Closed If It's Fine by You I'll Be Beside You

[Harper Alston]

Harper's heart had sunk when she'd read the roster of Gryffindor's Quidditch team this year. Next to the Alternate Chaser spot was not Sky's name, but someone else's. She had been so sure that Sky would get the position. She'd seen her friend's flying skills in class last year, and she knew how much Sky had wanted it. But apparently it was not meant to be. Even though Harper knew there would be other try-outs in the future, she had been planning on cheering on Sky from the stands this year. It was just another way sports at this school were messed up. Why were second years, some of whom might be muggleborn and new to Quidditch, expected to compete against seventh years?

Sky hadn't said much about the results, so Harper hadn't broached the subject either. But she figured Sky had to be at least a little disappointed, even if her usual cheery demeanor indicated otherwise. She wasn't completely sure what the other girl's process was for dealing with disappointment, but she figured doing something fun outdoors might be nice. Of course it couldn't be anything flying-related, and Harper decided to steer clear of sports entirely. But she thought she'd come up with something that would take Sky's mind off of things. At the very least, it'd be a good excuse to hang out, just the two of them, since it'd been a while since they'd done that.

So Harper had told Sky to meet her on the Great Lawn so that she could show her something. She had been sitting at the base of a tree, idling picking at the grass, when she spotted the other Gryffindor. "Sky!" Harper jumped up and gave the other girl a quick hug. "Okay, before I show you it, you have to promise not to tell anyone. Cross your heart, hope to die, and all that." She tried to look solemn before giving a small laugh.

 

[Skylar Anderson]

Skylar had been a bit down ever since the results for the Quidditch Tryouts had been announced, since although she hadn't expected to get chosen since she was competing against people with much more experience than her, she'd still held out a little hope that, maybe, just maybe, her flying skills would show and she'd get picked for the team, regardless of her age. But it seemed that it just wasn't meant to be. But there was always next year, right?

But it was still a relief to do something to take her mind off the results, and as Skylar walked across the Great Lawn heading towards where she saw Harper sitting beneath a tree, she tried to smile, hoping her disappointment wouldn't show through. But even if it did, she knew Harper was a good enough friend not to say anything bad, and, if anything, she was certain that Harper would be the person to help her.

As she reached her friend, she smiled and waved, "Hey Harper!" before embracing her with a small laugh. She was about to ask what this meet-up was all about before Harper told her to promise to keep it a secret. At that, Skylar supressed a smile, knowing that whatever it was it must be super special, so of course she agreed. "Yeah yeah, of course I won't tell anyone! I pinky promise!" she said laughing. "Now I'm curious, what's all this secrecy for?!" she asked, her excitement building for whatever Harper had planned, and her disappointment about the Quidditch tryout results already fading.

 

[Harper Alston]

Harper nodded approvingly, glad that Sky was taking this seriously — even if they were both laughing. Pinky promises were very serious business. She decided to purposely misunderstand Sky's question in order to build a bit of suspense. "It has to be a secret otherwise a professor might find out and try to take it away." As far as she knew, there were no explicit rules against the bit of... modification she'd done to the tree they were standing under. But after the curtain disaster, she'd just started to assume that anything fun or even different was against the rules.

"Also I don't want anyone accidentally ruining it." Maybe it was selfish of Harper, but she'd rather keep this to just herself and maybe a friend or two. Technically one other person, Flynn, also knew about this, but he didn't really seem to type to go blabbing about it.

She'd probably stretched this out long enough, so she pointed at the branches above them. "It's up there," Harper said, knowing full well that nothing unusual was visible beyond the tangle of branches and leaves. "You can stay down here while I get it or you can come with me." She turned and pulled herself up onto the lowest branch before turning her head to look down at Sky. "But only if you think you can manage the climb," she challenged playfully. She knew Sky was just as outdoorsy as she was — maybe even more so — so she had a good idea of what her friend's answer would be.

 

[Skylar Anderson]

As Harper explained why it had to be kept a secret, Skylar’s smile faltered a little. As much as she was up for fun and adventure she didn’t want to do anything against the rules this early in the year! But knowing Harper, it wouldn’t be anything too bad, so she smiled back at her friend and listened as she told her to come up the branches to get something from the tree. Skylar grinned, beginning to have a good idea of what this surprise might be, but she didn’t want to get ahead of herself and tell Harper her thoughts, so instead she didn’t say much until Harper asked if she’d climb up the tree with her. “Of course I will!” Skylar said, her grin spreading even wider on her face as she grabbed the first branch and hauled herself up.

