The final exams approached with a certainty that made the students nervous, what new devilish thing would Snape make them do for Potions? How perfect would their practical transfiguration have to be to satisfy Professor McGonagall?

Holly was decently prepared, she thought, study sessions with her friends from all three houses helped solidify her theoretical knowledge.

She was a little apprehensive about the practical parts though. After a lot of practice she could perform most of the spells required of first years, but her accuracy wasn't the best. Her transfigured snuff boxes would miss the shine of actual silver or the needles she made out of matches somehow always lit on fire if you used them like a match.

Thankfully the charms exam didn't involve the fire charm, just making candle stick tap dance across the table with a dancing feet jinx. Holly was sure that hadn't been the first choice of object, seeing as a house elf was cleaning a splatter of pineapple off the opposing wall when she entered the classroom. That was probably Parkinson's doing then, as she'd been called in before Holly.

The room where the potions exam would be held was already prepared for them. Workstations were set up with scales and ingredients, a wide variety of them, probably to confuse the students about what to use.

In addition, hers had the stiff, magic suppressing gloves. Even if the potion of forgetfulness was easy enough to brew, she'd have been screwed without those. Days of 'detentions' with Professor Snape learning more advanced potions would do her no good if her stupid scars kept interfering with the ingredients' magic.

It was sweltering hot during their last exam, History of Magic. She could see a sheen of sweat on everyone's forehead. The air was stifling and if Holly didn't have her robes cooling her down with runes, she was sure she'd have a lot more trouble concentrating. Considering Professor Binns only ever talked about goblin rebellions, it was surprising that the exam wasn't all about them as well, but also famous witches and wizards of certain time periods.

And then it was finally over, they were released out into the school grounds, so as to not disturb the older years still writing their exams. Spending the afternoon by the lake, with her friends, was a nice way to take her mind off of things and celebrate the end of their exams.

When Susan and Hannah joined them with some of the Ravenclaw girls, Holly suggested a round of fludge ball, but was denied. People were too exhausted to do much more than lie in the grass and talk. No one was allowed to mention the exams though, it would only sour the mood.

They watched the sky turn orange together, sun dipping behind the mountains and then headed for dinner. The Professors at the high table seemed equal parts happy and sad that the finals were over. On the one hand, they enjoyed seeing the students happy, on the other, they would have to grade 5 years worth of students.

As Holly had learned that the O.W.L's and N.E.W.T's were ministry administered exams during a student's 5th and 7th year. They were required to proceed to advanced classes in a subject or to graduate at all. So the ministry also graded those. And she was supposed to have succeeded in Professor Meanie's preparation exam for them? Doubtful.

The students were very loud during dinner, celebrating. Professor McGonagall tried to quiet the great hall down, but it helped little. She just didn't have the same kind of authority and power as Professor Dumbledore, who was suspiciously absent today. Apparently he was usually jovially going along with the student's shenanigans and celebrating with them after exams ended. If one could believe the words of the Hufflepuff upper years that had told Susan about it.

Holly excused herself early, still wanting to go into the forest to search for the grove. After a quick detour to the greenhouses for a hand shovel, she pulled out her cloak and soared into the air. If she managed to find the grove, she wanted to bury the poor unicorn.

She tried to follow the blood splatters that were thankfully still left behind. Though dried, they still shimmered in the evening light to lead her deeper into the forbidden forest. It took far less time to come to the end of the tracks when skating through the air.

What she hadn't expected was to find a small herd of centaurs in a clearing, gingerly cleaning everything of the blood, their deep voices humming, resonating together in a haunting, but beautiful song. Caretakers of the forest indeed.

Holly stayed and listened for a while, this was a once in a lifetime experience, made possible with her cloak of invisibility and her enchanted boots. Eventually, new voices joined the song, higher pitched but still just as sorrowful.

