Magical Hogwarts

february 18th

"Honestly, you didn't have to book us a table," Poesy insisted, sounding slightly panicked as she fell into step next to Hunter. Birthdays were never a thing in her family. No one made a fuss. As such, Poesy had sort of come to ignore them. No one she worked with knew what date her birthday fell on and that was just how she liked it. This year, however, she was celebrating with a nice dinner that she didn't think she deserved. Hunter had already given her a really lovely bunch of flowers.

Poesy was thankful for Hunter's insistence that they do something special, despite her being more than happy with drinks and darts down the pub but this did feel very official. Fancy. Nice. As such, she'd dressed smartly, in a blue dress with her long blonde hair curled gently. She just needed to relax into it.

Turning her head, she grinned at him. She was very flattered that he was treating her and honestly, she was glad not to be alone on her birthday. They were headed to a restaurant she'd been to once when she moved back to the UK and she loved it. A family run Italian place with a warm atmosphere and where the wait staff were attentive but gave diners space to enjoy their food without feeling pressured to eat up and leave.

She ducked inside, the warm air and laughter rushing up to meet her. It smelled wonderful, like rich coffee and a whiff of inoffensive garlic that made Poesy's stomach rumble. Once showed to their table, she offered the waiter a smile and opened her menu, her bright eyes scanning over the items. If she were here by herself, Poesy would have ordered several things, put them all in a doggy bag and took them home to her flat so she could eat them on her sofa in her underwear but alas, she had company.

"Thanks for inviting me out," Poesy began with another smile. Work had been stressful, both jobs. She needed a holiday but a few hours away from everyone she didn't like to spend time with the one person she did really like was more than enough. "I hope they have tiramisu~"


@Hunter Street

Sometimes, when women said something they really meant something else entirely. This piece of wisdom had been instilled by Jimmy at an early age, usually whispered to a very small Hunter when he'd brought a new pair of shoes or box of chocolates home to wherever they happened to be living at the time. Hunter's mother had always said things like really, you didn't need to do this or are you sure you made enough money this week to afford these? but she always spoke with a big smile on her face as she admired whatever she'd been given. And Hunter's mother and Jimmy hadn't even been dating, not really.

The lesson had been learned early though, and Hunter was grateful. He had turned up at Poesy's door earlier with a bouquet of roses and various other flowers he couldn't remember the names of, chosen (well, charmed) to match the colours of her living room, and had actually gone out and bought a jacket in the sale which almost co-ordinated with his nicest jeans. It didn't seem right to go out on a date to a restaurant on her birthday just wearing a sweater, somehow.

"Yeah, but you know my luck, they'd probably have a party of twenty witches turn up five minutes before us if I hadn't booked" he said with a grin as he glanced sideways to admire the dress she was wearing. Well, to admire how she looked in the dress, if he was honest, but then Poesy turned and grinned back and for a moment their eyes met and Hunter felt a pleasant jolt in his stomach. He would have said something else, but they'd reached the restaurant and the next few minutes were taken up with being shown to their table.

"Well you deserve an evening out for your birthday" he said, picking up his own menu and wondering idly if it would be okay to order pizza. It was on the menu, but Hunter felt like he should pick something more...sophisticated. Maybe it didn't matter though. Poesy had probably noticed by now that he wasn't exactly a sophisticated person...

"You look great in that dress" he said, just as she commented about the dessert, so it sounded like he was actually answering her "I mean..." he flipped the menu over, scanning for the dessert section "Yeah. Yes. They do. I mean you could just have that if you wanted to..."

Poesy grimaced playfully. "The horror," she grinned, taking a half-step towards him, just to be closer. She was totally flattered. The fact that he'd even made time to see her, let alone gone out of his way book them a table – she scratched her nose in a surreptitious movement in case she decided to tear up. She was close to doing that. She supposed she could always blame it on the nonexistent February hay fever epidemic.

 Hunter was sitting too far away, she decided, despite him only being sat across the table from her but she blushed quickly. No, she really didn't deserve an evening out for her birthday. She didn't deserve anything, really. The beautiful flowers on her coffee table were more than enough but rather than make things awkward, she simply smiled again, flattered.

