Cracks sounded around Holly and Ace as shadowed figures appeared in the forest around them; and as they began to solidify, Holly Potter groaned in complete and utter annoyance.

"Not again." She whined while narrowly resisting the urge to rub her forehead in exasperation. Instead, she lifted her arm and without a moment's hesitation hurled a spell at the first man that fully formed; she dropped him before he had even finished apparating, which would no doubt cause him to splinch, but at that point, Holly didn't care.

Stepping up beside her Ace lifted a hand, reacting to her sudden aggression, a part of him was prepared to hurl fire until he recalled he couldn't, so he coated his hand with haki and cracked his fingers. "What's this?" he asked as Holly shot another spell at the second figure who'd formed. A moment later she twisted out of the way narrowly avoiding a bright red spell shot at her chest. Ace didn't even bother moving as it passed where she had been standing, into his chest, and out. He shot a glare at the man who shot it and was currently cackling in a crazed manner.

"Look! It's Potty!"

Holly made an aggravated sound. Somehow that stupid taunt from Malfoy had spread to the public at large, and now every death eater called her Potty in insult. Though it usually didn't overly bother her unless it was Malfoy, which meant that cursed locket was playing with her emotions again, which did make her frustrated. She flicked a spell over her shoulder at the fool and dropped him, the moron didn't even try to dodge or shield. Voldemort ought to be ashamed.

"These are snatchers." She explained to Ace, "the lowest of the low of you-know-who-"

"Don't know who."

"Quit that!" she said more amused than anything else as Ace calmly waltzed up to one of the snatchers attacking Holly and waved a hand in front of their face. The woman couldn't see him. After checking that, Ace punched her, knocking her out cold in a single restrained thump. Then he winked at Holly and strode toward the next attacker casually. "So how'd they find us? Didn't you use… that bubble thing?" he noted to himself that all of these enemies seemed to be able to teleport just like Holly could, though they certainly didn't use it very efficiently.

"It's called a ward, and I didn't put it up yet. But that's not why they found us. They found us because I forgot about the taboo." Again.

It wasn't the first time she'd done so, she'd done it four times prior while talking to herself after Ron and Hermione left. The first time she'd been incredibly panicked, surviving only because of the training Sirius had done with her over her fifth summer break. As it turned out, saying Voldemort always resulted in snatchers coming to capture her. But snatchers were frankly, weak. They were the lowest of the low, the fleas of Voldemort's forces. Their only skills came from the pitiful defense lessons in Hogwarts instead of the training Voldemort gave his elite. And Holly, who had been trained and was a skilled dueler didn't really have any problems with snatchers, even when caught off guard.

"Taboo?" Ace questioned casually tripping a snatcher who had been about to cast at Holly, then he slammed his heel into the back of their head knocking them out.

"Basically, if you say you-know-who's name-" she shot him a warning look when he went to open his mouth, "-your location is revealed to this lot, and they come to capture you."

"Really." Ace drawled as the last hit the ground after trying to run when he was out-numbered. They were weak, Ace mentally put them as cannon fodder. Like baby marines, or ordinary East Blue fighters - excluding himself and his brother of course. Holly, he'd set as a decent Grand-Line Pirate, a ranged fighter who needed to learn close combat. He could teach her that, and probably haki as well, with her ranged attacks she'd do well with observation haki… if they had the time that was. He had a week at most to figure out if he was really here or trapped in a devil fruit power, so he didn't make an escape attempt. He couldn't forget the second option was possible and knew he'd have to be careful what he told Holly, he didn't know if she could be trusted, she might be a figment of some marines imagination.

Holly walked around the downed snatchers making sure they were all properly stunned before obliviating their memories. She did not want them following her or discovering her. At the same time, well, Ace was sort of doing the same thing. He stooped before the first snatcher and yanked up the sleeve of their robe to see the so-called 'mark' Holly had mentioned.

"Skull and crossbones?" he mused, noting the skull figure and the snake coming from its mouth.

