Azura: The Black Mage Girl
.......................................................................
Chapter 2- Prepping of Possibilities
Azura awakes to the sound of a rapping on her door, and hears a voice call from the hall beyond "Wake up and come down if you want breakfast."
As quick as she can, excitement building, Azura gathers her belongs, redresses and dashes downstairs, Amaris reperched back on her shoulder. The tavern is full of the smell of eggs and sausage, and the sounds of guests and visitors talking amongst each other. There is only a half a dozen or so people in the inn this particular morning, Tom himself is involved in deep conversation at the counter with a couple of the more official looking gentlemen.
The breakfast was surprisingly good, not what she was use to but not by any stretch bad. She couldn't eat alot however, her stomach is fluttering with anticipation, so excited she has began to fidget.
For well over an hour, Azura sits starring around the room, for her sister to appear at any moment. Half another hour drifts slowly by, until the door of the Leaky Cauldron swings open. Framed glorious by the light of the morning outside, stands a beautiful young woman with wavy, long red hair and dressed in a deep blue robe. She smiles as her eye catches Azura's, the tiny silver ball in the side of her nose catches a sparkle.
'Scarlett!!!!!' shouts Azura, dashing over and leaping into her sister's arms, letting her belongings fall to the floor.
The two hold each other for what seems like a very long time, enjoying the warmth and love that only family can share. There was a lot of catching up to do, it had been a bit since they last saw each other.
After a lot of cuddling, and proclamations of love and how much they've missed each other, the reunited sisters sit a moment to talk.
"I though you would Apparate right into the tavern, it's a lot less risky then doing out in the open where muggles might see." Asks Azura, with slight air of suspicion.
Scarlett smirks a bit saying, "And how do you think we would have gotten to the train station Azy dearest? I had to go into town and rent a car, but don't worry I apparated in secret and everything."
Feeling a bit embarrassed she hadn't the forethought, she simply replies "Ah.. Heh, that....works."
Breaking up her sister's uncomfortable moment, Scarlett hops from her seat informing she'll be right back and hurries outside. A few moments later she returns carrying a size two cauldron, a very nice one at that, with a brass rim around the top.
"Auntie told me you needed to replace your cauldron, something about yours melting during Potions?" Scarletts tells her sister.
Azura's eyes widen as she replies, "You can't give me that! It's yours, you had that all through your schooling and, and you still use it right? I mean, I know you find time even though you're really busy. I mean, it's great of you really but I, I can buy a new one in the alley."
"Azy, it's yours now and thats all there is to it." says Scarlett, sharply ending her sisters ramblings. "It's my gift to you, as sort of a congratulations for getting into Hogwarts. Besides, I wouldn't go buying cauldrons right now love. There've recently been a lot of shabby cauldrons being sold. Somebody really needs to do somthing about it, it's a small matter but still dangerous."
"If I melt this.... I'll never forgive myself.", replies Azura taking the cauldron, handling it like it where a child.
The two stand, and gather up Azura's belongings, ready to head into the alley. A scraggy man in a dull green robe looks over and smiles at the pair, lifting a mug.
"Hey, you there, little girl. Are you headed for Hogwarts?" the man calls out.
"YES! The train leaves tomorrow!" Azura pipes excitedly, feeling very childish at the moment but to happy to care.
"Well young'n, you better be getting your supplies together than. But first, tell me your name? I want to be able to place the face when I start hearing of Hogwarts new, most outstanding student!" giggles the man kindly, obviously trying to boost her confidence.
"Azura! Azura Shalstone!" she pipes back innocently. Yet, the room goes almost silent, and the old man's face goes blank as he sinks back into his seat. Azura's heart also sinks, remembering that there is still some fear in the Shalstone name in the wizarding world.
"Azy, don't let it get to you for one moment you hear? What others of are family have gotten involved in does not reflect on you, or me or our parents. Only the actions of an individual reflect on their value as a person and good of their hearts." says Scarlett, glaring a bit around the room.
"I know...." she replies quietly, looking down, as she places her wide-brimmed hat back on her head shadowing her eyes and slips out the back door of the pub, into a small alleyway with nothing more than a garbage can and some weeds. Azura remembers her excitement from having come here to do her shopping two years before. It had been quite out of the way to come from the US to do shopping in Diagon, but there is simply no place better in all the world. Looking at the wall Azura chirps, pointing out bricks 'Three up! Two across!'
