A fire can never be caged and a wind never kept in a jar

You know it is a usual sunny day when everyone you see it is seen through a window. And in fact that was a really fine sunny day at the middle of the summer.

Stephen was then sitting at the window of his mother shop at that second floor. He was reading before but he had soon given up on it. The atmosphere of the story was just too cheerful, too contradictory with his own existence that moment. The book was then sat on the windowsill before his feet. The shop was empty and there wasn't anything for him to do there either. So he was simply sitting there looking outside, watching everyone's lives passing by at the Diagon Alley. People walked up and down, some alone, others in groups talking and laughing as they would walk. A day spent shopping didn't ever sound that awful.

Skipping to his imaginary world, Stephen wondered what would it be to be a part of such a group. Or simply what would it be to have friends close enough to sent him a happy birthday card just a few weeks before. June the fifteenth. Just a day as any other. At least there was a special dinner provided by grandma. His grandparents had came to join him at mid-afternoon and stayed till late as it was usual so it was not like it was much of a surprise. It was nice with the two of them, mum and Adriana there. Father left the house early in the morning and Stephen only came to see him again the next day. Mum told him he had a lot to do at the Ministry so that was why he wasn't there even if he really wanted to. After that she gave him a wrapping claiming to be from father, but Stephen shook that off since he knew that it was hers as well as the one she gave him after. A real golden snitch. He had no idea where she had gotten that from but that was by far the best present he was ever given.

Steps brought him back to the real world and turning around he noticed mum was coming up. "So this is where you are hiding. Stephen, what have I told you about sitting there? You'll have the walls all dirty with your shoes" she complained and went to check on them by the time Stephen jumped from his sitting place. She sighed and grabbed a cloth to clean that off.

"Sorry" Stephen said. "I'll clean that up" he motioned to grab the cloth from her but she took it out of the way.

"Don't worry about it. Here's your book" she had taken the book from where it was and extended it to him and Stephen ended up grabbing it. "You shouldn't be always inside reading. You should go outside. Have fun" she told him as she went back to cleaning. Stephen watched her for a moment but looked down and shrugged. "Come on! You are telling me you'd rather stay in here instead of going out to the Diagon Alley? I hear there is a new collection at the Quidditch store. Aren't you curious? Not just a bit?"

"What for?" Stephen questioned in monotone. He was not in the team so what for?

"What for?" his mother repeated. "Who are you and what have you done with my son?" she stopped cleaning and got up straight to look at him. "You would have never came with me to work if we didn't stop there just a bit to look at all the new equipment. Don't say you have forgotten that?" Elizabeth was watching him with swaying dark eyes. Stephen didn't dare to look at them at any time knowing he would fall for it. "Alright" she sighed. "You know what? The shop is practically empty and at this time of the day it won't fill up to an overwhelming proportion and I could really bite something. So why won't you go out and grab us some snacks while I take over the fort?" she asked.

Stephen was already seeing where this was going so he didn't even fight her. "Alright, I'll get us something."

"Good!" his mother smiled and kissed his cheek in a motherly embarrassing way - luckily enough they were all alone in that floor. "Here's some money" she extended her hand with her fingers closed around some coins after she had taken them off her pocket and Stephen took it from her. "And take your time. There are still a few hours before closing up."

Stephen nodded and keeping the coins he left heading downstairs. He delayed himself a bit at the counter and left the book there before going to leave the shop. And so he walked down the street; hands in his pockets certain he was not being expected at any time sooner than the closing time and that the snacks his mother claimed to want to be only a trick. Unaware she was still watching him from the window up there he walked away lost in his most recent thoughts.

He says darling who you're praying to?

"Charlotte."

Is anybody answering you?

"C'mon sweety, wake up."

Cause I've done my part for 12 years now, but I can't seem to get through.

"Charlotte!"

