She had been so excited about being in Egypt! It was the first day in Cairo and they had just finished the tour of the Egyptian Ministry and had some lunch. After that they were free to spend money in the wizarding shops of the city and Winnie could not believe the selection available!

The young Hufflepuff had quickly found a shopping partner in the form of a second year Gryffindor named Hannah. She was glad not to shop alone and to have a girl to shop with. Winnie had insisted that her father give her some Alone Time so that she could be girly, and her father had agreed. He had given her some money and went off with her elder brothers to look at things that weren't.... pink and sparkly.

Currently she was stopped at an establishment which sold shoes. There was a very large table out front covered in beautiful sandals. Each sandal was bedazzled beyond belief in every color imaginable. Winifred picked up a yellow pair with a kitten heel, showing it proudly to her new shopping friend.

"Look Hannah!" she exclaimed, shoving the shoe in the younger girl's face. "Look at how pretty it is!" The sandal itself was bright yellow, covered in blue, pink, purple, and orange beads that were arranged to form an intricate pattern. When she held it up to the sun, the beads glistened and cast little beams of light in every direction. "Aren't they just MAGNIFICENT?!" Immediately Winifred began to dig through the carefully arranged piles to see if there was a pair in her size.

"Do you think I should buy them?" she asked Hannah, finally procuring the correct size from among the sandals. "They're not too expensive, I don't think. Not for how pretty they are! They'd catch everybody's attention!"

Egypt was amazing, and Hannah was happy to have the free time to poke around. As the baby of her family she'd never had any money of her own at any given time, but since she was going to be gone so long her mother'd given her an allowance and now, maybe not quite as likely to be as frugal with her money as she should be since it was her first time handling it all by herself, she was so anxious to buy something that when Winnie'd asked her if she wanted to go shopping Hannah'd practically squeaked.

Hannah liked Winnie; she was very sweet, and she liked lots of the same things Hannah did. And she was a fourth year, but treated Hannah like she was Winnie's age instead of like a kid like a lot of the other upper years. Ordinarily she might be a little nervous about wandering about just the two of them, but the street wasn't very large and some other member of the group was surely about.

And there were so many things to look at! Hannah's head whipped around to follow the course of a man leading a string of miniature camels, each no bigger than a large cat and a different color than the next. If Hannah was a little older, she might have been more cynical about the wares on the street so obviously catering to tourists, but for now the Cairo market was the most fascinating thing she'd ever seen. She followed the man's figure with her eyes until he was swallowed up by the crowd, then tuned back in for Winnie's excited exclamation when a shoe was thrust into her face so multifaceted with beads that it practically blinded. Hannah blinked rapidly, unable to help the grin that stole over her face.

"It is very pretty," she agreed, twining her hands together behind her back to avoid from disturbing the neat piles like Winnie was doing. Hannah could see glimpses of some really extraordinary shoes deep in that pile - shoes that sparkled. Oh, but who was she kidding? She quickly latched onto a pair of sandals for herself, clutching them close to admire the floral embroidery and pink-and-yellow beads, each winking in the hot Egyptian sun like something she absolutely could not live without. She needed new shoes, anyways. The ones she'd brought had already gotten wretched dusty.

"You should definitely buy them," she told Winnie, feeling a giggle climbing her throat. "You might never come back!" She'd never had a female friend to shop with before, one who was just as enthusiastic as she was and who would never remind her of the practical reasons not to buy something. It almost made her nervous, the awful potential of the two of them unleashed on the unsuspecting public. Hannah bit her lip and then did giggle, a little guiltily.

Winifred grinned at Hannah when she supported the idea of buying the beaded, sparkling sandals. It was nice to have someone just as enthusiastic about shopping as she was. Winifred really ought to look into finding less responsible girlfriends and more impulsive ones- ones that would let her do the fun things she always wanted to do instead of cautioning her against them.

"Those are beautiful, too!" she said, motioning toward the shoes that Hannah had picked up. "Pink and yellow is such a pretty combination. You should buy a pair too!" Winifred exclaimed. "If you did then we could be shoe-twins! I bet all the girls who didn't come on the Egypt trip would be jealous of our shoes!"

Winifred could just imagine strutting through Hogwarts in her elaborately beaded sandals and everyone looking at them. They really were quite fabulous. And she couldn't imagine finding anything like this back home- Hannah was right. And chances were she wouldn't ever come back to Egypt. Her family just didn't have the money to go on grand trips like this often, and she lucky that she had been able to go this time since both of her brothers had wanted to go. (Last year she had not been allowed to go on the Amazon trip for financial reasons.)

"I wonder if my mother would like a pair," Winnie mused. It was certainly hard to imagine her mum in something so glittery and obnoxious, but sometimes her mum did dress up for events. But she didn't see any sandals simple enough to fit her mother's tastes in the sea of sandals. "I don't think she would like any of these. I do want to get her something. Do you suppose they have jewelry anywhere?" Winnie asked Hannah as she paid the vendor for her sandals. "I bet my mum would really love some pretty, Egyptian earrings!"

"I like the flowers," Hannah said, stroking a tiny rose with her index finger. And, "We'd definitely be unique."

She did want it, very badly, but she took a long moment to look it over for flaws first. Carefully she examined the embroidery, the beading... just because she was eager didn't mean she wanted to get ripped off.

