A Trip to Hogsmeade [Diggle and Tina]

[Tina Griffin]

House Ravenclaw's student Tina Griffin needed to do some shopping, already looking forward to a delicious butterbeer afterwards. She also wanted to get some chocolate frogs for a few first years who weren't allowed to go yet.

Going to Hogsmeade wasn't as safe as it used to be, but the longer she stayed inside, the bigger grew her wish to do something outside. Away from castle grounds. But Hogwarts wasn't far and joining a group of other students felt way more comfortable than walking down in pairs. And sooner or later they had to leave school to start their own lives anyway.

It looked as if it was about to rain soon, but that wasn't of much inconvenience or anything. Some things needed to be done and life was just much brighter with a sweet bag of treats. She couldn't say that the sound of gentle rain wasn't something relaxing to her; and in the end every weather had its purpose.

She had brought her own bag with her to store at least some of the new stuff inside, so she didn't have to carry too many shopping bags all at once as aside from the freedom to leave school for a little while, the most important thing was to stay alert wherever they went. As even one second could mean life or death and it made only sense for her, as one of the older students, to look out for the younger ones which she wouldn't have imagined several years ago, but time always changed you somehow. If for the good or bad remained to be seen, she supposed.

First stop was the awesome Quill Shop. Parchment and ink had to be bought and maybe even a book. But she had to see what their little tour would bring.

[Dedalus Diggle]

"No! Bad dog! Bad!"

Dedalus Diggle did not very much like to work out. Never had. In a matter of fact, as far as he was concerned, having portkeys and brooms and Apparition and floo powder available at more or less all times, had actually rendered the use of one's feet for more than the occasional stroll from Kent to Surrey in the days he had been enlisted by old Dumbledore to keep an eye on Harry Potter for him, utterly pointless. Now, however, he found himself in one of those sort of situations where he honestly could not say whether his feet had ever moved so quickly. As he ran, complete with the all too familiar and quite frankly unwelcome sensations of a pounding heart coupled with the shortness of breath and a stinging in the chest, he braved a cautious look over his shoulder at his four-legged pursuer, and it was all he could do not to allow that girly shriek that so fiercely sought to get an outlet leave his lips when he realized, to his horror, how dangerously close that ravaging beast of a man's-best-friend were in get him. Instinctively taking a firm hold of the brim of his mauve top hat as to keep it from falling off, he picked up the pace to that very limited extent his energy reserves would permit. A loud, booming woof made him jump, and as the crowd quickly dispersed as not to get run down, he was more than a little annoyed to see the gleeful grins of several locals chuckle as he passed them by, and he were almost certain that he heard the landlady of the Three Broomsticks shout after him, but he could not for anything in the world have began to guess about what. Pulling out his wand with his free hand, he could do little other than bitterly contemplate on how simple it would be to just turn around and jinx creature, but knowing the subsequent consequences, he instead made a whipping movement ending with him pointing it towards the roof on the nearest roof shouting;

"Carpe Retractum!" 

Bright cords of golden light immediately sprung out from the tip of it and clutched itself to the rough stone chimney, and the second after, the little man were hoisted off his feet, rocketing through the air as the rope-like conjuration pulled him up towards the roof. Less than fifteen seconds later, he was sitting on the unstable tiles of Hogs Head inn, peering anxiously down on the ground as the over-sized boarhound dog came to a halt just beneath him, its barks casting echoes that most certainly would cause a minor fit of laughter in those who found his situation amusing. It did not take long for the landlord to emerge from within to put a swift stop to all the racket, and although it indeed had been a while since Dedalus had seen Aberforth Dumbledore, yet the tall, grumpy-looking landlord were instantly recognizable, as Dedalus could make out a great deal of long, stringy grey hair and beard as the man stood silhouetted by the flair of the lit lantern dangling above the entrance. Surprisingly unfazed by the size of the animal, he greeted it almost merrily and calmly stopped it from jumping up to lick him in the face. The barman froze in the act of scratching the dog's ear when the shrill voice of a woman with a thick accent sounded from somewhere not far away, its owner rushing over to them; 

"Terribly sorry, Mr. Dumbledair - sit, laddie, Ah said sit ye silly dug!"

