Chapter 16: Year Four (V)Summary:Holly deals with the aftermath of the First Task, fights a cage match, makes several people cry, and some receives alarming news.
Notes:Credit to Rowling for the directly quoted bits.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter TextAfter the first task it was surprising how everything and nothing changed for Holly.
People still pointed and whispered about her constantly, only now it was due to her own (public) actions. A few people, either brave or foolish, approached her to congratulate her for her victory over the dragon or losing them money. Thankfully they started leaving her alone again after she hexed a boy who kept talking at her.
Hermione, acting in her self-appointed role as Holly's interpreter of wizarding society, gave her an overview of people's reactions a few days after the first task.
"Dragon keepers, magizoologists, and potion masters everywhere are praising you. There was a whole article in the Daily Profit about how being able to collect a dragon's blood without killing them will help their populations increase. Of course, the potion masters mostly care about how dragons blood will be cheaper, but they're still happy."
"Most of the school lost money betting against you so they're not happy about that, but don't blame you." Hermione gave her a calculating look, "of course, if they found out you were the one to place that insane bet they'd be furious at you."
Holly gave Hermione her best innocent expression. "Who, me? Why I'd never place a bet on myself and win hundreds of galleons from it." Hermione rolled her eyes and continued.
"Gryffindor, especially the Weasley twins, love you. Most wouldn't stop talking about how you should've been put in their house." Hermione scoffed, "its obnoxious, even my roommates wouldn't stop talking about you. The Slytherins seem to grudgingly respect you for manipulating the Task for your benefit. Of course, they're not exactly happy since they lost so much money betting against you. Hufflepuff isn't bad mouthing you anymore either since Cedric told them to stop. And Ravenclaw, well, you should already know about them."
"Uh, why should I know that?"
Hermione looked over at her with her trademark Look. "Because it's your own House Holly, I assume you know what they're saying about you."
"And when do I ever spend time with them? I don't talk to any of them, not even my roommates. Hell, I don't even know my roommates names." She took a moment to think. "One of them might be Patty or something like that?"
There was a silence long enough to make Holly stop reading and look up. Hermione was simply staring at her blankly, before flatly asking, "you mean Padma?"
"Maybe? That sounds vaguely right."
For several seconds Hermione was visibly debating saying something before seemingly dropping it and switching topics. "Any progress with the egg?"
After the task outside the castle they'd opened only to immediately be deafened by high-pitched screeching. Because of course a wizard's idea of a clue in a deadly tournament was incomprensible screeching.
"Nope, I can't figure out how to interpret the screeching. I know the second task has something to do with the Lake though so maybe I-"
Holly was cut off when the Room abruptly materialized a small swimming pool in front of them.
"-could put it underwater. Thanks Room, you're still awesome" She said, patting the floor. She transfigured her clothes into a wetsuit, "well, no time like the present."
Several minutes and one crappy riddle later Holly was ranting as she paced with Hermione watching.
"-Fucking Wizards! Is it not bad enough I got dragged into this shitshow, now they're risking 4 more people's lives without their consent? What the hell is wrong with these people?"
Hermione, having spent the last couple minutes silently listening, finally spoke up. "We don't know if its people at all, I doubt they would involve other people in anything dangerous."
Holly simply glared back, "you have too much faith in them. They might not intentionally try to put someone in danger but that doesn't mean anything: they're the same people who thought dragons were a good idea. Are you honestly willing to trust them with your life?"
Hermione, disillusioned enough to see her point, paled rapidly. "If they do take a person… I'm the only person you talk to."
"Exactly. I'm not letting you get hurt. We'll prepare ahead of time: we can scope out the lake beforehand, get you a bag of medical supplies, maybe even an emergency portkey."
The Room, brilliant and helpful thing it was, dropped a book titled A Comprehensive Guide to the Black Lake in front of them. She reached down to give the floor another pat.
"Looks like we've got that handled. Go us." Hermione, now looking significantly less ashen faced, smiled back at her.
---
Her planning for the Strengthening Elixir was going well, she already had several of the potential ingredients ready.
She'd snuck out into the Forest again and found the clearing where they'd been keeping the dragons. With a summoning charm she found plenty of shed claw fragments, a good upgrade from the standard Griffin claw used.
She figured she could upgrade the standard snake fangs to basilisk fang fragments too, so long as she neutralized the imbued venom beforehand with a phoenix tear. The resulting mix would have a far more powerful effect without changing the potions' properties.
The Re'em blood was shockingly easy to get: she'd simply hired the goblins to catch one then personally drawn its blood.
Being filthy rich really did make life easier sometimes.
She still had some unicorn and thestral hairs. If she tied them together before adding them they'd work as an alchemically neutral amplifier element.
The Fanged Geraniumum teeth were surprisingly dangerous to get considering it was a plant. Sure, it was carnivorous, with sharp teeth and ate live prey, but still just a plant.
She'd brought Professor Sprout more of her fertilizing potion in exchange for the promise of several teeth of the Fanged Geraniumum they used it on. In hindsight it was obvious why Professor Sprout looked nervous when Holly specified which plant she wanted.
The Fanged Geraniumum they used it on exploded in size, going from the size of Holly's head to looking capable of swallowing Professor Sprout whole.
It immediately lashed out at them, shattering a whole greenhouse wall. They fought back with cutting curses, slowly chopping off its many prehensile vines. After several minutes the two of them, now covered in scratches, stood victorious over the massive plants body.
Holly was rather happy with the outcome and wasted no time gathering its teeth. Now she had almost her own weight in a useful ingredient! She thanked Professor Sprout and promised to come back sometime soon.
Strangely enough, Professor Sprout didn't seem so excited about her fertilizer potion after that.
Now all she needed was an arm bone and acromantula venom.
That's how Holly found herself in a graveyard overseas, desecrating a grave by starlight.
(Sadly, somehow she was certain this wouldn't be the last time.)
She could've used any human arm bone of course. She'd seriously considered finding a scumbag bodybuilder, staging an "accident", and taking an arm from the corpse.
In the end she'd decided against it because Shadowfax would probably be able to sense it somehow and be disappointed.
Which is why she was in Iceland (after making herself an international portkey) robbing the grave of a recently dead, internationally renowned strongman.
Thankfully magic made uncovering the coffin easy. A bubblehead charm blocked out the smell as she quickly chopped off his arm, mumbled "sorry dude," and fixed his grave before porteying back.
Hermione, to her credit, did not scream when Holly came back into the Room holding a decomposing arm. Although she did look slightly sick and wary.
After several seconds of staring at each other Hermione asked, "Holly, did you rob a grave?"
"Yep, had to find a suitable person for the arm bone, so I robbed the grave of a dead bodybuilder." For some reason Hermione still looked disappointed. "I mean, I don't like it either but it was either this or finding a living scumbag bodybuilder, staging an 'accident', and taking their arm afterwards."
Hermione, seeing her point, seemed to agree.
"Great. Now all I need is some acromantula venom, shouldn't be too hard." For some reason Hermione got that Look on her face again. "Its no big deal. I'll have some safety precautions ready."
With that she unceremoniously stored her stolen arm away and started planning.
---
The next night she went into the Forest, her features shifted into something nondescript, and walked towards the acromantula colony. It wasn't too long before she started seeing the occasional spider web and felt their many eyed stares. Without stopping to look at the countless spiders now surrounding her she walked straight into the center of the colony.
Sure enough, there in the center of a clearing was a massive spider den. She watched as several huge hairy legs slowly rose and the huge body of Aragog came into sight.
Before the elderly spider could say anything she pulled out her prepared rune blocks and banished them, encircling both her and Aragog's den. As they landed a transparent dome shield snapped into place, trapping them inside, keeping everything else out.
