Holly's finger lingered in the air as her breath came in shallow puffs, her hands shook, and Holly gave a hiccuping gasp, trying to contain any noises from escaping. She could not stop the tears from sliding down her face as her finger moved forward. Whimpering, Holly wrenched her hand away and dug her fingernails into her palm as her arms dropped helplessly to her side. Left hanging in the air in front of her was that one option she was so desperate to take. The ticket out of this world, this situation, this war, and her fate. A one-way path directly to her soulmate, one tap, and she'd be gone where no one could follow her. And she couldn't do it.

"I don't want to die." Holly said as she grabbed her pillow and yanked it to her chest in a mock attempt at a hug, at some form of comfort. Curling up with her knees to her chest Holly's body heaved as she soundlessly broke down.

She didn't want to die, and despite fighting in a war where she was the centerpiece, where an authentic prophecy set her up as the savior, Holly hadn't actually imagined she'd die. Somehow despite everything in her childhood, she'd had some ridiculous faith that she'd make it through. That they'd win against Voldemort and Holly would survive it. Holly had believed she had a future, that one day she'd go to her soulmate and everything would be okay!

But she was a Horcrux. Her very life was a linchpin keeping Voldemort's tied to the earth. As long as she lived so too would he, even if she abandoned the world, she'd take the soul fragment with her and Voldemort would become effectively immortal until her own life came to an end. It was a truth that brought her to her knees, a blow leaving her breathless and unable to recover from it. Holly was a Horcrux, and had to die.

Holly would never meet her soulmate, she'd never grow old, she'd never get married, never travel the world. Holly would never get over her fear of having children and being a better mother than her aunt had ever managed. She'd never even grow older than her parents had been when they died; at this rate, she'd die several years before they had, and she'd accomplish far less than they had. Holly would leave Sirius without family again, Ron and Hermione without their friend - at least they'd have their-

Holly reached up and brushed a hand across her face as she sniffled pitifully. Hermione and Ron, they'd never let her do it, nor would Sirius. They'd fight the truth kicking and screaming until the last moment, and they might end up dead for it. Then two more people would be without their soulmates, and Ron and Hermione would never grow up either.

"I have to die." Holly forced the words from her lips. She had to die to protect the people she loved, to save the world she had been ready to abandon. She had to die so Sirius, Arthur, Molly, Professor Snape, Tonks, Remus, Ron, and Hermione and so many others could live. Holly cast her eyes to the option still hovering above her face and waved it away with regret. She prayed her soulmate would forgive her for this, but Holly knew that wasn't logical. The woman attached to her would never know the truth, she'd never understand what happened and what choice Holly had made.

And she had made it.

"I have to die."

Holly released her pillow and sat up grabbing for her journal, inside she quickly began to write her ideas and the truth of what Snape had told her. She'd be gone, but she needed to give Ron, Hermione, and Sirius their best chance to win after it had happened. So Holly wrote everything she could think of; then she summoned Dobby to her with a polite request.

"I need you to give this to Hermione and Ron… tomorrow, can you do that?"

Dobby was confused but willing. He swore to do precisely that, no doubt planning on counting down the exact seconds until 'tomorrow.' Holly left him to it, thanking Dobby for everything he'd done for her, and hugging him for perhaps a little too long as she realized she'd never see him again. Thankfully Dobby wasn't as good at human cue's, so he didn't know anything was wrong with her goodbye. Hermione and Ron would have noticed in a split second.

That done Holly left behind her cloak and everything that meant a thing to her, she left it for her three most treasured people knowing they'd treat her precious items with respect. All she took was the clothes on her back - Dudley's that now fit her decently - and her wand. Steadily she pulled her trainers on, then in the darkness of Grimmauld place, she descended the stairs.

Holly passed Sirius' room, she gave the door a respectful look aware Sirius always locked it tight before he went to sleep out of sheer habit. Grimmauld was the only place he locked himself in; Holly wasn't surprised, she'd have done the same if they were staying in Privet Drive instead. Hermione and Ron's rooms were a level down, Ron's door was likewise closed out of habit from having so many siblings, but Hermione's was cracked. Holly could see the slight light and knew Hermione was no doubt engrossed in a book, but she didn't stop to say goodbye. Hermione would try to stop her, they all would.

Swallowing Holly crept down the stairs used to moving without sound after all those years at the Dursley's. She passed Sirius' mother's picture covered by a curtain and shushed Kreacher with a firm order when he caught her awake. Finally, Holly opened the front door and stepped into the darkness outside. There she lingered a moment, glanced back at the house that held her loved ones with red eyes. Before she turned on her heel and apparated on the spot.

