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The sudden silence that falls over the battlefield is almost comical, laughs and jeers from the death eaters dropping into stunned, disbelieving silence as they watch their lord fall backwards crumbling into dust.     At the other side of the courtyard was Hollis, teeth grit in pain and eyes just a shade off form the favored curse of the now dead dark lord, she bares her teeth in the mockery of a smile staring into the eyes of the death eaters digging deep into their souls and found them lacking in a way that set fear into their bones.      Hollis Potter, the girl who lived and the woman who conquered was victorious.     For a few weeks after the battle, all Hollis felt was pain, bone deep pain and coldness that no amount of blanket could soothe, not even her sitting just shy of tumbling completely into the fireplace in her room at St Mungo's did anything to settle it.     Many of her friends and classmates had died, she had visitors that shoved their way past the healers to sit in hate and anger that left her heart twisting and eyes burning each one startled her into vicious hugs and desperate thank you’s that made her insides twist uncomfortably. Hollis made sure to attend every funeral, sometimes having to sit in a wheelchair despite struggling to stay on her feet, ignoring the well meaning healers telling her she’d done enough that her fight was over.      Hollis stubbornly made sure she was there with every casket being lowered into the earth and slowly, painfully she began to heal gathering what was left of her self and gluing herself together like a misshapen puzzle with pieces that didn’t quite fit back together, in a way it was similar to what the wizarding world was doing, neither one was perfect but it would get there.     Then one day when she was now able to stand on her own without any aid, she got a guest, at first she believed him to be an auror, he was old and grizzled with some passing resemblance to Daphne Greengrass and had offered her a job when she was ready, not as an auror but something intensely more dangerous.     She had heard about the Hit wizards, a group of highly classified magical experts who were one-man armies against the darkest and deadliest, taking the cases that aurors couldn’t or wouldn’t do. She remembered looking into it at first before back during Umbridge’s occupation in Hogwarts and still felt the phantom ache from the lines she had to write afterwards.     Hit Wizards were a team of highly dangerous and trained wizards, they had a low life expectancy and were in a way the Black-Ops of the wizarding world, many who were invited turned it down and there were currently only four members, the low life expectancy caused by their members working strictly solo and occasionally being lent out to help muggle law enforcement, they were the researchers, the trackers, and the capturers.     Something likened to the unspeakables but more on the side of deadly.      Hollis didn’t know why she did it, had stared at the card for hours debating, but, in the end she had accepted and upon her release from the hospital she took a few short weeks to get everything in order, she made peace with goblins, paying their hefty sums and it helped she gave all the goblin made items from the black vault back, had bought a shitty small apartment which she decorated with mismatched furniture and kept it in disarray (she  never got over how much things being neat and sparkling clean made her hands ache from phantom chemicals and rough scrubbing).     Which left her here, sitting in the long dark hallways that left her skin crawling at the memories, the halls seemingly echoing her grief stricken screams for Sirius, she can almost still smell the sharp pipe smoke smell that lingered around Sirius when she was drawn from her thoughts by a light touch to her shoulder.     “So you’ve accepted the offer, Ms. Potter.” Turning to take in the person she was sure hadn’t been there moments before, they wore a thick yet oddly elegant black and silver cloak, the person was clearly female, and tall much taller than Hollis with dark mocha skin and red painted lips with a beauty mark on the left side. The cloak itself went to mid thigh with a belt around her waist holding numerous pouches, at odds  with her cloak was a pair of lacy black gloves over her hands the bright vivid crimson painting her nails visible beneath     “I,” she began slowly circling Hollis like a predator sizing up her pray “Am Owl, Guardian has assigned me to be your mentor for the foreseeable future,” she came to a stop at the front of Hollis once more despite not being able to see her eyes, she knew they were boring into her own.     “You. Will. Not . Disappoint. Me.” she purred lips curving into a mockery of a smile flashing one sharp canine, this woman was dangerous and she knew it. Owl whipped around seamlessly hooking their arms together, Hollis having to awkwardly jog at her side to keep up with her long strides.  “I expect great things from you Ms. Potter.” Owl intoned in a manner that sent a prickle of fear down Hollis’s spine before she shoved her through a wall.     Hollis would have felt embarrassed at her screams if she wasn’t hastily wading out of the freezing cold water at the bottom of the drop to awkwardly side shuffled through a thin crevice in the wall, what follows was hell, dodging spewing flames and thorny vines, avoiding sharp teeth from doxies, which was about when she realized that Owl had taken her wand.     When she makes it over the top of a wall she’d seen at a muggle museum once, she collapses panting and wheezing at owls feet, the woman humming and swinging a golden stopwatch front of her eyes that displayed two hours.      “Better than expected, but you can do better.” All Hollis can do is bite back the violent curses that would have Mrs Weasley washing her mouth out with soap and replacing it with the more safer route of a groan.     Owl pulls her to her feet flicking her hand to dry her off, giving her a once over seemingly taking amusement in the already swelling bites dotting her visible skin.      “Well, we would have had to meet Pony at some point, a stop at the med wing is in order, then we’ll talk.” Hollis takes a moment to carefully rethink her choices before hurrying to catch up to her fast paced tortu- mentor.      “C-can I have my wand back?” Hollis asked between pants and embarrassing wheezing noises the steady clack of owls heels the only other loud thing aside from her breaths.     “Hm? Oh, no, at the end of your training. You, dear Hollis, will not touch or use a wand until I'm through with you.” Hollis wants to be angry, yell and shout about how unfair it is, but one, she can’t muster the energy, and two? SHe was sure Owl would murder her if she raised her voice near her.     Pony, like Guardian, did not cover his face, he was objectively handsome with grayish blonde hair and blue-gray eyes, he was also very unamused with Owl who stood leaning against the wall as he methodically treated the bites, burns, and scrapes with simple flicks of his wand.     "Honestly Owl, even Bear didn’t bring his recruit in looking like this.” He said dryly pushing Hollis back to sit when she went to stand.     “Yeah, right, I was trained by a bear, I know he gets it, I'm guessing I won't have access to my recruit for an hour?” she asked bemused as Pony set up different vials and tools on a tray that made Hollis very uneasy.     “You guessed right, Bear and Hawk squirreled their recruits off before I could do their exams, I'm not letting yours out of this.” Owl gave an amused sound tilting her head towards hollis who was gripping the edge of the bed in a white knuckled grip.     “Relax, Hollis, I’ll be back in an hour, for now, trust Pony he’s good at what he does.” with a pat on her knee Owl was suddenly gone leaving her with Pony who was flipping through a large binder with brows raised. The binder looked familiar, somehow something she’d seen Madame Pomphrey reading around her and with a  start she realized it was the exact same binder.      “Lets see, broken bones..no vaccinations…malnourished.. How are you still alive-!” Pony pauses glancing at her and clears his throat awkwardly looking sheepish at her look.     “Yeah don’t answer that, have you had any tests done since you're resurrection? Deep breath.” he added, pressing the cold metal circle to her back.      “No, they just let me recover.” she said quietly, taking the breaths when he asked and grimacing as he attached a blood pressure cuff to her arm.      “Figures, it’s good you have Owl then, she’s a licensed therapist though her manner of therapy is rather brutal..” he mused, staring absently at the wall before shaking his head  and held up a needle.     “It’s a few years too late, but you’re getting your vaccinations. How you haven’t caught some form of sickness I will forever question, we’ll just chalk it up to mystical magic bullshit and take the plunge.” with the word plunge he jabbed the needle somewhat gently into her arm and pressed the plunger. The next few shots were more gentle and once done he healed over the wound with a swipe of his thumb and a burst of magic.     The next few tests were simple from her eyesight, checking inside her mouth, ears and nose, checking her reflexes. When he was completely done he scribbled on a notepad and set it on some paperwork casting a spell she’d seen Hermione use pretty often.     “I’m recommending Owl have our goblin liaison give you a cleansing ritual to fix some of the nasty stuff lingering, might help with some of the pain you’ve been experiencing, could potentially even help with the cold so there's no more mishaps with the fireplaces.” she flushed at that but nodded.      “And I'll be sure to talk to Pebbles to get that done.” Hollis let out a yelp, jerking away from Owl who was somehow sitting right beside her now with her left leg crossed over and ankle resting on her other knee, her lips stretched into a  lazy amused smile.     “Right, quit giving your recruit a heart attack and get out of my med bay.” Pony huffed struggling to hide his grin behind his hand Hollis felt her face burn but obediently hopped off the cot sighing as Owl linked their arms again and began to drag her along through the maze of hallways through doors and archways until one more door left them in a room.     The back wall was a full bookshelf with an opening in the middle for a window that displayed what she thought was Italy and caught on a decorative glass chandelier.     Half of the room was raised holding two desks facing each other, one was obviously in use with neatly stack papers a flower pot with an unrecognizable flower and an old desk lamp, the other desk was empty save for a thick booklet and a quill, the other half of the room was a seating area near a fire palace that was obviously hooked up to the floo.     “This,” Owl began once she noticed Hollis was done looking around. “Is you’re home for the foreseeable future, part of it at least, trust me I won’t make you sleep on the couches even if they are comfortable.” she said amused guiding her to the bookshelves on the right near the unused desk she tapped a vivid blue book.     “This opens the hidden door to your quarters, there is a fully stocked fridge and bathroom, with labeled drawers for your clothes. I will not enter this space unless truly needed so I ask that you extend the same courtesy. The red book will alert me that you need me if I am within my quarters, now, sit.” Hollis rounded the desk and carefully sunk down in the chair, never taking her eyes off of the woman who nodded and tapped the booklet with her finger lowering her voice.     “This is a book on my rules and the punishments should you break them, you won’t be punished for something  done by accident. I expect you to memorize these rules and abide by them, aside from the rules there is some pertinent information on a meal and training plan. Read them all carefully and sign at the back, understand?” Hollis nodded which made Owl give an odd disapproving hissing noise between her teeth, which, for a heart stopping moment, Hollis thought she was speaking parseltongue.     “Words, Hollis.” Owl demanded, forcing out a ‘Yes ma’am,’ through her suddenly clumsy tongue made the woman nod and tap the book once more.      “While you work, I'll be contacting our goblin liaison to schedule that cleansing, then the real fun can begin..” Owl broke off into a  chuckle that set Hollis on edge but she obediently opened the book once Owl sat down and turned her attention to a book.
     Owls handwriting was elegant and would have been hard to read if she hadn’t spent years deciphering the bullshit that was Aunt petunia's handwriting which was always in calligraphy, where Petunias had an odd force to it, owls was delicate and effortlessly elegant, shaking her head to focus more on the words than comparing it to her bitter aunts handwriting, she found two different blocks, one displayed the rule the other the consequence.
Most of it was pretty simple, get up at the specified time, follow orders, dress to the specifications provided, don’t cheat the diet, don’t contact anyone without express permission, don’t go anywhere without your mentor, keep your station clean things like that.

All the punishments seemed to be grueling exercises that had the third strike being the most severe, Hollis wasn’t sure she’d be alive if she’d tried to do 1000 sit-ups, pushups, and jumping jacks.

The next page was a meal plan, this time a more blocky handwriting joined Owl’s she knew some of what she was seeing from the dietary pamphlets Aunt petunia got that she read when she was bored, most of it seemed to be for bulking her up.

The final five pages was a three month training plan it started off simple enough but steadily got harder, she was vaguely horrified to see that she’d be running that course again and that said course was only the easy level, the very last page looked like a contract, and the lingering pain at the back of her head from Hermione whacking her with a book when she went so sign things without reading them she bunkered down to read every word, once, twice, and another time for good measure before she even dared to pick up the quill wincing at the familiar ache of the blood quill activating, this one just leaving slightly raised red letters before they faded back into the already scarred hand.

As soon as she set the quill down Owl clapped her hands, rather loudly, Hollis jerking and nearly falling out of the chair with a sharp inhale frustration pooling in her chest, this woman must really like to startle her, from the slightly twitching corners of her mouth, Hollis was guessing correctly.

“Fantastic, now, you can go into your quarters, get cleaned up and fed before bed, every night and morning there will be a prepared meal, smaller snacks will be provided throughout the day as well as lunch by me. Get some rest Hollis, we have a long day ahead of us.” Hollis nodded and pulled the book marveling as a door swung open to reveal a hallway with a door on one side and a doorway leading to a small kitchenette on the other.

“Good night.” she said hesitantly to Owl who smiled warmly.

“Good night, Hollis.” she sing-songed, Hollis sighing explosively once the door was closed again, she ate the pasta and bowl of fruit set out on the counter, took a quick shower and barely managed to tug on the night gown left on the bed before she was collapsing onto it, not even bothering to get under the covers before she was completely out of it.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Hollis’s good will towards Owl died somewhere between her being manhandled by a goblin that casually questioned if she wanted to sell some of her organs before dumping her into freezing cold liquid that had the consistency of jello and when some got in her mouth, tasted like it as well.

It didn’t help that when she was finally spat out(‘

oh god was that thing alive?

