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Disclaimer: Harry Potter and all related concepts are owned by someone who isn't me. I will never seek or accept money for the circulation of this work. Especially this work. Similar lack of intent to infringe copyright should be assumed as it applies to Joe Jackson, M.C. Hammer and Seal. Yes, this one makes some musical references- deal with it.

Spiral Tangent: 'Spider in the Snake Den' - Holly's series of capers to humble and instruct her new Slytherin Housemates. A rare, less-sexual Tangent (yeah, right).

Placement: September-October 1994; chapters 39 'Red Light, Green Light' & 40 'Rule Changes'

What you need to know: Holly Evans was originally Sorted into Gryffindor, but following her expulsion for killing Marcus Flint, she was readmitted under strict guidelines for her behavior and academic performance. Now at the start of her fourth year, Adrian the Sorting Hat has asked that she be re-Sorted into Slytherin to help protect the dozen or more orphans and muggleborn students he wished to place there. Since their inclusion in this year's new enrollees was due to Holly's contribution of the Basilisk carcass profits to the scholarship fund, Holly took on the change of housing, even though she's already made enemies of half the House.

Touchstones: Since I am once again committing inter-chapter story threading, I've left Touchstones in between certain sections to indicate what is happening in Spiral Chapters 39 & 40, to keep the chronology straight. In other words, no, I haven't learned my lesson from Tangent 8, but at least I'm cross-indexing.

*

1st September

Following the introductory speeches, Holly finds her way down to the second tier girl's dorms and follows the curve of the stone hallway until she finds her dorm with only the single nameplate.
"Well, there's a small blessing."
After a quick check for charms and rune work, she enters the dorm room, noting that her Asian travel case is sitting in front of one of the two beds. Doffing her cloak and hat and switching back to her muggle outfit, she starts walking slowly across the room and back again, looking at the space and furniture. Holly is interrupted in her ruminations by a visitor- Draco Malfoy leans against the frame of the door and gives her a haughty look.
"Evans. You're in my House now. Best to learn your place in it."
"Ah, Draco. I see they don't protect the girls' dorms from male intrusion down here. Not that that's important to you, of course."
"What are you talking about?"
"You've cornered me in my room and all you have to say is 'obey'? Not much for girl company, are you?"
"The fact that you disgust me means nothing about my habits, except that I'm not stimulated by the company of animals."
"Good insult. You're improving."
"Perhaps you hadn't noticed as blind to our ways as you are, but this House operates by my direction. Even the upperclassmen follow my instructions. I bet you're sorry you crossed me on the train, now!"
"No, I did what I did because from any perspective your actions were stupid. As a Slytherin, I'd like to thank you, though. If you hadn't created the situation, I'd have never made any progress repairing my reputation, particularly with the firsties. Now they like me and hate you."
"None of them have any resources or a family worth knowing. They are nothing. Why should I care about them?"
"Loyalty. It's based upon successive demonstrations of reliability and acting for mutual benefit. It's harder to establish but more reliable long term, unlike fear. This House just picked up sixteen new members who wouldn't spit on you if you were on fire. Well, I might, but we both know I'd be doing it to be funny. Now go away; I'm remodeling."
"Don't get too comfortable, Evans. Your days here are numbered."
Draco stalks off. Holly walks over to the doorway and inspects it for a moment, then waves her wand at a few incongruous knots in the wood, causing them to vanish. Holly turns back to wave a few furniture pieces to different locations in the room. Holly mumbles to herself, "What, and you're going to stay forever? I should have said THAT. Well no, because then he wouldn't have left..."

A short time later Pansy Parkinson appears in the doorway, having walked the short distance down the hall from where she and Tracey Davis share a room. Her presence is announced with a petulant huff.
"What are you doing here, Evans? Changed Houses just to humiliate me some more?"
"No, I... is this going to be my evening? Are there going to be people coming every ten minutes to my room in order to threaten me, because as a distraction it's poorly chosen. Fairly soon I'm going to get truly annoyed and truss up someone like the Turks outside Vlad Tepes' dining room."
"That... may have been a part of Draco's plan, yes."
"Pathetic. And why are you participating? I didn't see you at Lammas and you weren't being kept company by any of our year in the Great Hall. You're more screwed than I am right now."
"I... am merely taking a slow path to regain my position."
"Right."
Pansy sighs.
"Alright, no. I am... screwed, as you put it. There isn't a good reason for me to help any of the ones coming to tease and torture you this evening."
"Do you want to sit down?"
"What?"
"Well you obviously haven't anywhere better to be and I'd like to ask some questions that may improve my chances of surviving the week. If you have any money, you could make a bet for my survival and then give me tips to help win the wager."
Pansy stares at Holly's unpacking process for a solid minute before responding.
"You really mean that, don't you?"
"I am here with a purpose. It doesn't require me killing anyone, but if I keep getting provoked..."
"You can have your elf here."
"What?"
"The rules. You can have your elf come and help you whenever you're here, so long as it doesn't sleep here. That will help you survive the night. Have your elf stand guard."
"Thank you! That's incredibly helpful."
"I... I'm a bit... lost right now. Can I trust you?"
"No. But I don't have a good reason to betray you yet, so there's room for growth."
"Some others will be coming to harass you soon. I'll... I'll be back later when things calm down. I'd like to strike a deal."
"I'm intrigued. When you approach, say 'Joe Jackson's Jumpin' Jive'. I'm putting up wards soon and they won't hurt you if I know you're coming."
"O-okay."
Pansy slinks off, her face scowling in distaste and annoyance, probably as part of her performance as a 'good' Slytherin.

