[the deli] old friends & new fancies || honey bea

Although Piper had always loved the challenge of being assigned random topics at whim, she had to admit that the freedom of choosing themes that interested her without much, if any, pushback from the higher-ups made her job much more enjoyable. It was easier to really delve into something she was passionate about and to promote ideas that reflected more of her own rather than that of the corporation.

Therefore when the opportunity arose for her own spread in an upcoming issue on any topic of her choice, the thought of focusing on local female-owned businesses seemed like a no-brainer. The wizarding community was expanding, and Piper had noticed that more and more witches were showing considerable interest in running their own businesses. Label Magazine made a profit from female viewership, it was the right time to expand into things not related to expensive clothing, celebrity gossip, and body image.

Though Piper had several women on her list she wanted to interview, the first name to pop into her head seemed like the most obvious @Honey Bea Flume. The current owner of one of the most cherished confectionary shops in Hogsmeade, Honey Bea and Piper actually went way back, the two had been well acquainted in school. However, with time, life and other career-related matters caused them to lose touch, something that Piper regretted now in her late twenties as she no longer the expansive network of friends and acquaintance that she had had in the past.

Determined to end that cycle and to use Honey Bea’s lifelong work as a source of empowerment for female readers, Piper reached out to the woman in hopes that she might meet her to discuss it. She had owled her with the relevant details: a greeting and apology for not keeping in touch, a purpose for her reaching out, and a place and time to meet, with hopes that Honey Bea would agree to it. Choosing The Delicatessen, mostly for the sake of a more casual setting rather than some swanky club where they’d certainly be bothered by one person or another, Piper worked silently on her questions a cup of coffee and a plain bagel with cream cheese. The opening of the door made her look up and she immediately smiled, recognizing the woman as if she had not aged at all. She waved her over discreetly, moving to stand up and embrace her.

“Honey Bea, it’s been such a long time, how’ve you been? Did you eat, already?” she asked. It was an odd one as it was already in the afternoon but one could never tell with busy women.

It was good that they’d decided not to do this at Honeydukes; they would have sat in the kitchen and even though Honey knew the interview should take precedence, she’d have a hard time coming to a full stop with work. They could have gone upstairs, but that was still too close to work. Hogsmeade was too close to work. It was hard to turn that part of her brain off (without a drink), especially when tasked with talking about work.

Still, could they have avoided London? She’d been enough in recent memory that she’d be more than alright not coming back for a while, but she tried to make it a little more palatable, having lunch with her brother -- and maybe discussing the interview that’d be Honeydukes’ (and Honey’s) first not-advertising-related writeup since that less than flattering article last fall -- before heading off to meet Piper.

They couldn’t get much more casual — she didn’t think McDonald’s was on Piper’s radar, though, so maybe this was the most casual option — than this; on first glance Honey was pleased to find such a not-London kind of place.

She saw Piper immediately and made a beeline for her. Honey had made an effort in her appearance — it was too hot for jumpers, anyway — but her wardrobe didn’t offer a lot of variety; she wouldn’t go as far as to say it was a relief to see Piper wearing jeans and a (nicer) tee as well but— it was a relief. She smiled and returned the hug tightly, trying to remember how long it had been since they had seen each other even though she had managed to figure it out just yesterday.

“Feels like forever,” she said honestly, stepping back and finding her seat. “I did, but—“ someone a table away had a slice of cheesecake that looked almost as good as something she could make. “Coffee first.” She’d slept in and skipped breakfast to grab lunch with Fergie and hadn’t made up for the caffeine she hadn’t had. Honey got up to grab herself a cup and was back after a minute, settling into her chair again.

“How are you? Work?” They only had a brief exchange via owl and Honey was better in person, anyway. “This was perfect timing, what with school getting out last week.” She poured an inordinate amount of sugar into her coffee and stirred it slowly. “I’m all yours.” She smirked, clarified: “For a couple hours anyway.”

It did indeed feel forever, Piper decided, considering how long ago she had been a student at Hogwarts. When the witch felt particularly nostalgic, which for some reason was beginning to happen a lot lately, she thought about how many people she could remember from school and what exactly she could remember about them. Her mother had noted that people became nostalgic when they were getting old or lonely; it certainly wasn’t a compliment but she took it with a grain of salt, she had gotten her pointedly honest way of communicating from the woman after all. Back in the day, Honey and Piper had had a lot to talk about, though she couldn’t remember exactly what about, it was Honey’s work ethic that had made her a permanent resident in Piper’s memory.

