Even though they had agreed to go to a pizza place which meant no pressure on outfits, Leanne still wore a nice dress to meet Quentin at Pizza Planet. Yellow never failed her, although it might speak to a slight obsession with Hufflepuff well after such a thing was acceptable, but Leanne found most shades of it agreed with her complexion. So, she donned a casual yellow dress, a denim jacket and sneakers and hoped for the best.
“Hi Quentin!” She greeted happily upon seeing him outside the pizza place. It already smelled divine outside. The scent distracted her from how awkward it was to decide what to do next. Hug him? Wave? Was there anything in-between that she was unaware of?
When it came to dating, Quentin was certainly no expert. Even with Alice, he couldn’t say that they ever really went on a date. It was more the fact that they lived in the same house so they saw each other all the time so he was afraid that he would mess this up and he really liked Leanne. So he went on impulse and hugged her when she walked up, it seemed the right thing to do and besides he really wanted to.
“You look great,” he said when he pulled away. “That dress is pretty.” Was that the right thing to say? Quentin had no idea but it was true, she did look nice and the dress suited her.
Leanne smiled brightly at the hug, hugging Quentin right back. She was a lot more touchy-feely than she gave the impression to be, especially with people she cared about.The compliment did nothing to stop her smiling, of course. “Aw, thank you. It’s one of my favourite colours!”
Going on ahead Leanne giggled at the entrance of the place, with the armored aliens with pizza-tipped spears and pizza-shields. She was about to make conversation until she was overwhelmed by the restaurant they had just walked into. Spaceships everywhere, arcade games lining the walls, kids screaming, and so, so, so much food. “Whoa. What’s this from, this restaurant? This is mad!”
“I have no idea,” Quentin said. “But there sure are a lot of kids here. I didn’t realize that there were that many kids in Atlantis.” He knew there were people who lived her that had always been here and no doubt that’s where the kids came from but he was pretty sure there weren’t that many that had come from other places. “There’s a table over there in the corner that seems to be out of the line of fire,” He took her hand and led her over to a table that was in a section of the restaurant that didn’t seem to have a lot of families with kids.
After they sat down, Quentin pulled the menu out of the napkin rack and put it in the middle of the table. “So where do we want to start? I like pepperoni, seems like a crime to have a pizza without it.”
“Yeah… And they love running.” Leanne replied as she had to grab onto Quentin’s shoulders to keep from being tripped by some running kids. Leanne smiled as Quentin took her hand. That was sweet, she thought.
“Absolutely, a large pepperoni should do for both of us, right? And um… Well I do love garlic bread, they have it as an appetizer.” Leanne replied, though she was visibly distracted by all the laser alien decor stuff, although the table was a great one, Quentin was right.
“Yeah that should work, is there anything you like on it? And I love the garlic bread too. I always get some when I have pizza.”They had that in common which had to be a good sign as far as he was concerned. “So we can get that. Beer? No beer? Do they even have it here? I would think so because if I had to listen to this all the time, I would definitely need some beer.”
“Not more than the large pepperoni, no.” Leanne replied with a smirk. “I mean I do like pasta but our first time at a place called Pizza Planet really should be about the pizza.”
Leanne chuckled at Quentin’s very relatable comment about needing beer to be here as an adult. “Yeah I’d love a beer, lemme see,” she leaned over to check the menu without taking it from Quentin’s hands. “Oh my God. No beer. Quentin you brought us to an exclusively kids place! Who has hot cocoa with pizza?!”
“Holy shit, that’s just not right,” he said, laughing. “I had no idea that it was like Chuck E. Cheese. Well we can have our pizza and something kid friendly, then go get a beer somewhere else, we might need it.” he ducked as a paper airplane sailed toward his head but he easily deflected it with a couple twists of his fingers. Hopefully the pilot of said plane wouldn’t realize that they’d seen something magical and come over, demanding that Quentin pull a rabbit out of a hat. He’d never tried that and after his experience with Cancer Puppy, he didn’t do much with animals.
“Yeah, this is very kid friendly. But! Pizza!” Leanne chuckled. She wasn’t too fussy, and like Quentin had said, they could always go somewhere else after. When the waiter finally came over, Leanne ordered what they had discussed and a coca-cola for herself, trusting that Quentin would order his own drink since she didn’t want to steamroll him.
She leaned away from the airplane, eyes immediately darting towards the thrower. Her teacher instincts surfaced, and Leanne narrowed her eyes as she waved.“Hey! There’s other people here, learn to share the space!”
She looked back at Quentin apologetically. “Sorry. Since I became a PE teacher some things just… jump out.”
He laughed, ‘It’s okay, I don’t get why parents let their kids run wild in public, I was never allowed to.” His parents had been strict especially his mother so whenever they were out, he knew better than to misbehave. “But I bet you are a good teacher. Besides you could turn them into a frog if you wanted to.”
“Me either. I did plenty of running around, don’t misunderstand, but never ever in places like this.” If her family hadn’t had a generous back garden she didn’t know what might have become of their house proper with all the running and jumping, but fortunately she and her brother had had space to play and even a tree to climb.
