[mp] i'm as happy as an angel, i'm as merry as a schoolboy [jade]

Visiting Diagon Alley in England to buy Christmas presents had seemed like a excellent idea when Fabien had read about it in the Prophet Parisienne. He'd agreed to go to his parents' home for Christmas this year and decided that meant he needed to buy gifts that were a bit more imaginative than bottles of wine. Now that Nazaire was in his final year of muggle school, he was probably too old for toys as well...

So London it was. Fabien had been to Diagon Alley before, but never in the winter. He had read that it was going to be cold and had charmed his regular winter shoes and coat to retain warmth, then added a scarf and, at the last minute, a hat to his ensemble before leaving his apartment. There was nothing more dismal than shivering in the cold.

It was as well he'd taken precautions. From the moment he stepped out of the fireplace and into the street his nose already began to feel cold. Children were running up and down, shrieking with excitement as they darted between stalls, and in the distance he could see the skating rink he'd read about. Thankfully despite the low temperatures the ground wasn't frosted so Fabien walked - with the aid of his cane - as easily as he did in any other street. He passed the ice rink, resisting the temptation to pause and watch, and found himself in the midst of the ice sculptures. If he'd though it was cold before he refined his impression now. That has been the regular, everyday cold of a winter street but this was clearly magically enhanced in order that the sculptures wouldn't melt.

Fabien wished he had a camera. His mother would love to see the sculptures, particularly the one of an old-fashioned carriage drawn by life-sized abraxans. Maybe someone was selling postcards... He continued down the street, not particularly paying attention to anyone else in the street and even less interested when he paused by a stall selling ice-inspired jewellery. Maybe he could get presents for both his mother and sister here? Unsurprisingly the Frenchman wasn't very experienced in buying thoughtful gifts and he didn't notice when his walking cane, leaning against the stall, slipped to the ground. It wasn't until he heard someone stumble and exclaim their displeasure that he realised what had happened.

It had been one of his favourite tricks at school, but in a strange, crowded place he had no desire to annoy anyone. "Excuse me, I dropped my stick. I hope you are uninjured" he said in careful English by way of an almost-apology.

@Jade Carroll

Although Jade generally preferred the lighter seasons such as spring and summer, she loved Christmas. The festive decorations, the whole spirit of that season appealed to her. She spent a lot of time working at the toy shop in Hogsmeade during the weeks leading up to the holidays as it was obviously the busiest time of the year for them.

However, Jade always made sure to have at least one day off to visit London during the festive season as well. She loved how Diagon Alley was transformed into a Winter Wonderland. While she wasn’t a fan of big cities and crowds per se, Jade could easily get over this when she saw the stalls with their beautiful merchandise. While she had a vast collection of ornaments already, Jade always found new items to add to her collection, justifying the purchase with the thought of the toy shop and the distillery which she had to decorate and which couldn’t look exactly the same every year.

After having bought a first set of glass ornaments, Jade chose to admire the ice sculptures. She wanted to buy more things but since she was in no hurry to leave, she meandered through the exposition, admiring the life sized sculptures. It was cold but the young woman rather enjoyed it, having chosen a warm mossgreen winter coat, knee length boots, a light green woolen scarf with a matching hat, and leather gloves.

Once she had seen everything, she left the ice sculptures, looking at a stall further down the street that seemed to have a vast collection  of Christmas ornaments. Not paying attention to her immediate surroundings, she did not see the walking cane that had slipped on the ground and stepped onto it.

She stumbled and found herself on all fours. “Damn!” she muttered, loud enough for those not far away to hear her. Still on the ground, Jade opened the bag with her recent purchase. “Oh no…” she sighed as she saw the shattered glass. Maybe she could try and restore them to their original beauty but as the glass was quite fine and the shards were tiny she wasn’t entirely convinced.

Someone with a French accent apologised to her and Jade looked up, surprised that a young man claimed to be the owner of the walking stick. “I think I am,” Jade said after a moment of hesitation although she felt that she might have actually hurt her knee a little. She was tempted to ask the young Frenchman to act like a gentleman and help her up but, given that he apparently needed a cane to walk, she wasn’t sure if he was steady enough on his feet to do that.

