A Minute Ago You Looked Alone (Open)

[Sirius Black]

Sirius Orion Black glanced in the windows of various shops he passed, but nothing interested him for a while. He flew, of course, but he didn’t play Quidditch, so Quality Quidditch Supplies didn’t hold much interest for him. He had an owl and Tundra had all the food, treats, and supplies he needed, so the Owl Emporium didn’t draw him in, either. School book lists hadn’t been sent yet, so nothing in Flourish and Blotts attracted him. Eventually he bought an ice cream sundae from Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour and settled himself outside under an umbrella-shaded table.

The sun beat down on the back of the young wizard’s neck. He pushed his hair away and put his left hand under it. The cold from the ice cream had transferred to his hand, then to his neck. It didn’t help much, but it was a momentary relief from the blistering sun. He sat there for a minute, apparently dozing, then jolted upright and began eating his ice cream at a remarkable speed, shoveling spoonfuls down his throat as fast as he could. It cooled him down much faster than any alternative, save a cold shower or a swim. And Sirius never swam.

The thought made him finger the hemp necklace he wore – black for his family, with red beads for Gryffindor. Walburga and Orion hated it, which was why Sirius loved it. They couldn’t stand having a Gryffindor in their family, and the necklace was an embarrassing reminder of that obnoxious boy they couldn’t wait to be rid of. Unlike his brother, Regulus. They simply adored Regulus.

The ice cream was gone in under five minutes, but Sirius didn’t even mind the ice cream headache he got from it. In fact, he went right ahead and ordered another. It was his parent’s money, he’d taken it from their vault. It wasn’t technically stealing, since he was a Black, so the goblins at Gringotts couldn’t do anything to stop him.

The second ice cream was as good as the first, but now that he had cooled down a bit, Sirius ate more slowly, looking at the people all around him. People-watching was a favorite pastime of his, especially at school. He got to know his marks, then he played pranks on them. And he had fun, so what else mattered?

[Ceres A. Wickenburg]

Ceres Aline Wickenham lived not far from Diagon Alley. Actually, only three or four blocks of houses away, more northwards of the Leaky Cauldron. That was why, during the school holidays, Ceres sometimes spent a whole afternoon, and at other times the entire mornings too, in that shopping alley. That did not mean that she bought much – if she purchased a new ink pot, that already could be considered as much. The Wickenhams, once a very wealthy Austrian family, now had only little money left to spend, and instead of spending it, they prefer to save it. They only buy what they need most.

In Ceres’ case, what she needed most were – books. Books of any sorts, and plenty of sheets of paper or parchment to write on, and, of course, she needed a nice quill and ink in order to do so. Sometimes, but those were very rare occasions, Ceres would come to Diagon Alley to buy potions ingredients. But as those were very expensive, she only bought those she would not be able to find on her own, and look in forests, meadows, on fields and on shores for all others. Saving money was also Ceres’ priority number one.

This day – it was a very sunny Friday – Ceres had been in the Diagon Alley book store – Flourish and Blotts. Again, she had not bought anything there, no books. The only books Ceres ever bought were the books she needed for school. So instead, she went to Flourish and Blotts to read. She would sit there, somewhere curled up in a corner, forgetting all about time, reading one book after another. She would read them so attentively, that even after leaving the store in the late afternoon, she could recite and quote passages from that book. She would literally suck up all knowledge the book provided for her.

So, Ceres had been sitting the whole morning of this Friday, reading books in Flourish and Blotts. Today, it had been a potions book that had entranced her – a book on various philters and their purposes. But by the time it had been noon, Ceres noticed she couldn’t continue just sitting there. She needed to go elsewhere, to get something to eat. Her breakfast that day had consisted of one piece of bread with butter – Ceres never was exceptionally hungry, especially not in the mornings. So, to soothe her gurgling stomach, she clapped the book shut, put it back onto the shelf and stood up. She dusted her clothes pretty carelessly before walking out of the store.

It was so hot. All the past weeks, it had been hot. Oh, what could she eat, to distract herself from that heat? As she walked down the lane, a small shop caught her eyes, and somewhere deep down she felt: That’s the right place to go. Florean Fortescue’s Ice Cream Parlour. One scoop surely would not cost much, but it would fill her stomach at the same time as cool her. Ceres searched her pockets for a couple of knuts, and bought herself one scoop of vanilla ice cream. Perfect, she thought.

