Post by Reckony Pike on Apr 14, 2011 9:32:40 GMT -5
Name: Reckony Rasmus Pike
Age: 38
Birthdate/place: 22-10-1983, Dingle Peninsula, County Kerry, Munster, Ireland
Species: Human
Gender: Male
Family: Half-Blood; Family: Father - Tyne Pike (Pureblood); Mother – Molly Pike (nee Barrett, Muggle); Brother – Fin Pike (Half-Blood); Sister-in-Law – Syren Pike (nee Cafferty, Muggle); Niece – Scotia Pike (Quarter-Blood). The Pikes are a well-known family in their village on the Dingle Peninsula, but then again, everyone knows everyone.
Appearance:
Build/height - Reckony is 6’3” and has a medium build.
General Description - Hair Color: Dusty Blonde; Eye Color: Cerulean Blue. Reckony has short and often unruly hair that he pays little attention to. He has a rugged, manly appearance and is known to sport a 5 o’clock shadow more often than not. He’s never dirty or unkempt, but he’s not the refined sort either. Reckony is a man’s man. Jeans and a Henley shirt, thank you very much. In cooler weather, he wears a peacoat or Irish wool sweater and an emerald green wool scarf. Some have noted that to look in to Reckony’s eyes is to see a conundrum: a careful mixture of mirth, sympathy, curiosity, ego and raging courage. In several instances, this has lead to trouble and only those who know Reckony best are able to discern the man's true feelings and emotions.
Possessions - Reckony has few notable possessions, however the one thing he cherishes above all else is his grandmother’s Claddagh ring, which he inherited after her passing. He wears it around his neck with the intention of giving it to his true love, whomever the poor lass might be. Reckony has a flat overtop the Three Broomsticks that is furnished with antiquities. It serves as the official headquarters of the Black Watch, a Hogsmeade street justice group.
Personality:
Temperment/Mental Attributes - Reckony is often the storm in the calm, whether he intends to be or not. That is not to say that he is tempestuous or full of madness or ire: he simply marches to his own, very unique and impulsive beat. On the flip side of that coin, Reckony can be exceedingly approachable, cool and collected. Many have noted that he has shoulders “as broad as the Giant’s Causeway,” for he is the one to whom most confess their trials, tribulations and secrets, even if they’ve only just met him. His demeanor instills a sense of trust and because of his oath of discretion and loyalty, Reckony never shares the information he’s been given unless absolutely necessary. He is trusted more by the citizens of Hogsmeade than he is by his own family. Reckony fights his most serious battles inwardly. He is not one to share his struggles with others and chooses instead to be the extroverted introvert. Reckony can also be quite mischievous and sarcastic; he uses humor to diffuse situations and can be entirely self-deprecating if he’s having a bad week. Reckony’s biggest regret is his disownment from the Pike family; he fears he can never return to them, and that causes much stress in his small, protected sphere. Reckony feels inadequate and a disappointment to his loved ones. He wonders if they’ll ever find it within them to forgive his past actions.
Alliance - The Black Watch (a group of Hogsmeade shop owners and their employees who keep the riffraff out and the business in; Reckony has acted as the group’s Commander-and-Chief for the past 5 years).
Alignment - Neutral Good. Reckony is a good-hearted person who would do anything to help anyone, sometimes by bending the rules. That’s not always seen by others, who are reluctant to trust and forgive.
Strengths/Weaknesses - Strengths: stout heart, great listener, keeper of secrets, feisty; Weaknesses: cutting tongue, inability to make amends, has trouble relying on others, acting impulsively.
-Adults-
Former House- Slytherin
Job - Reckony is a barkeep at the Three Broomsticks in Hogsmeade. He serves as the Night Manager, working under the direction of the pub’s mysterious owner, and is responsible for inventory, bartending, controlling access to the private rooms and closing out. Reckony knows the regulars well and loves them like family, although he doesn’t always show it (he’s been known to bounce a few). He’s fiercely protective of the servers in the establishment and anyone taking an exception to the rules will speak to him whether they wish to or not.
Employer - The Three Broomsticks, Hogsmeade
OWLs/NEWTs - All Os and As, save for Muggle Studies. Reckony tried in vain to fail the one course that taunted his blood status. Unfortunately for him, the Muggle Studies professor could see the potential that existed in the young half-blood and passed him as Acceptable when he coerced the crafty but unknowing Reckony to repair his vintage Muggle car engine.
