The sweet things in life (Alek)

Vanessa walked around Hogsmeade with gold and silver coins jingling in her pocket. She stepped into Honeyduckes and bounght multiple delicious sweets. She bought a few chocolate frogs, some licorice wands. Some sugar quills and some Bertie Botts Every flavor beans. She ripped open one of her chocolate frogs and bit its head off. She smiled when she saw a Professor Albus Dumbledore card. She hadnt had one of those in a long time and had lost the one she had had before. She pocketed the card and enjoyed the chocolatey goodness in her hands.

After devouring her delectable chocolate frog, she opened a suger quill and began to suck on it. The quill slowly dissolving in her mouth. She began walking around until she arrived in Knockturn alley. She smiled as she felt the darkness wrap around her. She pushed her hair back and walked around until she found a bench to sit on and enjoy her candy. She saw a few wizards eyeing her body but she just rolled her eyes and gave them a quick hex. She heard a chuckle from behind her and turned and glared at the wizard "Whats so funny?"

One of the best things about working - and living - in Diagon Alley was that Alek had access to any shop, even the ones he wasn't technically supposed to be in if he wanted to qualify as a hood citizen. Of course, he only ventured to that part of the Alley when he needed potion ingredients. Neither Miranda nor Phineas knew it, but the reason they had never had a plague on the shop was because Alek actually put homemade repellent everywhere. Except for the rat Miranda had found, that had been unusual. That's why he set out to gather ingredients for his potions, and Dragon Liver was needed for one. Not a repellent one. Calling out for Miranda to wake up, he closed the door behind him and left the wand shop. There weren't that many people there since the school period had already started, the only kids around where the ones who would end up being late for the semester.

He walked all the way from Ollivander's to Mr. Mulpepper's Apothecary in Diagon Alley, his hands in his pockets. September was one of his favorite months, one of the few that had the weather just right. The old glanced at him as he walked in, a smirk playing on his wrinkled face. "Good afternoon, Aleksander." He greeted him. Alek nodded, having always been creeped out by the man Mulppeper had hired to run this specific shop. "Good afternoon. I'll take one dragon liver." Alek said as he placed 3 galleons on the counter. It wasn't his first time buying it, and he needed the whole thing. As the old man walked away to get the dragon liver, Alek tapped his fingers on the counter. A jar of human fingernails for sale caught his attention, and he debated whether he should get it for Miranda, to scare her. After a few seconds, he realized what a terrible idea that was.

The old man came back with Alek's order and placed it on the counter, taking the galleons with him. Without saying anything else, Alek took the glass container and walked out. He was inspecting it as he walked, not really paying much attention where he was going. It was probably all muscle memory by now, he knew the way without actually looking. He kept thinking of Miranda, and how he needed to use this shit on her one day. Just to scare her a little without giving her a heart attack. Chuckling at a sudden idea, Alek heard a girl's voice. Looking up, he saw a girl familiar enough but he wasn't sure what her name was. Had she been one of his teenage hook ups? No, she looked like a teenager now so they probably just went to school together.

She was glaring at him, and Alek was confused. "I thought of something." he shrugged. He wasn't really in the mood to piss people off today, despite how great a pastime it was. "You look familiar. Do I know you?"

Vanessa glared at the boy. She felt like she knew him from somewhere. Then it hit her. The library in her 4th year at Hogwarts. He had spilled ink all over her potions essay. "Never thought Id see you again Aleksander. Or do you go by Alek still. I never really bothered to care." She pushed her hair behind her ear and crossed her arms over her chest. Vanessa had developed a nice body over the years. She was 17 now and just waiting to graduate Hogwarts.

She pursed her ruby red lips and stared at him, "In case it has slipped your mind, which I bet you 100 galleons it has, its Vanessa. Vanessa Di Angelo." She ripped open another chocolate frog and bit its head off as she had done the first one. She eyed the card and saw Salazar Slytherin smirking at her. She gave the card her own smirk and watched as he disappeared. She chuckled darkly and looked at Aleksander, "What brings you here, Krupp?" She wasnt sure exactly why her old house mate was lurking around Knockturn Alley, but hey, its what Slytherins do. We lurk in the shadows of darkness and night.

