Having a free period that morning, Holly allowed herself a little sleep in. She could do this because one, she didn't have to be in a class, and two, she didn't need to worry about making it in time to breakfast. Most Hufflepuffs, because of where their common room was located, knew after a year or two where the kitchens were located.

Therefore, after a refreshing sleep, the blonde dragged herself from the comfort of her bed and into the shower, where she let the hot water wash over her skin that was pebbled with goosebumps. It got awfully chilly down in the lower parts of the castle. After washing, she tried her hair with a drying spell and then pulled the fluffy, thick blonde curls into a messy bun. Holly rarely had the patience for doing much more than that with her hair. She then slipped on her school uniform and grabbed her robes and bag and off she went.

She tickled the pair on the painting of the bowl of fruit, and grabbed the handle when the door presented itself to her, pushing it open to find herself in the kitchens of Hogwarts. The place was packed with busy house elves, and Holly smiled brightly. She found the creatures delightful, and dead helpful. One was at her service as soon as she entered.

Might I be helpin' yous miss?

Flashing her smile at the elf, Holly asked for a simple breakfast, making her way to where the long table that was identical to the one directly above it on the floor above in the great hall. There were four tables in all, each one sitting directly below the house tables the corresponded to in the great hall. Before meals, these tables would be covered with every type of food, and then somehow vanish from these tables to the ones above. It really was magnificent to see. Holly herself had only witnessed it once, and that was because she had been curious as to how the food got to the great hall, since the elves hardly carried it all in.

The blonde carelessly dropped her book bag onto the table, piling her robes on top of it and sliding onto the bench to sit. She had nearly an hour to kill so she wasn't worried about time too much, and her first class of the day was History of Magic, and she seriously doubted the professor would notice her showing up late even of she did. She took the mug of hot cocoa she had been offered from one of the elves, and to her surprise turned back to the table to see it full of breakfast foods again. "I asked for a simple breakfast." She groaned, even though she shot the elves a grateful smile. "You truly outdo yourselves every time." She complimented, knowing the elves loved hearing they had succeeded in doing things right.

Her blonde head whipped around to the door, hearing someone practically falling through it, to find the head boy had come as well. Holly rolled her eyes but smiled all the same. "Rough night Tobias?"

Most days Tobias felt that he had no classes in the first block at any point this year was his greatest feat to date. He had carefully worked his schedule, keeping and dropping classes based on where they fell on the schedule table rather than how good he was in the subject or how much it would help him after graduation. He kind of got the feeling that whatever he ended up doing after school would have nothing to do with his test scores anyway.

The late mornings also helped to counteract the worst part of being Head Boy, the fact that he had to impeccably dressed in exact school uniform anytime people were awake, or at least any time that a professor might be looking. That meant that he had not made it into breakfast a single time yet this year, because he also really hated mornings.

Once again, he had gone to sleep with someone else in his bed, only to wake up to an empty bed and a mostly empty dormitory. That didn’t really bother him, as he was used to having time to get ready, and unless he was reading the clock entirely wrong he had slept through his alarm entirely and had basically no time left to get ready and eat something before getting to class.

He scrambled through the process of getting ready and made a beeline for the kitchens, only to finally glance at his watch as he tickled the pear. His jaw dropped as he stumbled more than walked into the kitchens. “I am going to kill that spoiled brat of a” thankfully he was able to cut himself off there, as he realized he wasn’t alone and was about to give away who it was that he had been with last night, and the Head Girl really wouldn’t like that very much.

He composed himself and shot Hufflepuff’s resident quidditch Captain/Seeker/Prefect/V.I.P. a winning smile. “Now Jacobs, it’s never the night that’s the rough part. My nights are generally excellent and you are invited any time you want to find that out first hand.” As he talked he grabbed a glazed donut from the tray that an elf had just brought him. He basically had a standing breakfast order at this point, and they didn’t bother to even ask him. If he wanted something different than four donuts, a coffee, and an orange juice, he had to say so right when he walked in. “It’s the morning after that’s the problem,” he said thoughtfully around his chewing.

