mille feuilles de framboise ! // aliah

[Araziel Léon Vasilica]

Christmas and New Year's had come and gone, both occasions spent with dysfunctional family back in France. As far as school scheduling was concerned, however, it was still break and though Araziel had no pressing reason to return to Hogwarts early, he had already exhausted his supply of cookies at home after having exchanged countless batches with countless friends, and now that all of France was supplied with enough pans au chocolat and bûches de Noël to last a year, it was only natural that Araziel turn his sights to other geographical locations of interest .... the next, of course, being the castle!

With this mission in mind, Araziel had arrived back at Hogwarts the other day and had begun his project at once. Now on his third day straight of baking, he had awoken that morning, gotten dressed in a hurry, and then dashed down to the kitchens a half an hour earlier than he intended to start baking, since that's how about how long it took to finally escape the house elves that greeted anyone who came in with piles of (admittedly tasty) food.

But now that that was over, Araziel was already bustling around the kitchen, digging flour and sugar and all of the other essentials out of their respective cupboards, maneuvering around with ease as he'd long since familiarized himself with this working environment. There too was the added bonus of it being the holidays; while it meant that there would be less people with whom to share his confections (they would be returning soon; the reason he'd timed his cooking stint so), it also meant that there was less chance of getting caught in the kitchens which, to his knowledge, were off limits!

Already he'd had to change his schedule around a bit because he was certain that that nosy Professor Snape was harboring suspicions about the trips, and even if he did get in trouble and even if Lucien would be able to bale his arse out of it, Araziel would have preferred to prevent any complications to begin with.

As it were, that cold snowy morning (now warmed by the ovens in the kitchens) found Araziel in the midst of folding pastry dough for some raspberry mille feuilles. There was no need for school uniform since it was break; he'd simply thrown on a pair of trousers and boots and a loose white-laced blouse; after arriving at the kitchens, an apron too was necessary.

Of course, even after he'd washed the framboises and was just about to start cutting the dough, the sound of the door beyond opening to herald the arrival of a newcomer startled Araziel so; he'd only been caught once in the kitchens before and last time it had been a fellow Gryffindor, but ... bah!

Thus, surprised, Araziel yelped and ungracefully dove behind the nearest kitchen island, only daring to peek out a few moments later to try to see who it was.

[ALIAH ISABELLA EVANS]

Even this early in the morning, the warmth of the kitchen ovens was strong and welcoming. She could feel it in the walls as she descended the staircase into the dungeons, her converse-covered feet moving quickly and lightly so she would not attract attention as she wound her way towards the forbidden fun of the kitchens.

Small flecks of snow that had nestled on her dark hair like a crown on her walk through the courtyard had now started to melt, the air was so toasty. It was a stark difference to her dorm, where her tower room had its windows beaten by a howling wind all night. She and her brother's had agreed to come back the day before, rather than spending it with their stuffy, old fashioned and frankly boring paternal family back in Ireland, after seeing some extended branches of the family in their holiday house (it was more of a manor, she supposed) in the English countryside. As such, being on a slightly different time schedule and fed up of the window panes rattling like the bones of the ghosts in the halls, she'd gotten up, and despairing at the far-too-early-for-breakfast hour, decided she owed the kitchens a visit, dragging herself out of bed with a groan and quickly getting dressed before stumbling down the stairs into the ravenclaw common room and out into the halls, with a quick wish that the staircases were behaving and wouldnt deposit her too far out of her way.

Taking her fingers, with their very non-regulation turquoise nail polish, out of her hoodie pocket, she flipped her long black hair back out of her face and reached for the first of the doors leading into the kitchen. She was nice and warm in her jumper, her own daggy favourite Kenmare Kestrels quidditch jumper, the team's bird icon sitting above an Irish flag, its black fabric standing out against her pale skin. Her fingers touched the cool metal, and with a glance back behind her down the corridoor, she pushed gently and smirked as she was rewarded with a barely audible creak before the door swung open. Opening it just wide enough to squeeze her tall, slim frame through, her eyes glittered as she shut the door on the brightly lit corridoor behind her, the door swinging back into place with a soft click. Now, she turned and moved towards the second door, through whose thick oak she could hear the soft sounds of the house elves' bustling and running about, no doubt preparing breakfast for the small amount of students remaining at the castle.

Taking a deep breath, she pushed the door open a crack and peered through, her cheeks flushing at the heat inside. She rolled up her jumper sleeves as she squeezed through the door, and made her way quietly around the edge of the kitchen, surveying what was happening and looking for opportune moments to reach out and pocket a tasty morsel. All around, plates of food were being piled into trolleys, everything from muffins to bowls of fruit salad to the elements of a cooked breakfast being assembled by a team of aproned elves, who didnt even spare her a second glance. One small house elf, having nearly run into her with a tray of croissants, offered her a sharp toothed grin and sped past. Saf in the knowledge she was safe from teachers down here, she moved towards an archway that led into another room of the kitchen.

Someone had obviously been in here, flour dusted the benchtops and a mound of pastry sat on a marble board. Curious, she moved over to inspect it, wondering if one of the elves had forgotten it. But upon seeing a bowl of rasperries, the topmost ones glittering as the light reflected of the droplets of water on their sides, she immediately moved to reach forwards to pick one up. Her fingers had just made contact with one of the sweet, red fruits as she noticed a small cloud of flour trailing from behind one of the kitchen benches situated in the middle of the room, and popping the raspberry in her mouth, she tiptoed softly over, ignoring the smell of fresh bread cooking in the oven behind her. She loved that smell. The kitchens always smelt wonderful, no matter what was currently being created in their depths.

Coming to the corner of the bench, she peered over and blinked in surprise, ceasing her chewing for a moment as her mouth formed a little 'o' of surprise. The person who was huddled behind the bench was peering up at her, and Lee frowned.
'nwadyoodoontheh?' she mumbled. She was greeted by a blank look. Swallowing the raspberry this time, she tried again.
'um, what are you doing there?' she asked, noticing for the first time he was in an apron and remnants of flour coated his hands. Blinking a few times, looking between his hands, the apron, and the pastry and bowl of raspberries on the counter, she put a hand to her mouth, her fingers slightly stained from swiping a raspberry from his bowl, knowing the answer.

'Oops..'

[Araziel Léon Vasilica]

Araziel was apparently quite practiced at remaining undetected; no doubt breaking into kitchens (and other places ... eherm) was a frequent pastime of his. The only downside to being caught in a kitchen was that Araziel had a tendency to enjoy his work so much to the point that he became absorbed enough in it to allow his guard down and ... of course that left him in a rather vulnerable spot. Had the intruder been a truly potential threat (Professor Snape, whilst unsavory, was not particularly a 'threat'), hiding behind the kitchen island wouldn't have been sufficient cover in the least, but fortunately this matter was relatively trivial ...

Shoving his auburn locks out of his face (resulting instead in flour-dusted hair), Araziel blinked and peered around the corner of the counter again. Ah! Well that was most certainly not Professor Snape, but best to stay hidden anyway in case it happened to be one of those nosy Slytherin students; he couldn't tell really, as the girl was not in uniform. At least she seemed distracted by the raspberries, which was of course perfectly fine with him; anyone who stopped to enjoy a bit of good food was no enemy in Araziel's eyes, but as he slipped back into his spot, pondering, he was met with a new problem. After all, now that he was hiding here and the girl was this far into the kitchen, how was he supposed to pop out of nowhere without making the situation awkward? Surely it wasn't a common occurrence, and now it might have seemed he was spying on her or something.

Well, fortunately and unfortunately the girl took care of that dilemma for him. Suddenly appearing around the corner of the counter with a simply inquiry, Araziel squeaked in surprise at her and tried to backpedal, but eventually he just pushed himself off of the floor and sprung back onto his feet as if nothing at all had been the matter.

"Oh, just ... I was just hiding from potential nosy Slytherins. I've observed that they enjoy ratting people out for nothing, 'specially Gryffindors." Araziel pursed his lips, placing his hands on his waist as he regarded the girl carefully. He didn't recognize her, but the school's population was fairly expansive so one couldn't really blame him.

"Anyway, you don't look like one of 'em; you look far too ... uhm ... content. And your hair isn't greasy." Chuckling good-naturedly, Araziel dusted his hands off and then wandered over to the sink to wash them; his hands had touched the floor after all, and as always he was a stickler about food sanitation! The habit probably came with the cafes back at home.