When the elderly witch reached them, she swiftly grabbed hold of Fang's collar and did not look back up at the man towering over her before the dog had heeded her bidding; 

"Ah hawp he didnae fash ye? ah wis juist aboot tae tak' him up tae th' castle whin he jumpt ower th' fence 'n' bolted aff." She patted the pet on the head as she spoke; "Puir Hagrid cached the mumblemumps from one o' th' students lest week, sae ah wis asked tae watch efter him 'till he was oan his feit again - ye ken, mak' sure he git enough exercise 'n' whatnot - sorry, a'm mumbling as usual. Ah will be oot o` yer locks noo, sir."

Dedalus noticed that Aberforth rather less courteous in wishing her a good day than he had been when addressing the presumed hell hound and went back inside, and Dedalus waited until the witch had disappeared around the corner before he drew a sigh of relief. He had not been spotted - not by those two in any case. Rather red-faced and more than a little embarrassed over having been so frighted by the one pet of Rubeus Hagrid he had met dozens of times before, he immediately decided to get some shopping done and only look people in the eye when he needed to. With two separate faint crack noises, he had left from the roof top and materialized out of thin air in the middle of the local book shop, and rubbed his hands together excitedly as he looked around.

"Now then... Where's the Quidditch section, I wonder?" 

[Tina Griffin]

Most of the other kids were extremely eager to grab one, two or even more bags from the amazing Honeydukes shop. The different smells and looks alone often made you wanting more, but usually money was quite limited and you could never know whether there was something else to encounter that you craved even more. And luckily there were also the cookies or what not she received from home.

It was incredible her parents had supported her talents in the first place and were agreeing to pay for her Hogwarts years. As soon as she was able to work herself she would definitely return their favours somehow. It was so lovely to see how much they enjoyed their holiday visits to Diagon Alley to get her school things for the upcoming terms. Tina liked to get everything as soon as possible to prepare a little before the new term started. She didn't like to be unprepared at all. It was much easier to already have heard of a few things the teachers would be speaking to them about soon.

Studying properly made her feel less insecure which was a particularly good thing in her situation. Even if practically not succeeding right away, the theory was always a good start.

Some of the library books were fantastic to study from, too! The amount of books in there was awe inspiring, if not overwhelming, if you were unsure for what you were supposed to look, but luckily the librarian, Madam Pince, could give pretty good clues as soon as she realised that you were not there to destroy or damage anything that was. After all she spent a lot of time with those school treasures which, unpleasantly to some, had been jinxed by her to remind the students to return a book they had kept for too long or punish them for smudging it. That was another thing she wanted to avoid at all costs as she went there quite often.

Would they have access to the restricted section there would probably be even more to learn, yet some things were better not to find out as the Dark Arts could be extremely dangerous and frightening. Probably quite a few children had tried to get into this particular section, but from what she heard the books themselves were protected to yell throughout the castle as if there was no tomorrow.

But just like it was in the regular world, there were regularly several books being published and checking out the new treats was so much fun. No matter if she chose to buy them or not. Tina could (not only) literally spend hours in any kind of shop that sold books. The variety was always of hugest entertainment!

When the group of students finally parted, she walked, together with two other book lovers, closer to the building which held hundreds or even thousands of adventures within their pages.

[Dedalus Diggle]

The chattering and mattering of his fellow citizens did little to put a limp to the good mood of Dedalus Diggle, who walked thoughtfully up to the nearest shelf to examine the gleaming titles from the vast collection reading material when it came to his attention two elderly witches nearby had a hushed conversation about yet another sudden disappearance of someone whose views did not align with those of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, and he quickly hurried out of the earshot of the depressing issues of the grimness of the current situation, hastening over to the other end of the shop under the pretense of having seen something that had tickled his fancy, fetching out of the wooden shelf a book on Cheering Charms, and as he innocently pretended to read on the back of its cover, he exhaled through the trils of his nose, contemplating on how most people could use a good Cheering Charm right about now. Only too bad such spells only helped against bad mood and not bad people. He put it back.

