{sterling tomes} misguided ghosts {lorin}

She hadn’t expected this many people, but then again, she hadn’t expected to come to Hogsmeade on one of the weekends that students were allowed to come from Hogwarts to screw around and do whatever they bloody well wanted. The older kids were fine, most of the time, but the younger kids were running around, shrieking, causing her distress. Emily liked things to be quiet and mellow, not fast and furious. She’d never been that kind of person, not really. Adventures were something she welcomed on occasion, but only under… controlled conditions. With people she trusted. That only meant she wouldn’t be having any for awhile.

After dodging another grubby little boy and making sure to shield the bag of books she was already carrying (it must’ve been about thirty pounds by now), Emily rounded the corner of High Street and looked for her final destination for the day. She’d owled almost every credible place in Hogsmeade as Callum had instructed her to do in order to grab some new stock for their tiny little shop in old Aberdeen. He was too old to be running errands like this, and since he didn’t really speak to any of his family, either, Emily had a sneaking suspicion that Eximius would be hers soon.

Emily wasn’t really sure how she felt about that. She didn’t doubt her own abilities or responsibility by any means, but it was difficult to know at twenty-two if that was really what she wanted to do for the rest of her life. At least then she could quit that stupid job at the amusement park. All of the little people running around sort of reminded her of that. Ugh.

By the time she reached 19 High Street, Emily was dying to get inside and shove some parchment into her nose. Not that she’d really do it, but she was sick of the smell of fried food and beer already. It was almost as bad as walking through London’s bar district… the thought of which sent a sharp pang radiating from her heart all the way through her lungs and everywhere else. Now was not the time to be thinking of that, but when was? It wasn’t good for her to be in pain over somebody that didn’t care, which made her chuckle a little bit at herself. It wasn’t like she’d ever done good things for herself regardless.

The inside of the bookstore was slightly reminiscent of her own. Smaller. Books of every variety. Judging by the name, it was probably family-owned. Smiling wryly at the person working the front desk, she walked up gingerly, being careful to stay out of the small population of other people in there. “I won’t bother you with trying to help me find these, as I work in a bookstore myself… but if you could tell me if you simply have them in stock, I’d really appreciate it?” She asked, pulling the neatly folded list out of her pocket for the employee to peruse. She enjoyed browsing the best when she didn't have someone hovering, anyway, unless she welcomed their presence and knowledge.

“Okay, thank you.” Emily took the list back and turned back around to the general direction they’d pointed her in. Guess it was time to start looking.

She hated this. She felt trapped and wasn’t quite sure why. She’d always loved school. Even as a child, when it was her mother teaching her lessons, Lorin had loved to learn. She was an eager information sponge, sucking up anything and everything that might be useful. She did the same with books, constantly reaching for more material, more of a challenge. Now, though, she just felt alone and isolated at school. She’d outgrown her lessons. Now, all the classes did was wear her out and take away from the time she could be doing something useful, and she had no release from the never-ending grating feeling of the unworthy breathing down the back of her neck. Her friends had left, deserting her. Even Rosaline seemed to have left her behind. Did the older girl somehow start thinking that she was too good to be acquainted with a student? Lorin didn’t know what it was, but things felt different there.

She had few friends at school, either, and none of them were on her level. Conall was still dating that annoying fifth year girl. Her plan to fix that was slowly coming to fruition, but until she completed it, she’d get no attention from him either. As she looked out over the masses of other potential distractions, she found that the picking seemed much slimmer than they used to be. Maybe the boys were getting uglier and more stupid as the years progressed, or maybe she just liked older men. She wasn’t sure. She was bored, though. She was bored of the company she had the choices of keeping, bored of being rejected by her friends, and bored of being treated like the same kind of idiot that everyone else was. Lorin was better than that. She understood the struggle but resented her professors for not automatically realizing that Lorin needed special treatment, better assignments, something.

When the brunette was bored, trouble seemed to follow. Maybe it was time for a scandal. Maybe it was time for something new... if she could even get the energy up for it. She felt lifeless and tired, and was counting down the days until Seth would come rescue her from this boring monotony. As soon as Conall and Heather broke up, she’d at least have a toy to play with to keep her occupied... and, if Lorin was being honest with herself, she wouldn’t mind seeing the older Gryffindor, either. Compared to everyone else in this school, he would be the oasis in a desert, a brief reprieve from stupidity. She was lucky she had managed to convince him to come at all, but she took it to mean that he might be persuaded to come again if she set up the right circumstances. He hadn’t slammed the door in her face. She liked that.

It was a Hogsmeade weekend. Lorin was too jaded to truly believe that this meant anything would be better than usual, but at least she would get to dress like a human being, and see more then the inside of her book on animagus lore. Or, well, that was what she thought. After having a drink at the three broomsticks that was just as mediocre as she thought it might be, she picked through the clearance at the joke shop, then wandered into the bookstore. Hogsmeade was not nearly as fun alone as she remembered it being with friends or prey men she was interested in. The bookstore, however, was more of a solitary experience. She flipped through a few book on fantastical beasts, one on harpies catching her eye in particular. She didn’t need this. She really could use some more animagus books. The subject was fascinating to her, and something she’d been studying for some time.

She turned the corner in the shop when she nearly stumbled over a brunette picking through books on the bottom shelf. She stepped around her until she eyed the large bag of books the girl was already carrying. A collector, maybe? Just a very, very avid reader? Lorin wasn’t sure, but her curiosity had been piqued. She peeked at the book the girl was looking at and smiled.

“That’s a good one.” She pointed out. “Actually, the whole series is absolutely fascinating, and the symbolism is very powerful, I think. Have you read it?”