Summer was particularly hot that year. During the day the sun beat down most uncharacteristically; the ponds dried up and the scent of rotting tadpoles drifted over the far end of the Jasmine Council Estate, along Magnolia crescent and up Privet Drive like a potion gone sour. The nights were inhospitably warm too, and more than a few people spent the dark hours tossing and turning, trying to sleep.
Summer wasn't ever good for Harry anyway. Too many years forced to either disappear for hours to keep away from Dudley's torments, or huddled under the stairs with nothing to pass the time had given Harry a distaste for this time of year. And the current situation – stuck at home while his friends were doing Merlin knew what…
Harry spent the first few days of the vacation in a stupor, his nights wracked by dreams of Cedric's body flailing and Voldemort's cackling. Once he dreamed of his parents' sprits defending him, but that only released him from the terror long enough to wake up with sweat on his face and a scream choked in his throat.
Hedwig would look down on him as he lay there in the dark, her soft hooting gradually relieving the pounding of his heart. He would get up then, let her out for a while to fly and feed awhile he showered and draped the sheets on the end of the bed to air them. Harry found this time of night just before dawn peaceful and calming, and he would fetch a cup of tea and sit watching the stars fade away. Most times he fell asleep again propped at the window, and would wake when the sun had fully risen and Uncle Vernon was pounding at his door demanding that he move his lazy backside and get up.
The fourth morning though had a welcome coolness. Harry felt rested enough that he didn't fall asleep again at sunrise, and he couldn't bear the thought of another late morning with an aching neck and Uncle Vernon's scorn. He slipped on jeans and a t-shirt without too many holes, checked Hedwig was back in her cage, and headed out into the clear morning with a rare dew dampening his sneakers. He ran to the edge of the Jasmine estate, where a small rise looked over the local creek. Harry stood and breathed in deeply for a while, just letting the feeling of being alive fill him.
The fresh air sustained him for a time, then the first rumbles of his stomach reminded him he'd left without even his usual cup of tea. Harry had no intention of heading back to Privet Drive if he could help it, so he followed the creek down to where a small group of shops nestled in close to the edge of the estate. It was still too early for most of the shops, but the café there was running a brisk trade in early-morning coffee and take-away toast for the local commuters. Harry felt in his pocket and headed inside.
There was a small clutch of road workers arguing good-naturedly over the allocation of bubble-and-squeak, and the young woman behind the counter was giving as good as she got as she sorted out the orders. Another minute and they left in a bustle of safety-vests. She turned to Harry and cheerfully greeted him with a smile and "So what can I do for you today?"
"Uh … how much for a raisin toast" he stammered.
"Seventy-five pence", she replied, "but you get it for twenty with a coffee. That'd be a quid all up."
Harry pulled the coins out of his pocket and passed them over, but was mortified when she looked at them and handed them back. "Sorry love. We don't take foreign coins here". To his frustration, Harry realized he'd handed over two galleons and a sickle, and he had forgotten to change any of his wizarding money for Muggle funds.
The café worker looked at him again, paused for a second then exclaimed "It's Harry, isn't it?"
"Do I know you?" he replied. The girl was a couple of years older than he was.
"Anna Evans – we were in Mrs Loader's class together in kinder and first. Well, until she fell ill, then we were spilt. " She wore a bright cotton apron over her frayed denim skirt and shabby top. Her brunette hair had more than a few streaks of bright blue, and her lipstick was surprisingly dark. She smiled more personally at him, and Harry realized here was someone just accepting him as he was, not because he was the "Boy that Lived" or the "Amazing Harry Potter". Nor was this person swayed by the proclamations of Uncle Vernon that he was on a break from St. Brutus's Secure Center for Incurably Criminal Boys.
"You've changed a bit" Harry replied, returning the smile and holding out his hand. She shook it briefly then groaned as five burly ladies in terry-towelling tracksuits huffed into the café.
Anna turned to Harry with a grimace. "Look, Harry, would you give me a hand here? I'm behind, and this lot always order big. I'll give you breakfast in exchange for an hour's work."
"Sure – what needs doing?" Harry's smile extended into a large grin. Anna jerked her head towards the back of the counter, where the washing up from a large and greasy breakfast order sat. Accustomed as he was to doing the washing up at home, Harry felt an unexpected pleasure at being able to use normal sweat and toil to help someone out.
Behind him he heard Anna repeating an order that involved a great deal of bacon. He couldn't help sniggering, wondering if the customers were making up for their morning exercises. A moment later he glowed with pleasure at her "That was sharp thinking – thank you!" as he handed her the frypan he'd had the foresight to clean first.
"How are you at cooking" she asked as she bustled back to him with a gaggle of mugs. "Nothing flash, just…"
"Bacon and eggs – I heard. Yes, I can do those." Harry found himself juggling the sink and the frying pan for the next sixty minutes as the breakfast rush came through. Anna seemed like a wizard herself at keeping the orders straight, remembering the customer's preferences and still maintaining her cool as the temperature inside the café rose with the brightening sun outside.
