Disclaimer: Harry Potter, its copyright, trademarks, characters, and everything else part of it fictionally and legally are all owned by J.K. Rowling. This fanfiction gives me no monetary gain of any kind and in no way reflects the views, thoughts, or anything else of Ms. Rowling. It's just something I'm doing for fun.
Holly awoke to someone gently shaking them by the shoulder. Opening her eyes to her softly lit room at the Leaky Cauldron she turned her head to see who was shaking her. That turned out to be a mistake, as her head immediately began to swim and she thought she was going to be sick. She did her best to collect herself as she heard Tom speak to her from nearby.
"Sorry to have to wake you," Tom began. "It's the first and you should probably be getting ready to leave for the Hogwarts express soon."
Was it the first? Didn't Holly last wake up on the 30th of August? That would mean she missed an entire day! How in the world could she sleep through a whole day? Her answer came to the front of her mind as her memories of the previous night came flooding back.
"What happened?" was all Holly could manage to get out with a hoarse croak.
"Ye gave us quite the fright coming in covered in blood the other night. There was a healer from St. Mungo's in the pub when ye came in that saw to you. Couldn't find nothin' wrong with ye that would account for all the blood but..." Tom was giving Holly a very concerned look as he trailed off.
Managing to sit up after the room stopped spinning Holly gave her neck a quick inspection where the man from the other night did whatever it was that he did. Glancing back to Tom she prompted him to continue "but?"
"I don't mean to pry, and there isn't any reason you have to tell me, but we've at least gotten to be better than strangers over the last month. The healer found signs, a lot of signs, that you haven't been properly taken care of. She and I agree that you might want to heavily consider telling the healer there, Poppy Pomfrey, about all of it at the very least."
Holly had found her lap to be a very interesting thing to stare at while Tom was talking and could only give him a small nod. He told her the Hogwarts express left in only a few hours and that after she was done getting ready that he'd let her use the floo to get there if she still wasn't feeling well.
Climbing out of bed shortly after Tom left Holly took a quick shower and found herself in a dilemma. She'd purchased both the male and female uniform for Hogwarts, but now that it came time to actually put it on she was at a loss as to which one she should wear. Thoughts about how she should feel about all this gender stuff from earlier in the month started to surface again and she placed both uniforms side by side on her bed to inspect both.
Holly stood there staring at both garments long enough that Tom had come round to knock and make sure she was alright. Finally, she decided that as long as she was wearing what counted as the uniform in one shape or another. So Holly took the bottom half of the male uniform and the top half of the female uniform and put that on under the robe. She felt it was quite a good compromise. If she was breaking any rules or anything she would deal with that when she got to Hogwarts and decide then.
Fallout out of the floo and landing in an extremely ungraceful heap Holly immediate swore that she would never ever use the floo again unless it was absolutely necessary. That was just an awful way of travel. Getting to her feet she stepped out of the way of the fireplace on the platform and started to brush herself off.
Her attempts at cleaning herself of soot were quickly interrupted by the bright red train that dominated the view in front of her. It was magnificent and seemed almost to glow with the brightness of the red color it had. That color had her oddly transfixed, actually, as she just stood there and stared.
"Hey, I said are you okay?" a slightly raised voice just to Holly's left had her jumping out of surprise, breaking her from her trance. Turning her head she had to look up to see the face of an older woman with long blonde hair looking at Holly with mild concern.
"I'm sorry," Holly stammered out. "Just got a bit lost in thought. Was I in your way?"
"No, dear, you're fine," the woman reassured Holly. "I just saw you fall out of the floo and wanted to make sure you're okay. I don't see anyone here with you, where are your parents?"
Holly fidgeted and looked away from the woman's face. She saw two girls around her age behind the woman and could feel a small warmth creep up her neck. "T-they're dead, ma'am," Holly answered. The woman winced before giving Holly a warm smile.
"Well, Hannah and her friend Susan here are first years as well and would be happy to help you get sorted away on the train." The woman turned to gesture to the two girls behind her. They were the same age as Holly but upon stepping closer, Holly couldn't help but notice that both of them were a surprising amount taller than her.
The two girls introduced themselves as Hannah Abbott, a girl with long, straight blonde hair, and Susan Bones, with dark strawberry blonde hair in a plait that went about halfway down her back. Holly simply introduced herself as Holly and was lead over to the Hogwarts express to witness Hannah say goodbye to the woman who Holly now noticed looked a lot like her. Probably her mother, Holly thought. Holly needed some help getting her trunk onto the train but could get away with dragging it down the corridor until they came to an empty compartment.
Holly all but fell into one of the seats after her trunk was squared away. She was feeling a little dizzy and felt very tired even after having slept away the entire previous day. Maybe she was sick? That guy that attacked her must have been diseased or something after all. Hopefully, it wasn't anything serious. It probably wasn't the lack of food since the day before last, she was used to going much longer without than that.
"Feeling okay?" the girl with the darker hair, Susan, asked.
"Fine, yeah. Just a bit dizzy," Holly answered simply.
"Alright, just say something if you need anything."
