SPOILER!!: Abby

Abby smiled at Hady and said "Yeah i know Hady i am going to miss you when i graduate"

Hady smiled knowingly at Abby. "I'll miss you too Abby but we can still see each other Hogsmeade and during vacations. We can owl each other too!" Just like she continued to keep in touch with Adi, Lux and Paulina. She liked to keep in touch with everyone whenever she could. Not that it was always easy to do when she had some much studying to do but she was doing fairly well so fair.

Abby smiled and said "Yeah well i will try to owl it all depends on when i have practice for qudditch cause i have recently gained a spot on the reserve team of the Ballycastle Bats so i don't know how much free time i am going to have once the qudditch season starts"

Haddie sighed. Why did she have to be the crummy cook in the family of chefs (pretty much)... Dad made most of the dinners at home, since Mom, who actually was a chef, worked most nights, and Nat and Mark both got the cooking talent from Mom. But no, not Haddie. If she had, she could whip Jaemin up a cupcake herself and put an end to this one boy pity parade. She could just leave. She should just leave, but instead Haddie hopped up and sat on the counter. Guess she was starting to grow up or something.

"Okay," she nodded. "Guess we just give up on your dream of owning a niffler one day." That's how it seemed to her at least. She didn't get it, but whatevs. Haddie swung her legs a bit not saying anything more. She was trying to figure out how to get Jaemin the cupcake he so desperately needed. But Nada. Where were the House elves? Short of walking around asking other students if they had a cupcake they were hoarding somewhere. Ideally, Haddie could get her Mom to bake Jaemin some amazing cupcakes. But even with the two-way mirror to ask her Mom, they wouldn't get here until tomorrow at the absolute soonest. Probably longer. She was absolutely going to do that, but still, it didn't help today.

"So, um... if you want to be alone right now, to sulk, I can go. Or if you would like some company while you sulk, I can, uh, stay I guess..." Please don't pick that one, because this made Haddie uncomfortable. "Or we can go do something, have fun, make sure your birthday isn't a complete disaster. Up to you, Birthday Boy."

SPOILER!!: Abby

Abby smiled and said "Yeah well i will try to owl it all depends on when i have practice for qudditch cause i have recently gained a spot on the reserve team of the Ballycastle Bats so i don't know how much free time i am going to have once the qudditch season starts"

Sitting across from Abby once more at the table she grinned at her friend. "Whoa, that's awesome Abby! Let me know when you're officially on the team and when your games are I'd love to come watch you play sometime." You know like after she graduates or during holidays. This was nice to hear since she knew how much her friend liked the game and had wanted to play professionally when they were out of school. She really did hope Abby made the team.

SPOILER!!: Austin! <3

Quote:

Originally Posted by keepmeclose22

Before Austin could respond to anything, the timer made a [i]ding[i]ing sound. He put on one of the oven mitts, took out the half baked cookies, and set them on the counter. "Time for the best part, which is the Chocolate! And marshmallows. But the chocolate is important." He grabbed a handful of marshmallows, plopped a few in his mouth, and put three of them on each indent cookie. Three was enough, yes?

"Maybe over the summer. I'm sure I'll have to watch her. Maybe I'll bring her to Diagon Alley sometime." She wouldn't have a use for most of the shops, but there was an ice cream parlor, and she did love ice cream. They could all hang out this summer. And Rachel could tell Lucy the stories of these fine princesses.

"You're mom sounds like a lovely lady." He said after a few moments. "Mine passed away a few months ago. But it's alright. I've got my little sister to look after." He flashed one of his infamous smiles at her. Hopefully his little comment wouldn't ruin the mood. If anything, they had chocolate, so there was no way they were staying sad for long.

There went the timer from the oven! Rachel sniffed the air again as the half done cookies were removed. "They both are important,'' she said as she herself took some marshmallows to follow Austin's lead of putting them on the cookies. Her dad constantly warned her about sweets but she made sure to take good care of her teeth and not eat an excessive amount. Cookies were something she never could resist though. Those and cupcakes.

"Oh, please do! I would love to meet Lucy. She sounds like a little angel.'' If she was anything like Austin, then Rachel was positive Lucy was a sweetheart. "I have a few princess toys that I'd be happy to give to her.'' Many of them were stuffed toys as Rachel positively adored those.

"She is. Daddy always says so.'' Austin lost his mother? How sad. The firstie looked away from the cookies to him. "I'm sorry to hear about that.'' She hesitated. Austin didn't seem to want to talk about his mother judging by how quickly he moved on to talk about his sister again. "Does she stay with your father while you're at Hogwarts?'' she asked following his lead.

