Legends say that when you wake up in a bad mood, know that you are going to have a bad day. And that is exactly what was happening to Ivy Binns. Having woken up on the wrong side of the bed, with barely 4 hours of sleep last night, she was not in a happy mood right now. Yes, she’ll admit, it was her fault for staying up late last night and reading, but does she regret it? No. Will she ever do it again? One Hundred Percent.

And to top it off, there was no coffee. And to keep herself in senses, Ivy had to drink the tasteless watery tea that Paige made for her. But that just totally seemed to do the opposite of the wanted effect. Ivy’s headache had increased by ten times now and she was ready to murder the next person who annoys her with a mere fork.

They had to go to Diagon Alley today, that too unaccompanied by their parents who had an important meeting to attend. The girls were eligible enough to handle themselves like this but since the morning was going crappy, Ivy half expected something vexing to happen.

“Do you have everything you need?” Paige asked as they both stood near the fireplace to travel to Diagon Alley through the floo network. “Yes,” Ivy replied bitterly, not in a mood to talk.

“Okay then,” Paige said as she handed a handful of floo powder to Ivy. “You go first,”

Ivy stepped inside the fireplace, not before bumping her head on the mantelpiece, and threw the floo powder as she said Diagon Alley. Green flames erupted from the sides, and as they engulfed Ivy, she accidentally sucked in her breath. That led to soot and ash going straight inside her nose, causing irritation and a coughing fit.

Ivy didn’t even have time to decipher that she had reached her destination as she coughed, her nose turning red, eyes going watery due to the irritation. She would’ve fallen face first on the floor if it weren’t for the guy that steadied her. Soot particles in her hair and clothes, eyes watery and nose red, Ivy looked up to see herself steadied by the one person she did not want to see today.

“Of course it’s you,” she said in an annoyed tone. “Already having a bad day, and you’re the first person I meet. I should have known,” she said, quickly separating herself from him. Regulus Black gave an equally annoyed expression. “Well my day was actually going good until you showed up,” he retorted.

Ivy furrowed her eyebrows at him as she wiped the soot off her clothes, taking a quick overview of him. White button down shirt and jeans, clothes everybody wears yet still he didn’t fail to give the rich pureblood aura.

“You really don’t have any manners though, you’re supposed to say thank you,” he said in a slightly cross tone. “I didn’t ask you to steady me,” she replied matter-of-factly.

“If I would have known it was you, I would’ve never caught you. Seeing you fall face first is a once in a lifetime opportunity.” “Too bad you missed it,”

Before they could bicker anymore, there was a loud noise and Paige tumbled out from the fireplace and fell straight in between them. Ivy and Regulus promptly held each of her arms to steady her.

Paige was yanked straight up by them, then she took a bow. “Ladies and Gentlemen, now that is how you make an entrance,”

Ivy rolled her eyes and Regulus grinned. “Hello there Black,” Paige greeted. “What are you doing here in Leaky Cauldron?” She asked, referring to the fact that Walburga wouldn’t really appreciate her family being near this ‘lowly’ pub.

“Nothing really, just looking around.” he replied. “I should go now though, Mother must be waiting.” He said goodbye to Paige, then gave one last look to Ivy, who just glared back in return.

“Hello angry sister,” Paige said once Regulus had left, noticing the frown on Ivy’s face. Ivy crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow. “Care to explain why you were being so friendly with him?”

Paige let out a nervous laugh. “It was just a hi,” she said, nervously glancing at her little sister who was shooting daggers with her eyes. “No need to say hi to him.”

“Well, you know..” Paige said as they both started walking outside the pub to enter Diagon Alley. “He’s really not that bad you know.. I mean I think it’s about time you put the differences aside—” Ivy whipped her neck so quickly at Paige, practically steaming with anger.

“—or not,” Paige added quickly with a gulp. Ivy stared ahead and kept taking fast steps towards Gringotts. Paige shuddered at how intimidating Ivy could be. It was scary.

“His mere presence in the room makes me want to bang his head somewhere and she wants me to be friendly!”Ivy grumbled entering the wizards’ bank as Paige followed suit. The girls took out the required money from the bank, and then headed towards the shops to get the stuff they needed for their fifth year at Hogwarts. It was only then when Ivy realized she had left her list of things to buy at home.

Ivy grumbled angrily, checking her bag again and again, flipping it inside out but there was no sign of the list. “What happened?” Paige asked, sensing the problem.

“I’ve left my bloody list at home!” Ivy said aloud, not being able to control her anger anymore. It was such a bad day, everything was going wrong. She had spent 20 minutes making that list, noting down each and every thing she needed for her new year at Hogwarts, and she had checked her bag four times last night to make sure the list was in there. But now the list had just vanished in thin air.

People were starting to look at the blonde, who was visibly aggravated as she roughly searched her bag. “Stop staring at me!” Ivy snapped, causing the people to quickly move away. Paige grabbed her sister by her arm, feeling sympathy for her. She knew what it felt like when everything kept messing up.

“Hey, hey, calm down,” she said. “It’s alright, just take a deep breath and try to recall what you wrote on that list,”

“I can’t remember!” Ivy protested, her voice getting a little wheezy. All of this was making her cry and she didn’t want to shed tears like this infront of everyone. She blinked them back, then took a deep breath as Paige had instructed.

