Experiments....

Annabelle panted as she lay on her back in the middle of the room, surrounded by discarded bits of cooking materials, cocoa beans, chocolate, both burned and melted stained the floor, the cooking utensils she had used angrily thrown around the room. Huffing the young Hufflepuff frowned at the remaining cocoa beans as they mocked her failure from their resting place on the bench.

Glaring, Annabelle stood up once more and rolled her sleeves up, determined to get this right. Gathering the required cocoa beans Annabelle lay the beans in a single layer across a cookie sheet before making her way over to the preheated oven, making sure it was 120 degrees C and set the cookie sheet in carefully as not to burn herself.

~ 18 minutes Later ~

Her face never losing the concentrated expression, Annabelle made her way back to the oven, she pulled on her oven mitts and pulled out the cookie sheet a bit checking to see whether the beans had roasted properly. She felt slight satisfaction as some of the beans had started to crack, sliding the cookie sheet back in Annabelle waited a few more minutes before taking the beans out of the oven and setting them on the counter to cool.

Turning the oven off she returned to the beans and, after removing her mitts, transferred the beans from the cookie sheet onto a harder surface. Once done she took the hammer nearby and carefully cracked the beans open, making sure to remove the already cracked ones to the side, after that she removed the husks by hand considering she was only working with a small batch.

A few minutes later she was done removing the husks and placed the beans into a rounded bowl and began stirring them gently with her hand as she directed a working hair dryer onto the beans.

Once done, Annabelle made her way over to the juicer the room supplied for her, placing an empty bowl beneath the spout, the Hufflepuff started to feed the nibs into the juicer one handful at a time, being sure to push them in gently. Cocoa liqueur came oozing from the spout along with some husk, frowning Annabelle kept feeding more nibs into the juicer, once done she made sure to put the cocoa liqueur through the juicer once more to rid it of the husk. Once satisfied she moved onto the next step Conching and refining the chocolate.

Annabelle sighed, this was going to be a pain...

~ 1 day Later ~

Annabelle came back into the Room of Requirement pleased to see the smooth refined chocolate still melted and in the oven. Removing the chocolate from the oven Annabelle moved onto the next step tempering the chocolate.

~ 40 minutes Later ~

Annabelle grinned as the chocolate reached 90 degrees F and rushed to mold it. making sure to spoon a little chocolate onto a sheet of non-stick baking paper Annabelle spread it into a 15cm-diameter circle. Then she moved to place the chocolate-coated sheet over an upside-down small bowl, chocolate-side up, to create a basket. Putting it aside to set. Annabelle waited for a number of minutes before removing the paper.

She grinned ecstatic that it worked, wasting no time the witch set to finish her project, going over to the fridge she pulled out a bowl of mousse and proceeded to carefully to fill the chocolate with it, topping it off with berries.

Annabelle grinned as she surveyed her chocolate basket. She would have to share this with someone later, she thought before grabbing a spoon and digging in.

Cataline was on the seventh floor, walking through the halls without a care in the world. Having been to Hogwarts long ago and seeing that there wasn't much change to the castle, the green-haired immortal was confident that the layout was the exact same as it was since the days of the founders.

Coming across the Room of Requirement, Cataline slowly opened the door to see Annabelle eating some chocolate and berries. Though her main treat was and always will be pizza, Cataline did have a softness for certain sweets and chocolate was one of them.

"Hello. It's been a while, Annabelle." Cataline greeted cheerfully before taking a seat across from her.

Annabelle froze mid-bite at the familiar voice that reached her ears, turning to the source she grinned widely "CATALINE!!"

Placing her chocolate to one side of her (carefully), she engulfed the other in a hug, "I missed you! How are you? What have you been up to? Are you doing anything now? How did you get into Hogwarts? Are you a new Professor? Are you going to be teaching any of my classes? Can we still be friends if you are a Professor?" She continued firing questions at the other in her excitement at seeing a friendly face.

After realizing that asking all the questions had left her breathless Annabelle stayed quiet long enough to note her actions and blushed in embarrassment, grinning sheepishly "Sorry, I'm just happy to see you."

Thinking quickly she found the perfect apology gift, summoning the chocolate she had on the counter she held it out to Cataline "Chocolate?"

Cataline smiled as she returned the hug.

"It's alright but I'm sure glad to see you again and I've been doing fine." the green-haired immortal replied before she answered the questions. "I'm just wandering about the halls and revisiting some old areas that I used to hang around during my student years. Someone left the gate open and I just walked through to get in."

Cataline giggled at the idea of her being a professor. "Oh, that would be entertaining but no, I'm not a professor. Still, that doesn't mean that I won't commandeer a class while the actual instructor is elsewhere."

Seeing the offer of chocolate, Cataline gladly accepted it from Annabelle. "Why thank you!"

Tasting it, she nodded in approval. "This is really good. Did you make this?"

Annabelle grinned as Cataline answered all her questions and accepted the chocolate, she went back to eating her own treat before hearing Cataline's compliment, a slight blush dusted her cheeks as she nodded in answer to the question.

