Disclaimer: I don't own anything. All characters/settings/lore are the property of their respective owners.
Fair warning, there's a scene that could be disturbing to people further down in this chapter. It contains graphic violence and could be triggering to some people. If you're not OK with this, I've included page breaks where you should stop and start reading and a summary of what happened after the scene.
Hailey returned to Hogwarts feeling like she was floating on a cloud. The steps of her shoes echoing off the familiar stone walls was music to her ears. It was like an invisible weight she hadn't even known she was carrying was taken off her shoulders. Hailey hadn't felt this free and joyful in a long time. Even better, she got to share this feeling with her three friends.
The trip back to the Gryffindor dormitories was all a blur to Hailey. Neville told her at one point in time she smiled and waved at Professor Snape, causing him to make a face Ron described as 'absolutely hilarious'. But she was too happy to care. The Gryffindor common rooms welcomed her inside with a warmth she didn't think she'd ever experience again.
Hermione was devastated to know that their little trip to Site 19 had caused them to miss all of Friday's lessons. Even worse, Dumbledore had told the teachers that they were all in a day-long detention for being out of bounds to explain their disappearance, which Hailey's rules-obsessed cousin viewed as a stain on her integrity. Ron tried to reason with her that she hadn't actually been punished, but as far as Hermione was concerned a blemish on her perfect record was punishment enough.
The second they entered Gryffindor tower, Hermione had made them all go to their dormitories and bring their textbooks back to the common room. She was convinced to use whatever remained of Friday to catch up on what they missed, much Ron's irritation.
"You will sit here and finish this chapter, Ronald. We have a whole day of school to catch up on!" Hermione ordered, tapping Ron's potions textbook harshly. "I am not going to allow you to fall behind on your classes."
"It was only one day," Ron protested. "It's not like I'm going to fail because I missed one potions lesson. Can't I just go to sleep early? I've had a rough day."
"You just slept, how can you still be tired?"
"Being knocked unconscious does not count as sleep!"
Neville made a shushing gesture with his hands. "Can you not be so loud? There are people here."
Hermione and Ron flushed red and glanced around the room to see a group of 5th Years looking at them curiously.
"Sorry," they said at the same time.
Hailey smiled. Yesterday, she thought her world was about to implode around her, yet here she was sitting in the place that had quickly become a second home to her surrounded by friends that finally got along with each other. Everything was good now. Well, almost everything. The knife she'd been given was now tucked into her bag and for some reason she couldn't take her mind off it. Achilles had seen her wrap it in a bit of cloth, but hadn't asked any questions. Hailey still felt guilty about putting the Foundation at risk, but she'd never considered that she would ever have to kill for it. That revelation weighed down on her more than any knife could. She knew her empathy worked weirdly, but Hailey didn't honestly know if she could actually kill even if it was to protect her home.
"Earth to Hailey!" Hermione said, waving a hand in front of her face. "Is anyone in there? What you think we should do?"
Well, there is one thing she would kill for. If anybody put so much as a scratch on these three people, Hailey would teleport them off a cliff.
"Sorry, I zoned out," Hailey admitted. "I'm fine with whatever. A lot has happened, I'm sure we can catch up tomorrow, Hermione. It is a weekend, after all."
"I suppose you're right. I am a bit tired," Hermione said. Looking at the dark shadows under her eyes, Hailey reckoned Hermione was more than a 'bit' tired.
The two cousins bid the boys goodnight and retreated up to the girls dormitory. Hermione glanced around the stairway before turning to Hailey.
"I think I know where that package from Gringotts is."
"What?" Hailey said. Honestly, she'd forgotten all about that grubby little package Hagrid had picked up. It seemed like so long ago now. So much had happened since then she'd forgotten all about her idle curiosity.
"That package from the vault that was broken into last week. I know where it is?"
"And where is that?"
"The forbidden corridor! Didn't you see the trapdoor underneath that three-headed dog?"
"No," Hailey admitted. Much to her embarrassment, she'd even forgotten about that too. "I was more focused on saving you from being dog chow."
"Well I saw a trap door beneath its feet. It must be there to guard the package!"
"OK, well that's one mystery solved. I'm off to bed."
Hermione gave her a disbelieving look. "You don't care? There is something hidden in our school? You don't want to know what it is?"
