Closed Looking for a Happy Place, Little Piece of Grace

[Harper Alston]

It occurred to Harper as she rummaged through one of the cabinets in the Kitchens that she probably should not be doing this. Taking food without asking the elves was technically against the rules, and she was now a prefect — a fact that was surprisingly easy to forget sometimes — which meant she probably should be following the rules. Harper paused for a second before resuming her search, deciding that there wasn't much point in asking the elves for food that was right there. And surely it was more polite not to bother them?

Besides, she'd done this before without getting caught. In third year, Harper and her friends had raided the kitchen for snacks to throw a little celebration for Sky after she'd made the Quidditch team. They had done it again last year after Em made prefect. And now, she was doing it — albeit at a much smaller scale — to celebrate Nikko's new position as Quidditch captain. Harper had thought about reaching out to some of Nikko's other friends, but she didn't know them well. And if she was being honest, she was kind of doing this for herself too. After a thoroughly miserable break, she could definitely use a hangout with a friend that didn't involve having to make small talk with strangers.

After amassing a small pile of lollies and snacks, Harper realised that she'd forgotten to bring a container to hold everything. She frowned. It was a minor detail, but one that she definitely would have remembered if she had done this last year. The break had left her feeling unmoored, and Harper had spent the last few days crashing blindly through life as she sought distractions to fill up her time. At least this oversight wasn't a big one. She pulled open another cabinet, this time looking for a bag or large serving bowl that could hold the snacks.

 

[Nikko Blackwood]

Nikko was doing his best to go into his last year at Hogwarts with a positive attitude. But it was harder to maintain that he had hoped. Things with Estella were still unresolved and that didn't even begin to scratch the surface. He had known being captain would be a lot of work but it felt so different now that it was happening and everyone was looking to him for answers and guidance. But this wasn't anything he couldn't handle, at least that's what he told himself. The kitchens were a familiar haunt of his at this point and he even knew a few of the house elves and he wondered if they would notice when he graduated. He whistled to himself as he entered and stopped short when he realized he wasn't alone. It took him a second to realize it was Harper rummaging through the cupboards. "Looking for anything good?" he asked with a chuckle before noticing the snacks she had already pulled out. "Having a party?"

 

[Harper Alston]

At the sound of whistling, Harper froze, suddenly realising that she hadn't prepared an excuse for her searching. Great. The new year had barely started, and she was already going to get in trouble. Bracing herself for the worst, Harper turned and jumped slightly when she saw the very person she was looking to surprise. "Nikko! I thought... I thought you had practice." She was annoyed with herself for not preparing for this possibility. She knew Nikko sometimes came down to the kitchens when he needed to take his mind off things. So his sudden appearance was less than ideal, not just because of the ruined surprise, but because of what it possibly indicated about his current stress levels.

Nikko noticed the small mountain of snacks she had accumulated, and Harper was silent for a second as she tried to figure out a way to salvage the situation. Coming up with nothing, she gave him a wry smile. "Kind of. I was going to try and surprise you. Figured captain of the Quidditch team was worth celebrating but well..." It was pretty obvious how things had gone wrong. She plucked a lolly off the pile and grinned at him. "So... surprise?" Harper tossed the piece of candy towards him. She had tried to choose things she knew he liked, though she had steered clear of baked goods in case he thought the elves' baking skills didn't measure up to his own — not that he would be wrong if he did think that.

 

[Nikko Blackwood]

Nikko leaned against one of the counters and grinned as Harper looked shocked to see him. "Nah, that was yesterday. Can't push the team too hard. I need them to make it to the first game." he joked before shooting her a curious look. He started to poke at the snacks and was silently pleased that she had managed to grab all of his favorites. He was about to ask to have some before she mentioned it was for him. Nikko froze with his hand hovering above a bag of his favorite chips. "You didn't have to do all that." he said quickly and was momentarily overwhelmed by the gesture. He also felt a little bad for ruining his own surprise and gave Harper a sheepish look. "I'm still pretty surprised if it means anything now."