Silly Haddie. He wasn't giving up on getting a niffler at some point in his life... he was just feeling very sad about not having one at the present moment. He was allowed! It was his birthday, and he was pretty sure there was an old song about being allowed to cry on your birthday if you wanted to. He wasn't going to cry, but the point still stood.

"I'm not sulking," he said, a bit defensively, as he reached to scratch the back of his neck. He totally wasn't. He was just a little down, was all! It happened to everyone sometimes... He bit his lip and looked at Haddie inquisitively, wondering exactly what she meant. "What were you thinking of doing...?"

He didn't have any ideas. This whole being at school over his birthday thing was messing him all up and making it hard to think of ways to celebrate that didn't feel like he was leaving people who were important out of it. But Haddie didn't have that problem right now... she could come up with ideas for stuff without all that worry and sad, like a good little Ravenclaw friend.

Either way, though... they had to get out of this kitchen.

Haddie smiled. Jaemin was starting to come out of it a bit. That was good. There was still hope. Aaaand then he asked her what she was thinking of doing. "Oh." She really hadn't had anything in mind. "Uh...I don't know." She gave him a shrug. If she had known beforehand, she could have tried to set something up.

She had one idea, but wasn't sure if she should suggest it. "We could go find Professor Hirsch and make him teach us the patronus charm," she said. It was something that both Jaemin and she wanted to learn, but that could just be more of losing a niffler. They weren't going to get it today, and...well, what if that just bums him out more? Still, it was taking the first step to reach the goal and...

"Uh..." Huh. Wow, this school was kinda boring if you didn't know more magic than a first year generally knows. Everything she could even come up with was out of her know-how. She'd have to learn the spells, and practice them first before she could hope to cheer the boy up with them. With a sigh, Haddie shrugged again. "I don't know, Jaemin. What things do you normally like to do?"

He wasn't really sure how to answer the question of what he liked to do personally. Because the things he liked were considered kinda weird, or at least it seemed so... he was slowly becoming more aware of that. Still, he tilted his head and looked at his friend before speaking.

"I like taking care of plants... and reading... and learning magic stuff..." he scratched at his neck absently. "And playing with Sniffler, too. I wanted to make him an obstacle course thingy someday soon."

But it was too cold outside to do that right now. Sniffler wouldn't be very happy with him if he made him run around on the cold hard ground. The boy chewed on his lip thoughtfully and looked toward the door. It'd be nice to go to the greenhouses or something, visit his plants, but it'd also be nice to do the thing she had suggested. Learning new spells was really fun, even if he couldn't do them right away...

"It'd be fun to go see the professor about the Patronus Charm..."

Haddie grinned. "Awesome." She glanced around the kitchen and winced. It looked like a small hurricane had swept through the kitchen. Pots and pans were littered everywhere, flour and all varieties of food ingredients were strewn everywhere. Cabinets were half opened, the utensils that survived were everywhere but where they were supposed to be... was that a whisk on the ceiling? How on earth did that...

Nevermind.

"Yeah," Haddie said. "We should probably go before we get blamed for this." She turned and carefully made her way to the corridor, hopping over pots, pans, flour bags, another whisk, some cooking thing she had no idea what it was... Years of having a messy room had prepared her for this moment. As they left, Haddie turned to Jaemin. "After we learn how to cast the Patronus charm," even though it was doubtful they'd actually cast it, "we can go visit the greenhouses if you want." It was his birthday, so she was game for that.

After all of the marshmallows were put on the cookies, he started placing the chocolate on top. These were going to be delicious. After he placed a few, the teen popped a piece into his mouth. "Always have to make sure the chocolate's not poisoned." He chuckled. That was just his excuse for eating chocolate. Even his younger sister, Lucy, used that excuse whenever they got a new bag of chocolate.

"I will definitely keep in touch. I'm sure she would love you." They were very similar in personalities. And he was sure Lucy would love the princess toys. Anything that had to do with princesses, she loved. Especially the dresses for them. She once took one of Austin's old aprons, and turned it into a dress for one of them. The girl was creative, that's for sure.

As he placed another piece of chocolate on the cookie, he paused. "It's alright. She passed away a few years ago. I'm better now." He flashed a smile at his cooking companion. "Cooking helps a lot. She almost everything I know about it." And that was all he was willing to talk about it. His mother was important to him, and he was afraid he'd start crying if he kept going. Which wasn't something he wanted to do in front of someone he just met.