This time Amelia yelled trying to attract attention from her daughter.
Charlotte put down her headphones and looked at her mother.
"What?" Charlotte looked at her mother with outcry written all over her face.
Since she broke her arm, she used to stay in the bad all day. Except for the time she was spending with her friends, of course. The thing was, her parents felt sorry for her and she decided to use that to get everything she wants.
Don't get her wrong, it's not like she didn't get whatever she wants even before the accident, but now it was way too much easier.

If you ask Charlotte how she broke her arm, she would say she fell on the ground. For her, it was less embarrassing than saying she broke her arm in her very first practice for Quidditch. It was really hard to broke your arm when you are barely one meter in the air but she definitely succeeded.
Of course, she can't say to her Muggle friends how she broke her arm anyway. If she tells them she would need to explain everything about Hogwarts and she can't do that. It's not like she wants anyway. Just a year ago she used to think that she is some kind of freak because she has magic.
Now that changed. But her friends still wouldn't understand and she was definitely not ready to lose them all.

"Earth to Charlotte. What are you thinking about sweetie?" Amelia asked curiously to find out what makes her daughter to just stop listening to her. She never does that.

"Sorry, mom. Just was thinking how happy I would be to stay in the bed today. My arm really hurts me today" she said trying to look sad and in pain but that obviously isn't enough for her mother.

"You can't do that sweetie. You can't stop living only because you broke your arm. And besides that, you agreed yesterday to go to the Diagon Alley and buy me ingredients for my potions. I told you I want to make your something to help you with the pain but I don't have everything I need. Get out of the bed now. The breakfast is in five."

"Sure, why not," Charlotte mumbled and stood up.
This will be a long day.

After she got dressed (which was really hard, she almost break her other hand in the process) she got down and sat on the chair in the huge dining room. It was hard to decide what she wants to eat since she wasn't really hungry.
"Can I get some coffee please?" She looked at her mother.
"Oh sweety, you know some mil or juice would be better for you" Amelia shook her head and looked at her daughter."But I really want coffee. You woke me up, after all, I deserve it." Charlotte smiled and looked at mothers upset face expression.

"Fine. But I didn't wake you up. You were already awakened and listening to that stupid music. What were you listening after all?" Amelia said while bringing the mug full with coffee for her daughter.
"It's nothing. Just one Muggle singer. She has great songs" Charlotte shrugged and took a bite of a toast with butter.
"Okay honey, finish your breakfast. You need to go soon."

"But why you want me to go there? You know I almost everytime get lost" Charlotte frowned.

"Oh, don't be silly. You will be fine."

Charlotte rolled her eyes and once when she was done with the toast and with her coffee, she stood up.

"Okay, I'm ready to go.

"But Lottie, you almost didn't touch your breakfast" Amelia was worried and that was such unusual for her. With parents who are always busy with their work, you get used to the fact that you won't get their attention. But since Charlotte broke her arm they seemed to start noticing that they have a daughter. It was almost awkward.

"I can't eat anymore. I'll buy something in the Diagon Alley if I get hungry."

Amelia couldn't argue with that so she just gave Charlotte some coins and put a smile on her face she was keeping for her patients on the job.

"I'm going now," Charlotte said even if she knew that was unnecessary.

"Okay darling, have a good time" Charlotte just rolled her eyes and apparated herself to the Diagon Alley.

Once when she finished with buying all that stupid thing her mother needed she decided to buy some more coffee.
But of course, like always, she wasn't sure where to go.
She was wondering through the street for a couple of minutes before she saw Stephen. She doesn't really know him but she was almost one hundred percent sure she saw him in the school. As she recalls, he was three or four years younger than her.
She approached him with a smile on her face and bag full of thing in her healthy arm.
"I'm so sorry for bothering you, but can you please say me where I can get some good coffee?" She said with the friendly smile written all over her face.

For some reason, it took almost twelve minutes to get to the closest coffee shop from the Meyers' Every Occasions clothes shop where they had everything from gowns to muggle casual clothes. Yes, Muggle! Elizabeth's mother, Stephen's grandmother was muggleborn and some part of her childhood had survived till now. Elizabeth was taught on both cultures and always thought it was funny to see how Wizards and Witches failed on dressing themselves as muggles and that was what made her open that section in her shop in hopes she could dissuade them from being so awfully dressed. She hadn't made much of a difference yet but she still thought she was getting anywhere.

