Last night was pretty awful for Fauna, and it showed. This morning she’d accidentally matched her socks, put on a bit of blush to brighten her face, and had forgotten her pet rat in the dorm. All signs that Fauna was not herself. Still, she glanced at Ollie and smiled bravely. There was no way she’d ever admit to her friend that she’d spent most of the night crying- not when Ollie had been suffering in her werewolf form up until the first rays of light shone through the windows of the Armor Gallery.

It was all too easy for Fauna to imagine what Ollie went through each month now that she had seen it. She’d need some time to get over the shock and horror. Her view of Ollie hadn’t changed; she was one of her best friends now as much as before, but how she understood werewolves had changed significantly. They were no longer so mysterious to her, and her heart went out to them.

As she stumbled on her way to the Great Hall for some late breakfast, she hooked Ollie’s arm with her own and contemplated skipping. She soon discarded the idea when she tripped over her own feet again. Fauna was grateful for Ollie’s extra pair of sunglasses, which masked her tiredness. When the two girls opened the doors of the Great Hall and walked in arm in arm, they could have been sisters. Fauna wore a silver Hershey’s Kiss cap and Ollie wore her cupcake hat, her wild hair curling out from underneath.

“I think I still see a plate of bacon,” she whispered to her friend with a smile.

It was almost as if someone had dragged Ollie from her bed and tossed her into a cold shower to wake her this morning. In truth she had less then a few hours of sleep in human form. Sure she might have caught a bit of sleep curled up in the armor gallery in her werewolf state but that sleep was lost once you had to transform back. Ollie was stiff afterwards and would have given anything to curl up in bed and sleep away the day, but she never could. Today was different though she wasn’t riding back to school on the morning train but actually going to class. Ollie was here so she was going to go to class like any normal student.

After the little sleep she got she dragged her feet out of her bed not even brushing a comb through her wild hair but slipping her cupcake hat over top. Her cupcake hat was her comfort hat the one she wore for the train ride from home to school, it just made her feel so cheerful. She had pushed on her sunglasses, one of her many pairs, so as to hide the dark rings around her eyes and the tiredness that was so plain on her face.

Clad in her uniform she walked arm in arm with Fauna towards the Great Hall. Ollie was sort of dragged along by Fauna, which wasn’t surprising. She smiled as best she could before a yawn left her that she could not stifle. Ollie was a little worried about how Fauna was doing especially after seeing what she had seen. Ollie cared deeply for Fauna and she worried that what she saw could change things.

It was a conversation what would be left for later. It was one that would dwell in the back of her mind. Fauna was such a great person for stand beside her during the situation. She pushed the thought of the conversation from her mind and looked at the Great Hall as they entered. “Bacon?” Ollie asked as she made a b-line for the bacon. She sat down at the table and piled a bunch of the bacon to her plate just started to chow down on it. Nothing could perk a very tired Ollie up more than bacon.

Outfit

As predicted, Ollie plopped down on her seat and almost emptied the entire platter of bacon on her plate. Fauna knew she would if she could. However, Ollie’s tactic involved grabbing a few pieces of bacon randomly while shoveling her mouth with other types of food, just to be 'discreet'. Fauna giggled, sat down, and plopped her head on the table.

Granted, her arm served as a cushion, but her head was definitely down. “Soooooo sleepy,” she murmured, giggling again. Without any sleep, Fauna acted slightly drunk. Her body simply rebelled against her. As she drooled on her sleeve, she fully considered skipping classes. She never missed the beginning of the week unless she absolutely had to, but the rest of the morning would not be pretty unless she could get an hour of shut-eye. Or a whole afternoon. Or, just sleep the day away.

Fauna lifted her head up and grinned at her friend, who sneaked more pieces of bacon every minute or so. Typical. She reached a hand out and snatched a piece, laughing into her sleeve as she did so.

“Watch out, you’ve got a.. a… what do you call it. Contender!” She announced, flinging her hand up for emphasis.

