All right. Two more days til summer school is out, and then I’m FREE. Or relatively so, until consequences of procrastination kicks in. Anyhoo, enjoy!

Disclaimer: just memorize the previous ones and apply them here…

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“We ran out of tomatoes?” Draco looked up from where he was busy tenderizing a giant piece of dead cow. Orla nodded glumly.

“That football team that came in earlier was unexpected. They all ordered the same thing; salad, and not only are we out of tomatoes, the spinach supply is nearly gone,” she told him. Draco frowned.

“It’s five already. The dinner o’clock is rolling around soon,” Draco mused out loud.

“The greenmarket should still be open,” Wayne suggested, looking unhappily at the empty crate of vegetables. “If you want, I can go buy some more?”

Draco scowled. “You can’t tell apart iceberg lettuce from potato leaves. Quirke, take over while I go get some more things. Are we lacking anything else?”

“Nothing life-threatening, sir,” Wayne said, looking slightly disappointed.

“Good. Castor!” The older man poked his head into the kitchen.

“Yes?”

“Hopkins and I are going to buy vegetables. We’re out of the tomatoes,” Draco said, taking off his hat. Wayne and Castor looked at him, surprised.

“Sorry? Tomatoes?” Castor repeated, blinking.

“Yes. Tomatoes.”

“Of course. You’d better run. Su’s in the loo, and I’ll cover for you.” Castor caught Draco’s hat easily and also the apron Orla tossed him.

“We’ll be back in half an hour,” Draco called, striding out from the back door, motioning Wayne to hurry up.

~

“Cho, this is Tomasina Michaels. Sina, this is my sister, Cho.” Cho nodded and smiled politely. Tomasina was a tall, leggy woman with fly-away brown curls. She had wide-set green eyes and a lopsided smile.

“Hi,” she said, taking Cho’s hand and shaking it warmly. Cho smiled genuinely.

“Nice to finally meet you,” she returned, and they sat down. Cho looked around the café, and realized uneasily that it bore many similarities to another café she’d been in recently, minus the screaming chefs [although that wasn’t necessarily bad. It sure made eating out much more interesting].

“Ren says you’re a doctor,” Sina said, trying to start a conversation.

“Ah, well, I’ve just finished my studies last year, so I’m still fairly new at all of it,” Cho laughed. “What do you do?”

“I work at a hair salon.”

“Do you? Really? Where?” Cho asked, eyes wide. She’d been thinking of cutting her hair, but never could find a good hair stylist.

“Over on Thomsen Street, next to the optometrist office. The sign says ‘Michaels & Michaels’. My two older sisters opened it after they went to cosmetology school.”

“Her two sisters can’t do hair as well as Sina though,” Ren put in, making the girl blush. “By the by, Cho, what do you think of this café?”

Cho looked around and turned back to her brother. “Not bad. Although the name is a bit strange. Café Fonce de Cheval? The Fighting Horse Café?” Lor, even the names sounded similar. She uneasily thought back to the humongous bill she hadn’t paid yet.

Thankfully, their appetizers came then, and Cho happily turned her mind away from that issue.

“Oh! This is good!” Cho said in surprise, looking at her brother almost incredulously. “You, whose sense of taste is nearly limited to burgers and chips, actually coming across a good French restaurant? Good Lor!”

Her brother, to his credit, managed to look only mildly insulted.

“I don’t know whether I’ll take that as an insult to my taste or on my ego.”

“Don’t worry; it serves a double purpose,” Cho reassured him happily, spearing an asparagus. Sina bit her lip, trying to hold back a grin.

“You like French food?”

“Like it? I love it!”

“Love it? She obsesses over it. Every time we hold a conversation, she starts going into detail about the qualities of the latest French restaurant she went to. Heck, she doesn’t even stop at French, she goes straight into Mexican, Italian, Vietnamese and Korean. She can eat out a horse. In fact, she nearly did so two days ago, ain’t that right, sis?” Ren asked, laughing. Cho looked sour.

“Oh, be quiet. I don’t want to think about that yet.”

“What happened?” Sina asked, confused. Ren eagerly began to explain.

“You see, Cho broke up with her boyfriend, so she goes out to this restaurant and orders everything on the-”

“Eep!” Cho squeaked, and then suddenly dropped from her seat to hide under the table.

“Cho?! What are you-”

“Shh!! Can’t you see I’m trying to hide?!” Cho hissed desperately, holding an empty plate in front of her face. But it was too late. Draco Malfoy and his companions had already spotted her through the window.

“Oh, damn oh damn ohdamnodamodam!” Cho swore, trying to caterpillar away as fast as possible, alarming the other diners.

“Excuse me, miss! Will you-”

“Shut up! Can’t you see I’m busy!” Cho snapped, not bothering to look up.

“Cho! Get up this instant! What in the Good Lord’s name are you trying to do?!”

“Not so loud, Ren! They’ll hear you!” Cho whispered, looking over her shoulder at her brother, looking flabbergasted. “I’ll explain later. Meet me at the- Oof!”

