"Is he okay?" Maryrose asked as Jasper appeared in the Great Hall again.
Jasper nodded. "He is just nervous about exams, you know him." Jasper was not going to tell them the whole story, it did not feel like his place, it wasn't his place. "He just wants something small, okay?"
Penelope nodded. "I think we should bake him a cake."
Jasper agreed. "That is exactly why I grabbed this map of Hogwarts." He held it up for the others to see. "But it doesn't label the kitchens anywhere."
Jonathan made a face. "Not a very good map then."
Dorothy was whispering into Venom's ear. Did it even have an ear? Dorothy turned to look at the group of first years. "Venom says it sees Peter Pettigrew come from this direction." She pointed to a corridor right near the Hufflepuff common room that was shown on the map. "And he usually has lots of food. We should go ask him."
Gifford said, "Dorothy, Venom can't speak–"
"And how do you know that?" Dorothy challenged. "Do you speak teacup spider?"
Gifford looked nervous, and Marty said, "Just go with it, Gifford. Venom is very smart. It tries to talk to us all the time. We just have not picked up on understanding what it says yet."
They all just agreed, and turned to look toward the Gryffindor table to see if they could spot Peter Pettigrew, and Penelope told Dorothy, "Remember to not scare people, it was an honest question."
"Yes, but I know Venom best, I made it! I am its mother."
"Never question an angry mother." Jasper said. "Ever."
They decided to send Penelope, and Jasper to the Gryffindor table. The two walked over, and Jasper tapped Peter on the shoulder. Peter turned back. "Oh – um hi?" He asked, a bit confused.
"Hello, Peter." Penelope said. "We were wondering if you knew the entrance to the kitchens? We got word that you knew your way there."
Peter looked hesitant, and looked to his other three friends, James, Sirius, and Remus who were looking at Jasper, and Penelope. "Hi, James!" Jasper exclaimed.
James nodded. "What's up Odair?"
"We - we were wondering if you knew the entrance to the kitchens?" Jasper asked. "Apparently Peter gets food from there."
James said, "Yeah he usually gets the food, I thought you had to sneak in?" He looked at Peter for confirmation.
"Of course, you have to sneak in." Peter said, flushing. "It was pretty hard to find in the first place."
"Be easy for them then." Sirius snorted looking at Jasper, and Penelope.
Remus shook his head. "Really?" Sirius just grinned.
"Oh, Odair?" James asked. "Is it true you caught Goldsparks in flying?"
"Oh – uh, yeah."
James nodded. "Good job. That's pretty impressive."
Jasper gasped. "Really?" James nodded, running a hand through his own hair, making it even messier than it already was. "Wow, thanks James."
Penelope looked at the four Gryffindor boys, waiting for an answer. They were here about the kitchens, not quidditch, and flying talk. "So, do you know the entrance to the kitchens or not? We are trying to get a cake for our best friend's birthday."
"Well, if Peter is not going to tell you," James started, making Peter protest. "Billius will know. He provides for the Gryffindor parties."
"Really?" Jasper asked. "James nodded. "Great! Thanks James!"
James smiled. "No problem Odair, hope your friend has a good birthday." Penelope, and Jasper started to walk toward the older Gryffindors. They overheard James saying to Peter, "What? It is someone's birthday, they need a cake!"
Jasper, and Penelope got the information they needed from Billius Weasley. They apparently had to tickle the pear to get into the kitchens. It was a portrait down near the Hufflepuff common room. Penelope, and Jasper met up with the others by that corridor, and Jasper said, "James is so nice, telling us how to get there."
"Well, the kitchens aren't just for him." Jonathan said. "And it was Weasley who told us how to get there in the end."
"I know." Jasper said. "But it was nice of him to lead us to him. I don't understand why Lily hates him, he is so nice! And he is really good at quidditch. You know he said I did a good job at flying?" Jasper clapped his hands. "That's so exciting! I want to be just like him."
Jonathan, and Gifford stared at each other. Jasper loved talking about James, and how great he was.
The group of them finally found the painting of the bowl of fruit. "So we just tickle it?" Maryrose asked as she approached the picture, and touched the pear. She started to wiggle her fingers until it giggled so hard it fell out of the bowl, and the painting opened to reveal the kitchen.
