Hello, I love you, won't you tell me your name

“Uhm…” August was trying to figure out what was happening while he handed over the map. “Hopefully you can read it, I have a tendency of writing all over maps to help mark points of interest for me.” He gave Amos a toothy grin as he watched the other man look over the disaster of a map. “Hold up….” August said, holding his hands up, “you’re saying a muggle is a person? That seems like…. an odd name…. what does it mean?” 

There was an emotion that went along with Amelia’s sparkling eyes. It was an emotion she had only felt with Amos. That sparkle was just for him. No matter what she did, she couldn’t hide that twinkle that silently spoke, saying things she didn’t have the ability to say out loud. She wondered if he noticed. Did he notice he brought her back to younger days? Did he know she missed him terribly – every single day. Whether it was a passing thought, something that reminded her of him or a night she was alone in bed and couldn’t sleep. All roads led back to Amos but she couldn’t tell him that. Not now. She didn’t play the guilt game. What was the point? There was no need to hurt anyone and no need to ruin a moment she could have with him. Instead she sparkled. And sparkled. And sparkled.

Amelia sat straight up and spoke in her work voice, “Mr. Diggory, take a seat please.” Being in Law Enforcement and sitting on the Wizengamot gave her that voice people hated hearing but it felt like the right tone of voice to be playful instead of begging him to sit with her. She had begged him not to leave her before and she swore she would never beg anyone for anything again.

“Sirius Black –” she paused like she was thinking about how to respond diplomatically but really she wished there was something – anything – else the pair could talk about. However, it opened the door so she indulged his question. “Well, obviously I had something to do with his case. I did what was right.” Amelia put her elbows on the table and leaned in. “You know me. I’m always right – I mean, I always do the right thing.”

Perhaps it was selfish of Amos to still speak with Amelia, maybe he really ought not to.  Although the pair hardly ever spoke of it, Amos knew deep within his heart that he had hurt her terribly and he didn’t know if she still thought about it as he did. It was probably too late now to mend it, and he didn’t like the idea of upsetting her again.  The look she had on her face the day that he left was seared in his memory. Maybe the guilt he had felt from that day onwards was his punishment. Did the memory of that day still haunt her as it did for him?  He would probably never know.  Maybe he didn’t have the right to know anymore. 

It was shocking, even to Amos how well hid of those thoughts from his face as a bright smile ignited on his features as his hues locked with Amelia’s.  “Is that your work voice?”  He asked in a teasing tong, the smile on his lips now reaching his eyes.  As she continued to speak Amos nodded along, not all surprised that Amelia would have done the right thing, thinking that in her position he hoped that he would have the strength to do the same.  Amos didn’t know Sirius all that well, but he had struggled to believe the boy was at fault. He knew all too well what the Ministry were capable of. 

“I know you do.”  Amos stated, his smile almost faltering if only for a second. “You were right... as per usual.”  Clearing his throat, Amos’s gaze left her face and fell to the slightly worn menu.  “Can I get you anything? My treat? I’am starving.”

“Hold on” August said, digging out his map from his pocket. He unfolded it, focusing on the area around Kings Cross. “Ok, London, Kings Cross. I see Barnsbury Estate, there’s Camden Town, Bloomsbury, and Clerkenwell” August read, as his hand slid from one borough to the next, all encircling the the station in question. August glanced at Amos, his brow furrowing, before going back to the map, pulling it closer to his face, to see if ‘Muggle’ was a smaller square or lane nearby. August unfurled the entire map, holding his hands wide to scan the entirety of London and surrounding villages.

August sighed, fliping the top half of the map over, looking back at Amos. “It is just a local thing?”

Amos tilted his head slightly, trying to understand what exactly was tripping the other up. He had lived in and around the area for the past five years, though navigating new places had never been a strong suit of his, so his empathy was absolute.  “Oh no.... I didn’t mean it was literally called that, I just meant it’s an area mostly populated by muggles...”  Amos raised a hand to scratch his head, wondering if maybe he was just making the situation worse rather than better.  “Perhaps it would be easier if it was actually called mugglesvillie or something though.” He remarked with an accompanying chuckle.  “Certainly would have made my attempting to find a decent tea shop easier..... because their tea is usually better for some reason.... Never have worked out why exactly that is....”  He trailed off realising he was starting to waffle.  

