And Renée makes a suggestion and Miranda sends some owls, all with the same underlying invitation:
Mum wants to go shopping in Muggle Edinburgh and said I should invite some friends. You can Floo in or she can pick you up by Apparition, as you like, and we'll get lunch and she'll have you home in time for supper. Want to come?
She invites Karen and Jenny and Emma and Alli, and as an afterthought also Vivian, since she and Karen have been friendly and another muggleborn might ease Karen's jitters.
Alli plops herself down in the indicated section and gets to browsing. It's not nearly as large as she would like, and she ends up branching out into nearby sections, wandering back and forth between the shelves and accumulating small piles next to her as she goes. Whenever Miranda seems to have a lull in her browsing, Alli will pop over and wave a random book from one of her piles in Miranda's face, accompanied by random asides- "how does she even get that dress on?!" or "look what they named it, it's absurd" and so on. She knows it's not exactly the usual way to amuse yourself in a bookstore, but hey. She's having fun.
"I'm glad you're so entertained. Mum will probably complain if you want to buy any, they have smut in them usually."
Alli eyes them consideringly, but shakes her head. "I already have enough bloody reading to do for school," she says decisively. "And anything with a cover like that can't be good. Hysterically bad, maybe." She ignores the shop owner's attempts to direct her to some author named Heyer; that is missing the point of no books. "And anyway, your mum is nice. I suppose I can spare her. This time."
"There's a saying, don't judge a book by its cover, but you're probably actually right about those."
"...is that a Muggle thing? Because whoever came up with that saying? They've definitely never heard of Edwardus Lima."
"Uh. Writes crazy weird books? Like the one they used to have for creatures class?" Alli makes snappy clapping motions with her hands at Miranda.
"Right. Local." Alli looks at her piles; one has a woman draped in an anatomically improbable fashion over a man whose arms look inflated, and the other is entitled The Feral Goats of Goatfell: A History (which she had almost skipped over before she realized it was being serious). "If all the- local- stuff is like this? I'm sticking to my judging. It's working out so far."
"The local stuff isn't all romance novels! I could recommend you some things but I actually don't know a lot about your taste in recreational books."
"Thanks, but no thanks," Alli tells her, making a face at the pile of books. "Mocking, yes. Reading, no. Besides, my free time belongs to-" she glances at the shopkeeper, "-brooms."
"Ah yes, your demanding chore rotation," says Miranda dryly. "Well, mock to your heart's content."
"Doctor Dolittle. And I know Mum's going to get me local textbooks for the new semester, she always does, wants me to be well-rounded."
Alli glances at the cover. "Bet Jenny will ask to borrow it," she predicts. "Let me know when you're ready to go, I'll be here mocking till you're done."
"I think I'll just get the Dr. Dolittle books I didn't have already and we can go find something else." She tips three off the shelf into her arms and makes for the register.
Alli abandons her piles of ridiculous books willingly enough, and follows Miranda to queue for the register. And they do actually get in a queue; the front of the store has more of the tourist crowd, and there's only the one woman behind the counter, so it's starting to back up.
It's a Hogwarts holiday, so Miranda will be home with her mother. A witch living in London, if Russell's memory serves him right (and it always does). Surprise will be on his side; the news came early from one of the Prophet's sources, so if he hurries he might be able to get her honest reaction to hearing the news for the first time! It's too good a scoop to pass up. Parchment and quill in hand, Russell Apparates to Silverlight's location.
The occupants of this Scottish Muggle bookshop are very startled. There is some shrieking and some dropped books.
Silverlight, however, is glowering at him like she suspects he may be a Dementor in disguise.
She takes a step toward him, then another.
"It's not gonna work," she tells him.
He hits the remainder of the room, ending with Alli and finally Miranda, before sprinting out the back of the bookstore. The woman at the register yells after him how it's the "wrong door, laddie!" but the crack! from the back alleyway announces his Disapparation.
Alli blinks at her, confused. "I put down that weird goat book? We got in the queue? You're still buying the animal book, right?"