Chapter 11 - Revenge

Holly's next day started with a frantic search of her whole dormitory. How could she have been this stupid and lose it after just a day? She'd been too excited about flying and now it was gone.

If she lost it due to the manoeuvres of her broom during flying practice then it could be anywhere on the grounds by now. So she hoped she'd just dropped it in the dorms. Lavender and Parvati were giving her worried looks, they knew how important this was for her. Hermione had already left for the library by the time she realised the pin-ball was gone, so she couldn't ask if she'd seen it either.

Holly was straight up crying when the trio made it down to breakfast. The pin-ball was nowhere to be found anywhere in Gryffindor tower. She got some sympathetic looks, but mostly snickers and jabs at her "performance" yesterday.

"I'd be crying too if I was that bad on a broom. You should go back to your muggle family and learn how to use one of theirs instead. Might even let you sweep the floor for me then." Holly was able to ignore all of Malfoy's taunts until, "At least then you'll be more useful than your mother. I hear she can't even pick one up as she is now."

He had an evil smirk on his face. She wanted to wipe it off so badly so she lunged at Malfoy. It was all his and the other git's fault anyways. He let out a girly squeal and practically folded in two when she hit him in the stomach like Dudley had shown her. But she continued pummeling him even after he went down.

There were screams for someone to get a teacher. Lavender was trying to pull her off and Parvati was trying to prevent Crabbe and Goyle from joining the fray.

Holly was finally pulled off Malfoy by a strong hand on her arm. "Detention Potter! And 5 points from Gryffindor." Of course Professor Snape had to be the one to break it up.

"Just wait until my father hears of this, you filthy little mudblood!"

There were gasps all around, but Holly just kept wiping at her teary eyes with her still free arm. She had no idea what a mudblood was.

"Detention, Malfoy." The whole hall quieted down. "Such words are not to be used in polite company." Snape was practically whispering by the end.

"Come Miss Potter, we will have your detention right now." Holly was still sniffling and wiping her nose, but gave Malfoy the meanest look she could manage. It probably wasn't very impressive. He just huffed indignantly at them, he looked ridiculous doing that with his ruffled robes and bloody nose. The way he behaved Malfoy was probably never punished for anything before.

There were a lot of whispers as they left. Holly ignored everything, too caught up in her feelings to care. She was just glad to be away from everyone.

" I'm telling you, he's never punished a Slytherin before."

After a quick trek through the dungeons, they sat in his office for a while, mostly silent besides her blowing her nose or wiping at her still red eyes from time to time. Stupid boys!

"May I ask what happened?" She'd never heard his voice so soft before. Holly had expected he'd be a lot more awkward being alone with a crying girl.

"T-they were making fun of what happened yesterday, said I should learn to use a muggle broom." She continued when he just kept silent with a stoic look on his face. "He said mum couldn't even pick one up anymore. Right after I misplaced her head girl pin because of him and Longbottom! So I lost it and just punched him."

By the end of the explanation silent tears were streaming down her face again. Shamefully looking down, Holly didn't dare look at Professor Snape. He must think her ridiculous, losing composure like that. He always seemed so in control of everything.

When the pair of special gloves landed in front of her, Holly finally looked up.

"I have found that working through anger or grief is best done when keeping busy."

Holly swallowed her snark about him always being angry if he didn't have time to shower or sleep. It felt really inappropriate since he was trying to help her. With the wave of his wand, a brewing station assembled itself and ingredients started flying out of the cupboard.

"You'll be brewing a Wiggenweld Potion, put on the gloves and pay attention, some of these ingredients are actually valuable!"

Holly brewed three more Wiggenweld potions after the first, two boil cures and then some antidotes for common poisons before Professor Snape judged her calm enough to be "unleashed back onto the castle" as he so kindly put it. Working had really helped lift her mood.

When he put all the vials of potion onto a tray clearly marked "Hospital Wing" Holly burst out laughing.

"Y-you just didn't want to brew the fresh stock for Madame Pomfrey yourself didn't you!" She pointed at him accusingly in a very exaggerated manner. Though he looked very unimpressed.

"If you are well enough for your usual stupidity then you can stop wasting my time. I still have better things to do."

