Missed Dinner.....Again, *Shannon

[Joshua Stratford]

Josh had finally ended practice, an hour late, but he had to win the first match of the year against Slythiern. There was going to be no way that they last that match and Josh was holding extra practices and adding hours to them left and right. The team had started to grumble about being hungry and had grown discontented. So an hour after dark Josh had finally sent his weary teammates back into the castle. He had stayed out for a bit longer to run a few laps and then he had come in. Now his stomach was demanding that he found food for it right now. Unfortunately for him, dinner had stopped being served shortly before. They should have food out twenty-four/seven. Josh thought grumpily. This meant that he would have to go out of his way to go to the kitchens and get some food from the house elves.

After having tickled the correct fruit and stepping through the doorway behind the portrait, Josh found himself in the kitchens, the smell of foods accosted him and his stomach growled letting him know that if he didn't get something soon it wasn't going to be happy. A house elf approached him holding a plate of roast beef with mashed potatoes and peas. Josh took it gratefully and went to sit down at a round table near the foot of one of the house table replicas. The house elves were use to him coming for dinner after dinner had been cleared from the tables in the great hall. He dug into his food with the fervor of a starved man, swallowing each huge bite with a gulp of milk that had been provided for him.

[Shannon Halifax]

Shannon had sat at a desk in the Ravenclaw Common Room all through dinner, writing an essay for Potions and now was beginning to feel the effects. She looked out the window to see if maybe she hadn't completely missed dinner but the increasingly dark sky revealed that her time frame was up. But with a stroke of mischievousness (or at least, mischievousness for Shannon), she decided to take a trip to the kitchens and get a small bite.

As she tickled the pear. The portrait swung open revealing the most beautiful sight to a hungry person. She walked in slowly, a bit in awe. She'd never come down here herself, normally some of her friends would go down and bring her something up. She caught a house elf's attention. "Excuse me," she said in a quiet voice. "Can I get something to eat?" The house elf scurried away busying itself and she looked around noticing for the first time another person in the kitchen. Her hunger had distracted her.

"He looks like a starved animal. Does he even go here? Or is he as uncivilized as he seems? No, he must go here. House elves wouldn't let anyone into Hogwarts, and no one could sneak in. Shannon thought, having a conversation with herself in her head. She kept a cool composure though and as she was handed her food was perfectly fine sitting at another table until the House Elf demanded she sit at the same table as him.

They were probably just trying to make lives easier for themselves, so they didn't have to clean another space and had preparation space. As she sat down across from him, she regarded the kid with a little nod before turning to her food and eating politely. "Maybe he'll remember his manners if I demonstrate." she thought a bit frigidly. It wasn't that she was a sticker for politeness, neatness and manners. She wasn't upper-class or anything. It was just curtsey with other people, even house elves, in the room.

[Joshua Stratford]

As Josh finished up his last bite of the food on his plate and gulped down the last of his milk just as he was joined by a girl. Josh wiped his wiped the milk off the corners of his mouth. "Hey. Sorry about that, just really hungry, sometimes I forget to eat and well you saw the result...." He smiled at her, feeling kind of bad that she had seen him eating like that. He had learned early on that girls didn't like to see guys eat like pigs. But he had been hungry and speaking of which he was still hungry. "Excuse me a moment." Josh told her with a grin, before picking up his plate and taking it to a sink that was manned by a house elf.

"Can I get two pieces of pie?" Josh asked the house elf quietly. The elf nodded and scurried over to the pie that Josh had spotted when he had come over. The elf came back to him with two plates and Josh accepted them with a kind "Thanks." And then walked back over to the girl.

Josh was pretty sure that she was a sixth year Ravenclaw. Josh knew of a lot of people in the school, but the Ravenclaws always got mixed up in his mind unless he knew an unusual fact about them. "Here's my apology for you having to see that. I hope you like apple pie, I think I saw some cherry pie too, if you'd prefer that." Josh set the plate next to her almost finished dinner plate and then sat back down across from her.

He took a bite as he surveyed her, trying to think of her name.....Aethe? No, that was the strange one with dark hair. Hmm....Maybe it was that other one with an 'A', nope that one didn't have this kind of blond hair. Oh God, this was going to bug him until he figured it out. She couldn't be a seventh year, he knew all the names of everyone in the seventh year. And she didn't look young enough to be under fifteen, so she was either in her fifth year or her sixth, possibly of even being in her fourth. Yeez.... Okay well sixth years, there was Aethelind, and Allison, and - Oh! Shan? It was something with an 'S', Sherry? Sheylin? Samantha? Sharron?

