Chapter Text
“Koishi, what are you holding?” Satori said flatly.
“A baby.” was Koishi’s entirely too casual response.
“I can see that.” Satori said.
Koishi tilted her head. “Then why did you ask?”
Satori massaged her temple. Sometimes she forgets her sister is literally braindead… and now she just made herself sad again.
“Don’t be sad!” pouted Koishi, thrusting the bundle of blankets in her direction. “Have a baby!”
Before Satori could even register what was said, her hands had subconsciously accepted the sleeping baby from her sister. “Wha- why are you giving it to me?!” Satori leaned back as if it would bite.
“Because everyone deserves to be loved.” Koishi said, with such disarming clarity and sincerity that it caught Satori off balance.
Satori quickly studied her sister's face. Satori wasn’t good at reading faces, least of all her sisters, but she might have seen something there, perhaps a flash of something…
But it was gone, and Satori shook her head. Koishi's flashes of lucidity are nothing new, no use getting her hopes up. But still. “Where did you get this baby Koishi? You know The treaty forbids us from going to the surface.”
Actually it was likely Koishi didn't know, or at least didn’t remember, and it wasn’t as if anyone could really stop Koishi going anywhere she wanted to go. But it never hurt to remind her.
“Somewhere farrrr away.” Koishi said, throwing her arms outward to demonstrate incredible distance. “Not a nice place though, she will be happier here. You are the nicest person I know!”
Satori sighed, Koishi’s list of nice people is obviously very short if Satori is on top, probably understandably so. “That doesn’t necessarily make me qualified to be a parent…”
“Come on, you’ll be a great mommy.” Koishi said emphatically, Satori visibly baulking at the idea. “You've got lots of pets right?”
“A baby is a lot more work than a Kasha or a hell raven.” Satori reasoned.
“Come ooon you’ll do great.” Koishi whined. “You’ll be the mommy and I’ll be an aunt!”
“You know, I’d think you had an ulterior motive, if I didn't know you to be incapable.” Satori muttered.
Koishi started pouting at Satori, and the elder sister started feeling a shift in her subconscious.
“Stop doing that!” Satori said hotly, and the pressure ceased. Koishi recoiled slightly, as if struck.
“Please don’t do that, especially about important things.” Satori said, already feeling bad. She didn’t like getting angry at her sister.
“Sorry.” Murmured Koishi.
“I’m not mad at you.” Satori said, soothingly. “This is just a very serious decision, now please go and play with the animals while I think about it.”
“Ohh, thinking. Okay~” Koishi said. “Just don’t think too hard, otherwise it might hurt.”
Satori’s smile went crooked. “Of course Koishi.”
Koishi frowned. “You’re sad again.” But she still left as instructed.
Satori sighed again. She really can’t deal with her sister, she misses her too much.
Nevertheless, she regarded the more immediate problem, namely the infant her sister had literally left her holding.
She sat down, silently praying it won’t wake up, she doesn’t want to deal with a crying baby.
“What to do, what to do.” Satori thought.
Giving it to someone else was out of the question, namely because Satori didn’t know anyone else to give a baby to. Since her appointment as the custodian of old hell, she hasn’t really felt the need to venture outside the palace unless the spirits acted up, which was extremely rare, considering the impression she had made the first few times.
There were a few Oni in the former capital that she might consider to be on speaking terms with, but she would sooner trust one of her ravens with a human child.
There was the Yama and her subordinate, but Shiki is an extremely busy woman, and Komachi…
Regardless, The lot of a Satori is a very lonely one and she is no exception. Most of her friends squawk, meow or bark.
She could take it to the surface, but the treaty prevents underground youkai from going to the surface and vice versa.
Not to mention she has no desire to go to the surface, even without the treaty. With her luck, that Nue still wants her head. From what she heard, Those priestesses up in that new ‘Gensokyo’ place she’s heard about are all about protecting humans from youkai, but youkai from youkai? No such luck.
And as... appealing as sitting by the entrance of the underground and hoping for a sympathetic person to take a human baby off her hands and not eat it, sounds, it's basically a non-option.
She looked down at the baby. “Goodness I really am stuck with you aren’t I?”
She then noticed the scar on the baby's forehead. “What is this, how does one so young get such a wound?”
She brushed a finger against it, and recoiled. There is something… there. Something that shouldn't be.
Satori sighed, and called for Rin. “looks like I’ll be calling in the Yama anyway.”
“Good Morning honourable Yamaxanadu. Although I did ask for you. I did not expect you to come so quickly.” Satori admitted, opening the door for the Yama and her pink haired subordinate.
Eiki Shiki, the Yama of Gensokyo had a passing thought about it being afternoon, but knew full well that there was no way for Satori to know this without being told, especially without a clock of some sort, and quickly brought her thoughts to order. “You rarely request my presence, so I thought it must be important.”
Satori smiled, She always did appreciate how the Yama always opted to let her thoughts do the talking, it prevented Satori suffering the usual irritation she felt in verbal conversations. Although she did make a mental note to get a clock from somewhere.
“Not terribly, but I didn’t know anyone else who could help, sorry if this wastes your time.” Satori admitted. “But come in, would you like some tea?”
“ A personal problem then ?” Shiki thought, allowing herself to be led in, with a passing idle thought thinking how nice a tea would be right now.
Komachi was busy wondering why it still has to be so warm down here, as it was making her sleepy, and wasn’t really listening to the conversation, but following her boss dutifully.
“Well, not quite personal. More like my sister had elected to drop a problem into my lap, quite literally.” Satori said, signalling a nearby kasha to prepare some tea.
There was a passing bout of sympathy as Shiki recalled the younger Komeji, which Satori appreciated, before her thoughts went back to business. “What sort of problem?”
Satori pushed a door open to a rather frazzled looking Rin Kaenbyou, whose finger was currently in the baby's mouth, acting as an impromptu pacifier.
“Why are babies so noisy?” whined the cat girl, as the infant in question sucked on her finger.
Satori was about to explain when she immediately felt the shock and surprise from behind her, and the immediate jumping to conclusions, making her pale.
Quickly turning to face them, she exclaimed. “It's not my sister's baby!” Satori said.
And as they jumped to the next (in hindsight) obvious conclusion. “It's not my baby either!”
“Then whose is it then?” Komachi said out loud the question they were both thinking.
“I... don’t know.” Admitted Satori. “Koishi literally dropped it on my lap. That's what I was trying to tell you, it's human as far as I can tell.”
“I see.” Shiki said, more out of something to say than any need for confirmation. She calmed down, and her face became a slight frown. “Do you wish me to find out where she came from?”
“You can do that?” Satori asked. “I tried questioning Koishi, but she seemed adamant that I should take her. Saying that, and I quote, ‘every child has the right to be loved’.”
“Well…” Komachi started, but Satori had already heard what she was going to say, so cut her off.
“Rather ominous, yes.” Satori said. “I find that even in her mindlessness Koishi is a remarkably good judge of character, perhaps even better now than before.”
“I think I might have to question Koishi myself later.” Thought Shiki, considering using her crystal mirror on Koishi to figure out where the child came from. “But regardless if not that, then why did you call for my assistance?”
“Man it's so awkward only hearing one half of a conversation.” Komachi thought. “No offence.” she added when she remembered that Satori could hear that.
“None taken, I know I can be difficult.” Satori said to the apologetic looking Komachi before addressing the Yama. “You see, considering my incredibly limited social circle consisting of no other responsible adults with free time, I had already resigned myself to having to take care of it.”
“Heh, the problems of being a shut in… no offence.” came Komachi’s thoughts unbidden. Satori doesn’t hold it against her, though, it takes a more disciplined mind than Komachi’s to control your errant thoughts after all. Although the sideways look she shot the Shinigami was not lost on Shiki, who was wondering how annoyed she should be at her subordinate.
“...But as I was examining the child, I noticed a rather nasty looking scar on her forehead… and some sort of malicious presence dwelling within it.” Satori finished.
“Malicious presence?” thought both the Yama and the Shinigami.
“Yes… it’s difficult to describe, it was barely a murmur, which was why I didn't notice it until I started examining it closely, but there is… some sort of extra consciousness there, disjointed and strange, so I don’t really know its nature, but it feels malicious. This felt out of my expertise, which is why I called you.”
The two looked at each other, nodding as they both decided this required closer investigation, even Komachi losing her usual carefree air.
They walked over to the frazzled looking kasha.
“Can you put the child down? we wish to examine it.” Shiki asked politely
“It's fine Orin, let them work.” Satori said. “Go warm up some milk. Then you can take a break.”
The Kasha nodded, gently putting the child down on the desk and made a hasty retreat.
The child looked up at the figures that now towered over her. But before it could vocalise anything, Satori waved a hand in front of its face, calming it down immediately, and putting it into a peaceful sleep.
“Nice trick, I know a lot of mothers would love to know that one.” Komachi said wryly.
Shiki however was all business, examining the child. She ran a hand along the scar. “I think… this is a piece of somebody else's soul.”
“Eh?” Komachi said, leaning in. “Hey you’re right. Did someone try and turn this child into a Phylactery or something?”
“Worse,” said Shiki grimacing. “A horcrux.”
“Wow… that's just nasty.” Komachi said, also grimacing.
“Thank god for mind reading, otherwise I wouldn’t be able to follow this conversation at all.” Satori thought dryly. “So she’s a sort of… vessel for immortality?” she said aloud.
“A rather nasty one. I’ll spare you the details.” Komachi said while inadvertently providing them with her thoughts.
“I see, so it's a bit of somebody's soul in there. Can you remove it?” Satori asked.
“Can I?” Komachi said, smiling cheekily. “This is literally my job- well part of it at any rate.” She lifted her scythe off her shoulder. “Just give me two seconds…”
“One moment please Komachi.” Shiki said, pulling out her mirror. “I Wish to see who this is…”
Holding the Mirror up to the child. There was a soft glow, and a flood of information ran through the yama’s head that was too much for even Satori to keep track of. Not for the Yama however, and Satori picked up Shiki’s impression, and they found themselves wearing matching scowls.
“Komachi, with prejudice.” snarled Shiki.
Komachi didn’t need to be told twice. With an arc of silver, the scythe swept through the child’s head, leaving no mark, but retching out some sort of black tendril made of mist that was left wiggling in the air, that gave an unholy screech. The baby cried out in pain, only for Satori to soothe it again.
It squirmed briefly before Komachi grabbed it and squeezed it in her fist, and with a quieter choked screech, it dissipated into nothing.
“Good riddance.” sneered Komachi.
“Unfortunately not. He has about five more.” Shiki’s scowl was unchanged.
Komachi baulked. “five horcruxes?! Is this guy nuts?”
“I take it this is unusual?” Satori asked, before listening to the stream of information that came bidden by the question. “I see.”
“Yeah, splitting your soul is not something someone sane would do, much less six times times.” Komachi said, somewhat unnecessarily.
“Regardless, this one is destroyed.” Shiki said, “Komachi could you return and put the paperwork for Horcrux destruction on my desk, I’ll fill it out later. I cleared our schedule for today so feel free to take the rest of the day off afterwards.”
Komachi, her lazy demeanour returning, gave a mock salute. “Yes ma’am.” In her head, she was already picking out the best nap spot.
Komachi sauntered out.
Shiki, now alone with Satori (and the baby, but that hardly counted) turned to face her. “So you intend to keep the child?” Now that Komachi was gone, she slipped back into thought-speak.
“Do you think I should?” Satori said. “I mean, I don’t really have any other options, unless you can think of any?”
Many thoughts ran across Shiki’s mind. Various co-workers, and subordinates were considered filed away or dismissed outright. There was even a brief thought that Komachi could do with more responsibility, before chiding herself about thinking of a child in that manner. She started considering getting her a dog or failing that a goldfish, before realising she got side tracked.
After a moment of thought. Shiki came to a decision. “Well, I think the child could do a whole lot worse than having you as a parent. You are responsible, compassionate, intelligent, honest, have a large home, a stable job with child support and short hours that you do from home, and a large support group. Out of all my acquaintances I can think of no better.”
“We have child support?” mumbled Satori, but she was blushing at the praise, she wasn’t used to it really. “I’m not sure I’m parent material, especially for a human child, a Satori maybe…”
“If you are truly worried, I could always drop her off at the human village on the surface, it will be safe, if perhaps less comfortable, as her foreign features might mark her as an outcast.” Shiki added. “But I suggest giving it a try, at least for a while, if motherhood does not suit you, we can always explore other options.”
Satori still baulked at the idea of being a mother, but when she thought about it, she decided there is wisdom in the Yama’s words. “Very well then, I will give it a chance.”
Shiki smiled. “I’ll send you down the forms to apply for child support.”
Notes:
Third plot bunny, same disclaimer…
And to address the concerns people have about overextending, and trying to keep too many stories in the air, don’t worry. You see, exercising plot bunnies is how I deal with writer's block, by clearing up the head space by committing ideas to paper helps me make make room to actually come up with more chapters, it also helps keeps me writing in general, because If I am having trouble writing for one story, having another story to work on means I’m less likely to stall.
… Now to notes.
Now at nine Preferences. Hailey Komeiji.
Honestly I’m surprised this wasn’t the first Hailey Potter story I wrote, because Satori and Koishi are literally my favourite touhou characters, and I’ve been looking for an excuse to have them star in a story since before Youkai of Grudge.
Now probably first thing I should say, is that to a lot of people, this may seem like Satori is being pressured into being a parent against her will by other people (Koishi and Shiki), and while this is kind of the case, as Shiki says, Satori is literally the best option available with their current combined resources (neither get out much at this time, and Shiki has high standards), Satori also knows this, which is why she was resigned to look after her in the first place. Plus, it's not as if Satori doesn’t want to look after a baby per say (although at the end of the day, who does?), but it's more that she doesn’t think herself capable. Her desire to palm off the baby is out of concern for the child, because she considers herself an unfit guardian. For reasons that will probably become apparent over time, although I’ll give a hint: Sister.
But yeah, the Komeiji sisters are basically an understated ongoing tragedy, what with Koishi being, in the bluntest possible way, a walking talking vegetable. It makes Koishi fun to write, but to really get to understand the character, you have to see how Satori interacts with her. To other people, Koishi would just seem like a giggling weirdo, but as a mind reader, Satori is fully aware that there is nothing going on upstairs, her sister is functionally in a coma. And dealing with that as an elder sister, that's a lot of baggage. I feel like a lot of authors sometimes miss or at least skim over how sad that is. As you can probably see Satori herself is somewhat numb to it, its been a long time after all, but still, Poor girl.
Also, Curse scar gone, and this isn’t going to be the first of Haileys problems that Satori and co completely trivialises.
Also heads up, Next one on the priority list is Zero’s Familiar Quest, so if any of my readers (at least the ones who aren’t following me as an author) on the HP side rather then the touhou side of things who were interested in that, keep an eye out for that.
Chapter Text
“Heeeeeere comes the tengu!” Koishi cooed happily, spoon positioned.
Hailey, bless her, despite being three years old, indulged her aunt, and opened her mouth to receive the spoon.
“And another one for you too~” She sang, proffering the spoon to the table’s newest occupant.
Utsuho Reiuji, a Hell raven who recently managed to achieve human form, also opened her mouth obediently.
Satori smiled as she wrote her report over breakfast, keeping her mental ear open for any signs of distress from her adopted daughter.
Not that she felt there was any need to. Despite her mindlessness, Koishi was surprisingly good with infants (as well as large childlike ravens). Maybe it was due to the subconscious driven behaviour, or is it just that she interacts better with simple minds?
Hailey had brung many things into Satori’s life, some welcome, some less so, but she even surprised herself with how well she took to it. It turns out child rearing is pretty easy all things considered, Hailey was rarely non-content, was quiet and followed instructions, and was adored by the entire palace.
One of the mixed blessings however was that Koishi seemed to come home more often to spend time with her new niece. Not that she was here all the time, she still disappeared for days or weeks at a time. But the time she spent at home had lengthened considerably. Now Satori loved her sister, she loved her more than anything. But her presence never failed to make Satori melancholy. Her closest and only family, reduced to a giggling husk, because she had failed to protect her.
Satori’s smile slowly turned to a frown, would that happen to Hailey as well? Human beings are fragile after all, why an Oni could squash a human with a pat on the back if they are not careful, what would happen-
A spoon was suddenly shoved in her mouth, and she nearly choked in shock.
She looked up to her pouting sister.
“Stop thinking too hard, you’ll upset the baby.” Koishi chided, waving the spoon threateningly.
Satori stared at her sister, and gave a chuckle despite herself. Koishi, surprisingly, was right, no use worrying about this, Hailey would be fine, the palace is perfectly safe, and all the animals love her. No need to worry about it.
Besides, not many Oni ever come up to the palace. They respected her enough, as only a race of the completely truthful could to a creature of truth. But not many liked her, at least on a personal level, and certainly not enough to visit. At least except for-
“YO Satori!” came a call down the hall.
...Yuugi.
With the confidence of someone who owned the place, Yuugi, former Diva of the mountain, and unofficial boss of the former capital, by virtue of being the strongest and loudest, burst into the room.
“Word has it that you’ve been hiding a baby, how could you?” Yuugi said, grinning. Yuugi was a strange creature in Satori’s mind, someone who decided to ignore both her mind reading and, if she is honest with herself (which she always is), her terrible personality, and befriend her regardless. Satori appreciates this, but she would appreciate it a lot more if she wasn’t so… Yuugi about it.
Satori sighed and massaged her temple, unless she got her before she started talking, it was impossible to interrupt Yuugi with anything short of physical force, especially for the soft spoken Satori.
“Hello Yuugi, who told you?” Satori said. Before muttering, “Dammit Okuu.”
The Hell raven’s wings drooped somewhat in confused guilt.
“Hey, don’t be so hard on the simpleton, she’s almost a baby herself.” Yuugi chided.
“True, although it is quite hard to remember, considering…” Satori gestured vaguely in Utsuho’s direction.
There was rather a lot of Utsuho, in more ways than one.
The Raven tilted her head, making a pair of those ‘ways’ wobble.
“Heh, size envy aside…” Yuugi said, ignoring Satori’s glare. “Who's the dad, or was that you?” she said, looking around the table, spotting the other Satori. “Oh, hey Koishi.”
“Ayo!” Koishi said, before going to spoon more into Haley's mouth.
“she’s not mine, we adopted her.” Satori said. “Koishi got her from Yama knows where, but apparently from a bad home, lacking anyone else to do so, I decided to keep her. As for why I didn’t tell you, it's because you are an Oni, and she is a human.”
Yuugi opened her mouth. But Satori beat her to the punch this time. “I’m not scared that you will eat her, I’m scared that you will squash her by accident. I’m nervous to even let Okuu hold her without supervision.”
The raven nodded sadly at that.
“Right, ya know what? That's fair.” Yuugi conceded, rubbing the back of her neck. “I should probably find a hell fairy to practise on first. Oni babies are made of harder stuff after all.”
