summertime in the city

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“Yes, I would like the cauldron cake and caramel sundae.” Sinclair told the man behind the counter. It was an unusually hot day in Diagon Alley and the icecream shop was more than filled. Sin had to wait twenty minutes in line before it was her turn and thank goodness it was. The girl nodded a thanks when a bowl was handed to her. She placed the money on the counter and left a tip in the cup in front of the register. Currently her father sat in the Leaky Cauldron with her mother finishing up lunch. Sin had asked if she could go ahead with out them. Her father had the day off and offered up a trip of shopping to his girls. Her closest brother was still at home working on his broom and the other two were already grown and out of the house. It left Jaxon with just his wife and daughter. But waiting for her parents to finish was annoyingly long. They kept talking to one another instead of eating. It was about fifteen minutes after she finished that she excused herself and landed in Fortescue’s for some dessert. The sixteen year old quickly scooped up a left over spot and plopped herself down. The girl tossed her bag in the empty seat beside her before she grabbed her spoon and dug into her bowl. “All summer long. Cauldron cake and caramel.” She mumbled happily before putting the first scoop in her mouth.

@steve

[Deleted]

@sinclair

Even though the sun only managed to give him a sufficient burn, instead of a critical hit, Steve still felt drained by the heat and blinding rays. Canada could get hot in the summer, but the woods around his house back there always had the shelter of shade. London, and Diagon Alley included in that, only had stores that he could duck into from time to time to cool off and escape from it for a few seconds. His hate for the sun was two-fold though; aside from his obvious dislike of it (half-vampire and all that), he also hated that it made him hungry. Not hungry as in the normal eating sense, but blood hungry. He didn’t need it as much as his mother did, but there was something in his head that always screamed at him to get blood or food flavored like it when it was boiling hot outside. So of course he hated hot summer days because he also hated the whole concept of drinking blood. The taste he craved at times, the method of consuming it he could do without.

Instead of going to the blood bank in Diagon, Steve opted for the ice cream parlor. The delicacy would equally cool him down, and he also wanted to see if they had toppings that were blood flavored. Usually candies like that quenched his thirst enough until he could get home and cool off – the same could be said about the right kind of topping on his ice cream, if they had it. The lines were long, and he struggled in the sun throughout the entire thing. The burns wouldn’t be as bad as his mother would have them, but he was still wearing a long-sleeved shirt, pants, and a baseball cap, along with sunglasses covering his eyes. As for his ears and neck? Lathered in sunscreen. The strongest that he could find. The family had a huge tub of it in the house, since three out of four needed it on almost a daily basis if they wanted to venture outside. His mom had work, and Nora was always running around doing her thing.

Close to twenty minutes later in the sweltering sun, Steve finally managed to get his order, and to his relief, something that was blood flavored. There were a few weird glances at him as he ordered it, mostly from the cashier who clearly needed to process what he had just heard. Apparently they didn’t know that vampires liked ice cream as well. Walking out of the store and towards the sitting area, Steve saw a girl at a table that he had noticed ahead of him in line a few minutes earlier. He was constantly surprised how many students seemed to make day trips to the shopping district, and this one looked like she was around his age as well. Taking a few bites out of his ice cream, he wandered towards her and heard her say something to herself about a Cauldron cake. “What’s that?” he asked, pointing at her bowl. “The Cauldron cake thingy.”

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“Well you know what a cauldron cake is, yes?” She asked Steve when he approached her. She took her time savoring the sweet treat before answering him. “Well imagine that, fresh baked and hot with vanilla icecream scooped onto top and covered with hot caramel.” She grinned putting her spoon back into her sundae and taking out another scoop. “It’s love.” She nodded joking before shoving another spoon into her mouth and enjoying the sweetness. Sin was a lover of life. All she wanted to do was enjoy it before it was too late. And too late was becoming an adult and ending up in the Ministry like her father. She was okay with it, but she knew herself. She’d become a workaholic immediately. She was sort of a workaholic when it came to school. “Well, are you gonna sit or just stand there?” she looked at him with her bright blue eyes before taking another scoop for her icecream.

It was the love of life that made Sin approachable. She liked people and interacting. People brought laughter and fun. They were full of so many emotions that Sin was just always entertained. It made her friendly and enjoy people’s company. She wanted always to be surrounded by people and have fun. At least for now. “Now I know you face, but I don’t know your name. Which is interesting because I try to know everyone.” She mused playing with the caramel in her cup. And she definitely was a talker. She could keep a conversation going for sure. How did she end up in Slytherin? When that answer comes after some time of knowing Sin and what sort of person she could be. Her brothers agree, she is quite manipulative. She’d watch people and their reactions and get to know them. Once she knew them, she just would say the right words, give the right emotion and boom, something was most likely to go her way. She was a quick thinker and always quick on her feet. And nothing has posed more important than her proving herself and being a hit witch.


