Dinner for hungry Order Members

Kingsley continued his eating, washing down the food with some delicious wine. He stopped and looked up as Jess asked him a question. "Well, not to bad to be honest. Sometimes I had to resort to rats, but thankfully, a student at Hogwarts sent me food once regularly, though it was cold," Kingsley explained, not revealing the students name in a table full of so many people. He had always been a bit paranoid. " Its been a while since I haven't had a nice hot meal though."

Khaat understood Shacklebolts need for secrecy. Had she known sooner about the fact that he had been alive, she'd have done her best to provide for him without revealing him. Even when she had gone to see him, it had risked compromising him. It was, so far as she knew, the reason he had not continued to ask her for provisions.

"Well, so long as you're here," she told him, "you won't have to worry about not eating well. Berty's always good for making sure no one goes hungry." She liked the little elf. He at least was more agreeable than what her parents and Remus had told her Kreacher had been. The family stories had always portrayed Kreacher as being rather snarky.

She watched Berty dashing around making sure that everyone had everything they needed. "Tea, Missy Khaat?" he asked her, the teapot in his hand.

"That would be wonderful, Berty," she smiled. "Thank you. Jess, I'll be happy to give Berty a better offer anytime." She laughed. She had no real intention of swiping the little elf from Jess, but she enjoyed it all the same.

Jess gave a look of disbelief to Kingsley, living in exile was one thing, eating rats were another. "I think Khaat is certainly right on the mark there," he said with a chuckle, "You'll never want for food as long as you're here," he told him, noticing the omission of the Student's name, perhaps the man didn't quite trust them all yet, perhaps the student wished to remain nameless, no matter what Jess didn't really mind, Kingsley surely had his reasons, he would respect them.

Jess then gave Khaat a look of mock horror and grabbed Berty holding him tight and looking fearfully around the table. "Berty," he said dramatically, "Don't leave me, I wont survive without you!" He shouted, "Whatever this offer is Khaat has made for you, I'll double it. Fine, no more socks for christmas, you win," he said, pretending to sound sad.

"Surely Robert," he said turning and looking at Robert, "Could find someone to help you?" He asked Khaat. "Tell me, what is the situation of Elves in the Ministry," he added, straightening up and looking seriously at Robert, the policies regarding elves seemed to change every few years.

Khaat noticed her father's sudden alertness. He stopped eating abruptly, his gazed fixed. She looked to see where he was looking. His attention was drawn to the windowsill where a small brown owl held a blue envelope in his hands. Khaat became utterly as stonefaced as her father had suddenly become. He calmly laid his napkin beside his plate and uttered a quiet, "Excuse me."

Khaat's eyes never left him. He went over, opened the window, took the envelope from the owl, and then stroked the head of the owl a few times before closing the window again as the bird flew away. He took the envelope to another room of the house to open it.

Khaat sighed heavily. She knew, generally, the coded meaning of the new system of blue envelopes. It was never good. Dinner was about to take a different turn altogether. She looked at Brian, who was already geared up for the change. They'd seen these foul blue envelopes before. She felt Brian's knee nudge against hers as an unseen cue to not change what she was doing. Continue the dinner and not sound any sort of distress unless it called for it. She picked up her fork and began to pretend to pay attention to her vegetables.

"I'm sorry, Jess," Brian said. "My fault. I distracted Khaat for a moment. What was that you were asking?"

The dinner was marching quite well before Mariana got to the grimauld place. Ofcourse she wasn't aware that there was dinner here, she was just too nearby that it would be considered rude not to drop by for a little while even if she was dieing for a hot shower and her nice comfy pillow. As she arrived in her wolf form to the door, she transformed back to herself. Running around town as a wolf wasn't quite a passtime, but she only rubbed her hands when entering and heard voices in the kitchen. Her owl was on her left shoulder. She took her out for no particular reason.

Even though she arrived a couple of minutes before, she was still standing on the kitchen door watching everyone as they ate, drank and did their buisness still not sure if just to turn around while she still wasn't spotted though she kicked that idea away pretty quick. "Bonne apetite everyone." she said loud and clear to overhear the crowd though she kept standing leaned on the wall by the doorstep. Her owl was looking around the kitchen as she scanned where would she get the best piece of meet though Mari was just petting her having her look on the rest of the scene.

Jess Potter wrote:Jess gave a look of disbelief to Kingsley, living in exile was one thing, eating rats were another. "I think Khaat is certainly right on the mark there," he said with a chuckle, "You'll never want for food as long as you're here," he told him, noticing the omission of the Student's name, perhaps the man didn't quite trust them all yet, perhaps the student wished to remain nameless, no matter what Jess didn't really mind, Kingsley surely had his reasons, he would respect them.
.

