Not Buying, Just Browsing [OPEN]

Reina exited the National Gallery to the dreary London winter and stopped to stretch once she was away from the tourist crowd. A quick look at her watch signalled that she spent most of her morning at the gallery and she blamed the gift shop for it. Soo many things she wanted to buy yet she knew that her mother would scold her for getting something she didn’t really need. Speaking of her mother, it seemed like she still had time to kill before their meet up time in the evening near the Leaky Cauldron. Her mother had work in the nearby theatre for a few days and invited her to come along (and stay at the nearby hotel) since they had planned a quick stationery shopping session when she returned from Hogwarts. Reina’s stationeries were in dire need of replacement since her inks were all used up while the majority of her quills were misplaced – something that made her mother curious because it was only the first term and they had stocked enough supplies to last her the whole year. Her mother never questioned her but she knew that the unasked question was often at the tip of her tongue.

After some deliberation, she decided to head over to Diagon Alley first. Her mother was the kind of person who never got side-tracked whenever she ran her errands. And Reina kinda wanted to check out any new potions books for beginners at Flourish and Blotts and do some window-shopping – especially at Holmwood and Co. Apothecary. On top of that, she was kinda hungry so a light lunch at the Leaky Cauldron was definitely on her itinerary before her meet up with her mother. She had been looking forward to eating the game pie ever since their last shopping trip before the term started. Sure, it could be considered a splurge but honestly, Reina barely used her galleons while she was at school since everything was provided for (and it was not like she could go to Hogsmeade yet). “Browse then pie,“ she mumbled under her breath as she briskly walked to the Leaky Cauldron. Reina had a feeling that if she ate before walking around, she’d lose track of time so she might as well use her stomach as something akin to an alarm clock.

Once she arrived at the pub, she made a beeline towards the courtyard where the entrance to Diagon Alley stood and drew her wand from within her cape coat’s inner pocket. Reina raised her wand to the brick wall and paused, blinking at the great brick wall before her as she tried her very best to recall the brick-tapping sequence. “… how did it go again? Left to right? Right to left? Top to bottom?”


I feel the rust aaaaaaaaah this is embarrassing

          It was rare that Mrs. Korrine Ollivander had to step out of the Wizard World. Living on Diagon Alley and being connected to the flow network over the last 40 years meant everything was usually just a few steps away.  This benefit had apparently soiled her, for just a morning of muggle shopping had completely exhausted her and it wasn’t yet eleven!

          She had left early to exchange some for her draughter Lesleigh’s Christmas gifts at a Muggle store.  Korrine had insisted that she would handle the exchange under the pretense that her daughter had an interview this morning and did not have time. Korrine alternative motive was to verify that a muggle stores really did sell Lesleigh’s “new” Legging with moth wholes and find a more acceptable attire that her Muggle fashion forward thinking daughter will be willing to wear.

            Needless to say, the muggle world had proved quite the experience for Korrine today. She gave a huge sigh of relief when she stepped under the leaky cauldron sign. Shaking her umbrella before walking entering the sticky mead and stale butter-beer smelling establishment.  Tom greeted her immediately and asked her if she wanted a cup of tea. She gave a little dismissive wave to her old friend and regretfully declined his offer. She had unfortunately burned her tongue on a tea she attempted to purchase at a muggle “coffee shop.”

             No, she told herself. What she needed now was a nice little walk down her street, and a little wizard world window shopping. Deciding this, she walked through the pub, waving to odd acquaintances and stepped through the back door. There she found a thin young witch stepping up the wall-passage way to Diagon Alley. Although tall, upon further inspections the young witch appeared to be school age, while haircut and dress reminded Korrine French school girl. Daigon Alley gets witches and wizards from all over the Wizarding World. The holidays see quite a few visiting wizards. To accommodate them, many of the shop-owners including her and her husband, attempt to keep up a few languages. Because of Korrine family history, she always had an affinity to French.

