The hairy beast had spent a good couple of nights rooting around in the Pepper family garden in Sandy.  Thankfully it hadn't made an attempt to escape.  Monty had followed his nephew's instructions[1] to the letter, despite his wife's mild protests.  Catherine had eventually agreed that it was a somewhat romantic gesture from a teenage boy, and a bit of an upgrade from flowers.  She had however taken a few sneaky photos of her husband being taken for a walk by the alpaca on Saturday.

Unfortunately it turned out they could get a bit airsick.  Ambrose had neglected to talk too much about the logistics of moving an animal about.  Apparently one couldn't go in the floo, Catherine's younger sister from Magical Transport, Helena, had informed her non-magical sister of such restrictions to the fireplace.  Portkeys were a bit tricky too.  Apparating with an animal wouldn't guarantee all of it arrived. 

After a good drink and plenty of scourify in the back of the roomiest vehicle Monty had, the alpaca was feeling a bit better and was grazing greedily on the end of a rope on the Hogsmeade village green (once the venue for Noriko Wakahisa tearing Professor Storm's hand off).  Up ahead he caught sight of a familiar couple of figures and chuckled.

1.	The Alpacalypse

"Just a bit further...." Ambrose instructed Juni, walking carefully with her eyes covered. 

He wore a great big grin as he walked just behind his girlfriend and classmate, hands gently over her eyes.  His uncle grinned back in response to seeing them approach.  Ambrose had checked on things earlier on a covert mission, but had to dash off before Juni noticed he was gone too long. 

"About five more steps...." He added with a rising inflection in his voice, excited to discover Juni's reaction.  He hoped to Merlin it was positive!

"Aaaaand, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!"  Ambrose whipped away his hands, and the alpaca hummed, lifting its head to regard the approaching figures.

Ambrose had been acting suspicious lately-- like he was plotting something. If he had been literally anybody else like Connor or Bastian or even Sophie or Winnie, she would have suspected something horrible to happen. However, since it was her birthday and Ambrose hadn't proven to be some sort of calculating, cackling chaotic-neutral person, she allowed him to to lead her--eyes covered, outside.

When he finally removed her hands, she blinked as her eyes adjusted to the sudden light.

Then it sank in. The most beautiful creature she had ever seen was looking at her with it's dark, beady eyes as it chewed mindlessly on a piece of rope. The alpaca was speckled with colors of cream and chocolate, it's face twice as sweet as the faces of its plush doppelgangers.

"Oooooh my god!" She bounced a bit, "Ohmygod!" Juni turned around sharply to pull the Gryffindor into a bone-crushing hug. "You are the best." Without any regard for Monty's presence, she planted a kiss on both of Ambrose's cheeks. The next thing she wanted to do was run up to the alpaca and hug it-- but she didn't want to spook the poor thing. So, Juni approached it slowly.

"He's so cuuuute." She crooned, "I need to name him." After a pokemon? No. After a video game character? Definitely. "Wakka. He looks like a Wakka,[1] doesn't he?"

1.	Character from Final Fantasy X

Ambrose was pretty sure that his birthday present idea had been received well when Juni planted kisses on his cheeks. He blushed, but was smiling ear to ear.

"A Wacky?" Ambrose asked, puzzled by the name. He'd never played Final Fantasy. He'd seen computer games with his Muggle friends, and Muggle born friends but he'd been pretty rubbish at trying any. "Well, I suppose you can name him anything you like as he's yours." His heart sang to know that Juni adored her present already.

They approached together, softly. The alpaca lifted its head and swung its backside round to consider them properly. Ambrose gave a grateful smile and nod to his uncle before relieving him of the lead rope.
"I owe you big time." He agreed with the painter, who shrugged and chuckled. "Do you want to take him for a walk?" Ambrose asked Juni, offering her part of the lead rope.

"Wakka." She repeated easily, knowing very well that it wasn't exactly a common name. Her dad even would've raised his eyebrow at her. Not that was anything new. In fact, he probably wouldn't be very pleased at the idea of a pet alpaca. Where would she keep him? Her house wasn't exactly alpaca-friendly. 

Juni remembered Monty from Boxing Day. He was the fun uncle, even if he wasn't the one who had set draperies on fire. She wished that her family had frequent, entertaining gatherings. She was lucky if more than a couple were in the country at the same time. When she was younger, she was able to visit the Zamperias in the summer. As she got older, the visits became increasingly rare as she wanted to spend her summers with her friends rather than with people she barely knew.

"Yes!" She replied-- who wouldn't want to take their brand new alpaca on a walk? But first, she had to show Monty her appreciation. She gave him a short but enthusiastic hug. "Thank you so much, too!" There was no way that he'd be able to do it alone. Clearly, Monty transported it for him. How? Juni didn't want to question it, but she suspected the flying car nearby. After all, it probably wasn't that legal to floo an alpaca. Or maybe it was? She would have to look into it for future alpaca transporting.

Kelvin had seen his fellow fifth years heading this way and figured it had to do with Juni's birthday since Ambrose had been covering her eyes.  So he'd finished up his purchase and headed in their direction. 

Kelvin walked up behind Ambrose as Juni was giving an older man a hug. "You got her that?"  She seemed excited for it, but really.  An alpaca.  Who got their girlfriend an alpaca.  Other than Ambrose apparently.  Though as much as Juni seemed to like it, Ambrose had been spot-on.

"You two are strange."  He said before raising his voice, "Happy Birthday Juni."

Monty was as clueless as Ambrose was about the name Juni had dubbed the alpaca. It was hers to name after all, so who was he to judge. She hadn’t called it something rude.
“Ooh!” He exclaimed at the unexpected but brief hug from Juni, “It’s alright sweetheart, he’s got his heart in the right place has Ambrose. Only wanted to make you happy. Off you go, needs to stretch its legs. Not sure travelling by car’s the best thing for it.” He waved them off, spying another student approaching. “I’ll be here when you get back.”