Hours pass as Holly settles in; most of her visitors are put off by her general attitude of indifference to their threats. After the first ward is established on the doorway, subsequent callers learn to keep their assaults verbal-only lest they lose their hair, stomach contents or memory by passing through the threshold to Holly's room.
Around one in the morning, the darkened hall outside Holly's room receives a quiet visitor. Pansy walks carefully down the edge of the corridor, carrying a shielded candle in front of her. The girl's nervousness is betrayed by the shaking of the candleflame's light in the shadows. Pansy reaches the door to Holly's room and whispers, "Joe Jackson's Jumping JiveeeEAA...!"
Holly opens her door, still dressed in the denims and v-neck pullover she was wearing at the start of the day. She immediately looks up to where a now-Silenced Pansy is struggling inverted, her head roughly facing Holly's knees. Pansy's nightfrock is hanging over her face from around her upper torso, the unfortunate girl's otherwise naked body exposed to Holly's appreciative gaze. Holly gently reaches forward to touch Pansy's belly, causing the muscles to contract and the upended girl to cease her silent contortions. Holly presses her hand against the hexed girl's navel and slowly re-inverts her, settling Pansy to stand on the floor. As soon as Holly releases her magical touch, Pansy is freed to spastically rearrange her bedclothes while glaring through a tousled bob of dark brown hair at her new House-mate. Holly smirks and gestures for Pansy to enter the room and then closes the door behind them, leaving only a doused candle on the floor as evidence of the encounter.
"Get a good feel, did you Evans? I knew this was just an excuse to indulge in your perversions!"
"Pansy, if I felt sexually towards you, I would have been sucking on your pert nipples or sticking my hot tongue past your translucent satin knickers deep into your entirely shaved quim until you passed out in unbridled ecstasy."
Pansy's stunned expression gives Holly's smile a reason to broaden.
"Don't knock it until you try it." Holly then hands a dog-eared romance novel to the confused girl.
"You... you don't want to have sex with me?"
Holly pauses with a grimace, squinting in momentary discomfort.
"Erfh. Please don't say that around me, Pansy. You're the one who came dressed to undress. Have a seat and Winky will grab us some tea."
Holly moves to put some books into a shelf by the desk, others left on the desk in a stack.
Pansy takes a moment to gaze around the room, noting significant changes to the original decor. The beds are pushed together into a larger platform with the mattresses conjoined, set to one side of the room. One desk has been shortened to act as a tallish coffeetable for the two sitting chairs placed near the iron stove, the other desk set next to the doorway. Pansy moves across the room and sits in the chair closest to the pot-bellied radiator, demurely settling her nightie around her legs. Winky appears and places the tray of tea on the table before her and then walks over to Holly's Asian travel case, disappearing with a stack of books in her arms.
"I... I like what you've done with the space. If Davis and I were friendlier, I'd suggest it for our room."
"You've been rooming together for three years and you still call her 'Davis'?"
"That... is a recent change. If someone in a higher ranking calls you by last name, it is expected. If they call you by first name, it's a blessing, possibly an invitation. Calling your superior by their first name suggests a lack of respect or an established sexual relationship. My star has fallen, so now I'm the bottom."
"I thought you said you weren't..."
"The relationship is described that way for simplicity. It has less to do with the ideas of de Sade or Masoch than you might imagine, though some assume much more..."
"Huh. I guess it's just a more formalised version of the usual 'last name means I don't like you' riff. So if I go around calling everyone by their first name..."
"It implies that you feel that you rule them, or that you've already been sexual with them. Either way for you it would be an insulting gesture, likely to cause trouble, even a duel if you were to do so to Daphne Greengrass or Dahlia Dorsey."
"Nifty. Now I just need to figure out everyone's name. Tell me about Dorsey."
"She's the fifth-year Prefect; heavier-set and taller with long black hair and decent fashion sense even if she favours dark nail polish... What am I doing here, Evans?"
Holly ceases unpacking for the time being and slumps down in the chair opposite Pansy, taking in her frown of frustration.
"Well Pansy, you're here because you want to make sure I'm not going to seek revenge on you for luring me into Flint's trap. You also are here because you're so far down the food chain that Astoria would beat you up for your lunch money without reprisal, and you know if you make friends with me there's a chance you can reclaim some dignity. That assumes that I'll survive, so it's a risky bet, but you've not got many options left. Am I close?"
"Closer than I would have expected. Perhaps you are a Slytherin, after all."
"I intend to remake this House in my own image. Is that ambitious enough for you?"
Holly stares into Pansy's eyes from behind her rimless glasses, causing Pansy to catch her breath. A shiver runs along her spine.
"D-do you always try to provoke a... sexual response from people?"
"Yes. Am I close?"
"I (gulp) ...am."
Holly smiles indulgently, sitting back in the chair to put Pansy more at ease.
"It's the tea. It warms the deep places. Besides, the more turned on people get, the less clear they're thinking. Pansy, what would you say if I told you I wanted your help but not your company?"
Pansy shakes her head and then glares at Holly, though she has a slight smirk.
"I'd say that the next time you give me a passphrase that it had best not trigger a trap."
"Fair enough. First time is always the hardest. Trusting, I mean. If you agree to this, I'll make sure that you learn Disillusionment well enough to make the trip safely. What will you do for company instead?"
Pansy gives Holly a look of challenging superiority as she leans back with her tea.
"Perhaps my alliance with Granger will continue, fostering some confusion no doubt. Davis still associates with me, as do Millie and Malfoy's enforcers. I have not fallen quite so far as your simple-minded assumptions suggest."
"And yet here you are. It will be much easier for us to get along if your sarcasm is directed away from me, alright?"
Pansy looks up to see Holly staring at her neck as if it were being targeted. Her hand absently strokes along her neck where Holly had once left bruises with her grip. A brief look of fear shows that Pansy has acknowledged Holly's threat.
"I... understand."
Pansy sits pensively as Holly drinks some more tea chased with a sip of potion that makes wisps of steam float from her ears. After a few minutes, Pansy sits up, her face set into a pleasant resolve.
"I'm in. If you want to ensure an early end to hostilities, here's what I suggest..."

Pansy's Pointers: 'You need to make an impression. Something showy, so that they don't mistake your reputation for exaggeration.'
'I killed Flint'
'Yes, but they didn't see that. Only Bletchley and I are really affected by that image.'

The next morning Holly followed Pansy's suggestion in dealing with Misters Falmouth, Vaillant, Haugen, Montague and Warrington. Of course the details were Holly's secret, so that Pansy would be as genuinely surprised as everyone else when they saw the five older students knocking back and forth, hung petrified by ropes from the common room ceiling.

Touchstone: Holly demonstrates a human Newton's cradle, and then suggests that Draco bring Quidditch back to the schedule.

*

9th September

Pansy's Pointers: 'Professor Snape's first House meeting each year is mandatory attendance- it's his 'Secrets' speech. Be ready for it.'

