At A Complete Loss

Rosie hurried into the Leaky Cauldron from the Muggle side of the street, she had been shopping in some of the weirdest shops she had ever come across out there and she had bought some of the things she had found. Sitting down at the bar she smiled at Tom who bowed deeply to her much to Rosie's blush.

Asking him politely for a glass of butterbeer Rosie began to take the things out of her bag, holding up a small gathering of metal coils she giggled as they wobbled and moved from side to side in her palms. She believed they were called slinkies.

Sighing lightly she placed it on the desk and poked it lightly with her pen top, not wanting to begin the large pile of paperwork also in her bag.

Cobalt hurried into the Leaky Cauldron as it had begun to rain rather heavily. Sighing a little he order a hot chocolate from Tom, who smiled at being given the chance to make one of his favourite muggle drinks. While waiting for the drink he noticed how the place was quickly becoming crowded with people who wanted to do their shopping and were willing to wait it out if it turned out to be a shower. Sighing a little he paid Tom the requested amount before noticing the whipped cream on top and giving the man a generous tip.

Cobalt loved whipped cream on his hot chocolate.

Taking he drink he sat down at the only seat that was still available, which was positioned at a small, two person, table. As he set he drink down he smiled sheepishly at the other user of the table, a very professional looking young witch,

"Sorry to intrude but everywhere else is full."

Rosie looked up from her paperwork and blushed internally when she saw a quite good looking man standing there. Glancing around she saw that everywhere else was full and she nodded to him as a blessing to sit down next to her.

He had gotten hot chocolate, Rosie liked that drink too but didn't know they'd done it here.

"I don't mind, you look more interesting than this paperwork anyway."

Holding out her hand Rosie smiled gently at the man.

"My name is Persephone but everyone calls me Rosie. You are?"

Cobalt smiled a little as he got comfortable in his seat,

"Thanks for that." he smirked a little, "It's an accomplishment to be more appealling than paper work."

He looked her up and down with a casual eye, not at all objecting to what he was seeing. Smiling again he took her hand, turned it over, and kissed the back of it,

"It is a pleasure to meet you Rosie..." he looked up at her from his position leant over her hand, "My name is Cobalt Smith."

As her hand was kissed Rosie tried her best not to blush too badly but she could feel a definate tinge to her cheeks. Quickly withdrawing her hand remembering the last time she had let someone do that it had earnt her a stalker.

"Pleased to meet you Cobalt."

She moved her paperwork back into her bag and smiled at Cobalt from under her lashes. Rosie grinned and picked up the slinky on her desk and wibbling it between her hands.

"Have you ever had one of these?"

Cobalt smile a little bit more when he spotted the slight blush she was now sporting but chose not to comment on it. No need to embaress the poor woman. He smiled at the slinky, holding his hand out in a silent request to hold it,

"Yes actually I did used to have one as a kid." he chuckled, "I might be a pure blood but we lived like muggles for years. It was a great childhood. Filled with slinkies, kites, skateboards and the like."

Tilting her head Rosie smiled at Cobalt all traces of blush gone, it was interesting to meet someone who like her had been raised with muggle technology but was pure blood...however she had never had a slinky before...

"It sounds like fun..."

Taking a sip of her butterbeer Rosie gave the slinky to Cobalt when he requested it and she took another one out of her bag, taking it out if the box.

"I remember the best toy in my childhood was the tyre swing in my back garden..."

Cobalt smiled wistfully as he played with the slinky in his hands,

"It was fun." he agreed before he looked away, now slightly more serious, "But all good things come to an end as they say."

Shaking his head a little he smiled warmly at her and nodded a little,

"I never used to go on the swing too much. But my brother..." he chuckled a little, "My brother used to love the swing out the back of the house. I made the mistake of owing him a favor and he told me I had to push him on the swing for as long as he wanted... I was there for five hours."

Listening to Cobalts story Rosie felt like they had something in common already even though they had only just met with each other. Placing the slinky on the table and pulling only the top coils up it made it appear even stringier than normal.

"No way! Five hours...although I have to say you did kind of ask for that didn't you?"

With a chuckle Darquesse conjured up a spoon out of thin air and took a bit of Cobalts whipped cream from his hot chocolate with a smirk. Once the spoon had been completely licked clean of cream Rosie vanished it again and sipped at her butterbeer.

"I do love cream...hey...have you ever had Spanish hot chocolate?"

