Disclaimer: I don't own anything. All characters/settings/lore are the property of their respective owners.
"So, this place is like the Muggle version of the Department of Mysteries?" Neville asked, footsteps echoing down the silent corridor.
"Not quite the analogy I had in mind, but it fits," Hailey replied, smiling at him enthusiastically. "But we're way cooler than them."
Neville was surprisingly cool with learning about the Foundation. And if Hailey was being honest with herself, it unnerved her. Freaking out is kind of the default reaction people should have when they're kidnapped and interrogated by a secret society, yet Neville was taking this in stride.
"Are you sure you're OK Neville?" Hailey asked him. "Your being abnormally calm about this."
"Don't get me wrong, this is a scary place. But I trust you. If you can feel safe here, then so can I. Besides, from the way you looked when you arrived, I really didn't think you needed somebody to have a panic attack on your watch."
Hailey wouldn't admit it to anybody, but Ron's words had hurt her. Mostly because she knew he was right. It wasn't up to her to decide whether he wanted to risk his sanity to be her friend. It sometimes slipped her mind how traumatising this place really could be. After all the things she'd seen, Hailey had become numb to the horrors of the SCP Foundation. But Neville, Ron and even Hermione didn't have the same… experience. And Hailey would prefer it stay that way.
"Thanks Neville, that's really kind of you. But I'll understand if you need to vent."
He laughed good heartedly. "Maybe later. But I think I'd feel better if I saw Ron and Hermione. You said they were here too?"
"Yeah they're a few floors up," Hailey said. "I've got them on the camera feed," she explained, pulling out a small tablet from her pocket. Even though they were in an unused sector of Site 19, the Foundation had taken care to monitor Ron and Neville via surveillance cameras, something Hailey happened to have the required clearance to access.
"Camera what now?" Neville asked.
"Oh it's- never mind," Hailey sighed. "So, we can take the elevator and be there in five minutes or so, or would you like to get there now?"
Neville tilted his head, trying to figure out what she meant. Recognition dawned on his face and he shuffled awkwardly.
"You mean with your weird Apparation abilities, don't you?"
She nodded in confirmation.
"But, doesn't that hurt you? Last time you did it you looked like you were about to pass out."
She winced slightly at the memory. That hadn't been a good night for her. It was hard to believe it was just yesterday, so much had happened since then.
"It's the anti-Apparation wards. They make it difficult to teleport," she explained, coming to a stop in the long concrete corridor. "I can do it easier outside of them. Watch!"
Hailey let herself fall out of reality and appear behind her friend. He jumped in shock and spun around when she tapped him on the shoulder.
"See? I'll be fine. But I understand if you don't want to, my abilities aren't exactly something magicals are used to."
"No Hailey. Like I said earlier, I trust you. And thus I trust your strange Apparition ability. You've been a good friend to me, and even though you keep secrets from us I know you do it for a good reason."
Hailey felt her eyes water slightly. What had she done to deserve a friend like Neville? Was she really such a good manipulator she could make people as pure as him think of her as a friend? It physically pained her to hear him confess his trust in her. It was so misplaced. Who could ever honestly trust her? A person without empathy raised in a place that encouraged lies and secrecy?
She composed herself and reached out to grab Neville's soft hand, praying that he hadn't seen her tears. It only took her a fraction of a second to find a small void she knew Ron and Hermione were at. Again, she stepped out of reality, this time dragging Neville with her, and appeared instantaneously in a plain concrete room.
Or at least, what would be a plain concrete room. The walls were covered in large colourful drawings. To her left was a child-like depiction of what Hailey could only guess was a particularly odd butterfly. That or a SCP-610 instance, she couldn't really tell. If Hailey had to guess, she'd say the former. SCP-610 instances don't play in green meadow fields under rainbows. Hailey couldn't help but chuckle internally. This room would give a person like Professor Snape a heart attack.
Clearly Blub had made good use of her crayons.
She'd been surprised Hermione had taken Ron here when she saw them enter SCP-999's containment unit. Introducing somebody to an anomaly on their first day wasn't really standard Foundation policy. Then again, Blub wasn't exactly the usual anomaly.
A happy gurgle from the back wall caused Hailey to turn around just in time to catch an orange mass hurtling towards her.
"Haha, I missed you too!" Hailey laughed, stumbling slightly under the sudden weight. "Sheesh, you've gotten heavier. Did you get into the candy storage units again?"
The SCP just gurgled in response and sunk through Hailey's hands to plop back onto the ground.
