There it was! Classic Blake! Bernie just smirked at his predictable response (he was as ornery as ever) and continued licking her ice cream. She actually didn't mind Classic Blake today. She had kinda missed her Hogwarts friends classmates over the summer she'd spent surrounded by Muggles. Muggles were terribly boring.

"Well it was alright," the brunette paused in her ice cream attack to give Blake a closer look. Did he look taller or was it just her? He looked a little tanner too. He looked good healthy or whatever. "I didn't do much... mostly just hung around my family and read some books, went outside... did you do anything exciting?"

Speaking of exciting... oh yeaaaaaah, the dance. Bernie looked away from him hastily, so that he didn't see the faint blush creeping on her cheeks too. She could hide behind this ice cream cone, yes she could. She bit off a big chonk of ice cream to avoid answering him; maybe it would cool her whole face down. Bernie hadn't thought about the dance at ALL. Not once. Not even a little bit all summer long. It had simply been a short-lived twenty or so minutes or whatever at the end of the school year. Nothing at all to write home about.

Psych.

She'd practically written an essay about being asked to dance by not one but TWO boys. That was totally what had happened. At least, that's how the story in her diary went. "Uh uh uhhhhhhhh," the second-year stuttered in response to Blake. She tapped the side of her head with her hand that wasn't holding ice cream. "Bwain fweeze, sorreh." Sorreh, can't talk bout anything right meow.

Was Blake mistaken or did ever sure of herself Bernadette of a blush creeping upon her cheeks as well. HA, at least it wasn't just him that did it. "Your cheeks appear to be pink ...are you warm?" HAHA, Blake was being a bit crass but he called her out, because the constant teasing from her and Claudine about his blushing last year was still ever present in his mind. "I stopped for a cone earlier." He mentioned as she buried her face in her cone. "Brain freeze is a killer" He added to her comment. I mean what else was there to say about that.

"Also the pink in your cheeks is pretty." Blake froze ... dead silent ... ummm... did that just come out of his mouth ... ummm.... nope Dear Merlin please say she didn't here him ..... please......

It was a typical summer day, hot, bright with too many people around. And Orion hated it. Summer had to be the worst part of the year for him, even with cooling charms in his all black ensemble, it was still a bit toasty in his black hoodie..

And so many people around made him a bit anxious. Everyone was happy and laughing and dressed in shorts.. ugh. Terrible! Sun exposure was bad for the skin, people wouldn’t ever find him wearing shorts.

He sighed as he sat down on the park bench. His shopping for the day done as he settled down to people watch a bit..

There was no point in going home just yet.. no one was there.. though at least it was cooled. So that was a plus..

Ugh, maybe he should just go home and play his video games?

Carsyn was one of those people dressed in shorts. But she wasn't laughing. No, instead the Gryffindor was literally a ball of anxiety since arriving home. She knew she needed to get her school supplies and her Aunt Mia had given both herself and her twin extra money as a reward, yet the fifteen year old couldn't bring herself to shop for anything yet. Maybe a new wand. One without a fwooper core.

Then she saw him ... again. Wearing black, as per usual.

"You do realize it's okay to wear shorts in the summer." Because he HAD to be hot. He just had to be.

Oh no, he saw her cheeks coloring! The ice cream cone was not cooling her down fast enough! Bernie swallowed another chunk of chocolate and nodded ferociously. "Yesssssh," she mumbled through her ice cream and brain freeze, "It's verrry warm hewe, Bwake, ish summa time." Duh.... she only nodded and pressed her palm to her forehead to try to massage away the headache. She felt it lessening already, especially with... with... with what did he just say?!?!

Bernie gaped at Blake and nearly dropped her ice cream cone, recovering it just in time. "T-thank you?!" the second year squeaked, not at ALL sure how to handle this compliment?!?!?!?!! Did she return it? Did she just accept it? Did she just say nothing else and keep eating her ice cream?!

