Super Glue for Broken Families

So this was the Cooper household.

Toby had been very keen on withholding personal information, but Jack had allowed him to bring in some of his things, and his full name had been scrawled in light pencil across the back of his journals. Jack had run him through her network that still remained in the Ministry of Magic and had managed to acquire the teen boy's file, which included a record of his family history, including an address for the family home. 

Jack had taken it upon herself, as his temporary guardian, to track down this family and figure out what was to be done about the boy. With Charlie moving in, Jack thought it best that she begin to try and find an alternative place for the boy to live, if possible. He had not been a burden, but the house was only so big, and Charlie and Sunny had no other options. Besides, a boy ought to be raised by his father and surrounded by family. Jack only thought it right that she try to sort out the complications surrounding his abandonment.

Naturally, Toby didn't know any of this.

He and Sunny were shopping in Diagon Alley for groceries for the house. Jack thought that gave her an hour or two (as they always explored) to attempt to sort things out. She made her way up to the Cooper home and knocked three times on the door.

((Jack's going to ask if the parents are home. It'd be best if they weren't so she could talk to Hallie alone.))

Hallie had been reading through a book about stealth, it's uses and how to successfully go about it. She wasn't the reading time but hopefully she would be commencing work as a trainee auror and wanted to be impressive. She wanted to show she was passionate about this career and that they couldn't have picked a better candidate.

Her Mum was out working - she worked for the department of international magical cooperation and had been called in to deal with a batch of cauldrons that didn't meet the international standard thickness, resulting in many witches and wizards being admitted to St Mungo's.

The ex-Gryffindor didn't mind her Mum leaving her to go work, she understood now. Of course when she was little she never quiet understood, and was partly terrified that her Mum wouldn't come back, giving the fact her Father had died she was afraid of being alone, just her and Toby... Until he left too of course. It was a wonder Hallie was mentally stable hearing her father murdered by death eaters and seeing her brother being bitten by a werewolf, yet, somehow, she had mustered strength within her and survived the traumas. Then she had even survived tortured whilst seeing her best friend Maura mutilated before her eyes. Hallie really gone through her fair share of back luck in her life, but hopefully her becoming an auror would change that. Change it for so many other people too.

Upon hearing a knock on the front door Hallie rose from her seat in the living room. Expecting her Mother to have forgotten her keys again Hallie, still reading about methods of stealth - in particular human transformation- she unbolted the door about to start telling her Mum off for making her move when she had come face to face with someone who wasn't her Mum at all. In fact she appeared to be only four or five years older than herself and, in all honesty, Hallie recognised her as an older student she'd seen in her younger years at Hogwarts. No. She knew her from somewhere else too?

'Hello?' She asked, her blue eyes examining the visitor. No. surely not. Hallie thought to herself. It can't be Dylan. What would a famous quotient player be doing here? She followed Quidditch herself and, although she recognised Dylan at the games and in the papers not expecting to run into a celebrity makes them less obvious, especially seeing as they appear to be a normal person.

The door was answered by a young blonde, probably in her last stretch of education, if not one of the new graduates. Jack had attended past graduation ceremonies to fulfill her civic duty as part of working at the Ministry, but now that she was a free agent, she had felt totally unapologetic in skipping the ceremony and sitting at home with a bowl of cocoa puffs, watching scary movies to her heart's content. So this girl was completely foreign to Jack, which was a bit unfortunate, but something she could definitely work around as well.

Jack smiled politely, a smile that never seemed to properly reach her eyes. Propriety never seemed to match her expressions. Nevertheless, she persisted and pulled on a casually professional tone. "Hello. My name is Jack Dyllan. Is Mr or Mrs Cooper home currently? I'd like to speak to them about a very pressing matter."

The quidditch player was asking for her parents, perhaps she wasn't aware of her Father's death, although what stumped Hallie the most was that Dylan was her about a pressing matter? It couldn't be due to with work at the Ministry because she would have simply asked or her Mum. Could it be to do with her[/]? Hallie often went to the quidditch games and every now and then entered her family for free ticket draws, perhaps they'd won?

'They're not home, sorry.' Hallie replies apologetically, but still with a slight confusion passing through her tone - she didn't feel the need to say her Dad was dead. 'I'm their daughter, if you would like me to pass a message on I can do? Was my Mum expecting you? Wait. Do you [I]know my Mum?' Hallie gasped, reeling off a load of questions that kept popping up in her mind. It appeared her curiosity was getting the better of her. What on earth was a famous quidditch player doing at her house?

The girl began spouting off after giving her the initial information regarding her parents, spurring Jack to quirk an eyebrow in surprise. Why every young'un she met felt the need to speak a million incoherent words every goddamn second she would never be able to understand. It made her want to reach out, squeeze their shoulders, and instruct them to breathe. She ignored the urge, and kept to the topic for why she was here.

"Look, I need to speak to someone about Toby Cooper - your brother, I presume." She paused, curious to see what sort of response his name generated among a family member. 