"Secrets. There is no greater power, no more valuable commodity than secrets. A wizard may have complete control of his environment, every coin of the land, and every vow possible made to him, but if he has secrets, they can be his downfall. A man will work for pay, or the promise of... other bounties, but to know his secrets is to have hold of him.
"A secret is nothing if those entrusted with it cannot be trusted with it. To ensure our secrets stay within our House, you have taken a vow. Now you must give a secret. Each year, you will tell this assembly your most important secret learned in the past year. This is not to teach you how to leverage secrets- that's for the later years (a chuckle passes between the sixth and seventh years). This is to find out if you can be trusted, to demonstrate that a secret shared isn't quite the burden you imagine, and to illustrate what happens when someone breaks that sort of trust. Because every year, someone foolishly attempts to leverage a secret told during this meeting, overwhelmed by the temptation of power over another. And inevitably, we make sure that they regret it; no further breaches in trust usually follow."
(room-wide 'gulp')
"The incense you are smelling gives you some courage to loosen your tongues and ensure no prevarications, and there is a citrus punch laced with a Calming Draught so that you may recover from any shame you may feel. Learning to face the revealing of your secrets teaches you what those secrets really mean, what value they truly have for you. Not every secret is important. Before we begin, let me assure you; lies are not secrets and the difference is obvious. Don't. Waste. My time."
Snape allows a pause as the students begin to sort through their memories for a secret they are willing to share.
"As I speak your name, you shall stand up and tell us your secret. As this is a random choosing, you will not know if you will be first on the list, or last. Bletchley, Miles."
Miles stands up with confidence, then balks suddenly as he looks at Holly.
"I... I... "
"Speak up, Bletchley. After all, this isn't your first secret."
"Evans... spared me from harm because I tried to stop the others from raping her. B-but she made me watch as... as she... "
"Good enough, Mr. Bletchley."
Holly pipes up with an encouraging tone.
"No, finish it, Miles. As I what?"
"C-cut off the top of Flint's skull. She said she was taking her pound of flesh for that assault and the rape of Penelope Clearwater. And Flint begged for his life."
"Not exactly. He said I had no right. I disagreed..."
"Enough! This is not a debate! Mr. Bletchley, you've fulfilled your obligation. Take some punch and sit. Evans, Holly!"
"Is this because I've already started?"
"Stand and speak, Evans."
Holly stands up. As she's about to speak, Draco interrupts from his position reclining on the floor, surrounded by some 3rd and 4th years like an entourage.
"Shouldn't Miss Evans be telling us four secrets, Professor?"
Holly's eyebrows rise as she turns to Professor Snape for a ruling.
"It is unusual, this situation. This is about trust and secrets, Miss Evans. I leave the choice to you."
Holly stands with her weight shifted to one hip as she considers.
"Well, if I were a pure Slytherin I might only choose to reveal one, so that I might keep my secrets safe. As a pure Gryffindor I would bravely stand forth and tell everything. I'll compromise. I'll offer one secret, and answer three questions truthfully."
"Interesting. Mr. Malfoy, does that suit you?"
"Yes. I think that will do, so long as I get to ask the questions."
Daphne admonishes Draco while pushing at his back with her stocking-clad foot. "Draco, you're being selfish. Let others play as well."
"Mr. Malfoy may have the first question. Miss Evans, your secret. The most important one you know to date."
"I'll save that for the end, if you don't mind. The questions may lead there anyway."
Snape stares at Holly momentarily before uttering a dry approval.
"That's very considerate. Mr. Malfoy, do you have a question?"
Draco finishes brushing off his shoulder of imaginary Daphne-cooties and then looks up towards Holly with a challenging expression.
"Yes! How many things have you killed? Please provide detail. Without lying."
Holly gives Draco a brief glare before bowing her head in thought.
"I killed the Mountain Troll that was lumbering in the castle the first Hallowe'en I was here. It had trapped Hermione and me in the 1st floor girls' loo, swinging its club too high to hit us but enough to sunder apart the loo stalls. I transfigured a broken slat of wood from one into steel and stabbed it in the neck, and then Hermione dropped its club on its head, forcing the spike the rest of the way through. Basically I did the match to needle transfiguration and she used Wingardium Leviosa. We just happened to be terrified at the time. It only seemed funny after everything stopped making noise."
Some appreciative nods come from the second and third years.
"I killed... Professor Quirrel by shoving a highly magical object into his mouth and then punching him with magic empowering my fist."
Theo Nott interrupts from Draco's right, "I'm sorry, you did what with your fist?"
"Shut up or I won't finish. I killed the Basilisk by shoving Gryffindor's sword up through its soft palate while it was crushing me. I... gave Hermione a heart attack but restarted it with the Cruciatus Curse. I killed a rogue poison-mad Acromantula during a run one morning using a bunch of arrow spells. I executed Flint, again using Gryffindor's blade. And I choked to death a thing that looked like me that attacked me in Azkaban. That should cover it- six, with a seventh rescinded."
Silence reigns for a few moments. Snape draws in a breath and speaks, "Who has another question for Miss Evans?" prompting renewed whispering.
Daphne stands up. "I do. Miss Evans, with whom have you been intimate? Please... provide detail!"
Holly smiles a little as Daphne returns to sitting. "I will limit the amount of detail, or we'll be here a while."
A rousing wave of interest is accompanied by sniggers and several low croons of 'OOOOoooooOOOooohh!'
"Well, I and Miss Granger have been intimate to the point of stopping her heart. I provided oral satisfaction to Dean Thomas at the end of our only date. I am regular bed mates with an Auror named Natalia. Neville Longbottom snogged me righteously on the platform. Ginny Weasley and I wrestled in an argument that became unexpectedly satisfying. I... provided some form of erotic pleasure to a French girl who was apparently part-Veela. Oh, and I kissed Luna from Ravenclaw so well that we both orgasmed."
"REGULAR bed-mates..."
"... is she talking about Loony Lovegood?"
"Sounds like quite a kiss... "
"... or quite the tongue."
"QuiiiiET! We have one more question for Miss Evans and then her own secret."
"What do you know about Harry Potter?" spat out Blaise Zabini.
"Everything. Unfortunately for you, that's all I'm going to say about him."
"Ohh!"
"That's hardly fair..."
"Professor, can't you...?"
"ENOUGH! Miss Evans, if you would indulge us in a rewording of the last question, 'what CAN you tell us about Harry... Potter.'"
Holly ignores Professor Snape's expression of tolerant distaste to consider the question.
"Okay, well... huh. Harry lives hidden in the castle. He only comes out rarely but you will get to meet him soon. He's taller than me but scrawny, has black hair, wears round eyeglasses... and he was there when the Shrieking Shack was destroyed fighting off the Dementors last May. I gave him my old wand because it works better for him than for me. He's been trading letters with Miss Granger for a while, though I can't say if that's the extent of their interactions. Everything I've read about the night the Potters were killed is completely wrong aside from who his parents were, who killed them and that the house was protected by a Fidelius Charm. That's about it."
"And what is the most precious secret you now hold, Miss Evans?"
Holly stands tall (as tall as she can, anyway) and gazes around the room. Her expression hardens, and she speaks the next words clearly so that everyone can hear them.
"The Dark Lord is not dead. He was a student here in the forties named Tom Marvolo Riddle, and the night that he tried to kill Harry his body was destroyed but his soul remains amongst the living. He possessed Professor Quirrel until I stopped them. His diary possessed another student until I destroyed it and the Basilisk that it commanded. And while he had no direct involvement in the riot and terror at the World Cup, I am certain that his living spirit has returned to England, and is working to regain a body to rise once more. You may play at being superior to others because you are from landed families with power, money and prestige. If he returns to power, he will place himself above everyone else, even you. If he rises again, it will be so that YOU will worship HIM. Whatever he offers you, it will come with a price."
Silence once again reigns over the room. It is finally broken by Tracey Davis.
"Doesn't that mean that Potter really hasn't done anything at all?"
Professor Snape and Holly both enthusiastically respond "YES!"

*

14th September

Pansy's Pointers: 'If you're going to humiliate them, you might as well enjoy yourself in doing so.'

