Opening Night {Open to one and all}

[Trace Wang]

Trace walked around his restaurant, setting little details right. All the chef's were ready to start cooking and feeding the guests. Trace was excited to be opening his mother's restaurant. Even after finding out that she had adopted him, he hadn't really looked to find his actual parents. He walked out and opened the doors to his restaurant, holding them open so people could walk in as they pleased.

[Damon Dearborn]

It was kind of by chance that Damon found his way over to the Chinese restaurant. He was just having another one of his little jaunts in town, just to get out of the house for a while. His parents, for some reason, seemed to have an issue with him spending all day lounging around the pool and not doing anything worthwhile. Not that he did anything worthwhile out of the house, either.

He'd actually spent the day at the Quidditch stadium in town, watching a game. The Wimbourne Wasps were playing, and they had always been one of his favorite teams. And it was always satisfying to see them win, even if it was only against the Chudley Cannons.

Now he was hungry, and although his plan was to head over to the Hot Panini, he stopped short as he passed the new Chinese restaurant. Wonderful smells were coming from inside, and, well, Damon never could turn down a good meal.

There was a man holding the door open, and he approached him. "Hi there," he said. "Do you own this place?"

[Trace Wang]

Trace smiled professionally, "I am," he held out his hand for the man, "Trace Wang, owner and manager of the Royal Dragon."

[Damon Dearborn]

Well, the man certainly didn't look Chinese, but Damon wasn't about to comment about that. As much as he was known for having a big mouth, he did know how to behave appropriately.

"It's nice to meet you, Mr. Wang," Damon replied. "I'm Damon Dearborn. It's nice to have a different sort of place to eat in Hogsmeade... the only other restaurants are French-type. If we want Chinese, we usually have to go to London. So I really hope you do well here, sir."

[Trace Wang]

Trace grinned crookedly, "Yes, you Brits need a little culture shock from across the world." As much as he liked French and English food, his Chinese food was much better.

[Kingsley Shacklebolt]

Kingsley walked into the Chinese restaurant and silently thanked whatever God had answered his prayers. Chinese had to be one of his favourite types of food, and unfortunately it was one of the few dishes the House Elves knew how to make. He only got to order it when he was on holiday from school, and that was the one flaw Kingsley had ever had with Hogwarts.

But now those sad, dark days had gone. He sauntered into the restaurant, taking a quick roster of everyone that he could see gathered. Man in cowboy hat (different). Man talking to him (not so different). A few other people here and there. Kingsley decided to take a seat in the table in the middle of the restaurant, his back to the far wall and facing the door. He liked the feeling of keeping an eye on things, and he was hoping that his friends had gotten his notes in time to join him.

[Trace Wang]

Trace nodded his head towards the man who walked in but didn't turn away from the man he was talking to. When the man had sat down a young woman walked up to his table, smiling, "What can I get for you today sir? We just got a new shipment of delicious chicken and battered it in our famous orange sauce." She was dressed in a pair of black slacks, black, silk slippers and a red silk kimono top, her black hair pulled in a high bun held up with chopsticks.

[Marlene McKinnon]

Chinese food in Hogsmeade... it was a positively brilliant idea, and one that was long overdue. Marlene could imagine long nights of studying over a carton of Chinese takeout. It sounded perfect to her, and she couldn't help but wonder if they would be able to deliver to the school grounds.

Kingsley was, unsurprisingly, over the moon about the idea, and he headed over there as soon as class let out for the day. Marlene had a last minute meeting with Professor Slughorn about her potions essay, so she would have to wait a few minutes. But when she ran into Alice, Frank, and Hestia, she invited them along as well. Surely Kingsley wouldn't mind, right? The more the merrier.

The meeting didn't last long, and soon she was on her way to Hogsmeade. She found the restaurant easily enough and paused to nod her greetings to the man in the cowboy hat, who must surely be the owner, before she found Kingsley, already looking ready to order.

"Not getting impatient, are you?" she teased, slipping into a seat across from him. "I hope you don't mind, but I invigted Alice and Frank and Hestia, too."

[Kingsley Shacklebolt]

Kingsley coul feel his taste buds doing a tango as he read over the menu. General Tso chicken and crab rangoon and chow mein and fortune cookies! It was heaven. He was so engrossed in the menu that he almot didn't see Marlene making her entrance, but as she came closer he managed to pull his eyes away.

"Me? Impatient? My dear Marlene, when have you ever known me to be impatient?" Except for when it comes to Chinese he added silently.

He picked up a pair of chop sticks from the table and started drumming on the table with them as Alice told him about the others. A small part of him was disappointed that it wouldn't be just him and Marlene.

