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While usually Aidene spent any time not in class in clubs or the kitchen, this afternoon she was feeling up for a change. The Ravenclaw dorm wasn’t accepting any of her perfectly reasonable video-game reference answers to the riddle, so Aidene decided to wander around outside. Maybe she’d practice forms. Maybe she’d work on some embroidery for the new dolls being added to her collection. Maybe she would...do homework before the last minute? Definitely not that.

She was following the lakeshore, embroidering a mermaid-scale pattern onto her new Rhea-doll, when she spotted a slab of white stone. At first she thought it was just an art project, with a cute statue perched atop it. But closer up, she recognized a tomb, with a living girl sitting on the other side. Running her fingers along the engraving of the name, Aidene murmured a quiet ”Hullo Headmaster Dumbledore. Hope you’re uh..good?”. She actually recognized the name, but wasn’t quite sure what she should say to the dead wizard. She greeted the living person with another ”Hullo”, not really wanting to bother her if she was engrossed in her book.

”Oh. Sorry for bothering you,” she said, more clearly since she was spotted anyways. Now that she could see her face, Aidene thought the girl looked vaguely familiar. She wasn’t in her year, certainly, but maybe they had run into each other before.

”Do you mind if I hang out?” Usually she and her dad would visit her grandparents’ gravesites every month or so, and it had been a few months. This wasn’t the same, but the tomb had the same sense of serenity. She held up the doll, indicating that she was perfectly fine working quietly if the girl didn’t want to be disturbed.

"That's how we've met then, Aidene Azura Kieran, Ravenclaw house second year, cooking main. Nice to meet you Laurel," Aidene rattled off her introduction. She had been changing up her introductions, still not sure how to properly figure the Game of Life into understandable terms. It was last on her quest list though. There was more than enough for her there.

"My art project this year is making dolls of my friends," Aidene replied, her voice still only just a little louder than "library" volume, and reached in her bag for completed dolls. She offered two cloth dolls, both just slightly longer than hand-length but of vastly different age and craftsmanship, to Laurel for inspection. "That's Zura and Rook, for me and Brook. My dad had gotten Zura for me when I was...six? A really long time ago anyways. And then I just made Rook myself. Much better than my first attempt a few years back, but still not there." she said with a shrug, not seeming the slightest embarrassed.

Aidene picked a spot on the pedestal and settled on it. "What're you reading?"

"It's just my way of saying I'm aiming to be a cook of some sort" Aidene tried explain. She...wasn't honestly sure if she should be considered a cooking main because technically her Main Quest/ Life Story Mission was currently "Join Professor Cohen's definitely-real faction of badassery". But "DADA main" didn't make sense and "highest stat DADA" just sounded obnoxious. "Technically I've got like this cook- seamstress- fighter tri-build going? Sorry that probably didn't make sense. But yeah, I spend a lot of time in the kitchens. I'm usually there if not in classes or clubs." She nodded. She would usually be bundled in the kitchens, working on a project or trying out a recipe, but she'd messed up a recipe yesterday and was taking a few days to rethink things--she felt quite good about it, actually, thinking it was mighty mature of her for not just getting frustrated and spending her time lecturing the pan as she usually might.

"Brook Re--Brook Knapp!" Aidene was happy to ramble about Brook, and almost rambled her entire name before realizing she better not. "Ravenclaw second year and cooking main like me! Uh. Hm Cute blond bob this year, a little taller than me? She's one of my closest friends! You might've seen us partying--uh hanging out--together" She nodded to confirm Zura was after her middle name and was about to ramble about her gamertag before thinking better of it. Laurel obviously wasn't big into video game language and this wouldn't be the first time that year she'd been called out on "speaking Kieran". Thankfully, the other girl was discussing a stuffed wolf. "Tiberius sounds adorable. Do you have him here? Or is he guarding home?"

Aidene listened curiously when Laurel introduced the adventures of Bartimaeus Trevelyan, sorcerer detective. Aidene, of course, thought immediately of a Dungeons and Dragons-styled sorcerer, until it was clarified he was an Animagus. She quickly scrapped her sorcerer+druid? line of thought; it took her a little longer though, to remember that a mongoose was, in fact, not a kind of goose.

"Huh, haven't read it, but that sounds interesting," she started. "Does he solve any muggle murders? Any dark lords involved?" She squinted at the book cover, recognizing at least the logo text. Maybe her dad or aunt had it on their shelves. "There's a cover with the meta girl partially shifting faces, to disguise herself as Bartle--the main guy, right? It...looks familiar."