’) Owl sitting at a table having a tea party with the goblin still conversing as Hollis hacked and coughed the licorice tasting jello from her lungs before she collapsed in a panting heap.

“Well, my work here is done! Do bring your recruit around more, her reactions are rather hilarious!” The goblin was gone before Hollis could give her a reaction to remember, Owl manhandling her to her feet and instead of stopping at the unfortunate spot right at her breasts, Hollis now was just a food shorter than Owl who grinned like a shark.

“Now this, this I can work with, come along dear.” Hollis blinked as Owl whipped around and glanced down at the black slime still sticking to her and her distinct lack of clothing.

“B-but I'm naked?” she spluttered and amused, Owl spun on her heel returning to link their arms and drag her along, Hollis found herself over compensating for shorter limbs so she awkwardly stomped like a particularly gangly giraffe.

“Honestly, Hollis, Not a soul will see you in this state, the halls shift so we rarely see another person..well unless they are feeling mischievous..” She added, sentient hallways aside, their next stop looked like a muggle gym with different equipment set up, a boxing ring in the middle, and a record player off to the side.

“Showers are over there, you’ll find some clothes in the locker, I want you to try every machine here, I'll return in an hour..oh, and I will know if you skip out.” with that last word, Owl left through the door, feeling far to naked in just her bra and underwear, Hollis quickly entered the door Owl had pointed out snagging a towel so she could get the slime off of her, the clothes ended up being elastic shorts, a sports bra and a tank top.

Inside the locker was also a water bottle with her initials on the side, sighing, Hollis returned to the room chewing on her lip as she debated which machine to use first, deciding on the treadmill as that was one she actually recognized Hollis started the machine on the lowest setting to start slowly increasing the speed and one extra.

Hollis loved to run, when it wasn’t out of fear for her life or for getting beat up by Dudley and his goons, she loved the feeling of running it was right up there with flying. By the time Owl returned she had tried two others that she recognized, she worked until her whole body felt like one limp noodle, something told her Owl would punish her if she skipped out.

“Well…you did better than I thought you would.” Owl mused nudging her with her foot, getting a pitiful groan in reply. Owl hauled her to her feet, seemingly not caring that every inch of Hollis was sweating, including her poor hands which were slightly blistered.

“Next time use the gloves in the locker, now that we worked your body, we’ll work your mind.” Hollis bit back the whimper that threatened to worm its way free, mind violently gathering anything she could remember from Hermione's long winded rants as she was guided into a  chair with a piece of paper slid in front of her.

“Hit wizards are not just the ones called in for a fight, I want you to list every class you took during your time at Hogwarts and we’ll expand on the knowledge you gained from there to properly make your syllabus.” Hollis was relieved to find a simple ink pen instead of a quill, she was sure trying to hold the quill itself would have been agonizing.

Once she was finished she carefully massaged her hands when Owl spoke up again.

"Are you a seer?" Owl said deadly calm, causing Hollis to pause and slowly glance up.

“Uh, no, ma’am.” she spoke jolting as Owl gave that same odd hissing noise from before.
 
  "Then why, of all the things, did you take divination, if you are not a seer!" Hollis winced at the angry shout but had to appreciate the level of Disgust and derision Owl had put into the word Divination on a level that nearly matched Snape at his worst, the appreciation died a merciless death not a moment later when Owl dropped two books onto the desk nearly catching her hands.

“You will learn your runes in one week or else, You will read this book front to back and do it again and again until the words are burned into your brain.” Owl’s voice was terrifyingly deadly calm, Hollis carefully grabbed the first book and silently opened it under the glare of Owls hood.

So Hollis read because she was the worst sort of punisher, creative.

“Hitwizards cannot stagnate, it could mean your death.” Owl whispered her words holding an unknown weight to them that had her pausing where she had begun to read.

“You will learn spells before I give you your wand back, hit wizards do not specialize, we adapt to any and every situation we find ourselves in. I will teach you spells, you will break them down to their bases until you can cast them in your sleep, wandless, or even with your pinkie. I will teach you potions that Severus Snape refused to teach properly. You, Hollis, will be the greatest Hit wizard that ever roamed these halls.” Owl promised, leaning over the desk to stare at her intently from beneath her hood.

“Learn your runes, the halls will lead you back to your room. At the end of the week, we will begin mixing exercise and learning. Every morning you check your board to see what you will do for that day. Be sure to eat the lunch and snacks provided, I have a syllabus to create.” Owl swept form the room leaving Hollis feeling like she had immensely disappointed the woman.

So Hollis buckled down, she used her rather clever brain she hadn’t be using properly since the first time the Dursleys punished her for good grades and she learned the runes within the time limit, she struggled at first trying to focus on learning and reciting the answers to the questions Owl threw out at her.

She struggled her way through the laws of every country learning them at the same time she learned their languages, she learned spells without every casting a single one, she learned history and tradition, she learned espionage and information gathering.

She only had one lesson in torture, Owl grim but somewhat proud before sending her off to Pony then to bed.

It wasn’t all training and near death experiences in the death trap that she did at the beginning, there were days where Owl forced her through talking about her childhood and the Dursleys, about her years at Hogwarts and how she felt about her experience with death.

After nine months of all of these things combined, Hollis woke up and realized that she wasn’t the short, sickly thin, and bruised traumatized woman, no she had upgraded to a tall, athletic, and confident traumatized woman who knew how to fight when she was weaponless and how to survive when she had nothing.

Exhaling shakily, Hollis dressed noting that there was nothing on the board and downed the sweet tasting smoothie and bagel left on the counter before she exited to the office, for once, owl wasn’t behind her desk but waiting down at the seating area with Pony sitting beside it, it was startling to see another person other than Owl that it took her a moment before she slowly moved to sit opposite the duo.

“This is yours.” Owl slid over her wand, Hollis gingerly picking it up a smile growing as her magic flooded her like a welcome home.

“You’ve read up on transfiguration, you have the same knack for it your father had, after Pony does your check up, I will give you a book.” Owl held up a book with a dark green cover that had a paw print imprinted in the front.

“Right, same stuff as last time, then I'll get out of your hair.” Pony stood  and sped through the exam nodding at the diagnostic charm he did , pleased with the results.

“You are now in perfect health if not a bit worn, how has the pain and coldness been?” He questioned checking her eyes.

“Sometimes I get unbearably cold but the pain is..it’s manageable.” Hollis said honestly, opening her mouth so he could check inside.

‘Good, good. Tell me if that changes, right. I’m giving her a clean bill of health, all things considered.” Pony tacked on at the end mostly under his breath but he packed the small doctor's bag he had with him and nodded to Owl before walking through the floo in a flare of green.

“This, if you haven’t already guessed, is a guide to becoming an Animagus, every member must learn this to gain their code name. You will go through the ritual with the leaf already prepared for you, you will not transform without me being present, understood?” Owl asked seriously, setting the book on the table palm splayed over it.

“Yes, ma’m, no transforming without you being present.” she repeated obediently, Owl smiled and slid the book over.

“Feel free to read out here or in your quarters, I'll be in and out doing some paperwork to properly transfer you.” Hollis nodded and got comfortable on the couch flipping open to the Index to preview what she would be learning, with a soft sigh she got to reading retrieving her note journal to jot down questions or things she wanted to look up later.

At the end of the week, Owl passed her a mandrake leaf to put under her tongue, it was oddly the most relaxed month she’d had since her arrival. She spent it playing a game of chess, reading, or visiting the gym to work off restless energy.

Until finally it came time to transform, Owl led her to a room surrounded by mirrors and helped up a potion.

"Now strip.” Staring blankly at the woman who snapped her fingers and wiggled the potion at her until she hurried to comply snagging the potion and downing it huffing at the amused Owl who leaned against the wall and crossed her arms.

Staring at her reflection intently she took a few steadying breaths and closed her eyes, sweat beaded down her brow as she struggled to focus on the shift , on the cold wind she felt with every meeting of the shadowy Animagus. Taking a deep breath Hollis began to hear the soft crash of waves and the rattle of chains like ominous wind chimes that rang in her ears, taking up aloof her senses leaving her in a dizzying mess of not knowing which way was up or down at least until her eyes snapped open.

Staring back at her was a massive hound the eyes faintly glowing and the familiar burning green, it looked almost like the mix of a lion and a Irish wolfhound, two dark segmented horns curved from behind large pointed ears, around the chase and along the back the fur was thicker and mane like, small slightly shiny spines stuck out from the fur and along the ridges of the spine and tail they were flexible and with some careful testing of her back muscles could make them lay flat against the skin.

Bound around the neck was a barely visible ink dark chain that hung down like a broken collar, oddly she could move it.

Careful circling she watched muscles flex and ripple with every movement of the long powerful legs; she could tell that despite the massive size, she was meant for speed.

Owl gave a low impressed whistle slowly circling her, Hollis realizing she came up to the woman's ribs a small shiver shook her as the woman brushed her hand across her back pushing lightly against one of the spines.

“Now that is fascinating, an Urco, Austrian bad omens,  said to rise from the sea on misty winter nights, dragging noisy chains howling loudly over the roaring of the sea it came from.” Hollis oddly felt warm, she at least matched Sirius, if she looked she looked like the same breed if not bigger. And more lion like, but still! She had a link to her godfather.

Owl nodded before patting her head.

“Now how about we work on learning your new body?” Hollis couldn’t stop the instinctive whine that left her at these words.

Standing in front of the leader of the Hitwizards, the man who had invited her, Guardian, Hollis was surprised to see that there were three others besides her two she recognized the other she did not, there was Thora Dinnet,a mute hufflepuff with gray brown hair and blue eyes and Eamon Tavish ,a ravenclaw with brown hair and brown eyes.

Pony flashed her a thumbs up from the side grinning ear to ear.

"I have read the reports, watched the progress you've made.” Guardian began pacing down the short row they made leveling them with a stern and icy stare

“ While you have your faults, you work to break them. After some careful thought and some arguments, we have decided upon your codenames." He said stopping to lean against his desk.

“This name cannot be changed.” he said sternly and turned to Tavish who straightened up “Starting with Mr. Tavish, your codename will be Gecko, welcome to the ranks." Tavish accepted the shrunken chest from Guardian and was guided away by a broad shouldered man, who shook him lightly with a broad grin on his face.

“Ms Dinnet, Boar, i welcome you to the ranks.” Dinnet inclined her head with a faint smile accepting her chest and stepped back beside a man with his hood down, he looked ill with sickly gray skin and dark circles beneath pale brown eyes.

“Mr Spinnet, Sawbones, welcome to the ranks.” the unknown male stepped beside Pony surprisingly who beamed.

“Ms Potter,” Guardian began taking her in with a critical eye. “Careful consideration went into your name as your form is something..mythical. We decided upon the code name Omen. Welcome to the ranks.” Hollis stepped forward accepting her chest and moved over to owl who patted her hand discreetly with a soft proud smile.

Guardian stood again and studied them all before he smiled.

“I approached each one of you and you have all exceeded expectations. As of today, you will no longer be training with your mentors. No, they are now your colleagues, they can reveal who they are to you if they wish. When you leave here today you will wear your gear.” he waved his hand at the chests  crossing his arms.

“In those chests are pamphlets, you are now allowed to leave here, visit friends and family, tell them what you wish, explain where you were should you wish. Again, welcome to the ranks: dismissed.”

"Yes sir!"

In the safety of her room, Hollis carefully began to put on the uniform.

Dark gray brown dragonhide boots went up to the middle of her calves and buckled at the back, black army pants tucked into them and were held up by a thick leather belt. A coal black skin tight sleeveless top covered her chest leaving her biceps bare, a bracer covered her right arm the left holding a wand holster.

The last thing she put on was the cloak pitch black in color, it wrapped and hung open past her breasts with a thicker part holding numerous pouches similar to Owl around her waist. It split on both sides of her hips but had a part that fell down between her legs  just past her thighs there was a smaller piece of cloth in the shape of a ‘W’ that covered her nose and along her cheeks hiding most of her scar.

The last object was translating lipstick, while she knew the languages it would make sure that she spoke the correct languages and it was perfectly understood, since her scar cut into her upper lip she only put it on the bottom lip.

The next part was packing her gear into her pockets and slipping her moke skin pouch around her neck the rune on it making it invisible to anyone who didn’t know about it, pulling her hair back into a ponytail she flipped the hood up and let out an explosive breath as she took it all in.

Even with the hood up her senses weren’t hindered, her Animagus form allowing her to extend her senses more than a normal human could. Gathering the last of her thing smacking sure the room was as she left it on the first day. Hollis stepped out of her room finding Owl sitting in the seating area with tea set up as she smiled softly.

Hollis couldn’t help the grin as she stepped forward.

"So? Did I Disappoint?" She asked cheekily, taking a seat opposite her mentor.

"Yes." Hollis blinked at Owl who's lips twitched "You broke almost all of my tea sets Omen, and I will expect you to pay that back at some point.” Owl  crossed her legs and picked up a tea cup with the sharp scent of spice and jasmine strong in the air.