Holly was rather shy at first, but after the first hour or so after the train pulled out of the station she was starting to open up a little. She had some trouble keeping up with more than a few things but did her best to be friendly. She learned quite a lot about the two other girls as well. She had a shocking amount in common with Susan, too.
"So," Hannah began around the hour and a half mark. "You said your parents weren't around anymore on the platform. Who do you live with?"
"Normally my aunt and uncle, but I actually spent the last month or so at the Leaky Cauldron," Holly rubbed the back of her head a bit sheepish.
"Why did you stay there so long?" Susan asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Um... My relatives don't really like magic so I figured I'd just stay out of their hair. They were probably thankful I wasn't around anyway."
Susan and Hannah gave each other a weird look that Holly didn't really know the meaning of after that. Did she say something weird? Before Holly could add anything else or be asked something more the door to their compartment slid up rather violently. Standing there in the opening was a rather tall boy with red hair and freckles. He seemed to only be paying attention to the girls' foreheads but didn't seem to find what he was looking for and slammed the door shut in a huff.
"That was odd," Susan commented before rounding back on Holly. "Anyway, I live with my aunt, too. The rest of my family was killed by You-Know-Who back during the war." There was a bit of an awkward pause as nobody really knew what else to say for a moment.
Just as Susan was going to start explaining that her aunt was the head of the DMLE their compartment door opened yet again. This time it was much more subdued, but the bushy-haired girl standing there looked a bit bossier than the red-haired boy. "Have any of you need a toad? A boy named Neville lost his."
The three of them shook their heads in a negative response before Susan offered to help find it. So Hannah and Holly were drafted into the toad hunting squad for the better part of an hour. They didn't have any sort of luck finding it, but they got to meet quite a few people. Holly saw that rude blonde haired boy she ran into at Madam Malkin's and learned his name was Draco Malfoy. He continued to prove his rude nature knew no bounds when he badmouthed Susan's Aunt.
Holly had to take a few breaks during their search to catch her breath or let the corridor around her stop spinning. Each time Susan and Hannah asked if she was okay, but Holly just said she was fine only to earn looks of growing concern. It was probably this that had the trio cutting their assistance to Neville and the bushy-haired Hermione short and returning to their compartment. Holly told them she was fine to return alone but they didn't seem to be having any of that.
It gave Holly a weird warm feeling to already have made two friends before she even got to Hogwarts.
Holly followed Susan and Hannah into the great hall as they were led by Professor McGonagall. She couldn't help but stare at the impressive ceiling as they made their way towards a stool with a hat on it. She heard Hermione somewhere behind her start explaining about what she read about the ceiling in a book. She wondered if it was possible to charm any ceiling like that and how hard it would be. It was probably pretty hard if it was worth mentioning in a history book. She didn't think any other ceiling had ever garnered such attention before.
At the sudden sound of music, Holly was almost tempted cover her ears at the somewhat off-key singing of the ratty old hat on the stool. She found
the song somewhat informative at least, though it didn't seem to have as many details about each house as she had read in her own perusal of the book Hermione had just mentioned, Hogwarts: A History.
It was soon enough that the song was over and Hannah was the very first name called up to be sorted. She and Susan both ended up going to Hufflepuff. Hermione somehow got sent to Gryffindor and the rude Malfoy boy was sent to Slytherin. Well, that settled that, Holly wasn't even going to entertain the thought of wanting to be in that house. She did rather like their colors though.
Suddenly Holly was struck with a very worrying thought. What would happen if she went up after the name Harry Potter was called? She told her two new friends, her only friends in the whole world that she was a girl named Holly. Would they call her a liar and stop being her friend? How would the rest of the school react to her not actually being a Harry anymore, but a Holly? Would they kick her out? She really, really didn't want to go back to her cupboard!
Finally, she heard Professor McGonagall call it out. "Potter, Harry!" and the room went dead silent. Everyone was looking around trying to find the boy-who-lived. What should Holly do? She was frozen in place, her heart doing its damnedest to migrate into her throat. The name was called again but still, all she could do was stand there and try to remember how to breathe again.
Then a very interesting thing happened. Professor McGonagall called out, in a moderately surprised tone "Potter, Holly!"
She was on there! She didn't need to reveal her old name! How was she there though? Even more pressing, how was she there and still so was the name Harry? Whatever the case, Holly made her way up to the hat. The entire hall was whispering when Holly sat down. McGonagall placed the hat upon her head and she found she couldn't see anything as it fell to cover her eyes.
"Ah, interesting, very interesting," came a voice in Holly's head.
Was that the hat? It not only sang badly but talked inside your head, too?
"I heard that you know. Not nearly as polite in your own head as you are with words, are you?"
Holly did her best to stammer out an apology to the weird telepathic hat, then apologized again for thinking of it as weird.
"Not a problem. You wouldn't be the first by far. Not nearly as many apologize for it though. Let's get you sorted though, hm? You seem to be going through quite an interesting phase of your life right now, Ms. Potter. I don't just mean your recent gender issues, either. I suspect you will soon know exactly what your situation is though if you don't already."