She sat down on one of the many seats and tables on the outside of the Parlour, and began slowly eating her ice cream, with a spoon. While concentrating entirely on the vanilla taste, she let her gaze wander across the other customers. She recognized Sirius Black – yes, she knew him. After all they were in the same year. But she frowned at him, watching with big eyes, noticing with which incredible speed he wolfed down his ice cream – right before ordering another one. But she felt relieved; at least he slowed down with eating this one. She stayed seated, not greeting him. After all, Ceres was not good with people, she was shy and easily scared, and just did not know what to say. In short: She was bad at small talk. She was bad at talking to strangers. And to her, everyone was a stranger save for her parents. So, Ceres, after realizing that she had been staring at her peer, looked back at her ice cream scoop – which now was bathing in some molten vanilla flavoured cream – and tried to focus entirely on eating it.

[Sirius Black]

Gradually, Sirius became aware that he was being watched. He noticed, as he himself was watching other people, that a girl about his age had been looking at him when his eyes moved over her table. But as they moved back, she was still looking at him. He didn't want to stare at her and let her know he'd noticed, so he fixed his gaze off to the right of her and watched from the corner of his eye. For a moment, he racked his brains trying to figure out who it was. Then he found the right card in his mental files of Hogwarts students. Ceres Wickenburg, a Ravenclaw. She was also going to be a fourth year when school started up again in September.

Sirius had never really talked to the girl, but there was a first time for everything, right? Besides, it's not like he had anything else to do once he finished his ice cream. Which reminded him... looking down, the elder Black realized his ice cream was melting quickly in the hot summer sun, and he needed to eat it fast unless he wanted to waste his money. Well, his parents money. So unless he wanted to waste his ice cream.

Wolfing down a few more bites, Sirius decided to screw it and just take the ice cream with him. He stood up and moved over to sit across the table from Ceres, between her and the sun. He did this on purpose, so he could see her easily but looking at him would be hard. He enjoyed putting other people in this position. Why, he wasn't sure. But he made sure to stand with his back to the sun whenever he could.

"Hey Ceres," he said casually, eating another spoonful of his sundae. "Enjoying your ice cream?" Sirius noted that she only had one small scoop of plain, vanilla ice cream, whereas he had a large sundae of vanilla and chocolate ice cream, with sprinkles, fudge sauce, whipped cream, and a cherry.

[Ceres A. Wickenburg]

Why was Ceres so bad at talking with other people, at small talk, or rather, at any interactions that included herself and people she did not know? Sometimes, she found herself wondering about this – but she never had found an answer yet. How could others, peers, be so at ease with making new acquaintances, with talking about this and that, with communicating with people they barely knew? About the weather, for example? What was there to talk about? One says It’s cloudy! and the other one Yeah, here too. To Ceres, this made no sense. She could not see the sense in small talk. Even worse was the phrase: How are you? People never really wanted to hear how the other one was. They wanted to hear a Thanks, I’m fine!. It was just a phrase to make each other feel good, by having shown ’interest’ in each other. Then again – how do you get to know people? Through talking. To Ceres, hardly being able to really talk to other people, this was a vicious circle, endless and telling her that she was a total disaster, socially.

Ceres hadn’t realized she had been staring at Sirius. She had been in thought and zoned out, not registering where she had been looking the entire time. At one point in her thoughts, she lowered her gaze down to her shrinking scoop of vanilla ice cream, and therefore had not seen Sirius move to stand right towards her table. It was only the shadow he threw across the small ice cream plate that awoke her attention, and she finally looked up.

Ceres hadn’t expected anyone to come up and talk to her. She was used to sit and eat alone in Diagon Alley, to be alone with her thoughts. Now, Sirius – and she recognized that it was Sirius, although she couldn’t see his face against the sunlight, she still recognized his figure – sitting right across from her, not easily to be seen, made her feel quite awkward. What was she supposed to say, or to do? She tensed, in a way, and felt as if she had to be overly formal now. Why did he want to talk to her?

“Hi!” She answered, quickly swallowing the vanilla cream, some hesitation clearly to be heard in her voice. And she nodded to his question. It was a quick, nervous nod. “I am… I… hope you are, too?” She answered, feeling even more awkward now. Had she answered correctly? Somehow, Ceres had gotten the idea from that there were correct and wrong ways of communication. And now she believed she had to do her best to phrase correct answers during small talk. But the fear that they were wrong, after all, made her most nervous. Even more so, as she couldn’t see his reaction, his facial expression, against the sun, to tell her if she had been right or wrong.

