"They certainly do, I've heard Hogwarts House Elves very well spoken of in the past for their culinary prowess. I was not mislead." Amusement curled the edges of her lips. She turned from the little Gryffindor, watching once again with interest as the elves tarried to and fro in their preparation for the next evenings meals. Ah. pudding. Real pudding, that was a relieving reply to her foreign ears.

"Do you know, I haven't had chocolate pudding in a very long time." She matter of factly said. "I believe we need an elf. Unless you'd like to make it yourself?" That was an option, a messy, silly option, but a fun one. Nana decided it wasn't the worst one ether.

Genny was a fan of Hogwarts food. She often found herself wandering down to the kitchens. It was frustrating how far the top tower was to the ground floor, especially when the staircases kept moving AWAY from where she wanted to go. Seriously, it felt more like a conspiracy against her stomach than anything else.

Anyway. Now that she was inside, she had her hands full. A sandwich that seemed a bit soggy and definitely bursting with ingredients in one hand, and a smaller cupcake in the other. There was a Slytherin boy who'd just entered, too, she stopped and gave him a closed tight grin (because chewing duh).

Maybe stopping right in front of the entrance was not the best idea. Oops. Was he in the way? Apparently he was fine, because a smaller girl went past him. He watched as she got her food, hoping it would give him some sort of inspiration. And it did. Because that cupcake she was holding looked delicious.

"Where'd you get that?" He asked, stepping forward into the kitchen and peering around. True, he had wanted something more substantial. But now he couldn't stop thinking about how delicious that cupcake looked.

Hmm? Genny chewed and swallowed fairly quickly to answer the important question this boy trusted her with. "Comeoverhere," she managed to get through bites but just in case the boy didn't catch this, Genny hooked her elbow (careful not to smush the sandwich on him because that would be send her into one of her fits) and started leading him to where she found the platter. "I think the house-elves knew I always came down at this hour for some sweets and started laying these around." What she was saying was she was responsible for the heavenly taste that he was about to experience. hehehe.

"What's your name? I'm Genny." They reached the counter where the cupcakes platter sat... with only one left on it. She left it there out of utter politeness.

Olly followed the smaller girl eagerly. He noticed the sandwich she was holding but it did not look early as delicious as the cupcake. Maybe he'd make one for himself. Later. But yay! Cupcakes! There was only one left but the girl was nice enough to leave it for him. Olly beamed. "Thanks," he said before taking it and taking a big bite. Yep, just as delicious as he thought.

"I'm Oliver." Genny. Okay, he would remember that. Probably. "Are you a first year?" He assumed so, because she did look younger than him. Olly finished off the rest of the cupcake as he waited for her response.

She was hungry. Very hungry. Her stomach had been grumbling the entire time she'd been reading her latest set of notes, trying to cram everything into her head that she could. It was NEWTS year, and studying was a must. Except on an empty stomach that sounded like an angry dragon.

So Arabella abandoned her things on her bed and made her way down to the kitchens. The house elves food was some of the best she'd ever tasted, and it would certainly ease her hunger for a little bit. Not that there appeared to be any around at the moment. As it was quite late, she wasn't surprised. But rather than help herself, she twiddled her thumbs and fiddled with a nearby pot lid to pass the time until one of them realised she was in their kitchen.

Cornelius nodded eagerly at the Prefect. Yes. The hag did do this to them. She was lucky he wasn't planning on telling his mum. Oh, for if he did, that woman would be in the biggest pothole of her LIFE. Like, his mum would come to this place and DEMAND to see that woman and then mess her up. Rightly so, too. But he didn't want his beautiful mother to get her hands dirty. Babe Mallory needed her more than Cornelius did right now. Besides...he had things under control.

...Or he would soon. SHIFTY.

Cornelius GAPED at the Prefect. Wear off? HAHAHA. As IF he'll wait that long. He looked over at Katerina just as she stomped her foot. See Prefect dude, you've made the lady here upset, his lady friend. Hmm, yeah. Cornelius wasn't having that.

He jotted on his parchment again...

Quote:

We didn't DO anything. You're a Prefect, HELP us. I can't BREATH!

Because speaking was such an essential part of his life that he felt SUFFOCATED. Was the Prefect not going to cast Finite or something? Was he going to let him DIE?!?!?!!!?

Julien was not one that really went down in the kitchen, but he had heard some things from his nephew. Being a Hufflepuff Benton was near the kitchen often. So he figured he'd go check things out for himself. Plus he knew the elves kept the leftovers down here and last nights dinner was still sounded good.

