Hoppy Hobbits

Pippen and Merry had gone with Ms. Figg, not at all sure where they were going to go when it dealt with this kind of thing, as they had never been to such a place before. They wondered what they would be doing, as there really didn't seem anything of interest to Hobbits, unless it was Hobbit's like Frodo and Sam who were into books.

So it came as a complete surprise to them when she took them to a candy shop, making it clear that they could pick out a treat each. They thought it would be simple, as what more could a candy store offer then what Irumi had shown them before, licorice ropes, lemon drops, and chocolate covered delicacies, plus more. Pippen's favorite was cotton candy lollipops, while Merry had picked assorted taffies.

One might ask why the Hobbit's had come to have a favorite, but that was what happened when ones source for the candy shop was a couple of Elflings with not much spending cash for such trifles. They had come to figure that Elves were also not ones for sweets, as this was only on rare occasions that they got to go to the candy store in Anwe. Ai was also more likely to go then Irumi, but was more likely to buy less at the same time.

When they got into the candy shop, they came to discover that the store was nothing like what they had expected, but a whole great deal more. Smiles came upon their faces. Figg caught the looks and smiled. "Wizarding treats are much different, are they not?"

The person behind the counter nodded his head at them. "What may I have the pleasure of helping you with today?"

"My young friends have never seen a good deal of these candies, would you explain them to them please?" Figg asked the young man.

"Of course, of course!" the young man said. He nodded to some packaged pastries. "Those are pumpkin pastries, an absolute delight."

"Those sound like something Rose would make Sam and the kids," Pippin commented, much to the confusion of the shop keeper. The shop keeper just shook his head and went and described more candies to them.

"Now, here is a delight to one and all, of all ages," the shop keeper said. "These are chocolate frogs. You open the package and see the frogs hop. There are also Wizarding Cards with them."

"The poor frogs are covered in chocolate?" Pippin asked, his eyes not happy with the idea.

"Well, no… they're completely made of chocolate," the shop keeper said. He watched as Pippin whispered into Merry's ear and the other Hobbit agree.

"Ms. Figg… we'll each have one of those," the Hobbit said, causing Figg's eyebrows to rise up.

"I'll take two chocolate frogs and a half dozen boxes of Bertie Botts Every Flavor Bean," Ms. Figg said, shaking her head. The person behind the counter packaged them and they ended up heading out to where they saw Irumi, Hermione, China, and a girl they didn't know.

"Oh my!" was the response from the red headed girl. "Why aren't they wearing shoe's?"

"Because they're Hobbit's," Irumi stated. "And don't you two go into linage… she can figure out your linage from the books Granger has given her."

Merry nodded his head in agreement. "It is nice seeing you young ladies here."

"Nice to meet you, though I don't know why you call us young ladies… may name is Ginny Weasly," the girl said, sticking out her hand to have both Hobbit's shake it at the same time.

"Well, that's because they are old fashioned… they are from a past time and are supposed to be adults, but alas… something happened," China quipped, laughing as she did.

"Well, let's free our friends Merry," Pippin suddenly said, holding his chocolate frog box up to the fountain. Merry did the same. Ginny's eyes suddenly went wide.

"Please tell me that they aren't going to try to release them into the fountain," the little girl said, shock in her voice.

"Well, why not… the froggies deserve to be free," Pippin chorused, opening the box. Merry opened his at almost the exact same time. The chocolate frogs jumped and landed in the water, only to have the water suddenly turn brown.

"What exactly were those things," Irumi commented, her eyebrows rising. However, both China, Hermione and Ginny burst into giggles. Irumi turned to them, confused as to what was so funny. "Did I miss something?"

"Those were chocolate frogs…" came a voice near by them.

"… and were not real frogs." Said a similar, but slightly different voice.

"Fred! George!" Ginny said, a smile on her face. "China, Irumi… these are my brothers Fred and George… they're twins and are starting this year."

"Nice to meet you," both boys chorused.

"We'll have to think of playing that trick…"

"… on a first year who's naïve,"

"Ahh… so your pranksters like Elrohir and Elrodan," Merry commented, smiling. "…though I doubt that you could out prank them."

"Really?" one of the boys said, smiling.

"No one can out prank us,"

"I bet my cousins could out prank you… I bet from what I learned from them, I might be able to prank you," Irumi said, her face not changing emotion. This caused both of the twins to stare at her.

"Well… if you can tell us apart," one boy said.

"… we might think you can prank us,"

"Come on… even mum has a problem telling you two apart," Ginny said, shaking her head at them.

"Which one's the older of the two," Irumi suddenly asked.

"Fred's older, why?" Ginny asked.

"That ones Fred and that ones George," Irumi said, pointing to each in turn.

"Nah, I'm George and he's Fred," the first one said.

"No…" China spoke up. "She's right."

Ginny watched as her two brother's stopped smiling. "I don't get it…"

"They're right…" the second one said, "… though how I do not know."

Hermione quipped something, "Possibly because she's had much experience with telling her two cousins apart."

"And… it was a lucky guess… but next time it won't be," Irumi spoke up.

"Your voices have a slight difference to them," China imputed.

"Yeah, well… how would a human know that?" Fred asked.

"They aren't human," Ginny piped up. "They're Elves… and those two are what are called Hobbits."

"Ehh…" George said, bending down to look closer at Irumi and China. "Hey… Fred… their ears are weird."

"Over grown House Elves," Fred joked. "Except the eyes aren't as big, they are much bigger and their ears aren't so outlandishly large. Of course, they… and those Hobbits look more like humans then House Elves any day. But there are even subtle differences, allright, not so subtle."

"The only time I've seen those ears before were with that kid who was only at school less then a year. A real loner. His name was Ainel I believe,"

"Ainel…" this came from both Irumi and China, shock in there faces.

"You two know their friend Ainel?" Hermione asked.

"Ahh, yeah…" George said, a frown on his face.

"Does he remember what happened to him and why he left the school? We could only surmise?" Fred said.

"No, only Irumi remembers… and perhaps Ai," China spoke up. "But he doesn't speak."

"We see," both Fred and George stated, looking at each other.

Author's note – Fred and George pop up onto the screen, "Remember seeing us before, when Percy mentioned Ainel?" says one twin, then the other says, "Seems some more is learned about him." Then they say together, "Perhaps next chapter more?"