Chapter 2—Fitting In
Cho was staring at him. "Excuse me," she said. "You look very familiar."
He looked down, unable to meet her eyes. "I don't think so," he mumbled. He stuffed the matchbook back into his pocket.
She drew in a quick breath and looked at her friend. "Ronald Weasley? You're a friend of, uh Harry's."
He looked up at her and stared.
"What are you doing here?" she asked. "Do you work here?"
Melanie came around to see what he was doing. She was anxious for the tables to be cleared so they could go out once the place closed. She looked at Ron, who was still looking at the floor.
"Is something wrong?" she asked. What had the new man screwed up now?
Cho looked at Ron, and then looked at Melanie. She smiled her very shy smile, and then she shook her head. "I thought," she began but shook her head again.
Melanie smiled graciously. "Well, good night," she said pleasantly.
The man led Cho toward the front of the restaurant. Melanie started clearing off their table and thrust the plates at Ron.
"What was that about?" she asked.
"Nothin'," he muttered.
"What'd you do?" she asked testily.
He looked at her angrily. "I didn't do a goddamn thing. The lady thought she knew me. She didn't. Not a big fucking deal, all right?" he put the plates on the bus cart.
She looked at him for a moment. "You did good tonight, Ron. Still want to party with the plebs?"
He grinned. "Absolutely. I'm always ready to party."
"Did any old ladies stuff their numbers in your pants?" she teased.
"Yeah, maybe a couple," he kidded back.
She lit another cigarette as the wait staff sat around a huge banquet table waiting for the word to go home. She watched Ron, who looked nervous to her. He chained smoked; something that everyone at the restaurant did.
The head chef came in about twenty minutes later and congratulated them on the service. He made a special note of the new guy, who put the others to shame pushing desserts. Ron's face turned redder, but the others seemed willing to acknowledge him as well. They accepted him. They had no idea how important that was to him.
"So where are we going?" one of the servers, Derek asked when the chef had left. There were 10 to 15 regulars who partied together.
"Somewhere we can dance," suggested Jason.
"And I want to get pissed," said Collin.
"Me, too." Said Ron, but not as loud.
"Our little Ronnie here gets to pick," Melanie said.
Ron quickly shook his head. "Nah, I'm new to the neighborhood."
"Where do you usually go?" Sally, the only other female server asked.
He shrugged. "Different places," he said. "Nothing around here. I've only just recently relocated."
"Well, this isn't getting us anywhere. Someone pick a place and let's go!" Jason said impatiently.
"Then you pick," Sally said.
"Nasty Dance," Jason said.
"All right!" Everyone except Ron, of course, yelled out.
The club was right around the corner, and obviously you had to know someone to get in. Luckily this group were regulars so they got in without the usual wait. Sally grabbed Ron's hand and pulled him inside.
The place was loud and so crowded they could barely move. Collin found a space on the floor next to the bar. Everyone handed some money to him to buy the first round. Sally yelled in Ron's ear when he tried to give Collin money. "First one's free since you're the rookie. Let's dance!"
She dragged him a couple of feet onto the enormous dance floor. Ron didn't think he was much of a dancer, having inherited the Weasley two-left-feet gene, but Sally didn't seem to notice. She was wrapped around him tightly, closed her eyes and enjoyed the music. She grinned at him when she felt him hard against her. She sighed and ran her tongue around his ear and then moved to his mouth. She seemed to like that patch of beard under his lip, too.
"I've wanted to do that all day," she said after she'd nibbled his lower lip. "It was driving me mad."
Ronald held her tighter and nuzzled her neck. He sighed heavily and she snuggled up closer in his arms. She looked at him and his eyes were closed and he had a serene smile on his face.
"I'm going to enjoy working with you, Ron," Sally said. "Maybe we could get to know each other better."
Ron opened his eyes. "I'd like that. Everyone's been so nice. You know how to make a bloke feel welcome."
"We're a nice bunch. I love working with Melanie and the rest." She looked around. "They got a table. Come on." She grabbed his hand and walked him to the group. Collin handed Ron a stout and moved over so he and Sally could sit down.
Everyone around him talked like he was a normal person. They accepted him; didn't expect anything from him because of his associations. This is why Ron liked the muggle world. He was beginning to talk himself out of finding out what lay in store for him at the Magic Club. Seeing Cho brought out the feelings he'd tried for almost three years to suppress.
He had spent the past years in the muggle world as a vagabond. He'd not had a place to live or a job, but he knew what to do to survive. Almost three years in a world that had never heard of Lord Voldemort or death eaters or the famous Harry Potter or Harry's bungling side kick, Ron.
Here, women loved him, his peers respected him and people wanted to hear what he had to say. Why would he ever leave?
A/N: I know, too short. Not that I want to scare anyone away, or anything, but this is harder to write that I thought. And yet I plod on.--Rita