Avoided no longer. (Fiona)

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Gilderoy sat there trying his best to pay attention as the herbology professor gave their lesson but it wasn't working so well. He didn't necessarily dislike herbology or the plants they were being taught, yet his mind wasn't on plants today. It was just a little too boring for right now, it didn't help that the tree that the professor was going on about wasn't all too interesting either. Whatever it was about today he just wasn't in the mood for sitting in the greenhouse, if he was going to be outside he'd rather be on the move. At least till he found something better to do than hear about some tree with leaves that could make people laugh. The class seemed to tick by as slowly as possible yet just when he felt like it was getting to be too much it was over. Finally he was free for the rest of the day but it would seem that was just him as he asked some of his classmates what they had planned after this. Most seemed to have other classes to get to, whatever it was it was their lose on missing out on precious Gilderoy time.

Yet now he had nothing to do as everyone else seemed busy. Sure he could have gone back inside the castle and done some class work or found someone to grace with his presence but he was already outside now. He felt more like being out of the castle for a bit longer anyway. No, instead Gilderoy wandered the grounds just enjoying the nice day. It was a little cloudy but it gave some shade from the sun every so often. Eventually he found himself near the Quidditch pitch, it wasn't like he had planned it but here he was anyway. It was an odd place to be this year, Quidditch had been canceled due to the tournament so aside from practices this place was normally deserted. At least he expected it to be deserted as he walked up the stairs to all the bleachers.

Yet it wasn't, almost immediately as he got up the stairs he saw someone, someone he hadn't been expecting to see here of all places. It was still awkward, even after all this time as he looked toward the blonde girl who hadn't noticed him just yet. He wasn't sure if she was still avoiding him after what happened, honestly he wasn't even sure if she had been avoiding him to begin with as they hadn't talked since. He had started to avoid her after how weird things became between them and he wasn't sure how to react then. Still it didn't have to be this way he thought to himself and running off just because she was here wasn't the type of person he was now. "Hey Fiona," Gilderoy got out as he walked a little closer making his presence known. Even just saying her name again felt a little odd. "Is this where you like to hide out?" He smiled being as confident as he could even if it still felt weird as he didn't know what to expect after all this time.

@fiona

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Fiona had finished Care of Magical Creatures class about an hour ago and didn’t really want to go back to the castle yet. It wasn’t currently raining and she had brought the book that she was currently reading with her, like she always did. The Hufflepuff was never caught without her book. All day, since she woke up, she had the strange desire to feel tall. As an averaged height woman, she knew the way to do so was to strategically position herself somewhere where she was above all of the action. In a tree, in a tower, etc. She was walking back to the castle to head up to the Clock Tower when she spotted the Quidditch Pitch in the distance. Quidditch had been canceled for the year and the pitch would likely be empty. She turned in her path and made her way to the pitch. Once there, she climbed up into the stands and sat down about halfway up one of them. She set her bag on the floor, took out her book and began to read.

She hadn’t looked up, nor did she recognize how much time had passed until she heard a voice speaking to her. At which point, she froze a little. She knew the voice, she knew it well, in fact. The voice belonged to Gilderoy Lockhart, someone whom she had a… complicated relationship with. They had once been friends. They had been close friends, in fact. She had once considered him one of her best friends. But she had been avoiding him for years now, she felt awkward seeing him. A part of her knew that it hadn’t been his fault, that it was other rude boys who had laughed and made fun of her, but at the time she thought that if they never saw her with them than they would stop and forget it ever happened. And it seemed like her plan had worked. “Uh, yeah. And I guess you found me.” The Hufflepuff answered awkwardly, closing her book and finally looking up at him. “Hey Gilderoy.” she said, squinting a bit in the sun.

@lockhart

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so far so good Gilderoy thought to himself as Fiona closed her book and spoke to him. He hadn't expected her to ignore him or to run off, Gilderoy honestly didn't really know what to expect in this situation. Everything in his life right now he was so confident about himself in but with Fiona and the history they shared it made it a little hard to be sure of anything with her. They went from good friends to avoiding each other in one day and it lasted till right now. Still he was Gilderoy after all, if anyone could save this situation he hoped it would be him after. "I didn't mean to ruin your hiding place, I can help you find another." Gilderoy replied with a small laugh as he tried to make a joke. If this was where Fiona came to hide it was a nice enough spot to avoid people, people like him he supposed.