As he returned to his station, he scooped up a bowl of already-beat egg and began to brush the sheets of dough with it. "So, you're one of the few lurking 'round the castle during the holidays then? I was surprised by how many people actually hang around through Christmas." Araziel spared the girl a friendly smile before picking up a fork to poke holes in the dough. "I'll assume that means you came down for a bite to eat? I'd like to tell you that you'll find no better food than mine, this side of Scotland, but ... gotta' admit that the house elves do make for some tough competition." Pausing, he wrinkled his nose. "'Course, there's also ... a million of them. But they make great kitchen assistants! They follow instructions to the letter; it's amazing! Wish I had some back at my place in Paris. Impossible to find good employees there; during summer, especially, half of them are exchange students looking for part time jobs and let me tell you, they are the most unpunctual people when it comes to work, and they're all damn wet behind the ears."

Apparently Araziel had no problem chatting once started, but there was nothing conceited about his manner; it was just genuine friendliness. It definitely beat sitting around in awkward silence twiddling one's thumbs, that was for sure.

"Anywho, you tasted the raspberries. They fresh enough you think?" he questioned idly as he took the baking sheets of dough to go shove them into the oven.

"OH. And 'fore I forget, I'm Araziel. 'Tis a pleasure. I'd shake your hand, but it's covered with butter and flour and God-knows-what-else." He offered the girl another grin before moving now to a stove, tossing a saucepan onto it.

[ALIAH ISABELLA EVANS]

Lee blinked once at the newcomer, or really new-appearer, since he'd obviously been here first. With a slowly widening grin, she watched him spring up and then bustle about the kitchen in a calm, assured manner, chatting all the while. He was obviously in the middle of making something, come sort of confection, and owing to the warmth of both the kitchen and the boy, Araziel's, conversation and the fact she'd only just arrive, she had no intention of turning on her heel back out the door. Besides, there was the prospect of a free feed.

Moving to a counter that was pristine and obviouslt not in use, she swun herself up into a crosslegged sitting position, watching things unfold with a bemused expression. "Oh, just ... I was just hiding from potential nosy Slytherins. I've observed that they enjoy ratting people out for nothing, 'specially Gryffindors.". Lee held back a thinly disguised snort at that. That was true. She'd seen Harry Potter and the Malfoy boy in the hallways and neither had seemed particularly inclined to be civil. And there was always something between the two houses. Maybe its the fact that they totally disagree about being complementary colours of red and green? Lee didnt know. But for now, she knew her kitchen companion was Gryffindor, which meant he'd probably get along with her. Her house and Gryffindor always seemed to get on amiably.


"Anyway, you don't look like one of 'em; you look far too ... uhm ... content. And your hair isn't greasy." She blinked at him again, losing the smile on her face and frowning for a second. She put a hand up subconsciously to touch her hair, but the damp droplets of melted snow had evaporated in the heat. She hoped it wasn't feral, and despite the odd phrasing, she laughed.
'No, no, I'm Ravenclaw. Well picked,' She said, shifting to the side to watch what he was doing as he moved around the bench on which his pastry was sitting. The boy looked totally at ease in the kitchen, which made Lee feel a little better about her own forays into the kitchen. However, looking at the speed at which Araziel's hands worked, she doubt she could match his skill.

Mouth quirked up slightly at the corner as she listened to the amusing speech, and enjoying the warmth of the kitchen and the smells drifting through from the busy house elves in the next room, the occasional cry of 'yes chef!' and 'plate of pastries, chef!' and other such statements reaching her ears as background noise as he spoke to her.
'I am not lurking, she said indignantly, before grinning.
'Well, being back at the castle for christmas break is certainly better than being at home,' she said, mouth twitching up at the corners as she recalled how much her older brother had complained about being stuck for weeks in the same residence as their step-mother. Even her younger, half brother, the son of her step-mother, was eager to be out from her influence. 'That and the food is so much better. So yes, you got me, i'm here to pilfer the kitchens for all their bounty.

Standing up to move around the kitchen a little, she listened as he went on, and she looked at him as he mentioned Paris.
'You live in Paris? Nice. I went there once. Rained the entire time. She was fond of the memory, staring up through the glass pyramid of the Louvre as its surface became distorted from the rain running down its sides. True about the house-elves, as well. That was one good thing about visiting her grand-parents house in Ireland, they had three of them in the kitchen alone. Oh, what a treat it was to not have her stepmother cooking, the elves actually knew one end of a wooden spoon from the other. She found herself nodding along to his words, watching as he used the fork to stab the pastry in short, swift movements.

Leaning against the bench, she heard his next words just as she reached out towards the white porcelain bowl. Anywho, you tasted the raspberries. They fresh enough you think?" She froze, a quilty expression creeping its way onto her face, she'd popped another three into her mouth as she'd been listening, trying to remove the pips from her teeth with her tongue was a subconscious movement. The raspberries' cool, soft flesh was a refreshing burst in the heat of the kitchen, and the summery fruits were welcome after the previous three weeks of heavy, rich food at her fathers house. Hastily, she retracted her hand and nodded enthusiastically.

'Oh yes, they're wonderful. What are you making with them? she enquired, watching him reach for a saucepan after deftly sliding a tray into the oven. In her current sleepy state, she couldnt put together what all the various elements were going towards, but no doubt she'd find out. Realising he'd spoken again, and deciding the next time she went into the kitchen she'd wait until she was fully capable of maintaining a decent attention span, she looked up at his grinning face and found the easy smile was something she could reflect on her own features.

'Aliah, but call me Lee. Thats ok, aren't you supposed to do the French kiss thing anyway? I've got brothers, a little bit of stuff on your hands wont bother me. I'm hard to gross out, she smirked, dipping two fingers into a bowl of yoghurt with passionfruit pulp swirled decoratively on top that had been left by a house-elf passing through the archway. Licking her fingers appreciatively, she fixed a sparkling eye back on Araziel and decided she probably wasn't too early for breakfast after all.

[Araziel Léon Vasilica]

Ravenclaw. Ah! From what Araziel had gathered over the brief past couple of years of his attendance here, Ravenclaw's students were generally academically inclined, intellectual people. Whilst Araziel was not one to immerse his nose in books for days on end (unless they were gastronomical books!), he found that Ravenclaws tended to be more reserved and overall a smidgen more mature than other students. When it came down to it, Araziel might have almost preferred their company over Gryffindors; the lions could get a bit too boastful and self-indulgent for his tastes. 'Course, that might have all been because he was in that house and the company was just stale.

"Family holidays not your thing, then?" Araziel returned conversationally. "I quite like holidays with my family, actually; they're usually all over the place at any given time of the year, so Christmas is a good excuse to reel 'em all back in, even if only for a week. We're a crazy lot, won't deny that, but if nothing else, the food's always good! 'Course that's 'cause I make it." He grinned to himself. "And that's also kinda' the reason I'm back early. Finished feeding all of France, you see, so I figured I might as well extend my conquest to the UK."

While he double checked the oven settings and made sure the racks were evenly spaced, Araziel scoffed and waved a hand dismissively. "Paris'll do that to you, but really now; stay in the UK long enough and everywhere else is as dry as a desert, don'tcha' think?"

At that point Araziel had finally dug a bottle of milk out of the fridge, and, pouring it in to the saucepan, he turned the heat up and let it sit for a bit, occasionally giving it an absent stir with a wooden spoon. In the meanwhile, he spared a knowing glance towards the girl's raspberry-stained fingertips and smirked to himself. It was early yet; breakfast, by most people's standards.

"Oh these? Hardly breakfast food. Just felt like it was a day for mille feuilles! Figured everyone could do with it after plum pudding and ... and whatever else English people eat for desserts at feasts."

Araziel was halfway aware that he might have been moving too fast for a half-asleep person to keep up with, but as Araziel was somebody who ran on coffee (and if not coffee, coffee-infused blood) despite not needing any extra energy boosts, he wasn't apt to keep still for too long, especially not in the kitchen.

In fact, on that note ...

"Since it's breakfast time, care for something a bit more ... well ... breakfast-y?" he inquired. Whether or not the girl was in the mood for it, however, Araziel certainly was, and most of the ingredients he needed were already out anyway!

He did take a moment amidst all of his buzzing around the kitchen to acknowledge the girl's returned introduction though. Her words merited a laugh from the vampire, and he shrugged before digging out another bowl and snatching up a whisk from the counter.

