This is an Alternative Universe fanfiction. Just thought I'd warn you.
It was mid-August, and five girls sat in a booth in a small diner known as the Three Broomsticks in the town of Hogsmeade.
On one bench, next to the window, sat Hermione Granger. She had thick brown hair and brown eyes. She was the "mom" of the group, always abiding by regulation and providing damage-control.
In the middle of the first bench sat Hannah Abbott. Hannah was a shy, brown-eyed, blonde girl.
Next to Hannah, sitting on the edge of the first bench, was Ginevra Weasley, although she preferred to just be called Ginny. Ginny was a redhead with brown eyes, and had grown up with six older brothers, giving her a personality as fiery as her hair.
On the edge of the other bench sat Susan Bones. Like Ginny, she also had brown eyes and red hair, although hers bordered on pale orange whereas Ginny's was a bright, vibrant ruby. Unlike Ginny, Susan was the elegant daughter of the Chief of Police, Amelia Bones.
Lastly, the girl with dirty blonde hair and wide, silver eyes who sat on the second window seat was named Luna Lovegood. She was the "odd" one. She wore radish earrings and a butterbeer cork necklace.
These five students were sitting in a booth at the Three broomsticks, celebrating Ginny's birthday.
"You guys really didn't have to…" Ginny mumbled repeatedly, the tips of her ears a constant red. She was trying to bury her face in the menu.
"Nonsense!" Susan consistently replied, "We're treating you to lunch, so you'd best stop your blathering already. Now, what'll you have? I think I'll have the Yerawizzard Cake. I've heard good things, you know."
"That does sound nice," Hannah Abbott, "Although, I know I can trust the baked potato."
"Lasagna! They have lasagna here!" Hermione gasped.
"I think I'll have the Yorkshire pudding with some beef. I do quite enjoy pudding." Luna stated, wide eyes never even glancing at the menu.
"Hello, ladies. My name is Harry Potter, and I'll be your waiter this fine afternoon. May I get you something to drink?"
Perfectly messy black hair, almost luminous emerald green eyes, a jawline worthy of Daniel Radcliffe, Harry Potter was, as all five customers thought, attractive. The girls spaced out completely, flustered at the sight of such a man.
Hermione, most mature of the lot and the only non-bachelorette, snapped out of the daze first. She elegantly asked for a glass of pumpkin juice.
Harry wrinkled his nose, causing the other four girls to go into an even deeper trance at the adorable action. "Really?" He asked, bewildered.
Hermione huffed. "Yes. Is there a problem?"
Realizing he had offended his customer, Harry immediately backtracked. "No, no, of course not! It's just that pumpkin juice is – I mean since it's – ah, one PJ. Got it." Now Harry was flustered and blushing. He waited awkwardly in the stares of the other four until Hermione coughed, bringing the rest back to reality. They all quickly requested their own drinks.
"Um, one at a time, please?" Harry responded maladroitly, hearing naught but a garbled mess.
"One glass of tea, if you please." Susan answered hesitantly but clearly, smiling at the young man.
"I'll have a water, thanks." Hannah stated shyly while staring at the table.
"Butterbeer." Ginny said simply, wary of any others words that might exit her mouth and embarrass her.
"I'd like some milk." Luna replied airily.
The last statement made Harry feel even more uneasy. Delicately, he stated, "Um, miss—"
"Luna."
"—er, Luna," Harry amended, "We're out of milk, I'm afraid."
"Oh? Pity." Luna replied, staring openly at the him.
Silence reigned for several extremely awkward moments.
Now blushing again and very self-conscious, Harry said, "Right. Well, I'll be back shortly with your drinks and to take your order…" And quickly left.
Once Harry was out of earshot, Susan immediately turned to Luna and whispered fiercely, "What've you done?!"
Bemused, Luna answered, "I only tried to order milk."
"Now he'll feel awkward!"
Even more bemused, Luna answered, "And?"
"I was going to ask him out!"