"So, what brings you down for a late dinner?" Josh asked with a kind smile, he probably should have asked her name, oh well, he'd just ask Athens later. That girl knew just about everyone in this school. He had no idea how she kept all of them straight.

[Shannon Halifax]

Shannon continued to eat her dinner as he stopped and started explaining himself away. "Excuses, excuses." she thought to herself. Most of the time excuses amused her; sometimes they annoyed her, and other times they just where there and she didn't pay attention to her. Shannon turned her head slightly as he excused himself from the table. He seemed a little hectic. Almost like a big hummingbird.

Shannon was slightly happy when he came back with two pieces of pie. So he was telling the truth and not just coming up with a quick cover story. Perhaps it was just a great hunger that caused him to act like a poor starved being instead of the courteous gentleman that he now appeared to be bringing the pie. Unless of course, both pieces were for him, in that case…
Here's my apology for you having to see that. I hope you like apple pie, I think I saw some cherry pie too, if you'd prefer that." So it was for her. That was kind. First impressions, could certainly be wrong. "Apple's fine." She said serenely, finishing her dinner in small bites. She was in no rush.

"So, what brings you down for a late dinner?" the boy asked smiling. So he liked people, interesting. It wasn't that Shannon didn't like people. She just liked finding out about them before she actually made a commitment to get to know them, not that she had commitment issues. In fact, her commitments were mostly for life or until she was unable to do them for a reason. "Missed dinner due to an essay." She said finishing her dinner portion of the meal and moving onto the delicious dessert.

[Joshua Stratford]

"Good. Apple's a good type of pie." Josh grinned at her and watched her finish her dinner. He had to slow down eating anyways, otherwise he would over eat and he had no intention of putting on any weight, not that all the exercise wouldn't just burn it off anyways, but well maybe he had hung out with too many weight conscious girls.

"Ah. The joys of essays." Josh replied sarcastically with a smile. He dug his fork into the his slice of pie, reminding himself to keep the pieces small. "So what was the essay on?" Josh asked curiously. He hated writing essays, usually he left them to last minute, and allowed them to be the half-hearted lousy work they tended to be.

One of the house elves came over with glasses of milk for both of them and Josh thanked him. He could never figure out why the house elves always seemed to have time to get things for the kids that would sneak down here, but he most certainly wasn't ungrateful for it. He always made sure to thank them, though. Having grown up having no idea what house elves were, he wasn't really comfortable having them just do things for him.

"I don't think I'll ever get use to them." Josh said, nodding towards the elves busy at work in various places around the large kitchen. He shook his head slightly and took another bite of his pie.

[Shannon Halifax]

Shannon nodded to his comment about 'apple being a good type of pie'. It was a pretty lame comment to make. After all it was only a piece of pie, and it didn't really make much of a conversation. And this boy seemed to really want to make a conversation with her. He obviously couldn't handle silence very well, and well if one didn't like silence then one didn't talk to Shannon. Shannon wasn't much a talker; she was more of a thinker, a typical Ravenclaw.

However with the second comment about essays, she had to admit that it was a better attempt to get a conversation out of a student. Many people didn't like essays and could rant about them for hours. Shannon found them as a nice way to write down her thoughts with facts, but she was an odd girl. "They're ok." She shrugged. "They take time that'd I'd rather use reading, but that's school."

When Shannon received her glass of milk she was thankful. The slight tickling of thirst in the back of her throat had just begun, and she was glad that the house elf came to her instead of her ordering it around. It just felt wrong asking them. It seemed like they should be on the same level as wizards, and yet they weren't. "Why not?" Shannon asked actually confused by his question. It wasn't like he had to live with dragons or anything. Sure they were a bit different but being a muggleborn herself and coming into the Wizarding World every little thing that happened out of the ordinary seemed to fit right in. Maybe because she didn't know the norms everything just was normal.

((Sorry for the incredibly long wait and suckiness of the post. Hopefully I won't be as braindead in the next reply.))

