Not Quite a Tea Party

[Lucas Montgomery]

Lucas stood by the fireplace of the common room with a towel in his hand. He watched the fire burn for a little bit until he heard the whistle from the tea kettle. He had decided to work on his tea leaf reading skills today. The sessions with Thom were making him realize that practice makes perfect in all forms of his craft. Plus he felt like a nice spot of tea at the moment.

He picked up the kettle and poured the contents into his cup. He watched the smoke rise and gave a bit of a smirk. He wondered what the out come would be this time. The tea was much too hot to drink so he waited for a bit. Putting the kettle back by the fire, Lucas sat down on one of the couches in the room and watched the smoke from his tea.

He hadn't noticed that he wasn't alone in the room anymore.

[Andromeda Cross]

"You shouldn't heat the water that much for green tea, it will be bitter and have no fragrance." Andromeda said without thinking. She had been sitting unobtrusively in one of the corner chairs working on her potions research paper when she had glanced over and noticed Lucas.

[Lucas Montgomery]

Lucas snapped out of his daze and looked behind him. There in the room was a girl he did not recognize. He thought he was familiar with all of the students in Ravenclaw, but some how he missed this one. And this one seemed to precisely know what kind of tea he was drinking with out him saying a word.

Her words about the tea being bitter struck him as interesting. Maybe that would explain why he had such bad luck with this brand of tea. He was going to have a words with the Asian gentleman from town about it, since that's where he bought the tea. But this girl saved him embarrassment it would seem.

"Too much heat?" Lucas said standing up looking at the girl. "Well, that's comforting to know. Thank you...uh...I'm sorry, I don't believe we've actually met," he said moving towards the girl. "I'm Lucas Montgomery. You are?"

[Andromeda Cross]

“I’m Andromeda Elena Persephone Cross. I’m a third year but I’ve been on home study for health reasons.” Andromeda said automatically, she was used to having to introduce and explain herself to her housemates.

“I could smell the tea but I’m not sure what kind it is, I can let you know the proper temperature if you do.” She hadn’t meant to say anything in the first place about it but it had slipped out and now she felt that it would be rude not to offer to help after pointing out fault in Lucas's method.

[Lucas Montgomery]

Lucas gave the girl a smile and nodded at her. Andromeda? He was definitely sure that he had not met this girl before. Her explanation of being home for health reason made sense to him. "Oh, well I trust you're doing better now," Lucas said looking the girl over. Her features seemed rather unusual.

"At any rate, I was impressed that you guessed the tea correctly. It is green tea...Sencha Green Tea, actually. I usually get it at a shop in town run by an Asian Gentleman. I'm probably his most frequent customer," Lucas said prattling on.

"I'm sorry...I was going to do a tea leaf reading...would you like some tea?" he asked Andromeda.

[Andromeda Cross]

Andromeda paused as she considered the offer. She did not as a rule trust dinivination but the offer had been for the tea itself rather then a reading so she nodded after a moment.

“Yes thank you.” She said as she stood up so that he could show her to where he intended for her to sit. Her upbringing has been that of a wizarding elite so her manners tended to be somewhat more formal then necessary. A fact that was reflected by her unmodified school uniform which she was wearing even though classes were over for the day and it would not have been out of place for her to wear more casual ones.

“Sencha is best when brewed for one or two minutes at the most with 80 degree Celsius water.” She added, it was a generalization but she doubted that Lucas knew what region the tea was from specifically. Few imported brands were that specific on there labels.

[Lucas Montgomery]

Lucas motioned to a place on the couch for Andromeda to sit. He walked over to the fire and prepped the tea again, but this time taking Andromeda's advice. "You certainly know you're tea," he said with a smile. "I'll see to it that this tea is to your liking."

When Lucas had set the tea on the fire, he quickly moved to the table and picked up his cup. "No sense it letting this one go to waste," he said drinking it. "I apologize if I'm taking away from any studies," he said trying to make some small talk with the girl.

"What are you reviewing, if you don't mind me asking?"

[Andromeda Cross]

Andromeda lips compressed slightly at the sight of Lucas drinking the over boiled tea but she said nothing and it was a fleeting expression of her distaste.

“My mother collects them among other things so I took it up as.” Andromeda said simply to explain her knowledge on the point.

“And your not interrupting. I was merely writing out a research paper for potions. I’ve already done all the preliminary research and writing. Now its just a matter of putting quill to parchment and penning my final draft.” She would not have agreed to tea in the first place had it been an interruption but she kept that part to herself for the moment.

