Cassie can recall the numerous gifts that her older sister by five years (making her twenty-five the old coot, Cass often joked mentally), Gabriella, who attended Hogwarts while she didn't sent to her via the mail. She remembers snagged Yule Ball decorations of forever icicles, never melting but totally authentic sticks of ice, fairy lights, Zonko's Joke Shop gags, and even European magic books that dated further back than the one's in America did. However, Cassie's all time favorite gifts from Ella were always the sweets. Candies that melted in her mouth, gave her an exotic new flavor compared to the kind of manufactured stuff in America, and Ella always said it was from the same shop. When Cassie finally found her way to the infamous Honey's she took a deep breath in before excitedly taking a step forward. Once she did, she was sure that she was in Nirvana or Heaven or paradise, whatever, just some place where some deity had clearly blessed it because it was fantastic where she was.

Her eyes scanned over the place as quickly as she could taking in the filled with children, laughing and some clean, some messy. She cringed when she took in the sight of the messy ones, sticky fingers everywhere despite the shopkeepers urgings. She sighed in pity for the poor shopkeepers before diverting her attention towards other places. As she went through the aisles of candy, she felt her mouth watering as she looked through the stacks she tried to remember what Ella had sent her from this place. Biting her lower lip, her eyebrows furrowed together; she hated the Droobles, messy, Every Flavor Beans were too risky, some of the other ones were joke ones. She tried very hard not to pick the wrong ones so she read the names repeatedly to find any double meanings in the labels.

Finally she decided on Glacial Snow Flakes and as she begun walking forward towards the stack of candy with determination she hadn't intended for a child's flailing arm to strike her off balance nor for a body to be in front of her. For a moment she was sure that she was going to create a disaster until she figured out that the best way to not crash into the person was to thrust her arms out and try and steady herself on them. When her hands landed she cringed and tried to steady herself as fast as she possibly could so not to touch the person before her any more than she had to.

"I'm so sorry, I'm really so sorry, there was a kid and it hit me, I just-" she stammered out nervously. "Did I hurt you or anything? Are you alright?"

Tess wasn't big on sweets; once on the lips, forever on the hips is what her mother said. But Tess didn't listen to a lot of what her mother said. Or else she wouldn't have even bothered to enter the store or do a lot of things she had no regrets about. But at this very moment she needed sweets and she had thrusted herself into the truffle section of the store. Thankfully none of those nasty children and their parents roamed the areas for the prices and the fact children preferred the lollies. Her plan for the evening would be buying the white chocolate truffles, curl up in her pajamas and wallow in self-pity. That sounded like a good day to her and she couldn't wait to do so.

At the moment, the cold weather had forced her to ignore her usual sundresses and instead she took comfort in the black tights, knee high boots, and a loose knitted sweater to keep her warm. A heating charm did the trick for her to feel comfortable. The last minute choice was the headband, to somehow remind people she was a girl, despite her short hair.

Picking up the box she didn't even bother to look at the price. The faster she got out of there, the faster she could get away from sobbing children who wanted what they couldn't have and the mothers that either caved in, or denied them and having their child create a bigger scene. She definitely was not meant to be a mother. Deciding on picking two boxes she threw them in her basket, that is until her world tilted off axis as she felt herself being thrown off course.

She didn't even have time to say anything as she tumbled over. A Holmes always took pride in their grace, but not in their strength. And at this moment, she was thrown to the ground and the wooden floor became her best friend. Groaning softly she lifted her head to touch her head, that was currently swimming.

"I'm so sorry, I'm really so sorry, there was a kid and it hit me, I just-" she stammered out nervously. "Did I hurt you or anything? Are you alright?"

The voice was enough for her to take comfort that it was a girl instead of some pervert or some child who knocked her over. Embarrassment was already coursing through her as she sat up.

"I'm fine" she breathed out hoping to just compose herself before people noticed. Sitting up, she noticed her basket had flown at the end of the aisle and the poor truffle boxes out of it. The wallowing would be even moreso it seemed. "I'm fine" she repeated hoping she would believe it.

For a moment, Cassie simply scanned the situation. She had knocked over a rather pretty woman and straight to the ground. In the back of her mind she heard the cajoles of her mother, Clumsy Cassie had struck again! She desperately wanted to swivel around to give a stern talking down to the child who had hit her and caused her to lose her balance. She felt a huff of anger at some of the people who couldn't reign in their children. She loved kids, truly, but parenting was a full time job and the most she'd had that was close to a job was a waitress for a year while she was traipsing around for a college.

