another day in diagon alley,(Summer '76)

[cameron o'neil]

watching the people wander in and out of the pub, one boy sat there waiting, hopefully, that his best friends got his letter that said what day he would be in diagon alley. he had only been there for less than twenty minutes, and he had gotten there early. he was waiting at the bar in the leaky cauldren for his best friends to show up. he had said he would wait there from one until two in the afternoon and if they didn't show up he would go on to start his school supply gathering.

"any vodka," he said simply to the bartender when he came up to take his order. the man eyed him trying to decide if this boy seemed old enough to drink, but figured if he didn't serve him he would find it else where anyways. with firewhiskey and butterbeer they were far more lax on their drinking laws than with hardcore liquor like tequila, vodka and rum. cameron o'neil knew that, but he ordered it anyways.

the bartender shortly arrived with a glass of watermelon flavoured vodka, and the red haird boy sipped it eagerly. he was wearing his normal show off hat that he wore whenever he sported muggle attire, which was today a pair of jeans that fit him slightly loosly around the waist, even with his belt, and a black audio shirt. he was not in the mood to dress up too much today, but the hat felt like part of him nowadays, especially after growing so attatched to it this summer.

after half his glass was gone he started to feel a little lonely. "common' guys," he moaned, and then there was a crack at the door and cam turned his head in hopes of seeing his friends at the doorway to the pub.

TAG, katie and me only
NOTES, SUCKISH INTRO. ><[/blockquote][/blockquote][/size]

[Katie]

With a yawn, Gerry Claythorne was dragged to wards a small Muggle pub by his irritatingly hyper cousin, Vera."Hurry up! We don't have all day, you know! Cam's probably waiting for us!" she said, pulling his arm. "As I remember it, he invited me, Vera. Not you. You kind of just decided to invite yourself." Gerry sighed, he let go of Vera's hand and stretched his arms with another yawn. He had just arrived in England three days ago and was still suffering from major jet-lag. With an exasperated sigh Vera stopped tugging him. "I had nothing else to do! Besides, I haven't seen Cammy-poo in ages! No need to be mean about it..." she grumbled, crossing her arms and pouting. Gerry rolled his brown eyes and shook his head. He loved his cousin to death but, she could be really annoying at times. Espeacially when she reads your letters and then invites herself along for get-togethers with your friends. "Look, there it is. Let's just go, alright?" Gerry said, knowing he was going to lose this battle, it was tiring trying to argue with her because she just never seemed to get tired! She eagerly nodded her head and began to speed-walk towards the pub but, Gerry grabbed her wrist "But, I'm warning you Vera, you better be on your best behaviour, understand?" he said sternly, the last thing he needed was her causing trouble, he already had Cam to do that. With an eyeroll she said "Fine. I'll be a good girl, I promise." and smiled mischiviously. Gerry couldn't help but grin, talking to her was like talking to a child sometimes but it was defiantely amusing. He let go of her wrist and watched her race off and into the pub. He shook his head and followed her.

Vera opened the pub door and blinked as her blue eyes adjusted to the dim lighting. She didn't have to search long to find Cam at the bar, already drinking. "Cammy-poo!" she squealed and rushed at him. She gave him a hug and said "The slow-poke will be right in!".

Not long after she said it, Gerry walked into the pub (not literally of course, that would hurt!) and spotted Cam and to his dismay, he was being suffocated by Vera. He walked over to the bar and sat down next to his best friend. "Hey, man! Long time no see!" he pointed to Vera "Sorry about the tag-a-long, by the way."

[cameron o'neil]

Cameron was sitting on the barstool, drinking his vodka and getting ready to assume that no one was coming when he suddenly heard a voice that rang through the entire pub and it sounded quite familiar. The sweet sound of a girls voice yelling, ‘Camy-poo’ came to his ears all to quickly before he was tackled from his chair with a hug that nearly knocked his large frame off the chair and that would take a lot of effort normally. Of course, this was one of his good friends, Vera, and she was sure to know how to knock him off his feet.

