Closed Back in Town

[Nathan Abbott]

Nathan was reasonably happy with the way things were going lately. He was doing well enough at his job that rumour had it he would be getting a promotion soon, which to be honest sounded like just the thing he needed at the moment since living in New York was expensive. He wasn't generally one to worry that much about it but with the amount of work, apparently more and more No-Maj were discovering the wizarding world every day, and the fact that his savings were soon depleted, Nathan needed a break from the busy world around him. So he decided to visit his old hometown in the hope that he would see Mackenzie, his friend and companion throughout his years at Hogwarts and spend some time with her. It had been a while since Nathan last saw the woman, both had been rather busy with their occupations. But when she wrote to him that she'd retired as a professional surfer, the man knew that he had to visit her sometime soon. Leaving Mackenzie a very cryptic note of where and when he would be back in town, Nathan apparated in one of the alleyways of the mainstreet. It would be nice to see her again after such a long time.

 

[Mackenzie Mitchell]

Mackenzie was slowly adjusting to her new reality of unemployment following her retirement from professional surfing. She had been lucky to compete as long as she did given she had seven years stolen from her development. Having lived her dream Mackenzie felt a little more comfortable easing herself back into the magical world and was considering employment in that world. Mackenzie was surprised to receive a note from her friend Nathan telling her he would be in town, but that was about all it said other than where he'd be. Nathan was no stranger to a cryptic note. Mackenzie apparated to Brightstone village, somewhere she hadn't been since graduating Hogwarts and headed to where she knew she'd find Nathan. "The three broomsticks too crowded for you?" She asked him when she found him in a nearby alley.

 

[Nathan Abbott]

A smile appeared on the man's face upon hearing the all too familiar voice of his friend and turned around to face her. It had been too long ago indeed. ''I just thought that a celebrity like yourself might enjoy the quiet of an alleyway a bit more,'' Nathan joked as he hugged his friend. He knew that his letter would contain more than enough for her to figure out exactly where he would be apparating, they had spent quite some time in the alleyways of the village after all during the Brightstone weekends. Luckily it wasn't raining. ''Merlin's beard, look at you,'' the man said while giving her the once-over. ''How are you?'' he then asked, wanting to know everything she has been up to since the last time they spoke to one another.

 

[Mackenzie Mitchell]

Mackenzie laughed at Nathan's comment, she was hardly a celebrity especially not in the magical world. "Trust me, no one in this village knows who I am," She said. It was a fact she was grateful for, Mackenzie wanted to focus on reconnecting with her friend not wanting to deal with being recognised, a slim a possibility as that would be. She blushed a his comment that followed him giving her the once over, Mackenzie was no stranger to be ogled at having spent most of her professional life on a beach but it was strange eliciting any kind of reaction from her friend. "Hey, eyes up mister," Mackenzie laughed. "Seriously though, as much as I enjoy the stroll down memory lane of our time hanging out in alleys, I haven't had a butterbeer in ten years," Mackenzie would fill him in on everything he wanted to know and no doubt he had stories to tell her too but she wanted to get comfortable first.

 

[Nathan Abbott]

He thought that he could count at least a handful of people who might still remember her in the village, but then again, neither of them had been here for quite some time. ''You look good, that's all I'm saying,'' Nathan said, laughing too. She hadn't changed much at all. ''Well lucky for you, I brought some with me,'' Nathan told her while he reached for the backpack on the ground. He figured that at least one of them would drink butterbeer, and since Mackenzie had denounced all ties to the wizarding world and magic in general after they graduated Hogwarts, knew that it would be him drinking it - so naturally, he found himself caught off guard by this revelation. ''One might remember that I'm still very much banned from the Three Broomsticks after that incident in our seventh year,'' he added with a grin as he gave one of the bottles he'd just gotten out of the backpack to his friend. Hoping that she'd leave it with that, the man nodded toward one of the nearby benches and headed that way so they could at least sit down as they talked.

 

[Mackenzie Mitchell]

Mackenzie regained her composure and shrugged at his comments. "Thanks, you don't look too bad either," To her surprise Nathan reached into his bag to pull out two bottles of butterbeer, he was surprisingly prepared to say he knew all too well how little she had wanted to do with the magical world after they graduated school. Nathan reminded her of the incident in their seventh year that had got him banned from the three broomsticks and she did her best to suppress a laugh but the smirk on her face was obvious. "Ok I forgot about that, how are you still banned?!" She asked, surely someone else was running the pub, it had been ten years after all. "I hope you've been keeping out of bar fights since then?" She teased as she took the bottle of butterbeer. Mackenzie followed Nathan over to some benches where they both took a seat. "Well as you know I retired from surfing," Nathan was the first person she told outside the official channels she had gone through, it still felt weird to say it. "That's basically been my life for ten years, its amazing I was able to compete at any sort of level after being stuck here for seven years," Mackenzie tried not to get stuck on that part, in that time she had met Nathan so it hadn't been all bad. "Anything major over the years I told you about, but I've been pretty zeroed in on staying in shape and competing, dating has been sporadic if that, just casual stuff nothing ever got serious," Mackenzie blushed when she realised just how much she had said in such a short space of time. "I'm rambling sorry,"

