Holly Potter: The Bookish, Burgling, Badass (Hp x Mcu) by Personfour

Chapter 12: Year Four

Summary:

Holly startles people with her Holly-ness, is slightly unnerved by Hermione, makes an irrational decision, and is screwed over by a certain Cup.

Holly was standing on the train platform, trying and failing to pry herself out of Sirius's hug while he sniffled into her hair.

"-and you've got the mirror, right?"

"Sirius, I'm going to be fine, stop crying."

"How dare you accuse me of crying? Can't you tell it's raining? Terrible day for it." Her words must've gotten through though because he let her go and crouched down so they were eye to eye. "Now this should be an interesting year for you. Lemme know if any boys mess with you so I can curse them. And remember: don't do anything I would do. Got it?"

Thinking about how even Sirius hadn't done anything as crazy as she already had made it easy to agree.

Speaking of boys, she looked down at her shoes to make getting the words out easier, "um Sirius, it's uh, kinda not only boys you should be worried about."

Sirius didn't hesitate before responding. "Well tell me and I'll curse them all the same. Nobody but the best for you Prongslet."

And just like that, suddenly it was raining on her too. She hugged Sirius again before wandlessly clearing her face and boarding the train.

Eventually Holly managed to find Hermione sitting in a compartment and let herself in. After placing a repelling compulsion on the door she settled in, taking out a book to read.

"Holly! How was your break?"

"Pretty good. Practiced dueling with Sirius, went to World Cup, and veela made me realize I'm a bit gay."

After several seconds of silence Holly looked up from her book to see Hermione attempting to process everything. Seems like she overwhelmed her. Or maybe she was about to get interrogated? Either way, she waited for Hermione to get her thoughts together.

After several more seconds of silence she finally spoke up, "I thought it was illegal to do magic outside of school while we're still underaged. Shouldn't the Trace detect it?"

"The Trace is intentionally designed to be racist Hermione. Since it can't detect who cast spells it functionally only applies to muggleborns and some halfbloods." At her furious expression Holly decided to trust her with a secret (while maintaining plausible deniability of course.) "Also, hypothetically, I may have figured out how to break the Trace on myself. Hypothetically, would you want yours broken too?"

Hermione looked dumbfounded for a second before her lips twitched in amusement. "Hypothetically yes, I'd like that. Anyway, did you hear about those robberies?"

Thankfully Holly was mentally prepared enough to say something noncommittal to keep Hermione talking and avoid suspicion. They didn't keep talking for long after that, instead reading their books in a pleasant silence.

After getting off the train and their carriage (still pulled by winged, skeletal horses for some inexplicable reason) Hermione grabbed her arm. "Where are you going?"

"I always skip the feasts to eat in the kitchen instead. They're annoying and they never announce anything important. Although this year Sirius said they're bringing back the Triwizard Tournament." She didn't think it mattered much but by Hermione's expression she disagreed. "Come on, I'll tell you about it in the kitchens."

After introducing Hermione to the kitchen elves (and preemptively stopping her angry moral outburst with a whispered "research first, righteous anger later") they stuffed themselves while Holly slowly answered Hermione's questions.