Harold smiled, and for just a moment he seemed to have fewer wrinkles and lines on his face, as though the simple act of kindness for a trip out lifted the whole mood.
"Hogsmeade? I haven't visited since I was a student at Hogwarts myself. I'd very much like to, yes. Have a pleasant evening."
Harold took a long, slow route out to the lake, before planning on heading back to his rooms; that conversation had been so blasted awkward - what was it about this woman that got him so tangled up? But more brooding on his mind was the slightly grim and foreboding 'Fate still owes me'.
Truth be told, Harold wasn't entirely sure what was coming. Certainly the rumours within the Department of Mysteries had taken a darker turn of late - it was one of the reasons for Harold's views on it being 'time to go'. But there was an altogether more troubling premise: magic is a fundamental force, like gravity, and as such one can be attuned to its effects. One can also measure them, and just as gravity suspends the stars and planets and moons in an intricate yet ever moving pattern, so too with magic. Something was coming, and that wasn't based on using any of those odd misunderstandings about Arithmancy - some felt it was akin to almost divination by way of science, something Harold felt rather strongly about as a concept.
But he should be glad of a trip to Hogsmeade, he didn't expect the place to have changed much in the last thirty years; the magical world was not quite so forthright about change as all that.
Though Harold did think a little care was in order; he didn't want to end up becoming an honorary candidate for the "Hogsmeade's Most Maimed" Award. As he reached his quarters, he pulled out his pocket-watch and adjusted one of the gears in it ever so slightly.