"Well, too late for that now; we've already passed introductions," Araziel pointed out in mock disappointment as he whisked ingredients together for a batter. "Remind me next time! Though in my defense, I've had enough slaps on the face to know to refrain from the kissy thing 'round here. The English aren't too keen on it, but then they don't seem to be too keen on much of our French things anyway ... 'cept our food. They're quick to take that."

Laughing, he paused to toss a pod of vanilla beans into the now-heated milk and flipped off the heat on that one before he laid out another saucepan and a flatter frying pan. The latter was brushed with butter and left to heat a little; the former had some ingredients whisked together as well (the standard flour, egg yolks, sugar, and salt) before the milk and vanilla were added. After that was left to simmer a bit, he returned to the pan and poured some of the batter into it.

"Hope you like crêpes 'cause now that you're here, you are officially obligated to try some," Araziel warned her, keeping an eye on everything as he went to check what other fruit was available. Resurfacing with a bowl of wrapped blueberries, he slid them down the counter towards Lee and returned to his spot by the stove, stirring the slowly-thickening custard constantly even while he flipped the crêpes or started on new ones.

"Anywho, on your previous note, I've a cafe in Paris but I'm MIA half the time; one of my good friends oversees that one, and another friend who manages a small inn in Marseilles takes care of the Marseilles cafe too. As for where I actually live ... well, I was born in Marseilles but the family and I reside in Versailles. Ooooold family estate. Dates back to ... hell, prolly from before the Three Musketeers."

Chuckling, he nodded his head towards Lee. "What 'bout you? You from around England like most of Hogwarts' population? And come to think of it ... you got any relatives here? Swear you kinda' resemble someone in my year." He squinted at her with mock suspicion, folding his arms and tapping his chin with a finger.

[ALIAH ISABELLA EVANS]

Lee found she quite liked being in the kitchen with this highly spirited Gryffindor. Her bemused expression never left her face as she now lifted herself up to sit on a clear expanse of bench next to where Araziel was working. He seemed to be everywhere at once, grabbing things of shelves, stirring pots, grabbing pans, she wasn't sure she could keep up this early in the morning. She gave a massive yawn that ended in a laugh.

'Not a family holiday person would be a bit of an understatement. My dad's family is one of those stuffy, pedigree types, you know? So Thaniel and I are kinda the ones they dont talk about. And my step-mother's a nutter. And a terrible cook, she said, locking eyes with him and smirking. He obviously was in the kitchen a hell of a lot, then, judging by the remarks. That, and he was French. It would have been plain strange if he couldn't cook. Watching him cross over to the fridge, and finally dig out the bottle of milk, and return to the stove.
Well, i quite like the rain. I always think you can get to know a city best at night time or when its raining. Lets you see its real character.

She peered over into the pan as it began to steam slightly, ignoring the pointed look at her red-stained finger tips. Catching his gaze, she grinned and wiggled them in the air.
'Caught red-handed eh? she smirked. Plum pudding? I haven't had that in ages. And i imagine they like bread and butter pudding, and custard, treacle tart maybe? No idea, not my field of expertise. Ooh. mille feuilles? yum... Despite his words, she'd eat them for breakfast if he let her. Hell, she'd eat anything for breakfast. Glancing at the clock on the wall, she narrowed her eyes as she realised breakfast was still a good few hours away, so she nodded enthusiastically when he offered something a little more breakfast friendly.

She reached towards a wooden spoon and spun it in her fingers, wondering if she could be of any use, but Araziel was moving at a ridiculously efficient speed, and it was as she was twirling the spoon in her fingers after she'd made her cheeky little comment that she noticed a glint as he laughed. Squinting, she narrowed her eyes and took advantage of his concentration on the pan. Fangs? However, she wasnt inclined to ask, especially as he was cooking her breakfast.

Smiling at the reacton her comment had caused, she watched as he grabbed another selection of ingredients from various locations in the kitchen. What now? she wondered, envisioning stacks of brioche, fruit salads, delicate yoghurt and fruit puree masterpieces with some type of that fancy, overly-expensive muesli.
'You've been slapped for being friendly? Bloody hell. Us island barbarians have no manners like you Continentals. You know, next time, if they slap you, slap them back, their reactions would be priceless. I won't slap you, by the way. Unless you come up behind me, then i might get pissy.

She watched as a vanilla pod was swiftly deposited into the milk. Then, the mixture he'd been whisking before took a shape Lee recognised, and she grinned.
'Crepes? Oh hell yes. Obligated my ass, she said, eyes lighting up at the sight of the batter coating the bottom of the pan. Damn, she'd never been able to get hers that thin. But then again, her pan was probably the wrong one. Maybe she could buy one of those really shallow crepe pans and try to get them right that way. Blinking as a covered bowl shot towards her over the bench, she caught it mainly out of reflex, before removing the clear plastic film and slipping a hand into the bowl and grabbing a small handful of the blueberries, which left a small amount of dark indigo juice on her palm, contributing to the deep red of her fingertips. She'd have to wash her hands before going back upstairs, people were likely to think she'd murdered something.

With the other hand picking blueberries out of her hand one by one, occasionally dipping one into the yoghurt, which she'd made a point of pushing behind her when the house-elf had come past again. Happy not to have had her prize taken from her, she watched as the substance inside the saucepan became recogniseable as custard. But of course it wasnt finished, so it probably wouldn't be custard custard, but a stepping stone on its way to a creme patissiere, or whatever form of thick, cream like food was used in mille feuilles. SHe listened to his story about the places in France, each one jumping out like she was in some historical book. Versailles, even in the wizarding world she'd heard of it. It had been home to a famous Queen, who'd spent so much on clothes her country had chopped off her head. But she'd been very fond of cake, apparently. Maybe one of the attractions for Araziel's family? She smirked at the thought.

She watched as he flipped a crepe and deposited it delicately on a plate before he stepped back and fixed her with a look. She grinned.
'Dont look at me like that, i haven't got a body double hidden somewhere purely for the purpose of messing with your mind. Thats probably my brother, Nathaniel Evans. He's in Ravenclaw, like me, and my little brother Alec. We're from Ireland, but we moved here for my father's job at the ministry.' she pointed to the small flag stitched onto the breast of the hoodie with a finger, before pushing her hair out of her face and going in for more blueberries after grabbing one final raspberry off the pile.' So really, we're Gaelic barbarians with a fondness for potatoes and whisky. A fault i'm sure you'll eandeavour to fix, I bet that doesnt even classify as 'food' to you, She tossed the raspberry up and catching it in her mouth, before grinning at him through teeth stained red with the juice of the berries.

[Araziel Léon Vasilica]

"Haha, 'stuffy pedigree types'? I doooon't envy you, ma'ams'elle. But maybe if you hang 'round the kitchens with me enough, you could go back home and whip up something more decent for your family. Teach your stepmother a thing or two." Rolling his eyes, Araziel finally went to turn the heat off of the custard pan, still stirring it before leaving it alone to cool properly.

Returning his attention to his crêpe-manufacturing now, Araziel took to plating the crêpes in portions of three in between making more. At the rate he was going, he was either expecting the two of them to eat four breakfast's worth of crêpes (though given the speed at which he worked, requiring that much for his metabolism might have been plausible), or ... he was plotting on handing food out to the house elves and, according to his MO, probably random people he passed in the corridors throughout the castle. Figured he could give them something different from bland British 'cuisine.'

"Right, forgot the British like everything tasteless and smothered in just-as-tasteless cream," Araziel remarked with a smirk even as he offered Lee a plate of the artfully arranged crêpes. It might have just been improv breakfast, but that was no excuse to be lazy; the resulting dish was, in appearance, akin to something one might find at brunch at one of those stuffy, posh cafes.

"Quality crêpes, minus the stuffy and posh attitude!" the vampire pointed out cheerily, passing utensils over to the Ravenclaw as well before he fetched his own plate. Now that the custard was cooling and the pastry still baking, Araziel had a chance to breathe (though often times it seemed he didn't even need it, vampiric functions aside).

Leaning his back against the counter across from Lee's perch, Araziel held onto his plate in one hand as he poked at his food with his fork in the other.

"I know, right? And I totally would slap them if ... well, hmm, you wouldn't believe me if I told you I did that once and knocked the poor thing unconscious, would you?" He chuckled and took a bite of crêpe before continuing before Lee could answer. "Good, hoped you wouldn't, but hypothetically speaking, if I were capable of doing that, well, best to avoid any ... er ... alleged incidents and whatnot ... mhm."

