Sorbet

Damian did not fancy that Asric was clueless about his midnight escapades. Even if he wasn't the man's apprentice and shared a bond with him, the boy had a feeling that there was very little that the headmaster did not know or learn about happening within the castle. Nonetheless, he had every reason to believe that his Head of House and the rest of the staff were clueless, or else he wouldn't have been doing half as much wandering as he did.

Sitting cross-legged atop a table in the kitchen's, Damian ate from a bowl of orange sorbet, letting the frozen dessert melt on his tongue. Between bites of his own, the teen dropped a spoonful onto the floor to be eaten by his daemon. The elves had offered to get Lynne a dish of her own, but Damian had declined. He liked sharing with the wolf.

Lynne looked up at her master, wagging her tail slightly. Damian grinned back. Hearing footsteps drawing closer in the corridor outside the kitchens, the boy raised his head, waiting expectantly for the door to open.

Robin entered the kitchen, right after tickling the pear in the right place. She spotted a fellow Hufflepuff, not much older than her. Her eyes widened fearfully as she noticed a Prefect badge plastered onto his chest and a... a wolf near him.

She decided to ignore him, but that ended badly when she tripped over her own feet and landed at the feet of a small house-elf.

"Damn, not again," She muttered to herself. After standing up, she smiled slightly at the small creature, "Can I have some strawberry sorbet? I'm feeling a bit peckish."

She smiled at the house-elf when it disappeared and reappeared with a bowl of the food she asked for. "Thanks," she told the house-elf.

Then, instead of just sitting at a table like any normal person would do, she sat cross-legged on the floor.

I'm not normal, she snorted to herself, I'm freaking insane, why should I act like I'm normal?

Damian couldn't help but smirk a bit at the girl's response. Glancing down at his chest, he regarded his Prefect badge, as though just noticing it was there. Then, he wordlessly took it off and set it on the table beside him. He took another bite of sorbet.

Lynne, too, had turned her attention to the newcomer, watching her actions with her head inquisitively cocked to one side. The moment the girl was seated on the floor, the wolf made a beeline towards her. After curiously nosing the girl in the face, she sniffed at a few spots of interest on the third year's robes before she was satisfied with what she had discovered about this new person.

Damian laughed. "She has no concept of personal space," he said, by way of apology. "She probably recognizes your scent from the common room, but never got a proper look at you."

Robin smiled when the wolf came towards her and petted the wolf on the head. She noticed that the wolf pushed her head into her hand, happy at her touch.

"I noticed you taking off your Prefect badge," She mused, "Afraid I might tell someone? Yeah, don't worry about that. I'm not that kind of person, especially since I sneak around a lot..."

She shrugged off the fifth year's apology. "No harm done," she said, "I kinda like her, she's really cute. What's her name?"

Damian gave a laugh. "Is that why you think I did it?" he smirked. "I think you were far more concerned with me getting you into trouble. I could take house points for you being out past curfew, you know."

The boy shrugged. "Never been much for rules - and I can guarantee I wander more than anyone else here. My master knows this, and he still made me prefect."

Lynne gave an indignant huff at the girl's assessment, causing Damian to grin in amusement. The wolf gave her master a reproving glance, coughing at his mirth.

"She thinks she's too dignified for cute," the boy explained. "Her name is Lynne."


(OOC: It's common knowledge that Damian is Asric's (the headmaster) apprentice)

Robin snorted at Damian's first comment. "You can't get me into trouble!" She exclaimed, "you prefects are never on patrol in the kitchens! I should know, I saw the schedule. If you told anyone that you saw me in the kitchens, they'd also know you were there too, and we'll both be in trouble!"

She then bent down to Lynne's level, "I'm sorry I called you cute, I think you're very... wolf-like."

She suddenly blushed when she realized she was talking to a wolf and stood up quickly.

"You probably think I'm crazy now, don't you?" She mumbled, barely audible.

"You really think we'd leave the official schedule where just anyone could see it?" Damian smirked. "Besides, as prefects, it's our job to investigate any possible rule breaking."

The boy unfolded his legs and hopped off the table to give Lynne the rest of the sorbet. With his hearing, he hadn't the least bit of difficultly hearing her. "Why? For talking to Lynne? Everyone talks to animals. At least she can understand you. There's a third year who talks to his toad."

Robin waved her hand dismissively, "But you're not gonna rat me out, because you're sneaking out anyway," she said, "And you're breaking rules too, it's just a shame I frankly don't give a damn."

She shrugged when he made his comment, "Well, the thing is, I think she actually understood me," she said, "I'm not exactly sure if that's normal. Well, if she did understand me, she's a very, very smart wolf."

"If you didn't give a damn, you wouldn't feel the need to emphasize all the reasons you think I won't grass on you," Damian pointed out with an amused smirk. "Besides, you could have easily ascertained that I had no intention of doing so by the fact that I removed my prefect's badge when you gave me that deer-in-the-spotlight look." He shook his head.

He leaned back against the end of the table, watching as Lynne looked up from the dish. The wolf sat back on her haunches, giving the girl an almost admonishing gaze.

"Lynne's special," Damian said, tone unmistakably fond. Lynne wagged her tail slightly.

Robin turned red when Damian made his comment. "I didn't give you a deer-caught-in-the-headlights look," she spluttered, turning redder by the second.

She smiled at Lynne. "You're lucky to have her," She stated, "I have an owl, but she doesn't like me much. I have to chase her around in the owlery for ages to catch her so she can send my mail... She's also very violent..." She rubbed a particularly bad scar on her forearm absentmindedly.

"Of course not," he said agreeably, smirking, nonetheless.

Damian smiled at the wolf, who wriggled happily in response. "I know," he murmured softly. He would have been lost without the daemon, that part of his soul. In many ways, Lynne seemed to be the better part of who he was, the untarnished part.

"I have an owl, too," Damian said. "Maximus. He's really friendly, though. A bit vain, too. You should just use one of the school owls if yours is so ill-behaved."

Robin smiled inwardly at Damian's fondness over animals; he was a lot like her brother... well, minus the 'being a werewolf' part.

"Oh no," she quickly said, disagreeing with his advice, "Even though the owl is violent, I still love her. Me and my brother fought like that all the time before Hogwarts, and it was our way of sibling-affection. Maybe that was what my owl's way of affection was."

Damian gave her a dubious look. "If you say so," he said. He bent down to grab the empty bowl from the floor and handed it to an eager elf, giving the creature a polite smile. Grabbing his prefect's badge from the tabletop, he pocketed it.

"I'm heading off, now," Damian announced, heading to the door, Lynne close at his heels. "Don't let one of the other prefects catch you." Opening the door, he let his daemon exit ahead of him before stepping into the corridor himself. Footsteps as silent as the wolf's, he proceeded along the hallway as the door swung shut behind him.

Robin watched as Damian pocketed his prefect badge and say that he was going. She stared after him when he left, Lynne by his heels. She only looked away when he finally closed the door.

"I won't let them see me," she muttered, before sneaking back to the Hufflepuff common room, staying in the shadows.