"Have you told Ron yet?" Violet hissed to Harry one morning on the way down to breakfast.
"Not yet, no," Harry replied just as quietly. "It's been hard to grab him alone - or even at all… he's been out on his broom a lot…"
"Fair enough."
"How about we try and grab him after Quidditch this evening?"
"Um… sure…" Violet was uncertain about that. "I was thinking of going back to the room… I don't know, I just - I need breathing space somewhere."
"I think I get what you mean," Harry said. "Mind if I join after Quidditch?"
"Be my guest."
Truthfully, while it was great that Hermione now knew they were attempting to navigate a relationship, she'd become a little too over the top about making sure they weren't so obvious in lessons. Simple things such as sitting between the pair of them in Potions, or trying to stop them from passing notes to each other - it wasn't a bad thing, per say, only mildly frustrating.
It meant they hadn't managed to catch some time alone in the library which was fair game: the library was practically Hermione's home.
"Are you alright?" Harry then asked Violet, noticing that she was more quiet than normal.
She nodded, but her thoughts drifted down to her hand as they had a tendency to do so since the detention. She had no way of telling her parents or Lupin what had happened - not without the fear of Astra being intercepted on her way in or out of Hogwarts again. Professor Grubbly-Plank had healed the little owl, and Violet had no desire to put her in harm's way again.
Harry obviously didn't believe her, but dropped the subject entirely.
During lessons throughout the day, even Hermione noticed that Violet was a little more subdued than normal. Instead of being a wedge between her and Harry in Potions, she made sure the two of them sat next to each other. It didn't go amiss to her that Violet would occasionally hold Harry's hand under the table, and she said nothing - she let them get on with it for once that week.
By the time that Harry and Ron went for Quidditch practice, Violet murmured some excuse to Hermione that she needed to go for a walk and that she might join her in the library afterwards; naturally, she headed straight for the room to do her homework.
That was a good enough distraction for some time, and she managed to blast through Herbology and Astronomy before deciding to have a little break. She ended up lying back on the floor gazing up at the celestial ceiling in the room, able to enjoy the peace it gave her for a little while.
As she went to rest her hands behind her head, Violet caught sight of writing on her right hand, and she held it out in front of her. The bleeding shouldn't have been fresh, but she'd found herself compulsive picking away at the scabs doing her homework because it had been far too itchy. She'd forgotten to grab the Murtlap Essence that evening, and she didn't want to be going back and forth to the Common Room too much.
I should not associate with half-breeds.
Every time she was alone, the words brought tears to her eyes.
When Violet heard the door open, she sat up, and looked round to see that Harry was sopping wet from practice. She jumped to her feet and headed over to him.
"Wait," she said, pulling her wand out of her sleeve and pointing it at him. A few moments later, a rush of warm air drifted over the boy and dried him off.
He smiled at her. "Thanks," he said, going over to where she'd been sitting and collapsing to the floor himself.
"How was it this evening?" she asked tentatively, joining him. On her way over, she pulled down her jumper sleeve as far as it would go over her right hand.
"Ron is… he's doing his best. He just needs more confidence…"
"It's not enough right now, is it?" Violet cut straight to the point there, which caught Harry off guard as he pulled out his own books and parchment.
"I - well - I - I guess not… I'm starting to wonder if you should have tried out in the end..."
Violet laughed. "I kept dropping the Quaffle and I missed a good few shots. Definitely not cut out for being Keeper. Anyway… homework. Considering we sorted out Potions last night, I finished off Astronomy and Herbology if you need some pointers…" she flicked through her parchment sheets until she found what she was looking for, handing them over to Harry. "Check what you've got against mine and add in anything you might be missing..."
"Will do…" Harry replied. "And… Defence Against the Dark Arts? Have you started on that at all?"
Violet shook her head. "It's not due until next week… I'll start on it at the weekend…"
A subject that used to be their favourite, their time to shine together, had become nothing more than an awkward topic of conversation. There was no point in them even trying to do the extra work. Umbridge wouldn't care because it wouldn't have been "Ministry approved."
