A reunion and dark secrets Solo Fin

"Wait, you were under the love potion and got married?" Aiden started laughing out loud when Haley told him about the blossom ball. "Well, I hope you picked a good husband. If not, you know where to find me." He smiled cheekily at her, whereupon a pillow landed in his face. "Stoop." Haley laughed, holding her stomach in pain. The two giggled, telling each other all sorts of things that had happened in that time, catching up on their time apart. They were up until the middle of the night until they both just fell asleep on the bed, completely exhausted.

"I thought I'd check on you guys." Godric's voice rised as he cautiously peered through the door. The two children were still asleep in their bed. "Come on, you need to get up." He spoke louder now to wake them both up. Haley grumbled louder and louder to herself as she turned in bed. She looked through the slits in her eyes and glared tiredly at her grandfather. He cleared his throat one last time, "No lovebirds, I see." And with those words he closed the door.

With a furrowed brow, she looked at the door where her grandfather had just been standing. Her confused gaze now wandered beside her and now she realised what he meant. Aiden was still asleep in bed and had his arm around Haley. "Eww." She gasped as she lifted his arm and heaved herself over him. Aiden was now grumbling the way Haley had a few minutes ago. "Stand up Jerk." She teased, pulling him off the bed. "Come back to bed, your husband won't find out either." He joked and grabbed back into bed. She slapped him on the back of the head, leaving a cursing Aiden back in the room.

The rest of the day was unspectacular, the adults kept putting their heads together, Aiden and Haley were still tired and while Haley lay on the sofa sleeping, Aiden was busy with something outside somewhere. The whole house was suspiciously quiet and even at lunch only a few found themselves at the lunch table. They talked less than usual, glances were exchanged and the two children just didn't know what was going on. "Everyone's kind of weird today." Haley whispered softly to Aiden. Before he could answer, his grandmother came up, "Aiden, honey, could you please help me with the groceries." He looked apologetically at Haley and got up to go with his grandmother.

Haley cleared the table and did the dishes before someone suddenly tapped her on the shoulder. She turned and saw Paul smiling at her. "Oh, Hey Paul." She greeted him. "You Haley, could you help me in the basement for a minute?" he asked her, already walking towards the basement. "U-Um, did Godric allow that?" she inquired uncertainly as she followed him. She remembered the last time she went to the cellar and didn't want to get herself into trouble again. Her grandfather had actually forbidden her to do so. "yes, yes, no problem at all." He waved off her worries and led her to the basement.

With each step on the stairs it got darker, there were no windows here and a weak bulb hanging from the ceiling at least gave enough light for them to make out some outlines. With each step further into the stuffy basement, an uneasy feeling came over Haley and she could feel her muscles getting ready in alarm. "Um Paul, where's Godric?" she inquired, but got no answer. With a final step, he pushed her into one of the rooms in the basement and locked the door behind them.

As soon as the lamp in the basement lit up, Haley blinked hard a few times until her eyes adjusted to the light. Still confused, she looked around the stuffy little room. All along the walls were shelves, felt with books that looked like they would be found in the forbidden section at Hogwarts if at all. Jars of liquids with something floating in them. Sporadically she recognised larger and smaller black boxes, some locked with heavy chains, some lying open in the corner. Her eyes fell on an object in the corner, on top of which lay a crumpled, dirty note with the words "Do not touch."

Haley had almost forgotten that she wasn't here alone when her eyes fell on Paul, who was smiling creepily at her. He didn't say a word and Haley was too shocked and confused too. He grabbed an old wooden chair from the corner and placed it in the middle of the room and pointed to it with his wrinkled hand, signalling her to sit down. She wanted anything but to sit down but she did anyway.

"Then let's see if you're really as valuable as everyone thinks." Paul said softly, almost inaudible to Haley. He rummaged something out of one of the boxes and put it on a small table he had placed in front of her. He placed an amulet on the table. It had a large stone in the middle that at first glance was black but when you looked closer it looked like there was a black and green liquid trapped in the stone that was washing around. Haley looked at the table, then at Paul. She didn't say a word, just looked at him through evil slits.

