A/N: Not everyone is genderbent, but Harry (Holly, meaning "hollow-eyed" originally), Sirius (Sagitta, the only S star name I found that was tolerable and not over used), Remus (Roma, the Remus and Rome legend), Dumbledore (Ailene, I had a friend with this name growing up and thought it was cool), Hermione (Hamlin, because it sounds like Hamlet and it means "home"), Ron (Regina, Reggie, because it's girly but can be made into a unisex nickname), and Draco (Diphda, because it's a beta star that's actually brighter than the alpha in its solar system) are. If I decide to change anyone else, I'll let you know when they enter the story, but honestly their genders aren't that important to the story, this could all happen with them as their original gender (except harry? But hey magic, anything can happen).

Holly Potter sat on the edge of her bed. She'd just gotten back from Dumbledore's office and honestly didn't even have the mental space to process what had just happened. Sagitta had died. Died. Just like that. At the hands of her near identical cousin.

Holly and the others had been fine - had thought they were fine - until the Death Eaters had pulled swords from the confines of their cloaks. Unbeknownst to their ragtag group of teens, it was common practice for Purebloods to practice swordsmanship in the Old Ways. It was something Snape had known they kept up as sport, but it had fallen out of practice so long ago no one thought to train for it.

When the Order had swooped in, wands blazing, they were rescued, but there had been a cost. Sagitta. Holly's only remaining family.

That was what Dumbledore wanted to talk to her about in her office. Dumbledore had been working tirelessly against the Ministry all of last year, little of which was to Holly's knowledge, and one of her tasks had been to clear Sagitta Black of all charges. Dumbledore had rounded up memory after memory as evidence and had gotten a fair number of Death Eaters pulled from Azkaban to testify under Veritaserum for the trial. Shortly before the battle at the Ministry, Sagitta had been cleared and immediately filed to have the Dursleys deemed unfit as Holly's guardians.

Sagitta had been the only one Holly had told about the abuse she'd suffered at the hands of her family. She sneered at the word, as if the Dursleys could really be considered her family. None of her friends, or even the Headmistress, knew about the beatings, the starvation, the neglect she'd suffered. Even Reggie could only extrapolate from what she'd learned when she and her brothers rescued Holly before second year. As it was, Holly had no idea how they hadn't figured it out - Hamlin with his keen eyes or Madam Pomfrey with her endless scans should have been able to piece it together at the very least. Holly's body was littered with the evidence.

The Headmistress had obviously wanted to as Holly about the news she'd presented, but in an uncharacteristic display of restraint, she didn't. It was almost as if the ancient woman was afraid of what Holly would say if she asked. Afterall, it was Dumbledore who put Holly there originally, and Dumbledore who sent her back every summer. Holly, in any case, didn't offer up any information.

Not telling Dumbledore didn't change anything though. Without being her legal guardians, the familiar love protection she'd had through Lily's sacrifice was void on the Dursleys' home now. She snorted at the idea of that home ever having protected her, but she knew she couldn't go back.

She stared down at a small scar on the bone of her wrist. It was so old it was barely visible, but Holly could see it as clear as if it'd still been bleeding. As much as she hated the Dursleys, she had nowhere to go now. She was homeless, unwanted.

Of course, that wasn't really true. She pushed a long lock of hair behind her ear, refusing to cry. The people who wanted her just kept dying.

There was a small part of her that continually whispered that though Roma and the Weasleys constantly proclaimed to want her, they didn't really. In reality, she knew neither could take her in as they had their own worries - the Weasleys were fiscal, while Roma's was lunar. Dumbledore had opened the castle to her for the summer, but it felt empty even now with everyone only down in the Great Hall. She didn't want to spend the summer alone. Even the hatred of the Dursleys was preferable to her own thoughts, and Dumbledore had said she'd be out of the country for most of the time. Holly didn't know what the other professors did, but she assumed they went home to the families they left behind during the school year.

