Chapter 4! I'm really enjoying putting this story out, let me know if you want me to do any more in the future! The picture above is similar to Holly's room.

My past has tasted bitter, for years now.

So I wield an iron fist.

Grace is just weakness.

Or so I've been told.

I've been cold, I've been merciless.

But the blood on my hands scares me to death.

Maybe I'm waking up, today.

I'll be good, I'll be good.

And I'll love the world like I should.

I'll be good, I'll be good.

For all of the times that I never could...

Holly woke up to light flooding the room from the window seat across the room. She groaned at the sunlight which seemed determined to wake her up. Uhh, she didn't want to get up from her warm cocoon of a bed. What time was it anyway? It felt like she'd gotten barely any sleep. She grabbed her wand off the bedside table, where she'd placed it last night before practically passing out on her bed, and did a quick Tempus charm. It was 7:38 am. She had a 22 minutes to get ready and get down to breakfast. She got up and opened her trunk. She made a note to get to Gringotts as soon as possible so she could have some clean clothes. For now the house elves had given her a plain white top and some black leggings that were a little to short for her slightly long legs. She put her crisp, green robes over her shoulders, grabbed her bag, and headed out of her grey and midtone wood room. She enjoyed the cleanness of it but she was pretty hungry so she raced down the stairs to the Great Hall once more.

As she entered she could see Severus at the left end of the head table, with an empty seat on his right. She approached him cofindently and slid into the seat next to him. McGonagall, who was on her other side, slid a piece of parchment along the table towards her.

"This is your schedule for today, Severus has kindly offered to take you to Gringotts during lunch break so you can get your books, for now just use the spares we have in the classroom cupboards." She explained kindly to her. She nodded to show she understood and slid the timetable into her bag after checking her first class, which was History of Magic. Oh great. Binns. Well maybe she could sneak her EarPods in and listen to some music whilst doing some reading or drawing. At least it'd be productive.

She grabbed her breakfast (some fruit and a dollop of strawberry yogurt) and ate it quickly, she didn't want to be late after all, even if it was only Binns. She shovelled the food into her mouth, willing herself to swallow faster.

"Slow down, Heather. You'll get indigestion if you keep inhaling your food like that." Severus commented dryly, whilst sipping his black coffee.

"I don't want to be late for class. Especially on my first day, first impressions and all that. And I want to get a good seat," She explained, finishing her small bowl of food and swiftly standing up. "I'll see you later, I've got Potions last. After Transfiguration."

"Ah, I shall see you then, good luck on your classes." Severus wished her as she slowly got farther away, eventually reaching the doors and marching through them determinedly. He watched her go with soft eyes. He didn't know why, but something about her intrigued him. Everything she did was a mystery. It must be because she's from the future, Severus reasoned, she acted differently and had different mannerisms and opinions than everyone else. He just wanted to learn about what the world was like in 2020.

He finished his own breakfast of bacon and scrambled eggs, and downed the rest of his coffee. He had to teach the 5th year Ravenclaws and Gryffindors. He stood up and followed Holly out of the hall, the students falling over themselves to get out of his way as he did so. He had dunderheads to teach.

(—:—)

Holly stood outside the History of Magic classroom and took stock of the various students the stood with her. She saw yellow and green ties around her. Slytherins and Hufflepuffs then. The door opened next to her and she turned and entered the classroom. She walked down the aisles until she got to the third table from the back and sat down. She pulled out her EarPods and her phone and shuffle played her Spotify. She gjessene she'd somehow broken the app when she time travelled, because her Premium was still working. That was strange to think about, that she'd actually time travelled. She hadn't had much time to really think about what had happened. She'd actually time travelled. She'd done something, accidentally at that, that scientists had been trying to do for decades! And she'd been the one to do it! If she was famous in the Harry Potter films then maybe she could understand it. But just some random girl that and done absolutely nothing with her 18 years on the planet. Why her?