The girl kept glaring, and quite honestly Alek was starting to feel a little uncomfortable. Had he done something wrong? All he had done was chuckle at how fun he was, there couldn't be anything wrong with that. Still, Alek thought he'd met her before, because it was a strange sort of déjà vu. He wasn't going to lose sleep over it, so he just waited for her to tell him whether or not they had met before. Which, apparently they had because she knew his name. Shit, she probably was a one-night stand. He should probably learn to remember the girl's names, but wasn't that part of the reason those type of girls agreed to such things? They never seemed to be the type that wanted to be remembered, nor where they very important if he couldn't remember a single thing about them. Okay, there was one girl he did remember very well but it was not the one standing in front of him. Alek shrugged again, "Aleksander, Alek, Yasen, whatever." He actually didn't like his middle name, but everyone already knew that. Or at least, every one of his friends knew that, which wasn't much - only Agnes, Miranda and Phin.

"Mind telling me how we met? I can't usually don't remember those things." He was very close to saying nights instead of things, but he wasn't entirely sure he had actually slept with her. Had the girl not crossed her arms, Alek wouldn't have paid attention. He looked her up and down, his blue eyes tracing the more notable parts of her body before coming back to settle on her face. Okay, so he definitely hadn't slept with her yet. He knew that much. "100 galleons?" Alek faked a gasp. "Best you hand them over now because I really didn't remember." Alek didn't expect anything from her, nor her money nor her time, but since she was offering... It was strange, though, because she was eating chocolate frogs and seemed to have had a huge load of candy before this one, and the only type of people that did something like that were children, which Alek wasn't so optimistic about.

She seemed to be enjoying her candy, so Alek was about to leave when she asked him why he was there. Turning back to her, he held up the glass container. "Dragon liver." He still couldn't shake the idea of scaring Miranda with it, all he wanted at that second was to get back home and show her what she'd have for 'dinner'. Except now he was intrigued by this girl, because not only did she know his name but she also knew his surname. If she knew where he was from that meant they had definitely had some sort of intimate talk and Alek was feeling a bit like an asshole for not remembering her. "What about you? I mean, besides the candy." Surely there was better candy somewhere else.

Vanessa chuckled darkly when he couldnt remeber how they met, "In the library my 4th year. You spilled ink all over my potions essay on the Bezoar. Then you completely ignored me at the Halloween ball for Darcy Wilde." Vanessa said a bit darker than she had intended to, but oh well, too late to fix it now. She took a deep breath and looked at him, her hazel eyes shining a bit in the lamps around the walkway. "I havent seen you since Hogwarts. You know, since we were in the same house."

She continued to eat her candy and tossed him a chocolate frog. She finished the one she was eating and blushed, "I have a bit of a sweet tooth." She pushed her hair back and drew her hood up over her head to cast a bit oh a shadow over her face, making her bright eyes stand out more. "Besides the candy, Im just exploring. i love Knockturn alley, the darkness it holds, it excites me." She looked around an evil gleam in her eyes, "Im trying to find a mentor in the dark arts if you must know. but no one is willing to take on a child as an apprentice. Even though im 17 now."

Without being asked to, Alek moved the candy away and sat down next to her, a few inches apart. "Ah, yes. The glorious Darcy Wilde." He remembered her very well. "One doesn't forget someone like her." Alek had made some geek who was in love with her believe she had actually slept with him, but sadly he hadn't had the opportunity. Darcy was, well, a good girl. As much as he actually wanted to he wasn't very into taking someone's innocence. He never took, he just...received. "I don't remember spilling ink on anyone's essay, and believe me, I would remember that." Fourth year? He must have been a Seventh Year, because that was his one and only year at Hogwarts, but that meant she was about 17 now, since he was 20. Was that legal?

It probably was, since she could legally drink and apparate, but he was still cautious when he looked at her. "I graduated three years ago, it makes sense you haven't seen me." He wasn't hiding from anyone, though, he was just working. "I work at the wand shop, though. So if you need anything just drop by. I'll gladly help out a housemate." Alek felt the need to warn her about Miranda's snappy moods, but she had been recently rather happy that it was probably not a good idea to give Vanessa a bad impression of her. After all, he did live with her, it could also make Vanessa think he was bitchy like Miranda. Shaking his head, Alek rejected the chocolate frog. He'd never been big on candy in general, there was no point. "Nothing wrong with that, just maybe get candy from a decent shop next time?" If she'd gotten her sweets in Diagon Alley she was weird.

He raised his eyebrows in confusion when she put her hood up. It wasn't cold, he wasn't even wearing a sweater. He glanced at his white t-shirt and then at Vanessa, out of confusion more than anything. And then she was getting deep about Knockturn Alley and how darkness excited her or some shit. "Kinky." he replied, not much of a joke but rather a statement. Alek wasn't one to do it in the dark, it was just - strange to not be able to see the girl. She could suddenly turn into a harpee or whatever they were called. That would be especially sad for him. "Why are you a specifically looking for a mentor?" he asked her, his blue eyes settling on her face. Vanessa had nice features, and even though apparently he'd met her when she was fourteen, he couldn't imagine what she looked like back then. Oh, so she was seventeen. The corners of his lips curled a bit when she mentioned her age, because even though it wasn't one hundred percent socially acceptable to hook up with her, it was at least legal.