“Yuugi, I am quite convinced that you could drop a sleeping Oni infant off a cliff without even waking them up.” Satori said dryly. “...And that wasn’t a suggestion Yuugi, don’t even think about it.”
Yuugi put her hands up defensively. “Just a thought.”
“Yuugi…” Satori said warningly as the Oni approached Haileys high chair.
“I’m just gonna say hi, don’t worry, I won’t touch her.” Yuugi said placatingly. “Wow, she's pretty pale.”
Satori frowned, but was not about to accuse an Oni of lying. “There is no sunlight down here, she has to eat a lot of fish just to make up for vitamin D deficiencies.”
“Hello there, what's your name?” Yuugi said, crouching down to the baby's level, and smiling her trademark sunshine smile.
Hailey just looked at her, before glancing at Satori.
“Her name is Komeiji Hailey, we decided to keep her given name.” Satori said.
Yuugi looked over at her, almost pouting, before looking back at the baby. “My name is Yuugi, Yuu-gi.”
Hailey just kind of tilted her head.
Now frowning, Yuugi turned to Satori again, the question clear on her mind.
“She hasn’t really talked since I got her… is that unusual?” Satori said, with a growing sense of unease. “She turned three last month…” she said, answering Yuugi’s next question.
“Satori, at least with Oni kids… they usually start speaking at eighteen months, maybe twelve. And I’m pretty sure human kids are the same.” Yuugi said, rubbing the back of her neck again. “Don’t Satori babies?”
“Satori don’t really speak to each other, we communicate telepathically. Satori don’t usually start speaking out loud until their early teens…” Satori said.
“Well, not to knock your parenting or anything… But Humans can’t read minds. She isn’t going to be able to communicate with anyone but you… Does she even cry?”
“Not in so many words.” Satori mumbles, she knows where Yuugi is going with this, but she is too embarrassed to interrupt.
“Let me guess, you respond to her needs before she even has a chance to vocalise anything?” Yuugi said, crossing her arms.
Satori’s cheeks slowly turn red. It's not often Satori is on the backfoot in a conversation. She doesn’t like it.
Yuugi sighed. “Ya know, it's not often you hear this, but Satori… you are too good at parenting. You are gonna completely ruin this kid.”
“What should I do?” Satori said meekly.
“I don’t know what you are gonna do. But I’m gonna find that Fairy, you look like you need more help than you think.” Yuugi said, walking to the door. “I guess, just try and get her to talk. Not sure what else you can do. Cya.”
“See you later.” Mumbled Satori. As the Oni left the room.
She looked at Hailey, who tilted her head.
‘ It's not too late… I can fix this… right? ’ Satori thought, feeling a lot less confident about her parenting.
Notes:
Sorry for the brevity of this chapter, I know its very short, but it just felt like a more natural way to stop, maybe I’ll give you three later today to make up for it.
But yeah… Oops. Satori made a simple error in interspecies parenting that is going to complicate Hailey’s life in a way that conveniently makes a much more interesting story :3.
But yeah, the idea for a mute Hailey was just something that came to me when I thought about a potential consequence of being parented by a Satori, and it was too fun not to implement.
A little secret, Satori being an over attentive, over protective parent is going to be a running theme in this story. Besides the whole being mute thing, Hailey’s life gonna be on easy mode.
Fun fact, in the first draft of this chapter Okuu wasn’t in this chapter. But after some people who were interested in this chapter mentioned her, I realised that Okuu had not appeared in any of the chapters I had written for this story so far, so I corrected this by introducing her here, this is why she doesn’t really do much or say anything in this chapter.
On a related note, you might notice that Okuu is, according to Yuugi and Satori, a newly personified youkai, and probably as you might extrapolate, not yet the nuclear raven we are all used to. This is simply because HP takes place in the 90s, and Windows canon games are implied to start in the early 2000s, meaning that we won’t be getting nuclear Okuu until post cannon (as a side note, this is why in every other of my Touhou/HP crossovers Reimu and Marisa are kids).
However, in this instance, I am planning on bending a few of my rules, because I want the events of Subterranean Animalism to happen during this story. Basically the method Koishi used to get to England and kidnap a baby also causes a small amount of time displacement, meaning that the parts that are in Old hell are technically taking place a few years in the future compared to the parts in England. For absolutely no reason other than this single petty reason. I only told you this now so I don’t have to explain the time disparity in this story compared to my others, it's likely that the characters in the story won’t even notice.
Chapter Text
It turns out, fixing it was a lot harder than anticipated.
It wasn’t that Hailey couldn’t talk.
She didn’t want to talk. And no amount of pleading or bribes had persuaded her beyond one or two words at a time.
And Satori couldn’t quite figure out why, as vexing as that was for the mind reader, as it seemed not even Hailey herself fully understood her reasoning, meaning it was probably something subconscious.
She had tried asking her sister, but her only response was, “Because she loves you!” which while heartwarming, really didn’t help.
So now, three years later, the now no longer infant Hailey stayed resolutely mute.
Satori sighed as she stared into her teacup.
‘ Parenting troubles? ’ Shiki thought, Sipping tea.
“Nothing new, Hailey’s pathological muteness is an ongoing concern, but we have learned to deal with it. Most of my pets have become adept at reading her body language, and it was never a problem for me. Koishi also seems to have little difficulty reading Hailey like a book.” Satori explained.
Since adopting Hailey, Shiki had given her an open door policy regarding the child, and Satori often sought out her advice in matters involving her. This had resulted in the two meeting each other far more frequently, and while this had started out fairly professional, they had become a bit more casual over the years. Sometimes Satori just needed another responsible adult to talk to about her woes, despite Shiki being as single and childless as Satori had been previously. In fact, while she already respected Shiki as an employer, she found she quite liked the Yama’s company, and the feeling was surprisingly mutual.
‘ That is heartening, I was worried at first. And meeting Hailey, I was struggling to get a read from her .’ Shiki thought.
“Orin claims it's fairly easy once you get used to it, her body language speaks volumes. Not that I would know.” Satori said. “Nevertheless, I still worry. Her inability to communicate might hamper her later in life.”
‘ An understandable concern, communication disorders can be difficult gaps to overcome ’ Shiki thought. ‘Have you been teaching her sign like I suggested? ’
“Yes, and thankfully she has taken to it slightly better than speech, although she is still reluctant to use it. I have to get Orin to do the teaching as well, since she refuses to do it with me… It’s strange, I don’t know why, but she not only expects but demands to have her mind read when conversing with me.”
‘ If I had to guess, she probably enjoys the intimacy ’ Shiki thought. ‘ although… have you ever mentioned how Satori traditionally communicate with one another? ’
Satori thought about it. “Perhaps once or twice.” she admitted.
‘ And has she ever harboured desires to be more like you? ’ Shiki’s thoughts continued.
“Quite often,” Satori said. She quickly browsed Shiki’s train of thought. “You think she is trying to be more like a Satori?”
‘ It seems likely, she probably doesn’t fully understand what a Satori is yet, but she probably has an understanding that she is not one, and you are. ’ Shiki explained. ‘ Perhaps in a desire to become closer to you, she is trying to emulate Satori behaviour subconsciously. ’
Satori stewed in this, before sighing. “Goodness, I really messed up this whole human parenting thing didn’t I?”
‘ I wouldn’t say that. ’ Shiki thought. ‘ Parenting is not something easy as I understand, and there are more wrong ways to do it then right. But at the same time, I don’t think that anyone could be considered a truly bad parent when they care as much as you do, and are as loved as you. In the end you are trying to do the best you can, with a serious interspecies handicap. I still stand by my initial assessment, and I think you have honestly done a wonderful job. ’
Satori flushed a little and averted her gaze. “Those are high praise coming from you.” She sipped her tea.
‘ She can be quite cute when embarrassed. ’ An errant thought came unbidden drifting across Shiki’s mind, despite her attempts to squash it. Satori nearly choked on her tea.
After an awkward silence, at least for Shiki, as Satori could hear the Yama mentally berrating herself, for thinking such thoughts about a subordinate and co-worker.
Shiki cleared her throat, remembered she didn’t have to do that, and thought as usual. ‘ Apologies, I have probably made you uncomfortable. ’
“It’s fine, such thoughts happen. The mind is difficult to steer, even to a Satori. We tend to take such errant thoughts at face value. To us, that would have been a compliment,” Satori said. who had gotten her own flush under control. “I was just... surprised. I just didn’t expect you to be one prone to such thoughts.”
‘ Especially about me, ’ Satori added in the privacy of her own head. She doesn’t think she’s ever been called cute before.
Except for Yuugi, but she calls everyone smaller then her cute, so that doesn’t really count.
‘ I don’t think I’m prone to such thoughts… then again, perhaps I have, I am not usually as conscious of my thoughts then when I am with you, so it is possible I simply did not commit it to memory. ’ Shiki thought.
Satori couldn’t help herself. “Anyone else you find cute?”
Shiki seemed to short circuit as she tried to search her own brain for anyone else she might have thought of as cute. It made Satori feel slightly bad.
“...Hailey.” Shiki actually said it out loud, before switching back to thought speak. ‘ I mean, Hailey is a pretty cute child wouldn’t you think? ’
Satori decided to show mercy. “That she is. We probably got a little side tracked didn’t we?”
‘ Indeed, we were talking about Hailey… and her communication problems. ’ Shiki thought. ‘ If you are still feeling concerned, perhaps one possible approach would be to widen her social circle, put her in more social situations away from you. This might incentivise speech if you are not available to translate her thoughts. ’
“I understand what you mean, but wouldn’t that be a bit like throwing her in the deep end?” Satori asked.
‘ It doesn’t have to be. Orin could be a chaperone, she is the best at reading Hailey and with a good head on her shoulders, but can’t transcribe Haileys thoughts like you can. While she might be a little uncomfortable, it might be good for her if she gains some acquaintances she wants to speak to besides you, and you don’t need to be far away. ’ Shiki said.
Satori thought about it, it sounded like a good idea in theory, but she found one major flaw. “I mean, I understand where you are coming from, but… where would I even take her?”
This question also threw Shiki for a loop. ‘ That’s… a very good point… do you ever take her to the former capital? ’
“Too dangerous.” Satori said.
Shiki nodded. ‘ Right, too many Oni and other such beasts, and she is a human child… is there any school you could send her to? ’
“In former Hell? I home school her for a reason.” Satori said.
‘ Foolish question ’ acknowledged Shiki. ‘ You can’t really send her to the surface either… ’
Satori shook her head, “The treaty forbids us underground youkai from going up. As a human, Hailey is not bound by that treaty, but she would have to go up alone…”
Both minds rejected the thought.
‘ ... There is always the New Years party in Higan? ’
“You mean the dull as dishwater party that neither of us attend, because we have better things to do than make awkward small talk with barely acquainted coworkers?” Satori deadpanned. “Are we even allowed to bring kids?”
‘ ...This is most vexing. ’ Shiki thought.
Satori nodded, but after a moment she started looking thoughtful. “Actually we may be overthinking this…”
Shiki looked up. ‘ What do you mean? ’
“Well, we are worried about her communication skills, because it will make it difficult to communicate with people outside of this palace while I am not there… But realistically, as we established, when will she be in a position where I will not be in arms reach?” Satori asked, “Former Hell is too dangerous, and she can’t go to the surface… I can’t see any scenario where she leaves the palace without me.”
Shiki blinked. ‘ You have a point… but doesn’t that effectively make her a prisoner of the Palace? ’
Satori sighed. “Sometimes I do wonder about that.”
Shiki frowned. ‘ Now Satori, I know you probably want more for her than that… ’
“It's not about what I want for her.” Satori said, feeling tired. And staring into her now empty cup. “It's about what I am capable of giving. A human in old Hell does not have a lot of future prospects, and as established, I failed utterly in teaching her to be human. A comfortable life in the Palace of earth spirits is all I can really afford to give… and maybe a clerical job in Higan perhaps, although she isn’t that good at math.”
Shiki studies Satori’s face, and sighs. ‘ I understand, her future prospects do look somewhat bleak, at least for the moment. ’ Satori looks up, as Shiki continued, ‘ But a lot could happen in the future, and if you just do your best to prepare her for whatever future she may end up pursuing, that will be enough. ’
Satori smiled a little. “Just do my best huh? I guess that will have to be enough.”
‘ She has a cute smile too. ’ was Shiki’s brain’s contribution to this discussion, but both of them elected to ignore it this time. ‘ I think we need to let the matter of her speech problem rest for the time being, at least until we have a solution. ’
“I suppose so…” Satori trailed off as Shiki observed her third eye shift to the door, followed by her head.
The door opened a moment later, and Hailey poked her head in.
‘ Mama, can’t sleep. ’ Hailey thought.
Satori gave a wry smile. “Go back to bed dear, I’ll be along in a minute.”
‘ Okay, be quick please. ’ Hailey said, shutting the door again. Shiki watched the third eye trace her movement through the wall.
“Sorry, Shiki-sama, it seems my little girl needs some help getting to sleep.” Satori said, getting up.
‘Shiki gave a chuckle. ‘ don’t mind me, I’ll see myself out. ’
“And so Princess Kaguya, leaving her mortal woes behind, ascended with the envoys to return to Tsuki no Miyako...” Satori trailed off as Hailey’s thoughts descended into the general white noise that was dreaming.
She closed the book and returned it to the shelf. She technically didn’t need it, her memory is perfect, and she has read it more than once, but it was more for the look of the thing more than anything. It felt right to tell a story with a book in your hand.
She walked back over to the bed, and looked at her sleeping daughter, studying her pale features, her waist long black hair, her delicate frame. She looked so peaceful… so fragile, like she would be carried away in the wind.
“What kind of future will you have?” Satori asked, stroking Hailey's hair knowing she was asleep and couldn’t answer.
“Too fragile for the underground, no prospects for the surface… Sometimes I wish you really were mine, then at least you’d be a Satori,” Satori said.
For Satori this was merely thinking aloud, an idle thought to be forgotten. But for the human child, despite being asleep, the simple suggestion rooted itself in her mind, and played back again and again as her subconscious mind unpacked that statement, in her semi-lucid state of dreaming.
“I wish you were mine…”
“I wish you were like me…”
“I wish you were a Satori...”
Satori had left the room by that point, but if she had still been there, she might have seen Hailey’s lips trace out the words...
‘Me too’
Notes:
As Promised, another chapter to make up for how brief the second one was.
So yes, as fully established, Hailey in this story is a pathological mute, subconsciously compelled to remain silent, is it fully realistic? Maybe not, but we’re going for it.
But yeah, Satori is worried about Little Hailey’s future, because she lives in Hell and Humans might as well be made of tissue paper compared to Oni. They are also looking for a place for Hailey to socialise safely with other people away from Satori (I planted a little seed there if you didn’t notice, it's called the rest of the plot :P ).
Also I wonder if anyone picked up the “Subtle” Hints to a rather unusual pairing that I have grown rather fond of while writing this story.
Also I didn’t mention the last time she appeared, but I’m aiming for the more cannon tall Shiki rather than the Fanon Smol Shiki. Nothing against it, but I like size gap couples, and Satori is already the Smol one.
Chapter Text
‘ Mama ’
“Yes Hai-chan?”
‘ Why am I not a Satori? ’
Satori sucked in her breath, before asking. “Why do you ask?”
‘ Children are usually the same creature as their parents, right? So why am I human? ’
Satori really didn’t want to have this conversation, she had been dreading it ever since Hailey was two. But Satori will not lie, and she is no different.
“Because… You were adopted, Hailey.”
‘ Like Kaguya-hime? ’
Satori withheld a sigh of relief, thank goodness for literature. “Yes, like Kaguya-hime. Only we didn’t find you in a bamboo stalk.”
Hailey pondered if there are any Bamboo in old Hell, before getting back on track. ‘ Where did I come from then? ’
“I honestly don’t know, Koishi one day arrived with you in her arms. Never told me where she got you from either.”
Hailey stewed in her thoughts. Satori decided to give her space, and so stayed silent as she continued preparing dinner.
‘ Were you ever curious? ’ Hailey asked.
“Very much so. But at some point I realised it didn’t really matter.”
Hailey was a sharp girl unfortunately. ‘ Did you want to return me? ’
“At first.” Satori admitted. “At the very least I would have liked the option to make the decision for myself.”
‘ You didn’t want me? ’
Satori sighed, put down her knife, and kneeled down to Hailey’s level, and put her arms on her shoulders. “Hailey, you are my daughter, and I wouldn’t trade you for anything. But when you first came to me, you were a baby of unknown origin, a stranger. But even then, it wasn’t that I didn’t want you, I just doubted my ability to look after you. Infants are fragile, humans especially so. You must also understand that was the past, you are no longer a stranger, and while I could have done a better job raising you, I am still proud to call you my daughter. You are wanted, never think otherwise.”
Hailey was hurt a little, Satori could tell, and she expected as much. Learning that you were unintentional, even in an unconventional sense, probably was not an easy blow to soften. But Satori will not lie, not least to her daughter.
Haileys thoughts were really swimming now.
“Do you need a little time to think?” Satori asked.
Hailey nodded.
Satori nodded in return, and pulled her into a hug. “Love you.”
Hailey nodded as Satori released the hug, before going to walk out the room, she stopped at the door. ‘ Love you too. ’
Satori released the breath she was holding. Before returning to chopping vegetables.
Truth was important, Satori reminded herself, otherwise how would anyone ever know when you were genuine?
Hailey stalked through the halls, trying to sort out her thoughts.
Such introspection was interrupted, when she was picked up from behind and twirled.
“Hello Hailey, Aunties here~” cooed Koishi, twirling Hailey in a spinning hug.
Hailey waited patiently for Koishi to put her down.
“Now what's got you down little Ringo?” Koishi asked, setting her down and turning her around.
Hailey sighed, and started signing. [I asked mama, and she told me I was adopted].
“Oh really?” Koishi said. “Well it must be true if Sister said it.”
[She said you were the one who brought me.] Hailey signed, eyes lidded in exasperation.
“Did I?” Koishi asked, “Well it must be true if Sister said it.”
She did a twirl. “But why are you upset? Sister loves you, that's not a luxury most people have. Certainly better than what you had. All that matters is now.”
[You remember where I came from?] Hailey signed, eyebrow raising in surprise.
“Nope!” Koishi said, and after a beat of whatever Koishi had instead of thoughts passed, she continued. “I can show you where it is though. Wanna see?”
Hailey stared blankly at Koishi for a while, before signing [Sure, lets go. I just need to write a note.]
“Why?” said Koishi, as Hailey quickly pulled out a notebook and scribbled on a piece of paper, and gave it to the nearest passing animal. Which took it and padded back in the direction of the Kitchen. Only then did she put the notebook away and sign to Koishi. [so Mama knows where I am.]
“Weird, I never tell Sis where I go.” Koishi said.
[I know.] Hailey signed, schooling her expression to be as disapproving as possible.
Koishi cocked her head. But other than that, didn’t seem to be phased. “Well letsa go then!” Koishi said, taking Hailey by the hand and running deeper into the palace.
