Surrogate Best Friend

[Ophelia Dippet]

Ophelia had been feeling a little lonesome recently. Her grandfather, as always, was no help; his company was as good as none at all. And there was simply nothing happening this month, which left her rather bored. She couldn't spend all her time bouncing from engagements with Nova and Zipporah, either; November had a husband and a baby and all sorts of new demands on her time, and Zipporah had an entire household full of people that she was more obliged to spend time with than Ophelia. Not for the first time, the girl wished she'd been able to finish Hogwarts. Maybe that would have helped her to secure a wider network of friends, for these sorts of lonely weeks between social events.

She didn't remember her sister Nicky ever being bored, but maybe that was just Nicky. That was before everyone had died, and Nicky was prettier than her, anyway. Of course she hadn't had a spare moment once she'd come out!

Thinking about her sister stirred up some painful nostalgia for Ophelia. Nicolina had always been her best and closest friend and confidant. The weather as she went about some dreary errands with her grandfather didn't help, either; the sky was a mottle of greys, and the air was heavy with impending rain. Although she hadn't had to break out the dainty umbrella she was carrying, it seemed highly likely before the afternoon was over.

Ophelia didn't even really know what they were doing. She'd dressed to go out with her grandfather because she never passed up an opportunity to leave the house, but he never went out for anything exciting. She'd Floo'd along to Hogsmeade with him, then followed in his footsteps, glumly watching the churning clouds above her and reminiscing about times long past.

It was a little surreal when they reached High Street and turned in front of the pet store. A small dark haired rodent pressed its long snout against the window at about the level of her hip, causing Ophelia to stop in her tracks. She recognized the animal immediately, because she'd had one as a child. A niffler! She didn't know that they were actually sold as pets--her father had worked with dangerous magical creatures from around the world, and many of the things that he'd brought home for his children weren't exactly "conventional." But the niffler he'd brought them had been one of the earliest that Ophelia could remember, when she was just a toddler. Before her idiot brother or ill-fated younger sisters had been born, and before her mother had gone insane. Back when it was just her parents and Nicky and her, and everyone was happy.

"Grandpapa!" she called--she was calling him grandpapa now because it sounded more poetic and old-fashioned than grandfather, in her opinion, and a little more affectionate, too, since she'd always called her own father Papa. Without even bothering to look and see whether he'd stopped or taken notice of her distraction, Ophelia moved to the door of the pet store and bustled inside. In another moment she had gotten to the open-topped area where the niffler was being kept. It was rummaging through some wood chips, but as soon as she approached it peered up at her and scurried over.

A genuine smile appearing on her face, Ophelia set the umbrella down and removed her gloves, not wanting to dirty them. Tucking them into the wand pocket on one side of her skirt, she reached a hand down towards the creature, who sniffed at it experimentally. "Why, aren't you darling?" she gushed.

FYI @'Armando Dippet'; open to Armando (if you want; if not I'll godmod) + anyone else

  

[Roberto Devine]

Roberto had been deliberating the merits of an animal companion for some months now and had finally decided to at least take a look around. The Beautiful Beast Boutique was an obvious first stop so he had decided to start his foray into pet selection there. If he didn't find what he liked then he supposed he would look around in London.

The Quidditch sponsor was thinking something along the lines of a magical pet - something unique. The fact that there were very few events that he was interested in attending going on meant that he had plenty of time to indulge his desire to go pet searching. If anything, maybe he would find something to gift to his mother. Maybe a pet would distract her from lamenting on Roberto's continued bachelorhood. A thing he could not help; most especially since he was holding out for love. The real thing - he didn't know exactly what that meant but he knew he would know when he found it.

As he came closer to the shop with all these thoughts whirring in his mind, he looked up at the sky and his thoughts turned to wondering if he shouldn't have chosen a different day. The sky looked rather gloomy like it was about to rain. He made absent notice of someone calling out for their 'grandpapa' and since he was clearly no ones grandpapa, he continued on his way into the shop.

