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original: adela milani

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HOGSMEADE!

It's that time of year~ In preparation for the yearly Masquerade Ball on the 31st, Hogsmeade is officially open! All characters may go, regardless of their year or permission slips, but ONLY for the week prior to the ball. First and second years either have to be accompanied by a teacher or an older student willing to be responsible for them. After the ball those first and second years are back to being banned from the village until their third year. Sorry, kids. It's just the rules.

It is very encouraged that these trips be in groups, but that is not explicitly mandatory.

The Three Broomsticks
Run by Madame Rosmerta, The Three Broomsticks is the perfect place to warm up on a cold day. It's a pleasant little bar known for it's Butterbeer.

Honeyduke's Sweet Shop
A favorite of Hogwarts students, Honeydukes is a purveyor of a wide variety of sweets including it's world-famous chocolate, Fizzing Whizzbees, Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, Chocolate Frogs, Acid Pops and so much more. Might want to watch out for the Cockroach Cluster though.

Zonko's Joke Shop
Another favorite for the Hogwarts crowd, Zonko's is the best place to buy all your magical jokes and pranks. A perfect place to pick up dungbombs, Dr. Filibusters wet-start no heat fireworks, and if you're in the right mood, skiving snackboxes.

Madame Puddifoot's
Another little cafe, run by Madame Puddifoot. Typically favored by couples due to it's cozy atmosphere.

The Shrieking Shack
Rumoured to be one of the most haunted locations in Britain, so much so that the locals avoid it. While it's stood silent for years, it's still worth seeing. Due to the season being of the spookily festive sort, The Shrieking Shack is now a popular attraction and has even become a haunted house filled to the brim with ~terrifying~ decorations. There is even a walk through! But the feint of heart should not enter...

The Hog's Head
Run by Aberforth Dumbledore, The Hog's Head is another pub that has been known to attract a less than reputable clientele. However, it's something of a tourist spot as well, due to it being the starting point for Dumbledore's Army and the role the pub played in the Battle of Hogwarts, much to Aberfoth's chagrin.

The Post Office
Need to send an owl? The post office has you covered with owls of all shapes and sizes to send anywhere in the world.

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It's probably not much of a consolation but I'm here now, so you've got another distraction.

[ Shinpachi tugs Sano a bit closer, his muscles absolutely no smaller than they had been the last time they'd been in the same room together. Being so close to Sano again reminded him of some of the best parts of their youth. Quidditch, drinking, and some entirely unwholesome fun. And he still smelled the same except with a hint of fire whiskey on his breath, he noted with a little guilt.

That feeling was drowned out by his smile turning a little dim. Ah, now it was his confession time. ]

I've been in the country a couple months working for the Ministry of Magic.

[ To this, he finally pulls away and reaches up to rub the back of his head. He knows he probably should have told Sano. Maybe visited before the school year started (which makes him feel more guilty now because of his best friend's relationship troubles and how he wasn't there to help) or popped by Hogsmeade afterward. ]

The normal guy declined this year and since I already taught a couple years in Mahoutokoro, I got the job.

[Having Shinpachi is actually a big consolation, but he doesn't say it out loud. Maybe it doesn't make the hurt any better, but it does make Sano feel more cheerful, so it's very welcome as a distraction. It's a good surprise, Sano decides. A less good surprise is when Shinpachi admits how long he'd been in the country.]

Months?

[He can only stare, feeling more stung than he's comfortable admitting.]

Well, I suppose I should consider myself lucky, you told me.

[He kicks himself mentally, when he realizes how defensicve and bitter he had sounded just now, but he can't help feeling a little hurt, that his friend didn't apparently even think of dropping him a single line.

... He should probably stop drinking. Alcohol always makes him too emotional and he should be better than this. He's been better than this. He can get shitfaced in his room, when he passes out, he can pass out in his bed.

He turns over his glass and pushes it away, before turning back to Shinpachi, asking the first thing that comes to him, hoping he sounds light and easy enough. The last thing he needs is to offend hhis best friend in his inebriated, alcohol clouded state.]

Have you got my package? Sent you something, but I apparently don't have the right address anymore?

[ The guilt is strong and it stabs him in the heart like a sharp knife. He wanted to say something! But-- ]

I didn't wanna cramp your style and make you look bad in front of your girl!

[ Shinpachi grins, broad and teasing because it was a joke as much as the truth. Well, the part about interfering when he thought Sano would be with his girlfriend. Because he was bound to tell her stories about their fun time as young bachelors on a top ranking Quidditch team. Probably try to monopolize him because he hadn't seen Sano in a long while. That was no good impression to make!

At least not where he couldn't disappear if she didn't like him. ]

I had my mail forwarded though... Did you mean this thing? What is it, anyway?