Two female centaurs entered the clearing, heads held low. Instead of bare chests and long hair, the females were covered in furs and had surprisingly short hair. They weaved through the group of males, who stepped aside to make way for them. Hidden behind them, between two big roots laid the white body of a unicorn. Then this was probably the one Longbottom had found and she was in the wrong place.

The centaurs covered the unicorn in a silver cloth and heaved it onto a wooden stretcher she hadn't seen before. As the two carried the unicorn together on their backs, using the stretcher, the song started to sound more hopeful, slowly getting louder.

Holly wiped a tear from her eye when the female centaurs were finally gone and the song ended. The males dutifully carried on with their task of cleaning up, not even a single word leaving their lips.

When Holly turned back the way she came, she was shocked to see the tracks mostly gone. The centaurs must've been cleaning more than just the clearing. She rushed off in the direction where she thought the tracks would have led.

But it was pointless, after half an hour of searching, she couldn't find a single speck of silver blood anywhere. She couldn't even find the way back to the clearing, everything looked the same.

Holly landed on a branch high up in a tree, frustrated. She just wanted to fulfil the unicorn's last wish! In a lapse of judgement, she let out her irritation on the tree, punching the trunk.

It was safe to say that it hurt a lot, even through her gloves. But the pain had hit deeper, a pang of guilt in her heart. She didn't know what else to do but apologise. Holly held her hand against the trunk, where she had chipped off a small piece of bark. Thinking of her frustration, being unable to find the stupid grove, she apologised to the tree…

Holly felt like an idiot, talking to a tree. Until suddenly her hand got sucked into the bark and she stumbled through along with it, into the grove. Like magic, she had arrived. Definitely from a different tree than last time though.

After Holly fished the hand shovel out of her bag, and actually took in the grove around her, she was stunned. It was almost unrecognisable. Beautiful silver flowers covering the grass, leading a trail to the wall of roots on the opposite side of her point of arrival. The unicorn was also facing the wrong way.

Had someone found this place and planted all those flowers since the last time she'd been here? Warily, she approached the unicorn's body, but found nothing out of the ordinary except for an even bigger presence of flowers, right below the wound that was still dripping blood somehow.

Holly watched, fascinated, as a drop of blood hit a growing flower, just for the stalk to split into two flowers and instantly bloom. How did that work? And why hadn't she seen any of these flowers on the way, with the blood being everywhere?

Mysteries for another day, she had a unicorn to bury. Holly felt almost bad, hovering the unicorn away from its spot. Even more so when she actually began to dig and destroy the living plants already there, it felt like she was desecrating the place. As if on cue, Holly cut herself on her shovel, making her hiss. She really felt like she was being punished for disturbing the peace and final resting place. At least now the unicorn wasn't the only one bleeding all over the place, she chuckled grimly.

She dug a shallow hole right by the big bunch of flowers, so it could later mark the grave. It took her a while, but eventually, she finished and hovered the unicorn into the hole. Holly's little burial couldn't compare to the centaur's rites to honour the other dead unicorn. But she'd been asked specifically to do it, so hopefully this would honour the wish of this unicorn.

Surprisingly, when she was done filling the hole back out, there was no dirt left over, leaving the ground flat. She'd tried to save the grass to cover it, but it still looked patchy. Hopefully it would grow back later, maybe she should bring a can to water the place the next time. She had promised to take care of the place after all.

But it was getting late and Holly still had a long way to go back, so she marched back over to where she'd appeared today. Only, the bark didn't let her through like last time. Actually, if she thought about it, the flowers lead to the other side, where she had probably left the last time.

Holly emerged from the tree back out into a familiar looking forest. This had definitely been the tree where she first entered. But how had she wound up in the grove without finding the right tree?

Walking back in and checking the other side, there was no way through. How had she gotten here? She'd apologised to the tree and thought of the grove, so maybe…

Holly thought as hard as she could about the trees at the edge of the forest, while holding her hand to the wall of roots. When nothing happened, she began to visualise the place, since if she had learned anything about magic, visualisation was key to success of imposing your will onto the world.

