Dried, pink cotton candy created a faux goatee around Braeden's lips as he grinned up at the colourful carousel that danced in circles in front of Braeby. AW MAN. He'd hadn't been to a carousel in YEARS. Last time he'd been here had been with his beloved Deus, when they were still Hogwarts students. Those were the days. *Sniffle*

Braeden snapped out of memories as the redhead beside him spoke, asking why they were at the carousel. "Because you were begging to come, remember? Don't tell me you forgot already, Bubs." Of course, Braeden was totally lying. He was the one begging to come here and he'd been only a second away from pulling out duct tape and a rope when Ruby finally agreed to come, more out of a desperate attempt to get him to shut up than anything else.

"C'mon!" And in the next moment, Braeden had grabbed Ruby's hand and dragged the girl onto the carousel platform. It took him a moment to make up his mind on which animal to ride, but once he'd made up his mind, he had released Ruby and settled himself on the back of a not-so-friendly-looking dragon that sighed fire as the childlike boy climbed on to him ungracefully.

Most noises where drowned out either by the wind that was whipping against her face or the excitement that seemed to mask everything else. Either way she almost felt like she was in one of those silent movies, where the actions happened but there were no words or sounds...except this wind of course.

Things only stopped being this way after the dragon slowed down enough to give her eardrums some peace, that's when she heard THAT.

"Your first time flying? Really???" She was really glad he was enjoying this then if that was the case but at the same time, his FIRST??? That might have explained why he was so skeptical about Quidditch, he was probably nervous about the flying thing...aaaand maybe the bludgers might have added to his fear, maybe.

Soon they were landing.

Definitely not like riding a broom. Her feet felt weird while they adjusted to the no movement thing again. She tried shaking them while she thought. "There's a mechanical hippogriff we could try riding? A pie eating contest too and I think they have a petting zoo?" All possibilities. "What do you think?"

Zohar? Zohar? This is your conscience and I'm urging you, no begging you not to abandon your sense of societal propriety. Just because you've been exonerated is no reason to...

You're not going to care are you? You're not going to...

You don't care.

Fine. Then I don't either. You can be the grown man who still rides carousels well until he's 100 for all I care. Will you just think of how you look for a moment with your legs hanging well over your Sphinx. No doubt you thought you were pretty clever answering his riddle like that. And just think about your face for a minute with your 5 o'clock shadow and your mop of hair. People are going to think you're a kidnapper and I'll bet every kid on this carousel is going to flee any minute now.

Put your arms down for Merlins sake! You're not really flying and you're going to look foolish besides.

You're not listening again. Alright that's it! I'm outty. I'm outty 5000! See how you like it when I'm not around to stop you from doing wrong things.

Arrivederci, baby!

Forrest decided to answer her shocked questions once they were safely on the ground. It was weird standing on concrete ground again. He felt dizzy momentarily, but after a few seconds, he had got off the sensation of flying.

"Yes, really." He grinned. It was never too late to fly, no? Maybe he could really consider buying a broom, one of those cheapest. Why not? It'd be fun...

His hands hurt from holding onto the pole, and he didn't think the hippogriff would heal it. And he'd seen the zoo already with Cassia, so... "Let's go to the pie-eating contest." After surveying the area with his eyes, he spotted where it was and started going towards that with Alexa.

Ethan watched Minerva as she seemed so happy taking everything in. He was so glad she seemed to be back to her old self and they could just enjoy themselves and have fun. "I'm glad you're feeling better," he said, smiling down at her. "I knew we could have some fun here today.. I'm glad we decided to go too." Even if it was probably for little kids, she was glad she didn't mind and since it had been awhile, it was all exciting for him again. He was sure they were going to have fun.. which was so needed after the last several months they had.

