Visit to the Apothecary ((Nasser))

[ciaran]

“Oh, look it’s our dearest Huckleberry Finn.” Ciaran joked calmly looking up from his book. Finnea came into Ciaran’s room with a horrible expression. She was drenched with water. It had rained for most of the day so Ciaran had just stayed inside. However, Finnea looked as if she had done nothing but play in the rain for hours. Finnea grimaced and showed no signs of laughter. She walked over and took a seat by Ciaran in one of his leather chairs. Ciaran had a fire going since it had been raining most of the day. Plus, his parents kept the house ice hold for some reason unknown to Ciaran. “Don’t kid me young Cia. I’m not in the mood.” Finnea crossed her arms. Ciaran’s eyes drifted to her water drenched. “Bad work day?” He asked closing his book and placing it in his lap. With Finn around, Ciaran would surely not have any reading time. Finnea had just graduated from Hogwarts. Her attitude for her work was high, but she was still used to being sheltered in the Gryffindor tower without a care in the world. It would take some time for Finnea to fully realize that she worked for the ministry so her days of Hogwarts were over. She didn’t want them to be and neither did Ciaran. But, they were over. Finnea glanced at her brother with her arms still crossed. “I’ve been doing Ministry Work all day outdoors. And the day isn’t even over yet.” She said sadly. Ciaran felt bad for her instantly. “Doing what may I ask?” He inquired. Finnea shook her head glancing at the fire. “Secret Ministry Work.” She said soundly. Ciaran nodded. “Fine.”

Time past and Ciaran and Finnea sat in silence staring into the fire. “So, is there a particular reason you cam in here?” He asked. Finnea often ventured into Ciaran’s room, but she always had a reason. That was just the way Finnea was. She was crazy and spontaneous, but she didn’t like trouble just as Ciaran didn’t. She needed an explanation for everything and Ciaran understood why she felt that way. Finnea tapped her fingers on the chair glaring into the flames. She turned to look at him. “Oh, yea I forgot. Will you be a doll and do me a favor?” She asked making it seem as she was hopeless. Ciaran raised an eyebrow glaring at her. “What favor?” He asked. Depending on the favor, Ciaran wouldn’t really mind helping his sister. If it was to do something out of the house Ciaran would be more than happy to go. He had been scared indoors by the rain all day. The rain seemed to be calmly down a bit, so there was no reason why he wouldn’t leave the spacious house in which the two siblings lived. “I need a few supplies for potions, but I have to go back to work for a few hours. The rest of the day hopefully I will be inside. Right now I’m on lunch.” She explained. Ciaran nodded getting up. “Secret ministry potions?” He asked walking over to his closet. “No, these are for Grandma Leane.” She said calmly getting up and walking towards Ciaran. “Give me a list and I will go to the alley. Finnea nodded walking out of the room.

Ciaran just slipped his black cloak over his kaki pants and navy blue shirt. The alley was the perfect excuse for Ciaran to leave the house. Plus, his parents didn’t mind. Ciaran actually didn’t see them as often as he saw Finnea. Ciaran’s father worked at the ministry and his mother went to visit her mother Leane very often. Ciaran was basically free to do what he pleased. Finnea came back into the room just as Ciaran finished changing. She gave him a small piece of parchment, “It’s all there.” She told him. Ciaran nodded while placing the parchment in his pocket. Finnea glanced in Ciaran’s mirror for a second before looking back at him. She then smiled looking back at him. “Thanks for this Cia. I’ll apparate you there.” She announced. Ciaran nodded while Finnea took his hand. It only took a moment before the two left the house and were standing in a very wet Diagon Alley. Finnea turned to look at Ciaran. “Ok, well I’m back to The Ministry until four. “Do whatever you want.” She said calmly. Finnea trusted Ciaran. She knew he wouldn’t do anything stupid as he wasn’t like that at all. No, Ciaran would stick to The Alley to get what he needed and then he might look around for a while before using The Floo Network to get back. “Get back before I do. Oh, here’s money.” Finnea said soundly as she took out a pouch of money and gave it to Ciaran. “Thanks, Finn.” Ciaran nodded. “Ok, bye.” Finnea called. In an instant, she was gone. Ciaran looked around him and then started to walk towards the Apothecary.

