Holly Potter and the Midlife Crisis (Hp x Mcu) by Enigmaris

Chapter 50: Fifteen Minutes Late With Starbucks

Summary:

Holly finally meets Peggy, even though she already knew her sort of.
And Hogwarts welcomes four new guests.

The thing was, well, healing someone of Alzheimer's isn't as simple as a wave of a wand and a snap of one's fingers.

Holly had never actually done it before Peggy Carter.

She'd gone to a magic shop, bought a book on magical healing, and had read up on the needed spells and realized that the magic needed was a lot more complicated than she thought. It wasn't as invasive as what Pomphrey had done to Winter but it was by no means totally invasion free. Holly had to go into Peggy's mind and forcibly reform the brain and help replace memories that hadn't gotten loose.

This had resulted in Holly getting a rather good idea of who Peggy Carter was. It was part of the reason she'd pushed Steve so hard to talk to her about his feelings. She knew Peggy could handle them, that she'd be gentle with Steve and help him move on from the love he felt for her.

She also knew Peggy wouldn't take any of Steve's shit, which was just as important.

That was why when she'd taken both men to Peggy's home and the first thing Peggy had mentioned was that she'd had to learn about Winter from Tony, Holly knew Peggy was mad. Peggy was of the opinion that even though she was old and 'retired' that was no excuse for keeping her out of the loop. This was something Holly could understand completely.

So when they'd sat down, Holly had looked in Peggy's eyes and seen the question clear as day.

Would you like to help me punish Steve?

Her answer had been just as clear.

Obviously.

The plan was silently communicated between them and elegant in its simplicity. They would merely pretend to be antagonistic towards each other for as long as it took for Steve to figure it out. First they had a really intense staring contest, then when they got bored of that they started having a conversation that was 100% veiled insults.

"You know Miss Carter you look absolutely beautiful in this light."

"Oh?"

"Yes, there's just so little of it."

And insults like:

"Have you done something with your hair Miss Potter?"

"I cut it recently."

"Well it makes you look so much younger."

Which Holly followed up with:

"Where did you get that dress, Miss Carter?"

"Oh I got it from Nieman Marcus."

"You're so lucky you can shop there." Holly said with a simper. "I'm afraid my waist is far too small for their sizes."

And on and on it went. Steve got stiffer and stiffer the longer the insult game went on. Holly had to bite her cheek to keep from laughing out loud. Winter figured it out pretty quickly. Or so it seemed. He'd calmed down a lot and no longer looked as worried about the whole situation. In all it took Steve about thirty minutes, after Holly made a ridiculous insult about Peggy's sexual history that was far too silly to be taken seriously.

"Hey!" He said. "You guys are messing with me!"

"No, we're not." Peggy said primly. "We just...forgot to mention important personal information is all. Something you're quite familiar with."

Apparently when Steve was embarrassed the tips of his ears turned red. Holly snickered into her dinner while Winter chuckled.

"She told you, huh Steve."