Chapter 7: Year Three (II)Summary:Holly mentally critiques wizarding society, learns her greatest fear, discovers a case of social leprosy, and thinks about a certain escapee.
Notes:(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter TextHer 3rd year started much the same as the first two. The 1st years kept wanting to talk with her until they finally got the message she wasn't interested. The annoying phase ended faster this year, only lasting 2 weeks. She still had to body bind one boy but that was all. Hopefully next year it'd be even shorter.
She had her first Muggle Studies class on Tuesday and its was… interesting. From reading her book beforehand she went in with low expectations but damn. Wizards really were clueless about muggles. In hindsight it wasn't surprising since the "Wizarding World" was almost entirely self-isolating. Combine that with their education only including magic and you get an entire society that can't put on shoes without a spell.
After several of her classmates asked enlighteningquestions ("Why do muggles use a tellyphone?" and "What does Elktricty do?") Holly shared a dumbfounded look with Granger. Suffice to say her only concern with the class was restricting herself to the outdated information the book provided.
It also answered her question of if wizards knew what a gun was. Answer: hard no.
Care of Magical Creatures was also interesting. Hagrid was obviously a gentle giant but not exactly the best professor. Between assigning a book that bites and opening the class with Hippogriffs he seemed rather absentminded about the whole teaching thing. The first class ended early after Hagrid looked at her and started crying. The entire class watched as he pulled out a massive handkerchief and wiped his nose with it.
After several minutes of the entire class awkwardly shuffling in place and awkward side glances all of them started slowly backing away and left.
Defense against the Dark Arts was, for the first time, an informative and interesting class. First Professor Lupin impressed her by not stuttering and answering a question correctly. After that the class kept getting better. He passed around a syllabus (Granger looked to be shaking in excitement) and promised to help make up for the last 2 years. From the looks on her classmates faces it seemed to be appreciated. She even managed to learn something new! Granted it was useless trivia about grindylows but still, it was nice.
The only downside of the class was how Professor Lupin, like Snape, seemed to slightly avoid looking at her. Granted he was better about it but still.
Now that she thought about it that seemed to happen a lot. Just earlier that day Hagrid cried at the sight of her. Professor McGonagall always gave her a slight smile when she did her transfiguration on the first try but… it was always slightly bittersweet. Once Holly had caught her discreetly wiping her eye. She assumed she'd imagined it at the time but now… and Professor Flitwick had an odd reaction to her too! There was her memorable first class when he'd fell over after reading her name. Then whenever she'd successful cast a spell first he'd beam with pride. She'd assumed it was normal but now she wasn't sure.
Holly didn't think too much about her appearance. She didn't consider herself pretty or ugly. It just wasn't important to her. Considering her shapeshifting, it honestly didn't matter. Still, her teachers' reactions planted a seed of curiosity the had her looking in her reflection in the Room that evening.
Her hair was bright red and untameably curly as ever, falling to her mid back. She could straighten it with a thought of course but it never bothered her. It hid her infamous scar rather well. There were subtle freckles across her nose and her eyes were bright green. Nearly glowing green even. She quite liked them. She suspected others found them unsettling and was sure to use it.
Her face was just starting to lose the childish roundness and look more like a teenager. Still blissfully acne free somehow. Thankfully she wasn't awkwardly lanky yet. She was seriously tempted to use her shapeshifting to skip over that step next summer away from prying eyes. Puberty didn't hit her like a brick but instead was a slow ongoing thing. She was still thin but not malnourished looking anymore. Though some nutrient potions may help her growth not be stunted... something to consider later.
(She'd never been more grateful for her mindreading for explaining that to her. Though she did feel bad for the teenagers she'd stolen their memories of receiving The Talk from to compare differences. The Room had even provided a book on the wizarding equivalent one day, helpful charms and potions included. She gave the Room a grateful pat on the floor and pretended it was happy.)
Altogether she looked like a normal 13-year-old girl in her own opinion. There wasn't anything obviously weird about her appearance to warrant her professors' reactions.
Maybe it was another weird wizard thing? Or maybe they were disappointed because she was antisocial? Either way she simply shrugged at her newfound social leprosy with her professors. So long as they kept giving her accurate grades it'd be easy to zone out.
---
In her second week Professor Lupin brought them to the staffroom to face off against a boggart. When she realized that the entire class would see each other's worst fears she turned away, inwardly cursing wizard logic.
'Oh, so we're expected to wear stuffy robes all the time because it'd be improper otherwise, but somehow publicly showing our worst fear is ok? Fucking wizards.'
She tried to think of what form it'd take. Not the basilisk, that thing was surprisingly easy to kill. Diary Tom was a possibility, but she doubted it. She'd beaten him once before and was much weaker then. She could beat that teenage megalomaniac again. Adult Tom was another, but she saw him more as a goal to overcome, not an unbeatable enemy. That really only left dementors but even those… she hated them and the fact they existed. Sure, getting her soul sucked out was terrifying but she was more scared of what they did to her, how helpless she had felt.
Feeling completely helpless, she realized, was her worst fear.
She wasn't sure how a boggart would portray that but was grateful when Professor Lupin ended the lesson before she could. It was another example of being treated weird but she was grateful for it.
Holly sunk into her routine. Eat breakfast, morning classes, eat lunch with the elves, afternoon classes. Slip away from people into hidden Room entrances and practice Patronus charm or read until bedtime, sleep, repeat. The only changes were the topics in class, conversational topics with the elves, the regularly scheduled nutrient potion, and Granger.
She and Granger had been having more minor interactions recently. Between hiding laughter at their wizard raised classmates in Muggle Studies, wariness in Care, and beating her in practical lessons, they were interacting more than ever. It wasn't antagonistic either but more… casual? Relaxed?
There was still competition between them, but Granger didn't seem so resentful anymore. She wasn't even annoying anymore!
Holly didn't understand it.
She knew what friendship was like from others' memories but never experienced it herself. Except for house elves but they were so naturally friendly it hardly counted. Was that what was starting to form between them? She could read Grangers' mind but that felt like cheating. Either way it confused her.
So long as Granger didn't annoy or stalk her, she decided, she didn't mind.
(One night Holly realized that, before Dumbledore and ignoring the house elves, her last conversation was with Lockhart. And that hardly counted. Before that… maybe one of her primary school teachers? Her professors were strictly professional, they'd never attempted to talk with her outside class. While wandering the continent she'd only interacted with shopkeepers or to brush someone off. Pushing away annoying classmates didn't count. The Dursleys avoided talking to her. In primary school Dudley had scared everyone off.
The only reason she had any social skills at all was because she'd stolen them. Holly wasn't sure how to feel about that.)
Her attempts at the Patronus charm were going poorly. The wand motion and incantation were simple enough, it was the happy memory that was hard. She tried the day she ran away from the Dursleys but only got mist. She supposed it was too tainted by the Dursleys. Next was seeing the library at Potter Manor. That failed too. Same thing with getting the Cloak. She had no clue why.
(A tiny unconscious part of her knew why: they were reminders of the hole in her life where family should be.)
Eventually she realized it was less about the memory and more abstractly about the emotion itself. The memory was just the best way to feel an emotion. Once she knew that her patronus started getting more and more defined with each attempt.
After a month of attempts, she finally succeeded by focusing on the joy complete freedom and thievery gave her.
With a wave of her wand and a shouted incantation a raven flew from her wand and landed on her shoulder. She smiled at the bird and it preened under her attention.
