Out to lunch with a friend

Chase looked around for a long moment, they were on a muggle street, and it was fairly crowded, looking at a very nice looking Italian Restaurant. The people inside it looked like they were eating very well, and Chase found herself smiling. It had been far to long since she had had good, real Italian food. Though it was kind of sad, she wasn't hungry.. so she'd just have to go for what would make Bran the happiest, get him to not look at her worriedly, get him to not worry about her.. and get Calvin to not worry about her. He would be so proud of her when he found out that she had made a new friend, and had gone out to lunch with him on his busy day. He was always so worried about her, looking after her, afraid if he turned his back, she'd disappear, but she had promised him she wouldn't.. she was just worried outside forces would make her break that promise.

Chase smiled and looked at Bran. "This is so nice!" She exclaimed, looking up at the building, before grinning at him and diving straight into the door, she told the seater person that there were two people, and they were quickly ushered across the room to a booth towards the back, given menus, and after getting their drink order (A water for Chase), was left alone at their table. "Hmm..." she said, trying to look excited about the prospect of eating. "Let's see here.." She said and then grinned and looked at their spaghetti menu. Everything about that dish could be made to look like there was more then she was actually eating, and it actually looked sorta good right now. After not being able to eat anything with red on it, she was determined to get over that fear right here, right now, and order a simple spaghetti, with a meatball. She laid her menu down and grinned at Bran. "Now this is what I call dining." she said happily, smiling at the waitor as he brought them their drinks and left again. Sipping her water, she looked around the room quickly, wishing she had long hair again to hide her face.

Chase seemed genuinely excited about the restaurant from the moment she saw it. Bran smiled. He had brought her to the right place. She quickly sped into the restaurant and Bran practically had to run to catch up to her. They were escorted to a booth as soon as he got inside and they were given very good-looking menus. He and Chase both ordered waters to drink and the waiter ran off to fetch it.

He glanced through the menu and saw so many different options that he didn't think he would ever be able to decide. The was a delicious looking lasagna, three different kinds of spaghetti, chicken fettuccine alfredo, a tasty-looking shrimp linguini, and so much more. He eventually decided upon a cheese-stuffed manicotti in marinara sauce. There was so many choices that he knew he could come back every day for the rest of the month and have something new each day. The waiter came back with their waters, saying that he would be back in a moment to take their orders for their lunch. Bran didn't mind a bit of a wait. The atmosphere in here was very nice.

He looked up at Chase when she complimented the place. She seemed very impressed with everything, the atmosphere, the menu, the service, everything. It was nice indeed. Bran was feeling very hopeful. She looked like she had chosen what she wanted, which meant that he wouldn't have to persuade her to eat. She was going to do it of her own accord. He would have to take her here more often. He would also need to find Calvin and tell him. He still hadn't met the guy, but could tell that Chase truly loved him. The waiter came back and they ordered their food, and Bran decided to strike up conversation.

"So, how have you been lately? And your daughter, how is she?" Bran was truly interested in Chase's life, though Chase was still a little secretive regarding her child. All Bran knew was that her name was Katie and that she was a few months old. He had seen a picture of her on Chase's desk, but nothing else.

Chase put her hands in her lap and leaned forward slightly, looking around when finally Bran said something, and that something was about her daughter. Smiling, she glanced down at the table, before looking up at him again. "Well... She's doing well... Calvin is absolutely besotted with her." She said giggling. "He does everything with her I swear." She said laughing. "He watches tv in the morning with her, sits and makes airplane noises with her at meal times... he loves her like she was his own." She said grinning and "I feel absolutely horrid about her situation though.." She said carefully, her eyes downcast now, slowly sitting up straight.

"I'm only dating Calvin... and I live with him.. but there was that time, during the kidnap.." She whispered the word kidnap so that people around them wouldn't overhear. "That was put in with.. who is technically my legal guardian.. Khaat Lupin.. she got legal custody of me after I got pregnant... and well... as far as I know she still has it.. though I think technically it should have gone to me by now.. as I am 18 finally.." She said shaking her head. "I don't know how wizard law works in that department though, I'm just thinking muggle law." She said smiling at him. "But anyway, Katie went and stayed with her... and Calvin got her back pretty quickly.. but... I'm worried that she'll see her father.. her father.. who is the biggest... jerk face.... asshole.." She growled the words, and looked really angry as she said them, holding onto her napkin and twisting it slightly. "I have ever met... and I don't want him to see her! Does that make sense to you? I mean... when I was with him.. he just.. ah!" She suddenly put on a smile and looked up as the waiter brought them a their food, and laid it down in front of them.

