The familiar nauseous feeling overcame Hayden as she whirred through fireplaces, finally arriving at a dingy pub with a grungy feel, aptly named the Leaky Cauldron. She took two steps out of the fireplace, and immediately was overtaken by a hunchback, who, according to the embroidery on his robes, was named Tom.
"Evening, Miss," he said kindly as he grabbed her arm and led her into the pub.
"Eh, good evening, Tom?" She was unsure about all this, she wanted to shop and get out of there. She followed him without much of a fight into a larger room, where the bar was visible, along with a number of small round tables, each possessing a single lit candle and a small menu. He sat her down at a small table in the corner of the room and offered her a cup of tea. Still slightly bemused, she accepted, took a few sips, and took a moment to take in the surroundings. There were few people in the Leaky Cauldron that night, and by peering through a barely-transparent, dirt-encrusted window, she could see it was rather dreary here in London. Before she knew it, her cup of tea was empty, and she searched through her purse for the satchel of money her father gave her.
She pulled out the satchel, and peered inside. All that was present was a large amount of gold galleons, so, without a second thought, she left the old barkeep one galleon, enough money to pay for all of London to have a cup of tea.
She got up graciously and crossed the room to a large wooden door, with a sign above that read 'Diagon Alley.'
"Easy enough," she thought. She headed through the door and thought for a second the had misread the sign, for all that lay beyond the door was a small stone courtyard filled with garbage bins and other miscellaneous trash items. About 3 feet in front of her there was a red brick wall, and upon close inspection, she noticed an outline of an archway among the ancient bricks. She tapped the wall with her wand, tried muttering a few simple commands, and even tried pushing. After 20 minutes of wasted efforts, she slumped against the wall, taking a deep breath.
After a few minutes of pondering the chances of figuring it out herself, she decided to go back inside and see if Tom could help her get through the gateway. As she turned her back on the wall, she heard a definite rumbling, and sliding of debris. She turned around to see the archway outlines reshaping into a real archway, and two boys, around her age of 16, preparing to walk through.
Ecstatic at her luck, she lunged to the archway and rushed through to the other side, a completely new threshold of hundreds of tiny shops and stores, two stories high, almost eclipsing the light that came through the building tops of the narrow cobblestone street. Somewhat impressed at the change of scenery, she turned around to thank the two boys who had opened the gate, but found that the gate was closed and the boys were no longer where her eyes had last left them. Slightly disappointed, she continued on through Diagon Alley, rummaging in her pocket for the envelope her father had given her with her supply list. Once located, she pulled out the envelope and began reading the requirements. Deciding that getting fitted for her robes would take her a while, she headed there first.
"'Madame Malkins', eh? Well, we'll see," she mumbled to herself as she walked into the shop. As she opened the door, a small bell went off, and immediately, she heard a muffled yell through a door at the back of the shop.
"I'll be right in dear!" she barely made out through the muffled noise. While trying to peer through the back door, she was quite caught off guard by a man's voice somewhere behind her.
"Doing some last minute shopping as well, are you?"
Startled, she jumped and turned around to see a tall, handsome boy of about her age looking down at her from the fitting table. He was wearing a white dress shirt, with the first few buttons undone, revealing a rather fit body. He had piercing green eyes and a strong jaw line, along with rather enticing-looking lips. His hair was medium length, jet black, and worn messily, as if he had just gotten out of bed. All in all, he looked like an immaculately slob-like model perched up on his chair, and why he would be in a place like this, Hayden had no idea.
"Oui, oh, uh, yeah, you?" She blushed slightly for her faux mots, but continued to gaze up at him, waiting for an answer.
"Yeah, I just got back from holiday, I've got no choice," he said casually. Everything about the man seemed casual, as if nothing he said or did really interested him enough to get excited about it.
"I see, I'm transferring, and I just realized today that I'll need completely new things for this school.. Rather dumb on my part, actually," she suddenly realized what she'd said to the man and felt even dumber than she had before. She must be coming off as some stupid schoolgirl transfer, not what she needed at this point in the day.
"Sounds like something I would do," he laughed quietly, looked at her for a second, then stood up. Hayden's jaw literally almost dropped when he stood up, if she had described him as fit before, he was Über-fit now. He stood at least 6 feet tall, with an obvious athlete's build. Broad shoulders, muscular yet thin arms, and she could only imagine what his chest looked like under his shirt. He was wearing denim jeans, an uncommon thing in the wizarding world, slightly baggy and looking worn in. He also wore muggle shoes, another thing that was uncommon. Although, Hayden could not judge, under her robes, she too was wearing a pear of tight-fitting denims a tank top, and a pair of sneakers.
