It was a Hogsmeade weekend, and this one was particularly special for Zia Piselli. In her personal history of Hogsmeade weekends, she had never gone with a boy. There'd been plenty of fun adventures with her friends and siblings, but now she had Figaro! She did not know what their date would entail, but seeing as they were meeting at Puddifoot's, she knew that cupcakes were in her future.

Cupcakes could easily be considered one of Zia's main food groups. She had a large sweet tooth (and, luckily, an immunity to cavities - at least so far). Zia was happy to indulge on sugary treats whenever she got the chance. On this date she would do her best to avoid engorging herself on cupcakes, but she had to be honest with herself and couldn't guarantee success.

As she entered the appallingly flowery shop, Zia peeked around but noticed that Fig wasn't there yet. She smoothed out her skirt and hair rather nervously, then went up to the register and ordered a cup of tea. Taking her cuppa, Zia found a private little table in the corner. That seemed like it would be a good spot. Zia took a seat and began adding a bit of cream to her tea, followed by several spoonfuls of sugar. She took a small sip and warmed right up.

Puddifoot's seemed like a very good idea when he and Zia had come up with it for their proper 'date date' in Hogsmeade, but Figaro regretted it immediately upon entering the garishly decorated cafe.  There were a thousand shades of pink which must have all had their own names.  Lace, ruffles, bows, hearts, stars, fairy lights - every dab of decor and decoupage that you could ever think of covered every square inch of the pace.  A glittery heart hanging on a silver gossamer bopped him in the head as he stepped inside.

Great. Now there was glitter in his hair, he knew it.  He'd dressed up, but still felt tragically uncomfortable.  Thank Merlin he noticed Zia in a cozy corner.  He hurried over and slipped into second of its three chairs.

He leaned in and gave her a peck on the cheek.  But he was behaving like he'd been followed, hunching over the table and keeping his fingers folded against his chin.  Figaro rarely showed such insecurity but, "this place gives me the creeps. I have glitter in my hair."

Zia had been to Puddifoot's before, and had been surprised that Figaro had gone along with the location for their date. It wasn't a place that particularly screamed 'Figaro,' but it was a popular place for couples to go on dates, so maybe that's why he'd agreed. As he entered the establishment, though, Zia could already sense his regret and it made her smirk. While Zia's hair and outfit helped her blend quite well with the decor at Puddifoot's, Figaro stuck out like a sore thumb.

He sunk next to her at the table uncomfortably and muttering about glitter in his hair. Looking at his hair, she noticed that he was not wrong. Zia laughed and ran her fingers through his hair to work some of the glitter out. Her efforts were not very productive -- that was the problem with glitter. "Well, you're gonna have to try and work it," Zia laughed. She picked up her tea and took a sip of what was now essentially sugar-water with a few leaves floating about.

"We can go somewhere else, if you want," Zia offered. She didn't really mind where they went -- it was mostly about spending time with Figaro. And to take a break from studying, which she really needed to do. Her brain had been mostly occupied with thoughts of classes and exams, so it was nice to replace those thoughts with images of Figaro in his fancy jacket. "You look so handsome!" She couldn't help blabbering. She blushed a little and added, "I mean, your jacket, it's really spiffy."

When Zia ruffled his hair to loose some of the glitter, it twinkled down in front of his eyes onto the table like a tiny enchanted rain shower. 

"No, we can stay," he said with a flush of kind concern.  He wasn't going to let a strange little cafe put him off his date with Zia who actually kind of matched the place...!

"You look really nice too," he complimented, actually taking a moment to give her a look over.  "And that hair of yours - killer, as usual."  In this light it looked properly magenta!

Shortly a server came around with a little spiral notebook and asked to bring Figaro something. 

"Chocolate chip, and...." he looked at the little paper menu covered in loopy script, "...hot...chocolate..."

With his order in and food on the way, Figaro seemed to be relaxing a little more and scooted still closer to Zia so that he could put his arm around the back of her chair. 

"What are you doing for summer?"

When Figaro complimented her hair, Zia smiled brightly and twisted some of the pink curls around her finger. "Thanks," Zia chirped. Her eyes lit up as she looked over at Fig, wondering whether this date said anything about their relationship. Even though they'd spent a lot of time together over the past couple of weeks, they hadn't done too much talking. They'd gotten a bit distracted doing... other things.

After Figaro ordered a bunch of chocolatey items, Zia also ordered herself a red velvet cupcake. It was good to know that he had a sweet tooth too. She settled into Figaro's arm and began to play lightly with a packet of sugar.

"What are you doing for the summer?"

"I'll be in Italy," Zia recited, as these were her plans every single summer for as long as she could remember. "On the coast, it's so much fun. I think all of my brothers and sisters are going to be there this summer, which hasn't happened in like forever." The house would be packed with Pisellis large and small, but space would not be hard to find in the gigantic mansion her family owned. "You should come!" She added, a bit spur-of-the-moment. Her family wouldn't mind, they were always inviting people to come stay with them.

