Harry Potter 1. Chapter 1

**Hello readers! Thank you for taking a chance on this story, it's my first one so I hope you all like it! This is the beginning of the one-shot I wrote before called Truth or Dare which I took down because I didn't want my friend reading it even though I'm a pushover and told her the name of my new one anyways haha; this chapter is for you, Doris. A little background first, Holly is a sixth year Slytherin, the same age as Harry and the gang. I would love reviews so I know what I'm doing right/wrong, and now I won't waste any more of your time with this AN. **

**Just one more thing first, though: Hogwarts and any of the people that go there were sadly not my idea, all rights to J.K. Rowling**

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"Any news today, Sampson?" Holly asked as she reached the bottom of a grand marble staircase.

"Sampson is afraid not, Miss Earnshaw," the tiny elf squeaked back with a solemn shake of his head, "would the Miss like some breakfast today? Sampson made her favorite, scrambled eggs on toast," he finished hopefully.

The concern in the house elf's eyes really touched Holly. Although she really wasn't in the mood to eat lately, she smiled warmly down at her favorite elf and said, "you know what, Sampson? That sounds wonderful, thank you so much!" Grateful tears filled his eyes and he snapped his fingers, apparating to the kitchen to prepare a plate for the too-thin girl.

Alone again, Holly sighed as she slowly made her way to the formal dining room and chose to sit where her father normally did, at the head of the gigantic table that was designed to seat at least 30 people. As if she needed another reminder of how utterly alone she was. She thought of her father again for what was probably the hundredth time since she had woken up, or rather, gotten out of bed since she hadn't gotten any sleep again last night. Where was he? Was he ok? And why was his mission taking so long?

The Dark Lord often sent him away on dangerous missions, being that he was one of the most-trusted Death Eaters, but Holly couldn't help but feel especially worried this time. His missions rarely lasted more than a couple of days and by now her father had been gone for a week and a half! There were only a couple of reasons that Holly could think of that would keep him away for so long; he was either extremely far away, probably on a different continent, or else something had gone very wrong, and the Dark Lord wasn't known to be forgiving...

Holly was torn away from her grim thoughts by a faint pop followed by the the smell of bacon and eggs assaulting her nose. Her eyes lazily went to where she knew her house elf would be standing and she barked out a laugh. The only parts of him that she could see behind the tower of eggs were his two frail legs that were wobbling under the weight of the enormous plate that he was carrying and two floppy ears sticking out the sides.

"Oh, Sampson, I don't think I'll be able to eat quite that much!" she said with another giggle. Sampson always knew exactly how to cheer Holly up, half the time without even trying to. "Here, let me take that," she said as she took the plate from his hands and he let out a shaky breath from the effort.

"Thank you, Miss Earnshaw," he said sheepishly, "is there anything else Sampson can get you? Fruit, maybe? Or a cup of tea?"

"No thank you, Sampson. You've done wonderfully as always." The house elf beamed at her and bowed, his long ears brushing the glossy floor before snapping his fingers to disappear, probably off to go clean the already pristine mansion.

"Crazy elf," Holly muttered to herself fondly and looked back to the frightening pile of eggs in front of her. She felt guilty for making Sampson worry so much over her, she knew that she really wasn't eating enough lately. It was just that she was feeling rather depressed and anxious after receiving no news from her father so she had no desire to eat, or do anything for that matter. Holly made a mental note to at least appear to be taking care of herself for Sampson's sake because he'd been so kind to her over the past couple of years- he was more of a mother figure than she'd ever had, if she was being honest with herself. She then picked up her fork and began to eat. Before she could get three bites in, however, Holly heard the front door slam open and a dull thud reverberated through the walls of the mansion.

Panic gripped Holly and she couldn't move. After her paralysis wore off, she immediately remembered how her father has said to handle an intruder and she slipped her wand from her sleeve. Stealthily, she made her way to the parlor, making sure to remain tight against the wall. If a threat was posed, she would fire to kill first, not taking time to debate with herself.

Who could it be, though? No Death Eater would have a reason to want to break into their house; the majority of them were welcomed in without hesitation so they wouldn't need to resort to violence. It would be exceedingly difficult for someone else to get in without setting off the alarms, though, so who did that leave? No one. Unless...

"Dad!" Holly shouted and ran to the unconscious man lying on the floor. She fell to her knees next to him, not caring that one leg was resting in a pool of blood. He wasn't responding to her desperate cries and she tried to push the fog of panic from her mind. "Think, Holly. You've done this before," she coached herself. "Yeah, but it's never been this bad!" her inner demon shot back. Shaking her head to clear it, Holly got back to her feet and used a levicorpus to bring her dad up the stairs as quickly as she could without jostling him around too much.

After she lay her father gently in his large bed, Holly called for Sampson. She didn't have to wait more than a couple of seconds before there was a crack and the little elf appeared before her eyes. Holly quickly told him to put a cold towel to her father's head, as he was burning up, and then to clean out the multitude of wounds as best as he could while she robbed the potions cabinet of anything that her father might need to survive.

Once the duties were given out, Holly made a mad dash out the door and down the stairs, almost tripping on the fifth step in her haste. Well, she couldn't have that, she thought. Deciding to forgo the whole process, Holly leapt to the bottom from about ten steps up, twisting her ankle a bit.

"Shit!" She swore. That really hurt! But she couldn't dwell on it right now, she didn't know how much time her father had left. Regaining her composure, Holly jog-limped down the narrow hallway and stopped at the tall potions cabinet at the end.

Holly took a quick inventory of the cabinet. Blood-replenishing potion and burn-healing paste would definitely be needed from what she had seen so far. Quickly grabbing a few more bottles that could come in handy, she whipped around and shot up the stairs again, adrenaline taking away any pain she might still have had in her ankle.

Gratefully Sampson didn't wait for Holly to ask about her father when she returned to the room, instead he just gave her a calm report when she came up next to him. "Master Earnshaw is still unconscious, Miss, but Sampson had cleaned out the wounds and washed away the dirt."

"Thank you, Sampson," Holly said distractedly as she began pouring the different potions into conjured cups. "Right," she said when she was satisfied with the amounts, "can you heal any broken bones while I give him the potions?"

"Of course, Miss," the elf bowed humbly and placed his tiny hands on the seemingly lifeless body, a faint yellow glow emanating from his fingertips. If Holly had not seen this done much in the past, she would have been tempted to watch the healing taking place. Sadly, though, this was not the case,as Holly's father had needed his bones to be healed at least fifteen times that she could recall.

She looked back to the potions and grabbed the one closest to herself: blood-replenishing potion, and a disturbing amount of it at that. Pushing that thought aside, Holly went into full-healer mode; not thinking, not feeling, just doing what was required to save her father's life.

Once the final bottle had been administered to her father and his bones were fully healed, Holly finally allowed herself to register the full extent of what had just happened and a choked sob escaped her throat. A comfortable-looking armchair appeared behind Holly as she heard a small voice say, "Sampson will leave Miss alone with the Master now, but Miss should get some rest."

Holly just sent him a smile conveying the mountain of gratitude that she felt towards him for all of his help and she heard a pop, indicating that she was, indeed, alone with her father now. She took the time to simply look at him.

Charles Earnshaw was only forty years old but you would never guess so just by looking at him; his thinning hair and beard were a little more salt than pepper at this point, and years of being a Death Eater had permanently etched worry lines across his forehead.

Holly knew that there was so much more to him than that, though. She smiled when her eyes landed on the crinkles by his eyes caused by laughing heartily, and she knew that while his strong arms were sometimes used as weapons, their real purpose was to give gigantic bear hugs that you had to beg to be let go of. Charles Earnshaw wasn't just Holly's dad; he was her encouragement before a big quidditch match, he was a shoulder to cry on when she felt like giving up in Ancient Runes, and above all else, he was, and always would be, her best friend.

A quiet tear slipped down Holly's cheek as she grabbed onto her father's hand and slipped into a comfortable position in the big crimson chair. She would be there for him when he finally opened his eyes.

Holly didn't know if she had actually fallen asleep, or if she had just sat there with her eyes closed, but soon she was jolted upright by a squeeze of her hand. Her wide blue eyes met her father's chocolate colored ones and a huge smile lit up her face.

"Hi, Dolly," he managed to croak, and he winced at the pain it sent to his throat.

Holly rolled her eyes at her father's nickname for her as they stung with happy tears. "Dad," she scolded with a smile, "you shouldn't be talking right now."

"Missed... you..." he wheezed.

"Dad, I'm serious! If you don't stop talking I'm going to have to use a silencio on you!" At this, her father acted out zipping his lipped together, making Holly laugh. "Ok, good. Now I'll go get you some water, you sound terrible."

Her dad used a silent accio to bring a quill and parchment over to himself before scribbling down, "you _look _terrible," before giving her a pointed glare, as if asking her what happened.

"Oh, come on. It can't be that bad," Holly responded, but when she crossed the room to look in her mother's old mirror, she saw that her dad was right. Her deep blue eyes that were once so lively now looked dull and her glossy cinnamon colored waves that she has once prided herself on now hung limply down to the small of her back, infested with tangles.

"Ok, so I'm not ready to walk to runway or anything right now," Holly conceded, "but you're not looking so great yourself, if you don't recall, so you're really in no position to point fingers right now."

Her father opened his mouth to argue but Holly shot him a glare and held her finger up, signaling that she would be right back with a potion to sooth his throat. He coughed loudly at the slight fizzing sensation, but he recovered quickly. "Holly," he said sternly, loud voice filling the room and demanding attention, "you look like death and you, unlike me, don't have an excuse."

Holly's big eyes bugged out so that they were even larger. "I don't have an excuse?" she exclaimed loudly, "like Hell I don't! You've been gone for over a week! Don't you know how worried I've been? You didn't send word of how you were once! You can't just leave in the middle of the night on some mission that damn near killed you, collapse on our floor, make me use half of the bottles from our potions cabinet to make sure you stay alive, then wake up and say that I don't have an excuse to look a little under the weather!"

Concern flooded through her father's eyes, "I'm so sorry, Holly. I wasn't thinking. I shouldn't have-"

His last words were muffled as Holly threw her arms around him and sobbed into his shoulder. "I just... don't know... what I'd do... without you!" she said through painful gasps of air.

"Sh sh sh shhh. I'm here now, right? Don't worry, I'm here," her father comforted her and rubbed soothing circles into her back. Holly knew that he was right. She wasn't going to think of the future right now because it was inevitable that he was going to be sent away again. Right now, she just wanted to revel in the fact that he was here with her right now, and she took a lot of comfort in that fact as she held him even tighter.

After a few moments for Holly to calm down, her dad leaned back and looked at her with concern-filled eyes and said, "Now, Dolly, you know that I want you here with me, but you look starved. Please go eat something and then you can come back and we'll talk."

