I apologize for any confusion in this chapter, while rewriting and editing I tried to make it as easy to follow what was happening as I could. But keep in mind that this chapter is in the point of view of Myari Rose, who doesn't know the names of people so there will be some confusion as to who is who and what is going on. I hope you enjoy the chapter none the less, and if you have any questions please do not hesitate to message me either here or on Discord at MyariRose#1920 and I will do my best to answer your questions without giving any spoilers away.
Chapter Five – At Flourish and Blotts
Myari Rose was a young woman of eleven now and was considered by her clan as a grown up. She was old enough to leave the village by herself. She was old enough to travel to the outside world. And as such, Myari was old enough to admit to herself that she was truly and utterly terrified. Her hazel eyes roamed the busy street, locking eyes with all the disapproving looks from every passing female and the hungry looks from most of the males.
Myari shifted trying to hide how their stares made her feel uncomfortable. Why were they all looking at her like that? Was she wearing her outfit wrong? As subtly as Myari could, she looked down at herself as best as she could.
Her crop top was still covering her chest. She lifted her hand to the bow that held up her top, it was still there. Myari dropped her hand to the ties the held up her sleeves, they were still there. She could feel that her shorts were still on, and her knee-high boots were still on correctly. The outfit that her grandmother (along with the other clan elders) had made for her was still on properly, so why were all these people staring at her?
With a deep sigh, Myari pushed off the wall she was leaning on and began to wander around Diagon Alley. She had arrived in Diagon Alley a couple hours ago. She and a close friend of hers had planned up to meet before going shopping for their school supplies. And her friend was late.
Myari glanced around at the crowd around her, trying to learn from them. She had never been outside of her small village and didn't know how to go about gathering all the supplies she needed for school. From what Myari could figure out, she needed certain types of coins to trade. However, she didn't know where to get these coins.
Myari brushed back some of her midnight blue hair that had fallen out of her messy bun while biting her lip. Her right hand twitched as she fought the urge to use a nearby window to call her mother. She was eleven years old. She was a young woman. She had been chosen by the Fallen One. She was meant to locate the chosen vessel and protect whoever they were until the Fallen One can find them. She was meant to help the Fallen One save the universe.
Myari was only eleven years old and terrified. What if she never found this vessel? How was she even supposed to know how to find this vessel? The stories passed down from the clan elders stated that, as the Chosen Helper, Myari would be able to just sense this vessel.
Myari stopped in the middle of Diagon Alley and spun around as she felt a powerful aura that felt as if it were trying to destroy itself. Light and Dark constantly at war. She had met the Fallen One (if you count hearing him whisper in her mind during the ritual that had awoken her as the Chosen Helper as meeting), and this person's aura reminded her of him. Myari began to frantically search for the owner of the aura until the aura vanished, as if it had never been there.
Myari was snapped back to the present when she was tackled in a hug from behind. An airy laugh floated around her, and Myari sighed. Her friend had found her. "You're late." Myari said as she removed her friend's arms from around her and turned to look at her friend. Her friend had shoulder length platinum blond hair and ice blue eyes, and she was giving her a whimsical smile.
"Forgive me," The girl said as she wrapped her arms around Myari's arm, "the Nargles are gathering around their False King." Myari allowed the girl to begin dragging her down the street, towards a snowy white building that towered over the other little shops.
"There are Nargles here?" Myari asked before looking at her friend in confusion. After awakening as the Chosen Helper, Myari had studied up (as best as she could with the limited knowledge of the outside world) about the world outside her village, and she hadn't heard anything about Nargles. "What are Nargles?" The girl laughed and waved a hand at everyone around them.
"Nargles." She explained with an airy laugh. Myari looked around them, she didn't see anything other than the people. Were Nargles invisible to her? Was Luna the only one able to see these Nargles? Were Nargles dangerous? Not wanting to appear stupid in front of her friend (her only one outside the village), Myari just nodded as if Luna's explanation explained everything to her. Luna laughed and rested her head on Myari's shoulder.
"Worry not, Little Shadow, I'm here to help you." Luna told her as she led Myari into that snowy building.
~Keep Me In Your Memories~
Myari was annoyed. She had seen so many things that she had never dared to dream even existed, and her brain hurt. Myari was mentally exhausted and wanted to crawl into bed and end this day. However, her and Luna were only halfway through their school list and needed to go to the bookstore (whatever that was).
When Luna drug Myari to a building that had people crowded outside it, she wanted to complain and beg to go home. She was done for the day. However, when the crowd of people pushed and shoved at each other causing Myari's hand to slip from Luna, she began to panic and search for her friend.
"Excuse me." Myari muttered as she pushed passed people. "I'm not in line." She explained whenever a witch would complain and hiss at her about cutting in line.
"Oh, I do hope he isn't too lost." Myari overheard as she came to a group of redheads (with a black-haired boy and a girl with curly brown hair) that were blocking the way to the stairs. Myari sighed knowing that it would be easier to find Luna if she had the high ground, but that meant that she had to get past this group.
"Excuse me." Myari said to the youngest looking red head that was on the outside of the group, hoping to get her to move.