Holly was trying to figure out what other things the hat could possibly be talking about. If it was something she didn't know about yet that meant it couldn't be coming from the muggle world to the magical. She also wondered what this had to do with being sorted.
"Right you are, it doesn't. Not really, anyway. You're quite the sharp one, though don't seem to have the love of learning quite needed to get by in Rowena's House. Bravery in spades, but is it really bravery or just not understanding the danger you're in? Perhaps just a propensity to not care about your safety on a subconscious level.
"You're quite the hard worker, all those chores heaped upon you but still you did your best with them. Far too kind for what you have been handed as well. You will have to rely on your fellows quite a bit. So focused on those new friends of yours already as well. As much as I want to put you in Slytherin where you could be so great I feel that will break an important part of you. So, let it be HUFFLEPUFF!"
The final word of the hat's muttering was yelled loud for all to hear and Holly couldn't help but grin just a little bit. She managed to avoid the house with the rude Malfoy boy and got placed with her two friends as well. She hopped off the stool and handed the hat back to Professor McGonagall. As she did so she couldn't help but notice the people behind the woman.
The man in the center of the staff table that Holly could only assume was Headmaster Dumbledore was giving her an odd look of interest with a pair of twinkling eyes. Looking into them made her head hurt a little, so she let her eyes quickly drift away. She also noticed the purple donned professor she ran into at the Leaky Cauldron with Hagrid sitting next to a professor with greasy black hair that was giving her a look that made her distinctly uncomfortable.
She turned her back to the staff table and carefully made her way to sit beside Susan, who was next to Hannah at the Hufflepuff table. There seemed to be a lot of whispers about her going on all around, but the most she could catch of them were a few people wondering who she was and if she was related to the boy-who-lived. Maybe she could pretend to be the sister of Harry Potter? Would that make things easier or just draw unwanted attention to her?
When the food appeared in a way that could only be done by magic Holly was surprised to find that she wasn't as hungry as she thought she would be. If anything she found herself feeling more thirsty than anything else. So she reached out for the goblet that was placed nearest her plate and smelled the odd bright orange liquid inside. It smelled distinctly of pumpkin and made Holly wonder how exactly one got juice from a pumpkin of all things.
She didn't really care how they got the juice after she took a sip of though. All she wanted was for it to be out of her mouth as fast as possible. With a choked gagging she said, "What in the hell is this stuff?"
"Language," chided someone a few seats down with a badge with a 'P' on it.
Susan explained with an amused smile that it was pumpkin juice and that it tended to be rather sweet. She said it was something of a Hogwarts tradition but they had other drinks as well. Holly hoped any other fruit juices they had actually tasted like the fruit they were from instead of dust and ash. She swore now that she'd tried it she felt even more thirsty, too, somehow.
The goblet quickly refilled itself with some plain water and Holly was glad that she could at least swallow that. It didn't really make her feel any better having done so though. Placing some roast chicken on her plate, as well as a few other things that looked like they would be tasty Holly happily speared a bite of her chicken. Placing it into her mouth she couldn't help but start to gag from an even stronger flavor of dust and ash. She really wanted to spit it out, and the people sitting across from her at the table were giving her odd looks as well. She didn't want to make the really nice looking cloth napkins dirty though so she decided to deal with it and swallow the single bite of... 'Food.'
"Are you okay?" Susan asked her face full of concern. Holly tried to respond but could only manage to start choking and coughing after the bite of food went down. The person on the opposite side of Holly than Susan tried smacking Holly in the back like that would help with something but all it managed to do was cause one of the past injuries on it to flare with pain.
Holly somehow managed to power through her food's attempt to remove itself from inside her through her mouth and keep it down. She was shaking and looked pale with a green tint to her face. One of the prefects got up to try to give Holly some form of comfort while another walked up to the staff table to get Madam Pomfrey. It wasn't but a moment until the mediwitch was at Holly's side.
Susan and the prefect trying to comfort Holly did their best to give Pomfrey the situation. Susan helpfully offered up that Holly was feeling dizzy and seemed really tired on the train as well. The mediwitch had heard enough at that point and started leading Holly to the hospital wing. She didn't get five steps before Holly lost the fight to not puke. Between the dizzy feeling from standing up and the disgusting food she just ate what little she had in her came back up.
Poppy quickly vanished the mess before putting Holly, who had collapsed to a sitting position with her legs to either side of her, on a stretcher transfigured from a plate. Holly was feeling particularly awful about having gotten sick at the welcoming feat of all places. She so rarely got sick, too. Maybe that was why she didn't like the food so much. Stupid sick man that bled all over her. She was so stupid to have gone out at night alone. Stupid, stupid, stupid.
Poppy Pomfrey didn't often have to deal with sick children on the very first night they got here, but at least it didn't seem anything particularly serious at first glance. She hoped that would stay the truth, but looking at the suspiciously tiny form she was currently placing in one of her hospital wing beds she wasn't so sure. She sat the tiny girl up on the bed and began asking a few basic questions and performing diagnostic spells with her wand.
As surprised at what she found she soon learned the most surprising part of her findings was even more surprising to her patient. "How long have you been a vampire?" At least, she assumed it was surprise that made her faint.
