She doesn't know which part of her miserable life made her nostalgic that day but Holly found herself reminiscing a conversation she had with a different green eyed boy a few months ago.
It was true what she had told him, that in her family, her godly heritage was often muttered if not in hushed conversations then not at all. In their small family of four, it was difficult to find someone who would understand her and not judge her for events she had no control over.
And so, in their family of four, she would always return to her person, her confidant, her cousin.
Whenever she felt lost, confused or scared, Tonks would always be there to help her. She doesn't know how her cousin does it, it's not like there's some sort of course for this kind of stuff and it's not exactly what they teach at Hogwarts.
So, when Holly find herself feeling lost or in need of help, she'll ask her cousin for it. She's only done it a handful of times, asking for help never came easy, but this time, she was in desperate need of help.
The morning before the first ever Quidditch match of the season, Holly walked up to the owlery- this time, cautiously watching her every step for a stray lightning until she made it to the top.
And after finding a suitable owl, she sent off her letter and prayed to her mother that Tonks will have an answer. But somehow she knew, Tonks always does.
***
At eleven o'clock, the stands were filled with students. It was a muggy day, and Holly felt the electricity on her skin which made her more weary of her closeness to Zeus' domain. So high up in the sky, she was sure the lightning will strike true this time around.
Everyone couldn't hide their excitement, the Slytherins most of all. It was no secret now that the Slytherins got an upgrade along with a new Seeker, their previous one was visibly sulking in his seat as the girls passed to find a clearer view. Pansy most of all was brimming with house pride, clad in all green and even had green painted on her face. She wasn't alone though, Blaise and Theo gladly joined her in support.
Eventually, the scarlet robed Gryffindors walked out onto the stadium before being followed by the Slytherins in forest greens.
Madam Hooch asked both Captains to shake hands, before blowing her whistle to signal the start of the game.
Holly wasn't a big fan of Quidditch, she was never really well acquainted with it to fall in love. Her Uncle had tried to teach her, but since she found out the Lord of the Sky was after her, she learned to stay away from the sky to keep her feet on the ground.
And Quidditch would've been entertaining, if Draco had only spent the better hour actually playing rather than insulting Harry left and right. The Weasley twins really did save her from boredom as they whacked bludgers towards one player to another, but then things took a turn when the bludger started flying towards Harry.
After one of the Weasley twins tried to hit it towards Draco, it swerved like a boomerang and shot at Harry's head. He just about missed it as he zoomed towards the other edge of the pitch, and no one else seemed to have noticed it other than Harry, the twins and Holly. Who, even if she tried to admit it was definitely staring.
One of the Weasley's managed to hit it away from Harry, but it came back just as Slytherin scored another point. It was no brainer of course, the only chance Gryffindor had of winning was if Harry caught the snitch which was very much possible since Draco paid more attention to his looks than the game.
Eventually, the Gryffindor team Captain called a time out. By the time the game continued, the rain had gotten even heavier. Holly wanted to give it all up and just return to her dorms, but her friends had locked her in place. Almost quite literally.
With Theo to her left, Blaise to her right, Pansy in front of her and Daphne behind her, she had nowhere to go. They stood huddled together under a repelling charm that Blaise had placed over them, it successfully repelled the water enough to keep them dry but it was small that they were forced to huddle together if they wanted to stay as dry as possible.
Holly tried to pay attention, but she couldn't hear or see much in the rain. What she did see were just blurs, literally as the Slytherin players zoomed around the pitch in blurs of green.
It wasn't until the whole crowd screamed as one of the Gryffindors descended into a free fall did Holly jolt back to attention, with a painful thud, Harry landed on the mud and rolled off his broom. He sat up and as Holly watched through Daphne's borrowed omnioculars, she winced when she saw the odd angle that Harry's arm was hanging at. Before fainting, he managed to hold up the golden orb in his hand and all three houses burst into ear deafening cheers. Harry Potter had caught the golden snitch, winning Gryffindor a total of 150 points.