"Sooo," Gilderoy paused for a second not finding his words as easily as normal. He could talk to anyone or anything , especially if that thing had his reflection on it. Yet here he stumbled on his words for the first time in a long time. "How've you been? Anything interesting going on?" Was what he got out and he wasn't proud of it but it would do. It was a start after all he hoped.

@fiona

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It hadn’t been easy to stop seeing him and talking to him. But she wasn’t ever the most popular girl and there were time that she could be a bit fragile. Especially when she was younger and growing up. When she was just figuring out about romance and sex and all of the awkward changes that occurred in children as they transitioned out of that phase of life. People teasing her and laughing at her just wasn’t something he could handle. So, she took herself out of the situation. She had taken the not-so-mature route of avoiding the cause of her trouble, even if it wasn’t necessarily his fault. She wasn’t mad at him, and she had no reason to be, really. It was a complicated situation, though, it could have been complicated because she was making it complicated. “Thanks but it wouldn’t be a secret if you helped, would it?” she asked in a quiet voice very different than her normal voice. She was going so far out of her way to sound polite and formal that she wasn’t being herself in the slightest.

Why was he here? Why now? They had been apart for years and she was just fine. But apparently he wasn’t. He seemed to identify the awkwardness in the situation and resorted to asking small-talk questions. Fiona was terrible with small talk. “Um, I’m fine. Just reading.” she said, holding up her book momentarily. “So do you play Quidditch now or are you just wandering around?” she asked, trying to figure out why he was standing over her right now instead of off somewhere else in the castle.

@lockhart

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Fiona had a point and if she meant it like she wanted a spot he couldn't find her in or just stating the obvious he wasn't totally sure. He wouldn't blame her, they had avoided each other for so long now it might have just been easier to continue it. Still he didn't want to continue it, she used to be a good friend and sure he felt he messed it up. He still wanted to fix it now that she was in front of him or at the very least not have this awkward feeling between them. If anyone could make things right it was the great Gilderoy of all people. No, not even he believed that totally right now but he still hoped. "Right, yeah I'd know about it then." He blurted out before realizing how that could have been interpreted. "I mean it just wouldn't be a secret." Gilderoy attempted to correct himself, as this was just one misused word after another.

Gilderoy just smiled a little as Fiona said she was fine, just reading. Yeah, Gilderoy could see that yet soon she asked if he played Quidditch or just walking around. Fiona was probably trying to figure out why he had bothered to come out here and ending up running into her. What was worse was he didn't even have a reason, he just felt like walking around and ran into her. "Both actually, best chaser the Ravenclaw team has but in this case I was just wandering the grounds. I just figured this place would be deserted, obviously I was wrong."

@fiona

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Seeing how awkward Gilderoy was in this situation sort of made Fiona feel a little less weird about how awkward she felt. She knew that it had been her that was avoiding him, that he likely hadn’t felt so awkward about the situation that they had been put in and she was making a big deal about the whole thing. And maybe she was. Maybe she was being dramatic. She had accepted long ago that it probably wasn’t as bad as it seemed to her, but it was easier so many years later to just keep it up than to accept that she had been young and naive and vulnerable.At the cost of a best friend, the past seemed like it was too damaged to repair. “Yeah I think the whole point of a hiding place is that it’s secret so thanks anyway.” she said, looking down at her feet. She couldn't help but think about how there was a time where a secret hiding place would have included him.

