Cael nonchalantly looked to the left, then to the right. No one was here. Really, how could he not do it? The empty stage was practically begging to be used... and the microphone, well it was just too good to pass up. Honestly, it wasn't like anyone was even around to see...

Quickly leaping atop the stage, Cael grabbed the microphone before someone could charm it out of his hand. Slightly giddy from the coffee he'd just consumed, he hastily belted out a few lyrics from his favorite wizarding band, The Death Metal Eaters. The stage warped, lights sprouted from the ceiling and a magical tempo started blaring behind him. Grinning like an idiot after finishing the song, he shoved the microphone back into its holder and bolted off the stage before anyone could catch him.

That was awesome.

Everyone told me this Carnival is a big deal... WHY?? I don't get it..., Gwen thought while looking around the place where the stage was. Ehem... and why isn't anyone here?, she told herself, thinking it would be best to get back to her friends. Suddenly, she noticed someone there... singing? 'Are you kidding me?', she couldn't help saying. The young Ravenclaw stood there and watched him sing, while thinking why he didn't see her standing there. What... an idiot?, Gwen thought. What? It was the first thing she thought about everyone she ever met. Except Ari, of course....

When he finally finished, Gwen really tried not to laugh, however, she couldn't stop grinning. She raised her eyebrows and thought of something to say. Maybe I shouldn't be mean... just this time.

Cael jumped off the stage, still high on the adrenaline rush from performing. For a second he actually felt like he was a member of his favorite band, and the enchantments on the stage... just so sweet. As he turned to walk away he noticed a girl... laughing at him, or as close as she could come to it while still maintaining decorum.

Great... how many others were standing around mocking him this whole time? The lights had been right in his eyes! How could he have thought no one would see him, or hear him at the very least? Merlin, he was so mortified.

Cael's face turned scarlet as he eyed the older girl.

"Enjoy the show?" he mumbled petulantly.

A carnival? Really? Now he'd seen everything.

He'd heard of these things being quite the attraction for Muggles, but never thought he'd see something like this in the wizarding world. What brought it on, anyway? Who're these ... Worple and Warmsley blokes?

Still, it was rather amusing. And it would give Damien something else to do to while he waited for the start of the next term. He'd had his fill of his stay in Ireland, and wanted to be around his friends.

It was still funny to say that he had ... friends.

Not to mention hanging around Diagon Alley (and now this carnival) he'd be more likely to bump into most of them. Perhaps even make some new friends in the process.

There was no way Isobel was tired. She didn't think it was possibly for her to be even remotely tired. She would probably be running on a high level of energy all day. It was a combination of her breakfast-cinnamon toast crunch- and the carnival, which was very exciting and made her hyper.

Isobel was walking around, looking at anything. Absentmindedly she reached up to touch the pirate dubloom around her neck. Cove had given it to her that summer, and Isobel had worn it ever since. She loved it; it was awesome.

In the midst of the crowd she saw a familiar face. She would not admit it to herself, or anybody, but she had kind of been looking for him since she got there. She had hoped he would come to the carnival, and here he was.

Isobel skipped over to him with a large smile on her face. "Hi Damien," she said cheerfully. "When did you get here? This is exciting isn't it? I love carnivals; I'm so excited. I pet a niffler." She was so excited that it came out in a string of words with barely a breath in between.

Anna waved goodbye to her parents and siblings as they went back to the Leaky Cauldron. Anna couldn't wait to see her friends as she pulled herself up on the Main Stage sitting on the edge. She pulled out a chocolate frog (her favorite wizarding candy) out of her pocket and pulled her Quidditch through the Ages book while waiting for her friends.

"I'm here!" Raven called and ran to meet her friend at the stage. Raven had left her parents outside of the magic ferris wheel to meet her friend Anna at the main stage. She wondered what they would do. She was hoping that both families could pay to stay at the Leaky Cauldron so that way they could see each other in the morning too. Raven pulled a stray hair away from her eyes and tucked it behind her ear. She had long brown hair, about 2" past her shoulders. It was naturally straight. She never had to do anything to it, because it always looked good. Anna's hair was pretty too. Raven couldn't help but think they would be the two prettiest first year girls at Hogwarts.

