It was while they were in the apothecary, getting Hailey’s potion-making kit, that it crossed Ginny’s mind that it must all be a dream. If so, it was a surprisingly long dream. There was no other explanation for just how calming and safe Hailey felt- it easily fell under the heading of ‘miracle’, nevermind everything that had happened in Gringotts or the miraculous way she’d turned Draco Malfoy around.
So yes… it had to be a dream. She must have been so scared by being in the most vulnerable stage of her reincarnation- perhaps she was still in bed, perhaps she’d passed out in the Cauldron, she rather doubted she’d dreamed that terror- that she dreamed up a miracle.
And that wasn’t counting the fact that everything Hailey bought seemed to disappear into thin air whenever she wasn’t looking. Robes, cauldron, parchment and quills, trunk, everything.
That was the kind of thing that would only ever happen in a dream.
Yet… somehow, she didn’t quite believe it. It felt too real to be a dream.
So what was it? Was it real, or was it a dream?
She became certain that it was real when they finally reached Eeylops Owl Emporium. There was a girl there, looking around at the owls. She was one of the- what had Malkin and Malfoy called them? Colorheads? It still amused her that they seemed to think that she was one as well, rather than a Weasley.
This girl, though, there was no question. Her candyfloss hair was long enough for her to sit on, nevermind that it was striped a muted bubblegum pink and a dark, desaturated blue. On top of that, she practically oozed confidence- but not the same safety thing as Hailey did- and was already wearing her Hogwarts robes. As a result, even when Ginny was standing next to Hailey, or even behind her, and not using her psionic senses at all, this girl scared her.
Not Hailey, though. If anything, Hailey seemed to perk up with amusement when she saw her, before walking straight forward to strike up a conversation. “Good morning, Bonbon, long time no see,” she began, offering a hand to shake. “How’s it been?”
As she spoke, Ginny moved to hide behind Petunia instead.
The girl looked utterly confused, and definitely flustered by the greeting. “Wh-What?” she stuttered, staring at Hailey in alarm. “How do you know my name?”
“You’re wearing your uniform,” Hailey answered softly.
The girl looked down, at where the gleaming silver nameplate was attached to her robes, right across her left breast… or at least where it would be, as it looked like she wasn’t old enough to have them just yet- just like Ginny. It reminded her of her first time at Hogwarts as Tom Riddle, when she’d observed that in order to read an upper-year girl’s nameplate, you had to ogle her breasts. It was… nonoptimal, to put it nicely. It conveniently explained why padded bras had become a part of the girl’s uniform in the time since, as she’d found out before they’d left Madam Malkin’s… though it looked like they hadn’t repositioned the offensive nameplate.
Exactly as Hailey had suggested, this girl’s nameplate declared her to be Bonbon. No surname, just Bonbon.
Finally, Bonbon sighed. “Oh, alright,” she conceded. “You got me. But why… ‘long time no see’?”
“Well, ‘never’ is quite a long time, isn’t it?” Hailey asked playfully.
Bonbon laughed. It sounded strange, like she wasn’t used to laughing. “Good one, Hailey. Anyways, I was thinking about getting an owl- apparently, they carry mail. How about you?”
Hailey’s voice was suddenly a lot more impassive. “I think I’m going to turn your question back to you,” she told her calmly. “How do you know my name? I’m not wearing a nametag, and I never told you what it was.”
“Uh-!” Bonbon looked distinctly uncomfortable. “It was kinda hard to forget after Ginny attacked her mother earlier.”
Hailey smiled. “My name never came up in the conversation after that event,” she informed Bonbon calmly.
She was looking very uncomfortable now. “Um-!”
“Was it because you were watching when it came up in Scribulus’ Writing Instruments?” Hailey asked light-heartedly, but Ginny could still hear the hard edge in her voice.
“Uh-!”
“Was it because you were watching when I asked Ginny if she wanted an ice cream? Was it because you were watching when it came up in the apothecary?”
Bonbon blushed and averted her eyes.
“Okay how are you doing that?”
Ginny jumped. She hadn’t even noticed the other girl in the room… possibly because she blended in so well? Her dark grey hair wasn’t quite long enough to sit on, and was covering something purple on the back of her light grey jacket. She was also, Ginny noticed, staring at Hailey in wonder, even as she asked the question.
Hailey looked. “Doing what?” she asked curiously.
