Eleven, that was when it started for witches and wizards. You're eleventh birthday precisely on the second you were born. Which, Holly may like to emphasize the 'for witches' in that idea. Because until Holly was eleven, she hadn't actually known she was a witch, nor had she known witches were even a thing!

Before Holly turned eleven, she thought she knew two things. One, she was quirkless, which should have been more suspicious in retrospect. Namely, because Petunia, who'd never brought Holly to a single dentist, optometrist, doctor, or even a nurse, carted Holly to a quirk-specialist at five years old exactly. Petunia had been rather insistent that Holly visit this doctor. Quite unlike Dudley - who seemed to have a quirk that allowed him to lift just about anything and disregarded the weight of whatever he was lifting entirely.

Holly had spent far too much of her childhood trapped underneath things. On a completely 'unrelated' note, the Hero who worked near her- who had a strength quirk - knew Holly on a first-name basis.

Regardless, carted to the quirk-specialist, Holly learned that her parents were both quirkless as well. Her mother never inherited Petunia's long-neck quirk or Holly's grandmother's flower growing quirk. So Petunia seemed rather convinced, and concerned, that Holly was equally quirkless. Which, was Holly's second hint, because Petunia actually seemed like she wanted Holly to start spontaneously growing flowers all over the place. But no, the quirk-specialist told Petunia and Holly both that she had some toe joint, which made her quirkless.

The true abuse started the day after which Holly would eventually learn was because Petunia realized Holly inherited something quite different from her mother.

Getting back to the main point. Holly, thinking herself quirkless but otherwise normal, also believed she should have been finding her soulmates lost things from birth. A lost toy to start with, a lost pen, an article of clothing, the 'ordinary' things that people found. But as she grew, she found nothing. No lost homework - like Dudley found. Not the lost remote that Vernon misplaced, and Petunia dropped into his hands seconds later after it fell onto her head. No half pairs of shoes. No socks. No hair-ties. Nothing. Holly found nothing because she was not a Muggle.

But as a child, she didn't know how that worked, and as a child Holly convinced herself - with her aunt's vitriol assisting - that she was both quirkless and soulless.

Convinced as such, Holly didn't notice that when Hagrid cracked the door down to their cabin on her eleventh birthday that a red feather dropped onto her head before it zipped away. Nor did she notice hours later, while on a trolly in Gringotts, a similar feather landing in her pocket before flying off. Or the half a dozen other feathers that appeared on her person before vanishing immediately. In fact, Holly didn't even question the few she had seen because she'd been in a pet store, and surely Hedwig accidentally brought it home.

It was two months later that Holly realized the truth. Shortly after October, Hermione suddenly reached up and plucked a feather from her hair with a light-hearted 'oh, your soulmate lost a feather?' before the red feather in question ripped out of her hand and sped off.

Holly had been skeptical and had burst into tears when Ron gently explained that no, she wasn't soulless, that witches and wizards were just a bit… different, when it came to lost things. That they just started late because their magic was attached to their soulmates, and after that, Holly started to notice the feathers more often.

The feathers that dropped on her head. That appeared in her pockets. That blew past her head. That appeared again, and again, and again, and never stayed. Every time one dropped nearby, they'd zip away just as quickly. Holly found it a task in itself to catch the bloody things before they were out of sight, and… well, she supposed it made her a better seeker. Though no one wanted to accept that the feathers were faster than the snitch on a bad day like Holly claimed.

Holly did manage to eventually get fast enough to catch a few. She later learned summoning them back into place also worked, though it was boring, Holly rather preferred trying to catch them. Still, it was after the war that she actually did anything about the feathers.

It started with Ron.

"You know, I don't understand how we're supposed to use these lost things to find people. I don't even know what this is." Ron said, twisting something Muggle looking in his hands. He was sitting in the living room of Grimmauld place and was distracting himself from Hermione's nagging. Hermione personally was bothering them about returning to Hogwarts for the 'eighth year.' Something which Ron was rather disinterested with; he'd already been offered a position as an Auror-trainee after all.

"Ron…" Holly deadpanned at him, "that's a cellphone."

"Yeah?"

