Chapter 25: Summer 1995 (IV)Summary:Holly deals with the effects of sleep loss, accidentally physically intimidates people, tries to be somewhat socially aware for once, and makes a troubling announcement.
Notes:Due to overwhelmingly positive feedback, I've gone back and added the line breaks through all the old chapters.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter TextThe last month before the term started was… mind numbing, in more ways than one.
At first Adult Tom attacked her mind 24/7, obviously believing she'd break quickly under his attack. Which meant Holly, even with strengthened anti-migraine and pain-relief potions, was in a debilitating amount of pain.
Constant "getting stabbed in the forehead with a flaming knife" levels of pain.
Which meant she couldn't sleep any more than short, restless naps.
Fun times.
For 10 days and nights Holly endured. Because that was all she could do: endure. Any plans she'd had to overpower him in a mental struggle died quickly after she realized the bastard was still better at attacking minds than her. Sure, he couldn't outright steal memories, but was far stronger in terms of brute force.
Which, in hindsight, wasn't surprising. She had very little experience attacking protected minds, having mostly stolens memories from normal people.
She'd need to wait until his mind was vulnerable to strike back.
At least Hermione's increasingly incredulous expressions and theorizing was amusing. According to her, the fact Holly was semi-coherent, even with her restless naps, by the 10th day was shocking.
As for Adult Tom? He was many things but unfortunately weak-willed wasn't one of them.
The bastard managed to stay awake and attack her mind nonstop for 10 days. She'd thought he'd stop after a day or two but noooo. The stubborn bastard never stopped .
Not even to sleep.
For 10 days and nights he raged, endlessly attacking her mind; something only possible because her stamina elixer had transferred over to him.
There was one upside though: during those 10 days the war slowed down dramatically , buying them some much needed time to regroup. According to Hermione, the Order said he hadn't led a single attack since.
It proved what Holly had suspected early on: to seriously attack her mind he needed to focus on it. Sounded stupid until she realized the massiveimplications for how their mental warfare would impact everyone else.
Adult Tom was the highly visible leader of his cult. His days were busy leading attacks, terrorizing his minions, and whatever else cult leaders did. He had a busy schedule, far busier than Holly herself. Not to mention a public image of indomitable strength to project at all times.
Holly, in comparison, was actively being told to do nothing except defend her mind.
She even did as told: by keeping Adult Tom's focus on her she was saving a ton of lives, buying vital time for the Order and Ministry to regroup. Sure, they probably weren't making the most of it, but at least it was good for morale. The fact it cost the majority of her mental faculties was worth it.
The Order kept evacuating and sheltering muggleborns, the Ministry was implementing the panic buttons, and all Holly had to do was devote her full mental focus to guarding her mind.
All for the (not) small price of Holly herself being in constant extreme pain and misery.
Fun. Just wonderful.
Holly had been fully expecting him to stop after a day or two once it became obvious how much diverting his focus to her was costing him momentum in the fighting.
But no, Adult Tom, the petty bitch, apparently believed focusing his efforts on attacking her mind was more important.
Which he showed by mentally attacking her nonstop.
That or he kept attacking her to try to salvage his pride. Or maybe out of spite. It was pointless to theorize the petty justifications for Adult Tom's actions, but at least it made her smile.
Either way, when Adult Tom finally stopped his attack on the 10th day (but not without one last, obviously intentional, 'Fuck You' spike of pain) Holly didn't lower her defenses. She kept alert, waiting, not only in case Adult Tom was trying to trick her into a false sense of security, but to take advantage of the opportunity.
Adult Tom was vulnerable: he'd been awake and straining himself for 10 days nonstop, that had to be exhausting.
So Holly meditated and waited. Waited long enough to be certain he'd fallen asleep before cautiously, subtly reaching down their mental bond for herself for the first time.
Holly considered attacking. He was asleep, recovering from exhaustion and vulnerable. More vulnerable than he'd be for a long time.
But now wasn't the time to attack.
No, she had to treat this like she would a risky robbery. After all, she never robbed someone without examining the person's defenses first.
So Holly sunk into her mind, reaching her consciousness out towards their mental link, slowly and carefully, and looked .
Or, well, tried to do the mental equivalent of looking. A bit tough considering she was currently a formless mental presence, without sight or any of her senses. It was like she was a blob of awareness floating in the void.
A true out-of-body experience.
Surprisingly comfortable despite the whole sensory deprivation thing.
Despite not being able to truly see anything, she followed the faint sense of the mental connection she knew would lead her to Adult Tom's mind. Like blindly walking in a shallow river with the current, Holly followed it until she could faintly 'feel' when she bumped into what must be the outermost part of Adult Tom's occlumency barriers.
Smiling to herself without a mouth, Holly imagined herself a metaphysical body to use as an avatar and opened her newly created metaphysical eyes to 'see.'
Holly found herself standing on a small rock outcropping overlooking a choppy sea, metaphysical wind and rain making her not-hair stick to her not-face as the whitetopped waves crashed. In the distance, through the heavy rain, she could vaguely see a small island, with what might be a massive wall encircling it.
"So his mindscape is a walled-off island in the middle of a rough sea, huh? How basic. The only thing that could make it more cliche is if there's a castle on that island." Still, Holly could appreciate the aesthetic.
"The bad weather and sea serve his outer defenses, the island being his mindscape's core area. That's… actually kinda smart if it functions like an early warning system too. A soft outer barrier surrounding the wall guarding his true mindscape. Kinda similar to my own maze mindscape actually, just in reverse."
Concentrating for a second, Holly imagined a pair of binoculars in her not-hands and looked at the island through them.
Sure enough, Adult Tom, the cliche bastard, had a suspiciously Hogwarts-looking castle sitting atop his island. Around the entire island massive stone walls rose straight out of the rock, unaffected by the waves and seaspray battering them.
"Ok, cliche aside, that's actually a damn good mental defense system."
The occlumency barriers Diary Tom had were pathetic in comparison. He hadn't even had a real mindscape then, only a (relatively) flimsy wall meant to keep people, Dumbledore in particular, out of his mind. Not that it would've been able to keep Dumbledore out.
His current mental defenses though? They were damn good.
Not exactly surprising considering Adult Tom had over half a century to improve them. Still, there had to be some sort of weakness.
According to the Goblins, all of his horcruxes were hidden so they'd still be accessible to him. It stood to reason that his mindscape would function the same way.
"That means… there's probably a secret boat somewhere around here to cross the sea. Maybe some sort of passcode to improve the weather too. Damn." That wouldn't be easy to get past.
Sure, she could use her imagination and legetimency skill to conjure some things into existence, but fighting against actual mental traps? She'd be screwed. Besides, she was still at the very outer edge of his mindscape, relatively close to her own mind. The deeper into his mindscape she got, the less she'd be able to affect her surroundings.
Or so she assumed.
This whole examining the metaphysical, visual representation of his mindscape's defenses thing was pretty complicated.
Especially considering she had a fragment of his soul attached to hers, giving them both an express highway to each other's minds.
There were no books covering this. Not even any extremely illegal ones, she'd looked .
Best she could do is try to slowly figure it out for herself. If she could figure out how to sneak past each trap without alerting him then maybe, just maybe, she'd be able to attack his mind directly before he even noticed she was there.
She'd need to use the Diadem of Ravenclaw for that. The extra brain power was too overwhelming for common use but it should help her reason her way through and put some extra oomph behind any of her mental attacks.
Scouting done and smiling to herself, Holly disperced her avatar and returned to her physical body. She had no idea what time it was but she didn't care. It was time for her to catch up on sleep.
---
Holly woke up slowly, blinking the sleep out of her eyes, feeling better rested then she had in sometime. She had no idea what time, or even what day it was, but that didn't matter.
Holly had a plan.
A simple, war-ending plan.
First step: stall until she is truly safe before doing anything else.
The Order safehouse she was staying at was safe, but might not stay that way. It was under the fidelius charm, but that was (probably) tied to Dumbledore.
Dumbledore who had a massive target on his back.
If he died then any safehouses with him as secret-keeper couldn't be guaranteed as safe.
