With her pocket money at the ready and jangling in her hand, Remy pondered whether getting her face painted would be cool or totally childish. It would definitely fit in with her chosen outfit of the day - a pink, glittery top matched with a pleated skirt. She looked as if she was ready to party, and obviously wanted to dress to impress the company she’d soon be keeping. Her letter to Atlas agreed to meet at this event, although they hadn’t distinguished where exactly. Remy’s eyes danced over the activities while still keeping an eye out for her friend.

The atmosphere here was so fun, and she felt really lucky that her sister had agreed to bring her here. Thankfully, Anjya had kinda dropped her off to go and do her own thing, because she did nawt need a chaperone. Remy had a look at the decorations available as she would definitely be leaving here with a funky tote bag, deciding to wait for Atlas before deciding on face paints.

Besides, the face paint would interfere with her lip gloss

It was weird being around the celebration without his brother and he hoped Aries would not take that personally because Atlas certainly would and he would be a real proper grump about it too. Rather the budding THIRD year capitalized on the Flamsteed Family's varied interests and used the branching off point to go seek out Remy. Problem was that, apparently, neither of them had had the foresight to pick a specific location and that made finding her quite the task. What if she was running late and he the first to arrive at a location? Should he stay and wait there? What if she was early and had already set up camp somewhere and was waiting for him? There were entirely too many variations of such a simple statement as 'let's meet at the 600 Years Celebration" where they did not, in fact, actually meet. The event was the entirety of the Alley, after all.

However, as sheer dumb luck would have it, through his first stroll down the busy streets he happened to spot the blonde at one of the last booths he figured he would find himself at. He was not particularly artistic, unless you counted origami and robotics as art, and he personally had no need for any decorative shirts or bags or whatever. Though, maybe, he could make something and decorate it so poorly that it became a sort of gag...but a gag that dad or mum would feel obligated to wear so as not to hurt Atlas' feelings. Or maybe that stage, the one with the macaroni art mostly, was long over.

...or maybe he could find use for a bag. That seemed the most practical.

"There you are," he announced as he came to a stop beside her. "I was worried I might not find you and that would have been a bummer." He glanced apprehensively over at the face painting - a big no thanks - and then back to Remy with a casual kind of smile. "So...design?"

Ilya was an artistic, self-proclaimed artist but that was all he needed. He sported his naturally (can a Metamorphmagus even say that?) blonde hair and blue eyes as he waltzed into the station, making sure to avoid all the little ones with sticky fingers and colourful tongues. Ekh.

He fixed his purse on his shoulder, it was dark grey with trendy chaotic white spots here and there. He enjoyed his shoulder bags and purses, those who knew him would guess he'd come here to dye a shirt to match one of his shoulder bags.

Saying hello to the people around him was not one of his traits, so he simply walked to an empty table and gracefully sat down to unfold his white t-shirt in front of him. This was the perfect location for a date but alas, here he was all alone enjoying his miraculous fingers work their way to turn the white t-shirt into an exquisite piece.

The array of decorations certainly distracted Remy from how long it was taking Atlas to find her. Sure, she should be making the effort too, but also it could be helpful to stay in one place. After browsing for a few minutes, Remy returned to the start to choose what to decorate. Her fingers hovered over the three options before landing on the tote bag that she was originally interested in.

Before she headed to the end of the booth, a wild Atlas appeared beside her. She dropped her hands to her side, tote bag clutched tight. “Here I am. I was just about to look for you.” She lied a little. “How cool is this?” Remy turned to look at it all once more, her glittery top shimmering under the sun.

Remy had all the plans to head to every single booth at some point, if her galleons allowed it. If Atlas allowed it, too, of course. “First you need to choose something to decorate.” She lifted the tote bag into view, and her other hand pointed to the area with all the decorations. “They have moving ink, which I think we should use.” Remy acting like she was in charge of this booth, or something.

She'd had every intention of leaving for the States early in order to get settled before she started university, but the draw of the Diagon Alley celebration had been too good to give up. After having made the decision to homeschool her final year, Kimberly had really come to realize just how important a lot of the faces at Hogwarts had been to her and how much she had missed getting to spend time with them all. She wouldn't say she regretted her decision, being home had certainly had it's merits and she doubted she could have stepped foot in Hogwarts after all the sad memories she now had, but distance had certainly given her time to remember the good too. And she was hoping to run into people so she could express her appreciation for the good before she set off for her next big adventure.

