Kahlan couldn’t help raising an eyebrow and giggling as she watched how smug, even arrogant, he was making himself appear. Even him shushing her made her giggle slightly at how confidently he was acting – considering she’d rarely seen him acting anything close to confident!!!

“Okay, we will get inside and will eat good quality food” she echoed, figuring she should go along with it. After all, good quality food was something that everyone here was pretty much desperate for by this point in time! And considering she didn’t like ice cream, her food options were extremely limited whenever they did have to eat in the hall.

Noticing the sudden stop, she looked at him questionable only to see him pointing at the portrait that they’d been looking for. ”So this is the kitchen” she murmured, taking another step towards it, biting her lip. ”Any ideas on how we’ll get into it?” she asked Forrest, continuing to look at the portrait, or more specifically the pear.

With a still confused look she poked it... and nothing happened. Well... that was one thing down?

Yeah, Kahlan, that's the spirit!

Until, she poked the pear and nothing happened.

He cocked his head to one side as his hand had clutched his chin. From afar, he looked like those critics who ruthlessly criticised every piece of art. Well, he had a few words to say too if this portrait refused to give them way to the kitchens. For now, though... he touched the canvas too as if his touch would make any difference than Kahlan's. He ran his hand over it, enjoying the little bumps of its surface and the pear started to giggle incotrollably. He frowned and stopped to glance at Kahlan. His face was of utmost fear.

No, a giggling pear was scary. He wasn't touching that.

Watching Forrest analyzing the portrait she almost wanted to laugh, but somehow managed to hold it in, carefully watching both him and the portrait to try and figure out if she could find any other way to get the portrait to let them inside.

Well... once the portrait started to giggle uncontrollably, she could no longer hold it in and began giggling insanely as well. Noticing the fear on his face she stopped long enough to give him an amused smile.

"It's only a pear" she teased, moving forwards as she ran the hand over the bumps that it had, laughing slightly as the pear continued giggling. "I think it's ticklish" she finally concluded, raising an eyebrow at the pear and looking toward Forrest as she also pulled away from the portrait.

Forrest's eyes got as big as the moon in fear and panic.

"It looks like a pear but we're in Hogwarts." Y'know? How would he know the pear didn't plan to open the portrait suddenly and hit him in the head, huh? Though, given her giggling too, soon he was free of his fears and allowed himself to grin sheepishly as well.

"I guess this is the only trick to it." Either they were getting their skulls broken here, or the kitchen road would be open to them. It was worth risking their heads for quality food. So, picking up his courage, he reached forward again and tickled the pear ruthlessly, until they heard a click and were rewarded with an opening of the portrait.

His face lit up then like kids on Christmas Day.

"See that?" It took all his will not to jump with glee. "Quality foooood!" Now, that deserved some crazy giggling.

At his comment she nodded slightly in understanding. "Still, in all my life I've never been attacked by a pear... or anything that looks like a pear" she commented, feeling okay about that fact considering she had grown up in the magical community. Then again... in the magical community pretty much anything was possible.

And because he wasn't used to it fear was... reasonable she supposed.

Noticing he'd finally gotten over his fear of the pear, and had managed to open the portrait because the pear was ticklish. Well, she'd definitely heard of weirder things before, and in her moment of happiness she launched herself at Forrest again in another hug, before pulling away with a few little jumps of happiness.

"We're going to get food!!!!" she almost squealed.

This was truly something magical.

Sometimes it almost felt like Cat had never even left home at all. She was close enough to the kitchen to where she was in there pretty much most of her free time. Except, well, at Hogwarts she didn't have four brothers wandering about the kitchen and trying to steal her food. In fact, that was where she had just emerged from. She had just finished a fresh batch of cupcakes and was trying to figure out the best way to smuggle them into the common room without having a mob of hungry Slytherins following her.

As it were, people could probably smell her coming from way down the corridor. Oh well. At least the place smelled like cupcakes, right?

Dora had gone all day with nothing but one meal, and so when she finally looked up from all her books and realized the time, she slipped off her bed and made the long trip down to the kitchens. Even though she was tired, she still was refusing to pay for bad food in the great hall.

