Keegan stared around Hogsmeade in silent amazement. So THIS was a wizards fair! Not what he expected in the slightest. When Tulo said they would be going to Hogsmeade for Woodcrofts Day, he had assumed it would be nothing but a bunch of stalls selling weird magical talismans and old men in white beards haggling over crystal balls while the heavy smell of potion ingredients and incense filled the air. Granted, both were present at this fair, but there was so much more.

 There were rides, and games booths, and face painting, and supposedly fireworks! And the FOOD! Oh god did Keegan love the food. He had already amassed a bunch of chocolate frogs and roach clusters in his sweatshirt pockets, and was currently tearing the sweet honey tinged meat from a giant turkey leg.

"Mm Mm les 'o theh..." Keegan said excitedly, his mouth full of half-eaten turkey as he pointed to a rather colorful store with the name "Zonko's" written in bold letters across the front. Then he saw a sign, which had been skewed earlier thanks to a heavyset wizard using it to rest on, announcing 'Jousting on Brooms'. His eyes lit up and he all but forgot about the Joke shop. " er theh!!!" He swallowed the meat and grinned at Tulo "... Can we go joust? I wanna ride a broom!"


((Sorry it is so short... been having some writers block as of late >< ))

With only slightly more care than her shorter counter part, Tulojow peeled a piece of meat from her own turkey drumstick and popped it in her mouth.  It had been a short hike down from her small farm on the hillside (her home away from Hogwarts) into Hogsmeade.  While apparating herself and the boy down to the festival would have been faster, Tulojow had reckoned the exercise would do Keegan good.  While the young man's slow and trudging pace indicated he wasn't all that excited about the day's adventure when they'd set out from the farm, it hadn't taken long for the energy of Woodcrofts Day to infect Keegan. 

Tulojow smiled fondly at Keegan as he attacked his drumstick with hungry exuberance.  He was, certainly, a handful but he hadn't proven to be too much trouble.  He certainly moved faster than she usually could on her bum leg.   But, even with his rebellious streak (and, probably largely because of it), the young man had succeeded in endearing himself to her. 

Weaving through the crowds of people, Tulojow kept close behind her energetic charge.  She followed his finger towards Zonko's, gathering more comprehensible information from the gesture than from the jumbled words.  "Sure!  They should have their new products in for then next school year."  She noticed the sign a few moments after Keegan had.  Tulojow grinned, turning in the direction the sign indicated.  "Definitely!  Let's go check it out.  I think it's back this way."  Tulojow led the way across the street and back towards the makeshift arena.

Tulojow tugged a handful of sickles from her pocket and handed them to Keegan.  "You sure you want to do this right after eating the turkey?" she asked.  At least it wasn't the roller coaster.  Chances were the brooms wouldn't go that fast.  But, still. 

"Definitely!  Let's go check it out.  I think it's back this way."  

Though he wouldn't say it outloud, out of fear of looking like a mamas boy, Tulojow's warm acceptance of his suggestion made him blush very slightly, just enough for the tips of his ears to grow a soft pink. He had, over the course of the last couple months, become very attached to his elderly guardian. Though he had been wary of her at first, fearing that her status as a previous cop would lead to him getting in trouble, he quickly learned why she had taken on such a difficult case as Keegan Kearney. She was a kid herself! Granted a small and wizened kid with a limp, but Keegan didn't doubt that she could still probably best him in a fight.

She was one of those women who people described as "spry" and "youthful", as well as one of those grandmothers who could pinch your cheeks and leave you feeling like you had been punched with a sledgehammer the next day. A force to be reckoned with, that is what Keegan called her.

"You sure you want to do this right after eating the turkey?"

Again with the motherly concern. Though he was pleased that she cared so much about his stomach, Keegan felt it necessary to respond like any other preteen faced with such a lecture: He rolled his eyes. "Uh yeah...Don't you know by now that I have a stomach of steel?" He pounded his stomach dramatically to prove his point. "I wanna fight an older kid too...Maybe that guy..." He pointed to the young man running the ride.

During the quick glance Tulojow cast in Keegan's direction, she thought she saw a hint of color in the boy's ears but she made no obvious note of it.  A slight grin was the only indication that she'd noticed anything on the boy's part.  It was unlikely the doting would be appreciated.

"Ahh, yes.  I'd forgotten."  Tulojow glanced down at the young man, again, and chuckled as she shook her head.  Certainly, pummeling his own stomach had gone a long way to proving his own point.  "Though, with the way you put back those jelly rats,  I'd have thought I'd remember better.  But, you know how the memory goes with age."  There were some that would say that the boy was filling a raw void.  Perhaps, on some level, that was true.   

"I bet you could take that fellow on," Tulojow declared as they neared the fence surrounding the jousting area.  "Just aim low," she whispered to Keegan with a wink as they neared the ride attendant.  "Sir Kearney here is looking to take on the reigning champion."  The young man yawned and looked towards Tulojow and glanced down at Keegan before hooking a finger towards one of the self-hovering brooms.  Another boy - who looked about thirteen - climbed up on a broom at the other end of the yard. 

She led Keegan over towards the empty hovering broom.  "Have you ever ridden a broom?" she asked, taking the half-eaten turkey leg so the lad would have two free hands for the ride.