it's a whipped cream day [cara]

[Deleted]

december 29, 2024

Four days after Christmas, and Rose had already had to go back to work. Interns didn't have as many privileges around the holiday time as the more seasoned workers, and with the dragon attack at Hogsmeade, the Education Department had had to deal with the reaction of parents who were worried about the safety of their children at nearby Hogwarts. Rose had just finished her shift at the Ministry, and she was having a craving for a strange treat - at least, strange at this time of the year. Rose wanted a scoop of ice cream. And not just any ice cream; she wanted Fortescue ice cream. Really, Fortescue ice cream was the only ice cream worth having, and it was lucky for Rose that the ice cream parlor didn't shut down for the winter.

Rose pushed open the door to the ice cream parlor, letting in a gust of cold air with her. She stomped her feet on the welcome mat to keep the snow from being tracked into the parlor. Rose was so busy with cleaning her feet that she didn't even notice that she knew the person behind the counter - until she looked up. "Cara?" She hadn't known that her former roommate had taken a job at the ice cream parlor!

cara june bainbridge

[cara june bainbridge]

Rozalina Antonina Nightshade

12.29.2024

Cara thought that when she turned in the job application for Florean Fortescue’s Ice Cream Parlour, she wouldn’t hear back from them until well into January. The owl that arrived the day after Christmas said her first shift was the twenty-seventh, and then every following day for the rest of the year. She had double checked her copy of the application multiple times, making sure she had marked down the part-time option, but apparently that didn’t make a difference during the holiday seasons. Part-time was basically full time, and she realized then that she should have waited until Hogwarts started back up. Easing her way into the job without a bunch of students staring her down from across the cash register would have been less embarrassing with a few months of work under her belt.

The first two days were rough, but by the third day it seemed like most of the kids had blown their Christmas cash and could no longer afford ice cream. Thankfully. Anyone that came in now either didn’t care who she was as long as their orders were correct, or had completely forgotten who she was while in school. Maybe that was for the best. Her boasted best-selling novel had yet to happen and she was sure there would be some remarks if it ever did show up. At least now she had a real excuse not to be working on the book. Before it was because she was lazy and unmotivated. Now she actually had to accomplish her goal so that she didn’t get stuck working at an ice cream parlour through her twenties. She had seen what it had done to the poor girl that worked at the bookstore.

The afternoon looked to have gotten quite frigid out, reducing the amount of customers wandering in. The ones that did were usually looking for coffee or hot chocolate, both of which were served in their normal and ice cream forms, and which Cara had to make them specify the one they actually wanted. She had just finished handing over a hot chocolate drink and similarly flavored ice cream (because the customer was too indecisive), when she heard the bell above the door jingle. People going out for ice cream in the cold was weird in her opinion, but she wasn’t one to judge since she was serving them it. She had just looked up from the cash register after closing out the last customer when she heard her name called, causing her to freeze in place. It was Rose. Her old roommate Rose. “Hey Rose,” she forced out, trying not to make it sound awkward. “How’ve you been?” Cara already knew her own answer, which was that this was just a side gig for the holidays so she could keep funding her impossible pet project. It sounded good in her head but saying it out loud was a completely different thing.

[Deleted]

Rose was going to endeavor to make this situation as un-awkward as possible for both herself and Cara. It was weird, because she knew Cara – you couldn’t live with someone for seven years and not learn some things about them and their life – but she wasn’t friends with the other Ravenclaw. They were friendly, but not friends. It seemed that sort of relationship was common for the other girl, which Rose couldn’t fault her for; having friends was kind of exhausting sometimes. Either way, their relationship had more or less ceased to exist upon graduation, hence why Rose was surprised when finding Cara in the ice cream shop. But since they weren’t enemies or anything, Rose didn’t want to humiliate Cara. There were plenty of people from their graduating class working in service and it didn’t make someone worse off than Rose was. Especially because, if she was remembering correctly, Cara was working on a novel – something that Rose would never, ever be able to accomplish. Ice cream was probably just a through point, right?