"You-know-who's mark, he's obsessed with immortality and avoiding death. Therefore, a skull for a mark. I suppose it makes sense, to him?" It didn't to Ace, pirates used the skull and cross-bones, but not a single one of them were really avoiding death. They all knew there was a high chance they'd die young. That was just how most pirates bit it.

Ace shrugged and dropped the arm before he started sneaking his fingers into their pockets. He pulled out a coin purse, a few vials of liquid, a stick like Holly's, and other random knick-knacks. He pocketed it all and moved onto the next man to discover only a couple coins. Local currency for Holly's world he figured, it was gold, silver, and bronze, but was designed differently from their beri.

"Ace… what are you doing?" Holly asked.

He glanced up and shrugged, "I'm broke here," he flicked one of the gold coins through his fingers, "-and I'm hungry. Figured we can stop for dinner."

Holly gave a shocked giggle as she covered her mouth, "you use gold in your world?"

"It's called beri." He watched her tap a snatchers head to cast a spell on them.

"Ours is called galleons, but those coins only work in the magical world, and I can't exactly go there, I'm most wanted right now. Otherwise you need pounds, for the muggle world." It seemed they had something in common then, the worlds most wanted. Which also meant Ace had a good idea of the power levels of the world. If Holly was most wanted it reasoned he'd have little trouble fighting other people of her kind. Especially since their magic was useless to him. And while he had questions about this 'muggle world' and why it required a different currency, he had another pressing concern.

"What are you doing to them?" he asked, watching a silvery spell surround a snatchers head.

"Memory spell, I'm erasing their memories of this encounter."

"Huh." He watched her perform the spell committing the look and sound of it to memory just in case she used it on him. "Your world doesn't have a prison?"

"We have one, but you-know-who is in control of the government now, which means the prison. So I can't exactly get these lot arrested."

"And why don't you kill them?"

Holly stilled her wand on the forehead of a snatcher, she stared wide-eyed at the woman she was beside. Then she slowly glanced back at Ace who looked politely curious. At her look, he casually said: "I've seen civil wars, I've seen more battles then you can count… there's always death. I'm not judging you or anything, just curious. Why don't you kill them?" he'd realized it quickly, she was an excellent fighter, but she pulled her punches, and the spells she used were harmless. He doubted she'd ever killed a human, perhaps an animal, but not a human.

"I… don't… I…" Holly bit her lip and stood trying to sort out her thoughts, "everyone's always told me who I am, what I'm supposed to act like, and what I'm supposed to be. My future… my entire life has been planned on without me." She couldn't look Ace in the eyes as she said: "I suppose… that I just don't want another thing taken from me. I don't want anyone to make me a killer."

Fate and a prophecy had stolen her life, stolen her childhood, stolen her innocence and her parents. What Voldemort and that stupid little orb hadn't taken, Dumbledore had and he'd always known it. Her future had been taken away again, and again, her path had been written for her down to the minute details, and it had from the very moment Trelawny had sat in front of Dumbledore one night. Holly wouldn't even survive the year because of it, and… and while she'd accepted that, Holly did not want to kill anyone but the man she was destined to destroy. She'd resist that, only that.

"Would you care if I did it?" Ace asked, pressing the heel of his foot lightly into the neck of a snatcher. His eyes shot up questioning her, reading her.

Holly stared at Ace, stared at the man helpless and stunned under his foot. "Have you?"

"Killed someone?" She nodded. "I have, by the time I was ten I'd taken a life and I've taken dozens since then." He wouldn't make excuses, disregarding the fact that the first life he'd stolen away had been a pedophile who'd cornered Sabo. Disregarding that the lives taken afterward had been accidental or in defense of himself or his crew. The fact was he had taken life, and he wanted to know what Holly would think of that. If only to see if she'd judge him for what she wouldn't do.

Holly hesitated, staring at the snatcher and knew she knew him. A Hufflepuff, she'd met him in her third year. He'd been a part of the quidditch team, and she remembered him standing with Cedric before the match that destroyed her Nimbus began. And now he was a death eater, freely willing to capture her and do Merlin knows what with her once he had. And if she left him, well the thought had occurred to her before. There was no telling where he'd go, what he'd do once he was out of her sight. It was for that reason Holly had wanted to recapture Azkaban, but she knew it was a fools' errand.