Other:
Magical Skills - Reckony is not a great wizard, or even a good one. This bothered him as a young person as he fought against his half-bloodedness. Ironically, it has been his Muggle-smarts, not magical skill, that has kept him alive.
Patronus - Expecto patronum is one of the few spells that Reckony can manage and he managed it early on. Reckony’s patronus is a hooded crow which he lovingly calls…wait for it…Hooded Crow.
Wand - 11.5” Gaboon Ebony; Serpent Scale Core
Goals/Aspirations - The only thing that Reckony wants, and feels he cannot have, is his family’s forgiveness. Nothing else matters. Except, maybe, a girlfriend.
Other Information - Reckony has a habit of playing loud fiddle music as he closes down the pub. While this should upset his neighbors, some are known to come down and join him for a nightcap. Reckony is also quite handy with Muggle tools and when a spell is ineffective in repairing a shop’s trouble, he’s sometimes called upon by surrounding owners to make repairs. This “reformed” Reckony is much more accepting of his half-Muggle heritage.
History -
The Pike family is a large, loving and loyal Irish clan that lives almost exclusively on the Dingle Peninsula in County Kerry, Ireland. The Pike homestead includes several hundred acres and a horse ranch that is operated by Tyne and Molly Pike, their siblings, their in-laws and their offspring. Decades ago, Tyne Pike met and married a Muggle named Molly, and broke what was, until that time, a pureblooded family line. Whereas other families may have chastised this wizard-Muggle union, the Pikes found it easy to accept the kind-hearted Molly, who was herself an accomplished ranch manager in Northern Ireland. Together, Tyne and Molly had two boys: Reckony, the eldest, and Fin. Molly had hoped for a third child, a girl, but after many unsuccessful attempts, found company in her numerous nieces.
Reckony was forever the more awkward and less popular of the two brothers, but he was acknowledged at an early age as being witty, intelligent and strong. His greatest advocate was his paternal grandmother, who could see Reckony struggle where his younger brother did not: in friendships, in school, in magic, and generally in belonging. Reckony did his best to hide his troubles and loneliness, but his stoic façade was no match for his grandmother’s intuition.
Once he was of age, Reckony followed his cousins to Platform 9-3/4, where the Hogwarts Express was waiting to take the children to school. Reckony had difficulty keeping up with the older Pikes at the station, and they seemed greatly unaware of his absence, choosing instead to reconnect with their friends. The young Pike sat alone for nearly the entire trip, already feeling the outcast amongst youth who had experienced more magic than he in his half-Muggle life. And as if things couldn’t possibly get worse for boy, he shortly thereafter became the first Pike in history to be sorted in to Slytherin. His cousins quickly spread word via Owl back home and the resulting messages from the concerned and uncharacteristically judgmental family simply stated: “There must be a mistake. No Pike is a snake.”
At his lowest and emptiest moment, Reckony was approached by a group of fellow Slytherins, who could not help but appreciate the Irish lad’s size, especially in light of an upcoming project involving sneaking in to the potions stores to retrieve a valuable vial. It was the first time in weeks that anyone paid attention to him, and the resulting camaraderie led Reckony to consider acts of rebellion he might have otherwise denounced. From that one first encounter, the once well-meaning and abiding boy soon became the doppelganger of his former self; he found his friendships through delinquency. As the degree of Reckony’s trouble mounted, his popularity amongst his schoolmates grew. Older, pureblooded house-mates, impressed by his feats, persuaded him to speak ill of his half-Muggle upbringing, which he came to view as a point of weakness he would need to overcome. He tried in vain to fail Muggle Studies and nearly succeeded before a keen Professor picked up on the cause of Reckony’s struggles. Tyne and Molly only sent one owl to their son after he was nearly expelled from school. It confessed their deep disappointment and suggested that perhaps he was best suited for Slytherin after all.