Holly exhaled tiredly, the stupidity of the magical world. Ron was her best friend, but seriously! "It's… it's basically a map to your soulmate-"

"What?"

"Oh honestly," Hermione reached over. She threw herself across the middle of the couch to snatch the phone from his hands. "Let me show you… oh," the girl rolled her eyes, "your soulmate is as bad as you, she locked it."

"Use the emergency call button," Holly mumbled as another feather dropped right in front of her. Immediately feeling a smile grow, Holly snapped her hand out and caught the feather between her fingertips. Idly Holly twirled the feather and kept a firm grip on it. She'd lost plenty by not holding them right and wasn't about to let this one go yet. It had been a few weeks since the last one. She'd honestly missed seeing the bright red shade, the same as Gryffindor ironically, perhaps that was why she'd subconsciously wanted to get into that house? "Or just wait for her to call it once she realizes it's lost."

"Call? Like the floo?"

"Similiar... you know what, yeah, that's the basic idea." Holly felt the feather in her fingers tug, it was trying to fly away again. She hated that; everyone else Holly knew had momento's from their soulmates, lost items of all kinds. Hermione had a necklace or two, purposely lost. While Hermione's soulmate had handwritten notes that Hermione had creatively lost. Luna had her cork-bottle earrings. Bill had the teeth that came from Fleur's avian form, and Fleur had a few precious stones from Bill's trips. Holly had feathers, countless feathers, that slipped away the moment they were in her line-of-sight.

The feather tugged at her as Hermione explained how a phone worked to Ron and what to expect when someone finally called, which prompted a memory of his attempt during fourth year. Holly, at the same time, fished a hand in her pocket.

One feather. She'd keep one feather.

Flicking her wand, Holly transfigured a small yet sturdy string. While still gripping the feather, Holly tied the string around the feather's harder part before putting the string through it. She then looped the entire thing, now a necklace, around her neck and let the feather settle on her chest. It struggled for a moment, then calmed seemingly comfortable with its new position. Holly hummed slightly just as a phone rang with a high pitched song and Ron freaked.

A month later, Holly had gotten used to the feather bouncing about on her neck. It danced about most days, pulled for a while, then settled again on a repeating pattern. Holly, admittedly, was finding herself watching it far too often. She was also finding more feathers, which made her realize the one around her neck was far from the only one.

"He's likely Muggle," Luna breathed in her wispy tone. She set her hand in her face and gazed happily at the dancing feather, "a pretty birdie Muggle."

"A wing quirk?" Holly jerked slightly as the feather gave a brutal yank before setting when it failed to move any further. "That's not common." Especially to have a wing quirk with such vibrantly colored feathers. Surely a shade this red on a set of wings would be easy to find? She'd just have to access the quirk registry for red wings… unless her soulmate had a pet bird… for the last seven years. No, that was unlikely. But, how would she even access the quirk-registry without using a bit of, somewhat illegal, magic.

"Maybe he's a phoenix, have you seen any of his feathers on fire?" Luna asked as the feather reached up and gave another firm yank then drifted downward slightly on the string. It didn't land on her chest though, it just floated loosely. Almost like it was testing its range. It made Holly wonder how much her soulmate could feel through that feather, if at all. "Or maybe a cardinal… a red-winged blackbird?" Luna put her fist on her palm with a happy noise, "or a parrot!"

"I'm sure if it was a parrot, I'd have gotten other colors of feather." Holly pointed out, which caused Luna to deflate. Holly felt a bit guilty for that, especially when a rather large rock landed on Luna's head a moment later. Luna's soulmate had poor timing. Or well…

"Oh! It's mooncalf feces! How fascinating!"

Eww. So not a rock then.

Recoiling slightly, Holly accidentally pulled on the still floating feather. She tugged it after her, and the feather suddenly jerked and darted toward her- Holly's eyes went wide, worried it was going to pull the string right off her head and escape. Instead, the feather hit her right in the face. Holly gasped, feeling it touch her forehead, then slowly slide down to stop at her lips and settle when she snapped her mouth closed. She'd rather not inhale a feather.

"Interesting."

Holly looked up to find Luna had lost interest in the… poo and was now watching Holly's feather. "What is?" she asked.