“I’ve been okay,” Rose answered with a shrug. If Cara read any of the gossip columns, she would probably know Rose’s parents were getting divorced, so it would be weird to act like she was totally cheery. Not to mention there had been dragons at Hogsmeade yesterday – again, a very not-okay circumstance. “Weird to think it’s been six months since we graduated,” she offered, hoping that was at least something they could small talk about. “How about you?” This still felt very, very awkward, but awkward was better than hostile, as far as Rose was concerned. Besides, the longer she was in the ice cream parlor, the less cold she was, and the less bad she would feel for voluntarily eating ice cream in the middle of winter.

cara june bainbridge

[cara june bainbridge]

Rozalina Antonina Nightshade

12.29.2024

Rose shrugged out her ‘okay’. Cara had no idea how to interpret that. Technically she was just ‘okay’ as well. There were certainly classmates of theirs that were far better off right out of school than she was, and Cara assumed Rose was one of those. She had always been jealous of the Weasley girl’s academic prowess in their first few years at school. Eventually that target shifted to Diana, since it was impossible to avoid being compared to her twin, but Rose was the first one that had really grinded her gears. Secretly of course. She was only petty about it in her head, knowing full well that isolating herself in the dorm room was a great way to lose whatever friends she did have. There weren’t many of those to begin with. “Yeah…time flies, huh?” Wasted time, especially. The book had some pages scribbled out, but not enough of them to call complete. That was a waste of time in her opinion. All of the self-help books for new novelists she had read said the first one could take years to finish. Cara didn’t like the idea of wasting years writing something that needed to be done now. If she wanted a job like that, she would have worked for the Ministry and wasted away there instead.

“Been better,” she admitted, glancing behind her to see if the boss was within earshot. She was still worried about being criticized for taking too much time with a customer. Even though Rose was the only one, there was always the possibility of another, and her boss had made it very clear that chit-chatting for too long could have her talking right out the door. Cara didn’t think she looked like a talker, and the peeved look on her face must have been enough for them, because there hadn’t been a mention of it over the last two days. But she was still worried about getting a slap on the wrist for it. For now, it looked like they weren’t anywhere within earshot, so it was safe to keep talking. “This is just part-time for a while. I’ve been working on a personal project mostly. It’s just not panning out the way I thought it would.” Cara couldn’t recall if she had ever mentioned the novel to Rose before. Near the end of school she had forsaken all of her work and started drafting out notes, so it was definitely possible. NEWTs weren’t going to get her a book deal.

[Deleted]

Rose nodded when Cara said that time flew. It seemed like just yesterday she was going into school, bright eyed and excited to save the world or something, and now… she was graduated and nothing looked the way that she thought it would. Rose knew that she really shouldn’t have expected so much, but wasn’t that the way of the world? People expected a lot and got a little. Merlin, she sounded quite the pessimist. It was just hard, Rose thought with a sigh, to have some things in her life that she couldn’t fix just by being smart or digging her heels in. She expected that if stubbornness was enough to save a relationship, then many fewer people would be broken up – her parents among them. Rose sighed again, before verbally answering Cara’s question. “Yes, it really does.”

“I can relate,” Rose said, attempting a wry smile. Been better seemed to be a common theme among a lot of her family – though maybe that was just her trying to feel like she wasn’t the only one doing poorly. Maybe, Rose thought as she began to chew her lip, she wasn’t taking anything as well as she’d like to believe. If she was coping as well as she thought, then her chest wouldn’t feel so tight upon hearing two innocent words from someone she didn’t know all that well in the first place. Cara explained that her job was only part-time for a while, and Rose nodded. She was more than prepared to believe it. “Writing a book, right?” Rose prompted. Honestly, she was excited to read any book that Cara had to write; the other Ravenclaw came from an interesting family and seemed to have good ideas, even if she was a little lazy. Though she was momentarily distracted from her melancholy, Rose felt the vice in her chest tighten again when Cara said that things weren’t panning out the way she thought. “I wouldn’t blame you. It’s hard to plan for… well, life.” It was hard to plan for your uncle disappearing and your parents getting divorced, and even if writing a book was different, Rose expected it was very much the same in that things weren’t as easy as they looked from the outside.

cara june bainbridge

[cara june bainbridge]

Rozalina Antonina Nightshade

12.29.2024

Pretty soon here they were going to be agreeing on the fact that the only thing to look forward to in life was death, because the conversation thus far was somber as hell. They were in a freaking ice cream parlour contemplating how much their lives sucked. Well, Rose hadn’t explicitly said that, but Cara definitely thought that hers had a certain shitty quality to it right now. There were a few things coming up for her that held a glimmer of hope out for her, but they could easily turn sour and would eventually come to an end anyways. Like the New Year’s Eve outing she had planned with Dominic. And then he would be shipped back off to Hogwarts like the good little schoolboy he was while she would be stuck serving old people ice cream. She couldn’t wait to see what the next six months would bring her, because it couldn’t have been worse than this.

