The term would have gone on normally, were it not to the extra amount of homework the teachers were setting them all; nothing that Hermione or Violet couldn't handle, but the rest of their classes couldn't help but complain. Dean Thomas pointed out how their O.W.L exams weren't until the end of their fifth year, and McGonagall rebuffed that fact during a Transfiguration lesson since they all needed to work up to the exams regardless.

The detentions with McGonagall also slowly drew to a close for Violet, and her Head of House even permitted her to stop coming to them (but suggested hiding out in the library during that time so other students in Gryffindor didn't perceive favouritism). Only Hermione knew about this, because it was her that Violet would spend time with in the library studying on that final week.

Admittedly, Violet did get a little distracted and ended up finding books on the Beauxbatons and Durmstrangs in an effort to understand what other Wizarding schools were like.

"I don't think I like the ideals of Durmstrang at all," Violet murmured quietly at some point around eight thirty one Wednesday night. She'd tossed her Defence Against the Dark Arts homework to one side in a scattering of parchment (much to the chagrin of Hermione) and would rather wait until she had time with Harry to do it.

"Because they don't admit Muggle borns?"

Violet nodded. "That, and they teach Dart Arts as a subject. Admittedly, learning about that on a theoretical basis wouldn't be horrific, but something tells me it extends further than that. I dread to think what students might be like."

"Perhaps we shouldn't judge too quickly," Hermione offered. "On the students, I mean," she then added quickly. "The same goes for the Beauxbatons; although I have reason to believe their school encompasses the beauty of magic a lot more."

"Oh, I agree with you there," Violet replied and she quickly flicked back a few pages and scanned one until she found what she was looking for. "For example, they adorn the castle with ice sculptures that don't melt during the Christmas period. Seems much more delicate than just giant Christmas trees, don't you think?" she asked, now closing the book shut and pushing it to one side. Hermione glanced up from her Arithmancy homework to throw her friend a brief smile.

"Maybe. I didn't think you'd be so into… pretty things," she said.

Violet shrugged and started to make amendments to a History of Magic essay. "Harry could tell you otherwise."

"Ah. Of course." Hermione rolled her eyes but there was a smirk on her face. Violet stopped in her messy corrections.

"Okay fine. Maybe I have spent too much time with him… that's why when McGonagall said I didn't have to sit with her this week I came straight to you… instead of getting Harry to come to the library," she admitted. "I expect Harry told you and Ron what happened in my garden, then?"

Hermione put down her quill and sat up straight with her arms folded. She wasn't staring at Violet in a calculated way as such, but perhaps it was more of a look of careful consideration for how to even go about this conversation. "Yes. He did. And I expect you know about the fact Ginny likes him?"

Now they were both smirking at each other, because they'd both played their needed hands there. "Obviously. Nothing's going to come out of it. Honestly." Violet paused for a moment. "Do you know how lonely I was, Hermione?"

"No… but I can honestly imagine. Being the… well, quirky one, shall we say? At a Muggle school, no less," she said rather pointedly, and Violet's heart dropped. Of course Hermione would know… "You've always found it easier to talk to Harry over me, haven't you?"

Violet shifted uneasily in her chair, wishing that what Hermione was saying right now wasn't true but it was - it unfortunately, and uncomfortably was. "I'm sorry," she finally said. "I'm glad I'm here with you now, instead of either of the boys. It's nice. Really nice. Sorry I drifted away from you a lot over the past couple of years."

"You don't need to apologise. You're here now, aren't you?"

"We should do this more often, shouldn't we?"

"Definitely," the relief was paramount in Hermione's voice, and she pushed her own homework aside for a moment to place a heavy tome on the table instead. "Especially because I need a bit of help with something."

Intrigued, Violet raised an eyebrow. "Go on."

"I've been here in the library a lot during lunch times because of the fact that house elves are slaves, essentially, and Hogwarts has the largest dwelling of them. Everything here is run by slave labour, and I want to do something useful to help."

"You know, I'd never thought of it like that before…"

Hermione balked. "So you knew about the house elves at Hogwarts?"