Thunderdome ward in place, she immediately shot an overpowered piercing hex at his forehead (was it still a forehead if it had eyes in it?). Her hex landed, causing Aragog to rear back and hiss in fury, but wasn't enough to kill him.
She shot another piercing hex at the same spot but he moved shockingly fast, slamming a massive leg down where she'd been standing.
She rolled away, lashing out with a cutting curse at the leg, cutting a bloody gash. As Aragog stumbled she repeated the process on his other front leg, making his entire body lurch forward. Before he could recover she hit him with another piercing hex in the same spot as the first. This time her hex broke through his exoskeleton with a sickening CRACK, killing him.
His body twitched and shuddered as he (somehow) rolled onto his back before he stopped moving.
Holly immediately rushed forward, tearing at his mandibles to get at the fresh venom. Sadly there was only a couple vials worth before she'd collected all of it. She looked up to see her thunderdome ward starting to crack as countless acromantula pounded on it.
Good thing she planned ahead for that.
After quickly grabbing a good amount of acromantula silk and shoving it into her bottomless bag, she summoned her broom from within. As she mounted it a quick summoning charm brought her rune blocks flying into her waiting bag. Before any acromantula could catch her she shot up into the trees, quickly breaking through the forest canopy.
A few minutes later she walked into the room only to get assaulted by a blubbering Hermione. Holly quickly used a hand to cover her mouth. "I'm fine. Great actually. My thunderdome ward worked perfectly."
She held up a vial of acromantula venom. "Mission success. I didn't even get scratched!" Thankfully that had Hermione relaxing slightly.
What was great about her strength elixir was that, unlike the regenerative elixir where the core ingredient was phoenix tears, she had a dozen vials of dragon's blood to experiment with. Enough to test many different variations but not enough for endless refining.
Still, she was grateful she'd be able to do even that much.
She could only take the elixir once, so her testing would have to be done on the standard temporary variety. Once she'd improved it as much as her limited resources allowed she'd use the last of it for her elixir.
The only other limiting ingredient was the bodybuilder's arm, so unfortunately she'd have to use random arm bones during her test. Thankfully that wouldn't change anything in between the test batches and the final elixir.
That night they brewed the first couple test varieties of a strength potion, with slight variations between them.
Testing them was as simple as drinking them and using Room provided weights to see maximum weight she could lift. Once she found the most potent one she'd base her second batch of potions on it, making them stronger.
Hopefully after a few rounds of refinements she could fully optimize it before using the finalized recipe in her elixir. If not, well, having a weaker elixir was better than none at all.
---
During breakfast the next morning Holly felt a pang of guilt when it was announced they'd be having a substitute teacher in Care for some time. According to Hermione the rumor was Hagrid was inconsolable about something. Nobody but the two of them (and probably Dumbledore, the cover-up master) knew why: he was in mourning.
Holly, in an act of compassion (and so he wouldn't replace Aragog with something even more dangerous), went down to Hagrid's hut and gave him her mini Hungarian Horntail dragon. Hagrid turned into even more of a blubbering mess and gave her a hug that probably cracked a few bones. Thankfully he was quickly distracted with the tiny dragon allowing Holly to make her escape.
When she came back into the Room with her clothes rumpled, hair soaked with Hagrid's tears, Hermione simply gave her a knowing smile.
Of course, that wasn't the only side effect of Aragog being killed.
When Holly went into the Forest again to visit Shadowfax she wasn't far in before she heard skittering legs rapidly approaching. A second later the first acromantula appeared only for Holly to easily kill it with a cutting curse. Then another appeared. And another. And several more.
Soon enough there was a wave of countless acromantula approaching her. Knowing she didn't stand a chance, she cut down the closest ones, summoned her broom from a pocket, and flew off.
Safely above the Forest's canopy she took a moment to think.
'So the acromantula are swarming the Forest attacking humans now? They never did that before. Why would their behavior change with Aragog dead?' A second later the answer hit her: 'Aragog must've ordered them not to attack people. With him dead… it'll be my fault if anyone gets hurt.'
Once she landed she wrote a quick letter to the Goblins telling them about the acromantula colony. She knew they'd jump at the chance: they were plenty capable and such a large colony would be almost invaluable with that much acromantula silk and venom.
Letter sent, Holly was confident her mess would be cleaned up quickly and quietly.
Sure enough, a couple days later the Goblins sent her a response saying the acromantula colony was exterminated and that they'd put a portion of the profits and collected ingredients into her vault.
Holly smiled, Goblins really were so helpful.
---
During her next Care class the substitute teacher took them to the edge of the Forest for a surprise lecture on unicorns.
As the girls (apparently unicorns were sexist? Or maybe it was because of their recent bad experience with Adult Tom?) approached the unicorns one of them broke forward to gently butt her with the side of his head.
She gave him a full hug around his neck, burying her face into his shoulder. "Hey Shadowfax, nice to see you too. Things been good for you?" He snorted, "sorry the Forest was a mess. Hope it didn't bother you." That earned her another snort as he bumped her again.
Suddenly she noticed the dead silence from everyone else. She turned around to see the entire class and professor (excluding an amused looking Hermione) staring at her.
"What? I thought we were supposed to be interacting with them?" Seriously, she was only following instructions.
The substitute professor cleared her throat, "are you acquainted with this unicorn?"
Oh shit, she was trying to get Holly in trouble for exploring the Forest. She couldn't exactly admit they met before.
"I cannot confirm or deny any past association with this unicorn." Next to her Shadowfax snorted while Hermione facepalmed.
Refusing to incriminate herself further, she turned back to Shadowfax, conjured a brush, and began brushing out his coat. His short coat was pristine and clearly didn't need brushing but she had the feeling he liked it.
Behind her she heard the class slowly start moving as they (hopefully) stopped staring. Thankfully nobody bothered her and the rest of class went quickly.
---
It was a few days later in Transfiguration Holly abruptly had her world flipped on end. Professor McGonnagal announcing the Yule ball didn't seem like anything worth noting. At least, not until Professor McGonnagal told her she was forced to go as a champion.
With a date.
Her resulting internal panic must've lasted some time because by the time she managed to focus again Professor McGonnagal was looking concerned.
"I was already entered into this tournament against my will, Professor, now I'm being forced into going to a dance too?"
Professor McGonnagal, stern as ever, didn't look sympathetic. "Traditionally the champions and their partners open the Ball."
Holly could only stare back in horror at the thought of being forced to parade herself around at a wizard ball with a partner.
"And if I don't go?"
Professor McGonnagal somehow managed to look even more stern. "It is expected as a representative of our school. Your absence would reflect back onto your House, Hogwarts, and the entire country. Are you willing to embarrass the entire country because you do not wish to dance?"
"Yes?" It felt like a trick question but Holly wasn't sure why she was supposed to care about those things. Did Professor McGonnagal think she actually cared about wizarding society?
For some reason Professor McGonnagal looked furious. "While I am not your Head of House I imagine Professor Flitwick would issue punishments for not attending. Detentions or such."
'Shit, detentions would stop me from being able to prepare for the task or work on my elixir. Guess I really am being forced to go. Hopefully its not a trap.'
"Fine. I'll be there."
Professor McGonnagal's expression shifted into something slightly softer. "Good. Best of luck with the Second Task, miss Potter."
---
At least her foul mood was improved by brewing her Strength Elixir. After 2 weeks and a dozen small tweaks her recipe was finally optimized.
(For some reason Hermione was baffled it'd taken her 2 weeks to finish the elixirs' development. Maybe Hermione thought she was slacking since the first elixir only took a week?)
Same as the first time, Holly and Hermione stayed up to the early hours of the morning brewing. Once they finished and stepped back to examine their work.
Her elixir, well, she wasn't exactly sure how to describe it. It was a bit thicker in consistency and had a multicolor swirling design like fire. If fire also had flashes of seemingly random colors.
