For Violet, the exams were unexpectedly a doddle. The written portions of each subject she absolutely flew through, and she found certain aspects of the practicals relatively challenging but nothing she couldn't handle. Even with Snape breathing down the backs of their necks in the Potions final she still got through it easily enough.

Defence Against the Dark Arts was a bit of an interesting one on the other hand. It didn't matter that she and Harry were more prepared than even Hermione for that one, but the Boggart at the end of the obstacle course that Lupin had set up for them left Violet shaken. Despite that, she still received full marks and was delighted to hear that Harry had done so as well.

She tried her best to not let the Boggart get to her again, but it reared its ugly head later on.

The moonlight trickled in between the branches of the trees, leaving patches of silver that Violet hopped between quite happily while giggling. This was her favourite place at her favourite time of night. She should have been in bed - it had gone eight o'clock - but she'd managed to sneak downstairs and out the back door of the house without her parents noticing. She hoped.

The woods at the back of her house were always empty - day or night. Violet loved that. She realised she'd probably get into trouble for sneaking out for a wander this late, but nobody else ventured down here except for her. Either way, she never wandered so far that she couldn't see her house. As long as she could see her house, it was fine.

A snapping twig brought her out of her sweet, childish thoughts, and she stopped dead in a patch of moonlight. Slowly, she backtracked into the shadow of a nearby tree and tried her best to hide; it was of no use, however, as what had made the noise was not bound by human nature.

What she knew to be a Werewolf with bright, glowing eyes crept towards her. It wasn't snarling at her by any means, but it was curious. Its teeth were still on show.

Violet backed against the tree entirely and squeezed her eyes shut tight. Her palms were sweating so she clenched her hands closed. She held her breath for as long as she dared, trying not to cry when she could feel the Werewolf's breath on her, sniffing her.

Then it was gone.

Heart pounding, Violet opened her eyes and ran back to her house.

Violet awoke in a cold sweat.

It had been a long time since she had dreamed of that.

She sat up in bed and allowed her eyes to get adjusted to the dark. She stared down at her shaking hands, willing them to remain still. Violet took a few deep, shuddery breaths, trying to push the image of the curious Werewolf out of her mind. Somehow the memory of it seemed far worse now that she knew it was Lupin.

She knew she wasn't going to be able to get back to sleep, and the urge to go find Lupin and seek some form of comfort and talk to him became far too strong to ignore. It had come on suddenly, and it irritated her. She sat there for a few minutes internally debating whether or not to sneak out and find him, with her fear of the memory taking over and winning out for her to go to his sleeping quarters.

Violet quietly got out of bed and slipped on a pair of trainers and her dressing gown, keeping it tied loose around her so that she could at least air out the sweat on her chest. Grabbing her wand, she crept out of the dormitory and down into the Common Room.

"Lumos," she hissed and took her leave through the portrait hole.

She knew deep down it was stupid to go and find Lupin at this time of night, and she was worried about getting caught by Filch or another teacher.

Either way, she headed in the vague direction of where it was rumoured that all the teachers who didn't have Houses to look after slept. It was at an almost middle level in the castle; in a part that Violet had rarely gone in somewhere along the fifth floor.

There was in fact a whole corridor of rooms, each with a labelled door. She had to stroll quite some way until she finally found Lupin's room, relieved that not a single teacher had been out and about to catch her.

She knocked three times and waited patiently.

A few minutes later a very weary Lupin answered, tying a robe around himself over the top of some pinstripe pyjamas. The moment he saw Violet, he became more immediately alert.

"What are you doing here?!" he hissed angrily. "You shouldn't be out of bed after hours!"

This wasn't exactly the reaction she had been expecting, but at the very least understood it. "I - I dreamt about it again," she told him with a wobbly voice. "First time in years."

His face softened when he heard the shakiness in her voice, and pulled the door open wider for her to enter. Lupin went to grab his wand so he could set a fire going, and the moment that light flooded the room, Violet whispered "nox" and put her wand away.

She stared around the room, already feeling her fear beginning to ebb away. It was a cosy room, with a large soft looking bed tucked away in one corner, two armchairs and a small table in front of the fireplace, a wardrobe in another corner, and another larger table underneath some cupboards that Violet was certain had a variety of snacks and teas in. She went to look out the window to find that there was quite a nice view of the grounds; she could see Hagrid's Hut from here.

"It's been months since you realised I was the Werewolf," there was a tone of confusion in Lupin's voice as he set about making Violet a hot drink. "Why now?"

Violet shrugged. "Probably the Boggart at the end of our exam today," she said. "It's brought it to the forefront of my mind again."

"You know I'll have to tell your parents about this," he warned her. "All of what's happened this year, because I know you've kept it between you and your friends."

Violet shifted uncomfortably from one foot to the other. "I didn't want to worry them from so far away."

"I see…" Lupin didn't quite buy it, but came over to join her at the window and handed her a steaming mug of hot chocolate. He had one for himself too. "This'll help."

Violet took a sip and found an immediate warmth spreading through her body. It felt like she could breathe easy again. She smiled sheepishly at him. "Thank you."

"Any time," he said, then added: "Within reason."

She winced. "Sorry, I… well, I guess it made sense to come to you. I wouldn't have slept again tonight if I hadn't."

"It's quite alright. Drink up and I'll walk you back to Gryffindor Tower once you feel a bit better."

"Are you going to tell them about Dexter and Willmott?" she asked abruptly. "Why did you compare them to me? Because that's why they came after me in the library that day."