"By the way," he added, "Blaise."
"Hayden," she said coyly. It was times like these when she hated her name.
"Hayden?" he inquired. She nodded. God, why couldn't her name be something nice? "What a beautiful name," he said with a smile. He extended is hand, and she took it, he shook it gently, but with a firm grip. He definitely played Quidditch, his hands were calloused, but still relatively smooth.
He jumped of the table, motioned for Hayden to wait one moment, and walked into the back of the shop. She barely heard him conversing with the muffled voice from before when he re-emerged from the back room with a bored expression playing across his face. It suddenly seemed as if he remember Hayden was standing there, and his face came to life, a small grin appeared and he walked up to her and looked her dead in the eye.
"Well, you know, she's going to be a while with my stuff, so if you wanted a little help with your other shopping, I'd be more than happy to help you out.." he raised his eyebrows a little at the end of his proposition. Intrigued, but slightly taken aback by his arrogance, Hayden decided to just play the casual card. Big egos were not that much fun to deal with, but a lot of fun to break. She was beginning to think that she might like this new school, and the new people inside it, especially if this guy was anything to judge by.
"You can tag along if you'd like," she replied coolly and turned to walk out the door. She glanced out the corner of her eye to see him standing there with his mouth slightly open and his eyebrows raised. Yeah, that shook him a little. Ego's like that expect a room number when they offer you any 'help.'
"Well if you're going to be like that," he started, and she turned around and gave him a 'like what?' look. "Then, uh, I guess I'll have to tag along."
She smiled playfully and continued to walk out the door, glancing back to see him hurriedly pulling on his slightly-small black robes. He yelled 'we'll be back!' to Madame Malkin, and rushed out the door after her.
"Don't leave without me or anything," he said jokingly as he caught up with her on the main street. Hayden decided that it would be alright if she flirted with him, he was cute, after all. And he did start flirting with her first.
"Wouldn't dream of it!" she answered back sarcastically. He was walking behind her, a mystery as to why until his arm reached clear over her head and shoulders and snatched the requirements list out of her hands. She turned around to him indignantly and raised an eyebrow at him. For someone she barely knew, he was being awfully frisky.
"Aye, look at that," he said sweetly. "We're in the same classes. This will make everything convenient. So we're closest to the book shop, might as well head there first," Hayden met him with a steely gaze, but he just smiled and pulled her arm towards an enormous book shop up the street a bit.
"No, no, I don't want to carry all these books the entire time I'm here, we'll do this last, Blaise," she protested honestly. She really did not want to carry her books around all night, she was already running behind schedule, with no clue as to when she might make it home.
"Relax, I'll carry your books for you if it's that big of a deal, if you want to get done shopping before midnight, the only way to do these shops is in order," he said knowingly. Already, she hated to admit that he was right. He was just one of those people you wanted to prove wrong if at all possible. She sighed and headed into the bookshop after him.
The bookshop was a nice change after the chilly air outside, the fireplace was blazing, casting a reddish glow over the entire shop, reaching hopelessly into the farthest corners of the tallest bookshelves. The shop was relatively empty, a few elderly witches sat huddles around a table on the second floor landing, all sitting on plush little chairs that looked similar to gumdrops. There were at least 4 stories of bookshelves, all of which seemed helplessly disorganized, with heaps of books laying here and there, books resting on top of one another or backwards on the shelves, the beginning of term rush had definitely taken its' toll on this shop.
Blaise help his grip on Hayden's arm as he led her into the back of the shop, where there was a small desk, completely overtaken by various volumes and novels, and behind which, sat a dumpy looking wizard in patchy robes. He wore half-moon spectacles at the end of his nose and was buried nose-deep in a book about De-Gnoming gardens.
Blaise quietly cleared his throat, and the old wizard looked up.
"We're sorry to bother you so late," Blaise started, but then the old man sprang to his feet in surprise and began talking rapidly.
"Oh no! No problem at all, sir, miss. What can I get for you? Two copies of, what?, 6th year spell books?"
