AN: So sorry for the late update guys. I didn't have access to my laptop this weekend. Little annoying, but it's here now. Hope you enjoy :D
Chapter 29: Give me some time
9th June 1994
Anticipation prickled at her chest the entire day. As she put her cloak in her satchel for later, she couldn't help but feel some sort of relief - even if the anticipation didn't fully go away. The date had been etched into her mind for six weeks, growing closer and closer, and now it was here.
This time, she'd decided she would go earlier. Just after dinner. Rather than have to stumble in and have Riddle be waiting for her, she would go to the shack and wait for him. She could even practice her Occlumency more.
Halley swallowed down the something that was stuck in her throat and tried to go about her day like everything was normal - or as normal as it could be. There weren't any comments by Parkinson or Greengrass, so Halley thought she'd gotten away with it, but she had to continuously fight against the urge to shake her foot, or to fiddle with whatever was in her hand the entire day.
It wasn't even like she could use the Weasleys as an excuse. Rowle's plan had left them quiet and almost hollow now; they moved from class to class, more lifeless than the ghosts that roamed the halls, and they were barely in the Great Hall anymore.
Halley had heard rumours that they woke up screaming so frequently that McGonagall had to give them their own room. But she'd also heard that they refused to be too far from their siblings or each other anymore, and that they now had mandated counselling sessions every two days. She didn't know what was true, and in all honesty, she couldn't bring herself to care.
Every so often she still felt echoes of the glee from that night. It had faded slightly; the memory no longer brought that rush of vindictive joy anymore, and she missed feeling it. But for the time being she didn't have to worry about the twins.
The other Weasleys didn't seem to want to make trouble anymore either - not that the Prefect one ever did - but Ron Weasley didn't glare at her now. Or at least, he didn't do it so openly. He'd been staring through things a little more than he usually did as well. Dark bags under his translucent, red-shot eyes suggested he wasn't sleeping very well, but Halley couldn't bring herself to care about that either.
She was too busy thinking about -
"Shit!"
Halley clamped her hand over her mouth and checked around to see if anyone had heard her. No-one should have; she was in the hallway and there wasn't even a ghost in sight.
With a start, Halley realised that she was looking forward to showing Riddle what she'd learnt. It left an uneasy feeling in her stomach, and she knew then that something had changed. There wasn't much time to think over what it meant, but she knew one thing: She was going to keep herself from getting attached to Riddle any more than she already was. He would only use it as a way to control her more - and that was the exact opposite of what she needed right now.
Halley took a moment to breathe, and calmed the racing thoughts that swirled around her head. There would be time to deal with that later if she really needed to.
She didn't have much time before the rest of the students finished dinner and left the Great Hall. She'd faked that her stomach was hurting and told Parkinson and Greengrass that she was going to the infirmary to get something for it. The two had looked at her with actual sympathy for some reason, and let her go without much else.
Halley made a note that, for whatever reason, the excuse had worked and made her way to the second-floor toilets.
She took a final look around outside Myrtle's bathroom when she got there. The hallways were empty, but she still wanted to be cautious. For some reason, she felt like she was being watched. She felt the same prickle at the back of her neck, and hairs standing on their edge as she did when Petunia would watch her through the window as she worked. Maybe not as maliciously as that, but it did feel like it.
The invisibility cloak was proof enough that an empty hallway wasn't always empty.
"Potter?"
Rowle's voice came from behind her. Halley cursed, and went into the toilet. She didn't have time to deal with him.
It hadn't occurred to her that she'd not really spoken to him or seen him over the last two weeks. Halley hadn't been intentionally ignoring him - not really. But he'd shown her what he'd done to the twins, and after a day or two she'd come to realise that she would need to be careful around him. He was dangerous.
A different danger than Riddle, of course, but still dangerous.
Rowle had orchestrated his whole plan on the back of making sure Slytherin got its payback - and the twins hadn't even been made aware that it was Slytherin who had orchestrated it. They probably guessed, they would have been stupid not to. But it was still up in the air.
