Gideon was quite proud of how things had turned out for the Wonderland event, everything looking all wintery and white. Just like the grounds out of doors and Scotland prepared for winter. Upon entering the Great Hall, he gazed around as the whole scene was shown with everything finished. Nice...real nice. He debated where to go first but found his feet heading towards the baking area figuring to look for some friends. And sure enough, not only was Kurumi there, but two more of his group.

Though he really wasn't surprised by Selina's presence.

"I do believe the food in the seating area is quite yummy," he spoke, making his presence known beside Vi as the Ravenclaw voiced her hunger. They had afterall spent some time picking out the various recipes to be made specifically for the event and that had included taste-tasting.

Alexa looked over at Vivi with a smile when she plopped down in the seat next to her. Even better! Now she would have TWO people baking cookies for her. Hmm...who else could she get to come join them? One could never have too many cookies afterall.

Uh huh...

She wanted to inspect the icing...? This wasn't weird at all..."Sure thing," She said, reaching across the table and grabbing the icing she figured the girl meant then handing it to her, "but uhhh...what are you inspecting for...?"

It was just as she had thought. There was something in the food. O___O
Ooooo but incase there was nothing wrong with the food she now had another hopeful cookie maker (Macavity). Excellent!

Belle put out her hand and shook it, "I am Annabelle Lecium but i prefer Belle for short. Nice to meet you Melanie!" She was always happy to make new friends.
"I am so excited for the winter holidays too! I heard you singing christmas carols and i couldn't resist talking to you." Belle smiled at Melanie. "Do you know when they are gonna start making the cookies?[/B]"

Belle saw a familiar face she only met when she was doing her prefect duties. Belle smiled and said, "Hi Alexa!" She loved the holiday cheer too and thought everyone should be nice and friendly this time of year.

"Trying to get rid of me, Mary?" Vivi flicked individual sprinkles at Gideon, grinning even more hugely when some of them landed in his curls. Yeeeeees.

"I was trying to be sociable. My baby lion is here, and my friends..." She wasn't sure about friends, considering no one was putting fresh cookies in her hands at the moment. True friends shared baked goods.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaniDiNardo

Alexa looked over at Vivi with a smile when she plopped down in the seat next to her. Even better! Now she would have TWO people baking cookies for her. Hmm...who else could she get to come join them? One could never have too many cookies afterall.

Uh huh...

She wanted to inspect the icing...? This wasn't weird at all..."Sure thing," She said, reaching across the table and grabbing the icing she figured the girl meant then handing it to her, "but uhhh...what are you inspecting for...?"

It was just as she had thought. There was something in the food. O___O
Ooooo but incase there was nothing wrong with the food she now had another hopeful cookie maker (Macavity). Excellent!

At least Lex was being helpful. Perhaps for the first time. Vivi winked at the girl as she accepted the icing, and then she blatantly stuck a finger into the sticky substance and happily licked said finger clean.

"Hmm. It seems safe, but I might have to try it again on a different finger. 'Rumi, you know your hair is all watermelony at the moment? New look?"

The first place Kendall headed once she'd set foot inside the great hall for the prefect event was cookies. Gingerbread wasn't chocolate, but it was still pretty awesome, especially if she got to actually make her own cookies. With the house elves and Lurumi, who she still wanted to talk to. Just because of things, even though her ubiquitous pink streaks in her hair were mostly hidden by the fedora she'd set on her head before heading down from the tower. As usual, she hadn't particularly worried about colors matching, except for the fact she mostly was wearing pink since her penguin shirt was hidden by the pinkish-red sweater. Pink and butterflies, along with the fedora and her combat boots which were oddly blue plaid today. Just to break up the pink a little and still give her a bit of Ravenclaw to her outfit. She wasn't worried about that, though. Just cookies, and she'd arrived at around the same time Vivi had mentioned Kurumi's hair after talking about testing the icing.

Oooh, pink, she thought with a grin, stepping into the work area quietly and investigating cookie cutters. "Dragon, butterfly..., " she murmured to herself, selecting those cutters along with a Christmas tree and a snowflake just to be festive. She'd be able to make her mark when she decorated them, after all. "I like your hair, Kurumi," she finally said, as she got dough to roll out to create her cookies. She really did. She'd started cutting out cookies, though, filling a tray with a dragon, two butterflies and a tree and snowflake. That was good enough to start with. And, as she waited for them to get baked, she applied her attention back to the Gryffindor prefect or any of the elves. "Is there such a thing as chocolate gingerbread? Or can you make chocolate cookies like gingerbread men?" There didn't seem to be other dough options, but it was worth suggesting. Maybe they could get some another time.

