"Guess what?"
"Shit, someone threw up didn't they?"
"If they did would you come down and clean it?"
"..."
"Honestly I'd judge you either way so I'll just tell you. "
"Thank god"
"There are two kids down here and the little girl is reading Interstellar Cinderella to her littler brother."
"Oh my god, send me a snap."
"No, that'd be illegal or something!"
"What?"
"You can't just take pictures of children without permission."
"Okay…"
"Just look in the security monitor."
"..."
"..."
"Oh my god they're adorable."
"I know, right?"
"Oh, hey."
"Yeah?"
"When did you want to take your break?"
"Right, food for the body. Hmmmm…"
"Evans."
"But these books feed my soul!"
"Lunch. When?"
"What time is it?"
"You have a cellphone and a computer and a wall clock all right in front of you."
"Ah yes."
"..."
"..."
"Evans, I can literally SEE you reading instead of checking the time."
"Huh? What time is it?"
"Evans!"
"Potter?"
"It's 2:30"
"For fucks sake, shouldn't I be on break by now?"
"Minnie's not gonna like hearing you curse in the kids room."
"Minerva's not gonna like hearing you call her Minnie behind her back."
"Shit you're right! Only in private."
"Agh, I can HEAR you smirking, you snit, and no cursing!"
"No one's even he- Hello, sir, Welcome to- yes the memoir's on the front table there….to your left…..alright, Evans, Benjy will be down for your break in a minute."
"Thanks, doll-SHIT THERE'S PIRATES!"
"EVANS."
If you asked James Potter to describe his co-worker at Flourish and Blotts, Lily Evans, he'd probably tell you she was like a ray of summer sunshine. Luminous, warm, happy, with blazing hair to match, but also sharp, overwhelming, and likely to burn you if you aren't prepared. He'd also tell you that she had a preference for Historical Fiction and still read new release Middle Grade books. She could quote three Shakespeare sonnets and Darcy's second proposal from memory and bribed him into reading A Swiftly Tilting Planet in exchange for reading Starter for Ten.
"Didn't he write that one that was made into an Anne Hathaway film?"
"Yes but we don't talk about that one."
"I thought it was so tragic..." She looked off into the middle-distance.
"But this one's much more clever. Banter, class commentary, quiz show - the works."
"Fine, but I'm giving you a Pegasus that travels through space and time."
"What?"
"It's the best thing ever, there's also some commentary on racism and allusions to irish poetry."
"Evans, you are literally making this up or being confusing on purpose."
"Who's to say?"
"This isn't a competition."
"Who's to say?"
Lily was always forgetting to bring a packed lunch and always forgetting to reshelve the discard pile by the register. She got teary eyed reading Tyrannosaurus Rex vs Edna the Very First Chicken at Storytime and was friends with a local singer-songwriter, Celestina, and former professor Bathilda, the latter of whom would sometimes bring the booksellers pastries or ice cream sandwiches, but mostly stopped by for a chat and a book. Lily was constantly trying-to little avail- to get kids to read outside their comfort zones, for little boys to read about strong heroines and little girls to read about science and magic.
Lily would fight with him about lunch breaks and which shop in Diagon Alley had the best coffee. She'd fight about which bus was the best to take back to campus, where they were both taking summer courses, and which was the best spot to grab lunch when she forgot to bring something but still had to eat.
They attended the same university, but until the beginning of the summer they hadn't met. Apparently they'd had classes in the same buildings at the same times, and even a friend in common, Remus Lupin, but James was sure that he'd have remembered seeing her before. Even if it had been a quick glance in the cafeteria, or adjacent study tables in the library during finals, he'd have remembered.
Lily was the kind of person that left an impression: On Minerva, their no-nonsense manager who had hired Lily two and a half weeks into Summer immediately after leaving her interview with the twitch of a smile on her lips. On the customers, who came back for new recommendations or to discuss old ones. On James' best mate, Sirius, who swung back into town to visit as he passed through on his motorcycle road trip down the coast, only to be caught up in heated discussion with Lily while waiting for James to come back from lunch. On his Mother, when he called for their weekly check-in and 'couldn't stop gushing.'
Of course she left the biggest impression on him. He'd check each new schedule for days when they'd overlap shifts. He'd offer to staff the kids room during Storytime so he could hear her read, or hear her laugh when he read. He'd bring her coffee on days she opened, and lent her notes for her summer course with a teacher he'd had last semester.
But he didn't realize he was in love with her until Remus told him.
Remus was also on campus for the summer, working as a research assistant at one of the labs. His schedule was much more rigid than theirs at the bookshop, so James rarely got to catch up with his old friend.
One Sunday they both had off in July they were having coffee in Diagon Alley. (The one on the west end of the Alley, not the east end, as Lily would insist.) They were discussing upcoming midsummer celebration when he asked:
"So when did you and Lily get together?"