It was rather fitting, she thought. She was a Ravenclaw (though for some damn reason their symbol was an eagle. More wizard nonsense. Or maybe witch nonsense in this case?) and ravens were typically associated with intelligence. At least, that was what others would assume.
She knew the real reason: ravens like to take shiny things.
She wasn't practicing against anything so she couldn't be certain it'd work when faced with a dementor, but it was better than nothing. She knew from Diary Tom that Fiendfyre could hurt but not kill them. That wasn't exactly an option so patronus it was.
She thought it said something about the complacency in the wizarding world that nobody had succeeded in killing dementors. They were soul-sucking horrors that radiate depression and decay. Finding a way to kill them should've been top priority. Instead, wizards had tried the usual methods, failed, and shrugged before making deals with them.
(Holly tried not to think about the ethical nightmare Azkaban was. Fucking wizards thought giving prisoners to soul sucking monsters that'd previously defected was a good idea. She'd decided to put "discover a way to kill dementors" on her mental list of long term goals somewhere after "Kill Tom properly" and "rob pureblood supremacists blind." Those two goals were heavily related after all.)
---
Soon enough it was Halloween and Holly was skipping the feast to eat in the kitchens. Or at least, she was until an elf she didn't recognize popped in yelling about Sirius Black being in the castle. Naturally they all started panicking at that. After a few seconds Tilly appeared, apparated them both into the back of a crowd of Ravenclaw students and popped away immediately.
Somehow nobody noticed her sudden appearance. That didn't bode well for the whole "safety in numbers" thing. Then again, having them notice and question her would be annoying. Holly simply shrugged and followed the crowd back to the Great Hall where they were apparently spending the night. She dragged her sleeping bag over to a wall and pulled out an arithmancy book.
Unfortunately, there were too many people whispering to ignore them. Fortunately, they were saying interesting things.
So Black had apparently tried to break into Gryffindor? Interesting. Especially since everyone and their headmaster made it sound like Black was after her. Granted, he could have made a mistake and assumed she'd be there. But he'd been out of Azkaban for months now. Surely that was long enough to pick up on gossip.
No, it seemed like Black wasn't after her after all. He was after something else.
She'd started researching Black a week ago but it was slow going. The library had a stack of old Daily Prophets she was digging through. She knew the official story now: that Sirius Black had killed Peter Pettigrew and 14 people, none wizards, shortly after Adult Tom had supposedly been killed by her. He was then tossed into Azkaban post haste; without a trial she could find any records of.
But that wasn't the full story. It couldn't be. If he was legally her godfather, then her parents must have known him. Been close to him.
That wasn't even considering how he'd blood adopted her, something usually only done when wizarding parents couldn't conceive and wanted a blood heir. She had no clue why that happened if he was already her godfather. All she knew is that apparently she was equally both a Potter and Black. Which also made her Black's heir. Hence the goblins calling her "Miss Potter-Black."
Put simply, she had no clue what to think.
Except that she was definitely breaking into Gryffindor soon.
Notes:Holly, thinking about Hermione visualized: Link
My first chapter with a decent cliffhanger! Honestly, writing this has made me appreciate them more. A good cliffhanger is surprisingly hard to write.
I haven't explicitly mentioned this but the reason why OWLS and other acronyms aren't always punctuated is if Holly doesn't know they're an acronym. Anytime she motions them it will be written as OWLs but for other characters is O.W.L.s.
Similarly with titles, professors she respects get 'professor', ones she likes get their title capitalized, and those she doesn't won't have title mentioned at all. This is subject to change over the course of the story if her opinions of them change (or if I make errors of course).
Chapter 8: Year Three (III)Summary:A heist is plotted, a greasy git gets a POV, and Holly breaks several laws.
Notes:This is probably my favorite chapter I've posted so far, its got a bit of everything I love writing in this fic.
I bumped up the rating of the fic this chapter for violence and implications of pedophilia. It might be a bit premature but I'd rather do it too early.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter TextHolly spent the next few days stalking Gryffindors between classes. Their common room was also in a tower but password protected, not a riddle like her own. And frankly, it was easy to find for a supposedly secret room.
What was the point of making them secret anyways? Hell, what was the point of sorting them in the first place? That's just asking for conflict. But that wasn't important right now.
She watched as they said the password "Flibbertigibbet" and the painting swung open.
Later that night she was pacing in the Room while plotting her break in.
She could shapeshift into a Gryffindor student, give the password, then start searching? Stunning a student would be easy. As would be changing the colors on her robes. But then people would try to talk to her and she'd blow her cover.
She could use the Cloak and sneak in after someone? That'd be easy. Not so easy would be walking through a busy common room without bumping someone. Or opening a door without someone noticing.
There was a Gryffindor quidditch game on Saturday. Their common room would probably be nearly empty then. That'd make the Cloak-
Holly abruptly stopped pacing and slowly turned towards the nearest wall. Or, what used to be a solid wall. Now there was a tunnel with red and gold Gryffindor lions flanking it.
"It was that simple the whole time? Are you kidding me? Whoever made the Room was obviously a genius but did not think through all the implications. I really hope it can't get into any bedrooms. You got that Room? No helping perverts."
Although… wasn't she planning on breaking into them right now?
Hmm. Best not to think about that.
After several minutes of walking there was a dead end with only a peephole in it. Trying and failing not to feel like a pervert, she looked through.
On the other side there were at several dozen gryffindors relaxing in what was obviously their common room. Everything was red and gold. The walls, floors, furniture, everything. At least Ravenclaw's was more subtle. Obnoxiously colored or not, there was a warm and cozy feeling there that Ravenclaw's room was lacking. Maybe because they were less restrained, not all quietly buried in their books.
Sure enough, there was Granger completely focused on a book. By the fireplace was the formerly possessed Weasley girl, Ginny she now knew, along with several others who must be her siblings. The prankster twins were clearly putting on some kind of show for a few others. She vaguely recalled them trying to talk to her 1st year and ignoring them. The youngest boy was playing chess with a rat in his lap while the oldest was trying and failing to get the twins attention.
Was that what a normal family was like? Probably not considering there were far more of them than average. If she wasn't famous people would probably think she was a Weasley with her red hair.
How the entirety of "Magical Britain" seemingly had only one redhead family she had no clue. Probably something to do with inbreeding and lack of genetic diversity.
She ignored the odd feeling in her chest and studying the room. It wasn't too different from the Ravenclaw dorms, all things considered. Sure enough there were two visible sets of stairs leading to what she assumed were dormitories.
It seemed easy enough. Now all she had to do was wait for Saturday.
---
The rest of the week dragged on. Her anticipation made her already boring classes even worse. Once again, her acting skills were being put to the test. Thankfully nobody paid attention and her nerves went mostly unnoticed. Only Granger and Snape seemed to notice anything.
Thankfully Granger seemed too nervous to approach her. Hopefully Granger thought she was scared about the break in. In a manner of speaking it was even true.
Snape though, he seemed to be in an especially bad mood since the break in. He actually managed to glare directly at her. Which, good for him, it'd only taken 3 years. She briefly considered giving him a round of applause for managing it.
So far this year he'd continued his trend of asking her advanced questions that only she, not even Granger, could possibly answer. He'd never stopped since her first potions class. By the end of 1st year, he'd reached 3rd year material. By the end of 2nd he'd reached 5th year material.
She'd always been able to answer before but that was largely due to stealing Diary Tom's knowledge. Now he was on 6th year material, NEWT level, and still looking for a gap in her knowledge. Somehow, she knew it'd be bad when that finally happened.