Cassie slapped a hand to her forehead, her face flushed now.

"I genuinely did not see you there, if I had, I would have never touched you." She said before re-running the sentence in her head, wincing at her choice. "That's not to say you're untouchable-no wait, I-" she groaned before letting out a huff of exasperation, her frustration with her futile attempts to explain her clumsiness growing irately. She offered her hand hesitantly.

"I did not mean to hurt you, there's just so many children, and I am a klutz by nature, I must have tripped, may I help you up?" Cassie hoped the woman would take it, she was lacking friends- nay- acquaintances even and even just a little bit of contact with another human would parch her loneliness.

Tess blinked a few times trying to get her bearings before she realized the girl was speaking to her. She tilted her head curiously as to why the girl looked horrified, had she been the one that fallen over? No, then why was she embarrassed. It was clear once the girl opened her mouth why.

"I genuinely did not see you there, if I had, I would have never touched you." She said before re-running the sentence in her head, wincing at her choice. "That's not to say you're untouchable-no wait, I-"

She raised her brow as she kept talking, and surprised herself by taking the offer and getting up. Pulling herself up she immediately began to dust herself off. Especially her bum, which took the most brutal hit of the mall. This was definitely a mess, she didn't even bother to look at the girl's way as she fixed herself up. She was genuinely surprised at now snapping at the girl, but instead fixed herself up and ignored the reddened state of her cheeks. Embarrassment would be denied till the day she was six feet under. A Holmes never got embarrassed, if only her body understood that she would be good.

"I understood what you meant," she cut her off.

She was definitely flustered, and Tess was too. This was just another day to power through. She glared to the children at the mention of them being at fault too. Couldn't she had just asked an elf to do it for her? But no, she just had to do independent and do it by herself. Sighing she shook her head.

"Everything is fine, nothing is damaged, now calm down" she said hoping she could calm down. "Well nothing that candy can't fix" she commented offhandedly.

She wasn't the most social person, in fact she was alway quite awkward. But today she was tired, and she was shocked she didn't just burst into tears at the never-ending pile of stress falling on her. It was too early in the school year to feel this way. But with everything she had isolated herself by getting a flat and not dorm like everyone else.

"What's your name?" she blurted. "I should know the name of the person that knocked me over."

When Cassie was cut off, she was glad that her slope of word vomit was halted. Rather than be offended, she felt more frustration at herself. If only she'd paid more attention to her surroundings, she scolded herself. She hung her head in shame for a moment after helping the poor woman up, it was plain rude that she had touched a stranger and worse possibly hurt her! Her mother had taught her to walk proudly and walk confidently. Which she did. She walked with one foot in front of the other with collected calmness,  except she was born with two left feet.

As the woman confirmed her state of being, Cassie was overwhelmed with the need to apologize or help again. Except her father chastised her on being redundant, telling her that it was simply improper and annoying to pester someone about an accident after it was done. So she clenched her jaw in an attempt to not make herself annoying and asked no further. Although Cassie was clumsy and awkward most of the time, she wasn't oblivious. This woman was good at keeping a reign on her emotions, so Cassie's worries were pacified, but she was curious, she didn't find many others to enjoy sweets like herself. When she asked the question, Cassie straightened herself up, her confidence regaining after realizing she could make a new friend or well anything. She was sure that the woman would brush her off and turn away, forget this little bluster of hers.

"My name is Cassie, well it's technically Cassana but that's a mouthful and far too formal." She smiled broadly, her face still a little red. "Can I ask the name of the kind woman who didn't jinx me after pummeling her to the ground?" She teased lightly, treading the waters a bit to see how she would reply to a tad humor.

Tess looked at the girl curiously, seeing how defeated she looked. Briefly she went over what she said to see if she had offended the girl, but other than being curt there was nothing that she'd done. Nodding to herself, as if she'd done a good job, she picked up her items and held them closer to herself, just to make sure she didn't just have them topple over again. The girl in front of her was weird, weirder than her and that never happened. She knew she was an oddity at a young age yet she never realized there were people with worst people skills than her.

But as the girl introduced herself, Tess nodded at Cassana, as a form of greeting, figuring that was enough. Not quite, especially as she asked for her name in return. Clearing her throat Tess lip twitched at the girl's attempt of a joke, a hidden smile. At least she was beginning to cope with humor and stopped apologizing.

"You're lucky I'm a healing student and not an auror" she replied amused, "My name is Tess, and it's a..."she didn't say pleasure, it wasn't the right word, "a nice surprise to meet you Cassana."

