good life {EMILY/POWELLS}

[Digger Powell]

Digger strolled down the muggle street, his hand holding onto Emily's hand, a small smile on his face. It was a typical summer day in England, not too hot and thankfully there was no rain. So the weather was just right; it was perfect. Just like everything in Digger's life seemed to be going recently. At one point in his life, he would have been running - everything being perfect meant that there was trouble lurking right around the corner and he would be determined to outrun it. Now, however, he was embracing life as it came at him - the good and the bad.

"You know," Digger said suddenly, glancing down at his fiance, "being a professor isn't so bad. We get holidays off and summers of. Better than sitting in a some stuffy office, yeah?" Ten years ago, he would have laughed at being a professor. Hell, five years ago he would have laughed at the idea. But he enjoyed it more than he thought he would. And the job was bringing him closer to his siblings, which was nice. Digger hadn't really seen much of Benjamin or Claire growing up; he was either away at Hogwarts himself or working in Europe. But now that they were at Hogwarts, he got to see them more and he liked that.

When the couple reached The Leaky Cauldron, where they were meeting his siblings for lunch, Digger let go of Emily's hand and opened the door for her. He stepped through after her and paused for a moment so his eyes could adjust to the dim lighting of the old restaurant.

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((OOC: sucky opening, i'm sorry! but i hope it works for everyone))

[Emily Marsdon]

((OOC - I thought I should probably post next?))

Emily had been looking forward to today. She liked both Digger's younger siblings - considerably better than she liked her own, in fact. Of course, they could be typical teenagers at times, in their different ways, but that didn't bother her - she enjoyed it, as she enjoyed working with her teenage students. And it felt nice that she and Digger were sort of becoming part of each other's families - although she knew Claire and Ben better than he knew any of her family, purely because they were both at Hogwarts.

She looked up at Digger as they wandered along the street and laughed. "Yeah, it's true. I mean, I only do the job for the holidays really," she joked. This was not at all true these days - it might, possibly, have been part of her motivation in taking the job when it was offered to her, but she had discovered a lot more about teaching that she liked. It had taken her a while - for a long time she had thought it wasn't for her, and had assumed she would move on to something else after a couple of years - but she now actually felt settled in something for the first time in her life. And of course it helped that Digger was there, which was another area of her life she felt more settled in than she ever had before.

"And I guess some of my colleagues aren't too bad to spend time with either," she added, giving him a grin as she stepped past him into the Leaky Cauldron. She hadn't been here for a while - well, she'd passed through on her way to Diagon Alley to get bits and pieces, but she hadn't stopped here for some time.

"How are they getting here?" she asked, looking around and not immediately seeing any sign of the Powell twins. "Floo?"

[Claire Powell]

Claire stumbled out of the Floo at the Leaky Cauldron, clutching her brother's arm to keep her steady and probably unintentionally hurting him. She hated Floos. Whose bright idea had it been to step into a fireplace to get places, anyway? She coughed, waving away the green Floo powder fluttering around her, and let go of Ben as her eyes adjusted to her surroundings. The place was fairly quiet today, filled only with faint chatter from the few people that were seated around and the scent of beer and soups in the air. She smiled anyway, because she enjoyed the unique charm of the Leaky Cauldron despite how old it was and how she could smell pickled eel somewhere around -- who ate that?

She glanced around, stepping away from the fireplace and dragging Ben with her in case anyone else was going to come through, as she searched for her older brother and his fiancee. Claire was dreadfully excited to spend a day with the two of them, having grown closer to her brother since she started Hogwarts, where he and Emily both taught, and always having adored Emily and thought she was perfect for Digger. She was so excited for their mostly-unplanned wedding she could hardly wait.

"Digger!" she called when she spotted him and Emily coming through the door of the restaurant. "Emily!" she added just as brightly and bounced over to the two of them for hugs. "Oh, I missed you guys!"

[Benjamin Powell]

Ben had to bite his tongue to keep from making a snide comment about how Claire’s nails were digging into his arm, because he knew better than to do so. If it was anyone else, he probably would have - they probably wouldn’t have even been allowed to touch him like that in the first place, but those were details - but this was his twin sister, and he knew just how much she happened to hate the Floo network as a means of travel, and was therefore willing to let this one slide. Sighing as the stepped out of the Floo into the Leaky Cauldron, he was relieved when she finally let go of his arm, and took the brief moment of peace to brush away at the Floo powder that had gotten stuck on his shirt.

Just as quickly as she’d let go of his arm, though, Claire grabbed it again, this time thankfully a bit more gently, to drag him along towards Digger and Emily. She’d seen them first, or else he would have saved himself the hassle of being dragged and just told her which direction they needed to walk in. She could be so infuriating sometimes. Or most of the time, depending on how he looked at it. He shot a small smile at Digger and Emily, nodding at his older brother as Claire jumped to hug the two of them - typical - and managed a short, “Hi, guys,” in the lightest tone he could manage. He loved Digger, he really did, and he was more than familiar with Emily both as his older brother’s fiance and one of his professors at Hogwarts, but he didn’t feel the need to express his care for them in the enthusiastic way that Claire did.