Chapter 7
July, 1977
“Oh no… they’re arguing again,” Tobias muttered gloomily, lowering his head toward the little car he was driving across the table. Tobias resembled his mother Judith far more than his father — with light, nearly platinum blond hair and delicate facial features. The only trait he had inherited from Bruce were his striking green eyes. “Do you know why?” he looked up at Halcyon.
“Unfortunately,” she lied quickly.
That weekend, the Proudfoot couple’s quarrel had started when Judith complained about how little time Bruce spent at home because of work. But eventually, the fight turned to which high school Tobias should attend — Judith had one idea, Bruce another.
Most of the time, when his parents argued, Tobias would go to Halcyon’s room, since the loud rock music drowned out the shouting; right now, Paranoid by Black Sabbath was playing on the radio.
Tobias stared thoughtfully at his toys, then glanced up at Halcyon as if searching for a distraction. “Mom said I’m not supposed to ask you about your scar,” he complained.
“That story might scare you,” Halcyon replied.
Tobias puffed out his chest and gave her a confident smile. “I’m not scared of anything! You fought a monster, didn’t you?”
“Yeah,” she grunted. Tobias didn’t know much about what had happened to her. When she came home, the Proudfoots had first hugged her tight, then taken her aside to find out what really happened.
“And did you beat it with some heroic spell?” he asked, eyes sparkling with excitement.
“Not really,” she shrugged.
Tobias bent back over his toy cars again, but after a while, looked up with curiosity. “So how did you survive?”
“Because I was lucky,” Halcyon answered, but her eyes avoided his.
“So… you didn’t defeat the monster? Someone saved you?”
“Listen, kid, didn’t your mom tell you not to ask me about this?” she snapped, a bit irritated. She didn’t want to revisit one of the worst nights of her life.
Tobias wrinkled his nose, offended. “I’m not a kid! I’m the tallest in my class!” he declared proudly. Halcyon smiled and nodded, but before she could say anything, Muffin — their ever-curious labrador — trotted into the room and sat down beside Tobias. He petted him excitedly and then, as if afraid Halcyon wouldn’t believe him, squinted his eyes and whispered:
“You know, Hal… I think I can do magic too.”
“Yeah? How come?”
“One time… one time I managed to make my stupid math tests disappear completely. I wished for it all night. And the next day? The teacher couldn’t find them.”
“If you were a wizard, you’d have got a letter from Hogwarts this summer,” Halcyon said with an amused smile.
Tobias frowned even more. “But it’s still only August!”
“True, but when they send the letter, they want a reply by the end of July, you know? So you can enroll and they can count on you,” Halcyon explained, but then she saw how much her words had affected him. Disappointment appeared on his face, his lips twisted into a grimace. He turned away in frustration and started mumbling under his breath.
Just then, one of his toy cars, which had rolled under the wardrobe earlier, suddenly crawled out again and stopped right next to his foot. Halcyon stared at it in surprise, and when Tobias noticed what she was looking at, he gave a small smile.
“See? I told you I can do magic!” he said proudly.
Halcyon stared at him thoughtfully for a moment. And then it clicked – of course!
Bruce Proudfoot had one big secret he’d kept from his family; he was a wizard (and had befriended Halcyon’s mother back at Hogwarts). Bruce had given up the magical world when he met Judith. He was afraid to tell his beloved that he’d been lying about who he really was… and that’s exactly why he kept trying to talk her out of that expensive school.
“Actually, I might be wrong. Maybe your letter did arrive. Bruce picks up the mail in the mornings – he could’ve put it somewhere by accident.”
“You think? Then I’ll go ask him!” Tobias burst out suddenly, his eyes lighting up with a hope so intense it left Halcyon speechless. Before she could say anything, he shot out of the room like a Comet Six, leaving her stunned.
When Halcyon heard Tobias asking Bruce about the letter, she decided to follow. She stopped at the doorway and watched as Tobias pressed him eagerly.
“What letter?” Judith said sharply, instantly alert at the sense that something serious was going on.
“You know, from Hogwarts!” Tobias answered, a slight impatience in his voice as he turned excited eyes toward her. “Halcyon said I should be getting it around now.”
Judith’s gaze snapped to Halcyon. Her aunt’s expression shifted from surprise to irritation. “Why would you even tell him something like that?” she snapped, clearly thinking Halcyon was filling Tobias with false hopes or, worse, mocking him.
“He can do magic,” Halcyon answered calmly, shrugging, and shot a meaningful glance at Bruce.
Judith turned her sharp gaze on her husband. Bruce paled even more, and when he pulled an envelope from his pocket, it was clear he knew he could no longer stay silent. Tobias reached for it, but Bruce handed it to Judith instead.
She read it silently, her face slowly sinking into utter shock. After a few lines, she had to sit down.
