Monday Morning Melodrama

[Rudolf Lagowski]

It was breakfast time, and the usual silver platters of cereal, fruit, toast, eggs, bacon, and orange juice had just unfurled before the ravenous students. Rudolf wasted no time loading a little of everything onto his plate, which might have looked greedy, except that he hadn't seen food so good in two weeks. After chatting a while with his Gryffindor friends, Rudolf said to James, who was sat to his left, "Hey, can you pass the orange juice?" He'd tried accioing it to himself once before, with interesting consequences.

 

[Professor James Cade]

James sat at the Gryffindor table that morning for breakfast, Rudolf was chatting away to some of the other Gryffindors and he was half listening himself but he was more interested in shoveling in as much bacon and eggs into his mouth as possible. He was vaguely aware of Maddie who was sat close by but he was doing his best not to pay attention to the girl. He was so consumed by his food he barely heard Rudolf when he asked him to pass the orange juice, he dropped his fork and grabbed the jug. "You given up on trying to summon it?" He asked with a grin.

 

[Madeline Walden]

Maddie had just about dragged herself out of bed and got herself dressed in time to catch breakfast. Still rubbing the sleep out of her eyes she trudged down to the Great Hall and walked towards the Gryffindor table. She saw Rudolf first and decided to sneak up behind him to ruffle his hair "looking good today Rudolf" she winked as she sat next to her fellow Gryffindor. She picked up a piece of toast and looked down the table for something to put on it. "Hey... can you pass me that jam?" she asked the person on the other side of Rudolf, not realising it was James. Her eyes widened and she immediately went to fix her hair. Why didn't she spend more time on it that morning?

 

[Rudolf Lagowski]

"Yeah; I kinda want to drink it, this time, instead of swim in it," Rudolf said, taking the jug. "Thanks." He poured himself a glass, passing the juice across the table when he was done. At that moment a hand ruffled his hair, and hearing Madeline's voice he ducked beneath it, grinning bashfully. He was about to return the compliment (because really, Maddie was smokin') when he remembered he was in James's presence, and promptly cleared his throat conspicuously instead. Well, this wasn't uncomfortable. As he waited to see whether or not James would pass the jam, he leant towards Maddie and whispered, "It looks great."

 

[Professor James Cade]

James laughed, maybe a little louder than he should have as he passed over the jug of orange juice. "Good call, just a hunch but I don't think girls find 'covered in juice' very attractive," He grinned turning his attention back to his food. No matter how focused on his food James was, he would never miss the arrival of Maddie. He watched her discreetly as she ruffled Rudolf's hair and took a seat. Clearly not seeing him there, she asked him for the jam. James grabbed the Jam and handed it to her, strangely, her hair looked different when he handed her the jam to when she had first sat down. James didn't understand girls sometimes. He smiled awkwardly at Maddie and turned back to his food.

 

[Madeline Walden]

Maddie felt her cheeks getting hot after Rudolf's comment. She smiled sheepishly and took the jam from James and began to spread it on her toast. The silence was uncomfortable so Maddie racked her brains for something to talk about, to distract the three young Gryffindors from this painful moment. "Orange juice is nice this morning, isn't it?" she commented awkwardly, pouring herself a glass and avoiding the gaze of the two boys.

She quickly glanced at Rudolf and James who seemed to be very interested in the food in front of them. "Sleep well?" she asked them and before the boys had time to reply she continued "I didn't, one of the girls in my dorm snores so loudly. It keeps me awake most nights. Surely there's a spell or something that can help me" she chatted away while munching on her toast.

 

[Reuben Pendleton]

Despite the delicious food, Reuben wasn't hungry. He'd had a terrible holiday, his mother having been sad and his siblings generally too busy with their own things to spend time with him. In fact, he'd eventually resorted to playing with Remy, who was still young enough to enjoy playing make believe, and who did not make fun of Reuben for sharing his passion. But it had still been a horrible two weeks; the Hufflepuff had almost found himself looking forward to returning to school, if just to get away from it all. Plus, Rudolf had promised him quidditch practice on the first morning back, providing him not only with comfort, but also a spark of hope that things might some day get back to normal.

After finishing a small breakfast Reuben left his table in search of Gryffindor's, and eventually spotted his twins's hair amongst the lions. He was with James, of course, whom he seemed to call 'bro' more often than he did his actual brother, and Madeline as well. Approaching from behind, Reuben tapped his twins's shoulder. "Hey. I'm gonna go wait on the pitch, yeah?"

 

[Rudolf Lagowski]

Rudolf grinned at James, sheepishly recalling the orange juice accident as his friend passed over the jam. Quickly the conversation turned tense - so much so that even Rudolf felt awkward, which was an incredible achievement on Maddie's behalf. Doing his best to act casual, Rudolf shoved another piece of toast in his mouth, saying, "Yeah; I've heard pillow-over-the-face-io works pretty good," and grinning through his mouthful. Just then his shoulder was tapped, and he twisted his neck to see his twin standing behind him. Oh, Merlin's beard, he'd completely forgotten about the quidditch! "Oh, uh, sorry Reubs. We'll have to play later. I just ate, like, so much." Expecting the conversation to end there, Rudolf turned back to his friends. "Hey, did either of you read about that guy who was casting incendio on his farts and burnt his house down?" he asked, laughing just thinking about it again.