Guess Who's Coming For Dinner {Maria}

[Irina Rose Krum]

It was the first Saturday in September, and Irina found herself somewhere she had never really thought she’d find herself; a Muggle farmers market. Dan had a double practice today with the Arrows, and when Irina found this out from her father, she knew that a nice thing she could do for him was have a wonderfully elaborate cooked meal waiting on the table for him when he got home. Okay, perhaps not super elaborate - she was just learning to cook after all - but multiple dishes cooked with fresh, locally grown ingredients, full of protein and fiber that was fit for a Quidditch player. Irina remembered how ravenous her dad had been after some particularly grueling practices; he had wolfed down not one but four roast beef sandwiches once in the span of twenty minutes! She doubted that Dan had quite that type of zealous for roast beef sandwiches, but she hoped he’d like what she made.

After carefully selecting the different fruits, vegetables and produce and miraculously paying for them without too much of a hiccup, Irina went to find a quiet alley to Apparate over to her boyfriends’ apartment complex. He had given her a key to his place, so she let herself in, shifting the bags of groceries into her other arm so she could jiggle the handle to get inside. When she came in to the sitting room however, she remembered the other newest addition to Dan’s apartment; his best friend, Maria, who was currently sitting on the couch. “Oh! Hello Maria,” Irina said, blinking in surprise as the part veela came into her view. She set the bags down on the counter. She knew why Maria was staying with Dan; after they had all thought her to be dead, she really didn’t have anywhere to go after she was discovered in a German hospital. Still, she did have a habit of just popping up out of nowhere, veela charm and all. “I’m making Dan dinner for when he gets home. I can’t persuade you to help can I?” she asked, a polite smile forming on her face. She already was pretty sure what the answer would be, but a courteous gesture was necessary.

@maria

[Deleted]

The arrangement of Maria moving in with Daniel had happened quite quickly. Though she was ‘from’ Sweden (sort of. That was where her family lived) it had never been home. She had no desire to return to her grandparents home, for many reasons that she primarily kept to herself. Basically she had a very complicated relationship with her relatives but now that she was out of school they held no sway over her. So, she’d stay in the UK. Hence how this living arrangement had begun. Once she was discharged from the hospital and started looking into what sort of job to do. She’d waitressed at a cafe for a few weeks before being scouted by a modeling agency. Not really a surprise considering her heritage, but now she had a week off before officially beginning work at the agency. A week that she had little idea of how to fill.

She’d been lounging on the couch today, flipping lazily through the latest issue of Witch Weekly, when someone entered the apartment. Initially she thought it was Daniel, but soon a female voice could be heard. Glancing up, Maria put on one of her usual charming smiles. ”I don’t cook.” she answered matter of factly. It was a ‘homemaker’ skill, something Maria had avoided like the plague her entire life. She didn’t like the idea of developing skills that made her better wife material. ”You go right ahead though, don’t let me stop you.”

Irina Rose Krum

[Irina Rose Krum]

Irina nodded with a small smile; she had assumed as much, but it felt a little odd not to at least ask if Maria had wanted to help before starting to cook. “Suit yourself,” she said cheerfully as she began to unload the groceries she had brought for dinner. Typically, Irina knew she could use magic to hurry along the cooking process, however she was still having some trouble getting the knives to chop the vegetables perfectly, and she wanted everything to be perfect. So by hand, she chopped up the different vegetables to make the pasta sauce and put them in a pot. The one thing she DID know how to do by magic was boil water, so she set the sauce at a medium heat point before turning to her more difficult task at hand.

Irina wasn’t entirely sure why she had decided to make the pasta by hand; she had seen the pasta maker at the shops and immediately thought it had been a good idea. Now that she took it out of its’ box and stared at it, she wasn’t so sure. She got out the dough needed to make the pasta and felt the weight in her hands. If this worked out the way she imagined, dinner tonight would be fantastic. She just wasn’t sure she’d get out of it unscatched. “Hey, I know you don’t cook but could you...I don’t know, spot me to make sure I don’t accidentally turn my fingers into pasta?” Irina called out to Maria. She knew the Durmstrang alum wouldn’t help her cook, but watching her for a few minutes surely was not impossible for her. “I’m trying to make homemade spaghetti, meatballs and garlic bread, with chocolate pudding for dessert,” she added as an unprompted explanation, not really sure why as it was rather self-explanatory what she was trying to accomplish.

@maria

[Deleted]

Maria had returned to her aimless page flipping when Irina took over the kitchen and began to prep. Ever so often her eyes would flicker up, watch Irina for a second, then drop back down to the page. Mostly out of curiosity of why Irina was doing it all by hand despite being a capable witch. Well, actually, she wasn’t sure about that part. But anyone who managed to graduated had to be at least slightly capable, right? Hogwarts was quite a bit more lenient than Durmstrang though, so it was always possible that they’d passed someone who wasn’t. Dan wouldn’t date a complete moron though, he was smart enough to not fall for an airhead.

