Liam walked down the stairs of the flat above his shop, rubbing his eyes. He hadn't slept very well last night and now he was not looking forward to his daunting task ahead. It was time to inventory everything in his store. The miscellaneous item side of the store would be easy as he could seta spell to do it for him. He could do the same with the books, but he didn't like to use much magic on them.

He cast the spell on the items side and a piece of parchment and a quill started marking down everything slowly, so he turned his attention to the books. He put a quill on another piece of parchment and set it to write down what he said as he grabbed the first book off the shelf.

Two hours later he was still at it and beginning to hope for a distraction. Anything really. He loved his shop and knew the inventory needed to be done, but it was such a long and drawn out process to inventory all the books, that he often wished he had an assistant that he could make do it.  He stopped working and sat down behind his counter and propped his chin on his hand, staring at the door, wishing someone would come in so he could hold off on the rest of the inventory.

Merlin knew that Augustine could be crazy sometimes, but this took the cauldron cake! 

Dosia hated running errands.  She’d much rather write as many owls as possible rather than run around town on the never-ending list of things Augustine wanted from her.  So, she’d been given her morning list and.. of course… today was just running around.  She’d done the easy things first.  But now it came to (no exaggeration) Fetch script. Romantic comedy, period piece. Miscommunications and misunderstandings… you know the one! with a heart drawn next to it.  That was just… oh Dosia could not believe this. Why couldn't her chore be to retrieve ice cream or something?  That she would be happy to figure out a puzzle over.  But a script?  Gag.

And she could not come home empty handed. 

Being in Diagon, there were a couple of bookshops she could check, obviously, but she made her way to the first she could see: Yelling Compass?  That was an odd name.  But there were books in the window and that meant they might have whatever the hell it was Augustine was looking for. 

Entering, Dosia sighed heavily – happy to see there was no one else in front of her.  “Excuse me,” she cut straight to the point, “but I’m looking for a script: period piece, romantic comedy.  Could you point me in that direction?” 

His focus was on the door for what seemed like forever when it finally opened and someone came in. It startled him so much that his arm slipped off the counter and he barely missed hitting his chin. Standing up quickly he pretended like it didn't happen and focused on her question.

He thought for a moment before he ran his hand over his face, "Normally I could lead you straight to it, but as you can see," he pointed to the stacks of books piled haphazardly around the bookshelves, "I was doing some inventory this morning and everything is all mixed up at the moment. I could summon what you are looking for, but magic isn't used on the books in my shop very often."

He thought for a moment, "Let me see if I can find what you are looking for." And he walked over to his bookshelves and began perusing what was in the stacks of books and what was on the shelves. Not remembering if he had any scripts or not.

Well. This was super promising.  Look at this, half asleep and falling over?  Dosia did not have time for someone to wake up.  Probably looking her own version of grumpy, Dosia waited, face still questioning before he ran his hand over his face and indicated what he would normally be able to do.  She was about to sharply ask what was different about now, but he motioned and her eyes followed the line of his arm. 

A very loud groan escaped her and she let her head fall back.  “Of course,” she muttered to herself, “I have to wander into the messiest bookshop in the Alley!”  Putting her hands on her hips she tried not to be too cross – impossible as he indicated no magic was used on the books.  Seriously?  Seriously!  She guess it didn't matter too much.  Wasn't like Tine had bothered to write the name of the play down or anything... ugh!

Pursing her lips, she stopped herself from cursing and was about to exit when he started walking and said he would look.  Dosia was in a hurry but she couldn’t be a total b-witch by walking out.  Plus, Tine would kill her if she came home empty handed.  “It’s something about misunderstandings…” Dosia trotted behind him finally, still frowning.  “I need two.”

All but ignoring the witch as he left his comfortable position behind the counter, he searched through what seemed like endless stacks of books and various rolls of parchment before he found what she was looking for.  "Turning back towards her, he held out the treasure and said, " This what you wanted?" He took a deep breath, "I apologize, but I only have the one copy at the moment, but I would be happy to order another one for you."

Dosia hadn’t even noticed that the shopkeeper had all but stopped listening to her about halfway into what she was saying, Dosia followed him along.  Not much taller than some of the stacks, Dosia wrinkled her nose as she looked around.  It was sort of musky smelling in here, and was there dust in the air?  A sniffle.  There had to be. 

Preoccupied by the thoughts of the smell and the dust, it took his voice to shake her back out of it.  Blinking rapidly, she turned her  chin and looked rather like a goldfish for a moment before taking. the book.  Dosia looked at the cover for a second and shrugged, “I actually have no idea,” she made a pained what-are-you-going-to-do? faces.  “I mean, I’m going to take it… but do you have anything else… you know, like it?  In case it’s the wrong one.” 

Sheepishly Liam looked at her, "I most likely have what you are looking for, but until I get my inventory done there is no way I could tell you." He looked at the mess that was the book side of his shop and while he prided himself on having rate and unusual books and things, right now it looked like he had just opened and was putting things on their shelves. "I would not be able to tell you either until it's done, I don't really keep many records. Mainly it's just books I find that look interesting.

"I am sorry that I can't be more of a help to you." He made to go back to his inventory, but remembered she still had to buy the script he had found for her. "It's 3 galleons for the script, it would be more, since that one is in its original binding, but I cut the price down since I had to look for it." He walked over to the counternand stood behind it, "Unless there is something else I can get for you?."

That wasn’t useful at all.  What was the point of a bookshop that didn’t know what was in it?  Letting out a deep, resentful sigh, Dosia dropped her hands to her side.  “That’s fine, I guess,” she shrugged non-committally.  This was proving to be the world’s most awful errand with the world’s most unhelpful shopkeeper.  Sure, she got this, but she definitely needed another and she didn’t even know if there was anything else out there like it!  She’d have to go somewhere else and… ugh!  So much work.  She’d much rather be at brunch right now. 

Before she continued on her travels, she’d need to make sure to stop for a soy latte.  It would calm her frayed nerves.  Digging into her purse, she was also shocked – three whole galleons?  For this?  Well, it was Tine’s money… she didn’t really have to worry about it… but one book?  Merlin!  Holding out the coins, Dosia also took out her card.  Gold ink was scrawled across the robin’s egg blue card: Theodosia Fortescue – Personal Assistant to Augustine Fortescue with their address on the back.  “If you happen to find another – or something similar, you could forward  them here, or just owl with the titles and the prices.  Could you do that?” she asked with raised brows. 

"Not a problem, I would be happy to do that for you." He put the card on his sticky board with the few others he had collected. "I am sorry that I could not help you more this time, but feel free to come back anytime." He said itnwith a half-smile because he could not do anything more.

What a weirdo, Dosia thought to herself as he apologized and told her to feel free to come back.  Obviously that probably wouldn’t be happening.  If the shop was always in such a state of disarray that he didn’t even know what he had on stock?!  It would almost inevitably be another huge waste of her time. 

She really did need that latte with an extra shot at this point.  “Thanks anyway,” she tried to be as polite as possible, though her expression was, undeniably sour.  “Bye,” she tucked the one copy of the script she maybe needed into her bag before she walked to the door, muttering about uselessness and another bloody store as she passed through the front.

Exit Theodosia.