Did a bit of editing and moving around with the past chapters if you would like to check that out.

Only had one critic, and to show that I want more I'm giving a shout out to Sakura Lisel for being the first critic!

Ok this is a good chapter, took me a long time to write because its long. So go! READ


Leaning against the door to help support the stereo in my hands, I fumble with my one free hand to try to place the key into the lock of my store. I supported the large, slightly old-fashioned stereo with my left hand and lifted up leg, while my right hand was shakily trying to put the key in the key hole. When the key finally fits into the specifically shaped whole, I realize a little to late that I am still leaning on the 'push to open' door.

"Briar!" Someone catches my free arm and pulls me up right before I smash my side onto the hardwood floor. "Are you okay sweetie? Do you want help with that stereo?"

I turn to look at my savior and smile as Monica moves to take the stereo from me before I can answer. "Thank you, Monica. Personally, I think it's to early in the morning to be doing work," I hand her part of the stereo, and the two of us lug it towards the front desk and place it on the left side of the desk.

"Is this the piece missing?" She asks as I fix it to where I think it looks like it belongs.

"Yeah, Phillip suggested it," I tell her, walking behind the desk so I could open my beaded bag and look for my CD's that I brought today without Monica seeing.

"Phillip? Is this a boy you have failed to mention to me before?" She looks at me with a sarcastic stern look, I can't help but chuckle. Normally, my mom would have started asking everything about any guy that I mention, even Ron, now was different. Having your mom be your only friend, your best friend, leads to an open relationship. Especially when said mom doesn't know she is a mom.

"Yes he is a boy, but not in the way you are thinking," I tell her, smiling as I sit in my chair and she stands slightly next to the spot Phillip was last night. "He walked in the store when I was here last night after our dinner and thought it was already open. We just talked for a bit to be polite and he suggested music when I expressed my worry over a missing piece," I tell her, stretching the truth a little to cover up the magic.

"So he is no one? You'll never see him again?" Monica asks, raising her eyebrows in suspicion.

"Well he offered to show me around the city this weekend," I mutter, pulling out some papers so that I can have something to do with my hands. I feel my checks heat up and feel like a fool. Ron had always said I looked cute when I blushed, but he only said that to butter me up because I only blushed around him when he tried taking it too far.

"Oh, and he is just a boy," Monica says, smirking at me and turning on her heel. "I'll be outside being a creepy old woman asking if people are going in to the rad new store," She shouts over her shoulder, waving as she walks out.

"You're not old!" I call back to her, but she just turn around and looks at me through the glass door, giving me a look clearly telling me to shut up.

As Monica does her tactic on getting people to stay around the store, I walk around the store and prepare for the opening. After an hour, I glance outside and see Wendell has joined Monica and they are both talking to a mother and her daughter, pointing at the store. I still had thirty minutes before opening, and had one last idea to get the word out about Rose's Magic Bookstore. By the time my parents have ended their conversation with the women and daughter, I have my supplies together and am knocking on the window to get their attention.

Wendell sees me first and waves, poking Monica in the shoulder at the same time. They make their way over to me as I walk out of the store slowly, keys in hand. "I have on thing to do very quickly before I can open the store. I'll be back in ten minutes." I tell them hurriedly, pushing the keys into Wendell's hands. "Go inside and lock the door, you can stay inside after I come back if you would like. See you in a minute." I wave and run towards the apparation point. Wizards who walk by will understand, but the will only know if they walk by. Sadly, this was a popular street, but not popular enough.

Running down the street, I turn into an alley that is dark and dirty for the first five steps, and then is much wider and cleaner. On each wall of the apparation spots, I place a flier, and then slowly inch the rest of the flier on the spots. It was dangerous for me to stand on the apparation point, anyone could arrive at any moment, so I only placed a few there before I chickened out and placed the rest on the disapparation spot. I wasn't sure if you were allowed to place fliers here, there had never been any all the times I had used it in the past month, but at least the name will get around quickly if the fliers are a nuisance. When I finish I check my watch and see I have ten minutes. For only a second I contemplate apparating there to save time, but think better and start running. My long blonde hair was easier to manage with its small curls so it was up in a perfected bun at the moment, helping me run without having to worry about appearance.

