I Belong With You
(A/N): mmm; okay it has come to my attention that a lot of you guys who are reading this find the story a bit too Mary-Sue. Well, if it is please give me CONSTRUCTIVE CRITISISM in your review and don't flame me. That's just stupid and degrading.
Day by day, week-by-week, the times at Hogwarts just flew by. Just as usual the classes went by, the flying lessons went by and to Haley nothing seemed to matter anymore. After that night with Oliver she never seemed to care much about anything anymore. Only Quidditch.
Quidditch, that was all she really cared about these days. Her friends? She cared, just not in that way. Her grades? She just worked hard. And Oliver? She blocked him out. Of course they still had lessons but, besides the tips he had on Quidditch, she blocked him out of her life.
She didn't want, or think that she needed, to think or care about him at all. She knew that thinking about him would only bring pain so like that she basically became emotionless. Every thing she ever felt was erased from her mind except for a smile.
However, no matter how much she smiled, it was all a lie. She only smiles to hide the pain. 'Just like before,' she thought to herself.
"Haley?" Hermione asked as they left the Gryffindor common room, "Are you ready for tomorrow's match?"
"Against Hufflepuff?" Haley replied, "Yeah no problem. It's in the bag!"
Hermione smiled. The truth is, Hermione knew her happiness was a fake one. She knew that Haley was just burying everything deep inside of herself. Her smile says, "Everything's all right!" But her eyes say, "Help me."
"Did Oliver give you any tips?" Hermione asked, staring at her intently.
"Yeah he did actually." Haley said, "He told me how I shouldn't concentrate on the keeper, I should actually be concentrating on the goals. Also he said…"
Hermione wasn't paying attention anymore. She had already zoned out and stopped paying attention when she realized that there was no change in her voice, no change in her eyes, no change at all. What was wrong with Haley? Even the one she cared about most about couldn't break her stone cold heart right now. Something was seriously wrong with her.
"Haley what's wrong?" Hermione asked.
"What do you mean?" Haley asked stopping right in the middle of the stairway.
"Haley," Hermione said, "It's been about two weeks since you've said anything about Oliver other than on topics related to Quidditch. Have you blocked him out for some reason?"
"N-no!" Haley said just as the staircase began shifting. She was taken on by surprise so she tripped. She started tumbling down the stairs sideways headed towards the landing.
Hermione screamed for help. Lucky for her she had grabbed on to the railing but Haley wasn't as quick. Pretty soon Haley had hit the ground and the staircase stopped moving. Hermione ran down the stairs only to find Haley fallen unconscious on the landing.
Hermione called to a couple of first years walking by.
"Quick! Go get Madame Pomfrey! She needs help!" She yelled.
Hermione started tearing up. 'This is all my fault,' Hermione sobbed while she waited for someone to return.
Haley found herself on the ground.
"Where am I?" she called out. No answer.
Suddenly there was a blinding light coming from straight ahead. She stood up and walked to the light source. Then suddenly she heard an ear splitting scream. What was going on?
When she got to the light source she discovered it was a doorway to another room. She stepped through the door and found a little girl. She was crying on the ground at the feet of a woman.
"Why do you disobey me like this?" The woman screamed at her. "Do as I say!"
The woman lifted the girl up by her arm and slapped her hard across the face. The little girl screamed out in pain.
"Mommy! I didn't mean to! I'll be good!" the little girl tried to reason with her mother.
The woman looked as if she was about to slap her again when suddenly she stopped and let her go. She sighed and sat down on the couch behind her. The little girl was still crying on the ground unable to stop her tears.
"Why would you want to go and do something like that?" the mother began lecturing her daughter again, "Don't you like your home? Don't you love me and your father anymore?"
"I-I do!" the little girl sobbed.
"Then why would you want to leave us for your aunt and uncle? Why would you leave us for freaks like those?!" the mother said trying to control her temper.
"I-I don't know…"
"You don't know? They're freaks! They're not normal! What part of that don't you understand?"
The little girl couldn't answer she just continued to cry into her hands.
