Gabriel Goden walks down the street, head down slightly. Imagine the injustice. Even though his sisters were allowed to get away with everything, Gabriel was being punished for his latest ‘antic’. Really, setting fire to the sticks in the back yard was surely not against any rules. Plus, he had to be ready for when he got to Hogwarts in a few weeks’ time. No use in falling behind. All things considered, he supposes that being sent to run errands is not such a bad punishment. Still, a cookie would have been more appreciated, thinks Gabriel as he passes by the candy shop, stopping to look into the window.

Briony Wexler, who has spent much of the day, engrossed in a thrilling book, glances up at the boy. “Hullo,” she greets him. “You were in the shop yesterday, weren’t you? With your mother?” Not a shy thing, is she? She grins at him, missing one tooth off to the left. “My auntie owns that shop there,” she tells him, her voice filled with glee and pride. After much coaxing, she convinced her father to let her stay with her most favorite aunt for a whole week! And what a glorious day it has been so far. She smiles as she waits for his answer.

Gabriel Goden is somewhat surprised by the girl’s sudden inquiry. “Yes… I was here with my mum yesterday. She’s friends with Miss Eva… your auntie Eva I suppose. Mum loves looking at babies; I suspect that’s why she loves going to the candy shop. There are too many babies in there for my tastes,” he explains. “So,” he starts, putting down the bag Avery had given him to tote the purchases home, “I haven’t seen you around before. Where do you live…? I mean when you don’t live with Miss Eva?”

“I live in Islington with my Dad and Mum, and my little brother and sister. They’re too young to stay away from home, though. A whole week I get to be here. Dad’s not really happy, I don’t think, but Mum thinks it’s good.” Briony giggles amiably. “The babies are cute. They don’t even wake me up at night! Have you seen Miss Elsbethe’s baby? She’s really cute. She’s a little older than my cousins.” Again, the child giggles and flashes a big grin at the boy. “Say, have you ever heard of this book? My Mum and Dad are always getting me new books, but I’ve never seen one like this that Auntie Eva got for me!” She brandishes it for him. “It’s full of adventures and fighting and exciting things. Mum and Dad’s books are never this exciting.” Indeed, she looks quite thrilled as her cheeks are flushed.

Gabriel Goden nods. “I’ve lived in Hogsmesde my whole life. Right now, there is just a lot of babies around, that’s all. No offense,” he adds as an afterthought. “I saw Miss Elsbethe’s baby,” he offers. “I suppose she was as good-looking a baby as I’ve ever seen,” he says as he steps closer to her to get a better look at the book. “My sisters read those,” he says. “They’re nine. I’m eleven,” (he decided the last part was important to note). “What books do your parents have you read?” he asks.

Briony Wexler shrugs. “Books with lots of silly romantic things in them. People being all kissy and funny with each other. They’re alright, I guess. But this is much more exciting.” She giggles. “This seems like a nice place to live. Not a whole lot happening. Do you get to go to London much? Dad and Mummy take us about four times a year. It’s loads of fun! My favorite shop is the Quidditch shop. I’m just dying to learn how to play. Do you know how? Dad won’t teach me yet. He says it’s too dangerous.” Briony scowls a bit and hugs her knees to her chest, looking up at him with interest. What a nice boy this seems to be, even if he is a boy.

Gabriel Goden brightens immediately. “Quidditch is so dangerous!” Gabriel exclaims. Looking around slightly, he bends closer to the girl and says in hushed tones, “Don’t tell anyone, but last week my dad let me ride on his broom. He said not to tell mum because she would put him in a dog house for it, but it was fantastic. I didn’t fly high, though,” he says. “Once I become a Quidditch star at Hogwarts this year, I will teach you,” he promises. He did, of course, conveniently leave out the part about first years not being allowed to be on the teams. “So, when are you going to Hogwarts?” he asks.