“Now then, I'm sure you were wondering if I would ever show my face, hm?"Hollis nodded hesitantly, warily. Owl chuckled softly and set her tea down reaching up to pull her hood down. Piercing somewhat familiar violet eyes stared down at her from a rather exotic and beautiful face, dark wavy hair was pulled back into a bun held by shimmering jewels.

Hollis..Had no idea who this woman was.

"Violetta Zabini, a distant relative to one of your classmates, Blaise, he was rather amused by your antics you know." she teased leaning her chin on the back of her hand.

“It’s nice to finally meet you for real, Violetta. Now,” Hollis flushed, wishing the woman had given her a tour of the place.

“Can you show me the way out?” Violetta huffed amused and motioned to the  Floo.

“To get to you’re quarters here, It’s Omen and it’s very locked to only you and other hit wizards, so don’t try bringing any guests.” She warned, Hollis nodded seriously and grabbed some floo powder mind whirling before settling on the easiest place.

“

Diagon alley!

” This time pronouncing it correctly.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Luna’s grave is  settled right beside her mothers under a particularly wild growing tree; there is still a worn swing well worn and used on the other branch.

Hollis feels her heart break again as she takes in the stone made in Luna’s likeness, her dreamy smile captured perfectly on the pure white stone, sighing as she sits down in front of the grave she settles the shiny stones she’d gathered painstakingly from the nearby river.

A Lot of deaths Hollis regretted, but Luna’s, Luna’s death was something she believed to be her fault.

The escape from Malfoy manor was a blur of agonizing pain and broken bones, but she would forever remember the startled gasp Luna falling against her as if falling in for a hug, before they were whipped away Bellatrix’s high mad laughter drowned out by the ringing in her ears as she cradled the girl she thought of a sister.

Luna died in her arms and there was nothing she could have done to help.

“She loved you, you know.” Jolting her head snapped to Xenophillius, the man looked drawn and tired as he gingerly sat down in front of Pandora Lovegood's grave.

“Luna was… She..Luna was my sister.” Hollis got out around the sudden tightness in her throat as she brushed her fingers over the plague with Luna’s name displayed on it.

They sat there in silence until Hollis decided it was time to go see the Weasleys.

“Wait a moment, Hollis Potter.” Xenophillius held out a simple cardboard box wrapped with a bright yellow bow, hesitantly taking it she opened it and nearly felt her knees buckle.

“Oh..Luna.” She croaked taking in the radish, or ‘dirigible plum’ earrings, there was the spectre specs, a hand painted picture of her and Luna by the black lake, and the lion headdress.

“She left it, for you, and I wish..I wish she was here to see you again, you made my little moonbeam so, so happy.” Xenophillius whispered breath hitching; he touched her shoulder gently before he slipped away, but not before leaving a familiar necklace in the box that made her heart wrist up painfully and her blood run cold.

Swallowing, she carefully closed up the box and slipped it into the moke skin, pouch her eyes turning towards the burrow as she forced the box out of her mind for the moment.

Hollis stood on the stoop of the front door to the burrow mind whirling as she tried to formulate what she would say, the last she had seen everyone had been the day before she left. Now, she found out that Hermione and Ron got married, Ron an auror trainee rising through the ranks, Hermione in R&D and most definitely being scouted by the unspeakables.

“Come on Holls, just get it over with.” she muttered, taking a steadying breath before rapping on the door, her eyes catching on the clock as the small arrow that had been pointed at traveling finally ticked its way home with a soft ding.

Molly was at the door in moments her hand flying to her mouth as she whipped open the door tears gathering as she took in Hollis

“Hey, Mrs. Weasley. I uh-” Holly couldn’t get another word out before Molly hauled her into a near painful hug forcing her to bend awkwardly since she was now taller than Molly, but she sighed shakily all the same and sunk into the hug wrapping her arms around the hysterically sobbing woman who gripped her like a life line.

“Mum? Whose..” Ginny stopped short at the door, she looked different, healthier with her hair cut into a bob and a new crookedness to her nose.

“Hollis.” she breathed the word barley getting through her lips before she was shooting across the kitchen knocking a chair over and the poor bowl of apples to join the hug violently punching her shoulder as she did so, Hollis following them downt o the ground as Molly’s knees gave out.

“We though you were killed!” Ginny began leaning away as Molly wiped her face standing to sit down at a chair leaving them on the floor, Ginny crawled into her lap grabbing her face in a tight bruising grasp.

“You’d said you’d be away for a while, not almost a whole bloody year!” the angry read head hissed as she turned Hollis’s face left and right brown eyes darting over to look for any signs of damage.

“I will explain,” Hollis because words slightly off due to Ginny still squishing her face, most likely for her own amusement at this point. “If I'm allowed inside?” She tagged on hesitantly glancing at Molly who somehow managed to make a sniffle sound outraged and affronted.

“Hollis, Euphemia Potter! This is your home! It will always be your home and you will always be welcome. Get in here. I’ll put on the kettle, tea? Tea.” Hollis couldn’t help the fond, almost desperate laugh she gave as she easily scooped up Ginny who grunted in surprise flailing a bit until they were sitting in a chair, the red head shifting to sit across her lap.

“You're going to let go anytime soon, Gin?” She asked, Ginny only giving her a wobbly cheeky grin holding on even tighter as if Hollis would shove her off before she gingerly rested her head on Hollis’s shoulder, Hollis gave a shaky breath hugging her back just as tighter resting her cheek on the now smaller women's head.

“Where did you go Holls, we looked everywhere, the ministry told us it was classified, even Kingsley couldn’t tell us, just that you were safe. Where were you?” Ginny demanded causing Hollis to wince, when Ginny got upset she usually turned to anger instead of sobbing.

In lieu of answer as molly returned she set out the pamphlet Molly inhaling sharply at a single glance.

“You joined the hit wizards.” she said, her voice resigned Hollis swallowed and gently nudged Ginny around so she could reach over and gather Molly’s shaking cold hands in her own.

“They approached me when I was in the hospital, The day after I left I was taken into the ministry and only just got out yesterday morning, I had some errands to run or I would have instantly come here.” Ginny eyed her carefully taking in the muscled arms and taller frame.

“That explains the lack of ribs poking me in the back.” She mused prodding at Hollis’s abdomen.

“But it’s so dangerous,” Molly whispered, gripping her hands tightly more tears spilling down her cheeks. Hollis swallowed feeling tears dripping down her face as well.

“Yeah, it is. But I trained, I promise Molly, every mission, once I finish it I will come straight back home.

“You Are the most danger prone child I've ever seen, dear. You better come over a lot more than every mission you hear me? Or I'll send the twins to track you down.” Hollis gave a wet laugh sniffling as she hugged Molly tightly standing and pressing a kiss to her forehead.

“I promise. "Smiling softly at Mrs. Weasley, Hollis was glad to be home.

“Hollis Euphemia Potter!” Hollis jerked nearly dislodging Ginny from her lap as a very angry Hermione emerged from the living room still covered in soot from the floo.

“Hermione-” Ginny dove out of the way as a flood of stinging hexes flew at her.

This was going to be a long, and apparently painful conversation.

Once she managed to calm down hurricane Hermione before she went supernova and destroyed everything in her path, the trio sat in the living room, Molly occasionally peeking in to check and make sure Hollis was still there, Ginny was leaning against Hollis again watching the proceedings

Hermione and Ron were flipping through the pamphlets Ron tossing his down after a moment to pout at her, it was kind of cute when they were eleven, deeply disturbing now that they were twenty.

“You were supposed to join the aurors with me.” he whined unhappily, crossing his arms and staring at her with deep betrayal hissing as Hermione reached over and pinched him in the ribs without taking her eyes off the pamphlet she was practically devouring.

“That would have been the plan,” Hollis agreed feeling oddly wistful, she bet the aurors didn’t have to go through the hell that was Owl’s training plan from the deepest pits of hell. “But they approached me when I was in the hospital.” She stared down at her lap rolling her words around to try and explain it.

“Something told me that if I didn’t take the offer I'd deeply regret it, and for once I actually listened to the feeling.” She sighed, slumping and drug a hand through her hair.

“Well, it did you some good at least, you don’t look like a strong gust of wind will blow you off like a kite.” Hermione said, shrewdly eyeing her before she stood and leaned down to plant her shoulders on Hollis’s glaring at her darkly.

“You left me to have my bachelorette party planned and celebrated with the likes of lavender,” she hissed and Hollis winced leaning back as far as she could in the squishy semi sentient couch she swore was trembling beneath her.

“It wasn’t that bad, it was just very..pink..and purple..and alot of very naked men.” Ginny mused, drawing a squawk from Ron.

“So, now that you’re here I can

formally

invite you to my baby shower.” Hollis froze her nose twitching as she took in Hermione's scent, she smelled like old books and ink, but underneath it all was a sweeter scent, her eyes lowered to her belly which was slightly pudgy.

Numerous words wanted to spill out but all she managed was a deadpan and slightly bland word.

“What. "Ginny let out a burst of snorting laughs slapping a hand over her mouth to try and muffle them.

“Ron reacted the same way,” She hooted with a cackle, Hermione rolled her eyes leveling Hollis with another sharp look “he also fainted, now when do you return to work.”

“End of the week.” Hollis said wary at the demented gleam in her friends eyes as she nodded sharply.

“Good we’ll throw the baby shower the day before, now I’m going to bed. I have work in the morning, don’t you dare disappear Hollis.” Hermione warned as Hollis threw up her hands in a placating gesture.

“I won’t, I won’t, can I stay here tonight Molly?” Hollis called Mrs. Weasley, stepping back in and wiping her hands on a dish towel.

“Of course dear. You can stay in Charlie's old room, I think it’s time for us all to go to bed, it’s been an emotional time and we’ll need our strength for tomorrow.” Hollis frowned in confusion, Ginny leaned over and whispered two words that had her wincing.

“Andy and Tonks.”

The rest of the explanations went about as well as you’d expect, Tonks slapped her before hugging the stuffing out of her and forced her to stay and cuddle with Teddy, Andromeda stared at her in a cold fury and warned her to never do that again.

The twins had her try out some of their experiments that left her a bright blue with magenta hair and speaking in pig Latin for the rest of the day which thankfully made the rest of the reunions less painful and more embarrassing.  At the end of Hermione's Baby shower she had hugged each and everyone of her family and friends tightly and went back to her apartment to adjust her kit, now with new items gifted by the twins.

At the end of the week she’d cried more than she had in forever, had been hugged enough times that her ribs ached, and had been puked on no less then seven times by a happy blue haired baby and one memorable time by Hermione when Hollis was coming out of the bathroom.

It was time to report in for her first job.

The streets of France were crowded with tourists bustling to and fro taking pictures of anything and everything, one of the few not moving was a cloaked figure leaning against the wall of a bookstore with their arms crossed. Their eyes were locked on a pale dark haired man with a sizable bruise on his jaw moving through the crowd with disgust on his face and his eyes darting left and right before lighting up with sick glee upon landing on a lost young woman studying a map.

He glided with disturbing expertise up to the woman throwing his arm over his shoulder and waist in the mockery of a lovers hold lips moving to mouth ‘

imperio

’ before she could scream. Pushing off the wall to follow the duo as they made their way to the nearest alley way. Omen tossed out the stones that brought up the anti-apparition and portkey wards

Omen had been tracking Cadius Nott for months, the man low level but still a extremely dangerous dark wizard who preyed on muggles, mostly female, to drain their blood and blame it on vampires. He’d recently killed a grouo of aurors who ran across him in London where he’d made his escaped to France

Just as the man removed his wand, fumbling with it, omen dropped her hand on his shoulder

“Release the woman, Nott.” She ordered, shakily he did as told holding his hands out letting the woman fall to the ground with her strings cut. A quick slap of her hand to the base of his neck left a rune that bound his magic and left him docile.

For once, this was looking to be an easy job.

No sooner had the thought crossed her mind di the soft scuff of a shoe on the ground draw her attention, she barely managed to twist out of the way of a cutting curse that his Cadius who, under the rune just twitched drool dribbling out of his mouth as he dropped twitching awkwardly on the ground, a swift stone tossed at the man sent him to base, as she quickly turned to regard the scowling lumbering form of Marcus flint, who somehow looked even more like a troll since Hogwarts.

“It’s been a while Flint.” she drawled wand sliding into her palm.

“See, I knew it was you Potter, how are you enjoying the new scar my father gave you?” He sneered eyes darting to the scar that cut into her upper lip revealing her left incisor.

“A lot more than he enjoyed that kiss with the dementors.” Omen dodged the enraged spell fire, a sickly purple spell smacking into the ground where she just stood. Omen threw down a bulb of Peruvian instant darkness using her strong sense of smell to move quickly behind Nott and roughly kick the back of his knees knocking him down with a startled cry of outrage that dropped into nothing once she slapped the rune onto his neck.

Clearing the smoke with a wind blowing charm, Omen left Marcus where he knelt docile and check over the woman who was breathing steadily with a slight bump on her head and a scraped knee from the fall.

Healing her up, and removing the tracking charms place on her, the last thing she removed was the imperio quickly obliviating her giving her the memory of fighting off a mugger before guiding her to the bustling streets.