"What?"
"When did you guys start dating? Like, late May? June?"
"Huh?"
"We're catching up, I'm trying to stay up to date on your love life."
"My...love...life…?"
"James?" he asked, but James face was twisted and frozen in confusion. "Oh no, tell me you aren't pining away like an idiot."
"I...love...her?"
"Yes, but are you dating her?"
James was silent again.
Fed up, Remus reached into his pocket to retrieve his phone.
"Hey Remus, Dr. Frankenstein finally let you free?"
"His name is Dr. Franklin N Stein and he's a physicist, I've never come anywhere near a dead limb," he said exasperatedly. "So how long have you can James been a thing?"
She paused for half a breath before answering, "Why are you asking me this?"
"Because I'm having coffee with James and he went completely catatonic when I asked him."
"Well, yeah, um, that's because that's completely ridiculous. Uh, we just work together and hang out at work and stuff, so...He's probably embarrassed or something."
"Lily-"
"I'm not on speaker am I?"
"No."
"God Remus! He doesn't know I have this stupid crush on him, okay! So don't joke about it, I don't want him to find out."
"Are you serious?"
"I know, he's a dork, but he's...cute and charming and all that but it's just a summer thing so no need to make a big drama of it okay? God, I couldn't bear to see his dumb smirk knowing that I have stupid butterflies-in-your-stomach, tingles-up-your-spine feelings for him. I have to work with him-it'd be too embarrassing. Oh fuck I'm rambling and embarrassing myself anyway. Ah, shit, ahhh I'm hanging up. Bye!"
These idiots were hopeless, thought Remus.
He decided the best course of action was to stay out of it.
"What did she say?" asked James urgently, apparently recovered. "She was talking for a long time, what did she tell you?"
"Nothing really." Nothing he didn't already know.
"Nothing?" he repeated incredulously. "Remus don't go easy on me, I need to know. She knows, doesn't she? She knows I'm in love with her and she thinks it's hilarious." His face fell into his hands, then shortly after shot up again. "No, worse. She feels sorry for me. Remus, just poison me with your mad scientist powers, I can't live like this."
Remus let out a frustrated huff. "What is it you think I do?"
James once again collapsed into a depressed pile on the table top.
"I need you to come down to read for Storytime but you have to stop reading Mrs. Nelson is Missing."
"Alright, Potter, why?"
"Because that book is terrifying and you're scaring the children."
"Potter I'll be the first to say you're far too immature but you can hardly call yourself a child anymore."
"I don't know what you're insinuating, Evans, I'm fearless - just thinking of the children."
"I won't read the scary book, then. Why can't you read?"
"Streaming the World Cup match."
"Classy, Potter. Who's winning?"
"England."
"Really?"
"No, but they will."
"If you say so."
"I do."
"What do I read then?"
"Ah shit!"
"Language - I'm assuming I can't read The Gruffalo, either"
"Other team scored."
"Well fuck."
"Language. And yeah, nix Gruffalo"
"Cool your tits, Potter, and tell me what to read."
"Amelia Bedelia?"
"But which one?"
"There's more than one?"
"Now there are."
"Mrs. Piggle Wiggle."
"Same issue."
"The Narwhal book?"
"I've read Not Quite Narwhal soooo many times."
"What about the new penguin one then?"
"Hmmm, Harriet Gets Carried Away? Do we have it in stock?"
"Ah!"
"What?'
"Nothing, blocked shot on goal."
"For fucks sake, tell the boys to get their act together."
"Oh I will. What about the Elephants book?"
"Elephant book?"
"'No elephants allowed' or something. STOP CRYING AND GET OFF THE GROUND."
"They should just kill him to put him out of his misery. Strictly No Elephants?"
"You are vicious, Evans-yeah that's the one!"
"Great, see you in a minute."
If you asked Lily Evans to describe her co-worker, James Potter, she'd probably tell you he was like a heat wave. A large force of energy that bursts through and makes sure everyone knows he's there. Obnoxious, consumes all your thoughts, and makes your head fuzzy. And hot, very hot. But a smug hotness that only heat waves and James Potters seem to possess where they know they're raising the temperature in the room and enjoy how uncomfortable it makes you.
Lily had been in shock when she walked into Flourish and Blotts on her first day and saw him sitting behind the counter. He and his friends used to kick around a ball in the yard in front of her dorm building. She never saw him anywhere else but enjoyed catching a glimpse - just a glimpse, she definitely didn't stare out her window until they packed up and left - of his warm grin and friendly antics. She'd gone as far to check the school's soccer team roster, but he wasn't on it. He hadn't wanted to play for the school team, she later found out, wanted to focus on studying, but she knew he missed it and didn't complain that it lead to the weekly pickup games.