Fiona hadn’t known that he joined the Quidditch team for his house. She didn’t really pay attention to sports, she found them a little boring and always brought a book to read while the match was going on if she was forced to attend. “Yeah I had the same idea.” she admitted after he admitted that he had thought the pitch would be deserted. Given how the two used to be so close, it hadn’t surprised her that they had the same thought at the same time. She often saw him in places that she had decided to go, but, when she did, she would turn around and find somewhere else to be. Going out of her way to avoid him was better at the time than trying to just pretend they weren’t in the same place. And if they weren’t ever seen together, then there was nothing for the kids to talk about. No more rumors could come of it. “But um, congrats on being Chaser.” she nodded. “I know you were wanting to join.” she looked back up to him, not really sure what to do. If she should offer for him to sit, or if she should stand, or if offering either would be weird. She wasn't very good with confrontation or awkward conversation. 

@lockhart

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As Fiona confirmed it wouldn't be a secret if Gilderoy knew about the spot he couldn't help felt but feel a little disappointed. "Yeah." Was all Gilderoy could say, there wasn't much else he could and that just made this that much more awkward. He always had something to say, a compliment, a way to make turn the focus on to how great he was. That was gone and it was annoying he couldn't be who he was normally right now. He wasn't annoyed at Fiona, no never her but this was toward himself. Why couldn't he just smile like always say the right thing and everything go perfect like so many times before with other people.

"Great minds think a like sometimes I guess." He laughed a little after saying that, Gilderoy wasn't surprised she would think this place was deserted as well. With no Quidditch there wasn't much reason to come to the pitch besides practice. Still it was funny how they still had the same thoughts even with what happened between them. She congratulated him on joining the Quidditch team and he was almost a little surprised she remembered that he wanted to join. She never seemed to care about Quidditch when they were friends and he doubted that changed since then. "Thanks, I got to play last year but this year we don't even have any games going on. It's a little disappointing but the tournament comes first." Gilderoy didn't enjoy that the tournament had cut a year of Quidditch from his life but the tournament was worth it even if he wasn't taking part in it. "You prepared for the OWLs coming up or are you freaking out like every other fifth does?" He could assumed the answer was yes but who knows, people change sometimes from how you knew them a few years ago. Even he was worried about the exams when he was in fifth year now he's moved on to worrying about NEWTs next year.

@fiona

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The conversation about her hiding place seemed to have died out. There wasn’t really anything else to say. It wasn’t as though he had actually crashed her secret hiding place. No, her ultimate hiding place was the Hufflepuff common room. No one in the common room ever made her feel unwelcome. They often just didn’t see her and walked right past, but most of the time, Fiona was thankful for that. Small talk was the worst. It gave her such anxiety. Much like this current conversation. However, this was giving her anxiety for a whole different reason. She felt like confrontation was coming, something she really hated. Eventually they would likely that about what happened, and she didn’t want to relive it, she thought about it enough every time that she saw Gilderoy or any of those boys who had teased her. She wasn’t really in the mood to relive it, but, she had known that they would have to talk about it eventually. She knew that they couldn’t continue avoiding each other forever. Well, the could. But she didn’t see it happened.

Fiona had heard rumors about how Gilderoy acted now and it seemed like he had truly became a stranger to her. If the rumors were true, if what her friends had told her about their interactions with him were true, then he wasn’t the same person than she had once known. Everyone changed. She changed, she was sure. She wasn’t entirely sure how, but she had. She had gotten more shut off over the years, she had become a bit more a hermit and spent much more time up in her dorm with whatever pet she had at the time nearby. She wondered if he had even known that her mouse died last year, likely not. It was trivial to most people, but it was important and devastating to her.

He told her that he made the team and got to play last year, but he was upset that the tournament had canceled Quidditch this year. She had known that Quidditch was canceled but never really minded or thought twice about it. But she understood how devastating it could have been to those who wanted to play professionally or who just put a lot of importance into the sport. “But you’ll get to play next year, right? So you’ve still got some time.” she said. He filled the awkward silence with another question. He asked how she felt about the upcoming OWL exams. “I feel pretty prepared, actually.” she admitted. She needed to pass a majority of her OWLs to become a healer, which she had decided over the course of this last year that she wanted to be. With potions and herbology being her best subjects it made sense for her to become a healer. Plus, her dad a was doctor in the muggle world and she liked following in his footsteps. “But that’s just me, the Hufflepuff that could have been a Ravenclaw.” she shrugged with a smile. She looked up at the man standing near her and sighed internally. “Do you wannah sit down?” she asked.

