Pepper and Millie's Playground
 

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Image by Destiny


Just behind the Groundskeeper's Hut there is a small playground for Mr Gibbins pets, Pepper and Millie.

As you will notice, Pepper is a Black Russian Terrier who needs a lot of exercise otherwise she gets bored and tends to destroy things. So please feel free to take her through her paces in the obstacle course or toss her a ball or two.

Millie on the other hand is a Wombat, who think she is a dog. She gets that from hanging out with Pepper so much. She is not as outgoing as Pepper and needs a much more gentler hand.

Please remember to treat these animals with kindness and respect, just how you would expect people to treat yourself. Anyone caught mistreating them or misbehaving in the playground will find themselves in hot water. Literally.

Minerva was walking around alone with not much going one when she came across the coolest pet playground. Oh this looked fun and she hoped the dogs were nice as well since they were allowed to go in and play with them she assumed they were. Walking into the playground area she looked around for the animals. She loved dogs, well actually all animals and loved to be around them. She missed her dogs horribly and since them hadn't really had any pets other then her puff that her cousin gave away before she moved back with her grandparents.

Looking around she hoped to find the dogs soon, was she suppose to go to the hut to get them or were they just running around the playground and maybe hiding from her. "Puppies, are you here? Come out and play..it will be fun." she laughed at herself calling animals that might be in the hut and wouldn't be able to hear her anyway. She walked around hoping to find them soon.

Having fed both Pepper and Millie, Seb decided to bring the dog and the wombat into the playground so that they could have a bit of a run around. Just as he stepped inside the play area, he spotted a young girl looking for his pets.

"Hello there." He called out and giving the girl a wave. "You here to play with these two?" He asked as he let go of Pepper's leash. The moment the Russian terrier knew that she was free, she bounded straight over to the girl and pounced on her.

Seb let out a small groan as he moved forward, Millie fast on his heels. "Pepper, for Merlin sakes. Will you get down."

Minerva was still looking for the animals when she heard someone voice and it made her jump a bit. Turning she smiled, "Oh hello. I'm sorry I just kind of came back here, but I thought we could play with them animals and I haven't played with a dog since mine passed a few years ago. So I was excited to see that there were dogs on the ground." she thought about the old groundskeepers dog, it was cute as well, but she never really played with it. Just a pet once.

Looking down at the animals she smiled, "I would love to play with them if you don't mind." just as she said that one of them came bounding towards her and almost knocked her over. Minerva laughed and knelt down so the dog could have fun jumping towards her at closer range. "Oh I don't mind.. really I don't." she said through laughter. "Well aren't you just a big sweetie, do you like to play?" Minerva put her hands on both sides of the dog and pet it. "You are just so cute, aren't you." she then got up and looked at the other little one. Keeping one hand on the bouncing excited pup she smiled at the wombat. "Well hello there" she greeted in a little bit of a softer voice then looked at the groundskeeper, "I'm sorry I never introduced myself, my name is Minerva Wheatborn."

Merlin!

This girl could certainly talk. Seb decided to just wait until she had finished talking before he said anything and he watched with great interest as she conferred with both animals.

Pepper definitely liked her but then Pepper liked everyone. Millie was a little hesitant at first but after a few moments, she came out from behind Seb's legs and let the human girl pat her.

"It's nice to meet you Minerva. My name is Sebastian Gibbins and you are very welcome to come here and play with Pepper and Millie." It would certainly help him out a lot. There were a lot of things to be done around the grounds.

Minerva smiled and pet the little one. "They are just so cute." she couldn't get over the animals and she couldn't stop laughing as she pet both of them. "I would love to play with them anytime." she stood back up and looked around the playground. Then turning back to Gibbins she smiled, "Well if there is anything I could ever do to help just let me know. I always like helping when I can."

Turning back to the cute animals she bent down, "I see the little one is shy, would he or she" she kind of looked not sure, "be more comfortable if I held them for a bit to get use to me?" she then looked at the bigger one, "Now you on the other hand seem to be ready to go, so what do you want to play on first." she smiled then turned back to the nice groundskeeper, "Mr. Gibbins, what are their names again?" she wasn't sure if he told her or not, but if he did she just couldn't remember and if he did she hoped he wouldn't be upset that she forgot in her excitement.