At the compliment, she glanced up from the menu. "Thank you," she replied. "I like your jacket," she complimented back - and she did. A fizzle of excitement thrilled up her spine. He thought she looked great. He might also like what she was wearing under it, too. Poesy's eyes scanned the menu. They had wine (all sorts. expensive), soft drinks (limoncello) and beer (bottled, imported.) She laughed again, her nose wrinkling cutely. "Whack a candle in it and we're done," she joked. She hesitated. She couldn't actually have dessert for dinner, could she?

"I could actually murder a pizza," Poesy admitted and the list was extensive. The idea of a prawn pizza made her feel a bit sick, as did the idea of seafood on a pizza. Putting her menu down, she placed her elbows on the table and rested her chin on her upturned palms, happy just to gaze at him. This was a pretty big milestone for her. She hadn't actually spent her birthday with anyone in a really long time.

Hunter grinned and shrugged. It had been a while since a woman had complimented him and he'd forgotten how nice it felt. No, it was more than that, it was because Poesy had said she liked his jacket. Had he wondered what she would think when he'd bought it? Of course he had, even as he'd told himself he just needed a decent jacket and was being sensible to buy it.

How did that work? She said she'd like pizza and he felt his stomach flip again, just because she'd unwittingly mirrored his own thoughts... "Pizza would be amazing" he agreed "just as long as you don't want olives on it!" Hunter was happy to eat most things, but when he'd been a little kid and money was scarce, sometimes food ended up a bit repetitive. He could still remember the time one of Jimmy's friends had brought home a huge box of olives, and everyone had been pleased because they'd only had bread in their current squat, but those things just made you so thirsty! Hunter felt like he'd craved water for days after that, and he hadn't eaten one since. His nose wrinkled a little at the memory.

The waitress came over then and asked if they wanted to order drinks, which hadn't even crossed his mind at that point. "Did you want... we could get a bottle of wine if you like?" he suggested, turning the menu over and scanning the list of wines. They weren't beers, so Hunter wasn't entirely sure what to order, except that chardonnay was white and merlot was red, and after that he was fairly lost. What sort of wine went with pizza anyway? Hopefully Poesy would know and then it would sound like he was being a perfect gentleman - though he supposed it didn't really matter. Hunter would have been perfectly unbothered if she really had wanted to have desserts for starter, main and, well, dessert, so it wasn't as if he minded if they picked the 'right' thing or not.

"Did you want to choose?" he asked her, "I'll be happy with whatever you pick."

"Olives?" Poesy parroted, pausing only to let her pretty face crease in disgust, mirroring his before she laughed and shook her head. "The only thing worse than olives on a pizza is anchovies," and she shuddered to prove her point. The cheese was salty enough was it was, no one needed crispy fish on a pizza. It should be illegal. She was still smiling as she cast her eyes over the menu again.

Poesy loved Hawaiian pizza, it was her usual go-to, but she didn't want to scare Hunter off. "What about the meat feast one?" She offered. It had chicken, ham, pepperoni and sausage. "Is that with the Neapolitan crust?" The petite blonde asked the waiter with a smile when they assured her it was. It wasn't a deal breaker or anything, she just preferred that to the crispier Roman pizza…and now she looked like a tit for even bringing it up and she swiftly blushed. 

But wine! Thank Merlin.

She nodded eagerly. Poesy drank a lot of wine, but it was usually the cheapest one in the supermarket because if she was going to be honest, it all tasted pretty much the same. She selected a white wine from the Piedmont region in Italy, simply because she'd visited the area before and liked what she'd sampled. Hunter had assured her it was fine and so, she closed the menus and handed them back to the waiter.

"How's your day been?" She asked him, genuinely interested, her eyes sliding from Hunter's briefly to scan the restaurant. She liked it here. It was warm and cosy and it made her heart give a pang of homesickness that she hadn't felt in a long time. How odd. Unwilling to spill the beans just yet, she extended her hand, palm outwards, towards him in an invitation for him to hold.

Hunter grimaced. "What even are anchovies anyway? I swear they're some experiment by a muggle potioneer that went wrong..." They were some sort of fish, he thought, but whoever went out thinking 'hey, I'll go and catch some anchovies today'. Totally unnatural.