Besides. She'd seen something about decorating commemorative items. So naturally, the loves of her life needed special shirts decorated by Aunt K. She hadn't decided yet however on if said shirts would also have the added bonus of embarrassing her older sister, but knowing her... it was a very strong possibility.

Grabbing all of her supplies, she scanned the crowd, noting how cute all the younger students were before spotting a familiar face as well and making her way towards him. She didn't ask permission, merely slid into the seat across from Ilya and laid out the small shirts she'd purchased. "Well, yours was certainly a welcome face to find in a crowd. How are you, Belrose?"

UHM?? Ilya's eyebrows knotted together in an attempt to visually disapprove of having company. Oh wait, it was Kimberly! "Merlin, yours was the last face I thought I'd see today." What was she exactly doing here in a lame festival with more kids than teens her age? No, she must've been a year ahead of him, right??? Right.

Ilya finished laying down his white t-shirt and moved on to pull the colour palette that was provided at the station a little closer to him. If he was a few months older, he'd be allowed to use his wand this summer but alas (again) he was not. So he'd succumb to using the stupid brushes and tubes like muggles. And kids.

"I thought you'd be off adult-prancing away into what's beyond school by now." They were on a semi-friend basis, he'd say. He did not have any close friends, to be honest, and that was a consequence of many layers that he did not wish to unfold to anyone yet. Some of them had to do with his struggle in keeping one appearance sometimes, but others held more emotional and mental factors. He found loneliness to be the way he protected himself basically.

SPOILER!!: I can't with how cute she is

Quote:

Originally Posted by Emzily

The array of decorations certainly distracted Remy from how long it was taking Atlas to find her. Sure, she should be making the effort too, but also it could be helpful to stay in one place. After browsing for a few minutes, Remy returned to the start to choose what to decorate. Her fingers hovered over the three options before landing on the tote bag that she was originally interested in.

Before she headed to the end of the booth, a wild Atlas appeared beside her. She dropped her hands to her side, tote bag clutched tight. “Here I am. I was just about to look for you.” She lied a little. “How cool is this?” Remy turned to look at it all once more, her glittery top shimmering under the sun.

Remy had all the plans to head to every single booth at some point, if her galleons allowed it. If Atlas allowed it, too, of course. “First you need to choose something to decorate.” She lifted the tote bag into view, and her other hand pointed to the area with all the decorations. “They have moving ink, which I think we should use.” Remy acting like she was in charge of this booth, or something.

Her top was...distracting. Glitter and all. It made Atlas wish he had a pair of sunglasses to help block a some of the rainbow glare. It was personal taste, of course, and that was not to say that he had not set off his fair share of glitter bombs in his day. At least she was even more eye catching like this.

"Funny, thought you may have forgotten about me," he chuckled with a soft nudge from his elbow to her side. He was teasing, of course, and poking fun at her wrong assumptions on the train. Something he was NOT going to forget nor let go for a while, though he may stop poking fun at her for it come December or March. Maybe.

"I think you and I have very different definitions of cool," he said without thinking and his brain catching up with him about half a second later. "I don't think any of this is lame. I'm just not much of an artist. Not unless its robotics or paper folding." Or metallurgy and metal charming, which he was just beginning to dabble in. "Your going to have to teach me." And he was, usually, a pretty eager student. Remy seemed eager to be a teacher too.

His choice was pretty easy to make (he did not wear those kinds of hats and he would never wear the t-shirt) and he reached for a tote bag for himself before turning towards her with a small grin. "Check." His bright blue eyes followed her indication towards the "paint". "Moving ink." It was a kneejerk correction, though it did not come across as one. "Cool."

No idea what he was going to draw.

Him bringing the forgetfulness thing up again. If only he knew that all of that stemmed from her own insecurity!! Remy snorted a little, her head tilting towards him to match her eye roll. “Never. Speaking of having a good memory - I hope you haven’t forgotten…” she trailed off to reach into her handbag pocket to pull out a packet of sour sweets. She wiggled it in his direction with a playful smirk. “They’re the sourest I could find.” Even checking with the sweet shop owner for their opinion on the matter.

