Reactor

[Emily Hayes-Magonus]

Emily Hayes-Magonus had been told by her mother all the places she wasn't allowed to go whilst she was here. Her mother had basically made it a point to specifically tell her all the places she wasn't allowed to go. This obviously included the Professor's common room, the Prefect's common room, the Forbidden Forest and of course the Cliffs, though the cliffs was more a safety thing she was sure then an actual out of bounds place, but she could have been wrong about that, she didn't really listen to her mother all the time, she had been too busy paying attention to doing her hair, which her mother had taken over doing that morning anyway. Sometimes she would go and see her mother in her office to have her hair done.

Her mother always did it the muggle way and it really amused her to be sitting there forever whilst her mum brushed and braided her hair, but it was all good fun in the end really, why wouldn't it be? Though the point where Nathanial had decided that he was angry at their mum and didn't want anything to do with her was annoying and Emily didn't understand. Apparently he had somehow taken it upon himself to blame their mother for the divorce. It wasn't her fault, she deserved to be happy if she wanted to be and if that Mr Raven was helping her to be happy, then that was all she cared about, she didn't care about how her father was also putting the blame on her mother. Though neither actually voiced their blame, it was obvious they blamed each other, even in some small capacity. It was sad that they fought, but to be perfectly honest, Emily blamed their father so who was she to judge, really.

Signing up for clubs had also been her mother's idea. Emily had asked for her opinion on what to sign up for, because she really wanted to get to know more people and make friends. The Student Defence Association and the Conglomerated Arts club had come to her mother straight away. Emily wasn't especially good at art in any specific way, but she really enjoyed making things and she really loved music, though the only instrument she could play was the triangle and maybe some bongos, but who couldn't play bongos. Emily also was quite adept with cooking and she supposed that this club could help her with her cooking and even allow her to improve. Her mother was no gourmet chef by all means and the fact that Emily was a better cook then her mother didn't really mean all that much, but she was inclined to think that it wasn't all that bad.

As she got closer to the Courtyard, Emily was distracted by the sound of some sort of music coming from somewhere. It was definitely a piano, but she didn't recognise the specific song. It may not even have been a song, just a bunch of random sounds, but it didn't sound completely terrible. In fact, it sounded halfway decent. At least it did to Emily who had no real training in anything like that, she was just an observer really. Resolving to herself that she wanted to know who this musician was, Emily made her way towards the music section of the club, which she only knew the way by following the music. Eventually she found where she needed to be and poked her head in to see a boy sitting at the piano. He seemed to be quite content with playing the piano. He was slightly older then her, probably a second year, but all Emily was interested in was his piano playing skills, maybe he could teach her a song? "You aren't half bad at that you know."
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[Avie Mitchell]

Avie was always looking for new places to go, he had sort of exhausted all the other areas. All the other rooms were pretty interesting to him, but he really preferred being outside. However, the boy had been trying to do more in the school. He had not really involved himself much in the last semester and this time around he was really planning on getting stuck in. Which was a fairly tricky thing really. He didn't really have the brains or anything to be that good at learning, so he wasn't sure he'd do well in the club academia, and he wasn't sure that the SDA would enjoy having him around because of how crazy he could sometimes be. He just liked having fun, and for some reason Avie got the impression that he wasn't going to be very good at it. He like having fun, and his energy might help him dodge spells, but casting them back when for some he could barely pronounce would be difficult. The slytherin had tried out for the quidditch team, and knew that was his best chance of really achieving much in this school. He had just finished practicing a little bit. When he had accidentally while chasing what he was sure had been a bee, and ended up in a club room. He knew this club, the arts club. But, he really hadn't spent all that much time in it. He'd joined the club, but this was his first time actually in it.

Dumping his quidditch stuff by the door Avie wandered around the room. Touching the various instruments and things that were around him. He smiled to himself when his brown eyes finally landed on the piano in the corner of the room. His aunt had always played the piano, as had his cousins. Someone had come in to teach them, but since Avie couldn't read he'd always been told to wait outside until the lesson were over. Which suited Avie fine, really. He didn't want to be taught by the strange old man who taught his cousins. However, on the rare occasions when Avie was left to be looked after by his mother when his uncle's family went out, Avie would always after having fun outside end up in front of the piano. Much like how he had just ended up. He couldn't play anything technically, he couldn't play songs that were familiar, but he liked the sound it made, and enjoyed playing the keys. He knew when things sounded nice, and when they didn't. Avie sat down in front of the piano and ran his fingers up the keys. He listened closely to the sound it made. Smiling slightly, before just beginning to press the keys. It wasn't a song or anything, it was just him messing around creating his own little song. Repeat bits like it was a chorus or something. He let the music get quieter, as if building towards a crescendo, when a voice spoke behind him. Startled, Avie pressed a bunch of keys at once before glancing round.