"That sounds perfect" he said, because his go-to was pepperoni so this was basically just the posh person's version of that. "Did you want to get a caesar salad as well?" Hunter wasn't entirely sure what that was, but it sounded healthy and he was sure he could manage to eat a bit of green stuff alongside the pizza. Poesy knew about wine too, and she ordered something he'd never even heard of and he relaxed a bit more. It was going to be a great evening.

Or maybe even a little bit more than great, because taking Poesy's hand just felt...natural. She looked so lovely...and Hunter remembered that she'd asked him how his day had been and that was his cue to actually say something, not just gaze into her eyes. "Great! Well, busy. I finished that article about the Irish flying cricket tournament. It's not going to catch on, I have no idea how anyone thought it was a good idea. Basically imagine that they're hitting a bludger and then trying to fly up and down a pitch as many times as possible before it gets caught and thrown back... except they're not even using racing brooms, so you can imagine how slow the turns are" he was laughing at the memory, and even more at the fact he'd actually managed to write an entire article that didn't include the word idiot.

"How about you? Everything okay with the cafe?" he asked, running his thumb in circles over the back of her hand.

Goodness, he was handsome. That was the main thought that bumped around her head as Hunter sat opposite her. They were discussing pizza toppings, not the intricate details of the universe, but that didn't matter because the conversation was equally as thrilling. The pizza would be great, the restaurant was great, the company was even better and Poesy sincerely hoped this birthday would be much better than her last.

Snapping back into things at the mention of a salad, Poesy nodded quickly. "That'd be great," she assured Hunter with an easy smile. The wine was deposited and poured out for them skillfully and the whiff of garlic from the kitchen made her stomach grumble. She smiled again, just happy to be existing at that exact moment.

She liked Hunter. He was funny, charming and clever. She wanted to meet his mum and Jimmy. She wanted to see more of his friends and where they drank. She wanted lazy mornings and late nights with him. Poesy wanted to know everything, even the tiny, inconsequential details about him like his favourite colour or how he took his tea. It didn't matter. Nothing else mattered. Even the fact that he owned a pet rat no longer disgusted her, so they were clearly on to a good thing.

Her smile widened as she watched Hunter with rapt attention, her bright eyes widening in shock. "Oh gosh," she replied on a breath, suitably shocked. "Which pillock devised that, then?" She joked, head tilted, before she frowned in confusion. "How are you meant to bowl a six?" She asked Hunter, finding the logistics mind boggling. "When is it coming out?" Poesy asked. She'd like to read it, just because she knew it would make her giggle but mostly because she was proud of him. "You and I are going to a match," she added, her smile making her nose crinkle in mirth.

"We're great," came the sunny response as delicious tingles ran up her spine as Hunter's fingers touched her skin. She blushed faintly with pleasure. "We're getting pretty busy, which is fantastic, considering it's only February so I'm looking forward to Easter already. I'm working on some new cakes.Can I give you one so you can give to give to your mum?" Poesy asked, hopeful, for both the feedback and getting into the older woman's good books. Maybe she could spend the day with him, that'd be really nice.

She sat back in her chair and sipped her wine, her fingers carefully intertwining with his comfortably. "Thank you," Poesy stated abruptly. "For this," she clarified, hoping to encapsulate everything he'd done for her so far. She squeezed his hand gently but didn't remove it when the food arrived, causing the waiter to manoeuvre around them.

"I have no idea, though I probably should find out in case some idiot writes into the paper and asks" Hunter said thoughtfully, though vaguely might be better description as he was holding Poesy's hand and thinking how pretty her hair looked today, and wondering exactly how she got it to look that way. Perhaps he wasn't following the conversation very well either, or maybe she just knew more about cricket than he did. because her next question made no sense at all. As far as Hunter knew, bowling was something that old people did with black balls on grass, whereas cricket was... actually he wasn't entirely certain, but he knew people wore white and they used a bat to hit the...aha!

"I don't think they do? I mean, they just seem to think hitting the ball in any fashion counts, and just count the number of laps they manage to fly... anyway, it should be in next Tuesday's edition if you really want to read it" He grinned, glad that she was taking an interest in his work. Most of the time it didn't feel like work, because getting to travel around the country, write about ridiculous sports (and occasionally attend an actually decent Quidditch match) and get paid for it was surely every twelve year old's dream. Then the grin broke into a laugh. "Sure! maybe you can figure out the rules I missed" he said, and liked the way she had just said 'you and I are going' as if it was a foregone conclusion that he would say yes. As if they were actually a couple now.

