As she spoke, he had to subtlety bite his lip to prevent his smile from widening even more. Finny rarely had the chance to truly know the women he paid attention to - they either left, or he left, before much could come of an acquaintanceship - but there was something very exciting about trying to figure a woman out.

A woman, he thought, because Mrs. Bones was just that. She was not some silly schoolgirl that was hanging off any gentleman willing to tell her a tale from the expedition; she was here, at the refreshments table, being oh-so-endearing with her confession that she did not enjoy the attention as much as the others.

"There's nothing wrong with accepting due praise," he countered, "but I've always felt that attention earned is better than attention freely given." Hence why handling roves of debutantes searching for a heroic husband was less exciting than, say, chasing a gorgeous widow hiding in the corner.

"You were very good out there. Not everyone can keep their head screwed on tight in the midst of chaos." She was, of course, a healer, but chaos in the emergency room was different than on the field. Merlin, she'd done better than him - not that he'd admit such a thing - and he was in the auror training program for two years!

---