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Footsteps echoed loudly in the corridors of Azkaban, only the tinkle of the thick magic-suppressing chains clamped around Holly Potter's wrists making any noise as the young woman lifted the small bundle to her breast to grant her child, Dorea Potter, her morning milk. Her hands were scarred, signs of damage long healed whenever she awoke from the Dreams that had haunted her since she had arrived in Azkaban. A nightmare of blood and beasts to which Holly and Dorea returned whenever the moon rose and their torment at the hands of the guards of Azkaban came to an end for the day.

The faint voices that came from down the long corridor that led to her isolation cell were unusual. The Aurors had learned not to speak around Holly, not since she had used the sound of the Aurors voices against them. The sight of the last Auror to speak in her presence collapsing screaming as the echo of his voice became a weapon that caused his brain to bleed. Her daughter wore a collar of silencing runes that chafed the baby's delicate neck to prevent her cries from escaping whilst Holly's head had been encased in a full head mask of rune carved metal intended to render Holly deaf, mute and blind. Of course that had only led Holly to discovering that the Insight she gained as she butchered and danced and forever pressed onwards in the Dream gave her more senses than she thought.

Her body was pale and scarred, some from the trials the Dream put forth for her, other's were from her treatment at the hands of the Aurors when she had arrived. At the time Holly had not been showing and it was not until she had started swelling that the beatings had stopped, jut in case the baby belonged to one of the Heir's who had raped her. They had tried to take her baby, but that had been the only time Azkaban shook as the creatures of the Chalice Dungeon responded to the Huntresses call. Holly had not called for them again, she could..she could and they would have broken her chains and killed anyone who stood in the way as she walked away.

But if she had done that..where would she go? She had watched as her friends and family had turned on her. Agreeing with Albus Dumbledore that she was dangerous..broken...and must be contained. That only the power of the Dementors would be able to keep Holly from killing again. The Dementors had refused to go near her cell for months...but the Aurors didn't know that. They thought she was still weak, barely surviving on thin gruel and briny water. And what they didn't know wouldn't hurt them...THEY COME TO TAKE YOU AWAY. THEY COME TO MAKE YOU THEIR WEAPON ONCE MORE HUNTRESS.

Holly acknowledged the voice in her mind. It would explain the number of magical signatures coming towards her cell. The voices were growing more distinctive, with one standing out above all. The one that made the voice inside her raise its hackles. Dumbledore.

The cell door swung open and Holly heard a quickly stifled scream. Granger. She knew what they would see, Holly Potter. Naked as the day she was born, skin pale and almost translucent, livid scars covering most of her skin from one beast or another. The chains at her wrists and ankles rubbed the skin raw whenever she tried to move as a baby suckled at her breast, her tiny hands reaching up to play with Holly's long red hair. Of course the Aurors had shaved her head as part of their attempt to break her after Dorea had been born. So the child's hand found naught but more skin.

Apparently one of the Aurors who had been in must have had some flicker of humanity in her though, as Dorea at least had a nappy charged with runes that would banish waste as soon as it made contact and generally kept the child clean. Holly still had to keep Dorea hugged tightly against her to try to combat the cold though and as the door opened whatever warmth the mother and daughter had was snatched away.

Another voice spoke hoarsely. As if the sight of how Holly was treated had caused damage to his throat. "What...what is this? You kept her like this...like an animal? With a child?"

The voice that responded was pitched too low for Holly to hear, then there was a crack of flesh meeting flesh and then silence. Holly's masked head had remained entirely still throughout even as Dorea had stopped suckling and looked curiously at the entrants. A third voice, one that tried to pitch itself as soft and caring came from closer to Holly. "Holly? Can you hear me? We have come to get you out of here...come...let me take the child.."

The moment another hand was laid on Dorea, Holly moved. Her masked face slamming into where the woman's head was who was trying to take her child, Holly could feel the woman's nose crunch and hot blood starting to drip from her face and run over her lips. Holly and the voice had spoken about this, what would happen when the Wizarding World decided to return for her and whilst Holly's original intention had been to pretend to be catatonic until she was out of Azkaban and then leave..with Dorea she would have to improvise. The voice saw Dorea as a result of procreation and then another was easily able to be made whilst to Holly...Dorea was hers. Her child. Her reason to keep living. No matter how she was conceived she would not abandon the child like she had been.

The mask was eventually removed after much shouting and reluctance from the Aurors and the revelation of the damage to Holly's face was enough to cause the entire group of those sent to retrieve her blanche is horror. A scar crossed the bridge of Holly's nose, going down through one eye which had rendered her left eye a milky white colour, the scar continued across her cheek and down onto her neck. that along with the broken and poorly set nose and her lips having been sewn together made one member of the rescue party, Molly Weasley, vomit loudly.

Minerva McGonagall who was clutching a handkerchief to her badly broken nose retched and looked with fury at Albus Dumbledore, who stood like a mountain in the storm appearing unaffected by the revelation of what had happened to Holly. One could almost believe that if not for the icy cold rage in his eyes as he turned his attention to the red robed Auror who lingered at the back of the group, visibly quailing as the mistreatment suffered by Holly Potter came to light.

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The 'rescue party's urgent desire to leave Azkaban was causing the tension in the room to wind tighter and tighter as it seemed like everything that could delay them was doing so. The clothing that Holly had come into Azkaban wearing was still the same rags that she had been in after her assault and no one had put a stasis charm on them so in the damp of the storage room they had decayed into being worthless rotten cloth, only the Lion sigil of Gryffindor remaining unmarred. Of course there was also nothing for Dorea to wear so three members of the rescue party had to separate and go back to the mainland, find appropriate clothing and then come back.

Holly was staring blankly ahead, Dorea held tight against herself and ignoring anyone trying to talk to her as the Azkaban guards also tried to find the keys to unlock the magic suppressing cuffs that were chained around Holly's wrists as well as the key for the collar that had silenced Dorea for months. That process was hardly helped when Mad-Eye Moody..the real one this time apparently had gone down to try to find what was taking so long and come across Aurors burning paperwork that upon closer examination detailed the orders that would see Holly Potter beaten, abused and starved as well as the gag order that meant no Aurors could tell anyone not on Azkaban about the child born to her.

The money that greased palms and brought this whole chain of events about had the signature of Lucius Malfoy all over it and Moody had triumphantly returned with that paperwork that showed the Nobleman's signature authoring transfers of Galleons to the Aurors for 'services rendered'. It was enough that they could bring Malfoy to court and suspend his immunity to being questioned under Veritaserum and hopefully pump him for information about Voldemort's activities and his own role as a Death Eater in this war and the last. The keys were eventually found, having been 'forgotten' about as apparently the Aurors never thought Holly would be released and saw no reason why they should clutter up their keychains with keys that would never be used.

Either way, Holly could feel the tension winding as the likelihood that they would meet with a group of Death Eaters upon getting out of the Prison was now higher than ever, no doubt as soon as they had left Madam Bone's office with the order to release Holly Potter from her unjust imprisonment, one of the Death Eater spy's in the Ministry had sent word to Voldemort. But Holly just didn't care. Granger and the two youngest Weasleys were trying to talk to her but Holly didn't acknowledge their words or say anything at all. When Granger had tentatively reached out a hand for Dorea, Holly had headbutted the girl and sent her crashing back onto the floor with a split lip. They hadn't tried to touch her child again.

The trio who had gone out for clothing returned and Holly stood, her head shaved and green eyes empty as she gently manoeuvred Dorea around from one arm to another whilst slipping into the plain black robes and cloak she had been given. Dorea herself was buttoned into a small onesie that initially the little girl didn't like, not used to the feeling of cloth on skin or not being in contact with her mother's skin. But she soon slipped into sleep, letting out a little burp from the feed she had been given before the rescue party's arrival.

STRANGERS HAVE ARRIVED AT MY SHORE. THEY SPEAK OF CLAIMING YOU AND THE CHILD FOR THE CARRION. Holly nodded, seemingly to herself but said nothing to those around her. She followed them as they hurried along the narrow corridors of Azkaban, past the inmates who screamed and moaned at the rescue party until they saw Holly and went deathly silent. Holly was privately glad that she didn't have to remind anyone of quite how terrible she could make their dreams if they disturbed her. The younger Weasleys, Granger and the Weasley matriarch stayed back as they reached the front gates of Azkaban. A host of thirty Death Eaters stood there, the bald head of the one leading them..Jugson..his name came to Holly's mind even as the half a dozen fighters in the rescue party formed a skirmish line with Dumbledore at its centre.