The piece of greasy bacon went flying. Fauna froze. She chanced a glance behind her. Was that the Ravenclaw table? Oh Merlin. She covered her mouth with her hand in surprise and hoped she wouldn’t have to deal with another missing shoe incident. Luckily, she didn’t give a rat’s tail about a piece of bacon and wouldn't make a fuss over the loss.

But Ollie might.

Ollie would shovel the entire plate of bacon onto her own plate if she could get away with it. Of course she wanted to keep her love of bacon on the down low. Ollie was not a very polite eater at times, especially after the full moon. Ollie had a large appetite for a petit girl. One thing though she burnt off the food like crazy, maybe it had to do with this werewolf thing, who knew. She was a pin but she could challenge any guy to an eating contest, especially when bacon was involved. If she gained any weight her mother was happy.

She was shoving down some eggs with her bacon, she much have gotten through ten pieces of bacon already. Hashbrowns would follow and flushed down with some pumpkin juice. “Delicious,” she mumbled through a mouthful. Her appetite was always much bigger after a full moon. As she saw a familiar hand sneak out and grab bacon just as she was reaching for some more pieces she looked at Fauna. “Bacon stealer.”

Ollie thought the stealing of bacon was horrid but then she realized just what else could happen, the bacon was flying in the air and going away from its rightful place…her mouth. “NO NOT THE BACON!” Ollie yelled as she looked to where it had fallen, was it actually in someone’s hair? “Fauna you don’t throw bacon, bacon is not a weapon!” She scolded her friend wagging a piece of bacon as she spoke, shoving it in to her mouth she picked up some bread. “We throw bread, not bacon.” Ollie emphasized the statement by tossing the bread, which ended up hitting someone in the head. “Much less of an issue you see, bacon is just too good Fauna.”

Nodding her head in a matter of fact way she pushed up her glasses on her nose and devoured two more pieces of bacon.

After Ollie shrieked at her, then threw a bit of bread over at another House table, Fauna shrank down in her seat and tried to make herself look small and unnoticeable. She didn’t want to look. She refused to see if the bread hit anyone.

Unfortunately for Fauna, she appeared anything but inconspicuous this morning. Her silver hat, sunglasses, and neon pajama pants shone like a beacon from the Hufflepuff table, and slouching as much as she was able did not diminish that.

“Okay, uh okay, truce!” Fauna told Ollie, dropping her elbows down on the table to cradle her chin in her hands.

The world must hate her today. As soon as her left elbow hit the table, it also hit the edge of a spoon filled with pudding. Fauna quickly righted the pudding bowl, but not before the spoon covered with mush catapulted across the Great Hall.

She swore out loud. “Oh no, oh crap, did you see that?” Fauna squeaked at her friend, one hand covering her eyes. She gulped and sat there frozen, expecting verbal and magical curses to come her way any second.

The night had been long and the professor knew the day would be even longer.  Classes full of shrieking children, explosions, and fresh ingredients returning to life and running about.  He needed to patch up his net again after his last bout of prancing around and bouncing off of cauldrons and desks as he attempted to catch the skittish little buggers.

Currently Professor Gunnar was not thinking about classes, shrieking, or even his love of maniacal laughter.  No, dreams of sugared bananas were dancing in his head.  Speaking of his head, at the moment it was planted face first on a plate of pancakes drowned in syrup and his own drool as he snored lazily away.  The bugle-like concerto was loud enough to make those he shared the Staff Table with wince and the closest students stare and giggle.  If one of the other professors tried to poke him he would only respond in a zombie-esque groan and flailing of limbs before the drool flowed free and fast like a briefly interrupted waterfall.


With a snarf a great bit of syrup invaded his sinuses, causing him to sit bolt upright and bat at his face like a cat that had a toy dangled before him.  Rubbing his bloodshot eyes he poked around and realized that syrup was not the only delicious thing his tiredness had dressed him in.  On the cheek which had been prone to the surrounding environment a rather gooey substance with a texture quite different than the thick sticky maple condiment on the other side of his head.  After another poke he brought his rubber-gloved finger to his lips.  And then his eyes grew wide as he whispered breathlessly to himself:

“Banana pudding…?” 

