Harry Blurbs

War and Peace. And Coffee...

Harry swore he had never seen someone more beautiful in his life. Even as she sat in the corner of the store curled up on a chair with her glasses perched on the end of her nose and her hair messily tied on the top of her head, she looked adorable as she succumbed to the words in front of her. The black jeans she wore making it slightly harder for her to fully get herself comfortable though she managed, and her incredibly oversized hoodie pooled atop her belly as she reclined and read her book. Harry could tell that she was reading 1984 by George Orwell, for he had read it himself before and recognised the cover poking through her hands which held it so delicately, as to not ruin the spine. Before her on the small coffee table sat a cup of untouched coffee, a bookmark that was so delicately decorated with flowers Harry himself saw it as fragile, and a banana peel sat on top of a plate.

[Y/N] looked up from her book before Harry could look away, their eyes meeting and their cheeks growing slightly warmer than they were mere seconds before. Harry nodded his head toward the girl while she smiled back at him, her eyes wandering back to the words that had pilfered her attention. He walked up to the counter at the front of the book store and ordered himself a black coffee and an orange, paying for them and heading to the bottom where shelves upon shelves of books sat, hoping to be picked and read by someone who had come in. Harry lifted a copy of War and Peace from the shelf closest to the girl he had seen and sat at the table next to hers.

"You know you can always take the spare seat at this table?" He looked to his right to see the girl now holding her cup of coffee, glasses on her nose where they were meant to sit and her book on the table close to her.

"I wouldn't want to ruin your reading time. Thank you though." [Y/N] let out a small chuckle before nodding to the door for Harry to look.

"See that woman?" Harry nodded. "That's Margret. She is about to order herself a pot of tea and a slice of cake. You, my friend, are sat in Margret's seat and trust me, you don't want to be there when she gets here. She will either flirt with you until you can't concentrate on your book, or she will pick you apart"

"And what if I like an older woman?" Harry challenged the girl who threw her head back in laughter, her eyes glistening with moisture when she returned to her normal position and Harry thought he couldn't see anyone more beautiful.

"I promise you, if you want to read your book and actually enjoy it, I'd come and sit in this spare seat."

When Harry saw the older lady ordering the exact thing he was told she would, he moved his things across to the next table as quickly as he could and sat down just before his previous seat became occupied. [Y/N] placed her coffee back on the table and picked the book up to continue reading the book she was engrossed by when Harry had walked in.

"Nice choice of literature you have there." [Y/N] smiled at Harry before shrugging her shoulders lightly.

"The best books... are those that tell you what you know already."

"Touche. But one must know that there was truth and there was untruth, and if you clung to the truth even against the whole world, you were not mad." Harry smiled at the girl of whom he didn't yet know the name of, while she stared at him in disbelief.

"You're an Orwell fan?"

"Correction, I'm a literature fan."

"Okay, give me one quote from War and Peace without looking in the book you're holding." Harry thought for a moment before thinking of one he liked and could recite perfectly.

"Yes, love, but not the love that loves for something, to gain something, or because of something, but that love that I felt for the first time, when dying, when I saw my enemy and yet loved him. I knew that feeling of love which is the essence of the soul, for which no object is needed. And I know that blissful feeling now too. To love one's neighbours; to love one's enemies. To love everything- to Love God in all His manifestations. Some one dear to one can be loved with human love; but an enemy can only be loved with divine love. And that was why I felt such joy when I felt that I loved that man. What happened to him? Is he alive? Loving with human love, one may pass from love to hatred; but divine love cannot change/ Nothing, not even death, can shatter it. It is the very nature of the soul. And how many people I have hated in my life. And of all people none I have loved and hated more than her. If it were only possible for me to see her once more." Harry didn't finish the quote fully, for he saw [Y/N]'s reaction to him, and even though he tried not to, he couldn't help the smug smirk make its way to his face in accomplishment.

"Wow. I-I'm floored. War and Peace was the first book I read in my degree and that was always my favourite quote. It's my go-to quote for anything." Harry himself was shocked that she also loved the quote that he held so dearly to his heart, for he had only felt divine love once, and he longed to feel it again.

"I'm Harry, by the way." He held his hand out for the girl to take, and when she did, he swore he felt his heart rate pick up suddenly.

"[Y/N]."

"It's lovely to meet you, [Y/N]."

"And you, Harry."

The pair spent an hour reading their books in complete silence, though it didn't go unnoticed by the older lady next to them that they kept giving each other small glances but would look away when the other caught them doing it, a smile on both of their faces as they continued to read.