Breakfast Surprise

Annie gripped Kerry's hand as they entered the dining hall for breakfast. Today has to be the day, she thought as they took their seats at an empty table. "French toast with blueberries and a large orange juice, please," she said to the table, and her breakfast appeared before her.

"What do you want to do today?" Annie glanced at the entrance while tapping her fingers on the table.

There was something about Annie today . . . Kerry sensed her eagerness from the moment they met in the commons. He could imagine any number of reasons: the emergency was long over, they made it through potions without blowing up anything, Professor Lovecraft only talked about the dark arts and didn't do another Killing Curse on him . . . in other words, normal.

"I think I'll go with eggs over easy, sausage, rye toast and tomato juice." And as always, the food appear before him moments later. "So," he asked, "what is the plan for today?"

She poked at her breakfast and wondered what was taking so long. It has to be because of the custom work I wanted.

“I had an idea—but I’m not sure today will be the day it happens,” she pouted at the table, while overhead a few owls made their way into the dining hall, each unloading their burdens to their owner.

Annie sighed. “It’s no big deal though,” she said, when she glimpsed her father’s Tawny Owl glide through the doors. “Bentholly!” Annie cried as the bird approached carrying a rather large and bulky package along with a small letter.

The bird landed with a thud, shaking the dishes in front of them both. She reached out and nimbly freed him from his load. “Thank you, Bentholly,” she whispered. “Go make friends with Kerry’s owl in the owlery. We’ll be by later to give you both a treat.” The bird hooted a reply and took off, leaving a few grayish brown feathers behind.

“I know what we’re going to do today.” She took the long package wrapped in brown packing paper and held it up for him to take. “I think the letter is for me, but this...is for you.”

Kerry was blown away that he was getting a present from Annie--and that it was being delivered by Owl Express. He took the package from Annie. The size and shape sort of told him what it was . . . "Annie, wow." He held it in his hands, while out of the corner of his eye he could saw others looking in their direction. Yes, people got presents all the time in the morning. This was the first one like this. "Thank you so much, Sweetie."

He lay it across the table and started to unwrap it . . . and as the wrapping came off Kerry saw it was a broom. Not just any broom, but it was Nimbus 4500 like he'd been ridding Monday--well, not exactly like the one he'd been riding, because that one had been trashed badly.

This was brand new, and shinny . . . and there was something else. Back towards when he was sit was his name--his whole name, not just his given name--engraved on both sides of the shaft.

"This is . . ." Kerry was really at a loss for words. "I can't . . ." There was nothing to say. Kerry leaned over and kissed Annie on the lips, holding it for a few seconds to the hoots--and a groan--of a few students. "Thank you, love," he said, his eyes starting to brim. "This is better than my first scope."

Lina had woken up early to ask the house elves to make a traditional Japanese breakfast for her. To her surprise, they made it to perfection; a bowl of steamed rice, miso soup, boiled fish, and a side of nori, tamagoyaki, natto, and tsukemono.

After eating the most delicious breakfast she had ever had at the school, she continued to think over what she would do that day, maybe I should visit him today; I hope he isn't too lonely there by himself, she thought as she searched the room. She quickly noticed that she was the only one that didn't particularly have anyone to talk to. Ever since the attack, Lina attempted everything to make sure that Emma was comfortable and remained quiet and didn't stay up late reading. She also got the feeling that she was isolating herself by not being social at all.

She looked over the room again and noticed Annie and Kerry, maybe they want to do something today. When she walked over to them, she noticed that Kerry had kissed Annie. Feeling a bit mischievous, Lina walked behind them and, with the French she had practiced, said, "OohLaLa, qu'allez-vous les deux?"


(OOC: Lina said"Oohlala, what are you two doing?" and is wearing a soft pink version of this: )

"Oh, French!" Kerry pasted the chair to his left, as Annie was sitting on his right. "I didn't know you knew that. Very cute dress, by the way--or I should say, kawaii!"

