Plundering for Pirate Books

Peter took the book from her without hesitation, turning the book over to read the summary on the back, just as he had done with the first book she had given him almost an hour ago now. A significant amount of time had passed since they entered the bookshop, but Amelia hadn’t really begun to feel the time passing until after their incident at the large book Peter now had tucked under his arm. It was unusual for Amelia to interact socially without checking her watch every few minutes, willing her time of obligation to pass faster. The fact that she and Peter had spent nearly an hour together from the time they left the castle to the point of Amelia walking away from him to clear her thoughts didn’t seem like reality to the Ravenclaw girl, but there was no denying it.

After a quick flip through the pages, Peter declared the perfection of Amelia’s choice, though the redhead hadn’t needed his response to know she had picked the right book. Although she could never find the right words to say, she knew enough about people from watching them to know what kind of books they would like. People were sometimes harder to decode than the books she spent so much of her time around, but eventually, she tended to figure people out. Although Amelia had never met Peter’s sister, she knew him well enough to make a hypothesis of what kind of book would suit her, and it turned out she had hit her target.

Peter had continued speaking after giving Amelia feedback on her book choice, easily filling the silence that would otherwise have followed his statement. That was one of the things Amelia liked about Peter – a short list, given how briefly they had encountered before today, but it was better than the list some of her peers had – he had no trouble talking, and let Amelia off the hook when she had nothing to say. Peter spoke quickly and animatedly about his sister for a few seconds before trailing off, causing Amelia to look quizzically at him, wondering what had caused the usually fast flow of his words to grow stagnant, but before Amelia could decipher the look on Peter’s face, he recovered, claiming not to know why Olive liked adventure books so much.

And his smile fooled Amelia, who brushed her initial questions away and followed Peter as he moved to the register at the front of the store. She hadn’t picked out anything for herself, but that was no matter; she would likely be back in a week or so, and there would be plenty more books to choose from then. Today wasn’t really about finding a book for herself; this was a tour de Peter.

“Did you find everything you were looking for, Miss Lyons?” the cashier asked as Peter placed his books on the counter, reaching deep into his pockets to find the few coins he had had earlier.

“Yes we did, Andrew, than you,” Amelia replied, easily on a first name basis with all of the employees of the book store, having frequented the shop so often.

“I’ll just ring these up for you then,” Andrew said, reaching for Peter’s books and turning them over to find the prices. He scanned the tag of Olive’s book without comment, his wand passing over the numbers of the price, but when he went to scan the large pirate tome, his eyes flicked up to Amelia, as though looking for some kind of explanation.

Put it on my tab, Amelia mouthed silently to Andrew, her eyes darting over to Peter, who was still fishing for his money and hopefully hadn’t seen this exchange. Andrew gave Amelia a look she hadn’t seen on him before, one that involved a raised eyebrow and a pointed look at Peter, and although he hadn’t said anything, Amelia felt a flush of color rise on her cheeks and she shook her head as vigorously as she could without drawing Peter’s attention.

Just do it! Amelia mouthed to Andrew, anxious now that Peter seemed to be finding his money.

With a shrug that indicated Andrew was finally accepting what Amelia told him, he scanned the price on the book, giving Peter a once over before finally announcing the total Peter would be expected to pay.

“Seven sickles, three knuts, sir,” Andrew said, addressing Peter, though he had a mischievous glint when his eyes darted over to Amelia and then back to Peter again.

He is enjoying this way too much, Amelia thought to herself, rolling her eyes and wondering if it really was worth all this trouble just to get back to her potions earlier.

Well if that was the only reason you were doing it, I would say no, her subconscious butted in, much to Amelia’s chagrin.

Peter really should stop wearing tight pants like Adam always told him, even if he liked them. It was such a bother retrieving anything from his pockets though. His fingers would scrabble at the coin and then lose traction and he would have to search all over. “I have eet... here...Nope...” He kept a running commentary of his attempts to get his coins and after a few moments of this, he pulled out a few coins, counted them, and plunged his hand back into his pocket.

Finally, he had all of his money gathered in his left hand and he grinned up at Amelia and the cashier, someone named Andrew. “Silly pockets,” he said with a bashful grin, a little embarrassed by the display. “Eet is what I get for wearing tight jeans, I suppose.” He laughed and counted at the coins, handing them to Andrew and dropping a knut in the donations bin. “Sorry about zat. Zank you, zough.”

