A ghost walks into a wandmaker's shop...

[Lulu Normanson]

Lulu couldn't find her wand again, so she did what any intelligent first year might have - she went to the famous Ollivander's Wands to purchase another. She did her best to navigate through the bustling streets of Hogsmeade without floating through anyone. There had been a handful whom had stepped out when she wasn't expecting it or who had turned right into her. She'd uttered an embarrassed apology whilst quickly floating on her way.

Finally, she'd reached the wandmaker's shop. Unable to open the door, she did what she did at Hogwarts, and simply floated through it. She hadn't expected the shop to be busy this close to the start of term, but there appeared to be some other last minute shoppers. After nodding politely to the family she 'stood' next to, she caught someone in the corner staring at her. Lulu ducked her head and looked away. 

The feeling of being stared at hadn't gone away and with a challenging glint in her eye, she drew herself around to glance their way again - eye-contact was made again. Rather grumpily, she said, "Didn't your mother ever teach you that it isn't polite to stare?"

The following 1 user Likes Lulu Normanson's post:1 user Likes Lulu Normanson's post
   Odira Potter

[Cecily Carmichael]

Cecily didn’t need a new wand, her wand from the year before, a fine holy instrument, was still in very good condition. However, she was doing her school shopping and her papa had very generous in the provision he had made for her expenses this year, and her nanny (who never hesitated to spend all the money Mister Carmicheal sent for his little girl) had encouraged her to buy some accessories and wand care items, hoping the girl would see fit to buy her a new wand. A venture which had worked after one well placed complaint about the sad state of her own wand had caused Cecily to volunteer the funds to replace it. The conniving woman had become rather good at making such oblique requests of the girl and would miss it when she went back to school and her cash cow vanished.

Cecily had left her nanny to peruse a rather expensive selection of wands and was browsing the accessories when she noticed a rather strange sight. The little ghost from Hogwarts, the little girl, the one who died on her way to sorting. She had seen her around the school, and been told horror stories about how she had passed (fighting a troll during her sorting ceremony had been a popular one on the train to Hogwarts). When the ghost addressed her she barely blinked. ’My mama is dead, she never taught me anything.’ Cecily responded, slightly ruder than she had intended, she had little feeling about her lost mama, other than knowing she was supposed to feel terrible grief for her, but she had never known her, and so didn’t miss her. Her papa had been the centre of her world. ’she isn’t like you though’ she mused aloud, ’Or if she is I’ve never seen her.’

She cocked her head to one side as though she was a cat observing a curious bird. ’Why are you here? I thought you couldn’t leave Hogwarts?’

  

[Lulu Normanson]

Lulu, being rather bitter about her death decades later, did not feel sympathy for those who passed on. She was not impressed or empathetic to the girl's response, but at least understood the curiosity about her ghostly abilities. Such questions were not new to her. From what she could tell, the other children didn't often ask adult ghosts personal questions. Seeing as how she looked closer to their own ages, they seemed to be more comfortable with thrusting such forward questions at her instead.

"I can go wherever I wish," She told the girl, "It's only misbehaving spirits that become permanently tethered by the Ministry." Honestly, she was tethered to the Black Lake where she'd died, rather than the castle. Considering the expanse of it, it gave her a rather wide birth to move about. She didn't feel the need to share that information with the other girl, however.

"Why are you here? You aren't a first year," She quipped. As a first year, Lulu clearly was expected to be at Ollivander's than a girl who was older - and who Lulu had seen around the school before. (Lulu remembered Miss Carmichael from her first year at Hogwarts, but found it more convenient to act as if she didn't.)

  

[Cecily Carmichael]

Cecily wasn’t sure what the ‘rules’ were about ghosts moving around, or leaving the place they died, she had never thought to ask, nor indeed really been interested in bothering herself with the affairs of the dead. Although she had felt rather sorry for the Hogwarts ghosts –especially Lulu she would never grow up, and that seemed like a terrible tragedy. ’I presume Peeves is bound then? He must be a terror to live with, or rather be dead with’ she laughed finding herself rather funny.

’No’ she said to the girl, ’I’m not, and I don’t need a wand, my maid does, her’s is terribly ratty and broken and she said she can’t mend my blue organza dress until she has a new one, so I am buying it for her. ’ she gestured to the portly maid who was now examining a rather fine leather pouch to carry the new wand which she had already selected. ’Can ghosts use wands?’ she asked of the girl, being rather direct in her manners was something Cecily was rather proficient at, indeed to a point that was often considered rude by those around her. Not that she noticed or cared, people generally forgave her poor manners, especially older men, and she wasn’t at all sure why, but it hadn’t exactly taught her good grace

  

[Lulu Normanson]

Lulu's eyes narrowed at the girl's offensive ignorance. To be stuffed into a category with Peeves, of all spirits! Clearly, this girl hadn't the slightest idea with social etiquette was.

She placed her hands on her hips, entirely prepared to give this girl a piece of her mind, "First off, Peeves is a poltergeist, which is completely different. Second, what ghosts can and can't do is none of your business. And third, you're being terribly rude. What makes you think you have any right to just interrogate me?"

  

[Cecily Carmichael]

Cecily should have blushed but didn’t have the good grace to do so, ’I didn’t mean to be rude’ she said in a slightly no-it-all tone, which was probably not the most endearing way of speaking to the Hogwarts spirit. ’I was only asking because I was curious and no one has ever told us about ghosts.’ she retorted, arranging her curls like a bunch of grapes over her ear, where they bounced back into place.

She took a deep breath and tried to check her rising bad mood. ’I’m sorry, I was only curious.’ she explained, ’I didn’t mean to offend you terribly. ’

@'barnabus Skeeter'