In Rosier Manor, there was a large amount of stress between Vindia and Mulstone about the location of their daughter. Not because they cared about her safety, obviously, but for two other reasons only focused on their own selfish needs.
First, they had no desire to go to Azkaban for torturing their daughter. Although it was highly doubtful that the Ministry would actually make a case against them with only the word of a seventeen year old girl as their evidence, the Rosier reputation was still on the line as being refined and prestigious.
The second was that they now had no more children to carry on their bloodline. They had always known that it would just be a matter of time until Hollis ran away for good, even though they had tried to do everything in their power to prevent that from happening. With one son dead and daughter ran away, the Rosiers were hopeless.
"What are we going to do?" Vindia asked, running a hand along her eyes. "Where could she have gone?"
You see, the Rosier parents knew that the three Gryffindors had seen Hollis, but not where they had come from. For all they were aware of, she could have run away to one of their homes across the country instead of mere miles away.
"I don't know either," Mulstone said with a deep frown. "And we have no way of locating that stupid girl. There's no damage done to any of the gates, how did she even get away?"
They had always known that Hollis was clever, but this was far beyond even their comprehension. For her to have disappeared so suddenly seemed nearly impossible, even using any magical method she was capable of they could think of.
"I don't know," Vindia replied honestly, starting to get a headache from how intense this was all becoming. "There's only one place we know she's going to be."
Mulstone came to the conclusion at the same time as his wife.
"The station," he nodded, teeth gritting. "But that's rather public, isn't it? We don't want to damage our reputation any further."
Vindia sighed yet again as she sat down in the black leather chair that still had traces of Hollis's blood on it.
"Our reputation, sure," she said uncharacteristically. "But what about our lives? If the Dark Lord discovers that Hollis-"
Those Gryffindors were still worming their way into her mind.
"That Appoline had betrayed his cause, our daughter-"
"I have no daughter."
Vindia blinked a few times at her husband before nodding along.
"We will not have a disgrace like that in our family," she added on. "Now she's just an enemy."
It was a decision they had already made long ago.
.｡*ﾟ+.*.｡ ﾟ+..｡*ﾟ+
The atmosphere in the living room of Lupin Cottage had never been so tense.
Even though Euphemia had only been working for a few minutes, Remus was already getting anxious that she wouldn't be able to do much to help her. Hollis's injuries that they could see were terrible, but they had no idea what damage her parents had done to the inside of her body.
From the blood trails coming from her lips, it couldn't be anything good.
Every time that one of the three boys looked at the Dark Mark, they mentally flinched or physically winced away from the tattoo. The silence left quite a bit of room for overthinking things, and they were doing everything they could to keep themselves from doubting Hollis.
Euphemia's practiced hands stopped suddenly, her eyes catching on something halfway out of Hollis's pocket. Reaching forwards, the woman gently tugged the scrap of fabric out. The thing was covered in blood, dirt, and water, but Mia still thought she recognized it.
"Scourgify," she said in a low voice, inclining her wand towards the piece of fabric just as large as her hand.
All off the contaminants magically melted away to reveal just the cream colored antler of a stag on a dark background that she had sown over a year ago upon James's request.
At the time, her son had just told her it was for a friend, along with the odd instructions of the five animals all running together. Euphemia had happily sown it with a bit of confusion, but now it was clear to her who the friend must have been.
For the Rosier girl to have needed to rip off only a piece meant that it must have been brought in a hurry, having previously remained hidden.
This small scrap just made Mrs. Potter want to help the girl even more.
"Sirius, put this somewhere safe," she said, twisting her torso to place the piece on the oak table behind her.
Her son leaned forward to take it, immediately recognizing it from the quilt James had given Hollis on her sixteenth birthday.
"Prongs," he muttered under his breath with a tiny grin, showing the pattern to the hazel eyed boy standing next to him. "Wonder if she tore you off to take with her on purpose."
James laughed slightly, or as much as he could while Hollis looked like she did right in front of him.
"I doubt it," he replied. "Otherwise, she would have chosen Moony."
Remus heard these words and stood up off the carpet for the first time to stand next to his two friends.