"Mmm.. thanks for bringing me here Bran..." She said smiling at him, and glancing down at her food. At once she felt queasy, and knew that it had been a bad idea to come here, but she kept her smile on her face, and picked up her fork, twisting the spaghetti around, and shoveling a load of it into her mouth, hoping that she looked hungry to him, so that he wouldn't mind if that one mouthful was about all she ate of the food. She felt bad for not being hungry... and felt bad for not knowing how to tell him that she just.. didn't each much now a days.. but, as it was, he didn't know everything.. didn't even know she hadn't been eating, so... hopefully he would just drop it quickly, and eat his own food after he realized she was eating her own.

"Anyway." She said, wiping her mouth off on her napkin. "I don't want him to see Katie.." She said looking up at Bran and frowning. "It's as simple as that.. he is a horrible person.. let alone father, and if he ever does see her, it won't be as her father.. Calvin is her father as far as anyone knows... even though everyone knows he's her father..." She said and then frowned, realizing that he probably didn't even know who she was talking about. "I mean... Elijah Krum... to think the biggest pureblood in the world, and me, another huge pureblood.. could make something so.. perfect.. she's darling really.. just perky, and bright, and smiley all the time, so active, even though she can barely move on her own." Chase said laughing lightly and cutting up a bit of her pasta, and putting only a little bit into her mouth, making it look like she got a lot more then she actually did by letting a glob of it fall from her fork just before it got to her mouth.

Bran listened to Chase's words nodding his head every once in a while in agreement or encouragement. He then heard something that astonished him. He didn't know that Calvin wasn't the father of Katie. He tried to hide his shock, and he was confident that he was successful. So who was the father? From what Chase was saying, he was not a very good person. In fact, he sounded like the scourge of the earth.

She suddenly stopped talking and Bran looked behind himself. He smiled. The food had arrived, and in a very timely manner, as if the chef was aware of Bran need to feed. He bit into his manicotti and closed his eyes. It was heavenly. It had to be the most delicious manicotti he had ever had, but Bran was not here for himself. He was here for Chase, so he opened his eyes and watched her eat, but discretely enough that he didn't think she noticed. She seemed to be eating slowly, but steadily, which was about the best he would get. After a few moments of indulgence, she continued with her tale.

She was apparently afraid of her daughter knowing the father. Well, if what she said was true, Bran wouldn't want a child knowing that kind of father either. Calvin seemed like a much better guy who actually cared about Katie. Then, she spoke the name of the father. Elijah Krum. Bran had heard that name before, but where? It seemed so familiar to him, as if from a dream that he couldn't quite remember. Well, he'd just have to think on it when he had some time alone. "Well, from what you've said, it's a good thing that little Katie takes after her mother." Bran smiled, showing that Katie taking after her mother was a very good thing.

Suddenly, something hit him. "You know what I've realized? For the week that we've known each other, we always talk about you and your past. It's got to be uncomfortable for you, spilling your guts about yourself when all you know about me is that I like animals." Bran felt that it was unfair that he knew so much about her, a lot of them very personal things, and she knew so little about him. "Okay, so to resolve this issue, you can ask me as many questions as you want for the rest of lunch and I will answer every one completely and honestly." That seemed almost like a game to him, and he smiled. "So, go ahead. Ask me some questions."

Chase smiled when he nodded encouragement, or simply looked at her when she spoke. It was nice... but still.. she was spilling her guts to a complete stranger, and she must have been reading his mind, because two seconds later he was asking her to ask him anything. Chase immediately perked up, and found herself concentrating hard on what she could ask him. "Ohh, I love this game, let me think." She said taking a sip of her water and staring at her food as she thought, taking a tiny bit more and placing it in her mouth, hoping he was to distracted to notice how little she was actually eating. "Hmm... well, there are a lot of things I've told you about my past.. and... hmm... lets start easy first. You know! The basics!" Giggling she counted it out on her fingers. "Favorite colour, favourite animal, favourite band, favourite song, favourite food" Chase paused, trying to think of more favourites.

She had run out of fingers on one hand, so she moved to the other and thought hard. "Hmm.... favourite class in Hogwarts, favourite teacher, favourite past time, erm... favourite.. restaurant, favourite.... hair color..." Chase looked down at her hand and realized she had run out of fingers again. "Hmm.. Lets start with that shall we? All of your favorites! Spill!" She said and pointed at him before picking up her glass and taking a sip of water again, forcing the taste down her throat, trying not to shudder, it felt like she was chewing on carpet, not because the food tasted bad, but because her own mouth didn't want to taste it and was rebelling against the food that was entering her stomach. She swallowed another gulp of water, before taking a tiny thing of noodle, and put it in her mouth, making sure to look like she was enjoying it so he wouldn't get concerned, while inside, her intestines were writhing against the intrusion.

