Saturday, September 25, 1920
Around 11:45 PM
Don't loiter after your patrol, they'd said.
Being prefect doesn't give you the right to stay up until ungodly hours, they'd insisted.
None of it mattered to her. Rae had been roaming the lonely late-night corridors since her first year. That she now had a badge that drastically reduced the number of detentions she'd started the term with was of little consequence to the girl who would've been exactly where she was, doing exactly what she was, even without this shiny pin attached to her robes. It was nice, the little perks she got after having a dry run as a volunteer at the facility over the summer, but Ruth Anaya had never been one to cede her freedom over something as trivial as whether she was allowed.
The night was still far too young for her to head to bed, and with her stomach growling the way it was, the girl had made a beeline for the kitchens after making a walk by the lake for her patrol. She'd lucked out on it, really. With as much time as she usually spent by the lake during the night, Rae couldn't have picked a better place to now have as her responsibility.
There had been a student or two still out. Stragglers she was used to from a time when she'd been one of them. Just another restless soul not ready to head to bed. She let them be, seeing no reason to fuss. They'd all been doing the same song and dance for years, and none of them were being so conspicuous that she could get in trouble for not busting them.
Rae moved about the kitchen, opening and closing cupboards in her search for the perfect almost-midnight snack. Knowing she had every intention of heading back out to the lake, the girl was looking for something filling enough to keep her going until her eyes and legs were ready to give up.
She grimaced when opening the pantry revealed loaves and loaves of bread. The start of the term had been enough. Rae didn't want a single thing to do with sandwiches for at least another month.
She made a second circle, hoping instead to find anything left over from the night's dinner. Behind her, she heard the portrait entrance open.
"The kitchen's closed." Probably.
Alice looked at her pocket watch, her eyes widening when she saw the time. Patrols were over at 11:30, and it was now past that. She looked around the dark Quad, shivering slightly as she realized she was alone and it was nearing midnight. She needed to get downstairs to the Hufflepuff dorm quickly.
She made her way back into the castle, her wand still lit up from the lumos she casted a while ago. Alice wasn’t scared of the dark, of course, but… it was late and the castle was ancient and this was the latest she had ever been out before. Usually by now she was fast asleep, or up in the common room studying. But never was she wandering around.
As she walked past the kitchens though, she heard movement inside. Alice stopped – the silence around her cut as there was more rustling. She narrowed her eyes, trying to recall who had patrolled the kitchens. But honestly she couldn’t remember, and it was past patrol time anyways.
Alice pushed the door open and a mixture of the mess of hair she saw and the voice who spoke out – “the kitchen’s closed” – she knew who it was. She knew that Ruth was a night owl, everyone knew it. And now the girl was a prefect; just like the decision to make Benji one, she wondered what the administration was thinking when they gave this one a badge too.
“Did you find anything?” Alice asked, deciding not to jump straight to why she had earned the nickname Mum with her friend group. Honestly, her stomach was slightly rumbly too. She came to a stop by her friend, biting her lip as she felt a duty to report her, but also didn’t want to be a snitch. “Besides bread, anyways?” she added, making a disgusted face.
She'd thought her words would be enough--hoped, anyway--but the sound of approaching footsteps told her that her company was determined to enjoy for themselves a midnight snack, too. It was just as well. The absence of loud bangs and clatters left her confident it wasn't a Gryffindor and that if it was, at least it wasn't the sort she wouldn't have wanted to share the kitchen with.
“Did you find anything?”
Oh. Alice.
Even better.
Rae turned to her friend when she joined her by the counter, bumping her shoulder gently in greeting. "Looks like the students ate their way through most of what used to be dinner," Rae said with a sigh, leaning onto the counter while she swept the kitchen with her dark chocolate gaze. Where else could she check? What else might've been on offer at an hour like this one? It was unfortunate that the elves were so good at cleaning up at the end of the night. They didn't believe in leaving a dirty kitchen.
For a scavenger like herself, raiding the kitchen after a certain hour was always a nightmare.
"I might see if there's at least some ice cream. A midnight sundae might hit the spot--chocolate syrup, extra chocolate syrup. Maybe some of those cute little marshmallows we sometimes get at the breakfast table. I know they must have some of those lying around the place."
Excited by her own plan, Rae launched off the counter. She nodded Alice along with her. "Grab us two bowls and some spoons. I'll find us something."
Rae yanked over the container where all the coldest things were kept by freezing and cooling charms. It took some shuffling things out of the way before landing on the tubs of vanilla and chocolate ice cream. She dumped them back on the counter with a satisfied grin.
"What're you still doing out anyway?"
"Looks like the students ate their way through most of what used to be dinner."
Alice nodded, but couldn’t really blame them. With how rough the food was the first couple days of term, she knew there were some kids – BENJI – who were still trying to make up for the lack of real food when they first returned to the castle.
