Cat giggled. "Not nuts, silly. Knuts." She opened her hand to show him the knuts sitting on her palm then pointed to the same out of the money he had with him. "Those ones. You need two. You can have mine." She didn't need them right now, anyway. She had sugar quills.

"A little Italy?" Caterina tilted her head and tapped the quill on her teeth, "How does one have a little Italy?" She was very curious about this. "Where's home?" Maybe that would explain things to her? Probably not, though. Hmm. A little Italy. What did that mean?

Knuts. Yeah. Okay. Bigggg difference. Apparently.

So knuts were the nickel looking ones. Understood. "Oh. Thanks." he said accepting the coins... which he promptly put into the machine. A turn later he was rewarded with a fantastic gumball. "Thanks for your help." he said gratefully right before sticking the thing directly into his mouth.

"'m from New York." he said between gum smacks. "I'm Mitchell by the way." She earned knowing his name. Yes, she did.

So....Baelyn wanted some candy. And why not get candy from, you know, a candy shop? He hadn't been to Diagon in like, forEVS so he was super pumped to get some CANDEH. He was ABOUT to go scan the shelves for sweets when...

WHOAH.

Gumball Machine.

GUM. BALL. MA. CHINE.

Bae almost fainted. He NEVER saw gumballs ANYWHERE and wehdwiuhfirhfighighigh. He jiggled his pocket and felt the couple of loose coins that he had. Right. His nanny was getting his books...so he was free to use THIS money how he WANTED. CHYEAH!

He quickly pulled out a knut and sliiiiiid it into the slot. He turned it. And waited. And waited.

And waiiiiiited.

Well then. NO gumball. "Is this thing broken?!" he cried, his face curled into a distraught mess of features. His big blue eyes were wiiiiide. Ugh. He kicked the side of it...he hadn't really read the sign that said TWO knuts...he had only put ONE. But Baelyn didn't read. Yuck. that required brain power and stuff to do with..smarts.

*Shivers*

Bae didn't want to be smart. 'Cuz then people expected stuff from you.

Hungry. Yes, she was indeed. And why, someone may attempt to ask her, would a child eat sweets? Because she was a child and one who loved sweets at that. However, Hope wasn't really into eating until she was sick because she was hungry, but not so hungry that she was scarf down a pound of chocolate. Instead she was just going to have a gumball and while she had been exploring this place trying to find interesting things, she had seen the gumball machine through the window.

However, Hope was not able to get to the gumball machine she wanted to get to because SOMEONE was in the way. And she wasn't going to go to a different one just beause SOMEONE didn't know how to read. She reached around the boy and clicked to coin slot back, the first knut still sitting in the hole, and she dropped a second one in. "It takes two. Read the sign." She turned it and watched as a gumball came out. "Can I have my knut back?"

Baelyn whipped his head around. He heard a GIRL speaking to him.

Ew.

Well, at least she was decent-looking and had a normal nose. Nothing was worse than a girl with a weird nose. At least, that's what Baelyn thought. He eyed the coin..oh. He looked at the sign. Pffffft. Right.

"I--I saw that! I was just trying...trying to see if it would only work with one...yep." He nodded and tried to look pleased with himself. He was good at that. He grabbed the gum before she could. it was a bright, neon green. Mhhmm. He popped it into his mouth and started chewing. He grinned.

"Your knut? You can't have it back. It's in the machine..." Dumb girls were so...

Dumb.

"That's kind of how this thing works."

"Sure. That's what they all say." Hope glared as he popped the neon green gumball into his mouth and crossed her arms as he tried to make her sound stupid. "Actually, my knut partially paid for that gumball in your mouth so I want one of YOUR knuts." She extended a hand towards him and glared. After all knuts didn't grow on trees. She was going to do this the easy way or the hard way. It was his choice.

He grinned. And chewed. Yummy. It was sweet and sugary and amazingness. He quickly blew a bubble and it popped. He chuckled.

"You can have half of my gum--" he smiled wickedly and reached into his mouth but then he laughed and shoved his hand into his pocket. "Just kidding. I don't want to share my gum with you anyways." He pulled out a knut and dropped it into he hand.

"Happy? Merlin, girls are always so mean. This is why I hate girls." He said with a firm nod. "But..you know...you did pay for my gum. So I guess you're not as bad as a normal one. " He shrugged and kept...

Cheeeewwwwwing.

gumgumgumgumgumgumgum he wanted MORE. He wanted to blow a BIG BUGGLE MERLIN'S PANTS YES!

He pulled out two knuts and before she could get a piece for herself quickly slid them in and pushed the thingy-bobber--and AHA! A BLUE piece! YES!

She cringed and shook her head. "I don't know what kind of germs you have. Besides, I want my own piece. I don't like green and like I said, I don't know what kind of germs you have." Boys were so grose and Hope hoped she didn't meet too many of them just yet.