He put the broom right in Lina's face. "Look at what Darling Annie got me--Nimbus 4500!" He wanted to lean over and give Annie another kiss, and then gave into temptation and did. When they broke a few seconds later he asked, "What are you up to today?"

"Nn" she nodded to agree, "I'm not very good at it, but French happens to be the other official language of Canada. And," she bowed politely, "arigato. You should really tell my mom that, she's the one that made it." She smiled at the thought of her mom, something that happens to be a habit of hers.

She looked over at the broom that Annie had given him. Her eyes widen in surprise, "Oh wow," she smiled over that them, "that's really nice." Lina had no clue about brooms, but she was impressed with the style and detail of it. She turned towards Annie and smiled, "you have really good taste, Annie; it's really cool looking."

(OOC: here's the shoes )

Annie laughed. "Thanks, Lina. Actually, Kerry's pretty fast on that broom. I can barely keep up with him." She was thrilled he loved the gift and could hardly wait to get him out on the flying pitch to see him on it.

"Would you like to join us? I'm planning to drag Kerry to the pitch and force him to fly." She giggled at her own joke.

Kerry almost laughed. "You won't have to try too hard," he said, "at least this time I won't have to run a Dementor gauntlet." He stared off into space. "Yeah, I was going to see about buying a broom today. Valdore brought my Letter of Credit from the Bank of Salem yesterday, so I can now prove I've got money." He picked up his backpack. "I can still go out and pay for my telescope, though."

Lina smiled and nodded, "Nn, I would love to join you guys." She smiled greatly since she had never been to pitch before, and when she wanted to, she got hit by a branch and can't remember much after that. "It'll be fun."

At the mention of buying a telescope, Lina slightly freaked, "I completely forgot about that!" She sighed softly to calm herself down, "I think I need to write a letter to my parents for spending money on the telescope." Shaking her head Lina spoke up once again, "But I'll send the letter off later."

Annie watched Kerry fish out a letter, though she wasn't sure what he meant by proving he had money. It must have something to do with being Muggle born.

"Did you want to go into town?" Annie's eyes grew wide as she thought of the possibilities of taking a day trip into Dunwich. "I think it may be too late to get a professor to take us now but we could ask for next weekend.

"Maybe we could all go together and head into the Quidditch shop in town to find you a broom kit while we're there, too?"

Kerry handed the letter over to Annie. "I was given this when I was in London," he said. "The guy from the Ministry told me it was proof I had money, and that if I wanted to buy something I could just present it and the store could contact the bank for a transfer--or something."

"Oh." Kerry reached into his backpack and pulled out a small bag. "I also had some--Galleons, right?" He opened up the back and pulled out 10 coins." I had a lot more, but these things are heavy. Don't you guys have like credit cards?

Lina giggled at what Kerry had just said, especially since she knew what he was talking about when he mentioned credit cards, "I would like to have a credit card for the wizarding world, but I don't think my dad would like that very much."

Lina's smile didn't last very long before she gave Kerry a solf, yet stern warning, "just like in the Muggle world, you shouldn't show your money like that. Just to let you know, 1 Galleon is a little more than 10 American dollars, if I converted the Canadian dollar to American correctly. Oh, um, do you know the conversion rate from Galleon to Sickles to Knuts?"

Annie stared at the paper Kerry handed him, her mouth hanging open like the hinge was broken. "Kerry," she squeaked, "This is a small fortune... Where did it all come from?"

Kerry looked at the paper in Annie's hands like it was the first time he'd seen it. "It is?" His eyes went a little wide. "I mean it's . . ." Then when Lina said hit home. "Uh, wow. I didn't realize it was that much money."

He sat back in his chair. "As far as where it came from . . ." He remembered back to that first day on Diagon Alley when he and a couple of others from Cardiff ended up in London. "The guy from the Ministry told me that there was an established account in my name, and that the letter I was getting would prove that I had money." He thought for a few seconds then added, sheepishly, "Or something like that."

