An Impromptu Visit ((Niobe & Ben))

[Benjamin Ellis]

[red]"Bye!"[/red] Ben called out to her as she left, a grin on his face as he also began heading up to the castle, happy to have sensed some increased confidence in the Ravenclaw – or at least, he thought he had. Either way, he had convinced her to come to Hogsmeade.

It did not take him long to gather what he needed – he didn't bother getting anything as practical as a coat, simply some money and... He glanced around the dormitory, trying to think of anything else that might be needed. Giving up quite quickly, he simply made sure the coins were secure in his pocket before heading back down. It wasn't time to meet her again yet, but he made his way down to the school gates anyway, settling himself down on a tree stump as he waited for her. Luckily it was still quite early, and a weekend, so they would have some time before they had to return. Half a day wasn't really enough to explore all of the town, but it would have to do. Maybe they could visit again another time.

A little while later he saw Niobe approaching and rose to his feet eagerly, ready to get going. He waved at from a distance as she came closer. [red]"Hey Niobe. Ready to go?"[/red] he greeted her eagerly, that permanent smile still on his face.

[Niobe Blakes]

Niobe noticed him waving and waved back, a smile on her face. Ben seemed like a very nice person, he was always smiling, which Niobe thought was refreshing considering. Most of the students around here seemed depressed and down about something, herself included. However, Ben made it seem like everything was normal and that there was nothing to be depressed or sad about.

His cheerfulness was infectous. Niobe found that she preferred something like that over something more negative.

However, Niobe held a natural shyness towards boys. Perhaps it was fear of potential relationships, a relationship was truly Niobe's greatest fear, or maybe she was simply not used to having male friends. In either case, she found her hands moving to the straps of her backpack, her smile becoming more nervous as she moved closer to him.

It didn't last long, however. Ben was, as always, smiling, so she found herself quickly losing her shyness and once more smiling brightly.

"Yes, quite." she said, adjusting her backpack but not putting her hands on the straps again. "Where will we be going first?"

[Benjamin Ellis]

Ben was particularly happy to see Niobe wave back – quite a few students at the school seemed to think him too exuberant for some reason, and thought that it would be best not to encourage him in his antics. Niobe was apparently not one of those people, which was good, because he didn't understand them anyway. She did seem happier than she had done when he'd first met her an hour or so ago, which was a sign to him that either he was helping, or something else was doing his job for him. He was always aware that there could be other causes to someone being happier; he didn't like to be presumptious.

However, for a moment or two he thought she looked... nervous? Why was she nervous? At going somewhere she'd never been before? Maybe. He could remember hating going to new places as a child, because the people didn't know him and he could almost sense them staring at him and his unseeing, marked eyes, plus there was the matter of not knowing where things were laid out and risking getting lost or tripping over.

At least the hesitation faded fairly quickly after he gave her a particularly happy grin when she approached, standing as she reached him. [red]"Where do you want to go? The joke shop? Sweet shop? To get some butterbeer, or visit the shrieking shack, or Dervish and Banges?"[/red] he asked, listing all the places he could think of in Hogsmeade off the top of her head as he began making his way out of the gates, smiling at her and staring a little as usual as he awaited an answer.

[Niobe Blakes]

"Hmm..." she adjusted her backpack, looking thoughtful. There was a large variety of things she could try out, but she wasn't sure which one she preferred first.

"Hmmm, perhaps, the Joke Shop!" she said cheerfully. She noticed that Ben seemed like a very happy person, so what better place to go first than the Joke Shop? She personally had no particular preference, anywhere would be fine, however, that would defeat the purpose of him asking her the question. It was usually frustrating for a person to ask someone what they'd like to do and not get a straight answer.

"You'll have to lead the way of course..."

[Benjamin Ellis]

As they made their way further down the slope away from Hogwarts, he waited patiently with that ever-present smile for her to reply to his question. The weather was still pleasant and he was hopeful it would not rain or get too cold – the moment he thought this it was reiterated as he realised he had not brought a coat. Ah well, if it did start raining it wouldn't harm him. It was only a bit of water.

He nodded enthusiastically when she decided on Zonko's, his pace increasing a little in eagerness. The joke shop was by far one of his favourite shops in Hogsmeade – it caused laughter, even if he did have to be a little careful of what he bought there. A few too many of their products had the danger of causing tears to the victim, something he was quite keen to avoid. [red]"Course I will. Come on, we're almost there,"[/red] he grinned at her, seeing the village appear in the far distance. A few more steps and they were on the hill that led downwards to Hogsmeade. [red]"Look, you see that building there? With the really tall chimney? That's Zonko's,"[/red] he told her briefly, suddenly wishing he'd brought more money with him. He always got carried away in there...