It seemed an never-ending stream of customers for a while, and Harry was so busy he almost forgot how hungry he was until he reached for the next plate to be washed and realized there was none. About then Anna came in with a clean, damp hand-towel which she handed to Harry and pointed him to the small (and inadequate) washroom at the back.
"Go give yourself a cool wash – there'll be a lull for the next hour or so. Bacon and eggs with the works, and tea, or would you prefer juice?" She smiled as she held up a fresh orange, and seeing his hesitation, grinned widely. "Both then – it'll be about ten minutes."
Ten minutes later, the pair of them were sitting down to one of the nicest hot breakfasts Harry had had in a very long time. House elves certainly could cook, but he couldn't remember any of them ever making bubble-and-squeak, let alone a square of gloriously-crisp ambrosia that only required a lightly friend egg on top to make it perfect. Harry gave his heartfelt thanks, and then concentrated on reducing the size of the plateload to something less likely to collapse the table.
It took a while, but eventually Harry had sated his hunger enough to be more sociable. He looked up at Anna, who was sipping her tea in the manner of someone who has completed a job to their total satisfaction. "Dammit", she grumbled good-naturedly. "I could do with a fag now., 'cept I gave up "
"How long ago?" Harry asked, still trying to place her.
"Oh, ages now. At least three months. They say the craving never lets go, though. I'll just have to make up with good tea." She belched, and the pair of them laughed. "You saved me good and proper, Harry. Must have been karma for you to come along today". She ran her fingers through her hair, and suddenly Harry remembered.
"You were repeating! I know you – you used to wear those gypsy shirts and jangly bangles, and you cried when Mrs Loader told you no jewelry at school. But your name wasn't Anna then, I'm sure. "
She blushed and looked down into her teacup as if to erase the memory of those days. "Yeah, well, my mum's into that weird hippy stuff. I reckon she was angry she missed out on the sixties by being too young, so she gave me a stupid name. "The girl slammed her cup down on the table and glared at Harry "It's Rhiannon, ok? Just don't ever use it!"
Harry merely nodded. "No wonder you prefer Anna."
She nodded in acknowledgement, then drank off the rest of her tea. "I shouldn't be so snarky – I reckon you more than earned that breakfast. I don't think we've ever had so many people in , and if I have to do the cleaning too I'd never keep up." She looked him over for a moment, then decided. "Reckon you could help out for the rest of the day?"
"Glad to, "Harry replied. "It's not like I have anything else to do at the moment. They cleared the table, then Harry washed again while Anna dried.
"How do you cope normally" he asked, passing her a dripping plate.
"My little brother normally does the washing up – although he's not as fast as you. " Anna dried the plate adeptly and stacked it. "He was supposed to be in with me early this morning, but he didn't come home last night and I'm really worried about him …" She frowned. "Probably over at his stupid friend's place, watching tacky movies far too late then snoring when he should be helping me." She shook off the grumble, then smiled at Harry. "So where do those coins come from? I've not seen any like that before. "
""Oh, some little place quite far away from here" Harry relied, thinking wistfully of Hogsmeade and Buttered Beer.
"Nice trip?"
"It's where I go to school" Harry casually replied. "But if you were in my year, where do you go to school?"
"I don't" she shrugged brusquely. "Finished at the Comprehensive last term, and been running the shop ever since."
"By yourself?"
She looked around at the grimy nylon curtains, the Formica tables and the dusty plastic flowers in a jug on the counter. "Yeah, by myself. Mum owns it, but you wouldn't catch her in here. Too "bourgoise", too conformist. Mind you, she's the first one to be buying herself a new dress when the profits are up." Anna plucked at her blouse and Harry noticed how darned and frayed it was. "Anyway, she's off in Majorca for the summer."
At this moment the bell over the front door jangled imperatively, and the first in a stream of local workers after their morning tea and caramel slice filed in. Anna looked imploringly at Harry, who grinned and nodded as he headed back to the sink. There followed another hour of organized mayhem while she met the demand for endless supplies of frothy coffee, and he washed the remains of interminable Penguin Biscuits off the plates, interspersed with sessions of wiping tables and mopping the floor.
As the flow slackened off, they manager to laugh as one grubby urchin held out a hand of coins and shyly asked "Wot c'n I buy fer this?" Harry's appreciation of Anna grew as she gave the youngster the same serious attention she had given the elderly matron earlier. He was also fairly certain the child's coins hadn't quite made the cost of the biscuits that were finally borne away, clutched tightly like the shiny treasure they were. Anna smiled warmly at Harry, and they cleared the last few cups together.
"Like anyone but me is going to know how much I charged" she stated, only very slightly defensively. Harry donned a very innocent expression and wisely started a new conversation.
"So why didn't you continue at school"?
The smile dropped off her face, and once more she looked away with almost a guilty start.
