Chapter 30: Year 5 (V)Summary:The meatgrinder of war continues in the background, Holly reaches her Godzilla threshold, Hermione's blood pressure reaches new heights, Chekov's gun is indirectly alluded to, and Holly finally reaches the next stage of her Plan.
OR: This arc in a gif
Notes:Surprise mofos, dropping this outta nowhere like its the Oblivion Remaster. It's been exactly a year since my late update and I promised myself I wouldn't let it get past that. I kinda crashed and burned irl for a bit but I've mostly picked up the pieces. Getting a new job has been good for me, but working 55+ hours dosn't leave much time for anything else.
This chapter has been partially written for ~2 years, and planned out for almost 4. Unsurprisingly, I've been building it up in my head and trying to live up to that has been rough. I'm not happy with it. I'm still second-guessing if I should've cut some scenes, added others back, dialed back the feature creep, reordered scenes, etc... but if I don't get this posted now than I could say the same in another year. Instead I'll get it posted and perfectionist edit it later.
I won't drag this out any longer, here's an overdue chapter.
TL;DR: Writing this chapter be like: THIS
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter TextThe worst part about what quickly became known as the Grove Massacre was that it actually improved the Ministry's–and by extension, Holly's–situation.
Adult Tom had killed thousands of people, both normal and magical. Of those killed, at least a hundred were wizards living there; not to mention the aurors, hit wizards, and Order members that got killed responding. The battle had lasted for hours afterwards, killing many on both sides in what was undoubtedly the largest magical battle since some of Grindewalt's attacks during WWII. The exact casualty numbers were unknown and nobody expected that to change.
Unsurprisingly, it made people reevaluate things.
The previously ineffable tipping point had been reached.
All the paper pushes in the Ministry; the shopkeepers with untouchably vital shops, the isolated researchers; those who'd been indifferent to muggleborns being killed, thinking themself safe; those who'd passively supported or disliked Adult Tom… it forced them to realize they couldn't stay on the sidelines. That those supposed sidelines never existed in the first place .
That they needed to either join the fight to survive or leave the country before they got killed.
(Many stayed, albeit not all in combat roles. The rest fled or quietly joined the other side.)
That–combined with the Ministry's further militarization–meant Magical Britain was effectively at total war. Not even during the last war or even any of the goblin rebellions had that happened.
The Goblins themselves took a stand as well. They barred their doors entirely… but not before offering the Ministry a massive , low-interest loan of galleons, effectively multiplying the Ministry's war treasury. WIth the Ministry now having the majority of the accessible liquid currency, it effectively allowed only Ministry-aligned people able to get paid or do business.
In one stroke the Goblins severed the enemy's supply lines while also empowering the Ministry.
(Naturally, Holly sent a patronus to Gronuk, her account manager, asking him to pass along her compliments.)
The incoming supply of foreign fighters slowed too without money, but didn't stop. After all, most of them didn't care about that. They'd flocked to Adult Tom to fight. To kill random people. To run wild.
Their exact reasons and places of origin varied wildly. Blood supremacists from continental Europe and beyond. Others who wanted to tear down the Statue of Secrecy. Some were Grindewalt's old supporters, who seemed to hate everyone and everything. A few French Wizards with undying hatred of Britain. Werewolves who embraced their curse, rejecting a cure. A few mad scientist types that wanted test subjects. Vampires who wanted fresh blood or feared they'd be next to be cured. Giants lashing out at the world that scorned them. Trolls that wanted to eat people. Dementors, hungry for souls. Hags for… weird hag reasons.
Hell, there were even a few particularly stupid squibs that publicly tried to join up, somehow believing they could bring back the USSR. Unsurprisingly, their supposed comrades didn't react well to them.
In short, anyone magic-adjacent that hated the status quo or just wanted to kill people. The magical malcontent from across the globe. People who saw a nearly collapsed country, unable to defend itself, and thought it looked like a fun place.
A ridiculous medley of people that should've all killed each other, but were somehow united enough to make a formidable army. At least, formidable when for their previously outnumbered and worn down opposition.
But the greatest change, which (roughly) evened out the numbers, was the International Conference of Wizards and other magical nations getting involved.
See, the ICW might be magical equivalent to the United Nations, but all they really cared about (aside from banning extremely taboo magic like summoning demons) is upholding the Statue of Secrecy. It took Adult Tom massacring a town for them to realize that maybe, just maybe , letting a genocidal maniac run free could threaten the Statute.
Covering up the Grove Massacre wouldn't be easy, even with ICW teams helping. A 'normal' break of the Statute could be covered up with memory charms or disguised as a gas main explosion. But an entire village burned to the ground with no survivors? That couldn't be hidden easily.
It'd been decided within hours that they needed to take extreme measures and erase all evidence the village ever existed to the outside world. Holly didn't know and didn't care how they'd manage to alter the memories of the victim's families, let alone all physical and digital records of the village from existing. She had her own problems to worry about.
(Years later, in the United States, a young AI named JARVIS would stumble upon digital traces of a small village that never seemingly never existed according to any physical records, other local residents, or land ownership records. Calculating that it was most likely a failed attempt at creating a digital ghost town, he decided not to inform his creator, Tony Stark.)
(Several years further, after meeting a certain young woman, Jarvis would suddenly understand the human sensation of "dodging a bullet" and feel grateful for his past iteration making that seemingly insignificant decision.)
