Special thanks to Chuck and the HP Fanfic Writers' Guild Discord for looking over this chapter.

Chapter 4: Beware

"Good morning Holly," said Alex once he saw her, cheerful as always. Sometimes Holly wished she could be that happy. Instead, she glowered in her seat, watching Dudley run in. "Morning."

He looked over her once he settled in. "Are you okay?"

Holly covered her bruised shins the best she could.

"What happened?"

"Belt up," she hissed.

"I just wanna know what's wrong," said Alex, looking upset.

Holly sighed. It wasn't Alex's fault. "Dudley pushed me out of the car because Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon didn't want to get him the Halloween costume he wants."

Ever since she'd befriended Dudley, school had gotten much better. Unfortunately, home had gotten much worse. Since she was his prime—read: only—target at home, he took full advantage of that to bother her worse than before.

Alex turned to look at Dudley, who was laughing in a corner with the rest of his friends. "What did your Aunt say?"

"Nothing."

Alex looked confused. He couldn't imagine an adult not doing the right thing. "But didn't she see him do it?"

"She doesn't care," said Holly, sinking in her seat when Ms Michaels came in.

For the rest of the lesson, Alex was very quiet. He didn't answer any questions or whisper anything to her. It was only when they left the classroom for break that he talked to her.

"Maybe you should go to the nurse," he said as they went outside.

She shook her head. Going to the nurse meant Aunt Petunia would be called and she'd get into trouble again. "It'll go away."

"But—"

"No. Please don't tell anyone?" Holly said, her eyes boring into his. "Just this once?"

Alex looked between her and Dudley, who was now bullying the year ones. He sighed. "Fine."

She let out a relieved breath. "Thanks Alex."

He didn't respond. They sat in silence under the oak tree, which had become their spot. It was nice. She took her time gathering the changing leaves around them and putting them into a pile.

"Wanna come to my house after school?" asked Alex suddenly.

Her stack fell over. "What?"

"Do you want to come over to my house after school?" Alex repeated, now more excited. "I wanted to ask earlier, but I kept forgetting."

Holly wasn't surprised at that. She couldn't help but feel doubtful though. "Really?"

"Yeah! I have all sorts of new toys!"

"New toys?" asked Holly in wonder. She never got new toys, or new anything at that. All she had was broken, old stuff that nobody wanted anymore.

"Yeah, and I got a beanbag chair for my birthday. It has planets and stars on it."

"What's a beanbag chair?"

"It's..." Alex furrowed his brow, "a chair that you can sit on and it moves with you."

"Like play-doh?"

"Kinda. There's loads of tiny beads in it."

Now she was confused. "Isn't it itchy?"

Alex shook his head. "No, it's really nice to sit on."

"Oh."

"So will you?" Alex asked hopefully.

Holly frowned. "I dunno. My Aunt and Uncle won't let me."

"Why? It's Friday and we're friends. Friends go to each other's houses."

"I'm not allowed to have friends over."

Alex looked thoughtful for a moment before lighting up. "Yeah, to your house, not mine," he said with a grin.

That sort of logic wouldn't work with Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon. "They still won't let me."

"But you don't have to tell them where you went."

Holly rolled her eyes. That would just be asking for no food for the weekend. "What if I say no?"

Alex gave her an unblinking stare. "Then I'll have to do this." He widened his eyes and pouted, resembling an adorable puppy.

Holly stared at him in disbelief. It was what Dudley did to get extra pudding at dinner or a new toy from the store, but much cuter. Trying to find a distraction, she watched a squirrel run across the branches the tree. Its fur resembled Alex's hair. She smirked. I wonder if he knows, she thought.

She glanced back at Alex but he was still pouting, now with his head tilted to the side for extra effect.

"Knock it off."

But Alex remained silent, still looking at her with puppy-dog eyes. Holly slouched against the tree. "Fine. You win."

He pumped a fist. "Yes! It worked!"

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw an empty area on the pavement and smirked. "Come on," she said, pulling them both to their feet.

Alex stopped cheering and looked at her in confusion. "Why? Where are we going?"

"Spot's free," she said as she walked them over to the chalk bin. Holly examined a bright green piece casually before kneeling.

"What do you—" Understanding came to his face. "No."

"Yes," said Holly as she drew the squares.

"But I'm a boy!"

"So?"

"Boys aren't supposed to play hopscotch!"

"And boys aren't supposed to be friends with girls!" she said. Holly knew that he couldn't—and wouldn't—argue with that.

Alex crossed his arms and looked between the court and her in silence. "...Fine," he finally said, not looking very happy.

Holly beamed. "I'll go get some stones!"