“You mean next year, of course. Or did they change the rules? Can you be on the Quidditch team on your first year?” She asks this in all earnest, believing him to be sincere. “I’ll go next year, for I’m only ten now. I’m very excited though.” She smiles happily clapping a bit and then hugging her knees again. “You really must teach me to play Quidditch, though. I really want to learn. I’m sure I’ll be brilliant at it. Apparently a couple of my uncles played it at school, and were brilliant. At least, that’s what Uncle Freddie tells me. He never played, himself, but he said Uncle Jared and Uncle Logan were great.” She shrugs. “Have you many uncles?” Briony asks curiously.

Gabriel Goden shrugs. “I don’t really have any uncles, technically,” he says. “Both of my parents are only children so… but my mum has four cousins that she grew up with. So they are like my aunties and uncles I’d say,” he says with a satisfied nod. In answering her other question, he hesitates. “Oh… right, next year… about the Quidditch, I mean. But I will learn how to fly brilliantly in flying lessons. Then when you come to Hogwarts I’ll teach you,” he says, thinking the situation saved as well as possible.

Briony Wexler giggles. “It’s a deal! Maybe I’ll see if I can’t stay in Hogsmeade with Auntie Eva next summer. Then you could teach me before I even come!” She grins and sets her book into a nook under the doorcover to keep it dry in case of a rainstorm, and stands up quickly. “Do you want to play at something?” she asks congenially. “We could pretend at pirates!” She giggles and starts thrashing about with an imaginary sword, her hair flying about rather wildly. “Or maybe we could pretend to be Unspeakables and do,” her voice drops to a secretive tone, “Unspeakable research!”

Gabriel Goden leaps up beside her and exclaims, “Unspeakable research! I know everything about that stuff; my dad works in the department of mysteries!” For some reason, Gabriel is prompted to try to have the girl like him. Odd. Usually girls were… well, the type who liked to read about kissy romances. This girl was different than all them. “We can find out all the mysteries in Hogsmeade and then solve them like my dad does!” he says excitedly.

Briony Wexler cheers. “We must begin at once! Who knows when the last time was that someone tried to work on the mysteries!” She giggles and looks up at him — after all the boy is a good two inches taller than she is. “Where shall we start? What about that place down the road. The one with the purple eaves. I swear I see more and more cats coming out of there every day.” She crosses her arms and raises her eyebrow curiously. “I bet there’s something fishy going on in there.”

Gabriel Goden cranes his neck and then lets out an all-knowing “ahh,” as if able to see the house perfectly from where the pair are presently standing. “I definitely agree with you. There is probably already a log about the mysterious purple-eaved-cat-house in the department of mysteries, but we should investigate it right now to save the Ministry some time,” he says with a grin. “You can be the first witness about it: so, how many cats have you seen from it in the last few days?” asks Gabriel, fishing out his mother’s grocery list from the bottom of his bag and posing his hand over it, as if holding a quill at the ready to record her answer.

Putting a finger to her chin thoughtfully, Briony answers, “At least fifty.” She grins her tooth-missing grin, and puts her hands on her hips. “Now, what about you? Have you seen any strange occurrences from that house?” She pauses. “I think we should call it The Purple House. That way we know which one we’re talking about.” She nods sagely and rocks on her heels, as if to quell some unspent energy. “Keep a good log; we’ll want that later.” She giggles and then stifles herself. Unspeakables have serious jobs, not fun jobs. She turns a bit to look at the house in the distance. “How long do you suppose it’s been that colour?”

Gabriel Goden replies, “As long as I’ve lived here,” he assures her, “and I’ve lived here all my life.” He hastily portrays the act of scribbling ‘upwards of fifty cats’ on the parchment before looking up again. “Alright, that should be enough basis work. Now, we must go to the scene of the occurrence and observe what we see there.” Gabriel smirks inwardly at his use of big words. Hopefully, the girl will think highly of him. “In this case, the Purple House,” he adds as he begins to walk towards said house. “In response to your question, the only strangeness I have noticed is some yelling of odd words such as, ‘Buttercup!!’ late in the evening,” Gabriel states with one eyebrow raised.

Briony Wexler finds herself in awe of the big words, some of which she doesn’t know the meaning to. This has never mattered in the past to her, of course, so she nods excitedly. “Yes! Let’s go!” She giggles and grabs his hand, taking off at a swift run towards the house in question. She stops in front of it, still clinging to his hand, and finds a tremor of fear inside her as she steps back ever so slightly behind him. She has seen some spooky things going on, now that she thinks of it. “So, sh-should we knock on the door?” she asks quietly, as if speaking more loudly will provoke some ill omens.