A quick once over of the alleyway as she picked up the used up stones, Hollis hauled Marcus to his feet grunting at the weight and apparated on the spot to the ministry. Booking Flint into the cells and making sure everything was in order, she made her way to the nearest entry point to the head quarters.

Pony greeted her at the door, the halls shifting to lead her straight there, saw bones squinted at her from where he was hunched over his desk, Pony was both the one you went to for reporting after a mission and healing, so she hopped up onto the table he ushered her to, flicking diagnostic charms at her like they were going out of style.

“Status?” he asked eyes darting over what was visible.

“No injuries to report, the capture of Cadius Nott was a success with the arrival of Marcus flint the unknown partner. Flint cast a cutting curse which hit Cadius Nott followed by a purple spell I could not recognize.” Pony hummed lowly pressing a potion into her hand which she knocked down with a grimace, one did not argue with Pony when he handed you a potion, you either drank it or he made you.

“You have some lingering dark residue, that potion is a precaution just in case there are side effects from being to close to the spell, it will alert me to you’re status every other hour.” Pony nodded with a soft smile.

“Good work, Omen, Report to Guardian when you’re able.” Which meant now.

Hollis hopped off the table waving to Sawbones who gave a distracted wave in reply and made her way through the infirmary noticing an unconscious and pale Boar who's chest was bound in bandages, wincing, she made sure she was quieter this time as she left stepping out into the hall which had shifted so Guardians office was right across from her, while the fast reports went to pony, Guardian got the full report.

Knocking on the door she heard a soft ‘enter’ and stepped in side, Guardian was working on his ever-growing stack of paper work, eyes flicking up briefly when she entered.

“Welcome back, Omen. Report.” he leaned back in his chair giving her his full attention, omen straightened crossing her arms behind her back.

“ “I arrived at 0900 hours in Marseille France, I surveyed the area for two days until the target appeared, the target proceeded to take a muggle woman, approximately twenty five years of age, and imperio her guiding her into an alley, He went down without a struggle but a previous unknown, Marcus Flint, cast a severing charm cutting into the targets back. Marcus Flint went down equally as easy with a Peruvian darkness and a knock to the back of his knees, I present you their wands, sir.” Omen held out a wooden case which ,Guardian accepted nodding.

‘Good work, your pay will be sent in two hours to your case. Your next case will be a long one.” Guardian held out a thick file.

“This will be your third Rank XX case, Omen, stay safe. Dismissed.”

“Yes sir.” Omen slipped form the office studying the file in her hands, the Hit wizards had a saying, if you weren’t dead by you third rank XX case you were very lucky. She managed to get an XX case for her first job due to her luck, followed by a few normal cases then another standard case turned XX.

Deciding to leave reading the details for later, She slipped the case file in the pouch and  slipped form the head quarters, she had a lunch date to get to.

Hollis emerged from a baked goods shop with a cream cheese bagel and a carrying tray with two coffees, Ginny waved at her from another seat with a grin, Dean sat beside her scribbling in his  art journal.

“Hey you two.” Hollis greeted taking a seat and slid the tray over Dean flashing her a quick smile before he went back to drawing. Ginny had threatened her with bodily harm if she didn’t show up to a weekly outing at either a coffee shop or a park. Not that Hollis minded, she loved the bagels here.

“How was work?” Dean asked, since Ginny was preoccupied with her iced coffee.

“Rough, no injuries. How about you? Sadie still collicky?” Dean sighed and nodded  twirling his pencil, it was vaguely amusing that two of the most rambunctious boys of their year in gryffindor worked with babies in st mungos, especially since Seamus still had that unfortunate problem of exploding things, he was banned form preparing bottles for a reason.

“She’s a bit of a needy baby, but I’m not giving up on her, did Ginny tell you about her scout?” Ginny gave Dean a betrayed look but huffed.

“I wanted it to be a surprise, but, A scout approached me after one of the games and wanted me to go to tryouts for the Holy head Harpies.” Hollis beamed excitedly.

“Oh that’s amazing Gin! You’ve got this in the bag!” She encouraged  reaching over to fist bump her.

“Oh uhm...Xeno stopped by the other night, he had a box that was labelled for you. Said he forgot to give it to you with the other one” Hollis froze, a smile dropping from her face as Ginny slid a box over, this one was cardboard as well but wrapped in a chaotic, but artful, mess of wrappings with a zig zagged lime green and neon red ribbon, on a tag was her name writing in a familiar script with a happy birthday displayed below it.

“I’ll open it later at home.” she murmured softly and the rest of the visit passed in light conversation and awkward silences.

The gift ended up holding her album, the one Hagrid gave at the end of first year, this time it was full of photos and art that left her crying as she went through each memory. When she was finished the album found a home in her moke skin pouch before she got serious, she could reminisce and grieve later, she had a case.

Hollis hadn’t really thought about most of the Slytherins from her year, she knew Blaise and Daphne had eloped dragging Astoria before she could be shoved into a  marriage with Draco who had become sullen and withdrawn and most likely Snape 2.0.

Runcorn had become a model and was always on witch weekly’s front page as most eligible and hottest bachelor, but that was it.

Pansy Parkinson and Millicent Bulstrode, both girls on something of a killing spree, last Hollis had heard Pansy had been bitten by Greyback or someone in his pack at least and somehow had infected Bulstrode, Hollis would have thought the two would avoid each other, pansy was always picking on bulstrode for just about everything.

Currently the duo were holed up in Austria terrorizing the locals of a small town, from the notes added it used to be a ministry of magic before magic users had fled Austria for Germany sometime in the 1950's, the reasons unclear. Hollis never got over packing all of her earthly possessions (which wasn't much) since the year on the run, she kept some gold on her to live comfortably should she be stuck on the run again, plus she had a Gringotts card which was like  muggle bank card but had anti theft runes and charged next to nothing since the card was painfully expensive.

It made getting ready easier at least, some hasty floo calls to the people who demanded them and giving tons of reassurances to Molly Hollis stood rolling her shoulders as she flipped up her hood, Omen taking her place, flexing her hands as she grabbed the supplied portkey murmuring the activation word to whisk her away.

If there was one thing Omen hated about her job it would be the portkeys, sure Owl had beat graceful landings into her but it never helped the queasy feeling in her gut and as she landed in the Austrian ministry she walked a bit stiltedly outside and into the fresh air.

Most wizards would be stopped by security but hitwizards were given free passes as it was assumed they were hunting something, as long as they didn’t have a second person when they arrived it was smooth sailing.

It was an hour train ride to Windfelden, which was 50 miles from the target location, a small sleepy town called Lynlyll which used to be home to some 40-60 wizards and witches and their ministry. At some point they fled Lynlyll, the survivors refusing to speak of whatever they had seen, some of the older unspeakables and aurors mused that something had come through the arch, a mirror to the veil but the Austrian ministry hadn’t used it as a means of execution.

Unlike the veil, the Arch had things that came through and most things they shoved through for experimenting were forcibly whipped back with near deadly force. Omen sighed softly at the soft ache the day Sirius fell through the veil vivid in her mind as she made her way through the crowds of witches and wizards and out onto the muggle side, the train station was to the immediate right, after exchanging some wizarding money into muggle, Omen was soon situated on a rather comfortable seat that had a foldable table in front.

An old couple were seated across from her, the woman with a heavy southern accent, the man silent and amused. Omen’s lips quirked as she leaned back to rest, she knew she wouldn’t be having much rest in the upcoming days. Turning her attention to the window, Omen let herself fall into a light sleep, unaware of the gleeful and excited looks the couple traded, the woman's eyes flickering silver, the man's gold.

Standing outside the barrier to Lynlyll Omen studied the heavy and ancient wards that blocked the town off in a bubble, reaching a hand out she prodded at the wards experimentally, there was some resistance before her hand breached. Taking a deep breath she stepped through feeling a wave of vertigo as the breezy and warmth faded to stillness and a sudden sharp bitter coldness. Grimacing at the slimy feeling Omen started off down the street keeping her senses alert and wand at the ready.

The road slowly transferred to a mud path and finally cobbled streets, elegant buildings lined each side of the streets, an apothecary with overgrown plant life busting through the windows reaching towards the sky, some twisted and sickly looking. The feeling of being watched increased until she finally removed her invisibility cloak and draped it over her shoulders, the cloak lengthening to cover her boots, striding down the street, Omen looked for any sign of Parkinson or Bulstrode, she came across overturned carts, and the closer to the ministry the more dried blood that stained the streets.

With the sound of a glass bottle dropping Hollis turned her head staring as a painfully thin Pansy Parkinson stepped form an alleyway horrid scars disfiguring her face as she sniffed the air her tongue darting out to wet dry and cracked lips. She wasn’t entirely human with thick fur covering her skin and her face was slightly elongated. Something horribly disfigured inched out around her side, missing one arm and with a deep set scar across her face, Millicent Bulstrode acted nothing like a human and everything like an animal as she snuffled against the ground, lips peeling back with a low growl.

Double checking that the scent blockers were in effect, Omen carefully backtracked her steps keeping her eyes on the two girls who seemed to know she was there, but not exactly where. Once she was a safe distance away from the unnerving duo Omen found a more or less intact building and moved all the way to the top room barricading herself in side, pulling a chair over to the window she cleared a small spot for her to see out and flipped open a notepad and settled down to wait.

She sat there for three days before she saw the duo again, Pansy appeared first  covered in blood and trailing her fingers over the leaves of a particularly thorny plant at the apothecary, under her arm was a basket filled with entrails and leaves and something unidentifiable from her location.

Bulstrode was another story, she made several trips from the ministry and to the start of the town, seemingly on patrol, sometimes she would return with a poor animal clenched in her jaws, other times she would be covered in mud and seemingly pleased with herself.

Like clockwork they repeated this, Pansy going to different buildings with a basket, Millicent patrolling, the night of the full moon, Omen waited until the duo burst out of the ministries and shot off into the forests surrounding before she left her hideout taking the form of the massive hound, padding her way down the street nose wrinkling at the very strong sense of blood and rot, Omen slipped into the ministry finding a den of sorts, piles of blankets and clothing were set up in a bed formation, in the middle was a firepit with smoldering charcoal, there were blood trials leading off to the left and the half eaten body off a woman, her skin pale and eyes wide.

Padding over  studying the woman carefully, Omen matched her to a missing hiker by the name of Marian Holshey. Taking note of the surrounding area, Omen moved over to the door with the blood trail nudging it open and slowly followed it peering into the different doors on her way until she entered a massive atrium with stairs leading up to a platform, the carcasses of humans and animals were shoved in neat piles, some were propped up against the marble arch at the platform, others had seemingly been still alive and had crawled around a little before passing out form their wounds.

“See I knew I hadn’t been mistaken.” Purred a ragged and raspy voice, Omen whipped around finding a hunched over and bloodied Pansy, her hands tangled in the hair of a blonde woman who was missing a leg.

“I’d know your presence anywhere, Scarface.” Pansy growled, whipping her wand and forcing Omen out of her Animagus form, standing from her crouched position, Omen let her wand slide into her palm, the comforting swell of magic eased some of the panic that had set in. The doorways had all been blocked by the mounds of corpses.  Pansy tossed the body of the woman onto one of them easily rolling her shoulders and licking blood from her lips, amber eyes glowing in the near darkness of the room.

“Potter,” Bulstrode growled crawling in from around Pansy  crouching animalistic ally beside her, ragged black hair hanging into her face.

“Bulstrode. Parkinson. It’s been a while” Omen stated taking careful steps backwards, the back of her heels touching the first step leading up to the arch. Not only did they have their wands still, they had embraced their wolf side and were now ten times as deadly, meaning her chances of making it out of this intact were next to none, at the very least they were less likely to turn her and more likely to brutally tear her to pieces.

“We’ve waited so long for you to show back up, crawled through the dirt like vermin...our families disowned us all because of your pet werewolf.” Pausing Omen stared at them in confusion.

“Greyback wasn’t my pet.” Pansy snarled lips peeling back to reveal blackened gums and yellowed teeth.

“Greyback didn’t turn me, Lupin did! Bit me in blind panic, like the mutt he was, now all would have been fine, if it hadn’t been the full moon, and it's all your fault! I mauled my mother to death! My little brother! My father finally locked me up putting me in the old dungeons at Bulstrode manor, but i got out, slaughtered them all, but Millie..poor fat and stupid Millie.” Bulstrode growled lowly glaring at Pansy in disgust, wincing as the brunette clubbed her over the head with a warning growl.

“We escaped with the ministry at our heels, We somehow got across the border, and made ourselves a home here, we threw up some noise and killed those who came to slaughter us and lock us up, hoping one day, that perfect little potter , would show up. "Pansy slashed her hand and Millicent launched forward with a guttural snarl. With a curse Omen dove to the side shifting easily and avoided another reverse Animagus spell as Bulstrode landed on her jaws clamping onto one shoulder and wrenching it to the left sending pain shooting down her spine. Bucking roughly Omen slammed backwards Bulstrode hitting the stairs with a sharp expelling of air, nimbly avoiding another reversal spell from a jeering and laughing Pansy.