“You just made The Bonbon laugh and blush. How?”
“The Bonbon,” Hailey repeated back at her, her expression turning it into a question.
“Back in P-!” The girl froze, looking suddenly nervous, then forcibly relaxed herself. “Back where we’re from,” she corrected herself, “Bonbon has always been the most stoic person anyone’s ever seen. Never laughing, never showing any emotion. There were actually quite a few competitions to that end across… the country, I heard. So how are you getting her to do that?”
“Well you just watched the whole thing, didn’t you?”
“Yes.”
“Then you already know.”
“...Yes, but how?”
She shrugged. “It probably wouldn’t have been nearly so effective if I hadn’t been a complete stranger.”
“Probably, yeah,” Bonbon agreed suddenly.
Hailey turned straight to her. “So who are you?”
“I’m Bonbon,” she answered instantly.
“You know that’s not what I’m asking for.”
“It’s not?”
“You were watching when we were in Madam Malkin’s, weren’t you?”
There was silence for about three seconds.
“A very observant girl,” Bonbon finally stated. “And I was people-watching.”
“That time,” Hailey observed.
“... That time,” Bonbon agreed slowly, averting her eyes again.
The grey-haired girl laughed, then stepped over to offer her hand. “I’m a cellist,” she greeted, then smiled. “The name’s Octavia Melody, by the way.”
Hailey laughed and shook her hand. “A girl with good memory,” she answered. “Also known as Hailey.”
“Very good memory,” Bonbon observed bluntly.
Hailey smiled at her, then looked around at the owls and changed the subject, glancing between the two girls and the shopkeeper. “So, um, is there a difference between the different kinds of owls beyond their appearance?”
The aging shopkeeper- Mr. Eeylops, presumably- glanced up as Octavia accepted her wrapped packages- apparently, she was just finishing her trip to the shop- and headed for the door with her eagle owl. “Uh- Not per breed, no, though each owl will have its own unique personality. Larger owls are most often better suited to larger, more frequent, or longer-distance packages than smaller owls.” He paused. “Though there are a lot of packages that simply can’t be shipped by owl.”
“Packages?” Hailey asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Ah, yes. I’m using it as an umbrella term to describe anything that can be shipped by owl, from letters to small packages. Generally speaking, any owl will be able to take a normal-sized letter a few towns away every day without issue.”
“Interesting,” Hailey mused, looking up at the owls in their cages, arrayed all up the walls. “Hmm… I like that snowy one there.” She pointed.
He drew and waved his wand, causing the snowy owl’s cage to fly off the wall and float gently down to the counter. The snowy owl inside lifted its head from under a wing, then straightened up and ruffled its wings importantly.
“You have a good eye, young lady,” he informed her. “This female is particularly strong- she should have no problem with long, frequent journeys, though be wary she still can tire out if you push her too hard.”
“Nice,” Hailey observed, smiling at the owl. “What’s the price?”
“Every owl is exactly one galleon,” he informed her proudly. “You’ll probably waaaAAAGHH!”
He wasn’t the only one to react like that when a sudden burst of flames appeared in mid-air about three feet away from Hailey’s head.
Hailey whipped backwards, to the end of the counter where Petunia was waiting, with inhuman speed, simultaneously turning to face the sudden fireball. Petunia let out a gasp and jumped backwards- and Ginny teleported a few feet backwards to avoid getting trampled. Bonbon also flinched, her gaze whipping down from where she’d been browsing the owls herself.
Eeylops was easily the most pronounced reaction, though. He leaped backwards so violently that he crashed straight into the back wall of his shop- and it was a good thing, Ginny figured, that it was a blank wall, with nothing to injure himself on.
Then the flames resolved themselves… and Ginny saw the cause of the commotion.
A phoenix.
It crooned as it flew through the air, swooping directly towards Hailey… who extended an arm for it to land on.
“Well hello there,” Hailey said calmly, once it had landed on her outstretched arm. “You’re not here to pluck my eyes out, are you?”
The phoenix gave her a reproachful look.
Hailey laughed. “Didn’t think so. So who are you?”
It trilled at her.
“Okay,” Hailey nodded, “though I was actually wondering about your name.”
The phoenix looked surprised, and trilled again- though it sounded different.
“Hmm,” Hailey muttered, rubbing her chin with her free hand. “How about… Philomena?”
The bird trilled a third time, looking pleased.
