Hogwarts: Year Four

[Losi]

Our Legion of Friends
drawn by Sonia Margolin
coloured by JinAh Kim

Actual roleplay here. Check up here regularly for new info and announcements and all that.

DATE: Thursday 2 September 2010

[Losi]

"Welcome to Diagon Alley, sweet sister."

Genevieve was holding my hand very tightly as she watched the wall in front of us make way for the beautiful, sunny street of magical menagerie. People in large pointed hats and long flowing robes of all sorts of colors and designs thronged the streets, filling it with cheerful chatter and bright smiles.

"Wow..."

I looked down at her bright-eyed smile and felt myself close to giggles. It was so cool to be able to share this with my sister. She looked up at me suddenly and clenched my hand tighter.

"It's real! It's really real! It's not just you being weird!"

"Yup!"

Together, we skipped down the stony road while our parents slowly strolled behind us. Me and Genevieve didn't always get along, but there were times when we were the best of friends.

"Do you want to go to Flourish and Blotts first?"

"What's that?"

"The book shop."

"Uh, sure."

We found the store, went in, looked cheerfully around at the wooden shelves and towering piles of old, discarded paper, and took in the familiar, booky smells.

"Charlotte!"

Jin Ah was waving at us, and I noticed a four other of our friends next to her. Genevieve eyed them a bit nervously, but I ran forward and dragged her behind me.

I hugged each of them in turn.

"So good to see you again!"

"Had a good summer?"

"What's new?"

"Is this your little sister?" asked the girl with curly blond hair. She was about the same height as Genevieve. "You look alike."

We nodded in response. "We get that a lot."

"What's your name again?" asked Jin Ah. "Charlotte mentioned you a few times, but I forget... It was something pretty and French."

"Genevieve," said my sister shyly.

The girls smiled pleasantly and told her how pretty her name was, and eventually Gen was smiling again.

"I'm Sonia, by the way." The girl in question raised a hand in greeting.

"And I'm Rachel, but you can call me Rae."

"I'm Vi!"

"You can call me Sako."

"And I'm Jin Ah."

"Let's go and find these books," said Rachel, flourishing her supplies list, and together we crowded around a bookshelf.

"So let me get this straight," said Genevieve, flipping through one of the books and looking curiously at the strange diagrams. "This is a textbook."

We nodded.

"On magic."

Smiles were joined with our nods.

"This is too awesome."

We had finished collecting our books and were walking towards the checking desk when something rather strange happened.

"Uh, guys," said Sako.

We looked back at her, as she'd fallen back a little ways, and immediately noticed the problem.

"Oh dear."

It seemed that one of Sako's feet had been completely encased in some strange, sticky, slimy, gooey stuff that seemed to permanently attach it to the floor.

"That's strange," commented Rachel helpfully.

"How do we get it off?" said a slightly nervous Sako.

Vi tried casting a few of her spells on it, but none of them seemed to help much.

"Um, I'll go and find some help," I said, noticing Gen poking curiously at the slimy stuff as I went.

Mom and Dad were talking pleasantly with my friends' parents, but when my mom noticed me, she called me back.

"Where are you going in such a hurry?"

"Sako's foot got stuck in some strange goo and I need to find someone who can help," I said, and walked off, quite pleased to say something that didn't make much sense at all.

Walking down one of the aisles of bookshelves, I noticed a young man with mousy brown hair and spectacles sweeping busily next to a tall stack of books. He kept pushing his glasses back up his nose over and over again in quick and fretful movements.

"Excuse me, but my friend needs some help," I said, to which he looked up with wide, surprised eyes, a first impression that at first startled me, but then made me smile.

"What does your friend need help with?" he asked in a surprisingly steady voice.

"Um... You'd better just come and see."

He shrugged, put the broom down for someone to trip on it, and followed me back to the spot I had left them. The gooey stuff seemed to have thickened and grown up her leg a bit.

"Oh jeez..." our helper muttered. "Someone's left that awful Growing Gelatin laying around again."

"Is there any spell for getting it off?" asked Vi, who seemed a bit confused that nothing she had tried had worked.

"Nope."

We blinked and looked at him for a bit, taking this in.

"So... Am I going to have to live the rest of my life in Flourish and Blotts?" laughed Sako, but she looked pale.

"Not at all," said the man, who promptly bent down and started tickling the green goop, which giggled. Little by little, the Growing Gelatin lost its grip on Sako's foot and fell away. Then he stuck the goo in his pocket.

"I'll give it to the dog. It's actually edible, but you have to be careful with it." He grinned.

"So what's that name of our hero?" I asked, smiling.

"Ogilvy."

"Just Ogilvy?"

He nodded quietly, still wearing his grin. "I can take care of those books for you if you like."

"Sure!" said Rachel.

We walked over to the checking desk and he started up a conversation as he tallied up our bill.

"What year are you girls starting this year?"

"Fourth," we all said.

"Except me," piped up Genevieve. "This will be my first year."

"Really? Well that's exciting. Have you bought your wand yet?"

She shook her head.

"That's the best part of turning eleven, in my opinion," he said,
"to finally get your wand. You take it for granted after a few years, but if you've ever lost your wand you feel like you've lost an arm! Are you excited?"

"Yeah, I am! I've wanted one ever since Elizabeth got hers."

"Who's Elizabeth?" asked Sonia.

"Me," I said.

"What?!"

"I thought your name was Charlotte!" said Rachel.

"It is."

"But..."

"It's also Elizabeth!" Me and Gen giggled.

"My family calls me Elizabeth," I explained. "And everyone else calls me Charlotte."

"Why?"

I sighed. It was a long story. "I'll tell you guys later."

We bought the books, said our goodbyes to the friendly Ogilvy, and walked out the door with our large sacks of books.

That's when we saw a wolverine running past us through the streets, and a scruffy-looking boy chasing wildly after it.

[Teh Zu Person]

With a flick of her wand, a chair pulled itself up underneath the blond girl as her face changed to an irritated expression. "I can't believe we're here AGAIN. We just bought you new robes last year!" Kris complained, crossing her arms.

Her twin brother, Cameron, stood looming next to a woman trying to fit him for a new set of robes. "Oh, shut up. Last year I was only 5'3, this year I'm 6'1. Of course I'm going to need new robes."

Kris rolled her eyes.

Her brother modeled a little bit longer before stepping down and handing the woman a few shining galleons. As soon as the transaction was complete, the woman briskly walked off.

"Soooo, where to next?" Cameron asked as he stuffed his new robes into a charmed duffel bag.

"Well, we still need to get textbooks," Kris replied, pulling out a sheet of paper from her coat pocket. "So we need to head to Flourish and Blotts, then."

"Whatever," Cameron spoke. "School would be sooo much better without textbooks, heh."

"But we-SACCHAAAAAN!" Kris broke into a yell and sprinted down the street, leaving Cameron stranded in the middle of the street. She hugged her friend from behind.

"Oh, it's you. Heya, Zu, what's up?" Savannah grinned.

"Not much. Summer, summer classes my parents are making me take."

"Well, that sucks," Savannah stated.

"Yup."

Cameron strode over to them and tugged on Kris's arm. "Hey, can we go? We need to buy our books."

"Go do it yourself," Kris snapped. Cameron stared back at her with a blank look. "...You don't know where it is, do you?"

"No idea!" he responded.

Both Savannah and Kris face-palmed.

"Alright then, we should go together," Savannah spoke.

"Sounds good to me."

"Yeah," Savannah added, "otherwise, you might lose your dorky brother forever, huh?"

And the three headed off to Flourish and Blotts.

[Vi]

"Are you sure you'll be okay?"

"Dad, I'm fourteen."

"Okay, well, remember, if you get into any trouble--"

"Zap them with my wand?" I said with a grin. My dad laughed.

"I was going to say use your cell phone, but I suppose that works too."

"You know technology doesn't really mix well with magic, Dad."

"Well, if they were able to be mixed, the results would be astounding. Maybe you could do that?"

"We'll see, Dad." I smiled, and stepped out of the car.

I waved good-by to my dad as he drove away. I couldn't stop smiling. Another year at Hogwarts was almost here. I practically ran into the Leaky Cauldron. I pulled out my wand as I stepped inside. I hadn't used it in a while. I headed to the back of the pub, attracting little attention along the way. It was surely a busy day for the pub, with many passing through its doors to make it to its back.

The back of the pub was an unassuming brick wall with a few trash cans. Oddly enough, there was no trash within the cans. I counted bricks up and over, running my wand along the bricks. Once I found the correct brick, I tapped several times, and the brick wall melted away. I stuck the wand back into my knapsack and pulled out the new list of school supplies, attached to it the normal warning about not being allowed to use magic until the new term begins.

"Well, let's see. I already have all of my textbooks except for The Standard Book of Spells (Grade 4), so I can pick that up last," I thought to myself. So all I need to buy are new sets of robes, but my old winter cloak still fits. Oh, and a bag of owl treats for Euclid." I decided to head to Madame Malkin's first.

After about half an hour of Madame Malkin clicking her tongue and commenting about how small I was ("You're much smaller than some of the first year's I've seen, dear!") while fitting me, I came out of Madame Malkin's with three new black robes in a bag.

As I came out of the robe store, I spotted some familiar faces.

"Jin Ah! Ray! Smonia! Sako!" I shouted excitedly, waving my arms around. I ran over to them as quickly while trying to keep my new bag of robes from hitting the ground. They greeted me equally as excitedly.

"So where are you guys going next?" I asked, checking my supply list. "We don't really need to get that much do we, I mean, we already have most of our old books, since we got all of our elective books last year and we reuse textbooks often, but all we need really is that new standard book of spells for our grade." I said all of this rather quickly. "So. Er. To Flourish and Blotts then?" I suggested. After a chorus of "yeahs, and I supposes," our entourage walked along the road to the book store, eagerly sharing stories of our summers. It appeared that most of our summers had consisted of muggle school, a la homeschooling with textbooks. Our muggle parents had insisted on making sure that we had a proper "normal" education and not just a magical one.

Once we got inside the store, we all found another familiar face--Charlotte. Next to Charlotte was another small (albeit taller than myself) girl, presumably her sister. She introduced her as Genevieve, and that she was going to be starting her first year at Hogwarts this upcoming September. We all found copies of the book of spells for our grade (though some had to buy new copies of old books) and helped Genevieve find her own textbooks.

