Starving After the Feast

[Xander Paine]

Xander lay in the empty dorm in Hufflepuff House, staring at the idiotic badger painted on the ceiling by some idiotic Hufflepuff boy who had been in this room at some point over the years. 'Proud Puff!' it said underneath the snarling vermin. Xander huffed at it and turned around, glaring into the pillow. He'd had to request a spare bookshelf be sent over so he could put his babies away safely in the nooks now by his bed. What kind of school didn't have bookshelves in every room?

He reached one long arm over to reach for the novel he'd been thinking of during the sorting ceremony. A bookmark, identical to that of his sister's was stuck in the pages. Them when they were tiny sitting in the streets of the Bulgarian city they lived in til they were three. The cobblestones had fascinated him, and it showed as the toddler Xander examined one, trying to pry it up from under his diaper. Little Adrienne in her silver and green streaked dress sat in a huff, obviously waitiing for mummy to return. She'd always been like that as far as he could remember. He chuckled at the nearly identical babies, with their soft brown curls that they both still had to this day. His golden eyes being the only difference from his sisters startling emerald orbs.

His heart ached to be in the house she'd been sorted into; his dream house. Where he could mingle with the bookish fiends all he wanted. But he was in here with the friendly hard-working simpletons known as Hufflepuffs. Sure, his morals fit them perfectly, but when it came to interests he was afraid he was one of the few in here that actually had any sense. However, he had yet to converse with any of his house mates so he was going on pure anger alone.

He rose from his bed, his stomach aching to match his heart and realized he was hungry. He hadn't eaten a bite of the wonderful food they'd been given during the feast. He held the rumbling bit of flesh above his waist and frowned at the tummy,"Gah, might as well break curfew...no way will I make it to morning.." he said to the empty walls and stood, leaving the robe behind and donning a light jacket to ward off the chilly September air that would be wafting through any open windows.

He slipped on his trainers and descended the many staircases, making it to the kitchens at last. He passed a bunk room full of snoozing house elves. Poor things he thought, seeing the creatures, so tired after the day's work that never stopped. He darted into the kitchen at the sound of a bed squeaking under a tiny one's weight and opened a few cabinets, dying for some breakfast for supper, and thought it sounded good. His specialty was usually dinner dishes but a country breakfast sounded delicious right about now.

Xander picked out a dozen eggs, a container of flour, some buttermilk for his biscuits, a pack of sausage, and a few other ingredients, laying them out on the counter. He then set to work cracking eggs and mixing things up, making enough for two people without realzing it...

 

[Liberty Kaelen]

ah sigh ive been waiting an hour for reply dam it ok soz

 

[Arianna Perry]

Arianna had had an extremely long day. Waking up at 9 AM eastern time not thinking about the massive time change she would have to endure. She had spent a majority of the day rechecking her bags to make sure she had had everything before she left. and it had been 9 O'clock that evening when she had finally said her goodbyes and flooed over to the station in Wellington to catch the train. At 11 AM the 'next day' in New zealand. Not being able to sleep on the train she had started a book that she got about half way through before they were there.

That's why at midnight, Arianna Perry was sprawled out over the bed, one of her legs dangling off of the side, propped up on a pillow, her hand holding a book that had long since flipped over to another page in her slumber, her grip just strong enough to keep it from falling to the floor as it dangled precariously from her fingertips. She had pretty much passed out half way through reading it having been up for almost 24 hours straight running around without even the time to eat a decent meal. Sure all of the food at the feast had been good looking but after the nervousness of the sorting was taken away the effects of the day she had had kicked in and the only thing her mind was focused on was sleep.

The book finally fell from her light grasp at last with a loud 'Thump!' against the wooden floor of her Ravenclaw dormitory. The noise woke her up rahter quickly, shooting up from her bed looking around, her blue-green eyes widened to the size of dinner plates. Only once she had regained some sense of where she even was did she realize what had happened. "Oh..." she said quietly to herself chuckling at her prior slight panic. She picked up the book and looked around the Dormitory, Blue and Bronze everywhere. No mistaking this for any other house dormitory. She had wanted Gryffindor but when the hat shouted Ravenclaw she had still been content and didn't mind Ravenclaw at all.