Holly closed her eyes, feeling the weight of her power. The connection with the Dream. As she opened her eyes, the battle had commenced. Stunners were flying from the fighters of the rescue party whilst bright green killing curses, yellow bone breakers and purple blood boiling hexes flew towards the rescue party. Blood trickled from the flagstones beneath the Death Eaters feet, slowly at first. It oozed from the cracks in the stone and pooled around their feet. Holly heard the first complaints, voices of young people joining Voldemort's service for the chance to spread mayhem, terror and slake their thirsts upon the muggle and Wizarding population. The veterans, those who had been Death Eaters in the last war and were accustomed to battle and the..'weird shit' magic could do adapted, trying to contain the blood that seeped from beneath the earth, but not worried about it yet. They outnumbered the rescue party five to one and all were eager to make use of the women in the rescue party, sure their Dark Lord would give them the chance at a revel to celebrate victory.

Then the blood started boiling and nightmares made flesh burst upwards. Emaciated beasts that resembled some nightmarish blend of wolf and man, patchy fur showing raw pink flesh underneath that lunged forward and clamped down on robed limbs with a snap of cracking bone, claws swiping wildly in front of them and turning Death Eaters into so much shredded meat. Far beyond what healing magic could fix. Fire breathing hounds, regal swordsman who danced through the Death Eaters panicked spells, huge blind hulking forms wielding oversized weapons that crushed and cleaved the Death Eaters. The spells that managed to strike the creatures seemed to slide off, with only the killing curse actually dropping the blood summons but even then more would rise to take their place. Barely half a dozen of the more experienced Death Eaters managed to splash into the freezing surf where the Azkaban wards ended and apparate away with sharp cracks of displacing air.

As they departed and the threat to herself and Dorea went with them, Holly let the blood beasts return to the Chalice Dungeons where they would prowl and wait for the next time the Huntress summoned them. Holly had spent night after night stalking those dungeons with Dorea in the care of The Plain Doll as she had killed and drank the blood of the beasts, guardians and inhabitants of the Chalice Dungeons, binding them to her with her magic, using knowledge granted by the Voice.

Holly blinked slowly again, it would be easy. Simply summon her beasts back and have them rend and slaughter and destroy the 'rescue party'. But no..Holly could admit to herself that she was vindictive and she wanted them to beg for her forgiveness and offer their excuses...try to bring her back so she could take their gifts and hopes and desires and then crush them under her heel. And she had Dorea to think about, if there was even the smallest chance that her daughter could come to harm, she could not risk it. not yet..besides...she had always enjoyed the sight of people on their knees.

The boat ride was uncomfortable as they crested waves, showers of spray washing over the bow of the boat and soaking those who stood in the front. Holly found herself in the middle of the group, with several people rotating in to try to talk to her, trying to apologise or make their justifications or just look at her with sad mournful eyes as in the case of the Werewolf and the Mutt. Holly held her head high, not responding to anything being said whilst her baby looked up at her with eyes that seemed to be memorising every line of her face, as if determined not to forget it if Holly should be forced to wear the mask once more.

The scrape of wood on wood alerted Holly from her partial meditation that they had arrived at the dock that serviced Azkaban. She didn't take any of the hands offered to her to help her out of the boat and simply stepped over the railing herself, her robes flashing around her bare legs, but modesty had long since vanished as a feeling felt by Holly potter after spending nearly a year naked and under the rotating scrutiny of the Azkaban guards. And finally, he spoke to her. The white beard and blue eyes, without their twinkle this time though, looked at Holly as he simply held out a piece of rope. "A portkey to take you to Headquarters, I will be along later and we can have words about what has happened to you. Please my girl, find it in your heart to forgive your friends and family for their mistakes."

Holly met Dumbledore's eyes and took the rope in her free hand, saying nothing and giving no acknowledgement to quite how ridiculous his statement had been. Forgive? Forgive the people who had testified against her..who had allowed the show trial...who had told her to 'keep her head down'? No. They would suffer and she would laugh as they did so. The familiar tug behind her navel took Holly and Dorea whizzing through the air until they landed on a dirty run down street in Islington, London.

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Holly gentle bounced Dorea in her arms as she looked at Number 12 Grimmauld Place, the attempt to hide the building behind a Fidelious was of course laughable considering she had looked into the true madness that lay behind the veneer of sanity the universe somehow kept in place. She idly wondered if somewhere in her journey she would encounter this world's version of the Bergenworth Spider and whether she would tear the fragile veil aside to let this world that had treated her so poorly see the true horrors of their uncaring universe.

Focusing her eyes through the shimmery effect that the Fidelious produced, Holly went up the steps and had her hand on the golden doorknocker and was banging it before a second portkey came spinning down out of the sky and deposited the younger Weasleys and Granger on the street. There must be a fairly large muggle focused Notice-Me-Not charm to avoid detection in central London, the door swung open to Holly's surprise and not wasting any time she walked into the house whilst cracks of apparition and more portkeys started coming down behind her as other members of the Rescue party started arriving.

The hallway was dark and ominous, the troll leg umbrella stand and the heads of house elves on the stairs leading up to the second floor seeming to drink in the shadow and hold it around themselves. No object in that hallways was bright or happy, and Holly Potter smiled. Blood trickled from her lips as the crude stitches tugged harshly and reopened the old wounds, the curtains covering Walburga Black nee Crabbe flew open but rather than the tirade of screaming and barbed insults the elegantly dressed woman in the portrait simply smiled and bowed to Holly. "Blood awakened....at last the Heir returns." Walburga's eyes went to Dorea and she sniffed. "Your servant Heir Black..but who is the other half of that child?"

Holly looked down at Dorea, her baby reaching up and rubbing a small hand over her chin, uncaring of the hot blood that dripped from her face. Then she raised one hand and drew letters in the air that looked like fire. 'Malfoy' then 'Nott' and finally 'Warrington'. Then she shrugged which Walburga seemed to accept. "No families of low birth..though it was not by your choice. You will raise the child a Black?" Holly heard the members of the rescue party entering the house behind her, with those already inside taken aback at how Walburga wasn't shrieking the house down and actually talking.

Holly drew in the air once more 'Potter-Black' then 'Will split any others between Houses'. Walburga bowed low to Holly and spoke softly. "May the House of Black protect you and your child to our last breath Heir Black." Holly nodded deeply to Walburga, not bowing but showing the appropriate respect to the former Matriarch.

Of course Holly could never be involved in a conversation which Granger and Weasley didn't think they could interject themselves into. Holly flinched away from the hand that came to rest on her arm from behind and backed up several steps, even now..even now touch by anyone but Dorea sent some part of her mind back to that classroom and that night. Granger's face looked hurt and Weasley had his usual constipated look whilst his bright red ears showed his real emotions, the rest of the adults seemed to be staying back for now as if imagining the two fifteen or sixteen year olds would really be the best people to speak to Holly. As she turned though, Granger raised her hands to her mouth in a gasp of shock. "Holly! Your face..your lips..you've got blood all over you face..let me help you..."

As Granger pulled her wand from her pocket and started advancing on Holly whilst she backed away down the hallway to the kitchen, a draw in one of the large wooden cabinets that lined the hallway erupted and slammed with bruising force into Granger's thigh, sending her toppling to the floor with a cry of pain. As Ron made to surge past Hermione and protect his girlfriend from the house itself, getting closer to Holly a strong hand fell on his wrist and Moody's scarred visage grimaced as he yanked Ron back. "Both of you, pull your heads out. You don't rush a cornered animal and after the way she's been treated, Potter's not much different. Waving a wand in her face isn't going to help. She's got no reason to trust any of you and I bloody read the court transcripts so I fucking know it."

Tears filled Hermione's eyes, Holly could see them glinting even as she reached for the handle of the kitchen door. "I just wanted to help her! I wasn't going to.." Moody shook his head harshly and met Granger's eyes with his normal brown eye whilst the electric blue magical eye was focused on Holly where she was slipping into the kitchen and closing the door firmly behind her.

"I know you think you were just going to help her Granger, think about this from Holly's point of view. She's been failed..badly, by everyone standing in this hallways and a lot of people not standing here right now. Give her time and space and maybe..just maybe she might recover enough to let you near here with a wand again." Moody looked harshly now at everyone crowded into the corridor and then at the door to the kitchen which was now shimmering with a magical ward. "Right now I think the only people who should be going near her are me and Snape. She knows us and more importantly neither of us spoke against her in trial."

There was a storm of protests at that, most loudly from Sirius, Molly and Remus but they were all silenced as Moody slammed his staff on the floor. "Shut it! Dumbledore has fucked off again to do who knows what so until he gets back what I say goes. Now go to bed, its late and some of us were fighting for our lives tonight before...well...before what happened." The casual mention of the slaughter that occurred on the shores of Azkaban certainly seemed to quiet the remaining members of the rescue party who dispersed under the cold eyes of Walburga Black.

Sirius paced back and forth, muttering to himself for several minutes about 'being a fool' and 'believing Dumbledore' and 'doubting Holly' before Lupin managed to pull the dark haired man away to the comforts of a bottle of fire whisky and their shared bed.