As she pulled herself up to full height again, Jade held out the stick to him. “You should take better care of this,” she offered. “Imagine someone old and fragile stumbled over this and actually injured themselves.” She did not look down on herself and, therefore, did not see the hole in her tight jeans that exposed a scrape on her knee.

Throughout his teens Fabien would have felt a thrill of excitement, even delight, when someone tripped on his cane. Today though, his immediate reaction was somethig between embarrassment and shock, and that only got worse when he saw her look into a bag and exclaim in annoyance before she struggling back to her feet and - this made him feel worst of all - actually offering his stick back.

He swallowed hard, and rather than feeling annoyed at the situation found himself actually wanting to make amends. "You're quite right, I shall keep hold of it in future" he said, though even as he spoke Fabien mentally amended that he might leave his cane sticking out in certain pubs, because who didn't laugh at a stumbling drunk? But this thought was practically part of his subconsicous, buried in his psyche, and he was hardly conscious of it as he glanced down at the ground and saw the young woman had actually injured herself.

The most uncomfortable part was, Fabien didn't really understand how to make amends. It wasn't something he had much experience with and thus his mind was working frantically. Offer to heal the graze on her knee? Not right away, she wasn't to know he'd got his medical studies NEWT and besides, he wouldn't accept such an offer from a stranger either. Similarly with the tear in her jeans, coupled with the fact that the right charm to fix that didn't spring immediately to mind and he certainly didn't want to make matters worse in a crowded, public place. These thoughts flew through his mind in less than a second.

His eyes landed on a coffee stall on the other side of the street, offering everything from standard cappucino to all kinds of seasonal flavours. Hoping that he wasn't going to sound like he was taking advantage of the situation, he took a deep breath "Perhaps you would like to sit for a few minutes. May I buy you a coffee to apologise?" he didn't necessarily mean he would join her, just that he thought she looked a little shaky and that sitting down would be a good idea. Then, still feeling that he neded to make further amends, he added with a gesture to her bag, "Were your purchases damaged?"

Thinking that the young man probably felt bad enough about the situation as it was, Jade offered a little smile. She was not going to make a scene. It wasn’t worth it anyway. She gave a curt nod as he said that he’d keep hold of his cane in the future, not even considering whether he meant it or not.

Now that she was standing for a bit she could feel that she had hurt her knee but didn’t really want to check how bad it was. She’d do so in private and fix what needed to be fixed. She didn’t expect it to be anything that she couldn’t deal with by herself anyway.
Jade was about to turn around and leave the young Frenchman with his walking stick behind when he addressed her again. A surprised little smile spread across her face and she nodded.

“Who could ever say no to a free coffee?” she asked, her little smile turning into a wider one. She hoped that he didn’t get her wrong and actually understood that she was merely teasing.

“Yeah,” she admitted in response to his next question and her smile faded a little. “I think the ornaments are damaged beyond repair. I’ll try to repair them but the glass is so fine and I’m not convinced that it’ll work.”

As they approached the coffee stall, Jade eyed her companion curiously, wondering why he needed a walking stick. After all, it wasn’t so often that a young wizard needed one. There had to be some story behind it. Maybe he had been hurt in a battle. The young woman felt curious but this was hardly anything she could ask a total stranger. She decided to change the fact that they were mere strangers.

"I'm Jade by the way," she offered, "what's your name? I think, since you're inviting me to a coffee, we should introduce ourselves."

Well, that seemed to have been the right thing to say. Fabien laughed inwardly, though his face showed nothing of what he was thinking. His inner teenager was delighted that he had successfully asked a lady to have a drink with him and she'd said yes, even if that hadn't exactly been his intention to begin with. He didn't even balk at the prospect of buying a drink for a stranger.

He was a bit concerned that he might have to replace her ornaments, though. While the accident had hardly been his fault, he wasn't sure she saw it that way, and he'd already seen the price tags on some of the stalls. Hopefully she hadn't got particularly expensive tastes. He nodded with what he hoped was a sympathetic expression and offered a vague hope for their repair, thinking he would see how the next few minutes went and decide whether he was expected to replace them then.

