Goodbye Sky Harbor

Chapter Two: Foolish Love

She sat, estranged from the rest of the world, in a dusty armchair pulled up next to one of the many large windows of the library. Her History of Magic textbook lay open on her lap but she wasn't even bothering to look down at it. She had her headphones on (the ones she wasn't supposed to own because they were a Muggle device her brother had enchanted) and from them, no doubt, played the usual Muggle music. Alternative, mostly. But always Muggle.

That's what had always set her aside from her old Slytherin friends, a love for Muggle music and literature. Most of them wouldn't tolerate it.

Afternoon light was streaming in through the window and the dark yellow sunshine caused her to squint. Bathed in that light, she looked ethereal.

Phinius Derrick tore his eyes from her to scowl down at the book he wasn't supposed to be reading and the letter he shouldn't be writing.

The book was "On the Road" by Jack Kerouac.

And the letter was to her.

Dear Holly,

They weren't supposed to be friends anymore. When things had gone wrong with Marcus last year (he never understood what exactly did go wrong), that whole gang had ostracized her. Remy Montague, Cole Warrington, Miles Bletchley, Sean Bole, Adrian Pucey and, yes, he had too.

And for a while, for months, he didn't talk to her. But he had missed her. She had always been a friend--one of the few he felt was a real friend. The rest were just there so he could feel "in" with some sort of crowd.

And so the letters began, and the discreet exchange of books and small smiles in the halls. He didn't know for sure that the others would look down upon this; Marcus had graduated and they seemed to regard Holly with nothing more than indifference now.

But he liked their secret. Mainly because it was theirs to keep.

Glancing down again, he began to reread the letter:

Dear Holly,

Kerouac is alright, for a Muggle author. I did enjoy his description of the jazz club that you underlined as one of your favorite parts. The way he captures the energy of the moment and the pure mayhem, the confusion of the club. I think it's the way he utilizes run-on sentences that really captures the liveliness of the night.

I stumbled across a book the other day that I thought I might pass along to you. Yes, it's Muggle and oddly enough I found it at the bottom of my trunk. I think my brother gave it to me a year or two ago for the train ride home from Hogwarts. It's a bunch of poems by E.E. Cummings; I found it to be pretty interesting and written in a really unique way. So I'm passing it on to you for now.

The writing had ended there; he would write more later. Funny, he thought, he could never talk this way with anyone but her or Montague. And Montague was usually too preoccupied with appearing the role of the jokester and Quidditch buff to talk about such things as books.

Stretching a bit, Phinius closed his book and gathered his things. He had agreed to a Quidditch scrimmage with some of the usual gang and he was looking forward to it since he hadn't been able to play in a while. He caught Holly's eye and they exchanged a small smile before he left the library and walked down to the Entrance Hall where he was joined by Cole, Remy, and Sean. Walking out into the afternoon light, the group talked animatedly about next year's Quidditch season.

"Nasty turnout this year, not having Quidditch and all," Sean said sorrowfully.

"Gives a bit more time to recruit for next season," Remy commented good-naturedly, "and one of us is getting captain next year."

"There's no way anyone but you is getting captain," Cole said confidently, "and assuming you keep your nose out the books a bit, we'll be in good hands," Cole elbowed Remy playfully.

"Yeah, well, Wood's gone but if Johnson takes over as captain for Gryffindor we're in for some trouble," Remy replied grimly.

"If they make the Weasleys co-captains, though, we're in for a smooth year. Those half-wits won't be able to accomplish much," Phinius threw in with a grin.

"Hufflepuff has got Diggory, pain in my ass, that is," Remy frowned, "and Ravenclaw hasn't got much of anyone. Chang is decent, and if Hocks gets her act together this year, she'll make a mean Beater..." Phinius tuned them out at this point. That's all they ever talked about, Quidditch and the latest ploy to make other people's lives a living hell. It got a bit redundant after a while.

"Hey Phinny, you still with us?" Sean asked, poking him in the side.

"No, not really," Phinius replied honestly, swatting Sean's hand away.

"Had his nose in the books too long," Cole nodded enthusiastically.

"Or got his mind on some girl--" Sean laughed.

"Not that he could ever get her," Remy finished. Phinius smacked Remy upside the head, and fell out of step with all of them so as to tie his shoe. It was like this, often. He only ever felt in with them half the time, not really belonging at all.

