friday is forever [jeremy+murray]

So come on, come on
and don't you say never

After all the trips she had made to Diagon Alley recently, Ari was tired of Flooing to the wizarding high street. Turning 17 and becoming an adult was a little bit intimidating to the rising sixth year, but on the plus side, she was going to be able to learn to Apparate this year, and her birthday was early in the year so she'd be able to use it, and magic in general, as soon as they went on break. Being one of the older students in her year had its perks. Of course, from what she heard Apparition wasn't exactly a more pleasant experience, but at least it would be a little less messy, provided she managed to not splinch herself. Her dad had told her the story about how he managed to lose three fingers the first time he'd gotten anywhere enough times to make Ariana wonder if she'd gotten some defective gene that was going to impair her ability to, well, teleport.

Ari was this time not on business but on pleasure, and she was going to hang out with Jeremy Edwards today, one of her Gryffindor friends. Jeremy, like his best friend Danny, was easy to be around, and Ariana appreciated that. Guys were a lot less complicated than girls sometimes, as long as you had no romantic interest towards them and they didn't have any towards you. Jeremy hadn't shown anything like that towards her, so things were simple. And fun. The Hufflepuff was nowhere near as energetic as her Gryffindor friends, but it was nice having people with that kind of energy around. She supposed living with Kate had gotten her to enjoy that, and that was a good thing.

Dusting off her robes from the trip in the fire, Ari set off down the street to Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes. It had lost a little bit of its character with Fred's death, which always made Ariana a bit sad when she went in even if she hadn't known him in person really, but their stuff was still good, and at least she could support George Weasley by supporting his business. Making money was tough, especially if nobody bought your things. Since the war was over, there wasn't really a need for her to get a stock of Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder or Decoy Detonators, but Ari happened to be one of those people that enjoyed going into stores and looking at all the things she'd never need to use. And Jeremy and Danny were known for using WWW products in their numerous pranks, which had always been funny to watch.

It didn't take her long to spot Jeremy, whose flaming red hair, tall physique, and colorful clothing made him stand out, even in a store as eye-popping as he was. Ari headed over and had a look at the products he was examining. She always felt short next to him. "Hey, Jeremy. You know, I've always wanted to try one of these on someone, but I've never really had the guts," Ari laughed, glancing at an Electric Shock Shake, whatever that was. "How's your summer been, other than the game?" Jeremy had played Keeper for Superman with her. Derek's annual game had been especially nice this year because they'd had enough for full teams, and it wasn't just members of one house on one team, even if there had been more Gryffindors than anyone there.

It was like an every day thing now for Jeremy, he was constantly being dragged to Diagon Alley with his mother. Sure he was a growing boy. Yes he needed lots of supplies for his sixth year. But did they have to go to the shopping village every single day? Jeremy loved his mother and he especially loved that most of the time she did the shopping, but he'd much rather be some where else. There was too much brick, and mortar, and cement in Diagon Alley. He wanted to be outside in nature. He wanted to be with the trees and the grass and the bugs. If he couldn't have all of that though, WWW was good enough. Jeremy was practically bouncing out of his shoes when his mother finally cut him loose. He moved quickly down the crowded street straight for the bright orange building at the end. His long legs helped him move fast and see over crowds as he made his way to the joke shop. Once he got inside he felt his nerves calm a little but he was still bouncing. Humming a tune underneath his breath he rocked his head back at forth with the rhythm as he went slowly down the aisles. He tapped on boxes that looked like they might make a good sound whenever he saw fit.

Finally he reached the pranks that he was looking for. Sure he'd seen most of them before but having a summer job had its benefits. Jeremy had his own sickles to do with as he wished. And he was buying pranks. Picking up a box that was sure to be a favorite once he went back to school and met all of the first year minions that him and Danny were going to have Jeremy smiled wildly. He lost himself in the movie that was playing in his head of how he would execute this plan and how it would be awesome. Yep he was definitely going to buy some of these, but he had to test out the product first. That was important. Jeremy was a prankster and he liked playing jokes but he never tried to actually hurt people. He wouldn't feel right shocking little baby first years if he didn't know how badly it was going to hurt them. He wasn't trying to scar them for life, just get a laugh out of the deal. He contemplated his options on testing out the item when someone snuck up on him and spoke. He recognized the voice immediately and his already crazy white smile grew bigger.

