Seconds before, Sirius had been in the middle of a retelling one of the best pranks from his childhood. It had been in his second year with James, Remus, and the nameless and hadn't actually involved Snape. He'd chosen it to tell Holly because she was annoyingly fond of the bat, and he'd already pissed her off enough times with his' pranking Sniv' stories. He had been describing the Slytherin boy's face to James- Holly- he… he was telling her all about it, unaware of the knowing look his god-daughter was giving him. It only took a look at the glazed part of his face, and Holly knew Sirius wasn't entirely present with her. He got like that sometimes, less the longer he was out of Azkaban, but it still happened, and Holly suspected always would.

Sometimes Sirius would speak the wrong name, sometimes he'd forget where he was. Sometimes she was Lily if the light hit her right, and sometimes she was James even without the glasses that used to make her look like him. It hurt, Holly could admit that. Hermione called it all manner of terms, theorizing dementia, among others. Muggle diseases that she believed would, with age, grow worse.

"He has no soulmate to fix it, Holly… it'll get worse, you have to accept that now."

It was a flaw to their world and health care system Hermione passionately stated after they learned about Neville's parents. Alice and Frank were soulmates, and since both were mad, neither could help the other heal. Without that ability, the system so used to physical problems being fixed in an instant had no idea how to treat the pair. The Magical world was clueless when it came to mental issues, and only slightly better with physical ones for the young who did not have soulmates with enough points to heal. The Muggle world to that regard was better off, the sheer number of Muggles resulted in more injuries by default not being instantly treated. It was because she and Hermione were Muggleborn that they even knew what dementia and other mental issues were, but there was still no cure for them.

Sirius was like those Muggles who had lost their soulmates sometime along their path through life affected by something no one could cure. Because the only way to do it was long gone. And as Hermione said, Holly just needed to accept that sometimes Sirius would get her name very wrong. That, she knew she could handle, but the silent realization that genuinely terrified her. Sirius and Holly were together now, he'd be around for a long time, and she'd see him grow older. Someday he'd have no idea who she was, and that made her short of breath.

Trying to get her mind off it as Sirius spoke on Holly glanced around at the villagers around her. It was a quiet place, happy, and the people seemed entirely too delighted that she and Sirius were visiting. Most greeted and waved in their direction as if they were a novelty that someone was touring their little town. She scanned the area and smiled at the very people who caught her eye. It was nice to not be recognized, no one here had a clue who she was. There was no hero worship, no anger glares, no people going for their wands to attack her because of the bounty on her head. How strange it was to just be one of the crowd, Holly had forgotten what it was like.

"Hey, Sirius- Sirius?" Holly turned to say something to Sirius immediately forgetting what once she caught the expression on his face. He looked like a dog in a hunt, like Ripper when he'd seen a squirrel in the backyard. His attention was utterly focused on a nearby hill, there was something odd as he took a step forward seemingly not aware he'd done it.

"Sirius?" she repeated as they drew attention from the people around. Sirius didn't twitch, not acknowledging Holly's presence at all as he stared at the seemingly dull hill. It really was nothing special, a pathway into the trees, and a smoke trail at the top. There would be a house up there Holly assumed, but nothing about it should have drawn Sirius' attention so firmly. She turned back to him and saw, was that guilt?

Sirius bolted, his form shifted in an instant as he landed on four paws and took off toward the hill. Holly heard the yelps of the people watching clearly not expecting a human to transform into a canine. Holly gave a cry and chased after her god-father never giving thought to obliviate the people that had seen and what the cost could be that they did. She didn't think things through like Hermione did, she was reactive most of the time and so reacted when her father bolted for the hill. Ankles rolling on the dirt pathway Holly sprinted up the slope, which clearly wasn't designed for vehicles, let alone people.

The thicker trees quickly gave way to what appeared to be a tree farm for oranges. A small cottage lay to the side, smoking flowing from a chimney; the area overlooked a cliff-side, and the ocean laid out beyond. Holly instantly liked it on principle. Sirius faltered as he reached the trees, his canine body glancing all over while Holly stopped the moment the house was in sight. Something deep within her found all this… familiar. Like she knew this place, intimately. Her skin crawled but not in a bad way, more like she'd heard a beautiful song, and she'd gotten goose-bumps from it.

A smell was on the air as Holly finally moved forward. While not Molly's cooking, it still smelled fantastic. She would always remember the last meal she'd eaten with the three- two? With her, Hermione, and… Ginny? Holly staggered as her magic rolled in her chest. Like a wave, it brutally stuck as if placed under an imperio and had been given an order. Then the next moment, she felt fine… nothing was wrong… everything was fine- wait, no that felt-

Sirius transformed, sliding into human form, causing Holly to refocus on him. In three long strides, Sirius reached the door to the cottage and firmly knocked. Holly caught up, her heart skipping a beat as a woman's voice called out: "One minute!"

