Breakfast Ideas PV Aaron Jones Finished

Last week had been a whirlwind for Aaron. It all started with an explosion in the Hufflepuff common room. It had been... a crazy experience, to say the least.

The explosion was followed closely by a letter from Aaron's mother saying he should stay at Hogwarts for the Easter holidays. She went on to explain that it had to do with a quarantine affecting Wales, because of a disease called COVID-19 (or the coronavirus). She had mentioned it to him a couple weeks ago, but it was clear to him now that she had heavily sugarcoated the situation.

After her initial letter, Aaron had been under the impression it was just a really bad flu going around. In this most recent letter, though, she told him more of the truth - that people were dying and that this quarantine meant his siblings were out of school indefinitely and his parents would be doing their college lectures virtually from home. Although she tried to reassure him by saying they were safe at home, he was a little concerned by her telling him to stay at Hogwarts. She wouldn't have asked that of him unless the situation was serious. So, the twelve-year-old had written a secret letter to his brother, who would hopefully tell him if Mum was holding out vital information.

Nevertheless, Aaron had adjusted to the idea of the Easter holidays at Hogwarts relatively well. His best friends Lydia and Sean would be staying too, as was most of Hogwarts honestly. He had a feeling that the Easter holidays were nowhere near as popular as the Christmas holidays. Especially when they got piled with homework in the weeks leading up to today.

Another reason he had adjusted so well? The upcoming Quidditch match! It was an unofficial match between Hufflepuff and Gryffindor, but his team had made the decision to let the second-string players be primaries in the match. Even Aaron, a waitlisted player, was being given the chance to play! It was all he could think about that Monday morning as he made his way to the Great Lake to meet with Lydia.

"Morning!" Aaron said, a broad smile gracing his face when he spotted Lydia. He picked up his pace a bit to go greet her. "I slept okay. How about you?" he asked, brushing off the question. He doubted she would want to hear about last night's nightmare of a killer zombie virus and the world burning. Lydia had stood up to hug him in greeting, and he hugged her back.

"Thanks for getting all this ready! Looks great!" he said happily, taking a seat beside her and opening his Yoohoo bottle. He knew Lydia wasn't a fan, hence why he had only brought one from his dorm. After taking a drink, he immediately grabbed a buttered biscuit and began to eat, feeling particularly hungry this morning. Plus, he needed to fuel up for tomorrow's match. "So, what're you up to today? Gonna start on that huge pile of homework from the professors?" he asked after swallowing the bite of biscuit.

@Lydia Cooper

Lydia's smile widened as her best friend finally reached her, and she got up to pull him in a hug. "I slept okay I guess," she answered him, shrugging. She didn't want him to worry too much about her, and he would have definitely started worrying if she would have told him about her recent lack of sleep. "I still get scared of any loud noise, but aside from that I can't complain," 

Lydia sat back down on the ground, her face lighting up again in a smile as she looked at her best friend sipping on his favourite drink. "Thank you for agreeing on having breakfast out in the open. It's such a beautiful day, look at that!" she said and then pointed up at the clear sky, "No clouds in the sky, a nice cold wind, and the warm sun. We're only missing the sea, and then it would be my ideal kind of day,"

She took a deep breath, the cold air feeling extremely nice in her lungs, before she took one of the tuna sandwiches and started munching on it. She didn't immediately answer Aaron's question, feeling a little bit too hungry to stop herself from eating the first half of the sandwich - when was even the last time she had eaten? - before she sipped on some water. "Uhm- sorry about that, I guess I was hungrier than I thought," she apologised, an embarrassed smile on her lips, "To be completely honest, I still don't know. I mean, I guess I could write a couple of essays, but again, it's such a beautiful day," she answered him. "What about you? Will you practice for the match?" Lydia looked at her friend and then back at the lake, munching back on her second half of the sandwich. 

Once she was done with eating, she stretched her legs in front of her, since they had started to fall asleep. "Did you hear about the Blossom Ball? Apparently it has been cancelled," Lydia asked Aaron, a little bit out of the blue. She had actually been thinking about that for a while, her mind still not accepting the news; she knew that technically it was a good thing that it had been cancelled, if the students wouldn't have been that safe, but she also knew that professors sometimes tend to over-exaggerate things. She also knew that if she would have talked about this with anyone else, they might have thought that she was behaving like a spoiled girl, while she knew that Aaron would have never judged her for being upset about something like that. 