"What?' he said to her. He had heard what she'd said, but he didn't really believe it. He wasn't playing anything. "I wasn't playing anything. I was just messing around" He told her, as if it was idiotic to think that he could actually play. He turned back to the piano and pressed a few random keys. "They just make sense. You know. Pianos are simple." Avie assured her while keeping his eyes on the keys. Pressing down on a few as he sat sort of waiting to see if this person would either stay or leave, "I'm Avie!" He smiled at her as he spoke.
​

 

[Emily Hayes-Magonus]

Music was something that Emily loved. Regardless of the kind of music that it was. She had always wished that she was gifted in some sort of musical instrument, but really she was kidding herself with that. No one in either side of her family were particularly gifted with music of any sort. Her uncle was amazing at magic music, but that was something completely different. It really wasn't the same at all. Emily smiled at the boy as he turned and saw her, knocking the keys in a funny sound as he turned. She had startled him it seemed. She laughed slightly and stepped further into the room. "I said it wasn't half bad. It sounded pretty good, considering it wasn't an actual song, right?" If it was a song, it wasn't something she'd ever heard, though she was no expert on music either, for all she knew it could have been some weird classical thing, though it kind of sounded like someone just messing about, who was she to judge? He cleared her up and she nodded, moving to lean over the piano and press a key. "It still sounded pretty cool." Pianos and any type of instrument really was one of the ways that Emily liked to relax. Of course she couldn't play, but sometimes she would ask her mother or her uncle to make instruments to play for her. She enjoyed that a lot.

Emily nodded as the boy kept talking, because she completely agreed with him. Pianos were simply instruments, at least they were when one knew how to play, which this boy did, though Emily did not. The elegance of a piano however was what really attracted Emily. It was sleek, calm, the instrument of kings or royalty. Every time Emily thought of a piano, the first thing that came to mind was the repetitive tones and the underlying shifts of the sounds. Maybe one day she would be able to play something simple, though she doubted it as she had no particular talent for the instrument in any capacity at all really. Emily wasn't sure what to tell him. She honestly thought he sounded pretty good, but she was an eleven year old with an untrained ear, she couldn't play the instrument, let alone anything particularly pleasing, what would she know? "Simplicity is key, though isn't it?" Was that not the entire point of a piano? To be simplistic? Emily was pretty sure it was and so that was why she said it. Though it was capable of much more then that, simplicity was key.

Emily grinned as she nodded at the boy and sat on the corner of the piano chair. She hoped he wouldn't mind her being here. "Nice to meet you, Avie. I'm Emily!" She pressed another key on the piano, but it didn't sound very good and she cringed before giggling slightly. "I'm not going to touch this again until i can properly play or I am going to destroy both of our eardrums." She told him, crossing her arms over her chest and sliding further away from him, at least as far as she could on the small chair. "Can you play more, please? I really like the sound."
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[Avie Mitchell]

Avie was glad when the girl repeated what she had said over the noise of the piano and being startled, he honestly hadn't realised what had been said by the girl. Plus as he's been listening to the piano more than anything he really hadn't expected to have to listen to people so he really hadn't been paying attention. It suited him fine really, when he thought about it. The piano was perhaps the one time that his mind actually concentrated on the one thing. What she asked him at the end he nodded to. It had not in fact been a song. Mostly because Avie didn't actually know how to play the piano. What he did was not playing it was hitting keys until something sounded right. That was definitely different to real playing, the type that instructor did with his cousins. "Yeah, I don't actually know any songs." he told this girl as he pressed on a random amount of keys. Smiling slightly as they made a very sad sound. He glanced at her a small frown appearing on his face, it sounded pretty good, that wasn't what he'd heard before. His mother always called his play a racket and well he wasn't really suppose to go near it when his cousins were around. "Thanks" he replied with a small tone of uncertainty as if he didn't really believe what the girl had just said to him. He watched her as he talked about the piano. He wondered if she could play and that was why she was there. That would be cool if they could play together.

At what the girl said Avie shrugged slightly. Honestly he wasn't sure what simplicity meant. He knew it had something to do with simple but he honestly couldn't be sure about that. However this was someone he didn't really know and he didn't actually want to ask about it. He just nodded along hopefully being convincing enough that she didn't think he didn't know. He was pleased when she sat down beside him on the chair and then introduced herself, Emily. That was a fairly nice name. He watched as she then just pressed a random key too much in the wrong way. He couldn't help but cringe along with her though he hadn't meant to. He knew that pianos were supposed to be touched lightly. Never press heavily unless something tells you too. He looked at the girl with a small smile, he didn't mind if she played like that. For all he really knew half the time he was probably just like that. He watched as she moved away from him though he didn't get why. It was equally strange to him when she asked him to play again. He didn't realise people even liked his playing. It was a strange novelty. "Play with me" he told her as he just began playing. Starting with a couple of keys with both hands playing a melody that he remembered hearing. He just smiled at Emily, "It's simple, just hit random keys and create a tune." he told her as if it was the simplest thing. He didn't realise that he was just good at it naturally.

