'Sometimes I worry about them, they get injured so often, it's really concerning.' Holly admitted to Tom Riddle

Seeing a flash in the corner of her eyes Holly set aside her quill and hurried to open her menu. It wasn't the first time she'd gained an emergency warning from her soul-mate and probably wouldn't be the last considering how often her mate got hurt. And after checking Holly discovered it was a suffocation option again, coupled with water damage to the lungs, again. Holly selected both without complaint and paid the system to ensure her soul-mate was fine. But even as she did Holly worried why her soul-mate was so often getting hurt because of water. Could they swim? Holly couldn't, but if they were near water so often she'd probably need to learn. Actually, maybe she should take some time to do so soon. She'd ask Hermione later.

She closed the option when she didn't get any other option and tapped her quill to the diary, Holly asked: 'did your soul-mate ever have problems like that Tom?' before realizing she probably shouldn't ask, that sort of question was incredibly personal according to Hermione. Holly rushed to apologize until she saw Tom writing back to her.

'No, my soul-mate never had such issues. Though I suspect my relationship with them was reversed in comparison to yours.'

Holly made a face not quite understanding, then it clicked. It meant Tom had been the one getting hurt.

'But didn't they help you?' Holly always did, without fail.

'No, no, they did not.'

Holly felt a rush of empathy for Tom. His soul-mate could probably not afford the options to help heal him, she knew that was a common problem for most people. Holly understood, she'd spent nearly all her childhood being hurt in some way, and she eventually realized her soul-mate helped only when they could. Still, even Holly had occasionally doubted that her soul-mate had even wanted her. With her aunt whispering such harsh words in her ears, saying that freaks didn't deserve soul-mates. Holly couldn't help but doubt. That was until she woke without bruises, until she watched small bloodied cuts heal up far too quickly to be natural. And she'd known she was still loved.

'They're out there Tom, I'm sure.' She tried to comfort him, but even as she wrote it, she heard Hermione calling and rushed to tell him a quick goodbye. They had to go to dinner, and Holly had to ask Hermione about swimming lessons. So she never did get to hear what Tom would have said to that; which was probably for the best Holly later realized as she stood face to face with the man who killed her parents.

Though she couldn't help but wonder who Tom's soul-mate was, and would again wonder much later, if Dumbledore wasn't incorrect in saying that those born from love-potions, honestly didn't have one.

Regardless, Holly was a thousand points down for killing the basilisk because committing murder was always a negative. But was meanwhile several thousand points up for saving Ginny and the school from the basilisk and Voldemort's shade. The number just added to her grand total, and while Ron celebrated the amount he'd gained from assisting, Holly could not feel good about it.

She'd saved the school and Ginny yes, but really… she hadn't done it for selfless reasons. She just didn't want the school to close and had just gotten the points because it was considered a good thing. Which perhaps, meant she had a little more in common with Tom Riddle than she'd liked to admit.

Once is happenstance, twice is a coincidence, three times though? That was a pattern, and Nami could adapt to that. Nami's soul-mate was prone to injuring themselves, she'd always known it. But for the last three years exactly, the pattern of their injuries had changed - Nami might have been obsessing over watching her points page but what else was she supposed to do while sailing? Regardless, her soul mate had spent their childhood constantly gaining serious wounds that Nami now understood were a sign of abuse. Then, suddenly, three years ago, that pattern changed. No longer did Nami see 'starvation,' 'broken arm,' or the constant bruises across her menu. Instead, her soul mate seemed… healthy except for some extraordinary options that went away within a night.

Nami would never get over the 'missing bone: replace?' option she'd seen the year prior.

Outside that Nami's soul-mate seemed to gain her worst injuries at the start of summer till the beginning of fall. With the worst being the very start of summer in the April-June time frame. Nami was good at math, and once she figured that bit out, Nami realized to best help her soul-mate, she'd simply need to get out of the negatives and back into the positives for April.

It wasn't difficult to convince Arlong to release her for March to April or if she was lucky June. In exchange for doing 'survey' research, Nami wandered the oceans for those months. She was expected to return and draw plenty of maps of the areas, but she agreed because then she was free for three months to do what she wished.

At first, well, Nami spent the whole time stealing. She ran around taking anything she could get her hands on from the rich or the less dangerous pirates. She did this to buy her village, and she knew it would take years, but she'd do it eventually. Unfortunately, Nami quickly discovered that regardless of her good intentions for the village, stealing was still stealing, and her actions resulted in negatives.

But Nami was good at math - when it came to money and points.

Nami realized quickly that if she spent all of March doing as many good deeds as she could, she could escape her negatives enough to buy one or two options for her soul-mate. Which was especially useful for her soul-mate who was always injured around April. Honestly, deathly snake bites, rope burns, 'magical exhaustion' - and didn't she have questions about that option, and more. After she'd bought something to help her soul-mate, Nami then rushed through as much stealing as she could for her village.

Nami learned several things as she did this. Firstly, good deeds were harder to find than doing bad ones. Stealing was easy, especially when Nami never had to worry about her injuries - ever. Nami would take stab wounds without pause, she'd rip apart her hands, run till her feet bled, she'd starve and never sleep as she worked for those few months. But she never had to worry about any of that for more than a few minutes. Nami's soul-mate took care of her - and Nami so often wondered how good her soul-mate was that they could afford everything that happened to her so quickly. So no, Nami never had issues with her stealing and was building up quite the pain resistance as time progressed. The problem was always earning enough points to cover her negatives and the hefty amount her soul-mates injuries cost.

