What A Crappy Summer (Outside the Quidditch Shop) (OPEN)

Phin couldn’t take it anymore. He couldn’t take the screaming and the yelling and the banging, and throwing. And it was all about him. His father still didn’t like that he had been sorted into Hufflepuff, but his mother and grandmother where sticking up for him, and he had absolutely no say about what went down. He tried that and received a black eye from his father which was hurting really bad. So, he decided to take a break. It was raining outside, but the sun was still out, so he decided to go to Diagon Alley to see if he would run into anybody from Hogwarts that he knew. He just needed a break.

He grabbed his yellow raincoat and hat, and put on some rain boots and escaped out his window. He left a little note on his desk saying that he would probably be back if the fighting stopped. He slid down the drain pipe, and walked to Diagon Alley. It wasn’t a far walk, just a couple blocks away, and he needed the exercise if he wanted to get the ladies next term. He would make that git, Hunter jealous with all of the ladies he would get. That was his plan anyways. He still wanted that revenge, and he would get it.

When he got to Diagon Alley he looked around. It still amazed him that he was a part of this magical world. He gripped his wand in his pocket just in case he where to get attacked. He could take them either way. He looked at the Quidditch shop and realized that he was now of age to play on his house Quidditch team! That would certainly win the ladies over. He stared at the latest broom addition in awe just dying to have it. It was beautiful. He realized that he probably had a tear rolling down his cheek and accidentally rubbed his bruised eye. He held it gently and found an empty bench. He went to sit down on it not even caring that it was wet and just started people watching for people he knew, and for people he didn’t.

He laughed at this one old lady who looked like she had a giant bird on her head, but it was merely a hat, and almost cried at the older couple holding hands walking down the busy street. Why couldn’t he have a normal family? That’s all he wanted.

It was time for the yearly VanDerbergs visit to Diagon Alley. For two (now three) years, this was the time and place where the twins freaked out at magical items they wished to have, the boys got hungry and walked around to actually look at the stuff, and where the parents actually bought the stuff listed in the school letters. But that day, Lyn VanDerberg was in a bit of a bad mood because she had gotten into an argument with her brothers about the pigs earlier. So now, as her brothers chatted and guffawed and her sister pointed and stared, Lyn felt uninterested.

Of all days they could've come to Diagon Alley, it had to be a rainy day. Even though there weren't much clouds in the sky, and it was only a light rainfall, Lyn felt even more annoyed. She hated rain and raincoats. In the end, the girl slipped away from the group without an excuse. It wasn't as if they were noticing her, anyway. She folded her arms neatly and walked in the opposite direction of which her family was going- she didn't feel like talking to them. Instead, she decided to go into the first shop that caught her eye. Lyn passed by Flourish and Blotts, the Magical Menagerie, Ollivanders, Florean's Ice-Cream Shop, but she just felt like visiting none of them. She soon ended up turning to go to the next shop she saw.

She had only taken a few steps inside the shop when she realized that it was a broom shop. The display window was to her right, in which Lyn saw the latest broom model. Other students, probably Quidditch players, would gasp and stare at such a "beautiful" broom. Lyn wasn't interested much in Quidditch, though. She thought the idea of flying with brooms and stuff was awesome, but she never understood the idea of Quidditch and why everyone got freaked out about it. But since she didn't want to be found by her parents or siblings yet, Lyn decided to keep walking around for a bit just to procrastinate.

After only a few minutes, the Quidditch shop already bored Lyn, so she walked out. She preferred rain to brooms, really. She supposed that she should go find someone from the VanDerbergs or whatever, but soon realized that she couldn't see anyone from her family in the unfamiliar street. Maybe she could try find someone she knew from Hogwarts? Anything to kill her boredom. She'd probably run into someone later, since she had so many siblings. Lyn was about to start walking down the street again, when she spotted a familiar figure out of the corner of her eye. "Phin," she said, walking towards the younger boy. She offered him a friendly smile and sat down next to him without invitation. Although their first meeting was in a bathroom, Lyn considered Phin a kind-of friend. Not that she had many kind-of friends. The boy looked depressed, though, so Lyn decided to try being more cheerful. "How are you?"

Phin was so deep in thought that he didn't realize that somebody came next to him and sat down. He looked over and realized it was his friend Lyn. The one that helped him out of his unfortunate situation of getting him out of the girls bathroom. He gave her a half smile and tried to cover his eye so she wouldn't notice. He answered her question and said, "Ran away from home. Got into a fight with my dad." He hoped he wouldn't put a damper into her day.

