WHO: Nicodemo Penrose and Nora Peakes
WHAT: The most magnificent picnic!
WHERE: Flying horse paddock, somewhere in the UK!
WHEN: ERRR Sunday?



"Hedgehogs? Can't say I've ever seen one in person, much less known someone who kept 'em as a pet." They sat on a grassy, shaded knoll a ways away, overlooking the winged horses' paddock, where the creatures trotted amiably about despite the tethers. "'Course, I can't even keep an owl on me, really. Do hedgehogs do tricks?" Then Nicodemo grinned as inspiration struck him and held up a finger while he leaned forward, shading his eyes to get a better view of the downslope.

"Oy, Kenneth!" he called, "do you do any tricks?"

The jarvey poked his head out of a hole that could have been the lair of a gnome, a vole, a mole, or a snake, and shouted, "Sod off, you wanker!"

The novelty fresh as ever, Nico leaned back against the tree with a grin and tossed a hunk of bread in his mouth. "I've got to admit, that's a pretty good one."

Nora put her hand to her mouth to hide her laughter; if Kenneth spotted her giggling at his insults then he was sure to tear up her favorite pillow or chew a hole through her robes. He was so sensitive, and had insisted on coming with her on the picnic. Really, he hadn’t left her side since the dragon chase, apparently having heard her on the WWN explaining what had happened. Oh, had he been in a mood that night, but Nora could tell that he was just rather concerned.

“I think the hedgehogs were to give me something that didn’t sling insults every time I wanted to cuddle,” Nora mused, sitting cross legged as she watched Kenneth disappear into the grass again. Her eyes flitted to the sky, where one of the winged horses was going for a fly with one of the trainers. The hill had immediately come to mind when Nicodemo demanded a picnic. She had spent a summer here learning how to tend to the horses and had always found it very peaceful. Nora felt like they deserved some quiet after nearly being trampled by a dragon.

“They’re just boring little pets that my best friend is not allowed to hold,” Nora said with a smile, looking back at Nicodemo. “She’s got a history of crushing small mammals to death with her hugs.”

"No joke?" he asked, eyes wide. He let out a low whistle and balanced his elbow on his knee. "As long as she doesn't mean it, I guess—no, yeah, that's still horrifying." He gave her jarvey a considering look. "At least Kenneth needn't fear."

Nicodemo had to admit he'd been ye bit disappointed to learn Nora was not, in fact, of the North(ern dragon caretakers), but since "magizoologist" was a fun word to say and he figured he didn't have to give up the nickname he'd previously thought of as terribly clever, he managed to make peace with it.

"You know, I was impressed with how quickly you conjured up a location for this." A picnic seemed like the safest bet to him since it was outdoors and he didn't really do restaurants... or, rather, restaurants didn't really do him. Generally, offence was taken at those who found it an impossible task to fully remove the dirt from beneath their fingernails. And the fact that he pretty much only owned Work Robes and Less Worked In Robes. Although, when he did work through Gringotts, he occasionally (always) stopped in Fortescue's, where Florean Fortescue, the world's greatest man, always asked him what the haps were and gave him extra toffee-crunch. Good, good man.

And the flying horses were quite cool.

"So, out with it. What's your in? This place a family member's? Cousin's? Friend's?" He gave her his best smoulder and waggled his eyebrows. "Former lover's?"

Nora went pink, and she pursed her lips in a smirk before looking away. She didn’t have a very good story about this place, not one that she found terribly interesting, anyway. Technically, she didn’t even have an in; she was only able to hike up onto the hills when Mr. Bingley was the on the clock. He was an elderly wizard that had a soft spot for her. If any of the newer employees were on, they’d want ministry approved research documents. Things were never much fun when there was work to be done.

