The Summer BBQ Open Closed

Meenauh finished her delicious burgers and remembered about the potato salad Prof Jensen mentioned before. She was particularly hungry that morning, probably because of the carrying the trunk earlier. And that potato salad sounded delicious. Meenauh picked up the plates and started moving towards the tables again, looking at the sky.

The morning sky was big, blue and beautiful. Meenauh didn't realise that she wasn't looking where she was going before she stumbled upon someone's feet, probably someone was lying there and enjoying the morning. That beautiful the sky was.

Interacting with @River Dewlight

Meenauh found herself in the grass with the plate still in her hands and quickly got herself standing again. Indeed, an unrealistically pretty redhead was lying there, bathing in the morning air. And Meenauh probably just ruined the flow.

"Oh, I am terribly sorry. I hope I didn't hurt you. The sky was just way too beautiful to look down," she apologised to the girl.

As the school year has ended, no one was wearing their school robes anymore, so Meenauh couldn't know the girl's house. And that was a relief. Meenauh didn't consider houses to matter anymore and now everyone was just a normal wizard with no prejudices, which for some people houses sometimes implied.

"Good morning, Professor Masoud," Hjørdis replied in a greeting as she gave her customary greeting nod, "Any chance you know how to make a potato salad?" She asked as she nodded towards a large bowl that contained boiled potatoes that had been left to cool down. They needed to be cut into smaller cubes before mixed in with the other ingredients, that were all either on the table itself or in a box near the table. She had no idea if he knew how to make it himself but she would happily guide him through it, if he did not. "The potatoes have already been started but everything else is either here or there." She explained as she pointed towards the box near the table as well as motioning to the table. Although it was not much, the potatoes would need a bit of further chopping so at the very least, he was certainly someone she would trust with a knife. It was mostly because he was not a student. She did not know him all that well though but perhaps this was a nice opportunity to get to know her colleague a bit more.

She nodded politely in return to the student [MEENAUH] who opted to go with her recommendation and grabbed herself a burger, "You're very welcome. If there's anything else you need, please do let us know." She replied before the student left. Glancing back to Caradoc, who seemed a bit nervous all of a sudden. Was it that hard of a question to answer?! She blinked at him, a little confused as she only wanted clarification that she had not missed anything major. Hjørdis shook her head as his words, however, "That's not a problem," She replied "I'm sure she appreciates it, nonetheless," speaking of his daughter. Her own father's cooking was something she always appreciated, even though he often made some ridiculous experiments. They often had way too much chilli and spice in it but she would enjoy them, nonetheless. At least, it would be funny afterwards even if they both spent twenty minutes trying to get the burning sensation out of their mouths from one bite.

Besides, not everyone enjoyed cooking. She had learned to cook from her grandmother, who loved learning recipes from different cuisines. It was partly how she ended up enjoying potions a lot whilst at school, they were very similar in a way. Hjørdis had a small smile on her face and slightly watered eyes, as she stared down towards the table. Her grandmother would be rather pleased to see her right now. She stared at the onions, blinking a little to remove the water in her eyes. She could blame them, right?

Smelling all of the food was starting to make her hungry too, now that she thought about it. She probably should have eaten something before cooking for everyone else. Nonetheless, she scooped up her freshly sliced onions and moved them onto the side with some of the other cut vegetables for the burgers. Recomposing herself, she glanced back to Caradoc and nodded, "If you want to continue to grill everything on that side, I can put them together over here," She replied as she motioned towards his side of the table, containing uncooked patties, sausages, sweetcorn and other vegetables that could be grilled on a skewer.

Hjørdis grabbed another packet of halloumi cheese, which she quickly opened up and started to cut into slices so they could grill it. She was careful to keep them thick enough that they would not just break as soon he put them on the grill. As she worked, she could not help but quirk an eyebrow a little. Not because she spotted the decorative stacks, she had not actually looked at them yet. But rather because she kept thinking he was turning to talk to her but did not. She said nothing, however.

Outfit of the Day | Hairstyle of the Day

[quote]espite the fact that he should be used to it by now – he’d spent enough time travelling in what people called the western world – he still had to supress a wince at the way his colleague addressed him. “Ah, call me Zahid, please, or Professor Zahid if you prefer, Professor Jensen. Masoud was my father.” It was an easy mistake to make he’d found and so he simply gave a slight smile before turning to look closer at the table.

“A potato salad? I should be able to handle that.” If he’d worn a long-sleeved shirt he’d be rolling up his sleeves right about now but as he had elected to go with a simple T-shirt that wasn’t necessary and he simply stepped around the table to grab a knife and get started on chopping the potatoes. At least, all the ingredients were already here which would hopefully make it easier and prevent a lengthy discussion on how exactly a potato salad was to be made. He’d had enough of that particular discussion after two days in Germany. He hadn’t expected people to fight that much over such a simple thing. He didn’t mind cooking (occasionally) but he was in no way passionate about it.

