Knowing the Marauders

Shopping Adventures

Chapter 22: shopping adventures
-Bex p.o.v.-

"Higher!" I called out, giggling like mad.

"Hold on!" Lucius chuckled, pushing me even higher than I was already going.

Hyde park was mostly empty, Lucius and I were messing around on the swings. No one else was on the small playground. The closest person was sitting on a bench, looking out into the landscape.

The same bench I had sat on a year ago. The same landscape I had seen when I was catching my breath. The same park I was taken away in. This was the very place that Rosier had taken me away to Tom's house.

"I feel like I can fly!" I exclaimed, the swing soaring up into the air.

"Now it's my turn. You have to push me." Lucius reasoned.

With a shrug I leapt from the swing, landing in the snow. Giggling, I stood and came behind Lucius as he sat on the swing's seat.

We spent what felt like forever at the park. Truly it was only thirty minutes at most. We would have spent longer, but sooner than we thought, Narcissa and Rosier came strolling into the park.

I frowned, "how did you find us?"

"You guys are too loud for your own good." Rosier shook his head, chuckling slightly. "We could hear you from blocks away."

"Come, we're going to the store now," Cissy gestured for us to follow her as she started off.

I pouted, slowly following. Lucius matched my pace, trailing after Rosier.

In minutes, we had reached a small alley way. Cissy entered with Rosier, glancing over her shoulder to make sure that we were following them. When Lucius and I entered the alley, we apparated away.

Rosier landed, making us appear in another alley, much like the one we had been standing in. The only difference was that this one sounded busier.

Peeking out of the alleyway I could see cars zooming past, people walking and talking loudly. The streets were busy around us. I had always heard that the center of London was the busiest.

"Come on," Cissy walked out first. "It's not too far from here."

We trudged after her, trying to keep up with Narcissa's fast walking. "How long until we get there?" I groaned softly, "my feet hurt."

"Not too far. Just a couple more blocks." Rosier informed, chuckling slightly. "You need to be more patient, sweetheart. You're the most impatient person I have ever met."

I smirked, "you still love me."

"Annoying as well." He continued, sighing, "Merlin, you're annoying."

I shrugged, "that doesn't stop your love for me."

"And have I told you how cocky you are?" He mock asked.

I rolled my eyes, grinning, "no. I don't believe you have. Please, continue."

"You always seem have a complement for yourself. Do you ever get tired of talking yourself up?"

"Can't say I do," I told him honestly.

"I'm surprised that you don't have a broken arm. You pat yourself on the back so often." Rosier smirked at him clever little saying.

I smirked proudly, "I've never had a broken bone. Unless Lucius would like to change that for me as well." I narrowed my eyes at Lucius.

"That was an accident!" He exclaimed. "I didn't mean to give you a bloody nose! And I didn't mean to break that record you have!"

I laughed, "I'm just messing with you. There's no need to get so worked up."

"We are here. Would you two quit fighting." Cissy stopped in front of a store. She narrowed her eyes at us, scolding us for our fights.

I looked up at the sign. "Build-A-Bear. Sounds dangerous."

"Sounds like something I don't want to be a part of." Lucius frowned slightly.

"Why are we at a child's store?" Rosier questioned, looking at the store in disgust.

"Bex said that she wanted to get Tom a Teddy-Bear. You can make them here." Cissy explained, "come along, I want to make myself something as well."

I shrugged, "I'm all for it. Is there anyway that I'll be able to have one of these, as well? Bears sound like a great pet to me."

"They aren't real bears. It's a stuffed bear." Cissy giggled slightly, pulling me into the shop.

"Well that makes this whole experience less exciting." I frowned in disappointment.

The store was filled with small children. A little section in the corner of the large store was seating, all of the parents were seated there. They looked rather bored and exhausted. Rosier and Lucius made a beeline for that corner.

