131 Hogsmeade exploration

They first went to honey dukes, a sweets shop.

Inside, there were shelves upon shelves of the most succulent-looking sweets imaginable. Creamy chunks of nougat, shimmering pink squares of coconut ice, fat, honey-colored toffees; hundreds of different kinds of chocolate in neat rows; there was a large barrel of Every Flavor Beans, and another of Fizzing Whizbees, the levitating sherbert balls that Ron had mentioned.

Along yet another wall were "Special Effects" sweets: Drooble's Best Blowing Gum (which filled a room with bluebell-colored bubbles that refused to pop for days), the strange, splintery Toothflossing Stringmints, tiny black Pepper Imps ("breathe fire for your friends!"), Ice Mice ("hear your teeth chatter and squeak!"), peppermint creams shaped like toads ("hop realistically in the stomach!"), fragile sugar-spun quills, and exploding bonbons.

The three of them had a fun time choosing sweets to buy.

"Damn, this is good."

"Bloody Hell, this is fantastic."

"Should we get some for Harry?"

"Probably, we should buy the whole lot."

"Wow! My parents would love these toothflossing stringmints! I should buy them some."

"oh right, your parents are dentists aren't they?"

"Yep!"

"Dude! Arth! look at this!"

"Wow."

"We need to buy all of this for Harry!"

"Gotcha. Excuse me miss! Can I buy all of these?"

Arth, Ron, and Hermione left honey dukes with their bags filled to the brim with sweets. In fact, they had bought so many things that Arth had to place an undetectable extension charm on his bag for everything to fit comfortably.

"Blimey Arth... I didn't know you had so much money on you."

Arth gave a cheeky grin.

"I got some extra change from working on the Knight bus during the summer with the addition of my monthly allowance. You could say I have a couple coins."

"A couple is an understatement," said Ron with a grin.

Ron no longer had to be jealous about money as Arth's parents had given him a load of Galleons also including the fact that they had won the lottery.

"It would be nice if Harry was here with us though..."

"It wouldn't be safe."

"Yes it would," said Ron before pointing at a notice pasted on the inside of the sweetshop door.

— by Order of—

THE MINISTRY OF MAGIC

Customers are reminded that until further notice, de- mentors will be patrolling the streets of Hogsmeade every night after sundown. This measure has been put in place for the safety of Hogsmeade residents and will be lifted upon the recapture of Sirius Black. It is there- fore advisable that you complete your shopping well before nightfall.

Merry Christmas!

"See?" said Ron quietly. "I'd like to see Black try and break into Honeydukes with dementors swarming all over the village."

Arth shrugged.

"The dementors have failed once already, who says that they won't a second time?"

"Errr... didn't think of it like that," said Ron dejectedly.

Hermione rolled her eyes.

"Oh come on Ron, we all want Harry to come with us to Hogsmeade, we really do, however we care more for his safety."

"I guess..."

Arth gave a small grin.

"Well lets go test out the other places. I heard from my dad that the Three Broomsticks was a good place."

The three of them merrily walked to a tiny inn and entered.

It was extremely crowded, noisy, warm, and smoky. A curvy sort of woman with a pretty face was serving a bunch of rowdy warlocks up at the bar.

The moment the three of them entered the inn, she gave them a bright smile.

"What may I get you three?"

"Three butter beers and one butter beer for to-go please."

"Coming right up."

After having their fill of butter beer and an occasional honey dukes snack, the decided it was about time to head back to the school.

They were walking back when Arth saw a familiar head of red hair.

It was Scarlett who looked as though she was having fun with a blonde girl who was walking right next to her. They were pushing each other playfully and walking together in a way that would make you think that they were the best of friends.

Arth smiled.

He was glad that Scarlett had people other than him as friends.