Basil couldn’t help but eye Lissington up and down as he approached the jittery professor. It was still somewhat difficult for him to reconcile, even after all this time, just how much Lissing had grown up since they’d last seen one another. He was so disgustingly handsome that it still made doxy’s flutter around in Basil’s gut. He was taller than the brunette, and definitely more defined in… every area, even those invisible under his robes. But Basil knew. Basil had felt that definition, quite a few times recently, and the thought of… well, all of it, made goosebumps tickle up and down his spine. It might also be frustrating how endearing all of the red-head’s facial expressions were too. Especially the one he turned on Basil then as the brunette approached, and blurted something out about a mistake. Basil couldn’t help but laugh. “Oh?” He replied with a grin. “Is this mistake relating to that… monstrosity beside you, or just general life choices?” Basil gestured vaguely at the thing that had sprouted out of the ground behind Lissington. He was making a joke, but curiosity did prickle behind the sentiment. He knew better than to think Lissington would bring up their history now out of the blue like this, and call that a mistake. And, likely, he wasn’t referring to his teaching position here at Hogwarts because as far as Basil had seen, he’d been doing an excellent job, even with the hard parts like mentoring one on one. (He’d spoken to Poppy recently about her ambush of the poor red-head, but he wasn’t quite sure what to make of it. He’d made a mental note to ask Lissing about all that and just hadn’t… gotten around to it yet.) So that left only the hedge-looking thing behind the man as a potential mistake.
Basil stopped just beside Lissington, still grinning. That sweet, lopsided smile and small gesture made it harder for him to keep from aching, just a touch, but Basil managed it.