Getting coffee, making friends (Jake) (warning: swearing)

The sun was shining through the windows, as the blinds have long ago been broken and neither of the girls were particularly motivated to have them fixed. It was around noon on a Saturday morning and the girl on one of the beds groaned and turned around to escape the sun's annoying rays.

She was the only one in the room, her roommate didn't seem to have arrived home at all. There was a party last night and Anna Marie and Olivia had gone, both getting spectacularly drunk. The last time Olivia saw her roommate, she was seducing a cute looking man, who seemed a bit intimidated of her and Olivia let them to it, and went to participate in a darts tournament.

At this moment, Olivia was strongly regretting almost all of her decisions in life and she groaned again, pulling a blanket over her head. A few seconds later, she kicked the blanket off, as it instantly became way too hot and suffocating. She lay there, in her pajama bottoms and a tank top, staring miserably at the wall. The paint was cracking all over and it was a rather depressing sight. She sighed, rolled on the other side and slowly sat up.

Her head was killing her, she felt a bit queasy and the bloody sun was determined to make her life hell. She stood up slowly, and even that was a mistake. A pang of pain slashed trough her head, making the girl groan again. She hoped Anna Marie was going through the same painful ordeal somewhere, as it was her that suggested going to the party.

Slowly and with many uttered curses, Olivia went through her morning ritual and even though it didn't help one bit with her hangover, at least she was clean. She got dressed in her comfiest clothing, that was really just one step from being pajamas, grabbed her bag and went out. She didn't bother locking up, there was really nothing worth stealing and she had hexes on the things important to her.

She made her way from the dorm building towards the campus Cafe, glaring at everyone in her way. She knew, reasonably and logically, that they weren't really guilty of anything, but she had drowned her reason and logic last night.

The coffee shop was full to the brim and Olivia glared at the people some more. Couldn't they have just stayed in their rooms and gave some space to the people in a very serious need of caffeine? She walked to the counter, ordered a latte with an additional shot of coffee and scanned the little shop while it was being made. Almost every table had more than one person and she truly wasn't in the mood for more than one person at a time.

There were three tables with one person. One was occupied by a girl Olivia had dated briefly at Hogwarts, so that was out of the question. The second was a guy she's seen around the campus, but never really talked to, and the third... The third seemed to be talking on a two-way mirror. Olivia nodded to herself, turned back to the counter to receive her order with a forced smile.

She paid for it and then walked determinedly over to the guy sitting alone.

"Hi, listen, there's literally no empty table left, so can I just sit here? I promise not to talk much and, full disclosure, I'm very hungover, so please don't shout." Olivia gave the guy her best charming smile that she could muster in her current condition and hoped he wouldn't shout just on principle. She knew she would have, in his position and she hoped he was very, very different from her.

"You're Jake, right? I've seen you around." She added, going for the hey-I'm-not-just-a-random-girl angle, but in retrospect, she just came off creepy and stalkerish. Oh well.

Olivia sagged into the chair, relieved that the man didn't say no or shout. She went to take a sip of her coffee, but it was still too hot and she put the cup on the table, sighing.
She looked up at the man and froze. It was her old Professor from Hogwarts.

How did she not see that before? The man taught her for about two years and she didn't even recognize him in a coffee shop? It was mortifying. Embarrassment ran all over her body in waves and she really wanted to crawl under the table, never to be seen again.

"You and half of our world."

She narrowed her eyes a bit at him. So he didn't recognize her either. She smiled and composed herself as much as she could, opting to feel embarrassed earlier. There was a chance to get an upper hand in the conversation and she would take it.

"Don't tell me you don't remember your best student?" she asked with a grin.

It was far from the truth, really, she was mediocre at best. She was good at casting spells, but never really had the talent for DADA. Or, well, she didn't practice enough. Either, she was far from the best in his class. It didn't bother her, really, as she passed the subject and got out of Hogwarts and that's all that really mattered.

"Do you teach here, too? Or are you a student?" she asked, curiously. He didn't teach any subjects in her major, she knew that well enough, neither did he attend any. Uni was big, though, he could be doing any number of things here.

Olivia smiled smugly when her old Professor didn't comment on her definitely not being the best in his class. They both knew it anyway, so why say it out loud? He went on, saying something about helping his students, but to be completely honest, Olivia wasn't paying much attention. Sure, she nodded along and kept her face looking as interested as possible, but she was focusing on trying to not focus on her headache.