He chuckled a little and continued to walk his slinky along the table with pokes,

"I guess I did." he shook his head, "All I did was drop a bag of flour on the way to the bakery. Mom and Dad wouldn't have been that made anyway."

Raising an eyebro he gestured to his hot chocolate with a small smile,

"Help yourself by all means." he joked before shaking his head, "Can't say that I have... kind of defeats the purpose of having an ice cream though doesn't it?"

With a devilish grin Rosie summoned the spoon again and took another big chunk of the cream off the top and licking it off the spoon once more, going in for a third spoonful she held the spoon out to Cobalt so he could eat it instead of her.

"Bakery hm? Didn't have you pegged as a baker...wait...Cobalt Smith?"

Rosie mind suddenly flicked on and she grinned a little ignoring the fact that the Ministry had been tracking him she was just happy that she knew him from somewhere.

"You're potions professor right?"

Shaking her head with her mouth wide open in disbelief Rosie chuckled:

"You can't call yourself a hot chocolate fan until you have had some. It's lovely. Better than the stuff here."

Cobalt chuckled a little as he took the offered spoon,

"I was a baker before I was anything else. Family business over in Ireland." he shrugged, "Was never sure why we did it, I mean we were pureblood and we were rich in this world. But when I grew up I learnt why my mother and father found their peace in the bakery."

He nodded with a small smile,

"One of them." he conceeded, "I teach the hufflepuffs and the slytherins."

He rolled his eyes,

"I never claimed to be a hot chocolate expert Rosie, just that I like it."

Rosie nodded her head as Cobalt told her about his parents and their bakery, she herself wished she could have had a childhood like that, less regimented and less drive for her to succeed.

"It sounds lovely...I'm from Italy so it was all pasta for me ate so much of it I can rightly say I never want to eat another strand!"

Tipping her head up with the bottle of butterbeer to drain the last drops from it Rosie set it down on the table and poked her slinky laughing as it wibbled around.

"I'll see you at Hogwarts then I teach DADA to Slyths and Puffs now..."

Her voice became tinged with melancholy before she frowned and conjured another spoon taking the last of the cream off Cobalts hot chocolate.

"I was only saying it's a lot better...if you get chance you should try some."

Cobalt chuckled a little,

"Yeah... I never really cared for the stuff personally." he shuddered a little, "I personally really don't like that lasagne stuff."

He smiled a little,

"DADA huh?" he smirked, "I don't have to worry about you disappearing at the end of the year because of some 'curse' on the position do I?"

Frowning a little at her tone he reached across the table and placed a hand over one of hers,

"Hey... are you alright?"

Persephone instead of being a little hurt at the dig to her home country she just continued to glare openly at the wood of the table not wanting to look up at Cobalt in case he thought she was angry with him.

Sighing lightly she tilted her head up to look into his eyes and took a deep breath.

"I'm fine..."

Gently she squeeze Cobalts hand with a wry smile:

"I just preffered the job I used to do."

Cobalt sighed a little,

"Great. I've offended you." he shook his head a little and rubbed at his temples, "I'm sorry if what I said was innappropriate."

He smiled slightly,

"You sure?"

Cobalt smiled a little bit more,

"I can understand that. After all, how many people can say they've been the leader of magical britain?"

Rosie looked up sharply at Cobalt and narrowed her eyes at him, she wasn't angry about what he said to her, just the situation she had been in, letting him know that she wasn't annoyed at him she squeezed his hand lightly.

"You haven't offended me."

Biting her lip Rosie tried to stop herself speaking but before she could the anger that still bubbled away inside of her burst out.

"And I still would be! If it wasn't for that blasted Wizenmagot! I SWEAR if I get my hands on that b*stard who replaced me!!"

She growled narrowing her eyes and practically snarling at thin air where she imagined Silver to be standing.

Cobalt smiled a little and squeezed her hand back,

"Good to know." he replied with a smile, "I hope I don't ever offend you either. Anger doesn't suit the beautiful."

Raising an eyebrow at the outburst, Cobalt said nothing but held both of her hands in his,

"You don't need the hassle of a job that flawed to know you're a powerful woman Rosie." he shrugged a little, "If you ask me the whole system needs a good shake up. You know, try some democratically elected members of that court of theirs."

Rosie calmed down a little bit and her angry expression turned neutral but she blushed lightly when Cobalt called her beautiful, bashfully she diverted her gaze from his face to the table until she could stop the blush spreading across her cheeks.

"Um, well thank you Cobalt."