This time, her hand was sucked into the roots again and Holly fell out of a tree near Hagrid's hut.

This. Was. Brilliant!

"Miss Potter, it's almost curfew. What are you still doing out and about? Back to your dorms, or the last punishment will feel like a slap on the wrist!"

Of course Holly had to run into Professor McGonagall on her way back.

"I'm sorry Professor, I forgot the time when visiting Hagrid. Won't happen again!" The words left Holly's mouth like a waterfall as she ran past the Professor.

"It better not!" The Professor shouted after her, before mumbling to herself. "Just like her fa…" But Holly was already too far away to hear any more.

Holly ran past statues, up the stairs, past portraits telling her to slow down and reached the Fat Lady, out of breath. The Fat Lady frowned at her, she was still late by at least 10 minutes. It really did take a while to cross the castle on foot.

Exhausted, Holly plopped herself down onto a free armchair. One of many, there was no one left in the common room to occupy them, just Hermione and Weasley waiting by the stairs to the boys dormitories.

"We'd better put on the cloak here, but make sure it covers all three of us. If Filch even so much as sees a shoe out of place we're toast!"

What were they up to now?

"I know, now come on, we have to hold off Snape from stealing the stone until Dumbledore is back." Longbottom said.

"Just what do you think you're doing?" she interrupted them.

"Nothing that concerns you, Potter!"

"I told you guys before, it's not Snape. But even if it was him, what exactly do you think a bunch of first years could do against a fully grown wizard with decades of experience, huh?"

"We'll think of something, get out of our way," Weasley replied. Though he did look a lot paler, thinking about going up against Professor Snape. Longbottom standing behind him on the other hand, didn't seem deterred, whispering something into Hermione's ear.

"You mustn't go out, you will die!" Holly spoke from experience, having encountered Quirrell's master and successfully bested every challenge in the corridor. She could tell them that she'd already stolen the stone, but they'd never believe her.

"We'll go and stop Snape, Potter. Even if it means we have to go through you first!" Longbottom said while stepping closer.

"And how exactly will you do that?"

"Like this," and Holly saw Hermione raise her wand out of the corner of her eye. She tried to dodge sideways, but from this up close, it was impossible. The spell hit her mid twirl, Holly's legs snapping together and arms flat to her body.

But the leftover momentum from her attempted dodge was still there. With a resounding *crack* Holly slammed face first into one of the tea tables and then the floor. Her glasses had gone flying across the room and then she just laid there, unable to move.

"Is she o… looked painful," someone turned her onto her back. There were black spots dancing across her blurry vision, and something wet was on her face. "I think you broke her nose… absolutely brilliant!… have to teach…"

Holly must have blacked out for a bit, because she didn't hear when they left. One moment they were there, the next she was alone and the fires had dimmed a little. She still couldn't move either.

What was most concerning though, was that the wetness she'd felt was definitely blood. Holly could taste iron on her tongue, the blood was flowing backwards in her nose and into her mouth when she tried to breathe. She had trouble keeping up and swallowing it down.

Holly panicked when she started choking on the blood. The body-bind had sealed her mouth, there was nowhere for the blood to go. She couldn't breathe!

In her struggle, she tried activating her boots to get upright, but without being able to move, she just hovered a little. Then she remembered, and guided her magic elsewhere.

A rising heat on her chest was promising. And then she could move again, flipped over and promptly vomited the swallowed blood out again. When she was done, she pulled a burned out piece of parchment out of her chest pocket. Her one time spell had worked!

Holly wasn't sure how exactly, but it had worked!

Regardless, she had to find Professor McGonagall and warn her of her house mate's intentions. But first, her glasses. They'd flown all the way to the fireplace, the frame was bent, one lens cracked, the other shattered entirely.

Holly tried putting her glasses on again, and they would have worked, if it didn't hurt too much to have them on her nose. So she decided to just keep them in her pocket.