As they walked back to the castle, they carried Harry and his boneless arm in a stretcher.
Holly walked behind with the rest of Slytherin, watching the back of Draco's head was more pleasant than she thought, rather than having to stare at his sour face. He was scowling all the way down to the dungeons, complaining until his mouth ran dry and thank the gods her cousin had Theo and Blaise so she was saved from the inevitable discussion.
Since she didn't have anything else to do for the rest of the day, she grabbed her book from their dorm room and left just as quickly as they had arrived. After a while, she was able to find Hermione who was just walking away from the Infirmary.
"Hey, Hermione!" Holly called as she caught up with the girl.
Hermione turned, her lips titling up into an unsure smile. She glanced at Ron who was glaring at Holly and nudged him in the side, "Hey, Holly. How can I help you?"
"I heard you were looking for a copy of Hogwarts: A History," Holly said breathlessly, stopping in front of them to catch her breath before presenting said book to Hermione. "I thought you'd still want it, I just finished using it."
"Oh...that's- that's very kind of you, thank you, Holly." Hermione said as she grabbed the book from Holly, she turned to leave but Holly called her again.
Holly fiddled with her fingers. "I was...wondering, how's Harry?" She asked reluctantly, watching Ron and Hermione's face shift into odd expressions she couldn't explain.
Hermione raised her eyebrows, sharing a look with Ron. "I didn't know you were acquainted."
"Oh, we're not." Holly said quickly, waving her hands. "Forget I asked- er, bye now."
And then she was gone.
"She's weird, you should stay away from her." Ron said once Holly was gone, they began walking again. "Seriously, I think she's really close with Malfoy and his lot."
"She's actually really nice, you know?" Hermione said, hugging her book tightly. "Once you get over yourself, you should try being nice to her."
"You know, I heard this rumour about Holly Black, they say she's-"
***
When Holly returned to her dorms that night, what she didn't expect the following week was to find out that a first year was attacked the very same day. Now that was enough to put everyone on edge.
The first years began moving around the castle in tight-knit groups, as though scared they would be attacked if they ventured forth alone.
Daphne was often missing from their group, opting to stay with her sister which didn't seem to lift Astoria's spirit.
The only ones who weren't worried were Draco and his friends, they were sure they were immune to this otherwise pandemic.
"Oh come off it, we're purebloods." He said when Daphne came to bother him one morning about it. "Don't you remember what McGonagall said? She said that it'll only attack those who are deemed unfit to study magic, mudbloods like that boy."
"How do you know he was muggle born?" Holly chimed in, putting her book down. "How do you know it's only muggle borns the monster will attack? Being pureblood doesn't qualify you as someone who deserves to study magic."
"No one asked for your opinion," Draco rolled his eyes, stomping off to his dorm.
By the time Pansy's birthday rolled around, everyone was in a slightly brighter spirit. It's been a week since the boy was attacked, and everyone was slightly comforted with the talismans and amulets that have been traded around to protect them from this unknown evil.
The days went by painfully slowly, but with the steady supply of sleeping draught that Madam Pomfrey had been supplying Holly, her dreams have been kept at bay. She didn't know how she could handle another vision of Theo, she wasn't even sure how she was dealing with the actual Theo.
It's been...awkward. They still talk of course, but Holly often finds herself avoiding him. Tonks had told her to act normal, and she's been trying, but it's hard to act normal when everything is but that.
Holly often hid away in the library or in her dorm, praying to her mother and begging her to stop playing her games. How foolish could she have been, of course, she had noticed Theo's been acting weird since the beginning of term and to think that it was all her mother's doing?
"Shall I see you over the holidays then?" Theo had asked her one morning, on the morning of his birthday when she had given him the bracelet. It was a custom made silver, his name engraved on the plate in Holly's own handwriting. He was tying the chain around his wrist as he spoke, "My father is planning a trip, shall I suggest America to him?"
