Serenity and Silence open Closed

Setting: Great Hall
IC date: June 16th 2024

Ernest felt a change over him since the beginning of the year. From the way his hair used to sit, now falling softly on his ears. The way his usually clenched jaw had slowly started to lose baby fat, though some did stay stubbornly behind, and now showed a growing man instead of a young boy. He felt like so much had changed over the year, so much had impacted his life, and yet. . .

The Great Hall was still holding the same students, some girls with longer hair and some boys with scars from the stupidity that stayed with them at this age. He had grown close to some of the boys in this hall. One of them was Reginald Drake; the boy would still keep up talking through theories while the boy tried to tone him out at night. His brother, Alec, another boy who he has developed a weird relationship with over the course of the last couple of months. He still was trying to figure himself out there. . .

Ernest got to the Great Hall after a good bit of others had. It was Sunday, Father's Day at that. The goblin had decided to keep the bitterness at the thought of his own paternal figure at bay for today. He didn't feel like his grandfather deserved much grace as he did send him away, but he was far better than Ernest's sorry excuse of a-

The Slytherin blink and let out a tense breath to get rid of that line of thinking. He wanted today to be a good day. Ernest made his way over to the table, sitting down relatively close to the people already there, having given up on the loner persona he had once this year. “Pass the pancakes, won’t cha?” He asked a pretty blonde girl, the pumpkin spiced pancakes he wanted over closer to her than anywhere in his reach, though he did have some blueberry nearby.

The girl was reading, and half of him felt bad for trying to get her out of her story, the other half was part of his stomach and was looking to cover those pancakes in butter and dig in. “Sorry to be a bother, just a wee hunger for those pancakes in particular,” He said with a toothy smile, hoping to come off as sweet instead of an arse.

Reply for @Aleksandra FairBairn

Hogwarts was strangely peaceful for this time of the morning. When they had looked out the window the grounds had looked like a scene from a painting, silent and serene. It was honestly almost disturbing how quiet things were, though none of the other students seemed to feel the same. Everyone was all sleepy yawns and idiot smiles and conversations about the weather today, and it felt like it was choking them. Why wasn't anything happening? The student body might just have a case of end of the year excitement, but it was meant to be excitement not this- this strange drowsiness!

To be fair, it was still quite early in the morning. Cass, who had been up since 4:30 riding their broom in circles around the dorm to try and stave off boredom disagreed. Just because the end of the year was nearing, it was no excuse to sleep in. Honestly, who needed sleep anyway? They viewed anyone who got more than six hours sleep weak and in need of a boot camp in the forbidden forest to beat the fun back into them. The clock finally ticked over to an acceptable time to go up for breakfast, so they figured they might as well go stuff their face with some pancakes and try to wake up people later. It may be nearing summer, but as always the Slytherin dorms were absolutely and utterly freezing. Probably a side effect of being below lake level. A little warmth and pancake delightfulness in the great hall couldn't hurt.

After getting changed out of their pyjamas and halfheartedly attempting (and failing) to brush their birds nest of hair, they followed their nose towards pancakes. The hall was mostly empty, but they were struck by the impression that you couldn't quite tell who was a first year by their air of incompetence anymore. That reminded them how close they were to not being a first year anymore. Huh, time had gone by so fast. It felt like it had barely been weeks, and yet nearly a whole year had passed. Picking their way through the small groups of other students walking in, they headed over to the slytherin table. Spotting the pancakes at a mostly unpopulated end, they plonked down into a seat.

