The machine seemed unwilling to bend! It still wouldn't give her her candy and she was quickly losing what little patience she had. Why did this always happen to her? Did the funny shopkeeper think it was okay to rig this thing so it never gave her gumballs? She was offended.

Lex gave the machine another kick but as she did she heard her name and a familiar voice. By the time she turned around the man was HUGGING the machine.

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NO.

Machines that stole money without giving what's promised did NOT deserve hugs! She scowled at him just a bit. "Can you move? You're making it hard for me to hurt the machine...." He could see that couldn't he? It was clear that she was in the middle of punishing the thing so why was he getting all affectionate with it--and why wasn't he trying to help HER?? The machine could take care of itself!

"I suppose it's lovely to see you too though!..." Yeah...he was still hugging the machine...

Mmmm...

She'd try something else. "I understand that this might look bad but it's not my fault!! This thing is trying to keep SUGAR away from me!!" Sugar that she wanted so it needed to just chill and give her the gumball before she hexed both it and Mr. Funner Shopkeeper. She would. Yup.

Christina eyed the gumball machine for a while. SERIOUSLY I WANT THEM ALL! That's what her mind speaking right now. She really wanted to try the gumballs! And also the chocolate, lollipops, EVERYTHING in this shop. For her, the sweets shop is just like a HEAVEN for her. She really wanted to buy them all

And speaking of, Why did this girl just stood and stared? If she didn't want to get something from the gumball machine, could she move? Because Christina wanted to get gumballs. LOTS AND LOTS OF GUMBALLS. Well, hopefully either her mom or Daniel didn't get mad of her.

Oh, did she just greet her back? She seemed lovely!

"Melanie? Nice to meet you." such a nice name! Hehehe. "I'm Christina." she gave her wide smile. "Do you love sweets too?" Even it sounds like a stupid question, because apparently what would she do here because she loves sweets so much and wants to buy them all? Oh please, Christina...

Melanie wondered if she was blocking the machine. Did the girl want to use it too? Melanie smiled a bit nervously at the other girl, Christina, because well... she didn't want to you know... block her and stuff. She took a step back and gestured at the machine allowing the girl to get the gumballs if she wished. Melanie just wanted to see the gumball swirling down.

"It's nice to meet you too Christina," Melanie said, the nervous smile instantly replaced with the most cheerful one she could muster up. "Do you go to Hogwarts?" Because Melanie had never seen her around Hogwarts before... then again, Hogwarts was a huge school so she wasn't surprised.

Dora didn't need too much candy. They had better stuff in Prague, but she did need some gum while she waited for her uncle to finish his shopping. The almost thirteen year old wandered into the shop, pushing her shades into her hair and slowly gravitated towards the gumball machines. She'd started to fish around her pockets for the right money when she spotted Messer, and a grin naturally found its way on her face.

"Hey, Messer!" She slide up to his side. [b]"Didn't see you the last few weeks of school or on the train. Never got to say congrats for Hufflepuff winning all the stuff." The house cup and quidditch championship. Dora wasn't a sore loser, at least not when it was stuff she didn't care too much about like the house cup and quidditch cup.

FINALLY! Melanie realized that she was blocking the machine. Actually Christina wanted to tell her about that but she didn't want to be rude. Hehehe. The-13-year-old smiled widely. "Thank you!" For? "Well, actually I'm just about to tell you that I want to use the gumball machine." She grinned. Taking some knuts from her purse, she thought for a while how much she needed. Okay, 2 knuts for one gumball, so she put 10 knuts in order to get 5 gumballs.

Come to Christina, you delicious Gumballs!

"Do you want it?" She offered her gumballs to Melanie, because it was quite rude if she didn't share. Christina just shook her head gently when Melanie asked if she went to Hogwarts or not. "No, I go to Beauxbatons. I just visit London for Summer holiday." she said. Only her father and Daniel, her big brother went there while Vivianne, her sister; and herself went to Beauxbatons.

"Hey! Tell me how is Hogwarts." because Christina was so curious about that. Daniel said it was nice

The machine need two knuts for one gumballs, right? He just need to put the knuts and then delicious gumball will be in his waiting hand within seconds. Messer only has 4 knuts in his pocket. That means he only get two gumballs. Darn!

The Hufflepuff was about to put his knuts into the gumball machine when he heard someone was calling his name. Its Dora! "Hi, Dora!" he greeted the girl with a cheeky grin. Didn't see him the last few weeks of school? "Eer. I was away." He's not going to tell Dora about his ballet lesson. No! His housemate already torment him enough about that and he didn't need another house know about that too. "Thanks." He didn't think that she'd do that since they kinda took away the House Cup from her house.