Thankfully the international community quickly realized the only way to guarantee the Statute's protection would be to defeat the one threatening it. So, just a few days after the Grove Massacre, the ICW, magical France, MACUSA, magical Germany, and many others sent teams of fighters to assist the British Ministry. In addition to the 'official' responses came the unofficial flood of volunteer fighters, ranging from foreign aurors to the unqualified but enthusiastic.
Holly thought they were late, but supposed it was better than not coming at all.
But just like that, suddenly the numbers weren't so lopsided. Adult Tom still outnumbered them but now they were roughly equal-ish. Probably.
(Holly didn't have any hard numbers for either army and suspected nobody else knew either. The constant influx from abroad and nonstop deaths in the meatgrinder of war made tracking exact numbers pointless anyways.
Her best guesstimate was roughly a thousand fighters per side, give or take a few hundred. Relatively small armies, but massive proportionally considering the best guess anybody had for Magical Britain's estimated human population of ~3000 before the war.)
(How the Ministry apparently either didn't or couldn't track such a small population was beyond. Fucking. Wizards.)
In effect, Magical Britain had unwillingly become the international Combat Zone for wizards; a proxy war for the malcontents vs the establishment. Some despaired over it. Others saw it as the end of the 'Wizarding World' and Statute.
Holly, personally, chose to see it as more assholes to rob and kill.
After all, if she won her mental fight and got to start Phase 3 of Plan: Kill Adult Tom and Friends Super Dead (terrible name but Holly only slightly cared at the moment)… things would get very interesting.
—
"We've been going about this all wrong," Holly absently muttered as she rushed down the steps. Behind her, Hermione scrambled to keep up.
Holly had had an epiphany. A breakthrough. Had reached enlightenment.
Suddenly the answer to everything was clear. So obvious! How hadn't she realized this earlier?
"Holly! Holly, what are-"
"The problem isn't me losing sleep or mental fatigue-"
"I'm pretty sure it is." Hermione cut in.
"-I just need more raw power to work with." She'd been wasting her time worrying about her mental deterioration. It'd breen why Adult Tom had been beating her despite the phoenix's help and Mads efficiency: if she had enough raw power to work with, her mental state wouldn't matter! That must be why he seemed to be in better shape than her.
"DIdn't you criticize Voldemort for doing that?" Hermione muttered.
Holly–magnanimously in her opinion–pretended not to hear that grave insult. "Whatever. How exactly do you plan on doing that?"
"Simple. I'm going to surround myself with so much raw magical power that my body starts absorbing it." Kinda like if a dehydrated person could absorb water by swimming.
That… might be a terrible metaphor but she thought it kinda made sense if you looked at it sideways. Maybe?
"Wait, you mean-" Hermione started, finally realizing where Holly had been going.
"I'm going to Hogwarts anchorstone room." Because where else would she go? The anchorstones drew so much power out of the leyline convergence underneath it felt thick in the air. If even a tiny portion of it soaked into her body…
Well, it might give Mads enough fuel to start kicking Adult Tom's ass. If it didn't… well. Holly had another idea but it'd be insanely dangerous and maybe burn her alive from the inside out. Or literally blow her up. Or forever trap her between life and death. Or any other inconceivably awful fate.
(Plus Hermione would hate it, that had to be considered too.)
She'd save that idea unless it became absolutely necessary.
Entering the final stairwell to the anchorstone room, Holly started to feel the air getting heavier with each stop. By the time they reached the bottom it felt similar to 100% humidity air but more. Thick enough she suspected any normal person would choke on it.
Unceremoniously plopping down, Holly fell into her mindscape and reappeared next to Mads.
"So? Is it working?" she asked the construct.
Mads, standing in front of a stainless steel cylinder and reading a measurement gauge, took a moment to respond.
"Good news and bad news." Mads eventually started with. "Bad news? I didn't realize exactly how bad we were doing until I conjured this fuel tank. By visualizing this as our raw magic storage I can measure exactly how much 'fuel' is in the metaphysical tank."
She pointed at the gauge where the needle was… just barely visible it was so far into the red 'empty' section. Huh.
"Yeah. Pure spite is the only thing keeping us going. Kinda concerning, right?"
"No shit." Holly had obviously known it'd been bad but seeing exactly how bad was sobering. "What's the good news?"
Mads tapped the gauge again. Squinting and looking closer, Holly could just barely see the need budge up. "It's working. It's not a lot but it's better than nothing."
True, but....
"We're just passively absorbing the ambient magic in the air right now, right?" Holly asked, getting a nod back. "What if we try absorbing more by making something like… an air dehumidifier in here, only it siphons more ambient magic out of the air and into us?"
Nodding, Mads concentrated for a moment before a small AC unit appeared, a tube connecting it to the fuel tank. Mads pressed the 'on' button and Holly heard it start rumbling-
Only for it to immediately explode in their faces.
Coughing, Holly waved the smoke out of her face and saw Mads doing the same.
"Right. Probably shouldn't have tried that for the first time here of all places. Did it work though?"
"It worked all right," Mads said, examining the gauge again, "but there was too much. To use your dehydration metaphor, that was the equivalent of trying to siphon water by throwing a dehumidifier into an ocean. We'll need to go somewhere else before we try that again."
"Got it. I'll leave the experimenting to you. Lemme know how it goes, alright?"
"You've got it, Prime!" Mads chirped, saluting Holly goodbye.
Leaving her mindscape, Holly opened her eyes to immediately see an extremely concerned Hermione staring back.
"It works. Had another Great Idea too, which–if it works–" Holly hedged, "means I'll absorb more magic without needing to be down here."
For some reason that had Hermione looking even more panicked. Weird.
