RACCOOONNNNNNNNN O.o

Gwen was bored.
Gwen had a book full of pranks.
But,
Unfortunately she was also quite tired.
So there she lay, in the shade, book of pranks open on her stomach, completely zonked out and unaware of her fat cat sleeping on her feet.
Then she felt a tickle and growled slightly in her sleep turning her head to the side.
She felt the tickle again and pouted not opening her eyes.
Feeling the tickle YET AGAIN her eyes shot open and she came face to face...with a raccoon.
"AGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!" she screamed grabbing her book and Cat jumping away.
"AGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!" she ran, still screaming and climbed up a tree her blue eyes wide with horror. The evilBeast glared at her with its devils eyes and growled. She squeeked. The only thing she was truly terrified of...was raccoons.
Still staring she noticed someone stop and look at her.
Unable to say much she simply looked from the person to the RACCOON pointedly.

Hester stared at Gwen, who was screaming madly. It was only a raccoon. Although she wasn't entirely sure how it had got there, since raccoons didn't live in Britain. It must have been an escaped one.

"Are you all right?" she asked Gwen, looking at her worriedly. She hoped that she wasn't about to have a panic attack, or a nervous break down or something.

Noah walked through the park, he had nothing else to do and his parents were doing shopping of some sort or another. He needed to find something to pass the time so while he was making his way through the people he kept picking up interesting looking rocks and feathers.

Noah was one for collecting strange things, if you asked him to empty his pockets you would find a multitude of different thing, from the expected stones, to pieces of string, broken pits of glass or a couple of old jelly beans or a scrumpled up piece of parchment.

He had just found a stone that seemed to resemble a face and he was twirling it in his hands when he heard a scream. Looking up he saw a girl scrambling up into a tree with a cat tucked beneath her arms.

With a curious look he made his way over and looked up into the branches of the tree, the girl said nothing but simply looked at the ground. He moved to the side slightly so that he could get a better look behind the tree and sat there at the roots was a racoon staring up at the girl in the tree.

There was also another girl there that had simply asked if the girl up the tree was ok, but it seemed to Noah that it had been this small creature that had forced the girl up the trunk, and he wondered why. It wasn't as if it was a scary wolf or something, but he guess everyone had their own fears. The girl had not said a word to either of them so he tried to shoo the creature away. But his experience with creatures that day wasn't going to well. He had eventually managed to get the owl off of his head in the owl emporium and managed to escape without any injury.

"Go away, go on," he waved his hands at the raccoon, but it didn't want to budge. "Grr, leave us alone."

He took a couple of steps back and simply charged at it, hoping that he would scare it enough so that it would scuttle off to hide beneath a bush, or whatever. As long as it was away it didn't matter to Noah.

But as he ran at the creature, he turned to him and let out it's own growl. Noah quickly changed course and launched himself up into the tree too. It wasn't what he had planned but Noah's plans never worked out too well anyway.

"Um, sorry about that," he grinned, and shrugged, "I tried, but I don't have that much luck with animals. I'm Noah by the way."

(OOC: I hope it's ok for me to join in)

Hester backed away slowly. The raccoon hadn't seen her yet, but now it was in between her and the safety of the tree. If she left now, she could probably get away unmaimed and still manage to meet her cousin on time.

"I'm Hester," she called softly to the boy who had named himself as Noah. "Is it dangerous?" She was scared that he would say yes, because she wasn't that great at climbing trees.

She tiptoed a bit further away, but the creature must have heard her because it turned and growled menacingly at her.

"Ohh..." she mumbled. "I think I know the answer now..."

Gwen shook her head frantically at Hester,
"No. NOt okay! That- that- THING is EVIL!" she called down. Then she watched as a boy tried his luck.
He soon joined her sanctuary.
"Hi, I-I´m Gwen. And I´m absolutely terrified of raccoons." she said giving him a small smile. Some Gryffindor she was. Not able to face her fear.
Hmph.
Great.
Now she was mad at herself.
Hmph.
"And YES Hester. Raccoons are ALWAYS dangerous! Hurry up!" she called out worried for her friend. The raccoon started towards her friend.
"Come on Hes!"
She grinned a little bit when she saw a nut in the tree.
"Noah? Would you mind olding my cat for a mo? Thanks." she said shifting the very fat cat towards him reaching for the nuts.
Sticking her tongue out to the side of her mouth slightly in concentration she aimed... and hit the devil in the head.
Good now it could get scared and leave.
This was not the case.
It growled.
She paled.
Shooting a worried look to Noah she bit her lip as the little bugger started trying to climb the tree.
Could they do that?

