[The Three Broomsticks] My heartbeat beats me senselessly [Conall]

It was somehow hard to believe that Rose had been a Hogwarts student not so long ago, and it seemed as if it had been ages already. However familiar the Hogsmeade streets still felt, their comforting security did little to quell the fluttering in her gut.

Honestly, Rosaline was not even sure as to why she suddenly felt so uncharacteristacally nervous. She had been exchanging letters with her friends ever since graduation, Conall Regan included. The two had grown closer, once more, despite the great geographical distance. One could even go so far as to call some of their exchanges quite flirtatious. Then again, he was still the only person who she had ever so much as kissed...

Now, they were meeting for a lunch date. Rose stood just in front of the Three Broomsticks, wearing one of her more fetching black, lace dresses and a pair of black stillettos. Due to the chill in the air, she wore a green cloak as well. Why her thoughts roamed to the question of whether or not Conall Regan would find her ensemble appealing, she really wasn't quite sure. However, it was a little unsettling...

All the same, she did hope that he would arrive shortly. They did still have quite a lot of catching up to do.

Conall was now single.

So he decided to go celebrate by getting a drink or two at The Three Broomsticks with Rose. He would've brought his other friends along...but he decided he needed to do this alone. Just this one time. Next time he was going to bring his best mate and they could share drinks together. Although Conall did have his own selfish reasons for walking down the path to Hogsmeade alone, and that was two small vials of Virens Ignis in his coat pocket. There was really no need for him to dress up, but he felt like doing so just this one time. After all it had been a while since he had been single, since before he broke things off with Heather he had dated Lucy, and before her had been Lorin. So it was about time he enjoyed himself for once instead of being out and about looking for the next girl.

Rose was the type of girl that understood his desire for drugs and booze. Their relationship was purely based on the love of substance that drove their minds and bodies to another place. Although he was sure she thought otherwise since last time he checked, Rose had only kissed one guy...and that was him. Hopefully she wasn't trying to think of a way to hook up with him. Because Conall just wasn't interested, not because she wasn't pretty, no he found her quite stunning. It was because he was done with always looking for a relationship. The next time it came to him he was just going to let it happen. They had been exchanging letters and perhaps he was being...flirtatious. But he decided not to press the issue while having lunch with her.

Striking blue eyes saw the black, lace dress and black stilettos before it landed on the woman who always worn them..Rosaline. A smile spread across his face as he stopped in front of the dark witch. "Rose, beautiful as always. Shall we?" He motioned towards the pub, waiting for her to step in first before following after her...

Well, this is odd.

Rosaline had honestly half-expected to find him as dazzling as she had used to, when Conall approached her. However... nothing. It was, in fact, a pleasant surprise to the girl. She really did not want to have to endure more of her hopeless cousin's teasing. Bane women, it seemed, suffered from some sort of disease that attracted them to Regan men. Her mother had fancied Dom, while her previously mentioned cousin had had a small crush on Aeric once-upon-a-time. She was thankful that her brain was apparently not quite so muddled by Regan pheromones as theirs. She certainly did not need the problem of being attracted to him. Well, not that she didn't think that he was handsome. He was. There was no woman with functioning eyes who could deny that. However, there just wasn't that... well, whatever it was that had made her want to snog him before, anymore. Thank Merlin. Perhaps it was that she had been surrounded by Italian men since she had graduated? She half-smiled at the thought.

"Thank you." She gave a small nod and walked into the Three Broomsticks before finding a table for the two of them. Her heels made a clacking sound as she strode over to a table in the corner, and she could feel eyes on her as she walked. Rosaline Bane was the sort of girl who generally attracted stares wherever she went, and so she ignored them. Taking her seat, she crossed her legs at the knee before looking at the menu. Food did not sound good. Particularly not pub food. She would simply have some drinks, then. Raising her eyebrows for a moment, in thought, she set the menu back down before looking up at him.

"So, how have you been, Conall?" She smiled. "And how is school? Do you still talk to Cabhan?"

Unlike the other guys in the pub, Conall didn't watch Rose as she walked to the table. His eyes were facing forward at her head as they walked, his thoughts on what had transpired at the Upperclass Men party. He knew Cab was heartbroken over Dwyer, and he felt a bit guilty for not taking his best friend out to drinks so he could forget about the Ravenclaw boy. Yet another part of him was feeling glad that things didn't work out between them. Which was strange because he didn't have a right to be jealous. Not when Cab had pretty much poured his heart out when he had almost OD...which Conall still felt guilty about. He didn't mean to almost die in front of his best friend...or well die at all.

Rose voice broke into his train of thought, his gaze going to her as he took a seat across from the table. "I've been well, school is the same except much more peaceful." Her last question caused his eyebrow to raise as he stared at her. He was sure it was a joke, for her to ask if he still talked to Cab....unless she knew about the younger boy feelings for him. Merlin he hoped not, he was still trying to adjust to the fact that his best mate was in love with him. The boy he had grown up with, who he had worked out with, who he had done almost everything with, is in love with him. Conall couldn't fantom how or why Cab felt that way, he had nothing to give to his best mate. All of his feelings were simply platonic...nothing that could warrant someone to profess their undying love.

Right?

"Of course....we are best mates." Ordering a firewhiskey for both of them (as he was sure Rose enjoyed whiskey), Conall leaned back against the chair. "Why wouldn't we be talking?" Maybe Rose knew something that he didn't...did Cab and her exchange letters that contained thoughts and feelings about him? Of course his outward expression didn't show all of these thoughts moving around his head. For his demeanor towards Rose was one of indifference, as he always showed to those when he wanted to hide his thoughts and feelings. "How about you? The real world treating you well?"

