Black Robes and Flying Books

Black Robes and Flying Books

Holding her heavy sack, Riana stepped gingerly down the marble steps of Gringotts and sat down on the last one, laying her money in her lap and, with some difficulty, extracting her wrinkled school supplies list out of her pocket. She would deal with the vault and whatever else the thin parchment contained later. No... What I need first, Riana noted carefully, are some robes. She looked up from the parchment and gazed appraisingly around, her slanted eyes squinting against the bright sun, and spotted Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions directly to her left.

Ah! Goodie! That's where I need to go. And so deciding, Riana leapt to her feet, sore backbone cracking painfully, and sauntered lazily down the hot, dusty street and into the seamstress' shop.

*

Riana emerged gratefully into the slightly dim cool of Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions and stood looking rather anxiously around. The articles in the front room consisted of a desk cluttered with feather quills, ink pots and measuring tapes as well as several racks of robes. One rack was marked 50% off and another was labeled as "Used." Riana wrinkled her nose at this label, but edged closer anyway, her eye caught by a silvery-gray velvet affair.

Suddenly, however, a door slammed somewhere in the recesses of the shop, and Riana hastily moved away from the racks as though afraid to be caught snooping. An act that was, she realized, ridiculous since this was a store.

Regardless, she backed away, mentally chastising herself for being so easily intimidated as she did so. At that moment, a plump, slightly out of breath woman garbed in mauve robes burst from a doorway and came hurrying toward her. When the woman spoke, her voice was a quick, bubbling babble that was, Riana decided, slightly annoying, but oddly comforting all the same.

"Oh, hello, dear! Are you here for your new school robes?" Without waiting for an answer, she took hold of Riana's stick-like arm and drew her back into the rear of the shop, her continuous voice keeping up a running chatter.

"Well, you're in luck. You're my first customer today, and there shouldn't be anyone else for another two hours, at least. My, you're an early riser. Like to get your shopping done early, do you? That's good, that's very responsible. I always say..."

Riana wasn't really listening to this chatterbox, and so she didn't really find out what Madame Malkin (for this must be her) always said. However, despite her reluctance, plus the fact that her arm was being tugged so firmly, Riana could do nothing but follow the annoyingly cozy proprietress. Her face pulled into a grimace at the wrenching in her shoulder socket, Riana soon found herself in a brightly lit back-room, sunlight streaming hot and bothersome through the tiny windows. As her hand was dropped by the witch, Riana glanced around and discovered that she was surrounded by towering mountains comprised of bolts of cloth. Mostly black, she couldn't help but notice with relief.

Madam Malkin ushered Riana onto a squat stool in the center of the room and remarked, "Ooh, but you're a tiny little witch, aren't you?" She hunched her broad shoulders and clicked her tongue. Her badger-like eyes shrewdly surveyed Riana as she leaned closer to get several finite measurements.

Witch? Riana confusedly thought, wondering what she'd done to deserve this insult. Oh, wait ... it's only the Muggles who use that as an insult. She's right; I am going to be a witch. And Riana felt a little shiver of thrilling anticipation; oh, she was so excited!

With effort, Riana tuned back in as Madam Malkin continued her diatribe. "Could do with some fattening up, you could. Oh, you poor thing, such itty-bitty measurements. Let's see, that's ten..." Madame Malkin's voice bounced around the room as she measured Riana, pausing every now and then to scratch some measurements on a scruffy, yellow, legal pad with a tattered quill.

"Hmm... and eleven and ... a half. All right, dear, you sit tight and I'll be back in a jiffy!" Madame Malkin bustled to a nearby bolt of black fabric and, taking out a wand, began to dictate measurements to it, glancing at the chart in her hand. The wand then rose from Madame Malkin's hand of its own accord and darted into the bolt of fabric and began to snip and chop, pieces of fabric falling in showers. Riana watched, entranced...

*

A mere hour and thirty minutes later, Riana, laden down with three black robes, a cloak, dragon skin gloves (which cost her a pretty Galleon, indeed) and a pointed hat, walked out of Madam Malkin's, the witch's cheery voice thanking her for her business and urging her to have a "Marvelous day!" Riana ignored her.

*

Placing her paper-wrapped bundles near her feet on the pavement outside the door, Riana referred again to her list. She still needed course books as well as a wand and other various magical instruments. But where to start?

Standing in the bright sunlight, Riana suddenly felt hot and vexed as she glared angrily up at the merrily shining sun. Her eyes stung in indignant response and she ducked her head, rubbing them vigorously. The crowds of people rushing by, for it was well past eleven now, gave her a slight headache. She hissed under her breath as a particularly fat wizard bumped into her, throwing her emaciated body into an alley wall, without so much as a "By your leave."

Turning irritably in the direction from which she had traipsed that morning from the Leaky Cauldron, Riana spotted the bookstore Flourish and Blotts and, with a wry shrug, set off towards it, battling the ever-thickening throng of people. If there were any books to be found, it was there.