Okay back to the gumball machine. Messer put his 4 knuts into the machine and watched the gumballs swirl down right into his waiting hand. "Do you want one?" he offered her the gumballs.

Shrug. She figured as much. That or her going off into her own little world like she did. Experimenting with spells and such. "Yeah, I want one." It was why she was here? Dora took the gumball and broke it in half. "You have a good summer? What'd you do?" Taking half of the gum, she popped it into her mouth and broke it in half AGAIN before starting to chew.

Mmmm, lemondrop.

Messer watched as Dora took one of the gumball and she broke it half? Maybe its easier for her to chew it like that but its more fun to eat the whole thing. "Yeah. I do." he nodded his head. "I stayed over my friend house for a couple of days doing boys stuffs." Translation: eating candies, chocolate and ice cream. "How about you? How's your summer?" The Hufflepuff asked before he popped the gumball into her mouth and started to chew it.

Ohh. He got pumpkin gumball. "What flavor did you get?"

Xavier knew he was behaving like a child. And he didn't care. Nope. No, sir! You see, the machine was old, well, it came with the shop and the shop has been around for ages. Come on, when HE was a child he used to kick the darn thing too. But years and years have passed. They had to be patient with this lovely gum-giving thing.

AH!

She wanted HIM to MOVE? Uh...uh...uh...no! "I'm actually very comfortable here," he said, patting his precious. "Great head rest." He leaned his head on it, and no, it wasn't a great head rest, but he wasn't about to admit that. Hehehe. At least she said it was lovely to see him. Of course it was lovely to see him. Who wouldn't die to see an ex Falmouth Falcon Beater? HMMM? Everyone. Hehehe.

Xavier eyed the girl then his precious. He believed her. It wasn't Lex's first time to attack the machine, nor was she the first one. Hehe, memories. *_*... Anyway, she wasn't lying. The man tore himself away from his precious and examined it. "It's a stubborn thing, you know," he said, rubbing his invisible beard. "Here, I'll put in another knut and problem solved." And he did. And he waited....and waited...

...and was still waiting.

His precious didn't want to give HIM gumballs? What's this blasphemy?!

He looked down at Lex and held up his index finger, a moment please. Then he stood in front of the gumball machine and shook it. Xavier shook that thing hard. One thing was the machine stealing other's money, but when it stole HIS money, oh uh-uh. That was bad. BAD precious.

Finally, there was a clinking sound, and Xavier didn't know if he broke the machine, but a blue gumball was making it's way down. He grinned and stood up. "There you go. A blue gumball." BEAM.

"Yeah?" She a twinkling of interest in her eyes. "What kind of boy stuff?" What was boy stuff really? Dora thought about it and couldn't think of a something purely boyish. Not by her standards.

She chewed the first half of the gum, then once it was good and soft, she added the other half, rocking back on heels. "I'm going to Prauge today. Once my uncle gets all his stuff settled." He probably was actually waiting on her now, since he never took that long. But Dora wasn't gonna rush on account of having not seen Messer in forever. "Strawberry, what'd you get?"

"Yeah?" She a twinkling of interest in her eyes. "What kind of boy stuff?" What was boy stuff really? Dora thought about it and couldn't think of a something purely boyish. Not by her standards.

She chewed the first half of the gum, then once it was good and soft, she added the other half, rocking back on heels. "I'm going to Prauge today. Once my uncle gets all his stuff settled." He probably was actually waiting on her now, since he never took that long. But Dora wasn't gonna rush on account of having not seen Messer in forever. "Strawberry, what'd you get?"

What kind of boy stuffs? Err. "I can't tell you because it against the bro codes." Nodnod. You know, the code that said something like you don't go around and tell girls about what you did with your bros. They have a code that sound like that, right?

Nom. Nom. Nom.

Prauge? "That's cool. Do Prauge have candy too?" Because candy is always and forever will be in Edvard Messer top list. Strawberry? Strawberry is nice. "Mine is pumpkin."

Unbelievable.

He was still hugging the bloody thing!! WHY??? Clearly he wasn't getting the obvious point that the machine was being bad and needed a good kicking. How else would it learn? She had half a mind to point out the fact that his hugging wasn't getting them anywhere either when all of a sudden the guy was talking about how...comfortable....it was.

Yeah. Right.

"Uh-huh...look Mister, I'm really happy about your head finding a good rest and all that but at the same time I might go through sugar withdrawal just standing here." Was he getting the picture? She had no problem running around like a mad person screaming for sugar; she did that often and secretly enjoyed it--BUT she was sure HE wouldn't want her doing that so he needed to MOOOOVE. Please? Manners helped sometime, didn't they..?

