Chapter 32 Still Courtney

Halo had to stay in the hospital wing all of Sunday so that Madame Abbot could watch him closely and make sure he hadn't suffered any lasting damage from his magic drain. The healer was still upset that Hermione and Ginny had questioned him while he was supposed to be resting, and even though Halo felt better by Saturday evening he decided it was probably a good idea not to argue. Madame Abbott was clearly not going to let him leave until she decided he was fully recovered, and since she seemed firmly convinced that he was delicate, he figured he might be here until Christmas. Not having much else to do, Halo slept nearly all of Sunday. It wasn't a bad way to spend the day, all things considered. Destroying a golem really takes it out of you.

He woke up early on Monday morning, having slept for nearly two days straight. As he got ready for the day, he felt just the tiniest bit nervous about what was going to happen in class. He hoped that none of the other students had heard that he had spent all weekend in the infirmary, recovering from trying too hard on homework. If they had, he was going to be a laughingstock. His friends would know the truth, but everyone else would think he was the most pathetic wizard Hogwarts had ever seen. Oh, and he had Charms that afternoon, which was going to be especially horrible. Halo tried his best not to think about it, but he couldn't help it. He could just feel that today was not going to be a good day.

Madame Abbott came out of her office about half an hour before breakfast and announced (very reluctantly it seemed) that he was probably healthy enough to go back to class. Halo was getting ready to go to breakfast when the door to the hospital wing opened and a swarm of people walked in. Rose and Albus came first, followed by Sam, Scorpius, J.B., Kevin, Courtney, Shandra, Annie, and Sora. All the first years in THOMAC, with the exception of Cleo, were there crowding around him, some patting him on the back and others talking excitedly.

"Wha-what are you all doing here?" Halo asked, looking around in surprise.

"Oh, we were just headed down to breakfast, and thought we'd stop by and see how you were doing, since it's on the way and all," Rose said, sounding completely honest and sincere even though she was totally lying. Halo knew that the hospital wing wasn't on anyone's way to the Great Hall. The Slytherins had to come all the way up from the dungeons, the Gryffindors had to come down from their tower, which was on the other side of the school, and Sora had to come from… er, wherever the Hufflepuff common room was. But they had all come anyways, even Courtney and Kevin, neither of whom looked particularly pleased to see him up and about. Whatever, that didn't matter to Halo. He was just so grateful to have friends like that that for a moment he couldn't speak, all he could do was grin like an idiot at all of them.

"You know, breakfast… as is in that thing where you eat food... in the morning," J.B. said slowly, acting as if Halo were suddenly hard of hearing, or just really stupid.

"I believe Harry knows what breakfast is," Sora said calmly.

"You never know," J.B. said darkly. "I heard that sometimes people who suffer from magic drain lose all of their memories, and they spend the rest of their life wandering around aimlessly, trying desperately to remember who they are."

"Really?" Annie asked, eyes widening in fear. "That's terrible!"

"And untrue," Shandra said, putting her arm around her best friend and frowning at J.B., who just grinned and shrugged.

"Don't listen to this idiot, Annie." Shandra said, because Annie was still looking at Halo as if something horrible was going to happen to him at any second. "Halo is perfectly fine, aren't you Halo?"

Halo was caught a little off guard, and for a second or so he couldn't form any words. That happened sometimes when Shandra was around, though he wasn't really sure why. And he was a little surprised that she had called him Halo. He didn't mind, of course, but she had just never called him that before. Most people still called him Harry. Maybe it meant that they were becoming better friends, and Halo certainly wouldn't mind that.

"F-fine, I'm fine, I promise," Halo said after a noticeable pause. J.B. seized the opportunity and immediately began shuffling around the hospital wing like a zombie from one of those bad muggle movies, imitating what Halo would be reduced to without his memories. Halo thought it was kind of funny, and he wouldn't have minded at all if it weren't for the horrified look that Annie was giving him.

"Oi, enough already, idiot," Sam said, moving forward and grabbing J.B. by the hair, dragging him towards the door. "Stop scaring little girls and let's go eat." Sam's spikey hair was still blue, thanks to Halo's accidental transfiguration, and it made her look even more intimidating than before. Annie looked even more upset that Sam had called her a little girl, even though they were the same age, and Rose and Shandra glared at Sam as she left, dragging a protesting J.B. with her. Halo sighed quietly and followed them, wishing that everyone could just get along.

As soon as their group had left the hospital wing, Cassy, Heather, Charlie and Tommy came around the corner. Cassy smiled when she saw her brother, and came forward to give him a big hug. "There you are," Cassy said, ruffling his hair affectionately. "We were just coming by to check on you."

"Wow, thanks everyone," Halo said, meaning it whole-heartedly. He never would have thought that so many people were so concerned about him. It was a great feeling.