He turned the corner once in the kitchen and almost ran into a student, "Oh, I'm sorry. Here for a snack as well?" Opening the refrigerator he pulled out a plate of the left overs. "They always keep the best stuff on the bottom of the fridge. I learned that by my second year here when I was in school." By the looks of it things hadn't changed.

"Would you like some?" He was in a sharing mood, so if she wanted so he wouldn't be grumpy about it.

Now that they were both eating, Genny saw no point in going out of the kitchens again. So she hauled herself up and sat on the counter, swaying her feet merrily as she finished off her cupcake. The sandwich's turn would come in a second. "Yes. And Gryffindor." That was the bit she took pride in. A lion like her father. "You don't look much older than I am, but I haven't seen you around in classes a lot." So he must be around her age.

Anyway. "Is cupcake your favorite food?"

The fridge was looking very tempting. It was only a few feet away, and she knew it would be filled with lovely stuff that she could eat. But she was too polite. So, despite her stomach grumbles getting louder, and her mouth salivating at the mere thought of what was inside, Arabella remained rooted to the spot, staring desperately at the appliance in the corner.

And then suddenly she wasn't on her own. A taller, older person joined her and nearly bumped into her and began talking to her. All of which shocked the teenager out of her trance, and she shook her head to clear it of the rambling thoughts she'd been thinking to pass the time.

"Oh, I.......ummm." Arabella stuttered as the Charms Professor spoke and offered her some of the food he'd just snaffled from the fridge she'd been looking longingly at. He was far bolder than she was. But then he was an adult, and a Professor at that. Quite a nice one too. Just as the plate of chicken hovering under her nose looked quite nice. She reached forwards, taking hold of one of the drumsticks and licking her lips in anticipation. "Thank you, Sir! I'm starving, but I didn't want to just take something in case I annoyed the house elves....."

He thought so. He couldn't remember from the sorting ceremony, but he had not been paying a whole lot of attention, especially to the people who didn't even go to Slytherin. But Gryffindor was cool too. "I'm a second year," he told her. "Slytherin."

He thought about her question for a moment. "No," he said slowly. Cupcakes were really good, but he wouldn't say it was his favorite. Which raised the question of what his favorite was. That was a hard question. "I like a lot of food. What's your favorite?"

Had he interrupted something? By her reaction Julien wasn't sure. So he just grabbed a plate to put some chicken on it. Setting the bigger one on the counter. She was starving, well good thing he had come in and grabbed the plate. Couldn't have students starving. "The house elves won't mind at all if you get from the fridge. They actually are okay with students coming in and making their own food as well." He had seen it while he was a student and he assumed it was still the case.

"Did you have dinner this evening?" He eyed her a bit hoping she hadn't skipped a meal to study or something. That wouldn't be good. Going back to the fridge he pulled out a bowl of mash potatoes. "Would you like some of these too?"

Henric frowned a little at Katerina impatience temper towards him. He resisted himself from rolling his eyes at her. She didn't need to display that kind of atitude at him, he had enough of them running amok in school. He didn't need another one. *sigh* Honestly, sometimes he was tired of dealing with ickle firsties and second years, he would rather conjure a time-out chair for them and forced them to sit so they could reflect on what they did wrong. Noel was right...it was like babysitting a bunch of five year olds. How did Adi deal with this? He had no idea. His attention went back at Corner-Conney....what was his name again? Right...nevermind.

He squinted at the boy's messy scrawls on his little notepad again "Right..." He drawled, not believing him for one second. He saw them talking to the hag, it must had had set the Hag off her rockers somehow. The hag left and Henric didn't feel like questioning her. Nope...he was intent of staying FAR..far...away from the hag as possible. Henric considered the boy obvious dramatics, eh...he'll live.

He sighed once more. "Finee~...but I want you guys to promise me not to bother the hag when you see her..unless you guys want to be her chopped carrots in her meat stew...." He almost chuckled at the thought but his face remained stoic at the two. He reached for his wand and non-verbally cast the counter-curse for the spell. There...done. He would be watching them from now on, the next time it happened to them he would make sure not to bother with it.

"Now if you please excuse me, I have important things to do now." And by important things, he meant munching on all the cookies in that cookie jar back to his dormroom and rot there for the rest of the evening. He was done with his patrolling duties anyway. He held tight on the cookie jar before quickly exiting the kitchen.

Okay, so she was now actually drooling. How had she spent 6 years in this place and never known of the treasure's hidden in the bottom of that fridge?! If she hadn't been so hungry, then she'd have been embarrassed at the way in which she grabbed a spoon from the side and got stuck into the mashed potato when it was offered; shovelling a load of it into her mouth and chewing with gusto.

