Their ride back to Hogwarts was, weirdly enough in Violet's opinion, as carefree and joyful as their ride after the end of last year. The first war between major powers in decades had just begun, both in the Muggle World, as well as in the Magical World yet no one seemed nervous about it, it boggled Violet's mind completely. The bombing of the Commonwealth's ministry in Warsaw had been a shocking way to begin the war and should have shaken the rest of the Wizarding World to its core. Yet, no one seemed to see the significance of it. The attack itself had been focused on the headquarters of the equivalent of the DMLE. Killing both its head detective and the Head of the department and destroying most of their facilities.

It had been a bold open move that the Commonwealth's experts hadn't yet cleared out how it had been performed. The wards that checked, both the motives and the possessions of those who came into the Ministry, hadn't detected anything dangerous. There had been no magical residue after the bombing, although the bombing itself had been similar to a really overpowered Bombarda Maxima. That made many think that it was some kind of spy or internal saboteur that had been informed of his mission once he was already inside the building.

Yet, despite the amount of fear and terror that the move provoked in the Commonwealth, no group had come forward to claim the responsibility. This was what put the Commonwealth's government the most on edge. As long as the enemy was hidden in the shadows they didn't know where they should counterattack and the danger of most attacks would always be there.

Of course, the fact that Hitler had started his invasion of Poland the next day the bombing took place, would make many people point fingers at Grindelwald. It was an open secret that the leaders of Magical Germany and Muggle Germany had some kind of pact between the two as both their expansions were mirroring each other. Violet guessed that many would be able to see the connection, but if what she knew about the Commonwealth is right, they would be too divided because of local politics to form a strong defense. The Commonwealth had been battling since its inception with the separatist forces inside its borders, she doubted that their eternal struggle would end today.

Meanwhile, at the international stage most countries hadn't focused much on the issue. They thought that the attack was perpetrated by a local force. A few, especially those who were very vocal about their dislike of Grindelwald, suspected foul play by Germany, especially with how closely the man had been working with the Muggle side of the equation for the last few years. However, most people stubbornly refused to believe that Grindelwald would be bold enough to attack two great powers at the same time. Even the Malfoys had dismissed the idea when Violet asked their opinion on the subject.

Yet, Violet had physical evidence, well not physical but as good as physical, that war was coming. Despite Jasmine's frustrating lack of real knowledge regarding what for her was recent history, she knew enough to know that Grindelwald wouldn't stick to the shadows for much longer. Violet was quite apprehensive about what results from this new and dangerous war may have for her and Jasmine. Don't get her wrong she still was completely determined to fight the bastard, if nothing else because she knew that not doing it herself would only lead to another war later on. One where they would definitively lose. However, she had seen enough memories of when Jasmine fought in a real wizarding war to know that this wasn't going to be like the fights she regularly had in the dueling club.

So Violet wasn't putting that much thought into the casual conversation her classmates were having. Although, part of her was a bit marveled at the fact that Jasmine was being able to actually talk about these inconsequential and mundane things, when she knew for a fact that the biggest war the Wizarding World had ever seen had just begun. No, her mind wandered around thinking about her studies on dark arts, runes, and other high level magic that no normal twelve year old could be dabbling with.

She barely registered when they arrived at the station, she was only shocked out of her musings when they saw the carriages that would be carrying them to Hogwarts. She had known that there was a possibility that she may be able to see Thestrals, she had even read descriptions and seen drawings of Death's horses. But, none of them did true justice to the skeletal horses she was seeing with her own eyes now. They were big, made to look even bigger by the large wings attached to their backs. However, that wasn't what drew Violet's attention, it was their presence. Contrary to Jasmine she had never seen the metaphysical embodiment of Death personally, but if she were to guess this was kind of what it had felt like for her.

They felt cold to see, but in a weirdly comfortable way, like on one of those happy autumn days she spent with Jasmine practicing her magic in the park. Violet guessed that this feeling was being produced by their inherent magic and their connection to the metaphysical entity. Violet hadn't lost anyone she was close to, anyone she would have properly mourned. But she imagined that the feeling these creatures invoked was similar to the feeling of accepting that loss. She caught up Jasmine's eyes who was giving her a soft understanding smile, she had probably felt the same way when she had first seen them too.

Violet was still thinking about the war, the thestrals, and her studies when someone knocked on her door before she went to sleep.

"Come in."

She wasn't surprised to see her black haired friend coming, not many others would have the audacity to try to come in.

"Hello, sorry for coming so late. We didn't really have the chance to discuss all that happened regarding the bombing and I thought we should really discuss it."

"I'm a bit surprised you want to discuss it at all, it is clear that it is Grindelwald's way of weakening his enemies before attacking them more directly."

"Of course, but that isn't really what I want to focus on. We are for all intents and purposes officially at war now." she said sighing sadly at the reality of their situation. "I think that we should start to strategize what we are going to do."