"Don't press heavily, just press you know." he let his own playing slow so he could actually look at her and continued to smile a slightly encouraging smile. "Come on Em, it's easy."
​

I swear the next one will be better!

 

[Emily Hayes-Magonus]

"I'm sure you could learn some songs if you kept playing. Maybe even write one of your own." Emily thought about that for a minute. People always said that practice made perfect, it was something her mother seemed to live by religiously. She thought it was kind of a dumb idea, but she trusted her mother's judgement, which wasn't necessarily a good thing, as she had been known to make pretty terrible decisions in her time. Either way, the term seemed to fit here and it gave Emily the thought that maybe if he kept trying, eventually he would come across the right keys to make the right sound. Of course maybe if she took her own advice, she wouldn't be in this situation now. She was always giving up on things after one failed attempt, mostly because she was almost positive that she would never get it right, so really, she wasn't the best person to be giving advice, but maybe if her advice helped even one person, she would be able to learn to take her own advice for herself. Yes, that would be the ideal world. "My mother always told me that practice makes perfect, so maybe that would work for you."

Emily was taken completely unaware when Avie asked her to play with him. Had he not heard her play that key, she was horrible. If she wasn't careful, the headmistress would have all the aurors down here looking for the dark creature making the deadly noise. It was completely beyond her why he would want her to play. She blinked slightly and tilted her head at him slightly, curious as to what might be going on in his head, but deciding that he wasn't joking to make fun of her or anything, Emily shrugged and scooted closer to him so that she could better reach the keys. "Are you really sure you want me to do this?" She asked, holding her hands over the keys, but not pressing on them. She wanted to make sure he was actually serious before pressing anything. Just because he was some kind of natural, didn't mean that everyone else was, she most certainly wasn't, if she was going to learn to play the piano, she was going to have to practice every day for the rest of the life, because she really had little to no inclination at all towards music. As much as she loved it, she definitely couldn't play it. "You remember what it sounded like, right?"

Shrugging as he encouraged her further, Emily bit her lip as she tried to follow some of the keys he was pressing. She pressed a couple of her own, but she was stuffing the notes and she cringed every time. Regardless however, she continued to play, because despite the fact that her keys sounded like a dying whale and the fact that Avie's did not, she was enjoying herself and whilst she was enjoying herself she was willing to continue with it. Emily smiled as she looked over at Avie. "After this, you should come with me to the kitchens! I'll make you a celebratory batch of cookies!"

Sorry about this!
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[Avie Mitchell]

Avie had never actually seen himself as being good at piano. It was just one of those things that he found easy. He couldn't read the music sheets, and he couldn't tell which key was named what. He knew nothing about playing, but he loved playing anyway. To him, pianos made a lot of sense, and in Avie's little world there were a good number of things that didn't make sense. Pianos were something he hadn't really been allowed to do, but had done anyway. He loved the way the noises he made were either happy or sad. He would listen close to the sound that he liked and would play them over and over, this eventually became more and more, until he had a small tune, but at Emily's words he just shook his head. Write his music, learn songs that was never going to happen. He wasn't ever going to do this any more seriously than he was doing right now. Then in his mind, it became serious, and serious meant it wasn't fun. He found this fun. He wouldn't find it fun in any other way. "Nah, I can't read the music anyway. I don't think I could write anything either" He told her, offering up an explanation as to why his expression was one of amusement at the thought of him taking this anymore seriously than he had been. He kept playing a random set of keys until the girl spoke again. He had heard the same phrase from his aunt to his cousins, but he didn't think it was right, since they hardly practice and still managed to get marginally better. He on the other hand had been playing for amusement much longer, and in his mind was not as good. Avie had never had the opportunity to play piano with anyone else. His cousins had never been in when Avie had sat down at it. And he didn't get to play that often. Not as often as he would really like to. Now that he knew this room had a piano in it, he knew he was sure to come back. Sure to return.

