A Taste of Magic

Chapter 63: 63rd Course - Storming Brains

"Huh. You know, I watched you make all this, and yet I'm still surprised," Blaise said, looking at his plate, more than a little impressed. "And you do this often?"

"As often as I can. If I don't cook at least every other day I get antsy," Harry said.

"Ah, I can understand that feeling," Daphne said. "Not for cooking, but I play instruments."

"Oh, what do you play?" Hermione asked.

"Violin and piano mostly," Daphne said. "Unfortunately, I could not bring my piano so while here at school, I play my violin."

"I'm glad you couldn't bring it. We'd have no room in our dorm," Tracey said. "Plus you're better at the violin." She smiled cheekily at Daphne's sour look.

"You have two person dorms too?" Padma asked. "That's nice."

"How come we have to share with the three of us?" Parvati complained.

"It's a really big room though and we have plenty of space," Lavender said.

"Parvati tries to take as much space as possible," Padma sighed. "Sue is far more courteous." She returned Parvati's rude hand gesture.

"There's five of us in our dorm," Neville said.

"You poor souls," Blaise chuckled.

"Ron's a bit of a snorer, yeah, same as Seamus," Neville laughed.

"First Charm I learned was to dampen sound," Blaise said. He bit into his sandwich and looked at it with surprise. "I normally do not enjoy egg salad but that is rather tasty."

"We had picnic dinner nights at the Hog's Head a lot," Harry said. "I got good at it and it's one of my favorites. The ham and chicken pie is one of Auntie Ari's favorites too."

"You've been to the Hog's Head? You worked there?" Blaise asked, looking even more surprised. "Willingly?"

"Very much so," Harry said, with a small frown.

Blaise grunted when Millicent stomped on his foot. "My apologies. It just seems rather…dismal from a distance." He grunted again and glared at a glaring Pansy.

"Who's Auntie Ari?" Tracey asked.

"Ariana Dumbledore," Pansy said with a small smile.

"The Headmaster has a sister?" Daphne asked, eyes wide.

"And a brother, he runs the Hog's Head," Pansy said. She gave the other three Slytherins a look and shook her head ever so slightly.

"Very interesting. I did not know that," Daphne said and applied herself to her food.

The atmosphere was still a smidge awkward and chilly, but with the good food and the slow exploratory conversation, it was warming up slightly. They were starting to feel more at ease around each other, with Pansy and Millicent smoothing out the little bumps in the conversation between the two new groups. They eventually finished lunch, with the three newcomers looking more impressed, and started nibbling on a plate of biscuits Harry set out for afters.

"Okay, so what should we make?" Parvati said. "You're good at making all sorts of things but we should find something easier and doable especially if we need to make a lot of it."