So for the first time since stealing Diary Tom's knowledge Holly read in preparation for a class. Granted, she was reading NEWT and mastery level potion books for a 3rd year class, but still. It was the spirit of the thing.
This class though, Snape had somehow picked up on her nerves and pounced.
"Potter! You'll be working alone as usual. While everyone else brews Shrinking Solution, you will be brewing Wound Cleaning Potion instead. Now begin brewing."
Everyone stared in shock and disbelief. Granger looked ready to explode in righteous indignation. Even the most apathetic of her classmates looked outraged. Ignoring everything else, Holly immediately moved to the supply cabinet to get ingredients. As she did the entire class slowly snapped out of their daze.
'Wound Cleaning potion. That's 6th year material! Is he trying to make me finally mess up? You know what, it doesn't matter. I'll make the best damn wound cleaning potion he's ever seen.'
Holly started brewing with a never before seen intensity. For 90 minutes there was only her and her workstation. She let muscle memory take over as she sliced and chopped at an alarming rate. Diary Tom's experience guided but did not control her. In fact, she thought of a minor improvement to make by reducing the amount of dittany and adding chopped mint leaves. Her hair started to curl even more and beads of sweat formed, but she didn't notice.
She was In The Zone.
Holly was so focused she was oblivious to her attention she was drawing. At first most of the class was sneaking pitying glances. That shifted some time later into outright stares. Even Snape's attention drifted away from the rest of the class.
That's when things went downhill.
First, Neville Longbottom stared for a second too long and blew up his potion. Then Ron Weasley did the same. Seamus Finnigan and Dean Thomas' cauldrons exploded shortly after. On the Ravenclaw side there were no destroyed cauldrons but more awed stares. And envy. But mostly awe.
Even Hermione's potion suffered as her attention was drawn to the sight that was Holly in The Zone. With the entire class distracted the average grade that day dropped from the usual Acceptable/Poor to Dreadful.
After 90 minutes Holly shut off her flame, victorious. Her potion was slightly darker purple then the book described but that was expected from her modifications. She sat down on her stool and wiped her forehead, surprised when her sleeve came away slightly damp.
"Potter! What did you do?" She jumped slightly, alarmed to see him looming over her and staring at her caldron.
"I modified it slightly, sir. By reducing the dittany and adding mint the potion should be less painful without losing strength. Saves gold too with dittany being the expensive ingredient."
"How… quaint. Leave a vial here for assessment, the rest is yours as you see fit. I want a full writeup on the effects of your alterations by class Monday."
"Uh, sir-"
"Five points from Ravenclaw for stuttering. Now bottle your potion and leave. I will see you in my 5th year class Monday afternoon." And, as if she wasn't frozen in shock, he turned back to the dumbfounded class.
Holly vaguely heard the sound of several more cauldrons exploding and Snape yelling in the background but couldn't process that.
Couldn't process anything at the moment.
She mechanically bottled her potion, careful not to spill her vials. She packed her things, left the sample vial on Snape's desk, shielded herself from an explosion, and fled the room.
Even as he was yelling at dunderheads, vanishing failed potions, and sending buffoons to the hospital wing he was inwardly smiling.
The Potter brat had come into his class twitchy with well disguised anticipation. No others noticed but he did not survive the Dark Lord without learning to read someone's mood perfectly.
His first thought was a prank. If she was anything like Potter himself then there would soon be a childish prank somewhere on an unsuspecting Hufflepuff.
But no, she was, as much as he loathed to admit it, different from him. And for the better.
Oh, the arrogance was still there. That seemed hereditary. But her ego was academic in nature and, he hated to admit, somewhat justified. Why the girl had N.E.W.T. level knowledge of potions he could not fathom. Perhaps his attempts to expose a gap in her knowledge had motivated her.
(He would have to mention that to Albus next time the old coot bothered him about his teaching style. It seems he may have successfully taught someone for a change.)
Regardless, it seemed the brat had inherited Lily's skill in potions and then some. If Slughorn ever found out, merlin save him, he would start waxing poetic about Lily.
Again.
So seeing her anxious expression meant something else. Not a prank. Couldn't be academic at all if his coworkers' tales to be believed. She was such a recluse doing something foolhardy with friends was a non-chance. That meant it was a solo "extracurricular." Likely some form of trouble making, something dangerous to herself, or both.
He took the opportunity to truly test her. And if he happened to choose a potion that may protect her from herself? Well, that was nobody's business but his.
He had a reputation to keep.
Watching her brew was an experience. Oh, he'd stopped a few fools from blowing themselves up, but he was focused on her. He knew she could likely brew the potion. Knew she'd respond to the challenge. And merlin did she.
A N.E.W.T. level potion, brewed alone and spontaneously altered in a single class period. Successfully. That alteration was… efficient and may become the standard formula once published. It would save 5 Sickles a batch, bringing down the cost of Wound-Cleansing Potion moderately. While improving the effects.
He would not expect that from his 7th years, much less a 3rd year Potter brat.
Asking for the paper writeup afterwards was a pretense. He was already planning on sending her paper to the editor of Potions Weekly crediting her, wanting no mention of himself. The goblins would patent it for her and collect the profits. Meanwhile the brat would simply look like an overachiever.
She likely wouldn't realize there was a paper published under her name for some time.
Throwing her into his 5th year class would keep her distracted. The brat could take her N.E.W.T. right now and receive an Exceeds Expectations. But then the brat would have an extra free period. And a bored Potter was a dangerous Potter. If today was any indication, the brat was prone to foolishness. She could take her O.W.L. this year and N.E.W.T. the next. Merlin help them all after that.
At least she wouldn't be in his class anymore like the ghost of his past mistakes.
It was that thought that kept him inwardly smiling even as the 10th caldron exploded.
Holly spent that evening writing the full paper on her alterations, careful to make sure it was perfect. Snape would undoubtedly fault her the smallest error.
And if she was using it to distract herself from how weird that class was? Nobody would know. Not that she was of course. No, she was just being through. Mhmm.
Still, at least a 5th year class would be more interesting. Still review but she'd need to put some effort in. Maybe Snape was trying to set her up to fail. That seemed possible. Either way, hopefully her new classmates would leave her alone.
That Friday, the day before Gryffindor's quidditch match, Holly walked into Defense and stopped short. Snape was at the desk, looking like someone personally offended him. It was weird. But it only got weirder.
First was Snape excusing Professor Lupin's absence as him being sick. Plausible, the man tended to look rather worn down. Less clear was why Snape seemed extra cruel today.
Only, that made itself clear soon enough.
Snape's random topic shift to werewolves and obvious contempt. Professor Lupin's random sickness. There were the other clues too. Professor Lupin's shabby clothes. His scarred face. His prematurely aged look.
Hell, even his name was Lupin, derived from lupus, Latin for wolf. Even his first name, Remus, was a reference to the legendary twin brothers, Romulus and Remus, founders of Rome, who were raised by the wolf Lupa. His name was essentially "Wolfy McWolfson." Either it was an ironic alias, his parents were seers, or some cosmic stroke of fate.
'A werewolf then. Knew he was too good of a professor for there not to be something. Well, so long as he has Wolfsbane provided or some other security its whatever.'
She spent the rest of class skimming her book and subtly trying to see if anybody else realized it. Granger seemed like she might've, but she was the only one. The rest were too distracted being angry with Snape. Or willfully blind. Who knew with wizards?
Towards the end of class Snape pointedly made eye contact with her. Obviously he'd realized she knew. She shrugged in a blasé "so what?" kinda way. Snape sneered and looked away. One very pointed assignment on werewolves later, class was dismissed.