Eventually she swallowed, and grinned sheepishly at the man. "Uhhh, thanks. Sorry." The blush came just after, and Arabella twiddled the stripped chicken drumstick as she looked down at the floor. "Yes, Sir, I did. Sort of. It was a little rushed. I just had some of the main course. I have a lot to study for this year, and I'm trying to cram as much in as possible...."

What people don't know is that Colt is actually a great cook. I guess it runs in the family. He learned his talent from his mother actually. His father can't cook for his life but when he can, he can make hot dogs and mac & cheese in a bowl mixed together. It was quite good but it was only good for once in a while. As he made his way down to the kitchens, he was figuring out what he should make. He thought about it and said out loud to himself, "Well since it is the morning I think I am going to go with chocolate chip pancakes." Those were his classics and he would always run downstairs if his aunt was making them. She had her secret recipe he was going to use.

First he needed his ingredients. He went to the fridge to get out the eggs, flour, milk and pancake mix. Now where is the pancake mix? Where are the house elves hiding it?

Janelle was STARVING! Since she had a little free time on her hands, she decided to wander down to the kitchen. She didn't go down there often, but desperate times called for desperate measures. Besides, there was always something good to be found in the kitchen. Sometimes Janelle just liked to smell the delicious aromas that could be found there. The elves made such amazing things.

Trying to keep somewhat of a low profile, Janelle entered te kitchen. It didn't seem to busy, and that was good. Looking around, she spotted a familiar face coming out of the refrigerator. Smiling, Janelle walked over to the Slytherin. "Hey Colt. Whatcha doing?" It was pretty obvious what he was doing, but Janelle threw out the question anyway. Meanwhile, she peeked into the refrigerator. There had to be something good in there.

Colt was so in the zone of making his pancakes, he didn't even notice someone even said hello to him. He turned around and jumped a little bit. "Oh hey Janelle." He tried to play it cool when in fact she scared him a little bit. "Oh you know just cooking because that is what people do in the kitchens.." he said. Come on she opened herself up for that one. She had to know she had it coming. He mixed up his batter and began to put fire up the oven and placed his mix on the bag. "Are you hungry? I am making chocolate chip pancakes." He had to offer because he had some manners.

She had skipped per say. That wasn't something he liked to here. "You should never skip a meal no matter how busy you are. You need your energy to keep doing the studying." He warmed up his plate before starting to eat himself. He remembered those days though and he couldn't help but admire her work ethic.

"You know it is your last year, correct?" Being new he had many faces and names to remember so he was afraid he got it wrong. "You'll want to make sure you do make room for some fun. I'm not saying do anything to get in trouble or lose points, but hang out with friends and enjoy your final year here. Things will change after you leave and priorities change. So make sure you remember to be a kid this last year as well as studying." That was the best advice he could give any seventh year.

It seemed that Janelle had startled Colt a bit. She hadn't meant to do that and thought she had announced her presence in advance. Oh well, no harm, no foul it seemed. Moving past him, she grabbed an apple from the refrigerator and took a big bite from it. Just something to take the edge off a little, as her stomach was rumbling all the while.

Janelle raised an eyebrow at Colt's response. "Ha ha", she replied, as she watched him work. Taking another bite of her apple, Janelle chewed and swallowed before she answered Colt's question. "Am I hungry? Yep. Cooking isn't the only reason people come to the kitchens" She could cook and pretty well too, but this trip was all about trolling the cupboards for a snack.

When Colt said what he was making, Janelle could not hold back a smile. Chocolate chip pancakes were awesome and the thought of them made her stomach growl even more. "Is that an offer, sir?" Cause, you know, Janelle wouldn't want to offend by refusing. If not, she'd just keep eating her apple and watching.

Colt rolled his eyes at her comment about the reason people come to the kitchens and said the same come back, "Ha ha." He grinned and began to cook his pancakes. He began to dance and kept the atmosphere kind of fun. "We need music in here or something. I wish my stereo back from home would work.." He began to look for plugs but they were in hogwarts. There was no technology.

When he mentioned what he was making, he saw her smile so bright. I guess he was making the perfect breakfast meal. "I guess that got your attention. Yes it is an offer m'am." He was playing along. He flipped his pancakes and then added some chocolate chips. Yuummmm it smelt SOO good. He flipped it back over to let the chocolate chips melt. He hoped it wouldn't stick to the pan. He saw her observing and he raised an eyebrow, "Do you know how to cook Janelle?"

He was right. She knew that. And she was suitably admonished. But studying had overtaken her so much in the last couple of days, because she didn't want to get behind, that everything else had somewhat taken a back seat. Eating was something that shouldn't though. No. Absolutely noted.

