Holly smiled as she woke up, the air of the Caribbean's hot breeze carrying into her bedroom. Through her half-curtained windows, a ray of bright sunlight was already streaming in from the outside. Already she could hear the sounds of bird song. She got up slowly and she looked around the bedroom briefly before she slipped her silken dressing gown over her naked body. She had learnt a long time ago it was pointless to wear anything to bed when you lived in the Caribbean.
As she donned the gown, however, Holly ran a hand lightly over her still-flat abdomen. Holly was over 3 weeks pregnant and while her dad wasn't happy with her becoming pregnant out of wedlock, he had soon accepted the fact she was just not interested in marrying anyone; half of the boys in Slytherin had been bastards, and she hadn't been even remotely interested in any of the other boys in the school. Most of them were motherfucking jerks like Longbottom, Black junior and Weasley.
In any case, Holly was a Slytherin and there was a secret tradition in that Hogwarts House, where students from third year onwards took part in a tradition set down by the great Salazar Slytherin himself.
Salazar had been a genius and a powerful wizard, and he had become a genius by fighting and clawing every step of the way just to survive against muggles, but he had wanted to find a simple and less risky way of becoming even more powerful, so when the time came and he needed extra magical power, he had it in abundance.
Sex magic was the answer. Instead of hacking his soul to bits and believing himself to be immortal while he ignored the growing insanity until it was far too late (Voldemort had done that, and Holly had taken great joy in ending that bastard's reign of terror although she had not been in the mood to demand anything at the time, although she had made sure everyone knew what she had done since it might come in handy later; thanks for the Slytherin lessons, Daphne!), Slytherin wanted a method that was easy and not painful, and he found out about sex magic.
Using a ritualistic rune cluster tattooed onto the skin, Slytherin became incredibly horny and promiscuous and he had had sex with a number of women. The act of each bout of sex was well known by wizards to recharge a magical core, and with a little bit of work, the sex magic rituals did just that, but on a much greater scale. Sex magic was unique is that sexual energy could be transformed into powerful magic, and it was true and it boosted the magical core of a witch or wizard.
Even more remarkable was that once the tattoo was formed into the skin of the wizard or the witch, it would sink in and become a part of their very biology with no ill effects whatsoever, and the more sex they had, the more magic they would have replenished and accumulated over the course of their lives.
Once Slytherin discovered the wonder of sex magic, he became hooked but the practicalities of the sex magic success and how it was able to replenish and even augment the magical core of a witch or wizard made him write into the Slytherin dorms a rune cluster or something like that which was woven into the Slytherins, so when they hit their teens, when their bodies were bubbling with hormones and they were beginning to look to the opposite sex, they were ripe for the ritual to work. On one night of the third year, they would have a tattoo suddenly appear on their bodies and they would begin to become horny to the point where they would feel so hot they'd take their clothes off. And then they would be escorted to the Slytherin common room, which had been transformed into a large brothel.
Holly, like all Slytherins before her, had become hooked on the sheer pleasure of the ritualised tradition which was kept secret from all by the Slytherins. She had already lost her virginity during the summer period, but that night had been like a fire had ignited within her, and she had become a willing and passionate bi-sexual lover, as Pansy, Daphne, Tracy, Lily, and many other girls would attest eagerly to, and she'd also had enjoyed having sex with Draco, Theo, Blaise, Crabbe and Goyle, Marcus, and many others. Following that night, Holly took part in the frequent orgies. And it wasn't just the living Slytherins.
Like many other parts of the castle, and she guessed the three other Houses had them as well, Slytherin's Common room and dorms had tapestries and portraits of Slytherins from long ago, and they frequently joined in the orgies in portrait form. Did that make her a slut? Definitely but she had already discovered an enjoyment of sex beforehand anyway, so she didn't care if her child was born out of wedlock. It was still a Potter.
In keeping with Slytherin tradition, Holly hadn't told her father about what the Slytherins did each year. Her father was not the man he had been long ago, the years of being in Azkaban had taken their toll on his mind and his body. James had managed to survive in the prison by making frequent use of his animagus form, but it had only taken him so far. James had managed to escape when the dementors had come into his cell, barely noticing his large stag form which proved to be a hindrance rather than a help for him, and so he had needed to transform back into a human from time to time before he made his own way out.
But at one point, James had gotten into a fight with a band of muggles and they had brutally injured the already weak man, and it had gotten worse when a bunch of overzealous aurors attacked him in his already weakened state and cursed him badly. Holly had saved him just in time; she might not be happy with her father for the scale of the mistakes he had made in his time, but he was still her father. Once his innocence was proven after Holly had drugged both Augusta and Algernon Longbottom with truth potion, the Potters had left Britain behind for good and since the Longbottoms and Dumbledore were in cahoots to take what was left of her family fortune, which at the time hadn't been as high as it had been before, although Holly's secretive business deals and the people whom she had stolen from, had given her more gold to fill her bank vaults to make up for what was taken, and long before the Ministry was forced to give her a massive compensation fee, which they largely took from the Longbottoms and from Dumbledore, much to their displeasure, and Holly's delight, as it was the greatest boon and bad taste in the mouths of her enemies.
