Closed Lately It's Been a Little Bit Wild

[Harper Alston]

The days were getting warmer, which meant Harper had to rise earlier if she wanted to avoid the heat. Granted, it was New Zealand, so it never really got that hot in the mornings, but running in mild temperatures could still be uncomfortable especially if she kept at it for a while. Still, she didn't really mind getting up earlier. She'd always been a morning person and loved having an entire day ahead of her. Plus, her runs were so much more enjoyable when she got to watch the sunrise while doing them.

Harper had gotten up way earlier than any of her roommates, but by now, she'd mastered the art of getting dressed and ready in the dark as everyone else slept. After filling her water bottle, she'd slipped through the silent castle and headed for the lake. The walk there always served as her warm-up, and it gave her eyes time to adjust from the dark castle to the blue-gray world outside. This was her favorite time of day. It was a bit like viewing the world through a silvery blue film before the sun rose, flooding everything in color.

After stashing her water bottle in a clump of weeds, Harper began her run, starting with an easy jog. These first few minutes were always the best, when she had so much energy that she felt like she could go on forever. She made her way across the great lawn and towards the castle, picking up speed as she did so. For the next several minutes, Harper just focused on the thump of her heart, the wind in her face, and the overwhelming sense of calm running gave her as she crisscrossed across the school grounds. After a while, she stopped at the lake for a quick break to gulp down some water, accidentally sloshing some down the front of her shirt in the process. She sighed and stared out at the water, contemplating her next move. Ideally, she'd do some interval training today, but that was always painful. Maybe she'd just continue at a steady pace.

 

[Hunter Robinson]

Hunter woked up early for some reason this morning, which was actually great, he had wanted to start going for morning runs a thing that he loved doing and never seemed to wake up on time but today would be different.

It was a bit tricky getting ready while everyone was asleep, every noise he did seemed to be amplified a thousand times more than usual. He got his bag ready, he was the prepared type so he filled it with everything that he seemed to think that he might need even though that would put some weight on his bag.

Hunter saw another girl ahead of him that probably had the same idea as him, she was fast, Hunter thought that she probably did that everyday so she must be really in shape. He decided to stay a bit behind in case he would slow her down but then the girl made a stop on the lake.

Hunter decided to stop there too and make a quick break "Hey you. You are fast let me tell you that." he said try to catch his breath and opening his bag looking for the water bottle, he was sweating a lot already, next time he's surely remember to pack lighter "I'm Hunter by the way" the boy said, he considered extending his hand for a hand shake but then he thought that no one liked to touch sweaty hands.

 

[Harper Alston]

Harper was about to tip her water bottle up to her lips again, when she heard a voice, causing her to jump and spill some more water. "Crap!" She turned around to find the source of the noise and was surprised to see a boy standing nearby who seemed to be the same age as her. "And you are very quiet," she said with a grin. Although he had startled her, Harper was glad to see someone else. Aside from the occasional student trudging towards the Quidditch pitch for an early practice, she rarely ever saw people during her morning runs.

"I'm Harper," she said, nodding her head slightly by way of greeting. "So Hunter, I don't think I've seen you around before." Harper definitely would've remembered someone her age who regularly woke up this early. The sky was lightening, but the grounds around them were still quiet. She studied him, noting that he was also out of breath, as if he'd just stopped running too. He must've been behind her, following her out of sight. That would also explain his comment on her speed. "Do you usually stalk poor, helpless girls—" she tried to put on her best innocent expression "—or are you also a runner?"

 

[Hunter Robinson]

Hunter couldn't help but laugh as he saw the young girl spill her water over her. "Sorry to startle you" the boy said apologetically but with a smile. He finally found his water bottle and took it out from the bag and brought the bottle to his lips drinking the water fast but being careful enough not to spill.
His eyes then moved from the bottle to the girl and he let out a grunt while he was still drinking, "Harper and Hunter, H and H. That's interesting" he said when he stopped drinking. The commentary was a bit unnecessary but he found the coincidence funny, "Damn! I got burned! Here I was thinking you would still remember the most handsome guy in your Charms class" he said teasing her, he did remember her. He remembered her the second he saw her face more closely but he was one of those people who was just good with faces.
"Definitely stalking" he said with some irony and nodding his head yes but eventually not being able to hold a few chuckles. "What about you? Do you run for fun or you just like torture?" he joked, running was actually fun but for most people running would become some sort of torture after a while, especially when the oxygen started to run out, the lungs started to ache and your legs threaten to stop working and let you fall at any second.

