A Good Read, and a Good Start to a New Year.

[Savannah Johnstone R7]

Savannah stood outside the Leaky Cauldron while Evan disappeared inside. Looking around there were several walking sales witches coming her way. Just great, she thought to herself as she eyed them with disgust. The witches too saw Savannah and made a bee line right towards her. Each was trying to sell something, one had jewelry, another had rare spices. “No thank you” Savannah said plainly but as was always the case the witches didn’t hear her. Patience was not one of Savannah’s virtues, luckily Evan appeared at the Leaky Cauldron door and said she could go. It was just in time or Savannah might have unleashed a slew of insults at the witches. “Lets go” she said as she grabbed Evan’s hand and dragged her away from the witches before she could say anything to them.

When they reached the corner Savannah let go of Evan, “I hate sales witches.” Pushing open the door the owl store she walked over to the fireplace. “I live at 1347 Hazel lane, Fallmouth, you go first. I don’t think my mom is home now.” Standing back she waited for Evan to disappear. Savannah then stepped into the fireplace and in a flash was gone. Spinning she soon emerged in her living room where Evan stood. Walking over to the TV and entertainment center she tossed down her bags. “Let’s go to the mall now, it will be crowded later on.” Savannah then led Evan through the living room past the phone, and answering machine into the kitchen and past the refrigerator, oven, and microwave. Opening another door she led Evan into the garage. “You ever been in a car before Evan?” She asked as she took out her keys and hit the alarm button causing the car to beep twice and the doors to unlock.

[petra]

Evan’s body lunged forward as Savannah tugged her away from some witches, that she obviously didn’t want to be around. When they turned the corner and Savannah let go of her wrist Evan rubbed it, it was blotchy from Savannah’s fingers, “Yeah,” she said in agreement to Savannah’s opinion of sales witches. Evan followed Savannah inside the owl store and stood next to her near the fireplace. Evan was given her address and she repeated it to herself before stepping forward. She threw the Floo Powder in and stepped in after, “1347 Hazel Lane, Fallmouth!!” she said clearly and was gone in a poof of smoke.

Evan went reeling through the Floo Network and soon found herself toppling out into Savannah’s living room. She dusted of the little soot she had gotten on her arm and waited for Savannah to appear. Evan looked at all the things Savannah had in her living room, there were so many things in there that she had only heard of or seen in pictures. When Savannah arrived she declared that they should go to the mall that instant because it would be crowded later. “Okay,” she said and went after Savannah. With every step Evan took, her mouth dropped a little more, especially at the funny looking box with the blinking light that was near the telephone, she knew what that was from seeing one in a picture.

Savannah led Evan into the garage, she stared at the car, “No…I haven’t.” she eyed the vehicle in wonder. Evan jumped when the car suddenly made a beeping noise and a click, “What was that?” she asked, part in shock part in amazement.

[Savannah Johnstone R7]

Savannah discretely rolled her eyes as Evan jumped at the car alarm, this was going to be a long trip. "That the alarm, I just turned it off, if someone tries to steal it the alarm makes a lot of noise drawing attention to the thief who then should be scared away." Walking to the door Savannah opened it "get it" she said and shut the door after Evan got in. Getting in herself she slipped the key into the ignition and started the car, then put on her seatbelt. Looking at Evan she sighed, "put your seatbelt on, it's over there, pull it and put it in this box here" she said while pointing to the two parts of the seat belt. "Push it in until you hear a click noise." Savannah pressed the button for the garage door, shifted gears, undid the parking brake and back out of the garage and onto the street. Shifting gears again on the street she pressed another button that locked the doors with a clunk noise. “You use this to make the car go forward, or backwards” she said while pointing to the gear shift, “Oh and these petals, the right one is to go faster, the middle is to slow down, the left you have to push when you want to change gears. Umm, the gears make the car go fast or slower too. Sorry, I’m not good at explaining everything, I don’t really know how much you know or what you know.”

She then opened up the arm rest box and pulled out a CD. “This is a CD, it plays music” she said while opening the case then sliding the colorful disc into the CD player, music then began to fill the car. “I wish we could use these at school, you have to use some serious magic to get anything muggle to work there. I nearly got my CD player working last week, it started spinning and it worked for a few seconds but then it stopped.” Several stop lights later Savannah pulled into a large parking structure and parked. Getting out of the car she stopped and looked back at Evan still inside. “Oh yea, push the red button to unlock the seat belt, and pull that silver lever towards you and push the door at the same time to open it.” Walking through the lot they reached a driveway. Stopping Savannah pointed at across the road, “You have to wait until that red light changes green, then we can cross.” As she spoke she realized a pair of boys who appeared to be younger than Evan were standing next to them laughing. “What the bloody hell are you laughing at!?” Savannah said as she glared at the two which quickly shut them up. “What? Got nothing to say now!?” She said while advancing on them until she was right in front of them glaring down at the pair. “Filthy little wankers, BEAT IT before I get mad!” While she glared, she was aware of everyone else around her was now crossing the street. “Lets go Evan” Savannah as she headed across the street and towards the mall entrance.

“See the black pad on the floor? If you step on it the doors will slide open automatically” she pointed out as people were entering the mall left and right. “God they must have a sale, it’s crowded already.” Leading the way into the mall she stopped as soon as they entered. “OK, this first part there is Radio Shack, that’s where you can buy TV’s, phones, radios, CD players, and other electronic stuff. Next to that is Vans, that’s a shoe store. Then next there’s a bank, nothing special there.” Turning around to the other direction she read off the stores on the opposite side. “Then we have a photo shop, that’s where you take muggle film and they put it on paper for you. Umm, a hair salon, nothing special there again, and then there is a T-shirt store. They sell every kind of T-shirt you could think of. So, do you want to look in any of these or do you want to go further in? There are about 30 more stores in the main part, this is just the entrance shops.” Savannah crossed her arms and looked at Evan trying to read her mind, what on Earth was Evan thinking?

[petra]

“Oh,” said Evan, feeling kind of silly, “It’s like the books in the restricted section at school. If you try to take it in secret, without permission, it screams. Evan got into Savannah’s car, it had a lot of space and the seats were comfortable. “So an alarm is like have a protection charm on your car. I get it.” Savannah got in and put a strap across her, she then told Evan to buckle her seatbelt, Evan presumed that she meant the strappy thing and mimicked Savannah in how to put it on. She pushed it into the slot till she heard the ‘click’. Savannah reversed out onto the muggle street, the houses were really nice and the street had a few muggles walking around. Evan watched everything Savannah did, driving a car was fascinating, a little bar thing could make it move forwards and backwards, it was amazing. There were also these pedal things that made the car go fast, “I don’t mind. You are doing pretty good to me. I want to know everything you can tell me,” Evan said enthused.

Evan watched Savannah as she pulled a CD out of its case and began to play it, it was wondrous how it worked and played music with no magic at all. “My friend told me muggle stuff don’t work at school, but I have never had a muggle thing to use before. They pulled into a parking area, Savannah got out and Evan followed after getting instructions as to how to get out of a seatbelt and the door. Their way to the mall was filled with strange and new things for Evan, for example you had to wait for a light to tell you to walk! Evan looked at a pair of boys who were laughing nearby, undoubtedly at Evan, but Savannah stood up for her. The two then crossed the street as the boys disappeared. The next interesting thing was that muggles had doors that open on their own, again without magic! All you did was step on some black pad on the ground.

“I guess. There are a lot of people here,” Evan said as the two entered the mall, there first stop was Radio Shack, a store which sold electrical gadgets. “Vans,” Evan repeated after Savannah showed her the shoe store, “Those are nice,” she said pointing to a pair of black shoes in the window. Evan looked at a muggle bank, “Savannah how do they protect muggle banks without charms?” she asked as they passed. Though there were a few stores Evan had never heard of there were a few she knew, like a hair salon, even witches get their hair done. “There are more stores?!” Evan asked, “They have almost as many shops as Diagon Alley and its all in one building.” Evan stood dumfounded, muggles were really brilliant to get all this done without magic, charms, house elves…nothing.

[Savannah Johnstone R7]

Savannah watched Evan as she looked around, she seemed to be like a little kid taking that first trip to a toy store or a candy shop. "It's pretty dumb to try and rob a muggle bank" Savannah said as she pointed ahead in the mall and lead the wall. “When they walked past the bank Savannah pointed in. “You see those black circles on the ceiling? They’ve got video cameras inside, that lets the security guards see what is going on all the time in the bank, kind of like a TV. Well if someone does try and rob it, the security will see it and they’ll call for the police to come.” Leading the way past the bank Savannah saw Evan staring at a pair of black shoes in the window. “Come on Evan, you don’t want to waste your money yet, wait till you see all the stores first.”

Up ahead in the main courtyard area of the mall was the food court. Around the central area stood dozens of food take out restaurants and in the middle was a vast eating area with hundreds of tables. “This is the food court, obviously” Savannah said as she looked around. “You’ve got just about everything here. Chinese food, Japanese, Thai, Mexican, a pizza parlor, a hoagie shop, and then several fast food places too. Then there are the dessert places, there’s the cookie shop, the cinnamon roll place, oh and the ice cream factory. We can come back here later on our way home, come on.” Savannah then lead the way through the food court and its tempting aromas over to one of several large black display that was located throughout the mall. “This is the mall directory, it’s got every store listed. OK” Savannah then ran her finger along the list as she explained the stores. “OK, the two big ones, there is a Target, that’s like a super store they have everything there that you can think of, and on the other side is Ralph’s, that’s a grocery store. The rest of the shops are specialty store, lets see, there are about a dozen clothing stores, there are jewelry shops, gift places, five shoe stores, a couple more electronic stores, a nutritional food store, a music shop, a toy shop, one pet store, a movie theater, a video arcade oh and a sports store.” Turning to Evan, Savannah grinned at her and knew full well this was far too much for her, but it was fun to see her reaction to it all. “Sooooooooo Evan, where would you like to go first?”

[petra]

Evan looked at everything Savannah was showing her, there seemed more to look at than her two eyes could take in. she listened attentively, as if she were in Potions class with Professor Snape. Savannah was talking about robbing a muggle bank, she pointed out the cameras and explained what they did and how the security stopped thieves. “It is like the charms we use in Gringotts, but just no magic.” After explaining and answering a few of Evan’s questions, Savannah told her not to waste her money till she had seen all of the stores. “I won’t, I don’t have much muggle money anyways.” The two kept walking and soon reached the food court. “There are more restaurants here than they are in Diagon Alley!” Evan said surprised, “ and a lot more seating. How can they have all these different types of food available in one place? It’s like one giant restaurant.” Evan eyed some chocolate fudge cookies as they passed out of the food court, Savannah promised they’d pass back on their way home.

She took her to the mall directory, that told you where everything was located; and she explained what was available in each one. “The should have one of these in Diagon Alley, so people can find things easier, especially the muggle-borns.” Evan listened, not wanting to interrupt Savannah, and there was so much to hear, she needed to pay attention. There were grocery stories next to clothing stores and novelty shops, there was just so many places to go. Evan looked completely perplexed when Savannah asked her where she wanted to go first. “I, don’t know,” she said with a smile, “there are too many places.” Evan must have stood there thinking for about five minutes before deciding to go to Sears.

As the two took the escalator to the second floor, where Sears was located, Evan took the chance to ask Savannah about something. “Savannah have you ever thought about what it would be like if you were a muggle? Not knowing magic existed, or about Hogwarts or all of us?” she asked her face innocent.

[Savannah Johnstone R7]

Savannah stepped off the escalator in front of Sears and led Evan towards the store, instead of walking into the store though she stopped by the wall at an ATM. “I don’t think it’d be that bad to live without magic, lots of things are actually easier here than in the magic world too.” Savannah opened her purse and took out her wallet, and took out a little red plastic card. Savannah then slid the card into a slot in the ATM machine and began to push buttons. In less than a minute the machine gave back her card and she opened a flap and took out some money. Putting her card back into her purse she took the money and put it in Evan’s hand, “alright lets go” she said as she led the way into the store. “So in Sears you can find just about everything really, shoes, clothes, jewelry, electronic stuff, toys, you name it they got it, so what are you interested in looking at first?”<br>
Upon entering the store they had come in by the perfume area, tables were all over and were lined with bottles of fragrances. Behind a counter two women stood there, one was trying to sell a bottle of perfume to a well dress woman in a business suit. The other women was looking straight at Evan. “ugh, I hate this area, watch yourself Evan those woman are vultures, don’t talk to them, they’ll just try and sell you stuff you don’t want.” Savannah then walked past the counter without even giving the woman a glance, which wasn’t needed as the woman paid Savannah no interest as her baggy clothes gave the impression that she was not one to indulge in fragrances. Instead the woman called out to Evan, “excuse me young lady” Savannah heard the saleswoman say as she walked past. Rolling her eyes she turned to see what Evan was going to do.

[petra]

Evan followed Savannah up the escalator, it took her a few minutes to get used to it enough to actually get on, but once she did it was not so bad. As they walked towards Sears, Savannah stopped in front of a strange looking machine, “Really?” Evan asked, looking at the machine curiously. Her quizzical look deepened as Savannah pulled out a little plastic card and slid it into a slot in the machine. A few minutes later, Savannah had pressed a few buttons, there was a strange whirring sound and then and machines mouth shot out some money. Evan was in complete shock. “What’s that?” she asked, barely able to speak as she followed Savannah into Sears, she was still looking back every second at the machine outside, and stuffing the money she had been given into her pocket.

She almost bumped into Savannah, “Ah, shoes and clothes?” she said trying to pay attention, but still partially focused on the machine. “Can we buy machines like that? That makes money. After that can we look at shoes?” Evan followed close behind Savannah, they entered a room that smelled very sweet, where women stood behind counters selling perfumes. “Okay,” she said as she was instructed to be mindful of the saleswomen. As they passed the counter one of the women called to Evan, she stopped and looked around. “Me?” she asked as the woman approached her. “I…I don’t want anything. I am just here to look.” Evan couldn’t buy anything even if she wanted to, she had no real idea of how muggle money worked, if she ever got a muggle item it was because her grandpa got it for her.

[Savannah Johnstone R7]

Savannah laughed as Evan continued to stare back at the ATM. “That’s an ATM Evan, like I told you, muggles have some stuff that’s way easier than they do in the magical world. An ATM is one of those. That is like a bank machine, look here at my bank card” Savannah then took out her ATM card and gave it to Evan. “See the numbers at the bottom, that is my bank ID code. When I put my card in, the machine thinks it is me, I then have to type in my number password which confirms that it is me and not someone who stole my card. So then I can do what you usually do at banks, deposit money or make a withdrawal. I just made a withdrawal, I pushed the button and typed in how much money I wanted to take from my account and the machine checks to be sure I have enough money, of course I do. Well then it gives me money from my account. Much quicker than going to Gringotts and having to deal with goblins and those stupid carts that take you forever to get to your vault.”

When they entered the store Savannah avoided the saleswomen, Evan however was not as fortunate. Savannah rolled her eyes as Evan was accosted by a saleswoman pushing her various brands of fragrance. Sighing heavily she walked over and rescued Evan, “she got plenty of perfume at home thanks” Savannah said as she took Evan aside. “You know why they went after you? Just look at yourself” Savannah said as she took Evan to a nearby mirror and pointed. “You looked like a girly girl, that’s why they went for you, they figure someone like you is much more willing to listen to them. You know what you need? You need a new image.” Savannah then turned and led Evan back outside of the store and led her down towards the other end of the mall. “OK we can get you a good outfit or two today, you’ve got to dump the pink and purple colors though. Skirts you can wear but you’ve got to get the right kind, and of course you’ll need to wear boots with them. We should get you some pants though, cargs for sure, that’s what I’ve got on see? With all the extra pockets you have lots of room for stuff, course I don’t use half the pockets but who cares.” Savannah then brushed Evan’s shoulder, “oh yea, these frilly shirts you wear? Gone, you got to get some T-shirts, or hooded sweat shirts, people will leave you alone then, look at me, no one bothers me at all.” In short time Savannah had led Evan clear across the mall and they now stood in front of Hot Topic. “Now here we go!” Savannah said as she led the way into the store which was illuminated by pulsing lights and had rock music blaring at a high level. “This is one of my favorite stores” Savannah said to Evan as she led her to the clothing section that had all sorts of pants, skirts, shirts and boots. “Alright, pick what you want girl!” Savannah said as she gave Evan a nudge towards the clothes while she then turned to a nearby shelf and started looking for some new shirts for herself.

[petra]

Evan was relieved when Savannah pulled her away from the saleswoman who was about to spritz her with some fragrance. “Thanks Savannah,” Evan tried to say but could not be hear over Savannah’s voice. “But I…” she tried to say, but Savannah was making her look into a mirror at herself. She looked at herself, there was nothing wrong with what she saw, at least not in her opinion or her families, and she was doing well it the modelling thing. Why would Savannah think she needed to be made over? “But Savannah…” but again Evan’s words went unheard as Savannah led her out of the store and to the other end of the mall. Savannah was rattling on about dropping wearing this colour and the next, “Boots?” Evan asked, her face a little worried, Savannah was acting like a crazy person.

It seemed everything about Evan’s appearance needed changing in Savannah’s eyes; and Evan went dumbfounded, into another store. The store, Hot Topic, it was called, had so many different things that when Savannah pushed Evan towards some racks and told her to choose, she was at lost. There was no point trying to argue her case with Savannah, she was not going to hear her, so she went to the rack and began pulling things off. She took a pair of jeans first, black, fitted ones; then she took a shirt, it was like her school shirt but black and had a sweater vest over it in red. She went to another rack and pulled out a skirt that reached to about her calf, it was blue denim with green thread through it. After some time of pulling things off the shelves that she liked she went to Savannah, “I got these,” she said. She really didn't know if they were her though, and how would her mum take the "makeover"?

[Savannah Johnstone R7]

Savannah perused through the racks and found a few things she liked but her budget today would only allow two maybe three items so the decision became quite difficult. She had decided on a blue top and a plain designed skirt to start with but the last item was a tough choice. As she looked at the two tops, Evan came over with her hands full of clothes. “That’s a lot you got there Evan, sure you want to jump into this that quickly? Oh well, the changing room is back there by the stuffed bears, try your stuff on and see how it looks, I’ll wait for you here.” While Evan went to try on her clothes Savannah made a decision on her last top, she flipped a coin and in the end the red top with white trim won out. Taking her clothes she waited in line to purchase them while eying over to the dressing room for a sign of Evan. When it was her turn she handed over her items and paid the woman in cash before walking over to the dressing rooms. “Evan!” She stood by a mirror, “are you done yet?” she asked as she sat down and looked at the rack of stuffed bears, some were cute and furry, while others were holding swords were quite violent. Savannah laughed at one of the bears and wondered what Dorian might think if she gave her one of them.

[petra]

Evan went into the changing room and tried on the skirt with the black shirt and vest; she liked the top but not the bottom so she took it off and slipped into the fitted jeans. She could hear Savannah calling her name from outside the booth she was in, “I’m coming,” she said softly as she looked at herself in the mirror.

Evan pumped her courage and stepped out, “What do you think?” she asked Savannah, as her makeover was more Sav’s idea than hers. She modelled the outfit as she would any for her parents’ shows, the shoes didn’t go with it of course but it had to do for now. She walked up to Savannah, “So?” she asked.

[Savannah Johnstone R7]

Savannah waited in annoyance as Evan took entirely too long, she must have tried on everything twice. Finally when she stepped out, Savannah eyed her keenly. Her outfit was acceptable, not the greatest, but it was a good start none the less. "Alright, go get that, and hurry up I got to get home before 5PM, there's a skate competition on tonight and I want to watch it." Savannah followed Evan to the cashier and stood there in case the cashier tried to pull a fast one on Evan, it was pretty obvious that Evan looked like a tourist as she had a real hard time with the money.

As they left Hot Topic, Savannah led the way back to the escalators. "Come on Evan, we better start heading out now, I'll take you to the food court for dinner, then we got to go. You know, maybe some other time you can come back over earlier in the day and I'll let you explore every shop."

Back down to the first floor they went until they reached the food court. It was just after 4pm, and the court mercifully was still rather empty. "Alright, what do you want? Burgers? Hot dogs? Pizza? Chinese? Mexican? A sub? Then get your desert too, cookies? Fudge? Ice cream? Cheesecake?" Savannah watched as Evan struggled to take it all in, patience was not one of Savannah's strong points but she tried for Evan's sake. "Right, sorry, well, I'm going to go get me a BBQ burger and some fries, its well, a cheeseburger with BBQ sauce, of course you don't know what that is.. umm, well it's like a sandwhich.. with meat... charbroiled meat... its good. Fries, are, fried sliced potatoes, also very good. For desert I'm going to get me a piece of cheesecake, I'm taking it home though, no way could I eat it all here anyway. So... come with me and I'll buy you the same as me, next time... next time you can look more, most places have pictures of everything they sell on the menu anyway."

Savannah made her way to the burger joint and rolled her eyes at the woman in front of her who dared to ask if the burger joint had any vegetarian burgers. Once she had the food she found Evan who had taken a seat at a table. "Here Evan" She said as she set down the tray of food and handed Evan a coke, "that's coke, its like butterbeer kind of... you'll like it, trust me." Savannah then unwrapped her burger slowly so Evan could see the proper way to go about it, she then carefully opened the packs of ketchup and sprinkled it on her plate again going slowly for Evan's education. "So, what do you think of this place? Too much for you?" She asked while trying to surpress a grin.

[petra]

Evan smiled as Savannah gave some approval to her choice and she rushed to change and then was off to the counter to purchase it. She knew very little about muggle money but she managed to pay for things on her own, he always confused the ones and the fifties, she did not understand why muggles just couldn’t use coins like wizards. The outfit cost her thirty-six dollars, which she supposed was not bad; twenty for the pants and sixteen for the tops.

The two left Hot Topic and Savannah offered to by Evan dinner, “Okay,” she said and followed Savannah since she had no idea where the food court was. When Savannah suggested that she come back another time, earlier, Evan beamed, “I’d really like that Savannah,” it was nice to think Savannah liked her, but with Sav it was sometimes hard to tell at least for Evan.

Again Evan was rushed in a mad frenzy by Savannah who always seemed in a rush; she did not even let Evan decide on her own dinner but bought her what she was having. She barely had time to take everything in as they Savannah told her something about pictures and cheesecake. They found a table and Savannah laid the food in front of her. Evan looked at it strangely but tried it nonetheless and found it to be very good, especially the fries and she found she had a liking for “coke.” Evan ate her food but Savannah was asking her about what she thought, “Well it’s big,” Evan said, “and there are a lot of people and the money’s weird, but I like it,” she said with a smile. “Are all muggle malls like this one?” she asked.

[Savannah Johnstone R7]

Savannah watched Evan as she seemed to quite enjoy her dinner. "Yeah I suppose most muggle malls are like this or somewhat close to this style" she said as she slid $5 more over to Evan. "Go get that dessert that I know you want, I think you can go get it yourself now too. She then watched Evan disappear over towards the dessert stands and return a few moments later. "I think we'll need to get going as soon as you finish, I bet your grandpa will be worrying about you, you can send my mom's owl home so Dorian can come get you."

Once Evan had finished, Savannah showed her where to throw the trash away and then she led the way back outside to the parking lot. The sun was beginning to set and the mass crowd of shoppers was now entering the mall. "Watch yourself Evan!" Savannah said as she grabbed Evan's hand and pulled her away from a car driven by a person busy talking on a phone. Giving the driver a rude gesture, Savannah turned back to Evan, "You have to watch out, stupid people like that will kill you and won't even realize they hit you."

The drive home was quite short and soon they were back in the living room. Savannah threw her bag on the couch and walked over and took a notepad and a pen from the coffee table. "Here" she said as she handed the two to Evan, "write your note and I'll get the owl." A minute later Savannah returned with a small horned owl fluttering about than landed on the table next to Evan. "He's pretty fast so it won't take too long." Savannah then sat on the couch, flipped on the TV and waited for Dorian to show up.

[petra]

Evan ate her food with satisfaction; it was very good she had to admit. She took the five dollars from Savannah and flashed her a bright smile, “Thanks,” she said and whisked away to the dessert stand for a chocolate cream cheesecake. The line was a bit long, but soon she had her very large slice of cheesecake in hand and was weaving her way back to Savannah. Evan sat and started in on her cheesecake; it was fantastic and would easily have made a more figure conscious person cringe to think of the calories, but Evan did care about those things. She looked up disheartened as Savannah told her they would have to leave once she was done, “Okay,” she said as he face fell, she was really having a good time, but Sav was right her grandpa would worry and so would her parents.

When she was done and had wiped the last bit of whipped cream of her mouth, Savannah showed her where to dispose of her trash and then they headed for the parking lot. She was crossing towards Savannah’s car when she was suddenly jerked forward as a car whizzed by just behind her. Evan watched the car drive away stunned, they could have it her Savannah told her and she suddenly didn’t like muggle cars very much, and she realised that cars were dangerous, the thought had never really occurred to her before, having never seen an accident or almost been knocked down as she had just experienced.

She walked and got into the car in silence, but soon the different things they saw on the way back made her forget the parking lot incident and she was once again in a cheery mood. They returned to Savannah’s and Evan quickly went about writing a note to her sister Dorian, to come and collect her from the Johnstone residence. Savannah disappeared to get the owl and soon returned with a horned owl, which landed on the table beside Evan. “All done,” she said and tucked the note in the owl’s pouch, “There you go,” she said stoking the soft feathers before the owl took off out the window. Evan took a seat next to Savannah and began to watch television with her, a wonderful muggle device.

[Savannah Johnstone R7]

Savannah sat quietly while Evan wrote out her little note then sent it on it's way out the window. As she flipped stations Evan sat down with her and watched the TV. Of course she had no idea what it was nor how it worked and Savannah smirked at her. "It's a TV you watch stuff on it, it's a great invention. They have lots of shows on them, and there are like literally 200 different stations so at any time there are 200 different shows one could watch. Of course some are just plain stupid, others are quite good. There's the news, that's where they tell you what has happened in the city that day and the world, and tell you about upcoming events and the weather and such. They also show sports if you can't go to the match, then they have comedies, and game shows, and dramas. Here, you try." Savannah then handed the remote control to Evan, "the green up and down buttons change stations, or you could type in a number on the number pad to go to a station you want if you don't feel like going through them all, that plus and minus make it louder or softer, don't worry about the other buttons for now."

As Evan played with the remote Savannah watched the stations flipping by and picked up the mail from the coffee table. Looking through it she found a few bills and a couple of catalogues and a magazine. Opening up a skater magazine she flipped through a few pages before she threw the magazine down. "EVAN!" She exclaimed as she stood up, "Turn that off and come here" Savannah then walked across the room and stood at the hallway, "push the red button Evan and come here." Savannah then disappeared down the hallway and entered her bedroom which was heavily with posters.

"Sit down at my desk" she told Evan when she finally showed up. "This is my computer, I'm going to show you how to use it." Pointing at a blue button Savannah continued, "Push that button to turn it on" she then pointed at a silver button, "push that to turn on the monitor, that's what you look at, oh and then push this pink button to turn on the speakers so you can hear." Once the computer was turned on Savannah moved Evan's hand to the little black mouse, "that's call the mouse, grab it in your hand, move it around and see the little sword move around that's how you move around, right OK move it over here to this picture then push the left button 2 times fast. OK, now see this is the keyboard, push the letters and it makes the letter show up on the screen this is how you can write a letter quicker than writing it with a quill, and if you make a mistake you push this button to erase the letter." Savannah watched Evan for a minute or two as she played with keyboard before she pointed to the printer. "OK push that green button to turn on the printer, and then take the mouse and move it over here to this button, then push the button, and then push that button there to print what you wrote." As Evan slowly worked it out Savannah grabbed the paper from the printer and handed it to her, "here you can take that home. Now I'm going to show you the internet, so move the mouse here and push that button." Before Evan could finish that though a loud *BANG* was heard from the front room, "that must be Dorian... DORIAN!! WE'RE IN MY ROOM!" Savannah yelled as she waited for her to show up.

[casey]

Dorian Strathclyde was on her bed reading her Potions book when she was roused by a tapping at her bedroom window. She looked up, and to her surprise found an owl there with what appeared to be a note, but she didn’t know this owl, it wasn’t one of the usual ones that brought her messages. She got up and opened the window at which the owl hopped in and nestled on her desk. “What do you have there?” she asked as she held out her hand for the owl. The bird jumped on and she took the note from its pouch, she then reached in her pocket for a owl treat, which the bird ate happily.

Dorian read the note quickly, it appeared that Evan had spent the day with Savannah and now she needed someone to pick her up. “I thought she was with grandpa?” she said quizzically. “Thanks owl,” she said and rested it back on her desk, it would leave when it was ready. Dorian grabbed her coat and then went for the fireplace; she would take the Floo System to Savannah’s. She throw the powder in the fire, which erupted in green flames that she then stepped into, “The Johnstone residence, ,” she said and disappeared.

Dorian appeared in the den of Savannah’s house with a loud pop. Dorian loved the Johnstone house; it was a house that had some thought in it, nothing in it that didn’t make sense. “Hello?” she called into the house, wanting to announce her presence before walking around in their house. When she heard Savannah yelling to her, she made her way upstairs to her room.

“Hey you two,” she said smiling as she saw Savannah trying to show Evan more muggle things. “You ready?” she asked Evan, sure that by now her little sister had asked all the questions that Savannah could stand for one day. “I thought you were with grandpa?” she said.