              The girl held out her wand and paused staring at the bricks seemingly to be at a loss. Korrine finial deiced to intervene. “Bonne journée, avez-vous besoin d'aide?”  Korrine considerately asked while smiling at the witch.  The witch’s reactions suggested that she was mistaken about the French origins. Korrine switched to English and gave the instructions pointing with her own wand, “Up three over two, my dear.”

          She smiled while taking a step back. Korrine waited to see if the young witch could figure it out before giving further instructions.

Reina was soo deep in thought until she failed to notice that another person had joined her in the courtyard. She almost dropped her wand when she turned quickly, her back flushed against the brick wall. Whoever this old lady was, she should be glad that Reina couldn't cast spells on the fly because if not, she would have been injured… maybe. While she was unprepared to cast any spells for self-defence, she was prepared to voice out a rather rude thought that was the first thing that popped in her mind when she was spoken to in French.

"Up three over two, my dear."

Thankfully, the old lady saved her the embarrassment on having to explain her rude words by quickly switching to English. But Reina's face still scrunched in confusion as she looked at where the lady's wand was pointing at and mulled over her words while looking at her own wand. "… sorry, can you repeat that? I didn't quite get it," she decided that the distance she had placed between them was pretty rude so she turned and took several steps away from the wall, dusting the back of her cape coat. "Up two and left three?" She practiced the sequence in the air instead of tapping the brick directly. The last thing she wanted to happen was to be swallowed by a brick wall just because she got the sequence wrong.

… if that would even happen.

Plus, if something did happen, who would tell her poor mother about it? So nope, Reina's not taking any chances! "I'm sorry, I rarely come here on my own so I don't quite remember the pattern well."

          The young witches over reaction surprised Korrine.  She thought for a second that she must have caught the young witch in the mist of some mischief. Yet she saw nothing awry with in the small yard, so Korrine re-examined the young witches shocked, scared then confused face. The young witch spoke in English, without accent. Korrine would have assumed she was from or near London, yet Korrine could not recognize her, nor did her features resembled any local wizarding family. Could she possibly a Muggleborn? It would explain why the use of the wall was not second nature to her.
Korrine obliged her by repeating her instructions, with a smile. “One must count up three, over two.”

           The young witch seemed to relax a little and turned her attention back to the wall. Although the she was only five centimeters shorter then Korrine, her face and frame was of a child more young then Korrine first thought. Korrine would guess the young witch was likely not many years into Hogwarts. Korrine watched the young witch as she had tentatively miss count the brick, and soon realized she incorrectly deciphered her instructions. Korrine was about to correct her when the girl address Korrine, explaining that she I rarely come here on my own.

           Korrine heart pained, she could not have imagined sending her children that age into such a busy place alone. “Oh, my child, but of course, let me show you.” Korrine stepped forward, and pulled her sleeve back and adjusted her muggle shopping bag. “One just has to tap the right brick. I of course frequent the leaky cauldron, and have seen seasoned wizards… forget just which brick to tap.” Although the season wizards that Korrine had seen ‘forgot,’ were usually had drunk so much Dragon whisky that they were pickled. Clearing her throat, she turned back to the wall.

           Korrine stepped forward and pointed her wand at the dust bin. “From the dust bin, one counts up three, and over two” she points at the one brick to the left and then a second. “Now, give this one a good tap.”

She turned to let the girl step forward.

Reina felt glad to hear to hear that even seasoned wizards struggled with the brick wall. Then, shouldn't they make a simpler way to access Diagon Alley? Surely such an important shopping area should be accessible to every witches and wizards, right?

Right!

When the older witch cleared her throat, Reina returned her attention to her… specifically her wand. She watched her movement starting from the dust bin, mouthing her counts as the older witch's wand pointed to the next brick before moving onto the final brick. Oh! She had just gotten the numbers mixed up… and the starting position too. When she initially heard the witch's instruction, she was baffled at where she should start. To her, the brick wall seemed massive and she could start the sequence from just anywhere!

