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Prelude to The Spiral Path

The Couatl said, "Natalia Tonks. It's probably pointless to say to you, but... love endures, love heals, love triumphs- especially in adversity."

Natalia grinned and replied, "Of course it does!"

Natalia and Holly left the den together that evening, leaving Chrysalis in the doting care and attention of the elder Marauders (under Winky's constant vigilance). They ascended the stairs to the main bedroom, closing off the Observation Deck for the night.

Holly lolled gratefully into a warm hug from Natalia. After a few minutes of a standing cuddle, Nat prodded, "You quit, eh?"

"Saving Albus from his mistakes? Absolutely."

Natalia nodded for a moment. Another thought darkened her expression. "Hols, after we're married..."

"Yeah?"

"Do we still get to sleep around?"

"Sure."

Natalia's face darkened. "Hols... if I'm not going to be foreswearing all others, then why are you marrying me?"

"Because I love you."

"Hols, don't start going mushy on me, now. This is a grumpy question."

"You get to invent Mrs. Potter. I'm not interested in being Harry anymore, but the House of Potter should continue while it still serves a purpose. After all, the only babies you and I can produce together will be Potters. I'm taking a long view of this."

"Hang on. You're not going to be seeing others?"

"No."

"Well, what about recruitment? What about the Ministry and bright witches and--?"

Holly stopped Natalia's rising babble with a pair of fingers on her lips. Natalia could see, even in the fading light of dusk, a haunted look come over Holly.

Her voice was strained. "My love, I'm the one foreswearing all others. You can handle recruitment. I don't want to touch, or be touched by, anyone but family."

"I'm sure you'll recover--"

"EVER..." Holly's fierce growl broke into a shuddering sob. "...ag-againnn."

Natalia wrapped Holly in her arms, holding her loose but allowing Holly to seek some measure of safety within her embrace. After a bit, she guided them onto their bed and drew Holly close to her once more. For the next several hours, they lay together as Holly cried herself into exhaustion.

When Holly finally fell asleep, Natalia settled them in beneath the covers.

~o~

Holly woke up to find herself curled into a ball at the edge of the bed, still in her day clothes from leaving school. It was dark outside.

Newt crawled up to her face and looked into her good eye.

'So, are we done with the whining, Miss Evans? You're not seriously just retiring to raise babies.'

'Newt, c'mon! How am I supposed to just go on?'

'First step; you get up. Second step; you assess. Third step; you decide.'

Newt climbed onto her shoulder as she rose to sitting on the bed. Natalia let out a brief snore but resumed deep breathing soon after. Another minute passed in silence before Holly stood up. She walked over to the full-length mirror near the door to the ensuite. She looked over her reflection, visible in the flickering light coming from a shuttered everlasting fire kept inside the door as a nightlight.

Holly carefully undid the buttons on her dress shirt, and then unbuttoned her jeans to pull them to the floor. She stripped off the shirt and removed the dark blue bra holding her breasts tightly to her chest. One last movement to pull down her knickers and she was naked.

Her hair had already grown out to an inch of burgundy fuzz on her head. Her missing eye made the shadowed socket look sad and deflated, until Newt slipped inside to fill the space as a greyish replica of an eye.

Holly felt a brush on her thoughts, almost a caress.

'Newt?'

'On station. I can see from here and tell you what I think. I like this. Feed me some milk of magnesia and I'll even look like an eye, sorta.'

'Perfect. You'll be alright in there?'

'Mum, I'm not wild about being outside your body anymore. It's dangerous. Maybe with me in here we can both avoid any further calamity. I'm well-motivated to keep you undamaged. For one thing, I think you look really good without so many scars.'

'No scars, really.'

Holly stepped forward to look more closely into the mirror.

She was startled by a low whistle coming from the bed. Natalia teased, "What a fox! I wanna kiss that girl until she's creamy!"

Holly moved her hands to her hips. "You wanted me when I was a chestless third-year."

"Sweetie, I've wanted you every time I saw you... except in the graveyard- you were all melty and gross."

Holly grimaced. "Thank you for reminding me."

"Hols, I've learned that tip-toeing around your troubled past leaves very few topics open for conversation. For instance; I was thinking about this recruitment plan of yours. I don't think it'll work."

"Why not?"

"I dunno how many will want to join a secret organisation if you're at the top of the pyramid, Hols. Especially if no one thinks you have any fire left in you after your battle with Immortal Lord Devo."

"That's a good point." Holly began to pace a bit in thought.

Natalia ogled her lover's naked body in motion attentively, like a pre-teen boy watching his first porno.

Holly interrupted her accidental strut of seduction, turning to Natalia to suggest, "What if there was some other figure at the top, one who had 'subjugated' me to work for a greater purpose? You would be recruiting for this mysterious being, and I would simply be an enforcer of his or her will."

"Top... subjugated... enforcer... yeah." Natalia shook her head to focus. "Um, I mean... well, who would it be though?"

"We'll call her 'Spiral'. Given my publicly-known agendas, it would make sense that I would submit to a woman. It would also relieve me of the burden of leadership so I can take care of Chrysalis."

