* Gens Gentis Figularis *
Part 1 of 2-part intro
Thanks to all my beta-readers
Please enjoy the fic
~*~*~*~*~
"Ahhhhhh! I lost my spell book!" Annie yelled, flinging things from her desk around the room as she frantically searched for papers.
"Looking for this?" Drew asked, handing his friend two tea-stained printouts with all the spells found in the Harry Potter books on them.
"Thank you!" Annie cried, reaching for them. Drew pulled his arm back, so Annie missed grabbing them. Narrowing her eyes on Drew, she lunged again, yelling "Expelliarmus," at him. Grabbing the papers from the shocked male, Annie smirked.
"Not bad for a Hufflepuff," Annie congratulated herself, tucking a strand of her short coppery hair behind her ear. The four friends had sorted themselves; Drew in Gryffindor, Annie in Hufflepuff, Sarah in Ravenclaw and Jim in Slytherin. They had a lot of time on their hands and had a lot of Harry Potter obsession in their heads. Plus they all lived rather close to each other so it was easy together.
"Huffleduffer," Drew said with a sneer. He narrowed his blue eyes at her green ones and they had a quick staring war.
"Go away. I need to work on my Potions homework," she said, leaving suddenly to head into the kitchen, to work on lunch for her and her little brother. Making a face at Annie, Drew left in search of Sarah. Annie entered the kitchen and went to the stove.
"Incendio," she called as she turned it on with a turn of the handle. Ralphie, her little brother came into the room.
"Dobby, go get the noodles," Annie called to him. He had large ears and large brown eyes so Annie and her friends dubbed him Dobby, because he was always willing to do what they told him.
"Kay," Ralphie cried happily, opening the cabinet in search for the noodles.
*~*
Back outside in his search for Sarah, Drew met Jim, who was also on his way to Sarah's house.
"Avada Kedavra," Jim cried as he stepped on a spider that was crossing his path.
"Jim, that is an illegal curse, do I need to report you to the Ministry?" Drew asked, in his most prefect-like voice.
"Sod off Percy," Jim said. Whenever someone acted like a tattletale, the others called him or her Percy.
"Five points from Slytherin for disrespectful behaviour," Drew said in mock authority.
"Fifty points from Gryffindor for being a dingbat," Jim sneered back. Then they both started snickering. Continuing their path to Sarah's house they knocked on the door.
"Come in," Sarah's mum called from within. "Sarah is in her room." The two boys came in and went up the well-known path to their Ravenclaw friend.
"Alohomora," they cried together before Drew opened the door.
"It wasn't locked nincompoops," Sarah said rolling her blue eyes in a very Hermione fashion.
"You never know," Jim said mysteriously, wiggling his fingers at her.
"You are an idiot Jim," Drew said, "and you must be punished. Crucio." He called the last part out loudly before giving Jim a good kick in the leg.
"Why you -" Jim yelled, chasing after Drew, whom promptly grabbed the top sheet off Sarah's bed and wrapped himself in it.
"Invisibility Cloak, you can't see me!" he yelled out. Jim glared at the wrapped up Drew.
"Petrificus Totalus," Jim said calmly, pushing Drew over. The blanket wrapped around him trapped him, causing him to fall to the ground with a thud. Crawling out of the confinement, Drew stuck his tongue out at Jim.
"If you Muggles don't mind, I have work to do," Sarah said, getting up. "Mobilicorpus," she said the spell before shoving the two out into the hall.
"This is your fault you know," Jim said sulkily, heading back downstairs.
"No, it's yours," Drew said "you Skankerin,"
"No, it's yours, you Gryffinwhore," Jim insulted back as they exited the house and meandered their way back to Annie's house.
"No, yours, you Sickle Slut," Drew called back
"Yours, you Mudblood Murtlap," Jim called back, walking on the opposite side of the sidewalk to Jim.
"No yours, you and your Snitch-sized brain."
"You should talk, Mr. 'Dumbledore isn't evil'!"
"He isn't!" Drew protested. By now they had reached Annie's house and were outside bickering.
"What are you two doing?" Annie asked, opening the door upon hearing the yells from the two males. "I thought you went to Sarah's house,"
"We did," Jim informed Annie.