He nodded, looking at the carousel animals before looking back at her again. "It's definitely that.. I think I heard the dragons can be a bit unpredictable with their paths, but we should be able to ride around and see everything that is at the fair.. maybe see what we want to do next." His smile for her growing as she seemed so eager to get on the ride.. he supposed that was making him even more excited than he had been. Ethan glanced at a few of his younger, previous schoolmates as they got on their own rides. Oh.. maybe they didn't need tickets or any assistance. Well, that was fine too.. they were plenty able to do it themselves.

"There are plenty of other things to do," he nodded. And this ride was probably the perfect first choice since they could see what else they wanted to do then. He grinned and looked at her, feeling her nudge. "Of course I can.. anything you want." He hadn't played any of those games in a while either, but how hard could they be? And bonus points for him for winning a big stuffed animal or something for her.. He slipped his arm around her waist and nodded. "Sure.. I'm starting to get hungry already, actually.. I think I saw a place to eat on our way in."

As it didn't seem they needed to have permission or assistance to get on the ride, he steered her over to the two seat dragon. "That depends.. do you want your arms around my waist or my arms around your waist?" He winked then got on the back. "How about you sit up front and you can steer.. well, at least as much as the dragon will let you." It typically chose its own path around the park as far as he remembered, but maybe she could have some say in that..

Beg? BEG? Ruby couldn't believe her ears. She also sincerely hoped the people around them could not hear their conversation because she certainly didn't want them to think she had been begging to be taken to this stupid carousel. Glaring at Brae, she whacked him on his shoulder, and not lightly, either. Oh, good, she was getting back into the hang of things.

Before she could come up with a lame excuse to ditch her pink-mustached friend, Ruby was being dragged to the platform. "Brae, stop, wait--" No luck though, and in a matter of seconds, the Goofball had chosen a seat on a dragon, his face simply ecstatic with giddiness. She, on the other hand, glanced around at all the beasts, her lips forming a pout. She really didn't want to get on some dirty hippogriff and have it prance around the entire festival for all to see. Her eyes lingered back to Brae where he sat on his dragon, waiting for her to choose her animal. "I, uh...I'm not sure about this." She nervously toed the ground, tossing aside an empty chocolate frog box with her foot.


It was possible that maybe, just maybe....Ruby Blair was afraid of riding on animals. Or maybe she was afraid of animals in general.

Braeden was all prepared and ready to go when he realized Ruby still hadn't taken ownership of any of the animals at the carousel. "What's up, Bubs?" he asked, taking notice of the pout on her lips and the way she hesitated. Pouty and hesitant? Yeah, that wasn't like Ruby AT ALL. So something had to be wrong.

"Don't like any of the animals?" he tried to guess. But there was no time for Ruby to respond as Braeden had already hopped off his dragon (who seemed relieved to have the Goofball off his back). And in the next moment, Brae had placed his hands on Ruby's waist and picked her up like a small child, bringing her up to the dragon's back and placing her there like she was three years old.

"You're gonna like the dragon, it's the fastest. Even faster than the hippogriff!" Braeden explained with excitement, a grin lighting up his features before he hopped back onto the creature, this time settling behind Ruby so he wouldn't block her view or anything. "Ready!?"

But there was no time to change their mind now.
The dragon had already set off into the park.

Minerva was glad she was doing better as well. She knew she still had the potions, but all in all she was feeling more like herself. "Me too, plus I got to have some of my summer, so added bonus." She smiled brightly at him. She loved that he was spending pretty much every waking moment with her. He really was keeping to his word taking such good care of her. She really couldn't ask for a more wonderful boyfriend. Stopping for a moment she turned and hugged him. She knew it was in the middle of the street and it was a bit spontaneous, but he deserved so much more than just that hug. Pulling from it she smiled up at him, "You are truly amazing." She turned taking his hand and starting to walk again.

Looking at the dragons she nodded, "They do?" wow so they kind of had their own minds? "That will be nice to see everything. I'll make sure to find the biggest stuffed animal for you to win me." She joked with him.. He didn't really have to win her anything she was having to much fun just being here to care if they won anything from a game. Getting closer to the dragon she smiled, "Food will be next on the list then." The recent graduate was always hungry though so no surprise there.

