Boredom.

It was the downfall of many.

And so it had befallen Liam.  He had organized his books twice during the day and swept and mopped the floors.  After deciding to polish the shelves Liam shook himself out of it and decided that he needed to get out of the store for a bit.  He went upstairs to his flat and cleaned up a bit. Since it was rather warm for an October day, he put on a simple t-shirt and threw a vest on over it, leaving it open.

He had never really cared much for his appearance, so he had no shame leaving his shop like this.

He made his way slowly towards the Three Broomsticks and finally made it.  He enjoyed the walk, the weather was nice out.

He opened the door of the pub and after letting a few people in before him and then he made his way into the pub.  He looked around and on first glance he didn't see anyone he knew so he made his way to the bar and sat down.

"Whiskey please." he said to the person behind the counter and once he got his drink, he took a sip and then sat it back down on the counter and rolled it around the the bottom edge. 

"Sitting in a bar..."

The voice of Niobe Thursby - ever playful, ever snarky, ever Irish. One of the Daily Prophet's most hard-working reporters had been buried under a pile of smaller periodicals at the end of the bar, when he clocked a very interesting person sit down and order a whiskey.

Niobe knew Liam Darrow's reputation. That reputation was a quiet wizard (single) who most people ignored. Which was odd because at Hogwarts, he'd been a loud little bastard, hadn't he?  Niobe would have lost track of him if the shop nextdoor to his hadn't been broken into a week before. 

"You are probably the last person I'd have expected to find just ... sitting in a bar," she said as she slid all her junk down a few seats to take the stool next to him.

Slightly losing his concentration, he almost knocked over his glass, but caught it in time to avoid spilling his whiskey all over the bar. He looked to the person who was talking to him and smiled a little.  "Yeah... I got bored in my place." he said and took another drink. 

"What are you doing holed up at the bar?" he asked, slightly curious.

He knew that something had happened in the store next to his, but as he kept to himself as much as he could, he didn't really know what had happened.

He'd heard rumors of course from the customers who had come into his shop, but he didn't know if any of them were true.

Liam turned on his stool to face Niobe and leaned one elbow on the bar with his head in his hand.  With his other hand, he placed his glass of whiskey on his opposite knee. 

"Working," she said wrinkling her nose and leafed through the stack of newsprint.

"Yea, I had an interview with local chap who helped vampires around here in the 70's. Trying to get some background on something for Temperance, colleague of mine.  Finished up, popped in here. I mean, Three Broomstricks. Legendary. Oh!"

She knew that he knew who she was, but she'd be a bit of a prick if she acted like she knew that he knew who she was. She held out her hand.

"It's Niobe. What's your place called again? Shouting Sextant or ..."

Liam chuckled at her play on the name of his shop.  "You are around the Alley enough Ni-Ni, you should know the name of my shop."

He threw in the nickname he'd called her in school just to see if it would throw her off.  "Seems you're always working these days."

He sat up and poked her knee, "So, how's things these days?"

'Ni-Ni??'

Niobe's eyes grew wide and she sat up straighter. Liam was proceeding with the small talk as if he hadn't just time-turned her brain fifteen years back to a puffy-haired, big-mouthed Gryffindor showing off an (infected) navel piercing in the Great Hall at breakfast. It was 1992. And she'd done it herself. And had been so proud.

A smile tugged at the corners of her hung-open mouth. She shook her head to dissolve the memory.

"Erm, no. Back-up. Ni-Ni? Really?"

Liam began to full out laugh at her response.

Once he'd caught his breath he looked at her with a smile on his face that showed in his eyes as well.  "What? I thought you liked that name!"

He'd never really called her that in front of others while at school.  It was just a little nickname to tease her.  He couldn't even really remember if she liked it or not.  It actually came out instinctively.  He really needed to get out and socialize some more with people who weren't his customers.

