Sunday, February 21, 2010
10 AM- 3 PM
Muggle Studies students, specified chaperones,  and other specified adults.
More information is on the plotting page!
Questions? Comments? Shoot me a PM!

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Althea stood on a chair above a sea of students. "Excuse me? Please, students?" She called. The students all buzzed around, playing with their new found technologies, and getting their names checked off by their assigned chaperones. When she was able to finally get attention, she went to remind her students. "Now, please remember to stay on the designated streets, unless you are with your chaperone.[1] If anything happens, please use your mobile telephone to place a call to me. My number is in every number, as well as the other chaperones."

She started to lead them down the stairs. "Meet back here by 3, and if the other members of your group haven't shown, you are not permitted to leave. All school rules still apply, and there are ministry officials around, so, try to be on your best behavior!" She smiled, standing in front of the door.

"House points can and will be rewarded and taken away, so let's try to be really great, and make this a great day!" She said, stepping away from the door and opening it. "Please be careful, and safe! And have a very nice day!" She yelled, as her students rushed out like water. "Any questions feel free to ask!" She shouted, after they were already out. She stood there with her arms crossed, watching her students rush like water. They'd be smart. Hopefully.

1.	Students: feel free just to pick one of the chaperones!

Gale was beyond ready for this, he looked forward to it for weeks, because one more trip to London meant one more reason to sneak away and meet up with Chaz. They were already planning to have be at the same spot for lunch. His students would be in for a bit of a treat, but darn it he was in love.

"You ready for this?" The Charms Professor pushed his sleeves up to put on a muggle watch, and put one of the phones in his back pocket. Too late for her answer, they were off, and Gale was happy to be here. It would be fun. No one would get in trouble right? Either way, beneath his frumpy typical professor sweater was a team of newly sharpened blades that would behead anyone who dare try to bother one of his students.

The second Phillip stepped on muggle ground, he raised his hands above his head, and with an awed expression on his kite, went "Halle-bloody-lujah!" It took him precisely 10 seconds to turn on his iPod, shove an earphone in his ear, turn the volume up to blasting and start nodding his head in time with the beat of the song. His phone, followed quickly and with superhuman speed he quickly sent a mass text to every each one of his London mates, saying 'sheadheads! escaped the loony bin, in the smoke till 3'.

Kinsey had no special love for any of the professors chaperoning, but out of the bunch o' them, Trishna was the only he probably wouldn't be ladged of walking next to in any muggle area, so he quickly made his way next to the bloke, eyes still focused on his iPhone. He hit call on Crazy arse trollop and put the phone to his ear. "WTF, Kinsey it's 10 in the morning, do you want your bollocks in a jar?" a raspy female voice, finally answered irritatedly after a few tries. Phillip grinned smugly and chuckled under his breath. "Don't be at it, barmpot" he replied with amusement in his voice. "I escaped the castle. We're in London with the Muggle Studies class. I'll be with Trishna and some shedheads, but I honestly can't be arsed 'bout that" he dismissed the entire thing with a scowl. Lala simply muttered an affirmative mhm at the other end of the line. "So, listen, can we pleaaaaaase meet somewhere and bring me my DS? I miss my baby so much, my hand sare aching to feel that lovely plastic... And bring yer Mac man, I need keys under me fingers" he whined long and waited expectantly for a reply. "Fine, but you're buying me coffee, you little shit. Text me hour and place. Peace out." And with that the phone call dropped and Phillip sighed shaking his head. He shoved his phone back in his pocket and took his earbud out, hanging the wire around his neck.

"'Fessor" he asked with an expectant shit-eating grin, looking at Trishna with his best innocent face. "Could we, maybe stop at a Starbucks?" he fluttered his eyelashes ridiculously. "It's early on a Sunday, some of us could still use some strong brew and they'd get to experience the muggle magic of all the wonder that is Starbucks" he spread his arms, and breathed deeply through his nose. He leaned closer to the Astronomy Professor and smirked. "There's a Nintendo DS waiting for me there and me friend's bringing her Mac" he said smugly, then whistled lowly. Kinsey had his sources, but he didn't know how reliable they were... Still, he hoped Trishna could be coaxed with the promise of a video game filled Macbook Pro.

Erin was excited.  And hyper.  And had her thoughts totally unregulated by the grammar conventions of the English language.  Or maybe she did.  She never really could tell.  Like a kid that had just been given sugar, Erin could not help but to skip around.  Not that she was particularly excited for the topic, but because she was going to muggle london. That meant she could surreptitiously procure chocolate (and gods willing - eat it) before either her mom, sisters, teachers, or agents nagged at her.  She wasn't the only one with such fervor.  She noticed one of her classmates talk into the Tell-phone or something and arrange a meeting at someplace called Starbucks.  Erin did not particularly care for caffenated beverages one way or the other, but she did desire some sugar.