Meanwhile, Holly sat at the kitchen table and slowly unthreaded the iron thread from her lips. Blood trickled onto the table and Dorea giggled and pulled a the long ears of the House Elf Kreature who had sworn himself anew to the Heiress of House Black and rocked the baby in arms that no one outside the room would ever believe could have been this gentle.

Alistair Moody sat on a chair he had dragged into the hallway leading to the kitchen from the 'Tapestry room' and now chugged a wide-eye potion to keep himself active and aware. His magical eye had ceased being able to see into the Kitchen about an hour ago when apparently the House itself had cycled through enough kinds of wards to block his vision, he had at least seen that Holly seemed to be treating herself as best she could with limited supplies whilst the bloody House Elf...Kreature?..rocked the little baby. As far as Moody was concerned, if the girl wanted space and also denied the rest of the Order food that was her right. He'd seen how the girl's ribs stretched the flesh of her torso and frankly he thought it was a miracle she'd even been able to keep producing enough milk to keep Dorea alive considering how little the bastards were feeding her. His other senses were attuned to Grimmauld Place itself, the house seemed to have..'come alive' was a poor term but frankly it was the best one he had at the moment. Moody felt himself being watched by Portraits as the magic soaked into the Houses every stone and timber whispered. If he ever got some free time, Moody mused that he would have to look into the whole 'blood awakened' proclamation from the batty bint in the main portrait. Of course he could just ask but something about that rankled Moody's investigative pride.

Then he heard it, the soft pop that only one Wizard he had heard apparate was able to make. An indication of exactly how practised Dumbledore was that he could put just enough power into apparating without any excess energy going off as noise. Dumbledore's half moon spectacles glimmered in the soft light of the house and the building itself seemed to groan as if a predator was coming to life and preparing to devour those inside it, the old wizard looking around in alarm with a hand on his wand before Moody coughed. Dumbledore had changed, but the smell of blood and salt and Azkaban's stink had sunk as much into the spirit as the body and Moody could still almost taste the blood on the air as the Death Eaters had been butchered.

Dumbledore looked over his glasses at Moody. "Recruitment efforts for filling the Potion Professor slot this year were successful, now..how is Holly?"

Moody grunts and shook his head. "That's Miss Potter-Black to you Albus. You lost any goodwill with Potter that let you ignore her titles when you sent her to Azkaban. I haven't even talked to the girl yet but I'm telling you now..if you go in there and try to act like the kindly grandfather who just made a mistake I'd be surprised if the House doesn't eat you. And between you and a House that has had the Black family powering it for several hundred year's I'd rather be in Wales than be near that confrontation."

Dumbledroe nodded and stroked his beard, his face becoming pensive. "I see...well my question stands? How is she?"

"Half feral, bleeding. Her mouth stitched shut and blind in one eye..mostly starved and that's not even going into the sexual assault she experienced before you had her thrown in Azkaban!" Moody had risen from his chair and with his growing anger came a darkness that seemed to leak from the house itself and feed into his magic, a wellspring of power that could only be used as long as he stood for one of the House of Black.

"I confess, I did rather miscalculate in this instance. I truly did not believe young Draco or Mr Nott would.." He was interrupted by the crack of thunder that rang out from where Moody had slammed his staff on the ground.

"You and your bloody ideals Albus. The evidence was right there, anyone could have seen it if they had fucking looked at it objectively rather than either with pockets filled with gold by the Dark Families or your 'redemption' mindset. Those boys raped that girl and frankly that they died of broken necks was a quicker death than I would have wanted to give them if I'd have got to them before the Aurors. AND that's not even counting Umbridge! What the devil were you thinking letting her use a blood quill on your students! Let alone setting Potter up to be attacked like that!"

Dumbledore's eyes were duller than Moody had ever seen them as he could not longer meet his gaze. "Holly is fragile, I understand that but I must.."

"Fragile!? What world do you live in Albus..she is exactly what you made her the moment you disallowed Veritaserum at her trial. If we have a new Dark Lady on our hands I won't be standing in her way that's for sure, getting rid of Voldemort is my last campaign. Any more Dark Lords and Lady's you make with your 'give them a chance to redeem themselves' for the shit stains, rapists and murderers can have free reign as far as I am concerned." Moody stepped close to Dumbledore and gripped the front of his robe tightly, forcing the old man to look at him. "She was sixteen Albus. And you threw her in Azkaban for defending herself. Fuck right off and give the girl her peace. If..and big if there..she wants to talk to you I'll reach out. But until then you keep the fuck away from Holly and Dorea Potter."

Albus Dumbledore was a powerful wizard, but in that narrow hallway facing an Alistair Moody bristling with the wellspring of power granted by Grimmauld place he knew when he was beaten. Inclining his head, Dumbledore doffed his hat to Moody and dissaperated with the faintest of pops.

At the other end of several pairs of extendable ears, Hermione Granger and Ronald Weasley looked at each other and for the first time comprehended the full scale of their betrayel.

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As the dark of night crept across the British Isles, nightmares found their way into the minds of many the length and breadth of the country. Ordinary dreams were twisted and deformed by the power of The Huntress and from its prison beneath Azkaban the Voice grinned, or it would if its mouths were not permanently locked open in endless screams of horror.

Remus Lupin finds himself in a forest alive with eyes, he stands in Moony's form..the name given to his 'furry little problem'. But he understands on a soul deep level that in this forest he is not the predator, he is the prey and poor prey at that for those who desire the thrill of the hunt. The trees are hollow and filled with eyes that watch him as he runs, his own vision distorting as he breaks out into a clearing and sees her there standing in the light of a blood red moon. Remus feels his body overtaken by the changes, a wracking cough that causes him to spit ashen blood from his mouth as his vision blurs and Moony presses closer to him, the Beast's claws sinking the the soft meat of his brain. Holly Potter looks at Remus lupin and tuts in disappointment, making a gesture with one hand. And then red eyes lit up the gloom at the edge of the clearing and the beasts advance, ready to tear the Werewolf limb from limb and shred the remains into pulp.

Peter Pettigrew is trapped in a maze in his own Animagus form, he doesn't have room to shift back into his human form and even if he could his mind is filled with terror. Something is coming for him..he knows it..the fear..the fear that he feels claws at his heart and soul sending his blood pumping as the rat runs from the unknown death that comes. Then rats spill from the walls, bulbous eyes that are distorted, jaws dripping with poison and flesh that has rubbed away to reveal muscle and bone and sinew beneath. And Peter realises that these rats are what he is running from. A human sounding sob emerges from his throat as he runs...and runs...and runs but always the other rats are just around the corner. And they will never stop coming, but to stop and face them would require courage that Peter Pettigrew does not possess.

Ronald Weasley stands in the middle of the burning Burrow, fire licking up the walls and across the ceiling. Choking smoke and ash filling his lungs as the pictures on the walls go up in flames and the hands on the magical clock spin wildly with a clackity-clack sound that could almost be laughter. Then Ron sees Holly, sat drinking tea on the comfortable sofa and he screams, trying to call to her but chokes. Liquid gold oozes from his mouth and splatters on his hand, more gold dribbles from his mouth and agonising pain burns in his ears and eyes and nose and when Ron opens his burning eyes he can see liquid gold trickling from his tear ducts, ears and nose. Ronald Weasley screams as the roof of the burrow collapses but somehow he find himself untouched, looking up at the sky stained with smoke and ash of his burning home he sees the towering shadow with its bag of gold, offering the gold to Ron. More liquid gold spills from his mouth as he tries to choke apologies..protests...denials to Holly where she sits drinking tea.

Lucius Malfoy walks in the silence of Malfoy Manor. The Manor is silent and still, no Death Eaters..no wife...no son. Every living thing within the Manor has gone..not left or dead but just stopped being. Candlesticks burn with a soft blue flame that barely illuminates the corridors and rooms Lucius walks through, his cane tapping the cold dead marble. He enters the living room, not the forward facing one but the family room where their masks cracked and for long years they could simply be Lucius, Draco and Cissy. For a moment Lucius dared to hope as he saw a head of platinum hair poking over the chair facing towards the fire, but that hope died as the chair turned and he saw it was Draco as he last saw him. Neck broken, eyes dull and glazed over. Lightning flashed outside and threw a flickering shadow on the wall of a body hanging by the neck, Narcissa's fine shoes pointed towards the floor as she dangled. Lucius fell to his knees and wept.

