Books, lots of books
* A *
Ares wasn’t disturbed by anything that had happened in the bank. Sure, the goblin hadn’t answered, but he hadn’t seemed angry at all. Therefore, she would just ask about the proper way to greet next time or find a book about it.
That was her next stop. The bookstore. While Harry had to go to school, Ares had again changed families. She had just eaten early and left with her school stuff. No one had been awake at that time, and she had left a note out of curtesy (I’m of to school. Ares) She might be seven, but she was used to take care of herself and how to find and take the right bus. She also intended to go to school, just not yet.
The books in this world seemed to be different as well. They had swirls sticking to the pages and covers with the help of sparks. It was much easier and at the same time much harder for Ares to find the books she wanted to read first. Easier, because the swirls on the pages of the book told her what the book was about, so she wasn’t confused with big word, like when she read in the library. Harder, because there were a lot of swirls around and most were about what people had thought the moment they had touched a book. After she had travelled one quarter of the store, she realised that one of the sparks belonged to whomever sorted the books. After that it was easier to find her way around the store. She just looked at the swirls their sparks had sticked to the books, bookcases and pathways to find out what the different sections were about and how the books were sorted in the cases.
She ended up with 13 books. She wasn’t sure when she was able to return. Arriving at the cash, she worried if the money would be enough. She also hadn’t had a chance yet to ask Harry about the coins.
The man at the cashier had friendly and kind vibes [I don’t want to write swirls and sparks again; it will be vibes where possible]. Ares took a chance and put the basket with her books not directly before him, but to the side. And stood confidently, like she did everything exactly like she was supposed to.
“Good morning, sir.”
“Good morning, miss.”
“I have a question.” She pulled out the three different coins, remembering which had been where. “It’s my first time buying for myself. My godfather said I could buy everything I want, but I forgot which coin was which.” She put the coins separately between them.
The cashier looked at them and changed the middle and the right one.
“This one is a Knut.” He pointed on the right one, purse section 2.
“This is a Sickle, which would be the same as 29 Knuts” The one in the middle, purse section 3.
“And that is a Galleon, which would be the same as 17 Sickles or 493 Knuts.” The one which had been most in the vault, purse section 1.
“If I don’t have enough coins, can I come back later after I got more with my key? I’m not allowed to have too many coins in my bag at the same time.”
“Yes, you can, but if you don’t come and buy the books at a decided time, latest being the shop closing time today, I’ll sort them back with the others. If you have a key though, you can also pay by key.”
“I didn’t know that. Let’s see if I got enough coins first.” A smile and nod were exchanged, and then the basket with books was emptied.
Ares had enough coins, so she happily left the store with her new books in her bag and still over 70 Galleons, even though she bought the self-updating ones when possible.
The swirls had told her, that the man wondered why a muggle raised had come so early. Once she had understood, what he was thinking about and why, the next stop on her travel was clear. Buying wixen clothes.
In the time that she had already spent a lot more people filled the main street of the alley, so Ares chose to leave for the one to the side which was called Knockturn Alley. At night there had been a lot of dangerous and mean people, but there had also been vibes of people just buying stuff normally during the day, so she hoped there would be less dangerous and mean people and there weren’t so many people in total.
She was right. There were still vibes, of store door’s she decided to stay clear of, but once she was deeper in the alley the shops seemed to be more normal. Whatever normal was for the magic world.
She found a store with vibes, which told her about comfortable and good-looking clothes for a resonable price.
Entering the store, she was immediately hit with a wave of hungry days. Not hungry for normal food, like bread and water, no, whomever had been in this store the most were hungry for blood, but only a few sips would be enough, and children, but only their happiness. As Ares could see all those vibes, she knew the people who left them wouldn't hurt her. She decided to let a lot of her own happiness flow into the room, while she looked around.
Harry had successfully hidden in the school library; it was his break. Therefore, being happy was easy. Especially when they were both looking through his eyes and saw all the different colours of cloth and a couch with a coffee table with cookies, tea, but also hot chocolate. They switched to Ares sight for a moment, just to make sure it was for customers and not guileful in any way. It was a dangerous alley, so you could never be too careful. But it was all fine. So, she sat down and tried to describe the taste of the cookies and the hot chocolate to her brother.
“Didn’t your parents teach you to stay away from hags and vampires and not eat their food?”