All You Can Eat

[Andi Hart]

Andi had heard of the whereabouts of the kitchen of Hogwarts. She could only imagine what it would look like. To be able to serve that much food for that many students, well, there probably had to be over a thousand cooks. The food had tasted better than anything the Matron had made, and anything Andi or any of those other kids could have imagined. She had to find out how to make food like that, and she was sure it would be a lot more fun being in the kitchen without the Matron. Perhaps, even one of the cooks would take Andi under their wing and let her help them cook and bake the food. Surely they'd appreciate an extra set of hands, right?
Well, the First Year didn't have to imagine what the kitchen would look like anymore. She had found it. With a grin on her face, and no hesitancy in her step, Andi opened the door, warm air hitting her face and a multitude of smells breezing through her nose. Andi closed her eyes briefly, enjoying the sensation, before having a proper look around the room.
What she saw made her scream.
A few of the creatures screamed as well, though not all of them.
But there was a few minutes of screaming.

When everyone had calmed down, and Andi had a cup of tea in her hand (she didn't even ask for it), one of the creatures explained what they were, what they did and why they were there. Andi explained who she was, and was told off sternly by one of the 'elves' for touching their ears. A lot of the elves seemed quite disgruntled that she was there and had caused a great upset, but luckily for Andi, one elf took her around to show her where things were. Andi still couldn't get over the fact that there were 'house elves' making their food, but eventually they distracted her attention by offering to show her how to make doughnuts. Andi had used flour before, but had never really been good at keeping it tidy. Within a few minutes, there was flour everywhere, water spilt on the floor and the yeast container had been knocked over.

 

[Maris Wormwood]

The holiday break was quickly becoming Maris' favourite time of year. She finally got some peace to organize her thoughts as well as the castle and catch her breath for a few weeks. Now though, with the students all back, Maris was just counting the days until all her hard work was ruined.

She'd been been shuttling a load of cauldrons that had mysteriously migrated to the second floor back to the Dungeons when she heard the telltale sound of some sort of ruckus in the Kitchens, sighing and hurrying to get the cauldrons back where they belonged so she could go sort it out. There was always some students who just couldn't handle not eating whenever they wanted and Maris wasn't afraid to give them an earful to save the house elves the stress.

"What is going on in here?" Maris said, stepping into the kitchens, aghast to see the state of the mess that some student had seemed to manage to make. "Young lady were you raised in a barn? What is this mess!" Maris said severely, stepping over to truly take in the state of the kitchens, ignoring as a few contrite house elves scuttled out of her way onto other chores. The poor dears probably had no idea what to do with the child causing chaos in their midst.

 

[Andi Hart]

The yeast was the next thing on the list, and Andi followed the little house elf (how weird it was to call it that), to where it was kept. The elf had explained that it didn't actually need to walk to where the yeast was to get it (magic, duh), but Andi then explained that she couldn't do the weird, telekensis thing (yet), and so they had to walk there. The kitchen was a lot bigger than the one back home, and she was sure she could get lost in there for a lifetime. They made it back to their spread out flour, and Andi had just picked up a handful of flour to throw at the grumpiest house elf when a voice rang out across the room. In a fright, Andi dropped the flour on the floor, before quickly hiding her hands behind her back, trying to give her most innocent impression she could. "Oh come on, baking is the only time I'm actually allowed to be messy!" Andi complained. The orphanage was run like a tight ship and mess was hardly allowed, but baking usually allowed for some mess. And without the Matron, Andi thought, why not more mess?!

 

[Maris Wormwood]

Maris could feel her nostrils flare as more flour was dumped onto the floor. She swore the children got worse every year, treating the castle like a plaything and not a place where people and creatures actually had to live and work every day. "The kitchens are a place of work not your personal playground," She said, stalking over to the girl to survey the mess, giving the poor house elves a sympathetic glance though she didn't notice how a few had cowered away, likely more complicit in this endeavor than they wanted to let on. "Access to the kitchens is a privilege, not a right, and I think I'll have to see to it that your access is revoked until you can learn to keep you mess to an acceptable level," she said, crossing her arms and glancing back down again at powdery mess around them, clicking her tongue.

 

[Andi Hart]

Andi folded her arms across her chest, getting more and more grumpy by the mean lady that had walked in. She had obviously never baked or cooked before, and didn't know that things did get messy, you just cleaned it all up later. Andi glared at the lady. "Have you ever, once in your life, had fun?" Andi sassed, rolling her eyes, before turning her back on the lady, moving to continue making the doughnuts. She wasn't afraid of her!