This reminded her of her childhood spent playing outside in the trees, and knowing that climbing trees was something she was good at, she looked at Harper with a sly smile on her face and asked “race you to the surprise?” And with a quick grin emerging on her face, she took off, not even waiting for Harper’s answer since she was almost certain she knew what it’d be anyway.

 

[Harper Alston]

Harper was thoroughly unsurprised when Sky accepted her challenge. She moved over a bit to give her friend some more room. That turned out to be a mistake. Sky had barely made it to the first branch when she issued a challenge of her own, taking off before Harper even had a chance to answer. "Not fair!" she said with a laugh as she began to climb. Honestly, at this point, it was kind of on her for not expecting it. This was probably the fifth race she'd had at Hogwarts that had started with someone trying to get a head start.

For the next few minutes, Harper just focused on climbing as quickly as she could without falling. Harper had already been up this tree several times, so she knew where the best handholds and footholds were. But there was no denying that Sky was incredibly fast, like she'd spent her whole life training for this. Plus she'd gotten an early start. They were approaching the branch where Harper had stashed the surprise. "How are you going to win if you don't know where it is?" she teased.

 

[Skylar Anderson]

Skylar grinned as Harper accepted her challenge, glancing over her shoulder quickly to see how her friend was doing. She had expected her to be somewhere near the bottom still because she'd gotten a headstart, but it turned out Harper was right behind her! She smiled, happy to finally have a worthy opponent to compare her tree climbing skills to. But during that small pause, Harper had begun to catch up even more, so Skylar turned back around and carried on, because as much fun as this was, her competitive streak made her determined not to lose, or at least to put up as good a fight as she could.

It had been a few more short minutes when Harper called up to her, asking how she was going to win if she didn't even know where the surprise was, which made Skylar stop in her tracks and glance back. "Huh. You're right." she told her friend, realising that was probably something she should have realised. "Guess we'll just have to agree that I won then!" she added with a teasing smile, but let Harper take the lead to where the surprise was anyway.

As they climbed, Skylar realised just how amazing having Harper as a friend was. She'd not only been there for her during the Quidditch Tryouts, she'd been there for her for the past year in almost everything they'd done, from the parties to the lessons to just the chill times in between class. And now she was here, cheering her up after a disappointing tryouts result, when a simple 'I'm sorry and I'm sure you'll get in next year!' would have been more than enough itself. So she quickly called up to Harper and told her that, wanting to make sure her friend knew how much she valued her. "Hey Harper, I know we're in the middle of tree climbing and now's probably not the best time to be all sappy, but thanks so much for what you're doing! It means a lot and I couldn't be more grateful to have you as a friend!" she finished, smiling broadly as she did so.

 

[Harper Alston]

Harper shook her head. "No way, you said it was a race to the surprise," she said with a grin. But she knew that Sky would have beaten her anyways. Harper had always fancied herself pretty good at climbing trees, especially after spending one summer trying (and failing) to build a treehouse with her brothers. But she could now see she was just an amateur compared to Sky. It took a bit of maneuvering, but Harper managed to climb ahead of Sky. "How did you even get so fast? Did you grow up in a tree?" she teased.

They were close to the branch where Harper had hidden it, and she craned her neck to try and see if she could spot it. Even though it was well hidden, she was always afraid someone would find it and cut it down. As she searched, she heard Sky call up to her and smiled at her friend's kind words. "Aww, I'm grateful to have you as a friend." The simple sentence seemed inadequate, but she'd never been the greatest with words and they were in the middle of climbing a tree. Harper knew she was incredibly lucky to have met Sky on the train last year, and she couldn't imagine trying to survive Hogwarts without the other Gryffindor by her side. Last year she'd been thrown into a completely different world, away from everything she had ever known. But with Sky there, the magical world had grown less lonely, less daunting. She knew she could always count on the other girl, and it was nice to have someone who just seemed to get her, to understand her.

"But you can't thank me now," Harper said, adopting a more playful tone. "What if you end up hating it? I didn't want to tell you, but the surprise is actually a wasp nest," she joked. She was actually starting to wonder if maybe she'd over-hyped it, but she didn't have time to dwell on those thoughts since they'd arrived at the branch.

