Getting my Hogsmeade On! ((Marki))

Oh what a wonderful day, a bright sunny sky and a fresh rain that passed over cleaned everything here a sparkling brightness. It hurt Ezra's eyes to look at solid white buildings when it was this bright and shiny. He leaned upon a lamppost, spying on those around him. Something cooed near his feet, a pigeon. He picked the little bird up gently, there was a note attached to its leg. He didn't like prying, but in this case where a pigeon was used as a carrier for mail, he didn't mind. It was begging for him to read it since it was just a scroll. The letters were written in a fine script, however, it was a muggle letter since it was written on printer paper, and was addressed to his father.

Dear Mr. Laurisi,
Your son, Ezra, may be dipping into the till of your shop, don't you notice the money missing? Don't ever put it past him that he'd do something like that; he's been mad at you and his own mother for making him give up his animal friends. Wouldn't you agree?

The letter was unsigned. What was a pigeon carrying a muggle letter doing in the magical world? What a puzzle! Ezra wanted to get to the bottom of it, but not until after enjoying himself for a little while. He had enough of the problems at home for now. Even though he grew up in such a nice quaint neighborhood, evil still lurked in every corner of his home. Mostly in the form of his parents. He had enough of thinking about that, he just wanted to have a nice day off.

Marki strode through Hogsmeade, the sun making her squint slightly, though a smile played on her lips. She carried a carton of chocolate milk, from which she frequently taking swigs and she really was not paying attention to wear she was going.

Passer byers would have thought that she did not pay attention to anything. She was wearing tight grey skinny jeans and a long turquoise shirt, topped off my a yellow scarf. She wore Converse, but one was black and the other was white. Yes, she was a strange girl, but she paid no mind to this.

She hopped on to the back of one of the benches that littered Hogsmeade and walked it as though it were a tight rope, holding her arms straight out and wobbling as she did so. Her eyes glanced about and she spotted a boy holding a pigeon. She jerked her head at him. "Nice bird."

It made her lose balance and she toppled face forward, her arms doing pinwheels. She managed to twist midair and she landed on her arse. She sat there for a moment and swigged more of the milk and then jumped to her feet. She wiped the milk mustache she had acquired and said, "Not the cleanest dismount, but I'd give it a 4."

Ezra looked up, "Oh, this? Thanks, but it's actually a pigeon destined for my muggle father. Someone's sending him a letter about me, thinking I dip into the till of his shop or something which isn't true". He giggled when he saw the strange girl doing some sort of trick on the bench. Smiling, he climbed up on the same bench, which was under a tree with high branches. He dug his fingers into the wooden trunk, scaling the tree quickly. He perched atop a branch, by perching what's really meant was that he was standing on it.

"Look! A bird's nest!" Ezra picked up the nest, which turned out to be a decoy nest that was once a nest for a bird and her babies. It had since been converted by its newest inhabitants....well, sort of inhabitants. It was as if they were planning something like the crows that took over Japan.

He scrambled higher up in the tree. He hung on the higher branch, swinging back and forth as if it were monkey bars. He swung onto another branch, gripping the one above it so he could step on. Then, he dropped down branch by branch until he was balanced on the back of a bench. He climbed off, then did a handstand.

Smirking, he said "This is fun!"

Marki nodded at his words on the letter and took another swig of her milk, not really caring what had been in the letter. Her eye had been drawn by the pigeon, that was what had caught her interest above everything else. Only now did she even look at the boy, realizing he went to her school. Huh...Who knew?

She watched the boy climb the same bench she had just toppled off of. She brushed her jeans off and took a step back to watch him, pulling a straw out of her backpack and plopping it into the opening in the carton. She slurped from the straw loudly as she watched him clamber up the tree.

He held up a nest and she started forward. "Careful! If there are eggs in there, the parents will like freak out and attack you!" She waved her arms widely before dropping them to her sides as he climbed higher. He then climbed down and went into a handstand. She twisted to face him. "Seems so."

"The nest is empty, there's nothing in here but a few feathers...from some large bird. The down is quite soft" Ezra observed, he picked a couple of the grayish feathers from the weaves of the nest. He sat the nest down at the foot of the tree. "If it wants the nest enough, which I doubt it would, it'll be right there". Ezra remembered the letter that he'd since shoved in his pocket. He lifted it out and tore it up. The pigeon that carried it had since flew away.

"I have enough trouble at home without that letter..." Ezra mused. He shuddered at the thought. "Hey, you seem imbalanced...perhaps you have an inner ear problem? Or is there some issue you have with your skeletal configuration? I'm curious. If you don't know, that's fine too". He glanced at an orange blob in the distance. It was his fox, Cheeto, who'd followed him here. He approached the furry creature.

"Hello, Cheeto. I thought I told you to stay home, huh?" Ezra picked up the animal, which looked attentively at him as if he were expecting his owner to speak once more. "You know, you should be more careful, you could've gotten run over by someone, or perhaps shot by an angry land owner". He lifted the fox into his hoodie, threading him through the double-pocket on the front which was in one unbroken piece unlike some hoodies.

Marki ignored everything he had said with the approach of the fox. She had a bad habit of dumping information from her mind when she found an interest in something else. And she had just found an interest in the little fox that scampered forward to greet its owner, which turned out to be the boy.

She straightened herself up, her cheeks slightly pink from holding her head upside down to be able to stare at the boy. Her hair was now mused somewhat badly and she she stepped forward when the boy picked up the fox. "You have a fox! That's stellar!" She cocked her head as she looked at the fox.

"I have a pet too," she said and she thrust her hand into her bag, which was empty of anything dangerous. She felt her hand close on something squishy and she pulled out her frog and she held him up to her face. She ribbett-ed at him and thrust him out towards the boy. "This is Jeremeiah!"

Ezra looked at the frog and reached out to touch its head. "Hi Jeremeiah! Lovely day, isn't it?" He had a habit of talking to creatures that couldn't give him a coherent answer. "He's a very nice little frog, isn't he?"

He pulled his hand away and thrust them into the front of his hoodie, pulling the fox out. He held the small, furry creature close to him.

"This is Cheeto. I didn't name him because of his color, though. I named him because he eats bags of cheetos". He pulled out a small bag from his pocket, it was filled with cheetos. He took a couple from the bag and sealed it once more. He held the orange-powdered stick in front of the vulpine's face. At first, the fox licked at the stick. Then, he began outright chewing at the increasingly mushy snack, then took the rest into his mouth in one gulp. He repeated this with the next cheeto. When the fox was finished eating, its tongue had a slight orange discoloration from residual cheese particles.

"Once, this little guy bit a snake's tail. He nearly got killed, but the owner of the snake is mad at me and probably always will be. It's sad though, because Cheeto doesn't know any better, he's kinda...you know...not that bright for a fox."