Invisible Book Of Invisibility

Bertie hadn't done much at all over the summer holidays besides walk along the beach by his house thinking up ideas for a novel. In addition to writing he had spent a lot of time with his Grandma, who only lived a few streets away, whilst his Mum was at work. She had a piano so Bertie spent most of the time playing it writing songs about love. Not that he had been in love before, it was simply fun to write about. 
 
It was a Tuesday afternoon and after spending most of the morning talking to Vivianna via MagiChat Bertie would be going to Diagon Alley. He had been yearning to get a book about invisibility to read from Florish Blotts. Over the weekend the Ravenclaw had sent an order form in for the invisible book of invisibility although instead of the desired book returning a note claiming that the owner couldn't find the book was in it's place.
 
Luckily his Uncle had to make a pit stop at Diagon Alley to do a routine check to make sure that the stores were following legal standards - Mr Nogard worked for the department of magical law enforcement. 
 
At five to two Bertie's Uncle John was strolling up the paved path to the semi-detached seaside house where Bertie and his Mum lived. 
 
It was a tiny house with two bedrooms and a small back yard. The bricks has been coated in a wish-wash blue paint and outside of the living room window was a small patch of lawn. 
 
'Hello Bertius, are you all set?' John asked him when the curly haired boy opened the front door that led directly into the beige living room with laminated floors, a two-seated sofa and an armchair, that were pointed at the TV and an electric fireplace.
 
'Yep! I've got my wallet and phone.' He replied grabbing his denim jacket that was resting on a hook beneath the stairs besides the door. 
 
Within five minutes both Bertie and John had apparated away and were standing in the busy cobbled street. It had been so long since the Ravenclaw had stepped foot in Diagon Alley, in fact he had only new five or six times as his Mother was a squib meaning that Bertie lived a pretty muggle life outside of school - unless he visited his cousins homes the odd days. 
 
Bidding his Uncle farewell and arranging a time to meet up in a few hours time he headed to Gringotts to exchange his muggle money for golden galleons, silver sickles and bronze knuts.
 
After that he found his way to flourish and Blotts, a double fronted building with mullioned windows and a Tudor style first floor appearance. Now all he had to do was find the invisible book of invisible. Bertie knew that the owner couldn't find it, but being the busiest book store in the country he didn't think that they would have been able to look properly, so decided to search himself.

"Get me a book while you're out, okay?"

"No, you get it yourself."

"But that involves being around you."

"Oh such a good insult Mr. Dung for brains."

Her brother seemed anything but please with her name calling. Ciara stuck her tongue out at him and waited in their fireplace for him to come with the floo powder. She held a little bit of the powder in her own hand and they both stood there, letting the powder drop as they said, "Diagon Alley!"

The fourteen and twelve year old were transported to Diagon Alley and soon set out to find Flourish and Blotts among all the people in the Alley. It was always so busy and Ciara almost lost track of her brother twice. She got the feeling that he was trying to lose her so he could go back home and she could do everything herself, but she wasn't about to let that happen.

"You aren't leaving me behind Johan." she called out to her brother, as she grabbed his wrist and he scoffed at her. "Great, now it looks like I'm affectionate toward you." Ciara grinned at him and took the lead, pulling her brother behind her toward the shop they tried to reach.

Once they had found their way, Ciara released Johan and turned to him. "You find your book, I'll find mine." she turned away before he could protest and tell her he wouldn't look for his own things. The young Ravenclaw had no idea what she would choose form the variety of books in the shop, but she might as well start looking for anything that might catch her interest.

In no time she seemed to be buying at least half the books in the shop and could barely hold onto all the books she had taken. Ciara dropped a few of them and kneeled down to pick them up again, but she was going to have to find a different way to get her books to the counter.

Trisha and her family were getting ready for the investigation they would be going on the next night when Tris realized she hadn't read about the type of spirit they were supposed to be encountering. Not in a long time, anyways. And not extensively. This made her wonder if there were any decent books in her public library.

Coming to the conclusion that anything she could find in the Muggle world wouldn't really equal what she could find in the Wizarding World, Tris bid her siblings goodbye as she stepped through the floo that would lead her to Diagon Alley.

Trisha walked through the streets until she came upon the book store she had in mind - Flourish & Blotts. Pushing the door open, she immediately started looking for the paranormal section, passing through the rows of books.

