Disclaimer: I only own Holly, my OC, and any other OCs in this story. JK Rowling owns everything else and any borrowed lines from the novels that will probably end up in this story. Any quoted references that may end up in this story belongs to the original owner of said quotes.

Holly Potter laid on the rough and stiff mattress in her own cramped cupboard that was located beneath the set of stairs in her lovely aunt and uncle's home. Honestly, she rather enjoyed this tiny little place and the isolation from the rest of the world it brings. It was like her own private box, safe and sheltered from the outside world and her own guardians. A term she used rather loosely.

Here she was able to read to her heart's content from the books she had been slowly stealing from school. Each one holding a new world to escape and live it. Each book was placed in separate small stacks on the shelf behind her bed.

Her clothes, that were extremely uncomfortable eighties clothes that fabric gave her rashes, were in a small pile underneath her mattress. The only access to light Holly had was tiny lightbulb that usually takes several pulls to turn on and hung loosely above her bed and the vent on her door.

Yet, she was actually content. Holly knew that it wasn't normal, that a child like her should hate having to live a life locked in a cupboard under the stairs being neglected by a family that should love you. But instead, she found it calming. It seemed isolation and her went well together.

In this tiny cupboard, Holly was in control. This was her domain, no matter how tiny or stuffy it was. Outside, on the other hand, was chaotic. Always at the mercy of the Dursley's. A servant instead of a niece and cousin. And when she was no longer needed, then it was back into the cupboard. Her presence erased from the rest of the house.

To her, the cupboard was her heaven and the outside was her hell. Today, was an even more chaotic day than usual as it was good old Diddykins birthday. She tried to forget about it, hoping that if she made no noise they would just forget about her. Sadly, luck was not on her side as signaled by the irritating knocking on her door.

"Wake up brat. Breakfast needs to be ready in five," Petunia's voice shrieked while unlocking the door for her.

The only time Holly was allowed out of her cupboard was a short list. Usually it was for her to go to school, to do the chores and use the bathroom (even then the bathroom time was limited and scheduled). Other times it was when the Dursley basically tossed her to their neighbor Mrs Figgs. Who, in her defense, was much nicer than the Dursley's. Despite her house house smelling like rotten cabbages and having awful tasting food. Not that Holly minded, she would eat anything. It wasn't like she got much food from the Dursley's in the first place. The cats were Holly's favorite thing at Mrs. Figgs, she enjoyed how soft they were. Yet, as she grew older, Holly slowly began to resent Mrs. Figgs. Despite the multitude of times Holly was forced to be there, never once did she pick up how awful her home life was. She merely ignored the fact how Holly was basically skin and bones. How pale she was, as if the sun barely touched her. Yet, if Mrs. Figgs ever picked up on those hints, she never dared questioned them or was extremely ignorant to the abuse that was happening only a couple houses away.

Other than that it was always back in the cupboard. Holly did believe she spent more time in there than the actual outside world or even the rest of the house.

Holly harshly bit her lip to stifle a groan. This is why she never gets her hopes up. Holly slammed the book she was reading ("The Hobbit", not one of her favorites but she still enjoys it nevertheless) and leaned over to the nearest clothing pile and blindly grabbed random pieces of clothing. Holly had a special hatred for the clothes that Petunia always forced her to wear. They made her itch like mad and were so constricting it was ridiculous. Holly lazily changed her clothes, brushing her unruly auburn hair out of her face not even bothering to attempt to deal with it. It isn't like her hair would obey her anyways. Readjusting her thick rimmed glasses, she pushed opened the door and walked down the hall and began her daily routine.

As she entered the kitchen, her gazed lingered on the table that was now covered entirely in presents that seemed to range from a new computer to a racing bike. Holly wasn't quite sure why Dudley would want such a thing, but she just assumed it was for bragging rights at school. Quickly she turned on the stove top.

One of Holly's regular chores was the cooking. So here she was, cooking breakfast for the oh so special birthday boy and his oh so loving family. Sometimes she thought of sneaking laxatives in the food. One time, she almost did before backing down. She could only have imagined the punishment for that, and in her mind it wouldn't be worth it.

The first Dursley that entered the kitchen was Mr. Vernon Dursley. He just took one look at Holly before barking at her to fix her hair. Sometimes she wanted to just shave her head, just to get him to shut his whale of a mouth. After all, no matter how many haircuts she got, it just kept growing back. For a second Holly paused while frying the eggs, wondering what would happen if she just shaved her head bald. Would her hair miraculously grow back like they time Petunia butchered her hair in effort to hide her scar? Or would being bald be the solution to her unruly hair problem?

