Simon glanced at his watch. It wasn't that the boy was impatient but rather it had been going on twenty minutes now since he stood outside under the awning of the bookstore known as Flourish and Blotts. Twenty-one minutes, to be exact.

He sighed. There was so much to see there in this little cobblestoned alley that was his first taste into the wizarding world. He wanted nothing more than to venture out and about and take it all in but if he took off, his aunt wouldn't know where he was.

She, on the other hand, was inside the bookstore still, exchanging flirtations with the male clerk that checked out his school books. Simon couldn't even journey through the content of the books because she still had them in a bag with her. Maybe it was time to interrupt.

He checked his watch again. Twenty-three minutes.

Back inside he noticed that a young woman took over the cashier and the male employee that had checked them out was now stocking some books on display as he talked to Simon's 25 year-old aunt. They had a unique relationship where she wasn't quite 'mom' in a sense, but she also wasn't quite on the same level as that of a sibling. It was somewhere in between, probably due to their closer age gap than most guardians and minors.

"Hey, Aunt Maggie? I'm going to check out the shop across the street and then start heading East. Take your time," he said and flashed her a smile as he lifted up the hood of his sweatshirt. He always knew which direction was what due to the nature of the sun, as astronomy was one of the topics that sparked his interest.

The blonde gave him a thumbs up and so he dashed out the doorway, just as a little tot of a girl squealed loudly as she tore away from holding the hand of her mother and the mother began chasing after her. Simon quickly dodged her, but in doing so ran right into a redheaded girl around his age, jarring her slightly due to his stronger nature. He quickly brought his hand out to her waist to help keep her balance and was relieved when she didn't fall or get injured. "Sorry about that," he whispered.

It was a crowded day to do school shopping.

Smacking into @Simon Kincaid!

Once Alina had left, Alexa stuffed her hands in her pockets and rocked forward and back on her trainers for a moment, thinking. She had had a fun time with friends, new and old, at Diagon Alley, today. But as she had started off her long day here, she was alone again. It was time to do more shopping, and less hanging out, perhaps.

With a furrowed brow, Alexa set off down the cobblestone street, back to Madame Malkin's. She had outgrown her old robes, several inches of her ankle showing beneath them. Time for some new ones!

She headed into the shop, dodging around customers, until she met the proprietor and quickly explained her problem. The woman was only two quick to help, standing her up on a pedestal and throwing robes over her that she then proceeded to pin and tuck away excess fabric during a fitting. Finally happy with the results, she helped Alexa carefully remove the robe, with all of its pins, and told the girl to come back in a few hours. She would have a new set of robes ready upon her return.

Stepping out of the shop, she looked up at the sky. A beautiful clear day. But there was still sorrow in her heart from what Alina had told her about Clifton. With a slight frown, and a preoccupied air, she headed down the street again, not really paying attention to where she was going. That was probably why she ran smack into the brown haired boy who was just coming out of another shop. Shaking her head in surprise as he apologized, she looked up and smiled shyly. "It's okay, it certainly happens on this busy street. Especially when I'm not paying attention. I'm the one who should be sorry. By the way, I'm Alexa. And you are?" She offered her hand to the stranger.

"Simon," he replied, taking her hand in his and giving it a shake and presented her with a smile, glad to already be meeting some new people perhaps. Then again, that was assuming that she too would be a student at the same school he had been accepted to but that was just a rather large assumption, wasn't it? Simon was as ignorant of the wizarding world as one could be and didn't realize how few wizarding schools there were and that these busy streets were full of students all attending Hogwarts. "I'm getting my school supplies for the upcoming year. I'll be going to Hogwarts School of....Witches and Wizards..." or something like that. He really needed to remember the full name of his new school but it was hard to intake all the information he had gained recently with the letter and the decision making to go there and all the like. This was a new world for him.

"I just shook off my aunt and I guess I was making a run for it. Sweet, sweet, freedom," he smiled again. But no, he needed to get back inside soon as he had already been standing out there for a minute or so now and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. "I've only gotten my wand and books thus far." Wand... How crazy! For a boy that had only gone to normal schools for all of his existence so far, wands were something out of fantasy books and not a reality but here he was.He was nearly certain this wasn't a dream.

He took a moment to pull a piece of paper out from his pants pocket and skimmed it over. "Could I ask you...where does one find a size two, standard tin model, cauldron?" Cauldron. He smiled again in amusement. What, were they going to be brewing potions as well?!

He introduced himself as Simon and shook her hand, both of them smiling. She assumed he was another Hogwarts student, and wondered what year he was in. He soon confirmed her assumption, but made her giggle when he didn’t know the full name of Hogwarts. She didn’t bother to correct him, but just smiled. “That’s where I go to school! What year are you, if you don’t mind me asking? I’m in my second year, or about to be.”