"But she kicked us out," Drew added.
"Oh, so you assumed that I would just let you back in," Annie said, rolling her eyes.
"Well, Hufflepuffs are fair" Drew said encouragingly.
"Yes, we are fair, but we are not merciful," Annie told him coolly, starting to close the door on the two.
"Wait! Please let us in. If not just to get us off the street" Jim pleaded. Annie considered this with a sigh and moved aside as to allow the duo to enter. Cheering, they sprinted to the room sporting the TV and jumped onto the couch, ready to veg out, turning the box to Cartoon Network.
"What do you two think you are doing?" Annie asked, smacking Drew with the rolled up spell book.
"Being guests?" Jim suggested as Drew rubbed his head and glared at Annie.
"If you are going to stay you are going to work," Annie informed the two, her arms crossed.
"We are not House Elves. Get Dobby to do it," Jim told Annie, returning his eyes to the screen.
"He's taking a nap," Annie said, moving next to it.
"Well, wake him up," Jim commanded, laughing at the antics of the cartoon characters.
"Why don't you?" Annie asked him slyly.
"When this show is over," Jim told her. Annie reached behind the set and unplugged it.
"There. It's over," Annie told him, standing up.
"Repairo!" Jim and Drew shouted, Drew shaking the remote at it like a wand. After a moment of vain attempts to repair the TV from the couch, Jim stood up.
"Okay, okay. I'll go wake the little tyke up!" He informed Annie with a sneer and headed to Ralphie's room. Opening the small boy's door, he flipped on the light, whispering 'Luminous' automatically. It took a few minutes for him to locate Ralphie and when he did he wished he hadn't.
Ralphie had climbed up on his top bunk and sprang at Jim with a gleeful yell. Jim let out his own yell but it was obviously not of glee.
"Get it off me!" Jim yelled, running around as Ralphie squealed, tugging at Jim's ears.
"Come here Dobby," Annie cooed from the door where she was watching. Ralphie reluctantly climbed down from Jim's head, pulling on the back of Jim's shirt and causing him to cough.
"I thought you said he was napping." Jim choked out.
"Ooh I'm sorry," Annie feigned a gasp. "I forgot to translate that for you. In 3 year old, napping means to wait in the dark until someone comes in and you can attack." By now Annie couldn't hold in the laughter anymore, she was snorting, barley able to breath. Not wanting to be left out in the moment, Ralphie started to laugh, to not sure why.
Jim started brush past the siblings but as he headed to the stairs Annie asked Ralphie if he wanted to go to the bookstore with her. That caught Jim's attention and he ran back to stand next to her innocently.
"Are we really going to the bookstore?" he asked excitedly, Ralphie expressing the same feelings.
"Sure" Annie told him, rolling her eyes at his antics.
"Yes! We're going to Flourish and Blott's!" Jim yelled as he jumped down the stairs. Drew joined his cheers and they both pranced around like first years having their first Christmas. As they went on, Annie called Sarah's house and told her to meet them on the way.
"Come on guys," she cried out as she hung up, heading to the door. Ralphie was riding on her back, a position he loved to be in.
"Go Buckbeak," Ralphie cried out gleefully, giving Annie a kick in the side. He was too young to have read the Harry Potter books, but Drew had called Annie 'Buckbeak' enough times when giving Ralphie a piggy-back-ride that the small boy had picked it up.
"I wonder if the other teachers have pets," Drew pondered out loud as they strolled towards their destination.
"Well Filch has Mrs. Norris and Dumbledore has Fawkes" Annie commented, distracted with the weight of her brother on her back.
"What if Filch has a bird instead of Mrs. Norris," Jim asked, a smirk playing at his lips.
"What kind of bird do you mean? A Phoenix?" Drew questioned, eying Jim oddly.
"No. A rooster" Jim blurted with a laugh.
"What's so funny about Filch having a Rooster?" Annie asked, not sure she wanted to know where this is going.
"Well, it would be really funny if he named his Rooster 'HughBlo'" Jim concluded, smiling at a joke only he got.
"What are you getting at?" Drew asked, his eyes cast towards the other boy.
