One Good Day
Chapter 3: The Strip
Disclaimer: Yadda yadd. I own nothing. Everything here belongs to J.K. Rowling. You know the deal.
a/n: Extra credit. Can you guess the inspiration for the book shop owner? Harry's good day continues with ever increasing amounts of fluff. I'm going to wrap this up in only two more chapters, throwing in some semblance of plot while I'm at it.
They had parked inside a multi-story car park so that they could spend the rest of the morning walking in and out of shops. At first Harry really didn’t see the appeal in all this, but his worries were soon swept clean.
The strip they walked down was loaded with all kinds of different little stores. Hermione was right at home in a little second-hand book store where all the books seemed to be at least three times as old as they were, and smelled very musty. The attendant was a dotty old man who didn’t seem interested in selling any of the books at all, but that didn’t stop Hermione from ogling the darkened and faded tomes. For once, Ron didn’t show the slightest bit of exasperation at Hermione’s fascination. In fact, he seemed enthused, asking her all sorts of questions about the books she was most interested in.
After the book store, they stopped into a fancy electronics store. Ron’s eyes went big immediately, as did Ginny’s. Small metallic gizmos clunked along the floor on their own accord, while a small silver box belted out music as it provided the most entrancing of light shows.
“This is bloody brilliant, Hermione, you’ve got to try this,” Ron said as he sat in a vibrating chair. As Hermione walked over to him, he made to get up, but she shoved him back down, and sat in his lap. Harry gaped as Ron’s eyes glazed over, and the blood in his face seemed incapable of deciding whether to make him blush or go pale. As a result these little red blotches appeared all over his face and neck.
“Ahem,” Ginny said, her eyes twinkling, and Hermione stood, offering a hand to Ron. All Ron could say, however, was a very weak, “I’m good.”
Next, they visited a pet shop, and Ginny all but squealed at the cats and ferrets and rabbits as they nipped about in their cages. Ron and Hermione seemed taken with a floppy, elongated dog, but Ginny’s attention was elsewhere.
“What’s that?” she asked Harry, and he went over to have a look.
“The sign says it’s a chinchilla,” he answered knowingly.
“I can read,” she said in a slightly hurt voice. “I’ve never seen one.”
“They make great pets, miss,” said the salesman, a short, portly man with very little hair. “Energetic and playful, but easy to take care of, and very soft, go on, have a pet,” he said as he opened the top of the cage
“Oh my,” she whispered. “Harry, feel this,” she said as she grasped his hand, forcing it to pet the dark grey animal. The animal was by far the softest thing he had ever petted, but the sensation was nothing compared to the tingling he felt every time their fingers met amidst the soft fur. She seemed to notice this too, for as they continued to pet the chinchilla, she turned to face him with the most curious expression on her face. Truth be told, her face held no expression, but it was as if her eyes had opened up into vast, chocolate covered tunnels, and pulled him in.
“I’ll just, uh, go help those two kids over there,” the salesman said in a nervous voice. Neither Harry nor Ginny seemed to notice.
As their fingers met again in the soft fur, Harry caught her hand and interlaced his fingers with hers. Stepping closer to her he said in a whisper, “I think I’m going to have to kiss you, you know.”
She bit her lip and nodded, and he did kiss her. Not deep, nor frenzied, just a simple kiss that seemed to make half of his body short circuit.
“Ahem,” came Ron’s deep voice, and Harry and Ginny broke apart.
As the morning went on, certain things became very apparent to Harry. For one both couples grew much more comfortable. Even after Ron and Hermione had gotten together, they were still often awkward around each other, as though one were dancing the waltz, while the other was doing some weird kind of five step tango (this latter would of course be Ron). But now they talked and laughed quite easily with their arms slung around each other’s waists.
As for he and Ginny, they had always gotten on well at Hogwarts. During the few weeks they were seeing each other back then, they were comfortable, but not like this. Back then, other than the first kiss of course, every time Harry wanted to kiss her, he felt as though he needed some sort of special permission to do so. Ginny’s acceptance of him had always made this notion seem silly, but now things were different. Stopping in the middle of the sidewalk to peck her on the cheek, or enjoy something a little more didn’t just seem natural, it seemed as thought that particular second in time and space wouldn’t be the same if he hadn’t.
