Tyler supressed a grin and pondered Aero's answer. "You've got a point. So now I'm back where I started," he stated. That was not a good thing. He was determined to buy his mother's present today. If the stationary set wouldn't work then he would find something that would.

"Any other suggestions?" he asked her, having completely forgotten about Mrs. Blotts.
_____________________

Elena shrugged nonchalantly. Whatever was bothering Fatima she would find out eventually. Until then she just wouldn't push the issue.

"Children have amazingly sticky fingers. I mean sticky like you wouldn't believe. If there's anything sticky they're drawn to it. It's almost like some weird kind of radar thing," she continued.

"Get both," Aero said with a shrug, stepping closer to Tyler to examine the stationaries. "See, she'd love the gesture, and she'd love that you gave her a variety. Girls like to have more than one thing, it shows them that they're cared for. But getting them something that's extra special gives them a unique feeling. What mother wouldn't want to feel that way?"

Or girl for that matter?

Nik handed the form back to the girl, "Yes I do. My father will join me here if he remembers."

This sucked, he was hating London already, the people were no different than everyone back home.

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Mrs. Blotts beamed on the young couple, they looked so sweet together, both pretending to be unaffected by the other. And she said as much, "Don't you two look so perfect together?" She paused and smiled at them in silence, "Tyler, dearie...you could get a stationary set and something else. I'm sure Aero knows better on what to buy, I've never been very good with presents." She said, winking at the young woman underneath her glasses.

The Leaky Cauldron had quickly grown extremely popular with someone new entering the pub for what seeme like ever other 2 minutes. Elijah never really liked big crowds, especially when he was surrpounded by people he wasn't too familiar of. Jamie was certainly popular, he had quite the gathering of little friends around him. Elijah caught his excited wave; Elijah smiled and witha nod waved back to Jamie. Thank goodness for Ashlie, he thought as he turned back and smiled at her. "Looks like you've got your work cut out for you Ms. Bartender," he said with a wink.

He looked over his shoulder to the door, and then began surveying the area of the pub, taking care to check the tables he could see, expecially those ones near the windows. No Kay, he thought. Perhaps she wasn't going to be coming in today. Im ean school had only just let out, and he wouldn't be surprised if she was simply spending time with her family.

Finally set on the fact that Kay wasn't anywhere in the Leaky Cauldron, he turned back to Ashlie with a slight sigh, hopefully not recognized. "So how about that coffee, Ash? A little bit of cream and sugar in it would be great if you don't mind." He began absentmindedly tapping his finger on the cool wood of the bar, half sitting on a wood stool with a bright green cushion on it. His statue looked as though he were ready to pounce the second something were to happen; he seemed downright tense actually.

Tyler looked from Aero to Mrs. Blotts. The woman had a curious smile on her lips, almost as if she knew something they didn't. "What do you think about this set?" he asked Aero. To indicate which stationary set he was talking about, he gently placed his hand on her shoulder and turned her to face a light purple set slightly to their left.
__________________

Elena shrugged once more. Children were odd. After spending part of her summer with her family already, the last thing Elena wanted to do was relive that time.

"So. What's new with you? Buy any new hats without me?" she questioned. Although she would never admit it, Elena was envious of Fatima's ability to look amazing in the most ridiculous hats.

Ashlie nodded at the boy, accepting the paper. "Let me know when he gets here," she said. "If he hasn't shown up by tonight, you'll have to write him. I can't let you stay without parental consent." She handed him a gold key. "Remember that, I need that consent from him."

She turned back to Elijah and nodded. "Yes... very busy," she said. "It's always like this in the morning and Aero never works the place and she always gives Tyler a later shift when she's on. As if she doesn't trust him around me."

She rolled her eyes as she turned around, probably unnoticed, she hoped. "Jamie... please," she groaned. "No spazzing. Not right now. Please."

Quickly, the girl tended to the coffee. She herself wasn't totally partial to it. There was something wrong, she felt, about having to serve former school mates. It was the whole 'Burger flipper' status her father had pinned to her. She clenched her fingers around the handle of the coffee pot as she poured it until her knuckles turned white.

"Not right now," she whispered to herself, brushing her loose hair away. She added the sugar and cream and turned round to hand the cup to the boy. "Here you are," she told him, aware that she was slightly patched red. Ahhh the glories of her easily embarassed self.

"Go to that World and all you'll amount to is nothing. A burger flipper. You could have been a doctor, but you want to live round with that riff raff. We won't be here to take you back when your life crashes on you."

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Aero flushed lightly and pulled her eyes away from Tyler and quickly adverted them to Mrs. Blott's. "Now, now," she said with a soft smile. "Trying to set up the younguns are you?" She dared a peak out the corner of her eye at the boy though and a rueful grin crossed her face.

Aero flushed lightly as Tyler put his hand on her shoulder, but she made no move to brush it away. She leant in close to look at it. "I like it," she said, nodding.