"Well, if his rooster was named HughBlo, Filch could ask Dumbledore or Snape if the students have seen HughBlo my cock." Jim informed the others before bursting into laughter. Drew gave an equally loud laugh while Annie only groaned with a grin, hoping Ralphie didn't choose 'cock' to be his new word of the day. When the laughter subsided, Drew meandered up alongside Annie.
"Hey Annie. Has Dobby seen HughBlo my cock?" he asked innocently.
"Cock on the loose!" Jim called out, cupping his hands around his mouth.
"Anyone seen my cock around here? He's about this big," Drew cried out, motioning about a foot and a half wide with his arms to the rather empty street.
"You wish," Jim muttered with a snicker.
"No more cock!" Annie yelled out in frustration just as Sarah was riding up.
"Do I want to know?" Sarah asked, giggling with a slight blush.
"Filch lost his rooster," Drew explained with an innocent grin.
"No, I don't want to know," Sarah concluded, rolling her eyes.
"Hey, mind if Dobby here sits on your Nimbus?" Annie asked, sagging under the weight of the 3 year old. Sarah had a new bike that she used silver nail polish to write "Nimbus 2002" on it.
"Sure" Sarah said, climbing off and letting Annie put her brother in the seat.
"Yay! I get to ride Nimbus Cock!" Ralphie said gleefully.
"No, just Nimbus, no cock," Annie told him, groaning at him picking up the word. "Jim, Drew, help me keep Dobby on the broom," she told the two boys. They each grabbed a handle bar, still snickering at the cock jokes. Annie held onto Ralphie while Sarah strolled behind, her finger guiding the bike loosely.
"Look, Diagon Alley" Drew called back; as if the others hadn't already seen the Mini-Mall that Barns and Noble was a part of. Ralphie let out a cheer, causing him to almost fall off the bike. After locking up the bike, the 5 entered, Drew stuck holding Ralphie's hand.
"No, it isn't in yet," Lenard, one of the cashiers called out to them. The 4 had come in almost every other day, asking if book 5 had come out yet. Letting out loud groans, to be sure that Lenard heard their protests they began exploring the well-known store, leaving Ralphie in the children's section.
Their first stop, the Harry Potter table, to see if anything new had been put out.
"Hey look, ornament, half off," Sarah said excitedly, picking up a particular Snape ornament.
"We already have it. Plus the hook on that one isn't very good. It keeps falling" Drew complained, going through a different pile.
They already agreed that they would only get one thing of each between them so their money could stretch farther. They also traded and swapped all their things so much they had a hard time remembering who owned what.
"Hey look. I'm Harry Potter," Drew said, putting on a pair of gag glasses that instead of the usual nose had a plastic scar sticking out of the top of them.
"Ohhhh, we don't have that yet!" Annie said, staring at the glasses with admiration.
"How much?" Sarah asked, reaching for their wallet that they all kept their money in. Sarah was voted to take care of it, no one trusted anyone else with the money.
"$2.50," Drew told them, examining the price tag.
"I bet they might give it to us cheaper just to get us out of here," Jim snickered.
"Well, lets keep looking, see if there is anything else we want." Annie suggested, going through another stack of stuff.
"Jackpot!" Jim said, causing not only the other three to look up, but an elderly man nearby to glance at them nervously. Jim took no notice as he held up a folding cube. It was made up of multiple blocks that could be opened and folded over to make a different scene appear.
"How much!?" Sarah asked excitedly.
"$9.97" Jim informed her.
"Eh; A bit high," Annie admitted, looking longingly at the cube.
"Well... we have enough money," Sarah told her, flipping through their meagre bills.
"So our expedition is done." Drew said, throwing up a hand in conquest.
"Yup," the others chimed in. Sarah went up front to pay for their things and Annie picked up Ralphie from the children's section where he was busy looking at the pictures in one of the books.
"No! I don't want to go!" Ralphie yelled out, grabbing the base of one of the shelves.
"Come on Ralphie" Annie pleaded, trying to pry his chubby fingers from the board.
"Noooo!" he yelled out on the top of his lungs. Annie let go of him, took a deep breath and started to leave.
"Okay then Dobby. I guess I'll just leave you here. All alone. With the monsters that come out at night," she called to him over her shoulder as she slowly meandered to wards the front door. Ralphie stared at her.