Keeping her arm tightly around him she smiled as he talked about who was sitting where. His arms around her or hers around him.. Hmm that was a hard decision each having its perks, but she soon figured out she wasn't going to be the one to decide when Ethan decided he would sit in the back. It really didn't matter to her they both were great places. Steer.. She blinked at him a bit, but the muggle ones you just held on. She had to steer these ones. "I'll right.. I'll try." That was all she could do.


Grabbing on to the dragon she pulled herself up and kicked her leg over. Again happy she went for the pants and not dress or skirt. There were perks to not being a dress fan. "Alright.. get on." She smiled down at him. This was going to be so fun.

“COME ON, GRACE!” Frankie yelled behind him as loud as he could, pushing his way through a bunch of tall people. He didn’t care if she was looking for Hayley. Mummy and Daddy said that she was to stick to him like Spello-tape, which meant that she had to do whatever HE wanted. Did he want to find Hayley Diggory? Nope. He did not want to have to follow them around all day. Or feed those horses at the zoo. Or get balloons from that creepy guy. He wanted to find out where that music was coming from.

The eight year old jumped up and down excitedly, giving his sister a few seconds to catch up with him, when the music led him to the carousel. His eyes glanced from creature to creature. Which one should he ride? For a minute or so, he watched the eagle-horses bow, weird-looking things fart out fire, skeleton horses flap their wings, and lions with human faces say a bunch of mumbo-jumbo. And then he saw them. Dragons! Breathing fire! THAT WAS SO COOL!

“Look! Look! Look!” the boy exclaimed, giving his sister a nudge and pointing. “Can we ride one of them? Pleeeeeeease?”

"Frankieeee." Grace groaned, hurrying after her brother. "We're supposed to walk with mommy and daddy!" Because they had come with their parents. But now Frankie was going away. "Where are you goinggg?" She grumbled, hurrying after her brother. She couldn't let him get away. Her Mommy would shout at her if she lost him. And she really did not want her mom to shout at her. She had been told to stay close to him, so she had to follow him. She grumbled, folding her arms as she followed him. This was so unfair. They were totally going to be doing something that she wanted to do next.

OOooh. Look at that. "Oooh lookieee! Its so pretty." She giggled pointing out at one of the unicorns. Okay maybe her brother hadn't been so bad at choosing this. "Let's ride on t." She grinned down at her little brother. "I wanna ride on a unicorn!"

Summer festival!

Dylan had been excited to go ever since his mother brought it up that morning during breakfast. "Come on, guys!" he called to his family who were trailing behind him as he ran ahead. He couldn't wait to ride that magic carousel! Dylan loved carousels. Like, A LOT. Today was gonna be so fun.

"Mummy! Dylan's going to fast for me!" little Lydia whined while holding her mother's hand tightly. She watched as Dylan stopped at the line for the carousel and her eyes widened. She'd never been to a festival or carnival or anything like the such, so she'd never seen one of these before. "Ooooo mummy! I wanna go on that one!" she squealed, bouncing in excitement.

Alexandra held her daughter's hand, walking as quickly as she could to keep up with her hyper little girl. "Alright, sweetheart. You can go with Dylan and Blake on the carousel!" she told her with a smile. She turned to her husband, smiling at him and glancing down at Blake who was holding his father's hand. "You want to go on the carousel, sweetie?" she asked.

Blake looked at the carousel, then at his mother and nodded eagerly. "Yes, mum! Of course!" he said, grinning from ear to ear. "Let's go let's go let's GOOOO!" he pulled on his father's arm. Merlin, why were his parents so SLOW at walking?!?!?! Couldn't they run or somethin'?

Christopher laughed at his son and walked a little faster. "I'm going, I'm going." he told him, grinning and ruffling Blake's hair. He then joined Dylan in line, and soon Alexandra and Lydia joined them.

