As he had expected, it was a bit odd being back out in the wizarding world, knowing everything that was going on. This was the first time that either of them had been technically out of the school for any amount of time since Isabella’s family had died, putting it at the forefront of his mind that whomever had killed them was out there somewhere, still bloody free. That obviously pissed him off for several reasons, since they bloody needed to be punished for them damn fucking crimes, clearly. But then there was just the issue of being concerned, something that he had noted was occurring in his mind during the end of the school year, but now it was actually actively happening from time to time. Apparently, it was becoming less safe to be a pureblood by the day, and since now he worried about someone who wasn’t himself, that was actually a concern he had. It was a feeling he was unused to, and he was sure that he didn’t bloody like it. It just made him want to sort out the situation so that the feeling would go away, but he didn’t exactly know how to go about finding whomever was responsible and putting them out of commission. He felt pissed off at them enough to do it successfully, but that could just be a bit ridiculous of him, he could note. He was cocky, but not the type to think that he necessarily could take on people with a hell of a lot more experience than he did with dueling, murder and the like. But the thought still was a tempting one, since it didn’t seem like they were at all close to catching them.

“I appreciate that. What would I bloody do without you?” Evan stated, sarcastically, shaking his head with an amused grin. He was just glad that the parlor didn’t have a later closing time, because he was pretty damn happy with his timing at this point. If a customer tried to come in right now, he’d direct them right back out again…partially to win the bet and partially to get them out of there sooner. It had been too long since they’d shagged… well, he supposed that was a ridiculous thought, since it had only been days. But they had caught up a bit, and this seemed like the perfect next move and then he could continue to see how she had been doing after that. “I’m an excellent hostage negotiator,” he replied, solemnly, thinking of all of the ways he could convince her to give it up if she did ever kidnap his broom. Though if her purchasing a new broom was on the table, that would only make him win this bet further, so that was all right. “Well, good, I’m glad you think that. Ignorance is bliss, and all,” he joked, before pushing himself off of the wall as she gestured that she would be right back. Once she had returned, he headed toward the door. Evan would prefer them just going back to his house, but he wouldn’t say no to another stop if she really wanted to make one. Personally, he could not think of anywhere to go that was a better idea than his, but perhaps she had something else in mind. He pulled her against him once she had put away the key, wrapping his arms around her in an embrace before bringing his lips to hers. But that move was a bit too tempting with where his thoughts were already going, so eventually he pulled away. “Where to?”

Having Evan come by the shop had been a nice surprise, someone that she hadn’t even known she’d actually miss all that much to begin with. She supposed that sounded quite bad, but missing people just wasn’t something that Isabella had been used to. It was strange to think that just a year ago, Evan had only been her teammate, someone that she barely knew and was content with keeping at that distance. Isabella hadn’t talked much at all with her teammates, finding that to be something ridiculous to do when she was there solely for Quidditch. She supposed she had to stay in contact with her fellow chasers, but verbal communication was hardly the only way to communicate. When Evan had approached her in that tower, however long ago that was, she hadn’t wanted to accept his offer on going on a date with him. Now, she was really glad she had as that obviously worked out better than either of them had expected. She grinned at his words, shaking her head in mock understanding. “Honestly, I wonder that every day. You’d probably be off shagging some random bint that is bound to get attached. Good thing you’re stuck with such a prude,” she nodded sincerely, knowing that she had come across very prude-like in the beginning…mainly because she thought she was in bloody love with someone else.

“Oh? Are you now? I happen to be excellent at being incredibly stubborn, though,” she debated, quirking her eyebrows in his direction. He would win, that much she could admit silently to herself and never to him. He probably was a bloody good negotiator. “Yep, I’ll just saunter along in my bliss,” Isabella replied as she glanced around the shop to ensure she remembered everything. Within moments, they were outside in the warm night, finally ready to close down the shop and move onto better things. Isabella returned his kiss, regretfully pulling away when he had. She really had bloody missed him, annoyingly enough. “I do believe you said you had some ideas of what we could do…” she trailed off, smiling mischievously.