She reached the door a second before it opened and was immediately disappointed. The woman's hair was a beautiful blue and her eyes a darker color, almost green. She had tanned skin, a red hairband in her hair, and a swirling tattoo on her arm - the wrong one anyway. She also looked as confused as Holly was.

"Yes, can I help you?" Her words translated in Holly's years with only a minor delay as the spell adjusted.

As she spoke, Holly instinctively glanced at Sirius, who had been the one to bring them to her front door. Sirius stood at her side, mutely staring at the girl as if his entire world was crashing to the ground. Holly pinched her lips together; what on earth - or not earth? - was happening.

"Err, sorry," Holly said, attempting to take charge of the odd situation. She also hoped her spell was causing her to speak correctly. From the mild confusion, then suddenly clarity it was working, if behind a line or so. "My father and I-" Sirius sucked in a sharp breath, and Holly distantly remembered that she'd never called him that in front of him before. She'd really only done it in the safety of her own mine… but she supposed he wouldn't be overly bothered. "-he felt the need to come up here, something was drawing him… us?"

Holly side-eyed Sirius again, hoping he could explain, she really didn't know what had come over him.

"Y-you…" Sirius tried and swallowed throat too dry to push words through. Clearing it, he managed: "Do you have a sister with… with orange hair?"

Both the woman and Holly blinked to that, both turned to stare at him with sudden curiosity. Holly wasn't sure why the woman did it, but orange hair always perked her attention, even in passing, considering that her own soulmate possessed it.

"Why do you ask?" the woman practically confirmed it despite the sudden defensive hostility on her tone. Her eyes scanned Sirius and Holly both, looking for something Holly couldn't discern. She'd learn later it was any sign of a white and blue uniform on their person.

"She had two daughters." Sirius' voice was haunted, eyes darker than Holly had seen them since Azkaban or perhaps even worse. His hands shook as he lifted them to wrap them around his body, he clung to himself as if it would remove the chill that settled into his soul. Holly felt pale as the implications of those words sank in her head. Without a sound, or care to see how the woman would react, she turned and flicked her wand behind them. Holly's Patronus leaped into being, and she hoped it would be enough.

To her credit, the woman whose life they had barged into, didn't even blink as magic was performed in front of her. No, her attention was wholly and utterly focused on Sirius. "Who did?" she demanded, wanting confirmation as much as Holly, or perhaps much more.

Sirius swayed slightly, seeing something that neither woman could as he spoke as if quoting. "An orange farm overlooking the ocean, two daughters with blue and orange hair… hers was supposed to be red like wine, darker than blood." He sucked in a shaky breath, "she was… a marine… and her name, it had something to do with a bell. I… does that mean something to you? Does any of it mean anything?" Was he wrong? Was in mistaken? Or was he right, and somehow his very presence ruined Holly's chances to end up with her soulmate. Had his presence while they traveled, sent him and Holly both away from Holly's path. Was it wrong in his initial assumption? Were they supposed to be directly sent to Holly's soulmate after traveling worlds, but instead ended up before his.

The woman's hands flexed as she took in the pair before her with more clarity: "She never told us her hints." She said, her expression so sad as she looked at the two of them "Her name was Bell-mère, and you will tell you why you allowed her to die."

Sirius flinched back as if he'd been struck, and perhaps he had at least not physically. Holly honestly didn't know what he would have said to that, nor did she care. Not as she watched her father crumple inward as those words hit home. They honestly had found the living daughter to Sirius' soulmate, a woman who should have been Sirius' better half, should have been his happiness. A woman who should have been standing there… they should have had a chance.

Merlin. She couldn't imagine how Sirius had to be feeling, her god-father was hurting and she couldn't fathom the pain of it. Sirius was breaking in front of her very eyes and- and she wouldn't let him bare that guilt.

She stepped forward, placing herself between this mourning woman and her god-father. She positioned herself between his guilt and her grief, then spoke as calmly as she could. "We are from another world, we came from a place where monsters and magic are real." Holly gestured to her Patronus, "where creatures exist that can steal away your soul. Monsters called dementors that are used in prison, in a jail where the worst criminals are supposed to be placed."

"Pup..." Sirius managed to say as he reached for her, to stop her probably. To prevent her from trying to absolve him of the crime of getting his soulmate permanently killed because he'd been too stupid to realize Peter was a traitor.

She ignored him: "Sirius was falsely imprisoned, for twelve years he was mentally and physically tortured by those things and when she- when your mother died he was still imprisoned. He couldn't have saved her, not with the dementors pulling on him, on his soul." Sirius' hand touched her back, but she didn't look back, not as she stared at the woman before her. "He loved her, he wanted to save her, he wanted to save her."

