Stocking up (open)

Janet nodded as Cora explained how her brother was supposed to be staying with her. "Well it's still pretty big. Especially considering you brother's not currently with you." Janet smiled as the younger witch picked up a pack of beans and read the back. "Oh! Those are great, and disgusting, but really fun." She giggled and picked some up herself, reading the back before she looked up and laughed at the look on Cora's face. She put the small pack back as Janet stuck hers in her bag. Janet nodded as Cora said she'd next get a toad cage for her chocolate frogs.

Cora began spouting questions and Janet's eyes widened, not even knowing where to start. "Oh, uh.. I do live in the dorms, even on weekends, and it's pretty cool to live that close. Most of the teachers go home over the summer so there aren't really any parties." She paused a moment, making sure that was all before eyeing the other girl. "Hey can you keep a secret?" Janet raised an eyebrow, moving closer to Cora with a grin. Her voice dropped to a whisper as she said "Sometimes over the summer me and a couple friends sneak onto the school grounds and explore the empty castle. It's the perfect time to get to know all the hidden passageways and stuff." She grinned and winked at the younger girl. She brought a finger to her most in a 'shh' sign. "But don't tell anyone." She then moved a normal space away and turned back to the candy like nothing had happened.

Janet grinned as the girl agreed to help her pick out an owl. "Great! Oh, I'm so excited. I was thinking mayyybe a snowy owl but I'm not even sure what all they will have. HEY! While we're there we can get your chocolate frog cage!" Her hands shot out to help the girl steady her pile and giggled at the close save. "Yeah, probably a good idea! I'll be right behind you, I haven't looked on the other side of the store yet. Be careful with that pile of yours." She shot off towards the other side of the store to stuff more candy in her bag.

Cora laughed and nodded as she thought about what a big deal it was really for her to be out on her own. It was almost as if she was beginning to be treated like an adult. And how did she respond? By diving into the sweetshop and spending every penny on sweets and treats that she would undoubtedly be throwing up later that evening. Yes, being an adult is fantastic.

She watched as Janet took some of the every flavour beans, wondering why anyone would ever want to take such a risk. She'd had muggle jellybeans before, which were nice enough, although she wasn't such a fan of the texture. She imagined the wizarding version couldn't be that much different, just with a higher risk. You wouldn't find cockroach flavour in the muggle version. As Janet started to reel off her answers Cora blushed, realising she had just blabbered on without giving her a chance to talk. Again. Just as she had done to the poor girl in the robe shop. So for now, Cora remained quiet to give Janet a chance to catch up, although it did require her to physically bite on her tongue. As Janet offered her a secret Cora nodded enthusiastically, but still sticking to her sworn silence as she listened. Once Janet had told her, Cora gasped.

"That's... isn't that dangerous? Wouldn't they have magical wards and such in place?" she quizzed softly, staring at the girl. She was amazed that anyone would think to risk such a thing, especially as she was sure she had heard that some of the teachers resided in the castle year round as they had no family to bother owning property elsewhere. She couldn't imagine what would happen if one of them caught a bunch of students sneaking around during the summer... although she could imagine how funny it would be to have one of the scarier teachers approach in fluffy slippers and pink dressing gown, shouting and screaming...

"Oh... I won't tell. Not a soul!" she squeeked quickly as Janet made her promise, nodding lightly. As she reached the counter to pay for her sweets she dropped down the pile, the lady behind the counter opening her eyes wide with a squeek before getting started on calculating up the total. While she waited, Cora watched Janet exploring the other side of the shop. She hadn't had a chance herself to look there, but she didn't really have much room in her arms for that anyway. Maybe next year. She thought about the kind of owls she had seen as she walked past the pet store on her way in. "I guess which one you get will depend on how far you think it's going to have to fly. If you live so close that wouldn't be such a concern so you could get something smaller and cuter. Snowy owls are beautiful but I'm not sure if they have any this year... they're rarer than the others and always get snatched up quick when they're in stock." she let out a soft sigh. "I'm not allowed an owl of my own. We have a family one, not that father likes it, but he had no other way to contact us at school. He did try and petition the headmaster to install some muggle telephones when my sister started but that was declined... Apparently they wouldn't work even if they installed them anyway." She turned back to the counter at this point as the woman asked for the money, counting out her coins carefully and passing them over, before taking the large brown bag her sweets had been stowed into. She wondered just how she was going to hide it from her father.

