Caffeine (OC Based HP story)

Part 1 Chapter 1

Part 1 Chapter 1

She's like cold coffee in the morning

I'm drunk off last night's whiskey and coke

She'll make me shiver without warning

And make me laugh as if I'm in on the joke

And you can stay with me forever

Or you could stay with me for now

~Cold Coffee by Ed Sheeran

It was the combination Black-Stacy fortune that meant Griffin and Raven had even had a chance to get on their feet in the muggle world. Griffin swapped a large amount of Galleons to British pounds and then they were off, trying to find a house.

Griffin had spent a nice chunk of his life becoming accustomed to the muggle way of living, he and his mother had lived with Aunt Jasmine for many years and she was a muggleborn who liked to keep it simple. He knew what a kettle was and how to use a phone and luckily, how to act when one was trying to apply for university and trying to get their three year old sister into day care.

He studied for 4 years to become an accountant and he was miserable. But seven year old Raven adored her school and accountant paid handsomely (even if he could have lived off the family fortune, he was trying to set an example for his little sister). The teachers at her school didn't like him much, they were under the assumption he was her father whenever he picked her up or turned up for parent-teacher interviews, he never bothered to correct their assumptions, he didn't really care what they thought of him.

Griffin Black was miserable, not as miserable as he had been in the wizarding world with two dead parents and the constant presence of anger in him, but he still felt horrible and hollow. Raven was having fun though.

Raven had done several odd things over the previous years, a book or two had levitated, she had broken an egg once from a cross the kitchen as her temper flared and once fixed her broken train toy. So Griffin counted the days, because it would be only be a few years until he had to re-join the wizarding world to ensure Raven had a proper education, but until then she was enjoying muggle school.

So Griffin went about his boring life, 9-5, Monday-Friday job, judging teachers thinking he was an irresponsible teen dad and boring workmates.

Grffin's hands were shoved tight into the pockets of his suit jacket, the London chill almost freezing his fingers off, he needed to remind himself to cast a heating charm into the pockets he currently had his hands crammed in. He didn't know why he insisted on doing this. His aunt Jasmine had said several years earlier, just after he had finished his 8th year at Hogwarts after he had spent his 7th on the run with Harry Potter, that something she loved most about the modern muggle world she had left behind was the muggle coffee shops.

Her words hadn't meant anything to him at the time, but now he found joy where he could, and he found it in coffee shops. He quickly grew distaste for Starbucks and Gloria Jeans, he much preferred cute, independent, family run coffee shops and often went stupidly out of his way to find a new one every day.

So he pushed his way through the door of a place called Brew Ha Ha, frowning in distaste at the name, his bad mood finding no humour in it and looked at the hanging menu. Sometimes he bought tea, depending on his mood. Sometimes he bought milkshakes, depending on his mood. Mostly he bought coffee; his mood was always fine for coffee.

1 finished (and horrible) double shot espresso later he was in the elevator on the way to his cubicle. As he placed his backpack on the floor and booted his computer up Jayden popped his head over the chest-high wall separating their cubicles to say a cheery good morning.