first date | tamatha & alfie

[alfie edward o'callaghan]

Alfie couldn't believe he was going on a blind date. Never in his life had he thought he would subject himself to something so awkward. He was hoping this Blishwick fellow knew what he was doing and wasn't a phony like he was suspecting. One day while at the Hogs Head, he and Esther saw a flier for the Blishwick blind matchmaking services that seemed to be popular in the UK wizarding world. What first started out as a joke became a reality when they dared each other to sign up to see what would happen. Alfie thought the idea was silly but he was always willing to meet someone new, being so far from home made it hard to make friends with people other than coworkers at times. When he received the owl explaining that his date would be at a Fire Whiskey distillery in Scotland, he found himself thinking that maybe the blind date wouldn't be so bad. Fire Whiskey was his favorite alcoholic beverage so sampling sounded like a great time with the right companion. 

The Professor would never intentionally make a lady wait for him, so he was sure to show up to the venue a little early. There was a bench outside the distillery they were instructed to meet for the date, so he hovered near it, waiting patiently with his hands shoved into his pockets. There was a fountain outside the distillery epicly sculpted into erupting butterbeer bottles, he nodded as he mused at its glory. Tonight would be interesting that was for sure.

@tamatha

[Deleted]

As a half-Veela, Tamatha spent a good portion of her time playing into or otherwise dealing with the effect that her Veela charm had on others around her. She couldn't control who was attracted to her, though it was occasionally worth her while. There were… perks, undoubtedly, and she couldn't say that she hadn't spent most of her time living in London on taking advantage of her unnatural appeal.

In fact, as July rolled around, it might have been the longest that she had gone without an actual "date" in a long time. Signing up for the Blishwick Matchmaking blind date just sort of happened in the same way that most things involving romance in Tamatha's life happened. She didn't give it too much thought, though she hadn't felt like herself since the explosions at the Quidditch league finals. Going on one date wouldn't hurt her, and the thought of being matched with someone because of their commonalities rather than because she was part Veela.

If nothing came out of it, then nothing came out of it. There was no point in overthinking it, and so she didn't. Firewhisky tasting might not have been her idea of an excellent evening—because she much preferred wine—but there wasn't anything that said that she had to drink it by the barrel.

Assuming that the Ogden's Old Firewhisky distillery would be a little less formal than some places, Tamatha dressed semi-casually. The "nice top and jeans" thing had been a takeaway from her time at Ilvermorny, and it was perfectly suited for such an occasion. Even though she knew that she probably could have gotten away with batting her eyes after showing up fashionably late, she didn't want to keep her date—whoever he was—waiting on her.

Tamatha Apparated to Glasgow ahead of the time indicated on the letter that she had received from Blishwick and made her way to where the Ogden's Old Firewhisky was distilled. As she approached, she knew that she must have been in the right place by the sight of a large fountain that depicted what else but erupting bottles of butterbeer.

She also saw a gentleman standing around near the fountain, his hands in his pockets. He looked like he was waiting around for someone, Tamatha noted, but was he waiting for her?

alfie edward o'callaghan

[alfie edward o'callaghan]

As Alfie stood patiently waiting for his date, he pondered what kind of person Blishwick Matchmaking Services thought was compatible for him. It was exciting but a little nerve-wracking putting his fate into someone else's hands. He'd never gone on a date with a complete stranger before but he wasn't completely opposed to the idea. Alfie enjoyed meeting more people and since moving to the UK, most people he hung out with were coworkers, so he was ready for a change.

It wasn't long until his date showed up sooner than expected. When he saw someone appear in the distance approaching, his stomach dropped slightly as a pretty blonde-haired woman came walking in his direction; toward the fountains, the meetup spot. A small smile pulled at the corner of his lips. Of course, he always had a thing for blondes. Blishwick got that one right already. He was confident it was her now. As she got closer, he took a couple of steps towards her but not trying to seem too eager or creepy.

The Professor approached her with an easy-going smile, "Heey, I'm Alfie O'Callaghan," he introduced himself with a small laugh, unsure if he was supposed to go for a hug or a handshake. Shit, these were the things he was supposed to ask Esther. Sometimes handshakes were too meek and formal, then again, hugs could be too forward. He went for the half-hug and still inwardly cringed. "I'm assuming you're my date or else this is a very creepy greeting." he laughed, hoping that joking a little could help break the ice. Blind dates weren't easy for anyone.

@tamatha  

[Deleted]

Most of the time, Tamatha found herself approached by men as soon as she entered a room. It was either helpful or frustrating, depending on the circumstances, and she worried that it was going to be the latter when a man approached her as she waited outside the distillery. And why wouldn't it have been? She knew what alcohol did to people anyway, and her half-Veela charm was the icing on the cake… Considering that she was looking for one person in particular, she did worry how it was going to look if she had to turn the guy down.

