Here Be a Toad

With a filled belly it was time Linette was out shopping for supplies. She had worked out an order of shop visits in her head but right now she really needed to find out how to get out of the pub. It wasn't that she had never been here before. It was more that she'd never been here when it was this crowded. Never had she found it so hard to get to the exit and her short stature didn't help.

A deep croak from near her feet froze the eleven year old and she dropped her eyes to the ground. "A toad?" She swallowed and squatted down whilst touching the amphibian tentatively with the tip of her finger. Toads weren't exactly her favourite creatures in the world but it didn't mean she wanted one to be squashed. Someone bumped into her from behind. "Careful," she called out. "I nearly fell on him."

Christian had been to La Petit Dragon a few times before in the year that he had been living in France but now that the small pub was so crowded with much taller people everywhere he was finding it harder to find the exit the lead to Amethyst Alley. There was also that fact that he had never stopped in the pub his father had always lead him straight to the exit so now he was trying to find it from a different angle as well. Being rather short compared to all the older students and adults the eleven year old had to just walk around and stop once and away to see if he was close to the door, for he was definitely not going to ask someone where it was cause what kind of impression is that.

We was wandering through the crowd when someone ran into from behind making him run into the person in front of him. Who then yelled at him for almost making her squish something. "Oh I'm sorry I was pushed as well. What did you almost squish?" He asked hoping it wasn't something alive cause that would be very bad.

Linette nodded up at the boy. It was very crowded but even if it weren't she would have taken his explanation at face value anyway. "A toad. Here." She pointed down at the toad. "Would you like to pick him up? Holding them makes me squeamish." She admitted her squeamishness without a hint of embarrassment or shame. What need was there?

She stood again and brushed invisible dirt from her skirt. With the boy standing there Linette thought the toad was safe enough. "You don't belong to this toad do you? If not we have to find its real owner because there is no way I'm going to own a toad. It's an owl I want." Owls were so much better. She could send joke mail to Benoit. Maybe even send hexes in owls if she managed to learn such magic. Linette hoped so. Otherwise she was going to have to find someone to help her out with pranking her long distant brother.

"Well would look at that." Christian said looking down at the toad that was just sitting in the middle of a crowded pub like he belonged there. The boy wondered how it had gotten there, or how it got this far without being squashed. The girl asked Christian to pick up the toad because it made her squeamish. "Of course I can milady." He replied with a small bow that he used to scoop the small chubby toad up. While toads weren't his favorite animal ever he didn't dislike the creatures he had even considering getting one for school but now he wanted either an owl or a rat. "Well this toad isn't mine and I don't know whose it is, so what do you want me to do with it?" He asked curiously, surely she didn't want him to go around the whole pub looking for the mystery owner of this toad and surely not by himself for this was her problem in the first place he just wanted to go to Amethyst Alley to go shopping. Maybe he would be okay with it if he was just the toad bearer and she went looking for the owner too. Of course maybe she didn't want to find the owner and instead just let it go outside the pub.

Alexandria frowned deeply as she glanced around the pub. There were people everywhere, and she could barely see her mother sitting at a table in the far corner. Being shoved, Alexandria found herself stumbling forwards and hiding under a table in hopes that either her mother would see her and come help her, or that people would move. Hearing voices behind her that surely didn't belong to adults, she turned and glanced around before walking over. "Is that a toad?" She found herself asking without permission from herself, but she smiled politely and tried not to wince as they both looked at her.

She glanced from the boy to the girl who'd arrived to their small section of the pub. "Yes. Do you like to hold toads? Or have you lost one?" Linette was placing all her hopes for the survival of the toad on one of these two. There was no way she could do it herself.

Alexandia shook her head. "I...would much rather not hold a toad." She said slowly, eyeing the ceature with distaste. "I didn't loose it, but I can help you find it's owner?" She said with a slight sigh, glancing towards where her mother was sitting with the things they had just bought. Alexandria was unable to help but want to hurry, as they only need to get her wand, robes, and pet last.