Hailey shrugged. "Why should I? The Headmaster believes that this object is safely contained and I trust his judgement. He doesn't intend for us to know the exact nature of the object, and unravelling secrets like this never works out well for anybody. There are some things that should remain unknown."
"Well I am curious. Whatever it is, Hagrid knows about it too. Maybe I could ask him."
"OK Hermione. But please, don't dig too deeply into this. You might not like what you find out," Hailey begged. "Well I'm off to bed. Good night, I'll see you in the morning."
"'Night Hailey," Hermione said tonelessly, her mind surely whizzing with theories about the contents of the package. But Hailey didn't mind, she wanted to be in the cool embrace of her bed.
She was asleep the second her head touched the pillow.
Hailey allowed herself a moment of sadistic pleasure when she caught Theodore Nott's eyes next morning at breakfast. His face was marred with an angry red mark and there his eyes burned with impotent fury. She smiled back at him, hoping to replicate Grandpa Lawrence's terrifying grin. With the way Nott broke eye contact and turned away, Hailey knew her grin had the desired effect.
"Well Malfoy certainly looks pleased with himself," Ron commented.
He was right. Hailey now turned to look at the other Slytherin boy. He certainly did look pleased with himself. Malfoy seemed to be sitting closer to the head table than he had the past few weeks, surrounded by some other Sytherins she vaguely remembered and talking amicably with an older Slytherin. A blonde girl Hailey remembered from the train was sitting to his left.
Wait, since when did she pay attention to where Malfoy sat for breakfast?
As if sensing her eyes on him, Malfoy broke off his conversation and turned to stare at her. Unlike Nott, his eyes shone with triumph. He gave her a smug grin and turned back to his table.
"Your right, he does look smug," Hailey agreed as they took their usual seats on the Gryffindor table.
"What's he got to be smug about?" Neville asked. "He didn't get us into trouble last night, Nott did."
"I got it!" Ron shouted, his head snapping up from his plate to meet the trio's gazes.
"Got what?" Hermione asked.
"I know why Malfoy told us not to go to Nott's duel!"
Hailey motioned for him to continue.
"He wanted to frame us! Nott didn't tip off Filch, Malfoy did! If we'd heeded his warning, Nott would have been caught and since we didn't show up everyone would think that we were the ones that told Filch!"
"A false flag," Hailey whispered.
"I don't know what that means," Ron admitted.
"But why? What would Malfoy gain by making it look like we dobbed on Nott?" Hermione asked.
"It's all part of his campaign to control Slytherin House," Ron explained. "Slytherins pride themselves on their cunning. Nott clearly planned to ambush and overwhelm us then likely claim that he bested us all in combat. But as far as anybody else is concerned, we saw through his plan and got him caught by Filch. Not only did we avoid his trap, we use it to set our own trap. At least, that's what Slytherin House thinks. In short, a bunch of blood traitor and Muggleborn Gryffindors out-Slytherined a Slytherin. Nott's reputation is in tatters, leaving Malfoy as the sole contender for being the Slytherin Prince."
"But we still showed up to the duel!" Neville pointed out.
"And got away without being caught. Dumbledore might have told the teachers we were caught in a forbidden area, but the students likely don't know that. Even if they did, there is no evidence besides Nott's word that we were there. And he has all the motivation to lie and save face. Even if they knew that Malfoy set Nott up, I doubt they'd care."
"Wow," Hermione breathed. "That's… I don't even know what to say."
"It's impressive, that's what it is. He told us exactly what we needed to hear so we'd believe his motives were genuine. Only a master strategist could have put something like this together. I really underestimated Malfoy," Ron confessed. "I think we're going to have to watch out for him now, especially since he's now the bloody Slytherin Prince."
"Is that why he's sitting in a different spot?" Hailey wondered out loud.
Her three friends gave her confused and questioning looks.
"Is he sitting in a different spot?" Neville asked. "I'm pretty sure he's always sat there."
"No he hasn't!" Hailey shouted, her face flushing red slightly. "He used to sit further down the table, and not so close to those third years."
"Hailey, since when did you start paying attention to where and who Malfoy sat with?"
Her cheeks flushed a deeper red. "That's not the point Ron! I just thought that maybe they sat in a certain order to reflect their status or something."
