who ? pippa flint and terence higgs when ? late evening, 22nd september where ? a muggle pub what ? post-therapy drinks status ? complete
The first week Higgs had gone to the group therapy session, it had been weird. He had been immensely grateful that Pippa had come with him, because Higgs honestly wasn’t sure he would’ve been able to make himself go. The first week, they had just sat at the back and Higgs had listened. Then last week, he’d had them sit more to the centre of the room but he still hadn’t felt very comfortable at the idea to say much. Higgs had spoken to some of the men (and the two women) after. They were kind, he thought. Assuring him that speaking up wasn’t mandatory, that it was something that’d come to him. Listening in itself, Higgs found helpful. It was good to hear that other people also had similar experiences. Some worse, some better.
Last week after the group meeting, him and Pippa had gone for drinks and it had helped to sort of have an off-load. Higgs did feel bad that he was using Pippa as some sort of a therapist. Or carer. A babysitter, maybe. He wasn’t sure. Still, he had suggested they’d go out for a drink after, to a Muggle pub where neither of them would be recognise by anyone. It was a quiet pub that someone at the group had recommended Higgs. He was trying to avoid crowded, loud spaces.
Having gotten drinks from the bar for both of them, Higgs settled down at a table across from Pippa, pushing her glass closer to her. “Thank you,” he offered her. “I really appreciate you coming with me. I’m sorry that--” Higgs shrugged slightly. “I don’t know. Sorry that I’m taking up your time, maybe? You’ll tell me if you don’t want to come, right?” Higgs did strongly believe she would.
--
Phillipa pulled her glass the rest of the way to her, already shaking her head as soon as the apology started out of him. She left him get it all out of his system before giving him a look and reaching across the table to flick him in the forehead - lightly, but still a flick. “That's for apologizing when there's no need.”
It was interesting, from her perspective, to go and sit and listen. She was there for Terence, obviously, but hearing all these other people talk about experiences that she couldn't even begin to imagine… it was interesting. Horrifying, in some cases. There was so much about the muggle world she didn't know much about, despite having spent time in it, and the thought of one of her best friends being in those situations was scary. No wonder they needed groups to meet and talk about such things.
“I will always have time for you, and I am glad to come with you,” she went on, taking a sip of her drink and letting her hand rest over his to give it a reassuring squeeze. “I want to come if you want me there, I promise.”
--
“Hey!” Higgs protested, swatting Pippa’s hand away when she flicked him. It was hardly painful, but he felt the protest was still appropriate. Catching her hand, Higgs gave it a squeeze that was quite different from the affronted exclamation over her flicking him in the first place. “Thank you,” he repeated seriously. Higgs know that if Pippa was in his position, he’d do anything for her, and that was the thought that had made Higgs actually ask her in the first place. If Higgs hadn’t trusted Pippa as much as he did, he probably would’ve never asked.
Still, he did feel bad, even if she honestly didn’t object spending her time on him. On this. “I can’t have you come with me forever,” he told her honestly. “It’s not fair on you,” which it wasn’t but before Pippa could even attempt to object, Higgs raised his hand. “But it’s also not good for me. I know that. I can’t use you as a crutch forever,” except that right now, Higgs felt like he needed her to be there. “Remind me I said that, okay? If it starts to feel like that’s what I’m doing,” he asked Pippa genuinely.
Taking a sip of his beer, Higgs gave a small shrug. “I saw your journal,” he told her. Higgs hadn’t read the papers, but he had seen Pippa’s journal before he’d come out to meet her. “What happened?” He asked honestly unsure.
--
Phillipa let her thumb rub gently over the back of his hand as she listened, and she didn't disagree. He needed to be able to stand on his own to feet, but the point was she was willing to go with him until he was ready to fly solo. “Terence, we’ve only been doing this a few weeks. You’ll get to the point where you don't want or need me there, and that's fine - I won't be offended when you tell me to stay home. But I want you to know that as long as you need me, I’ll be there.”
At the mention of her journal, she frowned softly and took another drink. She wasn't quite sure how to explain much of it without explaining more than she wanted to, so then the question was what to say. Lying wasn't something she wanted to do, not with him.
“They wrote about me,” she said simply, fingers tracing along her glass. “They didn't even tell me they were going to, just did it. I'm sure they were within their rights to do so, they didn't do anything wrong from a legal standpoint, but I didn't like that so… I quit.”
