Crowded and Bustling.

[Neoma Tsylence]

Neoma was torn.

Half of her being wanted to run. Run as fast and as hard as she could away from this place. Away from the robes and the pointed hats and the magic wands enchanted alleyways. She felt like she didn't belong in this place, like there was some kind of mistake. Someone was wrong, oh so very wrong and she was paying the price. Half of her wanted to cry.

The other half, stood transfixed where she stood. eyes open in wonderment as she smiled in a way that only her eyes displayed. She was captivated by the sights around her, and couldn't wait to get her shopping finished. She wanted to know, and experience all that there was to see and hear and feel.

The result of the dichotomy was a girl who was frozen stiff, who felt like her body would rip in two at any moment. Neoma stood with nothing more than a medium sized shoulder-strap bag, and her letter from Hogwarts which was clutched tightly in her hands.

Her parent had to work today, and therefore could not accompany her today. Though they did give her the bag she now carried, and told her to put everything she bought within. Neoma thought this silly, as the bag would surely never hold half the things she needed to get.

Neoma took a deep breath, and willed herself to take a step forward. Her body wouldn't obey. She thought to herself that this was silly, that these people were not going to bite. Nevertheless, she still didn't move a muscle.

[Nicholas Gawain Lannsman]

One of the doors to a nearby store opened and out stepped a man of rather impressive height. His broad shoulders were covered by a black cloak that hung to about mid shin, his brown leather boots clomped on the cobblestone road, his long black hair tied back in a ponytail with a burgundy bow, two wisps framing his handsomely scarred face. His gold and red waistcoat was buttoned up to his neck, and a thick leather belt was wrapped around his middle.

"And say hello to Maggie for me, will you? Take care!" he said as he fumbled ino the crowded and busy street. His arms were carrying a rather impressive amount of books as he tried to shift them to look at his watch.

It became apparent he wouldn't be able to find out. He looked over to where the immobile young girl stood and looked to her imploringly. "Excuse me, young Madam, but might you be able to tell me what time it is?" he asked kindly, smiling gently.

[Neoma Tsylence]

Neoma saw the built gentleman come out of the store, and was immediately taken aback by his ruggedness and height. The man looked like he could squish children like herself under his foot with the greatest of ease. He then approached her, and the closer he got, the more Neoma
doubted her first impression.

There was a look of honesty in his face, and someone who would sooner protect a foe than harm a friend. Still, this did little to calm her nerves. So that when he had asked her the time, she didn't react at first.

"Oh!"[/color] She realized that the silence between the two of them was entirely her fault. She pulled back her long sleeved shirt to stare at her wrist watch.

"Noon's just gone, Sir."[/color] Neoma couldn't help but gulp and clear her throat as she looked back up at the man.

[Nicholas Gawain Lannsman]

Nicholas began to bow slightly until some of the books threatened to topple to the ground. With a slight gasp of surprise, he quickly stood back up and stabilized the books. He sighed and looked to the girl. "Thank you very m-" he began, graciously until someone bumped into him from behind, knocking all the books he had to the ground.

"Sorry!" Nicholas blurted, as he turned to the man behind him. The man looked at him as though it were his fault and began to walk off, angrily. Sighing heavily, he leaned over and began to pick up his books, looking to the stunned girl on occassion. "First time here, is it?" he asked casually as he began to pick up the tomes.

[Neoma Tsylence]

Neoma backed took a step or two back from the man when the books he were holding threatened to topple on top of her. Because of this, she was clear out of the way when they finally did topple over.

This didn't comfort Neoma at all, it appeared that there were nasty people in the wizarding world. Nasty people with magic powers was not the least bit reassuring.

She knelt down, picked up one of the fallen books and handed it back to Nicholas. In response to his question, she instinctively looked down at her letter from Hogwarts. He must of seen it and deducted the obvious.