This was going to be a long summer if they couldn’t figure out a way to see each other more often than this. That was a rather absurd thing for him to even be thinking, since it hadn’t even been that long since the school year ended; but he supposed it was just odd going from seeing someone every day to having to figure out how to actually see each other. With Isabella not being able to apparate, Evan felt like it was a bit more difficult, though it was good that he knew how to at the very least. That would make everything a little bit easier, at least, but he still felt they’d actually have to figure this shit out at some point. Evan figured that meeting her family would probably help, since they were close and probably didn’t want her hanging out with some bloke that they didn’t know. Luckily, he didn’t have to deal with issues like that since his aunt didn’t give a damn whom he was with. He supposed that also came with the territory in being a bloke; family normally seemed more concerned about who their daughter/niece/cousin/sister was dating as opposed to whom their son/nephew/brother was dating as a general rule. Or, at least, that was what he had gathered, since he didn’t know personally. “Good thing,” he agreed, nodding, a smirk forming on his lips. Back when he had been ‘dating’ her the first time, he could barely kiss her without her getting awkward—he supposed that had to do with her pining over that ridiculous Gryffindor. Merlin, that would never stop being amusing now. “Of course, without me… you’d probably be sleeping in rose pedals every night.” Evan added, referencing his favorite damn joke as far as her ex-boyfriend was concerned.

“I certainly can vouch for that,” he stated, grinning. She was stubborn as all hell, but so was he, so he supposed it worked out, particularly when he put his mind to something and beat her, since that happened pretty damn often. Really, Evan was fine with just heading back to his house, since clearly they couldn’t go back to hers. In fact, that would be what he preferred to do, making up for lost time since they hadn’t seen each other in a few days and then they could just hang around until she had to go home. But, obviously he would do anything else that she wanted to do, he supposed, if she had something else in mind. “Well, I was just going to say we could go back to my house,” he began, leaning in to kiss her again as he pulled her against him, “I have plenty ideas of what we could do there; but I didn’t know if you had anything else in mind.”

Isabella certainly could state that 2015 was not her favorite year, but it was also a year she wouldn’t necessarily change. It was something that she had learned from her father growing up. Life was going to bring good times and it was going to bring bad times because life didn’t owe anyone anything. Life was going to have its shitty moments and even with the shittiest of moments, he had taught her to look forward. There were things in her life that she would regret, as she wasn’t bloody perfect (though, she was close enough, she knew), but she wouldn’t change the decisions that she made simply because of how connected things were. The year started out horribly with the death of her family, and it was something she still wasn’t even remotely over as she was convinced she was going to avenge their deaths in her way, but for now, she needed to graduate school and figure out what she was going to do with her life…and give whoever the hell it was that killed her family a bit of time to think she was just going to actually forget about it. But focusing on the past was not something that Isabella did, but it certainly wasn’t something she forgot. For now, she would focus on the fact that she was very much happy with her current relationship, something truly great that came out of this slightly terrible year. In such a short time, Evan had become more than just that bloke that had convinced her to go on a date. He had become her best friend, she could admit, and even with the terrible year, she wouldn’t want to redo it for fear that it would mean the end of her relationship with Evan.

She rose an eyebrow at his statement, making a face of disgust. “I bloody hope not. I’m allergic to those blasted things…and every bloody flower to exist,” she stated rolling her eyes. Well, she couldn’t say for certain that she were allergic, but she hated it enough that she felt like if she were around flowers, it was as if a headache was oncoming and she suddenly started feeling ill…of course, she felt the exact same way when it came to shopping, but that was different, clearly. Flowers were so absolutely useless. They were weird looking and expensive and itchy and smelly and they died quickly. Honestly, she didn’t understand what it was with the hype of getting flowers for a girl. It just seemed like a bloody chore as they then had something to take care of…it was almost as if a bloke was hoping she would waste her time taking care of the useless living thing and having a bit more time away from her. Isabella grinned slightly as he pulled her against him, kissing him back as she was quickly finding herself getting distracted by the proximity. It really had been too long since she had seen him…which was ridiculous, but she would think about that later. “Hmm,” she hummed as if contemplating other options. “I think I want to see these ideas of yours and anything else I have on mind can wait,” she answered, grinning.

This had been a good idea, and he was glad that he’d made the decision to head over to see what Isabella was doing. Yes, it had only been a few days since they had seen each other at the train station, but apparently that was enough time to miss her, or something, not that he would ever admit that out loud. Evan certainly had plans to show her that he missed her… but he thought that route would be a hell of a lot more satisfying that just outright admitting it. Then, he supposed they could catch up further, as he really did want to hear if anything of interest had gone on in the few days of summer that they’d had thus far. He’d found that was the major difference in dating someone that he actually cared about—he wanted to hear about her damn life, or something, which was new to him but something else that he was fine with. It was easier to think that shit than admit it out loud, though he would if it was brought up, really. Probably, at least. Evan made a face at her comment, nodding. “Allergic to flowers—I’d say I’d make a mental note, but I’m really not the flower-buying type,” he stated, shrugging. Evan had bought flowers for bints in the past when he had been trying to impress them to get what he wanted. But he felt no need to be that way with Isabella, so it was actually good to hear that she didn’t even like flowers or else he might vaguely consider that he was shit at doing what real boyfriends were supposed to do.