*

Flourish and Blotts was an odd bookshop, to say the least. The harried bookshop owner, who was carrying a butterfly-catching net, gave Riana a curt, "Hello," before dashing off to another corner of the bookstore from whence emitted a strange jabbering noise. Riana's slanted eyes narrowed and followed the retreating back of the bookshop owner and the sound of the strange noise until they fell upon the towering bookshelves.

Slinking quickly to the shelves, Riana picked up the first book she saw and gasped happily. Always an avid reader, Riana was in her element as she eyed hungrily those ornate, leather-bound books that featured such titles as Broken Balls: When Fortunes Turn Foul. Riana's eyes lost their perpetually annoyed glint, and her thin shoulders lifted in eager anticipation. She had always wanted to learn fortune telling, but her parents, of course, would never have approved. She hastily shoved the thought of her parents out of her mind and continued browsing the dusty shelves, her slender finger tracing the titles as her thin lips formed the words silently.

The inventory was endless: Curses and Counter-curses (Bewitch Your Friends and Befuddle Your Enemies with the Latest Revenges: Hair Loss, Jelly-Legs, Tongue-Tying, and Much, Much More); Enchanted Encounters.

One particularly gruesome-looking tale outlined the life of a werewolf; it was sentimentally entitled, Hairy Snout, Human Heart. Riana tilted her head to one side and relished this last book's subject. So they actually do exist ... That's weird, but cool.

The next title brought another unwanted memory. Hélas, j'ai Transfiguré mes Pieds (Alas, I have Transfigured my Feet). A play in French, Riana reluctantly discovered as she turned the delicate pages. Her ever-active mind jolted back St. Mary's Primary School and to an advanced English classroom reading of Les Miserables, and she frowned, forehead creasing, flinty eyes darkening. She didn't want to think about her old life. That miserable existence was over!

Shaking her head to clear the cobwebs of memory, she continued walking slowly through the aisles, her avaricious eyes taking in as much as they could. The books went on and on: Magical Hieroglyphs and Logograms; Modern Magical History; Muggles Who Notice.

Riana scoffed at this last. Those Muggles must be incredibly smart, she thought scornfully. My parents didn't notice a thing.

~~Or so she thought...~~

However, her eyes narrowing again, Riana thrust the thought of her parents out of her head, and viciously whipped her gaze toward the next row of books: The Noble Sport of Warlocks; Sites of Historical Sorcery; A Study of Recent Developments in Wizardry; and the last ... a dark and suspenseful tale called, Why I Didn't Die When the Augurey Cried.

She was deeply immersed in this last book when she heard the tinkling of a small bell. She glanced up, annoyed, and looked around the shop. Nothing was obviously emitting the noise, but she soon discovered the source of the disturbance. A coo coo clock that had been outfitted with a tiny wizard ringing a brass bell instead of the customary bird, had just emerged from its cave and was ringing away with all its mechanical might. Riana gasped. It had gotten so late ... why, it was almost four o'clock! And she still hadn't bought her course books.

Reluctantly laying Why I Didn't Die When the Augurey Cried back on the shelf, Riana set off in search of the bookshop owner. He was nowhere in sight, but, following the strange chattering sounds, she found him sitting helplessly on the ground in the jabbering corner with his net, while books with diaphanous wings soared above his head. One swooped down on Riana, cackling, and she glimpsed the title, Illuminera Safell's Guide to Night Flying, before ducking to avoid being rapped on the head by the book. Looking up at the soaring books from the floor with irritation, Riana narrowed her eyes and wished she had a wand so that she could curse the stupid things into oblivion. However, lacking the necessary means, she did the next best thing and reached over to tap the bookkeeper on his shoulder. He turned to her, his exhausted eyes mirroring her irritation.

Opening her mouth widely to enunciate over the jabbering of the books, Riana questioned the owner, "I need course books for first years who are attending Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry! I have here," she handed him the crumpled piece of parchment, "the list for my books. Can you help me?"

The man looked at the required books denoted on the parchment and nodded, crawling away from the jabbering corner, staying close to the floor. Riana followed suit...apparently the books liked to stay at a certain height and in a certain area, flying 'round and 'round one another in an endless circle.

*

The bookshop owner flew back and forth between the aisles, returning every so often to Riana who simply stood with her toothpick-thin arms outstretched as the pile of books on them grew and grew. Finally, when all eight books had been acquired, Riana stiffly approached the front desk and placed the towering stack on the counter. The bookshop owner waited impatiently, glancing over his shoulder toward the corner in which soared the jabbering books, as Riana carefully extracted the amount of money the man had hurriedly named.

After receiving her six Galleons, the bookshop owner nodded smartly and bade her, "Good day," before rushing back to the jabbering books, who had taken to dive-bombing their fellow books and knocking each other out of the air, cackling even more excitedly when they succeeded in smashing one another into torn, bruised heaps on the floor.

With a last hesitant and, yes, regretful glance back toward the row where'd she left Why I Didn't Die When the Augurey Cried, Riana kicked open Flourish and Blotts door with her booted toe, arms full of books, and emerged into the high afternoon sun.