Ciaran made his way to The Apotheary to buy the need items. He took out the parchment. Ciaran muttered the ingredients he needed to himself before someone came over to him. It was an old lady that worked there. “Can I help you dear?” She asked smiling. Ciaran showed her the parchment. “Yes, I need all of these for my sister.” He explained. The lady studied him for a moment before taking the list of five ingredients. “Yes, yes..” She mumbled walking around looking at the ingredients. “Salamander Slime..” She muttered locating the item on the shelf. The item flew into her hand. Ciaran laughed silently. He would be learning Accio this year. The lady handed the jar to Ciaran. She did the same thing for the other for ingredients. She then led Ciaran over to check out. He handed her the money and she placed the items in a bag and handed it to him. “Thank you deary and have a nice day!” She called as Ciaran excited the shop. Ciaran hadn’t paid much attention to the items he had purchased. He leaned against the shop’s wall digging into his bag. Ciaran silently wondered what sort of potion Finnea would make for Grandma Leane.

[Nasser Salah G6]

He was just at the door and checking to make sure he had the right amounts of muggle and wizard money when a loud voice stopped him. At the top of the stairs, draped in what looked like several of their old tablecloths was Nasser’s youngest sister, Laila. It was her ambition to become a designer and from what Nasser could see she was certainly keen on experimenting – all during the summer he hadn’t seen Laila dressed in anything you could call normal when they were at home. “Nasser, where are you going? It’s the summer isn’t it? I thought you didn’t go there in the summer. Mummy said so, she said all summer you would be with us and wouldn’t have to go there at all – everyone’s busy and I’m bored to death,” said his sister, her hands on her waist and her forehead in wrinkles as she frowned exaggeratedly at him.

Nasser sighed as he thought of how best to explain. “Laila, that was true till this year – there’s work I need to do this summer that I didn’t have to before. I’m trying to choose times when I know everyone is busy with something else so I don’t cut down on our times together. You haven’t accessorised enough anyway, don’t you think you could do that till I come home,” he said with his eyebrows raised. Laila had actually overdone it with the accessories. Laila was ten but Nasser still saw her as younger – perhaps because she was the seventh daughter and everyone always referred to her as the baby sister. She was the only one of the Salahs who still called their mother ‘mummy’. He placed his hand on her bare shoulder and pulled up one of the many knots she made where the ‘dress’ was slipping. “And I think you should return that necklace before Mum finds out you’re wearing it.”

“Brilliant, you’re leaving and you’re being sarcastic. It’s not Mum’s, it’s Portia’s. She’s in her room, writing her name and Tim’s, and drawing small hearts all around them. Whenever I talk to her she says nothing and just stares into space. Come on Nasser, I’m bored. Please stay and play with me? You’re never around except in the summer – and even now you have to go to that place.” It was very hard to go when Laila was looking at him like that, but he had to do what he had to do. It always came down to that in the end, but he found that getting used to that was harder than you might think – things happened when you least expected that gave you a sudden twinge of pain or guilt – like now for instance. Usually there would have been someone to tell Laila to cut it off – but they were all busy right now. Nasser hadn’t been planning on leaving today, he had bought enough Potions supplies to last him what he thought was two months but because of all that had been going on lately Nasser was finding it hard to focus lately and as a result the usually careful potions brewer had wasted a lot of his supplies. He was worried about his OWL results, worried about Dana and her pregnancy and her deciding to distance herself from everyone, and upset that he was seeing so little of his friends this summer. He had a lot he needed to talk about, and when you came down to it, he didn’t have too many close friends. He was going to have make some next year – it was high time! His years at Hogwarts were almost over. “Sorry Laila, I just really have to go now sis. I promise I’ll spend the rest of the day with you when I’m back OK?” he said with an apologetic smile.

“Whatever. I suppose everyone else won’t mind spending time with me later in the day, anyway,” she said, not knowing how much it hurt Nasser to hear her say that. Nasser opened the door and looked back at her before closing it. She was already climbing back up the stairs. He sighed and tried not to think too much about it. A few station and wand taps on bricks later, and he was in Diagon Alley. He cheered up a little at the sight of it. He walked to the apothecary, hands in the pocket of his jeans as he tried to enjoy the morning when he saw a face he recognised standing just outside his destination. “Ciaran, it’s good to see you! Having a good summer I hope? Brewing anything interesting?” Nasser asked affably.