And somehow she knew that the Boggarts were his idea.
So...she'd stayed back a bit. She'd missed a few of her lessons. And she knew he'd want to know why.
"Potter!" She heard her name again. It sounded closer - like he was just at the doorway. With any luck he wouldn't come inside, but it was better to be safe than sorry.
It was just her luck that Moaning Myrtle was there, but she didn't have time to do anything other than run through her. Halley felt a horribly cold, slimy sensation on her exposed skin but she ignored it in favour of getting to the portrait.
Moaning Myrtle was screeching about something or another now, but Halley was through the portrait and that was all that mattered.
It closed behind her, and she was left alone with the grim, dark tunnel and the too-close-for-comfort cobwebs once again.
She walked for an untold number of minutes. It was always difficult to count time in the dark; something about the way it covered everything made her unable to focus on anything other than how dark it was. And even with the light from her wand, she couldn't shake how heavy the darkness always felt.
But she kept walking, and sure enough - eventually - Halley could see the end of the tunnel getting close. And with each step forwards, the anticipation prickled more and more until it became something like butterflies in her stomach. She hated that. She wanted to squash it down, but no matter how much she tried, she couldn't push the feeling away.
Maybe I should just resign myself to using it to concentrate on my Occlumency, she thought. Halley rolled her eyes and went to push up the trap door, but the sound of panting came from behind her.
She whirled around and pointed her wand in the person's face -
"Ow! My eyes! Stop it!"
"Rowle?" What the fuck was he doing in the tunnel? How had he even managed to follow her? "What are you doing here?"
"Put your wand down. You're burning my retinas," he said angrily.
When she lowered her wand, Rowle had his arms covering his eyes. He brought them down eventually and began to blink the light out of his eyes rapidly.
"Why are you here?" she asked.
"No, no. Me following you into a secret tunnel is not the odd thing in this situation. What are you doing here?" he asked.
Halley stayed quiet. She just looked at him while she tried to figure out how she was going to make him leave. She could see a glint in his eyes that she didn't understand. Halley would have just thought that it was anger, but she knew what anger looked like; she knew what most derivatives of it looked like, and this wasn't it.
"It's not your business," she answered, and immediately knew that was the wrong thing to say because he nodded slowly.
"Not my business? I would think, as Head Boy, it's my business to know why one of my housemates and a younger year is sneaking off through secret passageways."
"How did you even get here?"
"Stop changing the subject Potter," he snapped.
Halley clenched her teeth together tightly and ran through scenarios. In such a cramped space, she couldn't just throw a spell at him. She was alright, but Rowle had years of experience. Not only that, but the years of Quidditch had given him better-than-average reflexes. He would probably be able to stop her as soon as she began the spell.
But he couldn't come with her. He couldn't make Riddle any more aware of him than Halley already had. It wasn't safe.
"Please - just - you need to go back."
"And how would I even get back without a Parselmouth?" he asked.
She scoffed at the snide remark. "I can take you back." She wouldn't be off her schedule by too much if she walked him back. Though, the passage was a long and winding one, and the walk she'd done was already winding her slightly. Halley wasn't so sure she would be able to get back with enough time to practice again.
"I'm good, thanks."
Halley cursed his stubbornness. "How did you even get in?!" Because she knew he hadn't been inside when she went through, and she knew she'd closed the door properly. The latch had clicked back into place loudly.
Rowle looked at her, obviously smug and pleased by whatever ingenious thing he was about to tell her. "Moaning Myrtle really doesn't like you - and she knows you're a Parselmouth by the way. She was very happy to hiss at the wall when I told her I was going to dock a good amount of points."
There wasn't enough space in her brain to think about the implications of that stupid blabbering ghost knowing that Halley could speak to snakes. She just needed Rowle gone.
"You need to leave, Rowle. I'm being serious. You need to go."
"Why? What are you doing, Potter? Why are you sneaking around, or looking catatonic, or running off whenever you get weird letters?"
