NEED. COFFEE. (Ame/Jo/Alex/Open)

[Billie Ackerman]

[atrb=width,450,true][atrb=cellspacing,0,true][atrb=cellpadding,0,true][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=background,http://i578.photobucket.com/albums/ss229/Ehetere/PostTags/BillieFlowersBG-1.png,true][atrb=background,http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v321/1300666/Characters/Billie/BillieFlowers_02.png][atrb=style,padding:0px 60px;background-position:top;background-repeat:no-repeat;]   Aarasdfghjkl...   Mornings.   Mornings were a cruelty. An epic, unbelievable cruelty. Just getting out of bed had taken Billie way, way longer than it should have. Her bed was warm and the castle was cold and just... ergh. WHY couldn’t lessons start at like, 4 in the afternoon? That would be so much easier. She’d brought it upon herself really: that’s what she got for staying up all night owling mysterious strangers.   By the time she’d dragged her sorry self out of bed and out of her pyjamas Billie was very late to breakfast, as usual. She practically had to jog all the way down to the Great Hall, running down two to three stairs at a time still trying to pull on the first jacket she’d found which clashed rather painfully against her bright purple shirt. Didn’t matter, as long as it kept her warm.   By the looks of it, absolutely everyone had gotten there before her. Juuust great. Trying to slap on a measure of dignity Billie strode down between the house tables, bypassing the Ravenclaw one completely and instead making a beeline for the Gryffindors. It was times like these she wished she’d picked a more demure hair colour; blue tended to stand out something fierce.   It didn’t take long for her to spot the unlucky couple she was aiming for – Amelia Pace and Joanna Miller, chatting animatedly by the looks of it. No fair, as if anyone could look so chipper come morning, disregarding the fact Billie was crazylate and a half. The boy next to Jo had the right idea; he seemed to have fallen fast asleep at the table.   “Okay, who’s got caffine?” she grumbled once she reached the small group, sliding herself rather ungracefully in-between the two girls. She’d need at least another hour of being awake before she was capable of doing anything with even the slightest bit of finesse. “Until further notice I’m trading Ravenclaw Quidditch Team information to whoever can point me to the coffee the fastest.”

[Amelia Pace]

Ah, the middle of the month, the best time. At least, for Amelia. It just meant she could be sprightly in the mornings, not feel ill. Teaming that with now actually somebody around who actually understood what the hell it was she was going through. Truth be known, being able to offload the troubles about being a werewolf had made everyday life a lot easier, she didn’t feel quite so agitated a lot of the time. She found herself smiling more, a weight lifted from a young shoulders.

Breakfast was her favourite meal of the day; it meant coffee, giving her a buzz until lunch time. She’d eat copious amounts of toast, smothering each piece in raspberry jam, and fill herself to the brim with those home comforts. It also gave her opportunity to pep talk her team before the weekend. They were facing Ravenclaw, and although they stood a pretty good chance, they were going to be holding last minute practises each night until Saturday which would ensure a good game, but not necessarily a win.

Alex was half asleep on the table, head practically in his cereal on the other side of Jo. Now finished with her breakfast, Amelia had straddled the bench in order to talk to Jo properly. Tactics and ideas for the match. Details on the match and practises. All the while contemplating what Connor could want for breakfast and figuring out how she could hi-jack said items in order to run down to the changing rooms before lessons started. She’d been getting away with it for a few weeks, but there was only so many times she can have a constant routine of needing to pee for ten plus minutes before somebody started to think she was up to something.

Facing the door Amelia saw Billie before she crashed down onto the bench between her and Jo. Chuckling she made a move to grba the girl a goblet and the steaming pot as instructed, ”Nice bribe, Billie,” she said pouring in the black liquid, ”Milk? Sugar? Blood of a virgin sacrifice?” she joked as she placed the pot of coffee back in the middle of the table.

[Joanna Miller]

Jo blinked several times and stretched. It was cold - and she was suddenly longing for the comforts of a heated farm house. Never mind, she was hungry and the promise of a nice warm breakfast was enough to convince her to clamber out of bed. Glancing at her bedside clock, she realized that she was awake surprisingly early - how odd. Oh well, at least she could do a decent job with her hair this morning.

When she was satisfied with her appearance and changed, Jo headed down to the Great Hall at a leisurely pace, since today at least there was no need to hurry. When she got there, she certainly wasn’t the first, but she was hardly the last either. She couldn’t see Billie’s… noticeable blue hair among the sea of Ravenclaws, so obviously her friend wasn’t up yet.