 

[Nathan Abbott]

Nathan shrugged in response to Mackenzie's question and said, ''I haven't actually gone and checked if I'm still banned or not, I'd rather not risk my life on it though.'' His fight with one of the other patrons had brought a reasonable amount of damage with it that he was sure that even if someone else would be running the inn at the moment, the man would still be banned for life. It wasn't particularly his fault though, at least it wasn't in his eyes, because he was perfectly entitled to say his opinion out loud so the other man could hear it loud and clear. Alas, instead of turning to one of the pubs in the village, the two of them sat down next to each other on one of the benches. Twisting the cap off of his bottle of butterbeer, Nathan shifted himself so he could face Mackenzie better as she began to tell him about what she had been up to. He grinned when she blushed and told her off for apologising to him because she was rambling. He did not mind it at all, it was nice to hear her voice again after not having seen her for years. ''Sounds like you've had a pretty eventful couple of years. Aren't you going to miss it, though, surfing?'' He asked, knowing that he would find it difficult to actually quit if he decided to stop doing the things that he loved doing.

 

[Mackenzie Mitchell]

Mackenzie laughed, he made a valid point, a lot of damage had been done that day and it probably wasn't worth the risk. "Ok fair point," She laughed again. Mackenzie shrugged her shoulders when Nathan said it sounded like she'd had a busy couple of years, it was true her last couple of years as a pro had been intense but not always in a good way. She'd been good as a kid, when she'd picked things back up after school she was good again but she'd lost something, maybe it was the years she'd lost or maybe she just wasn't as good a surfer as she thought she was. "I will miss it, but it felt like the right time, I'd rather quit now than be the girl surfing past her prime and wiping out all the time," Truth was she had agonised over the decision but she knew it was time, she was in good shape, she didn't want to ruin herself trying to stay competitive. "Besides now I can let myself go, its hard work looking this good you know,"

 

[Nathan Abbott]

Nathan nodded his head while she answered his question on whether she'd miss it or not. He'd seen her surf once and thought that she was pretty damn good at it, but he guessed that the older you would get, the more difficult it would get to stay in top form. He laughed and shook his head amusingly. ''Oh please, you've always looked this good,'' Nathan replied, taking a swig from the butterbeer. As he said before, she hadn't changed much from what he could remember, and she hadn't been surfing during their time at Hogwarts. Saying that she looked good, or at least confirming it, made him blush slightly. ''So have you thought about what you are going to do now?'' he asked. Perhaps Nathan could arrange a meeting with the head of his department at the Magical Congress if she was looking for such a job, it would definitely be nice to have someone so familiar working there with him - some of his colleagues were still pretty much strangers to him, even after all these years. ''I could put in a good word for you at my boss if you want to? Nathan added.

 

[Mackenzie Mitchell]

Mackenzie blushed when Nathan told her she had always looked good, "I'm glad you noticed," She said quietly hoping to move past that moment as quickly as they could. "I haven't," She said simply. Mackenzie had never given up on surfing even when she was at Hogwarts so a back up career hadn't been something she'd considered. Her old coach had offered to help her go down that route but Mackenzie felt she needed a clean break from the sport. "I appreciate the offer, but I'm not sure I'd suit something so...official," She'd never pictured herself in an office, Mackenzie knew she'd find something but she wasn't in a rush, she was comfortable for a little while. "I'll find something don't worry,"

 

[Nathan Abbott]

Nathan was surprised to see how easy it was to talk to Mackenzie still even after years of only having written to each other. Living in America had made it difficult for him to pop by every once in a while, but he wanted to spend more time with the people he left behind here, and the woman sitting next to him on the bench was one of those people. ''Fair enough,'' Nathan said. He could never imagine himself working in an office neither until he started working for the Magical Congress. But perhaps he liked working there better as it was an improvement from his previous workplace which was a metal-charming factory in New Zealand. ''Well, just know that if there's anything you need, don't hesitate to come and ask me,'' the man added, wanting his friend to know that he'd be there for her whenever she needed something. He had promised himself to be a better friend after all.

 

[Mackenzie Mitchell]

Mackenzie smiled genuinely at Nathan as he offered to help her find at job in his department. It was good of him and she was glad she had a friend who would do that for her but she knew she had to find her own way. "I appreciate that I really do," She sighed and took a sip from the bottle of butterbeer. "I need to find something that excites me, I've only ever had that for surfing, its gonna be weird to do something else,"

 

[Nathan Abbott]

''Whatever that might be then, just know that you will have my support.'' He was just glad that she didn't seem to hate his guts for not talking to her for ages and then popping back into her life as if they'd never stopped talking to one another. ''So I bet you're wondering what I've been up to in America, haven't you?'' Nathan said jokingly. He hoped that she would have the patience to listen to him, as quite a lot had happened since he moved continents.