Lupin looked guilty as he leaned on the windowsill. "They both have terrible work ethics, for a sixth year and a seventh year. Willmott is failing Defence Against the Dark Arts, and Dexter is lazy. Since I made that admittedly stupid comparison, they have started trying harder."

"Wow, they really do hate being compared to a disgusting little half-blood, don't they?" Violet quipped.

"Violet…"

"I might as well own it." She shrugged, drinking more of the hot chocolate. She didn't notice how Lupin was looking at her sadly, as if he himself was upset that she had resigned to accepting herself to be referred to in that way.

The time passed in silence after that; companionably, as if they were further beginning to understand each other the more they actually tried to talk and spend time with each other. It was a shame that it had to occur while Lupin was a teacher, thus making things more stilted than they needed to be. Eventually Violet finished her hot chocolate and he escorted her back to Gryffindor Tower and wished her luck with her final exam, which happened to be Divination.

Violet said nothing to her friends about the nightmare nor the middle of the night trip to see Lupin about it as it wasn't exactly relevant. They were all far too preoccupied with their final exam: while Violet and the boys waited in the North Tower to be called in for whatever the hell their Divination practical was going to be, Hermione was off elsewhere doing her Muggle Studies exam.

Professor Trelawney was calling them into her classroom one by one in alphabetical order by their surnames. As luck would have it, that meant Violet went before Harry and Ron; she was also more inclined to tell them what was going to happen in the exam. Nobody else before them wanted to say anything, especially not Neville.

If she had put in more effort, Violet would have definitely been getting Outstandings in Divination throughout the year. Only, she had wanted a throwaway subject to take, so flipped back and forth between Exceeds Expectations and Acceptable in terms of her grades.

She certainly hadn't been expecting the exam to be a crystal ball, that was for certain. Trelawney was rather anticipating in nature during the exam, and Violet was ready to make up what she saw in the crystal ball until-

"A wolf," Violet breathed, in shock at herself. "I can see a wolf?"

Trelawney was wringing her hands together. "A wolf? Or perhaps a Werewolf?"

"I - maybe. Maybe it's a Werewolf."

"Just the one?"

Violet's gaze flickered up to Trelawney for a moment before back down to the crystal ball. She studied it again. "Yes. Just the one."

"I see…" The distinct sound of a quill on parchment told Violet that Trelawney was scribbling down a few notes. "Anything else?"

There was, except Violet didn't want to look at it or believe it. She gulped, her hands beginning to tremble in her lap.

"Yes," she said stiffly. "It's changing back into a man. There's blood all over him…"

She tore her eyes away from the crystal ball and stared down at her lap instead, listening to Trelawney writing away on her parchment once more. She waited with bated breath until she could be dismissed; thankfully, that happened sooner rather than later.

Violet had never hurried out of that classroom so quickly; she wanted to get back to her friends as quickly as possible. She found Harry and Ron still sitting in the same spot as they had been fifteen minutes previously, and she practically fell onto them as she tried to join them.

"Are you alright?" Harry asked.

"What was the exam?" Ron asked at the same time.

"Firstly - no; secondly - you have to look into a crystal ball," she hissed at them so nobody else would overhear their conversation. "I was fully prepped to make something up but then… I actually saw something." She shifted uncomfortably, beginning to fiddle with the ends of her hair as she always did when nervous. She stared down at her fidgety fingers, her face growing warm in the realisation that Harry and Ron had their eyes on her and were practically boring into her soul at this point.

They didn't ask any further questions though, and Violet remained sitting there quietly with her friends until they were of course called into their exam.

Harry came out of his rather flustered and on edge, and he waited rather patiently until Ron was done with his exam before saying what on earth had happened. When they met up with Hermione later on in the afternoon he had to repeat himself much to his own chagrin.

"You think she was referring to Sirius Black?" Hermione asked as they headed up to Gryffindor Tower.

He shrugged. "I mean it seems most likely. What do you think?"

"I think we best be keeping an eye out when we go to see Hagrid this evening," Violet said quietly.

"Oh god, it's Buckbeak's execution!" Hermione gasped. "Of course it had to be on the last day of exams… we'll have to be careful; Harry you can't get caught outside after hours!"

"One thing at a time… I'd suggest we worry about Hagrid for now."

Next few chapters are fun, and also wrap up the Prisoner of Azkaban section of this!

Also I keep getting a repeated comment about Lupin being part of Violet's family (which I have responded to privately, but have not gotten a response) so I'll make this obvious here for anyone else who is thinking about it: no, he would not have visited Harry in canon or in this. Dumbledore specifically leaves Harry at the Dursleys so he grows up away from magic and who he is so that he could be told about it at the right age when he would understand it (ergo, his 11th birthday).

After reading a lot about Lupin and his backstory, how lonely he was without his friends, I thought why not integrate other people in there? Characters of my own creation? Violet was the first OC I ever came up with, there have been iterations of this story before where Lupin is a friend of Violet's family but I wanted to give more nuance to that. Therefore, I pepper in things about Violet's parents at Hogwarts, how they would have known Lupin at school etc.

There's no need for Harry to be angry in this about Lupin. Absolutely no need. That's not who he would be. Besides, he'll have Sirius soon, and there's sooo much I have planned about character relationships, canon changes I'm making, what will happen beyond the Battle of Hogwarts etc.

Anyway. Long author's note over. I don't wanna address this again lol.

Comment?

-OL.