Holly pressed her hands to her forehead and rubbed little circles with them in a desperate attempt to calm her mind. Ever since her fourth year ended Holly had been plagued with headaches which constantly stemmed from Voldemort's presence. Most of the time, Holly felt the pain of his near-constant anger, a pain no potion, spell, or muggle drug would help cure. However, lately it was not anger she was feeling, though Holly might have actually preferred it. For from the moment Dumbledore died all Voldemort felt was pleasure, which was far far worse. True her head didn't hurt, but she was distinctly aware why it didn't, and couldn't ignore the feelings Voldemort plagued her with. There was something quite horrifying at watching her beloved mentor lowered into the ground and feeling joyful about it.

Reinforcing her occlumency barrier, Holly forced herself out of her chair and away from the research she was attempting to figure out. Hopelessness lit up her chest as she left the parchments behind; it dragged with the locket around her neck and the chain that was slicing into her neck from the way the Horcrux struggled against her.

It was true only because of how long Holly had been in Voldemort's head that she was resistant to the locket's whispers. She no longer heard it attempting to turn her and her emotions because such a thing had been a constant for her for years. But her best friends and family, Ron and Hermione did not have those benefits. Hermione had been mildly resistant because of how her mind worked; while Ron, had nothing. It was why his emotions had grown so explosive to the point that he snapped and ran from her. Holly didn't blame him, it was Voldemort's fault after all, and she had originally intended to do this quest alone. Which was why, when given a chance, she'd urged Hermione to chase after him.

Hermione had intended to return the moment she caught Ron, and she very well might have. But Holly, the instant she'd been left alone had collected her things and the tent, and then she'd left.

Holly was better off alone. Better off pulling away from Ron who had been suffering so badly and from Hermione who would be so broken once she learned the terrible truth.

She could still feel Dumbledore's blackened fingers enclosing around her upper arm. Could hear the sound of his sobs in her chest. Could feel the way her stomach had rebelled and the way her heart sank with the truth. As he drank down that potion, as he confessed to her the very worst of his sins- as he-

"You need to tell her I'm sorry. Please, she has to know-"

"Who has to know sir?"

"Holly. Holly has to know." Her heart jumped, her fingers stilled, and Dumbledore took the opportunity to pull her in closer, to tell her the truth-

"She's… she's a Horcrux, she has to die, she's always had to die."

Holly trudged out of the tent and stretched out her body while glancing at the night sky. She breathed in the crisp air - perhaps for the last time, any time now could be the last of what she'd do - and cracked her neck. Idly rubbing at the skin of her neck Holly felt the bruising there from the locket. She'd need some wood for the fire, and she'd definitely have to sneak into a muggle village again to buy some more food. Lowering her eyes, Holly turned and screamed.

There was a man inside her campsite. A man that had not been there when she'd left the tent, a man that couldn't possibly be there because Holly had spelled the area like Hermione had taught her. And yet, there he was. A young man with messy black hair, confused brown eyes, and - charming - freckles. He was shirtless and shoeless, with a pair of black pants and a bright orange belt. And he was staring at her with confusion and a small amount of hostility that had Holly reaching for her wand in the sleeve of her shirt.

"Who are you? How did you get here?" Holly demanded perhaps a touch too harshly. She couldn't quite resist the accusation in her voice because while the man technically looked like a muggle, it was more like a pure-blood attempting to pass off as a muggle to her. After all, who honestly wore that shade of orange without shoes in the forest!

The man's brow shot up as he glanced at her small form and Holly watched as his eyes scanned her, looking for her wand no doubt, which she was ready to pull in a moments notice. His eyes landed on her sleeve, and his brows returned to normal. "Portgus D. Ace, and… no clue." His expression did something annoyingly attractive, though hard to read. And then he rubbed the back of his head a bit sheepish and gave her a smile, meant to be polite no doubt, but wow. "Where am I exactly?" he wondered.

Holly's fingers lingered on her wand as she wondered if perhaps she was mistaken? Maybe he really was a muggle, and he had gotten himself lost in the forest? It didn't explain his lack of shoes and shirt, but it could happen. So in a test, she asked: "are you lost?"

The man snorted: "oh yeah, pretty lost." Ace gave their surroundings a look as if he couldn't fathom what he was seeing. "This is definitely not where I fell asleep."