"Yes yes Azy, I know." responds Scarlett rolling her eyes. She taps the bricks as Azura so energetically reminded, causing the wall to open and melt away into a high arched doorway. Both stand starring for a time, down the alley way lined with shops, owls and wizards bound in their robes.
Azura quickly snatches her sisters hand and pulls her through the doorway which closes up behind them. Scarlett looks down and smiles, happy to see her sister so thrilled. "Right.. So, what are we hear to shop for?"
Azura hops a little, remembering that this is more of a fun trip than required shopping, a point Scarlett obviously didn't realize. "Actually sis, I got all my books already. I just need to be fitted for my robes, pick up some odds and ends and spend the day with a girl with a metal boogie on her nose."
Scarlett looks over at her sister, still bounding about, attracting humored looks from wizards passing by in the street. "Oh ghez girl, I like the nose ring. Drop it." she states. "So, now we should go to the tailor......."
"Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions!", shouts Azura triumphantly, as if she'd just won the Quidditch cup! Scarlett only laughs and holds out her hand for her little firecracker of a sister to lead the way.
The walk is brisk, mildly put, poor Scarlett kicking up her heels to keep up. It isn't long before they enter the doorway of Madam Malkin's and make their way to the nearest woman they see inside. She simply smiles and asks "Hogwarts?", earning herself an enthusiastic round of nodding from Azura. "Well come on then to the back, will get you fited right up", waving at the two to follower her as she disappears behind a curtain.
Azura and Scarlett are quick at her heels, and soon Azura is standing on a small platform, arms out to the sides while her first, Hogwarts regulation robe is tucked, lifted and seamed around her petite body. It takes a bit of time to get her fitted properly in three sets, but receives her pointed hat only a moment after having her head diameter measured.
Azura holds the hat in front of her, looking it over saying "These things are really stupid looking, I can't stand them. They should have a brim, they look like a freak'n dunce cap really."
Scarlett shakes her head a little saying "Oh you stop complaining, you'll get perfectly accustom to wearing it soon enough. When your walking around seeing everyone else in one."
"I suppose so...but still, I'll fill like an idiot for a while."
"Yhea, but you'll get over it, I'm already over wanting to hear about it." Scarlett replies with a teasing smirk.
Azura shoots her tongue out at her sister, then hops off the stool and models in front of an elegant mirror. Smiling, she nods and slips the robe over head, folding it neatly and laying it with the other's across Scarlett's arm. After a short session of trial and error, she's fitted for her gloves. In but a few moments, the two have paid for everything and find themselves buying her phials, scales and scope. No sooner than they stepped back into the street, Azura's turns to face down the alley.
"I'd really like to visit Ollivanders.." Azura says absently.
"Why, you do still have your wand don't you?" Scarlett responds with a puzzled glance.
Azura nods and slips her wand from a secret pocket inside the sleeve of her deep purple robe. Holding it in view of her sister, her mind slips back to two years ago, when she and her mother had purchases it from Ollivander's. She remember the special feeling, as she recalled that over an hour he had searched for a wand that suited her, cluttering his shop with box after box of unsuitable wands. She remembered his excitement, which turned to somewhat of a happy frustration as he finally looked her over and reached up on the top of a shelf, withdrawing a long box like all the others that was pushed back out of view and covered with the dust of ages.
"Lets give this a try, out of pure curiosity if nothing else" he had said, taking the wand from the box and placing it into her awaiting hand. She waved the wand ever so slightly, and the tip began to glow, then spewed colorful sparks, causing Ollivander to quirk an eyebrow. "Ash wood, 10 and half inches, spirals nicely, dragon heartstring... A Baltic sea drake, to be specific. A very powerful, now extinct dragon very little was known about. I've had that wand for a very long time, and it has violently rejected any wizard I've had try it. Haven't bothered with it for years, got tired of cleaning up the havoc." he had said, giving a strange sort of smile, that suddenly turned to a very cold, serious look as he stated, "Be mindful of how you use this Azura Shalstone, it's no ordinary wand and could be quite dangerous."
Those words had actually intimidated her for a time, made her afraid of her own wand but for the most part since she's come very accustom to using it. Now considered her most prized possession, she adores it with all her heart.