I reach the store with still five minutes and see there was a slight crowd wandering around and watching as I knock on the door and have Monica open it for me, before locking it again. I walk into the wizard side of the book store and place half the fliers on top of the desk. The muggles already saw the advertisement in the newspaper everyday of the week last week, wizards need to spread the word. Walking back into the muggle side, Monica and Wendell wave to me as they walk outside, saying something about waiting with the crowd.

I stared straight into the crowd as my watch counted down. It wasn't a crowd waiting to get in a store with a new book, not nearly as big as the crowd waiting to see the new firebolt in third year, but it was a crowd. They wanted to get into my store. All of those people want to read the books and escape to a new world like I do. It may not be more than thirty people, but it was a crowd. So when I walked up to the door and people started walking towards the store, I couldn't help but smile a genuine smile as I unlock the door and let teenagers and adults inside.

"Welcome to Rose's Magic Bookstore." I say as they walk in. Some stop to look at me, while others hurry to the new releases area. "There are secrets to uncover in to this store." I tell them pointing towards the Mystery sign. "Love ready to grow." I point to the Romance sign. "And Worlds unlike our own ready to discover." I point to the Fantasy sign, and smile at the crowd watching me. "Begin your journey with a new book. Because, like Ursula K. Le Guin said 'We read books to find out who we are. It is an essential guide to our understanding of what we are and may become.'" I smile as the crowd walks through the store, whispering to friends and smiling when they recognize a title. I knew these people were true readers because like I do, they feel better when they see a book.

I walk to the front desk and prepare to cash in the first book to be bought in my store. I knew that I would remember selling my first book from my bookstore forever. I didn't expect the book to be on genocide though. I had expected it to be my more popular books in the front.

"I would like to buy this." A man with messy, short, and brown hair with glasses says pushing a book with the title "We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Out Families." I admit I gave him a curious look when I read the full title. He doesn't comment on my look but gets out his wallet and gives me the proper amount of money.

"Thank you for being the first to buy a book in my store." I tell him, handing him a flier. He smiles and walks out of the store.

Wendell walks up to me and hands me a smaller book with the title "Holes." I check it in on the computer, noting it being bought.

"I think this book is going to be a big one." He tells me as he hands me a twenty. "Keep the change to Briar."

"Wendell -"

"No no, I want to, you didn't allow us to help you at all in the making so this store. It is the least I can do." He tells me taking his book back. "See it isn't that hard." He tells me as he walks away.

"You're only the second Wendell," I call after him, then give a smile to the teenager handing me another book.

The Wilkins left three hours after the store opened. The crowd had slowed an hour before then and the two of them helped me straighten the place up before more people entered. After I was alone in my store, with the door perched open and people coming and going, I realized how busy working at a bookstore was. There was always one person in the store besides yourself, and they either bought a book or didn't. Luckily the whole store was charmed that the book had to be in contact with the register between an hours time or it couldn't leave. It gave me one less thing to worry about, but there were still a lot of others. While there was barely anyone in the store, I had to reorganize books without magic, and then sort through the books that had already been sold so I can mark which authors are most popular and need to always have stock in. There had only been one witch come into the bookstore asking for one of the books by Lochart, and Monica had still been around so I was able to ask her to take care of the cash register while I took the woman into the 'back'. I wasn't sure what I was planning to do when I was alone and there were muggles buying books and wizards.

Nothing eventful happened before lunch after the Wilkins left. Ten more books were sold after the initial rush and no wizards came in. I thought the morning had been very successful, and took my lunch break behind the desk, writing to Harry about the morning so he could see the good news when he woke up.

Harry!

I found what the store was missing. Music. All our favorite stores play our favorite songs too.

The morning has been very successful, with exactly forty-three books sold before my lunch. Thats what I am having now. The store is still open and there is one muggle in the store, and I am keeping watch on her while writing with a pencil instead of a quill.

My parents left an hour or so ago. They are both extremely supportive about the whole thing. Sometimes I forget they are my parents, we just don't act like that since they don't know.

I'll write more later, Harry. I just heard the bell and I don't think i can watch more than one muggle while I write on our parchment.

Briar

"What an odd piece of paper, may I see that?" I hear a kind voice ask and I immediately stuff the parchment into my bag.

"Yes very odd but no you- OH!" Phillip laughs at my surprised expression at realizing it was a wizard not a muggle who caught me using a parchment.

