A Taste of Independance (open)

Alex had been enjoying shopping with her mother and her brother at first. The experience was totally different from what she had been used to during previous trips, but after a while the novelty had worn off. It had became just another shopping trip and then it had suddenly all changed. Julian's health had been wobbly for quite a while and after a severe coughing fit her mother had been forced to take him home.

Thankfully for Alex they had not bought everything that had needed to be purchased and there were still a few items on the list. With her mother being so concerned for Julian it had been fairly easy for Alex to convince her mother to let her stay and buy the rest of the items on the list.

Savouring her first taste of real independance, she had headed off to the Potions store first to buy her cauldron, scales, stirring rod and basic ingredients kit. After that, the next visit had been to the bookshop.

Flourish and Blotts was so vast and she was so confused as to where she needed to be looking. The labels were difficult for her to distinguish and she was getting steadily more and more distressed as the seconds passed.

"So much for Independance. Where are the books!?" She exclaimed bitterly, squinting at the labels. This wasn't going quite as well as she had intended for it.

He was done! The stupid owner didn't appear to speak simple english and he could no longer be bothered to try to explain. "Fine!" He muttered turning to walk down one of the aisles. He was looking for a book and his father would not be pleased if he returned empty handed. Perhaps a shop like this didn't bother to sell it.

He turned at the sound of a voice and smiled slightly at the girl before him. "We're surrounded by them. It's why they call it a book shop." He smirked moving to lean against one of the book shelves. "What is it you're looking for? The old toad over there wont be much help, he's insane!" He said folding his arms across his chest.

Alex heard a voice and looked around to find a boy who looked to be close enough to her age. He moved to lean against one of the bookshelves, and Alex had to resist the urge to say something insulting back to his obvious and sarcastic reply to her exclaimation about where the books were.

"I can see that. I was meaning the history books. This place is so badly catalogued!" She threw a glare at the bookshelf in front of her before looking back to the boy. He had called someone insane and Alex looked around to try and figure out who he was talking about. It didn't really take her long to figure out who it was. The older man who appeared to work in the shop was standing at a counter not far away from where they were.

"How can you tell that he's insane?" Alex asked, genuinly intrigued as to how the ordinary looking man could be insane.

Luc raised an eyebrow and looked at her for a few seconds, sizing her up. He liked to get to know the type of person he was talking too. It's how he'd been taught. "From what i have made out, these books are set out in the times they were published. So your book could be anywhere." He said pulling out the book just to the side of his left shoulder.

"Well..." He said turning to look at the old man as he opened the book. "Try asking him about anything and he'd reply with some nonsense." He said turning to look down at the book. "I asked for a book, he replied 5 o'clock. I asked the time and he says 57324." He shrugged. " He's totally got a screw loose."

Alex felt a little uncomfortable with how he was looking at her, almost as though he was trying to get a bearing of her but was being far too obvious about it. She was ready to ask if he could stop doing it just as he started speaking and pulled a book from the shelf. Organised by publicised date.

"That seems like an unecessarily difficult system." Alex scoffed, trying not to sigh despondantly at the fact that the other boy was right, and that the book she was looking for could be anywhere. It didn't bring her any form of cheer at all.

Alex couldn't help but giggle as the boy repeated what the older man who worked in the shop had replied to his questions. It certainly sounded amusing to say the least, and she was glad that she hadn't asked him for any help. It would have been very rude to laugh in his face and she would be trying so hard to resist doing so.

"I don't think that means he has a screw loose as you put it. I think it's just that maybe he's been here too long, and has got all muddled up. He is old after all." Alex said, quickly appraising the man. Old was a polite term, he looked fairly close to ancient as far as she was cocnerned, all wrinkled skin.

"So, who are you?" She asked, just coming right out with it and being direct. It was the best course of action sometimes. She liked putting names to faces.

He nodded. "From what i've seen he's a lonely old man who craves the attention of others. And what better way to get that, than to mess up the shop so they can't find anything they are looking for?" He said looking up at her from his book. The book just wasn't interesting enough to steal his attention so he placed it back on the shelf.

"You're right! It means he's got nothing better to do than stare at four walls all day. It's enough to drive anyone insane. I personally wouldn't last more than 5 minutes in here alone. Books arent my thing, neither is being stuck indoors." He said shuddering at the thought. Even thinking about it was making him feel claustrophobic.

He pushed himself up straight from the shelf and walked down the aisle passed her. "Which book is it you're looking for? Maybe i've passed it already." He asked his eyes scanning the books before him. "Lucifer Mordane." He said taking a glance at her from the corner of his eye. "And you are?"

As unkind as it may have sounded, Alex had to agree with the other boy. His theory made more than good sensen, it was easy to see in practice. She felt slightly less annoyed about the cataloguing system as she decided to run with the idea that the old man was lonely. Clearly the book wasn't interesting enough for the boy as after speaking, he place dit back on the shelf.