“Darling, I…” Bruce began carefully, but Judith cut him off with a stern wave of her hand.
“Don’t speak,” she said firmly and placed the letter on the table. She took a slow breath, as if trying to regain control over the storm of emotions it had stirred. Then she declared in an uncompromising tone, “He’s not going to Hogwarts.”
Tobias’s face twisted in protest. “But I want to go! Dad, say something!”
Bruce cautiously opened his mouth, but his attempts at a peaceable tone met the wall of Judith’s decision.
“I’ve already made up my mind,” she said, her gaze locked stubbornly on Tobias. “You’ve already been accepted to another school – a normal one, a much better one – where there definitely isn’t some werewolf that could kill you!”
“But I want to go!” Tobias shouted in despair. Anger flared in his eyes, and with a loud crack, the glasses on the table shattered. Everyone froze, staring at the shards in tense silence. Tobias muttered something under his breath and stormed off to his room, stomping so hard the stairs trembled.
Judith remained in shock and only after a moment noticed her palm was bleeding – one of the shards had cut her. Bruce quickly reached for a handkerchief and began tending to her gently.
“Judith, he has to learn… it’s in him. He needs someone who can help him… someone who can teach him to control it,” he said softly as he dabbed the blood away.
Judith’s face was full of confusion and inner conflict. Halcyon decided to give them some privacy, quietly slipping into the hallway and leaving the Proudfoots to face the questions they could no longer ignore.
✷✷✷
Lunch passed in uncomfortable silence.
Tobias sat in his chair, absentmindedly poking at his plate, while Judith wore the expression of someone who wasn’t even there. Bruce tried to break the silence with a completely mundane question—whether there was still milk in the fridge—but all he got in return was a tense nod.
Halcyon just sat quietly, cutting her food into small pieces she didn’t particularly feel like eating anyway.
When the meal was finally over—or rather, when it reached its inevitable end—Bruce stood up and began clearing the table without a word. Judith got up a moment later, gave Bruce a brief glance, and disappeared into the bedroom.
Halcyon was now sitting on the bed in her room. She’d hoped the music might distract her, drown out the heavy silence that had settled over the entire house. But it wasn’t working. She could feel the tension crawling under her skin, untouched even by the opening notes of a familiar song. The music filled the room, but couldn’t cover the weight in her chest. She felt trapped—by the walls, by the unspoken words, by her own thoughts.
Her gaze drifted to Muffin, who lay at her feet with his head resting on his paws. His dark eyes were half-closed, but the moment he sensed her looking at him, his ears perked up and he met her gaze. Halcyon reached for his leash.
“We’re going out, buddy,” she muttered.
She headed straight for the door, opened it, and made her way through the hallway. At the coat rack, she grabbed her denim jacket, and just as she pulled it over her shoulders, the door across the hall opened and Frankie appeared.
“I’m coming with you,” she said abruptly.
Halcyon stopped and eyed her. “No, you’re not.”
“Yes, I am,” Frankie replied coolly, folding her arms. “I need to clear my head.”
Halcyon zipped her jacket a bit higher, looking up at her sister with a mildly annoyed expression. “That’s nice—but no.”
Frankie tilted her head and gave her a challenging look. “Well, too bad for you, because I’m going anyway.”
“Oh, no you’re not,” Halcyon said with a bitter laugh.
“Oh, yes I am.”
Their bickering was accompanied only by a quiet growl from Muffin, who raised his head and looked back and forth between them.
Then footsteps echoed in the hallway, and Judith appeared. “Frankie, Halcyon was first. If you need to get some air so badly, take your brother.”
Frankie looked as if someone had just spat in her face. “What? Why me?!”
“Because Halcyon was first,” Judith repeated, her patience clearly gone.
Then she turned and walked off.
Halcyon gave Frankie a smug smile, stuck out her tongue, and with a soft click, opened the door.
“Later,” she said with wicked glee, and stepped outside.
As the door shut behind her, Halcyon exhaled loudly.
Freedom.
She pulled the hair tie off her wrist and quickly tied her hair into a messy ponytail, her thoughts swirling back and forth. She didn’t know exactly where she wanted to go — the main thing was to get away from all that tension. Muffin gave an impatient hop beside her and tugged on the leash, as if urging her to make up her mind.
She could go to Jaffa’s. Throw her feet up on the table, have a joint, listen to some music, and just switch off. For a while, everything would cease to exist — the arguments, the family drama, the way Judith kept making her feel like an outsider, even though she’d grown up here since childhood.
But then another idea came to mind.
Argus.
Lucinda’s list. And the thought that maybe, just maybe, she could occupy herself with something that actually made sense.
“All right, change of plan,” she muttered to herself, heading in the direction of the Fawleys’ house.
