IN-OUT-IN-OUT-IN-OUT
Dear Holly: I was looking into the language your soulmate sings in, are you entirely certain you wrote it down correctly?…
In-out-in-out-in-out-in-out-
Holly: Hey so, I just remembered your birthday is on the first. Are you open to a party this year? At my house, of course. Fred and George want to set off some magical fireworks, you haven't seen them, right? It'll be awesome and…
In-out-in-out-
Dear Holly: You haven't responded, I'm growing a bit worried. Are my letters not coming through? Would a phone work better? I'll give you my phone number just in case you can't owl me an answer. It's…
PS: Also, regarding the language of your soulmate. I am beginning to suspect that he's from another world as I cannot find any reference to the words we wrote down on the train. Don't worry though! I have some theories about how to find and reach them if that is the case…
In, out, in, out
Holly: Why haven't you answered my letters!? Are you alright? Do we need to stage a rescue? Because the twins are beginning to scare me with their stories and all I can picture is you bleeding out in a gutter somewhere. Answer, please! Otherwise, we're going to come and get you! I swear we will-
Holly whimpered pressing the letters to her stomach, the paper crumpled up as her nails clawed at the words desperate to believe they were accurate. That Hermione and Ron still cared about her, that they had missed her, that they were still her friends even if she hadn't been able to write them a single letter that summer.
"I-I'm not… surprised… No-ot everything… lasts." Holly sobbed out the words to a song, so softly she scarcely heard her own voices and knew chances were her soulmate wouldn't be able to hear her either. Which Holly reasoned was sort of the point. Her entire goal that summer had been to avoid angering her aunt and uncle, and singing and magic were the number one and two reasons to end up right in their furious path.
Hermione and Ron had convinced her right from the moment they'd been allowed in the hospital wing that she was not allowed to stop singing. Her friends who had known her for no more than a year by then realized her personality enough to know the first thing Holly would do upon discovering Voldemort would be to stop singing. Passionately they'd sat at her bedside; Hermione had stated with full logic that the chances of Voldemort finding her foreign speaking soulmate were next to nill, especially considering Voldemort didn't even have a body. While a firmly speaking Ron told her that it was unfair to her soulmate to abandon him without his input at all.
Holly had been convinced by their argument. She'd agreed to sing during the school year, and the school year only. The moment Holly was within the Dursley's family vehicle heading to Privet Drive, she refused to open her mouth, this was emphasized by her aunt's furious threats.
Petunia Dursley was Lily's sister, and unlike Hagrid's assumptions, Petunia knew very well that Holly could not use magic during the summer break. Magic was less Petunia's concern, her niece was untrained and couldn't use magic until she was removed from the Dursley home, lest she be expelled. Rather, her main concern was the soulmate, the being that was bound to her niece, the genuine threat. There was too much unknown to that creature, they could have any level of power, and Petunia refused to allow it anywhere near her family.
So in the car heading to Privet Drive Petunia had made her rules clear. No magic, and no singing under any circumstances. Should Holly be caught doing either, then Petunia would silence her permanently. Holly had no idea what that meant, or how it would be accomplished but she was terrified enough not to push it. It was only when her voice was threatened by an outside source that Holly realized how much she treasured her ability to sing. It was only when Holly thought she might not be able to sing again, that she realized she couldn't stop.
Holly remained entirely silent and perfectly isolated for an entire month. A whole month as her soulmate's singing grew steadily more desperate, and as he became more determined. As he sang the catchiest tunes, the most familiar ones, the ones that just demanded she sing. He even copied one of her own, stumbling over the words of 'do the hippogriff' and proving he had been paying extreme attention to her.
Then Dobby showed up in Holly's room, the slave of an elf that stole her letters and connection to the outside world. The magical creature that wanted to save her by destroying her entire life. Holly watched helplessly as he dropped a cake on Vernon's guests in front of her aunt's face. Immediately following her aunt had grabbed hold of her, had bodily dragged Holly up the stairs and hurled her in her room. The room that already had a cat flap for food, the room that was locked down with bars outside the window to keep her in. The room she had only escaped because Dobby had unlocked the door and yet he'd never questioned why it had been so firmly locked.
Holly was trapped, forced to sit and wait for her punishment as her aunt and uncle tried to make excuses and to fix the chaos Dobby had unrolled with an attack by cake. Pressed in the corner in the room with the bed between her and the door, trying to hide as she jumped at every sound on the stairs. Her imagination ran wild about what would happen to her, about what her aunt would do. She should not have watched that documentary about medieval torture the previous year, she was picturing boiling water forced down her throat to kill her vocal cords and-
Holly whimpered, holding her letters tighter as she softly sang what was possibly the last song she'd ever sing.