Harry's eyes narrowed when Violet handed him yet another sheet to do with Herbology, as he caught sight of blood under her thumb nail. "Vi?"
"Yes?"
"How's your hand doing?"
"It's fine," she said stiffly, setting back on her knees and placing her hands in her lap. She stared down at them. "It's fine…" there was more of a wobble to her voice.
He slowly reached out for her right hand and took it in his own, moving her jumper sleeve aside to find the words etched into it were tacky. "Violet…"
"It was itchy and I forgot the Murtlap Essence and I didn't want to go back to the Common Room, okay?" she said quickly.
"Don't pick at it," he said softly.
She slipped her hand out of his. "I know. Come on… you've got work to do…"
Clearly there was more he wanted to say, despite the fact that Violet was now very obviously not paying him any attention at all, opting to furiously focus on scribbling down Transfiguration notes on a fresh piece of parchment while she flipped through a textbook. Harry sighed, but started using her essays for assistance regardless, all the while unable to concentrate properly.
It wasn't until about ten minutes later that he could hear sniffing: Violet was quietly crying onto her Transfiguration notes. She'd let her hair down so it covered her face for the most part, but the blotchy stains on her parchment were a dead giveaway.
Harry put his own quill down and scooted over to sit next to Violet, electing to wrap his arms around her. She stiffened up at first, but then leaned into it, dropping her quill with a light clatter and crying into his shoulder.
"You don't have to go through this alone," he murmured into the top of her head as he stroked her hair. He frowned as his fingers got caught in the tangles about halfway down, but then he smiled. Harry had never ran his fingers through her hair before, and it amused him to no end that it was as messy as he thought it would be. "You didn't let me deal with it alone. Stop being so stubborn!"
"You've got enough on your plate," Violet murmured into his shoulder. He rolled his eyes, but held her tighter.
"I'm your best friend and your boyfriend, Vi. So that means - it doesn't matter what's on my plate, I'm here for you when you're upset. Always."
Violet glanced up at him, her hazel eyes swollen and red and watery, big and round and pleading. "Always?"
"Yes," Harry tried not to sound so exasperated, instead shooting her a weary smile. "I've never seen you this upset before and I hate it."
"How do you think I feel?" she retorted, hastily wiping her eyes. He didn't know why, but Harry chuckled. "What?" Violet's brow was furrowed, and it just made Harry laugh even more.
"I don't know. I think it's something about you being too stubborn for your own good," he eventually said.
"I'm not that stubborn."
He raised an eyebrow. "Think that just proved my point."
Violet couldn't help herself - she smiled at him as she sat up straight again, feeling a lot lighter than she had done previously. Sometimes a good cry was all that was needed, by the looks of things. Not that it was something she wanted to do often at all, but even she couldn't deny she felt much better. Perhaps that was also down to Harry being there too.
Surveying him for a few moments with her head tilted to the side, Violet then cupped the nape of his neck and pulled him in for a kiss, practically melting against him. Moments like that were a rarity, so she was going to savour the fact he still tasted of rain and smelt of petrichor, regardless of the fact she'd already dried him off.
She pulled back from him briefly so that their noses still bumped together. He was blinking at her in surprise, and became further taken aback when she reached up with her free hand to remove his glasses.
"What?" she whispered with a little shrug, carefully placing them on the pile of forgotten homework. "It'll be easier to kiss you without those on."
He barely had a moment to respond when her lips captured his again, this time with more heat behind it, more of a frenzy - like if she didn't kiss him right now she wasn't going to be able to do it ever again. Harry's hands dropped to her waist in a flailing mess before he got comfy again.
They hadn't kissed properly like that since the summer, and Harry knew that to be why Violet was so frantic at that present time. He didn't mind it though - in fact, he enjoyed it. He felt the same. Not to mention, he liked it when she showed her more bold side, as if it had been hiding, waiting for the right moment to present itself.
Soon enough his fingers were caught up in her wildly long hair again, and the homework lay forgotten for the next twenty minutes, which was when they eventually called it a night in the room and decided that actually, they were going to be far more productive if they returned to the Common Room and did their work. They couldn't exactly have a prolonged snogging session under the watchful eyes of their house mates.
