Entertain Me (Janet)

Clara didn't usually go on the Hogsmeade trips. She'd gotten permission, of course, in her third year, and she went the first few times, but...there really wasn't much there that interested her. It was usually more to her benefit to stay in the castle and read or study--in fact, that was one of the best times to do so, when most of the other students were gone, and the castle was empty and quiet.

But this time, she'd gone to pick up a package from the post office. Her parents, being muggles, couldn't use owl mail to send things to the castle, and so she had suggested they use the post office in Hogsmeade. Normally when they wanted to contact her, they did so over email--she received monthly updates from them, and sent back ones of her own--but in this case, her aunt Cecelia had sent her a Christmas present from America, the shipping of which had been delayed, and therefore it had arrived after Christmas break.

It had been recently delivered to her parents, and they had sent it ahead to Hogsmeade, where she had retrieved it from the post office. She was currently wandering the street with the parcel under her arm, searching for something to occupy her for the rest of the Hogsmeade visit.

Janet groaned under the wieght of her boxes. She had originally come to Hogsmeade to visit her parents, but they hadn't been home, resulting in some impromtu shopping. She had dozens of pranks, a broom, a new wand (her owl snapped her old one), as well as various other things she had purchased her small home town. Practically staggering under the weight, Janet could barely see around her pile, resulting a terible bump into.. someone, she couldn't tell. Her boxes flew out of her arms in all directions and she fell to her butt with a huff.

She glared at the boxes before turning her attention to the girl in front of her. "Oh, crap! I'm so sorry.. I couldn't see around those stupid boxes." She stood up, offering the girl a hand up before dusting off her rear and beginning to gather her boxes before someone stepped on them.

Clara had been looking at the shop windows on her left, when something large and solid impacted with her body. She was knocked off balance, and fell gracelessly to the ground as she fixed a bewildered look upon the perpetrator--a slightly older girl surrounded by boxes.

She accepted the hand up in a daze, and stood there clutching her own parcel for a long second, before she realized she was probably supposed to help the other girl pick up her boxes. After all, it had been as much Clara's fault as the other girl's--she hadn't been watching where she was going.

Clara collected a pile of the smaller boxes, stacking them strategically so they could be easily balanced on top of the larger ones, and handed the small stack to the older student.

"Sorry," she said in return. "I should have seen you coming, that's my fault."

The other girl stood there for a moment before moving to help, collecting a couple boxes and stacking them better than Janet had thought to. The other witch stacked the boxes she had gathered on top of her own. With pursed lips, Janet decided she was fed up. She set her boxes down, drawing out her wand and murmuring a soft "Accio".

The rest of the boxes flew to her. Then, with a gentle flit of her wand, she again spoke a spell, this time being "Wingardium Leviosa", she quickly and easily rearranged the boxes in a neat stack and let them float beside her like she should have done in the first place.

The other girl attempted to accept part of the blame as Janet worked but was simply waved off with her free hand. "Not at all. The blame is mine for I shouldn't have let my view be obscured." She reached out her free hand for the other girl to shake, and introduced herself, partly due to the fact of no longer wishing to call her "girl" any longer. "I'm Janet."

As the older girl lifted her boxes with magic this time, Clara wondered why she hadn't just done that in the first place, but commended her for realizing her mistake and fixing it, rather than carrying on as she had before.

Clara conceded that the other girl probably could have made a better decision regarding the placement of her boxes, but she still felt the collision was mostly her own fault, considering she had nothing blocking her vision. Still, it really didn't matter, so she dropped the subject with a slight shrug.

She took the Janet's hand as the girl introduced herself, shaking it once before letting go. She was never entirely sure what a proper handshake should feel like--the duration, the number of shakes, and the strength of the grip seemed to be one of those societal conventions that people just felt through as they went along, and she was never very good at picking up signals like that.

"I'm Clara," she responded. "Why do you have so many boxes? Christmas is over." Most people did bulk shopping right before the holidays, in order to get gifts for other people. But the gift-giving season had just finished, and people should be settling down, having already gotten what they wanted over the holidays. Perhaps the shops in Hogsmeade were having a post-Christmas sale or something.

