12-31-2017, 01:28 AM
[div style="width:500px;text-align:justify;margin-top:10px;color:#000;font-family:georgia;font-size:10px;line-height:120%"]EXCERPT FROM CHAPTER SIX OF THE EXO x HARRY POTTER AU COLLABORATION FIC I'M WRITING WITH ARIELLE, AYUMI, HAYATO & NAT
this part is written entirely by me... while i was referring to the document with all the plotting we did, of course. this excerpt actually touches on a few important points to the plot and there are some crucial details and hints i'm supposed to drop here... so i'll probably come back to this a few times to make sure i missed nothing because if i did... then there would be plot holes and we can't have that lmao.
Baekhyun opened his eyes when the pulling sensation stopped, blinking a few times worriedly, not daring to move his limbs. Was he still in one piece? He touched his arms, his nose, his buttocks... Everything seemed to be where they were supposed to be. When he looked up at his surroundings, he saw a crooked sign, decrepit and old, hanging on a wall above his head. ‘Knockturn Alley’, it read.
Baekhyun slowly smiled at himself. “I made it...!” he whispered out of excitement.
Around him, the warped alley was mostly deserted, with just one or two old hags waiting on the doorsteps with a daunting vitreous look. A dangerous-looking man walked past him, overtaking him without sparing him a single glance. He had an arm missing. Baekhyun swallowed hard and straightened his back, trying to look as unfazed as he could.
The alley was a little bit darker than he had thought. But now that he was finally here, he could not let himself be deterred by anything so petty, could he? It was time to explore. With a deep breath, Baekhyun readjusted his scarf and plunged into the murky alley. The first shop he entered was a small store full of shrunken heads named Noggin & Bonce, but he did not stay for very long. He doubted Kyungsoo would have been very happy to receive such a thing as a Christmas present anyways, as funny as the other boy’s consternated face would be when he opened up his gifts. Shrunken heads also lacked aesthetic appeal, and Baekhyun did not think that he would like to have one hanging by his bedpost. Therefore, there was no point in dwelling there. He walked out without delay.
Next, the prefect stopped at a book shop, marvelling for a long time at the content of the works you could purchase there. One or two volumes made him dither, and he held them open for a very long time wondering whether he should buy them or not, until the shop owner suddenly hissed at him not to linger if he did not intend to pay – this was not a library for snotty brats, he said. Irked, Baekhyun stuck his chin up and paced out of the shop.
He bought Yifan’s present at the third store, Borgin and Burkes, where he somehow managed to acquire an encased dragon eye for only six galleons and ten knuts. The artefact was supposedly used as a magnet for power and wealth, guaranteeing immeasurable affluence and booming business for its owner for years to come. Baekhyun highly doubted that the thing would work. But if it didn’t, at least, it would look pretty damn rad on Yifan’s bookshelf.
The final shop he walked in was simply named The Coffin House, a very weakly lit place with a black exterior and a door that seemed to have been squeezed in between two other shops by sheer physical force. Inside, the store owner was sleeping behind the counter, snoring softly with a candle burning eerily next to his face.
The Slytherin closed the door behind him as he entered.
“Hello?” he said.
The vendor snorted, barely stirring. There was only one other customer at the back of the shop, holding up a book with his back facing him. The shelves were also filled with odd articles, necklaces made of bones, amulets, fluids designed for mummification...a dead, stuffed ferret was pinned to the wall. Baekhyun looked up. A sign was hanging from the ceiling on rusty old chains.
[align=center]Everything you need on the dead and the otherworld.
Buy at your own risks.
this part is written entirely by me... while i was referring to the document with all the plotting we did, of course. this excerpt actually touches on a few important points to the plot and there are some crucial details and hints i'm supposed to drop here... so i'll probably come back to this a few times to make sure i missed nothing because if i did... then there would be plot holes and we can't have that lmao.
Baekhyun opened his eyes when the pulling sensation stopped, blinking a few times worriedly, not daring to move his limbs. Was he still in one piece? He touched his arms, his nose, his buttocks... Everything seemed to be where they were supposed to be. When he looked up at his surroundings, he saw a crooked sign, decrepit and old, hanging on a wall above his head. ‘Knockturn Alley’, it read.
Baekhyun slowly smiled at himself. “I made it...!” he whispered out of excitement.
Around him, the warped alley was mostly deserted, with just one or two old hags waiting on the doorsteps with a daunting vitreous look. A dangerous-looking man walked past him, overtaking him without sparing him a single glance. He had an arm missing. Baekhyun swallowed hard and straightened his back, trying to look as unfazed as he could.
The alley was a little bit darker than he had thought. But now that he was finally here, he could not let himself be deterred by anything so petty, could he? It was time to explore. With a deep breath, Baekhyun readjusted his scarf and plunged into the murky alley. The first shop he entered was a small store full of shrunken heads named Noggin & Bonce, but he did not stay for very long. He doubted Kyungsoo would have been very happy to receive such a thing as a Christmas present anyways, as funny as the other boy’s consternated face would be when he opened up his gifts. Shrunken heads also lacked aesthetic appeal, and Baekhyun did not think that he would like to have one hanging by his bedpost. Therefore, there was no point in dwelling there. He walked out without delay.
