Chapter 7 - The-Boy-Who-Lived
Wandering through Diagon Alley in the early morning hours of summer was much more relaxed than the afternoon. When Hedwig had returned with a letter from Professor Snape earlier in the week she'd been accompanied by another owl, delivering her required supplies list.
A letter from Snape was already exciting enough, what with him barely writing her back, and at most one or two sentences whenever he actually did. But getting her list on top had her unable to wait much longer to go to Diagon.
If Holly had waited another day, then she'd have her birthday money to spend for more books, but she could just go a second time, later in the summer.
Checking her booklist again, Holly continued her search for a used copy of Magical Drafts and Potions, thankfully the only book on the list she didn't already have from her mum. There were a lot of them available in the second hand bookstore.
The biggest problem was finding one that didn't have countless insults or complaints about Professor Snape scrawled all over the pages. He couldn't be that bad of a teacher though could he? How did he even still have a job if he was as bad at teaching as she'd gathered from the books?
At least it gave her a good excuse to keep rummaging through the book section and maybe find a decent book on runes in the meantime. Sadly she wasn't as lucky this time, so once she'd found a decently workable potions book, she departed in search of a cauldron.
The alley was getting busier by the minute. In the distance Holly spotted Hagrid making his way through a huge throng of people. She wanted to go up to greet him, but the people seemed to go in the same direction as him so she settled for waving enthusiastically. He didn't see her sadly enough. She'd send him a letter with Hedwig later and ask what he was up to.
Said owl was almost fully grown now, but no less cute. Even if she'd receive a wing to the back of her head for saying as such out loud. Hedwig insisted that she was beautiful instead.
Hedwig wasn't the only one who had grown the past year though. She herself had shot up a good amount, almost as tall as Dudley now which felt like a miracle. When she'd realised that she hadn't only grown in height but her hips had also gotten wider, Holly had almost cried. Having to buy a whole new set of shorts and re-sewing all of her dresses was so stressful and felt like a waste of money. Not to mention that now her balance when roller skating felt off and she'd fallen for the first time in years as a result, almost ruining a pair of gloves in the process. At least her chest hadn't started growing like some of her classmates had, though it did hurt a little sometimes.
Not having to deal with the majority of the period troubles thanks to the contraceptive potion was a godsend as well. That reminded her. She'd have to pick one up later at the apothecary when getting her potions ingredients package. It had been almost a year since she had gotten the first dose from the nurse at St. Mungos after all.
The used equipment shop must have gotten new stock, almost everything was stacked to the ceiling. Right now Holly was looking at the pewter cauldrons. They were of much higher quality than the ones she'd seen at the end of last summer. No rust or potion residue to speak of.
"If it ain't the shrewd lil lady from last year, how's the lock on the leather wrap been treatin ya?" It was the shopkeeper.
"Oh, it's been brilliant. There were these awesome rune carving tools inside. They must be worth a fortune!" Holly was grinning from ear to ear.
"You gotta be shittin me. You could seriously decipher those weird markings?" He looked baffled, but Holly had no idea what he meant with weird markings.
"Well, if you ever wanna return the kit, I'll have the 18 Knuts waiting for ya!" With that he bellowed out a laugh, turned and walked off to harass some other poor customer. Weird fellow that one, but Holly found him funny anyways.
She'd never consider selling the tool kit back to him after her painstaking efforts to learn to use them properly. Her hands still cramped up sometimes when holding something the way she held the tools.
After not finding anything useful in the miscellaneous box, Holly went ahead, paid for the cauldron she'd picked out and made her way to the apothecary.
The cauldron made for a convenient grocery bag, if you could consider a pack of potions ingredients, vial of contraceptive and her new book groceries. The ingredients were just a couple knuts, but the clerk had said that they'd become more expensive each year. Even getting into the range of multiple galleons for newt potions. Holly hoped to not have to drop potions just because she couldn't afford it.
When Holly made her way through the Leaky Cauldron she saw Hagrid nursing a pint of butter beer and talking with a wizard in purple robes and turban.
"Hullo Hagrid, I waved at you earlier but you didn't see. What had you so distracted ?" she greeted cheerily.
