Welcome to Wolfshaw Academy!

[Fiona Llewelyn]

Fiona had missed dinner - how could she have made it, when she was so thoroughly engaged in her book? - and so she was down in the kitchens, asking (well, telling) the house elves to bring her some food.

She was amused by the house elves - they weren't like her family's, but they were quite similar. They seemed to think of all of the school's students as their masters, but with some students ranking higher than others.

"Tizzy," she said to a wide-eyed female elf, "I would like some cawl, with bread, please. And a glass of pumpkin juice."

[Nathan Hamm]

"What's cawl?" Coming in the room behind her, head cocked curiously to one side, Nate was also looking for something to eat. He'd had dinner, of course, by why pass up an opportunity to eat? He was still growing, after all! Somewhat.

"Hey." He nodded a greeting to Tizzy before she ran off. "I don't suppose you could scare something up for me as well?"

Tizzy gave them both a smile and ran off; she was not one Nate was used to talking to and he hoped she would bring him this 'cawl' as well.

[Fiona Llewelyn]

"What's cawl?"

Fiona turned at Nate's comment, and frowned. She didn't like the boy. Still, he was interested in cawl.

"It's a kind of soup," she replied. "Broth," she said, "made with lamb and vegetables. It's traditional. We eat it on Dydd Gwyl Dewi."

Her manner suggested that "we" meant "Welsh people." She looked around the kitchens, and watched the house elves at work.

Fascinating creatures, house elves.

[Nathan Hamm]

"Dydd Gwyl Dewi..." Nate leaned against a wall and rolled the words around, mispronouncing them, though not on purpose. He was distracted, watching the house elves bustle. Maybe one of the others would set Tizzy straight and give him something he'd like better than this cawl stuff. "Is it that Dy-thingy today then?" Not that he was more than passingly interested, since he was also hungry.

He glanced over for her answer, looking right at her for the first time of the evening. Her expression didn't exactly sweeten his mood. "Hey, why you always gots to be scowling at me like I kicked your kitten or something? I mean, I don't think I did."

[Fiona Llewelyn]

"David's Day isn't today," said Fiona, reverting to its English name, "but I'm training the house elves so that when it comes, they will be able to cook it properly."

There. That was approximately what she was doing. As for the boy's second comment... well.

"Because you're rude, crude and uncouth. I don't like you," she said simply. "You didn't kick my cat, by the way. You'd know about it if you did," she said coldly. She loved her cat.

[Nathan Hamm]

"I'm not rude," Nate assured her. "Maybe the other two, but I'm not rude! Never done a thing not nice to you, but you come out all scowling at me anyway. You got to have a reason for it, and if I didn't kick your cat then what was it?"

He pushed off from the wall, but only to shift irritably from foot to foot. He wasn't too concerned about having one snooty seventh-year like him or not, but he would like to know just what it was he'd done to piss her off so bad.

[Fiona Llewelyn]

"You're... you," she said. "You offend my sensibilities - it's bad enough your a man, but that's tolerable, at least. You," she said, "and you rude, crude way of being... it's offensive. Such behaviour would be offensive to anyone, but to a lady such as myself," she said, "it's truly appalling. You should behave yourself in front of ladies," she said, and tossed her hair.

"You," she said, "are a cretin."

He wasn't, not really, but Fiona had only learnt that word fairly recently, and so she liked to drop it into conversations as much as possible... and since she didn't have any friends, she couldn't do it very often.

"You're also a pervert," she said, with such a calm, self-assured air that it would have been hard to argue with her. She stated it like a fact - like Gamp's Law .

[Nathan Hamm]

As she talked, Nate tried to reason out what it might have been that would make her think of him that way. The crack about being male, well that fit with past conversations and rumors. He didn't know what a cretin was. Per...

"Pervert?" He couldn't help it, he just cracked up laughing. "I'm a pervert? How?" To his knowledge, he was on the mild side for the average sixteen-year-old male.

"And if my 'crude' way of being offends you, well honey, I'm sorry. But that's just too bad a thing. I ain't gonna walk around like I got a gold-plated stick up my ass for someone going around calling herself a lady. Don't know how things go for you in Wales, but here you're just another student, and I'll live any damn way that makes me happy and don't hurt no one else."

He was still grinning, well closer to smirking now, and wandered further into the kitchens to see what Tizzy was up to. Watching house-elves work wasn't more interesting than bating crazy people, but it was nicer. And he couldn't very well claim he wasn't rude and then stick around to needle her.

[Fiona Llewelyn]

Fiona hated it when people walked away from a good argument. It offended her sensibilities. A lot of things did, mind you, but that didn't matter.

"Yes," she called after him, "a pervert. You're not as bad is Ciaran Ranier, but don't you dare think that I haven't seen the way you look at girls! It's disgusting!"

As for his other comments, well.

"For you information," she said, "things go just fine for me in Wales, and you, you are an offensive, rude little boy."

Oh, the hypocrisy.

[Nathan Hamm]

Nate shrugged, turned to walk back-ward with his hands held up to say and I should care because...? "Go back to Wales, then, if you've such a better time of it there, but here no one cares about your lady-ship. And Ciaran is a pervert, so don't compare me to him. I just happen to enjoy a view now and again; not a thing wrong with that."

He turned again, intent on seeing what was becoming of his food, when Tizzy herself returned to the scene, nearly running into him and scolding him quite franticly for getting in the way. She shoved a plate into his hands which held his normal fare and carried a larger plate with a bowl and bread to Fiona. Nate was more amused by Tizzy's manner than Fiona's (the red-head was getting just a little unreasonable, in his opinion) so he tried following her back into the kitchens proper anyway.

Tizzy, it seemed, had been warned about him. Nate found he couldn't take a single step closer to the mysterious counters and tables on which food was prepared, and could only watch the house-elves continue to clean up for the night.

Bummer.

He turned back to Fiona, shrugged once more, and headed for the door. "It seems they're kicking us out. Like an escort back to the commons, your highness?"

This post has been edited by Nathan Hamm on Sep 8 2007, 07:44 AM

[Fiona Llewelyn]

Fiona barely listened to Nate as he spoke, until he mentioned the words "your highness."

While it was a mode of address suitable for a lady such as herself, she never wanted him to utter those words ever, ever again.

"Never say that to me," she said. "I do not appreciate it. I will, however, take an escort. It would not do for me to get caught alone," she said, taking her cawl from Tizzy. "Thank you, Tizzy," she said, and levitated the stuff as she got up. She charmed it to follow her along as she walked, and put a heating charm on it.

[Nathan Hamm]

Well, that was about the last answer Nate had expected from her and so once again his full attention was focused on the elder red-head. He threw his head back and laughed, perfectly delighted.

"You're crazy, Highness. But I like you. Come on, let's go before we get caught out after curfew."

[Fiona Llewelyn]

Fiona was taken aback, but she didn't let it show on the outside. What, exactly, had happened there?

Nate was being rude, she was being argumentative, Nate brushed her off, she argued... and suddenly he liked her?

Well, it was odd, but maybe she could use him to her advantage. And, he could take half of the blame if they got caught. Oh, and maybe he could find her things in the library!

There was a use for him, after all, she decided.

"Come, then," she said, and set off at a brisk pace towards the Findel common room.