Shrek Edric was starving. But perhaps it's time I start these posts differently because Edric is always starving. You'd think his parents didn't feed him at home. But that's what happens when you run the grounds on a daily basis and take occasional swims in the lake, like Eddy does.

And Edric's favourite way to fill up an empty stomach? Pumpkin pie.
So there sat the Gryffindor, with half a pumpkin pie on his face and a goblet filled with pumpkin juice in his hand. Om nom nom nom.

Donkey Ella hadn't been to the great hall in ages, mostly because she'd been hiding out in her dorm and avoiding people. Growing up was weird and awkward and she assumed if she hid long enough, she'd emerge a totally normal and fully functional grown-up. Seemed pretty legit. Unfortunately for her, she'd run out of sweets and was in need of sustenance. Sigh.

As she walked by the Gryffindor table, the second year spotted a very messy looking evil fairy godfather and smiled. She hadn't seen him since...well since she'd given him his Christmas gift. Merlin, that was a long time ago! Now clearly seemed like a good time to annoy him have a reunion so she plopped right down next to the older boy. Grabbing the nearest goblet, the small blonde began pouring herself some pumpkin juice. "You know you've got a bit of pie on your face...just there." She said turning to her friend. Grin. Miss me?

Edric turned to Ella as the newcomer suddenly plopped down beside him, teasing him about the pumpkin pie on his face. A little embarrassed to be caught like this, Edric gulped down the 92 pounds of half-chewed pumpkin pie he had in his mouth and then proceeded to wipe his face with a napkin.

"Ella," greeted the boy, as was usual of him. No 'hello', no 'how are you?', no 'hey! It's been a long time!' Nope. Edric's greeting was always mere acknowledgement of the little second year. His honest half-smile gave away how truly glad he was to see her, though. It had been a while.

"What brings you here? Don't tell me you came just to point out my table manners." Or rather, lack of.

Ella was impressed... And somewhat worried her friend might choke on the amount of pie he was trying to swallow. He was a grinch though, yeah? They probably lived to be like a million years old so she had nothing to worry about, yeah?

The second year smiled at Edric's lack of greeting. She'd grown accustomed to his lack of cheery hellos so it wasn't really anything new. "Edric." She replied before sipping on her own pumpkin juice. Mmmm. It was delicious.

The small blonde giggled at Edric's comment. "Didn't you know I'm part of the manners police now?" She said, sitting up a little straighter. "I'm sorry to tell you I'm gonna have to write you up for this." Teehee! She was sooo funny sometimes! "I kidddd. Actually I'm starving to death so I needed some food." She said dramatically, pulling a cookie off of the nearest plate and taking a bite. "Haven't seen you in a while." Frown. She'd missed him, as weird as that was. Life was a bit dull without his constant teasing.

Edric raised his eyebrows at Ella as she went on about being the 'manners police', listening as she went on to inform him that he was about to be written up. "You wouldn't write up a friend!" complained the Gryffindor, playing along.

As Ella then confessed that she needed some food because she was 'starving to death', Edric reached over and grabbed an empty plate. He placed it in front of his fairy godchild and began to fill it up with fruit, bread, and eggs. And of course, a slice of his pumpkin pie because no meal was complete without a pumpkin pie.

"Eat up," ordered the boy. The child had to eat! She'd been starving to death! And Edric couldn't allow his fairy godchild to starve, she was kinda his responsibility until he graduated. No idea when he'd signed THAT contract, but it seemed to be an unwritten law in his mind.

"It has been a while," Edric muttered thoughtfully as he took the last sip of his pumpkin juice. The goblet filled up on its own. "What have you been doing all this time? Did you finally get potty-trained or are you still in diapers?"

Hehe. So he was playing along? That was a good ogre! She looked at him thoughtfully, eyebrows raised. "Well I might make an exception...if there was candy involved." She'd gotten a bit more evil since they last met, see? "...or ice cream." That was a given.