Roberto noticed the young woman - it would be hard not to, pretty as she was - and couldn't help curiousity at what she was gushing over. If it was something to make a young lady gush then maybe it would be an ideal candidate for Mother Distraction. "Well, I'll be. A niffler," he commented in some amusement as he looked down at the creature whose gaze seemed quite afixed on the family ring that always adorned his index finger as was his due as the Devine heir. "I don't think I've been this close to one since school." He was talking to himself a bit really but in such a manner the young woman could easily think he was addressing her.

  

[Ophelia Dippet]

Ophelia was in danger of falling head over heels in love with the tiny, furry creature shuffling around her fingertips--at least, until the little thing became quite noticeably distracted. It was gazing quite intently off to her left. Following its gaze, she noticed that a man had approached the pen. She smiled amiably as he recognized the animal. Anyone who knew about nifflers couldn't be a bad sort, after all; nifflers had nothing but positive memories for her.

"I don't remember nifflers at Hogwarts," she commented. She had added Care of Magical Creatures at her third year, obviously--with her father engaged in magical beastiology, it was a natural choice. Nicky had taken it, too. Of course, since she hadn't made it past her fourth year before being pulled out of Hogwarts and being forced to stay home with a private tutor, that hardly meant anything. If she'd stayed at Hogwarts, she would have taken Care of Magical Creatures up until her very last year, she was sure, but as things stood, she had barely an introduction to the world of magical beasts--formally, anyway. Her father hadn't seen a need to cover it with a tutor, since, in his opinion, the girls probably already knew more than was, strictly speaking, proper for young ladies to know about dangerous creatures.

"My sister and I used to have one, as children," she confessed, throwing convention to the wind because of her distraction with the niffler. Besides, since she'd decided she was bound for spinsterhood, it hardly mattered if she committed a social faux pax or two with a stranger in a High Street shop. "But I didn't know they sold them as pets, normally. My father worked with all sorts of animals, you see," she explained with a wide grin, "So we had a lot of--unusual pets around the house. It drove my mother crazy, sometimes." She couldn't help but smile--memories of her mother being sane and loving were few and far between, these days.

Taking a second to just let that memory settle happily into her brain, Ophelia reached down to pet the niffler in the case with the backs of her fingertips. "He seems quite preoccupied with your ring," she pointed out.

@'Roberto Devine'

  

[Roberto Devine]

The niffler was indeed as cute as Roberto remembered them being. "The professor I had at the time brought one in for us to learn from and observe," he informed the woman with a smile of remembrance of his school days. Roberto had taken Care of Magical Creatures for one of his electives since he'd thought it might be interesting and it had been. Plus it gave him ins like this to speak with so far very amiable young ladies.

"Ah," he said in some interest when the young woman confessed that she had once had a niffler for a pet. "Sounds like quite the adventure. I think I'd like a niffler as a pet though I was originally looking for a pet to gift to my mother. I don't think she'd appreciate a niffler though. She has a fondness for shiny jewelry and nifflers and shiny things - well, need I say more?" Considering she had a niffler for a pet, it was clear that she would be very much aware of how nifflers were pretty much obsessed with getting to shiny things - his ring for example. Wanting to be cautious, he slipped his ring off of his finger and into his pocket - which only served to have the niffler a little more agitated since it clearly now wanted to get at Robertos pockets.

  

[Ophelia Dippet]

Ophelia nodded along with the man's comments, though she was still far more preoccupied with the niffler. She laughed when the man slid his ring off, because this caused the creature to do a sort of agitated dance--like young children did when they desperately needed to use the bathroom. "Oh, stop it, you silly thing," she admonished lightly, tapping the creature's back to try and distract it from the now-hidden ring. The niffler turned at the pressure, then spun in a quick circle, trying to determine what had touched him. When he didn't see anything, however (Ophelia having since pulled her hand back to the top of the pen), it scuttled over as close as possible to the man and resumed staring at his pocket.

"Well, he might be very happy at your mother's, though I suspect she would be much less so," Ophelia pointed out. "But you'll have to look elsewhere if you decide on a niffler. I've made up my mind to buy this one." Her grandfather knew nothing of the matter, but Ophelia wasn't worried about that. She'd convince him. Even if she had to be unpleasant in order to do so.