At first, Cara wasn’t sure if her former roommate was being sincere or not about being able to relate. Then again, they all had their own trials and tribulations, right? What was difficult for her could be a breeze for Rose, and vice-versa. Trying to compare who had it worse wasn’t going to get them anywhere, whereas the neutral option that Rose had presented definitely worked. “Yeah…supposed to be a book. Right now it’s only half of one, and not a very good half at that,” she moved her head in a so-so manner. “No kidding. Even with all the planning I did, I’m still here.” Meaning having to work at the ice cream parlour with only part of her book finished. She could have planned for years, and she was positive the situation would be the same. There was no telling when her muse for writing would spark or simmer out, or how much of an undertaking writing a novel actually was. “Are you at the Ministry?” Cara asked, trying to get the conversation off of herself for a moment. Talking about the book was great, but it wasn’t going to make it finish itself.

[Deleted]

Cara said that she was writing what was supposed to be a book, but qualified it by saying that it was only a half, and not a good half. “That’s half a book more than most people have written?” The statement came out as more of a question – Rose found that she wasn’t much good at encouraging people. She especially couldn’t understand wanting to write for a living. She definitely didn’t have enough creative energy to write a fictional book, and she suspected if she tried to write something nonfiction then she’d never publish it for fear of having gotten something wrong or left something out. Cara was doing something that Rose couldn’t, but instead of feeling jealous she felt kind of… proud? That was weird, especially since she and Cara weren’t that close. Definitely not close enough that Cara’s accomplishments reflected well on Rose.

“I’m at the Department of Magical Education,” Rose answered with a nod. “So I’m kind of the boss of Hogwarts. Well, my boss’s boss’s boss is the boss of Hogwarts.” At least, that was how Rose understood the department. Even if the Head of Hogwarts was in charge of the school, they had to take guidance from the Department of Magical Education, and Rose was a part of that. “Learning how to deal with a bureaucracy is…” Rose rolled her eyes, because that was just about the only thing that described the feeling. She had a bit of a head start since she had relatives in the Ministry, but the sheer amount of paperwork involved made her go cross-eyed. They were killing so many trees to make parchment!

cara june bainbridge

[cara june bainbridge]

Rozalina Antonina Nightshade

12.29.2024

The silver lining Rose presented her with when it came to the book was something Cara had never really taken seriously before. Her siblings were all complimenting it (but could they actually be trusted for constructive criticism?) and everyone else that had asked her how it was going only ever managed to say how cool it was that she was writing and trying to make a career path of her own. Especially adults. She hated when they said that, because it sounded like they were chastising her, even when they said it earnestly. The way Rose put it though made it sound like she had managed some sort of success so far though. Half of her novel was finished, and as her former roommate put it, that was more than most people had ever done. This was something to be proud of and she should have been using it as a morale booster throughout the whole process. “Yeah…I guess it is more than most people, isn’t it?” Cara admitted. She made a mental note to bring that up whenever she started slipping in her musings.

But that was enough about her, because she only had half of a book to talk about. Rose responded to the question about her job, and she was indeed at the Ministry, working in the magical education department. That was exactly the sort of job Cara figured Rose would go into, if not in a research department of sorts. It had her name written all over it. “So your mum then?” Cara joked. Obviously the Minister was everyone’s boss at the Ministry, but apparently there were a bunch of other, smaller bosses in between that. Cara liked having only two bosses: the one at the ice cream parlour and herself. The former being a lot easier to deal with than the latter. “I’m sure there’s a lot of running around with this whole merger of the American school, right? The logistics of smooshing all of them into Hogwarts on top of the kids already there?” she shook her head, still in disbelief that it even happened in the first place. Hogwarts had been cramped the previous year, and that was only with a select number of seventh years from Durmstrang and Beauxbatons. Adding a whole other school on top was insanity.