getting food for the children :: open

[Queety White]

One of the downsides to having a lot of cats was the fact that she had to feed them. On her own galleon. It was not like working at the school allowed her an unlimited amount of cat food. There was just enough for her to eat. Thus, every once in a while, she had to run down to Magical Menagerie and get HUGE bags of cat food for her cats. And if spending her hard earned cash on that food was painful enough, she then had to transport them back to her room in the castle. I was not as simple as using some teleportation charm or something. Even if there was such a thing, Queety would not know it well enough to perform. Thus, she had to do things the old fashioned way, holding them with her own hands.

As she walked into the shop, she made her way down the familiar aisle. She reached up to grab the bags from the top shelf. She was thankful for her height. Wearing the heels she had on that day, her height was six feet, making reaching top shelves quite easy. As she pulled the first bag off, it immediately fell to the ground missing her toes by mere centimeters. Queety sighed and then reached up for a second bag. This time, she was able to get a firm grip on it and not drop it. She placed it down gently on top of the first bag.

Queety then stood up straight and sighed. Holding one was difficult enough but holding two was going to be a disaster. Not to mention, she had to apparate with both bags to Hogsmeade and then walk all the way back to the castle. She really wished she knew some sort of magical way to make this a heck of a lot easier than it was. However, she had done this many times before and she would do it again. She thought of the faces of her cats, staring up at her in hunger and that was enough motivation for her to reach down and lift both large bags again. However, as she held them both in her hands, she could not see too well what was in front of her. She slowly took small steps forward, hoping she would not run into anything or anyone.

[Deleted]

"Let me help you with those," a deep, quiet voice said, and Charlie Hamilton plucked the two huge bags of pet food from Queety's arms, smiling as he looked at her over them. "Not to impune your strength, or anything, but you looked like you needed another pair of hands," he added, a grin on his face. The man, still dressed in his work robes, had been walking past as he saw Queety enter the Menagerie, and thought it would be a great excuse to talk to her again.

"So are you trying to feed every cat at Hogwarts?" he asked, chuckling at his own joke and walking with the bags towards the counter where, he assumed, was going to be Queety's next point of call. Hoping that she was following him, Charlie put the bags of food down onto the counter top and leaned against it, crossing his arms over his chest and grinning at the lovely witch beside him.

Charlie rang the small bell that was sitting on the counter, there to alert the owner of the shop when there were customers waiting, and turned completely to face the young woman. "How are you, Queety? You look lovely today."

[Queety White]

Queety heard the unfamiliar voice and was about to explain that she was doing just fine when the bags were removed from her arms. However, when she saw the face, her eyes opened wide and she probably would have stupidly dropped the bags if she had still been carrying them. Instead she just stared dumbfounded as Charlie carried the bags away toward the counter. "Um... thank you..." she said quietly. Queety blinked as she watched him walking away then realized that she was supposed to follow around.

"Um, no..." she said, her face turning red. She quickened her walking pace to catch up to him. As he placed the bags on the counter, she quickly ran her fingers through her hair and brushed her hands against her pants before leaning casually against the counter with a brilliant smile on her face. "I actually have five cats," she said, counting them off with her fingers. "Shadow, Keyara, Symphony, Odyssey, and Ben." She laughed nervously, hoping he did not jump to the same conclusion everyone made when she talked about her cats. If she had to be labeled as a crazy cat lady one more time, she would probably hex the person who was unfortunate enough to do that. And she did not want that unfortunate person to be Charlie.

"I'm doing great, thanks," she said, tucking a piece of hair behind her ear. She was sure she was turning red. If Straw was there right then, he probably would have fell to the ground laughing. She made a mental note not to tell him about this encounter or she would never hear the end of it. But still, this seemed very out of character for Queety. She looked back up at Charlie. "So, er, what brings you to this shop? You got pets of your own?"

