Reading is FUN-damental

The Black Raven Bookshop. One of Brienne's favorite hangouts, not like the typical teenager. She also enjoyed other book-filled places but this was by and far the best.

She sauntered to the "Muggle Reads" section. Oh how she loved Muggle books, especially works of fiction. She picked up a book off the shelf, a Science Fiction book called "Life Sciences". She knew it was fiction by the picture of the cover and the fact that it was in the Muggle Fiction section. Near by, there was a garbage bin where people threw some books away. Brienne recognized these books, which she deemed trash anyway. She didn't feel the need to fish them out.

When she would be done in the Muggle Fiction section, she'd go to the Wizard section to find some new books she wanted to buy. The Steinheims had given her a load of money to go shopping, since she was Stanley's friend she was considered a daughter to them. Stanley was dead now, but they still treated her as their own. She sat down with the book she picked up from the shelf and began reading it on a bench.

Marlowe didn't hang out in bookstores. He liked books well enough, but he thought hanging around book shops was creepy. Whatever happened to the shopkeepers who came up and chastened a person for reading in their stores? Telling them it was a shop, not a library? When book shops had started putting cafes in, that was when Marlowe had had enough. Now, he came in, bought his books and left as quickly as possible.

Of course, life could never be as simple as that. The book he wanted was right above Brienne Ravenquist's head. Ravenquist would be the sort to lounge about in a book shop. She was pretty creepy herself.

"Excuse me," Marlowe muttered at her as he reached across to grab The Second Sex off the shelf, shielding the title from her with his hand.

Huh? That was Brienne's only thought before someone she'd seen only once before had grabbed a book from above her head.

"Oh, sorry". She moved out of the way. She saw the cover of the book in the boy's hand, but couldn't see the title. Though, she did see the book before.

"Who might you be? I've only ever saw you once before, and that was in the Ravenclaw common room" Brienne said, marking the page of her book with her thumb by instinct. "You know what? I'm not one for the coffee they serve here. After all, this is a book store, not a coffee place. I wonder why they even put a cafe in here anyway, the coffee sucks in them anyway. I had a cup for the sake of quenching my thirst, but it tasted of water", this was Brienne's attempt at starting conversation. She kinda liked this guy.

Marlowe stared. He didn't usually stare, but he didn't usually talk to people who started a conversation like that.

"You quenched your thirst with cake," he repeated slowly.

He wasn't even going to go into who he was. He knew who she was, because he was a Ravenclaw, and she was a Ravenclaw, and they'd both been in the same house for the last six years. If she didn't know who he was, that was her tough luck.

(Cake? Where'd he get that from.)

"What? Cake?" Brienne was confused, "Where'd you get cake from? I said coffee".

Meanwhile, at another part of her brain, more memories flooded back of this guy. They'd been stored away and hard to access. Long blondish hair, blue eyes and pale skin. She hadn't met him only once, but she was a bit withdrawn and didn't see him much despite sharing the same house for a few years.

"Marlowe? Never mind, I know you. Yeah, sorry about that" She rubbed the back of her head in embarrassment and went tomato red. Her brain often failed her in social situations, even though it never failed elsewhere. There were tons of people in her life.

"So, uhh...what brought you here anyway? Normally people wouldn't be here when they've already bought their supplies for the year". Her wolf tail went in between her legs, and her ears dropped a little.

The half-wolf thing was useful when talking to Brienne. Marlowe could tell from her very obvious body language that he already had the upper hand, not that he wanted it, necessarily.

"Oh, sorry I guess I misheard," he said.

Coffee, cake; they both started with c, didn't they?

He wasn't about to tell Brienne the real reason he was here. He hardly knew her and there were some things about him that only very special people needed to know. Her babbling gave him the perfect excuse, anyway.

"Well, I haven't got all my textbooks yet," he said. "Still got to pick up Magic and Muggles."

"I can help you find it, It's right over in the wizard section, at the very end of the 'School Book' section, almost where 'Wizard Fiction' starts", Brienne strode over, her tail perked and wagged, then slid a copy of the book from the shelf. She felt helpful today. She took it over to Marlowe.

"So, looking forward to another year at Hogwarts?" She smoothed out her black shirt so that more of the red splatter patterns would show up on it better. She felt slightly infatuated with this guy, but something was holding her back from saying anything. Oh yeah! She only just started really talking to him. It'd take time.

Marlowe smirked as he took the book from her. He wondered if she had any idea what this book was about. She'd been able to find it so easily, yet she didn't look at all angry at him for buying something so morally questionable.

"In a way," he replied. "It'll certainly be my most interesting year so far."

He watched her play with her clothes. It must be hard to find anything to wear when you had a tail. Unless she got everything tailor made. That would be expensive, too.

"Are you taking Dark Arts this year then?" he asked not because he really wanted to know, but because the conversation would go nowhere unless he showed some interest.

Although, perhaps she was taking it, since she hadn't been bothered by that book.

"No, actually Defense Against it. However, I'm not bothered that you're buying that book, I mean people use bad stuff for good things sometimes and who am I to tell people what others can and cannot read? I'm not one to censor and I respect the opinions of others" Brienne said, her shirt was really bothering her since it kept riding up. She smoothed it out once more, but then sighed in frustration.

"You're into Dark Arts? Well, I should've suspected".

"Of course," he said wryly. "Isn't everyone into dark arts these days? And, why should you have suspected? How could you possibly have been expected to guess, or do you have a wolf-like sense of smell as well? Can you smell the stench of dark magic on me?"

He smiled crookedly at her before turning on his heel and walking away towards the service desk. If Marlowe was any judge of character, and he was, she wouldn't let that stand.