Old Habits Die Hard (Hermione)

[Shendeth Potter]

A light rain was falling softly against the buildings of London and onto the brick of Diagon Alley. It was the middle of the afternoon, but the dense gray clouds obscured all rays of sunlight and cast a dim haze over everything. Being late summer, this made the air humid and it was actually quite warm, but still could not exactly be described as loud and busy in the street. Raging thunderstorms would be preferable if you weren't looking for people, but this was peaceful and would do just fine.

Inside the Apothecary, many conflicting smells and the occasional odd sound filled the air as usual. Shendeth was in the back of the room, picking through the various items on sale. Occasionally he would pick something up and drop it again. The things that could be found in Knockturn Alley tended to be even more interesting than this, but when it came to complicated endeavors it was better to use something trustworthy, and every potion needed some ordinary stuff. Just because he was no longer attending school, did not mean he was doing nothing. It was quite the opposite actually. A good philosophy was that one had not properly moved into a new place until said place was sufficiently blown up. And considering his talent at doing things correctly, that would take a rather a lot. Of course, the point and purpose of being here was much more malevolent than scholarly. Anything might turn out to be useful, so that was why he was idly browsing for more than he had an idea to get.

However, one might not come to this immediate conclusion just by looking at him. Shendeth was dressed exceptionally ordinary today. Or as ordinary as he got at least; in ripped black jeans and a dark gray Muggle rock band t-shirt, long hair down as usual and his left arm apparently thinly wrapped in bandages from wrist to elbow.

He had almost decided to move more towards the front of the room when the shop door opened, and he instinctively looked up to see who had entered. It wasn't wise to ever stop being alert.