"Do you guys remember when Hol came up with the idea to change all the Great Hall utensils into portkeys?" he asked, looking down at the now unconscious girl. "It was the first prank all five of us ever did together."
At these words, James and Sirius smiled sadly.
"Yea, and Minnie got so bloody mad," James added on, blinking a few times to recall the memory of just a few months into their fifth year. "Merlin, I thought she was going to put us all in detention until we graduated."
"I think she was proud of us," Sirius shrugged. "Or Hol, she's the one who taught us all how to do the charm in the first place."
"Honestly, what would we have done without her?" Remus muttered. "The Map, she came up with the charm."
"Animagi, she helped us through it," Sirius added on.
"And I'm like ninety nine percent sure I would have failed DADA with Bounce," James pointed out. "I don't know how she knows so much about the Dark Arts, I mean-"
He cut himself off as his eyes were once again drawn to the tattoo of the snake and skull going down Hollis's left forearm.
Sirius and Remus followed his eyes, but they wouldn't let doubt creep into their minds.
"No," Remus said firmly, voicing all of their thoughts. "That's not how she knows, it's from something else. We can't just jump to conclusions and connect things to make a picture that isn't even there."
"He's right," Hope said softly, stepping behind the three boys. "I obviously don't know her nearly as well as you do, but it seems like there's a lot more to the picture than it meets the eye."
"Yea, like why the cut is there," Sirius thought out loud. "For all we know, it could be from trying to get it off, whether her parents did it or-"
Bloody porcelain was becoming a reoccurring image in all of their minds.
"Boys," Euphemia said, gesturing them over to Hollis quickly. "When is the last time any of you saw her left forearm?"
The trio instantly realized how long it had been.
"Merlin, after our O.W.L.'s?" James said hesitantly. "Why?"
Euphemia didn't answer as she felt her heart break for the girl lying in front of her.
There was a much earlier cut she could see on the Rosier's forearm, from weeks ago along with a discoloration of her skin where it appeared to have been scrubbed raw. Injuries like that didn't heal quickly, especially when left without any aid.
It was obvious that Hollis was starting to regret getting the mark, and the scars around it made that very much clear.
"I think that's for her to tell you," Euphemia replied with a frown as she noticed something on the girl's stomach. "You boys head on out of the room, all five of you."
The two fathers and three sons all exchanged a glance.
"Mia, we don't want to leave her-" Remus started, but she gave him a firm glare.
"She's safe with your mother and I here, Remus," she said. "Give us a moment, will you?"
Their eyebrows furrowed with confusion as they exited, but they didn't want to somehow delay Hollis's healing process.
"What is it?" Hope asked, kneeling down by Euphemia. "Why'd you make them leave?"
"I just think they'd be too angry if they heard me," Mia replied, referring to the teenagers. "I feel guilty checking on her injuries so much while she's unconscious, but when I was checking her stomach... Well, you'll see."
Lifting up the edge of Hollis's shirt ever so slightly, Euphemia revealed bruises that appeared to be weeks old tracing across her hips, and then further up her shirt. They seemed to be in the rough pattern of fingerprints, harsh ones at that.
"And I know your son, as gentle as they come," the Potter continued, delicately placing Hollis's shirt back down as Hope started to understand where she was going with this. "And I don't think he would ever be this rough with a girl."
Hope's green eyes widened.
"You mean to say..." she trailed off, not even wanting to think of what could have happened to her son's girlfriend.
"I don't know what I mean to say," Euphemia replied. "But all I'm saying is that those bruises weren't left by your son, but it was most certainly some boy."
Hope leaned her torso back to look through the doorway and see Remus talking in an anxious, low tone to his father.
"He loves her," Hope told the woman in front of her. "I know we all heard it, but I don't think I realized how much until now. And your sons, we've all heard them call her their sister."
The Lupin paused for a few moments, thinking.
"I think they deserve to know," she said with a sigh. "But I know it's wrong and the girl might not want us to."
"I think the girl is much stronger than we all think," Euphemia replied. "If she can live through some boy like that and all this, then hell, I think we all might as well be damn bunny rabbits."
She had no idea how right she was.
yay they finally disowned hollis – FUCK U THEODORE
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