Well, nothing's really changed since the last chapter. This is a little bit longer, I think, and kinda has a bit of back story. Yay back story! Okay, anyway, on with... stuff...
Warnings: Mention of drug usage, back story (hahahaha), and all that future crap.
Disclaimer: Still don't own it... -snarfle- I own the so-far-nameless coffee shop though! Yay for me!
Chapter 4 - Dead Clumsy
"I'd like... uh... well... um..." The man stared up at the menu some more. "Can I have a few more minutes?"
"Sure..."
Harry sighed. He had been waiting five minutes already for the same man to make a decision. Honestly, how hard was it to choose what type of muffin and coffee you wanted? Three months ago, when Harry had applied here at this quaint little coffee shop, he had thought it would be an easy, stress-free job. Boy, had he been wrong. Now, he couldn't wait to get home. Quitting was absolutely out of the question. There were still three payments left to make on his car, a beautiful black convertable, and the closer it got to summer, less and less places where hiring. Besides, it wasn't really that bad in the coffee shop. He made decent money, and he got free coffee, and all he had to do was stand behind the counter. The only thing he hated about this job were the slow or jerk customers - well, that, and his evil, demon co-worker from the very depths of Hell: Marcus Flint. He had graduated last year, after turning over his title as rugby captain to Draco, and had since started working at the quaint little coffee shop to have extra coin for college - or, in other words, to feed his coke habit.
While his job had its downsides, it had a major upside. The owner of the shop was his Uncle Remus. Remus really wasn't his uncle, though - he was the life-partner of Harry's godfather, Sirius Black. The two were like his uncles and he loved them as such. They were always around for every holiday, every birthday, for everything. Harry absolutely adored them both. Sirius, with his reckless smile and easy-going manner, and Remus who was kind and caring and comforting made a wonderfully happy pair. After he'd graduated high school, Sirius had gone on a motorcycle tour of England, then come home and opened a shop in town dedicated to his greatest love - aside from Remus: motorcycles. When the time came to settle down he bought a house a few miles away from where the Potters lived. Remus had moved in with him, then opened the coffee shop two years ago. They were living quite comfortably.
Five thirty rolled around, then six, then sixty fourty-five... It really didn't appear as if Marcus was going to show up that afternoon. 'Probably off in a coke house somewhere,' Harry thought. Marcus was the assisstant manager, and was supposed to lock up at night. Harry would just have to do it that night. Hopefully, Sirius would be working late that night. If not, then Harry would have to walk home. At least the coffee shop wasn't that far from his house... He knew his mother was going to be cross with him when he got in.
After seven, the teenage throng started thinning out, things started getting quiet. Closing time was offically eight thirty. 'Great...' He'd have to wait until eight to close... Just as the lonliness started creeping in, the bell on the door rang as someone entered. Ron came up to the counter and beamed at Harry.
"Stuck covering Flint's ass again, chum?"
"You know it."
Hermione and Ginny were coming in the door as well, with someone Harry hadn't seen in quite a few years. Nymphadora Tonks stepped into the coffee shop, pulling a black paperboy hat off, shaking her shoulder-length head of chocolate-colored hair. She smiled at Harry. Tonks, who was quite a few years older than them, had grown up in the same neighborhood with the group and had always been a good friend to them. After graduating high school, she went on vacation. The last time Harry had seen her, her hair was short and spikey and a violent purple. He'd almost forgotten her natural hair color. He liked how the brown locks framed her pale, heart-shaped face, though. She had changed quite a bit since she had left, but her style seemed to have stayed the same. She was sporting a "Mom, Dad... I'm Gaelic." t-shirt, ratty jeans and a pair of black boots.
"Wotcher, Harry!"
"Tonks!"
Tonks started towards him. Harry came around from behind the counter to hug his old friend. A wide smile lit up Harry's face as he opened his arms to his old friend. The distance between them was almost closed.
"Harry, look at y-- AHH!"
