Afternoon Tea (Open)

If Aoife had any sense, she would have thought a little bit before suddenly deciding to apparate to Hogmeade and wander into Madam Puddifoot’s in the hope of a cup of tea and a piece of cake. Perhaps then she would have realised that it could quite possibly be a Hogsmeade weekend, and the village could be filled with crowds of children, some of whom she might know and none of whom she wanted to talk to in the slightest. And perhaps she would have realised that she could quite easily have a cup of tea and a piece of cake in her own home, without having to pay the extortionate price or deal with the hassle of Hogsmeade and the people that occupied it. Only, she was here now, so she may as well stay and get the tea, which admittedly would be much better than anything she could make herself. She supposed she could try and hide her face too, to avoid any possible recognition and conversation.

With a small sigh, she went to order, quickly selecting a slice of cake before going to find a seat. Since there were few tables free, Aoife ended up next to the window, watching the pouring rain outside and wondering why on earth she’d bothered to leave the house that day. Maybe because she hadn’t done anything apart from sit outside for weeks now, and she was desperate for a change of scenery. Even so, Hogsmeade clearly hadn’t been the best choice, what with how much she was regretting it now. Running her hands through her hair, Aoife glanced around the teashop, searching for something, anything, interesting. She might go for ice-cream after this, even if it was the wrong season and the wrong weather, since she had absolutely nothing better to do.

The waitress brought over the tea and sponge cake within a couple of minutes, and Aoife smiled and thanked her. She took a sip, and the tea burned her tongue but it was worth it, because Madam Puddifoot’s tea was the greatest. The rain outside worsened, and she found herself staring aimlessly through the window, vaguely noticing the people rushing to get out of the heavy rain directly in front of her. Various random thoughts ran through her mind, everything from why she didn’t know what she was doing with her life to how people survived without Madam Puddifoot’s tea in their life. She took another sip of the hot drink, again with a sigh.

Rain was shit. Well, sometimes. Occasionally, rain was cool. But right now, considering the freezing weather and the fact that there was really no reason for any amount of water falling from the sky to not turn immediately to snow, rain was definitely shit. With a sigh, Hunter pulled his hood up over his head and walked a bit faster, trying to get to the apothecary's shop before the rain turned into a complete downpour. This light steady rain he could deal with. Even if it was freezing. But when out of nowhere, the sky above him opened up and decided to unleash its wrath upon him or whatever the hell it was doing, Hunter quickly calculated the distance between himself and the apothecary in his head. And then decided that he definitely didn't feel like walking that far in a monsoon. So, without thinking much about it, Hunter ducked into the next door he came across along with a few others who seemed to have the same idea. Really, he could apparate to the Apothecary if he wanted to, but Hunter hated apparating with a passion and only did so when it was necessary. This wasn't exactly necessary.

As the warm air of Madam Puddifoots hit him, he sighed and pulled his hoodie over his head. His hands absentmindedly wrung it out, but his focus wasn't on the water that dripped from the fabric. Instead, his eyes quickly scanned the crowd inside. Because Hunter would take the rain before having to run into Ariel. He'd lasted this long, and he wasn't about to risk losing it now. He'd managed to avoid Hogsmeade like the plague up until this point, but he needed an ingredient from the apothecary there that the Diagon Alley vendor was out of. So he'd had no choice. But it was supposed to be a quick trip. The rain outside didn't agree. But Ariel wasn't here. Almost as quickly as his mind affirmed that fact, his eyes caught  a familiar flash of red. And, unbidden, a grin spread across his face. Not hesitating in the slightest, Hunter crossed the shop, grabbing a fork from the counter on his way, and took a seat at the table across from the redhead.