Anna was so happy to see her friend. She threw out her chocolate frog wrapper and tucked her book underneath her arm. "Isn't this place amazing?" said Anna. "If you want I'll race you to the Hogwarts Castle ride! Maybe we can meet more people there" The two girls then ran across the carnival to the ride.

Skip hop skip hop skip hop

There was no mistaking that sort of footwork. Damien was convinced that Isobel never walked anywhere. She chose to skip, hop, jump ... even fly on a broom rather than walk. Still. It made him smile. He wasn't surprised to see her wandering around the carnival, either. Isobel had the innocence thing down.

"How are you --" he'd begun to say, but was immediately cut off by her mile-a-minute run on sentance detailing all the things she'd done so far, not to mention all her excitement. He chuckled. "And how much sugar have you had today?" he asked with a sideways grin.

"Well to answer your question, I've only just arrived here. Heard a lot of commotion going on at the Leaky Cauldron and followed it to ... well ... here."

Course he'd never been to a carnival, but he wasn't going to tell Isobel that. He felt like he'd let her down with so many other things, no need to disappoint her again.

Isobel smiled guiltily at Damien. "Maybe a little bit," she said said slowly. Though, she thought that she would be this hyper even without sugar. It was just so exciting; it was a carnival for crying out loud.

"Are you excited?" She prompted. She was, but he could tell that. "Do you want to go on a ride?" Isobel turned sideways and looked out at the carnival, looking for a ride she might like to go on. There was a sort of rollercoaster; but she was terrified of rollercoaster, mostly because of the height also because of the speed and possible upside-downedness. And there was a ferris wheel, but a HUUUUGE one. No. Way.

"Just a littlebit?" Damien chuckled regarding the sugar. "You sure about that?" He'd expect a first year to be this excited for carnivals, and here was 5th year Isobel, just as giddy as anyone else would be about a carnival. And she didn't care one bit about showing that excitement. He loved that about her --

Loved the fact that she didn't care about what others thought about her.

Excited? "About the carnival?" he asked. "Wel erm -- sure I suppose. Bit overwhleming for someone who doesn't attend too many social events." And this place would be swarming with people eventually. Damien searched the area for a ride that he'd want to go on. Rollercoaster? No way. Too much screaming, plumeting and stomach losing for his taste. He was on the lookout for something a little more low key. Something that would give them time to talk.

Merlin knows they needed to do a lot of talking.

Then something caught his eye. "How about the wheel?" he asked turning back to her. "I know you have a thing about the heights, but it's not like you're going to be all exposed. You sit in a little car, and the wheel takes care of the rest. No thinking required."

Isobel smiled angelically. "No, about the flowers. Yes about the Carnival." She grinned to show that she was teasing. And he still hadn't answered her question. Would he? Oooo, yes he would. "You suppose? You either are excited, or you aren't, you can't really do it halfway." It didn't work so well.

The wheel? The Ferris Wheel? Isobel's face paled a little as she turned back to Damien. "O-okay," she said a little shakily. She took a deep breath. She could do it. He was right; she would be in the car thing. But, she had been scared in the Treehouse. But she could do it, as long as Damien was there to comfort her. "Now?" There was a little bit of fear in her voice, but she tried to push back as much as she could.

Damien smirked sarcastically in her direction. "Well in case you don't remember, I rarely show excitement for anything. So be glad I gave you a -- halfway answer, as you so put it," he said with a final nod of his head.

He noticed the colour drain from her face as she thought about the Ferris Wheel. He had to give the girl some credit; when they went up the Treehouse last year, she flat out refused and it took a lot of coaxing (and hand holding) on Damien's part to get her to walk up there with him. She was barely putting up a fight when it came to going on the Ferris Wheel with him.

"Of course, now," he said, and was about to hold his hand out to her once more, but stopped short before shoving it back into his jean pocket. Damien had to remember that Isobel could potentially have a boyfriend. No need to go messing it all up and causing himself a world of pain. Again.

"Come on then," he said, smiling to her and tilting his head to one side. "Shall we?"