Hermione walked down an isle of a huge library. She was looking for something..something that would let her help Holly. For surely the answers must be in a book somewhere..surely the written word would not desert her now when she needed it most. Hesitantly reaching out for a book, the moment her fingers touched the cover ink jetted from the book and struck Hermione in the face with the power of a pressure washer. The spray sent Hermione careering back into the shelf of books on the other side of the isle and each one she touched sprayed their own ink on her at great pressure. The force sent her collapsing to the floor in the puddle of ink, she clawed and scrabbled to stand up and started running. A young woman who looked like Holly passed by at the end of the isle and then out of sight, Hermione called out but no sound came from her throat and so she ran. But as she did, books started falling on her from above and spilling their ink over her. The floor was now inches deep in ink and it was getting harder to run, the isle seeming to lengthen the more she ran and the more books would fly from the shelves and strike her body with force that left bruises. The ink was rising and soon enough it was spilling into her mouth, words whispering...she wasn't sure what but soon Hermione was screaming on the exhale as she tried to block the words out and on the inhale taking in ink.

Dolores Umbridge sat in her perfect pink office and admired her cat plates on the wall, her tea was the perfect syrupy sweetness she took it as and her life was quite satisfactory. And then the cat plates began to pur louder...too loudly. Umbridge frowned at the sudden increase in noise but as she looked towards the plates they began to hiss and then scream. The pretty faces of her cute cats started to rot, flesh and fur melting away to reveal the faces of the children she had forced to write with a Blood Quill in her office. The tea in her cup turned thick and black as tar, but she couldn't stop drinking it and raised the trembling cup to her lips to take another sip. The tar like substance creeping down her throat as the cats with the faces of children slinked out of the cat plates and now stalking towards her with bared teeth. Voices..a dozen..a hundred..whispered "I must not tell lies.." as the first of the cats reached her hand and started to gnaw with small child sized teeth. Umbridge screamed and screamed and screamed.

Minerva McGonagall found herself running through a Hogwarts in ruins, the cries of every child who had ever asked her for help in her ears as she tried to find them. She sought the echoes and whispers and ghosts of the dead and gone, those she had failed as she had failed Holly Potter. How many times had she wanted to step in but the words of an old spider at the centre of his web stopped her? Ignoring Holly in her first year when she came to her about the Philosophers stone, making no statement in her second year when the Heir of Slytherin debacle came about and keeping so much from Holly in her third year about Sirius Black. But in her fourth year..she had stood aside and watched as Gryffindor ostracised Holly and regularly hexed her in the corridors, sending the poor girl to the Hospital wing how many times..but Albus had said it was needed to harden the girl. And then in her fifth year when Holly had come to her and told her first about the blood quill and then the...the advances made by Draco Malfoy and Theodore Nott with the approval of Dolores Umbridge. And all McGonagall could say was to 'keep your head down' when Holly was being targeted. She reached the great hall and found herself facing a hall of the dead, skeletons and rotten corpses sat alongside each other as they ate a feast of bones. Evidence remained on their bodies...broken bones...suicide marks of hanging..deep cuts in the bones that indicated self harm...how many years had she ignored the pain of her students? How many years since being the Head of Gryffindor House had ceased to have any real meaning. At the top of the hall sat Holly Potter, the girl raising a goblet in McGonagall's direction. "A feast in your honour professor...why don't you enjoy the feast?"

Tom Marvolo Riddle found himself granted his greatest wish. Life eternal...and came to understand his folly, for with life eternal came suffering eternal. An endless life can swift become an endless torture as he watched his body rot and decay but the soul lingered, a skeleton bound together by magic and will. But he had no vocal cords to produce spells, his fingers not dexterous enough to wield his wand. He tried to destroy his Horcruxes to let himself pass on as years came and went and Magic died. He weakened, unable to keep his body together as his magic became too weak to sustain the animating magic. He could only watch...watch as life passed him by...watch as humanities great civilisations rose and fell and rose again. And then as the sun consumed the half buried skull of Tom Marvolo Riddle, a mind driven mad by boredom and hopelessness years ago finally came to an end.

Albus Dumbledore found himself walking through Hogwarts, students beyond count flocked through its halls..twice or thrice the number that had ever walked its halls in his time as Headmaster. He was at first a little confused as his smiles and twinkling eyes went unremarked on. And then he tired to get the attention of one of the students, a black haired boy with bright green eyes who laughed aloud and walked beside a redheaded girl and a plump blonde boy. And they ignored him. He reached out and his hand passed through the children. And Albus Dumbledore realised...he was alone. He could do nought but watch, an observer as life continued no longer bound to his will. His legacy gone, a footnote...a name of a Headmaster who might have beaten a dark wizard decades ago but even that had doubt thrown on it. His name spoken of with the same irreverence as was given to Armando Dippet.

The dreamers awoke in a cold sweat at the Witching Hour, memories of their dreams imprinted on their souls and memories and a dread coiling in their guts at the thought that the next night they would have to go to sleep again and new torments would find their way into their nightmares.

Holly was feeding Dorea the next morning after the most restful night she had in months. Asleep at the kitchen table in a plain wooden chair with her head pillowed on her arms whilst Dorea slept in a cot of ebony wood that Kreature had retrieved from somewhere and cleaned up in moments. The House Elf popping out to Diagon Alley and buying blankets, toys, clothes and food fit for a baby who would need to be weaned off milk soon with an efficiency no one who knew Kreature would have believed. The Elf had even cleaned himself and brushed his hair so as to not 'dirty' his young Mistress when he rocked her.

The newspaper Kreature returned with had apparently been plucked from Granger's hands before she could even get a good look at the front cover and deposited in front of Holly. Taking a deep breath, Holly opened the paper and began to read.

Conviction Overturned: Girl-Who-Lived freed of Azkaban, shocking truths exposed!

By Rita Skeeter

It is with trembling hands that I, Rita Skeeter, reporter of the hidden truths and exposer of lies write this article today to inform the British Wizarding World of the grave mistake made not just by the Ministry of Magic, but also the many friends and family of Holly Potter, the Girl-Who-Lived who lined up at the poor child's trial to speak about how she had been withdrawn, sullen and possibly 'going dark'. So of course after this barrage of testimony from those believed closest to young Miss Potter when the charges of murder of two Heirs of Noble Houses were raised is it truly any surprise that Holly Potter was convicted in a stunning display of unity from the normally opposed Light and Dark blocs in the Wizengemot?

From what this reporter has been able to gather, Neville Longbottom, an acquaintance but not a friend of Holly Potter has been digging into the matter in the ten months since the young woman's imprisonment. Young Heir Longbottom's big break came when he was attacked by several members of the resurgent Terrorist faction known as the Death Eaters. These members were young and not highly trained but Heir Longbottom was able to defeat three of them in a duel and then using a hidden supply of the truth serum Veritaserum was able to obtain a confession from one Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle. Who had both been in the room when plans were made by Hogwarts High Inquisitor Dolores Umbridge as well as Draco Malfoy and Theodore Nott to sexually assault Heiress Potter and get a child on her. The plan then went that with Heir Potter pregnant, pressure would be applied in the Wizengemot to have Heir Potter subdued and married to one of the boys who would be the father and thus gain control over Heiress Potter by a marriage contract with unfavourable terms for the new bride.

This revelation as well as memories removed from Mr Crabbe and Goyle gave the Director of the DMLE reason to this morning arrest Dolores Umbridge and extract a confession by Veritaserum that she had indeed set up the situation, which turned Heiress Potter's actions from murder to justified self defence. From what this reporter has understood, even before extracting memories from Dolores Umbridge the confession by the Crabbe and Goyle boys had cast enough doubt on the story for Madam Bones to send a group of 'concerned individuals' to Azkaban to remove Holly Potter from the prison.

This reporter for one hopes that Heiress Potter's time in Azkaban has not hurt her too badly and that she can find it in her heart to forgive the British Public who have once again turned against her. Please Heiress Potter, save us from You-Know-Who, we beg it of you.

Rita Skeeter

Chapter Text

Holly read the article for a second time, the picture they had used was of Azkaban's forbidding face with the pile of Death Eater bodies...cracked masks and hacked apart limbs strewn over the stony shore of the beach. "Forgiveness? Begging me to save them...no..no I don't think I will. Kreature!" The House elf had just set a plate of buttered toast and eggs on the table, food to quickly build up a body that had been long starved whilst a small jar of baby food was being spooned into Dorea's mouth by a floating spoon animated by a few flicks of Kreature's fingers.

"Mistress? How can Kreature serve?" The old House elf bowed low, then scowled moments before someone was knocking on the door of the kitchen. Another flick of the House elves fingers had a silencing ward placed over the door so the knocking and calling would no longer disturb them.

"Fetch a proper cloak, not these rags and prepare a bedroom on the third floor for myself and Dorea. Then I want you to pack up all the books in the black library and move them to the attic and place a notice-me-not on them, denying Granger books is just one of the punishemnts I have planned for the traitorous bint." Kreature bowed and popped away, returning several minutes later as Holly finished her toast and eggs. Her stomach felt uncomfortably full but her mind was already moving, she needed information she had a few people to..visit..first. Those who had the clearest view of what had happened and yet had done nothing to help her.

