...
This felt... Awkward.
He stared at the numerous cutlery before him, before his gaze focused back on what he presumed was a magically enlarged piece of... Poultry...
Presumably.
He'd never seen a chicken that looked this weird before.
He turned back down towards the cutlery set in front of him and just picked one of the forks up before he proceeded to use to cut off a piece of the meat, ignore the subtle giggle from one Daphne Greengrass, and stick said end of the fork in his mouth for a taste.
...Yup.
That definitely wasn't chicken.
"Rodrick!" Daphne whispered beside him. "You're using the wrong utensil!"
"Daphne, I don't even know what I am eating right now." He responded with a twitch, and rather more loudly than he intended.
Roxanne, on the other side of the table, next to her just as amused husband, let out a chuckle, one she hid behind her mouth before she too proceeded to whisper something to her husband, and somehow kill his amusement with whatever was said.
Naturally, he barely paid any attention to Daphne's introductory lessons on which fork was big enough to eat roasted magical not!chicken, given the sudden, somewhat, intense stare sent his way.
"Look, if you use this one, it'll taste better okay-"
That brought him out of his musing as he turned towards said girl, just in time for her to stick a fork into his open, and confused, mouth.
He missed the look on her face as he calmly ate the offered food, and frowned even more than before when it actually did taste different.
"I see." He nodded after gulping down the rainbow meat before he turned back towards the utensil and grabbed a spoon this time, which earned a rather loud snort from Roxanne Greengrass for some reason.
"You can't cut it with-"
Calmly covering said spoon in a slight hint of magic, he cut the meat in front of him and took a spoonful.
"...That's cheating." Daphne deadpanned. "Mother, Rodrick is cheating!"
"Tastes even better." He lied. It figuratively burned his throat! Ugh, where did the freakin' heat come from!? And why did it taste like soup!? How did it- What was the point of the food if the utensils had all the flavor apparently!?
Whose enchanting utensils like this!?
...And how much did it cost...
"...Really?" Daphne questioned. "Let me try some-"
"Mooom, didn't you say sharing a-" Astoria's voice was quickly covered for some reason, by Roxanne at that, while he felt a distinctively... Uh. Even more pointed stare came towards him from Cyrus for some reason.
Letting out a shrug, he calmly cut off another piece and raised it towards the intrigued girl beside him- He watched her open her mouth for a moment before immediately closing it and start blinking a few times at him for some reason.
"...What?" He questioned, tilting his head. "Don't you want any?"
She continued staring at him for some reason.
"...Um, just show me how you did it..?" She chuckled uneasily as she picked up a similar-sized spoon on her side.
"Oh, alright." He shrugged and ignored the sound of relief that came from the other end of the table. "It involves wandless mag-"
Daphne didn't even let him finish as she just ate the piece on his spoon, before of course immediately twitching at him given the taste of it.
She gulped it down, moved back, carefully hid the slight cough into her hand, shook her head, and turned back towards her food.
"You're an idiot." She muttered under her breath.
"Probably." He agreed before he picked up one of the knives and stuck the end into one of the vegetables out of curiosity.
Daphne facepalmed at him for that one.
Jokes on her it actually made the vegetable taste better.
"Remind me not to invite you out in public." The girl shook her head with a sigh.
He stuck a piece of fruit with the knife for that one- It wasn't worth the taste, but it was worth the twitching girl beside him.
It certainly helped that the parents seemed to find the whole thing amusing. Especially so when Astoria started copying him.
Well, at least until the girl opened her mouth to say the first thing that presumably came to her mind anyway.
"MOM!" Astoria gasped out, with pure utter shock. "The knife makes your veggies taste good for once!"
Silence, for a moment, filled the dining hall, before Daphne broke it by covering her mouth, or rather her snickering.
Roxanne, despite the slight amusement on her face, tried to hold it back as she immediately turned to stare at her husband who was doing his absolute best to keep a straight face.
"Oh, is that right honey?" Roxanne questioned, still staring at her husband, while Astoria nodded frantically. "I see... I had no idea my cooking was that bad-"
"Oh, yeah, it's much better now, I can actually eat this one." Astoria continued, taking another bite using the knife. "Dad won't have to secretly throw it away for once!"
"Um..." Daphne spoke up, slowly standing up from her seat. "I think uh, we're just going to call it here," She remarked, idly pulling at his sleeve, frantically. "We'll just go... Practice! In the ballroom! For the party!"
"We are?" He blurted out, in the middle of chewing.
At the sheer utter seriousness on the girl's face, as she turned towards him, he quickly gulped down the food and nodded slowly.
"Yes, you do that dear," Roxanne remarked, good-naturedly. "And take your sister with you, while you're at it." Another beat passed as he watched Cyrus let out a slight gulp. "I need a moment with your father right now."
...He wasn't sure if this was some sort of tradition for purebloods or not, but he figured he could play it safe and take the girl's advice and leave.
He wasn't that hungry anyway- It's not like it was the only food they'd have for the day. It was just something they seemed to have whenever Cyrus got home or something about that.
The actual dinner wasn't until later on.
It was all rather confusing if he was honest.
He focused back up ahead on following the two girls, Astoria had elected to bring an empty, and rather strangely decorated, plate with her for some reason- And the plate just transformed into a box of... Candy?
...That... Huh.
He elected to ignore that and turned towards Daphne instead.
"So, what are we practicing? And for what exactly?"
"Hm?" Daphne questioned as she turned to face him. "Oh, right." A beat passed. "Dancing."
He blinked at her.
"What?"
"Yeah. Dancing," She smiled innocently at him. "For the party in two days!"
"..." He just stared at her as they continued walking. "You're joking right?"
"Nope." Astoria elected to answer first in the middle of crunching through her sweets. "Don't worry though!" She nodded seriously. "There's no way you're worse than my sister!"
"Tori!"
"...I grew up in a literal orphanage." He deadpanned, ignoring Daphne's sudden embarrassment.
Astoria nodded at that. "And there's still no way you're as bad as stabby-toes over here."
"Tori-" Daphne started up again, somewhat red in the face. "I- I told you it's the height difference!"
"...Nah, even Tracey complains about it." Was Astoria's only reply.
Daphne twitched at that.
...Meanwhile, he was starting to wonder if coming here was a good idea after all- Also, what party were they talking about? This was the first he'd heard of that!
...
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