Chapter Text
Thursday 5th August 1999
Hermione Flooed into work early with Mike’s memory tucked into her bag. She’d already told Ares to meet her early instead of going for a run. He was in bits viewing the memory, laughing so hard he had tears rolling down his face.
“I’m sorry, but you are hiding that until we get back. I want to see everyone else’s face when they see it.” He spluttered through a laugh.
They walked to the Stewarts’ flat, arriving just after eight.
“We’re taking you to our shops first,” Ares told him. “Maybe when you’re older you could have a summer job with us.”
“Really?” Craig beamed with excitement.
“I’m assuming you have never Side-Along Apparated before?”
Craig shook his head. “It might be a useful thing for you to experience. Hermione reminded me yesterday of all the things Muggle-borns don’t experience that the rest of us take for granted.”
Ares Apparated Craig to their office. Hermione followed.
“Wow, that was awesome. I can’t wait to tell my friends. I wish I had a camera to take pictures of everything.”
Ares pulled out his trusty little Kodak. “I’ve always got this on me, but obviously you can’t photograph Apparition.”
Ares charmed the camera to take a photo of all three of them.
They showed Craig around the shops and offices, introducing him to everyone. He wanted more photos.
“Come here, there’s someone I want you to meet,” Ares said as he walked into the office he shared with Hermione.
Ares had specifically brought Regulus’s portrait to the office to meet Craig, after he’d spent half the night telling him about his meeting with Sadie.
“You might have heard us mention my friend Reggie or Regulus yesterday. He was also one of your sister’s best friends. He passed away in 1979, but his portrait wanted to meet you.”
He walked up to the portrait of the teenage Regulus.
“Reggie, this is Craig, Irene’s brother. Craig, this is my best friend Regulus Black.”
“You do resemble her,” Regulus said with a sad smile.
“Tell me about her,” Craig replied.
Regulus and Ares spent a good half an hour telling Craig some funny stories about Irene, while Hermione pottered around the office, half listening.
Eventually Ares said they should go shopping. Craig nodded, torn between the excitement of going shopping and wanting to hear more about Irene.
They showed Craig how to use the Floo. Hermione went first, followed by Craig and then Ares. Craig stumbled out of the Leaky Cauldron’s fireplace, covered in soot and grinning from ear to ear.
“Well done,” Hermione said. “Harry went wrong on his first Floo trip and ended up in Knockturn Alley.”
Ares and Hermione popped on their cloaks. “This isn’t because of you,” Hermione explained. “We are just trying to avoid the press.”
“It’s kind of cool,” Craig grinned. “It’s like I have mysterious bodyguards.”
Hermione smiled at his enthusiasm for absolutely everything.
“Let’s get all the boring stuff first,” Ares declared and steered him into Madam Malkins for robes.
They went to the apothecary, Flourish and Blotts and the stationers before stopping at Fortescue’s for a well-earned ice cream. Craig had been fascinated watching all the purchases disappear into Hermione’s tiny little bag.
They stopped by the pop-up shop and introduced Craig to Dennis and Mike.
“You’ve probably already met Dennis,” Hermione said.
“Yes, you were our prefect last year.” Craig smiled at the older boy.
“Well Dennis is Muggle-born too, so if you have any questions this year, he’ll help you out, won’t you Dennis?”
“Of course,” Dennis smiled kindly at Craig.
Craig insisted on another photo.
“Dennis is a bit of a whiz with a camera,” Ares said. “He took the photos at my daughter’s wedding.”
Hermione left them chatting and nipped back to Fortescue’s and bought Mike and Dennis an ice cream each.
“This is the best day I’ve ever had,” Craig said as they moved onto the next shop.
“Do you have a familiar, Craig? Would your mum let you have one?”
“We used to have a cat, so she might be okay with a cat. Owls are brilliant, but someone would probably try and shoot it on our estate. Toads are a bit boring.”
“I would like to get you one, are you sure she would be alright? We could always look after it until September if she isn’t happy.”
“She’ll be fine, she misses our cat.”
Craig fell in love with a grey half-Kneazle called Medusa. Hermione bought a litter tray, carrier and a month’s worth of supplies. All of which shrank down into her bag, except the carrier containing Medusa.
Medusa was fussing around Ares.
“Ares has a way with cats,” Hermione told Craig. “My half-Kneazle adores him too.”
