69Holly gingerly placed her weight on her feet before sliding all the way off her makeshift hospital bed. Putting all her weight on her legs, Holly stepped away from her prison and grinned. Of her wounds, the ones on Holly's legs were actually not that bad. At worst, Holly had suffered a small gash from an unknown spell. However, the size of that particular wound didn't seem to matter to her kidnapper- err, doctor.
Careful not to jar her bandaged arm on anything, Holly started toward the door. Her arm had been the worst of her injuries by far; infected by dark magic from a powerful spell, Holly's Doctor had been convinced she'd been poisoned. Black magic had seeped into her blood-stream from the painful gash, and Holly's magic had lashed out trying to defend herself. As a result, Holly spent a week fighting the sickness, and without a proper magical healer, Holly should have died. She should have and would have it not for the Devil Fruit her Doctor possessed. Trafalgar Law, a young sadistic teen, had cut off her arm to purge it of the poisonous magic within her and miraculously it worked.
Law had recently reattached her arm, and Holly didn't think much of the spider-web scar left upon it, just like she didn't think much about the endlessly growing teeth that Law had cut out of her mouth. Though at one point he'd likely need to throw it overboard before they'd got too ridiculously long, that or hopefully they'd run out of magic and the spell would stop. Holly hoped for the former if only to spare herself the mental image of her teeth just growing endlessly at the ocean floor, and eventually becoming so long that they escaped the water, and-
Holly shook off the thought and turned the door handle to escape the med-bay, which was really just a spare room in the apartment building Law and his 'crew' currently rented. Knowing she'd timed it well, Holly left her room to finally escape and started venturing outward. Sachi, Penguin, and Law all went to medical school, though Holly was rather sure they weren't actually paying to do that. She was, in fact, relatively sure they were just taking supplies and books to learn, as well as sneaking into classes, but she had no real proof. Holly also knew that now that she was on the mend, the three had been actively returning to learn leaving the behind a singularly odd guard.
Bepo.
Now that had been a shock, a full-sized speaking bear. Holly had never seen the likes of Bepo before, not in the Muggle nor the magical one, not even from Remus' many stories. Oh, she'd already realized she was in Remus' world, the very same as her soulmate. It had taken her only moments of thought focused on the shadow that had swallowed her up too put two and two together. Not the mention the marines Law kept scowling over, his Devil Fruit, the sheer amount of ocean outside of her window, and of course, Bepo.
Holly was in a brand new world and had been taken in by a sadistic but ultimately kind teen. A boy who'd taken her off the streets saving her, healing her, and asked for nothing. Nothing but answers to how she received her wounds in return. She was lucky. Lucky that she could now access her second god-father on the island he'd mentioned all of once, fortunate that her soulmate was now available to her and answers to his state was finally in reach. She was lucky.
So why was her heartbreaking?
Sirius. Her father in all the ways that counted. The man who ensured she got her wand, that cared for her. The one that hugged her when she was sick and panicked when she broke her arm. The wet dog launching into her bed because he'd wanted to prank her. Her father had been left behind, and Holly had no idea if she'd ever seen him again. Her shadow had brought her to safety just as it had protected her in the past. But using it go back? Holly didn't know if that was possible, let alone if she should. If she did, she could very well lose any chance at reaching her skeleton at all.
Holly didn't know anything, but she couldn't stop thinking herself into circles, and being trapped in bed wasn't helped either.
She cast her eyes to the floor and the shadow under her feet, the odd thing that followed absolutely no rules. No one's shadow did what hers did; they didn't remain motionless, didn't drag people all over the world, didn't resemble skeletons. Her soulmate, her shadow, was abnormal. One more oddity to her entire being.
Bepo was in the small living room when she found him. The large white bear was hunched over a medical text in a language she couldn't even begin to fathom. He mumbled to himself in utter focus as he memorized facts and practiced motions with his paws with a shocking intensity. Holly watched him for a moment, watched the thrill, and focus as his shadow twisted behind him. Bepo's shadow was an animal as well, resembling a cat of some kind going by the ears and tail. It, as she watched, signed in a slightly different way than she had been taught, and it soured her mood further.