It felt rather awkward though, walking over to the coffee stall with a total stranger. Fabien couldn't think what to say that might improve matters, but apparently the young woman could. He felt an immediate sense of relief and wondered why it hadn't occured to him to introduce himself. "Good day Jade, I am Fabien Sanxay. As you can tell, I am from France" he added, somewhat unnecessarily. They were close to the stall now, standing by the extensive menu which he studied, frowning as he mentally translated the options.

"I prefer espresso, but I think today I should try something seasonal" he confessed, deciding that talking about coffee options was as good as anything "Perhaps the pumpkin spice or..." he pointed to a long, descriptive term "forgive me, but what does this one mean?"

It was really odd. She had stumbled over this young man’s walking stick, had injured her knee, had broken her beautiful ornaments and now she was accepting to have coffee with the culprit. It wasn’t even that she found the Frenchman particularly attractive. He was handsome enough but hardly reason enough to accept an invitation.

Sometimes Jade was surprised by her own courage. Was there something wrong with her? She decided that it was perfectly acceptable to have coffee with a stranger. Well, not even a stranger anymore now that they had introduced themselves properly.

“Pleased to meet you, Fabien,” Jade said in French. Her French wasn’t perfect but she spoke it well enough to get along when she was in France. “What brought you to London?” she asked, now speaking English again.

They reached the coffee stall now and were confronted with an extensive menu. Jade read it and felt quite overwhelmed. She decided that it was way too complicated to figure out which of the more exotic sounding beverages would be the best and, therefore, just ordered a cappuccino.

“Something seasonal?” Jade asked, an amused grin spreading across her face. “Fancy some cinnamon or anise in your coffee?”

Fabien smiled - actually smiled - and relaxed a little when he was greeted in French. The idea of replacing everything in the young woman's bag would probably cost every galleon he had on him, but he was already thinking that it would be polite to purchase at least a couple of new ones for her as partial reimbursement. And he hadn't even deliberately caused the accident! It actually felt more natural to speak English here though, and he was keen for the opportunity to practise, so was quite content when she switched back again.

"The same thing as you, I suspect" he said, allowing his eyes to glance briefly down to her bag "I read about the Christmas festival and decided it would be a good opportunity to buy gifts for my mother and sister. Also, I like to travel on my days off" he added, offering far more information than was his usual style. He didn't mention that he had literally no idea what to purchase for an eighteen year old muggle brother, though. That was just too much to share with someone who was effectively still a virtual stranger.

He bristled momentarily, thinking she was laughing at his comment about the seasonal beverage and almost ordered a double espresso on the spot. But with adulthood had come at least a small modicum of maturity and he knew better than to deprive himself just because of how he perceived someone else's reaction. Maybe she was grinning because she was already sick of spiced drinks and assumed he would be, too. "Anyone putting cinnamon in their coffee should be arrested and sent to Azkahan without trial" he responded, deadpan "but anise, on the other hand..." he promptly ordered that option and paid for both, taking the ticket so the server would know where to find them.

"Shall we find a seat?" he suggested "perhaps over there, in view of the ice sculptures?"

Jade returned the young man’s smile. She liked using her language skills even if she’d still feel most comfortable speaking English or her mother’s language, Russian. She had almost forgotten the broken ornaments now. They were in the back of her mind like something that was of little importance.

“I see,” she said as he explained why he had come to London today. “Did you find any nice presents yet?” She was really curious to find out if he had discovered something nice for his mother and sister. It was always interesting to find out what a man bought for women.

He mentioned that he liked to travel on his days off and Jade nodded thoughtfully. “I like to travel as well. Even for work,” she laughed softly. “What’s your job like? Do you have an office job?” Given his limp he surely was an office worker. Likely had some really boring job. One that Jade would never want to have herself. She was pretty lucky that way. She had several jobs that she all enjoyed and that made it possible for her to live the way she wanted to live.

She laughed out loud as Fabien said that people putting cinnamon in their coffee should be arrested. “You’re so right,” she said cheerfully. “I’m all for making this a rule. However, are you sure that anise is so much better? I mean, I’d put it in my tea any time but in coffee?”

