February 19th, 2009

Seeing her husband coming home from the war in Afghanistan all banged up like this was not a pleasant sight for her tired green eyes. Holly-Anne Jasmine Potter-Watson was the spitting image of her mother, but she acted exactly like her father whenever someone got to know him. She had been raised by her widowed father in Number 5 Privet Drive right next to her Aunt Petunia, her mothers older sister and Uncle Vernon. Petunia absolutely loved her niece and did what her sister couldn't do as she didn't have a daughter of her own to do the things.

Holly-Anne had also seen her fare share of war from being on the frontlines of the second wizarding war and being the Girl-Who-Lived. She had met her husband John Watson in the library of King's College where he was studying medicine and she was studying creative writing to become a writer. They were reaching for the same book, Holly-Anne needed it for a fictional story she was writing for class and John needed it for a few research papers. They soon started dating after that and they fell for each other hard and fast and after two years, they married in the Weasley's backyard as hers was way too small and in a muggle neighborhood.

They had been married for like ten months before John had gone into the Army as a doctor or a field medic or whatever they called it.

"Darling, I'm fine." John said calmly as he tried to reassure his wife who was in full hysterics over the sight of him.

"No you're not. You got shot in the leg and shoulder. You're going to need loads of physical and mental therapy for it." Holly-Anne said still crying from the look of her husband.

Holly-Anne hated seeing people hurt from any injury that was inflicted upon them, especially if she was the root cause of said injury. That was why her father, aunt and uncle never believed that she would hurt anyone and never believed anyone, even her own cousin, if they tried to blame her. Her hatred of all injuries was one reason why she started learning every type of healing spell, charm and potion out there from Poppy and Snape when she was at Hogwarts. Hell, she even learned how to make the wolfsbane potion in her fifth year without any side affects for Remus just because she could.

"But I'll be fine." John said as he looked lovingly into his wife's tear filled eyes.

With his uninjured arm, even though it was his right and non dominant hand, John grabbed his wife's hand and gave it a squeeze letting her know that he was going to be okay. Holly-Anne squeezed it back in hopes that John would not disappear on her like every other relationship she had in her youth. Holly-Anne took in the comfort that John was at least still talking to her even after what he had been through in the war. She had heard stories where soldiers would come back and not talk to anyone about anything and completely shut down like a robot.

Soon visiting hours were over and even though she was John's wife, Holly-Anne had to go home without her husband sleeping next to her once again. Holly-Anne soon got back to her home of 221C Baker Street where hopefully she has a letter from her godson Teddy waiting for her. When Dora or Tonks and Remus Lupin had died, Andromeda had a heart attack and died from the news, so Holly-Anne had full custody of Teddy. If no one knew the truth of the situation, Holly-Anne played it off as she getting pregnant at 17 and his father being murdered when he was little under a month old.

"Hello Holly-Anne." Her neighbor Sherlock Holmes said as he was coming out of his flat, 221B.

Born as William Sherlock Scott Holmes, Sherlock was one of the smartest men Holly-Anne had ever met, though at times he was clueless and couldn't get social cues. And for some odd reason, Sherlock still managed to marry Hermione last year in a quick courthouse wedding and she is as smart as Sherlock is. Molly was mad at the both of them, she liked Sherlock for Hermione, she still expected them to do a traditional wedding like everyone else had done when they got married. Holly-Anne even tried convincing her friend to do a real wedding on their one year anniversary, but Hermione wouldn't hear any of it.

Holly-Anne had met Sherlock when they were kids as the Holmes family had lived at Number 6 Privet Drive till all the kids had left home. As he still lived at number 5, James had reported that Sherlock's parents still live at that house and had never left even after their youngest child and only daughter had left. Mycroft still goes home whenever he get the chance, but Sherlock rarely goes back and when he does, its celebrated by his mother.

