Those who had been involved in the food-fighting incident in the Great Hall had spent the last nine days cooking every meal for the other students and staff in the school. It was exhausting, and Ava wasn't entirely sure how the house elves managed to do all that cooking and cleaning and actually enjoy it.

One of the main problems with cooking every meal, was that Ava didn't feel all that hungry after she helped to make it. Since they had started serving their detention, Ava had simply grabbed a couple of things and put them on a plate, before they were sent up to the Great Hall. She would pick off them while sitting in the kitchen under the big, watery, wary eyes of the house elves, and the white-hot heat of the stoked fire.

Ava stretched out in morning glow of the late April sun. Six o'clock and she was enjoying sunshine. If cooking these meals was good for anything, it was good for this. Ava had never seen life this early in the morning, and she was pleasantly surprised by what she saw. It was coming into summer now, and the blossom on the trees was falling all over, leaving a white and pink confetti on the ground and saying goodbye to the green buds on the ends of the branches of the trees. Ava breathed in the air. It smelled fresh and sweet - the way summer should smell. She smiled a little to herself as her eyes flickered closed, and she settled herself a little more on the wooden bench. She heard a buzzing close by and let one eye droop open lazily. Her eye followed a little fly that landed on a red gerbera flower at the flower patch near to the bench. It had a little snoop around the flower, and then made its way to a yellow tulip near by. she watched the fly bury itself inside the flower, and all buzzing ceased.

Ava sighed. What she wouldn't give to be that little fly, and be able to bury herself in a pretty flower.

Fauna opened the doors to the courtyard, wanting to get some sunshine before she tackled her homework and suffered through the breakfast she’d just helped to make. She brought a lock of hair to her nose and sniffed it. It smelled like bacon. Ollie would love that, definitely, but Fauna would probably take a second shower this morning anyway. She liked smelling like food, but only if it was the dessert kind.

She spotted Ava laying underneath a tree in full bloom, its petals falling when the breeze ruffled the branches. Fauna hesitated for a moment, still not used to voluntarily spending time with the girl, and finally trotted on over.

As she plopped down next to her she couldn’t help but worry that Ava would look at her strangely and want her to leave. Now that their detentions were almost over Fauna wasn’t sure if their chattiness during meal preparations would spill out into everyday life interactions, or if their budding friendship was over.

“Two more meals… just two more meals, and we’ll be done,” she commented a bit nervously. The Headmaster wouldn’t be so cruel as to make them cook during Remembering week, Fauna didn’t think. At the very least, Hogwarts had a certain standard to uphold with the food they served guests, and the house elves were likely to revolt if they weren’t allowed to prepare fancy banquets in the kitchen. Surely Headmaster Greyfriar knew that.

“We have rehearsal later, don’t we,” she frowned, apprehensive about it. It was hard to believe the celebrations and memorials would start tomorrow, and that wizards and witches from all around the world would fill the castle and the grounds. For the first time, Fauna was excited about the events because she was involved in the Reenactment and the art club. Yet, that also meant she was ten times more nervous.

She glanced at Ava, who had every reason to be nervous. The role of Voldemort was one of the most important and controversial parts. Fauna gave her a sympathetic smile.

“How are you doing with that?” She wondered, referring to the play.

Ava wasn't aware of anyone sitting by her until a voice chirped up.

“Two more meals… just two more meals, and we’ll be done,”

Ava let one eye open lazily and rotate to find Fauna in her field of vision. She closed her eye again and sighed. "I know. Its blissful to think that we don't have to step into another kitchen again unless we choose to, isn't it?" She paused in thought. "Well, unless we get into another food fight." She scrunched her face up at remembering the way her hair had been plastered to the side of her face with sticky syrup. "And I hope that doesn't happen again!" She stated seriously.

Ava sat up and shunted over on the ground making room in case fauna wanted to lean against the rough bark like she was. The pair had got along quite well over the last two weeks, and if she was to admit it, Ava was a little sad that they wouldn't be spending any more time together. Everyone else had seemed to just get on with their chores in silence. Fauna and Ava had actually talked...chatted even. Ava learned a lot of things about Fauna she would never have guessed, and began to actually like the girl. It was a shame that once detentions were over they wouldn't be forced to spend time together - Ava was pretty sure the Hufflepuff wouldn't want to spend time with her under normal circumstances. She didn't come across as being the nicest of people.

