Shh, Don't Tell

[Matt Rosemary]

Matt had missed Hogwarts. His sister hadn't really seemed her usual goofy self, and as always his younger sister was never intending on spending time with her new family, instead she was constantly in her room and only came out during meals. As long as she didn't whine and irritate Matt, he was fine with that. He was a little worried about Kaia though, because she'd been much quieter during the holidays and he didn't want to ask her in case she grew more withdrawn. Anyway, school had begun once more and the now second year was glad. Now he could spend time with his housemates and friends, although he'd have to be careful about causing trouble - as far as he was concerned, his cousin was still in ownership of his privileged badge.

He was hungry, though, as he usually was. Matt stretched and rolled out of bed, careful not to wake up anyone. He put on a sweater over his pyjamas and tiptoed down to the common room and out the entrance. It was dark, so Matt lit up his wand and continued down to the kitchens, it didn't take him long at all and for that he was grateful. He didn't know for how much longer he could hold in his hunger. Matt tried the door, thankfully it wasn't locked and he slipped inside. He went over to the fridge and sighed in content, except that his satisfaction was short lived as when he was about to take a bite of a slice of a cake, he heard footsteps approaching. He spun around and held his piece of cake in the air as defense - he wasn't thinking straight - and his eyes widened at who he saw. "Wh-Wha-Phoebe?!"

 

[Phoebe Holland]

Phoebe was happy to be back at Hogwarts. While her house could never be called 'quiet' exactly with four girls running around, it was definitely less eventful than Hogwarts was. Phoebe also looked forward to not being monitored as closely as she was at home, as her experiments were often thought 'dangerous' and stopped by her parents or tattling sisters. She had talked a bit with Rose and the two got along better now, as Phoebe was starting to realize being angry at Rose for simply being older was sort of silly. It wouldn't be too long before Phoebe's magical abilities would outshine her older sister's even if she had a year's head start, she was sure of that.

But her excitement at being back at school had a downside: she was restless. This was the second night where her bed felt like a confimenent and she just couldn't get to sleep. She had simply felt like exploring at first, feeling a sort of thrill at wandering the halls at night with no one to watch her but the portraits of old wizards and witches. And then she had gotten hungry. Rose had mentioned that one of her friends went there a lot, and Phoebe was curious to see what they were like. Now was as good a time as any to find out, right? As she headed down to the kitchens, her thoughts drifted to other experiments she could do this year. It really was a shame potions wasn't until the next semester.

It was a welcome surprise that the door to the kitchen wasn't locked, though Phoebe would also have liked to try out the unlocking charm she had read about, and she slipped inside. She nearly jumped back at a sudden and unexpected movement of someone spinning around and holding a piece of cake up as if it were a wand. She blinked at him for a moment and then cracked up, putting a hand over her mouth to stifle her laugh. "Matt?" She asked. "What are you doing? Are you attacking me with cake? That's a waste of cake, you know that right? Should be against the law." She grinned at her friend. "You're hungry too, huh?"

 

[Elizabeth Chatwin]

Being back home was lovely and she had enjoyed her stay, but there was nothing like Hogwarts. When Elly was under a lot of stress, she had the tendency to go sleep walking. She was very aware of this issue and thus she made sure she didn't sleep at night when she knew it could happen. She would nap in between classes or in the evenings. As a precaution she had barricaded her bed that when she would try to sleep walk she would trip over one of her items. Last year it worked like a charm and Elly was sure to manage it this year as well.

Due to her odd sleeping patterns she could get hungry at the oddest of times. Normally she had some food stored in her night table, but it seemed like she had run out of supply. Elly shrugged and hoped that she wouldn't wake anyone by living the dorm. She looked around and saw Phoebe her bed already empty, maybe she was at the toilets. Elly shrugged and decided to walk to the kitchens. It was an easy stroll and she literally found no one else. No patrolling prefects or teachers. ''That was easy'' Elly muttered. When Elly arrived at the kitchens she heard voices. One familiar voice and one she couldn't place as quickly as she'd liked. ''Well I guess I am late for the party'' Elly said when she walked into the kitchen with no shame at all. ''Maybe they should feed the students more so this won't happen'' Elly giggled loudly and looked at the others. She was here to get some easy food that could last a while.

