[thd] Nothing can stop me, nothing holds me back. [aideen]

"No sure you will give her a full refund for this useless piece of shite." He replied in a dry tone to the man behind the counter of the Quill supplies shop in Hogsmeade. The man couldn't of been more than five or six years older than them, a somewhat recent graduate working at a nothing job making minimum wage, but Lip didn't consider all of that when he made it his personal cause to get Aideen's money back. He was so tired of the world thinking they were just kids. That they didn't need to be listened to or respected. They had every right to be heard and when she bought a quill that was supposed to take faster notes and it simply didn't she deserved her sickles back. It reminded him of all the times he spent at the ministry basically begging for information and no one giving him a minute of their time.

"Look at the poster," He said pointing sharply behind him toward the moving advertisement on the wall for the very same quill they were returning. "It says faster than a Quick Quill or your Sickles back!" And then he picked up the box and opened it. Lip moved swiftly and with purpose as he tore off the end of some receipt paper from the magical register and placed the new quill on top of it.

"Get your head out of your arse." And as it was supposed to the quill began to move, only getting to 'out of' before Lip was finished with his insult and staring directly at the man. He folded his arms across his chest and waited for the refund.

@Aideen O'Bannon

Aideen would have been fine arguing for her money back on her own, but Lip had taken up the cause before she had even noticed he’d taken the quill and marched his way back up to the counter and began demanding a refund. While it might not have been in the exact same style that she would have done it, the Slytherin certainly wasn’t going to stop him – she did want her money back after all, and the clerk did look a bit like he deserved it. It only took a few extra seconds for Lip’s glare and her own bored stare to get the youthful wizard to cave in and give her her sickles back. She nodded at him coolly quietly taking her coins back, but never breaking eye contact. Tosser. she thought to herself as she turned her eyes back to the contents of the store, an idea forming in the back of her mind as she went.

But before she could execute it, there was the sound of a small clatter against the counter behind them, and at first she thought that Lip had decided to buy something, but instead she found the clerk looking back at her with a small white purse in hand. He told them both, while looking just the right amount of guilty, that if they promised not to tell the other kids in town about the quill, he’d let them sample their new product. She hesitated for a moment, thinking back on the numerous times she’d seen broom adverts or other Quidditch related products that were found to be total flops after the fact.

But after she decided the deal was fair, the brunette agreed and haggled for a few lemon snaps in the process, just in case the ‘new product’ was another sham. Once they’d exited the shop Aideen opened the package, and eyed the contents carefully, showing Lip as she did so, they looked like Bertie’s beans. Feeling fed up with scams Aideen rolled her eyes, offered the sack to Lip and popped one in her own mouth. As she began to chew, a scowl broke out over her face they were just Bertie Botts! But as she opened her mouth to tell Lip as much, a crups bark escaped her mouth and she felt the urge to scratch herself behind her ear. It was another moment before Aideen realized it hadn’t just been an urge, but that she really was scratching behind her ear. Slamming her mouth shut in horror, Aideen looked at Lip, wondering what the hell that clerk had gotten them into. Whatever it was, she was going to kick that underachieving dolt in the shins, and maybe give him fleas while she was at it.

When the wizard across from them returned Aideen's money he narrowed his eyes on him even further, he wasn't forgiven. Lip was the type to get worked up over just about anything and he rarely came back down easily. He'd be heated about this for at least a good hour. He was still sour about the fact that someone had eaten all of the oats this morning, even just thinking about it made him remember exactly how mad he had been when he had to eat a pastry instead. He liked things the way he liked them and he wasn't the type to offer much wiggle room.

"That's right, dick." He said over his shoulder as they moved toward the exit, not about to pass up the excuse to call someone out on their crap. It was then that the clerk began offering them some snake oil and Phillip rolled his eyes. Crossing his arms over his chest again he let his weight fall to his back foot, completely amused by the shop keeps antics. He was about to launch into a long winded story about how very little he cared to try whatever ridiculous thing the man was selling, chock full of curses words and descriptive adjectives, when Aideen accepted the bag instead.

He shot her a 'really?' kind of look before shrugging and following her out onto the street. Even if it was crap it was free and he supposed that made it worth the while. "What are they?" He asked staring down into the bag and grabbing one. He held onto it for a moment, inspecting it with his eyes, before popping it into his mouth only seconds before Aideen began to behave quite strangely.

"Aideen?" He asked, staring at her like she was the lights on a Christmas tree, "Did you just.... um... did you just bark?"

He could barely believe the question but there they were.