"Well, bottoms up take two" and with that Holly chugged the elixir.
Her first sign of a change was how her gold cauldron suddenly seemed to weigh several times less.
Experimentally she held it in her left hand as she used her wand to fill it with water. She felt a slight increase in weight as it filled but even completely full it felt lighter then before.
"Huh, I think we can safely say it worked. Now we just need to do some tests tomorrow to check my new strength."
Hermione, instead of her usual Look when she did something, looked suspiciously amused. She smirked, "magical people all seem to abhor physical exercise. You might be the strongest person in the school now and nobody would ever expect it since, you know, you're tiny."
Just like that Holly was filled with pride and hugged Hermione. "That's brilliant! If my strength ever becomes public I'll start a betting pool and challenge people to arm wrestling! I'll even split the money with you."
Hermione, surprisingly, said nothing.
At least, it was surprising until Holly let go and saw the girl had been turning purple.
"Sorry. I guess we should probably focus on getting my strength under control. I'd rather not break everything I own."
Even recovering from accidentally being choked, Hermione looked amused at the idea. Which was a good sign, or at least Holly thought so. It seemed Hermione really did care about her.
Notes:Direct inspiration for the scene with the arm: Link
Don't worry, in terms of physical strength Holly isn't Hulk, Spiderman, or MCU Captain America level strong. The exact numbers don't matter, it'll never be important how exactly much Holly can deadlift. Just know she's several times stronger then normal for her size: still weaker then an irl heavyweight powerlifter but much stronger then any ~5'1" tall, ~110 pound, 14 y/o girl, no matter how fit, has any right to be.
Right now her enhanced strength will mostly serve to compensate for the fact she's still so short, especially compared to the other Triwizard champions (Fleur's actress is the shortest at 5'7").
The strongman's grave she robbed was Jón Páll Sigmarsson, who died in 1993. I don't know shit about powerlifting but a couple quick searches showed he seemed to be one of the greatest of all time, and thus a good target for Holly.
Chapter 17: Year Four (VI)Summary:Holly takes Extreme Measures, gives a speech using a makeshift soapbox, gives a shovel talk, and goes to the Yule Ball.
Or: 5k words of Holly being a complete disaster.
Notes:(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter TextIn the days after the dance was announced Holly started noticing how many boys were staring at her weirdly. Anytime she looked back they'd blush and rapidly look away. Bringing it up to Hermione had her receiving a Look.
"Holly," she explained slowly, "those boys probably are considering asking you to the Ball. Everyone knows you only talk to me and that you certainly don't have a date yet. Your reputation is the only thing holding them off. It could be worse: Fleur Delacour has been getting approached by boys nonstop about the Ball since it was announced."
Over the next few days it was obvious Hermione was right. After the first boy, whose name she didn't even know, asked her to the dance it opened the floodgates. Suddenly she was constantly being approached by boys she didn't think she'd even seen before asking to go together to the dance.
At least it gave her a chance to use her new strength: when one boy put a hand on her shoulder she judo flipped him.
Holly hadn't seen him again since.
Back in the Room Holly was enjoying the break from wannabe dance partners and complaining to Hermione. "I've never even spoken to any of them! I don't even know their names or faces! Why would they want to go with me?"
Without bothering to look up she answered. "Holly, I may not be gay but even I can recognize you're one of the more attractive girls in year. Add in your fame and prodigal talent and this is the result. I imagine nearly any single boy would be willing to go with you. Maybe even a few girls too."
"Well shit." Only, that phrasing sparked a potential solution for her. "I don't suppose you'd want to go together as friends?"
Hermione looked apologetic, "sorry but I was already asked by Neville Longbottom."
"The Herbology prodigy? Good for you. Guess I need to find someone else that's tolerable then."
---
At least adjusting to her newfound strength was going well.
The first day after taking her elixir Holly spent every free moment in the Room learning to control her strength with simple tasks: cardio exercise, taking on and off a buttoned shirt, and practicing grip strength.
Thankfully she was able to adjust quickly: magic was intent after all. If she wanted to use her enhanced strength she had to want to apply more force. After a couple days she was able to give a wary-looking Hermione a tight hug without hurting her.
She didn't have perfect control yet, but she wouldn't be accidently break anyone or anything. Hopefully she'd continue to improve with time.
Why couldn't finding someone tolerable be that easy?
---
It was a few days later when the universe seemed to hear desperate pleas.
Holly and Hermione were walking out of the great hall when they saw the youngest Weasley boy shout out his invitation to the dance at Fleur. Not even a second later he blushed, stammered out something incomprehensible, and stumbled away with someone supporting him. Specticle finished, the crowd quickly dispersed leaving an annoyed looking Fleur alone.
Holly, in a stroke of brilliance (or veela allure) saw the answer to all her problems. Hermione, clearly seeing what was about to happen, hissed at her to stop but Holly shrugged her off.
She walked right up to Fleur (seemingly) all calm and collected, and asked in French "having fun trying to find a date?"
Fleur, clearly frustrated, responded flatly. "No. They are only interested because of my allure or because they see me as a prize. Unfortunately, I have to find a date soon and they know it."
"I'm having a similar problem as you. I have an idea for how to solve our problems and prank them at the same time if you're interested."
Fleur looked down at her (dammit, she was still so much shorter) in amusement,"Oh? What is it."
"Imagine the look on their faces if we went to the dance together."
For a second Fleur froze in shock before she doubled over laughing. Eventually she managed to stop and smiled a cheshire grin, "I think that's an excellent idea. We'll have to talk later so we can coordinate."
Fleur quickly bent down and kissed both her cheeks before walking off without looking back.
Holly dumbly stood there touching her checks where Fleur kissed them. Hermione walked up beside her, smiling. "That went better than I expected. Framing it as a prank was a good idea."
Holly, of course, was still too shocked to process what she said. Eventually Hermione rolled her eyes and dragged her back to the Room. It wasn't until they were back inside Holly managed to get her brain working again.
Naturally, the first thing she did was panic.
"Did I really just ask Fleur to the dance and she agreed? How the hell did I manage that? Why did I even do that?" ("Veela allure and a crush" an unheard Hermione muttered) "My dress isn't nice enough to go with her! I don't want her to look bad standing next to me!"
Hermione, seeing her friend panicking, attempted to interview. "Holly, you two are going to be fine. Your dress is very nice and I'm sure Fleur will like it. Calm down."
"Its nice but not nice enough Hermione! I have to get a new one. I have a bunch of acromantula silk, if I pay extra I can rush order a dress made out of it." Completely ignoring a sputtering Hermione, she ran out of the Room and didn't stop until she'd apparated to Diagon Alley.
Finding a dress shop that'd accept her rush order wasn't going well until she started taking out handfuls of acromantula silk. After that a tailor was surprisingly eager to help. After giving her specifications and getting her measurements taken she apparated back.
Finally back in the Room she found an anxious looking Hermione waiting for her. "Good news: I found a shop that accepted my order. Now Fleur won't hate me for making her look bad."
"I really don't think it matters Holly, you'll look good no matter what." She scoffed, "damn shapeshifter. At least you'll never have to worry about buck teeth."
Seeing Hermione looking insecure, all hunched over and folded in on herself sparked a weird feeling in her stomach.
She didn't like it.
This kinda felt like one of those important moments where she should say something meaningful.
"I think your teeth only define who you are if you want them to. They have power over you because you give it to them."
Hermione, clearly taken off guard, looked up at her in shock. "Holly, tha- that was rather profound. And shockingly insightful."
Task of cheering Hermione up complete, Holly smiled at her. "If you want I could shrink your teeth but make sure it's because you want it, not because of others' expectations. Just let me know."
Smiling and dabbing at her eyes, Hermione promised to think her offer over.