In the Kitchen, Satori was ruminating on if she could have worded that conversation better, when a little Kasha walked in with a note in its mouth.
“Hmm?” Satori said, taking the notice, and giving it a read.
[Going on a soul searching journey with Auntie, will try and be back before dinner.]
Satori dropped the knife.
Hailey blinked, then looked around.
The pair now stood in an English suburb on the sidewalk as the day slowly gave way to evening. Ordinary Londoners walked past, either unwilling or unable to perceive the Satori and the ghostly pale girl.
Hailey’s eyes drunk in the surrounding unfamiliar sights.
“Got any questions?” Koishi asked.
Hailey glanced at Koishi before pointing at a house.
“That's a house.” Koishi said.
Hailey cocked her eyebrow.
Koishi giggled “They are supposed to be that small silly, not everyone can live in a palace, there'd be no room.”
Hailey seemed to think about it, probably imagining old hell being completely filled with Palaces of Earth Spirits, and then nodded. She looked around more and then squinted.
“That’s the Sun, you don’t look at that.” Koishi said helpfully.
Blinking rapidly and averting her eyes, she tried signing in Koishi’s direction. [is this the surface?]
“No silly, it's a surface, I’ve been all over the surface, and I never found this place… maybe.” Koishi said. “Yet this clearly is the surface, so therefore it must be a surface.” Koishi rambled.
[how did we get here?]
“On our feet.” Koishi said. “Come on, it's not far.”
Koishi started walking, pulling Hailey along by the hand.
“Ah yes, Privit drive. Eenie meanie miny- That one!” koshi said seemingly randomly pointing out a house. “Number 4, where I found you.”
Hailey stared at the building that was functionally identical to every other building on the street.
“Yes I’m sure.” Koishi pulled her along. “Come on, let's spy on some ugly people.”
Hailey was pulled over to the front window, where a family dinner was taking place. A large fat man was sitting on the table, complaining about some unknown subject in an unknown language. A thin horse-like woman was fussing over the third member of the table, which resembled some sort of rotund gremlin, but was more probably some sort of child.
“Ugly aren’t they?” Koishi said, making Hailey raise an eyebrow.
“Oh I don’t mean looks.” Koishi said, “Although they aren’t exactly easy on the eyes. No, I mean in here.” Koishi holds a hand over her chest.
“You see there.” Koishi said pointing at the fat man, “his grumbling is directed at some workers who left his company for being underpaid and overworked, calling them slackers. And her.” the finger travelled to the horse-like woman. “She is comparing her ‘friends’ child to her own, finding fault in everything he does, while ignoring that her child has the very same flaws but worse.” The finger travelling to the Gremlin. “Inconsiderate, rude, bully, manipulative, greedy, it would take less time to list the problems he doesn’t have.”
Hailey watched in silence as Koishi pointed every member out.
Koishi then stepped back, making Hailey turn to face her. Koishi did a little twirl and started singing.
“An old man, clad in strange robes, dropped you off at this abode~”
“Mom and dad met a tragic end, on relatives he must depend.”
“But oh no, bad blood runs deep, for her sister’s death she would not weep.”
“So was the scene I happened upon, two ugly people who wished you were gone.”
“A house with no love would do you know good, so I took you away to one that could.”
She bowed.
Hailey, having watched Koishi’s little performance, turned back to watch through the window.
The Gremlin had started a tantrum over something.
“Soooo… curiosity sated?”
Hailey watched, for a moment, before smiling, and signing. [let's go home Koishi]
“All righty!” Koishi cheered, before leading Hailey away, the only evidence they were there was footprints in the garden bed.
But not everyone was as oblivious as the Dursleys.
It was in a swirl of Phoenix fire that Albus Dumbledore arrived in Privit drive not seconds after.
Now haste was not a word that one would usually associate with Albus Dumbledore, indeed his associates would often accuse him of dragging things out. One could say he had the patience of a saint.
If one knew this, one might understand the sheer urgency Dumbledore had apparently arrived with, as he hadn’t even changed out of his bedroom slippers.
One of the tracking widgets had gone off after being dormant for years. The one magicals use to keep track of children, or in this case, one Hailey Potter, who had vanished without trace ten years ago.
Immediately his senses, honed after years of fighting dark wizards, told him something was off.
His mind struggled to hold onto this feeling of wrongness, until he finally noticed the detail that his hindbrain was desperately trying to ignore, two figures walking down the street.
Barely remembering to cast a muggle concealment charm on himself and the phoenix perched on his shoulder. He made a brisk walk to catch up with the figures.
Before he could speak up the taller one spun on her heel, to face him with a big smile on her face, allowing Albus to get a good look at her.
A strange girl with mint green hair, and dark green eyes in a stylish black hat. She wore a fancy rose patterned green dress with an equally fancy yellow blouse being worn over the top, with a pair of simple, yet expensive looking boots decorated with a purple heart. To Dumbledore's experienced eyes, it suggested that this girl was a woman of means, or at the very least was friends with an extremely well off tailor. However, Dumbledore also noticed the the strange purple cords that seemed to extend from her ankles, Wrists, and under her blouse*, all of which terminated in an orb that hovered over her heart. They had a certain fleshy quality that implied that they were not mere accessories.
This girl was not human, that much was obvious.
“Oh Heyo, it's the Old man.” The girl spoke in a language Dumbledore didn’t know, but sounded like it came from somewhere in the east, Japanese perhaps?
Then her smaller companion turned around as well.
Her hair was a mess of waist length black hair, tamed only by its length, with a fringe swept to the left, covering one eye. Her Skin was ghostly pale, her one visible eye a brilliant green. She wore a pair of round glasses with thick black frames. Her dress was as black as her hair, but with red rose patterns embroidered into it, and unlike her companion, went to below the knees, and were accompanied by woollen stockings. The blouse she wore over the top was green to match her eyes, and had the same oversized sleeves, with black trimmings.
One thing that Drew Dumbledore’s attention more than anything however, was the lightning shaped discoloration on her forehead. Because not only did the presence of the Scar confirm who he was looking at, it also showed that the Scar had healed . Something Dumbledore didn’t think possible.
The girl, possibly sensing scrutiny, hid behind the taller girl, suggesting familiarity, as if their similar wardrobe hadn’t already done so.
“Hello!” Taller girl spoke, this time in perfectly passable english. “My name is Koishi, are you here to try and take Hailey back?”
Dumbledore blinked, before clearing his throat. “Well, miss-”
“You can’t have her, you know, she’s my Niece.” Koishi interrupted, picking up the girl and hugging her, the girl had an expression of calm resignation suggesting this happened often.
Dumbledore blinked again. There was something strange about her demeanour that he couldn’t quite put his finger on. And he was quite sure neither Lilly nor James had any relatives quite like this.
In order to avoid being interrupted again, he got right to the point. “My Name is Albus Dumbledore, a Wizard. May I ask exactly who you are?”
Koishi pouted. “I already said, my name is Koishi, Koishi Komeiji. Are you here to take Hailey or not? You feel very interested in her.”
It seems even the direct route was having difficulty, but he persevered. This creature/girl was unknown territory and her demeanour seemed deceptively simple. “I am more curious about how she ended up in your company, she vanished over ten years ago.”
“She didn’t vanish silly, she came home with me. Now she’s my Niece.” Koishi said.
This told Dumbledore two things. One, that this was indeed the kidnapper who snatched Hailey, and a being who is capable of removing an infant from a heavily warded house, and two, that this was not Hailey’s primary caregiver, if she indeed had one, and that there was a sibling, or honorary sibling that is doing so.
“And why did you do that?” Dumbledore asked, it was worth a shot, as the being seemed fairly receptive to answer questions.
“Because everyone deserves to be loved.” the girl said, with such uncharacteristic clarity, that it once more completely threw Dumbledore off.
The girl, clearly unable to follow the conversation, started tugging at Koishi’s sleeve.
“Hmm?” Koishi intoned, looking down at Hailey in her arms.
Hailey wiggled a bit, and Koishi put her down.
To Dumbledore's confusion, Hailey then started moving her hands in several strange patterns one after another.
“Ooh, right, of course, we are gonna be late for dinner!” Koishi said in Japanese, placing her fist in her upturned palm in realisation.
“Nice to meet ya Mr Dumbledore, but we gotta go, Hailey promised Sis that she’d be back for dinner.” Koishi said, switching back to english.
Dumbledore went from puzzlement to alarm. If they go back, Hailey might well disappear for another ten years.
“Excuse me, before you go, may I ask where you live?” Dumbledore asked.
“With my sister, Haileys mama… sometimes.” Koishi replied.
“And where does your sister live?” He tried.
“Somewhere farrrr away.” Koishi said, spreading out her arms. “Why, do ya wanna meet her?”
“If it wouldn’t be too much trouble.” Dumbledore said, somewhat hopeful.
“Hmmm…” Koishi vocalised. “Well sis doesn’t really like surprise guests… Well, I’ll probably be coming back in the next few days, if you can still remember me, I’ll take you to sis if she says yes.”
Hailey was tugging more on Koishi’s sleeve. “Ok, ok coming.”
Before Dumbledore could say another thing, there was a sudden bluster of wind, and a stream of green rose petals. When Dumbledore could see clearly again, the pair was gone.
And Instantly he knew what the girl had meant, by ‘remember’, as he could feel his memories trying to slip away. Thinking quickly, lest his only lead vanish, he touched his wand to his temple, and drew out the memory.
Faux, knowing what to do, immediately teleported them back into his office.
Striding over to his cabinet, he pulled out the pensive and dropped the memory into it immediately.
Checking to see if the memory was intact, he sighed with relief. “Thank You my friend.”
Faux trillied happily.
As he poured over the memory however, he frowned. The memory was clear, and everything was intact… with the exception of Haileys chaperone. The figure was a greeny-yellow smudge, and try as he might, he couldn’t recall what she looked like, what she sounded like or even who she was. He recalled her being Haileys self declared aunt, but details like a name and appearance eluded him.
This disturbed Dumbledore more than he cared to admit. He knew of no such being that could affect the mind like that, especially his. Indeed, he imagines that somebody else wouldn't have even realised they were forgetting something.
“What sort of frightening creature is capable of such things?'' he asked to the room in general.
“I wonder what's for dinner?” said the frightening creature in question.
Notes:
*I have altered Koishi’s design slightly, giving her more cords than her canon appearance, mostly for the sake of taxonomic consistency between her and her sister, Although she still doesn’t have one attached to her head, for some thematic reasons. Might change it back later, not sure.
Writing Koishi is interesting, she is basically in a walking coma, sometimes little thoughts and memories float to the top, but otherwise she’s just not thinking.
Also as you might have noticed, Hailey doesn’t have a narrative voice, except when she is with Satori, this is a little bit of a writing experiment by having the main character's thoughts and feelings be opaque to the audience, being only able to guess based on her actions and what she signs, with the exception of when she is with her mother, who can transcribe them to us. I might get bored or give up on it later if it doesn’t work well, but for now, I felt it might be interesting for Hailey to be as mystifying to the audience as she is to the cast.
Koishi would be absolutely terrifying to deal with for anyone who doesn’t live in Gensokyo (she is still terrifying there, but then so is everybody else, so it balances out).
Also, still not explaining to you how Koishi got to London, I might reveal it later, or I might continue to keep it vague to annoy people.
Chapter Text
“Are you sure?” Satori asked again.
The door ravens squawked indignantly, broadcasting their certainty loudly.
Satori frowned, Hailey had apparently not left from the front door. Even Koishi had difficulty hiding from animals, or people who knew her, and the door ravens were both.
“I see… sorry for your time,” she said, stepping back inside the palace.
A moment ago she was preparing to send the entire flock out to try and find Hailey, but apparently she hasn’t even left the grounds, and now she wasn’t sure how much she should be panicking.
Maybe they left out the back? But the only thing back there was the tunnel to the blazing fires, and… No, not even Koishi… would she?
She started walking faster.
Before she could cross the length of the Palace she heard Koishi’s laughter, and she immediately took a hard left, and broke into a run. She almost cried with relief when she heard Haileys thoughts, which were surprised to hear the sounds of running feet.
Satori immediately rounded the corner, skidding on the polished stone floors, spotting her wide eyed daughter, before crossing the floor at the speed of fright and immediately embraced her daughter.
“Thank goodness you are alright!” She then held her at arms length. “You are alright right? Any injuries? Any grazes, did you walk through any foliage? What about burns? Did any strangers accost you? Do you have any idea how worried I was? Where did Koishi take you?”
“Hey Sis!” Koishi said waving, “what’s got you so worried?”
Satori shot her a scathing look, causing Koishi to recoil.
Satori, realising she was scaring her sister, she quickly took some breathing exercises, before speaking in the firmest voice she could manage. “Koishi, Please never, ever , take Hailey out of the palace without telling me.”
Koishi’s voice wobbled. “Are you mad at me?”
“I’m never mad at you Koishi.” Satori said, this time soothingly. “But you scared me a lot, do you understand?”
Koishi nodded, still looking a little scared herself.
Having calmed herself down, she turned back to Hailey, who was still trying to process seeing her mother lose her cool. “Now Hailey, where exactly have you been? I was quite worried, I thought you had left the Palace.”
Hailey shuffled her feet. ‘Aunty showed me where I came from.’
“She what?” Satori exclaimed. “How and where!?”
‘Don’t know, I blacked out for a minute, and then we were somewhere on the surface.’ Hailey admitted. ‘Am I in trouble?’
Satori before answering, turned to Koishi again, who seemed to have defaulted back to her vacant cheeriness. “Where did you take her?”
“Where I found her.” Koishi said, happily.
“How did you get there?”
“A shortcut.”
Satori sighed, before turning back to her daughter. “You are not in trouble per say, but please, You know I have told you not to leave the grounds without permission, the note you left gave me quite a scare I’ll have you know. What exactly were you doing?”
Hailey shuffled her feet again. ‘Well Koishi was taking me, so I thought it was alright… Koishi offered to show me where I came from, and I thought it might help sort out my thoughts.’
“Oh… And what did you find?” Satori said, trying to keep her voice even.
Hailey looked her in the eyes. ‘That I’m really lucky to have mama.’
Satori’s breath hitched, before embracing Hailey. “Not half as lucky as I am to have you.”
“Awww~” Koishi cooed happily.
‘Mama, there was something else.’ Hailey thought, still in the hug, recalling the encounter with the old man. ‘He seemed to recognise me.’
Satori blinked, before disengaging the hug and looking quizzically at Koishi. “I understand you spoke to somebody while you were there, somebody who was able to see you?”
“Maybe I did.” Koishi said, swaying from side to side. “Can’t remember though… I’ll be going back sometime, maybe he might still be there.”
Satori sighed, before thinking about Haileys recollections of the event. Perhaps she should have taught Hailey English, then maybe she might be less confused about what this was about, or perhaps if Hailey had perfect recall like Satori, that is, the species, then Satori could have figured it out herself from the memory itself. It looked somewhat important though, and the place where Koishi had taken Hailey looked like nothing she had seen before coming to Hell. It didn’t even look like Japan for that matter…
Glancing at Hailey, an idea formed in her head, chances are, if that wasn’t Japan, it wasn’t in that new (relatively speaking) barrier thing on the surface, so likely the treaty doesn’t apply to there. Perhaps a place could be found to socialise Hailey and allow her to broaden her horizons while interacting with her own kind.
Hailey pouted, and thought, ‘it's not fair how I never know what mama is thinking.’
Satori chuckled, and ruffled Haileys hair, but since the thought wasn’t intended for her she kept her comment to herself, it wasn’t the first time her daughter had that thought after all. She returned to her own train of thought. But that could work, maybe help get Hailey over her speech disorder, and perhaps expand her future prospects and outlook.
Satori then turned her thoughts back to the old man. The inclusion of someone who seemingly recognised Hailey does complicate things, for all Satori knows she might have enemies she never even knew about by ‘adopting’ Hailey. Perhaps it would be worth scoping things out…
“Koishi,” Satori said, beckoning her over.
“Yes sis?” Koishi said, coming over.
Satori reaches into Koishi’s blouse, and pulls out a length of ribbon that she keeps stowed in the inside pocket, the other end being tied around Koishi’s waist. “Please join us for dinner, then I want you to help me run some errands.”
“Okay~” Koishi sung happily.
Satori nodded, before leading Koishi back towards the kitchens, where she left one of the Kasha in charge of dinner. Hailey walked beside her, puzzled about her mothers actions.
She still occasionally felt bad about keeping a leash for her sister, but honestly it was the only way to stop her from wandering off while she wasn’t looking, so she had gotten used to it. And If Koishi was going to show her exactly where this ‘shortcut’ was, she needed her around.
Minerva McGonnagal, Deputy headmistress of Hogwarts and currently rather disgruntled tabby cat, sat impassively at the corner of Privet Drive, just like she had done so many years ago.
The reason for her current mood was having been called in just before bed by her colleague and old friend Albus, who after almost ten years actually found Hailey Potter… Briefly. Apparently she had been being shaparoned through this neighbourhood by none other than her kidnapper, but had vanished again before Dumbledore could fully do anything one way or another.
Apparently due to some odd nature of the… being in question, who Dumbledore could only refer to as Hailey’s self declared Aunt, recalling any significant detail about her was impossible, which might have explained how the being could have broken into one of the most heavily warded houses in Britain, and walked off with a baby.
She had still not fully forgiven Dumbledore for somehow letting that happen. Although after seeing how shaken up Dumbledore had been after meeting the being in question, perhaps she was being too hard on him.
She had questioned why he let the being go, and Dumbledore had given two reasons, the first was that hailey was clearly attached to her kidnapper, from what little he could recall, and in attempting to forcefully remove her would probably not endear himself to the young girl, even if it didn’t traumatise her. And the far more chilling answer was that if the being could affect his mind like that in passing, what could it do if Dumbledore had actually threatened it.
So Here Minerva was, on stake out, on the loose hope that the being currently walking down the street would fulfil its loose promise to return sometime in the near future.
As the being and another like it began to approach, Mcgonnagal wondered if this was nothing more than a futile gesture, for all they know the promise to return was merely a lie from a kidnapper.
The second figure was looking around now, as the first pointed out random things to her, before she zoned in on the cat, who was resigning herself to many nights of this potentially fruitless activity.
The figures drew closer, and Mcgonnagal leaned to the side in order to see the street around them. At least it's a quiet night, she thought.
“Excuse me.”
Suddenly there was somebody in front of her, and Mcgonnagal couldn’t help an undignified yowl, as she sprung a foot into the air.
“Apologies, I believe we are the people you are looking for?” Satori said evenly, kneeling down to better speak to her.
Mcgonnagal took a moment to collect herself, and quickly studied the person in front of her, a rather short woman with short purple hair, and most alarmingly, thick organic-looking red and yellow cords coming out of each of her bodies extremities, all ending in an orb with a single unblinking eye embedded in it, that was suspended over her chest.
It took Mcgonnagal a moment to realise that there was indeed another one behind her, only green being the primary colour in her palette, and at closer examination her third eye was closed.
