Outside the Kitchens, by the Painting of the Pear

Draco watched as she sliced the apple, ready to intervene should she accidentally cut herself. After all it has been known to happen. He grinned as she successfully sliced it and he nicked a piece of it, even if he did prefer his apples green and whole. So he could bite into them.

Well Pansy prefers them red and sliced, and she turns to him glaring playfully as he stole a piece. "Who says you can have a piece of my apple? Maybe I wanted every piece of it for myself." She took another bite, chewing it as though to spite him and say HA this bite is mine and you cannot have it.

[We all know Draco likes his apples long and hard]

Charlie stumbles out of the kitchen after unsuccessfully looking for some food, as he is – after all – a Weasley. He looks around and it appears that Draco and Pansy are in the middle of something important. He decides to wait until one of them responds and just kind of stands there like Igor from Frankenstein, only without the hump. And the lazy eye, and the master-servent mentality......

So yeah, he was standing there and stuff.

She is chewing it. Victory. He smirked at her and gave her a kiss on the cheek, "So sorry to deprive you. Here," he glanced down to the box to see what other treasures it held and found something he thought she would like. With an adorably fake apologetic look he held out a strawberry, "Have one of these instead." Draco noticed the ginger walk out of the kitchen, it was the same one that had been annoying Pansy in the library and had insulted him and his family. He nudged her gently and met her eyes then glanced over her shoulder and back at his wand. By the time he was certain she knew what he was talking about he had finished putting all the food into the box and had his wand pointed at the ginger and cast a strong nonverbal JellyLegs Jinx on him.

Pansy smiled at him and took the strawberry with a sad little look, pretending it was only barely a replacement for her poor missing apple slice. "I suppose this will have to do." In truth it was a perfect replacement, because she prefers srawberries to apples anyway. She lifted it to her mouth, but paused just before biting the end off, noticing that same damn ginger kid that seems to stalk her on a nearly daily basis. She stayed silent, looking at Draco as he nudged her, figuring out what he meant by the rather significant glances. She picked up her things and dumped some of them into the box, jumping up after Draco hexed the kid and following him as they took off laughing and running down the hallway, headed for somewhere more hidden to enjoy their breakfast alone. Before they rounded the corner, Pansy twisted around, flicking her wand at him, shouting confundus! so that he ideally would not be able to follow them.

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Well, poopy. All the kitchen threads were taken, so we can just pretend this one is in the kitchen as well. Marco made his way up to the painting, tickling the pear and stepping aside to let Dee walk in before him. He headed over to the stoves and such, grabbing some pots and pans and things, heating up water in one of them. He gathered some noodles, tomatoes, and spices and all that stuff. "Alright. Spaghetti. First we've got to get these meatballs going." He pulled out some hamburger and put spices or whatever else you put in hamburger in them, mixing it up really good. "Want to help me make these into balls while you let me know which classes are your favorite and least favorite?"

"Sure," said Dee, taking the meat from him. "I have two favorites, actually. I like Potions and Herbology. I guess I like them because they're sort of scientific. I like Ancient Runes too, but not as much as the other two. And my least favorite would be History of Magic, obviously, since it's such a waste. I just read the textbook in that class; I don't even listen. I don't like Astronomy much, either. It ruins my sleeping patterns. What about you?"

"Ah, very true, but I think it's worth it to stay up to look at the stars. They are sort of beautiful. I think my favorites would be either Potions or maybe Transfiguration. Amazes me how you can change one thing into something else with the flick of your wand." Just for fun, he tugged his wand out of his pocket and flicked it at the salt shaker sitting nearby, turning it into a little white mouse. "So cool." Piling the meatballs onto a plate, the two of them had them finished pretty quickly. He dumped them onto a pan and stuck them in the oven to cook. "And I agree with you about History of Magic. Could Binns get any more boring? At least you read the book, I can't even be bothered to do that most of the time. It's a wonder I'm not failing."

"Binns is a pretty lenient grader, to be honest," Dee said, catching the little white mouse in her hands as it tried to run away. "The book is extremely boring, though. I only read it as something to do." She petted the mouse with her index finger. "I think it should have a name, don't you?"

"And thank goodness for that." Marco smiled at her, starting on the sauce. He peeled off the tomato skin before he cut them up and carved out the middles of them, putting all that aside before vanishing it with his wand. Adding in some onions, garlic, basil, oregano, salt, and pepper, he looked up at her as she said something about a name. He laughed to see her holding the little mouse. "Got any ideas?"

"Not really," Dee answered, watching the mouse climb all over her hands. "The only thing I can think of is Spaghetti, because I cannot wait for it. That's not a bad name, though. It's sort of cute, I guess." She laughed as Spaghetti the mouse started climbing up her arm.