He paid for both their drinks and they left the counter. “Thanks,” Jade said and then nodded. “Yes, sure, let’s find a seat with a good view.” While she had not really expected this at all when she had tipped over his walking cane, Jade was quite pleased with how the day was turning out. It was nice to chat with a stranger and hear about his life and his opinions.

This time his smile was more of a grimace, though a self-deprecating one. "Not yet...to be honest, I have absolutely no idea what to buy for either of them" he admitted. Fabien felt no embarrassment about this, feeling that it was more a failing of his mother and sister for not writing a precise list of what they wanted than his own lack of imagination. "My mother is a veterinarian - for magical creatures, of course, and my sister is in training for the same career, but they both work so hard..." In other words, they didn't have any useful hobbies he could buy items for. No fancy wool for knitting, no books for an avid reader.

Actually, he had thought about buying both of them ornaments, but he didn't want to mention that. Reminding Jade that he had been the catalyst in her accident was the last thing he wanted to do right now, especially since she had taken it so well. Then he sighed.

"Indeed, I work for the Ministry. To be precise, in the Ludicrous Patents Office and no, it's nowhere as interesting as it sounds. Disturbing, yes. Smelly, certainly" he said with a wry smirk. Certainly at this stage Fabien wasn't going to mention his further ambitions, but at least he didn't sound like a total loser. Working for the Ministry was a steady job, at least. He paused, and then added "It isn't where I want to end up, but it does allow me to travel, as I said. How about you? I am going to guess that you are self-employed, perhaps?" Fabien wasn't sure why he'd said that, but something about this young woman suggested to him that she wasn't the sort of person who would be satisfied sitting in an office doing what others told her. At least in his office he was governed by the insanity of his fellow wizards rather than a grumpy boss.

He was pleased he'd made her laugh - and not with some cutting remark about a passer-by, either! As for the anise though, he had a sudden misgiving that she might be right. "I like anise..." he muttered, frowning slightly, and then turned it into a more neutral expression "Besides, I never tried it in coffee before. It would be a pity not to try something that might turn out to be amazing."

He let Jade select their seats and was glad when they ended up with a table which allowed them both a good view of the sculptures. For the first time, Fabien felt himself relax as they could see the various statues and even a small group of people who were taking it in turns to try their hand at the art. From the mess that was being made, it was clearly harder than it looked.

"I thought I wanted to be a sculptor when I was a kid" he commented, almost forgetting that he was talking to someone he had met only moments earlier "Wood, though, not ice. In fact, I'd probably have got more OWLs if I'd spent less time on it..."

“I see,” Jade said lightly, “if you need help, or a female point of view, I still have some time.” She didn’t know why she offered this to a total stranger but she didn’t have many plans for the day and thought that it could actually be fun. Besides, helping other people usually made her feel good about herself.

“They are working with magical creatures?” Jade said, smiling a little. She liked common animals and magical creatures. Most of the times she felt that they were better company than most humans.

“The Ministry?” Jade echoed and nodded thoughtfully. Yeah, that suited him from what she could tell after this brief encounter. “Ludicrous patents, you say… Well, sounds like you get some action there.” That was as much as Jade could muster to praise a desk job. She knew that she would never be happy at such a job herself and wondered if anyone would be.

As Fabien asked about her job and guessed that she was self-employed, Jade looked at him with a surprised smile on her face. “Yes, I am, in a way,” she laughed softly. “I actually do a lot of things,” she admitted, letting her gaze wander through the café as she said so before she looked at the young man again. “I write and illustrate travel guides for witches and wizards, I work for my mother’s toy shop and design toys and, well, this is less of a job than a hobby, I have a little sheep farm.”

Jade looked at Fabien, a surprised expression spreading across her face. He hadn’t struck her as a very creative type but apparently she had underestimated him. “Oh, that sounds interesting!” she exclaimed, sincerely intrigued. “Are you still interested in working as a sculptor?” What sounded like an innocent question was actually inspired by the idea of a collaboration that had just occurred to Jade.

