FULL TIME COLLEGE WHILE WORKING IS KICKING MY ASS AND KILLING MY FREE TIME I'M SORRY

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Holly wakes up slowly, the lingering call of sleep pulled away as slow as molasses.

It's still a new sensation, waking up lethargic and not all at once, especially after she's been hurt. She remembers the burn of a cutting curse catching her ribs, and yet…

She can see Batair in her peripheral vision, a great muscled mass of black fur, curled into himself, but alert and watching her from his place on the floor beside her bed. He is calm and still where he lays, no longer a furious snarling ball of muscle and bristle fur, entirely willing and able to tear into any being who came close to her.

With the smell of apples and woodsmoke her nose easily scents, coupled with the steady breaths to the opposite side that Batair had laid, and below her ears...She knows before she's fully conscious that Buck is there, and she is safe. He's crooning softly beside her, and when she manages to turn her head to look, he has settled beside her bed. He's shifted to meet her eyes with his own, and she can see the arrangement of weapons around him, but that steady and soothing croon is still present.

Holly croons back, softer but audible. Exhaustion drags heavily at her bones. It's easy to recognize the feeling of not having gotten any decent hours of sleep, save through healing potions. She's glad she had run Buck through the potions and their uses, as well as what could and could not be mixed. Which of her potions would actually work on her, considering what was in her bloodstream.

Buck rises to his knees, turning his shoulders so his gaze was leveled steadily, catching her own, and Holly tracks the movement lazily. It's warm. She's so very comfortable with the softness of the blankets and the solid mass of a living, breathing person next to her. One who will rise to her defense in a lethal manner if it's needed. She...Holly is so very used to being the defender, the 'attack dog', the general, that it is a novel and humbling situation wherein she is with someone who can, not only keep up with, but defend her. Someone who will defend her and not expect her to be the one to protect them both. One who is safe.

That's another strange thing, to not track somebody who has the skills to be a threat, because she trusts them not to be. She trusts that she doesn't need to watch his every move, track his hands, how close he was to her person, and what was in his reach that could be used as a weapon.

Buck leans closer to her, his voice a low rumble as he asks gently, with a soft lilt of concern, "Are you alright?"

She hums softly at him, sleep making her voice just a bit rougher. Holly pauses a moment before she offers a more verbal response, when Buck continues to stare in a subtle request for more information.

"I'm fine, Buck. It wouldn't have been so bad if I hadn't had to keep fighting afterwards and made myself bleed faster. Curse wounds are always worse- they don't clot like they should, and always bleed more than expected."

A deep thrumming growl echoes through the room, furious and protective and Holly startles at the sound of it.

She blinks up at the Alpha knelt at her side and reaches up for him. He leans down and into the hand, nuzzling lightly and Holly finds herself softly purring before she's even thought to make the sound. Partly because she's pleased Buck trusts her hands near his face- and by extension vulnerable areas like eyes and ears, one's nose and mouth-and partly in an effort to soothe and comfort Buck.

Buck huffs back, the sound vibrating with the rolling edges of a purr, but not quite making it in his anger. He leans further towards her, and then pauses.

Holly watches him, still and trusting, allowing Buck to do whatever it is that he is thinking of.

He leans closer before he begins to speak, his voice low and throbbing with a hint of Command, as the Alpha bleeds into his speech. "I waited for you to come back. I knew something was wrong when you didn't come back on time, but I waited five extra minutes."

It's soothing and flattering for Holly to hear Buck had waited to see if she could deal with the problem before he went looking for her. Perhaps from anyone else it would have been grating. Something to make her angry. 'I waited five minutes', like she couldn't handle herself, or like Buck was trying to cage her. But with Buck...it's different. She's walked side by side with this Sentinel as he recovered from decades of torture and conditioning. Holly knows him, knows how his mind works, and he trusts her. She knows that he waited at all- that he didn't stick to the letter of what she had told him was a sign of improvement.

Besides- letting an Omega, especially and Omega Guide handle anything was more than most Alphas did at all. That Buck had trusted in her skill set, that she wouldn't take more than five minutes to deal with any complications and return to him was pleasing. Holly meets his eyes head on and waits for Buck to finish speaking.

"And then I walked out, and your scent was gone." There's a flash of Winter in his eyes then, less of the mesh that Bucky and Winter have began to settle into, and more of the blatant predator that HYDRA had enhanced in him.

His voice deepens into a rolling bass, and Holly fights to control the shiver that wants to run through her spine. Goddess, but that was just-

That was a good sound.

