CHAPTER 3

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For reviewing, adding Will of the Willow to Story Alert, Favorite Story, or a combination of the three! You guys rock! And getting reviews and alerts in mah email makes me all giddy and happy inside and makes me want to write more. I already have Chapter 4 and part of Chapter 5's rough drafts finished. Anyway, here is chapter 3. Enjoy!

It's easier to run
Replacing this pain with something numb
It's so much easier to go
Than face all this pain here all alone

-Linkin Park

I didn't go back to the shop until Christmas. I was honestly glad to be going away for the holidays. I didn't have any friends to spend break with, and I didn't like an empty Hogwarts. Nor did I want to go back to the orphanage where I would be forced to clean anyway, but without pay. Burke wasn't much company, but he was better than nothing, or the headmistress at the orphanage.

Draco Malfoy, I knew, was staying for the holidays. I was glad to get away from him. We had not spoken since that first day in Borgin & Burkes, but I could tell he noticed me when others didn't. He would stare at me. It was a bit unnerving.

Burke had let the shop collect dust in my absence (although I couldn't really blame him since he was as old as the dirt on the floor), but the front area was nowhere near as bad as the first time I cleaned it. The cluttered back area, however, was a different story. You could barely turn around with all the boxes piled everywhere.

Each box marked the known description of the object it contained and where it came from. Our job was to organize everything, decide if it was worth putting out front or kept in back, and make a description list of the object and sometimes a warning.

It was time consuming work, but not unpleasant.

I stayed in a "spare bedroom," which was merely the attic Burke had me clear out. I didn't mind.

I worked hard through Christmas break, but that was okay with me. The pay was good and Burke wasn't as unpleasant as he wanted people to think. He had a heart somewhere deep down. Very deep down.

I had daydreams about Burke adopting me so I could take care of him and help run the shop, and, eventually, inherit it. I was growing quite fond of the old coot.

I never voiced this thought out loud.

I did, however, demand that we have Christmas dinner the proper way. I even cooked everything the muggle way, and it wasn't half-bad. I think Burke enjoyed it, even though he grumbled about the turkey being slightly overcooked.

The day before I was supposed to leave, we were sorting through some old artifacts in the back room, deciding what should be kept in storage for a while, and what should be put out front to be sold. Sales had boosted just this Christmas, and we needed to fill the empty space.

With the boost in sales came a boost in the variety of customers. Most were the kind I wouldn't want to get on the bad side of. Burke wouldn't let me deal with the customers. He thought I might "screw somethin' up," but I think he wanted to protect me.

But I could be wrong.

Catching myself daydreaming (I tend to do that quite a bit), I forced myself to concentrate on the task at hand.

Then, I came across a very beautiful bracelet. It was pure sterling silver and molded into little snakes. Each one had another's tail in its mouth, forming a circle. If I moved it, they appeared as if they were dancing. Each snake had a tiny emerald as its eye.

"What's this?" I asked Burke softly.

"Eh?" he inquired. He put down a musical box he had been examining. I suppressed a shudder. The description said that anyone who hears its melody would go raving mad. Victims in the past had killed their loved ones and others in their spell-induced fury.

I handed the bracelet to Burke and he looked at it closely.

"This," he spoke slowly, "belonged to Slytherin himself. It has a dark history and I'm not sure exactly how it ended up in me shop. It has some sort of enchantment on it, but I have yet to find out what it is."

He gave it back for me to look at. A very strange feeling passed over me. The bracelet felt oddly familiar in my hands. I had the sudden impulse to put it on. Resisting, I handed it back.

"You should put that out front. It's probably worth a lot," I said. Burke nodded and placed it in his pocket, out of view.

Later, when I was filling out descriptions (Burke gave the job to me since his handwriting was barely legible), all I could think about was that bracelet. It was like it somehow had some sort of hold on me.

I went to bed that night dreaming of silver and emeralds.