He glanced around, in case the monsters were coming out earlier before sprinting after he yelling, "Don't leave me!"
Smiling, Annie bent over and picked the small boy up. He clutched her tightly, glancing around the store at the people, wondering if one of them was really a monster.
"Great haul," Drew commented when he looked into the bag the things came in.
"Whose turns is it to take the stuff home?" Annie asked, trying to remember.
"Jim's... and mine," Sarah recalled.
"I want the cube." Jim told her, grabbing for the bag. Sarah rolled her eyes and pulled out the glasses for herself.
"Hey Drew. I'll trade the glasses for the Snape ornament," she suggested.
"Kay," Drew said, looking at the glasses, grinning.
"Dufusdor," Jim muttered, rolling his eyes at Drew.
"Snoberin," Drew called back.
"Niffler Nose."
"Dragon Breath."
"Mr. 'Dumbledore Isn't Evil'!"
"He's not!" Drew yelled at Jim again.
"Why do you think Dumbledore is evil?" Annie asked Jim who let out a load groan.
"Because. Why else would You-Know-Who be afraid of him?" he asked, waving his hands about.
"Because he's the ultimate wizard for the white side," Drew insisted, slamming a hand down on his leg.
"Maybe... they're related?" Sarah suggested thoughtfully.
"Yeah. Voldie's real name IS Tom Marvolo Riddle," Annie said suddenly.
"So..." Drew asked, trying to get what she was saying.
"Well, Marvolo is from his grandfather, and maybe not his grandfather on his Muggle side. We don't know Dumbledore's full name. For all we know, his full name could be Marvolo Albus Dumbledore. Plus, his initials would be MAD which would be appropriate," Annie explained with a laugh.
"But if Dumbledore is Voldie's grandfather, wouldn't that mean he would be related to Salazar?" Drew asked.
"Well... There isn't any proof that he isn't. Salazar did live a thousand years ago," Annie said, a bit unconvinced.
"Well, what if Dumbledore married the heir of Slytherin," Sarah said suddenly.
"That could work," Drew commented.
"I still say Dumbledore is evil," Jim muttered. The others didn't have a chance to complain to Jim before Ralphie started to yell
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~*~*~*~*~
"Ahhhhhh! I lost my spell book!" Annie yelled, flinging things from her desk around the room as she frantically searched for papers.
"Looking for this?" Drew asked, handing his friend two tea-stained printouts with all the spells found in the Harry Potter books on them.
"Thank you!" Annie cried, reaching for them. Drew pulled his arm back, so Annie missed grabbing them. Narrowing her eyes on Drew, she lunged again, yelling "Expelliarmus," at him. Grabbing the papers from the shocked male, Annie smirked.
"Not bad for a Hufflepuff," Annie congratulated herself, tucking a strand of her short coppery hair behind her ear. The four friends had sorted themselves; Drew in Gryffindor, Annie in Hufflepuff, Sarah in Ravenclaw and Jim in Slytherin. They had a lot of time on their hands and had a lot of Harry Potter obsession in their heads. Plus they all lived rather close to each other so it was easy together.
"Huffleduffer," Drew said with a sneer. He narrowed his blue eyes at her green ones and they had a quick staring war.
"Go away. I need to work on my Potions homework," she said, leaving suddenly to head into the kitchen, to work on lunch for her and her little brother. Making a face at Annie, Drew left in search of Sarah. Annie entered the kitchen and went to the stove.
"Incendio," she called as she turned it on with a turn of the handle. Ralphie, her little brother came into the room.
"Dobby, go get the noodles," Annie called to him. He had large ears and large brown eyes so Annie and her friends dubbed him Dobby, because he was always willing to do what they told him.
"Kay," Ralphie cried happily, opening the cabinet in search for the noodles.
*~*
Back outside in his search for Sarah, Drew met Jim, who was also on his way to Sarah's house.
"Avada Kedavra," Jim cried as he stepped on a spider that was crossing his path.
"Jim, that is an illegal curse, do I need to report you to the Ministry?" Drew asked, in his most prefect-like voice.
"Sod off Percy," Jim said. Whenever someone acted like a tattletale, the others called him or her Percy.
"Five points from Slytherin for disrespectful behaviour," Drew said in mock authority.