Harper carefully moved onto the branch and over the object tied to it. She waited for Sky to get settled before starting to unwind the ropes that were coiled around the branch. Attached to the end was a small wooden plank. Last year, she'd built a very crude rope swing, just a rope and a twig. It had worked well enough, but she could only stand on it and the twig always seemed to be on the verge of snapping. Over the break, Harper had realized that she could build a proper swing if she did enough preparation at home. So she'd gotten her oldest brother to help her find a sturdy plank and to drill holes at the ends. She'd brought that plank to school and after a bit of finagling, had managed to replace the swing she'd made last year. "Ta-da! Sorry it's not a wasp nest," she said with a grin.

 

[Skylar Anderson]

Skylar laughed as Harper told her that she hadn't won yet, since it was actually a race to the surprise, but she knew she was just joking around so she climbed aside to let Harper overtake her anyway. As Harper asked her how she got so good at climbing, Skylar just smiled and said "Well, when your backyard is literally a forest, you end up making the most of it over the years!" referring to the years spent climing trees in the forest, playing hide and seek with her brother in them and basically spending days on end in them. "Did I tell you I once even climbed through about 5 trees without once touching the ground?" she added, remembering how fun that challenge with her twin had been, and how she'd even surprised herself with finishing with only a few scratches here and there, and no broken bones or anything like that!

When they finally got near to the surprise, Harper said something that caused Skylar to almost slip and fall from the tree. "What do you mean, there's a wasp nest?!" she almost yelled, but managed to keep her voice down whilst also regaining her footing. She was terrified of bees and wasps and anything that could sting her, and always had been. Maybe because she'd never gotten stung before, so she didn't know what to expect, but she still hated those kinds of insects. When she turned to look at her friend, she realised Harper had just been joking, which relieved her slightly, and made her just a tad bit embarassed at her outburst. "Wait. You were joking... I can't believe you!" she said, laughing at how well her friend had unintentionally pranked her.

When she saw Harper slow down and begin to unravel something, Skylar sat down on a nearby branch, and watched in awe. "A rope swing?!" she gasped, seeing it properly once Harper had fully unravelled it. "That's so cool!!" she couldn't contain her excitement as she made her way over to it, hoping to get a go on it. "Oh and don't worry, it's a hundred thousand million times better than a wasps nest!" she added with a grin. "And only one question remains now... who will go first?" she asked with a cheeky smile, because as much as she wanted to get onto it as soon as she could, she was aware that it was technically Harper's swing, so she had to make sure she didn't use it without her friend's permission, but knowing Harper, she was so nice she'd let her go on it anyway.

 

[Harper Alston]

A forest for a backyard honestly sounded like a dream — though Harper supposed a bunch of trees everywhere would make it harder to play football or practice tumbling passes. Or maybe it would make things more exciting. She gasped when Sky mentioned climbing through several trees without touching the ground. "No way. You're going to have to teach me how to do that!" It would be so cool to travel across a stretch of land solely via the trees.

Harper had definitely not been expecting Sky's reaction to her throwaway joke. She glanced down in confusion as the other girl shouted, and for a second, Harper was worried she would fall. "Wait, no..." Thankfully Sky managed to regain her footing, and Harper gave her a sheepish smile. "Sorry, I didn't know you were afraid of wasps." She paused and pretended to look offended. "I'm so hurt you would think that I'd show you a wasp nest for fun," she said dramatically before giggling.

Harper felt a small burst of pride at Sky's enthusiastic reaction to the swing. She was also relieved the other girl didn't think it was lame. At Sky's question, Harper laughed. "Well, obviously you. I wasn't going to drag you all the way out here just so you could watch me swing. Now, how high up do you want to be?" she asked, adjusting the ropes so that the swing wasn't too close to the ground. The whole point of this was to cheer up Sky and take her mind off of the Quidditch tryouts. (And okay, a small part of her had wanted to show off her work to someone else). Harper had just been planning on maybe hanging out on a lower branch, chatting away while Sky used the swing.

"Maybe I'll build another one someday," Harper mused. "Put one up on the other side of this tree or by the lake or something." Up until now, she'd only ever needed one swing as she usually came here when she needed to be by herself. But it would be fun to have a second one so she could more easily hang out with friends. The only difficult part was trying to find a good spot for another one. It'd taken her forever to find this tree, which was hidden from view from the castle and had its branches arranged just so.