Huffing silently, Holly turned and crept away this time toward the small kitchen. She knew very well how to cook, a side effect from her early years with the Dursley and Sirius' complete inability. But cooking was not currently her goal. At that point, Holly was just exploring - that and the exit to the apartment was in front of Bepo, and she wasn't stupid enough to think he'd miss her opening it.
She was correct, of course, for the moment she had her back to Bepo, Bepo had his attention on her. Black eyes glittered as he gave a pleased smile. Law had asked him to ensure Holly didn't leave the apartment but did attempt to walk around that afternoon; it was essential for her healing for her to be active. Truthfully, though she didn't know it, they intended to take her out to explore the island that night. Sachi had recommended the shopping area, which would be lit up for the holiday season.
Silently Holly looked around, inspecting items from a brand new world and just venturing around to get her mind off everything that had happened. When it occurred to her. True, she wasn't technically allowed to use her wand unless she graduated because of the trace. Technically, Sirius had intended to get by that by having her sent to Ilvermorny or teaching her himself in a magically public area. It was why they owned a building in a magical village in the middle of Mexico, and why it had been warded to high hell so they'd never be discovered. But technically Holly wasn't in that world, and therefore would have no trace.
She could practice magic wherever she bloody wanted to!
Forgetting her guard entirely, Holly darted back to her room and threw herself toward her side-table. Within were Holly's bloodied clothing from the other world, a small change pouch of money that didn't work in the Blues, and her wand. She couldn't believe she'd forgotten about it. Holding the wood loose in her fingertips, Holly thought back on the spells she'd seen Sirius use and the few he'd taught her with his own wand. Deciding to go simple with a shield spell Holly twisted her wrist and-
Bepo was thrown forward when a loud boom went off in Holly's room. It was followed by a pained yelp and a loud swear. Quickly he launched to his paws and hurled himself toward his young charges room, tossed open the door, and immediately recoiled. Thick black smoke billowed out of the room, and Bepo rushed to cover his sensitive nose. Ducking below the smoke, Bepo waved his free paw and spotted Holly.
She was against her bed, staring at the stick in her hand like it had betrayed her. And- yes, her wound had reopened. Cringing at what Law would say, Bepo strode forward, opened the window to let the smoke out - he really hoped the Marines didn't come to inspect the reason for it - and approached Holly just in time for her to notice the pain. Pained, guilty tears welled up in her eyes as she turned toward him.
"I… I've done it before… why didn't it work!" she cut off with a hiccuping sob, "it… should have worked!" Everything that had happened to her rushing to the surface all at once and her tears spilled over. Bepo gave a whimper and tugged her into his lap and fur. Soothingly he ran a paw down her hair and internally sighed. The girl had been a mess when Law had brought her, covered in unexplainable injuries that Law took upon himself to heal. They all knew that if he hadn't that the girl would have died ignored by the general public or in a hospital waiting room because of the oddities to her wounds and shadow. The crew, as it was the four of them, were learning the medical field slowly through relatively illegal means and they were by no means proper surgeons. But the training they had was better than nothing for the kid. A kid who got odder and odder every day, from the shadow to the story she told of how she'd come by her wounds and the island.
Magic, alternate worlds, a shadow that swallowed her whole. Penguin was convinced she had been traumatized by a devil fruit user, but Bepo scented no lie when she'd told her tale. He believe her, believed there was another world and it made him all the sorrier for her. This was a new world, and Holly had lost everything she'd ever known. Bepo understood on a certain level. He understood, which is why he was relieved that Law had decided she would be staying with them. Perhaps simply because he wanted to know more, or because that kindness he kept carefully hidden was coming out. Regardless, Holly was theirs. A fifth member of their crew, whether she knew that or not.
"S-sorry-" she sobbed, and Bepo continued to pet her hair all the while her odd shadow remained utterly still behind her… wait.
"Could it be?" he whispered, he'd have to look into it but… it was a possibility he'd have to mention to Law. For, what else could mess with a shadow that much but a devil fruit?
