𝐓𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐔𝐬 𝐀𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭 - 𝐒𝐢𝐫𝐢𝐮𝐬 𝐁𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐤 -

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟒

[𝐓𝐖: 𝐌𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐛𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐝]

The bell on the door jingled as Marcella entered Flourish and Blotts. She looked around the shop, taking in everything she saw — books, lots of them.

She breathed in the air and instantly felt calm. The scent of books always relaxes her, bringing her to her happy place where she finds herself absentmindedly smiling while she browses for books.

Flourish and Blotts have towers of book shelves. It's impossible for her to know where to search for the books she needed for her classes. She walked deeper to the shop and greeted the man standing behind the counter by lowering her head slightly in a bow manner—something she was accustomed to back when she was living in Japan.

"Excuse me, sir. May I know where to find Hogwarts' fourth year books?" She asked the middle aged man.

"Books for fourth years and above would be on the second floor, my dear. The first floor is for first years 'till third." The man replied with a kind smile.

"Alright, thank you so much." Marcella bowed her head slightly again and walked back to the front of the shop where she saw the stairs leading to the second floor. She looked up to the second floor and sighed after seeing that there were more shelves up there and knew that it would take some time for her to find all the books she needed.

Regardless, she climbed up the stairs and swiftly went to the first shelf she saw. With her list in her hand, she analysed the name of the books on the list while simultaneously examining the shelves to find it.

Marcella then mentally cursed at herself for forgetting the fact that she's a witch and could easily find her books with a flick of her wand. She took out her wand and accioed the books she needed and crossed out the list one at a time.

She raised her wand once again and accioed the last book on her list which was the The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 4. She could see the book flying towards her and was preparing herself to grab it. But then her eyes landed on a boy who was walking with his head stuck in a book, completely oblivious to the book that was about to fly and knock him if he took one more step.

"Look out!" Marcella tried to call out for him but it was too late.

The boy looked up and his face was quickly met with the flying book with a hard impact. He clutched his nose as he fell to the ground.

"Shit." Marcella scrunched her nose and ran towards the boy. "I'm so sorry!" She blurted as she kneeled down next to the boy.

"Fuuucking hell." The boy groaned as he breathed out from his mouth.

Marcella noticed the blood spurting out of his broken nose and her eyes went wide. "Merlin's sweaty testicles, I think I broke your nose. I'm so sorry!" She quickly apologised.

The boy looked around, blinking his eyes as it started to water. He was pissed, definitely, but as he looked up and saw Marcella's worried face, he was taken aback.

He didn't recognised her and he suddenly felt bad for making her so worried. "No, no. It's my fault. I had my nose stuck in a book." He reassured the girl as they both stood up. "As usual." He mumbled to himself.

Marcella shook her head. "No. The fault is mine. It's my book that hit you after all." She said with guilt as she analysed his broken nose.

The boy was still looking at her face, trying to remember if she's a student in Hogwarts. His eyes then darted to the books sprawled on the floor and saw all the books were for fourth years.