That was an excellent register of voice, Sweet Circe-

"Gone from the steps, and then leading away. So I followed it. And I found you pinned in an alleyway, four bodies laying like a trail, and one fucker who thought he could get away with tryin' to Command you, like you were some- Like you were lesser than him, and he had some kind of right to just- And the scent of your blood was in the air, and I saw you waver on your feet and I-"

This time Buck snarls low and threatdangerAlpha in his voice. Holly doesn't tense. Doesn't even think about Vernon or Dudley, or any number of Alphas at Hogwarts who had tried to use Command on her. She isn't even threatened or frightened, because she knows this is on her behalf. Has spent months with this Alpha, and trusts him. It's immensely flattering, the amount of care and protectiveness that bleeds from him, even with the violence that sharpens his body language.

"And all I could think about," Buck whispers, once he wrestles himself into some kind of control, "is how they had hurt my Omega, tried to Command you, and I needed to kill them."

And-

And oh.

Oh.

She's staring at him, mouth open and eyes wide. Holly knows she is, but there's this light in his eyes, like he could burn the world, and his muscles have all tensed like he just needs a target, and he's staring at her and-

And he called her his Omega.

He leans forward again, and lifts his head just a bit, and his jaw runs over her head, slow and careful, but deliberate and firm. There's a question in that movement, an offer that Holly could take or refuse. Holly's heart just about stops. He's scent marking her. He's claiming her as pack and- and-

No one has ever wanted her for pack before. Not when she always ended up right in the middle of death threats, and fighting and war. Not when she was the Guide who learned to weaponize her skills, who could and would- who had- tear apart her enemies minds. Not when she's so much more powerful than the average Omega or Guide much less an Omega Guide as she is. Not when Holly had learned to scan every single person who came into her range, in case they were trying to kill her again. Not when Holly had taken the role of an Alpha in the war, and most wouldn't- couldn't- refused to work with her, when none of them made Holly feel safe enough to hand over that role to someone else.

Holly whines, soft and pleased, and stretches her body upwards until she can rub her cheek against Buck's.

It is a choice made, an ache soothed, happiness and joy bubbling in her heart.

The purr escapes her like it's been ripped from her chest, loud and deep and so very pleased. That Buck immediately joins, his purr octaves lower than hers, but just as loud, and leans in closer to return the scent mark and then rubs his opposite cheek against hers, firm, no longer a question, but a mutual claim shared between them, only leaves Holly a pleased and pliant pile of Omega on the bed.

Her instincts sing, and she can feel every remaining bit of tension in her muscles bleed out of her. Fred and George were Alphas, and they were good ones, but when it came down to it, they still followed Holly. They were her brothers in all but blood, but they were also her soldiers, and to an Omega...that just didn't translate over to the entirely boneless safe feeling Holly had right now. For all intents and purposes, Holly had been the 'alpha' in her small pack.

Fred and George, while she trusted and loved them as pack, would never be able to be her Alphas.

Buck...Buck could do that. He had proven that he would march after her, kill her enemies- which was a very pleasing thing to the base instincts in her head from a time before civilization, where packs were formed and ran wild- and take care of her. Even now, she could still see the array of weapons laid out around him, and it soothed something in her to see how willing he was to use force to protect her while she was vulnerable.

She was so used to being the protector, the one in charge, the leader, the Alpha, the General.

No one in the Enclaves had allowed her to be anything else. And then they had shoved her back with the Dursleys, only to bring her back to drag her name through the mud, spit on her honor or praise her with every breath, every stroke of a quill. One day calling her a shining beacon and leader to the younger generations, another bringing her Omega status into the paper, calling her names and telling the world she was an 'Omega that didn't know her place'. The Enclaves had run so hot and cold she hadn't really trusted anyone apart from a rare few.

And for those few, they had been fed stories of her for her entire life, about how she was 'a savior', the one in charge, the one who would save them, and how could she blame them when they loved her so, but still looked at her to solve their problems?

She may have been an Omega and a Guide, with the instincts that craved the stability of an Alpha to rely on, and a Sentinel to help her reign in her empathy, no matter that she could take care of herself, but that didn't matter.

It didn't even register as a thought for anyone, unless it was a fact to use against her with the Enclaves, not even those who cared about her. They understood that she would feel this way, but the stories and 'facts' they had all heard about her from the moment they understood words- what they had been conditioned from toddlerhood to think- had caused a disconnect between these facts and 'Holly Potter.' And everyone else? Those who were not her family? They were sheep lead by unsubstantiated rumors and vicious lies.