Hunter didn't actually think about that much. He had always let life take him in whatever direction it chose, and although he enjoyed Poesy's company very much indeed he hadn't stopped to think about it becoming more serious. Now they were sitting here, just talking about nothing in particular, he realised that he was perfectly happy for life to take them both in the same direction for as long as it chose. Probably more than happy, and wasn't that something to admit? For a moment he had something approaching a dreamy look on his face, which co-incided with the mention of new cakes.

"You want to give me one of your cakes and Im expected not to eat it, but give it to Mama instead" he teased "What sort of cruelty is this?" That may have been what Hunter said, but his heart had flipped somehow as she had made the suggestion, because that wasn't the sort of offer a casual friend made, and suddenly he was keen to give the right answer.

"She'd love it. Maybe I can persuade her to come down to London for a visit and I can bring her to the cafe" he suggested, because it would be good for Mama to meet Poesy, even if she was sure to ask a thousand questions afterwards, even more than the hundred she's already asked the first time he'd mentioned her name. He was about to say something more but the waiter arrived with their food, saying something about being the 500th customers this week and a special upgrade.

"Now that" said Hunter approvingly "is possibly the largest pizza I've ever seen!" Indeed, it was several inches bigger than they had thought they'd ordered and probably more than two people would be able to eat. His rats - and probably a certain little cat - would be eating well later.

"Fail to prepare, prepare to fail," Poesy commented sagely but there was a sparkle in her eye that let Hunter know she was only kidding and she smiled from behind the rim of her wine glass. She watched as he went through his thought process and all she could think was look at that face! The petite witch was too old for a crush but for once, finally, she decided not to overthink it. She liked him. She liked what they were doing. She liked this. She grinned again, interested.

"I am, actually," she smiled. "And I'll remember to pack protective gear for the match," she nodded. It sounded like complete and utter chaos and Poesy thought it would be hilarious. In actual fact, the game could be dull as dishwater but at least they'd be together. Poesy crossed her legs at the knee as she reclined in her seat, her pretty face lighting up. "I'd love to," she offered and she meant it.

The comment about the cake made her laugh loudly, some other diners looking confused in their direction and she squeezed his hand in response. "That's because you're getting your own cake, obviously." she chided him gently but she stopped suddenly. He was going to invite his mum to London. To her shop. To meet her. She was silent but that was because her brain exploded and there was a ringing in her ears.

"Yes," Poesy blurted out with wide eyes. "I mean," she cleared her throat in an attempt to look less like a maniac. "That'd be really nice. I'd like that," she smiled again, a warm tingle spreading through her body that had nothing to do with the wine she'd consumed. Poesy wanted desperately to return the favour and have Hunter meet her parents but they…well, they weren't nice people. Her grandfather was the only normal one in the family and he'd adore Hunter. He was also the only one that Poesy truly, really cared about.

"Jimmy, too?" She asked before she sipped her wine, trying not to press Hunter too much. She wanted to meet everyone, friends and family. They seemed so beautifully warm and more than that, gorgeously normal. She needed to slow down. "Only if he's free, of course," she tacked on and nodded, downplaying it. "I know he's a busy man. I — woah."

The pizza was the size of the bin lid and her pale blue eyes widened in a mixture of shock and amusement. Unable to help it, she snorted and covered  her mouth with her hand, thanking the waiter and she gazed at the pizza. "How are we supposed to do anything with it?" She breathed as she picked up the cutlery it came with. Bravely, she decided to get stuck in, slicing the pizza and placing a slide on Hunter's plate before her own with a laugh.

"Well, that's dinner, breakfast and lunch sorted tomorrow," she joked, catching Hunter's eye and she grinned. She should use the utensils, she knew that - it was a fancy place - but instead, she placed a napkin on her lap, picked a slice up by the crust and took a bite and nodded soon after. "Delicious," she assured Hunter, trying her best to eat as delicately as she could but soon abandoning the idea. "You don't think we won dessert too, do you?" She asked, her eyes wide with mock panic as she laughed and paused to pick the olives off her pizza.

