Chapter 3: The Sacrifice
A month and a half later,
Al was taking a nightly walk under the full moon after borrowing the map to sneak out of the castle. He was currently walking along the edge of the wards his father had put up before putting the elder wand away. Of course, being 13, Al didn't know the story of the Elder Wand being real and in his father's possession.
Suddenly, he saw movement on the other side.
He pulled his wand out just in case the wards had weakened. There was a small flash.
"Luminos." He whispered causing the tip of his wand to light to look on the other side of the wards
"Relax. It's me." A familiar voice came
"Holly?" Al gasped in shock before following up with a terrified gasp at the sound of the girl he had been crushing on for over a year. "What are you doing on the other side of the wards!?"
"It doesn't matter" Holly's voice came sounding depressed.
"You okay?" he asked her.
"There's nothing you can do." Holly admitted
"Are you being held prisoner by an acromantula? Where's the hole in the ward? I'll save you"
"That's quite a bit of a hero's complex you've got there." She giggled.
"Yeah…I get it from Dad." Al sighed before looking through the wards. "I can't see you Holly. Where are you?"
"I-I can't show myself" she said nervously
"Why not?" Al said. "Holly, no amount of mauling can make you look hideous"
There was a bit of silence. Then another flash and Holly stepped from behind a tree.
Al smiled. She was just as pretty as ever, but as a 13 year old boy who's half Weasley, he'd never admit that to her.
"Let's get back to the castle." He suggested
"I-I can't!" she hesitated before ducking back behind the tree making sure he couldn't see the red wings that were folded behind her to hide them from view.
"Holly? What is going on?" He demanded before looking over the wards.
There was a hole at the bottom just big enough for a small worm to get through.
Being the nephew of George Weasley, he knew a few tricks.
He walked over to the hole and used his wand to lift it up a bit. He went through the hole before bringing it back down.
"AL! NO!" Holly exclaimed horrified he went through the ward.
There was a reason she was horrified.
Because right behind Al as he turned to face her was a werewolf that didn't go along with the new ways.
Fenrir Greyback
Al turned and gasped at the sight of a werewolf in full transformation
"Okay, this is a ten on the stupid scale." He muttered before the werewolf took a swipe at him.
Al was pushed to the side and fell to the ground, his hand landing on some small, weird shaped rock. He looked and saw that Holly's left arm was bleeding where the werewolf had swiped her as she pushed Al out of the way.
Then, she blasted Greyback with a red blast.
Al jerked in shock. This was the girl who was doing worse in Charms and Transfiguration than the Slytherins with troll blood in them?
He was brought back to reality by her screams. Al thought back to his story. His father faced off with a werewolf when he was younger. How had he done it…?
Oh yeah. An animagus and a hippogriff.
So, Al thought back on things James typically used
"Levicorpus!" Al shouted
The werewolf's legs came out from under him and Greyback hung up in the air.
"Patrificus Totalis" Al said
The werewolf went ridged.
"Stupify!"
Once the werewolf was out of commission, if only temporarily, Al pocketed the rock and ran to Holly's side
"Holly? Are you okay?" he asked before noticing the wings. "Where did the wings come from?"
She winced. It was hard to tell if it was from pain or being discovered.
"I'm a fairy." She admitted
Al jerked in shock again. Well, that explained the wings and now that he looked, the faint glow…that was pulsing.
"But…why the human form?" Al asked.
She hissed in pain as she tried to sit up. Realizing she was still bleeding, Al took off his cloak and used it to wrap her arm
"I…I wanted to become human. You've heard of the story of the Little Mermaid right?"
"Yeah. Dad read it to me when I was younger." Al said. "A young mermaid fell in love with a human prince and desired to be with him forever. However, mermaids don't have souls so the only way she could was if she married him which would give her a piece of her husband's soul. She traded her tongue in for legs and was forced to live her days in silence and feeling as if she was walking on glass. The prince however, fell for another girl and the mermaid died."
"Well, I just had to have it done by a certain time or else I'd never be fully human again. I could still transform like what you're seeing now, but…"
She looked at her damaged wings which the werewolf had torn when Al was in shock.
"So, who's the prince?" Al asked
"I can't tell." She said before wincing in pain "It's part of the agreement. His heart must be won without the knowledge of the truth"
"Well, the agreement seems to be invalid if you have as much wings as Victorie on a REALLY bad day. She's 1/16th veela."
Al noticed that Holly's glow was fading.