"Aaaana!" He called to her, even though she was standing close enough for him to use his inside voice. He slowed her nickname down as he spoke, emphasizing the two syllables that made it up. He knew most people called her Ari but he called her Ana, she didn't seem to mind so far. "Today might just be your lucky day!" He replied with excitement. How perfect was this. He had an item he wanted to test out and she had always wanted to use it on someone. Perfect timing. He listened to her question but unfortunately he was a little be too excited to give her an actual answer. "Oh you know, pretty good." Before he could really even give her a second to follow up with another question or comment Jeremy grabbed a box of the Electric Shock Shake and her arm and pulled her behind one of the large showcases near a window. He wasn't stealing, he wasn't really hiding, but in case this thing was about to make him cry, he wanted to have at least a little bit of cover. "Okay so how would you like to help me out with something? It'd save me a whole lot of trouble?" He played up the fact that she was a good friend and asked for her help.

Jeremy thought about going off on a long winded explanation about why he wanted her to help him. What he wanted her to do. And how it would be useful for the two of them. He knew he could make his case and she might say yes but instead his over eagerness got the best of him. He opened up the tin box that the fake hand shaker was in and held it out to her. His other hand ran through his deep red fluff of hair and he bounced a little on one foot. He really hoped that she would do this for him.

"Shock me?"

Jeremy's grins were something all to themselves, that was for sure, and Ari returned his as he recognized her. They were large and infectious--even when accompanied by outdoor voices in the shop which normally would make her wince. Her Gryffindor friend also had a habit of calling her by the last half of her name instead of her first, like everyone else did. Ariana could only assume it was because he liked being different, but she never had any problems with him calling her Ana instead of Ari. It was actually kind of refreshing once in a while, and his voice saying it was pretty distinctive so she never got confused. "Oh yeah? Tell me about it."

He brushed off her question, but again, Ariana wasn't offended. It was really actually very difficult to be offended when you were around Jeremy--he never really did anything malicious, and she could tell that he was just really excited about what he'd found. She might ask him later, maybe if his insatiable stomach got the better of him and they ended up going to go get something to eat. For the moment, she was being dragged behind a showcase that she supposed was meant for cover. "Okay," she said cautiously, wondering exactly what they were going to be doing. On the other hand, if it was to do with what he'd just grabbed, she had some idea, and well, Ari never got the chance to do anything really fun like that. Being a prefect had its downsides, which was probably why they got a special bathroom and got to patrol corridors at night if they wanted.

Jeremy held out the shaker to her and she got his drift. "This isn't dangerous, right?" she couldn't help but comment as she took it out of its box and got a hold on the fake shaker. Generally the results of the Weasleys' products were never permanent, but still, getting turned into a canary or given an unhealable bruise could be a pain in the butt sometimes. "I still have a month before I can use Rennervate on you if it makes you pass out or something," Ari reminded him jokingly, although the Trace wasn't going to get after her in Diagon Alley where there were tons of overage wizards around. She hoped he was just going to be using this on Danny or something if it did that, because she didn't want to confiscate anything in the middle of him having fun with some innocent first years.

Despite her bringing up concern, she was going to do it. They weren't in school, and it was for fun, and she was maybe a little ready to be less than strait-laced today. "Ready?" She held it out to him all in position, waiting for him to grab the thing. "Nice to meet you," she added with a laugh, pretending she was actually introducing herself to him to give a premise for the shake.

Jeremy was revving up to go. He had asked Ana to shock him and it looked like she was about to play along. She held the fake hand out to him and even said 'nice to meet you'. Jeremy smiled wildly and bounced up and down, boy did he love days like this. He was so excited that she was playing along because he really wasn't sure if shocking himself was a good idea. He pictured himself tensing up and being unable to let go of the shocker before he passed out, twitching, on the floor of WWW. Shaking himself out of that thought Jeremy looked back at Ana and nodded his head, he was ready. He spent ten seconds stretching, rolling his head around trying to look like he was an athletic preparing to do something impressive. When he was finally set to go and went to take a step forward he was blocked. He felt a little bit cheated, a little disappointed, and then he saw the other boy getting shocked, and any sliver of bad feelings evaporated right out. "That was awesome!" He said, a bit louder than he should have, probably attracting attention to them. He looked around quickly, being able to see over the display case because he was so tall, and then smiled again. The coast was clear, for now.