"Do you want to increase our training regiment? If that's the case I'm afraid to say that we need more hours in the day or find a way to forgo sleep altogether."

"I wasn't really thinking that you already absorb knowledge as if you were a sponge." said Jasmine with a playful smile. "I'm more concerned about how we are going to get to the point of fighting than anything else."

"What do you mean?" asked Violet, a bit confused.

"Well, even though logistics are much easier with magic we still need food and people. I doubt there are many mercenary companies just hanging around for us to contract. We also lack the necessary funds in general. I may be rich but I'm more, I can live well without working for the next thirty years, rich, not fund a whole military operation, rich."

"I see your point but how do you imagine we could get these kinds of funds? There are only a handful of pureblood families that have that kind of money, of those only the Malfoys are on good enough terms that we could even discuss it. They would shut us down directly but hey if you want to burn a few bridges we could." said Violet with sarcasm dripping out of her voice. "For that matter, how did Dumbledore even fund his campaign in your original world?"

"Thanks to Binns I have no idea, but if I had to guess he was funded by some of the Light pureblood families. He is already quite popular among them from what I know, especially the Longbottoms and the Shacklebolts." she answered after pondering the question for a few moments. "However, that isn't the point. I think that we have a few avenues to increase our fortunes, however, I don't think you will like my main one."

Violet just raised one eyebrow, silently prompting her friend to continue talking. What was the short girl thinking to do, fight dragons for their hide?

"We should kill the Basilisk in the chamber."

Oh no it was worse.

Violet just eyed her friend as if she had grown nine heads and become a hydra, completely stumped by the bold statement.

"You want us to fight a one thousand year old Basilisk, which you only were able to beat the last time because Dumbledore arranged it so that you had one of the few weapons that could actually harm it, and lent you his overpowered phoenix, one of the few creatures that could actually look a Basilisk to its eyes and not die?" asked Violet slowly in complete disbelief.

At least her friend had the decency to look a bit sheepish, while she nervously played with a strand of her curly hair.

"There were other ways to do it, ways that didn't involve fighting him directly. The fact that Dumbledore couldn't stop himself from doing it in the most reckless way possible isn't my fault."

"So what is your plan? Do you actually want to try that stupid thing with the rooster because if that's the case then…" Violet actually stopped her tirade when she looked at Jasmine's embarrassed face. She was actually thinking of using… "ARE YOU INSANE! Do you want to risk our lives trying to prove an insane theory created by who knows who!" cried Violet, it was official that Jasmine had gone completely insane. She will need to mourn her sanity after she gets the chance to yell at her some more.

"It isn't a theory." tried to defend Jasmine. "It has been used in the past already, what did you think I was searching for in Malfoy's library."

"Oh this is perfect, next you are going to tell me that to create these weapons of mass destruction all you need to do to make a Basilisk is to hatch a chicken egg beneath a toad."

Violet started to think that maybe she too had gone completely insane when she saw that Jasmine became even more embarrassed. What had happened to the world of magic when that sentence was actually correct.

"As far as researchers have come to understand, yes that was probably an important step of the ritual."

Violet had to contain the urge to actually smack her face against her bed, if she was going to be forced to be the sane one she was going to do it right.

"Please could you explain this farce."

"Well you see as you may or may not know the last Basilisk was killed four hundred years ago. Since then the ritual of actually creating the snake has been lost to the sands of time. However, Basilisk has so many interesting properties and their parts are frequently used in many rituals or other more mundane ways. This has made any kind of product produced from a basilisk incredibly valuable, especially the venom as by this point there are only a few milliliters of it left."

Violet suspected that the ritual hadn't been lost to the sands of time, but someone had had the wise idea of not letting the ritual that allowed the creation of weapons of mass destruction to be known. Basilisks had never been common but it was definitely true that at some point they weren't the almost mythical creatures, even in the Wizarding World that they were today.

"Okay I can see why they would pay a good amount for it. However, is it really as simple as taking a rooster in the morning and making them crow?" asked Violet in disbelief.

"Well yes a no. From what I read at the Malfoy's if a Basilisk hears a rooster crow it will kill it. However, the problem is that Basilisk can't hear the crow of a rooster in normal conditions, serpents simply can't hear that kind of frequency. I'm half convinced that the modern myth that it flees when it sees a rooster is a rumor spread by a dark lord centuries ago." she stopped and took a deep breath before continuing. "However, if we charm it so that its hearing is distorted so that it actually is able to hear it then it would work." she explained as if it was the most simple thing to do in the world.

For heaven's sake her best friend was a lunatic.

"Why can't we change the frequency at which the rooster crows, wouldn't that work?"

"It could, but if I'm bold enough to guess it wouldn't count as a rooster crow, it would just be another sound."