"Okay, so," he said the moment that he sat down, as though he was just continuing a conversation that they'd already been having. Reaching out with his fork, he stole a bite of Aoife's cake. "I saw Phineas Button the other day. He asked about you. He's over you. I thought I should be the one to break it to you, you know? So that you have a shoulder to cry on, and all that shit." Chewing for a moment, Hunter swallowed his bite of cake before continuing. "Oh, and also, I'm going to fail my aptitude test because of how shit I am at transfiguration, and then I won't be able to be an auror. Oh, and I got a wolf. An arctic one, actually. She's a huge pain in the ass, but you'd probably like her." Aoife liked Little Shit, who was - well, a little shit. And, truthfully, almost everybody liked Alaska, because although she was a pain, she was one of those animals that was so exotic looking that everybody wanted to pet her. Unfortunately, she didn't like most people. "Oh, and, I'm still living in that apartment in London - you know, that one that you're always welcome to visit but don't? Yeah, that one."

Finally, still grinning, Hunter's words fell to a halt, and he reached out for another bite of Aoife's cake. He and Aoife had broken up not far into seventh year, but in this instance at least, there hadn't been any drama involved. Because when it came down to it, they'd both known breaking things off was the better choice. At some point, Hunter had to admit that maybe his feelings for Aoife hadn't been actual feelings, That, maybe, he'd just been such a conceited git that he'd chased Aoife for years for no other reason than that he couldn't have her. In the end, though he got the feeling that Aoife didn't mind dating him, It became obvious that they were better off as friends. They always had been. And now at least, they could be, now that their relationship wasn't filled with all of the what ifs that used to fill Hunter's mind. Glancing up at her did at least manage to take some of his mind away from Ariel. The truth was that Aoife's presence still somehow managed to put him at ease - she was just too familiar not to. For a moment, how comfortable he felt around her almost made Hunter want to spill his guts about Ariel, but he quickly bit his tongue, taking a far simpler route instead. "Why are you here by yourself?"

As more people hurried into the shop to get out the increasingly heavy rain outside, Aoife sighed, considering just leaving the rest of her tea and cake to get out of the busy teashop and avoid the possibility that somebody might sit down at her table and actually start a conversation. She may not have had actual human social interaction for months, but that was beside the point. It might be worth losing the tea and cake to avoid it even more. But she stayed, because she was comfortable now, and she'd paid for the food, and she was in love with this cake. Anyway, statistically someone was less likely to come and talk to her because everyone hated gingers. It made total sense. What on earth had happened to her? Aoife used to love talking to people! Now she was suddenly turning into Hunter, or someone equally unpleasant. She looked at the door and seeing how difficult it would probably be to shove past everyone in the way to get back out made her certain the best idea was to just stay here for a while. She stabbed her cake with a fork.

Wondering again whether this rain was going to stop anytime soon, she looked back out of the window, up to the ugly gray sky. No, didn't look like it would clear anytime soon. Before she could return her focus to indoors, where someone could sit down next to her at any point, she noticed a familiarly horrifically ugly face outside the window, and instantly turned around, hoping he hadn't seen her too. It wasn't like Aoife didn't like Hunter at all - it was just that she didn't like him much, only sometimes, and today wasn't one of those times. And maybe she was turning into a rude, unsociable git, but Hunter was much worse. What had happened to sweet young first year Hunter, probably more suited to Hufflepuff and much less arrogant than little Aoife? Then he'd decided he was in love with her, and that was when she realised that she absolutely despised him. Perhaps temporarily she'd been blind enough to think he wasn't awful, but she'd come to her senses. There were a million reasons for her to not like Hunter VanDerberg, so she felt pretty justified as she crossed her fingers and hoped hoped hoped he didn't come into the shop or, even worse, see her.

But she'd never been the luckiest person. It didn't surprise her in the slightest when Hunter strutted in like he owned the bloody place. And invited himself to sit with her. Everyone hated gingers except Hunter, she guessed. And then, after all that, he had the nerve to help himself to her beautiful, beautiful cake. Without hesitating, Aoife reached out to slap his hand. Nobody stole Aoife O'Donnell's cake and got away with it. She scowled at him, but didn't talk, because he'd already begun talking, a constant stream of words she was only vaguely paying attention to. See, at Hogwarts, she would have been the one talking constantly and being really irritating. How the tables had turned. It took her a moment to take in what he'd said when he actually stopped and gave her a chance to say something back. "When the hell were you talking to Phineas Button?" she asked, picking up a forkful of cake. "Don't you, like, hate each other or something?" Yeah, Phineas was Hunter's competition when it came to stealing Aoife's heart. Hadn't worked out well for either of them, really. "Oh no. Tragic," she added, deadpan. "My heart is broken. How will I sleep at night knowing he doesn't love me anymore?" She hadn't talked to Phin since she graduated. It made her feel a bit bad, but to be fair, he hadn't made any effort to contact her either.

