Violet had always known she was special. Even when she was little there was something that distinguish her from the other orphans, she was quieter, more observant, and smarter. But the other orphans knew she was different too, they saw her with worry and angry eyes. They had been bullying her for as long as she could remember isolating her, ripping her dresses, stealing her food. It all got worse when one day an older boy broke the only doll she had, he was promptly thrown into the wall of the orphanage and all the kids in the courtyard saw her do it. This was the first time since she could remember that she used her powers, since then their worry had been replaced by fear, and their anger by hate.

However, this also was when Violet learned that she didn't need those worms, she was special, she was more and she didn't need to interact with them. She immediately started training those strange powers she seemed to have, trying to do new things with them. She soon was able to move things with them and levitate them at will, and she started to fight fire with fire. When the other kids tried to destroy her things, she would retaliate by stealing their own toys; no matter where they tried to hide them, if they pushed her she pushed them back with her powers. She refused to let them win.

But her biggest discovery was when she learned that she could make other people do things by just ordering them to do them, infusing her power on her voice. She immediately started using this new power to make the other kids finally leave her alone. She got a step further when she discovered how to induce nightmares while others were sleeping. It was simple really, she just constantly wished to do it and threw her power at them. This soon caused her to finally be left alone in her room, at last, she had her oasis. Each time they tried to put a new orphan with her, she would cause them nightmares until they asked the matron to leave.

Therefore, she was sure rumors had arrived at the ears of the matron and other adults, how each time someone wrongs her something would happen to them, and how the other kids avoided her because they feared her. Soon the matron and the staff became colder with her, but Violet could see it behind their eyes, they feared her too. They thought that she was too smart, too pretty to be left so isolated. That something had to be wrong with her, the other kids had to have seen it and that's why they were fearful of her. But she didn't care she finally had her peace. So she started to spend all her free time alone, reading and escaping to other worlds with people who were special like her. However one day she found a grass snake hidden near the tree under which she usually read.

"Go away!" she said and she was surprised when she heard an answer.

"I'm sorry mistress I will leave immediately."

"Who said that?" she exclaimed looking around trying to find whoever was mocking her.

"It was me, little mistress," said the snake while enrolling herself around her ankle. Now Violet was well used to the small little bits of strangeness she did on a semi-regular basis, but even she would have lied if she said that she wasn't surprised when she learned that she could speak with snakes.

That's how Violet met her first friend. When she learned that she didn't have a name, she decided to call her Euryale the name of one of Medusa's sisters. Soon she was the only other living being with whom she shared more than a couple of words. It was strange having a companion with whom to share her worries and passions. She missed her dearly during those few cold months when she had to hibernate. Euryale was all the friends she needed she decided. Although the thoughts of the snake frequently could be considered absurd, she thought that it was already time for her to search for her "mate", that only made her more special like Violet herself.

One day, in early fall a new orphan arrived. She was a bit smaller than her and she had tan skin, black curly hair, and sparkling green eyes. She was dressed in a white and red dress that seemed much more expensive than anything that she owned. When she entered the room, her green eyes were red and puffy from crying. She was far from the first orphan she saw crying after losing their parents, and she didn't share an ounce of sympathy; the dress was proof enough that she hadn't known anything but luxury, yet she had the gal to cry coming to a place where everyone else had suffered that and much more. She soon decided that she wasn't worth her attention, just another stupid orphan, so she ignored her attempts to greet her.

Despite the nightmares she caused, the other girl continued trying to talk to her for the next few days. Violet simply ignored her until she was forced to work with her at school after she showed herself to be more competent than most of the other fools at school. The teacher decided to pair them up so that both of them worked on more challenging material. At least she paled when she heard with whom she was going to work, with some luck she was going to leave her alone soon.

However, that night when she returned to her room after talking with Euryale for most of the afternoon the other girl was waiting for her. When she anxiously said that she knew she was the one who was causing the nightmares she tensed. It wasn't the first time someone had learned about her powers, most of the kids at the orphanage already knew, but sometimes when they learned about them they would get more aggressive before she taught them better. She was internally pleased when she admitted defeat but then something extraordinary happened. This other girl, Jasmine some part of her remembered, also had powers. She said the two of them were the same, magical.

