Hi y'all! Thanks for reading and I just wanted to give a should out to my dear friend and Beta, KarouWinchester67! Enjoy!

The castle was larger than anything Violeta had ever witnessed while at Durmstrang. The staircases moved whenever they pleased, the paintings that filled the castle walls were all alive and chattered amongst themselves as if it was a constant party. Violeta wondered if they ever slept, or even just quit their yapping long enough for anyone to even think themselves. She was happy to see though that the closer they got to the Slytherin Dungeon, the less portraits were hung and those that were tended to be asleep or too grouchy to mutter anything besides a few random snarky remarks.

Violeta had tried to remember which turns and staircases to take as Draco lead her from the Great Hall to the Dungeon, but she was so tired from the large meal and the newness of the school that she found herself struggling to keep up. Thankfully, her roommate Daphne saw her distress and promised that in the morning she'd help Violeta to the Great Hall. With relief, Violeta allowed herself to take in her surroundings of her new home.

"The girls' dormitories are to the right and the boys are to the left. Each year has their own bathroom to share and the third years and up only have from one to two roommates, a perk of being a Slytherin." Blaise had an odd smile on his face that Violeta found intriguing, but she just nodded and looked around the common room. The fireplace held a crackling, warm fire that lit up the dark room. The windows didn't appear to bring in much light, and upon further inspection, Violeta noticed that the color from the window appeared murky green.

"The Dungeons are underneath the school, so the windows show the lake." Daphne said when she saw Violeta looking. The common room was larger and warmer than anything at Durmstrang; filled with tired and full bellied students in large comfortable chairs and couches, recounting the stories of their summers. Others sat at tables, playing Wizard's Chess and Exploding Snap before they would retire to their own warm beds. The wooden floors had green and silver rugs that looked ancient, and yet new at the same time. Well-kept relics, Violeta thought.

"I'm sorry to spoil the fun, but I'm about to fall asleep standing up. I believe it is time for bed." Violeta yawned. Daphne smiled at Violeta and hooked her arm through the other girls, an action that took Violeta by such surprise that, even in her sleepy stupor, her eyes bolted open and her body tensed up.

"Goodnight boys!" Daphne waved at Draco and Blaise who were in a deep discussion about the new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor and failed to return the gesture. Daphne, rolling her eyes, pulled Violeta towards the dorm they would share for the year.

The room was large and held two beds, two desks, two dressers and one of their trunks at the end of each bed. Violeta's kitten and Daphne's cat were curled up together on one of the beds and there was silver and green bedding and curtains on each bed.

Violeta noticed only briefly that the animals had been asleep on Daphne's bed before she changed into her pajamas and settled into her own bed. Her kitten, Millie, jumped up and fell asleep quickly against Violeta's shoulder and, before she knew it, it was morning.

"Rise and shine!" Daphne pulled back Violeta's curtain and Millie jumped off of Violeta, waking the new girl quite quickly.

"Urmggg!" Violeta groaned into her pillow. The warmth of her bed was not something she was willing to give up just yet.

"You need to shower before breakfast. C'mon." Daphne poked Violeta until she finally gave in and got out of bed grumpily.

"Are you saying I smell, Greengrass?" Violeta demanded playfully.

"No, but your hair is quite a mess, I recon." The girls gathered their fluffy Hogwarts robes and towels before making their way to the shared bathroom, something else that fascinated Violeta about Hogwarts.

The ancient tile that covered the bathroom's floor was strangely appealing to Violeta, despite the colors only being different shades of silver and gray. The walls were the same brick that the rest of the castle was made of minus the portraits, and each stall held a shower and tub, shelves to hold towels or clothes, and a hook to hang up a jacket or robe. Shower products like conditioner and shampoo were provided and a spell had been performed so that the product was different based on each person's needs. The water was hot, but unlike at Durmstrang, the rest of the building was also warm, so Violeta didn't avoid getting out of the shower until the last possible minute like she used to.

Her uniform was relatively comfortable, made up of a black sweater and skirt with black stockings, the silver and green of Slytherin showing on the crest at her left shoulder and at the hem of her skirt. She wore her own black combat boots, her favorite part of the Durmstrang uniform, and let her hair dry into its usual curls before following Daphne down to the Great Hall for breakfast.

"You nervous?" Daphne asked. Violeta shrugged.

"Only about getting lost, and possibly if the subjects are different here than at Durmstrang." They had arrived at the Great Hall and were walking to their seats at the Slytherin table when Violeta had a sudden odd feeling take over. She looked over her shoulder and saw the boy who must have been Harry Potter staring at her. She made eye contact with him and neither looked away for a few moments.

"Oh sod off Potter!" Violeta heard Draco yell. She looked at her friend and sat silently to eat breakfast, but the odd feeling in the pit of her stomach was hard to ignore. She buttered some toast and ate quietly, listening to the conversation around her and blaming the nervousness on the first day of classes when anyone asked.