Holly's train of thought was disrupted by the arrival of Dudley followed by his mother, Petunia.

Looking at the fried eggs and to the Dursley's, Holly decided it was quite easy for her to rate how favorable each individual Dursley was to her.

There is Dudley, her overweight cousin that probably was more pig than human with the intelligence leaning toward the swine side as well. When he was younger, Holly used to be his personal punching bag, which didn't really mean much since they were both six. As the years went by he had been slowly moving to taunts and jeers instead of physical violence. Holy believed that if he wanted to be remotely intimidating then he should have kept the physical violence. He was rather unskilled when it came to verbal abuse. Not that Holly was complaining. Out of the three Dursley, she hated him the least. From what Holly gather from the books she read in the library at school, odds are that this behavior was all learnt from his parents. The fact they indulge in everything he did just allowed the problems to increase allowed his belief that he could get away with anything, which was probably true. Plus witnessing how his parents treated Holly, he really didn't stand a chance. Sometimes she wondered if Vernon and Petunia Dursley were better parents to him, or perhaps he had a different set, that maybe he would have turned out to be a decent bloke.

Next was Mr. Vernon Dursley, the whale of the family and probably the main the dominant gene source for his son. To his credit, he mostly ignored her existence and rarely got physical with her, mostly using his words as a weapon. Unlike Dudley, he was a lot better with belittling Holly, yet after years living with the Dursley's the effect went away. The more physical aspect with Vernon Dursley was mostly manhandling and slapping. She mostly hated on he looked down at her and how high and mighty he viewed himself.

Then there was Mrs. Petunia Dursley, the woman named after the flower yet looked oddly like a horse. Holly always found it interesting how it was Petunia that hated her the most of the family. How it was Petunia that handled her punishments from beatings to minor starvation. How much hatred was shown in those cold blue eyes of her. Yet then you have the moments where she wouldn't be able to even look Holly in the eyes. Moments where there was some type of underlying sadness that would be gone in a split second. The moments that she treated Holly like a doll to dress up and torment. Tying her hair into tight pigtails for school, sometimes even buying her a book (until the next day when Petunia gets a change of heart and takes it away). Either way, Holly easily despised the woman the most due to the fact that Holly was never sure what version of Petunia she was going to get. Vernon and Dudley were predictable. Petunia, on the other hand, was not which made her all the more terrifying.

Her eyes focused back to the stove top as she checked on the bacon, even with the loud chattering coming from the three Dursley's. She made the mistake of being distracted once while she was going. That burn scar took several months to finally disappear. Robotically, Holly placed the eggs and bacon on the three dishes that she placed on the table. "Thirty-six," Dudley said, disappointed with an underlying anger in his voiced. "That's two less than last year!"

She watched as Petunia tried to calm the situation by correcting Dudley that it was thirty-seven not thirty-six. Holly watched as her cousin's face turned an alarming red, swiftly she picked up her plate and began to retreat back to her cupboard. It was much too early for her to witness and fully enjoy the infamous Dudley tantrum, a truly legendary event in this household.

Sadly, Petunia intervened before Holly even made it out of the kitchen. In typical Dursley fashion, all she did was bribe him with two more presents and the fat monster subsided (After being told that it would thirty-nine presents by his doting mother).

Holly looked at the hallway and backed to the kitchen, weighing her options. Before she could truly decide whether or not to sneak out of the kitchen, Vernon already caught her and dragged her back. Forcing her to watch as Dudley opened each one of his thirty-seven presents.

While Holly was stuck in this unfortunate situation, nibbling on the bacon as Dudley ripped opened a gift that revealed to be a VCR, Petunia was talking on the phone. And from the tone of her voice, she was not pleased with whatever news she got.

That phone call was how Holly managed to hi-jacked Dudley's birthday party without even actually having to do anything. While Dudley tried his hardest to stop this dreadful news, at last no amount of crying and screaming was able to change the fact. Mrs. Figgs unfortunately broke her leg and there was no one to look after Holly. For Holly, she would preferred to stay at the house, allowing her more time to read and to loosen the locks on her cupboard door to make it easier to open at night. However, the trust the Dursley's had in her matched the trust she had in them. The only consolation she got in the situation was the Dursley's were miserable that she was stuck with them for the day. The fact she could easily use the situation to get some special treatment as well was bonus too. After all, one weakness the Dursley's had was the compulsion to keep up their perfect appearance to society.