"Mail's here," Cho announced, serving herself some more toast. Holly looked up just in time to dodge the falling box that was bearing straight for her head. Roger laughed openly at the sight of her trying desperately to salvage her mail from her plate of eggs where it had been carelessly dropped by the family owl, Gulliver.

"What'd you get?" Roger asked, leaning over to peer at the stack of letters from which Holly was picking the bits of scrambled egg.

"Package from my brother, letter from my cousin," here Holly flipped hurriedly past a note from Phinius, "and a letter from Terence."

"Terence Higgs, eh?" Roger suddenly looked interested, "What's he up to?"

"Still reporting for the Daily Prophet and Quidditch Illustrated," Holly said, scanning the letter, "and no, I'm not going to ask him to get you an autograph from Moran, Mullet, or Troy," Holly continued quickly, cutting him off before he could ask.

"Worth a try," Roger shrugged, pouring more milk in his porridge.

"One-track mind," Holly rolled her eyes.

"What did Eamon send you?" Cho asked as Holly picked up the package from her brother and unwrapped it carefully. Inside the box were a copy of Sonnets of a Sorcerer and a perfect, moving model of the galaxy in a large glass ball.

"Early Christmas present," Holly grinned.

"So does that mean you'll be staying here for the break?" Emma pitched in.

"Doubtful, as far as I know I'll be going home for a comfortable holiday." Upon catching the frowns on Emma's and Cho's faces, Holly scowled. "It's just the Yule Ball, you know. I'll survive missing it. Anyway, my family's throwing the usual bash and Terence will be there, and I haven't seen him for ages," Holly threw in good-naturedly. This seemed to close the argument, at least for now, and so Holly returned to studying the glass ball.

Moments later, a ruckus broke out at one of the nearby tables and a girl shrieked loudly.

"What's that all about?" Holly inquired, not even bothering to look up from the crystal globe.

"Fred, or maybe George... either way, one of the Weasley twins turned Alicia Spinnet's hair into snakes," Emma said, looking bemused.

"It's terrible," Cho nodded, with a horrified look on her face.

"Oh? Interesting. May have to inquire on how to go about doing that trick," Holly murmured absent-mindedly, tearing open the letter from her brother.

"He's not bad looking, you know," Emma said thoughtfully.

"Who? Fred?" Cho asked, looking, if possible, even more horrified.

"No! Lee," Emma said, wearing an expression of disgust at the thought of the Weasleys. Holly simply looked at the two girls, amused.

They actually weren't all that bad, she decided as she studied the twins. Too rebellious for Emma or Cho, though, hence their general distaste for them. She chuckled again at the sight of Alicia's hair-turned-snakes, and turned back to the letter.

"You're not going to go see Marcus over the holidays, are you?" Cho asked suddenly.

"No. Marcus and I aren't really in contact anymore," Holly said shortly.

"Good," Cho said under her breath. Holly just shot her a look before scowling down at the letter. She discreetly pulled out Phinius' letter and scanned the contents. Holly sighed as she got to the bottom: Meet me by the Quidditch pitch Saturday morning; we haven't talked for ages.

First period Charms never held much promise. Flitwick showed only a little favoritism for his own house and, for Holly, the Ravenclaws were always annoyingly alert no matter how early it was.

"Today, we will discuss Memory Charms," Professor Flitwick announced from his perch of books. Holly's ears perked up a bit at his mention of this topic, "Memory Charms serve to modify or erase a portion of someone's memory. Most commonly, they are used on Muggles when they witness something magical. There are, of course, certain subdivisions within the charm. Some are used to entirely block the memory, others to actually remove it, and some to simply make it hazy in remembrance. All are varying degrees of the charm." By now, Flitwick had certainly managed to catch Holly's attention. She was listening attentively, hoping to hear something useful that might apply to her own memory problem.

"The common incantation is 'Obliviate,' though adding certain incantations before or after create these varying degrees," Professor Flitwick continued, "The effects usually result in the inability of the person to remember anything at all from this portion of time. Or, in some cases, a feeling that this part of the memory had simply been entirely removed." Holly nearly fell out of her seat. She'd been so stupid to not think of this before.

"These last symptoms were common of Memory Charms used in the time of You-Know-Who," Flitwick looked around nervously, as if the usage of that name would invoke the wizard himself. The remainder of the lecture fell short of sparking any more of Holly's interest. She was instead left to wonder how on earth all this fit together.

That night (or rather, the next morning) at midnight, Holly had her Advanced Astronomy class. She always looked forward to these, it being one of her better classes, and really didn't mind the cold or exhaustion.