He smiled at her—a polite smile—and immediately introduced himself with his full name: Alfie O'Callaghan. Alfie gave her something of a half-hug, at which Tamatha half-heartedly hugged him back. "I'm assuming you're my date," he said to her, "or else this is a very creepy greeting."

Tamatha, glad that he at least had some cognizance of his potential creeper level, smiled a little at his laughter. "…Blishwick?" she checked, just to be certain.

alfie edward o'callaghan

[alfie edward o'callaghan]

After greeting himself and offering the half-hearted hug, he was mentally facepalming at his actions. Maybe he shouldn't have gone for the hug...shit. Alfie wasn't typically a nervous person, he was usually more of the 'go with the flow' kind of guy, but tonight he was feeling the date jitters. When the blond asked him 'Blishwick?' with a smile, he forced an easy-going smile and nodded his head, "Yeah." he laughed a little more, hoping she couldn't feel the potential awkwardness.

Sometimes in these situations, it was easier to break the ice with a joke. Since the Professor had already introduced himself, he would take the opportunity to tease her in a friendlier fashion. His smile grew, tugging at the corners of his lips. "Do you have a name?" he asked her in a hopeful tone, meant to be taken more playfully, not in a sleazy flirtatious way. Alfie wasn't trying to make her uncomfortable. Honestly, he was looking forward to the firewhiskey because it would undoubtedly soothe his nerves.

@tamatha

[Deleted]

Alfie, the guy who had approached her, was clearly nervous—or struck by her Veela charm, though she wasn't intentionally putting on airs—but he struck her as being pretty casual, aside from that. In other words, he genuinely did seem like he wasn't trying to be a creep. He confirmed that he was also there because of Blishwick Matchmaking, which meant that they must have had some other reason than her being a half-Veela for their being paired with one another.

"Do you have a name?" he smiled at her, now that the awkwardness of figuring out if he was just some creep was behind them.

"Yeah," Tamatha smiled back at him. "I'm Tammy. Tammy Berg," she explained, since he had also introduced himself with his full name before her. "Are you American?" she wondered. His accent wasn't too far off from her own (at least when speaking English), so she was curious.

alfie edward o'callaghan

[alfie edward o'callaghan]

So far, so good. Alfie had successfully located his date without any trouble, and he was thanking the Blishwick Gods because she was pretty. When she introduced herself, he noticed that she had an easier accent for him to understand, and that also gave him a bit of comfort. Living in the UK, he was getting used to all sorts of crazy accents. He was grateful he wouldn't have to ask his date to repeat themselves due to his ears being unable to decipher what they were saying. "It's nice to meet ya, Tammy." he told her with a smile that grew slightly when she smiled back. Alfie wasn't sure if it were nerves because she was pretty, but she seemed cool. "Shall we make our way inside?" he offered in an easy-going tone as he lead her in the direction of the entrance so they could get their date officially started.

As Tammy asked him if he were American, he nodded his head, "Yeah, I'm from Colorado." Alfie confirmed with a smile, proud of where he was from. Merlin, he smiled too much when he was nervous. Sometimes he also talked too much. He found himself already wanting to chat her up and they hadn't even stepped into the brewery yet. His head tilted to the side with another smile, "I take it you're American, too?" he asked, hoping she'd answer where she was from. "You look kind of familiar, but I can't place your face." he admitted with a chuckle, unsure if she had walked the halls during his Ilvermorny days. It was probably quidditch.

@tamatha

[Deleted]

Alfie said that it was nice to meet her and then suggested that they make their way inside.

Tamatha nodded and began to make her way in the direction of the brewery's entrance, though the both of them continued to chat and exchange introductions. He explained that he was from Colorado, which wouldn't have been her first guess if she'd been invited to take a stab at it. Colorado wasn't really one of the first states that came to her mind, though Tamatha supposed that he could relate more to the winters she'd had in Québec.

"I take it you're American, too?" he asked her. "You look kind of familiar, but I can't place your face."

Aside from his comment about the familiarity of her face, Alfie was off by… far more than he realized. Then again, most people's first thought about her probably wasn't that she was French. From her accent while speaking English, too, Tamatha knew that it was an easy mistake to make. She gave a soft laugh, mostly because she knew that her reply was likely to confuse him without some additional explanation, and shook her head. "No, um… I'm actually French," she corrected him, "but I went to Beauxbatons and then graduated from Ilvermorny. Class of 2015."

alfie edward o'callaghan
OOC: I know this sucks! Sorry!