"Hey, no worries, mate," Charlie said, grinning at him. "You really saved our necks back there. That was some of the coolest magic I've ever seen."

Halo wished he knew a spell that could record what someone said, so that he could save it and play it back whenever he wanted. Then if someone made fun of him he could play it back and say, See, I'm not a loser who fainted doing homework, I've done some of the coolest magic Charlie's ever seen. So take that! Sadly, even if such a spell existed, Halo didn't know it.

Their group started moving again, chatting merrily as they headed in the direction of the Great Hall. Halo found himself next to Tommy, who looked a little different than he had before. It took Halo a second or two to figure out why.

"Hey, I didn't know you had glasses, Tommy."

"Well, I don't like them," Tommy replied, "so I take them off unless I absolutely have to wear them, like for class. Sadly, the Kincaide family is not blessed with very good eyes."

"I keep saying, you look cuter with them on," Heather said, poking Tommy in the nose. Tommy smiled and swatted her finger away while Heather just laughed. Neither of them saw the brief glare that Charlie gave them, but Halo did. He would have thought more about it if he weren't distracted by something else that he saw out of the corner of his eye. Courtney had stopped walking suddenly, and was looking at Tommy in disbelief.

"Courtney? You okay?" Halo asked, half-wishing he wasn't speaking. Of all the people at this school, he probably liked Courtney the least. Sure, she'd started helping out a little bit, but she was… still Courtney. He shouldn't care whether something was bothering her or not, but for some reason, even after everything she'd said and done, he did.

"Courtney?" Tommy asked, repeating the name slowly and looking around. His eyes found her, and Halo saw his jaw tighten. Courtney didn't say a thing as she abruptly turned and fled, running down the hallway in the other direction.

"Hey, wait, wher-"Halo called after her, but she didn't stop. The others all exchanged confused looks, wondering what was going on. Many of them looked expectantly at Tommy, but he didn't look like he was in the mood to talk about it at all.

"Someone should go make sure she's alright," Cassy said, looking back down the corridor. Halo agreed, and he and the other Slytherins looked expectantly at Kevin, who was closest to her.

"What?" demanded Kevin, crossing his large arms stubbornly over his chest. "I'm not running after her. It's not as if I care about her stupid girl problems."

Halo sighed, but he wasn't terribly surprised. Kevin was just a git, it was as simple as that. He was surprised, however, when everyone turned and looked expectantly at him.

"What?" Halo asked. What did they expect him to do? It was Courtney.

"You're really good at this kind of stuff," Scorpius said quietly. "You can always make people feel better when they're sad."

"I-er thanks, Scorpius, but-"

"Look, I'm not dealing with her, Simba, so you better go do it," Sam said.

"You know, you're really a jerk, Crabbe," Rose said, putting her hands on her hips and glaring furiously at Sam.

"No one asked you, ginger," Sam said, drawing herself up to her full height. She was several inches taller than Rose, but the shorter girl didn't seem at all intimidated. Her hand hovered an inch or so above her wand, and it seemed like she was itching to draw it. Halo was slightly alarmed. He'd seen Rose mad before, and he knew that she wasn't likely to back down. Of course, neither was Sam.

"Look, I'll go check on Courtney," Halo said to break the tension. "You lot go on ahead, and please try not to curse each other. We're all on the same side."

"Fine," Rose said loftily, brushing past Sam without another word, followed closely by Albus, who looked far more intimidated by Sam than Rose did. Cassy gave her brother a questioning look, but he nodded to indicate that he was fine. He turned away from the others and went to go find Courtney—which was not something he had ever expected to do.

Halo found her sitting on a windowsill on the far side of the hallway, miserably looking out across the grounds of the castle towards Hogsmede. It was one of those enormous windows in the castle with a deep windowsill that was large enough that Halo could have laid down comfortably if he curled up in a ball. Courtney looked as though she'd been crying, and Halo immediately went over to sit beside her without a second thought. He hated it whenever someone was sad or upset, even if that someone had been mean and rude to him since the moment they'd met. Courtney didn't turn to look at him, and for a minute or so they just sat there in silence, looking out the window. Halo wanted to say something that would cheer her up somehow, but he wasn't sure what to say. He didn't actually know Courtney that well, and he really didn't like her at all. It sure was hard to find a way to cheer someone up when you half-wanted them to stay sad and miserable. Halo shook his head to clear it, burying those thoughts firmly in the back of his mind. Courtney needed someone to be there for her, and apparently that someone had to be Halo, since no one else wanted to do it. And in any case, they could always go back to hating each other later, after Courtney was feeling better and things got back to normal.

"Are you here to laugh at me?" Courtney asked at last, rubbing the tears away from her red eyes with her palms. She sounded, quite frankly, rather pitiful.

