After the first night back, Ascanius was finding sleeping in the dorms was a little less annoying then last term. No cleaning or foul smells to keep them elsewhere, but it didn't mean that his sleep was perfect. He missed his bed at the home and the comforts it brought him. Then again, it was a first night back. He would cope.

At least he was starting to get back in the swing of things, yeah? Hogwarts was much nicer without...the excess stupid stuff. And so he went down to breakfast with a spring in his step.

Also, the spring was due to where he was sitting. Even though it was out in the open, he got Pen time at breakfast and her face was always welcome.

Just where was she...?

So now it was the official first day back - yesterday didn't count to her because they'd spent most of the day on the train and only actually got to Hogwarts at night for the feast - and her first night was...okay. Ish. It wasn't terrible, but it wasn't great either. The cleanliness probably had helped a little in keeping it from being terrible, along with her dormmates Sarah and Schuyler, but still...meh.

She'd be okay though. It was just the first night, and some nights were just better or worse than others when it came to dreams. Just the way it was.

No need to think about that though 'cause it was morning which meant breakfast with her boyfriend. The food was great again, but spending time with him at the same time would make it even better.

Grinning as she entered the Great Hall and saw him, Penelope quickly made her way over and sat next to him, quickly kissing his cheek as she did. "Mornin'. How're you?"

Having proper plates was kind of revolutionary to Ascanius, yeah? It was as if the whole previous year has been a farce and now his real Hogwarts experience was about to begin. 'Cause...pfft...everyone always talked for ages about how amazing this school was and Ascanius had yet to see it.

But this, the plates and general hygiene, it was a start.

Letting his mind wander on such thoughts, he missed the sight of his girlfriend entering the Great Hall. What he didn't miss was the feeling of her lips lightly graze his cheek. Blink. Smiiirk.

As she fell into place beside him, he smirked at her face, "Morning, Pen.". Nudging his leg against hers, he went on, "Much better now, yeah? And you?" How was she?

Grinning when she felt his leg nudge hers, Penelope bumped her foot against his as she replied, "That's good." That he was better. He'd seemed a little distracted or something after they'd gotten onto the platform and she hadn't been able to get a chance to talk to him at the feast before it ended. "Sleep okay and everything?" She knew he had trouble sleeping sometimes like she did, so she wanted to check. Hopefully he'd had a good night instead of a bad one. "And I'm pretty good. Better now that I'm here with you." She grinned. A little cheesy? Yeah, maybe. But it was true. He always seemed to make her feel better, even when he wasn't trying to.

"So...whatcha gonna eat?" There was a lot of food out on the table, and it all looked really good. Couldn't she just eat all of it instead of choosing only some of it?

He felt the nudge and it made him smile secretlt to himself, but he did not merit it with a response. If he did she would no doubt retaliate and it was too early fora fight, yeah? So he just sent her a look that let her know he was watching her, but did not say anything. 'Sides he was a gentlemen and there was no need to hit her back.

"I slept well enough. It's clean now." Or as clean as a set of fifth year boys could keep it, which varied day to day. So far it wasn't so bad because, well, they had only just gotten back. After about a week...yeah.

Anyway, he tried not to smirk or laugh at her cheesy response and turned his attention to the food in front of him, which was thankfully good again. If he had to deal with broccoli and ice cream again, he wouldn't recover. Not that he ate that ice cream. Quidditch diet and all. Speaking of which, that sign up list was still plaguing his thoughts. Ahem.

"Dunno, you?" He was probably just going to have a pastry. Keep it simple.

He didn't kick back, but that was okay. It was early, and it was easier to kick at someone when they were sitting across from you instead of next to. And she liked sitting next to him 'cause it was closer, so she wasn't moving. So no kicking today.

And 'well enough'...well, that sounded okay. It didn't sound like a description for a horrible night, so that was good. He also looked pretty well-rested, so she nodded.

Now for the food...it was a hard decision. It all looked REALLY good. But she didn't have time to eat everything, even if she ate really fast. So she had to choose just some of it. "I think..." Finally, she forked a few pieces of bacon and dropped them on her plate. "I'm gonna have some bacon, and..." She scooped out some eggs onto her plate. "...some eggs, and..." Her hand reached for a couple pieces of toast. "...some toast, anddd..." She grabbed a banana and an apple from the fruit bowl. "...some fruit." There. That would be enough probably. At least until lunch. "What about you?" His turn to choose some food.

She had to be joking, yeah? All of that food was not enough humanly possible to eat. The shock was apparent all over his face, although...

...why was he so shocked? He had known Pen for almost three years now, the concept of her being able to inhale, emphasis on the inhale, food was not a new one to him. It was just that, well, that was a lot of food. And she was loading it all onto her plate one at a time. Gryffindors were weird like that.

Just watching her in awe for a few seconds, he made a face and reached out to grab a muffin. Setting it down on his plate, he answered plainly, "This." As in this was all he was going to eat. It was more then enough. After all, it was just breakfast.