Hunter proceeded to go on about whatever shit was going on with him, and she made a bit of an effort to pay attention, because at least the git was making an effort. The least she could do was not be moody and distant. "That sucks. But I don't know what to say, I'm awful at Transfiguration. Any spells and stuff, actually." She didn't know how she'd passed any NEWTs other than Care of Magical Creatures. "Why do you even want to be an auror? I thought that was for the irritating perfect straight O students. And you're a horrible person, why do you care about fighting evil and stuff?" She'd always wondered what was in it for Hunter - that seemed like the only plausible reason he'd picked this career. "I hope it goes okay, though. Just practice or something. Or bribe whoever's testing you, offer them- wait a wolf?" How the hell had he got his hands on a wolf, and why? "Where did you get a wolf from? Why? You live in London, who has a pet wolf in London? Who has a pet wolf anywhere? That's ridiculous." But Aoife was totally jealous. She wanted a pet wolf. And the beautiful fields of her farm at home were a much better place for a wolf than crowded, ugly, cramped London. Although she didn't imagine a wolf would work too well with all the sheep, and the ducks.

"It's nothing personal, don't worry," she said. "I don't really leave home much at all anymore." It sounded stupid when she was sitting here in Hogsmeade, but it was a rare occurrence for her to have a day out. "I did mean to come, honestly. I was planning a housewarming gift and everything. A plant or something. But then I lost the address and decided I didn't care enough, so I stayed at home." Aoife beamed, realising only at this point that she was being moody and mean, and hoping a huge grin would make Hunter think she was the same lovely, joyful, approachable person. "But maybe I will visit now, to see this wolf of yours." To see if it actually existed, anyway. "I was thinking of getting an apartment soon." It would be odd, without all the animals and open space and joy, but she had to at some point. "Not London, though. Somewhere nice, like Cardiff or Manchester or somewhere in the countryside. You can come and visit me and my pet baby unicorn, and bring me a plant as a housewarming present instead," she smiled. If Hunter could have a wolf, there was no reason she couldn't have a pet unicorn. Or maybe a Cornish pixie, just one.

Why was she here alone? Why was she here at all? "I haven't got a pet wolf to be my friend and come on fun teashop trips with me," Aoife shrugged. "And I needed to get out - I've been sitting on the bridge over the river outside my house for months. Counting sheep gets a little boring after that long. And this tea, it's pretty amazing." And the cake. She wouldn't even get to enjoy the whole piece of cake, since Hunter had just wondered in and helped himself to the beautiful sponge cake that was hers. "Anyway, why are you here alone? Why didn't you bring Phineas Button, since you two are the bestest friends now?" She said it only slightly bitterly, trying to not think about how she hadn't spoken to Phin, her 'best friend' for what seemed like years now. She didn't even know why. Stifling an overdramatic sigh, she looked back at Hunter, who was nowhere near as good a person as Phin. Why wasn't Phin here?

Hunter couldn't stop the broad grin that spread across his face when Aoife slapped him. Unfazed, sat back a bit in his chair while he chewed. "Predictable as always," he said, an amused tone lingering in his voice. "Just like old times, huh? Minus the Haribos, plus this cake - which is the shit by the way. What kind of cake is this?" It didn't matter. It was good. He finished chewing before answering Aoife's question about Phineas Button. "Well, kind of. He hates me because I stole the love of his life - that's you," Hunter informed her, in case that part had gone over her head. "I just think he's a bit pathetic, especially now that he's dropped out of school and has apparently been adopted by someone our age, which is ridiculous." It really was a bit odd. Truthfully, Miranda wasn't on Hunter's bad side anymore. He'd had a halfway decent conversation with her the other day, at least, and it seemed like her moodiness in school had mostly stemmed from her parents' death or whatever. And Hunter would be the world's biggest hypocrite if he tried to act like he didn't know what that was like. "He works at Ollivander's now. I broke my wand," Hunter told her by way of explanation.

