Starbucks vs the Cauldron (Open to All)

Interesting place, a Muggle bookstore.

Having grown up in both Muggle and Magical societies Mordecai didn't jump when the twin glass doors before him opened on their own accord. Ah, Muggle technology. It was the little things that made them interesting. A small smile tugged at the corner of his mouth as he entered the large chain bookstore and glanced around for a moment. Located next to the Leaky Cauldron the place had caught his attention. Why? It wasn't the numerous paperbacks that lined the walls or the table tops that were scattered on the three floors of the building. No. What had drawn Mordecai in was the fresh scent of over-priced espresso beans.

Of all the places a wizard like him could end up, Mordecai headed for the Starbucks on the second floor. If there was one thing that Muggles got right that the wizarding world still had to catch up on, it was how to make a good cup of Joe.

He knew he must cut quite the sight as he ascended the staircase, bypassing the escalator that snaked upward. He never trusted those metal contraptions. His hair was a long disheveled mess, he had a weeks worth of scruff on his face and his muggle clothing, consisting of worn jeans, work boots and a worn in old leather bomber jacket, gave him the vague appearance of a globe trotter. Well...in fact that exactly what he was. New Zealand to Thailand. Thailand to Russia. Russia to Germany. Germany to France. France to Britain. A quick stop over to Ireland to meet some old Quidditch lads and then a ferry and train to London. Oh he could have gone the magical route and arrived in the city in a heartbeat but Mordecai loved to travel. He got to see more of the world and its various flavors and cultures via the Muggle Way than he did with magic.

"Can I take your order?"

A hip looking twenty-something woman gave him the eye as he came next in line. She was cute, a little on the youngish side, but she had quite the punkish flare to her. It had to be the vibrant multi-coloured hair.

"I'll have a double espresso and a tall black to go." He smiled a he reached into the back pocket of his jeans and pulled out a battered looking leather wallet. He always had both Muggle currency and Magical coin on him because he never knew when he'd need both. He thumbed a few notes and handed them to the server before shoving the wallet back into place. "Keep the rest."

The girl eyed the money in her hands and looked at him.

"You sure?"

Mordecai just flashed her his cheeky grin and nodded. "Always am."

Well, that seemed to get her attention. When the coffee finally arrived Mordecai nodded his head in thanks and picked up both cups. As he did so he noticed that there was something scrawled in black pencil crayon on the side of his coffee.

Call Me, Annie 885-3657

Mordecai chuckled deeply in his throat and gave Annie a quick wink that made her cheeks take on the same shade of red that was in her hair before he made his way over to an empty table and sat down. He glanced out the large view windows and eyed all of the Muggle traffic below. Two worlds, apart yet together at the same time. Ahhh, life was strange indeed.

Christabelle had walked into the muggle bookstore. She was really just looking for time to herself and she knew had she made an appearance in Diagon Alley people would stop her, studder and mumble to attempt to ask about her parents, and she really just didn't feel like dealing with it. Sometimes she hated her half-veela side from all the attention when she didn't want it, but those were rare occasions since she loved having the attention. When she walked in she smelled the espresso beans cooking on the upper level of the store. She inhaled them deeply having missed the smell of decent espresso since she was last in Italy.

She went and picked out a new book by a muggle author that she enjoyed reading and paid for it walking up stairs ordered a double shot of espresso and a latte with a double shot. She paid the blushing girl behind the counter and took her coffee and sat down in a table next to an older looking man. She had been attentive and could have sworn she had seen him at school recently but she brushed it off as deja-vu. She took a sip from her coffee and and started reading her book.

Cupping a large calloused hand around the espresso cup, Mordecai lifted it off the table and brought it to his nose. He inhaled deeply and let out a satisfied sigh. Pure caffeine goodness in a hot liquid form. Just the thing the good Doctor ordered to keep the British chill at bay. Mordecai didn't wait for the drink to cool before he slugged the stuff back as if it were a shot of straight whiskey. Okay that burned. He coughed into his hand and shook his head as if to clear it. The moment the espresso hit his system his senses came alive and everything around him seemed sharper somehow.

Very nice.