Looking over at him, she couldn't help but grin at his seemingly shocked expression. It was both really adorable and really funny. Somehow, even after nearly three years, he apparently still doubted her ability to eat a ridiculous amount of food. Probably because she was short small, especially compared to how tall he was. But that made it even more fun to eat so much really. He got this weird look on his face, and it amused her.

Penelope raised an eyebrow a little when all he picked out was a muffin. It wasn't even that big of a muffin, how could that possibly fill up ANYONE enough for lunch? Unless he was saving room for second breakfast. That MIGHT make a puny little muffin an acceptable breakfast.

"Dunno how you can eat so little," she said, shaking her head with a grin before picking up a piece of toast and taking a bite out of it.

For a moment, he leaned back on the stool to get a proper look at his girlfriend. It was partially just to appreciate how she looked today, but moreso to get a once over of how all of THAT food was going to fit in THAT body. The concept was baffling.

Ruffling his hair in frustration, he sat properly with a touch of loitering and poured himself a glass of orange juice. A nice, huge glass of orange juice because he was used to that now. Quidditch and all. Shiver. Quidditch. He did NOT want to think about that right now.

"This isn't little," he clarified reaching out to grab the butter to lather up his morning breakfast, "you're little. This is a muffin." And if she was trying to get at how it wasn't going to be enough food not every person in the universe had seven stomachs, yeah? The idea of eating that much food to him was only plausible in one situation. Ahem.

Oh yeah, juice. Something to drink. That would be good. Penelope stuffed the last little bit of toast into her mouth and then grabbed the orange juice once he was done with it, pouring herself a big glass too. She needed a lot of orange juice to wash down all this food, yeah? HE didn't didn't a big glass to wash down a simple muffin, but he liked it, so it was still acceptable.

"That is definitely a little muffin," she replied with a nod at it. Seriously, look at it. It was tiny. Technically, it was a pretty normal-sized muffin, but still. It was small compared to all her food. "How is that s'posed to last until lunch?" Lunch was practically AGES away, especially with having to attend classes which required so much energy and effort, most of which was spent on going up and down all those stairs. Penelope had to much on a piece of bacon just to think about how much energy that required.

Putting the orange juice back in its place, he turned to Pen to say something when he paused. Wasn't she just eating a piece of toast? He had only just put down the container and now she was all good and done with the first part of her breakfast. Where did it go?

You know what? He didn't wanna know, yeah? She could keep that mystery.

"S'not," he scoffed at her comment about his muffin. Nothing of his was small, his was a big bloke. He also lived by the firm belief of go big or go home and that was the truth. A little flustered he pressed on, "The way it does for every single person on the planet...normally." The insinuation there was that her eating habits were not normal. If she missed that.

starving, Mackenzie was starving. She entered the great hall and headed straight for the middle of the Gryffindor table. She wasn't sure if anyone had ever noticed but she alway sat in the exact same place. It was just a quirk.. she didn't feel comfortable sitting anywhere else.

As she sat down a plate appeared before her and soon there was food on the plate and drink in her cup. smile she missed this last year, she hadn't minded cooking with Sonea too much, but after long days of lessons, quidditch practices, and homework it really was an inconvenience to have to cook for yourself. She would have to go and visit the house elves and thank them for returning, maybe even take them a treat.

Quickly the blonde downed all of the food before her. yummmmm the food was wonderful. sigh

After finishing off her first piece of bacon, she stuffed the second piece in her mouth as she listened then she swallowed it down with a gulp of her orange juice. Mm. Bacon and orange juice. Good breakfast combination.

She forked some eggs and took a bite of those before shrugging. "I doubt every single other person eats only a muffin for breakfast." Some did maybe, but not ALL of them. Though she knew most of them didn't get as much as she did either. "Not my fault I don't eat like some people normally do," she continued with another shrug, though she grinned too. 'Cause it was always amusing when they talked about her eating habits. Or at least she thought it was amusing just because he thought it was so weird.

She was cute, yeah? Ascanius would give Pen that when she was scarfing down an inhumane amount of food. The girlfriend was kind of endearing in that sense, but she needed to relax. The food would still be there even if she slowed down. It wasn't going to run away. S'true.

Casually, he leaned back in his seat and watched her swallow down more food. He tried his hardest to hide his shock with every bite as he slowly buttered up the muffin in front of him. Long class day required something before he started. 'Specially 'cause he had mostly female Professors today. Smirk.

The fifth year nudged her twice and said, "I didn't say it was your fault, yeah?" He hadn't. Just mostly making an observation. Like this was an observation as well, "You look nice today." He was a fan of the school issued skirt.

FOOD!!

He needed food and lots of it. He wasn't usually one to pig out but today he was hungry. Starving actually.

Michael plopped himself down at the Gryffindor table and began loading his plate with roast chicken, mashed potatoes, pumpkin, peas and lots of gravy. He also grabbed a bread roll from the basket in the centre of the table and when he was satisfied that he enough on his plate, he picked up his knife and fork and dug in.

Lurking was an Alice specialty. Eating, Quidditching, biting - they were all on her list of talents, and lurking was right at the top with them. Observing was also among the few things the sixth year could claim she excelled at, and it was exactly what she was doing when Michael Toussaint arrived at their house table for his next meal.