At the Gryffindor table, Alex was passed out on the table, and Jo had to stifle a laugh. She doubted it would wake him, since the noise within the hall was already loud enough. Plonking herself beside him, she reached for the stack of pancakes - feeling in the mood for something sweet. Once she’d collected her share, she returned her attention back to her snoozing classmate. Actually, she was sorely tempted to prod him with a bit of food for his reaction, but decided against it and resumed eating her pancakes while waiting for some of her other friends to turn up.

Soon Ame came to sit beside her, which only served to remind Jo of this weekend’s upcoming quidditch game. They were competing against Ravenclaw, which meant that Jo was even hungrier for victory, as Billie was a beater on the team. And there was nothing Jo loved more than a little friendly competition. Jo jumped animatedly into discussion with Amelia about the game, a look of fierce determination on her face. She was pumped about the game, and had a really good feeling too, but going over tactics and moves that would help them win was never a bad idea.

Billie abruptly ended their conversation however when she crashed down looking dead tired. Jo really did laugh this time - Billie looked like she could sleep for another week. “What time were you up to last night - or should I say this morning?” asked Jo playfully as Billie sank unceremoniously down onto the seat.

[Billie Ackerman]

[atrb=width,450,true][atrb=cellspacing,0,true][atrb=cellpadding,0,true][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=background,http://i578.photobucket.com/albums/ss229/Ehetere/PostTags/BillieFlowersBG-1.png,true][atrb=background,http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v321/1300666/Characters/Billie/BillieFlowers_02.png][atrb=style,padding:0px 60px;background-position:top;background-repeat:no-repeat;]   “Milk? Sugar? Blood of a virgin sacrifice?” Amelia asked, and Billie sniggered.   “All three thanks,” she replied, feeling some of her old energy start to creep back now that she was around people again. The concept of ears to listen to her frequent ramblings always did pep her up fairly quickly. “Although the virgin blood is a bit overkill – we already know coffee is the blood of the Gods.”   Amelia was remarkably fast with handing over that goblet. Yikes, and Billie thought she was quick at making the suff. Speed-coffee was an enviable talent. With a “That’s why I love you,” the blue haired girl wasted no time in setting upon her drink. The bitter taste of caffeine had grow on her over time and Billie now ranked it along the same level as ‘chocolate’. It was kinda like chocolate... ish. Not really but yeah. Yum was all that mattered.   “What time were you up to last night - or should I say this morning?” piped Jo.   “You really don’t want to know,” Billie groaned, lifting the goblet again to take another large mouthful. “Yeah, I don’t know. Remember last Sunday when we were at the 3B’s and I stayed back to study? This guy came up to me and we started talking and, yeah, he seemed nice. I was owling him last night and I think I lost track of time something fierce,” she admitted with a sheepish grin, peering over her goblet. “I was trying to spot him at one of the House Tables but he’s never there, so I think he’s left already or something. He’s not much older than us anyways. But yeah...” she paused to have another drink again. “I guess we’ll see.”   Whoops, Ravenclaw Team Info. “Oh that’s right! I promised secrets!” Billie turned to look at Ame, a serious look on her face which didn’t take long to crack. “All I can I tell you is that the Ravenclaw team is awesome this year, and yeah. We are so kicking your butts.” She paused. “Well, kicking your butts this time...” Gryffindor’s absolute ownage of Ravenclaw the year before had apparently just surfaced to mind.

[Alexander Muritorè]

School a place for the furthering of education only made better by the fact that it was in a castle. A huge castle that had lofty towers and what seemed like hundreds of high out of reach places, places where Alex’s violin or school books somehow ended up upon the top. It was a game his classmates liked to play; hide the kid with the funny last name’s stuff at inconvenient times. After spending almost the entire night scaling statues, book shelves, window ledges and the Astronomy Tower Alex had wandered down to breakfast in an exhausted stupor and no idea how he was going to face a day of lessons with about an hour sleep under his belt.

Just walking down the staircase, Defence Against the Dark Arts book in hand, the boy felt like he was going to pass out. He needed sleep, desperately, hopefully some food would perk him up enough to face first lesson but then again it was Potions so there was officially no hope for him. Alex’s bleary eyed stare found someone he was friends with at the Gryffindor table and instantly he made a beeline for them. He greeted Joe with a barely audible grunt as he unceremoniously sat himself down next to her on the bench. Somewhere in amongst gather some eggs and cereal the boy leant his head against the table and fell asleep. Ah sweet relief from exhaustion.

Unfortunately his peace didn’t last quite as long as he would have liked. In amongst a weird dream about an owl with a vendetta against him the unmistakeable chatter of Joe and what sounded like Amelia Pace’s voice could be heard. Outwardly Alex groaned and muttered something along the lines of ‘five more minutes’ or ‘shut the Hell up’, either one. Thankfully he was able to start to drift off again until Billie Ackerman arrived on the scene. There would be no peace at all now.

