Comfort Snatcher, [Open]

[Aloysius Mavrick Calipso]

All was quiet that night as Aloysius fell asleep. The sounds of crickets and cicadas drifted softly into the tent on a light breeze. The moon wafted in and out of the clouds, casting it's silvery light down onto the tents of sleeping students and teachers. If one listened very, very closely they might hear the waves lapping at the shoreline. It was a wonderful night.

It was no wonder Aloysius couldn't sleep.

She was more accustomed to the sounds of mischievous students making their way rather loudly through the hallways, trying to find somewhere to express their just as noisy affection for each other. Aloysius rolled over to face the canvas of the tent with a sigh. She tried to get comfortable.

'This was never a problem in France,' she thought bitterly, 'Why can't I just sleep? Everyone else is asleep. Why shouldn't I be able to?'

After several more minutes of tossing and turning, the disgruntled witch sat up with a grunt. 'Maybe some cake will help.'

Making sure to be quiet, Aloysius slipped from her bed and tip toed out of the tent, starting towards what she hoped was the kitchen tent.

[Aine Maxtible]

(I'm assuming its the first night of camping. If it's not I'll edit)

Not everybody was asleep as Aine had walked her dog before heading to the kitchen tent as well. This also doubled as a bit of curfew watching but the students mostly seemed quite tired after a long day having fun and doing outdoorsy things. She hadn't seen any of them yet but students being students tried to sneak out. The prefects would also patrol from time to time so there'd always be at least one set of eyes out at this time of night.

She'd been in denim shorts all day and it still didn't feel that cold. The only concession to a bit of night time chill was her slipping on a light white caridgan over her football top. A quite distinctive Glasgow Celtic home shirt which would stand out in most parts of the world. The walking stick and her false leg also marked her out as both feet had short walking boots on.

Aine gave the potions teacher a wave and a smile. She didn't mind doing the patroling as it kept her exercised as well as her little beagle occupied. Saffron gave a little welcoming noise to Aloysius. Not quite a bark but like she was saying hello. Saffron was a smart girl just like her mistress.

"You'll get your sausages later on" she quietly added to her dog bending down slightly to pet her. Saffron had to live on mostly on dry food during this trip since her dog food wouldn't keep in this heat.

[Aloysius Mavrick Calipso]

Aloysius noticed that there were others awake and felt slightly better. At least she would have some company, even if the company was forced. She saw the other professor, (what was her name again?) and waved hesitantly back. Aloysius could never tell if waves were directed at her or someone behind her and, not wanting to look foolish, she acted like she didn't care if she was being waved at or not.

Deciding that it would be rude not to go talk to her fellow educator, Aloysius directed her strides towards the woman and her dog. As she tried to recall the proper way to greet someone everywhere but France, she was reminded of the nights she traveled to the kitchen on her rare sleepless nights at Beauxbattons. She had seen proffessors out there, too, but they mostly ignored her. She sighed and lightly shook her head. They were worthless jerks, anyway.

Upon reaching the pair, Aloysius stopped. "Good evening," she greeted coolly, "What keeps you awake at such an hour?"

[Aine Maxtible]

Techinically Aine was an educator but wasn't on a professors salary. She was the librarian and support staff but she did point students in the right direction if they asked her questions. A friendly smile crossed her face once the wave was returned.

"Hello. I'm still on duty. At least for another hour as somebody still needs to do curfew patrols. While we're in a tented camp its still school time. Then once that hours over I can get to bed" was Aine's warmer reply. While the red hair the Potions mistress had was striking she had seen plenty of stranger styles living in Muggle London before coming to Canada. Anything seemed to work in London.

Saffron looked up at Aloysius curiously but in a friendly way. She didn't have any competition here since there were no other cute pets around. Students couldn't bring pets but it seemed Aine so far was the only staff member who'd brought hers. Being a well behaved dog she would stay by her mistresses side but still seek a little attention as that lead could extend.

"I was also going to the kitchen tent to get Saffron's supper if you want to head that way. She loves cooked ham and chewing on cold sausages as a snack" Aine added. They'd dined at the staff stable before but Aine sometimes ate in her quarters given her uncertain working hours. Missing the normal school dinnertime wasn't unusual but she usually made it for lunch and breakfast.

[Aloysius Mavrick Calipso]

With a sympathetic click of her tongue, Aloysius shook her head. "I don't envy you a bit, mon amis," she said, a french accent slipping in. "Life is not always kind, non?" she smirked lightly, looking sideways at her companion.

"Oh, elle est un très bon chien!" she gushed suddenly, looking down at Saffron, "Je t'aime!"She leaned down to stroke the dog's head. She liked small dogs, but not as much as she liked cats. Cats were so much like her that it wasn't even funny.

Looking up from her ministrations, she said, "Je veux le gâteaux, oui." she nodded, a small smile forming on her face at the thought of delicious dessert food. "Allez viens!"