"I am sure he likes books, else he wouldn't be in this shop. Maybe he could just be needing a holiday." Alex suggested, sighing inwardly a little as she thought about the annual family holiday to Egypt. One day she was hoping that they would go to India for a change.

"I don't care so much about books really. I'd much prefer to be dancing or baking." Alex commented, smiling at the thought of the recently made cupcakes she had waited for her when she got home. Her lemon icing was so tasty.

The boy passed her, his eyes flickering over the books on the shelves. As much as she would have preferred to have found it on her own, she decided that it would probably be best to tell him what book she had been looking for.

"The Rise and Fall of Magick in Egypt by Farley Jones." Alex replied, hoping that perhaps the boy had seen it, and that if he hadn't he at least wasn't going to be judgemental about her choice.

He introduced himself as Lucifer Mordane and Alex smiled, holding her hand out for him to hopefully take and shake.

"You have power in your name. Pleased to meet you Lucifer. I'm Alexandria Ubis. Either Alex or Cleo is fine though." She added.

"And i like weaponry doesn't mean i want to look at them 24 hours a day, everyday. It would end up shooting myself with one of the guns. Anything to not end up like that." He said nodding his head towards the man behind the counter. "Watch this." He said moving to the shelf and taking a book. Once he had it in his hands he moved across the shop and put it on a different shelf and then returned. "3... 2... 1..." He counted down, and right on cue the man moved to put the book back where it belonged.

"Someone needs to give him a life. It's sad." He said shoving his hands into his pockets. "Baking? I leave that to my mother, shes the one that loves to cook. I on the other hand prefer to train." He said, he loved training but he didn't always get a choice. His father had been forcing him to train since the day he could walk. He thought it best to learn to fight both the muggle and wizard way.

"Egypt? What you interested in Egypt for? Isn't it all just sand and pyramids?" He said turning his nose up at the book. He was brought up to be very patriotic and so, thought learning about another country was wrong. "Hmm, he said turning to look behind him. I'm sure i've heard that name before." He said trying to think back. "Yeah i have!"

He glanced at her hand for a few seconds before finally taking it to shake. "That's what my father likes to think." He smiled. "Alex it is." He said before turning to leave in the direction he was sure he'd seen that book.

"When you put it like that, you've got a point." Alex said, thinking that even she might get annoyed of the things she enjoyed if she had to do them day in and day out. It was sad in a way to look at the man, especially as Lucifer took a book and placed it in a different shelf. The man was quick to say the least, and he didn't even acknowledge their existance.

"If he didn't want it, then he wouldn't keep on in the job." Alex commented as she transferred her gaze from the man who had now disappeared behind a shelf, back to who she was talking to.

"Train? What do you mean by train?" Alex asked, curious to say the least. It sounded like such a silly thing to ask but it could be any number of things that he could be referring to. She narrowed her eyes a fraction and sighed as he passed comment on Egypt. Then again, he might not know and by the way he spoke it seemed like that.

"There is a lot more to Egypt than you think. There is very strong magic in Egypt, and it was one of the few places where witches and wizards first surfaced. It's very interesting. My family is descenant from Egypt, so it's a bit of a fascination with us." Alex explained, pausing there. For his sake she would not continue as she was sure it would not particularly interest him.

She was glad that he took her hand and shook it. It was always a good sign when someone was willing to do that. She was interested that he had heard of her family name. She had never really thought that others would know her for it.

"Your name is familiar to me too. I can't place where I heard it though. Care to help me out?" She asked, wondering if he would or even if he had heard her, as he had turned his back, obviously intending to head in a different direction.

"I always do." He smirked, picking up a book and throwing it onto the wrong pile. It was fun to see the man mindlessly moving through the shop correcting all his 'mistakes'. "I wonder what he'd do if one of the shelves 'accidently' fell over." He smirked. "Do you think he'd come back to earth long enough to cry over all his hard work?"

"Maybe his life is that sad that this was the only thing open to him. It might be all he inherited from his family." He said walking by, his fingers trailing over the books as he passed. He paused and turned to look at her. "I fight. My family are strong believers in learning to fight, both muggle and wizard. From the moment you can walk you are whisked off to the arena to train." He shrugged.

"Hmmm." He said half listening to what she said and half concentrating on the books before him. Egypt really didn't interest him like it did her. Though it would probably be a good idea to learn about something new.

He looked around making sure they were alone before answering. "Most my family end up being great assassins or Aurors. My grandfather was the best assassin anyone had ever known and my uncle is head auror at the ministry. Basically anything to do with killing or fighting and its got Mordane written all over it." He shrugged. He probably shouldn't have told her that since most assassins remained anonymous but what harm could it do if his grandfather was dead?