"Oh, um..." Holly laughed awkwardly, fiddling with her fingers. They were sitting so close, squished in the couch between their other friends that Holly had to fight the urge to take off. "I'm actually staying at Hogwarts."
"Really, cousin?" Draco said as he approached them, plucking a biscuit from the plate before shoving the two apart so he could sit between them. "So am I, did my mother tell you?"
"I didn't know," Holly muttered, sharing a look with Theo from behind Draco. "Why are you staying at Hogwarts? I thought it was for parents who didn't want their child."
"My parents were gutted to leave me for the holidays, of course. But they're leaving for business, and those tend to get really boring so I opted to stay."
"Ah," Holly nodded earnestly, and then she got up with a huff. "If you'll excuse me, I just need to go to the bathroom."
She wasn't sure how to feel about that, Holly had been hoping to escape camp for a while and with Theo leaving for the holidays, it was like killing two birds with one stone.
But with Draco staying, she couldn't see how that would make holiday any more bearable rather than being on her own. All her friends were leaving, except for Millicent, Crabbe and Goyle and she wasn't exactly on close terms with the former as of late.
She suppose it can be quite distracting, having Draco there with her. It'll give her something to look forward to.
Another thing she's been looking forward to was potions, after her failure a few weeks ago due to the stress of the Chamber of Secrets and her vision, Holly's been trying to find redemption since.
On Thursday afternoon, during a particularly long lesson, Holly prepared every ounce of strength she had for that lesson. It was one with the Gryffindors, so Snape was otherwise preoccupied for most of the lesson as he prowled through fumes and criticised the Gryffindor's work while the Slytherin's sniggered appreciatively.
By the time Snape walked over to her cauldron to sneer at her swelling potion, she was ready. Of course, she knew Snape would never ever be satisfied with her work- for some reason, the potions professor really had it out for her despite being a Slytherin- but she'll take what she can get.
And in an unbiased opinion, Holly did fairly well on her potion and she would've gotten at least two points were it not for the fireworks that came flying into her cauldron the second Snape turned his back.
Holly's potion exploded, showering the whole class. People shrieked as splashes of the Swelling Solution hit them. Holly cried out, ducking under the table as the swelling solution enlarged her whole face to the size of dinner plates.
Snape tried to calm the crowd and find out what had happened, but he wasn't doing a very good job. "Silence!" He shouted. "SILENCE! Anyone who has been splashed, come here for a Deflating Draft- when I find out who did this-"
Holly's shoulders shook as she sobbed into her enlarged hands, thank the gods for it because they were just large enough to cover her hideous face as she ran up to Snape for the Swelling Solution.
"I- I don't know, Professor. I swear, my potion was correct! I did it correctly-" Holly explained when interrogated.
"Shut up, you stupid girl." Snape said as he administered a vial of the Swelling Solution.
Holly immediately clamped her mouth shut, moving out of the way as Snape walked over to her cauldron and scooped out the twisted black remains of what looked like a firework. There was a sudden hush, and Holly felt her blood run cold.
"If I ever find out who threw this," Snape whispered in the silence. "I shall make sure that person is expelled."
He stared at someone intently, and when Holly followed her gaze, it landed on a puzzled looking Harry.
Once the bell rang, Holly grabbed her things and dashed after the figure who had run out the door. He and his friends walked down a corridor, and Holly immediately recognised it. It was a path she often took to get to the girl's bathroom, the same path they took on Halloween.
"Potter!" She shouted and the three Gryffindors froze, Holly marched up right to Harry and shoved him hard on the shoulders. "You're a real prick, you know that!"
"Hey! What's your problem!" The ginger haired boy- Ron shouted, stepping in front of Harry and pushing Holly off his best friend.
Harry placed a hand on Ron's arm, pulling him back and shaking his head.
"I know it was you!" Holly cried out, nostrils flaring. "What did I ever do to you, huh- don't answer that," Holly grabbed his robes roughly, pulling his collar until their noses were almost touching. "Stay out of my way, or you won't like what happens next."
