fuck that

Amelia didn’t want to risk her parents being around when she brought Peter back to hers (although thinking that she was bringing him back to hers was just bizarre) and so they performed a side along apparition straight to her bedroom. They had gone from the wide open spaces of Hestia’s garden to the room filled with so many unnecessary plants and a giant punching bag that the space between them felt even more non-existent. “So... this is my room.” She announced awkwardly. Her hand was still holding his and she let it go to walk over to her record player. She searched through her stack for Fleetwood Mac like she had promised. “Did you drink a lot of tea then? Today, I mean. I’ve never seen so much shitting tea.” She was filling the silence as she searched for this record. 

Knocking over several records onto the floor, she succeeded in finding the one she needed. She carefully placed the record down and the sound of ‘Dreams’ began to fill her room. Turning back around, she realized that she had just left Peter standing there this whole time. “What do you think?” She said, rather softly for her as she watched him simply being in her room. It was a strange sight. “They’re pretty fucking rad, right?” She sat down on her bed and looked up at Peter, inviting him to sit next to her with just a pat on the bed next to her. Today was the most effort she had ever made going to a party before. Sure she was dressed the same as usual, but she allowed Bertha to put a red lipstick on her. She kind of liked it, but this made the whole situation so much more fucking strange and all she could think was, ‘I’ve never had a boy I like here before’ 

“Okay,” Amelia sighed, pulling the phone away for a second to roll her eyes at Lily. “Okay... Yeah, I know what that is... Yeah, you should probably run away... Okay, lady you got to fucking calm down alr-” Amelia looked at the phone for a second before turning back to Lily. “The bitch hung up on me.” She slammed the phone down and began storming through the room, looking for the necessary equipment. “I did find out that the arsehole of a ghost we tried to find this morning has made his way over to the old operahouse, because clearly he’s a cultured bastard.” She picked up something that looked like it might be useful and held it to rest on her shoulder. “Are you ready?” 

@coffeedisorder​

Merlin, she was still holding his arm. He was positive this was weird somehow, and he even tried spinning it off with a joke, “Is this your way of trying to hold my hand?” Peter laughed nervously, regretting saying it immediately. His cheeks flushed as she called him sweet, turning away for a moment as he tried to hide it. This kept happening, Peter kept finding himself blushing around her and he couldn’t figure out why she had this effect on him. Yet, he definitely didn’t want it to stop. “Are you? Are you sure?” Pete challenged her, returning her grin just as easily. “I think I know the Beatles, David Bowie sounds familiar but uh– what’s Fleetwood Mac?” He tilted his head. “No hot chocolate in the house? Well, that just seems like a sin. I couldn’t allow for that, honestly. I uh– thank you, Amelia. You’re always welcome at mine, if you ever need to escape the hot chocolate, that is.” Blushing, again. Fucking hell. “I hadn’t heard, is it an open invite? I don’t see why not, honestly.” It. His mind went to places it shouldn’t have, places a thirteen year old would think of. Then again, he wasn’t far off. “Yeah, yeah that sounds rad. I don’t see why not.”

As Peter brought attention to her holding his arm still, Amelia flinched and immediately snatched her hand back. “Oh... I didn’t even realize,” Fuck, how embarrassing. He wouldn’t point out her holding his arm if he actually like the fact that she was doing that. As the roles reversed once more and he was clearly the one embarrassed now, she gave an involuntary smirk. “Yes, I’m completely positive unless you want to challenge me on always being right.” She let out a grunt of disapproval as he discussed his knowledge of music. “Well, you clearly need a fucking education on muggle music if you say you only think you know the Beatles. This might be a long session based on your lack of knowledge. Are you prepared for that?” She laughed as he spoke about the hot chocolate. “Well, it’s either no hot chocolate or being held hostage in awkward conversations with my parents. Your choice. And thanks, I’ll take you up on that.” Amelia raised an eyebrow as he asked about Hestia’s tea party. She thought he must be the last person to be hearing about it. “Really? She kind of announced it very loudly during the last meeting. Think she’s invited every living, breathing fucker there.” It really wasn’t clear whether this was a date or a hangout or whatever the fuck else it could be, but it had Amelia beaming nonetheless. “Okay, that’s cool then.” 