Magic? She wondered. Unless he'd fallen unconscious and had woken up after she'd put down her shields. Admittedly she'd been too tired to check the entire area when she'd arrived. Still, there was a way she could be sure he was a muggle. "Got a GPS? Your cell-phone?"

"A what now?" he asked incredulously like she was speaking another language entirely. Which was enough for her.

Holly's wand snapped into her hand and was pointed at him in an instant. She watched him jerk, like he was about to put up his hands and punch her, or throw something, but froze when he saw her wand instead of another weapon. And by then, she'd already cast her spell. "Stupefy!" the red light of her curse shot out, and the man went to dodge, but few could avoid light itself, and the spell struck him right in the chest- and then went through him and out the other side.

The pair of them stared at his chest for a long pause. The distant sound of crickets and frogs sounded with a gust of wind. Then-

"You shot at me!"

"Well it's not like it hit you!"

He charged forward toward her moving fast, far faster than she expected anyone could move while stomping, and in a panic Holly hurled another spell. Then she shrieked darting backward as it too went right through him. Now the one too slow Holly yelped as his hand descended to grab her, and went right through her leaving them with another awkward silence.

"What the bloody hell?" Holly's mind raced as she tried to figure out how that happened.

"What the fu-?!" Ace yelled yanking his arm back, he rushed to clap his hands together and was relieved to learn he could in fact still touch himself, just nothing else it seemed. While Holly made a 'huh' sound and poked him with her wand, which went right through his head. "Don't!" he snapped swatting uselessly at it.

"Huh," she said again, "you could have told me you were a ghost, you know." She stashed her wand feeling secure once more, though a bit confused because he wasn't cold, but was instead warm to her skin when he'd passed through her. Which was definitely unique for a ghost.

"I'm not dead," he snapped, at least he wasn't yet.

"Ah, sorry." Holly made a prayer motion, "sorry for your loss, of you."

"I'm not dead! I'd remember if I was dead- wait a minute; no, that's not the point where the hell am I?"

"You are dead. Though I suppose it could be spell damage? Were you cursed?"

"Spell? What are you on?" he stared into her eyes, looking for signs of drugs, which caused her to swat uselessly at him. She would never- "look, lady, I fell asleep, and now I'm here."

"Then you could be dead. You could have died in your sleep," Holly reasoned

"I'm not dead," he insisted, "I'd know if I was-" he was fairly sure at least. "Where is here anyway and why'd you attack me!"

"You didn't know what a cell phone was," Holly said as if that was explanation enough. She turned away from him and started to look for wood like she'd originally intended. As a ghost, he wasn't a threat to her. Especially considering, since he was shirtless, Holly could see his arm and the lack of a dark mark; he was no death eater.

"And?" he followed behind her.

"Which means you aren't a Muggle or Muggle-born. Anyone who knew about Muggles would know what at least one of those things were."

"A Muggle what?"

"What rock have you been under." She waved her hand around them, "we're kind of at war, you know. Magic? 'You-know-who'" she air-quoted Voldemort's other name with heavy sarcasm in her voice.

"I don't."

Holly turned and looked at him, "Huh?"

"Don't know who," Ace clarified, "and I've never heard of any of this. You know your 'magic,' and 'cell phones' are likely just part of your island and culture, it's not from other islands. Especially if we're in the calm belt." He glared around him at the forest, "what is this island called?"

Now it was Holly looking at him like he'd gone a bit mad. "Calm belt?" she shook her head, "and 'island?' Really? I mean technically speaking it is an island but honestly."

Ace scoffed: "not the calm belt then? The new world? Does anyone leave this place? Go out to sea? You know- 'travel.'"

"Of course we do, but most people will just take a plane."

"A what?"

They stared each other down, then seemingly on the same page he abruptly said.

"Newscoo?"

"Newspaper?"

"Den-den-mushi?"

"What?!"

"Log pose?"

"London? Britain? Europe? Earth?!"

"Is that even common?"

"What the hell is common? I'm speaking English!"

Holly dumped her wood and marched toward Ace, this time she looked him up and down. She could see he was solid looking, unlike all ghosts she'd seen before, he was hot instead of cold. So what was he, why was he- shaking herself off Holly pulled out her wand again and flicked it. "Here look." She transfigured one of her wood logs into a world map and unrolled it so he could see. "We're here." She tapped the general location.