---
Sadly, having a date didn't seem to discourage boys from still asking Holly to the dance. She'd hope word would spread after she told the first few but clearly it hadn't.
After the latest boy didn't leave her alone until she threatened him, she asked Hermione. For some reason her question earned her a Look.
"They probably don't believe you actually have a date. Or maybe they think you're planning on skipping. It's not important Holly, the Ball is less than a week away."
Despite Hermione urging patience, Holly was rapidly losing it. She couldn't walk down the hallways, sit in class, or even eat her meals without someone trying to ask her to the dance.
It was bad enough she was seriously considering using her shapeshifting to impersonate someone until it was over.
Clearly, it was time for Extreme Measures.
The next day, in a moment that would become infamous, Holly finally snapped when she was asked out again in the hallway.
The annoying blond boy, Draino Maffle or something like that, didn't seem to care that she already had a date. When he started yelling at her she knew this was the perfect chance for Extreme Measures.
She walked up to him until they were chest to chest, not breaking eye contact. Right as he started blushing she kneed him in the crotch.
Hard.
As collapsed to his knees while holding his bits, she punched him across the face, instantly knocking him out. After he collapsed facedown she stepped onto his back, using him as an improvised soapbox in front of the crowd of stunned bystanders.
"Since you people don't seem to believe me I want to make this clear: I. Already. Have. A. Date. The next person who asks me out is getting hurt worse than this guy."
Message delivered, she stepped off her human soapbox and walked off, leaving the stunned bystanders behind.
Holly wasn't bothered again after that.
Hermione, when she heard the story, nearly fell over laughing. After several minutes of hysterical laughter she finally managed to stop long enough to explain.
"Holly, Draco Malfoy is one of the most foul and entitled people in this school. He's the embodiment of everything you hate about wizards. And you, completely by random, picked him to use as a soapbox."
Hermione dissolved into a fit of laughter again after that and Holly couldn't exactly blame her.
---
Without the constant bombardment of hopeful boys her days passed by faster after that.
She picked up her dress two days before the dance, and, after minor tweaks, was satisfied enough to pay the tailor a healthy bonus.
Soon enough it was the day of the dance. Classes were more useless than ever as the professors knew nobody was paying attention and let them go early.
In the Room, both Holly and Hermione started getting ready hours beforehand. While Hermione was losing her mind trying to use some wizarding hair product to straighten her, Holly sat in front of a mirror.
Holly had never actually used makeup before. Never had a reason to. Never wanted to. Which meant she didn't have the slightest idea how to use it now.
Good thing she had an easy solution to that.
Instead of makeup, she instead shapeshifted herself into having the illusion of it.
She turned her cheeks slightly blushed (totally not so she could hide her real blushes later), she willed her hair straight and put in a French braid (hopefully Fleur would find that funny), turned her lips slightly pink, her eyes lined and shadowed the same dark blue of her dress.
Her dress was simple: dark blue with a high neckline, slightly loose long sleeves (great for hiding a wand arm holster), and falling to her shins with a slit so she could still run. It was shockingly comfortable, magic resistant enough to protect her well, and easy to move in. It even had hidden pockets!
It was an understatement to say she rather liked it.
She didn't like her heels as much. Sure, they had cushioning charms and a hidden stiletto dagger she'd transfigured, but they made her balance feel slightly off. Thankfully, after her practice earlier in the week she felt almost normal walking in them.
Dance makeover complete with hours to spare, Holly looked over to Hermione who was still furiously struggling with her hair.
"You, uh, want some help with that?"
Hermione, hands still in her hair, managed to give a surprisingly effective death glare. "Holly, not all of us are shapeshifters. Some of us have to struggle to look good."
"I think you normally look good." She shrugged, looking over at a slightly blushing Hermione. "Now how can I help?"
---
A few hours, two shrunken front teeth, and a shocking amount of effort later, the two of them walked down to meet their dates.
She watched as a gobsmacked Neville came to greet Hermione, blushing like mad, and stuttered out a greeting. After hugging him Hermione turned back and looked between them, "Neville, I'm sure you've heard of Holly. Holly, you know about Neville."
Neville, if possible, somehow looked more nervous as they shook hands. "You- you know about me?"
"Why wouldn't I? You're a Herbology prodigy, by far the best in our year. That reminds me: lemme know if you ever want to buy some of my custom fertilizer potion."
Neville looking awed and slightly afraid, asked "is that what grew the Fanged Geranium that destroyed greenhouse 4?"
"Mhmm. Worked out great, I got my own weight in Fanged Geranium teeth from that."
For some reason that didn't seem to reassure Neville. Before Hermione could intervene, she stepped in to make her move.
As she pretended to adjust Neville's necktie, she projected her voice into his mind, 'if you hurt her feelings you'll wake up naked, wandless, and alone in the middle of nowhere. Got it?'
Neville's only response was a quiet whimper as he paled rapidly. "There, looks like you've got it." She grinned at Neville's terrified face. "Nice to meet you Neville. I'll see you two later, I've got a hot date to find."
With that she walked off, leaving a terrified Neville and suspicious Hermione behind.
As Neville watched Holly Potter disappear into the crowd Hermione leaned in closer to him. "Whatever she said I'm sure she didn't mean. She's secretly a massive softie."
Neville, terrified and with trembling legs, stared back at Hermione in complete disbelief.
"Trust me, she's only intimidating until you get to know her. After that it's obvious she's exceptionally caring and protective."
"Exceptionally caring and protective? Tha-that's nice. N- not terrifying at all." Oh Merlin, he was so dead. Why didn't he think beforehand about how Hermione was best friends with Holly Potter?
"Glad you see it. I'm sure you two could become good friends if you tried."
Neville, having nothing he could possibly say to that, decided it was time to lead Hermione into the Hall.
And swore to never, ever do something to anger Holly Potter.
Holly meanwhile was looking around for Fleur when she suddenly spotted her walking down the stairs. Blocking out the Veela allure by fully raising her occlumency barriers, Holly quickly approached her, desperately trying to keep her eyes up off of Fleur's silver satin dress.
Once she was close she smiled widely, "you look amazing Fleur, I love your dress."
Fleur smiled back at her (dear god was she attractive, that smile was unfair), "Thank you Holly, I should be saying the same thing." She held out one elbow, "shall we?"
Taking Fleur's arm, they walked towards the hall, completely ignoring the blatant stares of everyone in sight.
'Oh fuck, this is really happening. Stay calm Holly, you can do this. You can. Think of this as just an extreme occlumency stress test. Not a dance with the most beautiful girl you've ever talked to, just occlumency practice. You-'
"So where did you get your dress Holly?" She looked over to see Fleur examining her sleeve.
"Oh, I custom ordered it after I asked you to the dance. It was a bit tough to find someone who'd take the rush order but some acromantula silk and galleons later I think it turned out nice."
She didn't think it was a big deal but clearly Fleur disagreed because she stopped and turned to stare directly at her.
"Acromantula silk? This is acromantula silk?! How did you afford so much?"
Holly shrugged, "I actually already had the silk from something else, so it was free. I only paid for the tailoring and rush order."
For some reason Fleur was still stunned, "…you already had it?"
'Oh shit, I probably shouldn't outright admit to Fleur I went into the Forest to kill Aragog. Or… maybe she'd find it impressive? Hmm, when in doubt: plausible deniability.'
She leaned to whisper, "hypothetically, I recently fought an elderly acromantula for other reasons. The silk was a side benefit."
"…Hypothetically." For some reason Fleur looked absolutely shell shocked. Were acromantula really considered that dangerous?
(Watching in the distance, Hermione felt pity for Fleur Delacour as she watched Holly unintentionally overwhelm Fleur with her Holly-ness.)
"Mhmm. What isn't hypothetical is that after I asked you to accompany me I had this dress rush ordered because my old one wasn't nice enough to stand next to you with."
