Without Magic [Harry Potter and the Cursed Child]

Chapter Five

New York City

After locking up the apartment, Scorpius and I walk side by side down the streets of New York City.

"Where should we go first?" Scorpius asks.

"There's so many options. I honestly have no idea." I respond, looking around at all the buildings and all the people passing by us. "Let's just look around us and maybe we'll find something interesting."

We walk around the city for several blocks before we find a building that interests us. It's two stories high and has a big green circle on top with a white "M" on it. "Ooooh!" Scorpius face lights up. "Let's check out what's in there!" He grabs me by my wrist and starts pulling me over towards the building.

I didn't think it was possible for Scorpius's smile to grow larger but it had as soon as we walked through the doors of the building. The building could've been mistaked as a rainbow that had just thrown up all over. A nearby sign read "The biggest candy shop in NYC". Families could be seen wandering around the shop bagging up pieces of candy; some even sneaking a few pieces into their mouths.

Scorpius lives up to the reputation of a kid in a candy shop. He runs over to the nearest station of candy and begins to bad mixtures of the colorful candies. I jog over and read the sign of the station from which he is bagging from. It reads "M&M's" and then lists the flavors of each color. The sign also reads the price of each pound of candy. I'm not quite sure if $7.99 is expensive for the amount of candy Scorpius is getting, but if it makes him happy I'll pay whatever is necessary.

I decide to join Scorpius on his sugar rampage, just not to the extreme that he is going to. I ask to taste one of the treats in his bag. He reluctantly hands one over to me. The piece looks exactly like the giant M&M on the building. It tastes of chocolate-mint with a shell of even more chocolate around it. I check the flavor guide and find the green colored piece. It is in fact mint flavored.

I find a bag myself and add a couple of each flavor, which happens to be at least 15 different flavors. At the rate we're both going, we'll accidentally spend all of our Muggle money in this one store.

"Albus, check out over here!" Scorpius calls to me from another section of candy.

"Go easy on the candy, Scorpius!" I call back to him. "We can't spend all of our money in one day. 

We spend about an hour in the store. I have to continusly remind Scorpius not to go crazy on the candy. We somehow only spend $50 on candy in here which leads me to wonder how much Scorpius would've spent if he had come here on his own.

"Why don't we find some place to eat lunch?" I suggest as we leave the store. "And maybe we should bring the bags back to our place to resist the temptation of eating more than we've already have." I look over to Scorpius who just happened to be eating another piece of the delicious candy.

"Temptation?" Scorpius asks as soon as he swallowed the candy. "I have no idea what you're talking about." He closes his opened back of the sweets and puts it away. "And I'm down for finding a place for lunch. I'm starving."

"After all the candy you just ate you're starving?" I ask, surprised. "You ate enough for a four course meal!"

"You've never heard of the spell that makes you hungry?" Scorpius says in a joking manner. Still, I look around and notice no one is looking at as funny. A wave of relief passes over me.

I decide that it's safe enough to joke around a little bit. "With a stomach like yours, you don't need a spell to make you hungry."

We walk back to our house which somehow only takes about half an hour. After walking around the city for almost half a day, our house seems out of place being right next to the city. Although it may not feel right, it's still great to own.

"Where should we go eat?" Scorpius asks from the couch.

"How about we look up good places to eat?" I sit on the second couch in the living room and pull out my phone. I open up the safari and type "where to eat lunch" after learning that you don't need to type a complete sentence to get what you are looking for. "Union Square Cafe, Blossom, Joe's Pizza. Do any of them sound good to you?"

"Let's try that pizza place!" Scorpius suddenly stands up from the sofa. "How long of a walk is it?"

I click on the directions to Joe's Pizza. "About 45 minutes." I say. I look at Scorpius and his face turned dismal. "Maybe we'll find a bike shop on the way!" I try to cheer him up but it doesn't seem to work. "Or maybe we can get jobs along the way too!" His face still doesn't change. I guess I'm not good at cheering people up.