Ice Cream and Conversations

Jack slipped into the shop, shivering pleasantly as the cool air made goosebumps raise on her arms. Compared the heat outside, the shop was much cooler and much more pleasant. She walked over to the counter and ordered a fudge ice cream.

She turned and her eyes skimmed the shop. She saw an empty table and she went over to it, slipping into the chair. She pulled her legs under her, sitting on them, and began licking at the marvelous ice cream, nibbling on the sugary cone. This was how life was meant to be lived.

She sighed, wondering what her brother Riley was up to back in Ireland. Or he might be in London by now; he was supposed to be looking for a job around there. Either way, she figured he was either surrounded by friends or girls. He had always been popular like that.

Jack on the other hand, was comfortable in her solitude. She did not mind the company of others, but she could not find many people that she tolerated. She was a tomboy, a PA member, and a prankster, so she could not stand girly girls, jerks, and wusses. That was her general regulations for friendship or even acquaintanceship. She was picky about people.

Unlike with ice cream. She could eat any and all types of ice cream...

Diagon Alley was slightly less crowded than it usually was. Slightly meant that it was a few people short of the normal crowd that pushed and shoved each other as they tried to get into shops and purchase what they required. Elijah Krum was one of the few that could actually see over the heads of the short, plump witches that pulled their children through Diagon Alley in a bid to get to their destination. Any of the wizards that were walking seemed unfazed by the whole process. Eli, however, was and he was actually wondering whether he should fear for his life or not. The last thing he needed was for some poor child to recognise the resemblance between him and Viktor Krum or for an art enthusiast to start babbling about an Ann Marie painting.

It was a nice day despite the chill in the air and the dark clouds looming overhead. The crowds, although as violent as ever, had allowed Elijah some leeway and he had managed to buy some of the things he’d needed including some robes for the next term, paint, canvas and an assortment of quills and other stationary items. He’d also gotten Fauve an Owl just for fun. The animal was settled in the cage Nachash had hold of in her mouth and despite the huge snake hovering above the cage, the Owl seemed nonplussed; something Elijah was glad of. The owl would need an indifferent attitude to survive the excitement of Elijah’s daughter and his mother; both of whom would be thrilled with the buy.

The Ice Cream shop was relatively empty from what Elijah could see. He was wedged between two gossiping women but he could move well enough. The crowd was moving him for the most part anyway. He pulled himself out from between the two women and headed towards the Ice Cream shop, ducking between people and mumbling apologies to those he bumped into. He made it to the door relatively unscathed and checked to see if he’d been robbed or not before opening the door of the shop and stepping inside. He blew some unruly locks of hair out of his eyes but they fell back as quickly as they blew away. Elijah shook his head and walked over to the counter where a few young women stood serving the few people that were in the shop.

There were so many flavours to choose from and Elijah spent a long time looking for the one he wanted. In the end he asked the girls if they’d just pick something for him and they did so, getting out a glass and filling it with Vanilla, Chocolate and other flavours that he’d never encountered before. To end it one of them squeezed chocolate sauce over the top and the other put two pieces of Pocky into the scoop at the very top. Elijah smiled in thanks and took his wallet from out of his back pocket. He took out the needed amount of galleons and placed them in the hand of his server. He smiled and took his ice cream off of the counter once he had put the receipt in his pocket.

Elijah cast his eyes around the room and saw a redhead sitting alone with a cone in her hand. He made his way hesitantly over and hoped his footfalls would make his presence known. Eli flicked his hair out of his eyes but once again it fell back down into them. He sighed in frustration and stopped beside the table the girl was sat at. “Hello,” He said after a minute or so. “Would you mind if I sit with you?” His accent was still as thick as ever and he honestly wondered if he’d ever lose it but his accents changed depending on what language he spoke. In this case, he had a Bulgarian accent because English was the second language he ever learned so his native accent was incorporated into the new language. Perhaps he could get to know the lone redhead. He should have known better than to try his luck with redheads though. He usually ended up loving and leaving them or they got him into a hell of a lot of trouble in general or as a result of loving and leaving fiasco.

Jack was still concentrating on her ice cream when she heard approaching footsteps on the tile floor. She glanced up and saw a boy approaching her. She narrowed her eyes shrewdly. There was something familiar about him. He asked if he could join her and her suspicions were confirmed. This was somehow the relative of Viktor Krum, Bulgarian Quidditch genius. As an avid Beater, Jack took pride in her knowledge of all things Quidditch, though she was at a slight disadvantage because of her muggle roots. She had managed to catch up to the pureblood kids who grew up playing Quidditch and had become a great flyer.

