It was a sunny July day in Hogsmeade and everyone seemed to be preparing for the arrival of the wizards and witches from around the wizarding world. The town of Hogsmeade was busy preparing, even though the arrival was more than a week off. However, this wasn't so for a would-be fourth year. Carrying a bag and dressed in Ravenclaw colored Muggle clothing, she pushed open the door of Three Broomsticks and went inside.

The reason for the trip to Hogsmeade was simple. After spending about a month in Egypt Zoe wanted to catch up with one of her best friends, Ayla Collins. She had invited her to Three Broomsticks for lunch and a chat. She was full of topic for disscusion, the Tetra Wizard Tournament, SAWS, the dissapearance of Snark, and Egypt itself.

She found an empty table and set down the bag, waiting for Ayla to arrive. After being cut off of her friends for what felt like forever she just had to know what was going on! Surely Ayla would want to hear about Egypt as well, not going herself.

Ayla was practically skipping down main street, rocking out some muggle garb in hufflepuff colours. She was estactic when the owl arrived asking her to meet Zoe at the Three Broomsticks. She hadn't seen her friend since school had ended and was going absolutely stir crazy. The first part of her summer had been spent babysitting the twins and shopping in Diagon. The only person she had seen from school so far had been Josh and they weren't really even friends (not that there was anything wrong with Josh, he was actually a pretty awesome guy)

She pushed her way into the small little pub like restaurant and dashed to the table where Zoe waited. The two had become close over their three years at Hogwarts. They had classes together, hung out together and spent as much time with each other as possible while at school. Ayla was sure the only person she spent more time with was Winnie and that was only because ten months out of the year they shared a bedroom!

She plopped into the chair across from her friend, rosy cheeks bunched up with a smile as she pushed back her long Raven locks, "Alright dish! Tell me everything! What was Egypt like? Did you meet any cute Egyptian boys? Is it true that Queen chickie invented makeup? Are there actual mummies still stumbling around? How much work did they make you do? Well c'mon out with it!"

Zoe smiled as the farmiliar face appeared, waving Ayla over. The Hufflepuff was bouncy and happy as ever! The Ravenclaw suddenly regreted not bringing Snowy, thinking that Ayla might want to see her. She was sure the gifts she had would make up for it. She reached into the bag she brought, pulling out an envelope. It was very thick, stuffed with photos. Zoe had brought a camera to Egypt with her and had used it too much, taking pictures of everything and anything. It was like a little toy to her. Since the digital camera wouldn't work in Hogsmeade, she had all the pictures printed out and put into the envelope.

Ayla sat down and Zoe opened her mouth to greet her. "H-" she could barely squeak out a word before Ayla began to blabber her head off. Zoe simply smiled and giggled a few times to replace the greeting. "Ok, a: It was great, best trip ever, b: No, no Egyptian boys, c: I have no idea who invented makeup, I'll ask Rebecca tomorrow, d: Nope, we didn't see any mummies, I'm pretty sure that's just a non-magic folk tale, and e: We didn't have to do much work at all, it was a vacation for heaven sake!" Zoe recounted the questions that Ayla had asked her in a hurry on her fingers. "Yep, that's all of them. But really, it was amazing. I don't know where to start!"

Zoe pondered what to show her first and figured the photos since she already had them out. "First I want to show you these. Rebecca gave me a camera and I took pictures of everything." She pulled out a stack of well over a hundred photos, these were the most important ones of the around thousand photos. She was lucky the camera Rebecca gave her could take tons and tons and tons of photos, otherwise Zoe would have been out of luck. "I have photos of each hotel we went to, each major place we went to, some of the foods we ate, and of me and some of the other people on the trip."

The young witch spread out the photos on the table, picking one up. "Oh, this is of me and my roomate, Professor Levartian. She's really nice, it was really cool spending time with a professor when she wasn't, you know, being a professor. There's one of both of us for each room we shared." She put that one down and picked up another one. "And here's one of the beaches, oh they were so lovely and so much fun." She put that photo back on the table as well, thinking she should get some drinks for the two of them. "Let me get us some butterbeers. I've been missing butterbeer." Zoe got up to go get two butterbeers, leaving Ayla with the photos.

