WHO: Ernie and Gabrielle WHAT: Hamster shopping and the not-date that sort of turned into a date and now Ernie and Gabrielle are both just confused and blushing a lot. WHEN: Today after work WHERE: Magical Menagerie STATUS: Complete RATING:woot for the nc-17ness of this log LMAO! G, so G.
Ernie could hear Liz's teasing in his head, not that he really cared what she said about the matter. He was being nice to someone, and there was nothing untoward about hamster shopping. He could be a whole lot smoother if he really wanted to be. A person didn't FLIRT by talking about their mums, fish, and hamsters. Furthermore, a person definitely go to a pet store to further talk about hamsters if it was a DATE. He sort of resented the implication.
He had told Gabrielle to meet him at six in front of the Magical Menagerie. That should give them enough time to look around the Menagerie and Creature Feature. Also, it gave him enough time to change, because work clothes in a pet store was a really bad idea. He showed up a few minutes before six. He didn't see her anywhere, (and he figured that he'd definitely notice her) which was a relief. He needed a few minutes to mentally prepare himself. He remembered the Tri-wizard Tournament in great detail, and he remembered the time that he yelled across the Hufflepuff table to the Ravenclaw table in the Great Hall to announce to Fleur Delacour that he was going to be a world class Quidditch player one day.
That would be an embarrassing thing to have happen again when he was trying to be a friend. Embarrassing for both of them actually.
Gabrielle's thoughts ran similarly to Ernie's; this wasn't anything like a date. In fact, Ernie was being really very kind in helping her, because while she was sure about taking care of cats and dogs and even fish, hamsters weren't ever animals that she'd ever considered. But in all honesty, the idea of a little ball of fur that wasn't a cat or a dog appealed to her. And so she'd looked forward to this ever since Saturday when they'd set their plans. Well, looked forward to it except for that time period two hours before when she'd forgotten that she had to meet him.
At the end of her day greeting traveling witches and wizards at the Portkey office, it was required that a report be compiled of who had used the portkeys and what their destination had been. It was purely for statistical purposes, and today compiling that information had run longer than normal, because of the amount of Christmas shoppers that had come to London to either shop there or take a further Portkey to Paris or Rome or even (Gabrielle noted) Salzburg. It wasn't until she'd looked up and saw that the clock on the wall read five minutes to six that Gabrielle remembered that she was supposed to meet Ernie, along with the realisation that she ran the risk of being late.
Janet told her to go; they were finished anyway, and she thought that it would do the young woman good to get out and have what she thought of as a date, even if Gabrielle didn't. Gabrielle Apparated to the Leaky Cauldron, and tried to walk semi-sedately towards the shop, stopping once to straighten her robes (dark green, as she'd told him) and worry that her hair was an utter mess. But then it was too late, because there stood a tall man with blondish hair, looking around. Hesitantly, Gabrielle stepped up to him, smiling hopefully. "Er... pardon," she said, her French accent very slight. "But are you Ernie?"
He jumped at the sound of her voice. He honestly hadn't seen her; he'd been far too busy psyching himself to not randomly announce he was planning to run a marathon or something equally as daft. Clearing his throat awkwardly, he nodded. "Yeah, I am." He said smiling, as he turned his head to look at her...
And she was rather breathtaking. She had a brilliant smile, and her accent was pretty, and her hair was all shimmery. Ernie felt his throat go a bit dry, and he again cleared it a bit awkwardly. "Yeah, Ernie. That's me, and you much be Gabrielle, but, yeah, of course you are. It's not like anyone else was planning to meet me here or anything, so yeah. I'm Ernie." He could feel a blush creep up his cheeks at his inability to shut up. He felt like he'd just introduced himself like ten times. He held out his hand to shake hers, hoping the rambling display wouldn't have her running in the opposite direction. Also, he was sort of wondering if her skin was smooth like it looked, and a handshake would be a good thing. "So yeah, Ernie." He finished off, looking a bit mortified with himself. "I mean, let's head in? Hamster shopping, or window shopping for hamster and hamster accessories, since you're just looking, but then there aren't any windows involved either." So announcing his intention to run in a marathon would be SO much better right now.
