Clueless {Scorose}

Chapter 52: The Kitchens

Every student fourth year and above has been buzzing over the past couple of weeks. People have been asking each other to the ball. Some people have even sent for dress robes from home, which in my opinion is quite far in advance.

Lily was one of those girls. The day Professor McGonagall announced the ball, she wrote a letter to aunt Ginny telling her an exact description of the dress she wants. Some girls are even making their dresses, like Jenny is planning to do. She said that she would help me if I wanted one too.

I was hanging out with Lily and Lorcan after classes today. We were in the Gryffindor common room. I had my potions textbook in my lap, I was looking over some brews we haven't done yet.

"I'm hungry." Lily says. She's sitting with her head rested on Lorcan's shoulder.

"Dinner's not for another hour." I said.

"I can't wait that long." She complained. Her appetite has been growing. I have been sneaking extra food into my bag at dinner for her every night just to keep her from the complaining.

"That doesn't mean we can't get something to eat," Lorcan said. "We just have to go to the kitchens."

"Oh right, you know how to get in!" Lily sat up straight at the thought of eating something.

Lorcan smiles at her. "Yes, of course. The house elves are so generous too. Let's go."

Lorcan gets up and grabs Lily's hand to pull her off the couch. She stumbles on her feet a little, but he puts an arm around her back to catch her.

They are quite an adorable couple. He still doesn't know about the pregnancy yet, but Lily says she will tell him soon, now that they're happy and back together.

"You coming Rose?" Lorcan asks me. I hop off the sofa and follow them out the common room.

The kitchen is in the basement, directly under the great hall. That's all I know about it. I've never been there, and yet I considered myself to know lots about this castle.

We walked the hallways until Lorcan stopped short at a wall of portraits. He walked straight up to a portrait of a pear and sort of dragged his fingers over it, like he was tickling the piece of fruit.

But then it wasn't a piece of fruit anymore, it seemed to have transformed into a doorknob. Lily looked astonished and reached out to open the portrait, which had now become the door to the kitchen.

The kitchen was large, probably the same size as the great hall. It was filled with house elves working, cooking the dinner for tonight. There must be a hundred of them.

One particular house elf walked over to us. "Welcome mister Lorcan, are these your friends?" The elf squeaked.

"Yeah, this is Lily and Rose." Lorcan introduces us, Lily and I wave to the little creature. To us he says, "this is Sandy the elf."

"Hi Sandy!" Lily crouches down a bit and reaches out her hand. She looked overjoyed at the thought of meeting a real house elf.

"Hello Lily and Rose," Sandy says. "You're like flowers, you are."

Lorcan takes a seat on one of the kitchen counters. It's a little shorter than a normal counter would be, to accommodate the elves. "I wanted to show them what it was like down here."

"That's nice of you Mr. Lorcan," Sandy says. "The house elves love to feed any visitors. Let Sandy grab you something to eat."

The three of us wait patiently while Sandy wobbles over to one of the ovens and pulls out a tray of chocolate chip cookies. I'm pleasantly surprised to see them, already prepared for us. It wasn't very often we got to have such good desserts. And it can get pretty boring when you eat oatmeal everyday for seven years of your life.