Cissy pulled me to one of the walls, closest to the entrance. It had buckets of animal skins, the stuffed animals left un-stuffed. I grabbed one of the animal skins to a furry brown bear. His fur was a soft brown color and his eyes a muddy brown. He had a white tummy and paws.

Cissy had picked up a purple bunny skin. She claimed that the purple bunny would be the cutest little thing when dressed up in a pink tutu she had seen.

We walked together to the stuffing machine, not to far from the animal skins. A sleep deprived teen was working the large machine, he looked annoyed at the small boy, exclaiming that his puppy was not fluffy enough.

The teen sighed, rolling my eyes, I grabbed the animal that he had finished sowing the hole shut on. I shoved it into the little boy's hands. "Move along kid. Life is full of disappointments." I shooed the child away, handing the teen boy my bear that needed to be filled with the stuffing.

"Bex! You can not do that to children!" Cissy scolded me, one of her hands on her hip.

I shrugged, "the kid needed to know that life isn't fair. It's better he learnt it from me than someone else. At least I'm blunt about it and didn't sugar coat anything."

"He doesn't even know you!" Cissy rolled her eyes.

"Oh come on Cissy, you heard him. His squeaky little voice was about to burst my eardrums. It's a good thing I shut him up, or someone could have complained to this fine establishment that a whiny little boy was causing a disturbance."

A chuckle interrupted our conversation. The teen boy that was filling the bear with fluff had been listening to our talk the entire time. "You're quite funny." He complemented.

"Thanks," I nodded, "it comes naturally."

He chuckled again, holding out the bear for me. He was a handsome boy, a year ahead of me, it looked. He had light hair, a dirty blonde, styled up in spikes. His eyes were a soft brown, almost like a gold.

"Enjoy your day and come back anytime." He sent us an award winning smile, handing Cissy her bunny.

"Yeah, thanks again." I smiled back at him.

Cissy pulled me over to the clothing area. "He was cute." She giggled, glancing back over at him. "And he was defiantly checking you out."

I rolled my eyes, "you seem to think that about every guy who even looks in my direction."

She scoffed, "I do not. Only when a guy is checking you out." She spoke in her I'm-right-and-you're-wrong voice. "Look, he's totally checking you out!" She whisper yelled to me.

With a sigh, I turned to glance at him. He was in fact, looking in our direction. But he wasn't looking exactly at me. I followed his eyes to see what he was looking at. Slightly to my right, a beautiful girl stood. She had long, straight blonde hair, a bright brown pair of eyes, and a slight red coloring to her cheeks. She kept glancing over at the boy, looking away as soon as their eyes met, the blush getting a shade darker each time.

I giggled, "no! He's looking at that girl." I gestured to the pretty girl.

"They would be so cute together!" Cissy squealed quietly. "We have to help them! Come on! Please!"

I rolled my eyes playfully at her, "alright. Let's do this. Who do you want?"

"I'll take the girl," she grinned, Cissy skipped off to the girl.

I put a happy smile on my face and walked back to the boy. "Hi."

He looked away from the girl, seeing me. He chuckled, "I didn't think you'd come back that fast when I said 'come back anytime.' What can I help you with?"

I giggled with him, "sorry, it's just my friend got a little excited when she saw the way that you and that girl were looking at each other. She wants to set you guys up." I explained, sending him an apologetic smile.

He looked confused, "so let me get this straight," he started slowly. "You and your friend, want to set me up with that girl?"

I nodded. "Exactly."

He still looked confused but nodded slowly, "okay."

"Yeah well I'm sure it'll be over soon.
Cissy has very good persuasion powers, they'll be over here any second now." I shrugged.

He looked over to where Cissy and the girl were standing. His eyes widened slightly. "They're coming over." He began to panic.

"Told you," I grinned. "Cissy is very good at convincing people of things. You'll probably have a date by the time Cissy's done with this."

"Bex! Who is your friend?" Cissy grinned, coming up to us.

"Huh? Oh I don't know his name, we've just been talking. Guess it never came up." I shrugged.