At her words, he just nodded. He had never been bothered by those who were not that good at playing. It was just as easy to press keys. "Yeah, course. Playing the piano is fun." he told her with a smile, not realising really that she didn't want to play because she believed that she had been bad at it. That was not the primary reason for his line of thinking. He just really enjoyed playing, and he wanted to share it with Emily. It didn't matter if she wasn't good. Not to him. At what she said further, he just shrugged. It didn't matter to him. Good at playing or not, it was just fun. Glad when she actually started playing with him. He couldn't even tell that her playing was just a little bit worse than his. He was hearing music. He was happy to hear the music. He couldn't help but find himself smiling at it. Looking over to Emily every so often just to see if she was enjoying herself as well. It was all good fun. That was all. He looked back down at his hands as he played away, every so often pressing the wrong key but continuing anyway. He had always known that running around was a lot of fun, but so was this. he knew it was slightly calmer fun, but to him it was fun all the same. At her words, he had to stop himself from just pressing all the keys at once. He just stopped playing, and looked at her, "You can cook?" he asked, clearly interested in the prospect of cookies. "What kind of cookies?" he asked, knowing that he was already going to say to going, but sort of wanted to know what kind they would be before agreeing to it. He wanted to play a little more, but he also wanted cookies. "Can we play a little more before we go? Cause, I'm really enjoying this. But I do also really want cookies" Avie told her brightly.
​

 

[Emily Hayes-Magonus]

Emily was a little confused by what the boy had said. Couldn't read music? How was he able to play the piano if he couldn't read music? Granted, Emily couldn't read music either, but she also couldn't play a musical instrument, so it was no surprise for her not to be able to read it. Though she supposed one did not need to read the music in order to make it. After all, by his own admission, he was simply banging on keys. Perhaps he'd had no real training in the actual use of it. Still, he didn't sound half bad and she had a feeling he would be really good if he was actually taught how to properly utilise the keys. Emily was no expert on the subject by any means, but she knew what she liked and she had liked what she heard. "Don't be like that, Avie! It sounds great. Besides, from what i've heard you don't need to be able to read it in order to sound great! You could learn it by ear." She had heard of people doing that, blind people for example. "Blind people can't see the musical notes, but they can learn to play and some even compose!" For some reason Emily was dubbing herself Avie's personal cheer squad. Why shouldn't she? He sounded really good but was putting himself down. Emily didn't appreciate that at all.

Avie's encouragement made Emily smile, she was happy that he was being so nice to her. Her own brother was never this nice and he would have told her to sod off ages ago. She was going to milk this whilst she could, at least until the boy got sick of her. She pressed the keys in time with him, hitting many wrong notes as she went, but he didn't seem to mind. In fact he seemed to be enjoying it, which just stood to make Emily all the more happy. She had never thought to try to play the piano before, seeing as she wasn't very good at all and had a feeling she never would be. She was the kind of person that would maybe be able to learn a couple of songs to a decent degree, but would never be able to play them with feeling, not like those pianists she heard on the television or something, it would be really fun to one day go to a concert like that, but at the moment her mother was against it. She didn't like taking them to the muggle world whilst they still had bursts of uncontrollable magic. It mostly happened when she felt really strong emotions, well, most adults did too sometimes, but they were able to play it off, Emily was too young to be able to do that yet. She turned to look at Avie when he spoke, this time grinning and stopping her playing to turn her body on the seat and look at him.

Emily clapped her hands once in her excitement. "Oh yes! I love cooking, baking, anything to do with the kitchen!" She told him, placing her hands on the seat in front of her and leaning closer to him slightly. "But, shush okay, don't tell my mum, because she doesn't know that i use the oven and stuff, because I'm not allowed. I cook the muggle way, i don't know the spells to cook the magical way. Are there even spells to cook the magical way?" Her mother always did most things the muggle way whilst at home, though she had a feeling that would stop soon, seeing as she was almost positive her mother was going to get married to Professor Raven, Emily was dropping hints all the time, surely they would pick it up, right? She leaned back a little when Avie asked about the kind of cookies. "Well, it will really depend on what ingredients they stock in the kitchen, but i can pretty much make whatever we want!" She was getting excited now, she did so enjoy baking, at least when her mother wasn't around. She turned back to the piano and laughed slightly and placed her hands back on the keys, "sure we can, i'm enjoying myself too!"
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[Avie Mitchell]

