The taxi soon brought them to a restaurant.
From the outside, the restaurant looked simple and modest, but upon entering, Penelope found that it was actually very luxurious and upscale.
Typically, places like this were quite expensive.
This made Penelope a bit uneasy.
Alaric, noticing her discomfort, smiled and said, "Are you doubting the financial capability of an alchemy master?"
He led Penelope forward, and a young waiter immediately came up to greet them.
However, to Alaric's annoyance, the waiter looked at him and asked, "Boy, where are your parents?"
With a soft "pfft," the previously worried Penelope burst into laughter.
Although Alaric was glad to see Penelope cheer up, he wasn't thrilled about the way it happened...
Annoyed, he rolled his eyes and said to the waiter, "There is none other than us, it's just me and my girlfriend."
At the word girlfriend, Alaric felt Penelope's hand holding his arm stiffen slightly.
The waiter, however, didn't immediately show them to a table.
Instead, he approached with a sympathetic tone, saying, "Listen boy, this is a high-end restaurant. It's not a place kids like you can afford. You should go play outside."
Penelope's laughter grew louder, and Alaric, becoming more irritated, said to the waiter.
"You must be new here. If I were you, I wouldn't use such a tone to greet guests. Shall I call your manager?"
The mention of the manager made the waiter immediately back off.
He respectfully asked, "May I have your names, sir and miss? And what table would you like to sit?"
"My name is Alaric," Alaric said, pointing to Penelope.
"This young lady's is Penelope. We'd like a quiet corner."
"Certainly, Mr. Alaric and Miss Penelope," the waiter said, leading them through the restaurant.
"There's a nice spot in the corner by the window with a view of the London nightscape. Please follow me."
After seating them, Alaric tipped the waiter twenty pounds, both to show his satisfaction with the table and to indicate that he could indeed afford it.
Seeing such a tip, the waiter became even more attentive.
He quickly poured them some tea and handed the menu to Alaric, enthusiastically recommending the latest dishes.
Alaric casually ordered a dish, then looked at Penelope. Seeing her hesitance, he said to the waiter, "She'll have the same as me."
Pointing to the wine on the menu, he asked, "And this? That should be fine, right?"
Although Alaric was technically too young to drink wine, the waiter hesitated upon seeing him order Romanee-Conti, a luxury item costing thousands of pounds per bottle.
After a short absence, the waiter returned with a positive answer.
The restaurant was dimly lit, and a server came to light a candle on their table, immediately creating an intimate atmosphere.
The first dish served was an Italian cold cut appetizer. While it wasn't as good as Hogwarts' food, it tasted quite nice.
However, Penelope seemed not quite used to it, indicating she rarely dined in Muggle restaurants.
The next dish was French onion soup, followed by cheese sauce lobster, grilled steak, and other dishes served one after another.
As they ate, a pianist began to play the restaurant's piano, not classical music but popular pieces by Richard Clayderman, adding to the romantic candlelight dinner atmosphere.
All this lifted Penelope's spirits significantly, and she finally began to recount the events of the past few days at home and the reason for her running away.
It turned out that Penelope had achieved Outstanding in all ten of her N.E.W.T. exams.
This was an excellent result. Even the toughest Auror application in the Ministry of Magic only required five Outstanding grades.
This meant that with such results, Penelope could apply to almost any department in the Ministry.
Her parents were very happy about this. Even her Muggle father hoped Penelope would work in a government department in the wizarding world.
In their eyes, this was the highest form of employment.
They even anticipated that Penelope might become a department head or even the Minister of Magic in the future.
However, Penelope had her own ideas.
She wanted to stay close to Alaric and had hoped to accept his invitation to manage his alchemy item shop.
In her family's view, becoming a shop manager was a decent job, but it didn't compare to the prestige of being a government employee in the Ministry of Magic.
Thus, the conflict arose.
Neither side could convince the other, and days of arguments left Penelope exhausted.
Upset that her parents didn't understand her, she ultimately chose to run away from home.
"Sorry, it's all because of me," Alaric said, looking into Penelope's eyes with some guilt.
"If it weren't for my invitation, you wouldn't have fallen out with your parents. I'm really sorry."
"No, it's not your fault," Penelope said, taking another sip of wine.
Although she initially seemed unaccustomed to it, she now drank quite proficiently.
She smiled slightly and said, "This was my own choice. Your alchemy work is amazing, and the shop will surely do well.
My future income will definitely be higher than working at the Ministry. For that alone, I wouldn't choose the Ministry."
Alaric knew the real reason wasn't money. Penelope wasn't a girl who cared much about money, and he had learned this from three years of knowing her.
The true reason she had a falling out with her parents was because of him.
"Anyway, thank you for choosing me," Alaric said, clinking glasses with Penelope.
He took a sip while Penelope downed her drink in one go, then poured herself another.
Alaric frowned; Penelope was drinking a bit too much.
He certainly didn't believe she drank this much because she liked wine.
It seemed the girl was drowning her sorrows from the past few days in the wine, her expression growing darker with each drink.
While drinking, Penelope started to confide in him in a low voice, tears welling up in her eyes again. It had indeed been a rough few days for her.
After a moment's hesitation, Alaric suggested, "Why don't you drink a little less?"
"No, I can handle it," Penelope said, looking out at the night view before downing another glass.
She then turned to Alaric, her eyes like autumn water, cheeks flushed.
"Now, I'm homeless," she said softly, her voice pitiful. "I don't know where else to go but to you."
Her words struck Alaric's heart like a bolt of lightning.
Yes, this girl before him had left her home for him. She couldn't do more for him than she already had.
"My home is your home," Alaric said, looking earnestly into Penelope's eyes.
"You can stay with me. My doors are always open for you."
Penelope looked at Alaric for a long moment before nodding tearfully.
The final dessert was vanilla chocolate ice cream, but even this couldn't lift Penelope's spirits.
She finished the last bit of wine with a low mood, then left the restaurant with Alaric's support.
Knowing that using Apparition on a drunk Penelope would make her feel worse, Alaric took her to the Leaky Cauldron and used Floo Powder to return home.
Tonight would indeed be a long night, with many things to come.
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