"I'm sure he's fine. I bet he'll show up any minute now." She overheard.
"Excuse me, could you let me through." Myari said through her teeth getting very annoyed. Myari growled in annoyance when the red-headed girl tossed her hair and hit Myari in the face with her hair. Fed up with everything, Myari shoved the red-headed girl into the girl with curly brown hair.
"Hey! Watch it!" The redhead girl cried out.
"Maybe you should pay attention to your surrounding and not slap someone with your hair! Also, you should learn to move when someone is politely asking you to move. Were you raised in a barn?" Myari hissed out to the red-headed girl before shoving past the girl and climbed the stairs. As Myari wandered around the upstairs trying to find a good spot to be able to see the whole store, a hand gently grabbed hers. She turned and found Luna smiling at her.
"This way." Luna told her before leading her over to the balcony hanging over the main floor. "This is the perfect spot."
"For what?" Myari asked allowing her eyes to flow over everyone on the main floor.
"The showdown between the False King and the Nargle King." Luna told him and Myari looked at her in barely hidden concern and fear.
"The Nargles have a king?" Myari asked, receiving a knowing smile as her answer.
"That man there," Luna told her pointing at a man wearing forget-me-not blue robes that matched his eyes, his pointed wizard's hat was sat at a jaunty angle on his wavy blond hair. He was winking and flashing dazzling white teeth at the crowd, "he is–"
"Let me guess, he is the Nargle King?" Myari asked, believing she had figured out what (or who) the Nargles were.
"He is the False King." Luna explained and Myari blinked at her. Maybe she hadn't actually figured out what the Nargles were.
"Where is the Nargle King?" Myari asked, looking around while hoping that the Nargle King wasn't invisible.
"He'll make an appearance soon. At the moment he's worried about his Shadow." Luna told her and Myari looked at her in confusion. Did everyone here talk in riddles like Luna? Why couldn't people just say what they mean?
"I don't know if I want to ask why this Nargle King is worried about his shadow." Myari said with a shake of her head. She looked back at the 'False King' and noticed that a photographer had made his way through the crowd and was now taking pictures of the 'False King'. She also noticed that the large group of red heads had made their way to the front of the line.
"The Nargle King is here." Luna told her in a whisper.
"It can't be Haiden Potter?" The 'False King' gasped out, the crowd parted whispering loudly. The 'False King' dove forward and grabbed a boy with short, messy looking black hair and glasses (the boy with the group of redheads) and pulled him to the front. The crowd burst into applause. From her spot, Myari could see that the boy, Haiden, was very uncomfortable as his face redden. The 'False King' forced Haiden to stand next to him and shake his hand while the photographer took multiple pictures of them.
When the 'False King' finally let go of Haiden, the poor boy tried to make his way back to his group, holding his hand and flexing his fingers. However, the 'False King' quickly threw his arm over Haiden's shoulders and forced him to stay right next to him. "Ladies and gentlemen!" the 'False King' said loudly, waving for the crowd to be silent. "What an extraordinary moment this it! The perfect moment for me to make a little announcement I've been sitting on for some time! When young Haiden here stepped into Flourish and Blotts today, he only wanted to buy my autobiography – which I shall be happy to present him now, free of charge–" The crowd applauded again, and Myari could see Haiden fighting the 'False King's hold on him. "He had no idea," The 'False King' tightened his hold on the poor boy, causing him to wince, and gave him a little shake that made his glasses slip to the end of his nose, "that he would shortly be getting much, much more than my book, Magical Me. He and his schoolmates will, in fact, be getting the real magical me. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I have great pleasure and pride in announcing that this September, I will be taking up the post of Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry!"
The crowd cheered and clapped as Haiden was presented with the entire works of Gilderoy Lockhart. Staggering slightly under their weight, the boy managed to make his way out of the limelight to the edge of the room, where his group was. Myari watched as Haiden put the books into the annoying red-headed girl's cauldron. Myari looked over at Luna.
"Was that boy the Nargle King?" She asked and Luna nodded before taking Myari's hand and lead her back to the stairs.
"We should get our schoolbooks." Luna said. As they got to the stairs, Myari noticed that the stairs were now being blocked by two boys. One a small boy with shoulder length black hair holding the hand of a boy with short white, blond hair, moonlight pale skin, and aristocratic features that was sneering at Haiden. "Bet you loved that, didn't you, Potter? Famous Haiden Potter. Can't even go into a bookshop without making the front page." The small, black-haired boy angrily poked the blond-haired boy while glaring at him.
"Leave him alone! He didn't want all that!" The red-headed girl said, stomping her foot childishly.
"Potter, you've got yourself a girlfriend." The blond-haired boy drawled out before the small, black-haired boy stood on his toes and whispered angrily into the boy's ears as the red-headed girl flushed red. It was obvious that the small, black-haired boy was reprimanding the blond-haired boy. By this point a lanky red-headed boy and the girl with curly hair had made their way over to them, each of them with their own copies of Lockhart's books.
