this couldn't be more awkward [sav]

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Elizabeth had always been resigned to the fact that she would be married to the person she'd been betrothed to for basically forever. But her father had not been her father, and then he and her mother had died, and she wasn't betrothed anymore. She had a choice. She didn't know what to do with it.

So she sent a letter to Blishwick Matchmaking, and a few weeks later, she received notice that she'd been matched, and would have a date with an unspecified someone baking in the Hogwarts kitchens.

Since she didn't know how to bake, she was certain it would be a disaster. But she wasn't a slob, and Blishwick had a history of success, so she was dressed up in a sundress and cardigan, hair in an elegantly messy updo, and a few minutes early. She tickled the appropriate pear on the painting, and entered the kitchen. For better or for worse, she was the first one there.

@sav

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Sav wasn't sure why he had agreed to be set up on a blind date, a part of him felt a little guilty about it. He had gone out on a date with Jessie recently, a girl that he thought he actually liked, but they had only gone on one date and while it was a great date, besides the party, they hadn't really talked since. He wasn't sure where they stood and hew wasn't the type to sit around a wait. Though if he was in a relationship he would never had agreed to such things, he wasn't his father, who seemingly had no issue sabotaging a relationship or a family... or two.

Mr. MacMillian walked down to the kitchens where he had been told he'd be baking with his date. He had never baked once in his life and he wasn't sure how interesting baking would be, but with good company it probably would at least be entertaining. Dressed in a button up short sleeves shirt and a clean pair of jeans, the Gyrffindor turned the corner and ticked the pear in the portrait and it swung open. He stepped in and let his eyes adjust to the slightly dimmer lighting. He was very familiar with the kitchens, it was actually where he had met Jessie and asked her out, but who he saw when his eyes adjusted made his heart drop; he had been set up on a blind date with his sister?! Not just that, but his half-sister whom he had only recently found out about and was pretending didn't exist. He guessed that was over. "Did you know about this?" he asked with a sigh, wondering if they had been set up on purpose by someone who knew about their situation.

@elizabeth

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"Oh Merlin," she whispered, horrified, when she realised exactly who had walked into the room. Because she knew that face - had watched him periodically across the Great Hall trying to work up the courage to talk to Savtaj Macmillan - her half-brother. The baking would probably be a wash, and she refused to henceforth even consider this a date, but at least she didn't need to worry about summoning the courage to talk to him anymore.

"I definitely did not know about this, and I'd really prefer to assume that Blishwick didn't either." The Divination probably told him they had a deep connection, which was true, but definitely not the kind they were aiming for. "But if you have any idea how to bake, then maybe cookies would help deal with the mutual mortification?" She smiled hopefully, because the only alternative she knew was to turn tail and run.

@sav

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Sav sighed and scratched the back of his head with his hand. A large, overwhelming part of him wanted to turn around and leave. He didn't know if he was ready to do this. He glanced behind him towards the door before a very small voice in the dark corners of him mind told him he had to stay. It convinced him that he would never be ready and he had to do it now or he would have to live with the pressure of avoiding it for his whole life. It was just a conversation, they didn't have to be friends, though, they were siblings, half-siblings, at least. And he felt bad for her and her sister like he felt bad for him, his twin brother and their mother. She had been a victim in all of this too. It wasn't fair of Sav to avoid her, she didn't deserve that. He turned back to face her, "Honestly, I've never made cookies once in my life... but how hard can it be?" he shrugged. "And then at least once they're done, we'll have cookies." he added, Sav never said no to food, and he was sure if they got stuck the house elves would be kind enough to show them.

@elizabeth

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Eliza sighed when Savtaj said he'd never made cookies before. She hoped he was right about it not being too difficult, but she was going to try to not expect too much of their cookies. "I've never baked before either. The house elves did all the cooking, and sweets were pretty rare. But it's just like potions except the end product tastes better, isn't it?" She sounded a little more hesitant, but she wasn't terribly good at potions either. She hadn't taken it into NEWTs for a reason. "So I guess step one should be find the recipe." That she remembered, because it was always how they'd started potions class, after all.

@sav

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Sav felt immediately awkward, but he didn't want to show it, which maybe lead to him trying a little to hard, "right, a recipe." he nodded. he began to open a few cupboards in search of some type of cook book, he was on his 5th cupboard when a house elf tugged on his jeans, Sav looked down to the little guy, who had a book in his hands, "Try this one sir, page 27 has excellent chocolate chip cookies." the elf instructed. Sav nodded and took the book from the elf. He was a frequent visitor in the kitchens, telling his sons how to access the kitchens was maybe one of the only good things his father did. Sav came down here probably 3 times a week, at night after everyone was asleep. He let the elves cook for him and just enjoyed their company. This was where he had met Jessie, on such a night. "Thanks." Sav said to the elf. He carried the book back over to his half-sister and set it on the counter, turning to page 27. "So we need to preheat the over and then mix the dry ingredients... we should locate all of these ingredients..."

