How to Live a Dream
Chapter 1
Karen always loved reading. Her favourite books were most of the times fantasy, but the one that she loved the most has always been Harry Potter. Like thousands of people before her, she really wished that Hogwarts was real, but obviously she knew that it wasn't possible.
This is why she was extremely confused when one day she woke up as a baby in the arms of Lily Potter.
She didn't recognized her right away. At first she was just confused by the fact that somehow she wasn't a teenager anymore. She didn't know what happened, but her new mother was really beautiful, even thought she obviously just brought her to life, she hoped to take after her once she grow up again. When she saw her knew father she amusedly thought that this couple did resemble a bit James and Lily Potter. But then she heard them using their names and she was even more confused. They couldn't be the actual Lily and James Potter, could they? And then Sirius Black and Remus Lupin entered the hospital room and that couldn't be a coincidence! "Oh my God! Don't tell me that I'm a boy and that I'm Harry Potter!" she thought.
"She's so beautiful! What are you going to name her?" asked Sirius once he reached the bed where Lily was holding her new born daughter.
"Violet! Her name is Violet." She replied with a blinding smile.
"Violet Lily Potter, welcome to the world!" said James when he took her in into his arms.
"Thanks God I'm a girl! So my new name is Violet, uh? It's nice... But wait! Is this for real? I'm actually in the world of Harry Potter? What does this mean? Why am I here? Does Harry exist or I'm supposed to be him?"
They spent the afternoon looking at her with love and taking turns holding her. It was weird for her to not be able to speak but it was still nice.
Once they reached their home and Lily brought her to her new room, she realized that Harry wasn't anywhere and that she really was their first child. "This is so weird! So I'm supposed to be him? Are all the things in the books actually going to happen?" she was torn. She loved this story so much and it would be incredible to actually learn magic, but, if everything is going to be the same, that meant that her parents were going to die really soon. She was instantly really sad about that. They seemed really nice people! "But maybe it won't happen, after all just the fact that I'm a girl might change things! Maybe Voldemort won't target me because of this!"
But after a month it was obvious to her that it wasn't going to happened.
Dumbledore came to their home and told them that they needed to hide because Voldemort learned about a prophecy. He obviously didn't tell them what it was about. "No! Why would he? It's not like their life was about to change completely because of that!"
If she had to be honest with herself, she never really liked him that much. In her last years before she came here, when she was reading the books again, she realized what a manipulative bastard Dumbledore really was. Sure, probably he thought that he was in the right, that he was the good guy, but all that bullshit about the greater good didn't really sit well for her, especially now that she's going to be in the centre of everything! "At least Voldemort was honest in this! Well, honest probably wasn't the right word... he was a manipulative bastard as well, but at least you knew that everything he does and says probably has an alter motive, so you can't really expect nothing better!"
Voldemort was another problem... She really liked the character of Tom Riddle, he was her favourite! Yeah, she liked most of the villains in her books... But now? What she was going to do? She didn't really want to fight him! Mostly because she was obviously afraid, but one big part of her also felt that it would be a pity if he died... "Why, every time that I read a book, I try to understand the reason behind the actions of the bad guys! Yeah sure, until it's on paper it's fine, but I never thought that this would happen!" Yes, she felt pity for Tom Riddle. His childhood sucked and his first step in the magical world brought him suspicion and hate.
Dumbledore, the first person to tell him about this world, treated him like a bully and someone that was destined to be evil and all just because he heard that bitch in the orphanage "What was her name again? Cole? Yes! Mrs Cole!" said her obviously muggle biased point of view. But he didn't even try to hear his version of the story! Maybe he hurt the boys in the orphanage and stole those things because they where bulling him first and they deserve it! Maybe some times it might have been accidental magic as well! How would he know though if he didn't even ask him?