“It is the perfect weather for a barbeque, is it not?” he addressed his colleagues. It really was a nice day. Definitely a good way to start the summer holidays – although seeing as so many students stayed for the summer camp, it remained to be seen how much of a summer holiday he and his fellow professors would actually get. “Do you enjoy barbequing, Professor Browne?”

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"Zahid! Finally we'll be able to talk a bit. I apologise for not finding you sooner than this." He cleaned his hand on a towel that had been dangling sideways from his belt and extened it to the newly arrived professor. Doc seemed excited to meet his colleague. Even though he knew the History of Magic professor was unfamiliar with the concept of Hogwarts' houses, he had been placed in Doc's care. And the Head of Hufflepuff had set his man to honor the badger rules. Make friends til you die. Or something like that... A man with Zahid's extensive knowledge must be interesting to talk to at the very least. Doc had always liked presentation more than reading it.

Nora turned to his side of the table and asked him to scoot some things over. Which he willingly did without hesitation. "Sure thing, just a second." As he proceeded to roll severl pieces of corn over to the top and sorted all the meat in a separate corner. He watched the Head of Slytherin cut some halloumi and place it on the barbecue. He could have sworn he noticed a weird notion on her face. Some sort of realisation. With him assuming it must have been the stacks. He could not help but grin. Not that he'd comment on it, oh no, commenting would make it worse. He knew his little quirks were weird. Everybody had them. He wiggled his nose as he thought of something to say before Zahid intervened.

"It certainly is professor. And I indeed do enjoy myself." he nodded and smiled at the elder man. "A little less heat would have been nice. But man can always complain in any circumstance." He shrugged his shoulders as he turned back to the grill.

"My apologies, Professor Zahid," Hjørdis replied with a nod, correcting herself. As he agreed to making the potato salad, she nodded gratefully and did not expand any further on the instructions. Unless he did it totally wrong, she would trust his word and allow him to complete the task without interruption.

Her eyebrow raised slightly as the Hufflepuff Head of House burst into life, renewed with more energy than she had seen him before. He seemed rather excited about meeting Zahid. "Oh? Did you manage to get the book you were after from Professor Zahid?" She asked Caradoc, a smirk tugging at the end of her lips as she recalled his excuse for ditching out of the second year graduation party the other day. Caradoc had used Professor Zahid as an excuse to flee the scene - well before the fight broke out - but soon turned up at the pub. Hjørdis did not believe him then but his words now confirmed that the excuse had likely been a lie. Not that she cared if it were. She was just merely curious to see their reaction.

Looking up a little at the sky as the History of Magic Professor mentioned the weather. Ahh, talking about the weather the moment the sun was out... This was what being in the United Kingdom was all about. Weather was always a good topic for small talk, "Mhm, it's rather beautiful." She agreed, personally really glad to see some sunshine in Scotland, "Though, I'm sure some people will regret not wearing sunscreen." She continued, looking at absolutely no one in particular. After all, only certain people were silly enough to forget to bathe themselves in sunscreen, right? Cough. At the very least, it was not her neck that was going red from the lack of sun protection. "The heat from the barbeque might make me regret this soon though," Hjørdis added, not sure she really fancied standing next to the sizzling grill for too much longer. They had made quite a bit of food though so perhaps they could take a short break in a while.

She pondered for a brief moment, thinking about Jeger. Her beautiful kitty would definitely enjoy splashing around in a bit of water during these hot summer days. Hjørdis could not bring him today, he was far too young for her to just leave to wander alone and with so much food and a hot grill around, she did not want to take the risk. Her kitty was cuddled up in her bed, still sleeping. He would likely sleep most of the day but she made a mental note to get him outside in the evening.

Hjørdis moved to take the cooked meat. She quirked an eyebrow as her eyes fell onto the incredibly neat stack. It was at that moment that she noticed the tower of sausages, the spiral of bread buns. The Slytherin just blinked as she looked at it. It was rather nicely stacked, neat. Unnecessary but neat. Not wanting to ruin his rather nicely set decor, she carefully took a few of the buns from the top and started assembling some more burgers so they were ready for the children to just grab.

Outfit of the Day | Hairstyle of the Day

Interacting with @River Dewlight

As the girl was answering, Meenauh took a second to actually look at the girl. She was dressed quite uncommon for a summer morning like that. A sweater and long jeans were a nice fit, but strange considering the weather and July in general. Her face was pale, like abnormally pale, which didn't take a fragment out of her abnormal beauty, though. But it was still worrying. Probably she got flu, or something and was now recovering. That would explain her paleness and the outfit.

But not the shiver down the spine. When the girl looked at her, she felt she looked right at her. Like she looked inside Meenauh's body and mind. Cold strong eyes didn't match the illness theory at all. But the tone of her voice was quite warm, on the opposite. Meenauh agreed to herself that the persona was quite an intriguing one.

