Chapter III

It was the 22.00 1st of September, and Harry had learned a lot, he was currently in deep thoughts, he was sitting in the relaxation room with some music on in the background. He was nursing a glass of fire whiskey, he was doing that a lot lately, maybe to much.

Reid was right. Drinking didn't do anyone good. His progress in training had almost halted over the last week, he couldn't find the motivation anymore, he didn't know why he was feeling so down. Or maybe he did, it was most probably a combination of things. Missing his school friends Ron and Hermione, he sighed, noting that they would be in Gryffindor common room about now Hogwarts. Hogwarts was the place to be for a sixteen year old wizard, yet here he was, in America of all places.

Yes he had enjoyed America and the training he had received, he enjoyed the company of people who knew how to deal with loss where he wasn't the only one awake in the middle of the night screaming, but he was cutting himself of, even from these people who understood him better then the average Hogwarts student, the reason, simple he was falling in depression.

Jules had been his rock during his stay, she and her bubbly nature had kept his mind of the prophesy, of his friends of Hogwarts and even of the death of his relatives, while had not held love for them it was the last connection of family which was gone, now he was alone. His friends half way around the world. No family, not even his trusty owl Hedwig he sighed again. He had tried to keep himself occupied with other things like reading and studying. While that was all well and good, and it helped but you can only learn so much theory before wanting to put it to the test which would require doing magic, doing magic required mental input and/ or emotions which would lead to memories. It was a circle and it just kept on going. So after his rock had crumpled Harry felt himself move further in the circle then before.

He found himself wondering what his friends were doing right now. He knew that the war was still at a low point with Voldemort building his main force and planting informants to gather intelligence. Various sources also reported that he was looking for Harry. He knew Voldemort couldn't reach him here, there were simply to little people that knew of his current occupation and location to betray him and not face the consequences.

Then there was Jules, his crumpled rock. He didn't know what to think, he realized what he felt around her, he was attracted. He knew that much from his short time with Cho, he recognized the flipping of his stomach and he caught himself watching her from a distance. Problem was that he was sixteen and she was twenty meaning a difference of four years and with the way she was acting he didn't see anything happening soon anyway. He had often wondered at her age and position, she was twenty but apparently very talented seeing as how she had wrestled herself through auror training in under two years and after that she was almost immediately invited by Alcer himself to join his AEC squad, she had accepted and continued in the same way as she had ended fast. She had as good as finished her training in under six months, because of her already impressive legal knowledge and magical education she had a far better basic then most her age and it showed. She was strong, when pushed she would be able to hold Reid till a stalemate which was something seeing as he was twice her age and had three times as much education time, the only thing she lacked was leadership skills which she either just didn't understand or simply didn't want.

Harry had been the first to come even close to keeping up with her impressive record but that chance was gone now with almost a week of making no real magical progress his record attempt had been squashed. Jules seemed to have lost her bubbly self as well making more members then him feeling worse and more somber then before, only Cold seemed to be unaffected but then that could all be a fluke, an appearance, a desire not to show weakness as Cold would often put up a mask to ensure nobody came to close to him. Harry had appearantly come to close as he had slammed down his mask and retained his cold facade from earlier.

Then there was Reid who was only there half of the time now, spending the other half with Alcer making battle plans and going through possible threats. Benson was Benson and always would be so he could be found in the library or playing chess against either Alcer who sometimes dropped in or Reid who sought to better his Healer but mostly failed spectacular.

Taking another sip of the burning liquid he vowed to himself to talk to Jules and see what is bugging her so. Putting down his glass he forced himself to stand up and walk to the Pool area where he would find Jules.

Arriving in the pool area however there was no sign of Jules anywhere, thinking on it for a bit he remembered Reid's words on the first night at HQ

Valos will be either swimming or dancing in some club, seeing as it is Wednesday she'll probably be swimming as she normally only goes out in weekends.

Damn he forgot that it was Saturday night and of course Jules would be dancing, cursing his luck he walked into the Gym to find Cold.

Finding Cold as ever didn't prove to be that hard, the imposing man was currently doing bench presses in a rapid tempo. "Hey can I ask you something ?" Harry asked.

"Sure what is it." Was the short answer. "Do you by any chance happen to know which club Jules goes to in the weekends ?" He tried to keep his tone casual but Cold stopped his bench presses and give him a hard look. "Why would you want to know that, She goes dancing for a reason Harry, to lose herself for a few hours and be as normal as any young woman her age is." he finished of by returning to his presses and signaling that the conversation was over. However Harry had to give it one more shot. "Look Cold I know something is up and honestly I want to know what it is before it gets out of hand, But I need to talk to her now before I lose my nerve and never will. This can't go on like this everything is suffering from the tension in here and it has to be resolved before things go bad."

Cold stopped his presses again and gave him another hard look after what seemed like minutes he finally let out a long sigh. "Look Harry I'm not gonna lie to you. The reason Jules is so down and the tension in here is all you, simple as that. If you do want to know why however then I suggest you be ready in thirty minutes and I'll have a portkey ready for you to take you to where Jules usually hangs out." He gave Cold a grateful look before walking up to his room and picking out an outfit.

He took a quick shower, shaved and put on some baggy black pants and a tight emerald colored shirt, he quickly brushed his hair but decided to leave it hanging to his shoulders instead of tying it back. Putting his two wrist holsters back on but not before disillusioning both of them. He walked out of the bathroom and down the stairs into the relaxation room to find Cold sitting on the couch. "If you mess this up Potter the consequences will be most dire." the tone Cold used made Harry falter slightly What did he mean mess it up, I'm just going for a damn talk. "Right" was his intelligent reply, while holding out his hand for the portkey.