It was a busy day in flourish and blotts. A younger girl was busy by the till, dropping her books. A lady with a purple veil and extraordinary long fingers nails was, to the store owners annoyance, slashing each page of the books she turned. Then there was the jingling of buyers seeing how much money they had before taking their chosen product to the till.

There was a wooden staircase not far from the door that led to an overhead balcony that served as the second floor. 

Bertie's desired book wasn't the only thing invisible: the Walls were completely hidden by wooden bookcases crammed to the core with books. Besides the shelves stood baskets where people would trade their books with one for the basket. 

Then of course the room was a maze of shelves, almost like a minute Hogwarts library. Bertie rather liked the store, he could see himself working here over the summer holidays when we was older perhaps. 

Truth be told, Bertie wouldn't mind working there altogether yet his family: every auntie, every uncle and every cousin expected him to work in the ministry - or healing. Either was a well respected career. Although neither attracted Bertie. They didn't allow him to be creative or explore his imagination like a journalism or writer career would. He had considered becoming a musician but if he did then the Ravenclaw would want to be a singer-songwriter in the muggle world a opposed to the wizarding world... But whether he would have that opportunity. Luckily being the child of a squib had it's advantages: he could slip in and out of either world. 

Despite that Bertie was a huge fan of education, knowledge and exploring individual curiosity and simply loved the idea of becoming a teacher - perhaps writing in his spare time. 

After ten minutes Bertie finally found the section on stealth and concealment, next to the shelves where the spirit section was. Perhaps he would come across invisibility in stealth - after all being invisible could be used as an undercover method of magic. 

Alas he saw a fine plaque with italic writing engraved upon it on the edge of the fifth shelf. How on earth was he going to get up there? Looking around he could see the shop assistants were already occupied with the mass amount of customers by the till and in the more popular areas. Scrambling up the shelves wasn't an option either...

(OOC: I put stealth next to spirit because I guess it could be arranged alphabetically rather than in categories? Otherwise they might not see each other) 

(OOC: Perfect!)

Trisha looked up to see a boy who she suspected was younger than her - she never was very good at judging age, really - looking for a book. Apparently, something caught his eye for he began reaching towards the top shelf, looking frustrated.

Though Tris was a bit short for her age, she walked over to him cautiously. She wasn't very good at social interactions, nonetheless interactions with people she didn't know. But he needed help, and she didn't mind.

"Excuse me," She began, then cleared her throat lightly before continuing, "Did you want a book in particular? I don't mind helping."

Tris wasn't sure it was the right thing to say - didn't guys have that ego thing where they didn't like being helped? Toying with her pinky finger - a habit that had started when she wanted to stop biting her nails - she waited to see what he would think of her just walking up to him.

Whilst stretching his arm as far as possible during a not so well balanced tip-toe stance Bertie heard a voice from somewhere besides him. It was the sound of a girls voice and he was sure he recognised it. Bertie was peculiar like that he remembed imgaes and sounds - a lot better than he remembered how to do things that required physical coordination. He wasn't clumsy just not the strongest when it came to flying, running, climbing etcetera.

Turning his head he returned to his normal standing position, rubbing his fingers along the cuff of his jacket. He knew the girl, or he knew of her would be a better description: spirit girl. Bertie had never engaged in conversation merely heard of her around the common room - in fact someone once gossiping about her had led to the Ravenclaw writing a story about a poltegiest.

'If you don't mind helping? I mean, I wouldn't be bothering you would I?' Bertie was a literary genius for his age, his use of language and the way he created responses and tone in his writing was beyond average fourteen year old ability but he found social situations with people he didn't know awkward. What if they thought he was weird? An oddball or they didn't share the same interests? Being sorted into Ravenclaw had eased his social anxiety slightly, the house of the wise were often more accepting of individuals than say Gryffindors.

The fourteen year hadn't always been like this, before he started primary school and showing unexplainable magical ability in front of the muggle children he had been a happy, cheerful, friendly social child. In fact, Bertie still was all those things with people he knew after a while and escaped his bubble. Although bullying and being an outcast up until the age of eleven left him somewhat weary around people he didn't know.

The brown eyes below his curly hair glanced up to the top of the shelves. There was a space and he was sure that the invisible book of invisibility could be filling the gap, after all the owner may have not thought about looking at that. Would spirit girl think he was crazy for searching for a book that couldn't be seen with the naked eye - Bertie hadn't even thought how he was going to read it afterwards.