"From the bin, up three," she muttered under her breath as she pointed at the bin before counting up three bricks. "And then, two to the left," she continued and was pointing at where the older witch had pointed before. Well, it wasn't as complicated as she remembered… but then again, she didn't actually paid much attention when the first two times she was here. She was more excited about how a magical shopping area would look like at that time. Now, she wished she had something to write the instructions down. She had a feeling that it wouldn't take long for her to forget the instructions all over again.

For a split second, Reina wondered why she had the honours to tap the brick but decided that perhaps the older witch just wanted her to experience it herself rather than being a spectator. Well, if she didn't want to do the honours, Reina would. She confidently took a step forward, standing side-by-side with the older witch as she tapped on the brick and unconsciously held her breath. Despite this year being her second year as a witch, she still found it rather difficult to adjust to seeing magical things happening right in front of her eyes. There were some days where she had to resist pinching herself until her cheeks turned red and her eyes watered. Magic was truly fascinating and… magical. It also took some time to get used to. But she hoped that she would never stop getting fascinated by magic.

"Thank you, Miss… uh…"

Ahahahahahaha omg that was embarrassing... orz

          Korrine observed as the young witch step forward and take in a breath before tapping on the correct brick. The knock reverberated within the wall. After only a split moment of pause, the bricks began to sift revealing the noise of the growing shoppers of Diagon alley.  Not yet the peak hours of business, still the street alluded to potentially busy day. With warm tempters for January and very mild showers, it was one of the few descent weather days of the past few weeks. It was an exceptional day to walk round taking refuge form the occasional sprinkle under eaves or in stores, where one would have great potential of running into old friends.

              Korrine had restored her wand, and was in the middle of adjusting her gloves and glancing up at the sky to see if she needed to take out her umbrella, when she heard the young witch stammer out a thank you. Korrine notice that the young witch either was not sure how to address Korrine or did not know her name at all.

               “You are most welcome, my dear.” Korrine responded. Although back in her time it was the responsibility of the younger wizard to instigate the introductions, today's generation do not adhere to same social protocols. After a second of delay, Korrine decided to continued. “My name is Mrs. Korrine Ollivandar, what is your my dear?” 

            Korrine had not noticed the young witch’s Japanese features until the girl had spoken her last name. For a second Korrine wondered if Miss. Satou was a student of Mahoutokoro Institute Of Spirits And Magic, but quickly dismissed the assumption, remembering the perfect London accent. Although her mixed features make it a possibility that she hailed form an Japanese descended, it was rare for Mahoutokoro Wizard to mingle let alone settle in other areas of the wizarding world. Still, Korrine had only met a handful of them and her curiosity overcame her polite manor. Korrine found she self soon asking, “Satou… that is Japanese correct?” Korrine continued to engage the girl as they stepped out on the cobble lane and joined with the flow of shopper on the street. “Had either of your parents or grandparents, attended Mahoutokoro Institute?”

              Miss Satou intrigue Korrine and was proving to be a great distraction from her horrid morning.

Reina couldn’t stop herself from clapping lightly when the shopping alley fully revealed itself. When she realized what she had done, she could feel her face burn in slight embarrassment and hoped that the older witch wouldn’t comment on it. While she wouldn’t describe herself as an impulsive person, sometimes it was rather difficult to resist doing certain thing. Instead of dwelling on it a moment longer, Reina turned her attention to the older witch when she introduced herself and threw a bright smile in Korrine’s direction after her introduction – well, as bright as her facial muscles allowed her to express. For some odd reason, even when she was smiling, she would be told that she was almost always looking expressionless, grumpy or shocked. She often wondered if her facial muscles worked in reverse and if she frowned, would it turn into a smile?

Korrine Ollivander…

Korrine… Ollivander…

Korrine…

Ollivander… Ollivander…

It sounded rather familiar. She looked down at her wand and realized that it was the name of the shop she got her wand from! That meant Korrine was either a wandmaker or related to the wandmaker. Reina didn’t think that she would meet someone important or famous when she left the hotel room today... well, she assumed that the older witch would be either important or famous or both because it seemed to work that way in the wizarding world; at least from what she had seen at school. Realizing that she had been silent rather long, Reina hastily blurted out, “I’m Reina Satou, pleasure meeting your acquaintance!” followed by a rather wobbly curtsy since she wasn’t exactly used to it. That was what you do when you meet important people, right? Absolutely!

