Muggles and Wizarding Sweets

[Gail Lawrence]

Monday, 21 September 2009
Early Afternoon

Gail entered Honeydukes with a smile. Her Uncle Eli was muggle, through and through. Until almost 3 years ago, he and Aunt Dev had known nothing of the wizarding world. However, she had come crashing into their lives when she left home during Winter Hols in her Sixth Year. Since then, both had become accustomed to magic and odd happenings. Eli, however, had taken to the idea with a passion. He subscribed to the Daily Prophet and visited the Leaky Cauldron even before she started working there.

He also found a weakness for wizarding sweets, which was the purpose of her visit to Honeydukes. Her uncle's birthday was coming up on September 24, just a few days away. Although Aunt Dev had bought him something more practical (a new briefcase, which he did really need, since the old one was falling apart), Gail had settled on some wizarding luxuries. Money was a little tighter anymore, but it was worth the expense to see the smile on Uncle Eli's face.

She pulled a few bags off the roll and began filling them with specially wizarding candy. Licorice wands and Ice Mice were a must, as Uncle Eli loved both of these, and she took liberal handfuls of each. However, she knew she wanted to get one other sweet for her uncle.

Gail began walking around the shop, bag of Ice Mice vibrating in her hand, to see what else he would enjoy. After a few moments, she thought she heard a voice she recognized. Before the thought was complete, she felt a hand on her shoulder. She jumped around to see who was behind her, cursing the fact that her hands were too full to reach her wand.

((Drew only, please!))

[Drew Thornton]

It was a day off full of posibilities for Drew. He was wandering through Hogsmeade with a fairly full schedule, hoping to meet up with Felicity at the school gate during her break between classes and then hanging out with Franco afterwards for some good goofing off. In the mean time, he had decided to pick up a few things for his cousin: some wizbangs from the joke shop, a box of new pieces for his self-erecting building set, and a supply of chocolate frogs that should last the kid until the Hogsmeade trip in November.

With the other things tucked safely in his pocket and Bogey ready and waiting at the post office to deliver, Drew entered Honeydukes and just took a moment to breathe in the sweetness in the air, never tiring of the inhaled sugar rush. As he grabbed a case of frogs and a few other sweets for himself, he thought he spotted a familiar face, but the girl turned before he could be sure. He followed after her for a moment before confirming that indeed, it was Gail, and quickened his pace slightly to catch up. Just as he reached his old housemate, she moved again and Drew reached out to tap her on the shoulder to get her attention. "You have your hands full," he said, noticing all the sweets she was carrying. "You sure you don't want a basket?"

[Gail Lawrence]

Gail was relieved to see that the person who scared her was Drew. They had met up by chance just a few days before in Diagon. What a coincidence, though she should know better than to assume it was only that, by now.

When he asked whether she needed a basket, Gail looked at her hands and laughed. While she normally would have held the Ice Mice and Licorice Wands in the same hand, keeping the bag of Ice Mice under control took a fair bit of attention and what felt like practically her whole arm. She had forgotten why she did not like the sweets very much. (Come to think of it, she did not much enjoy either of Eli's favorites, but he would just say that meant "more for him.")

The sight, however, had to be something else, she had to admit. A young woman struggling with candy. Come on, Lawrence, be smarter than the sugar.

"I don't know," she told Drew. "You have any ancient secrets on how to keep these things under control?" She held up the Ice Mice with a slight smile on her face, glad to see her friend again. The growing grin he gave her let her finally appreciate the humor of the situation, and her smile grew in return.

[Drew Thornton]

"Aside from eating them?" he asked with a wide grin, thinking that was the easiest and most obvious way to contain the sweets in a place they couldn't cause problems. "I mean... I can help you with that if you want to go that route."

Even with his tease, he grabbed a basket and offered it over to her, thinking he could possibly use his own basket to carry his purchases. He decided to hold off on any shopping aids for the moment, figureing he could be a man, tough it out, and just hold the box under his arm while he chatted with Gail. "So what's all this for anyway? You deciding to give the dentist some extra business?"

[Gail Lawrence]

Gail smiled a bit at the jest. It seemed so Drew. He was so full of energy most of the time, it was difficult to believe he was not always on a sugar high.

When he offered her a basket, she decided to deal with it. Gail did not need help with this. She shook her head at the offer and rearranged the bags, placing the Licorice Wands in the pocket of her robes and getting a better grasp on the Ice Mice. She swung the bag back and forth a little, and they seemed to calm some. Huh. She would have to keep that in mind and see if it worked more than just a little.