 

[Harper Alston]

Harper laughed at Hunter's mock indignation when she said she didn't remember ever seeing him around. So he had been in her Charms class, huh? That meant he was probably a Hufflepuff since Harper knew most of the other Gryffindor first years. "Hey, in my defense I usually spend most of that class trying not to hit anyone with a flying cushion." She paused, suddenly turning very serious. "But you're wrong. About being the most handsome guy, I mean. You forgot about Professor Kain." She tried to keep a straight face but failed, smiling as she teased him. After all, Professor Kain was old.

"Yeah, I definitely like torturing myself," Harper said, matching his tone. Honestly, some of her workouts did feel like torture, though she didn't actually enjoy doing them. But the post-run feeling was always nice, and she knew that interval training and hills workouts and crazy-long routes ultimately made her faster on the football field. And that was worth it to her.

It occurred to Harper that she now had the perfect opportunity to do some short intervals while also hopefully having a bit of fun. "Since I enjoy torture, want to race to the Greenhouses and back?" There was a nice, brutally steep hill in the middle of the route. Sure, going down it would be fun, but trying to sprint up it would be, well, torture. Harper screwed the cap of her water bottle back on and set it down before tightening her ponytail. "If you're stalking me, does that mean you have to stay behind me if we race?"

 

[Hunter Robinson]

Hunter wasn't sure if the girl really had a crush on Professor Kain or if she was just joking but he quickly realised what was the the answer as he her smile "Fair enough I do struggle not to hit anyone. And I totally get what you mean, been meaning to ask Professor Kain for some advice, he is a total ladies man" he said trying to sound truthful, hopefully he succeeded.
He wasn't sure about what to answer to her, she was a good runner and probably had more experience than him since this was his first run at Hogwarts. Theoretically he was expected to run faster than her because he was a boy but lately he had skipped his morning exercises and runs, so it might not be that way in practical terms.
After hearing the teasing comment from Harper, Hunter was now more than decided to accept the race. He tucked the water bottle backed in the backpack and closed it "Ha ha ha, you are so funny." he said ironically at her "You are on!" and with that said he quickly dropped his bag on the floor and started running without waiting for the girl to get fully ready, after all he did need the head start.

 

[Harper Alston]

Hunter took her comment in stride, describing Professor Kain as a ladies' man. "Eww, I hope you're joking," she wrinkled her nose before laughing. Hunter seemed uncannily sincere in his comment. "He's, like, so old." Okay, to be fair, he probably wasn't that old. At least not compared to some of the other professors, like Styx. Harper was pretty sure the DADA professor was at least in his nineties; his face looked like a skull. But still, it was weird to think of her teachers as normal people who had love lives — or even just lives, period — outside of school.

Hunter seemed to hesitate at her challenge, and Harper suddenly felt bad. He probably had his own workout routine and didn't want to waste his time sprinting up hills with someone he barely knew. She finished adjusting her hair tie and was about to take back her challenge when he pretended to laugh at her joke. Harper smiled again. "Of course I'm fun- HEY!" He had taken off, dropping his bag in her path. She leapt over it and started sprinting after him. "CHEATER!" Still, she couldn't help but give a joyful laugh as she focused on trying to close the distance. Really, she should have expected him to start without warning. It was the oldest trick in the book.

Hunter was pretty fast, Harper had to give him credit for that much. But she knew she could be faster. He remained ahead, but the hill was fast approaching, and she was pretty sure she had more practice scaling the thing at top speed than he did. "Hey, Hunter!" She called after him as they started to climb up, hoping he'd look back and waste a few precious seconds. "Ready..." She was breathing hard and could feel her legs starting to ache, but she was practically next to him. "To..." Harper took another few breaths, keeping pace with Hunter. "LOSE?" She increased her speed, passing him just as they crested the hill. She probably would have had more energy if she hadn't bothered wasting her breath on the taunt, but hey, friendly trash talk was a vital part of any race. And it'd been a while since she'd had the chance to engage in some mid-competition banter. Now she'd just have to focus on living up to her taunt. Harper turned her attention to the Greenhouses in the distance, envisioning herself rounding them and making it back to the lake first.