The woman exhaled a weak breath like she was a step away from collapsing on the spot, her eyes flicking from Holly to the Patronus floating there. Then she gave Holly a weak little smile: "and here I thought he didn't have the points for it." There was a kind of forced amusement in her eyes as she continued, "but other worlds and soul-sucking monsters… that's uh… different." The aggression leaked away as she took a step back from her doorway: "I'd like some proof, and… well, why don't you come in., I have a picture of mom, of Bell-mère." She held out a hand in peace, and Holly was more than willing to accept it.

"Thank you." Holly reached back and snatched Sirius' arm tugging him inside after her. He wasn't in a great state mentally; however, she knew well that he needed this, and she wasn't letting him leave without it. So inside, they went and accepted the chairs offered. Though Holly calmly sat on her own, Sirius collapsed into his own.

"You want a drink?" She asked, "think I can use one… or twenty for this conversation."

"Please."

Accepting their drinks, they dropped into offered chairs, or collapsed in Sirius' case and settled in for what was sure to be a profoundly emotional conversation. The woman introduced herself as Nojiko, and as she settled opposite them, she began to tell them a story. The story of her late mother and the beings that killed her.

"I stopped blaming you a long time ago." Nojiko began, "well, I did truthfully until I realized what would have happened if Bell-mère truly had revived that day." Nojiko sighed hand hands linking together on her mug, "Mom was murdered by a pirate, a Fishman."

"A what?" Holly and Sirius both asked, and Nojiko frowned, reminding herself silently 'Different world, right.' "A Fishman is… a humanoid, I suppose, with aquatic animal characteristics. Arlong- her murderer was part shark, and he ruled these islands for years." A fond expression crossed her face as she gestured to a nearby poster, a wanted poster of all things. "Just a month ago, my sister brought her crew home, they saved us all and defeated Arlong."

Holly took in the picture with more focus when Nojiko said so. She looked at the rather childish features of the teenager on the image with a thousand-watt smile. He appeared to be her age at best, and he, like Holly, had saved people. Smiling slightly, Holly mentally promised that if she ever met that teenager, she'd thank him for avenging Sirius' soulmate and helping protect the children and village.

"Arlong, he came to our home nine years ago and made every living person on the island pay a tribute, a monthly fee to that we could continue living. If you didn't pay the fee, you'd were killed. Mom… Bell-mère couldn't afford it, not for all three of us." She linked her hands together to hide their shaking, "he killed her in front of us and then stood there counting." Sirius jerked his hands violently clenching his cup, much tighter, and Holly knew it would break splashing liquid all over him. She didn't warn him, too shocked as she came to the same realization he had.

"Nami… didn't… under… stand…" Holly's world shook slightly, it grew faint. Nojiko's voice, Sirius' presence, everything faded out for a moment. Her heart thudded in her chest too slowly to be her regular heart-beat, yet she didn't feel faint enough for it to truly be going at that sluggish speed. The world seemed to stop around her, everything seemed to exist differently. Something had changed; Holly's entire world felt different and yet the same. And she didn't understand what happened.

Then everything snapped back as if it never occurred. "-Nami didn't understand… neither of us did. Why would he count?" Nojiko closed her eyes pained, "I learned later that the time for revival is a hundred seconds exactly, the exact number he counted to." She still dreamed of those numbers, of his harsh voice counting while his crew laughed. "So even if you could have, you couldn't have saved her. Arlong would have just killed her again, and again, and again just to ensure she stayed dead. You… you probably caused her to suffer less in the end."

Holly could see the weight lift from Sirius' shoulders. It was a physical event that caused him to raise his body slightly and lift his gaze enough to look Nojiko in the eyes for the first time since she opened the door, and he'd seen her hair.

"I accepted it a long time ago… I had more important things to worry about than you." It was almost harsh what Nojiko said, she spoke frankly, simply, but to her, it was the truth. She had more pressing concerns than her mother's soulmate. More important things to focus on, like her and her sister's survival against the foe that killed her mother. Like the slavery Nami had been forced into, and the utter denial her sister lived in when it came to her own soulmate. Oh, Nojiko knew her sister definitely didn't think she deserved a soulmate, didn't deserve someone who healed her like wounds like they were single beri's. But Nojiko knew she did and had spent years trying to convince Nami of that fact.

It was unfortunate that as a result of Nami's self-sacrificing that Nojiko knew nothing about Nami's soulmate beyond the fact that it was a woman and wealthy in points. And so, therefore, did not recognize the black-haired, green-eyed, and obviously marked woman before her as what she was. After all, Nami, to Nojiko's knowledge, had never bought a hint before.

Nojiko, like Holly, had not found her own soulmate, so neither of them truly understood what Sirius was going through. What it must feel like to finally make sense of the hints only to be too late. To know you'd never know your soulmate laughed, how they spent, what they even looked like. It must be beyond devastating.

Sliding her eyes to the nearby window, Nojiko saw the distant grave. Only a month previously Nami had sat on that very spot preparing to go out to sea finally free from her nightmare. Nojiko turned back to the dark-haired man and offered him what she could. "Do you want to see where we buried her?"