Piper watched as Honey moved over to grab herself a cup of coffee before she returned, wondering if she should top hers up as well but decided against it, at least for now. “I’m well, mostly at the office lately,” she responded, “Work’s been just fine, quite busy, but that’s exactly how I like it,” she added with a smile. She would have done well to develop some hobbies but knew that if she was not keeping herself busy with work, she’d simply exhaust herself thinking about work when she was supposed to be doing something else.

“The kids must be so excited, I couldn’t wait for summer just to go back home and sit in front of the telly for hours,” she confessed, her smile widening just slightly, but that was almost ten years ago. Nowadays, she figured there was something much more interesting than television, as Piper never kept one in her own home. But her mother did, a muggle-born extremely set in her ways, sometimes splitting time between Hogwarts and home felt like she was leading a double life. The nostalgia was coming back again, maybe she was getting old and lonely after all.

“Perfect,” she noted, taking out her notepad in case she needed to take notes but wanting to keep things as casual as possible. “So I’ve been trying to get this project done for a while now, I enjoy it but interviewing athletes and bands isn’t exactly my cup of tea,” she explained, “the angle I’m going for here is for you to be the center of the piece, sort of where you get your drive and inspiration from, do you think you’ve experienced any setbacks as a woman and a business owner, and particular pressures from society or your family…” she continued. The list wasn’t exhaustive but it was the general idea of what the woman was going for. “So why don’t we start at the beginning, sort of like where you get all the initiative?” it was more a statement than a question but it seemed as good of a starting point as any.

Honey laughed, tapping her spoon on the rim of her cup. “Me too.” She set the spoon down with a small shrug and sipped at her coffee. She literally lived at her office -- above it, technically -- and had made a hobby out of working but she loved it; she wouldn’t change a thing.

She smiled again, setting her cup down, both hands on either side. “My parents put me to work all summer.” She wasn’t upset about it and she grinned to prove it. “Or, they’d send us to our grandparents.” She rolled her eyes at the thought of her and her brother on a working sheep farm. “And then they’d put us to work.” But all the cousins would visit at once so it was actually kind of great-- still. They had a television, of course, but Honey watched one movie and hated it enough that she sort of just avoided it after that.

She nodded, took another sip of her coffee. She was thrilled to be part of Piper’s pet project -- that’s what it sounded like, anyway, and she wasn’t about to downplay how important it was (or made her feel) -- especially if it meant she could get away from athletes and bands, though there wasn’t much of a pause for Honey to sympathize with that. She focused on center of the piece instead, already pretty sure that she hadn’t prepared for everything else she was looking for; Honey was better at talking about Honeydukes than herself, despite her wonderful opinion of herself.

But she nodded like she had answers for everything, took another sip of her coffee.

“The initiative?” Honey repeated the question to buy herself a few more seconds. “Well--” She shrugged. “Honeydukes is my life--” It probably sounded bad when she said it like that, but it wasn’t far from the truth. “I think the initiative is more like..” She glanced away but looked back at Piper after a second; she was realizing -- or remembering -- quickly that she was shit at explaining herself. “My parents stepped back five years ago and since then it’s been a combination of figuring out I don’t need permission for ideas, but that also it’s my fault if anything goes wrong.” She grimaced, laughed to get her thoughts back on track. “That’s grim.”

She took another sip of her coffee and shrugged again. “Honeydukes is an institution.” It wasn’t bragging if it was true. “Can’t be the reason it fails after four hundred years.”

Piper smiled in return, it seemed like a pleasant enough memory. Her own childhood had been a little tumultuous, mostly because her mother found it difficult to choose her own daughter over an active nightlife and a group of friends. The witch had spent most of her time as a young child in the company of her muggle grandparents who gave her as much of a normal life as their own very busy schedules would allow.

But that wasn’t really a story Piper wished to share with anyone, for fear that it would incite some sort of pity that she simply did not want. She had turned out fine, life had been difficult but as her grandfather often said ’All’s well that ends well’. “Well I hope some of the kids get put to work, they could use the experience,” she noted, remembering some of the more entitled and equally annoying schoolmates she had encountered during her time at Hogwarts.

She took notes as Honey spoke, only glancing up to look at her friend when she paused, curious to know if she was gathering her thoughts or choosing to omit some information, her face breaking into a small laugh at the end of her statement. “The horrors of adulthood, but I completely understand, I don’t think it’s grim but rather—aware. You’d be surprised at the sorts of irresponsible kids I have to deal with on a daily basis at work,” she noted but nodded in agreement.

