Presents and Polaroid Pictures Finished

Min saw the other girl relax a bit. She smiled softly and squeezed her hand. Min-seo seriously had no idea what she was getting into. She was friends with to people who are enemies with each other. She was slightly terrified, but she didn't want to lose a friend. She took a deep breath. She had no idea about anything that the two had done or said to each other to have this type of relationship. Oh sure, the information, but if Aurelia was really that bad of a person...no, this isn't the time to think of this stuff. You need to concentrate on now. Min-seo tilted her head as El mentioned two people named Talia Piper and Alan Vanes. Who? She didn't really know who they were, but even their names sounded remotely nice. She smiled. "I bet they're quite nice people," she said softly. She'd never met them, although her friend Alex did mention something about a Talia girl, maybe that was her? If she was tiny and bubbly, then that's her. Or at least that's how Alex described her to Min-seo. She tilted her head to the side. "The common rooms? I heard it had something to do with the kitchens," she said.

"They are, Alan's in Gryffindor and Tal's Hufflepuff, keeping my grand total of Ravenclaws Known at exactly zero." Elena wondered if that was for a reason, probably because when she met people they were looking to find quiet in a noisy castle, maybe the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff dorms were already peaceful, "I think the dorms are downstairs somewhere, or something. There's a map of the castle I have that shows me roughly where everything is and how to get there, magic staircases included. I don't think I know how to open this door though..."

Not remembering something didn't mean much now, it could be that she was too tired to remember or to record it in her notebook. Maybe Elena was right and just hadn't seen it at all, that could always be an option. There was an odd memory of someone telling her a way of getting in, although she always dismissed it as fiction made to prank a kid who didn't like the Great Hall.

"Someone once told me you get in by tickling one of the fruit, although that is a bit odd. Not magical school odd, more blatantly odd." Elena stopped herself before the rambling started, "It might work though, I can't quite remember, we should try it. Probably should've paid more attention and seen someone open it."

Min-seo tilted her head to the side. ”Really? No Ravenclaws? I know......hmm, let me see.....two Ravenclaws in total. In Hufflepuff, I know Talia and I think that’s it. I know, I think only one Griffyndor besides Aurelia, and that’s Rowan Bane also known as Ro, and in Slytherin I know Ruby, and you! Well, at least all of the people I listed I’m friends with,” she said quietly and apologized quickly for rambling so much on people she knew. If she thought about it, she noticed that she had quite a few friends to be honest. She smiled to herself softly. She was really lucky to have people like Ro, Alex, and Elena. She didn’t know what she did to deserve them. The held her up and tried to fix her up in the best possible way. Min-seo turned her attention back to Elena. She mentioned something about tickling a piece of fruit and how odd that sounded. Min raised one of her eyebrows. ”Tickling a fruit? I’m so confused. And the map thing sounds so cool!! Well, I guess there’s no hurt in trying to tickle it.” she said shrugging her shoulders. She walked up to the door and tickled it. It laughed and opened. Min jumped back, surprised.

Min had a lot of friends, that's good, and lack of enemies was always good. A small bitter part of Elena whispered something about Aurelia, Elena ignored it. Now was not the time.

"Glad you have so many friends, I wish I had your enemy count though." Elena tried to keep her tone lighthearted, "Zero is an excellent number."

"The map's how I keep getting tea." Elena nodded. Then the damn door decided to laugh which made Elena step back so quickly she tripped over the end of her cloak and fell backwards onto the floor. If Elena was properly awake she wouldn't have found it funny but instead she starting laughing, "That fruit just laughed! This school is insane, I love it."

Elena got up and dusted herself off, not that there was any dust the house elves were meticulous, but it was a comforting gesture. She gave Min-seo a lopsided smile, "Well, the passage to the kitchen has been opened, this adventure is starting to get interesting."

The pirate hat she'd worn so often in recent times was back in the dorms, but Elena almost reached up to adjust it anyway. Trading in her hat for her hood had made sleeping in strange locations easier, now she wished she'd remembered it.

Min-seo was taken aback at the statement on friends. The more she thought about it, the more she smiled. She did have quite a lot of friends. She just seemed to be a people magnet, which wasn't a problem, to say the least. Min-seo nodded slowly. The more I think about it, the more I realize that I have amazing friends here. And no enemies? Actually, I do have one. Well, not really, he just threw a snowball at me while I was reading in a tree and called me a nerd and a snowball fight broke out and I got sick, but besides that, I don't really hate anyone, I think so far." she said. She looked at the map with excitement in her eyes. ""That's really cool! I wish I had a map like that, my life is boring," she said with a little pout on her face. Well, not really, she was just over exaggerating. Min-seo laughed at Elena's reaction to the laughing pear. "It is, isn't it? I really love it here." she said.Min-seo clapped her hands rapidly, excited. She quietly edged open the door, but stopped for a moment, looking back at Elena with a grin.