After she had dressed in a fine black cloak and a long tunic with leggings, silver thread forming swirling runes at the hems and wrists Holly also had Kreature fetch an eyepatch that she stuck in place with a wandless sticking charm. Then she followed the trail that the Nightmares she had sent out had left, sinking into a bubbling pool of blood in the middle of the kitchen floor that followed after her leaving the stones of the kitchen floor smooth and pristine. Within that kitchen, a nasty grin spread across Kreature's face as he fed Dorea, scooping up the food that dribbled from the child's mouth and continuing to offer it with a patience rarely seen before now in the House of Black.

Poppy Pomfrey was looking at the front page of the Daily Prophet in horror as Holly Potter rose into view in the large mirror that hung above the fireplace in her sitting room. The older woman, a Medi-Witch for more years than anyone cared to count, was used to the unusual cases that came by from working in a school like Hogwarts. But in her own home she prided herself on keeping things neat and orderly, so the pool of blood that had manifested on her floor and the young woman who rose from it dressed in fine clothing with an eyepatch that covered one of her eye sockets, was enough to entirely throw her off.

If Poppy Pomfrey had been thinking straight she would have snatched up her wand and disapperated or at least cast a Patronus and sent it to Dumbledore begging for his help. Instead she snatched up her wand and pointed it at Holly, her voice quavering and stuttering. "Miss Potter...what..what..how...how did you get into my home!?"

Holly just snorted and in the space of an eyeblink, Poppy's hand dropped to the floor, severed from her wrist by the pale armoured figure with a dancer's build stood with its blade pressed against her throat. "Hello Matron...had a good summer so far? I can't say mine was very pleasant...something about there being...what was it..." Holly stepped forward and the blood that had pooled on the floor was drawn up and..into..her. Her eyes merciless as the blade held in the creature's hand just nicked Poppy's throat and a bead of blood welled up and slowly slid down her neck. "..ah yes...'no physical evidence of sexual assault'."

The blade pressed a little deeper against Poppy's neck as she swallowed convulsively, her eyes darting one way and the other. Tears flowing down her cheeks as her blood gushed from the stump of her wrist..but she couldn't move. She couldn't scream. She could feel her magic just out of reach, her nightmares starting to intrude on her waking vision as the shadows of her warmly lit home seemed to deepen and advance, sliding across the floor towards her. "I..I was told...I had to..I had to...he threatened me...he said he would..would do horrible things to me if I didn't write that report..."

"Who?" Holly pressed closer now, the pale armoured figures blade remained poised directly at Poppy's throat without any tremble in its arms as the Medi-Witch's eyes overflowed with tears.

"I don't know..I don't honestly...I just..I knew I had to..had to or I would suffer..." Poppy gasped as Holly Potter's hand gripped her chin and forced her to meet Holly's eyes. The blur of pain in her head and the trickle of blood oozing from her nose were sure signs that a powerful but uncaring Legilimens was rooting through her memory without a care for the damage they were doing to Poppy's mind.

"You are a disgrace, I don't know whether to kill you now or leave you alive to suffer...on the other hand...I have a friend who could do with a able bodied assistant, albeit minus one hand." Poppy Pomfrey gasped weakly in relief as Holly's words penetrated her mind, she was going to live! Then she started to sink and as the red started to creep up her legs to her waist and then continuing up she started to panic and choke as the blood filled her mouth and covered her face. Holly looked at the pool of blood that had swallowed the School nurse who had betrayed her. "Give the Chapel Dweller my regards.." With a casual gesture, a Molotov cocktail arced through the air and crashed against one of the walls of the house, Holly Potter sinking into the pool of blood once more to pay a personal visit to the Dursleys.

Holly stepped out of the pool of blood in front of Grimmauld Place and strolled inside, her fine clothing cleaned of the blood and other body fluids that had splattered just everywhere as she paid the Dursleys back for every single bruise, insult or meal missed. The door to Grimmauld Place opened for Holly before she even touched the handle and she found herself meeting the eyes of Granger and the two youngest Weasleys who had their ears pressed to the door to the kitchen, hoping to listen in. As her feet met the entrance hall, the curtains over Walburga's portrait flew open and the woman bowed to Holly.

"Heiress Potter-Black, Kreature has completed the task you set for him and your room is ready. He moved up to the room witho your child when Dumbledore started trying to breach the door to the kitchen. The fools were falling over themselves when they realised neither you nor Dorea were in the kitchen." Holly let a thin smile slip onto her lips and inclined her head to Walburga.

"Thank you Walburga, I will deal with the fools in due course. Your tireless watch is appreciated." Walburga inclined her head in another bow to the Heir and the curtains either side of her portrait covered the portrait over again as she settled in to rest and absorb the ambient magic of the House that had been strained by spreading the portrait's consciousness into the wards themselves. Holly ignored the questions and whatever other tripe Granger and the Weasleys were saying as they hurried down the hallways towards her, Ron's red face telling her that he was probably angry at holly for 'rubbing her wealth in his face' by wearing clothing that was not rags and Granger was probably going to throw a strop over not being allowed to plunder the knowledge of the House of Black any more.

Holly pressed a hand against the Kitchen door and like flexing a muscle, broke the locking and anti-eavesdropping charms that had been laid on the door. This was after all, her home as much as Sirius's as Heir. The door swung inwards and as a multitude of shocked faces turned towards Holly she simply took the empty chair that had been set beside Moody with a brooding Snape lurking on the other side of it so anyone trying to sit at Holly's other side would have the dour Potion Master looming over them.

The harpy was of course the first to recover, a seeming inability to keep her mouth shut running in that side of her family. "Holly! What are you doing? This is an Order meeting not a.."

"Not a tea party? Colour me surprised, only two people here look like they even vaguely competent at their jobs in this room and believe me, you are not one of them Molly." The disrespect in Holly's tone seemed to hit Molly Weasley as hard as if Holly had actually slapped her across the face.

"You..this is..how dare you!" Holly made a show of yawning, looking at her non-existent watch which had been confiscated and auctioned off like all her other personal possessions for the profits to be given to the 'poor grieving families' of Malfoy and Nott. But Molly wasn't done. "You can start by going to see Ron and Hermione, you are far too young.."

And that was what pushed Holly over the edge, in a second she was on her feet and a great slap of flesh on flesh rang through the room as Molly Weasley was sent crashing to the floor with the imprint of Holly's backhand flaring up red on her cheek. "Too young am I?" Holly was practically whispering but almost everyone in the room apart from Dumbledore, Moody and Snape seemed to lean in closer. "Hilarious...I was old enough to face Voldemort three times..I was old enough to be raped...I was old enough for the slander and certainly old enough for the accusations of being a slut. And then..with all your help..." Holly swept her eyes over the whole room, eyes lingering on the women in the room "..I was old enough to go to Azkaban and give birth alone whilst I shrieked in pain. I had to bite through Dorea's cord with my own teeth...so the next person who says I am 'too young' will get more than a backhand."

Holly sat down, crossing one leg over the other and looked at a point over Dumbledore's shoulder. "Now get on with the meeting before I decide to expel you all for being a useless social club for the old fossil."

"Holly.." Dumbledore started but stopped when he felt the entire kitchen and by extension the house itself creak in unison as if preparing to collapse entirely on the Headmaster's head. Moody surged to his feet and met Dumbledore's eye with his own brown eye whilst the blue one continued to whizz about all over. The tense stand off between Moody and Dumbledore seemed to stretch longer than it was before Dumbledore nodded once and folded his hands in front of himself whilst Moody slumped back in his own seat. The silence that followed felt heavy and under it Dumbledore looked every one of his years.

Holly idly listened as reports were given from Dumbledore's various agents and she gleaned the important information. Malfoy Manor seemed to be the centre of operations for the Death Eaters, hooded figures had been spotted on Azkaban island seeming to be communicating with Dementors and according to Snape's report the Death Eaters who had come back from the slaughter at Azkaban had been so traumatised that they had not been able to tell Voldemort anything solid about what had attacked them and so Voldemort was assuming for the moment that Moody had done some kind of siege spell to kill so many of his followers and leave them cut apart and broken on the shore.

As one of the women, Vance, maybe? Gave a long droning report about the Death Eaters infiltration of the Department for Magical Transportation, a Patronus flew into the room and came to a stop in front of Moody. The silvery bloodhound spoke in a voice that Holly faintly recognised from her trial, one voice calling for the trial to be slowed down and proper procedures to be followed. "Alistair, Death Eaters are attacking Bones Manor! Susan is here, I'm not sure how long we can hold out. Help us please!"

The room had gone silent as almost everyone turned to look at Dumbledore who was stroking his long beard and frowning. "I am unsure if it would be wise to commit our forces to.."