 

[Hunter Robinson]

The boy laughed loudly as Harper screamed the word cheater, her reaction was priceless. He kept the speed button pressed to his maximum but girl seemed to be catching up fast, the hardest part was to go up the hill.
Eventually the Gryffindor girl passed him but he knew he was faster on plain ground so whenever he finished to climb the hill he had more than enough time to pass her.

Finally he was on plain ground again so he started running again catching up with Harper, "I don't know" he said keeping the effort to go past her "You tell me" he said answering the question that the girl put him as he was climbing the hill as he went pt her.

He was now in front again, he touched the glass wall of the greenhouse and started running back again, he was going to win this even he got sore legs for a whole month. The way back was not so difficult,in the hill he could just jump, land, roll and keep on running that would probably save him some time but Harper was on his tail again and he needed to get his safety distance from her again.

 

[Harper Alston]

Flying down the hill was exhilarating and a welcome relief from the vicious climb just moments earlier. If anything, she just had to make sure she didn't go too fast and accidentally trip. For a few seconds, Harper could pretend that she was alone, all of her limbs working in perfect tandem to propel her forward. The peace was short-lived, however. Shortly after reaching flat ground, Harper could see a figure creep into her peripheral vision. And then that figure passed her. Harper narrowed her eyes at he threw her comment back at her, but she held back her tongue. Trash talking while you were losing was just pathetic.

They were fast approaching the closest greenhouse, and Harper slowed down a bit so she wouldn't slam into the glass. Luckily, after years of dodging defenders on the football field, she had gotten pretty good at changing direction quickly. Harper touched the glass and switched directions without losing too much speed. Hunter was still ahead, but the hill was coming up, and he didn't seem to do so well on those. Sure enough, as they climbed, she quickly reached him. "I love hills!" Her calves ached painfully. "Don't you?" she asked as she passed him.

Even though Harper was tired, she needed to make sure she took advantage of their time on the hill since he was pretty fast on flat ground. Or maybe he slowed down on the hill to save his energy for the level portions? Should she do that? Or maybe she should- No! Just stick with your strategy! she reminded herself. She'd done this run countless times, albeit never against an opponent. As Harper reached the top and started her descent, she called out, "You'll have to try harder than that!" Taking advantage of her new downward momentum, Harper readjusted her direction so that she was running in the path Hunter had been following. Hopefully he was still on the other side of the hill and hadn't seen what she'd done. It was a simple trick, unlikely to work, but hopefully it'd startle him and cost him a few precious seconds as he tried to move around her. Of course, there was a good chance he'd seen her, but it wasn't like she lost anything by trying it.

 

[Hunter Robinson]

Hunter just gave the girl a force smile, he could sense the teasing tone in her voice. He did love hills, he just rather preferred to go down instead of up.

The girl passed him again, he was getting tired of being in second place, especially because of a stupid hill. He was definitely going to jump off the hill to try to gain time, it go extremely wrong or brilliantly right. He was hoping for the second option.

When he got to the top of the hill he didn't even noticed what Harper was doing or whatthing she was scheming. He decided to jump, he passed above Harper, being in first again. He got to the floor, rolled and got up as soon as he could starting to run again. Hopefully the girl wouldn't be catching him before they reached their initial position. Hunter let out a wicked laugh "Bye bye, sucker!" he said to Harper as he kept running.

 

[Harper Alston]

Everything was going great: she was ahead, Hunter was behind, the lake was nearby, and most importantly, she would win. She'd also moved into his path, which would hopefully slow him down further. Harper was concentrating on the ground ahead of her, careful not to go too fast so that she didn't accidentally send herself tumbling down the hill, when she sensed something moving behind her. Instincts and an inexplicable fear took over, and Harper immediately dropped the ground, just in time to see Hunter pass over her, roll, and get up to keep running. Her mouth fell open as her brain attempted to make sense of what she'd just seen. Had he just jumped over her?! It was a good thing she'd crouched or he would have likely crashed into her.