"Why do you care?" she shouted, her voice travelling down the long passageway they'd both come from. "Why do you care?"
And she truly wanted to know. Halley wanted to know why all these random people kept attaching themselves to her, be it Riddle or Parkinson, or Greengrass. Because she couldn't provide them with anything. She was just this stupid little girl whose only worth was her name and an action she couldn't even remember taking.
She couldn't help Greengrass. She didn't have the political knowhow to assist Parkinson in whatever social thing she was trying to get from Halley. She damned well wasn't going to be able to do anything for Riddle - and she never wanted to!
So what the fuck did Rowle want from her?
Rowle frowned and looked at her. In the warm wand light, he seemed confused. Like he didn't quite know what to say, which was a shame because she needed an answer from him. But then he tightened his lips a moment before opening his mouth.
"Because you -"
CRASH!
The sound came from above them. It was a testament to how loud it would have been, because Halley knew that the floorboards were thick. The trap door alone was incredibly difficult to open due to gravity and the amount of wood she had to push.
"What was that?" Rowle asked.
Halley felt an intense onslaught of panic grab at her, and she pushed at the trap door but it didn't budge.
"What in Morgana's name are you doing, Potter?" Rowle said, pulling her back.
She turned to him, eyes wide and white in panic, but at his touch she felt herself calming down a little. He was right - she was being stupid.
Halley took her backpack off her shoulder and reached into it until she felt the silky-smooth material. The cloak came out with her, and she immediately chucked it to Rowle. There was no way he'd leave now, but at least she could give him some protection. "Put this on."
"An invisibility cloak?"
"Put it on!" she insisted.
He did what she asked, but with annoyance. "You better get under here too, Potter!"
He was invisible then, and his disembodied voice reminded her of the feeling of distrust when Dumbledore had been watching her at the Mirror or Erised.
Turning away from him, she shook her head. "We won't both fit."
"And what? You think you can handle whatever's going on in there? We should go back!"
"You go back," she said. "If I need help, then it's better you be the invisible one. You've got more experience duelling."
"In an arena! With rules!" he hissed.
Halley ignored him. There were still crashes, and low thuds - not as loud as the first one, but someone was in trouble. Maybe it was Riddle - it probably wasn't Riddle - but whoever was in there needed to leave before he came. She didn't want another dead person on her conscience.
She strained to hear any indication that the people inside were people she knew, but the wood was too thick. There was nothing more that she could do other than to go up and see.
Clenching her wand, and steadying her breathing, Halley braced herself to push against the trap door. It budged easier this time, but made an awful creaking sound as it opened and immediately she clenched.
"We know you're there!" a voice said through the crack. It was raspy and dull, like it hadn't been used for a very long time. More importantly, she didn't recognise it.
Halley swallowed. Dust and grime hit the back of her nose, drying out her throat. But what else could she do now? She dimmed the wand light so that she would have a better chance to see what was in front of her, and then slowly, she pushed the door open.
"You - you're here -"
"Halley -"
She recognised that voice.
"Professor Lupin?" Her eyes adjusted to the darkness enough to make out the familiar form of her Defence teacher. But he wasn't standing alone.
Next to him was the man she'd seen on far too many wanted posters. The man who was the sole reason for the Dementors being on Hogwarts grounds.
Sirius Black.
And he was smiling at her. A watery smile that gave way to two rows of crooked, rotting, black teeth that sent shivers of disgust up her spine.
"Halley -" he moved forwards, and Halley held her wand up at him to keep him away.
"What's going on?" she said to professor Lupin. She kept her eyes on Sirius Black to make sure he stayed exactly where he was. He wanted her dead - or so the world kept telling her.
Something silky and warm brushed up behind her and it took all of Halley's might not to turn around to see who it was. Rowle was just making his presence known to her. It was ok. If Black tried to attack, or if Lupin tried to do something, Rowle would at least have the element of -
"It would be better if you came out from under that cloak, Mr Rowle," Professor Lupin said.