Mortified herself, Gabrielle's eyes widened. She'd become complacent, relaxing around most people because well, she knew all of the people she spent time with and for the most part, they were immune to her Veela heritage. It generally wasn't until she met someone new, like Ernie, that she remembered that she needed to actually try to dampen those tendencies. Embarrassed, she tried to do so now, looking down with her cheeks flushed. "Oh, Merlin, I'm sorry, I'm making you uncomfortable," she stammered out, automatically taking his proffered hand and giving it a friendly squeeze and dropping it rather quickly. "But yes, I am Gabrielle. And going inside will be wonderful."
She made a vague gesture towards the door, feeling horrible that she'd put him in such a situation.
Ernie sort of nodded dumbly, running what had just happened through his head again. And again. And again. Merlin, what a mess! He stepped up quickly opening the door for her before following her into the shop. And he had a feeling that he'd embarrassed her too, because she sort of hadn't been looking at him before he'd let her in. Taking a couple of deep breaths he decided to start again. "Sorry, I -uh- not really sure how that happened." He'd tried to prepare! "But I'm not normally a rambler, so sorry. I mean, everyone says that I'm rather loquacious, but it usually has substance to it." At least he thought so. Apparently that was also up for debate sometimes. He bit his lip wondering if THAT qualified as rambling, because rambling about your rambling was a new side of pathetic.
"Oh, back there!" He said quickly, deciding to leave that subject where it was, hopefully dead and buried. He motioned to the back wall where there were many little furry critters, like mice and gerbils among the selection of hamsters. "I think you'll like them." He continued almost tripping over a large cage (due to partial distraction on his part), "They're really fun, especially when you have more than one."
"No! You're fine, I promise. I just... I'm sorry, I sometimes forget that I can have this... this effect on people and it's rather embarrassing," Gabrielle admitted, her accent thickening slightly in her own continued embarrassment. "I do not mind your rambling. I ramble sometimes, myself, although I am trying to become better at not doing it. But sometimes it is difficult because I have so much that I want to say and only a few words won't do."
Gabrielle followed him, reaching out a hand to help steady him (Although what good she would do, she didn't know. She wasn't particularly short, but she was slight of build.), only lightly touching his elbow before withdrawing her hand. And then... then she saw the small animals and couldn't contain her squeal of delight at the gerbils. "Oh, Merlin! They're so small and precious and... would it be terrible of me to hold one?"
He nodded, feeling like he really should apologize for rambling again, but he had a feeling that it would serve to do nothing but start a never ending apology circle. A circle which would probably kill all other conversation in it's wake. "I know that feeling; it's just like sometimes when you talk a lot people already know where it's going. I think I'm a bit predictable to my friends." He admitted a bit sheepishly. There. Normal sentence, point to him then.
But his grip on normalcy left when she squealed at the sight of the gerbils, she just looked and sounded so happy. And she really did have a nice smile. "I'm sure you can!" He said quickly, looking around for a worker, because he was certain he couldn't just grab the animals out of the cages himself. "It's a good idea to get to know animals before you get them. What if you end up with a grumpy pet then? That wouldn't be fun." He finally flagged down the employee, and she got a gerbil out of the cage for Gabrielle. She also mentioned that they could get another from the same cage if they wanted, before she took off to help another customer. "You have a really pretty smile. You should smile all the time." And maybe Veela powers made you act stupid, but Ernie figured they must make you bold as well.
"Yes! And they don't seem to realise that things need to be expressed fully even if it makes me sound ridiculous," Gabrielle laughed. But then the clerk was handing her a gerbil, and her attention was taken by the small creature in her hand, whose little paws tickled her palms as it scrambled for purchase. "Grumpy pets only need love, I think." Holding the gerbil up at eye-level, she pursed her lips. "This one would never be grumpy, though. Always happy. As long as it stays away from the Cat. Yves would like to have you for her dinner, I think, little one." She glanced up at him. "Yves is my sister's cat. She is old, and deaf, and quite beautiful, but she is... oh, what is the word I want? Haughty! Yes. Yves is haughty."