---
After the longest week of her life, it was finally, finally, time to break into Gryffindor tower. Or maybe sneak in was more accurate? Either way, it was happening today.
She watched through the Room provided peephole passage (now there was a phrase she'd never say out loud) as their common room emptied as they left to watch the game. She really didn't see the appeal of quidditch. Especially in this weather. But right now she was grateful for it.
She slipped on the Cloak, silenced her feet along with the newly formed door, then crept out. She silently passed by oldest Weasley who was buried in books and parchment towards the dorms.
Deciding to start with the upper years, she crept up into the girls side.
Several rooms later and Holly hadn't found anything suspicious. Granted she wasn't sure what she was looking for but still. She was pretty sure it wasn't trashy romance novels, an overdue library book, or something that looked suspiciously like a magical sex toy. Holly was starting to regret breaking through the enchantments on that girls' trunk now. But not enough to stop searching.
Working down the girls dorms by grade there wasn't much of note. There were some love potions in one that she stole to destroy. Nasty things. Holly thought the fact they weren't illegal said a lot about wizards.
Granger's room looked exactly like she expected. That is with stacks of library books and neatly piled papers everywhere. She even had a study schedule with time for nonverbal casting and warding. Interesting.
Not even the 1st and 2nd years were exempt from her search. She learned her lesson from last year about underestimating people. Again, nothing of note. Moving on she snuck back to the common room to start searching the boys' dorms.
The 6th and 7th year boys dorms seemed messier on average but at least there were no romance novels. That balanced it out in her opinion. Either way there was nothing important.
The 5th year dorms though, now that was interesting. It was horribly messy but of a different sort. Pranking materials and potion components were scattered about. Interspaced were what looked like cost expenditures and business plans. It seemed the school pranksters wanted to go professional. They'd be successful too if the profit margins on some of the sheets were accurate.
'Perhaps I could give them a startup loan. Maybe be a silent partner even. They seem likely to succeed after all.'
It was while plotting business plans that she found it. A seemingly blank sheet of parchment atop one of their nightstands. Holly didn't need a spell to know that it was soaked with magic. Clearly more than a simple glamor to appear blank. Running a hand over it she could feel the complex layers of enchantments. Whatever it was it skillfully made and worth close examination. She pocketed it and left. She could leave a note or stack of galleons but vetoed the idea.
She'd be returning it soon enough. Probably.
It wasn't until the 3rd year rooms she found anything else interesting. But not a good kind of interesting. The awful, morbidly interesting kind.
When she opened the door a sickly looking rat startled awake on one of the beds. That wasn't weird. Well, the rat on the bed thing was but it wasn't that. Sure, from its perspective a door opened and closed for no reason. That startling it awake wasn't weird.
What was weird is how the rat kept staring and sniffing the air. It was more focused than a rat should be. Almost intelligent…
Chills ran down her spine. Could it be an animagus? She knew the spell to reveal them, but that would alert it. If it had a wand and attacked her she'd be at a disadvantage under the Cloak. No, she needed to be subtle and keep the element of surprise.
Reaching out with her mind would work. Even if it was an adult wizard and they knew occlumency they couldn't hide the fact they had a mind. But it could alert him.
She'd need to take precautions.
Holly reached back, shifting the Cloak quietly as possible so she could point her wand at the door. Keeping her eyes on the potentially not-rat, she silently warded the door with everything she knew. After 30 seconds the door was virtually indestructible, it'd take a professor or a student interested in cursebreaking to open now.
With the room secure she tentatively reached out with her mind and nearly threw up. She was right and she hated it. Touching its, no Peter Pettigrew's, mind was worse than Diary Tom's.
She mentally lashed out, instantly giving him a critical migraine. It must feel like a bus landed on his head but she didn't care. She threw off the Cloak as the not-rat squeaked in pain and started casting. A few seconds later he was tightly bound in a transfigured cage she'd charmed unbreakable.
She crouched down and looked the terrified not-rat in the eye. Without saying anything she stunned him, shoved the cage into her bag, and nearly forgot the Cloak in her anger. Once the Cloak was on she tore down her wards and fled Gryffindor tower quickly as possible.
Back in the Room she took the cage out and set it down. She reached into his mind, careful not to steal anything. Investigators would probably find gaps in his memory suspicious.
Instead she manually watched memory after memory.
She watched the Rat met her father. How the Marauders formed and believed themselves inseparable. How they pulled pranks that were definitely bullying. How they constantly harassed a younger Snape. (Who strangely enough was friends with her mother? Now that explained some of his weird behavior.) How her father was completely infatuated with but infuriated her mother. She saw them become animagi to help Professor Lupin. (And wasn't it weird that he popped up too?) Saw them search the castle and forest. Saw Snape's fallout with her mother and Black as he nearly got Snape killed. Saw her father rescue him (now that explained more of his weird behavior.)
Saw the other Marauders eventually mature as they became better people.
Saw her parents fall in love.
(She did NOT need to know that was why her mother had a school trunk with an apartment. That memory was getting locked away. Permanently. Right after she replaced the bed.)
But the later school years of the Rat's were tainted with jealousy. His insecurity slowly poisoned him from the inside. She watched the Rat get dragged along into a war he didn't want to fight. Saw her parents fighting Death Eaters. Saw her parents go into hiding over a prophecy. Saw the Rat go crawling to Adult Tom begging for his life. Saw him weasel his way into becoming Secret Keeper and betray her parents. Saw how he framed Black-no, Sirius, when he came for revenge.
Holly dragged herself out of her mind before she got to his time at the Weasley's. She really didn't want to see those memories.
She leaned back on a suddenly materialized couch to sort out her conflicting emotions.
She could kill him. He deserved it several times over. But then Sirius would never get proven innocent.
For the same reason she couldn't scramble his mind or steal any or his memories. That would have to come later.
That meant she'd have to turn him in. She could send him to the Auror Department at the Ministry. Some of her parents' friends probably still worked there. But what were the odds the Rat would be intercepted and get "disappeared" before a trial? Too high.
She could take him to a professor. Once they found out they'd certainly help. But she wasn't close with any of them. They'd get Dumbledore involved and he'd handle it.
At that point why not go to Dumbledore himself? She hardly knew him at all outside of Tom's memories, plus the only conversation she'd had with him was rather condescending. She didn't trust him. And catching his attention would be disastrous.
But there was no denying he was a political powerhouse. If he showed up at the Ministry with the Rat in custody it'd be extremely difficult to bury the story.
Unfortunately, it seemed he was her best option.
Although… she could try to spread the word. If she gave an anonymous tip to a few reporters, they could spread the story. Or she could ask the goblins to bribe the Daily Prophet into printing the story.
Or both. Both would be good.
That only left covering up her rule breaking. If Dumbledore found out she got into Gryffindor's dorms there'd be questions. That was unacceptable. She needed to make it look like she'd found the Rat naturally.
That wasn't exactly easy. Maybe she could say she was practicing animagus wards somewhere in the castle and they were activated? That… might be believable honestly. But it'd reveal her warding skills.
She could say she caught a rat to practice transfiguration on only to recognize an animagus. That was better. Less believable in that she'd chase a random rat, but it'd hide her skills.
Or she could just say "I saw this rat and it seemed weird, turned out it's an animagus." That was probably the best honestly.
Cover story decided, she need to make it believable. That meant modifying the Rat's memory to match. Rather convenient Lockhart had so graciously given her his considerable experience with it last year. She hadn't had a chance to practice it yet but that was fine.