Halley's heart stuttered.
Rowle didn't move. Not until professor Lupin spoke again. "I know you're under there. Just...come out. We won't hurt you."
We. He'd said we.
Rowle hesitated for what felt like an eternity, but then he pulled the cloak off and melted into visibility once again.
Sirius Black whined a sound that wasn't quite human. "You let a dirty Slytherin use James' cloak - why -"
"Be quiet, Sirius!" Lupin siad.
She had never heard him talk so curtly, or with so much anger before. Halley tried to keep herself calm and in control of her emotions. A breath or two, and she was able to start processing the information around her again.
"Are you helping him?" she asked. "Was all of this year a way to make me comfortable with you?"
Lupin looked at her, wide eyed and entirely upset that she would think something like that. "Of course not," he said. Again, his voice had a level of strength that she'd not heard from him before, but it didn't help her to believe him. Not when he was standing side by side with Sirius Black.
"Then what is going on?" she asked.
Rowle nudged her a little, but she refused to take her eyes off of the two men. "Potter," he whispered. "Potter this isn't a good -"
"Shut up!" she spat. "They're not going to let us go, so if I'm going to die here, I'd like to get some answers!"
"You're not going to die. I promise we don't want to hurt you," Lupin insisted.
She knew that. As much as she wouldn't let her guard down, Halley knew that she wasn't going to die - or at least Black wouldn't have an easy time killing her. She just needed to stall until…
No. That wasn't going to work. Riddle wouldn't be there for hours.
Well...well she was just going to have to figure it out then, wasn't she?
"Tell the girl, Remus," Black said. He looked at her unblinkingly, eyes far too wide in his emaciated skull. Halley recognised the look of starvation in his gaunt face but pushed the sympathy away.
Lupin sighed, and then put his wand down. He stepped towards Halley, and Rowle stepped forward so that he was side by side with Halley.
"Fine, alright. I can speak from here." Lupin backed away again. "I - I think the quickest way is if we just show you. And then we can explain. Sirius, do you know if the cat brought him?"
Sirius nodded. "Crookshanks?"
Nothing responded and Halley was at her wit's end. She was stuck in the Shack with madmen talking to nothing, and muttering about cats. Was it worth saving them from Riddle's wrath when they were already murderers and crazy people?
She looked at Black. He was staring intently at the small hole between the door and its frame, and Halley had the sinking suspicion that he was hallucinating. But that feeling grew worse when she glanced at Lupin and noticed he was doing the same thing.
"There's nothing there," she said quietly. "You need help - both of -"
"It's coming, Halley," Lupin said wryly. "I know it looks crazy but there'll be a cat here in just a moment. I can hear him."
He could hear him? There was nothing to hear other than the wind blowing through the windows. Halley bit her tongue. They just needed to make it out - or stall long enough. Either one. And then this whole thing could be put behind her.
"Good boy, Crookshanks," Black muttered softly. And then a giant orange ugly furball of a cat was pushing through the small hole and sitting at the entrance patiently. And something was hanging out of its mouth.
It was a rat.
Halley had seen the cat skulking around the castle and knew that it was one of the Gryffindor's, but seeing the cat just sitting there looking at them all with a rat was...surreal.
But what was more surreal was the fact that when Black called for it, the cat went straight over to him. All the while, the rat began screeching, louder and louder the closer it got to Black.
He stroked the top of the cat's head almost lovingly. "Kneazles are some of the cleverest creatures I know," he said, as if that was an explanation for the strange behaviour going on in front of them.
Black went to take the rat from the cat's mouth but Lupin stopped him.
"Sirius! She deserves to know the truth first."
"But we will kill him? Right Remus? He deserves it."
Lupin looked at the man and something about his body language changed. He stopped being so tense and rigid, and instead his movement seemed a little more...animalistic. "Yes. We'll deal with Pettigrew. Just...give Halley an explanation first. It's the least she deserves."
