"I've been called worse."

That had Luke grinning at the blonde-haired bloke, himself having been on the recieving end of some rather choice namecalling himself. Then Joshua mentioned something about his friend, Britta, and Michelle spoke up.

You could always bring your friend along, she said, rather surprising herself. Its too bad we cant go to the Three Broomsticks.

A scowl touched his face at that, and he gave Michelle a pinching sort of squeeze at her waist. They'd already been through this and that she actually brought it up on his birthday in front of Joshua Cloud wasn't fair at all.

"I want to take Plum to Puddifoot's," he said. "I think you'll like it a lot," he said to his sister.

Josh, by this point, realized that he had no right to interfere with the plans that Plum had made and, in a rare moment for him, dropped the too cool charm he tended to wear as a cloak and gave an apologetic smile.

"Don't worry about me. Britta wouldn't be so conducive to hanging about with a bunch of folks she doesn't know. Just one of her quirks. You three go have fun. I'll meet you at five then, Plum?" he asked. Getting a nod from her that seemed far more filled with relief than he'd expected (which rather made his heart hurt), he gave a nod to the other two. "Happy birthday, then. Don't let this lad," he added, looking at Michelle with a smile, "forget he's supposed to be a gentleman. If he gives you any grief, you can always sent me an owl and I'll make him rethink things."

Taking his leave, his mind quite firmly on Britta now, he came to a halt when the sound of his name being yelled had him turning.

"Josh," Luke called again, having broken away from his hold on Michelle, the squealing fangirl in his soul taking control as he reached the older man, "could I...before you go, um, uh, well, I mean. Nevermind. It was nice to meet you," he stammered, feeling his cheeks heat.

"Nice to meet you, too," Josh said. He knew what this was about, really he did. But he kept his expression schooled.

"Right," Luke replied feeling utterly idiotic and rather fearful that the two girls behind him would likely be snickering behind their hands.

"Did you want something?"

"No. I mean. Well...yes. Yeah, I, couldIgetyourautographplease?" It came all out in one breath and, even as it did, he realized he didn't have anything which Josh could autograph, nor anything for which the wizard could write with. "Um, I, uh..." he stammered, jamming his hands into his pockets, facing heating more than earlier. "I guess.."

Josh did his best to not embarrass the lad too much, holding back his grin and putting a hand on the lad's shoulder as he dug out a small notebook from his own pocket. "Don't lose your cool, Luke," he said quietly. "You've got your girl back there to impress, ya know."

Flipping open the notebook, he tugged out muggle pen and scrawled his name and a short message on the paper tearing it out and handing it to Luke:

Joshua Cloud

Play it cool.


"Have a great birthday, yeah? You've got a great sister there. A really great one," he said, his eyes cutting across the distance to the pretty Plum. Having said so, he smiled once more at Luke and turned to head off to his destination.