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A small familiar girl, clad in what can be seen as a midnight cloak with the hood up to cover her face, walks amid the noise of Diagon Alley. They all stop their chatter and stare at the girl, for as soon as she passes she leaves a mysterious air about her to everyone. This is how it has always been. A faint grin can be seen through the hood's shadow as she seems to glide on air as her cloak trails the floor billowing as if a storm always seems to follow her. They all stare for a moment more as she continues her journey, then they resume to their usually chatty selves.
A young man steps out of a Potion's Shoppe down the Alley just about the same time as the girl walks through the cobblestone streets of the Alley. The man, around in his forties but still strong, stops with his mouth open as the others do. Then he does something that none have done. He follows her. He follows her steps to Gringotts, and he stops at the door, not entering as she does, forming a plan to finally find out the mystery of this girl. He leans against the wall near the heavy door of the bank. He curiously looks over and sees that the girl is greeted by the goblins with warm smiles. "That's a first." he thinks to himself, for all his years he has been alive, he has never seen a goblin give a pure smile, not even a grin, to an person. He watches her crouch down to him and give him the golden key as he stumbles off of his stool. The man leans back as she turn around to follow the goblin. He sighs deeply, for he has heard the rumours. He knows this is no ordinary witch. She was said to be about ten, but never seen with a parent or any relative for that matter. Shortly afterwards, he is surprised by her quick return, but he regains himself quickly and fights himself to pretend he did not feel the cold, eerie presence that he got from her when she past him.
The girl grabs the top of her hood and tugs it down farther as she head to the Potion's Shoppe. He waits leaning gently onto the glass wall as she enters, but this time he turns an ear to the window, hoping to catch the conversation. " 'ello Master Baldwin..." the girl says in a deep mystifying tone.
"Hello Gabrielle! The usual weekend package m'dear?" the old graying shopkeeper says turning to his shelves of powders and liquids. He already starts to flutter about the room picking ingredients off the shelves and sorting them onto the counter before she answer.
"Yes, thank you Baldwin. And another case of the dark phials please. I have been running low lately..." She says while throwing back the sides of her cloak revealing that she wears a dark midnight velvet gown that trails the ground as well. The sleeves are long and tight at the shoulder to the elbow, but flare out and wave around her hands as they are long enough to cover them almost fully. There is a triangular silver lining at her waist and at the hem of her hands, and attached to a loose soft leather strap over the gown here in hangs a hard leather money pouch and a sheath to hold her wand along with her golden Bank key. She lowers her hood as well, her auburn hair accenting the bright red and blonde highlights scattered naturally about her hair, seeing that a strip of blonde and red highlight, are twirled together and fastened at the bottom, two on each side of her face, to accent it further. The man's mouth drops open at the sight, then seeing all the quizzical stares that he is receiving he backs up from the window, but still leans his ear inward.
She opens her money pouch and grabs a few galleons from within its dark depths. She tucks a strand of hair behind her ear revealing quite pointy ears, and she glances to the window, and for a split second they make eye contact. He turns his head away from her glance; he was shocked at how icy blue her eyes were. He had never seen that depth or wisdom within anyone's eyes before. "Yes of course Miss Ashley, the phials are coming up."
She straightens up and puts the galleons in Master Baldwin's hand. She seems to have forgotten the man outside the window. She says calmly as she hurriedly grabs the bags of the ingredients and phials, "Thank you Baldwin..." The old man counts the money seeing that she has once again paid too much. He looks up to open his mouth but sees that she is already outside of the store. She brings her hood up to her face, but with her fingers still to the top of it she looks back into the store. She grins warmly and nods to the storekeeper closing her eyes doing so, telling him that she knew what she did. Master Baldwin nods sighing back to. He gives a salute with his wand to her after she nods. She then continues to walk down the streets.
The man stumbles back up from behind a heap of barrels on the other side of the shop's wall. "Phew, that was close! Good thing I had these hard as rock barrels to break my fall when I tripped backwards. Also gave me something to hide, behind when I fell over them," he says grumbling good naturally while dusting his purple robes. He sees that she is on the move once more. He starts after her again. A passerby seeing his fall walks to him and asks him,
"Hey Albus! That was bloody brilliant dive there! I giver it a ten!" The Professor waves back to the man exasperated as the passerby giggles after him...
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