The last time Flourish and Blotts made this much noise was right before Lockhart got arrested.
Harry leaned against the railing and looked around curiously.
Among the stream of people heading into the bookshop, he spotted one wizard quietly moving the opposite way.
"Sean!"
Harry shouted in surprise.
The black-haired boy in the crowd looked up and saw Harry, Justin, and the others all waving at him excitedly.
He made his way through the packed street and came over near Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour.
"Morning," Sean said.
"Took you long enough!"
Hermione shot him a look.
"Sorry. Tracking down the external structure for the Blinding Light Charm—the pronunciation and wand movement—took me some time—"
Before Sean could finish, Justin cut in.
"Oh, Sean, let's talk about that next time."
Justin said it with a bright smile.
"Yeah, please don't make me feel like I'm still in school."
Ron chimed in.
"We bought all the books, right? Didn't miss anything?"
Justin looked around at everyone.
"Of course. But what was going on with those Monster Books?
We said we wanted two copies, and the shop assistant looked like he was about to cry."
Ron pointed under his chair at a large sack.
"What's all that, Hermione?"
Harry asked curiously, pointing at the three bulging bags piled on the chair beside her.
"Oh, I picked more classes than you lot, didn't I?"
Hermione said. "Those are all my textbooks. Astronomy, Care of Magical Creatures, Divination, Ancient Runes, Muggle Studies—"
"What do you need Muggle Studies for?"
Ron asked, rolling his eyes at Harry.
"You're Muggle-born. Your mum and dad are Muggles—you already know everything about Muggles!"
"If you have a problem with that, ask Sean and Justin. They both picked it too."
Hermione said impatiently.
"Mm. You can never know too much."
Sean replied naturally.
"Same here."
Justin said with a smile.
"Exactly. And looking at them from a wizard's perspective is bound to be interesting."
Hermione said enthusiastically.
"Same here."
Justin agreed again.
"Well then, Justin, I suppose if Sean picked Divination, you'd pick that too, wouldn't you?"
Ron said, waggling his eyebrows.
"Sean, you're taking Divination too? Oh, you are? Brilliant—I am too!"
The second he said it, Harry burst out laughing, and even Neville was shaking with his hand over his mouth.
"Ron… you're right, studying isn't exactly fun. But when your friends are with you, the fun shows up on its own."
Justin didn't get offended in the slightest. He just smiled and explained,
"My mother always says that if your friends are with you, even the roughest road becomes the best one."
This time Ron didn't keep going. He actually thought about it seriously.
"That's true. Same here!"
Everyone erupted into chatter, while Sean stood quietly off to the side, a faint smile slowly appearing on his face.
A little later, with the crowd at Flourish and Blotts still in full uproar, Harry looked at Hermione's mountain of books and asked,
"Are you planning to eat and sleep at all this year, Hermione?"
Ron grinned wickedly beside him. Hermione ignored both of them and turned to stare at the crush of people outside the bookshop, clearly unable to understand why things had become this chaotic after ten o'clock.
"Want to go in and see?"
Hermione asked hesitantly. She was asking everyone, but she was looking straight at Sean.
"Let's have a look."
Justin seemed genuinely interested. For him, as long as his friends were around, anything could be fun.
"Mm."
Sean, meanwhile, was wondering what exactly the Hufflepuff senior had written in the book, and glanced toward the bell-ringing entrance to Flourish and Blotts.
So the six of them naturally merged into the crowd.
There were all kinds of witches and wizards in it, all excitedly talking to each other.
As they moved forward, they noticed that there was a huge banner every ten yards or so leading up to Flourish and Blotts, each one covered in dramatic slogans.
Dreams or nightmares — are there really spirits in a wizard's sleep?
Gods or magic — the things you miss while you sleep!
If you still don't know the Lord of Dreams who rules over luck, you're bound to have terrible luck from here on out!
"Whoa."
Sean heard Ron let out a low gasp at one of the banners.
He kept observing. The closer they got to the shop, the more banners there were.
But right at the entrance, the pattern broke. There was only one enormous banner:
Thank you to the buyer of the very first copy of Dreams and Gods: the esteemed Mr. Dumbledore
"Headmaster Dumbledore—"
Hermione gasped.
Sean stared at the name Dumbledore and thought that the Headmaster seemed to have even more free time on his hands than he'd imagined.
And Flourish and Blotts, apparently, was only one step away from hanging up a sign saying Dumbledore was here.
"I'm going to buy one—"
Hermione shoved hard toward the front.
Watching her go, Sean thought that maybe this really was the effect of fame.
A moment later, Hermione's voice and her entire figure had vanished into the crowd of excited witches and wizards.
"Two copies!"
"I'll take ten!"
"The collector's edition, sir! I want the collector's edition!"
A weary-looking wizard stood at the door, trying to hold back the stampede.
"Ladies and gentlemen, please calm down—don't push—mind the books—"
Sean followed the winding line from the entrance all the way around the back of the shop. When he picked up a copy of Dreams and Gods and started reading, he unexpectedly spotted a familiar figure.
"Merlin, it's Newt Scamander!"
Hermione's voice rang out.
Sean looked up. The Hufflepuff senior was sitting there, shyly signing books and giving each witch and wizard who came forward a warm, genuine smile.
Three kneazles lounged across his shoulders, all basking in the sunlight, their fur glowing gold at the edges.
A tall witch in a purple jacket was circling around him with a large black camera, snapping pictures from every angle.
Each time the flash went off in a brilliant burst, the camera spat out curls of purple smoke.
Only then did Sean realize he had seriously underestimated how much the Hufflepuff senior cared about this book.
And that made him curious. How exactly did a wizard that knowledgeable, that magically accomplished, understand the Borderland and dreams?
Of course, Sean knew better than anyone that the "lucky black cat" was nonsense.
But the Borderland itself was real, and it was one of the least explored areas of magic in existence.
Most of what Sean knew about it came from Dream Stories.
Now, perhaps, he could add the Hufflepuff senior's book to that.
He looked down seriously at the copy in his hand.
At the center of the cover was a black cat perched on a cloud of mist, looking out at the reader with an amused, almost teasing expression.
And Hermione and Justin had seen that black cat before.
At that very moment, both of them were looking at the quietly reading little wizard, and the confusion in their eyes was painfully easy to read.
~~~
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