O___o The second year was a bit surprised to see her evil fairy godfather go into action like this, piling up her plate with food. She was only a tiner! How was she meant to eat all of this? ...But that meant he cared about her, yeah? Grin. D'awww. And ohhh. Pumpkin pie! She would definitely be eating that. Mhm. "Okay, sheesh." She said when she was commanded to eat, clearly more amused than annoyed. Taking a big bite of bread, she raised her eyebrows at him. "Habby now?" SO lady like...talking with her mouth full of food.

Snort. Edric really did think she was a tiny baby, huh? She rolled her eyes at him but smiled all the same. "I'm potty-trained now, Edric...aren't you proud?" You big old troll. "I've recently been thinking I'm not gonna do this whole growing up thing. It's far too messy." She added with a shrug. "So I've been hiding out in my common room until the awkwardness stops." Truth. And it would stop eventually, yeah? "What have you been doing?...you know, besides hanging with Evelyn?" And the eyebrow wiggling was immediate. Hah.

Oh, candy. Of course the newborn would try to bribe Edric with candy. He gave her a look before making a face of disgust as the girl talked to him with her mouth full. "Spare me." The Gryffindor placed his palm on her face and turned it around for her, away from him. No one wanted to see chewed up newborn food!

Edric, who was finishing up his pumpkin pie now, listened as Ella went on to admit that she had finally been potty-trained. "About time!" said the boy, before the Hufflepuff beside him went on to confess that she'd been hiding in the common room trying to avoid the process of growing up. Oh? Edric raised an eyebrow at her. "Don't get too hopeful, Ells. The awkwardness is going to continue for a few more years," he told her honestly. Poor kid. Growing up sucked. He was just glad he was done with THAT phase. Oh yeah, he was so grown-up now. Being 16 and all.

As the second year asked what he'd been up to, Edric shrugged his shoulders. But then she mentioned Evelyn. Oh? How'd she know he'd been spending time with Evs lately? She hadn't seen him in like two months! Was Ella stalking him?! He wouldn't put it past her to do that. "Not a lot. The school year's become pretty… routine by now."

So the whole hand in her face bit was a little much and Ella went all twitchy, trying to get it off of her. This was totally worse than the hair ruffling. The second year swallowed her food and turned back to him with a frown. "Unnecessary." Totally unnecessary.

Ella giggled, rolling her eyes at Edric. She was both fascinated and annoyed by the fact that he thought she was still a baby. Which she totally wasn't. The blonde had transitioned into the horrible teen faze of life where everything was confusing and terrible and new. She groaned when Edric admitted that the awkwardness would continue and frowned. "That's what I was afraid of." Why wasn't there a way to just like...bypass all the weird teen stuff? Someone should invent a potion for that. Mhm. "How did you survive it, Edric?" Any advice for the poor awkward ickle second year?

Hmm. Avoiding the Evelyn subject, eh? Ella found this quite amusing and smiled at her friend with raised eyebrows. "I talked to her about you, you know." She blurted out before she could stop herself. Gah! Stupid lack of a filter. She really needed to wear tape over her mouth. Maybe if she just continued talking he wouldn't notice? "...Routine, you say? That's good. Though not seeing me for so long shouldn't be part of your routine. We're meant to be friends, right?" Yeah, that's right. Lay on the guilt to distract him from the Eve subject.

"Necessary," Edric contradicted simply.

The grouchy Gryffindor continued to eat, content with the silence that enveloped him and his guest until Ella spoke again, this time asking her fairy evil godfather how HE had survived 'growing up'. Which Eddy hadn't REALLY survived 'cause he wasn't going to be done 'growing up' til he was in his twenties, but what did these kiddos know about life?

"Well," started Edric, putting down his eating utensils to look off into space thoughtfully, brows furrowed. "I made sure not to die from an illness or get killed prematurely. That's how everybody survives." Shrug. Heh heh heh. Eddy was so unhelpful. Flashing his second year friend a teasing smile, the Gryffindor spoke again, this time more seriously, "I kept to myself a lot. I find it helps to be alone. No one can bother you if there's no one around. No one to judge you, to tell you what you can or can't do, to tell you that the way you think or the things you do are 'wrong'. Who's to decide what's wrong or right?" But Edric doubted Ella was destined to be a grouchy, yet satisfied, loner like him. He wasn't sure he wanted that future for her, anyway. "But I hear having friends can be helpful." He was just learning this this term. When he'd finally made some friends. "Just stick to the good ones. And everyone else? Everyone else can go get eaten by the Giant Squid. Just do whatever makes you happy. Forget if it makes you 'awkward' or if people look at you weirdly. Your true friends will join you, and the people that judge you can't do anything to stop you from doing what you want. Not if you don't let them."