"Angelov, Violeta!" a tall man with dark greasy hair and black robes called her name. Violeta recognized him as Severus Snape, another family friend and Draco's Godfather. She smiled at the man slightly and got a nod back, Snape's way of saying hello to someone he actually liked while maintaining his steely appearance. He handed Violeta her timetable and then walked away to give someone else at the table theirs. She looked down to study her schedule but was soon overwhelmed with all the new places she'd have to learn to get to.

History of Magic, Binns

Transfiguration, McGonagall

Charms, Flitwick

Potions, Snape

Lunch

Defense Against the Dark Arts, Lupin

Astronomy, Sinistra

Herbology, Sprout

Care of Magical Creatures, Hagrid

Violeta studied her timetable with confusion, never having to have studied Astronomy or Care of Magical Creatures before.

"Ugh, they must hate us this year!" Pansy complained. "Slytherin has History of Magic first thing! How do they expect us to stay awake!" she said shrilly.

"Professor Binns is the only ghost teacher, and he's incredibly boring." Blaise explained. "I hope we survive and don't turn into ghosts ourselves. Get it? Die from boredom?" Blaise was the only one to laugh at his joke and when people started giving him odd looks, he responded with, "What? It was funny." And then returned to his eggs.

When it was finally time for classes to start, Daphne lead Violeta to the classroom that Professor Binns had occupied for nearly 150 years now. The dust was thicker on the shelves, but that was the only way to ascertain that any time had passed. Violeta agreed with the statement that Binns was boring, but she had already learned about the particular topic of the day's lesson so she let herself doze off. Transfiguration was somewhat better, but she saw McGonagall noticed her advanced abilities; and later caught sight of McGonagall making a note to talk to the other professors seeing if she could be put into other classes.

Charms was always fun for Violeta, at Durmstrang it was almost like their recess. The spells for charms were often easy and silly, unlike the dark arts that the Durmstrang students were so often focused on. Violeta found herself learning new charm spells and was overjoyed with the class, including their professor, who stood all of 7/8 of a meter tall. Potions was delightful as well, as Violeta often enjoyed Snape's company and found it very amusing as he chastised the other students mercilessly. Lunch was next but before Violeta could leave, Snape pulled her aside.

"Yes Professor?" she asked.

"Dumbledore has made it my business to teach you Occlumency on the side since we do not have it here as a class." He drawled. "We will meet Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, after dinner in my office. You may go." He dismissed Violeta with a small smile and she made her way to the Great Hall for lunch, only getting lost twice. Her afternoon classes were boring, the only fun being passing notes in class between her, Blaise, Draco, and Daphne, who were planning to sneak into the kitchen that night for cakes and other goodies.

Violeta was sitting in the Great Hall at dinner when an owl landed on her shoulder, dropping a letter addressed to her in a familiar neat scrawl. She gave the owl a piece of her meal before opening the letter, one she knew was from her mother.

My Dear Violeta,

How is school my darling? Your father and I miss you very much. We've already started planning where we should go on your Christmas vacation. Do you want to go somewhere tropical or someplace we can enjoy the snow? I'm thinking tropical, maybe Aruba or Bali. Anyways, we are very proud of you for stepping up and switching schools when we needed you to without any complaints. We sent you a gift separate, it should be coming soon after this letter, we sent it with your father's owl since he's stronger. Don't hesitate to write us, my love, for you know I've got nothing much to do when you've gone except redo the manor and order clothes and robes and whatnot. Your father is working with your Uncle on a new project and so he's gone a lot, keeping me quite in the dark. We love you.

Mum and Father

Violeta smiled to herself, missing her mother. A few moments later, her father's owl Breeden showed up with a package for her. She ruffled his feathers softly and gave him a small kiss on the top of his head before feeding him a piece of her meat pie. He flew away and Daphne and Draco watched as she opened the package.

"Shit!" Violeta cursed, realizing she should have opened the package in private view, not public. The box had the emblem of the Dark Lord on it, a family symbol according to her father. Violeta tucked the box under her robes and lead Draco, Daphne, and a curious Blaise, down to their common room. When they were comfortably seated at one of the tables, she continued to open the package.

"Why is that symbol on there?" Daphne hissed. Draco and Violeta exchanged a look but were silent.

"You work for Him?" Blaise's eyes widened, but again there was no reply. Violeta just took a deep breath and continued to open the box. There was a note that she handed to Draco to read, trusting his eyes only at this moment, and then opened a small jewelry box with a silver ring inside. The ring had an emerald set in it and her initials carved into the metal in a thin kind calligraphy. The inside of the ring held the dark mark, a reminder to Violeta as to who she really was.

"Read this later." Draco told her, handing her back the letter. Daphne and Blaise had paled suddenly, and Violeta's light eyes flashed them a warning.

She knew three things for certain. Her Uncle was coming back. Her Uncle was her real father, sending her to live with Stoyan and Sarah Angelov for safety. And her real father was Lord Voldemort.