“You got her that?” Kelvin asked, approaching them.
“Yeah.” Ambrose replied, in a ‘and what’s the problem with that?’ defiant tone, squaring his shoulders to Kelvin proudly. He was overjoyed by the fact Juni liked her present, and wasn’t going to let his fellow prefect crap on that. Kelvin was one of the clever ones, and ordinarily that made Ambrose feel inferior, even if Kelvin didn’t ever mean it.

“You two are strange.” Kelvin said, but Ambrose didn’t think he meant it nastily. “Happy birthday Juni.”
“You want to say hello?” Ambrose asked Kelvin, meaning the alpaca of course. “It’s called Wakka. We’re going to take it for a walk.”

Kelvin appeared, his complete, goodnatured and mildly condescending self. She took the 'strange' as a compliment.

"We are strange. " She agreed, though she thought it was a weird comment to make. Wasn't he friends with Connor? Was she really weird in comparison to Connor? Perhaps. The two certainly enabled each other. In the past, Juni had been jealous of Kelvin and Connor's closeness and 'best friend' status. However, she had grown out of that within the last year or so. Drunken thievery and vodka baptisms were true symbols of friendship. Not kissing (Even though she and Connor had done some of that, too. Juni accepted that as a rite of passage for their year at this point.)
 
Besides, she preferred Ambrose's kisses anyway. He was sweet, genuine, and fun. She'd miss him next year. Hogwarts wouldn't be the same without their tutoring sessions. Juni was determined to get as much time with him as possible this summer. And on holidays. Ugh. Juni didn't like thinking about it.

"And, thank you Kelvin!" Juni beamed. Sixteen. She was one year closer to being an actual adult.  With the rope in one hand, Juni used her free one to grasp Ambrose's.

Wakka stared at them all with blank, dispassionate eyes before being led by the trio on their little walk.

"Are you two going to go on the school trip this summer?" She asked, trying to think of some small talk that wouldn't make Kelvin question their sanity or his decision to come visit.

Kelvin didn't understand the tone Ambrose gave him in response to his question.  He hadn't meant it rude.  An alpaca just seemed like an unusual gift.  Though he guessed that probably also made it a good gift, assuming the recipient liked it.  And Juni liked it.

"Oh no, I'm good back here." Kelvin had no desire to get closer to the animal.  And stayed as far as he could while staying with Ambrose and Juni.  "I hope to.  But I want to try and find an internship too."  Though he still had no idea in what exactly, but that was the point of trying things out, wasn't it.

Ambrose didn’t understand how Kelvin could be scared of an alpaca, but shrugged, squeezing Juni’s hand happily.

“Are you two going to go on the school trip this summer?” Juni asked, making good neutral conversation now that Kelvin had joined them.
“I hope to. But I want to try and find an internship too.” Kelvin replied. Ambrose shook his head.
“I don’t think so, I’ve got an apprenticeship, so I want to focus on that. Not sure I can take extra months with professors after I leave.” He raised both eyebrows, “You two should though. Where’s it going to this year, anyway, have they said?” Ambrose couldn’t help but feel he’d had his head stuck in a bucket of homework for the whole year.

Sweet baby Merlin, this small talk was getting tedious. Why couldn't Kelvin just go away so that Juni could have some privacy with her ridiculously-attractive boyfriend? Still, she was going to be polite and inclusive. Kelvin was sweet, and she would've felt bad if she was too mean to him.

"I think the trip is only going to be a week after that whole boat-sinking-thing last year." Juni replied, "Esther says she thinks it's going to be in Japan, but I don't know if that's because she hopes it'll be in Japan or if she actually has sources." She nudged Ambrose amiably, "I hear that there's a lion turtle there. I bet if we do go to Japan, we'll get to visit it. Especially if Professor Donovan has anything to do with it." She glanced from Kelvin to Ambrose, who both probably knew more about the subject than she did. "Aren't they rare?"

"It's going to be weird without you around,"  Kelvin said to Ambrose.  He hadn't really thought about not seeing the same faces year after year yet.  That was still supposed to be two years away.  And yet some, like Ambrose, wouldn't be there next year.  Of course, there were also the ones that they'd never see again , but that was different and altogether much worse.

"Japan would be cool, and it would be nice to keep our feet mostly on land this time,"  Kelvin said thinking back to the ship.  "I'm not sure we can be trusted on a boat. At least not for long periods."

“… going to be weird without you around,” Kelvin remarked.
“Yeah, it’s going to be weird not being here too I reckon.” Ambrose shrugged. “I’ll come up for Hogsmeade weekends if I can, but you guys will ace NEWTs, I’ve got other things to do.” He gave Kelvin a smile. It was the nearest they got to ‘I’ll miss you too.’


“… after that whole boat-sinking thing last year…” Juni explained.
“Uugh, that was fun…” Ambrose shivered at the memory. That and he’d been mentally scarred by Connor’s antics in the bottle spinning game. He fell silent to listen as Juni explained further to the two boys, raising his eyebrows in acknowledgement of the lion turtle mention.
“Aren’t they rare?” Ambrose nodded,
“I’ve not seen one, obviously, but I did read about them. They sleep for a long time.”

“… It would be nice to keep our feet mostly on land this time..” Kelvin reflected, and Ambrose grinned.
“Got to be a boat involved somewhere though, even back in Egypt, but I agree, nobody wants to drown again any time soon. You should definitely go though, send me postcards. Besides, someone will have to look after Wakka.” He reached out and scratched the neck of the alpaca. “Better the trip than working some awful summer job in Diagon Alley, eh?”