Part 1 of Slytherin Pure Bloods - Shadowed Past

Chapter 2

Magic Is As Magic Does

After walking down many streets they finally reached the busy street they were looking for.

'Why don't we try the sweet shop first?' asked Jenny, jumping around in excitement. Bruno was obviously not pleased by the action and started meowing in irritation, which caused both Jenny and Grace to stare at the kitten before bursting out in laughter. They didn't seem to care that people were staring at them, as they laughed hysterically.

When they had gotten control of themselves, Jenny said, 'come on, to the sweet shop.' Crossing the road together, they passed several shops before they reached the sweets shop. Grinning with anticipation, they entered the store. Inside there were hundreds of candy canes, lollipops, toffees and cakes. There were even lamingtons and sherbets. Grace had walked into the chocolate bars section, where she found, mars bars, snickers, kit Kats and loads of other brands of chocolates.

Buying a few sweets here and there, they went outside.

'What'd you get?' asked Jenny as they sat down on the nearest seat.

Looking into her bag, Grace said, 'mars bars, lamingtons with cream. I got some strawberry lollipops, a couple dark chocolates and a banana cake. What about you Jenny?'

'Lamingtons with jam, orange sherbet and several snickers bars. Oh! And I chocolate mint.' Replied Jenny as she searched her bag.

'Right, where to next?' Jenny said zipping up her bag.

'Well, there's the clothes store, bookshop and music store.'

Jenny sat there thinking, 'what do you say to some new clothes?'

Grace smiled, 'let's go!'

Walking along the street they finally reached the shop. Inside they saw dresses, tank tops, jeans and T-shirts. They rushed inside. Grace went straight to her favourite section and immediately found some clothes that suited her. Grace had found a pair of black denim jeans with a red dragon on the back right pocket and an icy-blue dragon on the left leg. Grace smiled, this would be her new favourite pair of jeans, and she wondered if she could do the same for the top. She soon located a black top. It had a large white dragon on the back, with a small emerald green dragon on the front near the right shoulder. Excited, she went to find Jenny, who was looking at dresses of all different colours and styles, but she didn't seem happy with the variety. Bruno was sleeping on the chair to Jenny's left, purring softly.

'Hey Jenny! What do you think?' Grace asked as she held up the clothes she'd picked. Looking them over Jenny said, 'they suit you perfectly.' After purchasing the clothes, (Jenny didn't buy anything) they left for the music store.

Jenny was into the weirdest music imaginable, that she'd never even heard of. She was also into old music. Grace on the other hand was mainly into pop music, except when she'd listen to bands like, red jump suit apparatus. Grace didn't buy anything, she just didn't feel like music at that moment, for the thoughts that she had been keeping at bay ever since Jenny had came back for Summer Break, were starting to rise to the surface, again.

Leaving the music store, Jenny turned to Grace. 'Let's go see what the book store has?' asked Jenny. Grace was oddly quiet.

'Sure' she whispered strangely. Grace was starting to feel down. Though Grace didn't notice, Jenny begun to get worried about her and decided to keep a close eye on her behaviour. They went next door to the bookstore. Jenny didn't seem very interested in anything. Searching the entire store, which contained some four hundred books, Grace couldn't find the book she wanted.

'Excuse me,' Grace said to the woman behind the Counter, (her back to her, as she sorted books in the shelf behind the counter), as Jenny continued to sieve though the bookshelves. The woman made a small noise, (without looking at her), that Grace took as a yes. 'Could you please tell me where to find the book, "Are Dragons real or Mythological"?' The woman pointed to a shelf to the left of the counter. Walking over to the shelf (not noticing the nasty look the woman gave in her direction) she immediately saw the book. It's dark blood-red cover stuck out a mile against the other brightly covered books. Looking closer at the books, they were nothing like the book she had been looking for. They were in brightly coloured covers and had titles like "Fairies in Fantasies", "Elves of Wonder" and "Vampires of Britain". Grace found these titles to be very strange, but she didn't really care. People thought she was strange, so why should weird book titles be strange to her?

Picking up the book, she looked at the front cover. It had the title "Are Dragons real or Mythological" written in gold. Underneath was a large picture of a black dragon with silver flecks. For some reason Grace had the distant feeling that it was watching her, but that was crazy. Sure, it was looking at her, that's just how it was drawn. Around the edge of the front (and back) covers were flames of fire, possibly the fire that dragon's breath. There were also small-illustrated crystals around the dragon and it also had treasure that it was guarding. Grace had been waiting weeks to read this book, excited; she walked over to the woman.