Mid article, Maria was interrupted once more by Irina. This time asking if Maria would at least spot her. She lowered the magazine a touch to look at Irina once more, an eyebrow raised. ”What, like at a gym?” Spotting to make sure your friend didn’t strangle themselves while lifting was a common practice. Nonetheless, Maria threw her legs off the couch and got to her feet. It wasn’t like she was doing anything better after all. ”Fine. But if you do manage to hurt yourself, I won’t be much help.” She explained as she crossed the room to the kitchen. She’d never been interested in the healing arts either, but that wasn’t much of a surprise for anyone that knew the girl. She favored destruction, and was quite good at it. Why would she learn to heal what she destroyed?

Irina Rose Krum

[Irina Rose Krum]

Irina refrained from rolling her eyes at Maria’s comment, especially after the girl agreed and slunk over to her. “Similar, yes,” she commented rather shortly, as she began to turn the handle and gently feed the dough through the processor to make the spaghetti. After a few moments, Irina peered into the bowl and groaned inwardly. “Bollocks,” she cursed, shaking her head at the misshapen mound that had flopped into the bowl. She took a deep breath in through her nose, then let it out slowly. “This is much harder than it looks,” she shot at Maria quickly, glancing over at the girl who was watching her work. She decided she would try again, more slowly and precise this time. Alas, the second effort was not much better than the first and she sighed loudly at the lump. “This is ridiculous,” she exclaimed angrily. She rolled up her sleeves, and pulled out her wand. “Don’t tell Daniel,” she told Maria, her mouth in a tight little line. With a few murmured incantations and a wave of her wand, the pasta dough formed perfect thin lines and landed neatly in the bowl. Irina breathed a sigh of relief and thanked her mother internally for helping her with that backup spell. She had been slightly offended when Elena Krum had offered it to her - but that was mostly due to her mulish stubborn streak; she had wanted to make a nice home cooked meal, and by Merlin she was going to do it by hand! Thankfully, they’d be eating real pasta tonight thanks to the Krum matrons efforts.

Irina carried the bowl over to the stove and pointed her wand towards the cooktop. Flames crackled merrily as the water in the pot rolled to a boil, the bubbles furiously shooting upwards towards the surface. She unceremoniously dumped the pasta in and tapped her wand against the spoon, which methodically would stir the cooking pasta every few moments to keep it cooking. With that done, she turned to Maria. “So…..how are you?” she asked hesitantly, not sure if Maria would even remember what happened, let alone want to go over the details with her best friend’s girlfriend.

@maria

[Deleted]

Maria crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow as she ‘spotted’ for Irina. More like stared though. There wasn’t really much spotting needing to be done, unless she was trying to spot Irina’s mistakes. Irina seemed to be having plenty of those. Maria didn’t fully understand what the mistakes were, since she avoided kitchens like the plague, but Irina’s commentary was enough proof that things weren’t going well. Her eyebrow raised even higher as Irina shot her a look, before starting the whole thing over. It seemed to go as well as the first attempt, and Irina finally seemed to admit her defeat. ”I seriously doubt Daniel will care if you resorted to magic to fix dinner.” She answered, shrugging her shoulders. ”Besides, he’s the sort that appreciates effort more than perfection.” He was a genuinely good guy, which often brought into question just he and Maria were friends. It’d seem like they’d clash too much. ”You do realize they make pre-done pasta, right? You could have saved yourself a bit of trouble.” She added after a thought. She hated cooking, but that didn’t mean she didn’t know at least a little. Since, you know, eating was a necessity.

Irina seemed to be past the spotting needed phase, so Maria left the kitchen and went back to the couch. She was just about to sit down when Irina asked how she was doing. It was a loaded question, despite it’s innocent sound. It was a completely normal question to ask someone, but since summer… Well, Maria didn’t like it much. ”I’ve been fine.” She forced herself to say. ”You know, work and partying. Normal adult life.” And dealing with some of the post trauma from the explosion. Her memories of the next few weeks were cloudy at best, and she kept having these strange dreams. But she chalked it all up to just trauma.

