Sweet Sensations

[Margaret O'Neill]

18th June.

There was something very worrying about a birthday. Margaret had never especially liked celebrating her own, neither did she like to remember those horrible moments while at school when one of the others û from a better family of course û had had what felt like hundreds of owls flocking to them with more cards and packages than Margaret had received in a lifetime of birthdays.

But those dull days were behind her now and she had Attie and life was rather more wonderful than she had ever thought it could be. Unfortunately she had exactly one month till Attie's birthday and she could already see herself spending the next four weeks fretting over what to give her.

She had already decided to visit the market that had sprung up by the Quidditch pitch but for now she was content to browse the shops in Hogsmeade. At the moment she was perusing the specialist chocolates in the corner of Honeydukes and trying to ascertain how much money she could reasonably set aside for something as frivolous as sweets.

She should probably try them herself really. The last thing she needed was to give Attie something that tasted like sawdust!

  

[Sunny Darrow]

Sunny's birthday would be in four days and although she wouldn't turn eleven which was the most important birthday in someone's life, she was still pretty excited.

She was glad that the governess would take her and Alistair to Honeyduke's, because she wanted to buy something small for her grandfather's birthday. They actually shared a birthday, so Sunny always found it to be a special day. It is always exciting to share your birthday with someone, especially your grandfather!

Her governess and Alistair went to one part of the shop and she quietly moved to another. It wasn't too crowded today, so Sunny was not afraid of getting lost.

She soon found the chocolates she wanted, but they were on a high shelf, higher than where Sunny could reach even on the top of her toes, so she reluctantly moved to an older and taller lady. "Excuse me, ma'am? Could you give me that box with the almond chocolates? I cannot reach it myself..."

  

[Margaret O'Neill]

The little polite voice caught Margaret off-guard and for a moment she was half-convinced that the thoughts of her lover had simply led her to imagining what she might have sounded like when younger but when she looked around she was surprised to see a little face looking up at her. She smiled immediately and reached up - still having to stretch slightly and she was glad that she wasn't having to embarrassingly resort to using her wand to levitate something down - and picked up the box the little girl had asked for.

"Are these for you little one?"

Margaret made a show of looking them over with exaggerated confusion. The chocolates were hardly so bitter that it was impossible for a child to like them but she, in her experience of her small army of nieces and nephews, had never known anyone not take the sweetest option possible. Then again she had hardly been accustomed to the specialist and well-made sweets that Honeydukes produced nd the girl's terribly polite enquiry suggested she, unlike Margaret and her family, had not been reared on boiled sweets.

"Here you go."

  

[Sunny Darrow]

Sunny was glad to discover that the lady was not mean and unpleasant. A lot of older ladies would ignore her request, or they would scold her for not asking her governess instead of them. But this older lady was kind and Sunny instantly felt more comfortable in her company.

She carefully picked up the chocolate box in her hands and shook her head at her question, a gesture that made her two braids move along with her head. "They are for my grandfather!" Sunny explained. "We celebrate our birthday on the same day and I always buy him a present. I think he likes these chocolates. I gifted him a box of these last year and he didn't tell me that he disliked them."

  

[Margaret O'Neill]

Margaret smiled kindly at the careful explanation and crouched down so she was on a better eye-level with the little girl. She'd never been a particularly tall woman but she remembered how much Ivy had preferred not to have to look up all the time to speak to an adult, instead preferring to climb on chairs and tables to have her say and she doubted this little one was much different.

"Well he must like them then mustn't he?"

The movement of the girl's braids made her smile wider and Margaret looked over her shoulder to see if there was a governess hovering nearby. She saw a woman who looked the part with another child and breathed a small sigh of relief that she hadn't inadvertently come across a lost child.

"Which ones do you like? Or do you prefer the sweets?"

  

[Sunny Darrow]

Sunny knew that her grandfather probably wouldn't tell if he didn't like the chocolates she gave him because that was the polite thing to do. But even if he didn't like them, then at least someone would eat them. Her aunts and uncles liked chocolate as much as Sunny and her grandfather did, right?

"I like everything here!" Sunny said cheerfully. There was no type of chocolate she disliked. Expect maybe the ones with alcohol in them, but her father and governess didn't really let her eat much of those anywhere. "Expect blood lollipops I suppose. Those are for vampires and I bet that blood tastes icky anyway! I also like the season specials ones. Like the tiny chocolate Christmas trees or those chocolates that print bunnies and Easter eggs on your teeth!"

  

[Margaret O'Neill]

Margaret grinned and made a mental note to buy plenty of tiny Christmas trees in the coming winter for Attie and Minnie to spend hours placing on the tree. She had spent holidays away from her family before but she had never done it with other people that were just as good and made her feel so wonderfully welcome. But that was a consideration for the months ahead, right now she needed sweets for Attie and this little girl seemed to have a good sense of what sort of thing was interesting and might appeal to her mistress.