Avie had not really expected that kind of reaction from the girl. No one was really so quick to defend him when he wasn't even doing that himself. He tended to be pretty harsh on himself, but then again the boy also knew when to have fun. It wasn't like he actually minded that much. He wasn't fussed about the idea of not being able to read music or ever actually write it. It was just something he wouldn't do. He didn't want to actually learn properly, he much preferred just sitting in front of it, and making noises. Noises which fit, and noises which didn't. Making different rhythms, and having fun. Some of the time, when he played he would think of the notes as colours and he would be blending the colours together as he played the keys. He looked at her with a strange expression, playing by ear, learning by ear. Was that just listening to the notes someone else played and then repeated it. He leaned into the piano slightly and played a few notes, hearing them. He realised that really, that was what he did anyway. "I do that, but I'm not blind" he said hurriedly, "My cousins learned to play piano," he said as a way of explaining how he played by ear. "They aren't very good, because they don't practice. I don't practice much either but that's because I'm not allowed near the piano" he told her, playing a couple of keys over and over, a little tune that he remembered his cousins both learning. He didn't seem bothered by the fact that he'd just said that he'd never gotten to learn, and his cousins had. He seemed happier about that fact even. "I like playing" he said with a small smile at the girl as he pulled away slightly from the piano and played with Emily. She wasn't that great, but it was still nice to play with her and Avie thought really that they were at the same level of playing. It was nice to play with someone. Or even just have someone play along with him without telling him that he was making a racket. It was nice. He definitely liked this girl. She was nice and he liked that she was actually playing. It was no fun playing alone all the time. He was all about sharing with others, and playing the piano was really no different from anything else. It was just something that was better with more than one.

Although he had been the one to stop playing to ask her more about these cookies that they would be making. He kept his hands lingering over the keys. He couldn't help but feel as excited as Emily was in tell him about cooking. Things to do with the kitchen. He nodded when she told him to be quiet about it, though, he hardly doubted that anyone would either believe him if he did tell them, or that this girl's mother would find out because of him. He didn't know her mother, surely. "I won't tell anyone" he promised her with joy, since he really wanted to have cookies. "I'm not allowed near the kitchen stuff either, because one time I put my hand in this pan of hot water because I didn't think it was warm, and I wanted to touch it to check. I was helping" he told her as an explanation. He had been pretty young at the time, but he still didn't really understand what he had really done wrong. He had been helping he believed. Making sure that the water was actually warm, because it hadn't looked like it to him. He was very eager to have cookies and as long as they were sweet enough he would perfectly happy. He pressed a couple of keys, and wondered what they might have in the kitchens. "They probably have everything in the kitchens. You'll be able to make anything." he told her sure that the kitchens would have everything they needed. But, he really was interested in just playing the piano for a little longer. He was also pleased that she too, also wanted to play a little longer. Glad also that she was enjoying herself. That was a good thing, was it not! He placed his fingers over the keys, and just began playing. Unlike previously, what he was playing appeared to have much more structure, less like he was just hitting random keys, it made a small tune, though it wasn't really distinguishable as to what he was actually playing. The tune changed, and it became much more like earlier, much more about just hitting random keys and having fun. He glanced at Emily and smiled warmly at her, really happy that she had decided to join him. Deciding that this was worth her time. Playing was good fun. More fun at two. And enjoyable because it didn't have to be serious in the slightest.
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[Emily Hayes-Magonus]

Emily nodded as Avie told her that he had already learned by ear. She had sort of thought that might be so, seeing as he couldn't read music, but surely he had a music teacher. Maybe his music teacher taught him to learn by playing what he heard. Not everyone could read music after all! She definitely couldn't and she didn't know many musicians anyway to be able to tell, but they couldn't read music, her mother couldn't and her brother couldn't and she didn't think her father could either. So that just added more people to her list of people she knew that couldn't read music, thought honestly, there was likely more people in the world that couldn't read music then those who could, so that was not very difficult at all. However she was confused when he said he wasn't allowed near the piano. He must have spent a lot of time at his cousins house, to be learning the piano by hearing them play it. "Is that because the piano is your cousins?" There were things that Emily wasn't allowed to touch when she was at her Uncle's house, but not much and he would certainly never ban her from using the piano, well, he wouldn't if he actually had one, which he unfortunately didn't. Though maybe now she could convince her mother to get one, seeing as she was developing an interest in it.

Emily smiled at Avie as they continued playing. He liked playing and so did she. Well she did now that she didn't have to worry about someone telling her to stop because she sounded awful. She already knew she did, she didn't need random strangers coming to tell her. That was the good thing about the Conglomerated Arts room, it seemed like no one bothered anyone else whilst they were doing their own thing. Though Emily was normally in the kitchens under the supervision of some of the older students she was definitely enjoying this and was tempted to ask if they could come back and do this more often, though she refrained from doing so. She didn't want to get all weird. Besides, maybe he wouldn't want to do it any more then he was. She was quite honestly just happy that he hadn't asked her to leave as that was no fun at all. "I can tell you do. I may not be playing very well, but i like it too, apparently." She never really would have thought she would have enjoyed doing something she was so bad at so much. Avie had showed her differently though. He was just there to have a good time, not even caring what anyone else thought. Maybe if Emily stopped worrying what other people thought, she wouldn't drive them away so often. Story of her life.