The latter. Bernie noticed that a small puddle of ice cream had formed on her hand, which she proceeded to lick like a cat wetting its paw to clean behind its ear. Mmm, hand!ice cream tasted great. This was an excellent distraction from that nonsense Blake had just said. She must not have heard him correctly. She probably needed to clean her ears out.

Wouldn’t it be nice to wear what you want when you wanted and not be judged for it? Yeah it would..

Today was not that day..

However the voice that asked the question had a soft spot in Orion’s heart and therefore, he just smiled softly and shrugged a bit.

“Well I can’t now. I’ve been wearing pants for so long that if I wear shorts now I would blind most of the people in this alley, yourself included, so really I’m doing everyone a public service.” He retorted with a soft smirk as he looked at her.

Did he like her? Yes, yes he did.

Was he ever going to say anything or admit it out loud..

No, no he wasn’t.

Whelp it was obvious his little compliment did not go unnoticed... he had kinda of hoped she wouldn't have heard him. I mean what kind of nonsense was he saying anyway ... she was pretty? ugh ... nope ... girls were still icky ... right.... kind of .... Blake was so confused! Trying not to dwell on it, Blake cleared his throat and moved on ... "Seen much of Claudine this summer?" There see Blake did not forget about Bernadette's friend and his housemate ... even if he didn't like her very much ... but that wasn't really true either ... she had kind of grown on him.

"I'm excited to actually go to Hogwarts this year. Strange to say we are in our second year, but really we are firsties all over again ... just with more wand movement." Blake laughed and give his wand a little swish and flick ... a rock near them hovered for a moment. Wait ... was he suppose to be using magic outside of school? At least it was in Diagon Alley and not in the muggle world.

The thing was, honestly, she wasn't judging him and if he dared to change up his apparel well, it wouldn't be Orion and Carsyn mostly just liked to give him a hard time. She wasn't even sure why because he irritated her until she was 'yay-high' in dung.

"Well you technically can," Carsyn quickly found herself retorting back. "But you won't. Because well, you're choosing not to."

It had been years since Laura had been at Hogwarts, she couldn't believe how fast time was flying, She stood in Diagon Alley, thinking about the first time she had been here. She still remembered how she had stood in awe and felt frighten by all the big adults and older students that had been roaming around.

Laura hadn't been in Diagon Alley for quiet awhile now, she had moved to America about three years after leaving Hogwarts, her children were now going to wizarding school in America, her children were with her husband still in America.

Laura was feeling slightly nervous, she had come on business but now she was meeting up with one of her friends from school, whilst they had kept in touch through owling each other, she hadn't seen Sophie for years. It was going to be surreal.

The only reason why Sophie wasn't in Diagon Alley more often was that she didn't live in London. Of course, that wasn't really a problem when you had magical transportation, but she did enjoy walking places, so the fact she couldn't walk to the Wizarding commercial area did mean she prioritised other places if her shopping needs weren't purely magical.

But that day would be extra special as she was going to meet up with one of her old friend from Hogwarts whom she hadn't seen in years! And not just any friend from school, it was one of her housemates AND roommates. People could hardly experience Hogwarts in a more connected way than that!

The mother-of-four had brought some - not all - of her kiddos with her. The ones that were old enough to go to some shops on their own and meet her at a specific spot later. The younger ones weren't quite ready for that kind of thing yet, of course, so they stayed back home. That meant she would have some - temporary, but still plenty good - peace and quiet to catch up with her old friend.

"Laura!!" Sophie exclaimed happily as she spotted her blonde friend. "Sweet Merlin, it's been so long!!" She rushed to the bench and nearly didn't wait until her friend was fully standing to give her a hug. "How are you?? How've you been? How are the kids!?" As usual, the former Hufflepuff had ALL the questions. It was almost as if they hadn't kept in touch by owl. Of course they had, but seeing each other face to face was WAY better and Sophie wanted to hear things from Laura's own mouth.

MERLIN, it had been too long!!