It wasn't just her safety either: there were still plenty of vulnerable people that didn't have a panic button for calling an emergency response team yet. If she pissed off Adult Tom they'd be the first one he lashes out at.
It wasn't ideal, but waiting was necessary.
At least, until she and all the other 'undesirable' Hogwarts students had arrived at Hogwarts. There would be plenty of Adult Tom's sympathizers there, but at least they'd be minors fighting other minors. With the Hogwarts students safe it'd clear out room in the Order's safehouses for other people.
Hopefully they'd be able to shelter enough of the population to prevent a full genocide.
Once she and others were at Hogwarts it'd be time for Phase 2. All she had to do was stall until then.
---
Adult Tom, the annoyingly smart bastard, was seemingly learning from his mistakes.
When she felt him wake up some hours after her he didn't immediately attack like before. Her best guess was that he was rethinking his tactics, something that was proven true hours later when she randomly felt an intense spike of pain in her head.
It didn't breach her mind, but it certainly threw her off enough to stumble and clutch her forehead. It wasn't until that kept unpredictably happening over the next few days that Holly realized what changed.
He was switching to a smarter tactic: random, unpredictable attacks.
If before he was attempting to siege her mind, now he'd switched to hit and run tactics. Or maybe guerilla warfare. Holly wasn't sure how well terms for physical war translated to metaphysical mental fighting but it was the best analogy she had.
The constant pain was crippling but at least she could somewhat adapt to its constant presence. Now? It'd randomly spike out of nowhere, making her stop to clutch her head, regardless of her surroundings. Much harder to guard her mind against.
Thankfully he hadn't thought of the best strategy yet: fucking with her sleep schedule.
If he attacked her mind while she was sleeping, the spike of pain would wake her up. If he did that if he did that several times a night, for several weeks… the sleep loss would eventually add up. Extreme fatigue, irrationality, mood swings… all of the side effects would make him eventually breaching her mind far more likely.
Holly was dreading the day he thought of that strategy. Hopefully he never would, but Holly wasn't naive enough to think he wouldn't.
Other than enduring the random, debilitating mental attacks Holly didn't actually have anything to do.
She and Hermione couldn't think of any more revolutionary ideas to suggest. Not that they had the resources to spare for anything new. Both the Order and Ministry were too busy rehoming muggleborns and implementing the panic buttons, respectively.
Holly tried brewing medical potions for the war effort, but after a mental attack distracted her enough to drop in the wrong ingredient and blow up a potion in her face, Sirius and Hermione forced her to stop. The most annoying part was that they were right to make her.
Both Srius and Fleur were busy doing Order things, Luna was stuck at home, and Hermione was busy either reading books terrifyingly fast or fretting over her.
Which meant all Holly could do was sit around and read.
Hermione suggested she could get to know more people, but something in her silent glare stopped that idea.
After a few days of crushing boredom and some absentminded shapeshifting later Holly figured out how to spend the rest of her summer.
Defending her mind was mentally exhausting, but physically? She was brimming with energy.
Transfiguring a punching bag and a set of weights took seconds. After that, Holly used them all day, every day, stopping only to defend her mind from the random, spontaneous mental attacks and meet her biological needs.
Holly punched and kicked her punching bag until her knuckles split, lifted weights (or maybe 'lifted magic' since conversation of mass didn't seem to apply?), and even did push ups with Hermione sitting and reading on her back.
Her workouts worked as intended: by physically exhausting herself her sleep quality improved.
It even had a side benefit: any wizard who came to talk to her never stayed for some reason.
Holly had been using her punching bag when the youngest Weasley boy came by. Holly, having realized that she should probably at least acknowledge her allies, gave him a small wave before throwing more punches. For some reason he paled rapidly and rushed (by wizard standards) away.
Telling Hermione about the incident wasn't clarifying either, her friend simply laughed and refused to explain.
Random mental attacks and weirdness aside, it wasn't the worst way to spend the remainder of her summer.
---
Boarding the train at Kings Cross was completely different from past years.
Gone were the bustling crowds of clinging kids and parents with bittersweet tears. The platform couldn't have been more different if it tried.
Ministry aurors lined the walls as standing guards. Parents apparated in with their children, rushed them onto the train, and apparated away just as quickly. A handful of other parents stuck around after their kid boarded, wand out, clearly only there to guard their child if someone attacked.
Holly, for her part, tried to ignore how closely Hermione, Sirius, and many other Order member guards were practically attached to her. Any hopes she had of getting a cabin alone with Hermione was crushed as Sirius let himself in and started reinforcing the cabin's closed doors.
"Uh, Sirius? How come you're on the train with us?" Holly asked. Seriously. Was he stuck in a flashback to being a student or something? She never did exactly ask how well he was doing after his therapy…
"What? Holly, didn't anybody tell you?" Sirius asked, looking back and forth between her and Hermione.
Hermione, who was suddenly looking guilty and facepalmed. Somebody had clearly left her uninformed by accident.
"I'm going to be your Defense professor this year!" Sirius explained, looking genuinely excited. "Dumbledore asked if anyone in the Order wanted the position and I agreed. Never thought I'd be a professor but I couldn't pass up the chance to teach you! Besides, Dumbledore needs more eyes and guards at Hogwarts to keep it safe."
That was… sweet. Extremely clingy and mildly uncomfortable, but his intention to keep her safe was sweet.
Only… "Uh, Sirius, are you qualified? Do you have a degree or something on the subject?" What were the requirements for getting the position? Seriously, until recently Sirius was a wildly known (if now exonerated) mass-murderer. That reputation wouldn't go away overnight.
Hopefully it was more than being a living, adult sycophant of Dumbledore's-
"Dumbledore wanted an Order member and I volunteered," Sirius answered, shrugging. "I'll figure it out. I'll do my best to help teach everyone to defend themself; all while being the cool professor."
Annnnnd there it was. Dumbledore's only job requirement was being an adult sycophant.
Great. Just wonderful.
'Sirius, you poor, poor fool.' Making eye-contact with Hermione it was clear they were both thinking the same thing.
At least Sirius was a skilled duelist with practical experience. If he took the job seriously he could teach them tons of firsthand knowledge. That said, she seriously doubted he'd enjoy teaching the other, less exciting textbook topics or that he'd treat all his students equally. Sure, some would be Adult Tom's supporters and teaching them would be counterproductive, but the rest…
There was no point in thinking of what could have been.
"I'm thinking about offering a dueling club too," Sirius said, jerking her out of her thoughts, "some kids need to learn how to protect themself."
Now there was a seemingly benign statement with terrifying implications. Benign because of coursethose being targeted should be able to defend themselves. But the implications…
A "dueling club" for minors.
Teaching students who'd likely be more than willing to fight.
Run by a member of the Order.
Which sounded like it'd have closed membership.
At Dumbledore's school, with his explicit permission.
Dumbledore, who had a history of recruiting students right out of school into the Order.
Looking at Hermione's wide eyes showed she understood the terrifying implications too.
'A child soldier training club. A literal, child soldier training club. One obviously meant for recruiting future Order members. With Dumbledore's implicit permission. Fucking Wizards!'
Stopping herself before she lost her shit, she wondered how nobody (besides Hermione) realized how fucked up that was?
Sirius himself wouldn't. He was recruited right out of school himself, right alongside her parents and their friends. If anything, he'd encourage them all to join the Order and fight.
Seemed like Dumbledore was going back to his old habits.
Wonderful. Just wonderful.
With those painful realizations in her head, both Holly and Hermione were too distracted to keep a conversation going with Sirius; instead zoning out for the rest of the train ride.
---
For the second time ever, Holly actually went to the start-of-term feast instead of skipping it to eat with the elves. Mostly because she wanted to observe the mood of the school, but admittedly it was more interesting than she expected.
Not the Sorting Hat's song though, that was as awful as she barely remembered hearing and zoning out during her own sorting.
No, instead she took the chance to read the room.
The most obvious difference was in the number of students, or lack thereof. Every table had empty sections, some larger than others. Based on the remaining faces it was clear some of them were dead, the others having either fled the country or gone into hiding.
Even the incoming class looked smaller and not because they were tiny.
Other than that… the fear was obvious. Both students and professors were having whispered conversations, nervously glancing around.
