The Beginnings of An Adventure

[Remember Rosalind Winterman]

Remember Rosalind Winterman was on a mission. It wasn't one of the exciting sorts of missions she'd always dreamed about, like slaying dragons in Europe or visiting the very hometown of Merlin himself, but at nine years old her guardian deemed these whimsical fantasies, and would not let her go no matter how desperately she pleaded. Living in an orphanage could really suck sometimes.

But the situation offered its upsides as well: she was never short of children to play with, even if most were much younger or older than herself; she lived in a gigantic house, even though the greater portion of it was divided into bedrooms and appropriated to the children; and... no, that was it. She couldn't think of any more reasons it was fun to be an orphan, and she'd been stretching her mind to come up with the gigantic house thing. What she wanted more than anything in the world was a pair of loving parents. She dreamt that one day they might show up on the doorstep to whisk her away, but so far nothing of the sort had occurred. A lady had fostered one of the younger children two years ago, but otherwise the absence of any visitors was a daily reminder to Remember of how unwanted she was.

The mission at hand was boring and unworthy of note. The Honeydukes queue was short, it being mid-term, and despite it being a Saturday she needed only wait a minute to be served. She approached the counter and rolled up onto the balls of her feet. She wore a red woollen cardigan, white blouse, jeans, and shiny black shoes which had been polished to within inches of their lives. "Hmm," she said, contemplating the vast choices of sweets, stacked up to the ceiling in jars and boxes and baskets. "I'll have... a box of Bertie Botts Every Flavour Beans, a small scoop of assorted lollies, a medium scoop of liquorice laces, a large scoop of chocolate mice, a pack of acid drops, three cauldron cakes, a pack of sugar quills, and ten... no, eleven chocolate frogs." That accounted for every last galleon in this month's allowance, but it was totally worth it.

 

[Leila Walden]

Leila loved the freedom that she had recently discovered she was allowed whilst her two older siblings were at school. She missed her siblings a great deal but she loved her new found independence even more. Of course, she kept in contact with the two of them every now and again but Leila found that it made her more sad than happy to hear of the incredible adventures her older and brother and sister were having. She wanted to follow in their footsteps and go to Hogwarts now! She didn't want to wait another year. It meant another year at home with Benji and their parents, another year spent wandering around the farm with her little brother running along after her, another year that she had to spend dreaming about the school and what it would be like to go there.

Luckily, she wasn't completely alone in those thoughts. Despite a less than friendly meeting between the eldest Walden and the older Cade, Jess and Leila had already started a friendship despite what their respective siblings might say about their newly formed relationship. The two girls had been corresponding regularly and had even planned a time for when they could both meet again. That time had come and they had arranged to meet outside the sweet shop at Brightstone. The only catch was that a chaperone had to be nearby at all times for Leila to be allowed to go. She insisted that she would be alright on her own but her parents wouldn't hear of it.

She waited outside the shop for Jessica wearing a bright orange dress so she would be easily recogniseable. It had been a while since the two girls had seen each other so Leila wanted to make sure that she stood out so Jess could find her easily. A few girls her age had already walked into the shop but none of them looked like Jess. Leila leaned against the wall and hoped her friend would come soon, the temptation of cauldron cakes seemed was too strong for her to be outside any longer.

After what seemed like forever, Leila saw Jess walking towards her and she started jumping around in excitement. "Jess! Jess!" she shouted while waving at her friend. Although they had only seen each other a couple of months back it was already too long in Leila's book. She couldn't wait for the time when they would see each other everyday at Hogwarts. "I'm so glad you're finaly here! We need to get inside. I keep getting a whiff of all the sweets when people come in and out of the shop and I need sugar now" she laughed. "Lets get inside" she said as she held the door open for her friend.

There was only one person in the queue in front of them which gave Leila the chance to look around for what sweets were on offer. As she was picking up her favourite cauldron cakes she heard the girl order lots of sweets. Leila's eyes lit up as she heard the list of sweets that the girl was requesting. She walked towards the counter, mouth open, as she watched the assistant gather up all the sweets. She grinned at the girl who looked around her own age. "Nice choice, i'll have the same please" she said excitedly.

 

[Jessica Cade]

Jessica couldn't quite believe that her mother had allowed her to leave the house without her or one of her siblings. The promise of a chaperone provided by her new friend may have been the deciding factor but being supervised by someone unknown to her mother felt almost like independence. With James back at Hogwarts and Ezra at Durmstrang the house felt empty and lonely at times so she was glad for the chance to get out and see more of the magical world that she was so far shielded from, for the most part. Jessica had never been to Brightstone village before so she was excited when Leila suggested that they meet up there. It was close enough to the school that in her own head she would pretend she was out on break from Hogwarts.