As soon as Zoe fanned out the pictures Ayla pounced. She looked at everyone with close scrutiny not wanting to miss a single detail. The places looked beautiful, the hotels looked lush and Ayla recognized almost every student that her friend managed to get a picture of, "Yeah Professor Levartian's awesome. When we went on that trip to the Amazon for muggle studies she was pretty cool. Though to be honest I think I spent the entire trip ogling Professor Frasier. I can't believe he's not coming back next year!" Ayla was absolutely heart broken that the hunkiest teacher in school was finally leaving to pursue employment elsewhere, at least that's what they always told the students. Ayla figured he was taking time away from academics to focus on writing.

When Zoe came back with the butterbeers she thanked her and took a large gulp of her own, "I probably should have just gone with you. Like everyone we know went and I was stuck here the whole time with no one to hang out with for a whole month! It was SO boring, and as if that wasn't enough my parents had me watching the twins the whole time. Which wasn't too bad, Eric only exploded the kitchen once and Dahlia actually started talking to me again so that's a bonus."

She put the pictures back down, took another gulp of her butterbeer and looked across the table at her friend, "so . . . you hear about the Tetra Wizard tournament thing? I'm so excited! All the foreign kids are coming early, I can't wait to meet all of them. There's bound to be hunky seniors from the other school that are a billion times more interesting than the guys here." Her mind instantly went from Xavier to Blake, both were jerks, and both had broken her heart in the last year.

Zoe was given the two glasses of butterbeer, fishing out a few sickles from her pocket to pay for the delicious drink. Picking up the two butterbeers, she walked back to the table and handed one to Ayla. She was glad to see her friend thirstily drink it. Clinking her own against Ayla's, Zoe took a sip and smiled at the familiar taste. She couldn't help herself from taking a few large gulps of the drink, nodding at Ayla while she spoke to show she was listening.

"You should have come!" Zoe exclaimed after she had finished half her butterbeer in a matter of seconds. "You really should be exadurating when you say everyone you know came, nobody but me was in their fourth year. Do you know how awkward it is when everyone you've ever been in class with isn't around you yet you are still among Hogwarts students? Really awkward. The people I knew the best were the professors." Zoe hadn't enjoyed the people she was with as much as she would have liked. She did have fun, but she hoped that more 4th years would be on it. Still, professors were enough familiar company most of the time. Sharing a room with one was fun.

Zoe rolled her eyes as Ayla asked if she knew about the upcoming tournament. "Of course I do, one month in Egypt doesn't put you that much out of news. I talked to my mum the whole time anyway!" She pulled out the two-way mirror from her pocket. Zoe had had the mirror since she came to Hogwarts and had several times shown it to Ayla, sometimes letting Ayla talk to her parents or Lily if she wished. Edward had bought the mirror and given it to Zoe on her 11th birthday for use in Hogwarts later. "I can't wait for it, hopefully the students will be nice. I too am hoping to find some boy that might like me." Zoe hadn't found any love interests in the students in Hogwarts, and with the Yule Ball starting for her she had to find some boy. The young witch took another sip of her butterbeer, her mind coming across another topic.

"Oh, did you hear about Snark being kidnapped? It really scared me, I mean she was on the trip too! Whatever got her could have gotten us too." The news of Snark missing of course had gotten to the students on the trip first and had caused a little panic. If someone had captured Snark they could easily get them too. "I mean, I don't like or really care about Snark much, but just the fact that there could be something very dangerous that was near us frightened me."

Ayla simply smiled when Zoe talked about how awkward it was to be the only fourth year on the trip. Ayla didn't want to point out the fact that aside from Zoe and Winnie, she didn't get along with many of the others their age. Most of her friends were from older grades, she had always gravitated towards older students, being like everyone's little sister. Even the boys she had been involved with or had crushes on were usually older than her. Though she did feel like she should have gone on the trip now, not only to spend the time with one of her best friends but to get even closer to some of her favourite older years.

Ayla stared fascinated at the mirror Zoe pulled from her pocket, it wasn't the first time she had seen it by any means but it always drew her attention and her curiosity. Her mind was suddenly trying to devise a way to use it to get a hold of Lexus. Her father had cut her off from her cousin ever since her trial but Lexus had been good about sending what few owls she could since. Unfortunately since the summer had started she had stopped returning Ayla's letters and the young Hufflepuff was desperate to hear anything from her favourite werewolf.