Peter was both quite oblivious and quite aware of the concept of the closeness of Amelia’s hands. It was startling, but all the while he did not know what it meant in it’s entirety. “What do you owe me from? I’ve got a shit memory,” he told her, half-squinting as he tried to recall. How many times had they run into each other now? It was starting to seem a bit out of the ordinary, maybe even planned. Her aggressive tone broke through to him, as she seemed to hide a compliment in her words. Pete couldn’t quite put his finger on why he liked that, but it made him smile and even laugh a bit. “Whatever you say, Amelia.” Her name rolled off his tongue smoothly, bringing a grin to his cheeks. He took a sip of his drink, downing half of the remaining glass. It couldn’t be just him who noticed, but Amelia definitely seemed less sober than him, and he wanted to be at that level if he was going to have a remotely flirtatious conversation with her. Or were they flirting now? Is that what this passed as? “Uh fuck…” Peter scratched the back of his neck and paused, thinking for a moment. “I can’t remember the name of it for the life of me. If I heard it, I would definitely know it. It was good music, that’s all I can tell you.” Had she just invited him over? Fucking weird. “Oh thanks Amelia, that’s rad of you. Are you sure it’s alright? You’re parents won’t try to force feed me hot chocolate and keep me hostage?” The subtle reference brought a chuckle from Peter’s lips.

Amelia kept her hand on his arm, not sure whether she was waiting for him to just remove her hand or for him to react in a positive way, whatever that may be, but sure now of the fact that it was nice to her. “Saving me some treats from the meeting obviously? And... uh... I never really said thanks for staying with me at the hospital that day. That was sweet.” Her mind drifted back to when they had a conversation about what girls liked in guys and she had said sweet... Would he remember such a small detail? Her skin seemed to flush at him saying her name. It sounded so special and different coming from his mouth and she wanted to hear it again. “I do say and I’m usually right.” She grinned back at him. “Sounds like a great fucking song. Well, I actually have some good stuff like David Bowie, The Beatles, Fleetwood Mac... Loads of stuff.” She shrugged, trying to downplay it. “I asked you, so of course it’s alright. Maybe I make sure there’s no hot chocolate in the house when you come around.” She finished with a smirk, enjoying this private joke they had. “Are you going to Hestia’s party? A tea party sounds fucking bizarre, but not like a crazy night. We could do it afterwards? It as in listening to music.” 

Amelia’s hand touched his arm, and although startling Peter didn’t find himself drawing away. Of course, given that a girl was touching him, Pete was the last person anyone would expect to draw away. If anything, he leaned into it. “Are you sure? Usually in pubs, the guy gets the girl the drink so– only if you insist.” He added the last bit, realizing she might take offense to his words. It was weird. Peter had started to pick up on occasions where Amelia had been or might be offended by something he said, he was starting to get that weird flippy, tingly feeling in his stomach because of it. “I have definitely not had enough, if that’s what you’re asking. I’ve been here maybe twenty minutes so,” he held up his half empty glass, “This is all I’ve got.” He tilted his head, listening to her. Merlin, she was pretty. “I mean– it makes sense. I’m a boring old sack of shit, you’re more interesting than me. I uh, I don’t have one actually. I’ve been wanting one, Sirius got me into some good music– haven’t had the time to go out and find one though. Have you got anything good?” Not that he would know what good was.

Amelia kept her hand on his arm, aware that doing that was causing the hair on her arm to stand up on edge. Daringly, as if she was fucking full of nerve tonight, she moved her hand further down his arm, choosing a resting spot of the back of his wrist. “Friends of different genders can buy each other drinks. Besides I owe you.” She smiled, but inside she just wanted to take the word ‘friends’ back. Were they even friends at this point? Weren’t they acquaintances with some weird unspoken thing lingering annoyingly between them? What were they? “Shut the fuck up. Seriously. You’re not boring.” The sinking feeling came as soon as she said the words. Fucking Merlin, it was so clear to her now due her to pathetic words that she liked him and it was probably a lot more than she should. She didn’t know whether she wanted him to like her back or not, because that would make this so much worse, but she carried on practically showcasing her epiphany to him. “What music has Sirius been showing you then? I’m obsessed with muggle music, so yeah, believe me I’ve got some good shit. If you don’t have a record player you can come to mine to listen to some if you want... No big deal.” 