Law took one look at the smoke damaged walls and closed his eyes to prevent the incurring headache. After a moment, he snapped his eyes to Bepo, who immediately started to apologize. Holly was no better as she furiously blushed but confessed nothing. 'Good for her,' he thought, except no one else could have done it, so she'd chosen the wrong time to act innocent. Not to mention Bepo was giving her up at the very same moment.
"Well?" He demanded.
Her nose scrunched as she confessed: "I… may have misjudged how much stronger my spell would be with a proper wand. But it wasn't like I knew Sirius' was a bad match and-" her mouth snapped closed and she stared at the ground: "sorry."
Sachi snickered behind him, and Law shot the teen a glare to quell the nose. Instead, he focused on the most glaring problem: "you could have reopened your injury-" the guilt increased tenfold, and Law found himself focusing more intensely on her arm. "You did open it."
"Maybe…"
"Sorry! I'm sorry, Captain!"
He pinched his nose and just groaned. "Do you have any idea what your rate of infection is? Your body isn't used to the diseases from this world! A single cough from an infectious child could-" he lost himself in his lecture as the pair got smaller and smaller with each world. Honestly, he didn't blame either of them. Holly had been bound to press her boundaries, and Bepo wasn't the most attentive babysitter. Still, if they were going to risk her wounds, then Law would ensure they knew exactly what could happen.
On the positive, Holly would be learning plenty of essential facts which she'd need if she was going to join his crew. Law intended for every member of the Heart-Pirates to have a basic understanding or better of medical terminology and practice.
Once finished, he told the pair to get ready, they had a plan, and they'd be sticking to it. They had a festival to visit and a book-shop to visit on the way.
"Captain…"
"Yes, Bepo?" he glanced at his first-mate as Sachi helped Holly get ready for the night.
"Holly's shadow… do you think a devil fruit user did something to her soulmate?"
Law arched a brow and inclined his head. Now that was a functional theory.
Remus slipped several coins to the pirate captain before he moved away. He'd observed the crew the entire time they'd been on the island before giving any information to them, not all the information that was.
Three captains so far had been chosen over the previous two weeks, three men Remus had selected by their scent and actions on the island. The first had been a kindly figure, the second chaotic but defensive of children, and the third relatively neutral. To each of the three Remus had weaved together a story of his kidnapped daughter, of a girl with Holly's description who'd been taken by pirates and not celestial dragons which no one would interfere with. He'd paid the three off for information, to have them send him a message if they ever spotted her.
It was the best he could do, which was basically nothing.
His god-daughter was lost in the Blue's, this violent world he'd been living in, the one her soulmate could be found in, and she had none of the defenses he did. She couldn't use the wand she had on hand because she knew no spells. She couldn't lose herself to the full moon and rip apart the foolish slavers that dared attempt to bind him- Remus snarled, his teeth tasting their blood on his tongue once more.
The celestial dragons, one single man, was the reason Remus had a bounty. He'd caught the attention of the wrong person in the early years of the Blue's, and apparition alone was what kept him from being caught years later. Oh, people had tried. But when he could, in an instant and a turn of his heel, be on a completely different island, the danger was minimal.
Remus, after all this time, had been to no more than five different islands in the West Blue. He'd caught a civilian ship or two to travel between islands on the hunt for any sign of a living skeleton. Each trip had been chosen specifically to fall within the time-line of a month, so Remus wouldn't be on a ship when transformed. And when the full moon did appear, Remus could always be found on an uninhabited island where no humans roamed, and he could wander free of cursing another human with his bite. Five islands. Five and not one out of the West Blue. Holly could be anywhere in the world at large, and he had no way to track or find her. The point me spell failed because she was too far out, Remus had never learned the scry, and he knew of no other tracking methods. Sirius was actively looking into more, but to recreate any usually required a potion which he couldn't brew without magical ingredients. Yet it didn't stop them.
This was their god-child, their Holly, and he'd stop at nothing to find her. Even if it meant swimming to islands, developing a new tracking method, or chaining himself up on the full moons on a civilian ship.