"I can't Al." she whispered as her breathing grew even more labored. "You're too much like your Dad."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Al asked confused.
"You'll just feel guilty that you couldn't do something." She said
"Of course I would want to do something." Al said. "You're a friend Holly…as much as Mum was to Dad. How did you meet this guy anyways?"
"He…He saved me from a bat two years ago when he was doing detention." She said before deciding to give him one last hint feeling her strength draining. "The favor was returned this night"
Al gasped in shock as she closed her eyes. When he had that detention, he had let loose some built up anger and shot a stunner. The stunner had hit a bat by accident."
The glow faded but did not reappear and Holly remained still
"Holly?" Al asked as he shook her. "HOLLY!"
She flashed and when the flash died, she was in her full fairy form: at the grand height of two inches
"I'm so sorry." He whispered as he picked up her broken body "I should have tried harder like James. I cared about you too, I just didn't know how to tell you."
He sat against a tree and held her thinking back on the past. Her blushing whenever he entered her field of vision, her befriending his little sister, her musical laughter whenever she would laugh when she thought he wasn't around…
"I should have asked you to the Halloween Hogsmeade trip, like I wanted to." Al admitted
The werewolf started stirring.
Al decided to get out from the other side of the ward and used the same trick to take himself and Holly out of the dangerous part of the forest, but not before restunning the werewolf.
"No one else can hurt you now." Al sighed before walking over to the tomb of his first namesake: Albus Dumbledore.
He knelt down at the foot of the tomb and placed her on the ground. He made to cover her up in dirt, but he was shaking too badly now
"I'm so sorry Holly" he apologized while in tears. Unable to bury her, he took off back for the castle as the first snowfall of the school year came.
0000
The next morning,
"C'mon Al." James said. "At least TELL us what's wrong."
"Go away!" Al cried out having used accidental magic to keep the curtains around his bed closed.
"Any idea what happened on his walk?" Lily asked Scorpius.
"Nope. Came in sobbing his heart out." Scorpius said.
"He's acting like he lost his best friend, but we know he didn't." Rose said pointing to herself and Scorpius."
"Okay. Albus Severus Potter, you leave us no choice. We're bringing in the big guns." James said.
"You don't mean…" Lily gasped
"James. No. It's too dangerous!" Fred exclaimed dramatically
"It MUST be done!" James declared
Did I miss something?" Jazz asked Rose.
"They're just being stupid." Rose said "But if ANYTHING can bring Al around, it's this."
"C'mon Fred. We have a quest to go on!" James said dramatically as they ran out of the room.
"What's the quest?" Scorpius asked Rose.
"I won't deprive them of your reactions" Rose said winking at the giggling Lily
About an hour later, Fred and James appeared…with an armload each of Treacle Tarts.
"THAT'S the 'big guns'?" Jazz exclaimed. "I thought you were getting the headmistress! How is THIS dangerous?"
"Last time Al was depressed," Lily explained. "It was when James left us for Hogwarts. He ate all the treacle tarts in the house and got sick…not to mention, you DON'T touch Dad's treacle tarts"
All the Potters and Weasleys nodded in agreement
"I don't want any!" Al declared.
Jaws dropped. Even Jazz knew that Albus Potter NEVER passed up a treacle tart.
"Okay Al. We tried it the easy way. We tried it the semi-hard way. But you WILL come out from that bed!" James said
He and Fred started tugging at the curtains.
"James." Lily said tapping her brother's arm. "There's always the Hard Way…Plan D."
"It's risky." James warned her.
"Even riskier than going to the kitchens and stealing every treacle tart they have?" Jazz asked
"What's Plan D?" Fred asked not having heard of Plan D before
"We're desperate James and this could be our only hope." Lily said "I'd suggest Plan P but that requires him getting out of bed."
"You're right. No more Mr. Nice Brother. This is out of our hands." James declared as he tugged on his robes.
"What's Plan D?" Rose asked. "And Plan P"
"Plan P is Plan Portrait. We sit Al in front of a portrait of Albus Dumbledore and/or Severus Snape and get them to talk to him since he looks up to them so much." James said. "Why Snape, I'll never know"
"So what's Plan D?" Jazz asked.
James left the room to put Plan D into action.
"Sorry Al, but you brought this on yourself." Lily said.
A few seconds later, James returned
"It's in action." James said. "Now…we wait."
A/N: I know Al is a bit young to be going through this, but the way I see it, if you're looking for realism, why read a story about magic?