Half blind, Holly stepped out of the portrait hole, sleeve pressed to her throbbing nose and addressed the fat lady.

"I need to see Professor McGonagall, do you know where she is? It's urgent!"

"If the professor isn't on patrol already, you'll find her in her office," the portrait supplied. "But are you alright deary, your nose is all crooked."

"Oh that's nothing, don't worry about it!"

And then Holly was off to the races, sprinting in the direction of the Professor's office. Even if she didn't particularly like the trio, she wouldn't be able to forgive herself if they actually died down there. She shuddered just thinking what that dark lord Quirrell was following could do to them.

Unfortunately, except for various animals for transfiguration practice, the office was empty. Holly groaned, how was she supposed to find the professor in this enormous castle?

…If she couldn't find her, then she would have to make her find Holly instead. And she already knew how she would do that.

There was a convenient magical armour display just down the hallway that Holly decided to push over. Hopefully the noise would alert Professor McGonagall and not Filch.

Holly held her ears closed as the armour clattered to the floor and then waited. What she didn't expect was for the armour to right itself, and get back onto the little pedestal it had been standing on.

"Quite rude, young lady," it admonished her in a metally tone before turning away again. Huh, she hadn't known that they could talk.

"Peeves!" A screech reached her ears. "Stop your racket at once or I'll find the bloody baron and… Potter, what are you doing out of bed again." It seemed like luck was in Hollys side today.

"Please Professor, you have to stop them. I tried to, but I was hit by some spell as you can see." She tried to fake some desperation in her voice.

"Stop who?" And Professor McGonagall did seem concerned, seeing her bloody nose and robes.

"Longbottom and his friends!" Holly answered. "They went into the forbidden corridor, said something about someone trying to steal a stone."

"Those three?! I specifically told them- gah!" The Professor was fuming. "Potter, to the hospital wing with you, I will deal with this."

And then Holly was alone again. The hospital wing did sound like a decent idea though.

The rumour mill was going crazy the following week. Longbottom in the hospital wing, unconscious for days. Three more students injured to various degrees and a Professor missing.

But no one who knew the truth wanted to talk, so everyone kept speculating on what happened. It got especially bad, when during the end of the year feast, Longbottom, Hermione, Weasley and Holly were awarded just enough points to win the house cup, regardless of their quidditch loss against Ravenclaw the previous Saturday.

To be fair, Holly didn't exactly know what had happened either, but she had seen the trio arrive in the hospital wing to get checked over. She hadn't seen any obvious injuries, except for a bump on Weasley's head, but anything could have done that. As none of their injuries were serious, the matron had sent Hermione, Weasley and herself off the next morning.

Holly's nose had been a quick, if painful fix. The repaired glasses still felt weird on her nose and she was certain her face looked off when she saw herself in the mirror. Parvati reassured her that she looked just as cute as before, which she really doubted. The other two were the cute ones, she was just plain old Holly.

With the lessons slowing down significantly after their exams ended, she found herself with a lot more free time than she was used to. Most of it was spent playing by the lake with her friends, sometimes accompanied by Fang and Hedwig and avoiding the trio. Professor Dumbledore actually took over Quirrell's lessons, the few that they still had, she'd never had as much fun during class as those times.

He used their time together to demonstrate various nifty charms and self defence techniques. Not that they could perform any of them, but it was fun seeing them. Not to mention, the second part of the lesson was always some kind of mock battle, the classroom descending into chaos, desks flipped as cover and sparks flying all over the place.

She'd heard some of the upper years even got to go out onto the lake, that Dumbledore had partly frozen for them, and then had a giant water fight with the goal to push each other into the lake. Holly really hoped they would do that in the future too, once she learned the freezing and water creation charms.

What led Holly outside on this beautiful day wasn't a water fight, but something else. She'd finally deemed it safe enough to go check on Fluffy in the corridor and HE WAS GONE!

