Okay so maaaaaaaaaaaaaybe this wasn’t the typical place people went on…well, dates. Merlin this was a date. WHY IN MERLINS NAME DID SHE ASK WHEN A PROFESSOR WAS THERE…wh-when maybe he wasn’t going to think it was a date…maybe it was just two friends hanging out like they usually did but it wasn’t. They weren’t there with other people they were alone and really he hadn’t even come yet so Mel was just there in the….was that a floor? Why was the floor squishy?....were there animals living in that?

Hearing the bleat of a goat she looked up to see the goat from a painting staring at her as if it were strange to see people in here on weekends…it wasn’t strange the food was good she knew this…wait…the food was still good right? She wondered as she walked carefully over to the table trying not to slip on the filthy floor.

Thank merlin she had brought her little wipes with her…it wasn’t that she didn’t trust that the place wasn’t clean it was just that she didn’t want to get her hand sticky on a possibly unclean table. Taking the wipes out of her bag and pulling one out she quickly cleaned off her table making sure that she was as subtle as possible and well, thorough. No one wanted to eat dust mites and left over bits from the meal the previous customers ate…that was, a retched reeeeetched idea worth retching over. See it was all of the retches in one place!

Mel hooked her cloak onto the booth and sat down for a moment before standing and leaning on the edge of the booth. Nope, that didn’t look cool and effortless finally she stood again and tried to just leaaaaaaaaan against the table.

THUMP she was suddenly on her backside splayed across the bench of the booth her legs flying in the air.

This was a disaster.

Had she mooned people?

Please merlin no.

can I please disappear?

So was it a date? She hadn’t even really figured that out before her accident but now that she had heard his voice she just forgot the question all together. With a huff Mel was shifting and rolling herself over still hoping against all hope that she wasn’t mooning him – that was unnecessary. Wiggle….Wiiggle…wiiiiiiiggle.

There.

She was now able to shove herself up off of the booth.

There was one thing Melbourne Sorin-Ward as not, and that, was a damsel in distress. Sure, she was in distress right now but that was because she had embarrassed herself to the umpteenth degree. ”Ace! Hi…you made it…” she looked up at him her face flushed and lips pressed together in nerves. ”I don’t normally do that on dates” she said before furrowing her brows, ”I’ve…never been on anything much other than ice cream dates” she admitted with a laugh as she realized this was her first official unsupervised date with him…sure, she’d been on one or two dates that summer but those felt more natural…less, nerve wracking as a hogsmeade date.

”you…um…look nice, like you” she muttered and tugged on her braid as she stood there nervously.

Looking up at him as Tenacius had managed to grab her hand all Mel could do was grin. ”Why thank you kind sir,” she said as she rather dramatically curtsied what was she even doing? she thought back into her brain when he continued speaking…”you should be flattered I mean, you weren’t even here yet and I was already falling for you” get it get it eeeh? From the mischievous glint in her eyes and the slight upwards turn of her lip it wasn’t hard to tell that she was ribbing him. Which was something that she always seemed to do with Tenacius.

When he commented that it wasn’t Floreans she just grinned, ”yeah…the floor is a bit squishy but I mean…its more private and I figured it’d be less stifling than Puddifoots” as she said the word Puddifoots her nose crinkled in distaste. Something about the forced romantic atmosphere of the tea shop made her feel uneasy, ”the food here is really good and Harold the owner is pretty cool…” she grinned at him only to laugh at his comment about dressing with the light on.

”awwwwwww you tried to look special for me eh?” she grinned and nudged him her cheeks flushing at his words, of course he knew she always tried to wear things that were well…her style and had that usual mix of vintage quirkiness she seemed to always love. ”ooh…right orders,” looking up at the menu she just felt her heart pang. ”Stoat?...” she whispered her eyes welling with tears for a moment before she looked away ”um…I have a feeling I’ll be staying away from the mystery meat lasagna a place that sells s-stoat sandwiches probably would have gnome meat lasagna” she half joked but really, it was probably goat.

After all this was the hogshead…poor Aberforth would be rolling in his goat loving grave. ”what are you going to get?...i’m leaning toward just getting the chocolate trifle if I were of age I’d try the mulled wine ‘cause I’m sure it smells all clovery and delicious like mulled cider” she grinned over to Tenacius. ”we could always do things in reverse and like get desert here and just talk and be us and then go get sandwiches in the kitchens?” she offered with a smile.