I went into Flourish and Blotts and was faced with a sight similar to Ollivanders, except the piles of boxes were now piles of books. This place was also rather crowded compared to the dinky wand shop.

I looked around trying to spot an employee- I wasn't going to try to find my schoolbooks on my own. Then, as if I had sent some sort of sign to him, a tall, lanky man walked over to me, looking quite flustered.

"Hogwarts, yes? Hand me your list."

I pulled the folded up paper out of my pocket and held it out for him. He snatched it from me and began rushing around the store, climbing ladders, and taking books off shelves.

My eyes wandered around and swept the shelves and displays. A particular book caught my eye and I walked over to it- quickly picking it up and flipping through it. It was written in a different language, but I was more interested in the pictures than the words themselves. I continued flipping through ; seeing images of people with missing eyes, finger nails, ears; people with their heads split in half and even ones who looked possessed by a demon or monster.

"I do not think you will be needing that in your first year."

I turned quickly and was face to face with the employee who was giving me a dirty look whilst juggling a stack of books.

"Oh, yeah. I was just looking." I said quickly, placing the book back on the shelf while keeping my eyes on the employee.

There was a small beeping noise that steadily got louder and louder. The employee was in the middle of handing over my books when he heard the noise and paused. I tried to ignore it, but it reached a point where it was almost deafening. The employee let out a loud screech, dropping my books to the floor as he did so, and proceeded to duck under the nearest display of Divination books. Before I could even turn to see what was wrong, there was an earsplitting blast that sounded like a miniature explosion. The bookcase I was standing in front of was engulfed in a cloud of gray smoke and what looked like small fires, which began to nip and lick at the covers and bindings of the books. There was a heart stopping moment of silence as I stood there watching ripped and torn pages falling to the floor, and ash rising to the ceiling.

"You idiot boy! Did you touch the Big Book of Bombs?" the employee bellowed.

I turned around to face him as he crawled out from under the Divination display, wiping his robes off.

"No! I just put the other book back!" I protested.

His lip curled and his face began to contort with rage. "LIAR! YOU ARE A LIAR! A LYING LITTLE TROUBLE MAKER IF I HAVE EVER SEEN ONE!" he screamed, pointing a fat, stubby finger into my chest.

I pushed his hand away, as I could feel the heat rising in my face."I didn't! Besides you're the one who put a fucking exploding book out here! And you call me an idiot?" I barked.

He looked for a moment as though he, himself would explode just as the book had, leaving the entire store a pile of rubble. His eyes began to bulge, his face turned a disturbing dark shade of red, and several veins popped out of his neck and head as he began to shake. He glared around the store, noticing all eyes were on the two of us, and decided against making any more of a scene.

He swallowed slowly. "Books. Take... yours... and...get...OUT." he said slowly, pausing between each word.

I bent down and scooped the stack of books he had dropped into my arms, tossed some money at his feet and made my way out of the store.

By the time I had gotten my robes, cauldron, items for potions, and a fair amount of things from Zonko's that I felt may come in handy at Hogwarts, it was dark outside. I carried everything into the Leaky Cauldron and figured they were closing, because the place was almost empty except for the inn keeper and a woman who was digging through her purse. I continued up the steps and into my room, thankful that there were no more mishaps inside the other shops after the Flourish and Blotts disaster.

I dumped everything I had bought into my trunk, not bothering to move anything or straighten it up. I figured there was no point since it was just going to be messy a few days into term anyway, why go through the trouble?

I retreated to my bed, throwing the covers back and settling down on my back. I stared at the ceiling- which was starting to seem like a favourite pastime of mine. I was greeted with more cracks and bumps as on the roof of my old room but somehow here it didn't seem quite as gloomy.

At home I couldn't wait to get to sleep. Sleeping was always the only thing I looked forward to during the day; it was my escape from the place that I hated most. But, for the first time in my life, I couldn't go to sleep. Not only was I unable to- I really didn't want to. For the first time, I was happy being awake. My eyes danced lazily across the room, observing every inch I could from my spot on the bed. I would glance over at the clock every once in awhile and watch as the time ticked from 10 to 11 and before I knew it, it was 1 am. My thoughts and consciousness began to fade, and I drifted off to sleep.

I woke up startled, after what had only seemed to be a moment of having my eyes closed. A look at the clock told me I was right. I had barely been asleep for ten minutes. I paused for a moment trying to figure out what woke me. I didn't recall having a bad dream, though I was pretty sure I heard something. Was I dreaming? I stilled my breathing as I sat there listening, trying to catch any noise I could. I laid back, resting my head on my pillow as I felt my eyelids getting heavy, when I heard voices which sounded like they were coming from the hallway. I sat up quickly and made my way to the door, opening it slowly. I craned my neck outside to see who was there, but after a glance up and down the hallway, I decided they must have left. I pushed the door slightly to close it when I hand from inside the hallway pushed on the top part, and began prying the door open. I backed up a bit and two hooded figures walked in. One a tall man, in black robes, the other one, much shorter and sporting a bright green pair of robes.

"Ah. Mr Black." whispered the tallest one, reaching out towards me.

I took a step back, moving out of arms length of the wizard.

"Ohhh! He's scared!" the shorter man jeered.

The tallest one walked slowly towards me and as soon as I had moved past my bed, he lunged forward slamming me into the wall and knocking the wind out of me. I coughed and slid down the wall, readying myself to crawl around so I could get to my feet. The tallest one sensed my plan and lifted me to my feet before slamming me back into the wall and grabbing my throat with both hands. I gasped, grabbing at his hand, trying to pry it away.

He chuckled to himself quietly as he watched me struggle. "What is it? We'll be brothers soon enough." he whispered as he nodded his head towards the green robed wizard who in turn proceeded to roll one of his sleeves up, showing a tattoo- the dark mark. They were death eaters.

I gritted my teeth. "We'll never be brothers." I snarled, glaring at them.

They both broke into a chorus of laughter. The shorter one approached me.

"You say that now, but you'll change your mind. They always do. Afterall, House of Black has turned out a nice lot of supporters, if I do say so myself."

"You're a liar!" I bellowed. "There were very, very few of them that joined up with your filthy lot!"

The green robed death eater stepped forward even closer and spoke in a voice that barely came out in a whisper. " What did you call me?"

I swallowed as the taller one tightened his grip on my throat, making it almost impossible to breathe.

"A liar...I called you...a..liar!" I yelled in between gasps.

I looked at him, waiting for him to make a move, but he didn't. Then out of nowhere he laughed and swung his hand across my face, breaking the silence with a loud 'crack'. I clenched my teeth as my face began to sting as soon as his gloved hand left my skin. I could feel a burning sensation, and I shut my eyes tightly.

The tallest death eater sighed. "We'd better get back or we'll both be in trouble."

"Alright. What do we do with him? Kill him! Can we!" he asked excitedly.

"No. That was not what we were supposed to do. We need him alive later." The black robed death eater said as he slowly began loosening the grip on my throat.

I opened my eyes again, and welcomed the air that was once again going freely into my lungs.

The shorter wizard whined. "No fun at all."

He turned to leave but changed his mind and gave me a quick kick in the stomach, sending me to the floor. My hands dashed automatically to the spot, and I felt myself slipping out of consciousness until finally, all I saw was darkness.