She'd just make something simple.

Or think about sweets, since that was what she smelled the moment she stepped into the corridor. Her first thought was that some hufflepuffs were having a gathering in the kitchens, and maybe she should just grab a snack and make something proper later, but then her eyes picked up on Cat, who wasn't a hufflepuff, and cupcakes. The smell.

"Hey." She eyed the food, and waved at the girl as she approached the portrait. Maybe she would make herself some cupcakes too. Hmm.

She should probably start selling cupcakes instead of giving them away all the time. Hogwarts could charge them for like everything so she could get away with charging a sickle or two for a cupcake. Besides, not everyone was any good in a kitchen. Though obviously there would be no charge for friends and that would significantly cut down the number of people she could actually sell to.

She had begun to ponder on this when she noticed that she was no longer alone in the corridor. "Hi Dora." Cat couldn't wave back on account of cupcakes so she smiled instead and then held up the platter, "Would you like one? They're fresh, just made." And smelled yummy and maybe if Dora had one Cat could have one too.

"You made them?" Dora didn't smile back cause she'd just waved and that was enough and also cupcakes were sort of distracting. She eyed them for a moment before looking back up at Cat thoughtfully. The other girl was being all smiley and friendly and had cupcakes so it had Dora pushing her questions like what kind they were and why she made so many aside, a small nod coming from her instead. "If you made them... I'll have one."

And then she would just go in and make herself a proper meal that wasn't a whole bunch of cupcakes. Cause it was a lot. And Dora couldn't hold the question back any longer. "Why do you have so many?"

"I did make them, just now." So like she said, fresh and yummy and probably still warm in that super yummy way. Cat removed the lid from her cupcakes and gestured to Dora to pick whichever one she wanted. "I wanted to make a bunch of different kinds, so that's why there's so many, plus I always end up giving most of them away." Most meaning like, all of them, she managed to save one or two for herself, but she had a hard time turning people down if they wanted one.

She decided not to mention the idea of selling them for two reasons. 1) she didn't want Dora to think she was going to try to charge her. 2) Dora was on the list of people who would get free cupcakes anyway because of Alice reasons.

Dora inspected all of the cupcakes before deciding that she wanted chocolate, and reached in to take it. "You make them for the Slytherins or friends?" She licked at the icing delicately and paused thoughtfully. Dora got the whole making extra thing, since she sometimes cooked for her friends and so extra was required.

"I cook too." Just... so she knew. Not that she NEEDED to, but yeah. Dora licked at the icing on her cupcake again.

Asher made his way out into the Kitchen Level corridor. There usually wasn't much traffic in the area, especially when most students were outside playing or relaxing in the common room.

Pulling his parchment out of his bag, Asher cleared his throat and began to practice his song.

"Dear Mr. Oakley, my sweet tree
Thank you for giving a branch to me
You gave of yourself a magical gift
I’ll try my best to see only good is done with

Dear Mr. Oakley, my magical tree
I came to you and you have helped me
I will make a gandr with your gift
And in my heart you will always be with "

He felt quite silly, but sang the thank you song a few times, making sure he had it memorized before he would sing it to his tree.

Chocolate. That was a good pick, so says the Cat.

"Both. Anyone. I don't mind. I mostly just like making things and I can't eat it all myself so I share." Besides, if she didn't share, it would all go bad before she got a chance to eat it all. Maybe she should invest some time in learning food preservation charms or something. Mental list.

Dora could cook too. She was sure lots of people could, but she was glad for it anyway. "That's cool." Yep. She totally meant it too, but she wasn't sure what else to say about that. Plus, there was sort of something she'd been meaning to say to the Ravenclaw girl since the day with snowmen and awkwardness.

"Hey Dora." She shifted the cupcakes and glanced around the corridor, satisfied that no one else was hanging about. "I kind of want to tell you something pretty important." If that was okay? Was it? Maybe not.

The cupcake was pretty good, she had to admit (not out loud though cause part of it was in her mouth, and that was bad manners). "Sharing is good and all. I do that sometimes too, but only with my friends that ask usually." Isidora wasn't that good at sharing. She knew this, but it wasn't something she cared to work on except with her friends.

