I feel at this point me apologizing for taking so long to update because of school and my schedule sounds like a broken record. So for now on, I'll be updating when I can. The reason: school.


As the school year continued, Dolores Umbridge slowly made Grace's academic life hell. She was clever about it; only making things slightly more difficult in ways it wasn't too obvious. She'd "lose" Grace's assignments, make her redo them, and then the missing assignments would suddenly "reappear." But, it wasn't something Grace couldn't handle.

Until they took away the coffee.

The coffee machine was kept in the teacher's lounge, which was always kept open during meals. This was because years ago, the students protested that they should have access to caffeine as well. Every morning, teachers would get their caffeine-fix first, and then it was free-reign for students. The line usually went out the door and in that line was Grace and her friends every morning.

But, one Saturday at the beginning of October, there was a lot of commotion going on in the teacher's lounge.

"Albus, I highly doubt that a student would steal it!" Professor McGonagall argued as Grace and her friend pushed their way through the crowd.

"Well, then where could it have disappeared to, Minerva?" Dumbledore rebutted.

The students were all whispering and arguing amongst themselves, to persuade whoever stole the coffee machine to just fess up. The teachers all crowded around grumpily.

Grace walked over to Phoebe and Severus. Phoebe could do fine without coffee in the morning, but the father and daughter in front of her were not to be reckoned with in the morning before they had a few cups of the stuff. "What the hell's going on?" the moody redhead asked.

"Someone stole the coffee machine. It's gone," Phoebe answered.

"What?!" Grace growled. It had come out a lot louder than intended and caught the attention of everyone in the room.

The breaking silence was followed by the voice from hell coming from a mass of pink, "I took the machine."

"Dolores, what in Merlin's name were you thinking?" Minerva stepped up.

"The Ministry deemed caffeine unhealthy for Hogwarts students and staff. After all, Muggles call it a drug, as it is addictive. Just look at Miss McClivert."

Eyes turned to Grace, who was livid and being held back by Luna and Charlie to stop her from mauling Umbridge.

The pink toad shrugged and smiled, "Tea is much better anyway. That will be all. Students are to leave and return to the Great Hall for breakfast. Good day," and she left.

When she was at a safe distance, Luna and Charlie let go of Grace. "I'm going to kill her. I am so serious."

"It's not worth going to Azkaban," Draco said beside her.

"Debatable."

"Miss McClivert," Professor Maes stepped out from the crowd of teachers, "may I suggest fighting fire with fire?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, the school may not supply coffee now, but I'm sure you kids are smart enough to get your fix anyway," he shrugged and then winked.

It was like a lightbulb went off above Grace's head, "Dray, we need your car."

"But-"

"Now!"

"Dad!" Grace followed by her friends barged into his lab with plastic bags in their hands.

"What the hell did you do?" He had taken a Pepper-Up Potion in order to compensate for the lack of caffeine, but it wasn't doing very much.

"We went to the store," Rose replied.

"Well, I see that. But what did you get?"

"We're going to make our own coffee for everyone."

"And how do you expect to pull this off without Umbridge finding out?"

"That's where you come in," Grace grinned.

"Yeah, Professor, surely you know some secret place we can set up shop?" Rolf asked.

Severus glared at the students for a minute before he gave in, "You're definitely going to cost me my job, but getting back at Dolores will make it worth it. Come along and don't make any noise."

The teens followed Severus to the seventh floor, avoiding active halls to stay out of sight of nosey eyes.

They finally came to the top of the stairs and walked down the long corridor to a bare stone wall. "Here we are," Severus said gesturing to the wall.

"It's just a blank wall," Alfie said looking around for a door.

"Excellent observation, Mr. Honeycutt."

"Where's the door, Mr. S?" Luna set down the bags that were causing deep red marks on her wrists and hands.

"There isn't one."

"What?" the students moaned in unison.

"Dad," Grace whined, but Severus stopped her.

"Grace, walk past the wall three times and think of what you want," he then stepped back and crossed his arms.

"What? Are you-?" but Severus stood his ground. She rolled her eyes, "This is ridiculous," and scoffed as she set down the bags in her hands and paced the barren stone wall three times. When she was done, there was nothing, and she had sworn that her father had just made a fool of her and her friends, but then there was a slight tremor and an enormous door appeared on the wall.

Severus motioned towards the door, "After you."

Grace gave him an odd look, but still, she pushed on the heavy door as it creaked open to reveal a large room with a coffee bar in the far corner, filled with plenty of couches and chairs to sit in.

Grace and her friends began to file in.

"Oh look, it's like a mini Starbucks!" Rose said as she plopped down on one of the couches covered in decorative pillows.

They started setting up everything to make coffee. "So anyone can get in here if they think about it?" Luna asked.

"Yes, well, there are spells to keep it hidden from unwanted eyes. But you can make it visible and accessible to whomever you'd like," Severus answered. "Why this design, Grace?"

Grace was sorting the coffee in a fashion only she understood, "I figure it'd be a good place for students to come to get away from everything. I know we have our Common Rooms, but it's been getting harder and harder for members of other Houses to come into a different House's Common Room,"

"Students shouldn't be in other Common Rooms anyway," Severus interjected.

