In the weeks that followed, Vesta Lestrange kept her promise to keep her distance. When she needed to be seen with people, she simply sat with draco and his friends, although more often than not she stayed confined to a secluded nook she'd found in the Slytherin common room, which was directly next to a bookshelf that was large enough to keep her entertained for the entire year if she needed it to. In fact she was around halfway through a book called Voyager when she felt someone sit down next to her.

"If you would like to keep your eyebrows Mattheo I suggest you leave me alone."

"Are you going to Hogsmeade with us Tomorrow?" Vesta rolled her eyes.

"I meant the eyebrows thing, Riddle." She didn't look up at him, instead flipping the page in her book.

"Look, I love the kooky loner thing you've got going on. However you need to, as we say in England. Have. Some. Fun."

"No thanks, I'm here to study Mattheo not-"

"You're reading a Diana Gabaldon novel, I think you have time." He smirked and Vesta rolled her eyes again.

"What exactly is that supposed to mean?"

"It means the Outlander novels are practically smut and-"

"That's such a horrible male outtake on such a beautiful novel-"

"But it also means you're bored enough to read it where people can actually see you reading it." Vesta sighed, closing her book.

"No, I do not plan to spend my weekend in an unfamiliar place surrounded by people. It sounds completely unappealing to me so therefore-"

"You're going-" Mattheo grinned and Vesta watched him deadpan.

"I'm not, if you haven't realized by now I'm not a fan of open spaces, or large crowds. Besides I'm not sure an entire wizarding community would be too fond of the daughter of two convicted death eaters in their little village, not that you would understand." Vesta looked even more confused when Mattheo started to laugh. "Excuse me?"

"You have no idea who I am, do you?"

"Not even slightly." Vesta stared at him blankly and he leaned forward to whisper into her ear.

"My father is Lord Voldemort himself." Vesta's eyes went wide as she stared blankly at him, "In fact in another life I'm sure we would have grown up quite good friends as children. And, seeing as the people of Hogsmeade hardly even acknowledge my presence when I've gone in the past, I hardly think they'll pay any mind to you." Vesta was unsure what to say. "So you're going? I promise I'll stay with you the whole time so you won't have to face the crowd alone." Vesta didn't know what else to say so she nodded slightly. "Great! Meet us in the entrance hall at noon tomorrow."

He got up and walked away almost immediately afterwards and Vesta made the executive decision to retreat into her dorm before another one of the boys could bother her again, as she knew for a fact that Pansy and Daphne were crashing a Ravenclaw party. Unfortunately however it didn't take long reading in bed for Vesta to completely fall asleep.

The next morning Vesta went through her normal weekend routine, eating breakfast at the Slytherin table before going back down to the Slytherin common room in the same nook she always sat in during her free time. She watched the clock ticking on the wall, each second groaning by. She didn't want to go with them. The thought of the village, of a completely unfamiliar place, made her skin crawl.

By the time noon rolled around she was nearly ⅔ of the way through her book, but she was still dreading the rest of the day's activities. She made her way down to the entrance hall seeing Draco and his posse waiting for her by the door.

"Took you long enough."

"I still don't fully know my way around the castle. You're lucky I came at all"

Vesta had to admit, the village was beautiful, and for the most part Mattheo kept his promise and stayed right by her side. That was until Vesta got distracted by a display in the window of one of the shops. By the time she looked up again the group had completely vanished. She looked in all the surrounding shops before the panic started to set in. She ducked into a nearby tavern sitting down at one of the tables. She kept her head low staring at the table doing her best to regulate her breathing. She could hear the room buzzing around her, the noise pounding in her ears, she wanted to run, but she didn't know how to make it back to the castle. Stupid. Stupid.

"Breathe dearie you're alright, we've got you now." Vesta looked up wide eyed to see Tonks, now with deep lilac hair, smiling down at her. Ace Lupin was standing close behind her. Vesta looked back down at the table trying to keep her face hidden. Tonks simply smiled sitting across from her, taking her hand. "It's alright, no one here is going to ridicule you."

"I was supposed to stay with Mattheo, but I got distracted-"

"It happens to the best of us."

"No, most people don't cower in a crowd of people-" Tonks smiled again.

"So what!? It makes you interesting."

"I look like a fool, I should have just waited until the travel ban was gone to go back to Beauxbaton."

"Bullshit!" Ace finally decided to speak up. "You're one of us now, I don't care how much you want to deny it. Besides, Tonks has talked about meeting you for… several years now and she finally got to shut up about it. Besides, I don't think they'll catch Sirius Black any time soon."

"Well, the least I can do is hope, look, can we just… go back to the castle, please."

"Yeah of course."

"Thank you."

"It's almost time for dinner anyway. You can still sit with us if you'd like?" The two of them watched Vesta closely looking for any sort of hesitation, and there was some, but not the type they were expecting.

"You know what, I think I would."