She smiled as he dropped the knut in her hand she reached into her pocket to retrieve another. Just as she was about to put her money in he went and pushed the button to get another. She gave him a quick push to the shoulder and grabbed the blue one popping it into her mouth chewing on it before he could. She cave him a cat ate the canary smile and said, "Thanks for the gum. Want you knut back?"

Baelyn rolled his eyes. "I have zero germs because my nanny makes SURE I scrub myself clean---even behind my ears--" he pointed to his ears and wiggled them with his hand a little. Seeeee?

WHAT!

He growled a little and wanted to SMACK it out her hand! "Um--YOU OWE ME TWO KNUTS!" he cried, and he glared at her. "and you pushed me! How rude. Girls are such rude creatures, I swear! What is your NAME, Rudeness?" he asked, and he bowed VERY sarcastically.

HMPH.

Why did she care about what was behind his ears! She didn't.

Hope laughed and handed him a single knut. "You cut in front of me so I'm charging you a knut. Ladies first and even though I'm only eleven, I'm still a lady." She blew a bubble with her stolen piece of gum and let it pop. "My name is Hope. And I was only rude to you because you were rude to me so..."
Yeah.

She stuck her tongue at him and got herself another piece of gum. This time it was canary yellow. She quickly grabbed it before he could so she wouldn't lose it to him. Yep! She was living the life.

"Sure." Cat smiled at the boy and twirled the sugar quill in her mouth as she watched him figure out how to work the machine, finally. No one should be deprived of sweet things, so this was a victory. Mind you, it was a small scale sort of victory, but still one, none the less.

"Oh, New York." America. So that was where little Italy was. Interesting. "Did you move here, or are you just visiting?" Another good question, yes. "I'm Caterina." Or a million other names that she'd collected over the last almost sixteen years.

Baelyn rolled his eyes. "I did not. I got here first, fair and square. You're dumb, thinking that you can just come in here and push me around...PFFFFT! " he blew a raspberry her way as a JOKE. He then laughed and continued chewing his gum. He used her knut and one of his to get another piece...pink...ew.

"can we trade? I hate pink. It's a girl color." He explained, and he did his puppy eyes. So maybe he would be nice now. Until he got the yellow gum. Then he could go back to thinking girls were weird. And pretty.

But still weird.

The only reason he hadn't punched her yet(PPFFFFT, he had SO punched someone before..yeah...sure he had!) was because she was a GIRL and you weren't SUPPOSED to punch girls! Nope! Bad manners.

She stared at the pink piece of gum and looked at the boy. "What's your name? Tell me your name and we'll trade gum." Because you never get anything for free from Hope.

Bae scoooooofffffeeeddd. UGH.

"Baelyn York--now give me your gum, miss prisspants--" he said, and he held out his pink gum. "You're a girl--you love pink--" he said, as if he were trying to convince her that she WANTED HIS GUM.

And he didn't think he had a girl's name. Some people said so, but it was OLD family name that all of his grandfathers and whatnot had had. So if she laughed at his name he would knock her--well, he would knock HER GUM OUT OF HER HAND SO HMPH!

"I'm not a priss, you're just an ignoramus." HA! She knew big words but she handed the yellow gum over quickly taking the pink one from him before he could move away. Either way it was three pieces for her and two for him and she had only paid two knuts all together.

She popped the third piece in her mouth and chewed it with all the others. "It's nice to meet you Baelyn," she said refraining from spitting out her gum wad. She blew a BIG bubble and left it in bubble form. Ah, yes. It was very refreshing.

Baelyn rolled his eyes. "That's not even a word. Did you even have a tutor?!" he asked, because he just thought everyone had a tutor. He didn't go to a muggle school because he lived out in the middle of nowhere and couldn't. So...he had had a tutor. And now he thought that was normal.

"I know it's nice to meet me. Now I can help you learn real words. Ignoramus isn't a real one. But maybe you could try ignorant? That's a real word." he nodded and stuck the yellow one in his mouth and started chewing. And when she blew HER bubble he blew one...and tried to get it bigger than hers!

And suddenly it popped, and a little bit of it stuck to his nose after...he sighed and peeled it off and shoved the wad back in his mouth. Ah. "Sorry. My bubble was bigger though," he grinned devilishly...and he jingled his pocket.

"It is too! It means an ignorant or stupid person." Hope rolled her eyes. "I don't need a tutor. I'm already smart enough without one." Obviously!

"It's even nicer for you to meet me." Not up for discussion. "Well if the wand fits, pick it up and wave it around and do a few tricks. Ignorant you are." She watched his bubble grow and pop. When he claimed his was bigger she shook her head. "Um NO! Mine was. I have three pieces of gum and you only had two. SO MINE was bigger because I had MORE gum." She won he just didn't want to admit it. Boys.

