House: Hufflepuff
Class: Transfiguration
Category: Drabble
Prompt(s): [Action] Buying sweets
Harry watched the people in the carriage with a grim fascination and couldn't help feeling a little sick to his stomach. Did he think that the feeling was normal? Probably not but yet at the same time yes. On one hand he was reminded of his cousin Dudley and that thought curled his stomach in all kinds of knots he didn't like thinking about. Between the number of sweets being swallowed haphazardly and what had to be, in his limited opinion, absurd amounts of money change hands with the sweets lady on the trolley. Gold, silver and bronze coins swapped for boxes of sugary treats that, while they looked delicious, he would be the first to admit that he wasn't as certain how his system would handle it given how little he normally ate.
"Harry, mate, you ok? You look like you got sent to Slytherin."
Harry shook his head to clear the internal loop of thoughts about sweets. "Sorry, I didn't sleep too well last night. Nervous about today and all" he said waving off the redheads concern. It seemed to satisfy the other boy who went back to piling sugary treats into his mouth between long winded, one-sided rants about this and that.
"Anyway, as I was saying.."
It was another couple of hours to Hogwarts and while Harry was fascinated by the idea of a magical game played on broomsticks, some of the things that he heard were jarring. Perhaps it was the upbringing with his aunt, uncle and cousin but the idea of a nobility system that seemed more in line with medieval Europe didn't seem right to him. "Ron, can I interrupt you for a second? I appreciate that you're filling me in on this but I have to ask you one question. A rather serious question" he said after seeing a momentary break as the redheaded boy bit into a sandwich that was packed into a container inside his trunk.
"Sure mate, go ahead" the boy said, though the fact his mouth was full of food it was not as clear.
"What exactly goes into these… things?" Harry asked while holding up one of the few sweets he purchased from the trolley lady but had yet to open.
"Bertie Botts Every Flavor Bean? Oh they use everything and I do mean everything. Grass clipping, liquorice, puke, dirt, earwax- if you can think of it, they probably made a flavor of it" Ron said, eyeing up the box in his companion's hand.
Harry was now entirely unsure about opening them if he was going to bite into that was a regular candy flavor or if it was going to taste like he just got sick. Pocketing the box for later, maybe he could trade it to someone else for another sweet later that was less unpredictable, and taking out the chocolate wand, he looked out the window at the passing scenery as he bit off a portion while still paying attention to the redhead. Ron was the best source of information and even if it was mainly cast down information from his older siblings who were in the upper years, it was more than he knew given how little time he'd been exposed to wizarding society.
"You think they'll have cake and stuff at the feast?" Ron asked.
Or maybe Ron Weasley was just more focused on food than anything else.