Reckony dropped out of Hogwarts in his 5th year and was almost instantly hired by the father of a classmate, who took on the resourceful and at times scrappy youth to work in his illegal trading enterprise in Knockturn Alley. By 33, Reckony had built a sizable nest egg but had lost the respect of his family and village. His name had been featured more than once in the Daily Prophet as a “person of interest” and a short visit home that same year resulted in Reckony being exiled by the community and shunned by his family. As he was leaving the village for what would be the last time, a devastated Tyne Pike screamed out at his son: “You missed the birth of your first niece and the death of your grandmother.” His father threw the Claddagh ring his grandmother left him in to the ocean and turned his back on the shocked young man. A storm was raging, but Reckony entered the pitching sea, determined to find the ring of the one relative who always believed in him. Against all odds, he found the tarnished band at the base of a rock, but succumbed to the icy waters before he could make it back to shore. It was at that fateful moment that a monster of a grip saved Pike’s life and changed the direction of his uncontrollable existence. It would also be the start of his first true friendship, one that would carry him through adulthood.
The stranger who had saved Reckony from the Irish coast brought the hypothermic man to a cramped flat in Belfast. They had flown the length of the country on the man’s broom and Pike would only remember being stripped of his wet clothes and placed on a small bed beneath down covers. He slept for days and upon waking, he spotted the man (who was not much younger than he) searching through a stack of boxes.
“What are you looking for?”
“Good morning. Um, my wand. It appears I packed it. I was hoping to start a fire.”
“You don’t need a wand for that. Here.”
Pike rose weakly from the bed, grabbing a glass orb he had spotted on the windowsill and hobbling for the fireplace. He held the orb so that it caught the sun through the third-floor window, focusing the beam of light on a small scrap of wood. It caught fire within moments.
“That’s incredible.”
“It’s not incredible. It’s Muggle. Simple tasks for simple minds.”
“I wouldn’t say that. I give props to those who don’t just point a stick and say Ahh. Magic can be a bit of a cheat.”
Pike scowled.
“So what, are you moving?”
“Moved in. This is my flat. I found your belongings by the beach. They’re over there drying.”
“You better not have touched anything.” He moved to check his bags, throwing open his rucksack to check on a small wrapped parcel. “Where’d you move from then?”
“Wales. Bryn. I lived at Harkness House.”
“The orphanage? Do you have a name or did they just give you a number?”
The man extended his hand. He was smaller than Pike and his eyes were free of the distrust that filled Reckony’s blues. He was almost peaceful.
“Theo.”
“Reckony Pike.”
”I know.”
“Wait a moment, Theo from Harkness House. I know you. You’re Theodore Bowre. From Hogwarts? Went pro. Didn’t I used to beat you up?”
”Yes. In a way, I should thank you for that. Made me a stronger person and a much better Beater.”
“Why are you helping me?”
“You don’t just toss a life away because it’s a little banged up. We all need a break sometimes.”
“My Gran used to say that.”
In the following months, Reckony’s shield of discontent was gradually eroding and he found himself warming to Theo, whom he had come to regard as a friend. In exchange for room and board, Pike utilized his handy Muggle skills to help the often-traveling Theo around the flat; it was his friend’s awe in his achievements that slowly turned his dislike for Muggle-ness in to a newfound respect. Bowre used his connections with Harkness House to help Pike finish school and before long the professional Welsh beater was actively helping Reckony look for work. An opportunity presented itself on the afternoon of Bowre’s match against England.
“Listen, I have a friend of a friend who is looking for a bar manager in Hogsmeade. The Three Broomsticks.”
“I love the Three Broomsticks.”
“Don’t we all. Maybe you could soften their hatred for Wales while you’re there. It’s at 5 o’clock. The owner is expecting you.”
“You’re amazing.”
“You’d do the same for me. Don’t be late.”
Reckony smiled, clapping his young friend on his back as he departed with his Quidditch gear in tow.
“Don’t be late!”
“Good luck against England. Try not to eat too much grass.”
“Tosser.”
“I’ll be cheering for you. Until I stop.”
On Theo’s departure, Pike pulled his match tickets out of his pants pocket and placed them by his wallet. He could not help but smile at his fortune of late: he had a home, a friend, and now a job prospect. He felt undeserving of the breaks, but knew that proper payback would come in the form of succeeding. He wouldn’t let Theo down. He wouldn’t let himself down. Reckony looked over his shoulder to his rucksack, remembering that it contained a parcel that had remained wrapped and stowed since Bowre plucked him from the ocean. Rather ironically, Pike had stolen the artifact from an English chaser. He had learned on good authority, or so he thought, that the artifact’s value was immeasurable and a sure sale on the black market; a family heirloom that had it’s own vault at Gringott’s and required a security team to move. It turned out that the item’s significance was highly overrated. It was worth nothing, except to the devastated chaser who had lost it. Reckony sighed heavily. For all that was done for him of late, he would do right to return it to its owner. He left for the match with the tickets and the artifact.