Even the usually rowdy Gryffindor table, now with large empty spaces, was somber and subdued.
The Hufflepuff table had the most empty space, maybe a quarter of their student population missing. Unsurprisingly, many of them were already crying.
At the Slytherin table most of the pureblood supremacist kids were walking around with unearned swagger, clearly glad for the war killing off those "lesser" than them. Interestingly, on some of them it was a painfully obvious facade hiding their fear, she guessed those were the kids too terrified to speak out or go against their parents.
The rest of their table was painfully stoic, staying neutral for their own reasons.
Although, considering the good chance their own roommates might kill them in their sleep if they spoke out….
Her own table though… there were empty spots but also some suspiciously haughty-looking people. The rest were keeping their heads down, hardly talking at all. Most of them didn't look to be staying neutral just to try and survive, they just didn't care.
Apathetic bastards.
Worst of all: more people were staring at her and whispering than ever.
When the sorting was finally finished Dumbledore got up to speak and Holly paid attention for once.
Not that it was worth it. His whole speech boiled down to: "We all know things are bad out there right now, but you're safe(-ish) here. Here's Sirius Black, formerly believed to be an infamous mass-murderer and currently a synophant of mine, your new Defense professor. Also, please don't kill each other."
There was more nuance to it then that but Holly really didn't think it mattered.
What was interesting was seeing they were trying to take security seriously for once. Aurors would be patrolling the school and grounds at all times and Hogsmeade trips were banned.
That… was more than Holly was expecting. Looked like the Minister was taking things seriously. With that in mind Holly ate quickly and left.
---
Some hours and a mental attack later Holly was reading in the Room when Hermione suddenly came bursting in,
"Holly! Did you hear about-"
"The Order's child soldier training camp?" Holly interrupted. "Yeah, it's pretty fucked up. Guess Dumbledore wants fresh meat for the meat grinder and Sirius is too fanatical to notice."
"Well, yes, but that's not what I meant." That caught Holly's attention, making her look up. "Apparently just before the train left Death Eaters attacked Diagon Alley. Some shops were burned but… they took Ollivander."
"Fuck."
That was all there was to say really.
It was a great strategic move by Adult Tom.
Hadn't she just been thinking about that last year? Wizards completely depended on their wand.
Granted, it was only because they believed needed wands, effectively turning their belief into a reality. But that wasn't relevant right now.
If Ollivander, the only well-known wandmaker in "Magical Britain" was in Adult Tom's hands… that meant no wands for anybody besides pureblood supremacists next year.
If muggleborns and half bloods didn't have wands, not only would they be defenseless, but would they even be allowed to come to Hogwarts? Would they even be protected?
But more than that, it meant no replacement wands for the Order or Ministry if theirs is stolen or broken. Not unless they scavenge from the dead.
All while the Death Eaters have unlimited replacements.
Sure, there were wandmakers in other countries but… the wizarding world was very insular. Even if they tried, most wizards wouldn't be able to apparate across the English Channel to France because they'd never been there.
(There was the channel tunnel but Holly seriouslydoubted the majority of wizards knew it existed, let alone would be willing to take it.)
Which meant they'd need a portkey, either buying an expensive, easily traceable one, or making their own which very few people could do.
And that wasn't even considering the wand compatibility issue.
All that meant was, in the long-ish term, the Ministry and Order was completely and utterly fucked.
"Fuck!" Holly repeated. "How did that even happen? Shouldn't he have been heavily guarded?"
"I think so, Holly. I guess people expected Voldemort to attack Kings Cross or the Ministry today instead."
"Fucking wizards! This is what happens when an entire population is completely dependent on one person. How have wizards not pushed themselves into extinction already?"
"They might be right now" Hermione replied, sounding serious as ever.
Looking over at her Holly can't see even a trace of humor. "True. Though, I thought I was supposed to be the cynic between us?"
"Well, you looked like you were panicking so I thought maybe I could fill your role for a change." The words sounded serious, but Holly could hear traces of humor in them. And the implication that panicking was Hermione's role, which… wasn't entirely wrong. But not entirely right either.
"Ah, because that's clearly the best way to make someone feel better," Holly noded, playing along. A second later they both huffed out a laugh.
"In all seriousness though," Holly started, "between Ollivander's kidnapping and the Order's child soldier recruitment pipeline… you know what this means, right?"
"Oh?" Hermione asked.
"It means we have to kill Adult Tom in less than a year."
"And how do you propose 'we' do that?"
"Don't worry, I have a Great Idea." Holly smiled wider as Hermione looked increasingly panicked, "and we're already in Phase 2."
Notes:Holly and Hermione this chapter: Link
The summer is finally over! That stretched out somehow, which sucks because the summers are usually the hardest parts to write.
I don't think Slughorn is going to be in this at all, or at least not until the war's over. In canon Dumbledore only needed him to confirm how many horcruxes there were, not that they existed. Since Holly has already either destroyed or captured them all, that's not necessary anymore.
Plus, the war started fast and came outta nowhere. Considering in canon Slughorn was in hiding even before Dumbledore died and shit hit the fan… he's either already dead or eating crystalized pineapple on the opposite side of the world.
I haven't decided, so it's basically Schrodinger's Slughorn.
Chapter 26: Year FiveSummary:Holly decides to intimidate some people for their own good, Voldemort makes a major move, Holly starts her offense with a bang, and the Room is supportive to Hermione in her trying times.
Notes:Happy New Years people!
Sorry for not updating in so long, my college semester went to shit. Like, irredeemably badly. On the upside, I suddenly had plenty of time to write and strong motivation to avoid my problems. Downside is that it cost me thousands of dollars, ~4 months of my life, and my gpa tanking. 0/10, terrible trade deal, do not recommend.
I'll be be trying to post monthly from now on. I write best when I have a posting schedule to keep and I should be able to write one chapter a month even while busy irl. Plus I've got a decent backlog.
I posted a future oneshot omake in this series too! Its set Post-Hogwarts but Pro-Ironman debut, and features Holly's usual hijinks.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter TextAfter talking with Hermione, something weird happened that night. Something that hadn't happened to Holly in years: her roommates tried to talk to her.
That hadn't happened since… the beginning of second year maybe?
There had been a few times she vaguely noticed them looking at her kinda weird. Like when she added silencing charms to her bed. And after the Yule Ball. And when she added defensive charms after Adult Tom's return.
But what could they possibly want? They'd had a good unspoken system going: she never talked to them and they never talked to her. Considering she was only ever in their dorm to sleep, she forgot they existed most of the time.
It was the perfect roommate relationship in her opinion.
There was also the fact she still didn't know their names… wait, didn't Hermione say one of their names once? Wasn't it something like Paddy? Partma? That sounded almost right.
Ignorant of her confusion, one of her roommates kept talking at her. "-we've never talked, but I wanted to let you know both my sister and I support you."
In the background her other roommates she could see were both awkwardly nodding along.
"Oh." What the hell could she say to that? Was there any good response to that? Best to keep it simple and not get sucked into a conversation.
"Thanks? Goodnight."
With that Holly finished warding her bed into a functional bomb shelter and laid down for the night.
---
The first day of the term Holly spent the entire morning training and exercising in the Room, skipping History of Magic and enjoying the free time where she'd normally have potions. She hadn't skipped history of magic in the past but since it was useless she figured nobody would care.
Besides, everybody had better things to worry about then that.
After a shower, a brief mental attack, and lunch spent arguing with Hermione over the uselessness of History of Magic, she had another useless class to go to: Muggle Studies.
Holly… really wasn't sure why she was even in the class still, she'd already learned firsthand wizards wouldn't recognize a gun. The class could be genuinely useful for most wizards considering how ignorant they were, but it was worse than useless for her considering how much better the time could be spent. Especially when the curriculum was trash. She didn't need to waste her time learning about common kitchen appliances.
Could she drop the class? Or jump up several grades and test out of it like she did with potions?
Actually, could she do that for all of her useless classes? Was there a minimum number of classes she needed to stay enrolled?
Something to look into later.
After muggle studies was something far more interesting: Defense with Sirius teaching. Class started with a bang – literally – as Sirius kicked open the classroom door while launching fireworks, a manic smile wide across his face.