It was both in ecstasy and puzzlement which he had asked.  Yes, banana pudding was wonderful in its own right! but… how did it end up on the other side of his face? 

As he was asking himself this he heard a cat yelp and a fifth year growl as carbonaceous crusty bread particles flew about like so much shrapnel.  Squeaking he ducked behind the table and put his goggles over his eyes.  After they had been properly adjusted he reached an arm over the table and it wiggled about before it caught hold of one of his drenched pancakes.

With one of his signature maniacal giggles he flung the tasty treat over his head like a Frisbee and then crawled underneath the Staff table so none of his colleagues could blame him for the attack.

"... And so the blond bursts out crying, just.. just bawling... and the other two are like 'whats wrong??' and she sobs "I'm gonna have PUPPIES"...." Finishing the last part in sob-filled falsetto, Devlin grinned as a few of his more humorous classmates chuckled. He wished he had been in Slytherin sometimes, they knew how to laugh at a good blond joke. But no, his classmates just either looked at him dumbly, tried to explain how it was physically improbable (because nothing was impossible in the wizarding world) that a human could produce a litter of puppies, or they just rolled their eyes and wrote him off as pedantic. Where did peoples sense of humor go??

Just then, the girl next to him let out a scream. "Oh my god! Who the hell is throwing.... bacon?" she switched rapidly from being infuriated to being bewildered as she held a long slimy piece of fat coated bacon, pulling it from her long locks. "I dunno Kari, maybe God is suggesting you fatten up a bit... Ask him to throw down a few eggs will you... I am craving an omelet..." He grinned at her. She caste him a dirty look, which he blithely ignored, and looked around the room until she spotted a brunette Hufflepuff waving a piece of bacon around.

"There... Her." She pointed. Devlin glanced over to where she was pointed and recognized the two Hufflepuffs Inika had been torturing the other day. "Just because she is holding bacon doesn't mean..." he started to say, in her defense, when he was cut off by the girl tossing a chunk of bread over her shoulder, smacking Kari in the head. "I stand corrected.." He chuckled.

That would have been that, but the gods decided that poor Devlin was bored and needed a dinner show, for as Kari was reaching for some fried potatoes to throw at the perpetrator, a pancake flew out of nowhere and nailed her square in the face. With a wet snort, since his mouth was full of milk, Devlin promptly gagged up a creamy froth and fell off the bench, laughing so hard that the only indication he was not having a fit was the occasional gasps of air.

"DEVLIN don't just LAY THERE!" Kari screeched (she apparently thought he cared enough about her plight to stick up for her.) Sitting up, he coughed between chortles, holding up a hand as he tried to breath. "Go.. Go pour this on them." She ordered, holding up a bowl of banana pudding. Still unable to speak, he rubbed his fingers together in the universal sign of 'give me moneys'. She grumbled and tossed a galleon at him. Rolling to his feet, Dev shoved the coin into his pocket, picked up the pudding and made his way over to the Hufflepuff table.

Instead of just pouring the stuff on Ollie's head, Devlin pushed between Ollie and the girl next to her, placing the pudding in front of him. "All right. I have been paid to pour this on you... but I am willing to rethink my contract if you double that... What do you say? Triple it and I will pour it on her..." He grinned and held up the bowl, as though it were a prize on some corny muggle game show. And then, as an after thought came to mind, he looked them both over with a flirtatious grin. Rapidly waggling his brows suggestively, Devlin added "... Unless you are going to wrestle in it... in which case, I will pay you triple...."

“Good, no more throwing bacon it is meant for eating.” Ollie finished off by eating some more, it was definitely putting her into a brighter mood. Ollie laughed loudly as banana pudding soared across the great hall, and her hand clapped over her mouth as she saw who the pudding had decided to target. “Oh bloody hell!” She said finally as she watch Professor Gunnar taste the substance on his cheek. Ollie giggled as she looked over to Fauna and turned back to watch what the Professor did, and from the table where she could no longer see him she was sure a pancake flung into the air.

