Can never have too much of la familia (Alice)

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Obviously, Fin was in Pilliwinkle's Playthings NOT to get things for himself.  What in this wild, strange world would a nineteen year old be doing purchasing toys for himself? That was deranged.  No, rather, Fin was finding a gift to send to his little relative, the child of some cousin of his, whose upcoming fifth birthday was approaching fast.  Finley didn't want to be a bad cousin and not have any gift to send to the lad.  He wanted him to be happy and would feel bad if the boy asked if Cousin Finley had given him anything just to be disappointed.  But then, he didn't want to be the odd one out without a present to give, either.  And he hoped it wasn't too much to want, but he did want his present to be the best one that his little cousin would receive, too...he looked forward to puffing his chest out in pride at the sight of the little boy fawning over the gift and gaining the admiration of the other Abbotts.

Apparently, the little boy was rather like a Ravenclaw.  He liked jigsaw puzzles...Finley found that a bit boring, for he thought that all boys should be interested in figurines of dueling wizards, Quidditch players, hippogriffs, etc.  But again, he wanted this gift to be one that the kid would appreciate, so Finley made his way to the puzzle section.  The puzzles were rather interesting--there were an assortment of scenes that one could form with the little puzzle pieces, such as scenes of famous sights, nature, and magical happenings.  They all looked so cool that Fin was having a hard time deciding which one to get.  He was leaning toward the puzzle featuring a Quidditch player--most likely a Seeker--chasing after a Snitch.  Well, his decision wasn't surprising, because, hello, he was a Quidditch player himself, so you could say that he was pretty biased.

While Fin was observing the rows of puzzle boxes carefully, he didn't notice it when, while he was moving along to the side to look at more boxes, he bumped into someone.  He jolted in surprise and immediately turned to look at the person who he had bumped into with wide eyes.  "Oh, I'm so sorry about that!" he apologized.  Ugh, clumsy him.  But hey, this time he hadn't done it out of hastiness, but because he had been occupied.  That was better, wasn't it? But wait--this blonde girl was--

"Alice?! Is that you?!" he exclaimed, his face brightening up with recognition.  If this wasn't his cousin Alice Longbottom, then he was going to eat his own broom.  She was simply Alice from head to toe!    

Tag: @alice    

TEMPLATE BY ELIZA @ TB

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Piliwinkle's Playthings wasn't necessarily a store Alice Longbottom would go into on her own. No, she was here on special business.

Alice was taking the Hogsmeade weekened to visit her mother in London rather than visit the village all weekend. For Alice, Hogsmeade had lost its novelty long ago. So she made arrangements to stay two days with her mother before returning to school for classes. Hannah, being the only one in the family not tied up at Hogwarts, was to buy a present for an upcoming relative's birthday, however she had got caught up at the Cauldron and couldn't go out to get the present. Alice, not wanting to spend the day alone in a room at the Cauldron, had offered to pick up the present herself to help her mother out. Running the inn by herself was pressure enough, so the least Alice could do was lighten her workload.

Hannah gave her daughter specific instructions for a toy, one she could find in Horizon Alley at Pilliwinkle's Playthings. Hannah had specifically said something about brain games or puzzles, so upon entering the store, Alice immediately began to scan the aisles or such a thing. It was a rather large store, but Alice had no where to be so she thought she might as well take her time.

After a couple of minutes of admiring the animal figurines, Alice had somehow found herself in the brain game aisle. There were lots of interesting puzzles that Alice herself wanted to do, such as the puzzle of the hippogriffs or the puzzle of the pygmy puffs. She bit her lip. She had never met this cousin, for it was some distant relative on her mother's side, so picking one out that he would like was going to be difficult...

Alice was just beginning to scour the front of the many boxes when someone bumped into her. Her first reaction was to put on a disgruntled look of annoyance at the person who had bumped into her but upon looking up at the wizard, that look turned into one of surprise. "Finley?" She asked in return as the oh so familiar young wizard said her own name. The Longbottom then put on a smirk. "Shouldn't you be playing Quidditch or something?" She teased her cousin playfully.

@finley

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Finley was quite happy to see this pretty cousin of his again, and it was all the more unique if they did it through coincidence.  He was pretty sure that they would end up meeting once more at the family gathering for the little boy's birthday party along with Philip and their currently unnamed brother, but again, he thought it was special that they could collide like this.  Sure, there were times when he was annoyed by her serious and rather uptight personality (to a goofy Gryffindor), but he generally got along fine with her.