"I find myself missing Hogwarts, from time to time. Are you taking Potions this year?" Rosaline smiled. Her mother was the new Potions Professor. She knew that Conall had as great a love for Potions as she did, and so she assumed that he had already discovered that. The one good thing about her not being in school was, in fact, that. How embarrassing would it be to have her own mother teaching her? She did have a reputation to uphold, after all. Mothers were some of the most mortifying sorts of people, and hers was certainly no exception to that rule. Not that Rose did not love her mother. No, she adored her. However, the thought of Persephone giving her hugs and kisses in front of an entire room of her peers was unsettling. And, so, she was not envious of her younger siblings.

She did miss other things about school, however. Mostly just her friends. Sure, she had continued to write to a great deal of them. However, it simply was not the same as seeing them every day. Still, no matter how long it had been since she had seen him, she could tell that Conall was acting in a very peculiar manner. "It was simply a question, Conall." She offered a small smile. Was there something that Cabhan had not told her? Hm. Ah, well.

"I miss him. That is all. I've seen his brother quite recently, however. I trust that you remember Addreig?" Rosaline smiled a little more when Conall ordered for her. It reminded her of when they had had their little... whatever it had been. They certainly hadn't dated. After all, one could not logically classify sneaking around to snog as being in a relationship. Thank Merlin.

Tucking a bit of hair back behind her ear as they waited for their drinks, Rose opened her mouth to speak, "Oh, things are going rather well... I am intending to move to London, soon, however. I have some more lucrative business opportunities awaiting me, there. Though, I must admit, I will rather miss the Italian weather and landscape..." Not to mention Zachary Incarnadine.

"I can see which parts of Hogwarts would be missed." Conall would miss his friends like Lorin and Cabhan who are sixth years and would still be in school. He would miss wearing the green and silver of Slytherin, and he would miss playing Quidditch. Because after this year he wouldn't be playing the sport on a team anymore. Unless he counted the Regan matches they played when the whole family got together. "Of course. I am aiming to get my NEWTs in Potions so I can become a Potioneer. Your mum is an excellent teacher." He smiled, wondering how she felt about her own mother. Conall would probably be a bit embarrassed if his own mum came to teach at Hogwarts. Thankfully if she ever was it would be after he graduated Hogwarts.

The waitress came by with their drinks and Conall thanked her and then drank some of his.

"Regardless, you know how good of mates Cabhan and I are. Unless he feels otherwise I don't see why we wouldn't be talking." The last time he had seen his best mate they were on good terms, and he was sure nothing had changed their friendship status. Even if Cabhan had professed his loved towards Conall. At the mention of Addreig Conall paused in the middle of taking a drink and looked at Rose with a hard stare. "Don't tell me you are seeing the guy? You do know what he did to Cabhan don't you?" It still gave him great satisfaction that Addreig couldn't do anything to him. The older Dwyer was skinner and on the shorter side. Even when Conall was smaller as a kid, the boy didn't dare try to do anything with Murphy around.

"Lucrative business opportunities?" He put his drink down as a smirk spread across his face. "That sounds so...dangerous." Conall knew a lot about illegal business to know what Rose was talking about. While he wasn't privy to all the things the Regan family was involved in, he knew that most of it wasn't something he should talk about openly to others. "I take it Italian just wasn't lucrative enough for you. Unless it was the Italian men who didn't have the right package." Giving her a wink, Conall leaned back into his seat as he thought about the kind of job that Rosaline Bane was going to be doing in the streets of London.

"Awh. Just like me?" Rosaline could not help but to tease Conall. He made himself to be such an easy target. She smirked across the table at him. "Imitation is, indeed, the sincerest form of flattery." She hadn't realized, until now, just how much she had missed him. Well, talking to him at least. There were things about her friendship with him that she did not miss in the least. Snogging, for one. Not that he was particularly bad at it. It was just that... well, he had wounded her ego considerably after it had all ended. Not that she ever told him that, or even let him know how much he had damaged her. It still hurt to think of how easily he had gone on to the next girl: Lorin, actually.

It was actually quite astounding that she and the younger girl had managed to become friends at all, after that particular injury. Of course, she could not fairly blame Lorin. She could not blame her at all. Conall, however, she still held a small kernel of resentment toward. Not that she had ever actually had feelings for him, nor had they been in a true romantic relationship. Still, the idea of being tossed aside so easily had marred her self-confidence. She was a pretty girl, and she knew it. She had men who wanted her. What man wouldn't? Conall Regan. That's who. And, to be quite blunt, that bothered her.

At any rate, she was happy to hear that her mother was doing well in her new position. Of course, her mother had already owled her all about it. It was good to hear that a student of hers felt the same, however. And, of course Cabhan and Conall were still friends. She nodded at his words, sipping her drink.

When Conall suddenly stopped and stared at her, Rosaline rose an eyebrow. "What? Of course I'm not seeing him. Not romantically. We are simply friends, as we have always been. And... yes. I had heard about that.." Honestly, it really had bothered her. But, she failed to see how it was fair at all for either of them to ask her to take sides. So, she refused to. She would remain friends with both Cabhan and Addreig. If they had a problem with it... Well, tough!

"Yes." Rosaline watched the smirk form on Conall's lips, and her eyes narrowed at him. She knew what he was thinking. He was so inappropriate! He, of all people, should know better than that. After all, she had turned him down for a shag.

"I am selling potions." She declared quietly, not wanting for anyone other than Conall to hear. She knew about his love for potions. Actually, she was sort of hoping that he would be interested in her new "business."