Turning back to them he spoke with a playful tone in his voice. "Alright, thanks for gettin' it warmed up for me." He side stepped so he could reach the hand that Ana was still hanging on to and took a deep breath. Show time. Without hesitation the red head quickly latched on to the shocker and felt the pulse immediately. It was more than he had expected, but not too painful for eleven year olds. After one violent shake Jeremy managed to let go of the fake hand and then laughed loudly. "Woah!" He exclaimed, the tingling feeling still coursing through his body. He didn't know it but every long red hair on his body had suddenly been charged and his already wild hair was sticking out in every direction. "Nice." He said with another nod and another roar of a laugh. "Its perfect for what I've got in mind. Thanks for helping me test the quality guys." He was excited and it was showing all over his freckled face. He licked his lips, just thinking of the possibilities was making him anxious to get back to school. And that was something that the Gryffindor almost never did. He enjoyed his summers, his free time, but he also loved school.

Not because he enjoyed classes or book work but because of the social environment. There were always people around to make laugh. Always something to do, someone to talk to, and Jeremy needed constant distraction. He bored easily. "Wanna give it a try Ana?" He asked with a little smirk taking over his already bright white smile. "Its not too bad." And he wasn't lying. Jeremy wasn't about to force the Hufflepuff to do it if she didn't want to but he was more then willing to hold the safe side of the hand if she did want to try it out. "If you don't though its alright, no worries." The friendly tone of his voice showed that he both wanted her to try it out and that he only wanted her to if she was okay with it. He had already seen Murray do it and he'd done it himself, he was cool with that. Reaching out he held his hand out in the air so that if she wanted to try she could hand it to him safely. Today had been quite a successful day so far, Jeremy was loving it.

Ari got ready to hold it steady while Jeremy took his chances getting shocked, but her friend instead went into a series of minor "exercises" as if he was going through an athletic warmup. Ariana was fighting back laughter at his antics when all of a sudden someone pushed themselves in between the two of them and grabbed the hand. In the seconds while he was being shocked the Hufflepuff registered him as Murray Grant, a Ravenclaw in her year that she didn't talk to all that much, although he was friends with Stewart. Surprised and not entirely pleased, she got out a "Well hello there, Murray," before Jeremy exclaimed about how awesome the shocking had been. Seeing that her Gryffindor friend didn't seem to mind, some of her consternation vanished, but she still regarded him a tad warily. It didn't help that he had practically ignored her.

She was still holding out the shake for Jeremy to grasp, which he did soon after. The sight of his long hair sticking up everywhere made her laugh--it was sort of inevitable. "It isn't, is it?" she grinned, eyeing the deceptively innocent-looking toy (and wondering in the back of her mind just what he had in mind for the shocker). "Can't be worse than a good stunner, right?" She'd been hit with enough of those in DA practices. Ariana wasn't one of those people that was terribly afraid of pain--she'd been hit too many times in Quidditch or with jinxes and hexes to worry about it, and after all, she wanted to be an Auror someday and couldn't be one of those people who broke down with a little twinge. Battle experience helped, although it had been very sobering in many other ways.

Besides, she didn't want to be the only one who didn't do it. Handing it over to Jeremy, she gave herself a few seconds of mental preparation and grasped the little hand. The electric buzz penetrated pretty much her entire body, and her fairly long brown hair was soon rather bushy, in contrast to its typical fairly tame nature. They were right, it wasn't horrible, but it was still...shocking, pun intended. "Whew!" she laughed after she had managed to let go of the thing. Something in that current had kept the tendons of her fingers in that hand-shaking position. "If I were an interviewer and I needed to test out the mettle of employees, I think I'd have a good idea of what to use." Ari could see why Jeremy and Danny got a kick out of doing this kind of prank stuff. She wouldn't get into it for the long run, but it was kind of fun. Especially during the summer.

