Hannah Alexis Abbott


Lounging comfortably on the sofas of Abbott's drawing room, Farley, Chip and Alexis talked idly about nothing and everything. Reaching for the pitcher of pumpkin juice set out of the way on one the end tables on either side of the sofa, Farley poured himself a fresh glass as he tuned back into Alexis's chatter about her run-in with one of her "nemeses".

"-then I said that she was a tacky bitch and she said I-"

"Hannah Alexis Abbot!" thundered Alexis's father from behind them.

Face paling drastically, Alexis scrambled out of her boyfriend's lap and stood up. Turning around, she sent her father a wide smile. "Yes, Daddy?" she asked in a false sugary tone.

Craning his neck, Farley watched the man wave around an empty liquor bottle along with what appeared to be a pair of men's underwear. Then Alexis's usually mild-mannered father demanded, "What the bloody hell is this shite I found under your bed!"

"That little slag," Alexis hissed beneath her breath.

Face crimson now, Mister Abbot growled, "What did you say?"

"Sheba must have borrowed my room a couple weeks back when I was over at Tia's for the night," she said, looking quite upset herself now.

Waving around the empty bottle and underwear some more, her father stared straight at her as he asked, "Are you lying to me, Hannah Alexis Abbott? Because if you are-"

"No, Dad, I'm not," she cut in, answer firm. "I hate blueberry schnapps. If I want something fruity I'll go knick some wine from Aunt Hannah's place."

Looking a little less furious at her answer, Mister Abbott put down his arm holding the empty schnapps bottle and held out his hand with the balled up knickers. "What about these?" he questioned, sending a rather nasty glare at the wide-eyed Chip.

Rolling her eyes, Alexis went and grabbed Chip by the arm. Stumbling to his feet at his girlfriend's urging, the blonde stood dumbly in her grip as Hannah pulled up Chip's shirt. "He wears shorts, Dad," she explained, finger pointing to where the waistband of Chip's underwear rose above his jeans.

Flushing in embarrassment, Chip yanked his shirt back down and pulled himself out of Alexis's grip. Taking a seat next to Farley, he mumbled, "I can't believe she did that!"

"I'm sorry, love," Mister Abbott apologized. His face wasn't crimson anymore, but there was a certain look of determination to it. "I think I'll be going to wait for your sister's return in the kitchen."

Nodding, Alexis said to him, "Wicked. Hey, Dad? When you're giving her what for, can you make sure you bitch at her for using my room while your at it? It's bad enough she used my bed, but leaving that stuff in there? Yuck."

"I couldn't agree more," her father replied. "Kids, why don't you go out for a bit? I don't think you'll want to be here for Sheba's lecture."

"Okay, Dad," Alexis agreed with a smile. Grabbing both Farley and Chip by their wrists, she dragged them from the couch and said, "Come on lazy bums, we got to scram."

Allowing themselves to be lead from Hannah's home, it was a little less than a few minutes later they were just another trio of teenagers meandering the busy streets of Hogsmeade. As they walked, it didn't take long for Chip to take Alexis's hand and soon, they were all talking like the incident at Alexis's never occurred.

However, even as Alexis began to retell the story of her encounter with Opal Montague from a couple days ago at Madam Puddifoot's, something about the confrontation still bothered Farley.

"Alexis…" he began.

She paused mid-step. "Yeah, Farley?" she asked.

"Your father…He called you Hannah Alexis Abbott," Farley said.

Chip nodded. "He's right, he did call you Hannah."

"Oh Merlin," Alexis sighed.

Grinning a little now, Farley poked her in the side with his elbow as he questioned, "So, we didn't mishear then? Your name is Hannah?"

A scowl marring her usually pleasant features, the girl nodded. "Yeah," she answered grudgingly. "You can blame my mother for that one. She was pureblood, you know? Names matter to them - which I'm sure you know extremely well, Farley Goyle. My mum changed in a lot of ways between her family disowning her and my parents having me, but that was one thing she didn't let go of.

"Since Mum had always been so grateful to Aunt Hannah for being a friend to her during those first couple years after her disownment, my mum named me Hannah. Thankfully, Dad managed to wrangle out of her an agreement where he got to pick mine and Sheba's middle names. Because, if he hadn't, can you imagine the confusion we'd have had? Aunt Hannah and I would have never known who's attention Dad, Sheba or Uncle Neville were trying to get."

"During our Sorting, though, the deputy Headmaster called for Alexis Abbott, not Hannah Alexis Abbott," Farley pointed out.

Hannah laughed. "There are some perks to having Uncle Neville at Hogwarts," she remarked. "He was able to change it for me."

"Why'd you have him do that, Alexis?" Chip asked.

She pursed her lips. "I hate my first name," she said. "I mean, it's not like I think it's ugly or anything, but there's too much already attached to it for me. It's Aunt Hannah's name. When people say Hannah I think of her. When someone says Alexis…I think of me. I know it's my name, not someone else's, you know?"

"I know," Chip agreed quickly. A wide grin on his face, he reminded them, "My name is Stephen. Just like my dad. I totally get why you'd want to go by something…different. The only reason I go by Chip is because Mum hated calling me Junior, but thought I was just like Dad."

"Chip off the old block, right?" Alexis said with a giggle.

He nodded. "That's right," he concurred.

Listening to them talk about family and names, Farley felt alone. He didn't have any connections like that to his own family. Unlike a lot of other pureblood families, his parents had made the decision to give him a name that wasn't connected to the Goyle or Bulstrode past - believing it would do him better in the future.

So far, he had to admit, they'd been right. But even so, Farley wished he did have a stronger connection to his heritage. It wasn't a beautiful, heroic or even forgettable one like so many of his peers, but at least it was a story worth knowing. There was a lot to be learned from his ancestors and their mistakes. Sometimes, though, Farley feared that their mistakes would be forgotten since he felt so little connection to them.

The disconnect would only be worse for any children he might have, he knew. They'd forget more with every generation where they came from and eventually, Farley feared, they'd begin to make the same mistakes. Follow the same dark paths and prove once in for all that Goyles never changed.


What are your thoughts on this little scene? I feel it's fairly amusing for the most part. Though, Farley's musing at the end there end it on a bit of a darker tone…

Also, remember chapter are being dated in the index with the point at which they were added to Growing up Goyle. I hope this will help with any confusion you guys might feel due to how I arrange chapters upon uploading them to keep the timeline in order.

Thank you very much for reading and please review :)