"C'mon, I'll explain on the way back up."
(Hermione, for once, actually liked her Great Idea of the 'magic dehumidifier.' It was a pleasant change.
Holly decided not to ruin her mood by mentioning the first iteration exploded.)
—
"Do you really think that's enough? That Tom Riddle will accept this escalation without escalating in return?" Mephisto whispered into her ear. "You cannot overpower him on your own. Unbound by morality, he'll break any and every boundary you refuse to break; the only reason he hadn't empowered himself further earlier is because he deemed it unnecessary."
That wasn't wrong exactly. But-
"Lemme guess: you're about to say if I accept your deal I'd be able to use my suddenly skyrocketed power to overwhelm him before he can kidnap more wizards to use as human batteries?"
"Exactly! You could end this in an instant; kill that pathetic fragment of a man and go back to doing whatever you want."
Uhuh. Sure.
"Do you honestly expect me to believe you aren't playing both sides and haven't already offered Adult Tom a Deal to counter that?" Holly asked, stating the obvious. "That you wouldn't ensure I'll always be on the backfoot?"
"But of course I offered him a Deal! What a fool I'd be if I didn't, playing both sides is simply good business" he freely admitted. "But even so, Tom Riddle can only offer me a tiny fraction of his splintered soul; yours is intact and far more interesting."
Even if that was true… he'd left out an important detail. "You've conveniently forgotten to mention the soul fragment in my scar being dealt with."
"Did I?" he asked, as if it hadn't been intentional. "Of course I could remove that for you as part of our Deal. Souls are something of my speciality after all. Who knows how long those goblins might take to figure it out. Can you afford to wait for them?"
"I think I can manage, now go." She wasn't stupid; Deals never ended well. There was a reason the concept of Faustian Bargains was so widespread.
" If you say so, but do let me know if you change your mind before your mind shatters under the strain. I'm afraid that would make a Deal impossible. "
---
Holly watched the screen showing a live view of her X-wing squadron swerving around flying dragons as they closed in on the massive shield protecting Adult Tom's mindscape.
"This is Red Leader Holly, do we have permission to fire?" asked a copy of her own voice from a speaker.
"Permission granted. May the Force be with you." Mads said into her headset mic.
"Copy that. Firing proton torpedos!"
On screen a dozen proton torpedoes fired, impacting the shield in a massive explosion. But even before the smoke cleared she could see the shield still standing. Ripples expanded across the normally transparent barrier but nothing else happened..
"Dammit! Red squadron, go back to providing air support. We'll figure something else out."
Holly and Mads looked at each other. Nothing needed to be said.
Seemed like Project: (Miniaturized) Death Star really was her only option.
---
The second time a fireball randomly appeared in her face she wasn't any less startled than the first time. At least she didn't trip this time.
Standing a few feet away, the phoenix simply stared into her eyes. And stared.
And kept staring.
Creepy. Did she have to break the silence?
"I don't know if you're here to help me again or not," Holly started, "but your help was invaluable last time. If you're willing… or if I can somehow do you a favor… your support would be invaluable."
Not that she had any idea what kind of a favor a phoenix would want, but she wasn't exactly in the position to be picky. Adult Tom had already matched the increased energy her 'magic dehumidifiers' provided and would undoubtedly start overwhelming her again soon. If that happened she'd have to divert energy from Project: (Miniaturized) Death Star again and lose the only win condition she had!
So yeah, a Song or five would be pretty great.
Staring at her for a moment longer, the bird chirped and nodded. Only, before she could thank it for helping, it lifted a wing while lowering its head to it and… plucked a feather out?
What?
Holding its feather in its beak, it stared at her for a second before lowering it back to its wing. With a small puff of fire the feather reattached itself, staying in place when it raised its head again.
Wait, did that mean-?
"You'll help me but you want me to get back one-" it chirped twice "-two of your feathers? I can do that so long as they aren't anywhere crazy. Do you know where they are?"
Nodding, the bird walked closer and pecked at her right forearm; the forearm where she holstered her wand.
"It's your feather that's in my wand?" The bird nodded, so she continued, "then the other feather's in another wand? Do you know who… oh."
Knowing that its feather is in the wand of a mass murdering cult leader must be pretty weird for the bird.
Besides, hadn't she already been told by Ollivander that hers and Adult Tom's wand cores came from the same bird? Holy would feel stupid for forgetting until now, but she'd ignored most of the ominous shit Ollivander said.
"Ah. I'll get you your feathers back but I can't actually give his wand to you until after he's dead. Kinda need my own wand until then too."
That didn't seem to bother the phoenix if the way it vaguely shrugged was any indication.
Losing her own wand afterwards would be kinda annoying, but she had enough practice with wandless magic that she'd manage fine. Besides, couldn't she just buy a new one later? Or try making one herself? That could be a fun project…
"Then it looks like we have a deal, Mr. Bird." Holly said, holding a hand out.
Chirping with what sounded suspiciously like amusement, the bird extended a wing. LIghtly holding a couple of feather tips, Holly sealed the deal with a hand (wing?) shake.
Nodding once more, the bird immediately launched itself at her face. Sputtering and flailing, Holly once again felt the bird spinning around a few times before plopping down on top of her head.
"Right. Let's kick some ass, Mr. Bird!" Holly shouted, getting an enthusiastic trilling before it started its Song once more.
(Completely forgotten by Holly a few feet away, Hermione continued staring at what she just saw. Catching her eye as it Sang, the phoenix known as Fawkes somehow managed to convey ' no one will ever believe you ' to the speechless girl.
