"Put You Back on Solid Ground"
Chapter 1
Author's note: I wrote this at about 3:00 a.m. and it's very rough, I'm also doing an AU setting here and playing with the world of HP how I'd like, it won't be accurate by the books 100% of the time, but that's the fun of Next Generation, right?
xx
It was a gloomy October day in which not many people were in Diagon Alley, a few people scuttled from store to store. Getting books, stopping at the ice cream shop, not that it was warm enough, but the flavors were always nice. Stopping by the joke shop for their newest gags. One store in particular was quite quiet that day, Flourish and Blotts was just about as dead as a graveyard. Assistant Manager Charlotte L. Rogers would know this best. She was here until close today at 6:00 p.m. and since her shift that day had started at 10:00 a.m. there had been about 10 customers in total, the majority of her day was spent restocking books, tidying up, doing orders for various Hogwart students whose parents ordered their books if they needed a better copy, or just books in order people would order if they had pre-ordered books. Things of that nature. However, at this moment, Charlotte was sitting behind the counter, staring out the window. It had been about 2 hours since the last customer had come in. She looked completely spaced out, sitting in a chair behind the counter, brown hair pulled back into a bun on the top of her head, hazel eyes staring out the window with a far away look, her skin was pale due to lack of sun in the UK in general, a few freckles dotted along her neck. One small scar ran the length of her cheek. This was Charlotte Rogers.
"Why are you doing this?"
"Because I can't be with you anymore, there isn't anything here. I don't love you anymore, I hate you."
"Don't say that. You don't mean it, just stay, please. Don't leave.."
"Give me one good reason to stay, Charlotte. One reason."
"Because I love you. Is that not enough?"
"No, Charlotte, it isn't."
Her hand out of instinct reached up to her stomach when she thought of this, touching it tenderly. Obviously lost somewhere in her thoughts. Soon to be disrupted though by the bell over the front door going off. She snapped back and looked up, seeing an older couple stroll in. "Excuse me, could you help us find a book please?" the older lady asked with a small smile.
"Oh, of course, Ma'am." Charlotte said, standing up from the stool and shaking her head to focus herself. "What book was it?" It was a few more minutes before she found the book among the floor to ceiling piles of books, some where shoved in the bookshelves, others in piles on the floor, some standing on stools, in just really random places. It needed a good dusting really. "Here it is." Charlotte said, standing on the stepladder at an awkward angle and handing the book down to them, before stepping down and wiping her pants off. "Let's go ring you up." she said with her best "Customer is always right' smile. That took only a few minutes more and she was once again alone in the shop. It always seemed lonely on Wednesdays.
On the other side of Diagon Alley at the Leaky Cauldron, it was quite a different story. It was "Happy Hour" a new thing that had been set up during the week when everybody got off of work, from 5-7 you could get half price drinks, random food and from time to time there would even be a few small bands playing. The Leaky Cauldron hadn't changed much, since Hannah Abott had become the landlady, she had cleaned it up a bit and made it a bit more friendly. It wasn't that dark and dirty anymore, still a bit dingy due to bad lighting and some places could use a good scrub, but it had become a place people would come to after work, have a few drinks, maybe some food before heading off home to their families and children. Standing behind the bar was a tall young man with reddish hair. He was pouring drinks for a few customers while chatting in a friendly matter.
"Hey, Teddy! Pour me another whiskey, would you?" called out one customer sitting at the far end of the bar, he grinned at the young man with a small wave.
"Sure thing, Frank!" Teddy Lupin yelled back, turning around before summoning another glass of firewhiskey, a few ice cubes and the hard liquor, it was enough to do anybody in, that was for sure. "There you go!" he said, sliding it down to Frank who just laughed.
"Good aim, Kid."
You wouldn't call it super busy at the Leaky Cauldron, a few people sat here and there, mostly talking to themselves, leaving the bartender to fend for himself, he was doing this now by wiping down an area of the oak bar. It was old, scratched and engraved at places with things such as "John was here" and things of that nature. Some might be wondering why Teddy Lupin was not at his normal job as photographer for the Daily Prophet. Well, that was simple, he had wanted a bit of change, took a leave from his job for a bit, and decided to be a bartender. Why? He had no idea, for him, it was more or less the social interaction. He didn't want to sit cooped up in an office anymore, it made him restless and then he would start to think about everything that had happened in the past year, especially her. He didn't want that, so here he was. Sure he could go work at Gringotts, go travel, or work at the joke shop with George, who had offered him a job, but what was easier than bartending? He filled glasses, took orders, sometimes brought out food and that was that. He was also able to check out girls from time to time, which was nice for a young man such as Teddy. Tall with that reddish hair of his, his eyes most of the time were a dark brown, unless he wanted them otherwise, a metamorphmagus like his mother, he was able to change his looks a will, to a certain extent. It mainly happened when he was upset or angry, his hair would turn bright red and his voice would rise.
Wiping down the bar had taken all of 5 minutes, when he looked up again, the bell above the door had dinged and a young woman walked in, wrapped up in a jacket, scarf around her neck and a far off look on her face. He watched as she walked in, took off her jacket and scarf, put them on the back of the chair and sit down, staring at the wall, before another worker went over to see what she wanted. He overheard the waitress say something, before coming to him for the drink. "A fire whiskey." She said simply. "Poor girl, something seems wrong."
"Maybe there is. Everybody has a story."
The waitress simply shrugged, took the drink and walked away.
That would be the first time Teddy saw Charlotte. Far away in her own thoughts, hoping the fire whiskey would take the pain away.