She had a lab Rat after all.
One obliviate later and the Rat's memory matched her cover story: he'd decided to use the distraction of the quidditch game to slip away to the kitchens, only to stare at Holly a second too long and get stunned.
What followed all blurred together for her.
She quickly wrote a few anonymous letters to reporters saying there was a big scoop at the Ministry soon. Another to the goblins asking them to persuade the Daily Prophet to print the story, including a healthy payment for them of course.
After that she brought the Rat to Dumbledore using her cover story to explain. One spell to confirm later, he'd asked for Snape to come with veritaserum. Once a suddenly furious Snape arrived the Rat confessed under its influence. Dumbledore called Ministry. Someone named Amelia Bones introduced herself to Holly. Holly mumbled something about not wanting to be mentioned in the story. Amelia Bones repeated the interrogation of the Rat. They, along with Dumbledore, took the Rat back to the Ministry.
Snape escorted her out while lecturing her. She thought she heard something about being prone to foolishness? She wasn't exactly paying attention.
Regardless, she ended up back at Ravenclaw tower and took a nap. It'd been a tiring week.
Notes:Snape's teaching method visualized: Link
Is Holly slowly and unknowingly becoming a potions master purely out of spite? Yes, yes she is. No, this fic isn't going to suddenly focus on potions. Its just a way to show Holly responding to being academically challenged for once and to characterize both her and Snape. Both characters are too stubborn and petty to back down. This is the natural progression.
Plus I liked the idea of Snape bullying Holly while tricking her into helping herself. That'll be a theme with the potions he has her brew.
Originally this was going to be 2 chapters but I combined them so the cliffhanger from last chapter is payed off. Plus, having a single week in story take two chapters is way too slow paced. That's why there's a bit of an awkward spot after the Snape POV.
Chapter 9: Year Three (IV)Summary:A political firestorm is started, Holly entertains herself with crime, becomes even more cynical, and surprises everyone by talking to someone.
Notes:This chapter is longer since I combined two to avoid having a filler chapter, it would've annoyed me later if I hadn't. Hope you enjoy!
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter TextUnknown to Holly, there was currently a screaming match echoing through the Ministry of Magic. For 3 hours the entire Ministry of Magic was silent except for yelling over the intercom.
To say Cornelius Fudge, Minister of Magic, was unhappy to see a living Peter Pettigrew was an understatement. He had gotten into office riding the success of being the one to catch Sirius Black. If Black was innocent his image would be ruined. So no, it could not be true. Obviously Dumbledore was trying to have him thrown out in order to steal his job. And what Fudge believed was fact.
Delores Umbridge, Senior Undersecretary to the Minister of Magic, was in a similar state. She had attached her reputation to the minister. If he was ousted she would be along with him. So she fought back. Argued that the whole story was fake. That there was no way a pureblood family could unknowingly host an animagus for 12 years. That the confession was meaningless. That Peter Pettigrew was dead. Clearly Polyjuice and memory charms were involved.
Amelia Bones, Director of Ministry Law Enforcement, was also having a bad day. An innocent man had been falsely imprisoned without a trial for 12 years. Completely inexcusable. Even worse was her boss' reaction. They cared more about their careers then anyone and anything. They'd rather invent conspiracies then admit they messed up. All the while listening to those who made well timed "donations." Amelia let them know what she thought of that. Rather loudly.
Albus Dumbledore, old man with too many jobs, was having a great day. The truth had come to light and an innocent man would go free. And it had been young Holly Potter herself who exposed it! Admittedly he had been fooled himself, but he was glad to be proven wrong.
If the soundproofing charm happened to fail on the office? Well, that was unfortunate timing. So too was the intercom randomly switching on. Quite convenient that.
Albus sat down and took out his bag of lemon drops to enjoy the show. He made sure to interject occasionally, cheerfully reminding Delores how he'd turned down being Minister before. Or how often Cornelius had firecalled him asking for advice. After several hours he was out of lemon drops and he may have lost some hearing, but still, a great day indeed.
Hundreds of ministry employees listened in silence as the yelling echoed, wishing they could be a fly on the wall. Unknown to everyone, there wasn't a fly, but a certain beetle animagus reporter instead.
When Holly came down to breakfast the entire hall was chaotic. Some were frantically reading the paper. Others were loudly arguing. Even the Professors were too consumed by their discussions to quiet the students. Though for some reason Dumbledore did look suspiciously amused.
From the snippets she heard it seemed her plan had worked. Sitting down, she stole a Daily Prophet from someone too busy to notice and grinned.
Peter Pettigrew Alive! Sirius Black Innocent? Tempers Erupt in the Ministry!
The article salaciously described the situation in something akin to a soap opera. There were blustering bureaucrats, righteously furious law enforcement, and a meddling old coot popping candies.
Life did imitate art it seemed.
She pocketed the paper and ate quickly. She had potions tomorrow to prepare for. She was not going to let Snape win.
(In Hogsmeade, Padfoot nearly fell over in shock upon seeing the paper. And from hunger. But mostly from shock. It seemed Wormtail would get what was coming.
Unfortunately, he couldn't kill the traitor himself. But he would be a free man soon. He'd be able to see little Holly. That, he realized, was more important.
He turned towards London to turn himself in. A little veritaserum and he should be a free man. Good Loki, he hoped the Ministry didn't fuck this up.)
After morning Defense and lunch Holly walked into Snape's classroom. She was nervous but excited. Maybe she'd learn something new? After dropping her paper on his desk, she sat at a desk in the back and pulled out her copy of Advanced Potion Making. She didn't know what the class had been working on before and she need to be ready. Snape would undoubtedly start her off with something insane.
She was pulled out of her reading when several shadows fell over her. From somewhere above her a deep voice asked, "Are you supposed to be here?"
Without bothering to look up she simply said "yep" and kept reading. If they said anything else she didn't notice. She had an unreasonable potions professor to prepare for.
Sometime later she heard the door bang open and her head snapped up. 'Three… two... one-'
"Potter! Your tie is crooked, five points from Ravenclaw." Without stopping Snape walked to the front of the class. "As you can see, we have a new celebrity in our class. Do not let this distract you."
With a wave on his hand instructions appeared on the board. "Today we will be mixing a potion that often comes up at Ordinary Wizarding Level: The Draught of Peace, a potion to calm anxiety and soothe agitation. Be warned: If you are too heavy-handed with the ingredients you will put the drinker into a heavy and sometimes irreversible sleep, so you will need to pay close attention to what you are doing. "
"Potter, you will be working alone." At sudden outcry in voices, he cut them off. "20 points from both Ravenclaw and Gryffindor. Get to work."
The class looked mutinous, but Holly didn't mind. She was used to working without a partner. No partner meant nobody trying to chat with her. No interruptions. Nobody to mess her up. She gathered her ingredients and got to work.
Just after she finished adding the moonstone powder Snape materialized behind her.
"Potter, if you wanted to increase the duration of your Drought of Peace what alterations would you make?" She kept working even as she thought it over.
The two core ingredients were unicorn horn and moonstone, both powdered. Everything else was simply balancing out the effects. Changing how finely powdered they were would affect the dissolution rate but change nothing other than the brewing time. Altering the amount of either would unbalance the whole thing. Adding an amplifier element would make the potion too strong and put the user permanently asleep.
That meant altering the ingredients properties instead.
Without looking away from her workspace she answered. "If the potion was brewed during a full moon the moonstones extra potency would increase the duration. So would personally befriending the unicorn and being allowed to personally harvest its horn. Although that may need to be balanced out with extra syrup of hellebore."