[ciaran]

Ciaran looked through the bag for a few more moments. He really had no idea what potion the ingredients would be used for. He did hope that Grandma Leane was alright, but he really didn't know. Ciaran sadly didn't spent too much time in Ireland with his family like Finnea did. She went there often as Grandma Leane was more like a friend to her than a grandmother. Finnea had never really gotten over the move from Ireland to London even years after it happened. So visits to Ireland weren't uncommon for her at all. Sadly, Ciaran didn't have time for those visits. He had Hogwarts all year until the summer and then there was some summer work to do. Of course, the work didn't bother him at all. Ciaran actually like to work just to keep him busy. He did wish that more visits could be taken to see his family. Ciaran finally took his eyes from the bag and closed it calmly. He looked around him. Scared. Everyone was still scared. Ciaran knew it would take awhile for this to fade. Everyone was afraid of more attacks and violence. So was Ciaran, but he knew they would happen. Ciaran just wished that people just still be happy even through the circumstances, but he did realize that this wouldn't happen. Ciaran didn't believe in faking things, but he did wish these people could be happy through the fear. He didn't realize, however, that this made no sense at all.

Ciaran's head turned hearing a somewhat familiar voice. He looked at the boy. Nasser Salah. He was a Gryffindor a year older than Ciaran that Ciaran knew decently. He hadn't seen Nasser in a while, but that was to be expected. The past year had went by fast, and Ciaran had little time to talk to anyone. So, yet again he was the mysterious boy that no one knew what he was thinking, but that was expected for Ciaran. He gave Nasser an easy smile glad that he was someone he could relate too for the moment. Ciaran didn't really want to come in contact with a disapproving Slytherin for the moment. Usually, they weren't that much of a nuisance for him to talk to unless they pushed him the wrong way, but Ciaran was glad it was a friendly face instead. "Hello Nasser." He said in sort of a chipper tone. This day hadn't been a bad one for him at all and he would be okay with some company for the moment. Anything was better than seeing Finnea's sad face at home. Ciaran looked around calmly wondering if any other students that he knew of lingered near by, but he didn't see any at all. He shrugged to himself and then looked back at Nasser.

He nodded slightly. "Well, it was decent." He started. "I spent most of my time at home I must say." Ciaran listened to Nasser's comments. "Um, actually I have no clue what these ingredients are for. Finnea just told me to go get them, and nothing more." He explained in a normal tone. "They are for my Grandmother. I do hope she isn't ill, but Finn didn't really tell me any more than to get the ingredients." He finished. Yes, Ciaran did hope Grandma Leane was okay. He would feel awful if she was sick. Then his first visit of the summer would be see her sick and make sure she was alright. Ciaran would much prefer to see her on much better circumstances than that and not for pitty. He made a mental note to got later in the afternoon or the next day for a visit. He did have some things to tell her. Ciaran looked at Nasser. "How about you Nasser? How has your summer been?" he asked casually interested. Nasser was one of the first Hogwarts students that Ciaran had seen all summer. Kia, of course, had been the first Ciaran saw. That had been a fun day and Ciaran had lovely memories of Kia. Ciaran brushed them out of his mind calmly looking at Nasser waiting for a response

[Nasser Salah G6]

Decent? Nasser wondered if he had been bored. Or perhaps he just wasn’t one of those people who got very enthusiastic or excited about things – Nasser sadly thought of Dana. He didn’t ever think he’d heard her use the word decent to describe anything. Nasser gave himself a little mental shake. It was just a word! “Me too,” said Nasser when Ciaran said he had spent most of it at home. Nasser wondered why it was so in Ciaran’s case. In Nasser’s case it was because he saw so little of his family that there was an agreement between them, not one that anyone had actually ever said aloud, but one that everyone knew of nonetheless, that the summer was the time they all spent together as a family and almost all of them tried to do nothing but that. In a family as large as theirs there was never room for boredom, but Nasser often wondered what it would have been like to spend the summer in the magical world or with a magical family. But he had had a wonderful time with them whenever he could put the magical world and all that was happening out of his head – but that was becoming increasingly harder to do. “I hope she feels better soon,” he said.