“Now, for my present,” Ares said, and marched him to Quality Quidditch Supplies. After trying out several models, Craig settled on a Nimbus Moondust, a highly rated model that had only been out for about a year. It was one of the safest models on the market.
“I don’t actually have this one yet,” Ares admitted. “And I collect brooms.”
“Hey, hey, hey,” a loud voice boomed through the shop and Hermione suddenly found herself lifted into the air, while Ares was being hugged.
“Oh, hi Marcus, Oliver.” She breathed a huge sigh of relief when she realised who it was. “You can put me down now, Oliver.”
“Don’t tell me, you’re getting Granger to buy a broom,” Marcus joked to Ares.
“No way is that happening,” Hermione practically shrieked at Marcus.
Ares winked at the former Slytherin and mouthed, “We’ll see.”
Not seeing the interaction, Hermione pointed to Craig. “This is Craig, he’s an old family friend of Ares. He’s a Gryffindor going into second year and he needs a broom.”
She turned to Craig. “Craig this is Oliver Wood and Marcus Flint. Ollie used to be captain of the Gryffindor team and Marcus was Slytherin captain. They both play for Puddlemere United now.”
“Real life Quidditch players, wow.” Craig beamed at them, then asked Ares if he’d take a photo. The two men were happy to pose. “I can’t believe I’ve met famous Quidditch players,” he gushed.
After they’d said their goodbyes and Craig walked out with his wrapped-up broomstick in hand, Ares turned to him and announced they’d saved the best until last. They steered him towards Weasley’s Wizarding Wheezes. He was piled up with goodies and George also obliged with a photo.
“I’m always pleased to inspire the next generation of Gryffindors,” he told Craig and handed him a complimentary Skiving Snackbox.
“Wow, thank you so much,” Craig stammered.
Ares had also made sure Craig was stocked up with the two-way pads so he could keep in touch with both of them as well as his mother.
“George, I’ve had an idea,” Hermione said. “It would be really handy if you could do a multi-person pad, like for the office. Sometimes we find ourselves writing out the same message to everyone, so it would be great to have one that everyone was synced up to.”
“Granger, that’s a brilliant idea. You’re a genius – well you know that already, but you can have fifty percent off today for that.”
Craig looked at Hermione in awe. He was walking on air as they headed back towards the Leaky Cauldron. “I’m not sure how I’ll fit all of this in my trunk.”
“Hermione will be able to help with that,” Ares said. “She’s a dab hand at extension charms, but you have to keep quiet about them as they aren’t exactly legal.” Ares gave him a sly wink, which deepened Craig’s admiration of Hermione even further.
They walked back to Craig’s flat from the offices, stopping at Jessops to get the photos printed out.
Craig was quite overwhelmed with emotion when they finally said goodbye.
“Listen,” Hermione said. “If your mum is not happy about Medusa, just let us know and we’ll look after her for you.”
Craig nodded. “Thank you so much for everything.” He hugged them back.
“One last thing,” Ares said and thrust a pouch into his hand. “A bit of pocket money for you, for the trolley and stuff.”
He was rewarded with another extra-long hug.
---
“That went well, I think,” Ares said as they walked slowly back to the office. He was rubbing the back of his neck nervously.
“He’s such a sweet kid. I hope the next year is better for him. You’re great with kids, Daphne and Astoria are lucky to have you for a dad. I bet you were great at teaching them to fly and everything.”
Ares felt himself flush a little. “Being a dad has been the greatest thing that has ever happened to me,” he admitted.
They were mobbed for Mike’s memory as soon as they walked back into the offices. Everyone crowded around the Pensieve to take their turn. Ares felt like he was surrounded by kids asking for sweets.
Draco asked if he could take it home to show his parents. “I know we should be more respectful of the dead, but this is priceless, and it’s even more funny because you’re my mum’s cousin.”
Ares rolled his eyes, knowing just how much Narcissa would find this amusing.
“Sorry to break up the party,” Harry interrupted. “But we really need to start on a new vault. I’ve been eking out the paperwork for the last day. I think we should start on the Snape/Prince estate. Not because of today, but because I suspect there’s a lot of paperwork. There are items in storage at the Ministry that came from Hogwarts, a small property in Spinners End and the vaults. It could take a long time to process, so I propose once we have completed the initial scan for dark artefacts, we’ll bring the boxes back to the offices for processing. Less time in the field is more efficient.”
