Y/n ran down the sidewalk in the pouring rain. The dark clouds hanging above the city gave no signs of letting up. Nothing but her hand atop her head protected her hair from being soiled. The jacket she wore kept her from getting too cold, but it was undoubtedly soaked on the outside. She didn’t own an umbrella and having wet hair was better than having wet clothes anyway.
She whipped open the glass door to the store as carefully but quickly as possible. Stepping inside, Y/n noticed there weren’t many customers today. Only a few employees were floating around stocking the shelves here and there. The muggle bookstore smelled of fresh paper and warm spices as it normally did. A scent that Y/n had come to love after years of visiting the place during the summers away from school.
After wiping her boots off on the rug by the door, Y/n walked to the back. She immediately found herself in the classics section- the aisle she bought most of her favorite books from. Her eyes began to scan the shelves to find anything that would catch her attention. A few book covers stood out, but after reading the synopses not one turned out to be what she wanted.
The classical music playing over the speakers added to the overall ambiance. It was not a piece she recognized even with her extensive knowledge of music, but it made Y/n feel like the main character of a novel as she stood there. She made the mental note to find out what song it was.
Just then, a guy arrived and began looking for books in the classics section as well. He was handsome. With midnight black hair and about a head taller than her. She noticed that he was dressed well for being a boy around her age. Boys her age never dressed nicely unless they were in their Hogwarts uniforms.
Y/n jerked her gaze back to the books. He would notice sooner or later if she kept staring like that and he would probably find her weird for it.
The two of them stood in that aisle, carefully avoiding getting in each other’s ways, for what felt like forever. In reality, it had only been about ten minutes. Y/n was trying to work up the courage to speak to the boy. She was tired of always waiting around on men to make the first move. Y/n had never dated anyone, plus he was cute, plus he had a good taste in books from what she could tell. The small stack of titles that he cradled in his left arm was enough evidence of that. Therefore, she had plenty of good reasons to make her move.
“Excuse me,” she said politely to get his attention. He looked up at her as she smiled, motioning at the shelves, “Do you have any recommendations? I can’t seem to decide on one.”
He smiled back, “I was about to ask you the same thing. I still need one more book for my pile.”
“How about a trade off then?” she said, happy that her request seemed well received.
He looked at the shelf for a second before picking out a book and handing it to her. “Vicious by Schwab- it’s one of my all-time favorites,” he said.
Y/n flipped it over and read the back. Paranormal fantasy. It was out of her normal range of romance books, but it looked like it would be good. It did not hurt to explore once in a while after all. “Haven’t read this one yet, thanks. I’ll give you…”
Y/n searched the shelf for something she had read previously that she really enjoyed. She landed on Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, a long-time favorite of her own. One of the few novels that had a movie adaptation that was just as good, if not better, than the book. She went to pick it up but hesitated. He was a guy. What if he didn’t like romances?
Despite trying to think of something else, Y/n grabbed the book anyway. “I don’t know if you’re into romance, but I really liked this one.”
He gently took the book from her and inspected it. “It looks interesting. I don’t read much romance, but I’ll give it a try,” He smiled, “I didn’t catch your name by the way?”
“I’m Y/n, and you?”
“Regulus,” he replied.
Without thinking she blurted out, “Regulus Black?”
He looked surprised, “Yeah that’s me.”
If he actually was the person she was thinking of, it was no wonder he dressed so well. He was from a rich, ancient wizarding family.
“Do we go to the same school?” she asked carefully. Y/n wanted to avoid giving away that she was a witch if it turned out he was just a muggle, but she was almost certain she’d heard that name around Hogwarts a few times.
He looked like he was hesitating before he whispered, “Do you know who Dumbledore is?”
Immediate relief flooded her body. “Yes. The headmaster!” she said excitedly, though keeping her voice low.
“Weird meeting you out here in the muggle world,” he laughed.
“Yeah, really,” she nodded. She was confused at the fact that she did not recognize what he looked like. He had to have been only a year above her, and there was no way she couldn’t have at least passed him in the corridors before. How could she forget someone so pretty?
The grandfather clock in the corner of the store suddenly chimed, signaling that it was twelve in the afternoon.
Y/n looked at it frantically, “Sorry, I have to get to work. Thank you for the book!” she said before briskly walking away and up to the register counter. She paid for her book, stuffed it into her bag, and took one last look to the back of the store. Regulus was watching her, so she waved before running back into the downpour outside.
It was unlikely they would run into each other again. Wizards of his standing didn’t come to the muggle world often. But maybe she would get to see him around school sometime when the next term began.
~~~
Y/n returned to the bookstore a week later. She was, rather foolishly, hoping to see Regulus there again. She’d finished reading the book and had annotated the entire thing, thinking that maybe he would like to read her notes on the story. After all, she absolutely loved reading other peoples’ annotations and maybe he was the same. The book had been sitting in the bottom of her bag since just in case she were to run into him somewhere.
She found Regulus sitting in the reading nook close to the classics section where they had met the last time. It consisted of two beanbag chairs and one little table. Y/n suppressed her excitement as she approached him.
“Fancy seeing you here again,” she said as she took the seat across from him.
He looked up from the book that sat in front of him on the table. “Hello, Y/n.”
The way he said her name stirred something deep inside her. It made her feel warm and tingly that he bothered to remember it in the first place. She smiled at him. “I read the book you recommended.”
“You did?” he asked with a little excitement showing in his voice, “What did you think?”
“I really loved it. I annotated the whole thing,” she pulled the book out of her bag and pushed it across the table to him.
Regulus reached into his own bag and passed his copy of Pride and Prejudice to her. She could tell from the many tabs sticking out of the pages that he’d done the same. “We think alike don’t we?”
Regulus nodded happily, “Apparently so. I said so before- I don’t read romances much, but I did enjoy this one a lot… thank you.”
Y/n smiled, opening the book to see what he had written in it. “Any time. I don’t have a lot of friends who read so this exchange has been delightful,” she said. She had something else she had wanted to say, but her words stopped dead in her throat as she read what he wrote on the inside of the front cover.
Want to go on a date? -R.A.B.
Heat instantly rushed to her cheeks. His writing was beautifully perfect. She avoided looking at him as she softly grabbed a pen from her bag.
‘Of course' she wrote back. Y/n turned the open book to him so he could see it. She chewed nervously on the inside of her lip as Regulus looked at it.
“When are you free?” he asked, slightly leaning towards her. The soft smirk on his lips made Y/n feel like he was intentionally trying to make her more flustered than she already was.
“Right now.”
“Then let’s go,” Regulus said. He stood up with an air of confidence, offering her his arm once she got up as well.