"He likes you," a familiar voice commented from behind her. Hailey sported Ron leaning against the wall next to Hermione with a neutral expression on his face. But his eyes were hard and suspicious.
"Hey Ron. I brought Neville here. If you want, I can leave while you three talk it out?"
"I think that would be best."
She nodded sadly. Blub gurgled softly and wrapped himself around her leg, making her feel warm and fuzzy inside. But it wasn't enough to drown her despair. Hailey shooed the SCP away from her and teleported away, not even looking at her three friends as she left. They needed to talk between themselves and she wasn't going to stand in their way.
Hailey hadn't taken any notice of where she was teleporting to, which was why she was surprised to find herself in an abandoned armoury. Why had she ended up here? Usually when she teleported without thinking, she'd find herself back in her bedroom. But she'd never been here before.
The walls were lined with dusty firearms and unused MTF uniforms. The lights were dim and flickering, casting strange shadows on the walked through the dusty room, her hand trailing against the rack of guns as she passed. But her thoughts were with her friends. What were they talking about?
"They don't trust you," a voice said from behind her, accompanied by a long scraping noise.
Over by the corner of the room, a figure was sitting at a small bench sharpening a large curved knife that caught the light of the flickering LED bulbs, causing it to shine wickedly. He was a large man, with dark brown hair in a military cut and icy blue eyes that stared at Hailey like she was a bug he was about to squash. A deep and angry red scar ran down his neck, standing out against his pale skin.
"Agent Kemp, I didn't expect to see you here," Hailey said. She'd only met the MTF Commander a few times in her life, but that was enough. The man unnerved her.
He smiled at her, and Hailey was distinctly reminded of a shark about to bite its prey.
"I like to listen to the silence," he said, drawing a whetstone over the blade of his knife one more time. "Calms the nerves. Now how about you, 5536? What brings you here?" he asked with false sincerity.
She bristled at the use of her numerical designation. It made her feel like an object instead of a person.
"Am I not allowed here? I have the required clearance."
The Austrian man laughed in response, but the sound didn't have the warmth of a proper laugh.
"I know your little companions have told you to scram."
"How did you know!?" Hailey shouted. Had he been spying on her?
"You're as easy to read as a book, child. You lack emotional control, anybody who bothers to look can tell what you're feeling. And right now, it's sadness. I take it those 'friends' of yours didn't take it well?" Kemp said, chuckling to himself. He was now twirling the knife around his fingers.
"So what if I'm sad? I'm allowed to have emotions!"
"How did you get here?" he asked her again, more firmly.
Hailey paused slightly. With a sigh, she told him. "I just wanted to get away. I didn't really have a destination in mind."
"Exactly. You didn't have any conscious control over your anomalous properties. It was triggered by an emotional outburst."
"What does it matter?"
"You have no control. You're an emotional child with uncontrollable teleportation powers," Kemp said, staring down at her with his icy blue eyes. "A walking safety hazard."
He stood up now, sheathing the knife in his belt. Hailey took an involuntary step backwards as Kemp moved to loom over her, but she schooled her face into a mask of defiance. She wasn't about to show fear and prove him right. That's what he wanted her to do.
"I've read your file. A bit of panic and suddenly you've teleported to some random location in the facility. Yet despite this, the O5 Council has given permission for you to leave the facility. And not two weeks later, you've done the same thing again and exposed two children to the world of the anomalous. You put the entire Foundation at risk just by existing."
"They were in trouble! I had to help them, they're my friends."
"And? Was that really worth the risk of revealing the existence of the anomalous to the public? You problem is that you prioritise personnel bonds over the safety and security of the world, and thus you shouldn't ever be trusted with the privilege of leaving containment. "
"They're still my friends, I have to help them if they're in danger. Don't you have any friends?"
"None I would risk the world's safety for. And they'd do the same if I was the one about to die," he said, tapping the blade of the knife against his scar. "That's a sacrifice we all have to make, your 'father' should have taught you this. But what should I have expected from a weakling like him?"
Hailey's head snapped towards Kemp the second the words left his smirking mouth. She felt the familiar feeling of fury burning inside her, causing her vision to tinge red.
"Do not insult my father!" Hailey snarled at the larger man as she marched up to him, her hands clenched into fists and trembling with barely contained fury. On the walls, the dusty guns started to tremble slightly from the gravitational waves Hailey was creating.