“Are you finished?” Satori asked. “I am Satori Komeiji, this is my sister Koishi Komeiji, and you are… Miss Mcgonnagal, you have led me to believe you are looking for my daughter.”
Mcgonnagal was blown back by all this bombardment, where even if she could reply as a cat, this woman, Satori, gave her no room… and how did she know her name?
“Simple, I can read minds, and by questioning your identity I gave your mind a cue to recall your own name, so I could see it.” Satori said. “Now back to my questions, Are you or are you not looking for my daughter?”
What was this… woman asking about daughters? She was looking for Hailey Potters kidnapper… who called herself Haileys Aunt.
“Glad to see you are up to speed, I was afraid I was going to have to spell that out.” Satori said. “Yes I am Hailey’s adoptive mother, although it's Hailey Komeiji now, just so you know.”
Adopted?! The sheer audacity… she was literally kidnapped-
“If it makes it any better, I was just as surprised as you.” Satori said. “Koishi just tends to do whatever she feels like.”
Mcgonnagal had so much to say to that statement, but as she was currently a cat, she could not say any of it, so quickly glancing up and down the street, to make sure nobody else was watching she turned back.
Satori straightened up and looked up to the now much taller woman and sighed. “Must you? It's much easier for me to talk to a cat.”
“I can’t talk back to you as a cat Miss Komeiji.” Mcgonnagal said, as sternly as she could manage, which was quite a lot.
“I know. Can you imagine how frustrating it is to hear everything anybody says twice?” Satori said, unphased. “And people wonder why I’m so irritable.”
“I’d honestly much rather you stop reading my mind right this instant-” Mcgonnagal said, strengthening her Occlumency.
“I’m afraid I cannot, I cannot stop reading minds any more then you can stop your heart beating.” Satori interjected. “And don’t bother, I am not a legilimens, I am a mind reader, any thoughts you have, I see. The only way to stop me is to not think.”
Mcgonagall was taken aback. What is this Satori woman-
If you must know, I am a Satori, my name is my species. Don’t ask, it's not a fun story.” Satori said, blankly.
Mcgonnagall blinked, she had never heard of a Satori before-
“They are Japanese, and very rare, as far as I am aware there are only two left in existence, and you are looking at both.” Satori said.
Mcgonnall jumped, she had forgotten that the other one was there for a moment-
“Yes, she does have that effect on people.”
“Could you stop interrupting me before I even have a chance to ask the question!” Mcgonagall snapped.
“I’d rather not, the alternative annoys me.” Satori said.
“This is why you don’t have frieeennnds~” Koishi sung, swaying from side to side.
Satori ignored her. “By the way it is rather late, perhaps you should not be raising your voice if you do not want to be noticed.”
Mcgonagall quickly whipped her head around, but thankfully nobody seemed to be around yet, but still.
“Come this way.” she said, quickly walking away. Luckily she knew where there was a park nearby.
“If you insist.” Satori said, following, giving a small tug to Koishi’s waist ribbon, making her follow along.
While they walked, Mcgonagall took the time to sort out her thoughts. So far what she has been told by Satori seems to be in line with what Dumbldore managed to glean from… well what must be this Satori person's sister, the self declared aunt, whoever that might be. But yes, apparently Hailey was kidnapped and brought to this Satori. Although to add layers of complication to this, apparently Satori was also surprised by this. What were this sister's goals in doing this? Was it just a random act? Do they even know who Hailey Potter is? Do they have anything to do with Voldemort?
For that matter, why had Satori not interrupted her yet? She seemed to usually cut her off while she was thinking.
She glanced back at Satori, who was merely examining her surroundings with interest as she walked, no real indication that she was listening.
Turning forward, Mcgonagall wondered if she was lying about not being able to stop reading minds, or at the very least, there was some criteria that she had not mentioned, like perhaps the third eye had to be looking at you perhaps?
Nevertheless, they arrived in a secluded section of the park and Mcgonnagall rounded on Satori, and opened her mouth to speak.
“The answers in order: her goals are mysterious to you as they are to me, although she implied that she thought I would make a better guardian then her current one. Pretty much, everything my sister does is random. I don’t know to what you are referring to, but considering I raised her for ten years I probably know more about her then you do. I don’t know who that is. Satori Etiquette dictates that you don’t respond to people's thoughts when they are not addressed to you. And while the eye is the main sensory organ for the mind reading, it does not, in fact, need to be looking at you.”
Mcgonagall shut her mouth again, as she tried to unpack all that. She then opened it again.
“Yes I am serious. My sister has a… condition, where she lost her ability to read minds, including her own. She is incapable of thought, and does everything on impulse, reflex and or instinct.” Satori said. “This has had the added effect that those who do not know her well cannot see her unless she draws attention to herself, and then swiftly forget her the moment she leaves your line of sight, like you have done twice already. So when I say that Haileys kidnapping was random, I mean it. I made no effort to return her because I did not know where she got it from, and what little she did say on the subject dissuaded me from looking too hard.”
Mcgonagall wondered what she meant by that, but this time made no effort to vocalise it because-
“Her exact words were, ‘because everybody deserves to be loved’ if you are curious, she has never said any more or any less on the subject, even to me. Although earlier today Koishi did elect to show Hailey where she came from, and Hailey was not impressed, nor was I really, they seem like awful people to say the least.”
Mgonagall could not really argue with that, having had the same opinion of the Dursleys herself. Was this just the long and the short of it? This Koishi person just saw a baby in a bad home and… decided to bring it to her sister to raise properly? So they really had no idea about who Hailey was, and her story-
“Well I do now.” Satori said, “or at least the vague gist of it. This ‘Voldermort’ fellow,” Mcgonagall flinched, “Killed her parents and tried to kill her, only for her to survive and cause Voldemort to somehow die, probably some kind of spell backfire.”
Mcgonagall nodded, unable to think of any other way to react to such a blunt summary.
Satori sighed. “Well at least that explains whose Horcrux was embedded in her forehead.”
Mcgonagall gasped.
Satori waved it off. “Don’t worry I had it removed… although it is worth noting he apparently had five more.”
This was too much for Mcgonagall. “Excuse me, I need to contact Professor Dumbledore.”
“Please do.” Satori said, as Mcgonagall conjured a patronus to relay a message to Dumbledore. “I have some questions for him myself.”
An idea was forming, maybe two birds with one stone.
It took several minutes for the headmaster of Hogwarts to arrive in a swirl of Phoenix fire. Satori was impressed with the figure he cut, the very picture of a venerable western style spellcaster. His wardrobe was somewhat eccentric, but honestly the more powerful ones often were.
Mcgonagall immediately walked up to him and started explaining everything Satori had told her in hushed voices.
As the events were explained to him he looked around, after a few moments somehow managing to catch Koishi’s presence too, which was impressive in of itself.
While they were talking, Fawkes looked curiously before gliding over and landing on Satori’s outstretched arm.
“Well Hello there, aren’t you a handsome creature.” Satori said, rubbing under the phoenix’s beak. “Not everyday you see a phoenix.”
Fawkes trilled happily.
“I must say I’ve never seen Fawkes take to somebody so quickly.” Albus said approaching after hearing Mcgonagall's explanation.
“So is the nature of the Satori. While we are despised and hunted by those who fear to have their inner voice heard, the voiceless are naturally drawn to us.” Satori said, not moving her eyes from the Phoenix. “The feeling is mutual, I tend to prefer the company of animals.”
“Hunted-?” Dumbledore began, but Satori, as is her habit, cut him off.
“There is a reason only two of us are left.” Satori said bluntly, turning to face Dumbledore. “But that was the past. We are in the present, and I understand you have questions. First off, yes Hailey had a Horcrux, it was embedded in the scar in her forehead. I had a co-worker of mine remove it. No, I cannot do so myself. Yes this Voldemort fellow has five more, according to my Superior, who was present at the time. No I don’t know what they are or where they might be, I washed my hands of the matter after it stopped being relevant to Hailey.”
She then raised her eyebrow. “What's this about a prophecy?”
Dumbledore coughed at that last part. “Wha-”
“Oh that is just perfect.” Satori mumbled. “Don’t worry I won’t say it out loud, but good grief that really torpedoes my plans.”
“Plans?” Dumbledore said in surprise. Did Satori have some sort of-
“Let me just cut you off right there.” Satori said. “No, I did not have any ulterior motives to adopt Hailey. But as her mother I am allowed to plan for my daughter’s future. Specifically in this case, I was considering whether to have her enrol in your school or not.”
“You were?” both Dumbledore and Mcgonagall said in unison.
“Well yes.” Satori said, shrugging her shoulders, “You seemed interested in having her attend due to her magical background and out of obligation to her deceased biological parents. And I want Hailey somewhere safe above ground to meet new people and get out of her shell a bit, as there is rarely an opportunity for her to leave the palace.”
“Palace?” Mcgonagall said.
“Haven’t I mentioned that yet?” Satori said, tilting her head. “...I suppose I did not. My abode is in the Palace of the Earth spirits, in old Hell.”
Both Wizards’ eyes boggled. “Hell!?” Mcgonagall said. “Surely you jest!”
“ Old Hell, they moved it to a new subspace due to overpopulation.” Satori corrected. “But I suppose I should properly introduce myself, I am Satori Komeiji, Mistress of the Palace of the Earth Spirits, Chireiden in my own tongue, and Custodian of old Hell, as appointed by the Ministry of Right and Wrong after they ceased official use of the space.” She curtseed. “Well met.”
For Dumbledore there was a lot to unpack in that statement. For a start a whole lot of questions about the afterlife that even wizards have sought answers for for centuries, was apparently just standing in front of him. But probably the more relevant point-
“Hailey is in Hell!?” Mcgonagall exclaimed.
“Old Hell.” Satori corrected. “But yes it is somewhat dangerous, which is why she is largely confined to the Palace, where she has myself and my pets to keep an eye on her. However it has led to her to be somewhat… Sheltered.” At the unspoken question Satori clarified. “She has a communication disorder, she is a selective mute.”
Suddenly the weird hand waving she was doing when Dumbledore saw her briefly suddenly made a lot of sense.
“Yes, she has been taught sign, and can write, but does not speak a word.”
“What-” Mcgonagall tried to ask.
“Physically nothing.” Satori said. “The Issue is psychological as far as I can tell, although it’s Subconscious, so I can not tell you for certain.” At their searching expression she sighed. “It was probably my fault, I was an… extremely attentive parent, as an infant she never even needed to cry. Satori infants rarely vocalise anything, so I never noticed until it was too late.” She gazed into the distance, looking for all the world looking like a concerned parent, before focusing again on Dumbledore. “Which is why I was considering having her enrol in your school. I had hoped that exposing her to other people in a safe environment would... maybe give her a stronger incentive to use her voice. At the very least it would give her wider future prospects than homeschooling in my palace could give her.”
To her own surprise Mcgonagall found herself softening to Satori. Despite her rather abrasive personality, she clearly cared a lot about Hailey, and even after admitting she may have accidentally made her mute, she was still trying to fix her mistakes.
“Thank you, I know I can be difficult.” Satori said.
This of course annoyed Mcgonagall but she reminded herself that apparently Satori could not help it.
“Thank you, I do not need you to like me, only understand.” Satori said. “But now I am not entirely sure if I'm comfortable sending her to your school.”
“Why not?” Dumbledore said.
“There is a prophecy that means an undead psychopath is after her life. You tell me.” Satori said dryly, crossing her arms. “I want Hailey to get better, but not to the point of exposing her to that . She is rather delicate after all.” With a theatrical sigh she looks to the side. “That's the problem with Prophecies, study any classical literature and you will find that they are more trouble than they are worth. Any true prophecy is self fulfilling by nature, they rely on you knowing the prophecy for them to come to pass. If it were me, I’d choke the prophet before they could utter more than a single syllable.”
Dumbledore coughed awkwardly.
Satori rolled her eyes “Don’t worry your divination teacher is safe from me. That ship has long sailed.”
Now Dumbledore is conflicted on this, on the one hand, it is quite possible that Hailey Potter, or Hailey Komeiji, is quite possibly the safest she could possibly be from both the Prophecy and Voldermort, Ironic considering she was currently in hell-well old Hell (still quite a depressing fact to think that Hell closed due to overpopulation). But on the other hand, she is apparently extremely sheltered to the point that her adoptive mother is worried about her future. Also he still wanted Hailey to attend Hogwarts, if for nothing more than his own peace of mind to know that Lily and James' daughter is truly safe and well cared for.
“Your concern is noted, but I will need some serious assurances that this Voldemort fellow is not going to attack her while she is on the surface.” A thought crossed Satori’s mind. “Actually do you know where he might be? If I found him I could always drag him down to hell myself.”
“I’m afraid it might be more difficult than you think.” Dumbledore said.
“You underestimate me Dumbledore. I was appointed custodian due to my ability to subjugate the evil spirits that still haunt old hell.” Satori said, and then she smirked. “And I have found in my time there that it does not matter what method one used to prolong their life, once in Hell all sinners burn the same.”
Both Wizards felt a shiver down their spine at this.
“But still, what a shame.” Satori said, “This could be so simple.”
“Now while I understand your concern, I assure you that Hogwarts is-” Mcgonagall began.
“But can we be sure of that?” Satori cut off. “I’m sure your school is perfectly fine for all the students who are not being targeted by super villains, but how safe will it be for Hailey? I will need a full explanation for how you intend to keep her away from any villainous shenanigans.”
Dumbledore sighed. This was going to take a while, if one thing is for certain, Satori is definitely a very protective parent…
One ungodly long discussion, a lot of headaches for some teachers and a very bored Koishi...
“Alright, I think under these conditions I could see Hailey attending your school.” Satori said. “But I have one additional condition.”
“And that is?” Dumbledore said tiredly, Mcgonagall having left a while ago to have a lie down.
“She will need a chaperone.” Satori said. “Somebody from my household must accompany her, both as her protection, and someone to interpret for her. I doubt your staff can understand sign after all.”
Dumbledore just nodded with relief, it was not even that big of a deal. In the past students with special needs were occasionally accompanied by House elves, either privately owned ones, or ones loaned from the school. This would be no different, he would not even have to run it by the school board. He did spend a moment wondering what her chaperone would be though.
“I am thinking Orin, one of my Pet Kasha. She has mastered both human form and speech, and knows Hailey well, having helped me raise her since she was a baby. She is also more than a match for this Voldemort person.”
Dumbledore was wondering if that was confidence or certainty. He did wonder what a Kasha was though.
“A type of Hellcat.” Satori said, smirking again. “Their duty is to steal the bodies of the wicked to stoke the blazing fires of hell. They don’t have to be dead bodies either, It won’t be the first evil wizard Orin has carted off kicking and screaming to hell, it won't be the last either.”
Dumbledore wondered if Satori got a kick out of unnerving people.
Satori shrugged. “I AM a Youkai, I’ve got to amuse myself somehow.”
Notes:
So many reviews were asking questions that were answered by this chapter that I just decided to publish this one right away. so I wouldn’t give away details that would be revealed in the next chapter anyway.
I’d also like to remind people not to carry too much character driven baggage into my story. I understand a lot of people dislike Dumbledore for some very questionable decisions he made in the later books, and his depiction in other Fanfictions. But try to avoid projecting onto this Dumbledore and give him character traits that I have not explicitly given him in my stories. It can be quite demoralising as a writer when I’m trying to write him as a well meaning, but realistically flawed old man weighed down by his past mistakes, but is still trying his best, who has a bit of the batty mentor persona, and everybody is always trying to type cast him as this scummy callous manipulator, which in my stories he has never actually been. I honestly liked Dumbledore in the first three books where Rowling was still writing fun adventure stories for kids rather than angsty teenage drama like books four to seven, so I mostly base my characterisation of him on that depiction.
But yeah, Satori shows off how protective she is of Hailey, by strong-arming Dumbledore into making sure Hailey stays safe at school, Orin will be accompanying her to school as a chaperone and interpreter (and Probably Okuu will be the messenger bird).
As for the English question, well, between Koishi’s manipulation of the subconscious, and Satori’s hypnotism, and manipulation of the conscious, it shouldn’t be too hard to quickly teach somebody a language.
Also Satori expresses her disdain of prophecy, and rightly so. Read any greek legend, and you will find that every prophesy hinged on the person hearing the prophecy, reacting to it, and then their reaction causing the prophecy to come about, examples include Kronos eating his sons because he heard a prophecy telling him that his son will overthrow him, leading to his wife hiding Zeus from him, who then overthrew him, or the legend of Perseus, his grandfather received a prophecy that his daughters son will kill him, so he locked her daughter up so she will not have a son, then Zeus screws his daughter anyway, so then he throws his daughter and his son in a box into the ocean, but they survive, then fast forward to Perseus having grown up, and deciding to make amends with his grandfather, but his grandfather, still scared of the prophecy instead runs away, which leads to him being in the crowd of the Olympic games, where he was accidentally clocked in the head and killed by a misthrown discus, which of course was thrown by Perseus. Voldemort finds out about a prophecy that a child will merc him, goes to merc the child first, gets merc’d instead, and then again later by the child because he kept trying to merc the child even after the first time went so well. Prophecies are useless, and diminish the agency of everybody involved. The correct response to hearing a prophecy is to drink bleach until you forget it, then at least you can be sure that the decisions you make will be your own.
Chapter Text
“Hello” Satori said in Japanese.
‘Hello’ Hailey thought in English.
“Good Morning,” Satori said in Japanese.
‘Good morning’ Hailey thought, once more in English
“Goodbye”
‘Goodbye’
“Boy”
‘Boy’
“Girl”
‘Girl’
In preparation for Hailey's new school, Satori was teaching her english… in a very Satori way.
Hailey had her head in Koishi’s lap, with Koishi’s hands on both her temples, while Satori’s third eye hovered above her face, lulling her into a hypnotic trance. This process has been going on for hours, Satori randomly cycling through all the English words she knows, as her hypnotism and Koishi’s subconscious manipulation imparted her understanding and knowledge of a new language.
“Inconsistent”
‘Inconsistent’
“Random”
Random’
“Strange”
‘Ramen’
Satori paused, and tried again.
“Strange?”
‘Apples?’
Satori looked up at her sister.
“I’m Hungry.” Koishi said cheerfully.
Satori sighed.
The method was not completely without flaw however, she’s gonna have to fix that… after getting Koishi something to eat of course.
‘ Icecream cake? ’ Hailey thought, confused.
Satori, with Hailey holding on to the back of her dress, and accompanied by Rin, stepped into the rather dingy establishment known as the Leaky Cauldron.
The early morning crowd glanced at the strange woman and her company. Their thoughts revealing that despite all sorts coming through, that Satori was an entirely new kind of odd, what with her third eye.
Thankfully the thoughts were not yet hostile, likely because they did not recognise what she was, and had yet to open her mouth and annoy them in the way she was want to. So with that in mind, she welcomed the scrutiny, especially since it kept it off her young, shy and unfortunately incredibly famous daughter, clinging to her as her eyes darted around nervously.