"Well, it seems sentient; perhaps your soulmate can sense his feathers while apart from his body." Luna reached up and ran a finger along the feather, and they both watched it shiver. It then bobbed in place searching out Luna's hand, or perhaps Holly's since Luna had already pulled back.

"Okay?" Holly lifted her fingers and ran her index finger along the feather to watch it shiver again. Then, quite abruptly, it jerked right into her palm, and honestly to Merlin, wiggled. Holly released a quiet noise of delight before the feather pulled from her hand again and firmly tugged at the string.

"That's the same direction," Luna commented.

"The what?" Holly asked, catching the feather once more to settle it.

"The same direction," Luna pointed off to the right, "it's pulled seventeen times during our conversation, every time had been toward the south-east. I suspect it's trying to lead you."

"Lead me?" The feather slipped from her palm again and pulled in the exact direction that Luna pointed to. Then it floated idly- and yanked again- in the same direction.

"Yes. To him, your soulmate… hadn't you realized?" Luna looked at Holly like she was a simpleton, like a Ravenclaw looking down on a Gryffindor for being particular… Gryfindorish.

"Eh?!"

Holly was perched sidelong on her broom and was miserable.

Her journey to follow her feather had been a mess the entire time she'd been on it. Firstly, because her soulmate apparently didn't live in the same country, let alone landmass as her. No, they seemed to live on practically the opposite side of the earth. Which, for Holly, meant a relatively large amount of customs, both Muggle and magical. And no, being the girl-who-conquered did not help her case any with border control. So, after being arrested once while trying to fly over Korea, Holly had stuck to Muggle planes and spent thousands of pounds to follow a feather's whims.

Nothing like explaining to a grumpy, coffee-deprived customs agent that she was travelling to the country because a feather wanted her too.

Not a fun conversation she would like to say. Though it could have been worse, at least Holly had translations charms to help her through the many language barriers.

After the fifth hop, Holly had finally ended up in Japan and elected to use her broom for a short while. Mostly because if she had to go much farther east, then she'd be over water. So, dawning her invisibility cloak, hopping on her broom, and venturing out, Holly continued her journey to find her soulmate via feather dowsing rod. Twenty minutes after that Holly was being called by Hermione, who was rather upset that Holly was following a feather instead of starting her eighth year at Hogwarts. The conversation to derail Hermione a bit lasted another twenty minutes of just sitting above a sky-scraper. Where Holly yanked off her invisibility cloak - she was boiling under the bloody thing.

And then it started to rain.

Waterlogged, feather still at her neck, Holly gave in for the afternoon. She landed on the nearest building, cast an umbrella charm to protect herself and set in the water the city from the tallest building she could. Japan, as Holly watched, was quite beautiful. She could see people wandering around and heroes who had on far more extravagant costumes than what Holly was used to.

Feeling daring, Holly climbed onto the edge of the building with her broom firmly in her grip. Holly didn't want to die, after all, she just wanted a better look, and she was a heights fan.

Nothing beat a dive toward the ground at full speeds only to pull up at the very last second. The speed, the thrill, the dare of it all… it was why she was a Gryffindor. To risk her life for a flash of gold and feel her heart positively beat out of her chest in exertion. Honestly, Holly didn't get Ron or Hermione. Why Ron would desire to be an Auror when they'd just been at war. Why Hermione couldn't so much attempt to get on a broom without going pale in fear. Flying was everything. It had the thrill Holly wanted, but the safety of not being shot at and traumatized.

Her feather shifted on her neck, and Holly leaned further forward.

Holly's hands flexed on the wood of her broom, she felt the familiar grooves and a rush of thrill enter her heart. She was rather high up. What would it feel like to… jump? To swing her broom under her feet, catch herself long before hitting the ground and soar through the skies.

She was slipping forward before she really acknowledged the choice to do it. Holly dropped like a rock from the skies, pulled her broom up and between her legs, gripped the handle tight and prepared to rip herself out of free fall and-

"Woah!" A hand snagged the back of her shirt and wrenched her to a brutal stop. Holly gasped as she nearly lost her grip on her broom, she choked along with whoever grabbed her because their combined almost caused her 'savior' to loose control. Thankfully her savior didn't drop out of the air either; his wings was able to keep himself and her aloft, even with the abrupt stop. "Hey kid! You don't need to be doing that."