Harry wrapped his arms around Tonks before she could fall to the ground. She looked up at Harry and laughed. The others had to laugh as well. While walking towards her younger friend, Tonks somehow had managed to trip over her own two feet. She really was just the same old Tonks. Just like they remembered her.
"Still dead clumsy," she laughed again.
The group sat around talking for awhile in a booth. Tonks span tales of her trip to America, about people she met - guys in particular - and of the various jobs she had gotten fired from. Eventually, she finished and leaned her head on Ginny's shoulder as she listened to the other four fill her in on everything that had happened since she left. Harry sighed contentedly. It was just like old times. They had often gathered at some resturant and just sat around to talk.
Ron's watch beeped the hour, which had seemed to magically turn to nine with none of them noticing. The gang headed out to Hermione's car as Ron and Harry straighted up and locked the doors. They smiled at one another over the table as they put up the chairs. Tonks's homecoming was a welcome distraction from studying for the upcoming exams.
Tonks stood outside, leaning back on the hood her little silver sports car and taking a deep drag on a cigarette. She offered it to Ginny, who declined. Ginny was sitting in the passenger's seat. Hermione was standing with them, just hanging up her cellular phone.
"Ginny and I are going to run to the store for some ice cream," Tonks said as Ron and Harry came outside. "I'll have her home before midnight. That okay? Think your mum won't mind?"
"Nah, as long as it's you. Just be sure you have her back before midnight. And no booze. Or drugs. Or wild parties."
"Oh, Ron, give over." Ginny rolled her eyes. "I'm not twelve anymore, all right? I'm a big girl; I can take care of myself. And, besides, Tonks won't let anything bad happen to me. Right, Tonks?"
"Right." Tonks winked down at Ginny.
Ron grumbled a little, but didn't argue with his sister. It would have been useless if he had. Ginny had already climbed in the car, and soon Tonks was driving away. Harry smiled at his friend. Ron, like the rest of the Wealseys, had always been a little over-protective of his younger sister. Lately, though, she had seemed to develop a sharp little tongue and she wasn't beyond giving any of them a good dressing down when she thought they needed it. They were still deciding how to deal with her, and that allowed Ginny the time to go ahead with her desires before they might gather their wits enough to object.
"Well... I should be getting home. Mum will have kittens if I'm any later," Harry said. "Lucky thing you guys showed up. I would have had to walk home if Sirius wasn't down at the shop."
"Hey, that's what friends are for," said Ron, smiling his trademark lop-sided grin.
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Harry tossed and turned in his bed that night. Bedsheets were tangled around his long legs as he moved into another position. He groaned, whined, whimpered as the dream played on in his head. Once more, he was Harry Potter, The Golden Boy. Once more, he was locked in that fateful battle. Once more, he was losing, struggling in Voldemort's grasp. He was letting everyone down again.
"No... No, don't..." he whined. "Do something... please... n... no..."
The cold, pale hands wrapped around his throat again. His breath was cut off. Everything in his neck was collapsing under the strong hands around it. His eyes rolled back in his head and everything started going white. He couldn't go down like this. He couldn't go down at all. He was the hope of millions... He was the bloody BOY WHO LIVED! He was quickly becoming the Boy Who Was Strangled.
"NO!"
He bolted upright in his bed, swinging his fists, trying to hurt the demons that plagued him. Finally, he regained his senses. It had only been a nightmare. 'You can't hurt nightmares, Potter,' he thought to himself. 'Stupid, bloody git...' His hand reached up to his forehead where he felt a dull ache. A rememberance from the dream, where he'd had a lightning-bolt shaped scar on his forehead. It had hurt when Voldemort was near him. He idlly traced the pattern with his finger.
A noise outside his bedroom window caught his attention. Slowly, quietly, he climbed off of his bed then reached under it for the field hockey stick he kept under there. He advanced towards the window. It was a dark night outside his window. The thick trees kept the streetlight from lighting up his room. He couldn't see out his window until he got right up to it.
"Boo!"
Harry flew backwards on his butt with a yell. Chloe was standing outside the window on the first-floor roof, laughing at him. He glared at his younger sibling. She really was such a pain...