“It’s been different than most summers,” said Nasser slowly. “It’s the first summer I’ve felt like I really had to keep up with what’s going in the magical world so much and also do a bit of studying. And then there was the worry about the OWL results – and no-one I could talk to much about the exams – all my family are non-magical. But other than that I had a great time with my family – I miss them so much during the year. We even spent a week in Egypt which is where I’m originally from,” said Nasser, smiling fondly at the memory. Had he said too much? It didn’t really matter and Nasser knew that, but people he didn’t know all that well made him self-conscious.

[ciaran]

Ciaran listened calmly as Nasser said he had spent much time at home as well. Usually, Ciaran really didn't mind spending time with his family, but this summer had been truly uneventful. Usually Finn would have created some kind of drama, but she really hadn't. She had managed to "fall in love" atleast three times though. Ciaran wished he could have done something more with his summer, but there weren't too many other options to consider. Ciaran sometimes wished he had a sport or something to keep him busy in the summer as Lexis did. She spent the whole time practicing for her Ice Skating Competition. Ciaran wished he could of had something like that to fill his time, but sadly he hadn't. "I hope she will too." Ciaran replied to Nasser's commented about his grandmother feeling better. Really, Ciaran didn't know if she was sick or not, but it was a good possibility. He did wished Finnea had given him more information about the subject, but sadly she hadn't. Finnea never told Ciaran anything of value really. It annoyed him most of the time that Finn shared little with him, but that was Finnea for you. She was totally irresponsible and crazy yet Ciaran still loved his big sister.

Ciaran smiled casually at Nasser's comments about the summer. Nasser mentioned the OWL results. Nasser was a year ahead of Ciaran so he had already faced his OWLS when Ciaran has a good time before they would be over with. "Ah, yes the OWL results. In a years time I'll be a wreck running around wondering what I got." She said smiling at his comment. He was sure it would happen. Nasser mentioned he was a muggle born. Ciaran nodded calmly. Now, he was certain Kia's comments were right. Ciaran always thought of Nasser as a smart guy. Ciaran and Kia had gotten into an interesting conversation at the park on how muggle born students were some of the smartest at Hogwarts. They had learned to live in two different worlds, a task that Ciaran knew he could never had done. Now, Ciaran was certain Kia had been right. It must have been difficult for Nasser to fret over the exams with a family that knew little about the, but hopefully they were still supportive of Nasser. "Egypt? That must have been fun. I've never been out of Europe myself." He said calmly. "My family is Irish so visits aren't too interesting in a country I have live in before." He said calmly. "What is it like in Egypt?" He asked calmly hoping he wasn't sounding too annoying. Oh well, Ciaran was interested.

[Nasser Salah G6]

“Depends on what you’re doing next summer really, I never gave them that much thought except when I had time on my hands, which is rather rare in a family as large as mine,” said Nasser with a smile. “I’m sure you’ll do fine, the professors do their best to scare you to death though. I think it’s their way of ensuring their efforts of the past five years aren’t wasted. I highly advise to enjoy what’s left of the summer though, so you can give next year your all,” he continued. Nasser wondered what Hogwarts would be like next year – he didn’t want it be the same way the world around him was at the moment, with everybody looking everybody else suspiciously, and bad news about people whose faces he knew but he didn’t know personally. It just felt like soon it would be someone too close to home that would get hurt.

Ciaran asked him about Egypt and the slight sadness that had been in Nasser’s eyes cleared. “I’ve never actually lived there for very long – I’ve been there for most of the summers of my life, thought this summer I didn’t get to spend much time there. I couldn’t completely sever my ties with the magical world this summer – what with all that’s happening and next year being my sixth year and all,” said Nasser. The matter was bothering him more than he cared to admit, and he didn’t know Ciaran enough to talk to him about it. “It’s so much warmer than here and the sun’s out for so much longer and it’s out everyday. I’ve never known a day to start out gloomy over there. The people are kind and hospitable, with a great sense of humour, and it’s a struggling developing country, but with a great history. And the ancient magic that I managed to learn about there was fascinating, charms and curses and potions different than any I’ve ever known,” he told Ciaran. "Looking forward to next year?" he asked.