That managed to snap Fleur out of her surprise. "You thought you needed an acromantula silk dress to accompany me here?"
"Well yeah, I didn't want to embarasses you by looking awful in comparison to you." Before Fleur could speak she continued, "and no, it's not your allure. I'm skilled enough at occlumency to block it out. You're still beautiful without its effects."
Fleur's blank expression of shock slowly shifted into a sheepish smile. "Thank you Holly. That means a lot to me. Now, maybe we should stop holding up the crowd?"
Sure enough, the entire crowd was still staring at them in rapt attention. They were staring as if the two of them were a slow and (on Fleur's part) devastatingly beautiful trainwreck. Mixing those metaphors made it a bit weird but there was really no other way to describe it.
With a slight pull on their interlocked arms Fleur got them walking again. "You know," Holly started, "I've never really paid attention to if gay people are accepted in wizarding society. Do you know anything about that?"
Fleur snorted, somehow making it sound elegant, "It's somewhat accepted in France but certainly less so here in Britain with your blood purity ideology. While magic makes it possible for non-traditional couples to have biological children through blood adoption, it's still stigmatized."
"Well that's bullshit, shit like that is why I don't respect wizarding society. At least right now it helps us mess with them even more."
Fleur smirked back at her, "exactly."
Just then they were interrupted by Professor McGonagall calling for the champions to gather. To her credit the Professor only did a double take when she realized she and Fleur were together before giving them their orders to wait outside the doors.
Waiting around she saw Cedric with a pretty girl clinging to his arm, standing rather close. He looked rather happy, smiling when they made eye contact. His date (or maybe girlfriend?) however was giving a slightly jealous look towards Fleur.
Behind them she saw Krum with a pretty girl she didn't recognize. He didn't look particularly happy, even by his standards, while the girl clung to his arm possessively and glared at them all. That certainly didn't look like the makings of a good night.
---
A couple minutes later they were called in to parade themselves in front of the wizard masses.
As Holly and Fleur names were called out she felt countless stares fall on them and whispers breaking out. There were even a few quiet jeers that were quickly silenced.
Ignoring it all, they sat down at their table along with the headmasters and bureaucrats.
Which, to say they didn't seem like good conversation partners was an understatement. Hopefully they wouldn't pay any attention to her.
Unfortunately it took less than a second for her hopes to be crushed. The moment they were all settled in, Dumbledore spoke up, "Ah Holly, I've been meaning to congratulate you for your invention of a better method for collecting the dragon's blood. I daresay it will lead to discoveries greater than my own. Shame I had to take points away in the First Task for violating the spirit of the Task."
'Oh no, is he actually going to try and talk to me? Hopefully I can brush him off.' She couldn't exactly keep her eyes on his beard while he was sitting down so instead she focused on Fleur in her periphery.
"Thanks headmaster." Not saying anything else she looked down to her surprisingly still empty plate. Was he stalling the food being served just to talk to her?
Dumbledore continued, seemingly not discouraged for some reason. "I've read your articles on some rather interesting potion modifications. Fascinating work. I even received several letters from my old colleague Horace Slughorn, the former potions professor here, saying he would love to be able to teach you."
'Wait, is Snape sharing my papers with him? What the hell? Is he trying to draw Dumbledore's attention to annoy me?'
"Oh, well, professor Slughorn will be disappointed since I'm planning on taking my potions NEWT this year."
There was a pause long enough Holly risked looking directly at Dumbledore, seeing his surprised expression.
"Are you certain you wish to? The Tournament will take most of your time to prepare for. We all agreed to cancel exams for the champions knowing that."
'That bastard, he's challenging me just like Snape did. Just you wait old man, just you wait.'
"I'll be fine. I have no intention of dying in this tournament no matter what traps are undoubtedly waiting for me." Point made, she turned to face a surprised Fleur. "So what is Beaubaxtons like?"
Fleur, seeing her abrupt conversation change and playing along, launched into a long-winded explanation about the differences between Beaubaxtons and Hogwarts. After a couple minutes of Fleur's intentionally melodramatic complaints about Hogwarts being cold, she felt Dumbledore's eyes leave her and he demonstrated how to summon food.
Fleur summoned herself a French dish while Holly ordered alfredo pasta. After the first bite it was hard not to eat too quickly. She'd realized she'd loved the stuff while passing through Italy and hadn't had any in years.
She might've failed at that because Fleur seemed amused looking at her. With a glance to make sure Dumbledore was distracted, she leaned in to whisper, "I visited Italy once and realized I love alfredo while there. This is the first time I've had any since then."
Fleur nodded, "ah, I see. The food in this country is rather plain, no? Have you been to any other countries then?"
Oh shit, she couldn't exactly confirm that. Plus, Dumbledore was right there, if he overheard he'd have questions.
Thankfully magic had an easy answer.
With a flick of her finger Holly cast a subtle sound barrier so nobody else at the table could hear them. When the surrounding noise cut off Fleur looked around before snapping back to look back at her in shock. "Wandless magic? Very impressive."
Fighting her blush, she did her best to meet Fleur's gaze. "I'd rather not have Dumbledore overhear. It's a secret but I've been to most countries in Europe. That's why I speak French, Bulgarian, and some other languages."
"Oh? How many languages?"
Holly shrugged, "Couple dozen maybe? I wasn't exactly counting."
For some reason Fleur froze, dropping her fork in shock. A new fork instantly appeared in her hand but she didn't seem to notice. "You- you've learned a couple dozen languages? Fluently? How is that possible?"
"I'm good at learning things quickly. That reminds me: do you want to lead or should I?"
Fleur, blinking silently, took a few seconds to respond. "…Are you as good at dancing as you are at languages?"
"Maybe? I've watched a couple dance lessons but never practiced with someone." Which was true, in a manner of speaking.
She had watched dance lessons earlier that week. Only, she was there to find suitable scumbags to steal their knowledge of dancing from. It had taken watching a few different couples' dance lessons but eventually she'd found a married couple that abused their children. After ripping out their useful memories, she'd tipped off the police and spent the last few nights practicing her new dance moves in heels.
She wasn't an expert but her skill in dancing had shot up from nonexistent to (hopefully) good enough.
"Why do I get the feeling you tend to understate things?" Fleur smirked, "I can lead if you want, but I'm sure you'll do great either way."
'Oh god, is she teasing me? Or is that a challenge? Or am I overthinking things? Fuck it, I'll just do my best.'
Dropping her ward, she endured awkward conversation for far too long afterwards. Several times she was rescued by the other champions interrupting the headmasters' attempted interrogations of her. Giving them all a thankful nod, she resolved to help them out again in the upcoming task. And to call Viktor by his first name, it was the least she could do.
Finally, dinner ended and it was time for them to open the dance. Taking Fleur's arm, she led them onto the dance floor. As the music started she stepped in closer, placed a hand on Fleur's hip, and started leading them in a waltz.
She hadn't noticed it earlier but with her heels and shapeshifting taller she was much closer to being the same height as Fleur. Not that being face to face was helping her focus.
After a song or two Holly relaxed her tense posture. Only, Fleur leaned in to whisper, "I knew you were understating your skill at dancing." Just like that any semblance of calm Holly had vanished.
Well, she could play the teasing game too.
The next upbeat in the music she took the opportunity to surprise Fleur with a lift maneuver, making her eyes go wide in shock. Which was understandable really: Holly certainly didn't look strong enough for that.
That didn't stop Holly from laughing at Fleur's reaction though. Thankfully Fleur wasn't offended, instead looking amused.
Holly wasn't sure how many songs they danced for. They kept going, song after song, until the music style changed, dragging her back into reality.
Suddenly she was aware they'd been dancing nonstop for at least an hour. Her feet were killing her, cushioning charms having weakened. Even Fleur looked slightly winded.