Stifling another laugh, Araziel vacuumed up another crêpe before going on; it was a wonder how one could eat so quickly and yet so ... neatly. Must have been a culinary thing.

"Good to know. Though I imagined trying to greet someone with a kiss from behind would prove rather ineffective! Besides, such sly tricks are best reserved for Luce - er, the uh ... Professor Séraphin ... nevermind." He dismissed it with a wave of his hand and a nibble at a couple of blueberries.

Truth be told, Araziel was growing tired of always having to pretend Lucien wasn't related to him; luckily most dismissed his addressing his relative (technically father, but he never thought of him as his father) by first name as him just being inconsiderate, though obviously it wasn't the case. It was just the family norm, too, to be constantly gossiping about one another (not maliciously, of course, but anything for a good laugh!), but of course casually gossiping about professors was just so ... taboo here. Pfeh. At home, Lucien and Araziel prodded fun at one another all of the time.

On that same thread, though Lee's thoughts of Versailles were unspoken, had they been, Araziel would have had even more stories to tell of that generation's happenings; some in his family still harbored bitter sentiments over that disastrous stage of their lives.

And still on a similar thread, the mention of similarity of relatives brought back to Araziel's thoughts that fading but still present feeling of paranoia; was the resemblance between him and Lucien as obvious as he thought it was? Apparently it wasn't, since to this day only one or two had ever passed comment on it (and then promptly been sworn to secrecy by an irate Araziel), but it was guilt, still, and Araziel didn't like keeping secrets when it wasn't necessary.

"Ah, that explains it then," he murmured thoughtfully, setting his plate aside to steal a peek into the oven. After a nod of satisfaction, he returned to the serving plate of crêpes and dished himself a couple more, then stole a spoonful of yogurt from the bowl next to Lee, adding the dollop to the crêpes on his plate.

Reassuming his spot across her, he was just about to return to eating again when he realized he was still wearing his apron. "Guh, I always forget to take this thing off. So used to it, I guess," he muttered, untying the apron and slipping it off to hang it back on the rack where the non-elf-sized aprons were.

Taking the opportunity to unroll his sleeves, he fiddled briefly with the lace-trimmed cuffs, mumbling an absent, "Dunno how I ever managed to get used to this stuff," before returning to his food.

"So your father works at the ministry? What does he do there? I know it's a living but ... every time I have to visit that place to sort out some stupid technicality or whatnot that we receive by owl, I want to tear my hair out by the time I'm halfway through! They could rival Oxford uni in the power of their bureaucracy." He shook his head. "'Course most of my experience has been with the control of magical creatures department ... they're all sticklers there. Uh ... no offense, if that's where your father works."

Blinking, he shook his head and started on the blueberries and yogurt. "Mais bien sûr, ma'ams'elle; I've already started said endeavors, or are my subliminal techniques at conversion so advanced that you didn't notice?" He gestured to the plate of crêpes of course, though he rolled his eyes at the raspberry-a-fied grin, inwardly wrinkling his nose at the sight. He might have thought she was mocking him had there been different circumstances.

Tossing a cloth napkin at Lee's face, Araziel stifled a snort, brashly chancing at an offhand double bluff. "Do that to someone at night and they might mistake you for a bloodthirsty psychopath," he warned with a smirk, though he averted his gaze, returning to picking at blueberries.

[ALIAH ISABELLA EVANS]

The smell of the crepes cooking was like heaven to her nose, considering the breakfast fare she'd been having at her grandparents these past weeks. Not that she didn't like it, it was just now an autopilot thing to have her coffee and brown-bread with a bit of butter, and then an apple she'd have to walk to the orchard and pick herself. Seriously, who had an orchard in their back yard? Another of the things Lee was irked by at her grandparents, there were plenty of excellent regional farmers who weren't quite as well off her family, and would have benefitted from Lee's purchasing the crates of apples they went through at family gatherings.

'Yeah, you know the ones that are still living in a time where its taboo to have a relationship with a muggle, much less children with them...All old wizarding etiquette and that rubbish. Apparently we have an etiquette code, did you know that? I didn't. She paused, imagining some ridiculously complicated order of circulating the tea pot around the table at afternoon tea. Normally, she'd just make it levitate, which normally ended up with her brothers staging quidditch-type matches with the surrounding crockery. Mainly they did it to annoy their relatives, who would stay entirey away from the display once it was in session. The thought of Araziel bustling around in the background to the bewilderment of her family made her laugh.
'Oh god, i don't think my family could handly someone as upbeat as you. And besides, you might feel obliged to make conversation with my step mother and grandparents, and as hilarious for me as it would be, i wouldn't do that to a guest,' she smirked, eying the slowly expanding pile of delicate crepes amassing on the bench beside her. True, there wasn't anything particularly extravagant about British food, but as someone who was Irish and theoretically lived on potatoes and brown soda bread, it was homely in a way and always filled you up. Not that she didn't agree with him.

'But clotted Devonshire cream is yummy, its the rest of the rubbish you can buy in supermarkets that's tasteless.' Presumably, as Araziel was French, he may have missed the child-hood pasttime of hunting about country fields in jeans and wellies and little fitted tweed blazers with small buckets with which they filled with all the wild berries they could find. Of course, wearing tweed jackets was stupid as you always got hideously filthy on these trips, and Lee as a small child was never seen very often without blackberry-juice stained fingers and muddied wellington boots. One benefit of growing up in the country, and you got the spoils of your quest afterwards with scones and clotted cream. True, she didnt particularly like the scones a lot (probably cooked by someone in the family), and had nearly always settled for a bowl of the berries with cream on top.

Taking the plate offered to her with a grin, she smirked at his comment.
'Thats me in a nutshell,' she joked, before she brought her knees up and rested her feet on a drawer handle about halfway up the bench, so she could form a small platform with her legs on which to set her plate while she ate. Now that Araziel's saucepan was not able to take care of itself, and nothing else apparently needed to be done, they rested in companionable silence, the only sounds for a moment the soft clink of cutlery. Swiping a strawberry from another magically-appeared plate, she bit into it and dropped the green fuzzy bit back onto the plate, now empty and devoid of the crepes. Yuuuuuuummy. she thought to herself, now considerably more awake now that she'd eaten. And seriously reconsidering her position on packing Araziel into her suitcase next time she went home.

'You realised you just agreed i was an Island barbarian, right?' she said with a serious face, the expression staying on a tad too long after he made one of his comments, but the pause was over before she could get a word in. But she put the smile back on her face as he continued. It would be funny, though, she imagined, seeing someone greet another from behind. It might get particularly awkward if the person was speaking to another. Where would you divert your attention? A little image of someone having their arms pulled on like a game of tug-o-war came into her head and she snorted, an inelegant sound that would have no doubt gotten her into trouble had she been in the presence of family.

She didn't quite understand what he meant about Professor Séraphin, but she blinked at the name and set her plate down, arranging her cutlery carefully so it didnt fall off the edge of the bench. Leaning forwards and putting her elbows on her raised knees, and leaning her chin into her palms, she fixed her blue gaze on him. Professor Séraphin? Ah yes the resemblance was there, if she looked carefully. The Care of Magical Creatures professor did always seem to be plotting something under the surface, but his lessons were usually quite enjoyable and passed with good humour. However, she wasn't about to pry into something that was obviously none of her business, and besides, if he wanted her to know, he'd tell her, so she just smiled, and after careful deliberation, put forward a few words.

'Professor Séraphin? He took us for the msot awesome lesson once. He let us go down to the little lagoon by the lake and swim with some of the mer-people. Mind you, it was devilishly cold, i could barely feel my toes at the end of it,' she said, remembering. One of the mermaids had even given her a shell from its hair. She hadnt quite worked out how to affix it to her own dark waves, but for the moment it looked pretty on her chest of drawers in her dorm. She watched as he checked the oven and took the opportunity to pick her plate back up and skewer another crepe onto it. She chuckled softly as Araziel came over the for yoghurt.

'That stuffs good, she said, swallowing her mouthful. She watched him again as he took of his apron and fiddled with his sleeves. Lee's were still rolled up pasrt the elbow, and she was now perfectly comfortable. She caught sight of his sleeve cuffs and narrowed her eyes, however halfway through her thought of Bloody hell, what'd he do, raid the costume cupboard? That looks straight out of costume dram- by one particular house elf that had seized the passionfruit yoghurt and was taking it back out to the main kitchen. Managing to just get her spoon out in time and protesting its dissappearance with an indignant squeal, she stuck the spoon in her mouth and tapped the handle thoughtfully as she watched the house-elf vanish. Turning back ao Araziel and removing the spoon from her mouth after licking it clean, she set it down and shrugged.