That was music to Seb's ears. "Well I'll gladly let you play with them anytime. It would be a big help to me." Hogwarts was a big place and he was only one man that had to maintain all of the grounds. Of course it helped that he could use magic, not like at the commun where everything had to be done by hand.

Seb looked fondly at the wombat. "Yeah she is a bit shy but once she gets to know you, she'll be more open with you. But go ahead and give her a cuddle,s he likes that." Who didn't like cuddles? He chuckled as he watched Minerva talk to them and he knew that they would be in good hands. "Pepper is the dog. And Millie is the wombat."

Blue!
 

This was a cool playground thought Sarah to herself. It was a bit small...
She made her way over to one of the obstacles blissfully unaware of something...
and then she saw it. Dog. It had bushy eyebrows, so to Sarah it looked Russian, such and Igor... Secret: Sarah wa not scared of heights nor scared of teachers yet Sarah is TERRIFIED of dogs that she does not know. Yet hopefully this dog, seeing as Igor looked Russian, maybe he had had a bit too much Vodka and would not bother with her. (Russians had a lot of Vodka - they drank it like water apparently).

It looked at her its gaze penetrating. Sarah's heat started palpatating. She should not have come here. The plaground was probably for the dog. UGH. Her tounge started to tickle and the do leapt forward, making its way towards her in leaps and bounds. "AHHH!" she yelled.. loudly. Sarah had aloud voice, apparently it Projected well.
Someone must save her.. the dog will eat her or something. It was BLACK... maybe it was the Black Plague... Sarah did not know, yet what she did know that she ws going to die... The Plague came towards her, clser now, she was shaking like a leaf. She was usually strong, yet now with a big, black scarey dog her toughened shell gave in.

Minerva smiled "Well like I said any help you need just find me or I can stop by sometimes to see what I can do." she smiled at the grounds keeper then went back to the animals. Sticking her hand out just a bit for the wombat she didn't want to freak it out to quickly. "Hi there Millie. Want to be my friend." she reached over and pet the animal. "We are going to have so much fun." she giggled talking with the animal. She could feel Pepper in her ear sniffy and getting impatient.

Looking over at Pepper she smiled, "What do you want to do first. You show me and I will follow. Go.. go find what we are playing on." she laughed and then reached down and slowly picked up the wombat. "Do you want Min to hold you for a bit." Cuddling the wombat like a little baby she got up and followed Pepper toward the first play toy.

EEEEEEP. So late. I sorry.
 

Dogs....were dogs.

And they were nice. But she was partial to her KNEAZLE (which was kinda of a cat) who was NOT a murderer thank you very much. Just... got a little carried away. So, with the fat thing trailing behind her, all high and mighty, she wandered around ...and found herself at the doggy playground. Ehem...probably not a good idea with Barnabus. She spun around, about to scoop him up to stop him from chasing the dogs (yes...he would do that) BUT HE WAS GONE!! Oh no.

Panic time.

The second-year looked up to see the fat cat sprinting (do cats sprint?) over to Sarah (that was her name, right?) and a black doggy where he placed himself between the two and HISSED at the dog.

"BARNABUUUSSSSSS!"

sarah is relieving a painful experience
 

Sarah was quite astounded when a hissing came. It was a cat. or kneazle what ever.. Sarah was too terrified to think.. where did it come from that it came JUST to save her. She began to calm down somewhat. Then she heard a voice call Barnabus - that was probably the kneazles name. She looked at to whom the voice came from.. There coming out of the BLUE was "Blue!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Sarah sprinted towards her friend, the dog sensing her fear snapping at her heels (well t least that was what Sarah though, it was really bounding after her) and wrapped her arms around her. Her heart was racing and she let off a steam of words. 'Thank merlin you and Barnabus came- it was- dog ---it was going to attack me-- the last I faced a strange dog alone was traumatic... The other dog ATTACKED me, snapped it jaws at mean and cornered me into a thorn bush' She was shaking like a leaf now. And recounting the unpleasant memory. She had been scared of dogs before that incident with the dog attack, even as a little girl she was scared of them. She was a lion brave and bold... except when it came to strange dogs. Once burned, twice learned.
When she was attacked by the dog last time, she had a chance to either run into the thorn bush (and have the dog feast on her behind) or run straight at the dog... Thankfully she did not have too, as her family soon showed up, hearing her shrieks.
She hugged Blue tighter, she could feel the hot breath of the dog on her now. She was going to die...
But wait.. she had to protect Blue... but what to do.

