animal companion

An animal. That's what Marcus needed right now. He wasn't sure what though. A cat, an owl or a toad? A toad was quickly out of the question as he saw the animal and it croaked. Marcus jumped slightly at the sound and quickly went over the the cat section. He thought the orange tabby was cute and so was the black one... but the black one was moved to the back of his head. His mother's taboo for black cats would earn the cat and him a trip back.

He sighed as reached forward to pet the brown cat that was bellow the orange one. But that one quickly lifted it's paw and hissed. Quickly removing his hand, he wandered over to the owl's... hoping to find better luck.

Baranovsky's Familiars was one of the best pet shops there were in the wizarding world- or so Camille had heard. And, as she walked through the shop, she saw what was so great about it. There were so many different animals and everything you could imagine to take care of them.

Her Snowy owl, Bianca, was three years old- a gift from her parents when she joined Beauxbatons -, and very dear to Camille. It had been a while since she had bought Bianca anything new and she took the opportunity to visit Baranovsky's.

Making her way to the owl section, she tried to steer away from a big lizard - in a cage, of course, but she still didn't like them - and ended up bumping into someone.

"I'm sorry!" she apologized, before turning to look at the person, "Lizar- Oh, hey! Marcus, right?"

Being bumped into, Marcus quickly turned to apologize to the see Camille. The blonde boy had seen her in some of her classes and remembered her name. That's what he was working on recently - trying to remember everybody's faces and names. He was quite proud on the success he had on remembering her.

"Yes, Marcus," he grinned and waved slightly. "You're Camille. It's nice to formally meet you. Are you looking for a pet too?"

Camille smiled at the blonde and shook her head, "No, no. Just looking for uh- a gift, I guess you could call it that. For my owl."

"But I'm assuming you are, then?" she guessed, as she looked around the owl section, before turning back to him.

"An owl," Marcus grinned. "But yes, I am looking for a pet but I'm not sure what I would like. I like cats but I'm not sure if I can handle the hair balls. Owl's on the other hand are quite gentle creatures but they peck your hands sometimes, don't they? I don't think I'd like that either."

Marcus shrugged, "If I were to get a Cat, I'd get that orange tabby or if I got an owl, I'd get that brown one I think. Sorry, I tend to think out loud sometimes when I'm trying to make a decision. Tell me stop if I annoy you. " he laughed.

"Owls are the best," Camille grinned, "No other animal can compare to them. You really should get one. They peck your hands sometimes, but it doesn't actually hurt." She tried to find the right word to describe that action, but none came to mind, so she just shrugged, "They're kinda of like. . . kisses. But not really." The Prideux chuckled, "Sorry if I'm not making any sense."

She waved her hand, "It's okay, I tend to talk a lot as well. You'll soon get annoyed with me, that's certain." Camille looked at the brown owl he was talking about and then at the orange tabby, and nodded, tilting her head, "Hm, they both actually look really nice. The cat's cuter than I imagined it would be."

The blonde Angelique nodded with a chuckle. He was glad he had Camille for advice, if he hadn't, then Marcus would have probably stuck himself in the pet store all day. He looked at all the various colours and types of owls in there, still unsure which one to take. But then Camille took notice of the cat.

"The cat is rather cute," he said as he knelt down to where he can pet him. "And we can still use the school's owls, right, if I take a cat?" He questioned.

Camille knelt down as well and took a closer look at the cat, he really was adorable. She nodded, "You can still use the school's owls, yes, but what happens when you're not at school?"

She pet the cat along with the Angélique and smiled, "Well, he really is adorable. I can't believe I'm actually changing my mind on this. . ."

"Do you mind if I call you Cam?" He asked out of nowhere, "I mean, if you don't like it, it's totally cool with me but Camille can be a mouthful sometimes, y'know?"

He thought of her suggestion, "Well, I could always use the family owls. We've got... we've got plenty of them because of my mum's career. I'm sure she wouldn't mind if I used one of hers. She's got like seven. Dad's got around two and with my oldest brother's combined, we've got about six more..."

The blonde mused with for moment, his little rant making his decisions for him as he nodded to himself and picked up the cat, "I think I'm taking her. My family can spare their owls when I'm home and if not... we'll, I'll just have to let one of those owls sneak off into the night."