That was...unexpected. A virtual stranger offering assistance? Nevertheless, Fabien had to fight down the urge to leap at the offer; though he was certainly going to accept. It probably sounded pathetic to an outsider but he genuinely had no idea what to buy for anyone in his family, and it had never actually occurred to him to ask what they might like. Otherwise he would have ended up taking his mother out for dinner and offering his sister a voucher for her favourite shoe shop. As it was though, he was blissfully ignorant of such radical ideas.

"That would be very helpful, thank you" he said after what he judged to be a suitable amount of time "yes, it runs in the family. My grandfather is the principal of a equine studies centre" Once, he would have mentioned the name and felt slighted if it wasn't immediately recognised, but now he didn't care so much. Probably since he'd decided he didn't really want to go there after all, and that carving out his own life - even if his progress was somewhat erratic - was far more satisfying. He shook his head and smirked. "If you count action as casting a bubble head charm every morning then that is certainly true. Some people think they can send any sort of half-imagined idea without even checking that it works. If my desk doesn't explode at least once a week I count myself fortunate..." he sounded irritated, but looked amused. Really, one of the good things about his job was the huge supply of stories it gave him to tell people.

It was satisfying that he'd guessed correctly. One thing Fabien had never been good at was judging people, but that was another thing the Ministry had unwittingly helped with. People who were married to a dull job and never thought of anything else had a look to them; artists and creatives had quite a different look (and naturally Fabien placed himself in the latter category). He couldn't help but feel a twinge of jealousy at all the interesting things Jade did. Writing, designing, sheep farming (okay, maybe not that one)... He wondered how much her family had supported her and whether she had been encouraged to do all these things, or if they'd wanted her to get a mundane job too.

"I've not thought about it for a little while..." he said in regards to the sculpting, still watching the efforts of the other visitors "I still do make things sometimes, but just as a hobby, you know? I need to make a living and..." he shrugged, raising the mug to his lips and tasting his coffee for the first time. The expected flavours were there, but they didn't mingle in the pleasant way he had expected. Far too much anise had been added and instead of subtle sweet undertones it tasted like he was drinking coffee-flavoured licquorice. He tried a second sip in the hopes that his first impression was wrong, but it was still there, and worse, the second impression lingered on his tongue, filling his mouth with an almost overpowering spicy sensation.

"It seems you are correct. This is a terrible coffee flavour and I'm not sure it would be any better in tea" he said, not caring whether the stallholder heard, though he remembered to smirk a little so out would appear he was being humorous "perhaps if they had used about a quarter of the spice it would have worked" He wasn't sure if he wanted to even drink any more, or just order a regular cappucino to take the taste away. "But, as you asked earlir, yes. If it were possible I would still love to sculpt for a living."

“No problem at all,” Jade said, feeling that she was doing a good deed. Somehow with Christmas just around the corner, the young witch felt like helping others more than usually. People got so stressed over Christmas presents and preparations that they were ignorant of how magical the season could actually be.

“That sounds really interesting,” Jade said earnestly. “I have a horse myself and I love it so much.” She smiled and looked down. Confessing her love for her horse felt a little awkward but it was the truth. Snowwhite was very dear to her.

As Fabien explained more about his job, Jade realised that she could not say that she found it interesting without lying to the young man. Therefore, she merely smiled and nodded. Surely he had taken this job because he wanted security and didn’t feel up to living a different life. Maybe he had been discouraged by his family, and had been told that pursuing dreams didn’t lead anywhere. It really was a shame that people often ended up doing jobs they did not really love.

“Hmm,” Jade said in response to Fabien stating he needed to make a living. That was about what she had suspected. She took a sip of her hot drink and almost spilled it when Fabien spoke of his drink. “Oh I’m so sorry, it sucks when you were looking forward to a delicious hot drink and get disappointed,” she laughed softly and then opened her mouth to add something like ‘I told you so’ but refrained. There wa no point in it, besides Fabien unknowingly reminded her of what she had been thinking about a few seconds ago.

“You know what? I think if you were willing to sculpt not only art pieces but… let’s say… toys, you could totally make a living with it.”

Clearly she had to talk to her mother before making a real job offer but maybe that was an option for him. She usually just designed plushies, they got wooden toys from some suppliers and they weren’t even that good.