"Azy?' Scarlett calls to her, breaking her little flashback, "Lets hang out in the shops here a bit first, we'll go there if we have time afterward." Seeing Azura's perkiness swagger, Scarlett adds "Besides, there's a place I'd like to look into we've never been." She winks then reaches down and ruffles Azura's bangs under the brim of her hat.
Azura tries to smooth her bangs with her hand saying. "Where is that?"
"Oh... Just, a little place near by. It's a bit dodgy, but I think the two of us will be fine", Scarlett gives her sister a warm smirk.
Azura wrinkles her nose a bit in thought, then she looks up at Scarlett with wide eyes, "Knockturn Alley?"
"Maybe." replies Scarlett with a shrug and smirk. "But, do you want to check out the Magical Menagerie first?"
"Of course!" pipes Azura with a hop.
Scarlett and Azura enter the Magical Menagerie, a store dedicated to market of animals both magical and mundane. All around, cages line the walls. On the many counters throughout the store sit atriums of all sizes, containing dozens of species of creatures magical and mundane. Almost everything in the Menagerie, Azura knows great deals about, having studied animals of all sorts every since she could pick up a book as well as keeping her own private, and honestly illegal, collection of small magical creatures in the back of her ante's greenhouse. This is like a candy store to her, she wants one of everything and dreams of running a place like this.
For well over and hour, Scarlett and her excited sister poor over the stores contents, examining every creature carefully. From rats using each others tails to play jump-rope, to jewel incrusted turtle-like creatures spewing flames to a strange little white monkey that appears to be teleporting in a puff of smoke from time to time around the store. Azura can't help but like the large orange cat with the bottle-brush tail that keeps showing up at her ankles, despite how none magical it seems to be. Especially once the shopkeeper informs that the particular cat hasn't ever showed that much affection to anyone before.
"Azy love," says Scarlett in a near whisper as Azura pets a forearm length furry lizard with six legs, hanging upside down by it's tail to bird perch. "We need to get a move on sweety, we only have this one day. Theres other things I want to do with my sister befor she goes off for so long."
Azura, although reluctant to leave smiles up at her sisters and nods. The two exit shortly after, irritating the storekeeper slightly that they spent so much time loitering without purchasing. Once back in the narrow alley, they stop by Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlor for blue-chocolate banana splits.
"Ready for Knockturn sis?", says Scarlett as she stands and straightens her deep red robe.
"I've been ready for years silly!" Pipes Azure, gobbling down her last bite, three times the size of a normal bite, and hopping to her feet.
After having to wait a few moments for a huge hairy man about twice as tall as any other and nearly three times as broad to come out so there's room to get in, Scarlett and Azura slip into Knockturn and make their way down it's depths. Along the side, huddled and decrypted looking witches and warlocks glare at them. Despite the uncomfortable feeling brooding in her stomach, Azura allows the wonders of the alley keep her interest, quite unaware that Scarlett is making sure nobody gets to close to her little sister.
"Borgin and Burkes" says Scarlett, stopping abruptly and tugging Azura's robes to detract her attention from a man holding a spider not smaller than a dinner plate. "This is the place I really want to see."
"Oh wow, I've heard of this place. It's suppose to have a great selection of legal dark magic artifacts."
"From what I hear, some not-so-legal artifacts as well if you know how to ask." replies Scarlett, just before they slip through the door.
The smell of an inky perfume is thick in the air, offending the nose and making Azura's eyes itch. Once adjusted however, her eyes take in a scene the fills her with great curiosity and even a tinge of worry. The room is crammed full of cases, shelves and the strangest assortment of devices imaginable. Azura instantly set to gazing over the many cryptic items, most locked away behind glass and bars for what most like are good reasons. One item that catches her attention particularly, is a cryptic old hand that according to the label if you place a candle within the palm of, the light it sheds will only be seeable to carrier of the hand. It would be a waste of money Azura thinks to herself, even though it would be very helpful in some of her plans. She already has studied herself well beyond normal for her age in the art of Illusion Charms, a field of magic very little of taught of at official schools, so that students won't go sneaking around undetected.
