"I need to talk to the Headmaster. Now." Violet instructed McGonagall who was sitting at a desk in front of the entrance to Dumbledore's office.

"Sorry, he's in a meeting." McGonagall told her, not even looking up from a parchment she was working on.
"I need to see the Headmaster!" violet almost yelled, her voice reaching a dangerous point.
"He is in a meeting! Now, if you'll sit down, I'll allow you back in when he's done." McGonagall barely glanced up that time.

Violet sat down at a bench that she didn't remember being there before.

She sat very still for thirty minutes. Then she allowed one nervous tear to slip out.
By the time she had been sitting for forty five minutes a few more tears slipped out.
After an hour she was crying.
An hour and a half had caused sobbing.
When two hours came she was shaking with silent sobs.
Two and half hours and she was just shaking.

How could she have not known her own father was sick? So sick that from what she could tell from that letter, dying. And she was so stupid that she couldn't even see that.

The cat should have tipped her off. Her father had went through all that to send her a kitten. A ferocious kitten, but also an adorable one. And he must have gone through quite a bit to get it here.

Why didn't she know?

Three hours. She had sat there for three hours. Her butt was numb, her face was red, and her body was weighed down with guilt.

"Open the door." Violet growled at McGonagall,

"I told you before, he's in a meeting and-"

"Open the door." Violet hissed in a rather frightening tone.

McGongall finally looked up, her usually stony face showing her surprise to hear this tone from a student. Especially from a Hufflepuff, despite everything that had been going on recently.

"Well, alright." the professor mumbled, and she led the still shaking student through to the office of Dumbledore.

"We have been over this for hours, but still, we've established nothing! If he survived the veil, where would he end up!" Harry asked as he furiously rubbed his temples. Ron was flopped on the floor while Hermione obviously thinking so hard her brain was about to pop in a chair. Dumbledore sat at his desk his face very serene while Lupin sat on his desk, his jaw locked in concentration.

"I still think he'd either be somewhere he loved, or he hated." Lupin insisted. None of the people had seen McGonagall open the door and let a shaking Violet in.

"Yes, Remus, we all do, but the question is where that would be exactly." Dumbledore mused. He absent mindidly stroked a cat that was resting on his lap. Violet's cat, Shoe Strings, to be exact.
"After all this time, we know this!" Harry snapped.
"How long has it been exactly?" Ron questioned, rubbing his stomach with obvious hunger pains.

"Three hours, and now I'm taking the attention of the headmaster for a more pressing matter." Violet broke in, causing everyone's attention to be put on her.

"What do you mean more pressing?" Harry questioned. His stress was showing through his words and tone.
"I mean that this is something that is more important than what all of you have been been chatting about for all this time and now I need Dumbledore!" Violet shot back.
"This is life and death!" Harry quipped.
"So's this!" Violet responded.
"This is about my godfather!" Harry shouted.
"This is about my real father!" Violet shouted back. She was surprised that she had said her 'real father' but of course, didn't let it show.

"Perhaps, the four of you should take a break and get all of us some dinner while I talk to Miss Hayes." Dumbledore remarked, his eyes not as amused as they had been because of Violet earlier.

Ron, Hermione and Harry slinked out, eyeing the girl with detest. Lupin followed, watching the girls face trying to figure out what his brain was trying to tell him.

"Now, Miss Hayes, what exactly is wrong?" Dumbledore asked carefully.

Violet handed him the letter and watched as the man thought, still stroking her cat.

"Can you believe the audacity she has!" Hermione fumed as the group made their way to the kitchens.
"Well, yes. She was in the Great Hall not too long ago and not wearing pants. She evidently has balls of steel." Ron said slowly.
"Ron!" Hermione gasped.
"Just a figure of speech.." Ron mumbled.
"Are you sure she went here when I taught?" Lupin asked, his face scrunched with confusion.
"Yes, she was always quiet. She's just gone..weird." Harry remarked. He was beginning to feel guilt over the way he had treated the girl, not much, but a hero's amount.

"So quiet that all that yelling she was doing is rather shocking." Hermione mumbled."So she didn't yell in my class?" Lupin questioned. "We weren't in her class, but I'm guessing not." Hermione answered.
"I must have seen her yell sometime..." Remus mumbled, going back into this thoughts.

"Has anyone seen Violet?" June asked her common room.

"No, but is that surprising?" Amber mumbled from the couch where she was lying face down.

"Oh...I was just hoping to talk to her. Christmas break is coming up and I was going to see if she wanted anything before I left..." June mumbled.
"She'll turn up eventually. She always does." Amber told the worried housemate.
"Yeah, she's pretty reliable that way..." June sighed and went back to her room.

The group of four came closer to the office when Remus finally asked a question that had been on his mind for awhile.

"Do you think I was a good teacher?"

He was of course, answered with a chorus of 'of course' and certianly.'

"Why do you ask?" Hermione asked rather cautiously.
"Am I better than a few of the others?" Remus asked as an answer, a bit nervously.
"Better than Trelawney." Hermioen snorted.
"Much better than Snape." Ron added.
"Did you know he had us making a potion that is often used for poison the other day?" Harry added.
"That seems dangerous..." Remus mumbled to himself, smiling a bit."All right, Professor, has disaster been taken care of?" Harry asked Dumbledore as the food groupies came back baring, surprise surprise, food.

Dumbledore remained seated in his desk chair, facing his office fireplace with Shoe Strings still on his lap.

"Did you know she's adopted?" Dumbledore finally asked.

Lupin opened and shut his mouth a few times, obviously trying to listen to his brain again.
"I had hear that, yes. Why?" Hermione spoke for the group.

"It's not important right now. You can talk to her when she comes back." Dumbledore decided.

The group returned to their earlier discussion, pushing the angry girl out of their mind for now.

A/N: All right my darlings, I feel it's only fair to warn, this is the next to last chapter. Last one's it. A big hug and hearty handshake for reading this far.