For the Houses Competition. This is a Muggle, coffee shop AU.

House: Ravenclaw

Year: 6

Category: Standard

Prompt: Tomorrow may be a day away, but today feels like an eternity.

Word count: 1126

Ginny glanced up at the clock for what was probably the tenth time that hour. She'd been here for what felt like an eternity but, apparently, it had only been just over an hour and a half. She groaned and half-heartedly banged her head on the counter, not worried about any customers walking in on her. The Weasley family owned a small, family-run coffee shop, The Burrow, which would be charming and homely and constantly crowded if they were living in a storybook.

Instead, they unfortunately existed in the real world and, with a Costa opposite and a Starbucks two minutes walk away, their tiny shop was doomed. Everyone in her family knew it, even her mum, although she'd never admit it. Molly was determined to make a success out of it, but it was an uphill battle, and, privately, Ginny thought they were losing rather spectacularly. She envied her twin brothers, Fred and George, who'd managed to save enough to start their own shop, which seemed to be going much better than The Burrow.

The bell by the door rang suddenly, causing Ginny to jolt upright, flushing scarlet as she saw the customer walking towards her. She had incredibly long, wild blonde hair and a somewhat vacant look in her eyes, which Ginny took as some sort of grim testament to the state of their shop. Fervently hoping the girl hadn't seen the head-banging, Ginny plastered on a forced smile and cleared her throat.

"What can I get you?" she asked in her best customer voice, cringing internally at how fake she sounded. The girl didn't seem to notice though, instead quickly perusing the menu before turning back to Ginny with a not-so-fake smile.

"Just a pumpkin juice, please," she ordered dreamily, hands absentmindedly twiddling with a pendant that looked strangely like a radish. Ginny stared at her sceptically for a moment - even when they had customers, no-one ordered the pumpkin juice. Words like disgusting and abomination had been bandied around, and those were some of the kinder ones.

Still, the girl seemed to be completely sincere so, with a brief shake of her head, Ginny moved to make her drink.

"You don't seem very happy," the girl called out, and Ginny swore inwardly. She hated the talkative ones. She faked a brief laugh before returning to the drink, hoping it would be enough to dissuade the girl.

"It's just, you didn't look happy when I walked in, and I was only wondering if everything was alright."

Apparently not, then.

Ginny sighed, then, after finishing the girl's drink, walked back over to the cash register and handed the girl the pumpkin juice.

"I'm fine. It's going to be a long day, is all," she said, smiling, although it felt a little less faked this time. She supposed it was nice to have someone ask after her. "Feel like I've been here for an eternity already."

The girl nodded wisely and took a thoughtful sip of her drink before turning back to Ginny. She had a serious look on her face, and the intensity with which she was staring at her made Ginny feel suddenly nervous. She wondered if she'd managed to mess up the drink - which shouldn't be possible; pumpkin juice was the easiest thing on the menu - but the girl started talking again before she could say anything.

"My mother always used to say that today might feel like an eternity, but tomorrow is only a day away. She was very wise, you know."

Then, before Ginny could even think of a response, the girl turned and walked out of the shop, the door clanging shut behind her. Ginny thought over her words for a few moments, then looked at the clock once more.

11:04, it read, only twelve minutes since she'd last looked. Perhaps the girl wasn't so right, after all; tomorrow may be a day away, but today really was feeling like an eternity.

But, much as Ginny had thought it never would, the hours crept on and closing time eventually came. She'd never been so happy to get back home; their house might have been small and crowded, but anywhere was better than behind The Burrow's counter. She still had another shift to work tomorrow, but she hoped that perhaps it might not be as tedious as today's had been.

She was wrong. Another day turned into another eternity and Ginny just barely managed to refrain from walking out after what felt like years of boredom. She was reaching the end of her patience when the door chimed and the girl from yesterday walked in. Ginny blinked in surprise, only realising when they reached the counter that she was with someone else. He was much taller than the girl, but had her exact wild hair and silver eyes. Her father, Ginny presumed.

"So you're the girl my Luna was telling me about," he said, just as Ginny was about to ask what they wanted.

"I… What?" Ginny said, completely confused. Sure, she might have told Molly about the girl, but that was because they'd actually had a customer. She couldn't even begin to fathom why the girl would be talking about her.

The man just laughed, deep and rich, then turned to his daughter. "What was it you said you wanted?"

The girl - Luna - smiled brilliantly at Ginny. "Two pumpkin juices please," she said, and now Ginny was really confused.

"Coming right up," she said slowly, half-wondering if Luna and her father were playing some sort of joke on her. But they looked like decent people, if a little strange, so Ginny set about making their drinks. They chatted amiably to her as she did so, asking questions about the shop and what she wanted to do, occasionally dropping the odd...comment that Ginny couldn't quite wrap her head around. Part of her wanted to be annoyed, but she found herself going along with the questions, telling them all about her desire to become a professional rugby player.

Ginny couldn't quite explain why, but she felt drawn to these strange people with their wild hair and dreamy words. Especially Luna; Ginny found herself unable to tear her eyes away from the girl's face, listening intently to everything she said.

She was almost sorry when they eventually left, taking their drinks and thanking her profusely. She managed to stammer out a quick, 'You're welcome,' before they went, and stared at the door long after they'd vanished from sight.

Out of habit, she glanced up at the clock, surprised when she realised her shift was nearly halfway done.

Today might feel like an eternity, but tomorrow is only a day away, she recalled, then smiled. Perhaps Luna had been right all along.