Snorting and rolling her eyes while simultaneously shaking her head the blonde gave the head boy a look that clearly said "dream on". "Oh I'm sure you have enough witches experiencing that first hand Tobias, I really doubt you need me to." The girl retorted back in good humor with a knowing grin. Holly rather liked Tobias for his easy going ways and quick humor. The girl had a feeling she wasn't the only one either. She waved a hand carelessly over the table inviting him to sit if he so wanted. Company would be nice but Holly wasn't going to beg.

"I feel you on the mornings." She agreed almost chipper while biting into a sausage link carefully so as not to burn her mouth with the hot morsel. Swallowing her food first so as not to speak with her food in her mouth and look dangerously close to Weasley who was notorious for it she continued on. "I don't see why everything has to start at the crack of dawn. Honestly. Whoever made that rule ought to be thrown into a here of stampeding hippogriffs."

It was only too clear that the blonde did not like early risings. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that she could never really fall asleep before two in the morning. Holly was a night owl and if she could the day away like one she would be perfectly happy to do so but of course things like classes got in the way. She thought there were good things about being awake during the day though too so she never complained.

Holly probably thought that she was hurting Tobias’s feelings at the very least, but it was exactly the answer he wanted. The fact that everyone was still well and openly aware of what he got up to meant that no one thought he had anyone special, and Holly was far too smart to actually take him up on the offer ever.

He slid easily into the offered seat, taking a sip of his coffee and using it to swallow the donut that remained in his mouth. “That is a very specific and violent method of death,” he commented mildly. “Have you put a lot of time and thought into it?”

He smiled and laughed a little, taking another drink of the coffee and chasing it with orange juice this time. As he got caffeine and sugar into his bloodstream Tobias quickly calmed down and became more of himself. “So, what brings you to bother our gracious hosts the elves on this fine morning instead of having breakfast earlier with all the good little children?”

The blonde snorted into her hot chocolate at her companion. "Only every morning since the beginning of time." She answered his question with a chuckle. Holly noticed the head boy didn't look at all saddened or let down by her rejection of his invitation, which was a relief and piqued her interest. Not because she normally took an active role in his sex life, or anyone else's for that matter. Holly was curious only because of the rumors circulating through their house lately.

"I hope you're not insinuating that I'm bad, but if you are I'll let it slide for now." The blonde responded with a half grin for his benefit. "I happen to have a free period first thing in the morning, so I use it for a bit of a lie in and a late breakfast that is much more my speed." She didn't comment about bothering the elves since they both knew the elves enjoyed being of use.

Holly pulled a plate of french toast to her and immediately sought out the syrup, her blue eyes flicking to Tobias' face here and then. She didn't consider him a really good friend of hers, but she did consider him a friend. On the other hand, she had a hard time with determining what she should comment on and not. The blonde prepared her favorite morning dish while she mulled this over in her head, making a frown appear on her face while her eyebrows drew together.

Shoveling the first bite of sugary goodness into her mouth Holly decided to broach the subject and let him decide what to do with it. Swallowing first so as not to be a complete failure of a female. "You know, rumor has it your nights have become a bit more focused." Glancing up from her next forkful she shrugged to show she didn't really care one way or the other. "You know how the rumor mill is. Just thought I should warn you before it gets out of hand."

Tobias snorted at the joke about how long she had hated mornings. Jacobs was refreshing to have around. It also seemed to be much easier interacting with witches when your first thought wasn’t either how to sleep with them or whether the Head Girl would find some mysterious way to make them suffer in the future. LeBeau would not being going directly after a Prefect anytime soon, or at least Tobias told himself that.

“I would never accuse anyone of being bad unless they did something bad,” he said, flashing her his finest grin. He might not really want to sleep with the younger witch, but his charm didn’t really have an off switch. She was stuck with that as long as she was willing to put up with him, or until one of them finished breakfast.

Well, apparently there was one way to turn the charm off. Her words shocked him, and he shoved an entire donut into his mouth to give himself time to think before he had to say anything. He chewed slowly, trying to figure out how they had screwed up and how badly. She didn’t mention a girl by name, so maybe this was still salvageable. He had to know exactly how bad it was before he decided whether to tell the Head Girl or not.

He painfully swallowed about two thirds of the donut at once and tried to look casual. “Do those rumors say who it is that I’m more focused on than the rest of the witches, or is she just some beautiful mystery witch?” He could fix this. He could definitely fix this. And if he told himself that enough times, he might actually start to believe it.