The pancakes in question smelt heavenly, and their stomach rumbled at the thought. Their only competition for pancake domination was a platinum-blond girl reading a book on one side, and a boy who was asking for pancakes on the other. Hang on- those ones he had his beady little eyes on were pumpkin spice, and therefore theirs by right. Pretending not to hear his request, they yanked them out of reach and scooped up five for their plate. Coming off as rude was of little consequence compared to getting their pancakes.

ooc note: sorry Ernest Cass has stolen your pancakes

Setting: Great Hall
IC date: June 16th 2024

Ernest had never been so heartbroken as he watched as a short little mole of a kid stole his beloved pumpkin spice pancakes. The other student picked them up without a care and took them away; Ernest staring after them sadly. They dug into them happily and for once Ernest wished he knew wordless magic so he could cast a Mucus ad Nauseam on them without immediately alerting every staff member in a 10-foot radius.

“My pancakes. .” He mumbled sadly, debating if it was worth it to get up and demand half of the stolen ones back or if he would have to settle for chocolate chip ones instead. He didn’t have to settle his debate, as the pretty blond girl was there to rescue him from his lack of pumpkin-spiced goodness- she laid down a new warm plate in front of him. “Oh my Gringotts, you are my saving grace.” He mumbled as he smiled at his new found luck.

Ernest looked up at her with a wide smile, “If you wouldn’t have turned m’ mood around, I probably would have broken etiquette and the silence of the day by giving her a real good curse,” Ernest said his words plainly, not thinking much about the slight threat, as why would he care if it came off as rude after the girl had not only took pancakes from them but after hearing him call for them.

Reply for @Aleksandra FairBairn
@Cass Ito

Pancakes now obtained, they breathed in the heavenly scent. Ah, good Hogwarts food. They did wonder if the house elves who made it had done chefs training or something, because it was unlike even what their house elf at home did. Time had made them understand why their Pa talked about Hogwarts food with such reverence. It was the kind of thing you missed so much you told stories to your children about. Pancakes admittedly hadn't featured in those stories, but they certainly would if Cass ever retold them.

And yet the other students sitting nearby disturbed their near-peaceful moment (though they could tell that the feeling was mutual). Either challenge them for their pancakes or let them eat in peace, but either way don't sit there like disgraces to the Slytherin house gossiping about them. Speaking of their conversation, Cass was starting to get offended. The only thing they would have done differently if they had been at a fancy dinner party (to the woe of all of their etiquette teachers) was do it with a smile. And calling them a girl? They refused to let that go without retaliation. Implying that he would have liked to curse them was less offensive. That sort of thing happened all the time.

There were plenty of ways to get back at the other two without direct confrontation. Their upbringing had taught them one thing at least. Taking care to pick up the correct fork and knife, they tucked into their teetering stack of pancakes elegantly. With extreme speed. They ate as fast as possible while maintaining politeness, dispatching the pancakes with haste while still somehow managing to stay clean. They even stopped to dab their face with a napkin. In no time at all, all of the pancakes were gone and Cass hadn't slipped up once. Call that anything but elegant if you dare, fancy girl.

@Ernest Baird, @Aleksandra Fairbairn and @Cass Ito

The popular saying that every person has 7 doppelganger all around the world was something that Elisa never believed in, it just didnt seem possible to share the same face with someone else when there is no blood relation with them, it would be like defying the laws of nature but that was until this very moment Elisa who previously thought of this effect as myth stood infront of the other intimidating blonde girl, for some reason the girl just looked like her, the young blonde couldn't believe that she hadn't caught sight of this girl, neither in any of the classes nor at the Slytherin common room, it was as if this was all a dream, a particularly strange one and the girl was just some illusion created by her mind but it didn't take Elisa more than a minute or two to snap out of her mind which was slowly filling up with different thoughts. As Elisa slowly got her guard up, she noticed that she had been staring at the girl for too long, the young girl slowly said to the girl "Apologies for the intense staring, I understand if my actions have disturbed your meal.", the girl than slowly signalled Ernest to give her a bit space and sat down next to the boy,