"You want to cool down outside?"
At Fleur's nod she linked their arms and led them outside, walking until they found an empty bench to sit on.
After a moment of comfortable silence Fleur spoke up, "this has been more fun than I dared hope for. When the Ball was announced I knew I'd be hounded by boys, I had resigned myself to finding a tolerable one." Fleur smiled at her, "you have been far better than tolerable company Holly."
"Now that's some high praise. Consider me flattered." She tried for sarcastic but her blush made it painfully obvious it was true.
Fleur laughed, "between being excellent company and your help with the First Task I feel I own you. I was serious when I said you might've saved my life."
'What the hell am I supposed to say to that? I guess the truth?'
"I meant what I said too: you shouldn't get killed because the tournament organizers are incompetent. I mean, would you have entered if you knew beforehand about the dragon? Plus, If I'm being honest, I think me being entered is an assassination attempt. Either naturally from the tasks or directly at some point. I won't let you or the others get hurt as collateral damage because of me."
Looking back at Fleur and saw her shocked expression. Eventually Fleur said, "I thought we were going to be protecting you but here you are trying to protect us." Fleur chuckled, "I bet you already solved the egg clue too."
"Err, yeah, but I had some help. By the way: I'm pretty sure what they're going to take from us are people. Seems like the kinda bullshit they'd do."
Fleur, clearly seeing her point, paled rapidly. "…And if they do take someone close to us… the person I'm closest to is my little sister, Gabrielle. If they hurt my sister, I- I need to talk to Madam Maxine."
Looking like some combination of murderously angry and terrified, Fleur stood up abruptly. She took a single step before abruptly turning back around and giving Holly a crushing hug.
"Thank you for the excellent night Holly. I'm sorry to end it abruptly like this but I need to tell them Gabrielle is off limits." Fleur released her only to immediately kiss both her cheeks, making her blush madly. "Goodnight Holly, take care."
With that Fleur powerwalked away, a furious woman with a mission, leaving Holly standing dumbly in the empty garden.
---
After taking an embarrassingly long time to start functioning again Holly walked back into the hall, arriving just in time to see Fleur leaving with Madam Maxine. Looking around she spotted Hermione and Neville sitting at a table and made her way over to them.
Neville, seeing her first, paled rapidly. Seems like he was taking her warning seriously ('good, that's solid proof he isn't an idiot'). Following his gaze Hermione turned to see her approaching and smiled at her.
"You two having a good night?"
Hermione nodded, smiling at Neville. "I enjoyed myself. Thank you for asking me, Neville."
Neville, having shrunk in his chair and looking like he was trying to apparate away, smiled back weakly. "M-me too."
"Excellent. You ready to go to Hermione or do you want to stay for a bit longer?"
After letting them say their goodbyes Holly led them back to the Room. With their heels already off they both flopped down onto couches, groaning in relief.
"You sure looked like you were having a good time with Fleur. But what happened there at the end?"
"Oh that? Fleur realized that if they take someone from her for the task it'd be her little sister."
Hermione paused, "now that explains why she looked furious. Anything else?"
"Fleur liked my dress. Was surprised about it being acromantula silk for some reason." Holly shrugged, "that's about it. Anyways, I think I'm going to crash-"
Before Holly could finish her sentence a lavish bedroom, door already hanging open, appeared in front of her.
"-here for the night." She bent down to give the Room a pat. "Goodnight Hermione."
With that she walked in, closing the door behind her. She quickly stripped off her dress, shifted her face back to normal, conjured herself some pj's, and climbed into the bed. Exhausted, she fell asleep in seconds.
Notes:This bit in a nutshell: Link
What I kept thinking while writing the Neville bit: Link
Hermione didn't go with Krum because of one simple reason: since Hermione is usually in the Room reading/practicing with Holly she isn't spending all her free time in the library where he can meet her. He never got the chance so Neville got to ask Hermione first.
Its implied but not explicitly stated that Hermione didn't have any close friends until she got close to Holly. That said, I imagine she and Neville, someone else with few friends, would have been vaguely friendly.
When Holly gave Neville the shovel talk my original idea was to have her say something like "hurt Hermione's feelings and you won't be able to remember your own name" until I remembered Neville's backstory and realized what a shitshow that'd cause. I mean, Holly would probably know about his parents but its mostly me not wanting Neville to try and throwdown with Holly. Poor guy would get his ass kicked.
Chapter 18: Year Four (VII)Summary:Holly forgets something important, has a couple important conversations, causes Hermione significant stress, and completes the Second Task.
Notes:(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter TextHolly's Christmas break started, as with many things involving other people, her forgetting something important.
Namely, getting on the train to leave for break.
Holly didn't realize this until she got a mirror call from Sirius who'd apparently been waiting at Kings Cross for her.
"-where are you? I know I didn't explicitly ask but obviously you're invited to Potter Manor for break. It's your own manor." Sirius paused for a moment before backtracking, "you don't have to visit. It's fine. I'll just, uh, owl your gifts up to you and-"
"Sirius, its fine, I'll see you in a few minutes." She hung up on a sputtering Sirius and, after sneaking out of Hogwarts, apparated to Potter Manor.
Inside she quickly found a panicking Sirius who was still trying to contact her with his mirror. "Hey Sirius."
Without looking up from his mirror he answered, "not now Prongslet, I'm still trying to reach you. Why aren't you answering?" Another beat passed before he processed his own words and his head snapped up to look at her.
"Holly? How did you get here? Have you been sneaking out of the castle?"
Holly smiled, "ask me no questions and I'll tell you no lies. Now I believe you said something about inviting me for the holidays?"
Sirius, the complete sap, couldn't exactly stay angry at the prospect of spending time together.
---
After almost burying her alive in gifts (mostly rare advanced potions book again for some reason?), he sat back with a knowing smile on his face.
"So Holly, did you see the Daily Prophet today?"
Oh no, that smirk can't mean anything good. "…No?"
Sirius nodded, trying and failed to hide his amusement with mock seriousness. "It was covering the Yule Ball, you see. Primarily the champions and their dates." He tossed her the paper, the front page dominated by a large moving picture of her and Fleur dancing together.
Sure enough, there was Fleur softly smiling at her, looking devastatingly beautiful, while Holly herself was dumbly smiling back.
Which, well, anyone with a brain could look at that picture and see the obvious. She hadn't exactly cared about hiding it, but it looks like she hadn't come out of the closet so much as she'd burst out like the Kool-Aid man.
'So that's where he's going with this. Good thing I have the perfect distraction and justification for him.'
"After the dance was announced both Fleur and I were constantly being asked out by annoying boys. So I asked Fleur if she wanted to go together to prank everyone who annoyed us. She agreed." Holly smirked, "you should have seen their faces."
For a few seconds Sirius was shocked into silence before he started laughing hysterically. He eventually managed to stop, sitting up and wiping his eyes. "That's brilliant Prongslet, I'm proud of you."
Holly smiled back, ignoring the twisting feelings of guilt.
"By the way, I have an actual present for you: I ordered a pensieve from Gringotts. Should be here in a few days."
It was a complete lie: in the excitement of the dance she'd completely forgotten to get Sirius a present. Hopefully the goblins wouldn't mind the rush order if she gave them a bonus tip.
Before Sirius could complain she continued, "don't worry about the cost. You're not to only stupid rich one here. Plus, you know I'll be using it too. Its really more of a backhanded gift to myself. Now come on, I haven't gotten to play any video games in months."
---
After two weeks of video games, movie binging, being fussed over by Sirius, and general relaxation later, Holly was riding the train back to Hogwarts. Unsurprisingly, Hermione somehow managed to find her.
After catching up Hermione asked what was clearly on her mind, "do you have another quote unquote Great Idea for the Second Task?"