She laughed out loud when he joked about making a run from his aunt. She marveled at how easy it was to talk with someone she didn’t know, with all the practice she had had last year. She was still shy, but definitely getting less so. And Simon immediately put her at ease when they spoke.

“Yeah, I’m lucky to be here by myself today. No parents to deal with, just a train schedule to get here and home.” She smiled warmly. It was so nice to be back in the magical world after a summer of a non-magical kind. It had made her itch all summer to be back at school.

He mentioned getting his wand, and she noticed a slight bewilderment on his face when referring to it. Maybe he was like her, and did not have a magical background: it made all of this seems certainly unreal, in the beginning. To her sometimes it was still unreal; she had to remind herself occasionally that she did indeed belong with all of these other witches and wizards.

He asked her where to find a cauldron, and she grinned. “Oh that’s an easy one, I went there last year. Potage’s Cauldron Shop. It’s right over here, if you want to follow me.” She began to lead the way to the shop, wondering belatedly when she would get any of her own shopping done!

A bell rang as they entered the store. It wasn't as crowded as some of the other ones but frankly, what he was grateful for was being inside once again. Simon lowered his hood and brushed his hand gently against his face. It hadn't received too much sunlight in that short time outside, but enough that it hurt a little. Luckily there was no visible marks to show any harm.

Once again Simon pulled out the piece of paper that he had stuffed in his pocket to look over his supplies. There were a lot of different items here and it wouldn't be good to show up on the first day of classes with the wrong things, especially when the list he was given was so specific.

The shelves were clearly marked too and it would be easy to find anything he might need from his list in this store. Crazy how efficient some things seemed to be in the wizarding world! "I'm going into my First Year," he said, wondering if she cared whether she was talking to someone a year younger or not. After stating his fact though her demeanor didn't seem to change so that was good. "Thanks for helping me find this place. I should probably let you get back to your own shopping if you're on a schedule to make the train later and so forth. I'm actually surprised my aunt came along because she usually lets me do things by myself but I think she was curious about this magic stuff. That or it's starting to set in that she'll be losing me," he smiled, not trying to be conceited even though his statement sounded as much.

"Probably more curiosity because as you can see she's not glued at my hip. Instead she's back at the other store flirting it up with the clerk that checked us out." But hey, good for her. The woman needed to date and so forth. Often, Simon figured she didn't because she was so busy working to support him and herself - a lot to take on for a twenty-five year old.

Once they had entered the shop, Alexa fell behind Simon, letting him take the lead here. She didn’t particularly need anything from the shop, so she was just browsing the shelves for the sake of fun.

She saw Simon pull out his supply list from his pocket; it reminded her of the list, and more importantly, the letter she had received last year, telling her that she was magical, and that she was going to a magical school. She remembered thinking it was a prank. She’d been more than shocked to find it was real, this whole world of magic. She smiled to herself as she thought of all of this. She was much more comfortable in the magical world now than in the Muggle world.

She listened to Simon as he said that he was going to be a First Year. He seemed hesitant when he said it, but then quickly moved on, and she wondered what the hesitancy had been about. Maybe he thought she would mind the age difference? It was true that she mostly had friends in her year, or should she say, friend (Alina). But she was not averse to making new acquaintances and potential friendships with people of any age!

“Oh, my train doesn’t leave for ages. Sometime this evening, so I have plenty of time. If you needed any help, I mean.” She blushed shyly. She didn’t really know what she even meant, it just seems like it would be lonely without company now.

“Yeah, it’s hard for parents and people when we go to Hogwarts all year,” Alexa said absentmindedly, thinking of her parents and their struggles in their marriage, so much more apparent now that she was gone all the time. She fretted about their future together.

But she brought her attention back to Simon with a smile when he mentioned his aunt flirting with a store clerk! “Is your aunt a witch?” She asked, curiously. She wasn’t certain from his comments about his background.

"Nah, she doesn't know anything about this world. She's probably almost as clueless as me and that's saying something," he said as he looked up from his list. "My mum went to Hogwarts but she was the only one in the family and didn't talk much about it. Aunt Maggie thinks that she thought she'd be jealous if she did so she was kind and didn't. Their parents were in an accident and passed away just after graduation and so she got thrown back into the muggle world to help with my aunt and deal with finances and stuff. Aunt Maggie said she never used magic." He shrugged. It seemed like a fascinating world and he couldn't see why you wouldn't!

"I came along shortly after that so she had her hands full," he laughed. "I couldn't imagine having a kid in six years from now. Crazy. But yeah, along I came and so she had two to help keep together. She died when I was three, fell ill." He did sort of wish he remembered her. "I think that's one of the things I'm most looking forward toward...seeing it all. She apparently loved it. It'll kinda like being able to share it with her, you know?"

He talked and scanned the shelves as he did so, looking for that standard two cauldron with just the right specifications as shown on his list. "And maybe someday if the good Lord shall have it, I can talk to her about it." Did that sound weird? He tried not to sound weird. To him it wasn't. He had been going to church since he was a baby so he was a strong believer in all that.