She had dealt with this sort of situation before, and she knew the right thing was not to gawk (though Jack was never one for gawking anyway) or to point out the fact right off, before eve answering his question. So instead, she wiped her mouth and said, "Sure." She slipped her legs out from under her and nudged the chair across her with her feet, pushing it out some, making is squeal as the legs were dragged against the floor. The woman at the counter glanced over, but otherwise the noise went unnoticed.

Jack had been noticing just how often people approached her recently and she found it sort of funny. At school, she could send a kid running just by giving him a look. And then out in public, when she was alone, people seemed to want to get acquainted. She still did not quite get it. She had become accustomed to being the shrew, the hermit, the person people would skirt in the hallways less they get caught in the crossfire of whatever battle she was amidst. She was not sure why all of sudden she seemed so harmless. She did not know what changed.

Despite the newness of these ever-frequently occuring incidents, she never felt awkward or uncomfortable in these situations. She was too confident to be insecure. She was one of those people who were confident to a fault, to where it became arrogant, though she was sure not to be obnoxious about it. She was not confident for immaterial things; she did not care about blood status, nor class, nor age, nor was she full of any sort of 'girl power.' She was confident because she knew what she could do and she knew she had earned it. She was confident because she knew she had cause to be.

So these situations did not daunt her at all, though she was aware that the other person might feel the awkward pauses that she sat through comfortably. Before such an awkward pause could formulate here, she said, "So, you play Quidditch?" It was obvious he was a Krum, so she wasn't going to ignore the fact. But she wasn't going to be so dull as to ask if his father really was Viktor Krum. Besides,if that were true, Jack would care less about his family ties and more about Quidditch. She usually tended to focus on the sport. That and pranking dominated her otherwise boring life.

Another ice cream ordered by Elijah Krum was melting slowly but surely before his eyes. There would come a time when the young man would no longer pay for the seat that he would lounge in for hours on end under the guise of ice cream eating, instead sketching or just brooding away. One day, he’d actually eat the frozen treat he’d purchased but it would be sooner rather than later. Elijah nibbled absently on his pouty bottom lip and pushed some hair out of his eyes. The owl his snake was holding hooted in its sleep and Elijah gazed down at the floor where Nachash had settled the cage.

The girl had offered a chair to him which meant he was to sit down. Elijah really hated meeting people for the first time. He was horrible at it. After a few meetings he’d relax a little but there was always a part of him that felt awkward about the whole situation. If he was with models that were desperate for him to paint them then he was the epitome of charisma. It was probably because there, he was in his comfort zone. He had no real goal with random people he spoke to. With Ann Marie, Claire, Camille and the rest of them it was art...and sex...but the latter was after the art.

Continuing to nibble on his bottom lip, Elijah slipped into the seat the girl had offered to him. The owl hooted in its sleep again as Elijah settled his bags down on the floor and Nachash clambered onto his arm. He put the glass of progressively melting ice cream on the table and watched as the snake slipped beneath his skin and settled herself there, giving the illusion of a tattoo. Eli smiled a little and picked up his spoon. He dipped it into the Bourbon on top and curved a piece out of the spherical scoop in the glass. He took the head of the spoon into his mouth and his tongue flicked out, pealing the ice cream off of the spoon. He took the spoon back out of his mouth and glanced at the redhead before him.

She looked a little bit like Alice but it wasn’t uncanny. He saw her in everyone but it wasn’t often his old friend dwelled on his thoughts. Closing his eyes momentarily, Eli banished the mutinous thoughts from his brain and looked down at the ice cream again. He repeated the process with the spoon and dumped it back in the glass just as the girl spoke. His dark, cat-like eyes flicked up and studied her curiously. Her voice wasn’t exactly melodic but it had a music-like quality that made the sides of his mouth twitch slightly.

Did he like Quidditch? That was the question. Elijah’s eyebrows furrowed a little and he played idly with the spoon before plucking the Pocky out of the ice cream’s cold clutches. He gnawed on the end of it for a few moments before deciding to speak. “I do not like Quidditch per se...” he said evasively, “But I love to fly.” He bit into the Pocky, the stick of chocolate making a satisfying crunch, and Elijah savoured the taste before chewing and swallowing. “And yourself?” he questioned before biting into it again.

Jack's eyebrow pricked upwards inquisitively. Hmm. Did not like Quidditch, but liked to fly; that told her that he did not want to be considered a carbon copy of his father. Just because his dad had been an international player, did not mean that he aspired to do anything of the sort, though he did enjoy the sport. She could respect that.