Wow. Aoife's deadpan expression had definitely gotten better. Now that he thought about it, she did seem a bit more somber than usual. Not that she was typically thrilled to see him, but her expression seemed to show more than just her typical distaste for his company. But he ignored it for the moment because it was hardly his business. His grin faded into a slightly grim smile when she questioned his motives for trying to become an auror. "Really Aoife? I mean, I know you aren't the most observant person on the planet, but I kind of figured that it was obvious." She was right, though. He was a relatively horrible person for the most part. And he really didn't care about fighting evil. Not in a general sense, at least. "Somebody deserves to rot in hell for what happened to my brother," he finally said, shrugging. "That's reason enough, don't you think?" And besides, it gave him a reason to become skilled in plenty of useful magic. While he didn't care about saving the world, there were a select few people out there that he would risk everything to protect, if it came down to it. Being an Auror would make him stronger, keep him in the loop. Because Hunter couldn't stand losing anybody else.

"What about you, though? Interested in saving the world from certain doom?" he asked suddenly, raising an eyebrow. Because, since he was here, he might as well at least ask. The Order was something that Hunter took seriously, and they were all tasked with recruiting trustworthy people whenever possible. He trusted Aoife as much as the next person - but he wasn't entirely sure that the Order was up her alley. Still, couldn't hurt to find out. "Or maybe you want some excitement to kick the boredom of being out of school? Because being out of school can be boring I'm sure, if you don't have Auror training and an aptitude test taking up ninety percent of your time."

"From the menagerie here," he replied, his voice a bit exasperated. "Only, I didn't know she was a wolf then. We thought she was just a dog that they found on the street, and Lyn begged me to take her. She's about six months old now, and she's already bigger than Rex." Maybe it would've been smarter to get rid of her. But there were a lot of times Hunter could've made smart choices and didn't. Alaska wasn't the first. "She doesn't mind London, though. I try to get her to the mountains to hike and shit often though, if I can. Otherwise, she eats my apartment." People who thought that wolves were just big dogs were idiots. Alaska was the neediest animal he'd ever had, and she pretty much hated everybody but him. Though, he had a feeling Aoife would win her over, if they were to meet. Only because he'd never seen an animal not take to Aoife, and he couldn't see why Alaska would be the first.

"Nothing personal?" he repeated. "Maybe you aren't as predictable as I thought, then," he joked, but his grin faded a bit when Aoife kept talking. "How come?" Hunter asked, because honestly he'd never seen Aoife as the never leave home type. "I mean, is everything okay?" Speaking of unpredictable - had he and Aoife switched roles or something? Because she clearly was much more moody and distant than she used to be, and for some reason he was actually acting concerned about her. It wasn't that Hunter wasn't still a moody git - but it wasn't as constant as it used to be. "Yeah, don't get an apartment in London. It's shit, being used to tons of space and then being crammed into a box." Not to mention that Hunter was claustrophobic enough as it was.

Hunter snorted. "No, actually they won't let Alaska into tea shops. Or any shops, really. Not that I blame them, she tries to eat everything." But he frowned again after a moment. "You know, I know you hate my guts half the time, but you can seriously always call or whatever, if you need to get out." He wasn't so sure why Aoife hated his guts - he imagined that at this point, it was purely on principal. Sort of like the reason he'd chased her for his entire life. He hesitated before responding again. Because truthfully, he was there alone because he couldn't see Ariel right now. Otherwise, he'd probably be with her. But he settled for the simple answer instead. "I needed ingredients. Apothecary in London is out."

"That's me," Aoife nodded, rubbing her hand. That had hurt. She guessed she was just a predictable person, however spontaneous and whimsical she tried to be. It didn't matter how old she got, she'd always be violent and angry and ginger. "Just like old times, except you're a much worse person now." Than in first year, at least. "Don't know. It's good though. So go and buy your own instead of taking all mine," she added. Although, the cake would be much improved with a few haribos on the top. She suddenly regretted the decision to stop carrying packets of haribos with her everywhere she went. She'd always known how they could come in handy at any given moment.