Hermione twitched, making several bottles of firewhiskey suddenly appear next to her.)
---
With the phoenix's nonstop Songs, Holly finally had enough magic to spare more to work on Project: (Minituarized) Death Star.
As much as she'd like for it to be a fully completed battlestation, practicality won out. Once it was 'done' it'd look more like the second Death Star, with a majority of the outside still skeletal framework.
But even with that - and scaling the whole thing down massively - it was slow progress. She only just finished the skeletal frame! Making the weapon was still far off, considering she had to make the core bits first. A weapon can't fire without power after all.
But it was taking shape. All she had to do was stall long enough for the weapon to finish building… not that she knew how long it would take.
But she could win.
She would win.
She had to.
---
Holly jerked awake holding her mouth, immediately twisting to the side and throwing up in a bucket the Room conjured.
"Holly! Are you alright?" Hermione asked as she ran over, "Did Voldemort break your occlumency barriers? Have you been poisoned? Did Mads-" abruptly stopping as Holly held up a hand.
Rinsing her mouth with conjured water, Holly tried to focus on her surroundings instead of the images her mind had conjured.
"I- I had a nightmare." Which, frankly, was a massive understatement. There were no words to describe the horror of it.
None.
"Really?" Hermione asked, sounding shocked. Looking over Holly could see a look of near disbelief on her face.
"Really really."
"I didn't know you had nightmares."
"I don't! This came out of nowhere and- and-" a new bucket suddenly appeared in front of her as she dry heaved.
"...I feel terrible for asking, Holly, but what could possibly make you react like this?" Holly, if she wasn't so distracted, would've been flattered by that vote of confidence.
Where to start? Could she even get the words out of her mouth to explain it? Sure, assassinating Adult Tom was a good idea but doing it by disguising herself as Bellatrix and-
Holly shuddered, trying not to think about and wishing that cursed thought was gone.
Suddenly her memory of the nightmare was gone and she could feel Mads broadcasting something like 'you're welcome' in the back of her mind.
"Nevermind. Mads took care of it." That didn't seem to help Hermione calm down. If anything, she looked even more concerned.
"'Took care of it?'" She parroted back, sounding dubious.
"You know, locked the memory away in my Vault of Unwanted Memories."
"Holly…" Hermione trailed off, "I don't think repressing your memories like that is good for you."
"Repressing memories? I'm not repressing memories." Holly explained, "I just take all the memories I don't want and lock them away so I can't consciously remember them."
Hermione paused, seemingly debating what to say, but shook her head and went back to when she'd been reading.
Weird.
The worst part was that, even with that awful nightmare, it was the closest thing to actual sleep she'd gotten in who knows how long.
---
"Holly! Holly!" Hermione yelled, shaking Holly by her shoulders. On top of her head the phoenix rocked with her.
"What is it?" Holly asked, eyes shooting open.
"You're gathering more magic by absorbing it out of your surroundings, right?" Holly nodded. "Holly, we're INSIDE a magically created space!"
Oh.
Huh.
Yeah, that sounded like a reasonable concern.
On the other hand, "I don't think the Room isn't that dumb. Plus its capabilities are kinda unnervingly broad. It'll detect I need more ambient magic and somehow funnel it into her before that happens… probably."
As if in response the air suddenly grew slightly heavier, the density of magic in the air noticeably increasing. Holly gave the Room's floor a thankful pat.
"LIke that. See? It's all good." Crisis averted, Holly closed her eyes and sank back into her meditation.
Hermione held back a scream. Several more firewhiskey bottles appeared in the growing collection.
---
"WHY WON'T YOU DIE ALREADY?!" Adult Tom screamed at her, shooting a torrent of fire from his wand at Holly.
"YOU FIRST!" Holly shouted back as she dove to the right, conjuring a circular shield on her left arm to block what couldn't be dodged. Rolling to her feet, she flung her shield at Adult Tom's face, Captain America style.
With the stream of fire blocking his vision the shield hit with a wet sounding ' crunch! ' As he reeled backwards holding his broken nose, Holly closed the gap.
Just like she'd (literally) dreamed of doing before, Holly punched him in the face hard enough to send him stumbling backwards.
A split second later, Holly conjured a lightsaber in her hand and speared it through Adult Tom's gut. Screaming bloody murder, he wandlessly shot lightning at her point-blank.
Naturally, Holly's reaction was to headbutt him.
Both of them screaming in pain, Holly swept her lightsaber up, vertically bisecting Adult Tom from his gut up.
Adult Tom's avatar, being just an avatar, lay dead. One more body upon the growing mound made entirely from their dead puppet bodies.
A second later, a new, even angrier avatar of Adult Tom teleported in. Picking up right where the last one kicked off, he launched a wave of ominous-looking miasma at her.
(See, their avatars were just puppets their conscious minds acted through when in the link outside their personal mindscapes; it didn't matter if they were killed. It didn't do anything to them besides distract and cause extreme pain.
Magic capable of affecting souls–like fiendfyre or the killing curse– may work… but neither of them waited to try it inside a connection made from their entwined souls . Any fiendfyre would set the link alight and kill them both.
The killing curse had issues too. If whoever cast it missed then it'd hit something behind them… again, the battlefield was the metaphysical representation of their entwined souls . Who knew what would happen if a killing curse missed and hit something else.
Even if Adult Tom managed to hit her with one, killing her avatar (and, presumably, Holly herself) it might kill him too. At best, he'd lose the horcrux attached to her, permanently losing a portion of his soul. Given his fear of death, the idea seemed to be an anathema to him or else she'd be long dead.