"A pencil on a parchment? Very original Rose." Phillip says as he picks up the pencil I dropped on the desk and places in the basket of pencil's. "I am allowed to call you Rose instead of Briar aren't I? Since you seem to like that name enough to name your store after you." Phillip smiles and looks to the sign above my head that was identical to the one hanging above the front door.

"Actually my friend suggested the name, and no my name is Briar so -"

"Great Rose it is." Phillip winks at me, making me blush slightly. "Both are as beautiful as you of course, but Rose just seems to fit your appearance."

I flinch slightly at his choice of words. When Kingsley was suggesting appearance and name change, Ron had said Briar fits my new appearance. Harry had been the one to suggest the two names, but Ron helped in the agreement. It had made it seem like Ron was starting to be on board, helping the preparation, till he asked if I could keep the appearance on for a night. This question had led to one of our most heated arguments ever.

"Rose?" Phillip says, bring me back to reality. I had been straightening some papers in front of me, wrinkling most of them while I thought of Ron. "If you really don't want me to I won't -"

"No, Phillip it's fine. I was just thinking of something that you reminded me of and got distracted." I tell him reaching over and squeezing his hand in reassurance. I pull back and continue sorting my papers. "I would like for you to get away from the front desk however." I tell him hiding my smirk by looking away to put the papers in the proper drawer.

"Oh." Phillip says standing up straight, sounding rejected. "I just wanted to stop by and say hello."

"That's great. But you see this is a bookstore." I turn and hold back my smile and give him a stern look. He is about to turn away when I continue, "So if you want to stay I'm going to have to force you to buy a book." I show him my smirk and he catches on.

"Oh? but then who will keep you from dying of boredom in this store?"

"Are you calling my store boring?" I ask, raising my eyebrows quickly.

"Oh yeah, the only reason I'd come in here was for a challenge." Phillip replies, showing his own perfected smirk.

"With some higher level books than Lockhart's?"

"Oh no, for a challenge of snagging intelligent babes."

"That does sound like a challenge for a guy like you." I try to not laugh at the fake hurt expression Phillip makes.

"I'll have you know I was second in my school."

"And that school was what? Dumbstrang?"

"Oh Merlin no!" Phillip exclaims, loud enough that I take a look to where I last saw the muggle lady. She seemed to have left. "Drumstrang is for thick blokes who couldn't get into Hogwarts. That's where I went, to Hogwarts,"

I stare at him for a long moment. Why did I not recognize him? I knew the year above and below mine, and he could not be that much older than I was. I'm about to ask which house he was in, year, and who is friends were, and all other questions that would help me remember who he was in school, when a man walks up to the front desk, standing next to Phillip and smiling at me. Customers could no longer look down at me, this morning I fixed the chair with a spell, making it grow a few inches and the ground behind the desk to be higher.

"Hello, I was just in the fantasy section, and was wondering if you have a larger variety of wizard fictional books?" He gives me a serious look, showing his wand under his shirt. I reply with a strained smile.

"Of course I do. I believe I have extra books in the back, would you like to join me?" I stand up and see a group of muggle teens walk in and grab the a book from the new release book stand. Phillip watches me freeze and look between them and the man already tapping his feet.

"I'll watch the register while you're in the back Rose," He offers, walking behind the desk. "Can't be that hard right?" He asks when he is in front of me. He now stands a good foot higher than me when we are on level ground.

Hesitating I begin to tell him what to do. "Just take their cash, press this button, and then on the computer type in the book they bought and write how many was bought. You do know how to use a computer right?" I ramble on pointing to different things he needs to do. Phillip is sitting in the chair and I am rushing to get to the wizarding part of the store.

"Rose, go. I'll take care of everything," He pushes me slightly towards the other wizard. I walk the wizard into the next room, looking back to Phillip before closing the door again. He was already on a customer and handing them a flier.

I help the wizard buy three books and then take a seat behind the wizard front desk for only a second before hurrying into the muggle side of the store. Before I thank Phillip, I first type in the books the wizard bought so they can be marked off too.

"I think you may have OCD," Phillip finally says, as he offers the chair for me.

"Thank you for taking care of that, usually there isn't anyone in here when a wizard walks in,"

"Usually? because your store is so old right?" Phillip jokes, taking his spot across from me. "I did great though didn't I? I should just take a job here," Phillip jokes looking around the store, pretending to be thoughtful.