Sarah was heading to the marshmellow place when she saw Alexa "Hey, Lexi I am going to get marshmallows! If you want you can come either now or when you are finished" She then gave a conspiratoral wink towarards the decoraters table.... That icing looked yum.. as did the chocolate

Wishing even MORE for her hood when Nessie asked if she was alright, Kurumi simply nodded at Nessie as she removed a tray of gingerbread cookies and various shapes from the oven and set them on the cookie rack. "F-Fine," she stammered, blushing even more. Just embarrassed and thinking about the future now after having been called Sir Lewis' Lady. "H-How are you doing Nessie? You want to decorate some cookies with me?"

And then little Blue showed up looking adorable as usual and Kurumi offered the Ravenclaw a smile. "Hello, Blue."

Right...she should probably put another tray of cookies into the oven...
And as soon as some of the gingerbread cookies were out of the oven they were gone in the blink of an eye and into the bottomless pit that was Selina. "Thanks, Selina," she laughed. Maybe she should have cast a Disillusionment Charm on some of the baked trays of cookies ready to be decorated so that Selina didn't eat everything. "You know...there are gingerbread things over in the seating area that I baked too..." Although Selina did know that because she had been the official taste tester for her and the house elves when she had been trying out recipes for everything.

Hopefully Selina wouldn't resort to eating spoonfuls of the raw gingerbread cookie dough on the table...

"I like your hat."
"I am always blushing," Kurumi mumbled as another tray came out of the oven and onto the cooling rack. And then Ira called her Sir Lewis' Lady as well and it became clear to the Gryffindor that her cheeks were not going to be turning any normal hue any time soon.

Neither was her hair for that matter. MERLIN did she wish she had her school robes on and her hood...

Kurumi didn't even hear the favorite prefect line - Ira was biased anyway seeing as she was a Gryffindor - as all thoughts were still on what Ella had said and then echoed moments later by Ira.

These younger students were out to kill her today...obviously.

"Well, there are plenty of cookies coming out of these ovens, but be sure to decorate some of them too! They can go one the big Christmas tree or on the gingerbread house. Juliet is going to send some home as well." Lots of things that could be done with these cookies.
Kurumi really DID want to narrow her eyes at Ella or be angry or something towards the Hufflepuff...but Kurumi couldn't. There really was nothing to be upset about - besides being embarrassed by her mood ring hair. While Kurumi disliked the idea of that apostrophe s because it implied possession and the now PINK!Haired seventh year didn't see Lewis as HER possession, Kurumi had told Lewis that she was his so...Ella really only was speaking the truth.

It just made her blush like MAD to hear it said out loud.

"Rock star?" Kurumi repeated, blinking in surprise for a moment. Could Ella really see Kurumi on stage as some rock star? The image was rather amusing, especially when one considered that she really could only play the piano. "Not sure I am the type," she laughed, the image still clear in her mind.
Attention once again averted towards Sarah, Kurumi took the unbaked cookies from her and set them on a tray and then into the oven they went. "Won't be too long," she winked. "They've been charmed to bake in half the time." Sure enough, the chime on the oven sounded after a few minutes and Kurumi removed the cookies Sarah had made and set them on the cooling rack. "All ready for you to ice and add decorations!"
Kurumi found herself humming along as Melanie made her way towards the station, the warm spell of freshly baked gingerbread lingering in the air and making the entire area feel much warmer and comfortable. At least that is how Kurumi felt right now. She was in her element!

"Hey Melanie," she waved. "See, I told you to hold those thoughts you had about gingerbread houses and gingerbread man baking."

Breathe...just breathe...the Gryffindor didn't seem to be acting up like she had been the first half of the term...so give her the benefit of the doubt Hollingberry, Kurumi somewhat scolded herself. Alexa probably had no idea how much her suspension had made Kurumi feel like she was a failure of a student leader, seeing how despite her efforts and warnings the girl hadn't listened and...well...the ax had come down as it were. She was glad that it wasn't permanent though, that would have been weighing on her conscious for a long time.

"Hey Alexa," she chirped, waving the girl over. "Do you want to start decorating some of those cookies?" Or she could cut out more in whatever shape she wanted. Up to her. "In a little bit I am going to head over to the decoration table myself."

