Halle Potter and the first year of madness.
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Halle Potter was having the best birthday of her entire life.
A giant man called Hagrid had come in the dead of night and rescued her from her horrible relatives, the Dursley's.
She's been having the worst few weeks ever, which was a normal occurrence for Halle in the Dursley household but it had become considerably worse from the day a mysterious letter had arrived at Privet Drive for her.
Halle who had never received a letter in her life was intrigued to learn who would be writing to her, but stupidly had come into view of her uncle with the letter.
Her uncle Vernon after snatching the letter from her grip, had seen to it, to destroy the letter, but more came. A lot more came. So many letters came that her uncle who Halle was sure was losing his mind, had taken her and the family on the run.
They stayed in a dingy little motel before heading to an actual lighthouse hut, across the sea where her uncle had classed it as "Somewhere they'll never find us."
Halle found the entire situation utterly ridiculous to say the least. She didn't understand what could've been so bad that it could turn her uncle into a raving lunatic. Well, a full raving lunatic. He was already insane, considering he always preached for normality in the house.
It was only when the clock struck twelve, that Halle got the answer to her question.
The Dursley's had all been sleeping. She however was wide awake. She had been counting down the minutes until she turned eleven years old. She knew it was pathetic but she also knew if she didn't, than no one else would. The Dursley's didn't care that Halle so much as existed, to celebrate her birthday.
The moment she turned eleven, several booming thuds came from the door, before it came crashing down off its hinges, revealing a very hairy giant on the other side. Fear had possessed Halle to hide but after a little while with the giant, most of Halle's fears disappeared quickly.
Hagrid was like no other person Halle had ever met. He had shown her a kindness she had rarely ever received. He had given her a cake, hot food and gave her cousin Dudley a pigs tail which Halle thought rather suited him.
It was definitely the best birthday gift she'd ever receive in her opinion. Uncle Vernon's old socks didn't make the cut.
Finally there was the fact that Hagrid had revealed to her that she was a witch, that magic existed and that she would be attending Hogwarts school of witch craft and wizardry.
He revealed to her that she and her parents were famous, unfortunately for the wrong reasons. Her parents Lily and James Potter were both a witch and a wizard who had been killed by a dark wizard called Voldemort.
A name that the entire wizarding world apparently feared.
Hagrid certainly did, but nevertheless told her the story of how Voldemort had tried to kill her as a baby and failed. A story that everyone in the wizarding world apparently knew but no one knew why he had failed or why he had tried to kill her.
She realised the Dursley's knew and lied to her, her entire life. She found out that her aunt Petunia clearly resented her mother for being a witch.
At first Halle didn't believe she could be a witch but Hagrid had pointed out to her that strange occurrences had happened to her over the years that she couldn't explain. It was a month ago that she had set a snake loose at the zoo. She thought about once, how she regrew her hair and the blue wig fiasco.
Could she be? It was hard to believe.
She however felt inclined to believe a little, not because she believed she was a witch but because in a single night she had learnt more information about her parents than she had in ten years of living with the Dursley's.
She'd only discovered her parents names by accident at seven years old, when an old friend of aunt Petunias had come to visit.
"Oh, whatever happened to that sister of yours? Um, Daisy? No, Rosie?"
"Lily."
"Yes, Lily and that scoundrel she married James. Vernon never did like him too much, Did he? Whatever did happen to them?"
"They died in a car crash."
"Oh, nasty way to go."
Perhaps she could learn more about them.
So the next morning came and Halle had happily traveled with Hagrid to London. She asked several questions along the way and the two had entered a shabby little pub known as the leaky cauldron to which she had received plenty of greetings from strangely dressed strangers including a Hogwarts teacher with a turban on his head.
It was weird to think that all these people were witches and wizards.
Although the idea still sounded ludicrous to her.
It was only after being ushered out the back door by Hagrid to a wall which he had opened by tapping bricks, had Halle truly believed that she was a witch and that magic truly existed.
Although she had seen Hagrid do magic, it had still been extremely difficult to accept, that it existed. She'd been wondering if spending that month in the cupboard had fully cracked her mind, but upon seeing Diagon Alley, in its full glory, Halle had no more misconceptions about magic.
