Melt With You

Rescued Books

Fred

"How'd it go?" George questioned immediately as I left the library.

"She said she was busy tomorrow but we have plans for next weekend."

Lee gave me a suspicious look, "What did she say she was doing?"

"Studying for the O.W.L.s."

"You owe me 10 sickles!" Lee yelled.

"No, no, she postponed. She didn't say no!" George defended.

"Technicality!"

"Can't you blokes wait a week? If she still has an excuse then, Lee, you win." I interjected.

"But if she does go out with Fred, then we win and you owe us 10 sickles!" George smiled.

...

On Saturday after breakfast I saw Aurora outside on a bench. I tried to wave at her but she didn't see me.

"Why are you waving to her, Fred?" George questioned.

"I'm trying to help us win the bet with Lee. I'm going to go sit with her. I'll catch up to you later in the common room." George nodded and he left while I went to talk to Aurora. "Good morning," I said as I sat next to her.

Aurora jerked her head up and her face turned red. "Hey, Fred. I'm sorry I didn't even see you come over here."

"It's okay. You must be studying really hard to not have noticed me stomping over."

"Oh, uh, I'm just reading. I took a break from studying."

"What are you reading?"

"Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen."

"I've never heard of it before. What's it about?" 

"It's one of the greatest romance novels of all time. It's a muggle book," she said sheepishly.

"Are you interested in muggles?"

"Not really muggles themselves, mainly their literature. I love the worlds and the stories they create. They're very imaginative."

"I think you'd get along with my father. He loves muggles and is fascinated by them," I laughed.

She smiled back at me, "Your father sounds interesting."

"He gets himself into trouble with his muggle fascination but he means well. He tries his hardest to be a good person," I said.

"I wish my father were like that." Her expression changed almost instantly. "He's not very interesting, or good for that matter. He's very old fashioned and I couldn't disagree with him more. My whole family is like that and it's just so bloody frustrating," she paused for a moment. "Sorry, I'm rambling. I shouldn't be talking about this," she said while her face turned red.

"It's okay." There was a tense silence. "So where do you acquire your muggle books?"

Aurora turned even redder. "I...rescue them."

I stifled a laugh. "Rescue? That sounds a lot like stealing, Aurora."

"Well, I don't know if it counts as stealing if the previous owner has no interest in keeping them. My friend Sera's muggle grandmother sends her books from the muggle world every year, and every year Sera throws them away. I started rescuing them from the bin. It just hurts me that she throws books away so I take them. I loved the first one she threw away, so I figured her Nan had good taste and rescued them from the trash can ever since."

"Oh, well in that case you're definitely not stealing, just rehoming books. I don't see anything wrong with that," I smiled and nudged her arm. She smiled and nudged me back.

"Promise me you won't tell anyone about the muggle books. My friends are a lot like my parents and I know they won't approve if they find out about my fascination with muggle literature."

"I promise. It'll be our secret. I'm sorry you can't be yourself around your mates."

"It's okay, I've gotten used to it."

"Well, you can be yourself around me, Aurora. I promise," I smiled as I looked directly into her eyes.

"Thank you, Fred." She blushed again and got closer to my face. We were inching towards each other until Seraphina Bennett saw us.

"AURORA," she yelled as she gestured for her to come towards her. Aurora looked me in the eyes, mouthed "sorry", and grabbed her stuff and left.