If Agent Kemp was intimated, he certainly didn't show it. He stood his ground, looking down at her shorter form calmly, like he was dealing with an angry toddler instead of a reality warper. Hailey expected him to respond with his own fury, but instead Kemp was smirking at her. The very picture of smugness. He broke eye contact first, glancing over pointedly to where one of the guns had fallen from their racks.
With a start, Hailey realised what he'd done. Kemp baited her! He'd said what he knew would make her angry, and she'd done exactly what he expected to do and lost control. Her anger faded immediately, replaced with shame and embarrassment.
"I rest my case," Kemp said. He sat back down on the bench and pulled out his knife again. "No control. You didn't even realise you were using your anomalous abilities, did you?"
Hailey nodded meekly and her cheeks flushed red with humiliation.
"SCP-5536, please proceed to Sector J-34-5," a voice echoed through the armoury.
"That'll be your friends, come to tell you their decision," Kemp stated. "No doubt you'll still be heading back to Hogwarts regardless of their choice, the O5 Council still for some reason sees you as a trustworthy asset."
Hailey made for the exit, wanting to be out of Kemp's sight when she teleported. Just as she was about to leave, a hand was placed on her shoulder. Turning around, she saw Kemp looming over her, holding that polished steel knife loosely in his hand as if preparing to end her with it.
He spun the knife around so that he was holding it by the blade and pressed the handle roughly into her chest, causing her to stumble back a few steps.
"Take it," he ordered in a tone that left no room for refusal.
"Why?"
"Think of it as a… reminder. Next you get yourself into a situation that puts the Foundation at risk, you're going to solve the problem yourself. By any means necessary," Kemp said, tapping the knife blade that was resting on her chest for emphasis. "You've got your orders, now leave."
He retreated back into the armoury, leaving Hailey alone once again. She stared numbly at the knife in her arms. It was brutal looking thing, about the size of her forearm with a curved leathery handle. In Hailey's dainty hands, it looked more like a short sword than a knife. She gave it a few experimental swings, surprised at how light it felt. It was too large for her hands, but the blade was balanced perfectly. She could imagine Agent Kemp swinging this knife through the air with grace and fluidness she wouldn't expect from such a large man. In her hands, it sliced through the air effortlessly. Like the scalpels she'd used in Doctor Louis' containment unit, this knife was sharper and more precise than the cooking knives she'd used before. Hailey idly wondered if this blade would cut into flesh the same way Louis' scalpels had.
That thought brought her crashing back down to reality. The knife now felt like a dull weight in her hands, as if her thoughts were weighing down upon it. She twisted it around to study the blade. It was unlike any other knives she'd held before. The blade curved slightly outwards, coming to a vicious-looking triangular point at the end. There was no doubt about it, this knife was designed for one purpose and one purpose only: to kill. Hailey tried to stop herself from imagining it in action. She could see this blade being jabbed into the soft part of the torso and withdrawn covered in crimson blood. What kind of history did this knife have? How many lives had Agent Kemp taken with it?
She considered leaving it on the floor. But then her mind drifted back to that night in the forbidden corridor. She could picture Ron, Neville and Hermione being torn to ribbons by that beast. A darker part of her mind whispered in her head. Surely a weapon was only as evil as it's wielder? It wouldn't hurt to be better prepared. Keeping this knife wouldn't make her a monster, not if she only used it to protect her friends?
Hailey hurriedly stowed the knife in her jacket's pockets. She'd keep it there until she could find a better holster for it.
Ignoring the unfamiliar weight at her side, Hailey teleported away. She was ready to face her friends. Hailey silently promised that no matter what they chose, she could handle it.
But she knew that was a lie.
"So what's the deal here, Hermione?" Ron asked. "I'll admit that Blubs is very cute-"
The orange slime ball gurgled cutely and slithered up Ron's leg, causing him to smile slightly.
"-but that doesn't change the fact that this place is scary and Hailey brought us here against our will," he finished.
Hermione sighed, "I'm not going to say that was Hailey did was right or justified. Because if I'm being honest, it wasn't. You're allowed to be angry or scared, I was too when I was first introduced to this place."
"How'd you learn about this? Did Hailey bring you here too?" Neville asked, looking at Hermione curiously.
"No, it was my uncle, Hailey's adopted father. I didn't even know Hailey existed until I came here around a year ago. This happened just after I'd received my Hogwarts letter. When I learned I was a witch, I felt exactly like you do now. I was completely out of my depth in the magical world. It was a scary unknown nobody in my family knew how to deal with, except my uncle. He brought us here so we didn't go into the wizarding world blind, and it helped me alot. But I don't think even he considered how traumatic this place could be."