[Niobe Blakes]

She felt her eyes widening a bit "Wow, it looks nifty from here." she definitely wanted to explore now, her previous negative thoughts forgotten.

Looking at Ben, a thoughtful expression came over her face "Is something the matter?" she asked "You seemed distracted for a moment."

Niobe decided that she would buy Ben something for being so kind to her. She hoped that if he pointed out anything that he liked that she could grab it before he could, giving it to him as a gift. Perhaps she should get something for Caitlin as well, something to make her feel a bit brighter. Caitlin seemed to have some sort of burden on her shoulders, Niobe could tell, but didn't ask. It wasn't her place. However, that didn't mean she couldn't try and make her feel better.

She followed him inside the store, looking around at all the gadgets and knicknacks.

"Anything I should be wary of?" she asked him

[Benjamin Ellis]

Ben grinned at her first comment, glancing over to see her wide eyes and suddenly very glad he had brought her here. He loved visiting new places, and bringing someone else allowed him to see the excitement that was normally visible in himself. He could remember how exuberant he had been during his first trip to Hogsmeade – as could probably everyone else who had accompanied him on that occasion.

He blinked in surprise when she mentioned him looking distracted, turning his constantly moving thoughts back to whatever he had been focussed on a few moments ago. Being careful about what he bought... not bringing a coat... wishing he'd brought more money. [red]"No, nothing's the matter. My mind was just wandering,"[/red] he reassured her, with another smile to help reinforce his first statement. He didn't want her preoccupied with whether something was the matter with him when she should be enjoying her first Hogsmeade visit.

His grin widened even more when they finally entered Zonko's, his head turning rapidly in multiple directions to search for new or favourite items. His attention was so diverted that it took him a few seconds to realise Niobe had said anything. [red]"Hm? ...Oh. Sorry. Yes, don't touch that blue box over there,"[/red] he told her, gesturing towards a large object sitting on a nearby shelf. [red]"Nor the flashing book, and don't try any of the free food samples."[/red] He had made that mistake on more than once before finally learning his lesson. His tongue had taken weeks to return to its normal colour on the most recent occasion at the end of last year.

[Keaira O'Connell]

((I’m going to pop in a do my job here if you guys don’t mind. Niobe, we can keep this vague so that there aren’t any real conflicting things in the other thread we have.))

With Zane gone Keaira had learned that she had a lot more free time on her hands, and so taking more hours at Zonko’s wasn’t a problem. Besides it distracted her enough that she spent less time fretting over her own issues and more time attempting to do things that were fun. The weekends were always busy, no matter what time of day it was, or even what weather. If she was allowed to go to work chances were that it wasn’t a boring shift, particularly with summer just on the horizon. Just a bit earlier Keaira had the pleasure of convincing someone that her younger brother would love the tongue-tying toothpaste, and that her mom would get a great kick out of the new line of trick kitchen utensils.

It was always a risk convincing someone to buy something, mostly because the purchaser isn’t always forthcoming with the details on who the item is for. And therein lays the risk. Such a sale could go quite wrong if the victim isn’t a joking type. So Keaira tended to attempt to gain information about a person’s mark before the sale is made, to better facilitate their objectives.

Of course it helped that Keaira was allowed to wear whatever she wanted to work, and was subsequently seldom recognized as the Slytherin Prefect Keaira O’Connell. Today she was dressed in one of her more unusual outfits. It was like Halloween everyday that she worked. The only thing that she was required to wear was a nametag, which didn’t say her name, and at least one of the items that they sold at the store.

Today she went a little crazy. What started as a simply black corset and tutu, ended up becoming one of the more elaborate costumes she wore. In addition to the simple black dress Keaira had chosen a set of red and black wings which when activated, would release glitter, which wouldn’t stick to the person wearing the wings, but that would remain stuck to anything it touched for 3 months no matter how they tried to clean it. A red rose necklace was around her neck, which like any flower would release a stream of water into who ever chose to sniff it. Her shoes were plain black pumps that would play a variety of classical music whenever the person who wore them walked, and wrapped around both of her arms, down her legs, and through her hair were red ribbons, which made the person wearing them invisible, well at least it made their skin invisible. The clothing, accessories, and any makeup or other modifications to the person would still be visible, but they themselves would not be. It was probably her favorite item today. And pinned to the dress in the upper right hand was a small name tag that read:

“Let’s play some games,
Some wild, some tame.
Just watch cause we do bite,
If you need some help just ask Miss White.”