"Why would I laugh at you?" Halo asked gently, his heart flooding with sympathy. She sounded so miserable, and if it were anyone else he would have put his hand on her shoulder or given her a hug. But it wasn't anyone else, it was Courtney, and he knew she would not appreciate being hugged by him.

"I would," Courtney said, hiccupping loudly, "I would laugh if it was you sitting here all alone, crying your eyes out." Halo didn't have a response to that. It was true, of course, they both knew it. Halo found that it didn't really matter to him though. He still wanted to help her, no matter what she would have done if the roles were reversed. After all, he was aiming to be a slightly better person than Courtney Stubbs.

"Why don't you tell me what's wrong," Halo said, putting his hand on her shoulder. Sure enough, she shrugged it off, as if she didn't like being touched by a Half-breed, as she liked to call him. Normally it would have made him angry, since he hated it when Courtney, Kevin, or any of the older Slytherins started with their nonsense about pureblood status, but he recognized that she was just lashing out, trying to get him to go away so she wouldn't have to talk to him. Halo was actually impressed that he could read her motives so well—almost as if he were a grownup. But then, maybe it wasn't so surprising. He had grown up quite a bit in the last few weeks.

After all, he'd blown up a golem.

"Tell me what's wrong," Halo repeated, quiet but firm. Courtney turned and glared at him for a minute with her beady little brown eyes, but Halo held her gaze, refusing to look away. At last she realized that he wouldn't leave her alone, and started talking.

"I should have been prepared for it. I mean, I knew he was here at Hogwarts somewhere, but I- I just wasn't ready to see him standing there."

"You mean Tommy?" Halo asked. "How do you know him?"

"I don't," Courtney said, turning back towards the window and fixing her sights on the horizon.

"What? I don't get it. If you don't know him, then who is he?"

"He's my brother."

Halo could have said, What? I don't get it again, but there didn't seem much point. Instead he just remained quiet, waiting for Courtney to explain.

"Well, he's my half-brother, really. We have the same mother. You see, before my mother married my father she… she married someone else. Right after she finished Hogwarts, my mother married a boy from school, a half-blood Ravenclaw named Duncan Kincaide. They stayed together for a little over two years before my mother decided to leave him and return to her parents' house. I don't really know what happened; my mother refuses to ever talk about it. All she would tell me is that it was a rebellious phase that she grew out of, and that she'd tried to get rid of everything that reminded her of that time. There was just one thing that she couldn't get rid of quite so easily."

"Tommy," Halo guessed.

"Tommy," confirmed Courtney. "I don't know for sure, but I'm pretty sure that she left Duncan just after Tommy was born. After all, he's only two years older than me, and she couldn't have stayed with him for long. My mother doesn't believe in wasting time, about six months after she returned home she married my father, James Stubbs, and a year after that she was pregnant with me." Halo listened closely, but he didn't quite understand. He knew that women got pregnant and had babies, but he wasn't quite sure how it worked. Courtney seemed to understand what she was talking about though, and he took her word for it that it was unusual for a woman to have two babies by two separate husbands in two years.

"And you said you've never met him before?" Halo asked.

"Never. I didn't even know that I had an older half-brother until about three years ago, when I overheard my parents talking. I tried to ask my mother about it, but she refused to say anything more than what I already told you. Whenever I tried asking she would get angry, and it's very bad when my mother is angry."

Halo could picture it now, a grumpy older woman who resembled Courtney snapping at her daughter to stop asking stupid questions and get back to studying her books on wizarding genealogy. Halo had never considered before what he would have done if his own mother had been a mean, evil woman who would be willing to abandon her own child just because the boy's father wasn't pure-blooded enough for her liking. It could be that he might have turned out to be as bad as Courtney, or maybe even worse.

"I don't even know why I'm crying," Courtney muttered, rubbing her eyes furiously again. "I always figured that my brother would hate me. After all, how could he not? I'm the daughter of someone who had abandoned him. His own mother had chosen to raise me and my brothers, but not him. Of course he would hate me after that, I would too."

"I don't think Tommy hates you," Halo said, but he wasn't sure if he was telling the truth or not. Tommy sure hadn't looked particularly pleased to see Courtney. Still, Halo knew Tommy a little bit, and he couldn't picture one of Cassy's closest friends actually hating his own sister just because his mother was a horrible person.

"Oh, what do you know," Courtney snapped, stubbornly refusing to be cheered up. She stood up and rubbed her eyes again, saying, "Come on, we have to get to Potions or we'll be late." She stalked off, and Halo was too annoyed to walk with her. Just before she turned the corner, though, Courtney stopped and turned to look at him with an expression on her face that he'd never seen before.