"Hang on; maybe we create an imaginary leader, but someone has to do the actual leading."

"Sure, but it should probably be a consensus of the current leaders- me, Hermione, Minerva, you and maybe Padma. You all thought I was too out of control at times. This way, we agree on what we're trying to accomplish before I make any rash tactical decisions."

"I dunno..."

"If we can keep Riddle under control, we might be able to use his return for our purposes. We'll make it a distributed, hidden membership; follow the design of modern terrorist cells, but as a way to gather info and exert influence subtly. We can fix things if we get the right people to join and get them in the right positions."

Nat scoffed. "And how do we do that?"

"Find out what they want, what they hate, what they fear, then tell them what you know is coming and offer our protection. Make sure you get a vow before talking about anything. Tell them that anyone Marked will be able to resist Mind Arts somewhat, so when Riddle's people start 'changing' minds, they'll come running to us for protection."

"Where's the sex come in?"

Holly smiled back at her skeptical look. "The price of admission, plus they learn how positive reinforcement works."

Natalia thought for a moment before an excited grin overtook her face. "You mean, I can make them happy with a touch?"

"Yup. Padma and Hermione say they've engineered an enhancement called the Regent's Rune. With it, the regent- that's you- can recruit and swear in more followers and set their motivation. Padma has volunteered to be your first recruit, to verify that it works. Just don't tell anyone else that it's me they're working for- say it's the great and terrible witch known only as Spiral," Holly paused a moment in thought, then smiled. "And if they press you about it you can hint that Perenelle Flamel isn't dead!"

"Isn't she?"

"As far as we know, yeah. But if she's not dead, this should get her to pop out of her hidey-hole to say something. Don't you think?"

Natalia smiled and flipped off the bed, gathering Holly into her arms. She took Holly's face into her hands and leaned down to caress the witch's lips with her own. She followed the tender kiss with another smile for her lover. "Not when you do it so well! What shall I do for you, me fancy?"

"Arrange a meeting with Amelia. We need to know where she stands and whether she'll leave me alone."

"Okay, but that wasn't what I was talking about..." Natalia let her hands glide down Holly's back to caress her rump.

Holly stepped back out of Natalia's hold and wrapped her arms across her chest. "I'm not ready."

Natalia watched Holly turn away, looking sad. She grew angry and stepped up behind Holly, drawing her arms to her sides and making her face the mirror. "Stop acting like you're somebody else. You're Holly! You've been seeing the nightmares of what you went through in that graveyard for years! You knew what would happen, and I KNOW you were preparing yourself mentally to handle it. And now look at you!"

Holly shook her head, holding her eyes shut.

Natalia shook her shoulders. "LOOK AT YOURSELF! You won! You survived, and got rid of his poison in your head, and had your body fixed up. It's like I said when you and I first hid in the Madhouse- every time you survive, you get sexier! He made you more powerful- SEE IT!"

Holly popped open her eyes to stare into the mirror. Natalia stepped back, allowing Holly her free movement without pressure, moving to sit on the bed so that Holly had only herself to look at.

She added in a whisper, "Honestly, is there anything more he could do to you? You've survived his fire. He's the one running scared, now. You're his nightmare."

Holly stepped closer to the mirror, gliding her hands across her skin as if to confirm that what she saw was real. A small crease of white showed where the curse scar used to be, where her protection still resided. The punctures from the Basilisk had been reduced to dimples. Her shotgun wound was gone completely and the hole made by the goblin-venom dagger now appeared as a reddish v-shaped mole on her right breast. Turning around, Holly could see that her back and legs were equally bereft of the reminders of past pain. Her trembling hands glided over her pristine flesh, until they rested just above her nearly hairless Mons. She pressed in there.

A faint stencil of whitish scar tissue spread out in a design beneath her fingers. Once complete, it appeared as an inverse of the center of the Spiral Mark. Holly closed her eyes and concentrated.

Natalia gasped and called out from the bed, "What is thy bidding, my liege?"

"What did you feel?"

"You, calling to me. Also, I'm totally randy now." Natalia grabbed her wand and vanished her clothes, turning to give Holly a feral grin.

Holly stroked the emblem again, along an outside curve.

Natalia clenched up, and then gasped, "Hhhhahhh! Sweetie, you better get over here before I start testing out candlesticks."

Holly smiled and walked over to the bed. She followed Natalia to crawl under the covers, where Natalia's legs drew her into a tight all-limbs embrace.

Five minutes later, Winky appeared at the foot of the bed, interrupting their favourite exercise.

"My... Holly, Winky has a message from her Hermione!"

Holly stopped Natalia's work on her recovery and flipped the covers from over her head.

"What? What's the message?"

"Miss Hermione says, 'Stop doing that. I almost confused Parvati for her sister and I can't Apparate from here.'"

Nat and Hols burst out laughing.

Finally, Holly said, "Send her my apologies and tell her I'll make it up to her later."

Winky bowed and popped away.

