A Guest For Dinner((Skyler & Elizabeth + Anyone))

[Williard Thoth R4]

After opening one of the doors to the Great Hall, and holding it open for Skyler and Elzabeth to go in before him, Williards nervousness returned. He wasn't nervous about what other people would think about Elizabeth eating at their table, but he was worried that something might happen when she sat down. What if their was a jinx, or enchantment that was put upon you if you sat at a House table different from your own? And if so, what kind of jinx or enchantment was it?

In what felt like no time, the three of them got to the end of the Ravenclaw table, and with glances at eachother, all three of them sat down. Staring hard at Elizabeth, it appeared that nothing had happened. She settled herself in her seat, and was acting normal. Well, Williard had only just met her so he wasn't quite sure what normal for her was, but she appeared to be fine. Taking a deep breath, Williard relaxed. He was about to have dinner with friends. Friends, he thought smiling.

[Elizabeth Peasegood H1]

Elizabeth had been worrying on much the same lines as Williard, though it hadn't really shown on her face; Elizabeth was good at being inscrutable when she wanted to be, which was a giveaway in and of itself. As they walked over to the Ravenclaw table Elizabeth mainly looked at the ceiling. She wondered how long it had been enchanted to show the sky; she sometimes listened to her dad talk about magical theory and he had made it sound like the longer you kept something enchanted, the more energy it took. Maybe Dumbledore did it himself, Elizabeth thought. She held Dumbledore in high esteem, if only because her dad sounded like he did, too. Dumbledore was a little bit crazy, she had decided, but that was a good thing.

She sat down and was relieved when she didn't blow up. She ignored the plate closest to her--it was ham, and though Elizabeth wasn't exactly a practicing Jew because she'd grown up knowing magic, some things her mum had taught her stayed with her. She grabbed a plate with salad on it instead. "It's not so different from lunch at the Hufflepuff table," she mused aloud, and then, because Michael always said flattery won you more friends than enemies, added, "except that the company's better, of course." She took some toast as well. "I never did see what was in that sketchbook, Williard. Would you mind showing me something?"

[phantomlynx]

Will held open the door to the Great Hall for Skyler and Elizabeth. He looked nervous. Skyler couldn't understand why. After all, they were just having a meal. It wasn't different than any other meals. Skyler sighed to himself. Will and Elizabeth were acting as if they were breaking some sort of rule or law of magic. To Skyler, that law had to be changed. Aurora had tried her hardest to explain why it was important to have houses. She failed to convince Skyler. Then Mack in the library had tried also. She failed too. But meeting Mack was worth every bit of conversation! Mack, Mack, Mack! Skyler still found it hard to believe that a pop idol went to Hogwarts. And not only that, but now she knew him. One day Skyler might tell Will that he had fainted in front of Mackenzie but there was no need for Will to know blackmail information just yet. Meanwhile, Skyler was very anxious to tell Alex about the encounter. Skyler couldn't be sure, but Mack seemed to know Alex besides being a prefect. Skyler wasn't sure exactly what she had meant with her comment, his eleven year old brain didn't comprehend it. Reality hit Skyler hard in the face as Will and Elizabeth sat at the end of the Ravenclaw table.

"Stop acting so guilty, you guys," he said to them. "We're not doing anything wrong. Elizabeth is a human being that wants to have a meal with two other human beings. Don't like ham?" Skyler added as Elizabeth avoided the plate closest to her. "I love ham." He served himself a healthy serving. Skyler had read in his book, Hogwarts, a History, that the food was prepared by house-elves. Someday he wanted to thank the house-elves. Their cooking was very good. Skyler loved every meal that he happened to grab in the Great Hall. He didn't think that those elves could ever go wrong. Skyler smiled at Elizabeth when she complemented the company she was with. She then asked Will about his sketch book. "He told me that he was drawing the Giant Squid. I'm not sure I want to think about a Giant Squid living in the lake. But I never did get to see it Will. Let's see." Skyler was new to this whole friendship thing, but he was a keen observer. He noticed that when someone tried to make friends, they did their best to talk about the other's interest. So this is what Skyler did.

[Williard Thoth R4]

Williard put his hand on his sketch book inside his robes. He had already decided that what that Slytherin boy said to him was purely because he was being mean, and nothing else. Everyone always said Williard was a good artist. The only bad critique he had ever gotten, well, in Williards opinion, is when his mother told him he spent too much time on detail, and that sometimes less is more. One time, it took Williard a whole two weeks just to finish a drawing of his favorite tree in the yard. But, he couldn't help it.

Whatever Williard drew, he wanted to do it justice, and make it as similar as possible to whatever he was drawing. He knew that he could probably never draw exact likenesses (he was a human not a machine), but he couldn't help trying.