He was holding the door open for her. Holly walked out with a pout on her face, before turning around again.

"Thank you for yo-" bam he'd actually slammed the door in her face. Good to know he was still an ass, even if he cared for her. Sometimes at least.

Wanting to follow Snape's advice, Holly strode off in the direction of the library. She had a revenge plot to plan and Holly already knew what she'd do.

When she arrived at the library there was someone waiting for her. The moment Hermione saw Holly, she rushed up to meet her.

"Oh, Holly. I'm so sorry, I heard what happened from Parvati. Did Professor Snape make you squeeze more slugs for the sixth-years?"

Holly was a little overwhelmed by Hermione's waterfall of words, did she even breathe when talking?

"Ehr, no. It wasn't so bad," a doubtful look from Hermione made her continue, "he just gave me some busywork is all. Helped me calm down a little."

They sat down on one of the benches by the side of the library entrance. No need to be banned by Madam Pince for talking too much after all.

"What Malfoy called you was so inappropriate. It doesn't even make sense since you're a half-blood and not a muggle born like me, but I know I'd be furious too."

Holly giggled a little at that, she must've misinterpreted the situation a little.

"Honestly Hermione, I don't even know what mudblood means. I was mostly mad because I lost the remembrall due to his and Longbottom's fight."

"Oh." Apparently that wasn't what Hermione had expected to hear since she buried her face in both hands. "Wait, so it's all my fault!"

Now it was Holly's turn to be flabbergasted by the other.

"I'm so sorry, Malfoy had found it and wanted to hide it. Neville got it back for you. But he was caught by Professor McGonagall and he'll be expelled! Expelled, can you imagine. So he gave it to me to give to you and, and I couldn't find you yesterday and today I-I-"

This was even worse than earlier. Now Hermione was even hyperventilating and almost crying. Though it was touching how worried Hermione had been for her. So she just hugged her tightly to hopefully shut her mug.

"Breathe, Hermione! Breathe! It's not your fault. If anything it's Malfoy's and Longbottom's fault. They caused the whole mess after all. I'm just so glad that you have my pin-ball and it's not lost forever."

There was a sobbed laugh on her shoulder that made Holly loosen the hug.

"You seriously named it pin-ball?"

Holly shot her the brightest grin and said "Yup!" With a nice popping p.

"Why don't I show you what I've planned for Malfoy, it'll be great!"

Waiting for the correct timing to start their revenge plot, Holly shared a serious look with Hermione who was standing on the other side of the room. It had taken a lot of prodding for Hermione to agree to help her with taking revenge on Malfoy (and also Longbottom later, but Hermione didn't have to know about that). Really, the only reason she went along with Holly was that she wanted to know how Holly could accomplish her plan.

"Holly this is brilliant, however did you come up with this?" She'd shown Hermione one of her rune papers. "From what I've read runes are mostly dead languages and only relevant to deciphering the curses on old tombs!"

Huh, none of the books she read had said anything like that. They were mostly history on runes and the societies that invented them, where and how they'd been used and then a big part showing the runes and what they likely meant. So Holly had taken inspiration from those use cases and painstakingly come up with her own designs. It had mostly been doing what felt right and would make sense. Although,

"That you can inscribe runes onto parchment was entirely an accidental discovery. Almost roasted myself alive." Parchment only, muggle paper just burned the moment you touched a magically charged quill to it.

Uncle Vernon was also still mad at her. Apparently she was ruining his home. Honestly, if she'd wanted to blow up the house, Holly could have done that a couple weeks after figuring out how to work her carving tool. Just the smallest inaccuracy when carving could lead to disastrous outcomes if activated. Considering how shaky her hands used to be, Holly was proud that she'd only had like two or three minor incidents. Like the one with the parchment. That other one with the new tools didn't count. Wasn't the fault of her runes after all.

"No need to look so sceptical, it's really not that hard to do. You just can't write anything too complicated or the parchment gets overloaded and goes up in flames."

Which was exactly what had happened to her. Parchment just couldn't hold the magic required for the self sustaining rune sequence she had been drawing at the time. Weirdly enough fabrics didn't have that sort of limitation. If Holly had to guess it probably had something to do with the way stitched runes were easy to get right. But if you write on a piece of parchment, then the ink would always run or smear a little before it finally dried. Causing the runes to not be as accurate. Or it was something entirely different.