"Uh, guys?" Sako called out as we were on our way to purchase our textbooks. We turned around and immediately saw the problem. A sticky substance had attached itself to the bottom of Sako's shoe and seemed to be growing by the minute. I pulled out my wand (we were in a magical community after all) and tried a few spells to remove the strange thing from her shoe.

"Finite!" Nothing. And now it was starting to grow bigger and slowly moving up Sako's leg, to her panic.

"Er, Reducio! Immobulus!" Again, nothing. Charlotte told us that she would go find help, and Genevieve began poking the goo. I hoped it didn't carry disease. Charlotte returned a few minutes later with a young man. He mentioned that the name of the strange goo was Growing Gelatin, and that someone had left it around. I asked him worriedly if there was any spell that could get it off, wondering if it was my own magical incapability that had caused me to not be able to find the solution to what was obviously a simple--

"Nope." He said matter-of-factly. He bent down and tickled the Growing Gelatin, and it shrunk and slowly moved away from Sako's shoe.

"So, what's the name of our hero?" Charlotte asked.

"Ogilvy," he responded. He offered to help us with our books. We happily dragged our books over to the desk, and paid for our textbooks with silver Sickles and bronze Knuts. We conversed as we paid and he commented on Genevieve's being eleven and how getting a wand was the best part of starting Hogwarts. I remembered those years ago when I first received my wand, and how it was during that moment, it felt like I truly belonged in the magical world, with all of my newfound friends.

I was truly looking forward to another wonderful, magical year at Hogwarts.

[JinAh]

I felt like singing as I walked down Diagon Alley. I was back! Back in the wizarding world, back where I could do insane crazy stuff in real life and not just in my dreams. I couldn't help but still marvel at how lucky I was - how lucky that, of all people, it was my DNA that had chosen to say, "Sure, why not" and let me become a witch.

I loved Hogwarts more than anywhere I had ever been. The building, the food, the classes, the friends ... Speaking of which, I could spy a familiar-looking head bobbing off in the distance. I crept up behind the golden-haired figure and glomped her, pouncing down on her shoulders. Her hands flew up in a gesture of alarm.


"SMONIA!"

Her face relaxed. "JinAh! Hi! I'm glad you found me, I was getting kind of lost," she said, her face turning pink. "I was here with my mom and Sophie and Elena before and I totally forgot where everything is ..."

"Uh, well, we should probably get our textbooks first," I said. "And then we should stop by the apothecary for potions supplies and go looking for people!"

"Awesome," Sonia said, nodding her head. She started walking happily through the crowd.

"Uh, Sonia? Flourish and Blotts is over there."

She turned red again, and laughed her Sonia laugh. "Oh, right. Hey, is that Rachel over there?"

"Where?"

"Way over there, by Gringotts-"

"It is! And Sako's with her!" Grabbing Sonia by the hand, I ran through the crowd, dodging bustling shoppers and annoyed-looking passerby. "Rachel! Sako!"

"Hi!" said Sako.

Rachel didn't say anything, but hugged us both tight.

Sako patted Sonia on the head, and Sonia smiled and bobbed her shoulders.

"So, where are you guys going?" I asked.

"I already got all my stuff, but my mom gave me ten galleons and said that I could buy whatever I wanted," said Sako.

"Lucky. Mom was going to give me ten galleons until Evan started complaining that he wasn't getting any money and so we both got five. And of course, he blew his all on chocolate frogs," said Rachel, making a face. We laughed, but not too much - Evan hadn't started showing any magical abilities yet, and we weren't sure if he was a squib or not - and we weren't sure how Rachel would feel about it either way.

"We still have to get our textbooks," I said.

"Flourish and Blotts!" Sako exclaimed. "We can all go together, and I can buy my book!"

This seemed like a good plan to all, so we headed back down the alley to the bookstore. We were passing Madame Malkin's when we caught sight of another friend.

"JinAh! Ray! Smonia! Sako!"

"VI!"

Vi came running towards us, and we engulfed her in a hug. "Hi!" she said.

"You've grown!" said Sonia, patting her on the head.

"I have," said Vi, beaming.

Ray rolled her eyes. "She's still our tiny Vi, though."

We found out that Vi needed to go to Flourish and Blotts as well, and so we made our way there.

While at the bookstore, we encountered the dreadful foot-catching goo, which Vi and Charlotte have already told you about.

It really was rather disgusting, and I'm sure Sako feared for her foot, if not her life. Thanks to the mysterious Oglivy, though, we managed to escape with Sako's foot unscathed. That's probably good, as I was contemplating telling Vi to stop it with the charms and hexing Sako's leg off.

On the whole, I think it was better that Oglivy showed up, as Sako is very much attached to her leg.

Charlotte's sister seemed very nice, but she also seemed rather overwhelmed by it all - magic was real! I remembered how I had felt when I had first stepped in Diagon Alley - it was as if all the best parts of my dreams had come true.

I was reminiscing thus when we stepped out into the street, only to find a wolverine barreling past us. Charlotte shrieked, and Sonia made a whoop of surprise, her hands flying up again. A boy went after the wolverine, which started to run around in circles confusedly. The boy pounced on the wolverine, which began to turn over and pushed the boy into a display of potted geraniums. They landed on the boys head, and a particularly fine flower seemed to be sticking out of his ear. Underneath him, his wolverine munched placidly on a geranium stem.

We burst out laughing - we couldn't help it. Sonia's giggle rose into a louder laugh which eventually burst into a guffaw - which made us laugh even harder. An angry-looking beaproned woman came out of the door in front of which the geranium boy was rubbing his head, looking dazed.

"Logan Bingham! How many times do I have to tell you to keep a leash on that - that monstrosity! That's the third time he's ruined my geraniums this year! You keep that animal out of my flowers, you hear! Or else I will be having words with your mother!"

"Yes, Mrs. Barnesworthy," said the boy, who we realized was, in fact, Logan Bingham, a Slytherin in our year.

"What is that thing?" Genevieve asked.

"I think it's a wolverine," Vi replied.

"A what?"

"It's ... kind of like a large, vicious weasel."

"Er."

"Very vicious."

"And they let him keep that?"

"Yes, as a matter of fact, they do," said an annoyed voice to our left. We turned to see, to our great embarrassment, a distinctly ruffled-looking Logan Bingham standing there, a geranium-munching wolverine in his arms.

"This is James," he said, his tone bored and condescending. "Say hello, James."

The wolverine stopped munching long enough to look at us with the exact same look that its owner was using (i.e., that we were some irritating thing he had gotten stuck in his sneaker treads) and promptly returned to the engrossing task of eating geraniums.

"Uh." said Vi. "Aren't wolverines mostly carnivorous?"

"James is omnivorous. He enjoys eating flowers."

"Ah."

"Albridge has promised to provide him with a suitable supply of geraniums next year. Normally, I wouldn't trust a woman like her to supply James with food, but it'll have to do-" he seemed to remember who he was talking to, and noticed the horrorstruck expressions on our faces. "What, are you goody-two-shoes Ravenclaws horrified to hear me call a professor by their last name only?"

"No," said Sako sharply. "Also, Bingham, I'm in your house."

"Much to my regret, Turchaninoffski or whatever your name is."

Before Sako could act rashly, Sonia broke in, Hufflepuff that she was. "Wait, you mean, that animal -"

"James."

"James - is coming to Hogwarts?"

"Why, yes," said Logan, smiling. "I received express permission from Achilles. And if you'll excuse me, I have better places I need to go." He strode off, James the wolverine in his arms.

"I hate Bingham," said Sako bitterly.

"Don't we all, Turgus, don't we all."

We turned at the very familiar voice behind us - one belonging to an impish looking boy with black hair and hazel eyes.

"Will!" I said happily.

"The one and only, at your service." He bowed.

"Ha ha, very funny," said Sako. "I thought I asked you to stop
calling me Turgus, Bridgewater."

"Would you prefer that I call you Turdblossom?"

"Would you prefer that I call you Orville Redenbacher?"

Will winced. "All right, that was below the belt, Sako. Besides, Turdblossom is a lovely name. It's what George Bush calls Karl Rove."

"What?" Sonia whispered.

"American politics," Rachel whispered back.

"I'd rather not share a nickname with Karl Rove, if it's all the same to you," retorted Sako.

"It most certainly isn't all the same. It's all very different, actually, as different as - ow!"

The "ow" was due to me hitting him over the head with One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi.

"Stop being stupid," I told him.

He swept another bow.

"Your wish is my command, o highness. I live only to obey the words which fall like beauteous pearls from your fair lips, like - ow, I'm sorry, please don't hit me again, JinAh."

"Are they always like this?" asked Genevieve.

"Yeah," said Charlotte.

"You never pick on me or Charlotte, though," said Sonia.

"Yes, Goldilocks, because you and Charlotte never push back. These three," he said, indicating me, Sako, and Ray, "push back all the time."

"And me?" said Vi.

"I would never dream of insulting you, my tiny lady," said Will, bowing again, and earning another rap on the head with the book.

"We should put him in a dress," I said. "Then you could curtsy instead of bowing. Bit of a changeup."

"And we could send him to seduce Logan Bingham and find out his dastardly secrets. 'Oh, dear Logan!' " trilled Rachel, trying not to smile. "'I am Wilma Waterbridge, foreign visitor to Hogwarts, desperately in need of male companionship and love! Will you, my dear, strong, handsome Slytherin, be mine?'"

"'Of course, fair one,'" said Sako in a deep voice, playing along. "'My deepest depths are for you to plunder.'"

"'I'll let you plunder my deepest depths,'" said Sonia, cracking up. We turned to stare at her. "What!" she said defensively.

Will shook her head. "Sonia Margolin, you are the most perverted girl I have ever met. And you!" he thundered, glaring at Sako and Ray. "Like I would ever deign to seduce someone like Logan Bingham!"

"We could send you after Sebastian," I piped up. "You spend half your time mooning after him already, anyway-"

"I do not moon over him, I just think he has a pretty face, and he does-"

"We don't need to know Sebastian's secrets, though-"

"Or, do we? Perhaps Sebastian is only pretending to be a nice Slytherin - he's actually Salazar Slytherin himself, sent forward through time to trap innocent Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws and lull the house into a state of complacence, only for the Slytherins to reveal their true bird-cat hybrid forms and attack, led at their front by Sebastian Blake, AKA Salazar Slytherin-"

"What's this about me being Slytherin?"