"I think it's a he, what do you think?" she asked, though she didn't wait for an answer before reaching down and playfully prodding the niffler's back again, this time more to the center. He reeled back to look at her hand, then lost his balance and tumbled backwards--exactly the way her last niffler had done!--and revealed that she'd been correct in her assumption. Looking over at the unknown man with a mischievous glint in her eye, Ophelia said, "Well, you can help me name him, sir, and I'll help you find a pet for your mother. How's that for a trade? You couldn't do better than to be advised by the daughter of a famous Magizoologist." Infamous might have been a better word--and mostly due to how her father had died--but it didn't have quite the same ring to it. Besides, she was just having a bit of fun.

@'Roberto Devine'

  

[Roberto Devine]

Roberto watched as the young woman admonished the niffler. It was quite an endearing sight to witness. The niffler was quite amusing with its antics as it spun in a quick circle before ultimately coming back to stare at his pocket as if he could mentally will the ring out of it. He chuckled when she spoke of how the niffler would be happy at his mothers but that she had decided on buying the one they had been interacting with. That was no matter; he was sure he could find one elsewhere but he very much doubted his mother would appreciate a niffler.

Roberto watched as the young brunette nudged the niffler in a way that resulted in it tumbling onto its back. The womans assumption proven correct, he rose an eyebrow at her suggestion. That sounded like an amusing way to spend part of his afternoon. After all, what better way was there to spend ones time than with a pretty lady?

"A famed magizoologist's daughter? Well, it's my lucky day to run into such expertise," he stated. Coming up with names for the niffler, however, might be a little trickier. "Perhaps something pirate-y? It seeks treasure and so do pirates."

@'Ophelia Dippet'

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   Ophelia Dippet

[Ophelia Dippet]

"Pirates!" Ophelia exclaimed in delight. Now that was a thought! She remembered, when she'd been very young, her father had brought them back a book from one of his trips. Ophelia hadn't been able to read yet, but Nicky had, and she had read the stories to Ophelia, and then, seized by a sense of adventure, they'd run around acting out their favorite scenes, complete with makeshift stick swords. The name had been one of those ancient sounding things that wasn't spelled quite right--The Big Booke of Pyrate Kyngs, or something like it. They'd had such fun with it, until one of them had gotten the idea to fashion dust bombs so that they could simulate the smokey aura of gun powder. They had been very crude little things, just cheesecloth wrapped around some dirt and tied with twine, which would burst open in clouds when they were hurled at things with enough force.

Their mother had not been pleased about the dust bombs. That had been the end of the pirate book. 'It's unladylike, anyhow,' Ophelia had remembered her mother saying. At that age, she hadn't known the word 'ladylike,' so she had just assumed it was a synonym for 'boring.'

"Like Blackbeard!" she exclaimed enthusiastically. "Or..." her face clouded momentarily and she confessed with a bit of a blush, "That might be the only pirate I know." That didn't seem reasonable. She'd had a whole book of pirates, once! But that had been so long ago. She wondered if that book was still in her family's things, somewhere. Probably not. Her mother had probably gotten rid of it. In Ophelia's defense, though, it wasn't as though there were many modern examples of pirates. All of the really famous ones had lived a hundred years ago, at least.

"Oh, Bartholomew Roberts," she remembered. "He was a pirate, wasn't he? Or was it Batholomew Rogers?" she asked, raising one knuckle to her lips as she furrowed her brow, trying to remember.

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   Roberto Devine

[Roberto Devine]

It didn't really occur to Roberto that talking about criminals like pirates with a young lady probably wasn't the 'done' thing. Pirates had just been among the first things that came to mind when thinking of treasure seekers. It was all harmless fun, anyway - he was hardly suggesting for the woman to run off and sail the seas herself so he figured this was fine. Besides, boring conversation was so mundane and he'd had his fill of such conversations at the various events he attended.

"I could see him being named Blackbeard," Roberto stated thoughtfully. The niffler had dark fur, at least. Roberto chuckled when the woman confessed that she thought that Blackbeard might be the only pirate she knew of. He was hardly surprised; after all, it wasn't really considered ladylike for women to have interests in such things. Not that he had ever had that ideal himself. He wasn't exactly an extreme feminist or something but he did think a woman could read whatever she wanted.