Before the trip with Koishi, Haileys entire world had been the manor and its grounds down in old hell, now today she had seen more people then she even knew existed. To say she was overwhelmed was putting it lightly. Her thoughts buzzed between wanting to go home and hide from all the strange people, and her curiosity at wanting to explore this strange place.
Satori, from the knowledge she gleaned from Dumbledore and Mcgonagall, Hailey was likely to be mobbed with fans and wellwishers the minute it was revealed who she was, so Satori had taken special care to brush Haileys bangs extra low to better hide her most identifiable feature, her scar.
It was strange finding out your adopted daughter was a celebrity, they don’t cover this in parenting self help books.
She caught the eyes of Mcgonagall, as the Deputy Headmistress approached them from where she was waiting. Mcgonagall opened her mouth to speak, but Satori beat her to the punch as usual.
“Good morning Professor, yes I did find the place alright, the directions you gave me were more than enough, although I did have to avoid some of the more crowded streets, nevertheless I am confident I could find my way back if I had too.” Satori said.
Mcgonagall rolled her eyes, and started thinking instead. After understanding more about Satori during the long discussion in the park, her general frustration at dealing with Satori’s interruptions had downgraded to a more vague annoyance and resigned acceptance, which Satori appreciated.
‘Where there any problems with muggles? You pass for human well enough at a glance, but your third eye is undeniably strange.’ Mcgonagall thought.
“No problem, I have quite the knack for hypnotism, a little bit of eye contact and they suddenly don’t regard me as worth looking at.” Satori said, her third eye pivoting around her body, as if to show off how easy she could get someone's eye contact. “I don’t work well with crowds however, so I did take a detour or two.”
Satori then bowed respectfully. “I also apologise, as it seems that you have gotten the short straw in being my guide today.”
Mcgonagall sighed, a passing thought wondering why, if Satori knows she is this annoying to deal with, why she doesn’t make more of an effort to avoid it, before gathering her thoughts to think-speak in Satoris direction again. ‘It was somewhat of a forgone conclusion, I already knew of you and your tendencies. And Dumbledore would draw too much attention if he came himself.’
She then spotted Hailey peering out from behind Satori, watching her with a nervous curiosity.
Mcgonagall's face softened at the girl's shy countenance. ‘There is a small yard out back before we get into Diagon Alley proper, perhaps we should continue this conversation out there.’
Satori nodded and followed the teacher out the back door.
Once they were in the relative privacy outside, Satori spoke. “Now is probably the time for introductions. Hailey, this is Professor Mcgonagall, who is a teacher at your new school. Professor, this is my Daughter, Hailey Komeiji.”
Mcgonagall kneeled down and gave Hailey a reassuring smile, “It's nice to meet you Hailey, I haven’t seen you since you were a baby.”
Hailey gave Mcgonagall a shy little wave, her mind and eyes shimmering with a gentle curiosity.
“Professor, I would also introduce you to my pet Kasha, Rin Kaenbyou, also known as Orin, she is going to be Haileys chaperone.” Satori said, gesturing to the catgirl.
“Pleased to meet nya.” Rin said, giving a cheeky curtsey.
“Good morning… Nya?” Mcgonagall’s brow furrowed as her thoughts caught on the odd pronunciation.
“Its a Japanese cat pun.” Satori explained. “Nya is onomatopoeia for a cat's meow.”
“Right, you mentioned she would be some kind of hellcat.” Mcgonagall said, half to herself, as she eyed the ears and flicking tails. “Although-”
“Her primary form is that of a cat.” Satori interrupted, Rin changing to a cat and back to demonstrate, “She can just transform into a humanoid form at will.”
‘So like a reverse animagus.’ Mcgonagall thought to herself.
Before she could react, Rin was suddenly in her personal space, giving her a few sniffs.
“Wha-?” Mcgonagall exclaimed, but Rin was suddenly back by her master's side .
“You smell like a cat. I guess Master wasn’t joking when she said you were something of a cat person yourself.” Rin said, grinning.
Mcgonagall could only blink. ‘She is fast, very fast.’
Mcgonagall hadn’t had her guard up, but regardless, she had barely been a blur, she doesn’t think she could have stopped her from getting close even if she wanted to.
No wonder Satori chose her as a chaperone, and if they were being more honest, a bodyguard. most wizards would struggle fighting something that could close the distance that quickly.
“It was actually more of how personable she was, and how well she knows Hailey.” Satori said. “Although I would be lying if her combat ability was not a factor. But regardless, I brought her here to practise chaperoning Hailey. I intend to make Hailey handle some of the transaction’s today with Rin interpreting. Is that alright with you?”
‘Seems reasonable, best to practise while you are still here to supervise, and make sure there are no problems.’ Mcgonagall thought. ‘Regardless, we should continue, there is a lot of shopping to do.’
She walked up to the brick wall. ‘Now the way into the alley is through this wall, there is a specific pattern that has to be tapped in order to gain access,’ she quickly demonstrated the pattern, but didn’t actually touch the bricks, ‘usually this has to be done with a wand, but most muggle parents are given special amulets or trinkets to use instead, and many magical creatures can use their fingers or similar extremities, could you check if you can do so?’
“Very well.” Satori stepped forward, and perfectly copied the pattern, revealing the passage to Diagon Alley.
‘Very good, this means you can come in without assistance.’ Mcgonagall thought, ‘Now come this way.’
The group stepped into Diagon Alley, and the first steps into magical Britain proper.
The three hell dwellers took in their surroundings, in all subtly different ways.
Satori largely looked ahead, but with a certain degree of discomfort walking through the thin crowds, her brain being forced to parse every inane thought that passed through all those she passed, she pursed her lips in order to avoid a grimace or a scowl. Her third eye however was scanning up and down the street, checking every shopfront they passed, making mental notes of every shop sign, contents of the windows, as well as any other obvious landmarks, using her perfect memory to construct a mental map of the street.
Rin on the other hand strutted down the street like a cat on the prowl, her eyes instead training on the various people in the street, her catlike stare sending inexplicable shivers down people's spines as she used her Kasha senses to feel out the moral character of those around her. She couldn’t read minds like Satori, or read a person’s life like the Yama, but to her, Wickedness and Sin carried quite the pungent odours, and her catlike eyes were sharp enough to pick up the shape of a man’s character. Ever since the treaty prevented underground youkai from going above ground, and vice versa, she hadn’t personally gone corpse hunting in quite some time. Her old instincts itched.
To contrast to the confidence of her mother and chaperone, Hailey’s eyes darted around, trying to look at everything at once. This had been only the second time she had ever left the confines of her underground home. Everything was new to her, both the alley and the mundane city outside. Everything from the buildings, the people, the contents of the shops around her, even the sky was strange to her. She was still nervous of course, but her curiosity was steadily burning brighter.
Mcgonagall started thinking about the itinerary for Satori, but Satori spoke up.
“Actually Professor, do you mind speaking out loud for now? As we are using this for Hailey’s practice we should probably start including her in these conversations.” Satori said. “I’ll try my best and keep my interruptions to the minimum today.”
Mcgonagall shot her a very annoyed look, wishing Satori would make up her mind, and wondering very loudly, if that was indeed an option, why she insists on interrupting people.
Satori only gives a ‘sorry, not sorry’ kind of expression.
Despite giving a sigh, Mcgonagall was all too happy to start talking normally again. “Our first stop will be Gringotts Bank. Haley's Parents had left her a substantial inheritance, so we will be going to reactivate the account, and withdraw some funds for our shopping.”
“Good thing too, I wasn’t sure they would accept one hundred and fifty year old Yen as legal tender.” Satori said sardonically.
Hailey tugged at her dress. ‘What's a bank?’
Satori looked down at her daughter. “Why don’t you ask the nice Professor?” she said in an encouraging tone.
Hailey pouted, and tugged again a few times. ‘Please Mama.’
“I’m not going to ask for you.” Satori said, a bit more firm but still speaking kindly. “You need to practise when I’m not here to talk for you.”
‘ Mamaaaa. ’ Hailey thought-whined, tugging a few more times.
When this produced no results other than an incredibly short staring contest, and a raised eyebrow from her mother, she extremely hesitantly let Satori’s dress go, and started signing to Rin. [What's a Bank]
Rin then turned to Mcgonagall, who had stopped leading the group to watch the exchange. “Hailey asked ‘what’s a bank’.”
Mcgonagall smiled at the rather cute exchange, before explaining. “A bank is a building where people put their money for safekeeping. Your original mom and dad had a lot of money before they passed, and now it belongs to you.”
She then turned to Satori. “Dare I ask why she doesn’t know what banks are?”
Satori shrugged. “ It hadn’t really come up, banks are not really a thing in old hell, we keep all our savings either in my home or in my work accounts. Would you trust literal demons with your money?”
Mcgonagall considers it, before nodding, makes sense.
The group then continued, until the bank was before them.
“Before we go in, I should warn you that the bank is run by goblins.” Mcgonagall said at the bottom of the steps. “Do you or your kind have any problems with goblins I should be aware of?”
“No, European Goblins were not common in Japan, so Satori and Goblins have no specific grievances I am aware of.” Satori said, but smirked. “Mind you, I imagine, them being bankers, that they might have some grievances with me, seeing as how I am a being of truth.”
“A being of truth?” Mcgonagall asked as they climbed the steps.
“Oh a Satori is a youkai of truth,” Satori explained. “We will not lie, and nor will we allow falsehoods to be spoken in our presence. I strongly advise you to never lie in my presence, as even if it is for a good reason, It will take all my considerable willpower to not call you out, and even if I succeed, I am told it shows on my face.”
“Like she’s sucking a lemon while trying to work out who ripped an awful fart.” Rin added, amused.
“Quite.” Satori said flatly.
Mcgonagall made a mental note of that, briefly amusing herself with the mental image of Satori sitting in on a Wizgramot session.
“Ugh, politics.” Satori grimaced.
Stepping through the doors of the bank, Mcgonagall led them to an unoccupied counter.
“Should we get Hailey to make the withdrawal herself?” Rin asked.
Hailey looked up at the high counters, and the goblins manning them, and shook her head rapidly. ‘Please no.’
“We’ll spare her this time Rin. We don’t really know how this bank operates yet or any of Haileys account details, so it's best to leave it to Mcgonagall.” Satori said, making Hailey sag with relief.
Mcgonagall nodded and went to organise the withdrawal.
After talking with the Goblin clerk, the group was led to a tunnel with a cart on rails.
Having extracted the information from both Mcgonagall and the goblin, she turned to Hailey, “Alright Hailey, we are going to be riding on that cart to where they are keeping your money. This apparently goes very fast too, so for safety I’d like you to sit in the middle.”
‘ Yes mama. ’ Hailey thought, dutifully getting in when the Goblin directed her to, with Mcgonagall and Satori on each side of her. The cart was getting a little cramped, so Rin elected to sit on Haileys lap, in cat form.
The goblin looked at the unusual cat, and cautioned. “Keep a hold of that cat, our carts go very fast, and Gringots does not accept any liability for lost or injured pets and familiars.”
Hailey wrapped her arms around Rin as instructed, and just like that the cart launched down into the tunnels.
Hailey watched her surroundings with interest as the cart zoomed along through the winding tunnels and caves, and passed countless doors. She already felt more at home with a cavern roof over her head, and the speed reminded her of when Rin sometimes takes her on runs around the palace in her wheelbarrow. At the same time the environment was still different enough from home to feed her curiosity, the caverns they passed through being much smaller than the massive central chamber of old hell, and the chill in the wind buffeting her face was a solid contrast to the permanent dry heat from the eternal fires.
When they arrived at Haileys vault, Haileys nerves had receded considerably, and followed the goblin to her vault easily.
Satori on the other hand had to be helped out of the cart by Rin once she changed back to human.
“Satori are not built for speed.” Muttered Satori as her legs wobbled like a young fawn.
The goblin put the key in the lock, and revealed the contents, mounds of gold, silver and bronze coins.
Rin gave a whistle as she stepped up beside Hailey in the vault entrance. “Either inflation hit the wizarding world hard, or your old family was loaded, Hailey.”
“How much do you think we should need for Hailey's school supplies,” Satori asked Mcgonagall after she had regained her composure. “I admit I am not yet familiar with wizarding currency.”
“Of course.” Mcgonagall said, before starting a brief lecture on wizarding currency, and giving some examples of the value of some common items to give them a better idea of its value, including a good amount of money for today's shopping.
“...I advise you to take at least double that amount however. As you never know what additional expenses you might accrue, and it will save you another trip down here.” Mcgonagall concluded.
Satori considered this, before taking triple the amount, and mounding it into a shoulder bag Rin was carrying.
She pointedly ignored both the smug expression and thoughts of the Goblin.
She really didn’t like the cart ride.
Once more on the surface and out of the bank, Mcgonagall addressed the group.
“First off, here is Hailey’s vault key. Dumbledore had intended to return it to Hailey when she reached school age, but seeing as you are her guardian, we shall intrust it to you instead.”
Satori took the key, “Thank you.”
“Now that we have funds allocated, it is time to go shopping.” Mcgonagall said “We can start anywhere you like, although I suggest we start with buying you a trunk first. First years need a lot of supplies to prepare for their seven years of school, and it will be easier to carry with a trunk than without.”
“That seems reasonable.” Satori said. “But before we go…”
Satori then takes a small cloth purse with a clasped top, and hands it to Hailey.
“This is a purse filled with some wizarding money, if you see anything you want, even if it isn’t on the list, don’t be afraid to buy it. You can have anything you like, provided you buy it yourself.”
Hailey accepted hesitantly. ‘Alright mama.’
As they continued to the travel supply shop for the trunk, Mcgonagall pointedly thought something at Satori. ‘Is it wise to let an eleven year old buy whatever she wants? ’
“It's her money. Besides Hailey is a good girl. The only thing I’m worried about is if she doesn’t buy anything.” Satori said.
At this point, for the next few stops on their shopping trip went somewhat uneventfully, with Satori going down the list of Haileys school supplies, and making the purchases on her behalf. It wasn’t until around lunch time, when they passed an ice cream parlour, that Hailey was reluctantly put up to bat.
“Come on Hailey.” Satori gently coaxed. “Just pick whatever flavours you like, then tell Orin what you want, and then give the nice lady the money.”
Hailey eyed the counter dubiously, as well as the patient-looking counter clerk. ‘Do I have to?’
“You have to get used to it eventually.” Satori said, “You’ll be at school for more than half a year without me, and I need you to be able to interact with strangers without me there to hold your hand.”
‘I don’t want to go though.’ Hailey thought, looking at her feet.
“I know, but it will be good for you. You wouldn’t be going if I didn’t think it was important, and so is this, so please choose what ice cream you want.” Satori said, stroking Haileys head.
‘...alright.’ Hailey thought after some minor inner turmoil.
The clerk, slightly confused at the seemingly one sided dialog, said. “I don’t think I’ve ever met a kid who had to be convinced to get ice cream.”
“She’s just a little shy.” Satori said.
After browsing for a while. Hailey eventually decided on mint chocolate chip, which she signed to Rin. After receiving her frozen treat, and with some more coaxing, paying for it herself, the group continued on with their shopping. But now with Hailey having to complete some of the easier transactions herself.
Eventually this led to possibly the most important stop on the trip, the wand emporium.
They stepped into the small, pokey shop. The walls are covered with shelves packed high with small rectangular boxes.
“Good Afternoon.”
While Satori had felt the old man approach, Hailey most certainly did not, and she jumped, before clinging to Satori and looking around for the source, quickly spotting the almost ethereal silver eyed gentlemen.
“Ah yes," said the man. “Yes, yes. I thought I'd be seeing you soon. Hailey Potter.” It wasn't a question. “You have your mother's eyes. It seems only yesterday she was in here herself, buying her first wand. Ten and a quarter inches long, swishy, made of willow. Nice wand for charm work.” He got closer, as if examining Hailey. “Your father, on the other hand, favoured a mahogany wand. Eleven inches. Pliable. A little more power and excellent for transfiguration. Well, I say your father favoured it, it's really the wand that chooses the wizard, of course.”
Hailey clung closer to her mother, taken aback by the strange intensity, leading Satori to speak up.
“Excuse me, could you back off a little? you are frightening my daughter. And for the record, it's Hailey Komeiji now, not Potter.” Satori said curtly.
Olivander glanced up at Satori, but did back away respectfully. “Ah, apologies, I understand I can be somewhat… overenthusiastic, and can forget my manners. I do not mean to intimidate.”
He gave a gentle bow, “And speaking of manners, I am Olivander, Wandmaker. May I ask for your name Lady Satori?”
Satori raised her eyebrow, as this was the first Wizard she had met who was able to identify her species on sight. She didn’t need her third eye to know that there was more to this old man than met the eye.
With her third eye… Well, everybody has secrets.
“My name as a matter of fact is Satori, Satori Komeiji, do not ask, it is not a pleasant story. And yes, I am Haileys mother, by adoption.” Satori said, the last part answering the unspoken question. “I understand this is your normal procedure, but I ask that you tone down the theatrics a tad, Hailey is not used to dealing with new people yet.”
“Very well, I will endeavour to restrain myself.” Olivander said, nodding. “May Hailey step this way? I need to take her measurements.”
Hailey looked up at Satori. ‘ Do I have to? ’
Satori patted Hailey on the back. “Go on Hailey, I won't be far away. Let the slightly creepy but nice man measure you. He won’t do anything mean, I promise.”
Hailey very reluctantly disentangled herself, and stood in front of Olivander.
“Don’t worry Miss Komeiji, I promise I will keep discomfort to a minimum.” Olivander said, before pulling out a tape measure, which then floated over to Hailey and started measuring her itself, which Hailey was thankful for, as it was less nerve racking than being measured by a stranger.
“Please hold out your wand Arm, thank you.”
Hailey held out her right hand. Letting the tape measure do its job.
“Every Ollivander wand has a core of a powerful magical substance, Miss Komeiji. We use unicorn hairs, phoenix tail feathers and the heartstrings of dragons. No two Ollivander wands are the same, just as no two unicorns, dragons or phoenixes are quite the same. And of course, you will never get such good results with another wizard’s wand.”
Satori could hear her daughter wanting to ask a question, but could not sign while being measured. She looked at her mother helplessly, who decided to relent on her stance to not speak for her, at this moment. “Hailey wants to know if you have any wands with Satori… bits in them.”
At the unspoken question, she added. “Hailey is mute.”
Ollivander nodded, and addressed Hailey. “No I’m afraid not, but Youkai parts were rare in England even before the majority of them… went away. I have encountered a wand made with Satori lashes before, it was made from Momiji, or Japanese maple, one Shaku or roughly 12 inches in length, but I have never had the privilege of making such a wand myself.” He looked somewhat wistful, as he took boxes off shelves, “Wands made from Youkai substances tended to be powerful, but very choosy of their masters, and often prone to mischief. That wand favoured an honest soul, but with a strong sense of justice, and was very good for charming the mind and senses.”