She knew it was pointless to keep speculating on such things, they would never be answered after all, so she focused on her note pad and decided to colour code her timetable. She'd done that in her High School years as well. Before her 'best friend' had ruined it of course. She'd not had many true friends. That was why Ashley and Chelsea were so special to her. The tears came to her eyes when she thought of them, but fate apparently had taken pity on her for it played Dance Monkey by Tones and I. This had been a popular song just before she had left. She normally didn't like popular songs because of their lack of talent and crude language. But she loved Dance Monkey. She turned up the volume and the world disappeared from in front of her as it often did when she listened to music. She let the song consume her and wipe away her depressing thoughts.

They say oh my god I see the way you shine

Take your hands, my dear, and place then both in mine

You know you stopped me dead while I was passing by

And now I beg to see you dance just one more time

Ooh, I seen you, seen you, seen you every time

And, oh my, I, I, I like your style

You, you make me, make me, make me wanna cry

And now I beg to see you dance just one more time

So they say, dance for me, dance for me, dance for me, ohh

I never seen anybody do the things you do before

They say move for me, move for me, move for me, ayy

And when you're done, I'll make you do it all again.

She didn't realise it, but the people nearest others her could hear the music and where staring at her like she had two heads. She was unconsciously swaying to the beat, not enough to be called dancing, but enough to be noticeable. Eventually everyone either fell asleep, or did something else. Holly sat there, by herself as everyone else already had seating partners, and coloured in her timetable. Once she felt like she had enough detail and if she added anymor it would look crowded, she stopped, she was satisfied with the her effort to make it look watercolour-esque.

She was quite proud of her efforts, but she still had time left. It had only taken her maybe 20 minutes to complete it so she still had twice that amount of time left. She decided to get out her journal and write down everything she knew about Harry, Hermione, Ron, Draco, Severus and Dumbledore. She would eventually do more but for now she felt like these people were the most important at the moment. As she wrote she listened to various songs by her favourite artists.

She'd written a decent amount about each of them when the bell rung to signal the end of class. She packed her journal and her pens up and made her way out of the classroom, after the other students. She now had D.A.D.A. She remembered this year was Quirrellmort's time to shine. She felt a bit scared at the thought of being taught by actual Voldemort. She'd have to get on to sorting that out as quickly as possible. And she'd have to get the Stone as well. She didn't want Dumbledore or Voldemort having it. And the Stone might be incredibly dark magic, after all, it could make the Elixir of Life. To make something that gave life had to include either dark magic or sacrifices. Probably both.

Back to reality, she had reached the classroom and she saw yellow and red ties this time. She decided to take the same seating strategy as the last class. The very back would only bring her more attention anyway. And the last thing she wanted was attention from Quirrellmort. She entered the classroom and took her seat, but this time someone sat next to her. It was Hermione. She sat down and directed her attention towards Holly.

"Hello there, Heather! I didn't know you'd be having classes with us, I'm afraid your going to be disappointed in this class. Quirrell isn't very good, as we discussed last night." Hermione approached her. Holly could see Harry and Ron take the seats in front of them. They turned slightly in their seats so they could also hear the conversation.

"Yes, I had gathered that. What do the students usually do to pass the time?" She asked, she hoped she could do the same thing as her last lesson. Maybe this time she'd review some of the Harry Potter books, try to write down spells and potions she could remember.

"Well, most students do homework or read. I've tried to listen but I can't make anything out of his stutters. Poor guy must have been terrified in the attack over the summer." Hermione said sympathetically. She was sad for Quirrellmort?!

"I'm sure he did," Holly muttered. After all, meeting Voldemort must have been terrifying. "Do you want to listen to this muggle music?" Holly asked politely. She was going to tell Hermione the truth after making her swear a couple vows to make sure she wasn't on the old mans side. She could get blinded by the authority of teachers sometimes.

"Muggle music? Where did you get these?" Hermione asked, puzzled.

"Look, I promise to explain later but for now do you to listen or no?" Holly just wanted to get to work and listen to the music she loved. Music was something else to her. It was how she expressed her feelings. You name an emotion, she'll name a song. It was like her religion. It sounds a bit degrading to actual religions, but that was how she felt. Most people didn't understand that though, so when she sent them a song after an argument they were angry. They thought that she was being childish or stupid.