We turned around again to see Sebastian standing there, looking at once annoyed and amused.

"We have got to stop this habit of turning around to see the people we're talking about staring at us," said Charlotte.

"You are standing right in front of a public doorway," Sebastian pointed out.

"I guess. Hey, let's go to Flourish and Blotts!"

"Wait," said Will. "I have to go find my sister."

"You have a sister?" said Genevieve. "How old is she?"

"First year."

"She's the same age as me!"

"Yes, kiddo, but trust me, you do NOT want to become friends with her. My sister is a grade-A psychopath."

"WILLIAM! ARE YOU SPREADING LIES ABOUT ME AGAIN!"

There was a voice like a steam engine, and something small and red came catapulting out of the door into Flourish and Blotts and onto Will's shoulders. He winced. We stared.

There was a small girl sitting triumphantly on his shoulders, scowling down at us all. She had bright red hair tied into two braids.

"Is this ... normal?" Vi said finally.

"Yes, unfortunately," said Will, sounding resigned. "Ellie, these are my friends, Sebastian, Vi, JinAh, Charlotte, Charlotte's sister Genevieve, Sako AKA Turgus AKA Turdblossom - okJinAhI'msorrydon'thitmeagain - and JinAh's herbology book, which might as well be another person of its own, considering the number of times I've come into contact with it - Sonia, Rachel, and I think that's it. Friends, Romans, countrymen, this is my sister Ellen, AKA Ellie, demonic spawn of Mordred, Saruman, and whatever other evil villain you want to name, who is the only person who hits me more than JinAh does."

"More than JinAh does? Wow," said Charlotte, sounding mildly impressed.

Ellen jumped off from Will's head. "Your introduction does me credit, good William," she said, patting him on the arm, something which seemed to annoy him highly. She smiled hugely at Genevieve, and hugged her. "Hi! My name's Ellie Foster Bridgewater, I'm four and a half feet tall, I love American history, and I can tell we're going to be best friends!"

Charlotte looked apprehensive, as if she expected her sister to push away the strange girl - but surprisingly, Genevieve's face broke into a smile almost as big as Ellie's, and hugged her back.

"Hi, my name's Genevieve Muriel Poe, and I love history, too! And yeah, we're going to be best friends!"

Will was looking at them, bewildered. "Uh ... I'm not sure this is the best idea ..."

"Shut up, William!" They chorused, hitting either side of his head. They linked arms and giggled madly.

Will rubbed his head. "I can't tell whether this is the best thing I've ever done for her, or the worst thing I've ever done for me..."

"Only time will tell, and in the meantime, I want ice cream," said Sebastian. He picked Vi up and tossed her over his shoulder. "You've gotten heavier," he said, surprised.

"I've gotten taller," said a muffled voice.

"Is this ... normal?" asked Sonia, who had never seen this particular method of Vi's transportation.

"Yeah, ever since that time that Vi was almost killed by a seventh year Gryffindor-" seeing Sonia's horrified expression, Rachel laughed. "Don't worry, Vi's fine. I'll tell you the story later."
On that note, we tramped off to Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlor...
/ooc and me, to bed. And Tran studying. Gah, it's late.

[Smonia]

Holy cow, I was sooo excited. I couldn't believe I was starting another year of Hogwarts. Another year at the coolest place on earth with the most kickass friends on earth. I hoped the classes wouldn't be too hard. I wouldn't appreciate that.

I was walking with my mom and my two sisters, Sophie and Elena, down Diagon Alley. It was packed and bustling with all sorts of people. I glanced at Elena, who was striding next to me, trying to put on an air of confidence, but her face looked totally scared and in awe. I was reminded of my first year at Hogwarts, and my first time being in Diagon Alley - it was insane, for real. But after coming here for three years, I was totally ready for this.

My mom had suddenly decided to take charge. "Okay, troops, I'm going to take Elena to Ollivander's and some other places - and you, Sophie," she motioned to my 3rd-year sister, "you need a new owl. Come with me. Sonia, you're old enough, just go out and get your books and stuff. And find some of your friends, okay?! Bye! Meet me back here at 3! Bye!"

She hustled off with my sisters. Well, that was that. Okay. Now I was in this sea of people and I had only a general idea of where to go. I started making my way through the people, when suddenly I was glomped from behind. I started flailing. WHAT WAS GOING ONNNN. The glomper spoke with a familiar voice:

"SMONIA!"

I breathed a sigh of relief. Thank goodness. "JinAh! Hi! Heh heh I'm glad you found me.. I was eh uh getting kind of.. lost.." I explained to her my situation, and she decided that we should go get our textbooks and potions supplies and then go find some people. This was cool with me. At least I wasn't alone in Diagon Alley.

JinAh and I started to make our way over to the bookstore. Man I was so stoked. I couldn't wait to find more people. And I wouldn't mind people-watching either. I saw some fat guy with a fat cat on his head, so I turned to JinAh to express the hilarity of this scene but she wasn't there. What.

"Uh, Sonia? Flourish and Blotts is over there," she said, about twelve feet behind me, looking at me with an expression of amusement, one of which is specific to the JinAh species.

I laughed nervously. "Oh, right." What is wrong with me, I thought. Why am I being so stupid today. Then I spotted a familiar face. "Hey, is that Rachel over there?"

Luckily, I had not mistaken some random person for our lovely friend, and it was Rachel, along with Sako, over by Gringotts. JinAh grabbed my arm and dragged me through the crowd. I think I stepped on some hot guy's foot. Oops.

JinAh called out to them, and Sako noticed us. Rachel didn't look surprised at all to see JinAh and I but she hugged each of us, and Sako patted me on the head.

"So, where are you guys going?" JinAh asked, cocking her head.

Sako told us she had basically gotten all of her stuff, and her mom gave her ten extra galleons to spend on whatever she wished. Rachel wasn't so lucky. She waved her hand around annoyedly as she explained how her brother had gotten five of the galleons she could have gotten, and that he spent them on chocolate frogs. This was amusing and we thusly laughed. Poor Rachel.

Sako wanted to get a book at Flourish and Blotts, plus we all had to get our textbooks still - so we all headed thataway. It was not until we were almost there that we caught sight of a small someone else.

"JinAh! Ray! Smonia! Sako!"

"VIIII!" We all hugged her. Poor Vi disappeared beneath a tangle of arms. Since she had to get books as well, our small entourage proceeded on our path to Flourish and Blotts.

Now, Vi and Charlotte and JinAh have explained the incident involving Sako and the gooey-foot-sticky-stuff at the bookstore, so I need not elaborate. We were all rather glad Sako escaped mostly unharmed from that junk. Who dumps foot-grabbing goo on the floor, anyway? Someone looking to cause minor distress in people's lives, obviously.

We met up with Charlotte and her sister Genevieve, both of whom are lovely, and both of whom I had never really met until I came to Hogwarts. The bookstore trip was successfull overall, and we were packed to the gills with textbooks and whatnot. It was time to leave, and we had other things to attend to.

Our group had barely made it outside Flourish and Blotts before a massive animal-wolverine-thing came gallumphing down the street, rather close to us. It was followed by a boy, and the two started running around in circles before the boy grabbed the wolverine and fell into some store's flower display. Pots were everywhere. The boy looked rather disgruntled and was sitting on his wolverine, a flower appearing to be protruding from his ear.

This was too much for me and I cracked up. Everyone seemed to find my laugh quite amusing as well, so the wolverine and the boy and the laugh of the Sonia all combined had us doubling over in laughter.

Behind us, an irritated lady came out of the shop and scolded the boy. "Logan Bingham! How many times do I have to tell you to keep a leash on that - that monstrosity! That's the third time he's ruined my geraniums this year! You keep that animal out of my flowers, you hear! Or else I will be having words with your mother!"

So that kid turned out to be Logan, a Slytherin in our same year. Shenanigans commenced, all of which JinAh has explained in lovely detail. All I can say is that I do not want Logan Bingham in my house or in my personal bubble. And Will Bridgewater seems okay. His sister is interesting. And this guy, Sebastian. I sense bromance. Heeheeehee.

Anyway, Sebastian decided for us that ice cream was needed so we went off in that direction.

That's all for now folks. I think I did this roleplay business correctly. And Sonia wants to introduce Carmina somewhere cause she's coo'.

[Losi]

Genevieve

I couldn't believe he had a wolverine. A real wolverine. I'd heard of them, but this was the first time I'd seen one in real life and it was straaaange....

Still, it was kind of exciting at the same time. Actually, I won't kid myself, it was very exciting. So far, everything around me had been wonderful and awesome, and now it seemed that I'd found a new best friend to share it with, which made everything just about ten times better.

Ellie, huh? It was a pretty cute name. It was a little bit weird, because Ellie was what my dad called my sister, and Will was what we all called my younger brother. I shrugged, ah well.

It seemed that Elizabeth had gained yet another friend. This one had curly light blond hair, blue eyes, and was on the tall side. They each hugged her, and soon they were all giggling and joking about stupid geeky teenager stuff.

"So, you like history?" I asked Ellie.

"Yup!" she nodded enthusiastically. "Especially American history... It's pretty cool, all the battles and freedoms and independence and all that!"

I nodded, keeping my smile on.

"Do you know anything about Anastasia?"

"Do I ever! I have pictures and books on her and everything. I'll be taking them to Hogwarts, I could show you if you'd like!"

"I'd love to!"

We went on having more conversation on history and annoying older siblings and things, when my sister finally remembered me again.

"Alright, I'm gonna head off with these guys to the apothecary--"

"You mean... Like a potion-making shop?"

"Right on the nose."

"That's too cool!"

"I'm gonna get your cauldron and scales while we're there, you and Ellie go off to Madame Malkin's," she pointed to a nearby shop, "and get your robes. We'll meet up again at the icecream place, alright?"

I nodded, took Ellie's hand, and we ran off to Madame Malkin's, whoever Madame Malkin was.

"Oh dear, oh dear, another set of first years," said the old woman as soon as we went in. "If I fit you with the sizes you are now, you'll only spring up like daisies in another year or two. Might as well make 'em long and loose so you'll grow into 'em, 'eh?"

I didn't really know what to say, but Ellie was giggling, so I gave a little smile.

"Alright, up you get." She gestured to the little platform for fitting, and I obediently stepped up, to which a floating tape measure started measuring me and Madame Malkin was taking notes.

Again, too cool.

The door behind me opened, and I moved around to see who was coming in.