Holly gets up this Wednesday morning, strolls out of her dorm room wearing naught but her dressing gown though openly carrying her wand and walks over to the 2nd tier girls' shower... except that at the same time she enters the low tier girls' shower. Entering the room, Holly ignores the yelps and protests of the four girls showering or in process of dressing, sealing the door behind her.
"Alright ladies, you can either be stunned or pay 5 sickles for the show."
Two promise to pay, two are stunned.
Holly casts the window-wall spell on the ceiling, and the three conscious occupants below see another Holly walk across the ceiling above them, pausing in an unnatural way once in the room. With a few moments of preparation, Holly casts another spell and both versions of herself begin undressing in tandem. The two paying audience members sit slowly on a bench on the wall nearest the door, holding hands as they watch Holly doff her dressing gown to reveal her naked body. The Hollys begin to shower as if unconcerned with the scrutiny. After a few minutes, the door to the room above opens once more, allowing five upperclass boys to enter with their wands ready (Esthering, Falmouth, Vaillant, Jackson and Dinker this time). The hot water of Holly's shower has filled both rooms partly with steam.
Holly turns around coyly, carefully acting like she's looking at the upper room's new occupants so that the illusion matches.
"Leave now and you might have a good day, boys..."
Music begins to emanate from a small box in a pocket of Holly's dressing robe- the boys begin to look around warily- evidently they're hearing the same music in the room above.
'U Can't Touch this!'
Holly sets herself into a strange wide-legged stance and begins to bounce in time with the hyperactive backbeat, her naked jiggling form sending at least three of the boys into a state of drooling distraction. The eldest is coherent enough for a brief threat.
"Look here, Evans! I don't know what's wrong with you, but my lads and I are here to fix it! Right lads?"
"Damn! I always knew you were bent, Roger, but... damn!"
Holly's dancing begins to move her stutter-shuffling form back and forth along the wall of the shower to match with the shouts and yells of the music.
'Ay-O! Ay-O! Ay-O, ay-O! Ay-O! Ay-O! Hoo Hahh!'
The boys in the room above are all finally shocked into action when the Holly above seems to release several bouncing balls that begin accelerating around the room. Every time the bouncing balls strike one of the intruders they suffer a Stinging hex to the location and the ball splits into two smaller spheres while picking up speed. Holly's dance moves, while jerky and odd, continue to keep time with the dance tune. Within minutes the room above is filled with ricochets of statically-charged bouncing balls, filling the area with smoke from the small electrical burns building up on the boys' clothes. Their spells aimed at Holly never seem to strike and the balls quickly become too fast to hit with a targeted spell. One boy conjures a Protego shield but can't keep his concentration when Stinging balls strike him from behind, below and above soon after. He collapses to the floor amidst his fellows when three different shocks strike his head in quick succession.
Holly sings along with the last line of the rhythmic assault.
"Ay-O! Ay-O! Ay-O, ay-O! Ay-O! Ay-O! STOP!..... Hammer time!"
Holly stops her gyrations with her arm thrust forward, then steps to a more natural stance.
"Thanks for playing boys. I felt like I was lapsing on my exercises."
The music has ended and Holly takes a minute to rinse off the sweat accumulated from her dancing before shutting off her shower. As Holly puts on her robe, one of the two paying customers whispers "That was awesome!" and slumps down next to her shocked companion. Holly grins and then cancels her matching illusory self and the window-wall spell with a flick of her wand, noting first that none of the boys above her are conscious though one of them is still smoking from burns on his robes.
The shorter of the two girls stutters a question as Holly dries her hair with a towel.
"H-how did you know... th-that they were coming for you?"
"I'll tell you a secret, but it has to stay between us, alright?"
Both young girls nod, once again joining hands to Holly's amused observation.
"Well Casey, I've learned how to read minds in a way, so when I catch them acting pleasantly towards me, I give them a hard stare and find out what they're planning and when."
"Is that fair?"
"No Fiona, but neither is ganging up on me. Fair only happens in sports. And death. Death is very fair, as it's applied universally."
"Well then why do the teachers and parents and custodians and such always say 'be fair, play fair'?"
"Umm... I'd like to explain this in more detail, but the longer I stand somewhere nearly naked, the more likely I am to break the law. Howabout you two join me for a study session in the Transfiguration classroom after supper?"
"This... isn't about... sex, is it?"
Holly looks at both of the blushing girls with worry.
"Casey, we're standing in the bath together, we're all clean and I'm one slip of clothing from being classified a molester since you're in touching range; if it were sexual I wouldn't defer until later or have you meet in my Godmum's classroom- we'd just be getting busy. Relax! Aside from my amateurish display of naked hip-hop just now, I have no intention of corrupting either you or anyone else in the lower years."
Holly turns to leave, unsealing the door with a touch of her wand.
"Can we bring some friends?"
"Sure. Oh, and the spell to wake the other two is 'Rennervate', with a twist upward at the end, right? Aim at the head, because that's where Stunning affects you."

Touchstone: An hour later Holly is sandwiched between two meter-wide cream pies by the Twins. Five days later Holly presents Casey, Fiona and 18 other students interested in getting help as Hermione's first teaching experience.

*

3rd October

Pansy's Pointers: 'Most of these twits don't know the first thing about leverage. If the lesson isn't taking hold, you might as well use them to teach someone else.'

Holly is lead by Newt to a lonely boy, beaten up and sobbing in his dorm. After asking him what happened but just getting a shaking head for a response, she sifts the lad and finds out that his safety-partner/roommate was left behind when he ran from his oppressors and has been taken to Hospital. Holly brings the boy with her to exact restitution against the perpetrators of this abuse- Theo Nott and Dahlia Dorsey, who were accidently caught 'in flagrante' by the pair of firsties. Holly catches up with them exiting a broom closet down an isolated corridor (after consulting the Marauder's Map to ensure a private conversation).

"So, you didn't want your dirty laundry aired. That somehow justifies beating two firsties into submission?"
Theo Nott gives Holly a derisive snort.
"They're too young and inexperienced to understand blackmail and not worth bribing. That leaves bullying."
"Well, I think you should have tried 'buddying-up', first. Now John and his friend will hate you no matter what you do."
"No great loss..."
"You stupid sod. Either of these boys could easily grow up to run the business you work for, or lead the Quidditch team you want to play in. What they are now is not what they could be. What do you want in compensation, John?"
"An apology. And ten galleons. And they should get us treats next Hogsmeade weekend."
"Sounds fair, except I think the Galleons should go to getting the treats. How do you answer, Theo?"
"Screw you!"
A sudden buzzing noise follows Holly's punch into Theo Nott's shoulder, resulting in a harsh crunching sound and the boy collapsing in pain to the floor. Once on the ground, Holly breaks his foot with a stomp as well. Theo begins to lose consciousness from the pain.
"Hospital for hospital, then. That was a magically-powered punch, by the way. Dahlia?"
"Oh, that... sounds fair to me. I'm sorry, John. I'll just go and apologise to... uhhh..."
"Lloyd!"
"Yes, Lloyd. Let me know what you two would like from the sweet shop, then."
"See, there's a reason she was made a Prefect. They learn faster."
[Snort!]
As Dahlia moves to check on the unconscious Nott, Holly stops her and turns to the recovering firstie.
"Hang on. John?"
"Yes, Holly?"
"This is not to be bragged about, nor even mentioned. Do you understand?"
"Well... uhh... what do I tell the others about the candy?"
"Figure something out, but if Dahlia isn't threatening your health, you do what she tells you."
"Why?"
"Because she's a Prefect. Most of the time, Dahlia is acting in our best interests. You just caught her in a situation. Understand?"
"No."
Holly turns to the taller girl in exasperation.
"Dahlia..."
Dahlia returns Holly's look with a surprised understanding, and then turns to address John.
"Look sprog, I only had Theo hit you so you wouldn't tell anyone we had broken the rules. If I tell you to get back to your dorm room, it's probably because someone let a werewolf or a mountain troll into the castle."
"Oh. But Holly doesn't hide from those creatures..."
Holly smiles in mild embarrassment before answering.
"John, I may be strong but I'm only smart now because I accidentally survived being dumb before. Think..."
"And learn. Yes, Holly."
Holly shrugs to Dahlia and then leads John to exit the corridor, leaving a bewildered Prefect in their wake, standing over her unconscious soon-to-be-ex-boyfriend.

Touchstone: Three days later Hermione and Holly get into a theological debate with Professor Moody, and Tonks appears as Harry visiting the girls at lunchtime.

*

8th October

"Evans!"
This particular day Holly is sitting with Neville for lunch at the end of the Gryffindor table. Holly stands up to acknowledge her Head of House as he strides angrily towards her.
"Yes, Professor Snape?"
"This was posted this morning on the bulletin board in the Slytherin common room."
Holly reads the short scrap of parchment thrust forth by the Professor.

Found: Pet parasite (Boggart, somewhat young)
Description: Looks like a fat ugly muggle with a large walrus-like moustache claiming you as their long lost child. If you have a similar worst fear, see Holly Evans for the return of your pet. Finder's fee waived in honour of the 25th anniversary of Professor Snape's bar mitzvah.