But then James Potter forced himself into her reality. Well, she had applied for the job herself, and charmed Minerva into giving it to her, but her friendship with James wasn't planned. It was a relationship of convenience, she told herself. They spent so much time together that it was impossible to not develop a rapport. And they were both bookish people, obviously. Not the same way Remus was, but that they both got excited about stories.
James Potter was into short story collections and those large, phone book-sized memoirs and biographies of historical figures. They were the only things that that were thicker than he was in the head, she would tell him, pursing her lips to hold in a smile. He loved telling her facts from them he found interesting or surprising. He sang the Periodic Table song to keep her awake when they shared the closing shift - Remus had made them all learn it when they were kids, he said. He snuck her new releases before the shelving date when they came in early, and was always reminding her to get her nose out of book long enough to do her job or eat something. He also had the good sense and generosity to find her jokes funny, meaning she got to see that glorious grin almost enough times a day.
She really couldn't help calling his register on the store phone too many times, or asking him too many questions about the SFF books they both loved. Whether they were fighting about the new Kat Howard or looking online for old school Catherynne Valente they couldn't order for the store, she couldn't seem to shut up around him. She told him about the strange characters she'd run into on the mostly empty campus, embarrassing stories from her freshman year, and even that she still hadn't read The Name of the Wind.
"Stop looking at me like that," she said.
"I just can't believe it."
"There are a million other books to read, I just haven't gotten around to it."
"Gotten around to it?" He shook his head in disbelief. "Evans, it's not a chore, it's an experience."
"Well forgive me if I don't want to experience the agonising wait for the third book that you won't shut up about."
"But you read Game of Thrones."
"Yeah, but at least we'll get some kind of closure with the show."
"The last season isn't until next year!"
"It's been seven years since Wise Man's Fear."
"But don't you want to talk about theories with me?"
"I already talk to you too much, we ought to talk to customers more often."
"That is true but you should still read it."
"Have you finished What Happened yet?"
"No because the first chapter made me cry and I'm not emotionally ready for it yet."
"Alright, Potter, if you say so—Hello! Could I help you find something?"
She hadn't had as good a summer since the rose-tinted years of her childhood, and she was dreading the end. There had been a couple weeks after they first started working together when she was sure that her feelings were mutual, or could be. She gave him ample opportunity to ask her out: griping about having nothing to do on Saturday night, teasing him about the various coffee shops in Diagon Alley, she even invited him out for ice cream one night after their shifts, but he had had to run off to other plans.
They were friends, and that made her happy, but she couldn't entertain the idea that they would keep in touch after the semester started and they weren't in the same room for multiple days a week.
When James went into work late Tuesday morning he was anxious and sweating even more than the July sun warranted. Monday he had been granted a reprieve, Lily had had the day off, but today he would find out if their easy friendship had been ruined.
There she was, sitting behind the register, book propped up on her knees. Her long dark red hair was messily tied up, revealing both the baby hairs the frizzed from humidity at the nape of her neck and the cinnamon-honey streaks painted by the sun. Her emerald eyes darting across the page as her brow slightly furrowed in concentration. She was a sight that could launch a thousand ships, he thought. Then again, he was having trouble even moving his feet.
She glanced up at him and smiled. "What are you up to? Crowding up the entry..." she shook her head in mock disapproval.
He blinked, then recovered. "Oh, you know, relishing that transition into the magical conditioned air."
She laughed. His heart thumped. "Understandable, but come inside properly so you can help me with labeling."
"Is that what you're doing?" he said, nodding to her open book as he finally walked forward.
"I didn't want to start without you."
"Well thank you for thinking of me."
They labeled and helped the odd customer until the post lunch hour slump. It was just the two of them in the front room, Benjy was managing the kids room, so they spent the lazy summer afternoon zigzagging around the store shelving the stacks of books.
Flourish and Blotts was a quaint store, with shelves and displays set up in a way that could be described as cramped if it weren't so charming. The result was that as they talked across the store, as James made Lily laugh with the funky dance moves to the 60's music they had playing on the speakers, as Lily spun down the aisles so she could watch the skirt of her yellow sundress fan out, they maneuvered around each other with small brushes on the back, rubbing shoulders, arms crisscrossing across the shelves. The store seemed to be getting smaller with each soft touch.
James couldn't keep his eyes off the swish of Lily's dress as it swung around the tops of her thighs. When she stretched to reach the higher shelves he felt his heart quicken and couldn't help but trace the elongated line of her body with his eyes. Desperate for some reprieve, he volunteered to take the box of children's books they'd labeled to the kid's room.