“If you hand me the map, i can maybe mark the muggle areas if that helps?”

August watched as the wizard contemplated the best options for him to find a pie. “Kings Cross eh? That should be easy enough, I know where that is….kinda.” August’s face flushed. He could not believe how turned around he kept getting here. Navigation was never a problem back home, even when he first got to Ilvermony. 

“But the muggle side? Is that… like a borough next to the station or?” August furrowed his brow, thinking he would have noticed such an odd word on his well-worn map. 

Amos couldn’t help but laugh softly finding the other wizard’s confusion endearing, it reminded him alot of the muggleborn friends he had made in his hometown back home. “Sorry, I meant the muggle owned stores, just don’t them galleons, because they will assume your insane.”  As he said that, he had a minor flashback to one his best friends from back home attempted to buy some books from a muggle store with a couple of sickles and a knut, obviously they were asked to leave when they were unable to produce ‘real’ money.

“But yeah, the entrance to Kings cross is on the muggle side, have you never looked around there? There are some great shops around there.”

           it   might  have  been  rosalind’s  fault  for  not  looking  where  she  was  walking ,  but  the  quick  annoyance  that  shone  on  her  features  when  she  had  walked  into  someone  right  after  the  elevator  opened  was  mixed  with  a  quick   ❝  watch  it ❞ .   she  had  been  watching  the  parchment  floating  next  to  her  as  the  self-writing  quill  wrote  the  words  she’d  been  saying  right  before  the  interruption  and  of  course  to  her  disappointment ,  the  quill  had  decided  to  pick  up  on  her  latest  words  too .  ❝ scratch  that  ,  ❞  she  says  to  the  quill  ,  waiting  for  it  to  cross  the  words  out  before  extending  her  hand  out  to  catch  the  parchment  she’d  been  using  to  track  her  field  notes .  

      her  attention  is  finally  back  on  the  wizard  -  hands  falling  to  the  pocket  in  her  robe  as  her  lips  draw  into  a  slight  grimace .  ❝ i  haven’t  gotten  much  time  to  do  some  paperwork  so  of  course  it’s  a  working  lunch  today  -  ❞  now  why  was  she  even  explaining  herself  to  a  wizard  like  amos  diggory ?   ❝ it’d  be  my  advise  to  find  a  better  place  to  loiter  -  some  departments  actually  have  work  to  do .   ❞ 

Tilting his head slightly as the witch spoke to him, he certainly wasn’t one to have arguments, though he also wasn’t as wishy-washy as he knew some people saw him. “Yes well, I have apologised, your tone isn’t necessary.”  Getting to his feet, he had a sudden realisation that he must have been sitting outside for far longer than he intended on because people seemed to be leaving for the day. 

Violet tossed the report back into the file folder before closing the cabinet of her desk. She exhaled audibly, drawing glances from her fellow hit wix. Standing from her chair, and putting on a pair of sunglasses, she sauntered out of the cramped room, calling over her shoulder “see ya next week” as she made her way to the elevators.

She made it to the main floor, surprised by the number of wixen not crowding the typically busiest floor of the ministry. She decided against the floo network (made her a bit queasy even to this day) and moved towards the entrance used by muggles or those who wanted to head right out into London proper. She was of the later group, to partake in a pseudo ritual she had. She would walk the short distance to the spot of flat her and Greggory had shared, and sat across the street and talk to “him”. She felt odd visiting his grave, which was located closer to his mother. 

She turned the corner, coming as close without actually running into him.

“Oh, sorry”

“My apologies, just glad I didn’t tackle ya” Violet remarked, pulling her hair into a pony tail. 

On reflection he probably should have chosen a bench to sit on, rather then the steps leading into the Ministry. He had just been so mentally drained Amos had literally collapsed on the first thing resembling a seat that he saw. Theres only many times in a single hour that you can tell someone ‘Definitely not. We cannot afford to fund your research.’ One younger witch had actually burst into tears, which only fuelled the guilt Amos felt. 