"Dueling and Fencing," Aidene clarified with a nod. "You can spectate Dueling Club as a first year, you know. Just need to tell the captain first. But Quidditch! You should definitely try out. What position would you want to play? I'm beater cla--I'm a beater. Well reserve beater. But I'll have enough exp to actually play soon hopefully." she couldn't help but ramble on Quidditch a little bit.

She nodded in agreement about eating in the kitchens. The crowds of the Great Hall were great but even Aidene liked the more productive kitchen space sometimes. "The tables are like ' +relationship with multiple subjects, +energy' while the kitchens are more as '+cooking exp, -energy' or '++energy' I guess. I guess if you don't like the noise that really would get annoying because you don't even get the +energy." she paused, realizing a little late that she had already messed up her attempt to speak "normal English" for a while. "That...didn't make sense either, did it?" She brushed it aside. "Anyways, I could always use more taste-testers if you ever run into me in the kitchens?"

"A good guard then. Although if he ever wanted to play with mine we could hang sometime." Aidene added, more to be polite than expecting an actual response.

She listened intently as Laurel explained more about Barty Trevelyan, trying to imagine his adventures and his clashes with the reincarnation of Morgan le Fay. She had to give pause when Laurel asked if she read though. Surely the answer was yes, right? But the last thing she remembered reading for fun was Potion and Pastries, this recipe book explaining different techniques for adding simple potions to pastries without downright ruining the pastry taste or overdosing. That...wasn't exactly the same thing as novels, was it. "I...guess I don't anymore. Huh. I look through guidebooks and recipe books more now? I read a bunch of forum posts online--on the Internet-- over summer. But I guess I haven't really read novels since before Hogwarts." It bothered Aidene for a minute before she shrugged. She'd gotten along fine thus far, right? "Maybe I should pick up something. Any recommendations? This one?"

Aidene held her hand out for a high-five when Laurel agreed that Beater was obviously the best position. ”Best position definitely! We get to do the hitting, do the saving, being a beater’s where all the action’s at. Plus beaters totally control the game--can’t catch a snitch if you’re distracted by a bludger after all,”

She didn’t comment on Laurel’s comment that she was pretty strong besides a curious grin. Laurel certainly didn’t look strong, but then again neither did Aidene and she knew quite well to never disrespect your opponent by underestimating them. If anything, Laurel’s confidence intrigued Aidene--she partially wondered if Laurel would be down for sparring or arm wrestling. Maybe a sparring thing? Maybe she’d be down to start that martial arts club with? she wondered as she let her imagination run away with the idea.

In any case, the prospect of a future sparring partner was much better than dwelling on her mistake speaking game things again. ”Sorry,” she mentioned when Laurel emphasized that she ought to find someone else if she wanted to talk techy. But the comment about accepting food brought the confidence and relaxed grin right back to Aidene’s face. ”No chocolate?” she made a face of shock--who didn’t like chocolate?--but she was immediately thinking she’d done with her cake-ball experiments-- had to do something good and sweet to make up the relationship for talking techy. ”Red velvet? Vanilla? I haven’t tried fruit cakes but that might work….” She pulled a pen out and jotted a note on her arm to look into fruity cake balls not dipped in chocolate.

”Ugh,” she groaned at the mention of homework. After her first O on a transfiguration paper earlier in the year, Aidene was hoping she was done with her Class-Quest problems, but alas her most recent History paper had...well the most recent one she might have not done. But the last paper she’d turned in hadn’t been good either, due to apparently “making things up”. ”They won’t send letters home as long as we’re passing the class, right? My dad would be super disappointed if found out I haven’t been doing homework for some classes. I do extra for DADA though? And sometimes Charms and Herbology?” Another groan. There was too much homework already and not enough time for clubs. Why couldn’t the homework just be “pick half”? She really shouldn’t complain-- especially not in front of a former headmaster-- but she had other quests to do! Like read novels!

When Laurel mentioned it, Aidene jotted “Demelza Howe series” onto her arm, wondering indeed when she had stopped reading. She didn’t recognize the name, but she’d never been one for mysteries. ”Potions and recipes? I did read a guidebook on that. Maybe I’ll try some of these recipes.” She tapped the line about fruit cake. ”I’ll let you know if I do and we can test them together!”