"But you weren't angry at him for doing that?" Ron asked. Neville turned to look at Hermione expectantly.
Hermione shook her head. "No, it wasn't his fault. This place has a way of desensitising people. My uncle has worked here for more than a decade, he's used to it. Just like you're used to magic. Learning about your world was just as scary for a Muggleborn like me as learning about Hailey's world. But you wouldn't have considered that, would you? Because McGonagall certainly didn't."
"... no," Ron admitted, sighing in resignation. He slumped forward in the metal chair.
"Hailey is a special case. She was raised in this place, and has never really known anything else. At least until she met me. So she's even more detached from any of our definitions of 'normal'."
"But that doesn't change the fact that this was incredibly selfish of her. Surely she understands that kidnapping isn't ok? Or is that not taught here?"
Hermione twirled a lock of her hair around her fingers absentmindedly. "Honestly? No, the SCP Foundation is pretty clear on where it stands on the morality of kidnapping. This entire facility is a glorified prison. It doesn't exactly encourage morality," Hermione admitted, casting her eyes down to avoid Ron's piercing gaze. "It's even worse for Hailey. She's never told me anything about her life before coming to the Foundation, but it wasn't good. You know she chose to live here? The Foundation doesn't try containing anything from the magical world, so Hailey volunteered to live in the equivalent of a prison cell over wherever she came from. I suspect her upbringing has caused her to be starved for attention causing her to go to extreme means to keep friends around."
"And Hailey being mentally unstable is supposed to make me feel better?" Ron scoffed at her, but he looked shaken. "I appreciate that her goals were somewhat noble, but the fact that she's willing to kidnap people to achieve them is kinda scary. Why would you even tell me this? I thought you wanted us to forgive Hailey."
"I want you to know the full truth before you make your decision," she whispered, slumping down in the chair in resignation. If they wanted to leave, she wasn't going to stand in their way.
"My decision?"
"Whether or not you want to forget everything and be sent back to your life."
Both boys stared at Hermione, mouths open in shock. Neville was the first to speak.
"They can do that?" he asked, glancing fearfully at the concrete walls of the room. Had he not taken her seriously earlier?
"You mean that I can just leave and forget all about this mess?" Ron said.
"Yes and yes. But you won't just be forgetting about the Foundation. To make sure you don't start asking questions, they'll erase every memory of Hailey from your mind," Hermione explained. "And she won't be able to go back to Hogwarts. They won't allow her to enrol in another magic school, apparently the others are influenced by the Foundation's rivals."
"So she won't be able to leave this place again?" Ron said, his eyes wide with shock.
"They aren't happy with her right now. Saving the two of you caused her abilities to be revealed to outsiders, and that's something the Foundation doesn't like. They're not above keeping an anomaly contained for the rest of it's natural life."
Ron fell silent. He stared blankly at some arbitrary point in space, thinking over his choices. Hermione could almost see the thoughts whirling around in his head. A full minute passed before he spoke again.
He turned to Neville. "What do you think? You've been awfully silent for this conversation."
"I'm not going to abandon my friend. I think I knew this before this conversation began. Hailey was the first person to ever try to be my friend," Neville admitted, smiling slightly at the memory. "She knew the consequences of revealing her teleportation powers to us but she still chose to save our lives last night. Even though this place is terrifying I owe it to her to not leave when she needs us most."
Ron nodded slightly. "You're right. Hailey was wrong to organise our kidnapping, but she was my first friend too and risked her freedom to save our lives. I don't think I could live with myself if I was the reason she was forced to leave Hogwarts."
"Well technically you wouldn't remember you did it," Neville remarked. Ron gave him a light punch on the arm.
"So does that mean you too are agreeing to keep your memories, even if it means having to keep this place a secret."
They each nodded. Hermione couldn't help but leap across the table to pull them both into a hug. Blub shrieked in surprise at the sudden movement, but he soon recovered and slithered off to the edge of the table leaving the three friends to their group hug. She buried her head in the space between them, causing her to miss the faint red blush on Ron's face.
Hermione was the first one to break the hug.
"I'll page Hailey right now," Hermione said as she walked over to a door of the containment unit and accessing the metal console.
They only had to wait a few seconds before the room was illuminated with a now familiar flash of blue light. Hailey stood before them, her green eyes wide and swirling with emotion.
"Hey Hailey," Hermione greeted her. Her cousin nodded politely in return, but her eyes were focused on Ron and Neville.