"Talk… myself in, talk myself out." She brushed a hand over her eyes, but it did nothing to stop the globs of tears pouring down her face. In the back of her head, Holly heard her soulmate's voice. He'd heard her, somehow he'd heard her voice raised no louder than a mouses footsteps. She couldn't understand a word, but the tone of voice he used was hopeful and concerned, offering soft comfort. Holly keened breaking down completely.
"Help, Ron, Hermione, someone- I don't want- please-" footsteps sounded on the stairs, and Holly squeezed deeper into the corner still as her soulmate sang on.
A bang sounded outside, and lights shone through her curtains enveloping the entire room in a bright glow. Holly gasped, looking up the papers crumpling all the more, and a muffled voice sounded right outside her window.
"Is this the right one?"
"I think so, move closer! Let me knock!"
"Should'a brought a rock or something, this is something out of a movie."
"Right you are, George."
Holly's eyes flew wide as she launched herself from the corner to throw open the curtains just as Ron's knuckles rapped on the window. He hung halfway out a flying blue car, half his body still in the vehicle held secure by one of the twins. Ron's jerked back in surprise as he saw her, then he relaxed in relief. "Your not dead!"
"Cut the lights." Fred urged George, and the lights shut off dousing the street in darkness once more.
"I will be soon!" she rushed to say, "get me out of here!" her aunt and uncle were still downstairs, they could come up at any point at all. "Ron-" she sobbed out, growing increasingly desperate and panicked.
"Got it! Step back!" She watched as he leaned back into the car to grab a duffel which he wrenched open. Holly watched as he yanked all manner of items from it, from pepper-spray, to a bear trap, a shovel, a first aid kit, and a… rubber chicken? Before he yanked out a hook and chain. Ron then attached the hook to the window, and the twins turned the car to yank the bars off by force.
Holly's stepped back as she realized how loud that would be, she'd only have seconds- she sprinted away from the window and snatched up Hedwig's cage and her Christmas present from Lavender. The girl said every female needed a proper purse and had gotten every girl in their dorm a bottomless bag. Holly's was a striking silver that Lavender thought matched her eyes. Holly had smartly put ever valuable in the purse before arriving in London, leaving her first-year books as bait items for her aunt and uncle to lock away. She'd have to replace her school clothes, and borrow copies of her summer homework from Ron, but her wand, cloak, album, and Hedwig were all accessible to her. Which were the more important items to her.
Holly slung the purse around her shoulder before she snatched up Hedwig's cage in a shaking grip. She'd have to apologize to her familiar later because she knew this would be an incredibly unpleasant ride.
BANG.
The window and a considerable portion of the wall came free, Holly's window shattered, and she immediately regretted her lack of shoes. It didn't stop her as pounding footsteps came up the stairs in response to the explosive noise. As she raced right over the glass toward Ron's and Fred's reaching arms. Fred grabbed Hedwig's cage wrenching her owl into the front seat to make room as she launched over the gap between the house and car. Ron's arms encircled her own, and hands grabbed her bloodied feet-
Holly screamed, grabbing Ron as tightly as she could. She felt Fred throw his weight onto Ron's catching her upper body as she was yanked between her friends and the monster behind her.
"Let her go fat-ass!" George hollered throwing open his own door. Holly turned to look, saw the furious blood red face of her uncle as George's foot connected with the man's nose. A damning snap sounded as her uncle howled and the hands bruising up her ankles vanished.
Fred and Ron yanked her into the car, and Holly landed in a panicked tearful heap in Ron's arms. Frantically George twisted the wheel and sent them up and away as fast as he possibly could. He stopped them the moment they were out of sight and invisible and collectively they just breathed.
The only sound in the car was Hedwig's distressed noises, the boy's gasping breath, and Holly's desperately relieved sobs. For ten minutes they sat there in the clouds before Fred removed the hand covering his eyes as he took a closer look at the girl they'd just saved. His team-mate, his adoptive little sister, Ron's best friend. Fred stared at the quickly forming hand-print shaped bruises on her legs, eyed the bloodied cuts from the glass and the way her back heaved as she clung to his youngest brother. Then he slid his eyes to George, who had his forehead on the wheel, but his eyes wide open in shock. Neither of them had expected to actually be rescuing Holly that night, they'd just been trying to scare Ron and didn't want him to go to their mother about what they were doing; so they'd agreed to sneak out and check on the girl. George glanced his way sensing his eyes, and they shared a collective thought.
Holly Potter was under no circumstances returning to that place.