She was tired of all of this back and forthing now. "If you've got something to say -"
"Sirius didn't kill your parents," Remus said. His pupils were blown wide now. Barely any colour apart from the black stood against the whites of his eyes. It scared her.
"What are you talking about?" Rowle asked from beside her. "Of course it was. He was their secret keeper."
"I wasn't," Black said. "I wasn't! I thought I'd be clever. I thought they'd come after me - but Pettigrew was a yellow-bellied rat!"
"What the hell are you talking about Black? Peter Pettigrew died. You killed him," Rowle refuted.
"Not me - I didn't kill him. I wish I had!"
What the hell were they talking about?
She heard Rowle mutter that Black was mad under his breath, and Lupin's head snapped towards him, like he'd heard it. Lupin opened his mouth to say something, but was interrupted by a loud bang.
Halley shielded her head on instinct, but all that came her way was the cold breeze from the outside.
"Ah! Black. Vengeance will be sweet."
"Professor Snape!" Rowle called out.
Halley looked up, and sure enough the man was there, his wand in one hand, and someone's in the other. It must have been Lupin's because he was the only one not holding onto his wand anymore.
Snape glanced at the two of them in the corner, and his lip curled disapprovingly, but turned his attention back to the two other men immediately. "I hoped I'd be the one to catch you," he said.
"Severus -" Lupin tried to approach him, but Snape pointed his wand at Lupin with so much anger that the man tensed. Lupin bared his teeth ever so slightly, but he backed away.
"I told Dumbledore you were helping Black into the castle, and now here's the proof."
Something creaked - the floorboards under Black's foot - and then there was a flash of light and a shouted spell. It seemed to happen in a blink - something too quick to fully process. Because only a moment ago, Professor Snape was standing upright, but now he was slumped on a dusty broken bed, and dust particles were flying everywhere again.
"What did you do?" Rowle asked. His voice wobbled, as if he was only just now understanding that he and Halley were in danger.
Halley prayed a silent prayer that she knew would fall on silent ears. Rowle needed to keep it together. If she could do it, then he could.
"Snivilus - always poking your long nose - don't have time to deal with you now," Black muttered quietly. Then, bringing himself back to whatever lucidity he had, Black went back to the cat. "Tell her now, Remus. I don't want to wait any longer. The freezing charm has worn off."
Lupin nodded. "Alright. Sirius is telling the truth. He wasn't responsible for your parents' deaths -"
"I am -"
"He didn't kill them!" Lupin shouted over Black. "I can prove it. Sirius - lend me your wand."
For the first time in the entire situation, Black looked scared. "Moony - my wand - I - please!"
"I'll give it back," Lupin said. "I promise."
We should go now, Halley thought as she watched whatever moment of sincerity passed between the two of them. We should leave. She didn't care - she truly didn't care whether Black was innocent or not, or whether he was responsible for her parents' deaths.
But then, Black gave Lupin his wand. Lupin immediately muttered something she couldn't hear, and all of a sudden the rat in the cat's mouth started growing and growing into something that resembled a man.
And the man was speaking words - stuttering words through too long, yellow teeth, and pleading for his life.
Lupin spoke another spell that pulled the fat, stuttering man into a standing position. His head was still lolling unpleasantly, like a grotesque puppet. Halley thought he would have shut up, but the man kept whimpering and pleading for his life.
Then his eyes found Halley. "Darling Halley - you won't - please. Your mother wouldn't want them to ki-kill me - please!" He spoke louder and louder until, with a violent slash of his wand, Lupin silenced him.
The man was still making shapes with his mouth, but all Halley could do was think that they needed to leave, and that it was getting colder and darker.
"That doesn't prove anything," Rowle said, snapping her out of the thoughts. "You could have just brought an Animagus with you for this whole story."
That could have been true. And Black could actually want to kill her. And Lupin could have been lying about everything - and she could have started to believe that he was only interested in Halley, and Halley alone. And everyone could be telling the truth about everything.
There were too many variables. Too many things to think about.
