Work Text:
The Enchanted Brew was busy the morning Blaise first saw her from across the room. She was talking to the owner and it appeared the conversation was going well. Both of them were smiling, but there was something special about her smile. Blaise recognized her but he couldn't put a finger on why until she turned around.
"Hermione Granger," he said, his mouth dropping in awe. What in Merlin's name was she doing applying for a job at the Enchanted Brew? Shaking his head in disbelief, Blaise made his way out from behind the bar and over to where Hermione was now standing beside her boss.
As he approved, Hermione's eyes went wide when she noticed Blaise coming toward her. A smile pulled at her lips seeing an old friend. "Could you excuse me one moment?" she asked her soon-to-be boss with an awkward grin. "I've just caught sight of someone I haven't seen in a very long time."
The man she was speaking to glanced over his shoulder and saw Blaise making his way toward them. He laughed, turning his attention back to Hermione to offer her his hand. "We'll have plenty of time to chat later when your shift starts," he said smiling gently. "Just don't keep him distracted too long. We've got a lot of people here today."
"Thank you," Hermione replied, squeezing his hand before dropping it as he moved past her. All of her attention was back on Blaise. A wide smile grew on her face as she wrapped her arms around his neck as he embraced her. She shook her head in amusement as she spoke, "Blaise Zabini."
"Hermione Granger," he laughed, pulling away from her for a moment to get a good look at her. "What are you doing here?"
"Applying for a job," she laughed, taking a step back as she ran a hand through her curls as she studied him. "What are you doing here?"
"I work here,' Blaise replied, motioning toward his apron with a shrug. "It's a pretty sweet gig, but you're telling me that Hermione Granger, the brightest witch I've ever had the pleasure of knowing, needs a part-time job at the local coffee shop? The last I heard, you had some big fancy title at the Ministry."
Hermione rolled her eyes as she nodded her head. "I did, but I wasn't happy. So I quit," she said, shrugging her shoulders. "And now I'm here. What can you tell me about this place?"
Blaise looked around at The Enchanted Brew, catching sight of several of his regulars watching him out of the corners of their eyes. He was a bit of a flirt when he was working behind the counter, but that's all it ever was and his regulars knew that. They were all sweet, older witches who just liked the extra attention. He knew they would ask him about Hermione as soon as she left.
"The Enchanted Brew has become a home away from home for me," Blaise began, shoving his hands into his apron pocket. "You'll have regulars who make you feel like part of their family, they'll tell you everything about their lives - even the things you don't want to know. And the staff is a pretty tight-knit group, you seem to get along well with Chris and we already get along, so I think you'll feel right at home here."
"That's exactly what I was hoping for," Hermione said, the smile on her face broadening again. "I'm so excited to get started."
"When's your first shift?" Blaise asked, raising a brow as he smiled at her.
"Tonight," Hermione answered quickly. "Chris wants to train me as a closer."
Blaise tossed his head back with a laugh and glanced back over his shoulder at Chris. "Then you really did impress him," he said, turning his attention back to Hermione. "He only wants people he trusts to open and close The Enchanted Brew."
Hermione quirked a brow as she directed her gaze to Chris standing behind the counter keeping a watchful eye over their conversation. "I take it he trusts you enough to let you work the opening shift?"
"As always, Hermione, you would be correct," Blaise teased, cupping Hermione's elbow with his hand. He watched as her eyes dropped to his hand and caught a flush of pink on her cheeks. A smile pulled at his lips and as he opened his mouth to say something, he heard Chris calling after him. Blaise hung his head in defeat and dropped his hand from Hermione's elbow. "I've gotta get back to work. But I'll leave you some notes to help you get through your first shift tonight."
"Thank you, Blaise," Hermione said, reaching up to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear. "I'm so excited that we'll be working at the same place. We'll have to get together sometime."
"Don't let Chris work you too hard," Blaise said, turning on his heel to head back to the counter. "You'll do great."
Before Hermione could say anything else to him, Blaise was already hard at work creating something for one of the women who had been staring at them. She shook her head with a laugh before making her way up to the counter. Hermione figured if she was going to work here, she should probably know what the coffee tasted like.
Ten minutes later, she was on her way back out of the shop and headed home to relax before she needed to be back at the Enchanted Brew, happily sipping away on the Chai Latte Blaise had made for her at Chris's insistence. Hermione wasn't a particular fan of the taste of coffee, but she was a sucker for a good chai and this was a good one.
. . . . . . . . . .
The rest of Blaise's shift seemed to fly by as he jotted notes down on sticky notes and placed them in spots that would be obvious to Hermione, but not so obvious to any customers who happened to watch her make their drinks. He could feel Chris staring a hole into the back of his head as he placed his last note, so he stuck the note to the side of the espresso machine and exhaled as he turned on his heels to face his boss.
"Can I help you with something, Chris?" Blaise asked, leaning back against the countertop.
"What are you doing?" Chris asked, crossing his arms over his chest as he looked his employee up and down. "How do you know Hermione?"