"Let's go home." Fred finally said as he settled Hedwig more securely in his lap. In the back, Ron nodded as Holly lifted her head and wiped off the mess from her face. She mumbled an apology to Ron for messing up his shirt which he waved off instantly.
"It's just a shirt Holly, it can be washed."
Holly nodded, rubbing her nose before she started to climb free of his arms. But Ron didn't let her go, he personally wasn't ready to release her. All summer he'd been picturing the worst, and to find out his guesses were right- he wasn't prepared to let Holly out of his sight for a moment.
"What are we going to tell mum?" George whispered as he started to drive forward.
"Err…?" Fred and Ron both answered.
"Wait… what?" Holly asked, settling in Ron's arms again with her head on his lap.
"We… might not have told her we were coming," Fred admitted, "she'll have to accept it though, she's the only one that knows how to heal since Bill's not in the house anymore, and we need to fix up your feet."
"Sorry."
"For what?" Fred gave her an incredulous look.
Holly ducked her head, "Bleeding on the car?"
They all scowled at her, and Ron tapped her forehead in chastisement, causing her to blush. "I'm not even going to start on that one," Fred spoke up, rolling his eyes; instead he reached up and turned on the radio allowing the Muggle station to come in loud and clear. None of the Weasley's knew the song that popped up, but Holly immediately smiled relaxing to it and opened her mouth to sing clearly for the first time since the fall.
"Here comes the sun~."
Molly Weasley knew with a vague sense of the word that abuse directed toward children existed, but she'd personally never encountered it before. Her parents had been an incredible couple raising her, and her siblings with love, care, and the sort of mistakes every parent tended to make at one point. Her husband, Arthur had been raised in much the same way.
Truthfully, the closest Molly had come to abuse had been the distant knowledge of what Sirius Black had suffered, but she hadn't known the details. And personally, Molly couldn't honestly believe something like that had been possible. How could a mother, father, or family member do that to a child?
The fact was, however, that Molly couldn't deny it any longer.
She'd first reacted with distress to discover three of her children missing from their beds in the morning. Distress which grew with a lack of note - Bill had always left a note when he'd snuck out to stop her from worry, why were the twins like this - and the Ford Angela gone. Only to immediately be rushed with relieved anger when they returned. So caught up in her own thoughts she missed the addition they'd brought with them until she'd heard a whimper.
Fred, or was it George? Was carrying a minuscule girl on his back. About the size of Ginny with a mess of - familiar, so familiar - curled black hair and bright green eyes. Molly didn't need to see the scar to know exactly who this child was. And she wondered quickly, why was she scared? Why was she here? Why was Fred carrying her? Why-why-why-
And then her boys all started to talk at once.
She'd long grown used to them speaking at once and could by then easily pick about the story from multiple sources, not that she let them know that. She tried to tell them she couldn't understand when they were speaking at once, mostly because the volume became entirely too loud when they were all trying to talk over each other to be heard. This time Molly kept her mouth shut as a horrifying story came through.
"That walrus of a man had bars on her window-"
"He grabbed her and tried to pull her out of the car, from a floor up!-"
"-Terrified out of her mind, mom we can't let her go back-"
"-Bleeding and was worried about it, instead of the pain-"
"-Needs healing, she's still hurt so bad mom and-"
"Stop!" she ordered firmly but quietly as to not startle the poor girl. Her boys silenced themselves instantly as Molly stepped forward, focusing on one problem at a time. The most crucial one currently seemed to be the injuries. "George go collect my first-aid kit, Fred bring her to the couch, let us have a look at her feet." The boys scattered, Ron right at the girl's side.
Molly recalled the letter she'd gotten the night before Christmas from a panicked Ron about his best friend not getting any gifts, ever. She'd been suspicious then but had dismissed it to focus on ensuring the girl got a jumper just the rest of her children and their friends. And now that she was thinking about, this girl and also been abandoned outside the station the year previous, clueless of where she had to go to get on the train- oh no, oh dear, this was not good.
"It's wonderful to meet you Holly," Molly spoke as soothingly as she could as George sprinted into the room holding her kit of potions. "Ron's spoken of you quite a bit." And he wasn't the only one either, the twins had gushed endlessly about her flying, and even Percival had spoken of her on occasion. "All good things I promise."
Holly blushed and shot Ron a distressed look that had Molly giggling in her head. "Now, may I see those feet of yours?"
"Yes, ma'am." Holly demurred allowing Molly to take one of her shoeless feet in hand to peer at the painfully deep cuts dug into them. As she did, she carefully looked at the blackened bruises on the girl's feet, which matched the not to hidden one around her upper arm. Molly kept her expression pleasant as she chatted with her children and Holly to relax them all. But internally she was already plotting.
