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Post by LANA LOSCE on Dec 21, 2011 17:23:24 GMT -5
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Daphne breathed a sigh of relief as she walked into the Magical Menagerie. It was an action she almost instantly regretted, wrinkling her nose as the god-awful scent of the shop invaded her nose. It was messy, noisy, smelly, and chaotic in here, but it was her escape. Daphne turned, forced a smile and waved to her mother who was outside with Astoria. She needed to get a few things for her pets, Elaysia (a kneazle) and Dagney (a crup). She normally convinced others to get her food or accessories for her pets and if she had to go on her own, she normally went to the cleaner and neater pet shop in the village in which she lived. They were in Diagon Alley for the day, though, shopping for the new year at Hogwarts and Daphne already needed to get away from her family.
Larissa was getting Astoria a gift for her latest win at the Young and Lovely Witches of Acceptable Pureblood Society Pageant (normally shortened to the WAP Pageant) and there were already talks of preparing Astoria for the pageant circle the next summer and Daphne couldn’t take it. She made the excuse of needing to pick up a few things for Elaysia and Dagney and told them they could go on ahead and that she’d meet them at the Leaky Cauldron around noon. It gave her a few hours to herself and she could pick up the things she wanted without having her judgmental mother breathing down her neck. Daphne loved Larissa, but there was only so much of ones own parent anyone could take.
“Goo--day there, miss!” said the acne-covered girl behind the counter. “Wha’ can I do fer ya?”
“Oh…Nothing. Just…I’m just looking,” Daphne said, reluctantly stepping forward. She trained her eyes on the floor, walking around any animal feces (she hoped that was from the animals) and other questionable messes on the floor, glancing up now and then if something strange looked to be getting too close from her peripheral vision or to check where she was in the store. There were a lot of animals here and none of them looked half as nice as Elaysia or Dagney. Daphne was starting to wonder if she’d find anything for either of them in this place with the type of beasts they sold. She was thinking of surprising them with new collars, new toys, and new snacks and she knew she needed to stock up on food for when she brought Elaysia to Hogwarts with her, but she might just have to end up going to the local shop in Mold-on-the-Wold if she couldn’t find anything good enough.
“Ack!” Daphne shrieked as a nearby cage on the wall burst open, several small black rats jumping out and on top of her.
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Post by ginny on Dec 23, 2011 16:33:09 GMT -5
Ginny sighed and trudged along Diagon Alley. She peeked at shop windows as they passed, but nothing in there interested her- she already had her robes, her new books for her new classes and her potion ingredients, so she didn’t find anything that she wanted to buy. The only shop she had wanted to see so far was Zonko’s, and her mother had stalked past it with tight lips and flashing eyes. Then Ginny’s eyes lit up and she clutched at her mother’s hand. “Please please please let me go in the Menagerie!” she begged, hitting her mother with a full-on puppy-dog face. “I promise I won’t buy anything, just let me go in and look?” After a moment of reluctant dithering her mother finally agreed that Ginny could go in, as long as she stood outside and watched. Ginny hugged her and swung open the door to the shop.
She stood there for a second, overcome with giggles, as rats poured out a cage onto a girl. After a moment, common sense took over and Ginny went over to her to brush the rats off. Having Scabbers run through the family for years had cured her fear of them- but did he still count? Ron had told her that the rat had actually been an evil animagus and had run off to find You – Know – Who. Ginny let the thought go and started to gather the rats up, smiling at how cute they were.
After she had bundled the ones she could reach, she turned to the girl. “Ginny Weasley,” she said, holding her hand out. She hadn’t seen this girl around school, but who could blame her? There must be thousands of students in Hogwarts. She hoped the girl didn’t know that idiot Draco Malfoy, or was a judging pure-blood who would hate her and her family for being a blood traitor.
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Post by LANA LOSCE on Dec 23, 2011 19:02:24 GMT -5
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Daphne was devastated to hear someone giggling at her misfortune! She’d turn around and glare at them if she wasn’t too busy freaking out. Rats were not good animals. Who in the world bought rats? Unless they wanted to feed them to something like a snake. Ugh! The shopkeeper just watched, as if hoping she wouldn’t have to step in and was happy to stay behind her little counter when another girl came up to help scoop the rats off of Daphne. Perhaps it was undignified, but she whimpered a bit and tensed up at the feel of little pricks on her skin where the rats crawled up her arms and even into her hair! Oh God if one of them did anything to her hair.
Once the other girl got most of the rats off, Daphne found a small bit of courage to pluck a few off and toss them back into their cage. “You missed one!” called the pimply girl from behind the counter.