His drumming skipped a beat.

But on the other hand there hadn't been many opportunities for the lot of them to spend time together since the start of their seventh year. It would be good to have an evening with friends and food. Especially if that food was Chinese.

"Great! I've been wanting to have us all together for some time. I especially need to talk to Frank. I want to know how things are going between, well, you know..." he smiled and scratched his head. "Nevermind, guy stuff. So, you hungry?"

[Hestia Jones]

Hestia had managed to leave her meeting with Kole early enough to be fashionably late to her dinner with her friends. She sighed. Like they would be surprised. As far as they were concerned, she was late every where she went. But she made an exception to go crazy with a crammed schedule just so she could see her lovely best friends. After all, her only friends were her best friends. These were the people she met first year and never separated from.

Luckily for Hestia, the ministry let people affiliated with them use the floo network. She could easily floo to a location nearby and walk to the chinese restaurant. A chinese restaurant. Of all things to offer in England. She was slightly disappointed. She was almost hoping for a mexican place. Hestia could never get over mexican after trying it once when she went to the States with her parents. She shook her head. Some one was speaking to her and she had been off in her own world. Apparently, the nearest floo in Hogsmeade was a nearby pub. She rolled her eyes. Of course, somewhere shady and seedy. Perfect.

The walk from the pub to the restaurant took all of five minutes. When Hestia walked in, she noticed a couple of workers, a few customers, a man in a cowboy hat (which Hestia thought highly unusual for a chinese restaurant), and two people sitting at a table not far from the door. She beamed. She knew immediately who these two were. She practically skipped over and gave Marlene a big hug from behind. She didn't really notice before, but she was extremely excited to finally have time with her friends without books or essays.

"Hello Mar!" Hestia walked over and gave Kingsley a bear hug too. "Kings!" She smiled and slipped into a seat next to Marlene. Her friends were surely going to notice that she was unusually excited. "So, how has everyone's day been? Anything exciting? Besides this lunch of course."

[Trace Wang]

Trace's grin grew as he saw people keep walking into his restaurant. He smiled and acknowledged each of them that walked into his restaurant. He excused himself from the young man and walked around his restaurant, asking the people if they enjoyed their food. He saw a young waitress, newly hired standing at the table with some of the students from Hogwarts asking if they wanted anything to drink.

[Marlene McKinnon]

Marlene, of course, had no clue that Kingsley had hoped for a little time alone with her. The idea had never occurred to her, of course. He was Kingsley, and they were friends. It wasn't a date or anything, right? So of course she had innocently invited Frank and Alice and Hestia along.

"I've hardly seen Frank and Alice myself lately. I guess things are going pretty well between them," she replied, a teasing smile on her face as he mentioned "guy stuff." Truthfully, she needed to have the "girl stuff" talk with Alice at some point, too, although she highly doubted that tonight would be the night for that. Anyway," she said, looking around the restaurant, "it smells amazing in here. And I like the decor, too. I hope this is better Chinese food than I get back home. Let's face it, Scotland is hardly the Chinese food capital of the world. The last time I had good Chinese food was two years ago in London."

At that moment, Hestia came up to the table, and hugged her from behind. "Hestia!" she greeted her friend. "How are you doing? You look exhausted.... I think you've been working too hard. Sit down.... we're just waiting for Frank and Alice. Assuming they come up for air..."

[Frank Longbottom]

Yes, everything was just fine between Alice and him. Once everything had been settled that they actually loved each other and that small incident (Frank didn't like to think about it), it was perfect. They were in their last year of Hogwarts and he was looking forward to becoming an Auror. Of course he was looking for a life outside of Hogwarts with Alice too.

He felt bad for not seeing his friends that much lately so when he was notified of Marlene, Kingsley, and Hestia, Frank jumped at the opportunity. It would feel even better to spend time with a lot of friends, besides he hadn't had too much 'guy time' with Kingsley and it felt weird not having it. Naturally tonight wasn't going to be just him and Kingsley, but it would be a great opportunity to offer a time for it.

Chinese food was something that Frank hadn't really tried. He had tried the Beef Lo Mein noodles before and that was his favorite. Maybe tonight he would expand to something new.

Along with Alice, he made his way to the new Chinese resturant. Upon entering, he knew exactly who he was looking for and it didn't take him long to find them. "Hey guys," he said walking over to their table.

[Alice Prewett]

Alice was also glad that they finally had a chance for everyone to all get together without worrying about studying. The NEWTs and Frank were occupying all of her time these days, and she was really starting to worry about when the next challenge would come for the tournament. She was the only seventh year in the tournament, and so she was the only one who was too busy studying for the NEWTs to think about the next challenge.

