Let Me Steal Ur Heart Errand PV | DATE Closed

Emerly slid into the Great Hall. Cookies. There was some sort of event. They'd be making cookies. That would probably help... somehow.
His cousin Aliia, had been feeling not the best lately. Not sick-wise, but emotionally, from what he could gather. The girl had always been kind to him. She was more gentle than her older sister, Frelyn, though both were good-natured. Emerly felt spending time with Aliia was a little easier, as disposition-wise he was very similar to him, sensitive, reserved.
Perhaps that was the very reason she found herself in a tricky situation. She wouldn't say exactly what was causing it, but he had reason to find out, he was determined to, in fact, as it seemed his cousins' parents were too caught up in certain... events... lately to pay her much mind. And that worried him. The girls and their older brother, Elder, were like siblings to him.
He couldn't blame their parents, as their distraction also was also his fault. Supposedly. He wasn't completely sure it actually was, but it didn't stop him from feeling that way. Of course, his parents had also gone missing over the break. Was it any wonder they were so caught up in finding out what came of them?

He sighed, taking up a small golden box and piling it up with supplies. He reached out for a stack of cookies and saw that a number of other students were busy picking up their own items from the table.
Andrew? Andy?
Emerly pursed his lips and redirected his eyes at the table. A pang of guilt twisted in his stomach. Nearing the end of the first year he had effectively dropped off the radar of many of the people he had befriended. There was too much odd news arriving from owls from his family, and with his parents' disappearance, he had little else on his mind but finding them, getting to the bottom of it all. Shaking the thoughts from his head, he bussed his stuff off to a different corner of the Great Hall.
After some gratefully-welcomed minutes of uninterrupted work, he began boxing up his creations, one, in a lavender box, were of sugared rose cookies (Alliia's favorite flower and cookie). Another was the gold box with silverish ribbon, filled to the brim with linzer cookies all sandwiched together, cinammon and raspberry. He had always had them during holidays and they cheered him up. He wrote out a little note.
"Thanks for being a good friend, I appreciate it. Please share these with your friends.
-M"
"Oh?" He murmered, as he noticed a certain something- or rather, someone, on his shoulder. He looked at the creature, and offered out one of the seven super mini linzers he had made- for just this very individual. Pinpin.
There was a large noise, as if someone had dropped something, and a screech. His hands had begun to shake, though it seemed as if it was only as if someone had just accidentally dropped something. The damage, however, had already been done. His fight-or-flight instinct was already activated. "Alright, that's enough, I'll put the rest to go." he quickly, and as nimbly as he coud stacked them into a tinier box and scribbled out, "To Pin. -M"
Giving a large, shaky exhale, he pulled his robes up to cover his head/face and pulled his Slytherin scarf up so it couldn't be seen, in order to hide his identity. He rushed past Andy and dropped the two boxes off before rushing away, to find his cousin. He felt himself relax slightly, but the preexisting, underlying unease still remained, threatening again to bubble to the surface.
He could only try to keep himself busy to block the worry out of his head.
Unbeknownst to him, Andy's rat followed at his heels, and after running across the laps of a number of people sitting nearby Andy, and knocking a few sprinkles and ingredients very much awry, the creature scampered up the little box tower, and after removing the lid from the top tiny box, continued to snack on the tiny linzers.
In the meanwhile, Emerly, still cloaked, strode out the hall, unidentified as far as he was concerned, and stole away with his hearts. A part of him wanted to stay, to talk to Andy and his friends, and wondered if he would have remembered him or forgotten, but he had tried, and that was what was important.
"Love does no harm to its neighbor." Emerly thought, and thus deduced that it would be wiser to keep his distance from others for now. At least until it was safe and Emerly wasn't in danger of disappearing too, or anyone connected to him.
-

Wordcount - 787 words, got permission to semi-control Penelope, Andy's mouse, beforehand- hope she didn't just cause too much discord lol

Penelope recognized this human. His scent. Still a presence around the Castle and the dungeons, but not so concentrated around her owner as of late. Still, the old gray rat was undaunted in approaching the boy, climbing onto his shoulder in customary greeting. But mainly zoned in on the sweets Emerly was putting together, nose twitching excitingly and craning her head in temptation, as precariously as she could lean forward without toppling off and onto the table.

