24 Aug, '94 — Salem Square, Irvingly

"Whatdja mean, a whole shillin'?"

She stared, her face so contorted that the freckles on her nose and cheeks started to blur together, until her vision blurred enough too. The colors of the ice cream in the tubs started to mix until they were a great sludge of brown, which is exactly what the urchin thought of the vendor trying to sell it. She spared a glance for the little girl beside her, thinking they should have come here with caps and hands out instead.

Charley already felt like a beggar from the prices alone, might as well look the part.

"I'd've got a full pint for less in Hogsmeade," she spat bitterly, pulling out the bronze coins in her pocket. There were ten of them, gleaming not so bright on her dirty palm. More than enough for a scoop, even two scoops, each in Hogsmeade. Maybe not at one of the fancy parlors like Missus Crouch had taken her to, but most days Charley could find a cart like this rolling around Padmore Park.

"What's that there? Some foreign coin? I don't take foreign money."

With a huff, she shoved the coins back in her pocket, trying to ignore the brilliant colors of the ice cream that called to her. When her stomach joined in, the urchin was very close to pulling out the wand from her vest. Even she wasn't that reckless. More than one stern word had been thrown her way about the consequences of doing magic in Irvingly. "Oh, issat so? Didn't fancy yer rubbish ice cream anyhow!"

Charley threw an arm over Maggie's shoulder, already looking elsewhere. There had to be another place to get ice cream, even in a rubbish town like this. "C'mon Maggie, there's gotta be better scoops up the way. Ya know what a shillin's worth? That's twelve knuts! He en't getting nowhere with that!"

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Margaret Wallace

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   Margaret Wallace

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"Yeah, this one's rubbish anyway, my cousin says he picks his nose, you'd think at those prices he could afford some manners." she added to her friend's tirade trying not to laugh, but making sure the rest of the queue knew of her distaste. She was quite happily swept up in the theatrics with her friend. As they walked away, before they were chased away, the usually shy girl made sure to leave a review for a few of the onlookers.

"I'd take your money elsewhere, this guy wants a whole shilling for a single scoop. He must have a side job as a joker." most of the adults, as usual, paid the child no mind. She couldn't help but let a laugh slip through, the rant just sounded so much less convincing in her glaswegian accent than in whatever Charley was. She looked at Charley as they finally cleared the end of the queue. It was in good time too as one of the irvingly authorities was sticking his nose in and asking the vendor what was up before walking in their direction with a stern smile on his face. They'd done nothing wrong, but the vendor probably wanted them shooed along in case they hurt his business.

Maggie turned to Charley as they walked "So where are we going to get an ice cream, I'm not letting you off for that mean thing you did." she raised her eyebrows. It had taken a whole change of clothes and two hot baths to get rid of the smell of stink sap. But despite that, she actually liked Charley, she found her fun, Maggie felt relaxed around her with no pressure to be anything in particular.

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Charley Goode

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   Charley Goode

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Her little friend had some fight to her after all. After the whole zoo incident, Charley wasn't entirely sure if she'd be any better than a few others her age. Irvingly's children were built of sterner stuff, it seemed, and Maggie was bound to go far. The urchin couldn't help a grin peek out when she heard her giving the crowd an unabashed review.

She was laughing by the time they walked away, the rolling in her belly almost better than the ice cream they could have had. Almost. Charley might have seen a glimmer of herself in this one, after all the timid and shy, there was a real fire in Maggie. She'd be a fierce one to cross someday, just not today. "Mean thing?" The urchin scoffed, like she couldn't remember it. It'd been months, after all, long before the schools let out and summer turned endless. "That was ages ago, what're ya still on that for?"

It hadn't been all that bad, either. The little girl still wanted to be around Charley, so she must have thought the same. She chuckled, again, "Ya don't stink so bad now, eh?"

The urchin couldn't help her happy outlook and the little shuffle dance she tried to get Maggie to follow. The little girl looked so dour when she found her today, too. Nothing that ice cream couldn't cure, of course, assuming they could find any. She tapped her chin a few times, looking thoughtfully across the boulevard full of shops, "Lesse now, if I were some cheap ol ice cream, where'd I be lurkin'?"

She squinted toward a parlor down the way that the crowd seemed to be avoiding. It could have been a little shabby, maybe the paint was faded, but to Charley's eyes it looked like fair pickings. She pointed it out to her oft-fiery companion, "Mebbe that one?"

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   Margaret Wallace

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"hmmmmmm..." Maggie scowled at her friend before laughing and shrugging at her. "It was pretty disgusting, took me ages to get the stink out, but I'll forgive you." she wasn't actually bothered any more, in retrospect it was quite a funny prank, but she didn't have to tell Charley that.

As the ice cream moved on with his life and dealt with his amusingly thinner queue of patrons, Maggie followed Charley's eyes around the shop fronts looking for an option. "That place?" her eyebrow raised in question. It looked very questionable indeed, and there was almost no other patrons. "Want to find out why noone else has made it then, think he has stink sap flavour?" she grinned.

A little smirk crossed her face "There is always the... other.. option though?," she flexed her fingers. Could they steal a frozen chocolate ice from the rob dog of a vendor? He wouldn't miss it with his prices and it wouldn't be the first time that Maggie had skipped out on paying for something, as Charley would be well aware.

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Charley Goode

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   Charley Goode

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