Laura had been eating some chocolate and so wasn't paying attention, until her name was called out by her friend and former roommate Sophie, boy had it been a long time. She stood up and was soon been given a hug by Sophie, something which she returned the favour. "I know right!" Laura hadn't meant to leave for the US but a great opportunity arose and she had jumped on it in a flash, plus it got rid of the memories of a certain person and now she was married to an amazing American and had another child.

"I'm great!" Laura suddenly blushed as she realised something. "Sophie, truthfully how was I at school? The twins last year blew up a toilet in their fifth year and did a few other things and they wanted to know where he got it from." Laura wasn't that bad was she, they didn't get that from her. "My youngest son is starting wizarding school next year, he's so looking forward to it, though my husband is like what will we do with all the piece and quiet." Laura though wasn't going to let him have that.

Laura smiled as she sat back down. "So how are you? And how are your kids?" Yes now it was her turn to ask questions.

Sophie released her friend from the hug but continued to smile widely. "Great!!" It was great that Laura was great! She was doing great too, wasn't it all so GREAT!?! It really was!

Laura's twins had been in FIFTH YEAR last year!?!?!?! Sophie nearly didn't hear the rest because THAT piece of information was almost TOO MUCH. FIFTH YEAR. "Merlin, I didn't know we were that old! You're so old, Laura, how do you have kids already in fifth year!?!?" She laughed out loud. My WORD. And she thought Ella and herself were old by having their kiddos at Hogwarts already. Laura's were nearly graduating! MERLIN!

The brunette also laughed at the rest of her comment on the twins, though, not really missing it altogether. "Sure, I wonder where they got it from..." She shook her head, amused smile spread across her face as she chuckled some more. "I just hope they don't drag their friends into it like someone I know used to do!" She added, giving Laura a jokey side-look.

Sophie listened to what her friend had to say about her youngest, nodding along. "It's so exciting when they start school, isn't it!?" She said excitedly before pausing for a moment to consider something. "Aren't you a bit gutted that your kids aren't experiencing the school you went to?" She asked. Because Hogwarts was Hogwarts! All of their amazing school memories were made there and Sophie LOVED the fact her children would get to create their own memories in the same place she attended! It was all just so LOVELY and GREAT and EXCITING!! Anyhow. "How do they like the American school anyway?" What was it called again?

Sophie sat down when Laura did and got excited ALL over again when the woman asked about her own children. That was her FAVOURITE TOPIC! "Oh, I'm great too!! The kids are SO big and smart and beautiful and they are the best children I could've asked for!" JUST saying. Even their little troublemakers were the BEST EVER, yep. "Noah and Catherine started Hogwarts last year. Noah's a Gryffindor, Catherine a Ravenclaw. I'm not sure who Scarlett takes after, but maybe it'd be a good thing if she never heard the stories from what you used to do at Hogwarts." Sophie commented, chuckling when thinking about how much crazier her young daughter could get if she had 'inspirations' to base her actions on. Merlin help them! "Mackenzie started full-time school last year, so I've had a lot of free time too, especially as Mordred is constantly busy with his own work." She shifted on the bench before bouncing slightly, just as she used to do when they were younger. "So I've applied for another job in the Ministry! I'm so excited to get back there and do other things again!" Because staying in an empty house wasn't her thing at ALL. It was the best thing when her kids were around, but now that they were all gone for most of the day, Sophie had to find something else to keep her busy that didn't include fighting the house-elf.

Laura couldn't believe how long it had been since she had seen Sophie and now it was like being back at school again with them just chatting away. "I know right, soon we'll be old and grey." Laura couldn't believe it was so long ago since she was causing mischief and mayhem at school.

"Sometimes I wish my children could go to Hogwarts but they love it at
Ilvermorny and Ben can't wait to join his older siblings there, all last term he was asking me questions about when I was at school but I just told him I went to a different school." Laura laughed.