@lockhart

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Fiona assured him he still had time to play Quidditch. Gilderoy did have all of next year like she said but still he couldn't help but be disappointed that it had been completely canceled. There had to have been some way to have the tournament and the Quidditch cup at the same time. Still he had already had all those thoughts in the beginning of the year when he found out Quidditch was canceled. He could say he moved on even if he was a little disappointed. "Yeah I'll have next year. Still next year is just going to be a little mad also." Gilderoy said with a smile thinking about it for a moment. He wasn't too worried about it, he was confident he could handle anything next year was going to throw at him. Still that didn't mean it would be any less hectic. With classes, Quidditch and whatever the year wanted to throw at him. It might have been to much for anyone who wasn't Gilderoy to easily handle.

Gilderoy was glad to hear she wasn't freaking out over the exams, he hadn't thought of the OWLs exams much since he took them, he had already moved on to focusing on the NEWTs. Fiona explained her reason why she was feeling prepared and he couldn't argue with it. She had told him about her sorting before and how the hat had to take some time to decide. "I still say you should have told it Ravenclaw, you have for the brains for it and it would have made the common room more fun with you there." Gilderoy replied with a laugh as the awkwardness was gone for a mere second till he remembered them avoiding each other would have made the common room a nightmare. He still meant what he said and wasn't going to correct anything. A lot of things could have been different if she was in Ravenclaw, maybe this much time wouldn't have past before they spoke. Fiona asked if he wanted to sit down and he nodded, it was a step in the right direction. They may never be friends like they used to sadly but they didn't have to be whatever they were now.

Gilderoy sat down next to her making sure not to be too close or that he was going to sit on anything. She always seemed to have some little creature around her when they were friends and he learned to watch where he sat when around her just in case. Some how that lesson stuck with him as he thought back for a moment. "I'm sorry to hear about your mouse," Gilderoy finally spoke. Fiona's cousin, who was also a sixth year, told him about it last year but things were even more awkward back then than they were now. He wanted to say something back then but just couldn't. "He was a good mouse."

@fiona

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He agreed that he could still play Quidditch next year, however it would be a mad year anyway. She nodded. It was so weird thinking that next year would be his last year at Hogwarts. They had met during her first year, when they were both still so young, even if he was a year older than her, he had still been young. And a part of her still knew him as that young boy whom her cousin had introduced her to during the first month of Hogwarts when he was trying to get her to meet some friends and come out of her shell. For a while, she had. For the first few years, she had found someone that actually understood her and someone she could truly be herself with without having to worry that he would make fun of her or judge her.

“Yeah, that’s true. Do you have any idea about plans for after graduation?” she asked, she knew that he had ideas. Everyone had ideas of what they wanted going to do with their lives, but now that they were getting older their plans were having to get more and more concrete by each passing term. Grades and school started to really, really matter and everything seemed so much more high stress. He went on to explain why he thought that she should have been put into Ravenclaw. She told him when they were still friends what the sorting hat had told her and that even the hat had been confused on where to put her. Fiona shook her head, “No, Hufflepuff was the right choice.” she insisted softly. The older she got the more she understood why she was a Hufflepuff. She was shy and naive and anxious, and Hufflepuffs were good people to be around when any of those things became particularly hard to deal with.

He sat down, leaving a little distance between them, for which, she was grateful. It was so weird sitting with him now after all that time of going out of her way to avoid him. After a few moments of awkward silence he spoke. He said that he was sorry about her mouse which caught her completely off guard. He did know, she figured that one of their mutual friends had told him. But still, the way that he said it so completely out in the open and randomly gave her a funny feeling in her stomach. And then he said that her mouse was a good mouse and she couldn’t hold it back anymore. She laughed, loudly and deeply, she just started laughing. And she wasn’t exactly sure why. Her mouse dying had devastated her, but this conversation, right here and now, was too much and him talking about her mouse had pushed her over the edge. “I’m sorry, I just… this is weird, Gilderoy…” she admitted once she had caught her breath.

