Ping!

[shh_justin]

Date: 31 July 2005
Characters: Justin Finch-Fletchley, Ernie Macmillan
Location: Just Desserts
Status: Private
Summary: An old friend stops by at work.
Completion: Complete

The shop had been quiet the entire day and Justin was all alone.  Eloise had stepped out just a moment ago, in search of ingredients for her mad experiments in the back kitchen, so

Comments

[shh_ernie]

Ernie deserved a reward. He was putting in all of his normal hours at work plus helping Eleanor ready her shop plus entertaining Henry. He never thought he'd say this, but if he had to play another round of Grand Theft Auto, he might go mad.

He pushed open the door to Just Desserts. Hopefully, Midgie--Eloise, he quickly corrected himself--had some chocolate frogs in stock. A man was examining the receipts. Ernie glanced around but found no sign of Eloise. Good Merlin, was this a robbery?

He drew his wand. "Turn around slowly. With your hands up."

[shh_justin]

Justin heard the door open and he assumed it was Eloise. When a distinctly male voice practically put him under arrest, he froze and put his hands up in the air in clear view. The long strip of receipts hit the floor again and bounced.

"I, uh, I work here," Justin said quickly. "I was just, uh, okay this looks bad and, um, the truth isn't much better or particularly intelligent, but - "

He turned around slowly and found himself face-to-face with Ernie Macmillan.

"Ernie?!," he squawked. "Good Merlin, way to make a bloke nearly piss his trousers!"

He grinned, his hands still up. "Care to put the wand down?"

[shh_ernie]

"Justin?" Ernie said, unable to stop himself from grinning back. He lowered his wand a fraction of an inch before Ambrose's voice echoed in his head. While it was rather unlikely that someone had polyjuiced themself into Justin Finch-Fletchley in order to steal from Eloise's shop, stranger things had been known to happen.

Raising his wand again, he squinted at Justin. "How do I know you're Justin? And where's Eloise?" He glanced around and shouted, "Eloise!" There was no answer however.

[shh_justin]

"Who else would I be?" Justin asked curiously. He didn't have any connections that would make anyone want to pretend to be him, at least not to his knowledge. And he had a bum leg, which he wasn't sure was the type of thing one would want to pretend to have.

He laughed, thinking at first taht it was a joke. "I've got Eloise tied up and gagged in the back. She got in the way of my trying to lift six tons of cavities and gingivitis from this shop."

When Ernie squinted at him and shouted for Eloise to come out, Justin blinked incredulously. "It's me, Justin! I was kidding! I lived with you for seven years at Hogwarts, I know you've got smiley face underwear and underwear with little hearts and scottie dogs and...uh, clearly I know too much about your underwear and I should shut up now."