"Fifty points from Gryffindor for being a dingbat," Jim sneered back. Then they both started snickering. Continuing their path to Sarah's house they knocked on the door.
"Come in," Sarah's mum called from within. "Sarah is in her room." The two boys came in and went up the well-known path to their Ravenclaw friend.
"Alohomora," they cried together before Drew opened the door.
"It wasn't locked nincompoops," Sarah said rolling her blue eyes in a very Hermione fashion.
"You never know," Jim said mysteriously, wiggling his fingers at her.
"You are an idiot Jim," Drew said, "and you must be punished. Crucio." He called the last part out loudly before giving Jim a good kick in the leg.
"Why you -" Jim yelled, chasing after Drew, whom promptly grabbed the top sheet off Sarah's bed and wrapped himself in it.
"Invisibility Cloak, you can't see me!" he yelled out. Jim glared at the wrapped up Drew.
"Petrificus Totalus," Jim said calmly, pushing Drew over. The blanket wrapped around him trapped him, causing him to fall to the ground with a thud. Crawling out of the confinement, Drew stuck his tongue out at Jim.
"If you Muggles don't mind, I have work to do," Sarah said, getting up. "Mobilicorpus," she said the spell before shoving the two out into the hall.
"This is your fault you know," Jim said sulkily, heading back downstairs.
"No, it's yours," Drew said "you Skankerin,"
"No, it's yours, you Gryffinwhore," Jim insulted back as they exited the house and meandered their way back to Annie's house.
"No, yours, you Sickle Slut," Drew called back
"Yours, you Mudblood Murtlap," Jim called back, walking on the opposite side of the sidewalk to Jim.
"No yours, you and your Snitch-sized brain."
"You should talk, Mr. 'Dumbledore isn't evil'!"
"He isn't!" Drew protested. By now they had reached Annie's house and were outside bickering.
"What are you two doing?" Annie asked, opening the door upon hearing the yells from the two males. "I thought you went to Sarah's house,"
"We did," Jim informed Annie.
"But she kicked us out," Drew added.
"Oh, so you assumed that I would just let you back in," Annie said, rolling her eyes.
"Well, Hufflepuffs are fair" Drew said encouragingly.
"Yes, we are fair, but we are not merciful," Annie told him coolly, starting to close the door on the two.
"Wait! Please let us in. If not just to get us off the street" Jim pleaded. Annie considered this with a sigh and moved aside as to allow the duo to enter. Cheering, they sprinted to the room sporting the TV and jumped onto the couch, ready to veg out, turning the box to Cartoon Network.
"What do you two think you are doing?" Annie asked, smacking Drew with the rolled up spell book.
"Being guests?" Jim suggested as Drew rubbed his head and glared at Annie.
"If you are going to stay you are going to work," Annie informed the two, her arms crossed.
"We are not House Elves. Get Dobby to do it," Jim told Annie, returning his eyes to the screen.
"He's taking a nap," Annie said, moving next to it.
"Well, wake him up," Jim commanded, laughing at the antics of the cartoon characters.
"Why don't you?" Annie asked him slyly.
"When this show is over," Jim told her. Annie reached behind the set and unplugged it.
"There. It's over," Annie told him, standing up.
"Repairo!" Jim and Drew shouted, Drew shaking the remote at it like a wand. After a moment of vain attempts to repair the TV from the couch, Jim stood up.
"Okay, okay. I'll go wake the little tyke up!" He informed Annie with a sneer and headed to Ralphie's room. Opening the small boy's door, he flipped on the light, whispering 'Luminous' automatically. It took a few minutes for him to locate Ralphie and when he did he wished he hadn't.
Ralphie had climbed up on his top bunk and sprang at Jim with a gleeful yell. Jim let out his own yell but it was obviously not of glee.
"Get it off me!" Jim yelled, running around as Ralphie squealed, tugging at Jim's ears.
"Come here Dobby," Annie cooed from the door where she was watching. Ralphie reluctantly climbed down from Jim's head, pulling on the back of Jim's shirt and causing him to cough.
"I thought you said he was napping." Jim choked out.