"Yes sir?"
"WELL?"
"Are you asking me for your Boggart back, or did I get the date wrong for the Anniversary?"
"THIRTY POINTS FROM..."
Snape's fuming is temporarily halted. He breathes emphatically for several seconds in the face of Holly's fatigued but open expression. After a minute of successively calming breaths, the Professor mumbles something and then stalks off out of Great Hall. Holly smirks slightly and sits back down at the table next to Neville.
"What did he say, Holly?"
"Would you believe, 'I don't celebrate it.'?"
"H-how did you know?"
"I didn't!"

*

12th October

Pansy's Pointers: 'To make a real impact, see if you can defeat your enemies by doing nothing at all.'

Montague, Falmouth, Haugen and Warrington burst into the Transfiguration classroom just fifteen minutes after following Holly there after supper. They stop with their wands raised at a confusing sight before them- two dozen first-year students from all Houses are standing in mixed pairs in the middle of the classroom, with all the desks pushed to the edge of the room.
"What in Merlin's name are all these firsties here for?"
Lloyd Dogeson immediately pipes in, "Holly's teaching us to dance!"
After a moment's confusion, Stephen Montague asks a haughty question with contempt in his voice.
"Are you stupid? Don't you know who this girl is?"
"She's a criminal!"
"..and a pervert!"
Holly stands with her arms open wide and a bemused expression to taunt the intruders.
"Yah. They know who I am, lads. Meet my fan club."
Montague refocuses his authority and steps forward with a swaggering sweep of his wand arm.
"Clear out you lot, and say nothing or you'll get almost as bad as the Black Bitch, here."
Holly's bemused expression changes to annoyed.
"Class? Rave chant, two beats."
The collected firsties all raise an arm above their heads (mostly the left, but a few raise their right arm) and begin chanting while slowly waving the arm back and forth, joined and encouraged by Holly.
"Heeyyy, Hoohhh, Heeyyy, Hoohhh! Rictumsempra!", and the lot (aside from Holly) all cast a tickling jinx en masse with the other hand. The bullies quickly laugh themselves to asphyxiation when hit by at least four spells apiece.
Holly walks across the room to tap the collapsed wizards with her foot and then turns to address her students.
"Today's moral/ethical lesson can be summed up by this pithy thought: 'We live together or die alone, friends'."
A few of the kids are shaking their heads.
"Yeah, that's a silly thought. Howabout we go with 'laughter is the most merciful weapon, but make no mistake- it'll do some damage'. Who here remembers a spell to lift an unconscious body?"
All twenty-four of the firsties raise their hands once more.
"Excellent! Let's go to hospital. I'll introduce you to one of my favorite people who doesn't like to see me."
Hermione bursts into the room just as the boys are being levitated above the crowd.
"I am SO SORRY for being late but I... Holly, what happened?"
"Practical exercise."
"Oh. Did you..."
"Never lifted my wand."
Hermione beams at the group of young students with a pride that is reflected back to their other favorite student instructor.

Touchstone: Hermione is late because she was interrupted in picking up extra Charms texts in the library by an intolerant Ravenclaw or two.

*

13th October

Pansy's Pointers: 'Sometimes your past mistakes come back to haunt you. Better if you can throw an enemy into the path of that mistake before it catches up.'

"Wasn't I just in Herbology?"
Holly wakes groggily to find herself once more in the Slytherin Punishment Room. She is seated in a stiff wooden chair with her arms chained to the wood table, the chains drawn taut so that her face is barely able to rise from the table's surface. She notes immediately that her cloak, robe and undershirt have been removed, leaving her bare from the waist upward. Given her state of undress, Holly is surprised to hear her tormentor is actually Daphne Greengrass.
"I was wondering how long it would take for you to recover from the darts. I've been looking over your scars. You've been a bad girl for a long time, haven't you?"
Turning her head with the limited range of motion available, Holly notes that Daphne is backed up by the 5th year twin girls, Clio and Calliope Carrow. The dark-haired spook-fiends are known for their rather explosive techniques in investigating the anatomy of animals. They're two of very few Slytherins who seem to actually appreciate Hagrid's Blast-Ended Screwts.
"Hullo, girls. Did Daphne promise you a chance to peel my skin or something? You look... expectant."
"We just performed the acquisition..."
"...and are staying for the entertainment."
"Yes, and quite an entertainment I have planned for you, Evans."
"Oh? And what have I done to earn your ire, Daphne?"
"As if presuming to speak to me that way wasn't cause enough! You've terrorized my friends, mutilated my cousin and several other boys of friendly families, not to mention murdering our Quidditch Captain!"
"Yes, but what did I do to YOU?"
Daphne scoffs.
"Like you don't know. Pansy fell, and now I stand as queen of Slytherin. Yet here you are defying our authority, mocking our values and destroying the meaning of the House of Slytherin! How could I not take action?"
"Well, you could..."
"Yes, yes 'Think and Learn'. We've all heard your platitudes long enough. I've suffered your insufferable obnoxious sarcasm and borderline criminal behavior long enough. It's time you were tamed!"
"And you're going to do what, exactly?"
"Me? I intend not to lift a finger in providing your Punishment. I'd just like to reunite you with an old friend..."
A dark and sinister cackling begins to echo throughout the room.
"Heh heh heh. Naked and ready. I'm going to enjoy this!"
The torches lighting the room dim appreciably, and Holly feels the cold chill of a ghost slowly passing through her body from behind. The vaporous form walks forward and turns around to face Holly on the table.
"Flint's back to finish your fucking, bitch! I will cut out your tongue and use it to bugger your arse while you choke on my..."
"BAH HA HA HA HAHAHHAAAAAHHH!"
Holly's burst of laughter takes both Daphne and the ghost of Marcus Flint by surprise. While they look at each other in confusion, Holly taps the nearest links of chain with her fingers, transforming them into gingerbread. With a yank she rises up from the table to face a very nervous Daphne and an angry (and slightly shorter than previous) Flint.
"Oi, flat-top! Take a good look, because this is the last joy you're ever going to know!"
Thrusting her arm into the 'body' of Flint's ghost, Holly incants a heartfelt curse.
"PURGATORIO!"
Instantly Flint's ghost begins screaming as if on fire- in fact, the wispy vapors of his form seem to appear engulfed in flames. Daphne begins screaming as well, clapping her hands over her ears and turning away to find that the Carrow sisters have been knocked unconscious and now lay sprawled on the floor of the room. Flint's screaming continues in an unearthly timbre and volume, pushed onward in suffering by Holly's mad and fierce expression, her arm jammed deep within his ghostly torso as she stares into his pain-riddled eyes. The sound is horrifying in volume, easily carrying out past the Slytherin common room throughout the dungeons of Hogwarts.
Daphne turns around once more towards the half-naked figure of Holly, seeming to have her hand positioned to clutch Flint's heart as the center of her torturous spell, but Daphne barely makes this connection for long, as she is suddenly knocked to the floor by a right cross from Natalia.
The Auror attempts to draw Holly's attention over the sounds of the screaming ghost.
"You about done playing there, Hols?!"
"Oh for this?! I've barely started!"
Holly emphatic torture of the ghost of Marcus Flint is interrupted, not by the very concerned Auror but by another ghostly hand placed upon Holly's shoulder. Holly ceases her curse to turn around and is surprised to face a girl in a white dress and veil, almost as if for a wedding, though the dress is tattered. Flint's ghost 'collapses' to the floor.
"No, Holly. That's enough."
"Penelope?"
From beneath the veil in front of her face, Penny Clearwater's voice echoes sorrowfully.
"You've done enough, Holly. Flint will not be allowed to haunt you."
"Really? Why?"
"Because..."
Penny's ghost gracefully pulls back her veil to reveal the same horror-stricken face that so disturbed any who had seen it after Penny's death by Basilisk gaze.
"...I have my own justice to take."
Suddenly more ghosts appear in the room- the Bloody Baron, Sir Nicholas, Moaning Myrtle, Drowned Dorothea and a host of others move around Flat-top Flint, pulling him up by the arms to draw him from the room.
Sir Nicholas is the last to remain.
"Miss Evans, do not take this as an endorsement of your execution of this lost soul, but I appreciate the fact that there's another ghost around here that won't be joining the Headless Hunt."
"Sir Nicholas, may I tell you a secret?"
"Certainly! My honour as a gentleman is not restricted to those currently of my House."
"Well, Flint still has his head despite my best efforts. I was actually trying to behead him. I missed."
"Still, got the job done."
Sir Nicholas fades from the room, leaving Holly and Natalia with three unconscious girls.