“I...know the owners,” she said, and that wasn’t a lie and hoping it left some sort of mystery. It simply sounded better than saying an old man fancied her. Nora was very self-confident in a lot of aspects of her life, but when it came to men or--or people in general, she often worried that she’d be found boring. She had her wild, animal side, but former lovers? There were no interesting stories there, save for some long lasting fancies that would never go anywhere. With Nona’s support she had suggested this lunch, but what if Nicodemo found she wasn’t terribly interesting when there wasn’t a dragon lurking nearby?

“Tell me,” Nora said, twisting to face Nico now that she’d reminded herself she was a rather boring person socially. She needed to remind herself that she did some incredibly interesting things, “how jealous were your colleagues when you returned from our--the dragon chase?”

Nicodemo let out a snort and scratched his chin thoughtfully. "Larkin experienced a massive wave of jealousy—that's verbatim, by the way—as Larkin must be at the epicentre of all that is exciting and life-threatening." And that was even without the monetary incentive, which he admired in differing from his mercenary ways. Not that he didn't love what he did, and would probably continue to do so in the event he was no longer compensated, but he unquestionably adored wrangling the Galleons from his clients. Nico then stopped to consider his Canadian friend's reaction, and had to admit, "But I gather Sam experienced idle, intellectual jealousy only."

Shifting his legs, he added, "Borgrok, a goblin I work with on occasion, and who so kindly bequeathed us that trinket, simply laughed at my uncanny ability to be draw out the most dangerous creature within a dozen leagues." His tone grew the slightest bit mournful as he recalled, "Almost got my head bitten clean off by a tebo, once."

Damned if it wouldn't have taken its own sweet time with the task, too.

He gazed at her slyly out of the corner of his eye. "But you've seen much worse, I imagine." Nico nudged her calf with the toe of his boot. "Foot all unbroken now?"

She let out a short gasp, putting her hand to his arm, “A tebo! I’ve never seen one! How did you get out? Almost got your head bitten off?” Nora made to look for scars on his neck, but his hair was in the way. It took her a few excited moments to realize that she was examining him closely, a bit too closely, and she pulled back. But she couldn’t help but ask, “Were you provoking it or did it just attack? They’re nearly impossible to catch.”

Nora wiggled her foot back and forth, hands clasping in her lap so that she couldn’t continue touching and examining him like he was some research assignment. Nona’s personal assignment for her came to mind, but Nora forced it away, unable to even think about telling a bloke to shut up and snog her. Completely undoable.

“All unbroken,” she repeated with a nod, pointing her foot. “It wasn’t so bad--I’ve got the scars to prove that.”

Without thinking (as it seemed like she rarely did when she talked about her animals and exploits), Nora lifted her shirt to showcase three long scars running across her side. Didn’t seem like showing off some skin was that embarrassing when it involved an injury she’d sustained.

“That’s from a Nundu I encountered in Kenya---well,” her head shook back and forth, “more like I got in its way, than encountered. Was out for two weeks, my mother nearly killed me when I woke up.”

"You don't say." He rolled onto his side and ducked his head to get a better look at the marks, reaching out a hand to grip her hip as he examined.

He hadn't really thought beyond the initial ooh, shiny impulse any curse-breaker worth their salt felt upon the topic of scars—he had more than his fair share, and was always eager to compare and swap stories with fellow survivors—but as his hand lingered on her warm skin, a number of devilish ideas sprang to mind.

Nico had had a difficult time trying to suss out Nora's intentions. He hadn't even thought there were intentions beyond their mostly agreeable cave experience until he found her owl box address in his pocket some time later. He'd spent enough time in her company to realise this hadn't been some excuse to sleep with him (although, really, excuses were never necessary, it should be noted), so Nico had thought to just leave it. He didn't usually go sniffing where he wasn't welcome, and, despite himself, seemed excellent at picking up friends of the female variety. But then, having detected a blush or two and some very extraneous touching, didn't write Nora off as a lost cause quite yet.

When he was removing his hand after a deliberate second or two, he dragged his thumb along her flesh, then propped himself on his elbow, still looking at her side. "Supposeit's a good thing it didn't breathe on you, then."

