Moira still wasn't entirely sure of this plan of theirs. Sure, it was intelligent and would eventually stop the issues of the rumors, but unlike a fair number of the student body dating was not something Moira had any practice with. Hand holding would be awkward enough. The last time she had held someone's hand was her dad's when she was a child visiting and learning about the market to buy feed for the horses and other supplies. How was she ever going to manage this?

Shaking her head she looked around, waiting at the agreed upon spot. One moment at a time. If she thought about the day and what might happen it was possible her unfeeling mask would likely break and actually show how uncertain (and nervous) she was. Moira also hoped Alvis wouldn't cheat and try and get a feel for her emotions. It wasn't that she minded his talent in any way, he had saved her from who knows how much torment with it, she just didn't like feeling vulnerable. Having others be aware of her doubt or other unhappy emotions made her feel very much so.

Her date soon appeared, right on time. Her nerves had her up and arriving early, though that certainly hadn't helped. Offering a small smile she attempted to relax at least a little. "Hello, N...Alvis. Shall we?"

It was Saturday afternoon, in Hogsmeade, and Alvis Norling had a date. Only it wasn't a date-date, not really, so there wasn't any pressure to try to impress Moira, or make sure she had a great time, or anything like that. Really, it was just two almost-friends taking a chance to hang out and maybe, just maybe, becoming friends.

But! It was also a fake-date-date and needed to be convincing enough to make other people, especially the other students, think it was a real-date-date, so it had to be close enough to dating that it would look intimate from the outside when it really wasn't.

Alvis wasn't good at lying, let alone a complicated deception like this. Even though this whole plan had been his idea, he still wasn't sure how they could possibly pull if off.

Still. There was no turning back now. Moira was waiting for him, just up ahead in the village square. He jogged to catch up with her, carrying an umbrella in the crook of one arm. They'd been lucky enough for a gap in the rain now, but the clouds still hadn't dispersed, so it was sure to come back sooner or later.

"Moira!" he called, getting her attention before he caught up. He slowed to a stop beside her and grinned, rubbing the back of his neck. "Sorry I'm running late. I forgot this --" he gestured with the umbrella "--so I had to run back to the common room to get it. Don't want to get caught in the rain. So, um..." He fished a moment for something to say, drawing on the rather limited experience he'd had going with Zoe Torret for a few months last year. "..you look, uh. Nice today."

Ah, yes. An umbrella. Moira was in a bad habit of not carrying one even when it was raining. During the cooler months she needed to start trying to remember to do so. Fortunately enough this time there was an umbrella handy thanks to Alvis. Just in case, of course.

With a slight nod of acknowledgement the Hufflepuff replied, "Thanks." It was a few ticks later when she remembered herself and 'proper manners'. "You look the same. Nice that is."

Really Moira looked the same as any other day, just without the school robes since they weren't needed in this setting. She imagined it was the same for her... partner.

"Also you weren't late. I was just a bit early." Due to nerves she added, "I didn't have anything else pressing to do."

Moira didn't want him to think that she was early because she was looking forward to it. In which she also didn't mean to imply that she wasn't. She was in a kind of sort of dreading way. Of course not that she was dreading being with him, just the whole awkward situation of dating. Alvis was fine. Not the good looking kind of fine even though he was attractive.

Moira closed her eyes briefly at her internal monologue to clear it she looked at him once they opened again. "Right then, where to first?"

It might have been because they were standing near the fountain, but Alvis thought he might already be feeling rain. If nothing else, it gave him something to focus on besides Moira -- and, more importantly, her thoughts -- so he shielded his eyes for a moment and peered up into the Scottish sky.

No rain yet. Still, better safe than sorry.

"Right then, where to first?"

"Tomes and Scrolls?" Alvis nodded down the damp cobblestone street to their left, where the bookshop lay just around the corner. "They schedule their new release shipments to match up with the student visits, so they should have a lot of new stock."

