Stupid assistant. Stupid crazy inner voices. Stupid day. Stupid everything.

Pity, he thought idly, resigning himself to follow, I can't throw this fool assistant off a cliff too.

He was half hoping she would stay right where she was with Claire and stay busy with looking over robes et al, or maybe just walk away with Claire to some other section (the thought of her walking away brought back a fragment of a memory, which only served to make him even more nervous); but no such luck.

No such luck at all.

"Hello, Kabir. How are you?"

Damn her poise, her grace, and damn that smile, too. Was she nervous? Not that he could see, busy enough trying to co-ordinate his limbs with his brain that they didn't just freeze him in place like some poor fool under the thrall of a stupefy spell.

He tried to put up a smile, which only came out half a smile, half a faltering smile at that. Slowing down, he tried to say something -

"Uh - hey there..." (Please, PLEASE tell me you didn't forget her NAME!) "...Anjali. This is ... quite - uh - unexpected."

Unexpected? Yeah, nice going. At least you managed to say something.

"Enjoying being back in Hogsmeade as much as we are?"

Bless Claire, because she at least gave him something to say. Making to shrug, he replied, with a voice that wasn't as frozen, "Enjoy? Ah - you're...joking, right? Last time I was here, I got attacked by demon pixie statuettes at Zonko's, and the - uh - barkeep at the Hog's Head threw me out because - um, well - someone snitched my pocket of the galleons I was going to pay for my drinks with..."

Kabir promptly shut up when he realised his fool mouth wasn't likely to win him favours with his - Betrothed. (The word still didn't feel right. He wondered if it ever would.)

"Sorry, I get - uh - carried away," he said, a short pause later, apologetic semi-grin on his face, his hand reaching up to scratch the back of his head, alternating glances at Anjali, Claire, and the Assistant, who looked properly horrified, "Uh - you probably didn't need to know all that, I think."

Damn woman. Why did she have to be so beautiful too, on top of it all?