She had the strange feeling of being entranced and wanting to throw up. Nora of course thought Nico was good looking, and for her to be bold enough to give him her owl post number was unheard of. To even mention him to a friend, let alone Nona whom she knew would never leave her alone about it, that meant that she was actually rather interested in the bloke. Nora found some men attractive, yeah, but usually they left her train of thought once she was out of the room. This bloke here, taking his time in examining her scars, had kept her intrigued.

“It’s a really good thing,” she said, feeling breathless. Oh, she was such a ninny. He was just a bloke. Delilah made out with guys she didn’t even know. At least she thought he was interesting, and funny, and if she could read him correctly then there had been some signs of attraction and---

--blimey, he wasn’t some animal she was doing research on. That feeling of getting sick twisted in her stomach again, but she built up some Gryffindor courage and leaned down and kissed him. Quickly! She pulled back so fast that she thought she’d whack her head against the trunk of the tree. Nora covered her face with her hands.

“Oh, sorry! I---my friend told me to!” she blurted, cursing Nona wherever she was. She probably just burst into spontaneous laughter.

He'd been reaching forward to pull her closer, leaning in to kiss her good and proper this time, when he finally heard what she was saying. That startled a laugh out of him.

"Your friend told you to?" he asked, grinning. "What, was it a bet? Did you just win five Galleons on the easy curse-breaker?"

“NO!” Nora exclaimed, her hands going wild to stop his thought process. “No! No, I was afraid you’d think I was easy but she told me to have my way with you!”

She blanched; how was it that she had not gotten eaten by the bloody dragon? How could her nerves destroy any filter she may have had from her brain to her mouth? It took her a moment to notice that he was grinning, that he wasn’t actually offended. That helped her nerves somewhat, even though she literally needed a lie down. Nora dropped back to lie on the grass and covered her face, shaking her head.

“Where’s a Nundu when you need one...?” she groaned, though she couldn’t help but let out a laugh at her own expense.

At this point, Nicodemo too was on the ground, trying not to clutch at his stomach or conspicuously wipe away any of the tears that had formed while he was just about helpless in his amusement. It wasn't at her (well, a little, yes, but—), it was more how plainly uncomfortable Nora was with the whole situation, coupled with the plainly wicked instruction of her clearly audacious friend, whom he had to admit had gained a terrible amount of his admiration. Finally able to breathe long enough to roll onto his stomach and prop his head up, he pointed a finger at her. "Miss Nora of the Un-North, I reckon you're about certifiable."

A rather broad smile, he flopped onto his back and crossed his arms behind his head, closing his eyes. "And the way I figure it, you probably owe me another kiss and half your winnings. I do accept I.O.U.s. if you can prove yourself to be a credible borrower."

She was about to exclaim that it wasn’t a bet, but then she caught onto the joke. Lots of people claimed that Nora was certifiable, loony; she’d been hearing it since Hogwarts when she’d managed to fall asleep in the hippogriff paddock after helping Professor Kettleburn with a newborn. She couldn’t just leave the poor thing! Why did helping a new mother with her newborn make her a crazy person? Charlie Spinnet had loved that one.

The fact that Nico hadn’t high-tailed it out of there and actually seemed ready to give it another go gave Nora another burst of courage, this time hopefully lasting longer than the split second peck. She pushed herself up and moved quickly, hovering over Nico with her hands on either side of him. Bloody hell, he was cute.

“Shut it,” she said with a grin before leaning down and kissing him, this time in the way she had imagined she would. Now she could go back to Nona and tell her she’d done exactly what she told her to.

If it was possible to continue smirking as one was having their way with you, Nicodemo certainly accomplished it. There had been a momentary impulse to roll her over and have at it himself, but then he thought no, it would be such a pity to lose out on his two Galleons, sixteen Sickles, and fifteen Knuts, so he settled down and continued to enjoy being shamelessly used.

"BOLLOCKS, YOU ARSEHOLE!"

Indeed.