September 1st, 1890 — Madam Sykes' Office

Holly could not sleep in her dorm, naturally, she found herself in the next best place: Madam Sykes' office. She laid across the small loveseat, staring up at the ceiling with a blank expression on her face. It was the only place she felt comfortable—not in the office, but near Madam Sykes herself. If only she could convince the Slytherin matron to become her governess. If only she could be homeschooled and still get the appropriate OWLs and NEWTs. She turned onto her side, her cheek squished into the pillow beneath her head, and stared at the matron who seemed to be scribbling away at some paper on her desk.

"Some lady died at the end of the street this summer," she commented out of the blue. She'd written to Madam Sykes earlier in the year about wishing her step-mother dead, so she hoped the matron could connect those dots. It, sadly, hadn't been her step-mother whose life came to a not-so-tragic end, but some days she liked to wear black and pretend it had been. "Papa said something about it. He works in law enforcement, you know, and I imagine he's terrible at it."

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Constance Sykes

  

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— set by MJ <3 —

Connie’s quill paused over the notes she was making regarding the new first years – nothing too thrilling, mostly which ones looked as though they might not sleep through the first night – and she pondered, not for the first time, what Holly’s future relationship with law enforcement might become. She had a keen mind and enquiring spirit, which would make her a fine investigator, however Connie wasn’t entirely convinced that she had yet managed to impress upon the younger woman that the law did in fact apply to everyone.

“Why do you imagine that?” Connie asked with a small twitch of her lips. Holly’s assessment of her own family was often filled with the suggestion – no, not suggestion, it really was outrightly stated most of the time – that she found them entirely wanting. It was unusual for a girl in her position, for whom the family name would likely remain a safeguard for the rest of her life, to be quite so cutting about her kin but then Holly was nothing if not unusual.

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MJ made me beautiful

Holly didn't imagine anything, really. She knew it, especially where her father was concerned. He'd never been good at much where his daughters were concerned, so it only made sense that he was as detached in every area of his life. Fortunately she had more solid evidence than sheer speculation.

"I asked him about it and he said he had no idea what might have happened," she explained. It might have been nothing worth noting, expect she'd found out the lady had died outside. Ladies did no just drop dead outside; they died with dignity in the privacy of their own bedrooms, just like Holly intended to do one day. "You'd think he didn't want to talk to me about it. I think he's just clueless. I think she was murdered."

(This was totally a normal conversation to be having, even with Madam Sykes.)

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— set by MJ <3 —

Her opinion of Holly’s father was relatively low - though Connie was not naive enough to believe that she had a full measure of the man from his rather displeased daughter - but she could not truly fault him for not wanting to speak about such matters with his child. There were plenty of matters she was quite sure her own father would not wish to discuss with her and vice versa!

But it was folly to tell Holly that there were some things she did not need to know of the world just yet when curiosity would push her to seek out every tidbit of information she oughtn’t to be privy to. Her young charge was nothing if not stubborn.

“Based on what exactly?” Connie raised an eyebrow and fixed Holly with a look that was rapidly becoming The Look she always sent at Holly, a very particular blend of amusement, censure and genuine interest. “You shouldn’t make accusations without proof. People could get into serious trouble.”

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MJ made me beautiful

Holly did not consider what repercussions murder accusations might bring about, and in truth she didn't care. She wasn't pointing fingers!

"I heard one of the maids saying there was plenty of blood. That it didn't look like an accident," she said. The maid did not tell her these things, but Holly found that it was easy enough to spy on the gossiping servants if she tried. Besides, she had nothing better to do during the summer. "It was the only notable thing that happened this summer. I had plenty of opportunity to ponder on it."

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— set by MJ <3 —

“It has been rather dull, hasn’t it?” Connie commented offhandedly, having as little interest in Quidditch and what had apparently happened at one of the matches as she had in the private life of a budgerigar. She could quite understand how Holly might fixate, and she could even sympathise though she was not about to admit to how closely she sometimes followed some sensational court cases, but what she could not do was condone it.

“But that is no excuse for sounding quite so gleeful about the whole thing,” Connie said, glancing at Holly pointedly. “I'm sure your maid was exaggerating.”

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MJ made me beautiful

Holly pouted and shook her head. "There is no excuse for anything, is there?" It was a childish assertion, but she'd spent so much of the summer being treated like a child that it was difficult to return to an environment where she was expected to act her age. "I only mean - I just want a little bit of excitement. Why does every year at Hogwarts seem less interesting than the last? Is every year like that?" It was a sudden shift from the topic of exaggerating maids and murder, but it was more indicative of her underlying concern: she was going to be trapped in an uninteresting existence forever.

"And once I am graduated, and I will have no friends, no excuse to spend my day reading, and you will be here while I am in London. Doesn't that bother anyone else?" Holly had known her priorities were different from the other girls she knew, but she did not think she would ever work herself up to a point where she thought it was a bad thing.

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— set by MJ <3 —

Oh Merlin, it was far too early in the term to be dealing with a student having a crisis though it was not altogether surprising that the student in question was Holly. Every year she seemed to come back to Hogwarts slightly more discontent than she had left it, but it was impossible to tell her that it would get better soon for the simple reason that Connie could not bring herself to tell such an egregious lie.

For all she knew Holly would be married off by her father within the year. It wasn’t totally unheard of, after all, and after what had happened to her cousin Connie was more than a little bit concerned about the limitations that might be put on Holly.

“Why do you imagine you will have no friends?” Connie asked, trying to hone in on the one area she might be able to do something about.

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MJ made me beautiful

Holly looked at Madam Sykes as if the answer is obvious. "I am not friendly," she said, a beat passing before she added, "and I simply cannot help it. I've tried it before, and I don't like how it makes me feel." She'd tried to befriend Calla Potts before, only to find that the only natural thing to do was hurl mild insults and give her an infantilizing name. She was friendly with Seneca Lestrange, but their relationship had always been mildly antagonistic and it would not do if they were suddenly close without motive.

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— set by MJ <3 —

It was possibly the saddest thing Connie had ever heard come from a student's mouth but she found herself unable to entirely contradict Holly. She was certainly not friendly, though for whatever reason she seemed at ease in her company, and Connie was beginning to consider that in itself may be part of the problem.

Would forced loneliness compel Holly to make friends her own age, or just make her isolation worse? Was it worth the experiment to lose the trust it had taken her years to build up?

"You may find that things change in the years to come. Once everyone begins to catch up with you," she suggested carefully. Hopefully. Possible untruthfully.

  

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MJ made me beautiful