Then the unthinkable happened, something changed her life, again.
It was the last potion class of the year, and Halie was running late, so she literally ran to class. There were four boys coming up the staircase to the dungeons, and she barely avoided colliding into them, "Sorry!" she exclaimed swerving out of the way. She stopped suddenly a step down from them, and turned to look back at them. They boy in front, the leader she guessed, looked incredibly familiar. Because he looked exactly like Scorpius, the same blond hair, ice blue eyes, and aquiline features, only there was something sinister in his very presence.
"Hal, you coming?" Dan asked passing her on the stairs.
"Yeah," Halie answered vaguely turning to follow her brother.
Halie didn't mention the run in until after the school year ended. She was home preparing lunch in the kitchen, when a knock came to the back door, curious she opened it to find Scorpius standing there, alone. "Hey," Halie greeted him with surprise.
"Hey," he replied, "can I come in or should we just stand here?"
"Yeah, sure, come on in," Halie stepped out of his way and went back to cooking. "So – what's up?"
"I came to invite you to my birthday party on Friday," Scorpius stated nervously.
"Did you invite Rose too?"
"Yes," Scorpius affirmed asking a question with his voice.
"Okay I'll come. What time?"
"The party starts at 7 with dinner, but you may want to avoid eating dinner with my family. All of them are going to be there, and the less you have to deal with their fake manners the better."
"Alright, I'll coordinate with Rose, we'll probably go together." Halie paused remembering the incident at school. "Scorpius, is that boy at school that looks almost exactly like you going to be there?"
"My cousin Lucian? Yeah he'll be there, why?"
"I literally ran into him at the end of last term, I was just curious as to who he was. I mean, I guessed he had to be family, but I never heard anyone mention you had a brother, so …"
"Yeah, he's a real piece of work you should probably stay away from him. Most of the real nasty stuff that happens at school he's either in charge of or does himself, but no one can ever prove anything. He's a year ahead of us in Slytherine."
"I'll watch out I promise, and I'll see you on Friday." Halie turned to smile at Scorpius. "Do you want to stay for lunch?"
"Thanks, but I can't. More invitations to extend," Scorpius grimaced at the thought of who he was going to see next.
"Good luck," Halie wished for him as he walked back out of the kitchen door. That night Halie sent a message to Rose about the party, the next morning Rose herself came over to discuss their plans.
"Hal I'm so nervous!" rose exclaimed collapsing onto Halie's bed.
"Don't worry, I'm going to be there, and so is Scorpius."
"I know it's just the rest of his family are a lot more like his grandfather was than he is."
"You don't have to worry about that, they wouldn't risk offending Scorpius on his birthday just to get to us. Whatever you hear them say about you just let it roll off your back. People only say mean things when they're afraid or insecure. Believe me, the more you let it get to you, the more they feel better about themselves, and the more it will happen."
"Okay," Rose replied with a small smile. There was a long pause in which the girls collected their thoughts, "So what are you going to wear?" Rose finally asked. Halie burst out laughing, but went over wardrobe choices anyway. Halie's week was slow, almost painfully so, worrying over Rose, and how the party would go.
Finally Friday arrived, and the girls made their way to Scorpius' home. They arrived around 8:30 assuming that would be plenty of time for the dinner party to have broken up. Scorpius was the one who answered the door, and from the look of desperation on his face Halie could tell he was hoping it was them. "Happy Birthday!" the two girls chorused.
"I'm so glad you came!" Scorpius rushed forward and gave each girl a hug. "I honestly don't know what I would have done if it had been another one of my relatives."
"You can rest easy, now you'll have someone you can actually talk to," Halie assured him with a smile.
"You have no idea," Scorpius replied letting them in from the cold. A young man was waiting to take their coats, when he saw the marks on Halie's shoulders he openly stared – she ignored him. It wasn't until most of the room was staring at them that Scorpius realized that Halie was wearing a dress that exposed most of her back, and almost all of her scars.
"Halie, why did you wear that dress?" he asked quietly.
"Because I look good in it, and I don't care who sees my scars anymore," Halie replied heading for the drink table. The people standing around the table resumed their conversation, and the rest of the room seemed to collect themselves and go back to what they were doing before Halie entered the room.
The girls were generally ignored by the party but every once in a while they would hear a quiet snide comment, or a stifled laugh as they passed a group. Halie was so used to these things that it didn't matter much to her at all; Rose on the other hand was having a hard time keeping her spirits up. Scorpius was a great help when he could stay with them, but as it was his party he had to see to all of his guests. It was during one of his longer absences that the worst part of the night (for Rose) occurred.
Halie had stepped inside the house to get a drink, leaving Rose in the garden, when a group of boys surrounded Rose. They began taunting her and shoving her, not so hard that she would fall, but she stumbled a few times. When Halie came back she forced her way into the center of the circle to stand in front of Rose, "Is there a problem here?" Halie asked coolly.
"Stay out of this mudblood, this is between us wizards," the ringleader sneered.
"My name is Halie, and if you can't keep a civil tongue in your head I'll thank you not to speak to me. Come on Rose," Halie gripped Rose by the hand and started to pull her away when the boys closed ranks.
"Where do you think you're going?" one of the boys demanded. "The party is just getting started."
