Year Four, Chapter Two
Holly still felt the pain in her scar as the sun crested the horizon, though the bleeding had stopped. She quickly showered, got dressed, and packed her things up to try and distract herself from worrying. She knew that she couldn't get a message to Sirius before he arrived, absent just trying to go to him directly. She, for once, carefully and neatly packed her things in her trunk. Hermione would be proud.
She ate her piece of grapefruit nervously that morning, making sure to keep her wand in her pocket at all times. She knew that Voldemort wasn't going to burst into the Dursleys' living room, but the dream had rattled her. That man's eyes... she shivered, despite the summer heat.
Holly was snapped out of her panic by the sound of a very loud motorcycle outside. As Privet Drive, and really Little Whinging as a whole was not the sort of place one typically encountered a motorbike, Holly looked out the window. There, having somewhat haphazardly parked a large black motorcycle was Sirius Black. Holly's godfather was looking less gaunt than when she had last seen him, and she was so excited she ran out towards him.
"Holly!"
"Sirius!" she said, hugging him fiercely. "It's good to see you. I think I'd have gone crazy if I had to spend any more time with them," Holly continued.
"It's good to see you too, Holly. Go get your stuff - I'll just stand out here and embarrass your aunt," Sirius said with a grin. The leather jacket he was wearing, and his general demeanour would certainly cause the legendary gossips that were the housewives of Privet Drive to go into overdrive.
Holly got her trunk down from her bedroom, along with Hedwig's cage. She'd already let her owl out last night - Hedwig, Holly knew, was more than capable of finding Grimmauld place. Sirius put them into a compartment in the bike's sidecar that seemed to be much larger on the inside than the outside.
"So are we really going to drive on this?" Holly asked.
"I've been waiting to drive this thing again for a decade," Sirius said, and Holly got into the sidecar excitedly. Sirius revved the engine, and then Holly felt a very strange sensation. It was as if someone had cracked an egg on her head, and as she looked around she saw in amazement that she and the bike seemed to have become almost transparent.
"What is this?" Holly asked.
"Disillusionment charm," Sirius said with a grin, and then with one last roar of the engine, the motorcycle took off into the sky. It was great fun, and Holly spent much of the trip flying alongside the motorbike in the air as a raven. It was almost enough to make her forget her dream, as she soared across London,
She transformed back for the last stretch of the journey, and after they landed and came to a stop, she turned to Sirius.
"That was amazing!" she said.
"I thought you'd like it. Happy birthday, Holly," he said, and hugged her.
They had landed in an alley just off a row of large stone townhouses, all of them stately and imposing. Sirius got her stuff from the enchanted compartment, made the motorcycle invisible again, and led Holly around to the street. It was still early in the morning, and there was no one else around. A sign on the corner of the street read 'Grimmauld Place'. A small plaque underneath caught Holly's eye, and she read it quickly.
Due to a bureaucratic mistake at the end of the 17th Century, Grimmauld Place has a number 11 and a number 13, but no number twelve. Locals have resisted all efforts to renumber houses, and so the street's odd quirk of numbering remains.
Sirius saw what she was reading, and chuckled.
"Of course, the end of the seventeenth century is also when the statue of secrecy was passed. My dear old ancestors performed a stupendous number of memory charms to get everyone to buy the mistake story," Sirius said and gestured towards one of the houses. There, looking a little more faded than its neighbours, was Number Twelve Grimmauld Place. It had a high stone fence, topped with iron spikes that looked lethally sharp. Small runes glowed an angry red in lines across the fence, and there was a great iron gate.
"So this is where you lived as a kid?" Holly asked.
"Remus and I have cleaned out most of the tacky decor and dark artifacts, but yes," Sirius said, tapping his wand against the gate. It swung open, and the runes on the fence calmed down to soft blue light. Holly walked through the open gate, and she felt a strange sensation. "Crossing the wardline always did give me a little shiver. Paranoid old bastards, the Blacks. But at least all those wards will be good for something now you're staying here," Sirius said, after seeing Holly's reaction.
"I get the impression you liked them about as much as I like the Dursleys," Holly said, as they walked up to the large wooden door - which was, of course, painted black.
"Worse. They weren't Death Eaters, but my parents thought Voldemort had the right idea - and the less said about most of my cousins, the better," Sirius said and opened the door. Holly thought at once that if this was Grimmauld Place after Sirius and Remus had spent a month taking out all the tacky decor, the Blacks must have been the epitome of pureblood pretentiousness.
"I guess the fact that you're living here with your werewolf boyfriend is pretty good revenge, though," Holly said.
"Oh, my mother's portrait has words to say about that. If people open the curtains, she starts screeching about... well, I'm sure you can imagine," Sirius said, laughing as he led Holly through a tour of the house.
"Happy birthday, Holly," Remus said as they entered the kitchen. He had some toast and rather rubbery looking eggs on a plate, and Holly sighed. She could see a large number of muggle takeaway food boxes too.
"It's good to see you, Remus... maybe I should handle the food from now on," Holly said.
"From what Molly Weasley told me, you'd probably be better than either of us at it. My parent's old house-elf was still around when we got here, but we've always hated each other. I set him free the minute I got here - from what I heard, he managed to get my dear cousin Narcissa Malfoy to take him in," Sirius said.
"Narcissa Malfoy is your cousin?" Holly asked.
