Child Of Grace: Chapter 45 - Black Mail
ZeldaQueen: Okay, really getting down to the wire here. Hang in there, everyone!
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Chapter 45: Black Mail
ZeldaQueen: Right. When we last left off, the suethor cashed in her dead herrings and pulled Holly’s name out of the cup.
In canon, Harry was freaked out and scared. He was confused. He was numb. He had no idea how any of this was going on.
In this fic? Holly gets pissed off. Really
“Holly Potter was not amused. Not amused at all. Annoyed worked. Incredibly irritated. Angry even. Furious. Livid.”
ZeldaQueen: Are you even surprised, by this point?
Incidentally, we’re at the part of the story where the champions, Holly, Crouch, Bagman, Snape, Moody, McGonagall, and the headmasters are all in the private room. The suethor apparently forgot to tell us this however, so it honestly reads like this entire scene is taking place in front of the whole student body, in the Great Hall.
Anyway, we get a boring laundry list of what everyone’s facial expressions are, and it becomes very clear that while the suethor likes Durmstrang, she hates Kakoroff. Thus, we are treated to Lockhart and Pettigrew-levels of bashing for him. Bagman and Crouch both get it as well, with Crouch acting furious (which doesn’t make sense because, by this point, he’s supposed to be Imperiused) and Bagman acting like a total idiot who can’t make heads or tails of his surroundings.
Dumbledore asks Holly if she put her name in the goblet and she says no. Fleur accuses her of lying and there’s some random mention of Holly sensing her magic, in a way that unpleasantly reminds me of Rose Potter and her stupid auras. I get the feeling that Fleur will be Sued to some extent here. The upshot is that Holly instantly guesses that Fleur is half-Veela. No, there is no point to that, besides the suethor trying to make Holly look observant.
Kakoroff agrees with this, saying that “teenage girls are hardly known for their honesty” and McGongall speaks in Holly’s defense, even though “she disliked Holly at times”. Suethor, please stop beating that “McGongall is prejudice against Slytherins” drum! McGongall took fifty points from her own house! Actually, she seems to have the patience of a saint to only dislike Holly “at times”. I hate her all of the time.
Madame Maxime makes her usual accusations of trickery or a mistake with the Age Line, and I think the suethor likes her because she comes across as more uncertain than asshole-ish. Snape counters that it could have been one of the other schools who organized this, implying that it’s an assassination attempt on Holly’s life. He pretty much blames Kakoroff.
*rubs head* Okay, how does that make sense? Snape knew Kakoroff. He knew that he was a coward. Why would he think that he would be the one to try something like that?
Moody makes a number of very badly veiled reminders about Kakoroff’s Death Eater past and accuses Kakoroff of wanting to have Holly killed. Um, no. No he didn’t. He wanted Krum to win. Entering a second Hogwarts champion would decrease the odds of that. Kakoroff was not like Bellatrix or Crouch Jr. He was not a devoted follower of Voldemort. So why would he go to such lengths to off Holly?
Also, Dumbledore doesn’t say a word during this exchange. I’d imagine that he’d say something, if only to point out that Moody was being out of line in his accusations. Former Death Eater or not, Kakoroff is their guest and there certainly isn’t enough evidence to prove he did anything.
Anyway, we get another laundry list of where everyone’s now standing in the room and Crouch decides to give the instructions before discussing the matter in private. Oh, and he has a wand holster. GAH!
McGonagall proposes halting the tournament and getting new champions, but of course that’s impossible. Fleur points out how convenient that is. Incidentally, she pronounces “her” as “zer”. I’m…pretty sure that hs don’t sound like zs with a French accent.
So of course, Holly is just so perfect that she decides to emulate Rose Potter and pull some ancient ritual out of her ass to prove her innocence
“‘I believe that I have a solution to that,’ Holly interjected then and held her wand up to her heart before anyone could stop her. ‘I swear on my magic and my life that I did not enter this tournament. Nor did I ask or wilfully [sic] enable anyone else to do it for me.’
The air tightened around her, and she could feel the prickle of power race across her skin. Holly didn't have to look at everyone to know their reactions. Surprise would be putting it lightly. She'd just put her entire future on the line. At least to them. Holly, however, knew that it was a sure bet.
‘Lumos,’ she called, and when her wand lit up, she gave a cold grin. ‘See? Still have my magic. And I'm obviously still alive.’
Holly glanced up then, gaze flickering around the room and daring them to comment, to call her a liar again. Even a hundred years ago, duels to the death had been fought over less, and she knew enough about family honour and personal reputations to know that she had truly been insult indeed. Had her parents or Sirius been here - the latter of which would undoubtedly show up sometime tomorrow once he heard - they could've easily given challenge or called the others out. Holly was still considered underage though, and the last of her line to boot. Things were different when one was both head-in-waiting and heir-apparent.”