"What do engineers do?" she asked after she took a forkful of noodles. The choice to stay for dinner was easy. Unlike the Dursleys, who seemed to think vegetables were poison, Mrs Kann made a habit of not-so-secretly adding it to their dish. Bell peppers, carrots, and tomatoes fresh from the greenhouse were blended into delicious red sauce, and the spaghetti was made by hand, rolled paper-thin. She had loaded Holly's plate with as much food she wanted. Her plate was almost as full as Alex's! That never happened.

The drive to Alex's house was like going to hers', only shorter. They turned into a funny-shaped road called Magnolia Crescent and parked in the first house on the street. While a lot of the houses looked 'identical', his house was different. There were grey electric panels on the roof and small green bushes lining the path instead of flowers. The inside was easily twice as large as Number Four, with wooden floors and light brown walls that made the house feel warm and welcoming.

Alex's room was what she expected, too. Space stuff everywhere, with a ceiling painted black that showed all "eighty-eight con-stel-la-tions" when it was dark outside. The beanbag chair was much more comfortable than he made it out to be. She was nearly asleep on it by dinnertime.

Mr Kann, Alex's father, looked surprised for a moment before cracking a grin. "An excellent question, Holly! It greatly depends on what you choose. Civil focuses on things that don't move, like bridges and buildings. Mechanical centres on things that do move, from components to machines to the human body itself."

"Wow, that's really interesting!"

"It is," he nodded. "There is some overlap between fields. Aerospace and mechanical, electrical and computer, chemical and petroleum...there are hundreds of different subsets."

She had no idea what any of that meant, so she asked, "What do you work as, Mr Kann?"

"I'm a mechanical engineer. We're currently creating satellites and researching interplanetary internet at Surrey Satellite Technology."

Alex perked up at that. "Interplanetary internet?"

Mr Kann went into detail about how a computer network would work in space with the speed of light delays and other problems, but Holly was more interested in the idea of creating things. It would be so cool to make things like flying cars and jetpacks, or even helpful stuff like a cloth that dried dishes on its own. Could she design a broomstick from a fairy tale to fly?

That's ridiculous. She wanted to shake her head but speared a meatball instead. If it was possible, someone would have done it already.

"So dad," began Alex, "can normal humans make things happen?"

Oh no. Holly's fork froze on the way to her mouth. Alex, you twit!

His father frowned. "What do you mean?"

"Like making things stay really high up in the air. I know that we saw—I mean, it happened on—um, yeah." He shoved a meatball into his mouth.

The mood was tense now.

His parents didn't look pleased with what Alex had said. His father was giving her a strange look, and his mother looked pale. With a gulp, Holly speared a piece of broccoli. Nothing good could come out of this.

"Well, I'm going home," she said fifteen minutes later after polishing her plate. The silence had become too much for her to bear. "Thank you for the food!"

Mrs Kann waved off her thanks and gave her a smile. "I'll drive you home dear, it's a bit late to be walking."

Alex leapt from his seat. "I'll come too!"

"Alexander," his father said in a tone that reminded her of Uncle Vernon's whenever Dudley got into trouble.

He wilted. "Or not." He sat back down.

Holly felt a pang of worry for him. "See you Monday."

"Where have you been?" started Petunia when she opened the door. "I won't have you—"

"Good evening, Mrs Dursley," said Mrs Kann. She gave Petunia a cool look.

Petunia stepped back. She clearly hadn't noticed there was another adult. "Brought her home now, did you? This one is always causing trouble."

"As a matter of fact, Holly has been a delight. My son invited her over and we were happy to have her."

Holly held back a grin. It was one thing for Alex to like her, but his parents too?

Petunia flustered. "Yes, well. I won't have her burden you any longer."

Holly stiffened. With the word 'burden' came talks about how lucky she was that they decided to take her in and how grateful she should be.

Luckily, Mrs Kann seemed to know that Aunt Petunia wasn't telling the truth. She pursed her lips. "Actually, we'd like to have her over again. My son's siblings are quite young and he needs friends his age. Especially after that Dudley boy attacked him. We were so shocked when he told us about it. It really is a shame when parents can't discipline their children, isn't it?"

Aunt Petunia went pale and Holly's eyes widened in disbelief. "Yes, well, if the girl—ahem, Holly, agrees, I suppose it's all right."

She looked between the two women and nodded slowly to Mrs Kann.

"Then it's settled." She bent to Holly's level. "You can call us if you need anything."

~•~

The Gryffindor Tower brewing room was a smaller, brighter-lit version of its dreaded dungeon cousin. There was a stack of dubiously-cleaned cauldrons of varying sizes, metal types, and qualities in one corner. Next to them were old potions kits with half-filled ingredients in clear disrepair. A few of the counters were clean, but the rest looked like they hadn't been used in years, covered in dust and old notes. A few sinks in need of cleaning lined the back, but other than that, the room was pretty bare.