“Yeah, it’s Japanese,” Reina said as she pocketed her wand. She took a few quick strides to catch up to Korrine and it didn’t cross her mind at all on why she was walking with the older witch now. “Never heard of it because my family’s normal — I mean, they can’t do magic,” she internally winced at her slip up but applauded herself at the quick save. Usually it would have taken a while and some harsh accusations in her direction for her to realize that she had said something hurtful or inappropriate. “But maybe some of my ancestors did? I have no idea how these things work actually.”

          Korrine had slowed allowing her eyes to comb through the used book store’s window displayed of antique books as the Miss. Satou described her family as “normal.” Distracted, Korrine turned to her revealing a small betraying frown, before the girl corrected the statement and explained her family could not do magic.

          Korrine gave a dismissive wave of her gloved hand, as she said “Oh, my dear, Miss Satou you mean that your family are Muggles,” before she continued to peruse. It took only a few seconds before she determined there was nothing new of interest and turned her mind fully to her companion. “Ah, now then that does makes sense.” Now knowing the young witch was a Muggle-born, it did explain the young witches very odd behavior and lack of common knowledge. Including her over joyful response to The Leaky Cauldron’s enchanted wall, which would have only impressed to the youngest wizard born toddler. Not wanting to dwell on the muggle-born witch’s odd behavior Korrine moved onto a more motivating discussion.

            “How does Magic work it ways into Muggle families?  Oh yes, that is an ongoing debate.” Korrine eyes brightened, “I have read numerous theories, even some form acute perspectives.” She gave a little knowing smirk, “What used to be the most common thought; was that Muggle-born, Witches and wizards will pop up out of muggle lines quite out of the blue and at random. This was hastily concluded by the fact that Muggle-born's often appears to have not one wizard among their known and direct ancestors.”

             Korrine glanced at an elegant witch’s gown, display in a bay window across the way and made a mental note remember to ask the store owner if it could be made it a less bright color. Her eyes turned backed to Miss Satou. “Where was I?.. Oh, Yes. Origins of Muggle-born magic… Need less to say wizards have done a lot more research, painstakingly documented muggle linages and published articles, some of which illustrate evidence of Squibs being buried in many of the most talented Muggle-born family tree. This alludes to the concept that the heritable traits of magic lie dormant for generations.  Of course, this conflicts with the previous theory which had been held on to for centuries; 'Magic is a dominate trait.'  Let alone the assumption...” Korrine dropped her voice before continuing, “Muggle-born's steal their powers form magical wizards."

            Seeing what she thought was supersize in the young witch's face Korrine amends, " Which my husband testified against. To think that Muggle’s can steal and use just any wizard’s wand….” Korrine shook her head and clicked her tongue on the roof of her mouth.

          Korrine realizing that she was leading the conversation into a direction which at best should be done behind close door and always form areas of which one could be over heard, she changed the subject in a more light ans airy tone. “I am sorry my dear. Please forgive my rambling. What brings you to Diagon Alley today?” 

Part of Reina was glad that Korrine slowed down because: 1) she was still not familiar with the alley’s layout; 2) one of Korrine’s step was equivalent to two of Reina’s; and 3) Reina was half interested at the used book store’s display but she couldn’t quite keep up between looking at it and focusing on what the older witch was trying to explain. “Yeah, that,” she crossed her arms under her cape coat because her fingers were starting to feel a little cold. She should have brought a pair of gloves with her.  “Mudblood. No wait, that doesn’t sound right. What was it again?” She cocked her head to the side a little before giving a small wave of dismissal. “Oh well, it doesn’t matter whatever it is. Not to me at least,” she huffed before shifting her full attention to the older witch.

