Silly Sounds
Fred was in the shop, leaning against the desk upstairs bored out of his mind. Despite it being within opening hours, the shop had been empty for the last 20 minutes, which was quite a rare occurrence. He absentmindedly threw a ball against the wall. Again. And again. And again–
"Can you stop with that, I'm trying to write a letter here," George spoke from the sofa, quill in hand and a practically blank piece of parchment in front of him.
"Yeah, to who?" Fred asked, and George was suddenly at a loss for words.
"Not really your business, is it..," he mumbled in response, and Fred furrowed his brows while delivering a pointed look towards his brother.
"Everything you do is my business," he retorted, but seemed to drop it a second later, again looking away in the distance and being lost in his thoughts.
George tried to resume his writing seeing as Fred had finally turned silent. However, he didn't stay so for long.
"George."
George sighed, closing his eyes momentarily and slowly looking up from his letter, which now contained 5 words instead of the previous 2.
"Yes, Fred?"
However, before Fred was able to speak again the sound of the door opening downstairs was heard, its accompanying bell ringing through the empty shop.
"That must be her," Fred immediately spoke, and George noticed the way his face instantly lit up.
"Yeah, or a regular customer," George grumbled, glancing up and almost rolling his eyes.
Fred scrambled off the desk, shuffling to his feet and completely disregarding George's comment. "It's probably her," he repeated before making his way downstairs, out of his twin's sight.
As expected, Leigh soon came into view, clad in a warm coat, a woollen scarf and a beanie which held her hair, which had just been whisked around by the strong winds outside, in place. Her nose and cheeks were rosy from the cold, which didn't go unnoticed.
Fred crossed his arms jokingly. "I thought we agreed on not another month," he teased, and Leigh looked up at the sound of his voice, giving him a halfway grin.
"It hasn't been a month, drama queen." She placed her bag on the floor and started to disentangle herself from her scarf. "It's unusually empty in here. But then again I normally don't come by so early on a weekday."
"Yeah, you got a gap hour or something?"
She nodded in response. "Sprout felt a bit under the weather so she cancelled today's class. It's nice to have some extra time for revising though," she added, and Fred immediately felt the sudden need to roll his eyes. Revising, revising. "Can I sit by the counter?" She pointed in the direction of the till.
He nodded. "You can sit wherever you want."
"Alright, cool," she mumbled, glancing up to give him a small smile of gratitude before moving towards the counter to get her books, notebooks and quill ready. She made sure to leave some space empty at her side in case some customer entered and wanted to buy something while she was there.
Fred was stood in the middle of the room, looking towards Leigh with his hands on his hips and a frown starting to develop on his face. Studying. Studying. He was so much more fun than studying.
Saving him from lethal boredom, a group of 5-6 people entered the shop, and Fred was immediately on the case of showing them around the shop, answering their question and suggesting products.
Leigh glanced up from her work to grin faintly at the view of him practically prancing around between the shelves, explaining items left and right. He had a passion for those jokes items, that's for sure.
He was currently showing off the updated skiving snack-boxes and momentarily looked over one of the customers' shoulder to meet her gaze. The group looked towards the product, and Fred took the opportunity to deliver her a cheeky wink before butting in with what Leigh assumed was yet another argument for them to buy the product.
She tried to fight the grin which grew on her face, but failed miserably, and followed his movements with her eyes. He said something else to them before they nodded, reaching out to grasp one of the boxes. When they looked away for a second his gaze once again fell on her, and he made a celebratory gesture. Leigh couldn't help but let out a giggle.
She looked back into her notes with a smile and jotted down a few sentences before glancing up again, seeing that the group had split up, with the majority of the group standing looking at some shelves closer to the till, while one sole customer hung back to talk with Fred. A young woman with flowing brown hair, a strand of which was neatly twirled between her fingers, stood in front of him.
Leigh looked back into her book, letting them have their conversation without being stared down.
A few moments later, just as she was about to turn a page in her notebook, the sound of someone clearing their throat was heard in front of her. She immediately looked up to see the group of people, excluding the stunning girl, standing in front of her in a crowd by the till.
"Oh, uh, hi?" Leigh spluttered, not being prepared to be faced with so many people.
"Hey there," the man at the front said, holding a skiving snackbox in his grasp. "Studying and working at the same time? Smart gal," he commented with a smile.
"Oh, I don't work here. I just...pop in every now and then," Leigh replied. She pointed towards Fred, who was still chatting with the girl. She seemed to find something he said very funny, and grasped his arm as she laughed. Leigh quickly looked away. "He owns it. Well, and his brother."
The man followed her gaze. "Ah. That explains the amount of orange interior in here."
Leigh couldn't help but let out a chuckle. "I suppose it does."
The man placed the snackbox on the counter, along with some other smaller items. "For my little cousin," he said. "I'm not from around here. Just coming through to get some stuff before continuing on to meet some family."
"Oh," Leigh nodded. Somehow the crowd behind him had scattered, and was now chatting a few metres away. "You afraid I'd think you bought it for yourself?"
He let out an airy laugh. "Something like that."