Something woke Nami, but she had no idea what it was, only that it was important. Rubbing her eyes, Nami swung her legs up, wary the ship was going to be attacked, or the weather had taken a drastic turn while she'd been asleep. In her pajamas, Nami left her cabin and walked onto the deck, and cast a look at their surroundings.

The sky was clear, the Baratie was still calmly sitting beside them, there were no enemy ships around. All seemed calm, which was suspicious.

"Nightmare?"

Nami jumped, biting off a scream, she swung on the place and found Zoro watching her with one eye open. He was leaned against Merry's railing with his arms behind his head, and Nami related belatedly that he was on watch, she'd forgotten. "What?" she asked as her heart returned to a reasonable rate.

"I said 'nightmare.'" He repeated dully as his other eye slid open, though he didn't bother to change his position. A sarcastic look overtook his face a moment later, "it's when you have a dream that's-"

"I know what it is!" she snapped and stormed toward him. Zoro shrugged and fell silent as if he didn't care, but Nami had learned a bit about Zoro by then. The silence wasn't uncaring, it was patient, supportive, he was waiting for her to decide if she wanted to talk about it or not. Nami wasn't sure if she wanted to not, mostly because she wasn't sure what had bothered her. Which she elected to tell him. "Just woke up feeling like something was wrong, it's obviously fine, so I'm going back to sleep."

Nami turned and started to march back toward her cabin when Zoro's voice stopped her.

"Usually… an instinct like that is not something you should ignore." She paused, and Zoro finally shifted, turning to stare at the moon overhead. They both remained there as Zoro debated if he should elaborate, and Nami wondered if she should ask. In the end, Zoro was the one who acted first: "I would suggest checking on your soulmate."

Nami's hands shook, and she grunted a confirmation as her mind whirled. Had something happened to Zoro's? Was his soulmate even alive? She gave him a sharp nod telling him she had listened and would think on it before she marched to her cabin. Nami closed the door behind her once she was inside and swiped a hand through the air opening her options, but nothing seemed amiss. There was a bit of emotional turmoil, but that was almost always present. Nami went to buy the choice and stopped.

"Instinct." She told herself, pulling her hand away. Something told her not to do it, and Nami listened as she returned to bed and pulled the covers up.

But she found quickly that she could no longer sleep.

Severus never even debated telling Holly Potter the truth as they strode through the forest in perfect silence. She'd come to him, to his home with her resolve and her ridiculous, pathetic, brave, notion of what happened next. Holly knew her fate, she'd known it the instant he told her about it just as he'd known his own as he failed to come up with a solution to the problem. There was no way to remove a living Horcrux except by the hands of the one who put it there. That physically would never happen. Which meant Holly had to die; there was no other option. And by extension, so too did Severus.

He had sworn to protect her, to do everything in his power to keep her safe. And then Albus told him the truth about her and offered them both a death sentence. For that very moment, Severus was escorting Holly to her death, and by doing so, he was going against his vow.

The very moment her heart stopped, so too would his and the path to defeating the Dark Lord would be open.

He knew he'd left information for her friends and Black, he'd done much the same. Both of them acting to ensure even after they were gone, someone would end the tyranny of the dark lord. But Potter was convinced he would earn the Dark Lord's complete confidence with this step. She thought by allowing him to turn her in that he'd become the Dark Lord's most trusted. It was a decent plan, if not for his vow.

Severus didn't tell her the truth, he'd save that from the child that was already sacrificing herself to save the world. She didn't need his death to be on her conscious, that was his burden to bear, and Albus' actions that ensured it.

The manor appeared through the tree line, and Potter's footsteps faltered. Severus wondered if she'd change her mind, he very much wanted her to despite being aware this was their only choice.

"Thanks for bringing me Professor…" she lifted Lily's eyes toward him, "thanks for uh… well, being honest, I guess."

"Shall we?" he offered no comfort, no last words. There was nothing he could say regardless… but as they walked forward, Severus wondered for the briefest moment if he should have told her the truth.

It was too late regardless, and Severus pulled his mind from it, keeping his thoughts on the color of her eyes, of Lily's eyes hoping they would be the final thing he saw in this life.

Green.

Green the color of the killing curse. The spell that claimed Cedric, her mother and father, and countless others.

Holly stared at death, at Voldemort, and gave him the middle finger.

And everything ceased to be.

Nami had a sick feeling in her chest and a wanted poster in her back pocket. Yet there was a smile plastered on Nami's face as she watched Luffy, Usopp, and Zoro walk off the gangplank. At Zoro, who didn't give away their conversation that night, nor the fact that he hadn't slept and was dearly looking forward to breakfast. Nor Usopp, who seemed to have been communicating with Kaya until far too late, causing him to sway happily in place. Or Luffy, who bounced along unaware of how much he'd changed her life.