But she had left to make sure they were truly safe, and they came to the Bahamas so then James could enjoy the remainder of his life in a beautiful place instead of living in a hospital bed for the years he had remaining to him. The elder Potter was proud of his daughter for what she had done for getting him out, although he wasn't sure about her methods, he was happy to be living here in the warmth and the light, which she supposed was perfectly natural after living for so long in a dank dark prison cell, where hygiene was primitive and out of medieval times.
When she arrived in the Bahamas, Holly had used magical transport to come and go to America so she could complete her magical education. She had become a Healer, and she had begun earning enough money thanks to her job and she had hired a second healer to take care of her father when she wasn't there, with the help of the Potter elves. They had lived in the Bahamas for the last 5 years.
Holly had found a passion for healing after she started studying the magical arts and when she had started helping Madam Pomfrey, who had given her hints and tips on what was expected of a Healer. She had worked long and hard to attain her qualifications and her mastery in many diverse subjects beyond Healing and other fields of magic needed to become one, so she would become an even better healer. That, combined with her property business in many parts of the world in both the magical and muggle worlds, would give her a nice little profit each year. It would time a long time before the Potter family fortune was rebuilt from the gutter, but she liked to think she had done a good job.
Holly smiled as she thought about the things she and her father had done the day before. It had been her birthday, and he had worked in secret with the elves to make it special. He had played her favourite Elvis song, and they had eaten her favourite meal, but at the same time Holly had been left worried, and her smile faded as she remembered that, despite his cheer, her father had been very unlike himself.
She was worried about him. Holly had been furious and had nursed great resentment for James for running off and trying to find the spy in the Order's ranks without realising Algernon Longbottom planned to frame him and destroy centuries of alliance between the Potter and Longbottom families for his own selfish gain, but she had gotten over it once James had been mind healed and he found his body being repaired. Holly had lost count of the number of hours she had poured into helping him, but she knew the damage was done, and he had only a limited amount of time. But she hoped that he was around long enough to see his first grandchild born before he died.
James had suffered greatly while others like his so-called former friends abandoned him and her, and how they had let him be tortured and injured and how he suffered from nightmares.
Shaking her head, Holly gently picked up her wand, and left the bedroom and padded softly down the hallway to her father's door. She regularly left her father to sleep early in the mornings before she went to work or when she had a day off, but she always performed a quick check of his physical condition to make sure he was okay, or if he needed something like a new potion.
But the moment she reached her father's room door, Holly knew something was not right. She'd had a night of quiet sleep, the night before had been silent. It was rare for her father to go a night without one of his nightmares, where his time in Azkaban was twisted and he was forced to relive the same misery he had gotten.
Holly gently knocked on the door. "Dad? Are you awake?" She said softly before she opened the room.
James Potter was lying on his stomach and she couldn't see his face. Frowning, Holly gently moved closer to her father and she placed her hand on his chest to see how his heart was doing.
She couldn't feel a pulse.
Holly jumped into action and she scanned his body but there was nothing. James Potter, her father, was dead.
Holly bit her lip and she struggled not to cry. She had known this day was going to come for a long time, that was one of the reasons why she had taken on part-time jobs so she could fill her father's remaining life with laughter and happiness, which they'd been robbed of long ago thanks to the war and the machinations of Longbottom and Dumbledore. Sure, Holly and her father had their arguments, but what parent didn't? But they quickly got over them and made up quickly, and James had told her some personal things about Lily. But there had always been a melancholic sadness in her father's eyes whenever they spoke about Lily, and Holly knew her father missed his wife and how he longed to be back with her.
Now he was.
Holly looked down and rubbed her belly absently, knowing in her womb a baby was growing and she just felt sad her child would never know either of his maternal grandparents. She sat on a nearby chair and sank her head in her hands.
The funeral was five days later. Holly had arranged for a peaceful plot in the local magical cemetery. The island had a small but sizeable magical population, and they had their own small school although it was only for kids, not teenagers; teenagers would be sent to bigger schools, like Ilvermorny. The Caribbean was a part of the MACUSA and the students came under their jurisdiction. The magical cemetery was really nice, and Holly stood with her fellow Healer, Leia. Both of them were crying softly, James had made a big impact on their lives.
"Have you heard anything from Britain?" Leia asked. She was a native of the Caribbean with dark skin and long silky hair.
"No. And I haven't told them anything about dad's death. It's none of their business," Holly replied.
Leia grimaced knowing of the Potter's history. "Yeah. I'm sorry."
"Why?" Holly turned to her. "I'm not. I'm grateful for every single moment dad and I spent here. We were happy. I loved taking him around the islands, enjoying the sights and the activities and swimming in the Caribbean sea. Dad himself found a passion for fishing. And truthfully we never received so much as a letter from Dumbledore, or anyone else."
Leia grimaced again, this time it was at the mention of Dumbledore. Dumbledore's reputation had never been particularly good in this part of the world thanks to his stances and his views. His actions concerning the Potters had also not won him many awards. "Didn't you block them?" She asked pointedly.
"For the house, yeah. But if they really wanted to repent then they could have sent it to the goblin postal box I arranged. They didn't."
Leia changed the subject. "Are you planning on a wake?"
"Not really. I was gonna go back home and just have a quiet night."
"Mind if I join you?"
"Not at all, I could use the company," Holly smiled.
Later that night, the two healers would enjoy a movie and some food. Holly wished there was alcohol she could drink that would drown her sorrows but with her baby, she could not take the risk. In spite of everything that had happened, Holly was forever thankful she had taken the law into her own hands since it meant her dad had died free.