Hailey chuckled. “I’m glad you like it.”
“Are you talking to it?” Bonbon asked.
Hailey looked. “Yes, I’m talking to her. How about you?”
Bonbon chuckled. “Well, most of us can’t talk to birds, so…”
“She’s not just any bird,” Hailey informed them wryly. “She’s a phoenix.”
“Y-Yes,” Eeylops stuttered, peeling himself off the back wall. “A phoenix. Extremely faithful pets… for those they bond with, at any rate. They’re also highly independent, and can travel by phoenix fire… as she just demonstrated.” He sighed, returning to the counter. “Sorry about that. Ever since I got her in a month ago, she’s been enjoying scaring people.”
Hailey raised an eyebrow. “So… highly independent, yet willing to submit to being held in a shop for sale?”
The phoenix trilled calmly.
She looked at it. “And I’ve been washing dishes,” she deadpanned.
The phoenix trilled with unmistakable laughter.
Eeylops chuckled nervously. “Er, in case you’re wondering, it’s not unusual for a phoenix and its master to be able to understand each other. I think.”
“Master?” Hailey asked, looking at him. “Are you sure that’s the right term?”
“No,” he answered shortly. “I’m absolutely certain it’s the wrong one. But it’s the one the Ministry assigned to it, so it’s the official term that people will actually understand.”
“Of course they’ll only understand the wrong term,” Hailey observed. “Typical. So.” She looked up at him as Philomena climbed up to her shoulder.
“So,” he repeated, and sighed. “Phoenixes are extremely rare- but not nearly as rare as the people they’ll bond to, so you must be a pretty special girl. As such, while she’s the first phoenix in this shop since Fawkes during my grandfather’s time, it’s our policy to charge the same amount as for an owl.” He glanced sideways. “And, uh, phoenixes often don’t need or even like the owl pellets or treats that we have. They’re much happier with a taste of your bacon.”
Hailey chuckled, apparently completely ignoring his comment about her. “I bet. So if we throw in some supplies for…” She paused, looking at the owl. “Hedwig, I think, what’s the total come out to?”
He blinked. “Y-You’re picking the owl?”
She rolled her eyes. “No, dummy, I’m picking both. Asking Philomena to carry my mail would probably be more than a little ostentatious.”
The phoenix- Philomena, apparently- trilled amusedly.
Bonbon also chuckled amusedly, making Ginny jump; she’d forgotten she was there. “I expect it would be,” she agreed, then sighed. “Back in my homeland, the ruler of the country has a phoenix… named Philomena.” She chuckled. “You’d be surprised how many letters she carries.”
“But that’s royalty,” Hailey answered, waving a hand dismissively. “Royalty is supposed to be ostentatious.”
She tilted her head. “True enough.”
Ginny shivered as she, Hailey, and Petunia walked into Ollivander’s. Her shiver had nothing to do with the temperature, nor even the massive magical charge in the atmosphere of the wand shop.
Instead, it was the two people already in it, getting wands. The boy, who was waving wands around one at a time, had a mane of golden hair going about halfway down his back, exposing most of what looked like a pair of four-pointed stars overlaid on each other such that they’d create an eight-pointed star together, one gold and one purple, on the back of his white jacket.
But for as much as his demeanor reflected what she’d expect from the Malfoys almost alarmingly well, he wasn’t the one that worried her.
Instead, it was the other one. The girl. She had brilliant, red and gold hair hanging all the way down her back, conveniently hiding the back of her golden coat. No, wait- when she glanced back towards them, her hair rippled- making it look like a bonfire- and briefly revealed what Ginny could only describe as the sunrise on the back of her coat.
But it wasn’t her looks, nor the calm, don’t-give-a-damn way she was watching the boy get his wand, nor anything else most people could see that scared her about this girl.
It was her psionic signature.
Her inhuman psionic signature.
Her inhuman psionic signature that could definitely read hers.
This girl was dangerous to her in a way that even Dumbledore wasn’t.
But the girl’s response to her presence- a sort of passive curiosity that told her the girl knew she was different as well- didn’t seem to indicate that she recognized her or anything, so… she could hope.
After all, the girl was a- what had Malfoy and Malkin called them? Colorheads? She was a colorhead after all- and those hadn’t existed when Lord Voldemort had, so there was a better than even chance that none of them would have a clue who he was.