"Oh, don't fidget!" cried Madame Malkin, who was taking up a hem at that point.

"Hey, Madame Malkin!" said the girl who walked in.

The lady completely forgot about my hem at that moment and went to hug the already robed young girl who didn't seem to be too much older than us.

"I bought you a hat," said the girl, who was all decked out in pink. She opened the hat box she had been toting under harm and lifted out the supreme, beautifully angled, flowery and gray witch hat.

"Oh! Just the one I wanted, oh thank you, dearie!"

The girl giggled and smiled, and I looked down at the undone hem, and then over at Ellie, who shrugged and smiled.

Okay, besides the floating tape measure, getting fitted for robes was pretty boring. I wanted some icecream. And then... Then I wanted my wand.

[Teh Zu Person]

"This is sooo lame," Cameron whined, as the trio of Savannah, Kris and he wandered into the bookstore. Kris cast a glare over her shoulder at him and kept walking through the store.

"Is that everything?" Savannah asked, pulling one last book off the shelf and adding it to the pile she was carrying.

Kris, pulling out her handy-dandy shopping list nodded and replied, "That's all of the textbooks, at least. Anything else you want to look for while you're here?"

"No. So let's go and get out of here," Cameron interrupted, and hauled his sister to the front of the store, Savannah walking on behind them. Kris flailed as he dragged her, but couldn't do much due to the fact that she was single-handedly carrying all of the books for the both of them.

Each student paid for their own books before packing them and headed outside the store. Kris looked around, trying to decide what they should do next, and tugged on Savannah's sleeve. "Hey, look! Isn't that Sako over there?"

"Oh, hey. It's out midget brother. HEY. SAAAAKKOOO!"

Sako turned around as the two ran forward and tackled her into a hug. "Hey, wait! Guys, let go!" The two obliged and Sako dusted herself off. "Zu, Saki, hello. It's been awhile."

"Yes, and everyone else is here too," Kris chirped, before going around and giving everyone a big hug - except for Genevieve and Ellie, whom she just acknowledged with a wave. "How have you guys been?"

"Good," Rachel responded.

"We were just about to get ice cream," JinAh added. "Would you like to come with us?"

Savannah broke in; "She'll probably get all hyper and start of food fight."

Kris laughed, "Of course not. Food doesn't make me hyper - I'm hyper when I feel like it. Anyway, I'd love too, but my brother needs -" she turned around to gesture to an empty street. "-well, this is unfortunate. I'll see you guys at Hogwarts, I guess." Then, Kris turned around and fled down the street, calling out for her scatterbrained and most definitely lost brother.

Sako sighed, "Come on, Saki. We'd better go make sure Zu doesn't get lost. Bye everyone."

"Yeah, I guess I'll see you all later," Savannah spoke. The two waved as they disappeared down the street in the direction that Kris went.

"So, ice cream now?" Will questioned.

"Yeah, let's go."

---

Later....

"Cameron! There you are!" The skinny giant turned around to look at his sister, and noted a disappearing ball of light and her stuffing her wand in her pocket.

"Yeah, so?"

"I MISSED ICE CREAM FOR YOU. SO SHUT UP!" She smacked him on the arm, and with an 'ow' he was rubbing the spot where she hit, wincing.

"I'm telling mom."

Savannah and Sako caught up, breathing heavily, since they didn't venture out and run very often. "Come on, you two," Savannah said. "Let's go back and meet up with everyone else."

"The ice cream store is about a block away, we can catch up with them outside, maybe. Seeing as they don't eat as fast as you three vacuum cleaners," Sako said.

"Then let's go!" Kris cheered.

"One condition," Savannah huffed. "No more running."

The four turned and trekked down the stone road, Kris holding on to her twin brother's sleeve so that he didn't wander off again - and get more lost that she - and they managed to regroup just as the large party of Rachel, Vi, JinAh, Charlotte, Will, Genevieve, Sonia, and Ellie as they emerged from the building.


(Done now >D)

[JinAh]

/ooc YAAY I'M BACK. I love this way too much. It's too awesome. And NONE OF THE CHARACTERS WE MADE ARE REAL **sob**

If he had been any less nice a man, Florean Fortescue would have been less than pleased about having a troupe of fourth-years eating ice cream together at his store. As it was, he was a very nice man, and he very considerately found us a table where we could all sit and not have our shenanigans bothering anyone else. He seemed rather relieved that we agreed to all eat in the back room, as the last time we were here, Will had accidentally ice cream pie'd the Minister of Magic in the face. Both Mr. Fortescue and the Minister were very understanding, but I could tell that the ice-cream store owner was glad to have us all in the back room, at any case.

Will had chosen not to get another ice-cream pie after what had happened last year - he was eating a bowl of pineapple sherbet, vanilla, caramel with cockroach clusters, bacon-flavored with little pieces of crunchy caramelized bacon, and mint chocolate chip with feebly squeaking peppermint toads and chocolate frogs. It was disgusting. It looked like a frozen, squeaking, ribbeting heart attack. He tucked into it with relish, though. Literally, with relish.
Like I said, it was disgusting.

The rest of us had rather more ordinary choices - Rachel and Vi were eating chocolate, Sebastian had ... some weird kind of Italian ice cream that tasted like maraschino cherries - amaretto, or something like that, Charlotte was eating orange sherbet with chocolate, Sonia and Genevieve had cookie dough, Ellie had cinnamon, and I had lime sherbet. Sako had wandered off to find Saki and Kris and, hopefully, drag them back to us. We hadn't seen them in ages.

Will had, astoundingly, polished off his bowl in a matter of minutes. We stared at him as he started on Sebastian's, who simply rolled his eyes and snatched Will's spoon out of his hand. Will, undaunted, lunged forward and slurped the ice cream out of the spoon right before it disappeared into Sebastian's mouth.

Sebastian rapped Will on the head with the spoon. "Orville Crowley Bridgewater. When will you ever grow up?"

"That's a horrible thing to ask someone," said Will, pretending to be offended.

"Nonetheless, I think it needs asking." Sebastian sighed, and the two began eating out of his bowl more peacefully.

"Here, Will, you can have mine. I'm full," said Ellie angelically. Will looked at her suspiciously.

"What did you do to it?"

"I didn't do anything!"

"Yeah, right." Will pointed his wand at the bowl, and the ice cream hissed and boiled. His face fell.

Ellie began to cackle. "I didn't do anything! I knew you wouldn't believe me - you ruined a perfectly good bowl of ice cream!"

"Not quite," said Vi, pointing her wand at the water. "Glacius!"

The liquid froze back into ice cream.

"Woah!" said Genevieve. "That was awesome!"

Will sank to his knees. "I will forever be in thy debt, milady," he said. "If thou ever hast need of my humble services-"

"Oh, shut up and eat your ice cream, Will," Vi said.

"You know," said Sonia, "You never told me that story about how Vi was almost killed by a seventh year."

"Oh, that," said Rachel. "Well, I'll let JinAh explain, she loves that story. I'm surprised she hasn't told you yet."

"Well," I said, sucking the last of the sherbet off of my spoon, "it happened the fifth day of first year...

"Vi and Rachel and Will and I were walking down the staircase, when Vi realized that she had left something she needed for Transfiguration, and ran back upstairs to go get it. Much to our horror, we realized that Derrick Everest, this massive seventh-year Gryffindor, was going to crash into her - he was laughing about something and not paying attention where he was going, and Vi was too worried about hurrying to our dormitory and back without being late for Transfiguration, so she didn't notice - we wanted to call out to her, but we couldn't speak, and she was so tiny that no one else seemed to notice -

"And at that crucial moment, Sebastian Blake, a Slytherin who we hardly knew but who we had sat with on the train ride to Hogwarts, came rocketing towards her, caught Vi with his shoulder, and shot past the seventh year.

"Well, we were very happy that Vi hadn't been killed, of course, as Derrick Everest was simply massive - he was something like 300 pounds of solid muscle. We didn't really know Sebastian, though, and we had to go to class, so we thanked him and then all hurried to Transfiguration and explained to Selachii what had happened. She's Selachii, of course, so she didn't take it as an excuse - she took twenty points from Ravenclaw and five from Slytherin for being late.

"But afterward, after Sebastian had become our friend, he generally tossed her on his shoulder whenever we had to navigate quickly through crowded places - we didn't want another Derrick Everest stepping on her. Usually, though, Vi just walks. We tried enchanting her shoes, once, but she went careening through the Charms room window. Professor Aswyno was not impressed."

"I see," said Sonia, nodding her head. "But how did you and Sebastian become friends, then?"

"I'll let Will tell that story, shall I?" I said, smirking. "I'd hate to deprive him of letting him show off his various sterling qualities."

"Er," said Will, looking genuinely embarrassed for once. "Yeah, that was really stupid of me ...

"Anyway, no offense, JinAh, but long stories aren't that interesting, so I think we need a more ... DYNAMIC aspect. Play time!

"PRESENTING: The Story of How Will and Sebastian Became Friends. Written by Will Crowley. Directed by Will Crowley. Starring: the one and only, perfect and beautiful, Will Crowley.

Narrator: (voiced by Will Crowley:) it was a fine, beautiful spring day-

JinAh: It was early fall.

Narrator: It was a fine, beautiful, early fall day. The sparrows were chirping happily in the trees-

Rachel: We don't have any sparrows, you idiot.

Narrator: LET ME FINISH! THIS IS A WORK OF ART! Ahem. As I was saying, it was a fine, beautiful, early fall day. The handsome and dashing and marvelously intelligent Will Crowley was walking down the road, accompanied by his worshipful followers, Rachel, JinAh, Vi, and Charlotte-

JinAh: I'm not even going to comment.

Narrator: Ahem. Yes. The fabulous five were walking down the beautiful, leaf-strewn avenue when Vi exclaimed sorrowfully and horrifiedly,

Vi: I can't find my history of magic textbook!

Narrator: Something lacking, but sure, let's go with that.

Will: Alas! Alackaday, my fair lady! Thou canst not survive thy time in foul Binns' lair without thy weighty tome! Wherest didst thou misplace thy texte-booke?

Vi: I don't know.

JinAh: Did you have it yesterday?

