The Exchange – The Long and Tedious Search
Haley awoke the next day with a mission in mind. She had to retrace her steps in order to find her missing necklace. It was the last day of the year and she was convinced that it would be found before the day was through.
'I just hope no one took it cause then I'll never get it back… or at least not without using any persuasion… maybe even force.' But if it meant getting her necklace back, she'd do it. She had already made up her mind on that.
"Okay," Haley thought aloud. "Yesterday, I woke up, got dressed and went to the great hall. I'll start there."
She did as planned and walked slowly to the great hall, making sure to watch the ground for any glints of gold she might walk by. Blaise spotted her moving one step at a time as if she were on a balance beam. Amused, Blaise came up behind the girl and mimicked her motions as if they were in a line.
"Mind telling me what we're doing?" Blaise mused, still following the girl.
Haley snapped out of her stupor and turned around to see Blaise. "Oh. Hello."
He smiled at his friend. "Hello, yourself."
"I…am retracing my steps."
"Why, may I ask, are you retracing your steps?"
"I lost my necklace and I'm on a mission to find it today."
"You mean the one you got from Draco?"
"Yes."
"That's not it around your neck?"
"Of course not. I'm not the type of person who looks for their glasses while they're sitting on top of my head."
"Well, I don't know. You could be."
"Anyway, this is just a temporary necklace he gave me. That is until I find my actual one."
"Ah. I see… Care for another set of eyes, then?"
"Sure! That would be brilliant."
And so, the two slowly made their way to the great hall. Haley walked past the other houses' seats and came up to her usual spot at the Slytherin table. She looked around and under the bench, getting on all fours just to be efficient. Blaise followed suit, making it quite an interesting sight to see two seventh year students on their hands and knees crawling around the floor.
At least it was rather strange to Pansy when she approached the table for breakfast. She got down on her hands and knees as well near Blaise.
"What's all this?" She whispered to the boy.
"We're looking for Harry's necklace," he whispered back. "Care to join us?"
"Sure, okay."
So all three friends were on the floor searching for Haley's missing necklace. However, it was nowhere to be seen in the great hall. Haley sighed and stood back up. Blaise and Pansy, too, decided to get up off the floors as well.
"Oh. Pansy. I didn't know you were here." Haley blinked.
"Well here I am, at your service."
The taller girl smiled. "Right. Thank you."
"So where now?" Blaise asked.
"Well… after I had breakfast here, I went to the library to work on some of my assignments." Haley replied, thinking hard about yesterday's events.
"To the library it is." Pansy said, encouraging the other girl to lead the way.
The three friends walked slowly to the library, one right after the other in a line, constantly looking from side to side. Haley led them to the area where she had been studying. They circled the table twice before accepting that fact that the necklace was not there.
The next place to look was the common room. So again, the three friends walked in necklace-searching line until they reached the Slytherin dorms. They carefully looked all around the room, leaving no cushion left unturned except for the ones they replaced once they were sure the necklace was not to be found there. So when Ethan finally came down from his dorm, the sight was a rather curious one indeed.
"Uh… hey guys." Ethan started.
"Quit standing there and help us." Pansy frowned.
"What she means to say, mate," Blaise jumped in before the other boy could retort, "is that we're looking for Haley's necklace. You know, the gold one with the ruby. She lost it so we're helping her look for it. Join us?"
In his ever-present nonchalant manner, Ethan shrugged before going down on all fours to look underneath one of the couches. Together they searched, earning confused glances from anyone that walked by. Haley didn't even notice the addition to her party until she spotted him on the floor nearby.
"Oh. Ethan. Are you looking for something?" Haley asked.
"Yeah. Your necklace."
"What? Really?"
The boy simply nodded.
That's when Haley stood and looked around the room. Ethan continued searching nearby while Blaise was looking near one of the fireplaces and Pansy was trotting down the stairs to the girls' dorms having looked in her room and around the staircase. A grin grew upon Haley's lips as a case of giggles began to consume her. Soon enough, she was straight out laughing at the situation. Her three friends looked at her curiously and momentarily stopped their search.
"And what, pray tell, is so funny all of a sudden?" Blaise asked, crossing his arms over his chest.
"You are," Haley admitted, calming her fit. "You guys don't have to do this. It's a Saturday and the holidays are almost up. I'm sure there are other things you'd rather be doing."
"Not really," Ethan shrugged. "All my homework is done…"
"Mine too," Pansy added. "And since I already said I'd help you yesterday, I didn't really plan on doing much today anyway."
"And it's either sit here and be bored or help you," Blaise finished. "Face it, mate. You're stuck with us."
