a little i c e {Elliot}

[evy]

Having the day off wasn't exactly a rare thing for Evylinne, considering her profession, but it was a bit rare for her not to spend it painting. She considered art her true passion, and it was certainly a nice way to get a small bit of extra cash, but there were days when she needed even a break from that. So, still wearing muggle clothes, Evylinne headed down to Diagon Alley.

The weather was somewhat warmer than she had expected, even for June, which was Evylinne's birth month. She grimaced slightly at the thought that she would be twenty in just a week and a half. It wasn't that Evylinne didn't want to get older, she just wasn't sure what the future would bring. And twenty was obviously a milestone. Another decade. Surely it would bring a whole new set of challenges.

Evylinne stopped at Fortiscue's, suddenly feeling the need for a bit of ice cream since the weather was so hot. She was regretting wearing her skinny jeans, but was glad at least that she had chosen flats instead of boots. Stepping inside, Evylinne smiled at the girl at the register before scanning the menu. Deciding on a small frozen yogurt, Evylinne quickly ordered, handing over exact change when the girl rang her up.

She waited patiently while her order was made, unsurprised when a young family came into the place, hoping for a break from the hot air. Evylinne smiled at the two little boys, but it was slightly forced. Grabbing her yogurt, she turned away from the family and took a seat in the booth facing the front window where she could look out upon Diagon Alley. The bell on the door sounded again and Evylinne looked over curiously to see who it was.

[potter]

Elliot had not been in Diagon Alley in the middle of the day in a long time, though nevertheless she was there and not working. Not because she didn't want to, but because her boss had literally forced her to take an entire day off. She had well exceeded the hours she was supposed to work the past week, going in early by at least an hour and staying late by several every day. Needless to say Elliot was bored, but her boss was more concerned with not having to pay her overtime than her having something to do. It was probably good for her to have some time off anyway.

The pale yellow sundress she had bought only a week ago swished around her legs as she walked, her sandals clicking lightly against her heels. It was a little hot for June, but to Elliot it was nice. Even so though, the heat did get to her, especially her naturally black hair. She smiled a bit when she saw her cousin Evylinne in the ice cream shop, sitting at the window booth. As much as she didn't want to go in and be tempted by the confections (which she still would not allow herself to indulge in), Elliot did want to see her cousin, it had been too long, she had been spending too much time at work.

She pushed open the door and walked over to her cousin and good friend. "Hi Evy," said Elliot, sitting down across the table from her in front of the window. It was cool in the shop, a pleasant change over the radiant sun that hung high overhead. Elliot absently fluffed her hair a little, glad that she wouldn't be left to her own devices, it would be nice to spend some time with Evylinne.

[evy]

Evylinne grinned as she saw that it was Elliot walking through the door. Her cousin had been one of her closest friends since they were little and was now the only one anywhere near Evylinne on the shortness spectrum, coming in about an inch shorter than her. Evylinne had never thought of herself as short until people started getting much taller than her, but by now it was glaringly obvious that she was quite petit.

"Hello Ellie," Evylinne said with a grin, glad that her cousin had taken the seat across from her. She hadn't actually seen Elliot in a little while, since she had been away on work quite a bit recently and Elliot was quite busy with her own job. Things had been a bit easier back in school, when they were in the same house, but Evylinne supposed they saw each other a decent amount.

"I like your dress," she added, having noticed it as Elliot had walked in. Evylinne had a weakness for nice clothes, and she had always found sundresses cute, though she didn't wear them particularly often herself. Taking another bite of her frozen yogurt, Evylinne waited for her cousin to respond, very glad that she had not been left alone in the ice cream shop, even if it was nice to people-watch sometimes.

[potter]

"Thanks," said Elliot, smiling. She had been unsure of the colour herself, not being entirely convinced that yellow would be flattering on her. But when she had been complemented on it by a complete stranger in the store she had tried it on at she had decided that she would buy it anyway. Perhaps if her pallid skin would actually tan she might not have needed reassurance on it, but as it was she typically sunburned and went straight back to being pale, the only time she had ever had colour on her was when she had charmed herself, though hadn't bothered with it in a while.