Her efforts did not go unnoticed, spoiled as she was, and Penelope grabbed hold of the tiny cookie, stuffing her cheeks while Emerly worked. Then hopped down as soon as Emerly stood up from the table, instinct compelling the rat to follow the boy that made a hasty beeline towards her owner. As well as the wafting trail of linzers, luring Penelope over in a mad dash. No amount of people would stop her from taking the shortest way possible, scurrying up someone's pant leg and cutting across the laps of those sitting around Andrew, in order to reach the tiny box, whose lid she pried off and immediately delved into its sugary contents.

Andrew's head jerked up, barely catching a glimpse of the shadow that disappeared into the train of other black robed students passing to and from the Hall. A shout caught in his throat as he stood up, whipping his head around in search of the stranger. But they were already gone and out of range, he assumed, and calling out after them would be pointless. So he clamped his mouth shut and blinked.

What just happened?

Stunned with surprise, Andrew sat down and turned his head back to the table, processing the two boxes that had been dropped off in front of his workspace.

Pin-pin was already diving into hers, its recipient labeled on the mini box that Andrew was forced to intervene and shoo her away from.

"Easy, girl. You're gonna make yourself sick." He chuckled, fastening the lid shut and cutting off the rat from her sweet tap. He then untied the silvery ribbon from the larger, golden box, inhaling cinnamon from the heart-shaped linzer cookies packed within. He hesitated for a second, suspicious whether the treats might be laced with love potion, side-eyeing Dan but shortly shrugged it off. Confirming the flavor of raspberry-filled centers as he bit into one.

He picked up the note attached:

Thanks for being a good friend, I appreciate it. Please share these with your friends.

– M

M?

Andrew was no Ravenclaw, judging by his puzzled expression, stumped by who the sender was. He only had a handful of friends he would call 'regulars', and none of them started with letter "M". Then again, what was viewed as "acquaintance" to him, might be considered "friend" to another person.

…Margo?

There was a girl named Margo White he had met through a game of Monopoly during the Slytherin lockup, a few months ago. But Andrew didn't think he had said or done anything noteworthy since then that would warrant such a gift from her, much less delivered in such a 'secret' way.

Dan walked into the Great Hall, bare feet silently padding along. Andy had invited him to come make cookies, so naturally he said yes.
But, he REALLY hoped he wouldnt have to bake them himself. He would end up burning the castle down.
Oswa-..... Someone who will remain nameless for all time, was supposed to teach him how to bake before he up and vanished, then came back to distract him from his Anti-Vlad duties at a secret ball, then vanished again after promising to be there in the morning to discuss things.
Yeah...that might have caused a few trust issues to start developing in him....

Emerly suddenly quickly strode past him without even a hello. As if he was in a serious rush to get out. How utterly rude.

Loki, his Egyptian Mau kitty, meowed beside him, in order to remind Dan that he existed. Something he never needed to do at all, but something he always seemed to think was required.
The very moment Loki saw his furry rat sister, he immediately bounded up to her to play.
Dan meanwhile came and sat next to Andy, one of his favorite places to sit.

"Wow, okay. Startin' without me, are ya? How could ye do yer best mate dirty like that?"

Dan started himself, making cookies out for everyone. He debated inwardly about whether or not to make one for Penelope, since he kinda thought she should watch her figure, but decided why not.
As a Slytherin, and as an Irishman, the icing naturally was going to be green. He Then decided that there would be a second layer. a lovely Emerald green would cover the cookies, with a different color in the middle, and finally a third color for the letters.
Dan's cookies were going to be icing bombs, and that was the entire plan.