The two found themselves walking up to a large white building, called Gringotts; the wizarding bank, where Halle would be able to obtain some money so that she could buy all her supplies for Hogwarts.
Halle'd been surprised to see small beings known as Goblins running the bank but she had suppressed any urge to comment on the matter. Something told her it wasn't a good idea to upset a goblin especially if the sign on the front door was anything to go by.
Hagrid pulled out a key and a letter out of his larger than usual pockets and away they were, down to the vaults on a crazy cart ride with a goblin named Griphook.
Halle's jaw dropped when she had seen the amount of coins that resided in her vault. She didn't even know where to begin.
With Hagrid's help they grabbed enough for her to get what they needed and were off to the next vault which wasn't full of glistening gold like her own, but simply had one little grubby brown package which Hagrid would not divulge its contents to her.
With one more wild cart ride they were out of Gringotts and back in Diagon Alley.
Hagrid suggested that the first priority was to get her uniform and they walked over to a shop called Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions.
Hagrid, who hadn't taken well to the cart rides told Halle that he was going for a pick me up in the leaky cauldron and left Halle to get her uniform.
Halle stopped outside the purple store and looked through the pristine glass. Inside was beautiful. Halle could see racks of clothes from ball gowns to suits and long robes that Halle didn't even know what occasion they could be for, but the look of them alone made her feel incredibly poor, even with all the gold in her pockets.
Just as she was about to move to the door, Halle heard a very haughty voice address her.
"Goodness, do you usually walk out in such attire?"
Halle looked to the left of her to see a pale faced girl with scrutinising crystal blue eyes and long straight, platinum blonde hair, looking her up and down with a look of disgust. Next to her was a black boy just a few inches taller than her who had sharp brown eyes. He had short wavy black hair and a quite chiseled jaw for a boy his age.
The two of them looked very intimidating and beautiful too.
Halle unfortunately was the type who was quite insecure about her appearance. Her physical features were fine but her shoulder length hair even when thoroughly brushed still looked like a forest of thorns and vines overlapping each other. Her hair was presentable enough but always had a wild and unruly look about it.
There was then the fact that she was quite skinny for her age. The Dursley's had fed her enough to survive over the years but not enough to fill out her clothes. Finally there was her scar. Although she had learnt to live with it by now, she had always hated that it was so present on her forehead.
The good thing about her hair was her bangs, which had grown enough over the years, covering the lightning shaped scar.
Halle had been rather put out by the girls remark but before she could give back a biting retort, the boy next to the blonde girl had beaten her too it.
"For goodness sake, Phina." The boy blurted out in a irritated manner.
"What is your problem Dewei?" Sneered Phina who had now torn her eyes away from Halle and was looking at Dewei.
"What's yours?" He asked back heatedly.
"I'm just asking a question. Is that not allowed anymore?" Said Phina in a patronising and annoyed tone of voice.
"You can ask her a question but you don't need to be so disrespectful about it you…"
"Woah, calm down Dewei." Said a new voice.
Halle who had contemplated leaving the two other kids to their argument now looked at the new comer of the conversation. A tall stunning black girl who looked maybe sixteen or seventeen had appeared and placed her hand on the boy, Dewei's shoulder.
He had recoiled from her touch but turned to her. Halle could now see that the two of them looked like they were related. Both had high cheek bones, button noses, thin lips and similar eyes. The obvious difference was the fact that she was a girl, she was older and had auburn coloured curls that surpassed her shoulders.
She looked between the two of them before her eyes glanced over at Halle.
"What's going on here?" She asked in a concerned voice.
"Phina here thinks it's ok to be rude to this girl here." Said Dewei pointing at Halle.
Halle hoped they couldn't see her cheeks turning pink. She didn't like attention on her very much.
The girl looked at her again before turning to Phina.
"Phina why are you being rude to this girl?" She asked sternly.
"I'm not! I was just asking her a simple question before Dewei here jumped down my throat." Said Phina defensively.
"Did you find it a simple question?" Asked Dewei turning his attention to Halle.
"Uh…Well…" stammered Halle. She wasn't used to being put on the spot like that.
"What did you ask?" Said the older girl stopping Halle from answering.
