You Are My Life Support

Grace had learned the hard way just how cruel and calculating her former friends could be, they had ditched her before the start of their first year and ever since then they had taken it upon themselves to try and make her life hell. That had gotten to Grace to begin with but in the end she had learned to not let them win. She didn’t want to let them see they their words could get to her sometimes so she had learned to let them just roll right off her back. Grace had developed a thick skin because of them and deep down she knew that she wouldn’t have made it this far in one piece if she hadn’t. She had built walls as a way of protecting herself and even though that had made it difficult to make friends after being betrayed by the people she had once trusted, it hadn’t made it impossible. Grace had managed to make some friends during her time at Hogwarts and she knew that she could count on them when she needed them but she also knew that she needed to make sure that she could stand on her own two feet. At the end of the day she was a vampire and that meant that one day chances were that the majority of the students who were at Hogwarts with her, the majority of her friends would be gone and she would be the only one left behind. She knew that was a part of being a vampire, everyone her dad had grown up with was long gone and one day it would be the same for her as well. Whenever things got to be a little too much Grace tried to remind herself that her former friends wouldn’t be able to do this forever, that they would get what was coming to them one day and she hoped that she would be there to see it when it happened. She always tried to be so strong even around those she considered to be her friends and it felt like even letting a chink in her armour show would give people a way to hurt her and Grace wasn’t willing to do that. Walking into the Common Room after speaking to Professor Maddox had been tough, silence had fallen the moment the other Hufflepuffs had seen that it was her and that alone was enough to tell Grace that they had already heard about what had happened to her. She knew that she probably looked a state, she had done her best to keep the tears at bay while she was with first Samuel and then Professor Maddox but a few had slipped out despite her best efforts not to let them. Now she felt exhausted but she’d had a blood bag so her strength had returned and that was definitely a good thing. It didn’t change what had happened, though, and it didn’t take long for the whispering to start among her housemates. Normally she would have told them to stop but she didn’t have that in her right now so instead she headed straight for her dorm room after realising that there weren’t any friendly faces among the crowd of Hufflepuffs inside the Common Room right now.

Shutting herself away in her room, it was then that it really hit Grace. Professor Maddox had asked if she should call her dad and get him to come to the school but Grace had asked her not to. Her dad had a day full of meetings and reports and Grace knew that she couldn’t interrupt that. In time she would be fine so she knew that she didn’t want to worry him just yet. There was also the fact that she knew she needed to pull herself together before she saw him so for now she pulled her knees up to her chest and rested her forehead against her arms as she let it all out in the safety of her dorm room unaware that elsewhere in the castle her dad was already being contacted.

It was clear to Will that Micheal was angry and the truth was that Will was too. He had worked at Hogwarts for a long time and he’d never seen anything like this before. He knew that kids could be cruel but never like this and it was enough to make his blood boil. That day one of the students, or rather a group, had tried to kill another student and that was never going to stand, not while he and Kirsten were running the school. “They will be. Their actions are unforgiveable,” Will said, stepping forward and placing a hand on Micheal’s shoulder. “We’re so sorry this happened. Grace is such a great girl, we don’t understand why anyone would want to do this to her,” he said even though there was one obvious thing that set Grace apart. She was a vampire but there were other students at the school who were vampires as well and others had been through the school in the past. None of them had ever gone through something like this but at the end of the day that didn’t matter, he and Kirsten were going to take care of it and make sure that those responsible wouldn’t get to hurt anyone like that again. He and Kirsten were both parents so the idea of something like this happening to any child was sickening and Will couldn’t blame Micheal for being angry at all, he had every right to be. Will wasn’t at all surprised when Micheal said that he wanted to see Grace and he nodded. “Of course,” he said before nodding to Kirsten as she said she would be right back.