'To be honest, i dont even know what he does there. I just know he has his own bloody huge office in the Department of International Magical Cooperation. And that is true, if i ever have to go in i like to sit in his office with a book and use the Floo fireplace to go down to the cafe on the ground floor. They do a nice chai-latte, by the way. And the faffage goes right the way through the department, i was in one day and dad had to approve a request of a junior minister who was looking for information from Magical Transportation about the affects of intneration travel between wizarding nations blah blah blah, and after it had come from the junior, it went through dad's PA, then took all day to get from dad's counter-part in transportation to approve the removal of fact and information from his department, its ridiculous.' she said, agreeing whole-heartedly. She understood the need for proceedure and order, but annoying little bureaucrats were something she couldnt stand. Lifting her head out of her hands, she grinned at him again and nodded.

'I guess you have, although you'll have to be very good at it and keep up constant supervision and treatment, i have a tendency to be a two-steps forward, one step back kind of person,' she joked, cutting her last section of crepe into three pieces and lifting one to her mouth. She saw his expression change for a split second, and frowned. She caught the napkin a hands-width away from her face and blinked at his words. Closing her mouth and running her tongue over her teeth a few times, her face twisting a little as she tried tog et one particularly stubborn pip out of her teeth, she winced inwardly. She hadn't meant to bait him. Never the less, she couldnt resist a joke and so with once-again white teeth, she smirked.

'Remind me not to tell you anything, you'll have the Dementors after me, you will, she said, tossing the serviette back at him, marvelling that in a place so far away from the laundry and so full of cleanliness hazards, how the heck did they keep their linens so damn clean?

[Araziel Léon Vasilica]

"Oh, really? Well I'm a muggleborn - well, technically mixed but I grew up a muggle - so I don't know much about all the 'pureblood' technicalities and rules and whatever other nonsense the older generations hold most dear." It was true, even if by 'older' generation, Araziel could be referencing people who were possibly younger than him. A strange concept it was, but he had grown used to it over time. "But since I'm a mutt by wizarding standards, I doubt your family would like me anyway." Araziel grinned. "Don't know who would drive the other up the wall first, to be honest."

Araziel did find it somewhat intriguing, the values that 'old' families held onto over the generations, and the ones that were lost to the ages. Sometimes he did think the wrong ideals were passed down - blood status, for instance - and the right ones were forgotten - basic table manners came to mind.

"Eh, a lot of what people buy in supermarkets is 'rubbish'." He chuckled to himself at the British term. "Devonshire cream is tasty though! I do wish we had more scones growing up." Not that that mattered now; he made enough of them at the cafe that he could have supplied him and his family for life. And that was saying quite a bit, given that most of his family were vampires.

On that note, the mention of Lucien's class lessons earned a knowing smirk from Araziel. "A tad unconventional, but yeah, if it's impractical it's probably him." The bugger. Araziel had really only taken Care of Magical Creatures to annoy Lucien, and to have an excuse to associate with him. He often did errands for the older vampire, running into the Forbidden Forest to fetch specimens and food for said specimens whenever he had the free time. 'Course, he'd also dragged Vincent into the class with him, probably hoping that his friend might get to be around animals that weren't frightened crapless of werewolves. It had probably been Lucien's suggestion, on second thought; wasn't he doing the same with Vincent's mentor, M. Lupin?

Araziel's thoughts were brought back to Lee as she went on about her father's work. He bristled at the mention of chai-lattes - HA! As if they could be any better than his own; bet they didn't blend the chai base themselves like that stupid Starbucks monster - but stared stupidly as Lee went on about the employees running circles around each other just to pass some information along. Goddamn these people needed to invent self-accessible company websites ... not that Araziel was too competent with that stuff (though by wizarding standards, he probably was. After all, he could drive a car. Not ... safely, but he could drive).

"Huh," he finally managed when she was done. "Well, there you have it; I'm officially justified in the tantrums I throw every trip to that hellhole." Araziel snorted derisively and absently wandered back to the stove to give the almost-cooled custard another couple of stirs before turning back to Lee.

"Oh no worries there. I'm a constant supply line of tea, coffee, and food! Ask Vincent; he's my best buddy in my year. If I'm not invading the kitchens I'm usually harassing him; more likely than not if you see one of us out in the castle or grounds, you'll see the other." He paused, then folded his arms with a 'hmph.' "But contrary to some STUPID rumor someone started, we're not dating. For the record. I might be a pastry chef, but for the love of God don't let that fool you." He trailed off with an amused laugh, tugging his fingers through his hair; he'd had those comments thrown his way so often that by now he didn't bother to be provoked, though it did still irk him at times.

Catching the napkin, he tossed it back onto the counter and then shook his head, crossing his arms again. "I gotta' admit, I was losing hope in this generation of students. Thought there wasn't a single bright mind to be found here! Everyone 'round the school's always about who's going out with whom and whoo parties and blood status and whatever other petty dramas people can come up with. Had to remind myself that this was a school and not a sorority." Smirking, he rolled his eyes as he finally got up again to head back to the oven.

"Anyway, it was a trap. You ate my food; now you have to help me make these mille feuilles." With a jokingly evil cackle, he turned and grabbed some oven mitts so he could start taking the sheets of pastry dough out of the oven. "Wish I'd thought to pick up some chocolate from Honeyduke's; some of the stuff they stock there is great for baking." He paused, then glanced over his shoulder. "You go there often? I usually pay visits to the tea parlor; Abby, the owner, is a family friend of mine, and she's the sweetest woman to ever run that place. Nobody ever believes me though, so I'm stuck going there on my own. Everyone just likes the joke shop and the Shrieking Shack."

Leaving the sheets out to cool, he wandered over to his forgotten messenger bag leaning against one cupboard. He started to rummage through it and pull out tea tins of varying sizes. "Anyhow, since you mentioned chai-lattes, I have to go ahead and try to one-up the ones at the Ministry. If the wizarding office world can come up with better chai than I can, I shan't rest until this problem is fixed." And with that, he started to busy himself with measuring spices and teas out of the tins he'd laid across the counter.

[ALIAH ISABELLA EVANS]

It was good to be having an enjoyable conversation after three weeks of 'Put that down, Aliah. No, sit up straight, Aliah. Aliah Isabella Evans, you do NOT speak like that in this house. or with her brothers, their usual assortment of name calling and arguments and jokes.

'Well, my mum was a muggle born, and her sister was a muggle. They were one of those artsy families, a bit mental i guess, and she skipped out with her new muggle boyfriend pretty much as soon as she had me. So Thaniel and I are the dark horses of the family, we're not really welcome anywhere. We had a muggle upbringing as well - so just as much in the dark as you are, she laughed. 'Well, my family doesnt like me either, you mustn't take it personally.

Now she did wonder. She thought about how her grandparents always sheltered themselves in a wizarding community of a place; how her aunt, her father's sister, never seemed to do anything but sit around and have tea with a bunch of women dressed in similarly boring but expensive clothes, about the opressive grandeur of their residences both ancestral in Ireland and leisurely, across the puddle, as she liked to think of it. It America was across the pond, and Irish sea was a hssle to say everytime, puddle made perfect sense to her. Not that it met with much approval on the home front, she thought darkly.

She nodded along with that Araziel was saying, a lot of the things to buy in muggle supermarkets were those nasty, prepackaged mircowaveable things for muggles with no time to cook, owing to one reason or another. Lee supposed Araziel was one of the small number of students who actually knew a decent amount about the muggle world, half the time people just blinked and offered her a blank stare or look of disgust, in Slytherin's case. But she'd never let it get to her. If she couldnt handle it from her own family, then she'd never hear the end of it. She and Thaniel just tuned it out, and Alec was always one to jump in and tell his mother to shut it, which always caused something of an uproar, entertaining as it usually was.