Ernie's compliment caught her off-guard; she'd grown used to dismissing statements about her appearance, mostly because they were elaborate and made her sound as if she should actually have eyes made of sapphires and hair of spun gold and silver. Those compliments made her uncomfortable. But his... his was genuine, and honest. "Thank you! That is very kind of you to say."
"I think that's true, but I had a cousin who had the grumpiest dog ever. It was kind of sad." He said, reading out for the gerbil himself. He petted the animal's back lightly with his finger. He chuckled at her description of the cat. "I think that describes most cats actually." He looked at the Gerbil. "Don't worry, I don't think Gabrielle would ever let you near the Cat. She worries about her fish too much." He explained as if the gerbil could actually understand what he was saying. "But yeah, cats always seem haughty. Kittens are fun and playful, but they seem to grow out of it." Ernie really wasn't a cat person. He liked pets that reacted to you, most cats he'd seen were pretty indifferent creatures. And they were talking about cats, but Ernie figured it was alright as long as she talked too.
Alright good, she didn't get embarrassed again or anything. Although he was a bit for saying it, not that he didn't think it was true. Her smile sort of lit up her whole face. "You probably hear it a lot." He said looking down a bit sheepishly. "But it's true, and I thought you should know." And he'd given anything to stop talking about now, because repeating it a bunch of times wouldn't help anyone. "What did you name your fish?" It was random, but it stopped him from complimenting her repeatedly. That would not be good.
"Cats are very independent. Some of them, I think, are very loving but you must find them first and be very loving to them." She shrugged, a very Gallic shrug that spoke volumes about her heritage. But then she laughed; in that moment Ernie was completely adorable as he spoke to the gerbil.
"If I do or not is not important. You were very sweet in telling me. And I guess that I like being told that my smile is pretty." Sometimes it seemed that people forgot that she was 3/4 human, and that despite being beautiful, she was also a woman, and at times liked to be reminded of that. "My fish? Oh! Er, I named them after characters from books. I only have three now, and they are Nicolas, Louisette, and Jacques. All three very good, very strong French names, you know."
He self consciously ran his hand through his hair to make sure it was alright, but probably made it worse. It just felt a bit good to hear her laugh. Ernie, under normal circumstances, liked to hear people laugh. Usually it was Liz's completely unrestrained laugh, Hannah's giggle, or Wayne's head shaking laugh, but he liked hearing laughter. Gabrielle's was a smiling laughter, and it was nice.
"Those are good names." He agreed. "People always go about naming pets differently." He pointed out, picking up another gerbil from the cage. "Physical attributes, personality. I was always kind of uncreative when it came to names. I had a hamster named Martin from Martin Miggs the Mad Muggle, but some people a good pet namers." And he really wasn't sure why started that, but he stroked the mostly black gerbil and smiled. "I don't know... You're shadow or something."
"Those characters were my friends when I was very small, before I went to school... So they aren't all that creative, I'm afraid. Now I have very fond memories of them... and fish." Her brow furrowed at the mention of the comic book. "I do not know this Martin. What was it about?" It was her turn to pet the gerbil he held in his hands. "Shadow is a good name for him. I wish I could get one tonight."
Carefully she slipped the gerbil back into its cage. "But you were going to tell me about hamsters! And what I would need for one of them so that in the future I won't be a terrible hamster owner."
Ernie thought that sounded a bit sad, but he sort of understood it. His mum arranged all these play dates for him as a kid, but it was spent mostly on his own. "It was a comic book about this muggle named Martin Miggs, and he'd have all these adventures in the muggle world." He furrowed his brow in thought, "Now that I think about it, I guess it wasn't entirely PC." He shrugged. "I don't know; I just remember it was supposed to be a bit educational about muggles and stuff." He explained.
He followed her lead and placed his own gerbil back before making sure the door was locked. He smiled and motioned for her to follow him. "They're really not that hard to take care of. You need a cage, obviously, and wood chips for it to get comfy and nest in, and you just need food and a water bottle." Hamsters really weren't hard at all. She really didn't need him to show her. "You can't forget toys, but come here and look at this!" This was something he was a bit excited about. "You can buy parts and make a huge fun maze for your hamster to crawl around and play in." He said pointing at the cage in front of him that had various attachments on it.
