Ayla sat in the window of Wonderland, her cousin's potion shop, looking out at the dreary alley beyond. She was staying with her cousin over the Christmas holidays much to her parents disapproval. Unfortunately Joseph had been called back to their homeland to deal with a disaster that he wasn't able to tell his family about. All they knew was that he'd be gone for a few weeks and he'd be able to contact them when it was all over. As for their mother, she had a fashion tour she couldn't reschedule that had been booked months in advance. So while the twins had been left with gracious friends Ayla was able to get her parents to reluctantly agree to letting Lexus watch her while they were away. She supposed the fact that their wayward werewolf relative was now registered with the ministry helped but they still weren't happy about her spending all her time in Knockturn Alley.

Ayla on the other hand was thrilled, or at least she had been when she first arrived after Christmas. Now she was just bored. Lexus was off on an errand that would take most of the day and Ayla had been left in charge of the shop. The fifteen year old wasn't exactly keen on working during her holidays but then again Lexus had left her the keys and she could always lock up if she found something more entertaining to do.

The snow outside the window looked about as dirty as the alley itself. The small amount that had made it down through to the cobblestone, through the tightly packed high scaling buildings had been turned to mush from the foot traffic and the light dusting that fell on windowsills and fire escapes somehow managed to make the forbidden alley look even more sinister. She remembered being a first year and all the horror stories she had been told about the place. How all kinds of criminals and magical creatures made it their home but now the place seemed as deserted as she was bored. She just wished something exciting would happen.

Garry walked down the streets of Knockturn Alley with his head down. The wind was cold as hell and cut through the black thermal shirt he was wearing like a knife. He balled his hands up into fists and hunched his back, breathing on his fists as he took long strides. He was out and about in Knockturn that day doing small errands. Perusing the shops for bones and other such sepulchral things. He needed them in case he got an owl back saying that he'd been accepted to perform his feats of necromancy at a certain circus on the way. He always got excited traveling with the circuses, but always found his way back eventually. Though lost in his thoughts he had enough of his wits about him to notice a potions shop. He needed a few things for some projects he was working on. A bone here, an eyeball there, that sort of thing. He passed close by the front of the shop, peering in through the front window briefly before pulling open the door and walking in.

His heavy tackety boots clomped as he walked around the shop, his hands now firmly placed in the side pockets of his carpenter pants. He stalked from end to end of the shop, looking at everything with a careful eye. He needed to get a feel for the place. He wasn't one to just walk in and start asking for questionable supplies, even in Knockturn Alley. He walked towards the counter, around him the strange smell of turned earth permeated but he didn't seem to mind. It was in fact from off of Garry that the scent came. He leaned on the counter of the shop and scratched at the beard on his jaw. Little flakes of dead skin fell down to the counter top like the dirty snow outside.

Ayla's green gold eyes turned to the man as soon as the bell above the door announced his entrance into the shop. He didn't seem to notice her there and she was fine with that. She knew she would see and meet all kinds of 'different' wizards while in Knockturn - it was one of the great allures of the place really. At Hogwarts everything was so safe and at home everything was so muggle and normal sometimes it made her want to rip her hair out. She wasn't naive enough to think that there was no danger for her in the dark alley even with her cousin being a vicious werewolf but she still looked forward to the time she spent at the shop.

She silently watched him walk around. With all the smells that came from the shop itself - the potions Lexus brewed in the basement and the barrels of fresh ingredients placed amoungst the shop - she'd have to get really close to him to smell anything different and at the moment she didn't really want to do that. It wasn't so much that she found the man attractive, more so just intriguing but frightening all the same. The realization that Lexus had left her alone for the better part of the day while she was still two years away from being old enough to use her wand legally was a pressing thought.

With a deep breath she pushed herself out of the bay window bench she had been curled up in and hopped up and over the counter to place herself in front of the man. She held her head high and her back straight trying to appear as confident and professional as she could manage. Though the tight knit sweater, the Alice band holding her Raven locks back, the designer jeans and high heeled boots were enough to say the petite Hufflepuff didn't belong, "What can I do for you?"

"Ah dinnea s'pose you got any eyes or bones."

Garry eyed the young witch behind the counter wearily. Though it was Knockturn Alley he wasn't so sure that he wouldn't get pinched for trying to buy stuff that was regulated pretty heavily. He watched the girl's face intently, looking for any sign of alarm. If she reacted poorly he'd have to convince her he was just taking the pish. He wasn't a big fan of trying to convince people of anything, he much preferred when things just went his way. It was such a nice reprieve when things actually did.

He cleared his throat and turned to look out the big window's of the front of the shop. His boots clacked loudly in the quiet with each smack of the nails against the floor. He figured that he should of started out by asking for something normal, and then gauged from there. He cursed himself in his head, he was awful at any sort of interaction with people. Even when just doing the seedy deals that came up constantly for him.

Ayla pursed her lips and squinched up her nose as she was trying to remember what kind of ingredients Lexus carried. It wasn't too odd of request when she thought about it. She had used beetle eyes at school for potions and she was certain she had seen something about powdered bones in one of her textbooks. When it came to potion making almost anything could be used as an ingredient, much like when it came to her baking. The weirdest things you found in the kitchen were usually the ones that were needed the most.

