Can I Buy All the Books? (Sary)

Caleb's heart leapt at the opportunity to go to the bookstore, of course. His grandmother had made sure to make it the last stop on their trip to Diagon Alley, and for good reason - Caleb was sure to be there for a while. He nearly pulled her along the street to the store, holding her hand, and when they finally arrived he literally jumped with joy.

Walking into the store, he gasped. Looking around at all the books available was the greatest awe he had seen in that trip (although Ollivander's was a close second!) Immediately, he ran to the closest shelf, carefully took a book off, and began reading it.

It was then that Caleb realized just how complicated magic became when studying it; he could only understand half of what the first page said. For any other child, not understanding something would dishearten them. For Caleb, it only made the challenge greater. He steadily put the book back, running and stepped back from the shelf. Taking a big breath, Caleb and his grandmother began their search for the book on his list.

After picking up A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration , Caleb turned neatly around on his quest for the next book, and bumped straight into the back of a nice girl he'd never met. "Oh! I'm, uh.. Sorry! I mean, I didn't mean to... Sorry!" the words stumbled out of his mouth quickly, until he stopped talking and calmly stared at the girl, his cheeks flush red, and his eyes staring directly at his toes.

It was summer! And that meant going back home! To her parents, to friends, to Nick. She really missed him during the school year. It sucked he wasn't a wizard - they would have a blast together. It sucked even more that she couldn't tell him really. They were best friends from forever and yet she couldn't tell him something so wonderful and amazing! But no matter, what was important was he Wizarding skills she has and all the great things she learns at Hogwarts!

Today was the day she will be going to Diagon Alley. To tell the truth, she was pretty glad about it. Although being back home was awesome, she pretty much missed everything magical. Because last year she was more busy with spending every free minute in the library, reading, she had lost training for fighting properly and wasn't really good as before. Not that she cared. She also was pretty mad because the two with Nick had gotten in a fight because she wasn't so enthusiastic to fight as before. So the fact that she shall be going to London was taken pretty gladly by the girl.

After buying everything at all the boring shops around, she and her mum went to Flourish and Blotts, the favourite shop for Saryana. She walked in a breathed in all the new books - what a brilliant scent! If she ever scented Armortia or how the love potion was called, one of the scents would be the smell of new books. Walking, or more likely running in, she began to search for her subject books for the year, although the librarian would most likely give them to her anyways. She quickly took the Transfiguration book when she felt someone bump into her. Turning around quickly by instinct, she smiled when she noticed it was just a boy. Well, she was just a girl but that is another question. "Hey, it's alright! I'm sure you didn't mean to!" She said and looked down to his book. "So, you're a first year? Awesome! If you like, I could help you find your books! I know where they are, I did by them two years ago." She offered to the boy, feeling pretty nice for the moment.

Caleb took a second to process that. He had come to Diagon Alley, and in all rights would have gone to Hogwarts, thinking that the students would be a hand-picked group of high-class pretentious kids with no interest in helping one another. How wrong he was, not that being wrong in that matter upset him. The few students he'd met so far couldn't be representative of the entirety of the school, to be sure. That didn't change how nice they all were to him. Always offering support, to help, or just to be a friend. Maybe he shouldn't be excited about going to Hogwarts solely because of the magic - maybe the people could be nice, as well.

After a couple moments of stunned silence, Caleb came to the realization that the girl probably wanted an answer. "Uh... Yeah, that would be great! I kinda get caught up looking through the book around me, because they're so interesting, and it's just so much to take in that I don't really know what to..." Caleb trailed off his rant, took a breath in, blushed some more, and started talking again. "I mean, uh, yes! Thank you. That would be very kind, and quite helpful." He took a lot of time to properly phrase that sentence, obviously very self-conscious about his rambling. How could he be blamed, he thought to himself, for loving books too much?

His grandmother had, of course, found something else to occupy her time in order to allow Caleb to make another friend. She was probably off in the herbology section, no doubt. He looked around a bit more trying to find her, to no avail. Perhaps it was good that she ran off, he could talk to the girl for longer that way. "I'm Caleb, by the way. Caleb Halle! It's very nice to meet you."

Saryana smiled again at the boy. He was obviously so worried to talk with her at the moment. The body language, the way he stuttered slightly while he talked showed it pretty well. These few days she kept looking at how one person or another behaved, as she had taken such a book to read. It was hard to understand some stuff at first but later on she began. Of course, if her parents hadn't forbidden her to read magic books when she isn't at Hogwarts, she wouldn't even be touching such a book. But with no other choice, now she did. Well, when she was home alone was a different question...

Saryana nodded at him. "I was the same the first time I went here. I'm pretty much a book lover from a kid and this place was so... different! And I love it! But trust me, nothing can be compared to the Hogwarts library. If you like this place, you'll love that even more." She said. It was true, after all. That place was so awesome and full of books! If Saryana could, she would read all the books in it! And maybe the Forbidden Section one day... Who knows what she would find in there...

Saryana nodded. " Nice to meet you too! I'm Saryana Greenwood. " she said. A name she both loved and hated. It was so unique, yet strange. But whatever. It was hers, right? She would take out her hand but decided that it wasn't time for such stuff. Instead she asked. "What is next on your list?" She said and looked at him expectedly. She wasn't sure what else to ask, if she should ask something about himself or not. Brilliant, I must say. Brilliant.