He bowed his head and gave a single shallow nod.

"Please."

"MY CREW!" the teen yelled as Hermione desperately tried to right her broom. His sudden weight and flailing caused her to nearly unseat, more so because Hermione was not a natural flier. She'd never been very good at flying, and having another frantic passage caused her to nearly careen into the ocean. Which, ironically, was very close to what her passenger wanted.

"Go! I need to get to my crew. Go to the whale!"

Hermione, unfortunately, understood one word in five as her spell attempted to catch up to the sudden introduction of a brand new, unheard of, language. On the upside, the teen was speaking at such a rate that Hermione knew it wouldn't be long before she could understand him in full. Still 'go,' and 'whale' was enough for the time being. Hermione had just seen a ship eaten by the biggest whale she'd ever laid eyes on.

"I hope this is like Pinocchio," Hermione begged as she grabbed the teen by the shoulders, all the while tightening her thighs on her broom, "stop moving! I can't fly like this!"

Hermione had assumed he wouldn't understand her just as she couldn't understand him. But as she spoke, a pensive expression went across his face, then he started to speak again as if he had followed her every word. But surely that was impossible? Unless he responded better to physical cues? Perhaps he could tell from her expression, or the situation, what she wanted. It was entirely possible, Holly had a habit of doing precisely that, so it wasn't a terribly strange idea to Hermione.

"Whale!" he demanded again but slowed in his movement. Hermione released his shoulders and gripped the broom righting it with a firm jerk. Carefully she then tilted the end downward to send them toward the whale staring sadly at the mountain range. The teen instantly turned and wrapped his arms around Hermione's waist and pointed firmly, angrily, at the whale. He chattered something, probably a threat, as they approached. The moment they were in range, Hermione lost her passenger; the teen launched off her broom fearlessly to land with a slight bounce on the whale's back. Clearly, he didn't fear heights as she did.

The teen started to punch at the blubbery body while Hermione landed cautiously on the whale. Holding her broom close, lest the whale decided to dive, Hermione glanced around, wondering over the whale. How had it grown to be such a size? What sort and size animal did it eat to sustain its enormous body? How old was it? And what rate did it grow? Was this full-grown? She was so curious. And… was that a trap door… in a whale?!

"Hey!" she called, approaching it with a scientific eye. The boy, still nameless, yelled, and rushed over. He slid to a stop beside her, and they both peered down at the trap door, then each other, and the door once more. Thankfully for Hermione's sanity, the teen was as confused as she was over the strange doorway in the whale.

It didn't take them long to decide to open it, mere seconds really. He wanted to save his crew, and Hermione wanted to know why a whale had a trap door badly. Stashing her broom in her bottomless purse, the boy reached down and twisted the handle to open the door. It led into a low lighted tunnel as far as she could see. The boy, without pause or hesitation, jumped inside - definitely a Gryffindor that one - and Hermione boldly followed. She was a Gryffindor after all, one with a Ravenclaw's desire for learning, but a lion none the less.

Hermione dropped through the trap door as if she were eleven years old once more and following her best friend into the unknown. Hermione's mind gave a painful throb as she landed as if she had forgotten something crucial, but it passed. Straightening up, Hermione inspected her surroundings, it seemed the inside of the whale resembled a submarine. It was mechanical in nature, a hallway that seemed to have no end. Hermione revised her earlier assumption of the world's technology, perhaps this was not a whale at all.

"Just what is all this?" the teen said, glancing at her. Hermione frowned, she understood what he'd said in full. Which was brilliant but odd. Her spell should have taken twice the amount of time for the language to come across so clearly, no matter how fast the boy was speaking. How… particular.

"No idea, but we might as well explore to find out." Hermione said in return as she closed the trap door feeling the whale move, it was likely going to dive, and she didn't want water getting in. As she closed the door, she mentally went over her spell repertoire for a spell that would work for deep diving pressures. They might be needed.

"And find my Nakama!" The boy looked her way with a grin, "I'm Luffy! I'm going to be the pirate king! Who're you?"

Pirate king? He was a pirate? How interesting. "Hermione Granger, I'm… a witch looking for her soulmate."

"A witch?! Cool! Join my crew!" His eyes shone like stares in awe, a refreshing take on her words since he was sure to be a Muggle. Unless magic existed in this world, he had a word for witch after all… though she was the one to use it first. He shouldn't have understood the term. Oh. Hermione felt herself smile in suspicion, he should have used the word first for her spell to translate it. Since he hadn't, that meant the spell had learned and converted the world because someone else had used it.

There was a chance Holly might be in this world. She'd have to call as soon as possible to check!

"No thank you." Hermione answered Luffy's offer even as she came to this realization. Her view of pirates might have been ruined by the Muggle pirates she knew to exist, but Hermione had no desire to commit herself to someone so quickly. She had a goal, and she'd stop at nothing to accomplish it.