Daphne wakes to find herself in much the same position that Holly was in. The difference is that she is upright, strapped to the chair in front of the table, and is facing an exact duplicate of herself kneeling on the table, only the duplicate is currently naked, moaning in pleasure and apparently being orally serviced quite well by a half-naked Holly Evans stooped behind her. The periodic flashes from behind Daphne alerts her that the undulating version of herself who is quickly approaching orgasm is being photographed every five to ten seconds with one of two Wizarding cameras in the hands of the well-bribed Carrows. Faux-Daphne's moans reach a near-peak, at which point her lower lip starts to flutter in her mouth, making an unusual chittering noise. Daphne blushes deeply in hearing the sound, recognising it... intimately. Daphne attempts to scream out in defiance or frustration, but she has clearly been Silenced.
Minutes after her naked doppelganger reaches a peak of sexual excitement, Daphne watches as the other her slowly moans out rather lasciviously in enjoyment. In a last act of humiliation, her mirror-self stretches forward to give Daphne a deeply sexual kiss from herself.
The Faux-Daphne steps down from the table and walks behind Daphne, leaving only the smiling, glistening face of Holly Evans in her view. Daphne then sees the Carrow twins leave the room, disappearing beneath an Invisibility Cloak before opening the door. Once the door is sealed again, Holly pulls out her wand briefly and cancels the Silence around Daphne, who immediately launches into a protest.
"People know about Polyjuice! They'll know it wasn't me!"
"No, what they'll 'know' is that you were orally pleasured from behind by a woman while pictures were taken, and then as soon as the photos start circulating, you'll CLAIM someone used Polyjuice. In the end, it will still be your tits bouncing in the brains of every boy's wet dreams for the next few weeks."
"And a few girls, don'tcha think, Hols?"
"Maybe. Daph's not bad looking, and that cute squirrel-gasp she does when close to peaking is entertaining. We should figure out a way to add audio to these things."
"W-what do you want?"
"Simple. Stop trying. I will not be defeated by the likes of you. Tell others to save their efforts since it's getting annoying. When I'm annoyed I tend to devise harsher reprisals. And buy your sister a present- something valuable that she'll like, so she knows it's because you lost a bet."
"I hate you."
"Well that's just stupid, because we never crossed paths before this year. Let me be clear, Daphne Greengrass. Anyone else in this House would have raped you personally for what this could have done to them- instead I created blackmail material. You and I know you lost, but I'm not that vindictive. Nothing will happen with these photos or to you unless you provoke me further. I beat you at being a Slytherin and I'm still keeping the moral high ground. The fact that you're still a virgin also will remain a secret, so long as you... behave. Think. And learn."
Holly unlocks Daphne's chains, loosely redresses herself and then casts a powerful Disillusionment from her new wand. Holly disappears completely with a shiver and exits the room, leaving the door open for Natalia to follow her invisibly as well. The girls are startled to find a large group of Slytherins camped outside of the illusory wall covering the hallway to the Punishment room, gasping in unison as the door they've been listening for opens seemingly without cause for the second time in just a few minutes.
"Don't ghosts usually appear when they open doors?"
"You twit- ghosts can't open doors, plus I don't think whatever was happening to the ghost in there included it surviving."
"You call me a twit? How can you kill a ghost?"
"I dunno, but don't you think it's better if it was killed?"
Holly and Natalia use a few distracting jinxes to enable them to skirt invisibly around the crowd and back towards the girls' corridor.
Both women reappear in Holly's dorm room. Holly grimaces as she embraces Natalia.
"Oh, thank God you were there! I fucked up..."
"S'alright Hols. You worked it the best you could and them none the wiser for the stumble. What'd I say?"
"Go home alive. Results matter most."
"Exactickley."
Natalia holds Holly for several minutes before the shorter girl finally breaks down crying. The girls settle down together on Holly's bed, Natalia holding Holly while soothing her friend by stroking the hair at her temple.
After a half-hour, Holly twists around and kisses Natalia, and then sits up looking around the room sadly.
Natalia sees Holly's sour mood and decides to change tactics.
"Well, now that your adventure is over, I'd like to ask a very important question."
"What's that, Talia?"
"The most important question... what'd you get me for my birthday?!"
"What, terrorizing a Slytherin girl by having raunchy sex in front of her doesn't count? It was almost a threesome. It was a two-and-a-half-some with twin witnesses."
"What'd you get me?"
Holly smiles and retrieves a wrapped package from her Asian trunk. Natalia grins madly before tearing open the wrapping.
"It's... biscuits?"
"Oreo cookies. You'll love them."
"Hols..."
"I've been BUSY! Seriously- what do you get the girl who can be anything?"
"A line of credit someplace with pretty clothing wouldn't go amiss..."
"Actually I'm waiting until things calm down for your real present."
"Really?! OOH! Tell me, tell me!"
"We're expanding your tattoo..."
Natalia's deadpan response communicates her skepticism.
"Oh baby, I'm in love."
"...yeah, after which you should be able to keep a Rapport with me without maintaining eye contact."
Natalia's eyes bug out. It takes her an extra minute to put her thoughts in order.
"Reciprocal empathic mind sharing sex?"
"In theory."
"I... love your toes! I love your ankles! I love your..."
"I get the trend, but could you follow up with kisses or something?"
SMOOCH!

*

15th October

Pansy's Pointers: 'Clearly define the parameters of victory, and make sure you've achieved it before counting the spoils.'

Holly stumbles out of the corridor to the girls' dorms into the Slytherin common room. As she raises her head, the students within immediately jump to their feet in horror, for Holly is spewing frothy pink foam from her mouth in extraordinary quantities. In moments the students flee for their stomachs. A few responsible upper class students including Dahlia Dorsey venture past the expunging girl to clear the occupied dorm rooms of the few students not already about this Saturday morning. Most every student passes Holly's foaming and spasming body in fear and apprehension, though a pair of firsties stop close to Holly, only leaving the dorm when Holly plaintively waves them away. Dahlia is the last left facing Holly, and she backs away with a half-mumbled 'I'll... tell Pomfrey what's happening' as she exits the common room, leaving Holly to her foam-filled suffering.

Minutes later, Natalia appears from under the Cloak, wearing a short pair of denim bib overalls over a scoop-cut striped top of black and purple with matching striped tights and snazzy black boots with silver buckles. She is carrying a milk-crate of vinyl records with a hand-crank turntable balanced on top. Holly almost gives her an amused look as she continues to heave pink bubbles onto the rug.