"Oh, 'ello Holly. Was jus' on Hogwarts business. C'mere, c'mere meet Professor Quirrel, he's yehr teacher fer Defense against the Dark Arts this year," he clapped Holly on the shoulder heavily and shoved her towards the other wizard.
"Good day to you Sir, I'm Holly, Holly Potter." She gave him a small smile and extended her hand towards him for him to shake.
"Greetings, P-p-p-potter. I've h-h-heard a l-lot about you f-from Hagrid this y-y-year. So nice t-to finally meet you!"
Holly didn't know if Professor Quirrel had grasped her hand weirdly or if it was coincidence, but when their hands touched her scar flared up in pain. Gritting her teeth, she retracted her hand rather quickly after the shake.
"Yes, so nice to meet you as well Professor. Unfortunately I'm expected at home or I'd stay for a chat. Hagrid," she gave him a nod," Professor." And then one to Quirrel.
"Tha's too bad then. Have a safe trip home Holly."
"Thank you Hagrid."
The entire way to the door Holly's hair was standing on end. When she finally stepped out through the door the pain in her scar slowly subsided and she calmed down.
Holly inspected the gloved hand that had shaken Professor Quirrel's, but when she found nothing out of the ordinary she just sighed.
"Well, that was strange."
Holly was annoyed. Why did she have to run out of space in her notebook right now? She had been on the verge of a breakthrough with the self charging runes. Of course Dudley had not wanted to lend her his for her "magic mumbo jumbo drawings". So now she was furiously scribbling away with a quill on parchment. It was eligible enough, but drawing accurate rune designs was almost impossible.
She was in the process of filling the star-shaped design with runes; it would combine a pentagon and 5 triangle designs into one big sequence and get rid of the magic bleeding out between the runes.
But Holly never got further with it. There was a quiet sizzling sound, she felt the telltale signs of magic gathering in her hand and flowing into a carving tool. Only, Holly wasn't holding one.
It happened so quickly that she barely had enough time to react. First the rune she had been drawing started glowing orange and smoking at the edges. Then the parchment and quill burst into flames, singing her hair at the edges before Holly could dodge the ball of fire.
Dodging backwards had been a major miscalculation on her part, the desk chair she had been sitting in tipped backwards along with Holly, crashing her to the floor head first. Hedwig landed on her chest, looking down at her with judgemental eyes.
"Ouch! That was new, huh Hedwig." Holly only got an unimpressed hoot back. It was fortunate that she was alone at home, or someone would already have stormed into her room demanding she make less noise.
She looked up at her desk. No more fire, good. Just a huge black spot on the ceiling, bad. How would she explain this to uncle Vernon? He'd cut her chore payments for sure, ugh.
Slowly sitting up, Holly inspected her singed hair. With how messy it was she could probably trim the tips and no one would notice. Hedwig had hopped to her shoulder by now so she could stand up properly.
Walking over to her desk Holly noticed that thankfully besides parchment along with the quill being gone, everything was unharmed. Only the desk had a new feature. The rune that had glown was burned into the surface.
This accident called for more experimentation, but for now Holly would clean up and get her punishment from uncle Vernon.
She'd also have to buy more parchment and new quills, that had been her last one… Buggers.
It was early in the morning when aunt Petunia dropped Holly off at Kings Cross Station since she still had to get Dudley out of bed, packed up and then drive him all the way down south to Smeltings.
Holly was carrying Hedwig's cage in her left hand, having sent said owl ahead to Hogwarts. With her right she was pulling along her mum's old trunk. The corners were a little banged up, but it held up well.
She had spent the whole day yesterday contemplating what to take along. She certainly didn't need all of her mothers books, though having them might come in handy. Roller skates were probably impractical in a castle in the middle of nowhere sadly. She'd packed her sewing kit in case she grew more and had to adjust her robes again. When it became clear that Hedwig's perch wouldn't fit in the space-enhanced trunk, Hedwig had started sulking the whole rest of the day until she'd been sent off.
When Holly had gotten her ticket for the train she'd been confused. Where was platform 9 ¾ ? Hagrid hadn't mentioned anything about it so she'd sent a letter to Professor Snape asking for directions.
He really could have done without calling Hagrid an oaf who never did anything right and just explained that you had to walk into the barrier between the two platforms.
