The Cupboard Series 2: Hermione's Book Nook

Chapter 13

"Good morning, Harry. All packed?"

Pausing in the doorway, Harry looked around for the source of the voice and found Beth standing in one of the aisles off to his left. Smiling, he made his way towards her.

"Yeah, all ready," he replied. "Thought I'd come down and take one last look around before it's time to go."

He watched as Beth finished slotting the small pile of books in her hands onto the bookshelf before moving across to the small trolley at the far end of the aisle.

Hermione's Book Nook had done exceptionally well in the ten days that it'd been open. A steady stream of people had visited the shop and it seemed that whether they'd originally been drawn in by the books or by the cakes and tea, their curiosity had extended to the other part of the store as well. Not everyone who came in had bought anything, but most did. Hogwarts students, once word had got around that they could sell their old textbooks, had been some of their most frequent customers, selling and buying books by the dozen.

The only hiccup that they'd had was the day that Lord Pemberton had decided to make an appearance. Harry'd actually been manning the counter when the old pudgy gentleman had sauntered in, a cane swinging from one hand. His loud disparaging remarks about them 'stealing the books of pure-bloods' and 'selling muggle filth' had caused something in Harry to snap.

He'd faced down the man, letting him know in as loud a voice as he'd ever used that this was a shop owned by the Ancient and Most Noble House of Potter and more specifically by The-Boy-Who-Lived. Lord Pemberton had left very quickly after that and, once the surging crowd that the spectacle had brought in had been served, Harry had snuck off to find a nice quite corner upstairs to hunker down in and shake uncontrollably for the next half hour until his nerves settled.

"I have something for you," Beth smiled, bringing him back to the present.

Harry cocked his head.

"I believe that our agreement was that as the owner, you'd receive three books from the store on the first of every month? Today's the first of September," Beth reminded him.

Walking over to the main counter, she picked up a small pile of books and turned back to face him.

"Here you are, good Sir," she said.

Eagerly, Harry took the books. They were all obviously old, all hard covered books, but still in reasonably good condition.

"This one's to help you with your studies," she said, pointing to the book called Human Transfiguration Techniques for the Novice. "I know that you've been interested in finding out about other magical cultures, so I thought that you might find this one interesting," she said, pulling out the second book that he saw was titled Maori Magic. "And the last one is for pleasure." Harry smiled at The Complete Works of Sherlock Holmes.

"Thanks, Beth, they're great," he beamed. "I better go put them in my trunk. And then send Hedwig off to Hogwarts."

"Have a great term, Harry," Beth said before pulling him into a brief unexpected hug.

-oOoOo-

The taxi fare from Charing Cross Road to King's Cross Station was a lot less than Harry'd anticipated. With a shrug, he stuffed the extra notes into his wallet before tucking the wallet away into a pocket of his cargo pants. Slapping a different pocket to make sure that his shrunken trunk was still in place, Harry walked into the gigantic train station.

Knowing that he was incredibly early, a fact that he'd planned, he made his way towards Platform Nine. There, he spied a lone seat that he quickly claimed for himself. While he knew that he could go straight to the Hogwart's Express, he decided to wait for his friends.