Janet shrugged. "Yeah, I guess it's a bit dangerous, but there aren't usually too many people still in the castle, just a couple of professors. Plus, they never go into the tunnels, mostly because I'm not sure they know where they are. I don't think there are "wards", but maybe we just haven't run into them yet." She smiled at the younger girl, glad she could impress someone.

Janet hurried through the rest of the store as quickly as possible, grabbing different candies and stuffing them into the already overflowing bag. The bag she was carrying was just a normal grocery sack size, but that was easily fixed with a little bottomless trick an older wizard did for her. It currently held all the school supplies she had already gotten. When she was done she hurried over to the counter and smiled at Cora as she began to talk about different owls.

"Yeah.. My family also has a shared owl but I made really good grades last year and my parents awarded me by saying I could get an animal!" She giggled when Cora said her father wanted phones at Hogwarts. "Could you imagine any of the professors trying to work a muggle phone?" She giggled again. "That would be funny. It took me forever to figure one out. I'm not even sure why my mom keeps it in the house." She shrugged before going back to the topics of owls. "Anyways, I don't want some tiny fluff ball, I want something bigger. I don't know, I guess I'll just see what they have when we get there."

She stepped up to the counter as Cora took her bag and began dumping candy onto the counter. She had to repress the urge to laugh out loud at the look on the poor cashiers face as the tidal wave of candy poured from the bag. A couple writing feathers fell out as well so Janet tilted the bag back up, resorting to pulling out handfuls of candy, until finally it was all out. She grinned at the lady behind the counter as she began to calculate up the total.

Cora thought a little more about the school out of hours, especially during the summer. She was convinced that there must be wards in place, but maybe they were just the standard wards that ran all year round and therefore didn't activate at the presence of a student - that would make the most sense at any rate. She highly suspected the headmaster had just never been bothered to get them changed for summer each year. She also thought about the tunnels, and the chances that none of the professors knew about them. Most had been students themselves at one point, and surely one or two would have been as mischevious as Janet and her friends. "Maybe they just don't want to run into you so they don't come looking... I imagine they like to enjoy their summers too rather than chasing students around all year round." she smiled and shrugged lightly.

She was surprised to learn that Janet had a muggle phone in the house in hogsmeade, she had thought that somewhere so ingrained in the wizarding world would be similar to hogwarts where muggle technology simply didn't work. Not that she had ever tried - she hadn't ever bothered to take any muggle technology with her up to the school because she had no idea where she would charge it, or even connect to wifi if she did. There was probably no cell phone signal in the school either which would just make anything she had wanted to bring nothing more than a lump of metal and plastic.

Her attention returned to the owls as Janet said she didn't want a fluff ball, thinking carefully. "Eagle Owls are pretty cool. They're big and fierce looking but I hear they can be really affectionate to their owners. But they would need so much exercise... You would need to write letters several times a day if you're just going to be sending it to Hogsmeade and even that might not be enough. Maybe you should make a pen-friend at Beauxbatons or..." she thought a moment and giggled. "Maybe start writing to one of those boys at Durmstrange?" she grinned at Janet, watching as the woman behind the counter nearly had a heart attack as Janet dumped all her candy for purchase on the counter.

Janet chuckled, "That's probably true. I doubt they actually want to have to spend their summer worrying about students in the castle." She tapped her nails on the counter, biting her lip. She wanted to ask for the other girl's address or number but wasn't sure.. would Cora actually ever want to talk? She decided to get to know her a little more first, to be sure they could actually start to be considered "friends".