"Maybe? I'm not too sure, but I don't think it matters anyway," Ron shrugged. "One thing bothers me though. Why did he give this victory to us? Wouldn't that just be giving us more prestige? Surely he could have beaten Nott without needing to give us a victory."
"I think I might know," Hailey said, leaping at the opportunity to shift the topic of conversation and save herself further embarrassment. "The Slytherins certainly value cunning and underhanded plans like this, but Gryffindors don't. Beating Nott by tipping off a teacher isn't going to win us any points. We might have even lost reputation because they could think we're cowards. Our housemates certainly haven't been showering us with praise."
Neville's eyebrows disappeared into his hairline. "Are you sure that hat sorted you two correctly?" he asked jokingly.
Hailey shrugged. "It did nearly sort me into Slytherin."
"All this talk about politics and plans is doing my head in," Hermione grumbled. "How do you two even think this stuff up?"
Ron and Hailey looked at each other briefly and then turned back to Hermione and shrugged again.
Hermione shook her head with exasperation. "Honestly, I don't know why you two can't invest as much time into your studies as you do into theorising why Malfoy ate bacon and eggs this morning. Our grades aren't changed by who gets to give orders in Slytherin. Just leave Malfoy and Nott to their rivalry."
"Look all I'm saying is that we have a serious reason to be cautious," Ron shot back.
"I agree with Hermione," Neville piped in. "Sure it's good to be cautious, but I don't think we should throw ourselves into that snakepit."
"Besides, we have way more important things to think about, besides grades," Hermione said. "I think we know where that package Hagrid took from the vault that was robbed last week is now. It's in the forbidden corridor! That dog was standing on a trap door!"
"OK? I don't see why this is our problem," Hailey drawled, absentmindedly picking at her bacon with a fork.
"Because, whatever this object is, it's either really dangerous or really valuable. And I'm curious."
"Well I certainly hope it's not the former," Ron sighed. "I don't need two dangerous things lurking in the place I sleep."
"Don't worry Ron, you get used to it," Hailey joked.
Just then, the windows of the upper hall burst open to admit a familiar swarm of owls. The Gryffindor table's eyes were automatically drawn towards a flock of six large owls carrying a long thin package. Hailey followed the parcel closely as the owls swooped down from the sky and dropped the parcel right in front of him. A letter was taped proudly to the package. She tore open the letter with the help of a kitchen knife and skimmed over the contents, eager to find out more about this mysterious package.
"No way…" Ron said, his eyes widening as he read the letter over her shoulder. "A Nimbus Two Thousand!"
"A what?" Hermione gasped.
"It's a broom, a really good one too. I've never even touched one!"
"I know what it is Ronald! But why did Professor McGonagall send Hailey one?"
"Who cares! We gotta try it out!" Ron squealed with excitement and turned to Hailey. "Can I have first ride after you? Please?"
"I'll pass," Neville said. "I prefer to keep my feet on the ground, where it's nice and safe."
"Alright alright, let's keep it quiet. It's Saturday, we have the whole weekend to test this broom out. Come, let's go open it outside," Hailey whispered, barely holding in her own excitement.
Unfortunately, Hailey's perfect morning was ruined when they found their way to the Quidditch Pitch blocked by her least favourite Slytherin, backed by his usual muscle of Crabbe, Goyle and Bulstrode.
"That's a broomstick," Theodore Nott stated with a mixture of jealousy and spite on his face. Hailey smirked when she noticed a particularly large bruise on his forehead. Filch mustn't have let him visit the Hospital Wing after being caught.
"Excellent deduction skills," Hermione mocked.
"You should know, Potter, first-years aren't allowed them," he said, ignoring Hermione's jab.
Hailey glared at him. "It's Mardas. And yes, first-years aren't allowed them. But you see, I have been given special permission because I'm on the Quidditch team. Remember I got a position after I nearly knocked you off your broom and you ran away?"
"And it's not any old broomstick. It's a Nimbus Two Thousand," Ron added. "So now it'll be even easier for her to knock you out of the sky!"
"Do you even own a broomstick, Weasley? Or did your family spend all their money on those second-hand robes?" Nott snapped back.
"Shouldn't you be in detention with Filch right now?" Hermione retorted. "You know, after we kicked your ass on Thursday?"