But it didn't help that she had taken the role of leader and soldier, of teacher and General for an entire army, that she had stared Alphas the likes of Dumbledore and Voldemort down when they tried to Command her and refused. That she had, essentially, proved each and every one of those stories to be true in a way.

Lies made true by the pulling and tugging of those in authority. Rumors confirmed by the situation that everyone else ensured she would be right in the middle.

But...Buck didn't have that problem. He saw her, acknowledged her strength and ability to fight, and was still willing to be a protector where she needed him to be. Willing to fight beside her.

It wasn't that Holly bought into all that 'Omegas are weak', 'Omegas can't lead', 'Omegas are damsels in distress that need a strong Alpha to take care of them', 'A good Omega is a submissive Omega' bullshit, had in fact proved them all wrong more than once, but…

It was true that Omegas craved pack, stability, and a healthy and happy family- in blood or in bond- to surround themselves with. That Omegas enjoyed the stability that came with an Alpha they trusted who could help them achieve these things, who would act as a buffer, or an migrating influence. An Alpha who would fight beside them in defence of their family.

(Holly still remembered her first heat in the castle. Omegas turned into little fighting machines when they were in heat if they had no mate to share it with. They either aggressively cuddled their packmates or got up into any and everybody's faces, willing and able to kick whoever's ass was stupid enough to challenge them.

Holly...did not take well to being confined or Commanded regularly.

In heat?

In heat, Holly had ended up in eleven fist fights, broke three noses, snarled in four teacher's faces- including Dumbledore-, thrown Draco over the table in the middle of dinner in the Great Hall, and ended up standing on the head table to declare that the next Alpha to Flare in her direction would find themselves at the end of a very long drop from her broom above the heart of the Forbidden Forest or the Whomping Willow.

Whichever was closest.

And that had been within the first ten hours of her heat.

It had not been pretty, and with no Alpha to act as a migrating influence, well.

The castle lived in fear of Holly Potter when her heat came to call.)

Not that Holly had had to worry about her heat in a long while. The stress of leading a war, the deaths she had seen, the aftermath of torture, and being on the run as 'Undesirable Number One', as well as dying and coming back to life had all added up to mean her body had stopped having a heat.

She was sure it would come back of course, once she had recovered somewhat, but for the moment Holly had no idea when that would be.

She didn't even care right then, the sounds of her Alpha's purr mixing with her own causing her body to go loose and relaxed.

She made a mental note to open her shields up to Buck entirely sometime soon. It would be good to allow her Guide side to imprint Buck's Sentinel in as one of hers. She'd only allowed him into the barest edges of her shields, enough that they were aware of one another's feelings in a small sense, that they could sense the other was there, but no further. She hadn't shown him her spirit guide either. She'd have to fix that, just in case she needed to send Batair to him to lead Buck somewhere.

Batair huffs off to the side, a pleased sound, and paces around to the front of her bed. It soothes something in her that Batair approves the thought. He was usually a very good judge of character, and the fact he approved of her Alpha was lovely.

Her brow furrowed for a moment. She'd have to introduce Buck to her cub as well. Teddy may have been switching between Andi, select members of the Defense Association, and the Weasleys while she hunted the remains of the Death Eaters, but he was still hers. Remus and Tonks had trusted her with him. Had chosen her as godmother, and she had been there to imprint him, with all of her senses, into her mind as hers. It wouldn't do to not introduce her Alpha to the pack cub, especially as Teddy was hers to look after once this whole mess was taken care of.

She nuzzled into Buck's neck for a moment, pulling in deep breaths of his scent even as she marked him with hers. She went near boneless when Buck did the same, nuzzling into where her neck met her shoulder. It was where their scents were strongest, and the easiest place to exchange scents with one another. That it was so close to her neck, and a vulnerable place, meant that only packmates got anywhere near it.

They remained there for a few moments, still and breathing deeply, tension bleeding out of both of them.

Buck eventually pulled back, settling down into his place between her and all the entrances, but adjusted himself so that she was also in his line of sight. Holly relaxed into the bundle of blankets and pillows her Alpha had settled her into and felt remarkably calm. None of her past memories scrambled for her attention, she didn't feel like she was on the verge of a flashback, her chest didn't feel tight, adrenaline wasn't pumping through her veins in preparation for needing to- or feeling like she needed to- be ready to fight again in a moments notice.

It was the most relaxed she had ever been coming out of a healing session after a fight.

She hummed for a moment, debating going back to sleep or doing something else. Eventually she unbundled herself and stretched, before standing up. Buck tracked her, and Holly murmured to him quickly "Shower. I have blood on me."