“Oh my god Fauna did you see…” her head turned and she wasn’t looking at Fauna she was looking at Devlin. Ollie went raised an eyebrow at him, what was he doing here? She didn’t mind him being there but why was he here? At the mere mention of the pouring of pudding onto her and the precious cupcake hat she cringed. “No pouring pudding on myself or Fauna.” Ollie was not going to pay for her own safety though because really he should not be wasting food by pouring it on her head.

Seeing that flirtatious smile she had to admit she kind of liked it. Why was she a sucker for a good grin? “I bet you would like to see that Devlin, but it would be a hefty price to see me wrestle Fauna in banana pudding.” A playful smirk played on her lips. Ollie toyed with the idea of what to do with the current situation and without thinking long she had an idea.

“You know you have walked into enemy territory!” She placed her hand in the bowl of pudding and rubbed her pudding-covered hand over Devlin’s face. “Now you look delicious.” Laughing she took her clean hand and wiped some of the mush off with her finger and licked her finger clean. “Yup delicious!” Ollie fully expected retaliation from Devlin and she welcomed it. After last night she needed a bit of fun and entertainment and she was sure Devlin’s reaction was going to be amusing, at least to Ollie.

Fauna was tempted to hide under the table. Or behind Ollie. However, she managed to quell the temptation, not because of any bravery on her part, but because of the hilarity that ensued when the pudding hit the potions professor in the face!

Nico woke up with a start, threw the pancake, and then ducked like the smart man he was. She couldn’t believe it. Fauna grabbed Ollie’s arm and started giggling like a small child hit with rictumsempra. Then she turned around to see where the pancake landed, and her giggles slowly died.

The shrieking Ravenclaws pushed one person to the forefront, insisting that he go to battle for them. Of course it had to be Devlin Matthews, and he seemed pleased as banana pudding about it. She looked at Ollie with wide eyes and lopsided sunglasses. He was coming closer with purposeful strides, a manic grin, and a bowl full of pudding.

If Fauna’s brain was working properly this morning she would have prepared her defenses. She could have ran out of the Great Hall, grabbed a utensil to fence with, or at the very least summoned her wand. But she didn’t do any of this. She simply stood there and watched as the bowl of doom in Devlin’s hands bobbed closer, right until it was a foot away from her.

She listened to Devlin’s proposition and gave him an incredulous look. There was no way she was going to pay him to dump the pudding on some other unfortunate (and clearly bitter) soul. She opened her mouth to primly inform him that she certainly wasn’t going to wrestle in it either, when Ollie delivered the message much more bluntly than she ever could have.

Fauna gaped at Devlin’s face, now coated in pudding.

“Ollie!” She admonished her weakly, then burst out laughing.

She grinned at her friend and went in for the sneak attack. While poor Devlin was still distracted (or so she thought), she took a hold of the pudding bowl and tugged.

“I bet you would like to see that Devlin, but it would be a hefty price to see me wrestle Fauna in banana pudding.”

Devlin opened his mouth to tell her that he would quadruple his offer, IF she and Fauna got topless first, when suddenly her hand smashed into his face and smeared banana pudding all over it. Sputtering slightly, since he honestly hated the stuff, he gave her a look of absolute disbelief. He had offered her a great deal! Two galleons to potentially land himself in detention?

“You know you have walked into enemy territory! Now you look delicious. Yup delicious!”

The look of disbelief quickly morphed into a crooked smirk as he raised a brow at her antics. Didn't she know that it was bad to suck pudding off your fingers in front of a teenage boy? It gave them ideas. Knowing she had a bit of a crush on him, thanks to the grapevine that was Michael Stone,  he leaned towards her and murmured "... Baby you can lick pudding off of me any day..."

His flirtations were cut short, however, when the bowl of pudding was rudely yanked from his hands. Turning away from Ollie, his eyes lit upon her partner in crime, Fauna Blake. She had his weapon and his leverage now, not a good thing. This just wouldn't do. As fun as it was to tease little Ollie, Devlin turned his attention to Fauna, a mischievous gleam in his eye.

Out came his wand and the spell for the Blasting Charm fell from his lips. With a bang, Banana Pudding exploded from the bowl and splattered everyone at the table within a 6 foot radius, Fauna getting the most pudding. Sliding his wand back in his robe as quickly as possible, Devlin covered his mouth in mock horror "Ooooh you gone and done it now...You're in trooooouble...."