If it was abuse, if it was as bad as her children expressed, then Molly would need to do something. She'd need to ensure Holly never returned to that building and to those people. Thankfully she'd likely have until the next summer to figure it out, to build a proper plan, and to speak to the right people.
Sarah would no doubt be willing to assist, and Amelia had far more experience the Molly did… she'd have to talk to Arthur as soon as he got home. They could probably afford one more child, and Molly had always wanted another girl.
"There," she leaned back, "how does that feel?" she asked.
"much better ma'am."
"Oh, dear, please call me Molly." Even though she'd been calling Molly 'mother' sooner than later if she had anything to do with it. "Now, you rest here, all four of you. I have a floo-call to make, then we can see about breakfast."
They nodded, her boys relaxing as they realized they weren't going to get in trouble for rescuing their friend. They wouldn't. But she'd have to emphasize the need for a note next time. She'll owl Bill to tell them, it would be better coming from him than her considering their ages.
Honestly. All eight of her kids were going to make her go gray.
After the disaster that was the start of the summer, Holly's life relaxed into something a bit calmer for the rest of it. Molly and Arthur had accepted her presence with ease and not a word of complaint. She was put in Ginny's room and given a pair of Ron's older shoes to replace the ones she'd been forced to leave behind. The rest of her clothing had been hemmed from the boys, mostly Percy's who had been shorter like she had, instead of Ron, who was quite tall for his age. Holly had been a mess when Molly handed the clothes to her but hadn't been able to say no, considering Percy's hand-me-downs fit far better than Dudley's ever had.
Halfway through the month, Hermione had visited, and Ron had surprised her with a slightly late birthday party. Most of her gifts had been clothing, but Holly had loved the fact that she'd gotten a birthday at all, which was a first as she'd told Ron. Her comment was one more Molly added to her growing list of concerns about Holly's family life, a list Holly had no knowledge of for the time being.
That summer had been the best she'd ever had after being accepted by the Weasley's. She'd gotten her first birthday, been accepted by a real loving family. She'd been given minimal chores, by her own insistence that she wanted to do something, got to play and visit Lee's house with the twins. She learned song after song with the Weasley's and even attended one of the monthly Muggle sing-alongs with Percy. On top of all that the last two weeks of summer had Hermione staying with them as well, and she got to debate with her friends all about the language her soulmate sang in, which Hermione theorized was from another world accessible through a rare type of magic.
Holly was determined to find it as they headed off to Hogwarts together, or tried to. They and a dozen other families were stopped at the gate to the platform when it randomly closed twenty minutes early and created an incident. Quite a few families were prevented from entering the platform, and they all missed the train. It was a massive incident with the ministry. The kids all needed to floo'd directly to the school several hours before the other students arrived. Personally, Holly had thought it odd, but hadn't thought it had been explicitly directed toward her until she'd been attacked by a murderous quaffle a month later.
The bloody thing shattered her arm, and then their newest defense professor vanished all the bones in the same arm. Somehow the twins were able to their parents about it happening. As a result Holly got to witness Molly and Arthur's protective fury in the flesh. She hadn't been able to understand someone being that worried about her, especially not to the point of Lockheart nearly being suspended for what he'd done. Ron hadn't been able to explain either, he'd told her it was something she'd just have to get used to. She suspected her comment about how uncomfortable Lockheart made her with his stares hadn't really helped Molly and Arthur's anger about the whole situation.
Then there was the whole voice in her head incident. No, not her soulmates. But rather a hissing voice intent on murder and killing. It wasn't at all strange to hear a voice in your head, but one that didn't sing? One that your soulmate seemed not to notice? That was a bit odder. Holly, however, had had enough with being the freak, so she hadn't said a word to anyone about what she was hearing.
Instead of focusing on the Chamber, the attempts on her life, and the oddities of Ron's parents, Holly focused on her soulmates odd language. The first hint of which, she got in History of Magic after the winter break.
Holly's head hit her desk as she soundlessly groaned. Binns history lesson was dragging on endlessly, and her mind was slowly, painfully, eating away at itself from the lack of stimulation until a single sentence was uttered. Holly perked up head nearly smashing into a drooping Ron's who had been about to fall asleep on her shoulder.
"-The high elves left our world for another." Explained Binns in a way that wasn't world-changing to members of his class. Hermione nearly caused a scene as she rushed to take notes about the suddenly crucial history lesson. The girls both hung on his every word. "It's not certain how or why they left, but we know from our stories and signs in magically powerful areas that this indeed happened." Binns then moved off the elf topic and back toward the accursed Goblin Wars.