@elizabeth

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Savtaj agreed that a recipe seemed to be a good place to start, and immediately started looking for a cookbook. It took a moment, but a house elf handed him a book and he brought it back over. She looked over the recipe and instructions, and frowned, puzzled. "Why does it need two kinds of sugar?" she asked, though she figured Savtaj didn't know the answer either. They'd follow the recipe, of course, but it seemed so particular.

"That seems like a good idea," Eliza agreed as Sav suggested that they should find the ingredients first. "Do you know where the store cupboard is?" she asked him, and then a little louder, she added, "I think we might need a little help," hoping that that would be enough of a cue for one of the houseelves to come and assist them. Preheating the oven could wait until they had someone who knew what they were doing, because Eliza did not want to be responsible for burning down Hogwarts.

@sav

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As they looked over the recipe in the book Sav found himself feeling more and more puzzled. She asked why they needed two different kinds of sugar and he honestly had no idea, he shrugged to her in response. If he were being honest, he didn't even know what the difference was, expect obviously in the color of the two sugars called for. He knew a lot of people found baking enjoyable, and he was sure to them it was, however, it was a little to domestic for him, and obviously for his half-sister as well. "Maybe for color?" he suggested, seeing as one of them was brown sugar and cookies were often brown... weren't they?

He shook his head when she asked if he knew where the store cupboard was. He was a frequent visitor of the kitchens, but he never got under the house elves feet, he always let them do the cooking, they liked doing it after all. He was glad when she mentioned, maybe a little loudly that they needed help. A sweet older elf came to join them and showed them the way to the ingredients. She pointed out what they needed and Sav attempted to carry most of it in his arms back to their work space. The elf then showed them were to find bowls, cookie sheets and utensils and hung around nearby in case she was called for again. "So in a medium bowl we mix the dry ingredients..." he read out loud. He began to wonder if maybe she wanted to talk about something other than cooking, but they did have a task to complete so maybe that would come later. 

@elizabeth

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"Makes sense to me," she said with a shrug, when Sav guessed that the two kinds of sugar were probably for colour. One of the house elves took Eliza's cue, and showed them around to where the ingredients and necessary bowls and utensils. It was quite a nicely organised kitchen, but then, Eliza didn't have an awful lot of points for comparison.

Sav read out the first instruction, and Eliza started to measure out ingredients into bowls on the scales, the way she always had for Potions, weighing them with probably undue precision. Once she had the right amount, she passed them to Sav without a word.

It wasn't until the first couple of ingredients were measured out that she spoke again, summoning up her courage for the task. It was easier if she focused on measuring while she did. "It seems silly, but I think the only things I know about that you are you play Quidditch, and don't know how to bake." 'Tell me about yourself' she wanted to say, but couldn't bring herself to. It just seemed too absurd to have to say that to someone she was so closely related to.

@sav

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Sav was beginning to mix the ingredients together that Eliza was measuring out, and, he had to admit, this wasn't awful. Baking wasn't hard at all like he thought that it would be. And the fact that they would have cookies to eat when they were done baking them made it even more fun. Sav was an eater. He was an athletic male, someone who could put away calories without too much of an issue. The worked in silence for a few minutes, her measuring and him mixing them together as the recipe instructed. Then she spoke. She said that she didn't know anything about him except for the fact that he played Quidditch and he didn't know how to bake. He was guessing the ladder one she had learned very recently, otherwise it would have been a little weird. 

He shrugged, "Honestly that's pretty much me." he admitted. "Quidditch is my life." He had been playing as long as he could remember. He had every intention on going professional. The other part of him, the part of him that went after almost every girl he saw, wasn't exactly something that he wanted to discuss during his first conversation with his half sister. "Uh... I've got to admit I don't know anything about you..." he felt like a jerk. He felt like a jerk for not talking to her sooner and for blaming her and her sister. A part of him knew that it really wasn't their fault, but he hadn't been able to get it through his head. This really was a wake up call. 

@elizabeth

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"Dusti's pretty fond of Quidditch too. I enjoy watching it well enough, but I'm not fond of playing it." It was too rough, and the fact that she was supposed to be a nice, pretty, delicate thing was too deeply ingrained in her. But she could still talk about it perfectly well. "Which team do you back?"