She looked down atherself and realized she was still in the clothes she had worn earlier that day. A Blue and Silver tee shirt with a pair of dark washed jeans. She got up from the bed, still rubbing her eyes lazily to go put on some Pajamas when she heard her stomach growl loudly, damanding to be fed. "Ugh... Well, I haven't eaten all day. Might as well go rustle up something from the kitchens..." she said to herself slipping on some black ballet flats that were quiet when she walked. Breaking curfew on the first day there, what a way to start the year.

She opened her dormitory door with a soft click, knowing the head girl was just down the hall. She slipped quietly down the stairs and out of Ravenclaw tower. Padding along as quietly as possible through the corridors and numeous staircases hoping none of them changed like she had heard Mom say about the staircases at Hogwarts Scotland, if that was the case it wouldn't take long for Arianna to get lost, and she definitely didn't want that. She let out a sigh of relief she she got to where she had heard the kitchens were without getting lost or caught.

She opened the entrance to the kitchens glad to see that she had heard correctly and smelled something odd. She ignored it as she went through a few of the cabinets, not noticing the boy who was mixing something up 10 or 15 feet away from her at another counter. It was Midnight and she had just woken up, she figured she had better stick to something simple like Pancakes. She had gotten the ingredents out like she normally did when making breakfast for her and her sister when she realized that she would be the only one eating. "Crap..." she muttered under her breath before hearing the cracking of an egg that she hadn't caused. She looked over and saw the boy, she wasn't as alone down here as she had originally thought.

 

[Xander Paine]

{{ @ Pheebz. Yeah actually. lol. sorry I forgot to specify who the rp was for in my title
;-;}}

Xander was just about to start humming when he heard someone's voice and froze, dropping the egg in his hands, hoping it wasn't a house elf or an authority figure coming downstairs to chide him for being out so late. Well, the elf would porbably scold him for making something himself when he could have easily woken one of them up to help him find somethign to eat.

However, when he jerked his head up, curls bouncing, he saw a blonde girl looking right back at him, she had just muttered 'Crap' as he was looking up. He grinned sheepishly at her and stood up straight, just realized he had instinctively hunkered down behind the counter out of fear of being caught.

"Ahem" he cleared his throat nervously,"I see I'm not the only one who skipped out on stuffing my face earlier this evening then?" he said softly across the kitchen to her.

The t-shirt's colors suited her and he felt a muscle in his jaw twitch as he wondered if she was in Ravenclaw or just liked the color.

"I'm Xander, by the way. Xander Paine." he added to the silence that followed their eyes meeting,"I'm a uh...a Hufflepuff First Year." he cringed at saying it out loud,"I guess that's how you introduce yourself..that's how everyone else has been doing it." he continued , hoping he didn't sound like an idiot stating his year and house.

 

[Arianna Perry]

Arianna looked from the boy, to her own bowl of pancake batter, to his bowl of whatever the heck he was mixing up, and back to him again. Noticing he had straightened up and that he was a few inches taller than her, this was a welcome change as she had been the tallest amongst her and her friends back at home in West Virginia then in Kentucky before that and strangely enough, she hadn't even hit her growth spurt yet.

"I guess not..." she replied to him with a southern twang as clear as a banjo breaking up Beethovens 5th symphony. She didn't mind her accent back at home because even though it was stronger there it still kind of blended in. But she just couldn't get rid of it it would seem. Amongst all of these people from New Zealand, France, England, and other exotic places all around the world she felt like the worlds biggest hick from the sticks when she talked.

"Hi Xander, I'm Arianna... Arianna Perry." she said picking up her bowl and ingredents and moving it over to the next counter so she didn't have to strain her ears to hear him. They couldn't risk being any louder or they could possibly get caught. "I'm a Ravenclaw First year..." she said, "Thats how I've assumed to do it. I mean, it saves them from having to ask." she said almost wincing at her accent in the quiet room. It wasn't as noticeable in a crowd of people she noticed.

 

[Xander Paine]

Xander's grin widened as she spoke to him, introducing herself. Her lilting twang was endearing to him, and he moved closer as well,"I'm making biscuits in case you didn't know. My mother's family was from the States" he shifted his eyes around sneakily,"but don't tell her I told you...hehe."

