Vashti was pulling out one of the books she needed when she vaguely heard footsteps near her. Vaguely, because she was quite focused on getting these books. It was really hard to grab her attention when she was occupied by books. They were just too awesome for her not to concentrate on them. But her mind cleared when she heard a male-ish voice asking about a book and saw said book in her peripheral vision. Glancing at it, it seemed pretty obvious what the book was about. Was this guy illiterate?

"I'm pretty sure it's about transfiguration," she answered politely, staring at the book a moment longer before briefly glancing upwards to see who Mr. Illiterate was. And that was when she broke into a grin. "Jayce! Hi!"

At first, Jayce thought Vashti might just ignore him. She seemed rather engrossed into all of those books. It was kind of funny and he couldn't help but grin like an idiot as he watched her. Ah, he loved to play little games like these with people. It was always so much fun to see the reactions at the end. Or at least once they realized who they were talking with. Always interesting. Always.

He nodded as she spoke, that goofy grin still plastered across his face. "I believe it is." He replied smoothly as she glanced up. He chuckled as the realization crossed Vashti's face. SO FUNNEH! He could never get enough of that look. And it didn't matter who was wearing it. "Hi Vashti." he laughed. "How've you been?"

Though she wasn't sure what he was laughing about (or at), Vashti giggled, still grinning. "I've been good. What about you? And what's so funny?" Because where was the fun in laughing about/at something if you didn't know what you were laughing about/at. "Well, besides the fact that you're an illiterate weirdo," she added teasingly. Obviously he probably only asked that question to get her attention, but still. She could tease him about it. That was what friends were for!

"I've been great." he beamed at the young girl. That was most definitely an understatement. He was beyond great. Finding your mother should qualify as beyond great. Most definitely. "How have you been?" he asked her in return. "Oh.. nothing." he smirked at her and stopped all of the laughing. There was such a thing as too much laughter. Well, sometimes. "Am not!" he protested jokingly. "Maybe when it comes to big words like Transfiguration, but i'm not completely illiterate!" he replied, playing along with her little joke.

Vashti grinned, glad that he had been great, and laughed when he suddenly asked her how she'd been again. "Didn't you just ask me that?" she said teasingly. "Mr. Illiterate has short term memory loss." Nothing? What was the point in laughing at nothing? Oh whatever. He was a weirdo anyway, so Vashti would leave it at that. "Transfiguration is not that big of a word," she replied, shaking her head as if in annoyance, though she was still grinning. "If you think that's big, I don't know how you're going to pass your O.W.L.s."

Jayce chuckled and slapped himself in the forehead. "I think Trixie has finally rubbed off on me." he laughed. "Well at least the whole memory charm part." he replied, thinking back to when Trixie had first told him about that. He shook his head, clearing the memory from his mind so that he may focus on what Vashti was actually saying to him. "What i mean to say was what have you been up to?" he laughed at himself. "I know, i was only kidding. It's just a rather long word, but of course, i've seen longer." he replied, sticking his tongue out at the young ravvie. "Well, maybe i should get a tutor. I'm going to have a pretty tough time. I can tell you that now." Jayce nodded his head slightly.

Vashti giggled. "It was bound to happen sometime," she replied, grinning. Because memory loss was contagious apparently. Vashti thought she was getting more forgetful ever since she'd been hanging out with Trixie. Well, not really, but she was considering teasing her friend about that now. Hey, what were friends for? "Nothing much really. Just trying to get my school supplies early instead of waiting until the last minute." That was never fun, having to rush to buy everything. She rolled her eyes slightly. "So was I. 'Cause, you know, that's what friends do. They kid around. Or have you forgotten that too?" More teasing. Yesh. "I'd be happy to help you you!" she said brightly. "I know I'm only a third year, but it couldn't hurt to get a head start on studying, could it?" No, it couldn't. And she was sure she'd need it too if she ever hoped to pass all her exams.

Taking the list from the young man, Daniel only had to glanced at what year the books were for, before handing it back again. He had memorised each list before the kids started arriving for school supplies.

"Yeah, I do," he nodded, giving a smile as he gestured for the boy to follow. Daniel stepped out of the aisle he was in and moved down the row a little, before reaching the 4th one across. There had been a sign for each aisle according to what year they'd been for, but those had somehow vanished.

