Bird Business

[Aylen Hawkins]

Aylen grinned widely. It had been a while since he had gone to Hogsmeade. Even though this time wasn’t exactly a leisure trip, he was still glad to be here. “This is fun, isn’t it?” he asked the bird sitting grumpily upon his shoulder. The merlin refused to respond. Aylen sighed noisily. When Mercury was in a snit, he was in a snit. He hadn’t visited the hawk for weeks and he knew full well that he deserved it. Oh well. He’d make it up to him eventually.

He glanced at the shopping list he had taken with him.

a piece of animal skin with fur in the inside (about a yard)
a spool of leather string
a heavy duty needle
a bag of down feathers
a pound of mouse giblets
a glass bottle to hold a day's rations of the giblets in.

“Hey, I’ll get you some mouse giblets too, alright, Mercury?” The hawk immediately perked up. “That’s what I thought.”

[Ondrea]

Ondrea was walking down the street of Hogsmeade, just checking out the random stores, she had just had a peak in Zonkos', that shop always seemed to be amusing. As she walked, the chains on her pants clinked, and the foot-steps of her army boots followed her. Taking off her black 'Emily' sweatshirt, she tied it around her waste, and continued to walk; peering into Honeydukes, which seemed to be begging for her to come in.

Just before entering, she saw a boy who had a bird, that seemed to be rather tamed. Ondrea loved animals, and decided she wanted to meet this one, so she walked over to the boy; looking at the ground as she went, since she was really shy.

Looking up, she smiled, "Nice pet." she commented, looking at the merlin.

Sighing, as the sun beat down at her, she grumbled under her breath, as if to rid the sun. Then looking at the boy, who she remembered from somewhere, she realized that he had been in her potions class (a miracle that she had shown up to class), and looked as if he was going to pull some sort of prank, that gave Ondrea a laugh.

[Aylen Hawkins]

Aylen’s green eyes scanned the rows of stores for the animal care shop he needed. He finally found what he was looking for, a small shop that just managed to squeeze in between Zonko’s and Honeyduke’s. Suddenly, a voice startled him. “Nice pet,” the girl said shyly. As soon as Mercury heard this, he regressed into full-blown snit mode. The redhead cringed. His response required some very careful wording if he didn’t want to fall from Mercury’s good graces...again. “Erm, he’s more of a trained bird rather than a pet,” Aylen corrected her. Mercury nodded once, rather snootily, as if to express agreement. Aylen shook his head and grinned. “He’s rather picky about that.” He scratched his head with his free arm. “Hey, I’ve seen you somewhere before. What’s your name?”

[Ondrea]

Ondrea smiled, "Well nice trained bird, you have there," Ondrea said, "Yeah, my cat is just like that; if I call him a pet... um... well he gets a bit weird."

Ondrea nodded, as she leaned back on the brick wall of Honeydukes, "I'm Ondrea... Yeah I was in your potions class... you are the one who had the stink-bomb, I wonder what Ace would have done if you set it off." Ondrea said laughing.

Ondrea suddenly had the urge to sit down, so she did, now looking back at the merlin, it had quite the personality.

"You are?" her question directed at the boy.

[Aylen Hawkins]

"Potions class?" Aylen smacked his head. "Oh, I remember now. I used those by the Slytherin Hallway. Let's just say I'm lucky I'm a fast runner." He grinned widely. "I'm not stupid enough to agitate a vampire, though this one seems okay..." He furrowed his brow, as if in thought, then jumped suddenly as if he had startled himself. "Oh, I'm Aylen. Hawkins."
Mercury had squawked in protest as his perch was jarred and decided to sulk elsewhere. He took flight and landed lightly on Ondrea's head. Aylen sighed, giving up. "Hey, I'm buying some birdcare supplies. Want to come with?"

[Ondrea]

Ondrea laughed, "Slytherin hallway, eh? Well I'm happy I'm not usually there, seeing that I am a Slytherin."

Ondrea nodded, "Yeah Ace is OK, but you never know... his um...- well annoying him might just trigger his craving for blood." Ondrea said, although she doubted that Ace would freak-out over a little prank.

Raising one eyebrow as the boy who introduced himself as Aylen jumped as if he had been startled by something, but before Ondrea could say anything, the sulky merlin had come and landed on her head.

Her eyes looking up, just able to see a bit of the merlin, she laughed, "Oh my." she said quietly, at the unexpected landing of the bird.

"Sure, I should probably grab a few things too." Ondrea said shrugging.

[Aylen Hawkins]

"Oh, a Slytherin, are you?" Aylen grinned. He hadn't met many Slytherins, but the ones he did meet had none of the characteristic nasty streaks the house was known for. "You might want to avoid that corridor for a bit longer. I...erm...enhanced the effects of those particular Dungbombs." He grinned mischeviously. "You'll forgive me, right?"

He started off towards the shop. Mercury looked expectantly at his perch. The bird clearly expected the girl to follow his owner. He wasn't about to be cheated out of his mouse giblets.

[Ondrea]

Ondrea nodded with the merlin still perched on her head, and smiled, "Your forgiven this time." she said looking up at the bird.