Besides, he'd been slowly overpowering her for weeks(? months?) now. It simply wasn't necessary.
Likewise, if Holly directly hit Adult Tom's avatar with the killing curse it wouldn't actually kill him; he still had the Snake and her as horcruxes. He'd become a wraith again… only this time he'd be a wraith surrounded by followers and get a new body in no time.
Sure, it'd slow him down for a few days but it wouldn't be worth it. Not when it'd perfectly demonstrate his seemingly unbeatable immortality in front of his army. The morale boost his army they'd get from that would be insane . Knowing their powerful leader couldn't die would do that to any group. It'd do more harm than any short reprieve they'd get.
Which meant they stuck in this endless mental fight until the end. Whoever won their mental warfare would win the greater war.
Adult Tom because he'd be free to bulldoze everyone.
Holly because, if she won, then she'd get to enact Phase 3 of Plan: Kill Adult Tom and Friends Super Dead.
That'd take care of everything else afterwards. She just had to win first.)
(The fact she still couldn't come up with a better name for her Plan–even with her mental faculties otherwise occupied–shouldn't have bothered her, and yet .)
Dodging another spell, she conjured a shotgun and blew a hole through Adult Tom's head. Toppling backwards, it joined the pile.
One step at a time she unsteadily walked through the field of corpses–which carpeted the ground behind her for hundreds of feet–careful of where stepped. Pointedly Not Looking At any of her own dead avatars, she willed her troops to join her. They'd been fighting too close to her own mind and needed to push the contact line back.
A few seconds later Drone Clones rushed forwards to attack the incoming horde. What was that one quote?
Oh yeah, 'once more unto the breach' and all that.
---
Holly snapped out of her meditation and into proper awareness upon feeling Hermione roughly nudging her.
That… probably meant something important happened, right?
"What-" Holly mumbled, only to get interrupted.
"Gringotts just sent you a letter saying they successfully destroyed the snake horcrux without killing it! They're saying they could remove yours too!"
Oh.
That was news alright.
"That's nice."
"Nice? Nice!? It's amazing Holly!" Hermione shouted, shaking her by the shoulders. "You could get it removed right now and be done with your mental bullshit!"
That was true but- "I'm, well, not winning against Adult Tom, but I'm also not losing. Besides, if I destroy our link then someone will still have to kill his physical body. Which… Dumbledore has barely managed to survive fighting him so far. With my elixirs and how powered up he is… nothing short of an unseen and unexpected killing curse will kill him. Orrrr maybe a headshot from a sniper… which is impossible since he's been holed up in Malfoy Manor to focus on me."
"…Actually, we could drop a tactical nuke on Malfoy Manor?"
…Untraceably stealing a nuke might actually be easier than her mental battle but would cause worldwide panic. Detonating it would probably be detected and lead to the Statute of Secrecy breaking too. Damn.
"Maybe several tons of conventional explosives would be enough? What do you think, Hermione?"
Hermione blankly stared back at her for several seconds before slamming her face into a suddenly-there pillow. Holly decided to interpret Hermione's extended muffled scream as a firm 'no'.
Dejected, Holly returned her attention to her mindscape fight.
---
"Still holding out for a perfect victory?" Mephisto whispered into her vaguely awake mind, "Would you risk Tom Riddle surviving when you can guarantee your victory right now?"
"The fact you're telling me not to means it could work."
"Perhaps, but far more likely you'll die and I'll miss out on a truly exquisite soul."
"Mhm, sure."
---
Holly slowly eased herself out of her meditation pose, her limbs stiff and aching for the first time since she drank her first Elixir. Maybe she should start stretching regularly?
Standing up, Holly stumbled over to the bathroom when her leg twitched , making her toe catch, tripping and falling-
Straight into a suddenly materialized bed.
"Thanks Room," she offered, giving the floor a pat and (carefully) continued.
That… probably wasn't a good sign. Good thing Hermione was currently asleep or there'd be fretting.
On its perch, the damn bird still somehow radiated amusement at her despite looking exhausted itself.
---
"How haven't I tried this before? Am I losing it?" Holly asked, before glancing backwards down the tunnel. "Am I losing it, Drone Clone?"
Her Drone Clone, being a mindless drone, only stared back at her blankly.
"... right. Anyways!"
Turning forward, Holly continued tunneling towards Adult Tom's mind underground, through the very ground of their mental link. Sure, he'd certainly feel it once she got close to his mind, but if he was distracted…
Well. She'd use any chance she could get.
Unfortunately, that's when the ground above her vanished, leaving her at the bottom of a hole, completely surrounded and behind enemy lines.
Sighing in disappointment, she conjured a lightsaber and jumped into the hoard.
---
" Look at you, " Mephisto whispered into her ear, " you're losing and you know it; all that's changed is that you're lying to your friend. "
Rude. She wasn't lying to Hermione, just trying to help her worry less.
Regardless, "fuck off wannabe Lucifer."
"I am but a thought away if your mind changes."
---
"You're not looking too good, Mr Bird" Holly said, stroking the decrepit looking phoenix's back. "I know you get reborn and all, but seeing you like this seems wrong. Are you overworking yourself for me?"
Squawking weakly, the bird barely managed to raise a wing enough to lightly slap her face.
"That's a rather weak defense." More like a blatant lie. Holly had a feeling a phoenix wasn't supposed to keep Singing until they coughed. "I can manage without you for at least a few days."