"Hello Sherlock." Holly-Anne said not convincingly

Sherlock could hear the sadness in his friends voice and it worried him a lot more than he would care or be willing to admit to anyone that he knew or yell out in public. Though Sherlock saw that Holly-Anne's eyes were bloodshot and puffy from crying and her voice was cracking from over use, it was a sign that she was hurting. He just didn't know what her crying fit was caused from as he hadn't heard anything from anyone, not even his wife, about what was going on in Holly-Anne's life that would make her cry. Though this wasn't the first time Sherlock had seen Holly-Anne coming home like this as there were many people who liked making her cry.

"Holly-Anne, what's wrong?" Sherlock asked with concern in his voice.

Sherlock had always cared for Holly-Anne like he had done when he and his sister were kids.

"John is in the hospital from multiple gunshot wounds. One to his shoulder and the other to his leg, luckily that one was only a not very deep graze that can heal in a month at maximum. He's going to need a lot of therapy. Both physical and mental." Holly-Anne said

"What's going to happen with his Army career?" Sherlock asked

From being told by Holly-Anne and Hermione, Sherlock knew that John loved being in the Army and would do anything to keep serving his country. Though he had loved Holly-Anne even more and would give the Army up if she just asked him to.

"They're medically discharging him for obvious reasons. Though they are planning on offering him a teaching position if he wants it." Holly-Anne said

After getting notified, Oliver Wood, who had joined after graduating, told her about the teaching position the brass want John to do.

"Are they allowing him to get magically healed?" Sherlock asked

After his wedding, Hermione was finally allowed to tell Sherlock about the magical world and he learned everything he could. When Sherlock had gotten to the wizarding wars in the history books, he was shocked on how and why Holly-Anne was in the middle of it. When Sherlock first met with Holly-Anne after reading those books, he just hugged her tightly as he could without hurting her.

"No, way too many Muggles have sheen him get shot and his wounds after the fact and would question it if he was suddenly healed and walking around overnight." Holly-Anne said

The nice thing about magical wars, if there were enough medics, soldiers could easily get healed up in fighting shape in no time before going back in to fight. The battle of Hogwarts wasn't like that as they didn't have enough medics on hand and they lost way too many people and limbs because of that. Poppy seemed to blame herself on how much life was lost in that battle even though there only one of her and a lot of dying people.

"Well, get some rest, and you can go see your loving husband tomorrow." Sherlock said

Sherlock was cold and calculating but he had his moments when it came to the women in his life like his sister, mother and wife.

"Good night Sherlock." Holly-Anne said

"Good night Holly-Anne." Sherlock said as he left the building door for the street.

Holly-Anne went into her flat and crashed into her awaiting bed after changing into pjs and falling asleep under her nice warm covers. Holly-Anne hadn't slept in the past 48 hours since she gotten notified about her husband's shoulder and leg injuries by someone from the local office. She didn't sleep the first night as John had been on a transport home and the second, John was still in surgery to get the rest of his injuries fixed.

February 20th, 2009

When Holly-Anne woke up the next morning from her slumber, she found a note from Sherlock saying that the café was waiting for her to get breakfast on his dime. Holly-Anne smiled as she read the note that her friend had left for her before he had left for a crime scene with the police that was sure to be somewhere in the city that morning. After showering and getting dressed in real clothing, Holly-Anne walked outside and right into the café just outside her building's door. And because she usually stopped here for tea or coffee several times a day, the people working there knew who she was and why she was there.

Jenny, the head waitress, lead Holly-Anne to a table and asked what she would like to eat, she pushed it as she was told that Holly-Anne needed to eat. After ordering her food, soon got a phone call and when she looked at the caller ID, she was shocked as he rarely called her for anything.

"Oh, Merlin who died?" Holly-Anne asked

Holly-Anne only asked that question as he only called if someone was injured or dead or worse and he only texted if he needed something from her. But that did not stop her from calling everyone in her contacts whenever she wanted as she liked talking to people.

