Knight of the Black Rose (10 page)

"I've always liked the uniforms," Anne said. "At least the students can't complain that they're boring,"

"No I guess we can't," Will said staring at the uniforms, wondering which colour he'd get to wear.

"The centre one, we get to take home," Anne told him. "You'll wear that on your first night,"

"So the rest of the time, unless something’s going on we wear the estate uniforms?" Will asked.

"Yes, that's why you buy more of them," Anne told him.

"Yes, we have one," the woman said brightly as she walked back over to them carrying a nicely wrapped package, and handed it over to Anne. "Lucky as well, it was the last one,"

"It is luck," Anne said walking over to the counter to pay while Will stayed to have a longer look at the uniforms. Anne came back over a couple of minutes later after she had paid and ready to go onto the next shop. "Thank you, bye," Anne added over her shoulder.

"Bye, see you again next year," the woman said smiling as they left the shop.

They walked over to the door which rang out again and then shut behind them as they stepped down back onto the street rejoining the bustling crowd and headed back up to the square, for the next items off their list.

"So, where are we going now?" Will asked, as he wanted to still have a look at the new broomstick but he didn't really want to run into Lucy and her family again; it was just another reminded that she had something that he didn’t.

"Which ever shop we can find next," Anne answered. "See normally I would have a plan to which shops we were going, but seeing that I don't really know my way around that well, we'll just have to see what we can find,"

"Which is more fun, we'll be able to have a proper look around then," Will said smiling.

As they approached the main square they could once again hear singing from the poster of Abigail.

'As I look out of my window

And see my greatest promise,

stood in the rain.'

"I did actually ask for a poster like that once, but dad said no...I kind of understand why now," Will said slightly smiling, it had seemed like a good idea at the time, but probably would have annoyed him after a while, especially considering that they can’t be turned off, meaning that it wouldn’t have gone off even when he wanted to sleep.

"Yes, once activated you can't turn them off or turn the sound down, unless you destroy it," Anne said. "We had that argument with Stuart about something as well...I can't remember what it was now, it was a couple of years ago...but I'm sure it was some sort of band..."

Will smiled to himself wondering what group it was, but mainly because Stuart hadn't gotten his own way like he normally did; then he seemed to suddenly remember that he was allowed to have a treat to make up for his birthday and for his dad not coming along with him, he had no idea at the moment of what he could get and hoped that he would see something as he walked around. They carried on up ahead, being careful not to get too jostled by the crowd when he looked up to see what the shops were that he was coming upon; he was looking ahead at the signs above the shops when one court his eye.

"That’s a strange name, Soapwort," Will said.

Anne seemed to recognise the name and made her way through the crowd to get to the shop with Will close at her side, as they got closer they could see all of the books in the window stacked up high so you could hardly see inside of the shop itself; Will rushed in front of his aunt and opened the door to go in first. It was just as crowded in the shop as it was outside; it was filled with families buying their children of all ages the books for their new term.

Will rooted around in his pocket for the list of books that he would need, he pulled it out and unfolded it and scanned through it as at last he was going to get something interesting that he might be able to use back home. Book might not seem interesting to a lot of people, but what they didn’t realise is that they held so much power.

"There's an aisle saying school books and references, perhaps they'll be down there," Anne suggested.

They headed for the most crowded aisle in the store to begin their search squeezing past those who were already looking for their own books; Will wondered how he was ever going to manage to get them all, if he had to fight through this many just to get down the aisle.

"How are you supposed to find anything in this place?" a girl said irritably behind Will; but he couldn't see who had spoken because he didn't have any room to move to look behind.

"Do you think all my books are down this aisle somewhere?" Will asked as he looked up trying to see some of the titles to begin his search.

The bookcases was a lot taller than he was and the books were stacked right up to the very top shelf, which he had no idea how anyone was supposed to be able to see all the way up there or even get to any of them, with them only being students they weren't actually allowed to use their magic outside of school, and he couldn't see any ladders anywhere nor anyone who actually looked as though they worked here.

Will walked down the aisle careful not to bump into anyone as he squeezed through and strained his eyes to see the titles of the books, then he saw something that caught his eye so he reached out and pulled one of the blue leather bound books off the shelves; he turned it over and on the front read in silver letters ‘Level One Charms’. Will was actually quite pleased with himself for actually finding one of his books, just another seven more to find and then he's got them all; not hard at all.

He carried on down the aisle keeping hold of his book while looking for the others, then he saw a large stack of books on the floor which were all the same and everyone seemed to be picking up a copy so he moved along to find out what it was; lucky for him it was another book on his list ‘The Magical Language’.

As he bent down to pick up a copy he was knocked from behind and lost his footing, with being leant over so far, but as he fell someone grabbed hold of his hand and pulled him back up straight; he could already feel his face burning of embarrassment before he had even saw who had caught him.

He slowly looked up into the face of the guy who had caught him, through his long dark brown bangs, he could have died; it was the lad from the bank that he had been staring at. He was probably only a year or two older than him; he smiled at him as if realizing how horrified he was helping him stand up again before he let him go.

"You should be careful you know, it gets quite busy in here this time of year," the lad told him.

