Samantha's Bakery

Cass inspected the pieces from the side of Indi.
"HAHAAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
Design flaw or what. "Indiana, both sides are heads! So both sneezed - and exploded.
"That was too cool."
She'd have to tell Dixie about this- things she wasn't even near, and totally non vegetable, no less, blowing up!
It seemed that Pic'n'Mix had passed on her curse to Cass.

Samantha’s worried expression cleared at Cass’ comment. She laughed, understanding what could have happened. “This usually happens when two charms get mixed up. This little guy must have both the sneezing and exploding action in him,” she explained.

“And no, it can’t be reformed and recut, that’s why making them is tricky,” she answered the boy.

Turning to the last of the dough, she slowly cut out one shivering newts, two galloping ones and one that combusted upon being liberated. Having finished all the dough, she waited to see how her assistants would catch the animated pastry.

Indiana used his right hand like a large unknown beast to "pursue" one of the galloping newts before luring it into a large jar that he held with his left hand at the edge of the table. He then turned to repeat the procedure with the other galloping newt, barely managing to catch it in the jar as it leap off the edge of the table.

"Close one." the youth muttered, placing the jar aside before taking a smaller jar and turning his attention to the newt undergoing combustive explosion before bringing the receptacle down the moment it fully reformed itself.

"Indiana's sure got some skill there. You considered trying out for Quidditch? I don't think I'll be allowed to try for keeper- I forgot to put my name up for Quidditch lessons. Great," Cass blew her hair out of her face.
"And Sam, I swear, if you want to have a bakery- seriously, I'll be the patron."

As he levitated the shivering newt and placed it into the jar, Indiana shook his head. "Unfortunately, I was too late to sign up for flying lessons this year and I never thought about trying for Quidditch. I still have yet to get a good feel for the sport. Maybe after I do get familiar with it, I might try out for Chaser."

Indiana then turned to Samantha. "So what is the next step now?"

“I took flying lessons but I’m not any good at them yet. It doesn’t help that the only position I feel comfortable in is side saddle, which tends to be… odd,” the girl admitted.

“And the next step,” she answered the boy who had just managed to catch the last of the critters “is to stick them into the greased baking tray and pop them in the oven. I’ll do that part myself.”

Reaching for the jar of somersaulting newts, she started picking them out slowly and sticking them firmly on the tray, exactly four and a half centimeters apart.

“I do have a bakery back home…” she added quietly to Cass.

"Side saddle is a new one," she beamed. "I'd love to see you doing that. That sounds so funny."
Cass got a hold of her rag again, and cleaned up the mess the two-faced Newt had made.
"You do? Wow. So it's really in the family? You'll have to come to my house in the school breaks. It'd be awesome."

Samantha just continued her work. She didn’t like the idea of school breaks. If it was allowed, she would have stayed over the break too but she knew that wasn’t possible. Cass was being generous but Samantha had no control over her own time. Her aunt could call her back anytime. The witch tried not to think of that as she worked.

"We have a massive pantry," she boasted, hoping this would sway Samantha into voicing her thoughts, "I'm mostly in there, hiding from-eh, family- or looking for Bradley, but it's well stocked. Mum said I should bring someone around with knowledge of womanly roles. Thank god she was joking. I'd've gone spare if she had that attitude for real. Besides, how can you assign a gender to a job? It's stupid."
Leaping Lizards! Look at them all. All finished. She grinned oddly as she always did as she fufilled a job.

“That sounds nice,” the girl replied vaguely as Cass described her pantry, her family, her… everything. Samantha sometimes wondered how the girl could reveal so much information about herself. She also secretly admired her for it. No second guessing yourself when you’re Cass Marling.

“Yes, almost done,” she nodded slicking the last newt in place. “There,” she said with satisfaction at the rows of dough newts on three trays. Now all she had to do was pop them in the oven to bake.

After watching Samantha handle the captured newts and placing them in the oven, Indiana took off the cooking gloves and tossed them in the trash before leaning against the counter. Catching newts that were performing random movements had been a bit taxing such that he stretched and flexed his fingers.

Indiana then looked at the rectangular plane of glass that he had used to catching the airborne bouncing newts earlier before picking it up and placing it aside, asking the Room of Requirement to take the glass plane away.

After placing the trays carefully in the oven and shutting them in to bake, Samantha turned to see the Hufflepuff boy remove his gloves and reach fro the glass things he’d used.

