*I don't take credit for anything from J. 's Harry Potter universe, though the plot line and many characters are my own invention*
6th July 2010
The next morning Violet had woken to her father tapping on her bedroom door asking her to get up, she had dressed quickly in a pretty blue lace dress and the same brown sandals she had worn the previous day, brushed her hair and went to the kitchen for breakfast.
She was shocked to find her father already dressed in his best jeans and a blue and white striped polo shirt at the dining table. They ate breakfast in silence and as she put her cereal bowl in the sink her father set his coffee cup down on the table looking at his watch.
"9:15, we best get moving" he said nervously "best not be late"
Violet nodded and followed him out the door and to the car, not voicing her surprise at her fathers words, he only ever cared about being on time when it came to work and her grandmother.
Ten minutes later they had parked the car and were standing outside of a small café in the heart of London, her father sipping at a coffee he had ducked inside to buy.
"hey Violet!" called a voice from behind them.
Violet turned around to see Teddy walking towards her with her uncle Harry and her aunt Ginny, Teddys normally brown hair shone a vivid blue in the morning sunshine.
"hi Teddy, you died your hair?" she greeted him, too nervous about the day ahead to sound too friendly.
"uh… kinda…I'll explain later" Teddy said quickly glancing around as he spoke.
"Harry" her father nodded, greeting her uncle "so where do we go now?"
"just across the street!" her uncle replied happily as he checked both ways and crossed the road, the rest of the group following his lead.
Once across the street they approached a very dark, dingy looking old pub, it seemed to Violet as though the people walking past didn't even see it, she could just imagine her grandmothers reaction to the dirty looking building.
"never noticed this place" her father said as they walked through the door one at a time "its on the way to work too"
"you wouldn't" her uncle said as he closed the door behind him "this is an inn for magical people, it's designed to only be noticed by those who know it's here"
The group followed Ginny through the pub, past the bar where she waved kindly to the blonde woman drying glasses and out a door at the back into a cramped little alley where her uncle took out his wand and tapped one of the bricks in the wall. Violet watched on in amazement as the wall clunked and grinded, each brick moving to form a large archway.
"welcome to Diagon Alley!" said Teddy from beside Violet, almost shouting with excitement.
"we'll have to go to Gringotts first" her uncle said to his wife before turning to her dad and adding "that's our bank, Ginny will take Teddy down to his family's vault and stop in at ours, and I'll help you convert your money"
"convert? You lot have your own money?" her father asked, clearly surprised by this fact.
"her uncle simply nodded as they walked towards a huge white building which towered over the rest of the shops, they climbed its steps and entered the doors as Teddy was chattering excitedly about wanting to visit the joke shop they had passed.
Twenty minutes later they had converted their money and were making their way through various shops purchasing violets school supplies as they went, they'd already gotten her robes, books, a large trunk and most of her equipment, all she still needed was her wand.
The three of them sidled into a dark and dusty shop where her uncle Harry approached the counter.
"ah young master Potter, how wonderful to see you again, you haven't broken your wand have you?" came the voice of a terribly old gentleman with small wisps of white hair tucked behind his ears.
"no sir it's still as good as ever, I'm actually here for a wand for someone else, Mr. Ollivander, I'd like you to meet my cousin, Dudley Dursley and his daughter Violet, Violet will be starting at Hogwarts this school term and will be needing a wand!" her uncle responded with a laugh.
"Good morning miss Dursley, Mr. Dursley" the old man said addressing them "why don't you and Mr. Dursley take a seat Harry, this could take a while"
The two men happily obliged as the old man beckoned violet to step up to the counter.
"which is your wand arm dear?" the old man asked.
"um, I'm right handed" she replied unsure if this was the correct answer, her uncle nodded in reassurance.
After taking several strange measurements with a funny little tape measure the old man turned and began pulling several long thin boxes from the stacks all around him, the old man started handing them to her one by one, after she had taken the third and had it swiped back by him in a hurry when nothing happened as a result of her waving them around, violet started to worry that there had been a mistaken and she wasn't a witch after all just as she had become sure that it was all real. She was reassured however when she heard her uncle explaining to her dad that the old man was just looking for the right wand and that at least nothing was exploding.
