“Hey, Aunt Petunia!”
Petunia Dursley looked up at her name. “Ahh, Hailey!” She glanced down the crowded platform; she’d come to meet her adopted daughter on Platform Nine and Three Quarters.
Hailey trotted up to her, one arm around an unfamiliar girl some three years her junior. “Where’s Vernon?” she asked, looking around curiously.
“He can’t enter the Platform,” she told her, refraining from hugging her. She didn’t want to disrupt whatever was going on with the smaller girl.
“He can’t? Why not?”
“A muggle can only come here if we’ve already been brought in the first time by a witch or wizard.”
“Oh, so it’s like the Leaky Cauldron, isn’t it?” she sighed. “Annoying. Anyways, this is Sadarina- do you think she can stay with us over the summer, or no?”
“Sadarina?” she asked, tilting her head. “Is she… a friend?”
Hailey wordlessly handed her a newspaper. It looked like an old one… Yes, it was the Evening Prophet, dated September 1st. The headline was World’s Strongest Patronus on the Hogwarts Express.
She nodded slowly. “She… did this?” she asked, curiously.
“Oh, no,” Hailey said. “I did. She’s the dementor.”
She blinked, looking up at Hailey. “She… She is?”
She nodded. “Yes. Turns out wizardkind was wrong about them- they’re no less people than you or I, they were just… well, struggling.” She shrugged, and held out another newspaper. “This fixed it, though.”
She accepted it, and glanced down. It was a much more recent edition of the Daily Prophet, just a few weeks before. Angel Saves Lives with the Goddess of Patroni! She sighed. “Okay,” she muttered, not examining the story just yet; she had a sneaking suspicion she already knew what it was talking about. “We can do that.” She paused, and scowled. “Though your Aunt Marge is planning on visiting soon…?”
Hailey rubbed her chin, a mischievous glint in her eyes. “That should be fun,” she mused. “Sadarina’s a quiet one, but she’s also very smart- you’ll like her- and she can take care of herself pretty well, to boot.”
Sadarina smiled softly.
“She can… take care of herself?” she asked.
Hailey smiled amusedly, and nodded. “Yeah. She’s like me- stronger than she looks.”
She let out a snort to match Sadarina’s giggle. “Any news on Black?” she began.
“He’s innocent,” Sadarina said instantly, face suddenly straight.
Hailey smiled. “It turns out he’s also my godfather,” she said. “As she says, he’s innocent; we caught Peter last week, who framed him. He’s lying low for now, while Rita and them bring the public around.”
“Rita?” Petunia asked, curiously.
“Rita Skeeter,” she nodded. “She wrote those articles.”
Lucius Malfoy sighed, looking around his opulent ballroom. It was crowded with nobles, as usual on Drac- no, Silversong’s- birthday. It was especially important for him to remember that difference, now that Draco had ostensibly fallen down the stairs and broken his neck. They had then adopted Silversong, Draco’s homeless friend that just happened to share his birthday, to honor his memory… and of course, to fill the gap left by his disappearance. Where Dra-Silversong’s friend Hailey had managed to procure a body, he had no idea. It even had a broken neck, and multiple other injuries from falling down the stairs!
Speaking of Hailey. The rumors made her out to be some kind of super-auror- but the first word that came to his mind to describe her was loveable, not unstoppable. She was young, cheerful, and confident; she had none of the ‘toughness aura’ that anyone else with her purported abilities would have. He liked her; whenever some noble asked her where her parents were, or who her parents were, or even what her last name was (he knew it was Potter, but nobody else seemed to), she would merely smile amusedly and ignore the question. Her friend Sadarina, who followed her around like a daughter, wasn’t nearly as active as Hailey; she answered most questions with a polite smile.
Silversong was having fun. Her nervousness had gone away over the school year, and she also had a certain confidence about her that she’d never had before, but she was still wary of the nobles- while Hailey was utterly fearless. A couple of their other friends had also come- but none of them were nearly as brave as those three.
Hermione Granger- who he knew was a muggleborn- only really entered the ballroom when Hailey was with her, almost like Hailey was her shield in a very scary environment. Ronald Weasley had politely declined to attend, but Ginny and Ariel Weasley had come. They had yet to reveal their names to any of the nobles, evidently afraid of what they might do if they realized a Weasley was attending a Malfoy party, and they also evidently had a vulnerable-and-shield dynamic. Ariel wasn’t as fearless as Hailey, but she didn’t seem to be afraid- while Ginny wouldn’t go anywhere without her, and often followed her lead.
Then the fun part. As a rare treat, high-ranking Ministry officials such as Amelia Bones and Cornelius Fudge were attending, though the mischievous glint in Amelia’s eyes put him on edge. And she kept peeking over her goblet at Yaxley- who just about everyone knew had been hiding from her ever since Sirius Black- who was also present, watching amusedly from a corner- had been let off.
And even rarer was Rita Skeeter, flitting around the room and enjoying the refreshments, though more than once he’d spotted a quill. Rita, like him, seemed to be eying Yaxley and Amelia quite a bit.
Even the other nobles seemed to feel the steadily rising energy in the air, like something was about to go down, but none of them seemed to have a clue where it might be coming from. Yaxley in particular had gotten into a few different arguments already- and amusingly, Silversong or one of her friends had been around to break up each one so far.
The first one had been broken up by Silver herself, by walking right in between them and asking what they were talking about, all polite and everything. They’d been so baffled the argument had faltered and disappeared right away.
The second one had been… He wasn’t sure exactly who it had been, actually. However, Morning Sun had been watching so amusedly from so close by that he rather suspected it was she that had upturned the punch bowl on their heads.
