die Dinge bleiben wie sie sind, auch wenn wir weit gefahren sind [leonie]

Although it was a late Saturday morning, the time when most preferred to sit at home and read the paper over a casual breakfast, Elias Dörfler was to be found sitting behind his desk in an empty office, pouring over a file that sat open on the polished wooden surface. After a particularly unproductive week, Elias had woken early feeling rather obligated to make up for some lost time. After wolfing down a quick meal of bread with butter and cheese and magically cleaning both his dishes and the ones that Oliver had left out last night on the table, he had apparated into the British Ministry and walked through the deserted halls toward his office. Three hours later, Elias was feeling a bit better about the height of the stack of papers sitting in his inbox: he would still probably have some catch-up to do next week, but things weren't quite so desperate now as they had been yesterday afternoon.

He finally reached the end of the last page of the file he was reading (an application from a German wizard to open a bookshop in Diagon Alley) and pulled the corresponding review sheet out from a drawer in his desk. Quickly moving down the form, he checked the relevant boxes and added his carefully calligraphed signature at the bottom. Closing the file, he placed it dutifully in his outbox and looked down at his watch. It was already half past eleven, and his stomach grumbled as he remembered his rather small and rushed breakfast.

Deciding to call it a morning, Elias stood up and brushed the wrinkles out of his slacks. Although he knew perfectly well that he would probably be only one of a dedicated few at work on a Saturday, he had taken the time to dress professionally and style his hair before leaving his shared apartment. As he pulled his cloak on and headed toward the door, he decided it might be nice to check in on Leonie, another recent applicant for a shop in the area. He had meant to have lunch with her last week, but had needed to cancel at the last moment because of a meeting that had been shifted to the lunch hour. Hoping that she was free, he stepped out onto the street, deciding to walk in order to give himself some time to think of a nice place to take his younger cousin.

Although the walk to her shop would only take a few minutes, he quickly regretted his decision as he noted the weather. Es regnet junge Hunde, he thought, exasperated, before giving a quick look up and down the street to check if anyone was in sight. He pulled out his wand and quickly tapped his hair, murmuring "Impervius," before tucking his wand away again. He walked as quickly as he could without splashing more water up onto his pants, his head bent low to try to keep the water off his face.

He arrived outside the shop and pushed the door open, stepping through quickly to get out the rain. Elias shook his head a few times to get the water out of his eyes and then smiled over at Leonie who was helping a customer. He wasn't sure if the older woman trying on bright red heels was magical or not, so he held off on the drying charm and the hug he had planned to greet her with. He settled for a wave instead and called over his greeting from a distance.

"Hast du jetzt Zeit für das Mittagessen?" He knew that she was working, but he hoped someone else might be able to take over for a bit or that she could just close up for an hour or so. "Das Essen geht auf mich," he added with another smile, thinking it might encourage her to come with him. It had been some time since the two had been able to sit down and catch up, and he felt bad that he had been letting his work get in the way of keeping on eye on her.

It's raining cats and dogs.
"Do you have time right now for lunch?" / "It's my treat."

@Leonie Kirschbaum

The downside of being a shop owner? There was always work on Saturdays. Sometimes Leonie took Saturdays off and let one of her employees run the shop but most of the time she could be found there herself, knowing that Saturdays were usually the busiest and most lucrative days. To her it was important to greet all her customers, to help them out as best as possible and so she mostly opened up the shop herself at ten in the morning. Luckily her rather good service was paying off and she'd acquired quite a few regular customers so far, witches as well as muggles. Most witches preferred the magically enhanced shoes Leonie offered in a secret room behind the main one but sometimes they even bought the regular ones.

Over the past few months she'd taken quite a few Saturdays off but since that catastrophic end of her last relationship, Leonie had buried herself in her work; being in the shop as much as possible and spending time in her apartment, drawing new shoe designs whenever the shop was closed. As far as she knew, Ben had no idea that she was single again and she definitely wouldn't tell him. If there was something she didn't want to see or hear now, it would be his smug face and his equally smug Told you so. She loved him, she really did, but sometimes he could be just such a pain in the ass.

