School Shopping ((Laura P.))

[mirabelmeletti]

Mirabel sighed once again as the servant did some weird thing to her hair as her grandmother stood behind her with a watchful eye. "I've picked out your outfit for you, Mirabel. You must dress quickly we have many things to accomplish today."
"Yes, Grandmother." Mirabel answered obediently, "Will Aedan be joining us?" she asked hopefully.
"Not today I'm afraid. He had prior engagements." her grandmother answered gently. Mirabel nodded in understanding, "I'll leave you to get ready. Come along Dira her hair will have to do as is." The servant bowed to Mirabel before hurrying after her grandmother. Glancing in the mirror at her hair she inspected the loose curls that were pulled back from her face and held in place by a diamond and emerald clip. A few curls were still frizzy, that's what had concerned her grandmother, but all in all she liked it. Gracefully standing she walked to her canopy bed where a freshly pressed emerald green blouse and black skirt with green embroidery lay. She sighed loudly. Her grandmother wanted her in Slytherin greatly, but she was resigned to the fact she would be entering Gryffindor. She would just have to disappoint her family. It was something she was used to by now.

The limousine came to a stop in front of the Leaky Cauldron and Mirabel looked at the building in wonder. "Come along Mirabel and do not touch anything. One never knows who else has passed through. We don't want you catching anything." Tom greeted them warmly and Mirabel waved at him happily. Her grandmother chose to ignore him and walked straight to the back alley before drawing her wand. She tapped the bricks and Mirabel watched as the bricks moved to form an archway. "I have some things to attend to on my own. I trust you to stay on the main street and to only enter the shops that concern your school things. I'll meet you at Ollivander's in exactly one hour. Do not dawdle Mirabel." she warned.
"Yes, Grandmother." And with that her grandmother disappeared into the crowd and Mirabel was left alone with a bag full of galleons and absolutely no idea where to start. Spotting the book store that looked nearly deserted she decided to start there. Clutching her list and money closely she forced her way through the crowd. Once safely inside she looked around. She spotted only one other person in the store. She was an older girl, that Mirabel knew, but that was the extent of her knowledge. Not knowing what to say Mirabel walked over to where the girl stood and began looking the books over as well.

[laurap]

Laura wondered around the rather nice, but empty house. IT was bit – 3 floors and attic and it had a big garden and porch in the back. Also including 5 bedrooms and numerous other rooms. This was a good house.
Jogging down the stair-case to her mother Laura smiled seeing her mother deep in thought as she stood in the middle of the future living-room. She was probably visioning what the room would look like once she was finished furnishing the house. Laura liked her mothers job. Adding furniture, little sculptures, paintings. All these things gave life to a house. “Mom, I think the painters came,” Laura said stepping down the last few steps and stepping next to her mother who awoke from her thoughts. “Good, what do you think of the house, sweety?” Elizabeth asked, brushing a strand of Laura’s hair away from her fore-head lovingly.
“It’s pretty. Will be even prettier once you finish with it,” Laura answered with a bright smile giving her mother a quick hug.

“Good. You can go ahead and run to the Diagon if you want. No need for you to be bored here while we discuss the price of paint. I can pick you up later if you want at that pub,” Laura’s mom said and Laura thought about the possibility. She still had to buy her school-things for her 4th year in Hogwarts. Especially if she was going to go Ireland with her mother next week.
“Sure, pick me up in about 3 hours, alright?” Laura told her mom before turning and leaving the house. Taking the Knights’ bus to the Leaky cauldron Laura’s first stop was Gringotts. Her father had opened an account for her there, so Laura could get the money used in wizarding world from somewhere. Withdrawing the necessary amount of galleons Laura set off to shopping.