"Please move," Halie replied sounding bored, nothing happened. "Out of courtesy for our hosts I don't want to cause a scene, but if you don't more out of my way right now you won't get a scene you'll get a west end show."
The boy directly in front of her smirked and raised a fist to punch her, but before he could actually land the blow someone grabbed his arm, holding it back. "The young lady is right, our hosts will be very unhappy if you harm one of their guests," the newcomer stated. "Please forgive my manners; I'm Lucian Malfoy, Scorpius' cousin."
"Charmed I'm sure," Halie replied dryly. "Please excuse us," Halie pushed through the line of boys dragging Rose along. The boys all turned to watch them go.
"Why did you stop me?" the ringleader asked.
"Because we need her, and antagonizing her won't help our cause," Lucian replied staring at all the scars on Halie's back. Halie didn't stop until she found Scorpius. He took one look at Rose and was instantly concerned.
"Are you alright?" He demanded.
"She'll be fine," Halie assured him. "Could you tell me where the bathroom is?"
"Top of the stairs, third door on the left," Scorpius answered promptly.
"Thanks," Halie replied. Once again she was obliged to pull Rose along with her.
"Do you need any help?" Scorpius called after them.
"No, we're fine," she replied. Several people in the vicinity gave Scorpius odd looks, but didn't comment. Scorpius went to find his dad to tell him what happened and to ask his advice. Upstairs Halie was filling the porcelain sink with water. She was almost ready when a knock came to the door.
"Hal, it's me," she recognized Scorpius' voice and opened the door. "Can we come in?" he asked nodding to the man behind him.
"Sure," she replied standing aside to let them in. Rose was sitting on the edge of the bathtub in a kind of stupor.
"What's wrong with her?" the older man asked.
"She's just feeling a little overwhelmed right now, I'll have her back in no time." Halie helped Rose to her feet and took her to the now full sink, pulled back Roses' hair and dunked her face under the water. Rose pulled back sputtering and coughing.
"What did you do that for?! I'm soaking wet now!" Rose shouted at Halie.
"Here," Halie handed her a towel. "Welcome back."
"Did I go somewhere?" Rose asked grumbling as she dried herself off.
"Actually I think you went to nowhere." Halie replied all three of the others stared at her like she was crazy. "I'll explain later."
"Oh, hello Mr. Malfoy," Rose greeted the older man once she realized he was in the room.
"Ms. Weasley do you want to tell me what happened?"
"Not really," Rose replied.
"It was nothing really, a few harsh words that don't mean anything in the long run," Halie replied smiling pleasantly.
"Am I to understand that some of my guests were taunting you?" Malfoy asked.
"That's a very formal way of putting it," Halie replied laughing a little. "Mr. Malfoy, I was wondering if you would be so kind as to not take any action while Rose and I are still here. It could make things worse in the long run."
"Very well," he replied sighing. Malfoy took out his wand and performed a drying charm on Rose.
"Thank you Mr. Malfoy," Rose said as the placed the towel on the counter.
"Let's get back to the party," Halie suggested leading the way out of the bathroom.
"Are you sure you're okay?" Scorpius asked in a whisper to Rose.
"I'll be just fine," she assured him patting his arm. Scorpius found it ironic that she was comforting him. The evening went relatively smoothly after that. The girls went back to being mostly ignored, and Scorpius stayed by their side always on the look out for someone trying to mess with them. Halie was the one who finally spoke up about going home, she could tell that Rose was still hadn't fully recovered from the intense situation before.
"Thanks for coming, I'm sorry you didn't have a better time," Scorpius sighed as the girls left.
"We had a wonderful time," Halie assured him. The girls were walking down the steps when the door opened behind them. Halie turned back to find Lucian standing in the open doorway.
"See you at school," he said. He smirked and waved before closing the door.
"What was that about?" Rose asked.
"I'm not sure . . . let's get you home," Halie ushered Rose down the stairs and over to the family car.
Several weeks later, just before school started again Halie got an unexpected visit. Teddy entered the Potter's kitchen without knocking towing another young man in his wake. Halie was alone making lunch for the whole family. She turned toward the sound of someone entering the kitchen, and was surprised to see two people standing behind her.
"Halie, this is my friend Nikolas," Teddy introduced the new boy to Halie.
"Nice to meet you," Halie replied still looking at them curiously.
"Same here," Nikolas replied smiling wryly.
"Nik is going to help me this next year with teaching you Occlumency. He's a really good Legilimens, better than, me so he'll present more of a challenge."
"Okay," Halie replied smiling, still slightly confused. "Are you going to stay for lunch?"
"Do you mind?" Teddy asked.
"No, but you should go say hi to my dad, he's in the den." Halie turned her back on them and continued cooking.
"Hal, what is Teddy doing here?" Dan asked suspiciously.
"He came to introduce one of his friends, who is going to be helping us out next year," Halie replied. She set plates and silverware on the table for Dan to place around the table.
"What do you mean help you next year?"
"Oh, didn't I tell you?" Halie saw Daniel shake his head. "I'm taking special lessons next year. Teddy and his friend Nikolas are going to teach me Occlumency."
"Why?"
"Because your sister is special," Harry stated leading the two young men into the kitchen.
"I don't know if that's a compliment or not, but I'm going to go get mom," Halie replied laughing.