Her eyes flickered to the fancy display of the seemingly endless flavours of ice cream that Fortiscue's had, and she was forced to tear them away almost immediately. Ice cream was definitely well beyond the barriers of what she was comfortable eating. And while she was making some progress in her anorexia, she still couldn't bring herself to eat any junk food. That was still beyond her, as if she thought that she would suddenly gain all the weight back if she ate so much as a small dish of ice cream.

"How are you?" asked Elliot, hoping they could use the opportunity to catch up with one another, they had not spoken in a while. Of course, with work now Evylinne's schedule was often unpredictable. Elliot's was like clockwork, but it was intensive, often not leaving her much time for social things. Perhaps she needed to rework her schedule, it seemed like she was working twice as much as her colleagues. Though to be fair, she didn't have any other commitments. She was single, and had only an owl and a cat to care for, and the both of them were very low-maintenance.

[evy]

"You're welcome," Evylinne said easily before taking another small bite of her frozen yogurt. She set it on the table in front of her, deciding to let it melt a bit before taking another bit. Evylinne didn't want to get a brain freeze or anything. Besides, she liked it better slightly less frozen.

Evylinne watched Elliot carefully as her cousin looked at the ice cream, almost as though it was tempting her, and then like she couldn't bear to eat any of it. Elliot quickly asked how Evylinne was, though, so she couldn't comment just yet. "Oh, I'm well," Evylinne replied. "I got back two days ago from Nepal. So just enjoying a bit of time off. How about yourself?"

Evylinne looked over at the front counter again, which was now abandoned except for the girl working. She glanced at the ice cream Elliot had been eying and then piped up again. "Aren't you going to get anything?" Evylinne asked her cousin. "I'd have to recommend this yogurt. Healthy and delicious." She smiled slightly, though Evylinne couldn't help but be slightly worried about her cousin. Elliot hadn't eaten much of anything in Evylinne's presence for about the past year.

[potter]

Elliot felt proud of herself for being able to resist the temptation of ordering the biggest dish of some sort of chocolaty, brownie, nutty ice cream with hot fudge. Firstly because it would probably make her sick, she hadn't eaten anything rich in ages, and secondly owing to the fact that it probably had more calories than what she should be eating in a day. As part of the plan she had worked out with the healer they were gradually building her up, though it was still a daunting, intimidating process. Perhaps one day she might be able to enjoy the occasional treat without needing to punish herself.

She smiled a bit, impressed when Evylinne told her that she had been in Nepal for two days. Elliot didn't really get to travel, she hunted down the bad guys within the UK, when they jumped borders things were out of her hands and into those of the Aurors of whatever country they had escaped to. Though what was infuriating oftentimes the Aurors of other countries didn't prosecute them, seeing as they didn't have any crime record in their country. "Taking some forced time off," said Elliot with a shrug, "apparently I worked overtime a week straight."

It probably wasn't the best thing for her, but Elliot found that when she worked her mind was taken off other things that might be bothering her. Work was what had pulled her out of her mourning when her mother had been killed almost a year ago. The year mark would be the eleventh of July. It was still painful to think about, but it wasn't crippling anymore, just like an old wound that still stung if touched the wrong way. She swallowed when Evylinne asked if she was going to get anything. "I don't think so, I'm not hungry," said Elliot, that much was the truth, she might have been a lot of things, but a liar was not one of them.

[evy]

Evylinne let her eyes wander around the store for a moment, resting on the family, all of whom were happily licking their ice cream cones in a booth on the other side of the place. The two little boys were wrestling with each other a little bit, but their parents seemed unconcerned about it. As of yet, they hadn't gotten ice cream everywhere, so Evylinne supposed the adults were rather pleased about that. She knew how messy little kids could be.

Evylinne frowned slightly as Elliot mentioned that she was being forced to take time off owing the the fact that she had worked overtime for an entire week. Her cousin did work an awful lot. Sure, the Auror's office had to be busy with all the strange things happening around the wizarding world, but they couldn't expect everyone to pull these long hours all the time, could they? "Wow, that's a lot of work," Evylinne commented. She thought the regular hours were already a lot for Aurors, so overtime had to be brutal. "But at least you've got some time off now, so that's nice." Evylinne smiled again.