“I’m sure some of the shopworkers can be a bit of a terror as well?” Piper had experienced her share of young, inexperienced teenagers who came in looking for their dream job but couldn’t take the heat that came with the reality of what work truly meant.

Honeydukes certainly was an establishment and had been for as long as she could remember but this was still about Honey, and how she had been shaped by her choices and her environment to become the owner of the confectionary store everyone knew and loved. “Do you think that taking over Honeydukes has to give you the freedom to give yourself permission for ideas or creativity in other aspects of your life as well?” she asked, not wanting to take away the focus from her subject and to her subject’s work.

In her own profession, Piper had more liberties in terms of concepts that she brought to the table but she still lacked the degree of creative authority that she longed for. To make matters worse, she was responsible for the mistakes of her colleagues whether she wanted to be or not. But in other aspects of her life, more authority had given her more confidence to speak up for herself without regret. She wondered if Honey had ever felt the same way.

“Oh, I can imagine.” Irresponsible kids at work: if Honeydukes ever needed a new motto.

Honey sipped her coffee before shaking her head. “Terrors, yeah. I hire students for weekends, some tend to want to stay on for the summer, but summer’s just not as busy.” No sweet-centric holidays until Halloween. She laughed, remembering her most recent student employee terror (not that she could forget). “I just had to fire one after a week. He made a girl cry.” She rolled her eyes and shook her head again. There was a reason she liked to keep a minimal staff, do most of the work herself, and not just because she was obsessed with perfection.

It took her a second to decide what ‘creativity in other aspects of life’ really meant, what Piper was really asking. There weren’t a lot of aspects to Honey’s life; she’d lived and worked in the same small building her entire life, save for a brief stint in Switzerland (to learn more about chocolate with every intention to return to Honeydukes). She’d lived with her parents until she was twenty-five, so she supposed she’d gotten creative about some aspects of her life but-- “If anything, it’s made me more careful. Or made it more obvious that I need to be careful.” There’d been some very obvious not-careful decisions on her part, but she thought she’d been getting better. Mostly.

“There’s more scrutiny, what with it being a family-owned business, family-friendly store.” Piper would have done her research ahead of time, wouldn’t she? She didn’t get a lot of press related to her personal life so she figured that article must have stood out. Then she’d properly dated Harlan and hadn’t read a word about it at all, which she thought only proved her point a little more.

“Never mind the pressure to settle down because the family-owned business has to be passed on to someone.” She didn’t mind bringing it up here, had already brought it up to her parents numerous times. “So I guess that’s less freedom in other aspects of life,” she added after a second, remembering the question she had only sort of answered.

“I can’t possibly imagine hiring a student to do work, even fetching the coffee and mail is a tall order for some of the adults,” she explained, reminding herself of a few people that had made life particularly grating with their inability to complete simple tasks. One girl had even come to her crying and apologizing because she had never been taught how to brew a proper cup of tea. Naturally, Piper fired her on the spot, she had neither the patience nor the interest to deal with that sort of thing which was why it was outsourced to someone else. “Well I’ve made several of my interns cry,” she confessed with a small smile, “but in candyland I assume such things are simply no good,” she reasoned, “And how did he take it? The boy you fired?” she asked, slightly hoping that he had cried as well because the irony of it all would have been particularly amusing.

“Yes, of course, I can only imagine the sort of pressure you are under,” she sympathized with her friend even if she had never experienced that degree of scrutiny in her life. As a woman in her position, Piper had developed a reputation for being a little crueler than necessary to her employees and particularly dedicated to her job which often meant that the tabloids were not following her around trying to figure out who she was dating or taking home. Rather, they focused on the little things like what she wore or on occasion an expose on the ill-treatment one of her former employees had received when they had decided to go to the tabloids with false news just for their fifteen minutes of fame.

“Do you think that male-owned businesses received the same level of scrutiny, with all the pressures to settle or eventually pass down the business to someone else?” she wondered, “Or, rather, do you think it is the type of business that brings about those coercions?”

The name Honeydukes was synonymous with family, particularly children, so it made sense for there to be an image of a family associated with it. An unmarried woman who was particularly beautiful without any man or child at her side might have been considered a faux pas by onlookers, a place like Label, on the other hand, demanded that the person in charge choose family and personal life over her career. It was a difficult path either way, but Piper was interested in her take on it.