THE LOVE MUG

The light was shining through my windowpane, I supposed it should be sometime around 6 am – 7 am, I needed to get up early... We have to open the shop today!

I drift out of bed open my window and let the light illuminate my cozy little "house". It takes a few minutes for my eyes to adapt to the new shining light in the room. In the meantime, I have already set up the kettle in the kitchen in order to boil some water, for my so well needed morning Tea.

I am glad that I took the time yesterday, to set up my clothing options for the day; and have lay them on my bed already in order to make the decision. My room wasn't anything special or big. It had a little terrace on the side and the living / dining / kitchen area was very crowded. Even though I didn't have much decoration in it, it felt like home. I had a very good looking wooden closet that Nana Weasley insisted on me to bring it here.

I painted the wall on a very pale pink color, which actually played along with the rest of the furniture that was dark brown. I had some pictures on a shelf, most of them from my family, our trip to Bulgaria with Mum, Dad and Hugo, last Christmas; My vacations with Albus, Lily, Dominique and Ian, and some other wonderful memories. I even had one of me wearing my head girl badge, and even the one from my graduation.

I have tried to keep the room as closest to me as possible, without damaging the amazing finishing that the walls had on its own. I heard the kettle ringing, meaning that my water was boiling and it was time to have breakfast. I sat on the armchair that my cousins had given me for birthday last year and grab some toast and tea to have for breakfast.

Wasn´t long after that I heard a knock on my door, I wasn't really expecting anyone, but I already knew who it was. I ran over to open the door, and saw this gorgeous male figure standing outside my door; he was tall, good looking, and bronze skin. Short Butterscotch Blond hair, he's beautiful light green eyes and that warm smile that I loved so much, He is no other than Ian Clearwater. My very good looking co-worker / co – owner / former boyfriend (nope we are not dating anymore).

He's so perfect and tall psyche standing in front of me, He who has been my partner in crime, my hero, and so many other attributions that I could give him. I met Ian one day at Diagon Alley, while I was doing school shopping with Hu, for his last year at Hogwarts; as we were leaving the Quidditch store and I literally bump hard against him, as I was reading through the school list.

He held me up, wrapping his hands on my waist and holding me close to him and asked, with his very deep voice: " are you okay?, I'm very sorry, I didn't see you and I was running away from someone that I just run into the first shop I was able to find", and he smiled. And I almost drop dead the instant I looked into his eyes.

I couldn't speak for a while and he kept on holding me, and I lost myself on his gaze, until I was able to find my voice again : "yes, sorry I didn't see you coming, I was.." and he interrupted me by saying: " it's okay!, look at me know! Bumping into a beautiful looking redhead!" and his smile widen, and I got wrap and lost in it. Until a clearing throat tone, pushed me back to reality, I apologize to him again, and walked out of the store, to the busy alley way.

From that day on, every time we went to Diagon Alley to get something, I tried to find him but was completely unsuccessful. Until one day that I was on Flourish and Blotts, looking to get something new to read, and he approached me by saying that I was reading the most boring book on the shelf. I looked over his direction to find him leaning on one of the shelves at the store, smiling back at me. "I personally think that this is the best book in here; as a future Healer, I need to know as much as possible about curative herbs and where to find them", He grinned at me "Wow! You a Healer? I thought you were some sort of writer or something..." and I couldn't help but laugh.

We spent the rest of the day talking and discussing about healing methodologies; since I found out that he was going to study the same, he also told me that he didn't attended Hogwarts because of his father's job been transfer to Bulgaria, when he was a child, so his parents put him In Dumstrang instead.

From that conversation on, I knew that we were going to be super close friends, and we did. We both attended the Saint Mungo's Healing academy; and practically spent every spare second together. We studied, talk, and laugh, anything and everything. Ian was completely dedicated to his career, (even more of what I did), and was constantly telling me how great he would be and that one day he was going to be recognized as the best healer in magical history. That as soon as he graduated he was going to sailed the world, in order to get to all those wizards and witches that needed him.

But during our studies, on the later years that we had left; one day he received a visit from his mother; letting him know that his Father had passed away on a terrible accident on Bulgaria and there was nothing they could do to save him. This Changed Ian in to a complete different human being. Is like losing his father, made him lose all trust and dedication that he had towards healing.

He eventually dropped off from Healing studies and he went back to the apartment he was renting on upper floor of a very old cloak store on Diagon Alley; that was just a few houses down in front of Gringotts Wizarding Bank

He started working on Gringotts, helping with some of the paper work that the financial department needed; I tried visited him on every opportunity that I had when I was not studying. One day on my usual visit, he asked me to come over to his apartment, since it had an amazing view of Diagon Alley, so quiet and lighting beautifully on the sunset light. We sat on his very small balcony bench; talking about everything as we usually did; I told him everything about my graduation project that I needed to defend it the following week. He making his usual corrections to my projects and pointing out what I was missing to make it perfect.

