A Bar in the Future (Naomi & Finley)

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It had been eight years since Finley had met his best friend for the first time, and in a way, it seemed like only yesterday. Since they'd first met, the two of them had just stayed together through... well, everything really. The years at Hogwarts, and now they were studying at university together.

But, possibly the most important thing now was that Finley's stutter had slowly faded away. He had enough confidence in himself to hold conversations whilst looking at the person he was talking to. And it only came back if he was scared. Which, now, was happening less and less in his life.

This was down to two people in his life, Naomi and his girlfriend Madison.

Though, Finley was quite sure it had been Naomi that had started the process, all those years ago. When she'd told him they were friends. He'd never thought it would last this long, but then Ravenclaws could always be wrong.

Sipping at his pint of beer, Finley sat back, waiting for Naomi to join him like they always did on a Wednesday night after lectures. Madison was busy, which meant he had the night to himself, and he always made time for Naomi when he could. He had a cheeseburger too, with Naomi's favourite food across from him, keeping warm with a subtle heating charm for her arrival. As always, Finley always made sure everything was ready for the witch before she arrived.

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A Bar in the Future (Naomi & Finley) 3840_abigail_breslin

Wednesday nights were probably Naomi's favorite nights. After all, it wasn't every day that she and Finley got to relax over good food and beer instead of nodding to each other as they rushed past on campus or asking for advice on homework. Flicking her hair, which had lightened to blonde over the years, over her shoulder, Naomi hurried down the street towards their usual place.

A lot had changed in eight years. Most notably, both of the former Ravenclaws had come out of their shells a lot. Naomi no longer cringed at the thought of interacting with strangers, although she'd always prefer the company of her friends, and the panic attacks had stopped a few years ago, thank Merlin. Best of all, however, was Naomi's newfound control over her Seeing. Now that it was no longer ruining her life, she found she actually liked the heads up every once in a while.

Sweeping into the bar in a way she would have never had the courage to do when she first met Finley, she spotted him almost instantly at their usual table. She also spotted her favorite lamb stew across the table from him, along with a pint to match his. "You're a lifesaver, Allen," she told him with a grin, throwing one arm around him in greeting before taking her seat. "How've your classes been? Because let me tell you, I have some fun stories about a Venemous Tentacula and everybody's least favorite Herbology professor." She grinned at her best friend before digging into her food.

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Upon seeing his best friend arrive, Finley got to his feet just in time to receive the hug from the younger witch. His smile had blossomed quite naturally as it always did around his two favourite girls - which he often said out loud as well as referring to them as such in his head too. "I do my best." Finley replied happily as they both took their seats, glad that he could now tuck in to his burger because he was bloody hungry.

The question on how his classes were going were over shadowed by the information on the Venemous Tentacula that was brought forward a moment ago. "Oh my! What happened?" Finley asked, so glad that he no longer had to take Herbology because he'd never been very good with plants. "Are the Herbologists planning what to do with their free time now?" Finley asked, not sure on the extent of the damage that had been done, but trying to make it sound like he wasn't hoping for the best.

But a moment later he remembered the original question, after taking a large mouthful of his burger. Quickly swallowing enough to be able to talk. "Classes are good!" He insisted around the food, pausing once more to swallow again. "Apparently, we get to go on a field exercise next week. Which..." Finley paused, as he did now when he got a little nervous. Taking a moment to collect himself so that his stutter couldn't take hold, Finley continued. "Which means that I will be seeing dragons for real next week. Romania, I think." He explained, shaking his head because he still couldn't believe that he was almost finished with his course and would be moving in to the big wide world soon enough.

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Naomi's grin was wolfish. She really did dislike Professor Denton, as he had a habit of mocking students who asked questions and was terrible at teaching to boot. "Well. He was trying to show us the "proper handling of extremely dangerous plants" and he turned his back on the Venemous Tentacula, like an idiot." She rolled her eyes, gesturing with her spoon. "So of course, the plant attacked him, because that's what it does, and let me tell you, he went down with the most beautiful yelp. It took me and two other students to subdue the Tentacula while somebody else called the mediwitches. Anyway, he'll live, but he's in Mungo's for at least a week and a half, so no classes," she finished with a victorious grin.

Leaning forward and propping herself up with a hand on her neck, Naomi listened with interest. "Wow. Romania and real dragons, huh? Bet they'll just start you off on the Common Welsh Green. It's the smallest, right? You'll do great! I believe in you."