Then the scene changed. The lights started dimming and the people slowly faded away. Everything was dissolved into the distance and slowly once again she saw the little girl. But this time, she was sitting on a bed playing with a stuffed pig. She seemed happy. Content even.
Then a woman walked into the room. It wasn't her mother this time. It was someone else. She sat on the bed and played with the little girl. The woman loved her. You could see it in her eyes and straight through her heart.
"Haley, come on now. It's time for your first lesson," the woman said to the little girl.
"Okay!" Haley replied jumping off the bed.
'Haley? What is this?' Haley thought.
Then all of a sudden the figures in front of her faded away slowly. All the walls and lights surrounding her dissolve into the distance. She feels herself falling through the ground. She wants to stop but she can't. She can't even attempt to stop. She feels helpless, she feels alone, and she feels like nothing can go right.
Then suddenly, she hit the ground. She felt herself lying on her back. She immediately jolted up in her hospital bed. She was breathing heavily and had cold sweat all over her face.
"W-where am I?" she asked.
"You're in the hospital wing," someone said from the door of the room.
It was Oliver. He had just walked in carrying a bouquet of flowers. He was walking over to the side of her bed.
"What am I doing here?" she asked as she tried to sit up properly.
Oliver placed the flowers in a vase at the end of her bed and helped her sit up.
"You fell down the stairs this morning and was knocked out cold. Hermione, Ron and Harry carried you to the hospital wing and you slept the whole day," Oliver replied.
"What time is it?" Haley asked.
"Almost nine. You've been asleep for about twelve hours," Oliver told her while sitting down in the chair by her bed. "Your Quidditch team was so worried about you. They kept asking me to take a break from classes to come check up on you. So I took the day off. I've been coming in to look after you know and then."
Haley could feel herself blush. Thank goodness colour was returning to her face though.
"Thank you," she managed to say.
"No problem," Oliver replied while pouring her a cup of water. "Do you think you will be able to play Hufflepuff tomorrow?"
"I-I think I will be if I get a good night's sleep," Haley replied quietly. She had almost forgotten she had a game the next day.
"That's great to hear! I would love to see Gryffindor win another year," Oliver replied smiling.
Quidditch. For a second she dropped her façade. She had forgotten how to hide all her emotions and keep them inside. 'Quidditch, focus on Quidditch!' Haley told herself.
"Yeah," Haley replied looking away, "This season's going to be great!"
Oliver let the things he said run through her head. Why was she like this all of a sudden? He had noticed it in the past week that Haley had not been herself. Before she was full of emotion, but now, she was an empty shell. Except for her eyes. Her eyes bore every feeling, every emotion she had ever felt and she could be read like a book through them. He was so relieved to see that the old Haley had returned when she had woken up but the minute he mentioned the game, she reverted back to her emotionless self.
"Haley," Oliver asked, "What were you dreaming about?"
Haley just looked at him with a blank look. 'How did he know?' she thought.
"You were tossing and turning. Your face was white and your were running a cold sweat. I called Madame Pomfrey but she said you were just having a nightmare. What were you dreaming about?"
"I-I dreamt about my childhood…" Haley replied slowly.
She hadn't realized it at first but she put the pieces together and realized that it was a dream of her very own past.
"Your childhood? That gave you a nightmare? Why?" Oliver asked with concern.
"I-I had a bad childhood. I …" Haley couldn't bring herself to voice her feelings like this.
Oliver then sat on the edge of her bed and wrapped his arm around her shoulder. He held her in a tight embrace.
"It's just better to get it out," Oliver whispered.
Haley took a deep breath.
"When I was younger," she began slowly, "I was a very happy child generally. My parents loved me and everything was fine. That is until I met my aunt and uncle."
"Your aunt and uncle? What did they do to you?" Oliver asked with utmost concern.
"Nothing! If anything they were even better to me…" Haley replied tears falling from her eyes and staining the sheets. She quickly wiped them away with her sleeve. Oliver patted her head and rested his head on hers.
