The night was already greatly advanced, the castle was entirely asleep. Well, not entirely…
deep on the seventh floor, a painting, in which was found a sleeping lady, opened slowly. From the now open passage, no one could be seen, and by the time the painting closed it, only wind seemed to have taken it.
Some time later, the same feat occurred in the basement.
Once the passage fully opened, the noise of a lightweight fabric that was removed, resonated in the empty corridor. The silence quickly dominated again, but the corridor wasn't empty anymore. A student, from Gryffindor house, if we were to judge it by the color of her robe, stood in front of that now open passage.

Inside, a dozen pairs of bright eyes turned to face her.

The house-elves seeing it was a student, quickly returned to their duties, leaving the newcomer to her business.

One of them however, approached.

- "Miss Harleen Potter Ma'am ! What you is doing here ?" Asked Dobby.

- "Hello Dobby, I was wondering if you, and your friends here could help me…"

- "Anything Miss Harleen Potter Ma'am !" Jumped the little house-elf

The enthusiasm of his friend made Harleen giggle, she crouched, put her hand on his shoulder in an effort to calm him.

- "Easy Dobby. You see, tomorrow is Hermione's birthday, and I wish that for once she can have her favorite muggle breakfast... Do you know what a pancake is ?" she inquired.

The look of curiosity in all the elves' faces answered Harleen before Dobby could.

- "Okie, so, if I show you, will you help me make sure that for tomorrow, there are only pancakes and syrup available ?" exclaimed Harleen to her growing audience.

All the elves nodded at once, and proceeded to lead Harleen to the kitchen worktop.

- "I will do some in front of you and help you practice after", smiled Harleen, "first, we need the ingredients ! Can you go get me some flour, sugar, baking soda, wheat germ, some eggs, butter, and sour milk ?"

While some elves went to fetch the ingredients, the others brought up magically, before Harleen, kitchen utensil and container.

- "Good ! I trust you can multiply later the proportions for all the students and staff ? I will do with the proportion needed to make 18 pancakes, and usually, muggles eat 5 of them." teached Harleen to her little companions.

She waited for the confirmation of the elves and went back to the recipe after they gave it.

- "You will see, it's very simple, you need to mix 250g of flour, 15g of sugar, 5 of baking soda. And 30g wheat germ. Once it's well mixed, you do a pit in the middle…"

The kitchen was ordinarily noisy, although it wasn't usual for the hour, Harleen could feel in the air the eagerness of Dobby and his friends to learn a new recipe. While not bothered being the center of the attention for once, helped by the fact that she was doing something so mundane.

- "In another bowl, you beat the eggs, and when you're finished, you add them in the pit of the first bowl, the butter... oh right, the butter needs to be melted…" she added.

Incendio

When the butter was finished melting, Harleen cooled down the now melted butter with another charm, and then added it with the other ingredients, and went to add milk as well...

With the elves, Harleen waited the 45 minutes required once the ingredients were all mixed, talking to her little friends and having the confirmation that, in that configuration, for doing something she loved, Harleen didn't mind the popularity.

- "In order to have better flavor, we add 3g of salt, and we can cook them." resumed Harleen.

In a heated pan, she dropped a small ladle of the mixed ingredients mixture, informed the elves that it should cook for 2 minutes each side, and that was it.

- "For tomorrow, you need to serve the pancakes warm, with syrup and whipped cream on every table, okay ?" urged Harleen some time later.

Her mischief managed, she thanked the elves, let them go back to their work, and took back her cloak starting her journey back to the dorm.

- "You're worrying me Harleen, it's Sunday and not even either a Hogsmeade week-end or a quidditch one, and you're too excited. In fact, the last time you were in such a state was when I helped you wear a girl's uniform for the first time…"

- "First, that was in fourth year, there were circumstances, and I think I was way more excited than that anyway. Nothing to worry about Hermione, I'm fine and you will understand it all in the Great Hall believe me." Replied Harleen

- "Alright then, hurry up if the only thing that can make you go back to your normal attitude is that we go eat breakfast, let's go eat breakfast." sighed Hermione launching herself to the entrance of the common room of Gryffindor.

Followed by a smiling Harleen, Hermione left the tower and their sleeping friends, only to arrive next to the Great Hall too fast for Harleen's excitement to wear off even slightly. Before even seeing it, Hermione smelled that something was different and ran into the Great Hall.

Stopping at the entrance of the Hall, Hermione turned to face Harleen, with a face hesitating between joy and incomprehension giving her a questioning look.

- "Happy birthday Hermione, I figured that you didn't have your favorite breakfast for your birthday these last few years, so…" said Harleen before being trapped in a hug.

- "Thank you ! Thank you ! Thank you ! How did you do that ?"

- "You're welcome Hermione, but how about we go enjoy your present while I explain it to you ?»

Apart from the two Gryffindor, and pretty much all of the muggleborns seemingly surprised but enjoying the pancakes nonetheless, some in the Great Hall, namely, a majority of the purebloods, weren't that happy to have only muggle breakfast available and many were vocal about it, and slowly quitting the Hall while shouting to everyone how they would wait lunch to have a 'proper meal'

- "...And with your birthday being in the middle of September, I thought you didn't have this since we started Hogwarts, so I went to Dobby for his help last night."

- "That's why you were in bed early yesterday ? I should have figured that something wasn't normal" complained Hermione lightly.

- "To be honest, I'm glad you didn't, it made surprising you easier." Finished Harleen

Their breakfast eaten, Harleen dragged Hermione to the park, determined to make this day special for her special friend, from sunrise to sunset.

- "Did you ask the elves to make me a special lunch too ?" Asked Hermione, on their way back to the castle at midday.

- "Sorry, but no, for two main reason, first, I don't know which is your favorite lunch meal, and second, since this is probably muggle recipe, I needed to teach the elves, and I'm only good at making breakfast, the rest, I'm afraid…" replied Harleen shaking her head.

- "Oh, ok" Hermione wasn't really sad about this news. "Don't worry, I will help you learn it so next year, you'll have no excuse !" She happily exclaimed after a little thought.

By the time they rejoined the Great Hall, they saw some purebloods going the opposite way, too angry to notice them. At first, Harleen and Hermione didn't understand, and weren't too troubled by it anyway, but once within range of scent that escaped from the lunch place, they began to understand.

- "Harleen ? You did say to the elves that pancakes were only a breakfast meal, right ?" Inquired Hermione of Harleen

- "Well… I guess I forgot"

Harleen couldn't answer much more, as she began giggling. Hermione followed not long ago after. Once their laughter died, and they calmed themselves enough to go eat lunch, they walked to the Great Hall madly smiling. At least, they enjoyed this type of meal, but not without making the resolution that they were going to stop by the kitchen before tonight, not willing to eat a third breakfast in the same day.