He pulled his sweater back on since he supposed they would be entering back into the cold; it seemed their time in the book shop was coming to a close. Which, in retrospect, was probably a good idea, seeing as Peter had already caused trouble for himself and instigated one very awkward moment, though he hoped they would be able to recover.

He really did like spending time with Amelia, and not just because she was pretty or a Hogwarts girl, but she was very kind to him and rather thoughtful. She also had thoughts that went past Quidditch and fashion, which was really all of what he heard from his group of friends. Oh, yes, and gossip. But Amelia actually spoke of things that he found mattered and even though she sometime acted awkwardly he found it charming.

Too bad their time was ending. But perhaps she was not completely weirded out by him to not want to spend time with him again. Beauxbatons students typically did sit at the Ravenclaw table so maybe one day he could convince Adam to go ahead and sit by her, giving himself precedent to sit with her for a meal... Or he could just be a man and sit with her without the whole production to go along with it.

He slipped his gloves out of his sweater pocket and slipped them onto his hands, wiggling his fingers to make sure they were on right. He reached forward and slid his fingers under the books, hoisting them into his grip and clasping the books against him. He turned to Amelia and offered a small smile. “So, are we done here? Ready to head back up to Hogwarts?” He raised his eyebrows.

To Amelia’s relief – it would have been very hard to explain this away – Peter did not look up in time to catch her exchange with Andrew, and when he finally did look up from his pockets he was smiling, though a hint of embarrassment was tinging his cheeks. Perhaps his own embarrassment at not being able to maneuver in his own attire was the reason why Peter had not noticed anything awry with the situation, including the fact that Amelia too was blushing slightly. Although Amelia would have said in any other situation that wearing pants tight enough to prevent you from using the pockets was inefficient, in this case, she was thankful for Peter’s unusually tight clothing.

Not in that way! Amelia exclaimed mentally as her subconscious started snickering at that last thought, the color in her cheeks only darkening as Peter handed the money over to Andrew, who quickly punched a few buttons on the cash register and placed the coins in the till, giving Amelia a sly look that unmistakably read ‘I know what you are up to.’

Now if only Amelia knew what the hell she was doing.

Without saying anything, Andrew put the books into a heavy plastic bag emblazoned with the name of the shop and slid the bag across the counter to Peter, who was putting on his winter gear again, which Amelia took as a hint to do the same. Peter had removed more of his layers of clothing than she had – she was still wearing her jacket, never having thought to take it off, such was the focus required of her to hold a normal conversation with Peter. She did pull her gloves out of her pocket, though, and slid her thin fingers into them just as Peter gathered his purchases and turned to her with another of his smiles. He had so many of them, seemingly one for every possible emotion and situation. Amelia had never thought of a smile as an appropriate response to anything one might encounter, but Peter seemed to know no other expression. Embarrassment, happiness, content, awkwardness – all of these had a different version of Peter’s characteristic smile.

But lingering on Peter’s unusually happy demeanor would not help Amelia to understand it right now, and she had already waited a few seconds too long to respond to his prompt that they return to Hogwarts, so after looping her scarf once more around her neck and zipping up her jacket, Amelia nodded, trying to offer a smile of her own that would be fitting to departure, but Amelia’s smile was not a comfortable thing on her face; it did not morph so easily as Peter’s, so this attempt made her lips look like she had just tasted something she couldn’t identify and didn’t yet know that she liked.

“Yes, I think that it is about that time,” Amelia responded, dropping the smile because even without seeing it she could tell it didn’t quite fit. She moved toward the door of the shop, only a few steps away from the register, and stepped out onto the street and into the cold that felt even colder now than it had been this morning, likely because they had been in the warmth of the shop for so long. The street was much busier now, the later hour of the morning drawing more customers out of their homes and more students out of the school. Spotting even a few students she knew made Amelia even more anxious to get back to the castle; she didn’t need anyone bringing stories back to the castle about ‘the Ice Queen’ spending time with a Beauxbatons student. Rumors already seemed to follow her around like a shadow, and her peers didn’t need any more fuel for that fire.

“After you,” Amelia said somewhat more hastily than she intended, gesturing that Peter should step through the door she was still holding open.

Peter felt something rise in him, some words that he wished to say but found that he was not quite brave enough to say. He barely knew Amelia, and from what he did know of her, she would not take his words well and he would probably make things even more awkward. He bit down the words You should smile more often. I like it and let them go unsaid. Instead he finished preparing for the onslaught of cold outside in silence, concentrating on zipping up his jacket.

