Walking down the street from Hogwarts, Maggie was enjoying a bit of solitude. Not exactly something she advertised but she did in fact like to be alone sometimes. And seeing as nobody had asked her to come to Hogsmeade with them (RUDE!), she'd decided to just go by herself. Maybe she would meet someone she knew (and liked) down there. If not she could always return and pretend she hadn't even been here in the first place.

Sounded like a good enough plan.

Maggie stopped outside the salon for a moment to look at their product list. Hmm. She didn't exactly want her hair to be longer than it currently was (it was PERFECT like this after all) so no to that Rapunzel hair product. What else could they...maybe that anti-frizz thing. In case they had to walk through a rainforest again.

Maddie needed out of the castle and a walk into Hogsmeade seemed like the perfect opportunity to turn her mind off for a while. Yes, she could just forget all about things with a certain cello playing best friend regarding a certain piano playing best friend and focus on other things. Shopping related things. Perhaps food related things, too. She did have money to spend thanks to Benny and who was she to deny his wishes like she usually did?

Spotting a familiar head of blonde hair, the fourth year wrinkled her nose but stepped over to the younger girl anyway. As much as she hated to admit it, Maggie Traulton had potential and they had people in common so she'd play nice for now. Sort of nice. As nice as Maddie's could play, at least.

"Thinking of getting a hair cut?"

Maggie recognized the voice but pretended she didn't. Taking her time she first finished reading the last line of the product list. Only then did she turn around to raise her eyebrows at the other girl.

"Maddie."

There was a polite smile on her lips which wasn't completely genuine. "A haircut? No." She twirled a strand of hair around her fingers. Pfft. Haircut. "You?" Maggie glanced up at the Ravenclaw's hair.

Raised eyebrows were returned, of course. Mostly at the way in which Maggie was twirling her hair. She found the the habit quite curious because it was usually associated with flirting, innocence, or a way in which to comfort oneself in certain situations. The Ravenclaw doubted the blonde was flirting, though who could blame her if she was? She also didn't think Maggie was nearly as innocent as she looked. That left the last option, which also didn't quite seem to fit. And with all this in mind, Maddie could only conclude that it was a gesture done merely because Maggie liked her hair. Good information to have, for reasons.

"One dramatic cut was quite enough for me. I'm growing it out." She hadn't decided how long just yet but she felt that information wasn't necessary.

Brown eyes darting over to the list, the fourth year considered the products being sold thoughtfully. "All alone, then?" In Hogsmeade, she meant.

Growing it out. Right.

Maggie pointedly looked at the other girl's hair for a rather long moment. Then shrugged. "If that's the way you like it." There was still a VERY pleasant tone to her voice just in case Maddie thought this was supposed to be an insult. Although, it certainly wasn't a compliment either.

Ah yes. Thank you for pointed that out. "For now." Which implied that she was going to be joined by someone else later. Her eyes flicked to something behind Maddie - to show how....not bothered she was by the question - before resting on the Ravenclaw again. "Are you?" Alone that is.

Forever alone.

Obviously it was. Why would someone purposely do something to their hair that they didn't like? That seemed pretty ridiculous to the brunette so she simply shrugged too.

"I am." By choice and for reasons she wasn't sharing. "I quite enjoy shopping alone." She didn't have to wait around for anyone to browse shops she wasn't interested in this way. Plus she could purchase things for other people without them knowing about it. Not that she was the generous sort because she wasn't. It just so happened that a couple of birthdays were coming up and she actually liked the people having them.

"Who're you waiting on, then?" She had said for now which implied she wouldn't be later on. Maddie was curious.

Hogsmeade weekends were always a treat.

The time away from the castle and all the things associated with it, like classes and homework and such. With the fall weather still holding out, it was also another chance at fresh air while exploring and shopping and anything else. Benny was all for anything that came to mind, especially since he didn't have much to concern him with at the moment, sixth year far freer than the year before and classes hadn't gotten too hectic...yet.

"So...what do you want to do?" he asked the younger lion beside him. One thing he had made sure to do was spend some more time with Angel outside of lessons. You know, normal boyfriend and girlfriend stuff or at least hanging out around others.

Angel was totally happy that she was finally getting to spend some time with Benny... it was about time, he stopped studying so hard and did things with her otherwise time would just fly by and she would be left on her own without him. She was dreading those years though at least she would have her sister around to help her.

