"I don't see what's so confusing about it." It was simple, as far as he was concerned. Simple and very easy to understand.

With a shrug, he let his hands drop. "I'm not a people person. You know that. I had no desire to stay." It had also kept him from hexing the man that was apparently her husband. Another shrug and a curious glance at her. "I guess it depends, on who else is coming."

"Well no... the concept is a simple one. I agree, but the way it makes me feel confuses me," she said plainly. No need to further confuse things.

"Oh don't I know you lack people skills," she said with a chuckle. He lacked people skills, the ability to make animals like him, and he was weird in general. She loved those quirks SO much about him. "I am just saying... perhaps you could have at least told me goodbye," she said pitifully. That had really hurt her feelings.

... Who else would be there? "Well I was thinking just you and I. I won't torture you or Stradivarius by making you keep one another's company. I may be a lot of things, but heartless is not one of them," she said with her head cocked sideways. She considered him for a long moment and then smiled. "You need some sun. Come on let me buy you some lunch in Diagon and then we will go shop or something. And don't try to flake on me. You ARE coming with," she said sternly, but smiled nonetheless.

How it made her feel.....

While he probably should have refrained, he couldn't help but cling to the small bit of hope that gave him. If she still felt something for him, maybe he still had a chance. Maybe.

"I suppose I can come." If it was just them. If now was just them. Another slow breath and he moved back a step up towards Diagon. "I'll pay." Goodness knew he didn't want Stradivarius getting all huffy because Alexandra paid for them to have lunch together.

"Oh don't suppose anything. Just come along, Nic." She gave him a wink and linked her arm through his. "Nonsense. This is my treat." She would not take no for an answer. WOULD NOT.

"Where to? The Leaky or that little cafe with the colored umbrellas?" she asked as she reached down with her free hand and stroked her puppy's fur.

Well, who was he to refuse when she had him linked as she did. And if she wanted to pay, well fine then. There was no sense in arguing with the Kennedy streak of stubbornness. Not unless he wanted his nose rubbed in the mud.

"Leaky. I hate those Umbrellas." Had tried to light them on fire a few times too. Unfortunately a magic alley meant most people could use magic and readily extinguish anything. It was a pain.

Oh wonderful. The dog was coming along too. He gave the mutt a flat stare, daring it to make a noise.

The Leaky it was then. Lexi nodded and smiled a bit as she began to lead them toward Diagon Alley proper. Not that weird little bit before Knockturn. Ugh. She felt dirty for simply being NEAR that place.

Incendio was perfectly content to sit in her little carrying bag. SHE WAS INDEED. Even when the weird man looked at her like that. Just for spite she began to bark her most high pitched bark imaginable. She didn't keep it up, though. She whimpered and peered up at Lexi, though. Perhaps she could send for the elf to come take her home. She liked it at home. She had SO much to play with and places to pee. It was GLORIOUS.

"We could have a drink and maybe a pie or sommat... unless you are in the mood for something else," she said as she walked along, completely shutting out the yapping dog.

He didn't know how she did it. Drown it out like it didn't exist. It was so....high pitched and....AWFUL. For a moment he was completely distracted by the dog, his eyes surely twitching as much as his hands were. IF he got his hand on that thing.......

"A drink, sounds fantastic." It came out as a low and threatening growl, towards the dog of course.

Incendio was NOT keen on this guy. Not at all. She looked up at him and barked until her master looked down at her. SHE WANTED TO GO HOME!!!

With a sigh Lexi did indeed look down at her puppy and then called out for Daisy. In a brief moment the elf was there bouncing on the balls of her feet with her hands out to take the puppy. After the hand off the little elf disappeared with the dog.

Looking to Nicolas she shook her head. "If I didn't already have Wasabi I would think that dog was my familiar." Truth. Hehe. "Now come on... I am tired of walking let's just apparate to the Leaky," she said with a smile as she tugged on his arm gently.

A slight frown tugged on the corners of Nicolas's brow as he watched the house elf appear and whisk away the dog, to the gratefulness of his ears and his sanity. "I do hope, that you think better of me than your familiars do." Because none of her animals liked him. None of anyone's animals seemed to.

"And what if my legs need a stretch?" Or you know, walking meant he got to keep her for a longer period of time.