VIVI! Cue some finger wiggling from Kurumi as she took a short break from the ovens to walk over to the Ravenclaw who was...inspecting the candy decorations? Erm...

Despite Gideon bringing up food being in the seating area, Kurumi summoned a gingerbread cookie in the shape of a fairy and guided it towards her friend. "Something to tie you over," she laughed. Wait...Rumi? Did Selina teach her that one? It wasn't a very common nickname for Kurumi - but SIGNIFICANTLY less embarrassing than Mrs Lewis or Sir Lewis' Lady. "Is there...something wrong with the candy?" Allergies perhaps? Or was she going to attempt to pocket some of them like she had done with the worms in Care of Magical Creatures?

And her hair...right...UG! The more people pointed it out the harder it was for her to get back in control and make it go baaaaaack. "Oh, um, no...it...um...does that sometimes," she said as she fumbled over her words and squirmed slightly. "It won't stay this way for long...hopefully."
"Already started, Belle," Kurumi called over her shoulder as she nodded towards the cooling racks filled with cookies. Not that there was anything stopping her from rolling out some more dough and cutting shapes out herself. There WAS plenty of it to go around.
HER HAIR.

MERLIN.

One would think that after seven terms of this she would be in more control...but she wasn't. She was a liiiiiiiiiittle, but not nearly to the point that she wanted to be. Maybe it was better this way? Not that Kurumi wanted to think about it right now. Just going to ignore her hair and hope it went back to black while she kept herself busy with everything else going on here. "Um...thanks...Kendall," Kurumi said rather hurriedly as she shuffled to put more cookies in the oven.

"Chocolate gingerbread? Oh yeah, simple enough to make really. You can just add cocoa powder and chocolate chips really. There are both in the candy decorations if you want to knead them into some of the gingerbread dough before you roll it out." Nothing stopping people from being creative in that regard either. Let creativity reign!

Sarah was glad they baked in so little time so she gave up the treat tabel now. "Thank you Kurumi" she said and set to work. First she iced the K the same shade as Kurumi's hair was now... pink. "This is for you" she said to older girl giving her the cookie. She then made the N purple and she gave it to nessie, "for you!" she said, "is purple not your favourite colour and it matches your broom"She then made all the other letters she made hot pink... her favourite colour. Well actualy she made Blue's blue and Bently's green in order to diffrienciate the B cookies. Alexa's she made red, while she left Ari's hot pink.
Then she went to her lions. She gave each lion a triangular nose. Some whiskers, a mouth, a red or orange mane and two eyes. They were not perfect but its the thought that counts..

Ella bit her lip as she watched Kurumi, wondering if she'd gone too far with the whole hair comment. Honestly? She thought pink hair was quite cool. She'd considered changing her own hair several times but her mother had never been okay with it...not that she was around anymore to protest. >.< Anyway-

Oh! Kurumi was speaking finally. She didn't seem too mad, either. That was quite a relief! Ella smiled and nodded her head. "Yup, a rock star. They have really cool hair too!" And Ella knew all about good hair! She was quite an expert on the subject, actually. The badger had spent many days judging admiring her fellow classmates' locks. "Oh any one can be a rock star, Sir Lew-I mean Kurumi! You just have to have confidence and be you and just do...you thing." Yup, those were the rock star basics right there. Feel free to take notes cause Ella was dishing out gems of knowledge today. GEMS.

The third year was eyeing the different cookie cutters as she noted more and more familiar faces at the table. Like Loch Nessie! Beam. And Bluetiful was there too! Both girls got a wide smile and a finger wiggle from the third year. Oh! And Melanie the Clumsier was chatting with Belle! Grin. They got waves as well. It was nice having such awesome people around. Mhm! It totally was.

Spotting a snitch shaped cookie cutter, the small blonde smiled and picked it up. "Consider yourself claimed, cookie cutter." She said with a small smile, bringing it with her to where she was going to roll out some dough. Right...now she needed a rolling pin. Hmmm.

Spotting one on the table, the badger began to roll out the dough, doing her best to resist the urge to eat it right then and there. It smelled SO delicious. Ugh. SO delicious. It would be even more delicious cooked, though. She knew this. And so she continued to roll out the dough.

This was the bestest day ever! Tinka and other elvsies get to bake with Missus Kurumi and other studentsies all day long! GRIN.

POP!

