Grabbing a bite before night

It was still early evening. Mari was in the house at Grimauld place for quite a while, but she missed it so instead of leaving, she decided to make some cookies and tea in the ancient kitchen. Why didn't she do this in her own appartment? Who knew the ways of her thinking. After 15 minutes, she took out cookies as they finished baking themsleves. She waved with her wand and made the pan warm up for a few pancakes. The tea was warm since a while ago. She was waving with her wand making pancakes bake themselves as she looked for chocolate cream or a little syrup. It was almost the first time she cooked there so it was hard to find what she was looking for.

Looking for cream was especially hard because Jess liked the syrup. "God lord i thought alot of people live here. It's not possible no one eats cream." she thought on loud searching far and wide. All the activity was creating unbelievable noise especially when she started looking behind the plates. She was afreid of breaking something if she would actually just do an accio spell. The search continued during the next few minutes...

Kingsley didn't really have that many places to go. He was still in hiding and couldn't let anyone see him, so going and staying at the Leaky Cauldron was hardly a possibility. So he had talked to Jess and he had suggested to him that he stay at Grimmauld Place. As much as Kingsley hated the house, he had to admit it was the best place to stay for a while. Besides, there would be more company here then at the Shrieking Shack.

He was upstairs in his room when he heard some noise downstairs. It was probably Jess, but then again Jess was upstairs in his room. Kingsley, who didn't have much else to do, decided to investigate. Opening the door, he quietly went downstairs. Whomever was downstairs was sure making a racket, he thought to himself as he reached the ground floor. He also smelled cookies, strangely. Walking over to the kitchen he first saw the cookies, then a young woman who looked like she was trying to find something. When she turned, Kingsley saw her face and recognized her. "If it isn't Ms. Diggory," he said with a small laugh. He knew her well of course, having taught her at Hogwarts for several years. "What are you doing here?"

Mariana finally managed to find a little mug of cream. It was little, but it would do. The house was very quiet. She took a couple of spoons from a shelf while she was still crouching. As she was about to put them by the plate at the oven, she turned around for a moment and saw someone walking in. At first she didn't pay too much attention. When he spoke up, she finally recognized the voice though she heard it in just a few ocassions. She dropped the spoons she was holding on her head with a large racket as they fell on the floor. Her eyes widely opened now.

She stood up staring at the siluette in front of her. Because of her absence, she wasn't aware of the fact that Kingsley was alive. Now that she had him face to face, she didn't know if it was a ghost, a halucination or he was really there. "Arrreeennn't youuu supposed to be..." she started with the question more surprised then pettrified though she was both at the same time. She didn't even finish with the question. She sat down on one of the ancient chairs and took a sip of butterbeer, she needed to make sure that her eyes were not frauding her.

Shacklebolt winced as she dropped the spoons. Jess would surely be alerted from that, but then again, perhaps he already knew that Mariana would make so much noise. Shacklebolt watched as Mariana looked at him as if she had never seen a person before. Well, of course she was surprised, no one had seen him for near two years and most assumed him to be dead. He probably shouldn't pop in on people suddenly anymore, as most people would probably be a little scared when they came face to face with someone they thought to be dead. "Kingsley Shacklebolt, at your service," he announced, with a fake bow. "Sorry for alarming you, I keep forgetting that most people think I'm dead. Anyways, I smelled cookies so I came here, may I have one?" he asked, walking over.

Mariana watched at Kingsley as he was speaking to her still frozen like she saw a ghost. Her eyes moving through the room like someone was going to pop-out and yell hidden camera or something. "Headmaster Kingsley Shacklebolt?" she asked still looking a little nervous and out of space. "I need firewhiskey..." she muttered going to the fridge to grab a little bottle. After she closed it, she turned to him again. "What happened to you? All this is weird i don't understand." she finally asked grabbing the plate with cookies and placing it on the table in front of her old Professor without a word.

