a string of unfortunate events || [EILEEN]

Max looked over at the girl who suddenly bolted toward him and put her hands under the shelf, too. He wasn’t sure that he felt any difference when she did - it still wasn’t moving, but it seemed to be getting heavier. Was that even possible? Dammit, why couldn’t she have just grabbed his wand or something useful? For a moment he thought that he was going to have to just let the shelf go and get both of them out of the way before it actually fell and crushed one of them, ”Grab. Your wand. Or mine. It’s in the back room.” Max growled slightly, but as soon as he did, the girl moved out of the way and was casting a spell. Thank Merlin she had been able to get the picture.

The shelf seemed to move back to it’s original place and Max - quite literally - felt a huge weight lifted off of his shoulders. For a second he had thought that he was going to have a lot of broken bones and even more of a mess to clean up.

There was a split second where Max wasn’t entirely sure what he should do. Should he say thank you? What had possessed her to try and help lift up the shelf with her hands...? ”Erm-” Max shoved his hand into his jeans pockets and then used his other hand to run through his dark hair, ”Thanks for the help?” Normally stoic and void of emotions, Max was in a such a mood that he even laughed a little bit. Whoever she was had been helpful, ”I guess I could offer you a nice discount for your efforts-” Max grinned and then pulled his hand out of his pocket, ”Maxim Petrov, Tomes and Scrolls owner.” He introduced himself and then reached to give her a handshake, ”Who should I make the blank check out to?”

Eileen. He would have to remember that - after all, she was probably one of his most frequent customers. He saw her in here nearly every Hogsmeade trip. Max was a quiet sort of man, which made observing his surroundings a hell of a lot easier. That meant that he was able to remember things that most people couldn’t - he knew what kind of coffee his neighbor Morgana liked, even what sort of chocolates Mr. Banges - the man from down the street - liked. And he knew that Eileen liked books. That was one thing that he was certain about from observing her.

”Really it’s no problem.” Max said, cocking his head slightly to the side. Never once in his life had someone denied taking a discount on something...And he couldn’t imagine why she was doing it. If this Eileen girl was as involved in book-reading as he had observed, she should have jumped at the opportunity, ”Trust me, I get enough traffic with all the Hogwarts students in and out.” His slight Russian accent seemed to pull through for a moment and he coughed. Maybe he was trying to cover it up - he had become a lot more self-conscious over the past couple of days...especially since he had run into Jess. Max may have acted mature for his age...but they were still girls. And he was still a twenty year old boy. He had to at least put in a little effort, right? ”And-”

He noticed that she had tucked herself behind a shelf, obviously avoiding the peering eyes of the students that were outside the shop, ”What are you...” Max walked to the window and looked out, catching the eye of a blonde Slytherin who seemed to be on a rampage.

”I’m Russian, yes. Moved here when I was sixteen.” Jeez - he forgot how young he had been when all of this had started happening to him. It seemed like ages ago, when in reality it was only four short years ago. Had his parents really been gone for that long? Had he really only experienced 48 full-moons? Sometimes it felt as if this would never end...he was going to be stuck in this rut for forever. Suddenly feeling very existential, he realized that she had asked him another question about his family, ”No, my family did not join me.” Max breathed and then reached up to ruffle his dark locks, suddenly feeling very embarrassed about the whole thing. Of course, the girl could have no idea what happened to his family - no one really did - but he wasn’t sure that he was comfortable talking about it with her...especially since they had just formally met a few minutes ago. Just the same, it was hard to feel weird around her when she seemed to be so bubbly and full of energy.

She called out that it was nothing and Maxim raised both of his eyebrows. Instinctively, he turned the blinds so that not very much of the store could be seen from the outside. Now, even if she was hiding from someone, they wouldn’t notice her inside the darkened shop. Eileen seemed to calm down momentarily after she looked at the other window and even took of her gloves - beginning to get more comfortable. The Russian man shook his head, obviously confused by her actions and opened the blinds again, assuming that it was a sign that she was in the clear, ”You are a very strange girl,” He muttered as he went over to the shelf and began straightening things as well.

”You don’t have to clean up the mess,” He said, laughing slightly as he himself picked up a few books and scrolls and began putting them into their rightful places, ”However, if you are cold-” He noticed that she was blowing into her hands, obviously to create some hot air and thaw her chilly fingers, ”There is a fireplace over there.” He nodded toward the small sitting area that was tucked into the corner of the shop. Sometimes students would come in and sit for hours with the warm fire.