ZeldaQueen: I hate when suethors do things like that, pulling ancient rituals for damnation or whatnot out of their anuses. Question - if those sorts of things really did exist in the world of Harry Potter, why aren’t they used more? If there really was some oath that could prove whether or not a person’s lying, why wouldn’t they have people take it more often? Wouldn’t that have solved a lot of problems for the Death Eater trials? Or is the suethor just going to pull the “it’s Old Magic and the world is too bigoted to use it” card? Bah.
Also - yes, she’s still alive. Shame, that. And I love how she’s getting all pissy and basically threatening to duel to the pain death over them very reasonably trying to figure out if she cheated to get in or not. As was established in canon, anyone who won the tournament got fame and a lot of gold (which was never mentioned, I might add). It was obvious to the teachers that underage students would try to sneak in. Hell, Fred and George tried (that was also never mentioned), so why is it so horrible that they’re wondering if Holly tried the same thing. Oh wait… *glances at her drama queen act in year two* That answers that.
Finally, I love how she just takes it for granted that Sirius will come charging up to the castle and to her defense by the next day.
So yeah, Holly gives them all her Mary Sue Death Glare, which cows them all into believing her. We get a summarized version of canon in which the contestants are told about the first task, and everyone goes their separate ways. Fleur storms off “the air crackling around her” (oh please, dear God, don’t let her be a druidess!) and Madame Maxime and Kakoroff go with Dumbledore for a nightcap, “[w]hich probably meant that Dumbledore would be doing his utmost to reassure them”. THANK YOU SO MUCH, CAPTAIN OBVIOUS! Cedric, Snape, and McGonagall go off somewhere, and Holly and Krum are left alone, together. Fuck.
Krum, in fulfillment of his Sue Boyfriend duties, starts apologizing to her for Kakoroff’s behavior and kissing her scrawny ass. I hate this version of him and I hate that Holly has latched on to him. Why would he like her? She’s boring as hell!
Anyway, Snape comes back and takes Holly to her Common Room. When they go in, they find waiting for them…
“All of Slytherin. From the tiniest first-year - who still managed to be the same height as Holly - to the tallest of the seventh-year boys. They were gathered in the common room. Squashed into every available chair or sofa. Piled onto the low tables. Leaning against one another on the floor. A scant few of the younger students were even lying down, curled up together, ostensibly asleep.
And as one every open eye in the entire room flicked to Holly and the professor as they walked in. The sleeping students were quickly nudged to consciousness, a slight bit addled but swiftly catching on. Also staring as one minute stretched into the next and Snape's eyebrow cocked in an expression of absolute wonder mixed with pride. After all, he realised exactly what this was. Not a confrontation. But a show of solidarity. A silent proclamation of support.
They just stood there for a moment, Holly's exhausted brain attempting to process as her eyes flickered around. Finding Blaise with his subtle smile. Then Draco and his fierce nod. Milli's firm resolve. Theo giving a little wave. Luna who had snuck in with Gavin. Pansy and Daphne. Greg and Vince. Cynthia and Autumn. Titania and the Quidditch team. All the prefects.
All of them there. Not saying a thing but quiet speaking volumes”
ZeldaQueen: I don’t know which is worse - on one hand, there’s the Suethor, jumping up and down, shouting “LOOK AT HOW GREAT THE SLYTHERINS ARE! THEY ALL BELIEVE IN HOLLY! THOSE GRYFFINDOR IDIOTS DIDN’T BELIEVE HARRY!” On the other hand, there’s the fact that this just reeks of Bella Swan finding that the entire school showed up to see her after her brush with the Van O’ Doom.
One scene change later, Holly wakes up to see Sirius has shown up. Apparently he snuck past all of the security spells, because they don’t register animals as threats. Well, that’s real smart, especially considering how it was only last year that they caught Pettigrew. Sirius is all sappy and worried over Holly and it turned out that he and Lupin were sent for by Dumbledore. Gah, those two really are joined at the hip, aren’t they? Well, right now Lupin’s apparently off elsewhere in the castle, since he doesn’t think people would like to see his pathetic werewolf self. *emo tear* Holly says that the students wouldn’t care and Sirius replies that the Beauxbatons and Kakoroff might. What, and every single Durmstrang student would be just peachy with a strange werewolf wandering around? How would the visitors even know that Lupin is a werewolf? Whatever, I don’t care.
Holly gets dressed and because she’s just so Mary Sue special, she and Sirius have a private breakfast in the kitchens, with the House Elves doing a happy dance to wait on them. And yes, I know it’s canon that the House Elves love to get food for students that sneak in, but it’s still disgusting, especially given how Holly basically treats them like cheap labor.
As they eat, Sirius suggests that Holly just give a minimal effort, to try to get through alive. After all, she only has to compete and not necessarily win. How does Holly respond to her guardian’s recommendation that she not put herself in danger?