Vi: I think so, I was reading it yesterday morning-

**all stare at her**

Vi: (defensively) There are interesting bits, okay? Anyway, I was reading it yesterday morning, but I can't find it now-

Will: Aha! My dear Watson, the answer is elementary! The suspect, you will find, is a boy of medium height, with blonde hair, piercing blue eyes, an eyepatch over his left eye - surely indicative of a stint in the navy! - right-handed, with a slight limp. Oh, and he smokes Cuban cigars.

**beat**

Rachel: If you mean Blake, he doesn't limp.

Vi: And he doesn't have an eyepatch.

JinAh: And I don't think he smokes. He smells too nice.

**all stare at her**

JinAh: What? People who smoke smell nasty!

Will: My fair lady, tis most greivious plain that this dastardly rogue hast stolen thy gray and dusty tome! Wilt thou allow me, as thy champion, to reclaim it for thee?

Vi: I thought you were doing Sherlock Holmes. Which are you, fake medieval prince, or Holmes?

Will: Neither, fair maid, if either thee dislike.

JinAh: Oh, no. You are NOT going Romeo on us.

Rachel: Um, I hate to break the suspension of disbelief, but this fake historical reenactment is getting a little long. Shouldn't Sebastian come in about now?

**ENTER SEBASTIAN.**

Will: Foul knave! Hast thou come to thrust thy shallow victory in our wounded faces?

Sebastian: What?

Will: Do not feign ignorance, foul knave! Turn and draw!

Sebastian: You're insane. Nguyen, I found your History of Magic textbook yesterday. Here. Although if you hadn't found it, it's not like Binns would ever have noticed.

Will: What? Do you taunt us thus? I will not stand to be insulted!

**bites thumb**

Sebastian: . . . what is wrong with you? Are you biting your thumb at me?

Will: No, sir, but I do bite my thumb!

Sebastian: But do you bite your thumb at me?

Will: No, sir, but I do bite my thumb!

JinAh: Do you quarrel, sir?

Sebastian: Quarrel? What? No!

Will: But if you do, sir, I am for you, for I serve as good a man as you.

Sebastian: What?

JinAh: Say 'better', here comes one of my master's kinsmen.

Vi: Okay, cut it with the Shakespeare, you two.

Sebastian: Okay, this is enough. I'm leaving.

Will: WHAT? TURN YOUR BACK ON A CONFLICT! DISHONORABLE FIEND, LOOK UPON THY DEATH!

**shoots sparks at Sebastian. Sebastian, startled, shoots more sparks. Sparks collide and hit Edmund, who is passing by.**

Edmund:

Will: Uh ... we need an Edmund.

Charlotte: I'll be Edmund, I've heard this story enough.

Edmund, AKA Charlotte: Ow!

Will: Aargh! Edmund!

Edmund: Owowowowow! **flails. Sparks fly out of his wand and hit Will.**

Will: ARGHARGHARGHARGHARGH MY EYES **jabs Sebastian in the face with wand while flailing**

Sebastian: ARGHARGHARGHARGHARGH MY FACE

Narrator: At this moment in time, a crowd of interested onlookers had gathered around the writhing three, trilling sounds of merriment into the autumn breeze. Then, a shadow fell across the mirth, and a harsh voice croaked out (that's you, Rachel)-

Rachel, AKA Professor Rigby: WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?

Vi and JinAh, overlapping: Well, you see, professor-

Will was being stupid-

As always-

And he cursed Sebastian but hit Edmund and then-

And then Edmund accidentally got hit and he hit Will and then-

Rachel: ENOUGH!

**beat**

Rachel: Mr. Bridgewater, Mr. Blackwell, and Mr. Blake, go to the infirmary, immediately. I have never seen such disgraceful behavior in first years. Thirty points each from Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and Slytherin.

Narrator: the three went to the hospital wing together, and emerged fast friends - bound together by adversity, with a fire-forged bond that time itself can never break-

Rachel: All right, all right, hurry it up.

Narrator: Oh, fine. THE END. **bow**.

"Any questions?" I asked.

"Yeah," said Genevieve. "Who's Edmund?"

"A friend of ours," I said. "We'll see him later, I hope ... you'll definitely see him at Hogwarts, at any rate."

/ooc and there I end my again, ridiculously long post. Sonia's going to lead us off to somewhere crazy.

[Vi]

I sighed. I never did like being carried around. I preferred using my own two feet, thank you very much. Though I had to admit, the story was quite funny. By now, our entire group had polished the last bits of ice cream from our bowls, which was good, because with all of the racket in the back room, Mr. Fortescue wouldn't have liked us to stay for much longer and having his guests think that there was some horrible monster in the back room maiming children.

We walked out of the back room and I'm sure someone in the shop was relieved we were unmaimed and in full possession of our normal body parts. We thanked Mr. Fortescue for the ice cream and paid him each with a few silver Sickles and bronze Knuts. By this time, it was about 15:00 and the sun was still high in the sky.

"Well. We still have a lot of time until it gets late. Where do you propose we go next?" I asked.

"Won't we need to buy more ink, quills, and parchment?" Charlotte said thoughtfully.

"Yeah," agreed Rachel. "I think Scribbulus Writing Instruments isn't too far from here anyways, so we should probably go stock up." Everyone else agreed, and our small entourage of Hogwarts students moved toward Scribbulus. We made it to Scribbulus without much incident, which was unusual. Incidents came to us like moths to a flame.

Once we were inside, we browsed through the variety of quills and inks. Most of the standard quills were standard brown-coloured quills, and most of the standard inks were standard black, with anti-spill charms.

"Woah, look at these quills!" exclaimed Sako. She excitedly held up four different quills, one red and gold, one yellow and black, one blue and bronze, and one green and silver. "House quills!" We were amused by the novelty of the quills, but no one decided to buy any.

After we had paid for all of our bundles of quills, bottles of ink, and rolls of parchment, we returned outside. And just when I thought that we were through with the mini-disasters, a pair of all too familiar twin Slytherins began waltzing towards Scribbulus, which we were in the doorway of. I'd like to say I was heroic, and that I stood up to the Fremantles, but honestly, I was trying to get our entourage to move along, and hope that they didn't see us. The Fremantles had a reputation for not taking to muggleborns and even half-bloods with kindness. Quite the opposite, actually.

But no one was moving. And I was sandwiched between Rachel and Jin Ah, so I couldn't really go anywhere if I wanted to.

"Move, mudbloods," Madeline sneered. "You're blocking the way. I'd suggest you move, lest they make ink out of your filthy blood." Jin Ah, Rachel, Charlotte, Saki and I were muggleborns. However, Will and Sonia were half-bloods, and Sako and Sebastian were purebloods (I didn't know what Kris was, since it never really was quite obvious). Of course, the Fremantle twins, as vicious as they were, didn't care for technicalities.

I discreetly stuck my hand into my bag, and found the handle of my wand. Just in case. I didn't want conflict, but if there was, I wanted to be ready.

[Saki]

The atmosphere at Diagon Alley was always something that hit suddenly. The fast-paced commotion seemed to lift the spirits of everyone and the bustling surroundings swept everyone up in a wave of enthusiasm. Today was no different, I noticed, the attitude of my surroundings only dampened by the fact that I had various horror soundtracks playing in my head. Of course that was my own fault for staying up so late the night before watching walkthroughs and blind runs for the newest first-person shooters featuring zombies and aliens.

I had to admit, it was still kind of strange walking around alone in Diagon Alley, I felt the need to sort of keep to myself and silently window shop until I could find one of my friends that I could embarrass or make fun of. That was when I felt most comfortable.

"Saki!" I turned around to see Rupert all but charging in my direction. I stood in place, waiting for him to trip and fall or run into something(or someone). Wyatt was close behind him, moving at a pace that seemed much more safe. "You're here!"
"I'm here." I said, echoing him.
"How are you?" He said, seemingly disappointed that I wasn't jumping up and down and squealing at his presence or his "demonstration of masculine strength" by running so fast. He actually called it that. Several times.
"I'm fine. And you?"
"I'm good. Just outran Wyatt. For the seventeenth time today."
"Um. Okay. Didn't really look like he was trying to outrun you or anything, but okay."
"Shush. He was. And I beat him with my demonstration of masculine strength." I had to fight the urge to laugh.
"Sure." I said. Wyatt caught up at this point and gave a small wave of acknowledgement.
"'Sup?" He asked.
"Not much. I heard Rupert beat you seventeen times today." Rupert beamed at this statement and struck a subtle pose.
"He wishes. I'm sure you could tell that I wasn't even trying." Rupert's face changed into some expression that looked as if he was about to yell something like-
"OBJECTION!" Rupert yelled. I knew it.
"What now?" Wyatt asked, clearly ready to challenge him.
"Pshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. You know very well that I beat you seventeen times today in a challenge of-"
"Masculine strength?" Wyatt finished.
"Yeah. So don't challenge it. I won fair and square."
"Don't be such a rabbit porcupine. You're the one who decided to do your little demonstration of masculine strength on your own. I had no part in the decision." Wyatt looked away dramatically, messy hair bouncing slightly at the movement.
"Oh come on, it's not my fault if you were so scared to lose that you didn't even try."
"Says who? I was a little busy carrying my textbooks, thanks."
"Aha, you can't even run with textbooks." said Rupert with a snort.
"That's not even-"
"Oh yeah, speaking of textbooks. Have you gotten yours yet, Saki?" I looked to Rupert who was looking at me curiously. I had sort of been tuning them out, but now that I was actually a part of the conversation again I had to come up with an answer....what was the question again?

"Huh?" I asked eloquently.
"Textbooks. Gotten them yet?"
"Oh. No. Not yet. Plan to."
"I see."
"Mhm."
"Okay."
"Yeah."
"..." It seemed that the awkwardness never completely dissolved between me and the one called Rupert. I knew Wyatt better than I knew him, but we had some good conversations sometimes. This...wasn't really one of them.
"Well then. Rupert, we should probably get back to the list, no more running. See ya, Saki." Wyatt said with another wave before dragging Rupert away. He was pretty submissive, but he still took off running.

I took off in the other direction, reaching for a piece of paper in my pocket. I unfolded it and read the list to myself, trying to figure out where I should go next. It was then that I heard a voice yelling out my name.
"SACCHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!"

[Helena]

"You really did your research, didn't you?" I said, grinning lazily at the Fremantles. It wasn't smart to bait them, but it was really quite fun. "Only a handful of us are muggleborn; the rest are half-blood, and Sako and Sebastian are pureblood. Now, if you would kindly move your pompous asses out of our way, that'll be the end of this."