"Professor Santucci?  Do you know a good place to get some chocolate?  And do you have any recommendations on the one I should buy?  Preferably ones that I can't get at Hogwarts?"  Erin asked, for once in her life actually giving her professor complete and undivided attention.  Had any of Erin's professors knew how much she liked chocolate, they probably would have tried to reward her with that rather than Es or Os.

They were using muggle money to get the best deals on muggle items.  How, exactly, were they supposed to achieve that with what they'd been given?  Sasha blinked at the measly seven pounds in his hands and looked up, trying to remember if he'd ever had to try to purchase anything on this type of budget. 

Sasha's first choice of chaperone was obvious and he quickly scanned the group for Professor Trishna.  Professor Trishna with a group of reasonable, mature students was ideal.  Professor Trishna with Kinsey?  That was arguable worse than getting stuck in a car with Abby, Professor Trishna and his sister when he, very clearly, had no control over which mp3 player was connected to the radio.  Dark had already partnered with Professor Santucci and was planning on spending her seven pounds of chocolate.  With a slight sigh, Sasha turned towards the closest professor. 

"Do you have a full group, yet?"  Sasha asked, approaching Professor Kesali.  "I guess...we're supposed to go shopping."  And experience muggle culture.  A specific subset of muggle culture, by the looks of it. 

Santucci watched her students bustle out around, as one of her fourth years stayed back. She smiled as Erin posed her question. The student had always impressed her with her knowledge and skills in the classroom. She was an absolute pleasure to have in class, and though that wasn't exactly a rarity for Althea to say, she still did mean it.

Althea had picked these streets for a reason. They had a good variety of stores, including drug stores, candy stores, and clothing stores. "Well, it depends on what you're looking for. If you want rich dutch chocolate, I recommend the chocolatier two doors down. You don't need a chaperone to go there. That chocolate will be more pricy however, and if you're looking for real muggle chocolate, that's not the place to go."

Althea then pointed to the Boots drugstore across the street. "In there, Wonka bars are sold, and they are some of the best chocolate available. That is a true muggle chocolate, but if you're looking for something finer, then go to the chocolatier." She said, pointing towards that building. "Does that answer your question?" She asked with a smile, happy to see her students so excited to learn.

Without really thinking about it, Raine had followed her housemate Kinsey towards their Astronomy professor, and was standing patiently by the two wizards as others found their way to respective chaperones.

A glance outside as Santucci opened the main door told them that it looked like drizzle. Moreso than even in the Highlands, it was better to dress for wet weather. Showers across the grounds was adventurous, drizzle in the city was... icky. The Gryffindor wrinkled her nose at the thought. Being February, it would still be rather cold as well.

Kinsey's mention of Starbucks brought her back from the internal grumbling.

"Coffee?" she spoke up and glanced from Philip to Professor Trishna. To be honest, she'd spent plenty of holiday time in London before and there was little they could do today that would be especially educational. The seventh year didn't have a bad idea.

Raine tucked a strand of blonde behind her ear and looked at the group with the weary hopefulness of a yet-t0-be-caffeinated pupil. "Yes to coffee?"

Given that she couldn't roll her eyes all the way back into her head; well, maybe Gigi could, but that would require using talents she wasn't showing off in public. But she settled for a quick roll of her eyes when Kinsey mentioned Macs, ugh.

Caffeine though, could go for that. Kinsey (and now Raine), weren't bad sorts for this, or anything really. So she stomped over to them, heels loud, the hoops in her ears swaying. "Cooooooffeeeeeee," she said, making the word into more of a zombie-esque moan than anything.

Hey, it was for class. Starbucks was Muggle, and she'd been burning through caffeine ever since she'd picked up that badge. Kept her energy pool up.

Muggle London. Dallas looked down at himself. His shoes pinched his toes, and the tie around his neck made him unhappy. His normal muggle attire consisted of flannel shirts, jeans, a leather trench coat, a bright yellow rain slicker and Wellies. He found a blazer and pants from deep in his wardrobe and an old shirt that still fit and didn’t look terrible, even though he’d much rather be wearing his hat and boots. The air was cool, probably cold to most. But these people had never experienced a cold Scotland storm at sea. A freezing wave crashing over your head, colder than the last until you felt nothing at all but the ropes in your hands and the deck under your heels. Dal shook of his memories of home and looked about, his students already accounted for.