Peter shrugged, already wanting to forget his complete failure. Amelia was here now, and she was quite pretty– exactly why he didn’t quite want to be discussing another girl, and his failure. Her words made him laugh, leaning as the light chuckle left his lips. “You’re definitely right, some people are fucking weird. You are pretty fun,” he noted and nudged her shoulder. Was she into him? Peter was starting to get his judgement clouded by the mere idea that Amelia liked him, and that he could potentially flirt with her. Then again, why was he even considering this idea with all that was going on in his life? “I– oh, yeah, definitely, of course. I wouldn’t have wanted you to go hungry, and I uh, I noticed you liked them.” Shit, had she picked up on that? “Not really, honestly. Just kind of… around, y’know?” Boring answer, he told himself. “Sorry, I’m not good at talking about myself. I’d rather talk about you, or some other shit.”

Amelia sucked on her lips as he called her fun. Was that just a nice compliment or flirting? Did guys usually just compliment girls in pubs? “You’re pretty fun too.” She said, nudging him right back. She in fact moved her hand to rest on his forearm, bringing it down lightly as if they might just ignore the fact that she was even doing that. “No, I’ll have to repay the favour of you getting me the treats. I could get you a drink? You want now? With me?” She figured if he said yes to that then either he was terrified of saying no to her or he liked her. If it was the latter then she was definitely allowed to make some sort of move, right? Or was she just a bit drunk right now? “How much have you drank? I need to see who will be catching up with whom? Or who? I’m fucking shit at grammar.” She shook her head. “I feel like we talk about me more than we do about you. Uhm... I don’t know what to fucking say about me now.  do you know much about muggle music? I have a record player - do you have one? You could borrow one of my records sometime.”

“Well, you see…” she paused. “Aurors are extremely admirable and brave, and yes of course they make a difference. They follow the rules just as anyone does, there are laws and everyone follows them. It’s not an easy job though, but  I believe you’d make a great Auror.” she admitted. She believed in Amelia, because not only did she remind her of her younger self, but because there was so much potential in her. “The Leaky Cauldron it is. Drinks are on me.” Millicent usually didn’t drink, simply because she got extremely out of hand when she had gotten drunk in the past. She recalled once smashing a window in the Hog’s Head pub, not because she threw a chair at it or anything, she had jumped out of it. But to be fair it was an accidental occurrence, the reflections had confused her. 

“But do you think you can go from being an Auror to a position of power? To someone who helps make laws?” Amelia was trying to be tactful for once at describing that she wanted to get older and be influential. “But thank you, I want to be a good Auror, I just want to help make change, to be in a better world than we are right now. To help the muggleborns and fellow half-bloods by making changes that are actually beneficial to them instead of skirting around them.” She smiled at the fact that Millicent was going to buy drinks. She wouldn’t argue with that one. “Well, you are the one earning here, so it only seems fucking fair.” 

When Amelia finally came to her senses, Anastasia had been past the point of expecting to be shoved away.  She stumbled back at the push.  It was rare to see her flustered, but the whole situation was so far from the norm, she wasn’t in a rush to collect herself.  Her hair a mess and lipstick smudged, she was looking at Amelia with a spark to her eyes.  It took a conscious effort not to just try for another kiss.  At least that way, they wouldn’t have to think about any of this.  At that question, barely audible in the noisy bar, she couldn’t help but laugh.  “At least now we know what you’re issue with me is,”  she taunted.  “If all you’ve been wanting is a snog, you should’ve just said.”

Amelia simply let out a bemused laugh at Anastasia’s attempt in provoking her. “I don’t think you can say shit right now. You were clearly gagging for a snog as well. Maybe that’s what you’ve wanted the whole fucking time.” She shrugged, not sure who won this verbal battle of theirs this time. “I’m going to go before we start doing something disgusting like making out again or something worse.” She approached her firstly before backing away completely as she neatened out some of Anastasia’s hair.