Then when he went to Hogwarts he was sorted in Slytherin. Even if it was never written in the books, it didn't take a genius to understand that, with the muggle surname Riddle, for a while he was treated like he was nothing more than a mudblood! What was he supposed to do to be respected by them? She could understand that, for him to climb the ladder, the only way was to show them that he was powerful. And in Slytherin the friendships always have a second purpose, everybody knows that! "I'm not saying that Slytherin is bad, after all every time I did the sorting test on internet I always ended up in Slytherin! I can't complain! ... I actually wonder if I'm going to be sorted there once I'm going to Hogwards... But I'm getting off track, Tom Riddle really didn't have a lot of support when he was young, did he? And then he basically mutilated himself with those Horcruxes and lost all his sanity!" And she could even understand his fear of death and why he did such a drastic action. He was an orphan that grew up during The Second World War for God sake! And he was clever and ambitious, he didn't want to die as a mudblood orphan. She could understand that!
She didn't know exactly if his first Horcrux was made with the death of Moaning Myrtle or with the death of his father, but the first one was probably an accident, "I don't really think he knew she was in the toilet when he opened the Chamber, otherwise he wouldn't have tried to opened it when she was there and risk to be discovered... and for his father, I honestly think he deserve it! He knew he had a son and he left him in an orphanage!" And then, once he did the first Horcrux, he was just going to get worse.
Was she trying to find excuses for him? Yes, probably... "But I Can't help it! The more I think about it the more I can understand him! Why do I always love the bad guys in the stories? Wait! I don't mean that I love Tom Riddle! Okay, maybe once I had a crush on him, but it was completely silly! He was just a character! And that was when I was 11 and I saw the second film for the first time! Who can blame me, the actor was handsome!"
What she's going to do now though? She didn't really want to fight with fucking Voldemort! "Maybe between me and Neville this time he's going to choose him?" Poor Neville... he probably wouldn't last long, would he? Is not that she wished him harm but... "Okay, maybe I'm a bit selfish... Urgh! Why can I just enjoy Hogwarts and magic without dealing with all of this!"
She decided that, until she was certain that Voldemort would attack her and not Neville Longbottom, she was not going to think of this. Is not like she could do anything anyway now while she was a baby!
Months passed and she was starting to really hate the fact that she couldn't do basically anything, but at least she would probably start to walk and speak a bit sooner than the other babies.
Her family and her hid under the Fidelius Charm as it was expected, and even this time around Wormtail was the secret keeper. And she couldn't even tell them that he was the traitor! And she tried! So many times, but they won't take the hint! But the thing that shocked her the most was that Dumbledore knew! "The fucking bastard! He knew Sirius was innocent all along!" she always suspected it but it was quite the shock when she discover it! "Also, why didn't he propose himself to be the secret keeper! Oh, I know why! You want us to be attacked so that the prophecy becomes real! Fucking manipulative bastard!"
She was now one year old and she knew that in few month her life was probably going to change. "Unless he really chooses Neville..."
She tried her best to not get too attached to the Potters, she didn't want to suffer their death, but she really couldn't. They wonderful people and amazing parents. She's was going to miss them.
Halloween night came too fast. For all the day her mood was so terrible that even her parents understood that something was wrong. But they didn't want to risk leaving the house, that was supposedly well protected.
Once the outside became dark she waited on edge for Voldemort to come, still hoping that the story would turned out to be different. But alas, it wasn't meant to be.
When Voldemort destroyed the entrance, James stayed behind to fight him while Lily run upstairs. She was surprised to see that her mother was casting a weird spell "Or was that supposed to be a ritual?" Is not like this things were explained in details in the books so she couldn't know, but she sworn that one day she will find out. Her mother then cut her finger and with her blood drew a symbol on her cradle. "Is this supposed to be blood magic?"
But she was stopped from her musing when she heard James die. She felt sad about it, but she knew since the beginning that this was likely to happen. It didn't make it any less sad though.
Finally Voldemort opened the door. He looked different from what she thought. He was a mix between the terrifying snake face monster and the human Tom Riddle, so she guessed that having so many Horcrexes does fuck you up even physically.
"Please, not Violet! Please! I beg you!" Lily screamed moving in front of her daughter.
"Stand aside girl!"
"Please! Please, take me instead! Not Violet!"
