Looking towards the future...

[Felicity Hjort]

"Not even the least bit self-aggrandizing are we?" Felicity teased. "But of course we are talking solely about Hogsmeade, what about any other place? Do you think anyone in Limmerick, or even London could hold a shining galleon to you?"

The grin had yet to be removed, but most boys were boastful about one thing or another, and it amused Felicity overall. With the amount of boys in her family, she knew how to get along with the over-confident fellows she encountered, but she loved hearing their side of the story about being the best of the best at what ever it was they did. There wasn't any harshness in her words, and the underlying hoopla was quite noticable.

[Hiro McVeil]

"To be honest I haven't been to London and I rarely go to Limmerick so I couldn't tell you about those. I do know that no one at school has challenged me since I got there so I guess I'm the best around."

"Second." Again Mr. MacCool entered their conversation.

"Right second."

[Felicity Hjort]

Again a small burst of giggles escaped Felicity's mouth, and she quickly covered it with both of her hands. After her laugh had subsided, she was able to resume the conversation. "So no one at Hogwarts is willing to have a cook-off against you?"

Felicity found this bit of information to be interesting, as she would have had no problems challenging the boy, but she wasn't necessarily a very talented chef. Although she'd learned to cook a few years before to help around her home, she hadn't gained any special talents with it, but she hadn't had any complaints either.

"Perhaps someone will step up to the challenge this time around." Felicity meant herself, of course, but didn't mention her name. She refused to promise anything as she didn't know how life at Hogwarts went and she wanted to make sure she'd have the time to do so if she made the challenge official.

[Hiro McVeil]

Great now she's laughing at me...Maybe I should be an entertainer... Hiro had to really focus on what he wanted to do with his life since he was already passed O.W.L.s but still had little clue.

"That would be great!" Hiro said getting back to the conversation. "That way I wouldn't have to be the only one of my group of friends who can cook."

[Felicity Hjort]

An enthusiastic smile spread across Felicity's face, so a cook-off against the boy would probably make one of his days at Hogwarts. Now, she was sure she'd make the time for it, maybe she'd make it a bit of a mystery and not bother with asking him herself. She was sure there were other ways of getting it across to him to meet her somewhere for such an event. It could be a small little event. Oh, the idea was turning into a large thing within the blond's mind.

"I suppose it would be a good thing if someone other than yourself could cook," she returned. Oh, the joys of an active imagination and a need to implement such ideas.

[Hiro McVeil]

"Yeah than someone else would have to make a dinner for the ref's date." Hiro grumbled mostly to himself not picking up her hints. "I guess I should explain, the Ravenclaws had a fund-raiser of sorts and the long and short of it is I have to prepare a meal so he can look good. I'm sorry I'm probably boring you with this aren't I?"

[Felicity Hjort]

Felicity heard Hiro mutter something about dinner and a ref's date, but it didn't make any sense to her, at least not until he explained it. Even then, she didn't really understand what he'd meant. Something about someone looking good because Hiro was to prepare the meal.

"Not really boring me," she replied. "More confusing me than anything. So there was a fund raiser and now you have to cook for someone on a date?" That was the jist of what she'd gotten, she only hoped she hadn't botched the information when she relayed it back to make sure she'd understood it correctly.

[Hiro McVeil]

"Yeah me and a friend." Hiro explained more. "See one of the professors is 'making dinner' for another in an attempt to win her over you know. Of course what professor Devonport doesn't know is that he's got us working in the kitchen while he takes all the credit. If it wasn't for a good cause I'd have more to complain about."

[Felicity Hjort]

"A classic love tale?" she asked with a bit of a smirk. It seemed like a pleasant thing, a very sweet thing, indeed. "But if the professor truely loves the other, credit will be given to both of you when...Davenport you said?" she asked. "When she does a bit of poking around and discovers the culprits behind the delicious meal. The other will have some explaining to do, and everything will turn out in the end."

Felicity smiled, romance tales were fun. "Of course, things could always turn sour and she could walk out on the poor man, but even that is classic."

[Hiro McVeil]

Hiro wasn't the best to report to as far as classic romance went, he didn't have a very good track record in that department. Though he hoped that would change during the next term.

"Classic exploitation you mean." Hiro corrected a pinch of annoence in his voice. "Isn't it the thought that counts not the gift? In that case he should fix his own dinner for her, that way at least she knows he's willing to try for her. See even if he's not good at something showing her that he'd go out on a limb should be what he wants to get across. You could have the romantic dinner for a night or you could show her something she'll remember."

Hiro had gotten into one of his rants again where he felt he was actually talking to who it was he was ranting about. This happened every now and again but was usually nothing to worry about.

[Felicity Hjort]

"Ah, it is the thought and not the gift that counts," Felicity agreed. "However, from what I understand, not having been in such a situation myself, it seems when it comes down to crunch time one figure or the other in the love story decides the gift counts more than the thought behind it." Hiro's rant was completely true in Felicity's mind, but it didn't seem to ever work out that way, at least not at first.

"I believe the romantic dinner is supposed to signify the perfection he's willing to give her, but of course perfection isn't what makes things rememberal. To make the evening perfect, he should do something like prepare the dinner on his own, or perhaps creates little festivities that she wouldn't soon forget." A bit of candy littering the evening table, or shadow puppets by the candle light would make the evening all the more special. Little things were what the other figure always seemed to remember in the tales and movies; it would be something unexpected Davenport would be likely to remember over a fantastic meal provided by students and not her date.

[Hiro McVeil]

"Perfection doesn't work I'll tell you that much." Hiro spoke from experience. "What he needs to do is show her what he's really like, even if it means burning the toast for breakfast. I don't know about festivities but what he's doing now is just going to either set the bar too high or backfire."

[Felicity Hjort]

"That's true," Felicity nodded in agreement. "But he's also hoping to impress her, most likely. Though, I doubt she'll be impressed if the plan does backfire." Felicity smiled at the boy, the conversation was turning a bit strange to her, especially as she didn't know anyone involved except Hiro. "And as for setting the bar too high, she'll know. If there is a next a time, he'll get someway to impress her, being himself would be the best way to do such of course."

[Hiro McVeil]

Felicity from London understood what needed to be done, why couldn't the professor. Maybe he had grown dumb with age...

"If he would just start out with being himself than he wouldn't have to go with the perfection route. Unless of course if he's going to ask her to marry him, than I could understand why things needed to be perfect. But in that case he should go to a professional restaurant not the two most wanted pranksters in Hogwarts."

[Felicity Hjort]

Two most wanted pranksters? she repeated in her mind. If that were the case, it seemed awfully odd the man would 'buy' the two at an auction and have them prepare a meal for himself and his date. Perhaps the man had had to put up with the two most wanted pranksters well enough, and thought it might be time for a bit of payback? But if that were the case, cooking a meal for a date wasn't very good payback.

"I agree," she added to Hiro's point. Whomever the man was, he shouldn't be heading for prefection unless the plan was to ask his date to marry him. "But maybe he thought he'd be saving himself a bit of money by getting Hogwarts students to cook?" Felicity didn't know the details of what had happened, so she thought it a possibility. "And maybe he was also looking for a bit more privacy than a fancy restaurant can offer?"