Heaving a sigh, Remus caught sight of his shadow as Sirius signed to him, swearing up and down that he wasn't giving up. That he would find a way to find their girl. That he'd make a deal with the devil to do so. Remus believed him… for Sirius already had.
A world away, Sirius sat surrounded by books on all sides. They littered the floor with pages open and would no doubt make his 'generous' hosts freak out. Truthfully he was waiting for the reaction since he only actually needed and was reading one of them. Thinking of his hosts, Sirius remembered what happened moments after his kid had been snatched away by her shadow.
"you absolute moron! What are you doing? Run!"
He glanced up as a thin hand clamped down on his upper arm. The voice niggled at his memory, but the face was shrouded in a cowl so he could not see his rescuer. He tried to peer beyond the hood as she yanked him backward out of the way of a splashing yellow spell. Like dead weight Sirius was pulled before the woman; before his rescuer and the one person in the entire crowd not trying to kill or arrest him, gave up moving him and apparated on the spot.
The world twisted and squeezed before Sirius was bodily dumped on pristine stone, and his rescuer started to cover her tracks with a surge of skilled magic. She used dark magic to ensure no trace of her magic was left behind to be tracked. It was a spell that drove Aurors mad during the war. Invented by the Dark Lord himself even though many forgot or ignored that fact when the Order stole and started to use it.
The use of it narrowed down who had saved him but confused him all the more because… why would she?
Pushing himself off the ground and into a defensive position despite the way his ribs protested - likely broken - Sirius faced his 'savior.' A woman who definitely wanted something, even if that was the desire to cover her own ass if the rumors of Holly being a dark lady or Voldemort revived, were true.
"Narcissa." He greeted as he firmed his grip on his wand.
"Oh, enough." She snapped and stormed away from the entrance room hall, "honestly, use your brain, if I wanted you dead I'd have left you there… cousin."
"Why didn't you?"
Narcissa tossed her hair over her should and said with her back to him, showing just how little she was threatened by him with her body language. "I'm not discussing business in the entrance hall; have some class, Sirius."
"I believe you were the one who told me I had none." He said so, but he followed her. A distant plan was forming in his head as his mind caught up to what had happened. Even still, Sirius quickly signed to Remus. To explain that he had lost their god-daughter, to tell his mate who was already so far from him the one thing that could genuinely shatter their bond. But Holly… she was in that violent world Remus had told him about, and she came first, even before his own soulmate.
Sirius entered the reception room behind Narcissa and watched as his cousin elegantly seated herself and crossed her fingers. He choose to sit to ease the pain in his ribs, rather than petulantly remain standing to annoy her. He might have done it regardless if he were speaking to his mother, but Narcissa would never reach that level of sheer hatred in his eyes.
"Now, shall we do business, Cousin?"
In the end, their agreement was rather simple. Narcissa, Lucius, and Draco had a nonaggression pact with him, and Holly, a truce to not harm each other, worked into the broader agreement. On his side, Sirius was getting allies to find and protect Holly. They'd give him every resource to find her, and when she was found, they would ensure she was protected from the dregs of society - Lucius' words not his. Narcissa, in return, became the head of the Black family. The ring, the wealth, the power all went to her and would eventually go to her son, and if should anything happen to Draco, then it would pass to Holly or Draco's child.
For Sirius, it was an easy payment to pay. He was far wealthier than the remains of what was left in the Black vault, he cared nothing for the homes left behind and untouched, or the dark items hidden away. He couldn't use the power as a wanted mad, and Holly cared little for it. But what Narcissa and Lucius offered… that he needed.
So he made the trade.
"There is one thing I need to ask." Sirius ended the conversation with the question plaguing his mind most, the one drawing his attention the moment Lucius returned home to join the discussion.
"Yes?" Narcissa asked, linking her fingers together and giving him her full attention.
"Is he alive?"
There was no doubt to whom he was referring, the only uncertainty would be if they actually answered and what he'd do with that information.
"As it stands," Lucius spoke up calmly as he smothered the shake in his hands, "yes. What his state is, we cannot fathom… but the Dark Lord lives."
Sirius bobbed his head in a parody of a nod before saying quite simply. "Well… hell."