“Sounds like a reasonable plan,” Theo agreed.
“I’m also not convinced that Kingsley would want me spending all my time here reading Snape’s letters, so I propose we start on the Lestrange estate as well. That way there will be a team out in the field and another back here on paperwork.”
“Okay,” Hermione agreed. “It’s only three now, shall we go to Gringotts?”
The vaults contained mainly money and some jewellery which was clear of enchantments, so Harry signed for the vaults to be closed, and the contents transferred to the Ministry holding vault.
They still had time to collect the boxes from the Ministry storage facility.
“This will give us a good head start for tomorrow,” Harry said.
Ares waylaid Hermione by the Floo after everyone else had already left.
“Thank you again for today,” he said. “Do you think Craig had a nice time?”
“I think he had a wonderful time. He was grinning from ear to ear.”
Ares smiled and pulled her into a hug. Hermione felt her heart pounding in her chest at the sudden connection.
After a few moments, she pulled back a bit. “I’d better get going, I’ll see you tomorrow.” She gave him a peck on his cheek and jumped into the Floo.
Ares smiled and put his hand to the spot where she’d kissed him. He felt a warm glow inside.
Friday 6th August 1999
Hermione had gone to the Manor for an early morning training session with Ares before work. By the time they arrived at the office around eight, they were surprised to find that Harry was already waiting for them.
Hanky brought them breakfast, and they began on the boxes they’d retrieved from the Ministry. Their proficiency in the Auror detection spell had sharpened. They were slowly becoming attuned to the nuances and could now cast it at a box and detect whether anything inside contained dark magic.
They opened the first box, after declaring it clear.
Hermione’s eyes lit up when she saw it was full of books.
“You are not being paid to sit reading, Hermione,” Harry warned her. “We are only flicking through for any annotations or foreign items slipped inside.”
“What if I wanted to borrow them to read on my own time?”
Harry shook his head disapprovingly.
“I’m sure we’ve probably got a lot of these in our library,” Ares said tactfully.
“Or I could use the Gemino charm,” she whispered.
“I did not hear that, Hermione.” Harry said assertively.
She just rolled her eyes at him.
By the time the others rolled in at nine they had already gone through three boxes.
Harry put Theo on the remainder of the boxes while they Flooed to Spinners End with Creaky, Squeaky and Draco.
It took all day to box up the contents of the small house and transport the boxes back to the offices. Once the house was mostly cleared, Harry and Ares dealt with the furniture. Clearing it, shrinking it, and boxing it to stay in the house. Squeaky who seemed particularly skilled in detecting enchantments declared there was something in the fireplace.
Harry and Ares moved towards it, casting detection spells.
“She’s right,” Harry gasped. “We somehow missed it. Thank you, Squeaky.”
Squeaky’s ears wiggled at the praise. “Mr Potter is too kind.”
The hidden compartment in the fireplace contained five encrypted notebooks. Hermione was practically salivating at the thought of trying to decode them.
“You only get to work on these once we have sorted everything else,” Ares told her. “We haven’t got time to lose you on this.”
She blinked up at him.
“Stop making moon-calf eyes at me, it’s not happening.”
“I agree,” Harry declared with finality as he sealed the books into a box. “Only I am authorised to break the Ministry seal on that box.”
Hermione scowled like a child who’d had her sweets taken away from her.
It was late by the time they returned to the offices. The others had already decamped to the Queen’s Head, which had quickly become their Friday night tradition. When they arrived, Harry clapped Ares on the back and declared it looked like they had some catching up to do.
For some reason, Ares seemed to take him at his word and was more than a little on his way to being sloshed by the time they staggered into the Taj Mahal for their customary curry.
Hermione noticed he had a silly grin on his face as he plopped into the chair next to her.
Pansy was one of the last to sit down. She was clearly struggling between choosing a seat next to Ares or Michael. Should she sit by the ex, or the weirdo? What a dilemma.
“What’s the matter, Pooey?” Ares slurred at her. “Don’t you want to sit by me?”
“And you wonder why, when you call me horrible names like that. Why do you do it?”
Ares started giggling. “Seriously, has no one ever told you why I call you Pooey?”
“No, and I really hate it.”
“You shouldn’t, it’s an honorary title, well earned. You were such a little legend.”