Cold muttered something and tapped the note he was holding and dropped it in Harry's outstretched hand.

The tugging sensation dropped him an a deserted ally, Looking at the note he was holding he saw one word scribbled on the back "Lunar" he took that as his clue and walked out of the ally. With absolutely no idea where he was whatsoever he stopped the first person he came across and asked about the place called Lunar. The directions were vague at best but nonetheless he walked off in the general direction he was given. Stopping a few more people underway and asking for more directions he eventually found the club. Seems Cold had taken some vindictive pleasure in having him walk half across the town his was in.

It was a bit of a shady place at least thats what it looked like from the outside, gathering his courage he was about to walk in when he heard one of the bouncers ask for ID from the people who walked in front of him. Thinking fast he couldn't come to a solution to get him in, if they were to ask about his ID he would be done for, he could always charm the man to let him pass but that would be tricky in such an open environment with so many people.

Resorting to just try he walked in as casually as he could manage and greeted the bouncer with a nod. Witch after some hesitating was returned by the large man. Thank God for that he thought while entering Only to find himself in front of the entry register with no money Damn. He royally fucked this up, how could he forget to bring money. Fuck He cursed his stupidity while turning around and walking back out.

He sat down on a bench opposite of the club and thought things over again, he still couldn't believe how stupid he was to forget to take some money with him. Better yet he still hadn't received his bank card. Reid was probably holding it for him, Ugh, now what. His luck changed however when he saw a side entrance in the ally next to the club open up and a man walk out with a black shirt and STAFF on the back bringing out some trash. Figuring he had nothing to lose he walked in to the ally and tried the door only to find now door handle his side Sweet...just my luck. He casually leaned back against the wall next to the door and took out one of his wands to open the door magically. When the door swung open again and the same man as earlier came out.

He spotted Harry immediately, while Harry carefully hid his wand by turning it upside down and holding it against his fore arm. "There you are come in your late." He said while ushering him inside, He was thinking frantically as to what was going on. When he turned to ask the man about it he received a handful of shirt from the man "Put this on, its the most busy night since ages. You got the isle bar together with Ramone" The hell! What the fuck is going on. However before he could register what was going on he was ushered into the club and met the blearing speakers head on.

Another light push and he was shoved onto the dance floor, he simply walked for the bar which the man was pushing him too, arriving there he opened the low door and ushered Harry. "Hey Ramone teach this guy the robes hes new here." before walking off leaving Harry with Ramone. "First night huh ?" Ramone asked him. Deciding to play the game for now he answered "Appearantly" while pulling the shirt over his head. "Well its a busy night so just watch me for a bit and when you think you can handle it jump into the fray. I don't have time to explain everything right now as you can see."

And indeed he did the bar was crowded with people waiting to be served some got rude after some time and some just waited patiently for their turn. He looked around and saw where the soda was being kept he saw the bottles of beer in the fridge and the stronger alcoholic beverages on the top shelve surrounding the bar. He looked over as Ramone took tokens with the name "Lunar"on them from costumers as payment. He looked around and saw a list of prices on the central pillar of the bar. Deciding he had seen enough he went to help his first costumer.

It was an hour later before he really got the hang of it and jumped from one person to the order taking orders and serving them. Meanwhile he was getting slightly intoxicated by the amount of shots he had to take due to people ordering for him. Appearantly it was required to drink with the costumer when asked. This is nuts he thought, I'm no closer to finding Jules as I was two hours ago and now I'm stuck here in... His thoughts were caught off though cause to object of his thoughts was standing right in front of him with and easy smirk on her face "Well well Mr. Potter however did you get yourself into this predicament" She chuckled at his panicked face. "An sixteen year old behind the bar of a club serving strong alcoholic beverages." She still had a slight smile on her face "Ill take a Bacardi Coke, if you can manage that." She said in a teasing tone.

He was still recovering before reaching for a long drink glass and plunging it into the ice bucket, whipping it out he tipped the Bacardi bottle of the shelve and easily caught it upside down above the glass and pouring a generous amount of the clear liquid in the glass. He reached behind him in the fridge and pulled out a bottle of Coke, and filled the glass up to two fingers below the brim. Handing her the glass "Its on the house" he said with a smirk "we need to talk though." He said in a more serious tone. "Looks like your all tied up for the night Harry, We'll talk when your shift is over." And with that she turned around and walked of, Harry simply couldn't resist checking out her backside, what he didn't count on though was her throwing a him a last look over her shoulder meaning that he was caught staring.

With a blush he snapped out of it and turned around to help someone else.

Its was 6 in the morning when the club finally emptied of all people and Harry was about to walk out when he was called back and got a broom for his effort to walk off. "Sweep to dance floor and you can go, Ramone is holding your payment." With that the man walked of again. With a sigh he went at it and started sweeping the dance floor. After some thirty minutes he walked up to Ramone who was appearantly cleaning up the bar. "I'm done" he said slightly breathless.

"So you are" Ramone said with an easy smile on his features while whipping out a few notes. "There you go, 60 dollar. And another 20 dollar in tips. I'm curious however to who you are, the new guy had called in sick a few hours before and then you pop up out of the blue." While taking the cash Harry couldn't for the life of him think of a believable answer so he simply shrugged. "Well I could see you were having fun and you were handling yourself nicely so if you want I might be able to offer you a more permanent position. Let me know alright ?" He said while handing him a business card. "Sure" he said while reaching to take of the shirt. "Keep the shirt, just in case" he said with a wink before turning back around.

Harry walked of in the general direction of the exit and greeted the bouncer with a slow smile as the bouncer raised an Eyebrow at him.

A/N: There it is like 5 times less then the other chapters but I'm hoping to get back into it let me know what ya think