"Wow..." Jasper breathed.
The group of Hufflepuff stepped in slowly. Jasper looked around at all the appliances, and all the food cooking. There was so much food! Several house elves were running around to different stations getting the food cooked, and ready for supper tonight. A house elf approached them. "I is Jumpy misses, and misters, is there a problem with food?"
Marty shook her head. "No, nothing is wrong. We were just wondering if we could...use the kitchens..."
"To bake a cake for someone!" Penelope finished.
"Would you like help?" Jumpy asked.
"No thank you, we can do it ourselves." Jasper said.
Jumpy nodded, snapped her fingers, and the first year Hufflepuffs got transported to a room that was a mini kitchen. "Woah." Jasper said, dizzy from the sudden movement.
"This is so cool!" Penelope exclaimed once she had regained her bearings.
"Uh, one problem." Jonathan said, blinking really fast to stop his head from spinning. "We don't know how to bake."
"I do." Jasper, Maryrose, Penelope, and Marty said in unison.
"Oh." Jonathan said, his head now clear. "Well, good."
"Although my mum always helps me." Penelope said. "She deals with the oven."
"Yeah, my dad deals with that stuff." Marty said.
"No problem." Jasper said. "I know how to use it."
Maryrose asked, "Your parents allow you near hot appliances?"
"Yep." Jasper said getting a bowl. "I mean – they are usually there to supervise me of course–"
"DOROTHY NO!" Penelope shouted.
Jasper turned around quickly, and saw that Dorothy was getting her hands on a bunch of sharp knives. Penelope took the two she had in her hands from her. "We need to be careful." Penelope said as she placed them back on the counter, carefully.
Gifford grabbed a cookbook, and rifled through it until he had gotten to a section on cakes. "What kind of cake do you think Harry would like?"
"He likes cinnamon." Jasper said, grabbing other cooking utensils, while Maryrose got the basic ingredients they would need for the cake. Penelope, and Marty had their eyes on Dorothy to be sure she behaved.
Gifford flipped through a few more pages, and then laid the book out on the table. "Cinnamon cake." He read out.
Jasper looked over the recipe. "Sounds good."
Maryrose, and Jonathan gathered the rest of the ingredients, while the others got all the other baking tools they would need.
"Alright." Jonathan said, looking over all the ingredients in front of them. "What the heck do we do now?"
"First we put two cups of flour into the bowl." Jasper said, opening the flour as he scooped two cups into a big bowl. They decided to make the process quicker, one group would do the dry ingredients, and the other group would do the wet ingredients. "And now the baking powder." He put in one teaspoon.
"Can we add more vanilla?" Dorothy asked from where she was with Penelope, and Maryrose.
Jasper shook his head as he heard that. "Baking is a science, if you add too much it will mess up the whole recipe."
Penelope nodded. "He is right.
"Don't forget the eggs." Jasper told them.
Dorothy threw an egg into the bowl, making the yellow yolk mix with the melted butter, and vanilla, shells, and all.
"Well into the rubbish bin, it goes." Maryrose murmured.
Gifford threw the batch in the bin, as Jasper said, "Dorothy, you need to crack the egg in a separate bowl first, just the yellow part."
Marty said, "I'll help her."
Once they were back to where they originally were, they decided to all work together. Jasper added the milk, and Maryrose started to preheat the oven. They each took turns adding an ingredient, and Jasper finally added the cinnamon.
"Shouldn't you add more cinnamon?" Gifford asked.
"No, cinnamon is really strong, it will be enough." Marty said.
"Dorothy please don't use Venom as a measuring cup." Maryrose said as Dorothy was going to use Venom to put in more baking power even though they already had enough.
"Venom just wants to help." Dorothy said.
"I appreciate it." Jasper said, mixing. Venom hopped on his head. Jasper's eyes widened. "Dorothy please get it off my head."
Dorothy lifted Venom off Jasper's head. "It likes you." She then put Venom on her own head. She did this a lot, and Jasper was not sure if he would ever get used to it.
Gifford poured the batter into a pan, and Jasper put on a pair of oven mitts, and placed it in the now hot oven.
"So now what?" Jonathan asked.
