"You know the rules, Miss Granger," Dumbledore said. "You must not be seen. You would do well to return before the last chime. If not, the consequences are too ghastly to discuss. Three turns should do it." He began to head towards the doors of the hospital wing. "And if you succeed, more than one innocent life could be spared…"

He was beginning to close the doors, when another thought struck him.

"And, to be quite plain, you will find Miss Merryworth out there tonight. She won't be too surprised to see you either, I should think. And when in doubt, I find retracing my steps to be a wise choice."

Dumbledore closed the doors, leaving the teenagers in stunned silence. Harry and Ron were far more confused than Hermione was.

"What the bloody hell was that all about?" Ron asked.

"And what did he mean Violet wouldn't be surprised…?" Harry asked.

Hermione resisted rolling her eyes as she pulled the Time Turner out from her shirt.

"All those times when you and my parents thought I wasn't listening over the summer… you were all talking about Sirius, weren't you?" Violet asked Lupin as the rest of them started to filter down into the tunnel. The teacher had Pettigrew bound by ropes and was to be assisted by Violet in leading him through the tunnel back to Hogwarts.

Harry and Sirius had been the first to go down, supporting Ron on his injured leg. Hermione did linger to wait for Violet and Lupin, except they told her to go.

"Yes," Lupin answered, pulling Pettigrew down into the tunnel after Violet had gone into it herself. "We were trying to protect you from what we thought the truth was. Clearly… all three of us were mistaken."

"My parents are going to have a field day with this one," she mused, repeating Lupin's earlier statement and throwing a smirk at him. She'd never done that before, and strangely enough it touched him.

"You know, I can't tell if your mother would be amused or disappointed at the fact you used a charm like that… we're going to have a lot to catch your parents up on this summer…"

Violet winced when he said that. She'd momentarily forgotten that of course she was going to have to inform her parents of all the goings on in her life this year. After all, it had been the first school year she'd had friends. Her sudden silence made Lupin laugh.

"I'll stand your corner, sweet girl, don't worry," he paused. "Between you and me, I may have done the same if I were in your position."

"I take it you didn't get on well with Snape at school…?"

"Definitely not. Admittedly it was James and Sirius who terrorised him the most," Lupin mused. "Although I did have my part to play in it from time to time. They were pretty hard to stop, unfortunately."

"I can't believe you were part of a group of troublemakers!" Violet said.

Lupin laughed. "And I can't believe you're part of one either."

She flushed at that. "Hey, they don't do these things on purpose, you know. They - we - don't terrorise other students! We just… get caught in unfortunate situations?"

"Unfortunate situations is putting it lightly, I think…" Lupin glanced back at Pettigrew.

They came to the head of the tunnel and emerged out onto the grounds at the base of the Whomping Willow. Violet frowned when she realised how still it was, no flailing branches in sight as she noticed Hermione and Ron sitting at the base of it quite comfortably.

"Why isn't it attacking?"

"There's a knot," Lupin said, pointing next to her feet. "If you touch that, it'll keep the tree calm."

She nodded in acknowledgement, which was when Pettigrew decided to throw himself at Ron's feet.

"Get away from him!" Violet hissed at Pettigrew, grabbing him and trying her best to pull him away from Ron. Lupin took over and shoved him to the ground, his wand trained on him at all times. The teacher appeared shocked at Violet's outburst, and she rolled her eyes. "I'm allowed to be angry at a mass murderer trying to grovel at my friend's feet…"

"You know, I have always questioned your placement in Gryffindor; very much unlike your parents in that-" Lupin tensed up and glanced to his left, Violet following his eyeline.

A full moon had risen.

"Uncle Remus?" Violet squeaked before he started to shake and drop his wand. She stood completely frozen to the spot, mere metres away from her professor - her uncle was about to transform into a Werewolf. Hermione called for Harry, and he and Sirius came running back over. In that moment of kerfuffle, Pettigrew transformed back into a rat and disappeared.

As Sirius held onto Lupin, trying his best to soothe him and remind him of who he was, Violet stood there transfixed with horror. She was unable to move, all she could do was watch as her uncle yelled in pain as his body grew taller, his clothes began to tear, and his human nails were replaced by ones that could do some serious damage.

