Chapter 1
I sat in absolute darkness. I could feel a blanket around me and a pillow below my head. Touching further, I found the walls to be close on every side. Where was I? Was I in some sort of prison? But I hadn’t done anything wrong, had I? I could feel with my fingers, that there was a metal frame, like that of glasses next to my head. Touching down my body, searching for my phone to shed some light, only it wasn’t there and what also was gone was my dick. I no longer felt my balls dangling between my legs. I immediately went into a panic, even more so than before. My balls were gone! Frantically grasping into the air, I found a cord which I yanked down and immediately, with a soft humming, the light went on. I was inside a small space, no bigger than a closet, hidden under a thin sheet of fabric. My hands were small and my body was thin. I looked nothing like my old self. My skin was pale and my eyes were… well, horrible. Everything was blurred. Grabbing the glasses I had felt, I brought them up to my face and everything became clear, though still not as clear as my vision had been before… whatever this was happened. Looking down at myself, I was wearing an old, second hand shirt that was five times my size and a pair of pants just as weirdly proportioned, held together by a belt. Around my ‘room’, I saw some other clothes, all boys clothes, all several sizes too big for me. Even the underwear looked second hand, though it wasn’t boys underwear but some plain panties.
“Too big clothes, a closet to live in and glasses? Don’t tell me…?”
I grabbed the nearest reflecting surface, that being a polished hand saw and looked into my reflection. What looked back at me was a raven haired, little girl with piercing green eyes and a big lightning shaped scar which covered all of my forehead, though it was somewhat hidden through my raven locks, you could still see it very clearly.
“I’m Potter… not Harry but still Potter, either that or I am on drugs”
Just as I said that, a sharp pain rang through my skull and memories flooded into my mind. The memories of one Holly Potter, the niece of Vernon and Petunia Dursley and currently 10- almost 11 years old. If memories served me right, today would be the day that the first letter from Hogwarts would arrive. So, I jumped up, hitting my head on the way up, groaning in pain before walking out of the closet. A smell of fresh toast entered my nostril and I knew that the Dursleys were having breakfast. I walked into the dining room, where I was handed a plate full of 2 pieces of toast, an egg and some beans. I internally grimaced, British food… that would take some time to get used to. But I ate the breakfast in silence, just waiting for the postman to arrive. When he did, Vernon commanded Dudley to get the post but he was too busy to get it and said, “let Holly get it”
“Fine, girl, get the mail”, Vernon spat the word ‘girl’ with so much venom, I would need an antivenom. I just did as I was told and got up to get the mail. I saw it, amongst the normal letters was one from Hogwarts. I hid that one in my oversized pants and gave the rest to Uncle Vernon. He looked them over and commented, “Oh- marge is ill, ate a funny whelk”
Just like I remembered from the books and movies… now all I have to do is finish eating, wash the dishes and then I can read the letter.
Later, back in my closet, I fished the letter out of my pants and began reading under the light of the light bulb. It was just the same as in canon, only difference being that it said ‘In the coming days after receiving this letter, a staff member will come to take you shopping and introduce you to the magical world, as you have grown up in the muggle(non-magical) world. If you wish to decline this offer to study as Hogwarts, you can tell the staff member so in the following days’
Well, that was convenient.
The days passed without any trouble showing itself. I spent most my time outside, in the park, running away from Dudley and his gang, not wanting to be beaten to a pulp, as they so very much liked to do. The following friday, at breakfast, the doorbell rang.
“Get the door, girl”, Vernon barked at me and I happily did as I was told, skipping along to the front door. Before I opened it, I set on a meek face, with tears slowly beginning to emerge. Yes, I could cry on command, pretty useful to have. I opened the door and looked up to see a man in black robes, with oily, black hair and cold black eyes.
“H- hello s- sir, why are you here?”
Snape’s gaze softened considerably seeing my crying face, “I am hear from Hogwarts, you got the letter, right? Why are you crying?”
“Y- yes I got the *sniff* letter. I am c- crying because *sniff* they keep me in the closet under the stairs, barely feed me and beat me. Dudley just hit me with his smeltings cane”, I told him under tears, which wasn’t even a lie, they did do all of that and Dudley did hit me with his cane this morning. Silent fury awakened behind his eyes and he walked in, “show me this ‘closet’ you live in”
I showed him the closet, the small space which was mine and he scowled, muttering under his breath something about Lily and disrespectful actions, before turning to me, “Holly, please go out the front door and wait for me, I will come to you after I have… dealt with those people”
I did as I was told and waited outside for Snape. I could hear shouting, glass shattering and a few sounds as if bodies hit the floor, another storm of shouting and then Snape walked out of the kitchen and into the hallway, beelining towards me, “Now they will think twice about ever mistreating you again, Holly. I am Professor Severus Snape, from Hogwarts. You read the letter, yes?”