Holly shook her head, grabbed Moody by the arm and dragged the older man into the hallway. She was still weak and emaciated from Azkaban so the older man had to move with her but he seemed to be willing. "Professor, I'm going to help Bones. I know Susan, she's...well she's been pretty miserable to me but I know what Death Eater would do to her and her aunt if they capture them."

Moody grunted and nodded, his brow furrowing. "I'll come Potter, we need to get outside the house and then I can apparate us as close as we can. It's going to be a journey to get to Bones Manor even then, can you keep up?" Moody was rapidly drawing power into himself as he prepared for combat when Holly grabbed hold of his arm and the two of them seemed to start sinking down into a pool of blood. Moody barely had time to cuss in surprise before the blood swallowed them both up.

Chapter Text

Susan whimpered as yet another spell smashed against the hastily transfigured bookcase her Auntie Amelia had laid across the door to her office and transfigured into granite to give her a barricade to fire spells from down the corridor towards the Death Eaters advancing by fire and movement. She hid in the corner behind her Aunt's desk, wand clutched in a clammy hand as Auntie cussed when another spell smashed into the barricade and sent a fragment of granite flying off the barricade and embedding into her leg.

A voice came from down the corridor, one she recognised from Hogwarts, the slow slurred words of Vincent Crabbe. "Don't blow the bitches to pieces, I want a piece of the girl...wouldn't mind a crack at the old woman too actually." Another spell came whistling down the corridor in response to the cutting curse Amelia had quickly popped up and cast at the source of the voice currently hiding in one of the doorways that led down the central corridor towards the office. Susan could see her Aunt was flagging, Amelia had initially tried to hold the entrance hall of the Manor but numbers had eventually counted against her and without being able to put the Death Eaters down permanently they were able to be revived, healed and sent back in to join the assault.

Something had cut off the floo network, portkeys and apparition and even the emergency signal from Amelia's Auror badge that should have had a response team coming to the Manor within minutes. It had now been twenty three minutes of fighting for every inch of ground in the hope that someone would see the flashing lights or receive one of the increasingly desperate communications via Patronus Amelia was sending out.

"Merlin's beard this is fucked!" Susan gaped a little at actually hearing her Auntie cursing to herself as Amelia rose up and fired a powerful blasting hex into the first doorframe that still had a masked Death Eater lurking in it which caused a bloom of heat and dust to swirl up and the hallway now echoed with cries of pain as a Death Eater flailed on the floor with half of one of his legs missing below the knee. The volume of spells incoming now seemed to increase, the green of the killing curse joining the yellow of bone breakers and banishers and blasting hexes.

The granite bookcase was starting to glow from heat, cracks lit up like lines of fire moments before the bookcase exploded and Amelia flung herself away from the former barricade to land atop Susan and try to shield her with her own body, clad as it is in a duelling robe that could at least take the sting out of low to medium sized spells. The pieces of hot granite pelted her back and Susan felt some of the hot stone pierce her foot. She felt hot blood beneath her and as she reached down..she couldn't feel her body being pierced anywhere by the stone. Where was the blood coming from?

Thumping feet came from down the corridor, the Death Eaters having lost their fear now the barricade was gone and rushing forward to try to subdue the Bones women before they could start casting spells. Susan twisted around and saw the first Death Eater enter the room, stocky with his bone white skull mask covering the upper half of his face whilst an ugly leer marred the bottom half. Susan tried to roll over, but looking at Amelia almost gave Susan a heart attack, her Auntie was very pale and was lolling. unconcious..please gods only be unconscious! Susan screamed in her head, her voice frozen as the short Death Eater took a step towards her with his wand pointed at her.

Then there was a roar of sound and Susan saw the moment one of the man's crooked front teeth was hit by a small black iron ball that shattered the tooth and kept going, the back of the man's head exploding out in a spray of blood, bones and brain. She whipped her head around to where the..the whatever it was had come from and saw a sight she would never forget. Her Godfather, Alistair Moody stood with his staff clenched in his hand and a shimmering shield of blue wavy energy surrounding him and a slight figure dressed in dark robes and a long cloak.

The second figure's face was mostly obscured by a hood, but Susan saw the feminine jaw and very briefly the flash of light from one eye, the other socket dark and with no light reflected from it. In the other figures hands was a wand and a black metal tube that had some kind of wooden handle at the end. The Death Eater fell into formation, the three in front raising shields whilst the ones behind prepared to fire spells over their shoulders at the two intruders. But the slighter figure simply laughed lightly and spoke in a voice that made Susan jerk with recognition. "Shields..cute. Let's see how they far against the Bone Marrow Ash of Hemwick Charnel Lane."

Whilst Susan and the Death Eaters were still trying to figure out exactly what that combination of words meant, the slight figure..the one who's voice was..was very familiar to Susan but she could just not quite place it raised a thumb and pulled some kind of lever back on the metal tube and then the tube exploded and a small ball pierced the shield of one of the lead Death Eaters as if it did not exist. The Death Eaters were firing spells now but everything apart from the green of the killing curse was simply absorbed into Moody's shield like an immovable mountain that weathered all tides.

The smaller figure was drawing back the lever on their weapon and then causing that small explosion over and over and with each 'shot' another Death Eater slumped dead with a hole between their eyes. Susan watched from the floor horrified as blood soaked into her Aunt's carpet from the piling up dead bodies..a dozen now dead as yet another killing curse sailed towards the pair and seemed to vanish just before it reached Moody's shield. The figure glanced at Moody as the Death Eaters broke and ran. "See to Bones..I'm going to go hunting Professor."

A slight grunt was all the figure received before Moody was hurrying over to Amelia and Susan on the floor and starting to cast stasis charms on Amelia to stop the blood from flowing from her wounds at least temporarily, until she could be gotten to St Mungo's at least. Susan could not tear her eyes away from the other figure as a young woman removed her hood and tilted her head back, a shaved head and a badly broken nose...an eyepatch covering one socket and obvious wounds in her upper and lower lip from where something had been pushed through the flesh. Holly Potter.

Susan was suddenly very glad that Potter didn't even seem to register her presence as the metal tube was stowed away somewhere in the other girls robes and she drew a small bell that she rang once, then twice and thrice gently. Blood spreading out from beneath her feet as monsters rose from the blood. Feral wolves with peeling fur and skin..too thin men and women clad in armour with long wavy blades and a roiling coiling mass of snakes that moved as one creature. Potter simply thrust her hand forward towards where the Death Eaters were regathering to come at the four of them again and the creatures that had risen from the blood surged forward in a wave of rolling death.

Potter went with them, charging amid the swarm with a wand in one hand and now the bell swapped for a long curved blade that glowed with runes of green light that shone with every swing. They were soon out of Susan's sight but the sounds...the sounds would haunt Susan Bones to her dying day. Choked sobs, wet gurgles..pleas for mercy silenced by the thud of blades or the snapping of tearing flesh and cartilage. A arm gently encircled her shoulders and Susan found herself pulled into a rough hug by her Godfather, Moody's robe smelled faintly of blood and smoke but they were scents Susan was more than accustomed too from her Godfather.

"What...I..that was Potter..." Susan looked up into Moody's face and saw that his ordinary brown eye was focused on her whilst the bright blue eye was whizzing this way and that following the progress of the battle raging in the rest of the Manor. "I don't know why she came. I..Hannah and I have been pretty nasty ever since our second year...when we...when we found herself cutting herself we made sure everyone knew about it by lunch in our second year and..and.." Susan felt more tears flow down her cheek as her Godfather's face became stern.

"Holly Potter has been through things she should never had had to, so you are going to apologise Susie. Not today...hell certainly not today..but when you go back to school. If and its a big if..Potter goes back you are to remember that without her you and Amelia would be a Death Eater plaything right now." Susan found herself nodding her head and mumbling over and over that she would as she buried her face in Moody's robes again, trying to block out the few whimpering screams that still rang through the house, being silenced one by one.

The voice. Recognisable as Potter's now she had placed it came from the doorway as Susan sobbed. "I'll be heading back to Grimmauld Professor, taking the bodies that died to blades and shot with me or there would be all too many questions. But there are more than a few that look like they died to spellfire, I'm sure you can come up with a story that works. I was never here though..." Susan managed to tear her eyes away from Moody's robe for just a few moments, long enough to see Potter sinking into a pool of blood. "Oh..and I am coming for everyone who betrayed me Moody. I really hope you don't plan on trying to stand in my way..I'm done with forgiveness...an eye for an eye and all that."

Holly Potter finished sinking into the pool of blood and suddenly Bones Manor seemed almost eerily quiet. Moody looking at the patch of floor where Holly had vanished from seemed to be contemplating to himself for several long minutes before he shook his head. "Fuck them, this was my last campaign..."