"Speaking of a job, shouldn't you be at one?" I tease him. No one was in the store now, and I suspected there wasn't going to be anyone for a few minutes.

"I should," Phillip says pointing his hand at me to show I am correct. "But I never figured out what I wanted to be. Hogwarts kind of got attacked before I figured it out."

"You could go back to school." I tell him, he must have been in my year or in Ginny's by the context clues he is giving me. "I'm sure the new Headmistress would allow it."

"McGonagal, probably not. I skipped the last year all together like those twins. I don't want to go back anyways." He says, referring to Fred and George's stunt in my fifth year. I smiled at the thought, and thought about how Ron and I use to laugh about it all the time. Ron and I, plus Harry. Harry was there with Ron and I and still here when Ron is not, I tell myself as I focus on Phillip again.

"I remember when they did that, Umbridge had a hissy fit when they did it. Of course was even more enraged when she found us in -" I stop abruptly and realize I had messed up. I think quickly back to my memorized made up past life. Of course it would be Phillip who makes me forget I am living a fake life. "found the golden trio in her office."

"You know about that?" He asks. I knew few people had known about every detail concerning the escape to the Ministry, but we all agreed that there was going to be no secrets from what happened in our first six years at school. However some things discussed by the Order was not released to the public. Phillip must be close to one of the thirteen people who were in Umbridge's office.

"Yes, if you know the right people you learn everything that happens in Hogwarts," I tell him, it was a stretch, considering I knew everything that happened from first person but Phillip didn't need to know that.

"What house were you in?" He asks.

"Hufflepuff, but the little friends I did have were in Ravenclaw. I tended to keep to myself, I figured it would save me from the danger that always arose in school every year." I smile at a customer that walks in and begins roaming the Horror section.

"I was in-"

"Slytherin." I finish for him. I had already assumed as much. He was cocky and sly with his words, a perfect Slytherin. I ignore his stiffness when I answer for him. "Don't worry if you were like the other Slytherins and made the rest of our school lives a walking hell, I don't remember so your conscious can be cleared."

"So what? Hufflepuffs are good at reading people now?" He asks. I understand why he is surprised I am a Hufflepuff, but who pays attention to the Hufflepuffs? They stuck to themselves so if you forgot one of their faces it was ok.

"I try not to blame my traits on my house. We are all out of school, so I don't think we should hold grudges against other houses. Ultimate house unity comes when there are no more houses and we no longer compete against one another," I say. I reach towards him and push him slightly as the muggle who came in early walks up and hands me a book. We exchange the book and money and she begins leaving, putting the book in her bag instead of in my plastic bag. Phillip hands her the store flier and tells her to come back in a husky voice. The lady's face goes completely red and she hurriedly runs out of the store.

"Too easy." Phillip says, laughing and turning back to me, shifting slightly back into place.

"Torture the poor muggle why don't you?" I say, not looking at Phillip as I type in the name of the book the lady just bought.

"I have a very serious question to ask you Rose." Phillip says in a low voice. I move in front of him and look at him, worried where this was going.

"And that is?"

"Are you ever going to finish your lunch because if not I'll take it." He says laughing when I roll my eyes and look down at my sandwich. Its not a hard decision.

"Take it you beggar."

The rest of the afternoon Phillip and I talked about events that everyone in school knew about. Most of the things we talked about took place before fifth year. No one wants to talk about the dark things that went on in Hogwarts during our last two years at Hogwarts. I had figured out the Phillip was in my year, but could not figure out who exactly he was in school. We both seemed to be people who sat in the shadows as all of the events happened in front of us. It was amazing that when I was Hermione I didn't see him there.

"Thank you for coming." I say to my last customer. It was dark outside and Phillip was still in his spot, reading a book that he saw a customer bought that looked interesting. "You do realize you are going to have to buy at least one book for wasting so much of my time on my first day at work right, Phillip?"

"Waste of time? I am hurt Rose." He says, putting a hand over his heart.

"Good, maybe I can single-handedly pop your inflated ego." I wink at him and snatch the book out of his hands and scan it under the red light. "That will be eight Australia dollars."

"You liar. I've been holding that book for a good hour now, I know the price is exactly eleven dollars and eighty seven cents," He tells me while getting exactly that amount out of his wallet. "I don't understand why each country has different muggle currency. There is one thing the wizards actually got right."