"Hagrid!" Holly rapped at the hut's door. "Where is he?!"

A downtrodden Hagrid opened her the door, a big splotch of snot in his beard. Holly grimaced, clearly he was also affected by his disappearance.

"Who, *sniff* Norbert? Been gone fer a while." Hagrid sobbed out.

Oh… she had forgotten all about Norbert. Where had she gone?

"Well, her too. But I meant Fluffy, he isn't in the corridor anymore, it's been ages since I last visited him."

"Neville and Hermione sent'im off to a dragon rese- DID YE JUST SAY YOU WERE IN THE CORRIDOR TOO!" The hut was shaking from his scream and now Hagrid had broken down into tears.

"No-not only did I almost get the other's killed, but now yehr too!!" he wailed.

That was how Holly ended up spending the whole afternoon trying to console Hagrid that no, he hadn't gotten her almost killed. (All her life threatening situations were all on herself, but she didn't dare mention those.) And that yes, she still wanted to be friends with him and would write him letters and come for tea.

She did find out from Hagrid where Fluffy had gone though. He was back in the forest where he had grown up, which suited Holly just fine. She'd be able to play with him for real for the first time and also make a detour to the grove on her way back.

Life was looking up!

"We'll miss you, Holly! Don't forget to write and ask for permission so you can visit and and… what else, Lavender?" Parvati was talking a million words a minute, making Holly giggle.

"Don't go clothes shopping without us and keep the 19th free so we can go buy our books together!" Lavender reminded them.

"I wouldn't dare deprive you of your chance to dress me up… again." Holly grinned, she'd evaded the torture of trying on various outfits only by the slimmest of margins the last time.

Tearfully, they hugged their goodbyes, their parents and Holly's relatives already waiting for them to leave King's Cross. Holly easily found her uncle in the throngs of the station. Everyone avoided the big, grumpy looking man standing in the way of everyone.

Before they could depart though, Holly was surprised when someone grabbed at her sleeve, making her stop.

"Please wait a minute!" It was an older girl, carrying a big stack of books under one of her arms. "Are you Holly Potter?"

Holly glanced at her uncle who grunted when he noticed that she wasn't following.

"I'll wait in the car, get this over with quickly!"

She turned back to the other girl, who was obviously another Hogwarts student. Made obvious by the cart with trunks and an owl cage she was pulling along.

"I am, may I know your name too?" Holly replied.

"I'm Penelope Clearwater, 5th year Ravenclaw prefect. I'm supposed to give you these," and she handed Holly the stack of books. There were no titles to discern what they were about.

"Thanks, but what exactly are they?" Who would want to give her books?

"I'm not sure, but they're from Professor Babbling, something about her elf being busy so she gave them to me to give them to, and I quote, 'that wild haired first year'. She didn't specify, so I had to ask around a lot to figure out it was you."

"I, ehr, don't know who that is?"

"She keeps doing that," Penelope sighed. "Didn't introduce herself to us for over a month when I started with runes. Short, rather young for a teacher, likes wearing brown and is a little, let's say strange."

Holly only knew one Professor who fit that description, Professor Meanie! Who was apparently named Professor Babbling. And of course she had never bothered to learn Holly's name either so had called her a 'wild haired first year'…

"I see you recognise her now," Penelope giggled. "Don't worry, she might be a little weird, but she's a nice teacher overall. But I gotta go, see you around next year!"

Professor Meanie was nice? Not in Holly's experience. And now she'd probably been given a stack of extra work.

"Yes, see you around. Have a nice summer!"

Home life felt like she'd never left for magic school for almost a full year. Helping in the kitchen, knitting by hand, doing garden work, it all seemed so mundane. And it had only been two days! It was much different when she knew she wouldn't return to Hogwarts for almost 3 months.

She had started on her homework of course, but most of it was dry reading and boring essays. Not to mention the stack of extra books. Holly didn't even want to look at those right now!

