After the final class for the day, Hailey walked back to Ravenclaw tower with Hermione and her fellow housemates. 

“How’s Peppy doing?” Hermione asked as they entered the Ravenclaw common room. “Do you think she’s really alright? Did you talk to her about her freedom again? I don’t like the idea of anyone being enslaved, and to make it worse, they’re practically begging for it!”

Hailey sighed. “Last time we spoke she seemed fine, refused to talk about being freed though, and why she wants to be a slave so badly.” Hailey shook her sadly. “I don’t like calling her too often just to chat, she hopefully has her own life to live, too. Like what if she’s spending time with some elf friends when I call her just to chat? That just seems like being a bad friend to me.”

“Oh no, you definitely don’t want to do that!” Hermione exclaimed, clearly disturbed by the whole situation. “I still can’t believe that wizards happily enslave magical creatures. In fact, how they treat other sentient beings is appalling.”

Nodding along as Hermione ranted, Hailey tried to distract herself from thinking about tonight. All day she’d been trying to distract herself from thinking about Halloween, and her parents being killed by You-Know-Who. All day she had failed. Thankfully Hermione had stopped asking her if she was okay, she had been asking her questions about Peppy instead. Hermione had been doing research on house elves and how they were treated, Hailey helping when she could. 

“When I rise to power, all sentient beings will be treated as equals,” Hailey deadpanned. 

Hermione's mouth fell open before she closed it with a snap. “I didn’t know you were planning on running for Minister of Magic, Hailey.”

“I wasn’t. I’m going to be Queen.”

“Queen of England?”

Hailey failed to hold back the giggles she had been suppressing. “Of the world.”

“Honestly, I know that you’re joking, but considering the fact that the entire world, at least the magical side, felt your magic the other week, if you keep pulling stunts like that, they just might crown you themselves. It was like the only thing anyone would talk about for what felt like ages.”

She grimaced as she listened to Hermione. “Don’t remind me. It was incredibly embarrassing. Having the ministry turn up asking questions was bad enough, let alone all of those foreign witches and wizards showing up to interview me.” Hailey shuddered. “Thankfully Andi, Professor McGonagall, and Professor Flitwick did a good job with running interference with them for me.”

Apparently what Hailey had done with accidental magic had travelled across the entire planet through the leylines that crisscrossed the world, like a surfer catching a wave. 

Hermione shook her head. “Frankly the amount of mail people sent you, and still do, is scary. All of those owls and ravens delivering letters.” She shuddered. “What a nightmare. It’s almost as if they don’t have anything better–” Hermione cut herself off as they walked into their room and noticed that it had changed. 

An extra bed, bedside table, wardrobe and desk had appeared mysteriously, with the overall size of the room having magically increased to accommodate them. 

“Correct me if I’m wrong, but the room wasn’t like this, this morning, was it?” Hailey asked after they looked at the room in confusion. 

“No, you’re right,” Hermione answered, before asking, “we are in the correct room, aren’t we?” Hailey saw her friend wringing her hands nervously. 

Opening up her wardrobe, Hailey took note of all her clothes and personal books she had placed inside. “Yep, this is definitely us.”

Hermione walked to the door of their room. “I’m going to find someone. Sam or Penelope.”

“Okay.”

Returning a few minutes later with Sam in tow, Hailey heard them speaking before she saw Hermione gestured towards the room. 

“And you say that it wasn’t like this, this morning?” Sam asked. 

Hermione nodded. “It was just us.”

Scratching her chin in thought, Sam looked around before turning back to Hermione. “I’ll go and get the Professor. It’s probably best if you get out of the room in case the enchantments are mucking up.”

Frowning, but nonetheless complying as Sam left, Hailey followed Hermione out of the room. “I don’t think there’s anything wrong with the magic of the room. It feels just like normal to me.”

Her best friend just shrugged as if to say, “What can we do about it?”

About ten minutes later, Sam reappeared with the tiny Professor Flitwick in tow. Going over the events of the day again to the professor this time, they watched as he waved his wand around the room, muttering various incantations as he did. 

“Puzzling, ladies. Most strange! I can’t find anything wrong with the enchantments nor any foreign magic that might have affected it. Either something has affected it in a way that I can’t find, or…”

“Or what, Professor?” Sam asked. 

“Or we have an incoming student.”

Sam looked puzzled. “How would Hogwarts know?”

The professor smiled mysteriously. “Hogwarts always knows somehow. The old gal is ancient and seeped in many layers of magic. Still, until this mysterious new student appears, we can do naught but what we have been doing. Have a good day, girls. I hope to see you tonight at the feast,” he called out as he left them in their room.