Well… that was already obvious. “You kidding? Those things do make you an artist.” There were many things that counted as being creative, she thought Atlas would know that!! “I can give you some ideas, actually we should go for something matching.” Instead of friendship bracelets, let’s go for friendship tote bags.

Remy hesitated no longer and went straight for the moving ink. She had used this stuff plenty of times throughout her childhood. “What’s your favourite…” hmm, animal was too predictable. “… snack?” Hopefully he’d pick correctly. Correctly as in - the same answer as hers.

The visual disapproval was noted. But she was so comfortable at this point forcing her company on people she didn't pay much mind to it. Plus he was communicating and socializing in what she remembered to be his own way, so she was working on the assumption her presence was at least somewhat acceptable. Though in all honesty, were it not she probably still wouldn't have moved. Too much work now that everything was laid out in front of her. "I was hoping to run into some familiar faces. Catch up and say good byes before it's off to school." Which she'd already found one, so she was feeling pretty optimistic regarding the possibility of more.

K hardly noticed he was doing things the muggle way, no magic involved, as she was as well. Her decisions in life just made it make more sense to not rely heavily on the ability of magical assistance, when odds were she wouldn't have many opportunities to use it. Especially in the next year.

The adult prancing made her giggle, "I'm leaving soon for the States to do just that. Have some time to settle in my new surroundings before it's all classes all the time." She was nervous for the move too. Not because of anything to do with New York itself, given her sister, her best friend and her boyfriend were already there for various reasons, but even with having come to a decision there was still a lot of anxiety with leaving her Mom. Maybe that was really the truth of why she didn't leave as early as she thought she'd leave. A point she did not make to her sister lest they get in another round of the blame game. "Are you excited for your final year at Hogwarts?"

Colours... Look at all these colours!!

Lisa flailed her arms excitedly just like this SS emoji before realizing that she was public and she ought to calm down her reactions a little. She was after all (insert hair flip) the big 1-2 and she needed to be ... ahem... more mature and sophisticated like... like a lady instead of a ragamuffin pirate Queen with her hair askew and a lightsaber in hand. She was even wearing a cute white sundress and had flowers in her hair. She smoothed down her dress and took a pause to calm herself.

The calmness didn't last too too long because she became excited to meet her friend here. Lia was crafty and Lisa felt like this stall would be up both of their alleys of expertise. Paracord animals leading into fun colourful clothing designs. They'd have a successful shop in no time V and Daniel would see this in no time!!. She didn't want a shop for the pocket money; however, she would not say no to extra pocket money. She wanted it because it sounded like fun!

While she waited for Lia, Lisa decided to eye the available items to decorate. The pointy hat was the choice for her. She was going to make her own version of the Sorting Hat and call it the Fortune Hat! Heh. She could find silly riddles and fortunes to memorise and then force her friends to wear it so they could hear about their futures. Hehe. She rubbed her hands together maniacally at all the troublesome and fun possibilities in her mind. This was going to be a fun summer and a fun train ride back to Hogwarts.

Lisa was 100% planning on getting her face painted too.

Ash was technically supposed to be hanging out with Serena. But Serena wasn’t at the fireworks booth yet, so Ash stopped by the face paint station with Dustin. “Dustin Dustin Dustin!!! Can I get my face painted please? Pretty please???” She just NEEDED face paint. RIGHT NOW.

Dustin smiled. “Sure Ashley. But only if I get MY face painted too. I say we should get butterflies.” He liked butterflies. Especially BLUE butterflies. Ashley couldn’t say no to that, could she?

“ Butterflies. Sure. I know you mostly want to look cute when Alex comes back.” Ash was fully aware that her bodyguard mostly just really loved face paint. But he actually blushed at her comment, and that was hilarious. It was enough to made her laugh really hard. “Just kidding. Let’s get our faces painted. With matching butterflies in different colors.”

They had lots of time to kill.

SPOILER!!: that is just going to inflate his head XD he likes being the favorite

Quote:

Originally Posted by Emzily

SPOILER!!: “fave”

QUOTE=sweetpinkpixie;12503270]Her top was...distracting. Glitter and all. It made Atlas wish he had a pair of sunglasses to help block a some of the rainbow glare. It was personal taste, of course, and that was not to say that he had not set off his fair share of glitter bombs in his day. At least she was even more eye catching like this.