WHEW.
Edric felt a little TOO kind and fuzzy after that speech. Eh. Stupid toddler making him feel all older-brother-y and dumb. This was lame.

Back to his Scroogey ways.
Edric "accidentally" knocked his goblet of pumpkin juice over to spill over Ella and make himself feel better. Siiiiiiiiiigh. The boy seemed SO relieved as he saw the mess he made on the girl's robes. He felt SO much better being mean again. That stupid speech had drained him.

"Oops sorry." Not. HAHA. He did pull out his wand and perform a quick drying charm, though. So Ella's robes were back to normal some thirty seconds later.

And then they were back on the Evelyn topic. As Ella confessed that she'd talked to the older Hufflepuff about HIM of all people, Edric narrowed his eyes and raised an eyebrow at the second year. "About me, huh?" HMM. He wasn't sure he liked the sound of this. "And what exactly did you two talk about?" They probably made fun of his hair or something.

As Ella went on to remind the boy that they were supposed to be friends and he should therefore see her more often, Edric shrugged. "I suppose," he said carelessly, just teasing as he flashed the little girl an evil smirk.

Ella watched Edric curiously as he seemed to summon his grinchy wisdom about growing up. She frowned when he finally replied. "Edric..." She said with a sigh. Did he always have to tease her so much? But then he was speaking to her seriously, like without the sarcasm and everything, and Ella did her best to take in everything he had said...because to her surprise, it was pretty helpful. She did have some questions though. "But you never wanted someone to talk to about stuff?" The second year found talking things out usually made her feel better and she wondered if Edric just kinda swallowed the stuff that made him sad or upset. "Plus, don't you think real friends wouldn't judge you or tell you what to do?" They shouldn't... they should just accept who you are and love you anyway. At least that's what she thought. "I accept you even though you're a meany sometimes." Grin. See? Real friend right here! ...But then the old grump had changed his tune a bit and Ella smiled. He was quite smart, that Edric. Maybe his grinch wisdom wasn't so bad after all. "That's actually not terrible advice, Edric. Thanks!" Beam! "When did you become so-"

O__O

THATMEANOLDGRINCHCOULDN'TEVENHANDLEBEINGNICEFORTWO MINUTES!

She didn't believe he was sorry. In fact she knew he wasn't. She could tell these things by now...and so she frowned and let him dry her robes. At least he had the decency to do that for her. Hmph. And now she would go back to eating her food quietly because she was a bit annoyed with the big old troll that sat next to her being big and old and troll-like.

Ella debated on telling Edric what she had said to Eve. Mostly cause she didn't want him to be mad...though after that drink spilling thing. "Well I asked her what her intentions were as far as you were concerned." Yup. It was her job really, as his fairy godchild. "And I made sure she knew that you were a good catch." Shrug. That was the gist of it. And she was regretting the last part. Maybe he was a big old meany fish after all.

Breakfast. Breakfast was the most important meal of the day. Although, it would be more important if she had chocolate milk. Which she didn't.

It was a shame too. Nothing was better for the brain than chocolate milk. Except maybe broccoli. But broccoli was not a breakfast food.

Nope. Cereal was breakfast food. And fruit. She piled a bit of fruit on her plate and started eating. There were types of fruit that were brain food, right? Because Anya could use the extra brain boost.

Breakfast wasn't Penelope's FAVORITE meal of the day, but she still liked it. Especially when there were pancakes. But not every day. Eating the same thing ALL the time wasn't all that fun. She didn't really feel like having pancakes today anyway, actually. What she DID feel like having though, she wasn't sure. Whatever happened to be in front of her when she sat down would probably work just fine for her.