Blaise laughed, rolling his eyes. "I'm just making some notes to make my friend, Hermione's, first shift go a little bit smoother."
"That's my job," Chris scoffed, narrowing his gaze at Blaise. "Do you think I won't do a good job training her?"
"No, that's not it at all," Blaise said, pushing away from the counter and grabbing a note off the side of the espresso machine. He handed it to Chris and waited for him to read it. "Most of them are just wishing her good luck and telling her that she's doing a good job. A few of them are some things that if she does it at night, then when I come in to open the next day things will go a lot easier."
"Oh," Chris said, nodding his head slowly as he handed the note back to Blaise. "Sorry, I jumped to conclusions. It just seemed like you two were really close when you were talking earlier."
"That's the first time I've seen her since graduation," Blaise replied, shrugging his shoulders. "Do you need me to do anything else or should I go ahead and clock out?"
Chris looked up at the clock before returning his attention back to Blaise. "I've got it all covered. Have a good evening, Blaise."
"Don't work her too hard," Blaise teased, brushing past him and patting a hand on his shoulder. He slipped the pack of sticky notes out of his pocket and scribbled one more note for Hermione and stuck it to the mirror in the staff room. Then he took his wand out of his pocket and touched it gently against the note, hiding it from anyone except Hermione. Chris had already caught him leaving the other ones, so they didn't need to be hidden, but this one was special.
Blaise gathered his belongings from his locker, but before he left the back room, he stopped at the sticky note and kissed his fingers before placing it against the note. "Good luck tonight, Hermione. You've got this," he whispered.
. . . . . . . . . .
"This is the employee locker room," Chris explained, holding the door open for Hermione as she stepped inside.
The room was small, but it was a locker room, not a lounge, so smaller was better. She could see name tags on each of the lockers. Her heart warmed when she saw her name on a locker next to one with Blaise's name on it. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught sight of a note stuck in the mirror. With a furrowed brow, Hermione reached out to grab it off the mirror but before she could, Chris interrupted her.
"There's an Enchanted Brew t-shirt in your locker. I had to guess on the size, but I'll let you get changed and then we can get started on your training," he said, taking a step backward through the door.
"Thanks," Hermione murmured, checking to see that he was gone before reaching for the note again, bumping the mirror in the process.
It was great to see you today, Hermione. I'm sorry we didn't get a chance to catch up earlier, but I'm excited to know we'll be working together - even if it's on different shifts. I left you a bunch of sticky notes with some extra guidance that will make your shift go smoothly.
I thought it would be kind of fun to pass notes back and forth like this, so I left a pack of sticky notes in your locker. It's up to you if you'd like to use them.
Have an amazing first shift tonight and let's get dinner soon.
BZ
"He's so sweet," Hermione hummed, folding up the note and tucking it in her pocket. She turned her attention to her locker and pulled out the pad of sticky notes first scribbled a note for Blaise and stuck it to his locker. Then pulling her wand out of her purse, she tapped the note to hide it until Blaise came in the next morning.
Meanwhile, back at Blaise's flat, he was standing in front of his washroom mirror, washing his face as he was cleaned up from his day. He scrubbed his hands over his eyes and when they fluttered open, he saw Hermione in the locker room in his mirror. She pulled the Enchanted Brew t-shirt out of her locker and set it on the bench.
Hermione turned back around and reached for the hem of her shirt, but paused when she looked into the mirror and saw Blaise staring wide-eyed back at her. She moved forward and touched the mirror.
"Blaise?" she whispered, running her fingers along the mirror. "What did you do?"
"What do you mean?" Blaise hissed, grabbing for a towel off the rack to dry his face. "I didn't do any…"
His voice trailed off as his eyes went wide.
Hermione furrowed her brow and crossed her arms over her chest. "I can't stay in here forever. Chris is going to come looking for me and I don't think he'll be happy to see you staring into the locker room through a mirror."
"Chris won't be able to see me," Blaise said, hanging his head. "When I disguised the note on the mirror, it must have enchanted the mirror too. You are the only one who can see me."
"Oh," Hermione replied, contemplating her next move. She let out a sigh when she realized that one of them needed to fix this and she was the only one here. "Your note was very sweet and I like the idea of communicating through sticky notes during our shift."
Blaise smiled nervously, rubbing a hand over the top of his head. "I'm glad you thought so. What are we going to do about the mirror?"
"I'm going to clean up your mess," Hermione teased, shaking her head. "Just like I used to do for Ron and Harry. You are going to owe me dinner after this."
"Wherever you want," Blaise replied, offering her a wink.
"Good night, Blaise," Hermione huffed, tapping her wand against the mirror. Her heart ached for a moment when he disappeared, but it was for the best. She tucked her wand into her locker and changed her shirt quickly.
Before she left the locker room, Hermione pressed a kiss to the sticky note on Blaise's locker. This new adventure at The Enchanted Brew was going to be everything she ever needed and more.