When he finished with the corrections, he looked me in the eyes; in a way that I have never see him before; with a feeling written all over his face that I couldn't decipher then. He graved me by the hand and asked me softly: "Once you graduate, would you like to come and live with me?" - He finished looking me deeply in the eyes. This took me completely by surprise; I remained quiet for a few minutes looking out to the view, knowing he was looking back at me, waiting for an answer. After a few more minutes of deep thought, I locked my gaze in his beautiful eyes, and nod.

As soon as I graduated from healing (with all outstanding grades) we moved in together; the apartment was very small and crowed with all the things we both had, but we were able to accommodate. With my occasional appointments back in St. Mungo's and his job at the bank, we were making a living somehow. However the "relationship" wasn't working as planned. Since we barely had time for each other, it made things a little more complicated.

We talked over it and we both agreed that "dating" wasn't much of a good idea, but I stayed living with him. After a year or so, the shop beneath us, was closing and they were selling it. I came up with the idea of buying it, in order to remodel and build a coffee shop; and I was determined of not asking my parents for money or a loan.

So I took extra shifts and extra appointments, even on my days off, with still with all the extra work it wasn't enough and Ian came to the rescue ( as always)

He offers to purchase the store for me, with only one condition, if we partner up along the way. I agreed, of course; and with some personal and some family recipes the café was going to open up... TODAY! After almost a year of hard remodeling work and few more fixes here and there; that requires a bit more than just pure magic.

Today was my day, well OUR day actually. The one we've been waiting for, and we even got (With Aunt Ginny's help) a spot on the Daily Prophet in order to make a HUGE announcement of the grand opening. I looked back at Ian and I grinned widely to him:

"You ready?"- He asked – "More than ready! Nervous?" I say looking at him. "Just a little, nothing I can't handle"- and he winked at me with a playful smile – "I've cleaned everything and set up the tables and some things we may need to have at hand as well".

"Whoa! So you are super excited then!" and said happily and his grin widen even more and he looked so joyful and content. "Well, we better get going, unless we want to lose the already few customer we may have today" he said pulling me up of my chair and rushing me towards the door. I couldn't stop smiling from ear to ear as we went down the stairs that lead us to our shop.

And as soon as we reached the shop floor, I could smell the already brewing coffee and the fresh / all handmade muffins and cupcakes and so many more delicious snacks we had ready to offer to our clients. The café isn't that big, but it looks like you walked into your grandmother's kitchen. This is what we were looking for since the very beginning.

We have tried to keep the decorations to a minimum; in order to keep the magical effect that the placed had by itself. The naked cricked stone walls; the small fireplace to its right; the big wooden doors on the entrance.

Some old shelves, which were left here from the previous owners. Everything that makes you feels at home. Even the recipes, I told Ian that everything was going to be cooked and made by hand, even if this means that it may take me twice the time. I wanted everything to be as special as possible; so he agreed, as he always did, I was able to gather recipes from all over; even Granny Weasley, the main provider of amazing and delicious options, all sweet and salty.

Once all the recipes were gathered, I made a book of them all and started making them. And as expected, most of them were HORRIBLE! At the beginning. Granny came over one day, and she explained me EVERYTHING that I needed to know about good home cooking. We tried a few of her favorite, and they came out to be just perfect.

As time went on, I got used to most of them, having Ian and Albus to be the ones to try them. Albus came every so often to visit me. Since he also worked at Gringotts, he was able to come whenever he could and wanted. With him being my closest of all my cousins; I was a hundred percent sure that he was going to be the one to tell me the truth about my cooking experiments.

I was making for the first time, my favorite desert in the whole wide world: Pumpkin Pie; once finished I gave Albus a slice for him to try. He looked very content, but he always did when it was about food. He seem to be more my father's child that Uncle Harry's. He loved eating! But he always tried to take very good care of his physique.

Once he finished his slice he turns around to look at me and he grinned: "Rosie! This is by far the best Pumpkin Pie I've ever had. It even tasted almost like Granny's pie! Is that amazing!" and he asked for one more slice and more tea as well. I couldn't feel happier.

Everything was set up, as we checked on every detail. As much of a control freak I can be. There was a small line starting to form outside and I started to get anxious. Ian took me by the hand and looked at me deep in the eyes saying: "We got this Rose, everything will be as planned. Trust me" and he placed a sweet kiss on my hair, making to hold his hand tighter and grinned at him gladly that he was the one by my side.

And before we knew it, it was time to open the doors. And we did, after that instant, it was no turning back. People started to walked in looking amaze by their surroundings, saying amazing things about our shop and how much they loved how it looked. Within the customer's crowed were my favorite people in the whole world; MY FAMILY. I was able to tell them apart from the crowed by their iconic read hair, that most of them had.

The first ones to reach me were Mum and Dad. They looked so happy and proud, that it almost makes me cry. "Darling this looks just perfect! I'm so proud of both of you. Your hard work has paid off already. It's amazing Rose" – Mum said in an almost crying tone, I hugged her tight and whisper thank you on her ear, only for her to listen.

