Disclaimer:
Harry Potter and all of its characters belong to J.K. Rowling.
I own nothing but the original characters I make.
"Dialogue"
'Thoughts'
-Author notes-
Chapter 109: An Interesting Find
James opened the door and walked inside the shop, with Lily following right behind him, as if she was afraid to get lost if she allowed the distance between them to increase too much.
This place gave her some goosebumps the moment she entered.
"New faces… that's very unusual. Particularly ones so young."
Lily looked around but could not locate the source of the voice that had just spoken. It sounded like an old lady.
"Hello?"
She gasped when she felt a hand on her shoulder, but quickly realized it was James. He was using his finger to point upwards.
Lily tracked his sign and looked up. Above them, there was a second floor with a wooden balcony that overlooked the entrance where she was standing.
Glimpsing at them from above was an old lady wearing dark robes that covered most of her body and one of those very old-school and ridiculously oversized witch hats.
If a Muggle were to see this person up close, they would immediately identify her as a witch, even if they didn't know that magic was real.
"My apologies, I was doing some cleaning," the old lady said with a smile so warm that it seemed to contradict everything about her appearance and that of her shop.
"N-not at all. I was just looking for something…" Lily said with hesitation.
"Oh, you have something in mind. Give me a second."
Much to Lily's shock, the old witch jumped from the balcony of the second floor without hesitation.
Lily wanted to close her eyes to save herself from the macabre spectacle she expected to occur, but… the old witch just landed on the floor, stood up, and patted the dust from her robes like nothing had happened.
"Now… would you tell me what you are looking for, young lady?" the witch asked.
"Ehm…" Lily felt very nervous under this person's inquisitive gaze. She could feel as if she was having her very soul examined.
"She is looking for books on ancient tombs and other magical locations of old," James answered for her.
"Mmm, that is an interesting request… let's see what I have…" The old witch became lost in thought while perusing the shelves of her shop.
There was a large section for books on the left side, and she was going over it quite thoroughly.
"Are you feeling okay?" James asked Lily after noticing that she looked a bit uncomfortable.
"I'm fine…" she said in a soft whisper. "I just felt something strange a moment ago… it's... it is a bit hard to describe it, but it made me feel-."
"You felt you were being analyzed to your very core when you glanced into the witch's eyes?" James asked.
"Yes!, It was exactly like that. How did you know?" Lily asked.
"She probably used Legilimency on you. Perhaps you should avoid looking into people's eyes when walking into places like this one," James said.
"The Mind Arts? I read a bit about those types of magic. But using it on someone without warning? That has to be illegal, right?" Lily asked, while keeping an eye on the old witch in case she had been heard.
But the shopkeeper seemed very busy at the moment, looking for the books she requested.
James glanced at Lily. "Do not be so quick to claim something is illegal. The use of Legilimency may be somewhat restricted, but it depends a lot on the situation. Right now, we are inside someone else's property, so they can always claim they only used it to protect themselves...in case we came here with bad intentions. Just in the same way that wards are used."
"Oh… I haven't really considered it from her perspective. You may be right." Lily felt a bit embarrassed, as her first thought had been to go warn one of her professors that someone had used a mind spell on her.
"I think it's over here." The old witch climbed a set of spiral stairs and went to the second floor. Apparently, there was another library over there, albeit a much smaller one.
"Did you bring gold? I'm sure the second-floor section is only for very rare tomes," James commented.
"Really? I didn't expect the books to cost that much. The most expensive book I bought this year cost me one Galleon and eleven Sickles."
"Aha! Found it!" the old witch called to them from above. "Come here, young ones. I have located what you are looking for."
"See? I told you this shop was likely to have something useful," James said.
The two of them went up there and found that the witch had already laid three books on top of a small table.
"These three contain the information you are seeking. They go into great detail about the contents of several important ancient magical places."
The witch then went on a long explanation about each of the tomes.
Lily was paying attention to her words, but James got distracted when he spotted something on one of the shelves where the witch had taken some of the other books.
"The Silent Crypt" was the title written on the spine of the book.
He had read this one before and knew well enough which tomb it was referring to.
The book is about the expedition that was carried into an ancient tomb in the south of Wales, around the beginning of the twentieth century.
The tomb was supposed to belong to a very famous figure from ancient legends who was related to the first Merlin. But the expedition was a complete failure, and everyone...except for the author of that book, died in that tomb. But it made for a good story, at least.
Not many believed the tale to be based on real events, and the author died shortly after writing that manuscript, so they couldn't even ask him.
However, in 1980, just the year he had been born, someone found the actual tomb and managed to uncover some important treasures from there.
There was one particular artifact in there that James would have loved to have for himself.
James shook his head. 'That's too bad. It's too late for...hold on… right now it's just 1975.' He was still getting used to living in the past.
"That means… I can go in there and get it for myself. I can do it."
"James?" Lily turned around to look at him when she heard him mutter some words she couldn't understand. "Were you saying something?"
James pointed at the book. "I will take this one."
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