As the young slytherin slowly regained her previous mood, she wanted approach Ernest for what he had previously said to the boy near him which she had overheard when she was trying to shuffle his hair, Elisa couldn't understand what had gotten into the part goblin but something about his words just didn't impress Elisa much, just because the other had stolen a stupid pancake didn't justify Ernest bringing up the matter of blood and fancy clothings, if that was the issue than she herself wasn't an ideal friend for him, afterall in the end she is a pureblood too, even though her parents were strict and sometimes even cold, she was pampered like some princess by her father too and her actions and pranks have been even worse compared to the other guy's action of stealing a silly pancake, Elisa slowly sighed as she took a bowl of porridge, the young girl just couldn't understand how to put her concerns out to the boy without offending him, afterall the last thing she would want is to ruin her friendship with one of the most important person to her, he had seen her in both her good and bad times,

After a while of thinking whether to share her feelings or not, Elisa finally decided to remain silent for the time being, she couldn't just ruin her or the table's morning just because of her overthinking mind..

Great Hall	16th June2024
'Thoughts' "Speech"	Notes: -

Setting: Great Hall
IC date: June 16th 2024

Ernest couldn’t stop the laugh that bubbled out of him at her remarks. It was rude, but not something that was surprising at this point. The lot of them had seen horrors at the ball, then they were rushed away to pretend it was all fine. A lowly curse would do nothing but make the brat of a fellow student understand there are things worse than rudeness.

“Starving? Look at them, their fancy clothes, well-tailored like that, and those snotty looks, probably just a pampered little pure blood who saw an opportunity to steal from a half-breed and took it,” He said, in his own Scottish accent, having fun trying to antagonize the other. “Ain’t that right?”

He was going to hackle them more, but then he felt hands in his hair, messing up his- Oh he wasn’t even going to pretend to spend the time fixing his hair. Elisa’s voice immediately hit his ears, a smile blooming on his face. He looked up at her, a smile on his face. She looked beautiful this morning, or maybe she did every morning but he felt like something was different. He opened his mouth to say good morning, maybe even offer his pancakes to her, only he noticed her smile seemed to melt off his face.

Ernest followed where her eyes were looking, at the other blonde. Did they know each other?

Reply for @Aleksandra FairBairn
@Cass Ito@Elisa Shakestra

Pancakes finished, they leaned back slightly and briefly wondered if they were going to get a stomach ache later. Oh well, it would be worth it. The pancakes were delicious, though they didn't spend a lot of time getting to taste them. They overheard blond girl say that they must be starving and felt a faint pang of disappointment over the lack of awe at their amazing table manners/speed eating skills. Those had taken years to perfect, and even in the politest of company no one could fault them for it. The speed they ate it at was a whole nother question entirely.

Another blond girl decided to jump scare the boy who they had acquired their stolen property from. Blond-girl-no-2 seemed significantly happier than the tables other two residents, which could only be an improvement. The boy who she had scared though clearly didn't seem to like Cass very much. Probably because of the pancakes. Oh well, that could always be fixed later. Diplomacy and all that stuff. Diplomacy for Cass usually translated to dragging the other person into trouble with them so that they were to busy worrying for their life to hate them anymore, then bonding over the shared near death experiences. It generally worked pretty well.

Not-blond boy then proceeded to call their school uniform fancy and accuse them of speciesism. Perhaps he was a half-goblin? He was certainly very short. Cass hadn't noticed them before, and it changed nothing about their opinion of him now. Still, the fact remained that he had directly challenged them to a duel! Well. Not quite. Not at all actually. But still, a pancake-eating-duel was called for! The blonds appeared to know each other (Twins perhaps? Long lost family? Heirs to the ancient blond line of blond?), but new-blond either didn't seem to like the other one or hated the food sitting in front of her with the fire of a thousand suns.

A duel here could accomplish two things: distracts the blonds from whatever blond drama they are up to, deal with the clear and evident challenge, and make things more fun. Really, that was three things but numbers numbers. They slammed their hands down on the table "Oh yeah?". "Prove that you deserved the pancakes" they stood up on one knee dramatically and pointed at the part-goblin "I challenge you to a pancake eating duel!