(Sorry it's so short! I'm exhausted.)

(OOc: Its okay I just noticed what a mess my previous post was! Sorry!)

Whatever Hallie had been expected it hadnt been that. Her jaw dropped along with the book in her arms that landed with a loud thump. Hastily bending down to pick up the book the blue eyes of Hallie Cooper met Jack's.

'What? Tob- but, he hasn't, has something- what? I-' Hallie has completely lost for words it didn't make the bit of sense. They hadn't seen or hears from Toby in five years and now a famous quidditch player was at their house asking to talk about him. Had he been found? Had he turned to the dark side and been arrested? Or was he... Dead?

'Yes I'm his sister, would you like to come in?' She asked, still highly bamboozled about the bizarre scenario that had displayed itself. She stepped back and held the door open wider revealing the small cottage hallway for Jack to enter.

Jack observed the strange, extreme reaction from the young girl with the keen curiosity of a woman who had seen and heard plenty, and found that this did seem to be a new situation for her. The sister - this must be Hallie then. Jack had read Toby's familial history and knew that Toby's only sibling was an older female named Hallie. Beyond that, Jack knew nothing of the female, though she was sure they must have seen each other in the common room years back, for the girl was ringing her Gryffindor bell.

Jack nodded and stepped in, unzipping her coat and slinging it on her arm as she looked about the room. It was a relatively nice house - not the sort people ran away from, and not seeming to be the sort from which people were ejected.

Jack sat, waving Hallie to sit across from her - there wasn't much time for formalities. "I have been taking care of Toby - he needed a place to stay, and it was storming outside, so I gave him temporary rest. But as he's told me he has nowhere to go, I have been unable to push him out of the house, since I think it'd be hardly safe for him on his own. I was just hoping to shed some more light on his situation. Why exactly was he thrown out?"

Hallie gulped and too nervous to do much simply shut the door and stood there whilst Jack unzipped her coat and took residence on the sofa. Automatically Hallie moved to sit by Jack as she called the girl over. 

A million thoughts were continuing to rush through her head. Had someone discovered her secret? Or was Toby simply alive and safe? Unless, no, surely he hadnt bitten Jack? Was that why she was here? To tell us how her life was ruined?

However Hallie's answer was soon given to her, catching her off guard with the swiftness. So Toby was staying with the quidditch player. And she had found him on a street in the storm.

 Hallie let out a sigh of relief at this knowledge but her knees were bouncing up and down and she was twisting the ends of her hair nervously. Dylan was now asking why he had been thrown out. How could she divulge this information? The guilt had ate at her for a year until she finally realised why she had done what she had in the first place. 

'He wasn't thrown out!' Hallie responded, her tone defensive. Surely Toby hadn't said that to Jack. It sounded awful, as though he were unloved, a piece if garbage that was stinking up the house. Her Mother didn't even have the foggiest what had happened to Toby and assumed him to be dead.  

The girl, this Hallie Cooper, looked nervous and seemed prepared to close herself off, though the worry and anxiety was completely clear on her face. She did not seem capable of hiding her emotions, which Jack hoped would be good for them. Jack did not want to have to deal with a liar or someone who would cover their own tracks. She could deal with an open book much better than she could with someone hiding their past mistakes.

Jack remained calm, her expression firmly calm, briskly professional. She did not need to get emotional, nor had she a reason to. She just needed to get everything settled for the sake of Toby and the other misfits in her little family.

The girl suddenly got defensive, quickly adjusting Jack's statement with her own version of events. Jack raised a hand to her shoulder. "Look, I'm not accusing you with anything. The information I have is from him - that he was thrown out. All I'm here to find out is what exactly happened and what we can do to fix it. Please understand - I'm not one to tell secrets, or anything of that sort. I'm not here to snoop, I'm here to help. I've worked in the Ministry and I understand the meaning of confidentiality."

A tear formed on the edge of either eye. Toby thought that he was thrown out. She never meant to have caused that, Hallie didn't want him to have felt like he had been exiled yet, in all honesty, that's how it was.

Hallie hadn't thought when she said what she'd said, it had been an autonomic response. It took her time to realise why she'd done it - at the time she said he was dangerous but really it was the guilt. She felt ashamed of not being able to rescue her brother from the werewolf's bite. 

Jack continued to talk about what she wanted to know and why although Hallie didn't absorb any of the information she simply stared ahead, her eyes full of sadness because of how Toby felt.

'Is- is he okay?' She asked, her lip now beginning to tremble. 'I mean, he, he isn't hurt or anything? He isn't Ill? Where. What, when can-' There were so many things that she wanted to say but she could barely get a full sentence out. Her mind was disjointed as though a jigsaw were being broken apart. 'Did he mention what I?' The final word was merely mouthed 'did'. Of course it was obvious he hadn't mentioned what she had done and said to him otherwise Jack wouldn't be here, although Hallie wasn't in any fit state of mind and within a blink the newly formed tears rolled down her cheeks in unison.