followed another student through....she couldn't believe her eyes....a portrait of a pear.
It was some sort of kitchen!
And just when i got hungry! she thought to herself.

Garret's eyes widened like saucers at Daphne's latest statement, Merlin's spotted underpants, she was going to go blab and squeal to Cela about it before he got a chance to do damage control!

"Errr... if you want," he grimaced, "Crup puppy," it was the best he could do under these conditions, "I'll bring her a slice."

And tell her it's all a huge misunderstanding and beg her for help in getting out of this.

"No, no," muttered Daphne shaking her head as she held the cake warily away from her body. "I don't know." That didn't seem like a good idea. Chances were if Garret got near Celandine he wouldn't allow her to explain how this was all just a huge misunderstanding and then she'd be forced to smile and pretend that she actually was enjoying this little conundrum.

She couldn't allow this to happen.

"I don't feel comfortable with you doing that." Garret must definitely not be able to tell anyone before she could spread the word about his temporary insanity due to his endless love for her.

Probably because she wanted to squeal and jump around and hug about it, and him being around would totally cramp her style. She was, after all, trying to play it cool. He could tell. If it wasn't for Sienna and the gossipy elves being around, she would probably have jumped on him and snogged him senseless already.

The horror that erupted within him at that image was enough to send him staggering back a step.

He clutched the countertop, his knuckles turning white from the sheer force that he was gripping it with, "Okay?" His voice came out small and rather high and squeaky, he was starting to feel like a trapped animal, "Want me t'go witchoo?"

Merlin! He was already becoming clingy! Daphne sighed pathetically, rolling her eyes heavenward, demanding to know what called for such a punishment. Garret seemed determined not to let her out of his sight. Most likely he was afraid some dashing young man would come and steal her away from him which was entirely probable, after all, Daphne was perfect.

"Not really," blurted out Daphne before she could think. Biting her lip, trying to make amends before he started crying, Daphne laughed nervously. "I mean, only if you want to." Which, if he was still Garret Crocker, he wouldn't want to.

Please, Grandma Lauren, help me.

Garret nodded a little too excitedly, maybe he could make hand gestures at Cela. She was a Ravenclaw, she was supposed to be smart. Maybe she would understand if he tried to show her that it was all a misunderstanding.

"Yes!" He grabbed the cake and thrust the bag of sweets at Daphne, "Let's go!"

If all else failed, he'd talk to Copernicus and get the obviously more worldly older guy's advice.