@lockhart

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Fiona asked a question that was always on his mind, Gilderoy knew what he wanted to be but didn't know the right way to get there. He hoped to one day be a hero like the one in his father's books. To do amazing things and help people where ever he went and then write about those adventures to share with the world. Still first he had to do those things. The closest idea he had to make that happen was joining the Ministry, something in law enforcement might just be the stepping stone he needed. Another route would just be traveling the world and just looking for that adventure. He still had time to decide which route to follow but for now he would be working toward joining the Ministry. "For now I'm thinking something in law enforcement but who knows, something with some adventure and glory." Gilderoy finally answered. It was hard to want to write about adventures and be a hero when you hadn't done anything yet. "How about you?"

Gilderoy didn't know what to expect as he mentioned her mouse, he thought for a second he shouldn't have even brought it up. Still it was important to her and he wasn't there to say he was sorry about it when it happened. If anything he thought she might be sad or even cry he wasn't expecting her to start laughing. Everything about this was just awkward and confusing and he soon found himself laughing a little bit along side her. In the past this might have been normal, just them together laughing about something but not now. Still here they were. Fiona took a moment to catch her breath and apologized saying this was just weird. "You're telling me," Gilderoy replied with a nod as he had stopped laughing by now too. "Still I'll take awkward conversation and laughing over you still being mad at me." Hell for all he knew she still was mad at him but he could hope not for a moment at least.

@fiona

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He admitted that he was thinking of doing something in law enforcement, which made sense. She knew that he wanted to have adventures like his father had… or, was said to have had, she wasn’t quite clear what actually happened with the man, some people insisted he was a fraud while others still promised that he was genuine. However, ever since the man had his memory stripped from him, there was no way to know for sure, as he didn’t remember anything, as Fiona remembered, sometimes not even his own son. Which was heartbreaking enough. “I think you could be good at law enforcement. And it would definitely help you get some interesting stories to tell.” she wasn’t sure if she would call the stories fun, exactly, but it would surely come along with adventure and glory. “I’m thinking about becoming a healer, actually.” she admitted.

She couldn’t believe what she was doing. Laughing in such a situation with a boy that she never thought that she’d ever speak to again sitting right next to her. She was laughing, and he began to laugh a little too. He had to think that she was mental. She finally caught her breath and the laughter subsided, he agreed that it was weird, but it was better than her continuing to be mad at him. Hearing him say those words hurt her. But he truly didn’t have any reason to think otherwise. “I’m not mad at you…” she admitted quietly. “Okay, maybe I was for a few days… but I didn’t avoid you because I was mad at you.” she tried to explain. If she had just been mad at him, then she would have just let herself be mad for the few days it took and then would have waited for him to apologize. She had briefly been mad at him though, mad that he hadn’t stood up for her at the time. She didn’t know whether or not he had done so after she ran out or later than that even, but when the rumors started and everyone laughed and teased her, he hadn’t said anything. She had been pretty quick to run, though.

@lockhart

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Fiona agreed on his choice of going into law enforcement. Gilderoy knew he had told her of his desire to follow in his fathers footsteps so he wasn't that surprised she brought up the part of having some stories to tell. She was a friend before so of course he told her, he really told anyone about it if the conversation gave him the chance to. "You'd be a great healer." Gilderoy replied with a nod as she explained what she wanted to do after school. She certainly had the compassion and kindness of a healer, or at least she used to. During the time apart he certainly had chanced but he couldn't be sure of Fiona just yet. She seemed more or less the same to him so far. "If I do go into law enforcement I'm sure I could use all the healers I can get." Gilderoy didn't plan on getting hurt, he liked to thing he was better than that but these things can happen if you try and live an adventurous life.

