Zonko's Joke Shop
 

Wade knew Christmas was around the corner, and he had gifts to buy for his friends and family. He knew Luc and Bart loved joke and prankster items, so the Joke shop was his first stop. It was no shop of Weasley's, but good enough. Wade was in no rush. No rush at all. He walked through the aisles furrowing his brows at some of the items while taking his time.

Tiny twerp & trouble-making butthead extraordinaire, Cutty Mordaunt entered the Joke shop with his hands behind his back and his head held high. Carefully, he surveyed the surroundings stopping here and then there to perch at this stand or another and lift up or glance down at an item for careful inspection. He was in the market for something exceptional. For he had a pest. One that deserved special attention, shall we say.

Cutty stopped when he reached a wall of shelves displaying various one time prank items like Fauxbogey, and a fake blood product that the box claimed was so authentic it was advised that it not be used around vampires. Immediately next to the shelf walls were some of the less expensive items like fake spiders with realistic movements and something called a Creeping Vine Line which looked like an ordinary potted plant but carried the advantage of wrapping around the ankles of any passers by and tripping them up. Recalling their most recent Herbology class and the incessant questioning of man eating plants from Gallaway, Cutty picked on of these up thinking that if it worked, it would be a bargain.

He perused the rest of the shop and found a few other items that were to his liking and though they had no immediate use in mind he took them to the counter along with his Creeping Vine Line and purchased them before heading out to catch the tournament.

Arielle/Adrienne ^_^
 

Adrienne was so not in the mood for people. She didn't want to think about the foreign probably-spies that were roaming Hogsmeade probably about to destroy everyone in the school, especially the annoyingly rude one with the horsey face who she would have punched right in the nose had there not been so many witnesses. So she marched into Zonko's with her arms crossed tightly over her chest and her shoulders kind of hunched as she tried to keep warm with just her single layer flannel shirt on. All she wanted to do now was find a Christmas present for her cousin Jacques and then get back to the castle, where she’d pile blankets onto her bed and forget about the Transfiguration homework she really should have finished yesterday night. Adrienne had suspected that Hogsmeade weekends weren’t really all that they were cracked up to be, and her suspicions were re-proven today, when she’d managed to have a total of no fun whatsoever.

And oh, great, as if things couldn’t get any worse, there was that annoyingly friendly Hufflepuff who’d messed her up at Astronomy and kept showing up places to annoy her. And maybe you’d say she was holding a grudge, but there was still no way Adrienne would forgive him for turning her into a Snake during that lesson. Thank Merlin Tora had been there to save her, otherwise she probably would have had to kill him. Not literally. She shoved her hands into her jeans pockets as he walked by, semi-purposefully bumping into her shoulder. “Hey, watch it!” she said, turning around quickly. Had he seriously just done that? Was he really that focused on fixing his hair or whatever he was doing that he hadn’t noticed her right there?

Alec stopped, so as to properly fix his hair. He would have usually been embarrassed about this but desperate times called for desperate measures, yeah? After all, he could still look around for gifts even if his main concern at the moment was what his hair was up to. His grey-blue eyes flew around to the closest shelf. So this was just... hair!ruffle... some sort of... what was this piece of particular colour--

OOMPH!

... BLINK.

Watch it?! What even... Alec spun around and blinked at the person, the girl, who had seemingly just bumped into him. She looked... familiar. Very familiar. Did he knew her from somewhere? "Erm..." Hair!ruffle. "Sorry, I didn't know that I was standing in your way..." This was hi way of trying to be sassy which, for someone who was best mates with a sassy Gryffindor, wasn't exactly executed very well. Good going, Summers.

But... the girl. Merlin, where did he-- ... NO. No, it couldn't be... But if he just mentally drew the wings... IT WAS. "It's you!" he whispered loudly, his eyes widening. What were the chances of this happening?

"Uhuh," Adrienne drawled sarcastically. He had definitely known he'd been standing in her way, and it was incredibly rude of him to have dared to be in the same building as her when he was being so incredibly annoying and she was so incredibly annoyed. "Well, you're excused, anyway." Even though he hadn't actually said excuse me. Again, how terribly rude of him. She crossed her arms tightly and shifted her weight to her right hip, looking him up and down with disapproval. Although mostly up, given the height difference. How she hated people who were older than her.