"She does stay with my dad, yea. It's really sweet when she sends me letters. Her writing is hard to make out sometimes, but I have every one she's sent." She was really too young to actually write sentences, but she tried her best. It was mostly just scribbles, and at the bottom, was his father's translation.

Azura made her way into the kitchens, she had owled Esme for some much needed friend and cake baking time! She needed to catch her friend up on what had been happening in her life and to see what was going on in Esme's life.. Even though they hung out a lot..

Azura still hadn't seen her in awhile.. And she wanted to tell her the latest developments in the her and Jace saga..

She giggled a little as she moved over to a pantry and started to pull out ingredients for the cake!

Receiving an owl was always a terrifying thing, but as soon as Esme had calmed down it was off to the kitchens to see Azura.

Baking seemed like a lovely idea at the moment and it would give them a chance to hang out even more than they did already. Even though they saw each other a lot they didn't always do things like baking. In fact this was going to be their first time doing it together! Rather exciting and the prospect of food was always lovely so long as chocolate wasn't involved. Try as she might she just couldn't grow fond of the stuff.

It was nasty.

"Hey!" As soon as she saw her friend she made her way over. Time to help pull out the ingredients that they would need in order to bake this cake! "So how are you? Get up to anything exciting yet today?" In Esme's opinion if the most exciting thing a person did in the day was bake it was still a pretty eventful day. Sometimes it was important to do the small things in life like stop and smell the roses.

SPOILER!!: Austin! <3

Quote:

Originally Posted by keepmeclose22

After all of the marshmallows were put on the cookies, he started placing the chocolate on top. These were going to be delicious. After he placed a few, the teen popped a piece into his mouth. "Always have to make sure the chocolate's not poisoned." He chuckled. That was just his excuse for eating chocolate. Even his younger sister, Lucy, used that excuse whenever they got a new bag of chocolate.

"I will definitely keep in touch. I'm sure she would love you." They were very similar in personalities. And he was sure Lucy would love the princess toys. Anything that had to do with princesses, she loved. Especially the dresses for them. She once took one of Austin's old aprons, and turned it into a dress for one of them. The girl was creative, that's for sure.

As he placed another piece of chocolate on the cookie, he paused. "It's alright. She passed away a few years ago. I'm better now." He flashed a smile at his cooking companion. "Cooking helps a lot. She almost everything I know about it." And that was all he was willing to talk about it. His mother was important to him, and he was afraid he'd start crying if he kept going. Which wasn't something he wanted to do in front of someone he just met.

"She does stay with my dad, yea. It's really sweet when she sends me letters. Her writing is hard to make out sometimes, but I have every one she's sent." She was really too young to actually write sentences, but she tried her best. It was mostly just scribbles, and at the bottom, was his father's translation.

Rachel giggled. She knew better than that, Austin. "It's okay to want to eat the chocolate now,'' she told him. She was extremely happy that he would keep in touch over the summer. "As I am sure I'll love her.'' If Lucy was as nice as Austin, then there was nothing that could stop Rachel from liking her.

She nodded. The older Ravenclaw was a tough one. Rachel knew she would never be as tough as he and if something were to happen to her parents, she'd wallow in her sorrows for a very long time. "She sounds very lovely.'' She meant this. It was nice his mother had taught him all about cooking.

"I'm sure she'll be writing to you before you graduate. Her writing skills would have improved by then.'' Then an idea came to her. "Could we owl some of these cookies to her? I'm sure she'd love them.''

Azura's smile got even wider as she saw her friend coming towards her. "Esme!" She said with a big warm smile as she hugged her briefly before pulling out some more ingredients.. which included cocoa powder.. She was planning on making her mom's famous chocolate cake. Cause well.. She could use some!

"I'm all right." She said with a warm smile, Esme knew most of the Jace thing, but she hadn't told them of how they had made up.. She would do that today though."How are you doing?" She asked curiously, as she pulled out a bowl and some measuring cups..

"And I haven't been up to anything exciting yet, unless you count getting down here in one piece, then.. yes." She giggled a little, she hadn't even tripped or anything! It was a miracle really! "What about you?" She asked curiously as she moved to the fridge to get some milk..

Smiling, Esme returned her friend's hug. It was always nice to see each other. "So what kind of cake are we baking?" Even if it was chocolate she would stick around and be happy enough helping make it - just so long as she didn't have to eat any. That was something she just couldn't do. Chocolate had never been something that she was fond of; vanilla was much better in her opinion. Lots of people found her dislike strange but she didn't care.

