See the first chapter for warnings. And thanks for the reviews!
Greener on the Other Side
Chapter 2
Harry stepped into his new 3 bedroom apartment and put his bags down. He looked around at the bare walls and floors and nodded with satisfaction. "Well, looks like home sweet home." He looked down at his stomach and rubbed gently. "You here that baby. Its just you and me now."
Harry stepped into the cool air conditioned book shop slowly. Over the past few days he had managed to set up his apartment, now he just needed a job. He looked around the shop and found that it appeared to be empty. He started to walk towards what looked to be the checkout counter only to hear he a crash and a loud shout from somewhere in the back of the store.
Harry hurried to where the sound came from to find a women sprawled on the floor at the foot of an overturned ladder with books scattered all over the floor. "Are you alright miss?" as he reached down to help her up. Once she was standing, he got a good look at her. She was slightly taller than him, maybe 6 six foot. She was wearing worn baggy blue jeans with rips in the knees and tears at the ankles, a tight black tank top that showed off her lightly muscled arms and her sizable bust. She had several piercings in each ear and her eyebrow. Her eyes were a very striking sapphire blue. Harry couldn't tell much about her hair because it was hidden under a blue ty-dyed bandana. Overall she was an attractive woman.
"Oh yes just fine. I do stuff like that all the time. So what can I help you with?" She asked as she looked him over.
Harry blushed lightly as she looked him over and said "I was here to ask about the job. The one thats advertised on the door." As he spoke he began to help the woman pick up the fallen books.
She straightened up with a stack of books and gave him another look that made Harry blush. "Oh really. Well what's your name?" She asked him and began walking towards the front of the store.
"Its Harry. Harry Potter" He told her as he followed her to the front with his own stack of books.
"Yeah, My name's Elizabeth Rimbauer. Your can call me Liz and you're hired. Can you start now?"
Stuned Harry nearly droped his books. "y..yeah sure."
"Great!" She set her books down on the front counter and turned to Harry with a flourish of her hands. "Walk zis way good zir." she told him with a fake french accent and she skipped off down one of the aisles of books towards a door marked employees only. Harry followed her somewhat cautisouly wondering what he had gotten himself into.
Once they reached the back room, which had a couple of worn old couches, an unlevel table, a fridge and a coffee pot. Liz had disappeared through another door off to the left and was rummaging through a cabinet. "So I can tell by your accent that your not from New York. How long have you been here?" She pulled out some papers from the cabinet for Harry to fill out.
"I got here a couple of days ago."
"Awesome, sport." Liz finally turned to Harry and handed him the papers. "I'm originally from the deep south. Moved here to New York a few years ago and set up this lil whole in the wall book store. Just had to get away from my parents. Anyway, I need you to fill this out and give it back to me so I can file it. Its just contact info and junk, necessary evils of business. A load of rubbish if you ask me. Then I can take you back out front and show you the ropes."
After Harry had finished with his paperwork, Liz took him back out to the main part of the shop. As they walked through the door, Liz grabbed Harry by the shoulder and drug him up beside her. "Alrighty there sport. The shelves along the wall are non-fiction, its all labeled by genre on the wall above shelves there. Everything out here on the main floor is fiction in its varying forms. Once again its all labeled and in alpha order and all that rubbish." She told him all in one breath with large flourishes of her hands as she indicated what area she was talking about. "The decorated corner in the back is the children's section. We used to do book readings on the weekends for kids, but right now I don't have the staff." She turned to look at Harry and gave him a somewhat lopesided grin. "Which reminds me your lucky number 4. I got two other guys that come in at about noon. You'll meet them later. Weird S.O.B's they are." She let go of Harry when she said that and skipped off to the front counter and vaulted over the top of it instead of walking around like a normal person. "Actually since I hired you I might start reading to the little heathens again." She said more to herself than to Harry. "Anyway we open every morning at 10:00 am, I'd like you here at 9:00, that alright?" She waited for Harry's nod before she continued. "We close at 6. I'll give you an hour for lunch, we just can't all take it at the same time. We're closed on Sundays and once I hire another victim, we'll have set off days. But right not they just kinda pop up every once in a while. Everything sound good so far?"
Harry was beginning to wonder if his new boss ever stopped talking but nodded his assent again. "Sounds good."
"Great stuff kiddo. Come 'ere and let me show you how to work this contraption then." Liz said indicating the register in front of her. Harry stayed and worked the rest of the day with Liz and the other two employees when they finally showed up. He learned the ins and outs of the little muggle shop and the quirky personality of his boss.
At 6 when the shop closed, Harry wandered the two blocks back to his apartment building and up the stairs. After he had let himself in and had something to eat he collapsed onto his bed. Harry lay in silence for a few minutes, then pulled out a picture from the top drawer of his night stand. It was a picture of him and Draco standing by the lake, smiling at one another. Harry clutched the picture to his chest and cried himself to sleep, remembering all that he had lost.
To be Continued...
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