He chuckled at her joke that he should be playing Quidditch at the moment.  "Ah, come on, Alice, everyone has a life! I can't just sit on a broom for twenty-four hours..." He grinned.  "And besides, little Nathan will kill me if he knew that I spent my potential time getting him a present playing Quidditch."  Pointing to the assortment of toys on the shelves, he asked her, "I assume that you're getting a present for Nathan too?" They were both cousins of Nathan, so he thought it was safe to say that he wasn't the only person getting Nathan a gift, unless Alice decided to get a toy for some other kid.  But Finley hated to think that, because he didn't want Nathan to be without present from his female Longbottom relative.    

Tag: @alice    

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Alice got along with quite a few people. While she generally preferred to be alone and keep to herself, she enjoyed the company of certain people; one of them being her cousin Finley Abbott. He was almost the exact opposite of Alice; goofy, extroverted, and very popular. But then again... a lot of Alice's closest friends fit that bill. She wasn't sure what it was about that type of person that drew Alice to them. Perhaps it was the lack of such qualities herself that made her want to be around them. Regardless of what it was, she gave a small smile at her cousin when he chuckled at her joke.

"You sure about that?" She egged him on, smirking. As Finley pointed back to the many toys, Alice remembered why she was there. "I am," she nodded, looking around. "And it is not without struggle... I am not good at the whole buying presents thing..." Alice admitted a little sheepishly. "Mum was supposed to be here with me but she got a little caught up at the Cauldron, so," she shrugged. "Here I am!" She was a little embarrassed to be caught off guard in such a way... she was certain that Finley knew exactly the type of present that Nathan would like. Alice on the other hand was going to end up struggling the whole way until Nathan unwrapped the present and looked utterly disappointed. And she didn't want that.

@finley

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"I'm positive, Alice.  I think it would be physically impossible to do that," he said, pretending to look dismayed by frowning.  But he was just joking, because he knew that she was simply kidding with him. 

But he once more had a smile on his face when she confessed that she had no idea what to get without her mother there to help.  "Hey, you're not alone.  I was once a little boy but I'm not so sure I would've known what to get him," he admitted.  "Nathan only wants games that he can solve and which gets his brain working, so I'm going to get him a puzzle just because his mum specified what he liked.  Otherwise I would be more comfortable getting him figurines and fake wands."  He was about to comment that Nathan was most likely going to be a Ravenclaw, but for someone clumsy and hasty, he stopped himself in time.  He remembered how Philip had told him many times about how Alice had so wanted to be a Ravenclaw, especially when her parents remarked that she would be a Ravenclaw because of her intelligence, as well as the fact that she was rather pissed that she ended up not as a Ravenclaw.  It was touchy subject for her.  Although Finley had to agree that Alice did suit a Ravenclaw, what with her being so calm and critical, Finley thought it was an honor to not be associated with those boring bookworms, but he didn't want to incur Alice's wrath at the moment.

"So, I hope that gives you some clues what to get...now I'm just deciding what puzzle theme to get.  And I'm not sure what themes he likes either, so I might just choose one that I like," he said with a cheeky grin.  "Like...for instance..." He turned around to face the shelves and grabbed a puzzle box that featured the image of two Quidditch players in the air with the goals in the distance.  They were both in the same team and one Chaser was tossing the Quaffle to his comrade.  "This!" He showed it to Alice.  "The one throwing the Quaffle has dark hair! we can pretend it's me, yes?"           

Tag: @alice    

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Alice sort of shrugged, jokingly. "Shame. I would have thought you of all people would be able to achieve that," she said challengingly. She loved to use that sort of tone with Finley. Really, she liked to use that sort of tone with any of her Gryffindor friends. She knew it was hard for them to turn down a challenge and she liked to see them squirm to try. All in good fun, of course.

As Finley explained what their cousin liked, Alice watched him tentatively. Finley was obviously much more closer with this side of the family whereas Alice had only seen them a handful of times. She almost envied Finley's knowledge of the Abbott side but then again, he was an Abbott. Alice was a Longbottom. She was bound to spend more time with the Longbottom side by default.

Alice looked at the shelves as Finley turned to face them. She looked down at the puzzle box he picked up and took a look at the picture of it all. "We can pretend it's me, yes?" Alice let a smirk appear on her face as she glanced back up at her cousin. She let out a little laugh. "Sure, Fin," she said, folding her arms across her chest. "Well then, if you're claiming puzzles... what are "solving" type things are there here? I don't really frequent this place a lot..." She said, looking around uncertainly.