The Hufflepuff’s brown eyes wandered over the surfaces in the kitchen. She knew she could bake something if Ruth really wanted to, but – ice cream? Alice would not turn that down. She smiled and nodded. That’d be so much better than baking something for them at this hour.
And quicker.
"Grab us two bowls and some spoons. I'll find us something."
Rae made her way to the cold stock, and Alice turned to a cabinet and pulled out a couple of bowls and then picked up two spoons from the cutlery. By the time she returned to Rae, the ice cream was there. She grinned.
“Oh, I lost track of time…” Alice responded. She hadn’t begun her late night studying yet, that would be closer to the end of term. But she did sometimes find herself lost in thought about her sister and about her responsibilities.
“Wait, hold on…” she turned and made her way over to the pantry. She stepped inside, her eyes skimming the small room, and then grinned when she pulled out a new jar of chocolate syrup.
Once she had it, she walked back to Rae and set it down. “Can never have too much chocolate,” she said with a grin. And then she grabbed an ice cream scoop, because she had forgotten before.
“Do you like anything else on your sundaes? There’s fruit and nuts too,” she added, looking at Rae.
Now they were getting somewhere. Rae's dark eyes lit with delight when Alice plopped the jar of chocolate syrup down. The young girl hadn't expected much of the night when she'd decided to make a detour in the kitchen, but she was quite pleased with the turn things were taking. There was no telling when she would finally be ready to fall asleep. After only an hour of walking? When the sun was already making its way back into the sky?
It was anyone's guess, really.
Until then, Rae appreciated most of the company she ran into and would be equally happy for a frozen treat with a friend to while away some of that time.
“Do you like anything else on your sundaes? There’s fruit and nuts too.”
"I'll pass on the fruit this time, but I'll have some nuts--and those colourful sprinkles, if you can find any." Hogwarts wasn't exactly known for stocking large quantities of sweet treats. They were an educational institution tasked with the nutritional care of the students, not a confectionery shop. It was a miracle they found what they did. Rae would credit it to the professors' understanding that everyone needed a treat every now and then, while ignoring the fact that they were probably saving these for celebratory feasts.
There was a lot of talk about sugar and many treats becoming expensive after the war. Rae hadn't noticed. It had been so long ago, more than half her lifetime ago. Besides, on the streets and in the orphanages, everything seemed expensive. It left her in the unique position of not understanding the gravity of helping herself now any more than she did when she was younger.
Things were always bad somehow. It wasn't for her to worry about.
Rae nudged the bowls closer to Alice so she could begin scooping them their late-night dessert. "Have you heard?" the Slytherin asked, leaning in a little and whispering. "Some girls in the Slytherin common room were talking earlier. One of 'em swore they saw the charms cowboy sneaking out of Headmistress Haswell's office two nights back."
She wrinkled her nose as she straightened. Was it true? Rae didn't know and didn't care to know. It was simply what she'd heard.
"She could do better, don't you think?"
She hoisted herself up on the counter, swinging her legs lightly while she waited for her ice cream. "Anyway, I saw George staring at you during Transfiguration class yesterday." Her earlier grin returned, widening as she teased. "What was that about?"
Alice nodded with Ruth’s order and made her way back to the pantry. There was a large assortment of nuts that would be perfect when they were crushed to put on ice cream, and then sprinkles. Ruth wanted sprinkles. Alice liked them too and wouldn’t mind some either, especially since she was not being watched closely by her mum at the moment.
She bit her lip, digging around cupboards. Perhaps the sprinkles would be further to the back. With how things had been this term so far, she didn’t think there’d been any need for celebratory toppings like sprinkles.
Pulling open another drawer, she grinned and pulled out a jar of sprinkles in every color that you could imagine.
"Have you heard? Some girls in the Slytherin common room were talking earlier. One of 'em swore they saw the charms cowboy sneaking out of Headmistress Haswell's office two nights back."
Alice, now back next to Rae, looked up at her friend with disgust on her face. “Oh, ew,” she said and shuddered at the thought. She picked up the scoop and began scooping out the ice cream into the bowls.
"She could do better, don't you think?"
“Oh, she definitely could. She’s so pretty, I’m surprised she’s single.” The Haswells were a messy family, even though they were Pureblooded. Ruby was the most responsible of the lot, that was for sure, but it was still strange that the woman was now their headmistress.
"Anyway, I saw George staring at you during Transfiguration class yesterday. What was that about?"
Alice handed one of the bowls to Rae and handed her a spoon, her cheeks growing extremely red with embarrassment. She knew who George was; he wasn’t bad to look at. But Alice had more important things to think about as a student.
“He was? I… didn’t even notice, honest,” she responded, though her cheeks were still bright red. “Boys are stupid, I have too much to worry about without adding one of them to the mix,” she admitted, looking at Rae.
Plus, her parents would kill her if she dared focus on anything other than her schooling.
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