She spent the night trying to learn more about this other world from which Jasmine came. From which she herself came from. She was sure her father was a wizard no matter what Jasmine said. Once when she was young she had asked Mrs. Cole about her mother and she told her the pitiful state she was in when she arrived at the orphanage. There was no way a witch would have been in such a situation. Even more, knowing that wizards and witches were able to transform things in other materials as Jasmine told her. No, she was most definitely the muggle in that relationship, her unnamed and probably dead father must have been a wizard.

The next day she woke up even before dawn and after making her bed she went to the tree where she had made a hole where Euryale hid while she wasn't there. She knew her little snake wouldn't survive a day if she brought her to the orphanage, so she left her there under the trunk of the secluded tree.

"I found another one." she said not caring about the bluntness of the statement.

"You found another mouse for me, oh thank you mistress." hissed the snake with fake adoration in her voice.

"Not a mouse, another… witch… someone else with strange powers like me." she explained to the reptile.

"Oh you have to present me to that other speaker, sometimes it is quite boring only talking with you mistress."

Violet scoffed, she was much more hesitant than her friend, showing Jasmine that her closest and only friend could be dangerous. She now knew that her roommate wasn't your average orphan but that didn't mean she was trustworthy. And Violet was smart enough to know who had the upper hand at the moment. She cursed her pride for revealing all she could do to the smaller girl. Even if she surely was more talented with her magic than Jasmine, she actually had people to teach her to harness it. Who knew what she could actually do if she tried. No, she wouldn't be risking putting herself at a bigger disadvantage by showing her one of her few vulnerabilities.

She decided to spend a few hours there talking with Euryale while thinking about what she was going to do in regards to Jasmine. The fact that her powers were magic was a huge revelation, until now she had always thought that she only was a telekinetic and maybe a telepath. But perhaps that mindset had affected what she could do, limiting her potential. So she picked up a leaf and she started to concentrate on it, picking that energy she had always felt inside her and wishing that the leaf was set on fire. Suddenly it started to burn and she had to drop it.

She really had just explored the tip of the iceberg, a grin spread on her face as she thought of how many things she could try now. If she was able to create fire by willing it to do so, she may be able to create more. Would she be able to create water, ice, gold, or even some mouses to feed Euryale? Were there any limits at all? She was getting so excited just thinking about the possibilities.

The rest of the day flew by in a series of shores and images of her performing the greatest of feats. However, by the time of dinner, while she sat as usual in her isolated corner with a book in her hands, she was surprised when Jasmine decided to sit next to her. Violet didn't miss the look of concern or disdain on the other orphans' faces.

"Where were you? I was looking for you all day but you disappeared." asked the smaller girl.

Violet just glared at her before she continued reading clearly implying that she didn't want to talk with her. But much to her frustration the smaller girl stayed seated beside her, calmly eating her soup as if she wasn't expecting an answer in the first place. And when Violet finished her own meal and stood up to go to their room, Jasmine immediately followed her. When they arrived already quite exasperated with her she snapped.

"Are you going to follow me everywhere like a baby duck all the time?"

"Sorry, I just wanted to show you what else I could do with magic.." she shyly said, immediately getting Violet's full attention. She was interested in knowing the full capacities of the other girl but she was much more reluctant to show her own progress.

"Tell me what you can do." she ordered.

Jasmine beamed despite the rudeness of her statement and she picked one of the older-looking books, she ripped the corner of a page, and then focused on it. Violet noticed that contrary to her, who simply stared at the object when she wanted to perform magic, Jasmine was also pointing at it. Maybe that made it easier to do? Suddenly the piece of paper transformed into an intricate wooden statue of the Big Ben. Violet attentively noted this new kind of magic. She had never tried to transform things like this; she had to try this tomorrow with one of the leaves of Euryale's tree. But then she saw Jasmine rip another piece of paper before eagerly giving it to her.

"You can try it too! It took me ages to learn how to do so but if you need help I can give you some tips."

Violet knew that she just wanted to see if she could do it too yet her pride wouldn't let go of this challenge uncontested. So she stared at the piece of paper with the most determination she could muster imagining Euryale's tree and willing the paper to turn into it. To her ire, the only thing she was able to do was to transform the paper from a dull beige to brown. She glared at Jasmine, frustrated by this failure.

"Tell me how to do it." annoyingly the smile of the other girl just seemed to extend despite her glare.