@finley

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It kind of seemed that, after living with a Gryffindor, having Gryffindor relatives, and being surrounded by Gryffindor friends, Alice knew just how to trigger the fire inside of them.  Or, at least, it was having an effect on her cousin Finley.  Oh Finley, what a fool.  Wasn't he aware that what she seemingly challenged him to do was ridiculously impossible--hadn't he acknowledged that himself? So why was he feeling that tug inside of him to accept the challenge with daring and bravado, to puff out his chest with indignant pride like a knight who had just had his opponent throw down the gauntlet to him? But that tone.  That tone.  That tone coming from a quiet little Hufflepuff who knew nothing of Quidditch and being on a broom--or so he thought! 

And for a moment he looked like he was about to say something smart to her.  Well, he did scoff, too.  He was just getting warmed up.  "Now why is it that you sound so doubtful, Alice?" he countered, forgetting that he was the one who told her that he couldn't do it in the first place.  "You've obviously been forgetting, between the two of us, who has always been the brave one and who the scaredy cat is.  I daresay that I--" And he cut himself off, remembering just what she was "challenging" him to do.  Oh yeah, now he remembered.  Fly on a broom for 24 hours straight, nonstop if he was correct.  Oh bloody hell, not even he could do that! His bottom would hurt and he'd be starving and tired while up on the air with only a broom to keep between his legs.  That sounded downright uncomfortable.  Even the brave, daring Finley did fear that.

His face flushed with embarrassment for a moment before he said grudgingly, "Well, why don't you try sitting on a broom for a whole bloody day before you decide to get all sassy with me about not being able to do it? I definitely think that you of all people could achieve that, Alice."  It was all old, playful, cousinly bickering, all in good humor.  In fact, even if he was being pulled back into years of childish banter with her, Fin found all of this amusing.  Oh, how he loved this blonde cousin of his who looked so much like his beloved Aunt Hannah.

He quickly amended that with a devilish smile.  He laughed along with her at his little joke about him being the dark-haired figure in the puzzle portrait.  Of course, he sobered up when she asked him about what solving stuff to get Nathan.  He shrugged.  "Neither do I," he said in response to her remarking that she didn't frequent this place a lot.  "I just asked some random worker here to show me where I could find toys of that nature and was thus led here.  Y'know, you can just grab another puzzle.  I'm sure he'd like two puzzles with different pictures.  There are lots of pretty cool themes to choose from, after all."  Fin didn't see the point in losing a lot of energy and thought over it.  Puzzles might be the same thing but wouldn't Nathan enjoy having as many as possible? Especially when they looked different!          

((Sorry for taking a long time! And Fin's background has been changed a bit; he's Alice's first cousin because he's the son of Hannah's eldest brother.))

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Finley was like any other Gryffindor Alice had ever met. Easy to rile up and get to do a challenge. Most lions couldn't resist a challenge when they smelled one. Finley was no different. He was, by very definition, a true Gryffindor. But that was perhaps why Alice loved her cousin so much. Most of her family was either Gryffindor or Hufflepuff, so she had grown to be much more accustomed and more loving of those personalities and traits. Alice couldn't help but smirk as Finley cut himself off from speaking. Finley was Alice's only cousin closest to her age and for some reason, she found him a bit easier to speak to than her very own brothers. Perhaps it was Finley's happy and positive personality that always radiated off of him. Alice could always easily joke around with him without thinking twice about it, whereas with her brothers, she hardly was able to converse with them.

Alice shrugged, blinking but smirking all the while. "I'm sure I could," she said matter-of-factly in a joking manner. Alice was thankful for the relationship she had with Fin, for she didn't have that kind of relationship with many. The fact that he was family made it all the better. "I daresay that I can out fly you, Oh Amazing Abbott," she wiggled her right index at him, tauntingly. Of course this was far from the truth. Alice had never been on a broom in her life. Neither of her parents were exactly flyers. While the gene had been passed on to Philip, it skipped Alice entirely. She just loved to poke fun at Finley because he did the same to her. It was all good fun and Alice loved having someone she could joke around with at holidays the way she and Finley joked around.

"Funny," Alice said, now slightly more serious as they returned to the topic of Nathan's birthday present. "I would of pegged you for a Piliwinkle's regular." She smirked slightly as she glanced sideways at him. She looked at the shelves full of puzzles, her mouth tilting sideways a bit in thought. "I'm sure he'd like two puzzles with different pictures," Finley said, and Alice believed he had a point. She looked back at her cousin with a smile, an idea popping into her mind as she set her eyes on a puzzle that had a great hippogriff on the front of it, flying through the clouds over a body of water. She picked it up, holding it out for Finley to take a look at. "Not a bad idea. Two puzzles to represent to completely opposite cousins. Quidditch for you, magical creatures for me." She smiled at him. While it was true, she still had a hint of playfulness in her voice as she grinned at her cousin.

@finley