Reckony had but ninety minutes to spare between the end of the Wales/England match and his interview in Hogsmeade. He waited patiently outside the England dressing room and was somewhat out of place amongst the autograph-seekers, most of whom were under the age of twelve. The chaser was one of the last to exit. He was startled when Pike approached him with a package and looked up in shock when he realized what the man held in his hands. A sharp whistle pierced the air. Pike suddenly found himself on the ground and in handcuffs.
Reckony Pike sat in darkness in a holding cell at the Hitwizard Office, counting each passing second as another step towards failure. He was devastated by the turn of events, wondering whether Theo’s insistence that he had a choice was such a wise suggestion. His choice to return the artifact to its owner had come back to bite him, and now he was about to lose an employment opportunity because of it. Resentment and ire sat bitterly on his tongue and he considered that he was not suited to a life of living honestly.
“Get off your arse, Pike. You're free to go.” A gruff and sizeable hitwizard spelled open the lock, pulling the heavy cell door ajar.
“He’s not pressing charges?”
“Oh, he’s pressing charges. But you’re not the guy. Buddy over there confessed that he took the statue as a prank. He said you unknowingly delivered it and I guess he felt bad about involving an innocent. You’re sprung.”
“What? Who confessed?”
The hitwizard pointed down the corridor. Reckony looked around the door, seeing a cuffed Theo walking towards him with officers flanking on either side.
"What are you doing?"
Theo arched an eyebrow, his eyes darting between the officers holding him.
"Sorry for getting you involved, Pike."
“No, Theo."
“It was my choice.”
“Why?”
“Reck, you’ve got ten minutes. If you don’t hurry, I’m going to kick your ass. Knock ‘em dead and have a beer waiting.”
In a gesture that would become commonplace between the men, Reckony rubbed a hand through Theo’s hair and bolted from the station, using the Floo Network to make his appointment at the Three Broomsticks. It was the best choice he could have made.
Age: 38
Birthdate/place: 22-10-1983, Dingle Peninsula, County Kerry, Munster, Ireland
Species: Human
Gender: Male
Family: Half-Blood; Family: Father - Tyne Pike (Pureblood); Mother – Molly Pike (nee Barrett, Muggle); Brother – Fin Pike (Half-Blood); Sister-in-Law – Syren Pike (nee Cafferty, Muggle); Niece – Scotia Pike (Quarter-Blood). The Pikes are a well-known family in their village on the Dingle Peninsula, but then again, everyone knows everyone.
Appearance:
Build/height - Reckony is 6’3” and has a medium build.
General Description - Hair Color: Dusty Blonde; Eye Color: Cerulean Blue. Reckony has short and often unruly hair that he pays little attention to. He has a rugged, manly appearance and is known to sport a 5 o’clock shadow more often than not. He’s never dirty or unkempt, but he’s not the refined sort either. Reckony is a man’s man. Jeans and a Henley shirt, thank you very much. In cooler weather, he wears a peacoat or Irish wool sweater and an emerald green wool scarf. Some have noted that to look in to Reckony’s eyes is to see a conundrum: a careful mixture of mirth, sympathy, curiosity, ego and raging courage. In several instances, this has lead to trouble and only those who know Reckony best are able to discern the man's true feelings and emotions.
Possessions - Reckony has few notable possessions, however the one thing he cherishes above all else is his grandmother’s Claddagh ring, which he inherited after her passing. He wears it around his neck with the intention of giving it to his true love, whomever the poor lass might be. Reckony has a flat overtop the Three Broomsticks that is furnished with antiquities. It serves as the official headquarters of the Black Watch, a Hogsmeade street justice group.