"I don't know," she admitted, "I don't know if I'd care or not. But… I don't think I'd judge you." No, she'd take the death upon her own shoulders. Just like she'd take up the guilt of what he'd do if he lived. Regardless she'd blame herself. Hermione, if she were here, would blame that on her upbringing. The instinctive guilt her aunt and Dumbledore built into her.

"Hm." Ace removed his foot, "here's hoping we finish this war quickly then, so we can reclaim that prison." He strode toward her, "let's move on, before more of this lot show up, and you can tell me about this Voldy-guy, got any clue on how we defeat him?"

"Err…" Holly quickly rushed after Ace, who was calmly walking away a bit bemused at the abrupt change in personality, "that's it? I thought you were going to… uh…"

"Yell at you for your naivety?" he gave her a sidelong look, "give you a long lecture about how 'this is war' and you 'gotta do what ya gotta do?'"

"Well… yes."

He scoffed: "I already told you I'm a pirate, I don't give a shit about whether you want to kill or not, it's your choice. I just wanted to know because you're my ticket home, so I'll just have to watch your back and make sure you don't let one of those lot get a shot on you because you didn't take yours." He strode on as Holly's eyes went a bit wide, "used to it anyway, a couple of my brothers - my crew - don't want to kill either. I'd never force them, so I'm not gonna force you."

"Oh." Holly and Ace strode into the forest as she prepared to apparate, to erase her trail completely when Ace asked.

"So, you use magic right?"

She stilled arching a brow: "yes?"

"And you were erasing their memories?"

"Yes."

"Can you read them? Memories?" he stopped and looked at her.

Holly made a face, but in the end confirmed the truth: "Yes, I can, it's a spell called legilimency and can only be countered by mental shields. Most people don't know the counter though, and a strong legilimens can break through most shields anyway."

"So… for example, if we decided to purposely use that Voldy-guys name, defeat and capture his forces, steal their shit… and then, read their memories for information on him? It's that possible?"

Holly blinked, once, twice… she hadn't thought to do that: "well… yeah, we could. But the snatchers are small fry, basically useless."

"Ah ah ah," he waggled a finger at her, "they get their orders from somewhere. We find that location, then we find the big fish and read their memories for the sea-king."

"Is that a reference in your world?"

"Never-mind that, tell me about this Voldy-guy, then we have a plan to build."

Holly reached out her arm for Ace's when she prepared to apparate, and he arched a brow at her. "Apparating usually requires skin contact when you want to bring someone with you. Might be a bit easier on your stomach if you hold me." Ace hesitated a moment, then reached out for her. He watched as Holly went to grab his hand and went through right it as he snickered. She snorted and rolled her eyes. "Ha ha very funny, do that thing so we can go. Or maybe I'll just apparate whenever and you can deal with it."

Laughing Ace coated his arm in haki and allowed her to take it. "It's called haki, armament haki specifically, it's the use of life force as physical reinforcement to the body." Technically he was copying Marco's explanation, but he was sure his brother wouldn't mind.

"Weird."

"Says the girl with magic."

"…fair." She turned on her heal, and the world twisted around them, causing them to land in a forest near a muggle town Hermione had brought her to earlier in the year. She liked to use it to mess up her trail for pursuing death eaters. The poor fools could not fathom the train and bus system when she used it.

"This way." She directed leading Ace - who seemed already used to apparating after doing it once - into the town. A part of her was expected to have to explain everything they saw to Ace considering he hadn't known what a cell-phone was, but Ace surprised her and took their surroundings in stride. He didn't so much as blink over the passing cars, people, clothing, or shops.

"It's not too different from my world." Ace noted, and Holly jerked, "you were staring at me." He explained having guessed the reason she had done so. "Most of this I've seen on different islands, and what I haven't still isn't overly surprising. I travel a lot, you get used to strange sights." It was part of the reason he'd taken her magic in stride, after devil fruits and the weather of the new world, magic wasn't overly strange. He would bet Holly would react stronger to the fact that he was made of fire than he would to her abilities.