“See, our books are the same of course, so you don’t need to worry about those. Here, you can see my list. That will help you remember what you needed,” Paige said, passing her own list to the girl. Ivy took it, quietly reading. “You can have two ice creams instead of one,” Paige said. “My treat,”

The younger girl nodded, the thought of eating her favourite clotted cream ice-cream uplifting her mood. She even managed to recall most of the stuff she needed, and Ivy could feel the day getting better.

The girls shopped for about an hour, it was quicker than normal, and Ivy couldn’t wait to dive into her ice cream. They reached Florean Fortescue's Ice cream Parlour and started placing their orders.

“One strawberry-and-chocolate and two Clotted creams, please,” Paige said, looking at Ivy with a smile. The latter grinned back, already imagining herself eating the delish treat.

“Oh, I’m sorry dear but we have only one clotted cream available. We just sold out and it will take a while for the new batch to prepare.” Florean Fortescue told her.

Ivy’s shoulders slumped, but she was glad that she could at least have one instead of two. “If I would’ve been a bit later, maybe I wouldn't have even gotten that one,” she told herself, trying to be optimistic.

“I think I left my purse at the last shop,” Paige said, looking through the numerous things she was holding. “I’ll be right back.” she told her, paying for the ice cream with her wallet that she found in her pocket.

Ivy nodded as Paige started eating her ice cream and headed back to the Apothecary. Ivy took a spoonful of her ice cream, started to feel happy already, and she was just about to eat it when somebody bumped into her, causing her bite and the rest of the ice cream to fall straight on her clothes.

Ivy gasped, looking at her clothes, which were messy with white ice cream dripping from them. Now she didn’t even have that one scoop to eat. She looked straight up at the culprit, ready to kill and saw none other than Regulus Balck himself.

And somehow, seeing him made her want to cry. Why did he always have to mess things up for her? He held a horrified expression as he apologized.

“I’m really sorry!” he said. “I wasn’t looking where I was going,”

“Why do you have to ruin everything for me?!” she asked him, staring straight in his eyes, as tears threatened to spill from hers. Regulus looked taken aback to see her like that.

“I’m sorry! I’ll pay for it! And for your clothes too!” he added, not wanting things to get ugly. But Ivy just shook her head roughly, fiercely blinking back her tears. “I don’t need your stupid money!”

“What’s going on?” a third voice interrupted them, and Ivy found Sirius Black standing straight in front of her. She groaned internally, scoffing at her luck. Out of all the days, he just had to see her when she was in an ice-cream covered, red-eyed, disheveled mess.

“I accidentally knocked down her ice cream,” Regulus informed his brother. Sirius quickly neared the girl, and Ivy pushed some stray strands of her hair behind her ears. “Hey, I’ll buy you a new one,” he said to her, his mere voice already making Ivy feel less angry.

“I only wanted to eat this flavor, and it's finished now…” she told him. Regulus scoffed. “You could’ve told that to me too instead of shouting at me like a mad banshee,” he said, earning a glare from both Ivy and Sirius. Regulus just crossed his arms and looked away annoyedly.

“Oh, but have you tried the butterbeer flavour? It’s my personal favourite,” Sirius continued on. Ivy shook her head. “I don’t think I’ll like that one,”

“Wouldn’t hurt to try,” Sirius offered. Okay, Sirius Black offering to eat Ice cream with her? It was a dream come true! Finally something that was going to come good out of this day. She didn’t want to eat butterbeer flavoured ice-cream but that didn’t matter as long as Sirius was spending time with her. Ivy braced herself to agree to his offer, when Regulus interrupted them once again.

“She already said she won’t like it,” he said with a scowl. “I don’t want her mood to get even worse if you feed her something she doesn’t want to eat, she’s already out to kill me.”

“Oh, yes alright, alright, forget butterbeer ice cream,” Sirius said, quickly changing his plan. If looks could kill, Regulus Black would already be dead and buried 6 feet under. He just cancelled her (semi) date!

Before anything else could happen, a small house elf interrupted them. “Young Masters, Mistress Black has called for you both,” he said. “Alright Kreacher, we’re coming,” Regulus said and then didn’t even waste a second before leaving,

“Looks like I’ve gotta go now,” Sirius said, flashing his million-galleon smile at her. Ivy felt disappointment tugging at her to see him leave this soon. “See you at Hogwarts!” he waved at her, and she waved back before he disappeared in the crowd.

Ivy let out a big sigh. Her day couldn’t have gotten any worse but at least Sirius talked to her, even cared for her a little bit. Only that thought was enough to make her insides go squeezy.

“Tell me if I’m wrong but did I just see Sirius Black sitting beside you a minute ago?” Paige asked as she threw her empty ice cream cup in a dustbin. “Well, you did,” Ivy answered with a pleased face. “What was he doing here?”

“Long story,” Ivy said, gesturing to the ice cream on her clothes. “Oh, tell me all about it.” Paige said excitedly.

“Okay, but what took you so long?” Ivy asked suspiciously. “I totally did not get distracted by the Magical Menagerie,” Paige responded. The girls then shared a laugh, well aware of Paige’s love for the animals. The day then came to end as Ivy explained everything that had happened to Paige and the girls made their way home, all ready for a new year at Hogwarts.