sugar, we're going down swinging

Savannah rolled her shoulders back, frowning up at the shelves. She had suddenly decided that they weren't neat enough. It was funny, the things that suddenly came to mind these days.

After she'd found herself deathly sick - even now, she felt off. Her hands were still clammy - she'd decided to change her priorities. The store had to become more important.

It was one of the few things that constantly reminded her of Rosie, and though it still hurt to enter the store, it was a good sort of hurt.

Nodding slightly to herself, she twirled around the store, dressed simply in a t-shirt and jeans, making sure everything was just perfect.

Axel stepped into the store, just barely holding back his sheer joy as the overwhelming sights and sounds of the store hit him. He became painfully aware of the fact that his pockets were completely empty, but waved away the feeling. He was just happy to be here, since technically it wasn't allowed. But this time he had tagged along with one of the teachers who had a soft spot for him, so the entire town was his to explore.

He walked through the aisles, still trying his best to memorize the names of all the different types of candies on the shelves. He did have an entire childhood to catch up on, after all. His eyes lingered for a moment on the chocoballs, wishing he still had some money to send them over to Evelina, but right now all he could afford to send were letters.

As he strolled about the store, his eyes caught a flash of movement between two of the massive shelves. He followed it, weaving his way through the maze of sweets until he finally caught up to the girl, who he immediately recognized as one of his few friends. He grinned and waved at her, "Hi Savannah!"

Clutching a box of chocolate clusters, she hummed softly as she placed it back on the shelves. If the entire store was organized better, than it'd be better for everyone, not just her. Nodding to herself, the girl fiddled with the labels on the shelves, straightening them all out.

Turning at the sound of her name, the fourteen year old grinned. "Axel!" Moving towards him, she held out her arms for a hug. "How are you? How's your summer going? How's life in general?" she chirped, beaming.

Axel hesitated for a small moment. Before this year, he really wasn't used to physical contact... or much contact with other people at all, really. So he didn't instantly recognize quite what she wanted him to do. Still, he couldn't hold back a grin as he raced into Savvy's arms.

He bit his lip, "Umm.... The same?" He laughed, " And I went to the minister's wedding. That was pretty cool."

Wrapping her arms around the younger boy, she grinned. It was nice to have friends younger than her, she'd realized. They looked up to her. Made her feel almost wise. Though she had to admit that Axel was the only one she'd managed to make - for some strange reason, friends had never been easy to make for the girl - she was rather proud.

"Well, the same isn't a bad thing." She let out a little laugh, letting go and twirling around, grabbing a box of chocolate frogs, she held them out to younger Gryffindor. "Ooh, the Minister. It seems that I have powerful and well-connected friends, don't I?"

Axel bit his lip. "No," He said, giving his head a quick shake, "It's not..." After five years living in one room, he was getting really tired of things being the same. Then again, here at Hogwarts, everything was always changing in one way or another. Just when he thought he'd figured things out, something brand new would come and sweep him off his feet.

The boy shrugged as he took the box of chocolate frogs, "You'd be surprised how not-connected I am." Axel frowned at the box, wondering how he was going to manage eating one of these without it jumping all over the store. His eyes lit up with an idea, and he jammed his wand into the corner of the packaging, until it had torn a tiny hole just big enough for it to fit through.

"Immobilus," he muttered, causing a burst of bright blue light to be seen through the clear plastic in the box. He put his wand away, elated that the whole thing hadn't exploded, like things tended to do when he usually tried this charm. He shook out the chocolates into his hand with a delighted smile. He was about to put one in his mouth, when the spell somehow wore off, and the things jumped away from him, and out of sight around one of the many shelves.

Axel simply laughed, unperturbed by his failure.

Savannah tilted her head, a small frown darkening her face. No? What did that mean? Was that a no, the same was a bad thing, or was it a no, the same was a good thing? Her frown only deepened. What if she was wrong and said the wrong thing? Wracking her brain only to find the voices conspiciously absent, she sighed softly.

She'd ignore it, she deciced. There was less of a chance to embaress herself that way.

"If you're partying it up with the Minister, you have to be or know someone pretty important." She nodded in emphasis. How many people got that sort of chance? And first years got even less.

She tsked softly, inclining her head towards the wand in his hand. "No magic outside of school. But don't worry, I'll keep your secret." Grinning, she watched, amused at his plan. Her grin widening as it seemed to work, she clapped her hands together. Stiffling a little laugh when it didn't, she peered in the direction the frog had ran off in.

"I wonder whatever happens to them," she thought aloud, humming under her breath.

Axel frowned, suddenly faced with a serious moral dilemma. He remembered Evie saying that she didn't want people to know who she was- she didn't want them talking about her. But then, Savannah was also his friend, too, and she deserved to know why he was where he was this summer. He trusted her, and he couldn't lie. But what if that broke Evelina's trust? And she got mad at him? What if she stopped talking to him, and they stopped being friends forever? He stuffed down the feeling of panic that was welling up inside of him just long enough to say,

"My dad used to be a headmaster somewhere. It's really no big deal." There, he gave an inward sigh of relief. A half-truth isn't so bad, right? Technically, his dad was invited for that reason, so it really wasn't a lie at all, was it?

Axel blushed at his blunder. He had completely forgotten about that. The boy shrugged, "Well, we're really not that far from the school...."

He tilted his head quizzically as he watched the frog hop away with the joy of newfound freedom, "They probably get stepped on."