“The Slytherin shook her head, however. ‘You know I can't do that Sirius. It's not in me to be a quitter, and if anything, that will reflect badly on both me and my House. Not to mention the school at large.’
He was quiet for a moment, just watching her face. Taking in the tilt of her head. The way her breath was even and deep but somehow different than normal. The fiery glint to her eyes and the resolute lift of her chin.
‘You want to win,’ Sirius accused then. ‘You don't want to do it just for the school. You want to win for yourself.’
‘Yes,’ she replied in earnest, as if daring him to disagree. ‘I want to win. I want to rub it in their faces. To show them up. To be a fourth-year against senior students and beat them still. Someone got me in to this. Undoubtedly to hurt or even kill me-’
‘But you want to show them that something like a measly little tournament can't take down Holly Potter.’ His voice was serious, but there was an undertone of interest to it. Of satisfaction and outright pride.
‘Absolutely,’ the girl affirmed. ‘Backing down. Doing it the easy way will certainly get me through this. But what about the next time? Or the one after that? As long as they think I'm weak, as long as they think it will be easy, they'll keep trying. And they'll do it in a way that is hard to trace back.’
‘You want to draw them out. Find out who did it,’ Sirius said with sudden understanding. ‘That could certainly work. You'd need to be careful about it. Cautious with who you let into your plans. Especially for the tasks.’’
ZeldaQueen: Let’s have a look at that, shall we?
First, we get Holly saying “Fuck you Sirius! I don’t care if you don’t want your goddaughter brutally murdered! If I don’t win, it might make my precious Slytherins look bad, and we can’t have that! After all, that’s the entire reason this fic was written”.
Then, we get her saying that she just wants to win to rub it in “their” faces. To humiliate the older contestants, who honestly have worked hard and prepped themselves for this and now have to deal with the whiny brat that they must compete against.
Finally, Holly fails logic forever. Oh, you’ll be the last one laughing, will you? I’m sure that beating this will convince Voldemort to stop targeting you, just like killing Quirrell and the Basilisk did. And yes, I know she doesn’t know it’s planned by Voldemort because she’s got the brains of a squirrel but apparently it just has never entered her empty head that if she goes about showing off here, it’ll just inspire these folks to try again with something harder. I’m pretty sure that rigging the tournament isn’t the last or worst of their plans.
Gawd, this chick is stupid. Okay, so. Holly immediately goes on about how all of her friends are of course trustworthy enough. Sirius reminds her that there are ways of getting info from people, even if they don’t voluntarily give it, and Holly thinks “Telepathy. Legilimency. Imperius if someone were desperate or driven enough. Veritaserum. And at least a dozen other methods”. Oh no, suethor, of course we don’t think you read ahead! Why would you accuse us of that? And how the hell does she already know about Legilimency and Veritaserum? She hasn’t learned about it yet!!!
Sirius and Holly share a few more tender and sappy moments, and Sirius tells her to only fully trust Blaise, Luna, and Riddle, mainly because the suethor likes them best they’re most trustworthy. *blinks* Tom Riddle…is the most trustworthy…? WHAT IS THIS, I DON’T EVEN!
There’s also some info on Sirius pursuing a job as a Healer, and that he has Mind Magic himself. I don’t know. It’s boring and pointless.
In the next scene, the suethor has a grand time taking a large amount of canon events and squishing them into several paragraphs. Let’s have a look.
Holly has Dumbledore vouch for her innocence to the entire school, telling them about that stupid oath she took. This pretty much serves to show how she has the Headmaster by the balls and makes the students that still don’t believe her look even more EVIL than they do in canon.
Ravenclaw continues to love Holly, because they seem to be the suethor’s favorite house after Slytherin, and thus are portrayed in a better light. Flitwick apparently uses that is also at the Sue’s beck and call, “firmly quashing any rumours or slights against her”. Because heaven forbid she suffer any insults or humiliation.
The only Gryffindors who still speak to Holly are the twins, Neville, Ginny, the Creevey brothers, the Gryffindor Quidditch team, and the first years. Despite the fact that they stand up for her, Ginny and the Creeveys are still treated with utter disdain and I honestly wonder why they continue to hang around with her. By this point in canon, Ginny had enough self-confidence to stand up to a bitch like Holly. Also, Holly admits that it’s “entirely possible” that Hermione and Ron are willing to talk to her, but she avoids them like the plague. She needs to die, like now.
The Hufflepuffs utterly hate Holly. Good for them. Only Cedric, Susan Bones, and Autumn’s little brother acknowledge her existence. Sprout is also cold towards Holly. Malfoy has the balls to say that this is “plebian and petty” of her. On the other hand, “Holly could rather understand her stance and the fact that Hufflepuff's limelight had once more been usurped. It wasn't her fault, but they needed someone to blame. She just happened to make a convenient target” You know, I think the suethor deserves some sort of an award for managing to make such a bitchy, arrogant, and utterly unlikable character.