At the sight of him running, Harper's mind kicked into gear again, propelling her forward. There was still a race to win. Though her chances of winning had dropped dramatically. Nevertheless, she sped towards him, holding nothing back. By some miracle, she didn't fall and reached level ground, where she managed to close the gap considerably, her brief break having given her a surge of energy. She was going so fast that she passed their starting spot at a full sprint and had to take several steps to slow down, stopping just short of the lake's edge. But it didn't matter. Because he had reached the spot first. Hunter had won.

After coming to a stop, Harper immediately whirled around and made her way to Hunter. "What on earth was that?!" She was practically shouting, but there was no anger behind her voice, just incredulity. "That thing on the hill— How— What— Did you—" She was still out of breath from their race, and that combined with her disbelief meant she wasn't doing a great job at stringing together a proper sentence. Harper paced around to let her muscles cool down as she took in several deep breaths. "I cannot believe you just did that! I can't believe it worked!" she finally said with an incredulous laugh. "You cheater," Harper smiled and moved to playfully shove him. "Are you secretly a Gryffindor? Or some kind of parkour expert?" She'd done her fair share of reckless things in the past, but even she wouldn't launch herself head first down a steep hill at top speed toward another person. She was surprised he hadn't died—or at least given himself a concussion.

 

[Hunter Robinson]

Hunter could not have believed he had won, he started taking some steps to slow down and when he did he fell flat on the ground. "I won't be moving for a month. My legs are officially dead" he said sitting down and trying to recompose himself, firstly by starting to catch his breath.

He couldn't believe his hill trick had worked and that he didn't injure himself somehow. He laughed at the girl an her incredulous expression "I honestly don't know" he said followed with some laughs "I'm as surprised as you are that I'm not dead". He couldn't believe it had worked either, in his mind that would never work, the odds were probably of one to one hundred, yet somehow he beat those odds. He was most certainly not a parkour expert neither a Gryffindor "Neither one or the other. Proud Hufflepuff, wouldn't change it for the world but that doesn't mean Hufflepuffs can't be brave sometimes" he answered to her giving her a wink.

 

[Harper Alston]

Harper laughed when she heard Hunter's remark about Hufflepuffs. "I guess you certainly proved that today." She stopped her pacing briefly to grab her water bottle and take a couple of small sips before continuing to walk back and forth. "Next time we race, I'll be sure to pick a route without hills or ledges." She definitely wanted a rematch. Yes, in part so that she could beat him at a proper race and prove she was faster, but also because he was a fun opponent. He could keep up and had made her workout much more lively. Though Harper liked solo runs, it sometimes got a bit lonely always running or practicing by herself. Everyone else here seemed to enjoy flying more.

The edge of the sky was starting to glow, and Harper glanced down at her watch. Sunrise had started just a few minutes ago though it was hard to tell with the hill in front of them. "C'mon, the sun's finally rising, and you gotta see it." That was the whole point of getting up so early. "Besides, your legs will feel better later if you properly cool down and don't just sit there." Harper stopped in front of him and extended her hand in case he needed help up. "But if all that cheating left you too tired to get up, I understand," she said with an innocent smile, figuring he deserved a bit of good-natured ribbing for his early start and mid-race stunt.

 

[Hunter Robinson]

Hunter laughed at Harper, she was pretty confident that there would be a next time. Hunter would probably never race with her anymore to keep his ego intact but he had to admit that it was pretty fun and that it wasn't totally off the table the possibility of a new race.

Hunter grunted, his legs were still pretty sore, especially when he was standing but he took the girl's hand and got in his feet "Do you know any specific place where we can see the sunrise better?" he asked. Maybe Harper had been on more morning runs and accidentally found a really nice spot to watch the sunrise, he thought. He rather watch the sunset than the sunrise, he liked its warm colors better and he liked to see the last rays of sunshine disappear, he sometimes used to seat on the beach and just watch the sun dive in the sea and disappear, it was a pretty good way to end the day.

 

[Harper Alston]

Hunter took her hand, and Harper pulled him up. "The cliff is the best spot cause you can see everything there," she said, pointing off to the distance. Usually, she ended her runs at the cliff so that she could reward herself with the view. "But I don't think you'd make it up there in this state," she added with a giggle. To be fair, she was also pretty tired. Their race had taken more energy than she had anticipated since she usually didn't go that fast when she was on her own. "There's another spot around those bushes," she gestured toward a clump of bushes along the edge of the lake ahead of them, "where the hill won't block the view."