"Umm... yes sir."[/color] She tried to laugh, but it was a very tense laugh. "It's very big, and wonderful. But I'm afraid I may lose my way."[/color]

As soon as she said it, she wondered why she had. There was no reason to confide in this gentlemen, for all she knew he was a nasty wizard himself. As soon as she thought this, just as before, she knew she was wrong. Maybe this gentlemen would help her out instead. She may as well admit to him, if no one else, that she needed aid in this new world.

[Nicholas Gawain Lannsman]

Looking up from the stack of books he was beginning to accumulate once again, he smiled to the young girl. "I remember coming here with my father and thinking how incredibly strange this place was." he said evenly, looking to a cart being pulled by an invisible horse. "Still is, some might say. The wizarding world is nothing to be afraid of. Are you by yourself, Miss?"

He sounded slightly worried with the last remark as he stood up again, the sound of clinking metal coming from beneath the cloak, the stacks of books slightly more evened out.

[Neoma Tsylence]

Neoma had temporarily lost herself in the sights and sounds around her, that once again there was a drawn silence between her and the man, that she was responsible for.

"Oh!"[/color] She exclaimed. "Neoma, Neoma Tsylence. It's not at all pronounced the way it's spelled..."[/color] As if by instinct, she lifted her hand and began raising and dropping some of her fingers in respect to what she was saying.

"My first name is spelt, N-E-O-M-A, but the 'E' is pronounced 'Ay,' and the 'A' is pronounce 'Ah.'"[/color] The little girl giggled. "And my last name is--"[/color] She had stopped herself abruptly. Her smile vanished, and her eyes widened a little bit before her face scrunched as if she had just eaten a tar flavored Berty Bott's Bean.

What was she doing? How ridiculous of her, this man didn't care about such nonsense. What a time to be eccentric, you idiot, she thought to herself. She brushed her blond hair behind her ear as she kicked herself mentally. She then brought herself back to the present, and remembered the original question.

"Yes, sir, I am here alone. My parents gave me--- uhh... your kind of--- I mean... they gave me some money that... you... would use in these parts. However they couldn't accompany me."[/color] She gave a week smile, and subconsciously patted her sweater pocket which jingled with galleons.

[Nicholas Gawain Lannsman]

"Oh, I see. Are you going to get school supplies? If you are, I'm doing a bit of shopping myself. I wouldn't mind showing you around." he said, innocently enough, even smiling hopefully. The tall man seemed rather pleased at her exuberance and laughed a bit with her as she ranted. "My name is Nicholas, by the way. You can call me Nick."

[Neoma Tsylence]

Neoma couldn't help but grin and stare at her toes as the gentleman's offer. Definitely not a nasty person, or a wizard for that, no doubt about it.

Even so, it looked like the man needed some help. He was carrying around a tower of books, and claimed that he had even more shopping to do. Neoma held back a giggle, it was so amusing when adults were silly. It was then that she remembered her bag;

"Umm, sir? I think I can help you with your... load."[/color] She motioned to his books, and then to her bag which was straped across one shoulder. "I'm not sure though. See, my parents gave me this one bag here, and said that it would fit anything and everything. I don't see how that's at all possible but..."[/color] she looked up expectantly at the handsome visage.

"Maybe you would understand it better than I?"[/color] She wanted to help, especially if that meant he would help show her around in return.

[Nicholas Gawain Lannsman]

"Well, that certainly does change everything. Just my luck to have found you, no? I'm in your debt, Mademoiselle." he began cheerfully as he walked over and started to put the books into her back. Each fell inside with a little thud until the tower had disappeared completely. "That's a useful little spell to have on bags and other things like purses or satchels. It allows many more objects to be stored than the original item normally would, sort of like an extradimensional space."

He stood back after, placing his hands on his hips triumphantly. This pushed the cloak out and allowed the goblin made sword sheather at his left hip and his ten inch wand holstered in his right to be very visible. He smiled eaily again, motion forward with his left hand, the cloak obstructing the view of the beautiful archaic weapon. "Where should we head off to first, Lady Tsylence?"