"Halley - did you bring the map with you?"
She hesitated a moment, but then nodded.
"Good. Take it out and look at it. Look at the name next to Sirius'."
Halley swallowed hard but didn't move. "And if you attack when my guard is down?" she asked.
Lupin raised his hands to show he was still unarmed. "Mr Rowle can keep his wand trained on Sirius. I won't move from this position."
Halley looked at Rowle. They exchanged a brief glance in which she could see just how anxious and scared he was. Slytherin posturing wasn't going to work in this situation, they both knew it. There wasn't much they could do but follow the instructions.
So, without taking her eyes off the two men in front of her, Halley took her backpack off her shoulders and reached into the bag for the second time that evening. She moved her hand around until she felt the cool parchment against her skin, and took it out as quickly as she could without damaging the map.
"You gave her the map," Black whispered. Everyone ignored him.
"I solemnly swear I'm up to no good," she said. Halley felt the now familiar heat of the magic activating, and waited the ten seconds it took for the map to fully activate, and then looked.
And there it was. A name besides Sirius Black.
Peter Pettigrew.
"You're an animagus," Rowle said in confused amazement. "That means - Sirius Black was imprisoned without a trial - for years. The Blacks lost their Heir!"
"Your friend is right," he said, gesturing to Rowle. "Sirius was the Secret Keeper, but he changed it to Pettigrew because -"
"Because I thought he was our friend! Because I thought he would rather die than betray James!" Black shouted in a mad fury and stomped over to the quivering, dirty man who had only moments ago been a rat.
On some wavelength, Halley knew that if her parents hadn't died then maybe she wouldn't have been sent to the Dursleys. She wouldn't have been beaten and locked away, or hurt, or any of the other thousands of things that had happened to her. And on some wavelength, she knew that maybe she should feel anger towards this man for, at the very least, putting her through that.
But she didn't care. She didn't care. Not about Black or his guilt, not about Pettigrew being alive.
Halley had bigger things to worry about. Like Riddle.
This wasn't some grand mystery that had kept her up at night. Her parents were dead, and they had no-one to blame for it but themselves. You couldn't change the past. You could only make yourself stronger.
"Why should I care?" she asked.
The question stopped Black from doing whatever he was about to do. He turned and looked at her. Large, mad eyes pinned her to the floor.
"What?"
"Why should I care?" she repeated. "He gave up their location to the Dark Lord? Then send him to the Dementors."
"Halley, this man betrayed your parents for nothing. He's the reason they're gone," Lupin said.
"So get him the Kiss. Kill him. There's not that much of a difference. Imprison him. Do whatever you want with him. I just need to know that you don't want to kill me," she said, pointing to Black.
Everyone was quiet, and the words rattled around the room. Black started breathing heavily; weak, rasping breaths that almost seemed to rattle his own lungs. He began trembling, and tears filled his shadowed eyes.
"Potter - he's your godfather," Rowle said.
And Petunia was biologically related to her. If blood relations didn't secure safety, then how could anyone ever think she could just trust a stranger because he was her legal guardian?
"That doesn't answer my question."
"He's hurt you - he hurt you - filled your head with dark things," Black muttered. "She needs protection - I promised you - James! I failed you. Your fault. Your fault."
Black whined that same inhuman sound that came from his throat and clutched at the ratted mains of his hair. In a fit of despair, he began rocking backwards and forwards, backwards and forwards, and tears were streaming down his face, leaving a clear path as they cut through the dirt. The beginnings of moonlight shone through the open window.
Lupin ran to him. "Sirius! Stop it!"
"The Wizard - the bad Wizard. He hurts her here."
"What?"
"Makes her think it's ok to hurt -"
"Who does?"
"Sit and do Occlumency -"
Halley froze. Black had been in the shack when she and Riddle had been there. What had he seen? What had he heard? She tried to rack her mind to think about what they could have said, but she was coming up blank.
"Potter? What is he talking about?" Rowle asked.