Italy! Oh, that's right.  Zia was from an Italian family.  Figaro's family had never traveled much at all - they were always tight on money and there was always the shop to run.  They'd once spent a week in Brighton.  He liked the beach.  But Zia - she was from Italy! Warm, he imagined, and exotic.

"That would be wicked!" he exclaimed emphatically.  "And a hell of a lot better than dismal London all summer.  I'm signed up for an internship - crossing my fingers it'll get me out of the stupid apothecary.  My mum seems determined to destroy any shred of fun this holiday."

He'd filled out a form to work in with Obliviators in the Ministry of Magic, but hadn't heard if he'd been selected yet.  His marks weren't very good, but he had experience with Memory Spells now... He liked the idea of getting to rush out to disasters and zapping muggles in the brains.  (Although he'd never thought very deeply on the philosophical dilemma of such policy. Perhaps why he'd make an excellent candidate...)

"Like, how many brothers and sisters do you even have?" 

Figaro had just the one. Bookish little Frank who was good for very little in the way of diversion.  Having loads of siblings seemed like it'd be so much better.

A lot of her classmates were getting internships, but despite her ambitious attitude, Zia had no idea what she was really interested in. Since she was indecisive, she didn't want to narrow down her options. Now she was about to graduate and hadn't the faintest clue what she wanted to do.

"What's your internship?" Zia asked, curious to know what Figaro had picked out. A few weeks earlier she had helped him through a crisis where he'd Obliviated himself (possibly). It still wasn't too clear whether that had happened or not, but he seemed better now, at least. She was pretty excited that he said he'd come to Italy, though, and seemed genuinely ecstatic about it. That made her smile even bigger than her usual Zia grin.

"Like, how many brothers and sisters do you even have?"

Zia was surprised Figaro hadn't heard of the line of Pisellis that had made their way through Hogwarts. She also realized she didn't know much about Figaro's family either, though she vaguely remembered hearing his last name at the Welcoming ceremony pretty recently.

Flipping her hair up she quickly counted up her family members. "I have 5 brothers, 7 sisters. I'm the youngest," Zia answered, rolling her eyes a little. "But I also have 5 nieces and 3 nephews, my brother Ron's baby Anastasia is coming!" Zia was talking very fast and let out a little squeal. She loved babies. Unfortunately she hadn't seen nearly as many as her oldest sibling, being the youngest. She took a drink of her tea and looked over at Figaro, excited that he would get to meet the Piselli crew.

"What about you?" she asked as the waitress came over with their cupcakes, placing them discretely on the table and slipping away. She must have been used to customers on dates coming in who didn't want to be interrupted in the middle of a conversation. Zia's eyes lit up at the sight of the sugary sweet snacks before her.

"Obliviators," Figaro answered.  "Department of Magical Accidents & Catastrophes." He seemed to like saying that.  It seemed really exciting and if his mum still thought he'd be running the family shop until he withered and died she was fooling herself.  Her time and efforts would be better spent investing in his little brother who actually seemed to like maths.  Or he still just loved making mum happy.

"Blimey!" Figaro laughed aloud when Zia started rattling off the mob of siblings and cousins she had.  He knew of a couple other Piselli's at Hogwarts, but not three dozen.  Chuckling he wrinkled his nose.

"I've just got the one. He's a firstie in Ravenclaw."

Figaro and Frank were far enough in age from one another that they didn't really share any interests.  So far, Frank had mostly been a pest, too little to do the things Figaro wanted to do. 

"You getting a job or anything?"

When Figaro told her about his plans for the summer Zia shot him a look of of dramatic impression. "That sounds so cool!" Zia told him. "It sounds perfect for you." Figaro was a little accident-prone, his accident with Obliviation being a pretty good example of that. Zia was really dazzled by the fact that despite being so freaked out by the incident he was still trying to be an Obliviator. Zia wasn't sure that she could be that brave!

Figaro seemed even more impressed, though, by Zia's large family. She was so used to it that she forgot that other people didn't have quite so many family members. It was no secret that Italians came along with large ancestries and having originated from Italy, was used to people racking off a list of names (mostly ending in vowels). Zia was actually surprised to learn that Figaro's brother was a Ravenclaw -- she couldn't put a name to him! But that was perhaps why she remembered hearing Figaro's last name so recently. He was a lot younger so it wasn't surprising. Zia had a nephew who was 12, but he went to a totally different school and was still super young.