Ace scanned the map with wide eyes: "This is not where I'm from, at all. Where are the blues?"

"Yup, dead." She teased slightly since she no longer believed that was true. She was beginning to think he was from another world, which she knew was possible just very rare. Which of course meant she'd find him, that was just how the Potter luck worked.

"I'm not dead! Stop saying that," he snapped back at her. Yet. "Just, displaced-"

"And unable to touch anything."

"-well, how do I know you didn't do that with your weird voodoo magic!"

"Magic doesn't do that," she reported, "the spell I used is a stunning one, I was just going to freeze you then check your arm."

"My arm? Why?"

"For a dark mark… and you don't know what that is. My country is at war right now, the enemies forces have a mark on their arm. Right here." Holly tapped her tanned skin to him. Ace mimicked her turning his own arm to reveal it was clean as she'd already seen. "Yeah, and there's no way to cover or disguise it, which makes you not a death eater."

"Grand." Ace drawled.

"It is." She turned away again and flicked her wand, causing her pile of wood to follow behind her. Ace's eyes went a bit wide at the casual show of magic just as they had when she'd transfigured the map. Holly continued on collecting more pieces, Ace slid a step behind her grabbing at the floating wood, but like with everything else his palm went right through it.

"How'd you get here anyway?" Holly asked after a moment, "if you didn't die?"

"How should I know, I fell asleep and woke up here in front of you." He gave her a suspicious look, but she had already denied using magic to bring him here. Which she might not have, he could be dreaming. He checked by pinching his arm, it hurt, which likely mean not a dread. Which meant he could be stuck in a devil fruit's power.

"That's it? What were you doing before you slept? Piss off any fae?"

"Trust me, I haven't done anything in the past week to anger someone enough to send me to a new world. I haven't even been able to leave the… building, I was in." Not a lie technically speaking. Which was relatively accurate, he couldn't anger anyone while stuck alone in a cell.

"Okay well, you can just go back to where you came from now." Holly flapped her free hand at him. She didn't have time to deal with him and his problems, she had a war to win, Horcruxes to destroy, and her death to plan.

Ace made a face and wondered if he'd want to return in the first place. Able to touch anything or not, he already preferred where he was. Namely, in the forest and face to face with an attractive woman. He had no desire to return to Impel down. Ace doubted he'd be able to even if he could, after all, Ace had no idea how he'd ended up here, and if 'here' was even real.

"Why would I?" Ace said instead with a taunt in his voice, "I think I like it here."

Holly stopped at her tent and turned toward him, "well you aren't invited," she paused a moment, and sighed," damn, I was hoping that would work."

"What? Wait hey! I'm not a vampire or a ghost!"

"Oh sure you don't have cars, but you have vampires in your world," she sighed, "whatever. Look, I don't have the time deal with you. I have enough on my plate right now." She looked away from him, "you can stay in my camp, but I'm leaving tomorrow morning, and we'll never see each other again." She floated the wood into her tent, "so nice to meet you and all… goodbye forever." Holly pulled opened the tent flap and vanished into it without another word.

She liked him, he was fun to talk to, and she honestly wished she could help him get back to his world. But Holly… she couldn't form attachments, with anyone. But a secret part of her couldn't help but think, maybe it would be okay with Ace, he'd be gone to his world, and she'd be dead.

No, it was better this way.

From behind her, she heard Ace cry out cheekily: "I never caught your name!" As the tent flap closed. Holly hesitated a step inside, she glanced back and… she turned away.

Ace pressed his hand flush against the invisible wall he'd come in contact with. The wall went all the way around the girls camp without any breaks, and nothing Ace did would allow him through it. Taking a step back, Ace cupped his chin and eyed the forest looking for any sign that the wall was present, but he couldn't make it out. He knew it existed, knew it was trapping him, but he couldn't escape it.

After the girl had gone into her tent to rest, Ace had started experimenting. First, he'd attempted to use his flames, but nothing had happened. Then he'd tried touching things, but he went through effectively everything, though everything did not include the girl's tent which for some reason he could not enter at all. It grated because a vampire wouldn't be able to either.