The friendship she had formed with Leila had come as a complete surprise given that their first meeting hadn't exactly gone well, witnessing awkward tension between their older siblings was a rather uncomfortable so she and Leila had gone off to talk while James and Madeline sorted their issues. Older people were so confusing, but she and Leila had bonded quickly and the two girls began writing to each other when they both returned home. Jess was glad that despite the fact she was still over a year away from starting Hogwarts, she already had a friend.

Jess wasn't the best person when it came to planning, or timing. So it was no surprised that when she came shooting out of the fireplace at the leaky cauldron, she was late to meet her friend. She dusted herself off and hurried out of the pub and made her way towards the sweet shop. The fact that Leila wanted to meet outside a sweet shop bode well for their friendship, Jess loved sweets, admittedly as most people her age did, but her mother always said she had an addiction to chocolate frogs. Finally, Jess arrived at Honeydukes and she easily spotted her friend, she was the one in the brightly coloured dress. "Hey Leila!" She beamed at her. "Yes, yes, lets go inside, I've been craving chocolate all morning," She followed the girl inside and began browsing the seemingly never ending selection of sweets. When she and Leila overheard the order of the girl at the till they both seemed to be on the same wavelength. "Yes, I'll have what she's having. Oh that's so much chocolate I love it!"

 

[Remember Rosalind Winterman]

Remember smiled as the shop assistant began to assemble her order, waving down jars from the highest shelves and scooping the wide assortment of sweets into small paper bags, as requested. She was quite fascinated by the woman's memory: not once did she ask for a repeat of the order. Not moments after she had placed it, two girls of a similar age, who Remember had not long ago passed outside the shop, requested identical ones of their own. Remember turned, concealing her bemusement behind a friendly smile. "That's an awful lot of sweets, isn't it?" she asked, in a heavily affected tone. These girls were going to be riddled with cavities! Suddenly realisation struck her face. "Oh, how silly! You thought these were all for me!" she said, laughing politely. "Well, don't eat them all at once; you'll be horribly ill."

The shop assistant finished the three orders simultaneously, and Remember handed over the galleons for her own. Arming herself with paper bags, Remember went to leave, pausing and turning a few paces into the journey. "You girls wouldn't happen to know where Gambol & Japes is, would you?" she asked, an innocent look in her eye that didn't quite match the implications of her question. "Only, we're just here for the week, and I'm terribly lost."

 

[Leila Walden]

Leila nodded enthusiastically "not nearly enough sweets i'd say" she said grinning at the other girl. However, the girl didn't seem to share the same thoughts as Leila and she frowned as the girl advised them not to eat all the sweets at once. What did that girl know anyway? Of course Leila would eat all of them straight away. She wasn't going to save them, what was the point in that? She narrowed her eyes a little in disbelief at what the girl was saying "you have to eat them all at once! They're too nice to save!" Leila explained to the girl who didn't seem to know the correct way to eat sweets.

She took a bag of sweets and paid the assistant the correct money and began to rummage around for a cauldron cake to sample there and then. She licked her fingers as she waited for Jess to pay up and wondered where the two girls could go next. They had a few hours to kill and Leila wanted to make the most of every minute with her new best friend. However, she didn't have to think about what to do for very long as the other girl in the shop asked them where Gambol and Japes was. Leila had absolutely no clue where the shop was but she was eager to help the girl find it. She turned to Jess and shrugged her shoulders and then turned back to the girl "this is only my second time here so I have no idea but we can help you find it if you want? Can't be that hard" she offered "between the three of us we should be able to find it" she smiled.

 

[Jessica Cade]

Jess couldn't believe the other girls reaction to her and Leila matching her sweet orders for themselves, and she had to agree with Leila that it wasn't even enough sweets but Jess was limited to what she could spend. She watched on as the shop assistant measure out her order and she handed over the money and took the bag. "hmdmakfwf sfndlslfdmad," She mumbled incoherently as she shoved a cauldron cake into her mouth and fished around for a chocolate frog. Swallowing the cake she blushed slightly, "I mean, you can never have too many sweets right?" She looked at Leila for support who had said something similar.

Like Leila, Jess wasn't quite sure what to make of the girl, she almost seemed to mock them for copying her rather large sweet order for themselves. Jess raised her eyebrow at the girl as she continued to speak. Though when she began to speak about needed directions, Jess saw an opportunity to maybe help the girl out and get them on better terms. "The joke shop right? Yeah its that way," She said pointing in the general direction of where she knew the shop was. "I passed it on my way down, I could show you if you want?"