From shrunken heads to implements of detection, every item is intriguing and fills young Azura's mind with thoughts of how she could make use of it. It soon becomes apparent she could easily spend alot of money here, and also gives her a slight feeling of guilt at the thought that interest in such dark practices must be in her blood. Her attention is soon drawn to her sister however, who now stands leaning slightly over the counter talking in a hushed voice to the greasy looking man behind it, wringing his hands slightly and looking apprehensive yet receptive. From her sisters posture, tone of voice and the way the man's eyes occasionaly dart to her accented cleavage it becomes apparent to Azura that Scarlett is trying to get something, turning on a bit of charm to loosen the tongue.
Moments later, the man disappears through a doorway behind the counter and returns. There is a quick exchange of gold galleons for a golf ball size something wrapped in brown paper. With a curt smile, Scarlett steps away from the counter as the man nods and puts the money away.
"Ready to go Azura?", she asks suddenly.
Azura, fighting with all her might to repress her impulse to ask her sister what she bought, shrugs and replies, "Yhea, sure. In couple more hours." and forces a smile.
"You know, just about anything in here would get you in a lot of trouble if you where caught at Hogwarts with it. You have a tendency to get yourself into trouble as it is."
"Yhea.. heh, I know. Not gonn'a buy anything, not today anyway." Azura's curiosity mounting she adds, "Yhea, lets go then."
The two step back into Knockturn Alley, and continue to follow it down it's length, coming to halt at a building with a highly gothic architecture and no markings or signs. There are two cages against the wall out front, each easily large enough to hold two normal size humans and a broken down cart with a shattered wheel. Azura notices all the windows are painted over black, and although it looks like the house it quite abandoned the building is in good condition. Looking around, she notices her and Scarlett have finally gotten outside of earshot of others.
"Sis... I want you to be honest with me. What did you buy at Borgin and Burkes?"
Scarlett looks over, sighs a little and fixes her eyes disapprovingly on her little sister saying, "Azy.. It's really not your business, but I'll have you know it's not for anything bad."
"Scarlett, it's something illegal, what else could it be for?" Azura responds rationaly.
"Sometimes it takes something bad, to fix somthing bad. It's more trouble than it's worth to try and explain it to you little sis.. Please, just trust me and put it out of your mind."
Azura rolls her eyes and slumps, "Fine.. Fine, if that's the way your gonn'a be about it. Let's go." Azura spins on her heel and heads off back down the alley.
.......................................................................
Chapter 2- Prepping of Possibilities
Azura awakes to the sound of a rapping on her door, and hears a voice call from the hall beyond "Wake up and come down if you want breakfast."
As quick as she can, excitement building, Azura gathers her belongs, redresses and dashes downstairs, Amaris reperched back on her shoulder. The tavern is full of the smell of eggs and sausage, and the sounds of guests and visitors talking amongst each other. There is only a half a dozen or so people in the inn this particular morning, Tom himself is involved in deep conversation at the counter with a couple of the more official looking gentlemen.
The breakfast was surprisingly good, not what she was use to but not by any stretch bad. She couldn't eat alot however, her stomach is fluttering with anticipation, so excited she has began to fidget.
For well over an hour, Azura sits starring around the room, for her sister to appear at any moment. Half another hour drifts slowly by, until the door of the Leaky Cauldron swings open. Framed glorious by the light of the morning outside, stands a beautiful young woman with wavy, long red hair and dressed in a deep blue robe. She smiles as her eye catches Azura's, the tiny silver ball in the side of her nose catches a sparkle.
'Scarlett!!!!!' shouts Azura, dashing over and leaping into her sister's arms, letting her belongings fall to the floor.
The two hold each other for what seems like a very long time, enjoying the warmth and love that only family can share. There was a lot of catching up to do, it had been a bit since they last saw each other.
After a lot of cuddling, and proclamations of love and how much they've missed each other, the reunited sisters sit a moment to talk.
"I though you would Apparate right into the tavern, it's a lot less risky then doing out in the open where muggles might see." Asks Azura, with slight air of suspicion.
Scarlett smirks a bit saying, "And how do you think we would have gotten to the train station Azy dearest? I had to go into town and rent a car, but don't worry I apparated in secret and everything."
Feeling a bit embarrassed she hadn't the forethought, she simply replies "Ah.. Heh, that....works."
Breaking up her sister's uncomfortable moment, Scarlett hops from her seat informing she'll be right back and hurries outside. A few moments later she returns carrying a size two cauldron, a very nice one at that, with a brass rim around the top.