Hand on his hip, Ace turned and marched back to the campsite she'd made and dropped to the floor outside her tent. It wasn't a great one he personally thought, minimal cover for her tent and the ground was littered in rocks and roots. He'd have been able to pick a better one that wouldn't allow any cooking fire to be seen from miles away. If she was at war like she claimed, then she was putting herself in danger with such a location. Though perhaps she didn't know better, he didn't exactly know anything about her. She could be a rich girl for all he knew, though she didn't act like it and the scars he'd seen on her forehead and arms said warrior. Not to mention how quickly she'd attacked him when she'd thought him a threat.

Still, the camp was better then impel down Ace knew, he wasn't cold, and he could move around freely unlike before. Not to mention he was no longer starving steadily, and he could not hear the ruthless aggravating comments from the guards and his fellow prisoners. But Ace didn't know why he was here, why he'd ended up stuck around the nameless girl. Still, it seemed he was expected to remain here, at least until something changed. Such as the moment his execution would occur, or until the girl woke up and left. Once she did, he'd find out if the wall around the campsite moved, if it's source was her, or something else.

So not feeling the slightest bit tired, but unable to escape, Ace settled in beside her tent to wait. At the very least he could act as a lookout for these 'death eater' people.

Or so he thought, he got bored in seconds. Watching the girls tent and the forest was as dull as watching the ocean on the Moby Dick, except now he didn't have the entertainment of his fire, a companion, or even the sea itself to gaze at. Utterly bored Ace reached down and on a whim tried to use his haki, black coated his fingers quickly, and he reached down grabbing for a rock- and picked it up.

"What?" he gaped as he lost control of his haki and the rock dropped straight through his fingers. Well, that was interesting. Using his haki, Ace stood and rushed for the wall hoping by coating himself in haki he could escape. He couldn't. So Ace returned to the campsite and tried his luck at the tent again, which was a failure. So he went about experimenting with other things unaware of two pairs of eyes glaring at him.

"I don't like this, five minutes in and he's already trying to get into our Fawn's tent,"

"I'm sure it was harmless, Lils said he was a good man,"

"Yeah, but she got that from the word of his mother. You know you'd never say a bad thing about your kid,"

"That's because Holly is amazing,"

"Yeah, see, proof,"

"Shut up pads, let's just keep him out of the tent,"

"Permanently? What if they want to-"

"Oh, pads, what the hell? I do not want to think about that… but yes, even then."

"Good."

Holly stopped dead when she left her tent and found Ace sitting in her camp still. He'd been busy over the night, creating a fire, hunting and cooking a few rabbits, and creating a few seats out of wood… how had he even done that without carving tools?!

Ace glanced her way and smirked holding a cooked rabbit in his hands. "Morning. So, I made a fire- shouldn't be seen by anyone where I put it. Figured you'd like to save some time, so I started a fire to cook breakfast," he rubbed his eyes "also a few deer passed by during the night, you might be able to catch them. No fawns so they're free game."

"Nope." Holly said and turned her back to him, she flicked her wand. The tent folded itself up and put itself away in her bag, then she stepped past him and toward the forest. "Bye Ace, have a nice long life." With him behind her, Holly didn't seem him cringe because he was well aware he wouldn't.

"Wait a minute." He grabbed his rabbits and hurriedly doused his fire; he missed being able to do that with his devil fruit, he'd have to make do. "Hey lady!" carrying his rabbits, he rushed after her.

Holly ignored Ace until she was inside the trees and was lowering her shields. Once they were down, she scrubbed the location of her magical signature while Ace loosely followed munching on his rabbit. She dismissed him as he walked to a certain point, the point her shields had been, and randomly put his hand through where her barrier should have been. Then he looked surprised when he was able to do so.

He was so weird.

"Okay well, bye Ace."

"Err… yeah bye." He said a bit distracted. Holly stole a lingering look at his back and the odd tattoo she was seeing for the first time. Of course, the back muscles were almost as good- bad as the chest. This man was entirely too buff! Though if she had, to be honest, it was no surprise her brain had temporarily shut down. Wizards did not exercise properly beyond the quidditch team, they were all skinny individuals or fattening ones like Fudge. The best specimen she'd seen had been Oliver. Unfortunately, he had a girlfriend by the time she'd personally be ready to date, which meant her 'date' to the Yule ball had been Ron, which had been a painful mistake. Regardless Holly couldn't help but admire the strange ghost since he very clearly worked out and worked out often.

