It wasn't actually insomnia that kept me up this time, for some reason the electric company decided to install a telephone pole in the dead of night and the generator used for that post hole digger is not quiet in the slightest.
Assholes.
Just a random idea that I ran with, you guys know how I am, enjoy!
And yes this chapter has more than a few nods to my assorted favorite abridged series.
Her eyes snapped open and all she saw was darkness.
Go figure. She died in darkness after all, as had Earth...as had...her better half...
"You did what you could, it's their fault for not listening. Sirius did his best, so did Ginny, Luna and Neville but it wasn't enough. We tried, we failed, and don't you dare blame yourself for how things ended up. They betrayed everyone by not listening, not you, we fought, we struggled, we lost. At least we can die knowing that we actually tried."
Quiet love...please...
Rubbing her face slowly Haley Potter sat up and assessed her surroundings, which, surprise surprise, were cloistered, dusty, and far too stuffy.
Considering the fact her room, if you could call it that, was a tiny cupboard underneath the stairs of a cookie cutter suburban home, it was more than one could hope for.
"Idiots," she muttered as she waved her hand at the door unlocking the outside deadbolt while pushing said door open.
Despite the years she had to process their actions the Dursleys still perplexed the reborn witch in ways that any rationally functional human being would quickly agree with.
They hated magic, thus they hated her. Which was fine and dandy all things considered since the feeling was very much mutual.
Still, Petunia knew full well that at the age of seventeen Haley, the obviously magically inclined daughter of her witch sister would legally be allowed to use her powers without supervision.
Yet despite that fact, she encouraged her fucking bastard rapist monster of a husband to abuse her niece and encouraged her son to follow suite.
Seriously? Did she expect the daughter of Lily 'FUCKING' Ivy Potter nee Evans to not seek recompense? Retribution? Bloody Revenge?
Was she really that distant from her younger sister and her own mother that she didn't know exactly what her niece Haley Potter would do to her and her entire family once she had gotten away from the fucking government breathing down her neck?
Knowing the shrew as she did, most likely, not that it even mattered.
A short time later a bottle of Vernon's best brandy was on the table before her along with a large snifter and a bottle of water.
Haley may be suicidally morose at the moment but she knew the sacrifice her friends made to bring her back here would not be appreciated with a destroyed liver.
Well, Sirius might have approved but her Dogfather was hardly the epitome of rational thinking, though the simple thought of the bat shite insane animagus brought a grin to her lips and tears to her eyes as she drank down her watered liquor.
He may have been crazy, but he was her crazy. just like her bookworm was her bookworm, despite how annoying she could be.
Haley grimaced at that, "Don't...just don't think about her..."
Haley, feigning enthusiasm then raised her near empty glass to the ceiling and let out a harsh cackle before shouting, "Here's to us! And who is like us!?"
The Dursleys, hearing her shouting had came downstairs as Haley finished her drink, starring at the empty glass she eventually turned to face them and grinned. Snatching up the bottle of brandy the nine year old girl threw it at the wall and as it shattered she jumped off her chair only wavering about a little.
"Damn few, and they're all dead."
Petunia knew she was in trouble the moment she met its burning green gaze.
It knew what she was now, through whatever freakish means she had acquired, and she saw the emotions being expressed clearly.
Contempt. Spite. Rage. Hatred. Vengeance. Petunia knew these emotions well for she felt them every time her gaze rested on that ginger bitch's spawn, and now, now it was being returned.
The girl, who had apparently been drinking Vernon's best liquor, quivered a bit before them as she clenched her fists, and while her husband began to purple in rage, and Dudley looked about for something to hit the girl with, Petunia knew the truth.
They were seconds away from dying.
"If I said I was sorry would you believe me?"
Petunia couldn't believe the words had left her own mouth.
The girl blanched, loosened her fingers, and actually met her gaze for a moment before, of all things, she broke out laughing.