"Funny, thought you may have forgotten about me," he chuckled with a soft nudge from his elbow to her side. He was teasing, of course, and poking fun at her wrong assumptions on the train. Something he was NOT going to forget nor let go for a while, though he may stop poking fun at her for it come December or March. Maybe.

"I think you and I have very different definitions of cool," he said without thinking and his brain catching up with him about half a second later. "I don't think any of this is lame. I'm just not much of an artist. Not unless its robotics or paper folding." Or metallurgy and metal charming, which he was just beginning to dabble in. "Your going to have to teach me." And he was, usually, a pretty eager student. Remy seemed eager to be a teacher too.

His choice was pretty easy to make (he did not wear those kinds of hats and he would never wear the t-shirt) and he reached for a tote bag for himself before turning towards her with a small grin. "Check." His bright blue eyes followed her indication towards the "paint". "Moving ink." It was a kneejerk correction, though it did not come across as one. "Cool."

No idea what he was going to draw.

Him bringing the forgetfulness thing up again. If only he knew that all of that stemmed from her own insecurity!! Remy snorted a little, her head tilting towards him to match her eye roll. “Never. Speaking of having a good memory - I hope you haven’t forgotten…” she trailed off to reach into her handbag pocket to pull out a packet of sour sweets. She wiggled it in his direction with a playful smirk. “They’re the sourest I could find.” Even checking with the sweet shop owner for their opinion on the matter.

Well… that was already obvious. “You kidding? Those things do make you an artist.” There were many things that counted as being creative, she thought Atlas would know that!! “I can give you some ideas, actually we should go for something matching.” Instead of friendship bracelets, let’s go for friendship tote bags.

Remy hesitated no longer and went straight for the moving ink. She had used this stuff plenty of times throughout her childhood. “What’s your favourite…” hmm, animal was too predictable. “… snack?” Hopefully he’d pick correctly. Correctly as in - the same answer as hers.[/QUOTE]

His middle name may as well be clueless to these things. At least in this time his naïve insensitivity wasn't costing anyone anything, right? The teasing was all in good fun and only moderately spiteful at this point. Which is why he returned her banter with a mischievous grin of his own while patting his little satchel bag. "You sure like to insult my brain, because of course I remembered and nicked this from dad's on private store of muggle treats. It even comes with it's own challenge printed on the back of the label. Keep it in your mouth for 15 seconds or less, and you're a flobberworm. Over a minute and you're a dragon." And then he did that thing, that tongue thing that she did all the time, and still wasn't sure if he felt cooler doing it or not. Plus...the air sort of tasted funny. "I am paraphrasing the scale, obviously." He hadn't been all that into what words muggles had used instead.

He would much rather be burning his taste buds off than playing with paint.

It wasn't that she was wrong, but that still wasn't what he meant. There was being an artist and then there was being an artist. If she had called him a visionary, he would have been more on board with the term, but he wasn't a drawing and painting kind of artist. Construction was different. If they were making something out of popsicle sticks he would be a champion.

"Matching?" he repeated, ears perking up and burning ever so slightly. Matching snack tote bags, by the sound of it. Her question was at least an easy one to answer. "Banana sliced in half with peanut butter spread over it and with a little bit of chocolate drizzled in a zipzag pattern over it." He paused, wondering if that was too specific a definition. "Or black cherry yogurt." Or did she mean more like a sweetie? "Or Pop Rocks." Another pause, now realizing that both of these were nonmagical items and maybe he should be listing something from the magical menu. "Or Fizzing Whizzbees."

There. A thorough answer and an accompanying grin to boot.

"Oh, and sea salt and vinegar crisps."

Since he had been listing only sweet things.

Henry didn't really have a lot of stations here that were of his "super" interest. Sure, everything was interesting but some were just....more! Naturally, he was more drawn to the decoration station because he was Henry Desmond Hembree, who liked messing with all kinds of pens, pencils, paint, eyeshadows, and handy art mediums. The clothing booth was fun too, but he was more on a draw-on-skin mood at the moment.

Face-painting booth, it is!

So he quickly moved there. Henry had found an empty space for himself, after separating from his parents who were off to do busy adult things. He could easily amuse himself anyway! As he passed by, the Hufflepuff did notice Ash and, like what he always does when he notices someone that he knew from school, Henry offered a BIG smile and a casual wave to her. "Hi!!" He said. Oh, and an equally BIG smile to the man with her. Her dad, maybe? How fun!