The bird twitched its wing trying and failing to slap her again, this time calling out her own blatant lie.
"It's true!" Maybe. Hopefully. Same thing. "Now die and become a tiny, wrinkly chicken nugget already!"
Honking out a laugh, the bird wheezed, honked again, and kept honk-wheezing until it literally fell over.
…
…
The bird continued to lay there, motionless and silent.
…
…
"Did you just kill a phoenix with laughter?" Hermione asked in disbelieving awe.
That about summed up what Holly felt.
…
…
Leaning in, Holly poked the bird in the chest. "Hey, Mr Bird. Hey. Are you-"
The bird's corpse abruptly burst into fire, burning her finger and the tip of her nose. One second there was a fireball, the next there was a small pile of ashes.
Then a tiny head poked out, featherless and wrinkly like a sphinx cat.
Exhaustion forgotten, Holly couldn't stop herself from laying down on the floor and leaning in close. Chin in the ash pile, her nose practically touching its tiny beak, somehow the bird's mortification was clear on its face.
Holly, in the second before her laughter burst out, tried to take a deep breath—
And immediately inhaled phoenix ashes.
Jumping back and flailing as she sneezed fire, Holly pounded her chest and tried to ignore the painful burning feeling in her face and chest.
"Note to self-" Holly choked out between coughs, accepting the water Hermione offered her "-don't stick your face in ashes unless you want to snort them."
Slowly taking a drink and getting her breath back, it was hard to ignore the new buzzing feeling in her body. Like a live current running through her.
Magic. Enough that she could feel Mads cheering as she siphoned it into her mindscape.
"Scratch that, I feel amazing . Do you need those ashes, Mr. Bird or can I snort the rest too?" Holly asked.
Hermione and the tiny bird glanced at each other and gave her a Look.
"What?"
For some reason they didn't stop staring judgmentally at her even after her explanation.
---
Holly had to admit things could be going better.
The Room, despite its helpful nature and alarmingly broad capabilities, couldn't fulfill a request of hers. She'd finally found its limit.
Ever since she'd figured out her 'magic dehumidifier' trick, the Room had been slowly increasing the ambient magic density; helping her to stay in the fight. Only, today it had hit its peak and plateaued, seemingly unable to increase any further.
Which meant Holly's 'fuel' generation plateaued, despite her demand for it endlessly increasing.
Unable to think of anything else under such a tight timeframe, Holly did the only thing she could: move into the Hogwarts Anchstones room. With its utterly insane amount of ambient magic, i'd alleviated her supply shortage–even gave her an advantage in the short term–but it wasn't enough to win .
Just buy her more time.
It seemed more and more likely she'd have to fall back on her risky, extremely dangerous idea of redirecting a leyline through her own body..
…
…
Even in her own mind it sounded insane.
Still, if she could run an infinitesimal fraction of tiny percent of the power of a leyline through herself for a fraction of a second…
Well, that'd certainly be enough for her to auto-win her mental war. The idea was tempting.
If, ya know, it didn't incinerate her or anything. But how could she improve her odds?
…Hermione could help her. She'd berate her endlessly, but not before she ensured Holly survived.
Now how to tell her in a way that'd minimize the inevitable backlash?
…Plausible deniability would be best.
Holly opened her eyes, spotting Hermione as the other girl dragged in furniture from the Room.
"Hey Hermione, do you, hypothetically," she added for plausible deniability, "think it's possible to siphon away a tiny enough bit of a leyline's power that you could run it through somebody without killing them?"
Hermione, caught off guard, must've stubbed her toe on a chair or something because she started muttering curses. Instead of stopping, Hermione immediately turned and walked out of the room, closing the door behind her.
"...she's never ignored a question before. Should I be concerned?"
Muffled screaming started coming through the door, not stopping for several minutes.
…
The door opened, Hermione coming back in with a terrifyingly blank expression. She stopped in front of Holly, crouching so they were face to face.
"If I ever succumb to alcoholism I want you to know it's entirely your fault." Hermione stated apropos of nothing. "Now," she continued, her expression shifting into grim determination, "I am going to do my best to keep you alive, no matter how hard you make it. Got it?"
"Thanks Hermione, I wasn't sure how you'd react, honestly. Hypothetically, I mean" Holly tacked on.
Hermione's left eyelid began twitching.
Weird.
---
"A bold plan, but futile " Mephisto said the next time she was vaguely asleep-ish. "Your body would combust, your mind would melt, and it could even shatter your soul! Truly a fate worse than death. Would your pride drive you to such extremes when there's a simpler, better option?"
"..." was all Holly, neither awake nor asleep, could reply.
---
"Ah. That's… not good." Holly said, breaking the silence of both Mads and her, staring at the massive snake construct that'd just just emerged from the ocean in Adult Tom's mind.
"Yup. Got any idea how to beat knockoff Jormungandr?" Because that was, without a doubt, Adult Tom's inspiration for the massive snake looming on the horizon. Even in the distance it looked big, Holly couldn't imagine how big it was in (metaphysical) reality.
Well, not quite, watching as in the distance it easily ate a Giant Holly whole. Considering Giant Holly's were bigger than actual Giants…
Yeah, now that's a big, big snake.
What could she possibly conjure that'd be narratively strong against it? The damn thing is kaiju sized!
Wait.
Kaiju.
Well, that would be guaranteed to win against Jormungandr. After all, no giant monster can beat The King of the kaiju.
Narrative checkmate.
Holly turned to Mads, grinning wide. "I've got a Great Idea."