 

[Harper Alston]

Harper shrugged. "It was nothing, really." Gathering snacks from the kitchens didn't take much more than a little time, and these days, she had more time than she knew what to do with. "Besides, I wanted to." She knew Nikko had had a couple of pretty miserable months last semester, and she had to imagine the start of seventh year brought its own stresses, what with the Quidditch captaincy and NEWTs. This was truly the least she could do.

"Mmm you look very surprised," she said a little dryly before smiling. She had something that would hopefully actually catch him off-guard. "Hold on a sec." Harper reached into her pocket, pulled out a magical confetti popper, and quickly tapped it with her wand. It levitated over to Nikko before exploding into a shower of confetti. "There, now it's an actual party," she said with a little grin. Once the confetti had settled — she decided she could clean that up later — Harper took a lolly for herself and leaned back against the opposite counter. "So, seventh year..." she started, "how're you feeling?" They hadn't had much time to catch up since the break, and she wasn't sure where his head was these days, so she wanted to leave the question as open-ended as possible.

 

[Nikko Blackwood]

Nikko knew it was useless to try and protest so he just smiled again. “Well, thanks.” he said and grabbed the bag of chips he was eyeing earlier and opened them. “I was.” he insisted with a laugh and watched Harper curiously as she reached for her wand. “What are you-” Nikko started to ask until a moment later when confetti shot out of her wand and got tangled in his hair. He laughed again and shook his head like a wet dog and sent the confetti flying again. ”A party might be a stretch.” he teased.

He looked into the bag of chips and spotted some bits in there that hadn’t been before. He picked around the confetti and ate a few before offering the bag to Harper in case she wanted some. There was plenty to share. Nikko’s easy grin faltered a bit at her question. “Mostly…good.” he answered hesitantly, which was mostly true. He was feeling better than he had last semester but there was still a lot hanging over his head he wasn’t quite dealing with yet. “Its weird,” he continued. “Part of me is excited to finally almost be done with the exams and the lessons but…I don’t feel ready to leave yet.” he shrugged.

 

[Harper Alston]

"Hey!" Harper took a step back, laughing as she tried (unsuccessfully) to avoid the confetti that Nikko sent flying. "It's not like I had a lot of time to prepare," she shot back though she was smiling. Harper took a couple of chips, silently noting the way his grin seemed to waver at her question. "'Mostly good' is good," she said with an encouraging smile. It was a lot better than "absolutely miserable," which was how Nikko had acted for much of last semester.

She nodded as Nikko elaborated on how he was feeling. It was pretty similar to what Chloë had told her last year before graduating. "Well you still have basically a whole year before you leave. There's still a lot of time before you have to be ready." Even though a school year technically wasn't that long in the grand scheme of things, it still felt decently far away to Harper, which was good. She wasn't ready to say goodbye to another set of graduating friends. "Of course, if you're still not ready by then, I'm sure Alicastell would hire you on to work in the kitchens. You could be head pastry chef," she joked.

 

[Nikko Blackwood]

Nikko grinned satisfactorily as Harper got covered in confetti too. It would have been rude of him not to share after all. He shot her a look when she tried to be encouraging. He did appreciate it even if he had a hard time taking it. “Yeah.” he laughed. “Better than mostly bad.” he admitted. He wasn’t sure how anyone felt confident or excited about graduation. Maybe people who had jobs lined up or parents that helped them plan for the future. His parents were great and would support him no matter what he chose to do but he sometimes wished they had a stronger opinion. It would at least give him something to work with. His dad used to at least hate magic, and he still did but he had softened recently. He had even gifted Nikko a new broom when he had found out Nikko had gotten captain.

“Hadn’t thought of that.” Nikko said thoughtfully, when Harper suggested working in the kitchens. That wouldn’t be so bad. But at that rate he was better off working for his parents. “Do you think the house elves would mind if I joined them?” he asked playfully but glanced around the kitchens quickly to see if any of them were around. Most of them were nice or at least ignored him when he was down here but there were a few grumpy ones he didn’t want to upset. Especially if they could one day be his coworkers.