--
Pippa was a good friend. Higgs had always known this, of course, but right now he was especially reminded of that fact. Leaning across the table, Higgs pressed a soft kiss against Pippa’s cheek. “I’m lucky to have you,” he told her honestly. There were a lot of complicated and shit things going on in Higgs’ life but having Pippa’s support helped immensely.
Pulling back, Higgs frowned slightly at the explanation. He was not a fan of reading gossip. Hell, he wasn’t even a great fan of reading the non-gossip parts of the papers. So by majority Higgs tended to avoid them. Which clearly was now not working greatly in his favour because he actually didn’t know what the papers had written. “Okay,” he offered with a nod.
“Do you need to find a new job, then?” Higgs asked instead, since quizzing Pippa about something that had clearly caused her upset seemed rather pointless.
--
“I’m lucky to have you,” Phillipa replied, smiling softly at the kiss to her cheek. He was a constant in her life which was something she appreciated more than he knew. Friends like him were rare, if found at all.
She hesitated when he asked about finding a new job, because she didn't but he didn't know that. “No,” she said slowly, then took a drink before going on. “I don't need to find a new job. I can tell you why, but it's a secret.”
--
Higgs was sure that Pippa wasn’t as lucky to have him as he was to have her. He was the one who needed almost literal hand-holding to deal with his shit and Pippa always struck Higgs as having all her shit together. Having known her for as long as he had, Higgs did realise this wasn’t always true, but supporting her came a lot easier to Higgs than supporting himself. Which he did realise was flawed logic, but he was also sure he’d always prioritise her over majority of people, himself included.
“A secret!” Higgs exclaimed overly dramatically before grinning at Pippa. “You know I love your secrets,” he assured her.
--
Phillipa took another sip of her drink before drawing in a breath. She didn't expect any kind of bad judgment from him, it was just that she wasn't used to people knowing the truth. Jun, Viktor - that was it other than people who had signed many documents that forbade them from saying anything. Well, and Marcus, but even that had been recent.
“I don't know if you know about it, but there's that burlesque club in Knockturn?”
--
As a Hitwizard, Higgs was reasonably well aware of most places in Knockturn, though, admittedly, perhaps not for their true purpose. “I know of it,” Higgs offered with the smallest of frowns as he tried to figure out why Pippa was bringing it up. Somehow, Higgs didn’t think she’d be dancing there. Reaching to take a sip of his drink, Higgs looked at Pippa expectantly.
“I’m clearly missing something,” he commented because that seemed the most obvious option.
--
It wasn't like Phillipa thought Terence was a patron of her club - she had a pretty good idea of who came and went through its doors. All she'd been trying to figure out was a starting point, if she was going to have to explain even more. Thankfully not, though she didn't have a problem answering questions - not from him, anyway.
“It’s mine,” she said simply, nipping at the inside of her lip. “I own it.”
--
Wherever Higgs had expected this to go, he hadn’t expected that. “Oh,” he offered almost dumbly before taking another sip of his beer, thinking over what she’d just said. The club, from what Higgs knew of it, was very popular. It wasn’t quite the sort of establishment men openly admitted visiting, but those who Higgs had heard from seemed to enjoy it a lot.
“Can I ask how that came about?” He asked finally, genuinely curious. “Am I just a shit friend and never realised that you dreamed to open a burlesque club?” Higgs supposed he could’ve been, but then he did also wonder whether even if it had been her lifelong dream, it was the sort of dream you shared around.
--
“No one really knows,” Phillipa offered, as though that would help the fact that he hadn't been told before then. “Marcus didn't even until a couple months ago, and that was only because one of his reserves was in there during World Cup and I thought he should know, and then he asked questions…”
She gave a small shake of her head before taking a long sip of her drink. “It's not exactly the type of thing one advertises? I… when I was in Paris, a muggle friend took me to one and I kind of… just fell in love with it? And it's not like we had anything like that in our world, and it seemed like a good idea to start one, bring in something new. I took some business classes alongside my writing ones, got a lot of advice from the owner of the club there, and started working on it when I got back.”
--
No, Higgs didn’t suppose it was necessarily the sort of thing one advertised. Nonetheless, despite having never been to the place, Higgs knew it did well, which in turn made him feel very proud of Pippa. “You’ve done well,” he told her before giving her a smile. “I’m proud of you,” he said deciding that voicing his thoughts was, in this instance, most likely worth it. It was true, after all, and Higgs wanted Pippa to know that.