The boy's winning smile was distracting to say the least and the hufflepuff witch blinked at him a few times before she could return it with her own quite mischievous one. "Well I don't do bad things. At least not with taken blokes." The blonde winked at him playfully eating another bite of her breakfast and chewing as she watched his reaction.

She grew amused when he instantly shoved a whole donut into his mouth effectively giving him an excuse not to speak for a moment and Holly could practically see the wheels in his brain turning. Who knew the boy could be so..thoughtful? She herself had never really seen him think so hard about something. Then again she wasn't exactly best friends with him either.

Something told her it was more than thinking on what she said though. If Holly wasn't mistaken she could see a bit of concern lurking in his eyes and that was definitely enough to pique her interest enough to want to continue the conversation. At first she had only wanted to warn him before the he could get trampled by the rumors when they really hit full force. It wasn't often when Puffs were even involved in rumors, usually they stayed out of anything too nonconventional and left the worst of things to the the rest of the houses.

Of course, Tobias was a different story because he was a ladies man. Much like Caldwell and Malfoy, his name was constantly cropping up in conversations regarding sex and secret meetings at night all over the castle with different witches. So it was naturally big news when his sights set on a particular witch. To the rest of the castle anyway. Holly didn't care one way or the other because simply put it wasn't any of her business.

The blonde shrugged and swallowed. "No, just something about it being a slytherin from the colors of the robes or something. I heard your mates taking bets on which slytherin it could be though. It was both gross and mildly entertaining."

Tobias immediately let out a breath that he hadn’t even realized he was holding in. They didn’t realize who the green belonged to. There was probably a way for him to squirm out of this situation entirely without having to involve the Head Girl.

He gave Holly a smile that was a little less charming and a little more honest. “You are a credit to our house, Holly. I may have to have a chat with my good mates about gambling on the lives of unwilling authority figures, but you at least do Hufflepuff proud.”

Still, he had more than enough to worry about. She had referred to him as taken, which meant the rumors were serious enough to be assumed completely true. Also, someone had noticed the color of Laurette’s tie, when he made a grand show of wanting nothing to do with Slytherin house and actively sticking to the other three. Also, his close mates seemed to be working against him, whether they intended to or not. If the Head Boy was capable of violence, this would be the time for bashing heads. As it was, it was just time for damage control.

“I would hardly call myself taken, though,” he said, taking the last donut on his plate and idly twirling it around his finger. “You don’t need to worry about that, if you decide you might want to be bad with me.” Tobias had had no intention of sleeping with his friend before, but now if she was willing to push back, he just might. He would need to start actually being seen with a few Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors if he was going to keep his house from realizing that there was a Slytherin girl who had actually gotten her claws into his apparently untouchable heart. Still, it was up to her, as he never pushed too hard. He generally didn’t have to.

He dunked the donut in his coffee and took a bite, carefully talking around it again. “Did you want to be bad with me, Holly?”

It only took a moment for the blonde to realize her friend looked more relieved than she thought someone without anything to worry about should. Curious, that was. And interesting. Holly didn't consider herself a nosy person however, and it was his life, so she let it go. The girl wasn't going to push for information, because she wasn't too interested in his sexual endeavors anyway.

The hufflepuff witch could only look amused by his would be compliment about her being a compliment to their house. Tobias really was a charmer but only a fool would fall for his charms in her opinion. "I would point out that I did nothing to stop this so called gambling because it was more interesting to find out which snake the crowd was rooting for, but I like this misconception of yours better so I won't."

Holly sent him her own charming smile which could almost be considered cheeky considering the words that came before it. There was a knowing look in her blue eyes and it was teasing. She knew which snake the rumor mill would be pairing with the head boy most likely and it was likely to cause a few scuffles if she knew anything about anything.

She laughed at his words and question, taking them with a grain of salt. The blonde was in no way attracted to her friend and teammate. Her tastes ran a little more the direction his seemed to apparently but she wasn't going to give that away. "No worries here, I assure you Tobias." She smiled wider at him and grabbed her book bag from the bench, rising and heading towards the door. "I have no ambitions of being bad with you. Feel free to eat your heart out though." She winked at him and left with a final warning to not be late to practice, shaking her head in amusement. That boy would lose his head if it wasn't attached to his neck.