I had nothing to do this afternoon, and strolling down centenary park was as good as any other idea, the sun was bright, and it was just warm, which added to the weel-being feeling I had at that moment.

The park didn't have too many people in it, so I walked a bit before sitting under a tree and stretched my legs, I wasn't tired at all, but to sit down and chill was one of my favorite things. Putting my backpack on my side I rumaged through it for a few seconds trying to find something interesting; there were many useful things in my backpack, I was always prepared for almos anything, there was a pocket knife that my dad had given me for my last year birthday, I mainly used it to carve things in small wooden pieces, there was also parchment, quill and some ink, fruit and some snacks, cause I never left without something to eat, two book that I was currently re-reading, duct tape, and a slingshot, I had made it with a friend a few years back and we always had this competition to see who of us had better aim, so I was pretty skilled at hitting targets with it.

While I was looking for one of the books, I saw the most curious scene develop in front of me: a girl was on a tree looking down to a racoon with a scared face, then a girl and a boy aproached the tree and tried to shoo off the animal to no avail, it was most amusing, but suddenly the girl tried to attack the raccon with a nut making it more angry.

'silly racoons, they think they're better' that's what I was thinking, when somehow, the slingshot made its way to my hand, a smirked crossed my face while I looked around for some ammo. I found a few pebbles in hand reach so I picked them up and filled my pockets with it. grabbing my backpack and with the gun in hand I creeped closer to said tree and launched a pebble to the now-climbing-the-tree animal.

It hit the trunk close to the animal, but not dead center, so I took another pebble and aimed at it again. This time I hit it on one of its paws and the animal fell down.

I don't know how it happened, but the animal knew it was me that had hit it, and started walking towards me growling menacing. The only thought that crossed my mind was 'climb the tree!' so as fast as I could, I climbed up o the tree where the other three were.

"sorry, I thought I would scare it away, but it obviously didn't work" I said to them.

Gwen was slightly shocked.
How evil WAS this horrid..THING?
She nodded, "No prob. You tried. And people NEVER believe me when I say Raccoons are evil!" She said slightly irritated with those people.

Fiona entered Centenary Park with no intention other than to write in the journal she held in her hands. It was her third day in Diagon Alley, and so far things had gone pretty smoothly and everything had been rather uneventful. It was nice being away from the orphanage and not being burdened with watching seven younger children and clean up after them all the time. It was mean of her to think that, but it was true.

Fiona held the journal with both of her hands as she walked, looking around at the park as she walked down the paved sidewalk running straight through the park. Green leaves and plants, and brown tree trunks and dirt. The normal park scenery, right? There were even benches and lampposts posted around the area, like Muggle parks. Witches and Wizards (other than their obvious magical abilities) were not all that different from Muggles when it came to nature, she supposed. It reminded her of the park she used to go to back home.

Fiona came across quite a strange scene though, and she paused in her leisurely walk to watch a boy with a slingshot start creeping towards a tree. She turned to watch the boy aim pebbles at the raccoon and she glared at him. What the heck did he think he was doing to that raccoon?!

Fiona held back a laugh as the raccoon turned towards the boy with a growl and sent the kid whimpering up the tree like an animal. Fiona's eyebrows shot up as she noticed there were more people in the tree. She looked at them all, a little confused. She soon realized they were trying to avoid the wrath of the raccoon, but they didn't receive any of her sympathies. There was only one thing going through her mind at the moment: Poor tree.. I wonder how its holding all of them.. she thought as she approached the group from behind. None of them could see her seeing as they were all facing the raccoon, which was growling at them. She came within a few feet of the back of the tree, and the raccoon finally seemed to notice her. Fiona knelt down so she was level with the raccoon, despite the fact that she was a good number of feet away from it.

"Come on little guy. Look, I've got something," she said in a small voice, watching the raccoon with careful eyes as she offered it something in her hand. It turned and growled at her now, but her soft facial expression suddenly turned hard and she glared slightly at the raccoon before straightening back up. She had brought with her a sandwich for lunch, in case she got hungry. Looks like she'd need that now. With a sigh, she straightened out and brought out a sandwich from her messenger bag that was across her chest. "If I must," she mumbled, aggravated. She tore off pieces of the food and threw some towards the raccoon, then throwing them farther and farther. The raccoon gladly took the bait. It must have been hungry, Fiona assumed as the raccoon gladly followed the trail of food leading away from them. Fiona finally threw the rest of the sandwich so the raccoon would be busy for a while.