[alfie edward o'callaghan]

Alfie listened when Tamantha shared that she was French and graduated from Ilvermorny. That was kind of confusing but not too far fetched these days. He nodded his head to show that he was actively listening. "Ahh, I see..I was class of 2010. So it probably wasn't Ilvermorny then." he said with a chuckle, unashamed of having humility. "Well, could be an evil twin." Alfie teased lightheartedly, willing to joke about it instead of getting awkward as they walked into the building.

The Professor had to refrain from gaping his mouth open when his eyes marveled in the beauty of the Firewhiskey distillery. It was large with lost of shiny moving pieces. He wasn't sure where they were supposed to start but alcohol sure would have been great to soothe his nerves. Alfie was looking forward to chatting and hanging out with his date. Truthfully he was pretty excited because Firewhiskey was his favorite drink. "It sounds like you've moved a lot. What has brought you to the UK?" he asked her curiously, looking to learn basic details about his date. He had never gone on a blind date before so he wasn't sure what was appropriate to ask but he figured that wasn't too personal. Alfie was more curious about learning about her as a person first since the whole dating a stranger thing was a little awkward to him, but he wasn't against it in the slightest. It could be a great way to meet people and get himself out there.

@tamatha

[Deleted]

"Ahh, I see… I was class of 2010. So it probably wasn't Ilvermorny then. Well, could be an evil twin." Tamatha wouldn't have guessed that he was that much older than she, but the age difference didn't really bother her, either. She had done worse for herself, and she didn't want to admit that that very well could have been how he recognized her somehow—if it wasn't just the effects of her Veela Charm that were really doing the talking. There was also the possibility that he had seen or run into Cameron at some point. Her sister did look an awful lot like a younger version of her, but only as far as appearance went. Their personalities and interests weren't really that similar.

Tamatha gave a laugh in response to his joke about evil twins as they entered the distillery, which seemed as though it would make for an interesting experience. It didn't look like what she had expected, which would have been something closer to the interior of the Hog's Head or someplace like that. Instead, it was surprisingly nice. "No evil twins here, I swear," she promised Alfie, though he honestly didn't seem like the type of guy who would end up seeing her bad side.

Alfie, too, seemed impressed by the facility, though he seemed equally impressed by how much she had moved around. "It sounds like you've moved a lot. What has brought you to the UK?"

Truthfully, she didn't think that she had moved around that much. It had been France to Canada, plus the United States for Ilvermorny during the school year as a teenager, and then Canada to England. That was probably more countries than some people visited in their lives, Tamatha realized, so maybe it was a little bit of moving from place to place.

"I moved over here for work a few years back," she answered, which was the answer that she always gave whenever it inevitably came up as a way to break the ice in conversation with someone who didn't know her yet. She very rarely gave the full picture of what had led her back across the ocean; it was a great way to kill the mood in no time at all and make things painfully awkward from that point on, and she wasn't ready to drive Alfie off. "Same for you, or…?"

alfie edward o'callaghan

[alfie edward o'callaghan]

The Professor looked down at the blonde with a nervous laugh, "Heh- that's what an evil twin would say..." he sang in a suspicious sing-song tone, paired with shifty eyes. Laughing always helped ease the awkwardness of situations, but sometimes he found himself laughing too much when he was nervous. That was probably something to be blamed on depression. Luckily once he saw Tamatha, that alone eased his nerves. Upon first impression, she was ravishingly pretty and seemed like a nice and proper lady. He was curious about where the evening would take them.

Alfie nodded his head when she asked if he moved to the UK due to work as well. "Yeah, I'm a Professor of Herbology at Ilvermorny. I was transferred to Hogwarts last year after everything happened over there." he shared, knowing she was likely aware of the incident living in the wizarding world. It was a big deal because many people died or were gravely injured.

"What do you do for work?" he inevitably asked, since she mentioned moving to the UK a few years ago for work. As he asked the question, a young female worker approached them, "Good evening, would you like to start with a tour or sit down for firewhiskey flights?" she asked with a chipper tone, ponytail bouncing behind her head as she tilted her head with an expectant smile. Alfie gestured to Tamatha with a more 'you choose' kind of smile and shrug because both options sounded good to him. Plus, ladies choice was the polite thing to do on a date.
@tamatha

[Deleted]

"Yeah, I'm a Professor of Herbology at Ilvermorny. I was transferred to Hogwarts last year after everything happened over there."

There was no way around it: He must have known her younger sister. Tamatha cursed a little internally at how awkward that would be for Cameron. Her older sister was going on a date with her teacher. And he seemed nice. And pretty damn normal. Well, she was just going to have to keep her fingers crossed that maybe her sister wasn't in Herbology… She could hope.

"What do you do for work?"

Thank Merlin that was an easy question, Tamatha thought to herself. "I'm a news coordinator for the British and Irish Quidditch League," she explained, which had had its own fair share of excitement earlier that same summer. She was trying not to get so bogged down with work anymore, but she hadn't expected that it would lead her to going out with her younger sister's teacher. How was that for luck?