"Umm, ok then. Sure." Hermione agreed. Holly instructed her on how to put the earpiece in correctly. She then pressed shuffle play on her Spotify playlist 'My faves 2020 March'. Still Learning by Halsey blasted out of the Earpods. She loved Halsey's album Manic. Most of the songs just seemed to be written just for her. She got to work on her list.

Her break was spent with Hermione, Ron and Harry. They just talked about their favourite books until Ron decided to ask Holly if she knew what Quidditch was yet. Holly had always seen herself as a chaser. And she had read 'Quidditch Through The Ages' so she knew a few of the moves. She had no idea which team she'd play on though, with the whole Heiress of Hogwarts thing. She, surprisingly, only had one question for Hogwarts about that, why her? Why not Harry? Or someone else who would prove to be actual heroes? She wasn't complaining though, having some leverage over Dumb-old-door was helpful and she also had the vault with money in. She might even be able to claim the Black and Lestrange vaults since both Sirius and Rodolphus were in Azkaban.

She would also have to get a trial for Sirius asap and also get him a mind healer. And contact Remus. And maybe she could reinstate Andromeda and Tonks while she was head of the family. She had a lot of work to do. She had Charms next. So when the bell rang she followed Harry, Hermione and Ron down the corridors and into the Charms classroom. She was excited to actually learn something in a class. She had put her phone on silent although she was sure no one would call her. Imagine her mum calling her and asking her where she was in the middle of a Charms class. Holly snorted and Hermione sent her a questioning look. Holly waved her hand to say that it didn't matter an Hermione let it drop.

She learnt quite a lot in her first class, she already knew a lot of the theory so Professor Flitwick didn't have much of the main part of the 1st year to teach her. She learnt wand properties and the theory behind Charms as a whole. She found it very interesting to listen to. How different wands where better at different spells. She was very grateful to Professor Flitwick for helping her along, the other Professors hadn't even talked to her.

She remembered that Severus had offered to take her to Gringotts so she headed to the Entrance Hall. She realised just as she got there that she'd left her warmer robes in her rooms. She decided to try something, she held out her arm and thought of her robes flying towards her, through the corridors. Nothing appeared so she put her arm back down and sighed. She hadn't really expected it to work but she didn't want to traipse up the various staircases to get to her rooms. She was turning wearily towards the grand staircase, head down, when something zoomed down the stairs and hit her right in her surprised face. It was her robes! She heard clapping coming from behind her so she pushed her plain black outer robes that had a warming charm woven in, off of her head and looked up, frazzled.

"I'm sure getting attacked by your own robes wasn't part of the plan, but I must say that was quite amusing." Severus commented helpfully. She could see him leaning over her, although he was upside down at the moment. She sat up and turned to face him.

"Thanks," She said dryly " Think you could help me up instead of smirking at me?" He held out his hand and she took it, an then pulled him towards her on the ground. He tripped, and landed in a heap next to her. When he sat back up he glared at her.

"Was that strictly necessary?" He questioned sourly, still glaring at her.

"Yes. Now we're even." She answered simply. She stood up and offered him her hand, shooting him a glare when he tugged at it, as if to pull her back down again. He didn't though, he stood up after her and smoothed of his pristine black robes. She looked at him and giggled, hiding it behind her hand when his head turned to stare at her. She turned around and marched towards the front doors. He followed her and opened the door for her before following her out himself.

It was freezing in the Scottish November air and Holly quickly pulled on her robes, relaxing when she immediately warmed up. They walked down to the carriages together and got in one. The thestrals pulled them down the sloping drive and out the gates. Once at the entrance to Hogshead her grabbed her hand and turned them swiftly.

Holly was suffacting. She was being squeezed like she'd never been squeezed before. She felt like if her old friend Milly did when she got stuck in that child's tunnel at the local park. This sucked. She felt as if her breakfast was shortly going to make a reappearance if this didn't stop. And suddenly she'd gotten free of the ever pressing tube that seemed to be apparation. She looked around to see an old looking pub. A few people where milling about and she saw a young man at a table reading a book and storing his drink wandlessly and nonverbally. Oh. My. God. It was the true star of Harry Potter! She wanted to say hello, but realised that would be ridiculously awkward so decided not to.