Quote:

Originally Posted by RachieRu

"Frankieeee." Grace groaned, hurrying after her brother. "We're supposed to walk with mommy and daddy!" Because they had come with their parents. But now Frankie was going away. "Where are you goinggg?" She grumbled, hurrying after her brother. She couldn't let him get away. Her Mommy would shout at her if she lost him. And she really did not want her mom to shout at her. She had been told to stay close to him, so she had to follow him. She grumbled, folding her arms as she followed him. This was so unfair. They were totally going to be doing something that she wanted to do next.

OOooh. Look at that. "Oooh lookieee! Its so pretty." She giggled pointing out at one of the unicorns. Okay maybe her brother hadn't been so bad at choosing this. "Let's ride on t." She grinned down at her little brother. "I wanna ride on a unicorn!"

He couldn’t hear his sister through the crowd. He wasn’t even trying to listen for her, really. But he knew that she could hear him. Frankie could yell so much louder than Grace. This was an obvious fact because she did eventually find him at the carousel. What a slow poke. “It’s not pretty,” the boy scowled, thinking that Grace was talking about one of the dragons. Pretty was for girly things. Dragons were NOT girly. Not one bit. “It is VICIOUS! Just look at it breathe fire! It is super awesome!”

Frankie couldn’t help but jump toward the carousel with glee. He was so excited to ride the best creature there. But the jumping quickly stopped. What animal did she want to ride on?!

The big smile that had been on Frankie’s face was long gone now. Grace was pointing at one of those unicorns. “Nooooooo!” he pouted, arms crossed. There was no way she was going to get him on that statue. “I don’t want to ride on a stupid unicorn! I want to ride on a DRAGON!” He had better get to ride on it. Or he was going to tell Mummy and Daddy. HMPH!

WAS THIS REAL LIFE?! He pinched himself. Ouch. Yep, yep. This was real life.

WOW. Donny ran after his best friend, he had to go on the carousel. Now please. OOOOOH. Was that... was that a.. yes, it was definitely a thingy. His cousin Selene had told him about magical creatures and all that school-y stuff, but he didn't remember. But this was definitely one of them. Squeak. Cool things going round and round?! Even cooler.

'Abbi Abbi, Abbicadabbi.' He beamed at his best friend. She probably thought this was even cooler than he did, cause muggles didn't have funny looking animals. Even if elephants looked really weird, that was different.
'THIS IS LIKE HUGGING A DOLPHIN. C'MON.' Donnacha grabbed her hand and stared up at the carousel. If only he could choose.

Instead of answering Brae's questions, she just continued to toe the littered floor, her arms folded tightly over her chest. Ruby didn't like the fact that her posture probably portrayed her as weak but right now, she was too anxious about the animals around her. She decided that she would try to get the Goofball to head over to the food stand again and as far away from the carousal as possible.

Or not.

She shrieked as Brae picked her up and carried her to his dragon. "PUT. ME DOWN--" Ruby yelled, kicking her feet, hoping to hit his knees. Unfortunately, because of Brae's height, she had no chance. Next thing she knew, Ruby was on the fire-breathing dragon, with Brae behind her and the beast had already taken off. She immediately closed her eyes as the wind whipped through her hair, and shrieked every now and then.

"I'm gonna beat you to a pulp when we get down, Brae. Mark my words," Ruby muttered, her hands still clamped tight over her eyes.

Braeden would've replied to Ruby's threats, had it not been for her fiery red hair slapping him across the face as the pair zoomed through the crowds on the back of the dragon. It was as if Ruby's hair was getting revenge on its owner's honour.

"PFFT!" The boy turned his face sideways to avoid the hair, though one strand did manage to poke him in the eye and leave him temporarily blind.

"I don't think you'll need to!" Braeden finally spoke, responding to Ruby's earlier threats. "I'm not sure if I'll survive the ride..." And now Ruby's hair had mysteriously wrapped around his neck.