Hailey giggled as she pushed through the fuming group of Slytherins, holding her broom proudly before her as if to mock them all. "Maybe I'll let you have a go on it one day, Nott. I've been looking for another chance to send you to the Hospital Wing all week."
Saturday was quickly becoming Hailey's favourite day of the week. After her encounter with Nott, which left all three of her friends wearing grins for the rest of the day, Hailey caught up with Oliver Wood for Quidditch practice. He ran her through the rules of the game, explaining how it was different to the American Quidditch she was used to. Apparently like half the game relied on her being able to catch a small golden ball known as the Snitch. It was tiny and fast, and she had to catch it before the other guy to earn her team an obscene amount of points and end the match. All while avoiding the Bludgers. At least there were only two of them, Americans though the game would be more interesting with three. Still, she would admit that the thought of those metal monstrosities crushing her tiny frame scared her a bit.
This game would be a lot easier if she could teleport.
Two weeks faded into two months as Hailey settled into a familiar routine. Hermione and Ron now got along with each other way more than the used to, which was a pleasant change. Neville still was awfully quiet, but Hailey was starting to realise that he was just a naturally quiet person. Despite Hermione's worries, they managed to catch up on their schoolwork and between the four of them they were excelling in their lessons. Life was good.
Of course it all had to end on the night of Halloween, by far Hailey's least favourite holiday. It wasn't that she hated anything about the festivities, in fact the Site 19 Halloween parties were often a highlight of her year. Dealing with Lovecraftian horrors on a daily basis resulted in the Foundation staff having a very interesting take on costumes and decorations. No, there wasn't anything Hailey hated about Halloween. But Halloween seemed to have a lot of hatred for her. Containment breaches, the death of the pet mouse the robotics unit kept in their staffroom, a traumatic event involving a peanut-shaped horror Hailey didn't like to remember. When she learned that her parents had died on this day 10 years ago, Hailey simply added it on the growing list of reasons for hating this accursed holiday.
Halloween just seemed to always have it out for her. And this year was no different.
It had started as a normal day. They ate baked pumpkin for breakfast and listened excitedly as Professor Flitwick announced they would be learning to make objects fly. Hailey paired with Neville which left Hermione and Ron to work together.
The spell turned out to be much harder than Hailey anticipated. The feather stubbornly stayed grounded on the table, much to her irritation. And looking at the table next to her, it seemed like Ron wasn't having much luck either.
"You're saying it wrong," she heard Hermione explain. "You put too much emphasis on the last syllable. Here let me show you."
Ron blushed slightly as Hermione grabbed his forearm and guided his hand through the movements.
"Wing-gar-dium Levi-o-sa, make the 'gar' nice and long."
"Alright, I'll give it a try," Ron said as he rolled up his sleeve and flicked his wand. "Wingardium Leviosa!"
The class watched in awe as the feather rose gently off the desk and hovered a few feet above Ron's head.
"Oh well done!" Professor Flitwick congratulated. "Look here, Mr Weasley's done it! Five points to Gryffindor."
Ron's face broke into a wide grin and he gave Hermione a tight bear hug, much to her shock. "Thanks 'Mione!"
Hailey noticed with amusement that Hermione cheeks had a slight red hue to them. She'd be sure to tease her about that later.
Of course Nott just had to comment. Ron told her that he was trying to compensate for being utterly humiliated in the Trophy Room, but that didn't make his crusade to make her life awful any less annoying.
"About time you did something right, Weasel," Nott snapped after they left the classroom. "I'm sure your little buck-toothed girlfriend over there gave you a pat on the back for that!"
"I'm not his girlfriend!" Hermione shouted, both incensed and embarrassed.
"Oh I'm sorry, I thought you'd have hooked up to try and get in with a pureblood family. Maybe then you could finally feel like you belong here instead of in whatever mud hut you crawled from. Fair warning, you might as well just find a Muggle because even they'd be richer than the Weasleys. Cleaner too, but a Mudblood like you would be familiar with dirt."
Neville had to restrain Hailey to stop her from slapping that smug smirk off Nott's face. The knife Agent Kemp gave her was still hidden in her robe pocket. Seeing the tears well up in Hermione's eye, Hailey could imagine the silver blade cutting through Nott's stomach. All it would take is one thrust. Surely the Foundation had enough amestics to cover it up?
