Rosalie listened to her father's grumbling with a small, secret smile as she took another bite of her ice cream. Her mother was nodding empathetically every once in a while, and had even thrown in a couple 'Yes, dear's in for good measure, but occasionally, when her father looked the other way, her mum would look at Rosalie and wink. It was their third year coming to Diagon Alley to buy school supplies for her brother, and somehow her dad still couldn't get used to all of the magical 'hustle and bustle', as he liked to say. Her dad was a muggle through and through, but Rosalie still wasn't sure how anyone could walk through Diagon Alley and not love it.

After two years of having to wave goodbye to Nathaniel as he got to ride away on the Hogwarts Express and leave her behind for another year of muggle primary school, it was finally her turn to go as well. To say that Rosalie was estatic was an understatement for sure. Her brother was her best friend, and having to be away from him was bad enough, without adding in the fact that he was learning magic while she had to learn about fractions. She'd told her dad a million times that when she was a powerful witch, she wouldn't need fractions, but he didn't care much about her argument.

Finally, finally, though, it was her turn! Now, she had her own wand, her own robes, and her own pet; a large black tomcat she'd named after one of her favorite book characters. Well, technically she and Nate were going to share him, but he'd still let her name it. Popping the last bit of ice cream cone into her mouth, Rosalie pulled the carrier with her fluffy familiar onto her lap and finally decided to save her mum from her dad's shifty eyed looks.

"Hey, Ma? Do you think I'm going to be in Ravenclaw, like you and Nate were?" Nathaniel scoffed at her words, and Rosalie kicked at a leg of his chair, sticking her tongue out at him. Nate didn't think she was 'refined' enough for the great House of Ravenclaw, but it wasn't up to him, now was it? And who used words like 'refined' at 13 anyway?

Her mum raised an eyebrow at her "Love, I've told you a million times not to worry about what House you're in. They're all wonderful, and you're going to love it no matter what." Rosalie couldn't help but pout slightly, even though it was true; her mum had told her that too many times to count. Still, she really couldn't wait to get to Hogwarts and find out. She was counting down the days until the special summer event she'd been invited to; she and Nate were going to have a blast.

A sense of wonder would be the best word to describe what Leonard was feeling, currently.

While this hadn’t been his first time visiting the alley, it was still such a sight every time. He was sure that decades after this, when he would take his grandchildren to Diagon, he would still stop at every single shop just to look in the windows for half an hour. He would still look at everything as if it was all made of diamond, unbelieving of the luck he’d been born into a wizarding family. He would still stare at all the people walking around, even when his mother told him to stop since staring was rude and all that. Really, he couldn’t help any of it. Just this, a small step towards his actual Hogwarts experience, was enough to make him start bouncing around, like a hyperactive dog who’d just been given their favourite chewy toy.

A staple in all of their visits to the alley was eating at the ice cream parlour. While this might’ve been a questionable practice when he was barely able to count to ten, he was now completely ready for everything, whether it be fittings or ordering a frozen lolly. Both had taken over an hour previously, with him not being able to decide which type of peanut butter to order. He had a problem. At least now it only took half an hour.

They’d been walking over when his mother had spotted another family, one with a cat and a girl that seemed about his age. Being a mother, her natural instinct was to try to embarrass her son by edging him towards them, saying all that bilge about friendship. No matter, she was the provider of the ice cream. He couldn’t say no.

“Hello,” he said as he approached, stiffly waving. In all his time on this Earth, he just couldn’t get the hang of casual conversation. “I’m Leonard. You’re all here for Hogwarts shopping, yeah?”

A wide smile came to Rosalie's face when they were approached by a family with a boy who seemed to be her age, and she hopped out of her seat to introduce herself, depositing their cat carrier onto an exasperated Nathaniel's lap.

"Hello, Leonard! I'm Rosalie. Nice to meet you." She stuck her hand out in the hopes that he would shake it, unsure if that was as common for wizards as it was for muggles, but excited nonetheless. Tucking a strand of wavy blonde hair behind her ear, Rosalie waved her hand in her family's direction. "That's my mum, Cecelia, my dad Cullen, and my brother, Nate." The introduction was more for Leonard's mum's sake than his, since she was the one who'd come over, after all, and Rosalie was raised to be polite. Plus, her mother could talk anyone's ear off if given the chance, and judging by the look on her dad's face, he was highly anticipating it.