"Okay, we sell them in full sets. You can get a set from these shelves here-" the young man pointed to the first couple of bookcases. "-or search the other shelves, they go down the aisle from here on the left, to the end, and back down on this side-" Daniel indicated the shelves to his right. "-in alphabetical order. Sometimes people prefer to handpick the books they get in a set... it will still cost the same as a 4th year pre-arranged lot of books."

Realising he was talking a leeeeeettle too much, Daniel shut up then to wait for a response or for another customer to ask for help.

Emmaleigh nervously walked into the Third Hand Bookstore. She walked over to a shelf, and looked down at the list she had clutched in her trembling hands. Hogwarts: a History was the first book on the list. There seemed to be a lot of copies of this book, so it was easy to find. A History of Magic was a little more difficult to find, but she eventually found a copy between Creatures That Kill and Unfogging the Future. She then found Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection, and How Not To Blow Off Your Fingers On The First Day.
Emmaleigh had gathered only half of her books, but holding the stack, she felt like she was about to fall over. But She knew she had to find the rest of books, so she continued searching. She couldn’t find the next book on her list. Emmaleigh tried standing on her tippy-toes to look on the higher shelves, but she didn’t see it anywhere. “E-excuse m-me, but can s-someone help me f-find, A Beginner's G-guide to Transfiguration?” she asked timidly. “I d-don’t think t-there’s another c-copy.”

"Oh yes. Things nowadays are very contagious. Haven't you heard? Or have you been trapped somewhere?" he asked her in his teasing voice, which seemed to be the main type of voice for the majority of this conversation. Snicker.

Jayce looked over to Vashti. His ickle third year buddeh. "Ah, prepping early. Interesting." he grinned. Pshh. Jay never got anything done early unless it was completely about him. School wasn't all about him, therefore, he always waited to the last possible second before gathering his supplies. Bad Hair!Boy. Bad.

"Oh, i totally knew that." he smirked. Of course he knew that... right? "Pshhh. Heck no. Friends are there to ridicule eachother and makes eachother feel stupid." Jay laughed and nudged V in a friendly way of course.

He grinned over at her as she said she'd be happy to help him. That was a relief. "Thanks V. And yes, that's your new nickname. You should feel special. I only give cool nicknames out to my close buds." he chuckled. So far, only Eiri had received a nickname from him.

"I'm...not sure. I think I forgot," Vashti answered, feigning a confused expression, as if trying to remember something. Hehe. This conversation was amusing. She tilted her head slightly to the side at his statement. "What's so interesting about it?" He probably thought she was weird. Which she was. But why say 'interesting' if he meant 'weird'? So maybe he meant something else. Hmm...

She laughed at his next statement. "I don't know if they're that extreme. Sounds more like a frienemy to me," she replied teasingly.

Vashti laughed again at his sudden new nickname for her. "So cool nicknames are only one letter now? I guess I'll take it. You can be J then. Just the letter J. Not the bird jay. Unless you think you're a bird?"

Hearing an enquiry, Daniel frowned slightly and moved over to the girl.

"We have hundreds of each book out here, especially in the education section," he pointed out, searching the shelves she was near. Hmmm... nope. The young man stepped to the left and scanned the books before him again. "They're in alphabetical order... soooo... aha," he said in slight triumph, reaching up to the highest shelf he COULD reach and edging out said book.

"Here you are... A Beginners' Guide to Transfiguration."

Salander nodded his head, trying to concentrate on the instructions the shopkeeper was giving him "Thanks man." he replied, tentatively approaching one of the shelves the shopkeep pointed at. He spotted the first book on the list and grabbed a pair, one for himself and the other for Mia. "These look to be relatively in good shape" he said as he leafed through them. Shifting to the other shelf he spotted a few more books, checked them out and set them aside on their pile.

He got to the title Bindrunes and Galdr Tunes and opened the first book. Sonorous chants hummed richly from its pages. He nodded in approval and set it on Mia's pile. He selected a second book and opened it. A bloodcurling scream burst forth, causing Salander to nearly drop the book and scrambling to close it shut. "No no...not you" he mumbled shakily as he selected another version from the shelf. He cautiously opened the third book. No chanting, no screaming, it was as silent as a... well book. "Good enough for me." he muttered as he laid it on his pile.

He opened the next title Unfogging the Future to great big billows of (what else) fog. Nearly all the books he got ahold of had this odd trait, some even emitting a sound of a distant foghorn. He looked up wondering at the shopkeeper if this was supposed to be normal for the title. He selected the least "foggiest" of the books, set them on their pile and moved to the next titles on the list.