Also, Harry noticed that Ron wasn’t just getting a little attention from the girls they ran in to that were around their age. He was getting a lot. Hermione didn’t like this much, but instead of gawking or blushing, Ron seemed to use this as an excuse to pull her closer to him, or give her a quick kiss on the neck. This seemed to make Hermione incredibly happy.
Finally, Harry noticed that his mind hadn’t been this light in ages. It wasn’t eleven o’clock yet, and he honestly felt as though he just might forget that Voldemort ever existed.
At one point, Ron had challenged Harry to a piggyback race, and Harry accepted. Hoisting their respective girlfriends onto their backs, they crouched and eyed each other steely.
“On your marks,” Hermione started.
“Get set,” Ginny continued, tittering as she did so.
“G-not quite yet!” Hermione laughed as both boys lurched, only to groan as they reset themselves.
“Go-ldylocks!” Ginny howled, and again both boys nearly stumbled over themselves to keep from tearing down the street.
“Oi, you wanna…”
“GO!” Hermione yelled, and off they went. Ron took an early lead, as his legs were considerably longer than Harry’s, but as they reached a part of the pavement that was cluttered with newspaper dispensers, Harry managed to catch up as he was much more agile.
Ginny and Hermione both laughed wildly as they were jostled about. “EXCUSE US!” Hermione yelled as they came across an elderly couple out for a walk.
“Remember when we were like that Edith?”
“Come off it Earl, you were never that…”
But what Earl never was, Harry never caught as they had already circled around the couple and we’re nearly all the way down the street. Ron had got there first, but only just, and as Harry panted heavily, he heard Ron say in an awed tone, “whoa.”
The façade of the building at which Ron was looking was so brightly lit that it looked as if it didn’t even belong on the same street as all the rest of the old gray stone buildings. In fact, Harry thought to himself, Fred and George would probably be jealous of how obnoxiously bright and colored it was.
“What is that?” Ron asked, the awe still very much apparent in his voice. Hermione hugged him fondly before climbing down from his back.
“It’s a video arcade, of course,” she said pointing to the obtrusively large sign over the storefront.
“And what’s a video arcade?” he inquired, unable to take his eyes from the millions of flashing lights before him.
“It’s a place you can go to play computer games,” Harry answered. He had overheard Dudley retelling not a few exploits from the local arcade near their home.
“What’s a…”
“Oh, come on,” Hermione said as she took him by the hand and drug him inside.
“You want down?” Harry asked Ginny, but she only tightened her grip on him, and leaned her head on his shoulder.
“I like it up here,” she whispered, and planted a kiss at the nape of his neck that gave Harry goose bumps. They followed Ron and Hermione in.
“You put the coins in the slots,” Hermione was explaining to Ron as she handed him a fistful of tokens, “and then you play.”
Hermione handed Harry a fist full of coins as well, and the two couples went all through the arcade. Harry and Ginny raced each other on a motorbike game. Harry had won, but that was only because he managed to crash a few less times than Ginny. After that, they played air hockey, at which Ginny soundly beat him. Ron and Hermione, meanwhile, were whacking away at a box with holes in it with huge foam mallets. By the time Ginny had finished her victory dance (which Harry thought was absolutely adorable) from the air hockey, however, Ron and Hermione were nowhere to be seen.
“Where’d they go?” Ginny asked, her arms still in the air from dancing.
“No idea.” A slight twinge of fear had entered Harry’s head as they searched all over for the other couple. They went outside for moment, but didn’t see them. Going back inside they scanned again, and then Harry felt Ginny prod his ribs. Looking at her, she was nodding to a large box with black curtains and pictures of zombies painted all over it. A wicked grin crossed her face, and Harry nodded in approval.
They crept up to either side of the box, and on a silent count of three, they yanked open the curtains.
“Well,” Ginny said disapprovingly. “At least you tried to stay out of the public’s eye.”
A very shocked looking Ron offered an embarrassed grin as he leapt away from a slightly disheveled Hermione.