"I'm not here for you. If you move you'll going to be spared."
"No! Please! Kill me if you want but not Violet! I beg you!"
"Silly girl! You don't need to die!"
"Please! No!"
"Very well. Avada Kedavra." Violet watched her mother die in front of her and her eyes started fill up with tears, but she refused to cry in front of Voldemort. She looked straight into his crimson eyes. He paused and for a moment she could have sworn that he looked confused.
"How can a child have that kind of look in her eyes?" he thought and for a moment he was conflicted.
But in the end he raised his wand and shot the killing curse.
As expected, she survived. The pain was really unbearable but, before she lost consciousness, she saw the terrified look on Voldemort's face before he got hit by the rebounding curse.
When she opened her eyes again she could hear Sirius scream their names and this time she allowed herself to cry. When he reached her room he looked devastated, but when he found her alive he managed to give her a small smile.
"Violet, shh... stop crying, I'm here." Violet looked at him and this time even him couldn't help to shed some tiers.
Holding her he went in front of the house, where Hagrid arrived few moments later.
"James? Lily? Are they..." Sirius shook his head.
"They are dead." Both of the men looked devastated. Hagrid looked at Violet, probably to be reassured that she was indeed alive.
"Some Aurors are on the way here to make sure that You Know Who is really gone. Dumbledore asked me to take Violet to him to make sure she's indeed fine." This seemed to light up a strange light in Sirius eyes and Violet instantly understood. "He's going after Peter!"
"Yes, I saw that she's got a wound that is better to be addressed as soon as possible, take her to Dumbledore. I'm going to come back as soon as possible. Ah! And you can use my bike, it would be faster for you." He gave him the baby and turned to leave but Violet started to cry. "I can't let you go! You'll going to be locked up in Azkaban!" But some things apparently are just mean to be.
"Hey pup, don't worry! It won't take me long, I'll be back before you know it." With one last caress on her cheek he left.
Once Sirius was gone, Hagrid left with Violet on the motorbike.
The ride was long and her head hurt painfully, so it didn't take her long to fall asleep. When Hagrid arrived she woke up, but still pretended to be asleep. Hagrid met with Dumbledore and professor McGonagall and she recognized that conversation! Are they going to leave her with the Dursley? But Sirius is not being arrested yet! He's her godfather, he's supposed to be her guardian! "So I was right! Dumbledore never wanted Sirius to rise me, this is why he never helped him to get out of Azkaban!"
Dumbledore also checked with a spell the cut in her forehead. "Does he now know that my scar is an Horcrux? Does this mean that he knew since the beginning? Why not just kill me? Oh yeah! Alive under his thumb would mean me being the perfect pawn! Because one day is so obvious that I'm going to sacrifice myself!"
And just like that, they left her on the doorsteps of number 4 Privet Drive; in just blanket in the cold 4am of the 1st of November and with a only a letter to explain what happen to her relatives.
When the morning came, Petunia opened the door and saw her. She screamed like there was no tomorrow and slammed the door back, running inside.
"Oh, good morning also to you! I can really see that we're going to really love each other! Oh! And, yes, don't worry about bringing me inside! It's not like I spent the night here in the cold!" Yes, as you probably would have guessed by now, she loved sarcasm.
Petunia came back after a while bringing her whale of an husband with her. They looked at her with disgust but decided to bring her inside. "Well, after all you can't look bad in front of the neighbours!"
After reading the letter while Vernon screamed "I don't want that freak in my house!" they realized that they had to keep her and, not even a second later, she was thrown in the cupboard under the stairs. "I'm so going to love being here."
