welcome to chimera!

[Carling Whisp]

The blanket was arranged just so on the stone floor of the empty room, cushioning and warming it, and Carling set about laying down plates and silverware on top of it to prepare for her picnic with Kenny. If it were still earlier in the year, September maybe, the picnic would have taken place outside, under a nice tree or perhaps by the lake, but as it was it was November and far too chilly to stay outside for too long. So Carling had simply rearranged the setting a little, picking a room just off from the kitchens and gathering up the blanket she had proudly (and sloppily) knit. The rest of the process was the same: conjuring up a wicker basket (you couldn't have a picnic without one, after all) and nipping off to the kitchens for some treats, something Beardsley had taught her about in her first year. Every Whisp should know how, he'd said.

Hogwarts had been strange since Beardsley had left. It had been years since all of the siblings had been together all of the time, and Carling had quite enjoyed the three years they'd had of it at Hogwarts. Being without a sibling again felt strange, but just as Beardsley's absence had the first time, it drove Carling to be closer with her other siblings. Seeing and being with Kennilworthy was occasionally easier said than done, though. She saw him plenty - he often helped her with homework and he had joined the Frog Choir this year - but the fact still remained that he was in a different house. Carling was glad that Kenny was a Gryffindor like their grandfather, like he'd always wanted to be, and she wouldn't dream of being in a house other than Hufflepuff, but it would've been nice to see him around the Common Room or in the dormitories like she could with Maitaine, like she had with Beardsley.

She'd settled, instead, for simply arranging particular times for the two of them to sit down and catch up or simply chat or even read (well, Kenny might read, but Carling would more often doodle or daydream) if it came to it. "Family time" she'd dubbed it, not a particularly clever name, but something that she could call out through the halls between classes easily enough or scrawl on a parchment with a time and place and send it off with an owl. May was also often invited, but on this occasion Carling and Kenny had opted to picnic alone and Carling was more than a little concerned that Dawlish was going to come up in conversation again. Still, she hoped for only the best as she finished setting the silverware, reaching into the basket to bring out the snacks she'd gathered with help from the house elves.

[Kennilworthy Whisp]

Perhaps just as enthusiastic as Carling, at least where 'family time' was concerned, he'd still had a terrible time trying to push it into his schedule this year. An excess of classes and clubs had made their picnic impossible earlier in the year, and realizing that it was now too cold to do it properly had been just the reality check Kennilworthy had needed. Guilty and missing his sister then, and having a lot to talk to her about besides, he had shouldered his bag after Charms with their meeting on his mind; most older brothers might have been dreading, but, of course, he was not most older brothers.

Truthfully quite disappointed that it wasn't the three of them instead, although he understood that prefecture took up a fair amount of Maitaine's time, he had tried to force himself to just be pleased that he was seeing one sister. Anyway, it was more difficult to see Carling sometimes, considering how incredibly different their circles of friends were - and, of course, their house and age difference. He'd managed to push the let-down aside by the time he'd descended the first couple flights of stairs mindlessly, and was only feeling quite grateful. That she'd agreed to prepare only endeared him further, and he was downright grinning by the time his steps echoed in the high-ceilinged, torchlit dungeon corridor.

"Oh, look at this!" Upon seeing the little picnic she'd managed, his grin only widened and he distractedly shrugged his heavy, obviously mended and worn bag to the ground beside him. Every bit of it looked excellent, right down to the wicker basket that he thought would have delighted their mother, and he didn't hesitate long before he dropped down beside her and folded up knobbly knees a little awkwardly and clumsily. "This is great, Carling - thanks. How has your day been?" he asked, genuinely friendly in how he said it and yet feeling that familiar nosiness building - the sort he only ever really got concerning his younger sisters.

[Carling Whisp]

Carling had nearly finished setting-up when she heard Kenny come in the room behind her, and she stood up straight and spun around to greet him, giving him the sort of beaming smile she reserved only for family. She spread her arms out in front of the makeshift picnic, waving her hands for presentation. "Indoor picnic!" she exclaimed by way of explanation. "Like we used to on rainy days, I thought we could just move it inside." Still grinning, she stepped aside to let him pass and then dropped back down to the blanket, sitting cross-legged and pulling out the last sandwich, holding it out to him so they could get started.