"Transformation is rather different than Charms, that's what levitating stuff and moving them is. It requires to picture the whole process, not just the result, a piece of paper won't immediately become a statue, there will be a gradual progression until the end result. Try it again this time imagining it going from one form to the other."

Violet didn't like the tone Jasmine adopted, as if she was her superior, her teacher, but she complied. She closed her eyes trying to remember what the transformation Jasmine performed looked like. Keeping the image at the front of her mind she stared once more at the piece of paper imagining it slowly transforming into a tree. It was much harder to maintain focus on a whole process instead of just an action but seeing it done in the first place helped immensely. Finally, the piece of paper transformed into a replica in miniature of the tree where she spent the majority of her time. She smiled proudly at her feat, Violet was surprised when she saw that Jasmine was also smiling at her.

"That was incredible. It took me ages to learn how to do that." she exclaimed. So either this was far more complicated than she thought, or Jasmine wasn't as good at magic as she had expected. Either way, Violet felt really smug that she had learned two new kinds of magic in a day.

"What else do you know?" Violet asked, if she was freely showing her what she could do she would use the opportunity to learn as much as she could.

Jasmine, willfully complied as she took the doll they were playing with last night and she focused on it. Suddenly the doll stood up and started walking around the bed as if she was alive. Violet had to grit her teeth at the display, this was the second time Jasmine had been able to do magic she had never even considered. How much else did she know? How far behind was she? However, looking at her she was glad to see that at least her breath was more labored, Violet knew that using too much magic could be physically exhausting, especially when she used it to influence others. Maybe she had less magic than her?

"This is also a Charm. I'm not actually thinking about each movement when I cast the spell, I was just thinking about both the idea of walking as well as my memories of walking." explained Jasmine.

Not wanting to be left behind Violet took the doll which had fallen up after the magic had ended, she focused on it thinking of the idea of walking, she thought about how sometimes when she had an idea in her head or she was especially emotional about something she paced around her cramped room. Finally, when she thought that she had already mustered the clearest image she could, she tried to cast the spell. Much to her delight, once again the doll stood up and started walking around the bed, maybe a little stiffer than when Jasmine had done it but maybe that came down to practice. However, she frowned a little when she noticed that she felt that the spell took much more effort than most other spells she had done, maybe the other witch wasn't as weak as she first thought.

"The spell needs more magic than a levitating charm because the movement is much more complex. The amount of magic that you need to use in order to move an object grows proportionally to the weight and quadratically to the complexity of the movement." lectured Jasmine as if she was reciting from a book. Violet narrowed her eyes at this; she knew the girl was smart but even she didn't know what growing quadratically meant. Was this common knowledge among magical, and were their educational expectations much higher than in the normal world?

"I want you to start from tomorrow to teach me all you can about magic." she demanded not leaving any room to say no. However, strangely enough, Jasmine stood up in the excitement with a wide smile on her face.

"Of course, do you want me to teach you about our world? Like traditions, politics, and all that? "

Violet thought it was strange that she needed to learn about that. Was there a big cultural difference between the magical and the normal world? However she nodded, she needed to learn as much as possible.


Jasmine was a bit surprised when the next day Violet woke her up before dawn. She was used to waking up early because of the early breakfast they served in the orphanage, however by the looks of the sky Violet had woken her up at least two hours before that. She expected her to be enthusiastic about learning about her world, but she didn't expect her to be this excited.

She knew that teaching Riddle what most heirs learned before Hogwarts as well as teaching her some spells from the first few years was a tall order. As Holly, she had been quite surprised when she arrived at Hogwarts only to learn how much was expected of her as a political figure. Although the light-aligned faction was much more lenient than the dark one, they still had some customs and etiquette that she had to learn. And according to Susan at least, she hadn't been up to the standards expected from an heiress of a Noble House and a Most Noble and Most Ancient House until her fifth year.

She could only imagine that as a supposed muggleborn in Slytherin and later on as the heir of Slytherin, Riddle had to learn much the same things as Holly did, with even more pressure put over him. She hoped that if Violet had an easier time during her first few years at Hogwarts she would restrain her more violent tendencies. She had heard the gossip that surrounded Violet and it wasn't favorable, not only was she seen as a stuck-up bitch, that believed herself to be superior to everyone else, but she was also seen as a bad augury or a freak that liked to torture others. However she had never seen her interact with anyone else either positively or negatively, she seemed more like a loner than a future monster. So she was surprised at how eager she seemed to want to interact now.

