A Day At The Zoo

[Remus Lupin]

Remus followed Lily as she walked into the zoo. It was bigger than he'd thought. For some reason, he'd feared that all the creatures would be in cages, so he was relieved to see that there were no cages in sight. But the place was so big, he wasn't sure which way to go.

"I don't know," he said. "Which way do you want to go? Maybe we should get a map or something."

[Lily Evans]

Lily looked around for a map and finally found one on a stand. "Okay, let's see," she said opening up the map. "Do you want to go to the hippogriffs or to the blasted-end skrewts first? They're not that far from each other. Next to the blasted-end skrewts are unicorns and Salamanders." Lily continued to look at the map as she read each section.

[Remus Lupin]

Remus nodded thoughtfully. "I think we should go see the hippogriffs first," he said with a grin. "I've never actually seen one up close before... I heard they're really cool, though." He looked ahead in the direction shown on the map and wondered what was going on with the others.

[Lily Evans]

"Neither have I. Most of these creatures I've only seen in books," said Lily. She walked along side him as they headed towards the hippogriffs. "You know, I've read that out of respect, you should bow to a hippogriff and await for him to bow to you before you can pet him. Otherwise, the hippogriff could get angry with you."

[Remus Lupin]

"That's cool," Remus said. "We probably won't get close enough to them to try it out, but it's still good to know." He breathed in the air, but the scent of the creatures in the zoo was particularly strong. With his sensitive sense of smell, it was nearly enough to knock him out. He frowned and tried not to breathe in too deeply.

[Lily Evans]

Lily looked around as they walked, amazed at all the different animals at the zoo. She was definitely glad that she did as Remus to go to Hogsmeade. Now the zoo would be one of her favorite places to go. She glanced over to Remus and noticed him frowning. "What's wrong Remus? Are you okay," she asked. Lily didn't know what could be wrong with him.

[Remus Lupin]

Remus shook himself from his thoughts and smiled brightly at her. "Oh, nothing," he said. "I just got a whiff of something... I guess even magical creatures can stink sometimes." He laughed. "Don't worry about it, it's passed."

[Lily Evans]

Lily couldn't help but return a smile and laugh. "Oh okay," she said. "Yeah. They sure can." Lily never did think twice about it. Arriving at the hippogriffs she was amazed. Half horse, half bird. The creature was beautiful despite it's gray like color. "Wow," she breathed, her green eyes sparkling with excitement. "It's amazing."

[Remus Lupin]

Remus stared up at the majestic creature. He's never seen anything quite like it. He had heard about hippogriffs, large creatures that were half bird and half horse, but he had never really imagined that such an improbable combination could possibly look so handsome and elegant. "Yeah, it sure is," he agreed, awestruck.

[Lily Evans]

The hippogriff turned it's head towards them with it's eyes blinking. Lily watched it then turned to Remus as a bunch of other people starting coming their way. "Well, I guess we should shift over before we're forced over," she said nodding towards a group of people coming. The zoo in itself was huge and Lily wasn't sure if they would see it all, because in honesty she was becoming a little tired from walking, however she wasn't going to speak up and say anything.

[Remus Lupin]

Remus stared at the hippogriff a moment longer, transfixed. But when someone bumped his elbow, he shook out of his trance and turned back to look at Lily. "Yeah, OK," he said. "Let's move on. What's next on the map?"

[Lily Evans]

"Hmm. There's unicorns, pixies, and Blasted-End skrewts along this path," said Lily referring to the one that they were currently on. "We can just walk around and just look at the creatures until we get tired."

After walking around looking around at the creatures, Lily's feet were screaming stop! She turned towards Remus. "I hate to say this, but I don't know how much more walking around here I can take! My feet are starting to kill me!" She looked over to him with a smile. "I think that I could go for something to drink again or at least maybe some candy."

[Remus Lupin]

Remus glanced around and saw a bench nearby. "Tell you what," he suggested. "Why don't we sit down for a minute, so you can rest your feet? Then, when you're feeling better, we'll head back to the main part of town. We could go to that restaurant and get a bite to eat, if you want. Or, if you'd rather eat now, I could go back to the hotdog stand we passed on the way to the unicorns. What do you think?"

[Lily Evans]

Lily contemplated her choices. Sitting on the bench for a few minutes to rest sounded good and she didn't want Remus to just go off by himself. Finally she mind up her mind. "Let's just sit on the bench a few minutes, then we could go back to the main part of town." She walked with him over to the bench and sat down with a sigh. "Today has been great Remus. We should do stuff like this more often."

[Remus Lupin]

"OK, yeah, let's sit down," Remus agreed, leading Lily over to the bench.

He sat down next to her and relaxed for a moment. Folding his hands behind his head, he leaned back and closed his eyes, enjoying the fresh air. Although the day had started out sunny, it was now becoming overcast, and Remus wondered to himself whether it might rain later. "It has been a nice day," he agreed. "Although, we didn't really do a whole lot. There's a bunch of places we didn't go, but maybe we could do it another time."

[Lily Evans]

"That would be nice," replied Lily. "There is so much to see and we just don't really have a lot of time." Noticing the overcast skies, Lily pulled her hair back, just in case it did start raining. Her hair plus rain, did not mix. Glancing over to Remus, she smiled. "Are you ready now Mr. Lupin? I do believe I am."

[Remus Lupin]

Remus nodded. "Yeah, I guess we should get going," he agreed, somewhat reluctantly. He stood up, but as he held his hand out to her to help her up, he noticed a large silvery object flying directly toward them. "What the...?" he gasped, pointing. "Lily, what is that?"

[Lily Evans]

Lily reached out and took Remus' hand as she stood up, but her attention was turned into the direction that he was pointing. A sliver object was heading right towards them. Lily studied it for a moment. She had seen something about a sliver light or object before. Where had she read it before? "I believe that is a patronus. Although, I don't know why one would be here," she said with a little confusion.

[Remus Lupin]

"A patronus?" Remus repeated, squinting his eyes against the sun as the object came closer to them. He tried to remember what a patronus was. He knew they had talked about them in Defense Against the Dark Arts... "Um, isn't a patronus supposed to chase away dementors? What would one be doing here?"

He glanced around, wondering if there were any dementors around, but saw nothing. As the patronus finally reached them, however, he stared at it. It was shaped like a large, funny-looking bird, and it stopped just before them and opened its mouth. Remus was stunned as it began to speak in a familiar voice:

"Remus Lupin, please come to the Hogs Head immediately. Your friends need your help."

Then the Patronus disappeared, and Remus turned to stare at Lily. "What the...?" he said. "I guess... I guess we should go.... but that was weird, right? How did it know I was here? And the voice sounded so familiar...""

[Lily Evans]

"I don't know Remus," she responded, eying the patronus. Whatever the reason, it was slowing down as it came closer to them. Lily only read about them in books. Never had she seen one up close. She couldn't help but stare in amazement at it. Glancing over to Remus as it stopped and spoke she looked at him questioningly, then looked back towards the patronus just as it disappeared. "That was weird, although we should do what it told you to do," Lily said. She was confused as to the voice. She had heard it to, however she guessed they would figure it out once they got to the Hogs Head.