She was brought out of her stupor by Harry taking hold of her sleeve and pulling her back towards him, Ron and Hermione. They stayed together as a group and watched as the now werewolf Lupin threw Sirius to one side.

Violet gripped Harry's hand incredibly tightly as Hermione took a step forward and tried to see if she could get some recognition out of the werewolf. Instead it howled, and Ron just about managed to pull Hermione back to their group.

The werewolf started to come towards them, but then something unlikely happened: Snape came out of the base of the Whomping Willow and made an immediate beeline for Violet.

"You are done for, Merrywo-"

A snarl had Snape turn round and instinctively guard the teens from the dangerous animal as it went to strike.

In the moment that the werewolf went to strike, Violet - for some reason she was uncertain of - pushed Snape out of the way, causing their group to break and fall to the ground as she felt its claws scrape into her shoulder.

The pain was searing and she counted herself lucky that the creature had managed to miss her neck with the way it had hurt her. The momentum from the strike caused Violet to lose her footing and fall, where she rolled into the plants behind and kept rolling and rolling down the hill away from her friends and teacher, all of whom were calling out for her.

The sudden jerking movement down the slope didn't help with the pain in her arm, but eventually she slowed to a stop closer to the edge of the forest. Violet lay there for a few moments, disoriented, and keeping her left arm curled against her chest. Her heart was beating fairly quickly, and Violet knew she was beginning to run on adrenaline. Her jumper was in tatters, and she had reason to believe that helped in the injury not being as bad as it could have been.

"Violet?" A voice hissed from close by. She awkwardly rolled onto her current good side to see Harry was lying on his stomach among the bushes next to her.

She sighed in relief. "Oh thank goodness… you'll have to catch me up."

He frowned at her; that was not quite the reaction he was expecting from someone who was in the midst of bleeding out.

"Er, yeah, come on…" Harry got up and remained crouched, helping Violet to do the same. From there, they headed to the treeline where Hermione was hidden and watching the events unfold. Her eyes widened when she saw the state that Violet was in, after the other two came out of their crouched position and stood up properly.

"You look-"

"Don't," Violet said softly.

Hermione glanced back up to the Whomping Willow, where past-Harry was now chasing after the werewolf and Padfoot.

"We should probably-"

"Yeah," Harry agreed, and the three of them hurried along the treeline as best as they could, keeping a watchful eye on past-Harry at all times.

Past-Harry threw a rock at the werewolf, which then decided to go for him. Hermione cupped her hands around her mouth and let out a howl.

"Hermione - are you joking?!" Violet screeched at her. "What are you doing?"

"Saving Harry's life!"

She howled once more, and the werewolf started bounding towards them.

"Great, now he's coming for us…" Harry said, grabbing the two of them and running deeper into the forest.

"Yeah, I didn't think about that…"

Violet was struggling to keep up with them, and her upper body and left arm were both completely soaked in blood. She was starting to shake - with fear or the fact she was losing blood - and it made running all the more difficult.

The three of them hid behind the trunk of a large tree, all too aware of the fact that the werewolf could easily sniff them out, and Violet's current state wasn't going to help with that. Harry moved his hand to cover Violet's mouth when he noticed her teeth chattering from the amount she was trembling.

Hearing twigs snap to the right of them, they moved around the tree in an attempt to avoid the werewolf. Eventually they heard its footsteps move further away from them, and the three friends stepped out from behind the tree. Harry lowered his hand from her mouth.

Only, they weren't as safe as they thought.

Harry pulled the girls close to him and averted his eyes as it looked like the werewolf was about to come and strike them, when Buckbeak jumped out of nowhere in front of them and fended it off. The Hippogriff was fine, and they were relatively safe again.

At that point, Violet sagged against Harry. He helped her sit down on the ground.

"Are you-"

"No!" she snapped, clutching her shoulder. "Sorry…"

"It's fine… but we can't - we can't take you to the Hospital Wing just yet."

"I know. I'll - I'll out hold till then." She smiled weakly at him, and both Harry and Hermione tried to ignore the fact that she was steadily growing pale in the face.

That was when Buckbeak came a little closer to the three of them and dropped to the ground besides Violet, unfurling one of his wings. She glanced at the Hippogriff curiously, but then Harry was quickly helping her sit on it. Buckbeak stood up straight, and admittedly she felt better not having to be on her own two feet.