As soon as that line was uttered, the booth broke out into chaos. Luna and Hermione being the only ones not interested in Harry, began talking to each other as the argument escalated between the other three.
"I only tried to order milk."
"I know," Hermione reassured, struggling to keep an amused smirk of her face. "But you know how they get when they meet a guy."
"Yes," Luna's face took on a thoughtful look, "They do get quite worked up over it, don't they?"
Hermione nodded sagely, and the two fell into the relative silence that was background banter.
A few minutes passed, and Susan was avidly explaining her plan to woo Harry, much to the protest of the other two interested.
"– and then we'll work together to stop crime as the ultimate police couple!"
"Nonsense! He'll –" Ginny started, but was cut off, by Hermione.
"You three might not want to discuss that right now." She simply pointed to the approaching man.
Harry was a tray with the girls' drinks. He quirked an uneasy smile at their silence, having witnessed an argument from across the room.
"Right. So, here're your drinks. One Pumpkin Juice." Jestingly, Harry made a disgusted face as he handed the orange drink to Hermione. "One water," he elegantly set the clear drink down in front of a blushing Hannah. "A butterbeer." Ginny quickly took the yellow drink from his hands, making sure their fingers touched and as a result almost dropping her glass. "Um, glass of tea." Susan thanked him politely.
Everyone watched as the man then grabbed the final glass, full of a white beverage, and handed it to the final customer, saying, "And for Luna: Milk. Fresh from the store."
Not giving anyone time to reply, Harry hastily added, "Right, so: food? What'll you have?" He looked at Hermione.
Realizing the tension, Hermione simply requested, "Lasagna, please."
Harry nodded and wrote don the order on his note pad. He turned to Hannah, "And you?"
The shy girl mumbled, "I'll just take some baked potato, please."
"And for Ruby?" Harry looked at Ginny, whose ears tinged red again.
"Um, what d'you suggest?"
Harry smiled, "Well, I love the treacle tart, but it's not–"
"I'll have that."
Unsurely, Harry just nodded, "Uh, okay. And for the other—"
"It's Susan," the girl intercepted gracefully, "And I'll have some Yerawizzard Cake."
"Right. Redhead's have dessert for lunch." Harry nodded, seemingly to himself, as he wrote down the order. He looked, finally, to Luna again. "And for the 'Dairy Queen'?"
"I'd like the Yorkshire Pudding, if you're out of that, too?"
Harry grinned at the dirty blonde. "Got it." He answered. Harry took the menus and walked off to the kitchen to give the order.
Susan sighed, prompting Luna to look at her and say, "Did I do anything wrong again?"
Susan chuckled, "No, you just keep being you, Luna."
"More importantly, we should acknowledge how Harry was certainly flirting with me." Ginny stated firmly.
Gasping, Hannah replied diffidently, "Was he really? I didn't notice."
"Definitely," Ginny responded confidently, "You heard what he called me? 'Ruby.' He already has a pet name." She sighed dreamily.
Susan coughed, "Um, you'll notice he was about to call me something similar."
"I think he was just teasing you. After all that flustering, you three made it quite easy." Hermione interjected before another argument could break out.
"Teasing," Ginny scoffed, "Not as bad as poor Luna, right, 'Dairy Queen'?" Ginny grinned good-naturedly at her friend.
Luna didn't respond, she was merely staring at her milk, indubitably thinking.
Ginny deflated when she noticed the look. "Hey, Luna, don't worry about it. He's just some random bloke after all –"
"Ah! So you'll bugger off, then?" Susan challenged, eliciting a glare from the other redhead.
"Watch it!"
Hermione sighed at her failed attempt to precipitate peace amongst the group. She whispered to Luna, "I thought we could have fun here." She then noticed the far-off look that Luna was giving her drink. Frowning, Hermione comforted the odd girl. "Luna, you really shouldn't take his words so hard. He is just some random guy you'll probably never see again."