Cassie was smiling, she felt elated once her confidence was back. Since this stranger had yet to show an overwhelming amount of disgust or disdain or anger. That was a good sign, surely, Cassie thought with pride, because if she didn't want to socialize with Cassie then she'd make it clear and turn away. Now, Cassie was outgoing and normally made friends but she was smart and she knew there were steps to take. She had, by the barest thread, passed the introduction stage, and now she had to make conversation.

She was hoping she wouldn't screw up too bad.

"You're majoring to be a Healer? That requires potions doesn't it? Do you take any of the classes too? I'm a Potioneer in training myself," she held her hand up to her mouth, grimacing as she lowered her loud voice and barrage of questions, "I'm sorry, Tess, that was a lot of questions all at once." Although her voice was lowered it was sincere with a tinge of shame that she was being all puppylike again.

Tess had to admit that the fact that Cassana hadn't completely found the conversation boring and left was surprising. By now, Tess' short phrases had bored someone to death and would have left her already to her own musings. This was definitely new. It was all the more fascinating as she realized that she majored in something she quite enjoyed. Before she realized, a small smile appeared on her face, a genuine one. Not just anyone got into potioneer work, unless they had an O in potions in their previous school. Very interesting indeed.

Fascinating" she said and she meant it. Respect was hard for Tess to give, and she gave it curiously to Cassana.  

For Cassana's leading questions, she nodded softly, a bit surprised at the way she threw questions her way. But perhaps that's how it was done and who was she to question it.

"Yes I quite enjoy potions, in fact my brother is a CEO of a leading potions company and well...a professor" she admitted proudly. She didn't always say it aloud to Mycroft, but she did admire him. "I almost got into potions but would rather create a niche of my own than try to compete with by brother."

When Cassana's voice lowered, Tess tilted her head to stare at her curiously. "You did nothing wrong to apologize, questions are a good way of finding more about people" a small smile appeared on her expression. "I see that you too wanted sweets, but is there a reason other than a craving?

Cassie inwardly cheered at the sight of Tess's small smile. Cassie was quite used to making friends, making fun friends who were on equal energy of excitement as her. Except that was in America, people in Europe weren't so snobby, well she thought at least, so much so as they had better self-control. Self control was a bit of a foreign idea to Cassie so when Tess begun answering more, longer answers, she felt triumphant. Success, she thought doing a mental happy dance.

"Wait a professor? And the only wizarding college I can think of within radius is Merlin's, so if he's a male teaching potions then he would be-" her brain wracked over the list teachers, her face dawned recognition, "Professor Holmes?" She asked raising a brow. "He's a CEO? That's a crazy amount of work..." she connected dots. If he was a CEO then... Oh, she realized, they were close to each other. They had to be otherwise what would a CEO have to do with Potions? He surely didn't need the money, probably didn't need the unlimited researching resources. For a moment, a brief feeling of jealous flitted over her; she hadn't even gotten a single statement of status from her sister in six months. Even then their letters, now that they were both adults were jeers and teases. She blinked away the thought.

"Ah, so Holmes must be a big name here." She tilted her head then paused contemplating the idea she just throttled an heiress with shame before she waved her hand in front of her face, "doesn't matter."

"You're Tess Holmes then?" She grinned. "That's a pretty name."

She blushed a little when Tess noticed she also wanted sweets, remembering her actual purpose of even leaving her dorms, she lifted her hand and snagged Glacial Snow Flakes off the shelf.

"Well you see, I'm from America, and so I haven't really had much experience with European candy. These looked tasty, have any recommendations?" Cassie gestured towards Tess's assorted items.

Tess figured that the moment she mentioned Mycroft, people would only want to talk about him. She no longer found herself to be angry about it, but more of a begrudging acceptance. Who wouldn't be, to a man that worked so hard to earn his spot. He had seven years to have a head start and even now, Tess was in no way closer to achieving her own dreams, and Mycroft was only making new ones come true. She almost wanted to leave the sweets and settle for something sour or bitter to buy to match her usual mood.

'One step at a time, remember you're getting better' her mind soothed her. And she was, it was December, her birthday was coming soon and most importantly Christmas. For as much of a cynic that she tended to be, Christmas was the day where her hopes and dreams were reassured. Everyone was nice, people were nice and most importantly, she was nice. Then a new year would begin, where she could just ignore everything around and start fresh.

Her thoughts rounded back to Cassana when she shrugged off her name, as if it was nothing. For a moment her ego was protesting. How dare she insinuate it didn't matter. It did! The generations before her created connections, power through marriages, but it was all dismissed with just it being a pretty name. She didn't know how to feel about that, but all her expression showed was confusion. Cassana was definitely not from around here, especially from her accent, and her way of being.