Tinka appeared in the Great Hall right beside a Hufflepuff who had been to the kitchens earlier this term. She had been cooking with that Hufflepuff Seeker boy. Tinka scurried behind the table and bowed to the Gryffindor Prefect before turning to the Badger. "Miss Ella! Tinka honored to see you, miss! Tinka help miss?"

Pao was stoked for this Prefect Event thingy the whole school had been talking about. But the whole Winter Wonderland thing... ugh. That was the part of Hogwarts he was least excited for. Italian winters were nothing like Scottish winters.

As he entered the Great Hall, the first thing he noticed was the smell. He'd recognize that anywhere! Gingerbread! Which was fantastic. He made a beeline over to that station. And speaking of fantastic... Kurumi! A feeling of warmth spread from his stomach out to his very fingertips. This was a most excellent bonus.

And hey, one of his teammates was here, too! He'd recognize the back of Ella's head anywhere. He'd certainly seen it from a distance plenty of times during practices. As he approached, he saw that she was just beginning to make her cookie. "Hey, Ella! Mind if I join you?" Not that he would just leave if she said no, but still, it was polite to ask. "Just be warned... I'm rubbish at baking. But I can frost and decorate just fine!" There was no such thing as too much icing.

"WOAH! Is that a snitch cookie cutter?!" Yes, this was going to be EPIC.

Lex gave the girl a wide smile. It was always good to get the enthusiastic responses; they just seemed to make her glow. That being the case the 11 year old was clearly beaming. Nevermind the fact that there circumstances for meeting was a bit ...off...now it was the holidays and everything was happier on the holidays. Duh. "How's the cookie making coming along?" And was she a good baker because then Lex could add her to her baking squad.


Hehehehehe. She called her baby lion. This wouldn't be forgotten anytime soon.

She watched eagerly as she took the icing, waiting to see what kind of rigorous test it would have to go through to get approval--

O____O

Seriously...?

"What do you think you're doing?! You can't just go tasting stuff like that!!! What if something's wrong with it?!" The older girl could be in trouble!!!! "Those people might have done something to it. You have to let someone else try it first..." Yup. No need to put yourself at risk.


"Ooooo, marshmellows! I love those!!" Getting some didn't sound like a half bad idea!!! "I can help you if you want!" GRIN. Being helpful was fun, especially when marshmellows were included! Oh but she didn't miss that look that Sarah was giving her. Yeah...she might tag along eventually afterall...


Though she would never admit it, she actually missed Kurumi too while she was home. Might not have seemed like a lot but she could think of tonnes of people that she didn't miss.

When she said hi to her she thought she might have given her the look for going and losing so many points for Gryffindor then getting sent home--but she didn't! New Kurumi maybe? Or it could have been because of the festive season. Either way she didn't care because the prefect sounded happy to see her.

"Ummm, I'm good in either places I guess," so long as there were cookies and Vivi.

Her face lit up just a bit when one of the house elves popped up. She suddenly had the strong urge to pounce on her and give her a BIG hug but for too reasons she didn't. 1. It might have gotten her into some trouble and 2....the last time she did that to an elf...it cried...yeah...she could do without that happening again so instead she gave her a wide smile. "Hello!"

Ella was just about finished rolling out her dough when she heard a loud POP next to her. The third year jumped a bit, nearly sending her rolling pin flying through the air, and turned to see who had arrived.

O___O

AN ICKLE HOUSE ELF! BEAM. BEAM. BEAM.

And Tinka remembered her? GRIN. How awesome was this? A house elf wanting to help boring old Ella make gingerbread cookies! This was SO cool. "Hi Tinka!" BEAM. "It's great to see you too! I'd love some help. I'm thinking of making a set of Quidditch themed cookies!" Wait! Did house elves know about Quidditch? Course they did! It was QUIDDITCH! Only the most awesomest sport around.


The third year was just about to ask Tinka if she knew of any more Quidditch-y cookie cutters when she heard her name again. She turned and smiled when she saw her fellow badger, giving him a little finger wiggle by way of greeting. "Sure you can join me, I'd like the company." And they were teammates so this was kind of like a bonding experience, yeah? Teammates could benefit from this kind of thing surely. "Want to know a secret?" She asked in response to his confession. "I'm pretty rubbish at baking too, I once nearly burned down my Gran's kitchen." Which Dad prevented, by the way. "I think I can handle cookie cutting, though."