Evylinne took a bite of her yogurt as Elliot mentioned that she wasn't hungry. Evylinne watched her cousin for a moment as she swallowed, wondering if she should believe Elliot or not. But at least this time, Elliot seemed to be telling the truth. "Well, perhaps you can have something later then," Evylinne commented with a shrug. She hoped that Elliot had at least eaten something already that day, but it was always hard to tell with her cousin. Things had been rough for her since Ginny had died.

[potter]

As Evylinne looked around the shop, Elliot's gaze followed hers until it came to rest on the family that was on the other side of the shop. Their family consisted of two young boys, and their parents. She felt her throat constrict lightly, she missed having a mother. Granted, she was an adult of nineteen, but up until the day Ginny died Elliot had looked to her first for advice. If she were still around she probably would have asked her about the feelings she still had for Erik. They confused her, in all honesty she did want him back, though couldn't bring herself to say it.

Things hadn't exactly ended well, but she couldn't help what she felt... She brought her eyes back to the table when their conversation resumed. "It is," said Elliot, "at least I'm single and have little to no social life, so I'm not missing much of anything. But it is nice to be able to walk around Diagon Alley in the middle of the day." Thought truth be told she had been incredibly bored which was why she was thankful to have run into Evylinne. Otherwise her day would have been reduced to aimless wandering and wallowing in thoughts better left to themselves.

"Maybe," said Elliot, although she knew in her mind that she wasn't going to get anything at the ice cream shop. She was working on her problems with eating, but hadn't gotten to the point of eating anything that could be counted as heavy or indulgent. "How was Nepal?" Elliot asked, conveniently getting the conversation off of buying ice cream, "not too stressful I hope."

[evy]

Evylinne turned back to Elliot quickly, not wanting to look at the two boys anymore. She listened to her cousin as she explained how she had nearly no social life and was just hoping to wander around Diagon Alley. It was sort of a sad story, which Evylinne wondered about. Was Elliot exaggerating or had she not found many friends after school? Hopefully at least Elliot would have a serious relationship in the near future. That seemed to be missing from her life story.

"You don't have any friends from work to party with on the weekends?" Evylinne asked with a laugh as she tried to imagine Elliot doing anything resembling partying. It just didn't seem to be in the other girl's vocabulary. But perhaps things had changed recently; one could never really tell. Evylinne, at least, was glad that her cousin had been bored enough to come into Fortiscue's to see her.

Evylinne picked up her yogurt again and took a small bite before setting it back down on the table. She was getting the feeling that Elliot wasn't going to eat anything, seeing as how she had quickly changed the topic. "Nepal was good," Evylinne said in response to her cousin's question. "Not too stressful, no. It was fairly routine, actually. Well, as routine as my job can get, I suppose. Anyways, it was fairly easy in terms of the actual curse-breaking. Getting to the place was the only challenging part."

[potter]

Elliot smiled a bit as Evylinne asked her if she had friends from work that she went out to party with on the weekends. As much as she did like to go out once in a while, she hadn't done so in a very long time. The girls at the office were always fun, she and Abigail got along very well and she considered Violet to be something of a friend to her. But the more she thought on it the more Elliot realized she hadn't spent any time with either of them outside of work in months.

Outside the office it was harder to hide her slow, methodical process to eating. She and the healer had worked it out as the best way for her to get back on track. She had gotten ill at first, it had been too much too quickly. But Elliot had found with gradually increasing portion sizes she barely noticed a thing. "I went out dancing with a friend from work last September," Elliot said bashfully, in coming to the realization that it had been almost a year since then. It tired her, even if she did have fun, but it certainly wasn't something she could do on a weekly, or even monthly, basis.

Elliot nodded along as Evylinne explained all about Nepal, imagining that she had gone to some sort of remote village, to an ancient tomb that had long been covered by earth. Curse-breaking and wand-making had been tied for her second choice careers, but the lure of being an Auror had been to great for her to resist, it was what she had wanted since she was little. "I suppose most of the places you go to are fairly hidden," Elliot said thoughtfully, "ancient wizards seemed to be fond of remote, nomadic lifestyles." She had to think back on history class a moment, though it had only been a few years since she had attended Hogwarts it felt like an eternity ago.

