Holly Potter: The Bookish, Burgling, Badass (Hp x Mcu) by Personfour

Chapter 3: Year Two

Summary:

A chamber is opened, Holly makes questionable decisions, and sleep exhaustion makes her silly.

OR: This is where canon goes to die.

Once again Holly was back on the Hogwarts Express, reading her way there. A few 1st years in her compartment tried to talk to her but stopped after she blocked them out. Good thing they didn't seem to figure out her identity.

She rode the carriages (that were pulled by impressively ominous looking winged, skeletal horses for some reason?) to the castle and, to the surprise of nobody, read her way through the announcements and feast. Holly walked out with everyone else and fell back into her old routines.

Sadly, most of the new 1st years hadn't gotten the message beforehand that Holly was famously antisocial. It took the 1st years a few weeks of being ignored for most of them to leave her alone. When one particularly annoying boy with a camera kept following her, he was quickly put in a full-body-bind. After a few times he finally backed off, much to Hollys' relief.

The new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor was, as she'd previously assumed, completely useless. Worse than useless even.

There was really only one good thing about him.

Watching Lockhart fumble his lesson with the pixies was hilarious. Watching Granger trying to defend him afterwards was even better. Lockhart being useless didn't matter to Holly, it was beneficial even. After all, she knew the entire 2nd and some of the 3rd year Defense curriculum already, along with a few more useful advanced spells. The fact his assignments were a joke gave her more time to self-study.

What was annoying about Lockhart was him constantly picking on her. He constantly tried to have her play along while reenacting scenes from his book. The first time she refused he seemed furious for a split second before brushing it off to save face. Thankfully he left her alone after several blunt refusals.

It unnerved her though and she tried her best to avoid him whenever possible.

In potions Snape still randomly asked her advanced questions. It seemed that now he was transitioning to asking her 3rd and 4th year material. Grateful for her summer reading, Holly kept up. She hadn't gotten an answer wrong yet and she wasn't planning to. They were at something of a stalemate and Holly was not going to be the one to break first.

She did stumble in on bullying in the Ravenclaw dorms one time. Only once because Holly had them all in a bodybind before they noticed her. Before the would-be bullies hit the ground, she'd already turned to walk away without a glance back.

(For Holly it was hardly worth mentioning. For Luna Lovegood, Holly was like a merciful mother dragon swooping in to save her. She knew she'd talk to Holly in time. But not now. Holly had too many wackspirts in her ears to hear anyone right now.

But one day though, Holly would be able to hear and Luna would be there.)

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The first month and a half passed in a blur of study and spell practice, only interrupted by classes, visiting the elves, and meals. It was all pleasantly routine. Dodging the stalkers trying to find where she disappeared to was normal at this point. She answered questions in class, got perfect scores, and enjoyed Granger's scowls whenever Holly beat her at anything.

There was something unusual though.

A tiny feeling of something wrong.

It was subtle enough that Holly couldn't tell when it started. She first noticed it walking into the Hall for lunch one day: a faint unsettling feeling, like being watched. As the weeks went on the feeling grew. The hairs on her arms would stand up and her stomach flopped.