Bran's eyes widened with each favorite that he listed. Apparently she wanted to know EVERYTHING about him. He had made a deal, however, so he was going to tell her all ten favorites that she listed. "Well, my favorite color is green. I guess it's because when I was younger I worked with plants a lot, so I like green because of them." That was definitely more information than she had asked for, but Bran had promised to answer each question truthfully and completely, which required an explanation if he could give it. "Okay, next is my favorite animal. Well, if we go non-magical then my favorite animal is the ocelot. It's a Latin American jungle cat. My favorite magical creature is..." Bran was a little reluctant, "the lethifold. Yes," he sighed, "I know it's a ruthless killer that is difficult to stop and absolutely impossible to predict, but it's just so cool!" His eyes seemed to light up. "I mean, before I learned I was a wizard I never dreamed that there was such a thing as a carnivorous sheet!" Bran's excitement wore off, and he continued with Chase's questions.

"Next is...band and song. Well, as it so happens, my favorite song is by my favorite band. Well, now that I think about it, I suppose that isn't that uncommon. Well, anyway, it's Maps by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. I know it's an old song, 20 years old in fact, but I like it. Most of their other songs are great too, which is why I like them so much. I'm a softie for the oldies." Bran smiled and moved on to the next question. "And now we have my favorite food. This is an easy one. Just look down!" He laughed. "Italian food is definitely my favorite, and I couldn't get any more specific than that. Anything from Italy is golden in my books. Honestly, though," he said, his voice reduced to a whisper, "I'm not that picky. I'll eat just about anything as long as it's warm." He grinned as if he had told an embarrassing secret about their boss.

"Okay, my favorite class in Hogwarts was Care of Magical Creatures, big surprise there, and that was also my favorite professor, its teacher. It was just a class where I could forget about any worries and just enjoy the sounds of nature." Bran smiled, remembering fond memories of his afternoons in Care of Magical Creatures. My favorite past time is gardening." He laughed at himself for that one. "Yes, I know it's a bit girly, but I like it. I blame my mother for that one, she's a florist, see? Oh! I also like to play with my fwooper, Gwendolyn.... Hmmm, I guess if I had to choose I'd rather have Gwendolyn than a few begonias. She can't make any noise, but she still is pretty funny. She likes to chase flies around the house," he said, laughing yet again. Who knew that spilling your guts could be such a fun activity?

"Okay, honestly, my favorite restaurant is this one. I've found an Italian restaurant that is close to both work ad home that serves delicious food. I see no reason to ever go anywhere else," he said with a face that was just too straight. "And finally my favorite hair color is probably this one. I mean, I've always had dark brown hair and I couldn't imagine having anything else...." He trailed of when He saw Chase's face. "Oh, all right," he said, laughing. "My favorite hair color, on someone else, is kind of a reddish brown, auburn. I just think that the mixture of colors is really pretty. Whew," he said, wiping his brow, "that sure was a lot of information, are you sure you want some more?" he asked, teasingly. Bran was as content as he ever was. He was having a nice meal with a friend, and that friend happened to be eating her food. Chase was still taking her sweet time about it, but she was eating, and that was all that mattered.

Chase listened happily as he spoke about his favourites, her eyes wide as she stared at him, laughing at a few things he said, like the gardening being girly, and gave him a look when he answered the hair color question. He knew what she meant, and she knew it too, because he told her his real answer after that. When he was done, Chase clapped her hands together. "Okay! That gets the favourites out of the way!" She said giggling, and immediately holding up her hands again. "Times to get really deep.. let's see." Chase said giggling, and frowning as she thought about what to ask him next. He had answered quite a lot on those last ones, and it had given her something to think about. "What do you think is the most important thing, Friends, or family.. why?" She said slowly, and looking down at her food, which she was slowly, VERY slowly eating.

"Errrm... What do you like in a friend? someone who's smart.. or funny... or... I don't know.. airheaded.." she said giggling before looking at him again, her eyes twinkling. "What... do you get when the snow melts?" She glanced at him, and wondered what he would say, he seemed the logical type, so she guessed he would say water. She frowned again and found herself gazing over the restaurant, thinking desperately, trying to come up with a good question. "How many girlfriends have you had?" She asked raising her eyebrows suggestively before giggling and taking another sip of her water. "And.. errm... Best childhood memory, Go!"

Bran listened to her questions carefully, blushing slightly at the girlfriend one. Boy was she inquisitive...and eating slowly! In fact, it seemed she had stopped eating. It was more of a "snacking" now. She was only taking a bite about every five minutes, and small bites at that. Oh well, he needed to answer her questions. "Okay, so, you want me to choose between friends or family? Well, I think that the decision is pretty easy. Family is the obvious option, because any friend you have that is important to you is basically family. All they're missing is the blood, and I think we both know that blood isn't important." He smiled to himself, proud of his answer. "And," he continued, "in these friends, certain qualities would indeed be necessary, qualities such as kindness, a good sense of humor, strength of spirit, a little stubbornness never hurts." The last one made him laugh. "Intelligence is a good one too, but it's not necessary, as long as the person has the others."