[evy]

Evylinne smiled a bit as Elliot mentioned that she had gone dancing with one of her friends back in September. Though it had been a while, Evylinne was still surprised that someone had gotten Elliot to go out at all. Back in their school days, Elliot certainly hadn't been into that sort of thing, seeming to prefer her studies over any kind of social life. Evylinne had been quite a bit different from her cousin back then, but she found that they were in a similar boat now. Due to the nature of her job, Evylinne hadn't really spent any time with friends in over a year. It was a bit depressing.

"Well that sounds fun," Evylinne commented, giving Elliot an encouraging smile. Evylinne wasn't much into that sort of scene anymore, having given up drinking a while ago, but she did enjoy dancing one in a while, even if only by herself in her apartment. "Do you like your co-workers then?" she asked, hoping Elliot had made at least two friends at work. Working was a lot harder when you had no one to talk to.

"Oh yes," Evylinne replied with a smile. She did love her job, though she regretted being away so much. Still, all the ancient wizards fascinated her. They were far more creative than most wizards today, which was why their curses were sometimes very difficult to break. But some of the more wealthy ones left fabulous artifacts. "For this one, we had to travel into the mountains. We ended up climbing a rather tall one, as I understand it." Evylinne usually let her teammates figure out how they would get to the places, she was in charge of breaking the curses, but this one had been unusually difficult. Evylinne loved mountains, though.

[potter]

Elliot folded her hands in her lap, half-wishing that she had a glass of water or something to busy her hands with. She would have a lemon wedge in it, too, just to have a little bit of flavour to it other than just the taste of water. She bit her liip slightly, reflecting on how sad it really was that she hadn't done anything someone else might consider as being fun in a long time. Though she was content with her life was turning out so far, even if she was a tiny bit lonely, but hopefully that would change...

"Yeah, my coworkers are easy enough to get along with," said Elliot, though she was still known to keep to herself for the most part. She wasn't quite up to par with most social standards. Abigail was always fun, she and Violet got along fine, the same story with the blonde's husband, and it was always nice to work alongside her father. There was something about being able to look to her father throughout the workday, it was that parental influence that she found she still craved. She was old enough to be independent, but young enough to still want guidance.

Elliot smiled as Evylinne explained that she had needed to go into the mountains to get to that particular destination. She was slightly envious of the adventure that came along with curse-breaking, though still found it in herself to be interested and happy for her cousin. Perhaps that was what she needed, to go on some sort of holiday once she had the time and resources for it. Someplace exotic. "Makes you think how those people got there in the first place," said Elliot with a smile, even with magic climbing a mountain was no small feat.

[evy]

((Mm, tragic, but I'm bored already. We need to get them moving here, don't you think? Maybe send them into some Death Eater action?))

[potter]

((OOC: Hmm, yes. It is ever so boring just having them sit around talking, much too mundane I'll follow your lead.))

[evy]

((Easily bored today, clearly. Here we go then!))

Evylinne smiled, glad that Elliot was at least making some friends at work. The poor girl hadn't had much of a social life while at Hogwarts, owing to her almost obsessive nature about her studies. But hopefully now that she was somewhat settled with a steady job, apartment, and the likes, she could open up a bit more to people. Evylinne worried about her cousin a bit sometimes.

"Yes, it does," Evylinne said, nodding in agreement. She took one last bite of her yogurt, finishing it off. Sensing an end to the current conversation, Evylinne decided that perhaps it was the end of their stay in Fortiscue's, as nice and cool as it was. Besides, the kids at the other table were becoming more rowdy now that their ice cream was gone. Maybe she and Elliot could go shopping or something.

"Want to head out?" Evylinne asked, standing up to throw her cup away. She grabbed her purse as she awaited Elliot's reply. Evylinne didn't exactly have a destination in mind, but she figured they could wander around the alley a bit until they figured out something to do. Besides, Evylinne had never really been a stationary sort of person anyway.