Hastily they straightened out their school uniforms, Violet tied her hair back up in a bun, and they gathered up their books, parchment, and bags and started down the seventh floor corridor back to Gryffindor Tower. They were both absolutely on cloud nine, and it was difficult to hide.
Ron appeared to be most pleased on seeing his friends return.
"There you are! What took you two so long?" he asked, making space for them at the table in the corner. Ginny had been keeping him company it seemed, and now seemed eager for Violet and Harry to be joining them.
"Violet was in the middle of looking for some more books when I met her in the library," Harry lied quickly. "For Transfiguration. That was… that was what we were going to start on, wasn't it?"
"Hmm? Oh yes," she said in a faraway voice, hardly paying attention as she got her homework out once more. Violet then sagged in her chair, making no effort to actually carry on with it, but rather twirl a loose piece of hair around her finger. "Terrible distraction, I do apologise for keeping Harry…"
Harry stepped on her foot under the table, and that seemed to break her out of whatever daydream she was in.
"Are you alright, Vi?" Ginny asked, concerned. "You're a bit out of it."
Violet desperately tried not to make eye contact with anybody, although her cheeks were flushed - and had been since they left the room. "I'm fine. It's been a long week, hasn't it?"
"Too bloody right…" Ron murmured. "So - Transfiguration?"
"Right," Violet said, more brightly. As the three fifth years got down to work, Ginny decided it was best to leave them be and go find her other friends. That was a welcome relief to Harry and Violet, considering they needed to talk to Ron anyway. "Well…"
"Well what?"
"Perhaps Harry and I weren't working in the library…" Violet murmured.
"Then what were you- oh. What?"
"We were working - for a bit," Harry emphasised. "It was just… better to work here so we didn't get distracted…"
"Yeah, no, I got that much, Harry…" Ron then lowered his voice. "Go on. Which tapestry were you snogging behind? So I know not to walk there again after Quidditch practice."
Trying not to laugh at the question, Violet blurted out: "the one on the fourth floor." Her voice was very strained, but Ron didn't notice. She cleared her throat after a moment. "Just so you're aware-"
"We've sort of been going out since the summer," Harry said.
"Bloody hell, course you have," Ron was a mix of being surprised and also not surprised at all. "Why keep it quiet though? Actually - wait - same answer as why you kept the Yule Ball thing quiet, isn't it?"
"Well done, Ronald," Violet remarked dryly. "And you're not annoyed?"
"Nah. I mean - it's you two. Feel like at this point it's a given, right? Keep it quiet until it's actually going well." He shrugged it off, and got back to stressing out over Transfiguration. Confused but pleased their best friends knew about them now, Harry and Violet also got back to work.
Admittedly the three of them gave up by the time Hermione rolled back into the Common Room at eleven o'clock, where she joined them with a deep sigh.
"You alright, Hermione?" Violet asked.
"I'm fine! Surprised you didn't join, is all."
"Harry and Vi were snogging behind the tapestry on fourth-"
Harry promptly walloped Ron upside the head in an effort to get him to stop talking, which only led to the redhead laughing.
"Oh good. We all know now," Hermione smiled at them all. "The only good thing to happen recently, let's be honest… what are we going to do about Umbridge?"
"We can't do anything," Violet grumbled, pulling her hair out of the bun once more that day and allowing her hair to tumble down. Harry flinched for a moment as if he were about to go play with it; until he remembered that there were still a couple of other students in the Common Room besides their small group.
"At the very least we need to learn how to defend ourselves."
"Now that we can do," Violet agreed. "Currently there's no Educational Decree saying we can't-"
She cut herself short, frowning as she caught something out of the corner of her eye over by the fireplace. Whatever it was she saw - it disappeared promptly. Harry had also followed where she was looking.
"Did you see that too?" he asked her.
"Yes - something in the fire?"
Curious as ever, Violet got up and went over to the fireplace trying to play it off as casually as possible while the last couple of stragglers finally wandered off up to bed. She squatted down in front of the fire.
"If you are who I think you are - you can come out now," she said calmly, and Sirius' face popped up in front of her.