Of course, that wasn't exactly what happened. I had reached into my pocket to grasp my wand, just in case - the shopkeeper wouldn't want students dueling in their shop, but sometimes these things just happened. I noticed the rest of my friends do the same.

If anything, my reply seemed to make the Fremantles all the more vicious; they went on some miniature rant about how any pureblood associating themselves with muggleborns or half-bloods were clearly traitors to the 'true wizarding bloodline', or some shite like that.

JinAh, Vi, and the rest were eyeing them with some form of disbelief/amusement; we'd all heard this spiel before, and it never got less idiotic. We had tried reasoning with them in the past, we really had (if Vi tells you the story about the time JinAh and I purposely enchanted scissors to cut off the hair on one side of their heads, well. It's a lie. A filthy, dirty lie, and she should be ashamed for spreading it. I'd go for their eyebrows.)

No one had really moved once the Fremantles had started their rant; figuring now would be the best time to do this without too much damage and spilled ink, I nudged Vi, who nudged JinAh, etcetera.

We all had been in this situation before; one group Stupefy took care of them mid-word, and we walked delicately around their bodies on the way out.

"Sorry for the mess!" JinAh called out.

"They'll come to soon; I'm really sorry about all this," Charlotte added.

Once we were all out of the store, I sighed. "So. Where to next?"

[Smonia]

So after that fun tizzywiggle with those kids in the hishouse, we continued on with our journey thing. I was pleasantly full after the previous ice cream venture, the type of full you encounter in 5th period right after lunch - where you just want to sit and observe people going about their buisness. But I sensed that wasn't going to happen soon, because our group was walking down Diagon Alley in such a way that whomever was leading us totally knew where they were going.

The person leading us happened to be this strange kid Will. I wasn't sure if I liked him. But we continued on.

We approached this one store which had lots of shiny, twirly floating things inside which Vi wanted to go into. She grabbed Rachel's arm. "Dude. Let's go in here. It's so pretty."

Rachel saw the sparkly, shiny, twirly floaty things in the window, and yelled to everyone else: "HEY. GUYS. LET'S GO IN HERE. VI AND I WANT TO LOOK AT THE PRETTY THINGS."

So we went inside. It was a beautiful room filled with fantastical gadgets, all enchanted and moving around. Vi became entranced in a brass ball that was floating up and down between two bars, seemingly weightless. Charlotte and Genevieve were observing a slowly spinning, opalescent, trickling fountain. Rachel had come across a Remebrall, which was fogging up red in her hands. Behind the counter, a tall, dark-skinned man was snoring softly, hunched over on his stool.

There was another room connected to the main one, where Will, JinAh, Sebastian, and Ellie had drifted to. It was a little less well-lighted than the main room, and I could only see it out of the corner of my eye. I was too busy messing with some contraption that changed its shape at the touch.

BOOF!

A loud, puffy sound came from the other room. We rushed over to see what had happened, while trying not to awake the soundly sleeping shopkeeper. There was a large fireplace at one side of the room with black soot spattered all over the mouth of it, and Will, JinAh, and Sebastian all staring at it with their mouths open like codfish <mary poppins ref, anyone?>.

JinAh snapped out of her trance and waved her arms around. "She - she just... agh! She just... floof!"

"What is going on, people," said Charlotte.

"Ellie! She just disappeared through the fireplace!" Sebastian walked up to the fireplace and spied a bowl of, not surprisingly, floo powder. "...oh. This isn't good at all."

Will didn't look at all disturbed. "Well, one less kid to drag around, eh?" This earned a whack on the arm from JinAh.

So Ellie had just applied the power of the Floo Network to our adventure. It sounded exciting, and I wondered what it would be like to go up in green flames and disappear. Must be strange. Poor Ellie.

"What are we going to do?! How will we find her, guys? She could be anywhere!"

Vi patted her on the head. "Genevieve, issokay, we'll track her down. There are only so many places in Diagon Alley with floo fireplaces."

I did not believe this to be true, and plus I wanted to Floo Network myself to see what it was like. "Guys! You know what we should do? We should all go flooing. Like, right now. Maybe we'll end up in the same place as Ellie."

Will coughed, "Interesting idea, milady. Maybe we'll all die too if we try to stuff all of us into one fireplace." So it goes.

"It's worth a try, nubcake."

Sebastian noted, "Oh and if we get lost, I think I have a Apparition liscense." This was the dealbreaker for everyone else, and we decided to give it a try. We were mostly depending on Sebastian's Apparition liscence to get us out of any deep doo-doo we came across... metaphorical or not.

Gathering around in a circle, holding hands tightly, JinAh held the bowl of floo powder. "Let's go to Knocturn Alley first, and make sure Ellie isn't there," she said. We stepped into the fireplace as she tossed some powder in. "KNOCKTURN ALLEY!"

BOOOOF.

/kay guys that's all I got. I hope this works alright

[Teh Zu Person]

"KNOCKTURN ALLEY!"

BLOOF.

"Is this Borgin and Burke's?" questioned Sako as they stepped out of the chimney. She sneezed, along with a few other people, scattering dust around the area.

Everyone looked around, but there was no sign of Ellie. "It's deserted," Charlotte commented.

Vi made a face. "Yuck. Let's get out of here as soon as we can. It's super creepy."

Kris, covering her face with her sleeve, stepped forward into the shop a bit. "Even though we don't see here, she could be around. Only Merlin^* knows what goes on in Knockturn Alley."

Cameron had ignored comments from the others and was next to a table, poking at some kind of crystal. "What's this?"

"We dunno. Just. Don't. Touch." Rachel warned.

"I don't see Ellie, we should-," JinAh spoke, tugging on Rachel's sleeve.

"Ah, but my dear ladies, you see there's no floo powder back here!" Will interrupted. JinAh smacked him on the arm, again.

Rachel sighed. "Well, we'd better get back to Diagon Alley and start looking for other entrances of the floo network." They would have probably done just that, if it wasn't for a loud whirring sound that started to emanate from the shop - more specifically, the crystal Cameron had knocked over while no one was paying attention to him. As the noise grew more high-pitched, everyone put their hands over their ears.

"WHAT DID YOU DO?" Kris yelled.

"WHAT?" Cameron responded.

"I CAN'T HEAR YOU GUUUUYSSS!" Sonia called.

"WHAT WAS THAT?"

"IT'S TOO LOUD!!!"

Then, the crystal turned silent, flashed a bright golden, disappeared, and in front of them, Ellie appeared, on the floor rubbing her head.


^*Swearing of some kind??
(ooc: Also, is Sebastian even old enough for an apparition license? I thought you had to be 17.
Also... cliffhanger... sort of.)

[JinAh]

/ooc: I'm directly following Kris's post, without any annoying exposition.

I felt massively, massively relieved. "Ellie!" I ran over and gave her a hug. "What happened to you?"

She shrugged. "Haven't the foggiest idea. You all came looking for me!"

"Well, of course!" Charlotte said. "You're one of our friends' sisters and my sister's best friend, of course we'd go looking for you."

Ellie still looked dazed, but she managed to smile brightly.

"I don't see why we had to come through the floo network, though," said Vi, who seemed to dislike the dirty, dusty location extremely. "I mean, if Sebastian had an apparition license, he could have taken someone along by side-along apparition and the rest of us could have waited. As it is, we're likely to be caught by someone for being somewhere we shouldn't be."

She was right. Wordlessly, we began shuffling out the door - quietly, so as to disturb no one and nothing else.

While safely outside (or, as safe as one can get in Knockturn Alley), I asked Sebastian why he hadn't just apparated like Vi had said.

"Ah. Well," he said, looking a little embarrassed, "I technically have an apparition license, yes. But it's really just a piece of paper I found lying around in Hogsmeade one day and picked up."

"Then why did you-"

"Because then you all would agree to go looking for Ellie, and we could have an adventure. I was getting bored and didn't want to have to listen to you arguing again. Besides, I expected someone to call me out, anyway, and only really did it as a joke at first."

Silence.

"Oh, come on, it worked out for the best, didn't it?"

Silence.

"Fine! Fine! I'm sorry I lied, are you happy? Although I really don't see why it's such a big deal if-"

Rather pointed silence.

"Oh, all right. I shouldn't have lied. I'm very sorry. I risked your lives by offering a false guarantee of safety, and, on that note, can we please get out of here? Slytherin I may be, with a dungeon for a bedroom, but this place is giving me the creeps."

Will punched Sebastian in the arm in return for his apology, and we all hurried out of Knockturn Alley.

[Losi]

Okay, I have to say that I felt pretty bad about just leaving the Slytherin twins' bodies on the ground like that after we'd assaulted them. I mean, it was probably true that they deserved it, but I felt bad about it all the same. Not that I was one of the ones who had cast the stunning spell. I hadn't managed to produce one of those in my entire past three years at Hogwarts.

The shop that we found ourselves wandering into was wonderful! It was sweetly decorated with white lace curtains, a wide airy window, and an old, black, standing piano in the back with chipped keys. It was filled with beautiful little toys like miniature glass does with silver wings that gently flapped of their own accord, a sphere the size of a tennis ball and encrusted in mother-of-pearl that span and span on its invisible axis and made beautiful tinkling music when you touched it, a pocket looking glass that scrawled the name of your mood in sweet, looping cursive when you peered through it. Me and Genevieve were so enchanted that we almost didn't notice the others had wandered into the next room....

I'd never used the Floo network before, and was a bit excited to find out what it was like to be engulfed in green flame and whisked off to faraway places. But as it turned out, it wasn't as great as I'd been hoping. My eyes and mouth and nose got flooded with soot and I couldn't stop coughing; same with many of the others that hadn't used this system of travel before.

After we had fallen out of the fire place in a big jumbled heap, gotten up, brushed ourselves off and looked around at each other I found that we were covered in gray smudges of ash and dust. In fact, we seemed to compliment the dinginess of the place we were in very well. It was the complete opposite of the store we had been in before, full of creepy skulls of all kinds of animals and things that bubbled and writhed and crumbled and smelled.

While the others were conversing in their animated way, I noticed Sebastian, who had walked up to a very... disturbing artifact, it seemed out of curiosity. It was a withered hand that had been attached to a wooden plaque. The plaque was laid on the shelf so that the hand looked as if it was challenging him to an arm wrestle. Sebastian lifted his hand up, stopped, seemed to think better of it, and walked away.