When she reached the Gryffindor table, she noticed that Anya was already there. Well that was cool. She could have someone to talk to this morning.

"Hi, Anya," the first year said as she took the seat directly across from her. Hmm. There seemed to be lots of fruit on the table. Yeah, that would work just fine as her breakfast for today. So she began piling her plate with all the fruit she could.

Anya began eating a bit of fruit when one of the few girl friends she had arrived at the table.

"Oh. Hi Penelope." she said with a smile.

She ate a few more pieces of fruit.

"How's it going?" Hopefully well. And not long-winded. Because, Anya kind of wanted the question asked in return. She wanted Penelope's opinion on what was going on. Girl talk. Or whatever you wanted to refer to it as.

And asking first was just a formality in getting to the end goal talk goal.

And yes, Anya knew it was a tad bit selfish just to ask so she could talk about herself later. But, girl talk had to start somewhere, right?

Penelope continued piling and piling and piling until she was satisfied with the amount of fruit on her plate. Yeah, that should be good. She nodded at Anya's greeting then shoved a couple pieces of fruit in her mouth. Right before Anya asked her how it was going. Hmmmf. She was going to have to chew and swallow before she could reply. She did remember both Vashti and Atticus telling her it was rude to talk with your mouth full, but that wasn't why she was against trying it. She'd almost choked on her food when she talked while eating once before, and she didn't want that to happen again. Not fun, that.

Finally after about a minute, she was able to swallow. "Going fine, I guess." Nothing much to talk about. "How 'bout for you?" Then she ate another piece of fruit, but only one this time. Just in case Anya replied with more questions.

Anya nommed on a piece of grape doing her best not to jump the gun and just blurt out what was on her mind. She needed to remain polite. She was on the verge of losing friends as it was. She didn't need to add Penelope to the list.

Oh good. Penelope had nothing exciting to say.

And. Yay! She asked the question back.

"Well......" she said extending the sound.

"Asher told me that he liked me."

Sound interesting, Penelope? Because Anya could go on.

Well....

And then nothing.

So...Penelope ate another piece of fruit. And another. And another. And then Anya finally continued.

Asher told her he liked her? That didn't surprise Penelope. She'd already found out the boy liked Anya, and she'd pretty much been the one who told him to tell Anya. At least now she definitely knew he'd done it. It had seemed to take him forever to agree to do it, which Penelope didn't understand. If you liked someone, why WOULDN'T you tell them? Surely that person'd want to know. Penelope probably would if it was her. If she was even likable, which she wasn't sure she was. But that was beside the point.

"Yeah?" she asked after swallowing. "And what'd you say?"

Anya smiled a little. She couldn't help it. She felt a bit giggly. "I said 'Okay'."

Yeah. She was trying to keep from laughing. Not that she was making fun of Asher or anything. She was mostly making fun of herself.

That. And talking about boys was kinda fun. She and Penelope needed to do this again.

"It's not like he asked me a question back. He was just... talking. So... I acknowledged he said something."

"Not really," Edric replied honestly as Ella asked if he ever wanted someone to talk to about stuff. In case it wasn't obvious already, Edric wasn't exactly the super talkative type. But as the little one continued, asking if real friends wouldn't judge or tell them what to do, the Gryffindor nodded. "That's why I told you to stick to the good ones." The whole friends thing was still fairly new to Scrooge, but it was fairly easy to figure out. When Ella announced that she accepted him even though he was a 'meany' sometimes, the boy laughed lightly. Ella was cute. He couldn't see why she was so worried; who could possibly dislike her?

Well. She probably thought HE did. After spilling that juice on her… Edric felt too satisfied to honestly feel sorry for what he did, though. He needed to do something evil! It was in his nature!

Edric continued to listen as Ella explained that she had asked Evelyn about her 'intentions' with him. What? "Intentions?" Edric repeated. That sounded… well, that kinda sounded like the sort of question a parent would ask or something. It just seemed off. And what followed was even FURTHER off. She told EVS - CASPER of ALL people - that he was a 'good catch'!?