Eye candy she figured memorizing how Ace looked, before she settled, stepped back, and apparated expecting to never see him again.

Then she landed, and Ace collapsed in front of her with a cry of disgust. "What was that? What did you do?!" he yelled to her in exasperation and ire, not to mention confusion. Because apparently, he was apparating with her, without touching her. There must be more to his appearance than what she'd first thought.

Didn't stop her from yelling though.

"Why are you still here?" she finally found her voice.

"How am I supposed to know?" He staggered to his feet and groaned when he realized his last rabbit had hit the dirt when he'd fallen, "I was able to leave that bubble that was around the camp. I didn't expect to be thrown around like that."

Holly's heart sank a bit but she wasn't sure why it did, she'd told him to leave multiple times, it shouldn't hurt that he'd tried. "I apparated, it's magical travel," she explained, "the bubble was my shield, to keep my camp safe." Not that it had entirely worked considering Ace had gotten through it in the first place. "I took it down because some people can use a shield like that to track me through my magic."

"So I can't pass through that, huh." Ace brushed himself off, "doesn't explain why you brought me with you when you 'apparated' though, I thought you wanted to be rid of me."

"I didn't bring you!"

"You did; otherwise, I wouldn't be here Green-eyes."

"Green-eyes?!"

"Can't complain lady, you never gave me your name, I had to come up with something," He shrugged.

Huffing Holly reached up and lifted her hair showing off her scar. She honestly expected him to react, he didn't.

"Uh, that a hint? Lightning? Scar? Forehead? Zappy? Thunder?"

Holly felt her lips quirk: "You really don't recognize this?"

"No?" he cocked his head, "am I supposed to? You remember I'm not from this world right?"

'Huh.' Holly looked him up and down, well he claimed he was a muggle from another world. So, in theory, she could take his word for it, especially since he hadn't reacted at all to her scar. "Holly."

"What?"

"My name, it's Holly Potter."

He grinned and quickly extended a hand, "As I said before, Portgas D. Ace, nice to meet you."

Holly staring at his hand, deadpanned, "you couldn't touch me before, why are you trying to shake my hand?"

"Give me the benefit of the doubt here. I moved the firewood," he gave her a roguish grin. Holly gave a deep sigh in return and reached up, as she did his skin coated black. A bit wary, especially after Dumbledore, Holly reached out… and took it. Her eyes went wide as Ace shook her hand, then leaned down and kissed it with a waggle in his brow. Holly snatched it back willing away the blush threatening to spawn on her face.

"So Holly, why take me along?"

"I didn't!"

"Just like I didn't travel here by choice?"

"Yes!… wait-"

Ace laughed with a hand on his hip, "so we've established the facts, I didn't come here by choice, and you weren't involved. Yet we're stuck together." Ace had thought about it long and hard over the night. He'd either managed to spontaneously escape Impel Down, or he was still trapped. If this was real and he was 'free,' he was still trapped in a brand new world, and the only hint he had, was the girl and her magic. "So how about a deal." He offered.

"A... deal? What deal?"

"I help you with this war of yours, and you help me get home to my family." Hopefully before they went to war without him even present… if they went to fight in the first place, he had betrayed his father by ignoring his orders.

Holly grimaced because if he helped her with the war, she couldn't help him get back to his family. Which meant, she'd likely have to figure it out before the war ended. If she said no, Holly would be stuck with him anyway. But if she said yes, she'd have someone with her that wouldn't see her die, she'd send him back before that. It was… appealing.

"You don't know why I'm fighting, what I'm fighting against, or anything about the war at all."

"Gotta let you in on a little secret. I'm a pirate, I don't care. As long as I can get home and we're not murdering innocents, I'm good." Holly made a noise of surprise looking him up and down again, Ace definitely didn't look like what she expected a pirate to look like. But then again, she didn't exactly look like a typical witch either.

"Alright… it's a deal then, you help me win a war, and I help you get home."

"Great," Ace gave her a charming grin, "so… who are you fighting then?"

"Oh, just a blood-thirsty tyrant intent on killing anyone who doesn't have 'pure' magical blood," her expression crossed a bit, "his name is Voldemort-"

Around them, cracks of apparation began to sound.