Hailey gave another look at Satori, this time with a question for her. ‘Doesn’t it hurt to lose your eyelash?’
Satori smiles placatingly. “Eyelashes shed regularly and regrow quickly, although the lashes of our third eye don’t shed as often as normal eyes, it is still perfectly safe to lose them.”
She kept to herself, that with how Satori used to be treated, it would be a miracle if that eyelash was given willingly.
However Ollivander, as if reading her mind instead of the other way around, said. “Indeed, and in addition, the eyelash was likely either found discarded or given to the wandmaker. Another reason Youkai wands are so rare is because… taking a substance without permission from an intelligent youkai…” Satori heard the original statement was going to be ‘killed or butchered for’ but Ollivander was still being mindful of Hailey’s sensitivity. “... results in a cursed wand, often extremely fickle, holding long grudges and is likely to betray its wielder. While these wands can still be won over with the right kind of soul, it is extremely rare, and most masters of these wands meet very unfortunate ends. Thus most wandmakers avoided such materials, and only took was could be found, given, or bartered for.”
Satori was surprised, to think there was once a human wandmaker who was close enough to a Satori to be given an eyelash, she almost wishes she could have met him. It also begged the question of how old Ollivander was to see such a wand, as unless it was an Heirloom, there had only been two Satori left for at least two centuries… Although she can’t disregard the possibility that the eyelash could have been Koishi’s…
“That will do.” Ollivander said, causing the tape measure to fall to the floor unceremoniously, and derailing Satoris’ train of thought.
“Right then, Miss Potter, we are going to start trying out wands now.” Ollivander said, explaining more than he usually would to ease the nervous girl. “Now most of these won’t work, but eventually we will find a wand that works well with you. Just give them a wave, and we’ll see what happens.”
Hailey nodded, a little less nervous then she was at the start now that she had acclimatised to the odd wandmaker.
“Since we were speaking of Youkai wands, here is one I do have. Tail Hair of a wolf tengu, walnut, ten inches, plenty of give. I doubt it will favour you, it prefers a sharp mind and bold temperament, but since you were interested, I thought you might like to give it a go.”
Hailey took the wand, and looked at it, before giving it an experimental wiggle, to no effect.
As Ollivander took the wand back, Satori, curious, focused her third eye on the wand. There was no mind there so to speak, no thoughts to be read or conscious mind to examine, but there was the slight sense of Ego to the thing, like an emerging Tsukumogami who had yet to fully develop a soul. She wondered if this was all wands or merely youkai ones. The wand felt snooty and prideful, fitting, as it came from a Tengu.
“As expected, you seem somewhat too gentle for this wands tastes. If you are curious, I won the hair in a dice game with a young Tengu during some of the travels of my youth, a fascinating material to work with, albeit its pickiness makes it difficult to sell. Pity it's impossible to find youkai nowadays, had I known about the disappearance beforehand, I would have spent more time in Japan…” Ollivander was once more wistful, before returning to the present, “No matter, perhaps this dragon string wand will suit you better…”
What followed was a lengthy procedure of Hailey being handed wand after wand, her hesitant waves provoking very little response. Satori watched interested as Ollivander systematically crossed multiple wands off his mental list with each failed attempt, narrowing down available options and reshuffling the remaining ones as he approached what he believes to be Haileys ideal wand, before eventually settling on one, although Ollivander gave it to her with a smidge of hesitation, and a sense of inevitability, and Satori couldn’t help but frown when she saw why.
“I wonder… well why not. An unusual combination, Holly and Phoenix feather, eleven inches, nice and supple.”
As Hailey, who was half zoning out by now, the monotony of wand testing having lulled her into a trance, took the wand. She nearly flinched when she felt a new sensation of warmth up her arm, she lifted the wand to look at it closely. With a little wiggle, the tip gave a very soft glow, like an ember.
“Oh, very good!” Ollivander said, jovially, “You were trickier than most, but we always get there eventually.” He took the Wand back and put it back in its box. “Treat this wand right and it will serve you well… The Phoenix who shed that feather only ever gave one other, and the wand it produced went on to do many great things… That will be seven Galleons please.”
Satori paid and Orin led Hailey out with her new wand in hand. Satori however hung back to talk to Ollivander.
“Can I help-” Ollivander began, but Satori cut him off.
“Should I be worried about the wand relation thing?”
‘Can’t hide things from a Satori can I?’ Ollivander thought wryly. ‘ For the most part, no. Wand brothers will not willingly harm one another. However I suspect that is not what you mean.’
“A young girl getting the wand brother of her parents' killer’s wand feels a little too much like fate for my liking.” Satori said, frowning.
‘Perhaps’ Ollivander thought, packing up the rejected wands back into their shelves, ‘but as you most likely know, It was the wands choice, not my own. Besides, the fact that you are here now is proof enough that nothing is set in stone.’
“And what is that supposed to mean-” Satori started, but the old man had vanished, and it said a lot that, even with her unblinking third eye trained on him beforehand, she cannot pinpoint the exact moment he did so.
“That covers most of Hailey’s school supplies.” Satori asked, “Any more stops you recommend before we get some of the more unwieldy supplies?”
“Well, Hailey is allowed to bring a pet to school, perhaps getting her an owl would be a good idea. The School has owls that can be lent to students, but a personal owl is best.”
“Well if that's what it takes to get mail delivered around here, I suppose we must.” Satori said.
‘I’m getting a pet owl?’ Hailey thought.
“Only if you want one of course.” Satori said, patting her on the head. “But Owls are important in Wizarding society, as they can send messages, so you might need one so you can talk to me when you are at school.”
Hailey pondered, as technically this would be the first pet that was hers, specifically. Her mother had a lot of pets of course, but they were… well her mothers. And apparently she can use them to talk to her mother, which she apparently would not be able to do without one.
‘I think I want one mama.’ was Hailey's eventual conclusion.
Satori smiled, and nodded to mcgonagall. The group then proceeded to the owl emporium.
Satori then kneeled in front of Hailey. “Now, you go look around and find an owl you like, take Orin with you. Don’t worry I’m not going anywhere, I Just want to look around myself as well.”
Hailey nodded, with a ‘Yes Mama’ before wandering away, peering into cages as she went, Orin in tow.
Satori then started doing the same, slowly walking down the rows of cages. Mcgonagall watching from the door.
Then to both the Professor and the store keeper’s surprise, she started talking to an owl. “Hello there, might I have a moment of your time?”
The Owl gave a soft hoot, seemingly in response, and turned on its perch, apparently giving Satori her full attention.
“How is life in this store suiting you?”
There was a pause.
“That's good to know, when I saw all the cages I was a little concerned.”
There was another pause.
“Understandable. I am curious, how do you feel about large caverns?”
Pause.
“Very large, huge even, with a very tall ceiling. I also keep Ravens and they have no problems living down there.”
Pause.
“Quite warm actually.”
…
“I see, well, thank you for your time.”
And then Satori moved on, and then struck up another similar conversation with a seemingly random owl.
The shopkeeper looked both puzzled and concerned, and looked to Mcgonagall, who could only really nod her head to placate him.
This went on for a few more minutes, with Satori having seemingly one-sided conversations with a random assortment of owls, until Hailey came back.
“Found one you like?” Satori said.
Hailey nodded, and led her over to a pure white Snowy owl.
Satori was impressed, as with only a glance she could tell that this owl was a cut above the rest.
“Hello there, it seems my daughter is interested in purchasing you.”
…
“I see, I should warn you, that we live deep underground, the cavern is spacious, but this was a deal breaker to a lot of owls here.”
…
“It's also fairly warm, possibly warmer than you might be comfortable with.”
The Owl hooted dismissively.
“Very well, then, give us a moment.”
Satori then turned to the shopkeeper. “I would like this Snowy Owl, please.”
“Very well that will-” The shopkeeper started, but Satori was not finished.
“As well as that Eagle Owl over there, and that screech, and that Desert Tawny.” Satori said, pointing out the additional three owls.
“O-oh, all four of them?” The shopkeeper said, stumbling a bit, he glanced at all the luggage they already had, not sure how they were going to handle carrying four cages as well.
“Indeed. And don’t worry about the cages, just release the owls and we can put the cages in the trunk.” Satori said.
“...Are you sure?” the man said, eyeing her sceptically.
“Quite sure.” Satori said, putting the required money on the counter.
The man was still dubious, but since they were paid for, he did as instructed.
And sure enough the owls, when released, all flew over to Satori, two landing on her shoulders, and one landing on Rin. The Snowy owl instead perched on Hailey. The cages all stowed away in the Trunk
At Mcgonagall's questioning glance as they left the shop and the befuddled shopkeeper, Satori said. “I am very good with animals, and these Wizarding owls are abnormally bright. Most wild owls, despite being associated with wisdom, are phenomenally stupid. I wonder if it's breeding, or their magical nature.”
Mcgonagall sighed, deciding to file it under another weird thing about Satori.
She then caught Satori’s gaze lingering on the magical menagerie across the street, and decided to hurry things along.
Notes:
Well… I’m back, sorta?
Let me get the chapter specific notes out of the way first, and then I will talk about what's been happening and where I’ve been.
Honestly, when I was writing the five chapter for each story (explained in the general notice if you haven’t read it yet), one of the bigger bottlenecks in my creative juices was having to write the Diagon Alley shopping trip four Doggam times. Because for the most part they were basically the same story beats again and again, with very little room to put my own spin on it. I even started copy pasting Olivanders entire speech at times. That said, this one I could at least make slightly more interesting by Hailey being mute and a smol bean must protec.
But yeah, as some people asked about the language barrier, they basically taught her English by subconsciously implanting the language in her brain, which I thought was a fun and interesting way of addressing the problem, although not without hiccups though.
Also all bow to Satori, Owl whisperer, pet hoarder, Mcgonagal is right to fear her.
(25/06/2025) For the Sake of brevity, as this used to be the longest chapter notes of any of my stories, and most of it had nothing to do with the story itself, the Full copypasted life update notes were removed on the Spacebattles and Ao3 versions of this chapter, if you are interested for whatever reason what used to be written here, it can be found on either the original ff.net version, or on chapter 22 of Youkai of Grudge.
Edit: this chapter has been edited and re-released on 30/05/2025
Chapter Text
…and now we are just waiting for the start of term.” Satori finished..
‘It seems a lot has happened since my last visit.’ Shiki thought, taking a sip of her tea.
Once more the Yama of Gensokyo was in Chireiden in one of her regular visits, and Satori had just finished recounting to her the recent developments involving Haileys new schooling.
‘Are you nervous?’ Shiki thought, studying Satori’s face, her brow creased in concern.
“Yes.” Satori said, staring into her cup. “Very much so.”
She sighs deeply. “This is for her own good, I know this, it will be good for her to mingle with her own kind for a while, learn how to be a human, find her voice. But I can’t help worrying that I am making a huge mistake. She has never gone anywhere without me before. There has never been a moment in her life where we were apart for more than a day, yet here I am sending her away for half a year.”
“So many things could go wrong, Hailey is only human after all, nearly anything could happen to her when I’m not there to help her.”
Shiki reached across the table and gently grasped her wrist, which drew Satoris attention to her shaking hands.
She put down her cup and took a moment or two to calm herself, before shooting a thankful look to Shiki, who returned a warm smile, and withdrew her hand, her thoughts full of small encouragement and affirmations.
“Thank you… anyway, regardless of my feelings, I don’t think I will get another chance like this, or a more controlled environment, as long as Dumbledore The headmaster stays co-operative.” Satori continued, taking another sip to steady her nerves.
‘Has he given you any indication otherwise?’ Shiki asked.
Satori thought for a moment and shook her head. “Not at the moment, he seems genuinely concerned for Hailey's wellbeing, a small part due to her potential role in the prophecy, but mostly out of guilt, as he feels responsible for the death of Haileys original parents, as well as her disappearance at the hands of my sister. That said he is a man with a lot on his plate, and despite his wishes otherwise, he has a lot of obligations besides his role as headmaster.”
With another sigh Satori lamented, “This would be so much less stressful if That Lord Voldemort person had the good graces to die the first time…”
A thought then struck her. “Actually, on that note, couldn’t you tell me where he is? You saw his soul with the horcrux did you not?”
Shiki’s face turned apologetic as Satori saw her bundle several thoughts faster then Satori could read them, shunted them into the mental equivalent of a lockbox and tossed off a bridge into her long term memory. ‘Sorry, as much as I would like to help, there are several reasons why I cannot.’
‘First off, a Horcrux is only a soul fragment, what I could see was limited to the point when the horcrux was made, and thus it would not tell me where he is now.’
‘Second, I am not allowed to discuss the content of souls and what I see in my mirror outside the context of judging, or outside of a need to know basis, and your position as custodian does not give you that clearance. Especially considering that as a European, Voldemort’s soul is technically out of our jurisdiction.’
‘Third is somewhat strange admittedly, as there seems to be some time disparity, As Koishi’s “shortcut” seems to exit several years into the past, thus I cannot reveal to you knowledge on what may constitute future events to bring into the past without risking creating some form of paradox.’
“Are you serious?” Satori asked, raising her eyebrow?
‘The shortcut currently exits into the year 1991 to be precise, although it seems to move forward at a consistent rate.’ Shiki thought.
“Is that something I should be concerned about?” Satori said.
‘Not for the most part. Old Hell inhabits the Gensokyo subspace so is already partially detached from reality and the flow of time in the outside world, so there is few things that could go wrong with Hailey jumping backward and forward in time.’ Shiki explained, ‘ However, that could change if someone were to act with future knowledge.’
“Oh well, so much for that idea.” Satori grumbled.
‘ I’m sorry I couldn’t do more to help. ’ Shiki said.
“No I understand, I know you take your job seriously, I wouldn’t disrespect you by asking you to bend the rules for my sake, I am thankful enough for what you have done for me already.” Satori said, giving a tired smile. “Still, this could have been so easy…”
‘If I may change the subject, there is something else I feel needs to be addressed… Will you be alright?’ Shiki asked, giving Satori a pointed look.
“Come again?” Satori asked.
‘From where I am sitting, this will be nearly as hard on you as it will be on Hailey, she has not even left yet and you are already a bundle of nerves. I fear that if left alone to your thoughts, you will become a nervous wreck before Hailey can finish her first term.’ Shiki said, brow creased with worry. ‘On top of that, this will also be the longest time you will have gone without Hailey since you adopted her, and you are even sending your closest companion Orin with her… I’m afraid you might get somewhat lonely in their absence.’
“I… Never really thought about it like that.” Satori said, taking a sip of her tea, getting lost in thought.
‘To that end I was thinking I will check in slightly more often, perhaps a few times a week to make sure you are feeling well.’ Shiki said, somewhat matter of factly.
Satori nearly choked on her tea.
Coughing slightly, she glanced wide eyed at Shiki.
‘Is something the matter with my proposal?’ Shiki asked.
“N-not at, just a little surprised.” Satori said, managing to calm her shock at the declaration. “I would be happy to have your company, but I would feel bad at taking up your time, you are quite busy, and you have little free time as it is.”
‘Regardless, I would be happy to spend that time with you should the needs must.’ Shiki said resolutely, ‘You are important to me (as friend/coworker), and it would not sit right with me to leave you to suffer alone.’
“Y-yes of course, as a friend.” Satori said, trying to sound casual.
She knows Shiki meant nothing by it, at least intentionally. But the sheer forwardness and the earnest sincerity of the declaration left Satori fighting a blush.
‘Is this a new tea?’ Shiki thought idly, oblivious.
A leisurely flight across the city eventually brought Satori and company to kings cross station in central London, with ample time to spare.
Alighting on the steps, the various mundane commuters rendered oblivious by Koishi’s presence, Satori made a quick headcount. Hailey was of course here, and had taken her normal place clinging to her mothers dress, Orin stood nearby, carrying Haileys Trunk, and Shirayuki's cage, Okuu in her raven form circled a few times before deciding to land on Satori’s shoulder, and Koishi’s attempts to wander into the crowd were kept at bay thanks to the ribbon around her waist, the end being held by her sister.
Nodding to herself, she led the procession into the station proper.
Checking the ticket, she frowned at the unusual platform number. After glancing at the station's signage to confirm that nine and three quarters was not an official platform, she sighed and turned to Orin.
“Orin, it says the Platform is nine and Three quarters, could you go and find where they hid it please?”
Orin gave a smart salute before shooting into the crowd in a blur.
Not even a minute has passed before she returns. “Found it, trick wall on the divider between nine and ten.”
“Thank you Orin.” Satori said, petting her on the head with her free hand, Orin bending slightly to give the short woman easier access, before resuming her luggage duties.
The group then moved on, finding the wall in question and passing through into the platform propper.
Satori couldn’t help but grimace as she eyed the crowded platform, already feeling a headache coming along at the cacophony of thoughts assaulting her mind.
Nevertheless she soldiered on, trying not to let her discomfort show, lest it make Haileys nervousness worse.
Thankfully, thanks to Koishi’s subconscious powers the crowd absentmindedly parted in front of them as they approached the stately looking steam engine, proudly labelled ‘The Hogwarts Express.’
Casting her mind's eye along the length, she found an area of the train relatively empty and led them there to embark.
“Okuu, help Orin load the trunk onto the Train would you?” Satori asked.
Okuu with a hop, shifted into her human form before even touching the ground. “Yes Mistress right away~”
The tall Hell Raven effortlessly lifted up the back end of the trunk, nearly unbalancing Orin with the abruptness.
“Easy does it, birdbrain, we’re carrying it, not throwing it.”
“Sorry, sorry.” the Raven said cheerfully as the two Youkai carried the trunk into the carriage, leaving Satori with Shirayuki's cage.
“Second Cabin along please, it has no people yet.” Satori called after them as she followed behind them, leading Koishi and Hailey along with her.
“Hai~” Orin and Okuu called back.
Satori entered the compartment just as Okuu and Orin had finished stowing the trunk onto the luggage racks, and were waiting for further instructions.
Satori then turned to Hailey, who was almost radiating pure nervous energy, bordering on a panic attack. With the flow of events, she was very quickly being forced to come to terms with the idea she had been trying to ignore, that she was going on this train, and her mother would not be coming with her.
Satori, doing her best to suppress her own anxiety, kneeled down to give Hailey a hug. “I know this is a little scary, but I assure you everything will be alright, School isn’t so bad, it will be a new experience.”
She continued trying to drown out both hers and Haileys negative thoughts. “Orin will be right there with you the entire time, and I’ll send letters regularly, and if you have any issues with the students or staff.”
Her hug tightened a little. “And if anything does go seriously wrong, or things get too scary, make sure to Send Shirayuki, and I will be there as fast as I can.”
“Other than that, be careful, don’t get involved with any suspicious individuals, don’t eat any strange substances, and make sure to go to the school nurse if you are ever feeling unwell, make sure to eat properly, and…” Satori had started to ramble.
“I’M GONNA MISS YOU HAI-CHAN!” cut in Okuu, almost bawling as she latched onto the tiny girl like an oversized limpet, catching both of them off guard.