But for tonight, anyway, she was going to push all of that out of her mind and concentrate on having fun talking with her best friends. Marlene, Hestia, and Kingsley had also been busy with their own studying, and she barely even had time to talk to the girls in the dormitory at night.

She walked into the new Chinese restaurant with Frank at her side. Unlike Frank, Alice considered herself an expert in Chinese food. There had been a really good restaurant not far from her home, and she had gone there once a week with her family in the years before she started Hogwarts. So she was really excited about this new place.

It wasn't hard to spot Kingsley, Marlene, and Hestia, and she broke into a smile at the sight of them. "Hi, guys," she greeted them. "I hope we're not late!"

[Hestia Jones]

Hestia gave Marlene a pointed look. "I am exhausted. But I do not work too hard. I work just hard enough for me. Besides, if I want to be the best auror ever, I need to work my arse off to actually get somewhere." About the time she was going to throw her straw wrapper at Marlene, Frank and Alice walked in. Attached at the hip. Of course. Hestia snorted.

"Oh yeah Mar. They came up for air. At the same time. And they'll probably go back under together too." She smiled and looked back down at the menu. She waited until they were settled to look back up and start conversation. "Hey you guys. How is everything going? Frank, how's auror training going? Met your new superior yet?"

[Kingsley Shacklebolt]

Kingsley was floating above cloud nine. It seemed like forever since the five of them had been gathered together, carefree and just having a good time.

Okay, so they weren't so carefree now. Everyone was struggling under the pressure of exams even though they were still months away from graduation. It was a lot to carry on their shoulders for so long, so it was more than overdue that they all get together and have one evening to completely forget theri problems.

Besides, what better way than with Chinese?

Kingsley greeted Hestia, returning her hug with full force.

"My darling Hestia, I'm afraid Marlene is right. All that studying is just going to rot your brain away into nosh. Besides, everyone knows that you must be born with natural Auror talent... like myself." He grinned cheekly at her.

He stood as Frank and Alice entered, giving each of them a hug but slightly lifting Alice off the floor as he embraced her. He sat down and waved over a waitress while chomping on a fortune cookie from the basket on their table.

[Frank Longbottom]

It really was good to see everybody together again. "It's going," Frank replied to Hestia, "and not yet. Everything has been far too busy. These NEWTs are going to be the death of me." He sank into a seat and smiled. Tonight they didn't have to worry about school, any sort of training, nothing but having fun together like old times. Part of him wanted to go back to the time when all they had to worry about was what candy they were going to get from Honeyduke's. It seemed like they had to grow up fast and deal with a lot of pressure but once graduation was over, it would be well worth it, hopefully.

"How has everyone else been other than dealing with studying?"

[Hestia Jones]

"I understand. It was awhile before I met mine. They're having a slight problem supplying mentors for all the people training to be aurors." Hestia shrugged and continued to study the menu. She was starved, so she was probably going to order at least half the menu.

Hestia looked up from her menu and around at her group of friends. It was great to see everyone together again. This group of people she watched grow up. She had seen life, death, tears, laughter, joy, and sadness with them. These adults knew her darkest secrets, her greatest moments, all her fears, and her biggest goals. They've supported her in everything she's done and comforted through the let downs. It made her said to think that in only a few short months, it would be all over. No more Hogsmeade trips, no more sneaking out late, no more laughing in the common room until the wee hours of the morning, and most of all, no more group. It made Hestia extremely sad, so she looked back down at her menu so her friends wouldn't see.

[Alice Prewett]

Alice squeezed Frank's hand and looked around the table at the others. Like everyone else, she was thinking about the simpler times when they were just young students without a care in the world. Alice was already feeling the weight of the world on her shoulders, and she hadn't even reported for auror training yet.

"Honestly, we really should make an effort to get together more often. We could study together, or just take a little break once a week or so. I'm pretty sure I would have gone crazy without Frank, and I think right now is when we need each other the most."

Yes, it was sappy, but Alice was the sentimental one and she was not going to apologize for it.

[Kingsley Shacklebolt]

"At least you two have a head start on me," Kingsley interjected. "I haven't even applied to the Auror apprenticeship program yet. You're ahead of the game at this point, even without a mentor."

Kingsley picked up his chopsticks and tried picking up his napkin with them. He had never been a gifted chopsticks user, but he was determined that tonight he would eat with nothing but these two wooden toothpicks. He paused when Alice mentioned having a weekly meeting and nodded enthusiastically.

"I agree. Even if it's for just an hour or so, we should still try to meet up regularly. Get into some hijinks, forget about school and Auror training. It'll be just like the old days." Or close enough.