"I'll have to look out for him in the common room, then," Zia smiled, her eyes crinkling. "You might need to learn a few words in Italian, carino!*"Her smile faded a little when Fig asked her about a job. "I'm not really sure..." Zia blushed a little. She didn't need a job - her family was rich enough that they could support her for as long as she needed it. They had multiple mansions scattered throughout England and Italy and if she needed it she had places to stay. But lots of her siblings had taken up this option and she wanted to stick out by dazzling them with .... something. She'd already done almost best at school and with finals approaching was crunching to get better grades than Aldo. She didn't envision this happening - Aldo was crazy smart.

"I'm not really sure what I want to do," Zia finally confessed. "I can't decide on just one thing to do for like... forever." She rolled her eyes and sighed. "I'm really bad at making decisions." It was true - while Zia had confidence and opinions, she was pretty good at being persuaded to do things. She shrugged. "I'm open to suggestions!" She added with a positive tone.

*carino = cute

"I mean for summer, crazy!" Figaro laughed as his simple question seemed to tip Zia into full-on coming-of-age ennui.  (Not that he knew that word.) 

But she was right.  "I mean, but how are we supposed to decide that kind of thing at sixteen anyway? I wouldn't trust myself choosing my own pair of trousers in the morning, they want me to choose a career? Didn't you find anything cool at the Career Fair? They had a flying car, you know.  Ah - wicked!"

Their food and drink had arrived, and Figaro set about getting situated and digging in. 

"Did you try and guess why that dead body died over at the Auror table? Maybe you could do dead bodies or something."

Now that Figaro pointed it out, it was pretty clear that he hadn't meant a career when he was talking summer jobs. She visibly relaxed a little and laughed off her nervousness with a quick wave of her hand. "Oh, well I'm not sure - if something cool comes up, maybe," Zia said. The whole rich-family thing helped with that. Zia would much rather play with her brother's new baby than go to work!

 "I mean, but how are we supposed to decide that kind of thing at sixteen anyway? I wouldn't trust myself choosing my own pair of trousers in the morning, they want me to choose a career? Didn't you find anything cool at the Career Fair? They had a flying car, you know.  Ah - wicked!"

Zia totally agreed with Figaro's sentiments, nodding along with his little tirade about being forced into a career too early. She didn't want to talk about this subject anymore -- it was way too stressful, and probably not date talk. With a final nod, Zia followed Figaro's lead and took a big bite out of her cupcake, disregarding the fork the waitress had set on the table. Maybe she hadn't seen it or maybe she wanted a dab of icing on her nose.

"Did you try and guess why that dead body died over at the Auror table? Maybe you could do dead bodies or something."

Apparently unaware of the frosting on her face, Zia's eyes grew large while she was mid-chew. That sounded like..... the opposite of anything Zia ever wanted to do. She finished chewing and swallowed. "I think I might rather work with live people," Zia said sweetly, "But maybe I'll keep that in mind." She gave Figaro an encouraging smile.

"Yea. It was well gross," he agreed about their shared preference for the living.   

"Oh, no.  Zia, you've got something on your..." Figaro had a bit of chocolate on his finger from his biscuit and gave Zia a boop on the, "nose."

He grinned and stirred his hot chocolate. He was now trying to pick out a more career options for Zia.

"You know what you could do, Zia, very important task, and I think you're totally qualified.  Consummately.  Rubbish collector.  Or are you too good for that?" he teased.

As Figaro booped her nose Zia giggled and grabbed a napkin to wipe the icing off of her face. Whoops! Well, at least Figaro had been cute about it. He was so good at making things less awkward! She smiled at him and listened to his next suggestion.

She tried her best not to let her smile falter at his suggestion of rubbish collector. "That might be interesting," Zia said sweetly. "Would I, like, sell it in an antique shop or something?" That might be cool, actually, but it didn't seem very challenging. Still, it might be cool to learn about different ....stuff! Zia sipped on her tea.

Figaro laughed as Zia went along with his absurd suggestion. "Sell it? It's garbage! Trash! Who'd want old rotty orange peels and ratty socks?"

"You'd look cute though," he said, coming around to the idea. "Purple hair, those tall boots you have...and a brown jumpsuit with your name on it..."

Even though he was still teasing, he wondered if she might actually want to work in a shop.  "You know, my mum knows loads of shop owners in Diagon.  Maybe you could work in Diagon over summer."

And that'd put her only a couple blocks from him.

As Figaro guffawed at her suggestion of selling trash, it dawned on Zia that by 'rubbish collector,' he had meant the blokes who went around and took care of your garbage. Was Fig giving terrible suggestions on purpose, or was he really that daft? She had to laugh at his description of what she'd look like in the uniform. Giggling, she thought about how nice it was to chat with Figaro and not just grope at each other in some dark corner.

Zia found herself seriously considering Figaro's Diagon Alley recommendation, though. She adored her family and summers in Italy, but it would be nice to gain some independence. "That might be fun," she said thoughtfully. "Plus then we'd be close by, right?" That definitely made a job look more appealing.