"I can agree with that statement." I say, taking the money and placing in the cashier, going through the book sold routine. When I'm finished, Phillip helps me lock the store up and walks me to the apparation point. He laughs when he sees the fliers all around the area, but still helps me collect them together and put them on the spots again.

"I'll see you Friday than?" Phillip asks, as I step onto the disapparation point. It was eight at night, and I was ready to sleep. After almost four months with sleeping in, this working thing was going to be weird.

"Thats what you said last night, but yes I am expecting to see you on Friday and not tomorrow." I smile at him, and watch him lean against the wall behind him.

"I can come tomorrow if you would like Rose." He says it teasingly then gets serious. "I meant it when I said I could take a job at your store. What are you going to do when a wizard wants to go to the wizarding side and there are muggles on the muggle side?"

"Well I am going to work that out. Besides, you need to get your own job to earn some real money. Minimum wage is what you would receive in my store."

"I have enough money. I inherited my families savings after he died."

"Oh." I say, shocked at what he says, my parents story would not be told tonight. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be it was a long time ago. Just accept my help," Phillip stands up straight and leans closer to me as he continues his argument. "Besides, you know you'll have a lot more fun if you have me there everyday. And I can actually get the discount you tried to give me earlier." He snakes his arm around my waist and smirks down at my surprised face. It had been two months since I had been this close to a man, and that man was Ron.

Stop. Stop thinking of Ron and focus on Phillip. Stop bring him up in your mind whenever something happens.

"It'll be fun to work with a friend." Phillip continues smiling down at me now instead of smirking.

"You do make a good point, but..." I start leaning out of his hold, but he is smart and sees through my fake serious face and he tightens his hold on my waist. "You can't have that discount."

"Deal." He says.

I see him begin closing his eyes and lean closer, I am about to do the same thing, when Ron's face is brought up in my mind's eye. Damn that red-head to hell. I make a noise that sounds like eek, and take a step out of his hold, now forcefully and stronger. Phillip's eyes snap open and he stares at me confused and shocked at my movement out of his arms. He looks slightly offended, but I try to give him a reassuring smile and take his hand.

"I'll see you at seven o'clock sharp, Phillip." I say, leaning in and kissing him on the check.

As I pull away and drop his hand he shakes him head and grins at me, "Aren't you something else."

Winking at him, I disapparate to my front door. Leaning against my front door, I slide to the bottom and knock my head against the door. "Idiot, Idiot, Idiot." I repeat over and over again. When the back of my head begins to hurt slightly, I place it in my hands and shake my head. "Get out off my head you damn weasel."

After a while of beating myself up, I finally get up and prove it is myself before walking inside my home. I take out Harry and my parchment and begin a long letter to Harry. Its contents contain the events of the day, including Phillip and how I met him. In the end I tell him my dilemma with Ronald, leaving out the part of Phillip trying to kiss me. If Harry couldn't figure out what I should do, then no one could right?

I get myself ready for bed, and check the parchment for Harry's answer.

Ron wasn't worth your time before, don't make him waste more of your time when you aren't even a person he recognizes. Leave Ron where Hermione Granger was left, Briar.

This Phillip guy sounds like a decent bloke. Go on a date with him and prove to yourself that there are other men besides Ron. He is my best friend, but I know he is a terrible guy to girls.

To prove it to you, I'll tell you who he is dating now because Cho broke up with him.

Lavender. Again.

Remember, Briar Rose doesn't know Ronald Weasley like that, and honestly would not give him the time of day if she met him in person.

Harry,

I smile at his answer which makes everything seem simple. It makes me feel better knowing Harry is on my side, but I still feel rotten for thinking about Ron more than once a day. We broke up almost two months ago, and I was okay with him dating other people now. If I saw him I would greet him like I would if I saw Hannah Abbot, I was done mourning our failed relationship as friends and lovers. Harry is right though, I wouldn't give Ron the time of day and Phillip is a good guy, someone I would give the time of day. I believe I am willing to work harder to get Ron out of my head for him. Ron doesn't think about women besides for their bodies, Phillip doesn't like it when a girl is easy.

"Ronald Weasley, I am done with you from here on out." I thought to myself, getting into bed.