Then there was the fact that Malfoy thought she was one… yet by the way he talked about them, they were evidently another category, and not simply muggleborn, half-blood, or pure-blood witches and wizards that happened to have vivid hair, like her. As such, she presumably wasn’t one… which made his mistaking her for one amusing.
The amusement that appeared in the fire-haired girl’s psionic signature after she glanced back at them suggested that she was thinking along the same lines.
Then the boy found his match- eight and three quarters inches, she noticed, though the rest of its description didn’t garner her attention- and paid for it. The two colorheads- that was probably what they were, at any rate- then turned to leave the shop. As they did so, she saw that the fire-haired girl was already carrying a long, thin wand box; she must’ve already gotten hers before they arrived.
The girl smiled at them and waved. “See you at Hogwarts,” she told them.
Hailey chuckled and waved back. “See you at Hogwarts,” she mirrored.
Then… they were gone, and Ginny allowed herself to relax. Ollivander was a very strange man, and one she’d never evaluated for his ability to detect her for who she was, but she wasn’t all that worried about him.
Ollivander moved straight to Hailey. “Good morning, Miss.”
“Good afternoon,” Hailey answered.
He glanced up at a clock over the door- a clock which told Ginny it was one minute past noon. “Yes, yes it is, isn’t it?” He paused. “Every Ollivander wand- but you already heard that, didn’t you?”
“Yup,” Hailey nodded, then glanced at Ginny. “Ginny might’ve been too distracted being shy when we walked in, but I heard it.”
Ginny blushed and hid behind Petunia again.
He chuckled, drawing his measuring tape. “Your wand arm, please?”
“My… Wand arm.” She paused, then raised her right arm.
He set to work.
“Kinda busy in here, isn’t it?” Hailey asked casually, gesturing lightly towards the veritable mountain of wands next to them, hiding what Ginny knew was a spindly wooden chair.
“Oh yes,” he agreed. “Almost a quarter of the wands in my shop are making it into that pile every day this year.” He sighed, darting off into the shelves to retrieve some wand boxes as the measuring tape collapsed into a crumpled heap on the floor. “I’m getting quite worn out with all the running, nevermind reshelving everything at the end of the day.” He sighed again, opening the first box. “Sometimes I wish I got paid overtime. Anyways. Beechwood and dragon heartstring,” he informed her, removing the wand inside. “Nine inches. Nice and flexible. Go on, try it out.”
She accepted it, then gave it a wave. “Huh,” she observed- then glanced at him, where he was already opening the next box, having already discarded the first box onto a far larger heap of presumably empty boxes. “Onto the pile, then?”
“Yeah,” he sighed, plucking the wand out of the second box.
Hailey reached over to add the wand to the pile… then stopped, two inches away from it. “Weird,” she muttered, then added the wand to the pile… and stuck her fingers into it to retrieve a wand from deeper inside it.
Ollivander stared at her, the second wand in his hands to offer.
“Feels like this one’s calling out to me,” she observed- and, as soon as it was free of the pile, gave it a flick.
Bright, scarlet and gold sparks shot across the shop, briefly illuminating the place in the Gryffindor colors.
Then it struck Ginny.
Whenever someone bought a wand… the sparks that came out reflected the House they would be sorted into at Hogwarts, didn’t they? From what she’d heard, everyone in her family had gotten scarlet and gold sparks. She herself, when she’d gotten her first one as Tom Riddle, had produced silver and green sparks- the colors of Slytherin… and the same colors as the boy that had just left.
If she was right, Hailey was destined to be a Gryffindor.
Ollivander stared for another second, then flinched, as if he’d just been struck. “Lucky find,” he observed, then looked at the pile, and back at the wand. “An unusual combination. Holly and phoenix feather, eleven inches. Nice and supple.”
“So that’s a match?” Hailey asked, raising an eyebrow as he returned his second choice to its box.
“It is,” he informed her, turning to pluck a box from underneath the heap of them. “It very much is.” He took the wand from her, placed it gently inside the box, and started pulling out some brown paper.
“Um, I’m going to need it to get back into the Leaky Cauldron,” Hailey interrupted.
He paused. “Alright, no problem.” He set the paper back again.
Hailey chuckled, drawing her money bag out of a pocket. “So, how much do I owe you?”
“A wand is seven galleons,” he informed her.