Oh but then there was no need for manners because he was finally complying. She GRINNED up at him when he offered to place his own two knuts in there so she could get her gumball--wait a minute!! "You KNEW this thing likes stealing money and you still keep it around????" GLARE. The machine should'a been put down before it had the chance to annoy anybody else.

She stood back and waited patiently. And waited.....and waited some more until finally even Funner Shopkeeper Guy started hurting it!!! "Seeeeeee? I told you!" Then she slipped around him and gave it another kick. She would have continued but with luck the machine popped up a gumball.

GASP. It was BLUUUE!! Gring. Grin. Grin. "Gee thanks! You even got my favourite colour!!!" And even more GRINNING.

"Really? That's a real thing? Bro Codes?" Dora's interest intensified and she wondered if there was a book on this that she could find. "How many codes are there?"

Pulling out more coins, she inserted them and turned the knob for more gum. She would need it for the road. "Yeah, they got good stuff there. You want me to bring you some back?" Dora so would cause Messer was cool and all.

"You getting more gum? I'm getting some for my trip." Gum was easiest and lasted a lot longer than most other candies.

"Of course it is." he said matter of factly. Dora doesn't know about that? Oh wait. She's a girl, of course girls don't have a clue about that. How many codes? "There are hundreds" Maybe more. "Does girls have girl codes or something like that?"

"Good stuffs? Really?" Now he's curious. "I'd love to taste some Prague candy." That if Dora doesn't mind to bring him some of course. "So you'll be like in Prague till Summer end?"

Another gum? "Nah, I'm good." One gum is enough for him at least for now. Beside he didn't have any knuts left.

Dora let a careless shrug roll off her shoulders, though she had an intensely attentive look in her eyes. "Probably. I haven't been informed of them though." She replied honestly. That was kind of sucky if girls did have a girl code and she didn't know of it. Maybe she would ask Taryn about it, or find a book on it. There was always a book on everything.

"Then I'll get you some, and you can compare how good they are to London candy." She blinked and the attentiveness was exchanged for her usual good natured smile. "Not all of summer, just a few weeks. Then I gotta go to my grandmothers, but I get to come back to Diagon for visits with friends and stuff." The usual stuff. She put her coins in retrieved a new gumball until she had three of them in her hands. Enough for until she got the really good candy.

She didn't know? "Ohh. yeah, probably." He wouldn't know about the bro codes if Alec didn't mention it to him. He should probably thank the guy when he meet him and if he still remembered.

"That good?" Now Messer is curious about this Prague's candy. London has several good candy but the way Dora said it made it like Prague has the best candy. "I'll be waiting for the candy." Nods. "Oh. Cool." He watched as Dora retrieved another gumballs from the machine. "I think I should finish my shopping for school supplies before I end up spending all my money in this store." Chuckles. "I'll see you at school, Dora. And Have a safe trip to Prague." He said before he left the Sugarplums shop.

Tucker could hardly believe that he had gotten his mother to agree to let him go back to school - he was in complete SHOCK that he had been given permission to go to Diagon Alley by himself. Apparently there was some flying carpet emergency at the Ministry or something. That was one of the good things about having a mother who was a Department Head - there were other things to occupy her now besides him.

And the BEST part of going to the alley alone - CANDY. Gabriela Schultz NEVER let candy or sweets of any kind in the house. Tucker hadn't even known what chocolate was until he was 5, and he was FROM the country that had like...perfected chocolate making. He could still remember his first cookie when he was 8 years old. It was chocolate chip with walnuts. Mmmmmm.

So naturally instead of heading to get actual school supplies, he headed to the candy shop. Hmm, maybe he'd start with a gum ball, to give him something sweet to chew on while he shopped. Then he could come back and get some more candy to smuggle into the house when he got back. Yes, that sounded like a plan to him...

It most likely wasn't a good idea to go back to the gumball machine; not while she was trying to be a better person anyway, but she couldn't help it. One didn't simply visit the candy shop and not get some gum on the way out. Sure she could have gotten the pack gum or something but it wasn't the same as putting in a few knuts then tackling the machine to the ground and giving it a few well placed kicks.

Ahem. Not that she planned to do that this time. Nope. This time the machine would cooperate. She had a feeling it would because she needed to make peace with it.

As she approached the candy machine she found a boy standing there. Was he there to give the machine looks for trying his luck? She'd never seen him before--what if this was his first time in the candy shop??? He wouldn't KNOW that the gumball machine hardly EVER played fair!!!! He could lose his knuts and she wasn't sure he was aggressive assertive enough to get it back. Something needed to be done. "Hello there!" She offered him a smile. "Come to pick a fight with the gumball machine?"

Tucker didn't realize that someone was talking to him at first, and when he DID finally hear someone talking to him, he turned to her and blinked. What? Picking a fight with the machine?