Arabella nodded as she listened to his advice and ate her chicken. He was right about that too. That was probably why he was a Professor. He was smart. And she was in danger of overworking herself. She'd never get her school years back, so making the most of her last one was a very good point.

"I will do that, Sir, thank you. I planned on taking tomorrow's free period off actually, that's why I'm studying so late now. Maybe I'll take a trip down to the lake or something."

Janelle laughed when Colt started to dance. "Yeah, music would be good right about now. It always helps to inspire me in whatever I'm doing." Colt didn't seem to need any inspiration though. He was doing just fine. "I could sing for you", she said with a sly grin. Now that was really a ha ha. Janelle had many talents, but singing was not one of them.

Janelle watched Colt carefully. He clearly knew his way around the kitchen. It was not exactly something you saw every day. "Yes food is definitely a good way to get my attention. Maybe the professors should make food part of their lessons. I bet that would keep the students interested." Truthfully, there was not a person in Janelle's family who didn't like to eat. She got it honestly.

When Colt confirmed that he was actually offering Janelle some of his pancakes, she put on her best southern drawl. "Why thank you kind sir. I would love to taste some of your chocolate chip pancakes." As she said that, Janelle's stomach growled again. Clearly the apple was not doing it's job.

Janelle looked up when Colt asked his next question. "Can I cook? Yeah, I do alright." She had been cooking since she was tall enough to reach the stove. Her parents made sure that all of their kids had some cooking skills. Janelle liked to cook, she just didn't get to do it too often at school. When you had such fantastic food available, you didn't really need to cook. "Maybe I can cook something for you next time." It was only fair.

Colt liked that Janelle said that. That is how he felt about music too. "You know I feel the same way. I always feel music inspires me." He raised his eyebrows impressed. "You can sing?" Now this is something he needed to hear. He heard the ravenclaw's suggestion and nodded. "Yeah I feel like they need a cooking class. I mean I bet you not a lot of students here know how to cook. I bet if we have microwaves in our common rooms at least one person would burn their food.." He could only imagine but then they wouldn't have smoke detectors. That would be an issue. "But I think moxley could cover that topic in muggle studies." he said. "I think she has once before. I remember my cousin talking about learning cooking in muggle studies once before..." he said out loud.

When he offered her pancakes he heard her stomach growl. He grinned and nodded towards her stomach, "It seems like your stomach is doing the talking more than you are.." He began to fill up her plate with pancakes right away. They were done with the chips in them. "Here you goo.." he said serving the claw. He was even more impressed she could cook but not at the same time. He was pretty sure the mothers taught their daughters to cook at a young age. "Oh yeah what can you cook? What is your specialty?" he asked when he went looking to find the butter, syrup and powder sugar.

SPOILER!!: Austin! <3

Quote:

Originally Posted by keepmeclose22

Ah, now he remembered. Rachel was her name. He was going to need to get better at remembering names. "No, you got it right. Austin Moore's my name." He flashed her one of his famous smiles. Hopefully she wouldn't notice that he had forgotten her name. "But you can call me Austin."

He looked down on her. It always amazed him how tall he was. Especially compared to a short first year. "I don't mind at all. It's always fun to have help when baking." Back at home the only people he had were his father and his sister. His father was always busy with the pub, so he didn't have much time to help Austin bake. His younger sister, on the other hand, loved to help. Although she was a little young to do much, but it was nice having her around. Here, though, he was glad to have someone who shared his love for baking.

Nodding in agreement Austin went over to the cupboards and searched through them. The kitchen was stalked with everything from vanilla extract to candy canes. Anything one could want for baking. After a few minutes of searching, he had an armful of ingredients. He carried them over to their table, and began going over them in his head.

Vanilla extract, flour, graham crackers, marshmallows, chocolate. That's everything. All they needed now were eggs and butter. And some utensils.

She did get his name right. Rachel was pleased. She would have disliked to call someone by a name that wasn't theirs. She smiled back again. She liked this Housemate of hers already. He was so friendly. Rachel clapped her hands excitedly. "We're going to have lots of fun doing this.'' She gave him another smile then hurried off to help get the ingredients.

"I found the other ingredients, Austin.'' The Eagle had returned, carefully clutching eggs which she gently placed on the table along with some butter. She looked back up at the other Ravenclaw. "Any utensil in particular I should get aside from bowl, measuring cups, baking dishes and spoons?'' Perhaps Austin had a special utensil he liked to use.

Kitty was on a mission! Mason needed ingredients for her potion and she was counting on her to get them. She had gotten a little sidetracked when she had met Lullan, but it had been worth it. Lullan was awesome.

The Gothic girl tickled the pear and moved into the kitchens. She smiled at the house elves. Now to get to work on finding those ingredients...