"Nice one, did Malfoy command you to say that?" Ron said, leaping to Hermione's defense by going on the offensive.
But Nott continued his attack unabated.
"Defending the Mudblood, Weasel?" Nott remarked whirly and turned back to Hermione. "See, people like Weasel here are the only reason you are allowed to be among civilised people. Without his blood traitor ilk, you'd still be picking around in the dirt of your hovel. Perhaps he feels kinship for your kind? Dirt protects mud, I suppose."
Hermione pushed past Hailey to run away, tears staining her face. Hailey watched in numb shock as she disappeared up the spiral staircase then rounded back to Nott. She bared her teeth in fury and moved to hit him over the head, but her hand was caught by Ron. Neville grabbed the other hand to restrain her. Hailey struggled futilely against the stronger boys and the red staining her vision.
"You want a repeat of the Trophy Room, Nott!" Hailey shouted at him. "When I'm done with you, they'll have to scrape the pieces of you off the walls!"
"Don't Hailey. He's not worth it," Neville said, trying to pacify her.
"I think you need to relearn your manners, Potter. Even these blood traitors knows it's impolite to hit your betters," Nott sneered down at her as she continued to struggle against her friend's grips.
"Go fuck yourself!" Hailey screamed at him.
Nott just chuckled to himself and turned to address his Slytherin lackeys. "Come now, I find myself in need of better company."
He arrogantly sauntered off. Hailey followed his moves with hate-filled eyes, but she stopped trying to wrench herself out of Ron and Neville's hold. He gave her one last smirk before disappearing from sight. The boys waited a minute for her breathing to calm before they released her.
"Why did you stop me?" she shouted at them.
"You were going to attack him!" Neville replied.
"It's the middle of the corridor, one of the teachers might have seen you," Ron reasoned. "And then you would've been expelled for attacking a student. Plus we were outnumbered."
"I could have taken them!" she protested, but she knew they were right. Nott wasn't worth being expelled for. But she wouldn't forget this. One day, Nott would pay for making Hermione cry.
"Should somebody go make sure Hermione is OK?" Neville asked.
"I'll go," Hailey offered. "She's known me for the longest, I'll go talk to her."
That was easier said than done, since Hailey had no idea where Hermione had gone to. And Hogwarts was a big castle. She knew her cousin well enough to know she would want to be alone, so she wouldn't be in the Gryffindor Tower. She'd also be inside and far away from the other houses to avoid running into Nott again. But that still left a lot of castle to search. An hour of searching abandoned classrooms and Hailey was still no closer to finding Hermione. In desperation, she'd even tried to find her gravitational signature even though Hermione would be way too light for her to detect. It must be close to dinner now, and she was still no closer to finding her.
Hailey's saving grace came when she overheard Parvati and Lavender mention they heard Hermione crying in the girls toilets. She rushed up as quickly as she could after a quick thank you to the two girls.
The sound of gentle sobbing reached Hailey's ear before she even began searching the cubicles. Only one of the doors were closed. She pushed gently against it, but Hermione had locked the door.
Hailey tapped the door with her knuckles gentle. "Hermione, it's Hailey. I'm here if you want to talk."
"Go away."
"Come out here and make me."
"Just leave me alone, I don't want to talk with you."
"Look, I know you're upset. Nott's an ass. But you shouldn't let somebody like him make you cry. Remember when we kicked his ass in the Trophy Room? He isn't a person you should be listening to."
Hailey smiled when she heard a snort of amusement from the other side of the door. "Look, I know you sometimes feel you don't belong here, but you're clearly a very capable witch. You've earned the right to be here. Plus, Neville and Ron seem to think you belong here, they both really like you. Remember that hug Ron gave you earlier?"
If Hailey knew her cousin as well as she believed she did, Hermione was probably blushing right about now. Either from embarrassment or something else.
"Teasing aside, you have two good people who think the world of you. No matter what Nott says, we think you belong here and I'd be offended if you'd take his word over ours."
Hermione remained silent. Time for Hailey to use her trump card.