Harper started following the lakefront at a slow walk, focusing on her breathing as it slowly eased. The adrenaline from her run had left her feeling more wide-awake than ever despite her sore legs, and it seemed that the world was slowly waking up, catching up to her. When she finally spoke again, her voice was quiet since it seemed almost wrong to disturb the peaceful morning. "You were pretty fast. Do you run competitively or just for fun?" She assumed Hunter ran somewhat regularly. Either that or he had an insane amount of innate talent.

 

[Hunter Robinson]

Hunter rolled his eyes with a smile, clearly Harper loved to tease. He started walking to those bushes that the girl pointed, trying to catch his breath and with his legs still pretty sore. He knew that after this if he dared to lay on his bed he wouldn't get up for the rest of the day, so maybe he would go directly to the bathroom for a shower without even glancing at his bed.
He and Harper started walking silently towards the bushes until she broke the silence with a question "I used to run and work out before coming to Hogwarts. Always like sports but I never competed or anything. I just kind of started slacking when I arrived" he looked at Harper and gave her a smile "and it started showing" he finished with a laugh, a few weeks ago he could run way more than that without being tired and now he was almost dying "What about you?" he asked her.

 

[Harper Alston]

Harper listened as Hunter explained that he'd stopped working out after coming to Hogwarts, and she nodded in sympathy. That she could understand. Though she had been working out consistently during her few months at Hogwarts, it barely compared to her routine back at home. "If you ever want to start up again, you're welcome to join me. I usually go running every other day and cross-train on off days," Harper offered. "Doesn't have to be a race or anything," she said with a sincere smile. She didn't really expect him to suddenly adopt a seven-day-a-week workout schedule, but it'd be nice to have someone else to run with every once in a while.

"Neither," Harper said in response to his question. "Well, I enjoy running now. But I used to hate it." It had come as an unpleasant surprise to her that if she ever wanted to actually get good at a sport, she had to keep up with the physical conditioning that came with it. "I started running so I could get better at football, but I guess I kind of fell in love with it in the process," she explained before giving a short laugh, realizing how her statement must have sounded. "Sorry, that was cheesy. But it's true. Anyway, it's not like I can play football here, so I have to keep running and training on my own so that I'm ready once summer comes and I can go home and play." Despite her efforts, Harper knew that there was no real substitute for in-game experience. Her first few matches back home would be rough.

 

[Hunter Robinson]

Hunter smiled, it would be nice to have someone that didn't allowed him to slack so he would probably take up on the girl's offer "Yeah we just have to schedule some days and we can run together" he said meaning it.
As they kept walking Hunter was surprised to know that Harper liked football, he should have seen that coming. Harper did seem the kind that practiced sports and she was a fast runner so, if he actually gave it some thought, it wasn't totally something amiss.
"I don't really like football, it's too...violent" he said thinking about all the tackles that exist during a single game, he would probably end up breaking something if he played football "I like swimming better." he told the girl "It is quite cold in the winter though" he added chuckling.

 

[Harper Alston]

At Hunter's statement, Harper shook her head. "Football's not violent!" It was elegant. She loved the way everything fell together for a single moment, the ball crisscrossing its way across the field to make its way in front of her, ready for her to send it into the goal. Okay, sure, her clashes with defenders left her with bruises more often than not, and yes, there was that one time she sprained her ankle, and — "Ok, maybe a little violent," she conceded. "But there are more violent sports, like rugby or boxing or hockey." She knew her parents had been relieved that she hadn't taken up any of those sports.

Hunter mentioned his preference for swimming, a choice which Harper could appreciate. "Swimming's nice," she said, nodding. "Never done it competitively though. I think I'd get tired swimming in circles." It was the same reason she didn't think she could ever be a track athlete and just run laps all day. Harper jabbed a thumb toward the lake next to them. "Have you gone swimming here, yet?" She'd badly wanted to but hadn't packed a swimsuit. Next semester though, she'd be sure to remember to bring one.

They finally made it to the spot she had indicated, allowing them a clear view of the horizon. "Ta da!" Harper said, gesturing dramatically at the sunrise. She was pleased that there were some thin clouds scattered across the sky, catching the light and making the view even prettier. "Makes the sore legs and getting up early worth it, huh?" She was aware that for most people, it was definitely not worth it. After all, that was why she and Hunter were the only ones out this early. But that was everyone else's loss. And it was probably for the better that the entire castle wasn't up and running around. Too many people would probably ruin the peace of the moment.