Holly blinked at the ground far beneath her, then twisted her head up and back and caught a rather handsome face above her. Then her brows furrowed as she took in the extravagantly large wings beating above her. They were huge, likely three times the height of the man holding onto her. And they were also a vibrant bright red, the exact shade of her lost feathers.

The connection between the colors was within Holly's grasp. But another thought took precedent.

"I was trying to fly." is what she said, and the man made a rather interesting expression—confusion mixed with adorable perplexity.

"Well, you don't need to be jumping off buildings to do that, kid. Just gotta ask me, and I'll be happy to oblige."

What? No.

Holly lifted her hand to show her broom, "I can fly myself." What even was this conversation?

"You're a hero?" He pulled her up slightly so they were more eye-to-eye and Holly noted he was taller than her, not surprisingly, everyone was. As she looked him over, he was doing the same, looking for a quirk in fact though his gaze settled on the feather, which was fixed at her chest for the time being.

"No." Not a registered hero anyway, and 'savior of the wizarding world' didn't count either.

"Quirk-usage in public is illegal." He was staring at the feather.

"It's not a quirk-" Oh Merlin, how did she even begin to explain- the feather at her neck jerked up, and his eyes went a bit wide. "Okay, it's sort of quirk, but the broom is ma- it's technology. It's not a quirk. So I've done nothing illegal."

"Yeah… sure…" the feather jerked again, and his eyes finally returned to her face, "Hey kid, where'd you get that?" He nodded at her chest.

"I grew them." She deadpanned and watched him blush slightly.

"No! Not the- the feather- where'd you get one of my feathers?"

Oh.

There it was then.

"My soulmate lost it."

"Your soulmate-" he dropped her. Holly later would make endless fun at him for doing it, but the shock of her statement caused his hands to relax, and he dropped her. Holly managed a shocked shriek before instinct caught her. She shoved magic into her broom to prevent herself from becoming a pancake. Catching herself mere feet from the floor, Holly breathed a moment of relief- and then her soulmate's hands were on her as he frantically apologized.

"Oh shit- I'm sorry, kid- I didn't mean- are you alright?"

"Is that Hawks?!" Someone exclaimed, but Holly paid only minimal attention to it. She'd already figured from his outfit that her soulmate was likely a hero. However, Holly didn't really want too much attention on this particular meeting. Therefore, she nudged her broom upward and away from the slowly building crowd. 'Hawks' followed loosely behind her still a touch frantic that he'd almost gotten her killed.

"Yeah, I'm brilliant," Holly reassured as she flew upward and led her soulmate a bit more out of sight, "and… you're my soulmate."

"Yeah- I'm-" he was flustered, well, Holly was a little bit too, but she'd been chasing him down, and he'd been surprised. "It worked!" he suddenly exclaimed.

"What did?"

He pointed at the feather, "I can sense them. When you tied that one down, I felt it." Oh dear, he'd felt everything she'd done to the thing then- oh no. "I kept trying to pull it back… I'd hoped you follow behind, and it worked!"

Nope, Holly wasn't going to point out that it had taken Luna pointing out the obvious for that blatant hint to do anything. She was not. "It worked." Holly agreed instead, "and I found you…" she trailed off in demand of a name beyond 'Hawks.'

"Takami! Takami Keigo!" He looked a moment away from enveloping her entirely in his wings, though considering they were mid-air again, that would have been a rather terrible idea.

"I'm Holly Potter-"

And then he tackled her. His wings snapped around her body, closed instead of keeping him airborne, and he tackled her. Holly's gasped as she lost control of her broom when he knocked it to the side with his hug and yelled. "I found you!" before they fell right out of the sky.

To make a point. Holly would like to technically say that Keigo almost killed her twice in one day. But he'd forever deny the second one.

Okay, I had a request for Aizawa/Holly, and while I'm definitely going to do that at one point - I have the idea for the fic sketched out already. I happened upon a video on Tiktok that was absolutely PERFECT for Hawks, so… this.