When Sav admitted he didn't know anything about her, she corrected him, lips twitching upwards into a small smile for a split second. "Besides the fact that I don't know how to bake," She paused for a moment to think what the most important thing was, that she could safely share. In the end, she decided it was her extracurriculars that said the most. "I write for the school paper, and I sing in the Frog Choir," she offered. "But it's the writing that's my life."

@sav

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Dusti played Quidditch too, that he knew since they played against each other whenever Gryffindor played Slytherin. She was good, from what he remembered. It had been a while since they had played since the tournament had caused Quidditch to be canceled for the year. Something that Sav actively hated. He felt like a year without Quidditch was a year wasted. "Is she going Pro?" Sav asked, wondering about his other sister. He knew, that since he was talking to Eliza now he should go and talk to Dusti also. It wouldn't be fair if he only spoke to one of them and he was beginning to think he was ready to accept himself as someone with not just one siblings, but 3 siblings. At least he'd never make the mistake of not disclosing them on a dating form again. "Oh, uh, well I like the Chudley Cannons because they were the first team I ever saw play... but I'd like to play for Puddlemere United or the Falmouth Falcons." he explained. She was into writing and worked for the newspaper. He nodded that it was cool that she did so. "Do you want to write for the daily prophet or something when you graduate?" he asked.

@elizabeth

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Sav asked if Dusti was planning on playing Quidditch professionally, and Eliza shrugged. "She's talked about being a Healer for ages. I think that's still her plan. She could if she wanted to though, I'm pretty sure." She paused and added, "you should ask her. She likes talking about Quidditch." She wasn't sure if Dusti wanted to talk to Sav particularly, but if it was about Quidditch it probably wouldn't be too bad. Definitely better than a definitely-not-a-date.

"Well, it makes sense you wouldn't want to play for the Cannons," she said with a half-laugh. She didn't follow much, but she didn't think there was a wizard, witch, or squib in England who didn't know Chudley's team was a little bit hopeless.

"Daily Prophet, I hope. I've got pretty good chances - not everyone on the paper wants to go into journalism after." Grey wanted to go into Auror training, even though he was editor, and was good at it. She didn't have a clue what Al was planning to do, and Rosalie was doing sports journalism, so there wouldn't be any conflict there. And how anyone who hadn't worked on the paper intended to go into journalism, she simply didn't know.

@sav

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Eliza told Sav that her twin had plans of being a healer, which she had for ages. Oh see, Sav was learning new things. He had no idea what either of them wanted to do with their lives after Hogwarts. It wouldn’t be hard for them to assume what he wanted to do, but he had assumed the same about Dusti and he had been wrong, so he guessed that assuming really wasn’t the way to go. He never would have assumed that Eliza wanted to be a journalist. “Really?” he asked about Dusti wanted to be a healer. Eliza then said that Sav could ask her about Quidditch though because she loved talking about Quidditch. The Gryffindor shrugged. “I don’t if she’d want to talk to me… I wouldn’t blame her.” until this encounter, he had absolutely no interest in talking to either of them either. But they were his sisters, half-sisters, sure, but you couldn’t very well be half-family. It was a mind set, he was sure. He was beginning to feel some weird brotherly feelings that he had never felt towards his twin. He was beginning to feel a responsibility which was strange. He was 100% sure that they could take care of themselves and didn’t need him, but he still felt like he wanted to be there.

He laughed also when she said that it made sense he wouldn’t want to play for the cannons. Yeah, they weren’t a great time, but they had won that very first game and put that spark in his head. She then went on to agree that she wanted to work for the Daily Prophet. She didn’t think getting a job there would be too much of a problem, which he nodded for. “What sections do you want to write for?” he asked.

@elizabeth

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Sav said he wasn't sure if Dusti would want to talk to him. Dusti always had her guard up, that was true, but -"of course she will. It's Quidditch, not heart-to-hearts." She smirked then, because she was sure she was safe. Madam Macmillan was safe, and Eliza was sure she'd raised her sons to be good too. Nothing she said could make any of this worse than the fact that she'd walked into a date with a half-sibling. She'd still keep her secrets, but peak awkwardness had been achieved. "You can save those for me."

As for what she wanted to write, that was easy. She lit up, always happy to talk about it. "Features and investigative. It's a lot of work, and a challenge, but they write the most interesting stories, and the most important ones." It wasn't just the breaking news, although sometimes it ended up there. It was bringing to light the things that had tried to be secrets.

She looked back at the cookie recipe and blinked. "That's all the ingredients. So," she dragged her finger down the recipe to where they were, "now we shape them."

@sav