Thankfully the question Tess asked took them to another direction. Sweets was a safe topic, nothing too prying yet showed purpose. The comment about America, made sense, and she nodded slowly, wondering if she'd ever met a person who was American. Fascinating. Thinking about her answer she nodded slowly.

"I'm very picky about sweets, but I have a weakness for truffles, white chocolate only." she admitted. "But my friend Rhian" she nearly said best friend, but it seemed weak, "she has a sweet tooth, and I tend to get her the chocolate frogs, if you're interested in them wiggling before the inevitable consuming, or the Fizzing Whizzbees which make you float a bit after every bite. There are so many options, but she usually likes a little bit of everything"

Tess smiled thinking about Rhian and wondered if she should have gotten her something. No. She had been ignored by her for a bit, for school and roommates, and she figured she could get sweets without her, no matter how petty it sounded in her head.

Cassie was a goof, this she knew. She was clumsy, but considerate and she had passed the age of being embarrassed by her nature. However, everything that happened afterwards because of her actions, now those were the things to be embarrassed by. She was content that this meeting, though accidental, was going smoothly for the most part. Most friends she made by getting them to laugh, so she was used to giggles or chuckles by this point in the conversation. Except, just getting a smile out of Tess was a challenge.

Challenge-Achiever was Cassie's middle name.

Well actually it was Emalia but she thought it would have been just spectacular if her parents had gifted her with that middle name.

Except that wasn't to say talking to Tess was a challenge. She wasn't the sweetest person, but when someone was honest as Tess was with Cassie when Tess commented about her thoughts on her when they bumped into each other (well when Cassie crashed into her actually). Tess was honest and smart, she was probably a good person too since it took a lot of integrity to be a Healer and hard work. It also took a lot of potions skills, which she noted to ask about later.

"You have a nice smile, Tess," Cassie noted, grinning herself feeling proud to have drawn one out (she ignored the fact that it was probably because of her friend Rhian) from someone as unique as Tess, then she felt her heart stop and her throat close up. Her eyes widened and her joy transformed into terror at Tess in horror. She gulped down the fear and tried not to let her panic be known, even if her wide eyes and forced smile were clearly not genuine.

"You seem to know a lot about Rhian. It's sweet, truly it is, how long have you two known each other?" She questioned trying to distract herself from the terror of frogs. "Did you two go to the same school together? Is she also a Healer major?"

Tess wasn't so easily comfortable around people. She couldn't help but shake off the idea that there was always something behind a kind smile, and not always friendly. But Cassana, didn't seem to really fit in the boxes she'd learn to categorize people in. Genuinely nice people were hard to distinguish, and so rare in this sort of world that it confused her. But the way Cassasna carried herself made Tess smile despite herself. It was nice to have some carefree talk, with no weight on someone and more importantly no expectations.

"You have a nice smile, Tess,"

That surprised her and made her blush lightly. She'd never been told that before, and it made her smile shyly at her. But as she looked around at the candies, she couldn't help but notice the way that the girl's expression changed to one akin to horror. She was about to ask when she noticed her beginning to talk again.

"Rhian and I? Since..since our first year" she replied confused, "at Hogwarts. We were in different houses, her as a  Gryffindor, house of brave, and I in Slytherin, house of cunning. But I don't want to talk about her" she said amused, "are you okay? You looked a bit spooked."

She wondered briefly if she could pay for her things and ask Cassana if she was interested in lunch or something. Just to talk about everything and nothing with her. It was nice, to have someone be interested in little things such as candy and intrigue her more to want to genuinely get to know her.

Cassie was surprised at Tess's reply. She'd learned that most people she spoke with normally preferred to broach subjects they knew more about. She preferred it that way really, it was easier to talk about others' than herself. Not that she was uncomfortable doing either, she didn't really have a touchy subject besides her sister, but Cassie's brain also tended to be everywhere so she didn't think about touchy subjects.

"I," Cassie begin, trying to figure out how to admit her fear, "I'm afraid of frogs." She admitted, sheepishly, feeling embarrassed. Clearly in the UK they weren't scared of them since they turned them into candies, she thought bitterly.

"I'm not afraid of all amphibians, but just frogs really. A terrible accident when I was little's left me kind of well, terrified of them." She added after a moment wringing her fingers together. She felt a little calmer now, not a lot of people knew what she was scared of because in America they had a tendency to only talk about themselves to the point that Cassie found not too many people knowing things about her.