 

[Mackenzie Mitchell]

"Thanks," Mackenzie said raising her bottle to him. When Nathan suggested she would be interested in whats been happening with him in America it made her realise she hadn't asked about him at all, rather than fall over herself to apologise she decided to play it cool. "I'm waiting with baited breath," She smirked.

 

[Nathan Abbott]

Nathan raised his bottle of butterbeer as well and smiled broadly at Mackenzie. This right here, sitting with his best friend, he missed this immensely. ''I thought you were,'' he answered with a grin. ''I haven't actually told you this before, because I was a bit embarrassed about it, to be honest, but I almost lost my own memory a couple of weeks ago. I was responding to a call on my own when the memory spell almost backfired on me. It was pretty damn scary.'' the man said, still quite embarrassed about it.

 

[Mackenzie Mitchell]

Mackenzie couldn't believe the story that Nathan told her, he almost lost his memory? That was crazy. "Oh my god, how? You do memory charms a lot right? How did it almost backfire?" She asked concerned. For the job he did she didn't understand how something like that could happen or for that matter, why had he had to respond to a call on his own in the first place.

 

[Nathan Abbott]

''Apparently, my old wand was prone to doing its own thing? Yeah, I don't know how that works either,'' Nathan still couldn't wrap his head around it. If he hadn't noticed it immediately he would not have been sitting here. ''But I'm totally fine, though! Every memory is still there,'' he added. ''Feel free to test me out just to check,''

 

[Mackenzie Mitchell]

Mackenzie couldn't believe Nathan had been using such an unreliable wand in such a dangerous job. "I hope you replaced that wand, can't have you forgetting little old me," She laughed despite the serious point she had made. "Hmm, who was our head of house at school?" Mackenzie asked, it was a true test of his knowledge, she wasn't sure if she remembered herself.

 

[Nathan Abbott]

Nathan couldn't help to laugh about the whole situation now. His wand had been acting out even before then but for reasons unknown he had chosen to ignore it then. Thankfully, everything was fine now. ''I couldn't even if I would,'' he replied with a grin before taking another sip. ''Oof, I might have actually forgotten that,'' he said when she tested him out. ''Yeah, I don't know anymore, sorry.''

 

[Mackenzie Mitchell]

Mackenzie nudged him gently when he told her he couldn't forget her even with a memory charm, it was doubtful but the sentiment was nice. "Well your memory clearly isn't what its cracked up to be," She stared at him trying to keep the moment serious before she started to laugh. "Honestly, I can't remember either so that probably isn't the charm,"

 

[Nathan Abbott]

He grinned when Mackenzie nudged him and scooted a little closer to her to nudge her back for her own remark. Nathan laughed along with her though was relieved to hear that she couldn't remember their head of house's name either. It had been a while since they were students at the castle after all. ''Thank God, for a moment there I thought that something may have actually been erased.'' It was weird to think about people's memories being erased and he was sure glad that he was the one doing the erasing. Then again, he probably wouldn't know if he did have his memory erased. He finished his bottle of butterbeer and put it in front of him on the ground so that he could throw it away later. ''It's crazy how much Muggles actually see of the wizarding world though, I feel like I'm performing memory charms at least twenty to thirty times a week if not more,'' Nathan told her.

 

[Mackenzie Mitchell]

Mackenzie's laughter faded as Nathan continued to talk about the use of the memory charm and the excess amount he used it in any given week. "It's horrible, innocent people having their memories erased because wizards are too careless to keep things under wraps," Mackenzie sat in the silence for a moment before she met Nathan's eyes. "I'm not judging you for what you do, I just think it sucks its so necessary,"

 

[Nathan Abbott]

Nathan agreed with Mackenzie on some level and nodded his head. At least half of the time the department would have to perform a memory charm on a Muggle they had seen the Hit people or the Aurors in action. The other half was the result of wizards being indeed too careless to keep things under wraps. ''I'd rather we did not live in secrecy, because as you know I am a firm believer that wizardkind and Muggles can indeed live together, but we would rather they did not freak out every time they encounter magic,'' So naturally erasing their memories was the only way they could prevent such from happening. It was getting darker outside now that the sun was setting and Nathan, who was sat in a t-shirt, started getting chills.

 

[Mackenzie Mitchell]

Mackenzie nodded, Nathan's feelings on them living in secrecy was well known to her so she could imagine his conflicted feelings relating to the work he did. As the sun began to set and the temperature began to drop it was probably time to call it a night. "We should probably call it, you better not wait years to drop me a message this time," She scolded him. It had been nice seeing Nathan in person again and she hoped it became a more regular thing.