A New Day ((Landon))

[rosewood]

Everything here is so different.

She'd grown up in her father and grandmother's shop, Buried Treasure, which had always been like a second home to her. Some of her earliest memories were of her grandmother, standing much straighter than she did now of course, caring for the plants and every now and then pointing out an usual plant to the baby Julie who even then had had an inquisitive mind and insatiable curiosity. She remembered the first time her father and grandmother had trusted her to be responsible for her first groups of plants, how she had watched over them with care and refused to sell them and kept them for years till they died. She remembered the evenings they'd sit together all three after her father came home from work and she and her grandmother would tell him all about their day, Julie excitedly describing each and every customer, especially the kids, who she'd always enjoyed playing with as she never got to see much children her age before coming to Hogwarts. Such had been the peaceful, loving atmosphere that Julie Rosewood had been raised in. People often asked her if she hadn’t wished for a sibling or a stepmother instead of just living with her father and grandmother. The truth was, she did at times, but it was more a sort of wondering what things would have been like rather than really longing for a larger family, but her small family gave her so much love and all three of them understood each other so perfectly she was happy just the way things were.

Catalina's cubby held none of those fond memories. It was a modern shop and sold a variety of things, and Julie was feeling slightly nervous as this was her first day. It was strange for Julie to be feeling this self-conscious as she never cared at all about her appearance, and usually you’d find her robes stained and her mane of hair not very neat if you'd ever gone to Buried Treasure to buy something, but today her rose madder robes were spotless, her hair had been carefully brushed back and it shined every time it caught the light, and she'd even applied some lip gloss. She wanted to look professional but approachable, and she didn’t want to let down Catalina after she had entrusted her with this job. She'd chosen to come here because after Harry had decided they shouldn’t see each other anymore and her friends had all graduated she was feeling a bit lonely. Plus, the work experience would be useful, for after all, she might get some new ideas from working here and implement them back home in her family's shop. This summer had been hard – even being back home hadn’t helped much, and she needed something new in her life, especially since she still hadn’t found out a way to achieve her goal, which was to take a more active role in the war against Voldemort.

Julie looked at the list of items they had for sale and their prices, waiting for the arrival of the first customer. It was Sunday and she expected a stream of customers to come in, though probably not quite so early. Most people she imagined might come in here around noon, maybe have a drink and then do their shopping or vice versa.

[mongaj]

It was about a twice a year occasion. The time came when Landon had written so much in his current notebook- a tablet that most would consider a journal- and it was time to buy a new one. In a way, it was always a time of ambivalence. Somewhat sad to see the current notebook come to an end, Landon hated to stop writing in it. At the same time however, he was equally as eager to start anew with a blank book full of pages to fill with his constant ideas.

It was the fifteenth notebook he had filled with writing. As an eight year old, he started with the habit that continued to this day, and if he did the math correctly, he figured he averaged two books a year of writing. Oddly enough, anybody who might read the books would probably make no sense of them, as his thoughts were random and they jumped from one to another. But to Landon, these books were his life. Everything in them held significance to him, and in a way they were his closest friend. At least they only friend he trusted to always rely on. Some may think it pathetic in a way, but writing was what he knew how to do best and nobody could take that away.

With a smile on his face, he crawled through the busy streets of Hogsmeade. Spotting Catalina's Cubby just ahead, he assumed it would be the best place to look for a new notebook. He had heard that the store offered a variety of goods, yet he had never been inside to shop. What a better time than today, he thought. Casually, he opened the door and scanned the surroundings. Not quite busy, he didn't notice more than half a dozen people in the store. Seeing a friendly looking girl around his age, he approached her, hoping she would be able to point him in the right direction. "Hello," he said kindly, "I'm looking to buy a notebook," he informed the young lady, not wanting to sound too awkward. "You know, something that I can just scribble random things into," he explained.

[rosewood]

Julie looked up from her list as a boy who looked about her age came in. He had an easygoing manner and a kind voice that instantly put Julie at her ease and she addressed him in her usual friendly manner after returning his smile with one of her own. She came out from behind the counter, smoothed a nonexistent wrinkle in her robes and pointed in the direction of the Writer's Corner. "Why don't you come over here – this is our Writer's Corner - we can take a look and perhaps find what you’re looking for," she said pleasantly. I'm so glad he seems friendly. The last thing I need is to deal with a snarky customer first thing in the morning! Julie stood on tiptoe and pulled down a few notebooks for him to take a look at. "These are what we call our Author Notebooks. They come in different colours and different numbers of pages," she explained, pushing aside some stationery form the table before them and placing them so the boy could take a look at them.

