Broken Open

[Emily Hayes-Magonus]

Emily Hayes-Magonus had about enough of everything. She had been kept awake from three straight nights trying to figure out how to go about repairing her relationship with her brother, but she had no idea. It didn't help that she had no idea what she had even done in the first place, so it wasn't like she could apologise to him. Sighing and letting out a frustrated breath, Emily decided that she needed to make herself feel better by baking cookies. It was something she tended to do to calm herself. It was nearly dinner time by now, so the kitchens were not as busy as they normally would be as the elves would have finished the cooking and preparations by now, she was sure of it. Emily snuck into the kitchens and smiled at all of the house elves. Emily didn't mind house elves. She knew they were practically slaves, but she'd never heard them complain. The elves at Raven Manor were pretty well dressed too. Emily quite liked the Manor. It was huge, much bigger than any house she had seen. Ciro and her mum would probably be getting married soon. She didn't know what was taking so long. She hadn't asked, but she had her suspicions that it was her mum's fault.

Whilst she was baking, Emily was going to do her utmost to make sure that she didn't think about Nate whilst she was baking. She didn't want to stuff up her cooking for him. Her mood always lifted when she was in the kitchens and the urgency of her movements as she collected the ingredients and mixed them all together made things seem so much better than they currently were. Emily smiled to herself and hummed as she danced with the dough. She had no music bar the sound of her own voice, which wasn't the best anyway, but she was rather happy in the knowledge that she wasn't annoying anyone. She had considered speaking to her cousin about all of this, but he was probably just as clueless as she was in these matters. He didn't even have a sibling to compare things too, so it probably wouldn't help her in the slightest. Soon she was finishing up the mixing and placing them into her tins to put them in the oven. Now all she had to do was wait. She loved watching them rise in the oven and so she slipped to the floor and watched them. She probably looked a little strange, but the way the chocolate melted and the dough rose, it made her happy. Whilst she was watching this, she didn't have to think about anything else and that was a good thing.​

 

[Logan Vacarius]

Logan Vacarius, wearing the Gryffindor robes proudly, walked along the corridors. His stomach growled loudly, yet it was not time for another meal. He needed something to eat though, and it was bothering him. He decided that a little snack would not kill his appetite completely. The Gryffindor was so far from the kitchens though. He was on his way to his dorm, but he turned around sharply on the fifth corridor and started down the stairs. It took him a while since he knew that the stairs would move. Some of them caused him to be late for class sometimes. 'What could I get to eat though? Chips? A sandwich? Something that would not fill me up to ruin my next meal, but something to get my stomach to stop growling!' thought Logan as he walked through the corridors. He wondered if anyone else suddenly got the munchies. He heard that growing, teenagers were definitely those that needed more food than the others. So, he was probably not the first one. He knew that others in his age group were likely to eat twice their own weight, so to speak. Logan was hoping that he did not turn into one of those pigs. He did not want to gross others out, or even gross himself out. He already had a bully. He did not need another one.

However, as soon as Logan arrived to the kitchens, he smelled fresh cookies. Chocolate melting. Drool seeped from his lips as he thought about cookies. He wiped it away and looked around to the source of the smell. Wait, instead of seeing elves cooking, he saw a girl his age. He didn't know her name. He knew that her surname was a little complicated. He could not help the dreaminess of his voice as he thought about the food. "Oh man, those cookies smell amazing." Logan had no reason to lie when it came down to cooking and baking. Well, this would be considered baking. Logan stepped forward, his hand outstretched, "I'm Logan Vacarius, Gryffindor." He forgot how obvious it was that he was a Gryffindor, due to the robes he was wearing. Logan did not know how to speak to females that well. He was never really one of those that found talking to them easy. To him, they were different, but since he was hungry, his stomach ruled over his nerves easily.​

 

[Emily Hayes-Magonus]