"The one and only. So will you stop looking at me like I'm some ghost?" Kingsley asked, a little irritiated but mostly amused. He then took a seat and then grabbing a cookie. They were well made, but frankly anything was delicious after what he had to eat at the shrieking shack. He watched as she went to get firewhisky and tsk tsked. "Alchohol isn't good for the system," he advised her, nodding wisely. But young people, they did what they did, and never listened to their elders. Kingsley didn't know why he bothered. "What happened to me?' he echoed. "Well thats an interesting story, and quite long. To summarize, I didn't quite die, but I sometimes wish I did. Staying in the Shrieking Shack for over a year... not nice. Had to eat rats sometimes to surivve. But here I am, alive and relatively well," he said calmly, having recited the same story to many people already. "What about you? I heard that you haven't been around for quite some time as well?" he asked curiously.

Mariana waved with her wand a couple of time making pancakes she made fly to two plates. One landed in front of her, other in front of Kingsley. "I'm sorry professor. I don't see people resurect from the dead everyday." she muttered apologisingly. Once she saw him eat, it made her more relaxed. Spoons she dropped on the floor were not in the sink, and two clean ones were now on the table along with syrup and cream for pancakes. "Sorry i didn't make a bigger feast, but i didn't imagine i would have company. Though i can make sandwiches and salad in 3 seconds if you are hungry sir." she said rhrowing firewhiskey to the trash can behind the door. "Why were you hiding? Me? Well i was in Mexico i had alot of bureucratic problems with my grandfather's will. Didn't resolve them even now, but this is where i belong for good or bad. When excatly did you come back?" she asked pouring the tea into two cups, first the Shacklebolt's then her own.

"No need for formalities, Mrs. Diggory," Shacklebolt said genially, referring to her calling him sir. "Besides, I'm not a professor anymore. As for the food, thank you but I already had a good meal, and these cookies are sufficient," he added, taking another one. She had been gone for some time, so of course she probably didn't know what had happened. "Why was I hiding? Well the minister, your cousin in fact, accused me of treason and put a price on my head. A very high price unfortunately, so I couldn't let people see me, especially since they think I'm a murderer..." he said, summarizing the events. The minister at the time had been her cousin, Dae Diggory. Though Kingsley didn't think they were anything alike. "Why, I came back yesterday! Heard there was a meeting here so I had to come. Potter offered me a room here afterwards."

"Sorry i am not used to call you otherwise. How would you like to be called? " Mariana replied not noticing that she spend half of the time apologising to Kingsley. She also ignored the fact of suddenly being Mrs. Diggory since she wasn't married yet. "I trust you have enough room for tea then?" she aksed with a smile. Now that he was eating, it was clear that he was alive.Her smile faded out on the mention of her cousin. "My cosuin made a lot of mistakes. Why i don't know and neither it's my business anyhow. Nevertheless, i can't hate him, he's my relative, blood of my blood, if i would see him again one day i would treat him as my cousin. Just wanted you to know that to avoid misunderstandings." she said with a sigh taking a sip of her tea. "Yes remind me to thank Jess afterwards for telling me this. Are you still threatened by Azkaban if someone sees you or you're just staying here for pleasure?" she asked not too confident pleasure was the answer.

[Sorry, total accident :/]

"Just call me Kingsley. Or you can keep saying professor if you like, it has a nice ring to it now that I think about it," he replied. As much as he hated students, he did miss being a teacher. Perhaps one day he would get the chance to go back to Hogwarts. "Always enough room for tea," he replied, with a smile. "Thanks." He hadn't had tea for a year either. Now that he thought about it, Shacklebolt wondered how he had survived the last year. "Neither, actually.. I'm not really threatened by Azkaban, but I would rather not show myself yet. First I'll have to ask the newspapers to tell everyone I'm not a murderer so they don't hand me over to the death eaters. Then I'll finally be free," he explained. "So what about you? You just graduated, what did you decide to become?" he inquired curiously.