WARNING: there is brief mention of a homosexual couple. So do what your mama told you and if you don't have any nice things to say, don't say them at all.
Annoyed as hell, I quickly changed into my hostess uniform and soon enough, we were all walking the mile that took us into town.
"So, question," James said. "Why exactly do you not open the diner in the winter?"
"We don't need the money," Scorpius explained. "So the diner was opened mostly for people like Aladdin who want muggle money so that they don't need to quote un-quote 'annoy my parents for money' even though," He turned to me with a mock glare. "They. Don't. Care."
I rolled my eyes at him. I was practically famous for my inability to take money from other people of which I didn't earn…though-obviously-the Malfoys did it anyway. One day my pride was going to get me in a lot of trouble.
"And it also gets us involved with the Muggle kids," Romana said. "Speaking of which, I am very excited to see how Rose will react to Marilyn, Scorpius."
Scorpius glared at her. "Shut. Up."
Rose's eyebrows flew up and she turned to Scorpius. "Who's Marilyn?"
"She's a muggle girl who has a crush on me," Scorpius grumbled, rubbing the back of his neck nervously.
Romana barked out a laugh. "More like an obsession!"
I rolled my eyes, "A lot of the muggle girls have a crush on Scorpius," I explained.
Rose nodded with narrowed eyes. "Hm, OK." She threw her arm around his shoulders. "You are not allowed to be alone in town."
Scorpius shook his head with a soft laugh, putting his arm around her waist and kissing the top of her head.
"Dude!" James groaned. "That's my cousin."
"Excuse me," Albus said. "Allie and I found you and Romana snogging in a closet, must I remind you."
I shuddered, "Thank you for bringing that up. I have tried really hard to suppress that memory!"
We walked into the village and to the small, cottage looking restaurant. The Slytherin crest was on the sign and proudly stating Salazar's.
Albus raised his eyebrows at Scorpius. "Your parents named the restaurant Salazar's?"
Scorpius chuckled and unlocked the back door that led to the kitchen. "Dad's got a funny sense of humor."
He pushed open the door to the kitchen, and Romana and I entered. Scorpius flipped on the light and grabbed his apron off the wall. I went to the front, turning on lights as I went while Romana went about setting cutlery on the tables.
We all just fell into the routines that we had had driven into our brains since this place began. Scorpius cooked, Romana was the waitress and I lead the people to their tables and handled the cash register.
"Hey!" Rose exclaimed, causing us all to stall. "What are we supposed to do?"
Oops. Forgot about them.
"Uh…" I looked around as if I was trying to figure out what they could do.
"Can any of you cook?" Scorpius asked. "Cause I get really backed up when it's just me back here."
Rose and Albus raised their hands as if to say they could cook.
"OK-Al, you get to help Scorpius," I said, pushing him back behind the counter. I looked at Rose who seemed slightly ticked. "Sorry, Ro," I smiled apologetically. "But I cannot risk you and Scorpius snogging in the kitchen and getting even more backed up than usual. Heaven knows we're known for taking forever anyway. You and James can be on waiting tables with Romana."
They nodded and grabbed notepads. I opened up the windows, letting the natural light flood in and flipped on the OPEN sign. Sitting down on the seat behind the small counter reserved for host(ess), I smiled slightly and waited for the town to realize that we were open.
About twenty minutes after opening, the door opened and I looked up to see a familiar gaggle of muggle teens.
"Yo, girl!" Dylan cheered holding out his fist. I rolled my eyes and bumped it lightly. "Where you been? We went over to the Malfoy house yesterday and they said you wouldn't be here this holiday!"
I shrugged, "Changed my mind."
"Thank god you did!" Emily exclaimed. "I would have been left with these three losers." She gestured to the three boys-Dylan, Alejandro, and Royce.
"Come off it, Em," Royce rolled his eyes. "You know you love us."
Emily huffed, "Sadly. I do."
"How many?" I asked with a laugh.
