Chapter 10: Chocolate Frog
"Are you sure you don't want to come down to the village with us?" Skye insisted as we finished up with lunch. "It's going to be a lot of fun."
"No," I shook my head. "I have work to do. That book – I promised Agatha I'd be back to finish it."
"I'm sure Agatha won't mind if you finish it tomorrow," Alex said, looking at me in a way that made me want to throw all my plans out the window.
"Well I – It's just that – " I stammered, finding myself unable to form a coherent thought, let alone sentence.
"Come with us," Alex insisted.
"So you're coming too then?" Cameron asked, this particular issue not having been decided yet.
"I will if Katie does," Alex said, still looking at me intently.
"Well that settles it," Skye declared. "Katie has to come."
"I guess my book can wait for tomorrow," I allowed, caving pretty quickly.
"Great!" Cameron exclaimed merrily. "Then let's get going!"
The walk to Hogsmeade was long but pleasant. It was one of those summer days where it's sunny and warm, but not too hot. I walked with Skye most of the way, though I could feel Alex's eyes on me the whole time. It was a weird feeling, but I liked the attention. I just wished I was wearing heels.
When we arrived in Hogsmeade, Skye insisted on starting at the sporting goods store to pick up her supplies. Unfortunately, when we arrived, it was to discover that her order wasn't in.
"What do you mean it hasn't arrived yet?" Skye cried angrily to the shopkeeper. "I placed the order weeks ago!"
"I did promise to owl you once the supplies had arrived," the shopkeeper reminded Skye. "I'm sure it'll only be another day or two. A few of the items you requested are on backorder, you see."
"I thought I paid extra to be on priority," Skye insisted. "Didn't you put a rush on my order?"
"Unfortunately, Headmaster Slinkhard overruled your request for priority shipping," the shopkeeper said.
"He did what?" Skye cried in outrage.
Glancing from Cameron to Alex, I motioned that I was going to step outside. Whatever altercation Skye was having with the shopkeeper, I wasn't involved and didn't want to be.
I pulled the door open and exited the shop onto the street. I heard the door shut a few seconds later than it should have and I turned around to find that Alex had followed me out.
"Cam can keep an eye on Skye," he assured me. "He'll keep her out of trouble."
"Right," I nodded, swallowing thickly as it occurred to me that I was now basically alone with Alex. "So… was there anywhere you wanted to go? Supplies you need to pick up?"
Alex smirked and shook his head. "Nope. Teaching ancient runes has its benefits. One of them being that apart from parchment and quills, I don't really need supplies."
"Sure," I nodded, as if I had any idea what constituted the study of ancient runes. "So is there…" I trailed off, unsure how to finish the sentence. I'd already asked if there was anywhere he wanted to go. I didn't want to repeat myself.
"Have you been to Honeydukes yet?" Alex asked, a twinkle in his eye.
"Honeydukes?" I frowned, trying to recall if I recognized the name. "I'm not sure. I've been to the apothecary, the cauldron store, the parchment store, and the restaurant – though if there's more than one I don't know which."
Alex laughed. "Well then you haven't been to Honeydukes. Come on, it's my favorite."
I allowed myself to be led down the street, partly because I was curious to see more of the village, and partly because I was finding that I liked Alex, and I wanted to see if there was any potential there. When we came to the shop in question, Alex held the door for me, and I stepped inside.
I could tell immediately that I was in a sweet shop. Muggle or magical, they all had a similar look and feel about them. It smelled sweet, and the displays were all very colorful and exciting looking. The only problem was, I didn't recognize any of the sweets.
"What do you think?" Alex asked, his eyes on me as I marvelled at everything I was seeing.
"I don't know what to think," I admitted. "What is all this?"
"Well," Alex said, steering me to a display to my left. "These long things are called licorice wands," he pointed to a display of long reddish-brown candies.
"Like twizzlers?" I asked.
"What's a twizzler?" Alex wondered.
"Never mind," I shook my head. "What's this?" I pointed to the next display, which contained packages of something labelled Bertie Botts.
"Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans," Alex said with a chuckle. "Oh I've had some adventures with these. See, they're these small candies that come in all sorts of different flavors, but the trick is, you don't know what flavor you've got until you try it. You might get lucky with lemon or vanilla, but you could also get stuck with something unpleasant like pond scum."
"So they're like Jelly Bellies!" I exclaimed, making the parallel to the muggle equivalent. Magical sweets really weren't all that different from non-magical sweets, I was discovering.
"What's a Jelly Belly?" Alex frowned.
I sighed. "Never mind," I shook my head. I had to remember that the whole point of my being here was that nobody in the magical world understood the muggle world. Maybe I was here to educate the teachers as much as the students. "What about these?" I asked, moving on to the next display.
"Chocolate frogs," Alex informed me.
"Oh I love chocolate!" I practically moaned. As soon as I'd said it, I regretted it. It had come out much too emphatically and I was a little embarrassed at myself. "Sorry, I haven't had any chocolate since coming here and I didn't realize until now how much I missed it."
"That's alright," Alex said, smirking at me. "Come on, I'll buy you one."