[Sirius Black]

Siri could see his being there made Ceres uneasy, uncomfortable. Was it because it was him, or was it because it was just... someone. Someone she didn't know well, on top of that. Trying to put her at ease, Sirius grinned easily, forgetting for a moment that she couldn't exactly see his face very well. "Of course I'm enjoying it, Florean Fortescue's sundaes are easily my favorite. Of course, the Hogwarts house elves make some pretty good desserts too."

That was the one thing they definitely had in common - Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He didn't know about her, but he couldn't wait to get back. First off, the castle's stone walls helped the kids cooler than they would be in London. Second, he'd see his friends again. Third and most importantly, he'd be away from his family. Now that was something he could not wait much longer for, which was why he was in Diagon Alley in the first place - he didn't need anything at all, just to get out of his house.

Eating a few more scoops of ice cream, and wiping his mouth on the sleeve of his tie dye tee shirt, Sirius asked Ceres, "So what do you like best about school?" Being a Ravenclaw, it was probably the actual schoolwork. Sirius respected that, but he also thought Ravens were pretty weird. Come on, where's the fun in actually doing schoolwork? The fun, in Siri's mind, was skipping the work, not actually doing it. Besides, he got good grades anyway. He might not always do the work, but he aced the exams every time. Especially DADA, he was good at that. All the Marauders were, it was their best subject. The only one Siri had trouble with was History of Magic, because it made him fall asleep.

[Ceres A. Wickenburg]

Ceres didn’t see Sirius‘ grin. She couldn’t have, against the sun. All she could see was his frame, touched in a golden rosy colour. Which was an odd colour for Sirius Black, she thought. She concentrated then on his words – as she couldn’t see his mouth move, she had to listen the more carefully. “Of course.“ She replied, thinking hard what else she could say. She did not want to seem boring or as antisocial as she probably was – and, she did not want him to have all the work to do to keep the conversation up. If only she knew how to hold a decent conversation! Ah! Then, she light-bulb moment. “I’ve never eaten a sundae before. Do they have them in the kitchens at Hogwarts, too?“ She asked, being incredibly proud of herself. Probably this was the most she had ever talked to a person she barely knew before.

The Ravenclaw had never before been in the Hogwarts kitchens. She never had felt the need to go there. The meals in the Great Hall sufficed – for the little she ate, it was no big surprise. But, she had heard of some of her dormmates and fellow Ravenclaws, which she had – unintentionally – eavesdropped on while reading in the Ravenclaw Common Room, she had heard that they had been in the kitchens. They had been very impressed – no, more than impressed. They had been literally blown away by the possibility of stuffing their stomachs with the finest of meals, without having to be in the crowd at the Great Hall and fight over the food. Ceres had never before been interested in going to the kitchens for the food – rather, she would want to see it for it’s architecture, which was said to be very similar to the concept of the Great Hall, and she would want to see and talk to the house elves.

“Best about school?“ Ceres repeated. “Do you mean… with subjects? Arithmancy. It is my favourite.“ She told him. And it was true – Ceres was very talented at subjects that were based on logic and mathematical or scientifical knowledge. She had the gift to remember facts, dates and names, even after having heard of them only once before. Such information was securely noted down in her scripts, and remembered for all time. Ceres was like a recorder in that aspect. On the other hand, subjects like Divination, or Care for Magical Creatures (like with human beings, Ceres had difficulty handling creatures correctly) were Ceres‘ greatest weakness. "How about you?" And with that, Ceres finished her ice cream.

[Sirius Black]

Sirius finished up his sundae and nodded at her question. "The Hogwarts elves will make anything if you just ask them to. Saying their friendly is such an understatement that it's almost an insult to them." He pushed aside his empty dish and leaned back in his chair a little bit, but his head still blocked the sun so Ceres wouldn't be blinded by suddenly looking straight into the light. Sirius would only do that to someone he didn't like, and so far, Ceres was okay. Besides, Sirius was usually a gentleman to girls - it was mostly just guys that he pranked and bullied.

"I like Defense Against the Dark Arts best, myself," he answered. That and Transfiguration where what would help him and the Marauders most in their next big project, which they had already started working on but so far had no success with. James, Peter, and Sirius, at any rate. Remus, of course, didn't need to learn the art of becoming an Animagus.

"So what are you doing here, in Diagon Alley?" Sirius asked, looking around, up and down the street. He saw a few other Hogwarts students he recognized but didn't say anything to any of them. There weren't too many, of course, because back-to-school lists hadn't been sent out yet, so they didn't have to start shopping until then. Many students waited until then to buy their things because it was so much easier to just get everything at once. But since Sirius lived pretty close to Diagon Alley, and he didn't like to swim, he spent the hot summer days shopping instead of some of his friends, who spent their time at beaches.