"Books and quills away people, you won't need them today! Welcome to Defense Against the Dark Arts. I'm your professor, Sirius Black, you might have heard about me in the past." He paused, smile not faltering even as the class started awkwardly side-eyeing each other.
"Now, Headmaster Dumbledore asked me to teach you guys how to defend yourselves. There's a war going on out there, knowing how to protect yourself is more important than ever. That's what I'll be focusing on teaching you this year:"
"How many of you have ever been in a duel?" A few hands went up, Holly's following a second later.
"Not a lot of you, that's what I thought. Of you, how many of those were a real, life or death fight?" At that everyone's hand went down besides Holly's. Sirius, seemingly only now realizing that his rhetorical question wasn't rhetorical, looked at her and hesitated for a second.
Which made everyone else in the room, barring Hermione, turn towards her and stare. There was awkward silence until Holly fake coughed, snapping Sirius out of his funk.
"Right, like I expected, none of you except Holly." His smile vanished, replaced by a grim look. "You can't ever truly understand what a real fight is like until you've been in one. But! Mock duels can help prepare yourself to avoid freezing in shock later and improve your dueling technique."
"Everybody up!" Sirius shouted, "I need to gauge your skill levels. Make a line on each side of the room, we're going to have our first mock duels right now!"
With that Holly and Hermione both silently drifted towards the back so they had a good view.
If Sirius ended up drifting close to her and Hermione between playing referee? Well, obviously he just wanted input from the only other person with fighting experience, and wasn't playing favorites.
After watching the first duel it was immediately obvious: they were awful. Pitifully bad. Some of them couldn't even cast a basic shield charm! Or a stunner! They even had to shout their incantations!
Holly knew having a different defense professor would negatively affect them, but how were they that bad ?
…Maybe Sirius did have a point about how they needed to be trained to fight.
A quick glance at Sirius and she could see him mentally revising his lesson plans. Even Hermione looked disappointed, deep in thought as she was.
Leaning towards Hermione she could only whisper "what the hell is this?" and getting a shrug in response.
"You have to remember you've several advantages and years of practice on them" Hermione whispered back, "but you aren't wrong. Without a consistent Defense curriculum standards have fallen."
"This is painful to watch," Holly whispered in horror as she watched someone take a body-bind to the face and fall. "Fuck hiding my skill level. Hermione, we're going to show them what an actual fight looks like so they realize how badly they suck."
Hermione, clearly in agreement, didn't respond.
Finally, after watching too many pitiful duels, it was her and Hermione's turn. They both walked up to the dueling platform, silently faced each other, and started flinging spells between them without speaking a word. Several students on the sidelines, standing too close because of the previously lackluster duels, had to throw themselves back to avoid the deflected spells.
Holly and Hermione traded spells evenly, always either casting, shielding, countering, or dodging; giving the illusion of an equal fight. Which was a lie of course, Holly could've beat Hermione quickly, but that wouldn't make for a good show.
For the first time ever – outside of potions – Holly dropped her pretenses and showed off (some) of what she could so. She silently batted Hermione's spells aside with a flick of her wand, transfigured her surroundings to her advantage, and launched back incapacitating hexes.
After several minutes and seeing at least a couple spectators get hit with deflected spells, Holly thought it was time to wrap things up. With that in mind, Holly overpowered her next stunner, shattering Hermione's shield, distracting her enough to disarm her.
Smiling at eachother and tossing back Hermione's wand, Holly turned to see the entire class staring at them, shock and awe on all their faces.
'There, that should start enough rumors to discourage any attacks on me, at least for a bit. Maybe they'll even realize how defenseless they are.'
With that optimistic thought in mind, Holly left the platform and Sirius dismissed the class soon after.
But not before mentioning his dueling club to the class.
---
After Defense with Sirius, none of her classes were anywhere near as… interesting.
Transfiguration and Charms were easy as ever, she was capable of performing the entire years' curriculum silently. Could even do some of it wandlessly, not that she'd be showing that in public anytime soon. All she'd have to do in class this year was keep her head down.
Care of Magical Creatures was, thankfully, not focusing on any 'Hagrid Originals' this year thankfully, instead focusing on normal magical creatures for once.
Holly didn't squeal when she got to pet a niffler. She didn't . Anybody who might have believed such a filthy lie received a glare promising death if they started spreading such lies.
Problem solved.
Overall, things were looking to be an academically boring year, something she appreciated as it'd let her focus on her ongoing mental fight with Adult Tom.
That is, if she ignored the fact that Adult Tom figured out that he could make her look bad by mentally attacking her in the middle of her classes.
Sure, he didn't know her exact schedule, but it didn't matter what class he attacked her during, simply the fact it was in during a class. If he was trying to make her look mentally unstable by making her randomly flinch in pain, it wasn't working… yet.
But it would. No mental defense was perfect, not under sustained attacks.
It might take a week or a month or more, but eventually exhaustion and her weakening mental defense would make her falter. Rumors of her being unstable or sick would spread. There were plenty of Death Eater's kids in Hogwarts, at least one of them had to be reporting back to Adult Tom on her.
If she publicly faltered then someone might try to assassinate her. Well, she was already expecting assassination attempts, but being visibly vulnerable would invite more. They would be clumsy, dumb attempts but she knew someone could eventually get lucky.
That's why she had to strike back at Adult Tom.
She'd already scouted out the outer defenses of his mindscape but had probed his defenses yet. Adult Tom didn't expect her to attack him back yet, she wanted to take full advantage of that and launch a devastating surprise.
All Holly needed was a proper opening.
---
Her opening came almost a week later, in the middle of breakfast of all times.
She was minding her own business, eating her breakfast and ignoring everything else, when a patronus messenger suddenly flew by her on its way straight to Dumbledore. She couldn't hear its message, but it was obvious based on how Dumbledore immediately ran out of the Hall.
'I didn't know elderly men could move that fast. Maybe the eternal elixirs I gave him helped with that?' Was her first thought, followed shortly by, 'oh shit! This is my chance!'
Ditching her food, Holly made a quick escape from the Hall while everyone was too distracted panicking. The second the Hall's doors closed behind her she broke into a dead sprint to the Room.
When she arrived into the Room, she summoned the Diadem from her Trunk and put it on, sat down on the suitably grandiose meditation platform the Room created, and sank into her own mind.
She could immediately feel the difference even before she probably entered his outer mindscape; Adult Tom's malice, bloodlust, and sadistic glee was all but pouring out from his side of the connection. Ignoring that, she pressed on down their mental link until her mental avatar was at his mindscape's outer defenses.
Opening her not-eyes, Holly could immediately spot differences in his mindscape. Despite the miasma of Adult Tom's emotions pouring out, the sea surrounding his island mindscape was calm. Now that was a blatant sign his defenses were weaker due to his distraction.
Stepping her not-body forward, she willed a not-motorboat into being. Before she moved forward, weakening her connection to her own mind and limiting her ability to alter this not-reality, Holly quickly created several more not-items inside her not-speedboat.
Namely, an inflatable not-dinghy and large pile of not-plastic explosives.
Sure, it was just about the least magical solution to a magical problem, but hey, if it works it works, right?
And it would work. Mindscapes were mental representations of a person, and while they could be altered, the underlying logic of the not-reality worked according to the individual's beliefs.
Holly, obviously, knew what explosives did.
Adult Tom, who had spent weeks huddled away in bomb shelters during the London Blitz, was intimately familiar with the danger of explosives.
Thus, his mindscape could be blown up with explosives.
With that in mind, Holly flexed her mental might – enhanced by the Diadem – and forced her will onto this not-reality for one last thing. It pushed her to limits and immediately gave her a migraine, but it worked.
She only had Diary Tom and Adult Tom as references for designing mental attacks and they never needed anything other than brute force. She'd read about legitimency of course, but it was all theoretical and unhelpfully vague.
Still, using someone's trauma against them was a classic, right?
Which is why the last item Holly had conjured into not-being was a German WWII bomber.
(Using a Nazi plane made her feel supremely dirty, but she'd read accuracy was required for fully capitalizing on trauma.)