"I am fine, thank you very much," she responded once she finished analysing the girl, "Are you hungry or anything? I'm going to grab some potato salad. I could get you some or something else."

Meenauh surprised herself to the bones. Why on Earth was she offering to almost serve a meal to a stranger?

"You know, I'd advise you eating a bit more, especially red stuff if you ever wish to bring back any colour to your face," she suddenly added, mentally going through the list of potential diagnoses like anaemia in the background.

"What are you doing?!" the rational voice sharply shouted at her in her mind, "That is none of your business what she'd want to do with her face! Wasn't that enough that you trampled over her?"

Meenauh added a smile to her last phrase to make it sound like a sort of joke. She couldn't categorise it to any kind of joke, though.

Interacting with Arc

Solomon Lear was late to arrive,  a somewhat uncharacteristic happenstance for the Headmaster who was more often the first to arrive at such things. There was nothing outstanding about the Headmaster. His honey-hued leather-wrapped armor was always worn and  today would be no exception, even in the blistering heat of the day. In this regard, the man was perhaps an eccentric, dressed for battle rather than academia. There seemed to be just as many Professors as there were students, enjoying the warmth of the day and the prospect of food cooked outdoors which for some strange reason always tasted better even if it was a bit burnt.

The interactions were for the most part casual. Hogwarts was strange in that everything was absolutely fine until it was not. There was rarely this moment of warning, this tingling sense that something was about to go wrong. It was more like a switch was set off and then everything went wrong from there.  

Solomon had no intention of returning home during the Summer Holiday, he had no reason to. Besides, it would be better for everyone if he stayed on the grounds before-- well, he did not need to be a Seer to divine what would come next. He was well-aware that there was something, well someone on the grounds that did not belong. She was a killer and unbeknownst to Solomon that madwoman was the least of Hogwarts troubles. 

For now he was going to play the role of 'normalcy.' He would wordlessly busy himself near the food table, trying to look helpful. He was not helpful. Stacking items only resulting in them tumbling over. straightening items out into some semblance of organization resulted in near immediate disarray as small hands undid his busy-work.  

To keep out of trouble after a few minutes of trying to look like he belonged he would snatch a burger, the most burnt hockey-puck of a burger he could find and pressed it between a pair of buns with more condiments than meat and started to munch on the handheld meal as he ambled away from the tables. He was not paying attention to where he was going. That being why he would not see the boy sprawled out on the ground (Arc). Why his toe would catch the boy's side and why the Professor would trip over the youth.

A yell would be followed by the calamity of metal crashing.

It seemed that there was no response as to being able to hold the cat that the professor was holding in her arms. Bloom shrugged it off and went to where the rest of the BBQ groupings were. There seemed to be more people that arrived. There were some familiar faces such as Adam Harringtom and Dymphna Teague. Seeing Dymphna reminded Bloom of the Second Year Graduation when she stormed off. Obviously, it was not the time to ask about it now, but she really wondered what was going on.

Bloom walked over to Adam and Dymphna, who seemed to be talking about the weather. She gave them a small smile and a little wave with her hand. "Hi guys," she said, feeling a bit shy, but also excited to see familiar faces.

Pulling her side bangs behind her ear, Bloom crossed her arms and leaned her body onto her left hip. "Are you guys in camp all summer or for partial?" she asked, wondering who else was going to be camping throughout the entire summer with her. She remembered last year that she was only in camp for a couple weeks before sent back home. She was glad to finally be in camp for the full summer this year.

Everyone's favorite Slytherin had arrived. 

No need to give the girl her space, she was not going to approach the table. She had no intention of eating anything in a public setting. The last communal meal she partook in was laced with Verisatium, she shuddered to think of what might be imbued in the potato salad. Erin was keeping her distance, dangling from a trees few dozen yards away. Her knees were draped over a branch and she was performing inverted crunches in the background. She could have continued to do this in her dorm room as that was her routine but she was the curious sort. She wondered who would be here, who would stay behind on the first train. She would likely take the second train back unless she had a reason to stay, in truth she did not have much of a reason to go. 

She did not trust any of them. 

With the disappearances of so many students over the past two years and the casual disregard by both the Prefects (old and new) and the Professors, she was certain that there is a conspiracy. A few of the students made their way back with vague statements that there were issues back home that took their attention so suddenly for the better part of a year or more. 

Nope, they were full of shit.

She would reach up for the branch with her hands and grip the branch with her fingers and she would loosen the grip her legs had on the branch. Like a snake, her legs would slither out between parted arms and she would dangle from the tree. The blood finally leaving her throbbing head. 

She would pull herself up.

"One."

"Two."

"Three."

The Headmaster tripped over the Ravenclaw. She would squint her eyes, she recognized that nerd. Hmm...