 

[Matt Rosemary]

He was still holding the cake high up in the air, and he recovered soon enough when Phoebe started laughing at him. He grinned, lowering his arm and placing the piece of cake on a clean plate before he turned to her fully. "Well, you never know who you'll be caught by and when you are caught in the middle of the night unexpectedly-" he placed emphasis on this last word, "then use whatever you have at your disposal to defend yourself." He shrugged. "That cake looks good though, and yeah I get hungry a lot. What can I say, I'm a growing boy." He thought for a moment. "It's not a waste if you eat it," he winked at his friend and walked closer to her, getting an idea. "Food fight?" He asked her mischievously, about to grab the nearest food, but was interrupted by yet another voice, except he'd been so busy thinking of his next move that he hadn't heard her enter the kitchens.

"In my experience, they do feed the students a plenty amount, but me being me, I just get hungry all the time." He finally glanced at the other girl. "I'm Matt, by the way, I remember your face just not your name." If there was any rudeness in his words, Matt couldn't identify it. He was a blunt human and he said what he thought most of the time. "But where were we?" Matt took the closest thing on the counter and it so happened to be a pie, before throwing it at Phoebe, watching it as it flew in her direction.

 

[Phoebe Holland]

Phoebe grinned at him. "Hey, it was unexpected for me too. I didn't expect to find you here or to get nearly attacked by a very dangerous looking piece of cake." She laughed softly. "But kudos for creativity, no one's surprising you that's for sure." Matt's sense of humor was a lot like Phoebe's, and even though she hadn't intended to run into her friend here in the kitchens, she was happy it had happened. When he suggested a food fight, she quickly looked around for anything edible to throw at him. But before she could lunge for some bread she spotted (which wasn't actually the best kind of food to use in a food fight), she heard another familiar voice. She turned and smiled when she saw Elly. "I just like to get up at night sometimes, and why not get sweets while you're at it? I guess we could have walked together." She waited as Matt introduced himself to Elly, the suggestion of a food fight almost forgotten. At least, until a pie hit her square in the face. Because her head was turned it mostly hit the side of her face, and it slowly slid down onto her pajamas, leaving a red mush of cherry filling on her face and front. She was frozen for a moment before her tongue darted out to taste the pie. Not half bad. Without bothering to wipe away the mess, she drew her wand and performed her favorite spell. "Wingardium Leviosa." A half-full pitcher of juice flew into the air and with a twist of her wand it turned so its contents poured down above Matt's head. She hoped she had acted fast enough to catch him by surprise like he had done to her. She was fast with her charms, but just throwing something was still faster. In her defence, juice was definitely better than bread in a food fight.

 

[Professor James Cade]

Patrol was boring, but finally it came to an end and James was about to make his way up to the Gryffindor when he heard a loud grumble coming from his stomach. Food He thought and turned on his heel to make his way to the kitchen. One of the perks of being a prefect was that if anyone caught him out of bounds he only had to say he was either on patrol or coming back from it. It was a perk he had exploited a few times already so he hoped he didn't get caught, even if technically he was on his way back from patrol, he was just going via the kitchens.

James walked into the kitchens and stopped in his tracks. He wasn't alone in there, a few children had beaten him to it and were in the process of raiding the kitchens. "Well, well, well," James said putting on his best prefect voice. "Elizabeth, I expected better from a friend of my sister," James began but couldn't keep a straight face. "Actually thats a lie, this is exactly what I expected from a friend of my sister," James looked from her to the other girl and to Matt, the only one in the group he could punish, but where was the fun in that. "So, what are we all doing?"

 

[Matt Rosemary]

"Fair enough," he reconsidered once Phoebe explained that she hadn't meant to surprise him and that she hadn't in fact planned on anyone being here. They just so happened to be here at the same time, coincidentally. It did seem a little suspicious, but Matt questioned it no further. He wasn't expecting her to retaliate so quickly and before he could duck - scratch that, before he could move, he felt a splash, and he tasted the contents of the liquid, some actually managing to get in his mouth. "Mmm," the second year said, grinning. "We should steal, I mean borrow, some of this food, don't you think?" Matt grabbed a different type of food, this time chocolate, and flicked towards Phoebe, each piece of chocolate spinning one after the other as if he was flicking a deck of cards. He hoped she'd duck or stop them with a spell, because it didn't look like this idea of his was the brightest. It had the potential of causing harm. It wasn't melted chocolate after all, it came directly from the fridge by the looks of it. He winced as it hit the side of her cheek. "You okay?" He asked her. The Gryffindor didn't get the chance to say any more, because an older student appeared and when Matt recognized him he widened his eyes. "Um, hey James! How's it going?" He asked casually, completely missing his question and putting the rest of the chocolate in his mouth. That way, if he was asked any questions, he had an excuse not to answer them.