She was a little puzzled about the familiarity between Araziel and Professor Séraphin. The physical similarities aside, she wondered how they were related. Nephew, perhaps? They didn't share the last name, after all. Oh well, she'd pull apart the tangled thoughts later. if she ever left the kitchen. Which she wasnt inclined to at the moment. Her attention was caught by a stiffening in Araziel's posture, and she looked up, mildly alarmed. She'd probably set some challenge in regards to the cafe, and now regretted mentioning it. Undoubtedly, she'd be less inclined to leave if he was intent on proving something. She agreed about the Ministry, she found it very difficult to behave and not explode at the various underlings and minions who scuttled about the place, and believed on one occasion she'd said some particularly sharp words to one Minister who was making a nuisance of himself waiting to see her father over some tiny little matter, convinced that his case took precendence over a more junoir officer with a far more urgent problem. She didn't fancy it at all, planning on staying the hell away after she finished her N.E.W.T.S, unlike quite a few of her fellow students.

'Ooh, excellent, like my own little genie. Oh, Vincent? Dorée? I met him in the Owlery yesterday. He seems to have terrible luck with animals.' She watched as he crossed his arms, and listened with a smile as he went on, before bursting out laughing as he finished.
'Well there you have it! A Pureblood technicality right there! Unjust prejudice and an unwavering faith in stereotypes, she laughed again, and got up, grabbing a crystal goblet off a stand and filling it from a jug of water no doubt meant for the breakfast tables. Lucky there was hardly anyone around, Lee'd probably eaten half the supplies.

Nodding again, and inspecting her converse, she voiced her agreement.
'Ugh, so true. Its like a finishing school, full of little debutantes and high maintenance mummy's boys. Sometimes i just want to beat people with a stick and say, 'what the hell are you thinking?'. If they're thinking anything at all, which would surprise me.' Taking a sip of water, she used her free hand to move her plate out of the way to make space for the trays of pastry coming out of the oven. Nodding at his order to assist, she was going to offer anyway but wasn't sure what to do in case she got in the way. She thought abuot hiding the wooden spoon that was on the bench beside her, but just smirked at it.

'Honeydukes? I'm sure the entire school population lives there at some point. Yeah, i go when i'm in town, more to get the magic sweets to mess with teachers minds. Try going into Potions with polkadotted hair, or into Trelawney's class with fangs, its hilarious. And every valentines, my potions class makes an effort to get the floating heart candies and putting them around the black board on Professor Snape's classroom. The reactions are priceless. And in fact, i met the Miss O'Malley this morning in the corridoor, she offered me a discount next time i visisted, so looks like you're not going by yourself next time after all. Oh, the Shrieking Shack? Can't say i've been. I thought haunted houses and whatnot were meant for muggles...'

At this point, tins of spice were laid out on the bench and she knew she'd been right about the challenge. Rolling her eyes but leaving the smirk on her face, she moved off to get a suitable glass from the shelves, and even a little saucer. Placing it down on the bench next to where Araziel worked, she looked up at him with a serious face.
'It's on...

[Araziel Léon Vasilica]

Araziel was a tad surprised to find out that Lee was essentially a muggle as well; all the talk of her pureblood family had had him thinking that she was pure or, less likely, mixed. Of course, muggles were the odd ones out here anyway, so he had become accustomed to assuming he was the exception and the rest were the norm. Silly him.

"Artsy? Mental? You're not suggesting all artsy people are mental, are you?" Araziel interjected with mock suspicion, though his broad smile gave him away. It faded though as Lee went on, and Araziel folded his arms again, leaning back against the counter whilst nodding in understanding. "Je vois, je vois; sounds like you and your brother are reasonable enough. Which ... might be why you don't fit in with the rest." He chuckled halfheartedly, but then waved a hand in dismissal. "Forgive my selfishness, but it'll be good to have some muggle company at school."

He paused then, wondering how best to go on without disclosing too many details about his background. Oh, damn the secrecy. Silly as it was, he was about ready to just brush it aside and carry on talking with Lee as if there were no secrets to be had. He didn't want to call it desperation, but in a sense it almost was; how often was it that he came across company as levelheaded and sharp as her? In this place? Never. 'Beat them with sticks' indeed. He laughed quietly to himself, and then with a slightly defeated sigh, he tapped his chin consideringly before gesturing vaguely and pressing on.

The best way, he figured, was to just regard potentially suspicious facts with casualness. So, throwing caution to the wind, he added his own two cents.

"I guess I can say I relate on some level; my mum was ... well, she was a bit of a whore. I wasn't my father's son, let's put it that way, and that kind of sucked 'cause really, I loved my father - stepfather, whatever - dearly, and hated mother. God she was annoying. And I was an inconvenience to her; she didn't even try to hide it. Her and her associates ... I guess you could say they were the closest things to 'purebloods' that the muggle world had." Araziel laughed a dry laugh but shook his head. "Anyway, long story short; when my father passed away - bless his soul - my mother, still alive at the time, didn't even show up for the funeral. Saw her some days later, but that was the last of that. I never got her and my father; I suppose she, like many, just married for the wealth. Oh well."

He waved his hand again and turned to go prod at the still-cooling pastries. "Fast forward a loooooong while later, and I've got some stranger knocking down my door claiming he's my half-brother. Well tada! Turns out my birth father was actually hell of a lot more decent than my mother, so after ages without a proper family, I was hauled over to Versailles and dragged into my birth father's family. Well, mkay, I wouldn't really call them a proper family but they all turned out to be pretty nice people. And they all loved my pastries, so what did I have to complain about?"

Araziel grinned. "I actually only just got into this whole wizarding stuff within the last few years; family business and all that, but Lucien - er ... Professor Séraphin ... oh what the hell - Lucien convinced me to come along to get some hands-on experience with magical education and whatnot. Helps with international wizarding relations ... yeah." He paused. "Look, I'll be straightforward; I'm tired as hell of keeping these secrets from less-than-intelligent populations of students, but since you're rather bright, I'm not gonna bother 'round you so ... yeah, Luce is my birth father. Bet you already figured that out and were just too nice to say anything."

Taking a deep breath now, Araziel threw his hands up in the air and then returned to busying himself with the spices. "Anywho I'm sure you didn't want the whole tangent there, buuuut with all this talk of families, I wanted it out of the way." He smiled to himself as he measured some ground ginger. "Answers a whole lotta' questions, anyway. And prolly leaves more. Don't hesitate to ask though; like I said, I'm totally tired of keeping secrets."

Spilling a few peppercorns onto a cutting board, Araziel carefully crushed them with a knife, just enough to crack them open. "But yeah, Vincent's the one. Quiet little bugger ... animals tend not to like him. It's admittedly really entertaining during visits to the Magical Menagerie, though."

As he counted individual star anise 'flowers,' he suppressed another snort. "Yeah, seriously. Precisely the reason why I have to keep my relationship to Luce and my personal identity all hush-hush; the only thing they'd hear is 'amagawd vampire' and it's not as if Professor Dumbledore has enough trouble on his hands with the Ministry breathing down his neck and the Death Eaters scratching at the door." So he'd casually slipped in the bit about the vampirism, by way of confirmation, but it wasn't a weighted statement. In fact, it might have been entirely accidental.

That characteristic grin returned to Araziel's features as Lee went on about all of the uses of magical sweets in class. "Really now? I must see this some time. Guess chocolate won't be the only thing on my shopping list next Hogsmeade weekend." He grinned a toothy, mischievous grin even as he cracked a cinnamon stick in half. "Excellent, excellent. Abby's a darling, isn't she? Serves the best spiced chai. 'Course, I might have something to do with that ... " Laughing, he shook his head. "Well, next time then! We'll call it a date. Only last time I told someone that, he thought I was actually asking him on a date. Which I wasn't. But at least you're a girl." Raising a brow in disbelief at himself, he stifled a snicker or two as he dumped the ingredients into a strainer with some teaspoons of black tea leaves, a few cloves, and some ground cardamom.

Setting some water to boil and some milk to steam, he dug some sugar out of a nearby cupboard, though he set it aside for now.

"I assure you that you shall taste no better chai than this, ever. Took me ages to get the proportions right, but the result is a very deep, layered flavor. Really soothing too ... love sipping the stuff in the evenings, curled up by the fire. Soooo cozy."

Once the water had started to boil, Araziel turned the heat down and dropped the strainer in to halfway simmer, halfway steep. He left it alone after that and at once hurried on over to check on the now-cool pastry sheets.

[ALIAH ISABELLA EVANS]

She sat listening attentively, her azure eyes following Araziel’s movements, indeed one of the few signs that signified she was still alive and paying attention. Her only other movements were the occasional blink, she was good at listening and even better at sitting still.