"But, Dad," she protested, "I'm not even hungry!" At this precise moment, Holly's stomach gave a loud growl, betraying her words. This caused both of them to laugh and her dad gave her a pointed look.

"Right, because I believe that," he said with another chuckle, "now go before I have to call Sampson back up here."

"Bah, fine! But, I'll be back in fifteen minutes," said Holly as she stuck her tongue out and retreated downstairs to finish her breakfast that still sat on the table, nearly untouched. She scarfed down as much food as she could, barely tasting it, and true to her word, she returned upstairs a little over ten minutes later to sit on the side of her dad's bed. The two of them sat there until the late hours of the night talking about what their last weeks had consisted of, or in Holly's case, not consisted of. Once that was out of the way, the two of them played a few rounds of wizard's chess. Her dad was the best chess player Holly had ever known, but as she got older, she picked up on a few of his tricks and was now able to hold her own against him quite nicely.

As the grandfather clock in the hallway struck midnight, Holly's dad held up his hands as if to surrender. "Alright," he said, "you win this round, but next time I'll be ready to make a comeback, you just wait!"

"Whatever you say, old man," Holly shot back teasingly and laughed at the offended look that he gave her, "I'll take you down, same time, same place tomorrow."

Holly turned to leave but a large hand grabbed her wrist gently, holding her in place. Holly turned back to see her dad with a slightly more serious look on his face. "Oh, no you don't, " he scolded, "tomorrow you're going to go have fun in town. You've been shut up in this house for far too long so you're going to take a bag of galleons with you to Diagon Alley and you're going to buy whatever you want. Ice cream, butterbeer, stationary, heck, you can even get a new broom if you want since yours got pretty roughed up last year in that match against Ravenclaw."

Holly tried to interrupt, saying that she would much rather spend the day with him again, but he would have none of it so he pinched her lips shut and continued on. "Don't forget to but a dress for the Masquerade that the Malfoy's are hosting in November. I want you to buy the prettiest one you see on the spot because you deserve it after all you've done for me."

Holly thought better than to verbally refuse this time and opted to just shoot him a look to let him know that she didn't like him staying home alone.

"Don't worry about me, I;m obviously not going anywhere for a while and Sampson will be here to look after me. Now go have fun, I don't want to see you back here until at least suppertime."

Holly just sighed dramatically to let him know that she would behave. "Goodnight, Dad. I love you," she smiled and pecked him on the cheek before walking to the door.

"I love you, too, Dolly," he replied. And with that, Holly shut off the lights and walked down the long hallway to her room to get some much needed sleep.

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**So, what did you guys think? This chapter was just to get to know Holly and her relationship with her dad, but the next one will be all Draco. Reviews would be lovely! Thanks for reading!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hello, I'm back! Thank you to the people who added this story to their favorites, it really makes it easier to want to write more chapters. In the last one, you got to see Holly's perspective so in this one I thought I would write from Draco's. **

**All characters to J.K. Rowling. Here we go!**

"Draco, you can do better than that! You know what happens if you can't block me!" Bellatrix laughed maniacally. Draco wondered if she would ever admit that she wasn't really trying to teach him occlumency but just wanted an excuse to crucio him repeatedly. Thank Merlin Draco was resilient to her brutality. After the first few weeks after their "lessons" had begun in the Summer, he wouldn't stand to be tortured and laughed at anymore so he began to practice every night. A few times, Snape had even come over to give him some lessons when Bellatrix was on a mission and it was at one of those lessons that Draco had successfully practiced occlumency. Since the first time he was able to close off his mind, Draco found it to be almost easy to do. He couldn't imagine why, he thought bitterly. Possibly it was the fact that he wasn't constantly fearing the possibility of getting tortured to the point of insanity if he screwed up.

Furious thoughts filled his mind giving Bellatrix an opportunity to catch him off guard and infiltrate his mind. Before he had a chance to register what was even happening, Draco was being sorted. He sat on the stool smugly as he already knew without a doubt which house he would be in for the next seven years of his life. "Slytherin!" the mangy thing shouted as he hopped off the stool and followed another boy to the long table full of cheering kids. The next scene that came before his eyes was of Blaise and him throwing snow down each other's backs and yelping as his best friend shoved a handful in his face. Now he was in front of a hippogriff, mouthing off to amuse his friends when it reared up in front of him and scratched his arm. It hadn't hurt that bad but he shouted dramatically and swore to have the oaf fired. The Slytherins all jeered at the half-giant and rushed around him except for one who was too busy reading her book to even care if he was dying or not. His father stood before him now, a scowl on his long face. This memory was only a couple of months old so Draco still remembered the lashing that he had received for some trivial reason that he couldn't recall now. He fought back so forcefully to avoid having to live through his punishment again that Bellatrix stumbled back with a triumphant cackle.

"Now, now, Draco. You knew what would happen should you fail again," she smiled maliciously as Draco began to back up even though he knew it was no use. Bellatrix advanced on him, wand raised, and when she was within a few feet of him she shrieked the incantation.

Draco had no control of him movements, within seconds he was on the ground screaming out. His body was set on fire and plunged in ice water at the same time. Animals were ripping him apart limb by limb and he was being hit head on by the Hogwarts Express. His head was splitting open just by trying to register all the different types of pain he was experiencing. He didn't know how long he had been under the curse, it could have been minutes or only seconds for all he knew, but as suddenly as the pain had come, it stopped, leaving Draco a sweating, shaking mess on the cold stone floor. As his head spun, he vaguely noticed Bellatrix lean down over him as she whispered in his ear, "If you think that was bad, you don't even want to know what the Dark Lord will do to you."

Draco's vision swirled around him and soon his world became black as he finally succumbed to the pain.

He was floating. All around him was white. He liked it here, he couldn't feel anything besides a gentle tingle throughout his body. All he knew was that there were no worries or people expecting impossible things from him, it was all just nothingness. What had brought him to this place? For the life of himself, he couldn't remember; in fact, he couldn't remember anything, even his own name. That thought was a bit disconcerting but he tried not to dwell on it.

"Draco," he heard faintly, almost as if he were underwater. Oh, that's right, his name was Draco Malfoy, he thought, grateful to whatever had made him remember. His relief didn't last long, however, as he realized that something was wrong; the tingle that he had felt before was becoming very annoying and persistent.

"Wake up, boy. You can't be lying here anymore." There it was again! The voice was vaguely familiar but Draco couldn't put a face or name to it because he was too focused on the thousands of tiny needles that were now pricking his body. He could barely feel a shaking on his shoulder and he was no longer floating, but gently falling while the world around him got dark again. No! This wasn't right! He wanted to go back to where he was before because he subconsciously knew that wherever he was going would be full of more despair for him. The harder he tried to get back to the white place, though, the faster he fell down. His body was now screaming with pain and he could hear moving around him.

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"Draco, you need to get up now so I can get you back to your room before Bellatrix gets back." Draco now heard the voice crystal clear and knew immediately who it was. Only one person had that nasal drawl and that was Severus Snape.

Draco slowly opened his eyes to see that he was still in the dungeon that he practice in. Nothing in the room had changed from the time that he had closed his eyes except for the person standing over him. Snape now stared back disinterestedly. "Good," he said, "now drink this and then you can go back upstairs." Draco just stared at the bubbling green liquid, silently asking his professor what it was. "It will help with some of the pain, but it won't take long before your body burns it off so we must move quickly," he shoved the flask into the younger man's still shaking hands and helped him raise it to his mouth.

The acidic smell was enough to make Draco nauseous but he tried to push past it as he downed the potion in a matter of seconds. Merlin, that was awful, but he was already starting to feel the effects and decided it was well worth it. The throbbing in his body had gone down to a dull ache which Snape seemed to notice as he reached out a hand towards Draco. He took it graciously and Snape helped him to his feet. It took a couple of seconds for Draco to get his balance and after he gave Snape a nod saying that they could walk, the two wasted no more time before they were out the door and rounding the corner to the stone stairwell.

The light was blinding for a minute as they stepped out of the dingy dungeon into the brightly lit hallway. Draco felt slightly more safe up here but he still didn't want to run the risk of meeting Bellatrix again today after her especially brutal punishment. The two men glided down the hallway past a few large doors before turning onto another staircase. Once they were safely upstairs and standing outside of Draco's room, he felt safe enough to talk normally. "Snape, " he began, "I appreciate what you did, but I don't need your help. I have to do things by myself if I am to prove myself as a Death Eater."

His professor shook his head slowly, a disappointed look in his eye that made Draco feel like a first year again. "Draco, you still have so much to learn before you become a Death Eater." Draco highly doubted that, he had been taking countless different lessons for the last couple of months specifically for this reason. Almost as if he had been waiting for this reply, Snape cut him off, "yes, I know that you know all about cursing and dueling but you know nothing about how to keep yourself from becoming a monster," he lowered his voice at the last part, "the most important thing you need to know is that you cannot do this alone, Draco, no matter how much you think you can. Be thankful for the people who are there for you. Don't shut them out because if you do, you might look at yourself one day and not recognize who you're seeing." With one last meaningful look, Snape turned on his heel and returned downstairs, black cloak billowing behind him.

Draco sighed irritably. Snape didn't know what he was going through, he never had the weight of restoring his family's reputation on his shoulders so he had no right to be telling Draco how to handle himself. Deciding not to think about it anymore, he snuck into his room and shut the door quietly in order to avoid drawing attention to himself. The last thing he wanted was to have to deal with more people when all he wanted to do was to curl up in his silky black sheets and sleep.

As he crossed the room to his bed, Draco's eyed landed on his full-length mirror resting against the wall by his dresser. After his harsh lessons started this Summer, he had learned to cover it with a sheet to avoid having to see his ghostly reflection, but today he couldn't help but to feel tempted to take a look. Whipping down the sheet, Draco got the first real look at himself since June and it was worse than he had expected. His cold gray eyes were rimmed with black and his face was frighteningly gaunt. He looked like a skeleton of who he used to be and Draco was scared to look at the rest of his body though he knew that he needed to because he had already gotten this far.

He gingerly pulled his loose shirt over his head but didn't let his gaze wander to the mirror yet because he didn't know if he would be able to keep going if he did so he unbuttoned his slacks and stepped out of those, too. Now standing in just his dark blue boxers, he finally allowed himself to stare at the person standing in front of him. Draco inhaled sharply when he saw his ribs plainly through his chest and he let his fingers gently prod at a bruise that was already blossoming on his arm from this morning. He expected the pain that came with it; the potion was wearing off.

This wasn't fair! Draco fumed as his fingers became bone white as they grabbed the edged of the mirror in a vice-grip. He shouldn't have to avoid looking at himself in a mirror for fear of what he might see. He shouldn't have to run his household now that his father was in prison. And more than anything, he shouldn't have had to grow up so fast and be faced with the knowledge that he would have to become a killer. Could it really be just last year that he had been prowling the hallways with Blaise and Nott without a care in the world? It seemed like that was just a dream now that he had been exposed to the darkness of what would soon consume his life, but he would do anything to go back to that fifth year naivety.