Dudley's birthday the next day was a big affair, it had to surpass last year's after all. Holly helped prepare a wide variety of breakfast items, including 4 different cakes. After that Dudley had invited his mates to some amusement park south of London.

Having had enough of falling from heights to last for years during school, she decided to stay home. There was still more than enough for her to do.

Holly was in the kitchen, getting a slice of leftover cake, since, knowing Dudley, it would be gone by tonight, when there was a loud knock on the door. She put the cake back in the fridge and headed for the entrance.

Opening the door, Holly called out, "Dursley's household, what can I do for you-u?"

Holly's mouth dropped open, there was a goat standing there. "Please let me in, I'm trying to hide."

Correction, a bloody talking goat that had just pushed past her and into the living room. Holly did what any sensible person would do and rushed after the goat. If it munched on the Persian carpet, aunt Petunia would never forgive her.

She found it by the coffee table inspecting her aunt's fashion magazines.

"Ehrm," Holly didn't know what to say, so she relied on the good manners Petunia had drilled into her head. "Can I get you anything, a carrot or something?"

Though, it did come out a little cheeky.

"Don't be ridiculous," the goat scoffed. "Tea will be just fine, thank you."

Holly kept stealing glances at the goat while preparing tea, what was going on? When it decided it had looked around enough, it plopped onto its butt by the coffee table and waited for the tea. It looked utterly ridiculous, sitting there like that.

Tea prepared, she collected some cookies, could goats eat those(?), the kettle and two cups on a tray to carry over. Thinking again, she added a small bowl, a goat couldn't exactly pick up a cup… probably. It was definitely magical since it could talk, maybe it could float a cup. So she went back to the living room, sat down opposite of the goat and poured the tea.

"Oh, a bowl, that is very considerate of you," it said. "I can see why my wife likes you so!"

Holly didn't know whether to laugh or to cry, since it was too small sitting down, the goat was trying to 'drink' the tea, head held sideways, tongue lolling out into the bowl on the table and promptly burned itself. Not to mention the mess it was making in the process.

"And who exactly is your wife? I don't remember befriending a goa- I mean an animal as unique as you before…"

"Well, that would be me, Miss Potter!" A voice interrupted them from the side. "Excuse me, the door was open, so I decided to let myself in."

In the doorway stood the most stunning woman, no lady, that Holly had ever seen. A beautiful and feminine face, no trace of imperfections, framed in luscious silver-grey hair.

The simple black dress she was wearing seemed almost out of place on her, but somehow it just fit.

"And I see, you met my goat of a husband already."

"A-ah, Perenelle, my flame, you burn so bright and beautiful today," the goat said, cowering behind Holly's seat now.

"Stop trying to talk yourself out of this, Nicholas!" The lady, Perenelle(!), lectured. "First you almost throw away our life, and now you ruined the surprise I was preparing for our little benefactor!"

"But my flame, that's still no reason to turn me into a goat, do you know how horrible it is?" The goat pouted somehow, which looked hilarious, and Holly had to suppress a chuckle.

"Oh, so on a scale of one to horrible, spending a couple days as a goat is worse than death?" Perenelle asked with a raised brow. "Now, don't mind the naive old goat, it's nice to finally meet you, Miss Potter!"

"Just Holly, please. It's a nice pleasure to meet you too, Mrs Flamel!"

Disappointment had turned to excitement. After not getting a reply to the package with the stone Holly had thought she'd been used. Never had she expected that she would get to meet the Flamels this summer.

"Trust me, Holly, the pleasure is all mine. Without you, we wouldn't be alive right now," Perenelle Flamel smiled kindly at Holly. "Your selfless act was truly extraordinary and I believe that deserves something special in return."

Holly listened with bated breath as Mrs Flamel talked. Her excitement slowly turned to shock. Who would say no to such an offer?

To be continued in Holly Potter and the Statues of Stone…