Next thing you know Who: Peter / Lea Where: Mike's Corner When: Backdated to Saturday lunchtime
Arguably, the last time Peter had deliberately gone out to mix with people, things had not gone well. It was tempting to just stay inside and read - he'd braved the bookshop long enough to get a stash that might last several weeks - there was only so long he could stand Snape's constant brooding. He kept thinking the man was going to eviscerate him, suddenly and without warning.
For himself, the shallower scratches on his face and arms had faded, at least. The gash over his eye and the deep cut in his arm he had mostly closed with magic, but for someone who used to work in St Mungos, his healing charms weren't that good, and the wounds still showed red and ugly. But he always wore long sleeves, anyway. Remus might pretend not to understand why, but there was no way Peter was stepping foot in that hospital.
So he went out, and practiced his fishing, and actually started to feel a little calmer. It seemed an age since he could walk down a street without flinching every five seconds when an insect buzzed passed his ear or someone laughed nearby. Absolute safety was hardly a surety, of course, but it did help now that he had his magic back, and Wormtail with it. The first time he managed the transformation it felt so good to be on four paws that he hadn't turned back for almost a whole day. It was easier to enjoy himself as a rat. Even food tasted better. He made sure not to eat anything he found in the house, though. You never knew what Snape might have poisoned.
He still avoided crowds, though, and the food court made him feel quite on-edge. He jumped when someone he didn't know jostled into him, and was halfway to drawing his wand before he realised what he was doing. He hurried over to Mike's Corner and pressed himself against the wall, looking around anxiously for Lea.
He wasn't sure what to expect from this meeting at all. The first time they'd met, she'd looked at him as though he'd strangled her favourite puppy, and said things he didn't understand. And the last time... well. He knew that she had recovered, more or less, but that was all he knew.