Edric spit out his pumpkin pie.

"You told her what?!" the Gryffindor was completely startled. Why would Ella say something like that?! It was completely inappropriate. Poor Evs must've gone in a panic. They were just friends after all. "And may I ask what made you say things like that, Ells?" he asked, more older-brothery again now. He wasn't mad with the second year. Just surprised. And confused. And curious.

Okay? And...Anya looked like she was going to laugh as she said it. Which confused Penelope a little. She didn't really see the humor in the situation. But then again, she didn't find humor in much of anything really, which only made her feel even more separate and different from most kids her age. Or around her age, as was the case with Anya.

She ate another piece as she listened to what Anya said next. That...made sense, she supposed. And it was probably what she would've done too, just acknowledge it. Because if it wasn't a question, there couldn't be much to answer with, right? So...yeah.

"Okay." See, there she was, acknowledging Anya had said stuff. So what Anya did to Asher definitely made sense.

Penelope DID have a question though. "Do you like him too?" She was just curious. And maybe Anya was like Asher. Maybe she needed someone to tell her to tell the other person that she liked him too.

See. Penelope thought it was acceptable as well. In fact, Anya was giving Penelope the official seal of approval right now.

Oh! And look! Penelope was capable of questions. And not racing snails at inopportune moments.

She popped a grape in her mouth and gave a half shrug. "I dunno. I mean. I like spending time with him. But I like spending time with Alec and Tag. And you. You know?"

"But I don't know if I like like him. We haven't really done like like things." And, in Anya's opinion, that was a pretty pivotal part of the liking process.

Special alone time.

Or whatever you wanted to call it.

"Well. We did go on a canal ride in Italy together. But I also had a gelato at the time... so... I probably didn't look too romantic." She added as a side note when she remembered.

"Yeah. I'm not going to count that. Because... it was more like... gelato time for me than alone time."

Mmm. She liked gelato time. It needed to come around more often in her life.

Hmm. Edric was seriously a very curious human being. He was like one of those curious creatures in the Magical Creature Sanctuary that Ella was meant to help take care of. The second year wished she could study him instead of the creatures, he was certainly more interesting to observe than an Auguery. Hey! Actually he was quite like the Auguery! All sullen and hiding out in his nest all day. Edric the Auguery. Sounded legit. Oh, he was talking to her wasn't he. Focus. "Right, the good ones. Like you, and Sophie, and Laura, and Harvs..." Yup. Those were her people.

The second year nodded when Edric repeated what she had asked Evelyn. "Yup, intentions...you know what she planned on doing in relation to you." That's what that word meant, yeah? Honestly. And Edric was supposed to be the smart older one...

O__O

WHY was it that Edric seemed to spit out his juice whenever Ella was around? It was kinda funny, actually. Ella giggled before handing him a napkin. EEP! He didn't seem happy about what she had said to Eve. Wasn't it a compliment though, calling someone a catch? Ella immediately looked down at the table, feeling like a scolded child. She should have never said anything to him. When he spoke next, he seemed to have calmed down a bit. Maybe he wasn't so mad after all..."I erm...well I just couldn't help but notice that you hang out with her a lot...and you don't have a lot of friends so you must like her..and she's around your age so..." Squirm. Squirm. Squirm. "I just want you to be happy?" What was that thing Blue and Theodore did when they wanted to get out of trouble? Innocent blinking? *Blinks innocently*

Edric was honestly surprised and rather flattered that Ella considered him one of her 'good' friends, though the way she kept staring at him while he ate his pumpkin pie and drank his pumpkin juice was throwing him off a little. What was next? Was she going to pull out a notepad and start writing down his chewing patterns or something? Give his species a specific scientific name? Edricsorous Barlex.

What Evelyn planned on doing in relation to him? That was a nice way of explaining it. Quite nice, honestly, for a newborn. Edric was pretty curious to know the answer to that himself.