"Thanks for asking, explaining the whole Hogwarts house thing," she smiled sincerely before adding the last part, she entertained the idea of bringing up Gabriella-but dismissed it just as quickly, she was curious about Hogwarts, about Tess's likes and dislikes because she felt sort of liberated with the ability to speak about herself too. "Want to buy this stuff and get out of here?"

It was interesting to see that Cassana wasn't too insulted by her being blunt. It was refreshing she had to admit. All the more once she realized that she wasn't going to go around her question and she appreciated that. When she heard the confession about her aversion to frogs, Tess sympathized as best she could. She wasn't fond of chocolate to begin with, and even then, the idea of eating a frog did seem odd, now that she thought about it. But the fear of something so small wasn't so off from reality. Tess too had an aversion to stupid things. Nodding softly, she took in all that she had to say and waited to be able to phrase her own confession to try and form her as best she could.

"I understand" she said softly. "I don't really like frogs, but I'm not fond of them either. But my own aversion is insects and spiders" she confessed softly. "Nature and I don't tend to get along if int involves those things to be quite honest."

"Want to buy this stuff and get out of here?"

Tess smiled, pleased at the fact that she had agreed and nodded. At second thought she picked up a box of assorted chocolates for Rhian and walked over to the cashier. Turning over to Cassana she smiled.

"You know I was just going to curl up in my flat and eat this, but what if we just get real food" she said chuckling, "I don't say this often, but I tolerate you, and that's a rare thing."

She knew it was odd to say tolerate, even she wasn't that naive. But it was true. She didn't say like often, let alone love. But Cassana was the closest thing she had to an almost friend, an acquaintance that despite her oddness was more normal in ways Tess couldn't ever attempt to reach.

Cassie was kind of person comfortable sitting in the middle of a bear fighting area. Rarely did she get too panicked over something, and even then it was with a valid reason. The relief that Cassana felt was palpable as soon as Tess's words left her mouth. She smiled, sagging a little bit, a hundred times less tense more comfortable again. Ease washed over her and content at Tess sharing another tid bit about herself. It wasn't easy to share facts about yourself to just anyone, and for that Cassie was grateful for Tess to share. She wanted to voice it, but there was no way to make the words sound not patronizing, sincere, but it would probably come off like a mother telling her child it was good to share.

"I only like nature when it's surrounding me in an ethereal blur of color when I run," she murmured, eyes soft in tender memory before she gave Tess a sheepish grin, "I don't think I'll be driving around London anyway."

When Tess turned to pay for her stuff, Cassie, more than a little proud that she'd converted her dollars to the UK currency, looked around for anything else she would have liked to buy and found nothing.

"Real food is my favorite kind of food, I don't appreciate fake food very much," she joked lightly as she paid for her own Glacial Snow Flakes, "anything you'd suggest? I don't know very many food places here."

Tess laughed softly at the girl's comment. She was nice, it seemed hard to really describe her in any way other than that. It was hard, in an almost embarrassing way, that there were a few positive words in her vocabulary. But it was just that she'd learned her lesson over the years, about opening up too quickly and being very careful who got close to her.

But Cassana seemed safe; she wasn't interested in her name, or what came with it. Trying to pry for more information to later bother her with. No. It seemed Cassana genuinely wanted to just chat, about anything and nothing and that was refreshing for someone to want to listen to her. Usually she did the listening, being introverted.

anything you'd suggest? I don't know very many food places here."

Chucking Tess nodded.

"While I'm not sure what fake food is,"she said amused, "but I do know this nice place with chips and other fried assorted foods?"

Sometimes Cassie regretted her decision to make such a jump from America to England. It was a major time switch, she missed some of her classes already, she had relatively no friends, and she was throwing a lot away to become a Potioneer. Except, this was not one of those times. Cassie had never felt more elated to make friends with someone new. She popped a snow flake into her mouth, surprised the candy just melted into her mouth. She grinned at Tess.

"Well, fake food would be freezer food," she winced, "hope you never have to eat microwavable food." She thought about her first time eating microwavable food, her friend from Tituba's was lower middle class on a scholarship and the one time she stayed over at her house was the time that she ate microwavable food. It was gross.

"Chips and assorted foods sounds delicious, whatever that entails," she said smiling at Tess, waiting for her to make the first move forward towards the place, she paused, shift on her feet anxiously.

"Apparate us there, please?" She offered the crook of her arm, she paused hesitant to be redundant and restate that she had relatively no clue where anything was around here.