[Lucas Montgomery]

Lucas set his half-finished cup down and reached for the kettle. He made sure it was about a minute or so since he put it on the fire. He wanted to show his fellow house mate he had a decent head on his shoulder. He poured the tea very carefully and set Andromeda's cup on the table in front of her.

"There you are. I hope this is to your liking," he said picking up his cup and resuming his tea. Lucas walked over to the couch and sat down a little distance away from Andromeda. He got a chance to look at the girl a bit better and was surprised to see just how pale the girl was. She was quite pretty, but thought perhaps the girl could do with some sun.

"So what's your paper on?" he asked trying not to look as though he were studying the girl's face.

[Andromeda Cross]

Andromeda had a cats tongue as it was said and gave her tea a moment to cool further before taking a polite sip.

“The traditional uses of nightshade. It was an assignment from our substitute and not a particularly good one. Out side of the thirty inch length it’s a topic better suited to first years.” Andromeda said with a bit of a sigh as she drank a bit more of the tea. It was good enough and she would have drunk it all even if Lucas had botched it anyway.

She disliked on principle teachers making up for the lack of a subjects difficulty with extra work that was nothing more then tedious.

“But I imagine that for a prefect this is a and even more boring subject. Do you have a particular are of concentration?” Andromeda’s eyes caught the fires light oddly causing the gold in them to glint slightly for a moment. She assumed that anyone granted the privilege of being a prefect was an impeccable student.

[Lucas Montgomery]

Lucas noticed a golden glint on Andromeda's eyes. He found it a rather intriguing site. This girl was not the typical student, but then again, no student at the school was typical. Just look at Mason Brown with his bone arm! With that thought in mind, he focused on the girl's question and answered.

"As a matter of fact, I do," he said with a smile. Lucas finished the last bit of his tea and then in a quick motion, took the cup and placed it upside down on dish he had ready. He reached into a little bag he had and pulled out a book on tea leaf reading. "I study diviniation," he said with some pride. Tarot is usually my thing, but I'm trying to perfect many aspects."

He let the cup stay upside so the leaves and tea residue would fall form the cup and collect on the dish. "I'm not that great with potions, but I do know our resident Gryffindor Prefect is somewhat adept at the subject," he said with a pleasant smile on his face. The thought of Angel was indeed a pleasant one.

"You should talk to Angel Starr," he said opening his book.

[Andromeda Cross]

“Starr? I’ll keep the name in mind.” Andromeda said politely though she would have preferred to handle a live adder without gloves then have anything to do with a Starr let alone one quite as infamous as Angel. It was nothing personal against her but Angel’s reputation preceded her much as thunder heralded lightening. Besides her area of interested fortuitously did not align with the Starr girls. Andromeda’s interest was herbology though she did not bother correcting Lucas for the moment. She had no idea weather she would speak to him again and didn’t see any particular reason to enlighten him.

“I opted to take arithmancy rather then general divination so I’m afraid I don’t know much about it.” Arithmancy was a form of divination but unlike the other class it was formulaic and left less room for the vagaries of interpretation. A fact that suited Andromeda quite well and had allowed her to fulfill the requirement without undue irritation.

[Lucas Montgomery]

Lucas listened to Andromeda and gave an "Oh" when she said she took Arithmancy. It was an alright class, but Lucas was not exactly a fan of it. The gift he had was relatively unmatched by anyone else in the school. Only the divination's teacher was probably better than him.

"Well, if you want to watch, I'm about to find out what the tea leaves hold in store for me," he said reaching for the cup. He had been pondering the lessons and tutoring sessions with Thom while drinking. He was rather surprised to something interesting indeed.

"Well, looks like I've got something," he said checking the dish and his book. "This looks like a sword...meaning a warning of future arguments. And this groups of leaves all lined out in squiggly line...like a snake. An enemy nearby? What's all this about?" he said rather surprised.

"No...that can't be right."

[Andromeda Cross]

"Given that it's an interprative art shouldn't you go with your first insticnt?" Andromeda raised her eyebrows slightly at Lucas second guessing himself. She wasnt concerned about him possibly decideing that she was the nearby enemy. She did not have faith in such things and was not threatened by the idea of being viewed in such a light. It would be his own fault if he chose to see her that way over something silly.