"I just want to spend time with you." Angel said truthfully, that would be totally amazing and she couldn't wait to see what he would think of for them to do.

Maddie was tough. But Maggie was better. She only needed to find something that genuinely bothered Maddie.

Hmm.

"Awww. That's niiiiice." She replied with a biiiig smile. Her opinion on shopping alone. "What are you shopping for then?" Then she lowered her voice a little as if they were best friends sharing a secret. "Or who?" Maybe that was something. Although she doubted Maddie would give up her innermost secrets so easily.

Okay. She had to improvise now. "Oh. Just the girls, you know." Whoever that was. If Maddie asked she could always say that she was meeting up with her dorm mates. Like Meely. And Hady. And that Jenna girl was nice enough too.

HOGSMEADE WEEKEND.

Leah had been counting down the days until this very day. With lessons, homework and extra studies all growling at her this year, she rarely found time to just take a break and have fun. Naturally, she was desperate for a chance to meet up with her friends before getting back into O.W.L.s preparation.

Pulling Jackson's hand in hers, the Hufflepuff ran down the path from Hogwarts and to the High Street. She paused in front of a random shop and breathed in freeesh air. "THIS," she gestured at her surroundings, "is Hogsmeade. As you probably know." But since it was his first time here and such, introduction was needed.

Quote:

Originally Posted by nanyjj

HOGSMEADE WEEKEND.

Leah had been counting down the days until this very day. With lessons, homework and extra studies all growling at her this year, she rarely found time to just take a break and have fun. Naturally, she was desperate for a chance to meet up with her friends before getting back into O.W.L.s preparation.

Pulling Jackson's hand in hers, the Hufflepuff ran down the path from Hogwarts and to the High Street. She paused in front of a random shop and breathed in freeesh air. "THIS," she gestured at her surroundings, "is Hogsmeade. As you probably know." But since it was his first time here and such, introduction was needed.

This morning, Jackson was walking around the courtyard. But then he met Leah and she dragged him to Hogsmeade. Literally dragged him. "Where are we going?" The Korean boy kept asking but she just kept dragging him without answering his question. Hopefully NOT to the butterfly garden. Didn't she know that he's lepidopterophobia? But then he realized that she had dragged him outside the castle. Omo, where were we going? He's not familiar with this place.

Hogsmeade. Ooooh.

"Wow.." He commented. He'd ever heard about this place but this was his first time being here. Well, maybe second since the Hogwarts train station was here too, right? "So uh... What are we doing here?" His brown eyes looked around. There are some shops here. Perhaps she wanted to go shopping or anything else?

Benny wondered what response he would get, knowing Angel could have some...interesting ideas on things. But her answer was rather calm for which he was somewhat relieved. "Alright..." he said, figuring that left things wide open for now. Maybe something would change later on, but then they had nearly all day to wander around and do anything they chose to do.

"So let's just walk for a bit." The sun was out and they were at a section of the street that wasn't as crowded as all get out. On a second thought, the sixth year moved to take her hand, slipping it through his arm so they were connected as they moved. His stride calm enough so that his longer legs didn't rush her.

Hogsmeade weekends never lost their novelty for Toby; it was always good to have a reason to get out of the castle, have a change of scenery and all that. Especially recently, Merlin. NEWTs and school work and other issues and missing home and all that had Toby's mood yoyo-ing like crazy; he was looking forward to spending the day just hanging around the village and keeping himself busy.

Toby stepped out onto the High Street from The Three Broomsticks. First port of call was always a butterbeer, just like it was always the last stop on the way back; he couldn't get enough of the stuff. NEXT stop was going to be the SWEET SHOP. Even though Toby had only just put his money away, he was already getting it back out again as he crossed the street and headed for Honeydukes (he could get sweets from Cutty, and had been offered a discount too, but nothing was quite like going into the shop itself). He was only a few metres from the day when SOMETHING happened (Merlin only knew what) and suddenly a bunch of silver sickles seemed to fly from his pocket and onto the street around him in every direction.

"Noooooooooooo," was the Hufflepuff's initial response, accompanied with a rather comical expression and flailing of the arms, before he dropped to his knees and started trying to scoop his money back up again.

Arya Dakest walked at a measured pace throughout Hogsmeade, her four year old daughter skipping circles around her and singing Merlin knew what while she did. It had been a while since she'd walked these streets, so long that even though they held fond memories, it still seemed foreign to her. The faces were all new, and some of the shops had been redone. She was noting all the changes while simultaniously watching Emma. It was only the two of them today since Sabel's father was in the country, and so was spending the day with Lucas. That meant just the two of them on this spontanious trip to visit her husband.