Laura decided to start with the book-store. Finding the list of books she would need for next year Laura entered the empty shop. Reading over the books she needed Laura set off to look for them. Potions book was easy to find, as was Charms, Arithmancy and COMC.
Just as Laura started to look for her Transfiguration book a young girl entered the shop and started to look for books next to her. She was clutching the Hogwarts booklist as Laura saw and was looking for books. The girl looked young enough to be only starting Hogwarts and Laura remembered how nervous she had been before her first year. That was the reason that mdae Laura over-come her usual shyness and speak to the girl.
“Are you looking for your Transfiguration book? I think I saw the book for first years,” Laura’s eyes scanned the shelves once more before she grabbed the aforementioned book and presented it to the girl, “Right here. Do you need help in finding some other book? I’m Laura by the way.”

[mirabelmeletti]

Mirabel looked up and took the book from Laura. "Thank you. I'm Mirabel. If you wouldn't mind helping me find the rest of my books I would be very grateful. If it’s not too rude of me to ask what house and year are you in at Hogwarts? I’ve already met a fourth year Ravenclaw named Gary and my brother, Aedan, is a third year Gryffindor. I also met a first year Gryffindor, Rosaliz.” Mirabel rambled as she handed her list over to Laura. This making friends thing was not as hard as she had thought it would be. Of course that was as long as the person spoke to her first. Mirabel wondered if she would ever get over her paralyzing shyness.

[laurap]

Laura smiled at the girl as she took the book. “I don’t mind helping you find your books. I already have all of mine,” Laura told the girl. She was happy she had decided to give that girl a helping hand. It had been very hard the first year when she didn’t know anything about the wizarding world. And then come and shop in a completely alien Alley. Laura had been terrified out of her mind. This girl knew about the Hogwarts houses so she obviously wasn’t as big of stranger to the wizarding world as Laura had been.

“I’m a Hufflepuff. I will also be starting my fourth year. I’m afraid I don’t know that Gary,” Laura said with a smile, “I’m on my house’s quidditch team too. I’m a chaser. You seem to know pretty much about the magical world. Do you like quidditch?” Laura adored quidditch and flying. It made her feel free, careless, like all her worries about school and anything else would stay on ground when she pushed off with a broom.

“Now what more books do you need? I don’t remember the books for first year by heard. And do you need any more help with buying your school supplies?” Laura asked as she eyed the shelves they were surrounded with and started heading towards Charms books. Everybody had charms. Laura personally liked Flitwick too, “Or are your parents somewhere around to help you shop for your things?”

[mirabelmeletti]

“No I’ve been left for the hour and told to get all of my things with the exception of my wand. Grandmother says she wants to be with me when I get that.” She began unfolding her list of books to read off what she would need as she followed Laura to the Charms books. “I like flying although Grandmother doesn’t like me to. She says I am far too young. But when I’m at home with mum and dad, Aedan takes me up.”

She loved flying with her brother. The first time he ever took her up she was nine and terrified, but she had sat in Aedan’s lap and he had even let her steer for a while to get used to it. “I’m not very good at quidditch so Aedan and his friends almost always make me the seeker. But I don’t mind, seeing as it’s my favorite position. For charms I’m guessing the book would be the Standard Book of Spells Grade 1.”

Mirabel spotted the book on the shelf, “There it is,” she said pointing to the book before grabbing it. “Do they have a basket or something to put everything in while we shop? I know I’ll want more than just the standard school books. Do you have any suggestions of what other books I should get?” Mirabel looked around the shop looking for the owner or a sales person to see if they could find her a basket. She saw no one and was a bit surprised that there was no one to help first year students.

[laurap]

Laura smiled at Mirabel and read over her list of books quickly to see what exactly she would be needing.
“I’m sure your grand-mother is just worried about you getting hurt while flying. During quidditch games it can hurt if you are hurt with a bludger,” Laura told Mirabel, recalling the few times she had been with the flying cannon-balls, “But you can try out for your houses quidditch team at Hogwarts when you reach second year. Quidditch is fun. I adore flying too. It just makes me feel good.”

