Chapter 2

She looked up as he came back into the room, a lot less gracefully, and a lot more noisily, this time. She put her hand over her mouth to stifle a grin. He was carrying a pile of books that nearly obscured his vision, and a scroll of parchment was tucked under his arm. A quill was in his mouth, and an inkpot was precariously perched on top of all the books.

He made his way over to the fireplace, and plopped everything down next to her.

"So, er…how would you like to help me out a bit?"

She glared at him. "I've been working on this for hours. Do your own work!"

He nodded. "Ok. That's fair."

She looked at him for a moment, surprised, and then went back to her own work, searching in the index of one of the books for Gergo the Gigantic.

A moment later, though, he sighted loudly. "Please…?" He looked at her, his bottom lip out in a pout, his eyes shining. "You can't resist my puppy-dog face."

She giggled. "Watch me." She went to turn back to her work, but looked up at his pathetic face again, and sighed, loudly and exaggeratedly. "What do you want?"

He smiled, white teeth flashing in his tanned face. "Do you understand what the hell the fountain of youth had to do with anything? I mean, do they even know if it existed?"

"Well… I read in In the Age of King Arthur…The True Merlin that the Goblins were convinced by a dark wizard named Sherwood to try to steal the key to the fountain from Merlin. Here, let me show you." She reached across him to grab a large blue book. As she held it out for him, her fingers brushed his. She let her fingers rest lightly on his for a second, looking him right in the eye, but then she shivered, and snatched her hand away. After a moment's silence, she said, "Um… here it is. And did you get anything about Merlin's sister? Binns mentioned that'd be important, didn't he?"

"Yeah, I think he did. I looked in this book for it, and I think… " He trailed off, a bemused expression on his face. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

She was staring at him, her chin resting on her fist. Her lips twitched up at the corners.

"What?" he demanded, confused.

"Nothing," she replied, suddenly embarrassed. "It's just," she continued, a little shy, "I don't really know you, do I, James Potter?"