08/17/2024 ↣ Mid-day.

The last place Delaney should've been in were aisles filled with glass and crystals. Did she trust herself? Kind of. Was there still a possibility she'd knock them all over? Absolutely. Yet here she was, methodically weaving herself in and out of people as listings on a crumpled piece of parchment were messily scratched off. Her father was somewhere, likely doing a much better job of locating everything her welcoming letter had called for. The trust in which he put in his daughter was astounding. Sweet, but astounding.

Shoving the paper back into her pocket, her pursuit continued. Crystal vials. Delaney squinted at the display in front of her, shelves glinting with a dozen different shapes and sizes. With lips pressed into a thin line, her eyes darted to a particularly delicate one. It was pretty, the neck impossibly thin and swirled with designs. Turning it over in her hand, of course the inevitable happened. As if in slow motion, she watched it fall pitifully from her grasp. You could practically hear the incoming shatter.

Her breath hitched, reaching out in a way that could have only looked like those inflatable men you'd see at muggle car dealerships. It was so, so over. What would her dad say? What would Aaron say? Let alone the shop keeper? She'd be sweeping for months to pay that off! It couldn't be too bad, considering she knew for a fact her brother had accidentally opened a packet of sneezing powder in Weasley's Wheezes last year. Accidentally. Fortunately for Del, she'd managed to gracefully catch it in time. Graceful – in this sense – meaning just a really lucky save. While she might've rescued the glass, bumping into another person in doing so was hardly grounds for triumph.

"I'm so sorry." The words left her mouth quickly, stepping back to regain proper distance. Where was her dad? Maybe he could come swoop her up from the embarrassment she'd caused.

She held the list in hand—along with some books procured from Flourish & Blotts. It was really quite a lot of shopping for one day. The Gemmells didn't shop like this. Perhaps only her mother, when in the middle of a big project for a client, shopped like this. As such, they found it most effective to split up and take it in turns. Both her parents had been through this before so they knew mostly where everything was in Diagon Alley.

So, Maisie ventured on her own into Potage's Cauldron Shop in search of exactly that—a pewter cauldron. She was set to walk to the front to find a clerk who might be able to help, but on first glance there didn't seem to be a shop assistant around. Instead, Maisie started turning about the shop, looking around for both clerk and cauldron.

She must have been moving too quickly or just not paying attention to what—or who—was directly in front of her because she felt her books and her small frame knock into someone else. Her eyelids fluttered closed and open again as she stepped back. Meanwhile, the list and one of the books—The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection—tumbled to the ground.

Almost immediately, Maisie dropped to her knees to collect them both. Over her head, she heard the apology of someone else. "Oh, em," she began, "It's all right. The books have survived." She chuckled slightly as she stood back up and dusted herself off. Across from her she saw another young girl like herself. Maybe she too was Hogwarts-bound. "Are you shopping for Hogwarts too?" she queried, "You haven't managed to spot the the right sized cauldron we need, have you?" If so, that would be worth the fall.

@Delany Collins

Interacting with: @Delany Collins and @Maisie Gemmell

Ruth had never been a big fan of shops, especially those stuffed with goods. As she entered Potage’s Cauldron Shop (A cauldron! Who knew she would get to not only glimpse, but use one.), dread seeped into her shoes. What were the chances she would be able to find all the things she would need?

The girl eyed her surroundings. Well, this shop was certainly not like any of the shops she had been into in her whole life. Was it wise to start with this one? Ruth glanced back at the list in her hand, where ᥴoρρᥱr sᥴᥲᥣᥱs, gᥣᥲss ρhιᥲᥣs and stᥲᥒdᥲrd sιzᥱ 𝟸 ᥴᥲυᥣdroᥒ were written. The standard size 2 HAD to be underlined. She couldn’t possibly end up getting the wrong one then.

Judging by how the shop…uh, seems to be arranged, I would probably be touring the whole place. The glass phials seemed like a good place to start as any, since it was the first thing Ruth could spot. The others were probably further into the shop. Ruth carefully stepped her way through the section, careful. It was easy for her to do, having spent so much time sneaking out of the house to go to the library. She hadn’t thought she would be using her skill to avoid breaking anything in a shop though. Suddenly, Ruth began genuinely comparing herself to a bull in a china shop. I wonder if wizarding kids have idioms like that,she was pondering to herself, when a trail of conversation piqued Ruth’s interest.

“…managed to spot the right sized cauldron we need, have you?” A girl was saying as Ruth shuffled towards them. Ruth was met with two other girls standing in the same section as she was, one with beautiful pale green eyes, more pastel than vibrant like Ruth’s, and another with brown, deep eyes. Each held contrasting expressions. The green-eyed looked close to panicking, the other mildly confused. Ruth wondered if it was a bad idea to ask them where the other two supplies were, but decided it was worth a go.

“Did someone say right sized cauldron?” She asked, giving the both of them a friendly smile. “I might need some help finding it as well.”