She reached across the picnic to grab at the napkins, spreading one across her own lap and setting the other by Kenny, shrugging happily before she answered. "Pretty good! Professor Binns gave me an E on the essay you helped me with, though I expect his expectations were fairly easily exceeded after I got a P last time," she added brightly, despite the thoughtful edge the second-half of her statement took on. She was used to over-sharing when it came to Kenny, anyway - he always asked, always wanted to know, and she'd been conditioned for years now to simply be upfront about it all. It didn't hurt that she'd never been particularly good at keeping secrets.

"How's your day?" she asked instead, perking up and reaching for her own sandwich to nibble on. "Have you been practicing your announcer voice for the Quidditch games?" she asked genuinely.

[Kennilworthy Whisp]

"Oh golly, I almost forgot about those," he said, though his face had lit up at the memory. The thought left him feeling homesick too, though he kept that to himself; Carling was more sensitive to it than he was, he thought, and he didn't want to leave her frowning when they were supposed to be having 'family time'. He took the sandwich gratefully, peeling back the top layer of bread and finding himself pleased - it wasn't often that people remembered to accommodate his odd diet, and to be with someone who actually shared it was a wonderful feeling.

Laughing aloud at the joke, though it was delayed because he'd been distractedly thinking that he would compliment her on the sandwiches when she was done speaking, he shook his head. "Ah, give yourself some credit," he urged, bony legs folding under him as he adjusted his spectacles. "It was mostly you and the textbook. And hey - did the house elves make this, or did you? It looks great," he commented, and then took a bite before she could answer.

[Carling Whisp]

Carling smiled, pleased, when Kenny brightened at the reminder of the picnics, and shrugged modestly. The memories of being home with all of her siblings, with her mum and grandparents were some of her happiest and favorites. Hogwarts was fun and wonderful and brilliant, but Kenny was right. Out of all the Whisps, Carling was the most susceptible to homesickness, the one who most ached for home and who longed most for them all to be together again. She was the youngest, the baby, and less ready or willing or excited to be on her own than any of the others. She wasn't ready for the others to be on their own, either. These meetings made nice substitutes, though. She knew she couldn't have life at home with them forever, and inventing a home away from home would do in a pinch.

As Kenny checked under the top slice of bread to survey the ingredients, Carling felt a certain surge of pride. Not in having remembered his special diet, of course not - it wasn't something to forget or even give any thought to when she shared it - but in having made the sandwiches herself. Grilled cheese with lettuce and tomatoes and she hadn't asked the house elves for help. Well, they'd gotten the crisps for her, and they'd provided her with all the ingredients of course, but she'd used a new charm she'd learned to brown the bread and melt the cheese. She shrugged humbly as he admired the work she'd put into them and beamed. "I made them!" she answered brightly, deciding the assistance from the house elves wasn't especially worth mentioning. "I put extra tomatoes on yours," she added, wrinkling her nose affectionately. "Mum said she's worried you're not eating right if you're running around with Dangerous."

[Kennilworthy Whisp]

Just as pleased with the taste as the look of it, again reflecting how glad he was of their shared diet, he couldn't help grinning that she'd remembered his fondness for tomatoes. Her comment about Dangerous had Kennilworthy snorting outright though, and he gave a nod as he settled back. "Well, this is excellent," he told her, as though it had made up for any perceived poorness in his diet lately. "Dangerous had me running laps with him the other morning - did I tell you?" he said rather suddenly, if only because he thought the image might amuse her. Truthfully, it was quite funny - in retrospect, anyway. "I think I nearly went into a fit," he concluded quite seriously, though he laughed a moment later.

[Carling Whisp]

Carling grinned at her brother as he laughed, not recognizing the joke but glad he was enjoying himself. She had always liked being able to make him laugh and, while someone else laughing at something she'd said that she hadn't meant to be funny might upset him, Kenny doing so didn't bother her. He was her brother, after all, and one she didn't see as often as she liked. She'd take whatever interaction with him she could get, teasing or not, especially knowing that he never meant to make fun of her. (Well, not including those times with Beardsley when they were younger, but those were long forgotten.)

The grin changed briefly into a look of surprise before it found its way back into Carling's expression and she took her own turn to laugh this time, shaking her head in response. "You didn't! Was it awful?" She wrinkled her nose again at the thought of Kenny being dragged around the lake by big Dai, but laughed once more. "Do I have to write Mum about Dai after all?" she teased, mock-stern. "Do I need to chat with him myself?"