Then she gave him a hard shove, surprising the others by her strength as Harry fell onto the ground with a loud thud.
When Ron tried to lunge after her, Harry and Hermione grabbed the back of his robe and pulled him back.
Ron shrugged off their hold, "What's her problem?"
"I'm telling you, they know I did it!"
"They can't prove it was you," Ron said reassuringly to Harry as they continued their walk. "And I don't even know why Black was so bothered, it wasn't like Snape took house points- he can't, cause she's a Slytherin. But I bet my socks, if it had been anyone else-"
"Why are you so angry at her?" Hermione scoffed. "It's not like you were the one she pushed."
"Um- hello? Have you forgotten, she's with Malfoy!"
"Weren't you potions partners with her last year?" Harry chimed in, both of his friends suddenly turning to him. He shrugged, "I just...remembered."
***
Sometimes, Holly swore she could hear Chiron's voice in her head. Mostly at early mornings when she would sneak off to the kitchens to get a snack, her little conscience seemed to have gained Chiron's chastising tone and Holly didn't like it one bit.
He would scold her for eating too much, eating too unhealthy. She'll be sent to battle in no time no doubt, especially if her mother was so hell bent on damaging her. She needs to be fit for when the time comes, and the way she's living off now isn't the suggested method.
But her traitorous body refused, even when she tried regaining movement by walking around Hogwarts and its many steps.
So when news got around that Hogwarts was starting a duelling club, Holly was all for it. Everyone was excited, of course. Especially with the influx of petrified victims and the supposed monster of the Chambers still lurking the corridors, everyone wanted to know how to protect themselves.
At eight o'clock on Thursday evening a week later, all the students piled into the Great Hall to find that the long dining tables had vanished and a golden stage had appeared along one wall, lit by thousands of candles floating overhead.
"Do you see the teacher?" Daphne craned her neck to look at the stage over the heads of their classmates. "I hope it's- Oh! Look, Lockhart!"
Holly suppressed a groan as she lifted her head, watching Gilderoy Lockhart walk onto the stage, resplendent in robes of deep plum and accompanied by none other than their Head of House, Professor Snape in his usual black. A dull contrast to Lockhart's blinding colours.
Lockhart waved an arm and for silence, "Gather around, gather around!" He made a swift turn, his arms extended out as he looked at the sea of faces. "Can you all hear me? Yes- Excellent!"
"Now, Professor Dumbledore has granted me permission to start this little duelling club, to train you all in case you ever need to defend yourselves as I myself have done on countless occasions- for ull details, see my published works." He grinned handsomely, flashing his pearly white teeth. And all around Holly, girls swooned at him. "Let me introduce my assistant, Professor Snape. He tells me he knows a tiny little bit about duelling himself and has sportingly agreed to help me with a short demonstration before we begin."
"Doesn't look like it," Blaise sniggered under his breath, pointing at their Professor who looked disgruntled as always. "No sane person would ever voluntarily spend time with Lockhart."
"That's what I said!" Holly whispered, shaking hands of agreement with Blaise.
"Now, I don't want any of you youngsters to worry." Lockhart continued. "You'll still have your Potions master when I'm through with him, never fear!"
Lockhart and Snape turned to face each other and bowed; well, Lockhart did so with much twirling of his hands whereas Snape just simply jerked his head irritably before they raised their wands like swords in front of them.
Holly looked at their stance, noting every placement; the angle of their feet, the bend of their knees, the twist of their wrist and the grip of their fingers.
"As you see, we are holding our wands in the accepted combative position," Lockhart told the silent crowd. "On the count of three, we will cast our first spells. Neither of us will be aiming to kill, of course."
"I wouldn't be so sure," Holly murmured, watching as Snape bared his teeth and his nostrils flared.
"One... two...three-"
Both of them swung their wands above their heads and pointed them at their opponent; Snape cried, "Expelliarmus!" A beautiful, dazzling flash of scarlet light shot from the tip of his wand, and Lockhart was blasted off his feet. He flew backwards, off the stage, onto a wall and slid down it to sprawl on the floor.