[[ooc: I'm having too much fun with this. lol]]

[Deleted]

Charlie couldn't help himself; the idea that Queety White would have five cats just hadn't struck him in the short time they had known each other. Which is exactly the point, of course; they didn't know each other very well. Yet. "Five cats?" he repeated rhetorically, an eyebrow raised. The crazy cat lady stereotype came to his head but he didn't voice the concept; he assumed that she would get it from most people.

As they still waited for service, Charlie lent back on the counter too, facing Queety, and he shook his head at her question. "No, no pets of my own to speak of," he replied, "though, by looking around here I might reconsider that arrangement. My apartment is very lonely; I imagine an animal of some kind would keep me company," he added.

"In all honesty, I saw you walk in," he went on, without a hint of embarrassment. "I thought it would be a good excuse to talk to you again." Charlie's blue eyes glanced at Queety through his eyelashes, and raised an eyebrow. "What do you say, fancy going for a drink?"

[[hehe. obviously, i do not know how boys would flirt ]]

[Queety White]

"Yeah," Queety grinned brightly. "I don't know if you couldn't tell but cats are my favorite animals. I had just one when I went to school and then after I graduated I couldn't resist the urge to get two more. And then Keyara had kittens. It took a lot of self control not to keep all five kittens. I gave three of them away but kept two for myself." If there were any beings in this world that meant as much to Queety as her cats, she had not met them yet. Her cats were her family, since she denied her human family so many years ago.

"Cats are awesome though," Queety continued. "But usually, if you raise them right. I guess a lot of people think that cats are selfish and boring but if you raise them from kittens and give them lots of love and attention, they become your best friends." She found herself giggling a lot between words and probably talking too much. She pressed her fingers against her lip to hold back any more ramblings that were unnecessary to the conversation.

Finally, the store worker came up. Queety quickly reached into her purse to get the coins necessary to pay for the food. She busied herself with counting the money so Charlie would not see how much she was blushing when he explained why he had come in. After she paid for the cat food, she looked at Charlie again and nodded. "Yeah, that sounds awesome," she responded. "But, um..." she glanced at the two bags in front of her. "...I have to figure out what to do with these first..."

[Deleted]

Grinning, Charlie shook his head. "Couldn't tell, not at all," he said, a mock-serious expression on his face. The man listened quietly as Queety talked about her cats, feeling more and more comfortable in her presence as time went on. Which was a weird experience for him, really. Charlie didn't really get on with people per se, and not so quickly after first meeting them. He took it as a good sign though.

Charlie chuckled as Queety pressed her fingers against her lips and he gently moved them away, his hands holding hers. "Don't be embarrassed. It's nice to hear someone talk about animals this way. The orphanage I was raised in had a lot of nasty kids in it, and I was used to being the only person who looked after the stray animals instead of, well, not looking after them," he said.

At Queety's hesitance about the bags, Charlie grinned and shook his head. "I can fix that," he said simply, and, pulling his wand out of his pocket, charmed the two huge bags of food into two very small bags of food. Handing them to Queety, Charlie grinned. "When you get back to Hogwarts, you can just charm them back to the regular size," he said. "Now you have no excuse not to come out with me. What do you say to the Red Star Lounge?" he asked, a mischievious grin on his face.

[Queety White]

Queety let out her breath in a nervous laugh. It was rather fun to feel all giggly around Charlie. She barely knew the guy but for some reason, she could not help but find herself constantly blushing and smiling around him. It was probably just because he was a cute guy. That was what Queety was going to keep telling herself as an excuse for why her heart was beating a million times a minute.

Despite the fact that he told her not to be embarrassed, Queety knew she was. She was generally a very talkative person, but most of the time she usually had something important to say. It took a lot of self control not to start launching a lecture on feline care. Instead she focused on the word 'orphanage.' Her lips slowly formed the word as she stared at Charlie. Not that it was of big importance to her view of him but it was just a further reminder to herself that she barely knew him.

Turning to the now small bags of food, Queety smacked her hand against her forehead. "Dang, I could have thought of that!" she laughed. She quickly put the two bags in her purse where they barely weighed much. Tucking her hair behind the ear again, she beamed at Charlie. "Okay, let's go then," she said breathlessly and followed him out of the store.