Holly was so excited stepping through the barrier that she kept her eyes open wanting to take it all in. Only to be assaulted by flashing lights the moment she'd passed through.
"It's not him again! Are you sure we can trust that source of yours claiming he'd come in the muggle way?"
When she was finally able to see again, Holly noticed a group of reporters having set an ambush on this side of the barrier. What were they doing here? Surely no one famous enough to warrant a media presence would still be going to Hogwarts by train or even at all.
Pushing past them Holly finally laid eyes on the breath taking red steam engine that would carry her off to school. It was absolutely beautiful and she couldn't wait to finally attend Hogwarts.
Heaving her trunk up into one of the middle carriages Holly set out to find an empty compartment, should be easy enough with her being this early. The trunk still weighed quite a bit since some of the weight reducing charms had stopped working. She'd have added some runes to it but was afraid of how the rest of the enchantments might react to them. If the trunk broke she'd be devastated.
Everything was empty when she strolled through the cart, inspecting the different compartments. With her having the choice Holly plopped down in the first best one and started reviewing some of the first year curriculum and taking her own notes.
Any time someone came in through the barrier there would be a commotion and flashing lights. It got really annoying the closer it got to the departure time with more and more people arriving.
Eventually she was joined by 4 more girls. They arrived in pairs of two shortly after each other. One pair of twins of Indian descent and then a redhead and a blonde.
"Hullo, nice to meet you. My name's Holly." She set aside her books and gave them a wide smile.
The others introduced themselves in turn, the twins were Padma and Parvati, the redhead Susan and the blonde Hannah.
"Say, do you know what is up with all the reporters at the barrier?"
"Isn't that because the boy-who-lived is supposed to start Hogwarts this year? He hasn't been seen since that Halloween night," replied Parvati.
"Who's that?" So it actually was because of someone famous? Everyone's head turned to her.
"How can you not know? He's the most famous wizard alive besides headmaster Dumbledore."
"I think she might be a muggleborn, it would make sense not to know then." It was Hannah who defended her.
"I'm not actually a muggleborn, but I was raised by my muggle aunt since my parents fell victim to the war."
"Oh, I'm so sorry. I know exactly how that feels. Both my parents died in the war so now I live with my aunt as well. But she's a witch."
Holly gave Susan a sympathetic look and patted her hand. It wasn't easy talking about being an orphan.
"So who is this boy-who-lived, was it, then?"
"He stopped You-Know-Who at the height of his power and ended the war in a single night."
"He was the first to have survived the killing curse. No one survives it, even his parents died to it moments before. Apparently Dumbledore hid him away until now to train him as his successor."
Holly was gobsmacked by how seamlessly Padma and Parvati continued each other's sentences. Did all twins do that?
"That's not true, I heard he was spotted in Diagon with Hagrid not too long ago."
"Really? I'm usually on top of all the gossip of the wizarding world. It couldn't have been this summer." Parvati seemed really sure of herself.
"Well, it could have been last summer to avoid the majority of people expecting him this year. My aunt says Dumbledore is sneaky like that."
"Do you think the scar is as prominent as it is on the book co-"
They were interrupted by more camera flashes from outside that blinded them even if they weren't in the focus. Those reporters must be using some weird magic flashes to get them this bright.
Their description of that boy overlapped a lot with her own weirdly enough. Lost parents on Halloween night fighting Voldemort and survived with a weird scar. Must be a coincidence, Holly was sure no one at Diagon had seen her scar to print it on some book.
"Do you mind if I close the curtains? The camera flashes are getting on my nerves."
When she got the go ahead from everyone, Holly stood from her seat and pulled the blinds closed. The last thing she saw outside was a couple redheads stumbling through the barrier to more flashing lights.
They fell into an easy conversation after that. Everyone was excited to finally start Hogwarts. What subject were they most excited about, hobbies, the newest gossip about the teachers and so on.
"What house do you think you'll end up in?" It was Holly who had asked.
"We're not sure yet, but twins are almost guaranteed to be in the same one."
"Probably Hufflepuff."
"I want to be a Hufflepuff like my aunt. She's the head of the DLME spreading the values of Hufflepuff. What about you Holly?"
