In mid July, London was as hot as it ever was. Maybe not compared to other places in the world, but enough for everyone in the country to complain about the weather again. If it’s not too cold, it’s too hot…

Diagon Alley was crowded and cramped, making the summer heat all the more stifling. Artie had spent the day buying spell books, potion supplies, and three sets of what looked like a cheap halloween costume, when he happened upon a familiar sight for a crowded urban street this time of year. It had been a day of unfamiliarity, with a frankly tiring amount of time spent trying to make themselves understood to witches and wizards whose lack of knowledge of regular muggle words and culture meant they may as well have been speaking a different language at times. So a bit of Familiarity was a welcome sight.

Stopping on the pavement, Arthur pointed to Florean Forescue’s Ice Cream Parlor. “I’ll be in here, okay mum?” he shouted back to his mother, who was looking over the long list of supplies they still needed to get and trying to figure out how many pounds she’d have to convert into ‘galleons’ in order to buy them all.
“Hmm?” the young nurse looked up as her son’s voice broke through her calculations. Her eyes lifted to the sign of the ice cream shop up above. “Don’t eat anything that moves, sparks, or changes color.” she warned him, mostly joking, although she would like to see some empirical studies done on whether there were any adverse side effects to eating food that could literally get up and jump around.
“Got it.” Arthur nodded. Eating something that came to life freaked him out just as much as it did her. He had a chocolate frog in a cage in his bedroom that he still couldn’t bring himself to eat…

“I’m heading to the bank. I’ll meet you back here, alright? Don’t go wandering.” Their phones had a way of fritzing out in here.

Stepping into the shop, Arthur looked at the many flavors, leaning towards the glass. The first one sported a sign that said ‘Rainbow Sherbert’. That sounded promising! He thought, but looking up, the brightly colored desert was rapidly morphing from red to orange to yellow… “Well that’s that one out…” he muttered to himself. Couldn’t they just have just nice, normal, chocolate flavor?

Adelaide-Jolene could honestly say, without hesitation, that this was the strangest back-to-school shopping she had ever done. Namely because her list was usually notebooks and pencils, not cauldrons and pointy hats. The latter of which had elicited questions from both her grandparents about its purpose, as if she would know. Was a pointy hat necessary for magic? What exactly would she be taught that required protective gloves? AJ had always loved hands-on work but not if she was going to lose said hands.

Honestly, AJ was just glad that she hadn't brought Maimeó. The young blonde adored her grandmother but the woman had a tendency to get distracted by theories and possibilities whenever she couldn't explain something. From the questions inspired by the school-list alone, AJ had known it would take ages to get her shopping done if she went with Maimeó. Luckily Granda was much more mission-oriented, and the pair had nearly gotten everything on the list before they'd both agreed it best to take a break for something normal. It was only on their way back that AJ noticed an ice-cream parlour. A normal looking one even. And with a kiss atop her head from Granda, he let her go with a reminder that he'd be waiting in the strange pub they'd come through earlier.

Stepping up to the glass display inside the store she was quickly reminded, again that the wizarding world was weird. "Peppermint toad?" The girl questioned aloud, she was... almost sure that it would be like mint chip but at the same time she really didn't want to chance it.

"Well that's that one out..." she heard from the boy beside her, shifting her attention to the ice-cream he'd been looking at. Rainbow Sherbert... well the name was normal, but she was fairly certain ice-cream wasn't supposed to change colour.

"Maybe the soft-serve is normal," she offered quietly, still staring wide-eyed at the ice-cream as the colour changed.

Arthur looked down the line at the other flavors of ice cream. 'Bats and Bogies', the next one over said. God he hoped that wasn't really what it tasted like.. But after those gross jellybeans he wouldn't trust a wizard's tastes in food ever again!

"Peppermint toad?" He heard a female voice question beside him. Arthur glanced over, seeing a blonde haired girl about his age just next to him in the line. He grinned slightly, glad someone else was thinking the same thing as him. He wondered if she was a 'muggle-born' as well. Given that a year ago, the only thing he had to worry about with his ice cream was whether or not it was freezer burned, the fact that he was now worrying about whether he would actually get burned (that 'Hot Pepper' flavor one up and three to the left appeared to literally be on fire, never mind the one sending off purple sparks beside it) was a lot to take in.

"Maybe the soft-serve is normal," he heard her say, glancing sympathetically back at the Rainbow Sherbert. He glanced over at the flavor she'd been looking at prior and smiled. "If it's anything like those chocolate frogs, I'd be careful of that one," he joked, congenially. The last thing he'd imagine wanting while eating an ice cream was a bunch of frogs jumping up out of it at you. "I'd kill for just a normal 'chocolate' flavor."

Before her introduction to the wizarding world, treats like 'Turtles' never gave her a second thought; it was just chocolate with a funny name. Now? She was kinda concerned about the ice-cream flavours she saw. It had to be safe to eat, clearly other people were eating the ice-cream or the shop would've been long out of business, so it had to be safe. Somehow she couldn't find that to be very comforting. Wizards were weird.

"If it's anything like those chocolate frogs, I'd be careful of that one," the boy next to her joked. AJ couldn't help nodding in agreement, "At this point I wouldn't be surprised if the Rainbow Sherbert made the person eating it change colour too!" Now that she'd voiced that... she was actually a little worried about it, was all wizarding food spelled? That would certainly make the next school year interesting. AJ laughed in response when the boy next to her said, I'd kill for just a normal 'chocolate' flavor."

"At this point I'd even be okay with vanilla," she agreed before holding out her hand, "I'm AJ, I'm still new to the whole 'magic is real' thing." She liked it, magic seemed amazing, it was just also really weird. Really, really weird, she thought with a look to the ice-cream on display. Honestly, she hoped the boy was new to all this too, she could really use someone to relate to at this point. Diagon Alley was nowhere near empty, nor was the ice-cream parlour, but all these people- well, they didn't look nearly as confused as she felt.

"At this point I wouldn't be surprised if the Rainbow Sherbert made the person eating it change colour too!"

"Man, I didn't think of that!" Arthur said. She was probably joking, but at the same time that might actually be true. There were sweets that made you sick, sweets that made you sound like a lion or a bird.. It wouldn't be that much of a stretch. Laughing, he felt a tension that he didn't even know was there melting away (no pun intended!) So far everyone he met today acted like this was all totally normal. And maybe it was, to them. But he didn't realize how nice it was to have someone else acknowledge that it took some getting used to.

"I'm AJ, I'm still new to the whole 'magic is real' thing."

"I'm Arthur," he said, taking her hand. "Me too! I got my letter in October. How about you?"

He glanced around the shop quickly, but there were still plenty of people in line in front of them, so it looked like they had a minute to chat before he had to focus on picking a flavor. Maybe she could help find a 'safe' one. "Did you come by yourself?" he asked her in the mean time. That could be especially daunting, he knew. He was here by himself over Christmas when he got his wand and his textbooks, and it was a lot to handle. If her accent was anything to go by, there was a good chance she came from further afield, however.