Of course it would.

"So what we just need to charm a fifty foot long Basilisk with scales that are almost completely immune to magic, a literally deathly gaze and venom that would kill us in seconds. Just that?"

"Well, I was hoping that being parselmouths would help us with my little plan."

Violet had to resist the strong urge to groan loudly at that stupid suicidal idea.

"Any other ideas?"

Once more, Jasmine looked uncharacteristically nervous at what she was going to say.

"This is much more long term but I was thinking we could recreate the blood-replenishing potion. I would prefer to recreate the wolfsbane potion but I never learned how to make it."

Okay at least her another idea wasn't as mad as her first one, however, why was she so nervous, it didn't seem so difficult. Yes, a blood-replenishing potion would be extremely useful for the coming war and it would sell like hot potatoes in a few years. To be honest Violet was a bit surprised it didn't already exist. However, she knew that Jasmine wouldn't be so nervous if there wasn't a problem.

"So what's the catch with that plan?"

"Well in most countries in Europe we would need to first become apprentices under a master before we could even think about submitting the recipe for a new potion. It is much easier to do so in America, although it would be a bit more difficult to set an identity there, as they don't allow Europeans to submit their potions there. Also, we would need to do a lot of additional research in order to know how the potion reacts to certain astrological conditions and other factors."

That could be a good excuse if she was talking with anyone else, but Violet knew Jasmine like the back of her hand, there was something more that also made her nervous.

"And?"

"Well to be honest I'm not completely on board with stealing someone's research."

At those words Violet couldn't contain herself anymore and started laughing at the sheer absurdity of the whole conversation. Of course, Jasmine would be more preoccupied with stealing someone's hard work than killing a mythical machine of doom. Jasmine's moral code was such a weird sight to see, she had stolen, obliviated, imperioused, tortured, and killed but it was at piracy where she drew the line. She knew that she justified all of the former acts because she had only done it to bad people or in cases of extreme necessity. Yet, it still ended up being a bit absurd to think that she believed that the best course of action was to attack a one thousand year old Basilisk.

"Okay, give me some time to maul over all this." she said when she finally recuperated her composure. "To be honest, I still think you are completely insane if you think that our best option to deal with all this is to kill a Basilisk but maybe we should go explore the Chamber. In your memories the Basilisk wasn't slithering around there freely it seemed that it had to be freed. We could eventually try to speak with them, maybe we could milk its venom out of them, that alone could sell for a good amount." she said, barely containing the mocking smile that wanted to appear on her face.

Jasmine seemed to not be as good as her at maintaining her composure as she loudly face palmed when she noticed that she had completely overseen a rather obvious and much less dangerous solution.

"I'm really dumb sometimes aren't I?"

"Of course sweetie but that's why you have me." she said while smiling as widely as she possibly could, doing her best to burst into laughter once more. Her best friend may be a madwoman but she was extremely fun to tease.

"Is there something else?"

"Well yes, Lucretia approached me during the ball." she nervously told her while playing with a strand of her hair. Whatever Lucretia had told her, it must have been quite shocking for putting Jasmine so out of balance, though Violet, was a little nervous for her friend, who was almost fidgeting.

"Did she say something important?"

"She may have discovered that I lied from where we learned our dueling abilities."

Okay, this could be bad. Violet couldn't quite predict what kind of ideas were roaming around in Lucretia's head if she knew that the two of them were somehow already trained in most aspects of dueling. She couldn't quite predict what her next step could be, however she doubted that the young heiress would drop the subject.

"Did she threaten you? Did she give you any clue on what she plans to do next?" she asked a bit preoccupied with the implications of having a powerful heiress as an enemy and furious that she had gone as far as threatening Jasmine.

"For the moment no. She seemed more amused than anything else. At least she hasn't told anyone yet, and as long as she doesn't know where we are staying it's doubtful she would be able to learn more."

"Let's hope that she doesn't continue asking questions. It is annoying enough with Dumbledore already sniffing on our trails."

A look of horror appeared on Jasmine's face. "Two Dumbledores, the world wouldn't be big enough for their combined egos."

Violet laughed fondly at her friend's antics. Then an idea came up, rather impulsively she picked her wand, focused herself using Occlumency, and with a small smile on her face she steadily said.

"Expecto Patronum."

White mist started to come from the tip of her wand until it slowly solidified into the image of a big snake that enveloped her in its protective light. The feeling of warmth and protection seemed to be touching Violet's own soul.

Jasmine's eyes widened at the sight and a proud smile appeared on her face. Violet was sure that if she hadn't been able to cast the Patronus before, she was able to do it now.

"You are incredible." murmured Jasmine in a small voice full of awe.

"I know."

Jasmine rolled her eyes before throwing herself into her, giving her a warm hug, making her Patronus light up the entire room.