Fudgy Little Treats (Open)

Dominic looked over the fudge that was in front of him. Maple, chocolate, peanut butter. Those were boring. He wanted some of the more interesting flavors. Treacle? No, still too boring. He looked over and saw that they'd started making some of the more disgusting Bertie Bott Bean flavors into fudge. All right, now he was getting somewhere! Grass? That was cool! Vomit? Well, he'd pass on that one of course, but he noticed that there was quite a bit of it sold already. Hey, whatever made people happy. Ohhhh, he'd found one that he wanted to try. He'd not cared for the bean version of the flavor, but surely the fudge had to be different. Rotten egg couldn't be that bad when mixed with this much sugar. He bought a tiny little piece of it and bravely popped it into his mouth.

Ugh! It was worse! Dom spit it out into the small piece of paper that he'd been given with the fudge and made a yuck face. Well, he'd not make that mistake again. Perhaps he'd do better to stick with the usual flavors. Then he saw something that he'd never seen in fudge before. Buttered Popcorn? Well, he liked the bean this time, hopefully he'd not be making a mistake in getting the fudge as well. He again bought a tiny little piece and this time moaned with pleasure. He was going to have to get more of this one!

He heard someone laughing behind him and turned around.

"What's so funny? Never seen someone trying the fudge before?" Dominic grinned.

It was the first Hogsmeade weekend, and Harper was excited. He'd never been in Hogsmeade before without his parents or one of his brothers. He stood in the street with his friends, trying to decide where to go first. His friends all wanted to go to Zonko's, but Harper was more interested in Honeyduke's. He could buy sweets for his nephews there, and maybe something for his siblings and Danae as well. He was interested in Zonko's, sure, but the options for small children were limited there, and he'd be more tempted to spend his money on himself if he went there. He wanted to get presents for his family first. He'd spend whatever he had left on himself. He told his friends to go ahead to Zonko's, and he'd meet them there. They moved off in a rowdy clump, and Harper entered the little sweet shop.

A little bell on the door tinkled happily as he entered, and he looked around, not sure what he wanted to buy. He decided on an assortment. He took eight brightly colored bags - one for each brother, one for Hallie, one for Danae, and one for each nephew - and filled them to the brim with all their favorite things. Harper paid attention to things like that; he liked doing small, nice things for the people he loved. Especially now, when he knew they were all so put out with him.

Harper looked in his coin purse. He'd have plenty left over to get something for himself, and maybe he could even start stockpiling Christmas gifts. He went to the counter and stood behind Dominic Booker, a boy from his house. Harper knew Dominic, and liked him a lot. He couldn't put his finger on exactly why, but Dominic had always reminded Harper of his favorite brother, Drew. Dominic was older than Harper, but that never bothered Harper. Being the youngest of six, he was quite used to hanging around people who were older than he was.

It looked like Dominic was trying the Bertie Bott's fudge. Harper had come here over the summer and tried all the flavors with Drew. He held in a laugh as Dominic went for the rotten egg. Big mistake. Harper and Drew had almost been sick after trying that one. He went for the buttered popcorn next. That was a much safer choice. Harper had ended up liking that one enough to buy some and take it home for everyone else to try, though not everyone else liked it as well as he did. Dominic clearly liked it. Harper let out a small laugh at his reaction. He continued laughing as he stepped up to the counter. "I've never seen anyone enjoy it quite so much. I thought you were going to pass out for a minute there. You should try the bogey flavored one next. It's surprisingly good."

Dominic turned back to the shopkeeper and asked for a pound of the buttered popcorn fudge before turning back to Harper.

"Bogey flavored? I've always tried to avoid the bean, how much different would the fudge be? Especially since I thought that the rotten egg wouldn't be so bad, and then I nearly puked when I ate the fudge."

Nevertheless, he walked around the case, looking for the bogey flavored one and, not knowing whether he would really want to try it or not, but had never been one to shirk away from a different flavor just because he didn't like it in a jelly bean. He bought a tiny sample of it and hesitanly placed it in his mouth, immediately taking it back out as soon as he had tasted it. It tasted like sugar coated snot. That was even worse than the Bertie Bott Bean! Perhaps he should just stick with flavors that he knew. Like the buttered popcorn. Or the strawberry shortcake he'd just found! Dominic bought a pound of that as well, and tucked it into his basket. He thought that he'd try a bite of the grass as well, and bought two pieces of the pale green fudge, offering one to Harper as he ate the other one.

"Come on. You're daring enough to eat bogey flavored fudge, you can certainly try the grass one."

Harper took the square of grass flavored fudge and sniffed it. He'd tried it once, so he already knew he wasn't going to like it. He was normally an adventurous eater, but grass was pushing it. He stuffed it in his mouth anyway, not able to resist the dare. If he swallowed it quickly, maybe he wouldn't be able to taste it. Ugh. It didn't work. He gagged a little. It might be good for cows, but grass was definitely not meant to be eaten by people. Harper laughed at himself as he wondered how many times the Flumes had to clean fudgy vomit off their floor.

Speaking of vomit, Harper peered into the case. It looked like they had a new flavor - vomit. Was he brave enough? No, he decided. He wouldn't wish that on anyone. He wondered what other flavors they had. Dragon fruit. Hmm, that sounded interesting. Harper had no idea what a dragon fruit was. He grabbed a coin out of his pocket and bought two small pieces, passing one to Dominic.

"Have you tried this one? Hopefully, it'll get the grass and bogey flavors out of our mouths." He put it in his mouth uncertainly. For all he knew "dragon fruit" could be some sort of euphemism for "dragon dung". But no, it was sweet and slightly tangy. Harper smiled. He had to get some of this for Drew. Then he paused. In the back, there was peach flavored fudge. Peach was his mother's favorite. Peach pie, peach cobbler, peach candy. Even peach scented shampoo. Harper felt himself frown. "I'll take the peach, please," he told Mr. Flume. "All of it." He was going to share this with Caleb and Hallie, and maybe he could order some for Christmas. That way, it might almost feel like she was still there.

Harper paid for all his purchases and took the bag of fudge. Then he saw Dominic out of the corner of his eye. He'd almost forgotten Dominic was even there. Harper forced a smile. He wasn't going to let himself be sad today. He was determined to have fun if it killed him... or landed him in detention... again.

"You want some?" he asked. He reached in and cut off two small pieces. He wanted to save it and split it with his siblings, but sharing with Dominic would be nice, too. Like sharing a little piece of his mother. He handed the fudge over, and took a tiny bite of his own piece, wanting to savor it as long as possible. He could see why his mother liked it so much. It was heavenly. Better than buttered popcorn any day. "So? What do you think? This one was my mother's favorite."