"But obviously everyone breaks that rule. Anyway, this can be a place where everyone can just hang out together and not worry about House rivalry or anything like that. And since so many clubs are getting banned, they can use this space to hold meetings; or make new ones."

"We could have a stage over there," Alfie pointed at a baren corner.

"Get some instruments in here…" Charlie sat next to Rose.

"Professor Maes would like that," Rose added.

"Maybe I can even set up a space to start a school paper or a zine of my own, if that's okay, Grace?" Luna asked while helping Grace.

"Yeah, of course! See?" she looked at Severus, who was looking around.

"Just try to be discreet," he said as he looked around the room. Although the aesthetic wasn't particularly his taste, it certainly seemed to be making Grace and her friends excited. He never thought he would ever care so much about a child as much he did his daughter, and here he found himself caring about her friends, even going so far as to risk his job for them. His eyes landed on the fourth barren far corner, but it wasn't barren at all. There were mirrors and the floor was padded. "Grace? What's that for?"

"Training. If Umbridge isn't going to teach us DADA, we decided to take matters into our own hands."

"And what do you mean by that?"

"I've been emailing Professor Lupin. We've discovered a way to sneak him into Hogwarts once or twice a week so he can teach us."

"You did what?"

"Uncle Sev, it was my idea," Draco stepped in. "We're never going to pass our O.W.L.s let alone get jobs if we don't know how to execute the defense. Rolf and I are taking care of it."

"You kids are going to get me fired and sent to Azkaban," Severus pinched the bridge of his nose. Why on Earth did he give a shit about these kids?

"Dad," Oh yes, she's why. "Just keep putting up a front and being the grumpy Potions professor, okay? We've got everything under control," Grace smiled, and even if she wasn't confident in the plan she and her friends were about to execute, she sure looked like it.

Much to Severus' surprise, Grace's little coffee shop which they had named Accio Coffee Cafe had boomed into business within just a few days. They had made recipes such as Butterbeer lattes and Bernie Bott's Every Flavour Beans lattes (each latte flavor was a complete surprise to the customer), and appropriately named beverages after spells and charms. Severus' favorite was the Espresso Patronum. With such a high clientele, Grace and her friends had expanded and made a small kitchen to make pastries and such.

Luna had spread the word to everyone she thought could be trusted with such important information. This, of course, included some of the teachers, but obviously not Umbridge. Each person had a reusable coffee cup, that Charlie had charmed to withstand both hot and cold beverages, with their names on them and the Cafe's logo, which Luna had designed to be an owl holding a coffee cup. With a clean cup, anyone could come up to the counter and get whatever they liked. Every time Severus was in there, Grace was taking orders and Rose and Alfie were the baristas.

Every morning before breakfast there was a huge line of zombie-like students and staff waiting for their caffeine-kick. Severus and Phoebe were, of course, their first customers and there every morning. Other professors frequented as well. Of course, Evan Maes was always there, encouraging his students, as well as Filius and Pomona. Although, one Tuesday morning was the first time he saw Minerva and Albus walk through those heavy doors. At first, he thought they were there to punish the kids and put an end to this, but instead, they both got in line and waited.

"Good morning, Professor McGonagall, Professor Dumbledore," Grace's customer service voice was about two octaves higher than her regular voice, and was always cheery and friendly since she herself had already had two cups of coffee before starting her shift. She took two extra cups from the side they kept for new customers and wrote their names on the cups, "What can I get you this morning?"

"A pumpkin spice, dear. With an extra shot?" Minerva mumbled as she was just as much a zombie as her students.

"Sure thing!"

"And I think I will try one of those Bernie Bott's lattes, Miss McClivert. How interesting!" even exhausted, Dumbledore still had a twinkle in his eye.

When they received their drinks, they both their made way over to Severus and Phoebe. By now, Minerva had gulped down half of her cup, and she was starting to become more awake.

"Morning. Pleasure seeing you both here," Phoebe smiled and took a sip of her coffee. Severus was not yet caffeinated enough to make conversation.

Minerva took a moment to look at both of the younger adults and then said, "You both are doing a wonderful job with Grace and Luna," and Severus almost dropped his cup because he swore he saw Minerva smile, and then she walked away, probably to the Great Hall.

Dumbledore, on the other hand, made no comment off of Minerva's, and instead said, "How delightful! It tastes like strawberry!" before following Minerva.

Phoebe looked at Severus and let out a giggle, "Well that was unexpected."

"I don't think I've ever seen that woman smile at me while I've been working here."

"Not to toot our own horns, but we have been doing a good job for our girls."

Severus thought he should really set his cup down on a stable surface before he drops it. Our girls, she said. Although, he supposed he shouldn't be so surprised. Over the past few months, the four of them had become a sort of family. He looked over at the counter, where Grace and Luna were now dancing along to a song being played throughout the cafe while taking orders. He remembered back to the last school year, seeing them in his class and walking through the corridors, and he couldn't recall ever seeing them so happy. Before them, the closest thing to a child he had was Draco, and watching Lucius and Narcissa he was slightly envious he would never have that for himself. And perhaps Grace would never think she'd find herself in this life. Not that either was complaining. Both were perfectly happy, for the first time in a long time, where they were in life.