"That sounds about right. You see, there is a fund set up for people who cannot afford their supplies, but there's also a way to change over Muggle money for Wizard money; that's what my grandparents did with my mom." Lina smiled, "But from what my mom said, the school had a hard time explaining to my grandparents cause of the language barrier; my mom had to translate the whole Wizarding thing to them."

Lina cocked her head to the side and asked Kerry, "Um, didn't the Ministry explain any of that to you or your parents?"

To be honest Kerry couldn't remember much about when he first found out about being a wizard. The owl came to the house; there was the letter; then, after the reply, the woman from the Ministry showed up and mostly spoke to his parents because was really sort of bouncing off the walls with excitement-- Wizards, magic, school in Scotland . . ..

He had a vague recollection of a discussion of money. The woman said something like, "No need to worry; there's a fund," and that was it. It was only after they arrived in London that another Ministry person--this time a man--gave him the letter and told him to hang onto it, that it represented his "savings" and that if anyone questioned ownership, he was to show the letter as it had the Ministry seal on it.

The amount was very good, yes . . . but no one ever came up and said, "You have $40k in a bank account". He never had any idea just how much was in his account--

"I don't think this is money from my parent, Lina," Kerry said finally. "This is like more money than they have in their bank." He took the letter back from Annie and rubbed his chin. "Someone had to of set it up, though."

Lina didn't know how much the paper said that he had, but from what Annie said and the hint Kerry gave, it was a lot. "Oh," was pretty much all she could say. Why wouldn't his parents want to help him out with his schooling? she questioned, isn't that why they send members of the Ministry to explain all of that? Then, the realization hit her, They might think he's a- She couldn't finish the thought; even though her grandparents helped and accepted her mother being a witch, her father's parents didn't.

Stumbling over what to say, Lina stumbled out, "Um, I wouldn't, um, worry too much about it; you still have more than enough for school and club things, and of course snacks on the train and such." She ended it with a smile, and a quick change of subject, "So, um, you guys finished with your breakfast? Let's, um, start the day if you are ready."

Kerry nodded. "Sure, we can get this breakfast out of the way, then head out to the Bastion . . ." Kerry turned to Lina. "So are you buying a broom, or you just going to fly on one of school rides? They at least let us use some nice equipment."

"I might buy a broom, but only if I'm good at flying." Lina laughed slightly, "Believe it or not, I've never been on a broom. I was kind of hoping I'll get some practice today."

She paused slightly before explaining her interest in going into town. "I'm not interested in buying anything, well, maybe a new deck of Self-Shuffling Playing Cards and seeing how much the telescopes are, but other than that, I just want to see what's there. My dad gave me some money to spend it on anything other than books, so..." Lina trailed off when she remembered that her father forbid her from buying another book without their approval first. She remembered how dumbfounded her father was when Lina went out with her mother to buy school clothes and supplies only to come back with 1 bag of clothes and 5 bags of books.

"So what about you guys? If we can go, what will you buy?"

Kerry nodded towards Annie. "Like Annie said, I could get a broom kit and maybe find something that I can use to pimp my ride--" When he saw neither girl got the joke, he moved on. "And maybe go to the bank for a little walking around money--I don't know how much you can buy with 10 Galleons--and after that . . ."

Kerry knew what he wanted to do for "after that", but a lot of that was dependent on getting Annie away from him for an hour or so. "I don't know. I know this sounds stupid, but I'm not much for shopping. About the only time I went out when I lived in Cardiff was to get stuff for my computer and . . ." He put his hand over his mouth and spoke with his voice muffled, "buying books."

Annie giggled when Kerry mentioned shopping. “That doesn’t sound stupid at all. I remember how clueless you were when I first met you.” She winked and leaned over, kissing him on the back of the neck.

“I think I’d like to check out the bookstore, and maybe pick up some warmer pajamas?” She finished the last of her breakfast, chasing it down with the rest of her juice.

“You guys ready?”

Nodding, Kerry got up so he wouldn't have to wince at the "clueless" comment. It's not that it wasn't true, but still--it stung just a bit.

"Yeah, we'll tear up the pitch and then head into town." He chuckled. "We finally get to see what Lina looks like in leather!"