Coming home that summer was a strange feeling to say the least. Last summer was weird enough with the boys on his street seemingly making peace with him, although it was nice to not be bullied mercilessly every time he walked out of his house. But other than the thought of what this summer with them could hold, his mother was acting strange too. She, for the first time, actually drove to pick him up when he landed at the ferry station. He had expected the taxi as he had the past five years, but was surprised by her. Though she didn't seem very more happy to see him, nor did she talk at all the whole way back. Something felt different and he wanted to ask her what it was, but feared that it would upset her enough to kick him out of the car or something.

That first week, everything seemed normal enough. His mother was off working nearly 24/7, he was left to his own devices, and the boys on his street hadn't come to bother him yet. Though...he'd not seen hide nor hair of his father, which was a bit worrying. Although he was often gone working, Parker usually saw him at least once during the night or heard him if he didn't feel like coming out of his room. He had also not yet received a letter from Pyxis, and assumed that there might have been something happening at home from the aftermath of her parents divorce last year, so the most he could do was worry that she was okay until he hear word. A thought dawned on him then...maybe that's what happened to his father. He was gone- had left. It made Parker feel very angry to think that he just left without saying or leaving any word for him. There was nothing he could do though...except maybe catch his mother when she got home and ask directly what happened. So, he forced himself to stay up until she did get home and then bombarded her with questions as she walked past him, ignoring him, and to her room. Parker just stood at her door, his anger swelling before he decided to try another time.

It was the second week now, and a few letters had now been sent between Pyxis and himself. He was glad to hear that for the most part she was fine. He didn't really talk much about what was going on with him, nor did he mention to her the fact that his father was gone. He didn't want to bother her with it when she had so much else going on. Plus, he knew it would happen sooner or later, and figured it would be for the best anyway. The arguing between his parents always bordered on violent and the faster they split up, the better it would be for everyone. He was still so angry though... His replies back to Pyxis had been slow, as he had been spending most of his days out with the older boys on his street. They were still as awful and uncouth as he ever knew them to be, but at least all their teasing was more in jest and not outright cruel. He mostly just stood in the sidelines and observed as they got themselves into trouble. Petty vandalism and destroying of property hardly seemed worth the trouble they got themselves into. It was almost laughable how poorly they were able to get themselves out of any blame too. Parker also found their sort of gang behavior to be disturbing. The older boys that lived on his street often got the younger kids from the few streets around to do things for them. But, considering that all they were surrounded with was gangs and all the news was about were the gangs, Parker couldn't be that surprised.

As another week bled over, Parker found himself becoming more involved with them, maybe making a comment here or there that helped them to not be seen or get caught. And the boys started to accept him more into the group as an intellectual. The...uh, planner of their petty crimes, one could say. He had only just turned fifteen and was trusted among the older boys of sixteen and seventeen....almost adults, practically ordering around eight and ten year olds because they could. They had then begun to invite him along to 'trips' they took. At first Parker thought it was just them taking their petty crimes outside of the neighborhood, but discovered that they were breaking and entering, robbing, a lot more than petty crimes. The first time he had gone with him had been too much, it freaked him out too much and he wanted nothing to do with it. When those poor people came home from where ever they were...

The next week the streets were clear of the boys as police cruisers had been rolling along the streets. They had everyone on edge, because even to a person who'd not committed any crime, most the police in the area were not to be trusted, as they were usually affiliated with crime themselves. When things had seemed to go back to normal, Parker tried his best to continue to ignore the boys, but it only angered them. Much like with that classic gang mentality, once you were in there was no way out. So, to avoid them being any more upset at him, he agreed to meet up with them again, down in that abandoned construction site a few blocks over, sitting around that metal barrel on the concrete blocks as the older boys passed around cigarettes. He felt like every other piece of trash Belfast kid that had no future ahead of them simply because of where they had lived and the circumstances it put them in. Most the kids here would end up in a gang, or in prison, or dead. It was just a fact. He hated it, and it made him sick to think of how easily his life could have been one filled with crime rather than magic.

