Closed Long awaited reunion

[Hunter Robinson]

Hunter couldn't believe he had actually graduated from Hogwarts, he had decided to live and work in the muggle world like his mothers. He was currently studying at a muggle university. doing a major in wildlife biology before applying to vet school. His major was actually best of both worlds, he learned everything from mammals to fishes combined with forest ecology, animal-plant interaction and management of ecosystems. On the side he volunteered at an animal shelter in the wizarding world, as he struggled to fully eliminate magical creatures from his life, and worked a few shifts at the coffee shop on campus for some extra money. He was doing okay mostly, Asteria even seemed to like him now so his life was good.
He was currently parking outside a house in Helensville that Harper had texted him the adress of, this was the first time they would meet since they had left Hogwarts, a lot of things had happened since then. He took advantage of the holiday break and decided to drive to Harper's... he just forgot to see that it was an eight hour drive until he was already on his way. Well, it was okay, he had left early anyway. The boy had no idea what to expect, it's not like Harper would be unrecognisable by now, he just didn't knew what she was up to and if their differences and their lives would make them grow apart from now on, since they weren't bound to run into each other in the corridors anymore and apparently lived eight hours apart. He also questioned if her family was home, or maybe her brother that she talked about so much. He cursed himself for forgetting to bring a gift, but again, he wasn't sure if her parents were even gonna see them, they could even go for a walk outside the house... things with Harper had always seemed easy, why weren't they this time?
He got out of his car and walked towards the door in front of the house wondering if anyone inside had already noticed his presence, if they had they didn't bother to opened the door, so he knocked as soon as he finished sending a text to Harper saying "Here". Then he did what he knew best, he plastered his best boy next door smile, with his hands on the pockets his yellow varsity jacket, one that his moms gifted him when they knew he had gotten the spot as chaser in the Hufflepuff quidditch team, and waited until someone opened the door.
@Harper Alston

 

[Harper Alston]

It was shocking how quickly time slipped by.

Somehow, when Harper wasn't looking, the days after graduation had turned into weeks into months, and it was suddenly summer, the whole earth blooming, a new year just around the corner. And that meant it was time to go. It had been her plan from the start. She would work six months, and then shortly after the new year started, she would take off for her around-the-world trip. Harper had already given notice to her football club, letting them know that she wouldn't be around to help out with the summer league, and she planned on quitting her bartending job soon as well.

All that was left to do was to pack, a task made simultaneously easier and more difficult by the availability of magic. It would be so easy to pack everything she owned into a single bag using a couple extension charms, but Harper didn't want to get stuck lugging around too much stuff. That felt like it would ruin the spirit of her trip. She was already planning on traveling via portkey, and she didn't want to use more magic if she could help it. Harper was surveying her belongings, which she'd laid out across her side of the room, trying to decide what would make the cut when she felt her phone buzz.

It was a text. From Hunter. There was no way that could mean what she thought it meant. And yet he'd recently texted her asking for her address... Abandoning her packing, Harper bounded down the stairs and flung open the front door. There, standing on the porch, was her best friend. "Hunter!" She practically yelled his name as she pulled him into a hug. It had been forever since she'd seen him in person, and she wasn't sure how she'd allowed so much time to slip by. Harper pulled back with a grin. "I can't believe you're here." Her gaze traveled past him and landed on a car. "Wait, did you drive?!" She was pretty sure Wellington was like eight hours away. "You didn't have to do that. I could've visited you instead." She could apparate, after all. And she was more than willing to pay for a portkey if it meant seeing him. The thought made Harper feel a little guilty. If magic made it so easy for her to travel, why hadn't she visited him sooner? She moved to the side of the doorway, waving Hunter in. "How've you been? How's uni?" Harper took a step back and pretended to squint at him. "Did you get shorter?" She'd meant to feign a look of surprise to sell her joke, but all she could do was grin. It was so good to see him.

 

[Hunter Robinson]

Hunter rolled his eyes "Shut up I'm still taller than you" he said followed with a laugh "And yeah... don't worry though, I only found out that it was this far halfway through and I had the help of three cheeseburgers, a large dose of fries, three cokes, and two bags of licorice to keep me awake" he said looking at his car and the looking back to the girl. The pack of licorice had nothing to do with keeping him awake, he was just craving sweets and that was all the gas station had when it came to candy and he knew that if he didn't bought it his brain would keep up the cravings and that would drive him insane.