Grin. Coolest thing ever, yeah? The snitch cookie cutter had grabbed Ella's attention right away. "It totally is! I think I'll make some Quidditch cookies and maybe give them out to the team. What do you think?"

Oh! And if both Pao and Tinka were helping, they should meet! "Tinka? This is Pao! He's going to help too!" And it was totally time to start baking.

Tinka jumped and gave off a high-pitched squeal. "Oh, hello miss! Tinka sorry, miss frightened Tinka a wee bitsy!" Elfsy nose touched the floor as the elf bowed low. "Does miss need assistance?"


Elfsy eyes bulged. "Tinka LOVE help Miss Ella!" A toothy smile spread across the creature's face. "Ohhhh yes, miss! Tinka know just what Miss Ella need!"

She whisked away to grab everything she could. Miss Ella need best cookie cutters! Where did Tinka put them? She searched through the piles. "Toddles make mess? Tinka no see-- THERE you ares!"

Scooping up an armload of cookie cutters, the elf marched back to the girl as quickly as possible. "Here they be, Miss Ella!" said Tinka, who deposited them all on the table in front of her, some of them spilling over onto...

"Oh, sir! Tinka not see sir there, Tinka bad bad bad!" She crawled under the table quick as lightning and picked everything up. Dusting off his shoes for good measure, the elf stood and bowed low. "Tinka happy to meet Sir Pao. Tinka shall make sure to punish Tinka-self, sir," she said, nodding vigorously.

Pao smiled back at the cool older girl. But... What's with the finger wiggle? Maybe she had hurt it and was just testing to see if it was still working. "A secret?" This hardly seemed the time for... Oh! He relaxed and smiled a bit. "Well, er... try not to burn down Hogwarts, ok?" Which would be pretty hard, considering it was stone and all. "Good, I'm sure you can." Because it wasn't THAT difficult, after all. Right? ...right?!

Quidditch! Yeah! "I think that sounds delicious! We should make at least one of them purple for our Captain. You make the snitch-shaped ones, I'll make the Quaffle- and Bludger-shaped ones." Because hopefully he wouldn't screw those up. They were just round circles, how bad could it get? Pao flashed her a small wink to show that he realized he had given himself the much easier task. "Or, you know, you can let me ruin the snitches. Your call!" he finished, chuckling a bit.




Then he felt something-- or things, rather-- hit his feet. "Wha--?" Why was there a pile of cookie cutters on his shoes? Almost instantaneously, his questioned was answered with the arrival of... Is that a house elf? It had to be. There was no other explanation.

"Oh, hello there! It's fine, really. Don't worry about it," he said kindly. "You're not bad, er.. Tinka." She was wiping off his shoes? Kinda odd... But then he quickly made a stopping motion, almost shooing her. " No no, please don't. There's no need for that, Tinka. Why don't you just go make sure everyone else has everything they need instead?"

Belle saw Krummi going crazy. She looked like she could use some help. "Krummi do you need any assistance?" Belle asked her as she shoved the cookies into the oven. As a prefect it was the least she could do.

When she mentioned they could be creative with their cookies, Belle smacked her lips and started to get cracking down on her cookies. She got ahold of the cocoa powder, choco chips and candy decorations. She kneaded some into the dough. Belle grabbed one of the cookie cutters and made a snow angel cookie. It reminded her that she will be home soon for the holidays




Belle smiled at Lex. When Lex asked her how the cookie making was coming along, she replied, "Oh we could use all the help we can get. You can even make your own cookies to share with friends or even family members!" Belle knew she was going to give these cookies to her family that is for sure. Or maybe...even eat some since they smelled so delicious.

Belle was kneading the dough and as she made the cookie cut, she couldn't resist eating some of the dough. YUMMY! It tasted so good. Belle's taste buds were tingling.

Lex jumped a little when the elf squeal. Yikes. When they weren't crying because of something she did they were making high-pitched noises. "Oh it's fine and you can call me Alexa." GRIN. She liked the house elves. They were the most adorable things EVER! "I guess I could use a little help. My friend Vivi wants a cookie, do you have any that are already done?" If not then they would all have to go into double time.

"Awesome!" Now she could make some for her father--but none for Amanda...though she'd probably make one for the baby and hope it choke on it. Now THAT was some positive thinking right there.

She could also make some for Seri then they could share them while they plotted. Plotting was hard work and they would need brain food. "Do you need help with anything in particular?" She could pull her weight up until the baking bit. Lex began giggling when she caught the girl eating the dough. "Daddy says you'll turn into a cookie if you eat too much dough." And YES she believed him.