Much to Fauna’s shock, she managed to wrest the bowl out of Devlin’s grasp. She stared at it for a moment, questioning if she had really just succeeded in grabbing it from him or if it had magically appeared in her hands. She glanced at him with an amused and befuddled expression.

Until he blasted the pudding in the bowl. He had actually.. she couldn’t believe.. oh wait yes she could. Fauna let out squeal of rage as the pudding splattered her from head to toe. A bit of it had even seeped into her shoes so they were squishy and gross. Her hair and face were the worst, and she felt like a slime monster from the depths of the lake. The only good part about the pudding covering her face was that it also masked the red on her cheeks, and her mortified facial expression.

Fauna scanned the Great Hall and realized the destruction he had caused. The whole Hufflepuff house had been hit with goopy pudding. It had even spread to the outskirts of the other tables! People were going to kill her. She numbly set down the empty bowl on the table.

Fauna looked down at her damp shirt and then absently touched her hat. Her hat. Her hat was ruined! All sense of logic flew out of her head and she turned on Devlin with narrowed eyes.

“Yooouuuuu!!” She screeched at him with her fists clenched.

Advancing forward, she ripped off the hat and started hitting him with it. Fauna avoided using her fists because in some very remote region of her mind, she knew she didn’t want to harm him. If she’d been thinking rationally she would have been able to see the comedy of the situation, and the fact that she could scourgify the mess, but unfortunately she felt horrified and embarrassed. In an effort to hide this, she hit him with the hat she’d been so upset about being ruined. Proof that logical thought really had flown out the window!

"... Baby you can lick pudding off of me any day..."

Ollie had a finger her in mouth sucking off the pudding as Devlin leaned close. Thank god she wasn’t drinking something because she would have choked at the words. Ollie was speechless she didn’t know what to say to that. Ollie pulled her finger from her mouth and just sat there with an open mouth completely stunned. Had he just said that to her? Ollie couldn’t even come up with something to say like that sounds yummy.

Just as she was getting her voice back Fauna had stolen the bowl and was now distracting Devlin’s attention. Ollie was thankful of this so that she could actually start thinking again and might stop looking so shocked and flustered. Ollie was pretty sure she had turned slightly pink at Devlin’s words.

Before Ollie could do anything to stop it the pudding had exploded and everyone was covered in Banana Pudding. Ollie casually pulled her sunglasses from her face and tried to wipe them clean before sticking them on her head over her hat. So her hat was now ruined she was sure she could get it out with some magic or someone could, couldn’t they? Ollie’s eyes narrowed on the table and the perfectly good bacon was now ruined. “You ruined the bacon!”

Turning to look at him she saw that Fauna was hitting Devlin with her hat. “What are you doing Fauna? Why has your hat become a weapon?” Ollie focused back on Devlin and shoved him lightly. “You ruined her hat, and my bacon. What do you have to say for yourself?”

“Yooouuuuu!!”

Her reaction was not surprising. Most girls, when coated with gooey banana pudding, tended to overreact. He grinned deviously as he tried to look innocent and failed "Who Meeeeee--?" he started when her hat descended and smacked him roundly about the head. "Ow.. Ow hey... Hey!" he laughed as she smacked him over and over, holding up his arms to shield himself. Most people would have been upset, but Devlin just found her pink tinged, horror stricken face, covered in pale yellow goo, hilarious to behold. He was laughing so hard he couldn't breath.

“What are you doing Fauna? Why has your hat become a weapon? You ruined her hat, and my bacon. What do you have to say for yourself?”

Still laughing, his face crunched up and his mouth stretched as wide as it would go, Devlin weakly held up a hand. ".. Just.. Just a minute..." He managed to stammer out as he tried to protect himself against the hat assault. The first pause between the hits and Devlin's arm shot forward, wrapped around Fauna's waist and pulled her down into his lap.