Evan really would go do something else if she didn’t want to go back to his house just yet. After all, he supposed he didn’t know how long she had been working so she might be hungry or something like that. Just because his mind was already wandering to less appropriate uses of their time didn’t mean that hers was just yet. Though, knowing her, it was safe to say that it was. His grin widened as she pretended to think it over, though that alone made him realize that she had also already made up her mind—thank Merlin. If she was hungry, he really could make her food later, he supposed, unless she was secretly some top-rate chef and then she was welcome to cook him food. “Good,” he stated, bloody glad that he could apparate. “Apparate? Or do you just want to Floo?” Evan asked, since they were close enough to the Leaky Cauldron to do that if she didn’t want to side-along with him.

The surprise visit had been nice, and Isabella hadn’t even realized she liked surprises until that moment. Normally, she would assume that surprises were stupid and she would rather have advanced warning of such nonsense. Instead, she found that she were rather pleased that he had stopped by and that now, her evening was looking even more bright. She supposed she should let her aunt know that she was going out or something, but at the same time, she wasn’t certain that her aunt wouldn’t try to show up at Evan’s and bring her home or something. To Isabella’s knowledge, she hadn’t had a curfew…but maybe she had just toned out of that conversation. Curfews just weren’t something she ever had outside of Hogwarts and abiding by that curfew certainly hardly ever happened. It was amusing to Isabella that some people still thought that this relationship was fake and that any day now, Evan was going to leave her as he got sick of her. Of course, it was always possible that they would break up, though Isabella really couldn’t see that happening anytime soon. People were so adamant about getting her to break up with Evan and she supposed they had been right at the time as the relationship really had been fake, but it worked out in the end and she did trust Evan. Life was funny that way, she supposed, as it really hadn’t seemed like they would have as much in common as they had and they certainly hadn’t even wanted to date each other at first. Now, she couldn’t imagine them breaking up, which sounded like a lame thing to even think.

“Well, good. Because if you had been, you might be under the wrong impression if you came by and saw those precious flowers cut into pieces in the garbage,” she shrugged, grinning. She would have burned them, probably. If she were feeling particularly nice, she might have just said that one of her roommate’s pets ate them and it was rather tragic. Although the thought were amusing to her, she knew she wouldn’t lie to Evan, especially over something so stupid like her immense dislike towards flowers. “Apparate,” she replied quickly, hardly allowing him time to even finish his question. She didn’t care if he were rather knew at apparition and that it might be potentially dangerous. Apparating was far better than using that blasted floo network that never should have existed in the first place. “I mean, we’re already here, why waste time in going to find a fireplace?” she asked, grinning past her nerves at the thought of using that horrible form of transportation. Never in her life had she used the floo network and she was quite content leaving it at that number.

Surprising Isabella had worked out well, he would say, and it might be something that he would have to try again sometime. Not all that soon, obviously, because shit like that only worked out sporadically, but he would definitely figure out another time to do that and it would hopefully be just as successful as this time had been. Though it really wouldn’t have been all that bad if he had miscalculated slightly and had to wait for her to finish up her work. It would have been worse if he’d miscalculated the other way and the shop was closed by the time he got there, but obviously he knew what time they closed now so that wouldn’t be happening. Evan chuckled at Isabella’s comment about flowers, definitely deciding to remember that one even though he really wasn’t the type to buy flowers. It had worked for him in his conquests when necessary, but he had never personally seen the point in it. “Yes, that might have been a bit off-putting,” he answered, still grinning. It would actually be incredibly amusing to see Isabella chopping up flowers with some random gardening tool or however else she could probably think of to get rid of flowers. It would almost be worth sending her some as a joke sometime if only to see how she disposed of them, but he would let that thought go for a while and come back to it at a later time.

“Apparate, all right. Well, I’m glad that you trust me,” he said, jokingly, noting vaguely that she had answered him pretty damn quickly. He figured that she probably just didn’t want to head all the way back to the Leaky Cauldron to Floo, or perhaps she just didn’t like the Floo Network. He had met several bints who hadn’t—some bitched about the soot, whereas it made others nauseous. He’d wager more toward the latter where Isabella was concerned, but it made no difference to him as he’d rather apparate anyhow. “True enough,” he agreed, taking her hand. “Ready?” He asked, knowing that he would obviously successfully get them back to his house. He wouldn’t apparate them if he wasn’t sure, after all. Without speaking further, he apparated them away.

-END OF THREAD-