Some of that had helplessly passed to Stephen as well but he stuck to things like music and books.

It hadn't been more than a ten minutes when he thought he had heard someone calling him. He looked around and noticed this girl, young woman would be more suitable. He wasn't too sure of himself but he might have seen her somewhere, perhaps Hogwarts (because where else?). But she was definitively ahead of him in age and school year. That would actually decrease every chance there had been for him to be able to connect her to a name. He didn't know many older students by name if they didn't belong to Gryffindor and he didn't think this young woman did.

The other way around as he had figured over the years was easier. If not from the corridors and hallways there was always the sorting ceremony. And Stephen wasn't really a blank page during his. The moment he was claimed into Gryffindor and not Slytherin as he would expect from the fact that all his family from his father's side was in there. His shock was visible and his hesitation clear when he made his way to the Gryffindor's table. It should have been quite a show to see his unbelieving expression... Not that anyone ever mentioned it (but then again, who would?).

"Hi" he said still a little unsure since he was not expecting to be talked to just now and after a pause thinking about it he added: "I was heading to a coffee shop now myself. I can show you if you want." What was the harm on offering himself as a map once in a while. And he was more than sure that this was the kind of thing his mother would be happy to know he did other than getting the walls all dirty and reading - the talking with people part, not the being a map one.

He noticed then, however, that she was carrying a bunch of things in only one arm since she wouldn't be able to do so with both of them. Stephen wondered what had happened but wouldn't ask it like this. "Would you like some help with you bag?" he asked politely. If so then he was not only going to be a map but a workhorse. He shrugged. He had been called worst things, played worst parts.

Charlotte was born and grew up as a Muggle.
The thing is, her parents got so good at pretending that they are Muggles that they forgot to tell to their daughter that she was a witch. Or they just didn't want her to know.
Even when strange things started to happen around Charlotte, the side effect of being the witch when vases got broken when she was angry and things like that, they still thought it's not the right time for her to know.
That changed, of course, when the letter for Charlotte arrived by an owl and they realized that is their last chance to tell her the truth.
But Charlotte never really stopped to be the Muggle. Everything about her, her clothes, the way she was speaking, the music she was listening... everything almost screamed I AM THE DAMN MUGGLE GIRL.

That is the reason why Charlotte used to think she was a freak.
For eleven years she used to act like a perfectly normal muggle girl and then they just put her at some school for witches, or as they parents used to say; for gifted children. It sounded almost like some bad joke. But it wasn't the joke. It was her new life.

The boy she saw seemed nice but a little bit confused. Charlotte wandered why he seemed almost shocked because of the fact she was speaking with him. Maybe it even wasn't a shock written all over his face, she couldn't know for sure but he seemed to be in his own little world where no one else exists. She looked at her bag, being in high heels definitely didn't help but she always feels a little bit uncomfortbale to let others help her. She grew into the independent woman who thinks she can do everything she wants by herself.

"No, I'm fine. But thanks for offering help, you are such a gentleman." She smiled and looked at him once again.

"I'm Charlotte by the way. Do you think we can maybe drink coffee together?" Maybe it was pushing but she just couldn't help herself. Some would say it was the annoying habit, but she really likes to have company and talking with completly strangers wasn't anything new for her. She is just that kind of person who likes rainbows, unicorns, and talking with people. Can you blame her for that?

It was actually funny when you thought about it. His family, the Meyers, were said to be descendants of a previews pureblood family. Everyone whose name was Meyers had entered Hogwarts and became a Slytherin. They were said to despise Muggles and everything that had ever any relation with them, robbers of magic. Yet there he was. Grown up and raised to accept them, listening to their singers, reading to their authors. Grandson of a Muggleborn.

It still took him a great deal of imagination to figure how his parents had ended up together. That serious traditional man with that joyful smart woman daughter to a Muggleborn. Ho was that even possible considering the standards of the Meyers family?

