Haley White

Haley White

l o s i n g l i l y

Haley White is a Muggle girl who lives next door to the Potters; her best friend was Lily Potter and her greatest annoyance is Albus Potter. She is blissfully unaware of the fact, but her family is one of three Muggle families living in Harry Potter's childhood home of Godric's Hollow, and one of the few that sees a war memorial rather than statues of the Boy-Who-Lived and his parents.

Haley grew up with Lily Potter and they were quite close, Haley seeing nothing strange about Lily's family: after all, most of her neighbors were just like them. The two frequently had sleepovers, as both were home schooled and had a very flexible schedule. They shared everything, or at least Haley did; obviously Lily had constraints like the Statute of Secrecy. There was no one Haley felt closer to than Lily Potter.

But when Lily turned eleven, she had Haley over for an end-of-summer sleepover which proved to be more somber than either girl could have imagined.

The two were lying sprawled on Lily's bed, Haley's blonde waves mixing in with Lily's own auburn. They were silent, but it wasn't the usual warm, comfortable silence. It was strange, discontent. Finally, Lilly rolled over, her hair over one shoulder as she looked at Haley.

"I'm not going to see you for a while," Lily said, the words coming out harsher than she had hoped for.

Haley immediately sat up, crossed her gangly preteen limbs, and shook her head. "Don't be stupid," she said, although her eyes were concerned. "Why on earth would you go away?"

Lily swallowed. Oh, how she wanted to tell Haley the truth, oh, how she wanted to share this entrance into her world with her greatest friend! But she knew she couldn't; she had discussed this with her mother and father forever, and they agreed- or her parents agreed- that a Muggle should not be brought into the Wizarding world unless it was absolutely necessary. Lily had argued that it was certainly necessary, but Harry, in an attempt at humor-izing the situation, advised Lily to set her friend up with a nice handsome wizard. Lily had left the room at that point.

But now she had to do as her father said; it was Wizarding law. She hated this.

"I'm going to boarding school," Lily said slowly, turning her eyes from Haley's.

Haley's unsure grin fell; she too turned her face away, into the dimming light of the sunset.

They were silent for a few minutes before Haley spoke in the quietest voice Lily had ever heard her use.

"When do you leave?" She turned her pale, freckled face to Lily, searching desperately for some proof that this was a sick joke.

"September first."

Haley threw her face into a pillow, and the best friends cried together.

When September first came, Haley was out the door before the Potters were. As much as she wanted to see Lily off, Mr and Mrs Potter told her to stay back, and of course Lily had expected this.

But she walked over to their house in a pale blue sundress, squinting as Mrs Potter opened the door and waved her in. Loud squawks and shrieks sounded from upstairs, but Haley was used to all that; the Potters even had an owl but that was quite the trend in Godric's Hollow.

"Come sit down, Haley," Lily's mother said, shoving something in her pocket and digging out a spatula from an impossibly deep drawer. Lily had never noticed that production at the Potter household slowed down when she entered the front door, but Lily had always known it, and as soon as she heard the clanging of her mother attempting to cook with a spatula she quit her moping, pulled on her sneakers and threw herself down the stairs, to the kitchen table where Haley was sitting silently. As soon as the girls saw each other they stood and embraced, blubbering instructions- don't forget to feed the pollywogs, Haley; you will write every day won't you Lily; sure just give your letters to me dad, he'll know where to send them. That struck Haley as rather odd, but she didn't question that kind of thing anymore. When Mrs Potter finally set plates of eggs and toast and potatoes and bacon around the table, the girls could barely eat, and both started sobbing hysterically when the time came to pack the car. Haley helped Lily do some last minute packing and carried her new cat Wilbur down the stairs as Lily's trunk thuh thunked down behind her, and before she knew it the cat was in Lily's arms and she was in the car and gone. Haley had waved for at least ten minutes, for long after their car had disappeared, hoping someone forgot something. But no one did, and finally she trudged home in a state of despair.

Harry Potter delivered a letter from Lily to Haley every other day or so, and when Lily arrived for Christmas holidays Haley was standing in her driveway ready to hug her friend. They immediately traipsed up into Lily's room, where Haley listened to stories about Rose and Hugo and her other friends, and Haley felt slightly left out because Lily was her only friend. But she put up a good front and they spent almost every day together, with both sets of parents taking pictures of the girls in matching black plaid dresses throwing snowballs at each other. Haley pinned her unmoving set all over her room, but Lily's were taped to her trunk, miniatures of the girls throwing snowballs from frame to frame.

The letters dwindled second semester; Haley usually got one a week and she wrote every day, even if it was something as simple as Hello Lily. I miss you! Love Haley it made her feel like she was still connected to her next-door neighbor. When Lily came home for Easter, she brought home what was, in Haley's eyes, an unwelcome surprise: a friend from school, some girl named Emma Wittgrove, and while she was not an unpleasant girl Haley had a distinct feeling of being a third wheel. They whispered about school and Haley was left staring out the window and towards her house, wondering when she could have the girl in the pictures all to herself.

Lily only realized what distance had come between herself and Haley when the blond Muggle wasn't waiting in her driveway at the start of summer holidays. Now, Haley didn't show herself until the following morning, but after that the holiday went spectacularly. It felt almost like old times, until the day before Lily had to leave for her second year at boarding school. She was getting more and more excited by the day, which irritated Haley beyond belief. But she hid it, bottled it up.

It was late at night when Haley asked what had been on her mind all year; the girls were stretched on top of the sheets.

"Lily," she said slowly, carefully, "where exactly do you go to school? You never give me the address and my letters go through your dad; is it some kind of secret military school because I'm pretty sure that's illegal."

She was joking through the last sentence, Lily knew that. Haley had always played that tactic: using humor to try to soften a blow. Maybe it was time to tell her the truth… but she couldn't.

"Haley," she sighed, "I can't tell you, and even if I could you wouldn't believe me."

Haley rolled over, blue eyes angry. "Wouldn't believe you? I don't ask you anything about the rest of the bizarre stuff that goes on here; I tell you everything, I trust you!"

"I trust you too, Haley," Lily insisted as Haley stood up, shoving things haphazardly into her backpack. Haley couldn't leave; it was Lily who was supposed to!

Haley stopped for a minute and fixed Lily with a cold stare; Lily was forced to look away.

"No," Haley said quietly. "You don't."

She hoisted her bag onto her shoulder, opened the door and slammed it behind her without a backward glance. She pounded down the stairs and unlocked the front door, storming to her own house and entering via the garage. Lily listened to the clang of it shut; saw a window light up as Haley went into her room.

Lily closed her eyes. Even as her parents asked what was going on, even as she knew she had a train to catch in eleven hours, she bit her lip, knowing that Haley was ripping up the pictures, throwing them in a box to be shoved under her bed and never to be seen again.