Hayden smiled in amusement as the wizard tittered on, and nodded when he offered the spell books. He rushed to and fro in the store and returned with a fairly heavy load of books, which Hayden assumed to be the product of both their requirements.
Blaise looked down at her with a smug expression on his face and said sarcastically said, "I wish I had a big, strong man to carry these around for me.."
"Hush, you, you're the one that offered to 'help me out.'"
He looked thoughtful for a moment, the agreed that is was his suggestion. "That's true, maybe we should drop these off at the Leaky Cauldron before we finish the rest of the shopping. They're gonna weigh me down a bit, yanno?"
"What happened to the big, strong man?"
"I said I wanted one!"
They both laughed for a second, then the book clerk returned, carrying another staggering pile of spell books. Blaise eyed them for a second, then sighed, threw his money on the table, picked them up, and turned to me.
"I'll meet you at the archway in 5, I'm just gonna get a room and put these in there."
"Are you sure, you want me to carry some of them?" Hayden's concern was genuine, but it was a typical man-answer that came out of his mouth.
"Oh, so you do wanna get a room, eh? Well in that case, take a few, they're heavy," he smiled and dropped 3 big books on the table, indicating that Hayden should take them and follow him to the Leaky Cauldron.
"Not that I want a room," She joked. "But I will help you, just 'cause I'm a good person."
He studied her for a second before turning his back to me and heading out the door.
"You are a good person," he said quietly.
A little confused, Hayden decided 'what the hell,' picked up the books, and followed him out as he held the door for Hayden with his back. She smiled as sweetly as she could to him as he completely and obviously eyed her down. When his eyes met hers again, there was no sign of guilt or really any acknowledging look at all, just an intense green that burned her somehow.
Hayden started up the street with Blaise close behind her, the pedestrian traffic on the main road was much more than it had been when they had entered Flourish & Blott's, so there wasn't much room for talk between the two. When she reached the place where the arch was supposed to be, she turned to him, desperate.
"What?" He looked politely puzzled.
"I.. I don't know how to open it," she felt like crying. Something about looking so stupid in front of him was eating at her and she couldn't take it. All she'd been saying since she met him were stupid things. She looked at him semi-hopelessly, and then decided to stare at her feet.
Instead of making fun of her, though, he put his piles of books down and took out his wand. He walked up to the wall, tapped 3 bricks in succession, and stood back. Hayden watched in dismay as the gateway formed, and he picked up his books and ushered her through. Even though she was still on the verge of tears out of embarrassment for herself, she walked through the archway in full stride, managed to open the door by herself, and walked inside. Blaise followed, looking a little tense from carrying about 40 pounds of book-age up the main street. He set the books down on a nearby table and went to go speak to Tom the barkeep.
"He says he's got a message for you, and that you already have a room here?"
He looked genuinely confused, with a mixed look of sympathy across his face as he took the books from Hayden's hands and added them to the pile on the table. He sat down and motioned for her to see Tom.
Hayden walked over to the bar, where Tom quickly addressed her.
"Miss Hayden, miss, your father, the Lord Henri Jeux Pierre has requested that you stay here for the night and board the Hogwarts Express tomorrow morning. Your things have been put in a room upstairs," with that, he handed her a tiny bronze key, and motioned for her and Blaise to follow him. Hayden headed up the stairs before both men, and once she reached the top landing, felt a pang of guilt that she had left Blaise to carry all the books. When he reached the top of the stairs, she could not see his face the books were piled so high, and he promptly followed Tom into a room where he proceeded to throw the books onto the bed unceremoniously.
"Thanks for the room," they both mumbled to Tom as he headed out the door. Hayden didn't feel much like talking, let alone shopping anymore. It was getting dark outside and Blaise plopped down on the bed and started to sort through the books. Hayden's mind started racing, over the fact that there was a man she barely knew sitting on her bed like an old friend, the fact that she was transferring schools tomorrow. She had never felt this awkwardly nervous before and her heart started to race, she glanced over at Blaise who was leafing through The Standard Book of Spells : Year 6.
"You know," he began suddenly, "we don't really have to finish shopping today. You can go into Madame Malkins' tomorrow and get fitted, they'll send the robes to the school, they'll be waiting in your room."
"Yeah, but what about all the other stuff?" she glanced at her list. "The apothecary, I need to go there, and so many things.." she trailed off helplessly. She was rather disgusted at the way she had been acting around him, and therefore had no interest in making herself sound even worse.