Downing the rest of his drink he looked back at her as he sat the glass back on the bar and signaled that he'd like a refill.  "As I recall you got rather flustered in school when I called you that... I do believe your cheeks turned a delightful shade of red a couple times."

He smiled at her and scooted his barstool closer, "It was cute." he whispered.

Niobe scratched the side of her nose and regarded Liam with a growing slyness. Niobe had been in seventh year and Liam had been this salty little fourth year always hanging around the older girls. She'd had her shirt up, her DIY belly-button piercing savagely infected.

"I had a fever," she said. She'd stood up too fast, passed out from the infection and in her delirious responses to someone (Liam) attempting to see if she was okay, she'd uttered the doomed phrase that would follow her around as a nickname for the rest of the year.

'Ni-Ni'.

There had been an argument whether she was trying to say 'good night' or her name. Didn't matter. It had been hilarious.

"I didn't think anyone remembered that," she said. "Good memory. Mmhmm."

"Yeah, well, I was 14 and a cute girl had her shirt up. Why wouldn't I remember the circumstances around that?"  He grinned at her. 

He saw that his glass had been refilled, "Would you like a drink?" 

Inwardly he shook his head, "Or not..." he turned towards the bar and sipped at his whiskey.

Normally he wouldn't of said something like that, now he felt awkward.  He wished he could go back to the carefree way he acted while he was in school.

"No, yeah. Whatever you're having," she agreed quickly. Niobe was usually good at reading people, but she wasn't sure what she'd said to cause the slight darkening from Liam.

She was still a bit giddy from having been reminded of her teenage drama. Merlin, she had to bet Foy didn't know about the navel piercing thing. [1] She'd die. Niobe giggled again.

"I'm sorry, no, it's not you. I just, Merlin, I haven't thought about that in ages. No regrets, right?"

1.	Niobe's currently seeing Foy Pilpher

"No regrets at all." he said to her as he ordered a whiskey for her as well.  Sometimes it was nice to catch up with someone you hadn't talked to in a while.

"So, done any body-altering things lately?"

He shook his head, "Sorry, I'm a bit awkward, I don't really talk to many people anymore..." he trailed off.  She would probably ask him why, but he wasn't sure he'd like to get into the reason why.

"I'm a bit of a hermit now."

Niobe almost choked at 'body-altering'. Bloody hell. She repositioned in her seat and drummed her left-hand fingers on the bartop.  Where many witches her age might have a wedding band, Niobe was missing the finger down past the first knuckle.

"Hermit-dom... I really should try that. Seems safer than not." 

She lifted her hand to show off the battle-scar.

"Nipped off by a Runespoor if you can believe it. Were you in Diagon Alley then, when that serpent got loose a few years ago?"[1]

1.	June 2008 - Runespoors! Take Cover!

He took a drink and before he could stop himself he joked, "The poor creature, you sure it didn't have a stomach ache afterwards?"

Taking a breath after saying that he immediately said after, "I'm sorry, that must of hurt." 

The bartender brought her drink just then and Liam moved it from in front of himself to in front of her. 

There was a moment of awkward silence, but Niobe laughed loudly.

"Little Liam Darrow hasn't changed a bit," she said, clearly not at all upset. "But, aye yeah, it hurt a bit. Apparently, Mungo's can usually grow fingers back no troubles, but Runespoors have dirty mouths."

Niobe could always laugh about it, hell she even bragged about it, but that day had been a wake up call. She'd set her life straight just in time to need another wake-up call a few years later. And now, here she was, back to work on sorting things out.

"You didn't answer my question, though. Were you at the Yelling Compass back in that summer? It was 2008."

He thought for a moment, "I don't remember it, so it must of either been on a day I didn't open the shop, or a day I went to visit nieces and nephews, I have quite a few now."

"I was kinda short back then wasn't I?" he asked, "Of course, I'm not so little anymore." he said with a wink.  He made himself remember she was a friend - sort of... he could be himself around her.

Not like that situation would ever happen again, it was one of the reasons he'd kept people at arms length since.