"Eh?! Why not?"

"Because that's not my goal." Hermione answered plainly. He was a incredibly straight forward guy this Luffy, with an innocence on his face that Hermione found utterly endearing. "Like I said, I'm looking for-AH!" suddenly the whole twisted sideways. She and Luffy were thrown entirely off their feet. It was so abrupt that Hermione, for all her practicing, wasn't given a chance to respond or cast anything to save herself. All she could do was fall and eventually strike whatever ground lay below her, possibly to be knocked unconscious by the walls or killed by the drop. Either might have occurred too, if not for Luffy's presence.

A texture akin to rubber snatched hold of her wrist, Luffy reacted quicker than it took Hermione to open her mouth and scream. A hand wrenched on her, pulling her into a firm chest. Arms circled her back, and her head was tucked into a chin, then the world spun. She felt each blow, each shock-wave as they struck Luffy's body, for it could only be him holding her, hit the walls of the seemingly endless hallway. They ping-pong'd away falling through the insides of a whale. Miraculously Hermione remained safe and unharmed until the corridor ended, and they were spat into a river within the whale.

Hermione spared a moment to wonder if they'd happened upon a vein or something akin to it before she realized Luffy had gone limp. She instinctively reached for him gripping him back as he'd done her. Hermione kicked her legs using the swimming lessons she'd received as a child, and experience gained when she'd been attempting to teach Holly swimming for their fourth year. Hermione was an experienced swimmer, but it seemed Luffy, for a pirate king, was not. He turned into a dead weight in her arms as she swam upward. Their roles were quickly reversed as she helped him free of the water.

Merlin! Had he been knocked out? He had been holding her, but it was possible he'd struck his head in the fall. She didn't know if a spell existed for a concussion.

"Luffy! Are you alright?" she asked as she breached the surface with a gasp. She dragged his head out of the water and saw he was conscious but looked positively sick. "Don't worry, I've got you." She pulled him toward the river's metal platforms to escape the water, never questioning why she'd been forced to swim during her fourth year when she hadn't been Holly's chosen person. Instead, she pulled her new companion from the water, watching as he instantly perked up.

"Whoo! Thanks, Hermy-ony! You saved me!"

Maybe he couldn't swim? What a contradiction to his chosen dream. And ah, what was that butchered attempt at her name? Surely it couldn't be that difficult to say.

"Ah! We're sliding." Luffy grabbed her suddenly as the whale turned again, and the 'floor' became the 'walls' once more. Though this time it was slightly different, this time she had her feet under her and Luffy's hand in her own. The pair of them were forced to sprint downhill with no ability to stop. Not even as an enormous wall appeared and two figures appeared by a large metal door.

"STOP US!" Luffy cried.

"Wand! Where's my wand!" Hermione screamed beside him.

Then they struck. Hermione crashed headlong into a woman with vibrant blue hair and Luffy into an odd-looking man with swirls under his eyes. She felt small arms reach up automatically, grabbing at her as the door opened, and they were sent careening into the open air. Hermione screamed, eyes wide as she caught a pair of brown ones. And the world-

Sort of-

Stopped.

"What's a soulmate?"

Nefertari Vivi remembered the first time she was instructed on how to use her soulmate page. She had been five years old and seated before her father, who intended to give her this lesson personally. Even years later, Vivi remembered his every word as he told her about her mother, about his soulmate. As he told Vivi story that created her, which she clung to in the dark after her mother was gone.

"They'll be your best friend, the one person who makes you better… who you want to be better for. She was all that to me, and I hope, I hope so dearly that one day… one day you'll find the same."

Vivi was a princess, but she was also kind, and Vivi had never shied away from helping. Vivi slid through her childhood, assisting any who asked, she offered kind words, donated if she had the money for it, she helped and gained good karma for it all. She did this freely, she did it because she enjoyed it, and not just because good karma would give her points to find her soulmate.

Koza had, on occasion, dared her to buy hints, dared her to spend what she'd earned. Never confession that deep down that he wondered if… thought that just maybe they were meant to be. He hadn't told her he nudged her so firmly to spend her points on hints was because he had so few to his name. Not that he judged her for that, not like others had. They whispered it harshly as she passed, and Vivi hadn't gone long before she overheard their harsh words. 'The benefit of being a princess the opportunities that no common man would have.' 'Obviously, Vivi was better off in all ways because of her high birth.' Those words, those thoughts burned more than she could describe. Those words caused her to stop looking at her points page for months before her father and Koza snapped her out of it. Her high birth helped, but she did not abuse it, she helped because she was kind and not out of a common desire to find her one.

Secretly Vivi wasn't entirely sure if that was true or not; she wasn't sure if she'd ever find out either, not unless she found her one.

So she followed Koza's prompts and tried to do her best as a princess to her people. She healed what she could, and gained her own hints to find that person that would make her better.

