[Corridors] Reunions

[Professor Dia Hubbles]

Dia had had a busy few days. With Dan back in her life things were good but Bree seemed to be far too busy for her usual self so Dia suspected she was avoiding her and her mother kept badgering her about visiting them for Christmas instead of going to Egypt. Dia wasn't sure that she wanted to inflict her parents on Dan just yet but he was confident he was up to the challenge. He just didn't know how much of a challenge it would be.

Never mind that, Dia had received a letter from her mother saying that neither she nor her father could wait to meet Daniel Hubbles. Dia knew her father would not want to meet Dan and that her mother was less then happy about having to meet the man who had only a year before broken her heart.

Dia was slowly walking the corridors reading her mother's letter.

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This was particularly amusing to Dia because she knew that her father only put up with that sort of stuff because Mother pressured him too. In a way she was a good wife like that, Dia thought. Suddenly her shoulder connected with someone, spinning her around, instantly throwing a frown onto her pale face. "Oy!" she said and glared up at the man who she had walked into.

As soon as her blue eyes met with the man's her features smoothened and a broad smile slowly came to her face. "Will?" she said slowly. "Oh my gosh, Will!" She had dropped her letter but hadn't noticed. She threw her arms around her old friend's neck and hugged him tightly. "What are you doing here?" she asked into his ear, then letting him go. [/font][/color]

[Professor William Vaid]

Will had been having a chilled week so far. The kids were making good progress in his lessons and he had been receiving chocolate frogs everyday for the past three weeks from a few certain girls who seemed to follow him everywhere. Damn Daniel Hubbles for giving away that piece of information to them. Still, when he opened the frogs they still made him laugh, even to this day.

Today had been a long day however, because he had been having a few late nights going out with some beautiful women. It was weird for him even now, he was still the dorky little geek inside, no matter what the outside chose to portray to the rest of the world. Finishing up the last lesson of the day, he was pleased that nobody wanted to stay behind, maybe because it was Christmas and they just wanted to go and enjoy what time they had out of school. Packing up his stuff, he pushed it into the desk draws and picked up his quill before flicking his wand to tuck in the desk chairs so the room looked at least a little bit respectable, for a classroom anyway.

Walking out, he turned the handle before letting the door fall into place and turned around to slightly push his shoulder into someone. His eyes widened as he didn’t hear anybody just a few seconds before, and turning around to apologise, he realised he was staring at his old neighbour.

“Well well, Dia Owen!” he said with a sudden grin on his face, he pulled her into a hug as she asked what he was doing here.
“I’m the new occlumency professor! I’ve been meaning to find you, Dan mentioned you were here but you’ve not been around anywhere. How’ve you been?” he asked all this is one long sentence. Letting her go, he kept his hands on her arms and took in the grown up Dia. It had been years since he had last seen her, and back then, she looked nothing like she did now. No wonder why Dan was obsessed with her, she really had blossomed. Yet, even though she looked so different, her smile had stayed the same. It always looked so cheery and genuine.

[Professor Dia Hubbles]

As Dia looked into the face she had seen so often as a child (which, notably was not all that long ago), she could not help but smile. Will's family and hers had lived next to each other for all her live and it helped that they parents were friends because it meant that she often saw Will. But since she had not been living in that house for a number of years now she had not seen him any since he graduated. She made certain she gave him a hug before he had disappeared.

"Really?" she said with a mixture of surprise and delight upon hearing that he too was teaching at Hogwarts. How strange, she thought, that we should here after all those years. When Dan's name was dropped in Dia's eyes went wide and her smile grew, though she was slightly perplexed.

Shaking her head, the blond woman realised she had nearly dismissed Will's question. "Oh ..." she began, "I've been good, more so recently then over the past year but luckily that's all behind us now." Dia still could not believe that this was the gangly young boy she used to hang out with when her parents got too much for her to handle. Her blue eyes looked her old neighbour and old friend over and she noticed very obviously the change.