Severus was striding out of a wooden door and into the outside world anyway, she hurried to catch up with him. He tapped a series of bricks on the wall and the wall shuddered and then moved into itself to let them through. Holly marveled at the magic all around her. She entered Diagon Alley and wanted to laugh. It looked so similar to the movies version it was funny. They must have had a squib or a muggleborn working on it. It was quite empty though, only one or two people where doing their shopping.

Severus strode off towards a grand looking building that resided at the end of the street. Other streets continued on off of Diagon Alley, leading to treasures untold. Or just other shops. Probably other shops. They entered Gringotts and Severus gestured for her to go first and address a goblin. She decided that polite but firm was the best way to approach a goblin. If they seemed to like her then it was working, if not she was basically financially screwed.

"Excuse me sir. I'm here to inquire about the Heiress of Hogwarts vault and also the Black and Lestrange vaults." She said in what she hoped was a confident tone. The goblin lifted his head to look at her. It seemed to stare at her in what she thought was surprise and then gestured for another goblin to come forward with its gnarled hand.

"This is Grogol. He will take you too the Hogwarts Heir vault and you can prove your proclamations." He told her, surprisingly without a snarl of some sort. The other goblin, Grogol, hobbled off to her left, down a large corridor. She followed him and checked behind her to see if Severus was following. He wasn't. She saw he had sat down on a bench and was reading a book. Holly assumed that meant he was staying there so she continued following Grogol down the twisting paths. They eventually reached the carts and Holly looked at them sceptically. She wouldn't like this much. She wasn't fond off rollercoasters that much. She only been on a handful. One that was extremely small and was definitely for children, not 12 year old girls. But she and her friend Anna had ridden it anyway.

She'd totally hated it the first time as she thought she'd only booked one ride but as they passed the platform once more, she had to accept she was in for a long suffering ride. Once she had gotten over the fear of how fast it was going she started to enjoy it more. She'd gone on another on the year before but that one was in pitch black conditions and she had her eyes closed the entire time and clung to Phoebe, her best friend from school. Whilst shrieking about how dead they where. She didn't count that one.

She got into the cart and strapped herself in. She made sure that the seatbelt-like contraption that was apparently supposed to save her life was working properly and then closed her eyes and layed back. She tried to think of calming thoughts. The calm didn't last long as she was suddenly thrown forward as the cart lurched down its tracks. She held on for dear life and tried not to throw up on Grogol. The cart twisted and turned wildly, like a cat when you put something on its head. The sudden drop that the cart hurtled down made her feel like death was a certainty. She hated the feeling when there was air underneath her when she was sitting down. It was so terrifying. If gravity ever suddenly stopped working she'd be so screwed.

Eventually the cart stopped and she stumbled out of it, completely disorientated. Grogol got out the cart gracefully and Holly envied his composure after being thrown around like the insides of an early Christmas present as you tried to guess its content. Grogol instructed her to place her hand on the door to the vault and wait, if she truly was the Heiress then she'd be allowed in. If not. She didn't want to think about how she might punished for trying to open such an important vault. She placed her hand as told and waited. She silence was daunting as she waited for her probable death. Part of her wanted it, she dreaded the ride back up to the bank. And she still had the Black and Lestrange vaults to go to as well. Fate was probably laughing at her misfortune right now.

Lost in thought, she was startled when a low groan of a door that needed a good oiling filled the cavern. She noticed the door her hand was formerly against was now slowly moving backwards, granting her entrance. Holly stood back and waited for the door to open fully. She could see piles of coins, shimmering in the flickers of light from the torches on the walls. The vault was practically groaning under the weight of the money and the various artefacts scattered around. Several long swords where mounted one the back wall. Underneath aforementioned swords, was a delicately carved dining table. Perched on top was several stacks of ancient books. Journals, Holly realised as she read the titles on each one. 'Godric Gryffindor's Journal' and 'Rowena Ravenclaw's Journal' were just a couple of the books on the table. Both Salazar's and Helga's journals were there as well, along with books written by them and other books they must have deemed extremely knowledgeable.