OHGAWD was he SERIOUSLY going to die at the age of 21 from being strangled by his best friend's hair?! Srsly. The things that happen to Braeden.

Her eyes were still closed, though she could hear Brae mumbling (or so it seemed, because of the wind) in the background. "WHAT?" She yelled, pushing her head back so her ears would be closer to his mouth.

Stupid ride. Stupid dragon. Stupid BRAE. She was never again giving into anything involving him. As the dragon soared above some street vendors, Ruby caught what Brae was saying. So he was scared, too? This was enough to make her open her eyes and remove her hands. She turned around slowly, but not completely, and saw half his face. But she mostly saw her hair, which was slowing making it seem like Brae was a ginger.

"What're you doing with my hair!" She shrieked, thinking he was pulling it onto his face on purpose and not realizing that the poor Goofball might be strangling from it. So Ruby raised her hand, while keeping the other one clamped on the dragon, and tried to collect her hair. Unfortunately, the dragon was flying a bit too fast and pieces of her hair kept falling out of her grasp.

"WHA-- I'm not doing anything with your hair!" replied Braeden, barely getting a slight glimpse of Ruby's pale face through all the red hair covering his. "More like, what is your hair doing with me?!" Besides, y'know, trying to STRANGLE HIM!

At least now Ruby was trying to control it, so that was very kind of her. Of course, Brae thought she was doing it just to help him out, not because she thought he was trying to eat it or something. "Thank--"

But before Braeden could finish his thank you, their dragon chauffeur made a very sharp left turn that caused the boy to lose his balance. His hands had been busy pushing Ruby's hair out of the way, so he had nothing to hold on to when the turn was made. Except for the girl in front of him.

"AAAAHHHH!!!"
As a reflex, Braeden held on to Ruby as he nearly fell. But since Ruby only had one hand on the dragon and probably wasn't expecting to be pulled with such force, the boy just ended up dragging her down with him.

And now the clumsy pair was landing sloppily on the concrete floor feet below their dragon, who flew off into the night sky, quite proud to have gotten rid of the two kids.

Her hair was being uncontrollable, especially in these conditions, so Ruby decided to just let it be and hoped Brae would stop ABUSING it. That darned boy and his quirks. Just as she decided this, though, she felt the dragon moving sharply and tried to cop hold with her free hand again. But as she reached forward to grab onto the dragon, Brae had grabbed hold of her, knocking her forward while her free hand flopped uselessly at her side.
"BRAE--" She screamed bloody murder as the Goofball screamed behind her, and they both tried to cling onto the dragon but--

SMASH.

They were on the floor and people were turning around to stare at them. Ruby even thought she heard a chuckle from somewhere nearby. Ruby propped herself up on her elbow and glared at Brae, her fiery red hair sticking up in a million directions. Both of them had patches of dirt on their knees and arms but thankfully she wasn't hurt.

"WHAT. WERE. YOU. THINKING?!" Ruby said through gritted teeth as she attempted to pull herself up and brush away the dirt. "This is why I don't go places with you! UGH!" She decided she'd smack him when her hair was all pretty and smooth again.

Braeden landed face-down, so there was now a lovely huge scratch going across his reddened forehead. His whole body ached furiously after the initial shock of the impact wore off. But Brae was quick to forget the pain as he heard Ruby hissing nearby, sounding like she was ready to kick him in the face and finish off the job that fall had started. Like a scared little mouse, the boy clumsily scrambled on to his feet and stood a good few yards away from his redheaded friend.

"I-- I-- It was-- I didn't do it on purpose!" Brae quickly explained, waving his hands in front of him as a plea for Ruby not to come near. "Your hair-- it just-- I couldn't see! I was trying to get it off, and-- I didn't know the dragon was going to do that!"