Percy wasn't kidding, Holly thought. This place really is abandoned. She Cleaned a counter and set down her potion ingredients, cauldron and books. Like the dungeons, each counter had an individual heat source built into it.

She waved her wand at the door and called Alex. "Take a look," she said once he answered, panning the camera around the room.

"Wow."

"I know, it's a fright. It'll take forever to clean properly."

Alex rubbed his chin. "Maybe that elf that's been following you around can help."

She would have preferred to forget about Dobby. "Don't remind me. How are the tests going? Are they done yet?"

"Yes, and they passed the stability, preservative efficacy testing and the cosmetic safety report with flying colours."

Holly let out a sigh of relief. That was one hurdle crossed. "Will that be it?"

"Not even close."

She resisted the urge to groan. "What else could there be?"

"Everything has to be registered with the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, we have to fill out a twenty-page form out for each potion that states things like what the active and inactive ingredients are, what containers we will be selling them in, the name of our company, whether it'll be prescription-only, pharmacy or on the general sales list, if—"

"Alright, alright," she said, cutting him off. "Merlin, that's a lot."

"It is. Boil cure is a herbal cosmetic, so I don't think it'll take too long and it'll probably be sold over-the-counter, and burn-healing paste shouldn't be too much of a bother either, but dittany might be a problem since it's going to be put on open wounds in addition to bruises," he added. Then he frowned. "Then again, burn-healing paste isn't just for sunburns, those textbooks said it can be used on third-degree burns, and even second-degree burns have blisters that break the skin...we might have to market that one differently, but there are plenty of creams that treat superficial burns already..." pondered Alex, who was rapidly typing off-screen.

Suddenly Holly was rather glad she didn't have to focus on the paperwork—brewing was a breeze compared to that. "Did Dudley get back to you on how the potions are working?"

"Oh yeah, he did. He said that one of his roommates had a sunburn and the paste worked fine on him, took longer though—said it was ten minutes? 'Course, we don't know how bad it was, or how accurate Dudley's report is, but it's a start."

Holly nodded. "What about the boil cure and the dittany?"

"Boil-cure worked within the hour, dittany in about five minutes."

"That tracks," she said, remembering their tests with Dittany. A small cut on her finger took mere seconds to heal; for Alex, just under a minute. In this case, the longer it took, the better—within reason, of course.

"I told Dudley he'll get more money the more people try the potions. It should give us a good range for advertising when we finally get all the tests done."

"Let's not add the quills before taking the cauldron off the heat," she warned. "There's still a chance this could all go pear-shaped, especially if my name's involved. A small sample size might not be great, but it's better than getting thrown in Azkaban."

Alex sighed. "I know."

Do you? she wondered. "How are we handling advertising? Are we going to create our own website or what?"

"We'll probably have to rely on word of mouth to start," said Alex, sounding apologetic. "I know you don't like it, but there's so many products being sold that we'd have no chance of selling anything online until we have a solid client base off-line."

Holly sighed. Of course it wouldn't be easy. "Alright, well in that case I suppose it'd help to have more people on board. We need more testers other than Dudley, though. Do you think your mum would be willing to get in touch with people?"

"Probably not...Hmmm...I think she has a list of people she sessions with every week. A lot of them are Squibs, and some of them didn't change their surnames. I can forward you the list if I find it and you can cross-check it with your classmates."

The idea sounded a bit dodgy to her—what if they told their wizarding relatives? She could remember how desperate she was for the Dursleys' acceptance once upon a time. But they had very few options left. "Okay. In the meantime, I'll start looking for ways to send potions over long distances—Hedwig's great and all, but I don't want her to get tired or for people to start asking questions."

"Okay," he said, typing again. "How are you making out with Colin?"

"Well, he kept following me everywhere and Parkinson had taken to spreading rumours that I was cheating on Ron—long story, don't ask—so I encouraged him to focus his time elsewhere. He's making a video yearbook now."

Alex smirked. "Are you sure it won't be about you?"

"Shut up, it's for his parents mostly, but I'm sure some of the other Muggle-raised students would like a copy to show their parents."

Alex hummed in agreement, and they continued their discussion long into the night.

"So Holly, who do you fancy?" Lavender asked right before she could go to bed.

Fay discreetly closed her four-poster.

"Huh?"

"You know, who you like. I think Cormac McLaggen is definitely fanciable, don't you?" She said as she examined her freshly painted nails.

Cormac McLaggan? Holly thought. Wood had mentioned the third year once or twice but never in a complimentary way. "Um... I dunno. I don't really fancy anyone."