He bent down and picked up the book he had been reaching for and then handed it to him, surprising Will somewhat at how nice he seemed to be considering the comments that the others he had been with earlier had come out with, he appeared to be alright so far.

"So you're a first year then hay?" he asked him.

"Yeah," Will near enough whispered holding onto his book tightly wondering what to do, knowing that he shouldn't make himself look like an idiot especially if they were going to the same school.

"What school are you going to?" he asked him.

Will looked around unsure if he wanted to tell him in front of so many people considering what happened in the other shop, not that he was embarrassed about getting in there it was just how everyone reacted, as though only a couple of people managed it every year, when in truth well over a hundred always made it in. The lad though smiled at him and lent in closer to him which startled him making him step back slightly.

"I take it that we're going to the same school and that you're from a none magical family, right?" he asked him.

He just stared at him, completely bewildered how he had fingered that out, well except apart the fact that he was actually from a magical family.

"People always react dead weird when they hear of a none magic going to Burnaby Advanced," he told him quietly. "And you're buying the same books that we're on my list last year and also you were in the exchange queue in the bank,"

Will didn't say anything, he couldn't, he just stood there staring at him even though he wished that he could look anywhere else except at him; and of course tell him that he had gotten it all wrong about him, well some of it anyway.

"Travis...and you are?" he asked him.

"What? Oh...um...Will," Will answered.

Travis smiled at him again thoughtfully and took his list off of him before he could do anything to stop him, he held out his own list so that he now had two.

"I'll help you," Travis announced.

"What?" Will said taken aback, as he hadn't been expecting such a reaction. "But...no...it's fine...I can do it by myself..."

"I've got some time before I have to meet up with my mates, so I might as well help you," Travis told him as he walked off back up the aisle where he had just come from scanning the book shelves as he walked past them.

Will didn't know what to do, he didn't know who he was or if he really was going to help him; what if he lost his list then he wouldn't know what he needed, and of course he'd end up in trouble with his aunt and even worse with his dad when he got home. The other problem was that he didn't know how to tell him no and get back his list, without telling his aunt what had happened and looking stupid in front of an older student and a guy no less.

"Right, this ones mine and this one...I think it’s yours," Travis said as he pulled the two books down off of the shelves and passed them over to Will.

He read the titles of both books and neither of them were on his list, ‘Level Two Charms’ and ‘A History of Burnaby’, he looked at him confused to why he had given him the second book which he seemed to guess.

"Trust me, it'll come in handy," Travis told him. "The rest of the books are actually in their sections, just to make you look around and spend more money of course. I'm not really one for books, but my mate Reed is; he's got his own personal library."

"Okay," Will said still unsure, but it looked as though it was going to be the only way to get his books at the moment, was to just go along with him.

Travis turned around closely followed by Will, they made their way to the front of the shop but Will couldn't see his aunt even though he knew that she had to be somewhere in the shop and just hoped that he would be able to find her after he had found all of his books. They walked along to the third aisle and then went down it, this one only had a couple of people which Will was quite pleased about, as he finally had some room to actually breath.

"They say that this book should see you through the whole seven years," Travis told him.

"Really?" Will asked wondering which one he was talking about. "So I won't need to buy books for every subject every year then?"

"No," Travis said. "Just the main subjects as you get more advanced,"

"That makes sense," Will said following him.

He wondered if he had lied to him before when he said that he wasn't into books, because he seemed to know where the books were which he needed and a basic idea to where his own books were. Travis ran his finger along the books until he found what he was looking for and pulled another book off and gave it to Will.

"Right next aisle, we both need one off this aisle," Travis told him.

He walked down to the end and around the corner with Will still following behind him, there were a few more people looking for books and there was someone that Will recognized; it was the girl from the bank which meant that she was Travis' sister. She turned around her nose in a book, but she seemed to know that Travis was there and looked up seeing them both; Travis tried to walk around her before she said anything but she stopped Will instead.

"You found a little groupie then to help you out," She said smirking at Will.

Will didn't like her, nor did he think of herself as a groupie; he pulled his arm free annoyed with himself for not able to think of anything to say back to her, but he didn't need to because the book that she was holding suddenly burst into flames. She dropped it stepping back as Travis pulled Will out of the way, just as a man rushed round with his wand held out in front of him and waved it without saying a wand; water shot out of the end of his wand at the book putting the fire out.

"Really, starting a fire...in a book shop!" the man shouted at her. "Come with me, while I find your parents,"

The man marched her away against her will, while everyone else just carried on as though nothing had happened.

"Well...she'll be in a bad mood now until we get back to school," Travis said sounding somewhat depressed, as though someone had burst his bubble.

"Sorry," Will whispered, as he had a horrible feeling that he might have done that, not that he was completely sure how.

Travis stopped suddenly making Will walk into him, he quickly stepped back blushing once again, as he just seemed to keep embarrassing himself in front of this guy.

"You, you did that?" Travis whispered excitedly.

"I think so, probably; yeah...I do it sometimes when I get upset or angry," Will told him even though he wasn't sure that he should be, or even how to explain it. "Don't tell anyone though...god, my dad would probably have a thing or two to say about that when he got back home later,"