The Potter Stinks badges make their rounds. Of course, it’s not Malfoy who made them. The suethor hand waves it as “someone” doing it.
Holly’s friends start to act as personal bodyguards for her, following her all of the time and beating up anyone who insults her.
Somehow, this incident has already become big news in the wizarding world, and Lucius Malfoy launches into a pro-Holly campaign. You know, this is one of the things that I hate about her. Harry held up as best he could under the slander and tried his best to handle it himself. Holly apparently is a delicate china doll and is constantly having people form circles around her, lest the slightest bit of criticism affect her sensibilities.
Eren Zabini is full of Maternal Rage and the suethor explicitly compares her to Molly Weasley. BITCH, YOU DID NOT!
The entirety of Beauxbatons is disdainful of Holly. I personally think this is very reasonable of them, especially when she describes Fleur as a “part-Veela would-be princess”. Of course, every single Durmstrang student believes Holly.
The suethor rips off the crowning moment of awesome from Order of the Phoenix and has a lot of people writing to Holly. Even though she admits that the good stuff outweighs the bad, she’s still pissy and bitchy about it all. Also, “[a]nd [all of the mail] made Holly wonder why she had never gotten so much mail like this before. She'd have to ask the headmaster about that”. Is…is she actually laboring under the delusion that she should have been getting fan mail from the entire wizarding world? I…the arrogance is eating my brains!
We then jump ahead to the weighing of the wands. At the rate we’re going at, I honestly wonder how the suethor will be filling remaining chapters. Oh, right, one’s specifically for the Yule Ball. *groan* Can’t wait for that one. Anyway, she is expecting the weighing of the wands, unlike that loser Harry, and is glad to leave Potions because Seamus gives her the stink-eye and it puts her out, mah stars! I honestly sympathize more with him. If I had to hang around Holly so much, I’d probably have bitch-slapped her by now.
The entire process is reduced to two paragraphs. Rita’s attempted interview with Holly is condensed to a single sentence, and an exceptionally stupid one. Specifically, it’s “If it wasn't Rita Skeeter trying to get her in a closet for an interview - or possible child molestation - it was Karkaroff and Fleur Delacour glaring daggers at her through the entire thing”. From what I can conclude, the suethor gets off on ruining subtle humor. Also, she won’t stop cribbing from the movie scenes.
Also, if it’s not abundantly clear by now, Holly complains to the audience constantly about how Rita annoys her, how Fleur and Kakoroff have the audacity to dislike her, how Cedric is well-meaning and nice but “overwhelmed” (bitch, you did not), and how Krum is strong and silent and stands by her side as a protector. Kill me now.
The rest of the thing is summarized, effectively removing the tension of Harry reflecting on the twin cores of his wand and Voldemorts and the telling humor of the picture-taking. Instead, we get Holly cowing Rita into submission by threatening to send Sirius after her, pretty much. Apparently there was some incident in the previous year (take a shot, the suethor didn’t tell us about it before now) where Rita tried to interview Sirius and he got in a fight with her. I can’t believe that he’d be enough to scare Rita off. If anything, she’d see it as a challenge. For goodness sake, she drugged an old lady to get a story! And even if Holly wouldn’t agree to an interview, Rita would probably write something about her anyway, maybe implying that Sirius was an unfit guardian or overprotective.
Actually, I just remembered the subplot, where the Slytherins lie to Rita so that she prints smear stories about Harry, Ron, and Hermione. I wonder how the suethor will account for that?
We also get a “woe is me, the world must be out to get me” from Holly. Excuse me.
*slips off into the back room and throws a loud, long tantrum*
ZeldaQueen: Sorry about that. Just a little peeve of mine, when characters have everything they could possibly want and act like the world is out to get them. Anyway, the suethor decides that she’s advanced the plot enough, so she puts it on hold to give us a laundry list of Holly’s classes and friends’ activities. These include Daphne’s (whoever the fuck she is) mother marrying her older boy-toy. No, that is never mentioned before, and I fail to see why we should care about it now.
Classes are all summarized, with special care given to mention the fact that Holly was awarded twenty points for learning the Summoning Charm correctly. No, just…no.
We then jump to how Hagrid feels about it all, and of course he’s portrayed as an idiot who thinks it’s just great that Holly’s in a life-threatening situation. I like to think that he actually knows what a bitch she is and is secretly hoping that she’ll be crushed. We are told that he invites Holly and Blaise (WHAT THE FUCK, WHY???) to come down to his hut, and to bring the invisibility cloak. And yes, the suethor never specifies that Moody is there, thus proving that she missed the point of Rowling’s foreshadowing.