Emily continued to watch the cookies. Nothing was happening and nothing would happen really until about the last five minutes. Cookies, thankfully, didn't take all that long to bake. It was her go to food when she needed something to do to take her mind off of the state of her home life. Not that it was really that bad, but things were happening and people were unhappy and she never spoke to Nate anymore apart from him being mean to her. She had to sneak into the kitchens at the manor, because Ciro's dad didn't let her use them. To be honest he kind of ignored her, like she wasn't even there. But she didn't mind, she knew that the man was busy with his work. Ciro helped her to sneak into the kitchens when he could. He'd wake her up really early in the morning so that she could bake before the rest of the house was up, or he'd wake her in the middle of the night and they'd snack on tea and cookies. She enjoyed those times. She often didn't try to sneak in on her own, because if she got caught she'd get into trouble, whereas Ciro could get her out of trouble. She didn't like getting into trouble.

The floor was kind of starting to feel hard beneath her, so when she was joined by another student, Emily pulled herself up onto her knees and smiled up at her companion. "They really do. I love the smell of cookies." He was a boy in her year. A gryffindor. He probably knew her cousin and her brother. She smiled at him as he held his hand out to shake. "Hi, Logan. I'm Emily Hayes-Magonus." She wasn't sure why he bothered to tell her he was a Gryffindor, it was obvious, but maybe he was colourblind, so she did the same. She shifted her robes slightly. "I'm a Hufflepuff." She patted the floor beside her. "Wanna sit with me? I'm watching the cookies rise. It's pretty good fun!" She turned her face back to watch the cookies. The smell itself was enough to make her happy. She didn't have to worry about anything else until they finished cooking and she could eat them. Maybe she would even share them with her new friend. That would be nice. There was no way that she would be able to eat all of these on her own.
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[Logan Vacarius]

The amazing smell of cookies could only bring Logan to his weakest of states. That was pure hunger. He needed something to eat. And right now, the only thing beating was a sweet tooth. Logan wondered if the girl would know him from classes, since they were both in the same year. That much he knew. Logan placed his hands behind his back, as he waited for her to acknowledge him, knowing that it would not take too long. He was just glad that his nerves were being overpowered by his stomach right now. He could not be more thankful for being a teenage boy with one hell of an appetite. She introduced herself as Emily, which he kind of forgot the last name already. It was a long last name, and very complicated. But Emily sounded pretty nice. He smiled at her before he complimented, "You have a really nice name." She mentioned that she was a Hufflepuff, which would explain her absence from his common room. He looked down at his Gryffindor tie before he figured out how redundant it was for him to say what house he was from. And then, she offered if he wanted to sit down next to her, and watch the cookies rise.

"Yes, please," Logan said, with excitement in his tone. It was almost obvious that he was not used to someone being nice to him. He forgot what that was like, since his constant bully being all over his back over being muggle-born. Should he even bring it up? No. He decided to just leave it alone, and not bother with some of the more medieval topics. Instead, he sat down next to the Hufflepuff, and crossed his legs. He looked ahead at the oven, watching the cookies rise. "Did you make these yourself, or did the elves make them?" Either way, they looked really good. He figured that she would be one of those that would want to make cookies herself, and not ask the elves to do it for her. He knew that some people were bossy, but she did not seem the type. All he could think about was making a new friend, and hopefully making his school life much easier. Ever since his brother got married to Greylin, Dean had not wrote to him in a while, so Logan was feeling a little on the lonely side. That was slowly changing, though.​

 

[Emily Hayes-Magonus]

Emily smiled at Logan as he complimented her name. It wasn't the first time that had happened and she had to wonder why people complimented it. It seemed really ordinary to her and even the meaning was boring, rival; laborious; eager. She'd looked it up once when her mother showed her the baby book she had picked the names out of. She'd asked her mum why she had picked those name and all she had been told was that Emily was really pretty. She had sort of grown to like it herself, but she still didn't see why people complimented it. "My name is boring, but Logan sounds really cool." She smiled happily though when he deiced that sitting next to her was a good idea and scooted a little further to that he had plenty of room. Emily was friendly with most people, but she was a little friendlier today because she was in an extra happy mood, as she always was when she was making cookies.

