RP: Bookworm's Grand Opening
Date: February 9, 2005
Characters: Hermione Granger, Ron Weasley, Harry Potter, Irma Pince, Stephen Cornfoot, Blaise Zabini, Roger Davies, Morag Macdougal, Remus Lupin, Ginny Weasley, Ernie Macmillan, Lee Jordan, Lisa Turpin, Eleanor Branstone, Rose Zellar, Seamus Finnigan, Horace Slughorn, Bill Weasley, Lavender Brown, Nymphadora Tonks, Gilderoy Lockhart, Percy Weasley, George Weasley, Charlie Weasley, Viktor Krum, Katie Bell, Wilhelmina Grubbly-Plank, Others
Location: Bookworm (35 Alpha Lane)
Status: Very Public
Summary: The grand opening for Bookworm
Completion: Incomplete
It was difficult to believe that it was finally time to open. In a way, it felt like she’d just found the shop and thought of the idea. But, in another, it felt like she’d been working on it forever. Either way, Hermione was excited, nervous, scared, and many other emotions that had her feeling restless all morning.
While she had kept her promise to Ron by sleeping a little, the last week of bad dreams had continued its trend with driving her to her knees at the toilet shortly before four. With several hours before sunrise, she had utilized the time and made several batches of biscuits for the opening. She knew she should have arranged some sort of catering, but her options (and funds) were limited.
She had a table set up that had tea, coffee, and juice available as well as plates of biscuits and crackers with cheese. Dobby had also sent her two trays full of tiny sandwiches, which had been a very pleasant surprise. Hopefully that would be enough to keep people nibbling so long as they didn’t use dirty fingers to touch the books. Just to be safe, she had Apparated into Exeter to run by the supermarket and pick up a large package of paper napkins, small paper plates, and plastic cups.
When she arrived back at the shop, she focused and Transfigured the plastic cups and paper plates into more appropriate cups and plates that wouldn’t cause one to sneer. She was tired after that effort, since it had taken a lot of focus and magic, so she had to do last minute cleaning by hand.
Harry and Ron were helping out by being supportive and obeying her requests without question. It was rather nice, and she wondered if she could possibly manage to make that extend to everyday life. Harry was in charge of the refreshments, which meant the tea and coffee would stay fresh and the plates would remain full. Ron was going to help keep shelves neat should they actually have any patrons browsing and looking for things.
As it grew closer to noon, she put on her coat and stepped outside. The weather was bloody awful, which she’d feared after reading the newspaper yesterday, but she hoped it wouldn’t keep those interested from stopping by. She turned to face the shop and closely examined the front display windows. The one of the left was quite nice and an homage to Muggle mystery novels, which was some of the only fiction that she actually read. The right display was all about the wizarding world and the subjects necessary to learn to be a functioning wizard.
She stepped inside and nodded as the charms caused her skin to tingle and her shoes to dry. It had taken some time to get the charm to work properly in a permanent way without requiring excessive amounts of power. She finally had succeeded by layering a few less complicated charms and was quite pleased with the results. The wards on the property were strong but allowed anyone to enter so long as they didn’t have negative intentions. She had also put charms on all the product so that, if anyone attempted to steal one, shoplifters would feel a warning pressure as they reached the door and would simply be petrified if they stepped outside the wards. She doubted that charm would be tested since they simply had to trade for a book if they didn’t have money, which she assumed would be the most common form of payment.
Once she was inside, she felt the warming charm and looked carefully at the locations of the candles to make sure there was light where needed. There was a nice glow to the shop that she liked and it added to the cozy feel she was trying to convey. The main part of the shop looked nice, and the tables were arranged as she wanted with a few basic magic books for those who might not have been able to attend a full seven years at Hogwarts.
She looked to her right, into the former dining room, and quickly moved her gaze over the area before walking to the column to tidy up the wire shelves with newspapers. She didn’t really like the wire at all, but it would be suitable for opening until she could think of something she preferred. After straightening the papers, she went to the back wall and leaned on the counter. Behind the counter was her Christmas gift from Cormac. It fit perfectly with the shop, and she liked behind able to look up at it during the work day.
After one last look at her stacks of her lists, she determined that worrying anymore would just make her stressed and give her a headache. It wasn’t quite noon, but she didn’t care. It was time to open. Now it would just be waiting to see if anyone showed up.