His family prided itself on it's long prestiguous bloodline, that he was expected to uphold. However, few people knew that his mother's great-great-grand-parents had been a muggle born and a mixed-blood. She'd always kept that from them growing up, because his father didn't know...they wrren't exactly 'muggle-born' friendly folks. But his mother had been raised the first 10 years of her life in Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, South Carolina. They'd moved around a lot Then her father was called to duty (his muggle cover was a soldier in the United States Army) and they were shipped off to Bulgaria where Ariel remained and raised her children, making them a big country breakfats that she'd been raised on every Sunday morning.

Xander had been feeling homesick and didn't realize it til he had the sausage patties sizzling in a skillet; making a big breakfast like his mom used to make, made him feel closer to home, and to the doting mother he'd been raised by.

"So, you're making pancakes? I think I've made too much of this for me if you'd like to cover up your batter and leave it as a gift for the elves. It'll take off some of the work they'll have to do in a couple hours." he said, cracking some more eggs in a bowl.

"Scrambled, fried, sunny-side up. How do you tak 'em?" he asked, grabbing a whisk from the canister holding the utensils and whipping them to make his scrambled eggs,"So, you said you were placed in Ravenclaw?" he continued, pouring the eggs into a hot frying pan and moving them around with a rubber spatula to 'scramble' them,"That's where I wanted to be. I guess i was just too nice for them to pass up putting me in Hufflepuff. Do you think I'm nice?" he babbled.

His sister was the one with a gift for social speaking, knowing when to shut up. He didn't, and further more he didn't realize he needed to shut up when he did.

 

[Arianna Perry]

Arianna chuckled, "No danger there dude." she said lightly, smiling at him. When he suggested that she cover the batter and put it away for the house elves Arianna nodded. "That's a good idea, God knows they've surely got enough crap to do 'round here." she said thinking about the sheer size of the castle and the numerous inhabitants of it. Having to clean up after that many people and feed them three meals a day would get exhausting very quickly.

Arianna heard a faint sound of frying and the smell of Sausage hit her nose. She was reminded of a sausage recipe she had tried a few weeks before coming to Hogwarts and it had worked out perfectly. Of course she had to forgo the Nutmeg due to her allergy but she thought it turned out pretty good. She got out a skillet of her own, not wanting to intrude on his cooking and took the sausage he had lying out on a plate for the next round of frying and threw it into her own greased Skillet. She turned on the burner, "Sorry... I'll be right back." she said before finding a measuring spoon and a glass jar with brown sugar in it.

She measured out one table spoon of it and spread it out thinly on the pan shaking it out of the spoon before putting the meat on it with a loud hiss. "I hope you don't mind me doing that... Theres plenty more... I probably should have asked first. Sorry about that, I'm so used to my own kitchen that well... Yeah. Sorry." she said going a bit pink in the face. When it was ready she pressed down on each of the three pieces with her metal spatula causing the meat to hiss even louder.

She flipped each piece over and smiled when it was the softer brown color that it had been the last time she had tried it. She was always experementing with food and it was hard to pry her from the kitchen once she got an idea. She had alot of failures as well as sucesses but it evened out. It would be about a minute before it would be ready again, the sugar sped up the process. She turned back to Xander, "I like scrambled with plenty of pepper, but anythings fine. I'm always up to try something new." she said before turning back to the sausage and pressing it in. Flipping it over once more to check before sliding the pieces into a plate.

She found a roll of plastic wrap and covered her bowl of Pancake batter before storing it where she hoped the House elves would find it in a few hours as they perpared Breakfast for the inhabitants of the large castle. "Yeah, It surprised me... I thought I'd be put in Hufflepuff to be honest. But I'm definitely not complaining." she said "I personally wanted to be in Gryffindor... and to answer your question. You seem pretty nice to me." she said casually before picking up one of the sausages and biting into it, Perfect. "Wanna try one?" she asked motioning to the two untouched sausages still on the plate.

 

[Xander Paine]

Xander felt his heart warm as she mentioned that the house elves were indeed overworked. He then watched in amazement as she scurried about the kitchen as he had- she certainly knew her way around one- until she at last found some brown sugar and coated another greased pan with it, before tossing in the sausages.

His stomach grumbled loudly at the smell of the sizzling meat and he flipped his own sausage, now seeming mediocre next to the perfectly browned patties. She was blathering something along the lines of an apology. He only caught snippets of it and just smiled goofily at her before saying,"Nah, s'okay. Really. It smells great." he sniffed the air, the aromas permeating the room ever so slowly until he feared he would pass out from the hunger, and the tentilating smells that attacked his senses with a ruthless brutality.