Pushing down the pride that swelled within her at the praise and whined in a tired manner "It's really hard and exhausting!" She pouted taking another bite from her desert before deciding "But it's chocolate, so it's allowed to be." She grinned happily and continued to eat.

"Besides I'm sure it's not as good as you say it is, their must be heaps of people in the world who can make chocolate a gazillion times better then I can!" She commented childishly.

"Don't sell your work short now." Cataline replied before continuing. "Taste opinions are all subjective and never objective. Some people hate chocolate made by a professional while some like it. The same can be said of brand names as I've met Muggles that hate the chocolate from Hershey's, Nestle's, and Reese's brand names, despite their popularity. Besides, you've only made one combination of chocolate so it's much too early to say that you would be overshadowed when it comes to making other types. As long as you put forth effort and passion into your work, you'll certainly shine bright with your creations."

Taking another bite, Cataline added. "Having the entrepreneur spirit is a valuable experience when it comes to creating something unique in the world. Don't let fear and self-doubt chain you from exploring that frontier."

Annabelle looked up from her chocolate and listened to Cataline as she spoke, blushing a bit once more Annabelle nodded in response knowing when to take a compliment and managed a wide grin and cheerfully replied "Thank you, Cataline! I'll do my best from now on!"

About to take another bite from the treat she made Annabelle paused as a question came to mind "Say Cataline, where do you work if you don't work at Hogwarts?" She asked, then stumbled over her words as she realized she was being a little nosy "That is if you don't mind me asking! I really don't mind if you don't want to tell! It's none of my business after all."

Cataline smiled. Oh, she had worked a variety of jobs throughout the centuries and she was lucky that such occupations were humble ones that vagabonds and travelers from distant lands could easily get into, be it in the Muggle world or the magical world. Over the centuries, Cataline had hoarded her earnings that would create her personal fortune, thanks to the help of the goblins at Gringotts.

"I'm unemployed at the moment but I do a lot of trading in the Muggle stock market so I have a nice income to keep me afloat. Sometimes, I teach to children as some magical families prefer private lessons instead of sending them to school." the immortal answered. "As long as I'm getting my earnings that aren't being taxed by the Ministry or the British government, I'm content with all that."

Annabelle processed the answer curiously, "Wow...you really are different from most people, Cataline" She blurted out, then immediately backtracked once more

"I didn't mean anything by that! I'm not saying that you're weird or anything! Because you're not! You're a really, really nice person! I just meant that I haven't met many people like you!" She stuttered and rushed though her words, before deciding to just stop talking. Blushing again she groaned, she needed to learn to watch what she said...

Cataline raised an eyebrow but merely smiled. Oh, she certainly was so much more different than other people alright. After all, how often is it that people would see a woman with green hair and who is also an immortal that is close to being a thousand years old yet looks to be in her twenties? Of course, Cataline didn't disclosed her immortality, something that nearly everyone is the world would try to delve into if she were to disclose it.

"It's alright, Annabelle." Cataline replied with an assuring smile before deciding to verbally pull the rug out from underneath Annabelle through a change of topics. "You're a very pretty girl, Annabelle. Have you found a nice boy yet?"

Cataline could've asked if Annabelle had ENTICED a nice boy yet but opted against it, knowing that it would've been a more embarrassing question.

Confusion gave way to embarrassment and Annabelle's face bloomed with color at hearing Cataline's question. She stuttered and stumbled over incoherent words, her hands waving frantically in a motion that clearly said 'NO!'

Her actions suddenly stopped as she thought of one boy she had met a while ago and suddenly the blush on her face got darker. Trying to hide it she covered the lower part of her face with one hand. "Uhm..."

Cataline was more than amused by Annabelle's expression and her reaction was very priceless. Oh, she would certainly remember this for the rest of her eternal existence. No matter the number of centuries that have passed, it seemed that some things don't change over time.

"It's alright." The green-haired immortal spoke kindly. "You're young so nothing is written down in stone and you don't have to answer if you don't want to."

Cataline grinned at Annabelle before taking another bite of chocolate.

Cataline's response to her...reaction did nothing to help her blush go down, in fact it got even darker at the sight of the Immortal's grin. 'Is it just me or is it stuffy in here' She thought as she desperately tried to get rid of her blush.

Poorly attempting to shift the attention off herself Annabelle asked "H-how about you, Cataline?"

"I've been more around women instead of men, whom have proven to think more with their hormones than with their heads." Cataline replied casually. Yet, despite her view on men, she knew that there were exceptions such as Sarith.

"But it doesn't really matter." the immortal added. "Men, women. Both are fair game as long as they're willing."

Annabelle cocked her head to the side, processing the information before a grin threatened to split her lips, "You must be quite the charmer if that's the case, Cataline. I don't know many women that deem it better to think with their hormones instead of their brains."

The Hufflepuff grinned again before taking a big bite of chocolate.

"Just those women that have grown tired of men that they decide to swing the other way." Cataline answered. "Some of them are hormone-driven that they are demanding, some are delicate, and some are... well, I suppose the term entrepreneur is the closest term that I can use for them."

She took a bite of chocolate before adding. "It's an... interesting experience overall."