Julie knew he wasn't a Ravenclaw as she knew the faces of all her fellows looked like down to the youngest first year. He obviously didn’t want the notebooks for schoolwork; Julie had deduced that even before he'd mentioned he just wanted to scribble in them as all their schoolwork was done on parchment. "Was that what you had in mind?" she asked after a while. "We have Personal Journals as well if you’d like a look at them. I've never really kept a journal myself but still I sometimes like something with protective charms placed on it just in case I end up misplacing it," she said. She had used one of those journals for writing drafts of personal letters before – last year when she and Harry had been together she'd realised she would have to be more careful because everyone was taking a new interest in all that she did, and that included the letters she wrote back home.

[mongaj]

Following the girl to the Writer's Corner, Landon peered around at the various merchandise. Many unique gadgets lined the shelves of the stores. From stuffed animals to team Quidditch scarves, Landon saw many items that peaked his interest. Shifting his focus back to the clerk, he listened as she pulled a few books from the shelves and explained the different options they had to offer. He pondered the choices consisting of a variety of combinations of colors and page quantity. They were all notebooks that would provide the basics of what he was looking for, blank pages in which to record his thoughts, but this time he wanted something special. Then the girl mentioned personal journals. She explained that they had some sort of magic contained in them that provided a protective charm. This piqued Landon's interest. "Could you please show me one of the personal journals?" he asked. "It's Julie, isn't it?" he added, vaguely recalling the girl's name. He thought she was the girl who previously dated Harry Potter, but wasn't quite sure.

Not wanting to feel rude, he kindly introduced himself. "My name is Landon by the way. I am a fifth year Hufflepuff in case you were unaware," he informed her. If this was in fact the girl he thought it was, Landon remembered that she had been kidnapped before. He didn't want to force a touchy subject, so Landon kept his thoughts to himself and instead gave a genial half-smile, waiting for the girl to either respond or show him the specialized journal.

[rosewood]

"Yes, Julie Rosewood," she said with a smile. I'm surprised he knows my… oh yeah. He might not know Celestina Warbeck but he'd know me. Well at least he's not being too impersonal. And he hasn’t brought up Harry like everyone I see seems inclined to. "I knew you weren't a Ravenclaw," she said. She let out a chuckle when she realised that might have sounded rather rude. "I'm sorry I don’t mean you’re stupid or anything, it's just I have good memory for faces, and I know almost everyone in my house," she explained.

The personal journals were on a low shelf and Julie led Landon to them. She grabbed a few to show him. "I believe they have different sorts of protective charms on them – I know some know the hands of their owner, and there are some you can charm to recognise a certain word. Personally, I once used one like this one," she said, handing him a journal with a navy blue cover. "The charm on this one is very simple really. Anything you write in it is invisible to everyone but you, so even if someone does manage to open it they can’t read what's inside unless they know the secret spell-word or incantation," she said. He'll start thinking I'm paranoid or something. What kind of person hides information so secretively unless they're a spy? "But I guess that's a bit much," she said with a shrug.

[mongaj]

Landon listened as Julie explained the many choices they had to offer. "Actually," he said, "that will be perfect," referring to the last book Julie showed him. Sure the journal was a bit overly protected, but Landon was always told it was better to be safe than sorry. Only once had he ever caught someone reading his private notebook, and it had been his twin sister Lexie. He wasn't too pleased, but he'd have preferred it to be her than anybody else. After all, she knew him best. On occasion, Landon would share his writings with anyone who didn't mind listening, but for the most part he kept what he wrote to himself. They were his thoughts, and, quite frankly, he didn't like sharing them.

Seeing the wide variety of colors that the store had to offer, Landon mused over his choices. Not seeing his favorite color, he decided it wouldn't hurt to ask if they carried the books in that color. "Do you sell them in forest-green?" he asked, not wanting to roll out the possibility that they might. Normally he would have avoided asking and just found another color that suited him fine, but Julie was awfully helpful, and her kindness made it easy for Landon to talk with her comfortably.

