The Dark Lord, The Witch and The Time-Portal

I - The Room of Requirement

"New Beginnings are often disguised as painful endings."

― Lao Tzu

Sirius was dead. It happened just two days ago at the battle inside the Ministry of Magic. Holly Potter never felt so angered by her own stupidity and couldn't put away the feeling that her godfather's death was entirely her fault —in the heat of the moment, she always acted before thinking, like a moron. But now was too late to fix that mistake; from now on, she will have to think twice before doing anything too risky. She also felt miserable after it dawned on her that she had put the lives of her friends in danger as well. The outcome of the battle could have been so much worse if they were dead too.

The small witch was brooding inside the Room of Hidden Things, laying down on an old couch, surrounded by lots of curious and mysterious artifacts — most of them junk or undesirable trinkets.

All she did these last days was mourn, curse herself for her rashness, and weep a lot. She cried her heart out to the point where her body wasn't capable of letting her cry anymore; her tears dried, leaving her with a puffy red face and an intense headache. Her chest tightened in pain, as if she were stabbed by a knife that still lingered inside her. It was too painful. Sirius was her world and the closest person she had as a family, at least in the way that the meaning of family truly mattered —Aunt Petunia could be a blood relative, but Holly was only a burden to her.

Voldemort's presence had cursed her life since she was a baby — he killed her parents, so she was raised by her mother's sister and her husband. The Dursleys were muggles who hated wizards, witches, and everyone different. Since she was a baby, Holly felt in her own skin the discontentment of the Dursleys for her being a witch, although she had no idea about it until she turned eleven and met Hagrid, who gave her Hogwarts letter and explained what she really was, just like her parents. Holly had been mistreated her entire childhood, growing up in a home without love where her relatives treated her like a freak.

Well, even among wizards and witches, Holly was considered a freak sometimes, being the only known survivor of the killing curse and a parselmouth.

'Thanks again, Voldemort!'

According to Dumbledore, Holly was only able to understand and talk to snakes because Voldemort somehow transferred some of his powers to her when he tried to kill her. Probably the Headmaster was right, but who knows for sure? Truth be told, Holly wasn't sure anymore how much she could trust Dumbledore, especially after everything that happened in the fifth year.

Her years at Hogwarts were always difficult, and her life was threatened so many times that she lost count. But the real hell began in her fourth year, after most of her House 'friends' and the rest of the school turned their backs on her after her name was sorted on the Goblet of Fire. Holly was forced to compete in a magical contest, and at the last task, Wormtail, a faithful servant of Voldemort, killed her boyfriend, Cedric Diggory, who she started dating just after the first task. And of course, Voldemort was back again to torment her life, this time with a real body!

The fourth year and Cedric's death were so painful that she didn't expect the fifth year to be ten times worse. She was nearly expelled from Hogwarts and mistreated by almost the entire school again, being considered a delusional liar for affirming that Voldemort had returned. She had painful migraines on her scar, was tortured and scarred by Dolores Umbridge with her freaking Blood Quill and was completely ignored by Dumbledore. Holly never felt so alone in her entire life — and that meant a lot, considering she grew up inside a fucking cupboard!