Draco was brought out of his dark thoughts when he heard faint footsteps coming upstairs. "Draco," a sweet voice called, "would you please come down for lunch?" He snorted derisively, he knew that she really just wanted to see how his lessons were coming along and there was no way that Draco would talk about it anymore. He quickly threw his clothes back on half-hazardly and went over to his fire place to throw some floo powder in. As the fireplace burst to life with green flames, his mother's footsteps knocked on his door delicately. Draco stepped into the fireplace at the same time that his mother came into the room. "Diagon Alley," he said, shooting his mother an ashamed look when her eyebrows knitted together and her mouth turned down into a disappointed frown.

As he whirled away, Draco couldn't get her face out of his head and guilt filled his head. "Damn it!" he shouted as he stepped out of a fireplace in a small shop in Diagon Alley. A young mother glared at him and pushed her children out of the shop but Draco didn't notice as he was thinking about his own mother. He hated to see her like that, he knew that she was just trying to get through this war with her family intact like everyone else, but seeing her worried face trained on him only made him more stressful. She was just going to have to understand that he needed time to himself so that he could think.

He dusted himself off and stepped outside into the busy street. Draco pitied the witches and wizards that were hurriedly getting last minute shopping done for the new school year; they only had the vaguest idea that they were on the brink of the biggest wizarding war in history. They didn't know that only hours ago while they were trying to carry on with their everyday lives, Draco was preparing to tear apart their families.

Without knowing where he was going, Draco began to walk through the throng of people and when he stopped a couple of minutes later, he looked up to see that he was at a little diner. Deciding that he should actually eat something after this morning's lesson, he pushed through the door and was hit with a wall of sweet scents.

"Hey hon," a very attractive young waitress with shoulder-length black hair and green eyes quickly greeted him by the door, Draco noticed that the girl's name tag said that her name was Jasmine. "I'll be taking care of you today," she added with a wink. She then motioned with her finger for him to follow her and led him to a booth in the corner of the room with an exaggerated swing in her hips. Once Draco had sat down, she leaned on the table in an obvious attempt at flirting and asked him what he wanted.

"Well, you're going to have to be more specific than that, Jasmine," Draco flirted back, smirking when he noticed her cheeks turn a faint shade of pink.

She cleared her throat quietly and rephrased her question, "alright, what would you like to eat, then?"

"Oh, well in that case I'll just have a chocolate danish and a cup of Earle Grey," he answered, also leaning on the table now.

Jasmine let out a girly giggle and with a "coming right up," she returned to the kitchen.

* * *

Once Draco was outside again, he took a crumpled receipt that had an address written on it in purple ink and threw it in the trash without a second glance. Though Jasmine was fun to flirt with, he just couldn't take a chance to do anything more than that in case she turned out to be a mudblood or a blood-traitor. No matter, Draco was in higher spirits now anyway from the conversation that didn't revolve around the Dark Lord. He also suspected that the chocolate had something to do with it; as much as he hated that bloody werewolf back in third year, he was spot on when he said that chocolate makes you feel better. Merlin, Draco felt like a hormonal girl right now.

Shaking his head at himself, Draco decided to at least be productive and buy some dress robes as long as he was planning on being here all day. After his father had been sent to Azkaban and Draco had been assigned his task, his mother had decided to "lighten everyone's spirits" and hold a masquerade ball. Ridiculous, Draco thought, but if that was what it took to make his mother believe that everything was fine, then that was the least he could do for her.

The walk to Madam Malkin's didn't take very long because it was only a block away from the diner that he had just been in. As he passed by the large display window, Draco noticed that the shop was strangely empty except for Madam Malkin who was standing near the back of the spacious room with her arms crossed like she was waiting for something. Without completely knowing why, he stalled his footsteps to get a better look. That was when a huge pink... thing... stumbled into view. Draco guffawed. Was that actually a person? Who in their right mind would wear that monstrosity?

When the girl turned around, his jaw hit the floor. Holly? Surely it couldn't be her, his mind was just playing tricks on him. Holly, the daughter of some of the most deadly Death Eaters would rather die than to be caught wearing that circus tent. Wait, was she getting that for the ball? His mother would have a heart attack if she came through their doors wearing that. Somebody would have to put Holly in her place and Draco just couldn't resist being the one to do it.

The door clicked behind his as he strode inside, but the two women didn't seem to notice as they were having a rather loud conversation so he quietly moved further into the room.

"Maxine! I look like a birthday cake!" a melodious voice yelled, followed by a giggle. Draco knew that the voice belonged to Holly.

"Oh hush, child," a deeper voice answered, and Draco peeked around the corner in time to see Madam Malkin swat Holly on the arm playfully. "Any of the girls at Beauxbatons would be thrilled to have this dress!"

"Well then let them have it, you know that I already had one picked out when I came in today," she answered back.

"Oh, very well. I'll go get it, you silly girl," she laughed when Holly stuck her tongue out at her and walked farther away towards a back room. Now that Draco was able to get a closer look, he realized just how atrocious the dress actually was. The whole thing was bubblegum pink with puffy sleeves and what had to be a hundred layers in the big skirt, each held up by tiny white bows. Clearly this was an attempt to torture the poor girl.

Just then, Madam Malkin bustled back into the room with an armful of golden fabric. Well at least it isn't pink, Draco thought. "Off you go, then," the gray-haired witch scooted Holly back into a changing room and returned to her seat by the wall.

Not long later, Holly walked back into the room, holding shiny dress up to her chest. "Can you lace me up, please?" she asked and turned around. Draco's eyebrows raised when he saw that the dress was opened until the very bottom of the graceful curve of her back. He almost felt dirty for watching her unnoticed in this very exposed position. Almost. All too soon, the dress was laced up to an appropriate place and she turned around.

Draco didn't think it was possible, but he was even more surprised now. The first thing that he noticed was that the tight bodice created subtle curves on her tiny frame. His eyes followed the line of the dress to the floor. Holly had gotten taller over the Summer, she would probably be just up to his shoulders now, but that wasn't the only thing different about her. Now her glossy brown hair fell halfway down her back and she wore a slight amount of makeup which made her dark blue eyes really stand out. Draco had always found her pretty, but standing here in this dress, he admitted grudgingly, Holly was stunning.

He cleared his throat at this revelation which caused two sets of eyes to shoot to him. Great, he thought sarcastically.

"How long have you been watching me, Malfoy?" Holly demanded.

Draco tried to look indifferent and come up with an excuse, "wow, Earnshaw. A little conceited aren't we? I was actually just here to buy some new dress robes, like you, and came back here to see why it was taking so long to get a little service," he matched Madam Malkin's glare.

He was happy to see that Holly looked flustered at her assumption being wrong. "you didn't answer me. How long?"

"Long enough to know that pink really isn't your color," he winked, making her cheeks red in embarrassment.

"Malfoy, get out of here!" she yelled.

As much as he wanted to stay and torment Holly some more, Draco figured that he should probably do as she said because he was finding it very hard to keep his eyes off of her body in that dress. "Whatever you say, Earnshaw," he rolled his eyes and started to walk back to the door but had to take one last look to cement the scene in his memory. Holly and Madam Malkin were still watching him suspiciously so he shook his head and walked back out into the bright sunlight and busy sounds of Diagon Alley.

He walked down the street for a while before leaning back against the wall to an apothecary. Draco had always found it easy to ignore Holly before, there were plenty of girls that fawned over him so he didn't really need to pay attention to another girl, but after seeing her looking the way she did today, he knew that he would have a much harder time now. He pushed himself back off the wall and growled. It was going to be a very long year.

**Now that I have a lot of the background stuff done, I'll start getting into the actual story. I'll keep posting chapters as soon as I have them written up. Reviews are lovely! Thanks!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Hello, lovelies :) Sorry if this one is a little late, I just could not get myself to actually type anything this week, but I'm already sort of working on the 4th chapter so that should be up within a couple of days. As always, I am only using J.K. Rowling's characters to play with for my own fantasies. On with the story.**

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Holly was sitting on her bursting suitcase full of clothes and books, trying to force the lid shut when her father walked into her room.

"Hey, Dolly," he said as he closed clasp on her suitcase with three fingers and sat down on her orange striped bed. "We have to leave in about half an hour, will you be ready by then?"

"Yup, I've been ready for ten minutes but my stupid trunk wouldn't close- and don't give me that smirk, i'm perfectly strong, it's not my fault that you could probably lift a baby elephant over you head with one hand," she laughed, making her father roll his eyes. With an almighty grunt, Holly hoisted her suitcase up onto her bed which made her dad almost bounce right off of it.

"Geez, what did you do, put your entire library in there?" he joked after finding a safer place to sit at the other end of her bed.

"Oh hush, I only put half in, the rest of it is coming after Christmas," she winked.

"Oh, my apologies," her dad said sarcastically, "how could I have been so presumptuous?"

Holly hummed as if she were considering something and said, "alright, I'll forgive you this time, if..." she trailed off, clearly making her father nervous about where this was headed. "Oh relax, I was only kidding," she laughed, "but I really do want you come downstairs with me. I have something to give you."

"Holly?" her father questioned, but Holly just shook her head and grabbed his arm, dragging him down the stairs into the dining room.

"Now sit tight, I'll be right back," she put both hands up and gave him a stern look.

"I'm not a dog, you know," her dad called, but Holly just laughed and walked into the kitchen. She walked right up to the fridge and smiled when she saw that her cake was still there. She had worked on it for all of the previous day, making sure it was just right. When she walked back out into the dining room, her father looked extremely confused by the dessert that was proudly displayed in Holly's arms. "Why do you have a cake?" he asked with a quizzical look pulling his eyebrows together.

She set the large forest green cake in front of him and shrugged, "because I'm leaving soon."

"Doesn't that mean I'm supposed to make you a cake, though?"

"Well, yes, I suppose so, but it's your birthday in a couple of days and I won't be able to be here with you so I made it a couple of days early," Holly answered the stunned man sitting across from her.

"Wait now," he said, "you mean to tell me that you made this yourself? Have you ever cooked anything in your life?"

Holly shook her head no, "but it's fairly easy if you have a recipe for it."

"But Holly, why would you make a cake by yourself? That's what we have house elves for," he said as if it were an unfathomable thing to do.

"Because, Dad, I wanted it to be special and make it myself, now please just eat it and be happy."

He just sighed, still not understanding why his daughter would want to do something like that by herself and called for Sampson. The frail-looking elf appeared in front of him not five seconds later and bowed so that his long nose touched the floor. "Sampson," came the man's deep baritone, "bring back a camera and some butterbeer."

"Right away, Sir," the eld squeaked.

"And do be quick about it, we only have fifteen minutes before we have to leave," Holly's dad snapped.

