Escaping Trivalities

Lily was coming to Borgin and Burkes because f*ck everyone else.

The one rule she and Casey had not quite figured out was how to sneak Casey out for Hogsmeade weekends. Pretty much everything else, she had some way of getting around. She and Casey typically divided up the intell work on these things - you figure out how to sneak into the kitchens, I figure out how we can sneak into the forest. This had been Lily's job, and she hadn't been able to figure it out.

"What do you mean, we're not going?" Casey demanded.

"I mean, the caretaker won't let you go 'cause you're not a third year."

"You were supposed to get around that! F*ck, Lily!"

"I'm sorry, Casey, what do you want me to say?!"

"I want you to say we're going to Hogsmeade."

"Well... we're not..."

"...You go. Have fun."

"Casey."

"Bring me back a f*cking sugarquill!"

She wouldn't have even left Hogwarts grounds if Casey hadn't looked so angry. It was absolutely insane how much power the little twelve year old girl (sailor, more like it) had. Lily simply didn't mind it, really. It was much easier than fighting her. But as Lily tramped out the gates, surrounded by her peers, she knew she would have to start fighting the younger girl soon. She could not resign herself to being a puppet forever.

By the time she got to Hogsmeade, she was one hundred percent done with all of the people she was supposed to be friends with. Girls talking about boys, boys talking about girls, talking about things none of them needed. She did not know how they could stand being so mundane and predictable and petty and trivial. The second she stepped foot into Hogsmeade, she apparated.

She ended up in Knockturn. She hadn't planned on that. She had meant for Diagon, but obviously, her magic had picked up on the cynicism lurking deep within her. She glanced about - she had never been in the place alone. Not that she was afraid, but Lily was clever enough to be cautious. The first storefront she spotted was one of the few she had explored before. She quickly hurried towards it, making sure to waste no time.

She slipped into the store, the bell tinkling to announce a customer. She brushed her hair back and tightened her coat around her. Might as well make use of her time.

She approached the front counter and knocked. "'Scuse me. Looking for some ptolemy - the other potions shops don't carry it. Superstitious, I guess." She let out a sigh.

Christmas was just around the corner and Henry Yewbeam was surely glad to see the other side of it. Why? Because it mean't there was only a week or so until the new year. That's exactly what Henry needed: a fresh start. This year hadn't gone as smooth as he'd liked. Firstly there was the fact he hadn't done well in his exams, no surprises there. Secondly the newly graduated Gryffindor had found it hard to get a job, very hard. Then on top of that Henry was still living with his parents and trying to keep the fact he worked in Knockurn Alley a secret was proving to be a challenge and finally Henry was still addicted to sugar.

Sugar. Such a beautiful substance. A substance that gave a rush, excited his neurones, cast light upon the shadow polluting his mind. Sugar. Where would he be without it? That was what most of his wages went on, his drug of choice. Sugar. 

The sale assistant was lurking in the back of the shop, a brown paper bag scrunched loosely on the table by a kettle. Today he planned to be creative, mix it with a warm drink of hot chocolate. He'd still be adding sugar to his mug of cocoa, just, not the socially acceptable sugar. 

PEEP. The kettle had boiled. Lifting it from the hob he poured it lightly into a dirty mug, drawing a spider in the process. After placing the kettle back down Henry pulled put a teaspoon from the drawer below, scooped the spider out and stared at it. The arachnid was shrivelled and it's legs still held a droplet of boiling water. Shivering slightly Henry tossed the spider onto the floor and spooned three teaspoons of cocoa powder into the boiling water - he'd never liked it milky. 

Immediately the granules began to scratch against the sides as they effervesced. Henry gave the spoon a good number of laps until he was satisfied by the consistently then reached for the paper bag. Sugar. 

Just a spoonful of sugar helps the depression go down, the depression go down, the depression go down. Well, that was the goal anyway. Henry watched as the sugar dissolved, foaming ever so slightly as it did until... His drink was calm. 

