State of Being Bored

[Professor Lily Phelps]

Boredom: the state of being bored. Synonyms: monotony, lassitude, apathy, detachment, dullness... bingo! That last one definately described her current situation perfectly. Lily Phelps was currently sitting on her bed, her back against the headboard, with several scaps of parchment thrown in front of her. Several books lay open in various positions, all opened to similar pages. She had been working on solving this particular issue with one of her potions for the better part of two hours and, still, she was getting nowhere. She sighed, Lily hated when an experiment when wrong and hated it even more when she couldn't figure out why the ingredients were reacting as such. She rubbed her eyes, resigned to the fact that she would, once again, have to choke it down to the inadequate state of brought incredients vs personally grown ingredients and abandon the experiment all together. The whole concept was, for lack of a better work, frustrating and she knew she'd prefer to be dealing with her supplier, assured of quality ingredients while she couldn't grow them herself. She sighed, standing from the bed and sending a few books and parchment flying to the floor in the process. Staring at them for a moment she shrugged, leaving them there, she would pick them up later, for now she was heading out to have a bit of fun. There it was again; her short attention span showing itself! Being back in her childhood house had definately reverted her back to something akin to herself, or perhaps that was the large bonfire she'd had in her sister's room the night before.

Running her hand through her hair, which was the trademark dark colour of the Phelps clan, she hurridly searched for her shoes. The thought of what she'd done in her former rival's room was amusing, she'd finish cleaning it out later, all remnants of Faith would be gone over the next two weeks and it was something she was looking forward to. She glanced around the room for a moment as she sat on the bed, slipping her feet into her boots. She'd not changed a thing since returning, even the photos of her family remained on the dresser, though they'd never known she had them. The room wasn't what one would expect from her, surprisingly enough. The bed was a double, the quilt cover an elegent gold colour with black embroidery, the sheets in the same gold, but a silk material. The pillows matched, all eight of them, arranged so that she could slip in beside them and feel as though she were not laying there alone. Her eyes travelled up, the net curtains surrounding the bed matching the ones against the window, though the window held solid curtains behind them, in the same shade of gold. The furniture was wood, it always had been, Robert Phelps' had a thing for quality and wood provided that. Glancing towards the wardrobe she almost could have laughed. The doors were still removed as they had been when she was a child but that wasn't anything unusual. She'd not bothered to replace them, even after removing all the clothes she'd burned, her past going up in smoke with them. Currently she was living off what her step mother had wanted, a clean compromise. They were fashionable clothes, some casual some not, but they were elegant, befitting. The strange thing was they were all styles she'd have worn, she would wear.

She made her way to the fireplace, glancing at the clock above it which read '3 O'Clock'. Throwing in some floo powder she clearly called out her destination and left in the whirlwind of smoke and flames. As she was thrown out through the fireplace in the Leaky Cauldron, she coughed. Stumbling slightly but not losing her balance, she had done this enough times that she was use to it by now. She nodded politely to the Inn Keeper before making her way behind the building. She tapped the correct bricks and watched as they retreated, revealling the alley behind them. To someone who was just arriving in the alley for the first time this would be utterly amazing, watching as the bricks revealed what was behind them and then watching the magic that flowed through the alley. To Lily, however, she had seen this place enough times that it had lost that childlike charm that seemed to come with being younger. She brushed her fringe back from her face and entered the tiny street, hearing the bricks close up behind her. Now, to search for the perfect thing to cure boredom and, perhaps, buy a few things that she would need for her experiments. She looked through the windows of stores that she passed and stopped when she reached Flourish and Blotts. They currently had a new window display being arranged, though she could not see what it was at this current point in time. She was just about to enter when she realised that she had neglected to go and get some money from her vault. She turned on her heel, with a roll of her eyes, heading for Gringotts.

Enter stranger, but take heed, of what awaits the sin of greed. For those who take but do not earn, must pay most dearly in their turn. So if you seek beneath our floors, a treasure that was never yours. Theif, you have been warned, beware. Of finding more than treasure there. The sign shone bright on the outside of Gringott's Wizarding Bank and, as she had done every time before, Lily read it. There was something about it that intrigued her. Perhaps it was the implication of the words themselves or perhaps there had been a spell woven into them, she was not sure. They were a warning, of sorts, without giving away the consequences of the action. Of course those with high security vaults knew what the guardians were and she'd managed to claim one of those upon her emancipation from the Phelps clan and the fact that, despite being only adopted into the family, she was the eldest living Phelps and now head of the family. Faith, though only a few minutes younger, had been born after her and the family law clearly stated that the head of family could be male or female. She entered the building and spoke briefly to one of the goblins, it was not the best idea to ride the carts down to the depths of the bank, especially when one disliked the dim, darkness that surrounded them down there but the ride was over long before she knew it and she was above ground once more with a bag of money in hand.

Exiting the bank she stepped into the street, looking more than a little bit queasy, and looked around, an air of curiousity surrounding her as she noted the people scurrying to and from various parts of the alley. Walking down the steps and onto the cobblestone pavement, she was set back in shock for a moment as, in her rather distracted state, she collided with someone, stumbling back slightly but not quite falling. She muttered numerous curses under her breath, some of which should never be heard from the mouth of a lady (and no doubt her mother would have had a fit regarding it). My apologies she said, hurridly reaching down to pick up the items that had fallen from her handbag I did not see you there.