He noted how she liked her eggs; stored it away for later as he did with everything-as he had with her from the way she walked to the way she talked (and what a cute accent it was!). He then whipped hers up, dashed in a ton of pepper and sprinkled in sme cheese and bits of crumbled sausage,"This is my favorite way to eat them. A scrambled omelet!" he told her, grinning. If she could toss in her recipes he could add in his.

He slid her eggs into a bowl, ate his, and then made him some just like it, adding not pepper, but taking some of the brown sugar from her container and adding in instead.

He looked at the sausage patty she'd offered him and accepted it with a smile, whether it was in reply to her sharing the food or her statement that she thought he was very nice he couldn't be sure of.

He took the biscuits from the oven, and let them cool on a rack nearby while he helped her fry up the remainging pieces of sausage, before plating everythign and having a seat at an island, setting her plate down in front of a stool across from him,"Dig in, Ari." he said witha flourish of his hand towards her plate. He waited until she was seated -such a gentleman- before taking a seat and chwing down, his stomach now purring with pleasure at finally being filled.

"So, you wanted to be in Gryffindor, huh?" he said, referring to her statement before they'd takent heir seats,"I reeeally wanted to be in Ravenclaw. Hmph, lucky." he joked lightly, already feeling at ease with the girl. A way he hadn't felt with anyone in, well...ever.

 

[Arianna Perry]

Arianna took yet another bite of the perrfectly browned sausage as Xander started to make the eggs. All sorts of smells were now wafting through the kitchens and Arianna felt her mouth water, How were the smells not waking the house elves up? They attacked her nose with a vengence and she chomped down on the sausage once more reveling in the taste of it.

She didn't know if it was where she was so hungry, that it was mixed with so many delicious aromas, or just because food always seemed to be better late at night. But she felt that this was some the best food she had ever eaten. She watched as he took the last brown sugar infused sausage patty and shred it all up rapidly before throwing it into the pan with the scrambled eggs and heard the cheese hit the pan with a small hiss before being melted into the pan full of deliciousness.

The smell of the biscuits hit her nose as they came out of the oven and were set over on a rack to cool. She remembered a recipe for biscuits that involved adding cheese and a few choice herbs but one, the recipe didn't mix very well with buttermilk, and two, it was really more of a dinner biscuit than a breakfast biscuit anyways. So she decided against trying it out on another batch of biscuits, they already had enough anyways.

Arianna followed quickly carrying one or two plates of the food as Xander made his way over to an Island so they could eat. She sat down and looked at all of the food infront of them now sepearted into two plates, one for each of them and nodded. "Oh I definitely will." she replied looking from him back to the food, her statement puncuated by a loud growl from her stomach. She almost had the first bit to her mouth when her eyes lit up.

She put her fork back on the plate and rushed over to the cabinets again until she foudn what she had been looking for. She took off a small half inch block of Mozzerella cheese off of the big wedge and melted it extremely quickly before heading back over to the table. "Sorry 'bout that Xander... But when an idea hits me I just kind of go with it..." she explained before drizzling the small amount of cheese on a part of the eggs she had seperated from the rest of it.

She first ate the bite that was already on her fork. "Oh my god thats delicious Xander!" she exclaimed before looking back to her own bite. She tasted a hint of american cheese and didn't know how well the two cheeses would go together. Shrugging, she stabbed her fork into the delicious looking omlet and quickly ate it. It was pretty good, but the cheeses didn't really compliment each other all that well.

"Well... I think I'll toss that one into the failures. Your original is much better Xander." she chirped giving him a bright smile before starting into the plate of food infront of her again. "I don't know if it's the fact that I haven't eaten in nearly 24 hours or if the foods just that good but this food is Delicious, Delicioso, Squisito, Délicieux, Köstlich... Okay I really need to stop with the languages now..." she said going red in the face.

"I think I know why I was put in Ravenclaw now." she continued with a chuckle. "Yeah I wanted Gryffindor but I love Ravenclaw so far. You wanted Ravenclaw? It sucks that you didn't get in... It would have been nice having a friend or two in my own house. I didn't really do that much socializing after the feast." she said thinking about finding a dorm room them promptly falling asleep. "So how are the Puffs treating you?" she asked wondering what he thought of the bumble bee esque house.