Hogsmeade sure looked different when you had your arms full of two struggling 1 year olds.  For a moment Jacob thought that he should change his mind and just go home.  He shook his head slightly though as he entered the Three Broomsticks as he didn't want to disappoint his new sister-in-law.  He didn't think it was right for his wife to keep her sister away from her nieces just because of a childhood issue that never resolved itself. 

He walked through the tables and nodded at the girl behind the bar to let her know he was heading into the private room he'd secured.   Jacob had been in the Three Broomsticks the day before for a drink and thought that it would be the perfect place to meet his sister-in-law.  He talked with Bethan, his cute, young, waitress, (okay, so even though he was married, he still looked) and set it all up that he could use one of the private rooms around lunchtime and have lunch served while they were there.

He closed the door behind him and immediately took out his wand and said a quick cleaning charm before setting the little girls on the floor.  He transfigured a chair into a playpen and two others into highchairs for when the food came. Now all he had to do was wait until Imari got here and then he'd imagine her surprise when she saw the twins. 

Imari was nervous and excited at the same time.  She'd received permission from her head of house for her and Damien to go to Hogsmeade to meet with her brother-in-law.  She was so glad she'd invited Damien to go along with her, she knew she couldn't do it herself. 

Right now it was 11:30 and she was waiting in the Entrance Hall for Damien to come and join her.  Imari hoped that he wasn't worried about meeting her newest family member.  He'd never met any of her family and she secretly hoped he never would.  It wasn't that she didn't love her family.  It was the fact that they never did anything to go against her sister and let her see the twins, or come home on breaks (excluding summer break).  It wasn't fair, but Imari didn't dwell on it.

She fingered the shrunken packages in her pocket wondering if what she had bought for the twins was appropriate for... she thought for a moment.... 1 year olds.  'Really, were they that old now?', she thought to herself as she walked back and forth while waiting for Damien, time had gone by so quickly and maybe meeting Jacob would set her on the path to be able to meet them.

Slightly freaking out, Damien ran a hand through his hair before shrugging his jacket on and looking back at the mirror. His tie was crooked. Why must it always be crooked when he was running late? With a slight growl, he re-adjusted the tie and smoothed out his shirt before buttoning up his jacket and slipping his gloves in his pocket. Classy, Damien, he thought. He sighed, "I own too much purple."

He glanced out a window before rushing out of the Salem dorms, snow. Oh damn, it was going to be so cold outside.[1] The disgruntled Salemite ran out of the dorms, chasing down hallways to get to the Entrance Hall as fast as possible.

He was going to meet Imari's family. Part of it at least. Wasn't that a big step in relationships? Meeting family. Damien hoped he wouldn't screw this up.

Before he made the final turn into the Hall, he stopped to catch his breath and smooth out his clothes. It was just Imari, and they were just going to meet her brother-in-law and her nieces that she'd never even met before. It would be a first time for both of them.

He rounded the corner and grinned at his girlfriend, who was looking really pretty. His grin was a bit bigger when he saw her wearing his necklace, a little flash of purple in her very green outfit. "I'm so sorry I'm late, I was supposed to be here like ten minutes ago but I woke up late and I wanted to impress your brother-in-law so I needed to figure out what to wear that was going to be nice, and then I needed to re-learn the ironing charm because I forgot it and... I'm going to stop rambling because we should get going, right? Where are we supposed to meet Jacob?"

1.	Snowy, and -6 degrees Celsius apparently.

Imari looked at Damien and replied, "At the Three Broomsticks."  She took a deep breath.  "I don't know if I'm ready for this Damien, what if I say something wrong, what if he doesn't like me."  She looked towards the doors.  "I'm just worried."  She pushed open the doors, made sure her hat was secure and looked back at Damien, "Oh well, are you ready?"

Damien wrapped his arm's around Imari in a quick hug, pulling back with a smile. "Don't worry, he'll like you. He has to like you. And it doesn't matter anyways, because I can distract him while you spend time with your nieces. He won't know the difference between me talking or you talking, it will be fine."

He took her hand after putting his gloves on and tightening his scarf around his neck. "I'm ready when you are, it's going to be a cold walk though..." He led her out of the doors and immediately shivered, luckily it wasn't snowing heavily yet, but it was forecast to.[1]

1.	If you want to time skip to when they reach Three Broomsticks, then I'm good with that.

Halfway to the Hogsmeade village, Imari stopped.  She was freezing, and her mind was working a mile a minute.  All of a sudden, without looking to make sure she wasn't going to run into Damien, she turned around and started heading back to Hogwarts, the indecision clear in her eyes.  What was she thinking, she couldn't do this, even with Damien right there beside her, there was no way on the planet she was ever going to be ready for this.

She pushed past Damien, barely noticing that she'd knocked into him with her shoulder as she did, and started to speed up, wanting to get back to the warm castle as soon as possible so she could forget this day ever happened.

Damien was barely able to process that Imari had stopped. "Wait.. where are you going?"

She looked torn, indecision in her eyes; and concern clear in his. "Imari, what are you doing?" She ran into him, brushing past him with her shoulder. "Hey! Wait up!"

He ran so that he was in front of her, trying to block her path. "Listen, Imari, wait up. You can't just turn around now! We're almost there, please, let's just do this one thing and it will be behind you."