"Eh, the other stuff can wait. I can spot you in potions, it's really no big deal. You just look like you would rather do anything other than go shopping for a new term," his voice calmed her somehow, the fact that he knew hoe she was feeling put her at ease.
"That's about right. I'm going out of my mind, I mean, look, I barely even know you and you're sitting on the edge of my bed, reading my mind.." Did she just say that? Jesus, nothing else could go wrong. To her relief, he laughed.
"I definitely know that feeling, the one where everybody knows how you feel except for you, yourself," he gazed up at her, his eyes somehow different. Instead of being piercing, they were enticing, they drew her closer to him. She walked over to he edge of the bed, and he stood up. His eyes lingered on her for a moment, but then he continued to move the books off the bed and onto the table that sat in the corner of the room. Hayden sat on the corner of the bed and looked around the room as Blaise finished up with the books.
The walls were dark wood, almost black, and slanted up, making the room look triangular from the door. It was a long and narrow room, first inside the door, there stood a small table, the table upon which Blaise was placing the books, and two small, wooden chairs. There was a small, very worn throw rug at the end of the small, metal-framed bed, which stood about 4 feet from the table and against the wall. The walls started slanting in at the top of the bed, so where Blaise stood, he had to hunch over to situate the books. She smiled at him as he sorted through all the volumes, then continued to look around the room.
There was a chest of drawers at the end of the room, a further 3 feet or so past the bed, and centered on the farthest wall. Above to the chest of drawers there was a small, very dirty window that overlooked King's Cross Station. A huge sign, only visible due to its' vivid red color through the window, read out the station name, and underneath there were arrival and departure screens. There was a small fireplace next to the bed, about a foot over, that did not look big enough to emanate any heat to Hayden. In front of her chest of drawers, her trunk had been placed, hopefully containing all that she would need to help her through her first few weeks of school.
"What house do you think you'll be in?" Blaise was sitting in the small wooden chair, which he was entirely too big for, so the wood creaked as he turned his body towards Hayden to listen for the answer.
"What?" Hayden had no idea what Blaise was talking about so she turned to him for an explanation.
"Oh, you don't know about the houses?" She shook her head. "I see, well then, I guess you'll find out tomorrow. I'm in Slytherin, though."
"Yeah, way to get me reeled in then throw me back," she said with a laugh. "By the way, are you riding the train tomorrow?"
"Of course, how else am I going to get to Hogwarts?"
"Oh," she said, her cheeks flushing, "I was supposed to go by Floo Powder, but then I guess my father changed his mind. I don't even know what Platform it is."
"That's alright, I'll go with you, if you want me to, that is," he added playfully.
"Oh, no, I'd much rather get hopelessly lost and never get to school. That would be a great way to start my term," she was going to leave it at that, but then decided being nice to the guy couldn't hurt her. "Thanks, though. For offering to take me." He smiled broadly and stood up.
"My pleasure," he said. Hayden turned away smiling, but then had the feeling someone was watching her, the obvious assumption being Blaise. She turned around and sure enough, he was sitting on the end of the bed, staring up at her.
"What?" she asked playfully. When he just smiled and continued looking she asked again, this time in a more flirtatious voice. "What?!"
"Nothing!" he finally answered, but he was beaming. Obviously he had been checking her out. "Nothing at all.." Yeah, sure. She decided she could go along with it, and walked over beside him on the bed. She shot him her most sultry gaze and asked him again,
"What? Nothing?" His body melted, but his eyes kept on penetrating her. Obviously, it was more than nothing, already he was more than nothing to her. She sat down next to him on the bed and relaxed her stare. She instead focused her eyes on his hands, which she held and examined. She felt his hand quiver when she touched him, but he allowed her to inspect his palms.
"Well," she started, massaging his palms as she spoke, "you definitely play Quidditch. And you're definitely not a Seeker. Beaters don't have calloused hands, and Chasers wear gloves. Keeper?" She looked up at him triumphantly, but instead of seeing a small smile on his face, she saw his nose, right before he leaned in completely to kiss her. Hayden was a little taken aback, but she went along with it. It seemed like she would go along with anything this man did, and she hadn't even know him for a day.
But she wasn't just going along with his kiss, she was enjoying it. His lips we soft, and he pulled her closer to him on the bed. He cupped her face in his hand and paused for a moment, keeping his face close to hers and looking in her eyes before he continued to kiss her softly.