"You came after me," Courtney said quietly, "even though we aren't really…" she didn't finish her thought, and Halo was glad she didn't. They weren't anything that even remotely resembled friends, and they both knew it. "T-thank you, H-Halo." With that she disappeared around the corner, leaving him feeling rather surprised. Courtney Stubbs had actually expressed gratitude… to him! And she had called him Halo for the first time, just like Shandra. He wasn't nearly as excited as he'd been when she'd done it, but maybe it was a sign of progress. Maybe he and Courtney could actually be friends one day. Halo considered this as he made his way down towards the dungeons. Nah, probably not, he decided as he walked into Potions class ten minutes later. That wasn't going to happen. After all, she was still Courtney.

And so the day before Halloween started on a strangely positive note, but it ended up going every bit as badly from there on out as Halo had feared. It seemed as though James had spread the false story of what had happened to Halo throughout the Gryffindor common room, and everyone seemed to think that he'd spent the weekend in the infirmary after passing out doing homework. To many of the first-year Gryffindors, it was like Christmas had come early. Many of them didn't much like Halo, every bit as jealous as the other first years were about how good he was at transfiguration. After all, Sam's blue hair served as a walking testament to how good he was, so there was just no avoiding it. Danny Corlin, Oscar Vane, Amanda Kirke and Peter Monroe spent most of Potions making fun of him, speaking quietly so that Professor Evergreen wouldn't hear them. Rose glared at them viciously and Albus told them to bugger off, but their fellow Gryffindors gleefully ignored them and kept at it, promising Halo that they would carry him up to the hospital wing if he passed out stirring his potion. Halo was touched that Rose and Albus would stand up for him, even to members of their own house, but it didn't really make him feel much better. He was pretty miserable as he left class, skipping lunch so that he could start his homework early.

He joined Cleo in the library, who had said nothing to him all day, but that was hardly unusual. She looked at him briefly and gave him a little half-smile and a gentle pat on the arm before disappearing behind her book. It was hardly anything at all, but it made Halo feel loads better. Cleo always seemed to be able to calm him down, which, ironically, was what he was supposed to be doing for her.

After lunch was Herbology, which, if anything, was worse than Potions had been. Headmistress Sprout was still teaching their class in place of Professor Longbottom, and she immediately asked if he was feeling all right with a look of grandmotherly concern on her face. He muttered that he was fine and spent most of the class dodging the looks of the Hufflepuffs, most of whom seemed to be watching to see if he would spontaneously faint. A few, particularly Valerie Parsons, Otto McLaggen and Curtis Nash, seemed to be genuinely disappointed that he didn't.

Charms promised to be truly terrible, since at the start of class Professor Dimock drew him aside and, with her voice full of concern, told him not to push himself too hard. Halo wanted to shout as loudly as he could that he was not about to faint doing classwork, but he forced himself to remain quiet and nod. After all, what was he going to say, the truth? That wasn't an option, so he had to content himself with thinking up nasty things he was going to say to Rose when he saw her after class that afternoon. All of this was her fault anyways, her and her stupid lie. She should have come up with something better.

Mercifully, his pain ended after only five minutes or so, because a tall boy with long red hair who Halo didn't recognize walked into the classroom. He looked about the same age as Halo, even though he was taller, but Halo figured he had to be a second year, since he was pretty sure he knew what all his fellow first years looked like by now, and this boy definitely wasn't one of them.

"Yes, Louis?" Professor Dimock asked, looking over at the boy.

"I am here to get Wiggins," the boy said, nodding his chin in Halo's direction. "He has a meeting."

That was rather vague, but Professor Dimock just nodded, as if she had been expecting as much. Halo blinked in surprised, but follow the boy out of the classroom. No one had told him that he had a meeting. What is going on?

"My name is Louis, by the way," the boy said, grinning at Halo. His teeth were perfectly straight and very white. "Louis Weasley."

Halo was not terribly surprised. There were so many Weasleys, and most of them had red hair, so whenever he saw a red-head that he didn't know he more or less assumed they were related to Rose and Albus somehow. He was generally right.

"Harry Wiggins," Halo said, introducing himself politely.

"I know," Louis replied, studying Halo closely as they kept walking. "I've heard a lot about you. Rosie talks about you all the time."

"Really?" Halo asked, a little surprised. He knew Rose liked to talk a lot, and she was basically his best friend, but it was still surprising to hear that she talked about him all the time when he wasn't around. He would have thought she'd have better things to talk about.

"Really," Louis confirmed, grinning at Halo and winking. "You sound like a pretty interesting kid. I thought your name was Halo, though."

"Oh, that's just my nickname," Halo said, "You can call me that if you want."

"Brilliant," Louis said as they stopped in front of the door to the faculty lounge. "Well, here you are, Halo. I was a little surprised when Maman showed up and asked me to go find you, but I'm not one to argue. It's usually best to just do what she says, if you know what I mean."

Halo didn't—in fact he didn't know what the boy was talking about at all. Louis didn't seem to feel like explaining, though, and he just gave a cheery wave and walked off in the other direction without a care in the world. Without really knowing what was going on, Halo knocked on the door.