Emma was SO EXCITED about getting to see her Papa. It had been two whole entire days since the last time and that was just TOO LONG. This time was gonna be even better than that cause they were gonna see where he worked again! The shops didn't really intrest her so much as the skipping and singing did.

"Fairies on the dairy in the middle of the night, pixies came out of hiding and gave them all a fright, the fair- mummy look!" She stopped singing and started off in a run when she heard coins fall on the ground, and a dark haired older boy squat to pick them up. He needed help!

"Not so fast, Em." Arya scooped up her first born easily, but kept them in the direction of the boy. They were in no rush to meet up with her husband since they were early so she could show Emma some of her old favorite spots. The toddle squirmed in her arms, but Arya didn't settle her on the ground again until they were beside him.

She offered him a warm smile, and knealing behind her daughter, pointed at where Emma could start to help him collect his money. "Hello. We've come to offer you some assistance."

Every time Toby picked up another coin, he caught the glint of a couple more out of the corner of his eye. So, naturally, rather than doing a methodical sweep of the ground and gathering the money one section of floor at a time, he ended up randomly going for any that he happened to spot. Essentially, he made the job a lot more difficult than it needed to be, but was that not always his way?

He was still at it when the presence of someone else caught his attention. Two someones actually, who turned out to be a little someone and a not-so-little someone. Offering to help! Toby smiled.

"Thank you, that'd be brilliant," he said, nodding his head as he spoke mainly to the woman, though he didn't neglect to include the girl as well. "I'm right clumsy sometimes." Surprising, maybe, given his chosen career path, but irrelevant right now. Toby smiled before looking specifically at the little girl. He couldn't tell how old she was, but she was adorable. "Hello. Thank you for helping me."

So what if she did not tell the Gryffindor where they were going. It wasn't like she was kidnapping him or anything... right?

Leah watched as Jackson looked around in awe and felt the satisfaction of showing somebody something amazing. She liked the feeling. Which was why she liked Newbies so much. With a wide smile, she finally let go of his hand and walked down the High Street, expecting him to follow suit. "We are going to hang out like cool friends do," she replied, "you ARE a cool friend right? Because I certainly am." JUST to make sure.

Quote:

Originally Posted by nanyjj

So what if she did not tell the Gryffindor where they were going. It wasn't like she was kidnapping him or anything... right?

Leah watched as Jackson looked around in awe and felt the satisfaction of showing somebody something amazing. She liked the feeling. Which was why she liked Newbies so much. With a wide smile, she finally let go of his hand and walked down the High Street, expecting him to follow suit. "We are going to hang out like cool friends do," she replied, "you ARE a cool friend right? Because I certainly am." JUST to make sure.

We are going to hang out like cool friends do

Cool friends. Hmm. Of course they were friends. What makes them can't be friends? The Korean guy then smiled at the Hufflepuff girl. "Yeah, of course. I'm your cool friend and you are mine.... My cool friend I mean." Clearing his throat, he corrected himself. Hope that she didn't notice what he'd said previously. Jackson, please.... "So, we're basically... a couple of cool friends hanging out with each other." Shoving his hands to his pocket, he sighed and followed Leah from behind. Her walking style looked cute by the way.

"So now, what's our first destination?" Jackson asked his friend. He felt his tummy grumbled which means he was hungry or nervous, dunno. "Can we have something to eat, first?" And drink too. For a weather like this, a cup of hot cocoa with marshmallow seemed perfect.

Emma picked up the coin her mum had pointed at and THEN she went off picking up whatever coins caught her eyes, holding up the hem of her skirt and letting them collecting there so she wouldn't drop anymore. So far she had five which was a LOT cause she wasn't even that old yet!

"Hi! You're welcome. I'm Emma. And that's my mummy, Arya." She knew how to introduce herself and was so helpful she introduced her mum too! Did that mean she got to get candy while they were here? Cause Emma saw lots of kids with some. "Who are you?"

... Thank goodness for tights. Arya sighed at her daughter, but there was a affectionate smile on her face. There were more effective ways to assist the young man, but Emma semed determined to do so herself so she didn't stop her. "We were just headed to three broomsticks, but couldn't resist." She picked up a coin closest to herself and placed it with the others Emma had, winnning a grin from the toddler.

