The Highest Shelf

[Clementine Yaxley]

January 19th, 1883

More often than not, Clementine Yaxley would spend her Hogsmeade weekend at Whizzhard's Books. She enjoyed reading and while Hogwart's library was full of interesting books, there were no light, romance novels like the ones she enjoyed to read during her free time. Which was to be expected, given that it was a school library. As such, since Pappa and Honoria didn't seem to have any need of Clemmy at home, the Hufflepuff decided to go to the local bookstore to purchase some books for the following months. She didn't want to get too many, lest she focused only on them and did abysmally on her NEWTs as a result.

The books she usually read were not particularly big tomes, but it seemed that Mr. Potter had brought some new novels, which, of course, centered Clemmy's attention. She overlooked some books that she had thought about buying in previous book shopping trips and went to examine the new goods instead. There were some big, fat books clad in beautiful covers in one corner of the shop and their titles written in elaborate golden letters showed quite some potential.

Not thinking that she could just use her wand to summon them, Clemmy reached out to pick up one of the books. She had yet to get used to the fact that she could use magic out of school, despite the months that had passed since her seventeenth birthday. Clemmy was not the tallest of people and the book was on a rather high shelf, so it was not a surprise when she found it nearly impossible to get a hold of the book.

  

[Isaac Japes]

Isaac was a regular visitor to Whizzard’s books, though he was not a regular customer. Whenever he needed to do research on the climate, people or traditions of a land with which he was not familiar but planned to write about, one could find him there, in a corner of the building, thumbing through some sort of informational tome. His finances didn’t usually permit him to purchase any of these tomes, but he did, on occasion, so the shopkeepers had no reason to throw him out (though there was at least one of them who often looked as if she would like to) and, on other rare occasions, he would buy a book entirely unrelated to his writing solely for his own reading pleasure or that of another. This was one of those occasions. Earlier in the week, his landlord’s dog had gotten ahold of the children’s copy of The Tales of the Beedle and The Bard and torn it to bits, leading to a great deal of tears and woe from the children. Today, he planned on surprising them with a replacement and seizing a very rare opportunity to play the hero. He figured that he had just enough money to pick up a lightly used copy if they had it, or, if he ate lightly for another week or so, he could manage a new copy.

Children’s books were not among his usual purchases, so locating them was not all that easy of a task and he found himself wandering the many twisting aisles of books, searching for some whimsical pattern or font that might indicate that he was at least in the right area. After several minutes of searching, he had begun to think that he might be better off asking someone for a bit of direction. However, the first person that he came across, as he turned the corner, looked more in need of help than he was. The young woman, who, quite frankly, looked to be the sort that would normally avoid him, was reaching upwards for one of several ornately decorated books which were clearly out of her reach. He gave a quick glance around to see whether or not there was any escort along with her that my take offense to him interacting with her, even to provide assistance. Seeing none he approached the woman and cleared his throat to announce his presence before speaking “Excuse me, Ma’am. Are you in need of any assistance?” He asked politely, looking up at the books above them “If you tell me which book has caught your fancy, I would be glad to retrieve it for you.”

  

[Clementine Yaxley]

Fortunately, there was a kind young man nearby, who seemed willing to help her. He didn't look like the kind of man that it would be acceptable for her to interact with, but he was kind and polite and Clemmy was not going to refuse help that was so kindly offered to her, especially when she actually needed it. And, who knew, perhaps he had read that particular book and he could tell her if it was any good or not. Clemmy could afford books that she'd end up not liking, but she'd still rather buy something she liked, as the next time she could go to such a trip would be in about a month.

"Oh, yes, thank you!" Clemmy replied to the man with a smile. "And it is that book over there. The one in the shining dark blue cover. The Merry Prophet it's called. I believe it is a fictionalized version of the life of that thirteenth century seer, Amos Farmanus" It was quite interesting learning about his life in her Divination class, so reading a book about him, even if it wasn't really that accurate about his lifetime, seemed quite fun.

  

[Isaac Japes]

He was somewhat relieved when she smiled back at him and thanked him for his offer, but he knew that it wasn’t safe to relax completely lest someone come by who was les thankful for his presence. He enjoyed talking to people of all classes and creeds, but he was smart about it. He would rather politely excuse himself the moment trouble started to brew and risk offending someone than find himself in a situation from which he was unable to escape. But, at the moment, the situation was still quite pleasant, so there was no need for anything like that just yet.

He had never before heard of the book that she sought, nor did her recognize the name “Amos Farmanus”. He had been quite fond of divination in school. It had always been one of his lighter subjects and he remembered much of what he had learned there, but it was entirely possible that Amos Farmanus was not taught about until sixth or seventh year, at which point, he could not really speak to the curriculum for any of the Hogwarts classes as he had already gone away and (eventually) started work by that time. Regardless, the book was fairly easy to find once she had pointed in its direction. There were three books in that general vicinity and two of them were a dull brownish color, not nearly a whimsical as one would expect from a tome about seers. With great confidence in his selection, he pulled out his wand and eased the book out of the shelf before floating it down into her hands. “There you are.” He said, slipping his wand back into his pocket with a grin. “It does look like quite the interesting book. I rather enjoyed divination in school, though I must admit, the name Amos Farmanus doesn’t ring a bell.”

Quite frankly, he knew that he likely wouldn’t read the book. He already had a list a mile long of books that he would like to read when he got the chance. He had been chipping away at it for years, since he was a student, actually, and he had made plenty of progress, but it seemed that every time he struck one title off of the list, he added three more. But, this book would serve as a good conversation starter and there was nothing that he enjoyed more than a good conversation.

  

[Clementine Yaxley]

Clemmy carefully took the fat tome in her hands. It was a heavy book - heavier than what she used to get from the bookshop - but not too different in size from her books at school. Once she bought it, she could put it inside her purse which was charmed so it could fit anything and weight like a feather and its size wouldn’t really matter anymore.

But it would be rude to leave the man right away, when he had so kindly helped her get the book in her hands. He seemed to be well-read and Clemmy, while not an avid reader, enjoyed a good book or two. If she had the time, she’d probably be part of the reading club at Hogwarts. She was planning on doing a lot of reading once she graduated from Hogwarts and had all this free time in her hands.

“He was a prophet in the sixteenth century who only ever saw happy things about people. He became quite popular and many people of power would call him in their homes. In the end, he felt so pressured to give happy prophecies to everyone, that he’d lie to them. When a nobleman’s son died, after Amos had assured him that he’d overcome some sickness of his, Amos was killed by said nobleman.” she told the man. With a sigh, she concluded: “I suppose that is why we shouldn’t tell lies.”