Draco and the other boys cheered, Holly couldn't help but snigger as she watched Lockhart try to lift his head in a daze.
"Bloody brilliant Professor!" Theo clapped loudly and called over the roar of the crowd, Snape shrugged his robe in reply.
Lockhart got to his feet unsteadily, his hat had fallen off and his wavy hair was standing on end. "Well, there you have it!" he said, tottering back onto the platform. "That was a Disarming Char- as you see, I've lost my wand- ah, thank you, Miss Brown. An excellent idea to show them that, Professor Snape, but if you don't mind my saying so, it was very obvious what you were about to do. If I had wanted to stop you, it would have been only too easy- however, I felt it would be instructive to let them see..."
Snape looked at him murderously, and Lockhart must've noticed because he said, "Enough demonstrating! I'm going to come amongst you now and put you all into pairs. Professor Snape, if you'd like to help me-"
The two professors moved through the crowd, matching up partners. Lockhart had just teamed up Blaise and Theo when Snape reached Harry and Ron, Holly happened to be close enough to listen in.
"Time to split up the dream tem, I think," Snape sneered. "Weasley, you can partner Finnigan. Potter-"
Harry stepped automatically towards Hermione, Snape looked down at him distastefully before his eyes moved around the Hall and landed on Holly who stood not far from them.
"I don't think so," Snape said, a sudden sinister smile on his lips. "Miss Black, come over here. Let's see what you make of the famous Harry Potter. And you, Miss Granger- you can partner Miss Bulstrode."
Holly walked over, passing Hermione along the way and lowering her voice to a whisper. "Goodluck, don't lower your guard on her and you'll be fine."
"You too," Hermione whispered back before their shoulders crossed.
"Face your partners!" Lockhart called back on the platform. "And bow!"
Holly and Harry inclined their heads, not taking their eyes off each other.
"Wands at the ready!" Lockhart shouted. "When I count to three, cast your charm to disarm your opponents- only to disarm them- we don't want any accidents, one...two...three-"
She was really itching for a fight, especially revenge on what Harry had done to her potion. Gods, she couldn't face her classmates for two whole days after. They had seen her crying, wailing and it was all because of Harry Potter.
Holly knew she'd win, she was faster and better than Harry. So when Lockhart counted to three, she shot her spell. It hit Harry square on the head, he stumbled backwards but wasted no more time before pointing the wand straight at Holly and shouting, "Rictusempra!"
A jet of silver light shot towards Holly, and she ducked before pointing at Harry once more. "Immobulus!"
At the same time, Harry shouted. "Tarantallegra!"
"I said disarm only!" Lockhart shouted in alarm over the heads of the battling crowd, somewhere to their side, Draco's blond head was calling his own charms that were nothing but disarming charms. "Disarm only-!"
Holly's legs were jerking uncontrollably in a kind of quickstep, and she huffed loudly before pointing her wand at an immobile Harry. His eyes widened in fear as red light shot towards him, then he was blasted back with his wand flying off his frozen body.
"Stop! Stop!" Lockhart screamed, but Snape took charge.
"Finite Incantatem!" he shouted, and at once, Holly's feet stopped dancing and Harry fell on the floor, gasping for breath as he regained movement.
A haze of greenish smoke was hovering over the scene. Neville and a Hufflepuff were lying on the floor to their right, panting; Ron was holding up an ashen-faced Seamus, apologising for whatever his broken wand had done; Hermione and Millicent were still moving, Millicent had the poor girl in a headlock and Hermione was whimpering in their pain with both their wands forgotten on the floor; Theo and Blaise were both laying on either side of the floor, their robes and hair stuck up in odd places and Theo even had soot on his face; while Draco, the farthest from her was still cruelly pointing his wand at his opponent, a Gryffindor girl.
Holly and Harry leapt for Hermione and Millicent, Harry tried to pry the huge girl off but it proved to be difficult so Holly pushed him aside and pried Millie's hold from the Gryffindor girl, giving Harry enough time to pull Hermione out before she ran out of breath.