[Ceres A. Wickenburg]

Ceres leaned back in her chair, and she lifted one of her hands up to her eyes to shield them from the sunlight, just a little more. It did not help, though, so after only very few moments, she dropped her hand again. It was so awfully bright and hot, this day! The Ravenclaw wasn’t used to this. She preferred the coolness, the musky, dusty atmosphere of a library stuffed with old books. It had such a twilight feeling about it. To her, that felt like home. She felt comfortable there. But here, in this ice cream parlour – there were so many people! There was so much noise, and chatter, and bright light, and it all was so colourful! It made Ceres feel as if she were in a haste, breathless, and absolutely overwhelmed with all the sensations around.

“Hogwarts elves?” Ceres had never met house elves before, not at Hogwarts, and not at any other place before, either. So, Ceres had no idea what house elves looked like, how they behaved, how they talked… all she knew about them she had read in books – and it hadn’t been much she had found about the elves in these! ”Why would they be insulted when someone told them they’re friendly?” She now asked in wonder.

She had to admit – She was bad, very bad at Defense against the Dark Arts. Yes, Ceres was a good – a wonderful student, and she had the gift to read books and remember whatever had been written in them. But – she was a total failure when it came to sports, to moving around quickly with her wand. She was not good at defending herself. She needed a clear head and she needed to think about the spell she wanted to cast. She could not work properly when under time pressure. So, Defense was one of Ceres’ weakest subjects, although she found it fascinating.

”I’ve been at Flourish and Blotts, reading. I thought I needed a break and… came here to eat a little…” Ceres explained – and blushed. In the past she had found people looked at her strangely, alienated by the fact that she preferred to spend her spare time with books instead of spending it with her peers. She looked down at the table and bit her lip. She did not want to witness another person looking at her that way. She knew she was somehow different, but there was a part in her that wished she would not be, but be just normal, and could let go of her studies, just for a little while. But the urge to keep reading and studying was stronger than this little tiny whiny part.

[Sirius Black]

After a little while, Sirius became aware that he was actually sweating a little bit, on the back of his neck and his forehead. Man was it hot out! He almost couldn't stand it, the heat. He preferred the dark and cold himself, it was so much nicer. Using his hands, Sirius fluffed his hair up a little bit so it didn't stick to his forehead or the back of his neck anymore. It helped a little bit, and it fanned him off a tad at the same time.

He shook his head, his grin in place as always. "You misunderstood me. They aren't just plain old friendly. To say they were friendly is such an understatement that it's almost rude. They're the nicest, kindest, most willing to help house elves in the entire world. It's not actually an insult to them, the way it would be if you called Lucius Malfoy friendly. It's just a huge understatement."

Sirius nodded when she explained why she was there. It made sense, he supposed, her being a Raven and all. Most Ravens liked to read and do other... schoolish stuff. Sirius wasn't really into all that himself. He loved to read, but only for entertainment and to annoy his parents with Muggle books.

[Ceres A. Wickenburg]

Some moments ago, Ceres had finished her ice cream. Now, under any usual conditions she would have left the parlour, and would have gone back to her reading place in the upper floor of Flourish and Blotts. But there was Sirius. She couldn’t just leave, it would be considered rude, wouldn’t it? So instead, Ceres actually was considering getting herself another scoop of ice cream. But no. She was full. She wouldn’t be able to eat one more spoon full of the soft, cold, vanilla flavoured cream. No, that one scoop had been more than enough for her.

Ceres always wants to learn something new – no matter from what source, book or person. So her and Sirius talking about house elves – a topic she now thought she had spent close to no attention to at all – gave her the perfect reason for staying. Out of pure curious interest, of course. ”So… house elves are unnaturally friendly beings, helpful…” Ceres nodded while speaking, inwardly noting those character traits down inside her head. ”Could… could they be compared to… well, to human servants? Like… a butler? Or cooks for the kitchen?” She asked curiously.

In her head, Ceres drew her own picture of a house elf, unknowing what they truly should look like, and what their usual circumstances truly are: An elf, some small being in a human form, with a very friendly, nifty face, perhaps wings – Ceres wasn’t so sure about that. And in her personal opinion, house elves were supposed to wear nice clean clothes, pretty to look at, all to the contrary to normal house elves. The Ravenclaw had no idea how wrong she was. But, as was her character trait, she was very well capable of learning from her mistakes or faults, when told that she was wrong.