Penelope had just finished supervising the setup of her photographs in the gallery down the street. Her area was looking quite nice, but she thought the feature statue was, well, stupid. Quintapeds weren't pink! Oh, well, her name wasn't on that sculpture.
Charlie's game wasn't set to start for another fifteen minutes or so and Penny was craving something sweet. That was how she found herself sitting outside Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour, a cup of strawberry ice cream half-eaten on the table in front of her. The last few weeks had been rather blessed and she was savoring the moment by indulging in one of her favorite treats.
Until the crashing noise of shattering glass split the evening air, that is. Her eyes found the culprit and she was too shocked to move for a few moments. The Quintaped was much larger than the one she and Charlie had released and Penny thought it might be full-grown. She stood up slowly and walked back into the ice cream shop, her shaking hands the only indication that something was wrong. Once inside, she looked around. The shop was full of families..of course: it was a Friday night, the youngest children were out with their parents for a treat. "I need everyone to remain calm and stay seated. A Quintaped is loose in Diagon Alley. There will be no Apparition unless you want the noise to attract its attention." After this announcement, Penelope ignored the gasps and cries as she started placing wards around the shop with a shaking wand hand. "Get behind the counter." A glare from Penny quelled any arguments the parents tried to start. She knew it would be useful to send a Patronus note to the Ministry or, at the least, send up red sparks over the area, but she couldn't leave the shop to do any of those things without drawing attention. Instead, she waited just inside the door of the parlour, where the wards made her invisible the to beast outside.