"Yes," Violet sighed. "You've got to understand that wizards are very different to Muggles in this regard. As far as I'm aware, the house elves here at Hogwarts are happy. Or at least that's what Uncle Remus mentioned to me briefly over the summer - he used to sneak down to the kitchens a lot with his friends, you see." She took a moment to consider her next words. She hadn't been prepared for what her friend had been about to say. "I'll help you try to help them all you want, Hermione, because it's a very noble and good thing you want to do, but don't expect the house elves to want it as well, okay? You'll have to expect resistance."

"Really? Resistance?"

"Oh goodness yes."

"I see… well, I'm glad you want to help. It means a lot."

"No problem. And hey - off topic - but I've been doing some reading about the Triwizard Tournament… suppose you have, too?" When her friend nodded, Violet continued. "So when do you think we should let Harry and Ron know that traditionally, it involves a winter ball?"

Hermione chuckled. "Obviously never."

"Perfect."

The two girls set to work until it got too late and they ended up having to sneak back to Gryffindor Tower. Thankfully, they weren't caught and nor were either of the boys still awake by the time they rolled in around midnight.

The remainder of the week a frenzy took over the students as they eagerly awaited the arrival of the Beauxbatons and Durmstrangs on the Friday. The castle had - in the meantime - been prepped to be as clean as possible, and various notices had been pinned up around the school about the fact that lessons would finish early on that Friday. All they had to do was get through the rest of the week, which was made somewhat trickier by Snape being as painful as ever, and Moody… well, that was something else entirely.

Violet had confided in her friends that her mother thought it odd that he wanted to show them the Unforgivable Curses, but he was well and truly that paranoid about dark wizards. They had to let it slide, but to keep her updated.

So the fact that he decided to use the Imperius Curse on all of them during a lesson was more reason to worry indeed.

He wanted them to resist it, but try as most students might it was apparently near impossible. Until it got to Harry, of course. It appeared that Moody had wanted him to jump on one of the desks but instead he crashed right into it. Rightly so, Moody gave Harry all the praise in the world for that since he'd put up a better fight than the rest of them.

Then it was Violet's turn.

She got up to the front of the class and braced herself for the curse to take over.

Except when it did, she barely had time to acknowledge the overwhelming sense of relaxation and being free of worry because she was already jumping from desk to desk on one foot. In fact, due to how quickly the curse took over her in comparison to the other students, Moody lifted it as soon as he could, staring at her in complete shock.

Immediately going pink in the face and avoiding looking at her classmates, Violet hurried over back to her friends who she could feel were as equally dumbfounded by what happened as she was. She desperately tried not to think about it.

When class was over, Harry took her by the hand and pulled her away from the throng and instead of going down to lunch, they headed up the stairs. She knew immediately where he was taking her, and she let him do it. She knew he was saving her the questions from Ron and Hermione, the murmurs from the other students about why did Merryworth get taken over by the Imperius Curse so quickly? and was going to give her a reprieve in the room.

Violet didn't realise how much she was shaking until they were in the quiet, starry room. Even though it had been a while since they'd been there, she couldn't appreciate it in all its glory - not now, at least. She was too preoccupied with what had just happened.

Harry led her to the beanbags and they collapsed into them, and remained sitting there in silence for a few minutes before Violet spoke up.

"Does that mean I'm not strong minded?"

"No," Harry said, shaking his head. "It's just dark magic. Don't think too much of it."

"But you - you managed to fight it. I snapped in and out of so fast - faster than Neville, mind you - and I-"

"Violet," he said firmly. "Don't."

"Why bring me here?"

"Because I knew you were gonna beat yourself up over it. And people talk, don't they, Mad Merryworth?" He was trying to be funny, and neither of them were sure if it was actually working. "You can't be good at everything, Violet. Maybe resisting dark magic is harder for you than the rest of us - but who cares? We're still at school."

She nodded, even if she was only half convinced. "I guess."

