The Christmas holdiays came and went with no word from Violet. Shoe Strings still roamed the halls, but had started staying closer Dumbldore, which Dumbledore didn't mind in the least.

Hufflepuffs, of course, asked many questions. They all wanted to know what had happened to their now precious Violet.

As much as they hadn't wanted to admit it before, she was the one that made them rebell so much. They had seen her as the silent girl. They had seen her as the girl too loud to be heard. They had even begun to figure out that she was also a girl that didn't need to interact with her peers since she was able to sneak off and have more fun than any of them could in the school.

But now she was gone. Just gone.

The other houses started spreading rumors.

"I heard she dropped out!"
"Someone told me she got kicked out."
"She wasn't real to begin with, just a Hufflepuff spell gone wrong."

But Hufflepuff ignored all that was said. Even when the teachers began talking.

"I don't think she's coming back."
"Maybe she just transfered. For the last months of her last year..."
"Who cares? She's out of our hair for awhile."

And then Violet came back. It took her till February 13, but she came. Around 11 pm she appeared in Dumbledore's office where he had been waiting.

"How are you, Miss Hayes?" Dumbledore asked, despite being afraid of the answer.
"I'm not tired." was her simple response.
"Would you like to go back to your commonroom?"

"No." and after she said that she walked out of his office as if she had somewhere to go. Dumbledore watched her go, wondering what all had gone on while she was away but too afraid to ask because of the answer.

Violet sat down in the same seat she waited to first see Dumbledore in. She remained very still throughout the rest of the night. She never allowed herself to sleep.

"Oh! Miss Hayes! You're back." McGonagall found Violet the statue at seven in the morning.
"Yes." Violet nodded.
"You had better get ready for class, it is a Friday." the professor instructed.

For the first time, Violet turned her head and looked at the professor.

"I just have to tell you something first," Violet paused to stand and stretch her now stiff legs, "I just wanted to tell you, since you had me wait for three hours, I feel that you should know this." Violet took this moment to stretch out her arms and yawn. "Because your precious Gryffindors had to talk for three fucking hours I got to my father two hours after he had died." Violet's voice had gotten louder and more powerful as she went on.

McGonagall just stood there, guilt dancing across her aged face as she watched the student walk out of the room. McGonagall shuffled into the Headmaster's office, fighting back tears.

Back in her familiar common room Violet slipped into the shower, clothes and all, before being spotted.

Violet did appear at breakfast, late but there. She came in clean clothes and her hair dripping wet. The weight of the water made her hair stay down and almost straight, not so wild.

The Hufflepuff table silently watched her walk in and sit down. Amber stared at Violet's eyes, which were down, thinking harder than ever. Amber was yet to figure out the mystery of everyone's eyes at the party and was determined to find out.

The rest of the Hufflepuff house watched her, but then went back to normal, everyone keeping an eye on her but trying their hardest not to make her uncomftorable.

The other houses weren't as careful with Violet's feelings. They watched her come in and then burst into whispers, discussing what must have happened to her while she was gone.

"I bet she was gone for overdosing."
"She must have been suspended."
"I can't believe she had the nerve to come back."
"She looks...dead." Ron whispered across the room at his own table.

The eyes of the Gryffindors around him went from her to him, trying to think of something to say. They had been mad at Violet, taking time away from their plans to find Sirius. They couldn't think of anything that could have been more important than that.

Potions first thing that morning for seventh year Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw. They made another possibly poisonous potion, apparently in the seventh year the only potions that were ever made had deadly qualities.

In Herbology they planted plants that were purely for show. No strings attached, just a beautiful plant.

Shoe Strings found Violet in lunch and acted as if he actually missed her. He even accompied her to her next class, DADA. The class that Lupin taught once again.

Violet had been virtually silent all day and almost looked like a normal student. No longer having to hold the small, psycho cat above her head. The cat had grown up to fit her new, seemingly more grown up self.

"Miss Hayes, could you stay a moment?" Lupin called after class ended to Violet as she neared the door. She stood still, Shoe Strings prowling around the room and her bag over her shoulder. Lupin paused for a moment, as if waiting for Violet to say something.

"I was told you were adopted, correct?" Lupin started.

Violet nodded.

"I...don't know how to say this, but, well, the school has your records, well, everyone's records, and I hope you don't mind but I used this to do a small test, and-"
"What are you talking about, professor?" Violet intrrupted, her voice monotone.
"I believe I know who your real father is. A friend of mine, in fact. You might have heard of him, Sirius Black. He was, or is, a very good friend of mine. I went to school with him, along with Harry's parents." Lupin explained, watching her face for a reaction.
"So what you're telling me is, that Harry's parents, who got married and kept and loved him, are the same age as my parents who didn't even leave a note with me?" Violet's monotone voice asked.
"Well, I, um..."
"That's what I thought." and with those words Violet stormed out of the room.

Right into the just mentioned Harry Potter, who had been standing outside the door, obviously listening.

"You should have listened to him!" Harry immediately told her.

"Why!" Violet demanded.
"He could help you meet your real father!"
"My real father? Guess what, Potter, I already had a real father. And we might not have had the best relationship ever, and I'm pretty sure that the most time I ever spent with him was when I was gone taking care of his funeral, and I might not have been at his death bed, but I sure as hell tried! If your ugrent little meeting had stopped just for a few minutes, I could have been there to see my real father before he died! So don't you tell me a damn thing about my real father, Potter!" Violet's once monotone voice had gone to an enraged sob/scream as she let it all out on unsuspecting Harry.