Before either Holly or her dad could say something, Sampson popped back into the room, huffing slightly from the rush. "Here you are, Sir," he said, offering the items with a smile.

"Right then, on your way, elf," the man said, waving his hand dismissively.

As Sampson turned towards Holly to leave, his smile faltered and his large ears drooped. She couldn't stand to see him like this, especially if this was how she left him before going back to Hogwarts so she bent down to be the same height as him and smiled warmly. "Thank you so much, Sampson. I'll see you for Christmas break, ok?"

The house elf looked to be perked back up as he vigorously nodded his head. "Miss Earnshaw is most welcome," he said happily and apparated to somewhere else in the huge empty house.

"Ill never understand why you insist on treating them like humans," her father said while shaking his head. Holly just remained quiet, she had learned not to argue with him on this point long ago. This seemed to satisfy him for the moment as he set the camera a short distance away from them and set the timer. "Ready?" he asked, preparing his fork with a large piece of cake as Holly did the same and nodded. When the flash went off, they both shoved their forks into their mouths and started to chew. Before she even had time to think about what was happening, though, both she and her father had flown off their chairs and to the nearest waste can to spit out their food.

They quietly walked back to the table and just stared at each other for a whole second before bursting into hysterics. "Merlin's beard, Holly! That was terrible!" her father managed to say between laughs.

"That was the worst thing I've ever eaten," Holly agreed, wiping tears from her eyes.

"Next time, at least have Sampson watch you so you don't end up poisoning us!"

"Ugh, don't worry, I am never cooking again," she said, finally done laughing, and then as an afterthought added, "do you know what time it is?"

Her dad looked at the gold watch that she had gotten him for Christmas last year and said, "7:28, we should probably get going. Accio Holly's suitcase." They both watched as the strained suitcase floated gracefully down the stairs and landed by the smoldering fireplace. "Well," her father swept in arm in front of him, "after you."

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Holly slowly made her way over to the gigantic steam engine, careful not to hit any of the people saying goodbye to their loved ones as she squeezed past them. She didn't have anyone to say goodbye to now because shortly after she and her father had arrived at platform nine and three quarters, her dad had been summoned. She knew what was happening immediately after his left arm twitched in pain. Holly had just sighed and looked into his pleading eyes and said, "look, it's fine. Just go, and please, please be safe. You know that I won't be there if anything goes wrong now."

"I'm so sorry, Dolly," he said as he wrapped her up in a hug and kissed her light brown hair. "You be safe, too," he said seriously, "no funny business this year, and I mean it." Holly just rolled her eyes with a snort, as if her life were anywhere near exciting. "I love you," he continued, "I'll see you in a couple of months."

"I love you, too Dad," she said, and with one last glance, her dad hurried past the oblivious families to report to the most evil wizard that had ever lived.

Get over it, Holly, she told herself, trying to swallow the painful lump in her throat as she heard the last call to board the train. It wasn't the first time that he had left her alone and it certainly wouldn't be the last time, but no matter how hard she tried, she just couldn't stop the feelings of disappointment that came every time.

Once both she and her trunk were both safely aboard the train, she peered into the compartments, hoping to see a familiar face. About halfway down the aisle, she spotted her best friend running towards her. "Holly!" the tiny blonde screamed as she jumped on top of Holly, almost suffocating her with her arms.

Holly just pried her arms from around her neck and laughed, "How are you always so hyper, Tori? It's good to see you, too. How was your Summer?"

"Oh my goodness, it was fabulous! I just _have _to tell you about Andrew. Oh and Josh. And do _not_ let me forget to tell you about Mitchel!" she gushed.

Holly was sure that her eyes were bugging out of her head. "Bloody hell, Tori! How do you keep them all straight?" she exclaimed.

Tori just winked and flipped her golden hair over her shoulder, "yeah, like you would do anything with such knowledge, Miss I-don't-need-boys-to-feel-good-about-myself."

"wha- not fair! I never said that, I just haven't talked to any boys that are worthy of my affections," she stuck out her tongue, "maybe if you went a day or two without snogging some poor guy's brains out you would see where I'm coming from."

"Ooh, touchy touchy. Is that any way to talk to your best friend?"

"Oh, Tori, even you know that's true," Holly laughed, soon followed by her friend.

"Ok, yeah, it's true. But it's so fun without having to make a commitment, you should really give it a try! Or... not," she amended, seeing the unbelieving look on Holly's face, "But listen, I told Bronson that I would be right back so we'll have to catch up at Hogwarts. Oh, and I think I saw an open spot in a back compartment. See you later!" she waved and turned around. Holly sighed, she would never understand how she and Tori could be so completely different and still be best friends. Tori had the body of one of those runway models; tall and lean with perfect hair and breasts. Hell, she should probably even prance around like one in her underwear and everyone would be too busy ogling her to actually hand out any punishment. Except for McGonagall, she corrected herself with a shiver. Even just the thought of the woman gave Holly the heebie jeebies. Now, that's not to say that Holly wasn't attractive, as she knew that many girls threw her envious looks even before Tori had taken her under her wing and shared her beauty secrets, she just didn't think that she had her best friend's supermodel good looks.

By the time that she had finished that thought, Holly was peering inside the last compartment with a look of horror on her face. No, no, no. This couldn't be happening. The only spot open was right beside Harry fricken Potter and his two weird friends. She desperately peered back and forth as if she would find a flashing sign saying "More seats in here!" but to her extreme disappointment, she could find none. Grudgingly opening the door, Holly waited for one of them to notice her.

Harry was the first one to look up and his face turned dark. "What do you want, Earnshaw?" he all but growled at her. This took Holly slightly by surprise; she knew that they shared a mutual dislike due to their houses and her father's "job", but Harry had never shown her outright disrespect like he had just now. Holly wondered why he had changed so much since last school year and then it dawned on her. She had overheard her father speaking with another Death Eater about what had happened at the Department of Mysteries last year, but she had not payed too much attention to it as she tried not to get involved with that sort of thing. Now, however, as she thought back to it, she was fairly certain that she recalled hearing that someone had died, Sirius Black? Of course, it all made sense now! It was no secret that Sirius Black was Harry's godfather, they must have been very close.

"Relax, Potter, I'm not here to hurt any of you. I just need a place to sit," her facial featured softened towards him. As much as she didn't like the so-called Chosen One, she knew very well how it felt to lose someone close to you, and nobody deserved that torture.

Harry looked unsure as to whether or not he should trust the Slytherin girl standing before him so he glanced back and forth between his two friends to see what they thought. The boy slowly shook his head, but the airy-looking blonde smiled and said dreamily, "It's alright, Harry. The Wrackspurts aren't attacking her so she must be telling the truth." Oh, so _this _was the infamous Loony Lovegood. Well, at least she had persuaded the other two to allow her to sit with them. Taking Harry's hesitant nod as her cue to step fully into the compartment, she heaved her luggage onto the rail above her and pulled out a book before plopping onto her seat and trying to get comfortable.

When she was about three chapters in, she heard the door slide open and looked up to see two new people stepping into the tiny room. Hermione Granger was on the left, she had seen her in the library quite often and they had even struck up a few conversations about house elves, but that was as far as their acquaintance went. If she remembered correctly, the orange one on her left was named Ron; she knew he was a Weasley by his flaming orange hair.

He immediately started talking about the lunch trolley as he sat down. Apparently this was a natural segue into the topic of Draco Malfoy as the next things to leave his mouth were suspicions on him being up to no good. This made Holly snort, since when was Malfoy _ever _up to anything good? Ron's head snapped to her so quickly that she heard it crack. Seeing the confused look on his face, he must not have seen her when he walked in.

"Oh, by all means, please continue. I dislike him as much as any of you lot do, believe me," Holly smirked.

"It's ok, Ron," came a dreamy voice to Holly's right, "the Wrackspurts are never wrong." If anything, this only made the poor guy look even more confused, it was almost painful to watch him try to sort everything out. Harry caught his eye and raised a hand in the air to say that he had no control over this and Ron finally took a seat as far away from Holly as he could in the tight quarters.

"Oh, Ron, you are being ridiculous," Hermione said before addressing her, "hello Holly, have a pleasant Summer?"

"Oh yes, thank you. And yourself?" she laughed at the boys' stunned faces. Apparently Hermione hadn't told them that they knew each other.

Hermione rolled her eyes before glancing again at Ron and Harry who were now whispering not so quietly about Malfoy. "It was rather boring, thank Merlin for that!" she exclaimed.

After a bit more small talk with Hermione, both girls dove into their books. Holly barely even noticed when the door opened again and Harry and Neville received notes. Shortly later, the two boys left, apparently to have lunch with a new professor who was taking Umbridge's position from last year. Gah, Umbridge. What a vile lady. At least any professor would be better than that pink-clad monster. As Harry slipped out, however, Holly noticed something shimmery peaking out from his robes. That was an invisibility cloak, she would know one anywhere. She hoped he wasn't planning on attempting to spy on Malfoy, but after all of his whispering with Ron, she assumed that that was exactly what he was about to do. Stupid boy, nobody spies on a Malfoy, even she knew that.

Sure enough, an hour and a half later Neville arrived back in their compartment without Harry. With the exception of Hermione's slightly narrowed eyes, nobody even seemed to take notice of this odd fact and Holly mentally wondered at how naive they could be. Even she knew that Harry was up to no good and she didn't even know him!

Not long after Neville came back, the train started to slow down and everyone picked up their things and got their suitcases down from the rack. As she hauled her trunk behind her, Holly caught sight of a platinum blonde head and knew it to be Malfoy immediately so she hurried up to hear what he was saying.

"-right in the nose!... blood everywhere!... Still there, " she heard half of what he was saying to Goyle over the roar of chatting students. Are you kidding me, Potter? She thought to herself, even with an invisibility cloak you managed to get caught? Holly stepped off the train and saw a woman with bright pink hair who appeared to be trying to make sure everything was ok on the train. She shouldn't be doing this, that boy deserved what he got for being so stupid, but she couldn't just leave him on the train if Malfoy was serious about leaving him there.

"Excuse me," she said loudly so that the strange lady could hear her. Holly pulled her cloak closer to her face to avoid being seen by any of her schoolmates. They could not know that she was helping someone from another house, Harry Potter, no less.

"Yes, Dear?" the lady turned to look at Holly, "something I can help you with?"

Holly cleared her throat uncomfortably, "you might want to check that compartment with the blinds closed." The young woman looked where Holly was pointing and when she turned back to ask Holly what was in it, she had disappeared into the mob of students, making her way up to her favorite place in the world. Hogwarts, at last.

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**Hogwarts at last, indeed. I hope everyone is liking this so far, it's starting too come more naturally now and the pace is picking up a bit so hopefully I'll be able to put up these chapters quicker. Ten points to whoever can find the references to AVPM and Harry Potter Puppet Pals :D **


	4. Chapter 4

**Two chapters in two days? Not too bad I would say. Hope you guys like it!**

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"Holly, wake up!" someone yelled, jumping on her bed, "we're going to be late for breakfast!" Holly groaned loudly and pushed her friend off of the bed with a resonating thump. "Not cool, Holls," the energetic blonde complained.

