Flourish and Blotts

Matilda had wandered into the store, her school supply list in hand, looking around for all of the books she needed. Standard Book of Spells... Astronomy text... Transfiguration... hum.

"Hey, Matilda."

Victor had appeared beside her. In one hand, he had a new textbook cradled under his arm. In the other hand, he had a copy of the Daily Prophet opened. On the front cover, there was a photograph of Harry Potter, smiling and waving to unseen crowds, while the flashes of cameras were going off in the background. These words, in big, bold letters were printed beneath the picture:

"IS MINISTER POTTER A SCAM?"[i]

Victor quickly folded up the newspaper, and he looked at Matilda gravely.

"Have you heard about the news? There's a party of people who thinks that Harry Potter was elected to make the Ministry look good." he said.

Matilda shook her head. "Rubbish. Harry Potter was elected because he was best fit for the job, and Blaine wasn't because he wasn't fit for the job. And after all he's done for the ministry in the past two decades, I can't believe that people think he would just get promoted to make the ministry look good." She pulled down a spellbook and held it in one of her arms. "It's weird how people can be ignorant nowadays." Of course, Matilda was paraphrasing this from a rant she had heard from her mother that morning on the matter.

"Mr. Bradford IS awful. We had him over for dinner once, and... well, basically he drunk a lot of wine, and he tried to hit on my mom. But, that's a different story-but anyway, I think it's a bit of both. My dad DOES work for the Ministry, and he says there's a lot of propaganda all over the place..." Victor had that signature thought, introspective look in his eyes.

"I think there's truth in that newspaper and what you say."

"I suppose. It's the Daily Prophet though--you can never really know what's true and what's false in it." Matilda kept skimming the shelves for her books. She huffed. "Damn it, why don't they have all of the school text books in the same place?"

Victor rolled his eyes. Now she was being ignorant.

"Because they aren't of all the same subject, so of course they would be separated from each other." Victor shook his head. "My mum says that the Daily Prophet has never really recovered ever since You-Know-Who got power again, but it's not as bad as it wast hen."

"My mum says that the Daily Prophet used to be complete rubbish when she was growing up," Matilda said, continuing to look. "She said that it had some of the stupidest pro-Death Eater print ever, but people still liked it..."

"Sophia-you know her, right? She was in your House says that because it's government print, it's going to be biased. But, I think all newspapers are going to be slightly biased, no matter what. What book are you looking for?"

For a brief moment, Victor paused to consider why the only girls he could talk to were the ones he had known his entire life. It was getting quite annoying, at this point.

"Some less than others. And I'm looking for the astronomy book..."

"Oh, check the H section for A Tour Through The Inner Planets. It's under Holst. But anyway, I guess you're right. I heard the Quibbler is actually pretty non biased." he said, as he picked up a very elegant looking book, with a red velvet cover, edged with gold.

Matilda speed-walked over to the H section. "Thank you," she said simply, taking the book off the shelf and looking for the next on her list. "I hear the Quibbler is just odd. Written by a bunch of nutters that should be in St. Mungo's."

"It is." Victor admitted, as he set the book away, and picked out one that was silver plated and began to leaf through it. "But, once you look past all the stuff about the Nargles and how paper cranes are going to grow sentient and attack us, there is some truth in it. But, I've only read it a couple times."

Matilda knew where the History of Magic books were. She found them oddly fascinating, and had come here once or twice or thrice over Christmas break and the summer to look at their books. So, she located them pretty quickly. "I may have to read it. I never have," she told him as she grabbed the History of Magic tome she needed.

Victor picked up a volume of "Just Magic?-A Look Behind The Fire And Teleporting" and he looked around the price tag. Now that seemed much more interesting than a history book, and he wanted to buy it.

"You'd like it, I think." Victor smiled softly at her. "You would be a conspirator with the rest of the editors of it."

Meanwhile, in a different area, Caroline was completely and utterly lost inbetween the Self help books, the advanced Ancient History section, and the magical sex books (such as failproof ways to charm women).

So, naturally, she was cursing under her breath. "Why the hell can't I find the damn door?"

A tall boy was with his mother, the two admiring books and such, with another mother and a very young boy.

"Hey, Robin, what do you think of this?" Ally asked, lifting up a book on knitting. "I want to get something for Kelsi since she's going to school again," she said beaming with the book positioned beside her face.

Robin smiled. "Good idea, but she hasn't knit in years."

"WHAT?! She told me- I've been buying her yarn and all this stuff at every birthday! What is this?!"

Robin burst out laughing. "Well, honey, you've been tricked!" she said, and took the book from Ally's paralyzed hands, examining it. She began to chuckle happily. "That's quite funny!"

Trenton snickered to himself, then rolled his eyes. He turned around and walked off, the tall, tanned boy with light brown hair following behind him. He couldn't really leave this short kid on his own, now could he?

Matilda offered one of her signature smirks. It was forced, but at least looked somewhat sincere. "Nah. My mum actually works at St. Mungo's. It's not a very safe gamble, considering she wants all Quibbler readers and editors to be admitted for being so crazy."

"Hey, excuse me, do you guys know where the exit is?" Caroline asked a nice-looking family, that was talking about knitting. Nope, definitely not serial killers. "I'm totally lost."

"Hey, Caroline! Over here!" Matilda waved her over. "Get over here!"

Victor's smile turned downwards into a frown upon that statement.

"Your mum is rather opinionated, isn't she is?-But that's okay, because my mum is, too." Victor added quickly in the end, as he knew from experience how nasty Matilda's temper could be.

The tall boy turned around, and beamed. He looked very much like his mother, Ally. "Oh, hello! Yeah, it's right by the entrance," he said in a quiet sarcastic way.

"Hah.. hah. Very funny. I'm lost, you know." Caroline said, narrowing her eyes at him. "Seriously. Can you give me directions to the exit?"

"Just go to the end of the column and it's right there," Ross said politely, then turned to Trenton and began to talk to him.

"Hey, thanks." Caroline said, going down the column of books. At the end, she sighed. Damn magical bookstores and their damn HILARIOUS changing walls. Oh yeah, this was a riot.. She had seen the exit, it had been right there, then the wall had shifted.
So, deciding not to bother with the sarcastic boy again, she started wandering.