Hunter entered the doorway and stood inside the hallway waiting for Harper to close the door and lead the way "Uni has been great honestly" he said enthusiastically "We learn a bunch of cool stuff but the best part is that we have LOTS of on field time so my time is mostly spent actually doing pratical work rather than sitting in class all day" he kept explaining "i also got a job now, in campus, i work at the coffee shop. You'd be surprised on how much coffee everyone runs on so it's always crazy busy". He paused a bit before keep going. "What about you? When do you leave for your big trip that you've been talking about?", Harper had told him several times about her plans to make a trip around the world back at Hogwarts but recently it seemed that that had come to be more official and serious to the point where he knew this wasn't just a dream anymore.

 

[Harper Alston]

Harper laughed. "Just barely," she teased, chuckling again when he described how he'd managed to stay awake during the journey. "I'm impressed you didn't just give up when you found out. You must've been on the road all day." Harper liked driving well enough, but she couldn't stand long car rides, and she tried to apparate or portkey whenever possible. She had gotten quite adept at lying to her muggle friends about always parking" right around the corner" and then apparating away once she was out of sight. "Well, if you're still tired, we've got food," she offered, closing the door and leading him to the kitchen. "And coffee and fizzy drinks." Harper wondered if he planned on staying the night. There was no way he could drive back another eight hours in the same day.

Harper smiled as she listened to Hunter describe his life at uni though she also felt a small pang. Before Hogwarts, uni had seemed like a given. Now it felt like an impossibility. Harper still didn't understand how other Hogwarts students managed to make the leap to muggle university after seven years of magical instruction. "That sounds perfect for you." She knew how much Hunter loved animals. "Is it anything like Care of Magical Creatures?" she asked as that was her only frame of reference for wildlife-related classes. "Oh, congrats!" Harper said when Hunter mentioned getting a job as a barista. "I hope your customers are a lot less messy than mine," she said with a laugh, finding it amusing that they'd gotten such similar jobs.

At Hunter's question about her trip, Harper automatically glanced at the kitchen calendar even though she already had the date memorized. "January fifth. So you got here just in time." She was glad she'd managed to see him in person at least once before leaving for her six-month trip. "It's a good thing you're here, actually. I was in the middle of packing when you texted me. Now you can help me!" she said brightly though she was of course joking.

 

[Hunter Robinson]

Hunter felt a little embarrassed about the whole driving there situation "Oh yeah it's no trouble, I'm used to the long rides now you know? Driving my sisters around, driving to uni... plus, i enchanted the car to drive itself like half the ride while i rested" he said, it wasn't really reckless driving, it was more like putting the car in autopilot and let it do their thing, so far the enchantment had never got him into a crash... which is a couple less times than when he was driving manually.

His eyes widen at the mention of coffee "It's fine, coffee gives me ptsd" he said chuckling thinking not only at the hours long study sessions in the library with little breaks to refill his cup of coffee but also at the chaotic mess that the coffee shop he worked at turned into during exams season. That was the only time he had ever regretted working there, Hunter made a quick mental note to try not to work any shifts during the next exam season.

"It is and isn't?" he said trying to explain "you get to see a loooooot of new animals, like, muggle animals are probably more common to you but I had never really explored that realm all that much. The difference is in uni we learn a lot about the environments the creatures live in too and the necessary ecosystems for them so it's not only about the creature itself all the time" he explained. "That and there a lot less deadly creatures" he added as he laughed "Sorry i'm geeking out". Hunter then thought about what Harper could mean by messy, she worked as a bartender so maybe she meant spilled drinks or occasional drunk people "That bad, huh?" he asked before mentioning the incident of october 16th, a day that got permanently scarred in every employee from the coffee shop "The messiest thing it happened was when a lactose intolerant dude forgot to tell us that and ordered normal milk... let's just say the bathroom was interdicted for three whole days". It was a memory that made him laugh now but it took the whole coffee shop team to clean that because too much exposure would either make someone pass out or puke.

Hunter was okay with helping her pack but couldn't help but comment "So packing isn't just throwing everything inside a bag and hoping for the best?".

 

[Harper Alston]

Harper nodded. She occasionally had to shepherd her younger siblings around when her parents weren't available (her older brothers somehow were never free to take on the task themselves). "How are they?" she asked, referring to Hunter's sisters. Harper's eyes widened at the mention of enchanting the car. "Dude, is that even legal?" she asked with an amused smile. Of course he'd found a way to make driving easier. "Still, I get restless after even just an hour in a car. I can't just sit in one place for that long. I don't know how I made it through all those train rides at Hogwarts," she said with a laugh.

She chuckled a little at his reaction. "Okay, but help yourself if you want anything else," Harper said, gesturing at the fridge and pantry. She poured herself a glass of water before leaning against a counter to face him. "Now that you mention it, I guess it's a little weird they didn't teach us much about habitats and ecosystems during COMC," she reflected. For the most part, each class had just been an introduction to a new creature. As someone new the magical world, that setup had suited Harper fine, but she supposed Hogwarts could have done more to cover magical biomes. "What's the strangest muggle creature you've come across so far?" she asked curiously. It was a little funny to think of her magic-raised friends finding something in the muggle world strange.