Gabriel Goden was slightly taken aback by her taking his hand, but more grevious tasks are at hand, now, as they stand in front of the Purple House (his blush goes away quickly and is replaced with the pallid tone of a boy who is on his guard). He looks over his shoulder at the girl but shakes his head. “We can’t knock on the door until the situation is secure.” Secure from what, he doesn’t really know, but to be safe he begins circling the house, looking for anything out of the ordinary. Upon his first few steps around the house, nothing strikes him as… extraordinary. “Hmmm,” he says, as if contemplating something deeply. Then, his eyes alight on something. He puts his arm out in front of the girl so she stays protected behind him.

“What did you see?” Briony asks, finding some of her confidence again. She hears a rustling and some mewing as a couple of kittens roll out of some nearby bushes. “Awww, look at them! Aren’t they darling!” She skips over to them quickly and kneels, watching them. Ah, to be a ten-year-old girl. “I wonder if Dad would let me take one home…” she muses loudly, then gasps, having forgotten the task at hand momentarily. She strides back over to Gabriel and nods slowly. “I have deemed those two harmless and safe,” she tells him, as if reciting from a book, and trying to look important.

Gabriel Goden nods slowly in the same fashion as Briony. “Harmless… and…. safe…”, he repeats aloud as he ‘writes’ it onto the parchment. “Alright, let’s keep going,” he says as they continue their walk– err, mission. As they round the last corner and arrive again at the front porch, Gabriel surveys the house as a whole and adds, “scene… appears… secure…” to the paper. “Okay…” he starts. “Now what?”

“Uhhh… I don’t know,” Briony admits. “I guess we should go in.” She pauses after taking a step towards the house. “Do we knock?” she asks him in a hushed voice. “Does anyone even live here?” She realizes that she doesn’t know that much about the house and looks at him curiously. “It does say that there have been spooky sounds coming from the house, here in your notes.” She points to a spot on the paper, as if making light of some notes he had taken. “Maybe someone is living here — when they don’t own the house!” Her mouth forms an “O” shape in shock.

Gabriel Goden suggests helpfully, “Or it could be a ghost.” He smirks dubiously before saying, “Either way there is only one way to find out… we knock,” he says, sounding brave. He has, in fact, seen a harassed-looking old witch enter the house on a few occasions throughout his life, so he is not too worried about the ghost hypothesis. Stepping up to the ancient-looking wooden door, he raps lightly on it with his knuckles. “Hello?” he inquires.

Briony Wexler follows him up to the house and stands next to him, pressing her ear to the wall next to the door. “I hear creaking!” she hisses, her eyes wide. “I — I think somebody’s in there!” Her voice sounds thrilled and frightened at the same time. She stands up and peeks into a crack in the wall, hoping to see inside the house. “Should we go inside? I really want to get to the bottom of this!” She grins at him, bouncing a little bit, her adrenaline starting to pump. “Then the Ministry won’t have to do it!” She grins at him.

Gabriel Goden nods. “My dad will be glad, it’ll save him some ti–” he stops dead as the door creaks open. The boy stares in unchecked shock as he gazes upon the hunched yet impossibly looming figure of the old woman. “Yes?” she croaks as she eyes the two children. “Ah… we…” Gabriel starts, as he looks from the witch, to Briony, and back to the witch. “We were… wondering if we could ask you some… er… questions?” he says, wondering at the time if his unease is present in his voice.

“We’d like to ask some questions about a project we’re doing. It’s about cats. We thought you might know something about them, since you have a lot around your house.” Briony smiles at the woman. Always quick on her feet, is Briony. She tries her best to look cute and not look suspicious. After all, they’re trying to investigate her for foul doings! She giggles as the kittens come tramping up the steps to the house, tickling and biting her feet with their claws and teeth.