For Becky
 

The cold air felt like knives in Sutton's lungs at this point. She'd never appreciated just how FAR the Groundskeeper was from the castle. Ah well, she was tired and soaking wet and freezing, and the bitter wind wasn't helping either. All she knew was that she couldn't run any further... and that had been her goal. To run as fast as she could for as long as she could to get away from what she had done.

Now, though, she found herself in the middle of what looked like an oddly sized playground. Spotting a small tunnel, she hurried over it and climbed inside. She'd be safe from the wind here, at least. Using her wand, she dried herself off with the hot air spell she'd been working on, and then she whirled her wand and created the bluebell flames that... Isaac had showed her how to make... and then she was crying again as she set the magical flames down on the floor of the tunnel in front of her.

Behind her, she heard an odd jingling noise and turned around to see what it was. Right as she turned around, a big black, fuzzy dog jumped into the tunnel with her and came over to greet her. Smiling at the dog through her tears, she said, "Hi buddy! Hi!" Hugging him tight, she pet the dog, thankful for his company. Maybe he could just... stay out here with her... they'd keep each other warm... Sutton curled up in a tighter ball as the dog snuggled in close to her, probably to get closer to the heat from the bluebell flames, which were awesomely not melting the tunnel. What a cool spell...

And more tears came pouring...

By the time he'd got near to the groundskeeper's hut, Ed was panicking. Full scale, all out panicking. Sutton definitely couldn't have run this far, right? He'd only been about fifteen minutes behind her! Holding Amelia's coat and looking around frantically, Edmund decided to call out her name yet again. "SUTTON?"

And again... nothing. He span on his heel, frustrated and worried because he just couldn't find her. And that was when he caught a glimpse of blue. That was a good sign, right? He crouched down at the entrance of the tunnel and peered in to see Sutton hugging a dog. A quick glance at the tunnel told him he wasn't going to be able to get in there with her, so he knelt on the floor and leant inside. "Hey, you okay?" He asked softly, glancing at the flames. At least she had enough sense to keep herself kind of warm.

Sutton had heard Edmund calling her name from a distance, but she didn't respond. If he wanted to find her, he would. It wouldn't be that hard, she supposed, as all he would have had to do was follow her tracks through the snow. Still petting the big dog, she heard Edmund call her name much closer now, but she still didn't respond. A few moments later, he had found her. At first Sutton thought about just ignoring him and continuing to wallow in her own little tunnel of misery...

But then she let go of the dog, who promptly jumped out of the tunnel, and she crawled to the end, climbing out and hugging Edmund as she cried into his chest. Her voice muffled, she said, "I d-didn't mean it..." Looking up with hopeful eyes, she asked, "Is there a... a spell or something that will let me go back and change it? Because I will... I'll take it all back. I won't even go to the stupid carnival thing..." Surely in everything that magic could do, there was a way to fix it...

Biting his lip as she paused, he gazed at Sutton concernedly, but then before he could even blink, she had climbed out of the tunnel, hugged him and started bawling like Amelia had. He wrapped his arms around her and just hugged her tightly, feeling devastated FOR her.

"I know, I know." He looked down at her sympathetically. "No, sorry. I'd have told you waaaaay back if there was." Before all the crying and heartbreak and not-so-subtle proposals that weren't quite how they should have been. "We're gonna have to do the muggle way and hope for the best." He reached for Amelia's discarded jacket and pulled it around Sutton. "You shouldn't have run out here. If you were going to run, you should have at least gone to he common room." Somewhere warm.