If he were just a little bit more like Elias, they probably wouldn't clash that often. Somehow her cousin always managed to voice his concerns without making it sound like she was making the biggest mistakes ever and she appreciated him for that. He wasn't as infuriating as Ben and that was probably the reason why she'd preferred to talk to him about all kinds of problems during the past few months instead of owling her brother. He never made her feel like a little child, completely unlike Ben. So when he'd asked her if she wanted to eat lunch together, she'd agreed immediately. They hadn't spent time together in a while and it would be nice to catch up.

The door opened just while she was talking to one of her oldest customers, a muggle woman in her late sixties, and so she just shot her cousin a quick smile before focusing on Mrs Winterbottom again. "They look lovely on you. Why don't you just take a few steps to see if they really fit?" It was astonishing how well the old woman could still walk on heels despite her age, and Leonie couldn't deny that she was admiring the woman for that. "I'll be right back." And with that she turned and walked over to her cousin, greeting him with a kiss on the cheek. "Irgendwie dachte ich, es wäre erst elf," she said in German, wondering how much time had already passed. "Gib mir noch fünf Minuten, okay?"

Leonie hurried back to Mrs Winterbottom who was smiling happily, the red heels already in her hands. They moved to the counter and after the woman had paid, Leonie said her goodbyes and accompanied her to the door. "See you soon," she flashed the woman her brightest smile before closing the door behind her. There was no one else in the shop, except Elias obviously, and so she just got her coat out of the back room and joined her cousin again. "Wir können los," she said and turned the handwritten sign in the door from open to closed, magically adding I'll be back at 3 pm.

"Somehow I thought it was only eleven o'clock."
"Give me five minutes, okay?"
"Let's go."

Elias smiled as Leonie made her way over to him and offered him a quick peck on the cheek, and nodded when she asked for a bit more time to wrap things up with her customer. "Kein Problem," he responded, but Leonie had already turned and was hurrying back to her customer. She was nothing if not dedicated to her business; he would give her that much. He watched for a bit as the older lady tried out her new shoes, both amused and impressed that she managed to move with such skill in high heels at her age. He was internally grateful that his outfits rarely required such focus in order to not fall down.

As Leonie and her customer headed up to the register, he turned to look at the shelves behind him, wondering what new shoes Leonie might have in stock. He lifted the lid on one of the larger boxes right behind him and pulled back the thin paper to reveal a pair of leopard-print wedges. They weren't really his taste, but he supposed Leonie knew better than he what the hot trends were at the moment. With a little sigh, he replaced the lid. Clearly her shop was doing well, so he guessed she must know what she was doing, but it was still hard for him at times to agree that this had been the best career choice for her. His younger sister was on this path too -- trying to change the world through fashion -- and it was difficult to believe that there was nothing more useful that Leonie could be doing. He knew she wouldn't appreciate the lecture, though, and as family, he felt he ought to do his best to support her.

When she returned and flipped over the 'OPEN' sign, he held the door open for her, but then paused. "Hast du einen Regenschirm?" The rain was still coming down hard and fast outside, and he wasn't sure how she would feel about getting soaked. Normally he would just conjure a magical shield against the rain, but in this part of London, you were never sure if you might come upon a muggle. He supposed if she didn't have one, he could just put the impervius charm on her as well.

They made it outside eventually, and Elias led her quickly down the street, turning after a few blocks and pulling open the door to a small but cozy pub that he sometimes went to when he needed to get out of the Ministry for lunch. Although it was owned and operated by a muggle staff, the cozy booths offered a fair amount of privacy. He felt his shoulders relax and let out a sigh of relief when he felt the warm, dry air, and smiled down at his cousin. Now that they were safe from the downpour, they could actually catch up. "A booth for two, please," he requested politely of the hostess, and she led them to a table along the back wall. He thanked her as they slid into the seats and returned her smile before she walked away.

Once they were alone, he subtly removed his wand from his jacket and began drying his pants and shirt, the steam barely noticeable in the crowded and dimly lit room. "Soll ich dich abtrocknen?" he asked his cousin, the thought not occurring to him that she was probably perfectly capable of performing the charm herself. When he was with his siblings (and he saw Leonie as more of a younger sister than a cousin anyway) he tended to go a bit overboard with the caretaking.

"No problem."
"Do you have an umbrella?"
"Should I dry you off?"