"You look good!" she said with a hint of surprised in her voice but of course she was just playing with him. But there was something that still bothered her. "How do you know Dan?" she asked after a moment, most interested. This was too much of a coincidence to be ignored and how ironic this whole situation could turned out to be.

[Professor William Vaid]

As Will focused on how little Dia Owen had grown into a rather beautiful woman, he saw her face change when he mentioned Daniel Hubbles. Oh yes, the love in her eyes, and just the different smile she had when he mentioned him knew that they were both crazy about each other. It was strange how his best mate and his neighbour would years later meet and end up being in love. Will remembered not once of Dia’s face looking the way it did when someone else was mentioned, and it was good to see her so happy.

“Yes, really! You have no idea how hard it was to eventually become a proper professor instead of just some loser’s assistant” he smiled politely. Still, it had paid off, and at least it brought him back to where he learnt his skill, and to his old neighbour and best friends. He had yet to see Girty and see how wonderful she had turned out to be. He was sure she’d be doing wonders, she always seemed so curious and bright, ‘the little scamp’ he used to call her. Smiling at all the memories (ooc: mamories lol!) that came flooding back, he flashed Dia a big smile, and instantly thought of them as kids once again.

“Me look good? Pah! Look at you madam! Your beautiful! Mind, it’s no suprise, you always were that cute little blonde girl weren’t you?” he smirked. Thinking back on it, she was a very cute kid, but Will was too shy and wrapped up in friendship to realise it. Heck, he was still like that around any women, just not as shy as back then.
“Dan and I go way back. He’s my best mate, fellow Hufflepuff’s and all that malarkey. We were the good little geeks, and then Warren that damn sod used to corrupt us into evil doings...we were his monkeys” he laughed.

[Professor Dia Hubbles]

The way Will studied Dia made her cheeks burn. Not on her best of days did she like being studied as hard as all that. His gaze was still the same, they same eyes and intent look. Dia knew that she had changed much over the years but Will had only stretched. It was odd, she thought, how people changed and yet didn’t. The only constant in live and anything applicable to it is change. So clearly.

So he had been an assistant teacher before? Dia thought. She assumed as much. It would not have been the career she would have seen Will choosing of his own free will but she knew him well enough that he liked to keep people guessing and did the unexpected. That big smile can to Will’s face, she same that she had so often gotten, and Dia knew that though some things changed, some simply didn’t.

Scarlet flooded Dia’s cheeks as Will spoke about her. She giggled, like that little blond girl Will had spoken about. She could not believe that such forward a statement had just come out of Will’s mouth. He had always been so shy and she would never have said that he cold have said something like that. Life did many things to make people grow and adapt. Some changes were obviously not as obvious as others.

Will spoke about Dan and Dia’s eyes lit up; she loved hearing about him, though very bias of course. She had yet to met Warren but she had heard so much of him already that she could easily understand his corrupting of the younger boys. She laughed with Will, it was good to do that again. “That is so weird,” Dia said after the laughter had subsided, “that you and Dan know each other. Completely unexpected.” The idea was still so absurd that she quickly moved to the next topic she had been wanting to ask. “And how are your parents? Mum said that you spent last Christmas with them?”

[Professor William Vaid]

It was weird to see his old friend again, especially after all these years. However, you’d expect it to be awkward, but just like with Dan, it didn’t feel as awkward as you’d think. Infact, it felt good to know that two of the best people of his younger years were back in his life again. Sure Warren was a great guy, but will had yet to forgive him for a certain night where he tried out a new spell on Will and he ended up frozen, naked behind the Hufflepuff badger with a shocked expression on his face. He was like that for a good 4 hours, and Will never did get him back for that. The little swine.