Turning to their surprise guest, she asked, "So what are you doing here, Murray? I wouldn't have expected to see you in a joke shop." Her voice indicated her honesty as opposed to any sort of condescension or rudeness. Despite the surprise, she was in too good a mood to be mean.

After seeing Ana get shocked Jeremy didn't try to hold back a laugh, it was all in good fun. They had all been shocked now and they had all laughed at one another doing it. He had a feeling she wouldn't think he was laughing at her, and if she did, he was too excited to notice. Jeremy was all kinds of pumped up now. He was bouncing on the balls of his feet as they started to chat about Murray not usually coming to shops like these. Jeremy was way to distractable to hold down a conversation right now, if he had realized this fact he would of hoped they didn't find him rude for not contributing to the conversation, but the Gryffindor had no idea that he was looking all over the shop, right over their heads. He was eager to try out some more things now that he had a testing party. It wasn't often he got to demonstrate the wonders that WWW had in store. When Murray asked if there was anything else like the shocker Jeremy's attention snapped back to him. "You are in for a treat today mate." He said with a toothy grin before he turned quickly and started headed for another set of shelves, it wasn't far from where they were standing, and Jeremy was in too big of a hurry to look behind and make sure they were following.

"Over here!" He yelled, not knowing whether they were behind him, in transit, or still standing where he left them. He waved at the air to motion where he was headed to and when he found the shelf he was beaming. Standing in front of a large shelf filled with all kinds of vials and containers with brightly colored labels Jeremy rubbed his hands on his stomach, hungry and also deep in thought. He was scanning over all of the various containers that were in front of him until finally he found one he had an idea about what it did. Most of these things he had never actually used before because he just didn't have the time. The Weasley's were brilliant, they had the best stuff. They had so much stuff an accomplished prankster like Jeremy hadn't even managed to use it all yet. "Gotcha!" He exclaimed, mostly to himself, and didn't notice the small group of younger students that quickly moved away from him as he did. Maybe he scared them, he was a bit too over the top sometimes, he was working on it. He was also failing. Picking up the bottle that was a greenish color and had strange symbols on the top of the lid he turned back around, looking for his yearmates. He opened the bottle with some effort, having to bang it on a nearby countertop to loosen it up.

Grabbing a small bit of the powder inside he held it in his hand and planned to lick the pile of powder but decided to wait for them first. He made sure his hand was covering the label so they wouldn't see what they were about to test out, of course they could just look at the shelves behind him to find out what he was holding. Jeremy wasn't trying to trick them, only to surprise them, and he had a feeling they might think twice about eating a bit of Belching Powder. Jeremy had never tried it before but if it worked he could already feel the wheels turning about the possibilities. He could slip it into peoples drinks and food as he walked by them in the Great Hall. Next thing everyone knows, the Great Hall is roaring with students who can't control their burps. He smiled at the idea and then looked at both of them. "Okay, this one is a surprise. If you wanna' chicken out I'll understand. It's not going to make you violently ill or a different gender, thats all I can tell you." He stood up straight, as if the fact that he was holding the bottle and knew the truth some how gave him some kind of official title. Maybe he should ask them to refer to him as The Prankmaster for the rest of their adventure... he'd think on it.

"Ready?" He asked, holding the jar out to them and waited a moment before he licked up the small bit of green powder that was in his hands. Thankfully it tasted like Green Apples, he liked green apple candy. The idea was for them to all eat the powder at the same time and hopefully experience the effects at the same time, but he wouldn't hold it against them if they didn't dive right into things like this. Jeremy had no control, if there was a challenge to be met, he had to do it. Maybe one of them should be leading the charge around the store... Jeremy would love to be surprised about what kind of prank he was about to be apart of. Other than the things Danny did, Jeremy never really got pranked. He liked to think it was because he was so lovable, but really it was probably because he was crazy tall and had hair like fire. He probably scared most of the eleven year olds. Only seconds after the green apple test was starting to fade from his tongue he felt the effects start to rumble in his stomach. He licked his lips, knowing what was coming and then took a deep breath and then finally it came...

"BUUUUUUUUURRRRRPPPP!!"