"That's it?!" Holly demanded causing the class to flinch and wake back up. "Surely there's more information than that? How did they go there? How do we know? What were the signs? Can we follow? Are there multiple worlds?!" Holly shot the questions one after another in quick succession and went utterly ignored by their professor. "Sir!" she demanded. The ghost reached up writing on the board, his voice droning on and a frustrated scream built inside her; when a throat cleared from behind.
Holly shot around her to see Parvati looking her way, calmly the girl said: "if you want to know more about the high elves I'd suggest Professor Flitwick, he has three masteries, and one was done on elvish history."
"Really?" Holly asked brightly. Most of the class turned to watch them, dismissing their professor for the far more interesting conversation, and Holly Potter losing her composure.
"How do you know that?" Ron asked, adding onto to Holly's question.
"My sister, Padma, she is obsessed with elves." Parvati shrugged, "she went on and on about meeting him when we were coming to Hogwarts. Doesn't matter really, the point is, he can answer some of your questions about the high elves."
"Do you know anything? What can you tell me?"
"A bit I guess, mostly what Padma told me. Let's see." Parvati tapped her chin thoughtfully, then nodded, "so apparently High elves needed a lot of magic to survive, like their bodies are made of magic and they need it for their immortality. So waaaay back when, when Merlin lived or whatever, magic started to lessen in our world. It's enough for humans and most creatures, but for the high-elves it wasn't enough so they had to leave for a world with more magic in it or they'd all start dying."
"And then?" asked Lavender as they started to gather around to hear Parvati speak.
"Then, err… so they created this portal thing; apparently some witch found it a few hundred years ago, anyway it's hidden deep in this really magically potent forest and its direct location is kept strictly secret. The Unspeakables are the only ones that know now where it is; but they protect it, and they're physically unable to say where the location is, you know, to keep it safe." Nods all around, "anyway people still study it now. There's this obscure group that swears we'll need it one day to escape the Muggles, which is nonsense, but you know the type." More nods.
"So can it travel to multiple worlds?" Hermione asked, "and do these High elves have a different language than us?" Holly shot Hermione a look and quickly understood, was her soulmate an elf?
"No clue that you have to ask Flitwick." Parvati rolled her eyes, "I don't have all the information."
Holly resolved herself to do exactly that, in fact, the moment school ended for the day she grabbed Hermione and Ron and dragged them toward their Charms class. Holly was on a mission, Hermione was burning with questions, and Ron was… dancing. Heading together with Ron who was a step behind, the girls caught him in the corner of their eye suddenly stopping to do a little jig as he started to sing none too quietly: "A magic feeling, is growing so strong~."
Hermione and Holly slowed to glance at him as he grinned at them and quickly explained: "she's singing again, loudly too. I figured, well, Holly's soulmate always seems to like it when she sings with her, I figured I'd try the same. Especially since she's so quiet during the holidays." Ron had fretted the entire break about the girl who only ever whispered sang during the summer and winter breaks, down to the day in fact.
"I don't know that one, otherwise I'd join you," Hermione said whose soulmate was the opposite, he never sang during the year, only the breaks. Though there had been an exception to that. Muggles, as she and Holly knew, had sing-alongs to help tell their other halves where in the world they were. The magical community did this differently; their traditions involved school songs which Hermione thought was foolish. Each magical school had a different tune, and going off only that, was assuming a witch or wizards soulmate had to be magical when that wasn't guaranteed as Holly clearly proved. Though technically Hermione's was magical; the one song her soulmate sang during the year and had for several years by then, was the anthem for Durmstrang. She knew by extension that he went to Durmstrang and had magic - which annoyed her endlessly with the questions as to how she'd find him across such a large potential area.
Ron's other half meanwhile they'd discovered the year previous went to Hogwarts; which proved nothing and the success of a school song working. Though they did know she had to be a second year with them due to when she'd started to sing the song, which was… mildly helpful.
Ron twisted on the spot and took Holly's hand pulling her into the dance: "She's been singing it all week, maybe it's something someone else taught her? Doubt it's from her home." He scowled thinking about it. He might have been jumping to conclusions, but it couldn't be a coincidence that both his soulmate and Holly were silenced when at their homes. Ron could not stop thinking about what he'd learned about Holly's home-life and picturing that for his soulmate as well. "No way her parents taught it to her, she's just like you Holly, never singing loudly when at home. Makes me think…" Ron trailed off when he noticed Holly's expression and internally swore, he'd pushed her too far, he knew better than to bring it up-
"It's likely she's not singing loudly when she's home because she isn't allowed to." Holly finished feeling her mood sour, she didn't want to accept or even think it, but after seeing Ron's parents and family, how they treated each other made her begin to realize what she had wasn't anywhere close to normal. But she couldn't accept it, because accepting it meant- meant that her aunt, her only living relatives really did despise her.
