Scratches (Fred Weasley)

(98) Golden Days

The next few weeks were rather gleeful for Florence, due to the fact that she was not holed up in some creepy pureblood family house with shrieking portraits and windowless walls. Nicolai and Xander, per usual, made everything much more fun considering the fact that they branched out and thought of other places that they could go to, now that they were all allowed to apparate whenever they pleased. On a particularly bright and sunny day, Xander decided to take the two to a carnival.

"A what now?" Florence frowned, tickling her own nose with her quill as she half listened to her friend and half tried to compose a letter to send to Fred. Alexander had a look of exasperation on his face, "See, this is what purebloods like you are missing out on."

"And her," she gestured towards Nicolai, "She's a pureblood too."

"Look," Xander began, not quite sure how to explain the joys of a carnival minimally, and without getting too deep in to muggle terms. "My nan used to take me there almost every summer before I started going to Hogwarts. There are booths, games, rides, a giant wheel that takes you up, up, up..."

"Like riding on a broomstick?" Florence asked, "I mean, why would they use wheels?"

"Yeah. If your talking about the wheels on those mobileautos that they use to get around in." Nicolai chipped in, "Those—ah—what do you call them...? Cars! Yes, cars. Are you talking about car wheels? That levitate?"

This made Florence frown even more prominent, "Maybe because they're more comfortable to sit on...?"

"I can't..." he sighed, flopping down onto the couch in defeat, "Okay, first off, its automobile. And no, I don't mean car tires. Why the hell would it be car tires? I'm saying it's shaped like a wheel, but instead of it being the regular sized ones, they're gigantic. It's called a Ferris Wheel, and it has compartments fastened around the wheel for carrying people when it rotates..."

"Are you trying to visualize this in your head?" Nicolai asked Florence, who nodded. "Yeah, so far I've got nothing but a headache."

"It would be better to see it in person, yeah? Come on, you two," he clasped his hands together, "Change out of your pajamas and wear something comfortable. I'm going to show you the joys of my childhood—well, part of my childhood, that is."

Jane was rather wary at the idea of them strolling around in a place rather far from her and with a questionable security system, but said yes, nevertheless, due to the fact that nothing bad would quite happen when they were surrounded by masses of muggles.

After making sure they had enough muggle currency to last them the whole day, the three of them apparated, holding on to Xander as he transported them from a dim alleyway to a place of great color, music, and festive streamers.

"Did a rainbow throw up here?" Nicolai said out loud, eyes wide as she swiveled her head around from side to side. Florence was pointing at what looked like a gigantic wheel, "So that's what you were trying to get us to visualize... Honestly, you could have done better at describing it."

"Xander, Xander!" Nicolai tugged on his arm, "That child looks like a tiger!"

"Face paint, Nic, they use face paint." he pointed to the stand, "They get it done over there. You like?"

"No," she grimaced, "That's rather nasty to put on your face."

"No, its special paint. Muggles have a lot of different paints, some for walls, for art, and ones that are for the skin." Xander explained, only to realize that Florence was nowhere near them, "Where did she go?"

"Xander, I change my mind, I want to get my face painted!"

"Wait!" he huffed, "We need to find Florence. Merlin, I told you two not to wander away—oh, there she is, by the popcorn stand."