'Magic.' 'Frizz.' 'A raven in lion's clothes.' 'An adventure.' 'Pirate.' 'Another world.'

That hint… that hint had been a blow Vivi couldn't describe.

The jealous told her she had advantages being she was a princess. That she could find her soulmate and get points so much faster because she was noble and had more opportunities than the common man. They had no idea she had a soulmate she could never touch. A person eternally out of her reach all because of her birth. She was a princess, she belonged to the people and could not leave them to find her one, no matter how much she secretly desired to do so.

Father held her when she cried that night, he attempted to soothe the pain and loss. Told her to have hope.

"You may not be able to reach him, but if he is meant for you… then one day, he will find you."

A hope that temporary soothed the ache, it was possible. She held out hope and waited because that was all she could do. She healed what she could and bought no more hints. She waited.

And then came Crocodile, Baroque works, and the drought.

She abandoned her crown to save her people, played her part to find the truth. She slipped out in the dark and did such cruel things, sacrificing everything she could to protect, help, and heal. And then a woman crashed face-first into Vivi. Frizzy hair that defied all reason, sticking up in every direction and tangling with everything it touched. Wide brown eyes matching Vivi's own. Small hands that snatched hold of Vivi's clothing trying to slow their descent as they fell into the unknown.

Vivi knew it in an instant. She'd never even thought- never imagined her soulmate would be a woman, but that didn't erase the fact that she was. Her soulmate had come for her after all that waiting. She'd passed from an entirely different world and had come crashing literally into Vivi's life, and it couldn't possibly have been at the worst time. Vivi was in disguise trying to save her home and people, she had a part to play, an act to finish.

This was the worst possible timing.

The hope in Vivi's chest shriveled and died. She would have to deny her soulmate. Would have to continue her act at the cost of the one person who'd ever match her. She would have to make this woman hate her to protect her from Crocodile's reach. And even if her soulmate stayed, even if she saw through Vivi's act… they couldn't be genuinely together. Because… because she was a woman, and Vivi, therefore, couldn't bare an heir for the kingdom.

The universe was cruel.

And together, they crashed into the stomach acid below separated brutally by the fall.

Hermione felt her skin burn as she hit the water below and made the correct assumption that it was stomach acid and not water, which she had been dumped into. That realized, she rushed to escape the liquid lest she become whale food.

Glancing around, she spotted a nearby ship, Luffy's, and kicked toward it. She swam through the liquid pushing her body to move quickly while keeping an out for both Luffy and that woman. Hermione caught sight of the former immediately, Luffy's green-haired crewman had already grabbed him. While the strange man and Hermione's soulmate were also making their way toward 'land.' Hermione shot a look toward her blue-haired soulmate, for it had to be her. How common was blue hair like that anyway? Though perhaps not, Hermione did not see any signs of the woman being a princess, which had been Hermione's other large hint. Not to mention this certainly wasn't a vast desert as a smaller hint had expressed.

On the other hand, Hermione had never experienced such a world stopping moment when she'd looked into the woman's eyes. Not to mention, Hermione couldn't deny that she was attracted to that woman like she had no other. Men and women had always been much the same to Hermione as she'd come into her own. Some had caught her fancy, Viktor most obviously, as well as Holly for a short period. But no one caught her like the woman had.

Still, she could be wrong. It could be a coincidence, they existed, and Hermione was trying to keep an open mind. After all, she hadn't exactly gotten the best look given the circumstance.

A hand snaked off the ship and snatched hold of Hermione's shirt. Her eyes boggled as she caught the length of the arm and once again corrected her internal assumptions that Luffy was a mere Muggle. Clearly, magic was possible in this world for how else would that have been possible. With a snap, the arm holding her went taut, and Hermione was being wrenched free of the stomach acid and dropped on the deck of Luffy's ship.

Shaking herself, Hermione pulled out her wand no longer concerned about using magic publicly, and no wonder Luffy wasn't affected by the fall through the whale. What was his body, rubber? Hm, it did have the texture of it.

Wand out, she flicked it and dried her body in a flash before the stomach acid ruined her clothes.

"Well, that was fun." She said just as her potential soulmate and the other man were dropped onto the deck just like she'd been. The woman purposely didn't look Hermione's way, so perhaps she truly was wrong in her assumption. Hermione had to assume her princess soulmate had the points to buy hints, especially since she'd frequently repaired Hermione's various wounds over the years. So the woman who was Hermione's must have some idea of what Hermione looked or acted like, and this woman wasn't giving Hermione a second look, then perhaps it was because she wasn't her soulmate.

Oddly the idea hurt more than Hermione expected.

"Who are you people?" the woman with orange hair asked, and Hermione focused on her specifically. The blue-haired woman might not be Hermione's but this oranged haired woman might very well be Holly' recalled every one of Holly's hints and found this woman matched many of them, female for a start, but also tattooed on the correct arm. Still, Hermione elected to observe only. She'd already been wrong once before, and 'another world' could mean any of countless.