Henry wiggled his fingers as he looked through the various colours available to him. He kinda wished Lewis were here. They could've painted each other's face! Face paint was almost like makeup, after all.

Ilya was also used to forcing his company on some people (those he knew would do him no harm). In fact, he would usually object on doing anything or being with anyone the first few minutes, but then he'd go along with it or them. This was one of his mother's and grandmother's biggest frustration with him -- he always said 'no' first then he was forced to do something, then he would like that something. It was exhausting to everyone involved.

Ah, Kimberly was here on a goodbye mission then. "The states? Wow, that's far. And kind of... I don't know, I have never been a fan of the states." Or anywhere different culturally, but Ilya wasn't about to divulge his slightly prejudiced outlook on the world. "Have you decided what you are going to study? Oh Merlin, is it a Muggles University?" His hand found his chest in a dramatic small gasp. Kimberly wouldn't, would she?

His 'artistic' work on his t-shirt was on hold for now, he found his friend and her news to be quite captivating at the moment. Think of the scandal gossip her family would have if she actually went on to study something Muggle-ish in a Muggles university. Whew! He'd definitely enjoy being in that circle of gossip. That was his guilty pleasure.

Dahlia had arrived at the celebration a little earlier in the day with her family. With so much to see and do, her parents and thought it a good idea for them all to get a bit of family time in before her siblings and herself went off to do their own thing for a bit. It had been a decision she couldn't argue with, spending time with them all was something she loved doing anyhow.

As the time drew closer for her to meet up with with Lisa, she skipped bounced her way down to the very end of the street. Alllllll the way to the decoration station. Her eyes sparkling when they landed on her friend. "LISSSSSSA! Hi!" Dahlia squealed happily rushing at her so she could give her a hug. "I love your dress! And the flowers in your hair are perrrrrect!!!" Lisa looked really really cute! While she was wearing a very cute lilac skirt with a white tank top that had a rainbow unicorn on it, paired with her white sneakers no one saw the shirt. She happened to be wearing a much too large hoodie over it that clearly wasn't hers and she had pushed the sleeves up to her elbows.

"So what do you want to do first?! Should we make something? Get our faces painted?" She giggled with pure excitement. This was going to be so much fun!

"Henry! Hey!" Ash was glad to see Henry. He was definitely as hyped as she was. Which was nice. He wasn't killing the vibe. Which was a very ironic thing for ASHLEY CALDER FOX, THE QUEEN OF MISERY, to be thinking about. But she wasn't hypocritical. She found herself rather insufferable when she was sad too. She hoped it wasn't awkward with him or anything... hadn't he dated Mamie at some point? Were they still dating? She didn't think so? Did he know that Ash... it didn't matter. Really. She was being happy today, and she refused to bring down her own mood. "What face paint are you getting? We're getting butterflies, and they may or may not be in the same color." She grinned. Maybe Henry liked butterflies too? Or not. That was fine too.

Dustin laughed and ruffled Ash's hair. "I want blue butterflies. It's up to you whether you'd want the same." He smiled at Henry. He looked like he liked face paint too. Good! Face paint was for everyone. Including six foot six bodyguards named Dustin, and adorable but
usually very sad witches named Ashley. He held out his hand for "Henry" to shake. "I'm Dustin. Ashley's bodyguard. Nice to meet you." Ashley had friends and acquaintances, apparently. That was relieving. Alex would be happy to hear it.

"I'd like to be the queen of butterflies too." Ash looked at Henry anxiously. "Am I allowed to be the queen of three things or is that not fair??? Because I'm already the queen of fairies and the Weasley Swamp... but I didn't think anyone would want those titles. Oh well. I'll just be the queen of butterflies until someone else takes it away from me. Do YOU wanna be the queen of butterflies?" That would be kinda awkward. She supposed if he wanted to be the queen of butterflies, she'd have to give him the title. But maybe he wanted to be the king of face paint? She'd happily let him have that...

It was a nice day to spend in Diagon Alley. Oliver had heard about the event going on and couldn't resist heading to London to check it out. He had a double stroller with the twins. He'd slathered them both with sunscreen and had an extra bottle in the stroller pocket. Just in case. Alexei was silently watching the scene around him, while Elena was wiggling and trying to get down to walk by herself. But Oliver wasn't prepared to handle that on his own at the moment. Hopefully Dragomir would be done with rehearsal and could join them soon.