Gabriel Goden glances at Briony shortly before realizing that she is just acting at being innocent. They are, after all, under-cover Ministry agents. Yes, he will play along so their cover will not be blown… After the woman nods and gives an awkward, being-put-on-the-spot smile, Gabriel asks, “do all of the cats around here live in this house with you? Or, just how many cats do you own?” He has his imaginary quill hovering over his parchment and suddenly feels a bit foolish. He lowers the parchment, ready to take mental notes.

Briony Wexler listens as the woman stammers something out about the cats just showing up and nods as if she is very interested. After all, she’s on a mission. Of course, as the woman mentions cookies, all secret plans are forgotten. “Yes, please!” She says, her eyes lit up excitedly. Cookies! Who wouldn’t want cookies? Well, Briony remembers her father, but of course, he doesn’t want her to play Quidditch, either. She shrugs and tugs Gabriel in after her. Of course he’ll like cookies. She grins at the lady, showing the spot where her tooth is missing.

Gabriel Goden sighs as Briony is lulled over by the prospect of baked goods; however, he can’t truly say that he is whole-heartedly opposed to the idea. As he is dragged along behind Briony, he resigns himself to two cookies; no more, in case this woman is actually a spy. (From where and spying on what didn’t actually cross his mind.) As the woman appears to want nothing better than to have them leave her dwelling after this odd visit, Gabriel offers a, “thank you, good-bye,” as the lady smiles and opens the door for them. Once outside again, Gabriel nods. “Well, I guess that mystery is kind of solved, now!”

“I guess so! And, hehe, she makes good cookies.” Briony grins at him, taking another bite of the cookie in her hand. Briony could not be resigned to only two cookies; she had taken four. “So, we’ll send our notes to the ministry, and let them know that they can forget about that mystery. It’s all solved!” She giggles and skips a bit towards the road where she sees her aunt Eva, accompanied by many people who frequented Honeydukes. Her aunt seems to be a bit upset, Briony notices, and looks with a bit of a worried glance at Gabriel. “I wonder what the matter is with them,” she comments, glancing back at them, coming to a stop.

Gabriel Goden loses colour. “Uh oh, my MUM is with your auntie…” Oh, Gabriel is in trouble and he knows it. “I was– er, kind of supposed to be running errands right now,” he explains to Briony. However, that explanation was rendered redundant with Avery’s stern exclamation of, “Gabriel Goden! You were supposed to be buying my groceries!” Gabriel stutters, “but m-mum, I met,” he points, “her, and we had to solve the Purple mystery… that is, the house cat mystery of the house with… the eaves,” he becomes more flustered as Avery nears. “We’re going home Gabriel; obviously this is not the right way to set you straight!” says Avery, although a glance to Eva might tell of her relief in finding her son safe, if stammering.

“It’s okay, Gabriel. I’ll see you tomorrow!” Briony giggles and waves, skipping over to her aunt. “Look, the lady in the house with all the cats gave me some cookies!” she shows Eva as the two head back towards Honeydukes. Eva shakes her head, biting her lip and resisting the urge to laugh. She waves to Avery and Gabriel, beckoning Briony to follow her into the shop. Briony pauses. “You’ll come see me tomorrow, won’t you?” she affirms, pulling her book out from its hiding spot, waiting on the step, under the eave, staying clear of the dripdrops which are just starting to fall.

Hazarding a glance up to his mother, Gabriel nods slightly. “Maybe,” he says. “Oh, umm…” so awkward: “What’s your name, by the way?” he asks. Surely, if his mum would allow, he’d love to solve a couple more mysteries with the girl before starting Hogwarts; he needed to sharpen his mind if he was to learn and remember spells and house passwords and directions and names.

“My name is Briony,” she answers gleefully and waves her cookies at him. “See you tomorrow!” she hails and then twirls and runs inside, shouting something to her Aunt Eva about her great adventures of the day. Her skirt flies behind her and is the last thing that is seen of her as the door swings shut behind her and her giggles linger in the air as she tells her tales.

Other Interesting Logs:

• And Time for a Race, Too
• Gryffindor Quidditch Tryouts
• Gabriel the Dragon?
• Only A Little Nervous
• Commonroom Chatter and Social Speculation