As the girls chattered nothing but gossip the boy tried in vain to ignore them by keeping his eyes firmly shut. It was only when the talk turned to the upcoming Quidditch match did he decide to wake up. He snorted sceptically at Billie’s claim Ravenclaw would be kicking buts that Saturday. ”Your seeker couldn’t find the snitch even if it was ten feet tall and painted fluoro pink,” Alex smirked with a yawn, ”remember last match? Serious second hand embarrassment for the kid, I mean the snitch was right next to him and he was too busy chatting to some blonde bimbo Hufflepuff.” The boy grinned mischievously at the blue haired girl, wondering if working her up would be worth it or not. Getting a debate about Quidditch going would be fun but maybe another time when he wasn’t ridiculously tired.

[Amelia Pace]

”And I was about to take the knife to my wrist for you,” she laughed, handing Billie the mug prepared how she’d asked. She took the spoon from it and licked off the remains of the liquid. The taste leaving her with an innate need to have a cup for herself. She set about making it, black, three sugars, and cradled the cup, listening to her friend’s natter.

”Billie’s got herself an older man!” she laughed, poking her friend in the shoulder. She was hardly one to talk, a crush on her teacher and a possible but not boyfriend in a twenty-one year old werewolf. If Amelia had known Billie’s sweetheart consisted of a 100 plus vampire her attitude would be wholly different.

”Whore,” Amelia joked, taking a sip from her piping hot coffee, ”Alex has a point. Scotty will wipe the floor with your loser Seeker.” Amelia beamed. She was extremely proud of her team, they did good by her, or they had in the matches within her captaincy. Their team really did have a good chance of winning this year. And it was down to how well they all worked together, herself and Steph. Scotty doing his thing and the chasers working together to keep the ball as far away from their keeper as need be.

Amelia reached out her hand for a high-five from her housemate, but on seeing his complete inability at being wake, she reached passed the girls to ruffle his hair, a wicked smile flashing across her face. She withdrew her hand and noted that her ‘favourite’ teacher wasn’t currently sitting at the head table. All she had to do is claim she wanted some food for the break between lessons, then announce she needed to pee and run off with a bundle of food towards the Quidditch pitch.

Getting away from her friends had been proving difficult. What was it with girls an the need to stay together when going to the toilet? It made no sense to Amelia, or at least, when she wanted to sneak off on her own it truly scuppered her plans.

[Joanna Miller]

Jo laughed quietly at her friends’ antics, though personally not sharing their love for coffee. It was a bit bitter for her, and kind of made her sleepy too. Strange how that worked sometimes. She’d stick to her nice sweet pancakes thank you very much.

Jo hadn’t needed Billie’s confirmation to know that she’d been up at some early ungodly hour this morning, because that was just the way Billie was. Her interest perked up at the mention of a guy. It seemed she should have stayed longer after all.

“Forget nice - what did he look like?” she inquired with a suggestive smile. Jo wasn’t actually as superficial as to rank looks above every other aspect of a guy, but it was fun to tease, and looks certainly didn’t hurt.

Jo nearly jumped out of her seat when Alex’s voice sounded behind her. She’d been paying more attention to Billie and Ame, since Alex had looked as though he was down for the count. His sudden reemergence was hardly unexpected with Billie around though.

“Afternoon!” she chimed cheerfully over her shoulder, flashing him a smile. She could only agree with his comments on the weekend’s coming match, and they filled her with determination and excitement, as quidditch always did. She laughed as Ame ruffled Alex’s hair, but gave her fellow Gryffindor a funny look as she leant back to her seat again. It was a look that said, What was that all about then?

[Billie Ackerman]

[atrb=width,450,true][atrb=cellspacing,0,true][atrb=cellpadding,0,true][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=background,http://i578.photobucket.com/albums/ss229/Ehetere/PostTags/BillieFlowersBG-1.png,true][atrb=background,http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v321/1300666/Characters/Billie/BillieFlowers_02.png][atrb=style,padding:0px 60px;background-position:top;background-repeat:no-repeat;]   Alex seemed to have decided to wake up only to diss their seeker. Okay, so technically he was right, but that didn’t mean Billie wasn’t going to stick up for her team.   “Yeah, well, that’s exactly why we replaced him isn’t it?” she replied, pulling a rather immature face at the Gryffindor. Getting older; compulsory. Growing up; optional. “And our new guy could find an ant at like nine thousand meters, so we’ll see who’s laughing come game-time.   “... That said—” Billie threw a look over the back of her shoulder at the Ravenclaws as though afraid they were listening, “—I bet you 5 galleons you guys win this Saturday. Don’t think I’m going easy on the bludger though just ‘cause I love you guys.”   “Forget nice - what did he look like?” Jo inquired, and Billie automatically perked up again. Ooh good, important topics.   “Well, I mean like—” she began, reaching for a mass of toast and jam to cover herself while she tried to work out how to explain. “I mean like, he’s sorta in the middle. He’s not going to drop anyone dead or like an August Jensen or a Dimitri Becklea or anything, even though they’re practically the same person. I swear they’re probably related or something,” she said in regards to one of the players on the Westgate Winged Horses Winchester Quidditch team. “But yeah, he’s not Quasimodo either.   “And yeah, thaaaaats right, I just called August hot.” She threw a massive grin at Alex, “Sorry darlin’, better luck next time.” Well, she thought Alex was cute too, but considering she knew him it was practically banned to say so.