"What about that first year, Creevey? He follows you around an awful lot."

Holly grimaced, mentally cursing Pansy. "Absolutely not."

"Weasley? The first year, if you like girls?" Parvati clarified.

She shook her head. Ginny was...Ron's sister.

Lavender let out a dramatic sigh. "Merlin, Holly, you're such a bore. So you don't find anyone fanciable?"

"Well...Justin's not that bad...?" Which was true, his curly black hair was always neat and his voice wasn't too bad to listen to. And everyone Muggle-raised had heard of Eton, so he had to be upper-class. But he seemed like the polite sort, not the snobby sort that lorded it over your head.

"Finch-Fletchley?" said Parvati. "He's Muggle-born isn't he?"

At her nod, Lavender added, "Well, at least he's cute, and he does talk to you during Herbology." Her eyes sparkled. "Ooh, you should ask him out during class tomorrow!"

"Er, I don't know—"

"What's the harm? You do like him, don't you?"

"He's nice enough, I guess. But we barely know each other."

"That's what a study date is for," said Sally-Anne, finally adding her opinion.

Lavender's face twisted in distaste. "Well, I suppose a study date will be alright."

Holly desperately looked towards the door, hoping that Hermione would save her from this increasingly awkward conversation. "I thought we were supposed to start dating next year?"

"Mama always says it's never too early to find a good husband," said Parvati.

Lavender clapped once. "That's right! You'll have to get up bright and early so that we can do your hair and nails! Appearance is everything, and if you want him to agree you need to make a good impression!"

"Haven't I already?"

"As a friend, maybe, but if you want him to go out with you next year you need to start planting the seeds now," said Sally-Anne with a smirk at her pun.

Just then, Hermione entered the dorm, dropping her bag with a clunk and immediately headed to the bathroom.

"Remember, bright and early tomorrow!" said Lavender, and the three remaining girls tucked into bed before Holly could respond.

Ron's eyes widened. "Bloody hell! What happened to you?"

"Lavender, Parvati, and Sally-Anne happened, that's what," said Holly as the trio made their way to Greenhouse Three.

"You could have said no," said Hermione unsympathetically.

Holly snorted. "Yeah, because I hadn't considered that." She scratched her high ponytail, feeling rather ridiculous.

The 'makeover' said dormmates had thrust upon her made her feel worse, not better. She had on last year's robe, her hair done in a way that hid its natural unevenness, and magical lip gloss that promised perfectly pouty lips so long as it wasn't washed off. Luckily for her, they hadn't had enough time to do anything else, seeing as they completely missed breakfast.

Holly couldn't see the point in all of this and wished she had fended off her dormmates better. Frankly, it was a waste of time. Had they shared Charms or Transfiguration or History with the Hufflepuffs she could see the logic behind being done up like this, but Herbology was always a messy class.

With a sigh, Holly soldered on in. Most of the class was already there, waiting for Professor Sprout.

"I'll go get our shovels," said Hermione, going to the supply cabinet after they'd taken their seats.

Holly looked around, catching the eye of Lavender and Parvati as they entered.

"Go on," mouthed Lavender, gesturing in Justin's direction.

She swallowed. It was now or never.

"Er, Ron, you and Hermione work together today, alright?"

The redhead looked flabbergasted. "What? Why?"

"I'll be working with someone else," she replied and picked up her bag before he could reply.

Holly walked over to the Hufflepuff side of the greenhouse, taking deep, slow breaths.

Stay calm, Potter.

"Hello, Justin," she said, trying not to seem nervous. "How are you today?"

The Muggle-born turned to face her, stopping his conversation with Ernie MacMillian. "Hello, Holly. I'm fine, thank you." He smiled.

"Good." She smiled back. "I was wondering if maybe we could work together today?"

"Sure."

"Justin!" said Earnie with a hiss.

"What? You can work with Hannah, we always work together," he said.

Ernie gave the two of them a look, rolled his eyes and walked towards the girls.

"Sorry about that, Ern and I have been partners since the first day of class last year. Sometimes we work with Hannah or Susan or Wayne, but it's usually just us two. I'm sure you understand. You, Hermione and Ron are like peas in a pod."

Holly looked at her friends, who were currently in a quiet argument. "Yeah."

The lesson began. Today they would be creating the proper magical soil for the Mandrakes as they began to transition to adolescence.

"Let's see, the soil needs five parts dragon dung, three parts clay, one part sand and one part silt."

"It's fifty percent dung though, it's not usually so high."

"It has to be because of how fast they're growing," said Justin. "Ah, well, we might as well get started."

They worked diligently on their assignment, which was no easy task. Everything had to be mixed evenly and thoroughly in order to prevent certain soil types from clumping together.

