Introduction

She bumped in the Leaky Cauldron to shelter from sudden summer downpour. At first she was surprised by the rain, but then remembered herself she was in England, it must have been common here.

She looked around the pub and found that nothing had changed since the last time her father brought her here. It was shortly after the end of the school year, she was young, perhaps 12. The owl had brought news of the extraordinary meeting of the Order so her dad took her with him. Of course, he didn't let her anywhere near the house where they held meetings, so she spent one whole day in a small room he had rented for her in the attic of a pub, she only had a couple of books and a bottle of Butterbeer. When it became too boring she tried to sneak out into the Diagon Alley she ran into big yellowish dog with too many legs who wasn't too thrilled to see her. Thanks to Tom's intervention she pulled out with only a torn clothing. After that, she didn't tried to leave the room.

She greeted a couple of wizards and witches that she met at work with a gentle nod and sat down at the table farthest from the door.

"One exploding lemonade, please," she ordered after short review of a menu. She has never tasted their lemonade, and hoped that wouldn't be her last drink in her life. Maybe the next time she will pay more attention to the warning list. She sighed, knowing it was too late to change his mind now and looked at the sound of a babbling behind. In the picture that showed a long table with 10 wizards playing poker and drinking Butterbeer has emerged brawl. Two wizards, one tall with bushy blond hair and one fat with a sombrero on his head began to push around a mug of Butterbeer, not noticing that they are spilling a drink. Others tenants in an attempt to separate them just caused more confusion.

"Uo, guys, calm down. Come on and I'm buying you drinks, just just don't settle this place to the ground, please.", she smiled at them, hoping they would stop. For a moment they stopped looking at her, greeting her with taking off their hats and then continue the fight. She helplessly sighed and gave up the unsuccessful attempt to introduce peace.

"1 galleon, ma'am," the waitress dropped her drink on the table, "and don't be scared, they're fighting at least three times per hour," she cast a glance at the picture and saw that the fight was now in full swing . She shrugged and pulled out a few galleons from her pocket and handed it to the waitress, "Keep the change.", she smiled as the waitress went and looked into the glass on the table. On the surface, opaque yellow liquid were created small volcanoes throwing lemonade few inches into the air. Once again she sent her prayers if there is someone up there and took a sip.

It had been weeks since Adrienne had left Hogwarts in order to search for her brother, and frankly she just missed all of her friends. It was her own fault, obviously, that she hadn't seen any of them in quite some time. It wasn't like she had explained to anyone where she was headed. Now they were supposed to be graduates, her and Kaiden. Unfortunately, their summer would be studying to take their NEWTS late so that they could technically qualify.

However, more had changed than just her living arrangements. The summer heat was kicking in and begging Adrienne to step inside during her shopping trip to pick up new things from Diagon Alley. So she put all three of her bags on one shoulder so she could push open the door to The Leaky Cauldron. A glance around showed a fairly rowdy bunch but she didn't mind too much. After all, she was living with a large group of loud people, herself. But at least she knew those people now. All of the people in the Leaky were strangers.

Walking up to the bar top, Adrienne intended to order something cool and sit for a little while, but she ended up tripping as a man backed his chair up too quickly. She stumbled over her feet, bumping into a nearby table. Adrienne looked up and found a girl sitting there, sipping on her drink.

"I'm so sorry. I didn't spill your drink did I?" Adrienne asked quickly, standing up straight and making sure her bags didn't fall from her shoulder.

Almost immediately after she took a sip, liquid start burning in her mouth so strongly that few tears slid down her face. She forced the liquid down her throat feeling burning more and more. At first it was just the mouth and throat, but soon all the other parts of her body joined the party and started burning. At first intense, than it started to decrease until she didn't felt anything but pain which it caused. She regretted the moment when she took that drink at the first place, her curiosity will cost her of living, once. Probably sooner than later.

Her drink doesn't taste like lemonade, more like freshly baked tires after a three-day journey through the mud, maybe even four-day. It makes her wonder how many people ordered it, and how often. Perhaps it's here only for idiots as she is, because no one in their right mind would never order this, not even thought about ordering.

Nym looked around the restaurant trying to see is anybody else brave or fool enough to drink this, if she see someone maybe she'll feel less idiotic. No, everybody else drinks usual drinks, at least usual for wizarding world.

She glanced at the door when they open again, and dark haired witch came in with few bags in her hands. Nym studied her face briefly - no one she knows, returned to studying of other guests in the Leaky. One guy who was wearing purple toga just got the same drink as she is, and he drink that like juice. Nymeria almost went there to ask him how did he do that but she realised how dumb that sounds.