Finally, he handed her a long, brown, slightly bent wand with a pointed tip and a round ball at the end of the grooved handle, as she took it from him she felt a sudden warmth in her fingertips slowly creeping across the span of her hand, instinctively she raised her hand and gave it a smooth wave, leaving a pattern of red and gold sparks trailing in the air behind it.
She could tell this was a good thing by the grin on both her uncle and the old mans faces.
"wonderful, wonderful indeed!" proclaimed Mr. Ollivander beaming at her happily "Cypress, dragon heartstring core, rigid flexibility, you should find my dear, that this is a noble and loyal wand, you should be honoured to have been chosen by it"
Her father paid for her wand, which was now tucked carefully back in its box and wrapped in paper and they made their way out of the shop.
"we still have a bit of time to kill before we have to meet Ginny, why don't we go look at Magical Menagerie? It's a pet shop, students are allowed take a pet to school with them, you'd remember my owl Hedwig Dudley" her uncle half asked half stated, to which her father nodded.
They walked a while down the alley and sidled into a small shop filled with noise and animals, there where owls, cats, toads rats and many other types of animals all around the store.
Violet, who had forgotten that part of her letter started wandering around the shop looking at its offerings, the letter had said she could bring an owl, a cat or a toad, she didn't like cats much and was petrified of frogs, so started automatically looking at the owls.
Her wandering eyes rested upon a beautiful white owl with cinnamon coloured markings on its wings and face, there was something beautiful about it that she simply couldn't draw her gaze away.
"would you like a closer look dear?" asked the woman who had been behind the counter as she walked towards her.
She nodded politely and the woman called the owl down from its perch.
"her name is Dahlia" the woman told her as she held out an arm for the owl to perch on, violet reached up and stroked her gently on the wing, the owl cooing in appreciation.
"she's beautiful" came her uncles voice from behind her, violet turned to face her uncle smiling broadly "your father has said that I can buy your pet if you'd like, it doesn't have to be an owl if you'd rather a cat or a toad, owls are more practical though as they can carry your mail"
"I'd really like her, if that's okay uncle Harry?" she said as the owl hopped from the woman arm to violets hand.
"we'll take her then" her uncle said to the woman and moved to the counter to pay for her.
They put Dahlia in the cage that came with her and left the shop, violet grinning from ear to ear as they headed back down the alley towards the joke shop to meet Teddy and aunt Ginny.
Teddy was as excited about Violet getting an owl as she was when he saw her. He had even told her excitedly that they could write until they went to school in September, Violet liked this idea as she had heaps of questions for him.
They entered the joke shop and Teddy, aunt Ginny and uncle Harry went straight to the counter to greet the tall, thin, red headed man behind the counter, Violet and her dad following behind them. The mans eyes lit up like light bulbs when he saw the first three.
"Gin! Harry! And Teddy! How are you doing young man? Where are the other kids?" he asked of Ginny and Harry.
"with mum and dad" Ginny smiled.
"we've brought my cousin and his daughter with us, you remember my cousin Dudley right?" Harry grinned, gesturing towards Violet and her father.
"oh yes!" grinned the man, this seemed to make her father blush from ear to ear "sorry about last time mate, this is your daughter then?"
Her father only nodded in response.
"and carrying an owl too, geez! Bet that was a big old shock for you mate!" the tall man said to her father grinning even wider.
"oh stop it George!" Ginny snapped at the man "Violet, Dudley, this is my brother George, he owns this shop, and yes George, Violet here is off to Hogwarts this term.
"well we best make sure you and Teddy both have plenty of supplies then!" declared George as he set off around the shop, slipping them both a bunch of items while their parents stood by the counter talking.
"don't look at it till you get on the train okay you two? Especially you Teddy, there's a couple new things in there that Ginny wouldn't like and your grandmother definitely wouldn't like, Teddy will explain it all to you on the train to school okay violet?" he said to them in hushed tones after leading them around the shop for half an hour.