’No, no, but my mother’s family was endowed with an unfortunate combination of both. Never particularly interested in commitment. In fact, i’m surprised that she stayed after having Thaniel, and even more so that she at least waited for me before vanishing off.’ she mused, more to herself than to Araziel. But she smiled up at him in regards to muggle company, it would be nice to have someone who didn’t give her a bewildered look when she mentioned ‘car’, or ‘bus’, or ‘computer’. She smirked to herself, still not moving anything but the muscles in her face, and watched as he seemed to deliberate something in his mind. She listened when he spoke, her head tilting only slightly as she did when she was thinking over something. She was silent only for a moment after he finished.

’Yeah. I wouldn’t say my mum was a whore, which in the end she kinda was a bit, but she certainly had issues. Like I said, she packed off and left pretty much as soon as she could leave me unsupervised. Thaniel wasn’t even a year old, and so neither of us even have memories of her. Our stepmum sounds a bit like your mum, married for money and the security of knowing she’d never have to work a day in her life again and get to spend all day socialising. So really, despite the fact she’s nasty and doesn’t like my brother and I, she’s Alec’s mum and the only mother-figure we’ve known. We haven’t seen our real mother, we just know she’s still alive somewhere. But there we go, I guess your life as a young, carefree, free-spirited hedonist gets a little warped when you’ve got two infant children,’ she said, speaking in a voice that was void of any emotion, perhaps only the slightest amount of disappointment, which was gone by her light-hearted interjection at the end. To most she could understand that any familial circumstance that was less than favourable could cause a great deal of distress, but hers was just something she accepted. Probably because she had her brothers, to whom she was very close. The three siblings, despite Alec’s different standing in the family, had been a very independent unit, and along with a barrage of nannies, had effectively raised themselves, their grandparents and stepmother doing the society thing and their father working long hours at the Ministry. Lee didn’t care, she was happy, she could have been a lot worse off so wasn’t one to take what she had for granted.

She flicked her gaze back up to Araziel listening as he explained. So he was part of a family that, like hers, wasn’t entirely her own. She was attentive as he elaborated on his relationship to the Professor. That made sense, she could see it now. The fact that Araziel’s mother was married to another man explained the surname, and she nodded once.
’Well, I wasn’t sure, but thanks. You know, for explaining,’ she said sincerely. She’d met students with slightly trying pasts and they’d been quiet, closed off about the entire thing and she’d had to tiptoe awkwardly about the subject. It was nice to have someone speak plainly, for once. She’d had students call her cold, detached, unfeeling in regards to her own circumstances, but Lee was simply accepting of what happened. Evidently, Araziel felt similar. True, she did have a few questions buzzing around in her mind, but considering he’d probably revealed a lot more about himself that he’d needed too and Lee’s own life was hardly as interesting, she settled with,

’Wait, so how old are you?’ before grinning. She listening to him confirm her knowledge about Vincent’s terrible luck with animals, before throwing her head back and laughing. Entertaining indeed. She looked back as he was moving a spice about on the board, she couldn’t tell exactly what it was bu no doubt it’d become apparent later. She offered a sympathetic nod, before her eyes narrowed at the casual mention. Ah, that also explained things and filled in some gaps. She didn’t need to pry further, obviously if there was more Araziel would tell her in his own time. It was also true about the situation at Hogwarts, everyone was on tenterhooks and some of the teachers were always about, accompanied by the sense that they were about to snap any minute. But for the moment, it was holidays, and everyone was home with their families, so relatively speaking, they were safe, there was no point attacking a castle that was practically empty.

His voice brought her back and she grinned wickedly at the memory, before remembering.
’I’ve got a polka-dot hair one here, she said, pulling it out of her jeans pocket. ’They only last for a few minutes, so choose your first impression wisely. I don’t think you’d really have any need for the fang one, either. And yes, Snape’s face is always priceless. Its as if he thinks we won’t do it year after year,’ she laughed. She sneaked another strawberry off the pile, when she was done and had only the top left, she used a levitation charm to float it over to the bin on the opposite side of the room. Satisfied when it landed in the bin, she looked a little startled at the cracking noise, looking back to Araziel and his latest preparations. Nodding along to his remarks, she had to laugh at the mention of the date.

’Excellent. We can start that one off with the French kiss then!’ she joked, watching as the ingredients all went into the strainer. It smelt amazing, beginning to resemble the Chai she’d bought in market in London once. She watched eyed the sugar happily as it came to a rest on the bench beside her, picking it up and admiring the metal tin with its embossed banded pattern. Turning it over in her hands, she looked over the proceedings. She’d have to learn to make it, while she could probably get him back through customs with her in Ireland, she doubt she could sneak Araziel into the Ravenclaw common room at all hours when she needed a bit of coziness. Because she greatly enjoyed being curled up by a fire. It brought memories of roasting marshmallows with her brothers in their grand fireplace, wrapped in blankets enough to look like small mountains on the carpeted floor, steaming mugs of hot chocolate or butter beer beside them. As Araziel moved away to check on the pastry, she stood up and moved away from the bench.

’Right, give me something to do in the meantime, I’m feeling useless here, man.’

[Araziel Léon Vasilica]

"Oh! Wasn't saying that your mother was a whore but ... hell, yeah, could've been worse. At least you have your brother, and by the sounds of it, you're close." Araziel attempted a reassuring smile, though it was marred slightly by the disappointment he'd detected in Lee's voice. "Yeah. Well, the way I see it is ... one can fret all they want about these things, but the bottom line is that it's beyond our control, right? So ... well, me, personally, I just try to see the good things it's done for me over the years ... y'know, as 'cliché' as it sounds, it's made me how I am today. Wouldn't have it any other way." He nodded. "I still do miss father, though."

Which led into Lee's question about age, and in response, Araziel just smirked and set a hand on his waist. "It's rude to ask." He paused. "But how old do you think?" he added, his smirk widening into a deliberately fanged grin before subsiding again into a more serious expression even as he dropped a lid onto the pot with the milk to steam. "No, really, thank you. For ... uhm ... listening. And being reasonable. The secrecy is really on account of necessity, but yeah, it's nice to have some people to relax around. And that you and I can trade muggle things will be a breather, too!"

'Course it had been a lot more relaxed around the castle anyway since it was the holidays, and whilst Araziel liked company, he really didn't mind the peace and quiet. It was certainly quieter here than at home, that was for certain. Of course, Hogwarts wasn't populated with whiskey-drunk hordes of baby Acromantulas and infant vampire bats and Ivan trying to bake in the kitchen and ending up blowing the oven up ...

Taking the offered candy, Araziel raised a brow at it, raising it to his face so he could give it a tentative sniff; just out of habit, really; one could learn a lot about food from smell alone. "Looks harmless enough," he observed with a grin, tossing it into his still-open bag. "No worries ... though if its effects are as ... spectacular as you make them sound, I might have to use this on Valeri instead." His smirk had turned a bit mischievous again. "Valeri's my half-brother; the poor thing's a fish outta' water. I think his mother sheltered him too much as a child ... " Araziel trailed off chuckling, but that was another complicated story and he didn't want to bother with it at the moment.

"Sounds like a plan! I could really use some strawberry green tea anyway. Though from what I remember, isn't there more than one sorta' 'French kiss'?" Tilting his head consideringly, he shook his head and stifled another laugh; such salted banter did not fall into his expertise and, still smirking, he checked on the tea blend once more before removing it from heat.

"Yeah here's the part where I'll have to cheat because I don't have the proper equipment to concentrate the tea," he mumbled, pulling his wand from his bag. The implement was clutched in one hand, and he scooped up the pot by the handle in the other; as he poured the tea into a cup containing a bit of sugar, he flicked the wand and at once the steeped blend was reduced to more of a syrupy substance.

"Useless? Sorry ... I'm kinda' all over the place when it comes to the kitchen." He took a whiff of the chai concentrate before gesturing towards the pastry sheets. "Well, you could start on those I guess. Stack the sheets atop one another and then cut 'em into long strips first, 'bout this wide - " he held up thumb and pointer finger to measure distance, "and then cut those into rectangles about this long." And again, he demonstrated length before turning back to the tea.

Now pouring some of the concentrate into a new mug, he measured the steamed milk into it as well in careful proportions, scooping the foam on last. On second thought, he decided to make one for himself as well ... there was enough, after all.