Finally breaking out of her musing, Luna shook her head and replied quietly, "He said they were out of milk."
Blinking at the simple thought, Hermione smiled, relieved that her friend wasn't so much upset as she was trying to solve a conundrum. "Maybe they just got more."
Luna nodded, "They must've. But that makes me wonder. Is it coincidence? There is a grocery store only three buildings down." Suddenly, she shook her head to clear her thoughts. "Oh, you're right. I mustn't dwell on it."
Reassured by her friend's newfound composure, Hermione once again inserted herself into the argument to try to quell it.
She had just managed to get the conversation back to what other celebratory measures would be taken for Ginny today when Harry once again entered the vicinity, this time holding an entire platter.
"Order up! Lasagna!" Smiling, Harry set the platter down on the neighboring table and handed Hermione her meal. "Straight from Hagrid's, Yerawizzard Cake!" He gave the pink-with-green-icing cake to Susan. "The chosen dessert! Treacle Tart!" Making a melodramatic motion with his arm, he bestowed upon Ginny the dessert. "Baked Potatoes! A classic!" He winked at Hannah, whose face then exploded with a massive blush. "And for her majesty," he grinned at Luna, making an even more grandiose motion with both his arms, he set the final plate, which held a bowl that contained the concoction, down before her, saying, "Yorkshire pudding! Enjoy your meals, ladies." He bowed, and once again left.
"He winked at me!" Hannah practically squealed, her still red face scrunched up in an embarrassed grin.
Hermione sighed as both redheads proceeded to gang up on the blonde. Not even bothering with stopping a third tirade, she once again turned to Luna, who had her phone out and kept glancing between it and her pudding.
"Taking a picture?" Hermione quirked an eyebrow.
Luna's voluminous eyes flicked toward the brown-haired young lady for a moment before going back to her phone. "No."
Hermione, having known Luna for a while, quickly realized she wouldn't get an elaboration unless she expressly asked.
"Well, what are you doing?"
Another flick of the eyes, "Typing."
Hermione sighed. Luna was distracted by something, meaning she would not be able to get a straight answer right now. She looked at the other three, who were now irritated and eating their food while forcefully not talking. Hermione looked back to Luna, only to see she had put her phone away and began eating.
Hermione sighed and began efforts to salvage the birthday lunch.
Around an hour later, and Hermione had succeeded. The five friends had managed to not mention Harry again and were talking about the upcoming school year.
"You five for Hogwarts, huh?" A new voice pulled them from their conversation, "I'm going there myself." He was a blonde young man, a different employee then Harry, obviously.
Seeing the startled faces of the customers, he realized what he had done. "Oh! Sorry, I didn't mean to intrude. I was only coming to ask if you were done." He shuffled in place awkwardly. "So, uh, you lot done?"
Gracelessly, Ginny asked, "Where's Harry?"
Alarmed, the man replied, "Oh, right. He's on his lunch break. One to one-thirty." He pointed to a wall clock that said it was one-oh-eight. He looked again at the group, "I'm Neville. Neville Longbottom."
Just like earlier, when Harry first arrived, Hermione was the first to snap to attention. "Right, yes, we're ready for the bill. We four," She gestured vaguely to everyone but Ginny, "Will be paying."
"Uh, right." He quickly handed the bill to Hermione and began collecting the dishes. It only took a few moments and then he was away, clumsily carrying everything with him on his tray.
Meanwhile, Hermione had worked everything out and Ginny's benefactors had split the cost four ways, each covered their own and a fourth of Ginny's.
The redhead once again thanked them profusely as they exited the diner.
The group was making their way to a movie theater when Luna asked out of no-where, "When a guy gives a girl his number, how long should she wait before calling or texting him?" The girl had directed her dreamy gaze upwards as she asked, and waited patiently for the reply.
Bemused, Susan asked, "Why do you ask? Did someone give you his number?"
"Why, yes. Harry did when he brought out our food. Do you think I should text him tonight?"