PETA: People for the Extreme Tinting of Animals, This is set one week before term starts

[Abigail Ivanov]

As she trudged up the two narrow flights of steps to her loft above the pub, Abigail felt like her feet might fall off. It had been another busy day, and a waitress had sent an owl saying she was sick and couldn't come in. On the second landing, she kicked a pair of muddy black boots from the walkway. "Damn kid can't even put them in front of his own door," she muttered to herself. Nik had been boarding in the larger of the two rental rooms for a week now, and to Abigail, it felt like much longer. While she didn't hate the American or anything, living with him was not exactly easy.

She took out an old brass key from a chain around her neck and opened the door to her floor. The key was enchanted to open or lock anything in the Three Broomsticks, and even a skilled wizard couldn't 'alohamora' what it had sealed. The pub was old, and all the magic that had accumulated up in it seemed to give it a personality and life of its own. Luckily, it seemed content with its new owner.

Upon entering the studio style room, Abigail kicked off her shoes, and went into the bathroom to wash her face before collapsing into bed. When she reached for a towel she was sure had just been there, Abigail looked up, suprised to see that it was no longer laying on the sink, but was folded on the hamper. I must be more tired than I imagined, she thought sleepily to herself. She reached for the towel again, but this time it visibly jumped away from her and hid behind the toilet.

NIK, she fumed. That was the last time she ever asked him to pin up laundry. "I feed him, deal with the ministry papers for him, and let him have free reign, and he can't even help with some laundry without hexing it!" she complained to no one. The kid wasn't necessarily bad, but he did like to push peoples buttons. In the past week Abigail had been forced to deal with tongs that pinched her butt every chance they got, a stool that always moved when customers went to sit on it, finding that Nik had transfused all her good silverware into "classy sporks," as he called them, and only about a hundred other things.

With a sigh, she resigned to deal with him tomorrow. The towel could cower away all night for all she cared. After changing out of her uniform into a pair of sweatpants and a tank top, Abigail crawled into bed, and immediately felt a warm ball curl up around her feet. "Hello Max" Abigail muttered sleepily to her cat, who seemed to never grow out of that awkward stage between being a kitten and a grown cat, "I'll get him tomorrow won't I?" With that, Max crawled up closer to her face. When she opened her eyes to look at him, even in the moonlight, Abigail could tell something was off. She quickly turned on a light, and saw. Her cat. Her wonderfully spunky cat, was dyed PINK!

Abigail rushed down the stairs with Max in her hands and started banging on Nik's door, "You open up right NOW! What have you done to Max? I'll kill you!" She kicked the door hard and continued her ranting, "I know your awake! I can here you in there! I am going to morph into a wolf and bite your throat out!" It was one thing to annoy Abigail, but to mess with her cat was like asking for punishment.

Abigail vainly looked for her wand, only to realize that she had left it on her nightstand. Remembering how she did magic as a small child, before she'd been chosen by her wand, Abigail concentrated all her rage and frustration onto the door. It suddenly broke right off its hinges, and Abigail pulled it out of her way. What she saw when she walked into Nik's room was far from anything she had expected.

[Nik Fitch]

Nik was bored. It had been almost a week and he was already contemplating running and taking his chances; and school hadn’t even begun yet. Abigail was nice and they got along well enough. His occasional boredom caused more issues between them than was necessary but he figured that she couldn’t kick him out if he transfigured a few forks, plus she was a witch and could always change them back.

It was as he was wondering aimlessly through Hogsmeade that the incident occurred. Nik had found in the few days he had been in town that there was an alley between Muggle Outfitters and some residence where the couple hung their underwear out of the window; it happened to be the perfect place to smoke and brood in peace, away from Abi telling him off for any “accidental” transfigurations. Also, it reminded him of home in some odd, trashy way.

He was slightly more buzzed than he should’ve been. He had snuck away a bottle of some unpronounceable Russian liquor and didn’t realize how strong it was until he was already halfway through the bottle. This, mixed with the heavy meal Abi had cooked earlier meant he was ready to fall over and not wake up for a good three hours. It was just as his eyes were about to close that it happened.

Out of absolutely nowhere there was a humongous “Crash” and a slight scream followed by a lot of yelling and another smaller explosion which made the air smell of sulfer and burnt hair. Nik threw himself to as much of a standing position as he could muster and squinted through the cloud of smoke. A figure appeared and began to take form as it staggered forward. To his surprise it was what looked to be a girl. A pretty girl. He saw she was carrying a broken broomstick and a knapsack which was a little charred.

After a few failed pickup lines (the girl seemed not to be able to speak any English other than “boom” and “immigration”) and a friendly offer from Nik to share some of the Russian alcohol (which oddly cheered the girl up right away, though she didn’t take a drink, but instead took the bottle and held it to her as though it was an old friend) Odd Nik thought to himself, but she is hot and Abi’s foreign so maybe she’ll be able to speak to her.
Nik showed the girl to The Three Broomsticks and led her up to his room. Her clothes were a little worse for wear so he gave her some of his and showed her to the adjoining bathroom to change. Nik took this momentary opportunity of privacy to slip on a pair of ratty shorts and stuff the rest of his clothes in an already overflowing hamper. The girl seemed to be taking longer than usual so he reached for his guitar and decided to pick out an idea he was working on (it wasn’t really going anywhere as the only lyrics he could come up with had mostly to do with “stupid American Ministry of Magic” and “stupid haggish Ministry of Magic Caretakers”)

He was halfway through the second verse when he heard Abi screaming about something having to do with her Cat. This was quickly followed by the hinges to his door magically blasting off the chase and Abi storming into the room. It was at this precise moment that the foreign-rampant-broom-flying girl walked back into the room.