"We would usually make the icing, but Penelope, and Maryrose did that." Jasper said. "So now we wait until it is ready."
Marty piped up, "I'll play some music." She ran out of the kitchens, and a few minutes later she came back with her toad, Sir Fredrick Pennington the 4th. "We have been practising." She put down Sir Fredrick Pennington the 4th on the counter. "Ready?" The toad nodded.
The other Hufflepuffs watched as Marty started to conduct Sir Fredrick Pennington the 4th, and to their surprise, the toad started to ribbit a tune. Marty clapped. "Great job!!"
Venom hopped off Dorothy's head, and started to do a little dance alongside Sir Fredrick Pennington the 4th.
Jasper stared at this scene, disbelieving. He wished he had a camera, but to his surprise, Maryrose pulled hers out, and snapped a few photos.
"Aw, good job Venom!" Dorothy exclaimed.
Venom scuttled across the countertop, and hopped into the flour. "What is it doing?" Jonathan asked, looking in the bag of flour. All of a sudden Venom flicked some flour onto Jonathan's face. "Hey!" He exclaimed, backing away, trying to get it out of his eyes.
Gifford laughed as Venom scuttled away. Jonathan then scooped up some flour, and threw some at Gifford. "Take that!"
Gifford grabbed an egg, and threw it at Jonathan's face, and then Jonathan dumped the bag of flour on Gifford, making some get on Penelope, and...
"FOOD FIGHT!" Dorothy yelled.
They all started throwing ingredients at each other. Jasper got covered in flour by Maryrose, and Maryrose got sugar in her hair. Marty threw an egg at Dorothy, making Dorothy make Venom start throwing cinnamon everywhere. Penelope threw a box of baking powder at the twins. Gifford threw a tomato that was lying on one of the counters toward Jonathan who was already covered in flour due to Jasper.
All of a sudden the door opened, and they heard, "They are in here – OH!" Jumpy let out a shriek.
The Hufflepuffs stopped their food fight, and turned to see a bewildered looking Jumpy, and Harry...
Covered in cinnamon.
They all turned to Venom, who had been throwing cinnamon, and Venom looked very ashamed.
"Is this what you were up to?" Harry asked, looking at the complete mess, and the state of his dormmates.
"Well, we were baking something." Jasper said, wiping some of the flour off his face. "And we kinda got in a–"
"Food fight?" Harry asked. "I can see that." He looked down at his clothes which were covered in cinnamon. "You know, I like cinnamon, but not this much."
"Sorry..." The Hufflepuffs murmured.
Harry just laughed, and said, "It's okay. I'll get you back." He looked around, and grabbed a container of sprinkles that was on one of the counters.
He took out his wand, Jumpy looked at him warily. "What is you doing mister-"
Harry shouted a spell, which the sprinkles go all over the other Hufflepuffs, and whatever spell he did, made them stick to them. Harry laughed. "Revenge."
"That's it!" Jumpy squeaked. "All of you out!" Jumpy shooed the Hufflepuffs out of the room, and the kitchen entirely. "I will finish what you were doing." Jumpy shook her head. She snapped her fingers, cleaning the mess up that was in the other room, and cleaning the Hufflepuffs. "Out, out!" She slammed the portrait door.
All the Hufflepuffs stared at each other. "We - we - we really made a house elf angry." Jonathan said.
"Next time we won't start a food fight." Marty said, petting Sir Fredrick Pennington the 4th, who was looking perturbed.
Harry laughed. "I don't think we will be allowed in the kitchens anymore."
"You're the one who exploded the sprinkles." Dorothy pointed out.
"And it was your teacup spider that dumped me in cinnamon." Harry pointed out.
Venom looked apologetic.
"I forgive you Venom." Harry patted its head. Venom wasn't that bad. Harry thought. Just misunderstood.
They headed back to the Hufflepuff common room laughing about the food fight. Cara looked up from where she was looking over her notes. "What are you laughing about?"
"We may have made the house elves angry at us." Maryrose said slowly.
"We may have started a food fight." Gifford said.
"Harry might have exploded a bucket of sprinkles." Jasper told her.
Cara looked at the eight of them. "You made a house elf mad at you?" She shook her head. All the house elves she had met were hard to anger, but then again, you really shouldn't mess with their kitchen "Well, Happy Birthday you set a record."