"Yes, it's Bartholomew Roberts. He was also known as Black Bart. Some other ones I can think of are Sir Francis Drake, Sir Henry Morgan and William Kidd."

  

[Ophelia Dippet]

Ophelia's grin widened. "Black Bart! That's just delightful to say, isn't it?" she said, chuckling as she returned her attention to the niffler. It wasn't exactly an elegant name, but nifflers were hardly elegant creatures. As she continued to chuckle, Ophelia inhaled the wrong way and ended up sort of snorting in the middle of her laugh, which wasn't exactly an elegant sound. They were well suited for each other.

Blushing and falling quickly silent, Ophelia decided the best course of action was just to pretend that she had never made such an ungraceful noise, and hope that this stranger didn't bring it up, either.

She probably ought to have learned his name by now, since he was helping her come up with a name for her niffler and she had just offered to help him Christmas-shop for his mother, both of which seemed like rather personal things to be doing with a complete stranger. Her grandfather, however, was absent, because he was always either absent or absent-minded when she needed him to do guardian things, so he'd be the stranger for a little longer.

"I don't think he looks like a sir anything," she said, scratching the back of the niffler's neck. "That's a little too noble for a niffler. But Blackbeard, that's rather ignominious," she said with a grin. "Didn't Blackbeard--didn't he put lit candles in his beard when he killed people?" she asked, with a (very subdued) laugh.

  

[Roberto Devine]

"Indeed. Alliteration always has a way of rolling off the tongue, in my opinion," Roberto said in agreement. Roberrto was sorely tempted to chuckle when the young woman snorted but thankfully managed not to.

It was hardly gentlemanly to bring up a ladys inelegant moments so Roberto was quite content to pretend the moment had not happened. It seemed the young lady seemed to be on the same page as well, which was hardly surprising.

Roberto chuckled when the young lady said that the niffler didn't look like a sir anything. "That he did. It's said that he did so because it made him look all the more intimidating to the people he was attacking."

@'Ophelia Dippet'

  

[Ophelia Dippet]

"Well, he's hardly the intimidating sort, is he?" she asked with a smile. Ophelia had never had any skill with divination, so she had no way of knowing, in that moment, how much of a terror the adorable little thing would become in her household in the coming weeks. Indeed, she would be the only person who actually liked the little guy. Right now, though, she couldn't imagine anyone ever having a single complaint about the tiny creature.

"I think the alliteration suits him," she said with a cheerful look, reaching down to scratch the niffler's back as she did. Alliteration wasn't the sort of term she would have come up with on her own, but he'd used it first and she thought it was the sort of long and delightful word that tended to make the person who used it seem well read, so she was quick to appropriate it.

"So that's settled," she said, reaching in and picking the niffler up as if to announce to whoever else in the pet shop might be watching that she had officially claimed this pet. "Now for my end of the bargain--what sort of pet are you looking to get your mother, Mr...?" she said, drifting off as she realized that she didn't actually know this gentleman's name.

  

[Roberto Devine]

"No, I dare say that he is not," Roberto said in agreement with the young lady. The niffler was adorable and even if it turned out to be an absolute terror, he doubted anyone would believe the claim. He certainly wouldn't, more than likely, despite knowing very well that looks could be deceiving.

Roberto smiled as the young woman settled on the name that he had helped her with. "Ah, I am remiss in my manners. I do hope you'll forgive me," Roberto said as he realized he had not properly introduced himself at all despite the length of time they'd been speaking. "I am Roberto Devine and as for my mother - I think she'd like something small but moderately self-sufficient."

  

[Ophelia Dippet]

"Oh, not at all, Mr. Devine," she reassured him easily; they'd both been too distracted by the precious little niffler in her arms to be properly concerned with introductions. Indeed, if she hadn't started to use his name and then suddenly realized she didn't know it, they might very well have gone this entire conversation without exchanging names, and she wouldn't have been a bit offended. "If you've been remiss, in any case, I've been just as much so. Ophelia Dippet," she offered with a slight smile and a small curtsy, though it was only really half of a curtsy since she was still holding Bartholomew in one hand.