She was so focused that she didn't noticed girl who stumbled until it was too late. She tried to help her but with her clumsiness she probably only hinder her. "Are you okay?"  She asked that at the same time as she said something. Nymeria smiled, "Unfortunately, you didn't, it's disgusting, anyway."

Adrienne looked across the table at the blonde, catching a hint of an accent as the woman spoke. If she had to hazard a guess, Adrienne would have supposed the blonde came from France, as many of the people in the Wizarding World seemed to. At least, many of the ones who moved to London and hung around Diagon Alley.

A smile lit her face as they had both attempted to check on the other at the same time. Moments later, though, an apologetic look found its way onto her face once more. She would be sure not to try whatever it was that this woman was drinking, Adrienne decided. Especially considering her circumstances. She couldn't be blamed, though, with all of the laws that the Ministry had passed lately. She had found out mere days ago that she was expecting, and even still she was amazed that Kaiden hadn't tried to keep her at home already. He was protective, she knew, but he at least seemed to understand her need to be out and about.

Adjusting her bags so they hung my comfortably from her shoulder, Adrienne shrugged. "Well, I've found that most drinks here can be quite strange if you're not sure what they are. But I haven't tried.... whatever that drink is, yet."

She glanced over her shoulder to find that the man who had shoved back his chair was standing between her and the bar counter. His friend had stood to speak with him as well, so she was practically boxed in. Biting her lower lip briefly, Adrienne turned back to the blonde and added, "I don't think I'll be able to get around those men while they're talking. Would you mind if I just sat down until they left...?"

It was a bit rude to ask, but she figured it was better that shoving past someone who was much taller than her, and potentially angering them. So she offered a smile in the direction of the blonde, hoping it wouldn't be too much trouble.

"Exploding lamonade", she explained looking into glass. "Don't try it, it will burn your lungs nor the taste isn't much better." Nymeria looked at the girl finding her not much younger than herself. "I haven't tried any other drinks except butterbeer yet, I'm not even sure if I wanted to considering how this tastes. Or at least I will not choose drink by its colors." she laughed silently.

She looked at the man and a friend of his who prevent passage for the girl. They seemed to be in deep conversation, not even noticing the brunette. She recognized only few words, they spoke English with some strange accent and too fast for her to understand, even if she wanted to. One of them is constantly shoving foreign words, they sounded like a German, but Nym wasn't quite sure because she never learned it or been in Germany.

"Be my guest", Nym motioned to the chair across from her, "oh, and I'm Nymeria.", she smiled back to the girl looking into her while she took her seat.

Nymeria hasn't noticed she plays with her glass all that time, until she spilled some lemonade on hand. Interesting, it didn't burn her skin, but it did her mouth, maybe they spell it after making or something else. Nym took her wand and touched the lemonade which immediately disappeared.

"That's probably smart," Adrienne replied, referring to the comment about how the blonde would avoid choosing drinks based off sight. "I think I would have been too afraid of the name to try it, myself." A laugh left her, even though she was fairly serious about lacking the nerve to even try something named Exploding anything.

Adrienne followed the blonde's gaze, looking at the two men once more. "Thanks," she offered in return, setting her bags under the table for safe keeping and lowering herself into the chair. "Oh! And I'm Adrienne." Passing Nymeria a smile, she relaxed into her seat.

"Are you from around here? I've not seen you before. I mean, I just graduated, though, so maybe I just haven't been out enough since school let out."

It was true that Adrienne thought Nymeria had a bit of an accent, but she didn't want to assume anything. Several people she knew had moved and simply kept their accent as they changed homes. Adrienne was almost certain, however, that she had not seen the blonde around Hogwarts - not in her seven years. Though, honestly, she couldn't say how much attention she had paid to other people over the years. She tried to be caring and take in everything around her, but with classes and everything thing else going on? It was hard to worry about others. For all Adrienne knew, the blonde had gone to school with her for years, but she just hadn't noticed.

"I was little scared at first, too, but the picture in the menu was so beautiful I couldn't resist buying it," Nymeria laughed silently, "but it turned out that drink doesn't look like it at all, my lungs are still burning."
She added imagining bright yellow color of the juice in the menu, that one even had a cherry hunged on the edge of the glass and little beach umbrella with kittens on it. She realized she bought it just because of the umbrella. Nymeria liked kittens and had a collection of things with kittens on it, even Dolores Umbridge would be ashamed of her's if she saw Nym's. But the drink she got was brownish, without an umbrella, they didn't gave her even a charry! She should complained about it. 'Nonsence, Evanesco' she imagined the.voice of her least favourite professor, he always told her she only complain about nonsence, maybe he was right.