With one mug in each hand, he wandered back over to wherever Lee was working, peering over her shoulder to double-check that she was carrying along fine before he set her chai down on the counter. "Here ya' go! Now gimme honest critique if you find anything wrong with it." Raising a brow expectantly, he took an appraising sip from his own mug with a happy sigh nonetheless.

[ALIAH ISABELLA EVANS]

She had to laugh, he thought he was insulting her?

'Nah, nah, it's cool. Whats the point in sugarcoating it, eh? You're right, it probably wouldn't have made me as close to my brothers as i am now, and all that. But you do have a bit of a disadvantage, you at least got to know him - your adoptive father i mean - before he died. So it's natural you'd miss him. At times i dont know whether to be glad mum skipped out before i had any memories or a little sad at the fact she did. I don't miss her, per se, considering i've lived with our step mum all my life. For which i deserve a medal, too,' she smirked.

She saw his posture change and looked up, stiffening, wondering if she'd offended him again. But then the grin came back, full fangs and all, which was cool. Lee thought. She'd have to get one of the fang-sweeties and eat it before their coffee outing, just as a laugh. She tilted her head in mock-consideration, before announcing her verdict.
'I have no idea. Even if i did know, i wouldnt tell you, i dont want you biting me if i guess the wrong number,' she smirked, watching as more elements of her tea came together. All in all, she'd had a good morning's scrounge in the kitchen, and it certainly beat having to crawl through the house-elf sized cupboards and pantry doors in order to find something, only to emerge empty handed. And crawling around always left flour down her uniforms during term-time, so she was more likely to get caught. She tossed aside thoughts of being caught, presumably Araziel's superhuman hearing could have them behind a bench in time should a nosy teacher come calling.

'I get it, don't worry, your secret's safe with me, amigo,' she said, nodding sincerely. 'What, you want someone to trade cards and marbles with then?' she laughed, watching as he took the candy from her outstretched hand. Settling back to leaning on the bench, she stared intently at the little flying group of strawberries she'd set up with her wand, at the moment they were bobbing up and down charismatically in midair in a small cluster. After deciding she'd probably get in trouble for playing with the food, she flicked her wand tip back towards the bowl and watched as they leapt back onto the pile one by one. Watching the pink and cellophane wrapped confection with sparkling eyes, the funny occasions she'd used those.

'Truly, you wont be disappointed. And they work excellently on unsuspecting little half-brothers. I had the fang one and did the trick with the raspberry juice one night at home, i swear he jumped 6 feet into the air. It was all stormy with thunder and lightning as well. I doubt they've fixed the Alec-shaped hole in the roof yet. Don't worry. I'm sure after exposing him to the terrors that are the Huneydukes Horrors collection, he'll be looking over his shoulder from now on.' She added, grinning at the memory. All the antics were, of course, deemed totally inappropriate by the family, but it didnt stop the three children trying. She'd almost fallen out of a window once, Thaniel had caught her so offguard one day. But, it was the rule between the three of them that if anyone got close to being actually injured or maimed, the victim was entitled a free hit. Normally that was Thaniel, Lee and Alec mad an excellent tactical team.

But, yet another thing they shared, she mused. Half-brothers, who knew they'd be such a good bonding device? She smirked, before her brows drew together.
'Strawberry green tea? Sounds interesting. And you know bloody well which one i mean,' she said in a mock menacing tone, before grinning again and thwacking his arm playfully with the wooden spoon. She stepped back to allow him room as he pulled out his wand, and watched intently as the consistency of the liquid abruptly changed. Ooh, cool, she thought, before recieving her orders and giving a brief mock salute before plucking a long knife out of a block on the adjacent wall. As gently as she could, she used the tip to score a light line so she knew where to cut, before gently applying more pressure on the knife so that the pastry didnt break or flake away from the blade. Once done with the strips, she pushed her little piles to one side before bringing one slice at a time and cutting it into rectangles, doing her best to stick to the size guide Araziel had shown her.

She was paying so much attention to make sure she had enough room to stack the rectangles into neat little columns, she hardly noticed as a glass was set onto the counter beside her. Eyes lighting up hungrily, she reached across and picked it up, cradling its warmth in her hands and using her tongue to lick some of the foam off the top, sighing appreciatively. Blowing so she didn't burn her tongue, she took a long sip, before licking her lips.

'Oh no, no complaints, damn thats good. Th only problem is that it wont appear magically in the common room when i want it,' she laughed, taking another sip. She used a nod in the direction of the bench to indicate the pastry rectangles.
'I've cut them all up, by the way. What's next?'

[Araziel Léon Vasilica]

For once, Araziel passed no comment on further talk of their respective families, not that he wasn't listening. En lieu he simply smiled in understanding and nodded; he could offer nothing more in that respect, since he was never one to compare one's trials to another's. Everyone had their own burden to bear and whatnot; only the weak showcased their grievances for the sake of sympathy, and obviously neither of them qualified in that manner.

"Hah! Well that's good you don't, because if you did, I'd be worried. And then would jump in a bath of anti-aging cream or something," he added thoughtfully, staring off in consideration before shaking his head with his usual smile as he went to fetch the saucepan of custard. "Truth be told I hate thinking on it. Years go by so quickly! I don't like to be reminded that I'm old. It's especially taxing on the previous generation in my family, too, I can see. Luce and his comrades, they're all so ... tired all of the time, and I don't want to end up like that." He chuckled, giving the custard a few stirs with a soft spatula. "Let's just say I'm old enough to have been around when Napoleon was busy running back and forth from one end of the world to the other, but young enough that he was done for before I could really understand the significance." He shrugged. "But hey, it was a good excuse to make cookies. Or ... help make cookies. I wasn't old enough to bake on my own at the time."

He offered Lee a rather pointed look at her sincere declaration. "You'd better be able to keep secrets! I've long since invented a recipe for a particularly sticky type of toffee that's guaranteed to lock your jaws shut so ... " Araziel let that threat hang in the air, joking as it was, as he made his way back over to the other side of the kitchen to where the stacked rectangles of pastry were sitting, waiting for the next step. He had to pause on his way there to let some floating strawberries pass by. "I know, I know, 'pedestrians always have the right of way.'"

He nearly dropped the saucepan of custard at Lee's story. Araziel was quite fond of practical jokes himself, and considering Lee's alleged expertise with candy-related pranks, he was surprised he had never considered using the stuff in his and Edmond's relentless quest to drive the entire Chevalerie up the wall. Gloria, too, would have loved the fang candy; as one of the few non-vampires of the 'family,' Araziel was willing to bet she'd end up shocking one of the vampiric residents more than she might shock some normal muggle.

Setting the saucepan securely on the counter before turning back to Lee, Araziel rolled his eyes, rolling up his sleeves again and tugging the apron off of the wall hook to pull it back on. As he fiddled with the tie, he smirked and nodded approvingly. "A girl after my own heart. You should meet my buddy Gloria; she and I are the ones always picking on Valeri. I always make it up to him with mushroom quiche - it's his fave dish - but the lengths to which we make him suffer ... heheh, makes me wonder if it's worth it."

Done with the apron, Araziel scooped up his mug of chai latte again and took another gulp, failing to dodge a well-aimed smack. "Je sais, je sais! Was too easy, sorry." He grinned and quirked a brow before gulping down the rest of his chai and then going for a second.

When he returned to the counter, he stuck his tongue out at Lee and grabbed a couple of pastry bags from his bag. "Yeah, a pity, isn't it? Can't give you my culinary secrets though ... I'm a selfish prat like that, sorry." He had his reasons though, obviously, and not just because of business. It was an art thing, really. "Feel free to put in a request whenever you want, though; like I said, I'm a constant supply line! On that note, I did promise Vince I'd bring him some pumpkin spice lattes; he was helping me fix up my cafe the other week so it's his ... uh ... reward of sorts."

With her last question, Araziel promptly offered her the second pastry bag. "Here ya' go! Start custard-ing. Not feeling too artsy today so we'll just dust the top with some powdered sugar and plop some berries on. Custard goes on every layer but the top, obviously."

Araziel went on to demonstrate how to fill up the pastry bags and cut a slit, then showed her how to pipe the stuff onto each layer of pastry rectangle, assemble the stacks, and then tap some sugar on. Last were the berries of course.

"Now then, lieutenant, as soon as we formulate our army, we'll be dismissed!"

And at once he started on each stack of pastry slices, working accurately but with impressive speed. "I must say, this has been a most productive morning! You have my utmost gratitude for ... everything, really." From the whimsical to the more serious, of course.