Headlong, Cho had run into a pair of legs and her excursion across the floor was stopped.

“Meet where exactly, Chang?” a cold voice asked, and Cho felt her stomach sink.

‘Damn damn damn,’ she cursed, and tried to scoot backwards.

“Oh, no. I don’t think so,” Draco said dryly. “Hopkins, bring her up.”

“Right sir,” Wayne said, and helped Cho to her feet, giving her a nervous, apologetic look. Cho looked up and swallowed when she met Draco’s cool aloof gray eyes.

“…Er. Hehe. Hullo Malfoy. Fancy meeting you here. Haha, hoohoo, what a coincidence, ey?” Cho chuckled weakly.

“Ms. Chang,” Draco stated flatly, before suddenly summoning a yellow rectangular sheet from thin air. “May I present you with your bill.”

Cho meeped and meekly took the bill.

“Excuse me…Excuse me, pardon. Cho, what’s going on?” Ren asked, coming up from behind them. Draco raised a pale brow.

“Er. Nothing, Ren. Just, aha, a little bit of a problem, you know…” Cho explained, trying to push Draco and Wayne outside.

“I don’t know if it’s such a little problem, Chang. It’s a rather large one. Wouldn’t you rather tell Ren right now rather than have to explain later?” Draco asked in an indecently loud voice. Cho turned a brilliant shade of red.

“Shh! Not so loud, you dolt!” she hissed, and Draco just smiled smugly.

“Cho, what’s going on?” Ren asked warily.

“Nothing,” Cho said firmly. “Look Malfoy, I’ll pay later, ok? I swear I won’t run for it.”

“We don’t keep tabs, Chang. You pay now, or you’re scrubbing the dishes.”

“Excuse me! You know just as well as I that I can’t pay off that much!”

“It was your fault for ordering the whole bloody menu! No one asked you eat like a hippo!”

“I needed to!” Cho yelled.

“You were comfort eating!!” Draco roared back.

Suddenly, Draco stopped yelling and swiftly jerked Cho towards him, ignoring her surprised yelp. Something black hurled itself from the kitchen, crashed and stuck into the wall. Had Draco not pulled Cho away, the black object [now identified as a large, rather heavy, flat-bottomed pot] would have brained the woman.

Cho was sprawled awkwardly on Draco, but no one in the restaurant dared so much as twitch as the kitchen door opened and some one strolled out.

She was a medium girl with light brown hair French braided down her back. Her eyes seemed slightly peeved as she reached the scene of disturbance. She had on waitress garb, long white sleeved shirt, black miniskirt, black apron that went to her knees, and a blue pen was rammed over an ear.

Everyone watched wide-eyed as she reached the wall, rolled up her sleeves, took the pot’s handle by two hands and one…two…three…pulled the pot out. A shower of plaster and dust came down with the pot, but she just brushed it off with her apron and turned to everyone else in the restaurant.

“…I apologize for our chef. He’s a little volatile when it comes to his peace being disturbed.” The waitress smiled suddenly, holding the pot by the handle over her shoulder. Then, she suddenly wound up and launched the pot back at the kitchen.

“Harry! CATCH!!!” she shrieked. From the kitchen, there was a loud smack! and some one bawled back,

“Got it, Nat!”

“Good! Now get your sorry arse out here and bloody APOLOGIZE!!” Nat screeched. For a moment, there was silence, and then the doors opened hastily and the chef walked out.

He was a tall man, nearly as tall as Draco, and slightly broader about the shoulders. His longish black hair was tied at the back of his neck and pair of glasses was perched rakishly on the bridge of his nose. Unlike Draco’s white uniform, his was spotted with stains and oil spots, and his hat was a baseball cap instead of the more traditional tall white one. He smiled nervously at everyone in the room as he passed by, and one could hear him murmur apologies to the diners.

Cho didn’t get a clear view of him until he reached them, still apologizing.

“Sorry, so sorry, it’s really very much a habit, you see and- Good God in Heaven!! What is going on!” he yelped, nearly tripping over the mass of limbs that was Draco and Cho.

“…Harry?!” Cho asked incredulously.

“Cho!” Harry’s face turned a bright red. “Wh-what are you doing? And-Lor- is that…Oh. It’s you, Malfoy.”

“Potter.”

“Malfoy.”

“Potter.”

“Malfoy!”

“Potter!!”

“Alright you two, sheeeeut up or go snog in the closet,” Nat said, rolling her eyes. She grinned when the two archenemies recoiled in mutual revulsion.

“Nat, please, no.”

“Harry, its every proper witch’s dream to see you two together. Surely you won’t deprive them of such-”

“Chang, your elbow. In my ribs. Off please!” Draco interrupted, trying to push the woman off of him.

“Cho, what’s going on!” Ren asked.

“I-gah! Stop pushing, Draco! Stop! Stopstopstopstopstop!” Cho yelled, slapping Draco wherever she could reach while struggling to get up.

“Argh! Stop hitting me! Alright, get, off!”