“Well, I better go too then,” Sam said. 

Hermione smiled at the older girl. “Thanks, Sam. For your help.”

“You’re welcome, Hermione. See you later!” Sam called out as she walked away. 

“Well, yet another mystery to solve,” Hermione sighed. “You said the connection between you two feels ‘warm’, what does that mean? Is that good or bad? It sounds bad since it’s in a slave bond.”

Hailey stared at her friend, surprised that she hadn’t thought of that herself. “That’s a highly disturbing thought. Hang on, I want to see if I can feel out the connection further, perhaps I can find out the nature of it.”

Her friend looked conflicted, on one hand, she didn’t want to be late for the feast, on the other, Hermione wanted to see Peppy freed like Hailey did. Perhaps even more so, which disturbed Hailey a little bit, because the longer things went on the way they did, the less she worried about freeing Peppy, and that worried her even more. What was this bond doing to her? What had it done to Peppy?

“Maybe if you are fast, you could see what you can discover in the short time we have left?”

With a short nod, Hailey lay down on Hermione’s bed and closed her eyes. Trying to relax her body and mind, Hailey attempted to feel for, then follow the magic of the bond she could sense. She could feel it fairly easily by now. All of her time immersed in magic had helped hone her magical sense so that it didn’t take a great deal of effort. Unfortunately, that was all she was able to do. Eventually sighing with frustration, Hailey opened her eyes and sat up.

“No luck? Did you try meditating? I read a book about how certain magical practices used to employ meditation as a core component. I will try and find it, it might help?”

“It might help. The bond is elusive, slippery in a strange way. Almost as if it knew I was looking for it and it was hiding from me.” Hailey shook her head. “I would say that that was dumb, but–”

“But this is magic we’re talking about, we don’t know enough about this bond yet,” Hermione finished Hailey’s thought.

“I can’t be hundred percent positive, but I think the bond is Fae magic. It had a similar feel to what I cast a few weeks ago in Snape’s classroom.”

Hermione looked curious. “So human magic is definitely different to Fae magic then?”

“Imagine eating fruit, say an apple. You eat it every day and while each apple tastes slightly different, they are all still distinctly apple flavoured. Fae magic might be apple shaped, but it doesn’t taste the same. I guess you could say that it is apples and oranges?” Hailey replied. 

Her friend smiled at what she had said, while still seeming to take note, before nodding. “Interesting. I hope to experience it myself one day, but we don’t have any more time, we should get ready.”

With a grimace, Hailey nodded.

⚡

Hailey threw on a new, clean robe, before leaving the room, once again puzzling over why it had more space and an extra bed added to it. As far as they were aware, there weren’t any new students. Going into the lavatories, Hailey checked out her hair in the mirror. It was mostly bright blue, except for the few black splotches that Dora had missed in her prank. Giggling, Hailey ran her wand over her hair to make it shiny and like new again. 

Leaving Ravenclaw tower with Hermione, Hailey swiftly walked towards the great hall. She really didn’t want to go to the feast, but she was committed to going, even if it was partially a celebration of the night her parents were murdered. 

She was part way there when she sensed something. A strange surge of magical power which felt both unknown and familiar. To her senses, it was almost like a lingering echo of an apparition, yet it wasn’t apparition, not exactly. 

Frowning to herself, Hailey turned towards where she’d felt the magic coming from as her curiosity got the better of her. As she walked, she couldn’t help but wonder what it was she was sensing. What is apparition, but not apparition, at the same time? Could it be a port key like she had read about? She hadn’t had a chance to experience one of those yet. Hailey was pretty sure that port keys, just like apparating, was something that the wards on Hogwarts stopped from happening within the grounds. 

“Hailey? Where are you going? The Great Hall is this way,” Hermione suddenly said, breaking Hailey’s concentration for the moment.

Glancing at Hermione, while trying to concentrate on her magical senses, Hailey nodded. “I know, but I feel something magical this way. Something weird has happened and I need to know what it is.”

Turning the corner, Hailey recognised where they were, they were in the corridor near one of the girls' bathrooms. The surge of magical energy was right here, in front of her, but she couldn’t see anything, or even pinpoint the exact location. Hailey heard a grunt and the sound of something being dragged echoed along the corridor, but before she could investigate the noise, the magical energy spiked and gathered right in front of her. As a tremendous amount of magic washed over her, a bright light appeared, blinding her, and destroying her night vision in the dim corridor. Hailey heard Hermione shout out, in fear or pain, she wasn’t sure.