They had two weeks of classes left, and Holly was torn between wanting to enjoy it with company while she could and wanting to avoid everyone and everything.

She huffed, picking at her nails. They needed repainted, though Reggie would laugh at her for something so silly and frivolous. Holly liked affording herself the little care though. It was peaceful and quiet and meant that at least while they dried, she had no other worries to attend to. Maybe now that the school believed her and Umbridge was gone, everyone would hate her a little less, and she could ask Lavender or Parvati to paint them for her.

Unwilling to face their reactions, when she'd been released from the Infirmary, and subsequently from Dumbledore, Holly had come straight up to the dorms, hiding away. She couldn't handle the public's ever changing opinions about her. Yesterday she was a liar and a threat. Today she'd be lauded as a hero.

A hero who couldn't save the last thread of her family.

Before the tears she was fighting could spill over, the dormitory door burst open. "You, dear, have to be starving," Regina Weasley grinned at her, as if pretending everything was normal could make it that way. It didn't work, but it did have a similar effect. Holly gave her best friend a watery smile, somehow feeling better just with the robust presence in the room.

Reggie plunked a huge platter of food down on Holly's bed as Holly gaped at her. "How am I possibly going to eat all of this?"

Reggie rolled her eyes, picking up a buttered roll and munching for a few moments on it. "What'd Dumbledore want?"

"Erm…" Holly hesitated, then lied even as she knew Reggie would find out the truth the second she got home. "She told me I could stay here this summer to train."

"Wicked!" Reggie had always had a little more bloodlust than she or Hamlin ever did, and her bright blue eyes twinkled with delight. "Think he'd let me stay?"

"Nah," Holly shook her head, "You should go home to your family anyway."

"Yeah but you have your family to go home to too," Reggie's eyes still glittered, but the mirth was gone. Sometimes Holly wondered if her friend saw more than she let on, but she waved the thought away when Reggie continued. "But I guess they can't help you train the way my brothers can."

Holly didn't know how much the Weasley boys knew about real fighting, but she supposed they had at least given Reggie her tough edge that made her so unlike the other girls their age. Brash and proud, Reggie never slowed down, never got told no, and never backed away from a fight with the boys. It made her unlikable to Lavender, Parvati, and Romilda in a way Holly, with her quiet politeness wasn't, but Reggie didn't care. She was better friends with Seamus and Dean anyway, and she liked it that way. They shared more in common too, between Quidditch, their love of food, and their crass humor.

Sometimes though, when it was just Holly and Hamlin, Reggie let down the walls so her best friends could see she had serious doubts about being able to keep up. After a lifetime of trailing after five older brothers she would never be as tough as, Reggie's fear was understandable Holly supposed.

Holly lost the thread of their conversation with her musings, and was glad when the girls came back in to distract Reggie from Holly's inattention.

"Holly!" Romilda was the first to notice them. "You missed dinner!"

Romilda sounded genuine in her concern, and rather than snapping, Holly had to remind herself that Romilda had never been openly hostile like the other girls had. Something about the way Romilda looked at her had just always made her a little uneasy.

"Yeah, I had stuff to get taken care of," Holly answered vaguely. Romilda shrugged off the answer easily enough, used to not getting details after all this time. As she watched the girls go about their night, getting last minute homework done, gossiping the whole time, Holly felt her anger flare again.

They were mindless, these girls. They had no care in Voldemort's return, as if it couldn't possibly affect them. They had the life Holly had always wished for - all of the camaraderie and none of the responsibility. In a deep, dark part of herself that Holly never spoke of, she hated them for it.

She resolved in that moment to be true to the lie she told Reggie. She'd use this summer to train. Even if it meant dipping into long forgotten wizarding customs, she'd learn everything she could to rid her life of this darkness. Holly didn't deserve a life shadowed like this, and neither did the people she loved. Tearing the bread in her hand, Holly made a silent vow to end this war.

A/N: I know, I know, I'm terrible, and yet... here's another.