Now that she was awake and had time to think, she had to decided what to do. "I can't take care of myself now, I'm still to young... and even if one day I'll decide to run away, I can't. Everybody will see me just as a little girl and I don't want to even imagine what could happened! Also... there might be some Death Eaters around so I can't take this chance... And I can't even let Dumbledore or anyone else discover who I really am... I shouldn't show my knowledge of this world without being able to explain it... what to do? Maybe in a few years I could accidently 'discover' Diagon Alley and maybe buy some books? I can't just wait for ten years, it would be too much! But it might be a bit too risky going there before I'm supposed to though... Maybe I could try to learn a bit of wandless magic? I mean Tom Riddle did it all the time in the orphanage, maybe if I practice I might be able to do it as well? Oh my God! I need to learn Occlumency! I can't let any Legiliments learn any of my secrets! But how I can learn it alone? It's not like Snape was really clear in his explanation in the books! He said to clear you mind right? Well... I guess I could do a bit of meditation... But I really need to get a book on this, so as soon as possible I really need to go to Diagon Alley" Okay, the best course of action for her was to stay here but she promised herself that she would sneak in Diagon Alley in a few years, but what would she do for the money? If she went to Gringotts would Dumbledore be informed? Maybe it would be best if she managed to get some muggle money and then change it wizards currency... So now on her list of things to do the following years there were three things: learn meditation until she'll be able to get a book on Occlumency, find some money and learn a bit of wandless magic!
Now that that was decided, she spent the rest of her first day in Privet Drive happily insulting her relatives in her mind.
Years passed and now she was four, and living with the Dursley was a nightmare. If she didn't remember that her name was Violet, she would have believed it was 'Freak' or 'Girl'. "I can't believe they never once used my name!"
She was just starting to have her chores in the house, even helping in the kitchen, and every time she did a mistake she was sent in the cupboard without eating. This was also the year where she had her first incident of accidental magic and her relatives were furious. That was the first time they actually hit her.
Being forced to stay in the cupboard for a long amount of time was really boring, but at least her meditation skills where improving exponentially with all that free time. After her first incident of accidental magic, she learned how to recognize what she was supposed to feel to use her power, but doing it consciously was much more difficult! After weeks though she managed to make the little stone that she took from the garden fly a few centimetres. She quickly realized that the more she got better at meditation the easier was to learn few spells with wandless magic, and she was happy to see that the more she practiced one spell the less concentration it needed.
At the age of six she was already doing most of the cooking. She has never been good in this in her past life, but here she had to learn because she understood that the only way to get the Dursley off you back for a while was to cook something amazingly. Not that they never thanked her though! But she still made some mistakes now and then, especially when she had to do the garden, the laundry, clean the house and cook every day in a short amount of time; so she was still punished by being thrown in the cupboard without food. At least they didn't physically harm her most of the times. The only time it happened was when she had some incidents of accidental magic, but that didn't happened that often anymore.
She learned pretty quickly how to control her powers, so that this accidents didn't happened in front of her relatives anymore. One of the spells that she found most useful was Alohomora, so she could open the door of her cupboard during the night and steal some food. One thing that she learned pretty quickly was that with wandless magic you didn't need to actually say any incantation.
She also managed to steal every now and then a bit of money from her relatives, but never too much to be suspicions, but she didn't have any idea of how much a book would cost and she also have to take in count that the probably needed to take a bus to London... so better safe than sorry. She was still way too young to travel alone anyway.
Once she started to go to school she didn't have much time to practice anymore, but she would always manage to do at least one hour of meditation and one wandless magic every day after her chores. At least she didn't need to study for school seeing that she already knew all that stuff.
It was so difficult to play dumb at school, but she learned also that pretty quickly, again because of the Dursleys. When they realized that she was better at school than their stupid son they insisted that she must have cheated with her freakishness and, for the first time after a long time, her uncle managed to brake her arm with the strength he used to throw her in the cupboard, where she was locked inside for a week. She didn't waste that time though ad she concentrated in learning how to heal her arm, after all it would be a really useful thing to know!
Once she was free again she went back to school, while her relatives lied about the reason why she was absent. Her arm was still really sore, but at least she learned how to heal it! Now she took extra care in making sure that her grades where just acceptable so that it didn't happened again. It's not like she really cared that much about muggle school anyway and she knew that once she'll be able to go to Hogwarts she'll do her best.