“Sorry, but do you mind explaining what charm you used to make them stick to the glass?” the girl asked. It could prove to be handy in the future, especially if she planned to bake more animated critters.

"It wasn't a charm. I asked the Room of Requirement to provide a glass plane that was heavily charged with static electricity. The charge was apparently strong enough to attract the more polar molecules that were in those bouncing newts such as the flour and salt, keeping them stuck to the glass for some time when they made contact. If you rub silk or wool real hard on the glass, it should develop a strong electrical charge." Indiana replied.

“Is an “electrical charge” like magic?..” the girl question puzzled. She had never heard of such a thing but unless she was much mistaken (a huge possibility), the boy seemed to be describing some sort of energy. The witches knowledge on electivity was only limited to the books she’d read and it appeared to be Muggle magic from what she understood.

"Electrical charge is more of a phenomena and the cause is likely due to tiny particles too tiny to see with the unaided eye: protons and electrons. If you read into Muggle chemistry, they'll talk in detail about them and their role among atoms." Indiana replied after pondering the question. "Electrical charge is a polar force that can consist of either a positive or negative charge. Positive charges attract negative charges and vice-versa. Similar charges repel away from each other. Static electricity is a build-up of that electric charge on the surface of an object such as that glass plane."

Samantha tried not to feel stupid at the lengthy explanation the boy provided. She had never felt this out of the loop even in class.

“Al-alright,” said the girl hesitantly. She vowed to get a book out of the library to read up more on the subject. Walking back to the counter where the boy was leaning, she started tidying up.

"Y' need any help there, Samantha?" asked Cass from across the room. If she was being honest she'd gone over this side more times than she could count. It looked spotless, which made Cass grin. She wasn't good at making things tidy, but today proved to be an exception.

“No thank you,” the girl replied quietly. The place was almost clean anyway. Thanks to Cass and her own efforts it was almost passable, almost. She proceeded methodically, working from left to right.

“Oh, you can help me stow these away,” she said, pointing to some butter and tin foil. “The butter goes in the larder beside the cream, and the tin foil goes in the bottom drawer there.”

"Does the Room of Requirement store these then? I suppose that because of Gamp's five laws that you got the food from the kitchen? It rocks you can keep the food her though."
Cass nodded and placed the foil in the draw and the butter in the pantry.
"That it? You staying in here? You're always welcome at the Lake. But you know that. I'm just reminding," she grinned.
"It's been a pleasure, as always Sam."

“Actually, I’ve been trying to figure out the loophole in Gamp’s Law but I’ve been so busy lately…” the witch shrugged.

“And thanks for all your help, Cass. I’ll just tin this lot when they’re done and owl them of to a couple of people. And then I might head down to the lake…” the girl said hesitantly. She not only didn’t know how to swim but so much water unnerved her.

Cass bowed, "Nah, it was fun- got to spend some time with you, y'see," she winked.

"Don't forget about that discount on that swimming lesson," she added. "It expires with the end of Hogwarts!"

"Gamp's Law." Indiana whispered to himself, thinking about the answers that Professor Mitchell had forwarded to him in response to his questions during remedial Transfiguration. He had yet to figure out the Room of Requirement's capabilities in bypassing such regulations.

"Teaching Samantha on how to swim, Cass?" Indiana asked amid hearing the Ravenclaw's last sentence.

Cass spun around to see Indiana. "Teaching Samantha on how to swim?"
"Yeah," she grinned widely, "I'm going all out to get her to learn the ways of the world- just in case she's marooned on a desert island and stuff. All that jazz."

Cass threw Indiana a towel to put in the sink. She knew the Room of Requirement would have cleaned anything either way but it did well to be proper about it.

Samantha blushed as Indiana repeated Cass’ words. For a moment, she wished Cass hadn’t let that slip. She supposed everyone in her year must know how to at least swim a little.

To Cass, she barely managed a “T-thanks, I’ll come down when I have some free time…” before lowering her had and engaging in some mundane task.

"Brill!" beamed Cass, happy that Sam was still interested, "I've somehow grabbed hold of a purple muggle float that you can keep hold of if you're a little out of your comfort zone when we're practicing, and all."
Cass looked at her watch. "Time's flown again- I'd better get my bag from my dorm. See you two!"