Before You Start Your Day Closed

Emma walked through the door, her book bag bouncing, her bracelet just as loud as normal, relieved. Finally, a break from Hogwarts. That was rare. She was craving a strawberry and raspberry ice cream cone, unlike her usual. Although she had homework to do and a whole essay to begin, a small ice cream cone would have never hurt anyone.

Approaching the counter, she reached down into her bag to grab her sickles she kept just in case. Or if she ever wanted to buy something from a student, whenever that would happen.  "Strawberry and raspberry, please."

Before the cashier could speak, she handed him five sickles, some shiny and some worn out from the pointy objects within her bag. Simply, he nodded and handed the girl a cone. Both pink scoops looked delightful, even though one looked on the verge of falling over. That would be the first one she ate, undoubtedly. Turning around, she scanned the shop. Hogwarts students stood inside the shop, but she really didn't recognize their faces, more or less their names. That was until she saw Alexx, the Slytherin who had the guts to punch a Gryffindor (Didn't they all?). then she beamed.

"Alexx!" She called out waving as soon as she turned around. It was strange to call out a friend name in front of the swarm of students, but she could have cared less. They were so busy chattering it made her voice sound like one of theirs. 

She walked over and jumped into her booth, literally. Smiling, she decided to speak. She had gotten much better at speaking to those she had spent from time away from, of course, she didn't mean to in this case. She was just happy to find a friend in the parlour, whom she could speak to effortlessly. "How have you been?"

Alexx looked up, smiling. The black haired girl was a friendly sight, one she was glad to find. "Hello, Emma." She nodded, smiling wider as she spoke. She gestured out to the seat in front of her, inviting her to sit.

"I've been busy, but I'm having a good day so far. How about yourself?" Alexx was a tad bit awkward when it came to making small talk, but she quickly eased out of it. The conversation was simple, that of two friends enjoying a day off. She thought it best not to stress something to light-hearted.

She confessed, her subject of expertise was not speaking, and she was hard to like. Though the time they had spent together seemed otherwise, Alexx, deep down, was struggling to figure out how to communicate. It was an issue she put off until she was headfirst into an uncomfortable situation. But Emma didn't seem to ever mind that if she had previously noticed. For that, Alexx was forever grateful. In fact, she was more grateful that she even had a friend at all.

Emma was nice, the sorts Alexx hadn't expected to want to hang around her, but she did. It reassured her that she was safe when surrounded by those who cared. It felt nice to have a friend.

Emma was happy to have found a friend, who was protective and just a prominent person in general. it was hard to differentiate if the sugar was making her excited, her appearance in general, her day off, or possibly even all of them. Today was going to be a great day all because of Alexx, she beamed at the thought of it.

"I'm debating if I should finish my essay for Astronomy when I get back to Hogwarts, or if I should just start it now." She shrugged off the thought (even though she'd be procrastinating later on), it wasn't like Ravenclaws got an extra amount of work. Sure, they participated in event that involved the brain, but thankfully, no extra work was given.

"It is the day off after all, besides I have four more days to finish it." She took a literal bite out of her ice cream, it was way more effective than just the usual licking of the frozen dairy. After all, who actually licked their ice cream. If the frozen treat had been sitting out forever, it wasn't hard to tell. Perhaps it had been magically enchanted to last that long, but there were rules, weren't they? That would have been virtually illegal.

She was undoubtfully lucky to have a friend like Alexx, one who she could speak, relate, and spend time with. Wiping her mouth briefly, she looked down at her ice cream, cookie dough. It looked absolutely delectable, but she wouldn't have leaped over the table to grab it out of her hand. One, it was absolutely strange, and two, friends didn't take each other's ice cream.

Alexx nodded, chuckling. "I must admit, astronomy is my favorite class, but I would never admit that to Professor Barclay. I suspect he thinks me lazy, with how little effort I put into the homework." She admitted. It was true, astronomy was her favorite class. You never could tell, though, as she put the majority of her work into charms.

Being as studious as she tried to be, Alexx hated homework the most. It took a long time and was hard to remember to do. She always suspected that her professors thought of her as nothing but lazy, doing only the extreme minimum to get a decent grade.

She pushed a bit of her silky blonde hair behind her narrow shoulder, repositioning herself slightly. It was nice to have a conversation with someone, even if it was but small talk. Alexx craved social activity, even though she didn't do much to put herself into the situations necessary. It was like she didn't want to meet life halfway and only wanted it to just work out.

But Emma always seemed to provide the setting she so craved. It was as if the other girl contained a radar, and was increasingly aware of Alexx's feelings. It felt comforting, to say the very least.

Of all things to eat, ice cream was one of Frankie's favourites. Being a vegan, she knew that most ice creams contained things inside that wouldn't benefit her concerning health but this was one of the few items she allowed for herself to eat, which was a weakness she tried to forget about.

She and her family often came to this ice cream parlour during the summers but this year they hadn't because of family matters. But Frankie didn't want to pass up the opportunity to have a taste of her favourite ice cream flavor, pineapple coconut. When she came her first time it used to be just chocolate but her sistee mentioned that it was her mum's favourite so changed.

After ordering her flavor, Frankie went to go sit down at a table, noticing the Hogwarts students also enjoying the dessert. She didn't know anyone yet but she didn't mind sitting by herself, she had brought one of her study books along, the one called Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. She really liked looking at the pages and soaking up the facts about the creatures, and it was a good pass time with nothing else to really do. She'd already finished all of her homework on time, it was all very easy. Frankie got lost in her reading as she ate her pineapple coconut ice cream.

Emma nodded comprehensively as she smiled. She enjoyed the subject of Astronomy, even if it did take place at night (how else were you supposed to see the stars?) she still wandering around the Ravenclaw Common Room until it was time for Astronomy to take place. It was always hard to wake up the following day, even if she did have a break to rest in between her classes.

No matter how many times she revisited the humungous library that enhabited Hogwarts, she hated to read, write, and everything in between. Well, she enjoyed reading when it was something she had actually cared about, like the various examples of charms or transfiguration spells. You never really knew when you had to turn a student into a ferret. Any type of spell would have been useful in Hogwarts, whether if it to be used against a student or an actual opponent.

It was pleasant to communicate with Alexx after the event that took place inside of the library, she snickered at the thought of it. Imagining life without the small skirmish that had happened in the library was almost strange. Life at Hogwarts wouldn't have been complete without Alexx, nor the two Gryffindors that just happened to be harassing her, even if she was related to a former death eater, it surely did not matter in her book. It was undoubtfully inappropriate to bring up the incident, though, it was about the break from school. 

Not rude gossip about the Gryffindors... no matter how hard she wanted to bring it up.

"He's taking forever to grade my essay, and it's not any better with the race of homework that just happened to flood in." She relaxed against the ice cream booth and peered around the room at the students who had also decided to come and enjoy Fortescue's delectable ice cream. Everyone had a buddy to chat with, well, except for one student.

Signaling to the younger girl, she looked back at Alexx raising a questioning eyebrow. It wasn't arduous to tell what her question was. Who knew, maybe she preferred to read alone, but that was strange, even for herself.