Mirabel spotted her next book first before looking around for a shopping-basket. “Oh, of course they have them at the counter. All my books are there too right now. I’ll go and get one,” Laura said with a smile before jogging through the book-shelves. Finding a shopping –basket Laura picked one up and moved back to where she had left Mirabel.
“Here we go. It’s much better to carry your books in this,” Laura said with a smile while presenting the shopping-basket to Mirabel, “They even have ‘carry-all’ charms on them, so they don’t get heavy. Magic can be used to do a lot of great things. May I ask you something? You seem as if someone who knows awfully much about magic. You aren’t a muggle-born, right? I was terrified the first time I came school-shopping? My father had to buy all my things in the end besides my wand.”

Looking at Mirabel’s list Laura picked up the next needed book: “Oh, found the next one.” Showing the book to Mirabel Laura let it drop to the basket as the two girls continued picking out books.

((Thank you. ))

[mirabelmeletti]

Mirabel took the basket before dumping her school books into it. She accepted the next book Laura had found before launching into the story of her family.

"My mother was Catrina Maye. The Maye's were a very prestigious wizarding family, but now I'm the only one that's left. My mother was killed when I was three while vacationing in Bermuda. I was then adopted by the Meletti's. My mum is a squib, but Grandmother tries to keep that a secret and my da is a muggle, which she also tries to hush up. After we get all of my school things this week is to be dedicated to showing me all of the houses I am to inherit when I come of age and teaching me what it means to be a Maye. I am not looking forward to it." By now she had found two more of her school books and the basket still felt as light as ever. "What about your family? Do you have any siblings that go to Hogwarts?" Mirabel thought back to Laura's earlier comment about quidditch.

"And you're right about my Grandmother. She is just worried about me getting hurt. When I fell down the staircase at the beginning of the summer she was frightfully worried. But she was livid as well, screaming at everything in sight that I could have been killed." Mirabel smiled at the memory. Even Anton, the ghost, had been terrified of her grandmother's screaming.

[laurap]

Laura listened to Mirabel’s story in a bit of a shock. Looks like she had found a pureblood to help instead of a scared kid who didn’t know anything about the magical world like she had once been. Houses the girl was supposed to inherit one day. Gosh, this was like a chapter from some book or a scene from some movie. Laura didn’t even know how to react to such things. The people this rich were the purebloods in Slytherin and Slytherins weren’t nice. Mirabel was. Actually Weasley’s were also a pureblooded family that seemed nice. But they weren’t rich as Laura had deducted upon hearing one of Malfoy’s insults.

“Um, well, I’m a half-blood actually and I’ll probably never be that rich as you just said,” Laura answered to Mirabel’s comment, still trying to get over her shock, “My mom’s a muggle and works as an interior designer. My father is a wizard and works as a curse-breaker for Gringotts. He’s living in Japan now and is married and has two kids. I don’t really see him often.” Laura recited a short summary of her family history with a little frown when she reached the part about his father. Laura didn’t like her fathers new wife very much. She was a witch too, but Laura just didn’t like her very much. Laura wasn’t very close with her two stepsisters either – they were spoiled brats in her opinion.

“I’m sure your grandmother was just relieved and just couldn’t express it some other way,” Laura told Mirabel with a smile pushing all thoughts of her father away and dropping two more books to the basket, “I think we have pretty much gotten all the books you need for school now. Do you want to browse for some books for light reading or do you want me to help find you other stores and things you need to buy too?”

[mirabelmeletti]

"I'd like to find a few books on healing charms if you don't mind. And grandmother said I was on my own getting all of my school supplies with the exception of my wand." she moved her eyes skimming the names of the books, looking for one that might spark her interest.

"Could we go to the apothecary next. I love potions." she gushed picking up a book about the art of potion making and dropping it in the basket. Mirabel loved reading. It was relaxing and there was the added bonus of learning.

"But I don't have too much time. I'm supposed to be at the wand shop in an hour." she explained, "I hope I didn't make you uncomfortable when I mentioned my inheritance. I have a terrible habit of rambling. Just tell me to be quiet if I start." Mirabel added as an after thought.