Last assignment of the semester due tomorrow afternoon and I find it so boring because I have to reference basically everything I write but none of the things that I want to write about because I've seen it done IRL instead of just read about it aren't mentioned in the texts I have to reference so *ugh*
Luckily we're only handing in a draft tomorrow and it will only be judged by our classmates, so no pressure, really.
Anyway; new chapter! Enjoy!
Their first few guests were older people, in their forties, fifties or even sixties. Ollivander had shaken his head at every one of them and even if he had not they would have objected to them due to their age. Authority was always easier to show when you were the older one in a pair, or at least not twenty years younger.
At 11.15am Maryse's phone buzzed while she was back in the "kitchen". The display read G Gregson. Godric.
"Any luck?" Maryse asked when she answered. Godric chuckled in reply.
"What, I don't even get a hello now?" he asked. Maryse rolled her eyes.
"I can't talk long; I'm supposed to be preparing a sandwich for a guy", she said. In the corner of her eye she saw Ollivander smirking.
"Well, you should prepare to make some good tea", Godric said. "The guy from the bank; he's got a good ounce of magic in him and he's just below thirty, so he might be a good match for your group. Appears he's done something quite well because he exited with his boss, who kept praising him. Think his name was Brandon."
"Who, the boss or the guy with magic?" Maryse asked while bustling around with some equipment they had prepared, just to make it sound like a kitchen.
"The guy", Godric replied, sounding amused. Though he seemed to always be amused by something.
"Anyway", he continued, "I offered him a ride but he said he'd rather walk, asked for a café that served good tea and I gave him the directions to 89 Wooster Street. You should expect him to arrive within half an hour."
"Gotcha", Maryse said. "Thanks."
She then hung up just as Tessa entered the room.
"Godric's found someone", Maryse whispered while grabbing the sandwich that Ella or Rachel had sent there. "A guy. He's coming in about thirty minutes."
Tessa gave a small squeal in excitement while Maryse hurried out with the sandwich. After delivering it to the waiting customer she poked Chris on the shoulder.
"Godric called", she said in a hushed tone. "He's found someone."
"Awesome", Chris whispered back, before continuing to fill a paper bag with an order of six strawberry cupcakes. Clarissa was running around cleaning tables at the moment, so she would have to wait for the news.
The doorbell buzzed twenty-two minutes after Maryse had answered her phone and, with a quick glance towards her friends, she unlocked the door downstairs. Then followed several minutes of waiting before a young man entered the café. He was tall and gangly, though somehow still managed to look fit. Perhaps it was the broad shoulders under the long, expensive black coat. His brown hair was combed sideways and he had sharp cheekbones, along with strikingly pale grey eyes. He studied the café with an open interest from his position in the doorway before walking up to the counter.
"Good morning, sir", Chris greeted.
"Good morning", the man replied. His accent was distinctly British.
"What can we get you?" Chris asked.
"A large cup of tea would be nice", the man said. "Earl Grey, no milk or sugar added."
"Certainly", Chris said and typed it into the register. "Anything else?"
The man's eyes drifted towards the large collection of cookies on display, hesitated, then shook his head.
"No, that'll be all", he said.
"Perfect", Chris said. "Will you be taking it with you?"
The man hesitated again.
"No, I'll stay here for a while", he then said. Afterwards he looked seemingly surprised at his own reply.
"Alright, that'll be $1.50", Chris said. The man quickly pulled out his wallet and paid for the tea.
"Keep the change", he said when Chris was about to give him some. "I saw that you give a lot of money to charity on the sign on the door."
"We do", Chris agreed with a smile. "Well, why don't you take a seat and I'll be right out with your cup."
The man nodded, looked around and eventually walked over to one of the small round tables by the windows. He neatly folded his coat and hung it over the back of his chair, revealing a well-made dark grey suit beneath it. Chris quickly busied himself with pretending to make the tea, which Ella was sending there in this very moment. Tessa passed it through a hidden panel from the kitchen when it was supposed to be made.
"Here you go, sir", Chris said as he placed the cup down in front of the man. "I hope it's strong enough."
The man smiled. Not a fake, pleased smile but a genuinely happy one.
"I believe it is", he said. "Thank you."
Chris quickly hurried back behind the counter and helped Clarissa put up an illusion of them working behind the counter while they in fact quickly slipped into the kitchen. Maryse and Tessa were already there, along with Ollivander, who was standing up and watching the man through the, from this side, see-through wall.
"Well?" Chris asked.
"Duelling", Ollivander replied. "A strong talent for it; he is a natural strategist with good instincts."
"So he'd be Wolf's apprentice", Tessa said, looking out at the man sipping his tea. "Think they'd get along?"
"Hopefully", Chris replied. "I'll slip him the card when I clean up."
