Miss Slytherin

Book 6: Chapter 5

"Finley!"

She snapped awake, she was at Fortesque's ice cream shop in the mostly empty street of Diagon Alley, in front of her was Astoria who gave her a worried glance while holding two small cups of ice cream. She looked around to see people going on with their day, she didn't stand up from her seat, ignoring the pounding headache she had from when she stood up too quickly. Securing her hand on the table, preventing herself from falling.

"This is why you shouldn't be staying up all night," Astoria scolds her, placing the ice cream cups on the table in front of Finley before forcing her to sit back down. "You can never get drunk sure, but doesn't give you the excuse to stay out whenever you like," the younger girl added, sliding a pumpkin flavoured ice cream.

"I'm fine," Finley shook her head, taking a bit of ice cream from the cup and allowing herself to accept the cool dessert in her mouth. Her headache subsiding slightly which was great for her as she had been suffering this headache since she woke up from endless broken sleep, not that she could do anything about it either. The longest eye shut she's ever had since the start of summer was 4 hours, she believes that its gotten better unlike last year with 2 hours or less. "You should take better care of yourself," Astoria frowns.

Witnessing Finley's little to no care for her health worried her, sure she had two more lives but there was no saying that Finley couldn't die with poor health. As much as the younger girl wanted to help, both girls knew that sleep was not an easy thing to come by especially in these dreadful times. It didn't help that Finley was more worried for her wandering brother who grew to free ride in trains to who knows where for fun.

"Would you like to head in with me to the Book keep? I needed to buy a few more books," Astoria suggested. "It's not that far from the Weasley's shop so we can stop by as soon as we're done."

Finishing the ice cream, wouldn't really hurt to go to a books shop before seeing her other friends again. She finished her ice cream whilst nodding her head, "Of course."

"Good," Astoria smiled as she gently held onto Finley's gloved hand, walking towards a bookshop that Finley just recently noticed.

It had dark paint and a bit foggy windows, but you could tell that it was just as big as Flourishing and Blotts, if not more. The moment the both of them opened the doors she was instantly engulfed with the smell of old books and ink that smelled oddly therapeutic to her. All the shelves were lined properly unlike the book shop she's been going in for 5 years, this shop had a system. From History to the Greatest wizards and their achievements, Old spell books to the origins of magic volumes that Finley didn't know existed, and potion ingredients to extremely advanced potions books.

"I'll just be in Dragons section," Astoria tells Finley as she pointed at a section going deeper into the shop. "I'll see you by the counter, okay?"

"Sure," Finley replied as she watched Astoria walk ahead towards the said section while she made her way to the potions area. She didn't know what she expected when going into the store, but she certainly didn't expect a couple hundred more potion books that she hasn't read yet. All of them looked like they were in their best condition despite the dust on the paper, all of them were sorted alphabetically and in volumes.

Taking a bluish covered one, opening it to an illustration of a sleeping dragon, Finley narrowed her eyes at it. She couldn't read the title of it, but by the ingredients alone it looked like a more concentrated sleeping potion for dragons.

"Don't even think about it," Finley scolded herself, closing the book and placing it back on space she took it from. Walking down the shelves some more, she discovered more concentrated potion books. One for illusions by scent alone, an antidote that can counter certain poisons without the use of a bezoar, and a highly lethal potion of the living dead.