As soon as she'd set foot into Diagon Alley, Stella had heard about the carnival, but it had taken her a few days to really decide she wanted to check it out. Of course, now she'd bought most of what she was going to need for the school year, so she'd talked Talia into letting her head back over alone just as long as she stayed at the carnival. She wasn't about to just wander off by herself anyhow, so the promise was easy to make and she'd practically ran from the flat to Diagon Alley to see what all the rumors were about. There hadn't been any carnivals in France in ages.

After stopping off to get some blueberry candyfloss, she'd found herself wandering past most of the other booths and games idly until she'd found herself looking up at an empty stage. If Risa had been here, she knew she would have been dragged up there to recite a soliloquy or something, but her best friend wasn't there. So she simply stood there watching the stage, fingering the key charm on her necklace and munching on her candy while she listened to everything going on around her.

At the sight of all the children surrounding them, Victor squeezed Adriana's hand hard to keep his wand hand from twitching.

Stopping by the main stage, he grabbed her around the waist and looked down at her with a disturbed look on his face. "You are going to owe me big for this little adventure," he sneered, raising a single eyebrow.

Adriana turned to look up at Victor, slightly nervous at his expression. Maybe asking him to accompany her here was a bad idea. "Please do try to have some fun, yes? If you so much as do or say or BREATHE something stupid, you are going to be sleeping in the puppy's doghouse for a looong time."

Victor smirked. He couldn't help it. "Oh. Is that so?" he glared playfully, bearing down on her hand. The doghouse would be a welcome escape from this fiasco. "There had just better NOT be clowns," he warned, leaning in close. "You can't blame me for hexing a clown."

"Yes, actually, I can" she warned back. As if they needed a reason for aurors to come chase him away. "You will see just how much I blame you when I'm feeding you dog food and your dog a juicy steak." With an eyebrow raise, Adriana turned away from Victor and looked around.

"So, where do you want to go?" She was now sounding more cheerful and, in fact, she was even smiling.

"And when have Aurors ever really caused us a problem?" he shot back. Really?! The woman had no faith. It wasn't as if he didn't always have one eye peeled to scan his surroundings.

But it wasn't an Auror that made his head spin in that next moment, it was Adriana's sudden change of mood. Eying her suspiciously, he shrugged his broad shoulders and reluctantly smiled back. "Anywhere you want to go, baby."

He'd said he'd TRY to have fun today and he would. For her if for no one else.

YAY.

"Ooh, ooh, ooh! Uhmmm..." Adriana looked around. There was SO much they could do! "You waaaaaanna go get your face painted? If not you, then juuust me." I guess, she huffed inwardly. She knew this was something Victor wouldn't been down for.

Victor stood in silence, looking at Adriana as if she had sprouted a third eye. Face painting, really?! Had she gone round the bend? Had those loooong nights of worrying finally caused her to snap?

"Umm... that's all you, babe," he said, leaning in towards her ear. "Are you feeling okay?" he whispered, taking her hand to lead her towards the... face painters.

"Yes, yes, yes," she responded, suddenly becoming irritated. Adriana looked up at him. What was with that look? Was there something on her face? Was he suddenly thinking that she was not beautiful at all? Sniff. "Why are you looking at me like thaaaat," she whined slightly, turning her face away from Victor as if embarrassed.

Wow! Talk about your mood swings.

Victor approached her catiously, taking her arms and holding them to her side. "Relax," he breathed, giving her a steady gaze.

Yes...yes...YEEEEES!

See, Mr. Balloons had been right in picking this area for the carnival! Mr. Balloons always knew the best ways to spread joy - and it didn't always come in the form of a balloon animal.

Twirling and leaping his way around, Mr. Balloons arrived a the main stage area wearing not only his rainbow suit, but 8 different colored balloons around his waist. Yes, it was time to celebrate.

He saw what looked like a very handsome couple discussing things, so he went up behind them (Tailzerr & Liisa) and grabbed them in a giant bear hug.

"HEEEEEEEEEEELLO and GOOOOOOOOOOOD DAY!" he beamed. "Ya' two is plum bustin' wid love and joy!"

He then twisted a red balloon and a pink balloon together to make a heart and place it over their heads. Wasn't that just lovely?! Now they were connected by not just joy but looooooove!