He pulled out the chair next to him. “Sit down and I’ll tell you.”
All eyes had turned to Ares, the table was silent apart from the occasional crunch of poppadom.
“It was a summer celebration, I seem to recall, around the end of July 1980. You were all relatively newborn.”
“That’s when I was born,” Harry remarked.
“Odd coincidence,” Ares replied before moving on.
“We had been summoned to a Death Eater rally disguised as a Slytherin Pride event. It was supposed to celebrate all Slytherins past, present and future. I was shoved at the back as the Ravenclaw disgrace that I was. Daphne was being celebrated as the future Greengrass Slytherin. Most of you were there: Draco, Theo, Pansy, Daphne, Blaise as well as the Crabbe and Goyle babies, maybe a few others, Bulstrodes, Puceys, Flints.” He screwed up his eyes while he was trying to recall the names.
The former Slytherins all stared at each other. Clearly none of them had been told this information before.
“Anyway, it was really a recruitment drive, and anyone who was anyone was invited to Lestrange Manor on old Voldy’s orders. So they decided to have a series of photographs taken. The high-ranking Death Eaters were all supposed to be holding a child. My father had Daphne, Nott had Theo, Lucius had Draco.
Estelle, Narcissa, Angelique and I were hiding at the back watching all this unfold. Well, Bellatrix was handed Pansy. Voldy was next to her, his hands placed on the shoulders of a couple of toddlers.
Ares quickly glanced around the room, to check the diners at the other tables weren’t paying any attention to them, before continuing his tale.
“Well, Bellatrix did not know how to hold a baby properly. She held Pansy upside down in a very uncomfortable position. Of course, Pansy started to cry.”
Everyone turned to look at Pansy, who just shrugged.
“Bellatrix was annoyed and cast a silencing spell onto you, Pansy. Well, you were having none of that. The next thing we knew was your nappy exploded and landed on Voldy’s shoulder. Bellatrix, Voldy and a couple of others were covered in an explosion of glittery shit. All in their hair, robes and everything.”
“Glittery?” Theo queried.
“Yes, Pansy had her first magical outburst with spectacular style.”
“Voldy of course tried to rebrand it as you being a powerful little witch to watch out for in the future.”
He stopped speaking and caught Pansy’s shocked expression. This set him off laughing again.
“So, Pooey is an honorary title for a little legend who managed to single- handedly shit all over that bitch and her master. That is why Estelle and I sent you that rocking horse.”
He stood up and drunkenly raised his glass in a toast. “To Pooey Pansy. Never afraid to give anyone shit, especially if they try and silence her.”
Everyone else stood and raised their glasses. “To Pansy, a true fucking legend,” Draco toasted. He then turned to Ares, please give the memory to Dean for a DVD, we would all like to see that.”
Pansy was bright red, but also smiling. “Thank you for finally sharing that. It’s good to know the reason why. I used to think you were just picking on me.”
“Silly girl,” he said. “I’ve always thought of you like a sort of daughter. A slightly weird and annoying one, but a daughter nevertheless.”
She turned round and hugged him. “I’m sorry I’ve always been rude to you and called you weird.”
They clinked glasses together,
“With Estelle gone, I’ll always be a surrogate godparent to you in her memory. She would want that.”
“Thank you,” she said, her eyes filling with tears.
“I’ll extract the memory in the morning when I’m sober. Come into the shop and you can see it before Dean makes it permanent.”
Pansy nodded and then gave him another hug.
Saturday 7th August 1999
Ares and Hermione had offered to take the weekend shifts in the shops to make up for the two days they had spent with the Stewarts.
Pansy rocked up about half an hour before opening because Ares had promised to let her view his memory in the Pensieve. “You can decide if Dean gets to turn it into a DVD,” he said softly.
“Thank you for this, Uncle Ares.” Pansy gave him a warm smile.
They had reached a new level of understanding in what had once been an awkward relationship.
“Pans, you don’t have to call me Uncle anymore,” Ares said. “I mean it’s not like I’m your real Uncle just your godmother’s husband and you never called Estelle Aunt.”
“That’s because she felt more like my mother.” She felt tears welling up. “I really miss her, I know this will be difficult seeing her in your memory.”
He clapped a hand on her shoulder. “You can always come and talk to her portrait whenever you feel like it. She was very fond of you, you know.”