Irina Rose Krum

[Irina Rose Krum]

Irina refrained from rolling her eyes at Maria’s comment. “I know he won’t, that’s not the point. I wanted to prove that I could do this, make a meal with my own two hands,” she said, keeping her voice as polite and even-tempered as possible. Truth be told, Irina was not entirely sure why she was trying to create a meal from scratch, or where the idea had come from. No, that wasn’t true - the idea had come from her mother when she had been at her parents for dinner. Elena Krum had gone into detail about how she had made everything on Irina’s plate from scratch, and the Gryffindor alum had blurted out that she could easily make her own meal from scratch too. So who better to test it out than on her boyfriend, who would probably eat at LEAST one bite out of his love for her? Irina just couldn’t have kept her mouth shut - she had wanted those bragging rights against her mother so badly, but could have had the foresight to realize she was in completely over her head. If only her Clairvoyancy worked that way.

Irina raised her wand and checked the pasta by flicking one of the long noodles against the wall. If the noodle stuck, then it was perfectly cooked; if not, then it needed some more time. It slid down the wall very slowly, so Irina stirred the pot twice before putting the lid back on - a few more minutes would do the trick. She used her wand to slice the baguette evenly before setting it down to apply the garlicky toppings by hand; this at least she could do. She also didn’t really know how to continue on this conversation with Maria. The girl had been missing for weeks after the Durmstrang ship explosion; thank Merlin for Freddie impaling himself causing Dan and Louisa to go to the German hospital where she had been located. Dan hadn’t said much about her ordeal, just that Maria couldn’t remember much, and Irina had not pushed the case. It was not her place to nose into what had happened, and she doubted Maria wanted to discuss it. “Partying eh? Do you prefer Muggle clubs or Wizarding clubs - like that one, Club...Violet? It’s a color if I’m not mistaken,” Irina commented, trying to keep the conversation light. It was probably painfully obvious to Maria just how much Irina got out at this point, but the whole partying scene just wasn’t her style. Give her a night in with board games and maybe a glass of wine and she was happy, outside around a campfire was even better. “I’ve heard a lot of people go there to let loose,” she added rather lamely with a small shrug.

@maria

[Deleted]

Maria stuck out her tongue, her expression distorted into a look of disgust. "Why would you want to prove that?" She retorted, her voice sounding just as repulsed as her expression. It wasn't because Irinia wanted to make something with her hands, but more of what she was wanting to make. "That's just so.... so." Her voice trailed off only for a moment as she tried to think of the correct word in English. "Domestic." Maria, spoke a number of languages, which often made it difficult to think of the right words in the right language if she didn't use them enough. Domestic was definitely a word, and concept, she steered far from.

Being such a foreigner to cooking, it actually was quite odd to see Irina fling one of the noodles onto the wall. Something that must have been a mistake, though Maria choose to keep her mouth shut and not mention Irina's obvious blunder.

Though, Irina's conversation of partying was far less foreign, and a welcome topic. "Oh it depends on what sort of fun your looking for." she started, a grin starting to form. "Muggles can always be fun. But Wizarding parties are far more exciting. But mix magic into anything and it'll be more exciting." Maria didn't go into too much detail of what the differences would be between the two. "Club Indigo. It's pretty good. It's the sort of place you'd go to unwind, have a few drinks, and dance. But there are others if you want to have a more wild time." Unashamed, Maria would readily admit to going to some parties that blurred a laws.

Irina Rose Krum

[Irina Rose Krum]

Irina spun around to look at Maria. “Look,” she said, trying to keep her voice steady, but in truth she was a little sick of the girls’ attitude. “I want to make my boyfriend a home cooked meal because I want to do something nice for him. I want to do it by hand, so that I can prove to myself and my pureblood family that some things can be done without magic. And I want it to be perfect because I love Dan, and that’s how love works.” Irina stopped herself before getting too nasty however, though there was plenty of venom left where she had trailed off. From what Dan had said, Maria didn’t really do the whole...relationship thing, and that was fine. She had to get used to Maria’s personality of course, since she was overtly comfortably friendly with her boyfriend; though she trusted Dan, she had to admit their current sleeping arrangements weren’t exactly her favorite thing in the world. They were different, she and Maria, but she was also a part of Dan’s life, whether she liked it or not.

Wanting to loosen some of the tension, Irina focused on what Maria was saying about partying. She seemed more relaxed then, and it almost felt like the temperature in the room dropped a few degrees. Irina hadn’t noticed it had been getting so warm in there. “Is Club Indigo a wizarding club?” she asked with a little curiosity. She had heard the club mentioned multiple times by her coworkers, especially a gruff middle-aged man named Aloysius, who seemed to have an investment in the establishment. “A lot of my coworkers at Gringotts like to go out on their days off, and really let loose. Especially after a raid,” Irina explained, shrugging her shoulders. Irina wasn’t really sure if that was her type of scene, but she also was curious to see what it was all like. “I just don’t know if I’d fit in, that’s all,” she admitted quickly, letting the cooked pasta settle into the bowls she had laid out to cool.

@maria