Henry was lucky to have found a job at Borgin and Burkes. The owner knew of the troubles the young adult faced living with parents. Arguments. Questions. Nagging. Constant, never-ending nagging. Henry's boss had so much empathy that he'd even gave Henry the keys to the shop so that, if he ever needed to, he could stay the night there to get away from it all. One thing, however, his boss wasn't aware of was his addiction - moreover he wasn't aware of the addiction he fed during work time.

Raising the mug to his lips Henry inhales the scent of chocolate. Who said chocolate couldn't cure anything? A dabble of warm liquid infiltrated his lips, washing over his teeth when. CLING.

It appeared that Henry's lunch break had been cut short by a customer. Couldn't they read the sign said 'closed'? Then again, knowing Henry, he'd forgotten to turn it around in the first place before his break. 

Sighing heavily the sales assistant forced the mug down, headed through the door and emerged behind the counter. What a pleasant surprise. A Gryffindor had walked into his shop, a Gryffindor Henry knew to be none other than Lily Potter. Being only a year older and having just left Hogwarts himself Henry wasn't about to forget someone who he'd seen in the common room almost every day of his school life. However, clearly he'd never saw a side to her than what he was witnessing today. Lily Potter was in Borgin and Burkes. The Lily Potter. The daughter of the noble, the brave, the wondrous Harry Potter. 

'And what would you be wanting Ptolemy for?' He asked, quirking an eyebrow. One thing that Henry had learnt as a sales assistant was to never question the customers intentions, he was simply a supplier and someone who wanted to stay in a job. Asking questions were what people who interfere did, however, Lily Potter was no ordinary customer. 

(OOC: sorry if it's too long I was enjoying myself, but now I really should sleep! Haha, Oh and sorry for any typos! I'm on my phone and autocorrect isn't being my friend lately).

Lily vaguely recognized the boy from before she had transferred to Salem. She knew he was a Gryffindor, but as she had not seen him around now, she assumed he must have been older and already graduated. Then again, Lily had never been social in the normal, respectable terms of what teenagers and young people expected. She had usually condemned herself to her dormitory or the library, and her nights in the common room usually consisted of her spreading a few books over the tables and pouring over them until the wee hours of the night. If she heard anyone address her, she typically ignored them until they went away.

She did not like that he was asking about her need for the ingredient. "Is that apart of your job, to interrogate your customers?" She sounded much snarkier than she felt, because she felt a small flurry of panic, unseen on her dull countenance. What would she say? Oh, I need it because it helps balance out my levels of wolfsbane on the full moon? No one but Casey knew of her condition, and she was not going to reveal it to a pushy sales assistant simply because he thought he had the right to ask.

Fortunately, Lily had a very good mask. It was a Potter trait. James had the charming mask, Albus had the polite one, and she had the dead one. Her eyes lacked luster, her cheeks lacked life. No one could see the battles within when she barely seemed to capable of breathing.

"I have a penchant for potions," she said, enunciating carefully, hitting every consonant to try to drive home her point. At that point, she noticed something strange. A flicker in his eyes, and the color of it... She had seen it once before. She knew that color. Her friend in Salem had told her about some new drug that had just started reaching America...

She would have loved to her her hands on some-

"Could I just get some of what I came for?" Lily said, suddenly in a hurry, trying to cut off her own thoughts before they came to full fruition.

Whatever he was expecting to come out of Lily's mouth it wasn't backchat, then again he was hardly surprised she was a Gryffindor after all, meaning she held her own. She did have a point though, it wasn't his job to interrogate. That was the first rule of the job, after stealing of course, don't question customers. The owner had given Henry a big lecture on how unwise it was to questions customers, rabbiting on about how many times he'd seen a customer leave and never return because they had been bothered, harassed. Henry wasn't too bothered about Lily Potter not returning, she was Lily Potter after all it wasn't as if she was loaded with gold.

'Hmmm.' He murmured. Well that had been obvious. What else was she going to do with it, mix it with sugar? Henry chuckled silently in his head. Lily Potter taking sugar was an amusing sight, what would her Father had said? The great Harry Potter's daughter addicted to sugar. Her life was so lucky. People cared about her, if Lily were to become an addict there would be people there to help or at least notice that she was an addict. For Henry, it was a different story.