Sutton shook her head in disappointment. She supposed that it was too much to hope for. The first time she had a really good reason to USE magic, and there wasn't a magic to make it happen. "Well, how about a spell to make people forget something... I can just use it on you and Isaac and Amelia, and then one of you can do it to me, and we'll all forget! And it'll be just like never happened!" Surely there was a spell for THAT?

As he chastised for running away to the cold, she just blinked at him. The Common Room? Why would she have run there? "There are... people there, and I wanted to go as far as I could." Admittedly, if she had run to the girls dormitory at least none of the three of them could have gotten to her, though surely Edmund would have sent a girl in to look after her. As he put the coat on her, she examined it. It was obviously a girls coat, so Sutton was rather confused about where Edmund had gotten it. "Whose is this?" she asked, momently distracted by her intrigue.

"Sorry dear." He smiled at her slightly amusedly, but then raised an eyebrow. "There's a spell for that, but that's definitely not going to happen." Like he'd ever do that. It was seriously dangerous if it wasn't done properly. "Sorry, gotta do it the muggle way." He hugged her tighter.

"True, but there are a lot of places INSIDE the castle you could have gone where there wouldn't be people." Ed raised an eyebrow at her, but his face fell at her question. Meep. Deciding it was best to just tell her the truth, he shrugged. "Amelia's. She threw it at me when she realised I was coming after you. She's the one you bumped into on the way out of the courtyard."

Sutton sighed and laid her head back against him as she calmed down. "What good is it being a witch if I can't use it to help people not be hurt?" she said sadly. That was what she wanted most in the world right now, for everyone to not hurt.

She shrugged as he continued talking about how she should have run inside. Honestly, she didn't have a good reason for not running inside except that in that moment, it hadn't seemed like the best place to run if she wanted to get away. Her eyes widened in fear as he told her about the jacket. "That... That was her? She's... really pretty," she whispered as her heart plummeted. "I can't wear this. It's hers, and I don't deserve for her to be nice to me," Sutton said decidedly as she took the jacket back off and handed it to Edmund.

That... was a very good question. "I know, maybe when you're older." Oh gosh, that sounded like SUCH a parent line! "Uh... I mean... maybe you could be a healer?" That saved him from sounding like he was treating her like a kid, no?

His eyes focused on her as she shrugged. Didn't she care about her own health as much as he did? But it seemed telling her the truth about the coat was a bad move. He nodded at her whisper, but then looked at her with a serious expression. "You're pretty too." It was the first time he felt like he SHOULD say and it didn't feel strange. She was his kid sister for Merlin's sake. Taking the jacket, he wrapped his arm around her. "Well, if you're going to refuse that, can we at least go back?" And maybe check on Isaac on the way.

A healer?! That sounded kind of difficult, not just in the amount of magic she'd have to learn but also in the emotional toll it could take on a person. At the moment, she wasn't sure she could handle an emotional job like that. For some reason, she hadn't yet imagined what kind of job she'd want now that she knew she was a witch, but perhaps it was time she started learning more about the kinds of jobs that were out there...

The serious look in Edmund's eyes froze her more than the cold. It was obvious he was about to saying something really important... that... she was... pretty? She opened her mouth to respond, but thought better of it. She wasn't sure how much more of emotional breakdown Edmund would tolerate, and thought that saying she wasn't pretty ENOUGH might overdo it. "Thank you, Ed," she said quietly, finally breaking eye contact and looking at the ground.

As he wrapped his arm around her, she moved in closer to him, resting her head against him. She was suddenly really, really tired. When he asked if they could go back now, she nodded her head. "Yeah... let's go...."

Looking down at her feet, she saw that the dog had been sitting there next to her the whole time. Bending down and giving it an affectionate scratch on the head, she whispered, "Thanks for keeping me warm." Taking out her wand, she made sure the blue flames were extinguished in the tunnel and then turned to walk back to the castle with Ed.

When she opened her mouth, he gave her a look that clearly said if she contested what he'd told her, she'd be in trouble. He wasn't having that from her right now, not after all the crying. A warm smile spread over his face as she just accepted it. Though quite why she thanked him for telling the truth, he didn't know.