By the end of her answer the classroom was staring, silent except for simmering cauldrons. Just as a nearby cauldron was about to explode Snape vanished the potion and sent them a death glare. That was enough to startle the class back into working.
Naturally, this went completely unnoticed by Holly.
"A lackluster answer. I expect a full written explanation on the effects of those alterations by next class."
The rest of the class passed in a single-minded blur. In the end, her potion had the textbook perfect light silver vapor rising from it.
Snape took one glance at it. "Passable. Leave a vial behind, the rest is yours to do as you will. Perhaps it will prevent more foolishness." Mentally cursing unreasonable professors, she took her bottled potion and left.
(After she left another cauldron nearly exploded before it was quickly vanished. Snape turned to face the class, "Perhaps knowing a single 3rd year finished sooner and with more success will be the motivation you need."
The various partners made eye contact before throwing themselves back into work. Their pride was on the line now.)
Back in the Room Holly was looking at her vials of Draught of Peace. "I might need this just to deal with Snape. But I probably should save it for the next time a fight a basilisk or something. I could always brew more though…"
---
Holly adjusted with surprising ease after that. Every morning she'd steal a newspaper in the morning to track the ongoing ministry scandal. Things weren't looking good for Fudge. The Rat and Sirius's trial were set for the November 13th, less than a week away.
She already had a plan to get permission to go.
Dumbledore wouldn't want her to let her go but a few words about "needing closure for her parents" and Dumbledore should cave in. To a certain extent it was true. Not that it was the main reason of course.
No, that was the Rat himself.
The Rat needed his memories of her parents in order to testify. After that? He wouldn't need them in Azkaban. Which meant Holly was free to take them for herself. That traitor had no right to remember her parents when he was the reason she'd never known them. He'd remember their names and that he'd gotten the people he loved killed, but that was all.
Holly was rather looking forward to ripping his memories out.
Unfortunately, she had to wait almost full week for the trial. To distract herself Holly went to visit somewhere she'd never been before: Hogwarts library.
It'd be unfathomable to most, but she really hadn't needed it. Tom had been an obsessive reader after all. Plus, she had quite the personal library between the Room, her buying habits, and the Potter Vaults and Manor. Hogwarts library was massive and broad while hers was more focused and advanced. Probably less child friendly too.
Holly hated the idea of only being able to borrow books. Thus, her brilliant idea: why not duplicate books from the library and add them to her collection? They'd be enchanted against it surely. And it was probably illegal. Neither of that was particularly important to her, so she got started.
She pushed the doors open and froze.
'Oh. Tom's memories didn't do this place justice. I really should have come here sooner.'
She walked in and started drifting through the aisles in a daze.
Her amazement quickly wore off when she realized something. 'They've got no book index. No keyword or title searching system. No auto retrieval. Hardly any organization at all beyond the subject sections. All the "dangerous" books are shut away.'
'This is an amazing resource and they're wasting it. Fucking. Wizards.'
(Unknown to Holly, Lily Evans once had the same thought. In her 7th year, after James gave her the trunk, she decided to do something about it. After several months she succeeded. She'd created a comprehensive set of library charms. It would've revolutionized magical libraries overnight.
Then she was thrown into the war and died without publishing it.)
Holly mechanically collected a stack of books on book enchantments and checked them out before she started cursing out loud. Back in the Room Holly obliterated several targets before settling in to read.
A few days later and she was ready to try it out.
She had a throwaway test book set out in front of her. One of Lockhart's naturally. She'd found it in the trash at the end of last year and had been saving it for something like this.
With the front cover Holly tapped her wand against it. One muttered "revelio" later, she could see the various enchantments on it.
"Wait, only two enchantments on it? Damn you're cheap Lockhart. That one's… to keep his self-portrait working? And there's the anti-duplication."
A few spells later and she'd successfully removed the anti-duplication. She pointed her wand, "geminio" and an identical copy popped out. One scan later showed the copy still had the portrait longevity charm. She'd need to add a few runes to make it truly permanent but that was it.
"That was suspiciously easy. Probably because Lockhart's a cheap fool. Somehow I doubt other books will be like that.
Her next test book was a worn Standard Book of Spells, Grade 1 she'd found in the Room and didn't bother to take. Again, a quick scan found the enchantments.
"Ok, that's a preservation charm. That's for water repellent. That's… an anti-crease charm. And there's the anti-duplication spell." A few spells and half a minute later there was an identical copy.
"Is it really that easy? Either this is super illegal or wizards are painfully stupid."
She asked the room for the most heavily enchanted, worst condition book she already owned. A second later there was a battered Most Ponte Potions in front of her. It'd obviously been soaking in the ambient magic of the Room for some time and was layered in enchantments and curses.
"Ok, if I can do this, I can do any book in that library."
She carefully got to work. Each enchantment had a nasty curse attached that she did not want to set off. Several Blood Boiling, Flesh Eating, Organ Vomiting, and Brain Hemorrhaging curses later she successfully isolated and countered them.
"Now I only have to counter the anti-duplication and... got it!"
One geminio later there was a copy in front of her. It even still had the various preservation charms from the original.
"Is it really that easy? Seriously? Why doesn't everyone do this? Sure, they'll wear down faster, but a couple preservation runes fix that easily. Do they toss people in Azkaban for this or something?"
(What Holly didn't realize is that isolating and breaking enchantments like she'd just done was considered beginner to intermediate level cursebreaking. Something that usually took training. Because of the difficulty involved there were only small fines to discourage the limited number of people capable of doing it.
Holly, in true Holly fashion, had only studied cursebreaking to take cursed books from the Room.)
An hour later Holly had two identical stacks of books. The originals, with their anti-duplication charm replaced, would be returned to the library. The copies, with added runes for longevity, would go into the Trunk library.
It had gotten her thinking. 'If I can copy by books shouldn't I make backups? I have a lot of books. Some of them are rare too. My Trunk has decent protections but if I lost it… that'd be devastating.'
She couldn't duplicate the Trunk itself with everything in in. The space expansion charms alone would make it impossible. That meant creating backups of her books. She could put them into Potter Manor or her vaults for safekeeping. But before that she'd need to better secure her Trunk.
"Well, duplicating everything useful in the Hogwarts library and my Trunk library will take a while. Guess that goes onto the list. Probably before killing Adult Tom too. I mean, what are the odds he'll come back while I'm still a student?"
(In less than 2 years Holly would look back and kick herself.)
---
Several days later Holly stumbled out of a Ministry Floo and brushed herself off.
'Honestly, Wizards have been using Floos for centuries, how has nobody figured out making it clean yet? Is it so overlooked that it's never occurred to them?'
Either way, Holly took her first look around the Ministry atrium and was not impressed. It was all black tile that somehow managed to be both minimalist and gaudy. In the middle there was a fountain of other races looking up in adoration at a witch and wizard.
'You know, it really says a lot about their self-image they have a statue of themselves being worshiped by the very races they despise and ignore. Really stroking their egos there.'
Ignoring it, she let Snape guide her to the lifts. That was another weird thing.
Dumbledore had protested against her going to Sirius's and Pettigrew's trial more then she expected. He spouted all kinds of vague reasons: that she shouldn't miss a school day; that it would be boring; that news reporters would harass her; that it may not be safe as some members of the Wizengamot were formerly "imperused" Death Eaters there (she thought that said a lot about how corrupt the Ministry was.)