"Unless you want to know how to curse someone, I may be able to help." Alek wasn't sure what prompted him to say that. He had never been one to help people, nor had he been one to willingly use dark magic. Of course, at Koldovstoretz he was required to know a certain amount of dark magic, which by the time was sixteen was actually more than any British sixteen year old would know. For example, he couldn't actually use an Unforgivable Curse, but he could do other spells and potions, which was and had always been enough to get him by. Truthfully, Alek didn't want to help her as much as he wanted to look at her. His mother had told him once that women were his weakness, and they would most likely be his undoing. Turns out, his mother was most likely more than 90% right.

Vanessa rolled her eyes as Alek practically started drooling over the thought of Darcy Wilde, "Alright boy, put your eyes and tongue back in your head before I cut them off." She hated when boys obsessed over girls. Well, unless that girl was herself. That was acceptable. She wrinkled her nose a bit when he said he didnt remember spilling ink on her essay, "Oh. Then maybe it wasnt you. Oh well. Past is past forgive forget and all that jazz, as the Muggles say."

When he started talking about the wand shop, she tuned out a tiny bit, but not enough to not be listening. Just not as intently as she had been before. She tuned back in after a while and chuckled at what he said, "Honeydukes isnt bad. Good price for what you get." She popped a marshmallow into her mouth that she took out of her candy bag. After that, she grabbed a lollipop and began licking it as she kept eye contact with him and listened to his words.

She blushed as he said the word kinky and giggled, "Trust me, honey, you have no idea. As for my mentor, I wanna learn all I can about the dark arts. But my dad wont teach me." She said a bit pissed off at her father for that. She sighed and kept licking her lollipop. Her eyes brightened as he said he could help her, "What would you want in return?" She asked curiously

For some reason, Alek sensed a bit of jealousy in Vanessa. Sure, she was a beautiful girl, but Darcy Wilde was beyond words, so the comparison must be bad enough for her to think about. Still, Alek shrugged. "I'll take that risk if I get to see that woman again." He definitely wanted to meet up with her at some point, as he knew she worked at the Ministry but he had no reason to back up a visit. After all, what could a shopkeeper do at the Ministry? Hell, he would probably travel to Korea to see her if she allowed. Thinking about it, he had to send her an owl at some point. For a second, the idea of getting Agnes to hook him up came to mind, but then he remembered Darcy had been the reason Agnes's baby wasn't Evan's and the thought faded as soon as it came. Nodding as she went on about forgiving and jazz, he realized she could very well be a pureblood. Despite him being one himself, he didn't feel like it. He wasn't even that thankful for magic - he was mostly trying to live day by day, and if magic came in handy well then great.

Raising an eyebrow, he looked at her like she had a watermelon for a head. "You came here from Honeydukes? That's quite a walk." He wasn't actually sure she had walked; she could have aoparated for all he knew, but it was still quite a trip - from Hogsmeade to Diagon Alley to Knockturn Alley. Vanessa kept popping candy into her mouth almost as much as she was breathing in air. He wanted to point out that she could get fat, or that she could get diabetes, but he didn't. Whatever she wanted to do, she could do. Alek wasn't her father, or anything else. Hell, they weren't even friends, why was he still sitting down? Glancing down at the bottle he had in hand, he remembered Miranda and Phineas. He should probably go get something for dinner - Miranda always seemed to have something ready, whether she cooked or not, so he felt obligated to give her a day when she didn't have to think about that.

He frowned a little as he realized what he was thinking. Suddenly, Vanessa was giggling like all girls do and his attention returned to her. "I bet, you look like the type." Alek responded with a smirk. At the mention of her father, Alek thought about his offer again. "If I teach you what I know, will he come after me?" He wasn't worried, not as much as he probably should be, but he wanted to be ready. For the sake of the two other humans living under his roof. Yes, it was his. They paid their rent. Ah, yes, payment method. Alek thought about that for a second, his blue eyes fixed on her brown ones. "I think you know what I want." Alek said, simple as that. She wasn't innocent, that much he could tell, so he was 100% sure he was getting the point. Standing up, he took a couple of chocolate frogs from her - two, to be exact, one for Phineas and one for Miranda. "I have to get back home." He announced. "When you're ready, just come find me. You know where I am." He gave her half a smile - more of a smirk - before he headed back to Ollivanders.