The card looked like a simple business card and would behave like one for the majority of the time as well, until they had found apprentices for everyone. Then a compelling charm on the card would make the card's owner seek out the location written on the card at a set time and day; the day when they would gather all of their apprentices and reveal everything. It was not a charm to be used "willy-nilly", according to Ollivander, and belonged within the Sorcery-subject, which held many Dark spells, but for this task it was well-suited.
"I'll alert the others", Tessa said and fished out her phone from a pocket. With that the meeting in the backroom was done and they went back to manning the café.
They had set up a schedule for when people would be manning which station. Seeing as Ella was to be the Apparition Master, and thus had the strongest talent for Apparition, she was stationed at the hotel the whole time together with one other person. Those would rotate between Rachel, Toby, Catriona, Indira and Wolfgang, seeing as they also held some slightly stronger talent for the subject and thus could give Ella some breaks.
The café itself was manned by four people at a time, also on a rotating schedule, with shifts occurring once per day; at 2pm. On this first day their replacements showed up thirty minutes earlier.
"We got out of class earlier than we thought", Rowan said as they walked in behind the counter. That was their cover; exchange students at New York University who had decided to open up a small café. So far it had worked out really well.
"Kiss her", Jade hissed as Rowan and Clarissa hugged, causing the pair to quickly jump apart.
"Don't rush them, Jade", Maryse said while removing her nametag. Jade just grinned in reply while braiding her brown hair.
"Ugh, I need to get this cut", she muttered when the braid did not turn out as she wanted.
"Maybe we should go see a hairdresser someday", Clarissa suggested. "I'd like to do something about my hair as well."
"You're on!"
Other than Jade and Rowan there was also Filipi and Indira in the new gang. They quickly took over the positions of their friends and continued serving their guests. The British banker, whom Godric had believed was named Brandon, was still there, reading a newspaper on his iPad while sipping on his second cup of tea, which had also been accompanied by a cranberry muffin. Between the two cups of tea he had also bought a mini-pie for lunch. In short he seemed quite at home in the café, despite looking way too fancy for it.
At this time the café was otherwise quite empty, as lunch-hour had passed and it was not yet time for people to want some afternoon coffee. In fact Brandon was the only one who was sitting down; everyone else only came in and ordered something to bring with them. And none of them were suitable as apprentices according to Ollivander; they were either too old, had a too small gift or just did not match any of the old gang, which apparently was something he took very much into consideration.
Brandon left just after 2pm, thanking them for their good service, even though the new gang were not the ones who had served him anything. He also promised to come back, then held up the door for a girl who had just been buzzed in. She was at least seven inches shorter than him and her thin frame made him look almost like a giant next to her, but there was also a certain air about the girl who entered that made people look twice at her. Confidence, rebelliousness and a tomboyish look; her chest was flat and she wore an open grey jacket above a worn, black shirt with a hardly visible logo, torn jeans and green Converse. A pair of large headphones (green) hung around her neck and her long brown hair was partly held back from her face with what looked like a pair of chopsticks.
"Hi", she said and walked up to the counter. Her accent was also British.
"Afternoon", Filipi said. "What can I get you?"
The girl looked inside the refrigerated counter and pointed at a mozzarella baguette.
"One of those and a Coke?" she said.
"Sure", Filipi said. "That'll be $8.45. Will you be eating here or do you want a bag?"
The girl paid with a card.
"Eating here", she then replied. "Also, is there some place where I can charge my phone?"
"Over there, in the corner by the books", Filipi replied. "I'll come out with your food in a moment."
The girl smiled and walked over to the table Filipi had pointed at, throwing her worn shoulder-bag onto one of the chairs on top of her jacket and pulling out a phone charger from it. Filipi was placing the goods on a tray when she saw Rowan motioning to her from the kitchen. She nodded and hurriedly headed out with the food.
"This wasn't open two days ago, was it?" the girl asked after thanking her. "I walked this route back to my hotel then as well, but then I saw no sign."
"No", Filipi replied, "we opened today."
"Oh, nice", the girl said, before turning back towards her phone. Filipi hurriedly walked back behind the counter, reinforced the previous illusion spell of work happening there and walked into the kitchen.
"She's one of them?" she asked, seeing Ollivander standing up, his eyes gleaming with excitement.
"Oh yes", he said, "and this time we have her future master on set as well?"
Filipi, Jade and Indira all looked at one another, then out at the girl in the corner.
"Which one of us are we talking about?" Jade asked. "Because I didn't feel that much of a connection to her."
Rowan cleared his throat.
"Actually", he said, "he means me. She's meant for Herbology-studies."
Also I'm going to do a 12 Days Of FanFic Christmas where I post one fic every day between the 13th of December and the 24th of December. They'll be Christmas-/Winter- and Romance-themed and there's a poll located at the top of my profile where you can vote for various couples, but if you can't find your fav couples there please send me a message about it! I won't stick to the poll-results to 100% if there's a tie, so then I'll also look at messages I've received about other couples :)