Before Harry had time to respond at all, Violet was once again storming out, this time with a vengance.

Violet didn't come to her next class. It was Divination, and Trelawney said she knew that the girl wouldn't be coming so she didn't bother to take away house points. She also missed Transfiguration but McGonagall didn't feel that it would be right for her of all people to say something.

Violet wasn't in the Hufflepuff common room. None of her housemates knew where she was.

The whole Hufflepuff house stayed up that night, waiting for Violet to reappear.

At about three in the morning Amber stood up in midst of the more patient students and decided "I'm going to look for her!" and was followed by quite a few of her housemates.

"Where are we gonna look?" the small first year who had actually named Shoe Strings asked as he tried to keep up with Amber.

"We'll look...around." Amber decided, not stopping to think.

Thirty minutes of looking in all the wrong places and being spotted by Filch brought the group to the Great Hall.

Shoe Strings sat outside the huge, closed doors, tail twitching but otherwise very still. Most took his presense as a good sign, but Amber felt her heart begin to pound.

'I don't want to go in there,' her mind told her as she pushed the door open.
'This is a bad idea.' her heart reasurred her mind.
'Why! Whay aren't you listening!' her guts questioned, filling themselves with butterflies.

Her eyes clamped themselves shut, knowing what they didn't want to see. She had gone in first, leaving everyone to second guess themselves at the door.

Her eyes forced themselves open, slowly as she tried very hard to make her self breathe.

She did not like what she saw. Her scream let her ears know this. An air piercing scream that would make sure the air in the Great Hall would never be the same again.

"What is i?t!" June yelled over Amber's scream as she ran from the doorway to Amber's side. "Oh my gods..." she breathed. Amber stayed there, continuing to scream.

"Wake up, Vi! Wake up!" June insisted as she shook her very cold, very still friend.

Violet stayed very still as she layed on teachers table, lying back as if she were in bed on her back with her hands neatly resting on her chest.

"She's not waking up! She's dead! She killed herself!" Ambers muffled screams coming from her face hidden behind her hands rang throughout the Great Hall and the minds of the students.

Can she really do that? Of course she can, she's Violet. Or, was.

"Why would she do that?" Ernie whispered, standing in the background with the rest of the students."I don't know." June answered.
"I think I do." Amber told them through her tears.
"Why!" June demanded.
"She told me things, the night of the party, to keep me awake, things I didn't understand." Amber kept crying.
"Tell me everything." June instructed. Her eyes were glassy with tears she wouldn't let fall.
"She said things about saying bye to poles."
"Bipolar."
"And about a man being depressed, I didn't understand, I was so messed up, but I wish I wasn't now." Amber sobbed.
"Manic depressive." June realized with a sigh.
"What does all of that mean?" a pure blood asked in confusion.

"It means that she had highs and lows in her moods. As in sometimes, really happy, but other times really sad." June stopped to start letting her tears fall. "And in Violet's case, it seems to be more lows than highs."

"She finally had her high. And she just couldn't handle crashing back down..." Amber realized.
"I was going to tell her that I...I decided to keep the baby. Even if I do do it alone. I think that would have made her happy." Matt breathed out. He thought back to that night that Violet, Amber and June had found out that he was going to be a dad.

The house talked about going to find a teacher, but no one wanted to leave her. As morbid as it was, it seemed that this would be the last time that anyone would see her outside of a box.

The students all sat around very still, explaining the situation in their minds.

She must have had one of the potions that was made in Potions, a poisonous cure.

She didn't leave a note, she must not have blamed anyone.

Her cat would go to Dumbledore.

A third year locked the Great Hall doors becaus no one wanted to be disturbed till absolutely necessary.

It was Saturday, so people came late to eat to begin with and when the doors didn't open, people just waited for someone else to unlock them out of pure laziness.

Dumbledore had to come down and unlock the doors, the professors figuring that there was some obsucure reason that they had all forgotten to explain the lock.

When the rest of he school came in no one really knew how to react. There was Violet, still with death, and all her housemates sitting around the room looking at her, not turning to see the rest of the school come in.

Gasps and whispers spread around the crowd like wild fire while Hufflepuff stayed so calm, most of them crying silent tears.

"I never should have stood her up, I feel so guilty-" Ron started blathering.
"Oh, shut up. You weren't that important, Weasley." Ernie spat back.
"I'm pretty sure I figured out who her mother was. This woman Sirius had been dating way back when who seemed to have quite a few...problems." Lupin said out loud for no reason but to say it.

"Violet had them, too." June commented.
"She must have been really weak." Pansy said, with a weak voice of her own.
"Oh really? Would you be strong enough to take the potion?" Amber questioned.

Many students had left or were leaving while this was being said, not being able to handle the death.

Dumbledore stood in the middle of it all, staring at the deceased student. The amusement that had been put in his eyes by her so many times was gone completely.

"I figured out why she looked so much like everyone else at the party," Amber's voice was very audible since she was trying so hard not to start crying again, "every last one of them had such sad, sad eyes. They looked like eyes that could never be happy. She was just so sad..."

A/N: So much for a happy ending. Don't get mad! It makes sense! Why would someone like Violet, who has always had quite a few problems, want to go on after she found out how good life could be and that she would probably never have it?

Much love for reading, and a little extra for those who review.