Ella grinned at Tinka, happy to see that she was so eager to help...Though that probably shouldn't be that surprising, yeah? House elves always helped! "Okay...brilliant, Tinka! I really appreciate it."

She watched as the little house elf then hurried off to...gather cookie cutters. BEAM. That's exactly what she needed actually, more Quidditch cookie cutters! Tinka really was very awesome. And really strong, apparently! That was A LOT of cookie cutters!

"Thank you, Tinka! That was really nice of you to..."

O___O

Andthentheyallfellonthefloor.


Ella raised an eyebrow at Pao before cracking a smile. "I'll do my best to keep the castle in one piece while I bake, no worries." Besides, she wasn't really doing the hard stuff. The elves and Kurumi were handling the ovens, all Ella had to do was not kill anyone with the rolling pin. Not too hard a task...if she was careful.

So...it seemed Pao was ready to take charge and that was completely fine with Ella. She smiled at him as he spoke, nodding her head in approval. "Nessie definitely gets a purple cookie, good thinking! And yeah, I'll handle the snitches." Grin. "Bludgers and quaffles are all you, Pao."

And then Pao was covered in cookie cutters and poor Tinka was all upset about it. MEEP. It was only an accident and certainly nothing to get so nervous about. "Pao's right, Tinka. You didn't do it on purpose or anything! No harm done." And she gave the elf a reassuring smile, hoping she'd believe them.

Picking up the snitch cookie cutter, Ella eyed her dough and began cutting various cookies. She worked carefully, not wanting to mess up. Mmmm. These were going to be SO good when they were finished! BEAM.

"You are a very good friend," Vivi accepted the cookie with wide eyes and immediately took a bite. She wasn't too proud to smile a crumby smile and mumble through her full mouth, "Candy is good. Looks good in Mary's hair, too. He has candy dandruff today." Or maybe someone had thrown it at him. She added sprinkles to her cookie before taking another bite.

Even in full on cookie!bliss, it was obvious to Vivi that she'd made a misstep in mentioning the hair to the Gryffindor girl. She put her elbows on the counter and leaned in, ostensibly to double down on the cookie but really to drop her voice so only Kurumi could hear her. "I'll make mine pink too and we can tell people we planned it that way. If you want."

But the real solution was that Kurumi needed to practice. She'd be able to control it better already if she had been.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaniDiNardo

Hehehehehe. She called her baby lion. This wouldn't be forgotten anytime soon.

She watched eagerly as she took the icing, waiting to see what kind of rigorous test it would have to go through to get approval--

O____O

Seriously...?

"What do you think you're doing?! You can't just go tasting stuff like that!!! What if something's wrong with it?!" The older girl could be in trouble!!!! "Those people might have done something to it. You have to let someone else try it first..." Yup. No need to put yourself at risk.

"I'm not a princess, Lex, and I can't afford a food taster. I do all my own tasting." And just to be extra scandalous, Vivi added a healthy spoonful of the icing to her cookie and spread it around, before putting even MORE sprinkles on top. MMMMSUGAR.

"Who are those people? I don't have any enemies."

Attention away from the ovens, Kurumi looked at the pink K cookie being presented to her by Sarah. "Oh, thank you Sarah," she smiled as she accepted it. "I'll save it for later." Considering that her hands were a little busy at the moment with trays of cookies and the like.
*twitch*

Kurumi tried not to notice Ella almost calling her...that again because it was just going to make her cheeks flush an even deeper shade of pink. Instead she tried to focus on the whole rock star image. "I have to admit, never thought about that as a future career," she laughed while cutting out more dragon shaped gingerbread cookies. Dragons...yep, that was what was in her future. Or would hopefully be once her results came in February. "Well, if you ever become a rock star, be sure to remember us little people."

^__________________________^

TINKA!

Kurumi recognized the pop before she even heard the house elf speak. Most people probably didn't notice, but each house elf sort of had a unique POP! noise, and Tinka's was one of the more peppy and sweet sounding ones.

Kurumi returned Tinka's bow and BEAMED at the house elf. "TINKA!" Yeah, Tinka got a hug before the Gryffindor could stop herself. Just...don't start crying, okay? "I have a few trays of cookies in the ovens, if you wouldn't mind keeping an eye on them."