It was dark, vicious, hopeless laughter that froze her boys in place and actually made her take a step back. Haley just kept laughing, every time it petered out she would take a glance up at her and then begin laughing again, the shear and utter contempt held in that laughter as palpable as an emotion could be.
After a time she calmed down, the laughter ending in a wheezing sob, then she glanced up at her "family" before turning away, "Just so you know, this was never my home. By the blessing's of Morgana and Circe I do declare you all exiled from the house of Evans. So it is is said, so mote shall it be. May your god save you, because I won't raise a finger in your defense. Not now, not ever. May you reap what you have sown."
With that, she vanished with a crack of displaced air.
Three days later, the Dursley family was tortured to death by an unknown party dressed in black wearing white skull masks, their home burnt to the ground. The police never found the responsible party.
"Hey teacher's pet!" Hermione didn't turn around at the taunt, that did not, unfortunately, stop the thrown book hitting her back very nearly sending her sprawling. Grimacing she turned around to address her designated bullies when a voice called out at the grinning group of girls.
"Dick move bitch. So, what? She's smarter than you and you think that gives you a right to single her out?"
Wait, what?
Turning she saw the new girl, Haley Potter if she remembered correctly, striding forward to stand between Hermione and her tormentors. Haley's wine red wavy ringlets blew in the wind as she rested a fist on her hip, looking for all the world like a vengeful Valkyrie.
"This has nothing to do with you Potter," the oldest girl stated, said girl shrugged at that while tilting her head to the side, her expression lost to Hermione.
"Looks like I made it something to do with me, now doesn't it? Don't you lot have somewhere else to be right now?"
There was a long silence, but eventually the group of girls sneered at her and left, snorting Haley walked over to Hermione and picked up the book that had been thrown at her.
"Hey check it out! Free book! You live around the corner right Granger? I'll walk you home, oh wow who the hell throws away a perfectly good Discworld novel?! Plebeians I swear! Err, right, Haley Potter, nice to meet you!"
Hermione stared at the incredibly strange girl before her a few moments before giggling and shaking her extended hand, "Hermione Granger, pleased to meet you! Errr...please feel free to call me by my first name..."
"Then call me Haley! So, are you really top of our year group? I mean that is rather impressive."
Hermione never noticed that they had not released hands until she was safely in her home.
Haley did, which only made her grin as she apparated away to her flat, only to be set upon by a young and annoyed snowy owl.
"Oi Hedwig stop it girl I'm sorry I was gone so long but I was in class!" The snowy owl did not look placated as she landed on her perch, but rather then going on the attack again she gave her human a moment to explain.
Haley sighed, "Look, Mia was always...obsessed with rules and authority...well until they completely and utterly failed her at every turn and she started expressing some very amusing sociopathic tendencies."
Hedwig tilted her head at that which made Haley snort in amusement, "Reporter that went after us was an illegal animagus, a beetle. Hermione caught her and kept her trapped in a jar for weeks before making the bitch swear to never cross us again. She was so caught up in her revenge she never even considered how fucked up that situation was."
Hedwig barked in amusement which only had Haley laughing with an agreeing nod.
"I know right? Still... I've got two years before I have to go back to that madhouse, what should I do? Play dumb? Or introduce her to it all early?"
Hedwig managed to somehow look at her like she was raising a single contemptuous eyebrow.
Haley threw her hands up at that while beginning to pace about the room, "Ok fine, but seriously if Mia becomes a Dark Lady before we're even done with puberty it's on you."
Hedwig barked in amusement as Haley spun and glared at the owl, "NO! That is not something you should be proud of!"
The owl raised her wings in a shrugging gesture while turning away from her pet losing interest in the conversation.
Haley for her part wondered why she surrounded herself with so many crazy women before considering how boring it would be if she didn't, end of the world in the balance or not.
She let out a sigh at that before turning back to Sirius's legal documents, time to get her Dogfather back.
"Why not introduce more crazy to the equation, not like it can get any more fucked up than it is..."