“Mum and dad? Oh they are fine. Yes, we went over for Christmas...I yet again, made a fool of myself. Your mother wanted to dance with me, then I fell over a party hat on the floor and my head ended up the turkey’s bum” he smirked as he shook his head and rubbed the back of his neck. After that, all day he got turkey jokes from his family and the Owen’s. It didn’t smell to pleasant either. He knew that the story would make Dia laugh, anyone he told it too was sure to laugh. He had yet to tell Dan, but if he told Warren he’d get so picked on it would be like the badger incident all over again.

“I was expecting to see you there, that’s strange for you not to come back home for Christmas, where were you?” he questioned, hoping that he would of seen her then. It was the first time he had been back home for Christmas for a while, and that was because his girlfriend had dumped him because then he was still just an assistant. She was a muggle, and just wanted money and expensive things. Typical really, Will knew how to pick them!

“So how long have you been a teacher here?” he asked, unsure of her status right now job wise. He still had to make the rounds with the other teachers and get to know them. Two of them, like peas in a pod were very bitchy, Mayella Reed and Collette Clowes. Apparantely they thought he was hitting on them when he was just being friendly. People like that Will didn’t want to know, as they basically ignored him. Ignorant fools.

[Professor Dia Hubbles]

Dia was trying to think of the last time she had seen Will. She knew that her family and his were close and that Christmas was a time for them all to visit properly. And despite those annual visits she could not remember the last time she had seen William Vaid.

Will spoke of his parents and Dia smiled. Mr and Mrs Vaid were always so nice to her, no matter how much her mother complained about the over hanging branches of one of their trees in the back yard. It always made Dia smile to hear her mother talk about that tree, as though the invasion of the branches was a slap in her face. Mother did always enjoy her boundaries and her space, after all.

A classic show of William clumsiness and Dia could not help but laugh. Even though he seemed a lot more sure of himself, Dia knew that there were somethings that never changed. Her laugh was light, joyous and unrestrained. The picture of Will falling head long into the turkey was so clear in her mind she could not stop the laughter coming till Will asked about her Christmas.

The laughter stopped almost instantly, her eyes falling to the floor. She wasn't sure how to answer that. Was she going to be honest and admit to her actions? Tentatively raising her eyes to Will's face Dia thought for a moment. "I ... uh ... I was there," she said softly, almost so softly she scarcely hear herself, "I ... wasn't in the best of ways at that time so I ...

"I am sorry I did not visit with my parents last Christmas," she said with sudden repentance that was strong in her voice. "I meant to, honest, but I ..." her eyes fell downwards again as she lost her voice. How could she admit that she had been such a wreck during Christmas that though she had been at her mother and father's house she may as well not have been. She didn't leave her room, she ate very little, only when her father came to plead with her to eat something. Her father was not the type of man to plead, her was too strong of will and proud for that, yet he had and she had listened.

[Professor William Vaid]

Will laughed along, a little embarrassed with Dia. It was a pretty funny event, but it wasn’t funny at the time. He was just glad that it had been stuffed beforehand and it was actually cooked. He would of probably stuffed it himself if it wasn’t, with sick! Rubbing the back of his neck, he saw the joy that the little story had given Dia. Her laugh was the infectious kind, and he couldn’t help but laugh too.

When he asked where she had been at Christmas, she became closed and quiet. Will frowned a little wondering what had brought her not to be able to show her face. Still, it would have been fun to have her around at Christmas, but if she didn’t want to, or feel up to it, then it was up to her.
“Oh, don’t worry yourself about it. I didn’t mean to pry, It was just a little odd not seeing you for once! I daren’t ask your parents as they were stressed enough as it was. Still, it’s good to see you!” he grinned pulling her into another hug.

“So, we should all go out for a drink sometime, have a big catch-up, and you and Dan can tell me how you got together. It’s cute to hear stories like that. I need to find myself a woman now!” he laughed. He thought it would be good for them all to go together, Warren included of course, seems as though he owned the pub. It would be great to hear all little stories he had missed out on while he was over in france.