Originally Posted by emmafan123

Cornelius could kind of tell that his happy reaction to Aspen's gift in turn made Aspen rather happy. But he wasn't faking his joy or anything, he really did like the spell-checking snail. Partly because it would be useful to him with homework, but even more so because it was a very Aspen gift. He wasn't sure why he thought that, but he could just tell; he'd never received a spell-checking snail from a girl before. And it was clear that she had been anxious to give the present to him, which made him all the more happy to throw it around his neck.

As she started nodding her head, he glanced down at the snail around his neck only to find that Aspen was matching its current movement. He couldn't imagine what it could've been checking at that moment, but he was more distracted by Aspen. He let out a soft chuckle at her mimicking, his light brown eyes glancing over her expression curiously, before glancing down at their intwined fingers. They spent a few moments in comfortable silence, Cornelius considering something silently as Aspen nodded with the snail and the majority of other students ate in the Great Hall.

"When are you gonna let me take you on a real date, Aspen?" Cornelius suddenly asked softly, breaking the silence with the slightest playfulness in his expression. But there was a small amount of honest curiosity behind his gaze. They'd been on a study date engagement, which turned out to be more like a few hours wandering around Hogsmeade aimlessly, holding hands and eating sugar quills and talking about whatever came to mind.