Stephen had to admit that this was not the very first time that he ever thought of this matter. Yet, no conclusion he could reach seemed to be possible. Little did he know of their parents story and lesser was he aware of when and how everything was to be revealed to him. But for now, it was but an impossible mind game.

To ask them would be the most logical thing to do but lately there hasn't been a simple innocent question that didn't end up in some sort of argumentation between the two of them. And every time he questioned his mother about it she just smiled stating that it just happened. On her own words.

There it was, one more answer-less question to add to his list of questions without answers.

However, the one he had asked to the young woman was not one of them. Stephen glanced at her with those 'Are you sure?' kind of eyes when she refused his offer to carry her bag for her. She didn't seem incapable of doing so herself but it still should be hard for her to carry a bag that size with one arm only.

"Stephen" he answered to her introducing in the same old way. 'Stefan' he would say in a tone of 'not Steven' and 'no, you can't call me Steve'. "Hum..." he did as he thought for a moment, "I can't see any problem in that" he claimed. Besides it would long him probably more than half an hour so his mother would be pleased to know he was not inside doing nothing. And the sentence 'I just found someone from school' as an answer to having her asking him where he has been or what has he been doing would be as true as the sun rising from the East. And that would make really happy.

"This way" he asked Charlotte to follow him to the closest coffee shop.

Charlotte is a person who speaks a lot. She is that kind of annoying Ravenclaw girl who will throw out facts and stupid things only to break the silence in the room. This boy, for some reason, didn't seem to be talkative a lot, but hell, she found new mission: to make him speak.
Who knows, maybe they even can have some fun.

"Don't look me like that" she started laughing when she saw his look which was the reaction to her statement that she can care her bag without his help.
"After all, if this bag becomes too heavy, I can always use a magic. Do you remember, simple levitate spell." She shook her head and gave him another bright smile. Today she is smiling a lot.

"It's nice to meet you, Stephen. Do you have a nickname?" She asked curiously because, in her world, everyone should have nicknames. That is the name your friends uses, something that separates them from other people.

He didn't sound very happy to her offer to drink coffee together but that didn't hurt her too much. It did, a little bit to be completely honest because people don't usually dislike her at the moment they meet her. But on the other hand, she really didn't like to drink coffee alone so she will accept whatever she gets.

"What are you doing here? Buying something or just hanging around?" She asked once when they entered the coffee shop.
She sat on one chair and put her bag on other while her hand seemed to be really happy because of this change. Once when the waitress came Charlotte looked at her.
"Strong coffee, without sugar, please. And one glass of water" she ordered.

Believe it or not, Stephen had been a talker once. Then he realized that the more one would talk the more they would fail and gradually he became the silent person he was that very moment. He would have a rather good speech though for his age probably coming from the amount of time he spent listening and reading. He was not ashamed at all of his voice (a little squeaky at the time for it had started changing already but hadn't yet developed fully). So it was a personal choice. And to talk would be simply strange when he had so few people to do it with...

Stephen raised both of his arms in defeat. "Alright, alright. It was just a question" he stated. And that was very true. Only he really couldn't do magic outside of Hogwarts so he wouldn't have though about this that way himself. But she would be older, maybe she would be allowed to. Stephen decided to keep that in question not thinking it would be polite to ask her her age. Though if he did he would be she wouldn't mind that question for how she acted. But no, not a good idea to do so right now.

"Not that I know off" Stephen admitted. "And I sure hope that there is one that I don't know of." He could find some interesting less cuter nicknames but he surely hoped any of them to be true. Not that any of them would hurt him more than 'Steve'. That would be the last straw, the last word they would say... Honestly, that was one of the few triggers Stephen had to definitely become mortal enemies with someone.

Stephen didn't actually mind the company; he hadn't just expected to have some this was. Charlotte might have seen him in the hallways and the Great Hall of Hogwarts but that didn't really made them best friends then. After all, if that was true Stephen would be best friends with everyone in Hogwarts by then.