 

[Hunter Robinson]

Hunter got a little confused for a second as the girl mentioned rugby "Oh I'm sorry. Most people call football to rugby, so it was called american football and I was thinking about that one. Soccer aka the football you are talking about isn't so violent, that's fun" he said trying to correct his mistake. It's hard to know, with so many people at Hogwarts, which ones say football meaning soccer and which ones say it meaning rugby. Diversity was all fun and stuff until the clash of words started "I presume you are not american then?" he asked.
Hunter looked at the lake and reminded himself of his time with Emmaline, especially when he went in the lake "No not yet. I only walked on the lake until the water was almost at my knees, didn't go further. To be honest, I'm kind of scared that some mermaid or something might pull me underwater and not let me swim back up. Need to learn an hydro-breath spell first" he said laughing a bit, he didn't even knew if a thing such as a spell that let him breathe underwater existed.

They had finally arrived at the place Harper had told him about and she was right, the view was breathtaking. "Now this is the part where I hate that smartphones don't work here. This would make a great pic." he said after reaching the pocket of his shorts and noticing that the place that used to have his phone was now empty. He was not one of those kids who was super addicted to his phone but it definitely come in handy to have a phone for situations like these.

 

[Harper Alston]

At Hunter's confusion, Harper frowned. Now she was confused too. She listened as he explained that he thought she had been talking about American football. "Ohhh, everything makes more sense now," she said with a smile. American football did seem violent, based on what she'd seen in movies and TV shows. And awfully unwieldy, considering all the padding it required. Harper shook her head at his next question. "Nope, I've been in New Zealand my entire life. What about you?" she asked curiously. When she'd arrived at Hogwarts, she had assumed that everyone else would be from New Zealand, like her. But it seemed that people came from all over the world to attend the school, something she found exciting.

Harper's eyes widened at the mention of mermaids. "You think there are mermaids in there?" She glanced back at the lake and its still waters, which looked positively tranquil now. Sure, she'd heard rumors about a giant squid or sea monster, but she'd assumed it was just that — a rumor to scare first years. "I thought mermaids were nice," she said, thinking of the fairy tales she'd heard as a child. "If there was something dangerous in there, wouldn't the school fence it off or something? Or have the headmistress give us a big speech about it like she did with the Forbidden Forest?" Now she was even more eager to explore the lake.

Hunter seemed to also appreciate the view, and Harper smiled. She watched as he reached for his pocket and laughed lightly; she had done the same thing for weeks after first arriving at Hogwarts. "Yeah, I still can't believe wizards haven't figured out how to make electronics work." Sometimes the magical world seemed so backwards to her. It'd been, what, nearly 200 years since electricity was discovered? And they still couldn't figure it out? Did scientists even exist in the magical world? "The good news is that the sun rises every day, so it's not like this is your last chance to enjoy the view." She'd probably seen variations of this view at least a dozen times since coming to Hogwarts, and she still wasn't tired of it.

 

[Hunter Robinson]

"I'm actually from New Zealand too. Where from?" he said a bit surprised. He knew that technically there were supposed to be a lot of students from New Zealand but he was actually shook to meet one as everyone seemed to come from elsewhere.
Harper raised a good question. Hunter honestly didn't knew if there were mermaids there so he just shrugged "Why do you think that? From my movie knowledge mermaids are only nice on children's movies. In Pirates of the Caribbean mermaids aren't so nice, they lure you to the water so they can pull you down and drown you!" he answered with growing excitement as he kept talking, mermaids were definitely something to look out for. He didn't want to mess with them, especially being a handsome human male specimen, those were a mermaid favourite.

Hunter had to agree with that, sometimes wizards seemed so ahead of their time. In History of Magic wizards always seemed wiser and more mature, always one step ahead. So how come now they weren't? It's like the wizard culture stopped in time and didn't evolve, evolution is necessary for the specie to prosper. "I guess I'll have to be an inventor to create smartphones that work on the magical world" he told Harper with a teasing tone, he had no intention of becoming one. It seemed a rather stressful job coming up with new ideas to see some of them fail halfway through.