"Now, as for Mrs. Devine," she said, holding her niffler with both hands again as she considered his stipulations. She glanced around the pet store as if for inspiration, but honestly, with her family background, her memories had a far more diverse menagerie than the store did. "Is she the sort who would want a lap-pet, or something more decorative, like a bird?" she asked. "If you think she wants something like a companion, puffskeins are essentially pillows with personalities--you really can't get any easier than a puffskein for a pet," she pointed out. "There are a few kinds of magical dogs, if you think she'd like a lap-dog... though krupps have a habit of attacking Muggles, so they're only good pets if you don't live near Muggles," she said knowingly. Her brother had owned a krupp for a few months before he'd accidentally let it outside, and it had terrorized the neighbors. The next week a Ministry official had come and taken most of their more 'interesting' pets away. Her brother was always ruining things like that.

  

[Roberto Devine]

Roberto smiled as the young brunette assured him that she wasn't at all offended. It was a great relief as he did so dislike being thought of as rude when he didn't mean to be. She provided her own name and he had a brief moment of wondering if she was any relation to Armando Dippet. "A pleasure to make your acquaintance," he said instead after she had introduced herself.

Roberto took a moment to think of what his mother might like. "Probably a lap-pet - I'm sure any that she gets, she would find a way to make them decorative," he mused thoughtfully. A puffskein might be good but he did wonder if his father wouldn't mistake the thing for an actual pillow. The brief mental thought of his father fluffing up a puffskein for his afternoon nap was more amusing than it should have been.

"Our estate's a little isolated but there is a muggle community some miles off so it might be safer to rule out krupps," he mused thoughtfully. "I wouldn't want to be responsible for anything happening to wayward muggles as well. Sometimes they get lost while looking for some town or other and end up wandering into our boundaries."

  

[Ophelia Dippet]

Ophelia couldn't help but wonder what he meant by making pets more decorative. Her mind went immediately to when she and Nicky had tried to braid their niffler's hair, but that had just been the antics of foolish young girls. Surely a woman of society wouldn't be engaged in such tomfoolery. What else could he mean? Whatever it was, it was sure to be amusing. She almost wanted to ask if she could come visit some time to see the results, but that was awfully presumptuous--and a bit premature, since they hadn't decided on an animal yet!

The way he talked about his estate made her think of her father's house--remote was exactly the word for the farm-like place where she'd grown up, surrounded by magical creatures and wilderness. Nothing like the London home that she shared with Armando, now. If it wasn't for the disillusionment charm that separated them from the Muggle buildings on either side and made them more or less nonexistent as far as the space on the street was concerned, she was sure she could have reached right out her bedroom window and into the window of the next house!

"Do the Muggles wander by often enough that you'd be concerned about a pet with an unusual look?" she asked, musing over the options. Krupps also had forked tails, but little things like that could be easily disillusioned. Some creatures, on the other hand, were much more difficult to hide from passersby. "Kneazles are about the most inconspicuous magical house pets. A Muggle might think they're simple cats," she pointed out. "And there are all of the miniature creatures--I wouldn't recommend predatory animals like tigers or wolves, because they tend to bite--particularly strangers--but I saw someone make an excellent pet of a miniature lamb," she offered. "It wasn't any bigger than a cat when it was fully grown. They even knitted a baby's blanket out of its wool for a friend once, but I think it took them months to even have enough material," she said with a little chuckle.

  

[Roberto Devine]

"No and we could always use a simple disillusion charm to make the pet look like a run of the mill muggle pet to non-magical folk. Or at least some sort of muggle animal that they'd find in the wild," Roberto said thoughtfully. It wouldn't be too hard, either considering he was reasonably skilled in magic.

"I think she would be delighted with a kneazle," he mused as he pondered the different options that he had been presented with. "Though a miniature lamb sounds adorable." For some reason, he thought a miniature pig would also be quite a delight. Roberto was pretty sure his mother would not appreciate a pig, miniature or not, though.

It wouldn't be hard for his mother to get a license for kneazle ownership, either.  Heck, maybe she would take to breeding them. One never knew.