She grinned. "Well, nice to meet you, Clara." Janet shrugged as she asked about all the boxes. "Well, I originally was here to visit my parents but they weren't home. Not to mention the Christmas money from my grandparents was burning a hole in my pocket and I needed to replenish some school supplies, so.." She waved to the boxes. "Thank you, Grandma!"

Janet giggled before tilting her head slightly. "How about you? Any particular reason you're here or are you just hanging out?"

Lots of kids came to Hogsmeade at every opportunity, though Janet usually used the time to study, considering she lived here. She did come and visit the folks every once in a while though, just to see them. After all, if the other kids had the opportunity they would likely visit their family a lot more than they were currently allowed.

Clara inclined her head at the response. So Janet lived in Hogsmeade. That was little surprising--it was mostly just a shopping village, there weren't many actual houses. Perhaps her parents owned one of the shops? Then again, she believed there was a residential area somewhere...she didn't come here often enough to know everything.

Clara looked down at the parcel she was holding. "Just came to pick up a package, though I will need something to do to pass the time before we go back. I don't come here often. I'm not exactly fond of shopping."

Having no other ideas, she looked to Janet. If the older girl lived in Hogsmeade, surely she was familiar with all of best places to go.

"Do you have any suggestions? I'm not sure where to go. Are there any quiet places? Preferably where I can sit down without necessarily buying anything."

She hadn't brought much money--a couple sickles, nothing more. Being a muggleborn, her bank account was provided by the school, so she didn't really have much to begin with. What money she had, she used sparingly--not that this was any great hindrance to her, since she didn't shop anyway unless she absolutely needed to.

Janet nodded as the other girl spoke. "Yeah, I get that. Some enjoy it some don't, it just depends."

She grinned when she asked if there was anywhere she would suggest. "Well, let's see. The Three Broomsticks is probably your best bet. It's a teen-friendly pub that's relatively quiet. I go there all the time over the summer to write. Though if you're up for a bit of noise there's Rock Blood. It has live rock bands that play there pretty much the whole time it's open."

She tilted her head. "Though, not everyone is into rock music. Honestly, The Three Broomsticks is probably best. I could show you where it is if you wanted? It can be busy when all the Hogwarts students are in town but I have some pull with the staff and can get us a table."

When given the choice between loud rock music and a crowded pub, Clara made a slightly pained face. Neither sounded particularly appealing, but she supposed The Three Broomsticks sounded like the lesser of the two evils. More likely to be quiet, anyway. Rock music tended to make her head hurt.

"Sure, The Three Broomsticks sounds...fine."

She trailed behind Janet, finding herself unusually grateful for the other girl's presence. Normally, she didn't like company. But knowing that she would be heading into an unfamiliar place with lots of other people, she knew she'd be overwhelmed if she went by herself. Having someone with her who was familiar with the place and knew what she was doing was rather comforting. Weirdly enough, even though she didn't know Janet all that well, she trusted the older girl.

"You, uh, you said you write?" she started, trying to find a topic of conversation that wasn't just small talk. She really wasn't sure what to say, but she figured she was supposed to say something. If they were going to hang out with each other for a while, society demanded that they at least make some conversation with each other. Who knows, perhaps they could find something in common?

Janet grinned and nodded. "Sounds good. Probably best considering Rock Blood is more of a night time scene." She stared the short walk to the pub, glancing over her shoulder slightly to see Clara as they walked when she started to talk.

Janet gave the younger girl a small smile and lifted one shoulder in a half shrug. "Yeah, I'm currently writing a book. It's coming along ok but I'm don't have too much time for it. I'll likely make most of my progress over the summer. I'll have plenty of time for it then."

She opened the door to the small pub and stepped aside, allowing Clara to go in first with a smile. She followed after her and glanced around in surprise. There weren't quite as many people here as usual and Janet spotted her favorite corner table open by the window.

She waved to a passing waitress and pointed to the table, smiling when the woman nodded before leading Clara over. "Hey, it's not as busy as usual. I was expecting a line at least, though I suppose it's not lunchtime at this point."