She heard what sounded like something or someone falling to the floor as the light vanished as abruptly as it appeared. As her vision returned slowly, she heard a whimper and saw a girl on the floor in front of her, wearing a simple white dress and looking around in shock and confusion, before her blue eyes fell on Hailey and Hermione. “Who are you? Where am I?”

The girl’s voice was soft and had an almost musical quality to it. Hailey saw the girl's eyes widen in surprise as she heard her own voice. 

“Err, hello? My name is Hailey Potter, and you’re at Hogwarts. Can you tell me who you are?”

The girl shook her head slightly, her long blonde hair swaying with it, covering up part of her face as it did. “I’m Ariana. Ariana Dumbledore. Where are my brothers?” She stood up and looked around abruptly with a scared look on her face. “Where’s Gellert? They were fighting, I need to stop them –”

Her voice cut off as a loud rumble and bang sounded out and a troll slowly walked around a corner, stopping in surprise as it caught sight of the three girls. For a long moment, all participants just stared in surprise, before the troll let out a loud bellow and lifted up the club it had been dragging behind it and stepped towards them. 

Ariana yelped as the troll advanced on her, barreling into Hailey in her blind panic. Hailey stumbled back, tripping and falling over. Hearing a scream, Hailey reacted on pure instinct, bringing her wand up and casting a dome shaped shield over Ariana. A loud bang – like something hard hitting glass – resounded down the corridor as the bright glowing dome covering Ariana cracked, but held up against the troll’s club. The troll roared in frustration and swung at the dome again. Hailey felt a tug on her magic as the dome took another hit and Ariana screamed. 

“Titillatio!” She yelled, pointing her wand at the troll. Hailey saw the flare of magic hit the troll, but it did nothing as the magic vanished as quickly as it had appeared. Either trolls were immune to magic, or she needed to cast a stronger spell. 

The spell did do one thing, though. It brought the attention off of Ariana and on to Hailey instead, as the troll bellowed once more and swiftly made its way towards her, ignoring the glowing dome. 

“Hermione! Go and get help!” Hailey shouted out as she shot a stunning spell, putting as much effort into it as she could, all to no effect, the spell failing just like the last. 

Hermione, who had frozen in place as all of this happened, seemed to hesitate as to whether or not she should go, before another shout at her to run from Hailey spurred her on to run as fast as she could.

Lifting up the club to strike her, the troll roared before smashing it down right where she had been, moments after she dodged out of the way. Chipped stone pelted her, leaving small cuts on her legs as she picked herself up. With a swipe of her wand hand, Hailey sent out dozens of small stone pieces at the troll’s face, which lifted one of its meaty arms to protect its vulnerable eyes. With a roar of frustration, the troll wildly swung the club to try and hit her. As Hailey dodged the attack, she felt her blue hair flutter from the displaced air as the club swung harmlessly over her, moving a step out of range, she looked around for something to use against the troll.

Seeing the club once again miss her gave Hailey an idea. With a swish and a flick of her wand, Hailey levitated the club out of the troll’s hand and smashed it on its head. With a tremendous boom that shook the ground, nearly making Hailey lose her footing, the troll collapsed. 

“Miss Potter! Explain yourself, immediately!” 

Hailey twirled around, putting her wand away as she recognised Minerva McGonagall’s voice, before she spotted her, Snape, and Dumbledore with Hermione following behind them. All three had serious looks on their faces, although Hailey noted that Dumbledore’s was more curious than concerned. Out of the three of them, only Professor McGonagall seemed to be worried about her. 

Dumbledore stepped forward, his extremely long and odd wand out as he waved it around. Hailey got that sick feeling from his wand, similar to when she had the meeting with him. 

“What happened? What was that surge of magic?” The headmaster asked as he waved his wand, dispelling Hailey’s shield charm. “Are you alright, my dear?” He asked, leaning down to help Ariana up, before freezing, a stricken look on his face as he turned deathly white. “No, no, it can’t be! Ariana?”

Ariana looked up at the older Dumbledore, her brow crinkling in confusion. “Grandpa? But you’re dead? Am I dead too?”

McGonagall stepped up next to Hailey, looking at the headmaster, a confused expression on her face. “Albus? Who is this girl?”

“Albus? But you can’t be Albus, my brother… Can you?” The young girl asked, her voice quivering. Her entire body shook as she sat on the ground, ignoring Albus’ proffered hand, looking dazed. 

Dumbledore looked angry and mumbled something under his breath, that sounded to Hailey like, ‘I knew that woman was lying to me.’