She ignored him.
What did it mean now that someone knew that Riddle was there? She didn't think she'd ever mentioned his name - but again she couldn't remember. And Black was mad - unhinged at the very least - so did it matter?
If people took him seriously then it would. But...but he was still a wanted criminal. There was still a price on his capture. So people wouldn't take him at his word, would they?
"Potter?"
"I don't know," she insisted.
But Rowle was looking like he didn't believe her. He had the same look in his eye that said this was definitely information he was going to be asking her about, and Halley didn't know how she was going to sort that out. Other than lying.
Rowle stiffened besides her, and she hoped he wasn't going to try and do anything now. But he wasn't looking at her anymore.
Halley followed his line of sight towards Lupin, and that was when she noticed that he'd gone unnaturally still. At some point, maybe to control Black, Lupin had turned and put both hands on the man's shoulders, gently moving him to look away from Halley. But now…his hands were still on Black's shoulder, but they weren't doing anything. He wasn't doing anything.
"Professor Lupin?" she called out.
As if in response, Lupin started panting. Harsh and quick pants that reminded her of Marge's dog before it was about to attack.
Then, he began moaning. Long drawn-out groans.
"Remus - Moony? Did you take your potion?" Black asked.
An awful snarling noise sounded throughout the room, and Rowle stepped back. "Potion for what?" he asked angrily.
A terrible crack came. Lupin's head began lengthening. Then his body. His shoulders started hunching in an unnatural and painful way. Hair was sprouting visibly on his face and hands, which were curling into clawed paws.
With speed that he shouldn't have had, Black lunged over the space between the two of them and grabbed Halley's shoulder. Her eyes were ripped from Lupin's changing form.
Black looked her dead in the eye. "Run," he ordered.
Someone grabbed her hand, and then she was being pulled out of the shack and towards a set of stairs. They weren't even that far from the shack before the running caught up with her, and with complete and utter despair, Halley knew she wasn't going to be able to go on any longer.
She gasped, trying to breathe air into her lungs but she'd not had to exert this much strength into running ever. She was panting. Trying to gasp for breath that wasn't getting into her lungs quickly enough and she fell. Pulling her hand out of Rowle's.
"Get up! Potter get up NOW!"
But she couldn't.
"There's a werewolf on the loose!"
Halley couldn't even move. Her legs felt like jelly, and any motion to try and get them under her body just led to her collapsing again and again.
"Fuck!" Rowle shouted.
The next thing she knew, Halley was lifted into his arms. Every step jostled her as they ran. She could hear him gasping for his own air with every step that they took, and could feel how much he was straining to carry her.
The further away they got, the more it felt like she was slipping out of his grasp.
And then, he fell.
Something had tripped Rowle up. A branch or moss - something. But the two of them fell with a cry into cold and wet dirt, Rowle on top of her, pinning her further into the mud.
She could feel his weight on her and rocks digging into her ribs. Halley wiggled underneath him. "Are you alright?" she asked. Rowle grunted, but rolled off her. The cold hit her immediately and she shivered ferociously.
"I think I twisted my ankle," he said stiffly. Rowle had rolled his trousers up to get a better look at his ankle. It looked a little puffy and red. He grit his teeth and tried to move the joint around, breathing heavily every time he did so.
"Don't make it worse," she said.
Rowle cursed. "We need to get back to the castle. It's not safe out here with that beast on the loose! What was Dumbledore even thinking? Hiring a werewolf as a teacher."
"I don't think now's the time for this," she said. Condensed breath escaped her mouth as she spoke. Her teeth had started chattering, and without her permission, muscle-tensing shakes were wracking her body.
In some effort to keep warm, Halley rubbed at her arms. But it wouldn't do anything. She knew it wouldn't.
How many nights had she spent in the cupboard before she'd realised that thin layers weren't good enough to fight off the cold. It was hellish in the winter time. The cupboard was so far from the boiler or any source of heating, and it was the closest level to the ground. The Durlseys never had it insulated.
