August 17-- 2:42pm

It had been a long day so far. She had arrived in London this morning to spend the weekend in the Leaky Cauldron before heading off to Bridget's house for the rest of the summer. She had gotten her key and settled in only to find that she had lost Boomerang! Thankfully, she had had found her, but she was already mentally exhausted. The rest of the day had crawled by, she had journaled for a bit and gone through all of her belongings. She really didn't have much at all.

She had four muggle outfits, school cloaks, a Gryffindor sweatshirt, school supplies, and a handful of items from a treasure hunt before school had gotten out. Then she had a locket, two friendship bracelets, two journals, and a sketchbook. That was it. Katrina realized that she really needed more stuff. So she decided to spend the next two days shopping and filling up her trunk.

Her first stop... the book store. More commonly known as Flourish and Blotts. It had been a long time since Katrina had set foot in a book store. As the door swung open, Katrina was greeted by the familiar cozy scent of old books. She really didn't need anything at the moment, but she still wanted to browse. She walked quietly down the aisles, eyes scanning the titles, fingers gently trailing the spines. The whole store was cozier than she first remembered it. It felt like home.

A few times Katrina grabbed out a book and turned the cover, reading the titles and the short bio. Mostly the books were magical related. A couple by authors she recognized from school books. There were a few magical stories that she debated buying, but decided against it. She could surely find most of the titles in the Hogwarts Library after all.

Eventually, Katrina came across a familiar title. A muggle book she had once read, it even had the next book in the series. Hopefully, the owner of the shop wouldn't mind. Katrina sunk to the ground between two bookshelves so she wouldn't block the way for anyone else. She pried open the cover and began reading. Her eyes flitted from one side of the page to the other, faster than the majority of the population could. It wasn't long before she wasn't reading the words, but instead seeing the people and what was going on. Her mind created various landscapes and imagined the appearances of people. Time began to slip away from her and she was lost in the world of the book.

Katrina read faster and faster, turning pages, completing chapters. For all she knew, it could have been five minutes or five hours. Thankfully, the book was relatively short and she finished it in only an hour. No one came down the aisle so she didn't get reprimanded or anything. Katrina slipped the book back on its place on the shelf and smiled at it.

She left the store with a bounce in her step and mind refreshed. She didn't buy anything, but she had a whole new world to escape to.