For a moment, he stared down at her, a wide grin on his face and a twinkle in his eye. "I think... I have to say..." He smirked, staring down into her eyes. "You are pretty cute when you are mad..." Letting his comment sink in, he discretely picked up a nearby bowl of oatmeal. "Psyche!" He laughed and stuck his tongue out as he upturned the bowl on her face, covering her in even more gooey oatmeal.

Kyle was late. This was happening much more often than it had in the past, and the problem didn't seem like it would cease anytime soon. He had been oversleeping almost every day, and his dorm mates didn't find it prudent to wake him up for breakfast. Such was the life of Kyle Gibson.

Running down the halls to make the meal, Kyle was not aware of the small food fight that was going on by the Hufflepuff table. By the time he saw an explosion of pudding, it was too late. Jogging by the table, Kyle slipped on a bit of pudding that covered the floor and landed on the ground with a thud. "Ugh... what?" He said, feeling the back of his head, finding no blood which was good. He had been in the infirmary far too often.

An instant later, a splattering of oatmeal drops covered his face and got into his eyes. "Argh..." He said, wiping his eyes. Today was going to be a bad day. Days that involved the spillage of pudding and oatmeal never ended well. Kyle tried to get up, but in vain as he slipped again resulting in a second thud. Looking up to see who was causing the convoluted mess, he recognized the group to be Ollie, Fauna... and Devlin Matthews. Why was it always Devlin Matthews causing the mayhem in his life? It was not a pleasant thing. "Argh.. Fauna... Dev -- bloody hell." He said, getting up slower and much more careful this time.

His hair was a mess of various foods as a piece of bread his him from behind coming from the ravenclaw table. "What's happening...?"

Ava had been minding her own business at the Slytherin table. A couple of her closer female friends had been talking about how cute Devlin was. Ava agreed to some extent, but found that he was far too full of himself for someone who was in Ravenclaw. Come on - its not quite Slytherin, is it?? But much as though Ava sort of agreed with her friends, she wouldn't admit it outright. She tried to keep her personal affairs just that - personal. Not that she was having an affair with Devlin...her head started to loll to one side as her mind drifted off into a daydream - one where she and Devlin Matthews were having an illicit affair. Her mouth curved at one side and her brow furrowed slightly. Not nearly as satisfying as she had hoped it would have been.

Just as she was about to try and wake herself out of her little land of nod, something hit her face. Smalls specks of what seemed to be...she stuck her finger in the gloop that was plastered on her chin and held it up to her nose. "Yuck!" Banana pudding. One of the most disgustingly sickly sweet desserts in the whole universe. She looked around for the perpetrator. This would be hard, seeing as much of the Hufflepuff table had been covered in the stuff, and a lot of the Gryffindors and Slytherins. Ava scanned the Hufflepuff table for any signs of who it could have been, when her eyes settled on Devlin. The devil himself. Ava rolled her eyes. "I might have known..." Some girl next to him looked severely flustered at his presence. He had probably just told her he wanted her babies. That was the kind of tripe that tended to come out of Devlin's mouth. The other girl was Fauna Blake, who looked extremely annoyed and was currently smacking him with a hat.

Ava shook her head. She was just about to stand up to leave the hall and tidy herself up a little before class, when a horrible, greasy, syrup-smothered pancake flew into the side of her head, and knocked her bandy. Her eyes widened as she lost balance on the bench. Her fingers grappled endlessly for something to stop her from toppling, but all she caught was a large bowl of clear syrup and an even larger bowl of porridge. This was not going to be good. It was too late now. She was flung over the back of the bench on which she had been originally sitting, two bowls of gloop in her hands. As she fell back, the two bowls were flipped up into the air, their [rather unappetising-looking] contents flying high almost in slow motion. Ava hit the ground with a thud and closed her eyes. She opened one slowly, and ignoring the banging in her head watched the porridge and syrup splatter those sitting at her table, much to her dismay.

"Oh Merlin save me!" She closed her eyes again, hoping that she would wake up in her bed, after having a dream. But the noises still continued, and Ava winced as she heard some seventh year Slytherins shout and screech about having porridge in their hair, and the prefects threatening with detention for those who have been involved.