Alejandro held up four fingers. His was a sad tale. When he was only six years old, an arsonist set fire to his family's cottage. It left him badly scarred from head to toe and with the inability to speak. The biggest scandal of the town had been when the 'Beast' of the town, being Alejandro, had started dating the Beauty, Emily.
Emily was a beautiful, Indian girl with caramel skin and long, silky dark hair. Her eyes were large, and almond shaped with a beautiful hazel color.
I lead the group to their usual table. "Hey!" I called to Romana who was leaning against the counter, talking to James. "Can they get some service?"
Romana rolled her eyes and started towards the table.
"Are you coming to the Cavaline's New Year's party?" Royce asked, leaning into his boyfriend's side.
"Don't I always?" I asked with a cheeky grin.
"Yea!" Romana beamed, coming up behind me. "And this time we all have dates!"
Dylan seemed taken aback and looked at me with shock. "Hold it-Aladdin, Miss Independence, has a date?!" He looked down at Royce curled into him. "Why didn't you tell me the apocalypse was upon us?"
I gave him a deadpan expression, "Ha-ha. You are all so funny."
Dylan gave me a cheeky smile causing me to roll my eyes at him. I left to return to my hostess post. This was going to be a long night.
It was eight when the last person left and I turned off the open sign.
"Ugh!" Romana gasped, falling into one of the booths. "Where do these people come from?! They know we aren't usually opened during the winter!"
I had to agree-it was as if the entire population of Cornwall had been through our door that night.
"I'm just glad we are finally done!" Rose exclaimed, leaning on the counter top out of exhaustion.
"Do we have to do this tomorrow?" James asked worriedly as he wiped down the last table.
"No," I yawned. "I will literally pay someone to take my place tomorrow if we have to, but Astoria doesn't usually make us do two days in a row."
"If she does, I'm going on strike!" Scorpius yelled from the kitchen causing me to laugh at him.
"Scorpius, she would start counting to three and you would start begging for a second chance!" Romana ribbed causing gales of laughter from all of us.
"Shut up!" He yelled.
"Dude, what do you think she's going to do when she gets to three?" I could hear Albus ask, obviously trying to conceal his laughter.
"I don't know!" Scorpius exclaimed defensively. "I just don't want to find out!"
"Stop picking on him! You and James do the same thing, Al!" Rose reminded. "Mum's are scary."
"That is the one good thing about my predicament," I chuckled. "No scary mums."
"I don't know, Aladdin," A familiar voice said from the door of the restaurant. "Astoria scares everybody."
I rolled my eyes at Draco's 'solemn' statement. "Please tell me you're here to pick us up."
He held up the keys to the truck and I sighed in relief.
We all piled in, but there was only room for four passengers plus the driver. Being a short drive, I volunteered to sit in the bed of the truck with Al. I knew riding in the bed freaked Scorpius out beyond belief and Romana always complained about the salty mist from the sea ruining her hair.
When we got back to the house, there was a bonfire raging in the front yard and the littler Slytherins holding a Welcome Home banner causing me to laugh.
Getting out of the truck, Anna ran over to me, throwing her arms around my waist.
"We're getting a Welcome Home barbeque!" She exclaimed with a smile.
I laughed, "I can see that, Anna."
"Yes!" Scorpius exclaimed, throwing a fist in the air before running to a table of food. "Food!"
I rolled my eyes and Rose laughed, following her boyfriend at a much slower rate. Romana grabbed a plate with some food then lead James to a log near the fire where he was all but interrogated by Farrah, Evan and Jacob.
"Really, Scorpius?" I laughed to myself as I followed him to the food table with Albus in tow.
I grabbed two paper plates and handed one over to Albus. I started down the table, grabbing a hamburger with cheese and some of Astoria's famous Brussels sprouts.
"You like Brussels sprouts," Albus asked, looking at me like I was insane causing me to laugh.
"No, but Astoria's are amazing. Try one." I placed a few on his plate. I might as well have put maggots on it by his face. Rolling my eyes at his dramatics, I continued on. When my plate was filled to my satisfaction, I walked over to the bonfire that had been made, sitting near Romana, James, Scorpius and Rose along with the three little Slytherins.