It was busy and, quite frankly, futile work. She caught the last bit of what he was saying, about training to be an Auror and Olivia grinned at him.

"Oh, that's awesome." she replied and took a sip of her coffee. Oh dear Merlin and Morgana, coffee was amazing when you had a hangover. She hummed happily and closed her eyes to truly enjoy the feeling.

"What about you? What are you studying?"

"Dragon Training." Olivia answered, with her eyes still closed and her hands wrapped around the mug. She was still in a bad mood, but coffee made it at least 15% better. She opened her eyes again, as she realized she was probably being weird.

"You still teaching at Hogwarts? I honestly don't understand how you could ever do that, don't the kids drive you crazy?" She was aware, on some level, that she was probably annoying him right then, but she was still feeling queasy and talking somehow helped.

"That's fun, I guess."

Olivia snorted at the disinterested tone Jake used and took another sip of her coffee before replying. Dragon training, for her, wasn't really something she'd dreamed of her whole life, it wasn't the ultimate goal she was chasing or whatever, it was just something she was studying until she figured out what it was she really wanted to do. It was fun, though and she was growing to really like it. It was hard work, but it kept her mind occupied most of the time and she hasn't grown bored of it just yet.

"It is, actually." she nodded. "I haven't gotten any serious injuries as of yet, so that's good." she added. There had been a few burns and a dragon bit her that one time, but it wasn't actually poisonous, so it was okay. She was fine with minor injuries, she got to show off in front of her siblings, which was always a plus.

She listened -or, well, half-listened- to Jake talking about teaching and she was regretting asking by the second. However, she was an expert in looking as if she was interested in boring conversations, as her sister Sophia usually went on and on about her boring life as a Healer. Not to even mention Tony, who could speak for hours on end about Muggle history. That wasn't even an exaggeration, she was once trapped in a mind-numbingly dull conversation about the usurpers in the Roman Empire. It literally lasted two hours and by the end of it, Olivia was prepared to gnaw her own arm off in order to get away. She loved her brother, but good god, he could be boring.

"I guess getting people to be terrified of you works in both your professions." she grinned, mostly because she felt like she had to say something. Her coffee was slowly running out, but she was blissfully ignoring that fact, living in pure denial about the fleeting existence of her caffeinated beverage.

"I think you'll have a much tougher time with the dragons."

"Nah, they teach you the tricks. I hope. I'm really not planning on dying because a flying lizard burns me to death or something. Though that would be cool." Olivia hummed, considering such an outcome. She would prefer being stabbed with a sword by her mortal nemesis, but... she supposed death by dragon would do as well.

At the apologetic look and an attempt at an apology, Olivia only narrowed her eyes and shook her head, which, by the way, made her headache only worse.

"No, you did. It's fine. Not everyone can be interested in dragons." she shrugged.

So far, only her Mum had truly been interested in her studies. Of course, her Dad said it was fascinating, Sophia said she was looking forward to having to stitch Olivia up or treat her burns and Tony recommended a few books on the subject. Her little brothers were both in the weird teenage phase where they thought that if they showed even a pinch of interest in anything, they might spontaneously combust.

"I don't think I could ever be terrifying, but if I can make people believe that I might have that side to me somewhere, then I think that'll be enough."

Olivia nodded thoughtfully. "Appearances are everything. If people -or dragons, really- think that you could hurt them in unimaginable ways, they're far more likely to cooperate. For example," Olivia said, waving around her empty cup, "when the twins and I need our brother to do something he doesn't want to, we just threaten to do something to his books. Now, we never would, of course, we're far too frightened of what Mum would do to us, but we say it like we mean it - and it works." she concluded with a satisfied smile.

His reaction to her comment was priceless and she hid her smile behind her hand. She got accustomed to talking about death because her Dad often had his colleague therapists at their house. It was terribly amusing, joking about death and stuff like that and then watching them try to analyze her. It was mostly to make Emilia smile, as she loved seeing the dull men and women (excluding her husband, of course) be uncomfortable.

"Perhaps a little warmer than cool."

Olivia was not prepared for that comment and she snorted in amusement. Who knew her old Professor had such a dark sense of humour?

She had nothing else to say, really, and she really wanted some more coffee without having to pay for it. The witch pulled her wand out of her pocket and pointed it at the empty cup. She looked around to see whether anyone who would snitch was watching and muttered a spell Sophia had taught her. Coffee filled the cup and Olivia smiled. It wasn't really the best coffee in the world, but it was free and it was caffeinated.