"Get off me!" Millie shouted, roughly shoving Holly back before standing up and turning to Hermione with a sneer. "I've got my eye on you, you filthy mudblood."
She said it in a whisper, so only Holly, Harry and Hermione heard her before she waltzed off.
"Are you alright?" Holly rushed up to Hermione, checking her all around for any cuts or bruises. Other than blue lips, she looked fine as she tried to catch her breath. "I'm so, so sorry, Hermione."
"Alright there, Miss Granger?" Lockhart walked up to them, placing a hand on Hermione's shoulder and patting her.
Hermione smiled up at him, life seemingly returning to her face there as she nodded.
"I think I'd better teach you how to block unfriendly spells," Lockhart said as he walked off. He glanced at Snape, whose black eyes glinted, and looked away quickly. "Let's have a volunteer pair- Longbottom and Finch-Fletchley, how about you-"
"A bad idea, Professor Lockhart." Professor Snape said, gliding over like a large and menacing shadow. "Longbottom causes devastation with the simplest spells. We'll be sending what's left of Finch-Fletchley up to the hospital wing in a matchbox."
Neville's round, pink face went pinker and he ducked his head, embarrassed.
"How about Malfoy and Potter?" Snape said with a twisted smile, glancing at said boy with a glint of malice in his eyes.
"Excellent idea!" Lockhart said, he called Harry over and the boy reluctantly left Hermione to Holly. "When Draco points his wand at you, you do this."
He raised his own wand, attempted a complicated sort of wiggling and waving action and dropped it. Snape smirked as Lockhart quickly picked it up, "Whoops! My wand is a little overexcited-"
Snape moved closer to Draco, bent down, and whispered something in his ear. Draco smirked too, Harry turned to Lockhart nervously as he continued to give some directions.
"Will he be fine?" Hermione muttered to Holly worriedly, looking at the scene on the stage.
"Harry can hold his own surprisingly well," Holly shrugged. And then she muttered, "Draco's cunning and a cheat, no doubt he'll have something unethical up his sleeve. As long as Harry does the spell correctly, he should come out unscathed."
"Should?"
Lockhart began the duel, counting to three before Draco raised his wand and bellowed, "Serpensortia!"
The end of his wand exploded and a long black snake slithered out of it, it fell heavily onto the floor between them and raised itself, ready to strike.
Those near the stage screamed and backed away swiftly, clearing the floor.
"Don't move, Potter," Snape said lazily, sounding bored yet looking joyful as he watched Harry standing motionless, eye to eye with an angry snake. "I'll get rid of it."
"Allow me!" Lockhart shouted, stepping up and brandishing his wand at the snake. There was a loud bang, and instead of vanishing, the snake flew ten feet into the air and fell back on the floor with a loud smack.
Enraged, hissing furiously, it slithered straight towards the Hufflepuff boy that Neville had fought before. It raised itself again, fangs exposed, poised to strike.
And he would've done so at that instant, until Harry stepped forward and started hissing. And by some miracle, the snake slumped to the floor, docile as a thick black garden hose, its eyes now on Harry.
Harry looked up at the Hufflepuff boy grinning, but the boy wasn't. "What do you think you're playing at?" he shouted, and before anyone could say anything, the boy turned around and stormed out of the hall.
Snape stepped forward while everyone was distracted, waved his wand and the snake vanished in a small puff of black smoke. Snape looked at Harry, an odd expression on his face. Something short of shrewd and calculating.
"Did he just... hiss at the snake?" Holly muttered, dumb founded.
Then Hermione was getting up, rushing after Ron who had gotten Harry from the stage. They hurried out into the hall, and Holly ran after them with an excited jump on her step. Oh this was amazing, this was groundbreaking. This was lifesaving!
authors note: angry Holly?? Yeah, that's not the real angry Holly. You've yet to see her.. Anyways, how do you guys find the story?