Skittering to her feet Bulstrode’s eyes were glazed over with rage as she began a mindless and relentless assault of claws and teeth backing Hollis up that archway stairs shoving Bulstrode back down the stairs, Pansy finally hit her with another reversal spell, Hollis sent an overpowered blasting charm at the ceiling stumbling and falling backwards a strangled scream slipping from her lips as she hit her shoulder roughly against the marbled pillar, the hand falling into the water substance of the veil.

It burned sending heat flaring up her arm and making her stomach roll violently, tugging her arm uselessly Hollis grunted with exertion as Millicent charged up the stairs slamming into her jaws inches away from her throat, but she had slammed into her just hard enough to send  them both spilling into the arch.

“Accio Bulstrode!” Pansy howled and suddenly Hollis was free falling, in pain and feeling an intense feeling of vertigo. It finally stopped as she landed hard on her feet, she stumbled vomiting off to the side. Hollis fell to her knees in wet grass, gasping for breath. The flickering gas station light above her lit up the rain soaked concrete around her as she struggled to focus, her head pounding fiercely. The only thing she could safely think at the moment was a litany of curses.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Hollis wished she didn’t have enhanced senses as the overpowering scent of rot, decay, and blood hit her full force, gagging once more she dug her nails into the sparse muddy grass breath stuttering in soft panting gasps as her magic rolled uncomfortably beneath her skin, the stinging feeling prickling across her skin like bees trapped underneath had her thunking her forehead against the ground with a pained moan.
 
“Hey! Are you alright?” Grunting at the far too loud voice that was much too close, Hollis inhaled sharply nearly throwing up again at the smell, her attention snapped to the hand now on her shoulder, turning her head she blinked trying to clear her vision as she took in the woman crouching over her.
 
She wore a red leather jacket over a dark gray shirt with a white camisole beneath, the flickering light caught on the white metal feather on a chain around her neck, some rapid blinking drew her face into view, Auburn hair pulled back into a ponytail and dark blue eyes.
 
Swallowing, and grimacing at the cottony feel of her mouth, Hollis heaved herself to the feet, the woman’s hands fluttering as if to help as she got unsteadily to her feet,  her vision swimming violently, from blood loss or falling through the arch she couldn’t exactly tell.
 
As soon as that thought hit she shoved it to the back of her mind, she could have a panic attack over surviving falling through the artifact later, for now, she was somewhere unknown and the air smelled like death.
 
With a few steadying breaths and more rapid blinking to keep her vision clear as it faded in and out, Hollis surveyed her surroundings, it was a standard gas station with a large awning, two pumps and a modestly sized building, there was an abandoned jeep parked at one of the pumps and a patrol car still on and nearly up against the glass with the scratched logo on the side displayed ‘Racoon City P.D’
 
Her eyes flicked to a sign off to the road,  it was green and displaying an odd peppermint wheel like logo off to the side, ‘ Welcome to Racoon City, Home of Umbrella ’ was displayed on the front.

Jolting as the woman grabbed her shoulders she nearly buckled at the flash of white hot pain that raced through her as the woman had inadvertently pressed her hand over her injured shoulder.
 
She must have cried out or the woman had noticed she was in pain because she jerked her hands back as if burnt apologizing.
 
“Where..” Hollis swallowed as she tried to get her tongue to work and her mind to get out of the hazy slowness it was in.
 
“Just outside of Arklay County,” The woman began eyeing her warily and concerned.

“Missouri.” she tacked on at the confusion on Hollis’s face, the woman began to shepherd her towards the gas station.
 
“Let's get you inside, we can call some help.” Just as she got to the door she hastily backed up hands thrown up as she bumped into Hollis.
 
“Don't shoot!” She yelped, grabbing onto Hollis’s forearm.
 
“Get down!” A man shouted, Hollis grunted as the woman sharply dropped dragging Hollis down along with her, only less graceful, four shots rang out making her ears ring and her vision blur but not enough to miss the shambling man that was missing half of his face, his body jerking back from the two shots in the shoulder and another in the forehead before he dropped with a sick sounding squelch.
 
“Merlin,” Hollis croaked vision clearing enough to spot more of the inferi like creatures emerging from the forest and from around the building, attracted by the loud gunfire.
 
“You two ok?” The man panted, he had blonde hair and blue eyes and wore a black jacket over a gray shirt.
 
“Yeah, think so,” the woman said, somehow now holding a pistol as she hauled Hollis to her feet when she noticed her struggling to get her legs underneath her.
 
‘Thanks,” the woman said, relieved as Hollis felt her stomach roll, eyes squeezing shut at the persistent and painful drum beat behind her eyes, making it harder and harder to focus.
 
“Been better.” she rasped trying to grasp her magic to give herself a boost, or maybe numb the aching wound on her shoulder, but it slipped through her fingers at every try.
 
“Look,” the man began gritting his teeth as they backed against the door, the woman half supporting Hollis as they did so. “If we can get to the car, we may make it out of here alive.” Hollis winced as the woman fired two shots at one of the undead that got a bit too close.
 
“Right, car, got it.” Hollis mumbled the duo did a count of three, on two something smashed against the glass behind them, the grotesque and very rotted face of a man mouthing at the glass leaving smears of blood and drool across it.
 
‘Get to the car, get in!” the man shouted, Hollis forcing her legs to comply even if they felt like jello and it made her whole head pound viciously, she lagged a bit behind but managed to dive into to the car awkwardly half sticking out before being dumped into the back seat as the man spun the car out of the lot on two wheels, there was a low thump of him running something over, barely audible over the drumming in her ears.
 
Once she adjusted herself and let her wand slide into her palm, she hesitantly cast a diagnostic charm shuddering at the odd prickly feeling that spread over her skin. The bite from Millicent was getting infected, since it was gained when she was in her animagus form she thankfully wouldn’t turn but the wound would be hard and stubborn to heal which left her with a shredded shoulder in the middle of a dangerous situation.
 
Her magic was nearly depleted, not enough to warrant concern but she would have been careful with what she used, she was also dehydrated, which made no sense as she very clearly remembered drinking water before she left her stake out area.
 
Sliding her wand back in her holster, Hollis wondered why the ministry has not reported this, she knew she was in America and that MACUSA was very harsh in regards to it’s laws with interacting with the muggles, and while there was no scent of magic on the undead, they were clearly inferi or at least inferi adjacent. Sighing , Hollis leaned against the door, setting her head on the cooled glass trying to make the sharp feeling of nausea go away, or at least ease up a little.
 
It was quiet for a long while before any of them spoke, the one to break the silence was the woman who was staring out at an overturned and burning car.
 
“What the hell is going on?” she demanded, turning back to regard the blonde currently gripping the steering wheel with tight blood soaked hands, he swallowed shakily exhaling before he answered.
 
‘I don’t know, hopefully they’ll have some answers at the police station.” he said, skirting around some debris in the middle of the road.
 
“Wait, you’re a cop?” she asked, taking in his outfit dubiously, the man nodded, Jerkily eyes flicking to peer at Hollis through the rear view mirror when she shifted.
 
“Y-yeah,” the man cleared his throat, glancing at the woman for a moment before returning to the road. “Leon Kennedy, you are..?” He asked with a slight wry grin on his face.
 
“Claire,” the woman said, glancing back out at the road, lips pressed into a thin horrified line as the destruction got worse the closer they got to the city. “Claire Redfield.. What about you?” she turned around in her seat to look at Hollis who managed a weak sluggish blink, not that she could see it. 
 
“Hollis Potter.” she got out  her cloak opening enough to reveal the blood on her shoulder, she spotted Leon's hands tightening on the steering wheel.
 
“Are you alright? Did one of those things bite you. Seems to be the method of turning someone into those things.” Leon said looking haunted, Hollis grunted as she slowly sat up.
 
“No, I wasn't bitten by one of those things, something else,” sighing she rubbed a hand down her face wondering how her luck could be this bad. “Either of you have any water?” she asked, Claire fumbling with her belt to remove a small water bottle that was half drunk, nodding in thanks Hollis sipped at the water carefully, some careful exploration of her pouch at her hip got her some Tylenol.
 
“Either of you live around here?” Leon asked after a moment of silence, Hollis eyed the city outside quietly.
 
“No, I'm…just here.” Hollis said lamely watching one of the inferi struggling to get out of a car window.
 
“I’m just looking for my brother, he’s a cop as well.” Claire said, nodding her head worriedly, Leon’s lips twitched into a soft smile as he glanced over at her.
 
“Well, it's a good thing we found each other then,” his smile dropped as he stared out at the burning city grimly. “I don’t know what to expect anymore.” he said quietly, the car lapsing into silence at a loss for anything to say.
 
Hollis was the first one to hear it, a man droning in a faintly alarmed voice.
 
“Attention all Citizens: Due to a citywide outbreak, You are advised to take shelter at the Racoon City Police station. Free food and medical supplies will be provided to everyone in need.” Hollis peered out the barred window taking in the destruction, cars wrecked or with half eaten bodies torn from them, fires that were so strong the rain did nothing to help put them out, distantly she could hear low explosions.
 
“Holy shit,” Hollis whispered quietly as thunder arced across the sky lighting up the blood and rain on the concrete.
 
“Oh my god, this is so unreal.” Claire whispered  eyes locked on the scenery passing by, Hollis gave a grunt of agreement  frowning at the destruction, surely a city this big under attack by inferi would warrant some kind of response.

“The station’s not much further, they’ll know something.” Leon soothed which didn’t seem to work as Claire finally turned away from the window fiddling with her hands shakily breathing.
 
“Yeah but, what if we’re the only ones? What if there are no others-” Leon cut her off, his hands gripping the wheel tightly.
 
“No!” He barked loudly before he took a deep reassuring breath “There’s survivors.. It's a big city,” he swallowed thickly  as they passed an overturned stroller.
 
“There has to be.” he said much quieter.
 
 Hollis leaned forward as they came up to a  barricade, Leon came to a stop putting it in park, a very sudden wariness overcoming her, Hollis peered out the window lips pressed in a thin line.
 
“Looks like we’re walking from here.” Leon sighed, Hollis grabbed onto his shoulder tightly as he went to open the door, he followed her line of sight to a bloated corpse, two of the unferi were hunched over it, and as if sensing their eyes one of them raised its head and turned slowly in their direction tilting slightly.
 
“More like running.” Claire muttered, sounding sick, her face pale.
 
“Yeah..good call.” Hollis jerked as something smashed against Leon's window.
 
“Jesus Christ!” Claire yelped fumbling with her seat belt as the car was very quickly surrounded.
 
“Leon! We gotta back up!” Claire shouted, Leon fumbling with the car to do as told when Hollis noticed the semi racing towards them, a dazed looking man holding the side of his neck was inside.
 
‘Holy shit, get out,” Claire breathed struggling harder with her seat belt.
 
“Get out now!” She cried, Hollis tried the handle, panicked curses leaving her as she remembered that it was a cruiser, unless the door was opened from the outside she was stuck.
 
“I can’t!” Claire shouted nearly hyperventilating, Hollis grit her teeth and grabbed the duo’s shoulders struggling to get her magic to work with her to apparate them out, when the truck slammed roughly into the cruiser, Hollis wheezed as she was pitched out of the back seat mostly laying across Claire whose shoulders dug into her rib cage, the cruiser was spinning and swirling colliding violently in the barricade in front of them.
 
Dazed, she vaguely noticed Leon  falling out of the driver's seat, the sharp smell of gasoline brought her sharply back gritting her teeth with a growl, Hollis held onto Clair more securely and grabbed tightly onto her magic focusing on the sidewalk near by with a sharp twisting feeling that was decidedly unpleasant they appeared on the sidewalk, not by Leon like she was aiming but on the other side, Collapsing she dry heaved her stomach far to empty to bring anything else up as her head felt like it was very close to exploding.
 
“Claire! Hollis! You ok?” Leon hollered, forcing her eyes open as Claire hauled her to her feet she realized they were only a few inches from the cruiser.
 
“Yeah!” Claire called back, eyes flicking over Hollis followed by a look that said they were going to talk about the apparating. “We’re alright! How about you?”
 
“I can’t stay here, it’s not safe!” Leon replied, Hollis rummaged around for one of the anti nausea potions she’d started to carry around due to Hermione, it was better to deal with the after effects then have vertigo while she ran for her life.
 
“Go on ahead! We’ll meet you at the station!” Claire called back and turned to Hollis who was now able to stand on her own even if her breathing was a bit off. “Come on.” Hollis nodded and followed the taller woman down the street, avoiding the grasping hands of the inferi.
 
“What was that back there? The teleporting thing.” Claire demanded her voice lowered as they jogged down some stairs in an alleyway, Hollis winced, wishing the questions hadn’t started up so soon.
 
“Just something I can do, not that I can do much right now, something is wrong with me.” Hollis said the last part quietly as she knocked her shoulder against a corner turning too fast, her body still slightly sluggish making her reactions times slower, once they were safe she really needed to figure out what was wrong with her.
 