"Yeah, well you're just lucky I didn't have my wand on my right now or you'd have more than just a bruised arse," Holly grumbled and turned over to pull her thick emerald green comforter over her head.

"Ah ah ah!" Tori chastised, pulling Holly off the bed by her ankles. "We have to be down there soon, and I'm sorry to say this, hon, but you look like a troll right now."

"Aww, always so sweet, "Holly cooed as she brushed herself off and walked over to her trunk which she still hadn't unpacked, "has anyone ever told you that you sound just like one of those mirrors that throw out ridiculous compliments?"

"Yes, actually," Tori deadpanned, "but seriously, your hair is stinking up in about a hundred different ways right now so if you want to have a chance with Montague this year you have to at least brush it."

Holly walked into their shared bathroom and began to do as she was told. "Come off it, Tori!" she yelled, "I haven't liked him since second year and you know it! Ew, I don't know what I ever saw in him," she shuddered as she thought of the hairy seeker with crooked teeth.

"I don't know either, he's about as slimy as the giant squid. He kisses just as good as it, too," she added, making Holly roll her eyes. Tori really had made it through all of the Slytherin boys, hadn't she? "Are you almost done in there? Really, Holly, I'm starting to think you really _are_ trying to impress him."

Holly gave her friend a rude hand gesture and stepped out of the dorm. "No, not Montague," she winked.

It only took a second for Tori to catch up and jab a finger into Holly's ribs. "Oh, so you _do_ like someone!" she yelled, "so who's the lucky guy that finally broke down that wall of yours? Is it Nott? Malfoy? Oh, please, Holly, tell me it isn't Adrian Pucey!"

Holly couldn't keep back her laughter, "you'll just have to guess," she teased and resumed walking down to the great hall, tall blonde in tow, shooting off questions about Holly's "mystery man".

By the time the two girls reached their table, Holly was clutching her side from laughing so hard. She had intended to confess that there was, indeed, no boy at Hogwarts that struck her fancy, for now at least, but Tori's increasingly ridiculous questions were just too ridiculous to stop.

"Oh! i have it!" her friend bounced up and down on the bench, dropping her toast on her plate to grip Holly's shoulders seriously. "Is it the guy who tried to streak through the dungeons at that quidditch party last year?"

That question along with the completely serious look on Tori's face almost had orange juice shooting out of Holly's nose. "If you mean Marcus Melby, then no. He got expelled for that little stunt, don't you remember?"

Tori looked defeated and finally admitted that she had no idea who it could be. "I've already named off every boy in Slytherin, Holly!" she complained.

Just then, Blaise Zabini came to sit right in between the two girls. "Well, hello, ladies. Fancy running into you here," he winked and put his arms around their shoulders. "So what are we talking about today?"

Tori huffed and pointed a finger at Holly, "she fancies someone and she's not telling me who it is." That tattle tail.

This seemed to peak Blaise's interest, along with all the other guys who were near enough to hear that little outburst. "Well, Holly, I sure hope that you have finally come to realize that you're in love with me. It's ok, it was bound to happen eventually," he sighed dreamily.

Holly laughed and put on her best lovestruck teenage girl impression, "Oh, Blaise!" she exclaimed with a hand over her heart, "It seems as though you've found me out. I am madly in love with you! Oh, kiss me, Blaise!" she could not last anymore before falling into a fit of giggles.

Blaise was laughing, too when he said, "Bloody hell, Holly. That was seriously disturbing, I never want to hear you say anything like that again. You're the last sane girl in this entire school, I reckon."

"Oh, don't worry about me. I am in no danger of liking any of you lot anytime soon," she said, eyeing the four boys who were still watching the three of them curiously. It's not that she didn't find any of the boys attractive, because she did. Blaise was extremely good looking with his dark skin and deep brown eyes, the exact opposite of Draco Malfoy's pale features, and yet, she had to admit that even he was very handsome. If only he wasn't such a git.

"I'll get to you yet, Holly Earnshaw, I promise you that," Tori said with an evil grin.

Blaise and Holly looked at each other worriedly. "Merlin help us if that should ever happen," Blaise whispered, receiving a smack on the shoulder from the blonde.

"I don't know, Blaise," came a drawling voice from the other side of the table. Draco leaned forward as if to inspect Holly, "if she was a bit more like Tori over here, even I might be interested."

"Oh shove off, Malfoy," Holly sneered, picking up her schedule that she had gotten from Professor Snape, "I'll see you two in Charms, ok?" she said softly to Tori and Blaise before heading off back upstairs to get ready for class.

Charms and History of Magic had gone by quite quickly as they always did for Holly. Transfiguration was going to be hard this year, though, especially if McGonagall kept hovering over Holly like she was waiting for her to make a mistake. Now, she made her way back downstairs to the dungeons for her last class of the day, Potions. She sure hoped that Slughorn knew what he was doing because as much as she tried to avoid Snape throughout the years, he really did know how to teach Potions

As she walked into the dimly lit room, Holly noticed Blaise and Tori waving her over to their table. "Hey," she said after she put her book bag beneath the table, "how are your classes so far?"

"Ugh," Tori moaned dramatically, "Well as you know, Charms was horrible as always, Divination is a bore, and Arithmancy is only suitable for walking textbooks like Granger." They both glanced over to where the bushy-haired girl was already getting started on homework that she had received for her other classes. "How about you, Blaise?" she asked.

He thought for a moment before saying, "Well, nothing too terrible, I mean, I have the worst two classes with you guys and Herbology is probably the easiest class here. Then there's just Ancient Runes which I've always sort of liked," he shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly.

Alright, class," came a loud voice from the front of the room, cutting off their conversation as Professor Slughorn bustled into the room, "as you know, I'm your new Potions professor. Now, as is the case with every new professor, things are going to be a little bit different around here this year, one of which is that you will all have assigned seats for the first term so that you can get to know more people. Before I give you your seats, though, let me explain why I'm doing it this way. You are all going to receive a partner who will help you brew a polyjuice potion over the next month so that I know where all of your potion-making skills are and you are to sit with them until the potion is finished," he said to a chorus of groans and took out a floppy hat with all of their names in it. As the professor started calling out names, Holly started daydreaming, only to be snapped out of it when she heard her own. "Holly Earnshaw is to be partnered with Harry Potter... Hermione Granger with Ronald Weasley..."

"Damn!" Holly whispered as Blaise gave her a consoling look.

"If it makes you feel any better, I got Parkinson," he shuddered which make Holly snort loudly, earning her many glances from her fellow Slytherins.

Tori budged her way in front of Blaise so that she could get a better look at Holly, "yes, it seems as though you both got the shorter end of the stick. I, on the other hand, got Draco Malfoy, he's great at potions _and_ he's amazing in bed," she said and caught his eye from across the room. He had much too big of a smirk for Holly's liking.

"Git," was all Holly said as she picked up her bags to go sit beside Harry. Neither of them said a word while Professor Slughorn explained that they would have to meet up every few days to keep an eye on the potion.

When Slughorn finished and gave the partners time to meet each other, Harry turned to her with a mad glint in his eye. "Why did you do it?" he demanded.

"I don't know what you mean," she hedged, even though she knew exactly what he was talking about.

"Why did you help me on the train? I know it was you, Tonks told me that a Slytherin girl told her to check the compartment I was in and you're the only one who would have an idea of where I was. Why did you do it?" He was still glaring at her, a mix between suspicion and confusion on his face.

"Well I don't see why you're mad!" Holly exclaimed, "I did you a favor against my better judgement, Potter, don't worry about it."

Their staring contest lasted a few seconds when Harry said, "I don't trust you. When I find out what you're plotting, you will be sorry."

Just then, Slughorn came back to the front of the room and started pointing out a few different potions excitedly. "Just because you're the 'Chosen One' doesn't mean that everyone is out to get you, you narcissistic bastard," Holly spat at him venomously and moved her chair to the far side of the table, signaling that the argument was over.

"Ok boys and girls, you have the rest of the time to brew a drought of living death. Whoever brews it the best will receive this tiny vial of Felix Felicis. The ingredients are up on the table. You may begin." Slughorn's voice came over the sound of talking students. Good, Holly thought, at least it will take her mind off of her furious thoughts about Harry Potter. He had only been by her for ten minutes and somehow he had already managed to insult her character. How would she ever survive this for another month? She let out a low growl before heading off to the front table to get her ingredients.

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**Sooo, any thoughts? This is a shorter chapter, but things are going to start actually happening now and Draco and Holly won't be able to avoid each other anymore now that he's going to be spending a lot more time with her roommate. The review box is once inch below this, don't be afraid to use it! Seriously, even if it said something like "this sucks, go die" I would still probably dance around out of excitement lol. Thanks to everyone who's added this to their favorites/alerts! Until next time.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Hello, readers! I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving if you celebrate it. Also, in my last A/N I forgot to mention that although I changed a big part of the story with the whole partner thing, I thought it was important to kind of kick start my story. I don't think I'll be changing anything else, though. I'll try not to at least. Everything belongs to J.K Rowling except for Holly and Tori, I only wish I own Draco.**

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For the last week or so, Holly and Harry had managed to keep their conversations strictly to their polyjuice potion. No lingering glances were given and their chairs were positioned as far away as their table would allow. It was fairly easy to ignore each other until this point, but now that the polyjuice potion was further along, it would need to be tended to much more frequently than every couple of days which meant that the two of them would have to spend time with each other outside of class, too. Holly was mulling over this information one morning in the great hall while eating her breakfast.

"Damn, Earnshaw," an infuriating voice came from the other side of Tori who was sitting to her right. Holly looked up from where she was glaring unseeingly at the middle of the table to see Draco smirking at her, "does the ham offend you or something? You look as though you're trying to burn a hole through it with your eyes." Not even thinking that that warranted a response, Holly just fixed her deep blue eyes onto Draco's piercing gray ones with a raised eyebrow. She violently stabbed at a sausage, putting a satisfactorily wary look on his face.

"She's just mad that she has to go work with 'the chosen one'," Tori chimed in mockingly and turned to Holly who was once again glaring daggers into the table.

"Ohh, now I get it. I would be mad, too if I was with him. He really is a judgmental git, not to mention I wouldn't get the perks of being with Tori here," Draco said smugly. There was a soft crack as Tori tried to discretely smack his leg which only made him laugh. Ugh, that is so wrong, Holly thought to herself. Tori could be shagging anyone else and it wouldn't bother her, but Draco was just so... Draco. Whatever, she wasn't going to let them know that it annoyed her, Tori was her best friend and Draco would just assume it was because she fancied him which was so far from the truth it was almost funny. She would rather date the giant squid than Draco Malfoy.

