Closed French Gobstones

[Emery Mettlestone]

Emery had tried to convince his parents they really didn't need to go on another trip to Europe, but they hadn't listened. Both his parents were clearly miserably missing out on their work, though they seemed to be pretending to love the trip for the sake of Emery and his sisters. After a lot of days at the beach where the most interesting thing that happened was Vanity getting sunburned when she tried to get a tan, they finally went to a small wizarding village. Emery would have preferred to be at home even now, but it was at least fun to check out some stores for some of the things that interested him. He had stopped his whole family in their tracks when he spotted a gobstones set inside one of the small stores, heading inside without looking to see if they followed. He had pocket money saved up and figured a French set of gobstones would compliment his collection nicely.

 

[Vanity Mettlestone]

Vanity sighed as they headed into yet another uninteresting shop. Well, maybe it was a little interesting, but Vanity had already spent all her pocket money on new flip-flops and sunglasses, as well as a cute sunhat. Now she had nothing left and sighed as she entered the store Emery had walked into. She walked around for a bit, wrinkling her nose. It was pretty dusty in here. She glanced at her brother with a sigh, wondering when he'd be done. After looking around a bit more, she found a few interesting-looking keychains, which distracted her. She picked one up from the rack, holding it up to the light to admire the sparkly butterfly at the end. It was so pretty.

 

[Briony Mettlestone]

Briony new distantly that the whole point of these family trips were so they could spend time together but it always ultimately felt like they were just people hanging out in the same space rather than people hanging out together. Still, she had enjoyed the beach, spending more of her time trying to dig the biggest possible pit in the sand that she could, imagining she was a niffler looking for treasure. It had been well worth it even if it meant she had to deal with all the sand caked under her nails as she trailed after her siblings as they wandered about a small French village.

Emery seemed to have his mind set on something horribly boring like he always did and Briony paid him little mind as she drifted after Vanity instead, her interest piqued when Vanity picked up a pretty keychain. "I like that one," she said, reaching out a hand to try and snag the butterfly keychain Vanity was holding. "I think it's a Blue Morpho Butterfly, we don't get them back home."

 

[Vanity Mettlestone]

Vanity wasn't surprised Briony followed her, she was more interesting and fun than their brother after all, but it annoyed her a bit. She really liked this keychain, it would be a lot more difficult to accidentally drop it in her pocket if her sister was hanging around. She sighed softly. "How do you even know that?" She asked her with a frown. "It could just be a random blue butterfly, or one they made up." She held the keychain out of her sister's reach. "Don't get your gross fingerprints on it."

 

[Briony Mettlestone]

Briony shrugged at Vanity's question. "I've been reading, Dad has books, so I know a lot now. Like how butterflies taste with their feet," she explained. She'd been reading a lot about butterflies lately and it was kind of sad that New Zealand didn't have all that many besides Monarch butterflies. "Maybe, but I like to think it's a Blue Morpho," she said, frowning when Vanity held the key chain away from her. "They're not gross," she insisted. "I got most of the sand off them already." She still had a bunch under her nails, sure, but not on her fingers or anything. "Are you gonna buy it then?"