Well, there was that awful piercing noise that gave me a headache, the relief of finding Ellie safe and well, my sister going up to her and hugging her, and then us running after them and back to Diagon Alley. I found Sebastian's antics more amusing than anything, honestly, and if you were looking you'd probably have seen myself smiling the entire time.

"AAAAHHHH!" exclaimed Will.

"What is it this time?" Jin Ah asked, crossing her arms and looking at him pointedly.

"Something... it pulled my hair!" he said. "My hair.... My beautif--"

THWACK.

"Silly boy, it was nothing."

"If you say so...."

We walked a few more steps.

THUD.

Will seemed to have tripped and fell flat on his face.

"You're not doing this on purpose, are you?" asked Rachel.

"No! Honest, I'm not!"

Quite suddenly and much to our surprise, Will started moving back, flat on his stomach and his arms and legs spread out wildly, into the dark street from whence we had come.

"AAAAAAHHHHH! HELP ME!" he started screaming. Curiously, no one moved.

But, after he had gone only a few yards away from us, the prankster revealed himself, still holding onto Will's ankles. What do you know, it was Edmund.

"EDMUND!" shouted Will, furious. Edmund was just chuckling. Will threw himself at his tormentor and together they started wrestling in the middle of the street.

But Sebastian quickly broke it up.

"Seriously, I'm tired of all this arguing."

Yes, Edmund was a very quiet and polite child, but Sebastian and Will brought out the worst/best in him.

Anyways, he was welcomed into our increasingly large group of friends, and we started questioning him.

"How did you manage to make yourself invisible?" asked Rachel.

Edmund demonstrated by putting on a large and quietly but exquisitely adorned cloak, and then he wasn't there anymore.

"Wo-hoah! You got an invisibility cloak? How'd you manage that?" Will had a fascinated smile, Ravenclaw that he was, and Sebastian actually seemed to have a certain degree of interest.

Edmund shrugged. "I found it."

"Where?" asked Kris.

"Oh, I was just looking around here in some old abandoned shops and I went into one of the back rooms. There was this large cedar chest in one of them, and I lifted the lid, and inside was the cloak. I decided to try it on experimentally, and voila! I had vanished. The shop was completely abandoned, and I didn't think anyone would miss it too much... So, I took it. This was in one of the inside pockets."

He held out a scroll of parchment, unrolled it, and we crowded around to see the four words that were written:

I had no suns.

"What's that supposed to mean?" asked Vi.

We all shrugged. Mysterious for sure, but definitely cool.

Will was ecstatic. He grinned savagely and put his hands on Edmund's shoulders. "Do you know all the pranks we could pull? All the things we could get away with?" He was shaking the shoulders now. "YOU'RE GOING TO MAKE ME RICH!"

THWACK.

"Stop being stupid."

"Sorry."

[JinAh]

Ohhhhh no. I could see where this was leading - and it was bad.

Will had the light of insanity in his eyes. "You have no idea how important this is!" he squeaked. "We could become the best pranksters Hogwarts has ever known! Even better than the Fantastic Faglieri Brothers of 1653-1661, even better than Anthony Carnagle and Mildred Porpet in the 1790s, even better than Marco Rivera, better than Oliver and Winslow Homer, Magical Mischief Makers Extraordinaire, even better than Caitlyn and Maggie Marks who did the Staircase-Hallway-Dormitory switch-up of 1954!"

We all looked at him, confused. His ecstatic expression changed to one of horror.

"Oh, come on! You must have heard of the SHD switch! It's part of our history! And the Faglieri Brothers? The Fantastic Faglieris? They turned the entire castle upside down - and that was only in their third year! This cloak - this cloak could allow us to test the depths of pranks as yet unprecedented - to boldly prank where no man has pranked before! This cloak-"

"-which we are going to return-"

"Return?"

Will looked as if I'd just told him that he had been forced into an arranged marriage with Logan Bingham.

"We can't return this!"

"We don't know who it belongs to! What if they come looking for us and we get arrested or something!"

"But we can't return this! Besides, it was just lying there for anyone to pick up!"

"Let's put it to a vote," Vi put in. "All in favor of returning the cloak?"

Everyone except for Will (obviously), Sebastian, Kris, and Rachel raised their hands.

"It's an invisibility cloak!" Will shrieked.

The other three all thought that anyone who left something that valuable lying around clearly was either a, irresponsible and not deserving of an invisibility cloak, or b, had left it there on purpose.

However, they were outnumbered - and so we went back to return the cloak.

We made our way to the store where Edmund had said that he had found the cloak. Will was sobbing into Sebastian's shoulder as Sebastian patted him on the back with an amused expression on his face.

"I think it's over here," Edmund said uncertainly. "No, wait, it's over here ..."

But try as he might, he could not find the store.

"Maybe we should ask a random clerk dude, guys," suggested Sonia.

That sounded like a good idea, so we followed her advice.

"Excuse me, sir, I was in a store near here - it was one of the abandoned ones, with a golden sun on top of the door - and I found-" Edmund glanced at us here, as if unsure as to whether or not he should mention that he had found something as valuable as an invisibility cloak- "something, and I was wondering who owned the shop, because-"

"I don't know what you're talking about, boy," said the clerk, annoyed. "There's no store by that description. There are only two abandoned stores near here - one of them is bright blue only sells blue merchandise, and the other one exclusively sells cat-themed merchandise."

"But-"

"There's no buts about it. Now, are you going to buy something or not? I have customers waiting, you know."

"He didn't have to be that rude," muttered Edmund as we left.

"There wasn't even anyone else in the shop."

"Forget the rudeness - there is definitely something fishy going on here," declared Sako. "First, you go into an old store and find an immensely valuable invisibility cloak - then, you go back and try to find the store where you got it - and the store is gone!"

I was struck with a sudden idea, and my mouth flew open. I glanced at Will, who seemed to have undergone the same epiphany.

"Just like-"

"-The Light Fantastic-"

"-and Soul Music-"

"The little shops that aren't there tomorrow-

"but that means-"

"It means you were meant to find it!" said Will, whose eyes were glowing again. "You are the rightful master of this cloak! It came to you, Edmund -andbyyoualsotome- not some other random stranger! This cloak is yours, and yours alone!"

"For once, I agree with Will," said Sako. "And you know I never agree with Will unless he's somehow accidentally stumbled upon the right answer."

"Thank you for your heartening confidence in me, Turdblossom," said Will, patting her on the head. "So, we're keeping it?"

"I don't know..." Edmund said.

"Please? Please can we keep it? Oh, pleeeeeease?"

"I'll feed it every day and take it on walks and clean up after it-" I said, mimicking Will's voice. He threw me a death glare.

"Oh, come on, Edmund," he said, his voice wheedling. He threw his arms around Edmund's neck. "You know I love you more than anyone else in the world-"

"What about me?" said Sebastian accusingly.

"Well, other than Sebastian. He's the other member of our Power Trio, he doesn't count. We are Power Trio brothers! You're Spock, he's Kirk, I'm McCoy - c'mon, Edmund! Don't deny me this!"

"Okay, okay, okay!" said Edmund. "Get off my neck, Will!"

"YES!" said Will, jabbing at the air victoriously with not just one but both fists. "This day will live on in my memory forever!"

"Sure, whatever," said Sebastian. "I think you just about put Edmund in a coma. Are you all right?"

"I'm fine," said Edmund, massaging his neck.

"Oh. Right. Sorry, Mundy," said Will shamefacedly.

"Mundy?" the rest of us chorused.

"Mundy?" Edmund looked just as confused as the rest of us.

"Yeah, Mundy. You needed a nickname. Edmund sounds too stiff and formal."

"Does not!"

"Besides, Mundy sounds ridiculous," said Sebastian. "No one would ever take him seriously!"

"So? Life is too short to be taken seriously!"

Sebastian and Edmund rolled their eyes at Will, then turned on us. "You guys are having fun watching this, aren't you?"

We nodded.

"You try having to be best friends with this guy. Honestly, sometimes it's hard not going all Mortimer Fremantle on him and cursing him into silence."

"You would never do that," said Will. "You love me too much!" He struck a doe-eyed, rather stupid-looking pose.

Sebastian glanced at Edmund, an a message seemed to pass between the two. Before Will could say anything, they turned to him and yelled:

"Petrificus totalus!"

Will froze, stiff as a board. Sebastian slung him over his shoulder.

"Come on, guys," they said. "Let's finish up shopping." He turned to Will. "We'll unfreeze you once we're done. Ah, blessed silence!"

[Vi]

I wondered if the invisibility cloak actually woven out of Demiguise hair, or merely a charmed cloth. The former, of course, being much more reliable and much more expensive. If Will wanted to get anywhere with that invisibility cloak, it must be quality material. Though, eventually, all invisibility cloaks do lose their powers over time. I decided not to tell Will that. He'd probably just use a weird accent again until Jin Ah whacks him with a book. After I had finished musing my thoughts, Will had been petrified and was being carried like a sack of flour by Sebastian.

Just after Sebastian commented about finishing up our shopping, a loud chime sounded exactly five times (though I'm not quite sure how it could sound not exactly five times).

"Well, the Hogwarts Express will be leaving King's Cross Station from Platform 9 3/4 in one day and eighteen hours," I noted.

"Way to be exact," Ray responded dryly.

"So, where are we going next?" I asked, since I told my dad I would meet him in front of the Leaky Cauldron at six, and if we were going someplace where we would all be enthralled and spend days without realizing it...

"Our pets need stuff too, don't they?" Charlotte chimed, always thoughtful. The rest of us had completely forgotten that we took care of creatures of any kind. Probably why most of us didn't take Care of Magical Creatures as an elective.

"So, uh, let's see. Eeylop's has the best stuff for owls," Sako said, pointing in some general direction. "And Magical Menagerie is best for everything else. So, owl people, that'd be Rachel, Vi, Sonia, Sebastian, and myself, onwards to Eeylop's. Er, everyone else, to Magical Menagerie!" Sako facilitated our movements and we followed thusly.

Once we got to Eeylop's, it wasn't actually obvious if it was closed or not. You could hear a lot of soft hooting noises, but it was dark. But I suppose it had to be, for the owls. We walked inside and then found (make that stumbled into) the shopkeeper who was, presumably, Eeylops. He had rather large eyes (though it was rather hard to tell what color in the darkness), which made him look vaguely like an owl.

"Yes? What brings you here?" he asked in a strange, nasally voice.