Sure, she'd have to chug some potions, use every last scrap of reserve power she had left, temporarily halt Project: Miniaturized Death Star, and it still might not be enough…but it was her best option.
…
…
It took a few minutes to conjure the massive construct and Holly, knowing what was coming, covered her ears.
It didn't help.
"SKKEEEEEEEOOONNKK" Her Construct-Godzilla roared loudly enough to rupture her eardrums. Despite feeling like a hollowed out shell and struggling to stand, Holly couldn't help but watch in awe as the ground shook at his first step. Then another and another until the iconic kaiju was running towards his challenger.
Roaring back, Jormungandr stopped terrorizing her army and charged to meet him.
The clash when they met was indescribable .
The ground shook. Her hair whipped in the wind. Everything nearby was annihilated. Both armies desperately fell back to avoid being trampled as the kaiju did battle.
Holly and Mads meanwhile, made themself comfortable seats and took the chance to try and regenerate their strength as they watched the show. Conjuring Godzilla felt like it'd damn near killed her; she'd need every second the kaiju clash could give her.
-
Eventually, after a truly awesome clash, her Godzilla construct won. Battered and bloodied, The King of Monsters roared his supremacy from atop his foe's corpse.
After that he kinda just… walked through Adult Tom's other forces, effortlessly stepping on anything that got too close, and submerged himself in the water surrounding Adult Tom's island mindscape.
Despite his size, he sank in and disappeared without a trace. Someone clearly considered their role done.
…
"Huh. Dunno why I'm surprised."
…Maybe she shouldn't have depicted him accurately because she couldn't make him follow her orders either.
Oh well, surely having Godzilla hanging around wouldn't cause any problems in the future.
---
"-and this rune sequence is the final power damper. Do you think I should add a fourth redundancy, or is that enough?"
"I think-" Holly started.
"Maybe a fifth, and another circuit breaker in my next iteration, but even that might not be enough. If-" Hermione rambled until Holly finally interrupted.
"Hermione, breath!" After she did, Holly continued, "it looks great."
Privately, Holly though it looked like the nightmarish creation of a madman: two large spikes of quartz covered in fiendishly complicated rune sequences. Atop each was a single handle covered in even more runes. Each was half of magical circuit that'd be completed when someone stabbed them into the ground above a leyline and grabbed both handles.
Oddly simple, honestly.
The only complicated bit was reducing the power flow enough not to instantly annihilate anyone who used it.
"Great? Great! It's a prototype, Holly! It's terrible! I need to figure out how to safely test it on a smaller leyline. Sneaking out of Hogwarts-" Hermione continued to explain-rant, but Holly had already drifted away.
---
"-is attacking Minister Bones at her home!" Hermione shouted, the wisps of a patronus message fading behind her.
That was more than enough to snap Holly out of her dozing. Sitting upright, Holly dived into her mindscape.
Appearing just behind the frontlines, Holly hundred down and conjured a headset. "It's time" was all she needed to say.
Immediately on the main frequency Mads voice rang out, "We're advancing! Red Squadron Holly's, get in the air. T-1000 Holly's, clear a path! Giant Holly's, you're on protection duty. Artillery, make it rain!. Let's kill that bastard!"
Explosions rattled the ground as bombs exploded. Her army exploded out of cover and ran forward, killing everything in their path.
Artillery and air support decimated their enemies, allowing the rest to advance. T-1000 Holly's formed a wave of metal that flowed across the battlefield, impaling anything that got in their way. Giant Holly's marched forward, destroying fortifications with their proportionally massive rifle in one hand, the other holding an equally large shield to block spells.
Best of all, Holly couldn't see an avatar of Adult Tom anywhere; the bastard really was occupied elsewhere. She led her army forward, not letting anything slow them down.
Holly ducked and dodged and shot and sliced, completely losing herself in the fight.
Holly blinked, a vampire cut in half falling apart on her lightsaber.
Holly blinked, watching a decapitated werewolf's head fly away.
Holly blinked, a spent RPG in her hands and a headless giant falling at her feet.
Holly blinked, jolted to awareness as the M2 machine gun in her arms clicked empty, a fallen hoard of inferni before her.
Holly blinked, finding herself diving out of the way of a falling Giant Holly fighting a basilisk.
Holly blinked, a knife in her hand buried in the chest of a Death Eater.
Holly blinked, finding herself standing at the waterfront outside edge of Adult Tom's mindscape proper.
…
Wait, what?
Holly rubbed her eyes, double checking and yep, she was standing right outside Adult Tom's mindscape with her army behind her.
In the distance she could see the castle of his Inner Mindscape atop an island, under a translucent domed shield.
Well, she never thought this would be easy.
Now, Holly could rush in there herself–that sounded fun honestly, but she had a better idea.
"Red Squadron," Holly said, smiling wide, "you're clear to make your runs. Force be with you."
The iconic sound of X-Wings slowly got louder until they suddenly passed over her head, flying towards the castle.
A second later they fired their proton bombs and the shield was rocked by explosions. The very mindscape rumbled under her feet, pain, shock, and anger.
When the smoke cleared she could see the shield and the castle under it was still standing.
"Dammit. Red Squadron, make another run," Holly ordered.
Unfortunately it seemed Adult Tom wasn't distracted anymore; something Holly discovered when he appeared in her face, screaming incoherently. At the same time an apocalyptic thunderstorm appeared in his mindscape, hurricane force winds gusting and lightning striking out at everything in the air.
Her X-Wings, conceptually being spacecraft, didn't fare well against harsh atmospheric conditions; either crashing or exploding spectacularly.