Salander had the toughest time selecting suitable copies for Herbology Caretaking and Dangerous Plants. A lot of the copies remaining looked like it was used to squash a dangerous plant or was partly eaten by a plant. He had the same problem with The Monster Book of Monsters. Not only was finding a collar and the occasional leash on a book quite bizarre, at lot of these were worn down, with Salander getting a variety of temperament (not to mention shabbiness) from the copies. He only managed to find one Monster book that looked relatively intact and he set it onto Mia's pile. He's just gonna have to figure out where he's gonna get his own book.

He nearly looped back to where he started when he spotted the only title not yet collected on their pile-- Home Life and Social Habits of British Muggles. He took out a stack and went through them, trying to find a couple of copies that didnt look like it was used for ink testing or origami. He found a decent one and set it aside for Mia. Sighing he looked back at the reject pile and tried to select one for his own, grabbing one with a relatively good cover. He flipped through it looking at various doodles and squiggles on its pages. Someone scribbled jokes in it, others used its pages to pass notes to others; another had drawn images along the edge through successive pages that will make most women blush. Yup this book is definitely going on his pile.

"Alright we're done." he said to Mia, carrying their stack of books under each of his arms. "Sorry for the mess dude." he mumbled to the shopkeep, with fleeting mists of fog, various stacks of books and bits of pages laying scattered in his wake.

Norah walked silently into the book store, and immediately headed towards the educational books. The girl looked down at her list and read off what she needed again...
Home Life and Social Habits of British Muggles by Wilhelm Wigworthy
The Monster Book of Monsters
Creature Comforts: A Guide to Magical Creature Environments by Winnie Rider
The Standard Book of Spells Grade 5 by Miranda Goshawk
The Complete Constellation Dictionary 3rd Edition
Spellman’s Syllabary
Curses and Counter-Curses by Vindictus Viridian
Modern Magical History
The Dream Oracle
Achievements in Charming
Poisonous Plants and the art of Medicine by O. Ollesteria
Numbers and the Meaning of Life: Advanced Arithmancy by Perseus Pythagoras
Nancy Nova Brings you the Planets
One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi by Phyllida Spore

'Okay...' Norah thought and looked at the shelves surrounding her, which, of course, were all taller than her. She sighed and got up on the tips of her toes and pulled out a copy of the needed Complete Constallation Dictionary. Her eyes brightened up when she opened it up. This was one of the few astronomy-related books that Norah had not yet owned, or at least, been able to flip through.
After five minutes of reading, Norah looked at her list again and crossed off the Constellation book. Of course, now this meant that she had to somehow get a couple more of her school books, which were just out of reach.

She sighed slightly, and looked around, possibly for a shopkeeper since she herself wasn't allowed to use magic to get the books down for herself. In the meantime, Norah searched over the shelves and stacks of books, picking out whatever books she could reach, and needed.

“O-oh,” She said shyly. Seeing the man frowning frightened her. “I j-just d-didn’t s-see it” Emmaleigh set her stack of books down and took A Beginners' Guide to Transfiguration from the shopkeeper. She sat that book on top, and continued to look for the rest of her books. As soon as she found them, she headed over to the counter.

Growing up the second of a pair of brothers, there were times certain things were passed down to him from his older brother Jonathan. One thing he didn't mind were books...new books just didn't have the same character as older books and as long as the info was the same who cared right?

So it was for that reason that Simon was in the third hand bookstore to look for a few items, his shortened llist mostly memorized. Coming around a stack in the education section, he couldn;t help noticing a girl who looked like she needed help.

"Mind any help?" he questioned quietly not wanting to frighten from speaking out of nowhere.

*Thud!* The topmost book on the pile, Norah was carrying fell to the floor. Thankfully it hadn't opened up on it's way down, as that might have torn a few pages. It was a quiet voice that had startled her, and Norah turned around, only to end up looking skywards at another person.
Her face flushed an uncomfortable shade of red and she picked her fallen book up off the floor, balancing it on her pile again.

"Erm..." Norah started to say and glanced to the ground, then back to the shelves again. "I n-need that one still." She looked up to a copy of '. Achievements in Charming' Did this boy work here? He looked a little too young. Possibly Norah's age at the most.