With that in mind, Holly had her not-bomber take off into the air as she launched her not-motorboat forward towards Adult Tom's island mindscape. A short not-boatride later, Holly was finally close enough to start her attack.
Naturally, Holly kicked it off with a (metaphysical) bang as her not-bomber unleashed its entire payload of not-bombs onto the outer walls of Adult Tom's island mindscape. Not all of them were accurate, she couldn't make them be since they both knew real bombers weren't, but more than enough of the not-bombs hit.
There was a moment of silence as she watched sections of the not-walls explode, then crumble, before the not-shockwaves hit her.
There was a moment where Adult Tom's mind radiated pure shock before his full furious attention focused down on her. The not-waves of the sea abruptly swelled and Holly had to brace her not-self as her not-speedboat bounced it's way over the not-waves.
A second later his mind radiated pain and his attention was begrudgingly forced back to the outside world.
'Still too distracted and leading his attack then, should be safe to attack his inner mindscape then,' Holly thought.
Grinning, sent the not-motorboat forward at full speed towards a sea level gap in the broken not-wall at full speed.
Desperately hoping that Adult Tom either didn't know about plastic explosives or understood how (surprisingly) stable they were, Holly rammed her not-motorboat over the not-rubble of the not-walls. There was horrible shearing noise as the two not-objects scrapped, but the not-boat managed to slide its way onto not-land without stopping or detonating any of the explosives on board.
Rushing forward on wobbly not-legs, Holly quickly grabbed all of her not-explosives before jumping off the not-boat and sprinting through Adult Tom's mindscape towards the not-castle atop the not-hill. There were some mental defenses in the form of magical creatures, but nothing she couldn't deal with.
Between Adult's Tom's arrogance that nobody could ever break into his mind and her not-bomber's blanketing his mindscape in not-explosions, the defenses were shockingly minimal once she was inside.
Or at least, that's what she thought until a not-basilisk appeared as she got close to the not-castle.
During the Chamber debacle, Holly didn't fully process that basilisk's were sentient until the next day. She'd been too out of it to mentally reach out to the snake and realize that there was a mind to touch. After that, well, being sentient meant that didn't change the fact it was a man-eating snake that was trying to eat kids. She didn't feel conflicted for killing a sentient being.
But Adult Tom fully understood they were sentient. Even when he was creating a mental guardian in the form of one, that fact was in the back of his mind.
What that meant right now was that, despite only being a mental construct for defense, the not-basilisk still had a degree of autonomy. It wasn't sentient, didn't have the same degree of intelligence as even a dog, but it had something like an impression of where a mind would be.
An impression which allowed Holly to mentally track even with her not-eyes closed. Sprinting for her (very real) life, Holly threw her not-self away from several strikes, waiting for an opening.
Her opening came a few seconds later and Holly got the mental impression of rearing back to eat something. Grinning, Holly grabbed a not-grenade, pulled the not-pin, and threw it into the not-basilisk's mouth before diving out of the way.
A second later there was a muffled 'boom!' and the not-basilisk stopped moving.
Opening her not-eyes, Holly examined the not-basilisk's carcass with satisfaction.
'And Hermione says that you can't solve every problem with explosives.' Holly thought, 'after I tell her about this she'll have to admit she's wrong.'
Turning away, Holly sprinted the rest of the way to the (suspiciously Hogwarts looking) not-castle atop the not-hill. Its not-doors were closed and probably barred from the inside, but some not-blasting charges blew them up easily enough.
Stepping over the not-rubble, Holly got her first look at Adult Tom's inner mindscape only to cringe at it.
There was an entrance hall, the walls lined with massive statues of snakes and green slytherin banners hanging from the ceiling. Beyond that was an obvious facsimile of Hogwarts' Great Hall; only, instead of being accurate to reality, the professor's table was replaced with a single throne, the tables replaced with audience seating facing the throne.
(There was a lot that could be inferred from someone's choice of mindscape. Her own was modeled off of video game dungeons and walled off from the outside.
That Adult Tom had chosen to make his inner mindscape a throne room for lording over his childhood school said a lot about him.)
A throne that was occupied, of course, by a (surprisingly young looking?) Adult Tom. But Holly didn't care about that because besides the throne was a pensieve, obviously where Adult Tom's memories were stored.
"You cannot be here," said Adult Tom's inner self. Oh right, she had to deal with that.
Rather than say anything, Holly pulled out a not-gun and started shooting.
Adult Tom's mental representation obviously wasn't real, wasn't restrained by reality, but that didn't matter. It didn't have supernatural reflexes or speed, only that of the man it was a reflection of.
More than that, they both knew bullets were deadly, too fast to see or dodge. And thus they were here too.
The mental guardian didn't quite manage to throw up a shield before the first bullet pierced its chest, followed by the rest of the not-clip's worth. That wouldn't kill it, it wouldn't – couldn't – die unless Adult Tom was either dead or braindead, but it sure had to hurt.
Sure enough, overwhelming pain flooded the mindscape and Adult Tom felt his mental representation's injuries.
Which, good, that had to hurt.
Rushing up to the screaming and flailing mental construct as it flailed on the ground, Holly tipped its not-throne over to pin it down and kicked it in the face for good measure. Turning away from the still screaming not-being, approached the not-pensieve.
Sure enough, Holly could see countless memories swirling around in its depths. But towards the top, Holly could see his surface thoughts; could see Adult Tom's point of view as he dueled Dumbledore.
But just below that was an older memory, one that he had spent years thinking about.
One that was on his mind even now.
An image of a much younger Snape bubbled up, crouching before Adult Tom and reciting a prophecy, followed immediately by the memory of Adult Tom leveling his wand at Holly's infant self.
That…
That was…
'Later,' Holly thought to herself, viciously pushing her feelings down.
Unceremoniously, Holly cupped her not-hands and dipped them into the not-pensieve. She ignored the pain Adult Tom's mindscape radiated once more as she lifted her not-hands, filled with liquid memories, back out.
After a second's deliberation, Holly, not able to think for a better visualization for transferring the memories to herself, lifted her not-hands to her not-mouth and drank them.
The memories, Holly found, tasted like the emotions associated with them; in this case, mostly anger, pain, and sadistic glee.
Or course, the taste occupied only a small portion of her attention; the rest was distracted by her migraine managing to get even worse as dozens of foreign memories flooded her mind.
'That,' Holly thought, 'was awful. I can't do that for all his memories. I need to somehow search for the most important ones. The ones that'll be debilitating to lose, but hopefully won't make him lash out even more.'
Attempting to convey that to the not-pensieve brought up memories of Adult Tom making and hiding his horcruxes. Which would have been perfect, if she hadn't already had the goblins purify all but the Snake for her. She could make him forget about horcruxes and the ones he made entirely, but then he might end up relearning about them and making more.
That'd be a nightmare scenario. Not worth the risk.
Instead, Holly searched for and tore out the names of his supporters as many of his as possible; both his fighters and those financing him, from both locally and internationally. It was a surprisingly long list, which Holly quickly dubbed her Shit List.
Holly was pulled from learning more of her future targets for robbery and assassination when she noticed Adult Tom's attention shifting towards her once more. The emotions his mindscape was radiating focused on her as the mental construct behind her stopped screaming and started healing quickly; it's not-blood getting pulled back into its not-body.
That was a good sign she needed to leave.
Shoving her not-hands into the not-pensieve once more, Holly threw a handful of memories onto the not-floor to buy herself more time.
Ignoring the mental construct's renewed screaming, she pulled off every not-explosive still on her. The not-plastic explosives fuses started their countdown and her remaining not-grenades got tossed over her not-shoulder as she sprinted out of Adult Tom's inner mindscape.
She heard the not-explosives going off behind her but was too preoccupied to appreciate it considering the mindscape itself had come to life trying to kill her.
The not-ground shook beneath her even as it tried to swallow her not-feet with every step; the not-sky above filled with thunderclouds as manifestations of his fury.
It was an abrupt reminder that this reality was his to manipulate freely. She may be able to conjure not-objects in it, but that was only because of their mental link, the Diadem enhancing her mind, and Adult Tom not actively exerting his will on his mindscape.