Baelyn snorted. "You don't know words. I know all the words in the entire English language and that is NOT a word!" he cried, and he scowled. "I don't mean that kind of tutor--I mean like...I was home schooled and stuff." He said. "I'm not dumb!"

NO.

Bae was a lot of things. But dumb was not one of them!

"Fine! Was that a challenge because I can TOTALLY get a bigger bubble than yoU!" he pulled out two more knuts and slid them in quickly...and turned the thingy. A white piece spun out...and he grabbed it and started chewing on it. Once it was one big wad..he pushed it to the side of his mouth.

"So. We will see who the bubble gum champ is. Winner has to buy the other whatever candy they WANT!" Sonded like a sweeeet deal.

Literally.

heheheheh.

"If you really knew all the words in the English language then you would know it IS one." Hope gave a smug smile. "Obviously you're tutor left out a very important word in your vocabulary lesson." Had her parents homeschooled her she'd be extremely upset. How else was she supposed to learn what stupid looked like?

"Fine, but just know that I NEVER lose. And to ensure no one cheats, you're not allowed to pop the other persons bubble." Yep! That way he couldn't pop hers and claim to have won. She chewed her piece and then stretched it over her tongue. With it in place, she blew slow watching the bubble to grow to a size bigger than her face.

Baelyn was irritated, but not enough to leave her alone. Nope. He scooooowled. "Nope. It isn't a word. You're also a liar now, too," he said. He was chewing furiously...and getting ready to blow the biggest bubble of his LIFE.

LOSING WAS NOT AN OPTION.

"Well I never lose EITHER--so this will the first time for one of us!" he said as he got ready. he was about to count off when she just started. Okay, fine.

He began his venture, and his was pretty close to hers. Man. He wanted to win, not tie. So he started to go faster but not TOO fast because then it would pop and he would surely LOSE. He wasn't a cheater..usually. He wouldn't pop hers.

Theo was on his lunch break from the joke shop, and he was tired, and he was hungry. Of course, the first food source when in Diagon Alley was the sweet shop, one of his other internship desires. Maybe next summer he'd push for this one a little harder. Theodore sailed through the door as if he was an everyday customer, and he soon found himself in front of a gumball machine. The perfect sugary treat!

He dug in his pocket and found two knuts to plop into the machine, and then he switched the knob with force.

Tinker tinker, ploppppppp, plop.

Come to papa!

Omnomnom. Delicious gumball was delicious.

"Just moved here with my mom." he said. "Going to some place named... Pig Zit or something in the fall. Do you go there? I heard there's only one magic school here. Is that true?"

He then grinned. "Nice to meet you Caterina." She had a fun name. Caaaaaterrrriiiiinaaa!

Okay. That was enough of that.

"Do you have any recommendations for things to buy?"

Hope blew a little bit more and with a small pop it slowly deflated until it was just a stretched out piece of gum hanging down her chin. She quickly pulled it back into her mouth and chewed on it.

"You can stop now. Mine was bigger and you don't have enough gum left to make yours any bigger." Yes, she was the winner and he better own up to his bet. She wanted ONE peppermint toad, just because she had never had one and she was curious as to how they tasted.

She crossed her arms and tapped her foot impatiently. She wanted so badly to take his hand and make him pop his own bubble. In fact...She began to reach out and hesitated waiting to see what would happen.

Baelyn watched it deflate...hmm. He smirked and as she said all of that he ROLLED his eyes...and then her hand--he quickly smacked it out the way and growled as his bubble deflated. "Hey! You cheater! " he cried. "I don't hit girls--but you're a merlin's-pants-eatin'-cheater!" he snapped, and he groooowled.

Ugh.

And then he felt bad. He started chewing again and shuffled his feet. "I'm sorry...you won..." he said and looked all glum now.

He shouldn't have hit her hand...that was mean. He didn't want to be mean. He took out two knuts and put them in the machine...he then watched another pink gum roll out. He picked it up and held it out. "Here--" his face looked all sad.

He had lost.

And then he had been a MEANIE.

UGh.

Dora hadn't come into this shop since the summer of her fourth year. Candy just wasn't her thing anymore, though... sometimes she had cravings for it. Now being one of those times.

Being out on an errand for her internship anyway, she decided to run in and snag a few bags of jelly slugs, when she noticed her boyfriend getting gum. Of course he was here. Dora made note to check here for him should she desire his company later.

"Hi, stranger." She sidled up next to him, hand moving to touch his hair. Or rather, add touch ups to his hair. Her eyes shot down to his and her hands moved behind her back when she was done, a grin taking over her features. "Fancy seeing you here."