'I'll go get it.' He told her, pacing towards a glass cabinet the other side of the shop. The cabinet window was murky, how on earth was he supposed to find the blood red liquid Lily intended to use? Stretching his cuff over the palm of his hand Henry brushed the dust to the perimeter allowing him to see inside the glass. 

Third from left, top row. Opening the door Henry withdrew a vial of Ptolemy, closing the cabinet door afterwards. The slight slam of the door shook the remaining dust from the glass. Now it was clean. Too clean in comparison to the rest of the shop. 

An oval face with dark brown hair gazed back. Two years ago the face would have been light, no doubt a smile spread across it. However now lines were mapped across his forehead, his lips were fixed in a state of sadness and his eyes were... Electric blue. Henry'd forgotten he'd had a sip of his chocolate-sugar cocktail. A year back he wouldn't have forgotten, he'd have been high but now? Now he was an addict, which mean't a sip of diluted sugar wasn't enough to give him a high. It was as though Henry was immune to small doses of sugar. 

'One vial of Ptolemy.' Henry placed the vial into a test-tube stand that was sat on the counter. '4 galleons, 5 sickles.' He only knew the price because of the price tag nailed to the shelf that the vial had sat on. Henry had worked at Borgin and Burkes for just under two months and still didn't have a clue what half of the artefacts did, including Ptolemy.

Lily kept her gaze hard and steady on the man, her eyes catching his nameplate – Henry. Right. That seemed familiar, but not much more than vaguely. She was trying to do command him with her eyes, to drop the subject, to fetch her things, to let her be. She had only come in to escape her idiotic peers. But she did need the Ptolemy – she would need to begin brewing her Wolfsbane soon, so she needed the ingredient as soon as she could get it. But she would not have escaping her classmates become the undoing of her carefully constructed life.

He walked away, turning to the cabinets behind him to fetch her things. She let out a long breath and glanced away, rolling her eyes. That had been close. Very close. He approached and set the vial down, giving her the price. “Right.” She opened her money bag and began rifling through it. Her heart began to pound a little. 2 galleons, seven sickles, and four knuts. She had forgotten to grab her other bag, the bag that actually had her money.

Now, it wasn’t as if Lily hadn’t pocketed something before. But to do this would have been ballsy, lifting it right from the point of purchase. Not only that, but in front of someone who knew her, knew her name. And to steal from a place like Borgin and Burkes. Lily would have people asking questions, and she hated when people asked her questions – obviously. Worse yet, she would have to explain herself to people like Albus and James and Casey – shit, Casey would knock her teeth in if she knew she had gone to Knokcturn without her.

Her hands lifted from the bag and she reached out. “Let me just check – I’ve been sold the wrong stuff before.” She undid the top of the vial and lifted it to her nose, smelling it, her eyes staying on the clerk, Henry.  “I know you, don’t I? You were a Gryffindor, right?”

Right. Stall. Seems clever.

Lily pulled out her purse and began to shift through, not that she was shifting for long. By the looks of things the purse was practically empty, which mean't either Lily would be walking away empty handed or she'd try and pull a fast one on him. The sort of customers you usually get in Borgin and Burkes weren't your honest, loyal Hufflepuff-like people. The owner had made an effort to warn Henry about them, study their every move, keep stock out of their hands before a sale had been done. It seemed, not for the first time, Henry would be putting those tips into practice judging by the way Miss Potter was behaving.

'Yes. I was in Gryffindor.' Henry replied, not taking his gaze from Lily and the vial in her hands. Yet, a part of him wanted to drop his gaze. Lily Potter had remembered him. Henry had thought for a long time that nobody wanted him, nobody cared. Some point along the line he'd convinced himself people had forgotten and that's why they no longer cared, but the defence mechanism wasn't effective. People don't forget those they care about.

'I think you know it's Ptolemy now.' Henry stated, grasping the vial from her hands, causing some to spill down the side as he did so. 'Oh crap.' He muttered, shoving the vial back into the holder and reaching under the counter for a cloth to wipe his fingers with where it'd trailed down the side of the tube. 

He couldn't feel any cloth.

'Oh for God's sake, where's it gone?' Henry sighed, talking to himself more than to Lily as he crouched down in search for the ragged cloth that usually took residence on one of the shelves underneath. 

