Make New Friends, Keep the Old (CLOSED)

After a long night of no sleep, Julia brought herself to the little cafe in Diagon Alley. She walked up to the counter, the sound of her heels dominant on the wooden floor above the faint chatter of customers. "Iced coffee with extra sugar, please." She ordered and payed, then took a seat next to the window. Julia had barely gotten any sleep in the past few nights, and she didn't know why. Perhaps it was because she was alone in her house, which seemed giant to her, but average to everybody else. She was not used to being on her own all the time, and her friends only visited for a few days at a time. Whenever her friends left, she was always in a state of loneliness, and she hated the feeling. She needed more friends, ones who she could see more often. Most of her friends already had steady jobs and relationships, and she did not keep up with many of her school friends for the same reasons. Julia needed to grow up fast, before her life continued in the same, boring path.

Julia got her coffee and took a sip, feeling the cool liquid down her throat. The caffeine instantly woke her up, and she felt more alive than before. She often thought about her life, glancing out the window from time to time, or eavesdropping on strangers' conversations.

Man, Danny needed to get out of Diagon Alley.

For the last week or two, he had been spending all of his time there, although granted he had visited Scotland a couple days ago. It wasn't exactly healthy he thought to be spending all his time there with nothing to do or nothing to buy, the Leaky Cauldron becoming his second home basically. He would definitely find a place to live by the end of the month, he was tired of waking up at three in the morning to the sounds of a pissed off drunk. Couldn't even think about the amount of deadbeats that he had to help throw out because of them trying to start a fight or something. It earned him free firewhiskey though, so whatever, it was worth it.

Today though, he decided to be a little adventurous in Diagon and visit a new shop that had come up in his absence. He had heard about it from the grapevine yet he had never had the time (nor the motivation) to even think about visiting a cafe. Yet granted, he did spend most of his time in a pub filled with drunks. He shook his head. What a winner at life he was.

He pushed the door open to the cafe, the smell of a normal cafecito flowing into his senses. Maybe the wizarding community was starting to embrace Muggle life after all...or maybe they were just jealous of the coffee they had. Probably the latter. He walked up to the main desk and stared at the menu that was on display. "May I help you sir?" a young woman behind the counter asked, a fake smile on her face. He looked up from the menu and said "Oh, just a minute, I've never been here before." She nodded and walked towards the next paying customer that stood beside him. He looked back down at the menu and read some of the items they procured, and most of it actually sounded good for a dinner or something. He would need to come back here at some time or another. What was surprising though was they actually served food that sounded edible! What a revolution the wizarding community faced!

He couldn't decide though, there was a lot of choices to choose from, something Danny had never been good with. He turned around and scanned the restaurant, hoping that he knew someone there, when someone caught his eye. An attractive looking woman was standing not that far from him, an immediate smile forming upon his face. Hopefully she wasn't like that other woman he met...he still had some nightmares about that. He approached the woman sipping on coffee and asked "Excuse me, do you have any recommendations? I'm not sure as to what to choose."

Julia pulled out a book that she obtained from her mother a few months back. She wasn't exactly sure what it was about, but apparently, it was very popular in the Muggle world. Romeo and Juliet was written in large, golden letters across the top of the hardcover book. The lingo was hard to understand, it was definitely written a long time ago. From what she could comprehend, the story was about two people who fell in love, though their families were feuding. It seemed like a good story, Julia just wished that it was easier to understand.

In the middle of Romeo's monologue, Julia heard a strange, masculine voice coming from next to her. She looked up, seeing a handsome man standing over her. "That all depends on what you like. I prefer an iced mocha cappuccino, but I'm assuming you're a beginner, so perhaps a coffee with sugar and creme?" Julia smiled at him, "would you like to have a seat? Perhaps I can explain all of those fancy drinks up there for you." She chuckled.

Danny kept a warm smile on his face. She definitely was attractive, and yet in a way, she seemed to be very familiar. He couldn't put his finger on it though. "You assume correctly," he said with a friendly tone "And I'd like that, thank you." As he pulled out his seat to sit down, he had noticed out of the corner of his eye what appeared to be a book. Aha, he had something to talk about now! When he sat down, he took a look at the title in an obvious way, to make sure she wouldn't think he was staring somewhere else. "Romero and Juliet, huh?" he said, his warm smile still visible "a classic story!" It amazed him that someone was reading classical literature in a place like this, the only things he ever saw in Diagon were just people reading from old tomes or some kids reading out of a spellbook. It was a pleasant change of view, and it only interested him more.

He moved himself back into an upright sitting position and looked at the woman. "My name's Danny by the way," he said in his usual friendly tone "Danny Thompson. May I ask what your name is?"

Julia was surprised to find someone who knew of the muggle book. She had never even heard of it until her mum had given it to her, and she had done some research since then. "Yes, you've heard of it?" She asked him, setting the book to the side. "It's pretty good, Romeo seems like a true gentleman. I only wish the dialect was easier to understand. This Shakespeare person certainly did not speak like normal people did back then." Julia was not completely sure when the play was written, but it seems like it was many centuries ago. "I'm surprised you know of it, though I'm not sure of your blood status, it's still rare to find someone who knows of Muggle literature" She said.