"Hermione, there's nobody else here. If you don't open the door in five seconds, I'll teleport in and give you the most bone-crushing hug I've ever given a person. Your choice. 1… 2…"
Hailey didn't have to count further. Hermione opened the door timidly, allowing Hailey to grab her and pull her into her arms.
"I lied, you're still getting that hug."
Hermione simply laughed in response and gave her a hug of her own. "Thank you Hailey."
"Hey don't worry about it. If it makes you feel any better, Neville and Ron had to restrain me so I wouldn't beat Nott into a paste."
"I'd have liked to see that happen."
"So would I. Now, let's get you cleaned up and we'll head back down to the Great Hall. Dinner awaits us!"
Hailey led Hermione over to the sinks so she could wipe away the redness in her eyes. As she waited for her cousin to clean herself, Hailey began to notice a dull thumping noise through the ground. How odd.
Curiosity got the better of her, and Hailey searched the gravitational waves to find the source. Just as she identified a large mass in the corridor, the door to the toilets collapsed in a shower of splinters and a huge lumbering beast pushed its way through the wreckage.
It was a horrible looking creature. Easily three metres tall, with grey skin that made it look like a giant moving boulder and dragging a gigantic wooden club behind it which probably weighed more than Hailey and Hermione put together. The creature's thick tree-trunk legs lumbered along the ground and left cracks in the tiled floor of the bathroom. It's tiny head swivelled around as it spotted the two girls near the back corner of the room.
"Troll!" Hermione screamed as the lumbering monstrocity swung it's massive club at the duo. Hermione leapt to the left, narrowly avoiding the club which shattered the stone where she was standing.
"Go hide in the toilets!" Hailey ordered. "I'll try and distract it."
She crouched down and pulled out Kemp's knife while Hermione ran into the second cubicle and pulled out her wand.
Hailey jumped up and down and waved her hands above her head, trying to draw the troll's attention. "Over here, you stupid thing!"
The troll turned back around to face her and roared. Perhaps insulting it wasn't the best idea. Hailey didn't have any time to worry about that any further as the giant club was swung along the ground towards her. She teleported out of the way just in time, reappearing behind the troll. Holding her knife in a reverse grip, she swung it with all her strength at the right foot of the beast in what she guessed was the vulnerable part where it's tendons were.
The knife sliced cleanly through the flesh of the troll like a hot knife through butter. Dimly Hailey wondered how it could cut through the stone-like skin so easily, but the deafening howl of pain from the troll brought Hailey out of her musings. She withdrew the knife and backtracked as the troll stumbled around on its still bleeding leg. Hermione crawled under the cubicles, trying to reach the exit without drawing the troll's notice. She almost made it too, but the troll's wounded leg gave out, causing it to fall.
Right in Hermione's path.
It all happened too fast for Hailey to react. One minute the troll was falling, the next the wooden cubicles were crushed under the beast's weight, burying Hermione under a pile of debris. Hailey could hear a faint scream echoing through the room. It took her a moment to realise it was hers.
Hailey didn't know how long she stood there in shocked silence. It was probably only a few seconds, but to her it felt like a hundred years. The stirring of the troll brought her back to painful reality. Her vision went red again, and focused itself solely on the beast that had taken her closest friend away. She had never experienced this level of hatred and fury in her 11 years of life. It drowned everything out, even the seemingly bottomless pool of grief she felt.
As the troll stood wearily back on it's legs, Hailey screached with rage and charged at it, holding the crimson blade in front of her with murderous intent. If she had any capacity for focusing on anything but the endless expanse of rage inside her, she might have noticed two pairs of footsteps echoing through the corridor or even noticed something stir beneath the wooden fragments. But Hailey eyes were only seeing all the parts of the troll she could sink her knife into to avenge her fallen friend.
[Violent scene begins]
Hailey teleported the last few metres, appearing at the troll's left and stabbing the knife into its lower torso. She wrenched the knife out brutally and sunk it into the thigh before ducking to avoid it's grabbing hand and teleporting away for distance. The normally blue light was tinged with a crimson hue that made it look like an explosion of blood.
The troll heaved the club above its head, intending to crush her fragile bones beneath its weight. Hailey prepared to dodge, but as the troll brought it's hand down the club stayed where it was in the air. She watched as it levitated higher, positioning itself above the troll's head. Just as the troll looked stupidly up for it's club, gravity brought it back down onto the crown of its head. The force of the impact caused the troll to stumble again. It made the mistake of putting all its weight on its injured leg, which gave out again and caused the troll to collapse onto it's back, knocked out.