It was another late night as he planned to try to corner his mother into talking about where his father had gone again. It yielded the same results, even with him pounding on her door yelling for her to talk to him. Frustrated nearly to tears he plopped down on the couch. He started awake when a door slammed loudly and sat up bolt right in a cold sweat, not having realized he'd fallen asleep. He heared noises and peered over the back of the couch to see a figure. His heart skipped, thinking someone might have broken it, but he saw it was his father!!? Parker lept up and over to him as he staggered in more, starting to ask where he'd gone when he was struck hard on the head. Parker yelled out in pain, falling back away from him. When the stars faded from his sight he noticed now how awful he looked and how awfully he smelled of alcohol. His father then started to shout slurred words that Parker couldn't understand and then charged at him when his mother seemed to practically fly from her room, shrilly screaming for him to get out- get out and never come back. Parker had only just managed to scramble back into his room when he heard sirens, as one of the neighbors had called the police due to the loud disturbance. Parker listened to the muffled voices outside his room as he slipped into a quiet sleep.

The next few days, he spent nearly every hour outside, returning for short periods to reply to Pyxis and some of this other friends. Pyxis had been demanding he tell her what was wrong, but he would just reply with "Nothing, I'm fine. My parents are finally divorcing though." He knew she worried, but he needed to sort this stuff out for himself before he even thought of involving her. It wouldn't be fair of him to do, especially with all she's had to put up with also. Going back out to the guys, he had ventured to ask what had happened with his parents while he was at school. What he got from their responses was that his father had apparently been coming home drunk and one night, when his mother came home later then him, she found him with another woman. This altercation also had the police called on the house to break it up. The boys hadn't said anything to him earlier about it because they had thought he already knew.

It was nearing the end of the summer that Parker discovered that his mother had actually been going to work less and less through the whole summer despite that she had been out so often. She now was at home almost exclusively and the gnawing in Parker's stomach would not go away. It was a crippling sort of hunger that he was embarrassed to even bring up to the other boys. He and his mother needed money. For food most importantly. He would have worked if he could, even if it was for such short time, but because of his schooling there was no way he could...the only thing he could thing of was...shit- robbing another house like at the beginning of the summer. As much as the idea sickened him, there seemed no other way....

It was the dead of night when alarms cut through the air. Lights on neighboring porches turned on, he and the group of boys were fleeing from the house as fast as they could, with as much stuff as they could. Neighbors would be coming out any moment... Parker fled over fences and through yards, and some of the more athletic of the boys did the same. As he was running he felt numb. He never thought he'd reach a low like this. It was almost an out of body sort of feeling. As if he wasn't really in control anymore. He needed to accept it though, because it got them by for the rest of the summer.

It was the last week of summer and Parker was sitting on the curb in front of his house, picking at the weeds growing between the cracks of the sidewalk. He was scuffed up from a fight with a few of the younger kids after they called him some names. He looked up as he heard tires slowly cruise down the street. It was a cop car. Shit. He watched, frozen and wide-eyes as they stopped in front of the oldest boys house and two large men stepped out and went to the door. When they knocked and he opened the door, he immediatly tried to slam it closed to run off, but they charged in and tackled him down, arresting him. Parker felt like his breath and his heart held still as he was dragged to the car and Parker stood up very slowly, as if moving to fast would get their attention. What had happened was his idea this time, and it would be far worse if for him if they got caught cause he couldn't try to say he was forced along...because he had been the one to plan it. When he got to the door, he quickly ran in and to his room, locking himself in there.

That night he manage to write back to Pyxis, everything spilling out about his father, how his mother hadn't bee working, how he was so hungry, and how that kid got arrested. Though he didn't dare breath a word about a robbery or having any involvement. Because the moment that last dollar had been spent, as far he was concerned, it never happened. He had to think like that, had to push the blame and guilt onto the others to he could just live with himself. He was only fifteen, damn it. None of this was fair!!

The day before he had to leave for school, he felt like he could trust the other guys enough to ask that they watch over his mother while he was gone. They agreed, but it opened the doors for them to start asking how he could even afford to go to a fucking boarding school, and what it was like, and what friends he had.