"Sorry Holly," Ron whispered. He'd been speaking to Charlie and Bill all year about abuse, the signs of it, and how to talk to people who'd suffered it. He wanted nothing more than to help Holly through what her scummy relatives had done. But he was floundering, he had no idea how to help when she couldn't escape the situation, and their people didn't have anything like the Muggles 'terra-pists.' "I just don't want her to suffer like that, I don't want to think about her-" or Holly, "-being hurt like that and yet being unable to help." Just like Holly's own soulmate couldn't.
"Sometimes you can't do anything," Holly stated walking faster so they couldn't see her expression, "sometimes people are just like that." In her head, her soulmate's voice pitched up in a happy, joyful song, as if telling her to cheer up. Her shoulders sagged a bit, she wished she could, wished she could be as relaxed and comfortable a he was. Holly wished she could do whatever she wanted, wished she could escape, to be free, to just- to just-
She shook her head as they arrived at Flitwick's classroom, and Holly knocked unwilling to look back at Ron and Hermione, who had fallen silent with pensive unhappy energy. She rapped on the door before she could hesitate or second guess and stepped inside unmindful of the expression on their faces.
"Come in-" Flitwick went still at his desk as he saw them, saw the red eyes on Hermione who could do nothing to help either of her friends. Saw Ron's wringing hands and biting lip. Saw Holly's broken helpless expression that she wiped clean in an instant, so quickly that he was almost sure he'd imagined it. Almost. "Are you three alright?" he stood quickly and hopped right over his desk to approach them.
"Yes sir, nothing is wrong," Holly said on instinct-
'Please Professor Dumbledore- I… maybe I could just stay at Hogwarts? I wouldn't be much trouble-… why? It's just… it's… it's nothing, I mean- it's something I just-… no sir. I understand sir.'
"I just had a question, about high elves?"
Filius eyed them, noted their recovering expressions, and decided for the time being to leave it. He had no proof, just suspected. He'd have to watch them, watch for any sign something wasn't right. It was possible they were upset over the Chamber or the gossip following Miss Potter, many of his Claw's were bothered intensely by the former, and he'd had wanted to schedule a counselor to come to visit them, but his request had been denied. He knew mental health wasn't a popular subject in the magical community, but he'd expected better from the headmaster and the board. Perhaps he could convince the other head of houses to assist in his request, he could also speak to Minerva about the state of mind of these three particular lions.
"Certainly." He backed off to sit down, to teach bright young minds about one of his favorite topics, to make himself smaller, more approachable by nervous young children: "What is it you'd like to ask?"
"The portal!" Holly blurted, "was there multiple worlds they could have traveled to? Or is there only one? And do the high-elves have a language? Do we know it? Can it be translated? Learned?"
Filius linked his fingers together withholding his surprise; he'd expected the questions to come from Miss Granger who he been convinced had been miss-sorted until the Troll incident. He hadn't expected at all such questions from Miss Potter, though he supposed it wasn't a surprise. Her marks were perfect, in a purposely trying to fail sort of way. She was precisely a point behind Ronald Weasley for every exam, test, or piece of homework. The sheer amount of dedication and intelligence it took to remain precisely one point behind Mister Weasley so consistently made him thrilled to see Holly Potter take such an interest in a topic he loved. Especially since as of yet he'd not convinced anyone of her hidden intelligence.
So Filius waxed poetry to the kids. He spoke of the theories involved with the portal that hadn't been seen by anyone outside an unspeakable. He explained how the elves could not possibly have gotten lucky with a magically powerful world with one single try and how he'd written about other worlds that could be. Then he spoke of the language of the High Elves, which did exist and could be spoken by specialists which he, unfortunately, wasn't one.
"If you wish to learn the language itself, you will have to contact a specialist," He smiled fondly at how eager they were. "Shall I recommend one?" Filius would encourage her love of the topic, promote her intelligence, push the thought that she ought to share it.
"I'd like that, sir."
He beamed, this was a step forward he was thrilled for her to take: "certainly, his name is John, and he's…"
"So, what did he say?" Ron asked months later with a lack of topics to lead them. Hermione's absence was a toll on them both; her insight, words, and presence completed their group, and without her, Ron and Holly were floundering.