Justin wiped his brow. "This is quite a workout, isn't it?"

She wanted to disagree, but Lavender's words echoed in her mind: Remember to agree with everything he says!

"Yeah, it is a bit much," she said instead, carefully mixing the dung and sand. "All this stirring is reminding me of Potions."

The Hufflepuff shuddered. "Don't remind me, Snape scares me a bit, honestly."

"Who isn't scared of Snape, he's like an overgrown bat."

He laughed. "Too true."

They continued their work in the same vein, taking turns mixing the unpleasant-smelling dung and soil. Justin was rather nice, and she felt almost as comfortable around him and she did with Ron and Hermione.

Professor Sprout nodded at their attempt. "Good work, you two. You're free to leave."

"I never asked why you look so different today."

"Just trying a new look," said Holly as they left the Greenhouse.

"I like it. You look nice."

"Thank you," she replied, feeling her cheeks grow warm.

Justin smiled back as they walked in companionable silence. "It was great working with you today."

"You too. Er, we should do it again sometime?" she asked, unable to stop herself.

For the first time that day, Justin frowned. "I don't know, Ernie looked rather cross at me today."

"Oh, I understand. Hermione and Ron didn't look pleased either," she said, trying to appear nonchalant.

They set foot in the warm Entrance Hall and Justin turned to face her, looking hesitant. "But, you know, Professor Sprout gave us that ten-inch essay on the essential nutrients that Mandrakes need for proper development that's due in a couple of weeks."

Holly's heart leapt. "Yeah?"

"Perhaps we could work on it together, say, Saturday afternoon?"

She nodded. "I'd like that."

Justin grinned. "Smashing!" He immediately coughed and looked at his watch. "I have to go, Potions, you know how Snape is."

"Yeah, McGonagall is only a bit better. See you Saturday?"

"Yeah," he confirmed, and they nodded to each other before going their separate ways.

That went well, Holly thought as she went to freshen up. Justin was a great conversationalist and quite nice. Lavender and Parvati might baulk at the idea of a study date as opposed to an actual date, but she couldn't care less. I can't wait to tell Ron and Hermione!

"It appears," began Snape as he sent their essays back with a wave of his wand, "That a certain House was unable to meet my expectations on their last assignment."

The Gryffindor side grumbled. Holly frowned. She certainly could have done better, but it couldn't have been as bad as Snape was making it out to be.

"More than eighty percent have failed to get an acceptable mark, and I will not put those that did their work properly at risk," he said, eyeing the Gryffindor side of the room with distaste. "Therefore, all Gryffindors will be brewing the Forgetfulness Potion, as there should be little chance of failure in that endeavour. At least," Snape looked at her, Ron and Neville, "one can certainly hope."

The Slytherin side snickered. The Forgetfulness Potion was first-year material.

"Slytherins will work on the Fire Protection potion. Instructions are on the board. Begin."

Holly sighed. She had been looking forward to brewing said potion, and it appeared she wasn't the only one; Hermione had deflated at the thought of brewing something she had already mastered, and Dean looked absolutely crushed. Holly knew that a successfully brewed potion would be invaluable for his dad.

"Might as well get started," she said to Ron, standing up.

The redhead remained silent as they went to fetch their ingredients from the student store cupboard.

"Are you seriously still angry with me?" she whispered. Neither of her friends were exactly thrilled with her Saturday plans, but Hermione was mollified that at least they were doing homework, and that she could 'explore a different House member's perspective'. Ron, on the other hand, went quiet at the news and wouldn't talk to her for the rest of the day.

Ron hacked at the standard ingredient herbs with his knife before dumping it into his water-filled cauldron.

"Because I haven't done anything wrong, you know. Neither has Justin."

"So you won't mind if I join you, then?" he finally said.

Holly looked up; Snape was still on the other side of the classroom praising Daphne Greengrass' work. "I do mind, actually."

"I don't see what's so special about Finch-Fletchley. You ditched Hermione and I last class and now you're bailing on me for him tomorrow."

Holly wanted to roll her eyes at him. "All we do is play chess, Ron."

"It's tradition!" he replied, offended.

This time she did roll her eyes and added two drops of Lethe river water before passing him the bottle. "So what, I'm not allowed to have friends besides you and Hermione? And no, Alex doesn't count."

Ron added two Valerian springs and stirred his nascent potion. Holly, having finished that step, waved her wand over her cauldron and the colour changed from clear to white.

"I never said that," protested Ron as she loaned him her wand.

"That's not what it sounds like," she replied coolly.