“So are you going to put all of your now spare time into that?” He asked curious. “I know nothing about running a business,” Higgs admitted, which wasn’t much of an admission, really, since they both knew how well his education had gone and then stopped post Hogwarts. Higgs had never been the smartest of people, and he was well aware of that. “But I’d love for you to give me a tour,” Higgs added. He might not have thought of visiting the club before but now that he knew Pippa owned it, Higgs was keen on seeing what it was like.
--
Phillipa couldn’t help but smile when he said he was proud of her, because that wasn’t something she heard people say often about her. Or ever, really. It meant a bit extra coming from someone whose opinion she held in such regard and who meant as much to her as he did. “Thank you.”
She raked her hand through her hair, pushing it back from her face as she gave a little shrug. “I set it up well enough that it ran smoothly while I was off on holiday for a month, so it won’t take so much more of my time than it does now. It’ll be nice to not have to split my time between the two places.” She smiled a bit more and gave him a nod. “I’d be more than happy to give you a tour, whenever you’d like.”
--
It didn’t come as a surprise to Higgs when Pippa explained that she had set the club up well enough it could easily run without her there. She was very capable, Higgs knew that. It was very impressive, nonetheless, so he gave her a smile, even if the temptation to repeat how impressed he was, was great.
Higgs had been about to suggest that perhaps next week, they could go for drinks there instead of a Muggle pub but was suddenly reminded why he picked this particular pub. “It’s loud, isn’t it?” Higgs asked despite the fact that he knew what the answer was most likely. “I don’t--” There had been a few instances when Higgs had had to leave places because of the noise, or because of the lights. Memorably, he’d had a panic attack outside a restaurant with Ashleigh there not too long ago. Higgs couldn’t help the frustrated sigh that escaped him. “I don’t suppose the tour’s as fun if the place isn’t open?” He said jokingly but it didn’t sound particularly funny even to him.
--
Her gaze stayed steadily on him as she swirled the liquid around in her glass, nipping at the inside of her lip as she pondered his question. The answer was easily yes, because it was loud at times. It wasn’t like a night club where bass thumped loudly and rattled one’s ribcage, but there tended to be crowds of people which led to a great deal of talking, and then the music from the performances - though the talking seemed to settle at least a little when that was happening.
“It does tend to be a bit loud,” Phillipa admitted, reaching over to let her hand rest on his again. “Normally I’d say the tour might not be fun when it’s closed, but lucky for you, you know someone on the inside.” She offered him a smile, squeezing his hand. “I can let you know when there are rehearsals going on, and you can come for a tour then to get more of the real experience, how’s that?”
--
Higgs gave a soft smile when Pippa assured him that he could have a tour during rehearsal times, when the place would be quieter and less crowded. “Thank you,” he offered, reaching out to give Pippa’s hand another squeeze. “I’m sorry you’re stuck with me,” Higgs added. It was somewhat true. Higgs certainly wished he could just go about things as if everything was fine, but he had tried that and it hadn’t worked. Had cost him his marriage already, and Higgs had very little intention to lose his friendships over it, too.
“So,” Higgs said pulling back so he could take another sip of his drink. “I hear your baby brother’s having a baby,” he continued almost too conversationally. Since Lucas had told Higgs, he hadn’t had the time to speak to either Marcus or Pippa about it. Or Gemma. Higgs wondered if his own sister was aware of the latest Flint family developments.
--
“Hey,” Phillipa said a tad bit sharply, her brow furrowing as she reached up to hold his chin in her hand, making sure he was looking at her. “I am not stuck with you, Terence. I’m here for you, gladly so, because that's what friends do for each other. I wouldn't trade you for the world, so don't let me hear you say that kind of rubbish again.”
She let her hand drop and pull back to rest against her glass, and let out a soft groan at the sudden change of topic - though more so at the topic he'd chosen. “You heard correctly,” she replied, taking a long drink and then sighing. “A baby.”
--
Higgs gave a small nod when Pippa told him that she wouldn’t trade him and he was not to say such things again. He still wished he didn’t have to burden her, but Higgs was a man enough to accept that not only did he need help, that he was very lucky to have someone like Pippa help him. He did swat her hand away, though, but that was mostly for show than any genuine dislike of her forcefully moving his face about.
