First time, yes. There's not much money in the Quibbler. [ Another thing that, oddly, the Weasleys and the Lovegoods had in common: their strained purse-strings, their rickety old hodgepodge of houses, the Burrow and the Rookery with their built-on annexes and teetering storeys. Luna doesn't sound bitter about it, though, more like she's just offhandedly mentioning a fact of life. ]

But then I promise I shan't misuse it. I wouldn't want to remind you of your mum.

[ For so many reasons, but.

The noise in the cramped bar has been ebbing and flowing, steadily ticking upwards as the witches and wizards get drunker and louder. One of Luna's colleagues behind them shouts for her attention; a woman named Brunnhilde ducks in close, "Luna, a few of us are going to the gelateria down the street for dessert, coming with?"

Luna peers up at her from her chair, and there's that teetering indecision floating in the moment. She does not look at Charlie, but feels the warmth of his thigh against hers, his arm behind her, and remembers the sound of his voice so close to her ear, and she thinks: I'd like to see where this goes.

"No thank you, I'm catching up with a friend," she says, and it is, in fact, close enough to the truth.

A few of her party pay up their cheques, disperse, and leave. The room thins out a little, but it's still crowded enough that leaning so close to each other is still a good idea. Mostly. ]