Sugar 'n' Spice PV Haven Bohannon

Hair

Sweater

Outfit

Socks

Shoes

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"Sooooorry I'm late!" Haven announced as she burst into the kitchen, tying her hair back. "I was feeding Marcus and he decided he didn't like his food, so I had to find him something else, so I was just running around the dormitory, trying to find something else... and man, it took me forever! I still have to do homework!" Not that she was looking forward to the homework part. It was still a daily struggle, and getting through OWLs didn't make it any easier. She hadn't done super well on them, especially in comparison to her classmates. She had never been great at school, or test-taking in general. She just got so nervous and it was like all the knowledge she had ever known had grown legs and walked off!

In fact, it seemed to Haven like she lagged behind in everything, except height. She had a bit of a growth spurt over the summer, and since coming back for the school year, she's been painfully aware of her height. Her mother assured her she was perfectly average, but she was still taller than most of the girls (and some of the boys!) in her year, not helping her feelings of being out of place. In fact, she was certain she was the only one who had no clue what she was going to do with her life after graduation. Luckily? her OWL scores limited some of the options, but there was still infinite possibilities. And for all Haven knew, she was going to be living under a bridge and making Marcus do tricks to earn them money. She had time to figure it out, she'd been reassured, but it loomed closer than ever.

She was happy to have a distraction from all that plagued her when Aly invited her to make meringue. Haven was seen as a girl with a lot of talk and not a lot of thought, but really, she was both, though the thoughts were usually not super beneficial. Nor was the talk. So she was ready to just shove it all aside and focus on making some treats. As bad as Haven was at most things, cooking was not one of them. You'd think by that logic she could figure out potions, too, but no. No she could not. She was honestly hopeless in most school things, but this she could handle.

After washing her hands, she scooted her way to Aly's side, ready to get to work. "So, what's first? Also, your hair looks nice. And your outfit! You're so good at so many things. Donate some talent to the rest of us, would ya?"

Barefoot in the kitchen...
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Aly chuckled, or rather gasp-laughed, an instinctive reaction, as Haven burst into the kitchen announcing her apologies for being late. The sugary-sweet Hufflepuff always had known how to make an entrance. "Mate, you're not late - I was early," the Ravenclaw assured her with a laugh, putting down the sugar she had begun to measure out in the meantime to give Haven a big hug of welcome. "Marcus... that's your Pygmy Puff, right? I'd say let's introduce our pets, but I think Dauncey would try to eat him. Not that he'd succeed, but... y'know, best that we just leave them separate, yeah?" Separating from the embrace, she gave Haven a brilliant grin that showed her excitement for their upcoming session, or at least she hoped it did as much.

Aly herself had finished all of the necessary homework before coming to the kitchen - at least, the assignments that were due in the next few days. Of course, her professors would likely assign more in her classes the first half of the coming week, leaving her to use her beloved Wednesday free period for studying in lieu of her planned Seeker-practice session on the Quidditch pitch... but, in the meantime, it was cold out and the Ravenclaw had no excuse to be doing anything but preparing for her next article. She quirked an eyebrow at Haven. "At least you've got tomorrow to do... well, whatever you haven't done. But if you need to do this another time, I'm going to have plenty of recipes in the future that I'll need help with. Academics are more important!" (It was not lost on her how very much she sounded like her mother in that moment, and she bit her lip to shut herself up. That was exactly the last thing she wanted at this point.)

Luckily, Haven started chattering on about fashion, immediately drawing Aly's attention back to the present moment. She beamed at the compliments, looking down to her navy sweater and jeans. "Aww! You think so? Thanks - but trust me, you've got plenty of talent yourself!" She glanced at her Hufflepuff friend, gesturing up and down at her sunflower-inspired getup. "Did you make those knit things, or buy them? I'd pay you for some, if you made them." In truth, Aly meant it - but she also felt mildly bad about the way with which Haven said that she was good at everything. If only the Hufflepuff knew how untrue that was. She resolved to make sure these meringues turned out well, so that Haven would know her own talent, too. Speaking of the meringues, Aly turned to the ingredients, which had been dutifully measured out and placed in the order in which they would need them. "But anyway! If you're still good to help out, how good are your whisking skills? We need to beat this Occamy egg white with the salt and cream of tartar until it's foamy. I already let it get to a normal temperature, so we can just jump right in. Here, I'll set the fire..."

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She squeezed Aly tight in the hug, shaking her around a little in her excitement, nodding at her statement about Marcus. "Yeah, he's my pygmy puff... but you wouldn't need to worry about him, I'd be more worried about your cat. He's tried to make some moves on the other cats that live in my dorm... I think he thinks he's bigger than them, but they leave him alone now!"