Andy's, cookies with a large A in the middle, would have green, and ruby red in the middle to hold the silver A. As Andy would always have his heart. Maybe not exclusively, but it would always have Andy as its center. Probably.
Dan finished it by dusting them with sparkly gold sprinkles, to really make the colors pop. Lovely.

Emerly, he didn't know that well. Andy often seemed to invite him to these things, but they'd never really.... talked. Or interacted. At all.
So, he went with green base, a gold middle, and a red E, since he was a Gryffindor. That is basically all Dan knew about Emerly; he was a Gryffindor.
True, Dan honestly did not need to make him anything, but Andy had invited him, so Dan thought it wouldn't be nice if he didn't make him some.
He put edible pearls around the frame of Emerlys, and finished.

Last was... Someone else. That Andy had invited. Someone who had the GALL to try to get between them. Wretched little-
Dan stopped that train of thought immediately. He was NOT a jealous type.
Tyr's was going to be.... Ugh what should she have....
Green base, silver interior heart and a bright yellow T. There.
Dan decided to TRY to be nice to Tyr, and took some more pearls. However, he dipped them into the red frosting first, to make them like Quaffles, and put them all about on the cookies. Some might call them randomly plopped; Dan called them 'strategically placed'.

He made a cookie for Penelope too, but with less flair as he didnt want to overly sugarify her. Not at her age. He dipped it in green, and made a silver P. For Slytherin's favorite rat.

Lastly, Dan decided to make some for himself. And HOO boy was he going all in on the icing this time. By the time he was finished, there were no less than 5 frosting layers on the cookies he made for himself. His sweet tooth had grown along with him, and the sweeter, the better. So, he made cookies that would sate him for a while.

He looked over the cookies one more time, saw that his penmanship was perfect, the decorations were on point, and everything was exactly as he wanted them to be. He boxed them up, and handed Andy his.

"So, what do ya think, Andy?"

Word Count: 700/400.
Interacting with @Andrew Vance
Mentioning @Emerly Pine and @Tyranni Whitethorn

Finally, Dan showed up! Though with Dan being so silent on his bare feet, Andrew didn't sense him approaching until the familiar voice was right next to him. Andrew glanced up quickly, smile illuminating his face, excited and relieved that he now had his best friend to keep him company.

Deprived of her cookies, Penelope had no choice but to play with Loki if she got bored. You'd think a bunch of sugar would make an old rat tired after a while, but neither age nor fat belly seemed to be a hindrance to Penelope, who finally had Loki to help her get her exercise in, scampering and chasing each other around the Great Hall.

"I did wait, but you were taking so long," Andrew argued playfully, with a friendly nudge of his shoulder as Dan sat next to him.

He had been sitting at the table a good five minutes, sipping hot chocolate and thinking of how to decorate his cookies before actually getting started on them. He might as well have been purposely going slow just for Dan to catch up!

"Someone left these here, by the way." He pointed to the box of linzers, offering it to Dan. "You want some?"

He then held up the note for Dan to see. "Apparently 'M' and I are friends," he commented with a quizzical expression. "I don't know who it could be, except, maybe…Margo? You remember that girl we played Monopoly with? The short-haired blonde one with brown eyes?" He shrugged. "I haven't really talked with her since then. Plus…" He pointed out the style of writing on the note, which didn't seem to match Margo's tone of voice, at least in person. "I think it would sound more…funny, coming from her."

Well, he could always go up and ask Margo, if he saw her around…

As the two boys worked on their cookies, Andrew noticed Dan was also going with the green theme. Copycatter! He smiled at this, but didn't mind at all. He half expected it. Dan was Irish, after all. And it made him feel a little better, having someone else with him go the non-traditional colors route.

Likewise, Andrew shared a powerful sweet tooth for all things icing and frosting. He would opt for eating buttercream over the actual cake, and the cream over the actual Oreo cookie, giving the cake and cookie parts to his siblings instead.