Shaking her head at her dad, Rosalie turned her attention back to Leonard to answer his question. "We are here for Hogwarts shopping. I'm going to be a first year, so this is my first time going. What about you? Have you been to Hogwarts already? I can't wait for that special Quidditch event coming up this summer either!" Rosalie knew she had a tendency to chatter, so she hoped she wasn't coming on too strong. It would be nice to already know someone other than Nate when she got to Hogwarts. Smoothing down the material of her skirt, Rosalie took a small breath and held it, promising that she'd give the boy a chance to answer before bombarding him with any more questions. She didn't need to scare away her first potential friend.

His mother would pay for this someday.

While Rosalie seemed nice enough, much nicer than he was, surely, his social abilities didn’t extend much farther than his arm did. These types of situations just didn’t work for him. The only time he wanted to be with people was when they were either at a Christmas party or giving money to him. And the only reason he ever attended Christmas parties was for the presents. Yes, he knew he was shallow. No, he did not regret attending his neighbour’s and walking away with a stuffed Dalmatian.

He shook her hand, something that was much harder than it should’ve been. His mother would yell at him if he hadn’t, but it was difficult. First off, there were germs to be worried about. This family had been walking around a crowded alley, touching books that had been touched by other people. While he did feel like he was walking through the closest place to paradise in Diagon, there was a reason he kept hand sanitiser. Second off, ice cream. It was slightly hot, which was enough to make those things melt. It was sticky, and he did not want that on his hands. Third off, he wasn’t sure whether his hands were sweaty, which would be embarrassing. Or extremely cold, which would be equally embarrassing. Or both, which would be twice as embarrassing.

“C-Cullen? Like Edward Cullen, the sparkling vampire?” Not the worst thing to say, he thought. “You don’t have to answer that.”

“I’ve been here loads of times, actually. My dad likes getting nostalgic, I guess. I’m impartial to Quidditch, but I like watching them fall off their brooms,” he added with a smile. Hopefully she would interpret it as a joke, though he did like watching them fall off their brooms, in all honesty. “I’m going to be a second year soon, and let me tell you, Hogwarts is great. Really, really great. Um, those are my parents,” he pointed at them. “Wilma and Norman. I usually just call them Queen and Peasant to make it easier, though.”

Rosalie's laugh rang out when Leonard compared her dad to a sparkly fictional vampire, and she clapped a hand over her mouth before he started paying them too much attention. While he would have been spared from the vampire craze had he been a wizard, his muggle roots unfortunately exposed him to the brunt of it. Rosalie couldn't count the amount of times he'd informed her of the true meaning of the name Cullen, and why it was noble and masculine and should not be sullied by "the boy who dressed in twinkle lights." Her poor dad; jokes were just not his strong suit.

"Oh shhh." She said, waving her hand as if to shoo away the words. "I promise, we'll never hear the end of it if he hears you say that. And then you'd be forced to be my friend, because we'd never leave this Parlour." Rosalie giggled at her own joke, hoping that Leonard also found it funny and wasn't too frightened of the idea of being friends with her.

The thought of watching Quidditch players falling off of their brooms made her smile, and she nodded her head in agreement. "I like the exciting parts well enough, but I'm down for watching a chaser or two go overboard." She replied. Rosalie's hands folded under her chin as Leonard told her about Hogwarts; she was so excited to go that it was usually simmering at the surface at all times. She'd never even set foot in the castle yet, but she got starstruck every time someone brought it up.

"You must know so much about the castle already!" She said, a touch of envy in her voice. The closer her own first year came, the more she thought about it. Really, she hadn't stopped thinking about going to Hogwarts since her letter came. She'd even had a dream about the Sorting Hat sitting on her head and calling out her house, though every time the hat opened its mouth, the dream ended.

Turning back to their parents, Rosalie gave Leonard's parents a small wave. She'd introduce herself if she was summoned, but she was sure that her mum had already given them a small intro to her life story. Besides, she was completely content chatting with Leonard and letting the grown ups do their own thing. His nicknames for his parents made her laugh again, and she shook her head as she turned back to him.

"My parent's have a friend who comes up with nicknames for everyone. He calls Mum 'Queenie' and Dad 'Curly'. Cause, his hair is, you know, curly." Shrugging a shoulder, Rosalie suddenly realized that they'd been talking about a muggle movie. That was normal enough for her at school, but this was Diagon Alley, and most wizards didn't know about muggle things.

"Hey, if you know about Twilight, does that mean you're part muggle too?". She titled her head curiously, hoping that her question didn't offend him. She had a vague understanding of blood purity issues and all that crapola, but of course none of that mattered to her. She knew there were much more important things about a person to care about.