Ignoring the Headmaster, Hailey slowly walked over to the girl and got on her knees, gently hugging the girl to her. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Old Dumbledore give her a sharp look before he smoothed it over with his resting old man’s face, as Ariana clung to Hailey tightly and began to sob quietly. As she held her, Hailey felt some powerful magic working on Ariana’s body. It somehow reminded her of the magic she sensed making its way through her own as it changed it. 

“She’s in shock,” Hailey whispered quietly to the professors. “We need to get her to the hospital wing right away. I’ll tell you everything I know, just as soon as I know that Ariana is okay.”

A yawn escaped her as a wave of exhaustion hit, but Hailey ignored it in favour of trying to pick Ariana up from where she lay draped over Hailey. She had cried herself to sleep. 

Carrying her in her arms using strength she never knew she had, Hailey proceeded to walk to the hospital wing, ignoring her teachers as they walked behind her, their words white noise to her. Ariana was surprisingly light.

Hailey noticed that Snape stayed behind to deal with the troll, which she was grateful for. She didn’t have the energy to deal with his irritating personality right now. 

Minutes later, they arrived in the hospital wing, Hailey’s arms straining under the other girl's weight, her muscles burning, but for reasons she couldn’t quite grasp, she refused the help offered to her by the professors. 

“Headmaster, Minerva? What is the meaning of this?” Madam Pomfrey asked as she came out of her office and saw Hailey placing the blonde girl on a hospital bed. 

Dumbledore made a placating gesture with his hand. “The girls were attacked by a troll that somehow got into the castle, and it would seem that somehow, my long lost… sister has been returned to me. Please check them both over… thoroughly.”

Hailey frowned, she had noticed the slight hesitation when Dumbledore had said  sister and thought back to the feeling of magic coursing through Ariana. Surely she had to be mistaken… Ariana couldn’t be like her, could she?

Madam Pomfrey had already been moving towards them before Dumbledore had finished speaking. She tsked as she waved her wand over Ariana, casting several analysing charms. “This girl is magically exhausted and there are a number of strange… anomalies, that I would rather not discuss with anyone else before I talk with her first.

“Now, Miss Potter. Please take a seat. Let me check you over.” She tried to usher Hailey to a bed so she could run her analysis spells on her, but Ariana whimpered and grabbed onto her arm. The girl seemed to get more distressed the more they tried to separate them. Eventually Madam Pomfrey gave up and got Hailey to sit next to Ariana as she lay on the bed. Hailey felt the spells that Madam Pomfrey cast and made sure that she didn’t absorb the magic so the mediwitch could do her job. 

As Pomfrey muttered to herself, the headmaster came over and looked at Hailey. “Hailey, please describe the events of night. Leave no detail out.”

Minerva placed a warm hand on her shoulder for support as Hailey described her evening in as much detail as she could with the occasional input from Hermione. Her friend was standing nearby, clearly intimidated by all the adults around her asking her questions.

After what felt like hours – but was probably only twenty minutes – the teachers had finally exhausted their seemingly endless questions. 

“What are we going to do about this, Albus? I have never heard of something like this happening before,” Professor McGonagall said, sounding a little out of her element for a moment.

“Nor have I, Minerva. It would seem that something that happened when I was a young man caused this to happen. Up until now, I had always assumed that Ariana perished in the blast.”

McGonagall gasped. “So she is your sister then?”

The headmaster nodded his head slowly. “So it would seem.”

“I have so many questions,” Hailey said. She could see that Hermione did too, but her friend bit her lip and didn’t say anything.

“As do we all, I am sure, Hailey.” Dumbledore glanced at Hermione, before he looked down at Ariana. “Those will have to wait though, I am afraid. We all need sleep, especially Ariana.”

Of course, it wasn’t as simple as that though. Ariana refused to let Hailey get more than a step away from her before she started whimpering and thrashing in her sleep, so they moved a bed closer so Hailey could sleep there for the night. Madam Pomfrey was especially insistent that she stay the night after she had heard about what Hailey had gotten up to. 

Madam Pomfrey had wanted Hermione to stay overnight as well, but relented after getting a promise from the bushy haired girl that she would come and see her if she had any nightmares over the events of the night.

After bidding the teachers and Hermione goodnight, Hailey got herself ready for bed and had just made herself comfortable when the Madam brought in some food for her, since she had missed out on the feast.

Relaxing in the bed and watching Ariana doze, Hailey hoped next year's Halloween night would have a bit less excitement. She was just falling asleep herself, when the last thing she saw before her eyes closed for good, was what appeared to be a very blurring and indistinct ghost watching them closely for a moment, before winking out of existence.