She was asked a question and she looked back to Logan and nodded, laying her hands softly in her thighs. "Yeah, i really like baking, it's what I do when I'm sad an it cheers me right up!" She said as she scooted forward to open the oven and make sure that they were cooking properly. "I do it when I'm not sad too though! It's relaxing and it doesn't take much thought, I always just know, you know?" She asked, closing the door and wriggling back to sit next to Logan. "Would you like to try some when they're finished?"

I'm so sorry this reply is quite bad
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[Logan Vacarius]

Logan chuckled when he listened to Emily say that his own name was cool. He found it too ordinary. Nothing about his name stood out. Only his surname, which he was really fond of. Logan looked forward when his attention was drawn to the oven. He said, in reply to his name, "Really cool on how we can just defend to the death other how nice the other name is, other than our own." Logan wondered if this was something that they needed to work on. If they needed to learn to love their own names. Maybe that was a sign of low self esteem. Merlin knew that Logan had virtually none. Ever snce that Hufflepuff came into his life, and beaten down any self worth he had into a pile of ashes.

Emily mentioned how she baked when she was sad. Logan looked in her direction while she opened the oven to check on the cookies, "Were you sad, Emily?" Logan placed his hands onto his knees, wondering if she too had a constant bully that he was not sure if he could ever stand up to. However, she baked when she wasn't sad too, so maybe she was not down. "It does sound relaxing. When I need to relax, I just read a really good book. It isn't as exciting as baking." Logan confessed, knowing it would make him sound like an old bore. But the offer was out there. He smiled, "I would love to, when they are finished." Logan looked forward to the cookies that were baking. Somehow, not even the bully existed right now.​

 

[Emily Hayes-Magonus]

Emily nodded slightly when Logan mentioned the fact that they were both willing to defend the other's name. It was really quite funny, because Emily didn't think she'd ever tried to defend someone's name to their face before. She shrugged and smiled. "I suppose, but I really think your name is nice. Mine is boring and so nineteenth century." Emily knew that from the one time she'd seen a book written by an eighteen century writer. Her mother had told her that there were others as well and Emily had gone and looked them up. ****inson, Bronte, Post, Davison, why she couldn't have had another name was beyond her. She didn't hate her name of course and had grown to like it, but that didn't mean she couldn't fantasise about being called a unique name like Willa or even Amity. "We can agree to disagree!"

Emily looked back at Logan when he asked her if she was sad. She shrugged, "Sometimes I am, sometimes I'm not... I'm happy now!" Sometimes her brother was infuriating and she didn't know what to do with him, but to be honest she still loved him, he was her brother, she didn't really have all that much choice. At least she had Niccy though, he was fun to be around and was more like her brother than her brother was, at least he was her cousin. "I read cook books, but I'm not that much into reading. I don't really have time between this and classes." She grinned then and closed the door to the oven. "Shouldn't be too long now. They're starting to go brown!"
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[Logan Vacarius]

Logan chuckled at the mention to agree to disagree. That was the best that the two could do. He would definitely agree to disagree, since he thought that his name was boring, and hers was interesting. She thought that her name was boring and his was interesting. So, Logan was just going to take things as is, and he smiled, "Agreed to disagree, then, Emily." Logan was banked on him being right, but he did not want to argue about it. He was not one of those that argued. Instead, he was one of those that decided to let bygones be bygones. However, he smiled when she said that she was happy. He noticed that the cookies were just about done, and he knew that she was probably as excited to eat them as he was. He was just hungry, and that was the whole reason he was down here to begin with. Once Logan helped Emily get the cookies out, they shared them together. And Logan managed to make a new friend. That was a relief. He rarely made new friends. And he felt that he would need them soon. After all, he might need some help with homework eventually. Or help others rather.​

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Fin​