Now though? She was like a bug trying not to get crushed beneath the boot of an apathetic and cruel child.
'What I need,' Holly thought, 'is a distraction.'
With that in mind Holly did the only thing she could at the moment: she sent her not-bomber, now struggling to stay in the not-sky, flying straight towards the not-castle of Adult Tom's inner mindscape.
It didn't hit of course. Not-lightning struck it out of the not-sky; not-wind managing to push away most of the flaming not-wreckage before it hit.
The kamikaze attack didn't hit but that didn't mean it didn't work.
While his attention was forced away the ground stopped shaking and Holly was able to reach her not-speedboat. By the time he could focus on her again, she'd already armed the several metric tons of not-plastic explosives still in the not-boat; dragged her getaway not-dinghy into the not-water; and was riding at breakneck speeds over the not-waves back towards her own mind.
Soon as she was far enough away and could start to feel Adult Tom focusing on her, she pulled out the last not-thing she'd created earlier: a remote detonator for the several tons of not-plastic explosives still in the speedboat.
A press of a button triggered the largest explosion yet. A second later Holly was nearly thrown into the not-water when the shockwave hit her, rattling her not-teeth. The next instant the not-sound of the not-explosion caught up, making her not-hearing go silent except for her ears ringing.
Thankfully the hearing damage wouldn't transfer to her real body… right? If it did then shooting Adult Tom's mental construct of himself would have killed him, right?
She was mostly certain of that.
Ignoring that, a quick glance over her not-shoulder and she saw that a good chunk of Adult Tom's island mindscape was simply gone , with most of what was left damaged by the force of the not-explosion. The not-castle atop the not-hill was still standing, but she could tell even from her current distance it was damaged.
Having most of your mindscape – including some of your inner mindscape – blown up had to hurt, because Adult Tom seemed too debilitated by pain to do anything to her.
A highly successful distraction, all things considered.
With a smile on her not-face, Holly easily made her way back to her own mind. An instant later Holly came back to awareness inside her own body, with a panicking Hermione hovering over her.
"Just launched my first major mental attack. Manage to steal some important memories and do some good damage to his mindscape. I'd call that a major success."
Hermione, despite briefly looking interesting, didn't stop looking concerned for some reason and muttered something. When Holly didn't respond to whatever she said to herself, she started looking even more panicked.
"What?"
"I said you have blood covering your face!" Hermione shouted at her.
Wandlessly conjuring a mirror showed that, yes, she really did have blood coming out of her nose, eyes, and even her ears. Frankly, she looked like an extra from a horror movie.
A flick of her finger vanished all the blood, thankfully proving she hadn't lost any hearing since she could suddenly hear Hermione's panicked questions shouted at her as she cast diagnostic medical spells.
"I think I'm fine? The bleeding is probably a result of straining myself since I really pushed myself. You want to hear what I learned?"
Hermione, suddenly looking resigned, sank into the desk the Room conjured, and grabbed the provided paper and pencil, ignoring the bottle of firewhiskey beside them.
Which, why would the Room give her a firewhiskey right now? Was Hermione thinking about needing alcohol for disinfectant?
Holly was cut off from that thought when Hermione gave her an expectant look.
"Ok, so you know how I've been scouting out his mindscape's outer defenses?" She started. "Anyway, this morning…"
---
Sometime later, after fully explaining what had happened, Hermione had started eyeing the firewhiskey oddly. When she instead tried to slam her head into the desk face-first, the Room conjured a pillow to stop her. Instead of lifting her head, Holly could hear her muffled streaming even through the (impressively thick looking) pillow.
Meanwhile, Holly was too caught off guard to do anything but stare in confusion. Her friend was so weird sometimes.
Notes:I finally earned how to do hyperlinks! I'll be going back and updating past chapters.
First Defense class summed up: Link
Holly this chapter: Link
Hermione POV of ending: Link
Hope you like the chapter! If you've been waiting months and this dosn't live up to your imagination... sorry people. Feel free to suggest how I can improve grammar, phrasing, and stuff like that if you want to.
I posted a future oneshot omake in this series too! Its set Post-Hogwarts but Pro-Ironman debut, and features Holly's usual hijinks.
Chapter 27: Year Five (II)Summary:Holly actually understands someone for once, hears a very strange and seemingly irrelevant prophecy, and considers the future.
Notes:This chapter contains some heretical hot takes from The Carnivorous Muffin and Vinelle's metas. They're great and horrifying and amazing, just like their fics. Go read their stuff.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter TextFor the rest of the day after what Holly now knew to be any attack on the Ministry, they had classes off. Rather understandable considering a large portion of the students were wondering if their parents had been killed in the fighting.
She managed to get the facts – as he knew them – from an exhausted and slightly singed Sirius in the Hogwarts hospital wing.
(Which, why was he there of all places? Were there no other places that could safely provide medical care to a known Order member or was Dumbledore treating Hogwarts as an Order safehouse? Whatever the case, it certainly didn't give Holly a high opinion of wizard's medical care system.)
Apparently Adult Tom, with his entire Inner Circle of Death Eaters, simply showed up in the Ministry lobby like they owned the place. Not exactly a great battle strategy, but considering it almost worked she couldn't exactly say they were wrong to do so.
From there fighting erupted as the Aurors responded but they weren't enough to stop the Adult Tom from crushing everyone and everything in his path. One of the Order's members in the aurors (which, hello blatant corruption wizards were too stupid to see was corruption) sent out a patronos message calling in the Order. By the time Sirius and the rest of the Order managed to respond, Adult Tom and crew had gotten deep into the Ministry.
That's where Sirius got shifty, either out of genuine ignorance or misplaced concern, and vaguely alluded to Adult Tom Attacking the Ministry because he was after a weapon there. Dumbledore had dueled Adult Tom and apparently managed to drive him off, even making him leave behind some of his groupies in his rush to escape. Dumbledore had gotten injured, but apparently managed to injure Adult Tom in turn.
From there Sirius was decided less helpful, going on tangents about how he'd "knew they could rely on Dumbledore" and "they say 'he was the only wizard Voldemort was ever afraid' for a reason."
Holly and Hermione, making eye contact when Sirius looked away, came to a silent agreement not to mention that Adult Tom had fled because Holly had been attacking his mind, not Dumbledore. It'd be bad for morale and all that.
Plus he'd be all concerned and overprotective of her afterwards. No thanks.
(Not that he'd even believe it; let alone support her. She'd never told Sirius about her mind reading skills. Unless Dumbledore had told him, Sirius was under the impression she was only using occlumency to hold off Adult Tom; not to fight back.
That wasn't even considering how he likely wouldn't even approve, not just out of fear for her safety, but because he would see destroying someone's mind as "dark magic."
Sirius, she knew from The Rat's memories, had formed his sense of right morality by doing what he thought his family hated. They hated werewolves, so Sirius befriended one. They were Slytherins, so Sirius hated Slytherins. His self identity revolved around rebelling against them, even now years after their death. Add in the fact he nearly got Snape killed during his 5th year and it was obvious Sirius had a… warped sense of morality.
The point was, if Sirius thought his family would approve of Holly's method's then he'd disprove; and if he disproved then he was liable to reflexively push her away.
So no, Holly wouldn't ever be telling Sirius about attacking Adult Tom's mind, not even once it was over.)
With that they thanked Sirius and left him to recover from his injuries in peace.
Once they were back in the Room, Holly turned to Hermione. "So it's pretty obvious Adult Tom was after the prophecy Snape told him about since he only knew part of it. But here's what I don't get: if the prophecy directly specified a 'him' as his prophesied downfall, how did it lead to him trying to kill me?"
"Didn't you steal his memory of trying to kill you?" Hermione asked.
"Yeah but memories are complicated," Holly answered, flopping down onto a suddenly-there couch. "They aren't linear or neatly arranged. Every memory is connected to countless others; you never get the complete picture from a single memory. I stole the memory of him trying to kill me, not him thinking about his exact reasoning leading up to that moment."
"Plus, I didn't exactly know what I was looking for. I just wanted memories that'd be debilitating to lose but wouldn't make him more unpredictable."
