Disclaimer for the whole story: I own nothing but my own plot idea.
Here is a new story, let me know what you guys think :)
Hadrian Evans pushed the door of The Big Pour Cafe open with his arm, hands resting in the pockets of his black sweatshirt. The baggy sweatshirt hid the fact he was carrying his wand in a holster on his arm. He kept his head down and walked to the back of the line. Seeing as it was 7:30AM, it was a damn long line. Sighing, he stood there with his eyes flickering about to take in everything around him.
There were the standard early birds with their coffee and a book just getting a start on their day. Then there were the procrastinators who were chugging their coffee as if it was a lifeline as they frantically typed on the laptop something that was probably due in a few hours. Oh, and who can forget the assholes who acted as if the world would end if they did not get the exact low fat-blah-blah latte they ordered. Rolling his eyes, he stepped forward as the line moved.
He did the same thing every morning, still half asleep while he waited to get his coffee. As someone who grew up in England, tea was his preference, but nothing woke him up better than a steaming cup of black coffee. The Big Pour Cafe provided him with his much needed caffeine every morning.
Hadrian remembered the first time he had American coffee. His flight had just landed in Philadelphia International Airport from London Heathrow Airport and he was half-dead on his feet from jetlag. It also did not help that he had not had a decent night's sleep in years.
He trudged forward off the plane, grabbed the little luggage he had, went to the first place he saw that sold coffee, and bought some. He almost spit it out at first, but he forced himself to finish it. The coffee gave him the boost he needed to settle down in his new home.
Now three people closer to the counter, Hadrian took his phone out of his pocket and checks it: 7 Missed Calls from Hermione Granger along with 12 New Messages from Hermione Granger. Angrily, he swiped his screen to get rid of the notifications, deleted the texts without reading them, locked his screen, and stuffed it back in his pocket.
How fucking dare she try to talk to him. He left Britain for a reason. After the war he just could not seem to get all of the bodies out of his head. He kept seeing the tears and the grief with the constant ringing of cruel laughter in the background.
When he slept is when it was at its worst, which is why he got by with the least amount of sleep he could. As soon as he closed his eyes, the fire and blood along with the stench of the bodies overwhelmed him. There was always screaming and cries for help that he could do nothing about.
When he was awake he was paranoid. Loud sounds made him jump, flashing lights startled him, and sometimes he swore he saw someone from the war when they weren't even there. Even though he ultimately won when he killed Voldemort, every day still felt like he was back at that battle suffering all over again.
Everyone else started to move on. Hermione, the Weasleys, Neville, and most of the Wizarding World began rebuilding. In the beginning they were all like Hadrian, still caught up in the war. Eventually, though, they started to bounce back. The laughed, smiled, and celebrated with the rest of the country over the fact that Voldemort was finally dead. Ron and Hermione got married, Andromeda was taking Teddy on fun trips, and the country moved on. He couldn't.
Ginny expected him to propose to her, but how could he when his mind was still in the past. She deserved so much more than what he could give her. She could not truly move on if he was still holding her back. Being her stubborn self she refused to let him go, so he forced her. Hadrian pushed her away along with everyone else. They need not be bothered by his problems.
Despite how hard he tried to push them away, they all resisted. They would show up at his house, insist on taking him out, and try to make him happy.
Hadrian could not stand it. Don't get him wrong, he was grateful, but he did not deserve to be happy. For some reason, they could not understand that. His mind was still fractured and it felt like it was getting worse every day. That was why he left.
Within a few days of their last attempt to help him he had everything he needed packed, his finances converted to muggle American currency, and his flight booked. No goodbyes, no notes, no anything. A clean break.
He bought a little one bedroom, one bathroom house in Philly. It did not have the privacy he really wanted, but it would work for the moment. He could socialize if he wanted to, which he never did, or he could hole himself up in his house and rarely come out. The latter was what he did most often.
Besides getting his morning coffee, he rarely left his house unless it was necessary. Not many people talked to him, although a few tried in the beginning. When they realized he was not interested, they mostly stopped trying.
Hermione was the only one that had Hadrian's phone number in case there was a problem back in England. He regretted that now, as Hermione continued to badger him to come back. He didn't want to change his number though in case there was a real emergency since he had every magical way of communicating with him blocked. The constant phone calls and messages from Hermione were getting really old really fast.
"Excuse me, sir," said the barista startling Hadrian out of his thoughts. He reflexively reached for his wand before he realized what he was doing. Quickly he stopped and scratched his arm through his sweatshirt to cover up his mistake. Berating himself for getting caught unaware, he put his hand back in his pocket and looked up.
For a few seconds she looked exactly like Ginny. He blinked a few times until Ginny disappeared. The barista was still staring at him a little impatiently.
"Venti coffee, black, please," he told her while he smiled apologetically and paid for his drink. He moved over to the side to wait for it to be ready. The barista was making the drink and he couldn't keep his eyes off of her, wondering if he would see Ginny again.
Finally, he was handed his coffee. He did not even wait for it to cool down before he took a gulp. It was scalding, but it definitely woke him up. Nodding his head in thanks, Hadrian walked to the station to grab a lid. He snapped it on the coffee and took another very satisfying gulp.
The morning rush seemed to move on all around him, yet where he stood time seemed to halt. He thought about nothing from the war, or his life at all. He just focused on the bitter taste of the coffee and nothing else. The pain on his tongue from the heat almost felt good to him. It made him feel alive.
An elbow bumped into his side and a muttered apology followed as the person rushed for the door with a tray of coffees. Hadrian felt the scene change around him as the coffee shop faded into the Battle of Hogwarts.
He flashed back to when he bumped into a dead body slumped on the wall of the castle. He looked back at first to see who he had run into when he noticed the pale, frozen face of a girl in school robes. She had been impaled on a spike with fear still in her eyes.
Hadrian stumbled back, and the pain from spilling searing coffee on his hand brought him back to reality. He looked around, but no one had noticed that anything had happened. In fact, most of them were looking at either one of the two TVs. Curious, he stepped to the one closest to him in order to hear it better.
"In breaking news, we have just been told by the Philadelphia Police Commissioner that another murder of a young man has been committed. This is the fourth in a string of murders that has been plaguing this area for two weeks now. The most recent victim's name has not been released until the family can be notified. There is speculation that this is the work of a serial killer, although nothing has yet been confirmed. Let's go to our reporter at the scene," said the anchor as the words popped up on the screen below her.
"I am at the scene of the most recent crime and the investigators are still going through everything. We can say that it was a 20 year old male that was pronounced dead on the scene. The man that noticed the body was just taking out the trash when he saw it and called police. Now, we can't help but think that this is connected to the three other murders of young men in the Philadelphia area," the reporter said.
She brought her hand to her ear as she listened to her headphone before it cut back to the anchor at the desk.
"We've just heard that the Behavioral Analysis Unit of the FBI have just arrived at the Philadelphia police headquarters. The FBI is now helping with the case. The cause of death of the most recent male victim has not been released, but it has been for the three previous victims of the supposed serial killer. The cause of death for those three victims is undetermined and the detectives are unwilling to say anymore than that. Will it be the same for the possible fourth victim? We will have updates for you as more information is released. Stay tuned," informed the anchor as the program cut to a commercial.
Whispers started around the cafe as people began talking about what they had just heard. Ideas were being thrown every which way about the murders and if it might happen again. Everyone was speculating about who could have done it.
Everyone but Hadrian, that is.
Shit.