When she began to rattle off the origins of magic for mudb-- mugwo-- people like herself, Reina couldn’t stop herself from rolling her eyes for this unsolicited history lesson. As is, she was having a difficult time digesting the History of Magic lessons at school with all the new terms and whatnot. Plus, she hadn’t mentally prepared herself to buckling down and trying her best to absorb as much information as she could. So she did the next best thing; feigning interest and nodding whenever it felt right. Well, she had hoped that her face reflected her fake interest but unfortunately for Reina, she was not blessed with an expressive nor friendly face.

Oh well, it’s the thought that counts.

To not let her fake interest be exposed, her eyes roamed the sights around her, the sound of Korrine’s voice oddly soothing (even though she’s barely registering what the older witch was talking about. Something about magic and squids and trees). Her eyes widened in amazement as her mouth formed a small ‘o’ when they passed by clothing store and saw the elegant witch’s gown before it morphed into a disgusted expression when they passed when they passed by some caged owls. Reina her attention back on Korrine and managed to catch the last of her words, looking genuinely surprised by the information. Stealing magic? That was possible? “No way! The person must have been powerful then!”

Her smile fell when the older witch switched subjects, asking her what she was doing here… or planning to do at least. “Mummy and I will be shopping for some school supplies but I decided to enter the alley first. She’s not the type to window shop if it’s not in the plan so I planned to do it first before we meet up,” Reina’s eyes lit up when she spotted the apothecary, momentarily forgetting about Korrine as she excitedly ran up to the display window. Her face was almost squished onto the window as she peered into it and at the store’s display. “Oh wow, those vials are super cute! Ah, that bottle too!”

      Korrine listened to the girl explain that she planned to meet her mother later, but for now she was going to window shopping. Korrine was more then happy to spend some time with the girl until her mother showed. The girl was proving to be a wonderful distraction. Although very polite and with a passive nature, Korrine could swear on Merlin's beard that she said “Mugblood” earlier.  A term that never is spoken in polite wizard society, certainly not since the events 5 years ago had made Korrine's give a small start. She wonder where a girl, so new to the wizarding world had to learn that phrase from…  This and Miss Satou’s  reaction to the concept of muggle stealing wands, just proved to Korrine that the young Witch was in fact severely inexperienced to the way wizard's wands, (let alone a wizard’s magic) works.  It was natural that Muggle-born’s would have so much misconceptions of the magical world, Korrine just hopped that the poor girl got set on the right tract. Korrine hoped she had a chance to correct any fallacies the girl had.

      Korrine pulled her self out of her thoughts and turning her head sharply when she heard the young girl’s exclaims. She raised her eye brows when she saw that Miss Satou glue her face to the window of the Apothecary shop. Korrine would expected a this youthful reaction to Magical Menagerie’s basket romping fuzzy little kittens, not a potion supplies store.

      “Did you say vials?” Korrine said while she peered around her companion to verify her ears did not betray her. Korrines eyes beheld a seasonal display highlighted some colorful, elaborate, and unusual shaped dram vials and some fluted and bubbled milliliter bottles. Some were even displayed decretive stoppers, other had glowing contents that gave off a weak glow in the overcast midday light. The display was definite improvement. Although most anything would be better than the discounted beetle’s eyes she once seen. It clearly promoting a potion marker’s holiday purchase.

      “Oh, yes, quite... lovely.“ Korrine attempted to agree, although she was not quite sure which vial and bottle the young witch as referring to. “A potion always looks lovelier if it is placed in the right bottle.”

      Re-examining the Miss Satou’s atheism, Korrine continued by asking, “Would you like to take a quick look?”

     Korrine dug in her bag for her scented handkerchief. Unfortunately, the Apothecary smell had seemed to get worse over the years. Thankfully Korrine had not had to go into the store often, Oli, her house elf usually was sent for ingredients. “Do you like potion making? I did have some skill in it back in my day... this was likely due to Professor Slughorn. He tended to kept class quite interesting. You have Professor Bane as you instructor now, correct?