When Drew asked who the candy was for, Gail was a little hesitant to say. She had kept her new home in Wales with Dev and Eli a secret for almost three years now. She feared her Grandmother Anne was still searching for her, and being found by the Lawrence family was not an inviting prospect. Certainly not when she suspected that her grandmother was the one responsible for her parents' deaths.

She was aware that Drew was very likely not in communication with anyone who could get the information back to the family, but three years of caution could not be ignored.

She paused only slightly to think of an alternate answer, a testament to how much she had practiced this, because she was pretty awful at making up excuses at the beginning. "A friend of mine is having a birthday in a few days, and he really has a sweet tooth, so I thought I'd get him some candy. I know it'll be appreciated, and I'm trying to get his favorites."

[Drew Thornton]

When Gail turned down his offered basket, he decided to use it himself. Carrying a basket always made him feel a little girly, but in the end, it was better than dropping everything all over the floor.

Positioning his candy in the basket also gave him a good cover for ignoring her slight hesitation before answering his question. He wasn't exactly sure what she was hiding or way, but decided not to ask about it.

"Yeah, I was planning on sending the frogs to my cousin," he said, motioning to the case of wrapped chocolate. "I'll probably keep a few of them for myself though... He's a little guy and probably can't eat them all anyway."

[Gail Lawrence]

Gail wondered whether he noticed her pause, but when he made no comment, she pushed the thought to the back of her mind. It was far from forgotten, but her worries would clutter her mind if she let them. She had learned long ago not to.

She was not surprised that Drew would be taking a few Frogs for himself. In fact, she would be surprised if he managed not to make another whole bag and take that one himself. Having been raised in the muggle world, she had never been particularly fond of wizarding candy. It moved too much and did too many unpredictable things. Candy, especially chocolate, was supposed to be comforting; it could hardly be that if it acted with a mind of its own.

So, while Eli, a muggle, had found a love of wizard sweets, his witch niece had stayed with the old muggle standards. Cadbury's, wine gums, pear drops. Her mum had loved Paynes Poppets, and her dad, while a wizard, had found a weakness for Fox's Glacier Mints. While she tolerated several, there was only one wizard sweet Gail truly savoured.

She took a look at all the Frogs in Drew's basket and knew he would be keeping more than 'a few' from the pile. Smashing her arm down on the Ice Mice as she readjusted her grip, Gail shook her head at her former housemate. "I'll stick with my Jelly Slugs, thanks."

She would love to get a small bag of them for herself but could not afford the expense. With a twitch of her eye, she moved past the thought. The silence seemed a bit awkward, so she went with a different topic.

"So, any idea what to get someone who likes Ice Mice and Licorice Wands? He's only mentioned his two favourites, but it's not enough for a nice gift, innit?"

[Drew Thornton]

"Jelly slugs, huh?" he answered, not particularly caring for that sweet other than the obvious gross-out factor that came with it. Chomping on a few of those and then showing the mouthful to an unsuspecting victim usually got a satisfactory response... when he had been younger, of course.

"Chocoballs are always a nice, tame choice," he suggested, not exactly sure what she was looking for. "So is Droobles. If you want something a little more hard core, I like Acid Pops and Fizzing Whizbees. But sorry, noting beats Chocolate Frogs in my book."

[Gail Lawrence]

Gail shook her head. "I'm not sure they'd really do the trick." Her uncle was not much a fan of chocolate, unlike her aunt. Blue bubbles would be too conspicuous in the muggle world, as would levitation.

"Besides," she laughed. "Neither of us has the talent to heal the hole an Acid Pop would leave in his tongue." She really was hit-and-miss at Charms, and it was not worth the risk that she could not correct the damage and a muggle would have to make his way to St. Mungo's. That would be its own brand of trouble, and she was not willing to draw that kind of attention.

She turned to look at the containers next to them, and her eyes lighted on Cockroach Clusters. Gail looked at the sign a bit oddly, trying to figure out why that sounded familiar. Then she remembered and smiled. "Well don't you even take the bones out?" she said quietly. Eli had made it his mission to introduce her to Monty Python since she had been living with them, and all three of them had watched this sketch just a few weeks before.

"It sounds odd...and rather disgusting, but I think Cockroach Clusters would work quite nicely." Her smile only grew as she took a look at Drew, trying to see what his reaction would be to the clearly muggle reference.

[Drew Thornton]

"If we took the bones out, it wouldn't be crunchy, would it?" he answered, thinking it was probably Monty Python's fault that Muggle borns sometimes had a problem getting into the whole Chocolate Frogs thing. Of course, it wasn't like the magical confections actually had frogs in them.