"I had grown up thinking that my parents were regular people. But when I was eight my parents went on a trip to the Swiss Alps. They left me with my aunt and uncle for about a week. During that week I had accidentally walked in on my aunt and uncle entertaining a couple of guests. I was supposed to be in bed but I had snuck downstairs for a snack or something. I had accidentally stepped in when their guests had apparated elsewhere." Haley continued.
"I was so stunned. I had no idea what was going on. My aunt and uncle tried to calm me down and explain what had happened but I didn't buy it. So eventually they told me the truth. You might've expected me to be completely astonished and start to avoid them like a plague but really, I was thrilled. I wanted to learn how to do everything they could. It was like a whole new world was calling out to me." Haley said smiling a little bit.
Oliver smiled seeing that Haley was smiling again. He was glad to see there was once again that glimpse of happiness in her eyes. "What happened then?" Oliver asked breathing into her hair.
"Well, when my parents returned from their vacation I told them everything. I expected them to be just as surprised as I was, and my mother was. But my father wasn't. Apparently they were from a wizarding family but my father had never liked the idea of doing things that had to be kept in the dark and away from the rest of the normal world he grew up in. So when he had received his letter from Hogwarts, his brother immediately accepted but he reclined.
Once my father was old enough he moved out and married my mother and had me. We barely kept in contact with them. When the truth came out my father was forced to reveal his upbringings and then after that I was told to stay away from my aunt and uncle and never go near them again." Haley said with regret and sadness dripping of every word she spoke.
Haley took a deep breath as Oliver caressed her back.
"Are you okay?" Oliver asked looking her in the eye.
"Yeah…" Haley whispered.
"Do you want to continue?" Oliver asked.
Haley nodded and slowly began her story again, "When I turned nine weird things started happening. I found things breaking and moving when I looked and concentrated on them. I had even made my teddy bear walk across my room once. I began doing it secretly remembering what my parents had said about my aunt and uncle. But one day, my mother caught me attempting to move things around in my room and she punished me. After that, I didn't try again for a while until I told her I wanted to go to my aunt and uncles to learn more tricks. They weren't very happy."
Haley felt her voice get caught in her throat. She started whimpering into Oliver's shoulder and tears once again stung the corner of her eyes.
"Haley, I'm sorry for making you tell me this," Oliver said as he held her tighter than before. He ran his hand up and down her arm trying to comfort her.
"It's not as bad as it sounds," she tried to say through the tears. "They disowned me and my aunt and uncle adopted me. And my life got much better since then. I was home schooled until Hogwarts accepted me and I was happy since then."
"Thank you," Oliver said as he kissed her forehead. "Thanks for sharing the story of your past with me. It was hard story for you to tell but you shared it with me. Thank you from the bottom of my heart."
"I wouldn't have shared it with anyone else," Haley replied finally being able to withdraw her sobs.
"I just can't believe how your parents could abandon you like that. It's just uncouth." Oliver told her. He couldn't bare Haley ever being hurt by anyone, even if it was in her past.
"They weren't totally unsupportive. When I gained acceptance to Hogwarts right before my sixteenth birthday, they sent me my string bag. The Baby Phat one that I always carry." Haley tried to say with her face buried in Oliver's chest.
"That's materialistic." Oliver replied. He didn't want to put down her parent but he just didn't feel that they loved her enough. They didn't give her the love and support that she deserved.
Did he love her enough? Was he there for her enough of the time? 'It doesn't matter,' he thought to himself. 'She's just my student, my friend.'
'If she's just a friend then what are you doing here with her right now?' a voice in his head asked him.
"I guess so," Haley replied snapping him out of his state of mind.
"I better go," Oliver replied to Haley's dismay. "I want you in tip top condition for your game tomorrow!"
"Okay," Haley said as she slipped back into her sheets.
Oliver wrapped the sheets around her body and kissed her forehead.
"Goodnight Haley," Oliver whispered with his forehead against hers.
"Goodnight Oliver," she replied whispering back into his lips.
Oliver walked out of the hospital wing and just as he closed the door she was already fast asleep entering the realm of her now sweet dreams.
Done done done!I gave you a glimpse of her bleak upbringings so that you would see that she's not as Mary-Sue as some would think. All right as usual please read and review
-- Haley;; wish; on a star