Parker climbed out of the car at the ferry station and grabbed his trunk from the back of the car. He looked back in the front window at his mother and asked her softly, "Hey, mum can I spend next summer at grandma's?" He was a random idea he had, and he had a feeling she would say no. But better now to have his hopes crushed. She didn't look at him as she pulled the car in gear, replying as she rolled the window up. "Take that up with her..." As she drove off a wide smile graced his face for the first time in months. He turned around to make it through the gate and onto the ferry, his mood considerably lifted and with hope that things would get better for him. There wasn't much else that could go wrong, right?

The moment he saw Pyxis on the train she had confronted him. With a more convincing bright demeanor he tried to assure her everything was fine with him. She eventually and begrudgingly let the subject go as they settled into their compartment. Neither of them talk about their summers or how they were...he supposed that wasn't a good thing. But he wasn't about to disturb the quiet for screaming and crying.

With this more practiced and convincing guise more people seemed to want to talk with him, or pair up with him in the classes he didn’t have with Pyxis. Some had even invited him out places and to student help parties. It was downright bizarre what a bit of fake confidence could do for a person, especially someone like himself whom he’d assumed had just disappeared to everyone else before. The majority of his time he still chose to spend between Pyxis, Anne or his dorm room if Alec wasn’t there. It was strange to go and hang out with other people and sometime he felt bad, as if he were abandoning his old friends. But it was his sixth year... as a 16 year old, shouldn’t he be allowed to enjoy being social?

While he had discovered some new friends, he had also found that there were some that were quite the opposite. He got comments and looks down the hall, between classes, and during meals from a few select groups who had been saying he’d become cocky and too full of himself. For all that he did to try to be kind it was discouraging and brought him down and back into his shell slightly. He felt like no matter what he did he wrong. People disliked him for being ‘broody’, for acting happy, for being a top student, for not being a good flier, for being Irish, for being a damned muggleborn. Everything he did or was was apparently just wrong…

He tried his best to ignore those people, spending his time with whoever he wanted, though making sure to leave time with Pyxis. He decided to let himself go to a few of the student parties, which weren't so bad at first.Though overall he decided they were not his thing at all and he did not like it. There was one in particular that had spiked pumpkin juice and had completely trashed him at the end of the night. It was a damn good thing there had been a few other slytherins there to help him back to the dorms. It was after that he decided he was done with that...

He'd managed to get himself into several fights with the people that apparently had a problem with him. He picked a few himself (a few with both Damien and Alec) if he felt particularly on edge and defensive. By the time holiday breaks came around, Parker just felt defeated, so tired and so sick of the way things had been going. He'd been trying so hard to be better, different to how he really was so that things could go more smoothly for him...but it had just made everything harder. He missed all the time he got to spend with Pyxis, his grades had been slipping, he had been sleeping in class and getting hurt, and god, he just hated this all. He wanted to sleep and not wake up.

While he did sleep through most of winter holidays, he had started to send letter out to his grandmother about staying there for the summer. He had been nervous about owling her, and was very pleasantly surprised when she actually responded back! She had always been the most accepting one of the whole magic thing. Half the time it seemed as if she already knew...but maybe it was because her and his grandfather had been into Irish lore and myths. Actually, maybe that meant they did know. She would never give him a straight answer whenever he asked. It was getting into the second half of the year. Parker's behavior from the first half had died down, and he was trying to make up the time with Pyxis, telling her all about how they could spend the summer at his grandmothers, have fun in her open yard in a much greener part of Ireland. They still had to hear if her parents would actually allow it though...it seemed unlikely, but so had his mother saying yes and his grandmother actually responding. So maybe it would happen. He could feel himself rise out of the darkness from the end of the winter break. Things could always look up. He just...needed to find himself, fix up some final patches with Pyxis and get his grades back in order.

Summer was upon them and he'd managed to make it through the end of the school terms generally unscathed. He was feeling great, and the days to come would be the best in his life. He could run with Pyxis in fields, climb trees, take all sorts of pictures, come back to the cottage and have a cooked and warm meal. Feel loved. He was able to just let go and enjoy himself when they waded in the nearby river and watched the clouds and then raced back as the sun set. He didn't need to pretend to be someone else, he didn't need to be a delinquent to protect himself, he didn't need to be or do anything. When their time there at the cottages were coming to an end, he had a bad feeling about his return home before having to set out to Hogwarts for the final time.