"The tournament is going to be awesome, and trust me we'll find a guy worthy of you," She gave her friend a wink, "We'll have the hottest dates for the Yule Ball this year, everyone's going to be so jealous of how awesome we are."

Ayla practically spit out her Butterbeer when Zoe said the word kidnapped. Unfortunately when it came to the wider wizarding world, all of her gossip and information came from the Daily Prophet and whatever she managed to snake out of her father. As far as the rest of the world was concerned Snark was simply missing, no one had said anything about her being taken, "Kidnapped?! She was seriously kidnapped?" Ayla glanced around suddenly aware of how loud she had been, "Who are they going to get to replace her?" If Snark had been bad Ayla could only imagine what kind of demon the board of governors had chosen to replace her.

Zoe gave a small laugh at Ayla's remark about them getting the hottest dates. Partly because Ayla knew very well that looks we're the world to Zoe, the traits she looked for in a boy were kindness, generosity, humor, fairness, an open mind, intelligence, and consideration. Ok, good looks didn't not matter at all to her, true..... oh whatever. She trusted Ayla to help find her someone to go with to the Yule Ball.

Zoe was surprised by Ayla's immediate reaction to the news that Snark had been kidnapped. "Yeah, that's the only logical explination we can give. A witch doesn't just go missing all the sudden." She glanced around the room, seeing how many people were now eyeing the two. "But I don't know who's going to replace her. It better be someone who's nicer." Zoe paused and added another thing. "And someone who likes werewolves."

Zoe took a large gulp of her butterbeer, still enjoying the taste. "Oh, I almost forgot, I got you something from Egypt." Zoe reached back into the bag she had brought and pulled out a necklace. It was lined with yellow and black stones with a pendant in the middle. The pendant was with the same stones, but with a large black one in the middle surrounded by smaller yellow stones. All of this was on a gold chain. "Like it? It's Hufflepuff pride! The lady at the store said the gemstones were called onyx and citrine. But," Zoe slide the necklace across the table to Ayla. "Rule number one, no asking the price of this necklace." She gave a sly smile.

Ayla was still rather disturbed by the thought of Miss Snark being Kidnapped. She was like a totally powerful witch, how could someone have actually kidnapped her and while she was on a school trip no less. She was definitely going to be talking to her dad about this at dinner. He wasn't going to be able to dodge any of her questions this time.

She came back to the conversation when Zoe mentioned her hopes for the new Head of the school liking werewolves. Ayla had joined SAWS because she thought it was a good cause and she loved her cousin who just happened to be a werewolf but there was a part of her that felt the comment seemed out of place. She couldn't explain why though, perhaps she had just gotten so used to how Snark had been running things that she momentarily forgot what school was like when Greyfriar was in charge.

All hints of concern and mistrust melted away the instant Zoe mentioned a present. She just couldn't help herself - she truly was a material girl, in a material world. Her eyes widened and absolutely sparkled at the sight of the necklace. She leaned across the table and gentle took the chain from her friend instantly unclasping it and placing it around her neck. The black and gold gems matched her outift perfectly, "Does my girl know how to accessorize or what?!" All thoughts of Snark had vanished, "Seriously luv, you have an amazing eye for this kind of thing. It's perfect. I love it!" She leaned across the table again, this time to give her friend a hug.

She stared down at the necklace for several moments in content silence before smiling up at her friend, "What were we talking about again?"

Zoe smiled widely. She knew that Ayla would like it and, once she saw her reaction, was extremely pleased with herself. The young witch was 80% sure that every Hufflepuff would be wildly jealous of it. She knew her friend very well, she was absolutly sure of that. And she knew her friend's habit to go crazy over things like these. It made Zoe happy to see her best friend happy. "Absolutly! What are best friends for? I'm glad you like it." Zoe scooped up the large amount of photos still lying on the table and put them back into her bag. She took another sip of butterbeer.

"What I was saying is that you should come over to my house before the summer's over." Zoe's house was huge and reflected her family's wealth. There was a sun room which held a small but deep pool, a quite large garden with paved walkways, two sitting areas, and almost uncountable numbers of flowers, flower-bearing trees and bushes, and fruit-bearing plants and trees, a library with magic and non-magic books, a living room, three bathrooms, a workshop for her father to tinker with enchantments on objects, a very big dining room able to fit a table for over twenty (which did happen every Christmas), a kitchen filled with muggle cooking appliances, and too many bedrooms so that one was a guest room and one was just storage.