That drew over Harry, Ron, and Hermione.
"What are you doing?!" Harry hissed at him.
"Answering your letter," Sirius said coolly. "If Violet's owl was accosted like you said, I'm not going to be risking Hedwig or any other owl. But be quick though. I think she's watching the Floo Network… So what's Umbridge got you doing? Training you to kill half breeds?"
"She's not training us at all!"
"Funny you should use the term half breed," Violet remarked. "I had a run in with Umbridge because of the fact I wrote to Remus. I can't write to him again. Not even to my parents - she'll be checking all my incoming mail."
"What did she do?" Sirius enquired, his brow furrowed.
"She's got a lovely little Blood Quill and made me write out that I shouldn't associate with half breeds." A wry smile had come to settle onto Violet's face, and the fact she didn't even have a single tear in her eye over in this was a pleasant shock. Perhaps it was because she was in the position of telling a fairly responsible adult.
"Awful woman. Anyway - you do realise the Ministry doesn't want you trained in combat? Fudge thinks Dumbledore is trying to make some kind of army against it."
"Of course he does," Hermione said. "That would be his worst fear."
"He's paranoid," Sirius said. "Blocking the truth at every turn… it's causing a bit of trouble for the Order. Not to mention the disappearances - which is how it started before…" He deliberated over what he was next going to say, as if maybe there was a good chance it would be the wrong thing to say. "Gen caught a lead on Fletcher. Had a run in with him the other day."
Violet sank back onto her knees, her heart jumping into her throat. As much as she still despised her mother, she still wouldn't have wished her to be hurt by her own Death Eater brother. She clenched her jaw and tried not to let her upset show.
"Is she alright?" the voice that came out of Violet's mouth wasn't her own.
"Nothing that Thomas couldn't fix. However it has set the rest of the Order on edge - we came close to a shred of evidence that Voldemort's followers are active and instead Gen lost her cool and was nearly hexed to oblivion!" He was exasperated. Anyone sane would have been in that scenario.
"Is there anything we can do? From here?" Harry asked desperately.
Sirius shook his head. "I'm afraid not. Keep yourselves safe - worry more about Umbridge and-"
He stopped short.
"Someone's coming. I'm sorry I can't be of more help."
With those final words, Sirius was gone.
"This is getting too real for my liking," Violet said darkly, her expression unreadable.
"He really is out there, isn't he?" Hermione said quietly, wandering over to the window, sitting on the ledge and peering out into the inky black sky. "And if Umbridge won't teach us to defend ourselves - we need someone who will." She bit her lip and then looked over at Harry. "It should be you."
"What?" Harry jumped up off the floor. "Why me? It should be you - or Vi! You're both way better than me at this stuff…"
"In a classroom sense, yes…" Violet also rose from the floor. "But not in the real world sense."
"We're not the ones who faced off You-Know-Who to save the Philosopher's Stone, mate," Ron pointed out. "Or killed a Basilisk with a sword!"
"I believe it was you who cast a Patronus charm at age thirteen to ward off about a hundred Dementors to save your past self and Sirius."
"But that was-" Harry groaned and started pacing up and down in front of the fire. Violet jumped out of his pathway, and ended up perching herself on the edge of the sofa arm. "Some of that was down to luck! How am I meant to teach you lot how to get out of situations like that?!"
"Not just us," Hermione said. "But other students as well - students who aren't satisfied with Umbridge as a teacher in the slightest. Students who want to learn real Defence Against the Dark Arts. To practice their spellwork! Stop being so modest!"
"I'm not being modest!" Harry's voice had risen to the point he was borderline shouting. "I'm being honest!"
Sensing that there was a chance for his frustration to escalate to anger, Violet reached out as he was about to pass her in his pacing and took hold of his arm. He came to a halt and stared down at her.
"What?" he snapped at her.
A raised eyebrow from her certainly helped him simmer down, and he guiltily shifted from foot to foot while Violet spoke.
"It doesn't matter if you're being modest or honest," she said calmly, letting go of him. "The point here is that out of everyone in our year, you're the only one who has experienced what it's like to face the Dark Arts for real with no second chances. It doesn't matter if you're not the best in the class, but what was all that training we did with you for the Triwizard Tournament, hmm? You know some nifty spells, and you could teach us - and a few others."