Oh Merlin, it felt like Hogwarts days all over again, like that one time Brae had given Ruby chocolate frogs for Valentine's Day and they ended up attacking her. He just always ended up looking bad, somehow.

Ignoring the mark on his forehead, Ruby continued brushing away the dirt as Brae droned on. Apologizes had no effect on her, not that he had actually apologized. Apparently, 'it wasn't his fault.' SNORT.

"There is nothing wrong with my hair!" She said angrily as she furiously tried to straighten it out again. No matter what, Ruby always took Brae's words the wrong way, sometimes on purpose. Finally, when her hair almost as it had been when she arrived at the carousal, Ruby turned to her Goofball and narrowed her eyes at him.

"C'mere, Brae," She said in a dangerous voice. She waited, crossing her arms and tapped her heeled foot.

Braeden's jaw dropped. "Wha--! I didn't say there was anything wrong with your hair!" If anything, he thought her vivid red hair was quite lovely, actually. It was fiery like her personality, and completely unique. Actually now that he thought about it, he'd never seen that hair colour on anyone el--

Ruby was demanding his presence.

Braeden looked left then right, as if to make sure he was the only 'Brae' around. He turned his gaze back to Ruby and hesitated for a moment. If the boy was smart, he would've taken that opportunity to make a run for it. But being smart had never been something Braeden was known for. And so, ignoring the fact that the last time he walked over to Ruby when she was asking him to come closer he got punched in the nose, he walked over to her anyway. Surely she wouldn't pull that trick again, right? They were older now! They were... more mature! ... Right??

Gulp.

She watched him consider his chances and even wondered if he would make a run for it. Pure instinct should have told him it wasn't likely that Ruby was about to commend his behavior. But as he took a few steps to cover the distance between them, she knew he never learned. And this made her smile. Evilly, of course.

She waited until he was right in front of her. Giving him a steely look, Ruby waited a beat and then pounced, punching him hard on the shoulder.

"What-is-your-problem?!" She said between every blow, her red hair flying behind her as she took out her anger on Brae. Really, he asked for it.

BEAAAAAAM. CAUSE BEST FRIENDIE WAS AWESOME.

Abbi looked straight at all the creatures on the carousel and then back at Donny in excitement, yet her face also wore some feelings of nervousness which could have been because of all the NEW. But it was good new, or so she though and was told by, by Donny.

Dolppphiins. Dolphins. Giiiggle. "So is it like hugging you?" Cause he was her dolphin. Cause that would have made A LOT of sense. His hugs were the bestest ever especially with the happy screaming and all.

Getting pulled along, Abbi followed her bestie onto the carousel. She knew exactly what she wanted to go on. "UNICORN!" She jumped up on a unicorn and then waited for Donny to choose his own creature.

There was a very brief millisecond in which everything seemed to move in slow motion and Braeden was able to catch sight of Ruby's rolled fist coming higher and closer. His brown eyes widened to the size of saucers and he tried to turn, but Ruby's fist had already found his shoulder. Again and again. NOOOOOOOO!

"OW! Ow, hey--! OW! Bubs!" Braeden raised his arms in an attempt to shield himself from the crazy redhead that was beating him to a pulp as she asked what his problem was.

HIS PROBLEM!? She was the one beating him unconscious, for Merlin's sake!

"What are you talking about?!" asked Brae, walking backwards as he tried to get away from Ruby. Everyone around them made sure to move out of the way. "I didn't do anything! I told you-- I just-- I lost my balance!"

Shielding himself with his arms made no difference to Ruby, she just punched his arms. Finally, after a couple of rough minutes, she let her arms drop by her side and tried to catch her breath.

Ignoring his answer, she raged on. "I told you I didn't want to go on that stupid ride but no, you insisted. No, you dragged me on and then almost tried to KILL me. Not to mention you almost ATE my hair." She was breathing pretty heavily now, her fists still clenched. But she wasn't going to punch him anymore--hopefully.

Did she feel bad? Not. At. All.