With Melted Ice Cream

[Sora Blake]

Sora missed Hogwarts.

It had been a much simpler time; get to your class, make time for your girlfriend, and enjoy life. It was a very easy life and it made Sora happy. He didn't have to worry about a job, he didn't have to worry about people dying, and he didn't have worry about him being the reason why those people were dead.

The life of a hitwizard was something that ate at you till you were nothing but a husk of your former self. Just another wand-for-hire going through the motions as if on automatic.

Sora had no idea why he was thinking such things. Here he was, sitting on a rickety oak bench outside Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour nursing a small cup of strawberry ice cream on a beautiful day, and all he could think about was the past.

His job entitled him to have hectic hours with no horizon for a social life, as well as reoccurring nightmares of friends and loved ones being tortured by his enemies.

Brittany, she was his most reoccurring nightmare.

Long gone were the pleasurable dreams he had of her. Her scent, her touch and her taste were replaced by her yells, her screams, and her cries.

Sora shivered as a particularly harsh wind blew through, causing him to wrap his robes tighter around him. He was fooling himself though; it wasn't the wind that caused him to shiver.

They ended their relationship in a not-so-great way. Most of it was his fault. Sora chuckled, hell all of it was his fault.

"She probably moved on though..." he whispered to himself, making mush out of the remains of his ice cream with his spoon. Good for her, he thought. She was living and enjoying her life.

So...why did Sora feel scared that she moved on?

"Ugh, dammit." Sora said to no one, placing his ice cream cup on his right, leaning into the bench till the back of his neck rested on the top of the back of the bench. His jade green eyes watched as the sun slowly made its way across the blue sky, listening to the sounds of Diagon Alley.

His ice cream slowly continued to melt.

((Open))

[Drew Thornton]

The crisp autumn air always invigorated Drew. Maybe it was the fact that his birthday was getting closer, or that his training was going well. Perhaps it was his special anniversaries with Felicity coming up, or more likely the simple fact that he knew he was going to see her again very soon. No matter what it was, he felt somehow more alive than he had in a while.

He strolled through Diagon Alley, hands in his pockets, whistling some song that had gotten stuck in his head earlier that week. He had stayed a little later at the office than usual, but he knew his Aunt had some sort of dinner function that evening and his puppy was being well spoiled by the house elves, so he was in no really rush to get back home. He considered stopping into the Leaky Cauldron for some dinner, but as he wandered the streets in that general direction, he heard a voice that sounded frustrated. He knew Sora by sight, they had both gone to Hogwarts and Drew had seen the guy around the Ministry offices, but they had never really hung out much so Drew wasn't sure if he had the right to speak up. His concern got the best of him and he paused in front of the bench, looking carefully at the young man sitting there.

"Dude. You okay?" he asked, figuring if the guy needed help of some sort it was better to ask than not.

[Sora Blake]

Sora continued to wallow in his self pity as his eyes remained skywards, tracing the slow motions of clouds. He was probably going stay sitting on the bench for another thirty minutes, continue with people watching before heading back to his flat and brood some more. He was a very busy guy.

Sora was taken away from his people watching when he heard a familiar voice off towards his right. He turned his head and studied the person who spoke to him. Sora was horrible with names but he never forgot a face. He knew him from Hogwarts and Sora was pretty sure he graduated a year before him. Sora knew that the guy worked in the Ministry but Sora didn't know what he worked as or his title. They weren't exactly friends.

Eureka! Drew Thornton, that was his name. Sora finally remembered his name.

"Yeah, I'm okay." Sora lied, grabbing the remains of his ice cream off of the bench as if making room for Thornton to sit, "I was just...venting."

[Drew Thornton]

The guy had been in Allegra's year, Drew was pretty sure, and definitely in Slytherin. Aside from the fact that he now worked in the Ministry as a hit-wizard, and hung out a lot with Brittany, Drew didn't know much about the guy. When Sora scooted over and cleared the bench, he wasn't sure if the guy was being tidy or making room.

"Venting?" he echoed with a small smirk. Usually people had a good reason to vent about something and tended to welcome someone to vent it to. Drew had no problem listening if that was the case as he often enjoyed a chance to get involved in a good vent. He had plenty to get of his chest and was pretty sure there would be some comonality. Then again, he barely knew the guy and understood if he didn't care to spill his guts to a guy he barely knew.

[Sora Blake]

"Yes, venting." Sora replied, looking at the other guy with a blank face. Thornton! Sora remembered that this guy also had a sister! Allegra was his sister's name. Usually he would've forgotten a name like that but Sora remembered a particular Potions class where a love potion went afoul. He made such a fool of himself that day, especially when he started hitting on her. Potions could make a guy do crazy things.

Sora took another look at the guy, pondering his next course of action. There were some things you can only tell to strangers. This guy didn't know him so therefore he didn't gain anything by judging Sora.

"You ever been in a predicament where you have everything to lose and nothing to gain?" Sora asked him, getting more comfortable on the bench, "Like the only positive course of action could lead to many bad things to both parties?"

Nothing good could come out of a relationship with himself, Sora idly thought. Everyone would just get hurt in the end.

[Drew Thornton]

Drew raised an eyebrow at Sora's answer. It sounded a lot like being in love except for the leading to bad stuff part. He rather thought the opposite, but remembered those not so great feelings at the beginning, wondering what the hell was going on, trying to figure it all out and not tick each other off too much.

At the same time, he didn't want to presume that's what the other guy was actually talking about. Nonetheless, he could honestly nod back, a small smirk crossing his face. "Yeah, the thing is, even if I thought it was going to end up really badly, the more I stuck with it, the better it all got."

[Sora Blake]

"It got all better, eh?" Sora asked, cocking his head inquisitively at the man. Sora heard that saying all the time. It actually sickened him that people believed in if you stick with something, it'll get better with time. Not all things got better with time and wounds never heal with time. It just scabbed over, never fully healing. It'll stop hurting in time but it didn't heal. It never healed.

"There are somethings that never get better in time." Sora revealed sadly, looking down at his feet. "You might get used to it, but it doesn't always get better..."

[Drew Thornton]

"I didn't say that," he answered back with a small smirk. "I don't think it ever gets all better, but it keeps moving in that direction and yeah, I think it's getting pretty close." There would always be problems, things that came up, difficulties to get through, but it seemed like over time, it got easier to handle.

Drew's wry smile faded as Sora continued, not really understanding why the other guy would have such a grim outlook on things. No, maybe things never were perfect, but perfection was overrated. Better was a process, not an end result. "But, isn't getting used to it part of getting better?" he asked, wondering if this was too deep of a conversation to have with a guy he barely knew. "I mean, you gotta move forward, right? No, it's not all rainbows and fairy dust, but what ever it is, you can't let it keep you down. Even if it's just getting used to it, that's better than not, right?"