At the homework part, Haven sighed. She didn't enjoy the weekends as much, now typically filled with homework and studying as she struggled through her assignments. But she certainly needed this break, quick to reassure Aly about that. "Nope! We're all good. We are doing this. Right now." Academics were more important, posh-posh. Not in her book! It was probably a bit unwise that she put off the piles of homework she had to do, but this was important too! She would do anything to help a friend, and those were few and far between nowadays. It seemed her former friends never wanted to talk to her anymore or she never saw them, and she was so caught up in all the homework and studying she had to do that she didn't have time to make any more! It was exhausting.

"I do think so," she reassured her friend, before blushing slightly at her next comment. It was at least reassuring to hear that someone thought she had talent. Haven seemed to be facing failure after failure recently, and it was so hard not to compare herself to the others in her classes- better students than her, prettier than her, good at sports, could actually perform a spell without it blowing up in their face. She felt so behind in comparison.

Haven's hand flicked towards the little bandana she wore when Aly mentioned it. "I wish I did, but no. We bought the sweater, my ma made the matching bandana. She's been trying to teach me to crochet, but... I'm not very good at it yet." She was great at making worms, noodles, and chains, but when it came to shapes, she was still figuring that one out. Hopefully, after a little bit more help from her mother over the holiday break, she could finally make it work. But for now, her skills were nothing to be throwing money at.

"Aye aye!" she said, grabbing the whisk. "You're about to get the best meringues you've ever tasted. I'm the best whisk-er in... well," she looked around to the house elves milling about, doing their own thing. "About a two meter radius." Nevertheless, she took the bowl in her arms, beating as quickly as she could until it was foamy and holding it up proudly for Aly to see.

Barefoot in the kitchen...
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Before the Ravenclaw had even finished setting the oven's fire to the pre-decided temperature, her bowl of Occamy egg white had found its way into the Hufflepuff's hands and had been beaten within an inch of its little egg-white life. Biting back a giggle as she stepped back from the oven, Aly couldn't stop herself from raising her hands and giving a little clap of appreciation. Clearly, homework could wait, after all - even if Haven hadn't made those clothes, she sure did have a talent in the kitchen, and Aly would definitely inform her as such. "Bloody hell, that was fast," she murmured, turning to the rest of the ingredients and scrutinising the recipe once more. Her voice raised to a normal volume again, she called over her shoulder to Haven, "You're sure you've never done this before? I swear I've never seen anyone do anything in the kitchen that fast, save maybe the house-elves..."

Next up on the hastily scrawled parchment was to add the sugar, and Aly pushed the bowl of powdery white towards Haven with a little shove. It nearly tipped over, but she thankfully had the presence of mind to stay nearby and managed to straighten it before it could spill all over her and her badger friend. "Okay, before I accidentally dump this everywhere, let's add it just a little bit at a time. You keep stirring, faster now, and I'll pour it in in increments, and we can sing the school song between them - the recipe says at a 'jazzy' pace," she instructed, hefting the heavy bowl with both hands. "At least it was pre-harvested from the Sugar Shrub. Can you imagine having to harvest our own in here? Here, hold steady..."

As Haven continued to stir, Aly poured the sugar in in five separate accruals, each about an equal portion of the called-for cup of sugar. To wait out the fifteen to twenty seconds that were supposed to pass between adding each portion, Aly burst out into increasingly jazzy renditions of 'Hoggy Warty Hogwarts' for each one: "Hogwarts, Hogwarts, Hoggy Warty Hogwarts..." "Dead flies and bits of fluff (yuck!)..." "Bring back what we've forgot..." and, finally, with a flourish as she dumped in the last one-fifth of sugar, "and learn until our brains all rot! Wonderful! Keep going, Haven, it'll need to go for a bit yet until we get those 'stiff peaks' the recipe talks about. Apparently, they'll be as shiny as a freshly polished Sickle once they're ready."

In the meantime, she turned back to the recipe, eyeing what was next: adding vanilla bean extract. On whether it was supposed to come from normal 'vanilla beans' or from the Bertie Botts' kind, the instructions were rather unclear; as such, the young Ravenclaw had collected both regular vanilla-bean-extract and some vanilla Bertie Botts' Every Flavour Beans from which she could harvest her own. She squinted at them both, postulating aloud to Haven, "It's got to be the Bertie Botts' kind, right...? I mean, this is a magical recipe," before deciding that yes, the latter was likely right, and reaching for them. Aly spread a few of the jellybeans atop the wooden work-table, and with the flat blade of her knife, slowly began to press down on them. "Just like a sopophorous bean in Potions, I'm sure," she was saying to Haven just before disaster struck...