Holly protested and eventually convinced him with her planned guilt trip of "I need closure with my parents' deaths" while rapidly blinking to hold back (mostly) fake tears. Dumbledore conceded but required she'd have an Unfamiliarity Charm to seemingly look nondescript and a professor chaperone. She knew it really meant babysitter/guard but still agreed. It wouldn't be that bad.
But for some reason Dumbledore chose Snape for the job.
Snape who hated her.
Snape who hated Sirius Black.
Snape who, she now knew from the Rat, was a (hopefully) former Death Eater himself.
Holly was seriously questioning Dumbledore's judgment right about now.
Regardless, she let Snape guide her into the courtroom and took their seats. What followed destroyed any shreds of hope Holly might've had in the Ministry or wizarding society.
Sirius was dragged out and chained into a chair. He looked awful, gaunt and in rags, but with his spirt unbroken. The Minister started blustering, red faced and mostly incomprehensible.
Some amount of time later, they presented their evidence against Sirius. Namely that obviously he was guilty, so they didn't need evidence. If she wasn't horrified that brilliant argument was coming from the Minister of Magic himself, she would've laughed. The aristocrat jury (and wasn't that a horrifying fact?) bickered and dissolved into infighting.
Eventually the defense had veritaserum administered and Sirius interrogated. When he was proven innocent there was more blustering until the Rat was dragged in.
Holly couldn't focus on anything they said. She watched their lips more, not hearing a word. She was twitching in anticipation for it to be over. Eventually they lifted the Rat from the chair and started dragging him away.
It was then Holly struck.
She reached out for his mind, entered effortlessly, and started tearing out memories. Anything involving her parents and the Marauders. Any spells she didn't know. Any classes from his later years at Hogwarts. Anything he knew about Death Eaters: names, personalities, fighting styles, home locations, safe houses, everything. Anything he knew about Adult Tom. Any mention of the prophecy. And much less importantly, how to become an animagus.
By the time she was done the Rat's mind was Swiss cheese. His childhood was intact. So were the years he spent at the Weasley's (she was not looking at that.) But nearly all that otherwise remained were his insecurities and knowing he betrayed those he loved.
With a final mental kick to the head, Holly left his mind.
Now in a dramatically better mood, Holly tossed several galleons into the fountain for St. Mungo's as they left.
For the rest of the day she unknowingly had a vindictive smile and gleam in her eye.
Snape, upon seeing the Potter Brat's expression, panicked.
He knew that look from Lily. He'd seen her go to confront Avery 7th year and come back with that same expression of malicious glee. Avery, even after becoming a Death Eater, had completely avoided Lily.
To see that same look on the brat was… concerning.
It could be knowing Pettigrew was heading to Azkaban. But no, she had been twitchy until a certain moment while Pettigrew was being dragged away. They had both stopped moving for a second. After that, Pettigrew started screaming and the brat had that damned smile.
The brat had done something then. Interesting. He could not fathom what exactly, but it was certainly exceptionally malicious.
Good thing Albus was too distracted to notice.
He wouldn't have approved.
While a political firestorm raged in Wizarding Britain Holly's 3rd year continued almost normally. Or at least, her idea of almost normally. For anybody else it'd be exceptionally odd.
All her classes, barring potions, were exceptionally easy. Good review, but pathetically easy. The only hard part was hiding her suspiciously advanced skill level.
Potions was always the same as her first class with the 5th years. She always worked alone on whatever potion Snape chose to the best of her ability. All while he interrupted her about possible alterations and improvements.
She knew Snape was still trying to mess her up. Which meant it was the only class she put her full effort into it. And at the end, he'd always tell her to write up a paper on her alterations and take to her potion with her.
(Strangely they seeming to be mostly medical potions. Holly, knowing she may need them, decided to keep them in her bottomless bag for emergencies. There had already been a troll and basilisk in the school, who knew what could be next?)
As much as she despised Snape his classes were certainly the most interesting. Granted, it was because he constantly harassed her, but still, they were interesting. She thought that said something important about her but wasn't sure what.
Outside of class she was busy as ever.
Every week Holly visited the library to checkout as many books as believably possible. Ms. Pince had been extremely suspicious when she'd returned her stack of books after only three days. Realizing her mistake, she restricted herself to borrowing roughly ten books a week. Taking ten every time would be suspicious. After all, if anybody could guess what she was doing it'd be the librarian.
It was slow going but she was working her way through the advanced potion books. It was restricting but necessary. Checking out books on NEWT level charms or defense would give her away. Potions was the only subject she wasn't downplaying her skill in.
Those were the only books she took publicly.
Every evening Holly would stay in the library until it was closing. Once most people were gone, she would put on the Cloak, take a stack of books, and shove them in her bottomless backpack. Sometimes from the Restricted Section (deactivating the Anti-Trespassing runes on the entrance wasn't hard), sometimes not. The Marauders Map was invaluable for avoiding people during her heists. A simple illusion made it appear no books were missing. Then she copied them twice (once for her Trunk and a backup) before going to sleep and put the originals back in the morning.
After engraving preservation runes to her copies they'd be no different then the original.
It was a rather efficient system. She was too busy to read her all of the new books now of course, but she could do that that later.
No, now she was focused going over the Rat's memories.
It was… an experience watching her parents grow up. She was finally getting to know her parents but it only possible from another's memories. She wasn't she how to feel about that.
(After reviewing those memories and tearing up several times Holly decided to ignore them for now.)
For someone significantly older there was relatively little magic to learn from the Rat. Diary Tom was 17 years younger and had a greater grasp of magical theory and only slightly fewer known spells. The Rat had rarely paid attention in class too, so she couldn't even learn from those lectures secondhand either.
Learning apparation early was convenient for her. He had some true fighting experience which was nearly as appreciated. The process of becoming an animagus seemed useful but she'd do that later. That was really the only useful magic he knew.
In contrast, his knowledge about Adult Tom, the Death Eaters, and the War, was invaluable.
She'd already sent an anonymous letter detailing locations of incriminating evidence against "imperused" Death Eaters to the wizard cops. It only implicated a few, but Holly smiled at the headline of them getting arrested. They were only henchmen, but without them Adult Tom's support would be weaker, whenever he did return.
(Holly didn't know it, but this string of arrests would secure Amelia Bones her position as the next Minister.)
(Also unknown was the new rampant paranoia between the free Death Eaters. To them, it seemed like one of them took a plea deal to expose the others. Any trust between them was shattered. They stopped getting together to drink and reminisce about "the good old days." And so, when the Quidditch World Cup came a year later, none of them risked exposure with drunken muggle baiting.)
Reviewing the Rat's memories of the war made something obvious: Dumbledore was a bad general. He had no master plan. No strategy whatsoever to defeat Adult Tom. The Order did little beside responding to Death Eater raids in progress, often too late at that. What kind of general is only reactive?
Between that and instructing the Order not to use lethal spells it was painfully clear. His intentions may be good, but clearly he wasn't right for the role.
Adult Tom really did almost win the war. Would've won.
For the first time Holly started to understand the whole "Girl Who Lived" nonsense. The war was all but lost and seemingly a miracle occurred. Her killing Adult Tom was still nonsense of course, especially since he was still alive, but she understood why they were desperate to believe it.
The other effect of stealing the Rat's memories was needing to mentally organize them for occlumency. She'd stolen almost a decades' worth of memories; it'd take a while.
She had been slowly making progress using the Diadem to design her mindscape. She'd originally been trying to make it self-generating but realized that was a bad idea. The environment would've come from her subconscious and be unpredictable even to herself, thus impossible to set up defenses. Instead, she could create environments ahead of time and make them loop together endlessly.