"Oh, you haven't heard of the Black sisters? They were infamous enough in their day. Bellatrix is in Azkaban for being a Death Eater, Narcissa married Lucius Malfoy, and Andromeda turned out to be a perfectly nice lady," Sirius explained. "Anyway, let me show you the rest of the house. People are coming round at noon for your birthday party, so you have plenty of time to do that odd teenage girl thing and spend three hours getting dressed," he continued. Holly rolled her eyes at him.
Number Twelve Grimmauld Place had everything from a library to a proper duelling room in its vast warren of wallpapered corridors. It was surely much larger on the inside than the outside, a triumph of expansion charms. Many of the rooms had clashing styles, clearly having been added on as the owners desired it. Sirius pointed out were things he'd removed had been, like the collection of House Elf heads. One room had a huge tapestry with the names of all the various Blacks on it, and Holly could see that work had clearly been done it recently.
"And this is your bedroom," Sirius said, opening the door to show Holly the room. It was large, and done mostly in red and gold. There was a huge four-poster bed, a desk that Holly thought must have belonged to someone important once, and a large window that looked out onto the street. There were cupboards and dressers, a place for her to put her broom, and even a relatively modern-looking radio sitting next to what was clearly a wizard wireless. It struck Holly then that she had somewhere she could leave things behind - that she no longer needed to live out of her trunk.
"This - this is great, Sirius," Holly said and hugged him.
"This used to be my room - I figured you'd like the window. Remus made me take down all the dirty posters, though," Sirius said, and Holly laughed. "I'll let you get your stuff put away - me and Remus's room is down that hall," Sirius said, and then closed the door behind him.
She put her things away, smiling at the Basilisk-skin coat that Hagrid had given her last year. The resizing runes (a simple sizing charm wouldn't take to the magic-resistant basilisk skin) had kept it the right size for her. She found a good hiding place for her little black notebook and made sure it was hidden from anyone who might look for it.
Then she closed the curtains and got ready for her birthday party. She didn't take all that long, but drying her hair was starting to take longer. She wondered idly if there were hair drying charms. Maybe Parvarti or Lavender would know, she thought.
Sirius had evidently invited all her friends and then some more for her birthday party. All the Weasleys in the country came, and Molly Weasley stepped out of the fireplace holding a very large cake. Hermione was there, of course, but unlike all the other guests she'd been dropped of by her parents in a car. Hagrid had to stoop to get through the fireplace. Neville Longbottom came as well as Parvati Patil and Lavender Brown (It turned out that there were several types of hair-drying charms). Even Luna Lovegood came, and Holly smiled as she saw her step out of the living room fireplace. She was an odd one, but Holly thought Luna was quite nice and often a lot of fun.
She managed not to cry this time, but Holly's fourteenth birthday was just as good as her thirteenth. Not only was there Mrs Weasley's huge cake but Holly and Sirius got to delight in introducing their mostly wizard-raised guests to pizza. Even Hermione found it amusing, but it soon won over all those present.
Sirius, Remus, Hagrid, and Mr and Mrs Weasley mostly stayed in the living room, whilst Holly and her friends had the run of the house. Fred and George continued their streak of second secret gifts, though this one wasn't as interesting as the Marauder's Map - just a bottle of firewhiskey that Holly dutifully hid.
After everyone had gone home, Holly sat in the kitchen with Sirius and Remus. Everyone had no real desire to do anything else that day, but Holly knew she had to tell them about her dream.
"Last night I had, um, I guess you could call it a dream. But I think it was real? Let me start again..." Holly began, and she explained what she had seen in the dream. She couldn't identify anyone other than Voldemort, but both Sirius's and Remus's eyes narrowed at the Death Eater's story as Holly retold it.
"It couldn't be..." Remus said slowly.
"I saw them carry his body away myself, Remus. Holly, what did he look like again?" Sirius asked.
"He had black hair, tall - he'd be handsome if he didn't have this look to him..." she said, trailing off at the end. She didn't really know how to describe it.
"The bastard really did it," Sirius said, his voice more than a whisper.
"It could be someone else, Sirius," Remus said.
"No... I'll remember those eys until the day I die. He seemed so... broken in Azkaban I even felt a little sorry for him despite what he did. I guess the joke's on me," Sirius said.
"Who do you think he is?" Holly asked, confused.
"Barty Crouch... Junior," Sirius said, pausing for a moment before adding the 'Junior'.
"You mean the same Barty Crouch that sent you to Azkaban without a trial had a Death Eater for a son?" Holly said.
"The very same. I think we need to tell Dumbledore about his - I'll go write to him," Sirius said. Dumbledore came to Grimmauld Place that evening, and he had a strange look in his eyes as Holly finished telling him about her dream.
"I think we must start on at least Occlumency before the school year. Sirius, Remus - I trust the two of you can handle teaching Holly the basics?" Dumbledore said. They nodded.
"What's Occlumency?" Holly asked.
"The art of shielding one's mind against intrusion. I do not think that Voldemort can reverse your connection yet, but if he grows stronger..." Dumbledore said.
"It could be bad. He'd be able to, what, read my mind?"
"Or use you to influence the minds of others. It is lucky we discovered this connection whilst he was still so weak - and a pity it should cast a pall over today. Happy Birthday, by the way, Holly," Dumbledore said, smiling at her.
"Thanks, Professor," Holly said.
"Well, we're all too full of cake to do it today, but tomorrow we're starting you on Occlumency... and I think we should put that duelling room my granduncle installed to some use," Sirius said, after Dumbledore had gone. Holly grinned - if Sirius was anywhere near as good as Remus, she'd learn a lot from both of them.
What the fuck Holly?