Now...where were the rest of them? They had been running around earlier...
Moving towards the decoration station now, Kurumi smiled when she saw Logan show up at the baking area. Yay! Her favorite little first year! She probably ought to ask him what had him so awkward suddenly during Divination, but that could come later. "Hey Logan," she waved before picking up a bag of white icing. "It is. You should be able to find a bunch of Quidditch related cookie cutters." Mostly Selina's influence...like having ten Beater's bat ones to send a subliminal message that she was still looking for her's...but all the captains had pitched in ideas for those.

"It's entirely up to you and nothing is stopping you from doing both," Kurumi replied as she got her cookie ready for the icing bag she held in her hands, massaging it a little to warm up its contents. Hmm...maybe she would decorate this one to look like an Antipodean Opaleye...
"Now that Tinka is here, I am sure that other house elves will come back as well, so everything is fine," Kurumi replied with a soft shake of her head. Now, for this cookie that she was decorating... definitely an Antipodean Opaleye, which meant she was going to need to blend a bunch of colors together and use some of the eatable shimmer...
Sounded like reasoning that Selina would give. Feed me and you are considered a very good friend. Only wasn't Vivi too Ravenclaw for that sort of logic? No matter! Mary? For a moment Kurumi was looking around for a student named Mary that she possibly did not know...when she remembered that it was her nickname for Gideon due to the whole Sherlock and Watson thing Vivi and Selina had going on.

Note to self: need to read those books before graduating so that their conversations make sense.

"Oh yes, eatable dandruff is the new sensation," she laughed. She probably should tell Vivi not to throw candy, but the Gryffindor had the feeling that candy wasn't going to be the only thing being thrown by the end of this event...

Ahem.

"You don't have to," Kurumi whispered in reply, a smile playing on her lips as her violet eyes darted to Vivi's hair. Hey, it sort of matched the floating marshmallows in the background! Sometimes the way they floated made it look like she had little buns sticking out of her head too...hehe. "Most of my friends know that my hair does this with, um, certain emotions...so it's alright, really. Just embarrassing that I lose control still."

Of course, if Vivi wanted to turn her hair pink just for fun, Kurumi wouldn't protest it.

Christmas time was definately here because all Toddles really wanted to do for Christmas was get to play with the studensies a bunch and he was getting too. It was really happening!!

Toddles was all in the Christmas spirit too, yes he was. He had found a little red puff ball in one of the laundry baskets he was hiding in the other day and had decided to stick it to the end of his nose like that flying animal thing that everyone called Rodolphus or whatever. He was Rodolphus now! WEEEE!

"Merry Christmas studensies, Merry Christmas! I hope you all are going to make a Toddles shaped cookie, two actually! Here you go Misses, Sir!" Toddles walked around the small crowd of students handing out little house elf shaped cookie cutters. They were little of couse, just his size.

No one wanted an Algumus cookie.

HEHE

Alexa paused for a moment, thinking about what Vivi had just said. All that might have been true but it didn't mean she needed to put herself at such a great risk;not at a time like this!!!!

Her eyes went wide at the girls actions. There was just so much sugar...so much...delicious...sugar...The possibilities of her and all that sugar were endless; endless and promising...just probably not for all involved. She had to try that!!!!!!!--erm...but back to the point that Vivi was obviously missing.

"Hmmm...well you are kinda old so I don't suppose they'd be a threat to you..." Lex mused, looking Vivi over for a moment before going on. "Besides, by your age it becomes less necessary to use sneaky ways of converting people." You could swear they all did it of their own free will. "Have you ever heard of the Cootie Lovers Squad?" Because they totally existed. "I think they might have started slipping something into the food because a lot of people have been acting weird and joining the ranks of the people already in that squad.There's clearly a connection somewhere."

Good, now she had a back up in case she got bored! She might just start with the making of the cookies seeing as everyone was playing around in the dough anyway and having a ball eating most of it before they could even get through the first part. Weird people they were.

"Okie. So then...do you need any help with yours?" Like with the baking..or the decorating...or really just the eating? She was willing to offer any kind of assistance. Besides, Kurumi's cookies always turned out well and she wanted to be able to say she helped out with that. "I can help you with the dough--or the decorating."

And now Toddles?! This was too much! It's like they WANTED her tackling an elf before the event was over!

She watched him walking among them and handing out cookie cutters, elf shaped ones but once he got to her she latched onto him. "Do you wanna be my special helper?" Really she just wanted the adorable house elf to herself but saying that would have sounded quite selfish in this festive season so she opted for the sugar coated version. "We can makes tonnes of Toddles cookies together!" GRIN.

