Chapter Text
Gellert Grindelwald, is a middle-aged man who is asked to work in a café by his aunt who always takes care of him until now, Bathilda Bagshot. After a few years on the job, Gellert became a barista who was well liked and enjoyed by several longtime customers. Gellert worked after he had to be dismissed from college to study because he was often truant and instead did other things that were not related to his education.
You could say, Gellert enjoyed life more outside the school environment than inside it. Even so, Gellert is an intelligent and extraordinary person. His knowledge in many ways helped him to survive when he had to be kicked out of his own family and taken care of by his now patient aunt, as well as being kicked out of the world of education.
Gellert himself didn't seem to mind.
The café owner turned to find some old customers starting to arrive, enjoying dinner at the café with friends and family.
"Mr. Graham! Here I come!”
The owner of the café who is called Mr. Graham just nodded before inviting his old customer to take the desired seat. Incidentally the café was empty and empty of visitors.
“Thanks for coming”
Mr. Graham turned to Gellert, who had only been busy wiping the glasses and plates provided in the café to be used as a place to store the ordered food and drinks.
“Oh! There's Grindelwald too."
Gellert just smiled at the happiness on one of the customers' faces.
"Oh! I miss your brew, Grindelwald!”
Gellert bowed again with a smile. "If Mr. Graham doesn't mind if I make you one drink, I will do."
"Great!"
Mr. Graham chuckled. "Of course, Gellert. Help me please."
Gellert smiled as the café owner called him by name and in a gentle tone. He bowed again.
"It’ll be ready soon."
"The usual menu, you know?"
Gellert touched his temple with a mischievous expression. “I will never forget, loyal old customers.”
Laughter was heard, and now only old customers from the café owner filled the atmosphere in the café where he worked for 4 years.
Gellert looked up out the window as the buzzing voice of the old customer filled the back of his thinking head. It's been almost half year of his age that Gellert has been single, which doesn't mean he isn't interested in women or love or wants to be in a relationship. According to Gellert, he just hasn't found the right person for it yet. Gellert thought he might end up alone for the rest of his life, accompanying his aunt who had patiently cared for him for a long time.
Gellert had been in a relationship, was in a relationship that almost brought him into the world of marriage, only sadly, Gellert didn't get to that stage. Everything always ends in the middle, or almost towards the end. Gellert didn't mind, but because he was tired of trying to force himself to have a relationship, Gellert thought not to force it anymore.
Gellert will wait for the right moment and the right person.
The sound of the bell signaling customers entering the café was heard. Gellert quickly raised his head, to see who the customers who came that night was, whether old customers like friends of the café owner or not. Gellert was surprised to see a young man who was quite tall and dashing, entered the café while looking here and there. Because it was only him and the café owner that day, no other waiter invited him to the table and chairs or gave him a menu book.
Gellert unhesitatingly stepped out of the waiter and staff counter to provide food and drink and approached the young man.
"Welcome, for how many people?"
"Ah, it's just me."
The young man looked relieved to find Gellert approaching him, when he was confused and didn't know what to do when the café was so empty of customers and waiters. Except for the old customers who surround the café owner.
"Alright. Where would you like to sit? Because it's a bit quiet, you are free to sit anywhere you want."
The young man nodded and pointed to one of the tables and chairs. "Then by the window over there."
Gellert nodded. "Go ahead. I'll bring you the menu."
The young man nodded as he walked to the table he wanted and Gellert turned to the counter for a menu.
Gellert also invited the young man to think about his menu and turned to the counter as he waited.
“Please choose first.”
The young man nodded without hesitation. He looked confused and a little nervous.
When he was about to return, the young man's voice was heard again. "I’ll say it now." Gellert turned around immediately.
"Wait here please."
Gellert raised an eyebrow but nodded at his request. “One Cappuccino and one Croissant.” The young man handed his menu book to Gellert who nodded accepting the order.
“Standardized or sharper in the coffee?”
“Just standard.”
"Alright. Please wait for a while."
Gellert walked back to the counter to prepare the young man's order after the customer had asked him to. Glancing a few times, the young man still looks confused and nervous looking here and there. Until finally he reached for a pocket book that looked like a novel.
In less than twenty-five minutes, Gellert returned with an order for the young man. After seeing Gellert, he immediately put the novel back and observed Gellert placing orders on his table.
"Please enjoy."
"Thank you."
Gellert nodded and was about to return before the customer's voice was heard again.
"Ah, for take-out orders, can you order now or later directly at the cashier?"
Gellert smiled. "You can do both, as you wish."
The young man nodded as he smiled back at Gellert who smiled kindly at him.
"Then, later."
Gellert bowed before turning to go back to the counter.
Silence returned after the new customer came to the café. The café owner and his old customers were still talking so loudly that their voices could be heard throughout the café. Mr. Graham even warned not to be too crowded, because they had another customer who was a young man. They know that the customer is reading a novel with pleasure and seems to have forgotten the world around him. The coffee was half finished and one of the breads he ordered had been finished long ago.