She nodded, drawing a handful of coins from her bag. She sorted out five galleons from it, before pouring the rest back in and going for another handful. “Even with all that shopping,” she mused, “I still have too many knuts.” Finally, she pocketed her bag again, and offered the seven golden galleons to him in exchange for the wand.
Then Ollivander turned to Ginny, who had come out to stand next to Petunia while Hailey hunted for wands. “How about you, young lady?”
Hailey looked at her, curiosity showing on her face.
Ginny blushed and averted her eyes. “I-I’m too young,” she muttered.
“The rules are different for reincarnations,” he informed her.
She blushed even harder. So he could tell… he seemed quite certain. So how bad was it? She hoped it wasn’t so bad she’d have to flee.
“You can tell too?” Hailey asked.
“Yes,” he nodded. “I still remember the first reincarnation I recognized, during my second life as a reincarnated wandmaker myself.” He laughed. “I never thought she’d turn out to be a goddess, but when she returned eighty years later, during my third life as a reincarnated wandmaker, she gave me her blessing.” He bowed gently. “Though I have to say, the last time I had a reincarnation in this shop that I didn’t recognize was almost two thousand years ago.”
Ginny blinked. He didn’t recognize her?
He chuckled. “Yes, yes. You must’ve changed quite a bit since you were last here, assuming you were here at some point in your past life,” he informed her. “I’d guess you were a young goddess, but you don’t have a divine presence like Hailey does.”
“I have a what?” Hailey asked, looking alarmed.
“Divine presence,” he answered simply.
She calmed down, her expression going flat. “Are you sure you’re sensing correctly? I’m fairly sure I’m neither a goddess nor a reincarnation.”
“Hm,” he muttered. “Maybe you’re a Royal instead, sometimes that’ll throw it off.”
“Well I already knew that,” Hailey informed him wryly, waving a hand dismissively.
“Ahh,” Ollivander muttered. “But in any case, Miss Weasley, it shouldn’t be too hard to hide a wand, correct?”
“I won’t mind ‘helping a friend’ do her shopping next year,” Hailey informed her.
Ginny stared at the floor, thinking. If she had changed so much that he couldn’t recognize her… then even Dumbledore wouldn’t be able to recognize her.
Finally, she looked up. “You can sense divine presences?”
He shrugged. “A side effect of the Goddess’ blessing. It’s normally something only another deity can detect, unless they broadcast it for mortals to sense. Though of course, I can’t sense it well, so I never know if it’s actually a divine presence or just something that looks like one.”
“Huh,” she muttered, looking at the floor again, and shivered. If she had changed so much, would it be possible her Hogwarts House had changed as well? What would her mother think if she wound up in Slytherin again?
“With every reincarnation, a new set of wands will be the ‘right’ wands,” he informed her. “You will still be the master of any wands you had in your past lives, of course- and it’s not uncommon for your Hogwarts House, among other things, to change a few times through your first several reincarnations.”
She shivered again. If nothing else, at least she’d be able to make sure there was no dark magic on Hailey. She wouldn’t even have to point the wand at her, merely use it as a focus to enhance her senses- she only had to touch it. It wouldn’t work with a wand that wasn’t hers, though.
She took a deep breath… and put her hand in her pocket to collect the coins she’d taken from her new vault. She counted them in her hand, then pocketed them again. “A-Alright,” she squeaked, and glanced up at Petunia, who looked like she didn’t have any objections either.
So he picked up his measuring tape, and she held out her right arm.
He took his first few measurements, then darted off between the aisles to hunt for boxes.
Ginny glanced at the pile of rejected wands, then stepped over and put her hand over the pile. Maybe, just maybe, Hailey’s detecting the perfect wand- whose description perfectly matched her own first wand’s brother, which shared a core from Dumbledore’s phoenix- wasn’t a fluke, or related to her Royal powers.
Sure enough, she felt an odd… draw from deep inside. She tried analyzing that draw- and while she could confirm it had nothing to do with her psionics, she was able to refine it with the same, and narrow it down to a single wand… which was buried well below the surface.
So she used her psionics to push it closer to the surface, sliding it gently along its length- until she could just barely close her fingertips on it when she stuck them through a gap in the pile. She tugged it gently from the heap.
“That one’s calling out to you?” Hailey asked curiously.
She nodded faintly, focused on analyzing the changes in that odd attraction as she drew it away from the pile.
“Try it out,” Ollivander said, from about two feet away- he must’ve returned when she wasn’t paying attention.