Onward to: Chapter 46: Year Of The Dragon
Back to: Chapter 44: Tournaments And Treachery
Return to: Table of Contents
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Chapter 45: Black Mail
ZeldaQueen: Right. When we last left off, the suethor cashed in her dead herrings and pulled Holly’s name out of the cup.
In canon, Harry was freaked out and scared. He was confused. He was numb. He had no idea how any of this was going on.
In this fic? Holly gets pissed off. Really
“Holly Potter was not amused. Not amused at all. Annoyed worked. Incredibly irritated. Angry even. Furious. Livid.”
ZeldaQueen: Are you even surprised, by this point?
Incidentally, we’re at the part of the story where the champions, Holly, Crouch, Bagman, Snape, Moody, McGonagall, and the headmasters are all in the private room. The suethor apparently forgot to tell us this however, so it honestly reads like this entire scene is taking place in front of the whole student body, in the Great Hall.
Anyway, we get a boring laundry list of what everyone’s facial expressions are, and it becomes very clear that while the suethor likes Durmstrang, she hates Kakoroff. Thus, we are treated to Lockhart and Pettigrew-levels of bashing for him. Bagman and Crouch both get it as well, with Crouch acting furious (which doesn’t make sense because, by this point, he’s supposed to be Imperiused) and Bagman acting like a total idiot who can’t make heads or tails of his surroundings.
Dumbledore asks Holly if she put her name in the goblet and she says no. Fleur accuses her of lying and there’s some random mention of Holly sensing her magic, in a way that unpleasantly reminds me of Rose Potter and her stupid auras. I get the feeling that Fleur will be Sued to some extent here. The upshot is that Holly instantly guesses that Fleur is half-Veela. No, there is no point to that, besides the suethor trying to make Holly look observant.
Kakoroff agrees with this, saying that “teenage girls are hardly known for their honesty” and McGongall speaks in Holly’s defense, even though “she disliked Holly at times”. Suethor, please stop beating that “McGongall is prejudice against Slytherins” drum! McGongall took fifty points from her own house! Actually, she seems to have the patience of a saint to only dislike Holly “at times”. I hate her all of the time.
Madame Maxime makes her usual accusations of trickery or a mistake with the Age Line, and I think the suethor likes her because she comes across as more uncertain than asshole-ish. Snape counters that it could have been one of the other schools who organized this, implying that it’s an assassination attempt on Holly’s life. He pretty much blames Kakoroff.
*rubs head* Okay, how does that make sense? Snape knew Kakoroff. He knew that he was a coward. Why would he think that he would be the one to try something like that?
Moody makes a number of very badly veiled reminders about Kakoroff’s Death Eater past and accuses Kakoroff of wanting to have Holly killed. Um, no. No he didn’t. He wanted Krum to win. Entering a second Hogwarts champion would decrease the odds of that. Kakoroff was not like Bellatrix or Crouch Jr. He was not a devoted follower of Voldemort. So why would he go to such lengths to off Holly?
Also, Dumbledore doesn’t say a word during this exchange. I’d imagine that he’d say something, if only to point out that Moody was being out of line in his accusations. Former Death Eater or not, Kakoroff is their guest and there certainly isn’t enough evidence to prove he did anything.
Anyway, we get another laundry list of where everyone’s now standing in the room and Crouch decides to give the instructions before discussing the matter in private. Oh, and he has a wand holster. GAH!
McGonagall proposes halting the tournament and getting new champions, but of course that’s impossible. Fleur points out how convenient that is. Incidentally, she pronounces “her” as “zer”. I’m…pretty sure that hs don’t sound like zs with a French accent.
So of course, Holly is just so perfect that she decides to emulate Rose Potter and pull some ancient ritual out of her ass to prove her innocence
“‘I believe that I have a solution to that,’ Holly interjected then and held her wand up to her heart before anyone could stop her. ‘I swear on my magic and my life that I did not enter this tournament. Nor did I ask or wilfully [sic] enable anyone else to do it for me.’
The air tightened around her, and she could feel the prickle of power race across her skin. Holly didn't have to look at everyone to know their reactions. Surprise would be putting it lightly. She'd just put her entire future on the line. At least to them. Holly, however, knew that it was a sure bet.
‘Lumos,’ she called, and when her wand lit up, she gave a cold grin. ‘See? Still have my magic. And I'm obviously still alive.’
Holly glanced up then, gaze flickering around the room and daring them to comment, to call her a liar again. Even a hundred years ago, duels to the death had been fought over less, and she knew enough about family honour and personal reputations to know that she had truly been insult indeed. Had her parents or Sirius been here - the latter of which would undoubtedly show up sometime tomorrow once he heard - they could've easily given challenge or called the others out. Holly was still considered underage though, and the last of her line to boot. Things were different when one was both head-in-waiting and heir-apparent.”