Harper laughed. "Okay, maybe messy's not the right word. More like... loud? Sometimes rowdy? It honestly hasn't been that bad. It's not like it's a club or anything, so we don't get that many drunk people." She'd heard horror stories from a coworker who had once worked at a notorious nightclub in the touristy part of Auckland. "I mean, there have been times when I wished I could use magic to clean, but it usually doesn't get worse than a spilled drink." Occasionally it got much worse, but she didn't want to share those anecdotes with Hunter and gross him out. It seemed he had no such qualms, however. "Ewwww, Hunter," she complained. "I didn't need to know that," she said, feigning indignation before shaking her head. "But seriously, how do you forget you're lactose intolerant?" It was a rhetorical question since she could definitely imagine someone doing that. She'd come across a lot of customers who had made unwise decisions during her time as a bartender.

At Hunter's question, Harper chuckled. "I guess it could be, but I think I'd go crazy trying to figure out where everything is." She was much too organized for that method of packing. Besides, she was on a tight budget, and she didn't want to end up in the middle of the Amazon and realise she'd forgotten to bring bug spray. "The whole different seasons and climates thing is making things a lot harder. Apparently, it's still winter for half the world," Harper said with a laugh.

 

[Hunter Robinson]

The boy was quick to answer her "They are cool I guess, still at Hogwarts, should come back for break soon. My heart still breaks when I think that both turned out to be Gryffindors...", he pretended to wipe a tear from his eye "Asteria only has a few more years, i think she actually likes me now, or at least tolerates me enough to talk to me? I like where we are at. Crimson is mostly still a kid, she reminds me of one of your friends actually, she only wants designer clothes now because that's what all her friends wear". He paused remembering Harper's friends "How are your friends though, you kept in touch?" he asked hoping she would tell him about a specific one. For some reason all of this seemed to have happened ages ago. "Also, where is your family? Do you live here alone? I expected at least two loud kids" he asked the girl.

For the next answer Hunter stopped and thought for a bit "I'm pretty sure it's legal yeah... as long as no one find out". Then about Harper's next question he had to stop and think... again, Harper sure was liking to make him think on his answers today "Mmm... the strangest would either be an octopus cuz they have a weird texture or a lizard that shoots blood from his eyes, it's more disgusting than strange to be honest, one of them made one of my favourite shirts go straight to the washer" he answered. He liked to find out more about the muggle animals but there were a couple, mostly reptiles, that he would try to avoid working with in the future, they were definitely not his thing.

"Oh" he said "Do you still know how to do fancy cocktails though?", that's where he was a bit jealous of her. A job as a bartender seemed pretty cool, to be able to make all those cool cocktails and impress everyone, or juggle with the mixer and throw it in the air countless times and always catch it at the right time... the wildest thing he did at his job was this order made always by the same girl, that would make the saddest attempts to get his number, that always ordered a trenta, no foam, five-shot half-caf, no foam pumpkin spice latte with no foam at 210 degrees. An order that he had immediately recognised from being from the show Scream Queens, could you name a better definition of pick me girl?

Hunter just shrugged at what seemed to be a rhetorical question from Harper and laughed. Moving to the issue of packing he thought for a bit... Harper was really picking his brain today, "How about you do half an hemisphere, come back home to switch from your winter clothes to your summer ones and visit the other hemisphere?", he didn't want to brag but that just seemed like a genius idea... unless she was paying for flights "You are going to apparate right?", he still decided to check.

 

[Harper Alston]

Harper pretended to chuck a saltshaker at Hunter. "I don't know, it sounds like you're just jealous you weren't a Gryffindor yourself," she said with a grin. "Asteria willingly talking to you... who would've thought?" she teased though she was happy for Hunter. She snorted a little at his comment about Blake. "They're good. I've kept in touch with a lot of them, some more than others." Harper knew she was being vague, but she didn't want to admit to Hunter that she had stayed in closer touch with some of them than she had with him. "Don't let them hear you call them kids," Harper said with a laugh. "Uh, Everett moved out a while back. Fletcher's here for the break, but I'm not sure where he is now." She heard footsteps upstairs. "Actually, he might be upstairs," she amended. "Lila's probably out with her friends, and Ryland's got a game today, so my parents are with him. So no, I don't live alone," she summed up. "You just picked a really good time to visit."