They were forced to be silent when Snape came over to the Gryffindor side of the room, making the usual waspish remarks towards their Housemates. He looked at their simmering potions and then at Holly with a look of loathing that was practically dedicated for her and snapped, "Passable."

"I just don't trust him," whispered Ron once Snape was out of earshot. "You didn't talk to him at all last year and suddenly you're all chummy with him."

Something nagged Holly at the back of her mind. In fact, it reminded her of another boy's reaction from that summer…

"Ron." She held his sleeve, stopping him from grinding the mistletoe berries. He looked at her with a gaze that was quite unlike him—calm and attentive with just a hint of apprehension. "I'm not ditching you. You do know that?"

His ears turned red and he stared at the pestle he had been using.

"Well I'm not, alright? I'm still going to help you with the nonverbal stuff every Friday and we'll still play chess and do homework together tomorrow. It's just one study session, that's all."

"You're sure?"

"Positive," she said firmly.

The rest of class was decidedly less tense, and they completed their potions without much fuss. Holly internally signed as she bottled a sample of her finished potion and took it to the front for grading. Everything else that remained would vanish, as per usual. If there was one thing she hated about Potions it was the fact that Snape wouldn't let them use what they brewed, no matter how well it was brewed. Of course she could always brew more potions in the newly-discovered Gryffindor lab but it was such a waste of time, money and ingredients not to keep what she had already made.

At least some things will never change, she thought as Malfoy made a show of giving Snape his work.

"Where have you two been?" asked Hermione in the middle of eating her roasted potatoes. "The Feast started fifteen minutes ago!"

The duo sat down. "Sorry," began Holly.

"We've been practising non-verbal spells." Ron filled his plate with roast beef and chicken. "I reckon I'm getting the hang of it," he said proudly.

The redhead had mastered the Levitation Charm and had made good progress with Lumos.

"Non-verbal magic is years ahead, Ron," said Hermione in a chiding tone. "At this stage of our magical education, wand movements and incantations are terribly important."

They aren't, Holly wanted to say. Untold Magical Theory made that very clear. Belief, desire and focus followed by emotion, knowledge, and age. That was important. Everything else was minor. Hagrid had proved it and so had Ron.

Hermione continued, "You should really work on getting your parents to buy you a better wand, or letting our Professors know about your issues."

Ron swallowed, the tips of his ears turning red. "What—"

Holly gently kicked Ron under the table and shook her head. Nodding to Hermione, she said, "Okay."

"It's best not to go ahead before you're ready," she said, spearing a broccoli floret.

An air of tension hung around the trio. Ron had slipped into another one of his increasingly common pensive moods and wouldn't speak to either of them. He finished his meal and wrote in his journal before leaving.

Holly ate the last of Treacle tart methodically, trying to keep her calm. Ron and Hermione were never the best of friends. She wouldn't deny that it was partly because of Ron's callous remarks that sent Hermione to the bathroom exactly a year ago, but since then he had tried to be more considerate towards both of them.

Now it seemed as though the shoe was on the other foot, and Hermione was the instigator in all their recent conflicts. Ron had chosen to ignore and pacify Hermione for the most part, but it didn't seem to stop her criticisms.

Well, if Ron won't stand up for himself anymore, I will.

"Was that necessary?" Holly finally asked Hermione.

Hermione started. "I was only trying to help! Ron needs a proper wand more than he needs to cast non-verbal spells. It takes months of practice, and frankly, I don't think he has the tenacity to stick to it."

"Ron has plenty of tenacity!" snapped Holly.

"Being good at chess and liking Quidditch doesn't mean he can handle months of hard work. It'll be easier if he just asks his parents to take him to Diagon Alley this weekend and get him a new wand. Trying to learn non-verbal magic to skirt around a damaged wand is the height of stupidity!"

Holly shook her head in disbelief. "I can't believe you." She stood up to leave when she spotted Ron's things, left behind in his sudden exit. Hefting the tattered knapsack over her left shoulder she shot back at Hermione, "I'm going to go find him. Someone has to."

Holly covered her face with a pillow and screamed.

The whole school had gone mad ever since the Chamber of Secrets was opened and she was the prime suspect. Never mind the fact that she only left the Feast five minutes early and Malfoy had yelled "You'll be next, Mudbloods!" once he saw Mrs Norris—no, she was the only person that could have done it.

Word had spread like fire and other than Ron, Hermione, and Colin, no one would speak to her. At lunch, she had hoped to see Justin in order to confirm their date, but he was nowhere to be found. Ernie and Hannah had given her mistrustful looks, and sure enough, Colin handed her a note at the end of the meal.

Justin had cancelled on her.

She couldn't honestly say that she fancied him much, but it would have been nice to see where things went. Now she would never know.

Who cares about some duffer? I've got better things to worry about.

