Althea had about a million books already, but there were a few more she intended to add to her collection at the castle, books she thought would be good reference for any students that happened to show interest. She had a mental list, and had already spotted a few of them. They were levitating tidily behind her, ready to follow her to the counter when it was time. The tall blonde woman barely needed to stretch for the top shelves, especially with the extra inches her heels added.

"The Elements of Magic, Extreme Incantations, A Guide to Medieval Sorcery, Magical Misdemeanors in the Modern Law, The Metal Charmer's Guide to Base Metal Bewitchments, A Study into the Possibility of Reversing the Actual and Metaphysical Effects of Natural Death, with Particular Regard to the Reintegration of Essence and Matter, Thaum Theory." Thea murmured her list under her breath, mentally ticking the books off as she found them and added them to her floating stack.

After this she had plans to go to Madame Malkins. New robes wouldn't go amiss, and because of her height, usually she needed them magically adjusted before purchase too, and Malkins was good for that.

Tera walked up to the stack of books intended for Hogwarts students. She could smell the paper, and longed to brush the dust lovingly off every single book in the store. Tera´s life was devoted to books. When she got to the stack, Tera looked around for an assistant. There he was, in crisp, clean clothes with a name tag that said Daniel. Tera searched around in her pocket for the list of books that she needed, and cursed under her breath when she realized that she lost it. Walking over to the assistant, Tera started to talk.
"Excuse me, can you help me find the set of books for first year students at Hogwarts?"

Normally, a Bunbury would never ever ever EVER be seen shopping in a second or third-hand store. But, this was a bookstore, and being a person not much interested in books, Tori didn't really mind. Besides, if she saved money on her books, then she could spend more on new clothes and shoes and CANDY!

Thus the little redhead entered the shop, the bell over the door tinkling as she started browsing the aisles. They had school books here, right? Tori frowned as she quickly became lost amongst the stacks and piles of books of all sorts. She was just looking over her shoulder for perhaps a sign when she walked straight into a levitating mass of thick, thick textbooks.

"OWWWWWCH," the girl moaned, rubbing her head as she tripped and fell, the pile of books falling with her. "Oww oww oww wow." Victoria had just caught a glance at one of the titles that had given her a bruise. "It's possible to reverse death?!"

Sigh.

It was going to be one of those days wasn't it?

What Althea REALLY wanted to do was berate the child for not looking where she was going -and those books better not be damaged- but instead, she crouched carefully, gracefully.

"Are you alright?" Yes? This question asked, she began to carefully collect and stack the books.

"And no of course it isn't...." Althea picked up the book in question. "Its a study. Kind of a philosophy of magic type book. But there are other interesting revelations inside, and it poses some interesting questions.... look, you should really get up, it isn't ladylike to roll about on the floor." And who knew what germs there were? "Let me help you." Thea said all this and offered the girl a hand.

The books were once again safely levitating.

Out of the child's way.

"Oh, yeah, I'm fine, thanks." Tori stopped staring at the books and instead took her offered hand. Once she was up, she adjusted her skirt and flipped her hair over one shoulder.

"Why are you reading like, so many ginormous books anyway?" Tori asked, staring at the lady now as she popped a piece of Drooble's in her mouth. Chomp. Chomp. Chomp. "Are you a librarian?"

She looked kinda... tall for a librarian. Then again, maybe her height was useful for reaching the top shelves.

Althea smoothed her own short dress down, and readjusted her robes, which were open at the front.

"I like books." The blonde woman answered with a cool little shrug, looking down at the girl with height, not attitude. "And no, I'm a teacher. A professor."

... gum. Thea made a mental note to be sure her classroom rules covered no gum-chewing.

It was kind of distracting.

Tori continued chomping away as she looked up.....up.......up......and away at the tall lady's face.

"OMG a REAL, LIVE PROFESSOR?!" She was practically squeeing now. "OMG OMG. Do you teach at Hogwarts? What subject? I am like SO EXCITED to go to school there like you have no idea. My cousin used to be a professor there. She was SOooooooooooo cool and popular and like all the students loved her and then she had to quit and she went to teach at a wizarding university in Cairo and now everybody like loves her there and did I mention how cool she is? She's REALLY tall too, like you."

The thirteen-year-old took a breath to pull out her gum and stare at it for a moment before popping it back into her mouth. "Anyway. I was checking to see if it had changed color. But it hadn't. So....... did anyone ever tell you that you should be a supermodel? Cuz you're definitely talllllllllllll enough."

... as opposed to a fake, dead one? Althea mentally stepped back, but in reality didn't move a muscle. Mentally too, she tried to pronounce this Omg business and opened her mouth to answer but closed it again right away.

This one was a talker wasn't she?

Oh? She'd stopped? Where to begin?

"I'm tall." She agreed, "But I prefer to be recognised for my achievements, not for my looks. Anyone can be pretty if they try." Just some nice clothes, girly potions, self-care... yes, anyone could be pretty.

"And I do teach at Hogwarts, at least, I will be, beginning this term. I was teaching at a University myself until... just recently. In Darwin, Australia."

She wasn't so sure about this cool and popular business. Althea had never had much desire to be either, preferring aloof and detached.

And a bit superior, we admit.

Tori never even realized that her rambling, excited Cali-girl manner of speaking may be disturbing to some people. If you were a slow listener, then omg too bad!