"Why don't you tell them how I got away with blowing up the Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor door." Laura still wasn't sure how she had got away with that, but not a single point was taken from her than day and it confused her like crazy thinking about it. "Or the time I got detention for starting a food fight, in fact I think I lived in detention most of the time." Laura looked at Sophie. "At least I had you and Ella to stop me from doing crazy things. "

Finneas Schmoe stood with a single shcoop of jelly slug in hand. He wasn't meant to stay in the alley for long, but it was a nice day and opportune time for a cold snick snack. But uh, the noodley man was doing his very best to avoid eye contact with his students who were flooding the streets at this time because ha ha ha ha awkward.

AnYwAy.

His ice cream was melting all down the cone and Finneas had to stop in his tracks to lick it up before it managed to run down his arm. A noble mission. Not so noble execution though. He was big time struggling. Ha ha ha. Ho ho ho.

#awk

Those who said there was no point in going to Diagon Alley when you had no money had a distinct lack of imagination. Nemesis Upstead had managed to find plenty of ways to pass the time here without spending so much as a knut, and even sometimes found some form of entertainment. You just needed the right eye for it.

And who drew the eye more than the frankly ridiculous and unnecessarily tall Professor Schmoe, Muggle Studies teacher and the Head of House of Nem's twin sister. And unfortunate man. Just what this kid liked to see.

"Professor!" Nem chirped, suddenly appearing from stage left, face fixed with a bright smile and those big, innocent eyes fixed intently on his, like they didn't know exactly how easy it was to unnerve him into a kind of twittering awkwardness. "Professor Schmoe, hi! Oh-..." Cue an awkward sort of smile. "You've got a little something on your face..."

Did he? No. Did that matter? Definitely not.

The problem with melty ice cream is that when you start tending to the dribbly melt on one side of the cone, the other side runs as it pleases. So THEN you have to go tending to that side, leaving the original side to dribble drooble as much as it pleased. In turn, there would be no winning. A chaotic cycle of never ending dribbles.

Woe is Schmoe. Un-iced is the cream.

So woe is Schmoe, that he was working very diligently to even out the melty goop on top of his cone and took no notice of young Nemesis Upstead. Finneas was midlick when he was called upon, and looked up, tongue out and eyes wide (like a newborn baby straight out of its mother's, well, ANYWAY). "HEH," was the strange sound he made in greeting Nem. It was supposed to be a 'hello' or maybe a 'hey, how do you do', but with his tongue still out and ultimate surprise, all that he managed was that unintelligent sounding 'HEH'.

His face quickly contorted itself to wear a look of mild concern and he lowered his ice cream cone at once. "Oh, heh, heh," an awkward laugh for an awkward noodle man in an awkward situation. "Errrrr......... How embarrassing." he used the cubital area (the under crevice, if you will) of his elbow to swipe across his cheek.... Did he get it?

Nem had heard a little about Schmoe from their Uncle Dale, who happened to have ended up living in the same Hogwarts dormitory as him, back in the old days when everything was in sepia tones and dinosaurs roamed the earth. Finneas Schmoe was practically - if not actually - a genius, by all accounts, but Nem had yet to see any evidence of it. For starters, there was that apparent interest in muggles, of all things, and then of course there were his oh-so-intelligent exclamations, like that greeting. 'Heh.'

Simply inspired.

Fixing the professor with a maybe-slightly-too-steady gaze, Nem gave a shake of the head. "A little higher," they said, vaguely gesturing just upwards of where he'd just wiped his face. "There's some on the other side too. Oh, and there's a bit-... actually no, that can't be right. I mean, how would you have got it in your hair?"

Finneas was quite uncomfortable under the scrutiny of that gaze, but he was always quite uncomfortable so perhaps this was to be expected. He blinked a few times, nervously, as one does and upped his wiping technique so that his upper arm was rubbing all the way up his face. Eerrrrr... Did he get it now?