Wayne and Ren both heaved up Cho, then Draco near bounced to his feet, glad to bid farewell to the floor. As soon as he was up, Harry pounced.

“What are you doing here, Malfoy? Come to steal,” here Harry’s eyes took on a maniacal glint, “the secret ingredients to our secret sauce?! Well you’ve been apprehended! You will never get your hands on our secret sauce! Never!”

Everyone stared at the mad chef a beat, and then Draco muttered,

“I knew it. He’s off his rocker. Castor owes me ten.”

Nat glared at Draco and turned to Harry.

“Love, pull yourself together,” she said, and slapped him smartly.

“Right, sorry. Sorry. Sorry!” he yelled at the diners. “So what’s happening?” he asked with a mild expression.

“Chang here got a free meal at our café the other day. She’s got a good sum of money she owes us, and she tried to skip out. So, I saw her through the window, and came in to kindly give her the bill. Otherwise, Potter, believe me, I would never have stepped foot in this grungy, two-bit shack,” Draco explained with a sneer.

“Of course. And your cockroach infested slime-pit is much better?” Harry asked with a slight tilt of his head.

“Certainly,” Draco replied stiffly. But the two were suddenly cut off by another verbal match that suddenly started behind them.

“Cho, what is this about not paying?!” Ren was saying.

“It’s nothing! I swear, I can handle this! I’m a responsible adult!”

“Of course you are, but dammit, it’s February!”

“So?!”

“Your debts! Your debts have to be paid off by the New Year!”

“Oh, posh, Chinese superstition!”

“Well, remember what happened to Uncle Fong? He never paid that debt to his neighbor and from then on he-”

“Don’t have a cow, Ren! I’ll pay it! I’m getting my check this week, so calm down! I don’t plan on being run over by a run-away shopping cart anytime soon!”

“Excuse me?” Nat said politely, and the siblings turned to her. “Please, all four of you. GET OUT OF HERE NOW!!” And with that, she kicked the Changs, Draco, and Harry outside into the cold. “You’re disturbing the customers,” she explained curtly before shutting the door in their faces.

Draco grumbled as he got to his feet. Wayne came hurrying from the restaurant, carrying bags of vegetables.

“Let’s go, Hopkins,” he said gruffly, scowling angrily at the lot of them.

“Yes, sir!”

“Sore loser!” Harry yelled after them. “You’re just jealous because I make better crème brulee than you!”

“Harry! I’m so sorry for the disturbance!” Cho wailed, wringing her hands. “I had no idea this was going to happen!”

Harry turned around to look at his old school mate and smiled cheerfully.

“Oh, no, no. I’m sorry I couldn’t kick out that poncing git for you. Stupid arse. He’s mad with jealousy, you know,” he whispered confidingly. Cho nodded slowly. Humor the mad man.

“So, who’s he?” Harry asked warily, looking at Ren and Sina, who’d just come out.

“Him? Oh, my brother, Ren and his girlfriend Sina. Ren, Sina, this is Harry Potter. He was an old schoolmate of mine,” Cho explained, and exchanged meaningful glances with her brother.

“Nice to meet you, Mr. Potter,” Ren said eagerly, reaching out a hand.

“Likewise, Mr. Chang.” Harry shook Ren’s hand enthusiastically.

“Cho used to talk about you often. We gathered you two seemed to be very close friends,” Ren suggested slyly, and was delighted to see a blush come over Harry’s face.

“Uh, well, she was-very very nice. I never did get the chance to know her as well as, uhm, I’d have liked,” Harry explained stiltedly. He was saved by the café door opening again and having Nat come out.

“I’m sorry, love, I didn’t mean to do that, but you know how you get out of hand sometimes. That’s the fourth wall this season, and I can’t have you ruining anymore!” Nat scolded, looking sharp.

“Sorry, Nat. Oh- by the way, you remember Cho Chang from Hogwarts?”

“What? The Head Girl from Ravenclaw? Yes. Why?”

“That’s Cho there, and that’s her brother and her brother’s girlfriend,” Harry motioned. Nat’s eyes went wide and she broke into a smile.

“Oh, hi! I’m Natalie Macdonald; was in Gryffindor, you know. Wow! Never though…” she shook her head with a surprised look and smiled at them again. “I apologize for this bloke here,” Natalie slapped the back of Harry’s head, ignoring his yelp. “He’s gone a bit strange in the head ever since You-Know-What.”

“Have not!”

“Have too, sweetie. Get back in the kitchen,” Nat ordered, and Harry meekly ‘yes ma’am-ed’.

“I’m really sorry for causing such a disturbance, it’s my fault really,” Cho said miserably, but Nat waved it away.

“Nothing to worry about. We get worse situations here all the time. You just come back inside and we’ll serve you all some nice warm soup, all right? Yes? Good.”

~

Wah, no Nat and Harry are not together. They’re just the owners of the Café Fonce de Cheval [Fighting Horse? Fallen Horse? Ehh? Ehh? Get it? Never mind….]

Wah, reviews and even flames are fine by me!