"Well of course I do, silly. My animals tend not to like anyone aside from me," she said with a giggle. If she paid half a mind to what Wasabi OR Incendio thought of people then she would have no friends or family that could stick around.

Oh. He wanted to walk with her. How nice. It wasn't quite COLD yet, so it was a good idea she supposed. Giving him a nod she kept her arm linked with his and tugged him along as she started walking again. "Alright. I concede. We will walk."

Well, that was certainly easy. He briefly wondered how much trouble he would have getting her to agree to spending more time than a simple meal with him, but it wasn't a thought he would allow himself to dwell on.

"I suppose, your animals are rather anti-social." He followed her indicated tug and started back up the steps and into the street of Diagon proper.

It was slightly comforting to Lights that, despite the fact that he'd be six years old soon, her son was still as cheeky as he was when he was four. Ezekiel had predictably run off again. Isn't this how we always end up? reflected Lights, searching the street with Bellissa in tow. Trying to find Zek. "It's getting old, sugar," she said out loud.
"I know, Mum," agreed Bella solemnly. "Your jacket is getting old. You need a new one."
Lights laughed. "Belle, I went out on my first date with your dad wearing this jacket, it's not going anywhere." Her laughter quickly died as she came to the place she was dreading. The corner of Knockturn and Diagon Alleys. "He wouldn't ..." she whispered, half to herself.
"Of course he would," said Bella matter-of-factly. "Zekie!" She started towards the corner, but Lights pulled her up short, looking fearfully at it, torn between wanting to go down to see if her son was really there and knowing she should wait until Ethan was with her.

Almost as though on cue, Ethan came walking out of Knockturn Alley with Ezekiel over his shoulder in a fireman's carry. No way he was getting out of that. He was lecturing Zek--so it seemed--on his way, but all Lights and Bella could hear was, naturally, when he was within earshot. "...but instead of rubber spiders you should use live--" He looked up and smiled, obviously pretending that what he had just told his six-year-old son had never happened. "--Found him!" He set Zek down on the ground but kept a firm grip on the child's hand. "So..." It was obvious that Lights had heard him, so all Ethan could do was hope she would ignore it.

Lights had indeed heard Ethan's 'lecture', and had facepalmed as soon as she'd realised what it meant. Of course Bella had taken it upon herself to finish. "As long as the spiders are big and hairy," she said. "I'm not afraid of the small ones, Dad." Lights smiled, but raised her eyebrows at Ezekiel.
"Had fun down there?" she asked, in her measured voice that usually meant she was hiding her anger. It was a voice she'd used often at work to deal with some people. Zek looked appropriately nervous, but still nodded his head. "How many kids did you see down there?"
"None," he mumbled.
"So how many kids should be down there?"
"None."
"Smart kid we've got here, if a little silly at times." Lights bent down - she didn't even have to crouch anymore, the kids were getting so tall - to look Zek in the eye. "Believe me, I know how tempting that alley is to explore," like she hadn't done that, "but try to hold that temptation at bay, at least until you're old enough to pay for your own funeral." Okay, maybe that last remark was a little much, but if it got her point across, Lights would take it.

Zek gulped and nodded at his mom, his green eyes bulging in fear. Ethan, meanwhile, was laughing to himself. "Thanks Lights, he definitely needed that funeral comment," he said, planting a small kiss on his wife's lips before looking up and down Diagon Alley. If he remembered correctly, Zek and Bella had wanted to go somewhere, but they hadn't told him where. Just brought dad along for the ride. Or so he could pay for whatever the kids wanted...

"So kids, where did you want to go again?" he asked, quickly catching himself and turning to Zek. "Don't say Knockturn Alley." He straightened up again and looked between his kids' faces, slightly scared at the mischievous looks on their faces.
"Well," Bella started, "We thought it might be fun..."
Then Zek chimed in, "...For the entire family, not just us..."
"If we got us a..." Zek and Bella joined each other in a rare moment of unity to finish the sentence: "Full quidditch set!" "And some chocolate," Zek added at the last moment.