Personality:
Temperment/Mental Attributes - Reckony is often the storm in the calm, whether he intends to be or not. That is not to say that he is tempestuous or full of madness or ire: he simply marches to his own, very unique and impulsive beat. On the flip side of that coin, Reckony can be exceedingly approachable, cool and collected. Many have noted that he has shoulders “as broad as the Giant’s Causeway,” for he is the one to whom most confess their trials, tribulations and secrets, even if they’ve only just met him. His demeanor instills a sense of trust and because of his oath of discretion and loyalty, Reckony never shares the information he’s been given unless absolutely necessary. He is trusted more by the citizens of Hogsmeade than he is by his own family. Reckony fights his most serious battles inwardly. He is not one to share his struggles with others and chooses instead to be the extroverted introvert. Reckony can also be quite mischievous and sarcastic; he uses humor to diffuse situations and can be entirely self-deprecating if he’s having a bad week. Reckony’s biggest regret is his disownment from the Pike family; he fears he can never return to them, and that causes much stress in his small, protected sphere. Reckony feels inadequate and a disappointment to his loved ones. He wonders if they’ll ever find it within them to forgive his past actions.
Alliance - The Black Watch (a group of Hogsmeade shop owners and their employees who keep the riffraff out and the business in; Reckony has acted as the group’s Commander-and-Chief for the past 5 years).
Alignment - Neutral Good. Reckony is a good-hearted person who would do anything to help anyone, sometimes by bending the rules. That’s not always seen by others, who are reluctant to trust and forgive.
Strengths/Weaknesses - Strengths: stout heart, great listener, keeper of secrets, feisty; Weaknesses: cutting tongue, inability to make amends, has trouble relying on others, acting impulsively.
-Adults-
Former House- Slytherin
Job - Reckony is a barkeep at the Three Broomsticks in Hogsmeade. He serves as the Night Manager, working under the direction of the pub’s mysterious owner, and is responsible for inventory, bartending, controlling access to the private rooms and closing out. Reckony knows the regulars well and loves them like family, although he doesn’t always show it (he’s been known to bounce a few). He’s fiercely protective of the servers in the establishment and anyone taking an exception to the rules will speak to him whether they wish to or not.
Employer - The Three Broomsticks, Hogsmeade
OWLs/NEWTs - All Os and As, save for Muggle Studies. Reckony tried in vain to fail the one course that taunted his blood status. Unfortunately for him, the Muggle Studies professor could see the potential that existed in the young half-blood and passed him as Acceptable when he coerced the crafty but unknowing Reckony to repair his vintage Muggle car engine.
Other:
Magical Skills - Reckony is not a great wizard, or even a good one. This bothered him as a young person as he fought against his half-bloodedness. Ironically, it has been his Muggle-smarts, not magical skill, that has kept him alive.
Patronus - Expecto patronum is one of the few spells that Reckony can manage and he managed it early on. Reckony’s patronus is a hooded crow which he lovingly calls…wait for it…Hooded Crow.
Wand - 11.5” Gaboon Ebony; Serpent Scale Core
Goals/Aspirations - The only thing that Reckony wants, and feels he cannot have, is his family’s forgiveness. Nothing else matters. Except, maybe, a girlfriend.
Other Information - Reckony has a habit of playing loud fiddle music as he closes down the pub. While this should upset his neighbors, some are known to come down and join him for a nightcap. Reckony is also quite handy with Muggle tools and when a spell is ineffective in repairing a shop’s trouble, he’s sometimes called upon by surrounding owners to make repairs. This “reformed” Reckony is much more accepting of his half-Muggle heritage.
History -
The Pike family is a large, loving and loyal Irish clan that lives almost exclusively on the Dingle Peninsula in County Kerry, Ireland. The Pike homestead includes several hundred acres and a horse ranch that is operated by Tyne and Molly Pike, their siblings, their in-laws and their offspring. Decades ago, Tyne Pike met and married a Muggle named Molly, and broke what was, until that time, a pureblooded family line. Whereas other families may have chastised this wizard-Muggle union, the Pikes found it easy to accept the kind-hearted Molly, who was herself an accomplished ranch manager in Northern Ireland. Together, Tyne and Molly had two boys: Reckony, the eldest, and Fin. Molly had hoped for a third child, a girl, but after many unsuccessful attempts, found company in her numerous nieces.
Reckony was forever the more awkward and less popular of the two brothers, but he was acknowledged at an early age as being witty, intelligent and strong. His greatest advocate was his paternal grandmother, who could see Reckony struggle where his younger brother did not: in friendships, in school, in magic, and generally in belonging. Reckony did his best to hide his troubles and loneliness, but his stoic façade was no match for his grandmother’s intuition.