"Jewelry's a good choice," Hannah said thoughtfully, counting out money to pay for her purchase rather hurriedly, in a combination of not wanting to be left behind, and not wanting to be kept from the next stall. She was a good, sensible girl, one who should know better than to be so distracted by the goods in the other stalls that she could barely decide where to start. One by one, that was the ticket.... "Mums love jewelry. Or maybe one of those pretty shawls? The embroidery's very nice on them, and they're probably charmed for warmth."

She tried to pretend she wasn't checking the crowd for the camel man again, and her spirits soared when she caught a glimpse of multicolored fur at the far end of the street. Maybe he had a stall too - maybe her mum'd let her keep it. They were so small it could easily sleep at the end of her bed and not disturb any of her dorm mates. "Winnie, d'you think they'd let me bring a little camel to Hogwarts? Or, I mean..." She caught up with herself a little, thinking of what food it'd need, how she could maybe train it to follow her around. She'd probably have to leave it in the hotel during the day, though. "D'you think Professor Trishna would mind?"

"Yes! Definitely unique. Very unique! But in the good way," Winifred assured Hannah. "Not in the 'I'm calling you unique because it's a nice way of saying that you're weird' way!" At least, that was what Winifred thought would happen. Then again, she was the eternal optimist.

Winifred paid for her own shoes, looping the handles of the bag around her wrist, looking over to the next stall over- eyeing the shawls that Hannah was talking about. "Those are very pretty!" she agreed. "Do you think they're really charmed?" That would be handy. Winifred wondered whether she ought to buy that instead- two, even, one for her mother and one for her Auntie Leola.

She tapped her chin when Hannah asked whether or not she thought they could have a miniature camel at Hogwarts. "I don't think Professor Trishna would mind you having a camel, but I'm not sure that Hogwarts would let you have it. They say you can only have an owl, toad, or a cat. But I guess you could always ask! But Headmistress Snark doesn't strike me as a Camel Loving person." The headmistress didn't strike winifred as the sort of woman to be fond of any kind of animal.

"I mean... If you bought one, then Professor Trishna couldn't really tell you no," Winifred reasoned. "So they'd have to let you at least keep  it until we got home, don't you think?" Winnie asked."Cause I'm sure that you can't get refunds and stuff. Not here anyway."

She eyed the man with the camels, they were cute. But Winnie knew that her mom would never let her have a camel. And, since her father was on the trip, he'd not even let her get it home. "I wonder if he'd let us play with the camels... I mean, you can't know if you want to buy one if you don't get to try it out, right?"

"They have to be, don't they?" Hannah asked, unaccustomed to a world where one bought teacups that weren't spelled to stay hot, candy didn't do anything but taste sweet, and shawls were just pretty. She searched her brain for ways to justify this reasoning. "I mean, you could get a better deal elsewhere then. They'd have to be if the woman selling them is trying to be competitive. We could go ask?"

"I mean... If you bought one, then Professor Trishna couldn't really tell you no. So they'd have to let you at least keep  it until we got home, don't you think?"

Hannah nodded, beginning to grin. She'd been thinking that herself... Winnie was such a good partner-in-crime. Besides, even if they wouldn't let her keep it at Hogwarts, once she'd gotten it all the way home her mum wouldn't have a choice! She'd have to let her keep it! The house-elf could take care of it while Hannah was away, but she'd have the rest of the summer to play with it and coddle it and train it to do tricks. It was nice that these little blokes had fluffy hair instead of short. Petting a real camel wouldn't be as soft, judging on looks alone. And a purple one would match her room.

"Ooo, you're a genius," Hannah said in hushed, laughing tones, twining her fingers together and staring speculatively down the lot. "I hope the man'll buy that. I want to play with one so badly."

Winifred had to agree with Hannah. The woman certainly would be put out of business if her items weren't properly charmed or enchanted like the rest of the ones for sale. "It wouldn't hurt to ask," Winifred agreed. "But I bet you're right- that they'd have to be to make any money. They certainly are pretty. That one that is purple and crimson is one my aunt would just love." Her Aunt Leola had very particular tastes. Winifred didn't always hit the nail on the head, but she spent a lot of time with her aunt and at her aunt's pub and had a pretty good idea of the things she liked to wear.

"I bet he's used to people wanting to pet his camels. I mean, that's kind of the appeal, isn't it?" Winifred reasoned.

She looked to the shawls once more, and then to the camel man. "The shawls will be there, we should catch the Camel Man while we can!" Winnie took a step in that direction, eying the camels while she spoke.

"I rather like that blue and yellow one," she said to Hannah. "It's so very cute and fluffy! But since my Dad is on the trip with us I know that I can't get away with bringing it home." Winifred had found her father's presence both a blessing and a hindrance. He was basically letting her come and go as she pleased, within reason of course, and hadn't been overly protective. But at the same time there were just some things she knew she couldn't do because he was here.

"My cat might not like him, though. Lord Fluffybutt is very particular about whom he associates with." That was a total lie. Her very fat, very fluffy kitten liked just about everyone. Except for his betrothed. But Imogen had explained to Winifred that you didn't get to like who you were betrothed to most of the time. Winifred had readily agreed after making the connection that Imogen was going to have to marry Callum Knight one day.

"I can ask him if we can pet them and play with them," Winifred offered. She was older than Hannah after all, so it only made sense that she took the lead on this one. Besides, she was old enough to talk to strangers without it being weird. (Not that she thought a vendor counted as a stranger.) "We can just pretend we are very interested in purchasing one and that would help."