Living is Hard But I'm Learning My Way

It was not often that Oliver Connolly chose to seek out lunch somewhere on a weekday. Particularly with the world the way it was. More often than not, either he or Keiran would retrieve a meal and bring it back so they could eat in the shop, but he was off with Claire Bishop again, working on whatever it was they were interested in that day. So he was out, leaving Mairen in charge of the store, and he made his way down to the Leaky Cauldron.

He had brought his current journal, planning on finding somewhere in Muggle London to take an hour for his meal of course, but also for working on his latest fiction, which was to revolve around a rumor he had recently read about regarding Columbus's travels to the new world so very long ago. It was another one that he could easily change into something that wizards would be interested in. He just felt it was a terrible shame that they were nowhere near an anniversary of his first voyage. Not that he could help that. Wizards did live quite a long time, to be sure, but there was no promise that it would be worth it for him to wait so very, very long if he managed to finish it.

Besides, it was fun, the planning stage. Much more fun than the writing stage, where he hated every word that made it onto the page, in hindsight. It made for many, many long evenings sitting alone at his desk and just working.

As it were, he never made it to the other entrance to the Leaky Cauldron, not half because part of him was looking for Declan to see if the man had returned yet. He hadn't. But Oliver did see someone he recognized, and realized just how long it had been since he'd seen her. So he changed his path suddenly, drawing an apology from his lips as he narrowly missed a woman's arm, nearly spilling her beer all over the floor.

"Rose," he greeted loudly, trying to grab her attention. "Merlin, it's been forever. Since school, nearly, hasn't it? How are you?" He asked, reaching forward with one hand to offer a friendly hug.


@Rose Granger-Weasley

Since starting her new job as Assistant Director at St. Mungo's, Rose had been swamped with more work than she had been used to. She knew that she could be getting more work when she was moved from a Healer to the Assistant Director, but that didn't mean that she hadn't been taken by surprise anyways. She thought she was just a slightly bit in over her head, but she was determined to not let anything get the best of her in this new position.

It was a lot more responsibility and there was still a lot more for her to learn about it. With all the new work she had, it was hard for Rose to be able to get a decent break sometimes, let alone a day off, but she had managed to squeeze out of her duties for the day and she knew she was going to enjoy every second of the day now that she didn't have to worry about much, even if it was only for a little bit. She knew she could easily be called in for something, so she had to make the most of the time currently on her hands.

Normally, she would try to spend some time with her cousin. But Dom was off somewhere, on some mission, and Rose constantly found herself wishing she could have gone along. Of course, it was for the Order and since she wasn't in it she couldn't go. The solution to that was simple, but not at the same time. Not when you have a mother like Hermione Granger, who didn't want Rose to join.

She loved her mum, she really did, but she could be a bit overbearing sometimes.

Rose had gone to the Leaky Cauldron to get some lunch, she felt more comfortable being there than in some fancy restaurant. Those types of places just weren't her style. She had been walking toward a table, moving off to the side every time someone came too close to her, when she heard her name being called amidst the loud chatter. She turned, looking for wherever the voice had come from and her face lit up with a smile as her eyes settled on who she assumed the voice was coming from.

Rose moved forward, trying to meet him though he was already closer to her than she had thought, and responded, "Oliver! It has been forever! I've been doing well, what about you?" as she reached forward to hug him.

Oliver took a moment to consider how he wanted to answer her return question, waiting until they broke away from the greeting to reply. "Been busy, but sometimes that's a good thing, eh?" He asked, a smile pulling his cheeks upwards.

"Were you going to grab a meal or something?" He added, looking towards the bar. "I was about to while I'm off for lunch, myself.  If it suits, you're welcome to join me. Could catch up properly," he offered with a shrug.

It was strange, actually, to be talking to her so casually. He had always wanted to know her at school, but had been younger and too shy because of the family she came from. And then he met Ariel, got distracted by other things, and although they'd known each other by extension and through friends, they hadn't really been close.

There was always time to change that, though, and room for new beginnings.

"Get too busy and you won't have time for anything else. That's not a good thing either." She retorted somewhat playfully, though she wasn't one to talk as her new job had taken up most of her life now. Obviously, she was expected to be busy as a healer, but there was so much more to do as the Assistant Director that she never had time to do much of anything anymore.

That was a lie, though. And she knew it. She had time to do important things, one of which was visiting her parents, but she just never felt like it would be convenient, for any of them. Still, it would make her mother and father happy, since it didn't seem like Hugo was ever around either. Both of them just always seemed too busy for their family.

Rose nodded at Oliver, answering his question silently. "That works, it's boring to eat alone anyways." she said playfully, giving Oliver a look over before tilting her head to the side slightly.

She knew Oliver from school but she didn't remember ever being close to him or really speaking with him that much. She wondered for a second why that might've been, he seemed nice enough now so she highly doubted that it was because she hadn't like him in school, though people do change and it could've been a possibility. She drew a blank and decided that whatever reason it could've been was in the past now, and she should try to get to know him better now to make up for it.