A Book in Common Finished

"Letters..." Ami mused with a small smile on her face. Although texts were easier to write, to the Hufflepuff, letters were able to carry more of a sentimental value, and were far more romantic than a quick, Hello, yes, I'm still alive text. "Yeah, I have- I still need to find owls to send off my parents' letters, though." Mail... mail is so much easier. Why don't they just have postal service? Owls are so extra, she thought to herself, chuckling slightly. 

"I'll probably to that after dinner, if you'd like to come with me," the redhead added as an afterthought, tapping her chin. "Yeah, I should do that tonight, shouldn't I?" The last part was mostly to herself, as if she were setting a mental reminder on a to-do list. Ami really did seem rather dotty 65% of the time, but hopefully, that was a part of her charm.

As she watched the house-elves bustle about, she smiled to herself as she saw their expressions of pure delight at helping these three students out. Oh, how willingly they worked together, how seamlessly their cooperation and teamwork created a delicious meal that Ami would soon devour with pleasure. I wish I had a house-elf...

Mia looked at the girl with a questioning gaze. Find owls? What did she mean by that? The school provided owls, since almost no one bought one their first year. Mia had practically adopted one since she sent letters so frequently.

It was a little brown thing, with a poof on the top of its head, and wide wings, wider than you would expect. Every morning, Mia would go up to feed it, and it would nuzzle her pitifully flat chest, getting feathers all over her robes. She didn't mind, surprisingly.

Looking back at the red haired girl, Mia cracked a half smile.

"You know, there are school owls that you can use. Free of charge."

Mia smiled at bit at the girl. She seemed borderline intolerably forgetful, but soft at the same time. Plus they shared some sort of resemblance, so Mia just smiled and shut her lips, not wanting to offend the girl. The girl that was keeping all of them active an busy. If it wasn't for her, Mia would have been in bed, sleeping. Or reading. Her roomates weren't ones to talk, so she didn't really have to worry about that. But it was getting late.

Mae was silently enjoying the time with the two when she heard Ami talk about finding owls. She then heard Mia say "You know, there are school owls that you can use. Free of charge.". Mae was incredibly unsure as to what Ami met but she could understand where she was coming from. The mail service around here was letters and owls, and on her first week here Mae had that same mindset almost similar to Ami's, now she was fine and understood most things but she could see that it's going to take some time for Ami to adjust. "Ami, are you talking about the owls that you can send out to people like mail, but instead by owl?" Mae asked inquisitively. "Yeah don't we use owl's because their enchanted to find the way to the person we want to talk to?" Mae asked turning to Mia for her feedback. If their was anyone who would know a lot about the Wizarding world it was Mia she was a Pureblood from the questioning gaze that she gave to Ami. Today it seemed that Mae was the bridge of understanding to help out a bit and to learn a bit herself. 

Mia cocked her head to the side. She wasn't completely sure, but Mae sounded right. She wasn't sure if Mae was half-blood, because she seemed so knowledgeable.

"Actually Mae, I'm not sure. Owls, though, have many advantages. They operate under cover of darkness, to which Muggles have a superstitious aversion, so they don't get interfered with. They also are agile and stealthy, which is great. They are also capable of agression when provoked, which is great, so that muggles do not interfere with our letters."

Mia smiled at the two. She had gone on for quite a while, but she was sure they wouldn't mind. It was one cohesive thought, and it wasn't like she was just talking about herself. She was telling them useful information.

The food came and Mia took the large platter and set it on the table. There was a plate full of blueberries, a tofu chicken, and three glasses of butterbeer, one labeled in scraggly handwriting "Vegan."

Mia looked at the two other girls and smiled.

"Thank you so much for this meal. Now. Would you like to dig in?"

Mia used such a crude expression daintily, and placed the napkin that they gave her in her lap, spreading it out so that there were no creases in her lap.

Ami remained silent during the conversation about owls, however interesting it may have been, not wanting to talk about the large and pointedly obvious distance between her parents. She had yet to find an owl big enough, she forgot to add that last part on, that could bear the distance between Hogwarts and Chicago. But no, she didn't want to talk about that. Not now, not when there was food, and food freshly prepared, just to their liking. Life really couldn't get any better than this.

"Gosh, this looks flipping amazing," Ami gasped, taking her plate of vegan food, because it did. Better than anything her dad or mom had ever made, that was for sure. "Mia, you didn't get anything to eat," the Hufflepuff realized, noting that there were three butterbeers, but only two plates. Did she simply forget? Was Mia waiting for them to eat before going to the Great Hall to eat something herself? "Do you want us to take our food to the Great Hall and eat with you there? I'm sure you've gotta be starved by now, lunch was an eternity ago," she continued, eyebrows wrinkling together with concern. Mia had done so much for her in order to get her this meal, and here she was, sitting there and not eating.

Mia smiled at Ami's concern. It was nice of her to worry, very nice, but futile. Mia didn't eat in front of new people. Maybe it was annoying, or it was showing a sign of weakness. She didn't know. She just didn't.

Turning her head, she looked down at the small wrinkled house-elf in the corner of the room drinking a butterbeer and hiccuping loudly.

