Dallas didn't want to pry into Gale's private life, so he decided not to ask any questions about the gypsies father or what had happened over break, even though he had heard a little bit through the grape vine that something had gone terribly wrong at an opera house the day before second term started at Hogwarts. "I think I'm already married to my job Gale, but I'll definitely keep that glaring down Storm story for a rainy day."

"It's kinda weird to think about people falling at my feet, I've normally been rolling around in the dirt and having too much fun to be bowed down to, but that Dolly Lady, she seems to have you wrapped around her manicured finger" Dal laughed. "I think it'd be nice to have a lady friend like that though."

"Mmmm, I don't know if Dolly is the one for you, but I do admit she does have me wrapped pretty tight. She's an amazing woman though, and very fun to be around. She startled me at a party once, by wanting to touch my hair and out of reaction I jumped to defend the man I was talking to, and he and I have been together ever since." Gale smiled, but it wasn't one that touched his eyes. There was a hint of sadness when he thought about Chaz, and he worried about their relationship. It was selfish, and he knew it; but Gale wanted to give those children a home first, and hadn't even asked Chaz how he felt about it. Things had been different, and deep down he knew that maybe this was it. However, he pushed that thought from his mind, and sat up a little when their food arrived.

"Actually," He looked at Dallas studying him a moment, "The Muggle Studies Professor and you would be kind of perfect. "Althea is beautiful, and fun. She is very sweet and I think would happily backpack across America with you."

[1]Althea Santucci, he'd remembered her from school, he was pretty sure they two had been in the same year. He'd been quite and focused, but it had seemed she was always making noise and her head was everywhere at once. "I'm no good at talking to women, they're more evolved than I am, I'm down in the mud and they're walking on clouds, too high for me to get."

He was a nervous wreck when it came to the ladies. He'd never even kissed a girl in his life.

1.	EEEEEeeeeee! Alice!

"And so is she. She is so sweet and kind. We danced together at the Yule Ball, and she was one of the first to help me when I offered to sew together a few dresses for the girls who couldn't afford nice ones. We had a big sewing party, and  Professor Santucci just jumped right in. Kind of like the way you jumped right on that horse. So maybe it's not mud, but it was fabric and she didn't care to be covered in thread." He grinned looking at the man, and could totally see them together. He was already plotting in his head ways to make them run into one another.

"You just have to be calm and be yourself. There isn't anything wrong with you I can see. You are very handsome, and very kind. And I have to say," He leaned in to whisper so that he wouldn't give people the wrong impression about Dallas, "It's rather sexy when you blush. She does it too."

Dal had wished he'd been more social as a student, maybe he;d have actually skills and not run off like a sissy if a woman older than twenty looked him in the eye the wrong way. But if Althea was kind enough to dance with Gale at the ball and help out students with things other than school, he was confident he could probably talk to her without wetting his jeans. "She seems nice enough, I might try to talk to her." But he knew he would never have the courage to talk to a beautiful lady like Althea.

He guffawed as Gale lowered his voice. "Good to know, I guess I'll be very sexy if i talk to her then." He responded in a hushed tone; Gale was quite a character indeed, and Dallas decided that he'd like to better know the gypsy that was his colleague.

"Actually, a great way to get to know her is to maybe offer to help her trip to Muggle London? There are a lot of students going, and she could need the help. I'll be there. I'll make sure she doesn't bite too hard." It was a joke clearly, the smile warm on his face.

"We should probably head back. I want to stop by and pick up a few things for a student, and then we can go home?" He touched Dallas' back gently and pushed his chair under the bar.

"Thank you for coming with me," He said as he paid the man, "We should do it again."

"That's a good idea, I think I could do that, it would also give me a chance to get better acquainted with some of the students." Dallas scratched a note onto his notebook. "Well good to know, I had a mate who dated an animangus with the other form of a fox, he got bitten on more than one occasion, needing stitches after one fight." Dal shuddered at the thought of being bitten by a person.

"That sounds good." Dallas plopped a few sickles down on the counter once Gale had turned his back to leave. "I agree, this was kind of fun, aside from the whole 'killer horse' thing, maybe next time was can go to a kitten adoption center or something less...big." Dal joked, glad to have made a friendly acquaintance, even if he was rather strange, Gale was still the most fun of the professors he'd met yet.