Gellert couldn't help but smile at the various forms of crowds in his working café. Since four years ago too.
Not long after, the sound of footsteps interrupted Gellert's thoughts of many things. It turned out that the young man who was a customer other than the old customer of the café came to the counter on alert. The man smiled at him, more childish now.
“Can I order some to take home?”
"Ah, of course. What do you want?"
Gellert handed him the menu again, before finding him nodding firmly.
“One more cappuccino and one café latte.”
Gellert nodded without hesitation. "Please wait a moment." The youth nodded as he said that to him.
“May I know with whom? So that I can call you when it's done."
“Oh, Scamander. Make it sweet enough, for the café latte.”
The young man said it in a low tone, as if it was uncomfortable to say it out loud.
Gellert nodded as the young man added. "Alright. Please wait."
Two orders ready to take home were ready. Without hesitation, Gellert called the young man who claimed to be a Scamander to take his order. After paying and thanking him, the young man waved his empty hand at Gellert before exiting the café. It can be seen, he is quite satisfied with the service and drinks made by Gellert.
An hour passed, the old customer who was a friend of the café owner finally went home after enjoying the various drinks and food provided by Gellert. They were very satisfied with the service and drinks made by Gellert, as if he was very professional about it. Gellert couldn't help but smile every time he received compliments from various customers about his service and ability to prepare drinks.
"Today is done here. You can go home, Gellert."
"Thank you, Owner."
Gellert walked to the staff door where Mr. Graham cleaned up what was left in his café. Not so much because Gellert had cleaned it up first, and there was little he could clean and tidy up.
Sighing softly, Gellert went out the back door for the staff and café owner. He looked up at the bright but starless night sky. He felt that the day was also quite cold for the size of the summer that had just begun.
"I'd better hurry home."
Gellert walked to his house with his aunt, Bathilda. Tightening the cloak, he was wearing, he stepped briskly back into the house. However, his steps stopped, due to a familiar sight to him.
Gellert remembered the young man, the young man who came alone to his café to enjoy his hot drink as well as a small novel he had brought with him. Alone with no friends or someone for him. Gellert this time saw two people with the young man with their backs to him who was watching them from afar. One appeared to be a grown man, looking just as warm and thick as he was, more so than the young man, whom Gellert remembers being called Scamander, and the other a teenager, the younger of the two, with a face that bore such freckles. the result of smallpox or birthmarks.
Gellert sighed softly, was about to walk again before hearing their voices quite loud outside the café which was quite quiet from the people who used to pass by.
"Are you playing with the animals you keep again?"
The voice of the young man who came to the café was heard first. "To get hurt like this."
"Well, you know that's Newt's character, don't you?"
This time the voice of a grown man chimed in at the young man who came to the café. His voice was so melodious and clear in the middle of this quite quiet part of the city.
"At least he should be able to look after and protect himself too before doing the same thing to the animals he found."
Gellert saw the young man bow. “Here, I bought you a café latte, which is warm and sweet. You said you were going to do an important task didn't you?"
The teenager called Newt just nodded. The young man was seen wiping something on Newt's face with his sleeve. Gellert suspected that the two were brothers, and that the adult male with them was their guardian or father.
"Not the cappuccino you used to drink?"
The young man nodded slowly. "You don't like it do you? So I guess a café latte will be enough to accompany you on your assignment.”
Gellert heard the grown man laugh. "You should have made him hot chocolate, Theseus. Newt is not a grown man like you."
This time Gellert knew that the name of the young man who was the teenager's brother was Theseus. Theseus Scamander.
"Once in a while, professor."
Theseus stood up again. "If I give him hot chocolate, Newt's sleeping and he'll scold me for not waking him up for assignment."
"Hey! You don't need to say that, do you?"
Gellert could finally hear the teenager's voice. His voice was still loud and clear, not unlike the two men with him. It could be seen that Newt was very young and immature like the two men beside him.
Theseus and the man laughed as Newt grumbled. "Well then, let's go home."
Gellert blinked before turning around as they started to walk. Theseus touched Newt's shoulder while the man walked beside Newt. This time Gellert could see the expression on the man's face, the gentle smile that was childish and innocent, as well as the long beard that covered his chin to the bottom of his neck, indicating that Theseus' calls had been true. A professor, who might be a teacher at a school. Not only that, there was a large blue plaid scarf wrapped around his neck, while a plain maroon scarf was wrapped around Gellert's neck.
He has interesting tastes too.
Gellert thought to himself with a small smile. Surprisingly, the grown man caught his attention more than the two brothers he was with.
“Professor, huh? How do it feel about teaching someone?”
Gellert stepped in with the new interest he felt after learning that there was a professor, who could be a teacher at a school not far from his café working. Although the young man who had come to the café, implied that he was not a student who attended the same school as the young teenager.
Unfortunately, Gellert didn't notice that the man was looking at him as well, when Gellert didn't look at the three of them again. As he looked at the back of Gellert who walked into the darkness alone, dressed in all dark and black, the man found Gellert looking so sad and lonely.
Too bad, that person had to walk alone in this quite cold time.