For now, Oliver was keeping his eye out for a toddler friendly activity. And what he found was an art station. Perfect. He loved art, and the twins would enjoy making a mess with art supplies. Or maybe they'd like a face painting, if they would sit still long enough. He stepped up to the booth and paid for three tote bags. Then he made his way to the end of one of the tables, sat down, and parked the stroller next to him. He placed a tote bag in front of each of the twins and began gathering art supplies for them to make a mess with. A controlled mess. Hopefully.

Perhaps he had gotten out of the wrong side of the bed this morning but Kelton was not in the mood for a festival. But he refused to let his temper ruin the day for the kids. They earned to have some fun before going back to school.

Kelton stood up from his seat behind the booth as the first few kids arrived at the tables. A somewhat forced smile on his face as he observed the group. It seemed that most were in pairs. Two older students (Ilya and Kimberly) seemed to be catching up. Another two younger students (Atlas and Remy) who he overheard wanting to make matching tote bags. Ah, young love.

When a presumably father (Dustin) appeared with a young witch (Ashley) Kelton assumed that they were father and daughter, (He hoped to see more parents with their kids. Festivals like these were perfect for the whole family. )joined by a wizard named Henry? had he heard correctly? It seemed that they as well as the other two girls (Dahlia and Lisa) wanted to paint their faces but that was not his speciality. He looked over at Vitani to see if she was busy or not, if she was he could ...try?


"If anyone needs help with anything feel free to ask" Kelton said just as someone (Oliver) arrived at the tables pushing a stroller. They were here to assist after all and time would seem to go faster if he did something that was not just sitting on his stool.

Misa knew exactly the person she wanted to do this with when she first saw the booth so she made plans with the one and only Ivy to make shirts together.

She waited by the booth and looked around for her dormmate and art soulmate.

They had much to catch up on.

Okay when Lia squealed her name, Lisa couldn't help but squeal back in excitement. Well maybe not squeal - it came out as a squeak before the squeal. "LIAAAAAA! HAI!" she cried with a very aggressive wave before she received a hug. She gave her friend a hug back with a little squeeze for good measure. Lia was fun and pretty and kind. Merlin. Most of the girls in her dormitory were super pretty and super smart and super kiiiind. All #goals and #rolemodels that she desperately wanted to be like. And she gave her a compliment on her outfit and hair. "Thanks!!" she beamed and opened her mouth to say something back but closed it. OH MAN! this was the moment. Lia had just complimented her so she had to say something nice about her appearance too because that's what ALL the older girls did! Lisa Nam based this off of what she had heard from some older girls at camp. The older girls spent most of their time talking about clothes and hair so she tried her best to make an observation of Lia's outfit because that's what all the cool older girls had done at theatre camp. She would have rather asked Lia about her pet or hide and seek.

Taking a step back from Lia, Lisa immediately noticed the hoody. "Is that your special friend's?" she asked before biting her lip because she had tried to focus to compliment Lia on something like her hair, shirt, or skirt but instead she asked about the hoodie. If Lisa had seen Lia's rainbow unicorn on her shirt, she would have gushed (impersonating one of the older girl's from camp and been like "OH MY GOD YOUR SHIRT IS SO FETCH!"). "Is your hoodie soft?" she asked, trying to make a recovery but honestly genuinely interested in touching said hoodie.

She turned to gaze at the activity before them and hummed. "Face painting first and then designing something. What are you going to get painted on your face?" she asked, tilting her head to the side as she watched other kids go in front of them.

Ivy was so excited to meet up with Misa today. She loved the summer holidays and all the freedom and possibilities that came with it, but she also missed getting to see her friends so easily every day at Hogwarts.

But there were tons of ways to still communicate and make plans, and this Diagon Alley event was a fun place to meet up. So many activities! She wanted to check them all out, beginning with the design booth here with Misa.

Speaking of whom...there she was!

"Misa!" Ivy beamed and threw her arms around her friend.

Saying no when you wanted to say yes was certainly something she could understand. Kimmie had spent the majority of her time at Ilvermony intentionally being as difficult as possible to her parents. It was easy to be the troublemaker, and all the other family roles had been taken. She'd only started to shape up to get her way with going to Hogwarts - and even now there were times where she still wanted to revert to her difficult nature.