Luffy was different, a pirate yes, but so good that Nami couldn't believe it half the time. He helped Nami breathe just by existing, and Nami wanted to give her entire life to him. She wanted to have earned the loyalty she wanted to… to travel the world with him to fulfill her dream. She wanted to make Luffy the pirate king.

But one piece of paper and brutally reminded Nami of her responsibilities. So Nami forced herself to remain on the Merry as those three left it, and when Luffy turned back with that smile of his, Nami forced her mouth open. To tell them she'd catch up, to say goodbye because she'd never see them again-

And Nami's vision bled black.

Nami froze as her knees gave out, as she pitched forward, staggering, collapsing over seemingly nothing. Arms caught her as she wheezed, Zoro's she'd latest realize for he'd been at the back and closed to her when he'd caught sight of Luffy's distraught expression. Perhaps she might have appreciated it if she wasn't too busy screaming. As alarms blared in her head, as a dozen warnings covered her vision and she could see nothing but those words again and again. The signs flashed at her, and a timer started to count down in her ears, and she was screaming-

SOUL MATE DEATH: REVIVE?

Nami had heard of it before, had been warned about it long ago because at one point everyone faced it. That one day, your vision would bleed, and the timer would begin, and it would be your only chance. Nami had always thought it had been cruel. To force someone to watch a timer tick down, to view your only chance to save your soulmate bleed away. For some, the genuinely kind, your soulmate could be saved, and the end could be staved off temporarily. But for most, it was an unnatural cruelty because the average person couldn't do a damned thing about it.

Distantly Nami was aware Bellemare had a soulmate, and distantly Nami realized someone out in the wide world had seen this very event happening and had watched her mother fade and hadn't stopped it. Nami had hated that person, the distant figure who could have been her father and yet hadn't saved her mother. But as Nami looked at her points and realized she was a full thousand points short-

She couldn't save them.

They were dead-

"NAMI!" Someone was shaking her shoulder, and she was screaming- "How much do you need! NAMI! Read the number! How much?!"

"She's panicking-"

"Do something-"

"Zoro!"

Pain exploded on her cheek, and Nami's screams cut off as she gasped. She glared at Zoro who unapologetically pulled his hand back, he'd slapped her, the son of a b-

"Nami!" Luffy grabbed her face, he forced her to look at him. "How much do you need!" he demanded it, forced her to think, to calculate. She'd always been good at math.

"A little less than a thousand," Nami robotically answered. There was no way. She'd been in the negatives for years and only had points now because of Luffy. A thousand wasn't possible, no matter how many good deeds she did in the minute she had left. The Baratie didn't even have enough people for her to help. Her soulmate was dead- "I can't afford it- they're dead- they're dead- they're dead- my soulmate is-"

Zoro's lips pressed together as his hands flexed on her shoulder in solidarity. Usopp was crying, hiccuping sobs escaping his lips because there was nothing to be done, and he'd never seen someone loose their soulmate before- and Luffy was... kicking off his shoes? Nami stared at him in confusion, finding herself hyper-focusing on Luffy's actions as he wrenched off his hat and smashed it onto Zoro's head.

Then Luffy locked eyes with her. "Zoro, don't let anyone, but Nami save me. No matter how many times it takes."

'What?'

"Understood," Zoro said, stepping back from her and crossing his arms. Ruthlessly he grabbed Usopp's shoulder. Nami's mouth worked trying to voice her confusion, then Luffy sprinted past her, past Zoro and Usopp, and he hurled himself into the ocean.

Nami blinked uncomprehending, staring in sheer surprise as water splashed across her legs. As her mind refused to understand. She couldn't fathom why he'd do that when he was a hammer. He couldn't swim- He couldn't swim!

She was on her feet in a second staring at the water as if it had betrayed her, "Someone- Zoro go get him!" she said panicked, but he wasn't looking at her he still had a death grip on Usopp, fingers white, as she stared at the water. But Usopp, Usopp was staring at her as if she was particularly slow. "What are you waiting for?!" she demanded.

"What are you." Zoro turned her words back on her even as he refused to look away from the water, "he's waiting for you." Then he turned, looking right through her soul, "don't you want to save them?"

Realization kicked into her like a knife to the chest, as she turned on her heel. As warnings continued to scream, as her time ticked away. She hit the water, thinking how stupid Luffy was, that he was risking his life, his dream, and future over her soulmate, who perhaps he might never even meet. How could he?! Nami sped through the water like a human well versed in swimming was. Not like she was born for it like other beings were. More like she'd been tossed in constantly since she'd been nine years old and had learned through several almost drownings how to hold her breath for as long as a human possibly could.