"I guess that makes sense." Hermione said, before looking at her sharply. "Do you think Dumbledore would tell you the rest of the prophecy?"
That… was a good question.
Dumbledore liked to keep vital intelligence to himself, even when it risked everything. Maybe especially when it risked everything. To her knowledge he never told any Order members Adult Tom's real name or anything about the horcruxes.
He knew Voldemort was attacking her mind too. Knew that anything she knew was at risk. Sure, she'd been able to keep him out so far, but she couldn't manage that forever.
On the other hand, he knew she was upset with him for keeping his suspicions she was a horcrux secret. If he wanted to improve their relationship, to try and gain some degree of control over her actions, he would tell her everything he knows.
Holly knew she misunderstood people, even when she cared to pay attention to them. They just didn't make sense to her most of the time.
Dumbledore, however, she understood.
He was a chessmaster through and through. While his intentions were mostly benevolent, he was ruthlessly practical enough to use young and dumb fresh school graduates like her parents as his fighters. He, and the Order at large, fought to maintain the status quo.
He probably didn't like pureblood supremacy and its implicit classism but believed it was simply a part of their society's culture and let it be. That he was a hypocrite seemed to escape him: he covered up the rich pureblood Marauders' crimes during the Werewolf incident, ignoring that the impoverished halfblood Snape nearly got killed.
Although… that could be because he'd already been planning to invite them into Order.
But that wasn't considering how he made sure that Tom Riddle and several other muggleborns had to go back to London during the London Blitz. Because apparently he didn't care if those other muggleborns were collateral damage if he managed to get Tom Riddle killed, it was the greater good something like that.
As a chessmaster who saw her as an important and rogue piece, he'd want to bring back under his control. Sharing intelligence that concerns her and he knew she'd learn anyway would be a good way to try to regain her trust.
Perhaps that was an overly cynical way of looking at him but Holly didn't think she was wrong.
"I think he'll tell me." Decision made, Holly set off towards his office.
---
Knocking on his door before getting called in, Holly once again was impressed with the sheer amount of stuff Dumbledore had covering every available surface. Looking towards Dumbledore to check for injuries, she could see his left arm was in a sling, the visible parts of his hand bandaged.
"Ah, miss Potter, I suspected I'd be seeing you soon. Lemon drop?" he asked, gesturing to the candy dish with his injured arm. At her negative response, he instead grabbed one for himself and started talking unprompted.
"Before we mention why you're here, I would like to assure you I will make a full recovery. Quick treatment and your eternal elixirs will see to that."
"Marvelous things, those elixirs. All my joint pain; gone overnight! I had to check if my hair was still white! Even now, despite this injury, I still feel decades younger." His expression abruptly sobered as he continued, "it was only thanks to them I was able to hold back Tom at all."
Now there was something she was sure he'd never let anyone else hear.
"But that is not why you are here, is it?" he asked, expression shrewd. "During our duel, there was an odd moment when Tom - just after he managed to land this curse on me - started clutching his head in pain. In fact, from then on he was clearly pained and distracted; not able to duel properly. It forced him to flee or risk being defeated, fast enough he left some of his followers behind."
"You wouldn't happen to know anything about that, would you, miss Potter?"
Well, there was as good as confirmation he knew about her mentally attacking Adult Tom. She couldn't deny it if she wanted answers about the prophecy, but fully admitting the truth wasn't an option either.
Instead, she shrugged, casually saying "I might" as her non-answer, before continuing. "I, hypothetically, might know he was after a prophecy in the Department of Mysteries that predicted who would defeat him."
"Ah, I suspected that is why you came."
Well that made things simple.
"Then you know what I'm going to ask you about."
Nodding his assent to her implied question, he brought his (clearly) pre-prepared pensieve out of nowhere and levitated in over to her. Holly, still standing in the middle of his office, unceremoniously shoved her face in as soon as it was close enough.
When she sunk into the memory Holly didn't bother looking about, wondering who the woman was, or even Snape fumbling around outside the room. With laser focus she listened to the words that had shaped her life.
"The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches… Born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies… and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not… and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives… The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies…"
That…
Just… what?
Pulling her face out, all Holly could do was dumbly stare at Dumbledore.
Chuckling at her obvious confusion, Dumbledore summoned his pensieve back before saying anything.
"I must confess, I felt much the same when I realized the prophecy applied to you. I cannot be certain as to how , but I have had ample time to theorize. You may wish to sit down first, this may be a long conversation."
Numbly pulling out a chair in front of his desk and sitting down, he started explaining. "Sixteen years ago, after I heard that prophecy, I did not believe it applied to you. I recommended your parents go into hiding because I believed Tom's paranoia might cause him to target you regardless. Your parents were well-known Order members afterall, I did not believe Tom above killing his enemies' children in order to terrify his opposition."
"Now, my theories for how it applies-" he started before Holly cut him off.
"Wait, you mean there's no doubt it applies to me? How?" Seriously, the prophecy specifically mentioned a 'him' at least a few times.
"Despite not meeting the specified gender, you have undoubtedly been 'marked'. Your scar, and the soul fragment it contains, is definitive proof." Dammit, she couldn't exactly argue with that.
"As for how it applies to you, my dear, is where we must speculate." Sighing to himself and adjusting his injured arm, he explained, "my first theory is that Tom believed your parents lied about your gender to everyone, even their closest friends, when you were born to avoid the prophecy. Tom, after all, does not —cannot—understand the meaningful bonds other people have."
"This is plausible considering your status as a metamorphmagus. Even more so if someone happened to know you were born at home, with none of your parents' friends able to be there. The only witness, the midwife, died shortly after during a raid."
That… sounded surprisingly reasonable. If Holly was in that position (and wasn't that a terrifying thought? Her having a kid? Yeah, no, that thought immediately got locked away in the Vault of Unwanted Memories.) then lying to protect your kid sounded smart. Actually-
"Is there any reason why my parents didn't do that?" Having your kid avoid becoming the target of assassination attempts from someone like Adult Tom sounded like a good thing.
"While I knew there were two expecting mothers in the Order at the time, I did not share the full contents of the prophecy with them; only that they would both be targeted because of their unborn child."
"I…" and here he trailed off, looking away, "I had already decided both expecting couples should hide, even if it had seemed clear there was only one prophesied child. After all, Tom knew about both upcoming births as well, if not their expected genders, thanks to Pettigrew. He was always going to come after both of you, or so I believed…"
That… Holly wasn't going to think about that. If she did she'd be too mad to properly squeeze him for information.
"And your second theory?" Holly asked, interested after hearing his surprisingly plausible first theory.
"My second is less specific, instead focusing on your ability as a metamorphmagus. Being able to shapeshift, you can take a male form anytime you wish. Perhaps you were temporarily in that form during your birth or just before Tom attempted to kill you."
"Likewise, should you happen to kill Tom while in a male form it may fulfill the prophecy."
Holly… wasn't able to think about anything in response to that. Not because of what would give most people an existential identity crisis, but because she felt so stupid for not realizing it herself years ago.
Holly was Holly, no matter the shape. That said, for all that she never thought about her appearance, she had never altered her 'default' appearance from her natural form either. Well, other than making herself taller to herself survive the Triwizard Tournament and that was a purely functional change. Well, she'd slightly altering her boobs too to make her bras more comfortable, but that was it.
She wouldn't say she liked her natural appearance, hadn't thought about it enough to, but she certainly didn't dislike it.
But seriously, how had she not realized she could shapeshift herself into a boy years ago? She'd play around with that when she had some free time.
"And your third theory?"
"Perhaps Tom targeted your parents, not because of the prophecy, but out of simple convenience. Once Pettigrew shared the Secret they would have appeared an easy target. Perhaps he wished to make an example out of them. However, with Pettigrew incapacitated," Holly had to force her face to stay blank to stop herself from grinning at that, "I cannot ask how long he was a -"
"Four months," Holly interrupted. "He spied on the Order and my parents for four months. Adult Tom personally cornered him and he joined in exchange for his life."
"... ah." Blinking in surprise, he continued, "while good to know, unfortunately it does not clarify Tom's thoughts on the matter. Perhaps Tom delayed targeting your parents so he could maintain his spy in the Order. Or perhaps he thought I believed you truly were one of the potential children of prophecy."