"-TO BLAST A HOLE IN IT'S STOMACH!"

Hermione snapped back to attention as the woman, and her companion abruptly fired canons at the whale's insides. Hermione pinched her lips together at the sight because that was moronic! They were inside the damned thing for goodness sake! Lifting her wand in a flash, Hermione swiftly cast a spell to prevent chaos. "Protago!"

A shield formed between the old man in the distance who bodily threw himself between the whale and the cannonballs. Clearly, he was more intelligent than the pair but still stupid because such an attack would have killed him! Thankfully for his life, Hermione's spell protected him and the whale both.

"Wingardium leviosa!" she then cast catching the man before he was dumped into the stomach acid. Concentrated as she was, she missed the horrified realization in the woman near her and the grim acceptance of the truth she quickly smothered.

"Go 'hermyony!" Luffy called happily even as the moronic due attempted to shoot more cannonballs at the whale. Luffy put a sudden stop to that thankfully. And Hermione set the old man on the deck with her.

Soon after the moronic due were tied up, the woman oddly never once looking at her. Hermione was formally introduced to the crew in full and them to her. While Crocus - the old man - told them a brief story about the whale, Laboon, and the crew that left him to sail the seas. It was honorable, Hermione decided, to leave the baby whale somewhere safe, so he wasn't hurt on the assumed dangerous voyage.

"Point me: Laboon's crew." Hermione muttered under her breath as she heard the tale. It hurt her to hear, about the crew Sanji assumed to be dead, the man that remained for so long to protect the whale, and about Laboon that cried every day because of the people who would never return. In her hand Hermione's wand spun, and spun, and spun. "That's… interesting." She mused going unnoticed except for the woman who gave her a curious look before swiftly looking away before she caught Hermione's eye.

"Well, they could be lost." Hermione spoke up to the group while showing off her endlessly spinning wand, "if they didn't exist or were dead, my wand wouldn't have moved at all; instead, it seems… confused."

"What?" the crew deadpanned collectively, and Hermione was forced to correct her assumptions again. Perhaps she ought to stop making assumptions.

In great detail, Hermione explained to Luffy's crew, the nameless pair, and Crocus what she was and how she'd come to be there. She saw little harm in them knowing full details, and perhaps it would give a hint to the blue-haired woman if they were matched.

"I'm from another world-" the woman flinched, and Hermione frowned deeply at her, wondering over the reaction "-and I'm a witch. I'm was born with an energy that I can bend to my will and create impossible feats with. Anything you can imagine I can do with minor limitations and enough time to figure it out."

The crew stared at her with utter awe in their eyes, among other things. Nami appeared to have more greed in her gaze than wonder, but she was a pirate. The others looked simply curious or excited in Luffy's case. Better than Hermione expected from Muggles anyway. "I came in search of my soulmate, myself, and my dearest friend left our world to find out other halves." She glanced at the blue-haired woman again, but she was looking away once more.

"The spell I just used is called a point-me, which as long as it exists in some capacity and isn't shielded should have pointed to what I asked for, in this case, Laboon's crew. It points, so it exists. But the wand won't settle, which means I cannot gain the location. Likely meaning it's shielded." And it was curious that something that could shield against magic existed in this world.

"Hm, a compass then. Magical in nature, but a compass… no surprise, it won't work."

To that, everyone looked to Crocus, Nami was the first to ask his meaning.

"What do you mean by that?" she pulled a compass from her pockets, which spun as Hermione's wand had.

And she screamed.

Holly and Nojiko sat in the distance, attempting to give Sirius some privacy as he walked up the hill toward Bell-mère grave. Side-by-side, and standing closer to Nojiko's home, Holly and Nojiko watched. Both of them waited until Sirius was out of hearing range before speaking, Nojiko beginning first as she said: "Do you know there a legend in our world."

Nojiko glanced at the black-haired girl by her side, the girl who could have been her sister in another life. Younger as Nami was. Nojiko regretted that she knew nothing about the teenager, but was relieved that Holly had not suffered what Nami and the village had. Little did she know what Holly had faced instead.

"About?" Holly asked as Sirius collapsed in the dirt beside the grave. At the grave of the woman that should have been his. At the resting place of the woman who never would because of the cruelty of monsters.

"It says those that lose each other still have a chance." Nojiko watched as Sirius reached forward, hand ghosting toward the headstone, then she confessed her truth: "I… I'm frightened to have hope in that legend, now that it's suddenly so close."

"How does that work?" Holly and Nojiko could not look away from Sirius as she asked her question.

"Apparently, it has something to do with untimely deaths and the god's kindness. Supposedly if you earn enough good karma, then the gods offer you a chance at happiness, at heaven on earth or so they say." Nojiko gave Holly a side-long look, "It comes from a legend of a hero in ancient times… a story for children really. The story is of a knight who saved the world by defeating a great enemy. Who in the process lost the love of his life. The other half of his soul. The gods, in thanks for his acts, offered him the option to return her to life and brought them together once more."

