The first thing that Artemis realized when she woke up was that she hadn't seen sunlight in days.

There was no real reason for her to go outside in the first place. Her jobs mainly took place at night – it was easier to be stealthier then. Her wardrobe was heavily black, so she just fit in better with the dark night sky. Things were more interesting at night. And plus, there was nothing to do during the day. But it was time to face the sunlight and get some fresh air. She had shopping to do, anyway. It was about time she spent what little money she had on food and some light reading. Artemis couldn't remember the last time she'd read a book and for the past few days, she'd really been in the mood for it. Probably because she was so bored.

So she gathered together what few bits of money she had and headed to Diagon Alley. If she was going to spend money, Artemis figured that she might as well make an adventure out of it. It would extend the process and give her something to do for a few hours, at least. Not that the traveling portion took very long at all, but at least the scenery was different – so she could walk around and have her fill of Diagon Alley instead of wandering around her usual bunch of shops.

There were several stores where Artemis was very tempted to spend her money. She weaved in and out around the other pedestrians, each of them looking at her suspiciously, clearly wondering why she was so pale and why her clothes were so dark. Even in the wizarding world, it was a little weird to be dressed in all black, especially if the particular outfit in question was as shiny and Dominatrix-looking as Artemis' was. She didn't mind the attention, hoping that maybe someone would recognize her and start up a conversation – thus extending the trip a bit more.

Of course, no one on the street stopped her. She wasn't really from the area, and although she'd been to Diagon Alley hundreds of times, she doubted that a friend of hers would appear out of the blue. She hoped that this would happen, yes, but it was very improbable.

She walked into Obscurus Books not really knowing what she wanted to buy. She weaved around the aisles, scanning titles for something that she might be interested in. Artemis almost wished someone would tell her what to buy – she was really behind on her reading. She didn't recognize anything in here anymore, and wasn't entirely sure what would be good and what didn't deserve to be on the top selling list at all. She hadn't been reading up on what would be good or trying to get an idea of what she was in the mood to spend hours reading, thus making the job a little more stressful.

Artemis stopped in a random aisle, not really sure what section was, and pulled down the first book she saw. She flipped through it and it didn't seem interesting. She sighed and tossed it back onto the shelf, beginning to get a little bit frustrated already. She'd barely started looking, but she was already tired of it.