"You do know that he's wearing a name tag, right?" The girl spoke softly.

"He is?" I asked, noticing the plastic tag pinned to his shirt. "He is! Wow, how did I not notice that? Guess you're not that important, Max."

He chuckled, rolling his eyes playfully. "Very funny, Bex."

I nodded, "I am pretty funny. I just can't help it." The girl giggled. I looked at her curiously.

"Bex, Max, this is Audrey." Cissy introduced us.

"Hi." She gave a small, shy smile.

I nodded in greeting, looking away from the conversation, bored by what was happening. I connected eyes with Lucius and grinned when he was glaring at Max. He glanced over at me, gesturing to the boy. I giggled quietly, shaking my head.

Lucius looked relieved, happy that Max was not a problem. He seemed to get tense when Max spoke to Cissy. Maybe it was because he and Cissy weren't on the best terms, he didn't want Cissy to run off with some other guy.

I continued to look around the store, uninterested in what was happening before me. It was Cissy that got the rush of excitement from setting people up. I couldn't care less.

My view on the entire thing was that if a guy was interested in a girl, he should gather the courage to ask her. There is nothing better than a guy being brave enough to ask a girl, even if there is a chance that she will turn him down. It was sexy to see a guy being brave.

The thoughts of brave men lead to thoughts of Sirius.

He was brave, he wouldn't be in Gryffindor if he wasn't. He always asked me to go on a date with him. And I most likely would have said yes, though his ego seemed to get in the way. But his ego was something that was a part of him, without his ego and girls trailing after him, he wouldn't be Sirius. He wouldn't be the boy that I knew.

Sirius was something else. He was funny, he could make me laugh. He was also annoying, he could make me hate him in seconds. He was smart, he didn't need to study to pass his exams, he just did them. He wasn't one of the smartest people, his ego got in the way, but he did know his stuff. He was kind, he loved the boys with all of his heart. He was a jerk, he thought he could just hex anyone he wanted, whenever he wanted to.

All of the things I loved about him were cancelled out by all of the things I hated about him.

I didn't know how to feel about him. I couldn't understand the mix of emotions I felt when I was around him. I couldn't make sense of the strange feeling that I got when I merely thought of him, the feeling I had now.

It was strange, something I've never felt before. It was something I couldn't describe.

The feeling reminded me of when I was sick as a child. My dad would always ask what it felt like. I didn't know. I couldn't describe how it felt. I just knew that I didn't like the feeling, I wanted my dad to take it away, to make me feel better.

I just wanted the foreign feeling to leave. I didn't want it around, hiding until Sirius came around and then exploding inside of me.

"Come on, Bex." Cissy pulled me away from the pair. We went and picked out an outfit for the stuffed animals, dressing them up and quickly paying for them. Cissy informed me that Max asked Audrey out, they were going out on Friday night.

We left the children's store, Lucius complaining to Cissy about her talking to another guy. Cissy laughed it off, reassuring Lucius that she liked him and not Max.

That reminded me of how Sirius was constantly questioning my relationship with Regulus. I needed to reassure him that I was merely friends with Regulus. Does that mean Sirius likes me as much as Lucius likes Cissy? He's insecure about my feelings towards another guy. That's the only thing he seems to be insecure about. I thought to myself.

I pushed the thoughts away. I needed to stop thinking about Sirius. Thinking about him would do nothing for me but give me that confusing feeling.










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I'm so so so so so so so so sorry! I didn't mean to not update in so long! This was the first week back at school and it got a little bit busy. So to inform you all, I tutor a group of kids on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so I will most likely not be updating on those days. But I will try to do it every other day!
So if you would comment, vote, share, fan and follow; I will try to get another update up by tonight! Thanks guys!



P.S. I don't know if Hyde Park has swings or not... I'm not from London so I have no idea. But if it doesn't, it now does! Lol I'm reconstructing Hyde Park to fit my needs! Naw I'm just kidding, in my story there will be a small children's play area, if there is already not one.