Tori seemed to have given up scolding Draco by now because she was chatting happily with Daphne Greengrass and Tracey Davis. She stopped talking suddenly, still in mid sentence, and looked over Holly's shoulder. "Oh, look," she said slowly, "speaking of Potter..."

Sure enough, Holly turned around to see the tall messy-haired Gryffindor making his way through the crowded room to the Slytherin table. It seemed like the whole great hall -professors included- were watching on bated breath to see what he could possibly be doing walking so unguarded into enemy territory. Many people thought that a fight was about to happen as Holly could see wagers being made through the corners of her eyes.

When he finally approached the table, Holly didn't speak but just glared at him. Harry looked extremely uncomfortable, whether it was from what he wanted to say or from the fact that he was surrounded by burly Slytherins, Holly couldn't say for sure. She decided to let him make the first move so she turned back around to finish her breakfast.

"Look, Holly," he said from behind her. This caught her attention; it was the first time that Harry had addressed her by her first name. She turned around and stared at him expectantly, still not saying a word. Harry ran a hand through his already messy hair and glanced around the table nervously before continuing, "I just wanted to... will you... can we go for a walk?" he sighed, finally able to come up with a decent sentence, "please?" he added quietly when he saw that Holly didn't want to move.

Holly was utterly bewildered; why was he acting like this? They'd barely said two words to each other in over a week besides "pass the lacewing flies" or "crush that bicorn horn". She truly had no idea how to respond so she just sat there dumbly with her mouth hanging open. Should she appease her curiosity and go with him to see what he wanted to say? No, what if this was a setup to get her alone to do something awful to her? Would he dare to do that? She couldn't see Harry doing anything like that; it was too Slytherin, but then again, why else would he want to be alone with her?

"Who would want to go anywhere with you, Potter? I'm sure even Earnshaw has better things to do with her time than that" Draco jeered. Oh, right. That's why. Well at least that made her decision easier. She really did want to know what Harry was going to say, but mostly Holly just wanted to go in spite of Draco.

She turned to grab her things and said, "well let's go then." Holly noticed the questioning look that Tori was sending her and shrugged her shoulders. Satisfied that her best friend would tell her everything later, Tori tuned back around to continue her conversation with Tracey and Daphne. Draco, on the other hand, was fuming as his cold eyes bore into hers for a few seconds, making Holly feel strangely uncomfortable. She broke eye contact with him and made sure to shove into him on her way out of the great hall without a second glance.

Harry and Holly were met with a hundred probing stares as they left through the heavy wooden doors. Great, Holly thought, now everyone would think that she was consorting with Gryffindors. This had her blood boiling and she couldn't wait to release her anger on the anxious boy next to her. As soon as they had made it into a deserted hallway, she rounded on him with venom in her eyes. "What is your problem, Potter?" she growled. "Haven't you accused me of enough? Or are you going to tell me that you think I'm a Death Eater now or something equally ridiculous. Really, I thought that even you were above all that, but I suppose that's what I get for doing a favor for a Gryffindor, isn't it? You think you're so bloody high and mighty, don't you? Well I have news for you, just because I'm not fighting on your side doesn't mean that I'm any worse than you. Do you honestly believe that I _want _to be put into the middle of a war? Do you think I _like_ being surrounded by death and torture every day of my life? Or are you even more stupid than I already thought you were?" Holly had not planned to tell him her views on the war; there would be hell to pay of any Slytherins caught wind of them, but it was too late to take them back now which only made her more angry so she roughly pushed him into the wall and whispered in his ear, "if you tell anyone what I just said, I suggest you leave Hogwarts immediately because the entire Order of the Phoenix couldn't keep me away from you, Potter. You'll do well to remember that."

Once Holly released her hold of his arms and stepped away from him, Harry looked justifiably frightened. He tried to say something but it took a few moments for him to get his resolve back. He took a step forward with his hands up and a concerned expression on his face. "Ok, Holly, I deserved every bit of that. That was the reason why I wanted to talk to you, actually. I just... I'm sorry," Holly's head was tilted to the side in confusion. She definitely had not been expecting an apology; he had too much pride to do that, and he was not finished. "If anyone knows what it's like to be judged based off of everything but what really matters, it's me, so I never should have done that to you. You were nothing but kind to me which must have been incredibly hard for you because of who I am. I am genuinely grateful for what you did and I'm sorry I ever questioned your motives." Harry stepped back and waited for Holly to comprehend what she had just heard. Gryffindors and Slytherins do _not_ apologize to each other, and yet, here they stood.

"You're sorry?" Holly asked to make sure that she had heard him right.

He nodded solemnly, "will you forgive me?"

It took a moment for Holly to respond. Her natural reaction was to tell him to go jump off the astronomy tower, but there was a slight nagging in her brain that Harry Potter wasn't _quite _as loathsome as she had believed him to be. She looked back to his waiting expression and slowly shook her head, "...no. Not yet at least. The concept is still too new to me."

Harry let out a single laugh and messed up his hair again, "believe me, I know exactly what you mean. So, truce?" He held out a hand for Holly to grasp.

"Truce," she agreed, "but this doesn't mean that we're friends by any means."

"That is fine by me. So I'll see you tonight in front of the Barnabas the Barmy tapestry after dinner?" Harry asked, taking his hand back.

"Um, why would we meet there? there aren't any open classrooms over there at night," Holly questioned.

Harry just laughed and said simply, "You really don't know yet? I'll just have to show you. You wouldn't believe me if I told you." Before Holly could ask any more questions, he was already walking back to the great hall standing much taller than he had on the way out.

* * *

At a quarter to seven that night, Holly stepped onto the 7th floor landing to meet Harry. The whole floor looked vacant which surprised her; weren't Gryffindors supposed to be heading to their common room now? She turned the final corner into the hall with the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy teaching trolls how to ballet dance and saw Harry pacing back and forth with his eyes closed.

"Oi, Potter!" Holly called but was ignored by him. Was he that out of it that he couldn't even hear her? She walked right up to Harry to tap him on the shoulder when all of a sudden, she was looking at a very solid looking door that wasn't there a couple of seconds before. "What in Merlin's name is this?"

With a cheesy grin on his face, Harry swept a hand in front of himself and said, "Welcome to the Room of Requirement."

"The Room of what now?" Holly asked hesitantly.

"The Room of Requirement," Harry repeated as he stepped forward to open the door, revealing a top of the line potions lab furnished with cauldrons, scales, and even the half-completed polyjuice potion that they had been working on in class. "I found this room a couple of years back. It becomes whatever you need it to: a study, a lounge, and even a bathroom, I've been told," he chuckled, remembering something an old conversation with the headmaster.

Holly let out a long breath as she took in her surroundings. Every last detail was spot on, from the long ingredient table on one side of the room to the smooth marble floor. She gasped as she noticed a large collection of books on the wall closest to her. "Harry," Holly breathed, "it's perfect. Are all the other rooms as incredible as this?"

Harry was leaning against the bookshelf behind him looking very pleased with himself. "Oh, you have no idea. You should check some of them out sometime, they'll blow your mind."

"Thank you so much for showing me!" Holly exclaimed. She was so caught up in the possibilities that presented themselves to her that she threw her arms around Harry.

He stiffened up at this display of affection which brought Holly back into reality. She jumped back as if she were electrocuted. "Oh, er, sorry," she said sheepishly.

"Yeah, uh, don't mention it. So, let's get to work, shall we?" He tried to get the conversation back on track.

"Yes, of course. So all we need to do tonight is add four leeches and add two measures of crushed lacewing flies, right?" Holly asked as she stepped over to the impressive table of ingredients. Harry nodded and grabbed his ratty copy of their potions book out of his book bag.

Once their station was all set up, Holly got to work crushing up the lacewing flies in the top of the line mortar found on the table while Harry added the leeches. Why was he adding so many? They were only supposed to put four in! "What are you doing? You're going to ruin it!" she yelled at him.

"No, no, it's ok, Holly," he tried to convince her, "See? Look at it. It didn't look muddy enough so I put in two more leeches like my book said and it's perfect now."

Holly narrowed her eyes at Harry before peering into the cauldron. Ew, he was right; it definitely was muddier now. "Well, Potter, I'm impressed. Where did you get that book?"

"Slughorn gave it to me himself from the old cabinet in front of his room because I switched into his class and didn't have one for myself," he shrugged like it was no big deal.

"Well damn, I'm glad you have it. Potions isn't my best subject so I need all the help I can get," Holly said while skimming the pages that were cramped with writing that was almost unreadable while Harry added the lacewing flies.

"Don't worry, you'll do fine. There, now all we need to do is let it boil and we don't have to do anything for another week," Harry said, brushing off his robes and standing up to head over to hold open the door for Holly.

"Well then, I'll see you in class tomorrow and then a week from now. Same place, same time?" she walked through the door before it disappeared into the brick wall. Harry just nodded and they said goodnight to each other, each going their separate ways at the grand staircase.

Holly was dumbfounded. Not only had tonight been tolerable, but it was actually almost fun. Well, as fun as making potions could be, she corrected herself. She couldn't say that she was looking forward to next week, but it certainly wouldn't be the worst thing that she would have to do for homework. Feeling more at east than she had all day, Holly walked through the portrait hole to the crowded common room and up the stairs to her dorm.

When she walked into the seemingly empty room and began to put on her tank top and shorts for bed, there were sounds coming from the bed next to her and Tori's head popped out from the curtains. "Oh hey, Holls," she said slightly out of breath, "w- I wasn't expecting you until later."

Holly caught her slip up and narrowed her eyes at her friend. "Draco's in here, isn't he?" Tori's face dropped right away as Draco's head popped out from the curtains above hers.

"Hey, Holls," he winked.

"First of all, you don't call me that," she said, glaring at Draco before looking back to her blonde friend who didn't even have the decency to look ashamed at getting caught in the act, "and you, really Tori? You couldn't even make sure that I was going to be gone for a while? Merlin's beard, that's disgusting. I'm going to the common room. He had better be out of here before nine or so help me, Tori, I will never help you with homework again," she finished her rant and grabbed the book that she was currently reading from her bedside table. With one last glare at Tori and Draco, Holly stormed out of the room and down to a deserted corner of the common room to read.

She had just gotten to the part where Heathcliff comes back to Thrushcross Grange when someone took a seat on the arm of her chair. She was fully prepared to give whoever it was a piece of her mind for blocking the light when she looked up to see Blaise looking down at her with a stupid look on his face.

"Why do you look like someone just kicked your puppy?" He asked with a frown.

"Hmm," Holly said, putting a finger to her mouth as if she were thinking hard, "well, I stubbed my toe coming down the stairs, I remembered that it's only Tuesday, I just walked in on my best friend shagging the biggest arse in the entire school, and some jerk is blocking my light and not letting me read my book."