She jumped. “Eek!”
Then she took a deep breath, blushing scarlet as she averted her eyes.
Then she mentally reminded herself that now two people had seen her for what she was and failed to recognize her or connect her to her past deeds- Luna… and Ollivander. Luna had even rejected that connection when she’d presented it!
She took a deep breath… then gave the wand a little wave.
A shower of red and gold sparks shot unbidden from the tip, illuminating the shop just as Hailey’s had done.
Her heart leapt. Gryffindor.
She would not be stuck with the snakes of her past life.
She would not have to worry about what her mother would think of her being put into Slytherin.
She was going to be a perfectly normal Weasley child.
Well… ‘perfectly normal’ reincarnated Royal Weasley child with immense experience in killing and whom most spells would simply bounce off of.
… She wasn’t very normal after all. But she could hide that.
“Well done,” Ollivander began, and looked at the pile. “Hmm… That has me wondering. I’ve been doing it this way for two and a half thousand years… Yet you two may have just discovered a better way to find a match. I’ll have to do some experimentation.” He paused, then glanced at the wand in Ginny’s hand.
Ginny, meanwhile, was using it to enhance her magical senses… and successfully confirmed that there was no dark magic on Hailey.
“Beechwood and phoenix feather,” he informed her. “Thirteen and a half inches. Quite whippy.” He paused, hand half-extended for the wand. “You’re… not going to want the box, are you?”
“Uh…” Ginny paused to think. “No, I don’t think so.” She switched the wand to her other hand to dig for her coins again. “I, er, don’t want Mom to know.”
She hadn’t expected the wand to have the exact same length and core as her first one. Her first one had been an unyielding Yew.
While Yew was feared for its power in duels and curses, Beechwood was sought after for its unique subtlety and artistry… but rejected narrow-minded or intolerant masters, a property that alone told her she’d changed so far in her reincarnation as to be unrecognizable.
Lord Voldemort had been, after all, the definition of intolerant!
The flexibility of the wand, on the other hand, reflected the flexibility and otherwise adaptability of its master- and whereas Lord Voldemort’s wand had been one step shy of brittle at ‘unyielding’, to pair with his stick-in-the-mud tendency to get fixated on one thing and refuse to change for ages… her new wand was one of the more flexible ones. Perhaps that reflected her psionic powers, or the way she had adapted to both them and her new identity as a female Weasley?
A question for the ages, she expected.
Finally, she got her coins out of her pocket, counted out seven of them, and paid for the wand, which she then slipped into an inside pocket of her robes before they left the shop.
“What’s… That?” Vernon Dursley asked, the moment he stepped into the kitchen.
Hailey looked up. “This is a spatula,” she told him, holding it up- even though she knew he wasn’t talking about it. He was talking about Philomena, riding on her shoulder; this would be the first time he saw the phoenix. She had willingly hidden somewhere via her phoenix fire before they’d left Eeylops Owl Emporium, and hadn’t reappeared until she had gotten her new belongings up to her bedroom.
The belongings in question had been quite the opposite. When she’d first looked at the contents of her Gringotts Vault, she’d suddenly realized that it would be both more secure and easier to reach if she were to store it all in a subspace pocket of some sort that only she could access. The best word she could think of to describe it was… hammerspace.
She hadn’t dumped the entire contents of her vault into it, though. Instead, she found she rather enjoyed digging through vaults or bags or whatever to find the items she needed, rather than simply commanding them to appear or disappear wherever she wanted them (with no requirement for her to be anywhere nearby, it seemed, making it a perfect tool for thievery if she really wanted to). As such, she’d shoveled some coins- a few extra galleons, enough sickles to make one, and enough knuts to ensure she could pay exact change at least a few times- into a bag… then used the pocket on her jeans as cover to drop the bag into subspace; the coins were heavy, and she didn’t have any better way to carry them.
She had later used that same subspace to organize Ginny’s vault for her, alongside a strange ability to bend time to her will that she’d realized she had when faced with the avalanche… nevermind the similarly strange ability to split her mind into multiple… minds to think in parallel. She’d had as many as five hundred of herself at work organizing that vault in a single moment of frozen time- which had made the subspace very important, as she still only had one body, even if she could still move around and whatever in frozen time if she wanted.