“Thank you for saying that.” She then surprised Ares by wrapping him in a huge hug, before turning her attention to the Pensieve. He froze momentarily at the awkwardness, then gently patted her back.
---
“Pansy’s gone to be with Theo and Daphne,” Ares announced as he joined Hermione in the shop.
Hermione noticed he was carrying some nervous energy, as he played with his hair.
They were not expecting it to be a particularly busy day in the shops, so they brought down a couple of boxes from the Snape estate to work on between customers. They had devised a system for screening the documents. They checked each item for annotations, hidden notes, or dark‑magic traces, then returned it to the box unless it needed deeper examination.
They opened at nine and it was after eleven by the time the first customers turned up. They had zipped through six boxes during that time. They were sat in the Muggle shop drinking a well-earned cuppa when two fashionable young women walked in. They were a blonde and a brunette in their mid-twenties. Their hair was straightened to within an inch of its life. Both were in miniskirts, halter tops and platform sandals.
“This shop is amazing,” the blonde exclaimed. “How long have you been open? We’ve never noticed it before.”
“We opened last weekend,” Hermione told them, cheerfully.
“Where did you find all this vintage stuff? It’s fantastic.”
“We went travelling all over the country, picking stuff up. It’s been great fun, hasn’t it?”
She nudged Ares who grunted something at her, engrossed in a book and completely ignoring the customers. She kicked his ankle gently.
“Hmm, what’s up?” he asked.
“I was just saying to our customers how much fun we’ve had stocking up the shop.”
He muttered what could have been a yes and returned to his book. Hermione could sense he was being wary and his black aura was starting to appear.
“I love this dress; can I try it on?” the blonde asked.
Hermione pointed to the cubicle.
The brunette was flicking through the records and CDs. “You’ve got some great stuff here. It’s like a carefully curated collection.”
“Thank you, we just bought stuff we liked ourselves.”
“Are you the owner, or him?” The woman pointed at Ares, still engrossed in his book.
“We’re business partners. We took a bit of a gamble. We had no idea whether a shop would do well in this location, but we got the premises and thought we’d give it a go.”
“Where did you get the name from?”
“The Damned song, the video was filmed at the Hope and Anchor up the road, we thought it worked.”
The blonde emerged from the cubicle in the seventies halter dress. It fit her perfectly. “What do you think?” Hermione gave her a thumbs up, and her friend said it was perfect. Ares didn’t even look up.
She changed back into her clothes and walked up to the counter with the dress draped over her arm. “I’ll take it, please.”
Hermione smiled and carefully wrapped the dress in tissue paper. “Thank you, please come again, we have new stock all the time.”
As soon as they had walked out of the door, she rounded on Ares.
“Ares, really, that was so rude. You can’t just ignore the customers like that.”
“Force of habit, I don’t like strange women.”
“Look, if you don’t want to engage with them, find an excuse to go out the back, make a drink or something. You just looked so disrespectful and unwelcoming. Tell you what, you can deal with the blokes, and I’ll deal with the women.”
“How about you just deal with everyone, and I’ll keep working on the paperwork?”
She rolled her eyes at him. “You’re a terrible shopkeeper and it was your bloody idea to open a shop.” She gave him a playful slap on the arm.
The bell in the wizarding shop rang, signifying a customer had arrived.
“I suppose I’ll go, shall I?”
He nodded gratefully.
“Good morning,” Hermione said cheerfully to the young teenage boy and his mother who had just entered. “Would you like any help?”
“We’re looking for my Hogwarts supplies, is it true we can pay in pounds?” the boy announced.
“Absolutely, what are you after? I’m afraid a lot of our stock is at our other shop in Diagon Alley.”
“We thought we’d try you first. I don’t really like going there,” the mother explained.
“I understand that,” Hermione sympathised. “My parents never came with me after my second year. I used to tag along with my friend’s parents instead.
“I’m going to be in third year,” the boy proudly announced.
“Wonderful, what house are you in?”
“Hufflepuff.”
“Lovely, Professor Sprout is very jolly, isn’t she?”
The boy nodded.
“What subjects have you chosen?”
“Care of Magical Creatures and Divination.”
“Professor Hagrid is a good friend of mine. What book has he set? It’s not still the Monster Book of Monsters is it?”
The boy nodded.