"Really?" Holly asked, stopping at a bus stop, "what's it like… your world?"

Ace thought on the map Holly had made for him and explained loosely: "most of my world is made of water, the only land is the islands, but each island is different." He gestured vaguely trying to remember some of what he'd been told, "on the Grand-line and in the new-world travel between islands is rare, and near impossible a few decades ago. So each island remains separated, so the customs, development, advances, language, traditions, and such are all different. Islands didn't share with each other until recently. So you can get dinosaurs on one island, then a technical marvel on the island right beside it."

"Dinosaurs? Really? Have you seen some?" Holly asked brightly, that was fascinating. Travel between islands must be so exciting, you'd never know what you'd get until you were there. For Holly who had been a caged child, and a caged teenager who'd never even seen the ocean, the idea was enthralling.

"Yeah, I've seen them, met a guy who could transform into one too."

"What?!" the bus stopped in front of them as Ace slowly explained devil fruit's finding her enthralled expression quite endearing. To the point that he loosely explained, that Marco, his eldest brother, could transform into a phoenix. He still said nothing the public and marines didn't know, just in case. Holly and Ace boarded the bus and Holly paid for herself since the driver couldn't see Ace, and they took the back seats, Ace right beside her kicked his legs up.

"Phoenix's are real in the magical world." She told Ace, "my late headmaster had one, Fawkes. He saved my life when I was twelve."

"How?" Ace wondered, he didn't think Marco's healing could extend to others.

"Uh, there was this basilisk - it's a hundred-foot-long snake that kills with one look and has deadly venom - it bit me. Fawkes tears are healing, so he cried into the bite wound and saved me." Holly pulled up her shirt showing off the scar there.

Ace gave a whistle, he'd been younger when he'd killed something that size but with a venomous bite and eyes, that was impressive especially considering Holly was physically weak. Turning Ace jerked a thumb to his back where he had three long scars across his back. "About a fifty feet high tiger nicked me when I was fourteen, was bedridden for a couple days at least."

Holly gave a started snort, "three days, whatever did you do." Three days was a long time for those with magical healing, but Ace was a muggle. Three days was a crazy short time to be in bed for such a wound with muggle doctors.

"Mostly told my brother that-" Ace cut off snapping his mouth shut, he'd almost spoken about Luffy, he'd almost put Luffy in danger.

Holly noticed his sudden silence, but from the expression on his face, it wasn't something she should push, so Holly didn't ask. Instead, she hit the bell to stop the bus and stood. "Let's get off here, there's a station nearby, we can take it deeper into the city before apparating again… and maybe we can get some food. I've meant to stock up anyway."

"Right." Ace stood following her off the bus and swore he'd never get that relaxed again. He absolutely could not say anything that could put his brothers, any of them, in danger. He remained silent as Holly showed him to a department store and told him to pick out whatever he wanted to try. Neither of them really thought what Ace carrying things would look to the muggles, but thankfully no one actually did notice. Ace found himself too distracted by the selections and wondering what the meat flavored chips tasted like and if Luffy would like them. While Holly was distracted by watching Ace and finding his sudden silence somewhat off-putting. Funny how quick she got used to having another person around her.

After getting food, Ace grabbed the bags, and they left and rounded the building. "Here, gimme." Holly requested while holding open her bottomless purse.

"Don't think much is going to fit in that." Ace commented, setting the bags down as the haki fled from his arms.

"Tisk tisk Ace, did you forget? I'm a witch." With an exaggerated movement, Holly lifted the bags and dropped them one by one into her purse. She highly enjoyed watching Ace's face go slack in quick surprise as her little bag swallowed the others. "If you think this is impressive, just wait until you see the tent."

"Tent?"

Holly put away the groceries as Ace wandered room to room through her magical tent yelling exclamations as he went. Holly couldn't wait till he discovered the plumbing, the shower was absolutely the best part Holly decided. A thump of someone jumping on the bed, followed by Ace yelling in delight had her grin fondly.