For one, her neglected non-magical schoolwork. She had a bad habit of skipping it for weeks or months at a time, and it would take her some time to finish. Luckily all she had to worry about was taking a test once she got home during the summer, so as long as she passed that, she'd be fine.

Once that was done, she took a deep breath and thought, Lumos.

A ball of light came to life above her right hand. Holly smiled. Lumos was one of her favourites.

Wingardium Leviosa. Her pillow floated in mid-air.

She continued in the same vein, trying out her non-verbal and wandless magic with all the common first-year spells. The magical atmosphere of Hogwarts made it easy to cast non-verbal and wandless magic, proving her suspicions. Hogwarts was the best place to cast spells—needless to say—followed by the Weasleys, the Kanns, and then the Dursleys and the rest of the Muggle world.

Hogwarts and the Weasleys made sense. Magical settlements encouraged easier spellcasting. The Kanns and the Dursleys, not so much. They were both Muggle homes in Muggle areas.

So what makes them so different?

Holly sighed and checked the time. Dinner was almost over. Oh well, she'd just have to get an early breakfast tomorrow and subsist on snacks in the meantime.

The Common Room was expectedly full, but she still found Hermione sitting in their usual corner.

"Hey Hermione."

The girl frowned, closing the book she had been reading. It was an earlier edition of Hogwarts, A History that Holly'd gotten her for her birthday. "You could have gone to dinner, you know. Where were you, by the way?"

Holly opened her packet of crisps. "Doing homework. You've must have read that book three times already."

"Five," corrected Hermione, "and I'm reading up on the Chamber of Secrets. This edition has a lot more information than my copy at home does."

"What did you find?"

"Oh, the usual story," she said, opening the book once more. "Hogwarts was founded by four great witches and wizards, Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw, and Salazar Slytherin. They built the castle far away from Muggles over a thousand years ago—there's no exact date—and brought young children who showed signs of magic to be educated here."

Just then, Ron arrived. He looked rather put together for that time of day, his hair combed and clothes straightened and tucked. "So what's all this?" he asked, sitting next to Holly.

"Hermione was telling me about what she found in Hogwarts, A History," she said, looking between the two. With all that had happened the previous night she didn't get back to the Tower until midnight, and by then most everyone was asleep. By the time she saw Ron again at lunch he seemed to have gotten over the Halloween disagreement.

Ron hummed. "Well? Go on then. Tell us."

"The Founders worked together at first, but eventually Slytherin wanted to be more selective with which students would be admitted. He didn't trust anyone with Muggle parentage, and wanted Hogwarts to be for pure-bloods only," said Hermione, clearly furious.

Holly scowled. Slytherin was no better than Malfoy, it seemed. No wonder he was eager to get into his House.

"And then?" asked Ron, his face pensive.

"The other Founders disagreed with him, and after a fight with Gryffindor, Slytherin left the school."

"Good riddance," muttered Holly.

"Apparently, Slytherin had built The Chamber of Secrets somewhere in the school, and before he left he sealed it so that only his one true heir could open it. The heir alone would be able to unseal the Chamber of Secrets, unleash the horror within, and use it to purge the school of all who were unworthy to study magic."

"The horror within?"

"Some sort of beast, the book didn't say."

The trio sat in silence, taking it all in.

"You know," began Ron, "there's a good explanation for Slytherin's beliefs."

"Like what?" asked Hermione, her eyes narrowed.

Holly ate a crisp.

"Well, Muggles back then were twisted loonies, chasing wizards around, trying to kill them. I'm sure a lot of Muggle-borns hated having magic and would do anything to get their families to love them, even betraying their own kind."

"That was before the Statute of Secrecy was signed, though," said Holly, trying to ignore the uncomfortable twisting in her gut and Hermione's outraged sputters. "That doesn't explain the Muggle hate now, almost three hundred years later. Most Muggles don't even know we exist outside of fairy tales."

"The Muggle hate only started up again a hundred or so years ago. Before that, Muggle-borns were pretty rare and were sought after to bring new blood to a family tree—Great Aunt Muriel's words, not mine—as an alternative to marrying a Muggle. Then when the Muggles started getting better food and education and stuff like that, well, people got worried."

"The Industrial Revolution," said Hermione in realization.

"So suddenly there were a lot more Muggle-borns coming to Hogwarts, right?"

Ron nodded. "A lot of the old families started closing ranks. We didn't want our culture getting erased by some novel ideas."

"That doesn't make it right," snapped Hermione.

"I never said it did, but if you look at it from our point of view—"

"I have, and it's an absolute load of rubbish!" Hermione gathered her books and stormed off without another word.