"I just asked if she usually walks out in that type of clothing. That's all." Said Phina pointing to Halle's clothes.
Halle's cheeks began to burn furiously.
Halle of course was dressed in Dudley's old clothes that no longer fitted him. Her aunt Petunia never saw the use in buying Halle clothes so all her clothing was worn out boy clothes that were way too big for her. The only thing that her aunt and uncle had ever really bought her was her old school uniform and shoes because Halle could not walk around in Dudley's giant sized trainers. Otherwise everything that Halle owned had previously belonged to Dudley.
Although Halle would love to have clothes that actually fit her. She didn't mind the actual look of her clothes. She was used to the tomboy look.
"Yeah, rudely." Said Dewei still very annoyed.
"I'm sure she didn't mean it, however it came across." Said the girl who looked at Phina.
Phina stared at her for a moment before putting on a dazzling smile and looking toward Halle.
"I'm sorry if you thought I was being rude. I'm very blunt or so I'm told anyway. I just saw your clothes and wondered if that's your stylistic choice. Forgive me if it came across discourteous." Said Phina whose apology didn't sound that sincere. In fact she sounded rather passive aggressive if anything.
Halle was starting to dislike this girl and had the decent mind to tell her to shove off but considering two out of the three people before her had somewhat stuck up for her, she didn't want to upset them by insulting the girl with them. Although she suspected that the Dewei boy, wouldn't mind.
"Yes actually. I like baggy clothes. I don't need to impress anyone with flashy clothes, my personality can do that all by itself." Said Halle plastering on the exact same smile that Phina had given her.
She could see Phina sneer ever so slightly at her answer. Dewei looked indifferent and the older girl gave a smirk.
Halle smiled to herself. Of course she knew that was a lie but it felt good to get one up on the judgmental girl before her. One of the few things that Halle did appreciate about herself was the wall she had built around herself.
Halle from a young age had learnt that tears were only the fuel to a bully's tank. She learnt , young that there was no point crying if no one cared. Upon that realisation Halle began to work on a wall that would hide her emotions and allow her to put on a facade. It had taken her a while to create but she was determined to perfect it, for it was the only way she felt she could truly survive.
Survive all the taunts. Survive all the pain.
To keep it all in and when no one was looking, let it all out and put on a smile that never really reached her eyes.
She was far from confident or boastful but with her facade she could pretend to be.
"Good for you. I wouldn't start either, at least not until your fifteen." Said the older girl with a wink.
"Well I suppose that's a good attitude to have if your poor." Said Phina snobbishly.
"Phina!" Said the older girl.
"What?" Said Phina.
"I'm sorry. She doesn't think before she speaks." Said the older girl.
"I'll say." Remarked Dewei.
Phina was clearly about to protest their comments but the older girl raised her hand to stop her.
"I'm sure you and your parents are wealthy enough to be able to buy Hogwarts supplies, so don't take her comment into consideration. Where are your parents anyway? I'd hate to think you're all alone right now." The older girl said kindly.
"My parents are dead but I'm not alone. My escort is currently recovering from cart ride sickness from Gringotts." Said Halle.
"Oh I'm sorry to hear that." Said the older girl sincerely.
"You have a Gringotts vault! So your parents are our kind then?" Asked Phina rather abruptly.
"The others can have Vaults too Phina." Said the older girl shaking her head.
"Yes but that's once they've turned seventeen." Said Phina still waiting for an answer from Halle.
"And what about if two Mb's have a vault and a kid. That kid then has a vault too." Said the older girl.
"Fine whatever, but they are our kind aren't they?" Asked Phina again.
Dewei rolled his eyes. The older girl shook her head but didn't comment so Halle unfortunately decided to answer the question.
"They were a witch and wizard." Halle stated impolitely.
"Oh good. I personally don't think the other kind should be let in. Their not the same. I mean imagine finding out your only a witch or wizard by eleven years old or that Hogwarts exists. They don't know our ways whatsoever. It really should be kept in the old wizarding families. Even if it meant an all Slytherin school. Well maybe except Dewei here. He's sure to be a puffster." Said Phina.
The older girl seemed to chuckle.
"Shut up Phina!" Shouted Dewei angrily.
