Cundrie decided that a week of the monstrous ginger tea knockoff, constant moans from Marcus about the horrible taste of the knockoff, and the constant moans from Marcus about when she's starting to date Oliver is enough. The 'fact' that Cundrie secretly wants this date does not affect their choice to accept the date offer, because that 'fact' is only a fact when they were both 15. Now, it's only an invalid fact. Cundrie sighed as she nervously combed her curls with her hand before clutching on her leather rectangular black purse again.

"Do you have everything in your purse?" Marcus asked from behind them. Cundrie rolled their eyes as they put on the straps of their black cone heels, not bothering to look up.

"Yes."

"Your wand?"

"Yes."

"Money bag?"

"Yeah."

"Emergency floo powder?"

"Yes!" Cundrie exclaimed, sitting up. "Marcus, you're the one who wants this."

"You're not exactly dressing up for fighting, Cundrie," Marcus said, looking at Cundrie's fluffy black princess silhouette dress that ends to their mid-thighs with a pair of black stockings underneath, their dark amber curls resting on their shoulders, black sapphire ring on their left middle finger whilst a black watch decorated with gems on the right. "And if something happens to you, I won't be able to help. What if you get attacked again?"

"I'll be fine, Marcus-" Cundrie hugged him tightly. "Thanks for worrying about me, I'll be fine. In fact, you should be glad now you don't have to make that tea knockoff anymore."

"Yeah-" Marcus chuckled. "But you'll be fine, won't you? It's spring, why don't you wear your jumper dress or something?"

Cundrie won't tell him why she won't wear jumper dresses anymore, but she knows that he knows as she only looks at him, saying nothing else. The bell rang and Cundrie whipped her head quickly to see the door.

"That must be Oliver-" Cundrie shook her head, clutching on her purse with her black-painted nails. "Well, don't destroy anything when I'm gone."

"Got it, HG-" Marcus chuckled just before Cundrie opened the door, revealing a nervous Oliver wearing a simple dark brown cardigan and light brown blouse, with a pair of dark brown culottes and light brown leather boots.

"Ye swatch incredible!" Oliver blurted out, speechless as xe stared at Cundrie. Cundrie blushed as they looked down to look at their dress before looking back at Oliver's again.

"You look incredible yourself," Cundrie said, going down the steps. Cundrie held Oliver's hand, staring at the darkness of xyr eyes that seem so easy for them to be drowned in.

"Be back by at least 9 PM, ok? No funny stuff!" Marcus yelled from behind. Cundrie closed her eyes as she cringed, shit. Oliver laughed wholeheartedly. "Do you hear me?"

"Yes, Marcus!" Cundrie yelled back, rolling their eyes. "It's not even a real date, don't worry!"

The door closed shut behind them.

"Oh, shut up!" Cundrie hits Oliver's shoulder as Oliver kept laughing, using xyr hands to cover the mouth. "I thought that part will be over by now."

"Yaouw should consider on liven alone-" Oliver said, sobering up. "So shits loike this doy happen."

"I love Marcus. He's a great friend-" Cundrie shrugs. "But he's sometimes- well, like that. It's humiliating!"

"Ee cares about yaouw, come on-" Oliver hits Cundrie's shoulder slightly. "Anywoy- where am we guin?"

"I don't know, maybe just around?" Cundrie asked back. "There's a café here if I remember right."

"Lead the woy-" Oliver held Cundrie's hand again, xyr fingers intertwining hers perfectly as they both started to walk away from the pavement where they stood.

"So, 'oo am yaw family?" Oliver asked. Cundrie bit her lower lip before remembering that she's wearing lipstick and stopped. "Am they bostin? Haven't heard frum Fred an' George fer a while."

"I don't want to talk about them-" Cundrie shook their head vigorously.

"'Oo is yaw werk?" Oliver asked, changing the subject. "You've miskin promoted, what d'ya does?"

"I'm junior secretary, so I mostly help the senior secretary on her job," Cundrie explained shortly. Oliver nods. "What we do is that we monitor the different kinds of sections that are applied and recommend to the Minister whether the sections need change or not."

"Loike what section?"

"Like healthcare, education, trade, laws and security, et cetera. Every section there is in the Ministry," Cundrie answered, their fingers outstretched as they named the few. "We make sure that none of these gets abused in practice. When they do, we are the ones who alert the Minister."

"Wosh," Oliver comments. "D'ya loike it? Does anyone in the Ministry ever harm yaouw?"

"The senior secretary is an absolute nightmare- Cundrie rolled her eyes in exasperation before she closed her mouth, widening her eyes. "I'm not allowed to speak negatively of Ministry workers."

"Hey, it's just me-" Oliver held her shoulders slowly. "I woo rat yaouw out; I'll hush hush."

"She would purposefully deadname me and misgender me, but that's not the worst part," Cundrie shook their head, their curls moving slightly. Oliver frowned, just how worse? "She would debate with me about LGBT+ rights, once she complained to me about making the right to transition a healthcare problem, saying that it'll cause more 'unnecessary money loss' and how she's grateful that there aren't any queers in the Ministry."

"What a bitch-" Oliver shook xyr head, mouth open in disbelief. "Does she ever hurt yaouw physically?"

"Yeah," Cundrie confirmed. Oliver widened xyr eyes as xyr jaw dropped more. "She made me use a blood quill- a quill that uses your own blood as the ink, leaving a scar of that word you wrote. She made me write something transphobic, I don't want to tell. It's bad."

"I woo force yaouw ter tell," Oliver said. "Cost sue 'er? It's a violation of human rights!"

"I pressed charges against her," Cundrie confirmed, nodding their head. "She had to pay me small amount of money, but she wasn't fired or something."

"Cack."