Once he was of age, Reckony followed his cousins to Platform 9-3/4, where the Hogwarts Express was waiting to take the children to school. Reckony had difficulty keeping up with the older Pikes at the station, and they seemed greatly unaware of his absence, choosing instead to reconnect with their friends. The young Pike sat alone for nearly the entire trip, already feeling the outcast amongst youth who had experienced more magic than he in his half-Muggle life. And as if things couldn’t possibly get worse for boy, he shortly thereafter became the first Pike in history to be sorted in to Slytherin. His cousins quickly spread word via Owl back home and the resulting messages from the concerned and uncharacteristically judgmental family simply stated: “There must be a mistake. No Pike is a snake.”
At his lowest and emptiest moment, Reckony was approached by a group of fellow Slytherins, who could not help but appreciate the Irish lad’s size, especially in light of an upcoming project involving sneaking in to the potions stores to retrieve a valuable vial. It was the first time in weeks that anyone paid attention to him, and the resulting camaraderie led Reckony to consider acts of rebellion he might have otherwise denounced. From that one first encounter, the once well-meaning and abiding boy soon became the doppelganger of his former self; he found his friendships through delinquency. As the degree of Reckony’s trouble mounted, his popularity amongst his schoolmates grew. Older, pureblooded house-mates, impressed by his feats, persuaded him to speak ill of his half-Muggle upbringing, which he came to view as a point of weakness he would need to overcome. He tried in vain to fail Muggle Studies and nearly succeeded before a keen Professor picked up on the cause of Reckony’s struggles. Tyne and Molly only sent one owl to their son after he was nearly expelled from school. It confessed their deep disappointment and suggested that perhaps he was best suited for Slytherin after all.
Reckony dropped out of Hogwarts in his 5th year and was almost instantly hired by the father of a classmate, who took on the resourceful and at times scrappy youth to work in his illegal trading enterprise in Knockturn Alley. By 33, Reckony had built a sizable nest egg but had lost the respect of his family and village. His name had been featured more than once in the Daily Prophet as a “person of interest” and a short visit home that same year resulted in Reckony being exiled by the community and shunned by his family. As he was leaving the village for what would be the last time, a devastated Tyne Pike screamed out at his son: “You missed the birth of your first niece and the death of your grandmother.” His father threw the Claddagh ring his grandmother left him in to the ocean and turned his back on the shocked young man. A storm was raging, but Reckony entered the pitching sea, determined to find the ring of the one relative who always believed in him. Against all odds, he found the tarnished band at the base of a rock, but succumbed to the icy waters before he could make it back to shore. It was at that fateful moment that a monster of a grip saved Pike’s life and changed the direction of his uncontrollable existence. It would also be the start of his first true friendship, one that would carry him through adulthood.
The stranger who had saved Reckony from the Irish coast brought the hypothermic man to a cramped flat in Belfast. They had flown the length of the country on the man’s broom and Pike would only remember being stripped of his wet clothes and placed on a small bed beneath down covers. He slept for days and upon waking, he spotted the man (who was not much younger than he) searching through a stack of boxes.
“What are you looking for?”
“Good morning. Um, my wand. It appears I packed it. I was hoping to start a fire.”
“You don’t need a wand for that. Here.”
Pike rose weakly from the bed, grabbing a glass orb he had spotted on the windowsill and hobbling for the fireplace. He held the orb so that it caught the sun through the third-floor window, focusing the beam of light on a small scrap of wood. It caught fire within moments.
“That’s incredible.”
“It’s not incredible. It’s Muggle. Simple tasks for simple minds.”
“I wouldn’t say that. I give props to those who don’t just point a stick and say Ahh. Magic can be a bit of a cheat.”
Pike scowled.
“So what, are you moving?”
“Moved in. This is my flat. I found your belongings by the beach. They’re over there drying.”
“You better not have touched anything.” He moved to check his bags, throwing open his rucksack to check on a small wrapped parcel. “Where’d you move from then?”
“Wales. Bryn. I lived at Harkness House.”
“The orphanage? Do you have a name or did they just give you a number?”
The man extended his hand. He was smaller than Pike and his eyes were free of the distrust that filled Reckony’s blues. He was almost peaceful.
“Theo.”
“Reckony Pike.”
”I know.”
