Beetle Eyes Conquest

Sunny was pleased and suddenly felt very much on top of the world. She was one of the normal people, one of the so called 'muggles' and yet she would be learning to brew potions like one of the special people, like one of the witches or wizards, the magic folk she so admired. She could have everything. Yes, she couldn't perform spells, but she would be able to make potions.

She could see herself, in later years, leaving school to come home and throw strange ingredients into a cauldron, and then go and hang out with her magical friends. She felt very confident in such a pleasant idea.

Sunny giggled at the girl's description of her cat. "I don't have any pets, but my aunt said she might get me an ostrich soon. I love ostriches. My aunt has pets. She has this dog that changes shape - she says he's a Gytrash. And a ferret that talks - well, cusses mostly - and she calls him a Jarvey. Then there's her ottoman. He thinks he's a cocker spaniel. It's cool."

Vivi began showing her other ingredients and Sunny listened with keen interest, bobbing up and down excitedly. "Cool! I like those things! Do we need them?"

"A gystrash?" Vivianna repeated, partially surprised and partially impressed. The teenager hadn't heard of someone keeping of one those as a pet before, but a few lived on the Hogwarts grounds, and the more she thought about it the more it made sense.

The Slytherin nodded slowly at the revelation that Sunny's aunt had a jarvey. Such a thing was pretty usual, adults tended to keep the vulgar-spoken creatures as far away from children as possible. Judging from what little the witch knew about Sunny, the young girl would be more than happy to listen and learn new vocabulary from the animal.

"Yes Sunny," Vivianna said with a gentle smile, "we need these." With that the teen placed the lionfish spines into the wicker basket, along with the many other ingredients the two of them had collected.

"Comeon," the taller female stated, tugging on their connected hands, "one last ingredient." Dragging the muggle behind her, the Hogwarts student headed to the other side of the store.

Sunny was pleased to have said something that seemed to put Vivianna on the other side of understanding. She seemed confused by the idea of Aunt Jack owning a Gytrash. "Uh huh. His name is Elliot. She rescued him. He's a white dog and he changes into everything from little lap dogs to huge wolves almost bigger than me, but he usually looks like a kind of dog called an Irish Wolfhound. That's what Jack - that's my aunt - told me anyway." She smiled broadly at Vivianna.

The elder girl put the ingredients in the basket and moved on, Sunny following behind proudly, glad to be apart of it all.

"That's cool," Vivianna nodded as Sunny gave her more information on the gytrash. There were certainly odder magical pets out there, and at least owning one of those would never get boring.

Picking up the last ingredient, the teenager turned to Sunny to explain a bit about it as she had with all the others. "This is wolfsbane, but it's also called aconite or monkshood, so you just need to remember that they're all the same thing. The flower and roots can be used in different potions, but the leaves are very poisonous," Vivianna told the little redhead. Placing a jar labeled Aconite Roots in the now-heavy basket, the student began to head towards the clerk.

Sunny nodded furiously as Vivi described what would turn out to be their last item of the night. "I'll remember. Wolfsbane. Aconite. Monkshood. Wolfsbane. Aconite. Monkshood. Flowers, roots, good. Leaves, poison. Flowers, roots, good. Leaves, poison. I'll remember. I will. Promise."

Vivi turned and angled herself for the clerk. Sunny looked up, suddenly very surprised by this new development. "Is that everything we need?"

Vivianna smiled and nodded in approval as Sunny took her offhand statement seriously. The girl had forgotten just how seriously children could take such comments, but it was very cute all the same. Sunny was clearly determined, and determination was important for many things in life.

"Yep, that's everything," the witch replied, handing the basket filled with ingredients to the clerk. The clerk, one Vivianna hadn't seen before, pointedly didn't return the teenager's smile. After a moment, realization struck the student. From a glance, it was obvious that she wasn't old enough to be Sunny's mother, but the two of them did look awfully alike. The clerk had likely assumed that they were siblings, and that Vivianna herself was a squib due to her teenage appearance, since she wasn't at school. If Sunny hadn't been there, the Slytherin would have given the old grump a stern lecture. Honestly, just because students weren't allowed to have part-time jobs in those days.

Sunny began jumping and down as though she were on a pogo stick, overwhelming excited at the prospect of making potions with her new friend, under the guidance of her aunt, naturally. She would be able to say to her friends as they grew up that she knew how to brew potions - before they even got their Hogwarts letters! Oh, the idea of that was absolutely wonderful.

Once it was all rung up and paid for, Sunny began patting Vivi's side as quickly as possible. "C'mon! C'mon! Let's go - let's go to Weasley's! That's where my aunt works! Let's go! C'mon, Vivi!"

"Alright, alright, don't forget to breathe," Vivianna joked lightly. Then again, with the way the young girl was bouncing all over the place, the Slytherin wouldn't be surprised if she'd forgotten such a minor, and insignificant detail. A small portion of her mind absently pondering the fact that Sunny's aunt worked at a joke store, and wouldn't that explain a lot, the teenager re-joined their hands.

Gesturing forwards with their joint hands, the witch looked down at Sunny and said, "well, what are you waiting for? Lead the way then." The words were already past her lips by the time Vivianna registered that perhaps her statement hadn't exactly been the best thing to say to an over-active child. Well, it was a bit too late to take it back.

To demonstrate that she had not forgotten to breathe, for she truly wanted her new friend to have a good opinion of her and thing of her as a mature and capable person, she took in a very big breath, held it, and then released. As she finished her exhale, she puffed up her chest a little bit, proud of her self control.

And then she told her to lead the way. Self control was forgotten as Sunny took off running, spinning around patrons and shelves on her way out. She burst through the doors, her beetle eyes clattering against her thigh as she ran, heading straight for her aunt's shop.

Vivianna had to bite the inside of her mouth to keep from laughing as Sunny decided to prove that she indeed had not forgotten how to breathe. The young child was so innocent, and there was something about her than made the teenager want to spend as much time in the presence of the child as possible. Even if such activities would be rather draining.

"Wow there," the Hogwards student exclaimed under her breath, as a Sunny began to tug her out toward the street. The young child was deceptively strong when she wanted to be, and Vivianna was unsurprised that now was one of those times.