They stood there in silence for what felt like hours, neither of them having the courage to speak. Finally, Hailey broke the silence with a single word.
"Well?"
Ron drew a long breath to steady himself. "We've been talking, and we've come to a decision. What you did was wrong, Hailey. You betrayed our trust and arranged to have us kidnapped."
Hailey's face fell and her eyes watered slightly. Hermione knew her cousin was fighting back tears now, but she didn't comment on it. This was something they needed to resolve.
"But…" Ron continued. "You've been a great friend to us, and you did save our lives. Plus I think I've become rather attached to the memory of you nearly knocking Theodore Nott off his broom, I'd hate to lose it."
Hailey's face lit up with joy. "You mean you're staying, even if it means keeping the Foundation a secret?"
It was Neville who gave her the answer she wanted to hear.
"You're not getting rid of us that easily!" he grinned at her.
Hailey squealed with happiness. Hermione had to shield her eyes as blue flashes lit the room up. Hailey teleported rapidly around the room in excitement, pulling both of the boys bringing them into a bone-crushing hug.
"Thank you thank you thank you!" she laughed, tightening her hold and gesturing for Hermione to join the impromptu group hug.
She scoffed with mock irritation, but let herself be dragged into Hailey's embraced. Blubs cooed happily and slithered up Hailey to rest part of itself on her head where it began swirling her black hair around itself.
Hailey broke the hug to pet the creature. "I love you too, buddy."
Hermione allowed herself a smile. They made for an odd group. Neville curiously inspected the orange slime that covered Hailey while Ron looked on with an amused expression on his face. Yeah, an odd group indeed. But they were all her friends, and they were back together again.
All was right in the universe.
A/N: This took way longer than it had any right to. I'll be honest with you, a lot of it was due to procrastination. Though these character-driven chapters are hard to write, dialogue isn't exactly my specialty. But still, it's been like 6 weeks since I updated. And due to some real-life stuff coming up the next chapter will take a while too. But I'll try to do better.
I hope I did the characters justice here. Neville played a larger role here, which I think needed to happen. I feel like he'd have a less severe reaction to the Foundation's existence. In the early books, he could be surprisingly brave when his friends were in danger, and Hailey is most certainly his friend. I think he'd be the kind of person to trust her to keep him safe, while Ron would look at the Foundation from a more objective stance and also would be more likely to feel betrayed.
Next chapter we return to Hogwarts, after a fairly long in-universe timeskip. We've completed the first arc, the main cast know about the Foundation and now they'll be returning to Hogwarts to fight a troll.
Yukine-ren: Cheers, glad that chapter was to your liking. Getting the interactions between characters decent was a real challenge for me, and frankly I think I might've dropped the ball in this chapter.
Pinks99: Oh yeah, the SCP Foundation definitely means business. They'll do practically anything to conceal the existence of the anomalous from the public, and for a very good reason (some anomalies get powerful simply by people knowing they exist). Dumbledore knows this, and while he does care about the safety of his students, he trusts the Foundation (Dumbledore is personal friends with one of the thirteen people who make all the Foundation's decisions) and also recognises that he can't really stop them from doing whatever they want.
raw666: Wizarding society is ignorant of the existence of the anomalous world, save for a few approved contacts of anomalous groups (The SCP Foundation, Global Occult Coalition, Chaos Insurgency, ect) and some particularly knowledgeable individuals interested in esoteric lore from before the Statute of Secrecy was enforced. Lucius Malfoy may suspect the existence of forces beyond Wizarding or Muggle comprehension, through his family's own history and the interests of a certain dark wizard. But he has no knowledge of any specifics. And he hasn't shared what he does know with Draco.
Draco's true motives have many layers. Maybe he only feigned concern to get Hailey out of the way, so that when Filch busted Theodore it would look like she did it, thus humiliating his rival? That would be a very Slytherin reason. But perhaps a part of him did have a genuine concern for Hailey's safety, so he cooked up a plan that would achieve his goals without getting her into trouble? But if this concern does exist, why does Draco feel it? Does it stem from the respect between enemies, or something more? Is he even aware that it exists?
For the sake of the plot, I'm not going to go too in depth into what Draco truly feels initially. This narrative is from the perspective of Hailey primarily, but also Ron, Hermione and Neville. I'm trying to make their interactions with Draco more nuanced and varied, as opposed to the wholly antagonistic relation that existed in canon. And this requires our protagonists to have a certain degree of uncertainty when it comes to Draco.
leetom: Well in that case I'm sorry to keep you waiting. But here it is, Chapter 11.