"Skip Divination," he said suddenly. "You've had a lot on your plate recently. Just go sleep or something." Harry shrugged nonchalantly, and Violet inherently would have gone against his suggestion, but skipping Divination seemed like the best option right now. Her brain did feel like a right mess, particularly after today.

"Alright. I'll go rest up."

"Shall I get Hermione to get you for dinner if you're not gonna come for lunch?"

"Yeah. Thanks, Harry. You're a really good friend, you know that, right?"

He shrugged again and waved it off. The pair of them stood up and Harry walked Violet back to Gryffindor Tower saying he'd make up some excuse for her, which she very much appreciated.

As she hurried on up to her dormitory, she thought about how this was going to be the first and only time she did something like this. She needed to get her head on straight so that this wasn't a regular thing, but what happened in class earlier on had shaken her more than she realised. Violet knew she needed to write back to her parents as soon as possible, but right now her brain was swimming.

Harry had tried his best to reassure her, but try as he might she was still worried. What if somewhere down the line someone did try to use the Imperius Curse on her for reasons worse than academia? What if the absolute worst happened and the Death Eaters became more powerful? What if - god forbid it - Dexter tried it on her, because rumours flew fast around Hogwarts? And this was something that was going to fall right into his lap.

She was a good witch - she knew it - she worked hard, she excelled in class, and yet she couldn't do something as simple as resist the Imperius Curse. Her mind hadn't even been given a chance to try, it seemed, in comparison to everyone else. Even whilst under the curse, Violet had been unable to fight it, and that very thought made her sick to her stomach. Was there a reason for her being more susceptible to dark magic? Or had she been so lucky enough to be so incredibly cared for throughout her life that she had no need for resistance to such things?

Those were the thoughts that addled Violet's mind as she kicked off her shoes and eventually drifted off to sleep. Time passed in the blink of an eye as she was awoken by Hermione after what felt like only moments, but she did feel somewhat refreshed. Her head felt a little clearer, and she didn't dwell on what had happened during dinner. Any whispers she heard, she ignored.

By the next day, all had appeared to be forgotten as it was the day the Beauxbatons and Durmstrangs were to arrive. Even Snape couldn't scare anyone into forgetting what was happening that evening; spirits were far too high. He wasn't pleased by the fact it was his lesson that had to end early so all students could be seated in the Great Hall by six o'clock, which is when the foreign students would actually arrive.

The Great Hall was reverberating with excited chatter, some of it about the new arrivals, some of it about the extra table laid out in front of the staff table with what were assumed to be Ministry officials at it, until Dumbledore rose to speak at the podium. A large, glittering container stood behind him.

"Now that you're all here… I'd like to extend my thanks to all the professors for allowing lessons to end early today," the headmaster said. "And of course, to thank you all in giving the students what I'm sure will be a very warm welcome. So first, I'd be delighted to announce the arrival of the lovely ladies of the Beauxbatons and their headmistress, Madame Maxime."

All heads turned towards the doors as several seventeen year old girls practically sauntered in in bright blue, silken uniforms. Every male student was in awe of the ladies as they walked on up towards the front of the hall.

Even Violet's jaw dropped when they sped up, doing petite little prances that really drew her attention to their legs. She could feel her face growing warm, and that was when she spotted her. Oh god, her. The girl with the long, silvery blonde hair that merely strutted behind the rest of the group and then twirled as the giantess of a headmistress approached Dumbledore.

Violet turned to the boys.

"Veela. She's part-Veela!"

"Who?" Ron asked, not even bothering to take his eyes off the girls.

"Oh, Ronald, you know exactly which one."

She was painfully aware of the fact that Harry and Hermione were now casting her odd looks - she could feel their eyes burning into the side of her head - but the former didn't say anything as he enthusiastically applauded the Beauxbatons along with the rest of the school. Some of the Hogwarts girls weren't so necessarily inclined to do so.

"And now please welcome the proud sons of Durmstrang and their high master, Igor Karkaroff!" Dumbledore announced once that applause had died down.

The Durmstrangs had a more intense entrance to the point it shocked the students to silence, but they all gave a thunderous applause when two of the boys did some sort of fire breathing. What was interesting, however, was that it turned out world famous Quidditch Seeker Viktor Krum was also a student of the school.