He looked down at her as she put her head on his t-shirt, though with how the weather had turned the water so cold, it was more accurate to call it an ice-shirt. Glad she was happy enough to go back up to the castle, he hugged her close to try and keep her warm, not really feeling the bite of the cold himself because he was just so worried about Isaac. His attention was drawn to the dog when she scratched its head, and had he had any treats on him, he'd have given one to the dog, but instead, he just smiled at the comforting animal. When she was ready, he put his arm back around her and set off towards the castle, keeping an eye out for Isaac. Just in case.

Leading both Pepper and Millie into the playground, Seb didn't untie their leashes until he had firmly closed the gate behind him and only then did he let go free. He watched as Pepper bounded off while Millie continued to hang around him. He had noticed that she had been doing that quite a lot lately and he couldn't understand what the problem was. She seemed to be in perfect health and she still liked to play with Pepper but for some reason she didn't like being alone. Perhaps he would go see Vanora about her tomorrow. He bent down and gave the little wombat a pat before making his way out of the playground and back to his hut.

Millie turned on the spot and watched the human who had been looking after her walk away and nose twitched a little. She didn't want him to go. There were bad things in the playground. Millie turned back around to see where Pepper had disappeared to and she waddled along as quick as her little legs would carry her. And just as she neared the back of the playground, she saw Pepper jump the fence and run away.

Which meant she was now alone. In the playground. Where bad things were hiding.

Minerva had been so busy that she hadn't gotten any time to go and visit Pepper and Millie. It had been so long, she missed those two cute little fur balls. Opening the gate she looked around. "Millie... Pepper" She wasn't sure if they were out or if they would be in. Min walked around the playground when she thought she saw something moving. "Millie is that you?" She bent down and pet the cute little wombat. "Hey you.. where is Pepper? Your never out here alone."

Minerva got up and walked around.. "Pepper... Pepper.." She kept calling out, but no answer. Millie was the only one in the playground. That was odd, but she shrugged it off that maybe Mr. Gibbins took Pepper out for a walk or something. She looked at the hut and wondered if she should walk over towards it and see if Pepper was there. Turning back towards Millie she walked over towards the wombat. Bending down she pet Millie again, "Is Pepper at the hut? Should I go see?" She looked at the hut, but hated ignoring Millie.. "Why don't we play a little then I'll go to the hut for Pepper." She sat down in the grass and started petting Millie.

Has Minnie too
 

Lex made her way to the little play area hoping to find a certain someone there but after approaching the gate she found herself frowning sligtly. Where was he?

"Hellooooo? Shiny Ground's Keeper?! Where arrrreeee you?" she called after taking a moment to look around, you know, in case he was actually there and she just missed him. She shifted her little blue bag of candy from one shoulder to the next as she waited for a response but when none came immediately she decided to try calling again. "Shiny Ground's Keeper?!" the smart thing to do would have been to check his hut first but she figured he might've been around here playing with Pepper and Millie.

Guess not.

She turned her attention to the badger that had made it onto Vivi's hitlist. "Do you know if Mr. Shiny Ground's Keeper's in his hut?" because she didn't want to walk over just to find out that he was off somewhere else on the grounds. That would've been too much!

Minerva was petting Millie and enjoying the sun when she heard someone calling. She recognized the voice and didn't turn since she knew Alexa was calling for the grounds keeper and if he was in ear shot it wouldn't be a bad thing to have him come over, because she could ask where Pepper was hiding. It was odd being there without that ball of energy jumping around and knocking her over..

Looking up when she heard Alexa got closer she smiled. "Hey Alexa, I haven't seen him since I got here, but I'm hoping to see him soon. Millie is out, but Pepper is missing. I have never seen one without the other and I just wondered if Pepper was in the hut or something." She turned back to Millie and pet the wombat a little longer. Looking over to Alexa again she smiled at the first year. She didn't know Alexa well, but liked her from what she did get to know. "Want to stay and play with Millie a bit until Mr. Gibbins comes back or were you going to head to the hut and see if he might be there?"