Linette understood this girl's reluctance to hold the toad perfectly. "They are horrible and ugly to look at aren't they? All squishy too." She shuddered. "Someone once chased me with a toad and I had nightmares for a week."

She looked at the boy. "Rescue of this toad is up to you." He was a boy so Linette thought that meant he shouldn't have any problems with holding a toad. In her way of thinking toads were only liked by boys and that girl who lived down the road from her.

Alexandria let out an amused giggle, and nodded. "They're gross.: She said simply, scrunching up her nose. "My name is Alexandria, by the way. You can call me Alex, if you want." She said after a moment of hesitation, smiling at the girl.

Linette smiled at the other girl's giggle. "And I'm Linette," she replied. "You can call me Linette. No nicknames. I don't like them." She looked down to where the toad had been. Linette quickly looked up again. "Boy or whatever your real name is did you pick up the toad?" Not that she really cared. She was just a little afraid the owner might find him and then chase her around with it for not handing it over earlier. Though how anyone in this crowd would know she'd seen isn't a question she'd be able to answer with ease.

The toad didn't seem to mind that Christian was holding it actually it seemed really content to be sitting in the boys small hands. He had always thought toads were just for poking when the neighbor boys found one dead in by a pond, but this one was actually pretty cool. He wasn't sure what about the strange slightly fat creature that appealed to the boy maybe it was it's demeanor during this situation. The dirty blonde haired boy stroked the small creature with his forefinger and watched it close it's as if in happiness at the petting.

He had been paying so much attention to the toad that he didn't even realized there was another girl in the little toad focused group. He had caught that one of them was named Alex and the other was Linette but he didn't know which was which. "Oh sorry ladies. I think this little thing is pretty cool." He said noticing the looks of disgust on the girl's faces. "But I'm not going to be stuck with the job of finding it's owner by myself. Oh and my name is Christian by the way."

"You think it's cool? I mean that's great you think it's cool." It proved her point. Toads were a boy's pet. "Well I suppose I can help you find the owner so long as you're the one holding him." She had taken the trouble to make sure the creature wasn't squashed so she supposed she should see this to the end.

Linette turned to the other girl. "Alexandria are you willing to help us on this quest if Christian continues to hold the toad?" The place was very crowded and Linette was at a loss as to how to go about such a mammoth task. "Do either of you know the best way to look for a toad's owner?" Because right at that moment barring stopping every person in the pub Linette had nothing. Asking everyone was going to take forever unless they happened get lucky and hit upon the owner with the first person they approached.

"It's easy." Alexandria said, pulling out an empty chair at a nearby table. Struggling a bit with her balance, she climbed up on the chair and then stood on the table, motioning for the others to stand with her. It was obvious that if they to try and ask everyone separately, it wouldn't work. Even if they split up. They could have cast a tracking charm, but Alexandria hadn't had time to practice in the wizarding public. They would have to deal with attracting people's attention like this and calling out for the owner of the lost toad.

Linette watched Alexandria with interest as the other girl climbed onto a table. It didn't take her a second thought to follow her example. What anyone else in the pub might think didn't even enter her head. She was just glad someone had a plan for finding this toad's owner.

"Come on Christian," she urged the boy. "You should be up here too so that everyone can see the toad." Not that Linette thought anyone would want to look upon the face of anything so ugly. Or at least those who had the sense to see how ugly they were. "Who wants to make the announcement?"

Christian watched the two girls he was with climb up onto a table, they said they were going to just yell into the crowd asking who's toad it was he was currently holding. Linette urged him to climb up as well so he could show off the toad to the crowd since neither one of them wanted to touch it for some reason. He just assumed girls made an effort to dislike everything boys liked just to be different. Whatever the reason was they were not going to touch the animal for sure so it was up to him.

So he climbed up with them, and since neither of them seemed eager to yell the announcement to the crowd Christian spoke up. "I'll do it for you miladies." He said with a small chuckle at the fancy word. "Excuse me! I have someone's toad here! Is someone missing a toad!" He yelled over the people's heads and as soon as he was done he saw a small person pushing through people making a rough path of sorts.