"Not exactly, well yes but no." She shook her head realizing how did that sounded. "I mean I was born here but I feel like I'm French. Anyway I have just moved back here a week ago or so."
She looked to Adrienne, according to her british accent she assumed she went to Hogwarts. Nym always wanted to know more about the school her mom was attending but she never had time to ask her about that because she died.
Nymeria never had a chance to see white Christmas with snow falling and paintimg all she knew in white. She only saw Beauxbatons' stricts ice figures, the only evidence it's
Christmas time, on south of France was too hot for snow, even for ice figures outside of castle, insted of snow thay had rain. Plenty of it.

"Oh, I didn't go to Hogwarts", Nym slightly frowned, when she said the name of the british school that sounds funny, she incorretly emphasized the last part of the word so people mostly thought she's making fun of it, she hoped Adrienne wouldn't mind. "I always wanted to go there, even tried to transfer few times but they needed my father's permission, and he wanted for me to stay in Beauxbatons, so I hadn't made it."

Although she was a bit confused at first, Adrienne didn't want to make the situation awkward by making any sort of comment about it. Nymeria was being kind in letting Adrienne sit with her until the pub cleared out a bit, so she tried to focus more on what the blonde was saying.

"Oh," Adrienne replied after a moment, when she started to understand. "That makes sense. I've actually never left the UK, myself. I've always wanted to, though. Is France as pretty as they say?"

In truth, Adrienne had often wondered what things would be like at other schools. She had grown up believing she was a Muggle like her parents, until her elder brother was found to be a wizard himself. After that, Muggle school systems hardly seemed like something she would ever experience fully. But the same also went for other wizarding schools, considering both of the main ones were in different countries.

"Isn't Beaubatons an all-girls school?" she asked, curiosity getting the better of her. "I've not actually met anyone from there before. Or I don't think I have. I've heard it's pretty nice, though."

"I have no idea." Nym admitted while blushing slightly. "I've never left Paris, except for school." It was true. She wanted to see whole France but every time she got that theme in front of her dad he gave her a scowl and told her no. Adrien told her it's safer for her to stay at home, but he never told her of which she's safer here. She suspected that she isn't in a real danger, but she didn't want to fight with him. She haven't met anyone who could fight with Adrien Evanesco and won it. Why bother trying if you know you won't win?

"Actually it isn't, but there's always more girls. I don't know why but I guess most of wizarding family in the north send their children to Hogwarts because it's nearer then Beauxbatons." Nymeria thought a bit about it, even if it's true what she was assuming that doesn't makes any sense, then there would be less girls too. Maybe they send only boys? Awkward.

"It is, if you like sun and hot weather, but if you don't like it there starts a problem. For example I've never seen snow falling while I've been in the school, maybe the school is too south for it." She thought of her schooling in Beauxbatons, hot suhe summer nights and windy winter days. Yes, there was no snow. "But there are a good sides of that too, we had a huge pool in the yard. Yet we could use it only for an hour per week, but it's better than nothing." Blonde shrugged and put a forelock behind her ear. "How was schooling in Hogwarts?"

Adrienne offered an apologetic smile when she found out that Nymeria had yet to travel outside of the city. If she had known she wouldn't have asked, if only because it felt awkward to put someone on the spot like that. So she just let the other woman speak, waiting for a better time to respond.

"That's probably true," she said after a moment. "I mean, I only went there because my brother did. And really, he only went because the staff of Hogwarts sent him a letter and the other schools didn't. It does seem sort of regional, how the schools are divided. But then, I also know people who only went to Hogwarts because their parents did. House pride and all that, of course."

Her brother Asher had not been a Ravenclaw as she had, but instead had been in Slytherin. Sometimes Adrienne hadn't understood why his house assignment was so different from hers, but after starting to understand that he had gotten involved with the Death Eaters, it was making a bit more sense. Unfortunately, she couldn't get in touch with him to find out why he had agreed to work with them in the first place, now that he was in hiding.

Nymeria's next words caught Adrienne's attention again but the brunette played it off like she had been focusing the entire time. She didn't want to seem rude to someone she had just met, after all. "That actually sounds nice. I kind of wish I could visit, now," she joked. "But really, things at Hogwarts were alright. A little dull until the mess with the Marriage Law came around, I'll admit, but I made some very good friends there. I'm actually going back this autumn to teach Transfiguration."