Her eyes moved from the cupcakes to Cat when she was glancing about, and one brow rose curiously at the other girl. "What is it?" Dora racked her brain, and really couldn't think of a single thing Cat had to tell her that was pretty important, but whatever.

It wasn't about her friends right? She sure hoped not.

The thing about Dora was that really, if it hadn't been for Alice, she didn't know if they would have been friends on their first meeting or not. Or if they would've ever met at all. Cat didn't know enough about her to make any judgements, but if she was Alice's friend, that meant she was a good person to have on your side. Because Alice was a good person to have on your side.

"I'm not saying that you do or anything but.. I hope you don't think I'm like... trying to take Alice away from you, or something." That just REALLY needed to be put out there because Cat just sensed an awkwardness to them and she didn't like awkwardness.

Dora licked at her cupcake carefully and waited for Cat to say something and well... THAT was not what she was expecting at all. The fourth year narrowed her eyes at the other girl and immediately tensed up defensively.

Surely it wasn't that noticeable.

"I..." What? What was she supposed to say back to that? Dora looked around, visibly bothered at the current topic and not sure how to respond without feeling more embarrassed that she currently did.

......

.......

Nope. No words. She just shrugged back in response and picked at her cupcake.

Well, that was better. Now that Cat had said that, she figured there was no reason to stop now, even if Dora did look a little... bothered. Maybe that was the problem after all. At any rate, this Slytherin girl hadn't meant to make the Ravenclaw feel bad, she'd just wanted to clear the air.

"I just wanted to make sure you knew that and all." She shrugged and played it off like it wasn't a big deal. It wasn't, not really, nothing to get over excited about. She smiled kindly at Dora. "I should be getting these to the common room, do you want another one?"

Peace offering?

Dora took the time she couldn't think of anything to say and used it to gather herself instead. No big deal. Nope. She gave her cupcake the appropriate amount of attention it deserved until she was a little more relaxed.

Yeah. She was fine. Not bothered at all.

... Or maybe a little still.

"I know." She shrugged too, being fine now and all, and looked up at the other girl hesitantly. "Sure." Dora didn't pick up another one just yet though, and instead kept watching Cat. "I'm the only one that knows, right? I mean.... you won't tell anyone?" That she'd been all bothered by this.

It wasn't something she wanted to revisit, ever.

Cat smiled again because she almost got the feeling that Dora sort of needed a friendly type smile and she was friendly, she was. "No one. I didn't even mention it to Alice. I won't say anything." You know, if it was true. She wasn't going to even officially acknowledge if it was or not.

"I promise." That probably didn't mean much to Dora, but Cat was a good promiser. She kept her promises.

The smiling helped some. A little. It was nice sign that Cat wasn't gonna be cruel with this information or anything. Not that she'd expected her to, the girl was a different kind of Slytherin. One that made you question if she was missorted or not.

"... Thanks." She relaxed visibly, and even returned the smile. Albeit a small thought distracting one. She didn't want anyone to know, especially not her best friend. "Thanks for the cupcakes too."

She took that second one now.

Well this had been productive. At least she thought so anyway, there seemed to be a shift in energy between them now though Cat wasn't sure if it was legit or if she was just feeling it because she wanted to.

Cat replaced the covering on the platter of cupcakes after Dora selected her other one. She looked back at the Ravenclaw girl and nodded, "No problem, on both." See? She wasn't hard to get along with. She smiled again, but this time in departure. "I'll see you around." Probably, ya know?

Seeing that he was almost done with the parts he could do before heading to the classroom, Asher decided to slowly start walking that way and finish up while he did so.

Chanting the incantation once last time, Asher made sure all the runes appeared on his Gandr, in the places he felt were right for them. Looking down at his work, he was pleased with what he had done.

He continued to walk, looking up from the Gandr now and then to make sure he didn't bump into anything or anyone.

Dora picked at her cupcake thoughtfully, and nodded. "Sure, see ya around." It was very likely, considering how many friends they had in common. And the whole secret thing. She'd see her around

Nodding a bit at Cat, and then turned on her heels and head back the way she came. She didn't need food now, she had two cupcakes.