Of course, I was not stupid enough to believe that I would wake up and miraculously have forgotten about Ron Weasley. Instead I woke up, remembered the events of my first day at work and smiled. Ron was not the first thought that popped in my mind, and I didn't think about him until I disapparated to the apparation point and remembered the events of last night also. I didn't linger on my embarrassing reaction to Phillip trying to kiss me, and instead opened my store to let him and Wendell inside.

"Phillip Lee, meet my good friend Wendell Wilkins. Wendell meet my intern, Phillip Lee." I motion for the two men to shake hands, but turn away from them to avoid the look Phillip gives me when I say intern. I walk through my store as they make small talk about Briar Rose. Wendell hangs around the store for about an hour, before leaving to go to work a little late. Before he goes, he pulls me off to the side as Phillip takes care of a customer.

"So, Monica mentioned you met a boy named Phillip. . . and now he is your intern?" Wendell gives me a look that I use to receive from him when I talked about- my guy friends.

Smiling at Wendell, I usher him out of the store, "don't worry about me Wendell, you are already late enough for your work."

"Ok, ok." He turns when he is out the door. "Monica wanted me to ask if you want to go out to dinner tonight? Your choice of where."

"Sounds great. I'll be at your place around six?" He nods and I wave as he walks to his car parked in front of the store. It was the same car that made me know which house was my parents, and I loved seeing it.

The rest of the day was spent with Phillip and I switching out between the two sides of the store. I didn't allow him to hang around the front desk too long, telling him that he wasn't getting paid to flirt with the boss. In return he told me he apparently wasn't getting paid at all as the intern. The day was equally as busy as the first day, with more wizards coming in to see my stock. I spent my lunch break behind the muggle front desk, and Phillip went out to eat. I didn't give him a time to come back, but he was out for exactly thirty minutes. The amount of customers coming in slowed down up until the last two hours of the store being open. For the last two hours, I made Phillip stay in the back so I could send the wizards straight to him. When the last customer left, Phillip helped me lock up and walked me to the apparation point. He didn't try to kiss me when he said goodbye, only held my hand as we walked there.

That was all that happened for the rest of the week. Monica or Wendell would be at the store for an hours time, looking through the books, talking to Phillip and I, and then leaving to start their day. Then Phillip and I took care of customers, talking to each other when we had long periods of time without anyone in the store. Then Phillip would leave for lunch and come back after thirty minutes. At the end of the day, he would walk me to the spot and hold my hand on the way there. On Thursday he kissed me on the check, but that was the only difference between the rest of the days. The only way I knew that days were passing, was that each day I got better at replacing Ron in my head with something or someone else. Harry was an easy replacement, and a few times I even used Victor Krum to help me stop thinking about the red head. By Thursday night, I believed I made improvement. By Friday, I was done with Ronald Weasley and ready to go on my date with Phillip Lee.

"Don't you look stunning today?" Phillip comments as I unlock the store door. "Special plans for tonight?" He winks at me while holding the door open.

"Yes, actually. A creepy man offered to show me around the city after intruding in my store." I say, walking past him to the wizarding side of the store. Swiping my wand around, all of the book began straightening themselves and going back to their original spots.

"The bloke must be as handsome as me to get you to agree to go out with him on a date."

"Yes, he is just like you actually. All creepiness included," I call over my shoulder, knowing he is in the doorway.

"Aww and here I thought you were finally warming up to me," I turn to see him smirking at me. I walk past him and flick him in the nose.

"Get to work intern. I want to close up early so we can see this Veneficia Lane in the day light."

"Yes, ma'am," He says, taking it so far as to salute me before walking around the store and placing books in their correct spot without magic.

All day Phillip taunted me about our date, even staying in the store during lunch to talk about the "extremely handsome and well mannered" who was taking me out. I mostly just let him ramble on about himself and focused on my laptop, laughing when he took a step further to pretend to infer how the guy asked me out. When it was an hour before I was planning to close the shop and there was no one in the store, I started playing the game with him, asking him what he was doing tonight.

"Oh you, know just going out to flirt with a girl." He replies, smirking pridefully when he realized I had joined in the game.

"Oh probably some hag right?" I say, raising my eyebrows as he takes his spot leaning against the muggle front desk.

"Yup." He answers, smirking when he sees I'm caught off guard by his unexpected answer.