"Well, both my parents were in Gryffindor so that's my main goal. But any of the houses has good traits to strive for. One shopkeeper in Diagon called me as silver tongued as a future snake should be actually."
That had been the stationary shop owner. She'd nitpicked the quality of his quills until she got a huge discount. Holly hadn't even been lying, he was trying to sell the low quality quills to unsuspecting school children who were late with their shopping.
"You really shouldn't be going to the snakes, all the dark wizards in British history were exclusively Slytherin."
"I'm not going to assume every Slytherin is a bad person. My mum's best friend was in Slytherin and wasn't Merlin rumoured to have been one as well?"
"Unconfirmed rumours, but yes. And I didn't say every Slytherin was bad, the majority tend to be though. Just look at Malfoy, Parkinson or god forbid Snape. And everyone knows you-know-who was one."
Holly was stumped, people really didn't like Professor Snape. Sure, he did come off as really rude and withdrawn in his letters, but comparing him to the likes of Voldemort seemed like a stretch. She didn't know who the other people were though.
"I guess, I'll still keep an open mind."
The landscape passing by the window was absolutely stunning. Rolling hills, lush forests, sparkling lakes and distant mountains. Most of the compartments inhabitants had started doing their own things about an hour ago. Some were reading, some playing a card game.
"Say Holly, how do you get your hair so wavy and voluminous? There's gotta be some secret."
Holly was staring at Parvati with her mouth gaping. None of the girls at home had liked her hair, ever.
"It's naturally messy like this, I wish I could have straight hair like you to be honest." Parvati shot her an outrageous look.
"That'd be such a shame, with how tall and fit you are, the wavy bob looks breathtaking on you. I swear you'll be a heartbreaker in a couple years!"
Holly was blushing furiously, no one had ever complimented her like that.
"T-t-thanks, I um, I like your hair too." The girls just giggled at that. Holly was far too embarrassed to form coherent sentences. She'd never had this kind of girl-talk since none of the muggle girls had liked her.
Thankfully this was the exact moment that the candy cart lady decided to knock on their door. Everyone got an assortment of different wizard candy that Holly had never heard of before. When Hannah saw that Holly hadn't gotten anything off the cart she bought her a chocolate frog to try.
Holly had tears in her eyes when thanking her. These girls were all so sweet and thoughtful, not at all like her former classmates.
She barely caught the frog in time before it could jump out of the window. The feeling of biting into the wriggling chocolate frog was just as disturbing as she imagined after Hannah had shown her how to eat it.
Inspecting her very first chocolate frog card, Holly was surprised to find out that she barely knew anything about their esteemed headmaster. What were the 12 uses of dragon blood and what had he accomplished in Alchemy with Mr. Flamel?
Since they were on the last leg of their journey Holly excused herself to go change into her robes.
Seeing herself in the bathroom mirror startled her a little. The long flowy robes fit her well and accentuated her green eyes behind the thin framed glasses. Holly was still miffed at her messy hair, but if someone pretty like Parvati thought it looked good then it couldn't be that bad right?
Just as she reached the door to her compartment, it flew open and a girl with the bushiest hair she had ever seen came storming out. The girls shoulder hit Hollys but she just kept going.
Holly turned to the giggling girls in the compartment.
"What was up with her?"
"She was looking for someone's lost pet toad. Didn't appreciate my tip to maybe look in that bush she calls hair." Parvati answered her in between giggles.
Holly frowned at her. "Isn't that kind of mean?"
"Aw, come on Holly. It was just a harmless joke, I promise."
She wasn't convinced, but let the topic drop. Holly would just apologise on their behalf later.
"Good evening Hagrid, how are you today?" She had rushed right over when she saw Hagrid directing all the first years towards his side.
"G'day, Holly. M'fine. FIRS' YEARS OVER HERE! Yeh had a good train ride?"
Hollys head was ringing from his loud voice, but she gave him her biggest smile regardless.
"Yes, it was great. I think I made some friends already."
When it looked like all the upper years had left and only children her age were left Hagrid told them to follow him down a narrow path towards the lake.
"Now, mind yehr step!"