The downside of this situation, other than the fact she was stuck with Dursley for the entire day, was that she was also stuck with one of Dudley's friends, Piers Polkiss. Piers was a scrawny boy whose face resembled of rat's. Piers was the boy in Dudley's gang who held whatever poor child down while Dudley or one of the other boys beat them up. Piers usually tried to get a hold on Holly during school, yet she always managed to avoid him.

Within the hour, Holly was sitting beside Dudley and Piers in the car, heading off to the zoo. Thankfully she got the window seat, while Piers was sandwich in the middle. Her eyes watching the world outside pass her by while the rest of the car was loud with chattered. Vernon's words repeating in her mind like a broken recorded.

"Don't do anything weird girl," he snarled at her as they headed to the car just an hour earlier, "Or you will be in the cupboard till Christmas." Holly just kept her gaze on the ground, feeling her back hunch forward as his face leaned down towards her. "

Well sir, it wouldn't be that much of a change now would it." She regretted the words as soon as they came out, but it was just great timing. Vernon harshly yanked her reddish brown hair so her face now was staring back at his growing purple one. Holly couldn't help but thought that he should probably go to the doctor's to get that checked out, purple seemed to be an unhealthy color for someone's skin. "I mean it," he hissed, dropping her curly hair and stormed towards the car.

Holly rarely meant for odd things to happen, especially when she knew it would get her a lengthy punishment. Whether it was from shrinking clothes, teleporting to different places as a method to escape. Odd things just happened to her. Of course, there were the times she managed to control whatever she could do for certain things. Like levitating small objects and unlocking the lock on her cupboard door so she could sneak out for food. After all, she had enough time to practice in the cupboard. She wasn't sure exactly what is was she could do, so she just called it the word that her family hated. Magic. The more she experimented with her gift, the more the word fitted what it was.

Within twenty minutes, they finally arrived to the zoo. The zoo was very crowded with a multitude of families there. Which made sense as it was an abnormally sunny day. As the day continued, Holly was glad she was dragged along. One of the best parts was when Vernon and Petunia were forced to buy her a rather delicious lemon ice pop since the ice cream lady offered one to Holly after Dudley and Piers got two large chocolate ice creams. Holly was able to tell that the ice cream lady only did it because she knew something was wrong with the picture she was seeing. Two adults favoring the heavy child and his friend while ignoring the ghostly white skeleton girl. Holly wondered if the lady would had said something, but she would never know as Petunia and Vernon dragged her off before anything could be said.

Other than that, she also managed to avoid being near the Dursley's and Piers throughout most of the day.

However, in the life of Holly Potter. Nothing good can last very long. That was just Holly's luck.

Near the end of the day, they ended up in the reptile house. At first Dudley and Piers were enthused to be in the section filled with dangerous reptiles. Yet, they had a change of attitude once they both realized that the snakes wouldn't performed for them when they wanted. No matter how hard they smashed their fists on the glass. Holly walked over to the large Brazilian boa constrictor that Dudley had just finished harassing. She looked at the snake, whose face wasn't even towards the glass window.

"I don't blame you. It must be quite boring living in there. Always on displayed for impatient kids," Holly muttered to herself, before reading the information plate located by the side of the glass. When she looked, she nearly stumbled back in surprise. The boa was now stretched up and looking towards her. Holly even thought that it was staring straight at her.

"Ohhh, so now you're awake," she said softly, slowly regaining her wits. That didn't last long when the snake nodded its head at her.

"You understand me?" Holly questioned and once again the snake nodded its scaly head. Holly's green eyes widen in fascination with the new information. Then, the fact that a snake answered her question registered completely in her mind, which nearly caused her to snort. Of course, a cold-blooded reptile would be polite enough to answer her question. But, the warm-blooded humans known as Dursley would screeched and throw a fit if she dared asked any type of question. Typical.

"How amazing," she smiled, "Can you speak too?"

"Yesssss," replied the snake. Holly bit her lip, nodding her head at the talking snake. She glanced around her, taking note of the locations of each Dursley and rat-faced Piers. When Holly saw that each individual was distracted by something, she went back to her new snake friend.

"Can anyone communicate with you?" Holly kept her voice as a whispered, trying her hardest to not draw attention.

The snake shook its head, "No, you are the firsssst,"

Holly blinked in shock, but smile at the information. Here she was, having a conversation with an actual snake and she was the only one who had.