The woman, who was reading a book, had short brown hair. Her round glasses sat simply on her slightly too-large-for-her-face nose, her green eyes flicking across the page with exceptional speed. Looking at the lightly coloured green book, she spotted the title, "Magic is everywhere"; it was not a book she was familiar with. Sure, she believed in magic (because of all the strange things she could do) but she didn't think there was actually books that maybe able to give her answers to her questions. Pretending that the book had not interested her. Grace said politely to the woman.

'Excuse me, madam, but how much is this book?' The woman (looking over the top of the book) looked down her nose at her. She was easily a foot taller then Grace (even though she was sitting down). Grace wasn't short but she wasn't tall either. Standing in front of this towering woman with a nasty expression on her face was making her slightly nervous. Grace put the book on the counter. The woman, seeing the book, said with a hint of anger, 'that book is not for sale.'

'What?' cried out Grace, all politeness aside, 'but last week you said I could buy it!'

Turning back to her book, the woman said, 'that was last week.' Grace could feel the heat of her anger rising like steam. If she didn't calm down something was going to happen. Jenny was too busy reading a book called, 'Are Werewolves Real?" to perceive just what was going on, while Bruno was sitting on a nearby chair sound asleep. The woman behind the counter had no idea of what trouble she had just caused. Grace was getting angrier and that's when the chaos started.

The books on the shelves behind the counter were starting to tremble, as if in fright. Then as if on there own accord they started flying off the shelves and started hitting people in the store (except Jenny, Bruno and Grace). A tall man, with short brown hair, was trying to escape the book he'd just been reading (it looked like it was trying to eat his face) when one titled "How to care for your dog" hit him hard in the back of his head, causing him to hit the floor with a thud. Hearing the screams that were issuing from inside the bookstore, passers-by (and those who were about to enter) stayed outside to watch. People came tearing out of the store, books of all sizes whacking them about. A small boy, his blue cap askew, was being walloped around the head as if the book were a seriously angry bird.

The books hit people in the head, back, chest and even the arms and legs. The volumes seemed to have minds of their own, for when they followed the people out of the store they seemed to notice the observers, and soon all the people in the street were being hit by books (though for some strange reason, some people didn't get attacked). Inside the store, all the noise had disturbed Jenny's reading (though not Bruno's sleeping) and she looked up to her horror. She ran to find Grace.

Jenny soon found Grace at the counter (the woman was screaming as several books were whacking her about the head).

'Grace, come on let's get out of here.' Jenny urged. As she pulled on her shirt (to drag her outside) Grace grabbed the book on the counter. Outside, they escaped the rushing crowd. Dodging flying books, jumping over fallen people and dashing around people who were trying to escape the attacking books. Reaching the end of the street they broke into a run and headed straight for the orphanage. Bursting through the front door, they rushed upstairs. After all the running around to avoid the havoc, they were going to go straight to bed.

Hanging her bag on the back of her bedroom door. Crashing down on the bed, as the last of the sun disappeared and the night came. Grace found herself hoping that she wouldn't have her dreams again, but as she fell into a deep sleep, she dreamt the two nightmares she always dreamt every night.

It was a dark place with lots of trees, where a man was hiding behind a fallen tree, as he was surround by people wearing strange clothes. She heard one of the people yell something she'd never heard before; it sounded rather like stupid or something similar. She knew she'd never remember the word, as she saw the man manage to dodge a beam of light, which had produced from a straight thin wooden stick held by one of his capturers. The man was suddenly scared as he ran into a creature that reminded her of death, as it started to breathe in deeply as if it was trying to kill him with it's breath. He fell to the ground as, what looked-like a floating cloak with a fragile skeleton underneath, floated away. Some of the men, who looked like they'd done this sort of thing many times before, helped the man to his feet. The man who had ran into the floating creature looked different somehow.

She fell abruptly out of that dream into the next. In a dark setting full of big trees and a full moon, she saw a wolfish creature attack a woman with long blonde hair, as she screamed to her death.

Suddenly, Grace found herself sitting up in bed all sweaty, heart racing. It had felt so real. The man and the woman in her dreams hadn't been the only one screaming, yet Grace hadn't screamed. Lying back down she fell into a dreamless sleep and didn't wake again until morning.