Four days. It had been four days since their last Astronomy class, and the two had still not spoken a word to each other. Neither had approached the other to inquire a study session for their project. In fact, Alicent began to worry that Regulus had forgotten. Alicent worried often, but it had been particularly bad recently with the rising of violence in the Wizarding World, and all of the change that had come along with it. Alice was on edge.

Her mother had once told her a trick to lessen her anxiety, a muggle superstition apparently, which involved sour sweets. It was said that if you were to suck on a sour sweet, then it would take away some of that anxiousness. So, when her elder sister Elizabeth had invited her to Hogsmeade that weekend, Alicent decided that this would be the perfect opportunity to test her Ma's superstition. And perhaps she could avoid spending her own money, and convince her sister to purchase them for her! If that failed she could always sneak them into one of the marauders baskets, she doubted they'd notice her small addition of sour gummies to their large pile of Honeydukes confectionaries.

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The walk to Hogsmeade had been enjoyable. As Autumn approached the leaves had begun to turn a crisp shade of orange, and had began to float down to the ground, leaving the branches bare for winter. Alicent's very much liked the sound of the leaves crunching underneath her boots, the sound of Autumn was so very beautiful. The breeze seemed light today too, and there was no sign of rain. Elisabeth had not informed Alice that her Gryffindor companions would be joining them, however Alicent had assumed that they would be tagging along. Or rather, she was tagging along with them. A few of the boys had attempted to sway Alicent into their conversation, but had given up once realising that the girl would much rather be left alone.
Upon arriving at Hogsmeade, the group had split up for convenience, as they'd wanted to visit different shops. This left Alicent with Marlene, Sirius and Peter, who had also wanted to purchase from Honeydukes. The girl was quite glad actually, it would most likely be easier to convince Sirius to buy her sweets rather than her sister. He'd often had a soft spot for the girl, and Alicent sometimes wondered if this was due to his strained relationship with his younger brother. Perhaps he wanted to feel responsible for someone again.

To no surprise, Honeydukes was bustling with people. Though, it was a Saturday. There was a crowd of students scurried around a few shelves in the corner of the shop, which seemed to contain the sweet shops newest creation. Honeydukes was often releasing new exciting sweet options, but Alicent paid no notice to this. She knew what she was looking for, but where could it be? She turned to ask one of the others, however they'd already began heading to different shelves. The brunette noticed Marlene heading upstairs, and thought about asking her. Admittedly, she'd liked Marlene in the past, perhaps it was her confidence or what-not. But in Alicent's early years of school, the blonde had definitely caused some confusion within the girl. Did she want to be her... or be with her? Either way, that was a few years ago now - it was nothing to be embarrassed about. And though Alicent did want to follow her to ask for directions to the sour sweets, another idea had popped into her mind. If she did want to save a few sickles, it would be wiser to ask Sirius; perhaps he'd offer then to pay. So the girl headed towards Sirius' direction and lightly tugged the sleeve of his jacket, making him turn around.
"Oh," he smiled "Hello little Alice, need something?"