Ron was somehow even more enthralled by that than the Beauxbatons.

When the new students had taken their seats, Dumbledore revealed how the champions of each school were to be chosen. He pointed a finger at the container behind him and it practically melted away to reveal a large stone goblet with bright blue flames illuminating out of the top.

"The Goblet of Fire," he said. "Should you wish to enter, merely write your name on a piece of parchment and place it in. You have twenty four hours to enter. You will do well to remember the rules in regards to who enters… As you can see, we do have the Ministry here overseeing the Tournament, with Barty Crouch Sr and Ludo Bagman taking lead on judging each task."

He gestured over to the table at a rather thin, stern looking old man dressed in grey, and a much younger, jollier man sitting next to him.

"Now… I believe all there is left to do is eat!" Dumbledore said, beaming. At those words, the food appeared on the table like it always did, only it contained dishes that were native to the countries the other schools came from.

Every now and then, Violet would glance over to the Ravenclaw table where the Beauxbatons girls were, much more distracted by them than any of the boys were. So much so, she was mostly picking at her dinner rather than actually eating it.

"You alright?"

Violet jumped at the voice to her right. Ginny. She was following her eye line with a raised eyebrow and genuine curiosity.

"They're something else, aren't they?" Violet replied instead, shovelling a forkful of potato into her mouth, finally.

"I guess… you keep looking at them."

Violet chewed on her food longer than necessary. Ginny waited very patiently until she was able to talk again.

"And?"

"Why?"

"The Veela girl…"

"How do you know she's Veela?" Ginny asked with a frown.

"Remember at the World Cup? There were actual Veela there? She's only part, I'd say. It's just… obvious. As if the boys weren't already drooling over the girls anyway, she has to come along."

"The boys?"

"Fine. Me as well. Let's not get into that now, I'd say that's a question for another day…"

Dinner carried on as normally as it could after that. Judging by where the new arrivals were sitting, the Beauxbatons were to be sleeping in the Ravenclaw Tower, and the Durmstrangs were to be in the dungeons with the Slytherins. Somehow it seemed fitting.

By the time everyone was one their way back to their respective dormitories, rumours came out in full force about who was going to be entering the Tournament for sure.

"You know Ernie McMillan said Cedric Diggory is going to enter the tournament?" Violet piped up. "He's old enough."

"He might be old enough but I didn't think he'd want to ruin his pretty face," Harry laughed.

"Surely that'd make him too good looking for Quidditch?" Violet retorted.

Harry shrugged. "Maybe. Who knows what goes through his head?"

"Here - how did you know about Cedric?" Ron barked at Violet.

"Ernie mentioned it in Herbology yesterday," she replied with a shrug. "He and Hannah Abbott were looking a little bit shifty so I decided to eavesdrop."

"Good to see you're not entirely abandoning your old ways," Harry said, and she frowned.

"What do you mean by that?"

"You've become a lot more… well, you're not as quiet as you used to be," he said carefully. "Definitely have the means to completely revert back to that though..."

"You'd miss me talking, let's be honest. You'd miss the fact I'd tease you about calling Cedric a 'pretty boy.'"

Harry rolled his eyes as they turned onto the next stairwell, which was when Fred and George popped up.

"You two could so play as a bickering, old married couple, you know that right?" George said, putting an arm around Violet, who cringed.

Meanwhile, Fred had his arm around Harry. "She'd keep you in line, Harry - who wants to bet Violet can be strict and scary?"

"Oh - stop it, the pair of you!" Violet said, colour flushing her cheeks as she desperately tried to shrug out from George. He would not relent, unfortunately for her. So she resigned herself to some light teasing from the older boys, aware of the fact that Harry was as equally embarrassed as her. She tried not to look at him.

When they were finally back in the Gryffindor Tower, Violet was able to run away to the safety of her dorm. She hoped for a dreamless sleep that night, but instead had vague images of long, silver hair, and bright green eyes flashing through her mind instead.

She remembered none of those things when waking up.