"Actually, I was on my way to buys some snacks. I came with my mum to work today" (Really? When talking with barely unknown people - girls in particular - don't speak about your mum. That is so not cool! he though, Worst than that, perhaps just the weather) "and we were in a costumer-less situation for a while now, so."

"It's not fair toward you" she frowned and shook her head.
"Everyone should have a good nickname" she smiled and looked at him while thinking.
"Let's see what we have." Charlotte started thinking about every possible nickname for name Stephen. It was hard, though since it wasn't really usual name.
"Okaay what you think about Step? No. Maybe Ste? No" she started laughing because, to be honest, this was funny, at least for Charlotte.

"Maybe Steo? No, that's just stupid." She shook her head and of course, continued talking.
"What you think about Even? Or Steph? Or king like Stephen King? Okay, I give up" she finally admitted that she probably isn't the right person for giving nicknames to other people. After all, Clair gave her the nickname Lottie, and it just kinda stayed.

"You are helping your mom? That is so cute" she smiled. It was kinda sad if he doesn't have anything else to do but to me with his mother but on the other hand, almost every mother would kill for the boy like that, golden boy who is always ready to help.

"You have a store? What are you selling?" Charlotte asked curiously and looked at him again.
Then, she remembered that the waitress is still waiting.
"Um, do you want to drink anything?" She asked Stephen.

Stephen had to laugh at some nicknames Charlotte came up with. Step and Ste were simply odd. Step seemed like he would always be wandering around or that he did like dancing. Which he wasn't a bigger fan of but that was simply because he could dance. Ste would sound like whomever was calling him had simply forgotten the rest or was simply tipsy at the time.The others were almost as hilarious. Steo... Stephen wasn't even sure of how to write that. Even... even what? And Steph was widely known but to him it sound like a girl's nickname for Stephanie. "I am not even closer to royalty and I am not much of a writer to be compared to Stephen King" he commented in the end.

"Do you, perhaps, have a nickname?" he asked Charlotte then since the'd be talking about him for quite a while now.

At that comment Stephen nearly blushed. Pathetic, you mean? "Well, I kind of was. For some reason she is lacking on workers at the moment and at least you'd be raising your monthly allowance on a few tips more if I do give a hand, so it isn't a bad deal" he told her. At least this way, didn't sound as pathetic as it was. And Elizabeth did reward him after a day of work.

"Yes, she does own a clothes shop. Not as famous as Madame Malkin's but pretty good. She has clothes for every occasion, or so the slogan has it" Stephen simply said.

Feeling embarrassed for a moment for forgetting about the waitress Stephen nodded. "Right, yes. I'd go for a lemonade, please."

"Why not?" Charlotte looked at him and smiled.
And then she frowned. "Don't talk that way about yourself. Who knows, maybe once you would be more popular than Stephen kind" she.

"I have actually. People mostly calls me Lottie, even if I like my name more. But it's not like I was bothering to change that nickname." That made her thinking about Clair and the very first time when he called her 'Lottie'. It was during the time she was speaking with him for the first time, actually it was more arguing than speakind. And he took her book. Which she never got back. She should talk to him about that.

"it sounds really nice" she smiled before the sadness got all over her.
"I wish I could spend more time with my parents, but they are always so busy so I barerly get a chance to see them even when I'm at home." Charlotte shrugged and looked at Stephen. He probably wasn't aware of the fact how happy he was because he has a chance to spend the time with his mother.

"Maybe I would buy new clothes there then." She smiled.
"I mostly buy clothes at Muggles shops because I'm not really a fan of the clothes from wizarding world. After all, I live in the center of the London, I need to look like I belong there" she shrugged.

Once when their drinks where there Charlotte smiled like the little gir when she gets a chocolate.
"Coffee! Finally!" She gave some coins to the waitress for both drinks and then took a sip of her coffee.
"It is sooo good" she smiled again and shook her head.

"So Stephen. Tell me something about you. What you like to do in your free time?" She looked at him curiously.