He sighed again. He wished he was at Hogwarts and could talk to Aoife about it. Sure, he could write her, but seeing her face would make him feel so much better. He hoped he didn't run into anyone in particular. He didn't feel like putting up with that bull at the moment. Nothing was going as planned this summer. He hoped it would be a happy one. One where he actually pleased his father. But nooooo....

He again wondered why the sorting hat put him in Hufflepuff. Of all the houses it had to be that one. The very one that his father would disapprove of. He almost wrote a letter to the headmaster and asked to transfer out of Hufflepuff to be in Gryffindor. But knew the answer so didn't even bother writing the letter. He let out another sigh. This was a terrible day.

Finally! Derek could at last start preparing to go to Hogwarts! The minute that his letter from Hogwarts had come with that pretty brown owl, he’d been determined to get to Diagon Alley. Unfortunately, his cruel, boring parents insisted that he had to wait until they had a good time to have someone take over the shop and everything. Eventually, the time came close and he read through his Hogwarts list so many times in the days before that he memorised the thing. This was so exciting!

When they arrived in London, his parents led him and his little brother Trevor through crowded, busy muggle streets until they came to a cool-looking pub called the Leaky Cauldron. He already knew all about how to get to the alley of course, because he’d bombarded his father with questions ever since he was small and he had taken a couple of trips here before for a bit of fun. This time was important, though. He had to get school stuff and if he got anything wrong, it would be the end of the world.

They went to a couple of stores together, starting with the bookstore (which was very interesting - he enjoyed judging all the books by their covers) then the apothecary. His parents had told him that he needed to get the stuff before he got his wand. It made enough sense, saving the best till last, but he was still impatiently bouncing up and down as they went along the street. Before he knew what was happening, Derek was whirled into a crowd of people going in different directions and he lost sight of his parents.

Then he was somewhere else, where he knew they had passed but couldn’t remember anything about. He had been told his sense of direction and common sense lacked sometimes, but that was rubbish. This was that huge crowd of people’s fault, of course.

Now, what to do. Maybe his parents had more chance of finding him if he stayed here. Yes, he’d do that. He was outside a quidditch shop, but he wasn’t allowed to have his own broom yet. So he wasn’t going in there. It was pointless. There was only one bench nearby, and there were a boy and girl sitting on it already. Ah, good! They didn’t look much older than him. Now he could make his first wizard friends! To avoid getting whooshed away again, Derek sprinted across the street towards them. “Hello!” he beamed. They were sitting close. He suspected there was some sort of romantic thing going on here. Cute. He took a seat in between the two of them, making himself comfortable without permission.

“I’m Derek!” he said straight away. “It’s nice to meet you! Do you two go to Hogwarts? I’m going to Hogwarts! It’s going to be awesome, too!”

"But muuuuuum, I want my want now!" Matthew whined as he followed his parents begrudgingly down the cobblestone road. But as usual, he was shushed by his mother and told that he'd get his wand at the end once they'd finished picking up all of their other supplies. Matthew sighed dramatically and crossed his arms - he had considered just making a run for it, but he didn't actually know where the wand shop was. And he'd probably get caught before he made it there. And Matthew wasn't stupid. He knew that if he was caught, his parents wouldn't let him out of their site again.

But Matthew was so bored, and they still had like a million shops to go to. If only he knew where the wand shop was at! He'd already tried slipping away quietly without his parents noticing, and had been caught twice. But they had just run into some acquaintances and seemed pretty preoccupied, and Ollie was in the robe shop getting fitted - maybe this time, he could manage it. So Matthew casually wandered a bit away, pretending to look carefully in the shop windows, and glanced back to see if they'd noticed. They hadn't. A big grin spread across Matthew's face, and he backed away into the sea of people. And then he was free!

But he still didn't know where the wand shop was at! Why hadn't he asked the girl with the fire hair?! She would have known! But that was only a temporary problem. He would just ask someone. Not an adult, because they would be all concerned and ask him where his parents were and ruin his entire life. So Matthew strutted along the street, feeling very grown up walking around by himself, until he noticed a small gathering of kids by the quidditch shop. He didn't usually just go up to people and start a conversation - Ollie did that, and Matthew followed him. But this was important! So he approached them.

"Can any of you tell me where the wand shop is?" he asked, interrupting them. He scrutinized them for a moment. There were two boys, both who looked sort of around his age, and a girl who looked a little older. "I've been waiting all day to get my wand, and my parents are making me go into every other shop first." He didn't consider that it might have been rude of him to interrupt them without even introducing himself. But he just wanted a wand!