"Er. We're here to buy owl food and treats. Uh. Sir?" Ray told him, tentatively.

"Uh, would you mind if we used Lumos? It's awfully hard to see in here," I asked.

"Hm? I don't know what you're talking about. 'Tis bright as day in here!"

"Well, er, our retinas haven't yet adjusted to the little amount of light in this shop. But I suppose you, having been in her for so long, are fine. But honestly, I'm not even sure if I'm actually facing you."

"Well, fine. But keep it down! And only one of you! The light hurts."

"Uh. Okay." I held up (er, down) my wand. "Lumos."

"Good, now you can see! Now find your items, pay for them, and leave. Your light is disturbing the owls."

We heeded his orders (honestly it was creepy in there; I went in and out after I had bought Euclid the first time coming in there) and bought enough owl feed and treats to last us until the winter holidays, paid, and stumbled around until we found the door.

[Katie]

Only one more miles, I tell myself as I round the corner, I once again am getting ready for quiddage. Even though quiddage isn't as hard as some other sports I still love it, and will honor its code. As I turn around the corner I see the broom store in Diagon Alley I look around and see the usual students milling around and them stare at me as I run in a running outfit, what makes them stare is that I am running. No one really runs except people on a mission, people about to be killed or professorial Quiddage people, which I am not. I am wearing a dark red shirt and on the back it has the symbol of Gryfindor, I am wearing black running shorts, a small black bag and near hand I have my wand, hovering is a better way to put it, because my hands aren't fully closed (it affects my running skill) but the wand stays in the middle like I am holding it, it took me two years to perfect that and I do like to show it off, and luckily I checked the rules and there are no rules against it so.... Anyway... after crossing the alley ways I get to a small stall. The stall is not too nice, but pretty nice. It has a small sign that says:Light Feet, the lightest things around In the stall there an assortment of things, pens, shoes, robes and all that feel as light as a feather. The owner of the shop is my friend, or my friend's dad's friend. Same thing really.
"Hello Katie," Mr.Jackson says to me, Mr.Jackson is one of the only american wizards who migrated, and he migrated to get a better education for his daughter. Pretty nice actually.
"Hey Mr.Jackson, mind if I change so I can meet Kenna?" I ask him, and after he nods I go in a changing room of his and change quickly in dull robes.
"Thanks, Mr.Jackson." i say and then smile as I walk back to the alley to get my books with my good friend.





I first look around for Kenna, she will probably be the animal shop in the besides saying we will meet there she just loves animals. I walk into the shop and slowly look around, until I finally see her. She is petting a small but fierce looking cat softly. . when she finally sees me she smiles and walks toward me.
"Hey Katie,"
"Hey!" I say as I am smiling, she looks at my slightly red face and doesn't need to even ask the question. "Yes I did run so what? We need to get ready, remember?"
"I remember, but we need to get our stuff." she says and she hands me the list of items. I smile at her and read it slowly.
"Lets first get the books," I agree and after walking through and hastily getting our books we go to the Quality Quiddage supplies. It is a little crowded in the front and we squeeze through the first years to get inside. Once inside I breathe the lovely air of wood, oil and metal. It is beautiful, we skim around and keep looking until finally we come to purchase some items, Kenna a broom polisher kit, and I some leather gloves, I do not ask what type of leather but it looks nice. After we leave I pull out a small bag and give it to Kenna, she lifts her eyebrown in mock suprise and hands me a bag too. When I open it I see that she got me a small necklace for Ranger, my cat, and on the center there was a quaffle with KB etched into the middle underneath Ranger. It made me laugh very loudly and after a moment I saw her laugh too. an. It was the same gift exactly minus a diffrent last letter and name.
"Geez," I say,
"Yeah, oh well. I did like it" she says and we laugh a little more until we hear some screams. I roll my eyes and look to see Kristen, Sako, and a bunch of other fourth year people walk around, I smile at them and wave and after a few laughs I ask what they were up too.


(Would this be alright Kristen/Sako/Vi? You guys could get done with your adventrure and then talk to me...yay?:S If not I can just stumble into you guys or something.)

[JinAh]

/ooc LAURABAURA'S COMING IN HERE. And Willow will be mentioned.

I felt horribly guilty that I had forgotten all about my dear kitty. I swore that I would make it up to her by buying her the most delicious cat food known to felinekind at Magical Menagerie - only to find, to my dismay, that they were out of everything except for Dearkitty's Delight.

"But it's awful," I said. "My cat hates Dearkitty's Delight. I tried giving it to her once and she wouldn't even touch it. She just looked at me with this sorrowful expression like I had failed her beyond belief."

"Dearkitty's is disgusting," Will (who Sebastian had unfrozen after around twenty minutes of lugging him around on his shoulder proved a literal pain in the neck) agreed. "It's got this gross sandpapery texture, it's way too sweet, and the aftertaste! It tastes the way formaldehyde smells!"

Charlotte, Genevieve, Saki, Kris, Edmund, the Magical Menagerie employee, and I all stared at Will.

"You eat cat food?" asked the employee, a disturbingly fascinated look on his face.

"Not recreationally, no," said Will. "I don't like cat food much - it's more of Pygmy puff feed and rat food and the occasional owl treat for me."

"Oh, ignore Will," said Kris. "He's just pulling our leg again."

"Actually, he's not," said Ellie. "He keeps it in his room. I've seen it."

We stared at Will some more. He crossed his arms defensively and said, "What?"

"Let's move on, shall we?" I said brightly. "So, when will you have new food in?" I asked the employee.

He heroically rescued himself from his horror at Will's diet. "Ah, yes, well, we should have some KatKrunch coming in Monday, or if your cat is the more discerning type..."

And so I put in an order for cat food, Will got OMAR a new cage, and the rest of us all got various supplies for our pets - except Charlotte and Genevieve, who had no pets. Genevieve's face had been a-glow with happiness the entire day, but a storm cloud of jealousy threatened to darken it.

"Why can't I have any pets, Elizabeth?" she asked Charlotte petulantly.

Charlotte looked embarrassed that her sister was acting so childishly in public. "You know Mom and Dad won't let us have any at home-"

"But we're not at home! We're going to stay at Hogwarts for basically the whole year? Why can't I have one little pet?" her angry tone turned wheedling. "Pleeease, Elizabeth?"

"I don't know ..."

"Actually, she's got a point," said Edmund. "Why don't you call your parents and ask if Genevive can have a pet? I can take it home with me during vacations and stuff if your parents don't want an animal at their house."

"Well, I won't be able to call them for a while, and, well, we won't have time to come back and buy a present, and ... and, well..."

"Actually," said the employee, who had been listening to our conversation, "I have a muggle telephone in the back room."

"You do?"

"Yeah," he said. "My sister's. She's really into muggle stuff."

"But that's awesome!" I cut in. "You can call your parents, Charlotte, and ask if Genevieve can have a pet just while she's at school!"

"I still don't know," said Charlotte.

"Why not?" cried Genevieve.

"Well," said Charlotte, blushing, "I don't really know if we can afford it - I mean, pets are expensive."

"That depends on what kind of pet you get," said the employee. "I mean, dogs are expensive - goodness yes. The same goes for owls - and mice and rats and pygmy puffs, but those are still cheaper than dogs and owls. You could get a newt, though, or a salamander - those are much, much cheaper."

"Can we just look?" begged Genevieve. "Please?"

"Oh, all right," Charlotte sighed.

We trooped along to where the animal cages were.

"What about this little mouse?" asked Kris. "It's cute!"

"I don't really like it," said Genevieve critically. "It's too ... fuzzy."

"What about this toad, then?" asked Edmund.

"Too warty."

"This flobberworm?"

"Too boring."

"Newt?"

"Too snakelike."

Genevieve caught sight of something, and her eyes lit up. "Ooh! This is too cute!" she squealed. It was tiny green frog with HUGE eyes. "Look at its big eyes! Isn't it adorable? It looks like it's smiling at me!"

"Oh, that?" said the employee. "That's a ghost glass frog. You can have it for a sickle - no one really likes them, the eyes creep them out."

"I can't see why," said Genevieve. "It looks so sweet - look, Elizabeth! It's smiling at me!"

And indeed, it looked like it was smiling at her.

Charlotte called her parents, and her parents finally said that if it wasn't too expensive, and if Genevieve could be responsible, etc., then Genevieve could have it.

"YES!" said Genevieve. Charlotte gave the employee three sickles - one for the frog, one for a little terrarium, and one for frog food. We walked out of the store all feeling pretty happy. Genevieve was holding the little glass case carefully in her arms - the employee had assured us it was enchanted with Cushioning Charms in case she dropped it - and proudly named it Ilexi Cetraline - Lex for short.

We reunited with the others, and they cooed over Gen's frog.

"Hey!" said Kris. "Isn't that Katie and Kenna over there?"

Indeed, it was. We waved at them, and they came over. We chatted about Diagon Alley, about quidditch, about how excited we were to be going back to Hogwarts. Katie and Kenna wanted to run off to look at some new quidditch strategy books that had come in at Flourish and Blotts, so we bid them farewell and went on our way. It was getting late. Sonia seemed a little quiet, a little regretful - until suddenly, her entire face lit up.

"LAURAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!" she shrieked. She ran towards a tall blonde girl and squeezed her into a choke-inducing hug.

"Agh-can't-breathe-" Laura managed to squeak out.

Sonia laughed. "Baha, sorry," she said. "Yay! Laura! I thought I wasn't going to see you today!"

"I thought I wouldn't see any of you guys, either!" she said. "Isn't Willow with you guys?"

I shook my head. "We haven't seen her ... we'll see her tomorrow on the train, though."

"Yeah, I guess. Aah! I'm so excited!" Laura had a huge smile on her face. "I even did my nails for tomorrow, look!" She held up her hands for our approval: they were in dark red, with golden stripes on them. They were fabulous.

Will pretended to swoon. "Gryffindor-themed nails!" he said. "How can Ravenclaw possibly compete against a foe armed with such dastardly weapons?"

Laura sniffed. "You're just jealous of my fabulous beauty," she said, twirling and fluffing out her hair. Just then, two little voices called, "SONIA!"

"Aah! It's Sophie and Elena! I'm sorry guys but I have to go - see you tomorrow!" She ran off, waving at us through the crowd.

Like Sonia, we all had to leave; we hugged and waved each other our good-byes and walked off, filled with excitement about the day to come.