She'd been waiting.

The Captain stepped out of the shadows in the corner of the Great Hall, following her target quietly as he chose a seat and began loading it with food. No words were spoken. Alice only loomed behind him with an expressionless face. And watched. And observed.

The food was exceptional. A whole lot better than last year, Michael was enjoying it immensely. He had chicken, potatoes, pumpkin and peas shoved in his mouth. His parents would probably be disgusted at the way he was eating right now but they weren't here so he didn't really care.

He swallowed what was in his mouth and picked up a goblet to take a sip of water, to wash it all down. He had it halfway to his mouth when he spotted the reflection of someone behind him.

Goblet still in hand, Michael turned around to see who it was. Oh. BUGGER!! He immediately dropped the goblet and held up his hand in a defensive manner. "Now Alice. Don't look at me like that." Like she was going to eat him alive.

While he watched her (yeah, she could see what he was doing out of the corner of her eye), Penelope continued munching on her food, alternating now between a bite of eggs and a bite of bacon. See, this was another thing that was good about eating more than just a muffin. Eating just ONE thing was kinda boring, even if it tasted good. It was loads more fun and enjoyable when you could alternate with different flavors and textures and stuff and just combine all these awesome tastes. 'Cause toast and bacon and eggs and fruit on their own were good, but together they were even better.

And now, glancing over at him for a moment to watch him as he buttered his muffin...she kinda wanted one too. It would be a nice addition to all the stuff she already had. So she grabbed one from the middle of the table and dropped it on her plate. There was room for it now since she'd eaten almost half of her food.

Feeling him nudge her, she looked over at him again and grinned. "Yeah, I know." He hadn't said it was her fault, but that wasn't the point. And he thought she looked nice today? "You mean I don't look nice every day?" she teased, nudging his arm playfully. "But thanks." It was just her uniform so she wasn't sure what was nice about it...but just because it was a uniform didn't mean it had to look bad either, so she wasn't gonna argue.

She WAS going to eat him alive.

"Toussaint." The sixth year narrowed her eyes at the boy, ignoring the fallen goblet and his now wet robes. "One, don't tell me what to do. Two, there's gravy on your chin. Three, you have precisely five seconds to explain to me why you didn't show up at tryouts."

Five. Five exactly. Down to the millisecond.

Alice was counting.

Right. No telling the Captain what to do. Michael wiped the gravy off his chin while he stowed that bit of information away in his mind.

Ahhh. This one was going to be a little difficult. He actually didn't have a good explanation as to why he didn't show up. He glanced around the Great Hall and noted that there were a few people around. She couldn't do anything to him while there were witnesses, right?

He didn't want to wait to find out, so he quickly scrambled to his feet and tried to make a run for it.

After a while, Ascanius had to tear his eyes away from watching her consume all of that food. He was trying to eat and if he kept watching her his jaw would have gone slack from hanging open in shock. The jaw was needed...he couldn't just let it hang there stupidly. 'Sides his jaw looked much nicer when it was all attached to his face and smirking. Yeah, that was so true.

Turning back to his muffin, he took a bite out of it and took a moment to appreciate the uniform. Yep, he had definitely missed the uniform. S'favourite part of coming back to school bar none.

Although, he did blink a couple of times when she came out with that line. "I didn't say that..." he replied slowly. 'Cause it just wasn't true. He thought she looked nice everyday and more.

Was he in trouble or something?

Penelope still had a piece of toast left, but it was just a plain one and that was kinda lame, wasn't it? She'd eaten the first one plain, but this one could use something. Some butter, maybe? Yeah, that'd be good. So she picked up a knife and started buttering her toast.

Looking back over at Ascanius, he seemed to have missed the fact that she was just teasing with that comment. Grinning again, she said, "I know you didn't, babe." She leaned over and kissed his cheek quickly. "I was just teasing you." So no need to look so scared, yeah? She knew very well that he always seemed to think she looked nice, even when she didn't think so.

Finishing off his muffin, he smiled a little at the cheek kiss. He liked affection from a pretty girl, more specifically affection from THIS pretty girl. Penelope had a real good habit of making him all stupid from head to toe. He had a moment where he considered trying to get another, but nah. S'okay for now.

"I know...I just would rather be safe then sorry, yeah?" Sides, she never really was one for the whole compliment thing. Except on special occasions. So he was just covering all of his bases.

Her toast was good and buttered now, so she set the knife down and took a bite out of it. Mm. Yeah, that was good. Jam was good on toast too, but it wasn't necessary. Just butter was good. Simple, but it added a nice taste. Sometimes simple was better anyway.

Ah. Well, that was a fair point. Penelope smiled and nudged his arm lightly. "Yeah, I guess." Still, sometimes he teased her about how she looked anyway. Granted, it was only her height but...still. That counted, right? And she didn't get upset with that. So teasing was okay right now.

She then noticed that he'd finished his muffin already see, it definitely was tiny if you could finish it that fast so she offered her toast to him. "Want a bite?" He could even have it if he wanted. She still had lots of food to eat, so she didn't mind sharing if he was still a little hungry.