Holly shook her head. She mused, "Poor Violet. Pansy'll wake up out on the lawn, barely remembering some potent dreams that she'll want to suppress." She then tapped a fingernail against her teeth. "I wonder..."

"What's cooking in yer noodle now?"

"Well..."

A loud snap heralded the appearance of Fleur Delacour into their midst. She immediately fell to the floor with a gasp, her breath coming heavy and her fingers actively working inside her unbuttoned slacks.

Holly teased, "Always fashionably late, my flower?"

Fleur mumbled through a stuttering response. "H-had t-to... (mMMMMHH!)... cummmmmm... f-from France... Halfway here and I had to... had to... M'Dieu! M'Dieu! M'Dieu! Mon DIEUUUUUU!"

Natalia moved to crawl over Holly towards the Veela (who was still preoccupied with diddling herself), asking, "How did you capture this treasure, my liege-love?"

Holly shrugged. "She lost a bet."

"As your fiancee, I say you forsake all others only if I'm not there. It'd be rude to shun my guests."

"I can work with that."

Further conversation was drowned out by Fleur's ecstatic cry.

Holly heard Newt giggling in her head.

'That's how you go on, Mum. Fourth step; Natalia and Fleur lick you silly.'

Holly knew it wasn't going to be that easy, but at least now she had a plan.

~o~

Wednesday, 28th June, 1995

Hermione Granger had spent most of the trip home on the Express traveling back and forth along the train, assuring friends and the curious that the world hadn't come to an end with both Cedric and Holly gone from leading the school. Some few asked about Holly, but Hermione decided not to feed the rumours with anything except the publicly-known truth; Holly had survived a horrible battle and had now left Hogwarts as an adult. When asked about that last point, Hermione would hint that no one was sure when her birthday really was.

"Honestly! Does she act like a fourth-year? How many other fourth-years do you know that have killed a dragon? Show of hands?"

For the last hour (since changing to muggle clothes), Hermione had been sitting alone in her cabin, thinking. She didn't know what her own future would hold. She was also a little put out that no one had asked her about her own plans for the summer or the following school year. It seemed everyone assumed she was... normal.

Her reverie was interrupted by three boys from Slytherin sliding open the door to enter her cabin.

Stephen Montague spoke up, acting as ringleader for the other sixth years. "Waiting until the rest are gone before you slink back to the wretched hole that spawned you, Granger?"

Hermione could tell their intent was nefarious, but being caught by surprise threw her into a panic. She then realised that her deep thinking time had run through everyone leaving the Express at King's Cross Station. She simulated a panic (really- it was just an act), while her mind raced to clamp down and think of a solution; 'three opponents, already armed, limited space surrounded by glass and wood, non-muggle area...'

Montague and his friends Haugen and Warrington moved into the cabin with wands drawn. Warrington turned to seal the door and close the curtains.

Just then the loud roar of an engine was heard to echo throughout the train platform. It seemed to come from everywhere but it quickly was pinpointed to a red motorcycle literally flying into the space, landing with a loud screech of tires on cement. It was driven by a woman in dark red cyclist's leathers wearing a fully-enclosed helmet.

The cycle came to a stop outside the window behind Hermione. The rider removed her helmet and spoke out in a strong, proud voice.

"If you're done playing, we can go home now, Hermione."

The wizards in the cabin pointed their wands at Holly.

Hermione then sent off a spell that slammed all three into the ceiling and then dropped them to the floor with similar force. She rose from the bench, making certain that the wizards weren't moving to re-engage, but their moans and groans seemed to indicate that the fight had left them.

Hermione turned around and called out to Holly, "Done. I'll be right out." After casting a Shrinking charm on her trunk and pocketing it, she stepped over the foolish boys from Slytherin to exit the cabin.

As Hermione stepped off of the Express, she could see a crowd of thirty or more students a dozen yards down the platform, keeping a safe distance from the motorcycle and its rider. Hermione smiled at them.

"I'll be with Holly if anyone needs my help." She then walked over and swung her leg around to sit behind Holly on the motorcycle. She put on the offered helmet and then hugged tightly to her friend's back.

Three of the younger students let out a cheer, kicking off a succession of applause. It was only drowned out when Holly restarted the engine, spun the cycle around and jetted back out of the station, following the tracks of the Express back into the sunlight.

~oOo~

The story will continue in 'The Spiral Path'. It's not just Holly's story anymore.

One small point to mention, left over from Tangent 9501:

The Tangents don't appear in the Journal

While most of Holly's secrets are posted or at least mentioned in the Journal, there are a few that still remain hidden: Newt's survival and the source of Pog Granger; Fleur's turnaround in attitude; Neville's role as father to Chrysalis (and her existence); Holly's motorcycle-suitcase; Florean's role as secret-keeper for the Nautilus; the details of Holly's subjugation of Slytherin; Narcissa's seduction attempt after Lammas; the visions Luna gave Holly in a kiss; the Compulsion on Miles Bletchley; and (perhaps most importantly) Holly's true relationship with Pansy/Violet.

We'll see if that's enough.