This professor chick seemed to have the listening down pat though. But she also looked kinda like... stuck up or something. The redhead chomped thoughtfully on her gum. "So are you like, Aussie? I've always thought Aussie accents were hotttttt. I'm from Cali, personally, in case you like, couldn't tell."

She giggled. "You didn't tell me your subjectttttt! I hope it's Herbology. I'm super good with plants." Green thumbs ran in the family.

"No, but I lived there for a long time, so I suppose it has changed how I speak a little bit." Althea had decided this kid was harmless...

... just a bit full on.

"Charms actually." Althea managed a smile, trying to lighten up a bit.

"Hmm," Tori remarked, studying the tall lady with her head tilted back. "I wonder if I'll be any good at Charms. I was homeschooled the past two years, so... I had to go get a new wand, like, a real wand." She had been sharing one with her brother and needless to say, the results with that thing were spotty at best.

Anyway. "I'm Victoria Bunbury, by the way, professor. I look forward to your class!" She beamed right back at the tall, tall lady.

"I'm sure you'll pick it up." Althea to say this kindly. Please. Althea had faith in her teaching abilities, and if Miss Bunbury here failed, it meant there was something wrong with her, not with Thea.

"Charms is fun, and fun things are always easier to learn." Bonus about her subject. People liked it.

"It's nice to meet you, Miss Bunbury. I'm Professor Althea Schirmer. Are you feeling any better? Not too bruised I hope?" Books with their sharp edges.

Well that was awfully nice of her to say. Victoria cheered slightly. Perhaps this professor was one of the better ones, and MAYBE she might be ALMOST as cool as her cousin.

"I'm looking forward to learning that levitating spell," Tori admitted. "And the summoning one. It sounds dead useful." Yeah. She could sit on her throne all day and summon like, everything to her! OMG!

"Nice to meet you too, Professor Schirmer." Tori even stopped chomping her gum for a second to offer the professor a handshake. "I'm fine, yep. Would you happen to know where the textbooks are for like, classes and stuff?" Maybe she could see a sign from waaaay up high where her head was.

"All spells are useful, but I think you're right about those two. They aren't on the curriculum this term, but I'd be happy to help you outside of class, to catch up."

Oh see, she was actually a polite little girl. Thea shook her hand and then nodded approvingly.

"Good thing you came here. Its much cheaper to buy books second hand, or third hand. Its about ten galleons more to buy them from Flourish and Blotts." And for books that would only be needed for a year or so, that was such a waste. The money could go towards other things.

"There, on the table." She pointed the books out. "You just choose the right ones for your year."

Wow, and she could get private tutoring from this professor to catch up? Sweet! Perhaps Hogwarts --- even with its dreary wet weather --- wouldn't be so bad after all!

"Thanks, Professor, I would appreciate that!" Tori nodded and followed her finger to the pile of school books. "Yeah, I'm planning to buy some more candy with the galleons I'm saving here." Who needed new books anyway? She carefully edged around Althea's stack of floating books and made her way toward the table.

"It was nice meeting you, Professor! I'll see you at Hogwarts!"

"Not a problem." Althea answered. Candy. Right. She wasn't a big candy eater, preferring to stay healthy and watch her figure but she supposed she hadn't had to when she was a kid either.

"Nice meeting you too, Miss Bunbury." Thea agreed, and took her books to the counter to pay.

"Here," mom said to Katrina. Katrina stopped before going in. "THIRD HAND?! ARE YOU JOKING?" she said. Her mom looked at her. "Fine, we're going to Flourish and Blotts instead!" and they both went away.

Tom wasn't expecting the shopkeeper to approach him and he looked up from the book on the shelf, startled. Usually when those words were uttered, it was a sublte way of saying, 'I've got my eye on you. Don't even think about taking anything.', but the man had a kindly face and his expression was placid, so Tom took no offence to being approached. In fact, he was grateful. It saved him from going to the counter and embarrassing himself in front of the line of kids there.

His eyes went back to the book. The man had heard him? He inwardly cringed. “I ain' stupid.” He replied, looking blankly at the title and blinking. His tone, however, was not aggressive, more like quietly apologetic. “I... I need the fird year books.” He added, his mannerism turning to almost sheepish as he took the book. He held out his supplies list to the man. “If yer don' mind pointin' me in the righ' direction.”

the next list of things was the books now luck was on their side and just as they walked in someone had asked them if they would like their old books. they were all the books she needed and it would take them a while to find them again so they took the chance while it was still there.

Harvey walks into the store and goes to the counter. Ummm.... Excuse me I would like the following books for my first year at Hogwarts

Hogwarts: A History by Chroniculus Punnet
A History of Magic by Bathilda Bagshot
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by Newt Scamander
The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection by Quentin Tremble
How Not To Blow Off Your Fingers On The First Day by Julius Gummidge
A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration by Emeric Switch
Quidditch Through the Ages by Kennilworthy Whisp
Goshawk's Guide to Herbology by Miranda Goshawk
The Standard Book of Spells Grade 1 by Miranda Goshawk
Hilary Stargazer's Guide to the Galaxy by Hilary Stargazer

Umm... how much are all the books? But just as he had asked his mother called him from outside the shop.

"Harvey dear, we don't want to get books from here, there is another perfectly good shop down the street there. Look, lets go there shall we?" Harvey and his mother leave for the other book shop