However she had brought this to herself so she sat up and without more prompting, she started the lecture.

"The first thing you have to know is that magic doesn't just spell as you have been using until now. There are two main branches of magic: Wizardry and Witchcraft, Hogwarts teaches both. Wizardry is everything you can do by yourself, maybe with the help of a magical focus like a wand, this includes charms, transfiguration, and defensive and offensive spells. Then you have Witchcraft which is related to everything that needs external help. This could be from the planets themselves, to plants and animal parts, those have their own magic independent of yours. As a general rule Witchcraft is much more long-lasting than Wizardry."

"But I can do Wizardry. Why am I called a witch?" Violet asked, frowning a little.

Having asked a similar question when she learned that Jasmine knew the answer. "Well, both magical males and magical females are able to do both kinds of magic. However, Wizardry is older than Witchcraft, and the biggest pioneer in Witchcraft was Ma'at and she only taught her craft to other females. So for the first three hundred years or so, only females learned any Witchcraft and it wasn't until much later that this imbalance was compensated. So the word witch, or well the equivalent in ancient Greek, stuck as a synonym for a female wizard." Jasmine thought for a moment about how to continue when she decided it was better if she was honest with her. "Now there is another way to divide magic, between magic that just uses your thoughts and your will and magic that needs something to work, this can be something as simple as a bit of hair or something more complicated like emotions or even memories. Now because of historical reasons this division is qualified as light and dark magic respectively. Recently, this division has been wrongly used to divide between legal and illegal magic because dark magic is disproportionally illegal as it is in general much more dangerous in general. Now there are many other subdivisions of magic. I don't know them all but among the most important are…"

And so Jasmine spent the whole time until breakfast teaching Violet all that she knew about the differences between the different kinds of magic. She doubted she had done a good job at it as she didn't have any kind of material to refresh, the sometimes blurry, memories from her time as Holly. At least Violet didn't seem to mind as she was dissecting any piece of information she gave while playing with a strand of her long hair. Time flew by and it was not long before it was time for breakfast.

Once again they both sat beside each other and Jasmine had insisted that she didn't want to talk about magic in public until one of them learned to cast privacy spells. Thus, she was able to make Violet open up a bit about her love for books. They also spent their time at school together working on the harder material. Surprisingly enough Violet seemed to quickly understand the new material and Jasmine noticed she quickly started to get bored and was itching to continue their talk about magic. To be honest, Jasmine also wanted to talk about it. Since Violet didn't know at all what was taught to magical children, she was able for the first time since she was reborn to talk about her past life, something she had wanted to do for a long time now. They spent the last hour of school trying to cast a notice-me-not charm. Sadly Holly had never learned how to cast notice-me-not charms wandlessly, so it would take some time before she knew how much magic she needed to use it, hopefully, she would have the focus to do it without Occlumency.

When they returned to the orphanage they were immediately ordered to help with the shores. Jasmine was quick to volunteer to help clean their floor. They were so absorbed trying to cast the charm that they didn't notice a few older girls coming behind them.

"What are you doing with the freak?" asked the tallest of the girls who seemed to be at least eleven.

"We are cleaning." deadpanned Violet not removing her eyes from where she was sweeping.

"You know who she is? There is a reason that room was free. She killed her last roommate and spilled her guts all along the hallway." she accused, ignoring Violet's response for the moment.

Jasmine didn't miss how Violet tensed, she glared at the older girl "I'm pretty sure that if she really did that she would be in prison not here."

"Oh but that's the thing she never leaves any proof behind." she took a step forward putting herself just in front of Violet clearly wanting to intimidate the smaller girl, Violet still tried to ignore her and just sweep the floor. "But we all know what she does, we all know that you are a servant of the devil." She pushed Violet, making her fall down. Violet immediately turned around ready, glaring at the other orphan and Jasmine was able to feel the magic gathering. But before Violet could unleash it Jasmine pushed the bully with all her strength. This seemingly made Violet lose focus as she was openly gawking at Jasmine.

"Don't touch her! I don't care what Violet has done if it was to people to like you they deserved it!" she yelled.

The older girl lifted her hand to strike her but Jasmine was ready and she used her magic to push her against the wall. The other two girls took a step back, they were trembling as if the devil itself was in front of them.