And she did. Buck had obviously wiped up what he could get to and changed her shirt and pants to get rid of most of the mess, but she could still feel the dry and flaking mess under the wire of her bra, as well as in her hair and a few other places.

Buck nodded once, a rumbling-

"I will watch the entrances."

-reaching her in answer.

Holly smiled, running a hand through his hair as she went by in agreement. It was thrilling to be able to share in the casual touches of pack with him now, and he returned the brush by lifting a hand and skimming it over her hip as she walked passed him.

She found herself purring again, loud and pleased, as she grabbed a change of clothes and her towels.

Holly would make crepes when she got out. With strawberries. Lots of whipped cream. They both deserved it. (And she knew Buck had a weakness for plums and strawberries both.)

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"Buck! Get down!"'

Why did everything always end up like this. Circe damned Potter Luck.

Holly is pleased when her Alpha immediately drops where he stands, and the killing curse she'd seen fired missed him by a hair.

No hesitation or pause, only trust and quick reflexes. She snarls, feral and furious as she lunges towards the Death Eater who fired it. She forgoes her wand entirely, hands extended for the man's throat, and murder in her eyes. Her shields lower just enough to condense a feeling of terrorpain into his mind. At her side Batair is a snarling, brisling invisible support.

That was a little fact that most people tended to forget. Omegas or Guides on a warpath were the things of nightmares.

It was believed for so long that Guides and Omegas, and especially Omega Guides, had no place in war or fighting at all, that it just sort of became….natural. A stereotype, something that influenced the entire population. Guides and Omegas both were meant to stay home and watch after the cubs, were the peacemakers of the packs, and not to be put into a fight at all when the big strong Sentinels and Alphas were there to do the fighting for them.

People saw an Omega picking a fight and the laughed, saw a Guide getting angry and scoffed.

Most forgot that an Omega knew exactly how to pull packs apart at the seams, which buttons to push and exactly where to attack. That Guides could get into their target's head and screw with emotions if their target didn't have a stable and strong bond to their own Sentinel or another Guide. Even then, if the attacker was a stronger one? They could pull both the target and their partner down into a mass of emotional upheaval. An Omega Guide that had something to protect? Something they saw as worth going to war for?

They could rip everything about a person and their pack apart, watch them all fall like dominoes, given the incentive. They would smile in doing so. Rejoice in a safety ensured with their actions.

Holly was a very powerful Omega Guide who had been trained in a warfront. Who knew, intimately, exactly how to do those things, and what it felt like to have another try to do the same to her. How to fight and tear people down, how to build them up.

And this Beta Sentinel had just tried to kill her Alpha.

Holly was going to destroy him.

She slammed into the Beta's chest before he had a chance to get his wand up, her emotional attack on his person forcing a flight or fight response that led to him freezing instead of fighting. She took the man to the ground, her hands quick and ruthless.

He wasn't breathing by the time she rolled to her feet.

Holly hadn't realized that so many Death Eaters had fled to France. She'd know a few were present, but after The Incident, it seemed they were pouring out of the woodwork.

Roaches and maggots, the lot of them.

Buck had disposed of the bodies, and any scents left behind, but the bastards were still finding them. Holly had gone back once she was up to deal with the magical residue, so she wasn't exactly sure what they were tracking. All she knew was it was making the Death Eaters come to her, to her and Buck, and while annoying was making her job easier.

The wizards certainly weren't aware that it was Holly Potter waiting on the other end of their search, with backup, as made obvious by their reactions when they found her. They had no idea to be wary of her- that the leader of their enemies was waiting to finish the job.

Still- it was a pain trying to explain spells and their effects to Buck, that he couldn't let most of spells even graze him or it would take effect. Her portable pensieve was a blessing in that, being able to show her Alpha what spell did what, and their effects. She wished she had had the time to share her magic with him in another way. Perhaps take him flying in her animagus form. Battle was not the first practical experience she wanted for Buck other than healing potions.

Still- Buck was taking it brilliantly and adjusting to it.

Small mercies.

Holly snarled an Accio, yanking her wand back into her hand as she flew over the battlefield back towards her Alpha who was holding his own and using his guns to maximum efficiency. Of the original fifteen, only four Death Eaters remained. They'd caught on to bullets not being stopped by the shield charm, and had taken to hiding behind cover- made or found. Holly rubbed the dirt from her face, and strode up beside Buck, eyes narrowed at the holed up Death Eaters. She tilted her head, considering and calculating.

Buck shifted at her side, glancing at her for a moment before speaking softly, "I'm not sure I like that look in your eyes Holly. That looks a lot like Stevie right before he did somethin' real stupid."