"Again." Farrah demanded, glaring at James' hands as if they had threatened her very life.
"What's going on?" I laughed as I sat down on the log, looking between Farrah and James. Having nowhere else to sit, Albus sat down at my feet, balancing his plate precariously on his crossed legs.
Romana rolled her eyes. "He's doing the Johnny, Johnny, Whoop! Thing." She explained.
Sure, enough, Evan and Jacob were rolling on the grass laughing as Farrah tried her hardest to understand how to do what James was showing her. Farrah was used to being good at nearly everything, for she was a very intelligent kid, however Johnny, Johnny, Whoop! Was not made for the intelligent or unintelligent. It's made to annoy people to the ends of the earth.
After about five more minutes of trying, Farrah finally understood the need to clasp her hands at the end of the rhyme.
"That is so stupid!" Farrah exclaimed, throwing her hands in the air in annoyance.
"Kind of the point," I smirked.
"How was the diner shift guys?" Astoria smirked knowingly as she walked over to us.
"You totally set us up!" Scorpius moaned pointing his fork at her.
Astoria shrugged. "Yeah. I've been getting complaints about why we're closed most of the year so I conceded with the winter holidays." She looked down at Albus who still hadn't touched the Brussels sprouts. "You better eat those," She threatened "It is considered very rude not to eat when someone else is treating you."
Albus' face paled and he quickly stuck a sprout into his mouth. His face morphed in surprise. "Mm!" He exclaimed. "This is actually pretty good!"
"Told you," I "coughed".
Albus just rolled his eyes.
It was nearing midnight when we all headed up to bed. I ended up having to carry Anna up the stairs since she and Josh fell asleep leaning on each other with their backs against a log. Which just lead to bets about when they would start dating that made me almost have a hemorrhage.
The only light on in my shared room was the small, old-fashioned light made to look like a candle holder from the eighteenth century that Farrah was using to read. Romana has hit her pillow and was out like a light, not bothering to even change or crawl under the blankets while Rose had taken a quick shower, changed and fallen asleep quickly. I had already changed into a light green tank top and pink pajama bottoms after I decided that I wasn't going to get any homework done when there was a light knock on the door.
Quietly, I made my way across the room, being careful not to wake anyone on the way. I turned the door handle all the way before opening it only a tiny bit that I could slip through and then shutting it behind me.
Albus was standing before me wearing a white pajama top and plaid, green pajama pants.
"Someone's rocking the Slytherin look tonight," I joked, gesturing to his pajama pants.
"Ha-ha," He deadpanned.
"What's up?" I asked with a small smile.
"What? I don't get a goodnight kiss?" Albus asked, seemingly put out, moving closer to me. I was already leaning against the door so there was nowhere to go.
"What happened to 'taking it slow'?" I asked sarcastically, looking up slightly as he stood right in front of me.
"Shut up," He muttered before leaning down to start kissing me.
His left arm went around my waist, pulling me closer to him and my arms went around his neck.
"What is it with Potters and the need to sneak around after hours?" A familiar voice joked causing Albus and I to break apart.
I could feel the blood rush to my face.
Greeeeeaaaaaat…
(gets a rotten tomato thrown at face)
I probably deserved that. I'm so sorry, but it has been INSANE since I am in London and all. This was just a filler filled with fluff, but who doesn't like fluffy fillers? Their cute-like little, baby bunny rabbits! But, like little, baby bunny rabbits, if their eating away your garden (the garden meaning like taking over the story) they will get annoying. Don't worry, the action will pick up soon! I promise!
Also, I really hope that you all liked the Aladdin/Albus scene at the end BECAUSE I BLUSHED SO FREAKING HARD WRITING THAT! I'm serious, my face became a merichino cherry!
Anywho! Until next time my amazing, beautiful and utterly gorgeous readers!
RaveninEmerald