"Thanks," muttered the boy as Ella handed him a napkin, drying himself off as the little girl explained that she'd noticed he and Evelyn hung out a lot, that he must've liked her and they were around the same age. Edric raised an eyebrow at her, merely staring at the girl for a moment before explaining, "Ells, just because I hang out with a person often doesn't mean I like them that way." At least he didn't think he did; did he? Eh. "Anyway, Casper" - oops, did he say that aloud? - "is graduating soon and moving to Scotland. Trust me, she'll forget all about your 'big meany' friend here within the first week." He half-smiled at the Hufflepuff a little sadly before turning back to the last piece of pumpkin pie that sat waiting for him.

Okay. So maybe staring at Edric like he was some kind of freaky science experiment was wrong...and a little weird. Ella decided she'd stop and focus on her own pie instead. Which was delicious, by the way. Good choice, scroogey.

"Welcome." Ella said, watching as stunned boy dried himself off. And then he was staring at her all quiet like which made Ella think he was about to yell or something...which he didn't, thank Merlin. Psh. She knew all that, she wasn't stupid. "But Edric, you guys are like...perfect for eachother." Seriously, why did neither of them recognize this when it was so clear to Ella?! Raised eyebrows. Casper? "Did you just call her Casper?...that's mean, Edric." Ella said with a frown. Did Eve know he went around calling her names? And another big frown. Poor Edric actually looked...sad! She would have took a picture if she had her camera if only to document this rare moment of emotion from the ogre! "She will not." Ella insisted, eyeing Edric seriously. "She'll miss you because you're great even if you act like a big meany all the time." Yup. Ella thought her big evil fairy godfather was great. Go figure. "And you'll miss her because...well you like being around her, yeah? Even if you won't admit it cause you're an ogre." True. All true. Ella was SO smart. She should write her own column or something!

Penelope continued eating as Anya answered her question. She liked spending time with him? That sorta meant she liked him, didn't it? At least Penelope thought so until Anya said she also liked spending time with Alec - the Hufflepuff Seeker? Penelope wrinkled her nose at that - and Tag. And her? That one took Penelope by surprise. She didn't think anyone liked spending time with her, so...that was interesting to hear. Nice, too. "I like spending time with you too." Just throwing that out there, in case Anya wondered.

Then Penelope continued eating. Wait. Like like? What? There was such a thing as like like? What was the difference between that and liking someone? Which one were they talking about? Penelope thought it was just about Asher liking Anya, but then Anya said she didn't know if she like liked him. "What's the difference between like and like like?" the first year asked, confused. "I thought we were talking about liking him. And what are like like things?"

A canal ride? That sounded fun, whatever it was. And...gelato? "What's gelato?" She'd never had it before so she had no idea what it was. "Does it have to be romantic?" These like like things? Whatever that meant.

She wasn't counting it because it was gelato time? Well okay. That didn't sound like a bad thing really. "Is there anything else you could count?"

Perfect for each other? What?! In Edric's opinion, Ella was probably reading too many silly Twilight-esque books made specifically for teenage girls. And Eddy was no Edward Cullen.

"So, according to you, we're perfect for each other because we hang out often and are around the same age? That's hardly reason to get into a relationship with a person, Ells," said Edric. Honestly, to him, NOTHING was ever a good reason to get into a relationship. But that's because Edric was afraid of commitment.

And then Ella was scolding him for calling Evs 'Casper'. "What?! It's funny!" said the boy in his defense. Why did no one find it funny!? He thought it was pretty clever! "Besides, I didn't start it. Little Demon started the whole thing by calling Evs a ghost… Evs did the terrible mistake of telling me and so now she's Casper. I thought it was cute." Casper's a cute little innocent ghost, c'mon! It's not like he was calling her a blood-sucking vampire or something.

When Ella began to try to cheer up ol' Mr. Scrooge, Edric gave her a 'don't you pity me, fool!' kinda look, but kept all objections to himself. Instead he listened as the little girl assured him that Evs would miss him because he was actually great, and that he'd miss her because he liked being around her. Well he knew the last part, obviously, but the first part was completely out of his hands. That was Evelyn's territory. "Well I hope you're right," said the boy, looking a little uncomfortable. He didn't like this "missing" feeling much. It was weird. He'd never had it before.