It shouldn't have been a surprise that he and Dan would exchange something for each other for Valentine's Day, and yet the notion was always touching and never failed to elicit that same joy and surprise from Andrew, who never really expected or held his friend to a standard of giving him anything at all. Just spending time with Dan, such as now, decorating cookies together, made up a whole Valentine's Day in itself. Had it really been two whole years since they met? Andrew couldn't imagine what his life at Hogwarts would've been like, without Dan by his side….

"Aw, thanks Dan!" He happily received the box with his and Penelope's cookies. "Looks like a yummy sugar cookie, to me. Love the red heart. Reminds me of Christmas." The vivid red and green contrast did remind him of his favorite holiday. Gosh, he didn't know what else to say for compliments… "Where are ya, Pin?" He gave a quick glance around for his rat's whereabouts, but the two critters had disappeared from view. He chuckled. "Pin-pin says 'thank you', too." He placed the box aside. "I'll save 'em for tomorrow. Valentine's Day, yeah? Hey, maybe we could do another little picnic tomorrow and eat our cookies together. Or take our lunch to-go and eat on the Grounds? That would be fun. Just us two. I won't invite anyone else, I promise." He chuckled again.

(And with an apologetic tease, if Tyranni happened to be sitting right there)

Poor Dan, lacking quality time alone with his BFF! The added weight of electives and Quidditch schedules hadn't helped with that, either.

"Unless if you wanna go to Hogsmeade?" True, the Grounds were always available to them, whereas Hogsmeade was a weekly treat.

But the Grounds provided more getaway room for seclusion, rather than a congested town full of people…

"Sooo… Tomorrow's the Valentine's dinner." Andrew had apologized profusely to Dan about not signing up for the thing. Maybe next year, if he felt inclined to. Truthfully, he had some reservations about joining, half because the dinner seemed too 'romantic' and 'matchmaking' for his liking. Though if not for last year's Valentine's Tea thing, he and Tyranni wouldn't have met and become friends when they did.

But the other half of him didn't want to risk the possibility of giving Dan any ideas, even if they went to the dinner together as friends. He wanted Dan to meet someone else, and it wouldn't do well for Dan to be thinking about him (and who he was with) during the dinner, if Andrew attended. It would be better if stayed away and let Dan have the night to himself. He hoped Dan would find a new boyfriend, someone to fill up that hole that Andrew knew his friendship couldn't.

"Guess we'll have to figure out what to wear for that," he mused, while on the Valentine's dinner subject. He often used the "we" sense in referring to such close friendship and brotherhood with Dan, something he had never used even with his childhood Muggle best friends that he had known for far longer (though with distance and wizarding secrecy taking its toll, Andrew would call them more 'friend' than 'best friend', as of late). Where Dan went, Andrew went also. Even if just in spirit.

He grouped three of his green heart-shaped cookies together, remarking, "There, it's a clover", before adding another one to the mix. "Four leaf clover. For luck." He chuckled.

He knew Emerly liked clovers, and was also Irish. And DATE made four of them. So maybe he had all the best/close friends he needed to bring him the best luck at Hogwarts.

He made sure to save the cleanest and prettiest looking ones for Dan, before packaging them up in their own little box. "These two are for you." He handed them to Dan. "Um, maybe a saucer of cream for Loki?" He chuckled. "I don't think cookies are that good for him. Then again, neither for Pin-pin." He half rolled his eyes, partly at Penelope, but mostly at himself. It was he who allowed his pet to get carried away, either by negligence, not keeping an eye on the rat and what she smuggled into her mouth, or by giving in and spoiling her. "After tomorrow, I promise this time, she's going on a diet," he said firmly. He had failed to live up to such promises before, but this time, Andrew realized he had to get serious, if he wanted Penelope to be around another year.

But let her eat her Valentine's Day cookie from Dan tomorrow, and then she could start her diet.