"Oh yeah, because I'm sure everyone wants to be taught by the boy who lied," Harry said with an eye roll, sinking down into the nearby armchair. He took off his glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose before rubbing his eyes.
"You'd be surprised," Hermione hopped off the windowsill. "Violet and I can do the rounds. We'll see who's interested. The first Hogsmeade trip of the year is next weekend: it'll be the perfect time to see who might be up for it and Umbridge can't do anything about that."
"And you have three people right here who would very much like to be taught by the boy who lied," Violet added. Harry placed his glasses back on and eyed her furtively for a few moments, before a reluctant half smile came to his face.
"Fine," he conceded.
"Don't forget - you're the one who's considering Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher as a career too," Ron got up and went to clap Harry on the shoulder. "It'll be good practice."
Harry hummed in agreement, watching as Ron and Hermione both headed up to bed after that. Only he and Violet remained in the Common Room, an occurrence that was becoming more regular but very welcome.
"Think you're up for helping me with some lesson plans? If we definitely do this?" he asked her rather casually, going to pick at a loose thread he'd spotted on the chair arm. Violet let out a light laugh - perhaps the least tense she'd sounded since Sirius mentioned her mother - and nodded in agreement.
"If I must," she replied rather dramatically.
Violet started chewing on the inside of her cheek after that. As much as she was delighted that finally they were going to do something about the lack of education they were receiving from Umbridge, her stomach was in knots from their conversation with Sirius. Agitated, she started playing with the hem of her skirt.
"I'm sure your mum's okay," Harry then said, realising what her current quiet state was going into turmoil over. "She's a really good Auror."
She hummed, acknowledging his statement. He was right - Genevive Stella Merryworth was an excellent Auror, considering she'd been trained by Alastor Moody himself. She was also good because Violet knew her mother's time at Hogwarts had been spent mostly buried in books and keeping out of trouble, unless her family brought it to her.
Which was exactly the case with Fletcher, to a degree. The Aurors office at the Ministry had been on the Oaks' case for over a year now, since the Quidditch World Cup, so for once the tables had turned and Genevive was giving her older brother trouble - only he'd kept evading her and the Ministry. Violet could only assume, but if he'd been caught she would most definitely have been told.
Voldemort being back meant that the game of cat and mouse Genevive and Fletcher played was back the way it should be. Fletcher being an absolute pain to her, as always.
"Fletcher was better than her during school. He had more ambition than her," Violet said to Harry. "It makes sense she was the one that suffered for it this time around."
"I've never really thought to ask because I know you don't like to talk about it… but how much do you know about that side of your family? Like what happened with them at school?"
"I don't know all the details. With mum - I just know she was good friends with Remus and Sirius at school… and your mum, like Sirius told us in the summer. Anyway, in regards to the aunts and uncles who've never spoken to me? I know enough to know that I'm more like that side of the family than I initially thought."
Harry wasn't sure how to digest that.
"Not necessarily anything dark," Violet clarified, "but logic leaps. Why else do you think my mum is an Auror? And… well, you've seen me do non verbal spells. Imagine what other theory I could put into practice with all the reading I do?"
Something clicked in Harry's mind. "That's why Hermione's better than you in class. She's good at retaining information, but you're better at using it."
"Yes - subject dependent, of course. There's one specific thing I do know about Lamia Oaks - in terms of using information you read or hear."
"Which is what?" Harry was just as unsettled at hearing all this as Violet was telling him about it.
"Apparently she's awfully good at creating spells."
I honest to god love going into Violet's family's backstory. I ended up having to draw a family tree the other day and writing a couple of small details out because I'm starting to plan the prequel story involving the Marauders and Genevive. Particularly focusing on how she really broke away from her pureblood idealist family. That's also gonna be a long one, and will end up on this site once I have finished Quietly Observant! Which is uhhh gonna be a long way off yet. Although I seem to be turning chapters around fairly quickly. So who knows, really.
Comment?
-OL.