Then, when they were in Madam Malkin’s, she’d observed the ungainliness of Draco’s wrapped robes- and the package’s lack of handles or the like- and had elected to use hammerspace to carry them with her. She didn’t have a cart, and with the number of items on the list, attempting to carry them all was a fool’s errand.
She had, however, been careful to make sure that nobody ever saw it disappear. Not even Bonbon- though hiding it from her had been tricky at times. Ever since her conversation with Draco in Madam Malkin’s, she’d felt Bonbon’s eyes boring into the back of her head nonstop… and had taken ruthless advantage of her memory, vision, and even mind-split capabilities to keep track of exactly where Bonbon was at any given time.
When they’d encountered her at Eeylops, Bonbon had professed to be considering getting an owl… but Hailey could feel her dishonesty, and knew Bonbon had already done her shopping sometime prior- not only was the girl wearing Hogwarts robes, but she hadn’t been entirely successful at hiding her wand in an inside pocket.
The angles might have helped with that. She’d only caught the tiniest glimpse of it through the gap in the girl’s robes, but she’d seen it when she’d whirled around in response to Philomena’s appearance. It looked like it was made from maple, but she couldn’t tell much else about it.
Once they’d gotten back to the Leaky Cauldron, she’d taken advantage of her mind-split thing again to make all the various packages- including the large wooden trunk they’d gotten- appear again at just the right times and places for nobody to notice. As such, when Vernon had arrived to chase off the Weasleys- well not quite, but the conversation between Petunia and Mrs. Weasley had lasted that long while Hailey and Ginny sat quietly in a corner booth, sharing the ‘virgin butterbeers’ Hailey had bought- he’d witnessed every single one of the packages they’d bought getting loaded into the trunk. Except for her wand, which she’d left in hammerspace, but he’d seen the box. He’d even seen Hedwig… but no Philomena.
He snorted. “That bird,” he told her bluntly. “What is it?”
Hailey silently and carefully sectioned the enchiladas she’d just cooked, transferring a piece to a plate. He might know about her memory and perception abilities, but there was no need to make him worry about her split-mind abilities; they’d likely drive him to fear her. Hailey-o-phobia, so to speak.
“Philomena,” she finally corrected, “is a phoenix.”
“A phoenix?” Vernon asked doubtfully. Judging by the reflection off the edge of the polished ceramic plate, he was raising his eyebrow as well. “Pull the other one, then.”
Philomena trilled amusedly.
Hailey chuckled. Just like she knew French, German, Spanish, and Ancient Greek without ever having studied them, she also knew the phoenix language… which didn’t have a name, even to phoenixes. As such, she understood what Philomena had said to mean “I don’t usually see doubt pointed towards me.”
“Of course you don’t, Philomena,” Hailey answered, then actually glanced back at Vernon. “She is a phoenix,” she repeated, completely seriously, before turning to serve up the next plate.
“She is a phoenix,” Petunia mirrored, walking into the room. “Watched it myself.”
Vernon looked at Petunia. “How?” he asked.
“Good question,” Petunia answered him. “She appeared out of nowhere while we were looking at owls.”
“She said she’s been looking for me for close to eleven years now,” Hailey informed them calmly. “Ever since she saw me being carried by a giant on a flying motorcycle.”
“Motorcycles don’t fly,” Vernon answered flatly.
“Apparently that one does,” Hailey answered simply. “By the same measure, most men aren’t twelve feet tall- but that one was.”
“... Fair enough,” Vernon muttered dryly. “So what is a phoenix?”
Petunia shrugged.
“A very loyal friend,” Hailey answered, dishing out the last serving. “Generally speaking, phoenixes are extremely powerful fire elemental birds capable of traveling by phoenix fire, carrying immensely heavy loads, rejuvenating upon death, and singing magic songs, among other things. On top of that, their tears are one of the most powerful healing magics in existence, and their tail feathers make extremely powerful wand cores.” She picked up two plates, turned around, and scanned the room. “Where’s Dudley, anyways?” Without waiting for an answer, she set the plates down and turned back to the counter to retrieve the other two.
“Wh-How do you know that?” Petunia asked.
“It’s in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them,” she answered calmly. “Phoenixes are apparently extremely dangerous creatures- and in all honesty, with Philomena’s sharp talons and beak, quick wits, and free teleportation ability, I have no doubt she could be very deadly if she was so inclined.” She chuckled softly, reaching up to gently stroke Philomena’s plumage. “But of course, we’re no different, are we?”