Closed Unsteady as the Seasons

[Harper Alston]

Harper usually didn't mind being cut off from the magical world during the break. Sure, it was annoying not to be able to use magic, and she did miss her Hogwarts friends terribly, but she was usually too busy trying to catch up in her other life, her muggle one, to be too upset. But this year, her muggle life had imploded, and Harper had found herself thinking a lot about the magical part of her identity. The Minister for Magic election was coming up, and she knew it could have major implications for her own life. It had been frustrating, then, to spend three months cut off from any magical news sources, unable to get updates on the election.

Thankfully, she didn't have to worry about that anymore. Harper had already skimmed a couple old issues of the Daily Prophet and found that nothing especially noteworthy had happened over break. While that meant she hadn't missed anything, it also meant that none of the candidates had announced new policies concerning muggleborns or animagi. That didn't stop her from opening every new issue of the Prophet, hoping for news. But so far, today's paper didn't seem to have anything interesting despite the front-page headline promising an "in-depth" and "exclusive" look at the candidates' platforms. Harper sighed and took a bite of toast before flipping the page and continuing the skim the headlines.

 

[Flynn North-McGowan]

Flynn had a perfectly quiet and ordinary break, despite everything going on around him. The truth of it was that everyone was so busy and preoccupied with the campaign that no one had really paid much attention to him. Which was perfectly fine in Flynn's books. He had spent most of his break sleeping until gone noon and not being told to wake up early and do something productive. The only times he had actually woken up and left the house was when he had to go to work. So, now he was back at Hogwarts, he really wasn't looking forward to having to wake up at a reasonable hour and actually bother to go to classes.

Managing to pull himself out of bed at the last possible moment he could get away with, Flynn yawned as he headed down to the Great Hall. He was still looking a bit of a mess, hair sticking at certain odd angles as he slumped into one of the empty spots at the Gryffindor table. Blindly trying to grab some waffles, his eyes landed on Harper and the copy for the Prophet she was flicking through. "Pass that when you're done," he offered with another yawn, "Wanna see what they're saying about my mum."

 

[Harper Alston]

Someone took a seat near her, and Harper glanced up from the paper to see Flynn. She frowned slightly. He could be pretty grumpy, and she didn't really want to start her day on a negative note. Thankfully, he looked like he was still half-asleep and not in the mood for a conversation. Harper resumed her reading, only looking up when he asked her to pass something. "Huh?" It took her a second to register his request, and her gaze flickered to the paper before returning back to him. "Why would your mum be in the paper?" she asked, still unsure if she had understood his comment. Harper didn't know much about Flynn's family, but she did remember him once telling her he didn't have a real home and then strongly implying that he lived in some kind of children's home. Of course, he could have been lying, but that was a pretty messed up thing to lie about.

 

[Flynn North-McGowan]

After a couple of failed attempts of blindly reaching for some food, he finally did manage to get his hands on a couple of waffles, dragging them onto his plate with another yawn. Then he tried to grab the chocolate spread as there was no chance he was going to sit there and start eating plain waffles. He might be half-asleep but he still had standards. "Because of the election, obviously," he would have thought it would be rather obvious. Then again, maybe Harper didn't actually know who he had been adopted by. It was not really something he advertised and it wasn't like they were friends. "My adoptive mum's running for Minister."

 

[Harper Alston]

At the mention of the election, Harper just gave Flynn a blank stare. Maybe she was more tired than she had thought since Flynn was acting like this was information she should have already known. And then he mentioned that his mum was one of the candidates. Harper waited a beat, wondering if he maybe he was being sarcastic. "Wait, really?" She glanced down at the paper and the little moving headshots of each of the candidates. "Which one is she?" Although Harper knew that the magical world was small and that the current Minister's children had attended Hogwarts, it was still weird to think that someone in her year was related to one of the candidates.

 

[Flynn North-McGowan]

Almost knocking over his drink as he pulled his arm back with the chocolate spread he had been reaching for, Flynn managed to hold back another yawn as he tried to get the lid off the tub. He was too occupied with that to even look up when he heard Harper again. She sounded surprised and, for a moment, almost sounded like she didn't believe him. "Siobhan McGowen," he offered with another yawn as he finally managed to yank the lid off the chocolate spread. "She adopted me..." he paused, scrunching up his nose as he thought for a moment before the memory came back. "Third year. Remember how she said once that New Zealand had given her a son?" He smiled across the table, offering the girl a mock little wave. "Hello."

 

[Harper Alston]

"The head of the Quidditch League?" Harper looked down at the photo of Siobhan McGowan, unsure why she was so surprised. After a moment's reflection, she supposed that if she had to guess which candidate was Flynn's mum, McGowan was the most obvious choice, considering Flynn's own interest in Quidditch. "Is that weird?" she asked, unable to contain her curiosity. If it was anyone else, then maybe Harper would have displayed a little more tact. But Flynn had always been rather blunt, and Harper assumed he wouldn't be bothered by the question. And if he was, well, she was sure he would tell her. "Do you have to help her with campaign stuff?" Harper couldn't really picture Flynn dressing up for official campaign appearances, or whatever it was that the candidates' families did.