"All right, I guess. But feel free to take off whenever you want," Haley explained. "You guys don't have to do this and I'm not about to make you either."
"Sounds good enough to me," Blaise shrugged.
"So where to now?" asked Pansy.
"Let's see… after I came here, I went to my room and then you showed up and picked out clothes… and then we went to the Divination classroom."
"Okay, let's go."
Once again, the train of friends left the common room and searched the halls all the way up to the Divination room. Once they realized it wasn't there either, their next stop was the Hospital Wing. On seeing the visitors, Madame Pomfrey immediately frowned and told them all to leave, as Leir was still in the room. Haley then explained their search and the nurse agreed to do the search herself while the four Slytherins kept searching around the area. Unfortunately, the search turned up with no results.
"Don't fret. There're a bunch of other places we haven't looked," Blaise consoled, placing a hand upon Haley's shoulder.
"Oh Mis…s Jones…" Madame Pomfrey started, glimpsing at the other three.
Haley looked over her shoulders at her friends and then back at the older woman. "Oh don't worry about it. All three of them already know."
"Do they?"
And as if they had rehearsed the notion, all three pointed to the fourth and simply stated, "Harry Potter."
Haley just looked at them somewhat befuddled and amused.
The nurse carried on. "Mister Valex will be leaving for home today. I just thought you'd like to know."
"Good. The further away he is from me, the better. For his sake," she said with a sneer.
Blaise and Ethan just smiled to each other and began rubbing their knuckles again. At this, Madame Pomfrey frowned and politely asked them to move along. She didn't need to waste any more time healing the young man in her ward.
It was well into the afternoon by then, and all four friends went to grab a snack in the kitchens, which was another location Haley thought to search. She took the opportunity to ask Dobby about the necklace, and much to her disappointment, neither Dobby nor any of the other house elves stumbled upon the trinket, although he did promise to keep an eye out for his dear Harry Potter.
"So where do we look now?" Pansy asked.
"I don't know… that's pretty much all the places I've been… other than Gryffindor tower. And that's not exactly and accessible place right now. I'll just ask Ron and Hermione to help with that one." Haley frowned. "Do think someone might've picked it up and kept it?"
"Maybe…" Blaise thought aloud. "I mean, it was a nice necklace. They could probably get a pretty sum out of it."
"You really think someone would do that?" Pansy glowered.
"You never know…" Ethan piped. "Some people are pretty desperate. They're not all rich like you folk."
These thoughts were quickly dashing Haley's hope in finding her necklace. She slumped her shoulders and exhaled. "Well thanks for your help, you guys. I really appreciate it even though it was all for naught."
"Think nothing of it, mate," Blaise said, throwing an arm around her shoulders. "You would've helped us had we lost anything, right?"
"Of course."
"Anyway, I'm sure it'll turn up eventually."
She smiled at her friends, glad to have their support. "So what should we do now?"
Blaise looked between his friends with a wicked smile on his face. He moved his hand so that he was clutching Haley's shoulder. "Tag! You're it!" And in a flash, the boy dashed away.
Haley blinked. 'Tag…?' She looked at an equally confused Ethan and Pansy. But once all three of them snapped out of their temporary stupors, both Ethan and Pansy dodged Haley's extended hands, grins on their faces. They ran from the girl as they all embraced their inner child for an afternoon of play.
---
Draco Malfoy hated the cold. He downright despised it. And yet, despite himself, he was wandering around outside with a goal in mind. He had respected Haley's need to avoid him by forcing himself not to avidly pursue the girl. Instead, he conducted his own search for the very same necklace. He had spotted the other four walking in a strange line as their eyes darted from side to side. It didn't take him long to figure out what they were doing. Wanting to help, but also wanting to keep his distance, Draco thought of where the girl might've gone within the past few days. This was rather hard seeing as she had been avoiding him most of that time. He searched here and there around the castle, but it wasn't until later in the afternoon that he thought of the incident with the badger. It was then, despite his dislike for the cold, that Draco decided to look outside.
He found himself copying the slow walk that the other four had conducted indoors. Looking from side-to-side, watching for any type of glint with his Seeker skills, Draco proceeded slowly towards the greenhouse. He even found himself kicking aside some snow whenever something caught his eye, even going so far as to dig with his hands. Feeling a chill run down his spine, he sought the warmth of the greenhouse and quickly went in. He warmed his bones for a minute before continuing his search around the room. He briefly remembered what it was like seeing Valex straddling the paralyzed girl. If he hadn't been more worried about Harry than he had been furious with Leir, Draco was sure he would've done some serious damage to the Hufflepuff. No one touched his Harry like that and gets away with it.