She didn't have much time to elaborate on what she did for work, though, because an employee at the distillery soon approached the both of them. "Good evening, would you like to start with a tour or sit down for firewhiskey flights?" she asked, though the tone of the question seemed to be that it was directed at her rather than at Alfie.

Tamatha gave Alfie a little look, thinking that maybe it would be better for them to do the tour first and the whiskey after. She didn't know if she was quite ready for the firewhisky level of honesty with someone new, and she was enjoying having a relatively normal conversation with him.

She turned back to the employee and smiled politely. "Why don't we go with the tour first?"

alfie edward o'callaghan

[alfie edward o'callaghan]

When Tamatha shared what she did for a living, he was impressed when she told him he was a quidditch news coordinator. He had played QuodPot for many years and even went for the American National team before his dreams were crushed when he didn't get on. It was the tip of the iceberg to what led to his downward spiral in his early adulthood. That wasn't something he'd tell Tamatha about tonight, or ever, hopefully. Ever since he had moved to the UK he gained an interest in quidditch...as well as the recent happenings with the explosions at the game, her life was probably chaotic for some time. So when the worker came over to question their plan for the evening, he held that thought. The tour sounded like a great option because he was afraid of getting drunk too fast at a firewhiskey distillery. This place was dangerous for an alcoholic like Alfie. There were too many options. "Sounds good to me," he nodded agreeably, walking in the direction the worker pointed them, where a small group was supposed to meet.

As they started to walk where they were instructed, he turned to Tamatha to continue their conversation. Alfie was a teacher so he was used to distractions like that, he truly wanted to know more. "Do you, or did you ever, play quidditch?" he asked her curiously, finding it interesting but he wouldn't make her talk about quidditch all night. No one would walk to talk about work for too long on a date but Alfie was trying to get to know who Tamatha was as a person.

@tamatha

[Deleted]

Alfie agreed with her that taking the tour of the distillery first sounded like a good idea, and so the employee led them in the direction of where they would be meeting the rest of their group to begin the tour. Tamatha didn't really know how much there was to see at a distillery, but she supposed that she was about to find out. She hadn't really given much thought to the process of making firewhisky, because she didn't really drink it. Wine, on the other hand? She was French.

The two of them kept walking, and Alfie posed another question to her. "Do you, or did you ever, play Quidditch?"

It was probably an appropriate assumption to make. Cameron played Quidditch at school and was absolutely wild about it. Tamatha could talk about it at length because she had worked a job that was related to Quidditch for long enough. She hated to disappoint Alfie, but she had to laugh a little bit. No, funnily enough, she never had played Quidditch herself, not even for a casual game. "No and no," she smiled, knowing that it was likely to come as a surprise to him. She wondered if it would make her more interesting person if she had, but she hadn't. "I never played it or Quodpot," she elaborated, "in school or anywhere else."

Tamatha supposed that that was a good time to mention that she did have a younger sister who happened to be an Ilvermorny transfer student to Hogwarts and a Chaser on the Ravenclaw Quidditch team. It would break the ice a little, and she knew that Alfie would find out sooner or later. It wasn't so common for siblings to have such a huge age gap; she knew that, so that probably was why he hadn't put two and two together… unless he was too polite to bring up the possible connection. In that case, it was all on her.

"My little sister's the athlete of the family. She plays Quidditch for Ravenclaw at school."

alfie edward o'callaghan

[alfie edward o'callaghan]

"Wow, that's actually very impressive." He told her genuinely with an approving nod, his smile growing because he caught her smile. Honestly, Alfie found it extremely cool that Tamatha had never played the games but could talk about them in extent, professionally. Hell, if she got paid to do it she must have been pretty good at it. He was kicking himself for not paying attention much to the news coordinators in the past while watching quidditch. Now he sure would. "I'm sure you've had one helluva year considering everything thats happened in the sports world." he told her, fully aware of the explosions at the quidditch game. He didn't really want to bring that part up because he wanted to keep their date more lighthearted but he recognized it.

His head tilted to the side when Tamatha revealed that her younger sister was the athlete in the family, following with sharing that they were currently a student at the school. His expression was mixed with excitement and disbelief. Honestly it wouldn't change anything for him but his curiosity was growing to if he knew the student. "Oohh, whaat?" he asked, gaping slightly. The Professor chuckled, warm brown eyes widening slightly, "Who is it?" he asked quickly before raising a hand to stop himself, "Wait-is that even appropriate?" he asked her with another laugh but he obviously wanted to know now. Alfie was already thinking if he could recall any 'Berg's in his classroom. 

@tamatha