How Bad Could It Be?

Abbey was six--and a half. The half was important. She was much more grown up at six and a half than she had been at six, and she was proud of it. She wasn't sure why Uncle Mikey was not quite himself today, but she was largely ignoring it.

After all, she had her favorite jeans and a brand new pink and white checked flannel shirt, and brand new winter boots. Her long blond hair was pushed off her face with a pink headband, and she had insisted on a strand of colorful beads that didn't seem to go with anything. She just liked them. They made her happy.

Uncle Mikey had helped her into her winter jacket and her hat and mittens. He'd taken her with him today. it hadn't seemed to be an expected outing. Not for her, not for him either. However, she had watched Papa press a handful of galleons into Uncle Mikey's hand, and she'd seen Uncle Mikey rolling his eyes back at Papa. Uncle Mikey had promised her a trip to Flourish and Blotts. For Abbey, that was almost better than Christmas. Books. Endless, beautiful books. And she knew how many new ones she wanted. Six--and a half.

When they entered the bookstore, she took off like a shot, racing for the storybook shelves, and leaving Uncle Mikey in the dust. She flew up the stairs and through the cluttered old store to the right shelves, flung herself on the floor and began scanning the shelves with deep intensity, flinging some of the storybooks with potential onto the floor beside her.

Nine was fairly old if she thought about it. Goose was ten, yes, so she wasn't the oldest in the house, but she was definitely aging into a young woman now.

Still - even young women got into fights with their adopted brothers. Jack had released Goose and Sunny to explore as she had been doing since adopting the rascals - poor Jack had never really been given a choice in whether or not the duo had free reign. But the rules were that they stuck together, agreed on the place they were going, and met up with Jack at the agreed upon time. Today, as soon as Jack was out of earshot, Goose had declared they were going to the book store rather than the sweet store.

He had to drag her there, but she had come along. She wouldn't have minded, but he went to the section of the store full of books about muggle science. Sunny kept begging to move on and move on, and that's when Goose had snapped.

"Shut up, you're so annoying!"

"No I'm not, you are!"

"Stop being a baby."

Sunny gasped and pushed her brother. He glared at her for a moment and then flinched, preparing to push her back. Sunny sucked in a breath and suddenly - disappeared.

She had appeared in what appeared to be a space between two shelves. She moved this way and then another way, and discovered she had plenty of space - not only that, but she had appeared in the storybook section of the store, and was now surrounded by literature.

She wasn't too worried about the phenomenon that had brought her here - it had happened plenty of times before. Too be fair, it had never happened around someone else, so she was certain Goose would be freaking out. Good. Let him.

She shuffled through the space and pulled a book off the shelf, before turning around eighty degrees and beginning to look through those books. She grabbed a book just as someone else did. She paused and pulled hard.

Abbey had found a storybook that had a picture of ocean waves on the color. Waves and seashells. She was about to yank it off the shelf when it seemed to get stuck or something. It wasn't coming off the shelf.

Well, Abbey played tug better than any old book. Heck, Papa told her that when she wore fur, she played tug better than anybody in the house. No book was going to win. She grabbed hold of the book with both hands and yanked harder. She heard herself growl softly. Oops. That was something that just happened when she wore fur. Not usually when she didn't have fur. Unca Mikey might not like it if she ended up with fur here.

She crouched down on the floor and peered through the shelves and saw somebody on the other side of the shelf.

"Hey," she called. "Who are you?"

The tug-of-war began as true war, as a battle over the fate of the book. Sunny's pride had been hurt by whoever it was who was refusing to allow her the book. Suddenly, however, Sunny realized she was the one in the wrong, on the wrong side of the shelf, and the one instigating the book tug war. That was when she realized it was jolly fun to play tug with someone who did not know that you weren't a shelf.

She was preparing to let go of the book and send her opponent toppling backwards when a face suddenly appeared in a hole in the shelf. Sunny blinked and let go of the book without thinking, sending her toppling backwards. She got caught of the back of another shelf and managed to right herself, pushing herself up and approaching the hole.

"I'm... a shelf goddess."

Abbey saw the bigger girl looking back at her.  A shelf goddess? Papa hadn't read any stories about any shelf goddesses at all.  She narrowed her gaze at the girl.  Was she putting her on?

Nevertheless, if she were a goddess, she'd want her books back.  Abbey picked up only the ones she didn't want and shoved them sideways and a bit haphazardly on top of the other books on the shelf--but off to the left and then peered back at the girl.

"Here. You can have these," she nodded. "I don't want 'em."  Then she saw a storybook about animagi and picked it up. She handed it to the girl.  "You might wanna take this one back.  Its all wrong. I'm a dog--well, sometimes--and this book's just all wrong."

She paused a second, remembering what she had in her coat pocket. She looked around, looking for Uncle Mikey, but he hadn't caught up with her yet. "Hey," she said to the shelf goddess, quietly and excitedly, "Wanna see something cool? Its a secret! I got it in my pocket!"