The third had been stopped by Sadarina, by walking between the two and just staring at them. Her unwavering regard was unbelievably unsettling, even when she didn’t say anything.
The fourth had been Hailey, who had dragged Sirius Black away from an argument with Lady Rowle by his ear so she could remind him not to make trouble for Silver on her birthday.
And now, it looked like it was his turn. Yaxley had approached Amelia, and was accusing her of a vendetta against him.
He sighed, picked up the nearest dish, and approached.
“I do not have a vendetta against you,” Amelia reminded Yaxley once again.
Yaxley swelled with rage. “Of course you do! You’ve been hunting for me left and right!”
“If I have,” Amelia answered calmly, “it’s been because a dozen different aurors have inspected the wardings around your house, and found that they violate about thirty-seven different laws.”
“You dare implic-!”
“Ladies, ladies,” Lucius interrupted loudly, and stuffed the platter square in between their noses. “Sweet potatoes?”
“Those are russet potatoes,” Amelia observed promptly.
He glanced down at the plate of baked potatoes. “So they are,” he agreed, without any idea what a ‘russet potato’ was.
Yaxley turned on him. “Who are you calling a lady?” he demanded.
“Well, you’re acting like an old lady,” he told Yaxley calmly, his wand hand hovering next to the pocket concealing his wand; he had offered the dish with his off-hand, despite hoping to avoid a conflict.
Yaxley was faster than he. Even Amelia wasn’t as fast- Yaxley had always been one of the faster death-eaters.
BANG.
Yaxley hadn’t even finished drawing his wand when he was already lying on the floor in front of them, his wand spinning in the air.
Then Hailey leaned over his head, pocketing her wand. “Not now, dumbass,” she told him, catching his wand almost casually with her off hand, before she stepped over him. “I’ll take some potatoes, thank you.” She smiled as she picked a baked potato from the platter.
Meanwhile, Yaxley rose to his feet, drew back, and aimed a punch at the back of her head.
“Lookout!” Lucius cried, while Amelia drew her wand- but too late. His punch connected.
There was a sharp crunching noise. Hailey didn’t even flinch, while Yaxley hopped backwards in impotent rage, clutching at his injured hand.
Hailey turned to look at him curiously. “I’m sorry,” she began, before taking a great big bite of the potato in her hand. “Did you say something, My Lady?”
The insult, in her words, her speaking with a full mouth, and her tone, all felt deliberate. Amelia simply stared, while Lucius did his best not to.
Yaxley seemed to decide to try his luck elsewhere, turned, and tried to march imperiously away- except that he promptly face-planted the ground, having tripped over Sadarina’s outstretched leg. Sadarina’s malicious smile as he landed on his injured hand and then broke his nose was quite telling what she thought of him. “Get up,” she commanded him, as if to put the icing on the cake. “And don’t stain the tile.”
Finally he scrambled up, gave them all a glare, then ran past Rita Skeeter, who had both a quill and a notepad this time, and disappeared.
Lucius’ curiosity got the better of him. “What’d he do?” he asked.
Hailey swallowed her mouthful of potato. “Did you hear how badly he cut Amelia up?”
He blinked. “That was him?”
She nodded silently.
“How do you know?” Amelia asked, her head tilted.
She shrugged. “Sadarina told me. And any enemy of my daughter’s family is my enemy as well.”
“Your daughter’s?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.
Hailey put her arm around Sadarina. “Not biologically, of course, but legally, Sadarina here is my daughter.” She smiled. “Wouldn’t have it any other way.”
“Oh my,” Amelia muttered, smiling. “You’re quite the protective mother, aren’t you?”
She chuckled. “It’s a world of life and death, and I’m invulnerable.” She shrugged. “It only makes sense.”
“Uh- Aunt Petunia?”
Petunia Dursley looked up.
Aunt Marge was sleeping in the guestroom, Dudley was snoring loudly, and Vernon… Well, he hardly snored at all, but he was sleeping just as soundly as Dudley. She was in the middle of her OCD-induced bleach-infused midnight wipedown of all the kitchen surfaces.
And Hailey, her invulnerable, indomitable daughter, who had destroyed Voldemort and routinely laughed in the face of danger, was standing in the doorway, looking scared.
“H-Hailey!” she gasped, dropping her tools right where they were, stripping off her gloves, and dashing forwards to wrap her arms around the girl. “What’s wrong?”
“I- I think I’m bleeding,” she answered, softly.
“Bleeding?” she asked. “How?”
She shook her head. “I… I felt a bit funny, so I went to the bathroom, and… And it was blood.”
She blinked. “... Oh. You don’t… happen to be on your period, do you?”
“What period?”
“Hermione?”
Hermione looked up as she entered the kitchen for breakfast. “Mm?”
“Phone for you,” Dan Granger continued, offering her the handset.
She accepted it. “Oh…kay.” She put it to her ear. “Hello?”
“Hermione?” It was Hailey, through the phone.
“Yes Hailey?” she asked.
“Do you have a menstrual cycle?”
She blinked. She could feel the heat rushing to her face. “Wh- Why would you ask that!?” she half-shrieked, earning stares from her parents.
“Because apparently I have one, and it’s… weird.”
She rolled her eyes. “Of course you do. It’s a natural part of how your body works.” She sighed. “You don’t need help with it, do you?”
“Oh, no, Aunt Petunia helped me with it, I just…” Hailey sighed too. “She thinks Madam Malkin’s underwear probably masks its effects by magic. Even the bleedy ones.”
She blinked. “Huh. Maybe that’s why nobody at Hogwarts ever seems to need feminine products?”
Hailey’s voice suddenly gained a mischievous edge. “Do you think Silver knows?”
She promptly made both her parents jump by bursting into laughter.