Loose dogs! ((Gary))

[Ashley Hill]

Ashley sat at the kitchen table puring syrup on her chocolate pancakes bored to death. Already she had woken and was bored beyond believe. "Mommy can I go to the restaurant with you?" Ashley begged twirling the cut up pancakes on the plate. Meredith Hill put the last one on a plate and set it down on the kitchen table. "Honey I'm sorry but you can't. The place is booked for a bar mitshva party." Meredith said whipping her hands on a purple apron she was wearing. Ashley frowned and continued to pick at her food. "But mommy there is nothing else to do!" Ashley began to whine frowning even more. "Ashley don't play with your food like that. Why don't you take Lassie and Buddy out to the park. I'm sure they would love that." her mother responded before taking the apron off and setting it down. "Tell Elina and your father I'm already gone to the restaurant. Please take the dogs out." With that Meredith left in a rush.

"The phone rings in the middle of the night. My father yells "What you gonna do with your life?" Oh, daddy, dear, you know you're still number one. But girls, they wanna have fu-un. Oh, girls, just wanna have. That's all they really want.....Some fun...." Ashley sang walking down the street holding one blue lash and a red on. Both Lassie and Buddy were on the best of behavior panting hard and wagging their tails. They always loved to go on walks, but all dogs did. Ashley put on a big smile continuing to hum the song down the London street. The sun was shinning on her frizzy blond hair that was pulled up into a ponytail and her blue eyes sparkled. She wear a pear of jean shorts with a tee shirt that had a golden retriever puppy with a cape on it saying 'Supper pup'. It was Ashley's favorite tee shirt.

"No! No! Buddy hold on nooo!" Ashley screamed as both of the dogs leaped forward knocking the lashes out of Ashley's hand toppling forward. "Ow..." she said picking herself up ignoring the cut on her leg, "Lassie! Buddy! Come back!" she screamed running after them. Outstretching her legs Ashley raced toward the dogs but they kept going faster match strides. Running even faster Ashley tried to grab the lashes but they were to far away from her reach. Growing frantic Ashley tried to go faster but her legs were aching. Seeing an boy grab the two callers Ashley trip again and fell on the grass. At least it was a soft area to fall on. "Ow.." she moaned breathing hard. Turning over on her back Ashley stared up at the sky trying to be able to breath properly. "Th-Thank you so mu-much." Ashley said in between breaths feeling Lassie click her face. Giggling she leaned forward and looked down at her knees. They were both black from the concrete and blood was oozing out of the cut. "I'm Ashley Hill but you can call me Ash for short."

[crane]

Gary was out at the park. He had met up with a few friends in the muggle-world and the group of friends had had fun chatting, joking and playing soccer. They had had a picnic, as there was always something fun to eating a sandwich while sitting on the grass, played, ran, jumped, chased each other and earned some smiling glances from the people who passed them by. It was always hard not to smile when you heard sincere laughter for Gary. Apparently the same thing was true for most by-passers too.
Walking through the park Gary still had a smile on his face as he was half in a dream-land. But he still had enough sense in him to be startled upon seeing two dogs running towards him with long strides while a girl was running after them.

Gary grabbed the collar of one of the dogs as it rushed pass him and stepped on the leash of the other dog. Taking hold of the leashes of both dogs Gary looked back towards the direcion the dogs had came only to see the girl falling onto the grass.
Hoping that the girl wasn’t hurt, Gary let the dogs sniff his hands before making his way over to the girl in a light jog being a bit worries. The dogs pulled forward with one of them going to lick the girl face. Who didn’t seem to be hurt more than having scraped her knees as Gary was grateful to see while he kneeled down next to the girl.
„You’re most certainly welcome, Ash,“ Gary smiled as he finally looked into the girls face. His smile only broadened as he actually discovered that he knew the girl. They had never really talked to each other, but she had a rather sunny personality. One you couldn’t look over very easily even in a castle full of magical people. Literally magical. Rummaging in the back-pocket of his torn jears Gary pulled out two band-aids and offered them to Ash: „Sorry about your knees. We should probably find a place where you could wash them. I’m afriad I can’t hal them in the muggle world.“ Gary looked up and smiled to Ash once again as he stroke the head of one of her dogs, „I’ve seen you around the school. I’m Gary Crane. You can call me by whichever name you prefer. Ravenclaw. You have very nice dogs.“

[Ashley Hill]

Ashley kept on giggling as Lassie licked her face making sure she was OK. Pushing the collie away from her face Ashley whipped her arm across it trying to get all the slobber off. Buddy just sat there wagging his tail and looking up at the boy. Ashley smiled and rubbed lassie behind the ears. While still rubbing Lassie behind the ears Ashley looked from the dog and stared at the boy who just was being kind. But he looked very fimlar...Noticing he handed her a band aide Ashley took it and started to unwrap the plastic peels. "Did I say thank you for catching my dogs? I don't know what got into them. Their normally so quiet and controlled." Ashley said with a shrug of her shoulders while putting the band aide on her cut.

