Viktoriya gave the shopkeeper a small smile as she set her books on the counter. She'd piced up all the books necessary for a fourth year, as well as some others; a fragile little Russian-English dictionary for her to carry round because she didn't want to be talking to someone and not know what they were saying, and a DADA advanced spells book from the 'many previous owners' section.

She liked this store. It wasn't that she didn't have the money for new books, she just liked old things. Books like the ones she'd picked up, they had character. She also liked that sometimes she could find things the previous owner had left behind: a personalized bookmark, a small note in the margin, scribbles or drawings on the pages. So she had gone to the Third-hand bookstore. And here she was.