Hailey leapt at the opportunity. She teleported onto it's stomach and buried the now blood-stained knife into its neck. Blood spewed from its torn jugular and onto Hailey, but she was too far gone to care. Withdrawing the knife, she stabbed it into the troll's chest and began alternating between stabbing the torso, chest, neck and even the eyes of the troll repeatedly even as the gushing flow of blood became a gentle trickle as she tore into the beast's heart. Her hate-filled screamed turned into sobs of grief. Again and again, she cut deep into the chest of the troll, slicing through bones to tear into organs.
[Violent scene over]
Summary: Hailey attacks the troll after thinking Hermione died by teleporting and repeatedly stabbing it. Ron knocks it out with a Wingardium Leviosa charm on the club which Hailey uses as the opportunity to kill the troll.
"Hailey!" a single familiar female voice called out to her, piercing the fog of hatred and despair that clouded her mind.
She paused her vicious attack and turned to see Neville and Ron helping a struggling person out of a pile of debris. Her vision was clouded with hot tears and blood, but she recognised the familiar head of brown curly hair Neville was helping.
"Hermione! You're alive!" Hailey shouted with joy. She leapt off the troll to run towards the person she viewed as the sister she never had, but to her surprise they each took a wary step back.
It was then Hailey caught sight of herself in the reflection of a shattered mirror. Still fresh blood covered her arms and stained her uniform. Her pitch black hair was tangled and wild, she could see dried patches of blood staining that too and causing her hair to clump together. She still had her right hand clenched tightly around Kemp's bloodied knife in a backhand grip. Dried blood even caked the left side of her face, surrounding her eye. A coppery taste told her that some blood had managed to get into her mouth. The room wasn't in any better state. Most of the floor was now covered in blood and she could barely even recognise the body of the troll. It's chest was a mangled assortment of flesh and bone and it's neck was practically non-existent.
I look like a crazed lunatic, Hailey realised. She glanced back to the mutilated body of the troll. No, she realised, I am a crazed lunatic. Good God, what did I do? They're going to think I'm a monster now.
The adrenaline began to fade, leaving Hailey feeling weak and turning her limbs to jelly. She stepped back away from her trio of friends, trying to look as non-threatening as possible and give them space.
Ron was the first to recover from his shock.
"Bloody hell…" he whispered as his eyes darted from the corpse to Hailey's knife. Next to him, Neville looked like he was about to throw up.
"I'm sorry you three had to see that," Hailey apologised as she stowed the knife back in her robe without bothering to clean it. It's not like her robe could get any more blood-soaked. "I thought you were dead, Hermione. I just lost control of my rage. Again, I'm really sorry you three had to see me do that."
None of them said anything. It's not like there was anything they could say. They didn't look like they hated her, but the sight of this much blood was enough to make any eleven year old nauseous.
The sound of loud footsteps made the four of them look up. The teachers must have heard them. As if on cue, Professor McGonagall burst through the door with her wand held in her hand prepared to defend her students. She was followed closely by Snape and Quirrell.
"Merlin's beard, what happened here?" Professor McGonagall shouted as her eyes landed on what remained of the troll. She turned to see Hailey's blood-covered clothing. "Are you hurt?"
"No professor. It's the trolls blood," Hailey replied.
Snape bent over the troll's carcass. Even he seemed slightly unnerved. Quirrell had fainted the moment he saw the body.
"You did this?" Professor McGonagall asked.
Hailey shifted on her feet nervously but nodded.
"How… why aren't you in your dormitory?" she demanded with cold fury, trying to piece together how a tiny first year had killed a fully grown mountain troll.
"They were looking for me, Professor," Hermione said softly. All of the room's occupants spun around to look at her. Snape stood up from the troll carcass and gave her a piercing stare, like he was looking into her soul.
"I went looking for the troll because I thought I could beat it on my own, because I've read all about them."
When did Hermione get so good at lying? Hailey couldn't recall her ever telling a lie like this to anybody. She's playing to exactly how the teachers perceive her to make the lie more believable.