"Oh, how rude of me!" Julia exclaimed, "I'm Julia Traverse, half-blood, which explains my love for Muggle books" She chuckled. Yes, coming to the cafe that morning was certainly a great idea.

Danny nodded his head and said "Oh yeah, I've read and seen that play a couple of times. I really admire Shakespeare's work, although I do agree he could've used a more simpler form of language. Yet, the beauty is often within the words, that's what I always say!" He never says that, but he felt like it would be a nice addition. "I'm actually a pureblood, if you can believe it or not," he said keeping his gaze on her eyes "me and my family are a little...different than what most in the wizarding community would expect." Judging by how she brought that up, it must've been a pretty important thing to her. Good thing he was a pureblood, that earned a lot of brownie points in the community it seemed.

"Just because you're a halfblood or pureblood doesn't mean you can't enjoy the finer arts of literature!" he said with a chuckle "it just matters as to when you're exposed to it." He wondered if she ever read the book herself, yet he was sure that hadn't been the case. "So Julia," he said "you offered me a little lesson on what's on the menu?" In all honesty, he had no clue as to what the hell a mocha cappuccino was, he was clueless to those sort of things. Put a blindfold on him though and give him some firewhiskey and he could probably tell you what ingredients were in that specific brew.

Now that Julia thought of it, Danny was right. The way Shakespeare explained things was beautiful; why say 'Do you love me?' when you could say 'do thou lovest thee?', Julia thought with only the slightest bit of sarcasm. Julia's eyebrows raised when he said he was a pureblood. It was even more rare to find a pureblood who was interested in the Muggle literature. "That's very interesting, you probably know more about the Muggle reads than me. I may have been exposed to it most of my life, but I've always been more interested in the Wizarding literature, surprisingly" Julia wondered what Danny meant when he said his family was different than other pureblood families, but she did not ask; it would seem rude.

"That is very true, I think it's very interesting that you, a pureblood, must have been exposed to a lot of Muggle literature" Julia smiled at him as he addressed her. "Hm, well mocha is just a fancy word for chocolate, an espresso is just a strong plain coffee, a cappuccino is just coffee and milk, is there anything else you'd like to know? I love my coffee, so there's not much that I don't know about it" Julia grinned, finishing off her coffee.

Danny nodded his head to the side a little. "I'm not an expect on muggle literarture or anything," he said with a chuckle "but I dabble. Read most of Shakespeare's works back in my early teenage years, but I mostly read modern literature. Hemingway, Poe, Twain, Orwell, whatever kept my interested." A lot of sleepless nights were spent reading in his dormitory. Seeing as how there was no technology allowed in Hogwarts, you either fell asleep or read a lot of books you brought from home. Danny always chose the latter when he could.

He shrugged and said "I guess you could say I'm a muggle trapped inside a wizard's body. I enjoy muggle technology the most though, some interesting stuff they produce." He listened to her explanation of the choices, and that mocha stuff sounded good. He figured it was like Shakespeare, it was better to say 'mocha cappuccino' than 'coffee with milk, add the chocolate'. He laughed on the inside. He turned back towards the menu and quickly scanned the menu for the price on the menu board, smiling when he realized he had more than enough on him. He turned his body back towards Julia and said "Know what? You've inspired me, I'm gonna go try it. Would you want anything from the menu by chance?"

"While I may be new to Shakespeare, I must say I enjoyed Orwell. I liked '1984', but 'Animal Farm' was not exactly my cup of tea" She admitted. Julia never actually finished Animal Farm, she thought it was just so boring, so she stopped reading when Mollie was writing her name on the ground; she had barely made a dent in it. Julia had spent most of her time at Hogwarts in the library, soaking up all of the biographies she could; she had a horrible memory, so not many of the books she read actually stuck in her mind, but they were interesting at the time.

"I agree, the muggle technology is very interesting, not to mention their films. I'm a sucker for Disney" Julia grinned. There was nothing wrong with The Aristocats or Beauty and the Beast. "Have you ever watched a Disney film? They're great. Lots of people say they're for children, but I love them, and nothing will change that" Julia giggled at herself. "I would like a water with lemon... You don't need a translation for that right?" She teased, with a flirtatious edge.

"I enjoyed Animal Farm for it's communism allusions," he said with a slight shrug "it was a pretty good message if you ask me...and are you kidding? I love Disney movies! Too bad it all started to go downhill after the 90s, they had produced some really good movies for their time!" As he had begun to get up from his seat, he had noticed that she had a sort of flirtatious tone to her voice. He was liking where this was heading. "Hey you never know," he said, flirting back with her "I may just come back for more."

With that, he pushed himself up from his seat and walked back up to the counter, looking left and right for someone to serve him. "Hello again!" the young woman said as she walked in front of him. Damn near made Danny jump, she seemed to appear out of nowhere. "Uhh, hi again," he said casually "I'll just be getting a mocha cappuccino and a water with lemon." The spunky teen nodded and went to grab his order.

About 30 seconds later, she returned and handed him his things, Danny paying her the funds she needed. "Thank you, please come again!" she said, quickly roaming off to the next customer. Man, she was weird. Danny walked back over to the table and set the water down near her, planting himself back in his seat. "Here's your water," he said with a smile. He took a sip from the cup he had been given and was actually quite surprised. "Wow," he said "you were right. This does taste really good."