it's a beautiful day for rain, i hate it

The April showers that Matt had grown to enjoy so much had quickly fallen prey to the heat and sunshine that accompanied May. Eventually that lead to the end of term where he was once again on the road preparing for the next school year. He had been doing this for so long that Madame Rosmerta was practically expecting him when he showed up at the Three Broomsticks ready for some summer work. He always started here and would move on in July having saved up enough for some travel fare and to be semi prepared to buy textbooks for the new year. As such, that time was finally over and he had once again managed to go an entire month in Hogsmeade without ever running into his fellow students. After all, it would be preposterous for a student to go to Hogsmeade during the summer. That's literally the only exciting thing to do on the weekends during the school year - which is why it was the perfect place for him to work. Regardless, it was midday and he was starting his final shift of the summer for Madame Rosmerta. As standard Friday's go, he was left to his own devices with a few other staff members while she took the night off. This didn't upset him because he really enjoyed being in control. He always took great pleasure in being a leader he just never really got the chance to do it.

Regardless, the shift would start slow but soon enough the rush would come and he'd be incredibly busy. He enjoyed it much better the busier it was. It always goes by so much faster when you always have something to do. He thought to himself about where he would go from here - he never really planned anything out. He'd probably head to London and poke around there for a while before going further on into Europe. Maybe I'll go to Russia, I've always wanted to see how well Communism worked in practice with my own eyes. he thought to himself as he pulled and tied his apron on. He stood behind the counter at the bar, ready for whatever was going to walk through the doors to the Three Broomsticks.

The summer almost seemed to drag on for Christy. Every day she found herself back at Hogwarts, for no other reason than to go through training to assist the Divination professor in the fall so that she might learn how to teach herself. She honestly wondered why she had even agreed to do that, to give up most of her summer break before going back for her final year of school. She could travel anywhere she desired, but no. It was back to school to learn more. At least for the first part of the summer. Now that it was finished, she could begin to enjoy what little bit of the break she would have left before going back. The last thing she expected heading down into Hogsmeade would be running into a fellow student.

She had almost decided to just cut her losses and go back home, especially considering it was unseasonably hot for summer. Almost too hot. She felt the warm summer breeze hit her as she finally made it into the small village that seemed like it was almost asleep with the loss of it’s patrons from the school to keep it going. Her eyes were drawn towards the Three Broomsticks. Of course Madame Rosmerta wasn’t going to close her doors. She would have plenty of customers that were not from the school to keep her going year round. Opening the doors to the place, Christy was surprised to see a familiar face. A fellow student, “Matt?” she said looking surprised to see him. “What in the world are you?” she started, “Well, I mean obviously you’re working. I’m just surprised to see another student in town this time of year.”

Three years, three years he had been doing the work for Madame Rosmerta without any schoolmate interference. Three years Matt had developed the skills of serving drinks and talking about nonsense with people trying to convince them to drink more. As the door opened and he saw the silhouette of a younger individual enter Matt had the first second thought of the day:

What if there are students who have family in Hogsmeade?

He made eye contact with a familiar face, a Ravenclaw sixth year, well seventh year he supposed with the new school year ahead. It was someone he had seen around the halls but had not really interacted much with. He could count on his hands the amount of times he'd talked to Christy. Unfortunately, with this fateful encounter he would have to begin using his toes for future counting. Then, his second second thought of the day crossed through his brain:

What if she tells everyone I work at the Three Broomsticks?

"Working? What? No, I'm not working." he shouted awkwardly as he stepped out of his internal monologue. "I'm just visiting Madame Rosmerta and she asked me watch the place as she stepped out for a few minutes."

"What are you doing here?"

She could have sworn that he was wearing the apron that she had seen countless times on the employees from the trips she took into Hogsmeade during the school year. On a second glance, she was positive that it was the apron that she saw other employees wear and her thoughts went to wondering if he was embarrassed that she had seen him working. Surely that had been it.

‘Of course, he’s embarrassed that another student saw him working here.’ She thought to herself, tucking a stray curl behind her ear, ‘He probably isn’t used to seeing other students during the summer. Of course, things are changing. Surely some students have family that live in the village.’

She shook the thoughts from her head as he awkwardly shouted towards her. It almost made her take a step backwards for a moment, and she paused wondering if she should just go a head and make her way onwards to the rest of her summer break.

“Sorry,” she replied, finally finding her voice. “I just saw the apron that Madame Rosmerta makes all her employees wear and I just assumed you were working. Is that not the case?”

“Oh! Several of us have been given the opportunity to be teacher assistants this year.” She explained to him. “We just finished up orientation about what we should expect to have to do and proper tutoring, things like that. We’ll be assisting first through fourth year classes.”

“On the what am I doing in the Three Broomsticks I was coming in to get a butterbeer while I wait to hear from some people about summer break…”

“Well… what’s left of it anyways. Most of mine was taken due to this. Do you have family in Hogsmeade or something? I haven’t seen another student down here all summer.”

Well that would just be his luck now wouldn't it. Two previous summer's he'd been working here and had worked extra careful to remain in the back during orientation week. Two summers not a single student had come to the Three Broomsticks during that week.

SO,

the one summer he decides to work the week up front a student shows up.

You're dumb, you're thick in the brain and you're dumb. Remember that, Lestrange, ugh. he thought to himself.