"Gotcha, ickle Harry, you big chicken."
"I am not," Harry said. "What are you doing out there, anyway? What time is it?"
"One in the morning. I heard you screaming. Is everything okay?"
"Yeah, its --"
Before Harry could finish, they both heard their parents hurrying down the hall to the room. Chloe glared at him then hurried down the vines that grew on the side of the house. Harry looked at his parents when the rushed in.
"What is it, Harry? What's wrong?" James was holding his prized cricket bat in one hand. He looked around the room. Once he was certain there wasn't any immediate danger, he turned his attention back to his eldest son. Lily was at his side. They were both looking at him with those intense looks of worry he had been getting more and more of lately. He hated it. He hated having people worry about him.
"I'm fine, Dad. Just... those nightmares again." They both gave him skeptical looks. "I'm serious. I'm fine. Promise. I just saw an owl out there. I was kinda jumpy and it startled me. You can go back to bed."
"Oh, Harry..." Lily came to his side. She brushed a strand of his unruly hair from his face and looked into his eyes, hers the same emerald green as his own. She was so worried about him. Self-loathing kicked at the pit of his stomach for upsetting his parents so much. They were just nightmares... Stupid, dumb, crazy nightmares.
"Mum... It's fine. I promise."
"You know, Harry. Maybe you should go see someone if these nightmares keep up," James said.
"No! I don't need a shrink! I'm not crazy!"
"Harry, calm down..." His mother was being soothing, and that only made him more furious. "No one said that you're crazy. And I don't think you need a shrink. Here, honey, get into bed." She helped him up.
"But, Lily --"
"We'll talk about it later, James. Go check on Jason."
James looked as if he wanted to argue, but did as his wife said anyway. Lily helped Harry into bed, tucking him in just like she used to do when he was little. Harry felt so silly; he wasn't seven anymore. His mother leaned down and kissed his forehead.
"Good-night, Harry."
She smiled at him before she left. He sighed. His parents wanted to send him to some crackpot shrink. They really did think he was crazy. Hell, maybe he was. He sighed again, then rolled over to try to catch a little more sleep before the sun came up.
Author's Response
bosquito mosquito: Okay, we can call it a brain fart. Those are quite common for me. Yay! Glad you fixed the probelm. I think you're on my Favorite Authors list, but I'm not sure... I'll go check that. Yeah. I loved the Fluffy Pink Bunnies of Doom story. It was SUPERCOOL AWESOME. Yeah. Well, though you can't rememeber half of it, it's still awesome. Yeah, it's from "The Secrets That We Keep." I just loved that line, and had to use it again. You get to know where Harry works now! It's nothing really big, but I thought it was pretty awesome. I had a hard time with employer issues since if I did how I had originally planned it would conflict with future plotness, but I think I got it figured out pretty nicely.
Dragon: Heeheehee, I'm sorry? I'm glad you thought it was good. It was pretty short, even for me. Cho "the total whore" Chang, huh? I can't say that I really hate her, though I understand your feelings. Cherry Valance from The Outsiders makes me feel like that. burning hatred for Cherry I can go ahead and assure you (and everyone else) that Harry and Cho will not be together for much longer. I've got better plans for our ickle Harrykins. And I also have plans for Hermione. But I'm done giving away plot points, so I'll just shut up now and let you find out what I mean in later chapters.
emuerz: He was guilty. The whole world knows it. Sadly, there really wasn't any hard evidence, and the witnesses they had weren't very good at all. Too bad they can't find different witnesses and try him again. This is probably the one case where I disagree with Double Jeporady. Stupid laws... Maybe he'll slip up for something else and they'll get him.
orliobsessed: Awesomeness of writing? Heeheehee, you're so funny. I'm glad you lurve it. I actually lurve it too. Yes, people are spootheads. Especially your sister. BIG spoothead. Hahahaha.
Jemma Blackwell: Thank you. And Harry's really gonna be in for it later on in the story. much evil cackling Aww... Poor Harry has to suffer for my amusement... more evil cackling