"Auntie told me you needed to replace your cauldron, something about yours melting during Potions?" Scarletts tells her sister.
Azura's eyes widen as she replies, "You can't give me that! It's yours, you had that all through your schooling and, and you still use it right? I mean, I know you find time even though you're really busy. I mean, it's great of you really but I, I can buy a new one in the alley."
"Azy, it's yours now and thats all there is to it." says Scarlett, sharply ending her sisters ramblings. "It's my gift to you, as sort of a congratulations for getting into Hogwarts. Besides, I wouldn't go buying cauldrons right now love. There've recently been a lot of shabby cauldrons being sold. Somebody really needs to do somthing about it, it's a small matter but still dangerous."
"If I melt this.... I'll never forgive myself.", replies Azura taking the cauldron, handling it like it where a child.
The two stand, and gather up Azura's belongings, ready to head into the alley. A scraggy man in a dull green robe looks over and smiles at the pair, lifting a mug.
"Hey, you there, little girl. Are you headed for Hogwarts?" the man calls out.
"YES! The train leaves tomorrow!" Azura pipes excitedly, feeling very childish at the moment but to happy to care.
"Well young'n, you better be getting your supplies together than. But first, tell me your name? I want to be able to place the face when I start hearing of Hogwarts new, most outstanding student!" giggles the man kindly, obviously trying to boost her confidence.
"Azura! Azura Shalstone!" she pipes back innocently. Yet, the room goes almost silent, and the old man's face goes blank as he sinks back into his seat. Azura's heart also sinks, remembering that there is still some fear in the Shalstone name in the wizarding world.
"Azy, don't let it get to you for one moment you hear? What others of are family have gotten involved in does not reflect on you, or me or our parents. Only the actions of an individual reflect on their value as a person and good of their hearts." says Scarlett, glaring a bit around the room.
"I know...." she replies quietly, looking down, as she places her wide-brimmed hat back on her head shadowing her eyes and slips out the back door of the pub, into a small alleyway with nothing more than a garbage can and some weeds. Azura remembers her excitement from having come here to do her shopping two years before. It had been quite out of the way to come from the US to do shopping in Diagon, but there is simply no place better in all the world. Looking at the wall Azura chirps, pointing out bricks 'Three up! Two across!'
"Yes yes Azy, I know." responds Scarlett rolling her eyes. She taps the bricks as Azura so energetically reminded, causing the wall to open and melt away into a high arched doorway. Both stand starring for a time, down the alley way lined with shops, owls and wizards bound in their robes.
Azura quickly snatches her sisters hand and pulls her through the doorway which closes up behind them. Scarlett looks down and smiles, happy to see her sister so thrilled. "Right.. So, what are we hear to shop for?"
Azura hops a little, remembering that this is more of a fun trip than required shopping, a point Scarlett obviously didn't realize. "Actually sis, I got all my books already. I just need to be fitted for my robes, pick up some odds and ends and spend the day with a girl with a metal boogie on her nose."
Scarlett looks over at her sister, still bounding about, attracting humored looks from wizards passing by in the street. "Oh ghez girl, I like the nose ring. Drop it." she states. "So, now we should go to the tailor......."
"Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions!", shouts Azura triumphantly, as if she'd just won the Quidditch cup! Scarlett only laughs and holds out her hand for her little firecracker of a sister to lead the way.
The walk is brisk, mildly put, poor Scarlett kicking up her heels to keep up. It isn't long before they enter the doorway of Madam Malkin's and make their way to the nearest woman they see inside. She simply smiles and asks "Hogwarts?", earning herself an enthusiastic round of nodding from Azura. "Well come on then to the back, will get you fited right up", waving at the two to follower her as she disappears behind a curtain.
Azura and Scarlett are quick at her heels, and soon Azura is standing on a small platform, arms out to the sides while her first, Hogwarts regulation robe is tucked, lifted and seamed around her petite body. It takes a bit of time to get her fitted properly in three sets, but receives her pointed hat only a moment after having her head diameter measured.
Azura holds the hat in front of her, looking it over saying "These things are really stupid looking, I can't stand them. They should have a brim, they look like a freak'n dunce cap really."
Scarlett shakes her head a little saying "Oh you stop complaining, you'll get perfectly accustom to wearing it soon enough. When your walking around seeing everyone else in one."
"I suppose so...but still, I'll fill like an idiot for a while."