“No, no. My mistake.”  Amos said softly as he got to his feet, brushing the dust off his trousers from where he had been sitting.  Giving the woman a friendly smile.  “I guess I underestimated just how busy it was going to be today.”  His gaze followed another crowd of people as they passed the two of them on their way into the Ministry.  “If you had, it would have been the second time today.”  Pressing his lips together, Amos shook his head as he recalled the older wizard who had all but fallen over him on his way out.  That probably should have been his cue to move.  

“Oh duh, haha” August laughed, smacking his palm against his forehead. “I guess it never occurred to me to use magic for Thanksgiving dinner. Probably just assumed my dad liked babying the oven all day.” August tightened the strap of the bag over his arm, trying to push down a surge of homesickness. 

“Nice to meet you Amos, August Spencer” he told the wizard before him. “Amos, like those cookies….” August smiled warmly, “but as you can tell I am not from around here. And I know for a fact I couldn’t compete with my mother’s famous pumpkin pie. Would you by chance know of a place I could acquire a great tasting pie?”

Amos shook his head, as a soft laughter fell from his lips.  “Don’t worry, I often forget that there so many things I could use magic for.... I only recently learnt a charm to tie my bowties for example.”  At the mention of which, his hand instinctively rose to his neck which appeared to not be sporting a tie today...he did leave in a slight rush this morning. 

“Good to meet you, August.”  Giving the other a kind smile.  Amos proceeded to hum aloud at his question, he certainly was not a stranger to bakeries in the area.  There was even one that knew him by name because of how often he frequented their little store. “You might have better luck looking in the Muggle side, I’ve found that their cakes and pies are pretty unrivalled, save for Madam Rosemerta’s scones...”  Trailing off as he tried to remember the name of a specific bakery.  “...There’s one near Kings cross...the name is escaping me though, but you can’t miss it, the smell is undeniable....in a good way, i mean.”

Amos was for the most part, a pretty chill guy but he had been pushed the limit at work.  Sometimes he really resented being left in charge of his department’s budget, because all it really meant was that his higher ups couldn’t be bothered to deal with the countless amounts of people wanting more money to fund their research.  If it were solely up to him, he would grant all the requests.  But instead, he had spent an entire afternoon trying to find nicer ways of saying the phrase, ‘Absolutely not.’  

Sitting just outside the Ministry, he wondered how many more requests he would return to.  Sighing loudly as he stared into space, he didn’t realise he was partially blocking the entrance.  “Oh, sorry.”

It was funny that Amos was who stood before her. Funny because it had been so long, funny that he felt so familiar and funny because that was Amos. It’s one of the things Amelia always loved about him. He was able to bring the humor out in her. It’s not that Amelia wasn’t funny or didn’t like to have fun, but she was dedicated to whatever she was putting her mind to. When she was a kid, she helped run the household and take care of her younger siblings. In school it was her studies, Quidditch and being Head Girl. After graduating it was getting into the Ministry of Magic and her seat on the famous Wizengamot. The people who really knew her knew she was her own type of hilarious and warm. Amos always saw that more than anyone, ex or otherwise.

Seeing him brought back their closeness, nights of belly laughter and snogging sessions that hadn’t been matched since him. Amelia felt the pain of not being with him day in and day out but seeing his smiling face made her stomach a warm environment for the butterflies that arrived as her eyes opened. 

The smile Amelia gave him was effortless. For the moment she allowed herself to forget about her responsibilities. It all went away as Amos stood in front of her. “A best friend –” Amelia leaned forward after emphasizing the f-word, “wouldn’t stand there with his arms crossed. Do you think he would need an invitation to sit and get comfortable?”

Amos was fairly well versed in most things, he had an extremely annoying habit of being that guy who could turn his hand to almost anything. Though, trying to extinguish the guilt he felt whenever he ran into Amelia was one thing he did not excel at. Maybe it was only he who still felt that pang in the depths of his stomach whenever the two were together, maybe the guilt wasn’t because he felt bad, but because he knew he had made a terrible mistake.  Honestly, he had known that within seconds of the breakup, it didn’t matter because it was too late now, and at least they were still friends. He would take that.