Holly herself was a bit blasted backwards by a wave of sheer force.
Landing hard enough to break her everything and flooded with pain, Holly forced her body to fix itself and launched into the fight.
-
"I failed."
"'Failed?!'" Hermione shouted back at her, "Holly, you saved the Minister's life by forcing Voldemort to retreat early!"
That was true but- "it's not enough. I couldn't match him and had to retreat when he wasn't distracted anymore."
Hermione… grabbed her own hair and shoved her face into a suddenly-there pillow. Her muffled screaming continued for a while.
---
Holly looked at the now adolescent phoenix.
The phoenix, currently sitting in her lap, looked back at her.
"...If you lose a feather now, would it regrow tiny the rest of this life cycle?"
The bird continued to stare back, judgmentally.
"You're growing fast. Is that normal? Wait, how long has it been anyways?"
"Fawkes was reborn almost a month ago; it's almost Christmas break, but that was cancelled." Hermione, ever nearby, replied.
That meant it'd been... a while she'd been doing this. Time really did pass fast when you were completely isolated. The ruined sleep schedule didn't help either.
---
'… should your Ministry fall and a puppet regime be put in place, I may be forced to marry someone to avoid giving a 'legal' excuse-' Holly stopped reading Fleur's letter.
Closed her eyes.
Took a deep breath.
Ignored the sudden sounds of roaring fire and screaming in her ears.
Calm.
She's calm.
So calm.
The calmest.
So. Very. Calm.
Serene, some even might say.
Opening her eyes noticed her vision was oddly distorted. Weird. Is she crying?
Lifting her hand to wipe her face, she absently noticed flames bursting from her unharmed arm. Odd.
Glancing down at herself she saw her entire body spewing fire and heat like a jet engine. Interestingly, the flames didn't burn either her own body or even her clothes, unlike the rapidly darkening tabletop under her forearms. Even the crumbs of toast on a nearby discarded plate were rapidly burning as she watched.
Seems like her vision is distorted from heat then. Interesting.
Looking back up she saw Hermione trying and failing to put her out with a water spell while screaming something. She… should probably listen to that.
"-olly. Holly!" Hermione screeched over the sound of the roar of fire.
Ah. That's right. Being on fire is dangerous.
Absently, Holly willed the fire to stop and vanished the incoming water jet. "It's fine . Everything's fine . I'm calm ."
For some reason that didn't stop Hermione from looking panicked. Weird. Before she could fill the abrupt silence Holly tossed the (miraculously unburned) letter to her.
"Now," Holly started, "if you'll excuse me, there's something I have to do."
Not waiting for a response, Holly stood up and walked towards the Leyline Taps.
-
After skimming the letter Hermione was too busy hysterically laughing after realising why her friend literally exploded in anger and was too distracted to stop what came next.
What came next could be called pure luck, an odd twist of fate, a mental breakdown, a fit of mania, or perhaps all at once.
It wasn't until she heard Holly scream and saw her stabbing the Leyline Taps into the Anchorstone Room floor that she realized what was happening.
----
Holly watched, oddly detached, as yellow arcs of powers ran up her arms like lightning. Anywhere they touched immediately burned. Distantly she could hear both herself and Hermione screaming.
But at the same time…
At the same time she could see her mindscape overlaid with reality.
Could hear Mads scream "FIRE!"
Could watch as the clouds suddenly began to glow from above with green light.
Could see as a green beam suddenly pierced the clouds, shooting towards Adult Tom's mindscape.
And then-
Light.
---
Holly trudged forwards, away from her own mindscape and towards what used to be Adult Tom's. She wasn't sure how long it'd been; either since she started walking or how much time she'd lost since her attack.
It didn't matter much now, not with Adult Tom defeated.
And he was defeated. She knew that beyond any doubt.
While her end had remained intact, the farther she walked the more… shattered it was. At first it'd been minor, burned ground and distorted objects.
Now? The very ground was a white void with rubble floating weightlessly by as she passed.
A shattered glass pane with the image of a blurry book in it. A piece of stone that felt like constant hunger and uncomfortable shoes. A chunk of wood that tasted like malicious glee. A torn page with indistinct words on it.
All of them fragments of a madman's irreparably broken mind.
Holly absently grabbed anything that wasn't too badly damaged as she made her way forward. She wasn't sure what she was looking for, but she'd know it when she saw it.
So she walked.
And walked.
And then, Holly felt it.
The impression of something akin to a tether back to reality.
Exactly what she was looking for.
Holly smiled and knelt down. Placing her palm on the white void of a floor, she closed her metaphysical eyes and followed it to the physical world.
-
Holly opened 'her' physical eyes.
Looked down at Adult Tom's much larger hands.
Willed his hands to open and close, watching as they did exactly that.
Holly grinned wide, the movement feeling strange on Adult Tom's face.
Her possession of Adult Tom's body was complete; Phase 2 of The Plan was finally over.
Time for Phase 3: Operation Trojan Horse.
Notes:Memes:
How I imagine ya'll rn
Holly's Big Brain Plan
Holly and Voldemort's dynamic
Hermione POV this arc
This was a nightmare to write but I cannot express how happy I am to FINALLY finish this arc and reveal that ending. Like I said, I've had this moment planned since before I started writing. This - and the main scene in the next chapter - are both plot points that inspired me to start writing this in the first place. I havn't seen any comments predicting this either, was this "twist" obvious or did I manage to surprise ya'll?
Series this work belongs to:Part 1 of The Life and Times Of Holly Potter Next Work →