Next, the prefect stopped at a book shop, marvelling for a long time at the content of the works you could purchase there. One or two volumes made him dither, and he held them open for a very long time wondering whether he should buy them or not, until the shop owner suddenly hissed at him not to linger if he did not intend to pay – this was not a library for snotty brats, he said. Irked, Baekhyun stuck his chin up and paced out of the shop.
He bought Yifan’s present at the third store, Borgin and Burkes, where he somehow managed to acquire an encased dragon eye for only six galleons and ten knuts. The artefact was supposedly used as a magnet for power and wealth, guaranteeing immeasurable affluence and booming business for its owner for years to come. Baekhyun highly doubted that the thing would work. But if it didn’t, at least, it would look pretty damn rad on Yifan’s bookshelf.
The final shop he walked in was simply named The Coffin House, a very weakly lit place with a black exterior and a door that seemed to have been squeezed in between two other shops by sheer physical force. Inside, the store owner was sleeping behind the counter, snoring softly with a candle burning eerily next to his face.
The Slytherin closed the door behind him as he entered.
“Hello?” he said.
The vendor snorted, barely stirring. There was only one other customer at the back of the shop, holding up a book with his back facing him. The shelves were also filled with odd articles, necklaces made of bones, amulets, fluids designed for mummification...a dead, stuffed ferret was pinned to the wall. Baekhyun looked up. A sign was hanging from the ceiling on rusty old chains.
[align=center]Everything you need on the dead and the otherworld.
Buy at your own risks.
Funny.
Baekhyun strolled to the back of the shop, picking up a small bracelet made of human teeth. Definitely not decent Christmas present material , no...But there was a necklace hanging on a stand next to it, which looked much more acceptable. The small metallic pendant had the shape of a thick arc, with elongated ears that looked like wings at the top, and small teeth-shaped dents at the bottom. A jet-black stone was encrusted in the middle, glowing dimly in the dark. Baekhyun picked it up. It was pretty.
He looked at the caped customer standing only a few steps away from him now, a hood over his head, and frowned slightly. The book in the stranger’s hands was glistening under the candle light, and Baekhyun made out a word: ‘Necromancy’.
Then, the customer turned his head towards him abruptly, as if alerted that he was being watched, and Baekhyun jolted. He blinked, feeling like he had seen that person before, but not quite knowing who it was, unable to distinguish the other's features very clearly in the darkness. Was that another student?
“Sorry, I...” he started. “I didn’t mean to stare...”
But the customer violently turned around, taking the book with him, then threw his money on the counter and left the shop without uttering a single word. Baekhyun blinked, oddly shaken. He suddenly did not feel like staying here any longer.
The shop owner finally awoke from his nap at the sound of the tinkling money, and he sat up to gather the coins left on the counter into his own cash box. At his sight, Baekhyun cleared his throat, picked up the pretty pendant on the stand, and brought it to the counter.
“I’d like to have this, please.” he said quickly.
The old wizard gazed at him.
Then, with a small nod, he delicately took the necklace into his hands and studied it closely.
“Wise choice,” he smiled, looking friendlier from up close. “You picked a nice article, my boy. This necklace is the Seventh Sense.”
“The Seventh what?”
“Sense. It’s a useful artefact, this... Gives the wearer a complete sense of awareness over his surroundings, more complete than is normally imaginable, enabling him to be warned about everything that could possibly harm him within a range of a fifty metres, at least.”
“I was thinking of buying it for a friend.”
“Well, that’s a beautiful present.” the wizard said. “This necklace will protect your friend from the most unpredictable of dangers. It will ward him off against the unexpected and the invisible.”
Baekhyun grinned.
“Kind of like a sneakoscope?”
“Much better than a sneakoscope,” the shop owner chuckled. “But there’s a resemblance, I suppose.”
“How much is it?”
“Seven galleons and five sickles, if you please.”
Baekhyun forked out the money without hesitation, and the old wizard looked at him.
“You’re very young,” he noted with a hint of suspicion. “You wouldn’t be a student, would you?”
“Me? Oh uh...” the Slytherin stuttered. “No, I just look young. All Asians look younger than their age, you should know, ha ha.”
“I recognize that scarf, though.” the vendor said, squinting hard under the dim candle lights, trying to see the colour of the emerald Slytherin scarf. “Yes...Isn’t this the scarf from Hogw-”
“I need to go,” Baekhyun interrupted hurriedly. “Bye bye!”
He stuffed Kyungsoo’s present into his bag and immediately flew out of the shop, almost slamming the door behind him in his haste to get away. He had wandered around for long enough. It was more than time to go back home already.