Fauna's mention of the rehearsal made Ava groan. Fauna apparently picked up on this.

“How are you doing with that?”

"With what? Being bald? Oh yeah - just fantastic. I'm thinking of shaving my head!" Ava's sarcasm, she realised a split-second later, may have came across as being rude and obnoxious. She wasn't meaning to be, that was just her way of dealing with embarassments - acting aloof. She softened her voice a little. "I mean-well, I've learned pretty much all of my lines. I just hate my costume." She sighed and plucked a blade of grass. "I could kill Atticus for doing this!" She said as she twiddled the grass between her fingers and thumb.

Fauna nodded emphatically when Ava said she hoped they never got into another food fight. She still couldn’t believe she’d been smack dab in the middle of it. Though she had to admit that the aftermath of kitchen detention hadn’t been so bad, considering she and Ava got along better now, and her cooking skills had improved marginally. She didn’t know how long this peace would last between them, but it was nice to voluntarily sit with each other outside of class and detention.

Fauna wasn’t too surprised at Ava’s sarcastic reaction. She felt slightly bad for bringing it up, as it certainly wasn’t something Fauna would want to think about if she were in Ava’s shoes. The girl was much braver than she was. If one of her friends had volunteered her for a major role, especially the role of Voldemort, she wouldn’t have been able to handle it.

She opened her mouth to tell her so, but Ava had more to say. Fauna wasn’t that comfortable with her yet to just butt in to the conversation. So she listened, smiling when Atticus was mentioned.

“He’s kind of a prat sometimes, huh,” she mused, leaning back to rest on her elbows. It was said in a thoughtful, puzzled way, not exactly insulting, though when she realized what she’d just called him she bolted upright and stared at Ava.

“Oh, well, I mean… I didn’t mean it in a mean way,” she shrugged helplessly, chuckling a bit.

“But… you’ll do great, you know. You have confidence and you’ve been practicing,” Fauna tried to reassure her. “Maybe Atticus volunteered you  because he thought you could pull it off…”

Her expression flitted to nervousness when she realized exactly what role Ava had to pull off. “Because of your acting ability,” she clarified hastily. It wasn’t as if she actually thought Ava and Voldemort had anything in common!

Fauna sighed, tired of worrying so much about how her words could be misconstrued, and leaned back on the grass with her hands behind her head. She really needed to relax, especially since Remembering Day was so close and then she’d have something significant to stress over.

“He’s kind of a prat sometimes, huh,”

Fauna leaned back on her elbows. Ava raised an eyebrow. Was that Fauna actually trying to muster up an insult? She was sure that was as bad as it could get. From what she knew of the Hufflepuff, she never had a bad word to say about anyone, unless they really deserved it.

Fauna clearly was worried about Ava's raction, and began to stutter her apologies. Ava just grinned. "Yeah. He's a prat sometimes." Had it been anyone else, Ava would have defended her friend's back to the bitter end. But she knew Fauna better than before, and Fauna knew Atticus too - therefore, in Ava's eyes, she had every right to state the obvious.

“Maybe Atticus volunteered you  because he thought you could pull it off…” there was a moment's pause when Ava looked at Fauna with an expression that said 'and what exactly are you insinuating?' It wasn't as though she actually had anything in common with the bald dictator...was it? “Because of your acting ability,”

Ava laughed out loud. "Yeah right!" She rolled her eyes. "One thing you'll learn about Atti - he doesn't do things like this because he thinks I can pull them off. He does things like this because we've been friends forever, and he knows I at least won't kill him...just maim him, slightly." Ava traced her finger over the short blades of grass. "He tries to get a reaction out of me...sometimes it works. This time it didn't, and he was sorely disappointed. He thought this was his greatest creation yet." Ava sat up and lifted her heands up, palms facing away. She moved them from side-to-side as though tracing an invisible sign. "He could see it lit up in little white bulbs - Ava Grosvenor plays He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named!"

She chuckled slightly and leaned back again.