"I don't think they'd taste icky to the vampires though, they're probably like chocolate to them!" She reasoned before reaching towards the box she had been eyeing up that was packed full of what looked like violet macaroons but that apparently changed floral flavour with each bite.

"I'm trying to find a present for someone too. Do you know if these are tasty?"

  

[Sunny Darrow]

Blood probably tasted more like meat to vampires. It made more sense, because one could survive with only meat, but he would fall sick if he ate too much chocolate. Besides, vampires didn't seem like the type of creatures to enjoy sweet things. They were evil and it was a shame that Honeyduke's sold products for them. That only encouraged them to walk around as if they were normal human beings! What if some evil vampire came to buy a blood lollipop but decided that she or the old lady were tastier and ate them instead?

She looked at the violet macarons the lady showed her and shook her head sligthly. "I wouldn't eat anything in such a bright violet colour!" she admitted. She honestly didn't like the colours of most macarons. It made her feel like she didn't actually eat sweets. Sweets were supposed to be brown, white or red. If they looked unatural then Sunny felt quite reluctant.

"They might be tasty though. If I was your friend I would probably want a cherry chocolate. Or choco-balls with cherry cream in them. Or cherries with chocolate on them."

  

[Margaret O'Neill]

Margaret nodded her head solemnly at the little girl's advice when it came to the macaroons. She didn't know much about sweets herself and certainly not much about the more refined kinds of refreshments that Attie might like for a treat. She had cakes with Mrs MacMillan, when they came to the Pendergast's house rather than the Rosa Lee, but Margaret was determined to give her lover something a little more interesting than a lemon drizzle cake. But if this girl thoughts violet was too garish a colour for food û and Margaret had to concur with her û then they were most certainly to be put aside.

Cherries, it seemed, were the order of the day and, still crouched down in what she would later acknowledge was terrible idea for both her back and her dignity, Margaret looked around her. On the second shelf up there were indeed chocolate covered cherries, but with almonds also chipped in and she knew for a fact that Attie didn't like.

Merlin's balls, who knew finding bloody sweets was so difficult?!

"Are cherries your favourite? Or are they just really nice from here?"

  

[Sunny Darrow]

"I love cherries; they are my favourite fruit!" Sunny replied to the woman. They always seemed to grow around her birthday so Sunny always received a basket of them on her birthday. Her mother would make marmalade out of them sometimes, but now she was dead and Sunny didn't like the marmalade that was bought from the market.

"Cherries with chocolate are even better!" she continued. "Last year, we had a chocolate cake with cherries in it as our dessert for our Christmas dinner. It was so very delicious and we bought it from here! They sell cupcakes with chocolate and cherries that are like a smaller version of that cake we had."

  

[Margaret O'Neill]

If nothing else Margaret didn't think she had ever met anyone û grown up or otherwise û who knew quite as much about cherries. She nodded along sagely with the girl and looked around until she located the cakes in question. They did indeed look very lovely but Margaret could feel her knees starting to object to her crouching state and she doubted she'd be able to manage it for much loger.

"Would you like one? One of the little ones I mean."

She had never been soft on children as such û other than Ivy but Ivy was special û but for whatever reason Margaret found herself oddly charmed by the talkative little thing. She was certainly one of the few people in Hogsmeade that hadn't looked down their nose at someone who was far too plain to belong to a respectable class!

  

[Sunny Darrow]

As soon as the offer was served, Sunny shook her head which caused her braids to move around her as well. Sunny would love a cherry cake, but she was taught that it was impolite to accept presents from strangers when you could afford something yourself.

"Oh, no, you don't have to!" Sunny said and shook her head. She looked quite silly in this moment and if her mama was still alive she would have probably laughed.

"But I bet your friend would love it, so you should totally buy them one!"

  

[Margaret O'Neill]

Margaret breathed a silent sigh of relief at the refusal. Had the girl accepted her offer then she would have upheld her word and bought a cake but her funds would be rather marred by the expenditure. What a nice polite little girl this was! If only all children could be like this then Margaret wouldn't find herself gritting her teeth every time a rambunctious herd came charging past her feet.

"I'll do just that then! I'm sure she'll enjoy it and I'll tell her that it came highly recommended."

She smiled and reached out to brace herself on the wall so she could straighten her knees and stand up properly once again.

"Thank you for being so very helpful."

  

[Sunny Darrow]

Sunny was glad that the lady wasn't offended. It was only polite to refuse, but some people could understand it as rudeness. Sunny was good at following the rules, but not that good when acting and the like were concerned.

"I'm glad that I helped you!" Sunny replied happily. It was about time she returned to her governess, so she gave the woman a small curtsy and a "Have a nice day" and then walked back to where she was supposed to be in the first place.