Emily grinned brightly as Avie promised to keep her secret. She was happy about it, because she didn't want her mum to ban her from coming back, which she probably would do in a heartbeat if she knew. She didn't like Emily or Nate doing dangerous things. "Be sure you don't. She has eyes everywhere!" Even if Ciro caught her she would never hear the end of it, because he was just as likely to tell her mother either way, though she also thought that maybe he would keep her secret, only to bring it up later. Nate did that to her all the time, it definitely wasn't a very pleasant experience at all. Hearing his story about the kitchen accident, Emily gasped and her hands flew to her mouth in shock and horror. "Oh! No, no, no, Avie! You must never do that!" She told him shaking her head. "To check the heat of the water, you need only place your hand thirty centimetres above the pot or pan and if you can feel the heat on your palm, then it should definitely be hot enough!" Why no one had told him this earlier was beyond her, but she was telling him now, in case he ever needed to know. "I bet it hurt a lot." Emily had only burned herself once, and that had been when her mother had taught her about testing the water, only she had gotten too close to her mother as she was pouring and ended up scolding her arms. Magic had healed that though.

Turning back to the piano again, Emily shrugged. "I definitely hope they do have everything. I kind of want chocolate chip, or maybe mint chip, or oatmeal raisin?" She was mostly thinking aloud now, but she still wanted Avie's input, after all, she was not intending to bake these cookies solely for her. No one baked for themselves, that would be weird. "Ooh, i had peanut butter milk chocolate ones once, those were amazing!" Emily remembered visiting Alexia with her mother and Alexia had given her those cookies. They had been some of the best ones she'd ever had. "Oh! What about cinnamon roll cookies?" She asked, looking over at Avie, still playing the piano quite horribly."They're basically donuts but like, rolled into a cookie. You can add cream or chocolate sauce or anything!" Personally Emily rathered liked the cinnamon rolls or the chocolate mint ones, but she had no idea which she would want to cook. They all basically shared a cooking time, give or take five minutes, so that was not an issue either. "I don't know, what do you prefer?"
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[Avie Mitchell]

At the question about the piano belonging to his cousins, Avie paused, he didn't actually know who it belonged to. It had just always been at the house, for as long as Avie could remembered. He shook his head at head, "I don't know. The piano belongs to my aunt I guess, but we all live together. So, it's everyone's really" he said slowly, thinking that that was right. "I'm just not allowed to play it, technically." he stumbled over the last word, "I play it when my aunt and cousins go out. Mostly until I get told to stop by my mum, because the noise means that she can't concentrate" Avie told Emily brightly, he didn't really mind being told to stop. He continued playing, and now that he had a piano at school he would never need to practice at any other point. He would always have this place for him. He didn't even appear bothered by the fact that he wasn't allowed to play. Avie wasn't bothered by that at all. he always gave things his best shot and even if he wasn't allowed to do things it hardly stopped him from doing them, or anything like that in nature really. Avie wasn't put off by rules, he only really payed attention to things if he knew they could be a little dangerous, which playing the piano really wasn't. Avie knew this for a fact. Despite all that, Avie was not bothered by not being allowed to play, since he did anyway, and since he only played for fun, that was where all the joy from it was from. It was why he had been so excited that she would play with him. It was the first time someone had wanted to play with him on the piano. He was happy to play it was someone else. He was so pleased when she therefore said that she could tell Avie had been having fun, and that she had too. "The piano is so much fun" he hit a few random keys just to prove his point. He laughed happily, "Plus we play for fun more than anything else." he said, as if playing for fun rather than serious meant that it was better. He certainly thought so. It was more laid back, better in general. He didn't have to worry about playing correctly and he hoped she wouldn't either. As the conversation shifted to the cookies, Avie wondered why it was so important that her mother didn't know that she was cooking, would her mother not be proud of it. Sure, he could admit and attest to the fact that a kitchen was a dangerous place. It was why he wasn't actually technically allowed into it. But, he did that anyway too.