"Oh wow, it's me," Adrienne snapped. "Were you expecting me to not be me?" Really, she was already so done with this conversation. Given the choice, she'd have grabbed a bar or two of frog spawn soap for Jacques and been back in the castle by now.

She tapped her fingers against her left arm and glanced about for the quickest way out of here if a crisis were to arrive. And by crisis she meant kicking someone and then leaving before he could get revenge because he probably weighed twice as much as she did. Yikes.

Scary girl was scary. And did she happen to be related to Penelope Greenwell? That girl was scary too, what with the punching thing. Maybe.

Alec reached up a hand and ruffled his hair, feeling slightly uncomfortable by this encounter. He wasn't... really very used to these kind of things. Especially the idea of someone not liking him. It just seemed... unnatural. People tended to like him and if they didn't... they just stayed away. And he wouldn't have to talk to them. It was a nice little regime, really.

But this girl... BLINK. He was excused? What? Was that what people said to an apology these days? He nodded at her before stepping off to one side. "Yeah, sorry." Again. Because manners. Even if he didn't really understand why he was apologising again but something told him it was the right thing to do. And making people angry was just... a no go. Nope.

... What? What was she even getting at? "Oh! Erm... that's not the case," he started, "I just... realised where I recognised you from, that's all." Maybe it was best not to remind her of that situation, actually. Maybe. The seventeen year old cleared his throat before continuing, "So... erm... are you in Ravenclaw?" Because he did remember her sporting a pair of blue wings that day. Unless she had gotten Solis Focalis-ed down by a someone in blue wings.

Adrienne narrowed her eyes. Why did he keep touching his hair? "Yeah, alright," she said reluctantly, stubbornly continuing to refuse to apologise even though she was pretty sure it was her that had run into him. Still, he shouldn't have been in the same aisle as her. So technically, it had been his fault. Er... kinda.

"Yeah, what of it?" Last time someone had asked what House she was in it had been a tall creepy foreign spy-girl, so she was a bit touchy about the subject, as innocent of a question as it no doubt was, coming from him. "And you're a Puff, no?" Except not one of the cool ones- like someone that she would actually voluntarily interact with. Instead he was annoying and had tried to hug her, which was just crossing so many lines. More lines than she'd known existed, especially after he'd tried again when she'd said she didn't want to be hugged. He was lucky Tora had distracted her so he hadn't gotten a punch to the nose, and she was lucky because she'd probably have ended up with detention.

Deep breath. Adrienne made a concerted effort not to get worked up about this, but she couldn't quite resist calling the older student a name under her breath, in French of course. She wasn't about to be that hostile right off the bat; in fact given the situation, she thought she was being quite kind. She hadn't hexed him yet, after all, or injured him, or just walked away, all of which were actions she'd definitely been contemplating. Although she was still looking for potential exits, just in case.

We see Alec and Adrienne.
 

Even though it had only been a year since her last visit to Hogsmeade, it felt as if it had been ages as Ronnie Hawkins entered Zonko's joke shop. She smiled to herself as she looked around the place, remembering her first visit here as a first year and how this had become her favorite shop. Several memories then followed and she smiled still to herself as she slowly made her way along the aisles of pranks and such. As she walked, she didn't notice someone walking in the aisle since she was so absorbed in eyeing what was on the shelves, until she bumped into them. "Oh! I'm sorry-" she paused as she looked up and recognized the face like a snap. Her eyes widened and a smile broke across her face at the sight of her friend, Wade. "Wade! Oh my gosh, hi! I apologize I didn't see you there!" she said, hugging him tight and them beaming up at him. Merlin, how did he get so much taller than her over the summer?!