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Haven beamed at Aly's approval, her face slightly blushing when Aly even asked her if she had ever done this before. "Not meringues, but sometimes I do help my ma out in the kitchen! Especially with baking, I loooove making cupcakes. And decorating them is so much fun too, especially if you get to put silly little faces on them." She wondered if they could put silly little faces on their meringues.

With a determined look on her face, Haven held securely onto the bowl, doing her best to stir faster, though she wasn't sure that was humanly possible. It felt like her arms were about to fall off with how quickly she was stirring, whilst still trying to follow the jazzy tune Aly was singing.

Then, Aly was done adding in the sugar, but said she had to keep going! She quietly yelled to herself in motivation as she kept stirring. It was rather interesting to keep watching, though, as it slowly became more stiff and shiny. Surely she was almost there, but before she was about to stir even faster to finish it up, she noticed Aly squinting at the recipe.

"Well, meringues aren't just a wizarding recipe, so who knows? But I trust your expertise on this. I mean, you do this more often than I do, and I keep failing potions, too, so, uh, probably go with what you think. My gut is not the most reliable. In fact, it's usually wrong. I'm not right about many things. Though you should probably be sure those jellybeans are all vanilla and not like... dirty snow or something. I don't think that would make our meringues very good. Oh. And do you think these are 'stiff peaks' yet?"

Barefoot in the kitchen...
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Haven seemed to be quite happy here, and Aly felt the Hufflepuff girl's bright smile warm her own heart. Sixth year was tough, there was no doubt about it, and times like these were just what they both needed - experiences spent with friends, being silly together, hanging out, with nary a single thought of schoolwork or classes or sports or however many inches of parchment. They were nearly halfway through their penultimate year at Hogwarts; why shouldn't they have more times like this, with their first five years having been marked with so much pain and suffering? After all, nothing had gone wrong here.

That was the wrong thing to realise, as just as Haven began to speak again about how meringues weren't just a wizarding recipe, Aly pressed just hard enough down on the flat of the knife she was holding against the Bertie Botts' vanilla-flavoured bean on the countertop. It cracked beneath her weight, and while luckily it didn't explode it did release a foul, overpowering smell that pervaded Aly's nose and mouth as much as it would have if she had bit into it. Haven's warning about incorrect flavourings had come too late, and the strong, acrid odor of chemicals flooded the air. The Ravenclaw didn't even need to taste the bean to know what it was: envelope glue. "Bloody white beans all look the same," she complained, picking up another and taking a small nibble off the edge before immediately spitting it out. "Blech! Soap! Okay, that's enough with the beans. I'll give these to, like, some first-years or something later."

Turning when Haven showed her the bowl full of whipped meringue-to-be, Aly nodded in satisfaction, though her mouth still tasted like it had been washed out after a cursing session, and not the magical kind. Resisting the urge to Scourgify the inside of her own mouth, lest she accidentally knock out some of her teeth, Aly assured Haven, "Those look stiff to me!" before turning and grabbing the pre-made vanilla extract. Thank Merlin I thought to grab a contingency plan! She poured the required amount of extract into Haven's bowl, the sweet scent of vanilla washing away all traces of envelope glue in the air, letting the Hufflepuff girl slowly incorporate the brownish liquid by stirring.

The rest of the recipe, thankfully, passed without any further events or errors - the levitating of small blobs of meringue mixture onto the pre-prepared trays only resulted in one house-elf with a faceful of sugar and egg, the ovens were preheated to the correct temperature and Aly thankfully didn't burn herself putting the trays into them, and the girls spent the hour or so of wait after baking the meringues and turning the ovens off joking around and catching up on life, which luckily was very difficult to screw up. They even sang Hoggy Warty Hogwarts again, this time as slow as what seemed to be humanly possible, but even the two girls could not seem to make the lyrics stretch out for a full sixty minutes. By the time the meringues were ready to taste and the mates had pulled them from the oven, they were both red-faced from giggling, with hurting cheeks and bellies. Truly, they had to do this more often.

Aly nodded at Haven to pick up the first crisp, white biscuit, which looked to be light as a feather and forty times as delicious, from the leftmost tray. "Go on! You should try it first. Not that I'm worried it's poisonous or anything," she added as a semi-afterthought, "but I think you did so much you deserve the first bite."