At her surprise and gasp he looked at her almost as if she was crazy. She told him he was never to do that. He shrugged at her, a little bewildered by her reaction. "I just wanted to touch it to be sure." he almost whined, though he remembered the heat on his hand before he'd placed his hand into the water. He had been pretty young at the time, and magic had essentially healed his hand, there was no trace of it. He had always felt safe knowing that his family could do magic and could fix him up pretty easily. "I don't remember really, but my hand's fine. Look" he held up his hand to show her. No one had explained to him how to properly check, he'd just been banned from the kitchen. He had been told her would hurt himself, which was very true, and really Avie always found he had more fun playing than waiting around as things cooked. "I don't like cooking anyway, it take up too much time. I like playing" and in this use of the word he didn't really mean playing the piano, he meant playing outside. "I like having fun, not cooking. Takes too long" He didn't mean it as an insult, just that he was trying to show that he was okay with being banned from being in a kitchen anyway. He was however very interested in what cookies Emily would be able to make. He liked the sound of all of them. To him, they were all interesting. He could enjoy all of them really. Though the last one, cinnamon, "Cinnamon" Avie butchered the word as he tried to pronounce it, though the dislike of it was clear on his face. "It makes me sneeze, I don't like it" he told her, knowing that this input was of probably next to no use to her. "But I like mint, and I love chocolate. I eat mint all the time at home. My uncle has a little garden patch where he grows cooking herbs, and my favourite is mint" Avie ate mint fairly often at home, just because he liked both the taste and the smell, and always blamed the loss of the plants of the dog rather than taking the blame himself. He wasn't sure if he'd get into trouble for it, but he was certain that he wouldn't be allowed. "Mint ones sound like the best option" He was getting excited at this. But, he wanted to keep playing. "But, it can wait, right? We can play first" he repeated brightly, pressing the keys and then stopping himself. "I wonder if I play with my eyes closed" he exclaimed excited before tightly shutting his eyes and finding the keys. He pressed down on a couple of notes before beginning to play. He peaked open an eye to see if she was joining in. "Come on Emily" Avie said excitedly, prompting her to start playing with him.
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[Emily Hayes-Magonus]

Sorry!!

They all lived together. The very idea was a concept lost on Emily. She barely lived in a normal family. After her mum and dad no longer loved each other, her mum had moved out immediately and gone to stay at the school while term was in. Then during the Christmas break, after her dad had found a tutor/nanny for them, her mum had found a new place to live and the kids had moved there. To be honest, Emily didn't really understand much of what went on between her parents, but she had definitely liked their babysitter, she had been really nice. She barely lived with her parents, living with any aunts, uncles of cousins would have been weird. Emily nodded at Avie. "So you play it when there's no-one around?" She asked, wondering what would have happened to make them not allow him to play the piano. Perhaps he had broken something and they didn't want him near their things? When Emily broke stuff her mum did that, but she was usually allowed to be near it again after maybe a week or so, it depended on how long she had been grounded for really. Her parents had never smacked her as a child, but then, she had been babysat by her Godmother a lot, so that made a lot of sense and Steph didn't believe in spanking children. Steph was a daft hand at Charms however.

Emily's grin grew wider as Avie proclaimed that the piano was fun. She definitely agreed, though she would never play the piano outside this room, because she most definitely wasn't good enough, though maybe if she could learn a really good song, she could she her mother or her father, but she wasn't that interested in it. It was a lot of fun to play with and Avie was making sure that she really enjoyed it, though that was mostly through his abundandt energy and easy personality and he looked like it would be hard for him to get annoyed with her, because, unfortunately that happened a lot with her. She usually complained about something stupid, like her dumb brother, or she told someone's secret she wasn't supposed too, which was almost always an accident, as she never meant to tell, but sometimes she was just bursting with so much stuff, she never knew who to tell what and what not to say. It was an awful lot of secrets for an eleven year old to handle. She didn't know why they bothered to keep telling her if she was quite honest."They make really nice music!" She added, going back over the same random keys Avie had, at least she was sure it was random, she wasn't entirely sure anymore about anything that involved him. Still, he was fun to hang out with, she was sure of that, despite only having met him not all that long ago, she liked to think she was a pretty good judge of character if she was being honest.

Emily kept staring at Avie's hand as he talked about the incident in the kitchen. She'd stopped playing the piano by this point, only to realise she had and go back to it. She made sure to stare at his hand for another couple of seconds when he held it up to show her that it was actually fine and that there was no permanent damage. At a guess, she would say that magic was involved. If so, Emily thought that Avie was really lucky to see magic in his home. Emily rarely saw it. Well, it depended where she was. With her Dad, he used it all the time and so she was used to it from him, but her mother rarely used it at all, only when absolutely necessary, though that was fine too, because Emily rather liked watching television and she couldn't very well do that if there was magic around all the time. At the mention of playing, Emily just assumed that he meant the piano and she smiled. "You must really like the piano if you play it all the time." That was how Emily felt about cooking. She could just stand there all day, which she had done, and simply just cook any meal that happened to take her fancy that week. She didn't cook often, for various reasons, but when she did, she usually cooked cakes or other small savoury snacks, though she wasn't sure if cakes were sweet or savoury. She supposed it depended if there was anything in or on the cake as that would definitely make a lot of difference. "Yeah, that's true. Cooking can take forever, but the food is always so good afterwards!" At least, Emily thought so.

