Melting Heat [Jennifer]

Mo had the day off. Just to himself. And it was wonderful. The weather was so nice, and he could go get some merchandise. He needed to buy some more food, but decided to swap by Diagon Alley first. He really enjoyed this street. The bookshop with all the books, the amazing animal shops. And there was Madam Malkin's in which he'd met the Minister for Magic and helped him buy a new suit. Kinda fun, really. The guy was cool. Mo would vote for him, whenever that became necessary.

The sun was shining brightly, and it was too warm to wear a sweater, so Mo was having a very good time. He loved the heat. He looked around at the people there. Almost only adults. The students would be at their magic school. Warthogs, wasn't it? He always forgot, but he found the story of the name hilarious. Rowena Ravenclaw finding a warty hog and called the school as such. Must've been a hilarious woman. And it was Hogwarts. Not Warthogs. That was something else.

His eyes then landed on the ice cream store. It would be absolutely delicious with some ice cream now in this heat. So he walked into the shop and looked at the cozy exterior. And the little ringed area where you could sit outside. He smiled and walked up to the counter. "I'd like one vanilla and one chocolate-caramel flavoured, thank you," he said kindly and the man behind the counter obliged. Mo got some knuts he'd had in his pockets for a while and got rid of them.

He then looked at the out area. It was full. Apart from a spot over by a blonde woman. He supposed she wouldn't mind. He walked over and cleared his throat. "Excuse me? Do you mind if I sit here?" he asked, pointing to the chair at her table.

Jennifer was in one of her excitable, over-emotional pregnant moods, instead of one of the alternative cranky, pissed-off moods that had so often occurred in the last month or so. It was in the bubbly moods, generally, when she craved food. Today she craved ice-cream. And ice-cream she would get.

Wizard ice-cream was so much better than that the muggles tried to make, so Diagonal Alley was the best place to go in order to make her little brat of a baby happy. That meant she could also buy some cute baby socks and stuff in London. And nice clothes and food and things for herself, because she deserved them. For going through this horrible, awkward pregnancy.

A cool treat came first, however, because the blistering heat was just about killing her and it was easy to tell how hot and bothered she was from her slightly dishevelled appearance in general, as well as her horribly messy hair. Jen was the ice queen, O'Donnell had told her once. Her habitat was the snow and ice, cool, refreshing weather. In the burning sun, she'd melt.

Nonetheless, she was happy enough as she wandered along the cobbled pavement of Diagon Alley. Perhaps the prospect of ice-cream excited her. Feeling indecisive, when she reached the counter, Jen took time deliberating over the flavour she should use. The woman working there gently asked her to decide or move to the side for other customers to order. The blonde glared at her and hastily made her decision.

"One scoop of chocolate frog, one of strawberry sherbet, please." After paying and taking the ice-cream cone, she smiled oddly sweetly and scanned the room for a table. It was very busy and she thought she'd have to take it away with her, but then she spotted a couple leaving and rushed towards their table. Jennifer sat down and tucked in, perfectly content with everything in the world. For that moment, at least.

A couple of minutes later, a man had approached her table and was asking if it was okay to sit down or something silly like that. "Yes, go ahead," she beamed, with a little wave of her hand. "I'm Jen!" And she was about to introduce her baby, but that would be weird. Besides, she hadn't decided on names yet. At the moment, it was generally referred to as "the brat". As long as the kid wasn't named Chad, she wasn't too worried about what she called it.

Mo smiled at the woman and sat down at the chair. She quickly introduced herself, and he nodded. "I'm Mo," he said kindly. She looked like a very nice person. And very happy, sitting there with her ice cream and looking pregnant. He didn't dare ask her if she was, though. It would be horribly embarrassing if she wasn't.

Mo leaned back in his chair and turned his head to the sun, closing his eyes, just enjoying the rays heating his flesh. "It is a lovely day," he said softly, not caring if this was often the starter for a very awkward conversation. He had a feeling that she wasn't the person who let things get awkward. He certainly wasn't. He wasn't very social, but his shyness didn't make him feel awkward.

His head turned to look at the woman. She was rather pretty. And blonde. He'd met two pretty blondes in such a short amount of time. Or … well, it had gone two years. But two so shortly after one another. And the minister. And a Hogwarts healer. It was all very fun to have met so many different people. He'd probably think it was even more fun if he knew that Jen knew Aisha.

"So, what brings you to Diagon Alley?" he asked, wondering if he might even get the answer to whether she was pregnant or not. She really did look pregnant. She had to be pregnant. He was almost 100% certain of it.

Haha, Mo. What a sweet little skinny man. Much skinnier than her. Because of her stupid baby bump which made her fat. Not really fat, though. And he was really skinny. And not that little. How was he so skinny? He should be a model.

Jen giggled. "Shopping!" she said giddily. She put her index finger up to Mo as a way of telling him to wait a minute and reached down to one of her bags, rustling through. Oh, there they were! "For baby socks!" Grinning, she held up the socks. They were so pretty. A pair of tiny pink ones with white flowers and a pair of little blue ones with spots. She was so prepared for either gender. "And some other stuff too. Clothes and stuff." But her best buy was the socks.

She carried on eating her ice-cream happily. It was so nice. Life was so nice. Bloody hell, what was wrong with her? Life sucked. Life was pain. In this state, she was getting everything wrong. It was actually scary. Or it would be, if she got scared.

"What about you? What are you doing here?"

The woman was grinning and giggling, saying shopping. Mo had figured. He didn't like shopping. He ought to. He didn't hate it, though, he just wasn't a fan. But then the girl raised her finger and went fishing into one of her bags. Well, she was up front, Mo thought as she came back up again and in her hands… Mo raised his eyebrows in both relief and understanding. Baby clothes. Baby socks, to be more precise, as she said to him.

"Well, they are adorable," he said, leaning forward to inspect the tiny, tiny socks that would house small, tiny feet. He smiled at her. "You don't know the sex yet, or is it twins?" he asked her. Now he was 110% sure that she was pregnant, so no worries. Sure, with her build, she couldn't have been simply obese. You didn't get big like that when you had thin arms like hers. He found her statement of other stuff being quite reasonable. When you first went out to shop, there was no point in doing it half-heartedly.

He took a few spoons of his ice before she asked him a question. He shrugged. "It's my day off, I thought it was a good day to do what I wanted. And in this heat, it's great with ice cream. I don't live far from Diagon Alley, so it's nice to be here. And I can't be found by … others when I'm here," he said, not mentioning his muggle manager who didn't know anything about the magical side of Mo. "I also have to buy some more food. The fridge is almost empty," he added lightly.

He ate some more of the delicious chocolate-caramel flavoured one, and his eyes fell at the bump on her stomach again. "When are you due?" he asked curiously.