Gifts for My Imaginary Friends

Jack strode down Diagon Alley, having visited her Gringott's account to find it unpleasantly full. She took one look of it and decided she would rather have her Uncle Chip still in her life than have his money. He was not dead, but he may as well be. He had to run away, change his name, and he had left her and probably Elliot money, but what did that mean? Sure, she was not dirt poor, but she did not have her uncle...And she had done the math. The money would be enough for necessities. She was not sure it would help her in the long run at all. She had to be frugal with it.

However, Christmas was upon her and she had thought that the holiday's may deplete the little excess money she had, but she had soon realized that was not the case. She could not buy anything for Chip now that she could not contact him. Possibly something for Elliot, though she doubted he would get it on time and that he would have anything for her. Riley hated her ever since she had shown up all bloody in the summer and all the times she had returned from Satan's smelling like alcohol. He had waited for the letter when she had told him she was Champion to let her know he did not consider her family anymore, however.

How considerate.

She decided she would still buy him something. Maybe some sort of In-Your-Face sort of gift. A bottle of wine. Ouch. That would piss him off. With a bandaid. It would actually be sort of a funny joke. He had always liked her humor. Maybe the holidays was what she needed to heal their relationship. The joke wrapped in a scarf. He loved scarves. Yes, it was coming to her.

Her parents... They did not constitute a gift. If it had been up to them, she would not even have money to survive, let alone buy gifts. She would not give them a gift. Maybe send a picture of herself flipping them off... Or not. Maybe. She would have to think about it, see if it would be worth it.

Who else... She deadpanned. She did not have anyone to buy gifts for. She had Elliot... who would probably not even open it until January. And Riley, who would probably send it back, with a note saying "don't talk to me." She paused, pretending to stare at a window display as snow began to gather in her hair, failing to notice the bluish tinge of her lip and the fact that her sneakers were sopping wet for being drug through the snow. She was too busy pretending to be like every other happy shopper. So many people to buy for... So little time...

Pfft.

Angelique had so many people to buy Christmas presents for. There were her parents and grandparents, of course. Her three cousins and then several playmates she'd not spoken to for years, but whom it was prudent to remain in contact with. After that, there were her professors. Those she liked would receive a box of finest liqueur chocolates, while those she merely tolerated would get Christmas cards enchanted to play a the most irritatingly jolly song she could think up.

So many presents, so little time. Not to mention a distinct lack of a house elf to carry her bags. Angelique's parents had forbidden Erk from obeying any of their daughter's orders after she'd given their last house elf a paradoxical command just to see what would happen. Angelique considered this enormously unfair. It happened five years ago, and it wasn't like she intended for the stupid elf to drown herself as punishment.

Just as she was musing over the terrible injustices of her life, a shock of red up ahead caught Angelique's eye. Well, it was orange really, but to Angelique's certain knowledge, people rarely liked being told they had orange hair even when it was true. However, it wasn't the colour of her hair that was important. It was the identity of the figure wearing it.

Angelique paused where she was standing, deciding how to approach this. Of course, being in the same grade, she knew Jack Dyllan was a muggle born and as such was probably incredibly poor. If she enlisted Jack in this shopping trip, she could pay for everything for both of them making the other girl grateful and, more importantly, indebted to her. On the other hand, she could just come straight out and say what she was thinking, but that wouldn't make Jack indebted to her and she quite liked that idea. Perhaps she could just get Jack to carry her bags. Even that would brighten her otherwise dull day.

"Jack!" Angelique squealed like a schoolgirl, which wasn't that hard considering she was one. "I didn't expect to see you here."

By now, she'd rushed up to the other girl and put her arms out for a hug. Nobody turned down the hug.

"Christmas shopping? Me too! You know, we should go get a coffee."

Angelique didn't drink coffee, but she was willing to make an exception to dine with the enemy this one time.

Jack did not like people squealing at the best of times, and right now was far from the best of times. She particularly did not like her name being screeched at her, so naturally, when she heard this, she winced and felt her shoulders raise in agitation. Her eyes squinted as though if she could avoid the sight of the person, they would not see her and, hence, leave her the hell alone.

But things never worked out for Jack when she wanted them too, so she slowly turned to face whoever was going to be forcing themselves into her company, something Jack really did not think she could handle right now. Just the thought of the people she was buying for- her supposed "loved" ones who had been rather frosty as of late- was enough to irritate her. One of the idiots from the school would only give her reason to be pissed off.

Tis the season to be jolly.

She saw Angelique tottering over to her and Jack squinted again, raising an eyebrow and surveying the girl with a weird look. Angelique was in quite a few of Jack's classes and was in her year, so Jack knew her well in the sense that she recognized her name and face and had a basic judgment of her character. That is really where it stopped. Any conversation she had had with the girl had not been memorable or pleasant. Why the personable greeting now.

