Bookworms (Finley)

Anya's list of places she loved to go was ever-growing. Flourish and Blotts was a new addition to this list. She loved exploring all of the books that they had to offer. She longed to adventure through the inked words on the ever so carefully placed pages within the bindings. Whether she was reading directions, a story, or a work of nonfiction, books had the power to transport her wherever she needed to be.

On this particular day, she had spent an hour or so wondering the shop, looking through different books and trying to find the perfect piece of literature to purchase on that day. The problem was, she didn't know what she wanted. She had acquired a stack of books, five or six high, into her arms. As the book stack grew, its stability lessened. As the stack reached eight books, it began to tilt forward. Anya held her breath, hoping that staying still would keep it standing. Moments later, the books toppled over onto the ground.

"Sorry!" She whispered to nobody in particular.

'I guess this is what I get from being so indecisive,' she thought.
Before she knew it, there was a brown-haired boy before her, picking up the sprawled-out books. Anya watched as the boy picked up the books, working with care. She felt bad about dropping the stack. She imagined that there were a million different things the boy would rather be doing than cleaning her mess. She'd never see anyone take this much thought into picking books off from the ground. He was smoothing out the pages, as if trying to return them back to a state before their near-death experience.

"Thank you," she smiled, lifting a book from the floor. It was a book about potions. She wondered why she had even put this title into the pile. Potions books were not exactly the kind of books one read because they wanted to. Perhaps she had wanted to learn something.

"I'm Anastasiya," She told the boy, keeping her volume at a soft whisper. "But most people just call me Anya."

As Finley placed the last book carefully onto the stack, Anya couldn't help but notice that the boy had a stutter. A feeling of guilt seeped into the Hufflepuff. She had not meant to make the boy uncomfortable or nervous in any way, but yet it appeared that she had. Despite the nervousness, the boy smiled when he introduced himself.
"It's nice to meet you too, Finley," she responded. As for the stack of books, she had not planned on buying all of them. It appeared;however, that Finley had thought she did. When he asked if she wanted help bringing them to the counter, she nodded.

"Help would be great," She lent a soft smile. "We've already seen what happens when I try to carry them all alone." She let out a few notes of laughter, handing a little less than half of the stack to Finley.

As she made her way to the counter, Anya wanted to ask about his stutter, but she felt that that would be rude. Instead, she thought it would be better to keep the conversation casual.

"So what have you done with your Summer?" she asked him.