"My god brother here can be a bit sensitive. No one wants to be in HufflePuff. I think I'd rather get trampled on by a centaur than be in HufflePuff." Said Phina.
"Now don't go telling the girl bad things about HufflePuff. They're a worthy house." Said the older girl in an amused tone.
Phina scoffed and looked at Halle.
"Yeah well trust me you don't want to be in that house. Our kind ought to be in Slytherin or I suppose Ravenclaw as the alternative, better than the Gryffindorks. What was your surname anyway?" Asked Phina suddenly.
Halle could only assume she was referring to Hogwarts as she had said houses and her primary school had, used houses but she was still rather confused about the things Phina had been saying and was glad for the change of topic but before she could answer her question, a new voice called over to them.
"Oi, Phina." Shouted a boy.
This boy was also pale, had a pointed face and had slick backed bleach blonde hair with grey eyes. Halle could now see that this boy looked much like Phina.
'Oh great' she thought to herself.
Next to him was a another black boy who resembled the older girl and Dewei a lot. They had to be family. Their features were very uncanny.
"There you two are. What took you so long?" Asked the older girl slightly annoyed.
"We were looking at the new nimbus two-thousands. They're beautiful. I think I'm gonna bully father into getting us some, so that we'll be ready for quidditch and we'll sneak em into Hogwarts somehow." Said the blonde boy, uppity.
"Oh no you won't. Not whilst I'm there." Said the older girl with a smirk on her lips.
"Come on Lu. We'll be the only first years to have them. I can't wait to see all the poor little envious children who will look at our brooms and will realise they cost more than they can ever afford." Replied the boy smiling deviously..
"I don't care Draco. You can have the broom if your dad allows it but you won't be bringing it to Hogwarts." She said firmly.
"You're no fun." Said Draco sulkily.
"Tell me about it." Said the boy next to him.
"Hush Blaise." Said the older girl Lu.
The boy Blaise just smirked.
"Where's mother and father then?" Asked Phina.
"Fathers buying all our books. Mother's in the apothecary, but you would know that if you guys weren't such babies about the carts." Said Draco in a drawling and pompous voice.
"And ruffle up my expensive robes or mess up my beautiful hair to sit next to some egocentric grubby little gremlin. No thanks." Said Phina.
"Goblin." Corrected Lu.
"I know what I said." Said Phina with a sly smirk.
Draco and Blaise laughed whilst Dewei once again rolled his eyes.
Draco suddenly noticed that Halle was there and like his sister, his eyes became judgemental as he took in the sight of her.
"And whose this?" Draco sneered.
Seriously what was up with these people? Halle decided she wasn't gonna be a target for some more insult practice so it was time to leave.
"No one. I'll be getting my robes now. Ta'ra." She said in an almost snide tone and walked into the store with a self important swagger just to be petty.
She wasn't a petty person but she didn't like those people at all. Perhaps except Dewei and Lu. Although she hoped at Hogwarts that she wouldn't have to see any of them too much. Her first experience in the magical world had already been dampened by people who reminded her of Dudley and his gang.
She really hoped that there were much more nicer people at Hogwarts.
Halle stopped and looked around the store for a moment and took in her surroundings. It was beautiful. Halle couldn't believe she was in a store for wizards.
She approached a woman at the counter.
Madam Malkin was a squat, smiling witch dressed all in mauve.
"Hogwarts, dear?" she said, when Halle started to speak. Halle just nodded with a shy smile.
"Don't be shy my love. You've come on a good day, next week is always busiest for first years. 30th of next month is even worse. Now, I'm gonna take you to the back, take your measurements, get you fitted and you'll have a full uniform in no time." Said Madam Malkin kindly and led her to a foot stool at the back and began to fit her.
She saw the other five standing outside, were not coming in yet. She was glad.
She kept on thinking about all the things Phina had said. They were making her feel depressed. What if she didn't belong at Hogwarts? She didn't know wizarding ways. She couldn't even bring herself to say that she had no wizarding family taking her to Diagon Alley. That she came from the Muggle world.
She was in such deep thought that it took a hand waving in front of her to take her out of her daze.
