accidental meeting//HOLLY

Once again, Harry found himself sneaking out of the Garrett mansion in order to settle his mind. He never was able to stick around in one place for too long. That wasn’t to say that he moved around a lot, but he hated being inside for too long. It didn’t matter if it was the most comforting place in the world – which the Garrett household very possibly might be. He had a pretty good idea that it was mostly because of being held captive in the past and when he was inside for too long, he just became…paranoid. It was a bad situation altogether. He was supposed to be in hiding for a little bit, but he just couldn’t force himself to stay inside.

And this was what brought him to Diagon Alley. His face was covered by a hood, so it wasn’t completely obvious who he was – not that anyone would know who he was besides the people that might be searching for him. However, as he wandered around the Alley in the mid-morning, he couldn’t help but having a creeping feeling that someone was following him. Every time he looked around, everyone appeared to be minding their own business. He could feel the chills building up on his spine.

Allowing his paranoia to get the better of him, he leaped up the stairs of the most recent establishment and slipped inside the front door. Little did he know that it was a little shop called Fontaine’s Furry Friends, where he would be about to meet someone from his past. Harry swiftly shut the door behind him and swung around to look out the front window, as if expecting to see an evil face peering back at him. He was completely unaware of someone else in the room.

Holly had risen late that day, so by the time afternoon rolled around she was still furiously cleaning, and any hopes of venturing outside her shop that evening had been cleanly dashed. The animals needed to be fed, the counters cleaned, the food - freshly delivered the night before - sorted into the proper racks and the toy display re-arranged. It was Perry's turn on the window rack, but the screech owl was still waiting for a particularly vicious raven named Patrice to be moved back into his cage.

Lucky for Holly, no customers had come in that day. Right before the start of school was her busiest time of year. Children came in looking for all manner of magical creatures, and Holly had to deal both with selling her animals and explaining to various disappointed youngsters that she did not sell baby dragons, nor did a raven count as an owl, and therefore ravens were not one of the accepted pets at Hogwarts.

The rests of the year tended to be quite slow, so when the little bells tied to her front door's knob tinkled Holly was unprepared for the arrival of a customer. She looked up from the rapid circles she was making over the counter with a thoroughly gray rag to watch as the strange man bolted through her door. He did not pull down his hood, moving instead to peer almost nervously out her front window. An icy tingling feeling went down Holly's spine, and though she knew it was useless she reached into her robes and pulled out the slim length of her wand. She could hardly defend herself, but she had seen hooded wizards burst through her front door before...

"Hello?" Holly called, trying not to sound hesitant or frightened. A small warble still managed to slip into her voice. "Can I help you, sir?"

Up until a few weeks ago, Harry was under the impression that the events of his past had caused him to be unnecessarily paranoid. However, once the Dark wizards attacked him in Zonko’s, he quickly realized that this was nonsense. He might be a little unnecessarily paranoid – but better safe than sorry. They had found out where he worked and possibly even where he lived. Thankfully, though, Zelda and Olivia had at least been able to retrieve his precious necklace that his little sister had given him back, way before he was kidnapped. It wasn’t expensive or rare, but she had made it for him and it was the only thing left of his family that he still had in his possession. It was special.

Harry froze when he heard a familiar voice that had a hint of familiarity in it. He froze and slowly turned around, his face still hidden by his hood. The face that he saw was not what he was expecting. He wasn’t quite sure what exactly he expected, but it certainly wasn’t that. Harry would never forget that face. It was a grown up version of what he remembered, but he still recognized it.

He slowly began to shake his head. This wasn’t possible. This couldn’t be possible. He hadn’t seen that face for so long. He had just about succumbed to the realization that she was dead. If this was real, it was a little too good to be true. He backed up and hit the door, which caused his hood to fall back. “Not true…this can’t be real,” he said, immediately jumping to the conclusion that it had to be some sort of Dark wizard playing a trick on him to get under his skin.

For a moment, Holly was alarmed. She stared as the hooded man started to panic and backed himself up against the door. Slowly, she set her wand back down and slipped out from behind the counter. All she wanted was to help, but no sooner had she stepped out from behind the counter than his hood slid off his shoulders.

There was no real moment of confusion for Holly, only a shocking sense of clarity while she stared into his deep brown eyes. He looked so old, so scared and rough around the edges, but that was Harry. It was Harry's nose and his eyes, his ears and his chin and his dark hair. She caught her breath and took another step closer, half way across the room now. She clasped her hands in front of her because she did not know what to do with them.

The truth was, she wanted to hug him. Holly wanted to jump up and wrap his arms around him and cry into his shoulder. Tears were already building in her eyes, her face pale with shock, but he looked so frightened she was not sure hugging him was going to be the best idea. Why did he seem so scared of her? She bit her lip, took a shuddering breath.

"Harry?" she whispered hesitantly, gripping her own hand so hard she dug her nails into the back of it. "Harry... i-is that you? Is that really you?" Her hands started to shake a little. She could not believe he was actually still alive.

Harry stared at the woman that looked so much like his little sister, Holly, with a mixture of fear and awe. He had come to the conclusion years ago that she was dead. After all, she was the one that the Dark wizards were originally after. He had doubted that they would be satisfied with just one of the Fontaine children. They wanted revenge and he was sure that they would go to any lengths to achieve their goal. Harry didn’t want to believe that this was really Holly. Well, he did, but he didn’t at the same time. Knowing his luck, he would believe that it was really her and it would end up being some sort of trick to get Harry back to the mansion. He didn’t want to go back there. He couldn’t!

His breath caught in his throat when he heard his own name uttered from the woman’s lips. She had been just a kid the last time he had seen her, but he could notice the similarities between the memories of his little sister and the woman in the room with him. He slowly shook his head as he stared at her through wide eyes. “Holly – no…no, you’re not real. This – this is some sort of trick,” he said, absolutely convinced that there was no possible way that the woman in front of him could actually be his little sister. He felt the fear climbing up into his throat. He needed to get away…but he felt like he could barely move.