Melody Riddle and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Chapter 3: Books Galore... Except One

My mom insisted that I go with grandpa to the wand shop while she went to get my school books.

In a way, my being at the shop made grandpa's job easier. While he found a wand for one person, I would find a wand for someone else. Most people were very dubious when seeing me trying to help out, but with some assurances from grandpa, they believed in my ability.

I sold so many wands that I couldn't count them all. But by the end of my first day working there, I sat down in the spindly chair and gave a sigh of exhilaration, "Awesome."

Grandpa chuckled, "Tired already, Melody?"

"What do you mean already?" I asked. "It's the end of the day!"

"I don't get tired until the end of the summer," he boasted.

"Yeah, and then you get the rest of the year to sleep for as long as you want because you shorten your hours. Guess what? I don't."

Grandpa smiled at me, and went into one of his cupboards, taking out two cups and a bottle. "Would you like some pumpkin juice?" When I nodded, he opened up the bottle and poured two glass fulls.

"How are you still walking around so energetically? We've just been standing all day."

"You could say I'm used to it," grandpa said with a chuckle, handing me a glass, "But that doesn't even touch the full explanation... the same way you never get tired of reading your school books over and over again, I never get tired of doing my job. It is our passions that drive us."

I took a sip of pumpkin juice with a nod, "And people who don't like what they're doing for a living tire of it much easier."

"Exactly!"

"But I do like doing this –"

Grandpa laughed, "I wasn't saying that you haven't been enjoying your time here today, you just haven't fully gotten used to it. Do you know how to read a book the first time you look at it?"

"No, you need to learn how to first."

"Correct. It'll take the length of this summer for you to get used to it. Then you could do it twenty-four seven."

Mom came into the shop with a big pile of books in her hands. I rolled my eyes as I stood up and she put them on the chair. That certainly was not four books, but eleven.

"Happy birthday, Melody," mom said with a big smile.

"Um.. thanks," I said, "So... what's this you got?"

"Well, I got your four schoolbooks:" she said, pointing to each of them. "The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 3 by Miranda Goshawk; Intermediate Transfiguration; Monster Book of Monsters; and Ancient Runes Made Easy. But I also got you some extra books, considering how fast you read. Two fun ones would be The Philosophy of the Mundane: Why the Muggles Prefer Not to Know by Professor Mordicus Egg, and Death Omens: What to Do When You Know the Worst Is Coming. These five, which I know you aren't taking a class for, but I thought would be fun is; Unfogging the Future by Cassandra Vablatsky, Predicting the Unpredictable, Insulate Yourself Against Shocks and Broken Balls, When Fortunes Turn Foul, and Xylomancy."

Oh wow, I thought, How much must this have cost? "What's xylomancy?" I asked.

She picked the book up to skim the summary on the back of it, "According to this, it is: 'divination using a piece of wood or magic using wood.'"

I looked at the Monster Book of Monsters and now saw why it got its name. At the point where you would open the book up, there was a mouth with a sharp set of teeth. At the moment, it was bound tightly closed by a piece of leather... leather that obviously didn't come with the book.