Due to the advanced and specific nature of the class, it was rather small and was a mix of all four houses. All of the students in it were sixth years, with the exception of Holly, who had gotten special permission to be placed in the advanced class.

"You saw Lynch's performance this year, he's a disgrace!" Holly grinned and shook her head, overhearing Roger's conversation. No doubt he was arguing with George Weasley over Quidditch again. The Slytherins in the class, meanwhile, were unusually quiet. It was unsettling her.

"What do you think about all this, Holly?" George asked, turning to her suddenly.

"I think it's bloody bad luck I ended up in a class with the two of you, though I suppose the prospect that I could have been stuck with Fred as well does lighten my mood a bit," she smirked, turning to look back through the high-power omnioculars.

"Oh, but what would we ever do without your superb wit and charm?" George cried.

"What would you do without my homework and superior knowledge is more like it," she muttered in response.

"We'd fail this class," Roger supplied, glancing at her finished diagrams. Holly just rolled her eyes; she was used to this after all. As a friend, she'd always let Roger copy her work. And even though she hardly knew him, she would let George in on it from time to time, too.

"So, are you going through with this whole Yule Ball nonsense?" she heard George ask.

"Probably. Might ask Fleur Delacour or someone, you?"

"Might go with Alicia," George responded.

"Did you decide this before or after you turned her hair into snakes?" Holly laughed.

"That was Fred, actually. Though I wish I had been quick enough to think of it myself," George said, shaking his head and smiling at the memory. "Are you going?" he asked Holly.

"Nope. Home to Ireland for the holidays, but we throw a party of our own on Christmas Eve, so I'm sure I won't be missing out," she smiled.

"Probably not," George said glumly, "where in Ireland do you live, though?"

"County Cork, a couple miles east of Bantry, why?" she asked.

"Oh, so you're part of that Hocks clan, are you?" he asked cheekily.

"What does that mean?" she demanded.

"Your family is infamously rich," Roger supplied.

"And half of 'em were Slytherins," Remy Montague threw in. Apparently he'd been listening in on the conversation and was now looking to start trouble.

"Doesn't say anything about character," she snapped and turned back to her diagrams. Realizing they'd hit a touchy subject, the boys backed off and went back to a safe topic: Quidditch. Holly just sighed and repeated to herself: just one week, one week until she was home.

Holly walked quickly in the early morning light. It being Saturday, no one was up yet. She usually wasn't either, except that she had agreed to meet Phinius for a little while.

"Morning," she yawned as she spied him leaning on one of the wooden support under the stands.

Phinius just nodded and held out a blue, leather bound book. Glancing at the gold lettering she saw written 100 Selected Poems, and below it, E.E. Cummings. Obviously, this was the book he'd been referring to in his note.

"Thanks Phinny," she grinned, paging through it.

"What happened between you and Flint?" Holly let the book snap shut as she looked up in surprise.

"Is that why you wanted to talk?" she demanded.

"No," he shoved his hands in his pockets, "but you never did tell me."

"Yeah, well, I didn't tell much of anyone," she shrugged.

"You told Cho and Emma, didn't you?" he asked, but quickly reconsidered his choice of words, "He never told us, Marcus, just told us to drop it. So I just, I don't know, was curious, really," he shifted from one foot to another.

"You'd think I was going to bite your head off," she said, obviously picking up on his nervous movements.

"You've been known to do so in the past," Phinius grinned.

Holly smiled and studied the ground for a minute before responding, "Things with Marcus were always... complicated, to say the least. Neither of us were much of the romantic-type, we both got crap from our houses for seeing each other, and we were both too stubborn to ever admit being wrong. So when we convinced ourselves that we didn't feel a thing for one another, that was the end. Neither of us was going to go back on our words, no matter how tired we got of lying."

"That explanation was pretty vague," Phinny smirked.

"For a reason," Holly sighed, "look, I'm not too fond on thinking back on that year. Remy and Cole took to insulting me at every given chance and Marcus never did much to stop it. And with Terence gone, Miles distancing himself from everyone, and you, Sean, and Adrian pretending you didn't know me, it wasn't much help."

"Sorry," Phinius offered sincerely.

"Don't worry yourself about it. Listen, I've got to get going though, I'm supposed to meet up with Katie so we can play some Quidditch." Phinius nodded and gave Holly a quick hug before heading to the castle and Holly headed up to the stands to wait for Katie.