Walking around the store she was certain that she had to have spooked more than a handful of first years, one boy even went running from the store. Currently the shoes she was wearing were softly playing Cannon in D Major, which was probably her favorite of the classical muggle compositions. As she wandered through the store she came across a cute pair as they were just entering the store. A few short steps and she was standing right next to them. Remaining perfectly still, Keaira smiled (knowing full well that they might see the lipstick she was wearing but not much else), and addressed them calmly.

“Welcome to Zonko’s are you looking for anything in particular?”

[Niobe Blakes]

A smile flickered on Niobe's face when it seemed that Ben was just fine, if just a bit distracted by his thoughts. Considering his personality, he was probably just thinking about how there was so many things and so little time. She found that she rather liked Ben's company, he was a bright spot to an otherwise dreary day.

Her smile quickly turned to embarrassment when he mentioned not to touch the blue box that her fingers were hovering dangerously close to. With a startled "Oh!" she flinched back as if burned. She had no idea what would happen if she did, but she certainly didn't want to find out the hard way!

Her eyes had flickered over to the flashing book, but had found that one a bit obvious and hadn't thought to mess with it. She was grateful that her suspicions were correct. As for the candy samples...while some of them looked quite delictable, she nodded, almost sagely at his advice, and merely decided to stick close to him and not touch anything at all. Better safe than sorry, yes?

Niobe had opened her mouth to ask another question when a voice made her turn to face the speaker.

Except there wasn't a speaker.

It took Niobe a full thirty seconds to see the lips hovering in the air, and blinked. Slowly, she reached and pulled on Ben's shirt.

"Um, what about hovering lips in the air?" she asked, not taking her eyes of the lips "What do I do about that?"

[Benjamin Ellis]

He grinned cheerfully at her when she suddenly lurched her hand away from the box that had turned his hair, eyes and teeth bright blue for several weeks last year. Although it had been an interesting change in appearance, the professors had not been too happy about it, and he was rather glad it had faded before he went home for Christmas because he doubted his parents would have appreciated it too much either – although the family members nearer his own age most likely would. But Niobe didn't appear to be the type of person who would enjoy being pointed at and laughed in the corridors every time she went out. Ben hadn't really minded – he had laughed along with them, and warned everyone of what he'd touched so none would do the same thing in future.

Despite knowing that he needed to look out for the Ravenclaw at his side who had never entered Zonko's before and therefore did not know all of its risks, Ben found himself quickly distracted by all the excitement surrounding him. His head darted this way and that, his attention constantly caught by something new at every angle. Occasionally he would take a step to the right, then notice something new out of the corner of his eye and turn in that direction, thus insuring he never moved more than a few paces away from Niobe. He heard the question but did not turn his head, too distracted by all the sights to take in as usual to bother addressing the person properly, whoever they were. [red]"No thanks, we're just looking,"[/red] he called, eyes focussed on a new set of Dr Filibuster's fireworks on a shelf on the far left. He had just enough awareness of his companion to not go wandering off and leave her all on her own in the middle of this crazy shop, but it was a close call. When something caught Ben's attention it was extremely difficult to keep him away from it.

Her voice brought him back to something close to reality when she questioned him on hovering lips, and it was an odd enough question that it actually caused him to turn around and see what she was referring to. He blinked in surprise at the image of the floating clothes, a smile forming again on his face after a few moments as he realised what exactly was going on. [red]"You say hello. Hello,"[/red] he greeted the faceless girl eagerly – at least, he assumed they were female since they wore a dress and lipstick. Plus he doubted any male could walk in those shoes. He really didn't know how all the girls at Hogwarts had managed it at the multiple balls they'd already had that year. And then some of them wore heels like that normally! They'd all end up permanently tiptoeing around if they kept that up, even while wearing normal shoes. Breaking his stream of thought on the atrocity that was high heels, he spoke again. [red]"What's stopping us from seeing you?"[/red] he asked.

[Keaira O'Connell]

Keaira couldn’t help but chuckle softly when the younger girl commented on the hovering lips. Of course that meant that the girl hadn’t noticed the rest of her outfit yet, and would probably be quite surprised when she did. The boy however was at first distracted, and simply ignored her with an off handed remark. Of course that changed when it registered in his mind that his companion was caught off guard.

Keaira was practically beaming when he responded that the girl should simply greet her, of course it was hard to tell when a person is beaming with excitement when you only have lips and eye shadow to go off of. Then in addition he was interested in one of her items. The management was sheer genius by telling them to use the products in their outfits. It had taken Keaira a while before she was comfortable with more than simply snacking on the less detrimental candy, or playing with the items that only lasted a short while, but now it really helped her sales.