Hmm.. Wade's furrowed brows were still unsure on what item to surprise his cousin with. Maybe one of those fanged frisbees, those were always fun. He was about to reach out for one when he felt himself wobble a little on impact. "Whoa there!" He blinked looking towards where he was bumped at when he saw- "Ronnie! Wade exclaimed, his eyes and smile widening as he recognized his long time friend. He hugged her just as tight before releasing her, "It's good to see you! It's been too long.." He laughed a little for her as she apologised, "It's fine, better me than the floor, right? So how've you been?" They had so much to catch up on. Heh.

Ronnie grinned as he released her and nodded in agreement. It had indeed been too long, she had missed Wade. He's one of her best friends! Chuckling, she then smiled again. "I've been great! I finally applied for a job at the ministry." she told him, beaming, although deep down, she couldn't help but feel slightly nervous. She was worried about either getting turned down or if she got the job, if she would be right for her position. And plus, the ministry was huge. She was bound to get lost. Mentally pushing the thoughts away, she turned her attention back to the Puffer. "What about you? Is Hogwarts surviving without me?" she teased with a wink.

Girls were confusing. VERY confusing. And this one had to be one of the most confusing girls ever. He just didn't understand any of her actions, especially that narrowed eyed look she was giving him. Was there something in his hair? He would have reached up and ruffled it again only... the girl had started talking again. Should he respond to this? If so, how? ... See? Confusing. ... Erm...? The boy smiled a little at her instead. Just smiled.

Alec thought that the question about the houses was an honest, innocent one but it seemed... that he had thought wrong. "Oh, I was just wondering..." he said, shrugging his shoulders, "I don't think we've ever met properly before but... I see you everywhere around Hogwarts." Honesty. He had plenty of it. ... Also, she knew that he was in Hufflepuff? "Yeah, I am! Erm... how did you know?"

The Hufflepuff didn't register the fact that the girl had muttered something under her breath because his grey-blue eyes landed on... a woman. An older woman who seemed to look busy but she was still RIGHT THERE. ... Shopkeeper? Or just a customer? Either way, Alec's eyes widened a little. They weren't going to be in trouble, were they? He smiled at her before looking over at the young Ravenclaw, mentally trying to end the latter telepathic messages. Act normal, Ravenclaw. ACT. NORMAL.

"Yea? That's awesome!" Wade beamed, he was quite happy to hear things were going great for her. "So what part of the Ministry are you hoping to work in?" He was sure whatever she wanted, she would get. Ronnie was such a cool person to Wade, who could ever turn her down? Oh, and how was Hogwarts. Wade smiled laughing, "I've been great, myself between these studying for Newts and all.. Hogwarts is not the same without you Ronnie." Truly, it wasn't. "It's been safer now, and only a few areas we have to pay to get through.. Oh, and they made me Head Boy this year." That was some of his good news. "So what else has been new for you?"

He was still touching his hair. Still. Weren't guys not supposed to care how their hair looked? That's what Adrienne had heard, at least, and she would definitely have preferred it if they didn't, because his constant hair-ruffling was getting past the point of annoying and beginning to be- well, anyway, he'd stopped now, and that was making him at least slightly more tolerable. Slightly. She still didn't like him, though, so while she stopped looking at him funny she didn't stop thinking at him funny.

"Mhmm...." She wasn't sure if she believed him. Hadn't he been in the Quiz Bowl whatever too? Maybe it was all just a front for spying! They wanted to know her secrets! Er... did she actually have any secrets? Well, anyway, Hogwarts definitely had secrets, so maybe they were trying to get at them through her- or, to distract her while they snooped around! They were tricky ones, they were. SPIES. "No, we haven't- and yes, we do, it's getting right annoying, it is." Should she introduce herself? It was the polite thing to do, but she wasn't entirely sure she wanted to be polite to this one. She sighed, and stuck out her hand. "I'm Adrienne. Second year." There, she'd been polite. Could she be done now?

Adrienne rolled her eyes. "You told me, during Astronomy. I thought you were a Snake." Merlin, didn't he remember anything? That was actually pretty pathetic. And... what was he looking at? Just because she didn't want to talk to him didn't mean he had the right to do other things while they were talking! She turned around - oh, it was just a person. Shopkeeper, probably. She ignored her and turned back to the boy, who was now looking at her oddly. "What're you looking at me like that for?" Was there something on her face?