She grabbed them and placed them in her bag, she would definitely be reading them in the evenings when she had spare time. She looked around the rest of the vault. The only other furniture was a set of six dining chairs that seemed to be centered around the houses. One was green, one red, and one in each yellow and blue. Another was back and the final one was white. She found them to be extremely good quality and decided she wanted them in her future house. She realised something and decided to ask Grogol a question if he was still there.

"Um, excuse me, Grogol?" She asked tentatively.

"Yes?" He replied. He seemed a little startled but Holly couldn't figure out why.

"Is there any properties that come with the Heiress of Hogwarts?"

"Yes, only one. A small manor was built for the Heir/Heiress by the founders of Hogwarts. The portkey to the property should be in this vault somewhere. It should be an intricately carved ring that has one of each, amber, emerald, sapphire and ruby stones set into the head of the ring. One for each house." Grogol explained.

Holly looked around and found a rather large jewellery box in the left corner that she'd walked right past before. She kneeled down and opened it up. Inside was a cup, a locket, a tiara of some sort, a long necklace and a small box nestled in the bottom corner. She grabbed the little box and inside was a ring exactly like Grogol had described. It was beautiful. The jewels were bright, the light from the torches bouncing off them and around the room. She slipped it on her left ring finger and put the box back.

"The pass phrase is Home." Grogol interjected helpfully. She nodded at him in thanks and continued her perusal of the jewellery box. She pulled out the tiara to look at it and jumped away in shock. The tiara was radiating something foul. It smelled like a torture chamber, full of sickness and death. Hold on, that wasn't just any tiara was it? That was the diadem of Ravenclaw! One of Voldie's horcruxes! She guessed that the locket and the cup where also the founders items. Only Godrics was missing. Holly quickly turned to look at the swords on the wall more closely. The farthest one on the left had red jewels encrusted around the handle and had 'Godric Gryffindor' carved into the side.

"Grogol? You wouldn't happen to know of any goblin magic that can destroy horcruxes without destroying the object would you?" It was worth asking, she had learned form certain fan fictions she had read on her iPad that the goblins might have magic of there own. Magic that almost all wizards and witches didn't know about because they never asked.

"Well, yes. But it will cost you." Grogol looked extremely surprised at the question. As if every other magical person he'd met didn't think they have magic. This, unfortunately, didn't surprise Holly. The magical population was even more ignorant then the muggles one sometimes.

"Of course, you can take the money out of this vault. The founders items are legend, they shouldn't be destroyed just because some wannabe has defiled them with dark magic. This is going to sound even weirder but do you know of any magic that could get a horcrux out of a living being without killing it?" She wanted that horcrux out of Harry as soon as possible. And if she became the head of the Black family she could demand Sirius have a trial and then he could gain guardianship of Harry. Or maybe she could anyway, Harry was family after all. Even if it was distant. Her great grandfather and Harry's grandmother were siblings but hopefully she could still take care of him.

"I think so but I'd have to check with my superiors. That kind of ritual takes a lot of energy." Grogol responded. He seemed to be less surprised at her question but was now looking at her suspiciously like he expected her to suddenly sprout a second head. Holly didn't think he was staring at he to see if it was her she was asking for either.

She ignored his piercing gaze and continued to look around. She couldn't see much else, just a few odd books and that necklace that didn't seem to be radiating any dark magic so she took it with her. She put it round her neck and admired it. It was silver, with dark onyxs that reminded her of Severus' eyes and rich blue opals with a light purple amethyst in the middle. She loved it.

After she had gathered what she wanted out of the vault and set dates for when the founders items would be ready for use once more she climbed back in the cart and held on once more. Once she had almost thrown up again and felt like her insides were a scrambled egg they have reached the ground level once more. They made their way back down the pathway and went into a room of the main entrance hall. Time to gain some Lordships!

Hope you enjoyed this chapter, most of Holly's experiences are actually my own but I've made sure to change people's names. I absolutely hate rollercoasters. Well, the smaller ones are fun, but other than that god no! Come back next week for chapter 5, thank you so much for reading!