Althea looked stunning as usual, and he wandered over to her to tell her so. One of her students asked about chocolate. “And if you want to complete your experience, you could find some marshmallows as well.” He added to Al’s suggestions. She was always so nice and sweet when someone asked her a question, no matter the situation. He leaned down to whisper in her ear. “You’re looking radiant today as always Professor Santucci.” Locksley smiled and slid back to his group before she could tell him no PDA in front of the students. He clapped his hands.

“Alrighty, where to?” Dallas prompted, making sure his phone and emergency supplies were all there. Yup. All there. “Do you want to shop a bit? Make a coffee run?” He snagged from another group’s conversation. “Or we could take a bus and do a little sight-seeing, it’s all up to you.”

"Hmm?" He was only half listening when Sasha spoke, but blinked from his daze, "Oh. No. I am not full yet." He acted a bit surprised having figured of all people here Sasha would have gone with Trishna, "I'm not really very good at this whole shopping thing, actually. " He flushed a pink color as he made a gesture at his attire,

"I was thinking that maybe we could skip out and check out a few of the museums," Feeling rather rebellious anymore, he grinned. With a scan over to the red head professor Gale lifted a brow at the chattering students Tapendra had surrounded himself with (or the other way around)

"Looks like our group will be a little quieter, no? Maybe if we slip off now, we can just find somewhere quiet so you can study. As I'm sure you have a few sets of cards somewhere." He pretended to look Sasha over, nearly tempted to pat him down and do a search of his own for them just so he could burn them.

"Quick, dart down that alley and let's escape the rest."

Sasha couldn't deny the appeal of escaping and, with a shy grin to the Charms Professor, he wordlessly following the man into an alley and away from the myriad of students and professors.  As they walked, Sasha shook his head, turning his pockets out to show that, aside from his wallet and phone, they were empty.  "No.  No flashcards.  It's, you know, my birthday.  I figured that's as good a reason as any to take a day off?" 

It felt strange and wholly inappropriate to be assessing a professor's choice of attire but he had to agree, the Charms professor did seem to have an interesting taste in clothes.  "It's very ..."  The Ravenclaw licked his lips as he searched for an accurate while still tasteful adjective.  "Modern and, I guess, hip?  Where do you typically shop?"

We could, you know ... we're supposed to go shopping.  Are we allowed to supplement our rations?"  Rations was, really, the best way to describe the appropriations they'd been provided. 

"And, are we allowed to meet up with anyone?"

After seeing a large group of people go off to get coffee, Erin wondered if she should have joined them.  Her innate hyperness gave her no real use for caffeine, and chocolate already had the stimulant anyways.  She knew that everyone kept them away from her unless absolutely necessary.  Last time she had accidentally worn a giant yellow dress with feathers when she had not been supposed to.  The mixups were common enough, but running around like a chicken while wearing a big-bird outfit was apparently frowned upon in chic circles. 

Her thoughts on various food aside, Erin began skipping towards her destination.  Why she was the only one of her classmates getting chocolate she had no idea.  It was like she was the only normal teenager here or something.  Still, Erin was bound and determined to get these Wonka bars at the drug store, so she continued skipping on her way towards Boots.

"No.  No flashcards.  It's, you know, my birthday.  I figured that's as good a reason as any to take a day off?" 


Gale grinned at Sasha, like a cheshire cat with a bit of spark in his silver eye, "Of course it is. It's a perfect reason. And since it's your birthday I say we invite whoever you want, and you supplement anything you desire Sasha. It's your day off." Looking down at his attire he had to shrug a little. He didn't have one particular place he shopped, he just acquired things, from various places.

"Um...thrift stores actually. It's a habit hard to break. One man's trash is another man's treasure I suppose." He flushed a little at the topic, his heart hammering that he practically admitted to the prince of Hogwarts that he grew up without much money. "Or I borrow them from my boyfriend." Lifting the sweater he wore he inhaled enough to catch Chaz's scent, "Makes me feel like I'm home." With a little thought he turned to Sasha once more with a grin,

"Actually shopping sounds nice, but not at those big stuffy stores. Why don't we do something really different for your birthday and go to Camden Lock? (Google Camden market) It's a bit wild, but during the day shouldn't be so bad. I found a few really cool shops there, and maybe we can even get a tattoo no?" To that he grinned, his little french accent pitching in the end to show his jest, but Gale was serious about checking out London's open aired market, knowing that Sasha was in for a treat.

"Do you want to have your friend meet us there? The one from the Opera? Pretty little blonde?" He could send  a call to Chaz. Blissfully aware of how much of a culture shock this was going to be for Sasha, he hid a little smirk while he pulled out his own little phone to try and figure it out.