RP: At The Bookstore

[rar_eloise]

Date: 11 July 1998
Characters: Eloise Midgen, Septima Vector, Ron Weasley
Location: Flourish and Blotts
Status: Public
Summary: Eloise is at the Bookstore. Tuesday is ten percent off for students. (20% off Biographies).
Completion: Complete

Comments

[rar_vector]

Septima Vector was pleased with how well the meeting about NEWTs had gone the day before. Repairs around the castle were proceeding nicely as well, so she didn't think anyone would begrudge her a quick trip to Diagon Alley. She hadn't been shopping for books in quite some time, and it was possible that new Arithmancy books had been published outside Britain in the last year.

She entered Flourish and Blotts and noticed that the layout had changed. She spotted a young lady who looked familiar wearing a staff name badge, so she approached her. Septima glanced at the badge before she said, "Excuse me, Miss Midgen, could you direct me to the Arithmancy section? The store has been rearranged since I was last here."

[rar_eloise]

Eloise smiled up at Professor Vector. Although she hadn't taken Arithmancy, she knew who she was of course. The Jewish Wizarding community was small as it was, and she knew her just from seeing her around the school

[rar_vector]

Septima nodded, "It would make sense; I'm glad most of the stock survived." She chuckled when the young woman mentioned that the books reorganized themselves. "That must make your job more interesting."

She followed her upstairs and through the shelves. "A cursed book, hmm? Perhaps you should have a curse breaker come take a look around." The books developing minds of their own could be dangerous, not just frustrating, and she wouldn't want anyone to get hurt.

She watched Eloise climb the ladder and smiled when she called out her success. "I'm glad you found them. I wasn't looking for anything specific, just wondering if there was anything new."

[rar_eloise]

"That's an idea," Eloise said, "but I mostly just think one or two of them like to cause a little mischief."

She pulled an armful of books off the shelf and levitated them down. "I'm not sure what's new and what isn't. These have newer publication dates if you want to look through them."

After a moment, she carefully made her way down the ladder. On the second to bottom rung her foot slipped and she ended up taking an awkward lunge but managed to land on her feet without falling.

She cursed under her breath and then blushed, because Professor Vector was still standing there. "Sorry."

[rar_ron]

Ron was coming back from the Leaky Cauldron, paper wrapped fish sandwiches for he and George in hand, chips bleeding savory smelling grease onto their newsprint. The afternoon was warm, a little muggy even, but without rain, and the street was a little crowded. He stopped outside Flourish and Blotts, wondering if Eloise was working and if he would be chastised for coming in with food. He cast a warming charm on the bag but didn't know any charm that would contain the smell, which was really rather enticing.

He hadn't seen Eloise since that night at the bar, other than spotting her sitting with Susan Bones and Hannah Abbott at the meeting the day before, and he hadn't heard anything about Hannah either. Ron pushed open the door and stopped. He made his way around the aisles, spotting her at the end of a back corner.

"Eloise," he whispered, giving a little wave. "Hi."

[rar_eloise]

She smelled the distinct odor of fried fish before she saw him and her eyes widened slightly as came towards him.

"Ron. Hi. You can't be in here with that. Madam Brown will have a fit." She shooed him towards the front of the store where the door was open to catch the warm summer breeze. When they reached it, she laughed slightly and waved her hands in the direction of the door.

"She outlaws fish, onions, and curry, in that order. Apparently the smell seeps into the bindings of the books." She wasn't sure if it was true, but she'd noticed that certain smells did seem to linger around books that belonged to other people. Her father's books, for example, had always had the slight smell of butterscotch, like his favorite sweet. She had always been finding wrappers in his books.

[rar_ron]

"Oh, I, well, er -" Ron felt a little baffled, looking about the shop as Eloise waved and pushed him back to the door. He stumbled at the jam, stuck the arm holding lunch outside and grinned at her. "I just came in to say hi, to see if everything was alright with Hannah, and with you too I mean. That bar," he said, with a little frown. "It was a weird night, you were, I mean, you seemed... sort of sad."

Was it rude to bring up that she'd been crying enough for her nose to be pink and her eyes swollen? Yes, it probably was.

"I'm sorry. Hi," Ron repeated, laughing a little. "I'll go, with my lunch, I mean. I don't want to get you in trouble, I'm working at the shop today was all."

[rar_eloise]

"Don't feel you have to run. We have minutes, at least, before you attract the attention of the alley cats." Eloise said, smiling even as she felt slightly embarrassed at the thought of that night at the bar. She'd been crying and he'd seen it. Probably seen the whole mess with Hannah too. Still, she liked to think things were a little better with Hannah despite the whole odd episode in the dorm the other night that neither of them had spoken of since.

"Hannah's alright," she said keeping her smile in place. "Just going through some things." She wasn't going to discuss this with Ron, Hannah probably would have been mortified enough to know she and Susan were discussing it. "And I'm better. Good, actually." She smiled more genuinely, thinking of how her evening had gone. "And you? Did you ever find out if your Mum liked that Cheese book? The signing is on Saturday."

[rar_penelope]

Penny replaced the book on the shelf with a sigh. There was no way she could continue to spend her afternoons shopping in the bookstores. It wasn't that she was unhappy at the quill store but rather she wanted to spend her afternoons doing something instead of pretending not to notice her parents absence.

She pulled our another book on Magical Politics in the early 18th Century and turned it over. It seemed a good, solid book with little bias. Perfect for sitting beside her on the coffee table whilst she snuggled up with the latest romance novel.

Making her decision she began to head over to the till before spotting Angelina Johnson. Now wasn't that interesting? She made her way to stand beside her before greeting the other girl.

[rar_angelina]

"Penny!"

Angelina was more than just a bit startled and quickly put down the book she had been looking at.

She knew. Percy had said that she knew, but here she was, smiling and happy to see her. Angelina was not sure why it made her heart speed up just a tiny bit.

[rar_penelope]

Penny grinned at the other girl. "Hi. How have you been?" Anything like kiss my best friend in a dark seedy alleyway?.

She glanced at the book in her hand, tilting her hand to try and read the cover.

[rar_angelina]

"Good," Angelina said and noticed that Penny was trying to look at the book she had been holding at. "Oh, this is nothing. I was just walking around and the book shop seemed like a good place to, you know, pick stuff up and put them back down while doing a bit of thinking."