"First of all, the sarcasm is completely uncalled for. My plan for the dragon was great and worked perfectly." Hermione visibly bit her lip and started turning red faced trying not to say something contrary.
Which made no sense, her plan had been great.
"Second, we'll do the obvious and make a timed portkey. Time it so that just after the task starts you'll pop up somewhere close. I can wait for that to work and if it doesn't I'll play knight in shining armor and rescue you."
Hermione looked pensieve, "it couldn't be that easy, could it?"
"Hermione, you're forgetting something: wizards are idiots. I bet a summoning charm would've worked in the first task."
For some reason that had Hermione struck dumb, silently trying to speak but no words coming out. After a moment her head fell into her hands and she groaned into them.
"Cheer up Hermione, we've got over 2 months until the next task. That's tons of time and I've got an idea I think you'll love for how to spend it."
Hermione lifted her head from her hands slowly, looking wary.
"Hypothetically, how would you feel about duplicating Hogwarts library for yourself?"
Hermione's expression shifted through several emotions rapidly, from disapproval to curiosity before she settled on looking doubtful.
"But all wizarding books have protections against against duplication and don't last forever. Plus it sounds illegal."
"Oh? And if I told you, hypothetically, I found ways around the first two problems?"
Hermione looked pensieve, "…it'd still be illegal."
Holly scoffed, "and that's enough to stop you from making your own personal copy of Hogwarts's library?"
That had Hermione's expression quickly shifting to longing.
"Well, like I said, we've got over 2 months. I bet you could make yourself your own personal library in that time. I'll even enchant an expanded trunk for you." That earned her an outright squeal and a crushing hug.
Just like that, she knew how they'd be spending the upcoming months.
---
Sadly she had something else to do first. The moment they arrived at Hogwarts she immediately started searching for Fleur.
When she found Fleur she didn't even need to say anything, Fleur seemed to already know what she was planning. Together they tracked down the other champions and told them Holly's suspicions about the egg clue.
Neither reacted well, with Cedric paleing rapidly while Viktor scowled, but both still thanked them.
Task complete, Fleur offered to study with her, kissed both her cheeks, and walked off before Holly could form a response.
After standing there for longer then she'd admit she went to the Room. Now was as good of a time as any to teach Hermione how to duplicate books.
And if she was using that as a distraction from a certain blond? That was nobody's business but hers.
---
As Holly predicted, over the next 2 months the two of them duplicated a lot of books. Once she'd finished teaching Hermione the cursebreaking and runes required, the girl began duplicating books like no tomorrow. After months of Hermione's nonstop efforts she quickly filled the provided expanded trunk and Holly was forced to make it bottomless and promised to start thinking about how to reverse engineer her mother's Trunk library system for Hermione's library.
The resulting crushing hug and kiss on the cheek from Hermione made Holly blush almost as badly as Fleur.
Naturally, she denied it completely afterwards no matter how much Hermione teased her.
At least Shadowfax didn't tease her like that. Or at least, not verbally. She was certain he laughed at her sometimes.
After that Care class with the unicorns Hagrid had come back, so she couldn't exactly see Shadowfax unless she went into the Forest. Once or twice a week she'd sneak out to see him. She enjoyed her walks alone in the Forest collecting ingredients. It was peaceful, a chance to leave her constant planning behind and enjoy the moment.
Several times she took a nap against a tree in the clearing where she originally met Shadowfax, only to wake up with his head in her lap like a lapdog. Who knew unicorns were cuddly?
Not always, but often during her trips to visit Shadowfax she stopped to visit Luna by the thestrals. The girl was still odd as ever but surprisingly good company. Which was rather impressive considering she could usually be found in the woods feeding bloody chunks of meat to (supposed) omens of death.
She tried not to think about where the meat came from. Hopefully Luna didn't have enemies because that girl could probably feed their corpses to the thestrals with a cheery smile.
Professor Moody and Sirius's instruction was showing results too. Now she could give Sirius a decent challenge, even if she couldn't beat him. Of course, professor Moody could easily beat her and she knew that wasn't changing anytime soon. That man (quite literally) had more combat experience than was healthy.
In her free time between duplicating books, training, studying with Fleur (they were constantly interrupted by Gabrielle, that girl was adorable), and Forest adventures; she'd been working on Project: Become a Total Badass, Phase 3.
She'd was looking into making a specific type of eternal elixir: one to increase her physical or magical durability. Or both. Both would be good.
Problem was, all the ingredients were insanely hard to get. Sure, she already had basilisk scales, unicorn hair, and acromantula silk, but that didn't mean much. Not when she thought she'd need some of the most magic resistant materials known: dragon, troll, giant, and leithfold skin; nundu and quintapod hair.
Even the Goblins, exceptionally capable as they were, would struggle with gathering those.
The components for physical resistance she thought should work best would also be a hassle to gather: diamond, military-grade kevlar weave, some extremely strong metal like tungsten, and, funny enough, some rubber (the natural stuff of course, she wasn't drinking shredded tires).
Holly was pretty sure the goblins could set up a dummy company for her to purchase them through for the right price. Or she could just steal them. Robbing a jeweler could be fun.
Regardless of how she got them, using non-magical ingredients would be risky. Since no wizards had experimented with kevlar or tungsten before she had nothing to work off of. No guinea pigs. No lessons to be learned from some reckless inventor who'd blown themselves up and showed everyone else what not to do. She'd be flying blind.
She believed it'd work though. Usually, an object's characteristics or properties were heavily related to the effect it had in a potion. Sure, sometimes it was a bit esoteric or seemingly random but mostly it made sense.
She'd figure it out.
But she wouldn't be able to make it before the second task.
Or the third task.
Or maybe not even for years to come.
But one day she'd make a kickass Durability Elixir and shrug off spells like a dragon. The look on Adult Tom's or whatever other wizards face would be priceless.
Unfortunately, that day was only a pleasant daydream for the foreseeable future.
At least she thought she'd be able to make a Stamina Elixir before the end of the year.
Mentioning that to Hermione had her shaking her head. "Honestly Holly, I'm certain you already have better physical stamina then the others, barring Krum. Wizards don't do physical exercise like you, remember?"
"But-"
"I have full faith in you Holly." She scoffed, "honestly, if you need another elixir it'd be a Wit-Sharpening s-
"Absolutely Not." Something in her tone must have changed because Hermione's head snapped up, looking surprised. "It's one thing to physically alter myself but I will never alter my mind. I'm not changing who I am for some outside force, even if it kills me."
Hermione set down her book, walking over to give her a gentle hug. She let Hermione hold her as she apologized, "I'm sorry if that touched a nerve Holly. I was only going to make a joke about you not being able to think while talking to Fleur."
"Oh." Wait a moment- "I am perfectly capable of thinking around Fleur! She just makes me need to focus on occlumency. A lot."
For some reason Hermione was smiling, clearly trying not to laugh.
"Whatever, I'd like to see how you'd react if you were me. You're still shit at occlumency." Just to prove her point she mentally jabbed at Hermione, almost instantly breaking through.
Grabbing her forehead Hermione groaned, "and now I have a headache. Was that really necessary?"
"Yeah, proved you're still shit at it. At least I was careful not to look at any of your thoughts."
Hermione glared, "that doesn't exactly make me feel better. Its not like I can ever look at yours."
And just like that, Holly had a Brilliant Idea.
Seeing her expression, Hermione started backpedaling, both physically and verbally. "Holly, whatever you're thinking: no. Just no. I don't-"
"But it's brilliant! I can try bringing you into my head to show you my mindscape. I haven't even gotten to show it to Sirius yet. I've put years of effort in and haven't gotten any feedback yet. Please?"
Groaning, Hermione approached and sat across from her.
"Great. Now just look into my eyes."
Making eye contact with Hermione, she reached out for Hermione's mind then sort of pulled Hermione's mind back into her own.