"I was so looking forward to it, I even had picked out the dress and shoes!" she whined, pouting a little bit.

@Aaron Jones

Aaron nodded solemnly when Lydia explained her fear of loud noises. He'd heard that a lot of people in Hufflepuff were experiencing similar side effects after the explosion. He himself had been experiencing some nightmares and waking up constantly throughout the night, but he hadn't really talked about it. He was sure some people had it worse.

He was glad Lydia's only side effect was the loud noises, though.

Aaron grinned when she mentioned missing the sea, "Yeah, I miss my little bayside city. I'd been looking forward to going to the pier and seeing the water again." As she began to chow down, Aaron did the same and moved on from the biscuit to a doughnut. "Don't worry about it," he said, through a mouthful of doughnut. Realizing his mistake, he covered his mouth, chuckling a bit as he finished chewing.

"Yeah, I'm gonna try to convince Professor Bercegeay to let me practice a bit," he said with a nod. He wasn't nervous about the match tomorrow - he was excited to finally get a chance to shine! Even if it wasn't an official event, he was still determined for Hufflepuff to win!

It was a little while before either of them spoke again, and it was Lydia who started the next topic of conversation. Aaron had finished his doughnut and biscuit at this point, and he had readjusted from sitting on his knees to sitting criss-cross. He looked at the strawberry blonde with sympathy in his eyes, "Yeah, I heard about that.. I'm sorry, Lyd."

Personally, Aaron hadn't felt one way or the other about the Blossom Ball. Now that it was cancelled, though, he actually missed the idea. It would've been a nice distraction from worrying about his family, and the PTSD of the Hufflepuff explosion. In fact, he bet everyone at Hogwarts could really use something like the Blossom Ball. Why did the professors even think it was gonna be dangerous? It's not like they even properly explained its cancellation. The thought kinda got him upset, because this event could've helped everyone!

"Ah!" he exclaimed as a package suddenly landed in his lap. He looked up to see one of the school owls flying off. He looked at Lydia with a surprised expression. "I wasn't expecting anything today," he explained to her, before turning his full attention to the package. There was a note attached, which he opened and read first. It was written completely in Korean - his mother's signature style. Not only was she from South Korea, but she was also a Korean professor at a university; thus, he and his siblings were fluent in the language. She took every opportunity to make sure Aaron kept up his understanding, including occasional letters written in her native tongue.

"Mum said it's a suit... for the ball," Aaron translated for Lydia's sake, looking at her with a shocked expression. "I forgot I told her about it a while back.. but she doesn't know it was cancelled," he turned his attention to the package in his lap. Picking it up, it did feel like a box meant to hold clothes. "It's such a waste that she got me this and I won't even be able to use it.. Same with you and your dress, too," he looked back at Lydia, his expression troubled for once. There were some crazy ideas running through his mind.

"I mean, why did they even cancel it? It's so stupid," he didn't know why he was suddenly feeling heated about the topic. "At this point, we should just throw our own ball! I'm sure you and I aren't the only ones who already have outfits. There've got to be a lot of disappointed students here, and... we deserve a bit of fun, right?"

@Lydia Cooper

Lydia nodded along Aaron's words, understanding exactly what he meant; having grown up with the sea right outside of her doorstep, it had kind of became part of who she was, offering her shelter and playful times together. 

She chuckled when her best friend talked with the doughnut still in his mouth, pretending to be rolling her eyes at that. "You know that I'll come to the game, right?" she then asked him, her face bright with her usual smile on her lips. "I'd never miss my best friend's first game!" Of course, she knew that Rafael would have been there as well, but this was Aaron's big moment, and she needed to support him as much as she could.

Lydia sighed and closed her eyes, taking in the sunshine, as Aaron told her he felt sorry for her. Not even a minute later, her eyes snapped open at Aaron's surprised exclamation. She looked at him, a puzzled expression on his face, and then crawled towards him, until she was sitting right by his side. What was that package, and who sent it? Her curiosity got even bigger when she noticed that the note that came with the mysterious package was written in a language that she could't understand. 