[Joshua Stratford]

Josh tried to restrain himself from grimacing when she said that she actually liked essays, he wasn't completely but that was okay he left the point alone. Essays and Josh didn't get along too well, he always had about fifty million other things that he would rather do. He could never really come up with anything until he was pressured into it last minute the night before it was due, when he was so close to failing the assignment that anything he thought of actually seemed to make sense. For some reason he actually managed to pull a decent grade from habits like this. Nothing ever got done until last minute, but then again it did actually get done.

"So you like reading?" Josh asked, yes, she was a Ravenclaw so that was pretty much an obvious thing, but he couldn't help it. "What's your favorite book?" He asked, maybe that would make up for his stupid post practice brain's question.

"Well, I grew up muggle. Well kind of." Josh started, but then realized how confusing his life as a child would seem to someone who hadn't known him for a long time. He deiced to skip it, it really wasn't worth it. There was something in his tone that made him think that she hadn't quite gotten why he wouldn't be use to them. "It's not their appearance I can't get use to, it's their wanting to wait on people. I just am not use to that. I mean back at home it's get it on your own if you want it." Josh explained thinking about how his mom use to make them all dinner and everything, but ever since the accident his mom had almost been too depressed to get out of bed let alone make dinners. And even when she had gotten better, well she had actually started to work and that had meant less time for her sons and it had spiraled downward from there until when she had met Tom.

[Shannon Halifax]

Shannon noticed the slight grimace and inwardly smiled. Typical boys. Typical non-Ravenclaw, boys. She corrected herself. If she had actually known that he was a Gryffindor, jock-Quidditch player it only would have made her laugh out loud. For they, in Shannon's mind, were the epitome of careless, clueless, overall bad students. All fun and no work. But Shannon didn't know that, so she couldn't think those thoughts.

(Regular is what she says, italics is what she thinks)
"Of course" "I like reading." Shannon thought to herself saying the last part out loud. It sounded as if she was confirming it again instead of going on a sarcastic rant inside her head. "Actually no, instead of doing essay's I'd rather do something I absolutely loathe doing. Because I want to cause myself boredom and irritability. "

"My favorite book…" Shannon said "has to be""The Adventures of Curious George" "Watership Down, by Richard Adams". Shannon was getting tired and when she got tired she got quite sarcastic and even a bit cynical with her thoughts. This poor kid had no idea what she was thinking right now.

"I grew up muggle too." Shannon said simply and collectedly."I find their service nice and much appreciated."

[Joshua Stratford]

"I think my brother was telling me about that book." Josh said as he cut the last bit of his pie into two pieces and then speared one half with his fork. Sometimes Josh wished he could be more like Eric. Eric managed to balance reading, sports, a social life, and school all at the same time. He was shyer than Josh, but he was a lot like Josh as well. Eric would probably get along great with this girl.

"I am I appreciate their service, I just don't get why they don't demand anything in return." Josh shrugged as if to say 'Oh well'.

As Josh finished his pie he washed it down with the last of his milk. "I'm Josh, by the way." He told her holding out his hand for her to shake. Not knowing her name was driving him crazy.

[Shannon Halifax]

Shannon nodded at Joshua taking the last bite of her pie. She pushed the plate in front of her as was her habit when she finished a meal. "What did he think about it?" she asked.

Very few people enjoyed reading a book about talking bunnies and how they fought wars against each other and traveled to find a new home and stuff. Most thought it was stupid and pointless and childish. It was hard for them to realize the depth of the narrative how each rabbit could symbolize something and life's lessons could be learned. "Foolish humans." she thought to herself. Hardly realizing that everything she believed to be true was merely a group of assumptions.

Shannon decided to let the topic of house elves die. He just didn't see her view on that either. Serving was their nature. It's what they were born and bread to do. It was as if saying that wands fascinated him because there wasn't a single time that they didn't conduct magic. That was the wands function in society. Shannon took a sip of her milk.

"My name is Shannon." Shannon replied loosely shaking his hand.

[Joshua Stratford]

"Nice to meet you Shannon." Josh replied with a grin as she let go of his hand. She seemed like a Shannon, of course her name was Shannon. Now that he was thinking about it he couldn't believe that he hadn't remembered that before. That's what he got to not paying attention however.

"He actually liked it." Josh could hardly fathom his brother's love of books, especially one about....what was it....a war ship? No that was something else. Why were bunnies coming to mind? Oh well, it didn't really matter. "I honestly can't remember anything that he was saying about it, though." Josh shook his head slightly.

After a moment's pause Josh found himself asking yet another question about her. "So is there anything else you like to do besides read and write essays?"