Zoe finished her butterbeer within the next gulp, putting down the empty glass. "I'm sure Lily would be happy to see you again, and you know Snowy loves it when you pet her." To tell the truth, it was Zoe who missed Ayla the most. Most of the summer so far had been spent apart but there was still some time before the tournament students arrived and then before school shopping began.

Ayla took another sip of her Butterbeer, having savoured it a little longer than her friend. Unlike Zoe who had been in the heat of Egypt without her favourite refreshment Ayla was able to get Butterbeer any time she liked and didn't need to guzzle it down, "I'd love to come over, it'd be a nice break from how crazy boring my summer's been so far."

"The only good thing about this summer so far has been the fact that Dahlia's talking to me again. Though now she's acting all weird and won't tell me what's going on. I think something happened the night Erik and his friend Keegan exploded the kitchen." Ayla paused for a moment, a look of obvious confusion and concentration clouding her features before she shook them away, "Whatever."

She looked back up at Zoe, "So what do you want to do today? I still have some left over galleons my grandparents sent over from back home. You know me and money, never stays in my pockets very long." She gave her friend a wink with a smile. Ayla was notorious for going on shopping sprees. It wasn't so much that she was frivolous with her money - she was excellent at catching all the best sales - she was just a dedicated shopper.

(oops! Some one posted on the wrong account! Don't worry, it's fine )

Zoe was happy Ayla's summer could be brightened with her presence. As could her own summer be brightened with Ayla's. She looked around, pondering whether to get another butterbeer or not. The young witch decided against it, with Ayla she wasn't sure how she'd be using her money that day. That was Ayla for you. But she still loved her dear friend, despite her funny quirks. After all, Zoe had some too.

An eye roll was the reply Ayla got about Dahlia. "You know how I feel about siblings, too much drama and fighting. So glad I'm an only child. I'm glad she's talking to you though," the young witch finished. She really didn't like siblings. Spending countless days with one person had to get tiring. It's one thing to spend all day with your friend, you picked your friends. But you couldn't pick your sibling. It was so much different having Lily. When she was young she looked up to the elf as if Lily was her big sister, but now it was like she was her little sister, since she had gained more power and she helped out Lily. But the two never fought.

"Just remember Ayla, sometimes accepting that you can't understand someone is the best way to understand them." Though her parents usually taught her valuable things like this, she had made this one up on the spot  when Ayla first told her how Dahlia wasn't talking to her. It was special for her to make something that was teachable-worthy for moral reasons. Just repeating it made Zoe feel pleased inside. "But let's just drop it."

"Hmm, what I want to do today..." Zoe considered this and, with a sly smile on her face, pulled out a handful of galleons from a skirt pocket. Her parents always gave her too much money, which never bothered Zoe the slightest. "I say we go to Gladrags's and pick out all the best clothing, maybe even get our dress robes! You can never be too prepared." The young witch planned to get the perfect dress, one that brought out her green eyes and showed off the few curves she had. "Also, sometime this summer I'll take you on a shopping spree on me to my favorite non-magic folk clothing stores to pick out shoes and accessories for our Yule Ball outfits. I'm not taking no for an answer!" In all honesty it was an excuse to go shopping with Ayla, something she missed doing. She always found the perfect sales and the cutest clothing.

(oops! Some one posted on the wrong account! Don't worry, it's fine )

Zoe was happy Ayla's summer could be brightened with her presence. As could her own summer be brightened with Ayla's. She looked around, pondering whether to get another butterbeer or not. The young witch decided against it, with Ayla she wasn't sure how she'd be using her money that day. That was Ayla for you. But she still loved her dear friend, despite her funny quirks. After all, Zoe had some too.

An eye roll was the reply Ayla got about Dahlia. "You know how I feel about siblings, too much drama and fighting. So glad I'm an only child. I'm glad she's talking to you though," the young witch finished. She really didn't like siblings. Spending countless days with one person had to get tiring. It's one thing to spend all day with your friend, you picked your friends. But you couldn't pick your sibling. It was so much different having Lily. When she was young she looked up to the elf as if Lily was her big sister, but now it was like she was her little sister, since she had gained more power and she helped out Lily. But the two never fought.

