Caffeine (OC Based HP story)

Part 1 Chapter 8

Part 1 Chapter 8

For the next several minutes Emily was distracted, nearly constantly flipping her phone open to check for something Griffin wasn't quite sure of, but whatever it was made it impossible for Griffin to hold a conversation with her. The girl behind the bar sent him a sympathetic look and seemed to be about to open her mouth to say something to him, but she became busy looking at someone over Griffin shoulder. Griffin's eyebrows furrowed in confusion and he turned in is stool to see who was distracting the bartender and game face-to-chest with Jayden.

Jayden.

What the actual fuck was Jayden doing here?!

"Jayden, hey, what are you doing here?" Griffin asked, but before he could stand to meet him, Emily had surged forward from her standing position in the bar and hugged Jayden. Griffin had to admit he was confused as fuck.

"Uh, Emily invited me." Jayden said with a smile as he stuck his hand out for what Griffin assumed was a handshake, it was not and he was pulled into a man-hug that Griffin completed awkwardly.

"Um, how did she manage that?" he asked almost accusingly.

"I got his number at bowling." Emily replied for him, before reaching over to grab Griffin's untouched beer, "Here, Jay; drink this." She said handing it to him. Griffin's eyebrows scrunched further and the unnoticed barmaids rose high in shock before she walked to the far end of the bar to serve another customer.

Griffin could barely do more than stutter out silent vowels as Jayden downed half of his drink in one gulp.

Why was this going so horribly wrong?

For the first 20 minutes that Jayden was there Griffin couldn't get a word into the conversation and after that he just stopped bothering with even trying.

There had been a plan to dance with Emily that night, but that goal became Jayden's and Griffin was left in the dust as the two danced close, involving a lot of disregard of the personal space bubble.

Griffin got a little drunker then he perhaps should of.

~0~0~

The next morning his head was still throbbing when Raven was dropped back home from the sleepover she had had. He downed several glasses of water and 2 pain pills but he didn't really feel any better.

"So, Sulk-Z, what's up?" Raven said, trying to sound 8 years older than she was and it would have broken Griffin's heart if he wasn't currently making her some cordial in her favourite cup. A Hello Kitty cup. He wonder if she would ever catch up to her mental age or she would constantly stay a generation in front of her physical age.

"Nothing." He answered, placing the cup in front of her.

"It's about that date with dear Emily last night, isn't it?" she said cheerfully.

"Wasn't a date." He said simply, sitting beside her with his cup of tea.

"What?" her smile dropped from her face.

"Well, it was a date, just apparently not with me."

"Come again?" she said, straightening her back and taking a serious sip of cordial.

"She phoned Jayden."

And for ow that was the end of that.

~0~0~

Was planning on ending it here but I wanna end this now so, extra-long chapter!!

He still got coffee every morning from Bean There and depending on Emily's rotation it was either to sit with her and have his coffee or to order his coffee from her and rush off to work.

He still said no every Friday when Jayden invited him out with his three buddies on a Friday evening. He ignored as Jayden talked excitingly about his budding relationship with Emily. Because to be honest Griffin had already moved on, but he wasn't entirely over it. He didn't really care that they were together but he couldn't really connect with her anymore. She didn't owe him anything and she was allowed to have friends with them trying to date her but he felt a guilty sense of betrayal.

He went back to how he was normally, slightly unattached but going about his life.

And then school became shit for Raven.

He couldn't figure out what had caused it, if some kids at school suddenly got mean or if the teachers were too much but he just couldn't get a peep from her. She became more and more disruptive and miserable and he had more and more meetings with her teacher and outside-school-care workers but the teacher was useless and the careers clueless of what happened before or after the children arrived to them at their rooms in their wing of the school.

No 8 year old should feel like this and when her 9th birthday came and went and she didn't want to invite anyone, or do anything or get any presents Griffin started to grow desperate.

And that's why he was doing this, it had been months since he had seen her smile and the start of the new school year had done nothing.

That was why he had his wand in his hand, ready to use it for the first time in years. For Raven.

She was sitting in front of the television, meagre amounts of homework spread out on the table, ignoring it in favour of watching a cartoon she barely seemed interested in. He waved his wand silently, transforming what she was wearing into the blue and black dress from The Little Mermaid in hopes she would smile.

She didn't seem any happier, but she did seem slightly shocked.

"You've- you've never used that thing! Why the hell now!?" she asked sitting up straighter and staring at him. He missed the times she used to be so excited every time he let her take it to school, not she seemed...-not indifferent towards it, but less caring.

He moved to sit next to her on the floor, using his wand to stack her homework in a neat pile in the centre of the coffee table, surprised that using it was still like second nature to him.

"I have a proposition for you." He said as he attempted to get comfy on the hard carpet under is butt. Raven just raised her eyebrows at him, so he continued. "I know something is happening at school-" Raven opened her mouth to verbally retaliate, "-and no I'm not asking you what, I know you won't tell." He took a deep breath, trying to gain the courage to continue.

"And?" she asked, Griffin did not like her tone.

"I think we should go back." He said, Raven looked confused, "Back to the wizarding world. I left 6 years ago because our parent had recently died and I felt useless and pointless and miserable and now I'm fine and you're miserable and hate it here. So, I think we should go back."

"What, I can't ask you to do that you-"she tried to start, but he cut in.

"You go to Hogwarts in two years anyway, its better we re-integrate with the family sooner rather than later, otherwise Molly will be pissed." He said with a smile.

Raven didn't know who Molly was, or what a 'Hogwarts' was, her brother rarely spoke of the world he left behind; only of their parents and the basic idea after she once turned a bully's hair vomit coloured when she was 6.

But she agreed.

They packed that night and were gone by the next morning, leaving 15 minutes before the Saturday post arrived with an invitation for the two to Emily and Jayden's engagement party.

This chapter, hell, this whole part is dedicated to Ellafabb who left a comment on Part 1 Chapter 6 stating that it would be okay for Griffin because they would get together in the end. Knowing what was going to happen meant to read that made me feel so bittersweet (and devious).