Cockroach Clusters on the other hand... Then again he knew chocolate covered insects weren't unheard of in the Muggle world either. "So, sticking with something safe, huh?" he asked with a wide grin.

[Gail Lawrence]

Gail snorted. "Hardly. Cockroaches are insects, remember. And when we've all gone and destroyed ourselves, they'll still be living pretty." She shuddered at that thought. It was perhaps less a risk now than during the Cold War, but a lot of the weapons were still out there. It was disturbing if she thought about it too long.

"But the reference is too good to pass up. He'll think it's hilarious and even try a few, before he remembers what exactly he's eating." Eli would too, caught up in the height of the moment. It always baffled her how a man as full of life and so easily caught up in the moment as her uncle could be so entranced by long-extinct invertebrates. It made no sense to her.

Gail swung the bag of Ice Mice again and moved it into just a couple of fingers. Then she scooped out some Cockroach Clusters and put them in a new bag.

As she looked at the little things, she could not help but think that Eli would settle in at some point and tell her all about the evolutionary history of cockroaches and why they will outlive humans by millions of years. She had heard this tale many times by now, starting with the first trilobite he brought home after she came to stay with them, and her comment at the time that it looked like a giant, pointy cockroach. However, since it was his birthday, she would humor him and let him tell it again.

[Drew Thornton]

Drew wasn't exactly sure what would make someone prefer eating real roaches over fake frogs, but it wasn't his digestive system. Of course, it wasn't like he had never tried a Cockroach Cluster or a chocolate grasshopper.Given the choice, he'd just rather stick with Frogs.

Or Hersheys. How long had it been since he had some good American chocolate? He'd have to see if his mom could send him a new stash soon.

"So what else is on your shopping list?" he asked, looking at her small collection. Whoever she was buying it all for must have a very eclectic sweet tooth.

[Gail Lawrence]

Gail smiled a little at the look on Drew's face. To her eyes, he seemed a bit uncertain on her choices. She knew Eli would like the Ice Mice and Licorice Wands, and even though he would end up throwing away some of the Cockroach Clusters, he would feel compelled to try them at least once. Besides, the look on his face when he figured out what the clusters were would be worth the galleons.

When Drew asked what else she was buying, though Gail sighed. She wished she could get her uncle a bit more for his birthday, but she simply could not afford the expense. Even the luxury of wizarding sweets, which she found sometimes more costly than their muggle counterparts, was a stretch on her newly-divided budget.

"I wish I could get him something else. I'd love to, but I can't afford any more than the candy." A container of Jelly Slugs was caught her eye as Drew shifted his weight. "I should probably get out of here before I get anything else."

As she started to move, she saw a bucket holding packets of Sugar Quills, tied together like real feathers. Gail reached in and added it to her juggling, looking at Drew with a sly smile. "Okay, so maybe I can spring for one more sweet."

[Drew Thornton]

He never knew what to say when a friend mentioned they couldn't afford something. Drew had never really had to deal with that particular problem. He was pretty sure Gail wouldn't let him actually pay for all of her stuff, but maybe she'd take a loan? "I can spot you if you need," he offered with a crooked smile. "I mean, it's his birthday and you don't want to skimp on the sweets, right?"

"If nothing else, I really think you need a basket now," he said with a small laugh, as she added one more item to her already full arms. With a quick summon, he had a second basket in his hand, offering it up once again. "You really don't want to drop any of that stuff, right?"

[Gail Lawrence]

Gail frowned at the thought of taking a loan for a simple birthday present. In contrast with Drew, her parents had long worked for the gains they got. When she was little, they did not deny her much, but she was smart and easily figured out they were not rich. She learned early not to want too much. When the Lawrences finally recognized them again, a fair bit of money flowed from that side, but the lesson had already been absorbed. It had not been difficult to insist to Eli and Dev that she pay for her own things after Hogwarts, over their strident protests otherwise.

What she had discovered since she got her own job, was that loans were not to be taken out lightly. She would not live beyond her means. The economic issues that cropped up about the time she was taken on at the Cauldron only highlighted that.

She shook her head emphatically. "No. I'll get what I can afford, and Eli will understand." The name slipped out, but she supposed it did not matter too much. No one else was around the shop on a Wednesday evening, and Eli was not too specific a name. She would just have to trust Drew would not betray that small trust.

Gail looked at the basket he offered as though it would bite her. She hated needing help, but she supposed discretion was the better part of valour at this point. With a grimace, she took the basket from Drew, with a quick "Thanks" for his efforts.