Continuing the search, she smiled more as Azura said she was doing all right. "Glad to hear that." Of course Esme knew more or less everything that had happened with Jace and while it was sad and heartbreaking, she wanted her friend to be happy. It was during those moments more than any others that girlfriend time was needed. "I'm doing well, I got some work done which is rather boring but it will help me be prepared for future duels." The club was proving to be a lot more fun than she had originally thought it would be. Maybe she had more of her father in her than she had originally thought. The Professor seemed to be rather impressed by her improvement which was wonderful.

Giggling, Esme placed everything that she had collected onto the counter. "Well, that's good to hear. Though I'm sure that the house elves would help you." They were super nice. "Nothing really besides mastering a couple spells!" All and all today had been pretty productive so far.

"Oh! Well we are making my Mom famous.." Ohhh.. Azura had forgotten.. Esme didn't like chocolate, and here she had invited her to bake one with her! Gah! Now Azura felt badly.. so she quickly went through the recipes in her head and decided to try something her and her mom had fallen in love with the last time they had tried it.. "Violet Vanilla Pudding Cake." She said with a warm smile.. That way.. Esme could have some of the cake as well.. there was no use making it, if one couldn't taste it!

Phew!! She was almost a bad friend!!

She carefully put the cocoa powder back when Esme wasn't looking and grabbed the Vanilla instead!

Crisis averted!

"Mmmm, I told you Jace and I made up, haven't i?" She asked her friend.. She wasn't sure if she was caught up to that point or not.. "But other than that... I'm doing good.. Still missing Jazzy.. but that's to be expected." She shrugged a bit.. Oh Jasper..

"Oh! How did you do on your duel?" Azura asked curiously as she picked up a bowl and a few sifters.. "And what spells?" Azura was always trying to learn new spells! She seemed to have a knack for them!

They were making her mom famous? She was rather confused by Azura's comment until she announced what they would be making a second later. Did this mean that her mother had invented this kind of cake? Judging by the fact that it was a type that she had never heard of before, Esme was going to take that as a YES. "That sounds amazing. I am pleased that it has vanilla in it." Her friend must have remembered that she didn't like chocolate.

Azura was so sweet.

Pleased, she grabbed two aprons and handed one over to her friend before tying her own around her waist. "Oh, you did? That's great. How did things go?" Esme wanted blow by blow details... at least as blow by blow as Azura wanted to go, that is. "So you still haven't really spoken to Jasper?" How odd. They were supposed to be best friends so she would have thought that he'd make time to talk to her. She wasn't going to get involved with this because it wasn't her friendship; she hadn't ever spoken to him before.

Moving on...

"Oh, I won!" It had been super close, but she had gotten the victory in the end. Professor Hirsch seemed rather impressed by her improvement; Esme had a feeling that he had been underwhelmed in her performance during the first Defence Against the Dark Arts lesson. Oh well, she couldn't blame him for that. "Well, I've been practicing Bombarda and Glacius. I also have been working on creating a Patronus for a little while though that isn't related to the Dueling Club obviously."

Phewww! Azura was glad that had gone over well, because.. WOW she would have been a bad friend in not remembering that Esme didn't like chocolate and then sit there and have them make her mom's famous CHOCOLATE cake..

That would have been bad form!

"Yeah! It's pretty amazing and I'm so glad to hear that!" She said with a warm smile over at her friend as she took the apron she handed her and started to put it on, she tied the strings around her waist and nodded at her friend. "It went.. all right. I think." She said as she bit her lip a little.. "I asked to talk to him, and then I apologized for how I had been acting, ignoring him and everything like that.. and then.." Azura's purple eyes started to well up a little. "He said he had been threatened Esme.. Because he didn't like me! Even beat up." She bit her lip as she turned towards her friend.. "That still tears at my heart to hear.. All because of me Jace had to go through that." She stared down at the counter almost unseeingly as a few tears escaped her eyes.. "But, despite everything, he still wants to be my friend, and he said he's not going to leave me like Jasper did.. Then we hugged and He thanked me for liking him."

She took a deep breath, Jace was the most amazing boy on the planet.. he REALLY was.. Taking all of that and STILL thinking about her.. She wasn't worthy of his affection. Or his friendship.. She was just lucky that she had the one.

"And no, well.. we say hi in the common room from time to time when we see each other, and I got a hug when he got his birthday present, but he's just so busy, so I try not to bother him." Azura said with a soft shrug.

"You won? That's so great! I'm so glad to hear that." Azura said with a warm smile as she looked up at her friend..Before her mouth fell open.. "I want to learn those spells as well and a Patronus? That's so great Esme! That's going to be my goal next year.. to create a corporeal Patronus.. I'm dying to know what form mine is going to take." She said with a happy smile.

