Luna's eyes flew to the door at the sound of the ringing bell that signalled someone was entering the store. It had been one of the slower days, although Fridays were generally the slowest days of the entire week, but there had only been one other person to step through that door today.

Her eyes returned to the article in the magazine she had previously been paging through. It was only Mrs Figg from down the street, probably shopping for more cat food. The lady seemed to always run out of cat food, despite the large amount she bought what seemed like daily, and found great delight whenever she spotted some new brand or flavour she had never bought before. Luna idly wondered how many cats Mrs Figg owned, and if that was why she lived alone. No one had ever heard of a Mr Figg, nor did anyone ever remember one.

Mr Filch seemed to be the only person who was interested in Mrs Figg, but his personality was the most repellent thing about him, his constantly sour expression and quick temper didn't help him too much either. Most people tried their best to avoid the man, and when she was younger there had often been dares between her friends to go touch the door of his house, or throw some fallen leaves on his front lawn.

It was late afternoon. The dying sun was casting long shadows into the far side of the store, and the bright fluorescent lighting mad everything look sickly. He was never usually this late. He always came by just after lunch, looking distinctly ruffled and just a little bit sheepish to buy some small snack. Occasionally with an odd bruise and a tale that he would take very little pleasure in regaling her with, but Luna always managed to worm it out of him. That was one of the things she always took pride in.

It was entirely too amusing as she watched him squirm for words to make his actions seem like it were something anyone would do. They never were, and she wished that he would see it.

Luna glanced at her watch, it was nearly time to close, but she could still hear Mrs Figg mumbling and shuffling a couple of shelves away from her. Shrugging, she decided to keep the store open for a few more minutes. Her manager had gone home a couple of hours ago, and had told her to lock up. It wouldn't hurt to be home a little later than she usually was, she doubted her father would even be home by then.

The bell rang again, and Luna sighed as she looked up to tell whoever it was that they were about to close. She froze as she saw the sheepish expression she hadn't thought she would be seeing today.

"Neville!"

"Luna," Neville greeted with a smile, "I had been hoping that the store was still open. I wasn't sure when it closed."

"I'm locking up today, and Mrs Figg is still searching for something, so I decided to leave everything open for a little longer," Luna said with a smile.

"Thankfully."

The silence grew awkward as they stood there glancing at each other in silence.

"Did you come to get anything in particular?"

"What-I-oh, yeah. I'll just go get it then," Neville stood, watching Luna for a moment longer before turning towards the inside of the shop slowly.

Luna smiled until Neville was out of sight, before letting out a heavy sigh and leaning on the counter in front of her. The glossy pages from the magazine she had previously been reading sticking to the bottom of her arms as she dropped her head into her hands.

It was never that awkward.

The awkwardness was so weird it made the situation more awkward. Luna laughed softly, that didn't even make sense.

Luna's head shot up at the sound of cans hitting the counter.

"Tired, dear? I'm thankful you left the store open for a little longer. I never would have been able to get all of these without the help of this young lad, especially since I hadn't gotten around to buying this new flavour. I'm sure Tigger would adore it."

Luna's eyes slid to Neville, whose arms were full of cat food with an amused look, before smiling at Mrs Figg and ringing everything up, including the single chocolate bar that seemed out of place among the cat food.

"This is for you, dear."

Neville protested half-heartedly, but took the chocolate anyway, waving to Luna as he followed Mrs Figg out the store, hands still full of the cat food.

Written for Triwizard Tournament: The Maze – Flesh Eating Slugs: Luna/Neville "repellent"

Written for Game of Life: shopping