Almost

Chapter 31: Sweatpants

Katherine pulled her magic back as they wandered back into the bookstore. When they crossed through the rows of candles, she was glad to see, they did have a 13-wick candle that quickly made its way into another sack that she carried gleefully through the cookery store and the racks of clothing. Back on the street, she looked up the wall of stores and, sure enough, saw the signs for each store painted on panes of glass that curved up to the bar they had just been in. When she squinted against the light, she could make out the tops of patron's heads behind shimmering golden letters spelling Spokeasy.

"They sure like a pun," Katherine noticed, her names flitting over the names WICKed and Inkantation Books. "Makes Cora's Cookware stick out like a sore thumb."

Crawley laughed, taking his arm from hers and throwing it around her shoulders and pulling her tight to his side.

"Do you think those kids will say anything?" he asked.

They stood near the statue, the light out of the outstretched sphere shimmering off of the glass and back down on them. The shadows were funky, making his dirty blond hair seem more golden than normal.

"No," she said, reaching up and pushing his hair behind his ears. Her hand lingered on the warmth of his cheek. "I listened when we were leaving. Flo doesn't think that was my real face, but she seemed more worried about me than interested in the gossip. Have to like that in a woman."

Crawley's eyes wrinkled, so she continued.

"The boys really just cared about the Quidditch game. Apparently, the game is against Thunderbird, but he called them something else. Feather something?"

He let out a burst of boyish laughter. "Featherweights. Please, I beg you, say that in front of Picquery."

"Flo must be a Thunderbird. She told Ross they were going to flatten the house cats."

This nickname did not elicit the same chuckle, nearly drawing one from Katherine.

"Come on," she said. "Sweatpant time."

Katherine and Crawley walked, hand in hand, back out of the glass globe and onto the muggle streets above. She led him to one of the many stores on the block that sold licensed gear and wandered all through the aisles looking for something Crawley would wear.

"What about this?" he said, holding up a black quarterzip.

"I like it, but not really the vibe I was going for. What about this?" She pointed to a grey hoodie with the school crest in the center, a logo she'd always preferred. "Or I think there are some embroidered ones over here..."

Finally, he agreed to get black crewneck and coordinating sweatpants, but only if she got a twin set. It made her want to vomit a bit to think of them in matching outfits, but she never turned down a cozy outfit. She paid the astronomical price for the pieces, including the quarterzip he'd liked, and Crawley added the bag to the many he now carried.

"I can take those, you know," she said, linking her arm through his as they walked out of the store. The mask was making her glasses fog up, so she pushed them up on her head and enjoyed the fuzzy glow her bad eyes cast on the world.

"So," he ignored her, "if you were back in college, what bar would you be in on a fine day like today?"

"Well, the one right next to the alley was one of my favorites. But my friends hated it, so we'd probably be over there." She smiled and pointed to a bar across the way with a rooftop that, had it been open, she knew would be jam packed. "We'd go up top. At night, they had these big heaters and a long firepit you could sit around. And downstairs they have pool and big tables. We could camp out there all night. Did quite often. Or there's a brewery across town we'd go to when we were willing to pay for a ride."