Chapter Text

The one downside to having layered so many wards over the third floor of Grimmauld Place, Holly decided as she stepped out of the pool of blood that had forced itself through the cracks in the wooden floor and pooled, was that she could not just transport herself straight into her room and avoid everyone in Grimmauld Place except for when she wanted to. So as she stepped out of the blood, the shadow moved at the edge of her vision and Holly had a blade in hand and pressed to the throat of Kingsley Shacklebolt before the dark skinned man could even raise his wand above waist height. Holly wasn't looking at him but instead taking in the Wards information and deciding whether to have the Wards cast out, cripple or kill the other members of the order of the Phoenix laying in wait for her around the house. "Give me a good reason why I shouldn't cut your throat Shacklebolt?"

A crash from upstairs sounded loud on the air as Nymphadora Tonks, the pink haired Auror came crashing head over heels down the stairs after a cupboard door had slammed open into her just as she was taking the first step down the stairs in her hurry to support Kingsley. Tonks was laying dazed on the floor with one arm bent the wrong way and a deep cut in her forehead as Holly simply raised her eyebrows at him. "Miss Potter...Holly, you are not that type of person. This..whatever has happened to you..something must be possessing you. None of what you have done is how you should be acting."

Holly shook her head and dug the blade deeper into Kingley's neck. "Did you 'Saint' Dumbledore tell you that? Well fuck him..and fuck you. Also I sure hope you have another job lined up, I'm sure Moody has already told Bones that you and Tonks here sat there and did nothing when her Patronus came in..if you don't..well that's your problem then isn't it." As Tonks started to stir and stagger to her feet, the pink haired Auror let out a yelp and fumbled for her wand to point it at Holly but by the time she had managed to do so, Holly already had her pistol pointed at Tonks.

"As for you, I'd suggest fucking right off now and maybe I'll still take your mom and dad back into the House of Black. If you decide not to? Well then I'll blow your knee apart and believe me, you won't' be able to magically heal from one of these bullets. Quicksilver cut with my own blood and ash from the best bone marrow you can find, You'll be lucky to keep the leg." It was the absence of emotion in Holly's voice that made both trained Aurors take Holly's words seriously. They had both been told that Holly needed to be 'contained' by Dumbledore whilst Moody was away and that a surprise attack would let them get rid of whatever fell thing was influencing her.

Kingsley throwing himself backwards as Tonks dived to one side with both their wands coming up with the intention to blast the entire area Holly was standing in with overpowered stunning spells. They were fast, incredibly so for what were simply well trained Humans and in another life Holly Potter would have been put down on the floor. But neither Shacklebolt or Tonks had faced and bested the Hunters of the Dream. Rather than taking Kingley's throat she took the three fingers of his wand hand, then flicked the blade up and casually carved away the older Auror's bottom lip and nose. Her pistol spat smoke and death as rather than going for the knee as she had been planning, Holly decided to be more than a little bit vindictive and shattered Tonks pelvis with a well placed bullet.

Then she moved from her position, stepping sharply to the left she rammed the full weight of her body into Kingsley's solar plexus and sent him staggering whilst driving her blade through his upper thigh and effectively pinning him to the chair that Moody had used to guard the kitchen the night before. With a twirl that was entirely unnecessary but Holly wanted to, she span once and had her pistol pointed at Tonks when smoke belched again and the young woman's wand hand disintegrated, her wand being blown to pieces with it.

The screams, gunshot and bellows of agony had drawn more than a little bit of attention and Holly soon found herself facing the pointed wands of Granger and Weasley from the landing above and Sirius with Lupin from the kitchen. She held the gently smoking pistol casually at her side whilst her wand slipped into her other hand. Sirius's voice was low and scratchy as he spoke. "Holly...what have you become?"

Holly giggled at that, the sound light and girlish and utterly at odds with the scene in the hallway. "I am what you made me. You think anyone could go through what I went through and emerge unscarred...it was bad enough what happened to me..but then to have all of you pile on...that's what pushed me to the edge."

Sirius stepped forward, still holding his wand on Holly with a ferocious scowl on his face. "Holly, I did twelve years in Azkaban. This.." he gestured towards the wounded Kingley and Tonks, then down at the blood that still pooled around Holly's ankles. "..this is not normal."

"Normal? When has normal ever come into the same post-code as me! Even assuming we ignore all the goofy shit that led up to my fifth year...I was raped, put on trial, betrayed by everyone I thought would stand with me, beaten and forced to give birth in Azkaban, starved, degraded, silenced and that's..that's not even counting the fucking dreams. In some ways those dreams saved me...without the echoes I would never have been able to survive Azkaban...without the Doll I would have starved and Dorea would have become a child as broken as I was."

Holly cocked her head and turned to Sirius, raising her pistol and shooting the disillusioned Emmeline Vance in the stomach which caused the woman who was attempting to sneak up behind her to fall with a cry of pain as blood spread from the gut shot. "You..Sirius..you had an Animagus form...guards who at least ignored you rather than taking an active interest in trying to destroy you and...you were not trying to keep a baby alive whilst every single factor of your days and dreams was trying its best to kill you. And don't forget Black..it's all your onw FUCKING fault. If you hadn't been such a useless bastard and gone after Pettigrew...if you had escaped earlier...when I actually needed you...maybe..just maybe things would have been different."

Holly turned her back on Sirius and Remus, the Werewolf whilst not having been directly spoken to had been hit hard by Holly's condemnation and the reminder that he too had not been there for Holly in the first twelve years of her life. Stepping over Tonks and crunching one half of the woman's wand under her heel as she did, she walked up the stairs past Ron and Hermione who still had their wands pointed at her. Holly stopped for just a moment, then looked at both of her former friends and smiled too widely. "Don't worry..the two of you will be getting your comeuppance as well...I won't kill you though...what I have planned is far more fun for me."

Holly continued walking, not stopping for the low pleas for help..for mercy coming from her former friends or the sounds of Remus and Sirius starting to try to stem the bleeding of the three members of the Order who Holly had put down. After all, Dorea needed an evening feed.

Albus Dumbledore looked out the window of his office and considered how things had gone quite so wrong. Holly had been crafted into the ideal he had for her for the first three years at Hogwarts, admittedly the self-harm in her second year was worrisome...but apart from that she was the warrior of the Light he needed without getting too much confidence or thoughts of her own. Young Mr Weasley was of great aid in that and then Miss Granger who's own dogged deference to authority figures was proved a positive influence as well.

But then the fourth year, the shunning by the school should have sent Holly running to him but instead she simply drew deeper into herself. She was isolated from the influences he had kept in place and by the time he realised that he really should have kept at least one member of staff as a confident of the young girl, it was too late and Holly had completely withdrawn. Only Severus had not changed his treatment of the girl but was also an accomplished occlumens and therefore far harder to subtly or overtly influence than the rest of his staff.

And finally fifth year, he had miscalculated badly and many of his schemes were at risk. He had to get Holly away from it all, and in an situation where she would be broken down so when she was 'rescued' it would be Albus Dumbledore whom she gave her thanks too. Allowing Dolores's darker impulses free reign had been a step too far, but in his defence he never thought she would arrange...that..to be done to a student. And now Holly had a baby, had found the 'power the dark lord knew not' and was using it. But without the guidance and support of Albus Dumbledore, the Leader of the Light!

He hoped that when he returned to Grimmauld the Order had not had to damage Holly too much to subdue her, perhaps he could use the child as leverage? If he gave the young Dorea Potter to Molly Weasley and then implied that Dorea would start being treated as Holly herself had been by the Dursleys if she did not stick to his tactics of disarm, subdue and redeem. Dead Wixen could not learn the error of their ways after all and to spill magical blood was a travesty. Perhaps he would need to visit Azkaban and take a closer look at the cell where Holly was kept...he had to find out the what and how of Holly's new..blood-magic.

Tom Marvolo Riddle or more commonly known as Lord Voldemort to his followers looked at his slightly trembling hand. Trembling in..anger? Surely it must be..he was the greatest wizard alive with no match for his power..his magic. He had walked further down the path to Immortality than anyone had before..he had unearthed the darkest of spells and used them to slaughter his enemies and had even used the forbidden rituals of Necromancy to raise Inferi to aid in his campaign. His hand could not be trembling in fear.

The bloody and wounded Death Eaters knelt before his throne in the dining room of Malfoy Manor, Nagini coiling around his shoulders and across his chair. He had sent a dozen of his finest, veterans of the first war with another two dozen younger members to be used as cannon fodder to breach Bones Manor and kill Amelia Bones. The fact that his Death Eaters would likely have raped and tortured the woman to death meant little to Lord Voldemort and in fact the worse condition her body was in the more cowed the Wizarding Public would become.