I nodded, wiping the tears from my face, “Yes, I thought it was some kind of prank, a sick joke but it isn’t? M- magic is real?”
“Yes, magic is very much real and at Hogwarts you will hone your abilities and learn how to make use of your gift” Snape drawled on, “take my hand, we will side along apparition… apparition is the art of disappearing from one place and reappearing at another, you will learn this skill in the future, though that is still far off. Now take my hand”
I took his hand and with a loud *pop* we were gone. Drawn through a straw thick hole and spun around so that I got nauseous. With the *pop* still ringing in my ears, I was suddenly in front of the leaky cauldron. We entered there and quickly made our way to the back alley connected to the pub, where Snape counted the bricks over a rubbish bin and tapped the stone, which began to fold away, molding to reveal a gateway. Diagon alley looked like pure magic, owls flew from one place to another, there were carts full of interesting looking talismans, kids running around with wands drawn, shooting spells in all directions, changing the colors of hair, lifting cauldrons into the air and so much more. Right at the back, where the alley split into two, one of the two ends being Knockturn alley and the other I didn’t know about, there stood Gringotts the wizarding bank. It was taller than all other shops in the alley and made from white marble. Two goblin guards stood at either side of the door, in full armor.
We walked past them and Professor Snape explained the basics to me, about how to deal with goblins, “Never insult them, never trust them and never ever try to scam them”, were his wise words.
We walked towards a goblin at one of the wooden counters, where Snape said to the goblin teller, “Ms. Holly Potter would like to make a withdraw from her vault”
“And does ms. Potter have her key?”, the goblin looked me up and down, his beady black eyes shining with greed.
“I have it right here”, Professor Snape took the bronze key from his pocket and showed the goblin the key. Then, he turned to me, “You have to keep this key very very safe, getting a new key made is quite costly and… painful”
Wow, he is much nicer than his book counterpart, probably because as a girl, I remind him more of Lilly but at the core, he probably still was a dick. We made our way with the cart, down and down into the earth, passing further and further down until we reached my vault, “This is it, your family vault”, Snape said, guiding me towards the door, where he put the key into the door and it clicked open. The door swung open and what I saw was breathtaking. It was a room, several meters in each direction, with mountains of gold, silver and bronze, as well as cabinets full of wands of Potters past, potion ingredients and other things, such as cauldrons, telescopes and so on. I looked back at Snape, who was standing patiently by the door, not looking at me, instead conversing with the goblin guide. Intrigued by the wands, I picked one up. On its label stood ‘Yew, crystalized Basilisk venom core 13 inches, Wand of Hugo Potter, died 1498’. I could feel the power coursing through my veins, as I felt a connection forming, like a string that attached itself to my spiritual core in my gut. Then, there was a searing pain in my head and I screamed out as black blood began seeping from my scar. I could feel the immense pain as whatever this connection was, fought against the horcrux in my skull. There came a screech from the Horcrux being forcefully removed and my vision turned black.
When I awoke, we were still in my vault, though now, Professor Snape was holding me in his arms, looking concerned at me, “Are you well, Potter?”
“Y- yes”, I gasped out, “How long was I out and what just happened?”
“You were unconscious for but a few seconds and the best guess I have as to what happened was that the wand you touched found some traces of dark magic in your curse scar and forcefully ejected them to help you. It seems as though this wand has bonded to you, so we won’t need to get a new one for you”, Snape said, “But a wand so old… there must be a stasis ward in this vault”
“That is correct, this vault was specifically constructed to house things like wands and ingredients and keep them fresh”, the goblin guide supplied.
“What does my scar have anything to do with magic? I thought I got it in the car crash”, I tried playing up the confused spiel to appear more naive and less knowledgeable. It appeared to work as Snape sprung into a long winded explanation of what really happened to my parents, all whilst I gathered up handfuls of golden, silver and bronze coins and put them in a money pouch that I found in the vault, which was enchanted to hold more than it physically should and be light as a feather.
We made our way out of the Goblin run bank and got to shopping. First, we got books -the ones on the list as well as some others to catch me up on the wizarding world-, then potions ingredients and equipment, followed by my clothes. I got some Hogwarts robes as well as well fitting normal clothes. A few dresses in warm colors, some T-shirts and pants and some underwear.