She grinned and nodded as Cora started talking about Eagle Owls. She giggled as she talked about pen pals. "Well, I have family that lives other places and some friends that I send letters to when we're not in school. I'm sure it would get plenty of exercise." She leaned against the counter, where the cashier was hurriedly trying to get through all of the candy, and pulled a book out of bag.

The book was blue with a gold and had a gold emblem of a wing on the front. The title read, "Owls: All You Need To Know About Every breed". Several of the pages were dog eared and Janet started flipping through it. "There are looots of breeds I would just love! There are Boreal owls, Northern halk-owls, Northern sawwhet owls, Spotted owls, Striped owls, Tawny owls and so, so many more!" She showed a picture of each one as she talked, going in alphabetical order. "But I guess I'll just have to see if they have one of the ones I bookmarked." She grinned and stuffed the book back in her bag before digging through it for her wallet.

Cora shifted the large bag of sweets in her arms as standing still with the weight was beginning to become uncomfortable. She half considered charming it to float along besides her, but she hadn't ever witnessed anyone doing magic around diagon alley so openly before and wasn't entirely sure whether it would be frowned upon or not. Besides, atleast this way she knew she wasn't buying too much for her to carry once she passed back through into Muggle London - She could hardly keep the enchantment running there and would be forced to lug everything around then.

As Janet spoke about having family and friends living elsewhere she nodded lightly. "Keeping in touch with distant family is good. I have a lot of family in france... actually... my entire wizarding bloodline is over there. But we don't speak with them.... they don't speak with Mother either. I'm not sure what happened." she shrugged lightly with a soft sigh. She could imagine that the family distance was due to her mother being so unwelcoming to anyone and everyone... and half wondered if her grandparents had been the same. It was okay though, her fathers Muggle side had more than made up for it, atleast in the childrens early years. Once they started showing signs of magic visits were reduced greatly. They didn't know... and Father had no intention of attempting to explain. He still hadn't fully accustomed himself to the fact he had 3 magical children himself.

When Cora saw the book her eyes widened and she nodded lightly. "Oh! We have a copy of that book. We bought it for father in an attempt to win him round to the idea of owning an owl... and also because he has to look after it when we're away and we didn't want to risk him poisoning it. I especially liked learning about the Pygmy Owls. I think I'll own one one day." she commented with a soft sigh, before nodding lightly. "We'll need to get to the pet store soon though, they usually sell out a few hours before closing I think with everyone preparing for the new school season." she commented, glancing outside as a few people with owls in cages wandered past the window.

Janet nodded as the girl talked about her family not being around. "Yes, well, My grandparents send ME letters but I haven't actually seen them in... I don't know anymore, at least two years." Janet pursed her lips and turned to pay the sweet girl. She didn't like to talk about it but her parents weren't as close to their parents as she was to hers. She smiled again as she plopped her wallet back in her bag and swept the candy in behind it.

"Ok, I'm ready!" She said with a grin, turning back to Cora. "Lets go see what they have left!" She skipped to the door before forcibly calming herself down and swinging it open, stepping back to let Cora exit. The two girls walked down the sidewalk until they reached the store. By the time they got there Janet was practically dancing from toe to toe.

As they opened the door the sounds of hooting owls and hissing cats filled the air, with a faint undertone of croaking toads and a hint of rat squeaking. Janet smiled and hurried towards the owl section, looking over the owls with glee. To her disappointment they were almost all small owls. She tilted her head and read the small signs in front of each cage, explaining the breeds and the age of each owl.

She stopped when she came to a small sign in front of one cage.
She smiled at the little thing and then straightened from her slight lean in front of the sign and turned to Cora. "This one," she said simply, pointing to the bird with a grin. "She's perfect."

Owlivia: