Serious Consideration Needed

Minnie had lived in a house with animals which weren't her own her entire life. Well there were those two years when her mother's cat Mathilde lived with her grandfather whilst she and her mother were living in New Zealand. That wasn't important. The important thing was she would finally have a pet of her own. She also needed to make the decision without her mother breathing down her neck.

The eleven year old walked carefully around the entire shop taking in the sights of all the animals on show. Both the types she would be allowed to have with her and those she would not. The latter because well it was always good to have a goal. And perhaps she might figure out how to smuggle one into the school without the Professors being any more the wiser.

"Bat or ferret," she muttered to herself eventually after deciding the non-permitted ones weren't really all that interesting anyway. It really was down to these two. And she needed to make her decision fast before Maman came back.

There was no way that his parents would ever allow him to have a pet. Even though he was the favorite and the youngest, there was still limits to the things he could get away with. His home had a strict "no pets" rule and he wished there wasn't. It was probably a good thing too because he knew that he was too selfish to take care of a pet and he would probably have one of the housekeepers look after it. Responsibility was something the young boy wasn't good at. He couldn't look past himself to care for another creature, he was always so good at thinking about himself. It was hard to get along with other kids that way but he didn't mind so much. Since he had began school, he had gained a small following. When he needed things done, he made others do it. Maybe they were afraid of him or maybe they wanted to impress him, he didn't know which. Or if those were even the only options.

Raj looked along the animals and decided that his parents were right, animals were gross. The cats were too ugly, the ferrets were too smelly, and he just hated the toads. They were such gross creatures. "Ew," he said out loud when he spotted a long brown ferret. He quickly turned away and began to walk the other way. This place was just gross but he was hiding from his nanny so he had to stay inside the building to keep her worrying. He pretended to be interested in a bat as a shophand gave him a look. "What do you think his problem is?" he whispered to whoever was closest to him, which happened to be a girl about his age. "Ferrets are gross and bats are grosser," he stated, he had heard what she had said and put his thoughts in regardless if she wanted to hear them or not.

This decision between a bat and a ferret was a very difficult one to make. Both appealed to Minnie. They were very different to the usual choices of owl, cat or rat. How dull that was. Besides her father once bought her mother a cat. That meant that animal was well off the list. Minnie looked closer at the ferrets with half an eye on the nearby bats. She didn't even look up when some boy questioned her. "Who?" was the only thing she said and in an absent tone as someone who wasn't really listening. His statement though did get a much stronger reaction.

"You'd better keep your opinions to yourself in a place like this," she advised. The ferret jumped up at the bars of the cage and Minnie poked a finger between the bars. "I'm getting one of these. Do you feel even more grossed out yet?" It was half tempting to go with the bat since the boy thought them grosser but Minnie really wanted a ferret now. She waved over a shophand. "Could I have a closer look at the ferrets please? This one in particular. Maman will be in soon to pay."

With one handsome brown ferret soon in her arms Minnie decided she didn't want any other. "Thank you so much." She gave the boy a triumphant grin. "This is my new pet. Want to name him for me?"

Raj rolled his eyes at the girl. There was just something annoying about her and he couldn't quite place it. Oh, wait. It was everything about her. It was mostly the sound of her voice though, it sounded like nails on a chalkboard to him. "Has anyone ever commented on your voice before?" he stated. He took a moment to build up for emphasis and maybe make her believe he was about to compliment her. "It's annoying," he said after a moment.

"I'll say whatever I want." He wasn't about to be bossed around by this girl. He rolled his eyes again, he knew he was going to do this a lot when he talked to his girl. She was incredibly annoying. "I don't want to name your nasty animal." He narrowed his eyes at the girl for a split second before a smirk spread across his face. "Ferrets smell bad so I hope you have fun having a smelly room. One can only hope your roommate won't hate you for the smell."

If this boy thought he could bring her down with one insult he'd never met Minnie Angelique Puchard before. "No-one has ever commented on my voice before," she replied cheerfully showing how little he cared, "so since you're the only one who thinks it sounds annoying then there must be something wrong with your ears." She pressed forward to look closer and stepped back again. "Just as I thought. You'd better get that checked out by a healer. There's a worm in your ear."

Minnie shrugged. "Go on ahead then. Just don't blame me if a bunch of animal lovers hex you for the things you say in here." It was a shame that no adult who didn't want to be arrested would do such a thing or a student who didn't have any thought to getting expelled either come to that. She chuckled the ferret under the chin. Hearing how the boy described her new pet the perfect name came to her. "That's fine. This is Angelo after my father. He's also smelly." Well she didn't know that for certain but any man who'd abandon his girlfriend and child had to be a bit of a stinker. "If my roommate doesn't appreciate my choice in pets then that's her problem. Not mine." She sniffed at Angelo's fur and shook her head. "I think it's the toilet tray in the cat cage further down you can smell."

Raj rolled his eyes, something that he had been doing a lot since he had began to talk to this annoying little girl. If he was the only one to ever comment on her voice then others were just not saying anything to spare her feelings. "No worm in my ear," he stated matter-of-factly. He knew the girl was only teasing but he went on just to show how rich and powerful his family was. "I see the best doctors since my family is very wealthy. So, it is your voice that is annoying. Like nails on a chalkboard, actually." Her voice reminded him of someone slowly, very slowly, running their nails down a new blackboard.

He doubted anyone would hex him, even if he insulted the animals in the shop. He was just a boy after all and who would hurt a poor little boy like him? "No one would be stupid enough to hex someone, there's too much trouble when it comes to hexing people." The way the girl spoke about her father was weird to the boy since he respected his own so much. Everyone came from different families and since he didn't really come from a loving family, he didn't have much room to talk about her disrespecting her father. "You're not very considerate of others, that's a terrible trait to have. It makes you a bad person. What if your roommate were allergic? Or your ferret stunk up your room so much your roommate told the headmistress? You're very inconsiderate." He ignored her last comment, he just wanted to argue some more.

Minnie wrinkled her nose at this snobbish boy. She wondered if her father's family would be like this were she ever so unfortunate to meet them. "Whoop de do. Look at me? I'm so rich and powerful. You don't impress me at all. And if my voice is annoying you then you do have the option of walking out the door. The exit is that way." She pointed behind her in an ever so helpful way.

"Maybe not. But if you were perhaps suspected of possibly teasing the animals in this shop you could get kicked out. No-one runs a shop like this takes kindly to animal haters such as yourself. Anyway why would someone who hates animals be in here in the first place?" This boy really did seem to think she would back down. He did not know Minnie Puchard if that's what he thought. "They will not be allergic. You just wait and see. Anyway who are you to talk about inconsiderate? You've done nothing but throw insults at the ferrets and bats in a petshop. A petshop where people who loves animals come in. You're insulting all the people who love bats and ferrets with your words. You're insulting the poor animals themselves. That is the biggest inconsiderate thing anyone can do. Insult poor defenceless animals and their defenders."