Finally, they all set off out of the shop, heading for the pub they had entered the alley through, where they had all agreed to have lunch before separating and heading home.
Ten minutes later they were all sat around a table in the cool air of the pub looking at menus, relieved to put all their shopping down for a while.
"oh Harry, Ginny, how wonderful to see you! And Teddy Lupin! Excited to go back to school?" the blonde woman that aunt Ginny had waved to on their way into the alley said as she approached the table and handed them all menus. Teddy replied and after a short chat the woman hurried off back to the bar as an old wizard sitting there in a stool was getting impatient.
"Hannah Abbott" uncle Harry explained to her dad apologetically "we went to school with her"
"did you say Abbott?" her father asked uncle Harry curiously, turning his gaze to the blonde witch behind the bar in an odd way.
"yeah I did, why?" uncle harry replied.
"well its just…" he started slowly, glancing at Violet with an odd look painted on his face "that was Abigail's last name, before we got married y'know, and she looks very similar to her…"
Uncle Harry turned his attention to the blonde witch appraisingly then back to her dad and slowly to her.
"it's not likely Dudley, they would have been around the same age but I don't remember Hannah having any family at school" he said carefully "I'll ask her when she comes back though, if you'd like?"
Her dad nodded and turned his attention to the menu, soon they had all decided what to have when the woman returned, she took their orders and turned to leave but uncle harry stopped her before she walked away.
"Hannah, this is my cousin Dudley, and his daughter Violet, Violet's starting at Hogwarts this year" he said carefully
"oh congratulations!" she said turning to Violet.
"which brings me to a question, its…well its going to sound very odd" uncle harry started slowly, continuing when the woman nodded to indicate he could ask "well, Dudley's not a wizard, and as far as we know his wife wasn't a witch, though she sadly passed a few years ago so we can't be certain, her family name was Abbott, and see she looked really quite similar to you Hannah, we were just wondering, if she was your sister or perhaps your cousin or something of the sort"
"I never had a sister Harry" she said before a long moment of consideration "I don't know about a cousin though, my father never spoke of his side of the family you see, they really didn't approve of him marrying my mum, being a muggle and all… how's this, I'll send him an owl tonight when I close up, see if he knows anything, and I'll let you know whatever he says?"
"that would be wonderful Hannah, thank you" uncle harry answered before she headed back to the bar.
An hour later they were all making their way back out the door they had entered through that morning, Teddy and Violet following a few steps behind, discussing the ins and outs of owl post.
"then you just tie it carefully to the leg, and send her on her way, as long as you put the name and address it'll get there, try sending me something tonight and I'll send one back with my owl Aurora, she's pretty old cause she was my dad's but she's still wonderful" Teddy said to her excitedly "I'll see you on the train anyway! Bye Violet!"
Violet hugged her aunt and uncle when they reached her father's car and her dad thanked them for their help before they got in the car and parted ways.
Once they were home her dad dragged her new trunk up the stairs and into the living room while violet pulled all her new school supplies up behind him, putting them in her bedroom while her father stored the large trunk in the spare room.
She placed her wand, telescope, potions kit and cauldron in the bottom of her wardrobe for safe keeping, she put her package of robes and school clothes on top of her dresser and neatly stacked all of her school books on her desk, finally she placed Dahlias cage on top of the book case by her bedroom window which she opened wide to give Dahlia some fresh air.
"dad said I can let you out when it gets dark" she told the owl gently "you can take a note to Teddy for me"
With that she picked up the most interesting looking of the books 'A History of Magic' by someone called Bathilda Bagshot, laid down on her bed, opened the book and started reading, her novel sat on her bedside cupboard, completely forgotten.
Hours passed as she read intently about Goblin wars and witch burnings, she'd learnt about the burnings in the school she had already gone to, but the recounts were very different, she giggled in particular about Wendelin the Weird who enjoyed being burnt so much that she got caught forty-seven times.
It wasn't until her father called her for dinner that she tore herself away from the book, she went to the dinner table where they ate every night and found that her dad had ordered Chinese food in.
"so what have you been reading all afternoon?" her dad asked as he sat down across from her "I heard you giggling away like a loony, must be good whatever it is"
"one of my school books, it's actually my history book, it's all very interesting and a little bit funny" she responded.