"Ooh I'm sorry," Annie feigned a gasp. "I forgot to translate that for you. In 3 year old, napping means to wait in the dark until someone comes in and you can attack." By now Annie couldn't hold in the laughter anymore, she was snorting, barley able to breath. Not wanting to be left out in the moment, Ralphie started to laugh, to not sure why.
Jim started brush past the siblings but as he headed to the stairs Annie asked Ralphie if he wanted to go to the bookstore with her. That caught Jim's attention and he ran back to stand next to her innocently.
"Are we really going to the bookstore?" he asked excitedly, Ralphie expressing the same feelings.
"Sure" Annie told him, rolling her eyes at his antics.
"Yes! We're going to Flourish and Blott's!" Jim yelled as he jumped down the stairs. Drew joined his cheers and they both pranced around like first years having their first Christmas. As they went on, Annie called Sarah's house and told her to meet them on the way.
"Come on guys," she cried out as she hung up, heading to the door. Ralphie was riding on her back, a position he loved to be in.
"Go Buckbeak," Ralphie cried out gleefully, giving Annie a kick in the side. He was too young to have read the Harry Potter books, but Drew had called Annie 'Buckbeak' enough times when giving Ralphie a piggy-back-ride that the small boy had picked it up.
"I wonder if the other teachers have pets," Drew pondered out loud as they strolled towards their destination.
"Well Filch has Mrs. Norris and Dumbledore has Fawkes" Annie commented, distracted with the weight of her brother on her back.
"What if Filch has a bird instead of Mrs. Norris," Jim asked, a smirk playing at his lips.
"What kind of bird do you mean? A Phoenix?" Drew questioned, eying Jim oddly.
"No. A rooster" Jim blurted with a laugh.
"What's so funny about Filch having a Rooster?" Annie asked, not sure she wanted to know where this is going.
"Well, it would be really funny if he named his Rooster 'HughBlo'" Jim concluded, smiling at a joke only he got.
"What are you getting at?" Drew asked, his eyes cast towards the other boy.
"Well, if his rooster was named HughBlo, Filch could ask Dumbledore or Snape if the students have seen HughBlo my cock." Jim informed the others before bursting into laughter. Drew gave an equally loud laugh while Annie only groaned with a grin, hoping Ralphie didn't choose 'cock' to be his new word of the day. When the laughter subsided, Drew meandered up alongside Annie.
"Hey Annie. Has Dobby seen HughBlo my cock?" he asked innocently.
"Cock on the loose!" Jim called out, cupping his hands around his mouth.
"Anyone seen my cock around here? He's about this big," Drew cried out, motioning about a foot and a half wide with his arms to the rather empty street.
"You wish," Jim muttered with a snicker.
"No more cock!" Annie yelled out in frustration just as Sarah was riding up.
"Do I want to know?" Sarah asked, giggling with a slight blush.
"Filch lost his rooster," Drew explained with an innocent grin.
"No, I don't want to know," Sarah concluded, rolling her eyes.
"Hey, mind if Dobby here sits on your Nimbus?" Annie asked, sagging under the weight of the 3 year old. Sarah had a new bike that she used silver nail polish to write "Nimbus 2002" on it.
"Sure" Sarah said, climbing off and letting Annie put her brother in the seat.
"Yay! I get to ride Nimbus Cock!" Ralphie said gleefully.
"No, just Nimbus, no cock," Annie told him, groaning at him picking up the word. "Jim, Drew, help me keep Dobby on the broom," she told the two boys. They each grabbed a handle bar, still snickering at the cock jokes. Annie held onto Ralphie while Sarah strolled behind, her finger guiding the bike loosely.
"Look, Diagon Alley" Drew called back; as if the others hadn't already seen the Mini-Mall that Barns and Noble was a part of. Ralphie let out a cheer, causing him to almost fall off the bike. After locking up the bike, the 5 entered, Drew stuck holding Ralphie's hand.
"No, it isn't in yet," Lenard, one of the cashiers called out to them. The 4 had come in almost every other day, asking if book 5 had come out yet. Letting out loud groans, to be sure that Lenard heard their protests they began exploring the well-known store, leaving Ralphie in the children's section.
Their first stop, the Harry Potter table, to see if anything new had been put out.
"Hey look, ornament, half off," Sarah said excitedly, picking up a particular Snape ornament.