Despite the water works the Hell Raven was putting on, her silly antics managed to put them off their worries for a moment, until the train whistle blew, announcing its imminent departure.
“We’ve got to go now.” Satori said, and she and Okuu reluctantly detached herself from Hailey, returning to her Raven form and once more perching on Satori’s shoulder. “Be good for Orin, and I’ll see you over the winter holidays.”
As she went to leave the compartment, Hailey halfheartedly tried to follow her, but was held back by Orin gripping her shoulders. But she still outstretched her hand, and it took all of Satori’s self control not to turn around when she heard Haileys thoughts quietly asking her ‘Please don’t go.’
She stepped out onto the platform and as she approached the compartment from outside, as the train started to move.
Hailey leaned out the window teary eyed. ‘Mama, I don’t wanna go!’
“You'll do great little Ringo, Have fun at school.” Satori said, smiling weakly, even as it felt like her heart was breaking.
As the train began to pull out of the Station, Satori started waving and called out “I love you Hailey!”
Hailey, now fully bawling, nevertheless waved back. ‘I love you too Mama!’
Satori held back her tears until The train finally left her line of sight. Her daughter's desperate mental cries to stay burning a hole in her heart.
‘Mistress? ’ Okuu thought, whipping a tear from Satoris cheek with her beak.
Satori smiled weakly. “I’ll be alright Okuu, but don’t forget your job, follow the train to Haileys new School, and then come back, in case of emergencies I need to know how to get there.”
Okuu gave a nervous trill, obviously not convinced, but nevertheless she took off and with surprising speed shot off after the departing train, catching up easily and keeping pace with the locomotive, steadily gaining altitude.
Satori dabbed her eyes with a handkerchief in a futile attempt to stem the flow of tears before blowing her nose instead.
She then turned around to several curious onlookers, all thinking the same thoughts
‘Who is she? What is she? Did she say Hailey? As in Hailey Potter?’
Satori realised that she was no longer holding Koishi’s ribbon, she had absentmindedly let it go on the train, when hugging Hailey.
She massaged her forehead. ‘Great, one more thing to worry about.’
Orin gently held Hailey in her arms as the small girl cried her heart out onto her chest, patting her on the back and making as many soothing noises and assurances as she could.
“Shhhhh, Shhhh, there there, It will only be a few months… that's right let it all out…” she whispered gently.
Orin heard the compartment door open, and looked up.
“Excuse me, is it alright if I…” A red headed boy trailed off as he took in the crying child and the cat girl giving him an unnervingly catlike expectant stare.
“... I… I’ll keep looking.” he said, slowly closing the door.
“Smart lad,” Orin said as the boy finished closing the door and left.
Eventually as the scenery outside the window changed, Hailey, although her eyes were puffy and nose sniffly, managed to calm down enough that she no longer needed to cling to Orin.
Her face was still extremely dour though, and Orin shifted from human to feline. The larger than average twin tailed cat draped herself over Haileys lap, purring to try and ease her mood.
Hailey absentmindedly stroked her, as she stared out the window, Her frown slowly softening, no doubt being calmed by the gentle vibrations.
Eventually a woman with a snack trolley rolled up. “Any snacks dearie?”
Orin looked up at Hailey, “How about it Hailey, maybe some nice sweets will help you keep your mind off things?”
Not waiting for an answer, Orin leapt off Haileys lap, shifting into her human form, landing elegantly on her feet.
“Oh!” the snack cart lady exclaimed. “Sorry, I didn’t realise there was another person in the compartment.”
“Don’t sweat it.” Orin said, glancing over the contents of the trolly, before picking out a few objects that she thought Hailey might like.
Buying them with some spending money Satori had given her, she piled them up next to Hailey, before offering her a few. “Here try this, it's called a cauldron cake.”
Hailey looked at them dubiously.
“No this is not what your mother meant by don’t eat strange substances.” Orin deadpanned.
Thankfully the sweets seemed to help dispelling most of Haileys gloomy mood (although they had both decided that the Bertie Botts Every Flavour beans probably were what Satori meant by strange substances), and was now idly kicking her legs, the book she had brought to read laying on her lap as she watched Orin batting around an enchanted chocolate frog for her own amusement on the seat opposite to her.
Then a nervous, somewhat round looking boy opened the compartment door, “Sorry, but have you seen a toad at all?”
“Nope, plenty of Chocolate frogs but no toads.” Orin said, as the current Chocolate frog’s bid for freedom was cut short by being battered out of the air back onto the seat.
The boy did a double take at the talking cat, but after a moment, just said sadly “Well, if you see him…” and shut the door.
“Poor kid.” Orin said, not taking her eyes off the struggling frog.
But not a few minutes later, the boy returned, this time led by a bushy haired girl, “Has anyone seen a toad? Nevilles lost one.”
“Sorry, still no toads here.” Orin said, who had decided to put the Chocolate frog out of its misery by biting its head off.
“Oh, a talking cat? I didn’t know magical cats could talk, I would have thought someone would have mentioned it by now.” The girl said, surprised.
“Well most dont to my knowledge. Orin said, licking chocolate smudges off her paws. “I however am a Kasha, not just a cat.” Orin flicked her tails for emphasis.
“Oh sorry, I didn’t realise. I don’t think I’ve read about a Kasha yet, then again I haven’t read much on magical creatures yet, I should probably look into that, what book might they be in?”
“Beats me, I’ve never really felt the need to look myself up.” Orin said, giving a cat shrug.
“Oh, right, of course.” the girl said, before remembering what she was doing. Oh, I’ve got to keep looking. But you should get changed, we are getting closer to Hogwarts now, see you later.”
The quick talking girl bustled off.
“Energetic girl, but she’s probably right, Orin said, shifting back to a human, “let's get you in your uniform.”
Taking her Trunk down from the racks, Orin stepped outside the compartment, once more as a cat, to guard her ward while she changed.
‘All in all,’ Orin thought to herself ‘things are going quite well.’
Meanwhile further down the train…
“Come my new found frog friend,” Koishi declared to the frog on her hat. “Let us fight the power!”
“Croak.” said Trevor the toad.
Notes:
Honestly, I was surprised, both in this poll and the old one, how disproportionately popular this story was. Don’t get me wrong, I like it, I love the Komeiji’s, but can’t I wonder what made this one stand out so much to everyone else that it dominated the results, is it just because this Hailey is the most novel?
I don’t know, but either way, for those that voted for it, hope you enjoy a rather emotional chapter, and a rather uneventful train ride.
If anyone was wondering why Malfoy doesn’t show up, its because unlike in canon, and a few of my other stories, Harry/Hailey did not get revealed to be on the train by the Twins. People probably know Hailey is on the train, but nobody knows where she is or what she looks like other than glasses and a scar. And Because Hailey was such a sad smol bean, nobody ended up sharing her compartment, and she didn’t really meet anyone.
But yeah, extremely unsubtle shipping going on in the first part.
Also yes, Koishi is on the express, I felt like I needed her at Hogwarts, the pure gag potential was too much to miss.
Oh yeah, in case you are wondering about the results of the polls, still calculating what the story will be next week, but thats gonna be a bit of data entry, and I didn’t realise I hadn’t formatted the question properly to get an easy to read spreadsheet, so I’m either gonna have to to some finagling to get the data in an easier to read way, or I’m gonna have to go through all 103 answers to try and tally up the votes properly. Either way, pray for me my dudes.
Chapter Text
“First years, this way! First years!” Bellowed an extremely large, bearded man carrying a lantern.
“That should be us.” Orin said, currently in her cat form, draped around Hailey's neck like a comically large fur Boa.
Hailey nodded, before nervously approaching the Giant of a man, along with many other similarly aged students, including the bushy haired Brunette, and the crestfallen toadless boy.
“C’mon, follow me, any more first years? Mind yer step, now! First years, follow me!” The man, once he seemed to be satisfied that he had everyone, led them in a path through the trees.
While they were walking, Hailey had been looking up, with a look of enchantment upon her face, and tapped Orin's flank to get her attention.
“Hmm?” Orin said, lifting her head up, she followed Hailey's Gaze, and ahh’d in understanding. “Those are stars Hailey, they fill the sky at night on the surface.”
Hailey signed [They are really pretty].
“That they are.” Orin agreed “It's one of the things you miss living underground.”
Eventually Hailey got something else to look at however, as the trees parted, to reveal a dark lake, smooth as glass, and across it perched upon a cliff was a large castle.
Orin whistled “Is that the school then? Colour me impressed.”
Hailey however, looked merely interested, perhaps unsurprisingly as she was raised in a palace, her standards were high.
“Only four to a boat.” The Giant then said, drawing attention away from the castle and to a collection of small rowboats along the shore.
Climbing into one of the boats, alongside a few other students, Hailey sat down awkwardly, her nerves resurfacing now she was once again surrounded by strangers.
Once all the students were in their boats, the large man having a boat all to himself, the boats then all pushed off together, magic pulling them across the lake.
Orin was distracted by the sound of repeated splashes coming from behind.
She turned, and nearly fell off Haileys shoulders in shock as Koishi merrily skipped across the surface of the water, drawing level with one of the boats, everyone besides Orin oblivious to her presence.
Daintily hopping onboard one of the boats, she then tapped one of the occupants on the shoulder, the toadless boy from earlier.
“Huh?” the boy said, turning, before something was thrust into his hands.
“I got bored of him, you can have him back.” Koishi said, before hopping off the boat again and pranced away toward the castle.
Nevil, blinked as now he seemed to be holding his missing toad, with no idea how he had gotten there.
“Croak,” Trevor said, burning with indignation at such betrayal.
Meanwhile Orin sighed. It seemed that Koishi managed to sneak her way all the way to Hogwarts, that is gonna be a nightmare to keep track of.
“Heads down everyone.” The giant said, as they approached the cliff.
Passing under a curtain of vines on the cliffside, they arrive in a small underground harbour.
Disembarking, the first years were then led through a stone passage, before once again emerging outside, this time with the castle looming above them.
A flight of stone steps led them right up to the castle's great oak doors, and the Giant man, with a sense of ceremony, knocked three times.
After a brief pause, the doors swung open revealing Professor Mcgonagal.
“The First Years, Professor Mcgonagall” The Giant said.
McGonagal took a moment to survey the first years, her eyes lingering on Hailey, and more specifically the cat pretending to be an accessory, before nodding.
“Thank you Hagrid, I will take it from here.” The Professor said,
They were led through a large entrance hall, before being led into a small room off to one side.
“Welcome to Hogwarts,” said Professor McGonagall, addressing the group of first years. “The start-of-term banquet will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall, you will be sorted into your houses. The sorting is a very important ceremony because, while you are here, your house will be something like your family within Hogwarts. You will have classes with the rest of your house, sleep in your house dormitory, and spend free time in your house common room.”
“The four houses are called Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. Each house has its own noble history and each has produced outstanding witches and wizards. While you are at Hogwarts, your triumphs will earn your house points, while any rulebreaking will lose house points. At the end of the year, the house with the most points is awarded the house cup, a great honor. I hope each of you will be a credit to whichever house becomes yours.”
“The Sorting Ceremony will take place in a few minutes in front of the rest of the school. I suggest you all smarten yourselves up as much as you can while you are waiting.”
She paused to examine the throng of students critically, before concluding with. “I shall return when we are ready for you, please wait quietly.”
With that Mcgonagall left the nervous throng of students alone.
There was some nervous chatter between students as they tried to figure out what the sorting was, while Hailey played nervously with Orin's Tails.
Orin purred to sooth her, and murmured, so as not to draw attention to the shy girl, “It will be fine. The sorting is nothing to be scared of.”
Then there was a shriek and Hailey whipped around only to see a congregation of ghosts pass through the wall, which immediately made Hailey shrink back defensively.
“It's alright, calm down.” Soothed Orin. “They are not vengeful spirits, just some normal earthbound ghosts.”
The ghosts themselves on the other hand were so caught up in their argument that they had yet to notice the students.
“Forgive and forget, I say, we ought to give him a second chance.” said a rather portly little monk-looking fellow.
“My dear Friar, haven't we given Peeves all the chances he deserves?” Said a rather dashing man in Elizabethan dress. “He gives us all a bad name and you know, he's not really even a ghost- I say, what are you all doing here?” he said, noticing the first years.
Hailey looked around, probably hoping someone will answer, but the monk answered first. “New students, about to be sorted I suppose?”
A few people nodded mutely.
“Hope to see you in Hufflepuff!” said the Friar. “My old house, you know.”
“Move along now,” said a sharp voice. “The Sorting Ceremony’s about to start.”
Mcgonagal had returned, and the ghosts took it as their cue to continue through the opposite wall.
“Now, form a line,” Professor McGonagall told the first years, “and follow me.”
Obediently falling into line in between two students she didn’t know, and followed the procession out the door they came in, back into the main hall, and into another set of large double doors.
The sight beyond made Hailey freeze in her tracks, causing the boy behind her to collide with her, making her stumble.
“Sorry.” the boy said gruffly.
Hailey looked behind her and gave an apologetic nod before continuing forward, and being forced to acknowledge the room full of people.
Four long tables full of students of various ages watched the procession of first years as they walked to the front of the room. Orin could feel Hailey squirming uncomfortably at the attention as she walked stiffly forward, having to walk quickly to catch up after her freeze.
They were led to line up in front of a long table filled with what must be the Faculty, with Dumbledore sitting in the middle, smiling kindly at the upcoming students. Not that Hailey noticed, too busy looking at her feet, trying to avoid catching anyone's eyes.
Eventually Hailey's attention was drawn to McGonagall placing a stool in front of them, and atop it a tattered old wizard's hat.
That then started singing.
“Oh, you may not think I'm pretty,
But don't judge on what you see,
I'll eat myself if you can find
A smarter hat than me.
You can keep your bowlers black,
Your top hats sleek and tall,
For I'm the Hogwarts Sorting Hat
And I can cap them all.
There's nothing hidden in your head
The Sorting Hat can't see,
So try me on and I will tell you
Where you ought to be.
You might belong in Gryffindor,
Where dwell the brave at heart,
Their daring, nerve, and chivalry Set Gryffindors apart;
You might belong in Hufflepuff,
Where they are just and loyal,
Those patient Hufflepuffs are true And unafraid of toil;
Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw,
if you've a ready mind,
Where those of wit and learning,
Will always find their kind;
Or perhaps in Slytherin
You'll make your real friends,
Those cunning folk use any means
To achieve their ends.
So put me on! Don't be afraid!
And don't get in a flap!
You're in safe hands (though I have none)
For I'm a Thinking Cap!”
The room applauded, and Hailey joined in, seeming to be more at ease, perhaps calmed by the silly singing hat.
“When I call your name, you will put on the hat and sit on the stool to be sorted,” said Mcgonagall, now holding out a long roll of parchment, “Abbott, Hannah!”
A blond girl with pigtails stepped forward, looking as nervous as Hailey, putting on the hat, it falling down over her face as it was far too big, and sitting on the stool.
There was a pause before the Hat Bellowed, “HUFFLEPUFF!”
The table on the far right cheered and clapped, as the girl stood up, and walked over to her new housemates, the trimmings on her robe turning yellow.
Mcgonagal then read the next name off her list “Bones, Susan!”
What followed was student after student being sorted by the hat, some taking longer, while others much shorter.
Eventually after “Jones, Megan!” became a “HUFFLEPUFF!” and the applause died down, it was Hailey's turn.
“Komeiji, Hailey!” Mcgonagal called, and a silence spread throughout the room, followed by some confused murmuring.
Hailey stood there nervously, before a light slap in the small of her back courtesy of Orins tail made her stumble out of line.
Her eyes darted back and forth wildly as all eyes in the hall were on her, shrinking in on herself.
“Come on Hailey, just step this way,” Mcgonagal said, surprising several people at her shift in tone, her usually stern tone being replaced with one of soft patience. “It will only take a moment, nothing to be afraid of.”
Orin then stood and hopped off her shoulder, landing in front of her, shocking more people. One of the nearby first years even exclaimed “Wait, that was a cat?!”
Hailey reached out as if to stop her, but Orin just looked back and waved her tails cheekily before walking over to the stool, which after a few moments of indecision, Hailey followed hesitantly.
Picking up the hat, and sitting down, there was a moment of relief as she pulled the hat over her eyes to shield herself from the sea of eyes.
“Well now this is a surprise.” came a voice, which made Hailey jump, before she recognised it as the Hats.
“Sorry, didn’t mean to frighten you, but it's not everyday I see a mind so meticulously organised at your age, it's very neat in here, colour me impressed.” The hat said.
‘Can… Can you hear me, Mr. Hat?’ Hailey tentatively thought.
“Quite clearly Miss Komeiji, your thoughts are also unusually legible. Your mothers influence no doubt.”
‘You know my mother?’ Hailey asked.
“Although I have never met her, I know her about as well as you do at present, I am a mind reading hat after all.” The hat chuckled. “Although I am probably a smidge more invasive than you are used to, I Imagine.”
‘Sort of, mother can hypnotise people if she thinks they are hiding something from her though.’ Hailey thought conversationally, both the dark enclosed space and the somewhat familiar feeling of having her thoughts read helping her calm down a little more. ‘The trick is to not think about hiding something, and not think about not thinking, so she doesn’t think to check.’
“Hardly a trick, I would think, not everyone can wield their thoughts as cleanly as you. Believe me, I should know.” The Hat said, “Not that it matters to me, now what to do with you…”
‘Can you take your time a little? It's comfortable under here, and it's scary being stared at like that.’ Hailey shifted nervously, remembering all the stares at her.
“A strange sentiment to have, most people are far more nervous about the sorting than their peers.” The Sorting hat said. “Alas time waits for no one, and more importantly I feel my fellow faculty would get testy if I were to draw this out.”
“I think you are an honest, somewhat uncomplicated soul, with few ambitions, who loves her family, and wants to make her mother happy, I’d say you’d make a fine…”
“HUFFLEPUFF!”
Hailey sat there for a moment longer as the applause rang out across the room, before the hat was lifted off her head by Mcgonagal, and she reluctantly stood up and plodded off behind Orin as she was led to the Hufflepuff table.
After she sat down, with Orin hopping on her lap, she became somewhat relieved when the attention drifted off her to the continued sorting.
She stroked Orin, barely paying attention to the sorting as she tried to sooth her nerves, and before long the sorting had come to a close. The stool and sorting hat were carried away, and Dumbledore stood, with a friendly smile.
“Welcome,” he said. “Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts! Before we begin our banquet, I would like to say a few words. And here they are: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak! Thank you!”
And with that, he sat down, and the tables were suddenly overladen with food.
But Before Hailey could serve herself, One of the nearby first years turned to her. “Are you Hailey Potter?”
This caught the attention of some of the other first years who also started talking.
“Thats right, I was wondering about that. The Professor said your name was Kome… Kombi… Well something like that, but she was supposed to be here this year and you are the only Hailey.”
“Whose Hailey Potter?”
“She’s the one who defeated He-who-must-not-be-named.”
“Who?”
“The Dark Lord.”