"how so?" her father asked, appraising her almost uncomfortably.
"well, there's a whole chapter about witch burning in the fourteenth century, just like in normal history books, but it's the magical side" she started, noticing her father glance towards the window by the table to make sure it was shut "well, they actually did happen, and they often burnt the right people, thing is, they had magic didn't they, but they knew they couldn't fly away because of the laws about revealing themselves as magical, so they put a spell on the flames to make them cold and just thrashed about and screamed for a while to make them think they were dead and then escaped later on, but apparently the spell made the flames tickle a bit and this one witch liked it so much she got caught forty seven times so she could get burnt! On purpose!"
"well that is a little funny isn't it" her father chuckled quietly.
They continued talking while they ate the rest of their dinner, her father seeming to actually be interested in what she had read in her book.
When they had both finished eating her father took both of their plates and put them in the sink.
"I have work in the morning don't forget, I don't want you to sleep in all day okay?" he said as he started washing up the dishes "remember not to let your owl out during the day, and if you're going to sit outside to read make sure Mrs. Williams doesn't see anything odd on your book okay? There's loads of leftover food in the fridge you can eat if you want. D'you want a cup of tea before you go back into your room?"
"yes please" she replied, noticing how tired her dad looked as he put the kettle on to boil "are you okay dad?"
"yeah" he replied slowly "you remind me more and more of your mother every day you know…I just miss her"
She looked up at the photo of her mother on the dining room wall, her long curly blonde hair flowing to her waist and blue sparkling eyes smiling down at her.
"I miss her too dad…" she said quietly as he handed her a cup of tea.
"I know sweetheart, I'll be alright" he said, kissing her gently on the forehead "you can let your owl out now if you like, just don't stay up too late writing notes to Teddy…or reading"
"thanks dad" she said as she got up and carried her cup of tea to her room.
She picked up a pen and opened the stationary set her grandmother had gotten her last Christmas and hastily wrote a note to Teddy
Teddy,
I hope I get this right, it feels very strange, I wanted to send this hours ago but dad said to wait till it got dark, reckons it'd look funny to the neighbours having a bird flying around in the day time.
Dad seems in an odd mood, he's barely said anything all afternoon and he ordered dinner in, he normally only does that every second Friday.
Anyway, send something back soon, I hope this doesn't take ages.
Violet
She placed the note into a blue envelope from the stationary set and addressed it to Teddy, 12 Grimmauld place, London then took the envelope and slowly approached Dahlias cage, she opened the door carefully and removed the beautiful bird from the cage. Dahlia hooted happily and held out her leg as though she knew exactly what Violet wanted to do, she carefully attached the envelope to her leg and asked her politely to please take it to Teddy then hurry back before turning back to her book.
About half an hour later a pretty tawny owl landed on her windowsill where Dahlia had perched herself 15 minutes ago.
"hello" she greeted it quietly "you must be Aurora"
She carefully took the note attached to the birds leg, gave her a little pat and off she flew, Violet opened the note and eagerly read it.
Violet,
You did perfect! And your dads right, it would look funny, Harry and Ginny try not to send owls in the day too, we can at Hogwarts though!
Harry said that Miss. Abbott (the lady at the pub) seemed to freak your dad out a bit, they think she might be related to your mum somehow, don't worry, Harry will figure it out, he's good at stuff like that.
Teddy
She wrote a quick note back asking Teddy what the word 'muggle' meant, she'd heard the lady at the pub use it and it had popped up in a history of magic a few times, then sent Dahlia on her way again.
She spent the rest of the night reading her book and sending notes back and forth to Teddy, who said he was doing some homework. His last note for the night said he was going home to his grandmother's house in the morning but that they could keep writing to each other if she wanted, just send it to 22 pine drive, Ditchling, East Sussex, England, the owls would take a bit longer but they'd appreciate the extra flying time, he had explained.
With a great yawn Violet turned to her alarm clock to find that it was 2 am, she reached over and turned off her lamp, rolled over and fell quickly to sleep.