"I did want to talk to you about that actually. Unfortunately my previous state of residence is occupied and I don't want to show myself in public yet, so I was wondering if you could spare a room here for me, " Shacklebolt asked politely, sure he would say yes. But asking was better then shouting 'give me a room or I'll kill you! "After the Shrieking Shack even Grimmauld Place is quite comfortable." It had always been mildly comfortable, it was the memories here that made him uneasy.

Jess felt the mood on the Lupin side of the table drop significantly as the owl arrived, it was obviously a ministry letter, the Minister traditionally had his mail screened, and no one but trusted Ministry officials and other Order members knew how to get a message to Robert when he was here.

However that was Robert's problem, surely, Jess had vowed a long time ago not to meddle in Ministry affairs, other than in things that affected his own job there. Still, Jess knew there was a colour coding system in the letters, he'd received many white envelopes, one or two green ones (He loved getting green ones) and on one occasion a red one. That had been a sad day, one of the department heads had had a dragon related related incident and passed on. But a blue letter, he'd never even seen one of those flying around. It was probably nothing though, the colour hinted at lighter things. Still, he'd only seen Robert look that stone-faced once.

"No problem Brian," he said, snapping back into his own thoughts as suddenly as the others snapped back into theirs. "Khaat, maybe you could answer my question?" He asked, "What is the current policy on Elves, I lost track a year or two back," he said with an internal frown.

"And hello Mari," he said, not turning around, merely recognising the sound of her gait as she walked into the house. "Please, sit down and take a plate," he said, gesturing at one of the remaining seats - the one that was usually his own, funnily enough - and the food itself.

He then turned and looked at Kingsley, a thoughtful look crossing his face for a few seconds before he nodded. "I can imagine that any crowd occupying that house is on the lamb," he said with a chuckle, on the lamb was a phrase which always made him chuckle, "So you're more than welcome here, I'll clear a room out for you, as you know we have more than a few beds around the place," He said with a smile, he was glad Kingsley had asked, it seemed as if he was already coming around to trust Jess a little more.

Mariana still stood on the door even though Jess invited her in. This seemed more like a meeting then like a dinner anyway though it would be really stupid to walk out now. One moment later she found herself making a few steps towards the table. She still wasn't sure whether this was a good idea or not. "I already ate thanks, but i think i'll have a drink. Diagon alley is a long street," she said sitting down on the empty chair and calling herself a cup of butterbeer, It landed with a small clank next to her left hand. She might have not stopped it on time, that wasn't supposed to happen though since there was no damage on the table or the cup she just took it and started drinking while she was hoping to catch up with all discussions a bit.

Jack could not comprehend why she was still here- she had gotten everything she needed and now she was simply flying under the radar. This did not disappoint or upset her, just made her feel like her time could be spent better somewhere that was not here. Though, there was the motivator of food here to keep her sitting in her seat.

She started to follow the thread of conversation regarding elves. She wanted to eventually become a werewolf relations... thingy. If she maybe followed the tales of other races that needed help, she could maybe figure out how to go about improving relations in the future. When the owl arrived though, Jack felt a change. She watched intently until she accidentally dropped her fork on her plate. The moment was ruined. She picked up her fork and continued to eat.

"Well," Khaat said, "the last I knew, while the debate between whether or not house elves should be enslaved or not continues in the general public far more than it should, the wizarding law now requires that house elves are treated well, not beaten or abused, and that they are paid a fair wage for their efforts. There actually is a code for the treatment of house elves in wizarding law now. We are due to review it in the Wizengamot, actually."

She watched her father come in, with the letter in his hand, whisper softly in Jess's ear, and Jess got up and followed her father back out of the room. She knew the look in her father's eyes. There was something drastically wrong. He just wasn't willing to reveal it yet. She looked at Brian and Michael.

Michael sent her a silent look that said the dinner needed to continue. She needed to give her father time. He looked at Jack and said, "Jack, there is a new shop open in Paris that makes Zonkos look rather lame and pitiful. I thought I might go back some weekend. You think you might want to come with me? I am quite sure that I could get Doyle to let you go. I think all it would take would be to threaten to continue talking to him to keep him awake. That should be sufficient." Besides that, when it came to something Michael truly wanted, although there wasn't much, he usually found a way to get it in one way or another. Jack knew that much too well. Besides that, she was looking like she needed perhaps just one day away from the Hogwarts suffocating atmosphere.