“There was a Dark Lord?”
“Do you have the scar?”
“Can we see it?”
Hailey shrunk, eyes almost swirling as she was overwhelmed by the questioning, thankfully Orin was there.
“Alright Back off, give her a little space, you are making her uncomfortable.” Orin said, hopping onto the table, several people leaning back in surprise at the large talking cat. “Let her eat something first, then you can ask a few questions, but one at a time, got it?”
“Is that a talking cat?” Someone asked in surprise, a boy who the sorting had revealed as Justin Finch-Fletchley.
“Yes and no.” Orin said, “I am Rin Kaenbyou, Hailey’s chaperone, so please cool off for a second and let Hailey eat something, and then we can play Twenty questions. She is a very shy girl, and you are scaring her by crowding her like this.”
Plenty still seemed just as, if not more curious as before, but they acknowledge the cat, and give the quiet girl a little space. With a little encouragement from Orin, Hailey calms down and starts serving herself from some of the nearby trays.
“Serve me a little, would you kindly? They seem to have given me a plate as well.” Orin said, as indeed there was now a little dish in front of Orin, which Hailey dutifully speared some sausages, bacon and a pork chop onto her plate.
“Not a lot of fish options for somewhere next to a lake, but oh well, won’t say no to some good red meat, Itadakimasu.” Orin said, before eating the offered food happily, purring softly.
With Hailey being out of bounds for the moment, the other first years started talking, introducing themselves to each other, to which Orin, and hopefully Hailey, listened.
There was Hannah Abbott, the first girl to be sorted, a blond girl with a somewhat rosy complexion, blond hair and pigtails. “Nice to meet you all, I’m Hannah. I hope we can all get along.” She said, playing with her pigtails shyly.
Next there was Susan Bones, a girl with chestnut hair tied in a long braid. “I’m Susan Bones. Has anyone got any classes they are looking forward to? For me it's Defence against the dark arts.” She said eagerly.
Next up was Justin Finch-Fletchley, a boy with short curly brown hair. “Names Justin Finch-Fletchley, and I must admit I’m quite new to all this magic stuff, but I can’t lie, I am quite excited to be here.” He said cheerfully.
Then there was Megan Jones, a girl with a chin length straight blue-black bob cut. “I’m Megan, and I’m also one of those whatchamacallit, Muggle-borns? I never thought I’d be a witch of all things, but I just kinda hope I’m better at spells then spelling.” She said, rubbing the back of her neck, with a laugh.
After that it was Ernest Macmillian, a blond boy. “I am Ernest Macmillian. It's a pleasure. If any of you need any help with Wizarding things, feel free to ask, my family has been going to Hogwarts for generations.” he preened, looking quite proud of the fact.
And last was Wayne Hopkins, a boy with unkempt black hair. “Names Wayne, my hobbies include napping, cloud watching, and procrastination, charmed I’m sure.” He said, with listless eyes and a cheeky smirk.
After all the introductions and related small talk were over and done with, they all once again turned to Hailey.
Orin, reading the silent question, chuckled. “Alright, alright, you’ve been patient, but one question at a time, she gets easily overwhelmed. Let's start with you there kid.” Orin said, pointing at Ernest.
“Well, are you really Hailey Potter?” Ernest asked, a little hesitant. After all, Hailey hadn’t said a single word yet.
Orin then turned to Hailey, and after a very brief staring contest that Hailey lost, she sighed and put down her cutlery and signed [I have been told that was my birth name, but I do not know if I am the Hailey Potter you are talking about.] which Orin relayed word-for-word to them.
However rather than the answer, the method of delivery was what confused them.
“What’s with the hand waving?” Hannah asked.
“Oh, that's sign language, it's what us non-magic folks use to talk to deaf people.” Justin said.
“But… she’s not deaf? She clearly can hear what we are saying.” Susan said, brow creased in confusion.
“Ahem.” Orin said, clearing her throat to catch their attention. “It is Sign language, but It's not just for deaf people. Hailey is mute, and doesn’t talk, so she needs to use sign to communicate, thus why she needed a chaperone like me to translate for her.”
There was a collection of ‘ahhh’s from the collected kids.
“I see… Er well anyway, do you have the scar?” Ernest said, getting the conversation back on track, feeling a little awkward, as he was starting to wonder if Hailey was merely being rude or aloof with her refusal to speak, until he found out she, in fact, could not speak. “The Hailey Potter I am talking about has a lightning shaped scar on her forehead.”
Hailey nodded, and pushed her bangs out the way to reveal her scar.
The other first years, and even some surrounding older students who had been surreptitiously listening in, gasped.
“You really are Hailey Potter!” Susan said in awe.
“Huh, I always thought it was supposed to be redder.” Wayne said idly.
Hailey looked a little uncomfortable, and then signed to Orin [could you ask them to call me Komeiji? It feels weird to be referred to as Potter.]
Orin nodded before addressing the group. “Hailey asked if you would please refer to her as Hailey Komeiji rather than Potter. She only recently found out her birth name was Potter and it's confusing her.”
“Why is that? Didn’t anyone tell you who your parents are?” Hannah asked.
Orin looked at Hailey, but she only shrugged, so Orin decided to supply the context. “Hailey, as a baby, was brought to us in somewhat unusual circumstances. So when my master adopted her, she gave her the surname Komeiji.”
Ernest’s brow furrowed. “What kind of unusual circumstances?”
Orin flicked her tail. “It's a secret.” she said cheekily.
“Oi gov’ner pass me the mash.” said Koishi in an insultingly bad cockney accent, sitting further along the table.
Orin spared a glance, wondering if she should address this, but thought better of it.
The children's curiosity temporarily sated, the conversation drifted off of her for a moment to talk about Family.
Ernest was apparently a member of a very venerable Wizarding Family, the Macmillians, which he was very proud to admit, While Susan, Hannah and Wayne were all half-bloods which meant you had at least one non magical parent or grandparent.
Then that left Justin and Megan, who were both ‘muggleborns’.
“I was down to Eton before I got my letter. Can’t tell you how glad I am to be here instead. Mothers a little disappointed though.” Justin said.
“Bit of a toff are ya?” Megan said with a grin, “My Dad was pretty thrilled just because Hogwarts sounded Posh. With how bad my grades are, he had all but given up getting me into a decent school.”
They then addressed Hailey again, with Susan asking “What about you? We heard that you had gone to live with Muggle relatives, but I guess that wasn’t true?”
Hailey shook her head, and signed [No, I was adopted by my Mother, Satori Komeiji when I was still a baby, and she isn’t muggle as far as I know, She is a Satori]
Orin relayed the answer, and added “And before you ask, a Satori is a type of magical creature from Japan, My master's name also happens to be Satori, don’t ask why.”
Hailey then signed again, asking [what is a Muggle?]
Ernest explained “A muggle is what we call someone who isn’t magical.”
“Like mine and Megan's parents. And because both of our parents are Muggles, we are known as Muggleborns.” Justin added.
“Even if only one of your parents or grandparents are Muggles then you are instead a halfblood like everyone else but Ernest.” Susan said. “Including you actually, one of your parents is Muggleborn, making you a half-blood.”
Hailey tilted her head. Before signing [I don’t actually know much about my original parents, how do you know about them?]
“How could that be?” Hannah asked, “Surely someone would have told you.”
Hailey shrugged again, so Orin once more picked up the slack. “As a consequence of the aforementioned strange circumstances, we didn’t really know anything about Hailey before adopting her, mostly just her name.”
“Well your father was James Potter, a pureblood wizard of a rather respectable family,” Ernest provided, “And your Mother was an incredibly talented Muggleborn Witch named Lily. And they were very active in fighting you-know-who during the war. If you want to know more you should ask some of the teachers, as many of them fought alongside them.”
Hailey however looked confused. [Who is you-know-who?]
This time, rather than relaying the question, Orin answered herself. “Well Hailey you-know-who, also known as he-who-must-not-be-named, was a very powerful and very evil man named Lord Voldemort.”
Several people nearby jumped and looked at the cat with shock, fear or indignation, which Orin ignored.
“He did a lot of terrible things before he died, and many Wizards even to this day are afraid to say his name. Don’t worry though, the war is long over, he was defeated when you were still little.”
It was around this point that the main course was switched out for mounds of desserts, and conversation paused for a moment as they all served themselves, and the other first years, getting the hint from last time, gave Hailey a little time to eat before continuing the conversation.
“What I want to know, is how you didn’t know about that, considering that you were the one who defeated him.” Wayne eventually said, having his spoon in her direction.
Hailey, crooked her eyebrow, and pointed to herself in a questioning manner.
Orin sighed. “I didn’t actually want to address this right now, but since it's brought up,” at this point she shot Wayne a rather annoyed look. “But Lord Voldemort-” This time she deliberately said the name out of spite. “Actually died while trying to kill your family. Your original parents died that night. However, you survived, and You-know-who,” The audience sighed with relief, “did not. This has led many Wizards to believe you defeated him and regard you as their saviour.”
“Nearly everybody in England knows this, it's kinda weird you don’t.” Susuan added.
Ernest however frowned. “By the sound of it, you do not believe it to be the case.”
Orin scoffed. “Please, she was barely a year old, Hailey may be my Mistresses special little girl, but she’s only human. Expecting a literal baby to fight off a full grown attacker is just silly.”
“Well it is kinda absurd when you put it like that. “Wayne said, and several people couldn’t help but agree.
“Now what was more likely that You-know... You know what, I’m already sick of saying it- That That-Guy just got careless and triggered some sort of booby trap set by Hailey's Parents in the nursery, and got done in that way, If anyone deserves the credit, it's probably Lily and James Potter, may they rest in peace.”
“I suppose that makes sense…” Hannah said, digesting this.
“At the end of the day, Hailey is just a normal girl, on her first day at school. I hope you consider getting along with her, she doesn’t have any friends her own age back home.” Orin said, the cat bowing her head. “And please treat her nicely, as she is very shy.”
While some people were taken back by the sudden earnest request, Megan was the first to speak. “Sure thing, I didn’t know anything about this girl who lived thing until now anyway.” she said, grinning. “We’ve already met, but I’m Megan. Pleased to meetcha.”
Hailey, who was beet red, could only nod softly.
“Same here,” Justin said, “After all, we Hufflepuffs are supposed to be loyal right?”
“Hear Hear!” said a jolly voice, and everyone started, as the portly looking ghost priest entered the conversation, having drifted down from further down the table. “Indeed, acceptance and kindness are some of the founding virtues of this house!”
There was a general chorus of agreement, and in that moment among the first years, and nearby listeners, they stopped seeing Hailey Potter, the Girl who lived, and truly Saw Hailey Komeiji, a shy little girl who couldn’t talk and needed a friend.
Said girl could only get redder.
From that point the conversation drifted away from her and onto some more general conversation, in which the ghost had then introduced himself.
“You may call me the Fat Friar, everybody else does. I don’t mind, it makes me sound very Jolly.”
“What's it like being dead?” Megan asked.
“Well, it's quite like being alive, except for all the parts that aren’t.” the Friar said, jovially. “In some ways it's quite liberating, as many of the things that seemed important in life no longer seem to matter. Can’t say I recommend it though,” he said with a laugh. “There are plenty of things unavailable to me, and your mind often finds itself fixated on the more morbid facets of life, or death for that matter.”
“If I may, I’m a little curious myself.” Orin said. “It's not often you see members of the cloth as Earthbound spirits, I feel there might be a story behind it.”
“Hmm… I can’t say I’ve ever heard the term ‘earthbound’ before, but I must say it fits.” The Friar said contemplatively. “The nature of my death is probably not polite table conversation, but I suppose I was probably a little too attached to earthly pleasures to properly pass on, as you can probably see.” he patted his stomach demonstratively
“Ohh scandalous.” Orin said cheekily. “One would think a man of god would be above such indulgence.”
The Friar smiled in good humour. “Oh I think you will find that in my time, the piety of individual members of the church varied greatly, as it was just as much a position of power and status as it was a position of faith. Many seats in office were filled with the second and third sons of nobility, no more pious than the layman. I’d like to think for all my little guilty pleasures, I was a good and just enough man compared to most, that should I ever fully pass on, our Holy Father would still welcome me into his kingdom.”
Orin gave a sniff. “Well I cannot speak for your faith, but from my expert opinion any afterlife would be lucky to have you.”
“Coming from something of your nature, that is comforting words indeed.” the Friar said. “Mind you, I don’t intend to pass on any time soon. Despite my inability to eat, the warmth I get as house ghost fills me up plenty.”
“Um, excuse me.” Hannah asked tentatively, drawing attention to her. “I had been meaning to ask for a while, and since he mentioned your nature… What are you exactly? I don’t think you are a normal cat, I’ve never seen one that can talk… and you have two tails… If that isn’t rude?”
“Oh don’t worry about it.” Orin said, waving her paw dismissively. “I’m not shy. You are right, I am not a normal cat, I am what is referred to as a Kasha, and where I’m from they are fairly common. And we serve as… guides to the afterlife in a sense, we are able to sniff out people's goodness and make sure certain people get to where they are supposed to go . My Mistress, Hailey's mother, keeps a lot of us as pets.”
“Woah…” Hannah exclaimed.
“Not all of us can talk mind you, only the most senior ones.”
“Where are you from for that matter?” Ernest asked, “I have never heard of Kasha Before.”
“Japan.” Orin answered.
“I wasn’t aware there was a magical community in Japan.” Ernest said.
“There is. They are just very secular.” Orin said.
At that moment, the plates were cleared a final time, and Dumbledore once more stood up.
“Ahem! just a few more words now that we are all fed and watered. I have a few start-of-term notices to give you.”
“First years should note that the forest on the grounds is forbidden to all pupils. And a few of our older students would do well to remember that as well.” A rather pointed glance was thrown at the Gryffindor table.
“I have also been asked by Mr. Filch, the caretaker, to remind you all that no magic should be used between classes in the corridors.”
“Quidditch trials will be held in the second week of the term. Anyone interested in playing for their house teams should contact Madam Hooch.”
“And finally, I must tell you that this year, the third-floor corridor on the right-hand side is out of bounds to everyone who does not wish to die a very painful death.”
Orins ears perked up at that, and her eyes narrowed, while nearby students all exchanged confused glances.
After a pause Dumbledore continued “And now, before we go to bed, let us sing the school song!” He cheered happily, and all the other teachers expressions suddenly became rather wooden.
WIth a flick of his wand, he conjured a golden ribbon, which formed lyrics to a song.
“Everyone pick their favourite tune,” said Dumbledore, “and off we go!”
What followed was an absolute cacophony, that went something like this:
“Hogwarts, Hogwarts, Hoggy Warty Hogwarts,
Teach us something please,
Whether we be old and bald
Or young with scabby knees,
Our heads could do with filling
With some interesting stuff,
For now they're bare and full of air,
Dead flies and bits of fluff,
So teach us things worth knowing,
Bring back what we've forgot,
just do your best, we'll do the rest,
And learn until our brains all rot.”
Orin after she was sure the quote unquote ‘music’ had stopped, she lifted her paws off her ears.
Hailey just sort of sat there somewhat bewildered.
“Ah, music,” he said, wiping his eyes. “A magic beyond all we do here! And now, bedtime. Off you trot!”
As students started filing out, the first years being led by a Hufflepuff prefect, Orin was briefly stopped by the Friar.
“Might I ask you something quietly before we part ways for the night?” he asked.
Hailey looked concerned as she was led away, but Orin waved her paw and said, don’t worry, I’ll catch up, won’t be a moment.”
She then turned back to the Friar. “How can I help you?”
“Oh just to satisfy my curiosity for a moment. I had a vague inkling of what you are, being dead gives you a sense of such things, and despite how innocent you made it sound… you drag people to hell don’t you?”
Orin gave a cheshire grin. “Only the wicked, and besides, it's mostly the bodies I’m after, so nothing you need to worry about.”
The Friar gave a chuckle. “My word, what frightening creatures they have in the east.”
“Tap the barrel in this rhythm, like so.” The Prefect said demonstrating, the barrel opening to reveal a tunnel. “This will give you access to the Hufflepuff common room. In case you are not aware, the house common room is off limits to other houses, and should anyone not in hufflepuff attempt entry they will be squirted with vinegar.”
“Is this a bad time to mention I’m tone deaf?” Wayne said dryly.
“I’m sure you will manage.” the prefect said flatly.
They were then led into the common room proper, a very cosy room with small windows high up, presumably at ground level.
“It feels like a Hobbit hole!” Justin said, cheerfully.
They were then led to their dormitories, the girls lead upstairs into a room designated for first years.
“Well isn’t this cosy, Orin said, as Hailey trailed behind Megan, Susan and Hannah.
Spotting their trunk at the foot of a bed, and, like the rest of the girls, got changed into their pajama’s, haileys being a mint green nightdress.
“Good Night everyone.” Susan said, as she cozied into bed, eyes already drooping as the day caught up with her.
“Goodnight.” Hannah said in response.
“Mnnnight.” Megan said, who was already drifting off.
Hailey gave a little shy wave, which Orin translated as “Hailey says good night too, now sleep well girls.”
Despite everyone else drifting off easily, it took a while for Hailey to do the same, staring at the unfamiliar ceiling, her face painted with anxiety.
However, aided by a purring Orin cozying up beside her, she too finally succumbed to her first night of sleep at Hogwarts.
Notes:
And thus, the first Hailey Since Youkai Hailey has made it to school.
I’ll be real for a minute, for most of the Haileys I really just wanted to say screw it Griffindor, because Gryffindor would by far be the easiest to write about, because, being the protagonists house in the original, At Harry's year level, they are the ones with the most characterisation, followed by Slytherin as the antagonists house, followed by Hufflepuff because one of two Hufflepuffs got some screen time in the second and fourth books (mostly negative), and with the Ravenclaws its literally like one character who gets any screen time at all (Luna doesn’t count, she’s a year Below Harry). But in the end, I did try to make sure All the Haileys ended up somewhere appropriate for their character, and got a somewhat even spread of house representation.
But, while Most Haileys I could make an argument for putting them almost anywhere, with This Hailey, she really could only have been a Hufflepuff, Her character, especially at this point in the story, does not pull her anywhere else.
This unfortunately meant I had to scrape together the scraps of characterisation the Hufflepuffs got, and then fill it out with a few more students to round things out, so I actually had a cast, and then try and plot out what their relationship with Hailey will eventually be. To that note I have written a general outline of several of Haileys fellow Hufflepuffs, and how she will interact with Hailey, and I hope that they will eventually develop into enough of a character in my story, that it will no longer be a struggle to write them.
There is also the Friar, which has always been a somewhat interesting character to me, as a Priest-Wizard-ghost, I feel like he'd be an interesting person to talk to, and have an interesting perspective on things.
This is also the first entire Chapter where Satori is not around Hailey at all, so let me know what you think of Hailey's absent narrative voice, and if it's working out.
Also kinda-but-not-really-spoiler, one thing I’m looking forward to, is everyone getting to know what Hailey is like when away from her mother and out of her comfort zone.