The Fifth Year laughed. Jackson's English was just cute. She was not one to correct things though, so she let it go. "Great! That's right," she confirmed. Unless he thought otherwise? She hoped not, because COOL friends sounded good. She turned around to make sure that he was following because she did not want this Korean boy to get lost in the middle of an old wizarding village.

Soon he was walking right beside Leah. Oh well, LONG LEGS. Hmmm, first destination? She honestly had no idea. Her plan was to chill and walk. Hopefully they would find something interesting to do then. As she was about to ask for any ideas, she heard the grumble. She grinned and poked his stomach. "Sureee, you just made me hungry too." Hunger was contagious yes? It was probably a fact with scientific evidence. Probably. "There are three good shops around here. The Hog's Head... which is a somewhat dark place, Madame Puddifoot's... that is for uh ACTUAL couples," she counted the places off her finger. She did not really like these two shops, the latter for a specific reason. Maybe they could go to that tea shop sometime. The two of them.

"And we have the Three Broomsticks - everybody's favorite." she said, stopping in front of the very shop. Oooh, nice timing.

"Emma. That's a very pretty name. I'm Toby," he said to the little girl, smiling at how keen she was on helping him out. Emma. He was pretty sure someone recently had told him about someone with that same name, but he couldn't remember who or anything. Unsurprising; Toby didn't had the best memory in the world. He looked at the woman too and added, "Arya's a pretty name too." 'Cause it was true, and 'cause he wasn't going to leave anyone out, after all.

Toby thought he had pretty much all the coins, though even as the thought passed through his mind he noticed a couple more glint in the November sun and went to pick those up too.

"Yeah? I've just come from there. First thing I do when I get out of school for the day; grab a butterbeer." He smiled. It didn't even occur to him that this was perhaps information that nobody really needed. "Well, I'm super grateful," he added, before... "I think that's... all of them..." Turning his head to look at Emma again, he put on his best talking-to-kids voice, like the one he used with Curtis, but not quite, 'cause Curtis wasn't even one yet, and Emma was clearly older than that. "Can you see if we missed any? How many did you get? Bet it was loads."

Was is? Maddie simply shrugged. It was a preference, is all. Not really anything nice about it. Just like there wasn't anything particularly nice about Maggie's smile right now. Bit suspicious, actually. She'd never seen the blonde smile at her like that before. When the younger girl started being secretive, Maddie leaned in a bit and whispered back, "People." Then she smirked. She didn't know what the Slytherin was playing at but she didn't mind playing along.

"I don't know, actually, but good." The girls. Maddie didn't hang around girls much. Dot was an exception, of course. She quite liked Dot. CB, too. She missed the older girl.

Turning her attention away from the shop, the brunette looked down the street thoughtfully, wondering where to go next.

Geneva Tate was hyper. Hogsmeade was no strange place to the nine-and-a-half-year-old, and neither was Honeydukes where the girl had just emerged with a five o'clock shadow around her mouth and a hazy look in her wild eyes. There was a skip to her step and she had chocolate wands in her hand, to share with her dad and mom of course. Not all for her, pfft.

Skip skip skip skippity skip.

Now if only she could find her father, she was sure he was around here somewhere. He wasn't going to be impressed with her escape skills when she found him, whoops. "'Scuse me, have you seen a tall old man?" She decided asking strangers of her dad's whereabouts was the smart thing to do instead of getting far into the village. The stranger didn't answer, so she moved on to someone else, "'Scuse me!"

Benny was so full. She had just left the Hog’s Head after having lunch with her cousin Hazel and had ridiculously eaten far too much… as per normal. The Italian couldn’t help it if she simply loved food. All and any food that she could get her hands on.

So, obviously she was on her way to go and buy sweets for later.

However, before she got there she spotted a girl who was younger than Marsha trying to find her father. And that wasn’t something she could just walk past… so she moved towards the younger girl and smiled at her. ”Hi, are you okay? Do you need help finding your Dad?” She had to guess it was her dad… maybe it was actually her brother or her cousin that she was looking for… but the younger girl would soon tell her if she was looking for someone else… Right?

Angel smiled as he said that they should just walk, walking was fun and she totally loved it. "Awesome!" Angel couldn't wait to see what they would do next but she loved walking. "What do you think we will see?" Angel wanted to see something amazing on the walk, though saying that just being next to her boyfriend was amazing.