He refocused himself on the task at hand. Looking around all the plants and on the floor, Draco came up short, much to his dismay. He resigned himself and stepped back out into the cold. The chill immediately overtook him again as Draco emitted a rather vigorous sneeze.
'Ugh… I think I'm getting sick again… Damn…' He dropped his head and removed his glove to feel his forehead. Sure enough, he felt warmer than usual. That's when something in the snow caught his eye. Not a glint of gold, rather a shine of something red. Suddenly disregarding his wavering health, Draco dropped to his knees and dug through the snow.
He smiled.
He found it.
---
Haley gasped as a wave of water engulfed her entire frame. "Are you mad?! It's freezing!!" She spun around, angrily, soaked to the core. "Who's bright idea what it to use magic in this stupid game anyway?!"
Blaise popped out from behind a corner he had just ducked past. "That would be Ethan's fault!"
"That's not true!" The other boy growled from behind a suit of armor. "You threw a book at me! You cheated!"
Blaise just laughed. "Yeah, but you retaliated with your wand! Therefore, you started i-"
"Rictusempra!"
Blaise went flying to the air, landing softly but cursed with a fit of laughter. "H-h-hey! Haha!"
Haley stood over the boy, frowning. "I agree with Ethan. You can't throw books in Tag, Blaise. That's cheating."
"O-haha! Okay-haha! Enou-haha, enough!"
"Finite Incantatem."
Blaise stopped laughing, but a genuine smile remained on his face. "Hey… where's Pansy?"
"You bound her, remember?" Haley commented, wiping her eyes with her hands. "She's stuck over by the statue."
"Oh right! Shit!" Blaise quickly stood and ran over to where he left the girl.
Ethan and Haley both stood where they were. Haley was still dripping with water while Ethan took this time to fix his now shredded shoes that Pansy had severed with a charm.
"Ugh. I'm going back to the common room," Haley frowned.
"I'm right behind you." Ethan followed. "All this running around is exhausting."
As the two entered the dorms, Ethan dropped into an armchair by Haley's room while Haley went in to go change. Soon after, a disgruntled Pansy, followed by a jovial Blaise, came into the room and sat with Ethan. After she had finished changing and towel-drying her hair, Haley joined her friends.
"That was fun," Blaise smiled, content.
"Yeah, until you threw a bloody book at me." Ethan frowned.
"Where did you get a book anyway?" Haley asked, cocking an eyebrow.
"Someone second-year was walking past…"
"So you took a book from a second-year to throw it at Maxwell?" Pansy shook her head. "Unbelievable."
Despite herself, Haley couldn't help but laugh. After a few moments, the other three joined in harmoniously. Even though their search came up short, the day had truly been fun. It was somewhat bittersweet though, knowing that it was soon time for Haley to leave. They weren't exactly sure what would happen when she would turn back into Harry, but they were hopeful that a day such as this would come once again as long as their friendship stayed true. None of the four had any intentions of betraying it.
Haley sighed. "I guess I should start packing…"
She didn't move from her seat, though. They were solemn.
Then, Pansy looked over to her friend and got up. "I'll help."
"Me too."
"Yeah… me too."
Haley looked around. She knew arguing was futile when they clearly already had their minds set. So she just smiled at each of them, a warmth coming from within her. "Thanks."
She was grateful for their friendship, not worried a bit that it would falter once she made the change. So, in a line, they made their way to Haley's room to help her with the inevitable.
Author's Note/Disclaimer: I own naught the Harry Potter characters, but instead the characters Maxwell, Valex, Mavillian, and McClarin. Yes. And this story. Yes.
WOW. I'm on a roll! But perhaps that's partly because these are short? Maybe. But in any case, this is where I'll pause. The next one is longer, I promise!I wasn't so sure if I wanted to upload so closely together since I had finished this bit last night (or early this morning, depending on how you look at it), but I figured, ah well. The ones who already read it are already waiting. So for you eager beavers, I hope you enjoyed your less than 24-hr update. I heart you all.
P.S. For the people who like to read these footnotes for the off chance that I might spill what happens next, I won't. But I'll have you know that more Draco/Haley banter ensues. Yes. Oh and for all those other other people who are anxiously waiting for Haley's change, hold on! You're almost there! I'm almost as anxious as you are especially since I already know what's gonna happen! Le gasp! Man… a P.S. shouldn't be longer than the actual note, right? Oh well. Last thing! DON'T THROW BOOKS AT PEOPLE! They hurt! Okay bye.