Caleb glanced at her for a moment, thinking that this girl must be absolutely perfect, to love books as much as he did. He reached for his books list, going through it carefully. After a moment of reading, he looked up and said, "I think, uh, the last one on my list actually! Magical Drafts and Potions by Arsenius Jigger it says. Sounds like less fun than The Standard Book of Spells, if you ask me, but I guess we have to do potions too." He put his list away and, for the first time, looked Saryana in the eyes. He giggled a bit, smiling.

While being shown to the next book on his list, Caleb decided to inquire about the question that had been on his mind for every Hogwarts student he'd run into thus far (more of them were literally run into than he'd like to admit,) taking a minute to mull over whether or not it was a rude question to ask. He decided that an inquiry demands to be inquired, and spit it out. "I don't know if it's rude to ask this or not, but uh, I was just wondering... If you could tell me what house you're in? The sorting kinda, uh..." Caleb brushed his hands through his tossed hair, "Well, it kinda scares me. My whole family come from one of two houses, and I don't know if they'd like me as much if I was something else..."

At that thought, Caleb's ecstatic face cracked a bit, a frown creeping it's way on. It's a scary thought, he decided, that a hat can decide such an important thing for you. He didn't want his family to hold grudges against him, but they might if he was sorted into a house like Hufflepuff. He shivered.

Saryana nodded and smiled. "I know where that is! Follow!" she said and began to pace towards it. "And Potion class isn't really bad, actually. The teacher is nice! The only thing that sucks is having to follow very strictly the instructions. I hate that they always say 'clockwise' or 'counter-clockwise' when you have to stir the potion... It's confusing partly! But it otherwise fun to drop all the stuff into the cauldron!" she explained while they walked, pretty exited. This boy was pretty easy to talk to.

Saryana listened when he talked about the sorting. She understood him. Back in her first year, she was just the same. Her father was a Ravenclaw and her mother - Gryffindor. She was always very worried which one of the two she would be in and how they would react. At the end it seemed that she was between Slytherin and Gryffindor. "Don't worry! It's not scary. I'm the same. Mum's a Gryffindor, while dad's a Ravenclaw. It turned out fine in the end. And I'm a Gryffindor. Though I now prefer to not be. Half the reason why I spend all my free time in the library. Noisy idiots..." she muttered but shrugged after that, as if it wasn't really something that much. Which it wasn't, now thinking over it.

Soon they made it to the Potion books shelves. Swiftly taking out one of the many exemplars of Magical Drafts and Potions and giving it to Caleb, she took out the book that was on her list as well. After then she turned to him. "So, did you always know about having magic? I did but my parents didn't allow me to read about it... So, obviously, I waited from them not to be home and read books about magic!" she chuckled. She remembered her being a little kid, reading about the magic of the Wizarding World. And Harry Potter. She loved reading about that guy.

Caleb took the book from her gratefully, looking it over with an expression of equal parts reverence and disgust. Potion-making was a complicated subject for him. He respected the diligence and perfection required, but he hated the lack of wonder and mystique that making potions exuded. Magic was flashy, it was majestic, it was wonderful! Potion brewing required skill, tremendous skill, no doubt – but it wasn’t majestic.

Regardless, Caleb spoke to Saryana, careful to choose his words specifically and carefully, ” I did, yes. My mother raised me all around magic, and I’ve been studying it since I could read. No other books interest me…” He smiled, trying to appease the girl in front of him, “I’m sure your parents had their… Reasons?” He stopped for a moment, and then spoke again. ”I don’t agree with their reasons, however, whatever they are…”

Caleb frowned, feeling somewhat sorry for Saryana. How could magical parents keep their child from studying magic? He didn’t understand it, and he felt somewhat divided. On the one hand, her parents are probably capable of raising their child, but on the other he felt uneasy knowingthat someone was kept away from the thing that he, himself, loved the most.

Saryana nodded at the boy. She could understand why someone would keep on reading magic books. Though some muggle books were amazing - like the Lord of the Rings! - they couldn't be compaired to when it was about actual real magic and not just to plot of some guy. A genius but at the end - a plain muggle. Okay, maybe the Lord of the Rings was an exception... Plus, who knew? Maybe Tolkin was a wizard? 'Note to self : Check out if Tolkin was, in fact, a wizard.' Yep, one of the million things she should look up and most likely forget to check it up.


Saryana shrugged when he said that they must have there reason. "I guess. But it's okay. I never really looked much to it. They could have wanted to protect me or something - I could have been a squib... But it doesn't explain why they do it now... But whatever!" she shrugged it off and smiled slightly. It was true, really. She didn't care much, though it did suck partly. It would have been better to be able to read when she wanted and not when her parents weren't home to watch her. But she did have training to keep her occupied when they were home... Well, did. Don't think about it.


Deciding not to talk about it, she turned the conversation to a different direction. Because it wasn't really fun for her to talk about such stiff. It wasn't awesome at all. "So... Are you here alone or with someone? I'll guess with someone because I doubt a first year would casually be able to go through out Diagon Alley, unless they have been here often." she said and smiled slightly. She had came here alone this year, so she could stay as long as she wants. Her parents had gotten an appartment for a few days, in case she meets some old friend of hers or meets someone new. Like now.