Tucker hadn't had a TON of interaction with kids his age, except the kids on the block where he lived. Was this normal conversation?

"Umm...what?" he asked, looking from the girl and back to the machine. Now that she said that, he kind of half expected it to grow fangs and try and bite him. Eep! That wouldn't be good...

It figured he wouldn't have known, she could tell by the confused look he had on his face. Either that or he thought she was going on about foolishness. Whichever it was, it still left him not knowing about the evil that was the gumball machine.

"You know, a fight, like kicking and scratching and being loud enough to get the shopkeeper's attention." She nodded toward the machine before going on. "This thing doesn't like making nice with others. It takes more knuts than the gumballs it actually gives out. It's almost ridiculous." Almost right there was an understatement! The thing was a bloody THIEF!!! "Usually I end up having to give it a good whack or three--Not something Mr. Nice Shopkeerper likes, but very necessary. You should be careful with this thing."

After saying all that she realized she was giving candy advice to a perfect stranger. She could fix that too. "I'm Alexa by the way, and you are?"

"Really?" Tucker said, eyes growing wide as he looked back at the gumball machine. It looked harmless enough, but he COULD almost sense a feeling of...smugness about the machine. Yes, it was smug and knew it was going to swindle him for a gumball!

"Well, thanks for letting me know," he chuckled. "I guess I'll just play it safe and buy some licorice or something," he said with a shrug. Candy was candy, after all.

Oh, they were exchanging pleasantries? Ok, Tucker could do that. "I'm Tucker Schultz. Third year Hufflepuff," he said. Oh, it felt so good to say that! Third year Hufflepuff - as in a THIRD year who was ACTUALLY going to school this year!

Lex nodded at his brief moment of doubt, as if she was trying to convince him a little extra to NOT waste his knuts on a defective machine. She was very pleased when he decided he'd have the licorice stuff instead...or...well...almost pleased. Time for further indoctrination. "You could have a chocolate frog instead, those have never betrayed anyone and they're super good. Do you like them?? I can have tons a day and still have more. People collect the cards, do you??" She was known to ramble when she got into a conversation about chocolate frogs so she would stop herself at that question, give the guy some time to catch up and answer.

"Oh hey you're a third year too--waaaaaaait." Lex stopped and stared over at the boy, checking every inch of his face, taking in his hair....the way he stood then finally she was just staaaring.

How curious.

"Hufflepuff huh? I don't think I know many third year Hufflepuffs..." She paused, trying to remember. "Have I run into you before? I don't think I have but then I must have at least once...probably you might have been down in the kitchen?" A Hufflepuff she couldn't place...Hmmm...VERY curious, even for her and she was pretty oblivious.

Tucker grinned and nodded. "Yeah, I collect them - well, I'm going to start. I can't keep them in my house because my mum is kind of crazy about the whole sweets thing, so I have to smuggle all my candy in. I would NOT risk leaving cards around and getting caught that way," he explained. Tucker was soooo much smarter than that. Gabi had taught her son in the ways of being a sneaky Slytherin - she probably had never counted on him using that knowledge AGAINST her.

And now...Alex was trying to place him. Uggh. He had been afraid of this. He didn't want to go into the whole lengthy explanation about his crazy mother and her dreams of sueing the school for not putting him in Slytherin, so he summed it up and nice and simple for her. "Well, I was at school for about a week my first year - that's why I'm sorted already - but my mum had to pull me out of school shortly after that. I'm returning this year, though, no more homeschooling," he explained with a grin.

"Ohhhhh. That sucks." Or was she supposed to have found a nicer way of saying that. "How come your mum won't let you have candy?? My Daddy knows how much I love the stuff, he'd never not let me have it--except for during this term that just left but that's a long story and I got smuggled candy anyway so it didn't make a difference." The name Alexa Cambridge was synonymous with Candy. Candy bans would never work no matter who placed them. "How many cards do you have so far? I checked the official cards listing, I have at least three of every one of them," she'd been through a lot of chocolate frogs in her life. "I don't actually collect them though 'cause I don't see the point, but I keep the cards in a drawer in my room. Keeps them out of the way."

She reached into her pocket and pulled out a chocolate frog then began unwrapping it while she listened to his explanation. It was actually quite..."Neat!" He was already theeeere just not there. She wouldn't have run into him in that first week either because she was stuck in detention. good times, good times. "Not the being home-schooled part though. How come she wanted you home-schooled in the first place? Was she worried you wouldn't make enough friends? Or--or that you'd be picked on?? 'Cause that would probably never happen you know." She wouldn't consider the students at Hogwarts bullies, just...idiots, for the most part.

"But it's good you're coming back!!! We can hang out when I run into you!--if you'd like that is." BEAM.