@steve

[Deleted]

@sinclair

No, actually, he had absolutely no idea what this cauldron cake thing she was talking about was. He assumed it was the brownie-like object in her ice cream, but he couldn’t actually be sure of that. As she went on to describe the ice cream that he had inquired about, it sounded more and more like an ice cream sundae – just with the mysterious cauldron cake included. Steve watched her as she took another bite, saying that it was love. “I’m sure it is. How would you compare it? The ex you can’t stay away from and keep going back to because they get you all weak-kneed every time you see them, or the ecstasy of a first kiss over and over again?” Sometimes he hated himself. This was the exact behavior that he had told himself he was going to avoid once they moved. Instead, here he was laying groundwork around a girl he didn’t even know that was definitely going to be a classmate of his in a few months. Too many times he had told himself that old habits die hard, and while it was true in a sense, playing up to expectations didn’t need to happen when there weren’t any to be had in the first place. His sister definitely wasn’t going to judge him over something like that. Regardless, Steve couldn’t help himself this time around, and the girl was now asking him to sit down. It would be rude if he refused after asking a personal question like that. “Suppose I can. Keep me from dripping all over the place,” he said casually as he took a seat across from her, and sinking his teeth into his own ice cream. He could probably get in a decent conversation before she asked what flavor his ice cream was, and he had to respond with ‘blood-flavored’. Her reaction would be fun no matter what it was.

Before that though, she was going on about knowing his face but not his name. Steve chuckled slightly at her comment. That was impossible, because he had only just moved here and didn’t know anyone else. “Do you now?” he started, taking another bite of his ice cream in between speaking. “Because I try to know everyone too, and I know for a fact we’ve never met before. I definitely would have remembered your face,” Steve smirked at her. He had the upper hand after all. “Won’t hold it against you though. I just moved here a few days ago.”

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A perfectly shaped eyebrow raised a bit at the boy’s reaction to her description. “In all honesty,” And Sin was not afraid of being honest. She was quite blunt sometimes. It was just a part of her nature. There was power in the truth, or so said her father. “I have yet to experience either of those scenarios.” She wasn’t embarrassed or sad about the truth. It was just that a truth. “It’s more like a familiar nostalgic sort of love. A love, everyone knows at some point, thanks to a parent or a sibling or a friend. More innocent than romantic.” She decided to go along with him. “It’s ice cream after all. A childish sort of treat everyone takes part in.” Actually, if Sinclair thought hard enough, she wouldn’t recall even a crush. She never paid that much attention to boys or girls. She always had something else on her mind. School work or some sort of social event. She were to either put on the event or attend one. She just didn’t think of herself as the romantic type. She didn’t have an interest in it. Or at least not yet.

Sinclair grinned when the boy accepted her offer to sit. “Moved here just a few days ago?” she mused. Her blue eyes looked over his face. She guessed he just had a familiar face. “You must just have that sort of face.” She smiled and took another scoop of her ice cream. “So where are you from then?” Her curiosity. “You do talk sort of funny.” She said as an observation. She didn’t think twice about not saying it or holding it back. “Not that it’s a bad thing. It’s quite interesting.” She nodded taking another scoop of her ice cream. She wasn’t sure if she was being rude so she added in the last statement to help, hopefully. She ate her next scoop and went in for another, but this time with a piece of cauldron cake. He was newbie to the London community. She thought it was a tad bit exciting to meet another from somewhere different in the middle of Diagon. She stopped. "You don't know what a cauldron cake is then." she realized with a bit of disbelief. There was a cultural difference between the two. It was not more than clear.



@steve

[Deleted]

@sinclair

Nostalgic love over lustful love. That was a new one. He couldn’t hold it against the girl though, especially if she was so ready to admit that she had never experienced the scenarios that he had posed. That wasn’t exactly fair of him to do so without context on her personal life. “That’s a pretty tame, child friendly answer,” Steve said as he leaned back in his chair to process it all once again. “I like it. Like you said, it is ice cream after all.” Innocence wasn’t something he tended to use as a descriptor for himself, like she had with her ice cream. The whole blood drinking thing automatically barred him from that word. As for his own cold treat, it would have to be his first option. Blood was something he couldn’t go without, and while he hated the concept of it, he still longed for it in the end. A vile way go through life, but it was an unfortunate necessity. Growing up around it had destroyed any notion of anything other than that, so while he could understand the girl’s view on her ice cream, Steve also knew that he would probably never truly understand what she meant, because his blood flavored ice cream was one-hundred percent driven by his lust and need.