“Wait a moment, Theo from Harkness House. I know you. You’re Theodore Bowre. From Hogwarts? Went pro. Didn’t I used to beat you up?”
”Yes. In a way, I should thank you for that. Made me a stronger person and a much better Beater.”
“Why are you helping me?”
“You don’t just toss a life away because it’s a little banged up. We all need a break sometimes.”
“My Gran used to say that.”
In the following months, Reckony’s shield of discontent was gradually eroding and he found himself warming to Theo, whom he had come to regard as a friend. In exchange for room and board, Pike utilized his handy Muggle skills to help the often-traveling Theo around the flat; it was his friend’s awe in his achievements that slowly turned his dislike for Muggle-ness in to a newfound respect. Bowre used his connections with Harkness House to help Pike finish school and before long the professional Welsh beater was actively helping Reckony look for work. An opportunity presented itself on the afternoon of Bowre’s match against England.
“Listen, I have a friend of a friend who is looking for a bar manager in Hogsmeade. The Three Broomsticks.”
“I love the Three Broomsticks.”
“Don’t we all. Maybe you could soften their hatred for Wales while you’re there. It’s at 5 o’clock. The owner is expecting you.”
“You’re amazing.”
“You’d do the same for me. Don’t be late.”
Reckony smiled, clapping his young friend on his back as he departed with his Quidditch gear in tow.
“Don’t be late!”
“Good luck against England. Try not to eat too much grass.”
“Tosser.”
“I’ll be cheering for you. Until I stop.”
On Theo’s departure, Pike pulled his match tickets out of his pants pocket and placed them by his wallet. He could not help but smile at his fortune of late: he had a home, a friend, and now a job prospect. He felt undeserving of the breaks, but knew that proper payback would come in the form of succeeding. He wouldn’t let Theo down. He wouldn’t let himself down. Reckony looked over his shoulder to his rucksack, remembering that it contained a parcel that had remained wrapped and stowed since Bowre plucked him from the ocean. Rather ironically, Pike had stolen the artifact from an English chaser. He had learned on good authority, or so he thought, that the artifact’s value was immeasurable and a sure sale on the black market; a family heirloom that had it’s own vault at Gringott’s and required a security team to move. It turned out that the item’s significance was highly overrated. It was worth nothing, except to the devastated chaser who had lost it. Reckony sighed heavily. For all that was done for him of late, he would do right to return it to its owner. He left for the match with the tickets and the artifact.
Reckony had but ninety minutes to spare between the end of the Wales/England match and his interview in Hogsmeade. He waited patiently outside the England dressing room and was somewhat out of place amongst the autograph-seekers, most of whom were under the age of twelve. The chaser was one of the last to exit. He was startled when Pike approached him with a package and looked up in shock when he realized what the man held in his hands. A sharp whistle pierced the air. Pike suddenly found himself on the ground and in handcuffs.
Reckony Pike sat in darkness in a holding cell at the Hitwizard Office, counting each passing second as another step towards failure. He was devastated by the turn of events, wondering whether Theo’s insistence that he had a choice was such a wise suggestion. His choice to return the artifact to its owner had come back to bite him, and now he was about to lose an employment opportunity because of it. Resentment and ire sat bitterly on his tongue and he considered that he was not suited to a life of living honestly.
“Get off your arse, Pike. You're free to go.” A gruff and sizeable hitwizard spelled open the lock, pulling the heavy cell door ajar.
“He’s not pressing charges?”
“Oh, he’s pressing charges. But you’re not the guy. Buddy over there confessed that he took the statue as a prank. He said you unknowingly delivered it and I guess he felt bad about involving an innocent. You’re sprung.”
“What? Who confessed?”
The hitwizard pointed down the corridor. Reckony looked around the door, seeing a cuffed Theo walking towards him with officers flanking on either side.
"What are you doing?"
Theo arched an eyebrow, his eyes darting between the officers holding him.
"Sorry for getting you involved, Pike."
“No, Theo."
“It was my choice.”
“Why?”
“Reck, you’ve got ten minutes. If you don’t hurry, I’m going to kick your ass. Knock ‘em dead and have a beer waiting.”
In a gesture that would become commonplace between the men, Reckony rubbed a hand through Theo’s hair and bolted from the station, using the Floo Network to make his appointment at the Three Broomsticks. It was the best choice he could have made.