He was gazing so intently at her that it made Lily almost certain that he knew she was planning on distracting him so she could walk out with the vial. The hope was o engage him in conversation so he either excused the fee, or distract him long enough to make him forget that she had not actually ever paid. But his gaze was so intense, and his manner so brisk that she realized there was no way it was going to work. There was one another option, but it was just as risky too. It could mean making him into an enemy, and she could be in just as much trouble.

He took the vial from her and she flinched. He spilled on himself and she said, "Should cost less, seeing as you spilled it." She glanced over his shoulder and saw that there was more, so that excuse was already much too lame to really work. He began searching for something to wipe his hand, giving her what would have been the perfect opportunity to escape. She reached out and grabbed the vial, ready to make a mad dash for it. She quickly pocketed it and turned on her heel.

(Sorry it's short, but I want him to catch her. I have an idea)

Alas Henry found he cloth, ignoring Lily's proposal that the Ptolemy be at a reduced price because he had spilt a few drops. She had nerve Henry gave her that. Reaching for the cloth he pushed himself up from his crouched position and dabbed his fingers, not looking at Lily.

However his eyes caught something, or rather his eyes caught nothing. Henry jerked his head up quickly from his downward gaze in response to the missing Ptolemy vial he'd left on the counter. 'Oi!' Henry yelled across the shop, plunging his hand into his robes, pulling out his acacia wand. 

Advancing around the counter he gave his wand a top heavy flick towards the door. A sticky White ball soared over Lily's head, slapping hard against the frame. 'Where do you think you're going?' Henry asked as the protrusions began to extend from the ball and crept along the barrier between the door frame and the door, sealing the pair inside. 

(OOC: I think I've made that spell up but I quiet like the idea of it as Henry's core is acromantula web) 

She had only gotten a few steps, and the web was completely unnecessary, considering that she would not have continued to run once he had seen her. Her hope had been to get to the door, call a casual ‘see you later’ and hope that he chalked up her disappearance without payment to plain forgetfulness or absence of mind. Lily would not have been brash enough (stupid enough, really) to keep running. Surely he would have thrown up a stink to protect his own arse and then she would be in small claims court as a juvenile delinquent.

She stopped in her tracks, letting out a sigh as her eyelids fluttered closed. She drew herself up, feeling all of her joints tighten and stiffen as they helped bring her to fill height. She lolled her head to the right, feeling her vertebrae crack. So, it had come down to the last of her ideas - it was potentially dangerous, yes, but she was running out of ideas.

Se turned around, her eyes heavy on him. She lifted her chin ever so slightly and approached, crossing her arms, ever so casually slipping the vial up one of her sleeves. She gazed at him, lips pursed. "I was going to report you." She raised an eyebrow. "I don't think your employer would be happy to know that you're using on the job."

A triumphant sigh escaped Henry. Lily hadn't gotten away, there hadn't been another theft under his nose. Being the only sales assistant certainly had it's responsibilities, especially when the manager was still a student at Hogwarts he practically ran the place. However, that wouldn't mean Henry was allowed to slack on the job. 

Report him? What for- Oh. How, how could she tell? Henry wasn't even high, or at least he didn't feel high? His eyes shot towards a cracked mirror hanging on the wall besides lily. Blue. Henry's eyes were a natural blue but the dull, piercing blue gazing back through the mirror were anything but natural. He'd become so used to taking the drugs that an ordinary dose was barely impairing his mental state. Then again, if he was an addict then his mental state was already impaired. 

'Are you blackmailing me?' Henry questioned, tilting his head back a fraction and stepping forward towards Lily. He wasn't going to be intimidated by a poxy, good for nothing school girl. He couldn't lose his job, it simply wasn't an option! 'If you report me people will find out Little Miss Potter was alone in Knockturn Alley.' He replied softly, a cocky flicker of an eyebrow serving as a full stop.

If Lily was going to spill his secrets then Henry could easily announce hers, heck he could even go to the Daily Prophet - not that they'd listen to whatever he had to say, but it was always worth a shot. Lily Potter was not going to wheedle him into corner. Henry was a death eater now and death eaters don't sit below peoples thumbs.