And then, with a renewed energy and a forced smile, he began to browse again, determined not to let the Death Eaters ruin the day before it had even began.

[Tina Griffin]

The warmth inside welcomed them the moment they entered. What a feeling! They told each other in which sections they could be found and split up. The new books would be what she was going to be interested the most, but still it could be lovely to just walk by the different aisles. Compared to the 'ordinary books', or what she always thought were proper books in the Muggle world, the moving pictures were way more interesting than anything she could have ever imagined. Seemed more like a short scene from a movie than anything else.

Even her parents couldn't believe what awesome stuff her daughter came home with for the holidays! Sharing information about the Wizarding World with two people after all, despite being forced to be careful during conversations with all the non-magical folks they might encounter, was definitely a lovely opportunity.

As she browsed the new discoveries for a moment, she didn't see the woman approaching, a large pile of books in her arms.

"Sorry", the other witched announced in a hurry, accidentally shoving Tina aside. The girl stumbled; but instead of falling over she bounced into someone else...

[Dedalus Diggle]

The tiny wizard had been casually flipping through the pages of a copy of Charms of Defence and Deterrence when the young witch stumbled into him and knocked him off balance. Confident that the need of shielding oneself from harm in such dire times as these was sufficiently commonplace for him to dabble in a book on self-defensive spellwork, he had paid little mind to his surroundings, however, which could lead nowhere else than catastrophe, subsequently hindering him from noticing her in time, and with a great "Whoa!", he fell head first into the bookcase on the opposite side, and was quickly buried beneath a surprisingly large amount of heavy books that came tumbling down upon him.

[Tina Griffin]

Tina could do nothing but stare at the books falling down on the poor man, her hands cupping her cheeks in horror. The poor guy had actually bumped into one of the shelves because of her. Why hadn't she been more careful? Perhaps she would have seen the book laden witch much earlier before stumbling around the shop.

"Oh my God!"

The only thing she could think of was removing some of the books to be of some help at least.

"Are you all right?", she finally asked in a much higher voice than usual, worried sick.

[Dedalus Diggle]

The high-pitched voice of his fellow shopper sounded somehow distant, although he could not for his life clarify whether it was because the heavy bricks of literature were somehow soundproof or if it simply was due to the dizziness from getting one of the books straight in the head. He opened his eyes, seeing naught but pitch black except the faint imprint of gilded letters around him as he became gradually ever more aware of how his entire body was aching. Taking a deep breath, he was just about to try to get hold of his wand to clear a way out when some of the uppermost books in the pile covering his head was heaved away. Blinking rather foolishly, he looked straight into the pale face of a clever-looking, brown-haired young witch whose brown locks framed her face, her light blue eyes filled to the brim with concern. Clearing his throat, he beamed up at her;

"Fit as a fiddle, m'dear - but thank you so very much for asking!"

With a grunt of effort, Dedalus freed himself from his captivity, his arms bursting through the pile of books encasing them and, gripping the edges of the now empty shelves behind him, he hoisted himself up to his feet, leading many more books to fall off him and down to the floor around the girl's feet. Sliding deftly down what remind of the small heap of learning, he landed rock-solid on the floor, and seemed by all accounts to be remarkably unabashed for someone who had just been floored by what must have been a hundred books.

"That could've been quite a nasty fall. Are you-"

He fell silent for a moment and frowned as if he had just remembered something very important. Producing his wand from his sleeve, and with a single, sweeping motion of his arm, the countless books on the floor around him had had been lifted up, where they hung suspended for a moment in mid-air as if held up by invisible strings, dangling slightly as from a breeze. Dedalus strode over to the place he had fallen down, picked up his trusty mauve and promptly put it back on his head. With another swipe of his wand, the books placed themselves back in the shelves to their allotted spaces, and he returned his attention to the girl:

"Are you all right? So happy I was there to take it for you!"