A Cup of Tea, Please

3 | Hesitation

Despite the fact that Ginny and Harry had gone to several other shops after the cafe, the only thing that remained in his memory was the slithering snake on the man's ring.

It was odd. Very odd. Harry had seen nothing of the likes in any Muggle area prior to the cafe, so he couldn't draw the conclusion that it was some new technology. Why would Muggles make something so ridiculous, anyway?

After the two had gone back to The Leaky Cauldron and then the Burrow and even back to their bedroom for some sleep many hours later, Harry couldn't get the image of the cold, hard metal writhing around like some living, breathing reptile out of his head. It was burnt into his memory. Into his eyelids.

Perhaps Harry was overreacting about this whole situation. Maybe he had hallucinated on two different occasions. After all, it wasn't bizarre for Harry's mind to play tricks on him. Especially after the Battle of Hogwarts.

The next morning, slightly sleep-deprived, Harry reluctantly rolled out of bed, got ready for the day and kissed the (still) sleeping Ginny on the head before leaving for Auror training as per usual.

Training itself was a bit tedious, considering that no other aspiring Aurors from Harry's year had chosen to partake in it and had gone straight to work, so Harry had to train against members of the Auror Office, who were all clearly putting minimum effort into their jobs. Perhaps, for whatever reason, they underestimated Harry's ability. Or they were bothered by the fact that the Harry Potter was insistent on receiving proper training before working a potentially deadly job.

Harry just played along, not wanting to hurt the trainers. Someday, he thought, he should use an advanced spell against them to show them what he was really capable of, but today, like many other days, he wasn't bothered to put so much effort into it. Besides, Harry had something much more bothersome on his mind.

Immediately after training, Harry arrived back on the streets of Muggle London. This time every shop was bustling; customers were overflowing and pouring out of the doors. Even Le Café de Carnation.

Apparently everyone wanted to grab a bite from a pretty little cafe with young, jovial workers on a miserable Thursday afternoon. And Harry too wanted to visit it again, but not with the sole intention to eat, though he was feeling a bit peckish and decided he'd try out the other items on the menu.

"Uh," Harry's eyes scanned the menu rapidly as the worker watched, waiting for his answer, "could I have two flapjacks?"

"That'd be a pound, please," the girl smiled, and Harry placed a one pound coin on the counter. "And your name?"

"Er, Harry Potter."

"Are you planning on taking out or eating in?

Harry didn't need to look around to decide "Taking out."

"Thank you, Mr Potter! Please wait over there until one of my colleagues calls your name out."

"Thanks."

As the girl told him to, Harry waited amongst a loquacious crowd for his flapjacks. He probably shouldn't have ordered at such a busy hour and should have just waited until the evening again.

It did feel a bit weird to Harry having to follow a different procedure from last night, especially at a cafe. But he supposed that they couldn't swim through a sea of customers to deliver a faceless stranger their food.

A few minutes later, a voice called out Harry's name and he squeezed past the crowd to make it to the front and grab the brown paper bag from the cafe worker.

Much to Harry's surprise, there, leaning against the wall behind the counter, watching the crowd with glossed over eyes and folded arms was the blonde-haired man from last night. And as soon as Harry had spotted him, he too had seen Harry. Their eyes locked.