Wander || The Order of the Phoenix || DISCONTINUED

Chapter 7 - Ice Cream and Deals

After the Hearing Harry and I joined Mr. Weasley outside the courtroom, leaving the Wizengamot in their seats behind us.

"How did it go?" He asked, eager to know if we had won the case of not. By the look of his face he could tell we had won, a smile spread across his face and his eyes beamed. "Excellent! How about we get some ice cream?"

-

The three of us entered the wall and stood before Diagon Alley. I was extremely hungry and both Harry and I still needed to get our school equipment. We decided it would be best to go shopping for school things first, just to get it out of the way. The first stop was Madam Milkins, after Gringotts of course, where we got our robes, as well as Harry's Quidditch robes. I bought two Slytherin robes too, I had decided to try out for the Slytherin Quidditch team to take my mind off of Cedric, riding my broom in the summer helped me think, maybe Quidditch would too.

Once we had bought everything we needed we headed over to Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour. The shop was quite small, but extremely busy, it was the only ice cream parlour in Diagon Alley. It was tucked away in the corner of the Alley, inside it had little ice cream scoopers that worked on their own wearing elf-like hats, dancing around the ice cream. It took a while for me to choose what flavor ice cream I wanted, they all looked really really good. There was the normal muggle flavors, like chocolate and vanilla, but the best ones had to be the magical ones.

After a while the three of us had our ice creams and we sat outside the parlor, watching the passing witches and wizards wiz past us. I had chosen the clotted cream flavor, which was a thick cream made by indirectly heating full-cream cow's milk using steam and then leaving it in a shallow pan to cool, after that it was frozen. And very delicious. Harry had settled for the chocolate chill, which was chocolate mixed with chili powder, and Mr. Weasley chose one of the muggle flavors, vanilla.

"Brilliant how those muggles create things like this." Mr. Weasley beamed, looking at white ice cream in the pot he was holding.

"Yeah, it is isn't it?" I smiled as I ate my ice cream, watching the other witches and wizards in Diagon Alley. While I watched I noticed a wizard I recognised. Draco Malfoy. Oddly, he was on his own, maybe his father Lucius was in another shop. He looked up from the pavement on the floor and directly at me. He didn't walk over, probably because I was sitting with Harry and Mr. Weasley, but he nodded his head in recognition and smiled ever so slightly. It was the best I was going to get from Draco and it meant a lot. We had patched things over at the end of the last year, so we were friends again. He had been there for me the entire time, I just never realised it. He acted so differently around me than everyone else, I wished everyone else saw him the same way I did.

"We best be off home, now. Want to pack early for the train tomorrow." Mr. Weasley said as he finished his ice cream. I hadn't even realised I had finished mine until he said that, Harry had too. The three of us stood and headed to the exit for Diagon Alley. Leaving Draco behind us.

-

Finally, everything was packed in my trunk with Niva perched on top as I zipped it shut. I couldn't believe an entire year had gone by. At that point in my life the year before I had never been to Hogwarts before and no one knew my name. I had never met Harry and he didn't even know I existed. At that point a year ago Cedric-

Cedric would have been alive.

Immediately I thought back to Emma's visit. How she told me I might be able to bring him back. I still didn't know if she was telling the truth or not, she had always been into pranks when she lived at the orphanage. Emma was twenty, she left the orphanage the year before I was accepted to Hogwarts. She had been my only friend there and she would always tell me that she wanted to move realms, to explore other forms of magic. Which she did. She moved to a place where fairy-tales actually exist. Snow White, Prince Charming, they were real in another realm. I wouldn't be surprised if she left for another realm in a few years, she was interested in that kind of stuff.

"Hungry?" George asked as he popped into the same room as earlier with Fred, sitting on the bed opposite me and holding an apple in his left hand which he handed to me.

"Is it safe?" I asked, reluctantly taking the apple and examining it in full detail. The twins were very well known for their pranks, so anything they were going to give me was going to be carefully examined with a microscope. Fred took the apple back off me and bit into it, nothing happened.

"Safe." He grinned, handing it back to me.

"Keep it." I replied, placing it in between the twins. "So, who is getting pranked tonight?" I asked, they pranked someone each night. I had only been the victim once of a portal trick. The twins had replaced the door to the bedroom I slept in with a portal to the attic, luckily the locked door wasn't protected from the alohomora spell and I got out in no time.

The twins looked at each other, and at the same time they told me the name of their next victim. "Everyone." Two wicked grins spread across their faces.

"We know you have a little bit of a knack for pranks." Fred beamed.

"We heard about your hair dying prank on that greenie Slytherin girl." George nodded, I didn't know what they wanted, but it seemed I was about to help out with a prank.

"So, we've got a deal for you." They spoke together, their smiles still plastered on their face.

"Which is?" I asked, waiting for this supposed deal.

"Help us with this prank, and we'll teach you some brilliant pranks that will drive Parkinson crazy." Fred told me.

"You in?" George asked, extending his hand for me to shake.

"Bloody hell yes." I grinned, shaking George's hand, looking between the two ginger twins, both smiling cheekily.

"Okay, so this is what we're gonna do."