Steve nodded his head as she repeated his statement, but in the form of a question now. “I have that sort of face?” he repeated quizzically, raising an eyebrow of his own at her. “Hope you don’t mean the average kind, because I do pride myself in my dashingly good looks from time to time. You know how long it takes to get this hair like this?” She probably did, unfortunately. And his answer was always that it took too long. Keeping himself put together drew attention though, and it seemed to be working now without the girl even realizing it. “Canada. Way up north.” Steve was willing to let the ‘talking funny’ comment go, because in his opinion, she was the one that sounded funny. They didn’t need to squabble over something like that. “And no, I do not know what a cauldron cake is,” he chuckled. “I imagine it’s the brown cake looking thing you just ate though.” Astute observation.

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“You know what?” she looked at him with a small smile. “Nowadays, we need a little bit more child friendly things.” She sat back in her chair and propped up her elbow on the armrest. She waved her spoon a little and looked up. “We teenagers try to hard to grow up. I know I do.” She said before looking back at Steve. She then shrugged and turned back to her ice cream. There were a few scoops of hers left. Sin had done more than enough top try and grow up. No matter how much mischief she would join into and how many parties she threw, Sin always found herself host or stepping up when things got tough. She was still responsible deep down. The light became slightly dimmer. Sin turned her attention up to the sky. A cloud moved over the sun changing the temperature by a few degrees. Sin welcomed the coolness and looked at Steve.

Sin let out a small laugh at Steve and shook her head. “Probably longer than it takes to do mine.” She joked. Actually, that may have been true. Sin hardly gave the time to brush her hair. She usually just left it in a careless mess. As long as her clothes were pressed and her makeup was done up, she really couldn’t care too much on what her red locks looked like. She didn’t have too frizzy of hair and it usually liked to curl on its own. It just usually worked out for her that way. On the other hand, she looked at his hair and gave it a little more attention before shaking her head again. “Okay, not average. Just familiar, I guess. I don’t know.” She couldn’t explain it. She just felt like, at some point, they had met. If Sin had ever been to Canada. But she didn’t remember a trip to. They did take a lot of trips to the States and other parts of Europe. Sin looked down at the last few scoops. “How about this, I’ll trade you a scoop of mine for a scoop of yours?” She wiggled her brows and slid the cup closer to him. “I guess it’s just sort of a chocolate cupcake.” She frowned her eyebrows. She never really had to described a cauldron cake before. They were just cauldron cakes. The girl dropped her spoon in her cup and smiled at Steven with a wide grin.




@steve

[Deleted]

@sinclair

Since Steve thought her first part of her answer was tame, he certainly wasn’t expecting her to continue to back it up. While he kind of understood the needing child friendly ‘things’, whatever that exactly meant he was unsure, he did get the concept she was trying to pass on to him. Growing up fast was, well, inevitable. Just like his move over here. Some things were unavoidable, and if he really wanted to get realistic with her, he knew he could bring up the part where being a teen was a miniscule part of their lifespans. While the experience of learning and growing was mainly done during these years, the rest of their lives were still before them, with equally fun things to do. At least that was his view on it. “How so?” he found himself asking, curious to see what her own answer to it would be. “I get the whole ‘enjoying your youth’ thing, but I don’t see what’s so wrong with growing up and getting on with life.”

Slightly embarrassed that she was probably correct that his hair took longer in the morning, Steve nodded his head. “I won’t bore you with the process,” he admitted. There was so much to it that sometimes even he wondered if it would be easier to slice it all off and keep it short for the time being. But then he couldn’t have a conversation like this with a girl while eating ice cream. So it did have its own purpose from time to time other than looking fabulous. “Maybe I have a clone over here or something. I’d say a twin, but I actually do have one of those,” he laughed, eyeing his own ice cream once again. His attention refocused onto the girl as she asked if he wanted to trade for a scoop. That was tempting, but at the same time he couldn’t exactly let her have his ice cream. There was blood on it after all. “I don’t think you’re going to like mine at all,” he said, trying to avoid explaining exactly what was in it. She seemed intent though, having already pushed her cup towards him. “There’s really no way I can let you have it. Even for a cauldron cake.”