[Neoma Tsylence]

Neoma stood in awe with her arms outstretched in front of her, holding her bag open. An magic bag apparently. So that's what her parents meant, she didn't understand. She looked up to Nicholas, closed her open jaw and grinned. She had a magical bag, how cool!

Neoma suffered another bought of shock and amazement in seeing what the gentleman had on. A sword? A sword! Man this guy was the real deal, like right out of a fairy tale. He had was a wizard with a sword, how cool!

Now that she felt that someone, or something, was smiling upon her, she let her defenses down as she felt protected and comfortable. She looked down to her letter and her eyes darted across it.

"Erm.. well.. I guess Flourish and Blotts is as good a place to start as any."[/color] she said, half as a question. She was now beaming.

[Nicholas Gawain Lannsman]

Nicholas looked back into the store he just exited and grinned. "Well, are you sure this is your first time here, or are you just lazy and read the sign of the first store you saw?" he said jokingly as he moved to the door of the nearby store. Grabbing hold of the handle, he opened it for her, bowing slightly like a valet.

"Madam." he said, allowing her in first before he walked in after her.

[Alex Russell]

((Hello; please excuse my shameless insert... it is a pleasure to be here, however.))

Mika was bored. She paced back and forth, returning now and then to but her head against her master's leg, trying to convince him to come on. Alex, however, had quite gotten distracted, and was busy scanning through the third chapter in the Draconomicon, on the evolution of dragons. "The ancient saurians were not, as many believed, the ancestors of dragons - while saurians were warm-blooded, and shared many traits, they had several marked differences, one being the lack of a third set of limbs that dragons all display. It is believed that the ancestor branched off from a liopleurid..."

He'd already located all the books he was required to get, and therefore was continuing his tradition of reading anything else that caught his interest, and today it just happened to be dragons, just after a book on identifying crystals.

As occupied as Alex was, he did not even notice the newcomers, despite the fact that one just so happened to be not only a professor, but the head of his house... Mika, however, did. She turned, took one appraising look, then arched her back with a friendly 'prrrt' in greeting. That grabbed Alex's attention; he glanced down from the book, and up, looking a little annoyed until he saw just who Mika had recognized. "What, Mika? Oh... I mean, good afternoon, Professor." He did not close his book, but rather held it, his finger holding his place.

[Nicholas Gawain Lannsman]

Nicholas turned his attention to the young man reading the large tome and gave him a curt nod of his head. "Good afternoon, student." Nicholas answered, a wry grin tucking at the corner of his mouth as he joked back. "We're not in class you know, you can call me Nick. "

He looked back to Neoma and smiled to her. "Neoma, this is Alex. He's a third year student."

The professor's eyes glanced to the book Alex was holding and Nicholas' eyes widened slightly, like a child spotting a pile of candy. "Oh, hey! Is that the newest edition of the Draconomicon? I didn't know they had it store! The last edition was a great buy! Excuse me a second you two, I need to see this!" he said, sounding completely thrilled by the book's appearance. He quickly moved to a shelf and pulled it off, sifting through the pages, grinning and giddy as a school boy.

[Neoma Tsylence]

Neoma couldn't suppress the small girl giggle that escaped her throat as she walked in front of Nicholas into the store. She marveled at the atmosphere that the cozy store provided. It was very wide and large, with books lined all over the place. She bit her lower lip slightly, nervous about getting started, but excited to do so nonetheless.

Her thoughts were broken when a boy in front of her spoke to her "escort." She didn't pay any mind at first, but her thoughts were immediately shattered like a broken mirror at the word: Professor.

Neoma whipped around and look like a dear caught in headlights with an attitude. "Y-your a Professor at Hogwarts?"[/color] She said as if blaming him for not telling her he was a figment of her imagination. Something about how she regarded him was now almost broken, as if what she had been hoping for would now surely never come to pass. She couldn't be his friend now, he couldn't be her protector, he's a Professor for Pete's sake.

Neoma sighed, and looked down at her list of books. Wondering for a second... which subject he taught. She then went off to find the books she needed to buy, starting with A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration.

What is Transfiguration anyways? Neoma thought to herself.