"Assuming I'd be okay with such a prank, how would you go about it then?" Holly had smirked at Hermione's words.

"You mean how are we going to go about it?"

But now wasn't the time for thinking about boring talks from last friday, now was the time for action. A quick nod to Hermione and the plan was on.

Hermione's part was easy enough, get one of the other students to suggest to Professor Sprout Malfoy's project was looking unhealthy. In this case, Millicent Bullstrode. Another Slytherin, but quite mellow and more of a follower type girl.

"Excuse me, Professor Sprout. Malfoy's dittany plant looks a little too brown. I think it might be wilting."

She'd come all the way over to where Holly and Professor Sprout were currently inspecting the progress of her own Dittany. Said Professor was instantly worried. It was a little too easy, if you even thought about a plant in the greenhouse not being as healthy as it could be, Professor Sprout would instantly do everything in her power to nurse it back to health.

"Oh dear, I see what you mean. I'm sorry Miss Potter, but this takes precedence!" She said as she hurried over to Malfoy's workbench. "Mr. Malfoy, your Dittany looks mighty unhealthy, please get it some fertiliser!"

Malfoy's grumbles about dirty elf work were swiftly ignored by the professor, so he relented and did as asked. With this, part two was in motion. Holly waited for the 2nd time his hand emerged from the sack of fertiliser and activated her signal rune.

There was a small hiss of escaping air and then a load of dragon dung was forcefully expelled right into Malfoy's face. A stunned silence fell over the greenhouse, the only thing that could be heard was Malfoy's hacking and cursing. Once the shock had worn off though, most of the Gryffindors openly laughed while the Slytherins either snickered or tried to hide their amusement. Loudest of all were Weasley and Longbottom, who apparently hadn't been expelled. But he'd get some soon too. Holly herself was smirking nastily, or at least she was trying to mimic Snape's smirk. She probably wasn't very successful.

"Oh dear, hitting a gas pocket is very unfortunate Mr. Malfoy. You may go clean yourself up." This had been part of the plan, Holly had heard from the upperclassmen that this happened frequently if you weren't careful. Plausible deniability was important for a proper prank after all.

"Just you wait until my father hears of this, he'll have you all expelled!" Malfoy was almost screeching like a banshee.

"I think we hit another gas pocket, now there's dung coming out of Malfoy's mouth as well!"

Holly couldn't hold the taunt in. He was beet red under all the dung, and turned to her with his most threatening glare. Which wasn't threatening at all with all the dragon manure in his face. Especially compared to the glares Snape gave her whenever she annoyed him too much.

When he saw it wasn't working, Malfoy just stormed out, followed by his cronies Crabbe and Goyle. The lesson ended soon after and Holly decided to celebrate her victory by lying in the grass in one of the gardens and letting the sun warm her face.

That is, until a shadow fell over her.

"So, how did you do it?" It was Lavender and Parvati.

"Do what?" She just smiled up at them.

"Please, we know it was you that did that to Malfoy." They sat down in the grass next to her. Lavender even started playing with Holly's hair.

"I don't know what you mean." Really all she'd done was put a piece of paper with a gale rune in the fertiliser bag and activated it with her new remote rune. The best part was, once the magic in the parchment ran out, it just fizzled into nothingness, all proof of her involvement gone. Hermione had been especially concerned about that and only a demonstration had satisfied her.

"There, that smug smile of yours is the exact same you had when you were about to push Susan into the lake!" Parvati was poking at her face, which only made her smile wider.

"A lady has her weapons," replied Holly with a posh attitude. They all burst into giggles at that.

"Alright then, keep your secrets. But if it comes back to bite you in the arse, we'll throw you under the Knight Bus!"

"No you won't."

"True, we'd have to start a whole new makeover beautification project. And I don't think Hermione would be open to the idea."

They spent some more time in the grass enjoying the sun. Lavender had braided Holly's hair around her left ear. Apparently she looked "fierce and dreamy" like this, whatever that meant. Holly was just surprised that the braid held and didn't fall apart the moment Lavender let go.