"Come on, hop onto my shoulder." she whispered to the merlin in hopes that it would, since she did not know how else to get it off her head.

Offering her hand to the bird, so it could just hop onto it, and then she could put it on her shoulder, she started to follow Aylen, she could feel the merlins eyes on her, it didn't want to miss out on anything.

[Aylen Hawkins]

Mercury cocked his head at the girl. She wanted him off her head. He briefly wondered whether it would be worth the effort to relocate, and decided to disentangle himself from the girl's dark tresses. The bird hopped onto her hand, then onto her shoulder without waiting for her to put him there. He eyed her with a beady gaze as if to say, "Well?"

As soon as the redhead opened the door, the bell hung on it rang. The shop's musky smell tickled his nose and he held back a sneeze. He could see shelves and shelves of bird-care supplies, most of them familiar to him. Aylen looked behind him and held the door open for Ondrea. "Ladies first," he said grinning.

[Ondrea]

When the merlin hopped onto her arm, she was about to place the bird onto her shoulder, but it did it before she even had a chance. Ondrea smiled, as it looked at her, "Thanks." she whispered to it.

Ondrea heard the door of the shop open from the bells that stores often had on their doors, and she looked over to where Aylen was, and walked over to him. A small smile appeared on her lips, as she walked into the store that smelt heavily of bird feed, and all sorts of other things.

Looking back at Aylen, "Thank-you." she said, now walking to a shelf that had all different types of bird feed, "Never knew there could be so much varieties of one thing." she said, looking at the merlin on her shoulder to see what his reaction to this place would be, and then she remembered, she didn't know its name, "I don't think I caught your birds name."

[Aylen Hawkins]

"Mercury," Aylen answered absent-mindedly. He looked at the box of bird feed, shook his head, and put it back on the shelf. The redhead glanced at his shopping list and sighed. The things he needed were at the back of the store. "Hey, Ondrea," he said jerking his thumb over his shoulder. "I'm going back there, okay?" He didn't wait for a response.

Aylen coughed as he reached the dusty counter. He waved away the dust motes and rang the service bell, seeing as it was deserted back there. ding!

[Ondrea]

Ondrea nodded, "Nice name." she said, looking and smiling at Mercury who was still perched on her shoulder.

Ondrea was surprised at how much dust was layering the shelves full of different pet foods. The lack of service was not normal either, it was seemed almost like this old shop was abandoned. Ondrea was inspecting a basket that held some cat toys, she thought she spotted some mold on one of the fuzzy mouse toys, that was supposed to have cat nip in it, "Ew." she said, dropping the toy, and then looking at the other ones, seeing if there was any Shadow would like.

Walking over to the back, were Aylen was, she called out, "Service!? Anyone?" turning to Aylen, she spoke, "It's almost like this placed is abandoned or something. The dust, and the state of the place, no one answering..."

[Aylen Hawkins]

"Not abandoned, merely a bit disorganized!" a voice with a cheery accent drifted towards the two students. A loud thump was heard from behind the counter, yet there seemed to be no one there. "You must excuse me, I seem to have misplaced my foot stool," the voice continued. "Ah, there we are! Hiding are we?" Scrabbling noises ensued, and soon a dumpy head with a quirky smile popped up behind the counter. "What'll we need now? Come now, we don't have all day!"

Aylen stopped himself from staring. "Ahem, erm..." He couldn't bring himself to speak without laughing and handed his shopping list to the shopkeeper instead, snorting quietly as the head disappeared into the storage room muttering to himself.

[Ondrea]

Ondrea span around searching for were this mysterious voice had come from, "What the-" she cut herself short, when she saw a rather strange looking man appear from behind the counter. Ondrea was shaking a bit, trying to keep herself from laughing a loud, at the sight of the man. Turning around quickly she gasped for air, still attempting not to laugh, and then she turned back to the man.

As Aylen handed him a list, Ondrea said, "Just wanted to get some cat treats, maybe a cat-toy. Oh, and one more thing..." Ondrea walked over to the man, once she knew she could keep herself from laughing, and whispered in his ear, since she didn't want anyone to know about the creature she was hiding, "Do you know a place where I can get some food that hippogriffs will eat?" Ondrea sighed, "I can't seem to give him anything that he'll eat, pretty soon he is just going to starve to death."

[Aylen Hawkins]

"Erm-hmm! Raw meat girlie!" the shopkeeper said without bothering to keep his voice down. "They won't eat nothin' else! Don't cook it, picky snobs, they are!" He nodded knowingly. "Young sir, I have your things." His gnarled hand placed the items one by one on the counter, naming them as he went. "Square yard of fur, leather string, sturdy needle, feather down, and a pound of mouse giblets. Don't got a bottle though." He pushed his spectacles up and smiled. "Anything else I can help with?"

At this point, Mercury shifted back to his owner and pecked him hard on the head. "Oww! Stoppit!" Aylen snapped. The bird eyed him, making sure the redhead knew what he wanted. "Okay, yeesh," he muttered. All this while, the shopkeeper watch the two bemusedly. "A quarter pound more mouse giblets in a separate bag please..." The little man toodled off. If birds could grin, Mercury did.