She sighed dramatically. "It's so hard being as beautiful and wonderful as I am. You know, with everyone falling in love with you all the time." She snorted. "But you are fairly detestable," she reasoned. "I have no idea what's going on with him, though. Is it that transfer girl that adopted him? Is that legal? Do wizards have a legal adoption system? What are his parents doing about it?" So many questions. She was debating going to see Phin. Maybe to make up, maybe just to try and understand what was happening and see whether Miranda was just exploiting him for child labour in that shop. "Oh. Did he fix it? Can he do stuff like that?" It was pretty cool if he could, though. Like a professional wandmaker. "And do they pay him to work there?" Aoife didn't really expect Hunter to know all the answers - Hunter didn't know anything - but she needed to voice them. Maybe she should make a list of questions to bring to Phin.

As soon as she said it she realised how stupid she was, and she buried her face in her hands. "Sorry sorry sorry," she muttered. "I didn't mean it like that I swear." Internally screaming, she picked up her mug to drink more tea, trying to not look at Hunter as subtly as she could. "Yeah." And someone totally did deserve to rot in hell for that, she'd just meant that she didn't really think of Hunter as the social justice type, what with his history of theft and total lack of interest in school and shit. And then she'd realised what an absolutely crappy person she was. However unsuited she'd thought Hunter was for that job, he would never be as unsuited as she was. "I'm definitely not the auror type," she smiled. "Don't you have to do loads of training and shit? And I'm terrible at most spells." Besides, her experience with aurors so far was that they were absolutely useless. You only needed to look at all the stuff that had been happening recently - all the people who'd been killed - to realise that aurors were doing absolutely nothing. "Why, are you trying to recruit me?" She got a bit confused when he started talking about boredom. She had a very short attention span anyway and this was screwing with her very small brain. "Yeah, I guess... but if I joined your auror squad then I'd be as busy as you are? I mean... I don't understand what you're going on about." Bloody git.

"Oh." She hadn't realised people left wolves on the street. "So your wolf looks like a dog?" Was he sure it wasn't just a dog? "Is she yours or Lyn's? Would she not be better off on your farm? I mean, are you making the best animal welfare decisions here?" Aoife questioned, deciding not to be jealous that Hunter had a wolf (a wolf wouldn't get on with her sheep, anyway) but instead to make sure that he wasn't being cruel to the wolf. But then, eventually the wolf would get big enough to eat Hunter if he wasn't treating her well. "Of course she minds London, she's a wild animal." That was like saying that animals didn't mind zoos - which of course they did. But what was important here was the wolf. The poor poor wolf, getting bigger and bigger in a cramped little apartment in a big city with an unpleasant human. And Aoife felt sorry for anyone that had to put up with Hunter.

"I hadn't seen Sinead in months either. But it's fine, I've decided to not be a hermit crab anymore." And subsequently, leave her mother's house - and more importantly, her mother's cooking. She was going to miss those dinners. Aoife couldn't cook for shit. Luckily, though, having magic made making herself food considerably easier. "Yeah, well I'd actually be fine in an apartment in London - I'm not the one with the wolf." And at the moment she wasn't planning to bring over any of her sheep when she moved. Nonetheless, London was gross and expensive and busy and cramped. "But no, I won't." Conveniently, she could apparate wherever, which meant not only could she get to work every day from miles away, she could constantly go home to visit the sheep and get food from her mam.

"I guess that makes sense." She'd been banned from entering shops/restaurants many times for trying to bring sheep in with her. And on one occasion, three rabbits and a goat. "Thanks," Aoife nodded with a kind of smile kind of grimace type expression. "But I've decided to get a life now. So I'm cool. But you can totally come and see my new huge apartment in the Welsh countryside when I get it. And be jealous. Do they have apartments in the Welsh countryside?" If not, that could screw up her plan. She couldn't afford a cute little cottage with grounds for her sheep and a dog and some chickens, unfortunately. "Oh. Right. Do you still, like... do potion stuff, then?" Aoife didn't know if potions was any use for an auror, but she knew Hunter was pretty good at it.