Cam smiled as she said that slow poke would be right in, and he knew she was talking about her cousin and his best friend, Gerry. A smirk spread on his face, and he leaned down and kissed her on the cheek. “Glad you came,” he said slyly, and soon pulled back up to a sitting position before Gerry walked in. He was not sure if his best friend knew he had a flirt/fling type thing going on with his cousin and did not know if he would be happy to hear about that anyway.

His best friend suddenly showed up in the doorway of the pub, and he smiled a wide toothy smile, and called out to him, “Hey dude! Seriously, it’s been what? A whole month or something like that?” he said, which was normally a life time for the two inseparable best friends. They had been like that since first year and he could not imagine it being any other way.

Gerry apologized for the ‘tag-along’ and Cam smirked once more. “Naw that’s not a problem at all,” he said simply and sipped at his vodka again. He then pulled up stools for his two friends magically with his wand, and motioned for them to sit down. His face got discouraged when his glass was empty. He turned to the bartender, “Firewhiskey?” he asked curiously and they refilled his glass immediately and his face brightened a little. “You two want something?” he offered to his friends.

[Katie]

Vera giggled a bit at Cameron. She found it funny when he kissed her cheek, she didn't know why but she did. "Good to see you too, Cam." she said with a smirk. She looked up as Gerry entered the pub and rolled her eyes, "Finally!" she said with another grin. She rolled her eyes again at the "tag-along" comment. "Pshaw! You should be glad I decided to grace you with my presence, Gerry!" she joked.

Gerry chuckled at Cam. It didn't surprise him much that his friend was already drinking. "True, it's been far too long." he agreed. He pointed to Cameron's drink, "Is that any good?" he asked. Gerry couldn't help but laugh at Vera's comment, "Way to be modest, Vera." he laughed. He loved their little trio, it was never dull when the three of them were together.

"Why be modest? I was telling the truth." she joked. She looked at Cameron, "Bah! I don't know what I want yet, nothing fruity though. A pint of Guinness would be nice..." she said, pondering. With a shrug she ordered herself a Guinness "I admit it, the Irish do know their beer." she said with a laugh.

[cameron o'neil]

As Cameron had finnished up the last sips of his vodka moments before, his friend Gerry asked him if it was any good. "Eh, not quite what I was hoping for, but I wanted something aside from the usual firewhiskey, and butterbeers," he said with a shrug. Cam really did have a spesific taste in alcohol, even though, if it has alcohol in it, he will pretty much drink it. There is not much he will not drink if that is the case.

"Common' Ger," Cameron said with a smirk, "You should know Vera well enough to know that being modest is her strongest suit." He smiled as Vera started to ponder taking him up on his offer of a drink. She said the Irish did know their beer and he raised his glass. "Aye, and their whiskey," he said in the Irish accent that he so often repressed to the point he almost sounded American, void of any accent at all. Switching back to the normal way he spoke he said, "So a pint is it?" Even though you could still here traces of the irish in his voice.

After all, Cam's birth parents were pureblood Irish and even though his parents were both Londoner's to start with, they had moved to Ireland for his adpoted father to play on there team, so he had grown up there. Even growing up in a household with the accent of a Brit, he picked up the accent of the North of Ireland. He did not like it so much, so tried to repress it as much as possible, of course, it still came out every so often. Now he looked up at his friends, "So what are we going to do today?" he mused hoping they would come up with a time for everything they had yet to do.

Cameron was lazy and had spent most of his summer partying, so of course he had not bought his school books or anything yet. He did not have time for that at all, as well as not having time to buy new school robes, for he had grown a good three inches since last school term, and broadened a little more in the arms as he had worked out most of the summer months as well. Now he looked around the emptying pub, a grin pulled at the corners of his lips, that meant the bar-keep could no longer get out of refilling his drinks as he had earlier this summer and had tried to do now, because the place was no longer busy.