ZeldaQueen: I hate when suethors do things like that, pulling ancient rituals for damnation or whatnot out of their anuses. Question - if those sorts of things really did exist in the world of Harry Potter, why aren’t they used more? If there really was some oath that could prove whether or not a person’s lying, why wouldn’t they have people take it more often? Wouldn’t that have solved a lot of problems for the Death Eater trials? Or is the suethor just going to pull the “it’s Old Magic and the world is too bigoted to use it” card? Bah.
Also - yes, she’s still alive. Shame, that. And I love how she’s getting all pissy and basically threatening to duel to the pain death over them very reasonably trying to figure out if she cheated to get in or not. As was established in canon, anyone who won the tournament got fame and a lot of gold (which was never mentioned, I might add). It was obvious to the teachers that underage students would try to sneak in. Hell, Fred and George tried (that was also never mentioned), so why is it so horrible that they’re wondering if Holly tried the same thing. Oh wait… *glances at her drama queen act in year two* That answers that.
Finally, I love how she just takes it for granted that Sirius will come charging up to the castle and to her defense by the next day.
So yeah, Holly gives them all her Mary Sue Death Glare, which cows them all into believing her. We get a summarized version of canon in which the contestants are told about the first task, and everyone goes their separate ways. Fleur storms off “the air crackling around her” (oh please, dear God, don’t let her be a druidess!) and Madame Maxime and Kakoroff go with Dumbledore for a nightcap, “[w]hich probably meant that Dumbledore would be doing his utmost to reassure them”. THANK YOU SO MUCH, CAPTAIN OBVIOUS! Cedric, Snape, and McGonagall go off somewhere, and Holly and Krum are left alone, together. Fuck.
Krum, in fulfillment of his Sue Boyfriend duties, starts apologizing to her for Kakoroff’s behavior and kissing her scrawny ass. I hate this version of him and I hate that Holly has latched on to him. Why would he like her? She’s boring as hell!
Anyway, Snape comes back and takes Holly to her Common Room. When they go in, they find waiting for them…
“All of Slytherin. From the tiniest first-year - who still managed to be the same height as Holly - to the tallest of the seventh-year boys. They were gathered in the common room. Squashed into every available chair or sofa. Piled onto the low tables. Leaning against one another on the floor. A scant few of the younger students were even lying down, curled up together, ostensibly asleep.
And as one every open eye in the entire room flicked to Holly and the professor as they walked in. The sleeping students were quickly nudged to consciousness, a slight bit addled but swiftly catching on. Also staring as one minute stretched into the next and Snape's eyebrow cocked in an expression of absolute wonder mixed with pride. After all, he realised exactly what this was. Not a confrontation. But a show of solidarity. A silent proclamation of support.
They just stood there for a moment, Holly's exhausted brain attempting to process as her eyes flickered around. Finding Blaise with his subtle smile. Then Draco and his fierce nod. Milli's firm resolve. Theo giving a little wave. Luna who had snuck in with Gavin. Pansy and Daphne. Greg and Vince. Cynthia and Autumn. Titania and the Quidditch team. All the prefects.
All of them there. Not saying a thing but quiet speaking volumes”
ZeldaQueen: I don’t know which is worse - on one hand, there’s the Suethor, jumping up and down, shouting “LOOK AT HOW GREAT THE SLYTHERINS ARE! THEY ALL BELIEVE IN HOLLY! THOSE GRYFFINDOR IDIOTS DIDN’T BELIEVE HARRY!” On the other hand, there’s the fact that this just reeks of Bella Swan finding that the entire school showed up to see her after her brush with the Van O’ Doom.
One scene change later, Holly wakes up to see Sirius has shown up. Apparently he snuck past all of the security spells, because they don’t register animals as threats. Well, that’s real smart, especially considering how it was only last year that they caught Pettigrew. Sirius is all sappy and worried over Holly and it turned out that he and Lupin were sent for by Dumbledore. Gah, those two really are joined at the hip, aren’t they? Well, right now Lupin’s apparently off elsewhere in the castle, since he doesn’t think people would like to see his pathetic werewolf self. *emo tear* Holly says that the students wouldn’t care and Sirius replies that the Beauxbatons and Kakoroff might. What, and every single Durmstrang student would be just peachy with a strange werewolf wandering around? How would the visitors even know that Lupin is a werewolf? Whatever, I don’t care.
Holly gets dressed and because she’s just so Mary Sue special, she and Sirius have a private breakfast in the kitchens, with the House Elves doing a happy dance to wait on them. And yes, I know it’s canon that the House Elves love to get food for students that sneak in, but it’s still disgusting, especially given how Holly basically treats them like cheap labor.
As they eat, Sirius suggests that Holly just give a minimal effort, to try to get through alive. After all, she only has to compete and not necessarily win. How does Holly respond to her guardian’s recommendation that she not put herself in danger?