She'd shivered herself to exhaustion five nights in a row before the Dursleys noticed that something was wrong and had given her a slightly thicker throw. It only proved to show how much they hated her. How little she mattered to them.
How much of a waste of space she truly was.
"Is it getting colder? Rowle asked through his own chattering teeth. He looked around, as if searching for the source.
It was always this cold.
"That's – it's June…" Rowle's eyes widened in terror. He stood to his feet, shaking, and pulled his wand out. "Potter? Do you remember the Patronus charm?"
"I can't do it," she whispered.
"Fuck, Potter. I forgot how -" he pulled her behind him, and from that position, Halley could see the tens of Dementors approaching them. There were more than she had ever seen, and as they closed in, it got colder and colder until it was bone deep, and she couldn't move from the shaking.
"Expecto patronum!" Rowle shouted. Something in between a wisp and a corporeal patronus flew out the tip of his wand. It wasn't very large, but it looked strong. His crow flew ahead and attacked three of the suddenly-too-close Dementors, causing a high-pitched shriek. They separated.
But the Patronus had vanished.
"Expecto patronum," he shouted again, but something less corporeal came out.
Again it attacked, and again it hit its mark causing the Dementors to split, but more just seemed to take their place. Almost like they were reproducing from the darkness cloaking them.
Rowle gave a shudder that Halley felt run though his entire body. "Try!" he pleaded.
But she couldn't try. She couldn't do it. There was no point in taking out her wand. What was the use when everything she ever did just went wrong? What was the point in Halley even being around when everything would just work better if she wasn't there?
Maybe the Freak should just die. It was what they all wanted anyway, wasn't it? And then all the pain would just...go away.
The pain and the cold and the hurt and the anger. The fear.
It would all just -
"Halley!"
Rowle pushed her down just as a Dementor had started reaching out for her. But in the process, it was now gliding straight towards him. He ducked, and it swooped over him, but he was up and ready again.
Rowle held out his wand firmly, but for some reason, a confused look came over his face and he lowered his wand for a second, mouth forming something.
The Dementor attacked, and Rowle shuddered as he fell to the ground, screaming.
Halley looked at him, blinking him into focus. Rowle looked pale. He was shaking.
Halley looked around her in a daze. The Dementors had formed a circle around the two of them and they were closing in. A solid wall of black surrounded her, and all that stood out was Rowle's blonde hair and pale skin, gasping for breath that he wouldn't get if she couldn't help.
So Halley moved. In her dizzying dazed focus, she crawled forwards and tried to lay herself over Rowle's body. Tried to give him some sort of shield so that he could recover.
But they were too close now.
She could feel them watching her and Rowle. Their breaths rattling in want, desperate to take what may as well have been offered to them. Then one did.
It swooped down and raised both of its rotting hands to lower its hood over her and Rowle.
She tried to swat it away, but her body was too cold to do anything else. Her hand barely grazed its cloak.
Then she couldn't see anything else anymore. Something was in front of her.
Where there should have been eyes was only thin, scabbing grey skin stretched blankly over empty sockets. Like puppets. But there was a mouth. It gaped and formed a shapeless hole, sucking the cold air into it with a hollow rattle.
Paralysing terror filled her.
A pair of strong, slimy hands attached themselves around her neck, forcing her head upwards. And Halley felt a tiny piece of herself leave.
She could feel its putrid breath - her mother's scream again - a man's scream - fear was going to be the last thing she ever heard -
Something pulled at her, and Halley clenched onto whatever she was holding tighter. But it pulled and pulled and pulled, and then she wasn't on the ground, and she wasn't lying on top of Rowle, and she wasn't surrounded by Dementors.
Where socketless skin had been was the large, teary, scared and confused eyes of a House Elf.
AN: Please let me know how this chapter was for you. This one and the next few are all linked together, but yeah...I would love to hear your thoughts, impressions or predictions for upcoming events. I won't confirm or deny, but it's so interesting to hear ️
