Scientific Discoveries [OPEN]

[INSUK HA]

The Hogwarts kitchen was Insuk's second home at Hogwarts. She liked it in there. It was warm and smelled wonderful. In the kitchens, the Ravenclaw mostly kept to herself, occasionally asking a house elf questions about the magic they used. Watching them work was almost calming – and they didn’t seem to mind her curiosity. At least, they never told her any different.

It was only the first weekend after classes started, but Insuk’s halmeoni had already sent her kimchi. It didn’t matter how many times she wrote that the house elves could make anything. The older woman insisted that magically created kimchi was not as good. When Insuk explained that they didn’t have electricity at Hogwarts, and that no, she couldn’t just bury the kimchi pot outside, the older woman ignored her.

She’d tried everything in her first year to keep the kimchi in her dormitory. She’d even learned a cooling charm. Thinking it would be enough she hid the pot in her trunk. It had in fact, not been enough. The pot had exploded in her trunk the moment she’d opened it. After crying for what felt like hours, she’d started laughing – until she’d been found covered in kimchi juice.

Since then, the house elves insisted that the little miss keep her exploding pots with them. So, that’s what she did. Only today, she was going to prove her halmeoni wrong. She was going to make radish kimchi and she was going to use magic. There had to be a way to mix the science of kimchi and magic and she was going to find it.

Dropping her bag of ingredients on the table, Insuk opened the magical cookbook she'd found in the library and went straight to the pickling page.

[PHOEBE ABBOTT]

It had been a long day for Phoebe. After finally making it back on the Gryffindor Quidditch team, she had been training relentlessly to make sure she did a really good job of her new position as keeper. There wasn’t as much flying involved as when she had played seeker, and you were less likely to get injured which helped her conquer her fear of flying. Not every training session was spent in the air however. Today had been a conditioning day, involving lots of running and strength training. After all that work, Phoebe was starving.

She was a semi-regular visitor to the Hogwarts kitchens. The house elves knew she would occasionally drop in for some sustenance after Quidditch training, and were usually more than happy to make her a sandwich or something. Today though, the kitchen smelled different. Not bad, quite delicious actually, but distinctly radishy.

A girl was at one of the benches surrounded by ingredients. She was in Ravenclaw, and Phoebe sometimes ran into her around the school, but they had never properly met. Phoebe waved in a friendly way. “That smells good, what are you making?” she asked.
INSUK HA

[INSUK HA]

After washing and scrubbing all the dirt off her radishes, Insuk got ready to cut them into cubes. The warm and inviting smell of the kitchen had changed to the earthy scent of her radishes. She’d just wiped her hands on her apron and grabbed a cutting board and knife when another student walked into the kitchen. The older girl didn’t look like she would tell on her and even waved.

Remembering the knife in her hand, and not wanting to look like a weirdo, Insuk put the knife down and waved back. “I’m trying to make radish kimchi. It’s called kkakdugi. The easiest way to describe it is to call it a spicy radish pickle.” To her, it was just kkakdugi. “My hal… grandma, doesn’t think it will taste good if I use magic, but I want to find a mix between magical and traditional.” She’d leave out the part where she'd already exploded one kimchi container in her dormitory. That would be her little secret. The house elves knew. They cleaned it up with her, but they didn’t seem eager to tell anyone.

“Did you come in for a snack?”

PHOEBE ABBOTT

[PHOEBE ABBOTT]

Phoebe didn’t often get to try food from another culture or country. She was always up for trying new things though, even if she didn’t quite know what they were. “Mm, that sounds delicious,” she said. In truth she had difficulty imagining exactly what a spicy radish pickle would taste like, but it sounded exciting and she liked exciting things.

“Interesting. It’ll be cool to see if using magic changes the taste at all. I’m sure you can find a happy medium” she said. Phoebe enjoyed baking at home, but had never really experimented with magic and cooking. “I mean, the house elves use magic to cook sometimes. At least I think they do. Either that or they’re really fast workers.” It blew her mind how hard they all worked to cook for the students at Hogwarts.

“Yes I did, I thought I might make a sandwich or something. I’m not sure really.” Phoebe spoke a lot, her mind moved very quickly and so did her mouth. “I’m Phoebe by the way, I’ve seen you around but I don’t think I knew your name” she said, by way of introducing herself.
INSUK HA