[rosewood]

"Oh well then that's brilliant," said Julie, glad that her first attempt at selling something had gone so smoothly. Oh no. She'd been a little too quick in assuming that. "Forest Green? Well no we don't, I mean as far as I know, I dunno if we can get one made for you or something of the sort, I, you see, well it's my first day on the job." She wasn't being very professional in admitting that, but then that was Julie all over. Too honest for her own good. She checked her list just to make sure though she had memorised it first thing that morning. "You know, I'm sure the must be some kind of charm for this, I don’t think it's something too hard – but I wouldn’t want to experiment with your journal," she said. She made a mental note to buy one and try and see for herself – it might be fun.

Julie pushed away a strand of her hair and gave Landon an apologetic sort of smile. She didn’t really blame him for not liking that particular shade of green – she didn’t like it either. She quite liked the colour green, but not that shade. "So would you like to take a look at the other colours or just stick with this one?" she asked.

[mongaj]

His small moment of excitement was soon erased when Julie explained that they didn't carry the notebook in the color he had hoped for. It wasn't her fault though, as he knew she most likely had no involvement in the selection of merchandise. After all, she had informed him that it was her first day, so she probably was only getting acquainted with what they did carry. Feeling somewhat selfish to put her on the spot during her first day, Landon quickly apologized, "I'm sorry to bother asking. I shouldn't be so picky. This shade of green will do just fine," he said, attempting to assure Julie that he had no hard feelings. It was only a silly color that really didn't matter in the grand scheme of things. All that was really important was the fact that he needed a notebook- anything in which he could pen his thoughts.

"So how do you like your new job so far?" he asked, wanting to engage in a friendly conversation as a way to enforce that he was holding nothing against Julie for not having his favorite color. "You seem to have a general idea of what you are doing," he complemented with a kind smile. Landon knew how much he appreciated friendly customers at his job back home, so he often tried to be understanding when it came to being a customer himself.

[rosewood]

"Oh no, at least you know what you want. Cat was telling me about this customer she had this other day who just couldn’t decide on anything, she gave her quite a hard time, she actually came in and left the cubby twice in the same morning, and after she went home she decided she had too few of this and too much of that and she came to the cubby that evening and she said we had completely different items on display in the evening than the ones in the morning," said Julie, raising her left eyebrow and chuckling in disbelief. "Cat was glad to see the back of her I can tell you, and she's the one of the kindest and most patient people I know. You've actually made me feel at ease with the job and I hope everyone else who comes in here today is as easy to co-operate with as you, Landon," she said with a smile.

It was nice of him to try and make conversation. Julie liked talking to people, she'd always been an only child and always a bit of a sheltered life so she liked listening to people and making friends, and had always been very sociable. "Thank you," she said. "It's different. I mean it's different from this other shop I used to work in. My family has this herbology shop called Buried Treasure in Diagon Alley where I've worked since I was baby – well I mean I only started working there when I was older, but it's like my second home, so you know, fond memories of that place, and this place is so modern and no plants or green things growing around you or emotional attachments so it's a real change of pace for me. I've needed that – I mean a change of pace - for a while though, just don’t know if I've - ," she stopped mid-sentence and looked at Landon and there was suddenly quite a lot of emotion in eyes, "well, if I've found it." She looked away from him, not minding having admitted that, but saying it out loud was making her wonder if she would ever find what she wanted – not only the change of pace, but also, more importantly, what she could do to help in the war.

[mongaj]

"Well I am glad that I was able to make your job a little easier," Landon replied. In truth, he hated the thought of some Slytherin barging in the store and treating Julie with arrogance as most of them would have. It made him wonder why people had to be so self-centered sometimes. Life wasn't always easy though, and people like that were bound to get in your way eventually. Hopefully for Julie's sake, by the time she had to deal with an unhappy Slytherin customer, she would have more experience and knowledge about the store at that time. It would be awfully hard to maintain her composure if she was still feeling ill-equipped for doing her job. Smiling, Landon was glad to make her first experience a positive one.

Julie's next comment was more personal, and it caused Landon to think a bit. He didn't really understand what she meant about a 'change of pace.' Was she simply sad to leave the shop she used to work in, or was it something more? Unsure if he should ask, he simply commented about the old store she used to work at. "That sounds like it is a great place," he said simply, assuming it was still open and that she just no longer worked there.

The Cubby was starting to fill with customers who arrived in small groups. Wanting to make sure Julie was free to help anybody else who needed assistance, Landon asked, "So how much do I owe you?" He didn't necessarily plan on leaving as he was enjoying Julie's company, but he didn't want her to get in trouble for socializing while she was working. As long as she was willing though, he figured he would stay and continue the conversation. Rummaging through his bag, he pulled some money, ready to pay for his notebook.