"And the ball has been cancelled!" she exclaimed, a frown on her face once again, when Aaron had explained that the package contained his suit for the ball. She shrugged and looked back at her friend, a slight frown still present on her features. "They never properly explained why, I think. They only said that for 'safety reasons' the ball was cancelled. To be fair it sounds a little weird," Since they had announced the event's cancellation, Lydia had the feeling that there had to be something else behind, that it wasn't just a matter of their security. It was true that lately a common room had caught fire, but that had been just an accident. Or was it? she thought for a second, but then she put that thought aside as she concentrated for a second on Aaron. 

Did she hear him right? Did he really just said that they should throw the ball instead?

Even if at first the red headed girl had looked at his friend as if he was crazy, the more she thought about his idea, the more it made sense. Slowly, her puzzled and concerned expression changed into an excited one, maybe even slightly creepy. 

"We should totally do that," she said, and clapped her hands, her mind already racing with ideas. "You're right, we deserve some fun! The whole school does! And yes, I'm sure we're not the only ones upset by all of this. Maybe..." she continued, her eyes looking up as she thought about something, "Maybe we could recruit other students, and organise the Blossom Ball by ourselves for real!"

Lydia's mind was racing with ideas, the excitement taking control of her. They could totally pull this off! Maybe not just the two of them, since planning something like that would have required more than just two students, but maybe Aaron had already something in his mind. 

"What do you think? We could do that, right? Did you have something in mind? Oh gosh, I'm so excited!" Lydia exclaimed, as she looked at her best friend with hope in her eyes.

@Aaron Jones

"Yep! I really appreciate it, too!" Aaron said, beaming at his friend. The fact that she would be there cheering him on meant a lot to him. Especially knowing that it was an unofficial match, and not a lot of people would be in the stands to begin with.

As Lydia explained what she knew of the ball's cancellation, Aaron wrinkled his nose slightly. Unsafe? What exactly was unsafe? He knew nothing of the dangers that were going on in the wizarding world - in fact, all he knew was that they were being taught by some powerful witches and wizards that could protect them from anything! Surely with the professors around, all the students were safe! They were even safe from the coronavirus here, something he wished he could say about his hometown. The common room explosion had been a freak accident!

So, Aaron ranted to Lydia about the ball. About how they should just host their own. It was just ramblings, though, nothing he considered actually doing. The boy just felt heated about losing the opportunity to have a good time with his friends during a particularly stressful month. But there Lydia was, eyes bright and smile on. She actually wanted to do this, and it made Aaron hesitate to say no.

"You really think we could?" he asked, already knowing the answer. The way his friend had just spoke suggested she had full faith in this idea. Lydia's enthusiasm was as infectious as ever, so Aaron couldn't help a smile of his own appearing. "I mean, I definitely think we should! I could ask Sean to help! And we could get a few others who are more versed in this sort of thing..." Now that the idea was there, all sorts of details would have to be figured out, and they both knew they couldn't do it alone.

Aaron took a bite of the orange he had been absent-mindedly peeling. "I mean, it can't be that hard, right?" he said after swallowing. His eyes caught Lydia's, "We'd prove to the professors that there was no reason to cancel it in the first place!" The idea of doing all this under the staff's nose felt so wrong, but also it was exhilarating. It almost made him feel like he was taking a nosedive on a broom, just for the adrenaline of it. Is this what it felt like to be rule-breakers?

@Lydia Cooper

Lydia's excitement grew even more at Aaron's words, her face opening up in a bright smile.
"I totally think we should!" she answered, and then quickly got up and started walking back and forth in front of her friend, her mind racing through a million ideas. Where could they have done it, and who to ask for help? She wasn't used to breaking the rules, she had no idea where to start, so when Aaron suggested involving other people she nodded, her eyes burning with determination.

"And I could see if I can find anyone else to help as well! We might need someone that, well... is used to breaking the rules. For experience of course!" Lydia said as she started thinking who she could ask for help, her mind going a little blank.

