Disclaimer: Still don't own this if you haven't quite figured that out yet.
Author's Note: Sorry, chapter's short again but longer than the last one. I'm trying to get back into this; I swear I am. I never really recovered from my Lily/James addiction.
Replies:
Lord of Darkness—Hope this update was soon enough.
Jbfritz—Thanks
Volleypickle16—Thanks. Hope this chapter is more eventful.
Miss_Padfoot0003—Thanks. Hope this update was soon enough. Sorry it's still kind of short…
Easilyamused—Thanks. Wow, your penname totally describes me!
HYPERdingdong39—Thanks so much!
Joeyperson—Don't worry, you won't miss it!
Rini Sayian-jin—Thanks. I'll try. The monkeys don't listen very well. I've tried training them but they still often speak in Elvish. I've tried to explain that I'm not fluent yet but they're monkeys. They have their limits.
J0—Welcome.
Katie Lupin Black—Thanks. : - ) Thanks for reviewing "Enough" for me too. That one was kinda funky. I just heard the song and had to write it.
Dnd4ever—My thoughts exactly!
Michaela—Thanks. I love HP/LL
Zeromaru: Chaos Mode—Not so wrong. : - ) I almost did have Luna say it…
Harry+lissa=luv—Thanks. Harry/Luna is one of my favorite ships.
Iceflower—Translate it into English? That'd be cool. What's your first language?
Kat—Thanks. Yeah, I know how it is to go through fic withdrawal. Happened when some L/J's I was reading didn't get updated. I was most depressed.
Cadabra—Thanks. Wow, you read it for that long? I'm amazed anybody's still reading this. Thanks!
FawkesFreak—Not one day without a fic to read? I can recommend a list of good ones. There are some great ones in my Favorite's List. I don't really sail the Draco/Harry ship. Just nothing in the books to indicate it (I try to keep things as canon as I can). I'm a Harry/Luna shipper.
Natalie—Thanks
Corwin—Thanks. Yay, I converted another one! Hehe, sorry. I just love the good ship HP/LL.
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Chapter 68: Chef Potter
Harry ground his teeth. "Can I please do this alone?" he asked.
"No. Either he helps you cook or no one eats," Luna said.
"Okay, Malfoy. This isn't that hard. You pick up the egg like this, and crack it against the side of the bowl like this. That way there isn't any shell in the egg."
"It's not that easy. It keeps breaking." Malfoy's voice was strained as he tried not to scream.
"We're making scrambled eggs. You can't make eggs if the shell doesn't break!"
The egg in Malfoy's clenched fist shattered.
They were both losing their already short tempers. They'd gone through a dozen eggs and Draco still couldn't get it right. They couldn't move on until the eggs were done; they didn't know why, only that they couldn't.
"Again. Just tap it on the side of the bowl."
Draco picked up another egg tapped it on the side of the bowl. Nothing happened.
"A little harder then."
The egg shattered again.
This went on for another twenty minutes, until Draco said, "I've got an idea."
"What is it?"
"Remember what you said about not being able to make eggs if you don't break the shell?"
"You were listening?" he asked sarcastically.
"Shut-up, Potter. You can make eggs where you don't have to worry about the shell."
"I think I see what you're getting at."
Draco nodded. "Soft-boiled eggs. They're my mum's favorite; the house-elf makes them. Or, used to make them. We had a heck of a time finding a new one and she's absolutely useless. Nowhere near as trained as are last one." He glared at Harry.
Harry showed Draco how to heat up the pan with water in it (a mysterious tap had appeared) and they put the remaining eggs in once it was boiling.
Next, Harry showed Draco how to slice potatoes into little discs. Draco had no problem with this. He said, "It's just like slicing caterpillars in potions, Potter; even Crabbe and Goyle can do it most of the time."
Harry snorted. Most of the time. He showed Draco how to put different spices and things on the potatoes after they were sliced and fry them in the pan over another fire.
Draco's sleeve caught fire when he was taking the eggs off to put on plates and to put it out, Harry shot him with a stream of water from his wand. Accidentally or on purpose (no one really knew which) a large portion of this water went directly to Draco's face.
Draco sputtered, "What'd you do that for?"
Harry shrugged. "Your robes were on fire. If I let you die, Dumbledore might never let us out of here."
"Dumbledore, or Loony? Who's really calling the shots?" muttered Draco.
"I don't know," Harry muttered in reply out of the side of his mouth.
Next they took care of the bacon and toast. After that orange juice was squeezed and poured and everything was put onto plates and brought to the table. They both felt very accomplished: they'd gotten through cooking the meal without killing each other.
They all sat and ate.
"I think we should all talk about what we've learned in the past two days. Draco, do you want to go first?"
Draco brushed a piece of wet hair off his forehead. "I learned Potter can't aim to save his life."
"Harry?"
"I learned that Malfoy should never be trusted with matches, that is, assuming he could figure out how to light them."
"Terry?"
"I learned that Ernie has a little sister named Midge."
"Ernie?"
"I learned that Terry likes to draw and he draws all those hilarious pictures that end up floating around the castle. Like that one called, 'The Amazing Bouncing Ferret'. I was laughing over that one for a week." Ernie tapped one of his eggs with his fork. "Er, guys? Is an egg supposed to click like this? I think you forgot to take the shell off."
"Take it off yourself, you ingrate," retorted Malfoy and Harry at the same time, much to everyone's surprise.
Luna had a number of other of her activities for them to do before lunch. There was a three-legged race (Harry and Ernie versus Draco and Terry). Harry and Ernie, since both of them played Quidditch, were in excellent shape. Had either of them been racing on their own, they would have easily won. Unfortunately they were both following their own beats and ended up tripping and falling. At first, Terry and Draco were having the same problem. Then they started working together just enough to beat Ernie and Harry. It gave Draco immense satisfaction to know that he beat Harry at something. He would have loved to dance around and scream, "In your face, Potter!" but a Malfoy simply did not do that sort of thing. Instead he just sneered at Harry and gave a simply, "Ha!"
Harry glared at him and started telling Ernie off for not staying on the right footing.
Ernie then started complaining that it was Harry who had been off.
After a minute or so of bickering, Luna sent them both to timeouts. They were not happy at all.
Luna let Ernie out when she wanted him and Terry to start lunch (of course they got a list of instructions on out to cook). Harry was kept in his timeout while Luna talked quietly with Draco one-on-one.
After lunch (which Terry and Ernie didn't burn too badly) Luna announced that they were going to spend the rest of the afternoon meditating and become relaxed. You see, during lunch, a food fight broke out. The meditating came after the 4 boys cleaned the cell thing they were in from top to bottom. Yoga mats had mysteriously appeared and they sat on those to mediate.
Harry found the meditations to be a lot like the ones he did in his Legilimency training with Luna. Terry was quite relaxed and found himself in the Zen-like state he often reached when he was terribly engrossed in drawing. Ernie and Malfoy didn't relax quite as easily. Luna had to massage their shoulders and backs (Malfoy protesting quite a bit) until they couldn't help but become relaxed. She led them all through some deep breathing exercises, talked about harmony, and led them through some guided imagery.
After meditating, Luna said it was time for trust exercises.
The boys groaned. Trust? Harry looked around and was sure that he would trust Malfoy as far as he could through him.
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So what did you think? This is longer than the last chapter and a quicker update. I'm trying to make these longer, I'm sorry I've been slow.