She jumped but luckily managed to stay on the foot stool and looked to her right to see a plump boy giving her a sheepish grin with another witch fitting him.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you. I said hello twice but you didn't hear me." Said the boy a bit timidly.
"Oh that's alright. Sorry, I was in a world of my own. Hello." Said Halle with a bright smile.
"Hi. I was gonna say you looked a bit sad. Are you ok?" Asked the boy.
"Yeah, just a bit overwhelmed that's all." Said Halle. She didn't feel like talking about her encounter or thoughts with this boy. She was now a bit apprehensive but he seemed to be nice enough.
"I understand. Going to Hogwarts can be a massive deal. My gran told me loads of stories about it when she and my parents went. She didn't even think I was going until I did magic for the first time a year ago. My uncle got me a toad to celebrate." Said the boy.
His eyes and cheeks went wide and red as he realised he had told this to a stranger.
"Well you're lucky. I only got my letter last night." Said Halle wanting to make him feel better.
He gave her a small smile.
"Wow, that's a bit late isn't it?" Asked the boy.
"Yeah well it was a miracle to even get the letter." Said Halle thinking about the lengths her uncle had went to prevent her from receiving it. She thanked the stars that Hagrid had come personally for her.
"Yeah me too. Gran was ecstatic though. Said I could finally live up to my parents name. It's gonna be hard though. They were great in Hogwarts. Me, well, I know I'll be terrible. I can barely keep my own head on my shoulders but I just hope I can make them proud." Said the boy looking down. Halle noted the hint of sadness that crept in his voice.
"My parents, are gone and I know nothing about magic. Hopefully we can both live up to their names and make them extremely proud together." Said Halle kindly. She took his hand in her own and gave it a reassuring squeeze.
He looked up and gave her a grateful smile.
The witch who was working on his robes suddenly spoke.
"You're all done sweet heart. Come to the counter and we can ring you up." Said the witch standing straight.
The boy nodded and jumped down from the foot stool and went over to the main counter. Halle watched as the witch put a set of robes, a cloak, a hat and some gloves in a large pretty pouch bag and the boy fumbled around with his own pouch before paying for his robes. He took the pouch from the counter and walked back over to Halle.
"My gran should be back any minute. She went to get some of my other supplies and she's not one
to dilly dally. It was nice to meet you. Hopefully I'll see you on the train. I'm Nev….."
"Neville!" Said a sharp voice.
Halle and Neville, turned to see a tall, thin elderly woman standing in the shop with some bags. She looked very intimidating and had on very lavish looking clothes with a massive vulture hat and a bright red hand bag.
Halle was sure just from the look alone of this woman that she did not want to mess with her in anyway shape or form.
"Hi Gran." Said Neville very nervously.
"Have you got your robes?" She asked sternly.
He nodded.
"Good, let's go. We just need to go get your cauldron and scales. Chop, chop." Said the elder woman.
"See ya." Said Neville and with that, he ran off out the store and followed the elder witch out of sight.
Halle had now noticed that the other five kids had gone.
Madam Malkin took another ten minutes to finish doing what she needed to do before Halle went through the same process Neville did. When she paid for her Robes she saw Hagrid outside waiting for her with ice cream. She smiled.
Halle's conversation with Neville had made her feel a bit better about not knowing much about magic and had cheered her up from her meeting with Phina and the others.
Neville seemed to have grown up with magic in his life and he wasn't confident about going to Hogwarts. He was also much more nicer than the others.
Halle knew she had a long way to go about learning magic and still had many questions but she decided that she wouldn't question her place in the magical world again. She had done that in the normal world or what Hagrid had called the "Muggle" world. The magical world was what her parents were from and Hagrid had told her they were brilliant in it.
If her parents were brilliant in the magical world then perhaps, she could be too, and she decided from there on then that she would do everything in her power to become a great witch, that would make her parents proud.
With that thought, Halle began to enjoy the chocolate and raspberry ice cream that Hagrid had bought for her. She decided to not voice the thoughts she had been having or the encounters she had.
For now she would enjoy the remainder of the best birthday she had ever had, with Hagrid as much as she possibly could, whilst continuing to shop for Hogwarts supplies and anticipating the first day of a brand new life that awaited her.
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