“Well these lovely ribbons, known as Vanishing Velvet, are the cause; I hear they are an adaptation of an old Weasley Wizarding Wheezes top hat. So long as you wear them, your skin remains invisible. Interesting things really, if you take the ribbons off you become visible again. It a special invisibility charm that only works on skin and hair though. Clothing makeup, nail polish, jewelry and other like items will still show up fine. They come in a variety of colors, and are available on the rack in the back left hand of the store. One galleons each. Although they really only affect the area that they touch, so for the complete effect like myself you would probably need 6 of them.”

She accented that last statement by removing the ribbon that adorned her left arm, revealing that the ribbons were approximately three feet in length, and concealed her entire left arm, and a portion of her shoulder and chest. After the quick demonstration Keaira wove the ribbon back around her arm, and across her chest, to complete the concealment.

“Although the ribbons are always visible which I’m sure is a safety feature to prevent someone from stripping down and throwing them on to sneak around. Well what do you think?” Keaira responded, as she did a slow twirl. Her dress flared out a bit, while her heels played their classical music, and her wings glittered. At the end of which she took a small bow, and her name tag sang out in a tune that resembled a nursery rhyme, proclaiming games and fun, and that for today her name was Miss White. “Anything else I can help you with?”

[Niobe Blakes]

Niobe blinked and smiled, a bit nervously. "Um...hello." she said.

Nodding at the explaination, she took a step forward towards the invisible woman and smiled "That's a very nifty trick." she said "I'm not sure I would pull it off quite like you though."

She turned to Ben at the last question "Is there anything you want to ask?"

[Benjamin Ellis]

Ben could see the excitement on Keaira's face even without actually seeing it – the subtlest hints gave everything away, if the huge grin wasn't clue enough. He listened eagerly as she described the ribbons tied around her, taking in all the detail he could see so that he would be able to find them easily later. And the fact that they were an adaptation from Weasleys Wizarding Wheezes just made it all the better – that shop was legendary, he just wished he'd been able to go there more and appreciate it back when he was little. Although that would have been impossible anyway – not only had he been blind at the time and totally lost amongst all the chaos, but he also had no idea that magic existed. So it was a moot point really. He turned his attention back to Keaira.

His face twisted in consideration as she told him the price. 6 galleons was rather a lot... but maybe he didn't need the whole effect. Perhaps just one for his head... that would give people enough of a shock. He'd give Nearly Headless Nick a run for his money. He grinned to himself at the idea and made a note to get one of them before leaving the shop. [red]"They're great!"[/red] he exclaimed, smiling in appreciation as she did her twirl. Niobe also seemed happy enough to be there talking to her so Ben went ahead and asked another question. [red]"Anything else you'd suggest from the shop? Preferably that's not too expensive..."[/red] Normally the price didn't matter to him, but on this occasion he was a bit short on money – he'd spent too much on butterbeer and sweets the last time he'd been in Hogsmeade.

[Keaira O'Connell]

With everything that was happening in her life, Keaira could honestly say that this job was the best retreat she had. She had never been attacked at work, and as it was so few people actually recognized her. It was a relief to be able to slip out of the person that was Keaira O’Connell even if it was only for a few hours, and pretend to be someone far less troubled that she was. While she was at work she seldom thought of Zane or Alessandro, or anything that involved the war. It was many times, bliss. All that mattered here was helping the various customers.

“I’m glad you two enjoyed the trick, and I promise anyone can pull it off as easily as I do, the instructions that come with each ribbon are perfectly clear, and you can always get assistance from one of our lovely staff members if you need it.”

It was unfortunate that Ben seemed a bit distraught over the price. Keaira never really had such worries though. Her parents were able to supply her with whatever it was that she wished, and her grandmother oftentimes spoiled her with lavish gifts. Keaira hardly ever thought about money. Six galleons seemed like nothing of consequence to her.

“Well sir, we have a lot of variously enchanted food items, and make-ups that your young lady might enjoy. For instance, we have a line of flavored lip glosses that if you blow a kiss to someone while wearing the gloss, an actual kiss will be blown. We have some perfumes that when worn cause flower petals to fall in your wake. But if you’re more interested in fun and games, we have wizards chess pieces that dismember themselves in a bloody mess, and books that tell unfortunate stories about the reader; some of which have enchanted effects which actually cause some of the unfortunate events to occur, mostly just harmless things though. And well lots more all through the store. You guys go have fun now alright?”