Bran thought about her next question very thoroughly. He couldn't state the obvious answer, water, so he had to be creative. "I think, that when snow melts, you get hope. In the winter, when everything is frozen, and all of the green plants in the land seem dead, a lot of people become miserable and depressed, my mother one of them. I don't know what she would have done if she didn't have a greenhouse. But when you see that snow began to melt, hope sweeps into your heart, because you know that soon the world will be full of life once more, that what you once thought was gone was coming back, just like it always had. Was that a good answer?" he asked, knowing that it had been a trick question, a test.

"Well, now we've come to the girlfriend question. Well, here we go. I've only had one girlfriend, we started dating during our sixth year at Hogwarts, and I thought for a time that she may have been the one, you know? But she had ambitions, she didn't want to stay in Britain, and I couldn't leave, I love it here too much. So, we had a mutual breakup right before we graduated, and she moved off to the States one month later. I haven't talked to her since." Bran seemed unlike his normal self when telling this tale, distant, as if he was heavily distracted.

"Well, there's one more question. My best childhood memory is something I've told you about before. When I learned that dragons were real and my eyes were opened to the world of magical creatures, I was perfectly happy. That was the best, and certainly most exciting, day of my life. It's a rather simple memory, but it's the best." Bran smiled, glad that he had found someone with whom he could trust all of this personal information. Chase really was great.

Chase nodded carefully at his friends vs family quote. It was true.. when you made a great friend, it was more like you were siblings then anything else. She had more then once called her friend her sister... helped that her sister was a little snot that was bossy, and Chase didn't like to well, but she knew how it felt.. when you had a friend so close they were more family.. it was always awkward though, when it was a guy friend you viewed like a brother, and they started to like you, and then it all turned out messy, because you didn't like them the way they liked you.. and then they asked you out, and you were like "Whoa... hey... erm... I see you like a brother, not a boyfriend," and then they get all heart broken and never speak to you again... wait, where did that come from? Back to the post...

She smiled, waiting for him to say water to her answer, but he said something even different then what she was thinking. It was CLOSE to what she had on her mind, but her hopes (haha, see how I put that in there) Were dashed when he answered with something other then water. She looked at him closely, as he detailed why when the snow melted it become home. She became solemn for a second, staring at her food, not touching it anymore, but staring at it instead, suddenly getting the image of brains in her head, she pushed it out of her way, and looked back up at him. "That was awesome." She said grinning at him. "I was going to say something different.. not water like I realize we both thought you were going to say... but spring... because when the snow melts.. it means winter is over... and things can start growing again.. so it's close to your hope.." she said smiling and looking back down at her food.

He answered her best childhood memory pretty quickly, and she grinned. "Bet that's your protronus eh?" She asked, giggling before she stopped, and looked up at the clock. "Oh wow! Is that the time, we gotta go Bran! We're going to be late for work! "She gasped, grabbing her bag and pulling out her wallet hurriedly, to try and get some bills on the table so they could get back to work. "Not good to be late from lunch break your first week of work!" She said laughing and standing up quickly, pulling out some pound notes and throwing them on the table.

Bran jumped when Chase practically yelled that they were going to be late getting back to work. He was always jumping. He shoved the last bite of manicotti into his mouth before standing up and taking out his wallet. He frowned at her when she attempted to pay for her meal, and he made a big deal out of taking the money and shoving it back into her bag and fishing his own money from his wallet. "Like I said before, Chase. The lady never pays for her meal. And don't be getting any ideas about sneaking me money later. I know how much is in there," he said, pointing to his now lighter billfold. He grinned at her then, no longer able to pretend to be mad at her. She had eaten almost half of the food that she had been given, which seemed like it could have double her weight. She just did not look healthy anymore, but it was definitely progress, and that was a good thing.

Bran then allowed them to hurry again. They had only five minutes to get back to their cubicles in the ministry. They might make it if they ran, so he took off, checking to make sure she was following, and ran down the street towards the entrance to the Ministry of Magic, laughing the whole way. Today had been a great day, and he could not wait for others like it. It had only been a week, but Bran already couldn't imagine a life without Chase Moor. She was his best and only friend, and she kept him sane, and if you asked Bran, he thought that maybe he helped her a bit too. They both seemed to need each other in such an unfamiliar place, and Bran had no problem with that. He knew that Chase would always be there, so needing her wouldn't hinder him one bit.