She inclined her head ever so slightly at his frown, but shrugged it off. Who knew what was going through his head? Well, he did, but that wasn't the point. Wondering briefly what it was like to be able to read minds, she frowned slightly. It didn't seem like something that'd be very fun.

All those thoughts and voices running through your head. What was good about that?

"But that's pretty cool though," she sighed softly. "My mother works in the Ministry, and I hardly see her." There was also the fact that she didn't live with her anymore, but Axel didn't need to know that.

"And surrounded by adults." Savannah glanced out the window, watching all the people pass. "They probably couldn't tell which one of us it was." It was these tiny little shortcomings in magic that never failed to amuse her.

She stared after the frog, her expression falling. "That's so .. sad." What would that feel like? For someone to think they were free only for it all to come crashing down moments later?

Just the idea sickened her.

"That's-!" He was about to say awesome, but was cut short, "Oh... That sucks. I don't see my dad much either. He doesn't technically have a job, but he's still pretty busy." Axel didn't like to think about his father's work. Sure, the man did try to spend time with him, but sometimes Axel felt like he was lower priority now that he was un-kidnapped. His dad said he had to kill people, to keep him safe, but he wasn't so sure that was the only reason.

Axel's gaze flicked towards the window, the crowd of people (all of whom were taller than him) making him very nervous. He laughed, more to reassure himself than anything else, "Yeah. We'll be fine."

"Oh.." He said rather dazedly, "Yeah, I guess it is." Axel still had a tough time remembering that death was a sad thing. To him, it was just something that happened. Someone was here one day then gone the next. He never really felt sad about it, just a little emptier.

"But hey, who really needs parents?" She smiled, trying to cheer both of them up. Savannah didn't like thinking about her mother. It only made her feel sick. "We turned out fine, even if we don't see them all the time. And that's what they all want, isn't it? For us to turn out alright?"

The girl hummed softly, brushing a hand through her hair. Glancing behind at her at the boxes of chocolate and candy she still had to reorder, a tiny grimace darkened her face.

"And if we're not, then we use our connections to get out of trouble," she teased, grinning brightly.

Savannah nodded. About to open her mouth and say something, she was cut off by the sound of beating wings. Blinking up, her lips curved upwards. "Dia," she exclaimed, grinning at her dragon. Flying into her owner's arms with a soft coo, the Gryffindor held out her pet to Axel.

"She's my pet dragon, Obsidian, or Dia for short."

Axel bit his lip, and then nodded, rather encouraged to know that there was at least someone else who felt remotely similar to him. He forced a small smile, something he had to do a lot nowadays, "I guess you're right."

They boy followed her eyes to the boxes of sweets, "Oh right, you own this place now." He craned his neck to look all the way down the long row of shelves, "Do you want help with anything? I don't have a whole lot to do today."

Axel gaped up at the dragon, letting out a reflexive, "Whoa..." He broke into a grin, "I've never seen a dragon before! Are they always that small?" He tentatively reached his hand out to the creature, "Obsidian... that's an awesome name!"

"I'm always right," she said, grinning widely. Though it was the farthest thing from the truth, she liked to think she was right at least most of the time. It was comforting. And besides, being right was a step away from being well liked and respected.

If you were right people had no choice but to like you.

Savannah glanced back at Axel, her face lighting up. "You'd help? Really? Thank you!" She clapped once before wrapping her arms around him for a moment. Pulling away, she added, "But only if you really want to. Don't feel pressured into helping me out."

She grinned, practically from ear to ear. This was the best thing about having a pet. The way people ogled and stared and her and Dia made her feel amazing. "Well, she's just a baby, so that's why she's so small. I reckon she'll grow to be huge." Her grin managing to widen at the idea, her eyes positively sparkled. "And thank you. I love the name too."

Obsidian tilted her head curiously at the boy before stretching out her wings and flying towards him, landing on his head and peering down at him, letting out a little friendly squeak.

"I'd love to. It'll give me something to do today." He walked past her to look around the store, "So what do you want me to do?" He grinned, the prospect of work surprisingly exciting for the young boy, who so far had had a pretty eventless summer.

Axel's eyes sparkled as he looked at the dragon, "How long until she's fully grown?" He let out a small giggle, "Where are you gonna put her?" His laugh intensified, "I don't know if they would let her stay in the owlry with all the other flying pets."

He laughed again as Dia landed on him, gazing at her with a large grin.

"Great!" She bounced on her heels, grinning. She liked having help around here. Though she had employees, they were all so much older than her and she could tell that they felt strange just taking orders from her. Having Axel here would be a great thing.

Trailing behind him, she glanced around the store, eyeing everything that needed to be done. "Well, I was thinking about taking all the candy and chocolate and reorganizing it. We could move candy there -" she gestured to one side of the store. "and move all the chocolate here, and then we could alphabetize it all." Nodding, she tilted her head at Alex. "Or is that too much?"

Grinning at Dia as well, she glanced back at Axel. "A few years, I think. She's a special little dragon. Could fly from practically the day she was born, and in all the books I've read you're supposed to be at least a year before you can." Resuming to bounce on her heels, her grin simply widened. Talking about her dragon always put her in a good mood. "I was thinking about keeping her in the Room of Requirement when she gets huge. But who knows, maybe I'd be able to keep her in the Owlry."

She giggled at the idea, imagining Dia as a huge fully grown dragon surrounded by a bunch of little owls. "Or maybe not. I don't think the other owls would like it much."