"Open it." He said as he pointed to the amulet. Carefully, Haley reached forward to take it in her hand. "Not with your hand." He shouted at her "You stupid child." He continued to curse. "Do you really think your grandfather would have bothered to track you down just so you could meet?" he now laughed contemptuously. "You stupid, stupid child. You really don't know your grandfather." He continued to laugh as Haley continued to sit silently in the chair.

"The only use you have, my dear, is that you can speak Parsel." He stroked her hair as he told her all this. Haley slapped his hand down in response, bracing herself for him to strike back, but against all odds he did not. "Open it." He shouted again and this time Haley knew what he meant. She should speak in Parsel, as she had with the Chamber of Secrets. She was a stupid, stupid child, as he called her, but she wasn't that stupid. She knew this could not be good and that she should not open this amulet under any circumstances.

She shook her head and pressed her lips together, she would not speak. He was not happy about it but Haley stood firm. "SAY IT." He shouted at her but Haley refused. The game continued a few more times until she yelled at Parsel, "SHUT UP!" For a brief moment he probably thought he had finally got what he wanted, but quickly realised that nothing had happened to the amulet.

"So you want it the hard way." Grumbled the old man to himself as he pulled his wand from his pocket and pointed it at Haley. She sat wide-eyed in the chair, her cheeks already flushed, and out of reflex she screamed out loud once for help.

Suddenly the basement door opened. She saw her grandfather looking first at Paul and then at Haley. Haley hoped that he would save her. That he would prove to her right now that he wasn't a bad person. She looked at him, tears streaming down her face and her expression distorted with pain. "Help." She formed with her lips, but she was disappointed.

Of course she was disappointed, how could she be so naïve as to believe that all the letters she had read were not true. How could she be so stupid and be so deceived by her grandfather. A stupid, stupid child. But she couldn't focus now on what mistakes she had started, but how to get out of this.

"My dear Haley." Her grandfather now began to speak sympathetically, but she would not fall for him again. "You just have to say a few words for us, that's all." He continued to speak kindly now, as if explaining something to a toddler. "I will do NOTHING for you!" she screamed at him as the tears continued to run down her cheek.
The next few hours passed, the tears did not stop. She wanted to give up, but she took all her strength and screamed for help one last time. But they were in a basement and they were wizards, of course no one would hear them. Stupid, stupid child.

"You can do this Hales, you're smart. You'll get out of here." She spoke quietly to herself, encouraging herself. Her talk only earned her mocking laughter, but while the two men were distracted by it and laughing, Haley looked around the room. She had to be able to find something here that could help her. She would not give up, she looked at the laughing men one last time before she took all her strength to get up from the chair and run to the shelves. She stumbled forward but she simply knocked everything off the shelves. The glasses broke, the liquids spilled out and eventually a big mess was created. Foul smells started to form and soon all three were coughing and wheezing. There was no way around it, they had to open the door and they did. Coughing all three fell out of the door, Haley quickly crawled to the stairs, "Help." She shouted but the loud coughing had already been heard upstairs. Many of the adults as well as Aiden came rushing to the stairs.

Aiden rushed to Haley and pulled her up the stairs and she could barely remember the rest. "Damn. Damn. Damn." Aiden cursed as he carried Haley. "What happened down there?" he asked upstairs, but Haley just looked at him with her red eyes. "I have to get out of here." She whispered softly and Aiden didn't ask further. It wasn't long before the two of them were out of the house, walking as fast as they could. Once they were far enough away they dropped to the ground and leaned against a tree. "Haley, this doesn't look good." Aiden remarked as he looked closer at her "What happened?" he asked her again, but she looked away.

"Aiden, you can't go back there." She spoke now, because while she would get back home, he would go back to his grandmother. That was not an option. "Hales, don't be silly." He began but she interrupted him. "It's not fun, you can't go back. It's dangerous." She spoke now and grabbed his arm, shaking it slightly. "Don't you understand? Look at me." She continued to shake, the tears starting again. Aiden didn't say anything else, just took his friend into a hug. He pepped her up a little more before saying his final goodbyes. He told her that he had been looking for her all the time, that she hadn't been there all night but no one knew where she or her grandfather was. She didn't believe him, at least not that the others claimed they knew nothing. She was sure they were all in on it.

"Come with me." She almost begged him, but he shook his head. "I have to go back." He replied and took her in a tight hug one last time before they said goodbye. "Write me an owl right now." She whimpered into the hollow of his neck before releasing the hug.