Caught up (OPEN)

Victoria couldn't concentrate due to all the noise coming from her common room. Someone or other was having a birthday celebration, which of course involved too many people and too much noise. And right when she had an essay to finish! She moved to the library in search of some peace and quiet but even there students were chatting about and creating a ruckus. Picking up her books, Victoria remembered the perfect place for studying. The Room of Requirement of course! She hurried off to the seventh floor and roamed the hallways. If she could only remember where exactly the entrance was. She stood at a spot that was vaguely familiar and closed her eyes. After a minute or so of concentration, the door appeared.

The room was made to replicate the library in her old house in Brasil. The three walls held ceiling high bookshelves that were overflowing with books. Most were magical or educational in content, but some where muggle novels and fiction. The latter was her mother's collection of course, who always found non-fiction too boring to read and too long to finish. In the middle of a room, a large wooden desk was placed so the person sitting there was facing the door. This spot was always occupied by her father, or it used to be. A sofa and two comfy chairs were placed at the empty wall, which was Victoria's favorite place in the house. She spread across the sofa, re-reading her essay and trying to figure out what was missing. How on earth was she supposed to write four more pages about a topic as boring as Dittanny. It was just a boring plant for Merlin's sake!

Her gaze started to wonder as she analyzed the room. She tried desperately not to think about how much it made her miss her family. Her mother, who she got to see only during the summer. Her father, with whom communication was exclusively via letters. And her brother, who might as well not attend Hogwarts at all. Victoria tried to remember the last time she had spoken to him but she quickly shook the disturbing though out of her head. Too restless to actually do something productive, she got up to make herself some tea. But she had to envision a little kitchen space first of course.

Dittany. Hunter loved potions, and even he had a pretty hard time writing such a long essay on something as boring as Dittany. Sure, it had plenty of uses, but you could only come up with so many boring facts before you ran out of ideas and still had three pages left to write. However, Hunter had found himself thinking too much about things that he'd rather forget the day before, so he'd already knocked it out. So far, term was alright. As in, Hunter was finally beginning to recover who he was before he lost his brother - and consequently, himself. It meant that he was able to laugh again, and able to respond to people with his usual quick, sarcastic remarks. It meant that he could enjoy spending time with his friends again - and more importantly, that they could enjoy spending time with him again. But it also meant that, just as often as not, Hunter felt completely lost. It meant that he felt guilty for allowing himself to enjoy his life when Jack didn't have a life to enjoy. And it meant that he tended to throw himself into school, or quidditch, or firewhiskey.

But, just because he'd finished his dittany essay didn't mean that the rest of his friends had done the same. Actually, Hunter was the only one that seemed to be done with it. He'd given it to Aoife so that she could copy from it, but even that would take her a while. Because the paper was ridiculously long. Pushing Aoife forcefully from his mind when her face lingered there a bit too long, Hunter absentmindedly pushed the portrait open and let himself out of the common room. He was in a relatively good mood today, and some time on his broom could only help. But as he made his way down the corridor, his eyes landed on a door that seemed a bit unfamiliar a way down the hallway. Furrowing his brow, he slowed his pace so that he could look at it. Was that door always there? No, Hunter walked this way all the time, and he was sure that it wasn't. So, naturally, he changed course and headed straight for it. Doors couldn't just appear and expect people not to investigate. But, even as he thought it, he realized that he had seen that door before. Just not for some time.

"Room of requirement," he mumbled to himself, feeling stupid for not remembering. Still curious, Hunter opened the now less suspicious door and glanced inside to see what it led to before letting himself in. It seemed to be some kind of library full of books. But it wasn't really a library. More like a den, really. Like something you'd see in somebody's home. Without thinking, he stepped inside, only to find that it was more than just one room. Apparently, there was a kitchen here, too. And, inside the kitchen, was Victoria! Raising an eyebrow, Hunter watched for a moment as she headed for a tea kettle. Then, the corner of his mouth raising in amusement, he announced his presence. "Yeah, tea sounds great, thanks!" he said loudly, crossing the room and falling back onto the couch. A grin spread across his face as he kicked his feet up onto the arm of the chair nearest him. His eyes happened to catch the essay sitting on the other side of the couch, and he raised an eyebrow. "No, don't tell me you're working on the dittany essay, too," he complained. "Everyone is working on it today, nobody wants to do anything."