"Never fret, my Holly! Natalia is here with shrieking Chinese men, ready to set you right!"
Natalia pushes some books off of a nearby table and quickly sets up the music player, placing a pair of purple earmuffs around her head before turning the crank several times and applying needle to record.
(Pwing!)
(Bash! Bash! Bash! Bash! Bash! Bash!)
'Oooooooolleeeeeoooaaaaaahhh'
(Pwing!)
'SssseeeeeeeeuuuuuuuuuuuaahhhhhhhGGk!'
(Pwing!)
(Bash! Bash! Bash! Bash! Bash! Bash!)
Holly turns around and empties her stomach into a strategically placed chamberpot, though the quantity of pink foam coupled with standard bile and caper-like seeds overwhelms the gallon-sized container.
(Blooooorrrrrgh!)
Once finished, she rolls back onto the floor, panting and pale.
"Uh! Ohhhh, why did I think this was a good plan? I think that did the trick Natalia..."
(Bash! Bash! Bash! Bash! Bash! Bash!)
'OOOoooooAAAAaaaaa'
'EEEEEEeeeeeeOOOOoooooOH!'
(Bash! Bash! Bash! Bash! Bash! Bash!)
Natalia shakes her head and cups her hand up to her right earmuff.
"I said, that's probably enough! ENOUGH, YAH?"
(Bash! Bash! Bash! Bash! Bash! Bash!)
'SsseeeeeeeuuuuOOOooooo.'
'AAaaaaaEEEEEEeeeeeeOOOOoooooOH!'
(Bash! Bash! Bash! Bash! Bash! Bash!)
"OH FOR GOD'S SAKE WILL YOU SHUT THAT BLOODY MUSIC OFF!"
Natalia jerks into motion to stop the record. She removes the earmuffs while shaking her head at Holly.
"Sorry. I wasn't sure how long it was supposed to..."
"Hang on... (Blooooorrrrrgh! BOOAAAGH! BOOAAARRRGH!). (Spit.) What?"
"Y'know, I think your cultural exposure has been woefully limited, Hols. It sounded just fine to me!"
"This from the deaf and goth Daisy Duke..."
"Never you mind my outfit! I'm trying to recapture the feeling of being a student again. Evanesco."
Natalia's sweep of her wand clears away all the pink mess along with the contents of the chamberpot. Holly sits back with a sigh.
"Brilliant. Let's get to work."
Natalia looks down to a diagram on four linked cardstock rectangles on the table next to the record player.
"Map says they're all out. We have the place to ourselves!"
Natalia starts slinking towards Holly, unclipping one snap of her slightly undersized coveralls that have been lifting her breasts almost completely out of her low-cut blouse. Holly gives Natalia a brief, pained expression while holding up her arm in protest.
"D'you think we could listen to something calm and soothing while the memory of dry-heaving leaves me? I don't think I'm quite ready to consecrate the room just this moment."
Natalia pouts with a sarcastic, "Sure, Hols."
As Natalia turns back and bends down to look through her crate of LP's for something not Ska, Swing or Chinese Opera, Holly drags herself over to the entrance to the Slytherin common room, pushing aside a chair to inspect the wall beside a bookcase. After a few minutes speaking in Parseltongue, the wall flashes green, emanating its own sibilant response to Holly's queries. Holly turns around and shoots a spell at a large piece of parchment Natalia has tacked to the Settlement Board and then sheathes her wand once more.
After a crackle of needle to record, Natalia's musical selection comes to life;

'But if only you could see them,
You would know from their faces.
There were kings and queens,
Followed by princes and princesses.
There were future power people,
Throwin love to the loveless.
Shining a light 'cause they wanted it seen.'

"And that would be...?"
"Seal; 'Future Love Paradise'."
Holly watches Natalia bounce to standing once more, the strap of her overall's binders still fastened pulling the blouse taut over her excited nipples. Holly smiles wickedly.
"Uh huh. That future is now, 'Talia!"
Natalia points at Holly with a last jaunty bounce of triumph.
"Hah! The right music fixes anything!"

An hour later, Holly and Natalia are just finishing re-dressing each other while ignoring the insistent pounding outside the Slytherin common room door. Natalia carefully straightens Holly's House tie under her collar, and then leans down to kiss Holly's lips as she smiles.
"I think green really suits you, Hols!"
"Doesn't it though? Sorry about the ripping. You were practically bursting out of that shirt as it was."
"It fixed up just fine."
"It sure did, ready to be ripped apart again sometime tomorrow. Find someplace comfortable to hide while I welcome our guests."
Natalia disappears under the Invisibility Cloak. Once observably alone, Holly strides forward and opens wide the entrance door, allowing dozens of delayed and irritated Housemates to flow into the common room. A second uproar begins to swell as the students discover that the dorm corridors have been blocked by a shock-inducing ward. Once the bulk of the House (all those who had been waiting outside) has crowded into the room (most of whom are shouting at Holly's serenely happy expression), she lifts up an arm and the large outer door swings shut with a loud BOOM!
Silence reigns, and every person finds themselves stepping back from Holly without noticing or knowing why. Holly enlightens them.
"Welcome all, to my House."
Draco Malfoy steps forward with an expression of rising irritation. "Your House, Evans?"
"Yes. My House. For almost two months I've allowed you all free rein to try and exert some influence over me, to your utter and complete failure. The reason you couldn't enter today was that I modified the entry stone, as only a Parselmouth can. You have been defeated. I am Salazar's inheritor. This is my House. If you don't like it... you can get the fuck out."
Much grumbling begins to rise, though never directed specifically at Holly.
"Now, given that I can control who has access to you and when, and that I still retain a good, close friendship with the Weasley twins, which of you idiots would like to defy me by not taking a vow of mutual non-aggression at this time?"
The room falls silent except that Draco pipes up once more, stepping forward in his indignation.
"We'll see what Professor Snape says about this!"
Said Professor appears in a swirl of black cloak to mask his fading Disillusionment.
"I'd say that Miss Evans has learned well what it means to be Slytherin. Even I could not enter until now."
Holly turns to Professor Snape with a polite nod.
"I defer to your experience and authority, sir. Do I have the right to extract a new vow?"
The oily black-haired Potions Master sneers at Holly for a minute, then answers in a quiet voice that is nonetheless heard throughout the room.
"Yes."
Holly stares back for a moment before grinning widely.
"Excellent!"
Holly writes out a vow in flaming letters that float in front of the massive portrait of Salazar Slytherin.
"Now, as you enact this vow your name will be posted on the Settlement Board and you will once again be able to open the House door and pass into the dorm corridors of your own accord. Raise your wands and repeat after me...'By my magic I vow that I... (state your name)... swear not to attack, undermine, reveal the secrets of, nor otherwise abuse any student of House Slytherin. This vow supersedes and replaces the previous House vow. So long as I am a member, we stand together.'"
The vows are repeated with much enthusiasm once the students realise that the vow protects them just as well as it binds them. The room's occupants intone the convocation loudly in unison at the end; "So mote it be!"
Snaking tendrils of magic accelerate to connect the upraised wands to the Slytherin coat of arms at the base of the portrait's frame, including one that jumps from the shield to Holly's chest.
"Well done! Now if you'll excuse me, I have to extract vows from all the stragglers as they ask for entry. We should have this sewn up by Monday."
The students all begin to break away, some to return to their dorms, others settling into chairs to discuss the repercussions of the day's events. Professor Snape offers a snide opinion while the rooms' attention is still somewhat focused on Holly.
"Still crowing for your victories too early though, Evans. You'll be held to that standard as well."
"Really? All I said was 'state your name'."
The bustle of people slowly and grudgingly returning to their dorms stops suddenly. The only sound then heard is a faint giggle somewhere in the background.
"You'll find that my name does not appear on the roster, though I believe I can see yours there at the top, Professor Snape. I meant it when I said it was my House. You all swore a vow TO ME. Fairly soon I'll be the only one here with a free pass to act as I wish. Caveat Perdo- let the loser beware."
Holly allows her head to drop forward in thought for a moment before continuing in a softer tone.
"That being said, I'd like to start again with you all on a clean slate. I don't hold a grudge for you trying to defend your home. I just want you to understand that it's my home now, too. I will defend it. I will support it. And probably to your frustration, I intend to improve it."
After a moment in further silence, the room begins to empty once more. Astoria Greengrass walks up to Holly just as Snape billows his cape for a feisty exit.
"This means Daphne can't take my things or hex me anymore!"
"Yah, that's..."
Astoria leans in and gives Holly an emphatic kiss on the lips. The young amber-blond with green ribbons in her plaits sighs as she steps back from the kiss.
"Oh, if only you were a boy..."
"Oh, if only you were more open-minded. And maybe a few years older. Thanks."
"No, thank you! Thank you, Holly."
"So I owe you twenty..."
"You haven't made it past Hallowe'en yet!"
Astoria skips away.