"Oh, it's you," the lanky red-head boy said, looking at both the small, black-haired boy and the blond-haired boy as if they were something unpleasant on the sole of his shoe. "Bet you're surprised to see Haiden here, eh?"
"Not as surprised as I am to see you in a shop, Weasley." The blond-haired boy said, moving so that the small, black-haired boy was now hidden behind him. "I suppose your parents will go hungry for a month to pay for all these." The blond-haired boy growled out. The lanky red-headed boy went as red as his hair. He dropped his books into the red-headed girl's cauldron and started towards the blond-haired boy. Haiden and the curly haired girl quickly grabbed the back of the lanky red-headed boy's jacket. Myari was feeling very awkward, what had they stepped into?
"Ron!" A man with red hair called out, struggling over with a pair of red-headed twins. "What are you doing? It's too crowded in here, let's go outside." A man with shoulder length white, blond hair elegantly strolled past Myari and Luna towards the small, black-haired boy and the blond-haired boy.
"Well, well, well – Arthur Weasley." The blond man said, resting a hand on the blond-haired boy's shoulder, a sneer on his face.
"Lucius." Arthur said, nodding coldly.
"Busy time at the Ministry, I hear," Lucius said, moving around the blond-haired boy and stepped off the steps. "All those raids… I hope they're paying you overtime?" He reached into the red-headed girl's cauldron and extracted, from amid the glossy Lockhart books, a very old, very battered copy of A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration. "Obviously not," Lucius drawled out. "Dear me, what's the use of being a disgrace to the name of wizards if they don't even pay you well for it?" Arthur flushed darker than either Ron or the red-headed girl.
"We have a very different idea of what disgraces the name of wizards, Malfoy." Arthur said.
"Clearly." Lucius said, his pale eyes straying to the obvious parents of the curly haired girl, who were watching apprehensively, obviously feeling just as awkward about the situation as Myari was. "The company you keep, Weasley… and I thought your family could sink no lower–"
There was a thud of metal as the red-headed girl's cauldron went flying, landing at the feet of a person covered from head to toe in a black cloak that gave Myari the feeling that they should not be there. The small, black-haired boy cried out in fear and shock causing the blond-haired boy to spin around and pull him into a hug. Arthur had thrown himself at Lucius, knocking him backward into a bookshelf. Dozens of heavy spellbooks came thundering down on all their heads. There was a yell of, "Get him, Dad!" from the red-headed twins. A red-headed woman (the obvious mother of the red-headed children) was shrieking, "No, Arthur, no!". The crowd stampeded backward, knocking more shelves over. "Gentlemen, please – please!" cried the assistant.
Myari knew how to handle this. This situation happened a lot when two men were after the same woman. Myari quickly brought her fingers to her lips and blew. A loud, almost ear-splitting whistle burst from her lips, causing everyone to cry out in shock and cover their ears.
"Gentlemen!" Myari called out in her best authoritative voice that her mother had taught her, causing Lucius and Arthur to look at her in shock. "You are grown men; this behavior is not suited for either of you! This behavior is best suited for young children! Now, if you two wish to continue acting as children, then me and everyone else will treat you two as such!" Myari stood in front of the two men, her stance was that of a woman in charge, the way her grandmother had taught her. Lucius pushed Arthur off of him, brushed the wrinkles out of his clothes, before opening his mouth. Myari cut him off.
"If you, in anyway, try to tell me that you did not start this fight, then you can take your words and shove it! I witnessed the whole thing. You may not have thrown the first physical punch; however, you did throw the first verbal punch." Lucius instantly closed his mouth, sniffed, before giving Myari a tight-lipped look. Myari looked between the two men, both looking shamed in their own way. "Now, apologize to each other and everyone here." Lucius ran a hand through his hair before holding out his hand to Arthur who looked at him suspiciously for a second before taking it.
"Arthur, I apologize," He forced out looking as if the words hurt to say, "for offending your family." Arthur glanced at Myari, who was giving him a hard look, waiting for his apology.
"And I apologize for attacking you, Lucius." Arthur said, also looking as if the words hurt to say.
"Draco, let's go." Lucius ordered before turning and leaving the shop. Myari heard a sigh from behind her and looked over her shoulder at the blond-haired boy.
"I'll see you at school." He told the short, black-haired boy. Myari watched as the blond-haired boy bent his head towards the short, black-haired boy before he flushed bright red and pulled away and ran a nervous hand threw his hair. "Right, then." The boy spun around and all-but ran out of the shop.
"Excuse me." The small, black-haired boy muttered passing Myari (her hazel eyes locked onto his large, emerald, green eyes) and picked up the fallen battered copy of A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration that had flown out of Lucius's hand when Arthur had attacked him and handed it back to the red-headed girl as the curly haired girl handed the red-head girl her cauldron. At the sight of the cauldron, Myari looked around for the cloaked person; however, they were gone.
"Your mother and grandmother would be proud at how you handled that, Little Shadow." Luna whispered to her as the girls arms wrapped around her shoulders so that she was now practically hanging off her. However, Myari didn't notice. Her eyes were back on the red-headed girl's cauldron. Was it just her, or was there an extra battered book in there?