Gabrielle put her hand over her mouth to hide a grin. Perhaps she didn't really need Ernie to show her the basics of hamster-care, but it was fun to see him get so excited about the toys for the animals. "But where would I put such a maze," she asked, eyes sparkling. "I would hate to get all of this and then have to build it and tear it down every time I wanted my hamster to play." She inspected it. "Or does it not have to be dismantled?"
"It doesn't." He said fiddling with the cage where there was a regular door. "Like he or she can just play when you're at work or something by running through the tunnels and stuff." He thought for a second. "Although sometimes they take naps in comfy corners. At least mine did when I was a kid." He smiled at her. "It's basic. You probably didn't need my help or anything, but the clerk would probably try to sell you a ton of hamsters all at once or something." He scratched the back of his head. "I recommend it at any rate, but I liked to build stuff as a child." Apparently given his job, he still did.
"Now it is my turn to say it." Gabrielle looked away, cheeks pink again. "You have a very nice smile, too." She poked her finger into a cage, petting one of the hamsters heads, and then actually giggling when it nibbled on the tip of it. "I am very glad that you offered your help. This has been more enjoyable than simply asking someone here. I made a friend and that is always worthwhile." She lifted her head to peek at him, then smiled, her nose wrinkling good-naturedly.
Ernie's jaw sort of dropped for a second before he nervously cleared his throat. "Um.. thanks." He was pretty sure he'd never been told that before, but then he realized he sounded a bit dismissive. He straightened up to watch her play with the hamster. "I mean, really, it's nice of you to say, so thank you. Really, I mean it. And it's always good to meet new peo-" the sentence was cut off near the end, because at that moment he'd taken a step back, stepped on the cage, and sent himself falling backwards. To his mortification it felt like he was falling in slow motion and that the end would be complete stupidness. Thankfully, he didn't fall on and break some cages. Unfortunately, he did fall straight on his butt, knocking a couple of cages over in the process and sending them clattering to the ground. He cleared his throat cheeks red. "Um.." Merlin, had he actually fallen mid-ramble. What was with that? He jumped up quickly rubbing the back of his neck. "You know it's starting to get late. After this do you want to get some food?" He asked, wanting desperately to act like that had NOT just happened, but yeah... he figured sometimes that veela power made you bold.
"Oh, Merlin! Ernie, are you all right?" Afraid that he'd hurt himself, she made to help him up, then settled for patting his arm. "You did not hurt yourself?" Blue eyes wide, she watched him until she was sure that he was, indeed, okay. "I think that getting something to eat would be wonderful, yes. What would you like to get? We can go whenever, since I know that I won't be buying a hamster for some time..."
He was fine, but felt better when she said yes, because really that sort of deflected from the falling. At least he hoped it did. He put the cages back. "Well, there's that Italian place on the Lane. Do you like Italian?" He wasn't sure what she liked, and he didn't want her to eat somewhere she'd be miserable at. "I'm not really a fussy eater. Well, there are things I don't like, but it's not like entire categories of food so I can do anything."
"No, Italian is fine, promise! And I like the restaurant on the Lane. It is very nice and the people are friendly. And the bread is good." She beamed at him. "I only can not eat shellfish, which is very sad because except for the fact that it can make me die, I quite liked the taste of it."
Ernie blinked at that. It really wasn't a random thing to say. He asked what she could eat, and Gabrielle was apparently allergic to shellfish. There was just something about that kind of excited, happy way she said it that made him soften and smile back. "Well, we'll have to keep you away from the shellfish then." He said decisively. "Do you want to go before I knock over anymore cages?" He asked making a bit of a joke out of the evenings klutziness. There that was a bit charming, maybe.
"I think so, yes. But it really wasn't your fault. It's quite close back here and stepping wrongly around one thing can lead to catastrophe." After all, claiming that was better than the alternative - that she hadn't done a very good job at all of trying to dampen her Veela tendencies and so had cause Ernie's tripping herself. In the end, though, it didn't matter because it was just nice to have made a new friend.