"You won't even touch even a hair of her, do you understand!" Both girls slowly nodded too terrified to say anything out loud. "Good, now pick her up and get out!"

As the two of them scrambled out of the corridor carrying their injured friend. Jasmine offered her hand to Violet who was still on the floor, seemingly confused over all the altercation. "Are you all right?" she asked, Violet, nodded.

"You know what this means, no? Probably all of the orphanage already knows that you are also magical."

"I don't care if they treat you like this all the time, I wouldn't want to talk with them either way." Violet seemed shocked at this but finally, she took her hand with a small smile.

"You know I could have defended myself, you didn't have to intervene." she quietly said.

"I know that, but they were bullying you and that made me so angry. If I didn't do something my magic would have done it for me. Now let's get out of here, we don't want to be found out at the scene of the crime" she said with a mischievous smile while pulling Violet towards the stairs.

As the two of them exited the building Jasmine guided them towards a nearby park she had seen near the church. There they found a secluded spot near a big oak to sit down. The leaves of the tree were already orange and many of them had already fallen. Jasmine smiled at the colorful tree, she had missed the colorful atmosphere she had in her old home compared to the gray and brown in the old orphanage.

Violet was still looking at her as if she was a curious animal or a strange puzzle she had yet to decipher, Jasmine knew that this was probably the first time someone helped her when others bad-mouthed her. She still remembered a whole childhood having to silently tolerate how the Dursleys insulted her and defamed her, both around the neighborhood and in school, without anyone ever doubting them. How surprised the young girl was when Ron stuck up for her after Malfoy started insulting her during her first flying lesson. However, she also remembered how hurt Holly was when Ron didn't believe her about the Goblet. Her friendship was forever changed as despite their best efforts she knew their friendship never was as close as before. So she promised herself in the shade of that autumn tree that she was never going to betray that fragile trust Violet seemed to have given her.

She knew how similar their childhoods were, she still remembered that image of the young child with fear in his eyes when a strange man arrived for him. Holly hadn't been able to not feel dread at how similar and yet how different their introductions to magic were. She remembered how scared she was when she heard the thunderous sound of someone striking the door until it fell down. She had recalled the feeling of happiness and belonging knowing that there were other people like her, that she wasn't a freak like everyone else said she was. She saw that same feeling in the eyes of Tom and now in the eyes of Violet, she saw herself being surprised when Hagrid defended her cake. They were two sides of the same coin and she was going to do everything in her power to give her the happy childhood her counterpart never knew.

So thinking about that she pointed to a pile of fallen leaves that had been accumulated on the floor and will them to become a small violet. It was a much harder transformation than the one she had done yesterday so she was left exhausted from doing it without a wand. Violet turned at seeing her panting seemingly for no reason until she saw the flower she had created.

"You did this?" she asked, pointing to her namesake.

"Yes, do you like it?" Jasmine asked shyly.

"Oh, yes thank you" she quickly added, " But don't you know what this means?"

Violet was starting to look at the flower with a hungry look. She quickly picked it up, staring at it but looking at something far from the flower before her. Then a small frown appeared.

"Is it alive?" she asked. That's when Jasmine understood at last why she was looking with so much intensity at the small flower, she thought she had created life. She still remembered the conversation they had the first night she told her she was a witch.

"Not really, magic can simulate living things, even make them act independently to your thoughts. But it is nothing more than a simulation, it is not more alive than the images in a movie. If I take the magic from it" she said while concentrating on disrupting the magical flow of the flower. When it happened the flower quickly leaked its magic away liberating it to the air and the transformation faltered leaving nothing more than the leaves it was made of.

Violet was clearly saddened at this, Jasmine frowned seeing how she had already dampened the mood. "I'm sorry Violet, there is no magic that can bring your mother back. What is dead must stay that way." She said feeling a pang of loss for her recently deceased parents. The look of bewilderment Violet sent her was really surprising for Jasmine.

"I don't need that decrepit woman." she denied with clear anger in her voice.

Jasmine didn't believe her but she didn't press on, so trying to alleviate the atmosphere she asked.

"Do you want me to teach you how I did that?" Violet rolled her eyes at that, seeing clearly through her, but she didn't deny her. So with a smile once more Jasmine started to explain to her the principles of animated transformations.