Claire gave a soft noise of relief as the next corner they rounded brought them to the front of a police station.
 
“The Police station! We’re almost there,” she glanced at Hollis as they hopped over some untouched hedges. “You still good?” Hollis nodded trying to catch her breath, all the training from hell with Owl gone to waste as she was winded from short jogs and climbing over a knee high hedge.
 
“Come on!” Claire grabbed her wrist forcing her into a sprint as the inferi in front of the gate shuffled towards them, Claire shoved her throat first before hastily closing the gate, slamming the bolt across so they couldn’t reach them.
 
Entering the police department Hollis was reminded sharply of the ministry, marbled floors covered in bloody boot prints and smeared, drag marks lead off in different directions, by the front desk was a hastily set up medical section. 
 
Claire guided her over to one of the cleaner looking cots and pushed her to sit down.
 
“You, sit here. I’m going to look around.” Hollis would have argued if she had the energy, so she conceded, watching the brunette jog off to look behind the desk, hesitating, and deciding that her wound was more important than hiding her identity, Hollis shrugged off her cloak, hissing as bits of the leather that had been pushed into the wound pulled free.
 
The whole part of her shoulder was one messy bruise the skin shredded, the wound itself was hot and sticky, removing her first aid field kit Hollis carefully got to work disinfecting and stitching the longer gashes that had torn when she had ripped her arm free, it was a painful and frustratingly annoying process as the wound was a decent size. Pouring a potion over it that would promote quick healing she carefully sealed the wound with wound jelly, an invention by the twins that would make sure the area around the wound was kept clean and kept the stitches from tearing while not sacrificing mobility of her arm, even if it

was

bright pink and sparkly. 
 
The last thing to go on was a bandage which meant she had to shift behind a curtain so she could wrap part of her torso and arm without being topless in full view of anyone who would walk in.
 
Repacking her first aid kit and tucking it away Hollis let herself relax on the cot keeping an ear out for anything coming close to her as she focused on her magic.
 
Where it was normally flowing freely, it was now shaky and stuttering. In some places there was too much, in others too little, whatever happened when she went through the arch had messed up her magic and while it was slowly repairing itself, it wasn’t fast enough.
 
Hollis had always been well in tune with her magic, so it was easy and familiar coaxing the energy back to the way it was, even if there were imbalances in a lot of places.
 
When she pulled away she was slightly nauseous but the odd prickling feeling was still there making her grimace and flex her hands.
 
The soft click of a gun drew her attention, standing behind her was a tense man, one hand held tight against his side as he pointed a gun at her with a  shaking hand.
 
“Please tell me your not one of those fucking things.” he rasped, and nearly fell if, Hollis hadn’t caught him.
 
‘Woah, easy sir, easy.'' She guided him over to one of the cots ignoring his protests as she pulled his hand away, nose twitching at the smell of rot settling into the bite around his side, tearing at the shirt ignoring his cursing so she could get a better look she gently pressed down on the edges.
 
“Will you stop!” He barked just as a commotion sounded down the hall Claire's voice yelling for help.
 
‘Stay here.'' She ordered and rushed off to help, Claire was struggling with one of the inferi kicking at it roughly, Hollis slammed her boot into the one on the left as Claire kicked the one on the right, she pulled the brunette roughly through and slammed the door leaving a twitching hand behind.
 
“Shit!” Claire gasped head dropping back onto the floor “

Shit

.” she wheezed once more with feeling as she threw her arm over her eyes breathing shakily.
 
“You alright?” Hollis frowned as the man she left at the makeshift med bay was there suddenly, hauling Claire to her feet, he winced at her look and glanced over Claire concerned.
 
“You’re safe for now, and kid stop looking at me like that.” Hollis huffed and steered the stubborn man back to the cot forcing him to lean back as she grabbed her med kit hesitating briefly before she changed out the bandages and applied a numbing solution. While she was too late to save him, she would make sure he felt no pain.
 
“Marvin-

shit!

- Branagh.” he introduced flinching away from the pain of the potions application.
 
“Thanks, I’m Claire, this is Hollis.” Marvin nudged Hollis aside as soon as she was done pointing at a small laptop on the nearby desk. “Hand me that,” picking it up and carefully passing it over Marvin began to look something up, holding up a finger when Claire went to speak.

“So

nobody

knows what caused this?” Claire questioned after Marvin explained the situation, Hollis had moved to the service desk to take stock of what she had on her when he was looking stuff up.
 
“There’s a lot of theories.” Marvin admitted shifting carefully to turn towards them, his skin was slowly getting paler and paler by the minute, but he didn’t seem to be in much pain.
 
“But all

I

know is this place is crawling with zombies.” Claire scoffed, pulling a radio out of her back pocket, Hollis was actually unsure where Claire kept storing all the things she had on her.
 
“You’re telling me, Once we find Chris we’re outta here.” Claire grumbled scowling down at the radio, Marvin paused and studied Claire carefully for a moment, recognition lighting up in his eyes.
 
“You’re really Chris’s sister?” He asked, causing Claire to perk up and turn towards him as he looked through a notebook.
 
“Why?” She asked Crossing over to peer down at it. “Did you find something?” Marvin nodded slowly, tapping something in the journal.
 
“Yeah, he’s on vacation, Europe I think.” Claire let out a relieved sigh as she pinched between her eyes shaking her head and muttering something Hollis couldn’t quite catch.
 
“That’s great news!” She said after a moment, Marvin cleared his throat, wincing, the potion not lasting long enough as she hoped, he tapped something else in the journal.
 
“I have something even greater, a way out through this secret passageway.” Claire nodded, taking the journal, Hollis carefully moved over beside Marvin as he groaned, hunching over his eyes squeezed tight in pain, as he grabbed his side.
 
“We should get you to a hospital,” Claire urged worriedly, frowning when Marvin waved her away.
 
“Let me at least make it easier.” Hollis muttered, placing her palm over the bite focusing on a numbing spell, it would last longer even if it made her teeth ache and stomach roll violently. Marvin jerked head snapping to her in shock
 
 “What the hell was that?” He  stared down at his side with a frown  moving from side to side at least until Hollis grabbed him.
 
“It only numbed it, I’m not all that great at healing and anything I'd give you would only make it worse.” Hollis said regrettably Marvin studied her intently, nodding slowly.
 
“Either way, thanks, I'll at least not die in pain.” Hollis nodded in understanding jolting as he pressed a shotgun into her hands.
 
“Hey, no, i don’t- '' He shushed her, curling her fingers around the shotgun glancing between the two looking exhausted and stricken.
 
“Save yourselves, get out of here.” Claire scowled, glaring at him aggressively.
 
“Is there anyone you want me to talk to if we get out?” She asked quietly, ignoring as the glare shifted to burn into the side of her head.
 
“We’re not seriously going to-” Marvin jerkily removed an envelope pinching the corner between two fingers to avoid getting blood on it.
 
“My daughters, Alexa and Carly, both attend a university in New York.” Hollis nodded sharply, putting the letter in a safe place.
 
“I promise, they’ll get your letter Marvin.” she promised , she squeezed her hand tightly one last time looking relieved.
 
“Thanks for whatever it is you did, now go, get out of here.” Hollis gave a shaky breath and grabbed Claire's arm dragging her off and away from Marvin who had laid back onto the cot closing his eyes.
 
“What the hell, Hollis? We could have helped him!” Hollis growled slowly, shoving her through a door, Claire angrily turning towards her staring her down.
 
“If we had gotten here an hour earlier I could have helped him. I do not like leaving people to die Claire, but he is already gone.” Hollis hissed, stalking towards the stubborn woman backing her against the wall as she shoved the shotgun into her startled hands making sure she held it tightly before she backed away.
 
“Can we go no? We need to find Leon, I can smell his cheap ass cologne from here.” Claire gave a startled hastily cut off laugh at that shoving past the shorter woman as she stomped down the hall very clearly still pissed at Hollis.
 
Turning to stare back at the door to the main hall, Hollis gave a soft prayer to death for Marvin, his letters burning a hole in her pocket as she rushed to catch up to Claire, flicking her hood up once more.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Following Claire as she back tracked through places she’d already been, Hollis let her mind wander, not enough for her not to be able to react if something went wrong or they got attacked but enough that she could arrange her thoughts. The longer she was here and using magic quite clearly in front of and even on a muggle without any interference from MACUSA set her on edge, so either they just couldn’t see it or something was wrong. Pausing as she remembered the medallion, something that all hit wizards had when they were going on long cases hers with the face of a snarling hound, where the metal had been warm to touch and with the faith thrum of magic, it was now cold and void of anything, just a regular necklace. “Why are you in racoon city anyways?” Claire asked suddenly as she rooted through some drawers in a desk pocketing some more ammo and for some reason a plant. “I wasn’t supposed to be.” Hollis said dryly, moving to  peer out into the corridor for any more signs of the inferi who were most likely not inferi, most of them Claire seemed to have got on her first lap through the area. “What's that supposed to mean?” Hollis sighed and turned to regard the frowning woman, she was going to keep questioning Hollis if the stubborn tilt to her chin meant anything. “You asked what the teleportation was earlier, the thing I gave Marvin? It was a potion, the teleportation thing, it's called apparition.” Claire tilted her head. “Potion as in..” she ventured causing Hollis to sigh. “I’m a Witch, I have magic, though it’s not much use currently. I was on a mission and there was an accident that forced me through a very ancient artifact that should have killed me but instead dumped me outside that gas station, ever since something has been wrong with my magic, spells to overpowered or too weak, before i could have apparated us right to leon but instead i only made it an inch from the car and in the wrong direction, thankfully I didn’t splinch us.” Hollis cut off the rest of her almost hysterical ranting and took a deep steadying breath, it seems Owl hadn’t beat enough of her odd brand of recklessness out of her. “You said you could have helped Marvin, do you think you could help the others?” Claire ventured eyeing one of the dead laying on the floor, Hollis huffed. “No, it’s too far gone, I can probably remove the infection if someone was bit right at the start.” Claire nodded at that before clearing her throat. “We got enough for the puzzles in the main hall, then we can check out that room with that barred gate..for what it’s worth..I'm sorry I yelled at you about Marvin.” Claire said haltingly leaving the room, Hollis sighed explosively. “Yeah, I'm sorry too.” Hollis muttered and hurried to follow the taller woman as they moved back to the atrium, Marvin was still on the cot, messing with the laptop as Hollis watched him over the banister as Claire fiddled with the statue behind her. “Aha, there, perfect. One medallion down, two more to go.” She chirped, flashing the medallion at Hollis before jogging down the stairs, as she cut the tape off the electrical box, Hollis kept watch. The gate took a moment to rise once Claire flipped the switch. Once the gate raised,they stepped through into what looked like a waiting room, there was a door behind the two large wooden stands which Claire nudged open both staring out into a pitch dark Hallway. Hollis had no trouble seeing through the dark, albeit it was all in shades of gray, Claire fiddled with a flashlight from one of her pouches and strapped it to her chest so her hands stayed free. At the end of the Hallway was a man slumped over, the crackling of a radio loud in the silent hallway. “Let me go first.” Hollis muttered, stepping forward focusing on her senses as they crept towards the body. “ This is 73 bird--- for rescue. ” Claire knelt carefully, grabbing the guy's forehead and tilted it back, there was a large gash across his mouth, his lower jaw nearly detached. “Oh god, poor guy.” Claire choked out before the sound of something hitting the floor drew their attention, an officer behind them was hanging from the ceiling his flashlight on the ground beneath him. As they circled around him he dropped, Hollis jerking Claire behind her at the suddenness of it, gaining an odd look from Claire who tried the door. “We need a clover key.” she huffed removing  a map pamphlet and a pen circling the door on the map before they continued on their way, most of the doors were blocked and the windows were boarded up with caution tape added over that, there was a snarl and the sound of glass breaking a corpse flopping through the door at the end of the hall. Hollis snagged Claire's arm and moved through another door, the room was an office of some kind with a map displayed on a chalkboard which Claire snagged quickly, and a crate leading up to a broken window facing the blocked hallway. Hollis climbed up peering through it before she silently dropped down pausing as she noted a large undead beating at a snack machine, she caught Claire as she fell through so her feet didn’t make much noise. “We’re sneaking around.” Claire whispered decisively, Hollis shrugging but following along as they crouch-shuffled past the preoccupied undead and to the next hallway which had more undead banging on the chain wall at the end near some stairs. ‘There's a door.” Claire said turning to the side of the stairs snagging a potted plant as she went by and stepped into the room, Hollis eyed the stairs and sighed before following her inside. Claire was rifling through a locker with more ammo joining her numerous pockets before she held out a gun to Hollis. “I don’t know how to shoot that.” She said warily, eyeing the gun. “Seriously?’ Claire demanded, Hollis gave her an amused look. “Yes, seriously. I use magic,I can still defend myself Claire don’t worry.” Hollis reassured and Claire furrowed her brows, putting her hands on her hips. “You said that something was wrong with your..magic.” Hollis hummed thinking over how to explain it without confusing the woman. “It’s..mostly complicated. I can still use my magic, but my spells are limited to wandless spells as if I used my wand it would explode, which I do not want.” Hollis held up a hand muttering a soft ‘Lumos’ , a small orb of light forming in her palm. Claire moved closer hesitantly poking at it with a startled awed sound. “I can use certain spells without both of us being in the crossfire, so really I don’t need the gun.” Claire nodded slowly and hooked the extra gun on her opposite leg, giving her an unreadable look. “When We get out of this, I'm teaching you how to shoot.” she warned Hollis felt her heart squeeze, because if they got out of this, Hollis was sure that she would be very much at a loss what to do, something told her that it wasn’t just a case of magic being leached out of her medallion the arch was a magical artifact that took things to other places. “I’ll hold you to that.” she murmured instead getting a sharp grin in return before Claire turned on her heel and headed to the door waiting for Hollis to join her before she nudged open the door peering out warily, above them the moans and groans of the undead were loud Claire bringing out her gun with a huff. “I got your back.” Hollis promised gaining another smile in return. “Let's do this.”