[ He pulls the phone out of his pocket and holds it up to Sano. He'd read the note but wouldn't you know. The instructions got caught in the wind and blew away. He didn't know what to do with it so he just... didn't bother with it. ]

Oh come on! Like you hold that power over woman.

[Sano snorts. He's still a little hurt, but he won't let that cloud their reunion, especially not, when he knows it's his intoxication talking.

When Shinpachi pulls out the device though, he grins. This will be fun, he decides.]

That, mo chara, is a phone. Or it was one, before it got modified into a magical communication device. It's more comfortable than floo powder and you can do a lot more stuff with it.

I'd hold that power over your woman!

[ His grin is wicked, saying that he wouldn't be flirting with her, but telling Sano's dirty stories. ]

You know at some point someone you date will expect me to talk about your dirty youth!

[ But then he's looking down at the phone and reaches up to scratch his head. ]

How's this more comfortable than floo powder? It's so small... I can't fit my hand through the screen much less the rest of me!

In your dreams, maybe!

[Sano barks a laugh.]

Feel free to. I keep no secrets from the one I love.

[Loved. He needs to get used to using the past tense, even if it's not entirely accurate. Not yet. But when Shinpachi pulls out the device, staring at it like... well, like he had no idea where to start, Sano just sighs.]

That's why it's a communication device, not a damned portkey. For the love of the Aos Sí, why is every pureblood this clueless?

[He reaches for phe phone and turns it on, having figured out how to use his a while ago. With a little help from his brother. Just a little, okay?]

Here. You call, which means we talk, you send messages, here you make a video call. That's when I can see you as well as hear you. Read the rest.

I had a manual made extra for you.

[ Yeah. He heard that present tense there, Sano. You can't escape that. But Shinpachi won't say anything, thinking it's not his place to.

So instead he focuses his energy on listening to Sano's instruction. Of something he's never even seen before he got it in the mail, let alone had the opportunity to figure out how to power it on and use. ]

It blew away before I got a chance to read it.

[ There's no shortage of sheepishness in his voice. ]

So... What's this thing supposed to do then? Replace owls or something?

[Sano sighs, when Shinpachi admit he lost the manual. Seriously, Shinpachi was far from clumsy, so how did his friend always end up in these situations?]

I'll make you a copy of mine.

[And thank Merlin's wits for asking for two.]

Basically? I doubt it can completely replace owl post at this point, but it's definitely faster, and easier, and more versatile. You can not only write with it, but also talk. And talking over great distances only worked until now, if you had good knees and a fire place at your disposal. It's supposed to make communication over great distances easier and faster.

[ Fate? Fluke? Momentary airheadedness? There's any number of reasons that dumb shit happens to him.

Shinpachi's hand finds his chin as he looks down at the thing in his hands. He humms softly, thinking that this was a good thing... Now he just had to learn how to use it. ]

Where did you even get this? I've never seen anything like it before.

[Sano almost smirks. Almost. Because this ought to blow Shinpachi off the stool on onto his ass, but there's nothing about a cool delivery that wouldn't amplify the effect.

So he just shrugs and smiles, like it's the most common thing, when he says.]

Oh, there's this genius student here, who figured out a spell for how to make muggle tech work here. Cool, huh?

This is something muggle?!

[ Mind. Blown. KAPOW!

He looks from the phone in his hand to Sano and he just knows his best friend is smug. ]

Damn. I didn't know Hogwarts turned out kids that smart!

Yup~

[It's a monosyllabic answer, but Sano drags it out, lets it roll on his tongue and pops the 'p' delightfully, enjoying every single millisecond of the affirmation. He loves getting a surprise out of SHinachi like that, he doesn't even deny it.]

Why? Because Mahoutokoro only takes idiots and tortures them with quidditch?

[he asks with a teasing smirk.]

Pfft. You say torture but we both know Mohoutokoro churns out pretty damn fine players.

[ Speaking from experience there, thank you very much. SO SORRY FOR NOT LETTING THAT GET UNDER HIS SKIN. Except not because he has his pride. ]

You just don't see that kind of genius that often. Who is this kid?

Not saying it doesn't. It's just from what I remember, you used to swing at the bludger like your entire life depended on it. It's kinda amusing.

[Sano teases with a grin. Amusing... But amazing as well. Sano has always had an admiration for a beater's stance and physique, the broad shoulders and the strength, and all that harnessed power... Maybe that's why his male lovers were usually beaters. That, or dancers.]

He's a Ravenclaw, as you'd expect.

It usually did!

[ Which was true. Training at Mahoutokoro... It was intense to say the least. Shinpachi chuckles and slugs some of his own firewhiskey down, as if remembering some of those training days was cause enough to do it.

He soon rubs his chin, thinking about the Ravenclaw house. They were known for their out of the box thinkers, so it doesn't really come as much of a surprise that the one who made the device Sano sent him was from that house. What was the most surprising was definitely that someone figured it out. ]

I might have to thank this kid in person sometime then.

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