She returned the smile before returning her eyes to her notebook again. Except, he spoke once more.
"So," he started, looking at the items on the counter before meeting her gaze with a grin and raised eyebrows. "One skiving snackbox please?"
"Uh, right," Leigh said and shuffled away from her books. She neared the old, golden till and furrowed her brows. The man put some money on the counter. "Let me just...figure out how to..."
She needed some change and decided to press one of the till's golden buttons. She was soon unimpressed when nothing opened, and instead opted to press on another, which was just as ineffective as the first.
"How's it going?" He said with a teasing smirk, and Leigh huffed under her breath.
"None of these even work." She pressed another, and was surprised when a bouncing sound erupted throughout the store, echoing off the walls. "Shit. What the hell–"
She suddenly felt a form moving beside her, and soon saw Fred in the corner of her eye. "You struggling?" he said playfully, standing closely behind her and hovering above her form. He looked at the till over her shoulder.
"No," she grumbled, trying her luck at another button, only to have another silly sound echo through the shop. Her face heated up. "Fucks sake."
Fred chuckled behind her, reaching out only to place his hand upon her own. "It's not that one," he said simply, and offered no further information. Instead, he softly guided her hand to another button. "This one," he divulged, and Leigh felt as though he was moving closer to her each passing second – she could almost feel the warmth across her back. "And there's a secret word."
She frowned. "A secret word?" she asked with a raised brow.
He hummed in response, still not moving his hand from hers. "A secret word."
"Okay?" she said uncertainly.
"Yeah. And...then you have to stand on your head."
Leigh immediately dropped her hand from beneath Fred's, instead crossing her arms across her chest. "Okay. You're an asshole."
He let out a chuckle. "Come on. I couldn't help it."
"Funny."
She took a step to the side, ready to pick up her quill and book, but was soon pulled back by Fred, who had reached out with his hand to grasp her wrist softly. "Sorry, sorry," he apologised, pulling her closer again and pointing with his other hand towards the side of the machine, where a small, golden lever was seen. He nodded towards it, looking at her. "Go on."
She mumbled under her breath. How was she supposed to know about that?
Somewhat begrudgingly, she extended her arm towards the machine and pulled the shiny lever. She was more than prepared to be faced with some other silly prank, but this time it opened effortlessly.
"There you go," Fred spoke. "Good job."
Leigh rolled her eyes and suppressed a small smile that threatened to form on her lips. She returned to her notebook, leaving Fred in control of the till.
After receiving his change, the customer she had previously talked with looked between her and Fred a few times, as if in confusion, before he faintly shrugged his shoulders and followed his friends outside, some of which clapped him on the back or snickered.
Not many moments later the customers started flooding in, perhaps deciding to pop in during lunch hours, and Leigh decided to grasp her things and sit on one of the couches in the back area of the shop as usual, where it was calmer.
Time flew by, and she was glad to see that she had gotten through quite a lot of work. Her quill ran over the page, and she nodded at her written words. The shop had gotten calmer, and the previous loud chattering was now barely heard.
The couch dipped behind her back.
"What are you doing?" Fred's voice appeared by her ear as he leant down to peer across her shoulder.
She jumped slightly. "God you scared me."
"Sorry," he chuckled, patting her head slightly, and she momentarily glanced at him amusedly in return.
"So, what you writing?" He moved his hand and put his arms on each side of her on the sofa. "You're not still mad at me, are you?"
She gave him a wary look, keeping him on thin ice for just a second longer. "No," she finally mumbled, looking over the text she'd written so far. She answered his question: "Arithmancy essay".
"Soo many essays" he whined, and it amused her how he was the one whining, while she was the one doing the work.
"Mm," she simply hummed, looking back at her notes and starting to write yet another sentence. A moment passed, he stayed in place, leaning his chin slightly upon the sofa beside her. "I'm bored," he finally said, pouting as she glanced back at him.
"You're a child," she responded, smiling.
"I'm a businessman." He grinned, pleased with catching her attention. "Come on, let's do something."
"As much as I'd like to entertain your inability to stay still, I need to finish this up," she sighed. "I'm- I'm a bit stressed about it," she finally confessed. "We have this mock-exam soon, in the beginning of December, and I feel like I have so much left to do," the words slipped out.
He hummed beside her. "Okay. How long have you been working now without a break?"
She bit her lip, glancing at the clock. "Uhm, about two and a half hours?"
"Yeah, now see that's not good. A break'll do you good. Come on!" He said cheerfully, receiving a groan from her. "Oh shh, come on. It's good for you." He stood up, letting his hands find their place upon her shoulders. "When you're most stressed, thats the right moment to take a break," he said while squeezing her shoulders slightly.
She tilted her head back and looked up at him. "No amount of essays is more important than your mind." He moved a hand and softly poked a finger onto her forehead." His gaze and smile shone like a sun back down at her.
After a moment she spoke. "Alright, fine." She looked at him a second longer before sitting upright again and placing her notebook and quill on the table.
Fred's grin grew, if that was even possible.
"George, we're leaving for a bit!" He shouted up to his brother.