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

At the top of the stairs found two of the undead, one of them lurched at them which Hollis easily caught and sent it over the banister where it made a horrible sounding squish at the bottom as Claire took the other two out with a few well placed head shots.
 
“Did you just throw that zombie over the banister?” she asked amused as they headed towards the end of the barricaded hall Claire fiddling with a small padlock grabbing a different type of ammo box with an excited gleam in her eye.
 
The small room had a key on the desk, it was shaped like a spade and colored teal, Hollis let out an annoyed sound as they jogged back down the stairs taking out more undead on the way.
 
“Why does this place have so many puzzles..and locked doors?” She complained Claire giving a soft snort as they bypassed the large undead and entered the room he’d been standing in front of which lead to a larger office with numerous desks set up along it, at the end of it was a door which surprisingly was the one they could unlock with the newly gained key, it also entered into the atrium where Marvin caught their attention.
 
“Hey, there you are… Come look at this.'' Marvin tapped a few keys making the screen zoom in on a camera with a familiar person standing on it trying to open the gate.
 
‘Oh my god he made it!” Claire said excitedly, leaning closer.
 
“You know him?” Marvin questioned, carefully turning to eye the screen.
 
‘Yeah, it’s Leon..uh, Kennedy I think?” Claire glanced at Hollis who nodded, Marvin groaned.
 
‘The Rookie? I knew he looked familiar. I thought they told him to stay away?” Marvin shifted to study them.
 
“You can make it to that courtyard through the second floor, east side.” Claire nodded, smiling.
 
‘Ok thanks Marvin I'm on it.” Hollis paused to put another numbing charm on Marvin who relaxed giving her a grateful smile before she hurried to catch up to Claire who had taken off following Marvin’s instructions.
 
She catches up to her at the end of the hall her hearing catching a low whining screech a light flashing through the small window of the door way before the whole building shook with the sound of an explosion Hollis grunted as Claire fell backwards onto her sharp elbows digging into the softer parts of her stomach.
 
“Sorry.” Claire muttered hastily getting to her feet, dragging Hollis up with her who rubbed at her now aching stomach. Claire rushes forward pushing open the door, the crashed helicopter is very clearly on fire, its pilot and co-pilot both dead, Claire shining her flash light over the pilot with a grimace.
 
‘Hey! Claire? Hollis?” Claire perks up and the dup moves to the railing staring down at a relieved slightly ruffled looking Leon.
 
“Leon!?” Claire called nearly slipping over the railing from the rain, Hollis scans the man noting some dried blood but thankfully no injuries she could see from up here.
 
“We’ll be right there!” Claire called Hollis, already making her way down the stairs; they both arrived at the gate at the same time Claire beamed as she stopped at the gate.
 
‘We really have to stop meeting like this.” she teased getting a faint twitch of the lips in return Leon squinted at them through the rain, eyes flicking over Hollis carefully.
 
‘Are you two alright? That Police chopper,” Leon's eyes flicked up to the roof lips pressing into a thin line.
 
“It came out of nowhere.” his eyes slid back to them  concerned.
 
‘We’re fine, Leon, are

you

alright?” Hollis asked, getting a grin in return as Leon patted himself down, splaying his arms out.
 
‘Right as rain, so…I take it you guys wouldn’t happen to have the key?” he asked hopefully knocking his knuckles against the locked gate Hollis hummed pressing her fingers against the lock focusing wrangling her unhelpfully squirmy magic into compliance, with a shriek of grinding metal the lock melted off, not that Hollis noticed as she dropped to the ground her head pounding violently, worse than before.
 
“-lis!” flinching slightly as rain dropped against her face she blinked slowly and sluggishly at the blurry faces of Claire and Leon.
 
“Worked?” her words were slurred, mouth feeling oddly full and all her senses going haywire, she could hear the muffled replies above just before her vision grew dark but not before she heard a loud explosion that gave her a muted sense of panic before she went under.
 
“Hollis!” Claire yelped, Leon throwing himself over the prone woman as bits of debris rained over them pinging off his leather jacket.

“Is she alright?” Claire demanded, Leon wormed his hand into the collar of the cloak pressing his fingers against thin cloth of Hollis’s shirt feeling the fluttering but thankfully strong pulse, giving a relieved exhale he leaned back eyes flicking to the zombies banging on the gate which now had some boxes wedged in front, not enough to stop them, but enough to give them some time.
 
‘We need to move. Here, take some ammo, my hands are going to be full carrying our friend here.” Leon carefully scooped up Hollis, brows furrowing at how light she was.
 
“How did she open the gate?” he wondered, eyes flicking over the ground for a tool of some kind, all he’d seen was a flash of light followed by the hissing of metal melting onto the ground.

“Marvin should be in the main hall still.” Claire sighed, not hearing his question, as she rummaged through a tool box snagging a pair of bolt cutters with a soft noise of relief which was short lived as she broke the chain on the door which swung open to reveal a hallway with numerous undead, most of them in the blue uniform of R.P.D. Leon felt his chest squeeze, these could have been his future colleagues, now they were roaming corpses being taken down by Claire.
 
Shoving down the sudden urge to vomit, Leon followed close to Claire occasionally shoulder checking or kicking the zombies that got back up after Claire shot them.
 
“Shit, shit, shit!” Claire grumbled fumbling with the bolt cutters when they got to the end of the hall where the doors were chained shut as well, this door led into a darkened office.
 
“C’mon hurry.” Once Leon was through, Claire shoved the door closed snagging a nearby chair and shoving it under the knob. Leon squinted through the darkness as Claire rummaged through her pockets pulling out a flashlight which she strapped to her chest, the light slid over the hall and some corpses splayed out in the room, there was only two blue uniformed zombies shambling towards them, which Claire took out quickly, it was enough to get them a breather, but not safe enough to stay and rest.
 
“Glad I got in all that cardio.” Leon muttered under his breath, shaking out his aching legs.
 
‘What was that?’ Claire called, poking her head around the doorway of an office at the end of the hall, he hadn’t even noticed her picking through the room, but now she had a red valve in hand somehow tucking it into one of her numerous pouches.
 
“Nothing..where do we go from here?’ He questioned peering around the room for any exit, Claire removed a pamphlet and unfolded it eyes flicking over it before she nodded.
 
“We can go through that door there, the fuse box should be on the other side from this map, which should lead into the main hall and we can meet up with Marvin.” Claire hummed relieved and began refolding and putting her map away, grabbing a chair and pulling it out of the way opening the door into another hallway, the right was blocked off but sure enough there was a fuse box on the wall.
 
“Do you have a fuse?” Leon asked wearily Claire huffed rummaged through her numerous pouches and held up a fuse with a smirk.
 
“Of course I got a fuse,” she shoved it into place stepping back as there was a loud beep and the sound of grinding metal, the shutter lifted revealing a surprisingly lit up main hall, Leon swallowed at the blood smeared across the floors as he stepped out behind Claire.
 
He’d been here once for a tour when he was deciding where he wanted to work when he graduated, this was nothing like he remembered, sheets covering things as makeshift beds, a small medical center set up with body bags dotted around here and there.
 
“Marvin?” Claire called frowning as she wandered around peering around the sectioned off areas and behind desks.
 
“Odd, He was right here when I left to find you. Let's go to the star's office, the door locks  and I know there is a cot somewhere in there.” Claire muttered, eyes flicking over Hollis worriedly.
 
“Is she sick?” Leon questioned adjusting his grip on the unconscious woman wincing as her head flopped limply against him.
 
“No, she’s just..out of energy. I wonder if she has mana..” The last part was said under her breath as if he wasn’t supposed to hear it making his brows furrowed in confusion.
 
“Man-”
 
“Let’s get to the S.T.A.R.S office.” Claire cut him off cheerfully leaving Leon frustrated as he followed the shorter brunette through the halls that were littered with undead already in their second death and a weird creature with the brains exposed which Claire and Leon skirted around.
 
Sure enough, the office did have a cot and the door locked and had no other entrances, sighing Leon carefully set the cloaked woman down pausing as her hood dislodged slightly, she was an unhealthy pale with blue lips and dark almost balck bruising beneath her eyes.
 
“She looks exhausted.” Leon muttered, carefully fixing the hood so it covered her face again, adjusting her so she was laying down.
 
Claire hummed, setting out two water bottles and half a bag of ritz crackers on a stand nearby.
 
“Well now's as good a time as any to rest, man my legs are killing me.” Claire sighed rubbing at her calves with a  grimace and with a start Leon remembered why Claire was here.
 
“Did you find your brother?” he questioned hopefully the hope dropping as she slumped, sighing.
 
“Yes, but he’s on vacation apparently..in Europe.” Claire removed her pistol and began to carefully clean it grimacing as she tugged out bits of flesh and other things Leon didn’t want to think about, none the less he checked out his own guns making sure nothing would jam at an inopportune moment.

“Are you falling asleep on me?” Hollis blinked awake startled eyes staring uncomprehendingly at her own pale fingers twisting a braid into silvery blonde strands, the owner of said hair had their head tilted back two wide silvery blue eyes regarding her.

Its instinct that has Hollis huffing nudging Luna’s head forward again to continue to braid, her eyes flicking around absently.

It’s the river bank again, pale glittering stones shining under the water where Luna was wiggling her toes into the muddy bank beneath drawing up the muck into the water as she twisted her finger sin the grass and moss beneath them.

It’s as familiar as it is painful, the last memory of Luna before it was taken over by the blood and death and the dreamy smile she held even in death.

“Breathe, it’s alright.” Luna hummed, turning to grab Hollis’s shaking hands, the sparkly blue and orange nail polish bright against her skin, Hollis hesitantly looked up at Luna’s face expecting the sightless silvery blues and bloodied skin but met the soft dreamy smile and happy eyes.

“Moon beam.”

Hollis wakes with a choked sound, her hand flying to her painfully thumping chest as tears burn in her eyes, she's laying on a  surprisingly comfortable cot, her eyes flick around the room quickly taking in the sleeping Leon and Claire who were leaning against the cot Leans head tilted back to rest against her hip with Claire's head on Leon's shoulder.
 
Grunting Hollis carefully leveraged herself up, her ribs and chest ached, the dream left her unsettled, something about it felt..off to her.
 
“Hm? You’re awake!” Leon Said jerking and sent Claire crashing to the side, the brunette giving off a loud curse rubbing her shoulder which had collided roughly with the desk.
 
“Sorry,” Leon yelped, face flushed, Claire let off a laugh waving him off and grabbed a water bottle and a package of chips shoving them in Hollis’s hands.
 
“Eat, drink, we really should get a move on. ”She ordered Hollis rubbed at her eyes, sighing but did as told, carefully sipping at the water and managing a few chips.
 
“Alright,” Hollis blinked as Claire stretched out her map pamphlet over her lap tapping a spot labeled ‘S.T.A.R.S Office’ and trailed it along to another section labeled shower/bath.
 
“This is where we need to go, it’s why I needed the valve, this place is

crawling

with puzzles, so if you see something interesting looking, grab it, we should be able to get through these easy peasy since there’s three of us.”
 
“I want to find at least a Kevlar vest..something other than my leather jacket.” Leon cut in and Claire smirked and tapped the bathroom again.
 
“There's some gear and stuff in the lockers, should be something that fits. Are you ok to move now, Holls?” Hollis jerked at the nickname  and swallowed.
 
“Yeah, I should be fine.” Claire beamed and removed the map, Leon helping her to her feet, Hollis walked a few steps to make sure there wouldn’t be any bouts of dizziness coming her way and firmly decided to not use her magic until it was replenished, or she had something more filling then chips to bring up her energy.
 
Leon gave her a concerned look, hands hovering but relaxed at her reassuring smile.
 
“I’m fine, honest, just shouldn’t have done what I did..well at least we’re together again.” Hollis mused glancing between the two relieved.
 
‘Exactly, let's get a move on and get Leon some gear..and maybe some more chips. When we get out of here I'm going to eat then sleep for a week.” Claire sighed, getting an amused huff from Hollis and a fellow dreamy sigh from Leon.
 
They grew serious as they got to the door trading looks.
 