Alex grabbed one of the chocolate frog packages and started heading towards the cash at the front. Panicking, I chased after him, grabbing his arm to stop him and then letting go as quickly as I'd grabbed on when he turned around.
"That's really not necessary," I insisted. "You don't need to buy me anything – "
"It's just a chocolate frog," Alex said. "And it'll be your first one. You can't go into your first term as a teacher without ever having sampled a chocolate frog."
A part of me wanted to insist that he not buy me the chocolate. I had no way of repaying him, since all my money was muggle, and I didn't want him wasting money on some girl he just met. Another part of me didn't want to argue with Alex and also really wanted the chocolate.
"Alright," I agreed eventually, allowing him to go to the cash and pay for my chocolate frog. He passed over a few bronze coins, and I wished I had a clue how much this was costing. Then again, maybe I didn't want to know.
We stepped out onto the street, and Alex handed me the package.
"Well we can at least share it," I shrugged as I pulled the lid open.
Before I could even look inside the package, the box seemed to come to life in my hands. It started moving and shaking, and then something jumped out of the box and landed on my head.
I screamed.
Alex laughed.
"What's so funny?" I cried as the thing jumped off my head and started down the street.
Instead of answering me, Alex darted after the thing, chasing it down with magic until it stopped moving, and he carried it over to me.
"Sorry," he apologized, dropping the think back in the box. "I should have warned you. You've got to be fast with chocolate frogs, or they get away."
"What are you - ?" I peered inside the box to see that the thing that had jumped out was my chocolate. Except that now it was no longer moving, and looked the way I'd imagined a chocolate frog should look.
"It's a spell," Alex explained, sensing that I was confused. "For fun."
"Right, fun," I nodded, pretending this made sense. "Because I usually like to have to chase down my chocolate before I eat it."
"Hey, at least you burn the calories," Alex said lightly.
I laughed and shook my head. "Okay, so now what do I do with it?" I asked.
"You eat it," Alex replied.
I faltered. "But it was on the ground," I pointed out. "It was on my head. It'll be contaminated."
"It's magical chocolate that's designed to try to escape," Alex reminded me. "It's charmed against picking up any dirt or germs from touching the ground."
"Of course," I said, shocked that I didn't realize this before. Obviously the magical jumping chocolate would also be dirt-repelling. "Well if I'm going to eat it, then you have to join me," I said, holding the box out for Alex to take a piece. "It's the only way I'll trust that it's safe."
Alex chuckled, but broke off a piece of the frog's leg. I took a piece for myself, and then we both raised the chocolate to our lips at the same time.
"Oh!" I exclaimed as the chocolate hit my taste buds. It was some of the best chocolate I'd ever sampled. It tasted pure, like it was undiluted by the usual chemicals they add to give it a long shelf-life. "This is amazing!" I broke off a second piece and took another bite while I was still swallowing the first.
"It's the secret ingredient," Alex said knowingly.
"And what's that?" I wondered.
Alex smirked. "Magic," he said.
For once, the answer wasn't a clever way to evade the question. He really did mean that magic was the secret ingredient. And I believed it. If I was going to imagine that magic had a flavor, then it was definitely in this chocolate frog.
"I think this is my new favorite kind of chocolate," I declared happily, taking a third bite. "Thank you for this."
"My pleasure," Alex returned, looking rather pleased with himself.
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We met back up with Skye and Cameron at the parchment store, where all three of my fellow teachers purchased some extra supplies. Like Hannah, they asked if I needed to buy anything, but I assured them that I intended on sticking to the muggle supplies. I told them it was to bring a sense of authenticity to my subject, but honestly I just couldn't see myself writing with an enormous quill that kept getting in my face, or on a roll of parchment that kept rolling up on itself. Regular pens and paper would do just fine for me.
To my relief, the others decided not to stick around in the village for dinner. After everyone had finished their shopping, we headed back up to the castle to join the other teachers for dinner in the Great Hall, so there was no need for the awkward conversation about why I couldn't pay for my own food.
Luckily, my afternoon chocolate snack hadn't ruined my appetite and I thoroughly enjoyed the chicken dinner that the house elves had cooked up. I skipped dessert, having had enough sweets for the day, and said a polite goodnight to the others as I stood up to depart.
"Won't you join us in the teacher's lounge?" Skye asked as I was taking my leave. "We were thinking about breaking out the wizard's chess sets. It could be fun."
"I'm sure it will be," I agreed. "But I'm pretty tired. I just need to get some rest."
"Alright," Skye agreed readily. "See you tomorrow."
I nodded, and then said goodnight to Cameron and Alex as well.
"Sweet dreams," Alex said, with a wink.
I turned away so he wouldn't see my blush and then pushed my way through the doors into the hall.
It was ridiculous, how easily Alex could make me blush. But with the way he kept looking at me, coupled with the flirting and the winking – well it wasn't hard to see why I was turning into a blushing schoolgirl. Alex was friendly, attractive, funny, smart – and while I couldn't see what he could possibly see in me, given that I was a muggle nobody, who'd just been thrown into this magical world, he seemed to like me.
And while it was definitely too early to be making any rash decisions or jumping into anything too quickly, I had to admit one thing to myself. I had a crush on Alexander Campbell.