Eyes growing misty, Naomi gazed past Finley's shoulder. "Wow. Does it ever just hit you how far we've come? I mean, here we are, two young twenty-somethings about to set off into the world. Been a long time since that night in front of the common room fire, hasn't it? I can remember it like it was yesterday." Her eyes suddenly grew sharp with mischief, waiting until Finley started to take a sip of his beer. "All you wanted to do was stroke my pussy," she added, her face the picture of innocence, though it was taking a great deal of effort to hold in her laughter.

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The story of Naomi's teacher made Finley smile to himself. He knew of Professor Denton through Naomi telling him on countless opportunities that the man was not a very good teacher at all. Finley had told her to give the man the benefit of the doubt, but whether she ever listened to that advice, Finley wasn't overly sure. "Well, at least you all know never to turn your back on those things now, eh?" He joked because it was about the only thing Naomi would probably have claimed to have learnt from the professor.

The notion that he would be with real dragons made Finley nod once. "Y-yes." He managed nervously, before shaking his head. "Yes." He said again, something of habit over the years, going over the words he stuttered to talk properly. "Hopefully the Welsh Green, I think I might die if I get put with a Hungarian Horntail." Finley admitted, shuddering at the thought. Those things were ferocious, and he seriously hoped that it would be a little bit longer before he had to handle one of those. "Or, we might be working with draglings rather than full grown dragons, we don't know yet."

The reminiscing brought a smile to Finley's features. "Yeah, I remember." Finley mused softly, lifting his beer to his lips and taking something of a large drink from the amber liquid.

"All you wanted to do was stroke my pussy,"

Finley didn't mean to, he really didn't. But the moment those words came from Naomi's mouth, the mouthful of beer sprayed from his mouth over the witch in both shock and amusement. Had anyone else been there, they really wouldn't have understood, but now. Now... Naomi was soaked in beer. "I am so, so sorry!" Finley insisted, wiping his mouth and pulling out his wand, pointing it at the witch and drying her off as quickly as he could. His cheeks were aflame, and the whole room had suddenly gone intensely hot. "You know, taking that out of context is unfair! I've always loved animals!" Finley tried to save the situation, but he was probably just making it worse in that moment.

"You really shouldn't say things like that." Finley insisted, still bright red as his eyes settled on his food.

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Naomi rolled her eyes, through she was grinning. "Well yes, I know that, but then, I could have told you that before Professor Denton went and got himself hospitalized. I guess that was for the students who learn by example."

"You'll. Be. Fine," Naomi told him in a reassuring tone. "I know you did well on your last exams and I don't think you'll ever be more ready than you are now. The only thing for it is to dive right in. Besides, there's no way they'll put new students with a Horntail. That's just insane. They probably leave those for the highest level students and the professionals." If he did get put with a Horntail and got hurt, Naomi would not hesitate to descend in a fury on the people in charge, strangers or no.

Despite the fact that she was now drenched in beer, Naomi was downright cackling at Finley's reaction. "You should've... seen your... face!" she gasped out between laughs. "Totally worth it!" she said, once she had the breath back and Finley was in the middle of drying her off. She snorted as he tried to rescue the situation. "Nothing you say now will make it better," she informed him with a grin.

"I should definitely say things like that, if it gets this kind of reaction," Naomi countered, still grinning as she picked up her own beer. "Plus, what kind of Ravenclaw would I be if I didn't take the opportunity to play with words?"

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Finley smiled in response to the notion of Naomi knowing that plants were dangerous before the show of idiocy. It went without saying that his best friend was highly capable of such knowledge just from a book, but she had the experience too. Though, if the professor was anything to go by, it didn't actually matter.

The reassurance that he would be fine made Finley smile at his best friend. "Yeah, I know... I just get nervous." He explained, though it really wasn't necessary with Naomi because she knew him just as well as he knew himself by now. "But it'll be fine!" He insisted, because he was going to be confident in that thought even if it was going to kill him in the long run.

Naomi's laughter brought a smile to Finley's lips despite himself. Obviously it was amusing, because it wasn't true, and the insinuation of the comment was enough to make Finley react just like he had. But it was mean. "Leave me alone." Finley mumbled, though he really didn't mean it at all.

"You don't get to play with words! You know I only liked your cat!" Finley tried, before shaking his head and breaking in to laughter, this really wasn't helping him in the slightest. "I'm just going to be quiet now." He added, deciding it was for the best.