Holly squinted at the shelter the wizards were hiding behind.

"Well," her voice is pondering, pleasantly smooth. "I have three options. None are very good."

"And those options are?"

Buck's voice is steady, calm. Waiting.

"I can open my shields, and force them all out by attacking them emotionally, I can open my shields and attack their minds so viciously I break them….or...I can use a very, very nasty fire curse that is rather magically draining and hard to control. I can do it, of course, but it will leave me...exhausted. I usually wouldn't have any trouble with it at all, but I'm still not recovered from my efforts in the war."

Bucky growled low and deep an unhappy. "If you could not open your mind up to these scum, that would be swell, doll."

Holly tilted her head, faintly amused.

"True," she hummed consideringly. "I don't have an active Sentinel bond to help pull me back from that anyway. Cursed fire it is." She pulled in a deep breath, steadying her mind as she prepared for the spell. Her hands were steady as she lifted her wand.

She didn't yell her incantation as so many others had done. Instead she pulled in a second breath and allowed the darker emotions to rise in her chest, her body shaking at the rage, the hatred- She hissed, low and steady-

"Fiendfyre!"

The pull on her magic was immediate, as was the surge of the cursed fire against her control. A basilisk of flames poured from her wand, coiling and lunging forward at her command, even as it fought against her will. Her muscles tensed and she could feel sweat trickle down the side of her face.

The screams were immediate and frenzied as the Death Eaters ran to escape the formally safe shelter. Buck was quick to take aim at those who were lucky enough to be a fraction faster than her basilisk, bodies falling for every shot he took.

Holly bared her teeth, straining against the curse-flame as it writhed to get away from her sway. It was more difficult than it had ever been before to keep her hold on it. It felt more draining magic wise as well, though she knew that was just the fatigue of the war talking.

Even with potions, magical exhaustion the likes of which she had been facing was one of those things that just had to be recovered from naturally. That she had been so close to empty meant that even with months between her leaving Britain to hunt, she still suffered the aftereffects of it. That she kept using her magic while fighting the Death Eaters she found didn't help her either.

Buck would be mad she'd been pushing herself so long when he found out. Holly grinned to herself even as she forced the basilisk to turn, curling in on itself as it spiralled closer around what remained of the bodies around them. It was nice to have an Alpha that looked out for her, and refused to allow her to fight by herself. Who refused to put up with her bullshit and expected her to not put up with his.

Green eyes narrowed even farther, her back a tense line, as she finally burnt the bodies and the little bunker of rock and stone the others had made into ash. It may have been easier to control the fire if she had allowed it to burn anything around it- like the ground it slithered across- instead of focusing the flames on only her targets. That would have given their presence away though, and Holly wanted to avoid that.

The witch felt Buck's hand, a steady weight between her shoulders, and relaxed a bit, even as she forced the fire to eat itself. As the basilisk shrunk so did the strain on her magic and Holly slowly relaxed against Buck's hand. She breathed for a moment, sweat dripping down her face and her legs shaking just a bit.

There was one more thing to do, before they moved from the French countryside. She let herself sag against her Alpha's support just a little even as she lifted her wand. Quick spells were cast to muddle and distort the magical signatures in the area. Rather than erase them entirely, such spells took the multiple signatures present and twisted them all together so intensely they were unidentifiable by any means nor would anyone be able to pull the signatures apart to get a lock on the two of them that way. It was on old Black Family secret she had found in the library, and quite useful for things like this. So many useful things, in the Black Library.

As soon as she managed that last bit of magic she let herself lean more heavily against her Alpha's side with a sigh. He supported her easily, his eyes flying over the now empty- damn near invisible- battlefield they had just shared for any stragglers. When he found none, Holly found herself lifted effortlessly into his arms as he stalked forward towards the motorbike she had inherited from Sirius.

He tucked her into the sidecar and swung himself up onto the seat. Usually she'd have tucked herself up against his back and used a careful rune combination that would get rid of the sidecar until the rune sequence was entered in backwards. In this case she wasn't sure she'd stay awake the entire ride to hold on and so didn't argue. A careful expansion charm on the sidecar meant she could stretch her legs out- even Buck would be able to- and she leaned her head back against the seat to close her eyes.

When she woke up she could report to the French Ministry of Magic, let the Minister know his Death Eater problem was taken care of. Perhaps she would share some information pertaining to the non-magical side. Maybe enjoy a cup of tea. Then she'd work on picking her next target.

Buck would get them back to their newest safehouse in the meantime.