He'd spoken casually, and honestly it had felt like the most natural thing in the world to suggest bringing his mother to visit Poesy's cafe, but now that the words were out in the open, it occurred to Hunter that he'd never actually introduced anyone to him mother before in...that way. Oh, Jimmy had met girls he'd been seeing casually a couple of times, but that had been different. He had to stop and think at the suggestion of bringing him to the cafe as well... at the same time? That felt...heavy. A bit scary, and Hunter wasn't at all sure he was ready for the implications of that. Not until he'd had time to think about it, anyway. Thankfully Poesy had given him a get out clause.

"I'll ask him, see what he says" he said, and the words felt totally natural "but like you say, he's busy. We might be better off going to his local one evening if you're up for that? Though I warn you, he'll challenge you to a game of darts in the first thirty seconds after you've been introduced." It also occurred to Hunter that his parents weren't together, and inviting them both to meet a girl at the same time might give them the wrong idea. Mama would be hoping for wedding bells and Jimmy - well, he would no doubt ask when it was due and cause no end of embarrassment all round. Definitely a conversation to be avoided.

"Anyway, you mentioned my own cake? I'm definitely holding you to that" he said, and then the pizza arrived and Hunter joined Poesy in removing the olives.

"Why didn't we ask them to hold the olives? Who even thinks they go well with meat feast?" he demanded as he mirrored her actions, foregoing the knife and fork because really, what sort of a weirdo eats pizza like it's a roast dinner? Hunter suddenly realised he was starving, though probably not enough that they were going to finish this enormous thing, and they didn't speak for a few minutes until the first slice or two was devoured.

Dessert... Poesy had mentioned tiramisu earlier, but realistically that probably wasn't happening now. "I don't know. I guess we'll have to wait and see?" he said, but then added "We could always ask for dessert to take away though, and eat it later..." he eyed the size of the pizza and how much was left once more "Or maybe for breakfast."

Poesy felt the familiar sense of dread creeping in around the edges and she sipped her wine, her eyes leaving Hunter's in the premise of watching other diners. Yup. She'd stuffed it. She'd pushed too hard, too soon. God, what was wrong with her? Why did she ruin everything?

Swallowing her wine, she nodded enthusiastically. Maybe a bit too enthusiastically. "Oh yeah, of course, sure," she agreed, waving her hand through the air and almost sending the wine bottle flying in her desperate need to show Hunter that she wasn't offended and she was being totally reasonable and understanding and –

She grinned, her anxiety almost instantly soothed. Hunter hadn't said he didn't want to introduce her to his step-father, he'd simply offered her another option, "Darts?" Poesy offered, wiping her fingertips on the napkin to rid them of olive juice. "I'm more of a pool girl but I'm sure that'll be fine," she stated smoothly before meeting his eye and smiling. She was going to be meeting Hunter's parents. They could possibly be official-official.

"Lemon loaf cake is my specialty," she began, a wave of affection washing over her to see Hunter also remove the olives. Poesy couldn't imagine being with someone who enjoyed them. Or marmite. Or prawn cocktail crisps. She snorted with laughter.

"No idea," she admitted as she ate her pizza and shrugged carelessly. "I think it's a crime but don't tell the chef," she tacked on in a stage whisper. Either way, it was delicious. Crispy base, flavoursome tomato sauce, salty cheese. All it needed was a sprinkle of chilli flakes and it would be in her all time top five best pizzas.

Hunter's casual comment almost made her choke on her pizza but she managed to force the wad of dough down her throat before she made the mistake of saying something stupid. He'd mentioned breakfast and Poesy's brain skipped ahead a few steps…was he offering to spend the night at her place? Two pink spots of colour appeared high on her cheeks at the thought.

"I think I have room in my fridge," she agreed, dabbing the corners of her mouth with her napkin demurely. Poesy would have to move around some potion vials and bottles of beer but she assumed she could manage. Providing it was a slice or two and not an entire casserole dish full of it.

"But you can still come back to mine afterwards?" Poesy offered gently, trying her best not to look too hopefully and/or pathetic. "I mean, if you want," she picked off another olive.

