Chapter 16
You run into each other at Squints & Squats, the new optician-slash-gym that’s opened in Hogsmeade. The grunts of witches lifting weights filter through to the optician side of the shop and you’re just about to ask the receptionist to put the radio on when the door bangs open and Harry Potter stumbles into the shop.
“Sorry, sorry, I ah, I have an appointment?”
“Here’s a form, take a seat.” The receptionist doesn’t even raise his eyes from a battered copy of The Passionate Poltergeist.
“Urm, thanks.” Turning, form clutched in hand, Harry scans the waiting room, green eyes sweeping over you before settling on the free chair. “Hello” he says, fumbling his snowy robes into a bundle and dropping his pen a few times before finally sitting down. “You’re the new Slytherin Keeper, right?”
“Yep,” you watch in amusement as he drops the pen again and nearly tears the form in half. “Do you need a hand with that?”
“Um, maybe?” he shoots you a nervous smile. “I’ve never been to an optician before, how does it work?”
“Oh, a bit like the Muggle opticians, they’ve just got more floating lenses and run some diagnostic spells.” You hide a smile as he nods and drops the form again.
“Right, um. I haven’t really been to a Muggle optician either?”
“But you have glasses. Didn’t your Muggle family-” You immediately want to smack yourself in the forehead. Everyone knows about the way the Muggles treated Harry Potter. “Sorry, sorry. Never mind. Um, well they show you a chart with letters-”
You carry on explaining how the optician works, throwing in a few comments about how great it is to finally have one so close, rather than having to travel down to London. He nods along, and then the two of you work through the form which vanishes as soon as it’s completed, reappearing in front of the receptionist.
“Thanks for this,” Harry says, biting his bottom lip. “Would you, um, I’m meeting my friends at The Broomsticks later, would you like to come? With me?”