She didn't really notice that she had slipped back into French as she rambled on, and by the time she had started to walk away she had slipped back into thinking in French. Closing her eyes for a brief moment, she considered trying to make friends with this woman, but found herself doubting greatly her ability to be civil in the morning with no cupcakes or chocolate frogs.

[Aine Maxtible]

Aine was trying to learn French and making steady progress since her arrival not long after the start of the first term. Inteligence did help when trying to tackle something she should have rights been able to do ten years previously. What stopped that happening was her being at Hogwarts when languages were taught at muggle schools. So she missed out that time but now she was working hard to grasp the language.

Bits she understood. Like 'friends', the dog being praised and cakes being mentioned. It was also obvious the potions mistress was in a hurry to get at the forementioned cakes. Knowing the elves they still had some left from dinnertime.

Aine smiled and replied "that sounds like a good plan to me." Saffron wagged her tail cheerfully and gained more of the extending lead to walk beside the other witch for a while. The kitchen tent wasn't far away and they reached it fairly soon.

Just like at the school the elves were only too keen to want to help. Some were away keeping the site clean since there was bound to be inconsiderate people who littered the camp grounds. The ones who were considerate and bagged up their rubbish still needed that collected and around 600 students could generate a lot of everyday rubbish.

So being faced with a welcoming committe of six elves and others working round the stoves and ovens Aine had a warm smile for these little guys. She also needed a sit down as her left leg felt overworked. At least what flesh and blood remained of her left leg felt sore. Her stump ended just below the knee and the false leg took over.

Aine always treated house elves well and politely asked for a couple of cold sausages for Saffron's late supper and a slice of chocolate cake and a mug of lemon tea for herself. She'd left the elves a suppply of her favourite tea bags so they'd have them for this trip.

The elves waited expectantly for Aloysius' order. They loved to serve and it was their reason to exist.

[Aloysius Mavrick Calipso]

Aloysius was civil with House Elves just as she was civil with everyone else; in a slightly passive aggressive way. Sure, she respected the Elves' wonderful ability to make dessert foods, but they could still get in the way.

"Je veux le chocolat gâteaux aussi, sil te plaît." she said with slight intensity. She sat down quickly as the Elves scurried off to fill their orders. "Ça va?" she asked Aine conversationally. Aloysius felt obligated to make idle talk even though she hardly knew who she was.

When she had been in France, no one really talked to her unless they had to. She didn't mind, really; mostly, when someone talked to her they insulted her for being Canadian. She felt her eyes narrow automatically.

[Aine Maxtible]

Again Aine had picked up part of the French. Aloysius was also going for chocolate cake but the French directed to her stumped her this time. Body language and tone helped fill in other details. So she softly replied in her French "Veuillez me pardonner. I didn't comprennent. I'm essayant toujours d'apprendre French"

Some linkage words were English but Aine was reaching the limit of her spoken French so far. The hours of being mostly on her own (apart from Saffron and the occasional NEWT student on a free period browsing the stacks) during classes were paying off. She was learning a little bit more every day as time passed but was far from understanding everything said to her.

The elves scurried away and prepared two plates of chocolate cake and rounded up a couple of dinner sausages for Saffron. Aine had joined the Potions Mistress at the table and she looked a bit pained as she did. It was her stump feeling a bit sore but she could take the leg off once she got to her bed.

Aine smiled after what she said. She believed being friendly with everybody helped make life easier to deal with. Not everybody was friendly back but that was always a possibility in life.

"remerciez le you" was softly directed to the house elves once they returned. She really appreciated what they did and she liked those little guys so much. So she'd stick up for them. Saffron was eager to start chewing her sausages as she lay by her mistresses feet.

[Aloysius Mavrick Calipso]

Aloysius was shocked for a moment. Aine didn't speak French that well and she lived in Canada? That didn't make much sense to her. She had been speaking French...forever.

"Tu ne parle pas? Qu'est que c'est?" she raised her eyebrows in question. "I'm sorry, I didn't realize that I had started speaking French again. I'm still used to teaching in French, so sometimes it is difficult for me to keep speaking English. I will try to remember."

As she got her cake, Aloysius smiled in a wolfish manner. "I love cake. It's one of my favorite foods ever. I just love desserts. If I could spend my time doing anything, it would be eating food like this.

"What about you? What do you like doing?"

[Aine Maxtible]

Again Aine picked up the general meaning of the words but not the full translation. Hopefully that would come if she stayed longer in Canada but she hasn't even been there a year.

"I'm trying hard to learn but I've only been here since October. I'm the one who has to do the fitting in but so far theres been no major problems.

I like cake too but I couldn't spend all my time eating it. It would be a nice job as a food critic I'm sure.

Anyway you know I'm the librarian, I like my dog, love being round books and I work out in the gym in town. I'm sometimes in bars and you'd usually see me on the grounds walking Saffron in the evenings if you were out at the time and she likes being walked too" Aine softly replied. She didn't even sound vaguely Canadian but might pick up the accent if she spent years here. A posibility if she stayed with Jaret and they had a family.

She took a bit of her cake and the elves had kept up the high standards she was getting used to. This chocolate cake was just so heavenly.