But that was not what had happened, only three had come back. Three survivors, only two of whom were veterans...young Crabbe was just lucky it seemed. Voldemort mused that of his core of about fifty hardened fighters from the first war he had lost several on the shores of Azkaban and then ten more at Bones Manor..the chaff did not concern him but perhaps it should. Only so many pureblood families had sons who would not only support him but join his cause and they were dying en-masse in the last two engagements his troops had fought in.

The story was the same though...blood rising from the floor and then nightmarish monsters surging forward who cared not for wounds or curses but only seemed desperate to spill the blood of his soldiers. But this time...this time Holly Potter had been amongst them..she and Alistair Moody had been the only connection between both incidents. But none of the survivors from the attack on the Manor had anything to say other than that they had seen Holly Potter briefly before they were retreating and dying...dying horribly. What could have caused Dumbledore's Golden Girl to change so much that she would dabble with whatever power allowed her to summon beasts from blood itself?

He dismissed the returned Death Eaters into the care of Lady Malfoy and Lady Avery, the most skilled Healers amongst his followers acquaintances even if neither of them had taken the mark. Then he mused, mentally forcing his trembling hand to stay still as he considered the problems that were growing ever larger for his campaign to purge Britain.

Chapter Text

Ronald Weasley awoke from his latest nightmare, sitting in the Great Hall of Hogwarts surrounded by rot and rust. But..he couldn't help himself...he ate. Whatever was on the plate in front of him, he ate. Rotten food. Skin, bones and flesh that only became worse as he started to realise he recognised his family..his friends..it was an instinctive knowledge as he ate each bite...all were there apart from Holly. Though she had made it clear she was no longer his friend...he had felt his brother's fingers crunch as he bit down on the roasted digits..his father's liver battered in bread crumbs.

The whispers came from behind him, reminders of every time he had betrayed Holly. Every time he had turned his back on her..everytime he had spilled her secrets for gold. The times he had ignored how pale and drawn she was..the times he had dragged her away from studying or finding out more about their world by sulking when she refused to play chess with him. Then her voice. And the small white orb that appeared on a plate in front of him, glowing from within. "Simply cast aside your magic, Ronald..banish it far from you..and you shall dream no more. Until then...Bon Appetit!"

Hermione Granger awoke her her own latest nightmare as the Witching Hour struck again. She had been walking down the rows of an endless library, the books she looked at..she knew they were bound in human skin. Written in blood that had only been shed due to her mistakes..due to the fact that she was not good enough. And Holly had always..always leapt to her defence. How many times had Holly suffered and bled and fought for Hermione..and yet...and yet when it really came down to it..Hermione had not been willing to do the same for Holly.

Her fingers brush a book and a memory is brought to the fore of her mind, Holly coming across her being picked on by some older Slytherin boys and deliberately sassing them until they turned their wands on her instead. Holly had looked at Hermione through a face covered in boils, red rope marks around her throat from the Incarcerus spell and told her that she didn't regret it. Hermione was her friend of course. The next book she touched..or was forced to touch was fourth year. Holly had become a regular target for harassment by the entire school including Gryffindor, Hermione had seen Lavender and Parvati messing with Holly's shampoo..but had said nothing. Nor had she spoken up when she had found a sobbing Holly in the bathroom as her beautiful hair had fallen out in clumps.

Memory after memory assailed Hermione as a voice whispered in her ear. "Pluck out your eyes and you will be spared the sight of your betrayals. Pluck out your eyes and perhaps you will find forgiveness for your transgressions..."

Albus Dumbledore paced in the waiting room of St Mungo's hospital, with only Minerva for company. Whilst he would have preferred to just let Poppy handle it at Hogwarts, no one had been able to contact the Medi-Witch for the last 24 hours and he was starting to get worried. It had taken years of work to mould Poppy Pomfrey into doing what he needed her to do and nothing more, if a new Healer was sent to Hogwarts it would be months of effort to lay even the groundwork of the compulsions and mental loop-holes that got around the Healer Oaths.

The urgent communication had come from Grimmauld Place that three members of the Order can been terribly injured and needed treatment by real Healers not the House Witch healing magic that Molly Weasley could supply or even the emergency magical first aid Sirius half remembered from his training as an Auror. With still no response from Poppy, Dumbledore had authorised Molly and Remus to take the three injured people to St Mungo's. Her had himself only arrived minutes ago to hear that Kingsley was stable but weak and in a magical coma to let his body and magic heal whilst Nymphadora Tonks and Emmeline Vance were still in intense magical surgery as they tried to save their lives and magic. It seems that the delay in their arrival had made the injuries far more severe than if the wounded had immediately been brought to the Hospital.

Sparing a glance at his deputy, Albus found himself concerned. Ever since Holly's retrieval from Azkaban the dark circles under Minerva's eyes had seemed to get larger and darker, she was obviously not getting enough sleep and her skin had taken on a waxy look that indicated poor health and quite possibly an addiction of some kind. Of course not that his own heart was doing much better. He had practically frozen in horror after Remus had related what had happened, Holly's cold and brutal take-down of three of the Order's most competent fighters apart from Moody and himself of course. And it had been his order to subdue the girl that had led to the confrontation..when word got around..and it would...Alistair would be coming for his throat.

Where had he gone wrong? Sending the girl to Azkaban should have been a master stroke to get things back on track..not this. A commotion at the door drew his attention to a huffing Molly Weasley who burst in, eyes red with tears as she walked right up to him and started screaming. "She kicked us out! She had the wards throw us right out, all the Weasleys and Granger..the rest of the Order too. Only..only Snuffles was allowed to remain and he's confined to his room by order of that little bitch!"

Albus's eyes widened and he tried to think through the obvious effects but Molly wasn't done, she grabbed his arm and squeezed tight. "And that's not all! The Burrow sits on land owned by the Blacks and since we haven't been paying the rent since Arcturus Black died, Arthur got a letter demanding a lump sum of all the accumulated rent for the last thirteen years by tomorrow or shes's going to order the Burrow burned down with all our possessions and only demand six years worth of rent..which she's claiming is generous!"

Shaking off Molly's arm, Albus sprinted for the closest apparition point and as soon as he tried to apparate into Grimmauld place he felt like he was being bounced around inside a bouncy castle at a dozen miles an hour before landing badly on the stone steps in front of the House. He barely had time to realise that one of his cheeks had apparently landed a few feet to his left when the door of Grimmauld Place opened minutely and the loathsome House Elf Kreature poked his head out. "My Mistress is not here Bad Headmaster! She has gone to 'Take care of the irritating Dark Lord.'" Then the blasted creature stuck out its tongue at him and slammed the door closed. Albus was aghast..then shocked..then terrified.

If Holly Potter brought the war to a close...if she killed Tom Riddle and his Death Eaters...she would be a hero. The darling of the Wizarding public who had stopped the great evil of the Dark Lord Voldemort..and if she did that Holly Potter would enjoy the same invulnerability to public opinion that he had for so many years after his defeat of Grindlewald. Albus sagged, then started feeling the blood pooling in his mouth and pain started his senses as twinges started running up his left arm and into his chest. He suddenly found he couldn't breath, couldn't concentrate enough to cast a healing spell or get his body under control with occlumency..not after being bounced around by the Grimmauld Place Wards.

Tom Marvolo Riddle woke from his meditation as Malfoy Manor seemed to shake and shudder, a sound like a crack of thunder rang out and in one of the rooms of the manor the windows blew in, a hurricane of glass no doubt shredding anything inside. Several high raning Death Eaters burst into the room with panic on their faces. Lucius at the front, his mask held loosely in his hand. "My Lord...the wards are falling. Scouts we have sent on brooms and on the ground have not returned and...our informants at the Ministry have revealed nothing about a planned raid."

Voldemort rose and moved to the window, just in time to see another flash so bright it lit the valley that Malfoy Manor sat at one end of and the wards shuddered and audibly groaned. "Evacuate."

"My Lord?" The questioning was hesitant, uncertain. Any question asked of their Lord was normally met with a dose of the torture curse. But this time Voldemort stood looking out the window with an impassive face and his trembling hands clasped tightly behind his back to try to avoid his followers seeing his fear.

"I said to evacuate. We still have little idea of Potter's powers and I will allow that I was surprised by her displays so far. We have likely lingered too long in one place anyway, apparate or floo to one of our other safe houses. Messages will be sent out to the regional cells in the coming days."

Lucius nodded and started directing the Death Eaters living at the Manor to evacuate but as the existence of apparation wards became apparent the first Death Eater, a new recruit, tried to floo away. Yet..before the green flames had even died down the screams of agony that emanated from the fireplace rang out and bloody shredded meat was sprayed in a lump of torn gristle and gnawed on bone from the green flame.

Voldemort's voice was soft, but so unexpected that several Death Eater would have laughed if they had not been so terrified. "Fuck."