 

[Skylar Anderson]

Skylar smiled as Harper told her she could go on the swing, she'd been almost certain she'd let her, but wanted to make sure anyway. "Um, I don't know, what do you think is the best height? Not too low though, because that takes the thrill out of it!" she said with a grin. It only took Harper a few moments to adjust the swing, before Skylar climbed over to it and somewhat precariously got onto it. Once she was on it though, she kicked off a nearby branch and began to swing. "This is so much fun!!" she laughed as she swung, happy to have the feeling of wind rushing in her face again. That was something that she missed about Quidditch... but she resolved not to think about it, and instead focused on what Harper was saying.

"Another swing sounds awesome!" she said in reply to her friend's musings. "I'd definitely want to help put it up though now that you've told me about it!" she smiled, hoping that the project would bring about heaps of fun for them. "Putting one up on the other side of the tree sounds good, but I like the idea of the one near the lake more." she told Harper, adding her own thoughts into the conversation. "It would mean there'd be new scenery to admire while swinging I guess?" she thought for a bit longer before realising something else. "Or... we could build a swing that swings directly over the lake! I'm pretty sure I saw a tree that hangs over the lake when I was out walking a few days ago, so that would be the perfect place to hang it!" she grinned, already thinking of how much fun that would be. "And when it's the middle of summer we could even jump from it into the lake!" she added, knowing it would lead to many fun afternoons. She was getting more and more excited about the idea the longer she thought about it, so she really hoped Harper would like the idea too.

 

[Harper Alston]

Harper unraveled the swing so that it was still a good 20 feet in the air. "I think this is pretty good, don't you?" she joked before lowering it to a height where Sky wouldn't seriously injure herself if she somehow fell off. As Sky got onto the swing, Harper carefully picked her way to a lower branch and settled on it so she could face her friend. She beamed. "I know, right? I wish Hogwarts had a magical playground." Maybe it was childish of her. She was, after all, approaching high school age. But she'd seen some of the older students using the Gryffindor trampoline, so she was sure a playground, especially a magical one, would get some use if the school ever decided to install one.

Sky offered to help her build another one, and Harper nodded immediately. "I couldn't think of anyone better to help me," she said with a grin. At the very least, Sky would be much better company than Flynn, who had been very critical of her first attempt. "A swing that goes directly over the lake would be nice! You'll have to show me the tree you found," she said excitedly. "I did think about putting up just a rope by the lake, just for jumping in, but I wasn't sure whether the lake was deep enough," she admitted. Growing up, Harper had spent a lot of time playing around swimming holes, and she'd had it drilled into her to make sure the water was deep enough before diving. "But a normal one with a seat should be fine. Or imagine having one at the top of the cliffs, so you can swing out over the edge!" She'd seen pictures of such swings, but they usually came with harnesses. Then again, she couldn't imagine it being any more dangerous than flying, an activity the school allowed eleven year olds to do without safety equipment. "We'd just have to figure out a way to hide it from the teachers and prefects. Think Summers will ever teach us how to turn invisible?" she joked. Harper remembered him briefly mentioning invisibility during one of their Transfiguration classes last year. Now that would be an interesting spell, much more useful than turning a matchstick into a needle.

 

[Skylar Anderson]

As Harper lowered the swing down to the first height, Skylar gasped in delight, excited to have the swing so high up. Unfortunately, it seemed Harper was only joking with that height, and before Skylar could say anything, she'd lowered it down to a height much closer to the ground. Oh well, it was better than nothing, she supposed. As Harper told her about a magical playground, she grinned, realising just how much fun that would be. "That sounds amazing! If only we could actually have one..." she sighed sadly.

As the topic got back to building another swing, Skylar smiled when Harper told her she'd love to have her help. "Aw thanks! I'm sure we'd make a great team!" She just knew that such an event would turn out to be heaps of fun, and maybe they could even build it with the rest of their dormmates? Skylar chucked at the thought of having Blake build a swing, and decided it might be better to leave it to just the two of them. "Oh yeah, any swing sounds fine, even if it's just a rope, I was mostly just excited to jump into the lake if I'm being perfectly honest!" she said laughing. "Ooh, but a swing over a cliff sounds really cool too! I'm just not sure how we're supposed to find a cliff near enough for us not to leave the grounds every time we want to go on it..." she knew Harper was joking, but the thought had intrigued her, only to leave her disappointed when she realised it wouldn't be possible.