"You managed to save him?" she directed the question at Hermione.

"Dumbledore said more than one life could be spared," the other girl replied.

"Thank you," she muttered at Buckbeak, stroking the soft feathers in front of her. Oddly enough she wasn't frightened. She'd never been frightened of Buckbeak, only cautious. She didn't have time to be cautious right now, though.

A cold chill swept over them and the three friends looked up to see a swarm of Dementors heading towards the Black Lake.

While Harry and Hermione ran ahead, Buckbeak carefully trotted behind until they emerged from the trees to see that across the lake, past-Harry and Sirius were having the life drained from them. Dementor after Dementor swept down upon them, and Violet watched on in horror. So this was what she had missed. This was what had happened to her friends before they turned back time. She'd probably ask for more details later.

She was proud of Harry when he produced one of the most powerful Patronuses for a thirteen year old. It cleared the Dementors in the form of a stag. She wondered if one day maybe he would teach her about casting one; it was a fascinating piece of magic…

They retreated back into the trees again and watched as past-Harry and Sirius were taken away by Snape on floating stretchers.

"I - I can't believe that, Harry!" Hermione was in shock. "A fully corporeal Patronus… that's powerful. How did you-"

"I'll explain another time. How long have we got?" Harry asked her.

"We have about forty five minutes before we have to be back in the Hospital Wing."

"Let's go."

He took hold of the chains around Buckbeak and they retraced the path they had gone along through the trees to get back into full view of Hogwarts and the Whomping Willow. Violet was really struggling now, as the adrenaline in her system was beginning to wear off.

"I don't think I can last another forty five minutes," Violet said. She could feel her brain fading to something fuzzy and black, until…

They were flying through the air. Harry's arms were around her waist clutching the chains in front of her. She was leaning back against him, and the confusion on her face was clear as day.

"We had to make do, sorry," he said to her when he noticed she was conscious.

At this point they were flying towards the Clocktower Courtyard and landed there shortly after. Both Sirius and Harry helped Violet off of Buckbeak, where she was just about steady enough on her own two feet.

"Are you going to be alright?" Sirius asked her, worried. "Remus'll be very…"

"I know. I'll be fine. I'll talk him down," Violet replied, throwing her good arm around Hermione, who then took most of her weight.

"Harry - Hermione, I'm grateful to the both of you," Sirius said to the other teens.

"I want to go with you," Harry told him.

"One day perhaps…" Sirius then led him off around the corner to privately speak to him.

"I need to sleep…" Violet murmured to Hermione.

"You need Madam Pomfrey. Your jumper's soaked!"

Violet glanced down at herself. "Yes, well, that'll happen when you save your awful Potions professor from your werewolf uncle…"

"Are you made at Lupin? For what happened?"

"No. Never. It wasn't his fault. He was trying to look out for us tonight by coming after us, when he forgot his Wolfsbane. I think I owe him."

Hermione looked pointedly at the gashes across Violet's shoulder and chest.

"Fine. Maybe I don't owe him."

At this point, Sirius and Harry joined them again.

"You really are the brightest witch of your age," Sirius told Hermione as he climbed onto Buckbeak. He then shot Violet a curious look. "And you… you're more of a strong silent type, aren't you? Give Snape some quiet hell."

A statement and request like those rendered Violet uncertain of how to respond, so all she did was offer Sirius a curt nod with a weak smirk. He rattled the chains on Buckbeak and the Hippogriff galloped off before taking flight; they flew up high into the sky, further and further away until they were nothing but a speck against the full moon.

The clock started to chime for midnight, so with Harry helping Hermione with Violet, they got up to the Hospital Wing as fast as they could. They encountered Dumbledore who appeared to be in denial about the fact they did anything, but rather pleased they'd retrieved Violet.

The moment they got back into the Hospital Wing, Ron went into one: about how they had just randomly reappeared with Violet, how he'd been talking to them right in front of his bed… Harry and Hermione ignored it for a moment as they got Violet to lie down on the bed next to Ron's.

"Oh, Ronald… how can anybody be in two places at once?" Violet chuckled with her friends before she passed out for the second time that night.

Next chapter is the last PoA related chapter! And then it's time for Summer, 1994. Woooo!

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