He ran his left hand through his tousled hair in order to get it out of his eyes as he crushed the recycled paper cup and tossed the ball of recycled pulp over his shoulder without bothering to see what he was aiming at. The small missile sped through the air and dunked itself into the nearest trash can as easy as you please. Lucky shot? Maybe. And now for the good stuff. Mordecai slid the coffee cup toward him and eyed it for a moment. Should he? Nah. Well, maybe just a little. Just a little pick me up before he made the final trek to the school. Taking care not to draw attention to himself Mordecai reached into an inner pocket of his jacket and pulled out a small rectangular flask that he neatly hid in his hands. With the grace of an experienced slight-of-hand card shark he quickly unflasked, poured in a bit of the amber liquid, and pocketed the flask in the amount of time it took for him to breath.

There. Coffee the way the god lord intended it to be.

Settling back into his wooden chair, Mordecai stretched out his legs under the table and picked up the cup. He was in no rush today so he figured he might as well let the world turn a bit before he rejoined magical society. After all, he didn't have any matches to make, or practices to keep. It felt oddly empty without his hectic day-by-day schedule but to dwell on that matter would do nothing but invite thoughts he didn't want to think about. So instead he diverted his gaze from the hustle and bustle below and eyed the shop patrons who were sitting around doing whatever it was that was occupying their time.

Well well, who's this?

A veela. Not a full-blooded one but she definitely had some in her. Call it a sixth sense but Mordecai had a knack for picking out magic users and beings in a crowd. And this one was a pleasure to watch. Maybe this day would be do dull after all?

Christy picked up the double shot and downed it after having given it a few minutes to cool down. She preferred a larger cup than that but she also didn't want to be wide, wide awake for days off of it. She flipped the page in her book. She loved these interesting romance novels and it seemed oddly funny to her some of the things in them. Books were always so predictable, but never people. Books you could know what would happen to the person before it ever did, real life, their future was always changing.

She felt as if she were being watched and looked up from her book making eye contact with the man across from her. "Excuse me, may I help you?" she asked her German accent rather thick today. She was much better at her english than she was when she had first come to Hogwarts, probably due to her living in England and spending most of her time with Nick.

Mordecai arched an eyebrow.

Hmmm German. Looked to be...what, mid-teens? Probably 16 or 17. Kids today always seemed to dress older than their years but their eyes couldn't hide their lives. Now the question was now whether or not she was a student, but rather what was she doing in the Downtown London Core during a school term?

He cleared his throat but kept silent. His eyes however never left hers. This one was interesting. She was hiding something. He could tell by the way she looked at him. A problem perhaps? Hell, everyone had problems but this one was important in her life. A matter of the heart maybe?

"Forgive me for staring," He murmured quietly, which was odd because Mordecai was very rarely quiet, "but I couldn't help but wonder if you attended a certain selective boarding school somewhere in the northern reaches of Britain. Hogwarts I believe's the name of the place."

He plucked the cup off the table and slowly took a large swallow, watching her from over the plastic white rim. Out of the corner of his eye he could make out Annie the Barista giving the strange girl before him the evil eye from behind the cappuccino maker. Oops.

"It's just that I don't often meet Veela's in Starbucks on a daily basis." He grinned a small knowing grin as he swirled the contents of his cup in a clockwise motion, slow and steady.

"Well I do attend there." she replied, "But not of my free will." She hated the school, other than the ones she saw and becoming qudditch captain for Ravenclaw she'd rather be back at Beauxbatons. She finished her drink and glanced over at the Barista. She seemed rather angry that the man was speaking to her, but it wasn't as if she had asked him to speak to her.

"Why is it that you wish to know why I attend there?" she asked looking at him curiously closing her book. "Not many people bring something like that up in the middle of muggle London."

Hmmmm good point.

However it wasn't as if anyone was eavesdropping in on their conversation. Mordecai finally took his eyes off the girl for a moment to do a sweep of the room around them. There were a few people loitering by the condiments stand, discussing loudly over the state of the present economy and how the British Prime Minister wasn't doing a damn thing about it. Mordecai could silently agree to that seeing how the Minister of Magic was in the same category. However muggle economic concerns were the least of his interests at the moment.

"Well I'm not many people." Mordecai responded as eye carefully sized up a businessman who was sitting across the room from them with his beak of a nose buried in the London Times. He was getting nothing off these people so he simply sat back and enjoyed the view.

"You sound like a person who has better things to do than learn things." He chuckled good-naturedly, his blue-grey eyes gleaming with a hint of amusement as he took another drag on his coffee. Ahhhh teenagers. They hit sixteen and they think they already know everything. To be that age again. But ah well, he wasn't getting any younger so there was no point in thinking like that. Youth potions never worked as they were supposed to and Mordecai was comfortable being who he was. But it would be nice to do without the arthritis that flared up in his knees and back every now and again.