"Well, I'm not so sure about an invisibility spell... I certainly can't do one but perhaps Ivy can?" she grinned at her friend, teasing her because she knew that there had been some trouble with Ivy earlier on in the year which hadn't made her too fond of her dormmate. "But otherwise we could just find a branch that would conceal it from the view of the castle the best, surely it shouldn't be that hard??" she questioned, hoping that she was right and they'd be able to find one. "Actually, why don't we just go and see the tree for ourselves, and then we can decide." she told Harper, not wanting the pair to get too ahead of themselves just yet. She swung herself on the swing one last time and then climbed off onto a nearby tree branch, ready to head back down. "Oh and by the way, the swing is awesome!!" she added, hoping her friend realised how much fun it had been for her. It had completely taken her mind off the Quidditch tryouts without her even realising!

 

[Harper Alston]

Harper had to laugh at Sky's eagerness to just jump into the lake. She could definitely relate. Since the woods were off-limits, the lake was the most promising source of adventure on Hogwarts's grounds. She couldn't wait until it was summer, and she could actually go swimming without freezing. "There's the cliff by the lake," she said, thinking aloud. "I know it's off grounds, but I don't think I've seen anyone actually get in trouble for going there." She decided to leave out the part about how she regularly ended her morning runs at the cliffs to watch the sunrise. "But I guess the professors would start caring if we built a swing over the ledge," she said with a laugh. It was a shame that everything fun was forbidden.

"Ivy would probably have a fit if we told her we wanted to learn invisibility spells to hang up rope swings. It's not very traditional," Harper said with a grin. "I'd rather ask Emmaline." As Gryffindor's top points earner, Emmaline was clearly very smart, but she wasn't obnoxious about it, which Harper appreciated. She shrugged at Sky's next question. It had taken her a while to find this spot, but she'd stopped looking for other potential locations after deciding on this one. "That's a good idea," she said, nodding at her friend's suggestion. After Sky had gotten off the swing, Harper quickly wound it back up so that it was once again coiled around a branch, hidden from view.

Harper beamed at the compliment, puffing up slightly with pride. "Thanks! Now that you know about it, you're welcome to use it any time you want. Just don't forget to hide it afterward." She'd found that it was a decent spot if she ever wanted to be alone for a bit. With the swing safely hidden, Harper began her descent. After she had reached the ground, she smiled at Sky. "Lead the way." She was eager to see this spot by the lake.

 

[Skylar Anderson]

Skylar smiled at Harper's comment that she could use the swing anytime she wanted. Skylar knew she would, so she quickly said "Thanks that sounds great, and don't worry of course I'll make sure to hide it! Now that I've discovered it, I can't have anyone else finding it!" she added with a mischievous smile.

Once Harper reached the ground, Skylar grinned at her, and began to lead the way to the place she thought the tree overhanging the lake was. When she was telling Harper about the idea, she had felt sure she knew where it was, but now that she was actually leading Harper to the place she'd promised the tree was, she was suddenly doubting herself. Was it left or right from Harper's swing? Away from the castle or towards it? She tried not to let it show but inside, she was honestly beginning to be a bit confused as to where she'd seen it...

After a while of walking towards the direction she thought the place was, she turned to Harper, and admitted a bit sheepishly "Um so... I may or may not have forgotten where the tree was..." she tried to grin at the situation, but felt her smile falter because she was mostly just disappointed in herself for failing her friend. And not to mention that she hadn't even realised that it was getting late, so she probably woudn't even be able to show Harper the spot today. "I'm so sorry, maybe we can look for it another day?" she smiled a bit, hoping Harper wouldn't mind too much. She was silently kicking herself for forgetting, but knew that there was nothing she could do about it anyway, it was too late for that today anyway.

 

[Harper Alston]

Before they left, Harper glanced upward one last time just to make sure the swing was completely concealed. Thankfully it was so far up and there were so many branches that she needn't have worried. She followed Sky away from the tree, making a mental note of the direction so that she would be able to find it in the future. It was hard to believe how big Hogwarts's grounds were and how much she still had left to explore.

They had been walking for a while when Sky paused, and Harper immediately looked at the nearest tree. She frowned slightly. There were too many branches in the way and none looked strong enough to support a swing. Before she could disappoint Sky with the bad news that the tree wouldn't work, however, the other Gryffindor announced that she'd forgotten where the spot one.

"Oh," Harper said, a bit relieved that this tree wasn't the one they were looking for. "Your spot must be really good if it's so well-hidden that even we can't find it," she joked. Sky's smile looked like it was on the verge of cracking, so Harper tried to give her a breezy smile of her own. "It's totally fine, we can look for it sometime else. I'm getting hungry anyways, let's go get dinner." She really didn't mind. As far as Harper was concerned, today was a success since it seemed to have taken Sky's mind off of the tryout results, if only for a few hours.