 

[Harper Alston]

Nikko seemed to take her suggestion seriously, and Harper arched an eyebrow. He must have been really worried about graduation if he was actually thinking of working in the Hogwarts kitchens. It wasn't that Harper thought he couldn't do it or that a job in the kitchens couldn't be meaningful — she just thought Nikko deserved a life bigger than days spent in a dungeon with only elves for company. She relaxed a little at his question. "Well," Harper said, pretending to think about it, "as long as you don't insult their baking skills, they probably won't mind too much." She nodded at the bag of chips he was holding. "You should probably hide those though. Technically, all this stuff was stolen."

Thankfully, there didn't seem to be any house elves around. Harper had never been a stickler for the rules, but it would still be a little embarrassing to get in trouble so early in the year, especially now that she had a prefect's badge. She took a couple more chips for herself. "You could also just fail all your NEWTs," she said very helpfully. "You'd have to repeat all your classes, but on the bright side, you'd get to be in the same year as me," Harper said with a grin.

 

[Nikko Blackwood]

Nikko laughed. “Don’t know if I could make that promise.” he said grimly as Harper said he couldn’t insult the elves' baking skills. He was mostly joking of course. The elves were great cooks most of the time. But he had to admit there were a few things they made that he knew he could do better himself. “You’ve made me a criminal.” he said with mock seriousness, as if students didn’t come to the kitchens all the time to get a few snacks between meals. He didn’t stop eating the chips but he did take some extra effort to be a bit quieter when he stuck his hand in the bag. Nikko snorted without meaning too when Harper said he could fail his NEWTs. “Then I’d definitely have to start working in the kitchen.” he said. Honestly the idea of getting to repeat the year didn’t sound that bad. He could hang out with Harper and Aubrey, and even get to stay on the Gryffindor team a bit longer. But he shook his head. “You’d get sick of me.” he joked, not able to pass up a self-deprecating punchline. But realistically he knew he had to make it on his own one way or another.

 

[Harper Alston]

Nikko might have been joking, but Harper was pretty sure she'd once seen him give the pastries at a school function a judgmental once-over. She laughed. "Hey, you have no one to blame but yourself. If you hadn't crashed your own surprise party, I could have snuck these out." But she made no move to head for the door. Even if she'd planned on surprising Nikko out on the grounds or in the common room, Harper supposed it made sense that they'd ended up in the kitchens. It was one of the parts of the castle that she most closely associated with him.

Harper grinned. "I never said it was a good plan." Well, it'd be good for her if he stuck around for an extra year. "Though, you don't really need NEWTs to become a pro quidditch player." Even though she said this casually, Harper watched closely for Nikko's reaction. It had been a while since he'd mentioned wanting to go pro, and she didn't know if that was still his goal. At Nikko's joke, she smiled and shook her head. "Nah. I've managed to put up with you for what, four years? Five years? What's one more?" It was a little crazy to think that they'd been friends for that long.

 

[Nikko Blackwood]

Nikko shook his head with mock frustration. “Well I guess you need to be quicker next time.” he teased lightly. He still thought the gesture was nice even if he had ruined it for himself. But part of him liked this more. A celebration in a quiet corner of the castle. He chuckled when Harper admitted that her plan for him to work in the kitchens wasn’t actually very good. He could have told her that. But the fantasy had been nice to think about for a while. But he sighed when she brought up quidditch and going pro. “I suppose not.” Nikko said with a shrug. He wasn’t sure exactly what requirements he needed to play professionally, besides being good. He knew he was good for Hogwarts but going pro felt like a whole other level. “You think coaches take bribes?” he joked.

He grinned at her comment about putting up with him. Nikko didn't have that many people he could really consider friends and he was grateful for her. “I guess so.” he said and tried to shake off the overly sentimental feeling that was bubbling up inside. It wasn't time for this kind of think yet. "Enough about me." he said. "What are you going to do when you leave here?"