"Yaaaaassssssss." Ollie exclaimed as he rolled out of bed, literally. He'd stayed up all night working on a project for Transfiguration, that he'd taken the pleasure of sleeping in and skipping a few of his classes for the day. The 'few' turned into 'all' pretty quick and he'd simply given up on getting up that day. Silly Transfiguration. Still, he managed to roll himself out and land on the floor, still tangled up in his bed sheets because the floor was incredibly cold. Untangling himself, Ollie brushed his gray sweatpants off any weird bed stuff he might have, and headed down for the Great Hall to get some good stuff in his stomach, like hot cocoa or maybe some s'mores. Yes, s'mores sounded delightful! Walking in, he realized what a massive mistake it had been! People were everywhere! They were all swarming in to eat or something of the sort, and he suddenly realized he had no clue what time of the day it was. It was sometime in the afternoon, but the exact time was a mystery. Still, he found himself headed to the Hufflepuff table to grab a snack when he spotted the most deliciously looking pumpkin pie. IT LOOKED SO BEAUTIFUL, SO TASTY. "Ahhhh, where have you been all my lifeeeee?" he wondered out loud as he took the pie, grabbed a spoon and headed out.

"No need to share this treasure today." And it wasn't that Ollie didn't want to share, he shared his stuff all the time, but not this pie. This pie was something else. It was like food heaven, like an oasis in his body, just so delicious that words were not able to describe it's perfection. Ollie was done with all the other food, this pie was the one. Yes. As he walked around, mindlessly enjoying his food, he told a story to one of the ghosts that roamed the halls. Between bites, he recited the tale of a man who loved food so very much that he entered a hot-dog-eating contest. "An eh as sooo fat, he ad like a undred of 'em!" He swallowed, carrying the pie in his arm, "No, not a hundred. A googolplex!" Ollie nodded as the ghost erupted in laughter, and he soon followed. Oliver had no idea what was so funny, but seeing that chubby bearded ghost laugh as hard as he was made it pretty hard to not laugh with him. They laughed for what seemed an eternity, Ollie's eyes watering and his cheeks hurting from the muscle work. "Wait, why are we laughing?" Ollie asked as he wiped happy tears away from his eyes with his only free hand. No way he was letting go of that pumpkin goodness. "What is a googolplex?!?" The ghost replied before bursting into a million laughs again, and Ollie raised an eyebrow, "You don't know?" Part of him believed it, the other didn't. Googolplex was Oliver's favorite number! When the ghost shook his head, Ollie rolled his eyes like any incredulous fifteen year old would. "There's a dictionary in the library. Look it up!" he said as he gave the friendly ghost a grin and ran off with his pie in hand.

Really, Ollie had eaten half of it already, but he was getting thirsty and the story had only made him hungrier. Seeing as he was on the Seventh Floor, Ollie had an idea. The Room of Requirement would provide all he needed to satisfy his food needs, so Ollie closed his eyes and imagined the largest kitchen in the world, filled with lots of exotic food for him to try, and when he finally reached the wall...his fingers touched the door, and Ollie felt a wave of intense happiness run through him...but when he opened the door, and his blue eyes scanned the place, Ollie groaned. He didn't ask for a library! He asked for food! Frowning, Ollie continued to look around, not fully daring to walk in. There were couches and other furniture things, so he guessed someone must have already be there. "Everyone is working on it today, nobody wants to do anything." he heard someone speaking, a boy most likely. Finally deciding he had nothing to lose, Ollie walked in and saw that one guy who Blake was friends with, Hunter. Yes, the one with the cool hair!  He'd been at Aoife's birthday with Blake and other cool people. Grinning, Ollie walked up to him, before realizing that there was a kitchen....and in the kitchen was Victoria.

In a second of insecurity, Ollie looked down at his clothes. His sweatpants were clean, his shirt - a green tie dye, like the trees - was relatively clean....but his socks were insanely dirty! He'd been walking around in socks the whole time! Not to mention, he was holding a pumpkin pie like it was the only hope he had in the world. Wow. Waaaayy to make an entrance, Oliver. He mentally told himself as he grinned awkwardly at his lady friend.

'Earl Grey or English Breakfast?', thought Victoria as she was standing in her small and improvised kitchen. If you could call it a kitchen. It was really just two counters with a stove and a small kettle. But that was all she needed to make her tea. After choosing Mint tea over her two previous options, Victoria put the water to boil and waited patiently. Hopefully a small break would help her concentrate better on her essay, which was still three pages short. Just as she was about to remind herself of the healing properties of Dittany, a familiar voice distracted her. "Yeah! Tea sounds great, thanks" She almost jumped from surprise before turning around and facing the intruder. Instead of a nagging prefect or a curious first year - she saw Hunter. 