He stuck his tongue out at Holly for the last part and said, "well I'm very sorry for your toes and I can't do anything about what day it is but are Draco and Tori really together again?"

"Yep, looks like it's just you and me for a while again. Except for right now. Right now I want to see if Edgar and Heathcliff and going to fight." Holly said, pushing Blaise off her chair.

"You're such a dork sometimes, you know that?" He said while rubbing his arm with a pained look on his face.

Holly just laughed and shook her head, "you've never been a good actor, Blaise. Go to bed."

He broke into a smile, "will you come with me?" he asked, but gave up when Holly just stared at him with an amused look on her face. "Alright, alright. I just had to try. Night, Holly."

"Goodnight, Blaise."

Once she heard Blaise's door close behind him, Holly figured she was safe to start reading again. She was only about three pages further, however, when two hands rested on her shoulders. Blaise really did need to give it up, she laughed. "I'm too tired to sleep with you tonight, try again next week," she told him.

"Well, I'll just have to take you up on that," came a whisper close to her ear. Her back straightened and a shiver went up her spine. This wasn't Blaise.

"Oh, bugger off, Malfoy. I wouldn't sleep with you if my life depended on it," she seethed and ripped herself out of his hold.

"You say that now, Holls, but I know that you want to. You're jealous of Tori, I can see it in your eyes," Draco said smugly, leaning over the back of the green armchair.

Ugh, she really hated him right now. How could he say such blatant lies to her face? "In your dreams."

"When I have your best friend right there waiting for me? Not likely," he scoffed. He was lying, Holly knew it. Draco Malfoy had been trying to get her in bed since the Yule Ball. She suddenly had the perfect way of getting back at him. She only had to make him admit that he wanted her as badly as she knew that he did and his ego would take a hit when everyone found out that he couldn't get any girl that he wanted. "Why are you smirking like that?" Draco asked.

"Oh, no reason," she said breathily and leaned forward so that their lips were an inch apart. "Goodnight, Draco," she whispered, watching his eyelids close halfway as her minty breath wafted across his face. Piece of cake. She pulled back and flashed him a triumphant smile before strutting back to her dorm room. She swore she could have heard a quiet "damn!" when she turned around. Ah, so he had caught on already? Well, Holly thought to herself as she pulled the door closed behind her, let the games begin.

* * *

**Holly is so naughty, tsk tsk. Well, what do you guys think? There's a lot more tension between them now, I told you that they wouldn't be able to stay apart any more. Also, do you think that Holly was Slytherin-y enough when she was with Harry? I was having some serious writer's block for those parts but I'm pretty pleased with this one as a whole. **


	6. Chapter 6

**Well, bad news for me, I'm sick. Good news for whoever is reading this, I have so much more time to type up a chapter now. I hope you like it!**

* * *

Holly awoke feeling rested and ready to take on the day. One of the first thoughts to pop into her head was her little game with Draco, and she couldn't wait to actually start it today. She jumped out of bed even though it was much too early for her normal standards and started rummaging through her wardrobe for clean school robes while humming a tune.

"Ugh!" came a loud groan, "why are you so bloody cheerful? You're never up this early!" Tori complained and held her fluffy pillow over her ears to drown out the sound.

"No kidding, Holly. Normally it's Tracey waking everyone up in the morning," Daphne joined in from the confines of her curtained bed.

The raven haired girl in question popped her head out of the large bathroom that they shared, "Hey, it's not my fault that you lot wouldn't wake up until dinnertime if given the chance," she said with her toothbrush still in her mouth and then turned to Holly, "and why _are _you up this early?"

All of her room mates waited for Holly to respond as she tugged her gray vest over her head. "It's nothing, honestly! I just have a feeling it's going to be a good day is all." Oh, great, she thought, I'm starting to sound like a Hufflepuff now. Turning to her full-length mirror, Holly sized herself up. She looked decent enough with her hair in perfect brown ringlets and a bit of makeup, but she would need to do something more to catch Draco's attention. She looked around the room and immediately found her inspiration. "Hey, Tori," she said innocently, "what's that shortening charm that you use for your skirts?"

Her friend's eyebrows immediately went so far up that they were hidden behind her golden bangs. "I knew it! I knew you were going after someone! If I tell you the charm, you have to say who it's for."

"Ok, fine, just tell me!" Holly said exasperatedly.

"Good," Tori replied with a smirk, "all you do is say 'cortio' and tap your skirt where you want it to end."

Holly did as she was told and tapped her skirt a few inches above her knees before looking at her reflection again. Oh, Draco wouldn't stand a chance in their game.

"Wow, I think I might even be into you," Tori said with a wink as she stood behind Holly, appraising her in the mirror. "Now tell me."

"Ok, you win. I'll tell you who I fancy," Holly leaned close enough to whisper into Tori's ear, "absolutely no one." She couldn't help but to laugh at the blonde's outraged face.

"Holly Earnshaw!" Tori bellowed, "I _will_ find out eventually, even if I have to hold you down and force you to drink veritaserum, and you'll be sorry you hadn't told me sooner. Come _on_, I'm your best friend in the world, whoever it is, you know I would help you!"

Now there's a thought. Despite whatever she and Draco had going right now, Holly knew that Tori would do whatever it took to get them together if she told her that she really wanted to. Tori had always said that being with him was a great way to pass the time, but that she had no real interest in him or any other boys at school for that matter. Embarrassing Draco would certainly be easier with Tori on her side, but it would almost be too easy. No, she would have to be the mastermind behind it in order to feel any real satisfaction.

"Oh, look at the time; I really must be going," she said, inching her way past Tori and towards the door to the common room.

"Oh, you insufferable twat!" She shouted and threw her pillow at Holly. Luckily, the door closed right before it hit her in the face and she continued on her merry way with a chuckle. If there was one thing that she and her best friend had in common, it was their tempers. Holly didn't worry about it though, it was impossible for them to be mad at each other for more than a couple of minutes because there was always something important that one needed to tell the other so the whole thing was forgotten.

Her laughter was cut off the second she stepped out into the corridor. Holly felt a shift in the atmosphere as if she had just plunged into icy water. It was as though the air around her had a faint electric buzz now that the lively crowd of students was not bustling around like normal. It was almost eerie. Pulling her cloak tighter around her small frame, Holly ducked her head down and continued on her way to the great hall for breakfast. You're being silly, she told herself, a sixth year who's afraid to walk alone in a hallway? Pitiful. Yet despite her mental berating, she could not rid herself of the ominous feeling that was constricting her chest. Something heinous was going to happen, and soon. The thought was so sudden and unexpected that she stopped in her tracks. Where had _that_ come from? It was in her head and out so quickly that she almost hadn't even caught it, but it had been there. Though she told herself that the notion that something sinister was happening inside Hogwarts was utterly ridiculous, she made the decision to visit Professor Trelawney in the next couple of days to discuss her premonition. Surely she would tell Holly that it was just a lack of sleep that caused her delusion and then she would be able to stop worrying about it.

With this thought in mind, Holly let out a long breath and started off again towards the main staircase posthaste. In her haste to get to where other students would be, she bumped into someone very hard as they rounded a corner heading the same way that she had just come from, making her fall flat on her bum while they remained perfectly upright. For a split second she had been so startled that she whipped out her wand, but then she noticed who was grinning down at her and lowered it sheepishly.

"Well, well, well," said Graham Montague, offering a large hand to her and pulling her onto her feet, "a little skittish today, aren't we?"

Holly gave him an apologetic smile. "Yeah, sorry about that, Graham. You know me; can't get up to breakfast fast enough," she said while pulling her skirt down a few inches for she had noticed him staring none too discretely at her exposed skin. When that did nothing to divert his gaze, she coughed slightly and crossed her arms over her chest.

"Sorry," he said with an embarrassed laugh, "it's just, you look different today. I like it."

"Oh, well thank you. I'm sorry, but I really must be going now," Holly said, turning around, but before she could take two steps, he placed a firm hold on her arm.

"Wait a second, Holly," Graham stopped to give her time to turn back around and leaned up against the wall, running a hand through his hair. Oh Merlin, was he really trying to hit on her right now? He had already missed his chance by about four years. "I was just wondering if you-"

"Montague!" Holly couldn't think of the last time that she had been so relieved to hear Draco's voice. Probably because she never had been relieved. Perhaps now she could make her getaway while Adam was being yelled at. She tried to quietly step away, but Graham walked up to her and held her in place by putting an arm around her shoulder. Great, there was no avoiding this today. Draco made his way up to them in his quidditch uniform and gave only the briefest glance at their position before looking back at the 7th year boy, though Holly could have sworn she saw his jaw muscles tighten infinitesimally. "Why are you standing here flirting when we have a practice in five minutes? You're not even in uniform yet, you great oaf." Holly didn't know whether it was impressive or stupid to have the gall to talk to a seventh year in that tone. By the nervous look on the older boy's face though, Holly had to grudgingly admit that it was the former.

"I'll be ready in a minute. Don't tell Urquhart," Graham said before looking back to Holly, "what I was going to say before is that I was wondering if you wanted to go to Hogsmeade with me this weekend."

And there it was. Two sets of eyes were focused on her now, one hopeful, the other malicious. Was he really mad at her? Montague was the one wasting all of his time, she had no say in the matter! "Don't even waste your time on her, Montague," Draco sneered, "she probably already has plans with her beloved Potter and-"

"Oh, bugger off, Malfoy! It's incredible how immature you are!" Holly didn't even give him time to answer with his own jibe as she stomped off towards the main staircase. Ugh! How could a person be so infuriating _all of the time?_ She had almost, _almost_ grateful to him for stepping in between Montague and her, but then he had to ruin it by opening his big mouth. How did he not get hexed by offended Slytherins around every corner? Surely she wasn't the only one who wanted to give the "Slytherin Prince" a bit of his own medicine?

Only two more years, she reminded herself. This had become her mantra from the minute she stepped onto the Hogwarts Express to come home last Summer. Two more years until she could be a healer at St. Mungo's, two more years until she could live her own blissfully boring life, and most importantly, two more years until she could finally be rid of the narcissistic ways of Draco Malfoy.

She thanked her lucky stars that she didn't run into anyone else on her way up to the great hall; they probably would have gotten a nasty bat bogey hex without a second glance. When she sat down next to Blaise, he looked at her for a while before cautiously asking, "Hey, Holly? What are you thinking about? Your face looks... weird."

"Thanks, pal," she answered sarcastically.

She saw him fight off a smile, "no really, it's starting to creep me out."

Holly let out a dreamy sigh. "Oh, I'm just thinking about how wonderful it will be when I don't have to see Draco Malfoy's face every bloody day of my life." Hearing this, Blaise got the same frown that he had whenever Holly spoke badly about his best friend. Could they still be called best friends? She hadn't seen them actually hanging out since last school year. What had happened?