"That the language I'm hearing isn't the language the elves used, but he wants to help me learn to speak it. Apparently, he has a thing for languages and loves learning new ones." Holly said, striding through the hall with Ron, "Do you think… we can trust him?" she almost asked Tom Riddle's diary while waiting for a response, Tom was highly intelligent, and she had thought he could help, but the diary had been stolen right after she'd decided to do so. Which she'd soon realize was for the best.
"Hermione will probably be thrilled, remember how she said he was some famous Muggle writer or something?"
"She did say that," Holly recalled, "I wonder if the books are any good." Personally, she hadn't gotten around to reading much fiction, when they had Hermione back, she might go about fixing that. It would be a great topic for them to talk about during the summer.
"I'd be willing to try them. They'd have to be better than Lockheart's books."
"And just as fake." Holly laughed, only to be cut off as they caught tense voices around a nearby corner. She and Ron exchanged a look, fell silent, and crept forward to eavesdrop, and from that, they discovered the truth. A student had been dragged into the Chamber of Secrets, and not just any student either; it was Ron's little sister.
"Ginny." Ron breathed out in horror as he staggered face pale and hands shaking. He swayed as he pressed a hand to the nearby wall, dizziness rushing through him. Ron only avoided falling and giving up their location thanks to Holly's quick grab that steadied him. Desperate Ron looked at her, one single look was all it took for Holly. She had the mind of a Ravenclaw, the cunning of a Slytherin, and the loyalty of a Hufflepuff, but none of that made a difference in the face of her utter courage. Holly snatched hold of Ron's arm and dragged him away, her mind working a million miles an hour as she put it together from the hints building around them- and of course; that was why Hermione had been in the library with a mirror that day. No wonder she'd been found with a book on magical creatures.
"Basilisk," Holly hissed out. The voice in her head, it was not in her head, it wasn't part of her soul, it was a voice she was actively hearing in the walls.
"What?- Holly- where?-" But how was it getting around? And how had no one died yet- no that was wrong-
Her soulmates voice lit up in a song, a new one. It was energetic, full of drive and power, it was a song of battle, a song built for what she had to do. Holly's lips twisted up, feeling that soft spot for him grow, he always knew.
"Myrtle! I am a moron! No, wait-" she scowled, "everyone else is, a twelve-year-old should not have been the first person to put this crap together. Come on." Holly dragged Ron down the hall as her mind rushed ahead. Did she have the time to get the book? No, there was no telling how long Ginny had left. They'd just have to handle it themselves.
'She could get a professor-'
She couldn't rely on adults, they were useless and wouldn't believe her just like they hadn't the year before about anything-
'Flitwick helped her get in contact with the language guy, he could be trusted?'
"Where are we going?" Ron asked racing after her as she led him to the girl's bathroom, he'd stopped being dragged several floors ago and trusted her to lead him right. "The bathroom?"
"Mrytle's bathroom, she's the girl that died last time." Holly stopped at the doorway and looked toward Ron, "the creature is a basilisk, and the entrance is in the bathroom… and we're going to save your sister."
'She'd save Ginny with Ron, they'd handle the problem themselves.'
"Remember," she said, staring at the entrance and the hole leading the Chamber, "any sign of movement, close your eyes straight away."
Ron straightened his spine, stared into the depths, and nodded.
They were saving his sister.
A blur of color- a flash of green- the harsh, cruel words of Tom Riddle as he foolishly stole Ron's wand instead of her own. Nearby Ron was covering Ginny with his own body, desperate to protect her even if she might no longer be alive- while Holly stood across from Tom Riddle before the statue of Salazar Slytherin, stood challenging him with her stare as he taunted her, giving away his every secret in a mad monologue that she hadn't thought villains actually did. She was calm while he did so, composed while she tried to think of a plan, quiet as he revealed who he really was, clam until he-
"You sing to him and open yourself to weakness," Tom told her cruelly.
-Until he brought her soulmate into the conversation. The biggest button she possessed, a surefire way to anger her. Holly's tempers flared like her mothers so often had.
"He is the best part of me," Holly said without hesitation, "and I don't even know him yet." But she would; he kept her sane when she'd been so painfully stifled and hurt. He was the first person to love her and was amazingly no longer the only one to do so. He was the one that kept pushing her to sing, to embrace him, to find joy, and he did it without even making a single word of sense to her.
Holly had only the knowledge of two years of useless defense education. She only knew how to duel thanks to what Snape had taught them in one disastrous dueling lesson. But it didn't matter, because she had a plan; Holly just had to bluff. It was a rather simple plan that grew to fruition the moment Tom stole Ron's wand, the moment they both realized Tom was no ally against the beast.