This post has been edited by Nik Fitch on Sep 20 2011, 09:18 PM

[Abigail Ivanov]

Nik was sitting on the bed with his shirt off, and there was a girl Abigail didn’t know in his room. She didn’t care what or who Nik did. What she did care about was the fact that his was doing it under her roof while she was supposed to be looking after him. If the ministry or Hogwarts found out about this, she would be in a world of pain.

“What the Hell is going on here?” she didn’t yell, but her voice was deep and commanding like her father’s. “What exactly were you thinking Nik?” she said as more of a statement than a question. Max sensed how angry she was and jumped out of her arms. “You’re a minor. If anyone found out about this, I could be called before the ministry! And I’m supposed to be hosting an event for the school! I don’t need them thinking I’m running a sleazy motel service for students!” Now she was yelling, her accent thick with anger. The cat at her feet turned in Nik’s direction and began hissing and arching its back. Either he knew who had turned him cotton candy pink, or he was trying to back Abigail up. Probably both.

The girl’s eyes went wide and surprised at Abigail’s shouts. Suddenly she began jabbering very fast in a language Abigail somewhat recognized. “She doesn’t even speak English?” the redhead asked with distaste. Abigail listened closely and noticed a few Russian words, but not everything was understandable. Ukrainian? Abigail thought to herself. The country adjoined her homeland, and many of its people knew at least enough Russian to carry on a conversation. “Vy govorite po-russki?” Abigail asked, Do you speak Russian?

((OOC: The girl is Milla Jovovich. And yes, she is Ukrainian.))

This post has been edited by Abigail Ivanov on Sep 21 2011, 09:30 PM

[Nik Fitch]

Nik wasn't that interested in what the Ministy thought of his entrepreneurial exploits. He was genuinely, in one way or another, helping the foreign girl; sort of. Abi breaking his door was kinda drastic, but then again, it was her door so... she could probably do what she wanted; she was fixing it, though. He also thought it was funny how the angrier she got the thicker her accent became. It reminded him of the latino chicks back home.

"I was thinking, 'Wow she just ran her broom into a building and doesn't know where she is, maybe Abi can help'", he said with his usual sarcasm. Abi's accent had apparently registured on some level with the girl because she began speaking very quickly and motioning to the bottle of alcohol she had left on the nightstand.

"Why you here anyway?", Nik mumbled as he returned to his guitar.

This post has been edited by Nik Fitch on Aug 15 2012, 08:49 PM

[Abigail Ivanov]

"Ran her broom into a building?" Abigail asked with her eyebrows raised high. She turned to the girl and listened carefully to what she was saying, now in broken Russian. "What I got out of that was she's Ukranian and she thinks she's in London... and maybe something about a flying turtle... but I could be wrong on that," she said unsurely to Nik. She spoke to the girl slowly in Russian and told her to get her things. "I'm going to take her to Diagon Alley. I'm pretty sure that's where she's supposed to be. YOU don't go anywhere and we'll deal with why I'm here when I get back," she said with fire in her eyes.

With that, Abigail lead the girl out of the pub and disapparated with her. About ten minutes later, she reappeared on the doorstep of The Three Broomsticks with Nik's clothes in hand. She walked into his room and threw the bundle to him. "Natalia says thank you, but they weren't a good fit," she explained. She put her hand on her hip and looked at him suspiciously. "She also said thank you for the vodka. She kept that. It was such a nice gift. It's not everyday you see a bottle that was distilled when the empire was still in power," she said sarcastically. "Next time your going to take something, take it from the bar rack. Not my private collection," she added matter of factly. She'd thought the fact that those bottles were kept in a glass display cabinet would have been a sign they weren't for sale, but apparently not.

Thank Merlin he didn't grab the stuff from the French Revolution, she thought to herself. Abigail didn't have anywhere near the money it would have taken to buy even the cheapest bottle of the stuff she kept in her private collection, but when she'd lived with her parents, she'd taken advantage of their belief that expensive things could make up for the love and affection they never gave her. For every boring and snobby "business partner's" son she'd been forced to go on a date with and every summer holiday she'd spent in ettiquette school, she'd been given a bottle of rare and antique alcohol. To say the least, her collection was nice. If things didn't work out with the pub, she could always sell a few bottles to get by.

"And now down to business," she said with narrowed eyes. "Max," Abigail called, and the cat hopped up into her arms immediately. "You change him back RIGHT NOW," she said holding the cat out to Nik, "or I am going to turn YOUR hair pink!" The cat growled his tiny fury at Nik and layed his ears back flat. One little clawed foot swiped out at the boy, but the few feet bewteen them was more than enought to thwart his revenge.

[Nik Fitch]

Nik snickered when Abi told him she'd turn his hair pink. Sure she was a graduate from the school. And she seemed a very informed and capable witch. But to turn his hair pink meant that she'd have to be better at charms than he. And not just a little better, A LOT better. Nik was sure this would never be the case. As it had taken her quite a bit of time to disenchant the tongs in the kitchen and she still hadn't had any luck with the bottle opener that kept flicking the used bottle caps down patron's shirts.

"I thought it was kind of an improvement. You can spot him anywhere now."

[Abigail Ivanov]

Abigail scoffed at Nik's attempt to diffuse her anger with his dry humor. She cradled the cat back in her arms at the boy's essential refusal to remove the charm.

"Do you really think that I want people to spot him? It's embarrassing! He looks like he belongs in Madam Puddifuts with the rest of that frilly pink garb! And how is he supposed to catch mice if they can see him coming from ten yards away?" she asked rhetorically. Abigail stroked Max between the ears trying to calm him down, but the fury pink ball just continued to hiss at Nik.

"Now are you going to fix him or not?" she said as more of a demand than a question.