"I'm sorry about my cousin. He was the one he was trying to break your glass for attention."

"Itssss okay. It would have been niccceee if he did." Holly tilted her head at the fact, before her eyes widen in realization.

"You grew up in captivity," she commented to herself. The snake nodded its head in agreement anyway.

"Were your parents also in captivity?"

"Sssssadly not. It wassss alwayssss me alone," the snake said as it slowly slithered towards the glass.

"I'm sorry," Holly said, a small frown on her face. "I grew without parents as well. Nasty car accident." She decided to leave out the fact that it was because her dad was drunk and was the reason that she was now an orphan. Even though she highly doubted the snake knew what alcohol and drunk driving was, she still refused to say it. Perhaps a part of her deep down refused to believe that it was the truth, after all why should she take Petunia's word for anything.

"It isssss okay. I'm jusssst glad to have company."

"Do you have a name?" Holly asked suddenly, realizing she never even asked the snake. She felt her cheeks flush in embarrassment, how rude she was. When the snake shook its head, she frowned.

"Well, that won't do. How about Spot?" The snake stared at her blankly, her green eyes reflecting in its black doll like eyes.

"Yesssss, Ssssspot would be nice." The snake curled up once again, with only its head poking out. Holly smiled widely, the snake-Spot- was toying with her.

"Spot, do you think they will ever return you Brazil? I heard it's a nice place to visit."

"I hope sssso child. I alwaysssss wanted to vissssit." Spots tail flickered to the picture on the sign.

Sadly, Holly was much too invested with her new friend, the snake now named Spot, to noticed a witness to this conversation until the loud voice behind her causing her to jump in fright. "DUDLEY! MR DURSLEY! COME LOOK AT THE SNAKE!" Piers screeched.

After that, everything happened so quickly. Dudley was waddling as fast as he could and threw Holly to the ground and took up the space she once occupied. All of the sudden, right when Dudley was about to pound on the glass again, the glass just vanished causing Dudley to fall in.

During the screaming that followed, Spot the boa constrictor slithered out of its exhibit and towards the fallen Holly, who was clutching her now bruised ribbed cage. Spot slithered up her torso and gave her a nod before heading towards the exit.

"Thankssss child. Brazil, here I come. I hope we meet again my friend," Spot said.

Holly just stared forward gobsmacked, the screaming preventing her to think everything through properly. Petunia and Vernon were hovering over a drenched Dudley who was now crying his heart out, leaving Holly ignored on the ground. Holly prayed to whatever god or gods that were up there that she would get out this situation, that Petunia's and Vernon's concern over their son would occupy them completely.

Then she remembered that she was Holly Potter, and Lady Luck for some reason hated her. All she could do was watched helplessly on the tiled floor as Piers signed her death sentence. "Holly, that snake was face to face with you," Piers said in shock, "You were talking to it weren't you?"

Yup, she was dead. She hoped that she would be able to pick her headstone epitaph before she left this plane of existence. She was thinking: "Holly Potter, died how she lived. Miserable, bored, and unamused". A little rough, Holly would admit. Despite the fact she would be dead today, at least Dudley was somewhat miserable at the end. Even if she didn't mean for any of this to happen.

When the Dursley's arrived home after dropping Piers off at his house, Petunia gripped her harm harshly, her nails craving into Holly's flesh, as she yanked Holly through the house. "Let go of me!" Holly yelled, trying to free herself from Petunia's iron grip to no avail. Petunia wrenched open Holly's cupboard door and shoved the auburn hair girl inside. As Holly immediately started rubbing her now throbbing arm, Petunia slammed the door shut and swiftly locked the door. "No supper for the rest of the school year," Petunia hissed with cold anger and stalked off.

Holly just sat pathetically in his dark cupboard, allowing herself to process everything that just happened. She gripped her hair harshly as she felt tears run down her face. Stop crying, stop crying, she chanted in her head. Don't give them power over you. Don't-don't. Holly grabbed her pillow and screamed and sobbed in it. She felt like a pathetic little baby, but today she allowed herself that.

It wasn't fair, it wasn't her fault.

She wished her parents were here.

Well, I did say I was going to write a fem!Harry story, and here I am. While this seems to be following the original storyline at first, but when it good old Holly arrives at Hogwarts everything is up in the air. Canon divergence will happen, after all Holly is a much different person than Harry. Sorry for any grammar/typos.