Gilderoy wasn't surprised to hear she was mad at him, it did surprise him that she had only been mad for a few days. The rest of avoiding him was because of some other reason. He was more confused than before about them now. He had spent so much time just thinking she was mad at him he didn't really think there was another reason. Even the rumors that followed them he figured she would just be mad him for those too. This all partly was his fault, his and the students that wanted to make fun of them. Gilderoy was used to rumors and people talking about him or more specifically his father. More rumors didn't bother him but now he couldn't speak for Fiona. At that point in his life he just enjoyed the good rumors and ignored the bad ones. "Well I'm sorry for what happened too, if I hadn't convinced you it was a good idea and it'd be fun none of this would have happened." Another thing Gilderoy had wanted to say for sometime but just couldn't. Shame, guilt even embarrassment weren't things he felt very often anymore. He was always sure of what he was saying or doing just not right now here with Fiona. "I should have said that a long time ago. I'm sorry it took so long also." It might have been too little too late for them to ever be friends again but he wasn't just saying sorry in the hopes they could be friends but more it was something he needed to say.

@fiona

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He told her that she’d be a great healer and she wanted to thank him for saying so, but instead, she just smiled and tucked a piece of her curly, blonde hair behind her ear. She knew that she would be a good healer, and she didn’t need the validation of him, or anyone else really, but it didn’t mean that she didn’t like it. She had told her parents of her plans and they were both happy for her and very encouraging, her father was even excited that, in a way, she was following in his footsteps. She didn’t really care what anyone else thought, she didn’t judge anyone on what they chose to do with her life. “I’m sure any healer would jump at the chance to treat Gilderoy Lockhart Jr.” she teased. She wasn’t sure what he was trying to say by connecting their career paths, but she assumed it had something to do with the possibility of her treating him in the future. Something that she hoped never happened, in the sense that she hoped that he never got hurt enough to need a healers attention. "Though try not to need it, yeah?" 

He apologized and she looked at him as he spoke. She wasn’t sure what to say. She wasn’t sure how to admit that she had been too quick to run away or that she had seen now that had obviously been a little too immature about the whole thing. She didn’t know how to say that she was afraid of people thinking that they were together, and she still wasn’t quite sure why all of that had scared her so much and caused the reaction that she had. “I mean… it was fun… until… you know… I ran out like a 5 year old who had just seen a ghost.” She admitted. The night had been fine, it had been fun, the kiss hadn’t even been what bothered her, except he was maybe a bit more pushy than she had expected, but she had agreed to kiss him, what bothered her so much was the reaction of everyone else in the room. “I probably shouldn’t have hid for 2 years.” she was human and she could admit fault, but she wasn’t quite sure how to do so. She didn’t really know what standard procedure was for talking to your ‘ex-best friend/first kiss whom you had been avoiding for the past 2 years’.

@lockhart

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Gilderoy laughed a little as for a moment the conversation wasn't that awkward, instead enjoying it. As they both shared their plans for the future. Fiona even went on to to say any healer would jump at the chance to he him. While he didn't like to imagine getting hurt, he hoped he would be above all that accidents could always happen. Still it was I nice thought and he wouldn't blame the healers for being excited for when someone like him would come around if he needed them. Fiona also added that he should try not to need the help, probably rather he stay safe which was a nice gesture. "I'll do my best but if something small happens I'll make sure to request you, make all the other healers a little jealous in the process." Gilderoy joked a little, mostly about requesting her. It would be nice to have a healer he knew if he needed it but he wouldn't want to put that type of stress on Fiona. "Anything big and I don't suppose I have much time to make requests but I wouldn't want you to have to deal with that."

Fiona explained or at least attempted to explain what had happened that night from her end. There wasn't much she needed to explain, Gilderoy had already placed the blame on himself for it. If he hadn't pushed the idea of going through with the kissing they would have still been friends after all. Most things he could blame on other things, someone like him wouldn't make such terrible mistakes but in this case it was all him and he had long accepted that. "Well you're not the only one who hid." It wasn't he proudest moments when he would avoid somewhere just because Fiona was there too. "I just figured you didn't want to see me so I just stayed away," for someone who cared so much about how he looked and acted this was a very embarrassing thing for him to avoid someone else. "Still I guess we could have have just said something to one another at some point and avoided most of this. What's the fun of being at school without some drama?" Gilderoy asked at the end jokingly as he would have rather done without that completely.

@fiona