[Lucas Montgomery]

Lucas looked over at Andromeda and gave a bit of a frown. Again she was right and he didn't want to admit it this time. If he didn't second guess himself, the reading would mean that he and Thom were going to get into a heated fight soon. Which would make sense as Lucas really didn't enjoy tutoring him. Not to mention the clump of leaves looked like a snake...Slytherin.

"If my first instinct is correct, Andromeda, I'm going to be getting into a fight with a certain Slytherin," he said leaning back into the couch. "Probably the one I'm tutoring. Just lovely."

[Andromeda Cross]

"You said sword for conflict and a snake for an enemy nearby. Isn't assuming that its the boy your tutoring a self made prophesy as you clearly have a distaste for him already. Also the nearby aspect negates the prospect of it being a slytherin despite the snake, after all there all in the dungeon and I don’t see ‘Thom’ lurking about." Andromeda didn’t like divination for just this sort of reason, it was to easy for the interperater to become bogged down in there own emotions and thoughts.

“The logical way to interoperate this would be that you will come into conflict with some nearby who has an association with Slytherin if your insistent on seeing the snake as representing them.” Andromeda said with a slight frown as she finished her own tea and turned the cup as she has seen Lucas do.

“Here try again.”

[Lucas Montgomery]

Lucas raised an eyebrow at the girl and then looked at the tea cup on the table. He hadn't planned on reading anyone else's tea leaves that day but figured he'd give it a go. He decided to tune out the girls thoughts on his reading. He only second guessed himself because he didn't want to believe he would be right.

He knew his gift was usually on the mark. "Alright, here we go then," he said as he picked up the cup. However, he gave a bit of a frown when he looked down and saw that none of the tea leaves fell from the bottom of the cup. He looked at the cup and then back to Andromeda.

"That's unusual. I don't think I've ever had an instance like that before," he said with a chuckle. "I wonder if that's a bad sign?"

[Andromeda Cross]

"Perhaps, it looks rather like a mountain. Perhaps a volcano is in my future." Andromeda said with a bit of a laugh and smile that was friendly if you didn't know her well. This sort of situation was just the kind of thing that gave her no faith in fortune telling. After all, how accurate could it be if it did not cover all eventualities.

[Lucas Montgomery]

Lucas smiled in return, glad that Andromeda had some form of sense of humor. He quickly scrolled though his list of symbols for anything similar to what she said. A mountain or volcano did make the most sense from what he saw. Eventually he found an entry for a volcano like symbol.

"Hmmm. Says here that if a clump looks like a volcano, you can expect an impending emotional eruption," Lucas said looking up at the girl. It seemed a bit too literal of a translation, but there was still a lot he didn't know about Andromeda. She was really quiet and you know what they say about the quiet ones....

"Well...you sort of hit the nail on the head," Lucas said returning his attention to the girl next to him.

[Andromeda Cross]

"So it seems, I wonder who I'm going to erupt at." She said with a bit of a snort. The whole thing seemed silly to her but as Lucas seemed to take it seriously she though it best not to make waves. After all he had been polite enough to offer her tea. The fact that he was a prefect did not concern her though. He had little power that could harm her to her way of thinking. After all, she would actually have to do something against the rules for him to be able to use his authority.

[Lucas Montgomery]

"Well you laugh now, but you never know," Lucas said looking at the cup with the stuck tea leaves. "Quite honestly, I've never seen that happen before. Then again I've only been doing tea leaves for less than a year now," Lucas said, setting the cup down.

At that moment, his snow white cat Temperance leaped onto the table where his divination tools were. "Hey! Get down. You know better," Lucas said talking to the cat like it were a person. He turned to Andromeda and smiled. "This is Temperance...my mother's cat...well my cat now. She's a little too smart for her own good."

Temperance pawed at the tea cup and gave an affection "Merow!" towards the two students on the couch.

[Andromeda Cross]

"Hello Temperance, I'm Andromeda, pleased to make your acquaintance." Andromeda said with one of her rare real smiles. She extended her hand to the cat palm up so that it could smell it if it so desired. She had difficulty with humans most of the time but she generally got along fine with house elves and animals.

"What breed is she?" Andromeda asked Lucas though she was still paying more attention to the cat at that moment.

[Lucas Montgomery]

The feline cocked her head to one side and meowed again. She gave Andromeda's hand a sniff and then raised one of her paws. Temperance placed the paw in the girls hand almost like a dog and gave a meow. Lucas watched with amusement and gave out a quiet chuckle.

He had always joked that Temperance was more like dog and he figured that was why his mother kept the cat around. He was pretty sure his father disliked any kind of animal but a smart pet was probably tolerable. And Temperance never failed to impress.