"I think it's great. Spaghetti the mouse, it is." Marco went over to the fridge and grabbed a jar, hiding it behind his back. "And now I'll tell you a secret about my spaghetti sauce, that is, if you'll promise not to share this with anyone." He quirked an eyebrow at her, waiting to make sure she'd promise before he told her.

"I shall make a hypothetical Unbreakable Vow," Dee swore with a serious nod. "No wizard, muggle, creature, or bolar will ever find out your secret. I'll take it to my grave. And Spaghetti swears too. He's very trustworthy, since he can't talk."

"Oh, yes, Spaghetti is immensely trustworthy." Marco nodded, pulling a jar of grape jelly from around his back. "Jelly. A spoonful in the sauce, and mmmmmmm," he smiled very happily just imagining it, narrowing his eyes a little, "...perfect." He added a spoonful to the sauce he'd mixed up in the pot, sticking it on the stove to heat it up. "Bolars? What on Earth is a bolar?"

Dee raised her eyebrows, surprised. "Really? That sounds so weird, but I'll trust you. You're the only Italian sauce maker in this room, anyway, so what you say goes." She laughed when he asked what bolars were. "Oh, they're horny bears that live in the forbidden forest. No one believes me, but they are there. I swear on Merlin's dirty socks!" She nodded, more serious than she had ever been in her entire life. She petted Spaghetti some more and asked, "Is there anything I could do to help, or do you just want to do the cooking?"

"Makes it sweet." He stirred the sauce a little, listening as she explained the bolars. "Interesting. I've never seen one, but I suppose you have. If I'm th Italian sauce maker, then I guess that makes you the cute bolar whisperer." The pot of water was boiling now, so he grabbed the box of noodles and passed them to her. "I'm sure you can handle these, right?" Smiling, he scoote over so she had some room to stand beside him and dump in the noodles while he tended to the sauce and checked the meatballs quickly.

"I like that description," Dee decided, hopping off the stool that I just decided she was sitting on and taking the noodles from Marco. "Yep. I am fairly sure I can handle it. I just don't want to do it wrong," she dramatically continued. "What if a noodle broke? Would you hate me?!"

"Oh, absolutely." He turned to look at her very seriously. "All my noodles must be perfect." He laughed a second later though, shaking his head. "No, no. Break them all in half if you like. Easier to eat that way, actually. However you cook them will be great." He handed her one of those big spoon things with all the teeth on it, I don't really know what they're actually called, but they're good for spaghetti noodles.

Dee frouted. "I can try and make them as perfect as my not able to cook hands can," she promised, while breaking the long noodles in half with a snap. She dropped them in the pot of boiling water and swirled them around with the teeth spoon. "Anyway, so where were we? Favorite classes? What about... favorite Quidditch position?"

"Ahh, Quidditch. Chaser is probably my favorite. Such a huge part of the game, though all positions really are. I was a Captain back home for a few years. Do you play?" She looked athletic, or at least had an awesome metabolism even if she was a couch potato. And she had a bangin body to thank for it. Not that Marco's checking out her bootaytay or anything.

Dee is totally cool with Marco checking out her bootaytay, just saying. Dee nodded. "Yup. I played different positions when I was a kid, but I started playing Beater a few years ago. I had to get into shape to do it, but it's fun to watch the boy players on the other team change their minds about me when they see me hit bludgers at their faces. It's a very enjoyable experience. Do you follow British professional teams? I like the Harpies, personally. It's mainly because Gwenog Jones is a better beater than most of the men on her opposing teams, though. She's a badass."

"That she is, I've got a true appreciation for a girl who can wield a beater's bat better than most of the guys. If you're all you promise, I'd like to see that sometime." He laughed, giving the sauce a good stir before opening up the oven to take the meatballs out. They were nice and sizzly and cooked now. He dumped them off the tray into the pot of sauce, stirring them around to cover them up. "The team I follow most is the Falmouth Falcons. Always an interesting game even if they don't win."

"They're a decent team too. I listened to their match against the Ballycastle Bats the other week. That one was a nail biter." Dee stirred the spaghetti around in the pot. It was starting to look like thick little hairs now, which is a good sign. "I haven't been to a game in a while though, since I'm here at school. My dad used to bring me all the time."

"That was a great game. I'm pretty sure I was holding my breath through most of it." He moved the pot of sauce and meatballs off the heat. "I've not been to a game in ages. We don't really have a team in Italy, but my cousins and I used to come up here occasionally and go to a game if we could. Always a good time. Those noodles nearly done?"