Closed Quiet Outings

[Aubrey Blackwood]

With her brother moving into his apartment right now, Aubrey had decided to go with her parents to Australia, thinking it would be nice to spend time with them and get out and see a new part of the world. The place they stopped was nice, homey. She wondered around for a bit but got bored exploring on her own, and ended up sitting down on a chair by one of the windows, watching the sky outside idly. She was bored by herself, but she didn't really have any friends to write to, or see any kids her age around. She sighed.

 

[Nikko Blackwood]

Nikko was happy to be back home in Australia, and most importantly the inn his parent’s owned that acted as his first home away from home. Hogwarts was quickly becoming his second and it was odd to think about how quickly he had gotten comfortable there. But today he was busy with all of the chores he was helping his parent’s with. He had just finished his dad fix one of the doors to a room and he was on his way to help his mom get the pastries for the next morning's breakfast ready when he caught sight of something that made him freeze. In one of the sitting rooms downstairs he spotted a girl he knew. It didn’t take long to place her, she was in Gryffindor with him. Even if he didn’t know her name he definitely recognized her. Against his better judgement he walked over to her. He wanted nothing more then to ignore her and pretend this wasn’t happening but the anxiety from knowing there was a magical person here and that his dad might find out pushed him forward. “What are you doing here?” he asked, his tone more accusatory then it was intended. He sighed. “Sorry, uh I think we go to school together.” he explained. “I-i just didn’t expect to see anyone from school to show up here.” he added nervously as he shifted his weight from foot to foot.

 

[Aubrey Blackwood]

Aubrey was startled as another boy approached her, and she couldn't help the tears that came to her eyes as he yelled at her. "I'm sorry," She apologized quickly, curling up in her chair, too tired to keep up her usual strong and confident facade. "I just- I just flew in with my parents, they said this was going to be a fun place to stay..." She bit her lip, and feeling ashamed for just being here, she stood and hurried past the boy. She had just wanted to relax, she didn't mean to- she didn't think being here was such a bad thing.

 

[Nikko Blackwood]

Nikko's expression softened immediately and looked alarmed as the girl started to cry. She stammered an explanation about being there with her parents before running off. He immediately felt awful and wanted to kick himself for sounding so mean. He just panicked about his dad finding out and let that get the better of him. He hadn't even had a chance to apologize before she had run off.

The next morning Nikko showed up to the inn to help his parent's again but he also had his own reasons. He hoped he'd run into the girl again and get a chance to explain himself. It was early when he started to help his mom put out the food for breakfast but he didn't mind since he wanted to keep his eye out for her.

 

[Aubrey Blackwood]

After last nights run in, Aubrey was determined not to let herself be seen as weak again. She got up a little early, taking the time to carefully fix her hair and apply some light make-up. She was too young to need the darker colors yet, but her mother had taught her how to highlight her face and just make herself look more put together. She spotted the boy as soon as they came down for breakfast, but she dutifully ignored him. Head held high, she took her food to sit alone in the corner of the room, acting with all the pride of a peacock that knew he looked good. Aubrey thought peacocks were dirty show-offs, but her pride was wounded enough she was going to strut like one anyway just to prove her point.

 

[Nikko Blackwood]

Nikko nearly dropped the tray of muffins he was carrying when he spotted the girl again, sitting at the table looking completely unbothered. He sighed, relieved she didn't seem too upset after yesterday. He quickly finished what he was doing and made his way over to her. He cleared his throat, unsure suddenly of what he had wanted to say. "Good morning." he blurted out and sighed. "I just wanted to say sorry about yesterday. I didn't mean to sound so harsh. I was just surprised is all." he explained quickly. It wasn't exactly the whole story but he wasn't sure how to even being explaining his father's stance on magical people and he figured this wasn't the time anyways. "Muffin?" he asked after a second, and gestured to the tray he was carrying a second ago.

 

[Aubrey Blackwood]

Aubrey's heart nearly stopped when the boy appeared again, but she was determined not to let it show. She took a small, dainty bite of her breakfast and looked up at him, doing her best to look dignified. "So your first reaction to the unexpected is to snap at people. That isn't very nice," She stated simply, trying to sound above it. "I would like a muffin, thank you." She took one carefully from the boy and set it down by her plate. "I will admit it is a bit of a coincidence to see someone else from school here, but that hardly justifies being snippy about it." She took a small sip of her milk.

 

[Nikko Blackwood]

Nikko wasn’t sure what kind of reaction he was expecting, but her calm retort wasn’t it. “Well sometimes I guess.” he answered a little sheepishly. He hadn’t really thought about it before and he rarely got upset, so it wasn’t like he snapped at people often. “Sorry.” he mumbled again when she pointed out it wasn’t very nice. She wasn’t telling him anything he didn’t know but it still made him feel bad to hear it out loud. Thankfully she accepted his offer of a muffin, glad he could do something right as he offered her the tray to choose from. He sighed. “I know. It was a bit uncalled for.” he said, and considered how to explain his reasoning that didn’t make his dad sound awful or make things more awkward. “It’s just that my dad doesn’t like magical people very much. And I just didn’t want him to find out that there were any here and cause any issues.” he tried to explain and wasn’t sure if he had done a good job at all.

 

[Aubrey Blackwood]

Aubrey felt hurt at his words. She bristled a little bit, shaking her head. "First of all, that's rude. It's hardly my fault your dad has an issue with who I am. Secondly, I don't even know you, or your father, and I'm hardly going to prance about breaking several different laws about underage magic and muggle exposure just to make some guy I don't even know uncomfortable!" She smacked her plate down and stood, feeling hurt and angry all at the same time. "Just because you have some stupid family issue doesn't mean you can just take it out on anyone that walks in!" She took his muffin and tossed it back on his tray. "I'm not hungry," She turned and stormed off, not wanting him to see her cry. She didn't even have a home right now, her parents were travelling and making her live with her older brother, and yes, she loved him dearly, but it still hurt her a bit to be tossed around like no one really wanted her. She wasn't going to just sit still and have some random boy tell her his father and he didn't like her or want her near.