Harper just raised her eyebrows at Hunter's reply. It sounded sketchy, to say the least. She was amused to hear which muggle animals he found strange. "You know, some muggles eat octopuses. But the lizard's pretty weird. I didn't know there was a species that could do that." Still, she would take a blood-shooting lizard over a blast-ended skrewt or a quintaped or even a bubotuber any day. Harper laughed a little at his question. "I mean, I can make some pretty complicated cocktails, if that's what you mean. I don't know if you'd call them fancy though." Maybe she'd just grown desensitized after so many shifts, but she didn't think any of the drinks she'd made were that special. "How long are you going to be in Auckland?" she asked, wondering if Hunter planned on going straight back to Wellington after this visit or if he would be in the Auckland area for a bit longer. "If you stop by and I'm in, I can make you a drink, on me." She'd already had a couple friends visit her while she was working, and she always gave them free drinks.

Hunter had a point, and Harper wondered if she should've tried to divide her itinerary by hemisphere. It was a little late for that, though. She'd already booked her first few portkeys and hostels. She shook her head. "No, portkey. Tying to apparate across countries seemed kinda risky." Harper felt comfortable enough apparating between here and Brightstone, but that was about the extent of her range and she used portkeys for anything further. She couldn't imagine trying to make the jump from here to another continent. "I think trying to portkey back in the middle might be pretty expensive." Not as expensive as a plane ticket, but still. She was relying entirely on her own funds for this trip.

 

[Hunter Robinson]

Hunter faked surprise, "I know right?! She is a changed woman" he immediately had to chuckle a bit after saying this out loud. In recent times it seemed like his sister was getting out of her shell a bit more, maybe because she had slowly started to get used to the idea that not everyone was out to get her, at home at least. She had even made some friends at Hogwarts from what he knew, so that might have helped her be a little more social. Crimson had told Hunter that Asteria thought they were gonna get dumped into foster care again, maybe the older girl had started to believe they wouldn't. Hunter rolled his eyes in fake annoyance "Here I thought I was meeting your family and get some dirt and embarrassing baby pics of you...". Hunter was pretty sure that at the times they were at Hogwarts if Harper wanted she could have gotten all the dirt she wanted on him being both his sisters Gryffindors, maybe she did and she was just wanting on the right time to use it.

Hunter nodded in agreement, he might not fully be muggle but he ate muggle food "Yeah my moms made octopus from time to time, this is gonna sound bad but like... it's only when they are not cooked that they have a weird texture", he didn't meant like all octopuses should be cooked, he just didn't love the slimy gooey texture on his bare hands. "I'll take you up on that drink, I'm staying until the end of the week, my sisters get back home then and I only have one parent home so until they are gone they are like the kids I never asked for" he said both chuckling and slightly annoyed that he had for some reason to responsible for two teenage girls while he was on break...

"Where is the Harper I know? You used to love risky...", Hunter thought back to when they went to the dark forest and he was pretty sure half the times was because she wanted... even though that she also seemed to be a bit more responsible than him a few of times but he had always thought that that was some sort of innate responsibility that came with being a girl, "Has the Harper Alston finally grown up?"

 

[Harper Alston]

Harper laughed when Hunter revealed the "real" reason he'd come to visit. "Those don't exist," she said cockily. "I was a very cute baby, and I've never done anything embarrassing in my life." That was not true, of course, and in fact Hunter had witnessed plenty of her embarrassing moments at Hogwarts. She glanced at the stairs. "If Fletcher comes down, I'm sure he'll tell you the same thing," she said with a grin. Harper supposed it was a good thing Everett was not home since out of all her siblings, he would definitely be the most eager to dig up some embarrassing photos and stories.

Harper chuckled a little at his comment. "I've never touched a live octopus, so I'm going to take your word for it." She supposed it was no different than thinking live or raw fish was gross while being fine with the texture of cooked fish. She grinned when Hunter said he'd be here for the week. "Awesome, I'm sending you the address. Is this your first time in Auckland?" she said, already reaching for her phone to text him the name and address of the bar. Once that was done, Harper put away her phone, shaking her head in mock disappointment. "I can't believe I thought you came all this way just to see me, when really you just wanted to get away from your sisters and try to get dirt on me."

At Hunter's question, Harper snorted. Despite technically being an adult, the last thing she felt these days was grown up. "Ok, but there's a difference between muggle risks and magical risks. I'm not trying to splinch myself and end up in the middle of the Pacific without half my body." She took risks when she understood the stakes, and magic made things so much more unpredictable. There was also an element of truth to Hunter's words. She'd lost a lot of her daring after her botched animagus transfiguration in sixth year. While she'd worked hard to build up her confidence since then, Harper knew she wasn't as carefree and reckless as she had been when she was younger. "Speaking of, do you think you're ever going to get your apparition license?" she asked curiously.