The OTHER side? Merlin. Finneas knew himself not to be the most graceful bloke on the block, but this was a little ridiculous. Perhaps he needed to revisit his ice cream etiquette. It was truly a blessing that he had run into Nem. Imagine how embarrassing it would have been walking around with all of this goop on his face without having any idea! "Th-thats embarrassing," Finneas laughed uncomfortably, lifting his other arm (the one holding the cone) and wiping at the other side of his face.

His HAIR?! This was very alarming indeed! And Schmoe began to consider Nem's question very deeply, unfortunately gravity was a law (even in the wizard world) and PLOOOOP went the remaining ice cream goop, heading down, down, down and inhibiting an opportunity to consider the Slytherin's question any further.

Nem just kept staring, faced arranged into a sort of 'politely invested' expression, tiny smile tugging at the corners of their mouth. Schmoe looked absurd, but it was near impossible to say whether this was any real deviation from usual, being that he was just a generally absurd man.

Actually, no it wasn't. Nem was taking full credit here.

"Super embarrassing," they agreed earnestly, gaze drifting across to the ice cream in the cone as...

... down it went.

Oh, what a shame. Nem looked directly at Schmoe again, and deadpanned. "You've dropped your ice cream, sir."

Er. "Yes," Schmoe was wildly embarrassed. "It er... Appears so." He slowly looked down from his cone to the sidewalk. There it was. The scoop in all its former glory. Had Finneas not been so nervous and uncomfortable, he might have used his obnoxiously large brain to cast some sort of cleaning spell with his wand.

As it was, however, the scrutiny of Nem's gaze and energy it took to invest in a social interaction had Finneas rather jittery and rendered him quite incapable of calling upon the big clump of neurons sat in his round noggin.

And so instead of using his wand and a spell, he laughed uncomfortably and bent down to pick the glop of ice cream up with his hand. Of course at this point, you could rightfully imagine that the icecream was quickly phasing from a solid to a liquid and his body heat did not help this situation at all. So Finneas was stood in front of the young Upstead with a melting scoop of ice cream in hand, an empty cone, and a very uncomfortable smile. "Ha, ha," he wiggled his hand holding the scooped goop. "Won't be eating this..." Ha ha ha.

Nem was fixing Schmoe with a thoughtful expression, though there was a chance it may have seemed closer to calculating - not that they felt that really mattered around Schmoe. "You could if you put your mind to it. But you know, sir," they said, as though in a moment of great epiphany. "You remind me a lot of one of my brothers." After a quick glance at the handful of ice cream gloop, and the imaginary ice cream streaks on Schmoe's far, Nem grinned. Warm. Genial. "He'll be two in a few weeks."

Yes, it was uncanny. More or less. Hunter was far less twitchy, mind.

"And can I just say, Professor Schmoe, that I seriously admire your courage. Not everyone would have the bravery to be so blatantly you, after all." Nem said all of this rather earnestly, ~pleasant~ vibes practically oozing out of their very pores. They smiled. "But I should go and make sure my other little brother hasn't fallen into a well or something." Were there any wells around here? He'd probably manage to make it happen regardless, and then the paternal half of M&D would get all ticked off and suspicious of Nem, and really, who had the time for any of that? "I'll be seeing you. At Hogwarts, I mean. I'm taking Muggle Studies this year; didn't want to miss out on your classes."

HMPH.

Rosie decided since she was now stuck in the London area, she might as well attempt to find things of interest to her in the Diagon Alley area. It was apparently the best spot to go for wizarding folk. But could she just say, thus far... she was unimpressed. But she HAD to go ahead and lay her claim to the area, because the London house was what Bogdan had wanted in the divorce. And she couldn't very well let him get what he wanted. So even though her preference was the home in Bulgaria, she fought for the UK home.

She, of course, won. How could she not when she had the best lawyers?

But now the thing was, what to DO with this house? She didn't want to live her permanently, but she'd have to at least make an effort at making it her home for awhile so that she could rub it in Boggy's face via social media. So HERE she was, soaking up the sites and taking PLENTY of pictures so that she could very obviously rub them in his face later.

SPOILER!!: Rosie!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chelliephone

HMPH.