"Well m'dear, it just so happens that I am on my way to said aforementioned school and I was wondering that if you were going my way I would be honoured to have the privilege of escorting you back to the school grounds. Also, it's more interesting having a second person to talk to because quite frankly I'm damn well tired of talking to myself. I find that the responses are always the same." He leaned forward slightly in order to rest his right elbow on the wooden tabletop while his left hand was kept curled around the steaming cup. He may not know much about Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry but he had a feeling that they didn't take kindly to their students playing hooky on a Wednesday afternoon. It was best if she got back before anyone started to suspect anything.

"Well I never said I had better things to do than learn." she replied, "I'm a Ravenclaw. Isn't that all we do in that house?" she asked looking at him curiously. "Other than Quidditch I spend all my time studying and planning my wedding...well was planning my wedding." she said as she got up to throw her cups away. She decided to make a quick change of subject on the wedding matter.

"However since I rarely stay up at the school and had no classes today, I'd still be glad to escort you back. I have to be back for my team this afternoon. You can't have practice without the captain after all." she said smiling.

Mordecai shrugged his broad shoulders at her response.

"I wouldn't know love. I can't say that I'm familiar with Ravenclaw. Never went to school on this side of the equator." That much was true. Aside from coming up to Britain to participate in numerous matches Mordecai had never gotten around to exploring the rather wet and lonesome countryside nor its famous wizarding landmarks. Maybe things were done differently in Britain than they were back in South Africa? One thing was for certain, Mordecai highly doubted that Hogwarts was going to be an experience that he would forget any time soon.

Sighing into his cup Mordecai was about to stand when the girl said something that certainly caught his attention. Quidditch. Practice. Captain.

Oh really?

Mordecai stayed where he was as he regarded her with different eyes. A female captain? Not that there was anything wrong with that. Mordecai knew and had rubbed shoulders with many tough-as-nails women captains that were worth their salt. Come to think of it he had dated one a good decade ago.

"Ya don't say? Quidditch captain is it? What position might I ask?" He cocked his head slightly to the right as he rose to his feet and polished off the remainder of his coffee before the cup seemed to vanish from his hand with slight flick of a wrist. "Ladies first."

His left arm swept out in front of him as he waited for the girl to lead the way out of the bookstore. After all it was the polite thing to do.

"Speaking of which I don't seem to know your name. The name's Mordecai." His smile was warm and genuine as he kept pace a step behind her. He purposely left his last name out for his own reasons.

"Scuse me for a moment." He murmured before he left the girl and strode across the room over to where the Barista was eyeing them out of the corner of his eye. She looked up when Mordecai approached and her sour expression relaxed as he leaned forward over the serving counter and held out his hand, one that she enthusiastically shook. They exchanged words for a moment and Mordecai's booming laughing rang out as the girl grinned at him. A few people looked his way wondering what on earth was so funny but soon lost interest and went back to do whatever it was they were doing.

"Was a pleasure meeting you Annie. You make one helluva cup of coffee." He grinned and waved good-bye before he returned to the girl. "Shall we?"

"Oh trust me it wasn't my choice in coming to Hogwarts." she replied at the comment that he hadn't known of the houses. She almost wished she didn't sometimes. "I went to Beauxbatons until this year. My mutti is the charms professor there." Everyone knew that Beauxbatons had been known for their gifted students in the charms department but then again it was more of a wizarding finishing school. Everyone had to learn how to be a proper housewife and all the good charms for cleaning. It was rather quite dull.

She smiled a little as he asked what she played on the Quidditch team. She laughed a little. "I actually can play all the positions fairly well but I'm best as a seeker, which is my position now." she replied as moved to start walking. It was a little refreshing to see someone that she didn't know act as a gentleman but then again she would have expected no less from someone who hung around in her company.

Then the question of her name. It would have been nothing for her to give her name. She honestly didn't think anything of it when she replied, "Christabelle Whittle."[color] she said smiling sweetly, but then her face grew a little serious, [color=purple]"And before you ask, yes my father is Alrick Whittle, the German Minister of Magic." She hated how everytime she introduced herself to someone they always seemed to ask that question, as if her father's job had any deciding factor on what kind of person she was.