Camille nodded and smiled, "Yup! Cam's fine. Cam, or Cami, Mille, Milly. . . whatever. I'm not picky with nicknames. Can I call you Marc, then?" She chuckled, "I don't think Cus would be very good. . ."

"What does your mom do?" she asked, curious, "And, wow, that's an awful lot of owls. But if you have so many, I guess then you could get the cat."

"How do you know it's a she?" Camille wondered, "I mean, I've never been good with telling an animal's gender, how can you tell?"

"I guess I'll call you Milly," Marcus chuckled as he ran one of his hands through his hair. "It sounds real nice... and I guess Marc'll be alright."

Truth to be told, he wasn't too fond of the nickname Marc. It traced back to when he was a lot younger, a boy in his neighborhood by the same name, used to bully him. However, the blonde boy didn't let that show in his exterior.

"My mom's the drummer for Les Belles Femmes so she's got owl's for fan mail, owl's for business, owl's for family, etc. etc.," he shrugged nonchalantly. Sure, his mom's band was quite popular but he never understand why the couldn't just be sent to the location where her and her band recorded their albums. If there was something that he hated the most about being part of the family, not that he really did anyways, was that those owl's tended to wake him up in the middle of the night.

"Yeah, cat sounds great," Marcus flashed her a smile, laughing. "Maybe'll chase each other or something."

He shrugged, unsure how the knew the cat was a female, "I guess it's just a hunch." Deciding to check for parts, he picked up the ginger kitten and looked, his cheeks turning into a shade of bright scarlet.

"It's a she, alright," he laughed, "And I'll think I'll take her with me."

Camille nodded and she looked at the other animals, turning around when the boy explained his mother's job. "Your mother's the drummer for Les Belles Femmes?" she repeated, mouth slightly open, "That's so cool! They're music is awesome."

She chuckled and shook her head, "Let's hope not. I don't want him bringing mice to the common room." The girl shuddered, "I hate mice, like really. I hate a lot of things, come to think of it. . ."

Camille supressed her laughter when the boy went, red-faced, to look for parts and gave him a smile, "What are you going to name her?"

"Yeah, that's my mom alright," he said nervously as Marcus's hand ran through his hair. Ryan Bonnet, his mom, was always was an awful topic to speak to people about. Not that he hated it but ever present feeling of being used was always there. But he tried to get over it. After all Milly had spoken to him before she knew.

"Well, I wasn't exactly talking about mice," he laughed, feeling a little bit more comfortable. "I was talking about owl's and the cat. Maybe'll chase them away so I'm not awake most of the night."

Looking down at the orange tabby, Marcus shrugged, "It sounds awfully weird, I know, but I think I'll name her Cleopatra, like the ancient queen of Egypt, Cleopatra VII Thea Philopator." Shrugging at his quiet obsession over ancient Egypt, he smiled up at Milly, "And I shall nickname her Cleo because Cleopatra can be quite a mouthful."

"Really, they're incredible. My mother and I love them!" Camille exclaimed, but stopped suddenly and frowned when she saw Marcus' expression. "You don't look too happy about it, though," she noted and smiled sheepishly, "Sorry if I seemed too. . . enthusiastic."

"Ah," she said and nodded, "I see. Do the owls make a lot of noise at your house?"

The Prideux raised an eyebrow, amused, and laughed at Marcus, "Cleopatra VII Thea Philopator? Pretty epic name." She shrugged, "Not much of a History fan, but Cleo is very nice."

He shrugged, telling her that he was used to it all. "Don't worry about it," Marcus assured with a smile. "Uhm, well, it's not your enthusiasm it's just I feel like, I don't know, my entire family does something cool that I can't compete," Marcus muttered with a shrug.

"Either way, I'm sure if your mom and you like her a lot, I could find a way for you all to meet her and my aunts," he shrugged. He wasn't technically related to the rest of the band but since they were all like sisters, he always called them aunts.

Marcus nodded, chuckling dryly, "Yeah. All the time and sometimes the arrive during the middle of the night. They tend to peck into my window a whole lot and wake me up."

"Thanks," he smiled towards her with another shrug. "Yeah, Ancient Egypt is interesting... I wanted to go see the mummies once but dad said we couldn't go."