She wanted to. It had, after all, been one of the key forces that brought her here today, the notion of a sleigh ride through the forest—something from a Christmas carol or some storybook, to be sure! The weather was decidedly very fine for it and the notion of gliding sleekly through the (rather light, but still present!) covering of snow sounded, to her, akin to gliding through the air on her broomstick.

And that didn’t even take into account the fact that it was Mr. Pettigrew asking.

As horribly embarrassing as it was to admit it, the notion of such privacy with him sent her into something of a tizzy. Already, their friendship had evolved past that which the team bond necessitated. He had gone to prison—a bit of a sore spot with her; Dezzie hoped it would not be repeated—and she had worried for him daily. He had been released and she still worried daily, as she could no longer trust him not to make an utter mess of his life. But the fact of the matter was, she was now actively interested in whether or not he was making a mess of his life, and that frightened her more than the knowledge that he might accidentally kill himself because of his own idiocy someday.

“I’d like that very much,” she replied bashfully, brown eyes darting up to meet his own for only half a second before pointedly looking at the crowd instead. Merlin, this was a terrible idea. He was so friendly and she was making it so she could scarcely talk to him about anything more than the weather and league rankings!