DROWN • Sirius Black

Midnight Cravings and Unclear Motives

As soon as we entered the kitchen quarters Sirius made himself quite comfortable and settled on a stool beside the counter.

He then demanded to no one in particular, "I want cheese, chocolate and pickles, in that precise order."

The poor house-elves that were still present at this ungodly hour looked at him bewildered.

Esme rolled her eyes and scoffed at his poor conduct, "Oh please, Black, we're drunk not barbarians," she exclaimed.

Sirius sighed heavily, "well what do you suggest, Esmeralda?" He inquired.

Esme cringed at the sound of her full name but chose to remain silent. Sirius wanted a reaction from her and she was too acute and stubborn to give it.

Instead she faced a fellow house-elf and said, "pardon his behavior for me, Tibby, I'll take over from here." The house-elf was thankful to be dismissed in the early hours of the morning and scurried off.

Sirius looked slightly perplexed at this interaction. Esme then began to gather her ingredients and placed a pan over the lit stove. She soon started cracking eggs into a bowl and stirring in the other ingredients.

"Huh," Sirius remarked, "who knew the Slytherin queen could cook? I thought your countless servants took care of that."

Esme was now cutting strawberries on a board with a swift dexterity. "They do," she replied, "but gastronomy is similar to potioneering, you just work with different ingredients."

Sirius nodded and simply watched her work, completely mesmerized by how Esme did not even require a recipe at hand. She moved with fluidity, each action seemed like it had been done a thousand times before and at this point she could simply rely on her muscle memory.

Soon the kitchen was enveloped with a sweet and irresistible aroma of what Sirius could only describe as a combination of vanilla, caramelized sugar, and melted butter.

Finally Esme plated the dish in an elegant fashion and slid it to Sirius while handing him a fork and a knife.

Sirius recognized the dish to be a classic chocolate crepe, a recipe that Esme must have acquired from her French relatives.

When he cut into the delicate dough with his knife warm chocolate oozed out. "You are a goddess," he declared pointing his fork at her.

"You're going to regret saying that in a few hours time," Esme said as she watched him devour the first bite.

He simply moaned at the explosion of flavor occurring in his mouth. "You know they say the way to a man's heart is through his stomach right?"

Esme could not resist rolling her eyes at his comment as she began to gather her materials and return them to their rightful places. "I beg to differ," she replied, "the way into a man's heart is though what's under his pants."

Sirius raised his eyebrows at this and nearly choked on his food. "Clearly, you have some expertise in that area," he remarked.

Esme scoffed, "speak for yourself, the girls were nearly throwing themselves at you today, it was truly a tragic sight to witness."

Sirius shook his head in response, "Not as many as the blokes who were bluntly undressing you with their eyes."

Esme stole a strawberry from Sirius's plate and bit into it, then replied, "not like they stand a chance anyway,"

Sirius put down his utensils, now amused, "so what? You have standards?"

"Did you forget which house I reign, Black?"