 

[Elizabeth Chatwin]

With cake, juice and god knows what flying through the air Elly giggled. Elly was just hungry and she didn't sleep at regular times, which means that she was hungry on odd timeframes. She took a nibble from a brownie and watched Phoebe and Matt enter a foodfight. It amused Elly greatly and maybe when she finished the brownie she was going to show some of her skills. ''This is my kind of fun'' Elly said while chewing on her brownie. She was tempted to throw the other two brownies their ways, but then she heard something. Elly saw an older student walking up to the kitchens. She immediately noticed who he was. He was her friends Jessica's brother, Jack, Jason, James Cade or something, for a moment she turned beet red. Especially when he said her name and not the shortened version, the old fashioned one.

He asked them what they were doing, like that wasn't obvious. ''What does it looks like what we are doing?'' Elly paused ''Obviously not tending the gardens'' With that she threw a piece of brownie to James and laughed. She was wide awake anyway since she had slept in the break between lessons. The brownies at school weren't that hard so they would definitely not leave any permanent damage.

 

[Podrey]

With an audible crack, Podrey the house elf appeared in the center of the kitchens, returning from his duties cleaning throughout other parts of the castle. It was late, and most of the students were in their common rooms, which was the most active time for the usually unseen servants of the castle. For Podrey, it was his favourite time. No students trying to help themselves to the food that the house elves worked tirelessly to make and distribute. Time and time again they had to hold back on serving lunch or dinner because a kid had snuck in and eaten half of a meal and then simply left it there, no use to anyone who would have actually enjoyed the entire dish.

It was to Podrey's great horror that, upon entering his kitchen sanctuary, he found it was being soiled by a group of disrespectful children. His mouth dropped open in horror as he looked around the room. A pitcher of freshly squeezed juice was emptied in its entirety, one of the staff members cakes for their birthday the following day had been partially eaten, and a newly baked pie was now utterly destroyed. Like a fish out of water, the elves mouth moved inaudibly, trying and failing to find the words to convey his distress at the selfish misbehaviour he was witnessing.

"The p-professor's cake." Podrey said, his voice cracking miserably. They were going to have to stay up all night to bake another one in time. These children were given a handful of feasts throughout the year, and still they expected grand meals on a daily basis. "The cherry pie! What have you all done?! This food is not yours to take! Not yours!" Oh woe, the Headmistress would not be pleased when she heard about this!

 

[Phoebe Holland]

Phoebe was relishing in her success with the juice, grinning widely, when they were interrupted by the voice of an older boy. Phoebe thought he might be a Prefect. "You're here too at night." She pointed out to him. "You must have gotten hungry too, right?" Elly's comment made her laugh a little too, it really had been a silly question. It must not be that hard to become a prefect.

Then a house elf appeared, he took in the scene and seemed very distressed. Phoebe got the feeling she was in trouble now, but maybe she could talk her way out of this? She listened to him complain about the food they took and she frowned a little at the creature. "Well, I know Gamp's Law states you can't make food out of nowhere, but it's possible to multiply it if you already have some." She told the house elf, figuring that's what they used to make that much food every meal in the first place. She gestured to the cake that was still mostly whole and the bits of pie left spread around. "So this can easily be fixed with magic, right? Unless house elves can't do that, then... maybe you can get a professor to do it without telling them about about us as thanks for giving you the idea?" She grinned. It was worth a shot, right? She glanced at the older boy, unsure if he would let them get away with this or not even in the unlikely event that the house elf would let this go.

 

[Professor James Cade]

James smirked at the reaction of the Ravenclaw girl, true he was there after hours like everyone else, but he was on his way back from patrol, though he could technically still get in trouble. "Nice observation skills," James smirked at the girl, younger students were funny when they tried to talk back. "I just finished patrol, yelling at students and sending them to their head of house is hungry work you know," James laughed, his eyes going to the cake. "That cake looks good," James was about to make his way over to grab a slice when a rather unhappy house elf appeared and began to tell the students off for eating food that wasn't theirs. James had never had such trouble with other house elves before, this was a first.

"Yes how dare they," James yelled trying to catch the eyes of as many of the kids as he could. Hopefully, they would go along with him and he could get them out before the house-elf sent word to the Headmistress. "They need to be punished at once, I'll take it from here, their Head of houses will be informed at once," James said in the most prefecty voice he could muster. "Come along everyone, don't make me hex you,"