Once that was done, Fiona walked to the front of the tree and looked up at the people in the tree, hands on her hips now. She looked at them distastefully, seeing them as cowards. "Was that really so hard?" she asked aloud, one eyebrow raised as she waited for them all to get down.

Hester climbed down, feeling a little embarrassed. She looked at the new arrival.

"What the heck is a raccoon doing here?" she asked, feeling more than a little annoyed. She had never seen one in her life, except for in books, and now one was here, in Britain. She wasn't even on holiday somewhere, or on some sort of safari. She was in a park in London.

I was blushing beyond measure in that moment, racoons could be bad or evil or whatever, but I was a boy, I was supposed to handle beasts, not the other way around.

As I sat uncomfortably on the tree branch, I noticed the racoon shif his attention and hiss at something behind us, as I turned to watch what was it I noticed a girl on a suicide mission, bending to end face to face with the animal. what was she thinking, the animal could attack her!?, still she wasn't that close to the animal, so I didn't move yet... I would wait and see what was she going to do, and how would the animal react to her.

The girl took a sanswich and tore it to pieces before feeding it to the racoon, while luring him away from the tree, to finally throw it far away from where we were. I climbed down the tree after one of the girls, and when the animal whisperer came back, I could see how she felt about the whole situation, it was all written on her face, she thought of us as cowards, I could see it right away, her attitude also helped to the whole message she was trying to send.

"hey is not our fault that the animal was attacking us, we were only doing what we thought was best for it to leave us alone, you can stop now with the snotty attitude, not all of us are horse whisperers like you" again I spoke before thinking about it, and crossed my arms in a defiant attitude. I was both amazed and annoyed with the girl in question.

Hester watched in amazement as one of the boys who had been up the tree began wildly defending his actions. He must have taken pretty badly the girl's attitude, which was written all over her face.

She didn't say anything; she didn't have anything else to say. A dangerous animal was a dangerous animal, and not everyone could be 'animal whisperers'.

Gwen slowly climbed back down, again holding her cat.
"Thanks. I´m terrified of Raccoons." she stated simply.
"So I´m Gwen. And you all are?" she asked into the group. She knew what the girl thought and while she was grateful, she was getting kinda ticked. It wasn´t their fault the damn thing attacked them.

Hester grinned at Gwen, glad that someone was being friendly.

She held out her hand, handshake style.

"Hester Alderman," she said, feigning that she didn't know Gwen already. "A pleasure to meet you, I'm sure." Then she giggled.

She hoped that Gwen would join in her joke. She just had an urge to mess about a bit after the scare with the raccoon. But Gwen seemed like the kind of person who would mess around a bit as well.

Fiona scowled and glared at the boy, oblivious to the redhead's rude outburst. "Call me an 'animal whisperer' all you want, I've been called worse," she growled out, not liking this boy one bit. "Whatever makes you feel better," she added with a sneer, crossing her own arms across herself. She had only been trying to help, and this is what she got in return. A label as an 'animal whisperer'? As if!

When the second girl came down, Fiona was a little appreciative that at least she had said thanks.

"You're welcome," she said, pointedly aiming the words at the girl who had said thanks. She looked back at the boy once more with one last remark she wanted to say, seeing as the two girls were now getting acquainted with one another. She'd never seemed to be able to do something like introductions so easily. "And for the record, I'm not a 'animal whisperer', seeing as how you actually believe those kinds of nonsense people exist. I'm just smart," she added before turning on her heel and proceeding to walk away. So much for meeting people she'd get along with.

Gwen shrugged. She´d catch up with the girl in school. She already had one enemy, she didnt need two.
Feignng she didnt know Hes she chuckled,
"Well hello Hester, a true pleasure." she chuckled shaking her hand before turning to the boys.
"And you are..?" she smiled trying very hard to forget her scare.

"I'm don't know what her problem was," Hester said, watching the girl walk away.

She knew that she should have thanked the girl, but she had been a little in shock, and it hadn't exactly crossed her mind.

Never mind, she didn't need to be friends with everyone. She was getting along so far with a few close friends, some acquaintances, and at least one person who seemed to really hate her. This girl could be a second one; it wasn't like Hester wasn't used to it already, what with how the girls had acted towards her in primary school.

"What's your name," Hester asked the boy who had come down the tree. The other boy, Noah, was still clinging to its branches.