"Erm, let's see." She moved out from behind the counter to a nearby shelf with several barrels in front of it. The shelf itself was stocked with ingredients as were the barrels. She knew her cousin preferred to brew the potions herself and even took special requests. She boasted being able to brew anything a customer could think of but she was also smart enough to know that sometimes all that was needed to please a customer were a few simple ingredients. It wasn't anything compared to the Apothecary down the way, the one owned by Fig's family but it was enough to get her by.

"Any particular animal you need?" She eyed the man as innocently as she could manage and started pulling down some small jars to show him, "We've got toad's eyes, beetle eyes, puffer fish eyes and ugh gross I think these are Acromantula eyes." She shook out a shudder and then turned to some of the lower shelves, "I've also got dragon claws, griffon claws, rabbit's feet and rat tails." She gave him a little nervous smile, "There's still flesh and stuff on there but if you're just after the bones it shouldn't be too hard to rip them out."

Garry squirmed under the weight of the simple question. He realized how stupid he had been. It would only make sense that anyone in their right mind would assume he was talking about less morbid versions of the ingredients that he had asked for. He looked longingly at the door. The portal to the outside world seemed to call to him.  He was starting to get the proverbial bad feeling. Garry nervously slid his hands back into the pockets of his pants.

"It ainae difficult tae gie th' skin aff, jist takes skill," Garry joked nervously, craning his head to look back to Ayla.

He watched as the young witch went about pulling down jars. His line of work was always such a hassle. He couldn't help but think he might of been better off going to the boneyard and pulling up a fresh one for parts. It would of been a waste of a good corpse just to grab some eyes though. Not only that, there was also the fact that if a grave was disturbed in the London area he wasn't so sure that Aurors wouldn't come pounding on his door. It was difficult enough the way he had been getting them as of late.

"Nae ye got th' wrang idea. Ah need fowk anes, een tay if ye hae them. Ah need finger anes, toe anes, teeth, th' spaur parts type."

He stared at Ayla very soberly, looking for that one change that would tell him it was time to get gone.

Ayla nodded along with him still keeping as much of a smile on her face. There was something about the guy that was off putting, a little instinctual sense of something being wrong but she couldn't quite put her finger on it. It was like an itch at the back of her head that was trying to tell her something but he didn't seem aggressive and so far he had been perfectly polite with her. Maybe she was just being paranoid, or perhaps she was just super sensitive to the fact that she didn't really belong here, at the entrance to the Wizarding world's underground. It made her wonder what had happened to Lexus to make her feel so comfortable here - aside from the whole former fugitive werewolf running from the government thing.

She gnawed on her lower lip for a moment before giving the older wizard a sheepish grin, "I'm sorry. I'm really not from around here and I have no idea what you just said." Her cheeks turned crimson but she made a point of emphasizing her own obscure Canadian accent hoping it wouldn't offend him that she couldn't interpret his own. Most of the accents back at school were simple English ones, it was rare to come across a Highland or Irish accent she couldn't make it through. Though she had to admit it took almost two school years to figure what Xavier was saying half the time.

"I got as far as fingers, toes and spare parts?"

Garry let out a weary sigh and entwined his long fingers behind his head. It was his luck that he'd be sticking around in the shop much longer than he wished to over his accent being on the harder to understand side of the dialect scale. Those same long fingers came down abruptly and found the edges of the counter. He leaned forward like some sort of spider inching towards a fly in a web, although he felt more like he was the one in a trap. He cleared his through and kicked his foot at the floor a little, producing little scrapes with his hobnails.

"Peep-pull bones," he enunciated in a hushed whisper that carried with it dark implications.

He leaned back out of the young girls face and replaced his hands back into his pockets. Her accent though foreign was easy for him to understand. While at Hogwarts he had heard about every variation of the King’s that there was. He found himself wishing he had an easier to understand way of talking, like the fancy lot in their gilded manors did. The odd thought did come to his mind though that maybe he was being set up. It did seem a little fishy that a little lass with a Canadian accent would be behind the counter in a potions shop in Knockturn. He had to remind himself that that was just the time in Azkaban talking. The place did funny things to a person's mind. Not funny in a haha sense, more like funny in a paranoid and seeing things that weren't there sense. He tried to give the girl a smile to show that he was an ok sort of guy. He wasn't sure how well it translated.   

Ayla took a deep breath and swallowed hard, involuntarily moving back as he leaned forward over the counter. She tried not to look like a deer caught in headlights but was afraid she wasn't really pulling it off. Though fear had seared through her at the moment she tried to push it back along with all other emotions. While momentarily terrified she had to admit there was a small spark of excitement as well but that was something she could think on at a later time.

She nodded. Okay, that I understood. Once again she gnawed on her lip, "Let's see what we've got." She gave him a little bow before sneaking off into the back store room. Ayla seriously doubted that Lexus kept any human parts lying around but she wasn't about to disappoint the man either. Not because he was a customer but simply because he scared her. She didn't even want to know what he needed the parts for and she wasn't about to ask either.

Unfortunately the store room came up short and she was soon back at the front of the shop, "I'm really really sorry but it doesn't look like there's anything. This is my cousin's shop, I'm just watching it for her while she runs errands so I don't know her entire stock. She might be able to get you something when she comes back," She felt herself begin to panic a little, "Or there's a Hag that lives down the alley, not sure the last time she fed but she may have some spare parts."

"I'm so sorry, please don't be mad."