The States were far, but had it not been for all of her friends having been in the UK she never would have wanted to leave Alaska and her studio and students there. "I was born in the States. We've actually only lived here for... 2 years now." Ironic how they'd moved the whole family for the health of one. And now... he wasn't even here for it to matter anyways. His joke received an eyebrow raise, though her smile did not drop from her face. She would entirely. "Yes, actually. In New York. I'll be double majoring in social work and dance." One so she could try to make a change in the world, no matter how small. The other because it had always been her passion, and while the load she was putting on herself was probably going to be a lot... she was working under the assumption it would be worth it. "I'm the second one in my family to decide on a career outside of the wizarding world."

Ironic the only other one thus far had been the pure blood.

Her hand finally started working on a design on the first small shirt before her. Zephyr needed a Westchester Werewolves shirt to rep his mum at all the games Kimmie was now determined to take him too.

Henry was in the middle of deciding whether he preferred a shade of purple over a shade of pink when Ash struck up a conversation with him. Which he's not opposed to! The Hufflepuff enjoyed talking with people, stranger or not, and so the real question was if the other person would be able to handle him. However, when it came to Ash, he supposed, the tables turned. She had lots to express, and that's saying something. "Oh! Well, I'm not really sure yet!" Henry replied and held up both paints in his hands. "I was thinking of just painting only one half of my face, but I haven't settled on anything. Maybe flowers or something sparkly." He was really into the glitter these days, if that wasn't obvious at school when he messed around with sparkly eyeliner. "Butterflies are pretty too! Would you like help with them?" Artsy fartsy Henry liked helping with anything creative.

He then turned towards Ash's dad! Who...turned out to NOT be his dad. Henry's eyes widened at the self-realisation and felt almost sheepish. He instead let out an easy chuckle. "Hiya! Sorry, I honestly thought you were Ash's dad. Nice to meet you!" Henry held both the paints with one hand in order to shake Dustin's hand with his free one. "Butterflies of all colours are pretty!" Henry said with a bright smile. Blue, it is, if that is what bodyguard Dustin desired! "Should I go for purple or pink, though?" He wiggled out the paints towards Ash and Dustin. A second and a third opinion always mattered!

"You would have to unite all three of your realms, then!" Henry suggested eagerly. His parents were an author-illustrator duo, and he felt that would be something his parents would do to make the story work. Isn't that how it is, though? Like, for real? Right?? And then he was offered the title! Henry had never thought of it! "Do the butterflies want me as their leader??" Because that was the REAL question.

Ash grinned. "Flowers? Ooooooh. You can have purple AND pink flowers!" Dustin nodded and grinned as well. Of COURSE he did. He was having wayyy too much fun with this. He wasn't supposed to have more fun than her... well, that's what she got for going to the facepaint station. "I could use some help. I can't decide on a color for the butterflies... purple maybe? Or pink? Rainbow? Does it need sparkles? Maybe just a plain gray to match my dress? I think that could be actually really cool and understated."

Dustin considered. "Gray would look really good. Or you could always get matching blue like me. Henry, there's no reson why you can't get BOTH colors, is there?" He smiled.

Nooooo, she couldn't MATCH. It wouldn't be as cool!!! She did like the gray idea though... "Oh, Father isn't here. I think Dustin is actually pretending to be my dad right now... you can stop looking so pleased with yourself." She poked Dustin.

Dustin was actually very proud of himself. Yes, he was pretending to be Ashley's dad. And this kid had fallen for it. HA. He was the best semi-'undercover' bodyguard ever. "No problem, Henry. That's what you're supposed to think." Ow! He poked Ashley back. His job description said that he had to be a bodyguard and a parental figure. And as a parental figure, it was his job to keep Ashley Fox from doing dumb things. Like poking him!

Ow! Okay, okay, that was fair. "I THINK the butterflies like me..." She worriedly looked at Dustin for confirmation. He rolled his eyes and nodded. "...and I like being the queen of butterflies. Maybe you can be the king of colorful flowers that butterflies like! That means we can be allies!" Because obviously they weren't supposed to be enemies. They both liked facepaint. And they were both awesome. See? It was meant to be.