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Tweak says, "Bowties are cool"

Greg Goyle (goyle_g) wrote in finnigans_rpg,
@ 2014-11-05 18:21:00

Entry tags:

character: gregory goyle, character: lisa turpin

Remember, Remember
Who: Greg and OPEN
What: Selling last-minute fireworks
Where: WWW
When: November 5th
Rating: SFW

Greg didn't see why wizards would want to celebrate some muggle hundreds of years ago failing to blow up some other muggles with their stupid muggle explosives. Which, as far as it had ever been explained to him, was exactly what November 5th was about. Nonetheless, generations and generations of seeing muggle fireworks light up the skies had prompted wizards to start celebrating the event themselves - though it was more of an excuse for fireworks than anything else. Greg was just glad that it wasn't up to him to memorise the various kinds of fireworks supplied by WWW - indoor, outdoor, muggle-friendly (no obvious magical affects) or fully magical with coloured sparks that took on the shape of dragons or other magical creatures.

Instead, Greg was in charge of carrying boxes of fireworks to the main floor of the shop to replace the ones that were rapidly being sold by George's quick tongue and genuine enthusiasm. He'd made a dozen trips already, a drop in the price encouraging sales that were almost too quick for him to keep up with. The fireworks had to be carried by hand, too magical to risk casting further spells on. They weren't heavy individually, but a whole day hauling them around had Greg's back and shoulders aching.

Late in the afternoon, he paused in his ferrying - George was busy with a customer making a big last-minute order to replace a load of customised fireworks that had stupidly been allowed to get damp, and another customer was obviously looking for some assistance while George was occupied. Greg approached, trying not to scowl too obviously. "Can I help you?"

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bookshop_mama
2014-11-05 09:37 pm UTC (link)

Lisa had always enjoyed the fireworks on the fifth of November, though as a child her parents had only taken her once, and only then as part of an educational lesson on the events surrounding Guy Fawke's day. They hadn't approved of the celebration, but in their quest for Lisa to know everything about everything, had deemed it worthy of knowing about.

She'd told Christopher a little about the day, to prepare him for the loud noises he was sure to hear, and that had been that. As soon as he'd heard fireworks, he'd been relentless in asking for some. She'd found out from a couple of customers that Wizard Wheeze's sold safe to use (for a certain value of safe, she was sure) fireworks, and had promised to bring Christopher to get some. And now, here they were, and Christopher was bouncing in excitement as one of the employees came over. She remembered his name, Greg Goyle, and that he'd been in Blaise's group at school.

"I WANT FIREWORKS!" Christopher shouted at the man, making Lisa wince. They'd have to have another talk about inside voices, apparently. That would make the sixth this week alone. "Mommy says we can do fireworks for Guy Blocks day!" He puffed up his chest, and carefully recited the poem Lisa had taught him leading up to today. "'Member, 'Member the fifth of Nobember..." That was as far as he got before apparently forgetting the rest. "So, do you have fireworks? I want LOTS."

Lisa placed a hand on Christopher's shoulder to keep him from leaping onto the man to demand fireworks, and gave him an apologetic look. "Could you help us find some that are child-friendly? Or at least not too difficult to use?"

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goyle_g
2014-11-06 02:43 pm UTC (link)

Greg winced as the child shouted at him, his voice just loud enough to make Greg wish the healers at St Mungo's hadn't fixed his hearing quite so well. Loud noises had never used to bother him when he was a child - it had even been an advantage, making it easier for him to concentrate in games of Quidditch or pretend duels. He scowled at the child, who wasn't a paying customer after all, before glancing up with a look of slight relief as his mother (Greg assumed) reminded him to talk more quietly.

"We have lots of fireworks," he confirmed. He was feeling relatively well disposed towards George's products, since they weren't ones he could 'test' on Greg for his own amusement. Besides, he liked the lights and colours - even if he could live without the noise. The woman looked familiar, though Greg couldn't place where he might have seen her. School, probably, but she hadn't been in Slytherin. It didn't really matter, so Greg stopped thinking about it, though he might have been able to remember if he'd tried a little harder.

He led Lisa and Christopher deeper into the shop. "The indoor ones are safest," he said. George had run through a comprehensive list of all the testing he'd done to make sure they were safe - all of which Greg had promptly forgotten, since George hadn't bothered to write it down for him. "But they're not as dramatic."

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bookshop_mama
2014-11-11 01:12 am UTC (link)

"I WANT dramatic!" Christopher had started out with a shout but after another Look from Lisa, he lowered his voice to a more reasonable level. "I'll be careful, I promise!"

Lisa sighed, and tucked a piece of hair behind her ear. "You heard the man. Show us your most dramatic." She was handy with a wand, and surely Wheezes wouldn't sell anything overly terrifying. "These things come with instructions, right?" She hoped so, otherwise she'd have to disappoint Christopher.

"Is there one with a dragon?" Christopher added, bouncing in his toes. "Dragons are cool! But not as cool as Wonder Woman." His eyes went wide. "Are there Wonder Woman fireworks?"

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goyle_g
2014-11-12 05:56 pm UTC (link)

"They're easy to use," Greg confirmed, ignoring the still-shouting child in favour of talking to his mother. Having not been around children since he was one, Greg tended to be wary of them - and secretly dreaded the day that his friends started having them, let alone actually having one of his own. The fireworks were so easy to use, in fact, that George had taught Greg how to demonstrate them with only a bare minimum of frustration on either part.

Somewhat reluctantly, Greg pulled one of the smallest indoor fireworks from the shelf, showing Lisa the right spell to make it shoot up and explode with a shower of silver sparks. "That's not very dramatic," he acknowledged, "but they all light the same." And Greg didn't want to deal with an even louder explosion unless he really couldn't avoid it. He moved on, towards the outdoor fireworks. "These ones change from one shape to another," he explained - pointing at some packaging which showed a rabbit changing into a top hat. "These change colour. These start of small and then grow..." He continued to move on, using the full-colour pictures on the containers to remind him. "These, uh." He frowned in an effort of memory - but failed and quickly moved on. "Oh, there's ones that look like animals or people and... do stuff. You know, wave or jump or..." He left further details to Lisa's imagination.

Rooting through the moving animal fireworks, he managed to unearth a dragon. It wasn't the big fire-breathing dragon fireworks - those had been sold out days ago. This was smaller, a young dragon, and the picture showed it emitting showers of gold sparks when it thrashed its tail. "Wandering women?" he asked, distracted from handing over the coveted dragon firework. "Like... banshee? I don't think we've got any banshee."

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