"Yhea, but you'll get over it, I'm already over wanting to hear about it." Scarlett replies with a teasing smirk.
Azura shoots her tongue out at her sister, then hops off the stool and models in front of an elegant mirror. Smiling, she nods and slips the robe over head, folding it neatly and laying it with the other's across Scarlett's arm. After a short session of trial and error, she's fitted for her gloves. In but a few moments, the two have paid for everything and find themselves buying her phials, scales and scope. No sooner than they stepped back into the street, Azura's turns to face down the alley.
"I'd really like to visit Ollivanders.." Azura says absently.
"Why, you do still have your wand don't you?" Scarlett responds with a puzzled glance.
Azura nods and slips her wand from a secret pocket inside the sleeve of her deep purple robe. Holding it in view of her sister, her mind slips back to two years ago, when she and her mother had purchases it from Ollivander's. She remember the special feeling, as she recalled that over an hour he had searched for a wand that suited her, cluttering his shop with box after box of unsuitable wands. She remembered his excitement, which turned to somewhat of a happy frustration as he finally looked her over and reached up on the top of a shelf, withdrawing a long box like all the others that was pushed back out of view and covered with the dust of ages.
"Lets give this a try, out of pure curiosity if nothing else" he had said, taking the wand from the box and placing it into her awaiting hand. She waved the wand ever so slightly, and the tip began to glow, then spewed colorful sparks, causing Ollivander to quirk an eyebrow. "Ash wood, 10 and half inches, spirals nicely, dragon heartstring... A Baltic sea drake, to be specific. A very powerful, now extinct dragon very little was known about. I've had that wand for a very long time, and it has violently rejected any wizard I've had try it. Haven't bothered with it for years, got tired of cleaning up the havoc." he had said, giving a strange sort of smile, that suddenly turned to a very cold, serious look as he stated, "Be mindful of how you use this Azura Shalstone, it's no ordinary wand and could be quite dangerous."
Those words had actually intimidated her for a time, made her afraid of her own wand but for the most part since she's come very accustom to using it. Now considered her most prized possession, she adores it with all her heart.
"Azy?' Scarlett calls to her, breaking her little flashback, "Lets hang out in the shops here a bit first, we'll go there if we have time afterward." Seeing Azura's perkiness swagger, Scarlett adds "Besides, there's a place I'd like to look into we've never been." She winks then reaches down and ruffles Azura's bangs under the brim of her hat.
Azura tries to smooth her bangs with her hand saying. "Where is that?"
"Oh... Just, a little place near by. It's a bit dodgy, but I think the two of us will be fine", Scarlett gives her sister a warm smirk.
Azura wrinkles her nose a bit in thought, then she looks up at Scarlett with wide eyes, "Knockturn Alley?"
"Maybe." replies Scarlett with a shrug and smirk. "But, do you want to check out the Magical Menagerie first?"
"Of course!" pipes Azura with a hop.
Scarlett and Azura enter the Magical Menagerie, a store dedicated to market of animals both magical and mundane. All around, cages line the walls. On the many counters throughout the store sit atriums of all sizes, containing dozens of species of creatures magical and mundane. Almost everything in the Menagerie, Azura knows great deals about, having studied animals of all sorts every since she could pick up a book as well as keeping her own private, and honestly illegal, collection of small magical creatures in the back of her ante's greenhouse. This is like a candy store to her, she wants one of everything and dreams of running a place like this.
For well over and hour, Scarlett and her excited sister poor over the stores contents, examining every creature carefully. From rats using each others tails to play jump-rope, to jewel incrusted turtle-like creatures spewing flames to a strange little white monkey that appears to be teleporting in a puff of smoke from time to time around the store. Azura can't help but like the large orange cat with the bottle-brush tail that keeps showing up at her ankles, despite how none magical it seems to be. Especially once the shopkeeper informs that the particular cat hasn't ever showed that much affection to anyone before.
"Azy love," says Scarlett in a near whisper as Azura pets a forearm length furry lizard with six legs, hanging upside down by it's tail to bird perch. "We need to get a move on sweety, we only have this one day. Theres other things I want to do with my sister befor she goes off for so long."
Azura, although reluctant to leave smiles up at her sisters and nods. The two exit shortly after, irritating the storekeeper slightly that they spent so much time loitering without purchasing. Once back in the narrow alley, they stop by Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlor for blue-chocolate banana splits.