 

[Harper Alston]

"Helensville," Harper answered. "It's near Auckland." Normally she didn't bother with the name of her actual hometown since it was tiny, and a lot of the people she'd met at Hogwarts weren't even from New Zealand. But there was a small chance Hunter had heard of her town, especially if he was also from the Auckland area. "Where are you from?"

Harper gave a bit of a shrug when Hunter asked why she thought mermaids were nice. "I guess I've only really seen mermaids in children's movies. You know, stuff like The Little Mermaid. She seemed harmless enough. All she wanted was the prince." It was hard for Harper to take seriously someone who was willing to give up her voice for a boy she didn't even know. Hunter brought up the Pirates of the Caribbean, and she laughed. "I don't remember the mermaid part, just a bunch of zombie pirates." It'd been ages since she'd seen the first three movies, and she hadn't really cared for all the supernatural stuff. The sword fighting scenes had been more interesting. "But that does sound much cooler and scarier than the fairy tale stuff."

Hunter joked that he'd become an inventor, and Harper shook her head, adopting a serious look for a second. "Don't even joke about that. I'd totally buy one if it existed." She paused, contemplating the ways her life had changed since coming to Hogwarts. "I don't even miss the internet or games or stuff like that." Okay, she did kind of miss the ease of looking things up online. "I just wish I could text and call everyone back home and send them pictures of everything here," she said wistfully, gesturing vaguely at the sunrise and the castle. She hadn't ever thought herself as someone who was overly attached to her phone, but the past few months had shown her how integral it had been to keeping in touch with her loved ones. Texting and calling was so much easier than sending handwritten letters that then took days to get to her family. Communicating with her friends took even longer because she had to get her parents to pass along letters since she couldn't exactly tell her friends about owl post.

 

[Hunter Robinson]

"Wellington" he said "More on the outskirts of the city. You live more on the north of the island, I live on the south." he clarified in case the girl didn't knew where Wellington was located. It was crazy how close they lived, distance was a relative thing but this was the person he had met that lived the closest to him.

Hunter adopted a thoughtful expression for a second "I think the mermaids one is the fourth one...zombie pirates...well that's basically every movie" he said with a chuckle. The films were a great distraction but they kind of lacked a bit of originality in his point of view, as it was hard to tell the difference between one movie or the other with details such a zombie pirates because all pirates that weren't human kind of seemed like zombies.

"You and me both" he added referring to the wizard smartphones. Being apart from his family was a bit rough but he was actually enjoying this new freedom, it would be hard to give up on it once he got home. "I guess the whole point is to keep this a secret, that's why they don't invent smarthphones here. Imagine scrolling through Instagram and see a picture with a description saying 'Charms classes are hard, hashtag Wingardum Leviosa'" he said, laughing shortly after at his own joke.

 

[Harper Alston]

"Wellington, huh?" Harper repeated. "Then you must live close by. Are you going home for the break?" It must be nice to only have to take the Hogwarts Express and practically end up in your hometown. To get back to Helensville from Obsidian Harbour, she was going to have to fly, which she supposed was still better than having to endure an eight hour car ride.

Their conversation about mermaids and zombie pirates made Harper wonder what other magical aquatic creatures existed. "Hey, if mermaids exist, do you think the kraken is also real?" She glanced at the lake again, imagining a giant sea monster rising up and dragging and unsuspecting student down to a watery grave. "Obviously there isn't one in the lake—" she figured Hogwarts would have known by now if there was a kraken living in the lake, "—but maybe in the ocean somewhere else?"

Harper laughed at Hunter's joke about Instagramming Charms class lessons. "But imagine how many likes you could get with pictures of magic! The Great Hall's enchanted ceiling would definitely get you on the Explore Page." She knew she would never be able to post a photo of the ceiling on the internet, but she did wish she could show one to her family. It was the least she could do since they couldn't exactly see it in person themselves. "Okay, maybe smartphone aren't possible. But even old-timey phones like flip phone would be so much more convenient." Her grandparents had told her about the days when sending texts took forever and they had to use tiny keyboards with only numbers. Now she didn't even have the option to do that. "Writing letters takes me forever. And the school owls always steal bits of my breakfast," she added with a laugh.