There were 2 tricks she'd figured out.
The first was "preloading" only one section of her mindscape at a time, just like a video game only loading sections the player could see. With only one section it'd be impossible to break through into another section. If someone tried to break through, they'd look out into nothingness. After all, the other sections of her mindscape wouldn't come into existence until they were needed.
The second was that her memories wouldn't actually be hidden within the readied mindscape sections anybody could see. Instead, she'd have sections that only appeared with a passcode. Again, they'd be impossible to break into as they literally wouldn't exist before her passcode called them into existence. She wasn't sure what to make her passcodes yet but definitely nothing magic related. Having them in another language would be a good idea too.
The problem however was that, even with the Diadem, she was effectively designing several different mindscapes. And trying to make them loop together seamlessly. And disappear when not needed. And make them unfamiliar to whoever was trying to search her mind. And accommodate her ever expanding collection of stolen memories. All while making them difficult but not impossible to navigate.
Holly maaaay have underestimated how hard it was. Still, she'd set her mind. She'd finish her mindscape even if it took years.
What was unusual, at least by her standards, is that she was regularly writing to someone.
Someone other than the goblins that is.
A few days after Sirius was proven innocent, she got a letter from him. It was hesitant, with him telling her he was her godfather and staying at a mind trauma ward to recover from Azkaban.
Holly realized then things were rather unbalanced between them. After all, she knew him exceptionally well from the Rat's memories while he knew nothing of her. If he asked anybody all they'd be able to say is that she was good at magic and a loner who disappeared constantly.
She took mercy on Sirius and offered to write weekly to get to know each other.
It was hard knowing she'd need to censor nearly everything. She kept things lighthearted and superficial instead. Told him she was top of their class and liked to read. That she'd been moved up to 5th year potions because Snape was a jerk.
Sirius meanwhile told her (heavily censored) stories about the Marauders she already knew. That they were pranksters. That her father always liked her mother even when she hated him. That Snape had hated them.
It was odd talking to someone. Even with it all being rather superficial. Talking about herself was a new experience, nobody ever cared before. Or maybe she hadn't cared to talk to them.
She wasn't sure what exactly she what she was looking for from it. Or if she was looking for anything at all.
Sirius would be a good ally for fighting against Adult Tom. He was a skilled duelist. Practicing with him would help in ways the Room couldn't. He could have a seat on the Wizengamot and vote against Adult Tom's supporters. He was stupidly rich, plenty capable of supporting their fight.
(He cared about her. She wouldn't be alone anymore.)
However, she knew Sirius was loyal to Dumbledore. That if she told him what she knew he'd go straight to Dumbledore. Then there'd be questions.
If she wanted Sirius to help, she needed to get to know him. For him to trust her. More than he trusted Dumbledore.
But she had so many secrets. That she'd been abused by the Dursleys. Running away from them. Her mindreading and shapeshifting. Being a thief. Stealing memories from people. The Room. Her personal Trunk library. Any of her questionably legal books. Stealing Diary Tom's and the Rat's memories. Knowing about horcruxes. Killing the basilisk. Being a parselmouth. The Lockhart ordeal. Commissioning the horcrux hunt. Breaking the Trace. Duplicating Hogwarts library books. Hiding her true skill level.
Sirius rebelled against authority. He'd support some of it.
But the rest? She couldn't trust him enough to tell him.
Which meant more superficial letters, pretending she didn't know the man like she did, as she slowly earned his trust.
---
As Christmas break grew closer Holly was conflicted about staying. She needed to visit Gringotts for an update on the horcrux search. Swapping the backup copies of her books with new ones at Potter Manor would be nice as well. She'd get to talk to Flory there too.
At least, she was conflicted until she realized she could sneak out whenever she wanted via the secret tunnel to Honeydukes and apparate away. That made the decision to stay easy.
That Saturday she snuck to the witch statue, gave the password, and slid down into the tunnel. One long walk later she'd come to the trapdoor to Honeydukes basement. Disillusioned and silenced, he never noticed her before she slipped out. After shifting her face slightly and transfiguring her clothes she apparated onto Gringotts steps.
Holly walked in and, after nodding to the clerk, was quickly led back into Gronuk's office.
"Greetings Ms. Potter-Black, are you here for an update on your commissioned search?" At Holly's nod he continued, "We are still working on the outer defenses of the cave. The muggle Riddle Manor was searched extensively but nothing was hidden within. At the nearby Gaunt property we found a horcrux and purified it."
He pulled a heavy looking ring out and slid it towards her. "Do you recognize the symbol on the stone?"
She picked up the ring to look closer. The stone was a black prism, looking far too large for the small band. On one side was a triangle with a circle and line within. It looked vaguely familiar, but nothing came to mind.
"Nope."
"That symbol was used by Grindelwald most recently, but it was used as the family crest of the Gaunt's and the Peverell's long before as well. However, over time it has instead become known as the symbol of the Deathly Hallows." At her blank expression Gronuk continued, "The Tale of Three Brothers features them. While that is a wizard child's tale the truth is that stone is an ancient, powerful and dangerous artifact."
At that Holly looked up to see Gronuk looking… concerned? Wary maybe? Either way it was a strange and sobering sight. She quickly slid it back over to him.
"Good to know, if you could put it in my vault with the others, please. That'll be all."
'With the Ring purified that makes four destroyed. If Adult Tom stuck to the plan that makes two more horcruxes and the egomaniac himself.'
One pitstop at Potter Manor and a bit of burglary later she was back in the castle, with no one the wiser.
Climbing out of the tunnel she was almost expecting to see someone waiting for her but nobody was. "I guess it is that easy. You'd think Wizards would have better security."
When Holly read Tale of Three Brothers that night she desperately tried not to think about the stone. About how badly she'd like to meet her parents. About how she could potentially meet them now. Instead, she took Gronuk's warning to heart and locked those feelings away along with all the other memories she repressed.
Holly woke Christmas morning to a massive pile of presents. It seemed Sirius was trying to make up for lost time. Nearly an hour of unwrapping later Holly took inventory of them all.
There was a shiny new broom, a pile of new books, pranking materials, far too much candy, and a scrapbook.
A scrapbook that had Holly had her staring at once she'd opened it. She slowly flipped through the photos of her parents, careful not to let any tears fall on them.
She'd known what they looked like for the Rat of course. But… there was something nice about having a tangible picture. A way for them to exist outside of her stolen memories.
Her own gift to Sirius felt lacking in comparison. She had a feeling he'd appreciate the sentiment though.
After break, if any of her roommates noticed the new pictures on her nightstand, they didn't say anything.
(Sirius meanwhile stared at his gift before breaking into hysterical laughter. It lasted long enough that the healer ran in fearing a relapse only to find him smiling.
He smiled, happy tears in his eyes, as he looked at the small dog statue enchanted to continually chew the rat in its mouth.
"She really is you daughter Prongs.")
Notes:Holly this chapter: Link
I use the term "enchantments" for objects with spells imbued either semi-permanently or permanently, likely using engraved runes. Its never explained in canon what ancient runes are used for but I imagine they're involved in making complicated artifacts like a pensieve, foe glass, blood quill, possibly wands, etc. If those objects didn't involve expert craftsmanship then they should be far more common/cheap.
Credit to Rowling for Snape's monologue I quoted straight from the book. Its totally me not wanting to badly imitate his speech patterns but I imagine that since he hates his job he reuses the same speeches every year. Or maybe that's just my headcanon rationalizing laziness.