That reminded her, "you've mentioned a few times there was another person the prophecy seemed to obviously apply. Who is it?"
Seriously, why did she get fucked over — by a prophecy that seemingly didn't apply to her at that — instead of them?
"That would be Neville Longbottom. He was born during the specified time and his parents also fulfilled the requirements."
"Huh." She could vaguely see Neville as a prophesied savior. Sure, Neville was obviously lacking in confidence but he seemed like a good guy. If he hadn't, well, she wouldn't have let him go with Hermione to the Ball, to put it mildly.
"Is there a reason they weren't targeted first? I mean, it sounds like he was the obvious choice."
"When I informed both your parents' and mr Longbottom's I offered to cast the fidelius charm for both them and your parents. Your parents, especially your father, wanted to use the fidelius charm. The Longbottoms did not."
"Instead, they retreated to Longbottom Manor. From there they spent a large portion of their wealth hiring both Gringotts and wardmasters from overseas to improve their security. Longbottom Manor had ancient and formidable wards before the war – they have never been broken – and afterwards, with their security improvements, Longbottom Manor became all but unassailable."
That was interesting, but…
'Am I imagining things, or is he implying that my father dragged my mother into using the fidelius charm because of his childhood friendships? That… seems stupid, especially in hindsight.'
'But ignoring that, it sure sounds like the Longbottoms survived because they were smart enough to trust nobody. And the fact they had boatloads of money. No wonder the fighting dosn't seem to affect purebloods: they're genuinely not in as much danger, even if they were targeted.
'Meanwhile my parents, or maybe just my father, would rather trust the literal Rat.'
Holly was pulled out of her spiraling thoughts when Dumbledore continued. "I'm afraid those are my only theories. There is no way for me to confirm my suspensions."
Now there was a statement with some pretty obvious implications.
'Looks like its time for me to make my quick escape,' she thought. 'Rather not get lectured or accused of anything.'
"Ah, true." She casually agreed as abruptly stood up. "Well, thanks for sharing this with me, I'll let you recover in peace."
Oh shit, she almost forgot! Pulling out the list of (most of) Voldemort's supporters she'd written earlier, she handed it over to Dumbledore. "I stumbled into this recently. Thought it could help."
Ready to leave before he could say anything else, Holly turned and started power walking away. Unfortunately, Dumbledore still managed to call out to her just as she was opening his office door.
"Miss Potter, I cannot condone any course of action that puts you at significant risk, of course," and wasn't that a blatant lie "but your interference in my duel with Tom more than likely saved my life. For that you have my gratitude."
Now what she supposed to say to that? She couldn't outright admit what she'd done, but it also didn't sound like he'd be making any attempt to stop her in the future.
Well, when in doubt: plausible deniability.
"I'm afraid I don't know what actions I may or may not have done that you're talking about." Holly deadpanned, blatantly lying to his face.
"Ah, of course," he said, smiling to himself and eating another candy. "Do take care, miss Potter."
Taking the opening, Holly rushed out, letting the door slam behind her.
---
Explaining that all to Hermione earned Holly a very familiar look of absolute confusion. No wonder Dumbledore had laughed at her expression, it was hilarious when you were on the other side.
That expression lasted until Holly took pity on the other girl and struggled to stop laughing at her long enough to explain Dumbledore's theories to Hermione. After that she was done she leaned back to settle in and gave Hermione time to think.
Naturally, it didn't take long.
"Are you sure you should have told me this?" Hermione asked, "I'm not nearly good enough at occlumency to protect my mind."
That was true. Hermione certainly wasn't bad at occlumency but she was nowhere near good enough to guarantee the safety of her thoughts. But-
"It doesn't matter, Hermione. The prophecy, I mean." Before Hermione could interrupt she quickly continued, "I've been working on killing Adult Tom for years already and it's the same for him. All the prophecy does is give us justification for what we were already going to do."
Leaning back to look at the Room's ceiling – now decorated in morbid yin-yang symbols of herself and Adult Tom attempting to kill each other – Holly could only say: "we were always going to try and kill each other."
And it was true.
Even if Adult Tom hadn't tried to kill her as a baby, he still would've tried sometime later since she was the daughter of two Order members.
Likewise, even if her parents hadn't been targeted that night they were still overwhelmingly likely to get killed in some random fight; either by Death Eaters or perhaps Adult Tom himself. That'd be enough to make that version of Holly decide to kill that version of Adult Tom.
Whether that was due to the prophecy itself warping fate to make itself come true; the prophecy unconsciously altering its subjects' actions; or simply a prediction based on the most likely decisions of those involved; it didn't matter. Holly was going to keep trying her best to kill Adult Tom just as he would keep trying to kill her.
Nothing could stop that.
Hermione, pursing her lips, didn't seem to agree but Holly didn't mind.
"What about Snape?" she asked. Now that was a good question.
Obviously she didn't like the fact he was the one that told Adult Tom about the prophecy. That said… Holly wasn't naive enough to believe the prophecy would have remained secret forever. Some Death Eater working in the Department of Mysteries or the Rat would have told him eventually.
Snape was simply the (un)lucky fool for being the first one.
Now, Snape willingly joining Adult Tom's cult? That was entirely his own fault.
Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately for her peace of mind?) Holly didn't know much about Snape back then other than (1) he is complete and utter bastard; (2) he had been bullied by her father and his friends; (3) he willingly joined Adult Tom's cult; and (4) he used to be friends with her mother for some unknown reason.
(Actually, now that she thought about it, The Rat knew shockingly little about her mother for someone that had been trusted to protect her with his life. He knew what she looked like, that she'd been friends with Snape until they abruptly weren't, and saw when her parents abruptly started dating.
Or rather, he saw Sirius tease her parents about "private late night patrols with the Head Girl Evans" and make them blush. Holly… deeply regretted having that memory now that she was old enough to understand.
But back on topic: The Rat never had a single one-on-one conversation with her mother. It seemed like the so-called Marauders never let her mother become one of them.
During their seventh year, after her parents started dating and just as they started making the Marauder's Map, her mother's contributions made it possible. Not that she knew that, since the Marauders had lied about what they were working on and chose to keep the Map secret from her.
Even when her parents were in hiding, stuck in their house, her father had been sneaking out behind her back to see his friends. Sneaking out while they were in hiding! Sure, he'd been locked in for months but that was still stupid. And Sirius had laughed while showing her mother's rather passive aggressive letter asking him to stop her father from sneaking out to The Rat later!
Overall, The Rat's knew shockingly little about her mother and had plenty of clues her parent's marriage wasn't fairytale perfect.
And that wasn't even mentioning how her father seemed like a jerk and Sirius... she didn't want to think about it.)
Shoving those thoughts away, Holly knew the simple fact was that she needed to get into Snape's mind and sort through his memories. She'd be able to determine exactly what he deserved.
(That it'd be the only way for her to learn more about her parents, especially her mother, was irrelevant.)
But that'd come later, once Adult Tom was dead. For now she'd do nothing.
Explaining all that might start an argument and Holly was exhausted after her long day, so she simply said, "in good time."
Deciding not to waste what little mental energy she had left, Holly summoned the Diadem and sank into her mindscape to begin reinforcing it. She was too drained to capitalize on Adult Tom's vulnerability, but she could do this.
She could tell Adult Tom was still recovering from her attack. Had been able to feel his seething anger in the back of her mind all day. When he did recover enough to attack her it would be brutal and overwhelming. Better reinforce her guard now before their mental fight inevitably became a drawn out slugfest.
With that in mind, Holly got to work.
Notes:Outside POV of Holly going to see Dumbledore: Link
Holly hearing the Prophecy: Link
So the prophecy is finally revealed! I could have changed it but (1) that would mess with Sirius's Azkaban plotline too much and (2) I'm actually terrible at coming up with completely new things when I don't have at least some framework to work off of. That means you get the canon prophecy that I then wrote my plot around.
Dumbledore's theories were fun to write. Man's smart and has a high enough opinion of himself to think he's mostly got it figured out, but, well, we'll see.
And again, go read Muffin's and Vinelle's stuff.