"I'm sure we will be just fine! All we need to do is find a safe place to have the ball at, and spread the word! Then the rest will come as we will have more help. We can totally do this!" she continued and then she started looking around, not even sure what she was looking for. It was as if she had been struck by a rush of adrenaline, and now she didn't know how to let out all of that energy. For the first time in weeks, the red headed girl felt like herself again; she wasn't Lydia, the girl that didn't know she was a witch, but Lydia, the girl that knows how to plan and throw a party. She had already done that back in the muggle world, and she was sure she would have been able to do the same at Hogwarts, especially with the help of magic.

She started making a list in her mind of everything they needed to do, and finding other people to help was definitely the number one priority, then it would have been the location, date and time, entertaining, decorations and food. 

And of course, they needed to tell the news to as many people as possible, without the prefects or any of the professors to know, even if it would have helped them to have someone from the school's staff to help.

@Aaron Jones

As Lydia agreed about bringing in other people, Aaron tried his hardest to think of any friends he had that would be well-versed in breaking the rules. Not a single person came to mind. Most of his friends were fellow Hufflepuffs, none of whom struck him as a rule-breaker. How were they going to recruit rule-breakers? It was clear to him they'd have to find people they didn't already know. How would they know who to trust? Surely not any Prefects, right?

Lydia distracted him from this train of thought as she talked about finding a place and spreading the word. Aaron looked over at her as he finished his orange. She looked positively energized. It made him smile after he had swallowed the last of his fruit. He hadn't seen her look so happy in a while. With her finding out all the stuff about her mother, then the whole Hufflepuff common room fiasco, he wasn't sure when she would start feeling better. But here she was, practically beaming at the idea of organizing a ball.

Her happiness in this moment made the Secret Blossom Ball worth every ounce of stress it was sure to bring. It was going to be a lot of hard work to pull this off, make it fun and keep it away from the Professors, but if everyone would be as happy as Lydia was right now, it would be worth it.

Aaron took a long sip from his Yoohoo, finishing it off. Now that he was finished eating, the twelve-year-old got to his feet as well. With a napkin Lydia had brought, he wiped away the chocolate milk mustache that he was sporting. "How about we start with telling Sean first? I mean, I dunno for sure, but maybe he knows someone who could help?" Aaron suggested, as he helped to clean up the remnants of their breakfast. "And he's someone we can definitely trust," he further said. He shook Lydia's scarf free of any crumbs or remnants of food, then offered it to her with a smile.

"I still have my game tomorrow, but after that, you've got my full attention on this! We'll make it the best secret ball Hogwarts has ever seen!" he promised, his smile becoming a bit goofy and crooked at the idea.

@Lydia Cooper

Lydia's mind was working a mile a minute, trying to already find solutions for possible problems that they might have encountered while organising the ball. She couldn't help it: even back in the muggle world, whenever an occasion like this presented itself, the red headed girl would immediately dive right into the work, organising and planning everything up to the littlest detail. So of course, this case was no different from the others, with the sole exception that she had to deal with a completely new, and vast, range of things that might go wrong. She knew that in the past the previous Balls didn't go exactly according to plan, but she was more determined than ever to make their Balls a success.

Aaron's voice brought her back to reality, and she found herself nodding along his idea; Sean was definitely someone they could trust, and hopefully he would have known someone else that could have helped them into realising this incredibly crazy idea. "We can totally ask him" the red headed girl agreed with her friend, before giving him a wide, bright smile. It had been a while since Lydia had last felt that happy, that excited about something; it felt nice to let go of all the drama that was going on in her life, even if for just a little bit.

The Hufflepuff girl looked at her best friend as he carefully folded her scarf and she took it from his hands, returning the smile that grew in size at her friend's words. "You'll be amazing tomorrow! And yes, Hogwarts better be ready, 'cause this Ball will be something they will not forget easily!" Lydia beamed, her whole face bright and happy.

Once Lydia had gotten all of her belongings from the ground, she looked once back at the lake, taking a deep breath of the fresh, morning air, before she started making her way back into the castle with Aaron.

Lydia and Aaron leave the thread together.
(Permission was given)

@Aaron Jones