‘Ready?”
 
“No, but go on.” Leon muttered checking over his gun, Hollis nodded lips pressed into a thin line.
 
‘Well, here goes nothing.” Claire whispered unlocking the door.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

With three of them, the path through the halls back to the blocked off bathroom was much easier to get through, Hollis had been relegated to carrying items as she didn’t have any weapons and her magic was mostly useless at the moment, though it was amusing seeing Leon’s face as she shoved numerous objects into her pocket without them bulging out.
 
“Right!’ Claire huffed, voice slightly muffled as she held her flashlight in her mouth where they were taking a breather in a now zombie-less and dark hallway, her eyes darting over the map.
 
“We got two medallions so far, Unicorn and the Goddess, we have all the medallions great!” She muttered to herself a few moments as Hollis and Leon kept watch, she’d been around the station more after all..and had the map filled with scribbles only she could understand.
 
“Why does this place have so many puzzles..even if it used to be a museum, that's a bit strange.” Hollis sighed, getting a soft snort from Leon.
 
“Who knows.” Claire finally stood from her crouch clasping them on the shoulders.
 
‘Alright, lets get back to the main hall, we can put the medallions into the statue, and hopefully get out of here.”
 
“Let’s swing by that bathroom first.” Leon cut in amused his leather jacket was a bit more worn and had half a sleeve missing from a lucky grab by a zombie.
 
‘Oh Right! Shoot, forgot about that.” Claire sighed and once more they were off.
 
“We should really find you a weapon.” Leon said eyes flicking over to Hollis as they walked, the halls were mostly clear at least.
 
“I don’t know how to use a gun.” Hollis  shrugged.
 
“How about, when this is all over I will teach you?” Leon offered to give her a crooked grin and Hollis felt a moment of grief, when this was all over she would really be without a home to go back to.
 
“S-sure.” she agreed softly Leon's smile falling at the tone of her voice, his head tilting in concern before Claire, who was a bit up ahead let out a whoop.
 
“One bathroom, clear and ready to be raided!” She teased arms splaying out as she stood in front of some lockers.
 
“Right, you two..turn around.” Leon ordered doing a twirling motion with his hand and blushing as he began to open the lockers, Claire smirked but they both turned, staring at the two exits for any signs of danger.
 
“Alright, I'm good to go.” Leon said, sighing explosively, he was wearing a standard PRD uniform, the Kevlar vest a bit big on him and it was obvious he cut the extra bits of the straps as he’d tightened them.
 
‘Lookin good rookie.” Claire teased Leon flushing and rubbing the back of his neck with a newly gloved hand.
 
“Let's just get going.”

After a quick Detour to get Claire a grenade launcher that had her practically drooling as she hugged it and Leon giving Hollis a survival knife he’d taken from a desk, the trio made their way back to the main hall.
 
“Marvin! We found Leon!” Claire said, smiling as she moved towards the lieutenant who was stretched out on a cot the laptop forgotten on the floor beside him.
 
“Marvin?” Claire questioned Leon tensed moving closer removing his gun ready to shoot if the man attacked, Hollis stayed back lips pressed in a thin grim line.
 
“Claire..” Leon began shifting uncomfortably as the red head pressed her fingers to the side of Marvin's neck, he didn’t so much as twitch.
 
‘He’s dead.” she said disbelievingly sending them both shocked stares, Leon’s brows furrowed as he moved beside her nudging Marvin’s arm with his gun, all it did was make his arm drop off the table to hang limply, there was no movement, or groans, just Marvin laying there with a peaceful look on his face.
 
Stepping forward Hollis placed a hand on Marvin’s chest sending out a diagnostic spell, something that took barely any energy and she knew she could do safely.

Deceased

.
 
“He’s dead, and I don’t think he's getting back up.” Hollis said quietly studying the man's body intently, she wondered if her magic had caused him not to revive, or maybe something else.
 
“Oh Marvin. I'm so sorry.” Claire whispered sadly, replacing Marvin's arm over his chest gently, they stood for a moment before Leon Cleared his throat.
 
‘We should get going.” He muttered eyes not leaving Marvin's face for a moment before he turned back to them, Claire took a deep breath and moved to the statue inputting the medallions, Hollis frowned head turning to the left as steady but loud thumps sounded, coming towards them, hesitating she moved closer to Leon and Claire who were fussing with the medallions to get them in the right spots and just as the door was able to be opened beneath the door to the left broke off in splinters as a truly massive man a bit taller than Hagrid, wearing a leather trench coat and a comically small fedora stepped through.
 
‘What the hell is that!?” Leon yelped, aiming his gun at the wrinkled gray face and pale milky white eyes that locked onto them, the man  flexed his hands and began a slow steady walk towards them.
 
“I don’t want to know, quickly!” Hollis snagged both Claire and Leon's arms hauling them bodily through the door pressing the switch on the other side which lowered a thick metal grate and closed the doors before the thing could reach them.
 
Surprisingly it didn’t follow, no loud bangs on the door or anything, just faint, muffled retreating thudding footsteps.
 
“First zombies, then the weird inside out lickers, now that thing? What the hell is going on in this city?” Claire hissed, Hollis winced wondering if this was a case of Potter luck striking again and didn’t say a word as she jogged down the steps pausing as the lights flickered on revealing a very pristine and clean round room that only had one door.
 
“Something about this feels unsettling, keep your guards up.” Leon said grimly gripping his gun as they moved through the room looting anything of value, Hollis peeked out the door way finding another door which opened into an elevator.
 
“Looks like we’re going down.” Leon mused the trio stepping inside, it was a surprisingly short ride down and Hollis thought it really could have just been stairs instead of the elevator, but then again this palace was an architectural wet dream of puzzles and confusing hallways.
 
“Well..this is different.” She said dryly staring into the darkened stone walled area with metal grate flooring.
 
“Like something out of Nightmare on Elm street, Christ.” Claire ground out unhappily clicking on her flashlight, Leon tapping a part of his vest that brought another light on.
 
It was disturbingly quiet and the lack of zombies made Hollis weary instead of relieved, as they were walking along a metal grated floor the grating above cast a small shadow Hollis focusing on the very rabid thump of a small heart her brows furrowing and nearly missing Claire calling out.
 
“Hello?” The trio traded grimaces and continued on arriving at a doorway blocked by a turned over cabinet.
 
Despite all three of them awkwardly crunching up to try and lift it, the thing was wedged in the doorway too far to move an inch.
 
‘Well.. we could crawl through.” Claire mused crouching and shining her light inside there was a flash of movement causing all three to jump Leon biting off a yelp of surprise.
 
‘Hello..?” Hollis felt her breath catch as a small hand with a childish but pretty bracelet leaned out a terrified face peeking out.
 
Big red rimmed blue eyes stared at them all terrified.
 
“Hey,” Claire began moving closer, her shoulders a bit too broad to fit through the doorframe and the cabinet. “It’s ok, we're not going to hurt you. I promise.”
 
“Do you need help, kid? Here come on, take my hand.” Leon urged holding out his hand towards the very terrified child whose breath was coming in fast panicked stutters, her whole body trembling.
 
She said something but it was too wheezy and breathy to understand.
 
“I’m sorry, I can't understand you.” Claire urged moving as close as she could.
 
“You need help.”
 
“Why's that?” Leon questioned brows furrowed.
 
“He’s right behind you. "Hollis felt a cold chill go down her spine and realized that instead of silence there was rhythmic clunking right behind them, making a split decision Hollis grit her teeth as she found the heavily deformed man with a giant yellow eye standing behind them.
 
“Hollis, protect her.” Leon ordered, Hollis eyed the monster but swallowed and fell into her Animagus form squirming her way through the gap, the little girl's eyes widening.
 
There was a loud clang on the other side and she saw Claire and Leon fall through the now broken grate.
 
Growling Hollis shifted back holding out her arms for the girl.
 
"Come on sweetheart.” She urged easily catching the girl as she collided with her, it was  a bit awkward moving through the rooms with the girl in her arms but it was faster and she was able to keep her ears locked on Claire and leons fight the loud gunfire, sounds of pain and distorted moaning screams giving an easy path to follow.
 
After a moment the gunfire dropped down and there was a loud scream that grew faint before quiet.
 
"Please be ok.” Hollis pleaded moving through yet another door, frustrated at how many rooms and odd turns there were.
 
“Hollis? Little girl?” giving a relieved breath Hollis arrived at a ladder taking in the ruffled duo, Leon had a busted lip and was favoring his right side while Claire’s nose is most obviously broken.
 
“Thank merlin.” Hollis breathed out relieved, unlatching the ladder so it dropped down for them.
 
“But what if he comes back?” The little girl whimpers and Hollis shushes her gently adjusting her hold so she could look into her face.
 
‘Then we’ll protect you, don't worry.” Claire and Leon soon joined them.
 
“Will you help me find my mom?” The little girl asked, clinging to Hollis’s jacket tightly.
 
“She’s down here?” Leon questioned voice slightly hoarse as he peered around the walkway as if the girl's mother was going to jump out at any moment.
 
“I think so…I

hope

so.” the little girl added quietly.
 
“We’ll help you find your mom, kid , don't worry.” Leon promised ruffling her hair with a reassuring smile.
 
“We gotta go this way.” The little girl urged, pointing to the next walkway that led to some stairs.
 
“Alright,” Claire murmured. Hollis kept the girl in her arms as they walked along, Leon pulled the lever after the little girl said it wouldn’t move giving the girl a grin that caused her to giggle.
 
“See, Leon's strong, and so is Claire, nothing is going to happen to you with us around.” Hollis promised, wiping some dirt from the girl's face.
 
“Soo, what's your mom like?” Claire questioned as the walkway slid over for them to cross.
 
“She works at Umbrella, she’s making an important new medicine.” The little girl said matter-of-factly tiredly resting her head on Hollis’s shoulder.
 
“The big pharmaceutical company?” Claire said brows raising.
 
“They have good hair care products.” Leon mused fingers absently flicking his bangs getting an amused look form Hollis.
 
“My mom’s always at work.” the little girl said softly, her lower lip trembling. “I never get to see her all that much.” Hollis frowned, rubbing at her back gently.
 
“Well, hopefully, you’ll get to see her again soon.” Claire said softly.
 
“And you dad?” Leon asked after a moment of silence, Claire rooting through a locker gleefully adding another pouch to her side.
 
“He, um..worked with my mom, but he’s gone.” 
 
“Wow..” Claire muttered and turned to look at the girl sympathetically. “Both of my parents are gone-it’s just me and my brother.” the little girl sniffled.
 
“Oh..I'm sorry.” she said  big eyes looking at Claire's back.
 
"Don’t be it means we’ve got something in common after all.” Claire said, Hollis was amazed at how good Claire was with the clearly traumatized girl.
 
“Let me go first.” Leon said quietly when they arrived at a ladder, the blonde quickly scaling it and lifting the cover above peering around.
 
“Looks like the parking garage.” He called down, Hollis carefully set the little girl down knowing she wouldn’t be able to climb while carrying her.
 
“Let me check around real fast. Wait here.”  Leon disappeared over the top leaving them in silence.
 
“So..you can turn into a big dog.” Claire said casually and Hollis huffed, she had been wondering when Claire would bring it up.
 
“Yeah,” She said lamely, the little girl looked up from where she was holding Hollis’s hand tightly, the other picking at the frayed edges of her skirt.
 
“Are you a werewolf?” Blinking, Hollis chuckled, crouching and tested her levels before wiggling her fingers casting a cleaning charm on the girl's clothes followed by a repairing charm.
 
“No, I'm an animagus, big difference. It’s a form of transformation magic.” The little girl gasped excitedly.
 
‘Can you turn into anything? What about a bear? Or a turtle? What about a whale..though that would be a bit dangerous here..” She said trailing off as she chewed on her lower lip, Hollis grinned and poked her nose.
 
“No, just the Urco..or dog. My godfather had a similar shape to me, we called him snuffles.” she said nostalgically.
 
“Can anyone do it?” Claire asked interested and Hollis hummed.
 
“Not really, it’s a very hard and painstaking skill to master, there's always a risk of losing yourself to the animal..sometimes the benefits are good, other times they’re bad, like having a super sniffer during the middle of a zombie apocalypse.” she said dryly and Claire paused before grimacing.
 
“That's why every time a new door opened you flinched..I just thought you were scared of doors.” Claire said sheepishly.
 
“Scared..of doors..?” Hollis said amused lips twitching.
 
“Don’t you dare laugh Hollis, It was the only reason I could come up with!” Claire hissed, crossing her arms and pouting, the little girl giggled, cutting them off her hands covering her mouth as she glanced between them.
 
“It’s safe!’ Leon called form above, jolting them out of their bubble, Hollis stood and waited for Claire to go up before sending the little girl up as well.
 
She was just crawling out of the cover when a voice cut across the parking lot.
 
“Sherry?”

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Been a while.. this story is in no way shape or form abandoned, in fact the next three chapters are mostly fleshed out! But i needed a break due to some health and family problems that all seemed to just hit at once so for the select few who read this thank you and sorry for the long wait!