Hope for Humankind

Tomas had been called in to work at the last minute and had desperately called Jack in the hopes that she could pick the girls up. As fortune would have it, she had hit a dead end in her work early in the day, so she decided it would be in her best interest to just... cut her losses and head home for the day. She stopped by Sunny's daycare and picked up her niece and the little girl's best friend. Sunny was practically tripping in Max's old Hufflepuff sweater, but her face shone with excitment when she saw her aunt. She ran to the sidewalk, Charlize following behind her, both girl's holding tight to the straps of their backpacks.

"Jack, are YOU taking us to ice cream?"

"What?" Jack said, unaware as to why the six year old would have such a notion.

"My brother always takes us on Wednesdays," Charlize explained patiently, though she looked just as eager for ice cream.

Sunny nodded. "Yeah. What Lize said."

How was anyone expected to say no to those two girls?

Soon, they were in Diagon, headed towards Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour. Jack had a girl's hand in each of her own, and she had to look a sight. A twenty year old in professional dress, a six-year-old of varying color on either side of her. They went into the parlour and the girls dragged Jack to the front, immediately pressing their faces against the glass, much to the disdain of the young lad behind the counter. Jack gave him a look of sympathy and ordered the girl's ice creams - bubblegum for Charlize, cake batter and cherry for Sunny - and sat down. They sat at one of the kid tables and immediately began talking with another little boy their age.

The clerk walked over and handed Jack a tea. "I didn't order-"

"You look like you need a pick me up," he said. Jack smiled, glad to see that humankind still watched out for each other. He headed back behind the counter and Jack drank the tea. He was right, of course. She loved the girls, but today had been killer. Work as an Unspeakable was long, difficult, and unforgiving. Child rearing was the exact same. And she didn't have a break from either job.

She drank her tea, glad for the common decency that had delivered it to her.

Outfits

Ash watched sitting there eating her icecream that she had ordered before the trio had arrived. She had just finished a meeting with some record people who wanted her to do an album for the wizarding community since her muggle tour in America had gone so well. She couldn't say she wasn't glad, because truth was she couldn't be happier. She was getting what she wanted and had enough money to keep her in partying for a little while to boot.

She snapped out of her thoughts as she heard a familiar voice. She turned her attention to an even familiar redhead. She stood up with her empty icecream container and walked over towards her and the two young girls, smoothing down her pink dress. "Jack?" she said looking at her with an almost excited smile.

She owed this girl a great deal. She had talked her out of dropping out of Hogwarts her final year and she had actually made it to graduation, something her sister didn't think would happen either. Her music and certain boys had been calling her and she at least knew now that thanks to the conversations she had with Jack she could at least have something to fall back on if the whole musician thing didn't turn out well. "What have you been up to?" she asked curiously.
Outfit

Sunny and Lize had hit it off with the little boy, an adorable little seven year old named Julian, and they had to present him to Jack. Sunny marched him forward, hands on his shoulders, while Lize blazed the trail. Their ice cream had been mostly devoured. "Jack! This is Julian! Can he come over some day and play?" "Yes, please, Jack? He's good, I can tell." The little boy stared with innocent fear at the woman who must have looked brashly intimidating - professional dress, crazed hair, sharp eyes. Jack, however, offered a smile. "If Julian doesn't mind him being corrupted by two masterminds, I don't see the problem." The girls gasped with pleased anticipation.

That was when a voice cut through. Jack turned and looked, seeing a familiar face. Oh. Great. More people from Hogwarts. It wasn't enough that she had run into Ariel, her first crush, or Ariel's best friend. Jack did not like seeing people from school, for the Hogwarts years had not been kind to her. Before she had made friends, the years had been lonely and angry. Once she had friends, everything had become complicated, and twisted, and wrong. The pranks were fun. The classes were good. The social scene had been one major bummer.

Jack thought she remembered the girl. She was pretty much certain that her name was Kiera, but that she usually went by something else. Jack could not remember. She had not been plugged in with the social side of things during school. Still, she allowed a small smile of recognition, though the smile was not very big, and it lacked the sincerity that she had given the kids. "Kiera, right?" Jach shrugged. "Y'know, work. Um, this is my niece Sunny, and her best friend Charlize."

Charlize piped up, "And this is Julian."

Sunny stepped forward and offered a sticky hand. "Nice to meet you."

“Well I actually just go by Ash now.” She said looking at her. Jack had always been one to call her by her first name. She was much like Jack in the fact that Hogwarts wasn’t too terribly fun for her. She had pretty much kept to herself. She was too much of a sweetheart for most people to handle with in school. She was the kind of sweet back then that gave people toothaches. Oh how she had changed over the last few years.

Ash got squatted down closer to Sunny’s height and took the sticky hand smiling at her. “And it’s very nice to meet you Sunny. And you Charlize and Julian.” She had a soft spot for children in her life. It was strange really. She could feel the stickiness of her hand from shaking Sunny’s hand but didn’t mind it at all. “Are you just babysitting this trio?” she asked curiously, “Or are they babysitting you?” She stood back up turning her attention back to Jack. She had been one of the few people she had managed to consider a friend when she was in school, when really they were probably closer to acquaintances than anything else. Ash had never hung around anyone long enough to truly become friends with them at school.

Yet she was crazy enough to also be taking a job there. “And just what have you been getting your hands into since I last saw you?” she asked curiously. She had really been out of the loop with things going on in England while she had been in America. She really tried her best to forget it while she had been over there. She wanted to experience life there on her own and away from her ever judging sister. “Sorry I’ve been out of the country the last few years.”