The other two eventually left, to finish their homework that's due tomorrow. Holly made her way down to the lake then. She had to find a stone that was shaped the right way for something that she had planned later.

Seeing her reflection on the lake's surface was surreal. Now she understood what Lavender had meant with fierce. The braid really brought out her chin and cheekbones. If she didn't have her large glasses on Holly might've mistaken herself for one of those pretty action heroes Dudley loved. At least she thought he loved them, he usually hid the books so she'd only seen the covers from time to time. Holly was still confused why she'd never seen him read it around the house but instead sneak into the bathroom with it. Was he embarrassed of liking a story with a strong woman, and wouldn't the humidity from the shower damage the pages? And since when did Dudley take showers more than once a week anyways? Usually Petunia had to force him to.

She was getting off topic though, if she got new glasses or contacts and abs then she would be as dreamy as she found the lady on the cover. As Lavender would put it at least.

Aunt Petunia would hate to spend money on new glasses if the old ones were still decent so she'd have to save up for them herself. She wondered what Lavender would think of that type of makeover. Not really a priority though.

"Ah, this one's nice." Holly had waded into the lake a bit after taking off her shoes and socks. The rock she was holding now was as long as her hand, but not too wide and quite thin. Yes, this one would do.

It was fascinating what places you could get into if you pretended you knew what you were doing. March into the teachers' lounge to get your cousin's toy back? Easy, pretend like you had an appointment and were late. Walk into the forbidden corridor on the third floor to pet the puppy? Openly walk past Filch and greet him on your way. He of course doesn't greet you back and Mrs. Norris, his cat, runs away the moment she spots you. Honestly, rude! You had just wanted to pet her a couple dozen times.

The door to the corridor was obviously locked, but Holly was prepared. She pulled the rock from the lake out of her robe pocket. It looked different now, one half carved down to be slim like a stake while the "handle" part held a variety of runes.

Activating the runes, Holly slowly started pushing the tip into the lock. It was fascinating to see the rock slowly soften and the excess getting pushed to the sides so it fit in the lock. When the whole thing was done Holly activated the next sequence. There wasn't much to see this time, with the rock using the excess from earlier to expand outwards and fill the whole lock and make an imprint of it.

Then the last sequence hardened the rock again. Holly turned her handle, heard a soft click and the door was unlocked. When she pulled her new key from the lock it looked quite weird. Big stone key with an even bigger grip.

One day she'd make one out of metal. A neat looking one, maybe out of gold. Her very own skeleton key that would fit every lock. For now she had to make do with the oversized rock one though. Gold cost a lot and she hadn't found a way to shrink the runes yet. Or she could learn the unlocking charm… pfff, how boring! (And a lot of work when she already had a workable solution).

Before entering, Holly made sure to check if she had everything she would need in her shoulder bag. Tissues for slobber, lots of tissues. Some slices of roast beef from lunch as treats. Shortly after getting him, Hagrid had written to her that Fluffy loved fish and lamb due to his Greek origins. But Hogwarts didn't usually have those types of dishes, so beef had to make do. Last but not least, the biggest squeaky toy she had found in a muggle pet store, engraved with some runes for sturdiness.

Fluffy was already alert when she entered. He'd probably smelled the meat. The middle head was growling at her, the left one was sniffing confusedly and looking between her and the right head. And the right head was playing with a familiar blanket, shaking his head with it in its maw like it was some animal he'd tried to kill. Adorable.

"Hello Fluffy, I brought you a snack." Holly said while approaching slowly and pulling out the roast beef.

Once she was close enough, the middle head tried to bite at her head, but the left one intervened with a head bump. It sniffed at her hesitantly and finally gave her a big lick across the face. His tongue was bigger than her head, Holly even got slobber up her nose.

"I see, you recognise my smell." She might have been one head shorter if he didn't. Her gamble had paid off though, when sewing the blanket she'd deliberately laid it all over her. Sometimes she even fell asleep with it by accident. So now Fluffy associated her smell with the blanket, and in turn with Hagrid and growing up.

"So, who wants a treat?" There was excited barking and then Holly was buried under a mountain of fur.