Hearing a knock on the door, Grace was about to tell whoever it was to go away when she heard a familiar voice coming from the other side of the door. Letting out a shaky breath she tried to wipe away her tears but they were replaced by fresh ones before she’d even managed to push herself up from the floor. She knew whose voice it was but it was only as she opened the door and saw her dad standing there before her that it felt real. “Daddy?” she breathed, a few more tears spilling over her lashes as she stepped forward and wrapped her arms around him tightly. She hadn’t called him that since she was a little girl, he had been dad to her for a long time but in that moment it slipped out and the truth was that she felt like she was a little girl needing comfort from her dad again. She was so used to putting on a brave face so he wouldn’t have to worry about her but right now there was no chance of that. “Wait, what are you doing here? You’ve got a busy day today,” she said as she realised that he shouldn’t have finished work yet. Truth be told she was glad that he was there even though she had asked Professor Maddox not to call him and she let herself take comfort from him being there even if he shouldn’t be right now.

MICHEAL ALEXANDER HERONDALE

Grace had honestly thought that she had known who her former friends were. She had grown up with them and they had stood by her even when other kids in the neighbourhood had given her a wide berth because she was a vampire. They had never seemed to mind that she was different and they had still accepted her as the leader of their little group. That was something that Grace had never expected from them but she had loved every minute of her time with them. Now it was a little bittersweet looking back on those times, there were still good memories that she cherished but at the same time she couldn’t ignore the way that they had been acting towards her ever since they abandoned her. Grace wasn’t sure what she could ever forgive them for that but everything they had done was nothing compared to what they had done today. Grace hadn’t thought that they were even capable of something like this, they had attacked her in the past but that had at least been one on one duels and the rest had been snide comments here and there. This was different, they had tried to kill her and Grace had no idea what might have brought it on but she knew deep down that it didn’t matter. Nothing would change the way she felt about them now. Her former best friend hadn’t just turned her back on her, she had tried to take her life at and least a few of the others in the group were in on it from what she had seen. Grace had meant it when she had told Bailey that she had no idea what she had done to deserve them taking such action against them, she had only ever been their friend and to this day she still kept the secrets they had told her as children even though over the years they had let some of her secrets slip and used them against her. That wasn’t the kind of person that Grace was and she knew that was never going to change. Even through it all she hadn’t wanted to lose sight of the person that she wanted to be and she knew that she couldn’t let them take that from her a well, she refused. Right now it was bad enough that she had let them get to her this much but as she sat on the floor of her dorm room she just couldn’t get herself to stop crying. It hadn’t been easy telling Professor Maddox what had happened but she’d known that she’d had to tell someone and when Samuel had encouraged her to go with him to his mum’s office, she hadn’t been able to bring herself to say no. Grace wasn’t the kind of girl who liked to make a fuss, she had kept everything that had been going on over the last six years to herself for the most part and even though her dad knew a bit of it, she had never let on just how bad it had been at times because she hadn’t wanted him to worry about her anymore than he already did. He was Head Auror before he became the Minister for Magic and both of those were very important jobs. She always believed him when he said that she was his number one priority but right now there were much more important things going on – her dad had so much to deal with thanks to the Enlightened and Grace knew that she couldn’t tear him away from that, not today when he had a full day ahead of him.

She had told Professor Maddox that she hadn’t wanted her to call her dad, Grace had promised that she would call him later and she had hoped that she would have some time to pull herself together and look like her normal self before doing that. Her dad had already given her a heads up that he wouldn’t be contactable for most of the day because he had various meetings lined up and reports to write so she knew that she would speak to him later once he was done for the day. She would be lying if she said that she didn’t want to see him, right now she wanted nothing more than to feel the comfort that always seemed to come from having her dad’s arms around her but she knew that it wasn’t practical. He had work and there wasn’t anyone else that she could turn to right now so she needed to try and process this on her own. Her dorm room was empty and none of her friends had been in the common room so she knew that she just had to try and put the pieces back together without anyone’s help. Normally Grace was quite good at that but she had never been through anything like this before and if she was honest she had no idea where to even start but she knew that she had to try. She had been on her own for a while when she heard a knock on the door and before she had even opened her mouth to tell them to go away it was her dad’s voice that she was hearing and she was sure that she had to be imagining it. When she opened the door, however, sure enough that’s who was standing there before her and she couldn’t resist wrapping her arms around him and losing herself in the embrace. Her dad had always been her hero and the one person who had always been able to comfort her no matter what and she needed him more than ever right now. Even so she was confused as to how he was there, though, when she knew that he had such a busy day with work. She didn’t offer any resistance as he guided her back into her dorm room and before she knew it they were sitting down on her bed, her dad’s arms still wrapped around her and hers around him. She buried her face against him for a moment, hating that he was seeing her like this when she was used to trying to stay strong so he wouldn’t have to worry about her but she just couldn’t put on a front like that right now. As he spoke, Grace shook her head. “I asked them not to because I knew how busy your day was. I was planning on calling you later,” she said, doing her best to stop herself from crying. “I’m okay dad, really. Don’t change your day for me,” she said, knowing that the last thing she wanted was to derail the important work he had to do and make things worse for him. As he asked if she wanted a new necklace made for her, Grace shook her head.“I love this necklace because you had it made for me,” she said gently. “Professor Maddox repaired the chain for me and strengthened it but it has made me think that perhaps a backup might not be such a bad idea,” she admitted, not sure if that was even possible.