Emily nodded and noted that Avie didn't like cinnamon, it made him sneeze, which could potentially have meant he was allergic, but not necessarily, after all, not everyone was allergic to pepper, but it made a heck of a lot of people sneeze, even herself and she was definitely not allergic. Hearing about Avie's Uncle's garden patch of mint made Emily think of her flobberworm Barnaby, he'd gotten sick once after eating mint leaves, but she didn't mind, because he'd gotten better fairly quickly. "Okay, so no cinnamon, but, if you want, I can can put them together, mint and chocolate i mean, make like a super cookie?" Emily actually really liked the sound of mint-choc, they were definitely a fan favourite and by fan favourite she mostly meant her father and Steph and Speed. Also the few friends she had bothered to try feeding. She rarely cooked for anyone that wasn't herself, but sometimes, rarely, she would cook for other people and she really loved doing that. He mentioned wanting to wait a little and Emily was more then willing to agree. "Of course, we can wait until we're hungry!" She wasn't hungry just yet, but give her five minutes and she was sure she would be. She then watched as Avie proceeded to attempt playing with his eyes closed, before peeking to see if she was playing too. Emily shoved her hands in front of his face, attempting to block him from peeking and laughed. "You're not allowed to peek!" She told him, shaking her head. "No peeking."
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[Avie Mitchell]

Avie had always played the piano when no one was really around. Well, his mother was always around but she only bothered him about it when he played anything too loud, or something too badly, which according to her was pretty often. But, it was a secret of sorts between the two of them, that he even played. His aunt had no idea that Avie did. She wouldn't be very happy, so it was just easier to tell her nothing about it. At Emily's question, he just nodded and shrugged. It was a yes and no answer, but, it was just mostly that Avie didn't feel like explaining that even though his mother was very often around in the house with him, she didn't really bother much with him, and left him to his own devices. Avie was naturally curious about things, though it was true that his curiosity was likely better matched with a parent who paid a little more attention. It was just easier instead of getting into it, to let the conversation continue. Just listening along with what was being said. He gave Emily a smile, playing was simpler than most other things. When Avie said they made sense to him, there wasn't any way of explaining it. He just had a good ear, which he believed made up for the fact he was really terrible at other things. Like reading or writing. Talking about what had happened to him in the kitchen made him smile. It seemed funny now that story, though he was sure that Emily didn't feel that way about it. However, it wasn't like that was his primary issue really. It was over, and he was fine as she could see. Having magic in his house had always been useful with Avie's antics. At her words, he just nodded, "Yeah, I do" he said with a small smile. Almost shy about the fact that he really liked it. Not that he really was. Avie had always loved playing, and wouldn't stop loving playing it. He didn't think about what others thought about him playing, it was just something that he did. He loved it, and that was it. As the conversation moved to cooking, Avie listened to her, he liked eating food but he was not trusted actually near the stuff in the kitchen. Understandably so. She seemed to like cooking, almost in the same way that he loved playing the piano.

As she appeared to agree to the kind of cookies that he wanted, the slytherin boy couldn't help but smile, combining chocolate and mint always created one of Avie's favourite flavours. He smiled happily at the thought, keen to just get started and then be eating them. He trusted that Emily knew how to make them, she seemed to know, so he was confident that they would be able to make whatever cookies that they wanted. However, they were still at the piano, and despite the rumbling in his stomach, Avie decided that he wanted to play a little longer. He closed his eyes, and had begun to play. He had been about to open them, when hands pressed down lightly on his eyes, keeping them closed. He stopped playing as Emily spoke, telling him that he wasn't allowed to peak. Avie laughed slightly and then just began playing. He took a few tries to correctly find the right keys. He played a few notes carefully, trying to not make mistakes. He bowed his head slightly, and listened more carefully as he played. He began playing a tune that he remembered hearing. It wasn't overly well known, but it allowed him the time to get used to the darkness. He continued to play, getting more and more confident, smiling to himself as he did so. He couldn't help it. Avie grinned happily, before then rounding off what he playing, and leaning away from the piano. "I'm good right?" he said brightly, using his own hands to take Emily's hands away from his eyes. But, now he was sort of done, he wanted to eat. "Come on, cookies!" he jumped away from the piano, and grabbed his rucksack. Avie glanced at Emily, and then motioned for her to follow him. "Let's go!" he said brightly, wanting her to come join him. "COOKIES" he added, before sprinting out of the room, and heading straight for the kitchens. He glanced back a few times, just to be sure that Emily was following.
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Sorry this is so late, and also how awful it is.