Later, when they were all in the boys' dorm eating the cake, Jumpy snapped in. Jumpy had said that she would make the cakes from now on. The Hufflepuffs did then apologise for the mess they had made, and Jumpy disapparated away.
"Thanks guys." Harry said, taking a bite of the cake they made. "It's been a good day."
"I'm glad." Maryrose said. "You were very stressed this morning."
"Yeah sorry." Harry said, sighing. "I just...get really nervous about school."
"Well, don't worry." Penelope said. "You'll do great, you are very smart."
Harry smiled, as Jasper's words came to him. Everyone thinks you're smart, you are the only one who doesn't. "Thanks."
Gifford was looking at a textbook. "What is seeance?"
Harry looked over to see what he was holding. It was a science textbook. His science textbook. Oh no, he must have forgotten to put it away. "Um, you mean science?"
"Yes." Gifford said, opening the book, and starting to read it.
"Well..." Harry started. "It is a muggle subject that focuses on chemicals or ecosystems or space or–"
"What is matter?" Jonathan asked, looking at the textbook over Gifford's shoulder.
Harry looked at each of the twins, confused. How did they not know what matter was? "Matter is any substance that has mass that takes up space by having volume."
The twins, Dorothy, Maryrose, and Marty stared at him confused. "Huh?" Dorothy asked.
"Matter is anything." Harry told them.
"What is mass?" Jonathan asked.
"What is volume?" Marty asked who had taken the textbook from the twins.
"Didn't you learn that in school?" Harry asked.
"No." Gifford said. "We didn't go to a muggle school."
"But - but that is kid stuff." Harry said.
"Maybe to you." Penelope said. "But they have no muggle education at all."
"Yeah, it isn't their fault they were not taught it." Jasper said pointedly.
"Yes...of course it isn't their fault." Harry said, quietly, knowing what Jasper was saying.
"Can you teach us?" Maryrose asked. "You, Penelope, and Jasper know much more about muggle subjects than us."
"Well – yeah, if you want!" Harry said, suddenly quite excited at the prospect of teaching them.
"Yay!" Marty exclaimed. "How exciting."
After they were done discussing the prospects of getting a muggle education, the girls left, and the boys started to get ready for bed. Once they were all ready, Jasper went over to Harry who was sitting on his bed, a piece of parchment on his lap. "So, did you have a good birthday?"
Harry nodded. "I did...and I kind of get what you were saying...earlier." Jasper looked over. "It really isn't my fault I was not taught correctly, some people were not even taught at all. It is kind of weird to me that so many purebloods aren't taught the basics. I thought everyone was. I thought everyone knew."
Jasper had to agree there. Why wasn't there a school for wizards at younger ages? Not even to teach them magic, just to teach them the basics of what muggles were taught at those ages as well. Jasper guessed it depended on the parents. "Well, now they will know." Jasper told him. "Because you'll be teaching them."
Harry held up the piece of parchment he had been writing on. "I'm working on a list of things to teach them." Harry pointed to the science category. "I think we should start with ecosystems, plants, animals, that area of science first as I think that would be the easiest for them to understand, and for social studies..." He pointed to the social studies category. "I think maybe looking at different communities or maybe maps – like learning where everything is..."
"Maps were a pain." Jasper said, remembering how much he had to memorise. "But they may enjoy it. Do you have maps for them?"
"I'll find a way to get a few." Harry said. "I am a Hufflepuff after all."
Jasper laughed. "I think you would make a good teacher. You're planning things for them to do, and everything! Will they get a final project?"
"We'll see how long their love for muggle schooling goes for first." Harry said.
Jasper laughed. "Should we make bets?"
Harry chuckled, but he did like this idea. He thought going into Hogwarts he was behind, and even though he was, it was not his fault. It depended if you were taught or not – taught correctly, and now people his age were asking for his help in the stuff he thought everyone knew. It was not their fault they didn't know this stuff as they were never taught it, and it was not his fault that he was not taught for two years. It wasn't his fault he was not given the proper resources he needed to succeed, it was the teachers.
So no, he was not dumb, he just needed to learn the things he was never taught, and now he would be helping his friends by teaching them like any proper teacher should.