Mmm. Sugar.

Gingerbread Baking!!!

Addie stared around in delight at all the cookie dough and other stuff possibly imagined to be used for making gingerbread cookies. Smiling she looked around and began to decide what she was going to make. Hmmm....there were to many choices. Gingerbread men, women, snowflakes, dragons, so much to choose from. Addie thought about Roro the dragon and decided that she would make a cookie version of Roro and hang it on the Christmas tree.

Smiling to herself with that idea she rolled out some cookie dough and cut a dragon out of it. Tada, ready to be baked.

He smiled. The castle definitely belonged in one piece, that was for sure. Pao was beginning to regard this place as somewhat of a second home, maybe like a vacation home. The first year was finally starting to know where everything was, find a few shortcuts, even remember to jump the trick stairs.

He searched the table. "Here's some purple icing!" He made a grab for it, just to be sure there would be some left by the time they needed it. "Okay, let's do this thing!" He began to peruse the table for a plain circular cutter, but it was proving harder than expected. Aha! The Hufflepuff grabbed the first ringlet he laid eyes on. "Gotcha!"

Feeling slightly guilty, he traded his cookie cutter in for one that Tinka had brought him. "Thanks, Tinka," he said kindly. Then he set off to work. Line up... Press... Peel. I got this! He proudly laid aside his first Quaffle cookie. "This isn't that bad, actually!" He quickly got six more done. "Hey, I think I'm ready to bake these already, Ella!" He beamed with evident satisfaction. "Hey Tinka, can you put these in the oven for me?"



And then he heard his name. And he knew that voice. And the familiar swooping sensation was back in his stomach.

He turned toward her with a smile. "Hi Kurumi!" he said with a wave that knocked several bottles of sprinkles to the floor. "Oh shoot," he gasped, reddening. "Er.. I'll just clean that up then.." The first year began gathering the sprinkles into a neat little pile, the easier to sweep up somehow.

From the floor, he said, "Yeah, Tinka brought me quite a few to pick from, actually." He wondered what shape he should pick next. "What's your favorite shape? I'll make one for you, if you'd like." Although, she'd probably rather have Prefect Lewis make her one, but a quick glance around the hall didn't reveal his presence nearby.

"There are so many things I don't have to do that I do anyway. Why not add to the list?" Vivi smiled broadly at Kurumi before retrieving the bag she'd dropped at her feet. It always took her a few moments to find what she was looking for, in spite of keeping the bag rigorously organized and cleaned out, simply because Vivi liked being prepared.

"I was wondering why anyone would get this for me for Christmas, but I guess it was one of those kismet things," Vivi extracted a shiny cylinder, thin and tapered at one end. "Instant hair color courtesy of Ellsberry." She showed the wand to Kurumi before putting the thin end to her hair and adding pink streaks to her pale blond locks.

"Happy Christmas, Kurumi. Thanks for the cookie." Pause pause. "I have something for you... come find me when things settle a bit."

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaniDiNardo

Alexa paused for a moment, thinking about what Vivi had just said. All that might have been true but it didn't mean she needed to put herself at such a great risk;not at a time like this!!!!

Her eyes went wide at the girls actions. There was just so much sugar...so much...delicious...sugar...The possibilities of her and all that sugar were endless; endless and promising...just probably not for all involved. She had to try that!!!!!!!--erm...but back to the point that Vivi was obviously missing.

"Hmmm...well you are kinda old so I don't suppose they'd be a threat to you..." Lex mused, looking Vivi over for a moment before going on. "Besides, by your age it becomes less necessary to use sneaky ways of converting people." You could swear they all did it of their own free will. "Have you ever heard of the Cootie Lovers Squad?" Because they totally existed. "I think they might have started slipping something into the food because a lot of people have been acting weird and joining the ranks of the people already in that squad.There's clearly a connection somewhere."

"You need to be streaked too. All the cool kids do it." Vivi touched the color-wand to Lex's hair and gave the girl a broad streak of pink hair. Perfect.

"Now then... you need to tell me about the Cootie Lovers Squad, because I have never heard of this deadly society. Do we need to report them to the Ministry? Is anyone in mortal danger?" Or was it all, perhaps, a product of Lex's vivid imagination? "I promise no one is poisoning me, Lex. I'm just the same as I always have been."