This was a relatively safe bet. The one thing pretty much everyone in their year knew about Moira McBoid was that she enjoyed reading out by the lake, when the winter weather wasn't setting in. Heck, they'd talked about doing just that back when they'd decided on this little ruse. But on the other hand...

"Hm, but there's also Dervish and Banges." Alvis's hand twitched a bit in anticipation of their suggestion. The magical instruments shop usually wasn't the first place students went in Hogsmeade unless they'd broken their Potions scales, but Alvis liked seeing their latest gadgets and acquisitions and watching the tinkers repair their various broken tools.

Oh, but this was supposed to be a date. They ought to at least think about standard date things. He grinned at Moira sheepishly. "Or, I mean, we could always grab a bite the Three Broomsticks. Whatever you want to do."

Listening to Alvis talk about their options Moira slowly relaxed. Places to look forward to gave them a plan of action and didn't leave them floundering trying to figure things out. It also gave her something else to think about other than their new situation that they needed to get used to. In such a case, busy was good.

Moira noticed Alvis' hand twitch when he mentioned Dervish and Banges, though it was subtle and would have been easy to miss if she hadn't been paying attention. She assumed the twitch was out of a possible excitement. Books would always be around, and even if she didn't buy anything new there was always the library. As for food she wasn't necessarily hungry yet.

With a slow nod Moira finally responded, "Alright then. We'll head to Dervish and Banges first. If we're hungry we can go to The Three Broomsticks and if not we'll head to the bookshop. Sound alright?" If Alvis was excited to see something she saw no reason to keep him from it. The store was interesting enough after all.

"Oh...no, no, that's okay, we don't have to..."

Alvis turned very red, blush crawling from his collar up to his hairline and around the back of his ears. He knew, that is, he was mostly aware that a magical item shop was no place to take a date and that he was bound to get all obsessive over something the minute they walked through the door. Which was no way to treat a date.

Still...last time he'd been in, they had promised that they'd have something interesting in the new shipment...

Dropping his half-hearted objections, he grasped Moira's hand without thinking and hurried from cobblestone square down the packed dirt street that lead to Dervish & Banges. It never quite turned into a run, but he did speed up a bit when he caught sight of the shop, tugging Moira to the storefront so they could peer into the window.

His eyes lit up immediately. "Blimey, would you look at that!" He pointed to a small, almost toy-like device sitting on a dias right below the window. It looked a bit like a cross between a bird and a rocket ship, made out of bronze with its wings held out and its pointed beak turned towards the sky. "That's an Archytas bird. Comes from Greece. The original design's ancient. And just look at it go!"

For the last several minutes, the bird's clockwork "chest" had been expanding in what appeared to be a deep breath. As they watched, it "exhaled" a whistling burst of steam that shot out vents in the bottom and shot the bird straight up on a billowing white cloud. A two-foot chain kept it tethered, bronze shrieking as it strained against the hold for a solid minute. Then, it gradually lost the force of its steam and settled back against the platform with a soft, metallic sigh.

The whole display brought a grin to Alvis's face. He seemed to have completely forgotten that he was still holding Moira's hand.

It didn't take too long for Alvis to give up his half-hearted attempts about not going to the shop and not even a moment later she was being dragged along at a rather brisk pace. The closer they got the faster they went, as though if they didn't catch it in time the shop would up and run away.

They stopped to peer into the window first, her date exclaiming and explaining about the little metal clockwork bird. Moira watched the bird, but she kept glancing sideways towards Alvis and watching his expression change to something that almost glowed. While she did find such objects interesting she did not find them fascinating as he seemed to but everyone had something that captivated them.

Unlike Alvis, however, Moira was aware of his holding her hand the entire time. With the initial awkwardness behind her, hand holding was kind of nice. There were worse things she could be doing with her Saturday than holding hands with a cute boy who was rather adorable with his eyes lit up at the mechanical bird through the window.