"Mum needs the café to live. We might be in cheap housing, but it's still a lot of blunt. We didn't qualify for the Estate." At this her humour returned. "Probably a good thing too. Have you seen the sort of foul-mouthed git comes out of there? So I left school. Wasn't enjoying it anyway. Do you remember Piers Polkiss who was in our year?
Harry nodded, the name sounding vaguely familiar. Almost too familiar.
"He was always trying to crack onto me, get me to go out with him. He bailed me up against the science room door, trying to pester me, but I gave him what for." Anna jerked her knee up, hard, and Harry found himself twitching in imagined pain. "Anyway, so, I'm stuck here for the summer at least, and then maybe Open University or something. Can't really make plans at the moment"
She seemed somewhat down for the next little while, and Harry busied himself sweeping up the crumbs and making sure the rubbish tins were emptied out the back. By the time he came back in, the first lunchtime customers were queuing impatiently for their sausages and chips, and Harry found himself relegated once more to the washing up with the added duty of Chip Fryer Monitor.
Another hour later, and he'd just emptied the last chips into the drying basket when he felt a tap on his shoulder, and an icy-cold glass of ginger beer was thrust into his hand. "I'm closing so we can have some lunch in peace" she said.
Harry was completely sick of the small of hot fat, and the heat in the back of the café had risen to a very unpleasant level (even with all the windows open), so he was pleased to be led into an office that he hadn't noticed before. The air in here, while warm, was several degrees cooler than the café itself. Anna plonked two plates onto the desk, carelessly spilling a tomato slice onto some papers stacked there.
"Stuff the bills – I'm wasted". She threw off her apron and used a handy manila folder to fan herself. "Oh crap!" and she ducked back out and returned bearing the glasses and the ginger beer bottle, trophy of a rough day. "Those pigs can wait an hour – no-one will be after food now, and if they are, they can ruddy well wait." Harry was very pleasantly surprised to see the plates held a reasonably fresh salad, looking even more inviting than breakfast had been that morning. He might have grunted a fast thanks before tucking in, but it was lost in the sounds of satisfied feeding.
Anna half-finished her salad then sat back with the ginger beer bottle indecorously held against the back of her neck. "I really wouldn't have coped at all without you, Harry. Thanks again." She grinned at him and suddenly looked closer to his age than she had all day.
Harry's acknowledging fork-wave was taken with the sincerity it was intended. "Don't knock it" she continued. "You know how to work hard when it's needed, and get on with things without making a fuss. My god but I wish there were more men like you." By this time, the plate in front of Harry was empty bar a smear of salad dressing and a lonely orange-slice rind, and Anna stood to take it out, waving Harry back to his seat. She came back with a second bottle of ginger beer and topped up their glasses, and they sat companionably in the dim light, enjoying the very slight breeze that came through an open window.
After a while, Harry noticed a slight ache in his shoulder and reached up to rub it. Anna stood up, and he went to get up too, but she waved him back into his chair and came around behind him. Her hands were on his shoulders and applying pressure in just the right places, and Harry realized that other things apart from heat could cause the human body to melt. He leaned back into the pressure and sighed in sheer bliss at the work her fingers were doing.
"You know", she murmured, "I could do with some company around here. Someone on whom I could rely. Someone who knows how to put in a decent day's work, and is interesting and funny to talk with as well." Her hands worked wonders on the knots in his shoulders, and Harry properly relaxed for the first time since he'd left Hogwarts a week earlier. He let his shoulders slump, and registered her fingers rubbing into the edge of his shoulder-blades, and then starting to move up the neck. The lingering ache from sleeping on the windowsills finally dissipated, and Harry barely stifled a moan of pleasure.
It was a couple more silent minutes before Harry became aware that the fingers were now rubbing much more gently on the space behind his ears. Then, frustratingly, they stopped. Harry heard Anna sigh deeply, and then rest her hands on his shoulders. "I'm sorry, Harry."
He looked around, worried about the tone in her voice, when the phone rang. Anna grabbed it, barked a greeting, and then listened intently. Harry was aware of the atmosphere in the room changing, and Anna's body stiffening. He quietly got up from the chair, and left the room, but he couldn't help overhearing words such as "hospital", "Doctor" and "when did this happen?" Harry grabbed a broom in the front of the café, and started sweeping the floor.
Anna came out from the office a couple of minutes later, with a black look on her face and tears running down. She shook for a moment, then collected herself and looked at Harry.
"It's Mark. He's in hospital. He got beaten up last night by a bunch of thugs, and he's got a broken arm and concussion. I have to lock up."
Then her face changed, a look fleeting over her face of sorrow at losing something before it even started. She walked over to Harry, looked sadly at him, and said "You'd better go."
And then she leaned forward and gently kissed him on the cheek.
Harry left, feeling as if he'd missed a question or something – he really wasn't sure.
The next morning there was a "Closed until further notice" sign up on the café.