 

[Harper Alston]

Harper quietly noted the way Nikko sighed. He didn't object, however, which she took to mean that he was still hoping to go pro. She just wished he had a little more confidence in himself. At his joke, Harper grinned. "Probably not, but if you give them some of your cupcakes, I'm sure they'd change their minds." She paused, her tone growing a touch more serious as she gave him a sincere smile. "You're not going to need it though." She didn't know how exactly professional Quidditch worked, but judging by the number of Hogwarts students who went on to play professionally, she had no doubt Nikko could do the same. He was one of the most talented players at the school.

Harper much preferred talking about Nikko's life; it was a good distraction from her own. She made a face. "Hey, I'm not supposed to have to think about that for at least another year," she joked. She'd had her own goals, of course, but half of them had blown up over the break. "I was going to spend some time in the muggle world, maybe." Would there be anything left for her there once she finally graduated? "And then try and get a job with the Ministry as an auror."

 

[Nikko Blackwood]

Nikko couldn't help but laugh at Harper's suggestion. "Yeah," he said, chuckling again. "I don't think many people think to try using baked goods for bribes." he admitted and momentarily indulged in the fantasy and considered what he might try and make to convince someone to let him on a quidditch team. But he was brought back to reality when Harper mentioned he wouldn't need it. He always appreciate the faith she had in him even if he wasn't sure he had earned it. "Hope not. Cupcakes don't travel very well." he said lightly.

He grinned when she made a face. Now she knew what it was like to be asked all the hard questions. Not that Nikko had wanted bring up anything bad, he did genuinely want to know. "It'll be here before you know it. Take it from me." he warned finally using his seniority for something. "An auror?" he repeated as a question. She hadn't mentioned it before but he guessed it made sense. She definitely had the grades for it compared to him.

 

[Harper Alston]

Harper groaned melodramatically at Nikko's warning. "You don't have to remind me." The thought made her a little sad since she knew seventh year for her would mean graduation for him. There was the owl post of course and Harper was very used to sustaining friendships through letters by now, but she still wished the magical world had a more instantaneous form of communication.

She nodded. "Yeah." Her goal had never been a secret but she also didn't talk about it often since it was so competitive, and she knew she didn't really come across as the stereotypical auror. "I've always wanted to be a spy," Harper said with a wry smile. She took a few more chips, her expression turning pensive. "I'm definitely not cut out for a normal nine-to-five desk job." While she knew that the part of the job she was most interested in — investigation and intelligence gathering — would involve a fair amount of time in the office, she figured there would also be plenty of fieldwork. "And I think the work would be interesting. Plus, I know it's kind of cliché, but I do want to do some good in the world." The first-year DADA lesson about blood supremacy had forever changed Harper's view of the magical world, and she knew there were still people who harboured those beliefs. If she could do something to combat blood-related extremism, then she wanted to do it.

 

[Nikko Blackwood]

"A spy?" Nikko asked with a grin and tried not to laugh, not that he thought the idea was funny. He had just never considered the thought of her being someone secretive or doing something that could be that...dangerous. He didn't love the idea exactly but he understood what she was saying. How could you fault someone for trying to good? He wasn't sure playing a sport professionally brought all that much good into the world in comparison but he knew it would make him happy, which had to count for something. "That's...cool." he said finally. "You're going to learn all the Scitorari secrets and take them down?"

 

[Harper Alston]

"What, you never had a spy phase as a kid?" Harper asked with a grin. "Let's see, there was also a circus phase — I was going to run away and become a trapeze artist — and an astronaut phase." The first had ended when she'd discovered that real circuses did not actually recruit runaways, unlike what many a children's book had led her to believe, and the latter had ended when it became clear she wouldn't be getting a muggle education beyond primary.

And then there had been her professional footballer phase. That one had hurt the most to let go of, and it hadn't truly ended until this year. If Harper were being completely honest, a small part of her resented the fact that so many of her friends, both muggle and magical, still had the option of pursuing careers as professional athletes while her own dreams were cut short.

Harper could tell Nikko didn't really know what to make of her plans. She occasionally had her own doubts, but it was the best fit she'd found so far in the magical world. "Something like that," she said with a smile. "I'm sure it'll be as easy as you make it sound," she joked. "I do have the element of surprise, after all. I doubt anyone will be expecting me to be an auror."