Tris watched as the boy went back to standing normally, and gave him a half smile in greeting. She felt like she knew him from somewhere but wasn't sure. He definitely seemed like the Ravenclaw type, so she figured she must have seen him at school, perhaps in the common room.

He took her offer well, and she felt relieved. Trisha wasn't exactly brilliant at conversations, but this one, though a weak definition of the word 'conversation' was going rather well. "Which one did you want?" She asked, stretching up onto her toes and running her hand over the books above them.

Her hand passed over what should have been a hole between books and she gasped, sinking back onto her heels again. Her gaze shifted to the boy and she had a feeling that was what he was looking for. Reaching up again, she aimed for where the top of the book probably would be, taking hold of it. It looked bizarre, she noted, holding something she couldn't see. It was like when someone pretended they were holding a sandwich. Holding the book out to him, eyebrows raised, Tris waited to see what he would say.

Upon he question of which book Bertie wanted her suddenly shifted awkwardly in his shoes. Would telling her wanted the book in the gap, the book that didn't seem to be there, the book that could in fact not be there make him come across odd? He wasn't odd. Bertie was merely an imaginative boy who loved to live life in a bubble and he was a pleasant boy to be around. 

'The. The gap.' He muttered to his feet although the girl didn't seem to question him as she had already reached upon and was rummaging in the space between the top most books. How awkward this was starting to come for Bertie then...

Spirit girl held out a hand to him, although her hand was cupped around something. Surely she wasn't winding him up, taking the Michael? No. The expression on her face clarified that this was no joke. 

Looking at the space Bertie reached a hand out, feeling something hard that felt leather bound. 'Wow.' He gasped. It was an odd sensation to feel and touch something that he couldn't see... So all the time the store owner had thought the book missing it had been there all along, filling the gap in the top shelf. 

'Thank you!' Bertie smiled as he turned the book over in his hand. 'I have no idea how I'm going to read this though.' An expression of uncertain confusion had etched across her face: the left side of his lip was raised, his brown eyebrows quivered slightly and his eyes held the look they often did whenever the Ravenclaw attempted to tackle his transfiguration theory homework. 

The boy let out a "wow" and Trisha had to agree. It was rather amazing. When he took the book from her, she suddenly didn't know what to do with her hands, so she clasped them in front of her. He thanked her and she nodded. Just when Tris was about to turn back to look for a new book, he added something quietly and she turned back.

"I'm sure there's a spell that will show it. Don't you think?" She replied lightly. "Though, we're underage so it can't be either of us that casts it."

For a Ravenclaw, she was having trouble digesting what was going on. Things like invisible books, in the world she was from, shouldn't exist. Then again, she'd had five years to get used to the idea that her life was full of things that shouldn't exist or shouldn't happen. Just look at Quidditch. Even so, she wasn't really being much of a help to the boy right then.

"I'm sorry, I can't think of another way, unless you use the Muggle way of detection." Trisha said, referring to the old idea of lemon juice and heat being used to uncover invisible ink. Would it even work? "I have a bad feeling it might hurt the pages, though." Books, in her mind, were practically sacred and she wasn't going to be the one to hurt the book in question.

Bertie looked up from the what would be visible book, his brown eyes listening carefully to every word that Tris had to say. That was a good point, they wouldn't be able to use magic unless someone performed magic for them? Unless there was something unique about the book and it's invisibility. Perhaps if lumos was casted over it the book illuminated, it's ink remaining invisible but the pages in colour - that way he would be able to make out what the words would say. Then again chances are that was simply a theory.

'I wouldn't want to hurt the pages.' Bertie replied biting his lip after using her choice of words. It wasn't how Bertie usually spoke but he was adaptable in his language and it certainly made sense that they would become injured. After all he knew exactly how books could be damaged: all his creative works had been vandalised beyond resurrection in the previous year at Hogwarts.

'Maybe there is a book about uncovering the invisible? Do you know anything about making something that's hidden visible?' Bertie asked her before looking at the shelves at the books. There didn't seem to be anything, after all the section was about concealment and stealth rather than unconceilment. Bertie was sure at some point he would be able to read the book, that's if he would be allowed to purchase it: the price sticker on the cover was also invisible.