"I am not a hag!" I exclaim, hitting him on the arm.

"Ow!" He says, moving away slightly. "I knew you couldn't keep up a façade as long as I could."

"I didn't call you a hag!"

"Oh no, just a creepy intruder." He smirks and walks towards the door between wizards and muggles, shutting and locking it with they key I gave him earlier in the week.

"Which is a true statement." I mutter, walking towards the front door after turning off the computer.

"It is not. I am a flirt, not a creeper." Phillip walks behind me, reaching over me to hold the door open.

"Sounds like the same thing." I tell him walking away towards the apparation point, before he takes my hand and pulls me back.

"You're going the wrong way." Phillip states, loosening his grip on my hand but not letting go. "My apartment is right next to the entrance, probably why it was so expensive. Anyways, my apartment is on this street," He pauses and smiles at me. "Thats the reason I was an 'intruder' Sunday night. I saw the lights on and wanted to give the muggle who decided to build a shop and make dust everywhere a piece of my mind."

"You did a great job at giving me a piece of your mind, you creeper." I tell him, before continuing talking about Veneficia Lane. "I didn't realize how close my store was so close to Wizarding Australia."

"Really? I thought you had a hunch, seeing as you put your fliers in probably one of the most popular apparation spots in all of Australia."

"No, no hunch." I say as we turn into a dead end street with bricks as the road instead of pavement.

"Maybe you are a regular blonde." Phillip says, letting go of my hand as he pulls out his wand. We walk to the end of the street and look around for a sign of muggles. Luckily the street is long enough that if a muggle walks by the entrance they couldn't tell what we are doing.

When it is safe to use magic, Phillip presses his wand against the corner where wall meets floor and runs his wand up the wall. When his wand is above his head, he drags his wand to the right and then brings it back to the floor. Where the wand touches the brick wall, it leaves a red line until it is lifted off of it. Before my eyes, a door materializes, opening without having to touch it. Phillip takes my hand as he walks me through the door, watching my reaction instead of where he was going.

There were three story building all along the lane, with wizards hurrying to and from each of them. There were shops selling Quidditch equipment, owls and other magical creatures, wands, robes, and potion ingredients. Every store window was colorful and glittering with displays of different items. All of the buildings were shaped differently, making it look like I had stepped foot into a Dr. Seuss children's book.

I didn't recognize many stores except for 'Quality Quidditch Supplies," and "Twilfitt and Tattling's." This made sense of course due to the fact that there were very few wizarding stores that were big enough to spread around the world, most in Diagon Alley are self owned like my bookstore. In Veneficia Lane, there were shops similar to Ollivander's Wand Shop and Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlor, just with a different name.

I couldn't help but smile and point at different stores that I wanted to get closer to like I had when I was eleven. Phillip luckily did not make fun of me, instead went where I wanted to go and gave small descriptions of stores I wasn't sure about. We walk up and down Veneficia Lane twice before Phillip suggests going to dinner in a Restaurant he liked. I agree, not wanting to leave the wizarding world yet.

We walk into the restaurant and are seated by the window at a white cloth-covered table. The witch who brought us to the table hands us a menu each and points to where she is going to be if we need something. I was not focused on the menu enough to miss the look she gives Phillip before sashaying away.

"What are you thinking about getting, Rose?" Phillip asks. I look away from the waitress who was talking to one of her friends and pointing at us. Phillip was looking at me with a smile, not having noticed the flirty witch. No one ever paid attention to me when Madam Rosmerta was around.

"Probably just a salad," I reply, looking down at the small menu. It really was the only thing that appealed to me at the moment, I wasn't use to nice restaurants like this. "What about you?"

"The lobster sounds good, and Merlin knows I need to get some left overs in my fridge at home," He says, setting down his menu, the moment he does the waitress comes back.

"What would you like to drink, sir?" She asks in a flirty voice. Phillip doesn't take notice.

"We'll have your best white wine please, and I believe we are ready to order?" He looks at me for confirmation, and I nod.

"Alright." She gets out a note pad and her wand, making a show of having a wand. I restrain myself from rolling my eyes.

"I'll have the lobster and this beautiful madam will have the house salad." Phillip picks up my menu for me and hands his and mine to the waitress. "Thank you."

