Memory Lane

Chapter 13

After not enough sleep, I wake up the following morning hard, again, and I'm a little impatient with it. Enough, now. I have things to do, a job to keep, a financial meeting to run.

I practise my Occlumency, as I've sworn to myself to do, and the meeting after work goes beautifully. No big deal.

Blaise stops into my office Wednesday, asking how I'm doing with a slightly suspicious look on his face. I don't know why. I've been perfectly normal, if a little reserved - thanks to my additional Occlumency meditation.

He asks what my plans are for the weekend and I almost choke on my overly-hot coffee. "Why, Zabini? Are you suddenly available?"

He blushes and demurs, stammering something about Ginny, as if I'm surprised. But why is he asking me?

"No reason," he insists, not weirdly at all, and I decide I need to know. Since he'll be well occupied this weekend, as usual, I ask if he can get a drink tomorrow after work.

Looking a little surprised, he accepts. I know he'll meet me at the lift at 6.30, and hopefully he'll leave me alone until then.

After he leaves, Ilse closes my office door so I can practise for at least an hour and I focus like a proper student. Snape would be proud.

Maybe.

Probably.

After work, I head for the Apparition point to the park.

* * *

"Hello, Granger."

We're back in the bookshop - not Flourish and Blotts, the scene of my recent nocturnal imaginings, but Moribund's.

She looks up and maybe it's wishful thinking, but she seems to flicker a shadow of a smile before turning back to the shelf before her. "Oh, hello, Malfoy."

I go ahead and push myself up onto the counter so I'm sitting atop it - and I likewise push down visions of her head dipping between my legs as I sit here.

"What are you looking for today?" I withstand calling her by name again, but barely. And maybe I shouldn't ask, maybe I should prompt my own deliberate topic instead, but -

Granger doesn't answer anyway. She looks at me, almost startlingly sharply and my words catch in my throat.

She starts to speak, then stops, and turns back to the shelf.

I hop down from the counter and approach her cautiously. So cautiously. I don't want to risk scaring her.

"What is it, Granger?" That one slips out and I can't help it. Well, I can't stop all of them.

She tilts her head towards me and I see a bit of a smile before she faces the books again, scanning. Concentrating. Dismissing me. I look at the section she's in: personal improvement and development, magical theory.

Books on Occlumency and Legilimency.

I step back two steps at once and let her look, wanting to know what she gravitates towards on her own. She pulls an Occlumency basics theory book off the shelf, but I know this one. It's deep into the background of the theory, what makes it happen. Not just how it works, but why.

It's perfect for her.

Holding it open along her left arm, she flips pages with her right hand, reviewing. Evidently deeming it satisfactory, she snaps it closed and goes back to scanning the shelf.

"I can hold that one, if you like," I offer, and she jolts slightly, as if she forgot that I was there. I'm afraid for a moment that she's afraid, but she recovers almost at once, handing me the book. I tuck it beneath my arm and lean against the opposite rack, quietly watching her. Not wanting to interrupt.