Anywhere but here

The book would explode if mishandled.

To put it quite simply: he really wished someone would’ve told him that before he’d gone to fetch the bloody thing. It looked quite extravagant, the book – gold binding and red velvet cover and petal-soft pages. Books weren’t really his thing but, as books go, this one was quite fetching. Too bad it had a temper and was apparently excruciatingly temperamental to the point that, if you didn’t give it proper respect, it would rather destroy itself than let you read anymore of its pages. Nico didn’t even want to guess what was inside it, if his employers wanted it. So, he didn’t even crack the cover – and, clearly, carrying the damned thing under his arm was like walking on eggshells. What was this thing, a bloody hippogriff? It was annoying. The book. His employers. But at least this let him out of the stuffy place so he didn’t have to breath in anymore of the dust. (Honestly, he was suspicious of whether it was actually dust or if the owners had accidentally spilled some kind of herb or spell or something on all the shelves, because he usually left work every evening feeling like his head was full of stuffing.)

Nico was being careful. Oh so, so, so careful. He didn’t want to lose a limb today. He wasn’t always sure his employers would care enough to reattach it for him. This was the reason he just narrowly missed headlonging into someone as they’d come around the corner in Knockturn. He jumped back, stumbled, then grabbed straight for the book under his arm, grasping it tight in his hand to make sure it knew he wasn’t going to let it go falling all over the place. Respect. He needed to seem respectful to it – wait, did that mean he had to be respectful to other people? Ugh. If so, he was probably going to be blown up now that “Watch your bloody step” had fallen out of his mouth. He furrowed his eyebrows as he lifted his head to study the individual – a kid. Around his Ziggy’s age. This was no place for a kid – but who knew? He was probably some purist’s kid. That’s the type that usually went gallivanting around Knockturn… although those types usually didn’t go grasping at their wands when they met up with someone in the Alley. Nico sighed, almost seeming annoyed.

“The whole ‘wand at the ready’ thing is not a great look around here. It just makes you look scared – and scared is definitely not going to get you far.” He studied the kid for a moment, then shook his head: “Where are you trying to go, kid?”

HAYANA OF CAUTION 2.0