He gave Alexa a kind smile. "She was sorted into the group that was for the brave, but I forget what it was called." Gryffindor, but he wouldn't be able to remember that for the life of him. "Suits her, too. Having to do so much at 17 and sort of thrown into the world. She certainly has all my love and respect for that."

"So tell me about your parents," he said, wondering if she'd share to a near stranger. "You said plural, so I'm assuming you've got both around, Lex?" And no, he hadn't mentioned anything about his own father but that made pretty good sense since the man had never even been told of Simon's conception. He knew nothing of Simon as Simon knew nothing of him - except that one must exist. Biology and all.

Alexa chuckled at Simon’s first comment. “You don’t seem clueless! You’re just new, that’s all. I was in the same boat last year. At least your mom did go to Hogwarts! I know you say she didn’t talk about it much, but did you know about magic at all?” She listened to the rest of his words. “I’m really sorry about your grandparents,” she said quietly.

“She was so young when she had you! That’s incredible,” she added. “She must’ve been a very strong woman… I’m so sorry that she passed away,” Alexa murmured. His family history made her current family problems seem so small in comparison, that she felt foolish for being so wrapped up in them lately. “I really wish you had been able to share it with her…” Alexa said, a little sadly.

When he mentioned his religion, Alexa perked up. She had grown up Presbyterian in the Highlands of Scotland. It hadn’t stuck very well, but she still believed in God, even if so many other magical people seemed not to. “ I think God would definitely make it possible for you guys to talk,” She murmured. It only seemed fair, after all. She was surprised to be talking about religion with another wizard. It was not something definite ever come up before.

“Gryffindor, that’s the one for the brave. I’m in Hufflepuff. It’s not usually thought of as being as illustrious as Gryffindor, but it’s where loyal friends can be found, and hard work is done.” She thought of her Head of House, Prof. Caradoc Browne, and the letter he had sent her when she was sorted. She still had that letter. “Yeah, it sounds like your mum was a good fit for Gryffindor.”

Then he asked about her parents, mentioning that they will both still around, and she blushed. For one thing, he had called her Lex, which no one else that Hogwarts called her. For another, she felt embarrassed that she did have two parents left, when his mother had died and he had carefully avoided mentioning his father (so she wouldn’t either). “Yeah, they are both still around. Honestly, they’ve been struggling a bit lately to stay married. Neither of them are magical, by the way,” she added. “I’ve noticed that they get along better when I’m there, but now that I’ve been gone the Hogwarts almost all of last year, I came back this summer to find them really tense with one another… I don’t know what’s going to happen, honestly.” She scuffed her old trainer on the shop floor.

"Well, some relationships are there for you for a lifetime and others...just for awhile. Just because they might not stay together doesn't mean they didn't value the time they had, or that maybe they wouldn't be happier now elsewhere. At least that's what I've taken from different books I've read. Sometimes people come into your life at the right moment and other times it's time to end something before it gets bad."

He had yet to experience that personally when it came to relationships like love but he knew it well with friendships. He had some friends that had been friends since he was five years old and other friends that were super close but fell out within the past couple years. And sadly, none of the friends he had previous to this would be going to this magical school of his. And yet...there was no reason to be sad because already he was making new ones like Alexa Mackenzie here.

"I wonder what house I'll be placed in," he added, thinking about how she said she was a Hufflepuff and his mother would have been in Gryffindor, the correct term for it. "Is there any house that is worse than the others?" That was the important part. He determined probably not though, unless there was a rivalry or something of the sort where one house might downplay another.

Alexa nodded and thought for a while on Simon’s words regarding relationships: about people coming into your life even if just for a little while, just at the right moment, and leaving at just the right moment. It was not something she had really thought of before.

Maybe Clifton had left at just the right moment? It made her sad to think so, but it had been great to have him as a friend for the year previous. Was this what they said when, “It just wasn’t meant to be?” She imagined Alina thinking about the same things.

“I’ve never… That… That really makes sense, Simon. I’ve never thought about it that way,” she said quietly. Maybe her parents weren’t “meant to be” either. The coming year would tell, certainly.

She perked up at his questions about Hogwarts’ Houses. “Well, I think it all depends on perspective. All of the houses value different things about students, to the point that the Sorting Hat picks out parts of your personality that it think would fit best in a certain House. A lot of people think Gryffindor is the best because it’s for the brave, or Ravenclaw, because that’s where the smart folks go. And people used to have bad thoughts about Slytherin, I’ve heard, because it had some bad history, but it’s much better now. I don’t personally think any of the Houses are better than any of the others, or worse either.” She blushed furiously when she finished. She had just expounded upon the Houses like she actually knew what she was talking about! She thought she might be on the right track, but she was certainly no authority. “But what do I really know? I’m only a second-year, after all…” She finished lamely. Hopefully Simon wouldn’t think she was a know it all.