"And you never said if you wanted anything, Ger," Cameron absentmindedly reminded his friend.

[Katie]

<sup>"Of course! A man should change his liquor every now and then." Gerry replied with a smirk. Unlike his friend and cousin, he wasn't that much of a drinker. He would drink mostly at parties and occasionally if they went out like this but, usually he preferred a nice glass of milk or something.

Gerry couldn't help but laugh at the thought of his cousin being modest. "You're right! How could I ever forget?" he joked. In reply, his cousin playfully punched him in the arm "You guys are jerks!" she mock whined. Shaking his head, he winked at Cameron and continued on teasing his cousin, "She's a regular saint, this one." he said pointing to her.

Rolling her eyes at her cousin, Vera turned away from him and wnet back to talking with Cameron. "The only whiskey I really drink is firewhiskey. Everything else is alright but firewhiskey is still my favorite." she said. She loved Cameron's Irish accent and wished he would use it more often but he didn't seem to like it as much as she did. She had always wanted an Irish accent, they're so much prettier than her plain British accent. She had always envied Cameron and Shannon Green for being Irish. "Of course, I'll have a pint! Did you even have to ask?" she said playfully smacking him on the forehead. "I don't know what we're going to do, you'll have to ask el capitan over there." she said pointing to Gerry.

Gerry shrugged. "I don't know. Whatever we usually do, I guess. Just kind of walk around commiting mild acts of mayhem." he suggested. That was one of the things he like dmost about being with the two of them, they made their own fun. "Oh what the hell! I'll have a pint as well!" he said, throwing his hands up in the air.</sup>

[cameron o'neil]

Cameron rolled his eyes at his best friend and partner in crime. He was such the opposite of him when it came to drinking it wasn't even funny. Seriously, who doesn't want a glass of firewhiskey just whenever they feel like it?! Okay, so maybe that was the Irish in him, but either way, he was still best friends with Gerry, even if he did prefer stupid non-alcoholic drinks, then again, Cam could always use someone to keep him in check. Soon Gerry went on to tease his cousin, getting a well deserved punch in the arm and a good short telling off. Cam thought this was funny too, of course this mostly had to do with the fact that he had been used to this for so long and had not seen enough of his two best friends this summer.

After Gerry called Vera a saint, Cameron let out a hearty laugh before taking another sip of his liquor. "Yeah, definitely not modest in the least," he said with a smirk on his face that this afternoon just didn't seem like it would fade. And for Cameron's sake he hoped it didn't, he hated it when he was feeling down, and hanging out with these two were always a cure to that. But right now that wasn't why he was with them, but just for the hell of it. After all, what good is a Diagon Alley trip without your best friends to tag along? Considering he was pretty sure the two of them had already gotten all their school things he was sure that they were just their for entertainment purposes.

Then Vera looked at him like he was stupid or something and said of course she would have a pint, and smacked his forehead. Cam looked at her with an odd crooked smile on his face, and he realized that her playing around with him that way was a bit of a turn on for him. He then said, "Oh, how could I have forgotten a fellow alcoholic when I see one?" He ignored the flirtatious feeling he was starting to get and ordered up a pint for both his friends after Gerry had also agreed to having one. While he was doing that, the two had been discussing what they would do that afternoon, and he couldn't help but laugh a little when Gerry said wandering around causing mild acts of mayhem. Honestly, anything they did was not that bad, but it was still something that needed cleaning up later, and they were never there to be caught when it happened.

"I think it's about time we stirred up a little trouble around here myself," Cam said with a smirk, and when the bartender returned with their drinks he passed them over to his friends. Then he took the hat off his head for a few minutes, scratching the top of his head, his fingers running through the rather short and rather fine dark red hair of his. He then replaced the hat on his head and tipped it down because he thought it looked better that way. "Of course, I do have to get all my school stuff today also. I am such a procrastonator." he groaned, sipping his drink and keeping an eye on his friends. "So where do we start?" he asked.