Alexandra did not know if the people who had written this believed this pack of lies, but it made her wonder about the ego of the boy who was supposed to have accomplished all these 'exploits', especially if the wizards and witches and their children took them as the pure and unaltered truth.
Realising she had passed enough time at the book store, she closed the book, put it back in its place and went back to her trunk to pack the books she had bought. The fictional adventures of the Boy-Who-Lived could wait for another time, although she noticed a couple of adults buying the books in question for their children before she left the shop.
After leaving Flourish and Blotts, she bought a watch in a magical horologer when she realised she had not a lot of daylight left to buy of her supplies. After that she bought a pewter cauldron as indicated on the list for the modest sum of two galleons piece, then the set of scales (for ten sickles) and a collapsible telescope (for three galleons). She quickly bought the ingredients and the kit for potions she needed in the apothecary shop, as the smell was truly repulsive, horrible, and a lot of other words where disgusting figured prominently.
In spite of the barrels of slimy stuff which stood on the floor, jars of herbs, dried roots and bright powders lined the walls. Bundles of feathers, strings of fangs and snarled claws hung from the ceiling. Alexandra found herself unable to bear the smell of rotten eggs and outdated vegetables that was in this store. She got out of this establishment as soon as possible.
The following shop on Alexandra's list of places to go was for clothes, in that case the name of the shop was Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions. There, she was welcomed by an old witch who could only be the owner of the store, Madam Malkin. She was a squat witch, dressed in a long mauve robe, and gave her a pleasant smile. She looked a bit strange being so short in height, but at least she wasn't repulsive like so many witches in the alley had been. Many of them had the look and the smell of the evil witches in the fairy tales. And her behaviour was likeable, unlike some other welcomes she had this day in the Leaky Cauldron or Gringotts.
"Hogwarts, dear?" asked the woman, her kind smile still in place.
Alexandra nodded. "Yes, Madam."
"We've had quite a few Hogwarts students coming in today," the woman said. "In fact, there's a young woman being fitted up just now."
In the back of the shop, a girl with light blond hair was indeed standing on a footstool while a second witch pinned up her long black robes. Seeing Alexandra, she frowned in a sign disdain and her face changed as if Alexandra was unworthy to be in the same room as her. The girl had a pale skin, light blonde hair and cold blue eyes, giving her a sort of ethereal beauty which was usually found in the magazines showing pictures of top models Petunia bought for the cosmetics and the tea parties with the neighbours. Madam Malkin stood Alexandra on the stool next to her, slipped a long robe over her head, and began to pin it to the right length.
"Hello," she said to the girl when it became evident the other girl was not going to speak first. "So you go to Hogwarts too?"
"Evidently," replied the other girl, with a tone that managed to be arrogant, confident and aristocratic at the same time. Alexandra knew at once she and the unknown girl were not going to be friends. "What year are you in?"
"First year." she replied hoping the conversation had just gotten better after a bad start.
"As expected given your Muggle clothes." the blond girl affirmed with a tone of something which could be superiority or arrogance. "I take it your parents are currently buying all the things you need for Hogwarts, like all Muggle-borns do?" The way the question was formed, it was clear the girl's question had been more rhetorical than anything else.
Alexandra turned her head in shock. Okay, it seemed her first impression of the girl had been the truth. Definitely not someone she wanted to be friends with. If the girl had been less snobbish, she would have sworn she was doing the equivalent of smirking.
"For the record," she drawled in a cold tone similar to the one which had just been used to insult her, "my parents were a wizard and a witch, so I'm not Muggle-born. And no, they're not buying my supplies in Diagon Alley. They're dead. I'm doing my shopping myself."
Not technically true as her father was currently imprisoned, but she was not going to inform the pest next to her of her exact familial status.
The other girl raised an eyebrow, but didn't say anything else as the lady was finishing her robes.
Alexandra wondered why the girl sounded so full of herself. Even Aunt Petunia on her best haughty day wasn't in the same league of 'unreachable'. It was not like she hadn't said something truly insulting or had the appearance of a gargoyle! Or maybe she was able to read her thoughts. With magic, everything was possible after all.
Losing herself in her thoughts, she was caught by surprise when the other girl spoke again.
"So what house do you think you'll be in?" the blonde diva asked her.
"I'm not sure," Alexandra answered, almost tempted to admit she knew really little about the system of Houses in Hogwarts, and only because she had spoken to a library assistant not two hours ago. Otherwise, she wouldn't even know there were Houses at her new school. Not that she was going to tell her interlocutor that. She didn't even know what House her parents were in.