Rosie decided since she was now stuck in the London area, she might as well attempt to find things of interest to her in the Diagon Alley area. It was apparently the best spot to go for wizarding folk. But could she just say, thus far... she was unimpressed. But she HAD to go ahead and lay her claim to the area, because the London house was what Bogdan had wanted in the divorce. And she couldn't very well let him get what he wanted. So even though her preference was the home in Bulgaria, she fought for the UK home.

She, of course, won. How could she not when she had the best lawyers?

But now the thing was, what to DO with this house? She didn't want to live her permanently, but she'd have to at least make an effort at making it her home for awhile so that she could rub it in Boggy's face via social media. So HERE she was, soaking up the sites and taking PLENTY of pictures so that she could very obviously rub them in his face later.

Scott Ferguson had had a long day. Now that he was graduated, he was having an identity crisis. What was he DOING with his life? He wanted to apply for the ministry, but he was nervous for two reasons. 1. What if he didn't get accepted? He was a Ferguson, and his dad would surely be disappointed in him...and his mum. And his brother would lord it over him forever and for all eternity. 2. He was a Ferguson; his father had a reputation that preceeded him. What if they only accepted him because of that? Something in the back of his mind kept whispering, use it to your advantage, Scottie... but he felt like he wanted to earn something.

He wanted to do SOMETHING on his own.

With the Prophet in hand, his head shaking at the continuing development of all Azkaban news, he scoffed and ruffled his hair. One hand held the paper; the other, his coffee. It didn't matter what time of day it was...he was always drinking coffee; almost always, anyway.

It wasn't that he didn't see her; he very much saw her. It was something behind her - the very large wasp in the vicinity. If there was one thing Scottie was afraid of, it was wasps. Ick. What was their purpose other than causing human suffering? The distraction was so great that he tripped over her foot, caught himself before he could fall AND froze the spilling coffee so the hot liquid wouldn't go EVERYWHERE on her foot. And cause a potential suing situation.

"I...am...so....sorry...." he scurried up, his eyes widened...looking from her, to the coffee, to the WASP THREATENING HIS LIFE.

She was still eying the street and all the shops disdainfully when someone STEPPED on her foot. Well, he more of tripped on her foot and while the gent had frozen his coffee and clearly had not caused any harm other than nearly falling, Rose was one for dramatics. "Well, excuse YO-" She was mid yell when she noticed his eyes were darting around from her to his drink to... over her shoulder? What was he even LOOKING at?

Rosie turned to find what he was looking for before noticing the wasp buzzing around her head. And before she could move away from it the DEVIL had flown into her HAIR. And of COURSE this had to have been a day she hadn't straightened it so it was in her CURLS.

She jumped up from the bench, flailing just a little bit too wildly, "AHHHHHHH. GET IT OUT, GET. IT. OUT."

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chelliephone

She was still eying the street and all the shops disdainfully when someone STEPPED on her foot. Well, he more of tripped on her foot and while the gent had frozen his coffee and clearly had not caused any harm other than nearly falling, Rose was one for dramatics. "Well, excuse YO-" She was mid yell when she noticed his eyes were darting around from her to his drink to... over her shoulder? What was he even LOOKING at?

Rosie turned to find what he was looking for before noticing the wasp buzzing around her head. And before she could move away from it the DEVIL had flown into her HAIR. And of COURSE this had to have been a day she hadn't straightened it so it was in her CURLS.

She jumped up from the bench, flailing just a little bit too wildly, "AHHHHHHH. GET IT OUT, GET. IT. OUT."

....


..........................................

Scott had never taken a class or read a book on what to do if what you hated most - WASPS - flew into a pretty girl's hair, and he was severely lacking the critical thinking to be able to know exactly what to do right now. He. Was. FROZEN.

Okay, Scottie. He sucked in his breath. "Keep still and maybe I can hex it away! If you keep moving around, I won't be able to get it!" He definitely did not want to hex her. He did raise his wand, though, to get AT THE READY.