He pulled out his sketchbook, and looked at it. It really was a handsome book. It had a black leather spine with an hazel wood jacket (his father made the sketchbook for him), and it was fairly sized. He passed it to Elizabeth.

"Ive only just got started the sketch on the Giant squid." he said grabbing a plate of salad. "Honestly, it will probably be a whole other three weeks before I finish it." he said poking at his food with his fork. "So are either of you going to that Bonfire Night thing?"

[Elizabeth Peasegood H1]

Elizabeth opened up the sketchbook, which fell to a picture of a large tree. "Oh, wow," Elizabeth said ecstatically. "It's so pretty!" Well, okay. It was good, but it wasn't quite good enough to usually elicit that sort of response from Elizabeth, who lived with Mr. Tortured Artist himself. But Elizabeth's naturally good opinion of her friends clouded her judgment enough that everything they did seemed better. It was really pretty, she thought. "It almost looks like there's a wind blowing through it," she said, smiling. "You can see the movement on the page." She flipped to the next page. "Really, these are beautiful. All that I can draw are stick figures." Well, that wasn't entirely true--Elizabeth was very good at drawing cats, provided that it was only one cat and that it was in the exact same posture with the exact same lighting and the exact same background and the exact same features every time. Michael had attempted to teach her to paint, but that had ended in disaster and a splotch of paint on the wall so big her dad nearly tore a hole in the wall trying to Scourgify it off.

She paused on the page she had stopped on and looked up through her hair, which fell in greasy clumps around her face. "Bonfire night?" She asked. "I didn't even know there was a Bonfire night. But I have nothing better to do. I'll go."

Elizabeth continued flipping through the sketchbook, making appreciative comments on every page, though she stopped them to answer Skyler. "No one in my family eats pig. Except for my dad, of course, but he's not genetically related to my mom and besides, he would die if he didn't have some streaky bacon every morning. It gives me something to avoid, at least." She needed a food to avoid; she didn't really dislike any food, except for bananas, and there was really only so much food she could stuff down the garbage disposal that she called a throat. "What does it taste like?" She was actually curious. No one seemed to be able to properly describe it to her.

[phantomlynx]

"No one in your family eats pig!" Skyler exclaimed. "Why not? It's soooo good. Ham, bacon, pork chops. Mmm..." Skyler took another bite of his ham. It was delicious. Every piece seemed to melt in his mouth. "You can't describe the taste of ham. It's like trying to explain the color green to a blind person. You just have to experience it." Satisfied with his answer he continued to eat his ham. Skyler watched as Will passed his sketch book to Elizabeth. He then saw Will serve himself some salad. He sallowed before crying out "Salad! Trying to watch our figure are we? First she won't touch the ham and then you serve yourself some salad? Honestly, how old are you guys? Fifty-two?" He wasn't trying to hurt their feelings. He was just playing with them, but he couldn't help but think their eating habits a little odd. Over Elizabeth's shoulder he looked at the sketch book with her.

The first picture was of a tree. He was amazed at the detail. Will really had talent. She looked up and asked about the bonfire. "I saw a poster in the common room about it. I'll probably go. If you two are anyway." Skyler hated to go to social events by himself but he figured that he could stand it if he went with his new friends. "Are you going Will?"

[Williard Thoth R4]

Williard smiled as Elizabeth complimented his drawings. She looked as if she really did like them. Suddenly finding his apetite, he began to eat his salad. Williard listened as Elizabeth told why she didn't eat pig. Judging by Skyler's reaction, Williard decided that he would tell Skyler at a later date that he also didn't eat pork. His parents were really into nutrition and health, so it wasn't just pork that Williard didn't eat. Skyler, and probably Elizabeth, would have choked on there food if Williard was to tell them he had never really had candy. The last time he had it was on the Hogwatrts Express when he was coming to Hogwarts.

He had bought one of everything off the trolley, but only ate one peice of it so far, and that was the licorice wand, which he discovered would definantly be his favorite, until tried the rest of it. All the other candy was still up in his trunk.

Williard noticed Skyler eyeing him and was surprised when he blurted out, "Salad! Trying to watch our figure are we? First she won't touch the ham and then you serve yourself some salad? Honestly, how old are you guys? Fifty-two?"

Williard noticed his fork seemed to be frozen in mid air. He didn't know how to respond. He loved vegetables. I mean sure thats not common among kids, but Williard rather enjoyed them. So he told Skyler.

"Well, I kind of like vegetables." he said returning to his plate.

Williard was a bit surprised when Elizabeth said she didn't know about Bonfire Night. He thought there were flyers everywhere. But, she said she'd go so, he guessed that was all that mattered.

Skyler looked up and said, "I saw a poster in the common room about it. I'll probably go. If you two are anyway. Are you going Will?"

"Um, yeah, cant hurt can it?"