It wasn't often that her parents asked her to fill in for someone at Flourish & Blotts as they knew her social anxiety made it difficult to cope with working with the public for any extended period of time. Unfortunately, today her mum had some very important meetings to attend for the Literacy Flourishes charity, her dad was meeting with a major publisher, and they had an employee call out sick, which meant they needed the help. She had, at least, refrained from suggesting they ask Thad, who was finally in the off-season and around more. It wasn't fair of her to do that when, of her siblings, she was the least accomplished.

And so she'd spent an hour covering the register while the other worker went to lunch. Even though it hadn't been terribly busy, she was positively itching in her skin to get out of there when she was relieved. As soon as she stepped outside and turned toward the Leaky Cauldron, though, thinking she'd grab lunch for herself to take home, she spotted a certain tattooed man she'd thought of more the last couple of weeks than she wanted to admit. And who she hadn't expected to run into again unless she decided to go crazy and get a tattoo.

Before she could even think to get away before he spotted her too, their eyes met, and Juliet squeaked and darted into the little alley between the buildings, leaning against the outer wall of Flourish and Blotts and squeezing her eyes together as if doing so would erase the last minute.