---
They found themselves standing in the corridor of the labyrinth section of her mindscape. A dimly lit subterranean tunnel stretched out in both directions. In front of her she knew there was a pit trap, while on the other side she could see several heavily armed soldiers ready to attack Hermione if she formed hostile intent.
"I have several different section, each modeled after a different environmental type. Currently we're in a labyrinth section chunk. This is the only mindscape chunk that exists right now: if you travel in one direction another labyrinth chunk will 'spawn in' seamlessly, then another, then another, until you reach a different environmental section. Then those chunks will start spawning in, creating an infinite loop. And obviously I made every part heavily guarded and booby trapped."
"You can't break through the walls either." With a gesture she parted the wall, revealing the empty void behind it. "This is the only chunk of mindscape currently spawned into existence. Breaking through might give me a headache but that's it. My memories aren't at risk from that."
"Whole thing works exactly like a video game, just, in my mind."
Turning to Hermione she could see her dumbfounded expression.
"You like it?" After a few seconds of being unresponsive Hermione startled and started slowly nodding. "Cool, popping us out now."
With that she focused, ejecting Hermione from her mind and brought them both into the real world.
---
Feeling slightly disoriented, she looked over to see Hermione looking rather green. "Sorry about that, thought it'd be smoother." Hermione, laying on her back with her face covered, only made a muffled noise vaguely acknowledging her.
"So what'd you think of it?"
Groaning, Hermione removed her arm from her face and slowly sat up, giving her a shrewd look. "I think… you went far beyond what any of those occlumency books said was possible. That must have taken you years."
Now there was an unsubtle dig for answers. Now how much to tell her?
"Mhmm, I started about 2 years ago."
Hermione blinked, "you did everything you described in only 2 years?! But what could-" she paused, abruptly switching to a fake calm tone. "Holly, please tell me you are not implying what I think you're implying."
"Uh, Hermione, I have no idea what you're implying unless you tell me. I may be a mindreader, but still."
Hermione glared at her. "I mean that 2 years ago is when the Chamber of Secrets threat ended abruptly overnight, with nothing but an ominous note on the wall claiming a basilisk was dead, and the Heir of Slytherin 'handled!' That is what I mean Holly!"
Oh. That was quick. "…and you think this relates to me how?" She asked, trying and failing not to smile at Hermione's put out expression.
Abruptly Hermione stood up, walked over, and started hitting her shoulder with every word. "You. Stupid. Brave. Brilliant. Heroic. Idiot! You killed a bloody basilisk!?"
"Well, I didn't. That was the rooster. Whole thing was anticlimactic, honestly."
Hermione, clearly not appreciating her lacking feats of combat, simply glared at her. "Should I ask what happened to the Heir?"
"Oh that. Funny enough it wasn't actually him. I mean it sort of was, but he was possessing someone to do it. The Weasley girl was unwittingly acting as the Heir."
Hermione blinked, "Ginny? But-"
"Mhm, she was being possessed through a Diary of Adult Tom's, of Voldemort's. Can you believe the guy kept a diary? Anyways, she wrote in it, got possessed and opened the chamber. Yada yada yada, I dueled a possessed Ginny, killed the basilisk via a rooster, wrote a helpful yet ominous note, and afterwards negotiated the sale of the basilisk corpse to Gringotts for an insane amount of gold."
Hermione simply stared back for a moment before abruptly sitting down, head falling into her hands.
Holly poked at her, "hey, you alright?" Hermione, face invisible under her hair, shook her head, causing the mound of hair to wobble. "You don't exactly look alright. Is it something I said?"
Hermione looked up, a terribly blank expression on her face. "How are you not in Gryffindor?"
"Well, the hat said I could go anywhere, so I told it I only wanted to be left alone and learn magic. It failed at that honestly, people still bother me all the time." Hermione laughed, a hint of a smile tracing her face.
"Also, I'm not exactly 'honorable.' I think wizards duels are stupid: if im seriously fighting someone I'd just stab them in the back. Or shoot them. That's the only thing Muggle Studies has taught me: wizards wouldn't recognize a gun even after you shot them with it."
Hermione looked alarmed, "…you've put thought into this."
"That's the other bit about the basilisk ordeal: I found out Adult Tom, Voldemort, isn't exactly dead. So I started working on killing him." Hermione paled, "Hey don't look at me like that, it's actually been going really well. I got him on the ropes."
Hermione, looking completely Done, gave her a deadpan stare. Having nothing else to say Holly tried for a smile, making Hermione roll her eyes and hug her while muttering insults into her neck.
"And that's partially why I learned occlumency." In her arms Hermione abruptly tensed. "Oh relax, its fine. Everything's worked out great."
Hermione only muttered into her neck, "I can't believe you're more infuriating now then in 1st year. You're the smartest idiot I know."
"Thanks? Now c'mon, we have books to copy."
---
Before long it was a week before the second task. During one of her training sessions with professor Moody he made a rather alarming point.
"You noticed anything strange recently, Potter? Something a bit too coincidental?"
Now there was a vague question. By his standards anyone and anything could be conspiring against her. Which meant there was only one answer for her to give.
"…No?"
That had him looking extremely disappointed. "Your vigilance is lacking. You have to expect threats and spot evidence anywhere, at any time. Now, if you'd been paying attention for the last week you'd have noticed something suspicious."
He held up a copy of the Daily Prophet in all its glory. "See anything funny?"
Without waiting for a response he jabbed a finger towards a particular advertisement.
"This! A frontpage ad of an apothecary offering 50% off gillyweed! Been running for the last couple days, coincidently starting just before the second task where it'd be useful. Very suspicious."
That… was a good point. Next to her Hermione looked doubtful but Sirius seemed to be considering it.
"Thanks for pointing that out, but I wasn't planning on using gillyweed."
Wait, this was the perfect chance to ask someone who would know if her plan could work! "Completely unrelated, but do you know if Hogwarts' anti-portkey wards extend to the Lake?"
Professor Moody looked impressed. "I don't think they do, but I'll check with Albus. Good thinking Potter."
---
A week later, the second task was even more anticlimactic then fighting the basilisk.
When the pudgy ministry official explained that their friends had been taken, none of them were surprised. Instead every champion looked rather furious, but still gave Holly grateful looks.
When the cannon sounded for them to dive in none of them moved off the dock. Instead the 4 for them stood there waiting as the crowd awkwardly muttered. Two minutes later the portkeys she'd given them earlier activated and their 4 hostage friends suddenly landed in front of them.
The 3 others giving her another grateful look (none of them were willing to risk their friends or wanted to go into the freezing lake except Viktor, that weirdo) and hauled their friends over to the medical tent.
Holly charmed Hermione dry, cast a warming charm, and wrapped her in a fluffy towel. Slowly, Hermione managed to stop shivering enough to talk.
"Th-the plan w-worked?"
"Perfectly. I didn't even touch the water. I mean, I like you Hermione, but I was hoping I wouldn't need my backup plan to rescue you."
Hermione managed a laugh, "I'm t-touched. Have you heard the scores yet?"
"Nope. Don't really care about them either. I'm getting out of here."
And just like that, Holly left, leaving behind Hermione and a very disappointed crowd.
Notes:Using portkeys for the 2nd Task seems to be something of a trope but anything else would be OOC for Holly. The simplest, easiest path is the one she'll always try to take first. Unless she psychs herself out.
I did think of a backup plan involving Holly either flying or surfing a conjured wave to the center of the lake then diving, but that obviously wasn't needed.
As for why the other champions accepted Holly's portkeys? Holly told them 2 months before the Task that it'd probably be their friends taken. That's plenty of time for even a confident person to start overthinking and doubt themselves. And given the hostages would be in legitimate risk (intentionally or not) obviously a portkey is the quickest and safest way to rescue them.