Nami, when earning points, thrived on the small things, wandering from island to island and offering a kind word or action. She helped people cross streets, offered quickly drawn maps to those who were lost. She complimented freely, offered up food or water and on the rare case, she helped find a lost pet or child. Once she'd gotten incredibly lucky when she'd sensed a dangerous storm and had been heading to port when she'd happened upon a clueless cruise-liner. She'd warned the captain about the squall, and she'd gained an enormous amount of points for her aid. Of course, she'd promptly spent it all, because her soul-mate had apparently almost lost her soul!

Nothing could describe her fear when Nami saw that particular option.

Amazingly though, after that, Nami saw nothing but a few common bruises from her soul-mate for the rest of that summer. And found she could finally relax.

At least for the summer.

It would be the start of the next year and on that Nami really had to worry about.

Standing side by side with her godfather for the very first time, after realizing he was innocent, Holly found she had a few dozen questions to ask him. So throwing on a mask of confidence, she turned to the adult who should be able to finally give her an answer, and spoke.

"Sirius! I have questions… a-about soul-mates."

"Soul-mates?" he glanced at her uncertain, "in what way? Oh… oh no… did anyone explain it to you?" Sirius turned bright red, "the… uh… the pleasure tab?" he couldn't look at her as Holly likewise turned red because no that was not what she was asking, but Sirius plowed on.

"Alright, okay, I wasn't prepared for this today. No, it's fine. So, the tab is one of the secondary options on the menu that shows up after both sides of a mated pair hit puberty. Not to be mistaken for the benefit's tab that appears after you meet for the first time."

"Sirius that's not-"

"-now, it doesn't cost much, but you should definitely try to make sure they're not in a public location when you start selecting options. So first you do what your dad used to call the 'nudge' the cheapest option on the tab, and if you get a nudge back, then you're good and you can start for real. So next you-"

"SIRIUS!" Holly yelped, "we learned about that in health class already!"

"Oh? Oh, thank Merlin," he exhaled in relief, "so what's your question then pup?"

"I just wanted to know about my parents, were they…?"

"Soul-mates?" Sirius gave her a fond look, "they were. James had a habit of buying all the small hints as soon as he could. So when his first said 'red hair' he targeted Lily and wouldn't leave her alone. Especially when every small hint after added more detail that always matched her." Sirius gave a laugh, "Lily was the opposite, she saved her points constantly and didn't buy a single hint until we were in our last year and she got 'Potter.'. You should have seen her face! Best day of his life James said… till they had you that was."

Holly beamed at her godfather as Remus exited the tunnel with the rest of their group. They'd fallen behind, no doubt to give Holly and Sirius some time to bond after all these years.

"What about your soul mate?" she wondered.

"That… that's a bit more complicated." Sirius ranked a hand in his hair, "I used to buy a lot of small hints when I was younger, but it didn't really get me anywhere. So I started to save, I got a lot of points during the war. Saving people you know?" he sighed, "I bought my first big hint shortly after you were born and it said uh… 'another world' and… well, then I was sent to Azkaban so…" he looked away toward the sky. With a voice that was dangerously choked, Sirius whispered: "points go stale there, no gains or negatives… it's part of the punishment. And while I was there, I got the warning… to save their life. And I didn't have the points." Sirius could still remember how much he'd screamed that day. His voice joining the countless others as he begged and pleaded and screamed to be released. Just for a few points, only a few, he had to save them- he had to! They'd always taken care of him. They'd kept him sane, they'd kept him healthy in Azkaban, they'd saved him time and time again. And yet, there was nothing he could do in return.

Holly felt her heart seize in sorrow for her godfather. It was no wonder he'd been so furious with Pettigrew, his soul-mate had died, and he'd been forced to feel it, to see that warning and be completely unable to help. "Oh Sirius… I'm so sorry."

"It's… it's what it is," Sirius forced a smile, "what about you then pup? You buy any hints yet? I bet you're just like your dad-"

"Holly, Sirius!" they paused and glanced back just in time to see Hermione throw a pointed hand at the parting clouds and the full moon appearing from behind them.

"It's official," Hermione announced on the train heading home after their third year at Hogwarts. "I have enough for a big hint." Hermione had gained enough by helping save Sirius and Buckbeak, two lives saved in one night had pushed her far over the amount she needed. It also allowed her to keep enough after the big hint for emergency 'save life' options.

"I do too," Ron reported patting the owl Sirius had bought for him to replace the rat. Across from him, Holly gave a humming confirmation even though she always had enough.

"Shall we do it together then?" Hermione asked scooting forward to look at them, "one big hint for all of us? Agreed?"

"Sure."

"Alright."

The sat in a loose circle. Holly locked the door to the compartment to ensure Malfoy didn't come running to mess with them. While Hermione and Ron moved their things around to give them space. It was almost ceremonial as they all opened their menu's at once and scrolled for an option.

Then after nodding to each other; they clicked yes.

"Oh." Holly breathed as she stared at the words before her. There, right on her menu, were the same words Sirius had spoken a week prior.

'Another world.'