Then I felt a pair of arms wrapping from behind I turned around to find out that it was Aunt Ginny, she smiled and looked as proud as everyone else; just as much as Mum, We have always been so close with Aunt Ginny, probably because when I was little Lily wasn't part of the family and she had always wanted a Girl (Not saying she didn't love to death both James and Albus, because she did) and since I was 6 months younger than Albus, we became pretty close; and we shared a lot of time together. Right behind her I saw Uncle Harry, he wasn't much of a hugger person; but he did sort of hug me. Follow by my other favorite cousin, Lily Potter. She and her beautiful black hair arranged on her signature side braid that suited her perfectly "Rose, this is amazing, I am so proud of you and Ian you did it!" she said excited hugging me. I say my hellos to the rest of my family that seem to be most of the crowed.

When I thought I had say hello to everyone I saw Grandpa and Granny waling in, I almost run towards them and hugged them both at the same time. When I let go of them, I looked over to Granny "So, what do you think? Have you seen around?" I asked her. She had tears filling up her eyes and some falling down her cheeks "its fantastic Rosie! The pictures on the walls, the portraits, the recipes that are framed and hugged carelessly on the walls and some of the moving cooking items as the self-cleaning broom, It's just as been back at the Burrow", she finished between sobs. And hold her tight. "This is all for you both, I wanted the world to know how amazing my grandparents are, but mostly How proud I am of being part of this family" thinking to myself that's completely true. " It's actually more like entering your heart Rocky" grandpa said happily – "We better leave off alone so you can go to say hi to everyone else that's not family" – and he laugh and I laugh along. Grandpa has always been my favorite Man, even a little more than my sweet / crazy / overprotective Father.

I was so glad to see Grandpa here, after a few days of illness; I felt so relief to see him here by my side. We started serving and every customer that we spoke with, kept on saying compliment after compliment, Most of them said, that this was going to become their favorite place on Diagon Alley. As I walked from table to table to ask if everything was okay, I was able to distinguished in the distance two very familiar faces, that were sitting by the window.

I made my way over them, and as I got close and closer, I knew who they were, Mrs. Penelope Clearwater (Ian's Mum) and Abigail (Ian's Little Sister); the table they were in on side wall it had a portrait of Ian's parents on their Wedding day. They danced along to a song we couldn't hear, surrounded by a group of people that I couldn't recognize.

Mrs. Clearwater was staring at the picture the whole time. I couldn't help but to feel nervous, the last time I saw them, Ian and I "were madly in love". But I was already there and they were lost on the picture they were looking at. I tap Mrs. Clearwater on the shoulder, she was a very elegant woman, and she turned around and smiled at me. Tears still falling down her cheeks; I smiled back and gave her a warm hug which she returned warmly.

"That's a very lovely picture" – I told her – "Oh that the best day of my life..." – She said, looking back at the picture- "Robert was a very good dancer, he was great and even made me looked so full of grace and I felt like a dancing princess that day", saying softly.

"I am so glad you were able to come, Ian will be so happy to see you both here!" – I said excited smiling to them, "he better be!" said Abby on an accusatory tone and she then added jokingly - "It's been such a long trip!" And we all laugh; I looked around the room to see where Ian was, I grabbed them by the hand and try to move through the crow walking on his direction. "I can't wait to see his reaction!" I said loudly in order for them to hear me. Moving within the amount of people in the room was a very difficult task, the crow was getting larger by the minute and this definitely made me incredibly happy. As we reached the counter, I saw Ian saying his good byes to a group of senior witches. I couldn't help it but I felt so nervous! But I felt so excited and happy for them all, they haven't seen each other in almost a year or so, it really didn't seem to be a very long time, but for them, it felt like a century they are that close.

"Ian I need you to please help me with these lovely ladies over here, they haven't yet decided what they would like to get and this place is full!"- I said pushing forward. Ian looked up at me and whey he looked at them back and forth in an expression of truly joy and excitement all over his face – "Mother! Abby! You are here!" – He said happily – "Peter please take over I need to go hug this two gorgeous ladies over here" – Peter did as asked and started to through directions all over the place to everyone around him.

Ian was smiling from ear to ear- "SO this is what you have been hiding away from me for so long?"-He said on an inquisitor tone – "please! I was not hiding something away from you! Nope not at all; and take a break, I need to get this mess of yours back in place before they start killing each other" I said as I pushed towards his relatives direction. I watched them go for a minute or two, realizing how happy and content Ian looked; he had the same joyfulness he had when we were back at the academy, right before his father's incident.

I served, Helped cooking, cleaning, I was practically doing a little bit of everything, that I barely miss saying good bye to my family; I even believed that they were already gone! And before I knew it was almost time to close the café after a very successful day on our dream now come true. After two hours of cleaning and cooking for the following day, we both sat exhausted on a table near the fire place. The café has been so full that I barely knew how cold it was.

"It was as great as I thought; Thank you again from bringing Mum and Abby that made my day even better" – he was smiling still, from ear to ear. We were sitting next to each other, and he wrapped his arm around me and hugged me closer to him. I smiled to myself remembering how successful this day has been, I couldn't ask for more.