Wait, I Know You

[Lavender Blake]

Lavender worked tirelessly at the little coffee store, as soon as she'd been old enough to have take on more hours without being found out for being too young. She liked the late hours, she liked the smell of coffee, how each of her clothes would end up smelling of it, how the coffee grinds would get into her nails, stain the apron she was wearing. It wasn't difficult work and she didn't get many occasions to focus on her school work but Lavender would rather be doing this, earning money for the family than at some school working on her studies while her family struggled. they weren't a particularly busy coffee shop, busy enough that she wasn't bored often and they remained afloat but not so busy that she was always run off her feet. The former Gryffindor had been making the drinks when she noted the name on the cup, it wasn't a particularly unusual name, but it was one that rung a bell with Lavender. She looked up from her work and was looking for the person whose coffee this could belong to. She spotted the girl instantly, remembering sharing a dorm with her until she'd left. "Alis," Lavender called out, "You went to Hogwarts right?" she knew that she couldn't call it a magical school with any muggles around, but she knew that saying Hogwarts would be an indicator. Working had greatly improved Lavender's confidence, it had also really helped her feel at ease with more people. More likely to engage with someone. It was the only reason she was able to talk with this girl in front of her.
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[Alis Owens]

It felt as if Alis had to wait a lifetime for her sixth year to end. It was all preparation for her seventh year and she wanted nothing more than for it all to be over with. It was tiring having to stress herself out all year for her exams and the girl had honestly had enough. When holidays had finally come along Alis took a sigh of relief, deciding to use this time to relax and clear her mind. She simply wanted to have some time by herself and figured a trip to New Zealand wouldn't hurt. The girl liked New Zealand as it meant she could be on the other side of the world avoiding the extreme weather and no one there really knew her other than her cousins. Even so, she wasn't really sure where they lived and hadn't come there to visit them anyway. Instead, she found herself in the muggle world, walking up and down the streets looking at all of the different shops. Things worked similar in New Zealand and so it wasn't real hard to navigate as everything seemed pretty straight forward and Alis soon found a coffee shop that she thought looked rather interesting. Using her muggle money she had stole from her parents which she exchanged into New Zealand currency, Alis proceeded to buy one, telling them her name and waiting for her order. It wasn't long before she heard her name called and she turned to find a familiar face with her coffee. "Yeah, Hogwarts Scotland." she told her, trying to put a name to her face. It didn't take long and Alis smiled. "Are you Lavender? What are you doing here?" Alis tried not to sound too confronting but was genuinely curious, wondering if this was where Lavender's life had taken her after recently graduating.

 

[Lavender Blake]

Lavender remembered the girl vaguely, a year below her, in the same house. She nodded as the girl seemed to remember her, "Yeah, Lavender," she replied quietly, the boldness of asking if the girl was indeed the girl she remember had flowed away with Alis' question. How to answer that she was here, studying independently and behind on her studies just because of how much she worked, "I work here," she replied quietly, not ashamed to work there, but a little that someone she knew had seen her there. Lavender had never expected to do anything too great with her life but something more than this would've been nice. She gave a true answer, she was working there, but the question might've been more broad than Lavender was giving it. She didn't know whether to go into why she'd left Hogwarts and moved here, she had known Alis but she hadn't exactly been a friend to the girl. Now perhaps Lavender would be keen to be friends but not at school, and not yet the kind of friend she told personal details to. "Family moved here a few years back, what are you doing here?" Lavender returned the question to her, genuinely interested in what brought her to this side of the world, and marvelling at the chances of something like this happening.
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[Alis Owens]

Alis recalled seeing the older girl around the common room frequently and knew that she was in the year above her. It made the seventh year smile, glad that she was able to talk to the girl now, even if it wasn't in school and was in fact in an entirely different country. Alis nodded as Lavender said she worked there. It was obvious she did and Alis felt slightly ashamed for asking such a stupid question. Her family had recently moved there and Alis did not ask why. After all, it wasn't her business and Alis had no need to get in on a person's life that she did not know that well yet. Instead, the gryffindor answered her question. "To get away." she said simply, keeping her answer as vague as what she had received. "My cousins live here." she added in hopes that Lavender did not think she was weird for just leaving her country for not much reason. She glanced at her coffee in the girl's hand. "Can I have my coffee now?" she asked, a smile forming on her face.

 

[Lavender Blake]

Lavender nodded at the girl, her cheeks flushing pink at the girl’s response feeling like she’d been rude for asking, the girl knew she shouldn’t just randomly ask people that, even if they’d asked the same of her. She hadn’t felt confident telling this girl why she’d left Hogwarts Scotland, why did she expect the same back.The colour in her cheeks deepened as the girl asked for her coffee. Lavender held out the coffee ducking her head, she knew it was pointless to talk to people when she was working, they weren’t really interested in talking to her, even if they had once known her. It was just pointless to even try. She just turned away from the girl, intending to go back to making coffee, hoping that the redness on her cheeks would go away eventually and no one would ask about it. She had made friends with that Hogwarts New Zealand boy and hoped he’d be turning up soon, he usually provided an odd comfort to her and he was usually the type to be quite understanding of her personality when he too was like that. Regardless when there appeared to be no coffees to make, Lavender didn’t know what to do, having nothing to do would only make her nervousness worse.
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[Alis Owens]

Alis was happy to have finally met the older Gryffindor and took the coffee carefully from her, feeling the warmth of the cup radiate up her arm as she did so. She stayed standing there however as she took her first sip, smiling over at Lavender. She was unsure if she should stay there however as she was working, but it seemed that she didn't have much else to do and Alis could sense how nervous she was feeling. "What's wrong?" she asked, giving her a friendly smile. "I can order another coffee if you like." Alis winked at her, chuckling slightly. "How come it's not really that busy in here? Surely the cold months would bring people in? Or isn't it much like that here?" Alis never really visited New Zealand and she wondered if perhaps people had better things to do when it was cold. She lent against the counter as she took another sip. "This is good coffee by the way. You made it, right?"

 

[Lavender Blake]

The barista shook her head at the question, trying to indicate that nothing was wrong at all, but more that she didn’t want to tell her that she was sorry about not giving the girl her coffee promptly, which had been a mistake, it was a familiar on her part. She shook her head, the girl didn’t need to do it, ”We have quiet spells,” the girl replied quietly motioning around at the place, they usually got pretty busy during the morning rush and the afternoon-post work rush. But, they were not an ultra busy store, the known brands were more popular than this store, but this place was nice. It had employed her for a few years, barely asked any questions about her. Payed her well too. ”There’s a brand store, close by, they do better,” Lavender added, she liked this place. She went back to doing something else but watched as the girl continue and Lavender nodded shyly, ”Yeah,” she had gotten better with coffee, knowing what to pick, how to make the milk right, ”I like making coffee,” Lavender told her with a nervous smile, she was proud of her coffee.
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[Alis Owens]

Alis frowned slightly as Lavender told her about the other shop nearby. It definitely seemed like a good competition and Alis was eager to offer some ideas. "Maybe you could try to do better than them instead." she told her with a smirk. "Maybe suggest special offers for the customers or events that you can hold to get people coming in." Alis wasn't sure if her ideas would suffice but she always loved to see competition and was happy to suggest things. She nodded as Lavender told her she liked making coffee and beamed as she came up with yet another idea. "Maybe you could make your own business!" she exclaimed. "You can call it 'Lavender Coffee' and make your own recipes and stuff." Alis' idea was pretty ordinary but she figured the older girl would be good at it anyway and smiled, hoping she at least liked kind of liked it.