salute ➳ 〚h.s.〛 〚a.u.〛

the one with the christmas movies

"What're we watching, petal?"

Piper glanced over from where she had been frowning at the television, her brows crunched together into a scowl. Harry flopped down on the bed beside her with a box of Christmas biscuits he'd found in the kitchen, courtesy of her mother who had actually shipped them in the post despite living a half hour away. They were bright green and red and white, and were embellished with a variety of sprinkles, sparkles and things that didn't even look edible. Piper had been reluctant to eat them because she knew she'd devour the whole box in one sitting. Apparently, Harry had the same idea because he'd just wolfed through two.

"I don't know how you keep your figure when you eat like that," Piper pointed out which earned her an unimpressed look from Harry. He pointedly bit the end off a star biscuit and chewed it dramatically in front of her.

"Are you actually watching 60 Minutes right now?" Harry whined as his eyes shifted back to the screen. "I thought we were going to watch something fun."

"It's about credit card fraud. It's a serious issue during the holidays. Bill Whitaker said they're going to have tips on how to protect yourself against fraud coming up - " Piper batted the remote from Harry's hand " - so don't change the channel."

"This doesn't even apply to us," Harry pointed out, although she didn't take him very seriously with his mouth full of biscuits. "This is all about Americans and their payment system which is about ten years behind ours. They still swipe credit cards there - no pin numbers or anything." Harry shrugged as if it was a none issue, swallowing down the biscuit and trying to snatch the remote back. Piper held it away. "C'mon petal! I want to watch something fun. A holiday movie."

"I want to watch the end of the segment," Piper said firmly as she tucked the remote under the pillow she was leaning on where Harry couldn't reach it. "It's not going to be much longer so can you please just shut up and pay attention."

"I will if you tell me how this is going to affect me at all."

"You have no idea, Harry. For all we know, they've found ways to read information from chips to duplicate cards. Hackers are a sneaky bunch - I mean, learning how to read stripes was like child's play for us."

"I really hope you're using the general 'us' in this situation," Harry grumbled, furrowing his brow as his eyes shifted in her direction, "and that you're not alluding to the sorts of activities you got up to in uni."

Piper averted her gaze immediately, trying to mentally stop her cheeks from flushing red and giving away her secret. There were some things about her time at MIT that it was probably best that Harry didn't know about, for his own peace of mind. After all, he was an agent, a representative of Queen and Country. He didn't stand for wrong doing and he brought down the bad guys. Piper wasn't sure how he would feel about her history.

"Oh look," she said in an extra loud voice so Harry didn't have a chance to voice the question she could see about to burst from his lips, "they're talking about dumping sites. Do you know what dumping sites are Harry? They're a place where people who steal credit card information can sell them online to buyers. Did you know about them?" Piper glanced over and nearly shrunk down at the blazing inquiry in Harry's green eyes. It didn't look like he was going to drop the issue any time soon and this was the last thing she wanted to be talking about. "Shh," she said as she turned up the volume, even though Harry hadn't said a word, "they've got a former hacker who works for the FBI now. Isn't that fascinating?"

"- most of the sellers even offer a money back guarantee if the card is frozen or reported in an attempt to lure in reluctant buyers."

Piper's eyes shot to the screen, widening until it almost hurt. She couldn't believe what she was seeing. Sitting across the table from Bill Whitaker was someone she recognized very well. Adam. Her first boyfriend. The guy she lost her virginity with. The guy who dumped her because she wouldn't help him hack the university servers to adjust his mark.