With his ruffled hair and familiar grin, he seemed himself. Like the Hunter before. Pleased to see him, Victoria greeted him with a smile. "Hey, asshole. Didn't you hear of knocking?", she asked with a smirk. Although he didn't exactly have a door to knock on. But that was beside the point. She took a moment to examine his face. The harsh lines and dark bags under his eyes were gone. That goofy smile on his lips even made him seem younger in way. She hadn't really spoken to Hunter this term and they didn't have a proper conversation since... well since his loss. But grief was no longer written on his face and pain was no longer part of his body language. He seemed surprisingly normal. "What do you want? Black? Herbal? Earl Grey?", she asked bringing her attention back to the steaming kettle. Thankfully, it contained enough water for two. She returned to the couch with two empty cups and a variety of tea bags. "Here, pick", she said presenting them to Hunter on the small table next to him. 

Before she could answer his question about the essay, another voice interrupted her thoughts. "Oh bloody hell!", she sighed out loud, knowing that this time, it was certainly a prefect. Or worse, a first year. But to her surprise, it was her favorite fifth year. In sweat pants, socks and all. That boy really had something against shoes. "OLLIE!", Victoria almost shouted with a grin on her face. Well he was a lot better company than a prefect. She grabbed his hand and pulled him towards the couch area. "Come. Do you want a tea?", she said motioning him to sit at the couch where Hunter was sitting, well almost laying, at. "Hunter will move so you can sit down", she said as she shot the Gryffindor a glare. 

Suddenly, this boring homework session turned into a part of three. "Sorry this wasn't what you expected guys. But... welcome to my house! Well sort of, part of my house at least. This is my dad's library. Hence the books and the desk. The kitchen was improvised later", she explained with a chuckle. "And yes, that is my essay on the Properties of Dittany and it is freaking three pages short. It's such a stupid plant anyway. I don't even understand why we need to write about it in the first place..." she went on rambling as she returned to the kitchen to make Ollie's tea. "Ollie. What did you say you wanted?", she asked once more.

Hunter snorted in amusement when Victoria jumped pretty violently at the sound of his voice. And then he grinned as she greeted him, and greeted her back by raising his middle finger toward her. "At least you swore at me in English this time," he said after a moment, laughing. "I'd say we should find a nicer way to say hello to each other, but I wouldn't want to ruin the tradition, you know?" he added as she walked over to him, presenting an array of teabags for him to choose from. Black, herbal, earl gray... Hunter just stared at them for a moment and then looked up at Victoria with a raised eyebrow. "Er, is there supposed to be a difference between them?" he asked. Hunter wasn't exactly the kind of person to know the difference between - what did the teabags even say? English breakfast or Chamomile? "I don't care which one. Though, if you don't mind, you could top mine off with this," he said, reaching into his bag and revealing a half-full bottle of firewhiskey, which he set on a table beside him. Hunter could always enjoy firewhiskey. He'd actually come to develop a real appreciation for the taste after spending so much time with it last term. "And yours, if you want."

A bit of movement in the doorway drew Hunter's attention, and he looked up to see someone step into the room. Hunter laughed as Victoria spun around again in surprise, only to find that it was Oliver Bennett. Oliver Bennett, wearing no shoes and clinging to an entire pumpkin pie. Hunter watched on as Ollie quickly glanced at what he was wearing, and then back up at Victoria, and couldn't help but smirk. Because really, could he be anymore obvious? And as smart as Victoria was, she didn't seem to notice, because she was too busy shouting Ollie's name happily and grabbing his hand and shit. Really, could she be anymore obvious? Deciding to break up this ridiculous moment before either of them embarrassed themselves, Hunter spoke up easily. "I see you've brought pie," he said observantly, a tone of amusement in his voice. "That's brilliant, because I'm starving." Then, Hunter was told to move. Really? So, naturally, he took his time glaring over at Victoria and releasing a dramatic sigh before kicking his legs off of the couch to make room for Ollie. "You can put some in his tea, too, I've got plenty," he told Victoria, nodding toward the firewhiskey bottle. Because Hunter was so generous with his stolen firewhiskey.

Hunter raised an eyebrow in surprise when Victoria revealed that this place was actually her house. "Seriously?" he asked, glancing around as though it was an entirely new room from the one he entered. "That's pretty cool," he said. He'd never thought of asking the room of requirement for his own house. "I finished it already," he told Victoria when she responded about the essay. "Aoife's copying from it now, but you can borrow it when she's done if you want," he offered. "It was such a drag to write."