Lights laughed and threw an amused glance at Ethan before turning to the kids. "Hmm, let me think about that." She held up both her hands like weighing scales. "Pro," she elevated her left hand, her writing hand incidentally, "it would be really fun. Con," right hand elevated, "where would we play it? Pro," left hand, "I don't know about your dad, but I haven't played Quidditch since I was at Hogwarts, and I'm so rusty I've forgotten what a Quaffle feels like." Lights smiled, remembering being Chaser for Ravenclaw for 4 years running. "Con," right hand, "Someone could get hurt with a Bludger. Those things are nasty. Pro," left, "I got that new broom when I became a Hit Witch, and we still haven't taken it out properly yet." Although she had almost killed their next door neighbour's cat, annoying ratty thing. "Con," she wiggled her right hand, trying to think up a good con. "... And I honestly can't think up another con for this argument, except maybe cost."
She smiled at Ethan as Bella and Ezekiel slapped high-fives. "I assume you're agreeing to this?" Big kid at heart that he was.

Ethan was keeping score for each side, pros vs. cons, as Lights was going through them. The final score? Pros won, three to two. They could easily afford it, because Zek already had a broom, so cost wasn't a huge con. "I have to agree, the rewards outweigh the complications. Let's go, then!" he said, leading off in the direction of Quality Quidditch Supplies.

(OOC: You can go ahead and start either in-store or at that section of DA. You choose)

Not supposed to be here, these words floated around in Jezzabelle's head. A small reminder from the one and only time she had ever been to the Corner of Knockturn and Diagon Alley. Her father had been very upset that day and hurriedly rushed her away to Scribbulus Ever-Changing Inks. He had made her promise to never come back and she did promise. Promises were easily broken though, as her parents proved to her recently. So here she was, just standing on the corner.

"hello i am Nickayla, you look like your worried are you mean't to be here." Nicki said with a laugh by the look on the girls face she wasn't. The girl looked like a second year too but nicki wasn't shore. she hoped she was because she needed some more friends her age.

Jezzabelle jumped at the sound of a voice and turned to look at the girl who it belonged to. She looked about the same age and she gave a small smile. "I'm Jezzabelle and technically no, I'm not supposed to be here but it's..." An act of rebellion. That was such a weird phrase for her to know but her mother had often lectured her about performing acts of rebellion.

"What year are you in," she blurted out before she could stop herself. "I mean, do you go to Hogwarts?" What a silly question. So she repeated softly, "I'm Jezzabelle and I'm being rather rude." She needed to stop prying into peoples personals lives.

Nicki laughed She thourght it was funny "I am in my second year when we go back" nick said and then finished with " Yes i go to hogwarts." Nicki than laugh " So i am guessing your in your first or second year."

Why was this Nickayla girl laughing at her? Jezzabelle wasn't sure but she shrugged it off and smiled when the girl said she was going into her second year. "I'm going to be in my second year too." She was more than ready to be back inside the walls of Hogwarts. "What house are you in?" She looked around the corner into Knockturn Alley and looked to see if she could spy her father but she couldn't. For now, she was safe.

" Ravenclaw, you." nicki said and then she saw the jezzabelle girl look around the corror see looked around too " what are you looking at, are you making shore you mum or d.d.d. or other one comeing." nicki said trying not to think about her dad

Aaron frowned down at the list his mother had gave him as he fed Ollie the owl half of his biscuit with his other hand. Robes: check. Quills and all that writing stuff: check.
That was it, right? He frowned again, Aaron seemed to be carrying way less stuff than usual. If he'd come home with half his stuff missing, he'd never be allowed to go buy his stuff on his own again; even if he was almost 18.

Eighteen seemed like a reasonable age to go to DA on his own, Aaron thought. So he'd better not mess up, cause his mother knew even less about DA than he did and it ALWAYS took ages with her.

'Do you know what I'm missing, Ollie?' Aaron turned to his owl, who stared back at him before biting Aaron's finger.

GET AWAY NOW.

Every single instinct was screaming at the little girl to stop staring down the dark alley and go back to the happy, skippy street full of shops and COLOURS. PLUS the alley looked very very scary. But part of Blue was saying go down there and find out how scary it was. She sniffed. It looked very very scary but it couldn't be that scary.

No. She wouldn't go down there. Maybe if she had an older, nice person to take her down? Nah. She probably still wouldn't go down.