Flicking her wand, Holly set a simple meal to cook using the spell Molly had taught her and went for her journal. Dropping it on the table Holly took a seat and flicked it open absently rubbing at her bruised neck, she was going to need some more potion for the bruising, it was getting a bit raw again. She'd have to make some though, she'd used the last of it recently which meant she'd need to take some time to set up her cauldron to brew the potion. Which was another thing to do on top of her research and now Ace's problem.

Rubbing her temples, Holly tried to focus on the loose research she'd done. Seven Horcruxes needed to be destroyed, two were gone, two more found, and the other three were unknowns. But even if she could locate the other three Holly had not been told how to destroy them once she found them like she'd found the locket. The only thing she knew would work was that the one in her head would be destroyed if she was struck by another killing curse. Which meant the method of her death was set, she had to let Voldemort kill her after she'd destroyed the other four Horcruxes, and afterward it was up to someone else to finish the then vulnerable Voldemort off.

In theory with Ace's cooperation, she could set up a way for him to return after she was dead and he could finish Voldemort. He was immune to magic and couldn't be seen, so if he were willing, he'd be able to kill Voldemort after she was gone with ease. But Holly didn't want to leave that on his shoulders. Because she didn't know if after she was gone, he'd remain - since he seemed attached to her. Because he wasn't part of their world. Because he needed to go home and she didn't want him to see her die like everyone else would. Because there was still that tiny part of her that thought if she could find a safe way to destroy the locket's Horcrux, then she could also use it on herself, and she'd live-

She rubbed her neck again and gazed hopelessly at her research. Months she'd done this, months wandering the country and trying to figure it out. All she had to show for it was a building scarring on her neck and the knowledge that she was failing.

A hand brushed the back of her neck, and Holly flinched.

"Sorry." Said Ace as she swung around, he took a step back apologetically with his hands up. He'd done it before thinking, before asking himself how'd she'd react to touch in the vulnerable spot, one he'd personally punch someone out for touching. But he'd been watching her for several minutes and had seen her continually rubbing at that area, he'd grown curious, and a bit concerned.

"It's fine." She mumbled brushing her hair, so it properly covered her neck, "do you need something?"

"No," he moved around the table to sit in front of her, "just wondering why you wear that thing, shouldn't you change the chain?" his mind was already wandering to different reasons for it. The scarring on her neck - and yes he'd seen it - looked like the result of slavery, like someone's neck after wearing a collar for too long. But she didn't seem like a prisoner, so perhaps it was sentimental, but even sentiment to the point of injury… why would she do that?

"It's…" Holly paused as she looked at Ace. She hadn't told anyone in the order about the Horcruxes, she hadn't spoken of it to anyone outside Hermione and Ron. And Voldemort hadn't told anyone but her about it. She knew the headmaster would roll in her grave if she spoke about it to a muggle. Especially one she'd just met, for all she knew, he could be faking her out. Could she really risk the knowledge of Horcruxes on Ace?

Right now… no.

"It's a bit heavy sometimes. But it… I can't leave it behind, so I wear it." Not a lie, she wasn't lying to him.

Ace nodded, letting it drop just like she'd not asked about his earlier cut off comment, and changed the subject: "so, how do we defeat this guy and get me home?"

Holly winced because he'd asked exactly what she wasn't going to tell him. She couldn't tell him about the Horcruxes… and she didn't have to. "Your suggestion earlier was a good idea, if we remove you-don't-know-who's elite members, then he loses power, and we can target him directly." Ace laughed as Holly altered her 'you-know-who' just to stop him from telling her he didn't know who she was talking about.

Really though, if she could get her hands on people like Bellatrix, she might be able to pull the locations of the other Horcruxes' from them. Voldemort must have trusted more of his elite with them like he had Regulus and Lucius. "As for getting you home, first we have to figure out how you got here in the first place. So, tell me everything, what happened?"