Scrunching up her nose, Leanne looked away. “It’s not my true calling, but I think I do all right. The kids seem to like me at least. Haven’t had to threaten them with frog time yet, I think it might be frowned upon. But sometimes…” She sighed deeply. “Oh, sometimes…”
She smiled at Quentin. “Your job is the dream though, yeah? You said you love research and the library here.”
He nodded. “I got lucky. Not everyone would enjoy it, I’ve got friends who would be bored stiff looking at books all day but I love it. I’ve learned about so many different kinds of magic, I already knew that people from your world used wands because I read the books, but actually seeing someone do it was pretty cool,” he gave a little laugh. “Sorry if I sound like a fanboy. I’m not on the front lines of the war we’re fighting but what we do is still important. We can’t always figure it out but we do our best.”
People all along the wizarding world, muggle-born or otherwise, eventually learned to keep their wand close regardless of where they were or what they were doing. Leanne’s was currently inside her bag, but she’d been known to have a thigh holster, a sling and other kinds of things appropriate for the more active witch. She pulled her wand out of her bag and pointed it at a napkin.
“Herbifors!” She said, and the napkin turned into a small bunch of flowers, which she held out to Quentin with a grin. “I’m a plant enthusiast. And I’ve fought in a war before, not really knowing what the bloody hell I was doing, and it was the single most traumatizing time of my life. Knowing what we’re doing is more important than just throwing bodies at the fight. Magic research has got to be one of the pillars of the entire effort. You don’t need to convince me.”
He took the flowers and smiled at her. “Thank you. I agree that research is important and there is so much that we still don’t know about magic. We’ll probably never come close to learning it all.” Quentin knew about the wizarding wars of course, having read the books and he reached over and rested his hand on top of Leanne’s,. “I’m sorry you had to go through that. I’ve never been in war other than this one which doesn’t feel like a real war sometimes but what all of you had to endure, I’m very glad that good won in the end.”
Leanne was all about gestures of compassion and so she smiled at the weight and warmth of Quentin's hand on hers. "I'm glad too. Otherwise it would have all been for nothing. It was bad enough to lose Cedric for no other reason than he was in the wrong place at the wrong time."
She remembered then that he had told her he was dead in his homeworld, and suddenly her complaining about the Second Wizarding War felt shameful. At least she had lived, most of her friends and all of her family were alive.
"But you've been through a lot yourself, war or not." She said in a barely audible tone. Then, she squeezed his hand. "I didn't forget. Although I kind of want to do my best to make sure you do, from time to time."
He smiled at her although it was tinged with sadness. “I appreciate that. I know I did the right thing but it was hard. There were still so many things I wanted to do in life but there wasn’t really any other choice.” Or was there? He was still haunted by the question he’d asked Penny 40 about whether or not he had chosen his manner of death because it was an “acceptable” way of taking his own life. He could answer that question now and say no. He hadn’t wanted to die but when the moment came, he knew it was the only way. “And I don’t mind if you want to try and help me forget all the stuff at home whenever you want. I like being with you.”
Leanne nodded, only slightly understanding what Quentin meant. Her sacrifice hadn’t been quite so big but she had gone back to Hogwarts to fight for quite the same reason. It was the right - the only - thing to do. And many of them had died, she’d just been lucky enough not to have been one of them. But there wasn’t, as far as they were concerned, another choice.
Slowly, almost shily and fully aware that her cheeks flushed red while she did it, Leanne entwined her fingers with Quentin’s, letting the tips of hers brush against his knuckles. “I like being with you too. I’ve been… scared. Lonely. I don’t know why I haven’t gone home, I guess for the same reason I went back to Hogwarts to fight; when people ask your help you don’t say no and wash your hands of it. But it’s been really hard. Lately you’ve been helping make it about more than just that, though. Plus, this is your home now. I want to fight for that.”
He was touched by her words and gave her hand a squeeze. While it wasn’t something he advertised, Quentin was a hopeless romantic and her words brought a smile to his face. “I’m glad that I’ve been able to do that for you. It’s been the same for me. Nearly all my friends left at once save two and it was tough. Then I found out about what happened so having you here has been great.” He still had Julia and Margo but they had their own lives, their own friends, it wasn’t like at home where all of them only really had each other when it came right down to it. “I’m glad I ended up talking myself into going on that cruise. Best decision I ever made.” He picked up their joined hands and kissed her knuckles.
Leanne wasn’t a hopeless romantic. But she knew love, and loved love, all kinds of it. There was no better feeling than the warmth of being held, cared about. Except maybe making someone feel like that, like how Quentin was telling her she had done. “I’m glad I’ve helped, Quentin. I hate feeling alone, isolated. And I can’t imagine what it’s like to know you’re…” She trailed off, looking away. Mentioning the cruise made Leanne grin, but his kissing her hands made her blush at the same time. “Yeah, same here. Really glad I made a fool of myself Titanic style.”
“Well no one saw it but me and I thought it was cute,” he said. “I’m just glad you didn’t trip and fall off the boat or something.” Although since the two of them knew magic, they could probably have gotten her back safely before she even got near the water but all the same, he was happy she was safe. “We might have to take another boat ride sometime. That was fun.”
