So This Is What Sweets Are

Demetri had passed the little sweet shop many times since he had been in Durmstrang, but never had he been inside of it. Most of the times he had passed it, he saw no reason to. He had never had sweets, therefore never bothered to go inside to purchase some.

Often times he wished he had, because he really wanted to try some candy. As a child he never was able to have any because his father refused to buy him some after his mother died, which made no sense to Demetri whatsoever.

As he stared at the shop, and watched other students go in and out of it, he debated whether or not he should go inside. A loud clap of thunder and a flash of lightning distracted the fourth year from his thoughts, and practically made his decision for him.

Like many other students, he ran towards the shop and stepped inside. The place was piled high with shelves full of strange looking sweets, and was cramped with students. Demetri smiled to himself, imagining the look on his fathers' face if he could see him.

The Hrabrost moved smoothly between the students as he began to look at the different sweets, wondering what each of them would taste like. Sticking his hand in his pocket, he felt the cool feeling of metal in his pocket, indicating that he had some money to spend if he wished.

He continued on through the crowd of people, occasionally almost bumping into someone, and he almost did it again when he wasn't watching where he was going, and nearly ran into another student. "I'm terribly sorry, I wasn't paying attention." he said to a young girl he didn't recognize.

Xaria's eyes lit up as she passed the little sweet shop. She'd never really left Durmstrang before, but the first time she had, she'd found thissplace. Well, it wasn't something to be complaining about; if there was one thing that made her happy, it was sugar.

Her aunt was pretty much against anything that caused happiness or joy to anyone, but her brother on the other hand? Well, he was different. If it made Xaria happy, and if it put a smile on her face (within reason) he often found himself doing it. Taking her on holiday as a kid? He'd done it. Taken her to every local sweet shop just so she could go in and act like an ecstatic four year old? He'd done it. Brought her home a dragon tooth necklace? He'd done it.

Smiling, she reached her hand up to the tooth and clamped her hand around it. Xaria missed him. It was probably one of the only things that she did miss, really. She didn't miss having a plain old bedroom with nothing on the walls. She didn't miss her aunt yelling at her to get everything done. Heck, the Hrabrost didn't miss her aunt at all.

The girl was standing up against a wall, chewing on an already purchase licorice wand. Pretty much, she was watching the world go by and smirking as people ran through the shelves, trying to find something that suited their fancy. It brought a smirk to her face. How cute.

It wasn't that she jumped when someone else approached her. It was more she squealed, something Xaria had never done in her life. She didn't know what had induced it; she was scared of nothing. Trying to convince herself that it was just shock, she turned to him, almost scowling.

Until he apologized.

"Hey, it's cool. I do it all the time," she grinned holding her hand out to him. "I'm Xaria, Xaria Emmerson," she said.

Demetri was taken by surprise when the young girl squealed. He couldn't remember the last time someone had done that when he had approached him. Giving her hand a brief look, he grinned as he gently took it and gave it a firm shake.

"Pleasure to meet you." he said a little formally as he always did. "I'm Demetri, Demetri Lancer." he said smiling as he introduced himself.

He looked over Xaria, and came to the conclusion that she was a second year, his house. He could have been wrong, but now that he looked at her, he recognized her a little from his own house.

"You're in Hrabrost, am I right?" he asked, cocking his head to the side as he looked at her, not at all afraid that she might realize his eyes.

"Again, I'm really sorry about...er, this. Almost running you over." he said with a slightly awkward chuckle.

Xaria started to furiously blush at her squeal. The one time she could remember it was when she fell off the monkey-bars at the park down the road from her old house, and with bloody good reason, too. Having been nine years old, and the drop seeming quite a lot higher than it actually was... The blonde was pretty sure she'd deafened a few of the kids there when she fell.

"A pleasure indeed," Xaria smiled, noting that he had a firm handshake. It made a change from the people she usually met, who were like "ew, a girl!" and shook her hand with one finger. She scoffed inwardly at the thought of someone being so pathetic...

"Yep, Hrabrost! Just finished my second year," she said proudly, looking up at the older boy with a cheerful grin. "Are you? I think I might've seen you around some place, but I can't..." she muttered, trying to see if she could remember his face.

Xaria always remembered people by their faces and not their names. She was awful with names. It was faces, and she knew she'd seen Demetri's somewhere, she just couldn't- "Are you on the house Quidditch team?" she asked suddenly, covering her mouth with her hand quickly. Shit. She hadn't meant for it to come out so harsh.

"It's alright, calm down. Running into people isn't always a bad thing, right?" she asked with a half-grin, twirling the licorice wand in her fingers.

Demetri smiled a little as a soft blush appeared on the young girl's cheeks. Normally he would have chuckled at it, but he didn't feel the need to embarass her even more. Besides, Xaria was younger than him, he had no right to laugh at her because she was blushing.

Raising an eyebrow at her scoff, he merely shrugged inwardly, deciding it must have been something she was thinking about. Demetri himself did that quite a lot, so he couldn't say anything.

"Congratulations!" he said with an equally cheerful smile. "You might have seen me, but I'm usually not exceptionally social." he said giving her a small smile.

As much as Demetri hated being alone, he didn't generally socialize as much as he should. Letting out a fairly loud laugh at Xaria's sudden outburst of a question, he looked down at her, red eyes twinkling with amusement. Shaking his head, he said, "No, I am not."

"Perhaps not." he said turning to the shelf and tilting his head to the side. "Okay, so here's the thing, I've never actually had any sorts of sweets before, what do you recommend?" He asked, eyes scanning the row of things he hardly recognized.

Trying desperately to stop blushing, Xaria tried to think of something else. Something other than her little squeal. Her girlish, weird, slightly horror-movie sounding squeak that probably wouldn't leave her mind for the rest of the day. Brilliant.

"Thanks," Xaria said, her smile not faltering. Having gotten this far without being caught for sneaking out or finding something entertaining that should, in theory, have gotten her into trouble, was quite the achievement. "But going out is so much fun!" she exclaimed, eyes lighting up as she thought of her next possible adventure.

For the first time, Xaria noticed his eyes. They were red. She was torn between asking if he wore contacts or something, and just being generally quite impressed. She didn't say anything though. "Oh, I didn't think so... Where do I know you from then?" she asked, scrunching her nose up.

"Well, these things are pretty much like heaven," she said, referring to the licorice wand in her hand. "And Sugar Quills. Amazing for classes. Uh..." Looking along the shelves, her eyes lit up. "You've had chocolate frogs before, right?"

Ignoring the young girl's embarassment, Demetri smiled and nodded his head. "You're welcome." he said. "It depends on what's outside that determines whether I get out and about." he replied with a slight shake of his head and a smile.

Even though Demetri hated being alone, and given that that was his greatest fear, to be alone forever, he didn't generally like to get out and about to go and meet people. Usually he would wait for people to come to him, and make friends from there. However, maybe getting out would be a good thing...maybe.

"I don't know." Demetri said with a short shrug. "Maybe in the common room?" he suggested. That would have been the most likely of places.

With a shake of his head, Demetri said, "No, not even those I am afraid." He felt a tad bit embarassed, because the way Xaria seemed to feel when she asked him, made it seem like he had to have tried one before.