Esme grinned at her friend as she pulled up her hair into a scrunchie and then washed her hands. There was no need to get her hair into the cake; that would be disgusting and unhygienic. "So your mom invented this cake?" Did that mean that she did a lot of baking? If that was the case, it was pretty darn cool in her books. ...The next thing that Azura said wasn't in the least bit cool, however. Her eyes widened with concern. "Who has been beating him up?" She would have a bone to pick with them. There was absolutely no need to take anything out on him when he hadn't done anything. It wasn't even their business to! "It isn't your fault. It's the people who took it out on him needlessly that are to blame." She was tempted to hex them; maybe she had been spending too much time practicing for Duelling Club... She hugged her friend as she cried a few tears. "I knew he wouldn't leave you. It isn't your fault that you feel this way about him. I'm just glad that you two are friends still." She could not blame Azura for being worried about that.

Jace was a great friend, though it seemed that Jasper had other things going on. Esme still wasn't going to get involved though she did have a few thoughts on the matter. "Maybe he's having a hard time adjusting to all the spell work?" Honestly she had no idea though she could remember how overwhelming First Year was for her because on top of the Acromantulas which were more than bad enough, she also had to deal with the homework.

BEAM. "I did and I think that Professor Hirsch was rather impressed." That was a good thing since not only was he the Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor, but he also was one of her favourite staff members. "I am sure that you will learn those spells in time and that is really ambitious." She would be pleasantly surprised if Azura managed that since the spell was so hard to master. "I am excited to see what form mine takes too, but I am nowhere near being ready. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong..." Seemed that none of the memories she used were strong enough.

Azura nodded.. "Well, she sort of invented it, we.. uhh.. tweaked the recipe a bit and ended up with it! She's a great baker and an amazing potioneer too!" Azura's voice was full of pride for her mother..

But her face fell as Esme asked about Jace. "I don't know fully, He wouldn't tell me no matter how much I asked." She said with a sigh as she leaned back against the counter a bit and looked down.. "I know, but it still FEELS like it's my fault.. If I didn't like him, then this wouldn't have happened." She said as she ran a hand through her black hair and started to braid it, trying to give her hands something to do.. She hugged Esme as she hugged her and she sniffled a little.. "We are friends.. in fact.. I think Jace is my new best friend." The purple eyed girl said in a slightly bemused voice.. "Who would have guessed?" She shook her head.. apparently having feelings for someone brought you closer? Now she just had to work on getting over him!

Azura shrugged.. She didn't want to talk of Jasper.. it hurt too much. She barely even saw him.. And they hadn't done anything on their bucket list.. And now the summer was coming and she was sure they weren't going to keep their Diagon Alley Date.. She sighed a little before wrapping her braided hair around her head and biting her lip as she started to put the dry ingredients in a bowl.

She smiled warmly over at Esme as she mixed and nodded as her friend spoke. "Well Of course he would be impressed! I want to watch you duel sometime! And you can come watch me!"She HAD won her duel after all!

"Well, I find that I'm pretty good at charms.. So I want to learn! Maybe we can practice together?" She asked her friend..

It was nice to hear the pride in Azura's voice as she talked about her mother. It made Esme think of the way that she was proud of her mother every time she thought about how she used to be a successful musician. Even now if she wanted to go back into the business she would do amazing. The only reason she had stopped was because she had wanted to devote all of her time to being a wife and mother. "So has she invented any potions then?" If so maybe at least one of them would appear in textbooks at some point! That would be really cool.

Talking about Jace was painful but confronting feelings was an important thing to do and maybe it would help her get over him. Too bad he wouldn't share who had been hurting him, but Esme supposed that he hadn't want to name names. "You're not the one that made people act childish and hurt him over something. This is neither of your faults and people need to learn to mind their own business." She frowned though was glad that the hug seemed to help her friend feel a little better. Comfort really could do amazing things when a person was in need. "I'm not surprised that you two are best friends now. You're very close. I think you're good for each other." Be it as best friends or more. They were young and there was a lot of time to worry about dating later on.

Looking at the recipe, Esme worked with Azura in adding the necessary ingredients and mixing everything together as it was needed. Clearly her friend didn't want to talk about Jasper and that was perfectly fine because it could be very hard to deal with feeling pushed to the side. Even if she felt that he wasn't doing that intentionally... Hopefully things would get better but Azura had a lot of friends who cared a lot about her.

"I would love to watch you duel!" For some reason she hadn't really got involved in the spectator aspect of the club yet, but that would surely change soon. It was always nice to give and receive moral support. "I'm sure we could practice together." Smile. It would be lovely.