"Just remember Ayla, sometimes accepting that you can't understand someone is the best way to understand them." Though her parents usually taught her valuable things like this, she had made this one up on the spot  when Ayla first told her how Dahlia wasn't talking to her. It was special for her to make something that was teachable-worthy for moral reasons. Just repeating it made Zoe feel pleased inside. "But let's just drop it."

"Hmm, what I want to do today..." Zoe considered this and, with a sly smile on her face, pulled out a handful of galleons from a skirt pocket. Her parents always gave her too much money, which never bothered Zoe the slightest. "I say we go to Gladrags's and pick out all the best clothing, maybe even get our dress robes! You can never be too prepared." The young witch planned to get the perfect dress, one that brought out her green eyes and showed off the few curves she had. "Also, sometime this summer I'll take you on a shopping spree on me to my favorite non-magic folk clothing stores to pick out shoes and accessories for our Yule Ball outfits. I'm not taking no for an answer!" In all honesty it was an excuse to go shopping with Ayla, something she missed doing. She always found the perfect sales and the cutest clothing.

Zoe received an eye roll of her own in return. Ayla never really understood Zoe's view on being an only child. Dahlia and Erik could be a pain sometimes (like when Erik exploded kitchens) but she wouldn't trade them for anything. She loved being a big sister, though sometimes she wished she had a big sister of her own but that's what Fauna and Lexus were good for. She supposed there were some downsides to having brothers and sisters, like if you were Blake - his brother's were just beyond horrible.

She pouted softly when Zoe gave her advice about Dahlia but then just as quickly told her to drop it. She loved Zoe, they were the best of friends but sometimes it was hard to talk to her about things like this. She seemed to have a way of just dismissing things that simply didn't interest her. Unfortunately Ayla was burning with curiosity about her sister's weird behaviour and wasn't going to be dissuaded from the subject forever.

The pout soon became a smile as Zoe mentioned clothes shopping. When it came to the Yule ball she'd more than likely be wearing something her mother had designed specifically for her but that wasn't going to stop her from brushing up on all the latest wizarding designs either, "Gladrags it is then." Her smile widened and she giggled when Zoe mentioned taking her on another shopping spree to some of her favourite muggle shops, "You know me, I'd never turn down a shopping spree."

She finished what was left of her butterbeer and got to her feet. If they were going to spend the afternoon shopping, they may as well get to it.

Zoe knew that Ayla wanted to talk about her sister. It didn't take a genius to figure that out. But she just couldn't take about stuff like that! She had no siblings, she had no idea what it was like. She also knew that Ayla would probably bring it up in the future. Zoe would offer her sympathy, and try to find something to say that would make things alright. She wouldn't be able to because it would be hard to relate and try to find some way to make up for it, like mentioning the shopping trip. Something to make Ayla forget the topic had been brought up. It wasn't that the topic didn't interest her, more that whatever she said wouldn't be what Ayla was looking for. Ayla's pouting face was all Zoe needed to immediatly feel a huge amount of guilt that she wasn't supporting her friend in a time of need. The mention of the shopping spree was really the only hope.

Zoe was relieved it had worked. She knew Ayla well, she was betting it would. Even though she knew her parents wanted to be there when she bought her dress robes, she didn't care. Zoe liked Ayla's choice of clothing more than her parents, obviously. Plus Ayla was the one who was more fun to shop with in the first place, so to Zoe it didn't matter if her parents didn't like that she chose her dress robes without them. "Alright then, let's get going. I want something that bring out my eyes and shows off the curves of my body a little." She wanted Ayla to know exactly what she wanted so that they could both be looking for it. Hopefully something good would be there.

Gathering up her things Zoe rose from her chair and walked towards the door, motioning for Ayla to follow. Hopefully this would be a fun afternoon for both of the girls and the topic of Ayla's sister wouldn't be brought up. For now Zoe would try to stay on the topics of the Yule Ball, clothing, and shopping. Those were pretty safe topics.

(ooc: Should we start a thread in Gladrag's now or just say it happened without RPing it?)