"No one died. I was calling as I was ordered to tell you that you have to make an appearance at this years memorial day ball on the second." He said

"Why would I want to remember that day?" Holly-Anne asked grimly

All Holly-Anne could think about doing right now was seeing her husband getting better so she could snuggle up against him again. Holly-Anne was very tactile and John was okay with it as he knew that her touching him was her way of saying that she loved him. Growing up, Holly-Anne rarely got any physical touch from those she held dear and only gave her love her father and Aunt. And when she did give her full tactile loving, they would end up being murdered by someone on Voldemort's side at some point.

When she started dating Cedric in her fourth year and he was killed by Wormtail later that year during the last task when the fake Mad-Eye Moody made the cup into a portkey. Sirius in her fifth when Voldemort tricked her into coming to the ministry and Sirius was killed by his cousin Bellatrix LaStrange. And when she stared dating Fred in her sixth year, he was killed by an exploding wall in the next year during the war and Percy blamed himself. Holly-Anne was weary of dating John when he first asked her out, but after being encouraged to say yes by Ginny, Fleur and Hermione, she started dating him.

And him getting injured in the war was the first try of the universe trying to tear him away from Holly-Anne and the life they have.

"I know. But Kingsley wants you there." He said

"Come on Percy. I'll have nightmares." Holly-Anne said

Percy Weasley was the only one of the Weasley family to actually understood what Holly-Anne went through during the war as he too was affected by Fred's death. He had blamed himself as he was the older brother in the equation and he didn't protect his younger brother when the wall came in.

"I'll give you dreamless sleep potion for that night. But please come. They are honoring your mother, Sirius, Remus and Tonks this year. And they want you to represent Remus and Tonks as your father represents your mother and your grandparents." Percy said

"Why isn't it the other way around? Why do I get Remus and Tonks?" Holly-Anne asked

"Because you are the godmother and legal guardian to their son and the memorial day council had found it appropriate to give you them." Percy said

"Is there anything else they want from me?" Holly-Anne asked

"To make a little speech on how everyone will be remembered. They wanted you to say on how grateful you were to the sacrifice, but I managed to cut that part out." Percy said

"Can I think about it?" Holly-Anne asked

"They are giving you three days to think about it. So talk it over with John and get back to me. Okay?" Percy said

"Okay." Holly-Anne said before she had hung up.

Luckily the food had come and now she could eat her feelings before she went to go and see her husband who was still at the hospital. Holly-Anne's therapist that she had been seeing for the past twelve years, since after the war, had said that eating her feelings was a coping mechanism. Holly-Anne had thought she had it under control, but when her husband got shipped out, when he got shot and now, she ate her feelings.

"Oh, good your eating." Said a voice from next to her. "Or are you eating your feelings again?"

Holly-Anne then looked up and saw Mycroft Holmes standing there, looking at her.

"Kingsley wants me at this years memorial day ball." Holly-Anne said as she turned back to her food.

With having the job he does, Mycroft was in the know about the magical world so Holly-Anne didn't have to explain herself.

"I thought you boycotted the previous memorial day balls the ministry held?" Mycroft asked as he sat down across from Holly-Anne.

"I have been boycotting them as they bring up bad memories of boyfriends past who have been murdered because of the war." Holly-Anne said in a sad but angry tone.

Holly-Anne had only told Mycroft about her dating Cedric and Fred before John and the two magicals getting murdered on the orders of Voldemort and because of her. John knows that his wife had 2 previous boyfriends before him, but he doesn't know what had happened to them or why his wife stopped dating them. Whenever the war was brought up, Mycroft had to stop Holly-Anne from blaming herself as it wasn't, it was the fault of a psychopathic murderous lunatic.

"What are you going to do?" Mycroft asked

"Well, I want to not go to the ball, but everything in me is telling me that I have to at least see what they want this year." Holly-Anne said

"Go see John and talk to him about it. Get his perspective on this whole thing." Mycroft said

Holly-Anne smiled briefly to her friend before she finished her food and got up to go to the hospital to see her husband.