MICHEAL ALEXANDER HERONDALE

Grace wasn’t used to feeling like this. She was so used to putting on a brave face no matter what she was up against but the moment she made it to her dorm room and closed the door the tears started falling and it felt like they were never going to stop. Grace had done her best not to let her former friends know just how much they were getting to her and she had thought that she could handle it but she had never thought that they were capable of something like this. While they were growing up they were all as thick as thieves. She had found herself looking forward to heading to Hogwarts with them but a few weeks before the start of the year they had abandoned her and ever since then it had felt like they were sworn enemies. Grace hadn’t done anything to them but for years they had been treating her like a villain and she was tired of it. Even now she had kept the secrets they had told her while they were kids and she knew that she would take them with her to the grave. It would have been easy for her to stab them in the back the same way they had done for her but that just wasn’t the person that she wanted to be and Grace knew that she was going to hold on to that. She needed to be the bigger person here and stop herself from lashing out no matter how much she might want to. There was a part of her that had hoped she might see a friendly face in the common room when she got back there but Minnie, Ryan and Samuel weren’t there and she had seen from the way the other Hufflepuffs were looking at her and whispering that they had heard exactly what had happened to her and she had known that there was no way she was going to stay out there with all of them while they did that. She couldn’t turn to the people she wanted to right now so she knew that she was much better off alone while she tried to get her head around all of this.

Of course, the one person Grace had wanted to see more than anyone was her dad but she knew that she couldn’t do that until later. He always said that he was her dad before anything else but Grace knew that he had so much more on his plate now and she always felt guilty about the idea of adding to it. She didn’t want him to have to worry about her when he already had the rest of the country to worry about but the moment she heard his voice it was like she was a little girl again and she needed nothing more than to feel his arms around her. She couldn’t seem to stop the tears from falling no matter how much she wanted to be strong and for a moment she let herself get lost in the comfort that only her dad’s presence could provide. “I know you’ll never be too busy for me dad but you’ve got so much more going on now and what you’re doing is important. I don’t want to take you away from that,” she said even though she could already tell that he wasn’t going to change his mind. He was stubborn, that was something that they had in common, and truth be told she was glad that he was there even though she knew that he shouldn’t be. He was her dad and he always would be but he was also the Minister for Magic and the world was in chaos right now so she knew that his focus should be on that rather than on her. “I thought that might be the case,” she admitted as her dad said that he didn’t think she could carry two daylight amulets. She had suspected that would be the case but the thought had made her feel better for a moment at least. “Yes please,” she nodded as he asked if she wanted him to test the strength of the chain. She hadn’t even thought that anyone would try and take it from her before but it had happened once and it had almost cost Grace her life so she knew that she wanted to avoid that happening again if she could. “I love you, dad. You do know that, right?” she asked as she lifted her gaze to look up at him for a moment. She knew that she didn’t say it often enough these days but she really did mean it and she could only imagine how he was feeling right now too. “I’m glad you’re here.”