“Don’t you work here?” Daphne snapped, though it lacked some of the venom she liked to use. She was still a bit shaken over the experience and shuddered as she eyed one dart across the floor where a kneazel eyed it hungrily. Gross. Her Elaysia had better taste than that. They couldn’t be taking very good care of their kneazels if the things actually wanted little rodents like those rats.
She turned back to her savior a moment before she introduced herself as Ginny Weasley. “Of course you are,” she drawled, eying the girl up and down. It was a natural reaction, years of training as a Slytherin pureblood rich girl. Weasleys were well known blood traitors and paid the price for their leniency with poverty. She was a ginger, just like every other Weasley and covered in unattractive freckles. The hand-me-down clothes were also a notable thing. It was the same look every pureblood gave, that judgmental assessment, a calculating stare that allowed them to decide if the current company was worth their while or not.
Of course, Daphne caught herself in the middle of it and immediately looked away, heat rising to her face. She actually felt bad for once. How strange. Ever since befriending Megan Jones last year her whole belief system had been turned upside down. Megan Jones, the Muggle-born Huffelpuff who needed tutoring in Charms, the girl Daphne had spent more than half of her summer with…Daphne had been learning a lot about Muggles and the Muggle-world, much more than Muggle Studies every could or would.
Did that change anything? Daphne wasn’t so sure. She didn’t want to go along with the expectations of her family and her friends, but in her world you bowed down to tradition or you were screwed. She would surely face a lot more hell in Slytherin House and from the Greengrass family if she just surrendered it all to be a good person. A lot more damage could be done from her fellow House mates and family members than anyone who would hate her for the whole blood purity mind set.
Still, Daphne didn’t quite have the heart to be a total bitch. She cleared her throat and turned her blue eyes back to the girl who looked to be about Astoria’s age. “Err…I’m Daphne Greengrass. Thanks for…You know…Helping,” she finished lamely.
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Post by ginny on Dec 24, 2011 4:56:24 GMT -5
Ginny sighed at the counter girl’s response, and nodded at the victim’s comment. She picked the last squirming rat up and chucked it back in the cage, and slam the door shut. “Get some better cages,”
[/b] she advised to the spotty girl, who gave her a glare before going back to whatever she was doing before. Not working, probably. Her first reaction to the victim’s reaction (that’s a lot of reactions) was surprise. After she helped her- helped her get rats that had fallen out of a cage off of her and into that cage, no less- she was still going to act like that? Her face twisted as her mind flicked back to the encounter with the Malfoy’s two years ago. Stupid typical purebloods, she thought bitterly, and almost turned away. Until the girl blushed and looked away from Ginny, like she was embarrassed. Ginny couldn’t work it out. She shrugged when the girl said thanks: “It’s no big deal,” she smiled half – heartedly, “We used to have a rat at home.” Of course, like most things in the Weasley family, he had been handed down until he had become human and run off. OK, the human part was not normal for her family. Ginny glanced around the pet shop, wondering if her mother would let her have a pet if she got onto the Quidditch team or something. She would have to go into Quality Quidditch Supplies later. She tilted her head slightly, wondering what Daphne wanted to buy in here. Obviously not rats, and not an owl, either... probably not a toad, from her reaction to the rats... so a cat? “So, what’re you buying in here?” she asked. [/blockquote][/justify][/blockquote] |
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Post by LANA LOSCE on Dec 24, 2011 23:23:27 GMT -5
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Daphne blinked in surprise to Ginny’s remark. “What sort of people keep rodents for pets?” she asked in mild disgust and shock. Then she realized that probably sounded rude and she cringed a bit. “Err…No offense or anything,” she said lamely, though she felt she could only be steadily digging herself a hole here. This was what she got for socializing with different people. Megan was great…one of the nicest people Daphne had ever met and Daphne loved spending time with her, but seeing the good in a Muggle-born had only turned Daphne’s world upside down. Here she was, trying her best to mind her manners with a Weasley of all people! What had the world come to? “Only…I’m not a rat person, I suppose.”
She felt the strangest need to apologize for her odd behavior (bordering on rude, she guessed), but that was going too far for the proud Daphne Greengrass. Instead she cleared her throat and glanced around the shop, hoping not to see anyone like Pansy Parkinson or Millicent Bulstrode or Tracey Davis or any of the other girls around here. If anything she hoped to see Megan here to at least see how much she was trying here.
Merlin, what would Theodore say if he saw her conversing with a blood traitor?
Ginny spoke again before Daphne could drive herself too much into paranoia and she bit her lip and glanced around the store. “Well…I have a kneazel and a crup at home, so I was thinking of picking them up some presents and some food, maybe. Not sure if they sell anything…nice…in a place like this, though.”
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