@Marius Brown

??.07.2022
Flourish&Blotts, Diagon Alley, London

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“Books are a uniquely portable magic.” – Stephen King
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It was an exciting day. Diagon Alley! Of course, Glenys had been in Diagon Alley before, but this time they were here to buy her school supplies so it was extra special! Originally they had planned to go to the alleys way earlier, after all, her birthday had been in November and it was now July but alas. They hadn't managed the trip to London with the family yet. So now they were on a small family vacation, planning to spent a whole 10 days in (Muggle) London with trips into Diagon in between sightseeing to buy her supplies.

Glen was looking forward to getting her own school books. She'd peeked into her dad's old books, and read parts of them but while some of what she would learn stayed the same, rather obviously, the book list had probably changed a lot in the last 20-ish years. So, off to Flourish&Blotts they went.

As both Glen and her dad secretly expected, they both immediately lost Greg as he went off to find books for children to check out the magical competition. Not that there was in any way a competition, it wasn't like there was much (direct) overlap. Still, her papa immediately disappeared into the depths of the bookstore. Her dad merely chuckled at his husband's antics and Glen grinned back at him.

“So, where do you want to go first, love?”, her dad asked. Glenys hummed. What book to check on first? Ach, who cares. “Let's just start over here and circle 'round?”, she offered pointing just to the right of the entrance. Her dad gave her a nod and moved into the directions. “Then let's see what we shall find.”

Unlike her papa who was insimple jeans and a black t-shirt today, her dad was wearing a batik shirt Glenys had made (not the shirt, the colouring), so he was quite brightly coloured and would be easy to keep track of should Glen get distracted by a book. Glenys herself was wearing an orange summer dress. It wasn't anything fancy, not by a long shot, but it was comfy. Though she slightly regretted the thin sandals she chose for the day as they were still new and not broken in yet. She hoped she wouldn't get blisters. (Sure, blisters were easily healed but they were annoying anyway.)

While she walked, she was idly fidgeting with her new bracelet – her friend group had made each other a friendship bracelet when they met up the last time to keep close even as they had to go separate ways after primary school. Objectively speaking it probably looked a mess as the bracelet consisted of seven completely different parts. (Each of them had made a section in a bracelet and they passed it around in a circle, so that everyone had one with seven section made by each of the seven others in group). Glenys was unused to wearing a bracelet so she kept unconsciously fiddling with it.

They found the first couple of books with ease but then it was her dad and not her who found a book that peaked his interest, so he stopped to take a moment to peek-read it and Glenys shook her head fondly. “Hey dad, I'm gonna continue looking for my books while you read, ok? I'll stick close (-ish) though.” Her dad gave her a wry smile. “Sure. The shop is not that big, just don't leave and I'll find you in a bit. Just stay away from the more dangerous books!” Glenys grimaced. She had no intention of seeking out such dangerous books, she heard enough stories about how people used to get bitten by their books before her dad's time. Though admittedly she didn't think such books would just lay around willy-nilly. Maybe. Eh.

Lowly humming to herself, Glenys set out to find the other books on her list.

Muttering a quiet curse her papa would box her ears for, Glenys frowned at the bookshelf in front of her. She may be quite tall for her age but she was eleven. She wasn't that tall, and of course one of the books was quite high up. Standing in front of the bookshelf she looked up at the book and contemplated if she should climb the bookshelf to get at it or if she should just wait for her dad. “Having wings would be awesome right about now.”, she mumbled.

In the end, she turned away from the shelf with a slight shrug and looked around. She would wait, but what to do in the mean time? Maybe there were some other (soon-to-be) Hogwarts students around? It was prime school supply shopping time, so maybe she could meet someone? With that new resolve Glen checked the area around her.

@Marius Brown

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Of course it was as she was looking the other direction that someone stumbled into her and stepped on her foot. Ah well, that was one way to meet people, right? Turning around she got the answer as to why it did not hurt as much as she would have expected had she expected someone to step on her foot. When Aziz stepped on her foot during that weird choreography thing they had to do in P.E last year., it had definitely hurt worse.

Even if it had hurt worse, though, she wouldn't scold a little kid. It happened. So she only smiled cheerily at the apologies. “Ah, don't worry, kid.”, she would say to the younger one. “No harm done.” She would check on the boy's reaction – hoping he wasn't like her cousin had been at that age; he would've immediately burst into tears no matter what the reaction of the other person had been – before turning to the older boy to answer his question. “I'm fine. Surprised me, but that's ok. It happens.”, she would offer with a shrug before introducing herself with a happy grin. “I'm Glenys, by the way, but you can call me Glen.” For a moment she considered asking who they might be but figured demanding a name would be impolite. “Are you shopping for school books, too?”

Judging by the look of the older boy and the date, it would probably be safe to assume so, but were would be the fun in that. Besides, to meet people you had to talk to them and she wasn't about to ignore the opportunity.

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Reducio

No worries! RL is more important, I don't mind.

@Marius Brown

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"It is nice to meet you two.", Glenys practically chirped in response to Marius introducing himself and his brother. And it was nice. She was glad to be meeting people, despite it all, there had been a sliver of worry that she wouldn't meet anyone she could get along with. It wasn't rational and it wasn't a potent worry, but the thought had been there once or twice. It was normal in the face of the unknown, to have such irrational fears. She was just glad she wasn't an anxious person, if she thought about how much some of her friends had been fretting the new school, new people thing. She had just mostly been lamenting the fact that her friends wouldn't be with her in the midst of her excitement for the future.

"Oh! Are you looking forward to school?", she would ask Max before turning to the older boy with another question. "Does that mean you're a student at Hogwarts already? How is it there? I've only heard stuff from Dad but he's, like, ancient, so. Do you like the school?" Glen looked at Marius full of eager curiosity. She hoped he would be willing to tell her some about Hogwarts, though she would of course understand if he didn't have time. There was Shopping (yes, shopping with a capital S) to be done, after all, and most people only spent a day in Diagon, as far as she knew, and wouldn't be spending a week or more in the area. Even if it should be simple to visit the Alleys for those with access to the Floo system, but Dad had said something about a shopping day being traditional or something along those lines. "I'm starting Hogwarts on September, though I plan on going to the summer camp first."