You Can't Have One of My Cookies (Hunter)

Phineas was glad that his common room was right next to the kitchens. Usually at night he could sneak down to grab a snack like he did when he was at home. So it literally was like living at home. The first night was terrible though as he didn't know how to get into the kitchens. An older Hufflepuff had to teach him how. You just tickled the pear on the painting and BAM there were the kitchens! The most magical thing in Hogwarts was probably the house elves who where in there to give him what ever he wanted. He usually settled for some cookies and milk. Which probably wasn't good for his figure, but what ever. He'd have time to work with that some other time.

So, he sat there with his milk and cookies, while the house elves residing in the kitchen at this hour where asking him what else he needed. He liked this. In the kitchens he felt important. He felt like the master of the kitchen when he was there, which was how it should be. He was the master. He was the ruler! He thought about what it would be like to take over the world! King Phin. He liked the sound of that. And Aoife can be his body guard! And they can banish that Gryffindor bloke called Hunter that Aoife obviously didn't like. That would make him feel good. He could then tell the headmaster to combine all the houses into one. They would be Gryffinslyclawpuff! There we go! That was cool!

He was just about to finish his milk and ask for more when the painting opened to reveal somebody he didn't actually care about. It was HIM...The one who had made Aoife mad! The one who had made him lose his cool, and his dignity. No one who did that belonged in Gryffindor. Especially him. He moved his cookies closer to him in case the Gryffindor wanted one. Well...HE CAN'T HAVE ONE! Phin nodded to himself to let him stand his ground. He wasn't going to give in to this git.

Hunter was hungry. In the middle of the night. As usual. They really needed to add an extra meal after dinner already. An extra meal around eight or nine o'clock would be perfect, and then Hunter wouldn't have to walk all the way down to the kitchens in the middle of the night to end his hunger. But unfortunately, there was no meal after dinner until breakfast over twelve hours later. So Hunter found himself, once again, making his way through the dark corridors toward the basement. Sure, he had candy and Butterbeer in his room, but Hunter couldn't live off of candy alone!

Hunter had long since gotten over the fear of being caught in the corridors after hours. Most of the professors were asleep by now, and half of them probably wouldn't care even if they did catch him. So he didn't really waste his time trying to be quiet - the only way he'd run into trouble was if he encountered Peeves. But Hunter was pretty good at avoiding the Poltergeist by now, so his journey from the top of the castle to the bottom was uninterrupted.

Personally, Hunter thought that it was kind of unfair that the kitchens were in the basement. Yeah, he knew the reason for it - they were under the great hall and everything. But really, it wasn't right that the Hufflepuffs and Slytherins could walk right out of their common rooms and be at the kitchens, while Hunter had to trudge all the way from Gryffindor tower just to get a sandwich. But he made it there none-the-less, and tickled the pear on the portrait to get it to swing open. But when he got inside, he realized that he wasn't the only one there.

Great, it was the little Hufflepuff that had glued himself to Aoife's side. Hunter hesitated in the doorway, looking around to see if Aoife was with him, but the kid seemed to be alone. Hunter wasn't in the mood to deal with him, but he wasn't about to go all the way back up to the common room empty handed, so he asked the house elves for whatever leftovers they had from dinner and took a seat at the counter while he waited. "Hey Gryffinpuff," he said evenly when he walked past the kid, putting the two houses together in his mind because of the kid's mixed traits from each house. "Hands to yourself," he added as he sat down, ignoring the kid's possessive posture over his cookies.

Phin kept his hands to himself on a regular basis thank you very much. He wish he said that out loud because that was an awesome insult. He was feeling very insult and moody that night, and he was glad that Hunter was the one to take the bullets. Gryffinpuff? Who was he calling a Gryffinpuff? Actually...He wouldn't admit it to him, but that was pretty cool.

What if they combined all the houses together? Ravenpuff? Huffenclaw? Slytherdor? This was actually fun. He stuffed a cookie into his mouth and smiled a little bit, but then remembered that he had to keep his cool. This kid was mean to Aoife. Aoife said he was not nice. But at the same time he wanted to know what the deal was with her and him.

So, he casually asked, "So...What's the deal with you and Aoife?"

Smooth...That was casual right? Right? Yeah. It was. And what other things was he supposed to talk about? The weather? That was stupid.

For a while, Hunter actually thought that the annoying first year was going to keep his mouth shut. He didn't say anything at first, and didn't try to attack Hunter again - which was good, because Hunter didn't want to be responsible for a first year's trip to the hospital wing. And he wasn't about to let the kid get away with his stupidity again. So Hunter ignored Phineas' presence while he waited for his food.

But no, of course the stupid first year couldn't keep his mouth shut for very long. No, he had to ask Hunter a question. And just like the first time, it wasn't an ordinary question but a question about Aoife. And not simply a question of where she was - no, the kid was actually asking what was going on between the two of them. Hunter turned a sharp glare on Phineas, who was really starting to test his patience - a bad idea, really, because Hunter didn't have much patience to begin with nowadays.

"Last I checked, you stick to her side like glue," Hunter retorted irritably. "So shouldn't you already know?" Phineas apparently thought he was closer to Aoife than he actually was. It was pathetic, really. And laughable that the first year thought he knew Aoife better than Hunter. It would be really great if his food was ready then and he could leave, but of course it wasn't. So he was stuck there. So Hunter decided to answer the kid's question, more out of boredom than anything. It wasn't as though it mattered who knew.

"We were best friends," Hunter told the kid, keeping his voice disinterested and aloof. "Since first year. I asked her on a date to Hogsmeade around Christmas and she threw a chair at me. We haven't talked since." It amazed Hunter that he could sum up everything that happened in just a few sentences. Of course, he'd left the part about Seren out. No need for Phineas to know that if Aoife hadn't already told him.

Phineas felt bad for the poor kid. She threw a chair at him? Wow. Talk about over reacting... But now Aoife seemed sadder since Hunter got a girlfriend. Yeah, Phineas paid attention to the gossip and stuff. He had nothing better to do, so why not?

He decided to be nice to him for once. He said, "I'm sorry dude. That must suck." He wasn't going to apologize for attacking him. Nope. He still wanted his revenge for making him look stupid in front of the entire court yard. But then, why was he being so nice?

It was the chair....That must of hurt him. Normally he would've replied with, "Good. I hope you broke a bone or two..." But instead he apologized??? What was with him tonight? This wasn't his normal self. Maybe Rosie put something in his cookies to make him nice? Na...that little house elf wouldn't do such a thing. Oh well. He asked, "So, what happens now?"

Hunter eyed the kid suspiciously when he responded in a less-than-hostile tone. Was he trying to get him to let his guard down so that he could try and attack him again? It was possible - but the kid didn't stand a chance no matter what he did, so Hunter didn't think too much into it. Hopefully Phineas was smart enough to realize that he couldn't win in a fight against Hunter. And hopefully he was smart enough to realize that he wouldn't get off so easily this time if he tried again.

But the first year made no attempt at anything strange anyway, so Hunter just shrugged at his words. Yes, of course it sucked. He'd lost one of the most important people in his fourteen-year-old life. "It's no big deal," he said, though he'd never told a bigger lie in his life. "And anyway, there isn't much I can do about it."

The kid's next question reverberated in Hunter's mind for a moment - what happens now? He'd been wondering that a lot himself lately. Where was he supposed to go from here? He wanted to be able to say that they would eventually get over it and things would be fine. But he knew it wasn't true, and pretending it was wouldn't help anything. So instead, he said, "Nothing." That was the most truthful answer he could have given. "Nothing happens now. It's over."