"You. Please get me some..."

Mia deliberated for a moment before deciding on something easy. Something small that she could just take one bite out of and eat half of it.

"I'd love a Caesar Wedge Salad with Bacon. Pepper on the side."

Mia smiled at the tiny drunk house elf. She wouldn't prepare the food, and if she did then it was just one crisp heart of romaine lettuce garnished with a strip of bacon and parmesan cheese. That was easy to force down and smile.

Mia then turned back to the girls, her eyes telling a very different story then her smiling mouth. It wasn't like she had an eating disorder, she didn't, but she didn't like Ami almost...not implying it, but putting her on the spot. Making her order something.

Still she just stretched her smile wider and fixed her attitude.

"Thank you Ami. I must have forgotten in all of the excitement."

She grabbed the handle of her butterbeer and raised the thick foaming glass.

"Now let's start eating! I'm sure you're all ravenous."

Raising her mug of butterbeer in a half-semi-sorta toast as well, Ami took a sip, and her eyes widened in surprise. "Jesus!" she exclaimed, staring at the amber liquid in surprise. "Wow, Mia! This is really good!" She hadn't known what to expect from the vegan hodge-podge of ingredients, but she was pleasantly surprised to see that they worked spectacularly well together.

Dipping a spoon into her food, she placed it in her mouth, smiling as she swallowed it all down. This... now, this was good food. Whoever said that vegan food was trash was wrong on so many different levels. Didn't everyone just feel so much better when they learned about the animals they didn't kill? Also, it was a pretty healthy way to eat, if done right.

"Mae, do tell me, how are your blueberries?" Ami asked, not just to be polite, but because she was honestly interested. Did wizard blueberries taste more magical and tingly than Muggle blueberries? Did British blueberries taste more fancy than American blueberries? While she knew that these thoughts were rather silly, she couldn't help but think them. After all, she knew that American mangoes versus, say, Indian or Indonesian mangoes were vastly different... maybe there was a difference in blueberries, too?

Mia smiled at Ami's outburst. She liked it. That was good. She didn't know what she would have done if the girl didn't like it at all, or even hated it. That would've been a bit awkward.

"I'm glad you like it. I'm quite fond of it myself."

She listened to the girl's question, and then turned to her, her brow furrowed. They were just blueberries. Enchanted to be juicy and flavorful, yes, but just blueberries.

Ami must have had blueberries in Chicago. Mia had went there occasionally, and they had all of the same foods in New York.

Mia concluded that this was just a 'polite question'. One that you had to ask at a dinner party, or even when meeting new people.

Her food came on a small china dish and she turned to thank the house elf that brought it to her, as Willy had always instructed her to do.

But when she turned she saw a very familiar face. Wrinkled skin, long, pointy ears, deep set, sparkling eyes, and a long nose. One could've mistaken him for any other house elf. But Mia knew instantly who he was.

"Wi-"

She croaked out, surprised. But then the house elf winked and promptly vanished, leaving a very confused girl with a stalk of romaine lettuce on a very breakable plate.

Ami watched the house-elf give Mia her- what even was that? It looked like... was that literally just a piece of lettuce? What kind of dinner was that? Clearly not a very filling one, was Mia not hungry? Shrugging slightly, Ami shoved another spoonful of delicious veganism into her mouth, her eyes still on Mia. She seemed rather put off, opening her mouth to say something as the house-elf disappeared.

"Mia..." Ami warned, eyeing the teetering plate warily. It would certainly fall off the table any minute now, with the way it was wobbling so precariously. "Mia! Plate!" she yelped, diving across the table and snatching the plate, just as it was about to fall off. Setting it down on the table gently, Ami sat back down, somewhat embarrassed by her sudden movement. "Earth to Mia..." she said slowly, waving her hand in front of the Slytherin's face.

"Are you okay?" she continued, concern and worry etched into her face. For this girl who'd sacrificed her dinner just so that the Hufflepuff could eat vegetables, Ami was ready to do just about anything. "You can tell us anything," Ami continued reassuringly, glancing at Mae to make sure that she was okay with it, too. "Is something on your mind?"

Ami waved her hand infront of Mia's face and she blinked rapidly and put her hand on Ami's arm, pulling it down.

Are you OK? You can tell us anything, is something on your mind?

Mia smiled and shook her head a bit too viciously, her hair flying around her head and then settling on her shoulders in a wavy pattern.

I'm fine-thank you Ami. Just a bit tired, that's all.

Mia yawned and covered her mouth with her hand, her eyes watering slightly, purely for the benefit of Ami and Mae.

She was tired. She must have been. Otherwise she would of been able to keep herself calm. Or she would of never hallucinated in the first place.

Hallucinate? Did she? She was usually stable-usually being a keyword-and had never hallucinated before. But it must have been a hallucination. It must have. Willy was at home, and safe. So safe.

Mia plastered a half smile on her face and looked towards the two girls. She took her stalk of romaine lettuce in her hands and took a bite, chewing thorouly.

Swallowing, she turned to the two, and plastered the smile back on her face.

We should probably head back soon-we have classes tomorrow.