Valerian remembered the boggart encounter better than he would have liked—the initial uncertainty in the attic, the surprise in watching the boggart take on a variety of forms in its attempt to spook Greengrass, and then the plant being the one that stopped him in his tracks the longest. Not to mention his own boggart, which he wasn't sure still existed after the duel's end.
"If you'd like to change that you could always come see my mother's greenhouse. She keeps the most... fascinating plants inside." As the words left his mouth he hoped that Greengrass took that as my mom is a weird, rich old woman who likes to collect strange plants rather than a my mother is probably harboring all your worst nightmares, because both were true in some sense but the latter is something he'd rather not share with someone he was just beginning a friendly acquaintanceship with. "But I'm just teasing you, although the offer stills stands." The corner of his lip slid up again, and he raised a brow—maybe in challenge, maybe because he was just in the mood to smile, or maybe because the alcohol was making him a bit too flirty for his own good. The only upside to that is that most men didn't tend to be very receptive to that.
He took a breath, trying to calm himself down. He suddenly felt a little warm, surely an effect of the liquid in his glass.
"I must say, though, I was surprised by the form the boggart took for me," he said, feeling much more comfortable talking about it now that he was sure his boggart took the form of something else now... say, Tatiana deciding not to marry him after all, just as she had Macmillan. Maybe not, even that, though; there were probably other darker fears hidden deep in the back of his mind that the boggart had not thought to seek out when there was such a glaring one to scare him with. "Seeing myself in a mirror is one thing, but to see a physical manifestation is... something else." She still smiled as he spoke, an indicator that the boggart was not as much a source of fear now than it was the last time they were together.
"If you'd like to change that you could always come see my mother's greenhouse. She keeps the most... fascinating plants inside." As the words left his mouth he hoped that Greengrass took that as my mom is a weird, rich old woman who likes to collect strange plants rather than a my mother is probably harboring all your worst nightmares, because both were true in some sense but the latter is something he'd rather not share with someone he was just beginning a friendly acquaintanceship with. "But I'm just teasing you, although the offer stills stands." The corner of his lip slid up again, and he raised a brow—maybe in challenge, maybe because he was just in the mood to smile, or maybe because the alcohol was making him a bit too flirty for his own good. The only upside to that is that most men didn't tend to be very receptive to that.
He took a breath, trying to calm himself down. He suddenly felt a little warm, surely an effect of the liquid in his glass.
"I must say, though, I was surprised by the form the boggart took for me," he said, feeling much more comfortable talking about it now that he was sure his boggart took the form of something else now... say, Tatiana deciding not to marry him after all, just as she had Macmillan. Maybe not, even that, though; there were probably other darker fears hidden deep in the back of his mind that the boggart had not thought to seek out when there was such a glaring one to scare him with. "Seeing myself in a mirror is one thing, but to see a physical manifestation is... something else." She still smiled as he spoke, an indicator that the boggart was not as much a source of fear now than it was the last time they were together.