Characters: Hermione Granger, Ron Weasley, Harry Potter, Irma Pince, Stephen Cornfoot, Blaise Zabini, Roger Davies, Morag Macdougal, Remus Lupin, Ginny Weasley, Ernie Macmillan, Lee Jordan, Lisa Turpin, Eleanor Branstone, Rose Zellar, Seamus Finnigan, Horace Slughorn, Bill Weasley, Lavender Brown, Nymphadora Tonks, Gilderoy Lockhart, Percy Weasley, George Weasley, Charlie Weasley, Viktor Krum, Katie Bell, Wilhelmina Grubbly-Plank, Others
Location: Bookworm (35 Alpha Lane)
Status: Very Public
Summary: The grand opening for Bookworm
Completion: Incomplete
It was difficult to believe that it was finally time to open. In a way, it felt like she’d just found the shop and thought of the idea. But, in another, it felt like she’d been working on it forever. Either way, Hermione was excited, nervous, scared, and many other emotions that had her feeling restless all morning.
While she had kept her promise to Ron by sleeping a little, the last week of bad dreams had continued its trend with driving her to her knees at the toilet shortly before four. With several hours before sunrise, she had utilized the time and made several batches of biscuits for the opening. She knew she should have arranged some sort of catering, but her options (and funds) were limited.
She had a table set up that had tea, coffee, and juice available as well as plates of biscuits and crackers with cheese. Dobby had also sent her two trays full of tiny sandwiches, which had been a very pleasant surprise. Hopefully that would be enough to keep people nibbling so long as they didn’t use dirty fingers to touch the books. Just to be safe, she had Apparated into Exeter to run by the supermarket and pick up a large package of paper napkins, small paper plates, and plastic cups.
When she arrived back at the shop, she focused and Transfigured the plastic cups and paper plates into more appropriate cups and plates that wouldn’t cause one to sneer. She was tired after that effort, since it had taken a lot of focus and magic, so she had to do last minute cleaning by hand.
Harry and Ron were helping out by being supportive and obeying her requests without question. It was rather nice, and she wondered if she could possibly manage to make that extend to everyday life. Harry was in charge of the refreshments, which meant the tea and coffee would stay fresh and the plates would remain full. Ron was going to help keep shelves neat should they actually have any patrons browsing and looking for things.
As it grew closer to noon, she put on her coat and stepped outside. The weather was bloody awful, which she’d feared after reading the newspaper yesterday, but she hoped it wouldn’t keep those interested from stopping by. She turned to face the shop and closely examined the front display windows. The one of the left was quite nice and an homage to Muggle mystery novels, which was some of the only fiction that she actually read. The right display was all about the wizarding world and the subjects necessary to learn to be a functioning wizard.
She stepped inside and nodded as the charms caused her skin to tingle and her shoes to dry. It had taken some time to get the charm to work properly in a permanent way without requiring excessive amounts of power. She finally had succeeded by layering a few less complicated charms and was quite pleased with the results. The wards on the property were strong but allowed anyone to enter so long as they didn’t have negative intentions. She had also put charms on all the product so that, if anyone attempted to steal one, shoplifters would feel a warning pressure as they reached the door and would simply be petrified if they stepped outside the wards. She doubted that charm would be tested since they simply had to trade for a book if they didn’t have money, which she assumed would be the most common form of payment.
Once she was inside, she felt the warming charm and looked carefully at the locations of the candles to make sure there was light where needed. There was a nice glow to the shop that she liked and it added to the cozy feel she was trying to convey. The main part of the shop looked nice, and the tables were arranged as she wanted with a few basic magic books for those who might not have been able to attend a full seven years at Hogwarts.
She looked to her right, into the former dining room, and quickly moved her gaze over the area before walking to the column to tidy up the wire shelves with newspapers. She didn’t really like the wire at all, but it would be suitable for opening until she could think of something she preferred. After straightening the papers, she went to the back wall and leaned on the counter. Behind the counter was her Christmas gift from Cormac. It fit perfectly with the shop, and she liked behind able to look up at it during the work day.
After one last look at her stacks of her lists, she determined that worrying anymore would just make her stressed and give her a headache. It wasn’t quite noon, but she didn’t care. It was time to open. Now it would just be waiting to see if anyone showed up.