She muttered before pricking her ears up at what he said, sighing a little she put her political hat on and bit her lip before saying:

"There are lots of people who feel the same way, the Ministry is full of corruption and it makes me sick...I was going to try and sort that out but there would have been no way that I could have controlled something of that magnitude..."

Leaning her head forwards she tried ot conceal her other blush as she heard him call her a powerful woman, she couldn't be powerful...

"And what makes a powerful woman? You've only just met me."

He smiled a little when he realised that he'd made her blush. But he wasn't smiling because she was blushing, he was smiling because said blush was very cute on her. Chuckling a little he stroked the backs of her hands,

"Don't mention it Rosie." he winked, "I'm very appreciative of the beauty before me."

Seeing her whole attitude shift, he realised that he'd probably just killed the more playful tone of the conversation,

"Well it seems to me, an average Irish baker, that you can't change a system from inside the system." he shrugged a little, "They'll either drag you down to their level or kick you out. On that level I'm glad you got kicked out because it means you were incorruptable."

He smiled a little as the more relaxed air returned,

"How do I know you're a powerful woman?" he asked teasingly before looking her up and down, "Poise. The way you carry yourself tells of confidence. Your looks are powerfuly too, enough to sway poor innocent men like myself. Not to mention the way you just seem to hum. It's like you're an active person but you're actively reigning it in for now."

Rosie growled lightly and cursed herself softly under her breath for blushing yet again, she just wasn't used to having compliments given to her with sincerity, all she was really used to was Kerew's more...forward style of things which had left quite it's impact even though it was over a week ago.

"I bet you say that to every girl."

She winked back.

"Baker? Did not have you down as a baker, kind of cute though, tell me white bread or brown bread? No pressure this will just decide the whole future of our friendship."

Pulling her tongue out at Cobalt she thought it would be best to leave the whole politics thing alone for now, because, she could fight out her beliefs with the best of them. Her eyebrow raised at the description of a powerful woman, Rosie supposed in a way she was all of those things so she couldn't dissagree.

"I guess that all makes sense, I'm not one to say I'm not confident because I am, I do a lot of exercise so that's about right...and poise comes with the classic pure blood raising I'm afriad nothing to do with me as a person."

Cobalt chucked a little and shook his head,

"I make it a policy not to lie to the pretty ones." he replied with a wink, "So I'm not lying."

He laughed a little,

"Like I said, I'm a baker. I make both kinds." he smirked a little before shrugging, "Besides, Tiger Bread is my favourite kind in the world."

Cobalt rolled his eyes with a teasing smile,

"Just take the damn compliment Rosie." he joked before smiling a little more, "I'm a pureblood too and all I got was pokes with a french stick everytime I slouched."

Rosie smirked at Cobalt and wound a lock of hair around her finger to try and distract herself from looking into his eyes any longer, she knew her blush would only get worse.

"Alright then, I'll believe you."

Pulling tongues at him Rosie laughed lightly and cocked her head to one side, she had indeed forgotten about the most delicious tiger bread that she ate often.

"I agree, I can't believe I forgot to ask about the tiger bread! Such a bad girl."

Rosie winked at Cobalt before sighing and rolling her eyes just like him.

"Alright alright, I'll take the damn compliment."

Leaning her head on her clasped hands Rosie leant forwards to whisper.

"Only if you'll accept that you are one of the handsomest men I've ever had the pleasure to steal whipped cream from."

He smiled a little and brushed a strand of her hair out of her eyes,

"Good to know." he looked into her eyes, "It's best to believe the truth anyway."

Cobalt adopted a wise expression and nodded slowly,

"Yes my child, the deliciousness of tiger bread can never be overlooked." he adviced before chuckling, "Don't worry about being a bad girl Rosie. Nothing wrong with bad girls."

He chuckled a little and reached across the table to take her hand in his,

"Good thing too." he leant in close to her to whisper, "If I accept that compliment will you accept that I find you an incredibly sexy woman?"

When Cobalt moved the strand of hair out of her eyes Rosie wanted to rest her head on his hand and keep it there, not wanting him to move away just yet.

"Of course Master Bread Maker."

Rosie joked pulling her tongue out at Cobalt again, he sounded like one of those old Chinese men in Martial Arts films, when they were talking to their apprentice.

"Guessing from that you prefer bad girls to good ones, just out of pure curiousity mind."

Tilting her head to one side she blushed lightly as Cobalt moved closer to her and in return she moved closer to him resting her head on his forehead.

"If I accept that compliment will you accept that you are one of the only men I've ever met that I want to kiss..."