"We already have it. Plus the hook on that one isn't very good. It keeps falling" Drew complained, going through a different pile.
They already agreed that they would only get one thing of each between them so their money could stretch farther. They also traded and swapped all their things so much they had a hard time remembering who owned what.
"Hey look. I'm Harry Potter," Drew said, putting on a pair of gag glasses that instead of the usual nose had a plastic scar sticking out of the top of them.
"Ohhhh, we don't have that yet!" Annie said, staring at the glasses with admiration.
"How much?" Sarah asked, reaching for their wallet that they all kept their money in. Sarah was voted to take care of it, no one trusted anyone else with the money.
"$2.50," Drew told them, examining the price tag.
"I bet they might give it to us cheaper just to get us out of here," Jim snickered.
"Well, lets keep looking, see if there is anything else we want." Annie suggested, going through another stack of stuff.
"Jackpot!" Jim said, causing not only the other three to look up, but an elderly man nearby to glance at them nervously. Jim took no notice as he held up a folding cube. It was made up of multiple blocks that could be opened and folded over to make a different scene appear.
"How much!?" Sarah asked excitedly.
"$9.97" Jim informed her.
"Eh; A bit high," Annie admitted, looking longingly at the cube.
"Well... we have enough money," Sarah told her, flipping through their meagre bills.
"So our expedition is done." Drew said, throwing up a hand in conquest.
"Yup," the others chimed in. Sarah went up front to pay for their things and Annie picked up Ralphie from the children's section where he was busy looking at the pictures in one of the books.
"No! I don't want to go!" Ralphie yelled out, grabbing the base of one of the shelves.
"Come on Ralphie" Annie pleaded, trying to pry his chubby fingers from the board.
"Noooo!" he yelled out on the top of his lungs. Annie let go of him, took a deep breath and started to leave.
"Okay then Dobby. I guess I'll just leave you here. All alone. With the monsters that come out at night," she called to him over her shoulder as she slowly meandered to wards the front door. Ralphie stared at her.
He glanced around, in case the monsters were coming out earlier before sprinting after he yelling, "Don't leave me!"
Smiling, Annie bent over and picked the small boy up. He clutched her tightly, glancing around the store at the people, wondering if one of them was really a monster.
"Great haul," Drew commented when he looked into the bag the things came in.
"Whose turns is it to take the stuff home?" Annie asked, trying to remember.
"Jim's... and mine," Sarah recalled.
"I want the cube." Jim told her, grabbing for the bag. Sarah rolled her eyes and pulled out the glasses for herself.
"Hey Drew. I'll trade the glasses for the Snape ornament," she suggested.
"Kay," Drew said, looking at the glasses, grinning.
"Dufusdor," Jim muttered, rolling his eyes at Drew.
"Snoberin," Drew called back.
"Niffler Nose."
"Dragon Breath."
"Mr. 'Dumbledore Isn't Evil'!"
"He's not!" Drew yelled at Jim again.
"Why do you think Dumbledore is evil?" Annie asked Jim who let out a load groan.
"Because. Why else would You-Know-Who be afraid of him?" he asked, waving his hands about.
"Because he's the ultimate wizard for the white side," Drew insisted, slamming a hand down on his leg.
"Maybe... they're related?" Sarah suggested thoughtfully.
"Yeah. Voldie's real name IS Tom Marvolo Riddle," Annie said suddenly.
"So..." Drew asked, trying to get what she was saying.
"Well, Marvolo is from his grandfather, and maybe not his grandfather on his Muggle side. We don't know Dumbledore's full name. For all we know, his full name could be Marvolo Albus Dumbledore. Plus, his initials would be MAD which would be appropriate," Annie explained with a laugh.
"But if Dumbledore is Voldie's grandfather, wouldn't that mean he would be related to Salazar?" Drew asked.
"Well... There isn't any proof that he isn't. Salazar did live a thousand years ago," Annie said, a bit unconvinced.
"Well, what if Dumbledore married the heir of Slytherin," Sarah said suddenly.
"That could work," Drew commented.
"I still say Dumbledore is evil," Jim muttered. The others didn't have a chance to complain to Jim before Ralphie started to yell
______________ Liked it? Didn't like it? Have suggestions for other discussions?