[Alexander Muritorè]

Listening to Billie trying, and failing, to stick up for her house’s Quidditch team made Alex audibly snort. ”Replacing him isn’t going to do much good, since, logically, he was the best seeker Ravenclaw had in the first place. If he wasn’t then he wouldn’t have made the team in the first place,” he pointed out, rolling a knife around in one of his hands. Without out any success the boy tried to stifle an enormous yawn. God he was so tired, and though he was in the mood to, arguing with Billie was going to take all the energy he needed to get through first and second period.

Unfortunately he saw Amelia’s attempted high five too late and just as he was about to respond she ruffled his hair. In response Alex glared, with a pout, at her. ”Don’t mess up my hair, took me hours to get it like it was,” he joked, smiling at the other Gryffindor. Joe’s cheery joke of afternoon made the boy grumble, he wished it was afternoon. He still had a full day of strenuous lessons to get through. Hopefully he could snooze in Divination, Professor Driscoll was a slack ass teacher anyways.

”As much as I hate to admit it and agree with Ame, Kovac will clean you guys up. I see your five Galleons and bet you ten Galleons he gets the Snitch within the first ten minutes,” the boy said lazily, a mischievous smirk on his face that let his friends know he wasn’t joking. Already he was daydreaming about what to spend his easy money on, probably a new quill or Eagle Owl feather; his current one looked like it had gone through a fiery nuclear apocalypse, which it had sort of. Scotty Kovac had hidden in near the fireplace.

As soon as the conversation turned back to Billie’s mystery man, Alex settled himself to go to sleep on Joe’s shoulder, muttering, ”You’re comfy.” Still, with his eyes closed, he couldn’t help but eaves drop as the blue haired girl described anonymous boy. With effort he lifted his head off of his friend’s shoulder and looked at the three girls with fake excited look on his face. ”Tell me more, tell me more; like did he have a car?” Alex quoted, his voice high and girly. He feigned hurt when he was not even mentioned in the hot or not list. ”I am fair sure that I am more handsome than some Hufflepuff will ever be and here’s the proof,” he gestured at Joe, Ame and Billie, ”I don’t see three lovely ladies sitting with him.”

[August Jensen]

It wasn’t that August woke up late, not really (nor did he ever get up at the crack of dawn, he was still a teenager after all), but no matter how early he did manage to drag himself from the cosy warmth of his bed in the Hufflepuff dormitories there always seemed to be something that stopped him from getting down to breakfast on time. That morning he’d spent at least 15 minutes searching for his gloves because he didn’t want to freeze during Herbology in his second period and found them under his bed in Pookie’s latest nest. The morning before he’d found a first year crying over her transfiguration homework and hadn’t had the heart not to lend her a hand. And he wasn’t even going to think about the great 5th year textbook scandal that had taken all of his Head Boy skills to sort out.

So, by the time he finally set off for the great hall, his gloves in his pocket and his usual cheery smile on his face, it was already quite far into breakfast. August kept his eyes on the Hufflepuff table as he walked across the hall, looking out for any of his friends, but about half way there a voice caught his attention. ”... More handsome than some Hufflepuff will ever be and here’s the proof; I don’t see three lovely ladies sitting with him.” He looked over and his smile widened to a grin as he spotted Amelia sitting with a few of her friends.

”Morning Amelia!” August greeted with enthusiasm. ”Who’re we talking about?” He asked curiously, sitting himself down opposite the four of them and shooting Alex a questioning look. ”Although I agree, company doesn’t get much more lovely.” The effect was only slightly ruined if you knew August and realised he thought that about almost everybody he spent time with. ”Mind if I eat here?” He asked, already reaching for a bowl to have some cereal. ”Only I think most of my friends have already left or, knowing Fin, they might not be up yet.”