She cut through the waters using the movements she'd learned from her enemies and reached Luffy in mere seconds. There, she snatched hold of his vest, dragging him toward her chest, she cupped his head protectively. And she yanked him toward the air, toward safety. Every second pulling his limp body out of the waters firm grip burned, as that timer taking over her vision dropped to fifteen-

Fourteen-

Thirteen-

They breached the water gasping, and she reached blindly, unable to see past the warnings. Zoro's firm grip caught her own, and he heaved them from the ocean. Nami landed on the deck gasping and felt Luffy sit up remarkably unbothered, as he shoved into her personal space.

"Do you have enough?" he asked it with the clarity of someone who had done this before. Of someone who was prepared to throw himself back into the ocean again and again until Nami had enough points to save her soulmate. And he would, she knew he would.

Three-

Two-

Nami slapped her hand on the option in front of her face and watched it be accepted. Black fled, the timer stopped dead at 'one,' and the warnings vanished. Everything returned to normal in an instant, and Nami gasped out a broken sob.

"Did you do it?" Usopp asked, biting his nails off, as even Zoro stared her down in demand.

"Y-yes." Nami turned on the spot, sopping wet, and she hurled herself at Luffy, at her Captain, and wrapped her body around his own. They were safe, her soulmate was safe, they were alive. Luffy had saved them both, he'd put everything at risk to do that for her. Her Captain.

Luffy's arms wrapped around her body three times, stretching and laughing in relieved delight. Usopp threw his hands up, screaming in joy and about how he couldn't wait to tell Kaya. Zoro exhaled and returned Luffy's hat releasing the white-knuckled grip he'd had on it.

Then Nami reached into her pocket on a sprint second decision, grabbing the waterlogged picture of Arlong and pulled away from Luffy's stretchy grip. It was on impulse and the knowledge and trust she had for these people. She'd been stupid to think Luffy, Usopp, and Zoro wouldn't chase after her if she fled back to Arlong's grip. Of course they would. They were the Straw Hat's, and Luffy had the survival instincts of a moth in front of bright light.

"Luffy," She placed the picture in front of them all, "I need help."

Holly was wrapped up in her mother's arms. Lily's hand rubbed her back as they held each other, as Holly confessed everything in a surge of word vomit that Lily fondly listened to. Holly spoke of her life at the Dursley's and the difficulty she'd gone through trying to understand the abuse she'd been through. Then she told her mother that Sirius had helped, he'd made her realize it wasn't her fault as he shared his own stories with her.

"Dad is still dad." Holly added in a rush, "but Sirius is… he's…"

"He's also dad." Lily said in understanding, then watched Holly cringe guiltily, "oh Holly love, you can have two. It's perfectly alright. Your father and I… that's why we chose Sirius to be your god-father so that he could be your father if anything happened to you. Honestly, you can tell Sirius that he doesn't need to be guilty if you ever call him father; he's doing what he can, and we're so proud of you both."

Holly relaxed… then frowned. "Tell Sirius?"

Lily laughed her voice chiming like a bells: "oh my little girl, surely you didn't really think that girl of yours wouldn't do everything she could to save you?" Holly's eyes flew wide, and she backed a step, only one though because Lily refused let her go before she absolutely had to.

"W-what?!"

"James was upset, of course, that was mostly because he was desperate to see some grandchildren running around. Though I told him you could always just blood adopt, especially since Na- err, your soulmate was adopted as well."

"What?!"

Lily blushed, realizing her slip and tried to recover: "Anyway! Your soulmate is a lovely young woman, and I approve, we both do, so don't you worry."

"I-… mom…-huh?!" Holly blabbered helplessly

"Of course, you both will need to work on your relationship as every soul-pair does."

"I'm dead though."

Lily nodded along and glanced at her wrist, almost as if she was checking for the time. "Oh yes, for about… thirty more seconds."

"WHAT?!"

Lily suddenly yanked Holly into a tighter hug, the tightest Holly had ever been in. Her mother acted as if she was trying to wrap her body around Holly's so she could protect her from the world. Holly started, reeling in confusion as Lily suddenly rushed to speak.

"Now, remember when you go back to play dead. Severus won't be able to help you, so you have to escape yourself, I'm sure you'll figure it out." Holly jerked, but Lily didn't pause, "when you do finally defeat snake-face, try to remember that you have options. And when you meet that soulmate of yours, be sure to visit her mother's grave, it's important." Lily hummed, trying to think of everything she needed to say, "lastly, remember that your father and I love you, always. We'll be waiting, hopefully, for a very long time, I want to hear all the stories when we see each other again."

Lily pulled back; "now, go home."

And Holly breathed once again.