She just needed him to cast a single spell. If Tom didn't realize the wand would backfire then-
"So… so bring it." Holly taunted.
They cast at the same time, a red and green spell lighting up their wands and-
Tom screamed
-Ron's wand hit the ground, and Ginny gasped to life.
"So… a hippogriff is… what exactly?" Shanks asked Roger as they stood quietly together at the helm. Roger was leaning, arms across the helm as he watched Rouge dancing happily at the bow of the ship with some of the crew. She'd thoroughly enjoyed the song of the island they'd discovered at their most recent spot, it had been an exciting battle tune that had the whole crew singing and dancing around all afternoon, all of them giving out a sign to their soulmates of where they were and how far they'd traveled. Shanks had joined into the party naturally but had been disappointed once more to learn the language was common, and he hadn't found the home of his soulmate.
"Lad." Roger gave a tired chuckle, "I honestly couldn't tell you, I can only tell what the word means, not what it actually is. To find what manner of 'thing' that is you'll have to go hunting yourself."
Shanks groaned; figuring out how to translate their words into hers was proving increasingly difficult. His troubles started in the summer months when there had been a full month where his soulmate had returned to not singing again, he didn't admit to anyone how much it had panicked him at first, nor had he told anyone it had happened in the first place. Thankfully after that month he'd caught her whispering through a song; he wondering if she'd done so before and he'd just missed it due to how quiet it had been. He couldn't know, and it didn't matter in the end as she began to sing again after that. All that did matter was whatever it was that had stopped her from singing in the first place, Shanks was desperately relieved she hadn't let it mute her for longer, and was growing increasingly aggressive toward what was doing it.
"Maybe… Hippo, like those water animals and Griff?" He made a face mentally picturing some cursed animal with the body of a hippo and a bird of some kind. Shanks was quick to shake the thought from his head, "what about an elf?"
Roger hummed a distracted noise: "pretty sure those are those tiny people on Dressrosa… excuse me a moment lad, I have… something to attend to."
"Huh? Alright, thanks for the help, Captain! Now… Dressrosa… do we have a book on that?" Shanks turned away mumbling to himself as he strode toward the small library that had in the Oro Jackson.
Roger watched him leave, waited until the moment Shanks was completely out of sight before he sagged completely on the helm. His eyes squeezed closed a moment as he tried to will away the pain. It wasn't doing any good. Now that Crocus had left the ship and he was out of the drugs he needed to temporarily shove away the burn, he was beginning to feel it more and more often. Hissing slightly under his breath Roger dug his fingers into the wood of the helm and nearly lit up his hand with haki, which would have destroyed it, not ideal to do for the second time that week. Wrenching an eye open - when had he closed them? - Roger glanced toward Rouge as she belted out the words to the song he heard echoed in his head.
Roger tried to straighten, to brush it off as he always had, but- no his vision was going fuzzy, he'd been too active that da- he needed to-
He didn't have enough time to-
Roger opened his mouth and sung softly, "You got something I need. In this world full of people, there's one killing me." He watched Rouge slow to a stop, her cheeks tinting as bright as her hair as she remembered the moment he did. He would forever remember meeting her, belting out the words to the song he'd sung to her a thousand times through their childhood. The very same song his mother sang to her soulmate till the day she died an entire ocean away from him. The same one he knew Roger would sing to Rouge when he met his own end, the same one Roger had immediately started up when he first caught sight of her on the marina staring longingly out to sea. He hadn't even needed to see her singing to know, one look at her and that was all it had taken, she was his for as long as he lived.
"And if we only die once. I wanna die with you." He straightened a bit as she scanned the ship and lifted her eyes toward him. She was so full of energy and love; Rouge loved sailing and the ocean, she loved seeing new places and learning new cultures. She was life and adventure, love and thrill. She made every moment of his experience through life worth it, she made the pain fall away. Made the dark thoughts in the back of his head fade, the ones about leaving her along and young, about what the crew would do after the sickness finally snatched him away as he knew it would.
Rouge's eyes locked with his own, and he watched her realize. She and Rayleigh could read him like no one else, they always knew- she turned immediately to speak to Rayleigh, and they both rushed toward him. Roger breathed easier as they did; Rayleigh would ensure the ship was well taken care of that night. He would cover for Roger, and with Rayleigh in charge, no one would discover how bad it really was. And Rouge, his lovely wife would be there as he took a moment, just a single moment to let the pain show, to allow his body to rest.
"If we only live once. I wanna live with you." Rouge sang to him, meaning every word as she reached his side. As much time as she could steal from the gods, as much happiness as she could claim and rip from their hands. She'd live with him without regret, for as long as she could.