Every lunch break at school was a nightmare. Dudley started to play with his friends his so famous game of 'hunting Violet' and for a while she always came home full of bruises. Her relatives used that as excuse for the neighbours so now she was 'the delinquent girl of Little Whinging'. "Great! Just great! People are always so stupid when they believe everything they hear without actually make an effort to see if is true or not. I would almost say that is because they are muggles, but I know that wizards are stupid the same." She didn't have any friends, but she didn't even want to have this stupid little kids as friends, so she wasn't too sad about it. She was feeling really lonely though...
One thing that surprised her was that her aunt seamed to hate her even more than the Harry Potter of the books, but she figured that it was because, a part from the black hair, she resembled Lily very much. Thanks God for that! She couldn't use the bathroom for a long period of time, so she didn't see herself in the mirror that often, but she was glad that she was pretty like her mom, especially she loved her beautiful Avada green eyes. The only things from James were the black hair and the unfortunate glasses, but she promised herself that she would do something about that! "It's not possible that they created spells that do basically everything, but not one that fixes your eyes!" this will be another thing she'll have to find out once she'll go to Diagon Alley.
She realized that her life as Harry Potter wasn't that great as she expected. Sure, magic was awesome, but she never realized before this that her first life, the one before all of this, wasn't so bad in comparison. At least she knew that once she reached Hogwarts it would be much better and she could have friends.
She also decided that she didn't care to follow the real plot of the story. Sure, she would help when she can, but she would not play hero like everybody was expecting her to do. "Maybe I can find a way to make Voldermort more sane? Or at least find a truce, so that I can live happily my new life..." she wasn't sure if that would be possible, but at least she would try. If things didn't go as she hoped at least she knew what to do win the war.
One day when she was seven, she was walking inside the school during lunch break, while all the other kids where playing outside. She really didn't want to put up with Dudley today, so now she was trying to find something to do. While she was walking in a corridor where she's never been before, she found and old and unused music class. "I guess that once there was music class as an after school activity..." Not like she ever did any of those activities, her relatives wouldn't allow it. Anyway, she entered the room, being careful not to be seen by anybody while she used a bit of magic to open the locked door.
The room was pretty much empty and extremely dusty, but the thing that got her attention was an old piano on the side or the room. She was overjoyed! Finally she could do something that she missed greatly from her past life: playing. She never learned the piano though, she used to play the harp and she was pretty good at that for her modest opinion. She knew a little bit though, so maybe with some practice she would be able to! "Maybe now I can spend all the lunch breaks here! I wonder if there is a music club or something in Hogwarts... I never read anything about that in the books, but it's also true that it wasn't important to the plot. I can bet all my money in Gringotts the I could find some instruments in the Room of Requirement... this could be awesome! I always wanted to learn also the violin... and since I decided that I'm going to treat this as my life and not Harry Potter's, maybe I could become a musician or something in my future! I'm still not sure of what I want to do, but I don't really want to be an Auror..." she slowly walked towards the piano and she set down on a chair in front.
That became her new routine. Every day she would go there any time she had free time at school and slowly she started to learn. It was a slow process because she didn't have any music sheets, but she did remember some songs that played in her past life, now all she had to do was to learn how to do it on a piano.
When she was eight she finally decided to try go to Diagon Alley. On a Saturday, when she didn't have school, she woke up early and left quickly the house. She knew that her relatives would be mad at her once she came back, but if everything turned out right she knew it would have been worth it.
She took the bus and after an hour and half she was in London. Now the hard part. She didn't know where the Leaky Cauldron was and, if she had to be honest with herself, she never really thought about how to find it. She just realized this while she was on the bus... The only thing she could do was look around in hope to see some wizards. "Even if I have to spend the whole day looking I'm already here and I'm not going to give up!"
She has been walking for two hours now and she still didn't have a clue where to go. She was just carrying on in sheer stubbornness when finally she saw a weird looking guy go in a narrow alley. "How many chances there are that that guy is a wizard? I mean, those clothes looked like wizarding robes to me!" she followed him but she didn't let her guard down. She was desperate to find the Leaky Cauldron but she wasn't stupid!