"Ready for Knockturn sis?", says Scarlett as she stands and straightens her deep red robe.
"I've been ready for years silly!" Pipes Azure, gobbling down her last bite, three times the size of a normal bite, and hopping to her feet.
After having to wait a few moments for a huge hairy man about twice as tall as any other and nearly three times as broad to come out so there's room to get in, Scarlett and Azura slip into Knockturn and make their way down it's depths. Along the side, huddled and decrypted looking witches and warlocks glare at them. Despite the uncomfortable feeling brooding in her stomach, Azura allows the wonders of the alley keep her interest, quite unaware that Scarlett is making sure nobody gets to close to her little sister.
"Borgin and Burkes" says Scarlett, stopping abruptly and tugging Azura's robes to detract her attention from a man holding a spider not smaller than a dinner plate. "This is the place I really want to see."
"Oh wow, I've heard of this place. It's suppose to have a great selection of legal dark magic artifacts."
"From what I hear, some not-so-legal artifacts as well if you know how to ask." replies Scarlett, just before they slip through the door.
The smell of an inky perfume is thick in the air, offending the nose and making Azura's eyes itch. Once adjusted however, her eyes take in a scene the fills her with great curiosity and even a tinge of worry. The room is crammed full of cases, shelves and the strangest assortment of devices imaginable. Azura instantly set to gazing over the many cryptic items, most locked away behind glass and bars for what most like are good reasons. One item that catches her attention particularly, is a cryptic old hand that according to the label if you place a candle within the palm of, the light it sheds will only be seeable to carrier of the hand. It would be a waste of money Azura thinks to herself, even though it would be very helpful in some of her plans. She already has studied herself well beyond normal for her age in the art of Illusion Charms, a field of magic very little of taught of at official schools, so that students won't go sneaking around undetected.
From shrunken heads to implements of detection, every item is intriguing and fills young Azura's mind with thoughts of how she could make use of it. It soon becomes apparent she could easily spend alot of money here, and also gives her a slight feeling of guilt at the thought that interest in such dark practices must be in her blood. Her attention is soon drawn to her sister however, who now stands leaning slightly over the counter talking in a hushed voice to the greasy looking man behind it, wringing his hands slightly and looking apprehensive yet receptive. From her sisters posture, tone of voice and the way the man's eyes occasionaly dart to her accented cleavage it becomes apparent to Azura that Scarlett is trying to get something, turning on a bit of charm to loosen the tongue.
Moments later, the man disappears through a doorway behind the counter and returns. There is a quick exchange of gold galleons for a golf ball size something wrapped in brown paper. With a curt smile, Scarlett steps away from the counter as the man nods and puts the money away.
"Ready to go Azura?", she asks suddenly.
Azura, fighting with all her might to repress her impulse to ask her sister what she bought, shrugs and replies, "Yhea, sure. In couple more hours." and forces a smile.
"You know, just about anything in here would get you in a lot of trouble if you where caught at Hogwarts with it. You have a tendency to get yourself into trouble as it is."
"Yhea.. heh, I know. Not gonn'a buy anything, not today anyway." Azura's curiosity mounting she adds, "Yhea, lets go then."
The two step back into Knockturn Alley, and continue to follow it down it's length, coming to halt at a building with a highly gothic architecture and no markings or signs. There are two cages against the wall out front, each easily large enough to hold two normal size humans and a broken down cart with a shattered wheel. Azura notices all the windows are painted over black, and although it looks like the house it quite abandoned the building is in good condition. Looking around, she notices her and Scarlett have finally gotten outside of earshot of others.
"Sis... I want you to be honest with me. What did you buy at Borgin and Burkes?"
Scarlett looks over, sighs a little and fixes her eyes disapprovingly on her little sister saying, "Azy.. It's really not your business, but I'll have you know it's not for anything bad."
"Scarlett, it's something illegal, what else could it be for?" Azura responds rationaly.
"Sometimes it takes something bad, to fix somthing bad. It's more trouble than it's worth to try and explain it to you little sis.. Please, just trust me and put it out of your mind."
Azura rolls her eyes and slumps, "Fine.. Fine, if that's the way your gonn'a be about it. Let's go." Azura spins on her heel and heads off back down the alley.