Picnic at Midnight PV Ami Procoppio Finished

"You'll make millions."Lorelai smiled, looking down at her hands.

"You know, I might have to steal that idea from you. I can imagine it now. I'll be a star!"She said, doing a terrible dramatic hair flip as if she was some pompous celebrity. She doubted she would write anything worth millions, but she did hope she could. It'd be nice to have more money.

"I didn't even know if my application was going to be accepted this late, it's a miracle they let me join the team."Lorelai nodded in understanding. She wasn't much of a writer but she wouldn't want to get kicked off a team she felt passionate about. "Hey is that...?"

"What?"Lorelai asked not seeing what the girl was referring to. She quickly got to her feet, next to the girl who had also risen. Was something there? Lorelai felt excited, hoping something was (although maybe she shouldn't have). Suddenly Ami asked about Lorelai's herbology abilities. Lorelai wondered why.

"I'm pretty good I suppose, I've never heard Professor Trollope complain."She said, rubbing the back of her neck."Why is it that you ask? What's wrong? Did something happen?"Lorelai's eyes searched the landscape for anything out of the ordinary, questions racing through her head.

"No, not really. Just homesick," Ami said, taking long strides down to a cluster of trees somewhat near the water's edge. Homesick, indeed- summertime at home in the States would find the barefooted, young, and naive Thomas and Ami running through suburban Chicago, jumping up and snatching elderberries off the trees adjacent to the sidewalk, stuffing their faces greedily with the sweet berries. Oh, how long ago that was... how Ami missed the golden olden days of yore.

"Lorelai, are these some magical, poisonous berries that I don't know about? Because I think they're elderberries. And just a heads up, elderberries are literally the best berry ever. Strawberries can go suck it up and weep in a corner- elderberries are so much better," Ami declared, picking one of the berries. She examined the fruit itself, as well as the juice it left as residue, staining her fingers. "I think they're elderberries, but I want to be sure. Is this nightlock, like in the Hunger Games? When Peeta accidentally picks them, and then Foxface eats them?" Ami rolled it around in her fingers, and squished it into a pulp, letting the juice drip onto the ground. "Oh wise one, send me your expertise."

"No, not really. Just homesick"

Lorelai nodded in understanding. She had been homesick as well. She missed her little apartment, her little-potted plants by her bed, and most of her all her mother. The frequent owls exchanged with her mother helped to ease the homesickness though. "Yeah, I know the feeling.."

Ami talked on and on about elderberries. Lorelai had never had them, having lived in urban London all her life, but had read about them in books. The other girl thought that they might be poisonous berries, however. "Oh wise one, send me your expertise."

Lorelai scrunched up her grow to inspect the plants. "I don't think nightlock is a real thing...But there is a thing called nightshade that looks kind of like this. They use it in potions, I've seen some in the Potions room. I'm pretty sure they're poisonous."She looked at them more carefully. "I mean it kind of looks like nightshade...I wouldn't eat them just to be safe."Lorelai backed away from the plant. She sure as heck wasn't gonna get poisoned over a mislabeling a berry. She was glad though that she had paid attention to the labels on the jars in potions when she got bored.

"Yeah, nightshade, right," Ami nodded, feeling a little bit stupid inside. She knew that! She'd accidentally grown nightshade instead of stevia when she was younger, and nearly sent herself to the hospital- why didn't she remember that? She scrunched her nose in frustration and sighed heavily. "Darn it. Well, it was worth a shot." Her shoulders slumped in disappointment, and she washed her fingers, dipping them in the lake. She didn't want to get poisoned, grindylows or no grindylows. Better to be safe than sorry, as her mother always said.

"So, what've you been up to lately?" Ami asked, interested. She didn't talk to too many people outside of her fellow Huffles, so she wasn't all too aware of the going-ons outside of her own house. Maybe there was some huge event that Ami didn't know about, and maybe Lorelai would be able to provide her with that information. She tugged on her hair (a tic, she'd noted), staring up at the bright moon. How she would love to see the world from up so high... imagine the view from space! Unfortunately, as Ami had to remind herself, there would be no glory from going to space- only from the military.

Lorelai felt a bit bad for ruining the girl's enthusiasm about the berries, but ti was better than ending up dead. Really, it wasn't the best idea to eat random berries you find in a forest. "So, what've you been up to lately?" Ami asked.

"Gosh, I haven't done much here yet..."She laughed. "Well, I guess that's not true. I spend a lot of time with the other Gryffindor girls, I think we have a kind of friend group going on? I don't know about Hufflepuff but I feel like in Gryffindor the girls get really close to the other girls in their dorms."Lorelai was proud of her friend making skills so far in the year. It was eons away from what she had been able to do when she still went to muggle school. It had been lonely, but Hogwarts was much better. In general, it was just a more friendly school.

"Overall I've been trying to get used to Hogwarts, and the wizarding world in general. It's been overwhelming, but it's gotten much much better. I'm starting to feel like I belong here, you know? What about you? Have you been doing anything interesting lately?"

Lorelai thought for a moment before adding. "And you never told me what you write for the Hufflepost! I'm quite interested."

