“Hm, that’s probably it,” she decided regarding his sentiment about complex flavors. Ida did a fair amount of cooking herself, and found the same happened whenever she coupled tea flavors with things too sweet or sour - you completely lose the delicate jasmine. “Still good though,” she agreed, tapping their glasses in toast for emphasis. At any rate she ought to be careful; firewhiskey was bad enough to discourage her overindulgence, here the problem could be quite the opposite. She decided to pace herself against Mister Greengrass so she wouldn’t embarrass herself by finishing her drink first again— one sip for every two or three of his.

Soon enough they made their way to an open area with a winter wonderland platform for the performance. Perhaps it would start soon, seeing as there were certainly enough people congregating around. It looked like there were small tables with two seats each; Ida awkwardly hovered as she took in the scene, not entirely sure if it was weird? To take a seat as a couple? But why would that be weird, she chided herself. It’s not like they were doing anything but watching a show together. A glance around confirmed that her brother was nowhere to be found to join them – neither were her (girl) friends, which she refused to lament further lest it spoil her improving mood.

“Oh, I never asked you how your Christmas was,” she remarked conversationally, turning to glance at her company. Easier to stand around chit-chatting until he decided on what they did or didn’t do regarding the performance. “Did your family do anything special? My baby brother is obsessed with dragons, and the Chinese consider 1892 the year of the dragon so– our theme was, er, eclectic,” she laughed a bit to herself. The image of Tao’s face of shock and delight when he came back from Hogwarts to their house decked in dragons made Ida’s face light up just thinking about it.

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