"She's a standard long hair. My mother picked her out of a litter right after my 13th birthday," Lucas said looking at his feline friend. "I think the owner used to be my mother's mentor or something...I don't remember. But I suspect that there are probably a good bit of kitties running around just as smart as Temperance here," he said giving the cat a scratch behind the ear.

A typical "Merow" followed.

[Andromeda Cross]

Andromeda gave the cats paw a gentle shake but didn't pet her as Lucas elected to.

"If your mother was a witch then there is a good chance of it. Some wizards specialize in breeding animals of superior traits." Andromeda said in an off handed manner.

"Though of course every now and then they do crop up on there own. Rather like how a wizard will appear in a family with no known wizarding heritage." She said as she reached out to give Temperance a scratch once Lucas was done.

[Lucas Montgomery]

Lucas gave an affirmative nod. It was a possibility. Out there in the wizarding world could be Temperance's lost brothers or sisters. But he didn't need another mouth to feed here at the school. And this cat came with a curse attached, Merlin knows what the next cat could have attached to it.

"I suppose so. Temperance is just one of those special cats. She's the last real connection I have to my mother," he said with a bit of a sigh.

[Andromeda Cross]

"I take it that yours is not around then." The statement would sound cold but Andromeda didn't know of another way to put it. She knew very little about Lucas and so as far as she knew it could been just as easily true that his mother had run off to join the circus as died.

"Mine always says that people are not the things they own. So I imagine that the real connection you have to your mother is her blood in your veins and the memories you have rather then a cat." Andromeda said this rather coldly as she continued to pet the cat. She didn't know why but there was something about the way Lucas had spoken that irritated her.

[Lucas Montgomery]

Lucas raised an eyebrow at Andromeda's comments. Her statement was kind of cold. Granted he didn't know this girl very well...or at all really. But he almost felt like he was talking to Trall. Thankfully, she wasn't around so he didn't have to endure versions of the same person walking around the common room.

"Well, this cat is a connection. Some very bad wizards wanted my mother dead and wanted me dead," he said standing up and picking up Temperance. "What ever they wanted her dead for, they were willing to do what ever it took to get to me," he said holding Temperance close.

"They put a curse on Temperance and made sure the cat found her way to me," he said closing eyes remembering that horrible day. "It's more than memories, Andromeda."

[Andromeda Cross]

Andromeda looked at Lucas with an unreadable expression for a long moment, her doll like eyes glittering in the firelight.

"If that's how you see it then for you I imagine it is. As it stands though I've spoken out of turn rudely about something I have no understanding of. If you'll excuse me I won't trouble you further with my unpleasant mood." Andromeda did not wait for Lucas permission and stood up, setting her cup and saucer on the table in front of her gently.

Something harsh was bubbling up in the back of her throat but she didn't allow it expression. Weather it was fatigue from her journey to the castle or some odd quality of his her irritation with Lucas had managed to double. She was not about to let such illogical emotions to control her at there whim however.

[Lucas Montgomery]

Lucas watched the pale girl excuse herself and walk away. He sighed and lowered his head. Clearly this girl didn't understand...or didn't care. He wasn't about to make her do either. He set the cat down and flopped back down the couch. It was uncomfortable to be in the same area as the girl, but he wasn't going to move.

Meanwhile, Temperance found her way over to Andromeda and perched herself at the girl's feet. "Merow!" the cat said in an affectionate manner.

[Andromeda Cross]

Andromeda looked at Temperance and a small smile turned up the corner of her lips. She scratched the cat behind the ears for a moment then patted her lap to signal that she had no objection for her to hop up in her lap. She was annoyed with Temperances owner not Temperance.

[Lucas Montgomery]

Temperance gave a bit of purr and then hopped onto the girl's lap. She cocked her head at the girl for a moment and gave a meow. The cat then looked up at the table on which the girl was writing and studying. Temperance immediately hopped up onto the table and started sniffing around her papers. Dangerously close to the ink and quill.

[Andromeda Cross]

Andromeda made an odd whirring noise that was somewhat like a cross between a tongue roll and a purr to distract Temperance while she reached across to remove her quill and put the stopper in the ink bottle. With it rendered safe she took the quill in hand and holding it with the nib in her grasp she trailed the end of it along the table.

Her papers were dry so she wasn't concerned about Temperance smearing anything and she was a bit board with her assignment. She'd wanted a pet of her own but had not been well enough to have one for quite some time.