Simon frowned as she startled dropping a book, almost reaching to pick up the fallen item yet she was quicker then he. He followed her gaze to the shelf she was looking, reconizing a title from his own requirements. Thankfully he had already recovered that one else he's be giving up a found book to the girl, not that he wouldn't have anyway to be polite.

"Alright," he replied reaching up and retrieving it for the quiet girl whose age was confirmed by the information. "Here you go," he said with a polite smile, holding it out for her.

Norah graciously...or rather, almost happily took the book from the new boy and gave an attempt at a smile. "Thank you." She said and tried to move her arms enough to reach her list, which she had just tucked away inside her pocket so that she would be able to carry her books. However, Norah couldn't quite reach it.
"Um. You don't work here, do you?" It was a rather stupid question, seeing as how the boy didn't appear to have any sort of work uniform on. But with the shop being how it was, a shop for older books, perhaps management was more lenient with their employee's clothing. Maybe the boy's family owned it or something?

It didn't take having to be in Ravenclaw house to see the girl was on the shy side and Simon wished he could do something to ease her feelings. "You're welcome," he answered in return lowering his hand once she had taken the volume.

"No..no," he chuckled softly before he could realise that she might take offense at the laughter. "I'm just a fellow student," he answered before offering an introduction. "I'm Simon."

"Okay." Norah replied quietly once she was made aware of the fact that the boy wasn't an employee. She adjusted the books in her arms so that they wouldn't slide around and fall off...again.

'Fellow student.' She blinked a couple of times and looked up at Simon again; she had started to stare down at the floor. "You go to Hogwarts?" Norah asked the boy quietly, who, it turns out, was named Simon. "How do you like i--" She paused and then figured it would be best to introduce herself, "I'm Norah." The girl tried to offer a small smile, but it was possibly hidden behind her intended purchases. "How do you like the school?"

"Would you like me to help hold some of those?" Simon questioned as the girl seemed to continue struggling with the pile of books in her arms. There really was a lot of titles of all sorts and sizes required for classes this year the gryffindor thought to himself, even if one discounts those of electives. His arms moved slightly out as if ready to help and catch one or two should any choose to fall again.

"Uh huh...Fifth year Gryffindor at your service," the boy remarked, smiling as she introduced herself despite being particly hidden by her soon-to-be- purchases. "Nice to meet you Norah," he commented. "And I like it very much. It seems to get more interesting in time. How about you?"

"Erm, you don't have to...I-I think I got them." Norah said and moved her arms down a little farther so that she could look over the pile better. Though the books were getting rather heavy.

"You're in the same year as I am...as I will be." She commented and shifted the books again, then glanced to the shelf next to her. And wouldn't you know it, another book Norah required to have was eye level with her. She placed her chin on the top of the pile which was now held up only with her left hand and reached out with her right, taking the book from the shelf and setting it on top, once she had moved out of the way. 'Oh dear.'
"How do I like it?" Norah repeated, "I don't know...it'll be my first term this year." She cast Simon an almost pleading look, since her pile of books had started to shift too much for her to handle much longer. "I'm kind of nervous about it." Norah added finally.

"Oh..alright," Simon replied slowly and hesitantly returning his arms to his sides, the boy not wanting to push her into accepting his help even as it appeared more and more necessary. He meerly watched as Norah tried to manuever them all as she even tried to grab hold of another. When she mentioned she was the same year he was almost tempted to ask which house but her next statement stopped him for it was very likely she didn't know.

"Ah so you're a transfer," he asked before catching her pleading look and quickly but gently taking hold of the top half of the pile of texts. "There you are...the downfalls of not being able to use magic or having an adult around who can," he mused with a chuckle.

"Aww I'm sure you'll be fine," the gryffindor tried to reassure her. "I daresay they'll be a whole bunch of first years more nervous and less experienced then yourself."

"Mhm." Norah said and smiled, one that was actually visible now. "I'm transferring from Beauxbatons. Attended that school for four years, but my parents wanted me to go to Hogwarts until I graduate." She shifted uncomfortably and glanced down to the floor, then to the bookshelf again. Anything that would tear interest away from herself, or Simon, was fine and dandy. She was just so horribly shy.
"Yeah." Norah continued, "My parents are working, and my sisters didn't want to come along. Are you here by yourself too?"

She shrugged, then looked up again, "I just wish I would feel fine about it. Are the professors nice there?"