“The Slytherin shook her head, however. ‘You know I can't do that Sirius. It's not in me to be a quitter, and if anything, that will reflect badly on both me and my House. Not to mention the school at large.’
He was quiet for a moment, just watching her face. Taking in the tilt of her head. The way her breath was even and deep but somehow different than normal. The fiery glint to her eyes and the resolute lift of her chin.
‘You want to win,’ Sirius accused then. ‘You don't want to do it just for the school. You want to win for yourself.’
‘Yes,’ she replied in earnest, as if daring him to disagree. ‘I want to win. I want to rub it in their faces. To show them up. To be a fourth-year against senior students and beat them still. Someone got me in to this. Undoubtedly to hurt or even kill me-’
‘But you want to show them that something like a measly little tournament can't take down Holly Potter.’ His voice was serious, but there was an undertone of interest to it. Of satisfaction and outright pride.
‘Absolutely,’ the girl affirmed. ‘Backing down. Doing it the easy way will certainly get me through this. But what about the next time? Or the one after that? As long as they think I'm weak, as long as they think it will be easy, they'll keep trying. And they'll do it in a way that is hard to trace back.’
‘You want to draw them out. Find out who did it,’ Sirius said with sudden understanding. ‘That could certainly work. You'd need to be careful about it. Cautious with who you let into your plans. Especially for the tasks.’’
ZeldaQueen: Let’s have a look at that, shall we?
First, we get Holly saying “Fuck you Sirius! I don’t care if you don’t want your goddaughter brutally murdered! If I don’t win, it might make my precious Slytherins look bad, and we can’t have that! After all, that’s the entire reason this fic was written”.
Then, we get her saying that she just wants to win to rub it in “their” faces. To humiliate the older contestants, who honestly have worked hard and prepped themselves for this and now have to deal with the whiny brat that they must compete against.
Finally, Holly fails logic forever. Oh, you’ll be the last one laughing, will you? I’m sure that beating this will convince Voldemort to stop targeting you, just like killing Quirrell and the Basilisk did. And yes, I know she doesn’t know it’s planned by Voldemort because she’s got the brains of a squirrel but apparently it just has never entered her empty head that if she goes about showing off here, it’ll just inspire these folks to try again with something harder. I’m pretty sure that rigging the tournament isn’t the last or worst of their plans.
Gawd, this chick is stupid. Okay, so. Holly immediately goes on about how all of her friends are of course trustworthy enough. Sirius reminds her that there are ways of getting info from people, even if they don’t voluntarily give it, and Holly thinks “Telepathy. Legilimency. Imperius if someone were desperate or driven enough. Veritaserum. And at least a dozen other methods”. Oh no, suethor, of course we don’t think you read ahead! Why would you accuse us of that? And how the hell does she already know about Legilimency and Veritaserum? She hasn’t learned about it yet!!!
Sirius and Holly share a few more tender and sappy moments, and Sirius tells her to only fully trust Blaise, Luna, and Riddle, mainly because the suethor likes them best they’re most trustworthy. *blinks* Tom Riddle…is the most trustworthy…? WHAT IS THIS, I DON’T EVEN!
There’s also some info on Sirius pursuing a job as a Healer, and that he has Mind Magic himself. I don’t know. It’s boring and pointless.
In the next scene, the suethor has a grand time taking a large amount of canon events and squishing them into several paragraphs. Let’s have a look.
Holly has Dumbledore vouch for her innocence to the entire school, telling them about that stupid oath she took. This pretty much serves to show how she has the Headmaster by the balls and makes the students that still don’t believe her look even more EVIL than they do in canon.
Ravenclaw continues to love Holly, because they seem to be the suethor’s favorite house after Slytherin, and thus are portrayed in a better light. Flitwick apparently uses that is also at the Sue’s beck and call, “firmly quashing any rumours or slights against her”. Because heaven forbid she suffer any insults or humiliation.
The only Gryffindors who still speak to Holly are the twins, Neville, Ginny, the Creevey brothers, the Gryffindor Quidditch team, and the first years. Despite the fact that they stand up for her, Ginny and the Creeveys are still treated with utter disdain and I honestly wonder why they continue to hang around with her. By this point in canon, Ginny had enough self-confidence to stand up to a bitch like Holly. Also, Holly admits that it’s “entirely possible” that Hermione and Ron are willing to talk to her, but she avoids them like the plague. She needs to die, like now.
The Hufflepuffs utterly hate Holly. Good for them. Only Cedric, Susan Bones, and Autumn’s little brother acknowledge her existence. Sprout is also cold towards Holly. Malfoy has the balls to say that this is “plebian and petty” of her. On the other hand, “Holly could rather understand her stance and the fact that Hufflepuff's limelight had once more been usurped. It wasn't her fault, but they needed someone to blame. She just happened to make a convenient target” You know, I think the suethor deserves some sort of an award for managing to make such a bitchy, arrogant, and utterly unlikable character.