"Right, well I hadn't known about orientation this week. You see, I'm not usually in Hogsmeade during the summers around now." he hastily replied. Would she believe him? Or was she seeing through his ruse? No, best not to think about those things until the cat has officially left the bag. Otherwise it could interfere with how well he was doing at lying, which, was still not very well.

"Actually Madame Rosmerta owes my father some money so they're off having a discussion." he began to lie. "So, actually it's my father and Madame Rosmerta who asked me to stick around. Can't have someone so important to the family losing their only branch of income." he chuckled, very nervously. Regardless of the lie, he had to earn his money and he shouldn't drive customers away. "So, what class are you TAing for?" he asked

He reached for a mug underneath the counter and pulled out a frosted mug. He began to pour her the summer special version of the drink. Designed to cool off rather than warm up - he gave her a weak smile as he placed it on the counter.

"That'll be three sickles."

Christy wasn’t buying the lies that he was trying to sell her one bit. Not in the slightest. She might be gullible at times, but he was blatantly trying to cover up for the fact that another student had found him working here over the summer. Aside from that, it was only a hand full of students and most had already left for their respective homes. All but her. Probably the only student who was trying to stick around the school for the moment.

“Oh, I thought this was a new thing they were doing.” She continued on with the conversation. By all accounts that she had been aware she thought this was some new program, but as she didn’t start attending until the previous year she knew she could very well be mistaken.

She found herself raising her eyebrow at him and unconvincingly responded, “Right…”

“Oh, Divination. I’ll take History of Magic if they’ll let me do another one.” She said almost sounding excited. What person in their right mind was more excited about school work? Oh right…She just wanted the opportunity to try to convince them to hire her so she could stay in Britain next year. She now had friends and relationships that she hadn’t wanted to be separated from, and while appartation and port-keys were always an option, it was just easier if she stayed. She was finding out the place was growing on her.

She pulled out the sickles and handed it to him, “You seem to have a pretty good idea of where everything is located to just be covering.”

Was she buying it?

I'm not exactly doing a very good job about hiding it.

"Yeah, well it's not exactly rocket science is it? Pouring someone a butterbeer." he replied hastily.

Then again, it was pretty difficult to get the perfect head of butterbeer. It's more difficult with actual beer naturally but Matt wasn't about to give someone he knew was a student real booze. Well, she hadn't even really asked for booze in the first place.

"Divination? Isn't that a little bit of a fluff subject? I only took it for the easy credit and dropped it as soon as I could even then."

He took her money and put it in the front pocket of his apron. He made sure that the "Lestrange" that had been woven into it was covered by his shirt. "Hey, someone told me a price for butterbeer and a price for regular beer. Anyone who wants anything else has gotta wait for Madame Rosmerta to show up!" he tossed his hands up in the air and continued to avoid eye contact.

She looked at him as if she was in disbelief. Sure, most people took divination thinking it was just fluff, but she knew better. To her it was a fine art. If you misinterpreted tarot cards or tea leaves you could give someone the wrong information. “Most people just take it long enough to get basic information honestly.” She replied. “But I think it’s much more intricate when you really dive down into it.”

Taking a sip of the beverage placed in front of her, she sighed. She knew he wasn’t going to outright admit it. She was definitely going to have to call him out on lying about him working. “You know if you’re embarrassed about working here, I won’t tell anyone about it.” She offered. “Besides, not like I seriously talk to a lot of other students anyway.”

‘Come on and stop pestering him about it.’ She told herself, ‘He obviously doesn’t want anyone to actually know he’s working. But why try to go so far out of the way to hide it makes it so obvious.’

“Do you have any actual plans for the rest of the summer, or are you just content hanging out around the school? I know most people just want to get as far away from here while they can.”

He had been caught, damn.

Now there were two ways he could handle this. He could continue on with the charade or he could keep it going and maybe he could convince her. One of these options is mature and would result in a much easier time for Matt and the other would be childish and ultimately come off as insecure and rude.

Why was this decision so difficult?

Ultimately, the facade faded as Matt sighed and looked at her uneasily. "Yeah, alright - Madame Rosmerta's not with my dad. She's my boss."

Admittedly, it felt good to let that one loose. It had been building up inside his chest for several years now. It really did feel like a great amount of pressure had been removed from his chest. He smiled quickly to himself before looking at Christy again.

"Right, well you saw through my ruse but I still think Divination is a bit much for me. At best, it's boring but much like anything I suppose when you get through to the core of something it can be interesting." he said.

It had only been moments before that he had just been thinking about where he was going to go for the summer.

"Ireland, I'm going to go to Ireland tomorrow."

He had finally admitted it. She didn’t know why it had nagged at her that he didn’t just want to come clean and admit it instead of play this awkward game when it had been so obvious. Then again, she didn’t know why she even cared so much as to get him to admit it. She had only spoken to him a handful of times, and mostly in passing at that. She honestly felt the tension leave the room as he told her.

“Figured as much.” She replied, “Just seemed silly to try to keep that up. Was actually getting a little awkward watching you try to avoid it.”

She shrugged. “I get it’s not everyone’s cup of tea at all. It just happens to be mine.”

Ireland? She honestly had never been. “That’s probably going to be a nice trip before term starts back. I’ve always wanted to go there. I’ll probably make it one day.”