"He's just had a lot to deal with lately. He's not a bad person, though, if you give him a chance," Blaise argued halfheartedly because he knew Holly wouldn't listen to him and was met with a disbelieving look by her. "Ok, so he's kind of a prat to you. Alright, alright! He's a major prat."

"That's better," said Holly.

"I'm still not sure why, though. For the most part, he reserves that much dislike for the Gryffindors and first years," Blaise thought out loud.

"I guess I just got lucky," she shrugged as a tan arm wrapped itself around her shoulder.

Tori let out a loud laugh as she plopped down on Holly's right with Draco doing the same to her. "Do my ears deceive me or did you just say that you finally got lucky?" She asked, wiggling her eyebrows suggestively.

Holly fought the urge to roll her eyes. As she knew would happen, Tori seemed to have forgotten their argument from that morning. "Oh, shut up, you," she laughed, can't I ever eat my eggs in peace?"

Tori pretended to ponder this before shaking her head. "Nope!" She said, popping the "p". While they ate, the two girls chattered on, barely letting the other get a word in edgewise. About 20 minutes later, Holly stood up to head back to their dorm to get ready for Charms class. As she started walking past her friend, her eyes slid over to Malfoy who had that blasted smirk on his face. His gaze trailed down to where his hand was rested not quite high enough to be considered Tori's waist. Prick. Holly was not going to let him win at her own game. She had to come up with something to catch him off guard, and fast. But what?

Classes that day seemed to drag on more slowly than usual so when she finally made it down to the common room at the end of the day, Holly didn't even change out of her school robes before collapsing back onto the luxurious black couch. She heard a soft chuckle coming from off to her left. "Rough day, huh?" he said. Before Holly even cracked open one eye, she knew that it was Blaise who had said it.

"You have no idea," she moaned.

"Come play a game of wizard's chess with me then. It will help you unwind."

That made her laugh. "Blaise, you're my best mate and all but you are hopeless at wizard's chess. Last time we played together you didn't even know what check mate meant."

He laughed along with her at the memory and if his skin wasn't so dark, Holly swore she would have seen a fierce red color in his cheeks. "Yeah, well I'm better now! Theodore taught me over the Summer when you were busy being antisocial."

"Blaise, just because I like to take the time to read a good book doesn't make me antisocial," she said, sticking out her tongue. "You're on!"

Surprisingly, Blaise hadn't been exaggerating; he was pretty good. Not any competition for Holly, but good nonetheless. She had only had to remind him what a pawn was and was not allowed to do a couple of times and even had to move her queen away from a check a few times.

"Well as much fun as that was, I think I'm going to head off to bed now," Holly said while stretching her arms above her head.

"Oh come on," Blaise pleaded, "one more game? I really think I might beat you this time."

"You mean without cheating this time?" she asked, her eyebrow perched high on her forehead.

"You caught that? I thought I was being sneaky."

Holly snorted, "about as sneaky as a Hufflepuff!" She slapped her hands over her mouth as Blaise got a dark look on his face.

"Sneaky as a Hufflepuff, you say?" He asked quietly and stalked over to her. Oh, this would not end well for her.

Backing up until the underside of her knees met the couch, Holly tried to correct her blunder. "Oh no, that's not what I said. I said you're as sneaky as-" she couldn't finish the sentence as Blaise barreled into her and pinned her firmly underneath him on the couch, holding her arms above her head. "No, please, Blaise!" He just shook his head with a maniacal smile on his face. Then he began to tickle her. A mix between laughing and screaming filled the room as Blaise poked her ribs mercilessly, and the pleading got louder the longer he held her down.

Soon, though, Holly's ears were met with two other laughs between her own wheezes. "You're so bad, Draco!" Tori said loudly. Oh, the happy couple was back, were they? The tickle torture stopped when the portrait hole closed and Holly rolled her eyes at Blaise. He should probably get up now, Holly thought, or else Draco and Tori would probably think that...

"Blaise!" She said in a loud whisper. He brought his focus back to the girl beneath him with a questioning look. He opened his mouth to say something but was cut off immediately as Holly brought her head up and crashed her lips onto his. At first, Blaise was clearly in shock as he wasn't moving, but soon enough, his lips matched her rhythm and he brought his hand up to cup her face.

Holly had to fight the urge to do a victory dance when, only a few seconds later, two sharp gasps filled the room.

* * *

**Ooh, what's Draco going to do about Holly snogging his best friend? Things are getting interesting at Hogwarts this year! Sorry this chapter was pretty late, I'm just having trouble finding motivation lately. As always, thanks to everyone who has added this story to their alerts or favorited it! **


	7. Chapter 7

"What the hell, Holly!" Tori was the first one to exclaim. "It was BLAISE? HE'S the guy you've been going after this whole time?"

Holly broke away from Blaise with a sheepish look on her face before slowly turning to the pair of shocked blondes. Their expressions were so comical that it was all Holly could do to not burst out laughing. Tori and Draco were blinking ferociously, trying to dispel the scene that was playing out in front of them from their vision. For a while, they only stared at each other, waiting to see who would speak next. It suddenly felt uncomfortably hot in the common room, which was pretty much impossible because it was a stone room under the Black Lake. No, this heat was radiating from Holly, permeating the room like a furnace. She wondered if Blaise could feel her hot skin trough his shirt where their arms grazed each other. Holly itched her neck awkwardly and cleared her throat. This seemed to have broken the spell that they were under as Draco opened his mouth soon after with an enthusiastic "well done, mate" to Blaise and announcing that he was heading off to get some sleep. With a quick smile at Tori, he turned on his heel and disappeared behind his door with a soft click, never once meeting Holly's probing eyes.

Well, she thought, that could have gone better. How could he react with happiness? He was supposed to be jealous, or at least a little bit more surprised! Maybe she was wrong about the whole thing, was it possible that all of Draco's crude comments to her meant nothing at all? Not only would that be mortifying if it were true, but it would also render the whole game that she and Draco were playing pointless. If she was being honest with herself, it was a little pointless from the beginning, anyways, though. What, she would get him to admit that he was jealous and then what? Just laugh at him and walk away? How did she actually believe that that would teach Draco a lesson? If anything, he would just be more horrible than he already was. She really had taken it too far when she brought Blaise into this. What would he say when she told him it was only to make his best friend angry? And worse, what if he thought that she had meant the kiss? Holly knew that that was a stretch, she and Blaise had always been more like siblings than friends and they had told each other that they could never like the other because of it, so she really was not worried about that.

Her internal monologue was interrupted by Tori coughing lightly. "Uh, yes, I think I'm going to go to our dorm also, Holly. Night," she said, throwing a wink over her shoulder at Holly to let her know that she wasn't in the least bit mad over what she had just seen. Great, now I'm going to have to put up with her constant tormenting about this, Holly growled and rolled her eyes at Blaise. Her expression changed to one of nervousness the second she caught sight of his furious eyes.

"Hey, Tori! Wait up a sec, I'll come with you!" she called and leaped off of the couch. Just when she thought she could make it to the door, Blaise grabbed her arm and pulled her back onto the satiny black couch with a plop and turned her head to look at him.

"Do you want to start explaining what the bloody hell that was?" he asked with a hard look in his eyes that made Holly squirm in her seat. Oh, he wasn't taking this well, Holly realized with a gulp. "There had better be a damn good reason why you did that. He's furious now!"

"I am so sorry, Blaise! I wasn't thinking and then you were right there and..." Holly's explanation was left hanging as she registered what Blaise had just said. "Who's furious?" The only person that she had seen in the last few hours that was the remotest bit mad was sitting in front of her right now.

"Uhh, Draco?" He drew out the name as if he was speaking to a child. Was Blaise mental? Holly had been staring at Draco since she broke the kiss to see what he would do, but he never seemed bothered by it, a little shocked at first, it was true, but nothing bad. Running his hands over his face frustratedly, he continued, "Look, Holly, you don't know him like I do. Draco doesn't show how he's feeling like a normal person, he keeps it all in his head until it explodes out of him. I know that the look he had on his face means that it's going to be a really rough next couple of days."

Wow, he looked really upset over this. His friendship with Draco was obviously already strained and now she might have just ruined his chance to fix it. She was a terrible friend. With another glance at Blaise's sorrowful expression, Holly knew that she had to make things right between the two boys to make up for her mistake. An explanation of what had been happening over the last couple of days seemed as good a place as any to start. With a heavy sigh, Holly got into a comfortable position with her legs crossed in the middle of the couch. "I'm sorry," she repeated, "I should have thought about what might happen if I, er, did what I did. I just get so mad when I see him and Tori together all the time! He just parades around like he can get anything he wants because he's so much better than everyone else in the world, and you know what? No one proves him wrong! All I wanted was to get him to admit that he fancies me so that I could knock him down a few pegs. He's caught on, though, you see, so now he keeps trying to one-up me and I can't stand it! The sight of him snogging my best friend to prove he's better than me literally makes me sick to my stomach. That's why I kissed you, obviously, to make him jealous."

Blaise just sat there quietly, taking in every word that Holly was saying. While he did so, she watched a wide range of emotions flit across his face. At first, she was not surprised to see anger as she complained about Draco yet again. His jaw slowly loosened and his brows pulled in, Holly knew this to be the expression he took on when met with a particularly difficult question. Then his face gradually changed to look shocked, and finally, to Holly's intense surprise, he started to laugh.

The sound was a bit disconcerting, considering it was coming from the same person who looked like he would feed her to a blast-ended skrewt without a second thought. "Uh, Blaise?" Holly whispered, chancing to poke him on the shoulder questioningly before flying back onto her side of the couch for protection. "Do you want me to take you to see Madam Pomfrey? You're starting to scare me."

Finally Blaise quieted down enough to say, "no, I'm fine, really. It's just funny that I figured something out and you have no idea what it is for once. You are the smartest witch I know, besides that bloody Hermione Granger," he added, earning him a loud snort of agreement from Holly, "and yet, you are so clueless sometimes."

"And you make no sense all of the time, but I'm too tired to argue about it right now so I'm really going to bed this time. Goodnight," she said with a long yawn.

Blaise let out a chuckle, shaking his head. "Goodnight, Holly," he replied, holding out his hand to help her stand up. She took it gladly and gave him a toothy grin. How had she gotten so lucky as to get a friend like him? She really didn't deserve it. "Ok ok, stop smiling at me like that, it's creepy," Blaise said so she flashed him an even bigger one and went up to her dorm.

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**Ok, I know that this was a really short chapter, think of it as the end to the last one because I read it over and didn't like how I left it. So, what do you think Blaise figured out? And I do have one other thing to say. I really hate to do this but I'm not going to put up another chapter until I get a couple of reviews that aren't from my best friend. I just want to know if it's even worth continuing because I'm really having a hard time trying to find motivation lately. I only want two reviews, and then I promise I'll keep going. I have a lot planned for the next couple of chapters; there will be a chat with Draco and a game of truth or dare! I hope you like it :)**


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