Jacob couldn't help but smile as he watched his daughters crawl and attempt to stand up.  He just hoped that Imari was going to show up.  He'd told Abigail that he was taking the girls to give her a much-needed break and that she should go visit friends or family that she hadn't seen in awhile.  He just hoped she wouldn't come to Hogsmeade.  The last thing he needed right now was a family explosion that would inevitably happen if she saw him and the twins with Imari.

He sat back in the chair he'd been occupying since he got there and thought again about meeting his sister-in-law again.  Was he really making the right decision going against his wife.  He shook his head to get rid of that thought, of course he was doing the right thing, Abigail was clearly in the wrong, blaming Imari for something that was entirely out of her control.  He pulled out his wand and sent harmless sparks into the air for his girls to giggle and laugh at, and he waited.

Imari stopped, only because Damien had blocked her path.  "I'm sorry, I thought I could do this, but now that I think about it... I can't, I'm not brave enough even with you with me.  What if he doesn't like me?  What if he's only there to tell me that I can never see my nieces?  There are too many things that could go wrong and I'm not sure if I'm strong enough to handle that." She was rambling, she knew it, but she was beyond nervous about this meeting and her mind wasn't letting her embrace the fact that she was finally going to meet Jacob and hear about her nieces, and Damien was going to be with her the whole time.

She looked down at the snow-covered path and shivered.  She started picking at a loose thread at the end of her sleeve and refused to look Damien in the eye.  All the confidence she'd built up over the last few months from spending time with him was gone in the blink of an eye and she could slowly feel the old Imari creeping back with a sadistic smile on her face as if to say, 'ha ha, I knew you wouldn't last'. 

"I think you can do it," he said as she started to look down. "You were brave enough to walk out here and get halfway to where you wanna be, I think you just need to take a few more steps, and you'll be there before you know it."

He paused, worried that this was going to turn out worse than he wanted it to. Imari was going down that not-happy pathway, and he would do just about anything to stop it. "We can stop for hot chocolate after, I can introduce you to the sport of marshmallow eating, and no, you can't beat me at my own game." He said with a twinkle in his eye. He loved marshmallows.

"I'll race you there, how about that? We'll see who can run faster in the snow, automatic disqualification if you fall on your face in the snow?" Damien was sort of grasping straws here, trying to get her to cheer up and get pumped to go see her nieces! "Please? Be strong for me, Imari. I know this is what you want, you just need to tell yourself that."

Imari looked up into Damien's eyes and realized that he was right.  "You're right." she whispered to him and before she could lose her nerve, she closed the distance between them and placed a light kiss on his cheek, "Thank you."  She smiled and turned back around so that she was heading towards the Three Broomsticks and took Damien's hand, "See, if you weren't here with me, I would of been back at the castle already."

She knew how she felt about Damien, that much was clear to her, but it was all so new and she was still trying to sort out her feelings in her head.  But as of this moment, having him beside her was making her strong and confident, two things she would of never been able to feel on her own.

"I'm always right, obviously," he said chuckling as she kissed him. "I'm kidding, but you're welcome. That's what I'm here for, to be your personal cheerleader." He said as he gave her hand a light squeeze and they kept walking through the cold, wet snow that was on the ground and the little bits that were falling.

He was so proud of Imari, and her ability to overcome her fears and worries and push on through some of the toughest obstacles in her life right now. It made him so happy to watch her grow confident and to be strong. He wondered if that would have happened without him, but he didn't linger on the thought.

"How long do you think until we get there?" He said, noticing that they were walking sort of slow. "We should probably walk a little faster if we want to get there today..."

Imari dropped Damien's hand and rubbed her arms through her coat and took his hand again, "It is getting rather cold out here isn't it?" She started walking a little faster, "I suppose you are right, we should get going in case the weather starts to get worse." Now that she took some time to think about it, she realized that with Damien beside her that she was beginning to get excited about meeting her nieces for the first time, but there was something on her mind that she still wanted to ask him.
"Damien," she began, "What's going to happen when you go back to school?" She didn't look at him as she asked this, "I know we've kind of talked about this a little, but I really don't want this tournament to end."

Damien kept up with the faster pace that Imari was walking at, the snow was a bit heavier than before, and he could clearly see his breath in front of him every time he exhaled. Cold, cold, cold. It was a familiar cold, the same kind of cold, snowy winter that they got in Boston every year.

Then Imari asked that ever-so-delicate question. What was going to happen when Damien went home? He couldn't stay here forever, and with him being in the United States and Imari being across the pond... what could they do? "I honestly don't have an answer to that right now," he admitted. But he didn't really want to talk about it either. A break up was eventual with this kind of relationship, and he didn't want to think about that.

"It's only like, December, seriously. We have time right? We can think about it later maybe? I just don't want to say something that I shouldn't, Imari. You know what I mean? I really like you, a lot." He squeezed her hand and planted a quick kiss on her cheek. "We'll deal with whatever we need to when the time comes."

"Yes, we have time, I was just curious." She noticed that they were about at the Three Broomsticks and took a deep breath, "I'm glad you are with me.... I know I've said it before, but I really am."  She dropped his hand briefly as they neared the pub out of nervousness.  "Do you think they'll like me?" she asked, meaning her nieces. 
"Well, let's go in." she said and stepped closer to the door.