The path down to the lake was treacherous, but once they finally reached the shore the view was to die for. The stars reflected on the surface like a giant mirror, the soft wind carried an earthy smell that reminded her of deep forests and mysterious caves. Playful laughter of merpeople enjoying themselves in the starlight could be heard in the distance . Holly couldn't get enough of it.
She shared a boat with the twins as they gently glided over the lake. Once they were out of the little bay the boats had been in her breath caught in her throat. The caste was enormous and so much more magical than she could ever have imagined.
The windows glowed with the warm and flickering orange light of fires or candles, the little towers were covered in owls and other birds watching their approach. There was a scream and as she turned Holly saw a giant tentacle waving at them enthusiastically.
They exited their boat in a small harbour under the castle and made their way up the steps towards the huge castle doors. All the while enjoying the view of the valley with the forests, mountains and distant village. When the doors opened Holly and the rest of the first years were greeted by the sight of a stern looking witch.
While Holly admired the brilliant hat that the witch wore, said witch introduced herself as Professor McGonagall, their Deputy Headmistress and gave them an overview of the different houses and their values.
The inside of the castle was just as big as the rest of it and Holly was marvelling at the intricate animal decorations worked into the stone of the walls and ceiling.
"I read in Hogwarts: A History, that the animals represent one of the founders and their houses each. They can be found in carvings all over the castle with a big mural on the first floor landing as a centrepiece."
Even with her standing taller than most of her peers, Holly couldn't see who had said that. But she was thankful nonetheless. They looked almost life-like and she couldn't wait to see the main piece if this was the quality of work that went into everything.
They were told to wait in the antechamber and smarten up. When McGonagall was gone, there was a small commotion in the back of the group, but with Holly being right at the front with Padma and Parvati she didn't hear what it was about.
When they were finally led inside the great hall Holly had to swallow thickly. It felt like the whole student body was staring at them so she quickly shuffled after the professor.
All the people, the floating candles and everything was so overwhelming she couldn't even appreciate someones comment about how the ceiling was enchanted to look like the sky outside.
Whatever Holly had expected of the coming minutes, it certainly wasn't an old ratty hat singing them a song. It was quite catchy, but whatever the hat used for a voice box didn't lend itself to grand performances.
Funnily enough the hat was also the one who would sort them into their houses. How it could judge them was anyones best guess. Holly cheered loudly when Hannah and Susan got sorted into Hufflepuff.
She'd spaced out a little after, not expecting anything exciting to happen until it was the twins and her turn. But it seemed like she was wrong, the entire hall had fallen silent except for quiet whispers of "it's him".
Holly didn't know who everyone was so excited about. What had McGonagall said the name was, Long-Gotten or something?
The whispers got louder when a blonde boy stepped forward and sat on the stool. Holly didn't know what so special about him was until he turned his head, shifting his fringe to reveal a lightning bolt scar splitting his brow in two.
Was this the boy-who-lived that the others had been talking about and who the press tried to meet at the platform?
It took the hat ages to sort him, but when it finally announced "GRYFFINDOR!" to the hall, the clapping and cheering was deafening. Someone even sang "we got Longbottom". Ah, so that was his name.
Nothing special happened after that except for the outraged scream of Padma, when Parvati got sorted to Gryffindor instead of Ravenclaw that she was in.
Holly was unsure what to do once the hat was placed on her own head so she just fixed her gaze on the big doors, not looking at anyone.
'Difficult, very difficult' came a small voice beside her ears, 'Plenty of courage I see. To forge your own path like a true lion.' Her heartbeat quickened, would she actually get to be in Gryffindor?
'Then there is your keen mind and thirst for answers of an eagle.' Ravenclaw would be nice as well, she'd heard they had their own special library in their dorms.
'You are of the hardest workers to ever grace these halls with the loyalty of a badger.' Well, Holly wouldn't mind that either. She'd already made two friends there.
'And an almost unrivalled ambition that makes me feel like Salazar himself is sitting under me, yes. You would thrive in the snake pit.' So what, Holly could just go wherever?
'You would certainly do well in any house, but I see you've already made your choice.' She had?
Her heart was jumping around wildly in her chest. And when the hat finally announced "GRYFFINDOR!" Holly was so excited that she ran off to join Parvati with the hat still on. To the amusement of everyone else.