Her wishes were granted when she finally saw the entrance of the pub. She made sure her fringe covered completely her scar, she couldn't afford to be discovered, and she entered.
Taking a long breath she walked towards the bartender. Now? What can she say? A eight year old kid alone wouldn't go unnoticed... "Excuse me sir, I lost my mom but she told me to meet her at the entrance of Gringotts could you please open the entrance to Diagon Alley for me?" she hoped she looked sweet and innocent enough.
"Hey there, young lady!" the bartender Tom replied with a smile "Sure I can open the entrance for you!"
She followed him in the backdoor where she saw the famous brick wall. She couldn't help to be extremely excited! She was going to Diagon Alley! With his wand he touched few bricks and they started moving before her eyes.
"Thank you very much for your help sir!"
"Don't worry about it! Do you need help to reach Gringotts? Just go straight and you'll find it!"
"Thank you very much" and with that she left.
Diagon Alley was even better than she ever dreamed about. But she already lost a lot of time to find this place so she couldn't waste more walking around. She went straight to Gringotts and trying to look confident she walked towards the first free goblin.
"Good day sir, I would like to change this muggle money in wizarding currency, could you help me please?" the gobbling looked at her strangely "Did he figure out who I am?" she tried not to panic.
Seeing her becoming uncomfortable under his gaze, the goblin took her money and started counting some Galleons, Sickles and Knuts. "It's unusual for a wizard, or in this case a witch, to be respectful, and muggleborn are usually wary of us." She didn't what to say, but at least she was glad that he didn't recognized her. "Do you know how our money works or is this not the first time?"
To be honest she didn't remember very well and technically it was her first time so... "I'm sorry sir, I don't know. Your help would be greatly appreciated." She said with a big smile.
The goblin looked at her baffled again. " One Galleon is about 5 pounds thought the exchange rate varies, 17 Sickles in a Galleon and 29 Knuts in a Sickles. So now you have 13 Galleons 8 Sickles and 14 Knuts." He handed her the money in a small pouch.
"Thank you very much for you help, sir!" with one last smile she left the bank.
She walked for a few minutes until she saw Flourish and Blotts. This place was amazing! She really wished to have more time, but she really should go home soon. She looked at the books about Occlumency, there were more than one, but she didn't know which one would be more useful. At the end she choose the most expensive one. It was a pity that in this way she wouldn't have enough money to buy a second book, but that seemed the most complete one and she really needed to become good at Occlumency, so she thought it was probably a smart choice.
Once she paid, she still had some money left so she decided to take an ice cream. "It's been years! The Dursley never let have ice cream!" she knew that she probably should keep the money for something more important, but she thought that after today she deserved this little treat.
She returned home around 6pm and she knew that her relatives where going to be furious. "What do I do with the book though? I can't let them see it! They are going to ask too many questions and if they figure out that this is a book about magic... I don't even what to think about that! Maybe I could try to hide the book in my clothes, after all Dudley's old shirts are huge!" she tried to do so but the book was really big and she wasn't sure if the Dursleys would notice it. "If you look closely you can see it... Damn! I don't know, should I try anyway? Maybe is better if I hide it outside and take it later..." She walked to the bush under the window trying to not be notice and place the book under it. She then made sure to cover it with some leafs, she would get it later when everyone was asleep, and finally she was ready to open the door.
Once she opened the door she knew that she would spend at least a week in the cupboard with very little food.
"Where were you, you little freak! You where supposed to be here helping your aunt with your chores! We gave you everything you needed from the goodness of our hearts and this is how you repay us! Do you think that anybody else would have welcomed in their home? ..." after that she zoomed out and stopped listening. It was always the same speech after all.
She was sent to the cupboard without food as expected and she waited until 2am in the morning, when she was sure her relatives won't wake up, and recovered her book. She was exhausted but extremely happy. Even if she would be locked inside for a week at least this time she had something to do.
Hello! This is my first fanfiction so I really hope to hear what you think about it.
If there are some mistakes please let me know, English is not my first language so your help would really appreciated!