"Being a nerd is a good thing usually my dear, it means you win in the end." Elena winked, "Well, snowball fights are always won by those that understand how they work. Snowball fights work by a mixture of strategy and general ability to aim."

Probably made little to no sense, that was fine, Elena was losing touch with the waking world. Frantic violin music filled her head for a moment before receding, interesting. At least Min found it a little bit funny, it gave Elena a facial expression closing in on a smirk but closer to a grin. It had amusement in it but ended up also looking mildly like she knew exactly what a superhero was about to do and that they would fail.

"I'll get you one if I can figure out where they came from." Elena flipped her cloak back and put her hand in her pockets, times like these the girl wished she was wearing a long coat. So tired she turned into a supervillain, interesting thought patterns for the girl.

"It's my home, how can I not love it?" Elena gestured for Min-seo to lead the way, "To adventure my dear friend, how can we fail on this?"

Min-seo waved her finger at Elena with a smirk. "Ah, you are quite correct my friend. Although, I'm never having a snowball fight with that guy ever again, plus he got me sick," she said. It was funny now that she thought about it, but it wasn't funny at the time. She chuckled slightly as she thought about it. The boy was kind of a jerk, but that didn't matter. She brushed some of her hair out of her face. She looked at Elena. "Would you? Really? But, didn't you find it? Or did someone find it and give it to you...." she said tapping her chin. She was thinking way too hard about it, to be honest. She did about most things actually. She pouted as she thought. That's actually what she did a lot. Pouted. She didn't try to, but she could help it by now, for it became a habit for the young girl. She shook out of it. She really needed to stop doing that. Min smiled at El's comment. "Yeah, it is quite like home isn't it?" she said. She smiled and nodded while opening the door wider and stepping inside with Elena, feeling quite nervous.

Elena frowned, "Sorry Min, being sick isn't fun at all."

"A professor of all people gave it to me, I'm not sure if she expected such nefarious behaviour from a good student with an E average, but I think they either never knew or forget where I'm from." Elena paused for a moment, "Probably the latter, but a pessimistic part of me says some of them don't care. If you ever need I can make you a list of the professors I vaguely trust."

It was a strange offer but if you translated it from Elena Speech it turned into I like you so I can make sure you're safe with this handy guide I'll make you, if you want. Turning her thoughts into words sometimes didn't quite work out how it should, but then again it's rare it did for anyone.

"It is indeed." Elena reached out to hold Min's hand, wanting to make sure she felt safe.

Inside was an enormous high-ceilinged room with four long wooden tables in it, Elena hadn't ever been in the kitchens before but it reminded her quite a bit of the Great Hall above it. Pots and pans were heaped everywhere, and once again Elena felt a pang of worry about the house elves. It didn't seem like the kind of place anyone would want to be...

Min-seo shook her head. "It's okay, I got over it, and that's all that matters," she said with a smile. She got over most stuff easily, but there were some things that she just couldn't, and all of those were quite private. Min-se snapped out of her thoughts as Elena said that a teacher gave her the interesting map. "Out of anyone who would give you the map, a teacher did? That's weird. And thank you, I'll ask you for them later maybe," she said. Min-seo started out her birthday feeling quite gloomy, but this was a nice alternative. Talking to EL and going on an adventure. She'd never really had been on one, for she didn't have the time or someone to do it with. Now she did, or it seemed like she had someone all along. She felt El slip her hand into her own and Min smiled before taking a few more steps into the kitchens and closing the door behind them. She'd never been into the kitchens before, and she was a tad bit worried. She looked at Elena. If she went down here to get tea, did that mean she'd seen them before? She looked back ahead, seeing a few small creatures looking at them.

Elena smiled a little at Min-seo, happy that her strange and words not being misconstrued as insulting or angry, "No problem! Always happy to help a friend."

A few house elves were wandering to and fro, one of them realised that some students had made their way down here and came over, "Miss Elena! How nice to see you down here, what were you after?"

It took a moment for the name to come to Elena's tired and foggy brain, this was one of the house elves that tried to give the blue haired girl extra food when she wasn't sleeping, "Hi Saffy, it's good to see you again! This is Min-seo, it's her birthday and we realised nobody remembered to get her cake."

A part of Elena was still worried about the intrusion but it was squashed by the girl convincing herself that the elf seemed happy enough about helping. The room being big helped oddly enough, it made Elena feel like there were enough places to run and hide if she needed to.

Saffy beamed and clapped her hands together and beamed, "Oh! Do you need a birthday cake? I love baking! What's your favourite flavour Miss Min-seo? I'll make one up special!"