Four hours later...
Holly enters her dorm room, turning to flop back on her bed in relief. A small voice clearing its throat brings Holly to sit up. Astoria steps out from behind the open dresser door, slowly pulling her House tie from around her neck. Her hair is more loose now, with the green ribbon from one of the two long woven plaits trailing over her shoulder to tangle with her fingers as she begins unbuttoning her blouse.
"Is this what you meant, Holly? I have a very open mind- that's why I kissed you!"
Holly regards the younger Slytherin for a moment and then smiles widely as she starts to unbutton her own dress shirt.
"Natalia, sweet as this is, I'd prefer if my dalliances with the under-aged begin and end with Hermione. While I was under sixteen it seemed fair; now it's just 'seduction of the innocent'."
Astoria's form remains, but it's Natalia's voice that responds.
"Exactly! There's a reason they sell the rags with the wee ones in Amsterdam- unplucked fruit, y'know?"
"Are you going to act unplucked, or will you simply be your fantastically gifted and skilled self in a little girl's skin?"
"Your choice."
Holly gives up on the buttons and flops back onto the bed with her arms outstretched.
"Be Natalia, strip me tenderly, love me gently and hold me until I can sleep. I've just been through six weeks of paranoid human chess, saddled with nightmares and barely getting rest. I need you. Make me feel protected, my love."
Natalia reverts to her normal appearance, though her hair quickly shifts into a spiky red-to-peach swell like a sunrise.
"'M-my love'? Hols, are you...?"
"Yes. My love. I want you here with me. I trust no one more than you. I love you. Dearly, sweetly and with a certain waning enthusiasm due to fatigue. So, what are you going to do about it?"
Natalia smiles widely.
"Shutting up now!"
"Yeh, right. The apocalypse isn't here yet."
"Wait, you aren't going to ask me to stop having sex with other people are you?"
"Perish the thought, woman. I'm already tired. Also, I have my eye on a few interesting prospects of my own."
"Will you be sharing?"
"That'll be up to them. Why am I still wearing clothes?"
Natalia grins and casts a quick de-Clothing charm on each of them.
"Whoa. Efficient."
"It only works in bedrooms where you have dedicated storage. You left me a drawer!"
"Three actually. It's not like I use much clothing anyway- I'm sorta boyish that way. Natalia, I need to tell you something. When we were in the Madhouse sharing memories... I... Obliviated you..."
"Oh I know. I found it a week later."
Holly stares as the beautifully-naked Natalia slowly walks around the frame of the quadruple-sized bed.
"You did?"
"After a tour with the Obliviators and my own tendency to stumble into things, I naturally assume someone will be messing with my brain unless I check for it."
"But... you're not mad?"
"I was for a bit, which is why our spaghetti got burnt that evening. The next time we Rapported I checked out why you thought to do so and it made sense. Of course, I'd say you worry too much, given that you're usually the one being grabbed by shadowy men or struck by lightning..."
"So all this time..."
"Look Hols, I knew that you had heard me and I knew you felt the same, even if you weren't ready to say so."
"Oh! You know me better than me, now?"
Natalia sits on the bed and turns a loving face towards Holly, looking down at her with sorrow, concern, and hope, with a saucy upturned smirk of humour glinting through as well. Holly is enthralled by the complexity of emotions being communicated by Natalia's expression, such that she jumps slightly when Natalia speaks once more.
"I haven't even starting knowing you. But every time we get naked together, you make love with me. I have never felt used or unappreciated, only teased sometimes. You didn't have to say anything, because you speak best by your actions."
"T-taking speechifying lessons, have you? That was... quite... stirring..."
Natalia leans down and kisses Holly on the lips with exacting care, their warm meeting of skin the softest but most emotionally powerful kiss yet shared between them. Holly's breathing deepens and she looks up at Natalia as she breaks the kiss gently to stare once more into her lover's eyes.
"Shutting up now."
Natalia grins wide. "Not if I do this right..."
(GASP!)

The next morning, very late (even for a weekend), Holly and Natalia sneak out to the 2nd-tier girls' bath. Holly lays in a strong trio of protection wards to keep the room for themselves. She then turns as she disrobes, walking intently up to Natalia where the peach-haired beauty is beginning to rinse herself with hot streams of water. Holly strokes Natalia from the base of her neck down her spine, ending with a lingering touch at the Spiral.
"Natalia, this is an order: I want you to enjoy me enjoying you."
They make love in the falling water, and for the next 45 minutes, every time Holly touches Natalia, every caress, tickle and stroke, and most powerfully every lick becomes a brain-buzzing feedback loop of sexual excitement for the Metamorph. Natalia's orgasms start almost immediately and begin to subside only ten minutes after Holly says "You have done well." while once more touching Natalia's Spiral tattoo. Natalia is left whimpering on the floor of the shower. Holly looks back at her friend once fully dried and dressed, noting her lover's pained expression and lack of a change in position.
"Are you coming, Tonks?"
"Hhhhnnnnnhh! Yeeesss..."
"I meant to lunch."
"O-okay. Okay. Legs oughtta work any minute now... c-can I get a hand up?"

~

Pansy's Pointers, the Evans rebuttal:
'If at the end of the journey you can't enjoy sex with someone you trust, it wasn't worth it.'
'Amen, sister. Soooo...'
'Yah, I have a bed mate. Go find your own, Pansy. And might I remind you that you were boy-fond when we first met?'
'Who am I going to trust in Slytherin?'
'I'd say you should re-evaluate your self-imposed limitations, but that's sorta your problem, Miss Parkinson. Good luck with that.'


'Bitch.'

*

Slytherin House structural notes:
The dorms are split between male and female corridors, with three levels (or tiers) dividing the years somewhat evenly. These corridors are rumoured to extend out beneath the Black Lake, but that would put them outside the magical protections on the castle itself so that seems unlikely. As of this year, low tier (the coldest and most leaky) is populated with 1st and 2nd years, mid tier is for 3rd and 4th years and the top tier holds 5th through 7th years.
There are no 6th year girls- ambition and cunning must have skipped the girls that came to Hogwarts in 1989. The boys tend to date pureblood 'Puffs and 'Claws anyway as the ratio in Slytherin tends to be 3:2 boys over girls (aside from Draco's year)