Hunter noticed that Poesy seemed a bit more anxious than usual this evening, and that in turn made him feel slightly on edge, which was unusual for the streetwise wizard. Under normal circumstances he always seemed to know what to say in awkward situations, but with Poesy...there was the feeling that he really didn't want to say the wrong thing. He'd thought about it a couple of times, and as soon as his mind got close to 'you're serious about her' he had very firmly thought about something else. Didn't want to make a twit of himself, after all. But Poesy seemed like she was acting - well, acting kind of how he felt. Did that mean she was serious about him, too?

It was a good thing the conversation was flowing, so he didn't need to think about that too hard just then, though his heart gave a ridiculous leap. "Wait...you know how to play pool?" he asked, trying not to sound too incredulous, though the delight showed all over his face. Hunter was never sure how much other people knew about muggles and he knew his upbringing had given him a distinct edge and the best of both worlds. "Seriously, don't tell Jimmy you can play" he added, grinning widely "he'll bet you a quid - er, about three sickles - that he's going to win, and you can wind him up" Maybe that wasn't the accepted way of introducing a girl to one's Dad, but Jimmy would love it.

"Lemon loaf cake? I can live with that"  he said agreeably, though Hunter's personal favourite was chocolate with even more chocolate. Anything Poesy made was delicious, though. And she never put olives in anything, he thought, and that sparked yet another smile.

"My lips are sealed!" he pretended to zip them up, and then looked sadly at the pizza and pretended to be unable to eat it with his mouth closed in the hopes it would make Poesy laugh. They'd eaten several slices by now, but there was still going to be plenty left over. Hunter did cringe a little now, because he'd mentioned breakfast and that sounded like he was implying...something he'd actually thought of quite a lot recently, if he was honest. Something he definitely shouldn't be thinking about in the middle of dinner, and that meant he was now thinking about it and he suddenly felt certain he was broadcasting his thoughts, and he really shouldn't be because he was going to scare Poesy off and...

Oh.

Maybe he wasn't. Going to scare her off, that was.

"Yeah, I'd..." he began, and realised that casually saying "I'd like that" sounded like he was agreeing to another pint. "I'd love to" would be too eager even though it was previsely what he was thinking and "I thought you'd never ask" was just plain wrong, though he had definitely used that phrase in the past, with friends when it hadn't mattered at all. It felt to Hunter as if the silence was stretching out indefinitely, and he was far from finding the right words. "I do want to. Maybe we could take dessert back to yours?" he suggested finally, picking up the wine bottle to refill their glasses.

Hunter's surprise made her grin. "Duh," she answered with a playful roll of her eyes as though every girl from the Valleys knew how to play the snooker variation. Instead, she decided to elaborate. "I spent a lot of time in pubs growing up. My uncle owned one," she explained as she took another bite of her pizza and chewed.

Poesy loved hearing Hunter mention his family and she hung on his every word. There was a small part of her that was sad that he'd never be able to meet her own. They weren't dead or anything, they were just a bit shitty. And they didn't deserve to meet him.

She smiled again, bright eyes twinkling in the candlelight as she rested an elbow on the table and her chin in her upturned palm, simply to gaze at him. "I might like that." she offered, jokingly. Hunter's family seemed so wonderfully normal and he had no idea how much normal appealed to her but Poesy needed to slow down. She might scare Hunter off and they'd been so careful and tactile and slow. They'd put the work in, it seemed a shame to torpedo it now.

Suddenly, she snorted with laughter at his antics. Not the cute and delicate kind, she sounded like a donkey, and her eyes widened in alarm. A blush suffused her cheeks and she winced in her seat, uttering a silent prayer to every deity she could think of that Hunter hadn't heard or, failing that, thought it was endearing. But she was having such a good time. She felt light and floaty, like champagne. There were some residual nerves that felt like butterflies rather than months, so that was good.

It was just nice. Soft. Slow. Poesy needed that, something gentle. She'd been back in London for two years now since leaving Italy and while she was still adjusting, Hunter made the assimilation so much easier. She was excited and hopeful and in love with life again for the first time in forever. Her business was going well, she had some friends, a sort of boyfriend, a pet cat and hopefully, her sort of boyfriend might materialise into an actual one.