"If they hadn't found me, I'd be dead now. Ron used a Wingardium Leviosa charm to knock it out with its own club and Hailey killed it with accidental magic when she thought the troll had crushed me. Neville pulled me from the debris over there. They didn't have time to fetch anybody, if they did I would be dead."
"Well- in that case…" Professor McGonagall began, staring down the four of them. "Miss Granger, you foolish girl, why did you think you were capable of defeating a mountain troll on your own?"
Hailey didn't think it was the right time to point out that she had defeated a mountain troll on her own.
"Twenty points will be taken from Gryffindor for this. I'm very disappointed in you," she continued before turning to Hailey, Ron and Neville. "You three were very lucky, not many first-years could have survived a full-grown mountain troll. I'm awarding you each five points. For sheer dumb luck. If none of you are injured, you should go back to your house."
None of them wanted to stay around any longer for the teachers to further question their story. Hailey was just glad nobody realised that she'd brutalised a troll. Well except her three compatriots. Even as they were leaving she noticed they kept a wide berth from her. Though, she reasoned, that might just be because she was covered in sticky troll blood. It smelt nearly as bad as Lawrence's pocket dimension. She was definitely burning this pair of robes.
"Oh Hailey, can you stay behind," Professor McGonagall said just as she stepped out through the ruined door.
Hailey paused and contemplated pretending she hadn't heard her, but she eventually decided to face her. It's not like they could punish her for self-defense, right? She waved her friends on and
"I don't know what happened here or how you somehow managed to kill a fully grown mountain troll and walk away unscathed," Professor McGonagall began, looking down at Hailey over her glasses with cold fury. "But I don't buy Hermione's story of accidental magic."
Hailey opened her mouth to speak but Snape silenced her with a hand gesture.
"Save it. Your hands are covered in blood and the wounds on the trolls leg are too precise to be the product of accidental magic. I only know of a few spells that could do this kind of damage, and none of them are things a first year should know."
"We can't fault you for using self-defense, Miss Potter," Professor McGonagall said. "But if I ever hear that you used this magic on another creature or heavens forbid a student, expulsion will be the least of your worries. Professor Dumbledore will hear about this. Now, go back to your house."
Hailey left without saying a word, eager to get out of the room. None of them seemed to consider the possibility that she hadn't used magic to kill the troll. But she wasn't about to tell them she carried a weapon on school grounds.
"Oh before you go, I advise you to take a shower before you go into the common room. A long one. Troll blood stains the skin if you leave it for too long."
She glanced down at the dried blood that stained her robes and skin. "Duly noted, Professor McGonagall."
A/N: A slightly disturbing chapter, I know, but I did say Hailey has a serious dark side. Which manifests itself as a tendency towards extreme violence and sadism. Canon Harry could get angry enough to cast the cruciatus curse on somebody, fanfic Hailey has the Foundation-borne lack of empathy to add onto her natural rage. Please tell me if you think this story is getting too dark, I'll try to not give off the impression that Hailey is a complete psychopath.
So Ron and Hermione are friends earlier than in canon. I really liked their relationship in the later books, and I want to show how it is different with the infamous Wingardium Leviosa scene. Hermione is fine with Ron taking the glory and Ron respects and appreciates her knowledge. Ron x Hermione is the endgame pairing for those two characters, but not for a long time since I'm not comfortable with writing romance between eleven year olds. Besides occasional hints and awkward tween stuff.
Also, since this is the first chapter at Hogwarts since I decided I was going to be shortening scenes that follow canon identically I just summarised Harry's first Quidditch lesson.
Guest: The Foundation reacted the way they did because Ron and Neville were wizards. A wizard is a way bigger security risk than a normal human. Wizards have things like pensives, legitimacy and fidelius charms. It's not enough to administer amestics to a wizard, you also have to make sure nobody else read their mind between now and when you wipe them. What if they've stored their memories in a pensive and then place that pensive in an untraceable location? Reasonably the Foundation shouldn't have been too worried about two eleven year old children, but protocol for Wizards is very different that for normal people.
Yukine-Ren: Yeah SCP-999 is easily one of the cutest anomalies. Hope this chapter is to your liking. I tried to thicken the plot a bit, there's even a few hints into how Hailey's power works. And her seemingly normal knife that is somehow capable of cutting through bone.