“Oh dear,” she exclaimed. “We only had one copy in. It got sent to the Diagon Alley shop. It’s quite an intimidating book. A little tip for when you get it, you need to tickle its spine to make it open.”
He gave her a puzzled look.
“You’ll see what I mean when you get it. A lot of people keep it tied up with belts to stop it eating their socks. Anyway, what about divination? Still Unfogging the Future?”
“Yes.”
“We have several copies here and in the other shop. Take your pick.” She pointed at the bookshelf. “You’ll find the Standard Book of Spells, Grade 3 over there too.”
The boy wandered over with his booklist.
“I was never a fan of divination myself. Professor Trelawney had a habit of predicting students’ deaths. You have the grim, dear boy,” she said in her best Trelawney impression. “Well, that’s what she said to my friend, Harry.”
“Is that Harry Potter?”
“Yes.”
“And you’re really Hermione Granger?”
“Yes.”
“Would you sign my Chocolate Frog Card, please?”
Hermione smiled and graciously signed the card.
“Are you excited about the Hogsmeade weekends?”
The boy nodded his head enthusiastically.
She turned to his mother. “Don’t forget to sign his form, There’s nothing worse than being left behind because you don’t have a signed form.”
“Did that happen to you?”
“No, my friend.” She sighed and tactfully changed the subject. “Were you after new robes?”
“Yes.”
Hermione bustled around and found him some. “We do have a better selection in our other shop, but these are quite nice.”
“Now we have a small selection of ink, parchment and these.” She held up some Weasley two-way pads. “We are stocking these on behalf of George Weasley. They are marvellous.”
She showed them how they worked. “I wish these had been around when I was at school. It was very difficult for my parents to write to me. They didn’t have much success in persuading owls to hang around for a reply, plus they were worried about owls turning up in the middle of Hampstead.” She tapped the pads with her finger. “You can erase them up to three times.”
“Are you Muggle-born like Joseph here?”
“Mum, this is Hermione Granger, she’s the most famous Muggle-born… ever. Although… Is it true you are descended from Merlin?”
“According to my blood test, yes. Have you been tested yourself?”
The boy shook his head.
“It’s ever so easy, and it’s free. You just supply a drop of blood and if you are closely enough related to any of the thirty-nine estates, it will show up. You have to be a direct descendant or no further removed than third cousin.”
She rummaged under the counter and found a copy of the Prophet. She tore out a page. The Prophet has been updating the statistics every day on page thirty-nine, along with instructions for the blood testing.
They were very pleased with their purchases and Hermione offered to change some pounds into galleons for them to save going to Gringotts.
“Is this your shop?” the woman asked.
“I’m a part-owner, but I’m not here very often.” Hermione explained about the rest of the business.
The woman was intrigued. “I’ve wondered what sort of work my boy might end up doing. I never knew such things existed. Thank you so much for your time, we’ll definitely come back.”
Hermione waved them off and returned to the other shop to find Ares being chatted up by a gorgeous woman. His black walls were rising.
“Ah, Hermione, this lady wanted to try on some clothes, will you help her? I need to go out the back for something.”
The woman looked a little disappointed when he disappeared at the speed of light.
Much to her annoyance the woman started grilling her about Ares and whether he was single or not. Hermione gritted her teeth and smiled politely. The woman bought the clothes and left her phone number for Ares.
He reappeared as soon as the door clicked shut.
“Thank you, that was terrifying.”
“I don’t think you’re cut out for sales, we need to look at getting a weekend person in. Although, you didn’t scare off the customer too much. She left her phone number.”
She slapped the paper into his hand. He dropped it as if it was toxic. “I don’t want it.” He pointed his wand at it and cast an Incendio.
“Nevertheless, we’ll get an advert in the Prophet on Monday.”
The rest of the day was fairly quiet. A couple more sales and a few browsers. They managed to get through more than a dozen of the Snape boxes.
Ares let out a huge sigh of relief as they locked up for the day. “That was horrible. I really don’t like dealing with people. Why don’t we go to a car boot tomorrow? We don’t have to open until eleven.”
“Sounds good.”
“Why don’t you stay over? Let’s Floo to yours, grab Crooks and your stuff.”
“Ah, so you’re really inviting me for my cat, not my company.” She winked and gave him a gentle nudge with her elbow.
He blushed. “I really like both of your company.”