Especially because she could understand trying to distance yourself from your family, if that was indeed what he was trying to do. Jack had spent most of her life unintentionally disappointing her parents. When she realized just how terrible they were, which did not take long, she began to do so intentionally, making sure those around her knew just how different she was from her parents.

Though she doubted the boy before her had the same problem. Most kids seemed to get along quite swimmingly with their parents, despite the occasional snag or two, wherein an argument would ensue, but these could be solved swiftly with a 'family-' or 'heart-to-heart-" talk. The same could not be said for Jack's family full of people with big egos, short fuses, and very, very loud voices. The talks were less heart to heart, and more face to face, or fist to wall, in Jack's respect.

She went back to examining her ice cream and then licked a drop that was rolling down the cone towards her hand. That crisis being avoided, she turned back to the boy in front of her, realizing she had missed a fundamental part of his personality, though others had been deduced. She opened her mouth, but her attention was drawn to the owl and snake. She cocked her head. "Nice owl. Nice snake."

Jack was not afraid of snakes. Nor spiders, or bugs, or the usual fears. She was still unsure of what she was afraid of really, for the only time she ever felt fearful was when confronted with something worth fearing. A lot of people dwelled on their phobias and let them keep them up at night, but Jack thought it was a stupid practice. Why worry yourself when you are just going to worry another time? She preferred sanity, thank you.

Remembering what she had been about to do before she had went off on a mental tangent, she looked up and said, "My names Jack." Usually, she would offer her hand so she could shake his hand firmly, but she figured that 'proper etiquette' or whatever did not allow for such thing when the people involved were eating.

The silence between Elijah’s answer and the next time she spoke was slightly awkward. Elijah’s eyes fell to the glass of ice cream and he continued to nibble on the end of the stick of pocky. He was continuously batting his hair out of his eyes and it was really beginning to irritate him now. He leaned over a little bit and rested his elbow on the table, using his hand to hold back the hair. Once the sick of Pocky was gone, Eli picked p his spoon and began to absent-mindedly play with his ice cream. He lifted it to his mouth once a scoop of both coffee and chocolate was on the spoon and took the head of the spoon into his mouth like he’d done before.

When the girl spoke for the second time, Elijah glanced down as he took the spoon from his mouth. The owl seemed fairly happy in its cage and Nachash was in dreamland. He was a little bit bemused by this. Owl’s people were fine around but most of the girls he came across were either grossed out or terrified of Nachash. He couldn’t blame them but it was an irrational fear that he didn’t understand. She seemed completely relaxed around both animals and Eli smiled a little. He looked down at the snake that had curled herself back around his arm beneath his skin and made a clicking sound with his mouth. Her eyes moved and she hissed at him before retreating further up his arm.

“She’s shy around new people.” He offered as an excuse for her bad behaviour. He heard the snake hiss and he felt his cheeks flush with embarrassment. Eli let his hair flop down over her face and bit his lip. He dropped the spoon back into the glass and rested his chin in his hand. The owl hooted again and Eli rolled his eyes at the animal. He tucked his hair behind his ear and smiled at the girl when she spoke again; identifying herself. “I’m Elijah.” He said after a moment. “You are a Hogwarts student aren’t you?” He asked, wondering if he’d seen her around before or not. She had a familiar face but her name rang no bells.

(Sorry this is shorter and later but I’m behind on my posts so I’m rushing things a bit. )

He looked a little surprised when she complimented him on his reptilian friend, but it made no difference to Jack. She liked sharks just the same as she liked cats. She liked animals. She did not mind rodents, reptiles, bugs, etc. She had no hang ups when it came to dogs, except a rational irritation with little yappy dogs.

She smiled when he said the snake was shy when she was around new people. "Eh, well that's forgivable." He asked if she was from Hogwarts and she nodded, vaguely aware that he had now idea who she was, though she did not care about that. Some girls would have been devastated, but popularity was not worth a flying dungbomb to her. The fact that Elijah Krum did not know her did not crush her, because honestly, this was the first time she had ever really noticed him.

She nodded in response to him and said, "Yes, I'm a Gryffindor. I'll be a seventh year this year." It felt great to say that she was finally at the top, though it also made her realize that she should start planning for the future...She realized she had never answered his Quidditch question, so, smirking slightly, she said, "I'm also Beater on the Quidditch team."

((It's okay, I'm in the same boat right now...))