The Slytherin flung her arms out and Jack stared at them for a second, completely at a loss for what she was doing. She held out a hand and shook her left hand awkwardly before dropping her hand to her side. Only then did it dawn on her that she had been offering a hug. Jack did not hug. She could not remember doing so. Maybe Riley or Elliot, Chase had surprised her once, but not even Vito, her confidant, embraced her...

Vito... Hugs... Ha!

Angelique stated the obvious. Christmas shopping. Well... It was Christmastime... And Jack was shopping... So, it was understandable she was shopping. With that train of thought and the addition of her bags, one wild guess could assume Angelique was indeed doing the same. Jack kept her musing quiet, because she was fairly sure her lips had frozen together but she managed to pry them apart and say, "Coffee? Why? Don't you have shopping to do?" She was leery of this girl. Why the sudden friendliness?

Angelique laughed at that. It was the giggle she reserved for pretending to be an ordinary person; something she did so often it was barely noticeable.

"Of course," she rolled her eyes companionably at the Gryffindor.

Dear Merlin, people were stupid and so easy to copy, too.

"Coffee won't get in the way of our shopping. Or would you prefer hot chocolate? I think you're right, hot chocolate would be nicer."

Angelique found that supplying both sides of the conversation was easier than listening to people. Besides, so many other people did it, that there was nothing particularly suspicious about her behaviour.

"Have you many people to buy for? I have dozens. Some of them people I've not seen for years. You know, they say it's the season to be jolly, but just between you and me, I suspect it's because if we weren't concentrating on being jolly we'd all haul off and hit someone."

She saw Florian Fortescue's across the road and made a beeline towards it, counting on Jack to follow in her wake. They couldn't sell ice cream all year long.

"OOOH, let's go here."

Jack watched her, feeling as uneasy as ever, before realizing it was stupid to feel so. Jack did not care how crazy or twisted a student was; she had dealt with worse. She was not afraid of anyone after Vito, she was just a little weary after it. Why stumble into more trouble? But things had been quiet lately and the best way to handle trouble was head on. So if there was any present, the best way would be to continue on.

Still, Jack was not sure she was up for having hot chocolate with Angelique. High pitches and talk of shopping only promised a very irritable Jack. But if Angelique was up for the trouble of dealing with a pissy Jack, Jack was up for dealing with an irritating Angelique.

"I have a few," she said in a casual voice, not really caring what Angelique thought. Jack thought of it as a good thing to have a close group of friends...Mind you, she did not have even that, but there was nothing to gain or lose from hiding that. She did have to admit though, the last bit was sort of true, so she allowed for a smirk that transformed into a wince as Angelique exclaimed about the next place. Exasperatedly, Jack moved- for fear of frostbite otherwise- after the girl, saying, "You want ice cream in the middle of December? Is it even open?"

Honestly, Jack simply had no idea. It was the reason all her friends had thrown her over or abandoned her or whatever had happened. To be honest, Angelique hadn't the attention span to keep up with lives of other people. Nevertheless, Jack didn't care enough about what other people thought of her, and that was why she always ended up alienating them and pushing them away. Angelique was hardly a social butterfly and even she could see that.

She risked petting the shorter girl on the shoulder.

"Don't be silly! They sell other things as well," she declared. "Though if you do want ice cream, I definitely recommend the brandy flavoured syrup."

Now they were right outside the shop, where a long list of different ice cream flavours dominated the window of the ice cream parlour. A tiny space was left for a poster listing available beverages.

"Do you want to get a table, or shall we eat as we move?" she asked. "Tell me, do you have a plan of attack or are we buying as you browse?"

Angelique could guess the answer to that question, but she asked anyway because it was essential she insinuate herself into Jack's shopping trip if the girl was to become dependent on her charity.

Jack nodded, looking up at the list and feeling her eyes scan the whole list... which did actually take a few long moments. She was not really hungry, having loaded up on an enormous breakfast at the school, but a hot chocolate did sound exceptionally good. For the briefest of moments, her eyes drifted to the other flavors like peppermint and caramel, but she was not a fan of all the fancy additions.

"If you say so," she said in a tired voice, as though the conversation thus far had wiped her out more than window shopping had. Which in a few ways was true. There she had been cold. Here, she was exasperated and irritated, which was a lot more tiring.

Jack considered Angelique's question and answered, "I have a plan of attack, but I'm pulling it off by browsing in case anything better arises." She smirked. The problem was that she was a no-nonsense type of girl, but she was as unsentimental as you could get, and this was the season of sentiments, making her feel rather lost. However, the answer was as true as she could get. "We could sit if you want to risk frostbite."