------------------------------------------

Jamie nodded, eyes wide, at Bucky. "I would be very disappointed if he did that!" He was nearly shaking with the very idea. But he was good at keeping his cool and did nothing of the sort.

"Hi Chef! I'm back!" he said, pulling Bucky with him carefully. "Mett Bucky. She's my bestest best friend from Hogwarts. She's the first person I ever met here, besides you guys." He beamed proudly at Chef and his friend.

"She can't have any milk in her french toast either. Can we do something about that? Milk hates her and will kill her if she has any."

Chef merely chuckled and nodded at the two, twinkling his fingers at them in a wave.

A crashing sound and a small ding of the shop bell startled Maximus who was double-checking his inventory list. He looked up and saw that a woman had stumbled into the shop.

"Good morning, ma'am," he said cheerfully as he put the inventory list away. He smiled warmly at her as she apologized for denting the bell. "Don't worry about that bell. I was planning on taking it down as the day wears on."

_______________________________________
"Katrina, your books are over there," directed Kay as she pointed to the books stacked under a sign that read 'Fifth Year Books.'

Without any further hesitation and not wanting to carry around 40 pounds of books, she hurried over to the stack located under the sign 'Seventh Year Books.' Taking out her list, Kay carefully selected the titles that she needed and carried them over to the counter.

"Hurry up, Kat!" exclaimed Kay impatiently. She didn't want to spend all day trapped in the crowded book shop.

"Of course, thank you." Nik replied to the girl, taking the key and making his way up the stairs. He pushed open the door to his room and smiled ruefully when he noted how clean it was. He laid down his things and flopped down on the bed, falling asleep almost instantly.

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Mrs. Blotts merely smiled at the two young lovers, waving Aero's question off with her hand, and turning from them pretending to be busy with some other papers under the counter.

Tyler nodded and reached around Aero to grab the stationary. As he was pulling it toward him, his hand brushed arm and he suppressed a shiver. "I guess we're set then," he said in an attempt to make things less awkward now that Mrs. Blotts had left them. With her there it was just a casual meeting but without her their meeting now had the potential to be romantic. "Any romance novels for you?" he asked Aero with a teasing grin.
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Bucky's behavior had left Jen baffled. The girl had a tendency to react to strange things but surely she couldn't be jealous of these other girls. And Jamie had to know that Bucky would beat him up if he ever so much as looked at another girl. Yet despite that they were friends.

Jen shook her head in an attempt to chase those thoughts away. Thoughts like that involved too much thinking and gave her headaches from time to time.


"Where's that French toast?" she asked Jamie. All that thinking had made her hungry.

Aero laughed and swatted at Tyler. "Oh don't you start on that," she told him, grinning. "That was a terrible, terrible phase of mine." She flushed lightly at the very memory. Oh... it was a terrible and foolish phase.

"However," she said. "I could get a few new books. Just regular novels, mind. That romance was.... Merlin, Mrs. Blotts will remember that forever." She chuckled, pink cheeked, without moving from where they stood.

----------------------------------------------------

"Cook almost has them finished," Jamie told Jenzy. "Don't worry, he's got to take his time to make it super special." He grinned happily at her. "It will be done in a few minutes."

He looked over at Bucky, sizing her up. Yes, he decided. They needed to have that talk.

Giving up on Katrina who was still selecting her books, Kay reached into her purse and took out the money for both of them. "Here you go, Mrs. Blotts," she said as she handed the exact amount of galleons to the shopkeeper. "That should cover mine and my sister's books."

She rolled her eyes as she gathered her books. Knowing Katrina, she will probably want to look for a book on caring for butterflies. Kay smirked at the thought and bid a cheerful goodbye to the shopkeeper. "Have a nice day, Mrs. Blotts!"

As she exited the shop, Kay stopped next to her sister. "I'll meet up with you in the Leaky Cauldron later in the day. So take your time shopping, Kat!"

A few minutes later, she emerged onto the busy streets of Diagon Alley. With each step, Kay looked around at the different faces hoping to see a certain someone. Her mind was wandering and she was not paying attention to where she was walking. Suddenly, she realized that she had walked back towards the Leaky Cauldron.

Taking a deep breath, Kay pushed open the door to the pub and calmly walked inside. Her blue eyes darted to the bar and she distinctly saw that Elijah was still there. Her heart leapt at the sight of him but the sight of Ashlie so near to him made her temper flare. Without a word, she quietly made her way to a secluded table by the window and sat down.

Aerokiara was not an unsensible girl. She knew that she was literate and thought things well and was intelligant. And she knew that she was level headed and didn't fall head over heels into such things.

And yet she couldn't string together two thoughts to explain what was happening. Her mind was muddling and words and feelings were slurring together. If she wasn't grasping his arms, she'd have fallen because she was certain that she'd lost all feeling in her legs and the ability to stand. Her mind couldn't even think of how to stand.

Her body knew that she was supposed to kiss him back. Her mind couldn't function such a thought, but her mind knew to kiss him back.

So she did.