Ron shook his head, looking disappointed. "I thought someone as smart as her would understand."

Holly didn't know what to think, and her thoughts raced long after she went to bed.

~•~

It's colder up here. Holly shivered in the late March breeze as she looked at the ground. She was going to be in so much trouble.

"Holly?" called Alex from below. "Holly!"

She swallowed. It had happened again. She had no clue why and now Alex was going to hate her once he found out how strange she was.

Holly wanted to cry.

Alex huffed beneath her. He looked tiny. "You won, okay? Now come out! Mum said we have to go soon!"

"I can't," she whispered. She had no clue how high up she was.

"HOLLY!"

"Up here!" She was never playing hide-and-seek again.

"Where? Keep talking so I can hear you!"

"In the tree! Help! I don't know what happened!"

Alex reached the base of the trunk and looked up. "Woah! How'd you climb that high?"

"I don't know!"

"Will you be able to get down?"

She shook her head. "Can you help me?"

Alex's face was too small for her to see, but his voice was sceptical. "You're really high up!"

She gulped.

"Can you reach the next branch?"

Holly eyed one a few feet away. "I think so!"

"Try to climb to it!"

She calmed her shaky fingers and slowly made her way down.

"There's a few more," Alex said after she was safe. "One's only a few feet away."

They did it again and again. Alex pointed out strong branches for her to climb to and Holly slowly made her way to the ground. As she went further down, there were far fewer branches she could reach. Then, on the second to last branch, she slipped.

"No!"

I don't want to die, I don't want to die, I don't want to die, she thought, even as her friend rushed towards her. Holly felt something odd, though. The wind didn't rush past her anymore—she wasn't falling as fast as she thought she should. She touched the ground gently with a smile.

"I'm okay!" Relief flooded through her. Grinning, she turned to Alex…

He looked at her strangely, as if...well, as if she had flown. "You floated," he said matter-of-factly.

The smile faded from her face. Holly didn't know what to say. "Yeah."

"That had to be at least a storey high."

She nodded timidly. She knew she should have some bruises, no less, from a fall that high. Her freakishness saved her. But what would happen now?

Alex watched her carefully. Not a word passed between the two children. Then, Alex's face broke out into a blinding smile.

"That was awesome!"

Relief filled her once more. "Really?" she asked, not daring to hope.

"Yeah!" nodded Alex eagerly. "You went from rushing to the ground to floating! How'd you do it? Is that how Dudley's ball exploded? And how it took ages for the other one to get to the ground?"

She bit her lip. Could she tell him her secret? He was her best friend and it had been months and he still hadn't gone away. Dennis only lasted a few days. Angela and Corey didn't even last half an hour.

Looking at Alex's expectant face, Holly made her decision. If he was going to blab, he would have done it already. She could trust him.

"I...I don't know," she admitted. "Sometimes when I'm angry, or sad, or happy, things happen around me. I can't control it, it just happens."

Alex hummed and put his left hand on his right elbow. He tapped his chin with his other hand. "So you can't do it whenever you want?"

Holly shook her head.

"Have you ever tried?"

Another shake. "I wish I could. That'd be wicked."

He nodded as if she was a teacher who said something interesting. "I've got an idea. You could practice!"

"Practice?"

"Yeah! Like experiments my dad does. What did you want to happen when you were floating?"

Holly shrugged. "I just didn't want to fall."

"Is that what you were thinking?"

"Yeah. I didn't want to get hurt."

"Maybe that's what you need to do!" Alex's eyes sparked with excitement. "You have to really really want it to happen!"

"I don't know if it'll work..."

"It's worth a go. Besides, if you can control it, maybe your Aunt won't be so mean to you."

That was good enough for her. "Okay."

Alex picked up a rock. "Alright, I'm going to toss it and you'll make it float."

Holly nodded.

"Catch!"

Float, float, float. Please float.

Unmoved by her wishes, the rock fell to the ground.

"Don't worry," said Alex. "We'll figure it out."

"We?" said Holly in shock. She thought Alex would give her a few ideas but stay out of it. He wanted to help her?

"Well, yeah," Alex said with a shrug. "There has to be something about it somewhere."

That proved she made the right decision. With a happy smile, Holly hugged him as hard as she could. When she let go, Alex gave her a confused look.

"Why'd you hug me?" he asked.

"'Cause I was happy you're still my friend." Did she do something bad? "I'm sorry, I've never hugged anyone before."

Alex gasped. "Never?"

Holly shook her head. Petunia would always hug Dudley and kiss him on the cheek, but not her.

"Oh," Alex said. He frowned. "Well, I guess it's okay sometimes. But no one else can see. Boys don't hug."

Holly grinned and hugged him again.

This time, he hugged her back.