Despite the cool air blowing from the unit on the ceiling, Lily was feeling undoubtedly warm and her thoughts were frustratingly fuzzy. She didn't understand what exactly was different between her and James, but the mundane task they'd completed numerous times that summer had taken on an electric edge. Her skin was buzzing from each moment of contact, and she couldn't stop thinking about the way James would adjust his glasses or run his hand through his midnight hair as he considered the placement of each book. She was thinking too hard about the way his sturdy, large hands gripped each book before gently putting it in its place. Thankfully, he had gone down to the other room, but not before giving her a marvelous show of his behind as he bent to lift the box, and his arms as he carried it.
She took a deep breath to calm herself. The middle of a shift was not the time to get distracted by her coworkers
When he returned from the other room she was up on a step ladder to stow away extra copies on the overstock shelves above. As she pushed on the spines she felt a sure hand on the small of her back, steadying her. Her breath hitched. The hand disappeared.
She slowly came down the step-ladder. He hadn't moved. When she turned to face him, she found he was so close she had to tilt her head up to catch his gaze. His eyes were blown wide behind the lenses of his glasses.
For a heavy moment they looked at each other, their breath mingling and an energy buzzing between them.
They reached for each other at the same time.
James took her by the hips and forced her up against the shelves, Lily grabbed his shoulders and pulled him down to her, and then their lips met as they crashed together, finally.
They melted into one another with relief and urgency - they'd reached their boiling point and pent up energy was finally bubbling over into heady passion. James's hand skimmed down from her hip and around her ass to guide her leg up and around him. Lily's fingers raked up into his hair, angling his head so she could dive deeper.
Their hands wandered further. His other hand slid up to tease the underside of her breast with his thumb. She tugged on his hair to pull his mouth from her lips to her neck so she could catch her breath while he sucked and nipped at her soft skin.
The pressure on Lily was building on all sides - the shelves into her back, his fingers into her skin, him against her as she pulled him closer with her hands and her leg - and the summer sun outside was the only thing that compared to the rising heat between them when-
Ding, the bell on the door rang.
They froze. His mouth was still on her neck and she was breathing roughly in his ear as they waited to know if they'd been caught. But they were behind several bookcases and all they could hear was the whirring of the air unit and the soft footsteps as the customer began to wander around the front displays.
Slowly, quietly, they untangled themselves. Both their hair had been generously mussed, and while James' mop looked more or less the same for it, Lily let her hair loose to fall to cover her neck and shoulders. James lifted a hand to touch a lock before cupping the side of her face. She smiled at him and quickly adjusted his glasses. He leant down for a last, soft kiss. Her eyelids fluttered closed as she tried to capture the moment. She opened her eyes to see him smiling back at her, then he retreated to the back hallway, undoubtedly to cool down.
Lily watched him go with a sigh. She brought her palms up to press into her warm cheeks. She took a deep breath, counting as she exhaled. She brushed her skirt with her hands and absentmindedly walked amongst the shelves arranging and rearranging the books.
James returned to the main floor invigorated. Perhaps he should have been embarrassed, but kissing Lily Evans in the back stacks of a bookstore had the magical effect of erasing all insecurities. It had been a rash move to be sure, still, she had pulled him close with a desperation to match his own.
He met her by the register where she was ringing up a customer buying The Book of Dust.
"It says there's a color illustration in the first edition?"
"Yes, it's just the print in blue behind the dedication page."
"Well, that's a rip off. They shouldn't advertise like that," the customer complained.
Lily shrugged, refusing to take responsibility for the publisher. The customer was buying the book anyway. She didn't take bullshit from customers, and she certainly wouldn't take his bullshit. He loved her for it.
The customer left, with the book and a handful of free bookmarks to boot, and they were alone again.
"So, um," Lily began, nervousness apparent in her voice.
"Lily," James said, reaching out to tug her lightly by the waist so she would turn to look at him.
"James," she said, looking at him and feeling all the nerves and doubts melt away. Her eyes began to glint with mischief. "It would be very unprofessional of you to kiss me at work."
"Would it?" he asked in mock surprise. She bit back a grin and nodded. He couldn't help but lower his head towards hers, mesmerized as he was by her teeth on her lip. Her hand crept up to finger the hem of his shirt.
"Well then," he said, taking the smallest step away from her. "I guess I just have to kiss you after dinner."
"Dinner?" she asked.
"If you're gonna feel me up in the stacks the least you could do is buy me dinner, Evans" he teased.
She swatted him in the arm. "I could say the same for you, Potter."
"I guess we'll just have to keep going out, you know, until we even the score."
"If that's how you're gonna ask me out, I don't think you should be concerned about scoring, James," she said with a growing smirk. He squeezed her waist and brought her closer again in response.
"Lily…" he admonished, his gaze flitting between her lips and the door. She giggled and playfully tugged at his shirt.
"Evans, I've been mad about you for weeks," he said, "Would you like to go out with me?"
"Alright, Potter." She pushed up on her toes to steal one more kiss.