Ace kicked back in his chair, leaning it on two legs. He decided quickly there was no harm in telling her, it was public knowledge in his world, the marines couldn't use anything he said against him if he was careful. "I was hunting a traitor to my family, a man that killed one of our brothers for some stupid trinket." He snarled enraged at that fat bastard that had dared to threaten Luffy to Ace's face. "He defeated me and handed me to the marines so he could become a Shichibukai."

"A what?!" Holly recoiled a bit as she flipped through her journal to a few empty pages so she could write a few notes.

"Pirates who work for the marines for different benefits, a couple of them aren't too terrible, but mostly they suck." Mostly Hancock he'd heard was a decent leader to her people, and Mihawk was friends with Shanks and rarely did what he was told to do by the marines. But on the opposite hand, there was Crocodile - who Luffy had beaten up - and Doflamingo. "They accepted because they wanted to start a war." Holly gave him a confused look, and he sighed, "they think by executing me in public my father will try to rescue me, they want to kill him and put the marines back in power with his death."

"Why do you sound like… like you think he won't come? He's your dad, isn't he?"

"By choice," Ace muttered, "not by blood. Anyway, I disobeyed a direct order to hunt down Teach. I betrayed them, they're better off leaving me to rot."

"Ace." Holly breathed baffled by the sudden shift in his mood and attitude, "that can't be true! They're your family, of course they'll save you." She had to have faith in that, that not only would Ace's family save him, but that her family would have tried to save her given the chance. She knew if she'd let Hermione and Ron know… she knew they never would have stopped until they found a way to save her life. And that was why she'd been forced to make them leave her; because Holly couldn't allow them to carry that guilt and anguish should they fail.

"They shouldn't, and they won't, I'm not worth that."

What? That was bull! She'd barely known Ace a day and knew he was definitely worth it. "Ace-" he cut her off with a snarl of anger as he dropped his chair onto all fours with a loud bang.

"Doesn't fucking matter if they're coming or not, it has nothing to do with how I got here." He slammed his hands on the table, "I was put in Impel Down, the prison no one escapes from! They locked me in the lowest levels covered in sea-stone chains. After a few days, I fell asleep, and I woke up here. Nothing else happened." He shoved away from the table, "I'm going to crash, do whatever… and your food is burning."

"What?!" Holly spun to check her stove, and sure enough, the meat she'd left cooking was now burning. At some point, she'd lost control of her spell. Holly rushed to fix the mess, and when she finally turned back, Ace was gone, and the door to the room Ron used to use, was closed. Holly sighed and set the burnt meat onto a plate, she was better off not wasting it.

"Ah, I didn't ask him what Sea-stone was." She realized as she set her plate on the table, "I'll have to tomorrow morning." For the time being, she'd have to see if Hermione had any books on travel across worlds. Maybe it was something like astral projection since Ace wasn't physically present unless he was using haki. She was sure she had a book on that somewhere, it was worth a read.

Holly ate her dinner in silence before going hunting for the book. While in the other room, Ace lay on the single bed with an arm across his eyes. Truthfully he hadn't intended to get so angry, but Holly had brought up something that was a trigger for him. Now he couldn't stop thinking about his family, about the marines gathering up to kill his father and brothers. And if he wasn't in denial, Ace knew they'd show up. Whitebeard would never allow this challenge to lie no matter what Ace might have done before his capture. It was becoming so complicated, putting aside Holly and how he'd ended up in her world, Ace knew the Marines were aware now of who his blood father was. He knew they'd used it against him even if he escaped, and they'd reveal the truth to the world, to his family.

Closing his eyes, Ace's being cried out for rest. He'd been pushing it back for days unwilling to let his guard down in Impel Down. But he wasn't physically there anymore and as odd as it was, he was confident Holly would not cast spells on him while he was asleep.

A few minutes wouldn't change anything, right?

Ace drifted, let the world around fade for all but the sounds of Holly moving around in the other room. He could sense her hunting through a collection of books as she knelt on the ground. Could sense something around her neck, a black spot that nearly brought him to awareness- when he heard dripping water instead of a softly crackling fire. And then there was a scream-

His eyes snapped open to find himself chained downed once more, and trapped in the freezing darkness alone.