The Potter Stinks badges make their rounds. Of course, it’s not Malfoy who made them. The suethor hand waves it as “someone” doing it.
Holly’s friends start to act as personal bodyguards for her, following her all of the time and beating up anyone who insults her.
Somehow, this incident has already become big news in the wizarding world, and Lucius Malfoy launches into a pro-Holly campaign. You know, this is one of the things that I hate about her. Harry held up as best he could under the slander and tried his best to handle it himself. Holly apparently is a delicate china doll and is constantly having people form circles around her, lest the slightest bit of criticism affect her sensibilities.
Eren Zabini is full of Maternal Rage and the suethor explicitly compares her to Molly Weasley. BITCH, YOU DID NOT!
The entirety of Beauxbatons is disdainful of Holly. I personally think this is very reasonable of them, especially when she describes Fleur as a “part-Veela would-be princess”. Of course, every single Durmstrang student believes Holly.
The suethor rips off the crowning moment of awesome from Order of the Phoenix and has a lot of people writing to Holly. Even though she admits that the good stuff outweighs the bad, she’s still pissy and bitchy about it all. Also, “[a]nd [all of the mail] made Holly wonder why she had never gotten so much mail like this before. She'd have to ask the headmaster about that”. Is…is she actually laboring under the delusion that she should have been getting fan mail from the entire wizarding world? I…the arrogance is eating my brains!
We then jump ahead to the weighing of the wands. At the rate we’re going at, I honestly wonder how the suethor will be filling remaining chapters. Oh, right, one’s specifically for the Yule Ball. *groan* Can’t wait for that one. Anyway, she is expecting the weighing of the wands, unlike that loser Harry, and is glad to leave Potions because Seamus gives her the stink-eye and it puts her out, mah stars! I honestly sympathize more with him. If I had to hang around Holly so much, I’d probably have bitch-slapped her by now.
The entire process is reduced to two paragraphs. Rita’s attempted interview with Holly is condensed to a single sentence, and an exceptionally stupid one. Specifically, it’s “If it wasn't Rita Skeeter trying to get her in a closet for an interview - or possible child molestation - it was Karkaroff and Fleur Delacour glaring daggers at her through the entire thing”. From what I can conclude, the suethor gets off on ruining subtle humor. Also, she won’t stop cribbing from the movie scenes.
Also, if it’s not abundantly clear by now, Holly complains to the audience constantly about how Rita annoys her, how Fleur and Kakoroff have the audacity to dislike her, how Cedric is well-meaning and nice but “overwhelmed” (bitch, you did not), and how Krum is strong and silent and stands by her side as a protector. Kill me now.
The rest of the thing is summarized, effectively removing the tension of Harry reflecting on the twin cores of his wand and Voldemorts and the telling humor of the picture-taking. Instead, we get Holly cowing Rita into submission by threatening to send Sirius after her, pretty much. Apparently there was some incident in the previous year (take a shot, the suethor didn’t tell us about it before now) where Rita tried to interview Sirius and he got in a fight with her. I can’t believe that he’d be enough to scare Rita off. If anything, she’d see it as a challenge. For goodness sake, she drugged an old lady to get a story! And even if Holly wouldn’t agree to an interview, Rita would probably write something about her anyway, maybe implying that Sirius was an unfit guardian or overprotective.
Actually, I just remembered the subplot, where the Slytherins lie to Rita so that she prints smear stories about Harry, Ron, and Hermione. I wonder how the suethor will account for that?
We also get a “woe is me, the world must be out to get me” from Holly. Excuse me.
*slips off into the back room and throws a loud, long tantrum*
ZeldaQueen: Sorry about that. Just a little peeve of mine, when characters have everything they could possibly want and act like the world is out to get them. Anyway, the suethor decides that she’s advanced the plot enough, so she puts it on hold to give us a laundry list of Holly’s classes and friends’ activities. These include Daphne’s (whoever the fuck she is) mother marrying her older boy-toy. No, that is never mentioned before, and I fail to see why we should care about it now.
Classes are all summarized, with special care given to mention the fact that Holly was awarded twenty points for learning the Summoning Charm correctly. No, just…no.
We then jump to how Hagrid feels about it all, and of course he’s portrayed as an idiot who thinks it’s just great that Holly’s in a life-threatening situation. I like to think that he actually knows what a bitch she is and is secretly hoping that she’ll be crushed. We are told that he invites Holly and Blaise (WHAT THE FUCK, WHY???) to come down to his hut, and to bring the invisibility cloak. And yes, the suethor never specifies that Moody is there, thus proving that she missed the point of Rowling’s foreshadowing.
Onward to: Chapter 46: Year Of The Dragon
Back to: Chapter 44: Tournaments And Treachery
Return to: Table of Contents