Ami smiled as Lorelai talked about her Gryffindor dormmates. How adorable! The Gryffindor house certainly sounded like a good place to be. "Have you been doing anything interesting lately? And you never told me what you write for the Hufflepost! I'm quite interested," Lorelai said, and Ami's smile widened.

"Well, I've been exploring the castle more, so that's good," Ami said thoughtfully, tapping her chin. "What else? Oh! I finally managed to catch up on some of my homework- some, mind, not all." Ami grew excited at the mention of Hufflepost. "Hufflepost! Yes, it's absolutely phenomenal, it's such a positive atmosphere, as well. Plus, the writers there are all amazing, like, what English classes did you take and who is your teacher?" Ami laughed, rubbing the back of her neck. "I'm kind of scared of all of them, really." Going through all of her fellow writers, she ticked them off on her fingers as she listed them all. "Serena and Arceus are prefects, Reid is this genius graphics wizard, Errol and James have the maddest writing skills on this planet, Austin and Peach are just gorgeous human beings... and Quinn is too nice for words. I haven't met Emalia yet, but I've heard loads of great things about her."

Lorelai laughed at the other girl's enthusiastic descriptions of her fellow HuffPost writers. She had thought about joining the Gryffindor newspaper and was still on the fence about it. She might want the experience and friends, but she wasn't sure she was ready for the commitment. For now, she'd just stick with her little friend group.

"And what kind of stuff do you write for it? I know that in the GryffPost they have all these different columns. Like the students, threads, and whatnot of the month. I like the joke section. Great place for cheesy wizard related jokes. Does the Huffpost have this sort of thing?"Lorelai asked. She giggled, snorting a little."I bet your column is something super angsty. But jokes aside, whatever it is, I'm sure it's good though. I'm not sure if I have the guts to publish anything for my whole house to read. I'm not much of a Gryffindor, am I?"

Lorelai adjusted her position on the ground, it had gotten even darker since she had arrived, making the moon and stars seem even brighter. It was quite pretty really, seeing the reflection of the moon on the lake. It made the Gryffindor want to sit there forever.

"I wrote a food column for this issue- and hopefully, I'll do it for future issues," Ami said in a confidential tone. "Food's like, my huge weakness. I love food, and growing food- gardening's another one of my weaknesses. But I love writing about food, and encouraging people to try new things they normally wouldn't have done before, say like... like cooking, or gardening, or just grabbing something new at lunch instead of whatever you normally get. It's not as cool as the other articles the other Hufflepost members write about, but it's definitely yummy- I did breakfast recipes this time. I want to do gardening related things next, but we'll see how this issue goes."

Ami laughed to herself, and added, "Wow. I talk a lot, huh? Lorelai, you should most definitely join Gryffpost. It sounds amazing, a- and writing. It's really good for a person's soul, y'know. Totally science-proven fact right there." Ami ran her fingers through her hair, trying to tame it back so it would stop falling in her eyes. "Hey- you wanna do something fun?" Ami whispered excitedly. "I wanna go see the Quidditch pitch- haven't seen it yet. Do you want to come with me? I heard it's lit."

Lorelai shrugged at the thought of joining the GryffPost. Not her thing, really, but she was glad it made her friend happy. A food and gardening column seemed like a great idea, no doubt. She was sure she would find her own things along the way, however, who knows? On another note, Lorelai didn't have to think about the girl's request. Of course, she wanted to see the Quidditch pitch. She hadn't actually seen a game yet, although she knew of people who played for the Gryffindor team. And most of the house seemed pretty into it. She wasn't sure how she felt about the sport yet, she hadn't actually played it yet, although from what she could tell it seemed pretty cool. She cringed a little bit at the girl's usage of the word lit, but she forgave that quickly.

"Are you kidding? That sounds fun! I bet it'll be empty. We should defiantly go!"She exclaimed. Lorelai was curious what the pitch liked, and was happy to spend time with her fellow troublesome friend. "It must be massive to fit the whole school in it. Plus have room for what seems like a pretty interesting sport. I'm not sure if I really understand the game though, to be fair..."She admitted, laughing sheepishly. "That aside, we should definitely go."

"To the Quidditch pitch, then!" Ami cried excitedly, leaping to her feet in a sudden burst of energy. "There's no time to waste. We could get caught by anyone at any moment, to be honest- and that would totally ruin my night." Glancing at her watch, she corrected herself. "Morning, sorry. Come on, let's go!" Grabbing Lorelai's hand, Ami started off towards the Quidditch field, excited for what was to come- imagine the field! The hoops! The roaring crowd! Well, the stands would be empty, considering it was one in the morning, but moving on. 

To be perfectly honest, Ami knew next to nothing about Quidditch. She knew some of the basics, sure- seven players, two teams (fourteen players in total), and a butt-load of broomsticks. There were different types of balls for different purposes, and a 'goalie' of some sorts, someone to guard the hoops. The scoring system, Ami also knew, was different- far more different than your average soccer game. Even so, Ami still considered Quidditch to be the 'magical air-soccer' of the wizarding world, and thus had no interest in ever playing on her house team. To be fair, she probably wouldn't be much good at it- she had zero balance, especially on a broomstick.