In answer to Lips typically ludicrous question, Aideen instinctually tried to say “yes” but instead it came out “bark” so in order to stop herself from doing an enraged imitation of a Chihuahua, the girl simply nodded and then scratched behind her other ear. Gods this whole thing was quickly turning into a giant pain in the arse. Dropping  the bag of beans on the sidewalk, Aideen turned back to the candy shop, quickly wrenched the door open, and was momentarily grateful that she still had hands instead of paws, before she lit into their favorite clerk like he was a mailman with a vacuum cleaner. But instead of the very clever string of insults she was making up on the fly, and was quite proud of being flung at the now smug wizard, all that came out were a string of barks and growls, although Aideen was fairly certain her murderous expression was probably doing most of the communicating for her.

To make matters worse, Aideen realized the man had left the cheap quick quill knock off on the counter, and that it was frantically scribbling down who knows what in an effort to keep up with her frantic barking. Now though, instead of barking, all that was coming out of the small girl’s mouth were growls, her mood growing darker and darker by the minute. Finally Aideen managed to quell the barking and growling, and stared silently at the shops proprietor before she quickly made her way around to the back of the counter and delivered several swift kicks to the man’s shins. And before she could rationalize with herself, Aideen’s hand was moving for her wand. She wanted to wipe that smug look off his face so badly. And then maybe make him eat the beans. If she had her way he’d eat every bean. Every. Single. One.

He was pretty sure this wasn't normal and immediately his mind went to blame the man in the shop. She was barking and scratching and he was trying to contain himself by not laughing. Good thing his anger usually won out and soon his fists were balling up as he followed her right back into the store, the bag of beans left discarded in the middle of the street. As she went off on the man Lip watched and waited for an opening to back her up but before she'd finished barking she was attacking his shins like an ankle biting puppy and he was just staring at her in disbelief now. He knew she was a no nonsense kind of chick but damn if she wasn't impressing him now. Maybe he was more impressed with the fact that she was acting out violently than he should of been but it was too late to turn back now. This was who he was.

When he finally found himself an opening to cut in Lip too had plenty of choice things to say. "Gobshite what are you playing at?" He demanded as a strange feeling started to creep up his throat. It was scratchy, annoying, but he tried to ignore it. "Fix whatever the hell you did, fix it now." He pointed at his barking friend but before he could go any further he started to gasp for air, making a strange sound, and realized exactly what was happening as it crawled up his throat.

It was a fur ball.

He went to shout expletives but instead ended up hissing and meowing like a pissed off feline, his hair stuck up and he could barely hang on to English thoughts. Meowing fiercely as he saw Aideen he turned tail and ran to the corner of the shop and hopped on top of one of the counters like a cat would. Taking refuge high on the cabinet he shook from the anger and anxiety he was feeling.

So, Lip was a cat. Sure, that was totally, totally normal. Just like the urge, she had to run over and bark at him was.  And, before she knew it, there she was standing at the front of the cabinet that Lip was taking refuge on, staring up and barking like an idiot. While the same part of her that wsa responsible for bruising the clerks shins for a few weeks knew that it was Lip up above her, the main part of her brain was more concerned with the dog-like urges she was having concerning the cat that was hiding up above her head, conveniently out of her reach. No matter how hard she tried to resist, she just couldn’t stop barking or scratching.
But then all of a sudden, luck seemed to turn in her favor as the itching seemed to fade and he thoughts became clearer over the next few minutes until she realized that she was sitting there staring up at her (literally) cat brained friend shouting “Lip!Lip!” still looking like an imbecile.

Once her body and brain caught up with one another, the petite witch turned, and fixed their friendly shop keeper with another deadly look.  She was seething, but her assault on his shins a few minutes earlier had helped her clear her head. Making her way up to the counter, Aideen noticed that the defunct quill was still there, having survived everything so far. Having reached the counter Aideen smiled sweetly up at the clerk and spoke “I want an unlimited supply of candy, on your/i] dime.” She paused letting her words sink in “You see, Mrs. Peter’s who owns this shop? She happens to treasure my friend Lip and I, and I can guarantee you she’d be appalled to hear about the way you have swindled us here today. And it looks like your little quill has recorded everything for us, so the choice is yours.” And with that the girl dropped the rest of the handful of the beans she had taken from the bag originally on the counter.

She wanted to help Lip, but there was nothing they could do for the next few minutes while it wore off. She couldn’t help but imagine what it would be like to explain why a boy was stuck on top of a cabinet meowing like a cat, in the midst of a candy store no less.