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Sin paused and looked at Steve. Realization broke through. He wasn’t here for all the bad that had happened. He wasn’t at Hogwarts when the murders happened and he was there to see people turn their backs on each other and blame each other with none to no facts. Muggleborns were targeted and anyone with a slightly dark family past was put under a microscope. “Organically and in a reasonable time frame, yes. Brilliant.” She nodded. ”Have you been updated on some of the drama Britain has going for itself?” She felt like she was being forced to grow up quicker than usual, though it was probably no way around it for her and her need to please her father. She watched him for a bit. She looked him over a bit. But she knew last year, everyone was scared and worried all the time. Everyone was cautious. Was the person sitting next to you the cause of discomfort for the school. Evidently, there was a student causing the mischief and terror. “Actually forget I said anything.” She waved her spoon a little bit with a shrug. “I’m turning this lovely day into a bummer filled with gossip and drama. Don’t wanna be my grandmother.” She raised her eyebrows.

She looked at him with interest, “Oh? A twin?” she grinned. “That’s exciting!” Sin couldn’t imagine having someone who looked so much like her. But she knew what it was like having siblings. She had a pretty great relationship with her brothers. Some more than another. But all in all, she loved having brothers. From time to time she always wondered what it was like to have a sister though. It would definitely be different than having three older brothers. She gave him a look with raised eyebrows. Maybe he was a germaphobe. “Oh it can’t be that bad. I’ve nearly have every icecream from this place.” She nodded with a matter of fact tone. “There was one year where they had an icecream with Every Flavor Jelly Beans.” She scrunched up her nose and shook her head. “It was awful. That is one candy that should not be in an icecream.” She shook her head. Having candy that could taste like salmon or boogers in an icecream was off putting. But it didn’t stop Sin from wasting her icecream for the day. No matter how many times her mother said she should change her mind, Sin still went after it. “Well, at least have some of mine.” She smiled sweetly, “Cauldron cake is a must have, even if it’s just a chocolate cake.” She hated to admit it, but it was just a chocolate cake in the shape of a cauldron. There just something so magically about it though.





@steve

[Deleted]

@sinclair

It was kind of hard not to know about what had been going on over here, even when he lived up in the middle of nowhere Canada. They were still a magically community, and that sort of news did get around to everyone. Whether or not what he had heard was completely true to what had actually transpired though – that was the real question. This girl was a student at Hogwarts, so that meant she had lived through everything he had read about. That was quite an interesting way to learn more about it. “I’ve seen a bit. I think the more recent things hit a little closer to home,” Steve said. “Dad is a Durmstrang alum, so he was distraught about that…” he explained further. There had been a few times where his and Nora’s slightly French-Canadian accents had been mistaken for French accents (though the British seemed to be good at discerning between the two). Despite already telling her that he was from Canada, there was always the chance that he could have gone to either Durmstrang or Beauxbatons. It would have been the former if their dad had gotten his way. “I mean, it’s better to talk about it and get it done with. Avoiding the problem and pushing it away won’t do any good,” Steve shrugged. “But I don’t want you to be your grandmother either. That would make this weird.”

Steve returned the grin as she said having a twin was exciting. “Yeah it is. Double trouble and all that.” Though if he had to pick who the troublemaker was between him and Nora, it was definitely his sister. It wasn’t like he had any more self-restraint than she did; more that their personalities were just different enough from one another that he kept his wild side on a slightly tighter leash. But the twin thing wasn’t important when it came to the discussion on their ice cream. His blood flavored one specifically. If she knew what his actually was, she probably wouldn’t have been going on about how the every flavor bean things would compare to it. Having only tested one pack of the candy since arriving in London, Steve understood what she was trying to do. Some of the beans were absolutely vile. “Since you insist,” he said as he reached across for a sizeable chunk of the cauldron cake, making sure to get a tiny bit of ice cream with it. Placing the spoon gently in his mouth, he tried to get a feeling for the sponge-like cake. Finishing the process, he swallowed it. “I knew I should have expected it to taste like that, but it was still surprisingly good. You can buy these things in the store on their own?” They had to be, since she had seemed genuinely surprised when he said he had never had one before. The best part about going to a new country was trying their candy. It said a lot about the people there. What said a lot about him, on the other hand, was the fact that he was dangling blood-flavored ice cream in front of the girl and she was saying that it couldn’t be that bad. Steve instinctively pulled his bowl back towards him after taking the scoop from hers. “Well, you don’t look like a vampire, and unless you’re a zombie or a cannibal, I don’t think this flavor will suit your uhh…tastes.” Steve scooped some of his ice cream up to show the flavoring within. “See? Blood.”