“Aw you thought I was cute?” Leanne teased, smiling a little sheepishly. She chuckled then at how lucky she had been not to lose her footing.“You would have saved me. And it would have been very...epic romance of us.”
The pizzas and the bread finally came, which was just as well since Leanne was really hungry. After everything was settled she turned to Quentin again. “Maybe we should do that. And maybe this time I’ll fall in the water and you’ll save me all epic hero style. Or vice-versa, I’m equal opportunity like that.”
Quentin laughed. “We might become our own legend! Well you already are but we can be legends together.” Like many people in his world, Quentin loved the world of Harry Potter and actually getting to meet some of the people he’d only read about had been such a thrill. And he could count many of them as friends. Leanne was special though and he hoped that he didn’t do anything stupid to mess it up.
“Let’s go, we can take a walk on the beach if you want? There shouldn’t be any screaming kids out there.” At least he hoped not, he’d had enough of them for one evening.
Leanne shook her head. “I’m barely a footnote in someone else’s epic, Quentin. You, however, are the protagonist in yours. That’s right, I looked.” She smiled sweetly, then winked. Quentin’s sudden proposal caused her brow to furrow. “What, you want to take the garlic bread and pizza “to go” and eat it at the beach?”
She was hungry at that point, and feelings were happening which was odd but not wholly unwelcomed despite being definitely nerve-wracking. Which called, again, for food. So Leanne took a generous bite out of one slice of garlic bread, which was delicious, and pushed the plate over to Quentin. “Oh, try it. So good. Worthy of legend.”
He took a bite and raised an eyebrow as he chewed. “You’re right, It is worthy of legend. Also worth the screaming kids but no I meant take a walk after we eat. My mind sort of jumped ahead and that’s what came out. It happens sometimes.” Especially when he was talking to a girl he was attracted to. Which was the case here for sure.
Leanne smiled, nodding, and took another bite of the bread. “I’d love that almost as much as I love this garlic bread.”
Soon enough out came their pizza, piping hot and smelling amazing. If nothing else came out of this then a good, caloric dinner that she would never have thought of consuming while being an athlete would do just fine. But something else seemed to be coming out of this “date”. Maybe. She didn’t want to jinx it.
When they had finished eating, Quentin paid the cheek and took her hand as they walked toward the beach. He was still surprised at how comfortable he felt with her since he didn’t always click with people right away but this had been easy and he found that he was really happy for the first time in months.
There weren’t many people on the beach so it wasn’t hard to find a place where they could walk without having to manuever around people. “No screaming kids. I like it already,” he said with a smile.
To think that only a year or so ago Leanne was swearing off relationships whether her family liked it or not. And here she was, hand in hand with a nice man who probably wouldn’t even think to propose to her anywhere remotely public let alone in the middle of a quidditch pitch. Of course she wasn’t thinking of marriage really, but considering recent events it was the best example Leanne had of what to absolutely never do. That was one of the many ways in which Quentin was better than her ex had ever been. Not that Magnus had been a prick of any sort, but he was cocky and boisterous and overconfident. What other kind of person would really propose at a world cup qualifier without even discussing it properly first?
With Quentin it was different. He was gentle, and soft-spoken, and soulful. Leanne was jock enough for both herself and a potential partner, so this was great.
“It’s a lovely wind down, that’s for sure.” She nudged him with her shoulder. “Company’s not half bad either.”
“I will agree with you there,” he nudged her back. “Definitely better than hanging out at the house. Although the houses are pretty nice considering we were all basically kidnapped to come here.” It was true that they had had the option to leave after a week but not many people had. “How long have you been here? I got here last October, right before Halloween. Which was kind of ironic given that I’m a magician.”
“Sometimes I forget about that bit.” Leanne confessed. If this hadn’t been such a great place people would probably bring that up more and not so many would stay. She took a moment to think about it. Time seemed wobbly here sometimes. “End of January. Just in time for the Chinese New Year. Never had celebrated it without my family, that was weird.” She joked.
“We should do this again.” Leanne said after a moment.
“Yeah, we should. I agree with you there,” he said and stopped and faced her. Without thinking about it because he knew he’d change his mind if he thought about it, Quentin leaned in and kissing her, something he had been wanting to do ever since they’d started spending time together. He stepped closer and put his hands on either side of her face, enjoying the feel of her mouth, the way she tasted, the smell of the ocean around them, everything that made this moment one he would always remember.
Leanne had more than a notion what was going to happen when Quentin suddenly stopped and turned to face her, but she still gasped instinctively when he kissed her. Not that she wasn’t into it, quite the opposite. She had been imagining what this would be like quite a bit lately. And it was exactly like she’d expected; sweet but not boring. Warm too, quite a bit like she was melting, even. She pushed her fingers into Quentin’s soft hair with one hand and cupped his face with the other, deciding to keep at it as long as their lungs allowed. When she finally felt breathless, Leanne pulled away only slightly and smiled. “We should do this more often as well.”
“That’s not a problem,” he said with a grin and kissed her once more.