Poesy focused her gaze back on Hunter again and she tried her best not to look too terrified. She'd been honest and forthright, two things a magazine had told her that men tended to like, but she still held her breath.

"Dessert is good," Poesy replied quickly and she nodded, relief flooding her system and it visibly showed as her shoulders became less tense and she smiled. Hunter refilled her wine glass and she took a sip. There was a long-forgotten zing! that thrilled down her spine. I do want to, he'd said, and she curled her toes in her shoes, thankful he couldn't see it. She'd order whatever he wanted, she didn't even care. As a waiter passed by, she raised her hand politely.

"Hi! Could we please get this boxed up?" Poesy asked and the waiter obliged, though she was in no rush, they still had wine to drink. The mention of dessert was offered and she tilted her head curiously. "Tiramisu?" She asked Hunter. The waiter said he'd box that up for them as well and she looked over at her date and grinned.

"He... wait, your uncle actually owneda pub?" Hunter asked, an incredulous yet delighted grin spreading across his face "That is totally...how come you never told me before?" He wanted to know everything - which pub, which town, what beers they´d served (as if a ten year old Poesy might have paid any attention to such things). And, in his mind she had some really cool family members. Already he was thinking about the newly-mentioned uncle as one might a friend, mentally buying the older guy a pint and asking for tales of Poesy´s first examples of magic. Maybe they could introduce her uncle to Jimmy and they could all hang out...

FIrst things first, though. Jimmy was going to love being challenged to any form of game by a girl, and he wouldn´t mind losing, either. He´d love it, in fact. Tell all his mates, and that would be embarrassing in itself - for Hunter, who never got embarrassed about anything. Who always knew what to say. Who had talked his way out of the muggle born registration committee interview unscathed, his links to muggleborns undiscovered. Hunter suspected the reason for his general sense of delightful unease where Poesy was concerned, and even that didn´t bother him.

He liked her. Merlin, he like liked her...almost enough to actually tell her! Heck, maybe he even would tell her before the end of this night, who knew?

Unfortunately he was fast becoming totally stuffed with pizza. By the time they left here he was going to need to be rolled down the street which wasn´t going to be conducive to anything other than an uncomfortable night´s sleep. "Do you think we should..." he began, just at the moment Poesy called over to the waiter. Oh, thank f...Merlin for that, he thought, grinning. They could easily manage the remaining contents of the bottle of wine between them and take a slow stroll home back to Poesy´s place.

"Yes! Tiramisu please!" he confirmed, completely happy with ordering now they didn´t need to eat it right away. If he was secretly hoping they might end up enjoying it for breakfast he kept that thought so secret he didn´t even let himself think of it.

Except that small, secret part of his mind clearly was thinking of it, because when he asked "Have you got plans for tomorrow?" it didn´t really sound casual at all.

Poesy's pretty face took on an amused expression as Hunter demanded to know why she'd kept her uncle's pub a secret. Unable to help it, she laughed loudly, the sound swallowed up by the chatter of the other diners. "Sorry," she grinned sheepishly. "If it helps, I haven't been back in years," she admitted before she stalled. Now wasn't the time to bring up her loopy family dynamics. "The Square and Compass, I think it was called," she added with a thoughtful frown and goodness, she hadn't thought about that in a long time.

It was unfair for Hunter to allow her to meet his mum and stepfather, especially since she was digging her heels in about him meeting hers. It was still early, though, she reminded herself. She could overthink this at a later date.

But fantastic. He was up for some tiramisu. Good man.

With a soft groan of contentment, Poesy leaned back in her chair a little as she resisted the urge to kick off her shoes and curl up right there. Warm, full and in good company, she was completely unguarded which was why she answered Hunter's question with a "nope". Oh.

Should she have been unavailable, a bit more aloof? Poesy didn't often play games, she didn't have the mystique and magnetism they warranted. Instead, she smiled. "I mean, besides a few errands," she caught his eye. "But nothing that can't wait until later in the week." There was a beat of silence, every fibre of her being was screaming at her to just say it. It wasn't that hard. Hey, I think you're cool. Do you want to be my boyfriend? The sheer thought of it made her want to vomit.

"Why?" Poesy asked Hunter gently, head tilted. "Did you want to do something?" She asked, sounding about as casual as he did.