She’d decided to keep the promise she’d made to Argus. His ideas were brilliant, and right now, she needed a distraction like that. After fifteen minutes of walking, she stood in front of their house. For a moment, she debated whether to go the normal route… or the more Halcyon one.
Ringing the doorbell? Too complicated. Muffin would go nuts, and she might run into Gregory — something she definitely didn’t need right now.
So she went for the simpler option.
She headed to the side of the garden and slipped through a gap in the fence. Muffin followed right behind, tail wagging like this was the best game in the world.
“Halcyon?”
She jumped and turned around. Floating beside her was Bernard, the Fawleys’ house ghost, who always struck her as ridiculously theatrical.
Muffin immediately started hopping around him, trying to jump up — which of course didn’t work. He was clearly fascinated that his paws kept passing right through.
“Oh, great… hey, is Fawley home?”
Bernard frowned. “Which one?”
“Argus.”
“I’ll check… why?”
“We’re going somewhere.”
“Well, Halcyon, you never cease to surprise,” he said with a mischievous wink.
She gave him an unamused look. “Just tell him to come outside. Thanks.”
Muffin leapt when the ghost vanished. Then he looked around in confusion and started sniffing the air. Halcyon tugged on the leash and led him back toward the front of the house.
A moment later, the door opened and Argus’s head appeared. Muffin nearly lost his mind trying to get to him. Halcyon didn’t stop him.
“Is he always like this?” Argus asked as he scratched the dog’s head.
He was wearing a black leather jacket — and she was honestly a bit jealous. She’d been meaning to get herself a proper jacket for a while, but still hadn’t found the right one.
“Yeah… always. Acts like he’s got no friends,” she replied dryly.
“So where are we going?” Argus asked, adjusting his sleeve.
“That’s a surprise,” Halcyon answered with a slight smirk. “But Muffster’s your responsibility now.”
She handed him the leash with a cheerful grin and watched as Argus, slightly confused, tried to wrangle the overexcited labrador.
✷✷✷
The bus ride went relatively smoothly, aside from Muffin, who was as excited as a small child and kept bouncing onto the seat every time the bus slowed down, as if he were planning to leap out the window. Argus threw him a few amused glances but otherwise stayed silent. Halcyon just smiled quietly and watched the city lights pass by.
When they got off, they found themselves in front of an old, worn-down building with massive metal doors. Neon lights from the nearby street cast muted reflections across the pavement, and in the distance, the low thrum of music could be heard.
Argus looked around and frowned skeptically. “You’re not secretly a serial killer, are you, Halcyon?”
Halcyon burst out laughing. “If I were, you’d already know.”
She pointed toward the door, where the name Electric Voodoo was etched in faded metal letters.
Argus squinted at the inscription and tilted his head. “That sounds like something between the dark arts and Woodstock.”
“So basically, exactly my vibe,” Halcyon smirked and headed to the buzzer by the entrance.
She pressed the button, and a few seconds later the door creaked open. Standing in the doorway was a girl who had an even bigger rebel aura than Halcyon herself—faded jeans, a worn leather vest over a Led Zeppelin tee, and hair that screamed rolled out of bed and straight to the bar. Her black eyeliner was perfectly smudged, toeing the line between careless and effortlessly cool, and she was chewing gum in the corner of her mouth.
“Well, I’ll be… Hal! You bastard!” she exclaimed playfully, and before Halcyon could say anything, Muffin leapt at her with such enthusiasm he nearly knocked her over.
“Muff, you damn mutt, always trying to break my ribs,” the girl laughed, scratching him behind the ears.
“Cass,” Halcyon smirked. “Still living the dream, huh?”
Cassidy Bishop grinned and brushed a strand of hair from her forehead. “Only way to live, babe. Come in, Jeff’ll be here soon.”
She stepped aside, and Halcyon and Argus walked in.
The interior of Electric Voodoo was exactly Halcyon’s kind of place. Dim lighting, band posters plastered on the walls — Black Sabbath, The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin. At the far end stood a bar, behind which a lit-up aquarium filled with neon fish glowed — total kitsch, but in the best way. The air smelled of cigarettes, beer, and something sweet and indefinable.
Cassidy made her way to the bar and had drinks in their hands in no time.
“So, Hal, what brings you by? Looking to get in the mood, or just hanging out with your new guy?” she nodded toward Argus, who was eyeing her with a mix of curiosity and suspicion.
“This is Argus, and he’s here voluntarily — though I’m still not entirely convinced,” Halcyon winked and took a sip.
Cassidy grinned at Argus. “Voluntarily, huh? Then you’re in the right kind of company.”
Argus sighed and looked away.
“Jeff’ll be here soon,” Cassidy added, tossing her hair. “You can grab a spot, but if Muffin jumps on a bar stool, I swear he’s getting something better than water.”
Halcyon laughed and took a seat.
Yeah, this was definitely a better plan than sitting at home listening to fights.