MICHEAL ALEXANDER HERONDALE

It had always just been Grace and her dad given that her mum had left when she was young and even though he had made sure that she had everything that she needed including all the love and support she could ever hope for, she had still done her best to make him think that everything was fine with her. She had told him some of the things that had happened between her and the girls she used to be friends with but she hadn’t given him all the details because she hadn’t wanted to worry him. Even when she was younger he’d had an important job, he had been in charge of running the Department for Magical Law Enforcement and she had always known just how vital that was but then he became the Minister for Magic and he suddenly had so much more on his plate. Grace couldn’t think of anyone better to be running the Ministry than her dad and she was so proud of him but she also knew that she didn’t want to add to what he was up against. Deep down there was a part of her that had thought that perhaps if she had told herself that things were fine often enough then eventually they would become just that but the girls had gone further than she had ever thought they would and Grace knew that there could be no coming back from this. She had asked Professor Maddox not to call her dad because she had known how busy his day was and she hadn’t wanted him to do something like this. He was responsible for keeping the magical community safe from everything that was going on which usually meant back to back meetings it seemed and Grace hadn’t wanted to be the reason he was pulled away from those but she couldn’t deny that she felt much better knowing that he was there.

She had told herself that she would call him later once she had pulled herself together because she really hadn’t wanted him to see her like this but it was far too late for that now. Honestly Grace couldn’t remember the last time she had cried in front of her dad, she was so used to being strong and putting on a brave face but she didn’t feel like she could do either of those things right now. She hadn’t even realised that she had called him daddy rather than dad, it was something that she hadn’t called him for such a long time but the word slipped from her lips and within a few moments she was hugging him tightly as though her life depended on it. “I’m not so sure the people you were meant to meet with would agree with that,” Grace sighed as her dad said that everything else could wait. “I’m not going to win this one, am I?” she asked even though if she was honest she didn’t want to. She had told herself that she would be fine with calling him later but nothing compared to having him actually there next to her and the feeling of his arms around her always made her feel safer than anything else ever could.

Grace knew that her dad would have had a new piece of jewellery made for her if she had wanted it but the truth was that she didn’t. He’d had it made for her for her fifth birthday and it had been with her ever since so Grace knew that there was no way that she was going to let that change now. It meant so much to her because her dad had had it made for her and Grace knew that she wasn’t going to let those girls take that away from her. They had already almost taken her life that day, she refused to let them take anything else from her. Professor Maddox had not only repaired the chain she had strengthened it for her as well but it was only when her dad said that he couldn’t pull it off that she started to feel a little better about it. “That’s such a relief,” she breathed as he tried a few spells only to have them fail to break the chain as well. As he asked if there was anything else she wanted him to try, Grace thought for a moment. “I don’t suppose there’s a spell that can make it so only I can undo the clasp, is there?” she asked. She hadn’t been in the right frame of mind to ask Professor Maddox if that was an option and she wasn’t sure if it was something that she had already done. Grace hadn’t been paying a huge amount of attention at that point so she wasn’t sure exactly what spells had been used already. “I remember,” she nodded, a small smile touching her lips as he said it was the two of them against the world. “I think our little family is getting a bit bigger though,” she added as she hugged him back tightly. She knew how much Summer and the girls meant to him and even though she hadn’t spent as much time with them as she would have liked, they made her dad happy and that was all that mattered to her. Hearing him call her baby girl was enough to bring more tears to Grace’s eyes and she buried her face against him. He hadn’t called her that for a long time but she had always loved hearing him call her that. As her dad asked if she wanted to talk about what had happened or anything else, Grace thought about it for a moment. “I don’t know how they could be so evil,” Grace said at last. “I know they suddenly turned on me one day but they know what my necklace does and yet they had that girl try and steal it anyway. What could make a person do that to someone they supposedly used to care about?” She didn’t understand how they could have changed that much from the people she used to know and she hoped that her dad might be able to shed a bit of light on it. She knew she wouldn’t get a straight answer out of the girls but she needed to try and make some sense of what had happened. They’d said hurtful things to each other in the past and Grace had gone up against the leader in Duelling more than a few times but she couldn’t think of anything that would have led to this.

MICHEAL ALEXANDER HERONDALE