Holly couldn't bare to look at Nojiko as she spoke of an entirely different story: "That's… kinder than the tale we have we have. Our children's stories speak about three brothers who tried to defy Death. One attempted to bring his love back with a stone he tricked out of Death's hands. But the tale ends with both of their deaths because she was never truly alive, and he couldn't bare to be parted from her."

"Morbid…"

"I like your story better too." Holly forced a small laugh trying not to think about the fact that Sirius had helped her save the world.

Knelt in the dirt, Sirius came to a realization. He would never meet his soulmate. He… he hadn't realized he'd never accepted that fact. He'd thought he'd adjusted to it, but facing her grave, he realized the truth. He hadn't.

Sirius had not moved on from that moment. He could still- it felt like he was still there.

The timer ticked down in front of his face, his feet dug into the stone as he screamed himself hoarse for the guards. Dementors, four of them to start but more coming every second, swirled over him like a pack of wolves. He was screaming in denial and panic as their clawed hands cut through his numbers. They dragged at the words only he should be able to see, pulling points from his total in great bloody chunks. Greedily they inhaled, his soul brutally protested, and in the distance, a woman was screaming-

He heard James and Lily's voices blaming him for their deaths and everything their daughter suffered as a result. He heard Pettigrew taunting him. Remus snarling, biting, cursing. Voldemort's laughter and Crouch sentencing him to Azkaban without a trial.

He beat at the button that would revive his soulmate, but his hand went straight through it, and his palm met the dementor's claws. Touching them shot ice into his very soul. It froze him solid, and he knew without a doubt that there was absolutely nothing he could do.

You'll die.

She's dead.

James hates you. Lily cursed you as she died.

Holly will suffer every day of her existence.

Voldemort will win

AND IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT-

Sirius screamed as the dementor batted his hand away and snatched the glittering letters from his vision. Pulled them away- stole them!

[Zero]

She was dead.

That was the day he'd genuinely gone insane. The day he'd truly given up hope, that was the day his focus slid entirely toward revenge, even to the point that he forgot Holly needed him.

Knelt before her grave, Sirius could still feel the cold in his soul and the dementors swirling around him laughing as they dragged on his points. The short respite from traveling worlds was gone, and it left him colder than ever. He could picture it, a woman with wine hair splayed out on the ground as two children wept over her body. As a man more shark than human counted down and laughed as the timer finally ended. As he taunted the children with the knowledge that their mother's soulmate hadn't loved her enough to save her.

Bell-mère. Sirius' soulmate had been doomed regardless of the dementors' touch. He couldn't have revived her even if he tried, she would have died again even if he had the points to revive.

Sirius dug his hands into the dirt. He'd never touch her, never love her, never grow old with her. Her dislikes and likes, her quirks, none of it would be his to know. He knew it. But… he'd still thought, maybe. But no, Sirius had no hope.

The universe was cruel.

He swiped at his eyes hand, reaching out for her name, the other sank into the earth as if he could touch her. Then he whispered his truth: "I would have given you everything. Anything you desired… I would have found a way to get it to you… our wedding, I would have pulled out all the stops." tears struck the dirt. "Lily would have been so jealous that we'd have outshone them… but she'd be happy because Holly would have a little brother or sister to call her own. We'd have raised them together, in this world, or mine, as long as we were happy… and I'd have taught them magic." He bowed his head: "Everything I'd do… every point I got, it would have been yours."

Shakily he pulled his hand from her headstone and did what he hadn't since her death. He opened his point page. "I helped save the world you know… I would have enough to give you anything you… wanted…" he trailed off as he saw it. An option was lit up-

He couldn't breathe.

[Revive?]

That wasn't possible- that wasn't- How?

Sirius reached up and tapped the option and saw it was real. He… it really was there. His hands were shaking, shaking more than they ever had before, as he reached up, as he pressed the glowing white 'Y' before his eyes and- his points dropped to nothing. He'd given them all up in an instant just as he'd promised.

And the ground under him started to shake.

Sirius staggered backward as Holly yelled his name. The girls rushed forward as the headstone split, and a godly light blinded them all. Sirius covered his eyes, seeing it even behind his eyelids. He heard Holly and Nojiko yell in confusion and alarm. When the light vanished as abruptly as it had appeared. The moment it was safe, he wrenched his eyes open and saw her.

She lay limp on the dirt, dark red hair splayed out, and clothes long deteriorated. But as Sirius watched, her chest rose and fell with breath. She was alive. His soulmate was-

"Merlin's balls!" Holly exclaimed from behind him.

"Mom!?" and Nojiko's was second behind, voice fragile with hope.

She was alive.

The universe was cruel, but they were meant to be.

"Circe… thank you."