“How you feeling about that?” Higgs asked when Pippa confirmed that he had heard correctly, which, yeah, Higgs did expect seeing how it was unlikely that Lucas would joke about such a thing. Higgs had a lot of opinions of baby Flint having a baby but didn’t feel that it was his place to voice any of them. Certainly not to Lucas. If he was grown up enough to decide to have a baby, that really was his life to then sort out.
--
“Well I’m not feeling great about it if I’m honest,” Phillipa said before finishing off her drink and looking down into her glass as though it would somehow refill itself. Except they were at a muggle pub, and that wasn’t going to happen. Shame, really, but she could wait until someone dropped by the table to offer to get her another.
“He’s so young, you know?” She frowned, rubbing her hand over her face. “He’s so young, she’s so young, and I appreciate that they’ve made this decision to accept what they’ve done and work together and all but… there’s so much to consider when bringing a child into the world. They’ve got some months to figure it all out, at least, but fuck it’s a lot.” Pausing, she let out a light laugh. “Marcus and I were saying… no one ever would have thought out of the three of us it would have been Lucas in this situation…”
--
“Really?” Higgs asked almost surprised when Pippa said that neither her nor Marcus would have assumed Lucas to be the one to end up with a teenage pregnancy. “I mean, personally, I would’ve thought him to be the most likely out of the three of you to end up accidentally knocking someone up,” or, well, Higgs supposed, getting accidentally knocked up in Pippa’s case. Nonetheless, he thought Pippa far too sensible and Marcus far too careful for this to be the case. Lucas, though, was just young.
Giving a small shake of his head, Higgs shrugged. “He is young,” Higgs confirmed. “Too young really,” he added, which was something Higgs was happy to say to Pippa but wouldn’t have said to Lucas. Or perhaps even Marcus. “It’s a bit...” And there Higgs gave a small sigh. “Disappointing, I guess,” he admitted. It was. Quite frankly, Higgs really would’ve just expected more from Lucas but there was no point in crying over spilled milk now. Not when Lucas and his girlfriend were determined to keep the baby.
--
“Well, you know,” Phillipa said, waving her hair airily. “Not that we’re not careful, because I know I am and Marcus is too, but because we were the ones galavanting about. Then Lucas goes and knocks up someone the first time he has sex.”
She glanced away from him as a server swung by and she asked for another drink, waiting for him to leave before sighing. “We fix things, that’s what we do and we can’t fix this. It’s completely life changing, and I don’t think they’ll realize quite how much until the baby’s actually here. We can offer them support, that’s about it, and other than that…”
--
Higgs couldn’t help but laugh when Pippa told him that Lucas had knocked this girl up on his first go. It wasn’t really funny. Nothing about the situation was all that funny, but Higgs did have to give the kid kudos for that particular bit, at least. It also seemed somehow fitting that it would happen the first time he had sex. Dumb, but still funny.
Reaching out to tap his fingers against Pippa’s, Higgs shook his head lightly. “He--they,” Higgs corrected. “They have a lot of support. You and Marcus. Gemma and I,” presumably also this girl’s family, but even if she had no one, the Flints and the Higgs’ were plenty capable of providing support. “And that will have to be enough. Plenty of people have babies young, so whilst we all would probably prefer for this not to have happened, Lucas will just have to take the responsibility for his actions,” Higgs said with another shrug. “I think he’ll be fine,” he offered Pippa honestly.
--
“They do,” Phillipa agreed. “All of us, and her aunt and uncle - Marcus and I met with them soon after we found out. It went… alright. They’re on board, it’s just we all have different ideas for how we want to be helpful and not all of them line up with each other. But everything is fine.”
She let her fingers lace with his and gave his hand a squeeze. “He’s a good kid, you know? He’ll be alright, they’ll all be alright, I just worry. I always worry, and this is much bigger than anything else has ever been.” Everything would work out, they had enough people making sure it would, but that didn’t set her mind at ease over the situation in general. She wasn’t sure anything would.
--
“It’ll be fine,” Higgs assured when Pippa said how it was much bigger than anything else. He somewhat agreed. Having a baby was life changing, there was no doubt about that. But it was going to be life changing for Lucas and his girlfriend. They were the parents and they were never going to have the same sort of a life as they would if they didn’t have a baby aged nineteen or twenty or whatever. However, that didn’t mean their lives would change for worse. Probably.
Giving Pippa’s hand another squeeze, Higgs gave her a smile. “Right, how about we talk about things that aren’t important and serious, hmm?” He suggested since it seemed like a good plan.