Amelia slipped outside and Peter made to follow her, pulling the hood on his jacket up because it looked like a wind had picked up. As he did though, he could not help but glance back at the store. It was like a lot of the book stores back home, clean and simple, quiet and plain. But something about it made the corners of his lips rise a little, make him want to give it one last sweep of his eyes, make him want to linger in the doorway. Must have been the company.

The cashier was staring at Peter, a knowing smirk on his face, his eyebrows raised in what appeared to be amusement. Peter gave a small start as he realized he was being watched and then smiled, raising a hand to the man and saying, "Thank you." His only response was deepening the smirk that said he knew something that Peter didn't, and shaking his head, turning to go about his business. For a second, Peter stared at the empty air, narrowing his eyes, and then decided to forget it.

Amelia's words reached him and he turned to see her holding the door open him. "Oh," he said, realizing he may have kept her waiting in the cold and hurrying out of the bookshop, swinging his bags slightly as he did. He tightened the drawstrings of his sweater and pushed off his hood. It was not as windy as he had guessed. He gazed fondly down at the bag and grinned up at Amelia. "Zanks. For showing me ze shop and for ze company. Eet was a really nice day."

Peter did not hesitate at first to oblige her request that he step outside, but at the last moment he turned around, perhaps on the pretense of thanking Andrew or asking him about the return policy. Although Amelia would not have minded Peter asking a quick question and then moving along, the way Andrew was lingering at the counter, still smirking like Cheshire cat, made Amelia nervous. Though Amelia would have preferred to work alone, as she always did, Andrew had been a necessary accomplice for her plan to work, and now she was regretting having made that plan at all. What did it matter if Peter got the book he wanted? She could have just told him she had to go back and accomplished the same thing.

This is what you get when you don’t listen to me, Amelia’s subconscious said smugly as Amelia’s panic reached its climax as Andrew’s smirk deepened and his eyes rested on the Beauxbatons boy as if he were going to say something to him, but instead, Andrew accepted Peter’s thanks and retreated to the back of the store, allowing Amelia to let go of the breath she had been holding. Still, that would be the last time she trusted Andrew to keep any secrets.

With Andrew gone, Peter seemed to realize that Amelia was waiting and hurried through the door into the winter air, cold enough to be making Amelia chilly, but not so bad that she shivered visibly. Peter brought down the hood of his jacket, bringing his face back into Amelia’s view as they walked alongside one another back the way they had come. Amelia was watching the ground, not wanting to meet the eyes of anyone walking the opposite direction for fear that it would bring on the dreaded small talk she was always so keen to avoid. She only looked up when Peter spoke, thanking her for showing him the shop and for going with him to fetch his books.

“It was nothing,” Amelia said, brushing off his thanks even though she knew instinctually that this excursion was not nothing. She had voluntarily spent the day with a boy she had barely known at all before today’s outing, and whom she still knew relatively little about. And what was more, she had spontaneously done something nice for him, of which he was still and would hopefully remain oblivious. This was a definite blip on the radar of Amelia’s life, and although she spoke non-chalantly to avoid any awkwardness, internally she couldn’t help but analyze how they had come to this point at all.

Analyze as she might, though, Amelia had still reached no conclusions by the time they got to the end of the street, the same place she had apparated the pair of them earlier in the day. For now, she put the thoughts out of her mind, knowing she would return to them later. They had walked in relative silence to this place, but Amelia turned now to face Peter, shuffling her feet gawkily in the slightly packed snow beneath her boots.

Amelia wasn’t sure what to say here; she usually didn’t know what to say, but goodbyes had never really been her strong suit. She wanted to save herself the trouble of an uncoordinated goodbye at the gates of Hogwarts, where the two of them would part to go to their separate ways, but finding something suitable to say now proved difficult. Peter had had a natural reason to thank her: she had shown him around Diagon Alley, introduced him to The Black Raven Bookstore, and helped him find books suitable both to himself and his sister. But Amelia’s reason to be grateful to Peter for today’s encounter was not so obvious, and she could not find a way to express herself.

“I’m glad you had a good day,” Amelia finally settled on, not exactly a thank you, but an honest statement at least, “And that you found what you were looking for.” A long pause punctuated the end of Amelia’s words, and she dropped her eyes from Peter’s as she reached for his hand, closing her gloved fingers around his.

“Hold tight,” were the last words Amelia said before turning on the spot, bringing both herself and Peter into the jostling darkness that would transport them safely back to Hogwarts.