"You're welcome." She sashays away again, but this time I just look to Phillip so catch him running a hand through his brown hair, messing it up slightly.

"Nervous about something, Phillip?" I smirk as I say, leaning forward slightly.

Automatically, he sits up straighter and shakes his head. "No what gave you that impression?"

I laugh a little at his reaction and take his hand, placing our entwined hands on the table. "You mess up your hair every time you are unsure or nervous."

"So you're using your reading people power again?" He asks, raising an eyebrow.

"Yup, and I've realized something else about you." I tell him.

"Oh? And are you going to share this information?"

I glance over to where I last saw the waitress and see her friend left alone to watch us. Looking back to Phillip, I smile a genuine smile. "You talk about being a player, but you are completely oblivious of our flirty, slutty waitress."

"Ah, now there is where you are wrong, Rose." He says, pointing at me with his free hand. "I am aware of our waitress who continues to try to impress me. While I admit she is attractive, I'm much more interested in talking to the more attractive witch in front of me than I am her."

I feel my face heat up, and glance out the window to watch the crowd of wizards thin as they all go home or go into a pub. When I look back to Phillip, he is still smiling at me. I start a topic concerning one of the customers that I had taken care of today. I try to keep the topic off of me for a while, but Phillip wouldn't have it.

"No more work talk or muggle talk," He says as I finish explaining why I need to go to the store early tomorrow to take care of the magic books. "I have now decided that this is a date-"

"You decided it's -"

"Yes. So that implies that I am going to have to pay for this dinner and ask you personal questions, but not too personal or else you won't go on another date with me, which I don't want at all. So let us act like we do not work together and I did not spend all day with you prior to the date."

I'm laughing by the time he is finished due to his serious expression, but when he turns that expression into a glare, I try to sober up and act for him. "Ok Phillip Lee, shoot."

The rest of the night went by with Phillip asking me random questions and me answering with mostly truthful statements.. Our conversation went mostly like this:

Have you ever stolen anything from a store or from someone?

No

Ever cheated on a test?

NO!

Ever been in any legal trouble?

Yes. Don't ask though, it wasn't bad.

Do you regret anything?

Yes, not spending more time with my parents before they died (He said he was sorry here, but I waved him off).

How many languages can you speak and what are they?

Only one: English, though I heard the Americans think we speak a different language than them.

Do you take showers in the morning or at night more?

Morning.

Are you a Morning person?

I've been told I'm not.

Do you have any phobias? This question is asked as we walked out of the restaurant, and Phillip could not believe my answer.

"You don't like flying? What kind of witch are you?!" He exclaims, swing our entwined hands as we walk through Veneficia Lane.

"I don't know, I'm no good with a broom and my friend has fallen from high places so many times in his life that I just assume that everyone that flies must fall too."

"Obviously you have never been flying with the right person. I'll have to take you to do that sometime."

"Oh no, that is definitely not needed." I tell him shaking my head. He just replies with shaking his head along with me.

"Yup, flying with me is fun." We walk past the bookstore, and I hesitate, before Phillip pulls me past it. "Your baby is fine don't worry." He tells me. We walk the rest of the way to the apparation point in silence. When we reach it, I turn to smile at Phillip.

"You didn't have to walk me all the way here, you'll just have to turn around and walk back." I say having to look up at him when I realize how close we are.

"A simple thank you is all you have to say," Phillip says, dropping my hand and snaking his arm around my waist.

"Thank you for walking me here, and for dinner."

"No need for a thank you." He replies immediately, making me laugh. "Rose?" I raise my eyebrows at the change in his tone.

"Yes?" I try to smile at him to ease the tension I notice in his posture suddenly.

"Am I allowed to kiss you know without you freaking out?" He smirks at me now as I go red in the face again. After a moment of the two of us staring at each other I nod and am about to speak when his lips capture mine. It wasn't a long kiss, I wouldn't call to snagging, but it was sweet and exactly what a first kiss should be like. When he pulls away to breathe, he leans his forehead against mine. "I've wanted to do that since I met you in the airport. Can you imagine waiting to kiss somebody for two whole months?"

"Phillip. You sound like a creeper again." I tell him smiling, and capturing his lips again before he can argue.

I don't think he minded.


Oh they are so cute! I love writing about them, but phillip is hard to write with because of … stuff ;) you'll find out hmmm. i don't know when

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