"Don't worry I'll be fine. Had much worse happen to me." she accursed the boy. Noticing he used the word muggle Ashley looked up from her knee to the boy. Her blue eyes widen a bit as she remembered seeing him in the corridors at Hogwarts or in class. "You go to....That school too! A big castle and is truly magical?" Ashley said trying to pick her words right. She knew that a lot of people from Hogwarts lived in London but never actually got to ran into one. He than introduced himself as Gary and was in Ravenclaw. Yep he went to Hogwarts. "Nice to met you Gary. As you already know I'm Ash and in Hufflepuff the bes-test house in the whole school!" Ashley said giggling a bit at her pride.

Once her giggles fit was over Ashley leaned forward and balanced herself on Gary's shoulder standing up from the ground. "That was my second fall for the day." she said brushing off some of the grass and little pebbles from her jean shorts. Lassie than walked next to Ashley and stood by her side looking up at Gary as if she was approving of him. Laughing once again Ashley started to pet her. "This here is Lassie. Yes I know cheesy name but she did save my life once. Quite overprotective of me." she said with a smile looking over at buddy who seemed to quite like Gary. "Thats buddy. Found him on a football field. He can actually play the sport! Isn't that so cool! I bet you never would see a dog who could do that." Ashley said stopping herself from rambling on. "So what brings you here to the park on a day such as this."

[crane]

Gary couldn’t help but laugh at the girls words: „Yes, I go to a truly magical school. I was shocked out of my mind when I saw and heard about tit he first time. But I really like it.“ Gary helped Ash stand up and climbed to his own feet as well while laughter escaped his mouth once again: „The bes-test house? Well, I do like my own house too, so I’ll not say Hufflepuff is the bes-test. But I cetainly agree that our houses are much better than Gryffindor and Slytherin.“
Gary smiled watching the dogs and giving a pet on Lassie’s head too while Ash got caught in a giggle fit. Gary smiled at her. She had a sunny personality, someone who could cheer you up. Gary didn’t really even know her, but somehow he liked her. She might be a good friend to those she liked.

“I was meeting with a couple of friends,” Gary answered with a shrug while smiling at the dogs lovingly. Gary had always liked animals. Perhaps one day if he had room and the means to have one, he could have a dog himself too. Something friendly that liked to play. A gold retriever perhaps. Gary liked those dogs. They were pretty and friendly. Just like buddy was.
“He can play football?” Gary asked with surprise looking at the dog next to him. A mind-picture of the dog dressed in a blue-red uniform with a big number 7 on the blouse while the Buddy was chasing the ball between human football players flashed through Gary’s mind. The smile on his face stretched even further as Gary chuckled at the thought.
“Maybe you should have wondered by earlier then. We were playing soccer with friends and my team was missing on player,” Gary joked happily, “And I’ve never seen a dog who can play soccer.”

[Ashley Hill]

Ashley smiled as Gary showed some pride in his house. "Hufflepuff! Ravenclaw! Hufflepuff!" Ashley chanted walking forward and twirling around. Stopping her twirling Ashley looked at Gary with a huge smile on her face. She couldn't help but smile. "Do you play Quidditch? I play beater on the Hufflepuff team. This year were going to win the house cup! I wouldn't mind if Ravenclaw won better than Slytherin or Gryffindor. I would literally shot myself if Slytherin won the cup. They don't deserve it!" she said crossing her arms over her chest. She tried to stay away from that house but it was hard. Slytherins always seemed to haunt you down. But she was pretty lucky to have Elina there and help her out of messes like those.

Gary seemed quite fascinated by Buddy being able to play football. But it was true. The golden retriever was more remarkable than other dog. "Well it's true! If you don't believe me than we can play football together. I love that spot. I went to a camp this summer to learn more skills." Ashley said with another one of her toothy smiles. Looking at Gary more closely she noticed he had quite long brown hair. Stepping closer to him Ashley took a strand and started to play with it. "Wow you have long hair! That's cool. You can put it up in ponytail, braids and maybe pigtails! OH you should see my older sister Elina. She's good with hair." Ashley said giggling while continuing to stroking a piece.

[crane]

“Slytherins don’t deserve the cup. I hope Gryffindor won’t win the cup either,” Gary agreed with a smile. Slytherins had picked on Gary, because he was a muggle-born and not very rich. None of these things were Gary’s fault. His mom had done a miraculous job raising 4 kids alone with only a nurse’s salary. And Gary and his sisters had always had food, good clothes and they had been allowed to go to circles that dealt with something they were interested in whether it was drawing, maths or something else. Slytherins didn’t seem to understand it. Maybe perhaps all of them had been born with servants all around them and getting their every desire. Now that he was older he was picked on rarer, but that didn’t mean Gary had met any decent Slytherins yet.

“Yes, I play quidditch. I’m a chaser. It’s a fun game and we should play football together. Even at Hogwarts if we don’t get a chance earlier,” Gary agreed happily, having always liked football, “Even if I don’t see Buddy playing then. But football is always fun. Especially if you have good company. A camp of it? Wow, it must have been fun? How was it? Did you learn anything new too?”
Gary glanced curiously at Ashley as she stepped closer and picked up a strand of his hair. Rolling his eyes a bit so he could see her Gary gave a small shy smile: “I suppose I should cut it some time, shouldn’t I? Mom has been telling me to go and have it cut, but somehow I can’t reach that point. But I’m not sure that braids or what was the other thing you said? Oh, pigtails! I’m rather sure braids and pigtails wouldn’t look good on me.”