Chapter 24

Hermione didn't want to let Ron see her so upset, so she decided to go to the one place where she always felt safe: the library. She went to the back of the library where she knew no one usually went and just started to cry (as quietly as she possibly could, she was in the library after all).

I can't believe that it was Harry the whole time... Hermione thought, hurt and confused.

But then she started thinking about it some more, and realized that a lot of things just didn't fit.

No, I'm just being silly...every time Violet took off, Harry was always with Ron and I, so he couldn't possibly be the other guy. Also, just before Violet dragged Harry into the Forbidden Forest, he seemed to give her a strange look...But this doesn't really explain why he was kissing her! I don't know...I think I really should talk to him to get the full story...Hermione thought, feeling slightly silly for over reacting the way that she did.

"Hermione! I'm glad I found you. We really need to talk." Harry said, looking at Hermione very seriously.

"Yeah..." Hermione said.

They left the library and found a nice and quite place on the grounds that they could talk.

"That really wasn't what it looked like, Hermione." Harry said.

"Yeah, I realized that it couldn't have been when I thought about it later. I over reacted." Hermione replied, "So what really happened?"

"I really don't know. It was some weird kind of vision or something...she was my mum, Hermione! Well, not exactly, but she was telling me things that apparently my mum told my dad when they were both still at Hogwarts." Harry said quietly and full of emotion.

"How do you know she said something your mum once said to your dad?" Hermione asked curiously.

"She kept calling me James and she even said her name was Lily a couple times too..." Harry said.

"Wow...that's so strange..." Hermione said, at a loss of what she could say to him.

"Hermione...my mother was in Slytherin..." Harry said slightly numbly.

"What?! No, that can't be it?" Hermione said, very surprised.

"It is. Violet said it." Harry replied, "I just can't believe it...that's why the Sorting Hat wanted to put me in Slytherin! It's in my blood!!"

"Huh?! The Sorting Hat wanted to put you in Slytherin?" Hermione said, now pretty shocked.

"It did." Harry said, feeling slightly ashamed, "I guess I really did belong in Slytherin, no matter how much I wanted to deny it."

Hermione could see how much finding this out about his mother had upset Harry. She decided that she shouldn't bring up the thing with Violet right now and should instead try her best to comfort him.

"Look, Harry...It really doesn't matter where it wanted to put you, it matters where you ended up. I mean, in all the time that I've been friends with you, I always knew that you were in the right place. Remember when the Sorting Hat sings its song, it tells us what each house is famous for? Gryffindor is famous for those who are "brave at heart". If that's not you, I don't know what is! You are one of the bravest people our age that I know. The Hat was wrong to want to put you in Slytherin. There really isn't any other place that you can be, other than Gryffindor." Hermione said meaningfully, reaching out and giving Harry a hug.

Harry gratefully returned the embrace and said nothing for several minutes.

Finally he said, "Thanks, Hermione."

Hermione smiled at him and said, "Hey, I bet Ron is wondering what happened to us by now. Let's get up to the Common Room, okay?"

"Yeah, lets..." Harry said.

They walked from the grounds to the Gryffindor Common Room.

The Gryffindors were in a great excitement over the win against Hufflepuff and by now the party was in full swing. But, three people in that room weren't as enthusiastic about the win. Fred and George were in a corner glaring at each other as if they were ready to kill each other, while Katie was ready to kill them both over their behavior during the game. Katie, finally reaching her boiling point, angrily stormed up to the twins and started yelling.

"What were you two thinking!?!" Katie yelled at the top of her lungs, making the Common Room go quiet.

Everyone turned their gazes towards the Weasley twins and their Quidditch Captain.

"You almost lost us the game!!!! I don't care what you two were bickering about, whatever it was, you shouldn't have brought it onto the field! If it wasn't for Harry, we would have lost the game and our chance to win the Quidditch cup!" Katie said in an absolute rage.

Fred and George both bowed their heads in shame.

"See what you've done Fred?" George muttered.

"It wasn't all my fault, I never pretended to be you." Fred said louder, getting angry again.

"Yeah well, maybe you should have, then we wouldn't be in trouble right now!" George yelled.

"Shut up! This is exactly what made us almost lose the game. If you two don't clean up your act by next practice, then I will have both of you replaced!" Katie threatened as she stormed off into the girls' dormitory.

Fred gave George one last glare before he stormed off into the boys' dormitory while George took off and left the Common Room completely. It took a quite a few minutes before the Common Room was bustling with noise again. Amongst the many puzzled faces, Ron and Ginny both looked at each other with a look that seemed to ask, "What was that all about?" Suddenly Ron remembered that he wanted to talk to Ginny about Violet. He walked up to her and started a conversation.

"So, Ginny, how was your time at the Ball with Seamus?" Ron asked with a relaxed tone.

He sounded like he approved the idea of Ginny and Seamus as a couple.

"What?" Ginny said with a look of confusion.

"Well, how was it?" Ron said trying to sugar coat it some more.

Ginny knew that there was something fishy going on since Ron actually managed to smile as he said this.

"Just the other day you were ready to pounce on Seamus just because he took me to the Ball! I know that there is something else that you want. You would never be this nice about me and my dates." Ginny said while raising an eyebrow.

"Okay, okay." Ron said dropping the act, "There is something that I want. I need to ask you something about Violet."

"What?" Ginny asked curiously.

"I want to know if Violet told you anything about fancying anyone else." Ron said.

"Look, I don't want to get involved in this stuff. This is Violet's business. If she wanted you to know, she'd tell you." Ginny said, getting defensive.

"She did tell you!! I knew it!!" said Ron, "Tell me who it is!"

"No!" Ginny said stubbornly.

"Come on, Ginny! I promise I won't rip Seamus's head off the next time I see you guys together!" Ron said.

"Well...I'll try really hard not to..." Ron added under his breath.

"Be that as it may, it's still none of my business." Ginny said unyieldingly.

"Tell me!! I have to know!!" Ron said, grabbing on to her arms and shaking her a little bit.

Ginny finally got herself out of Ron's grasp and said, "Look, all I'm going to tell you is that it's someone who you wouldn't like finding out it was, okay? I've got to go... study...now. Bye!"

Ginny then ran off before Ron could get anything more out of her.

"Hey, wait!!" Ron called after her.

But it was too late. She'd already run off. This is when Harry and Hermione walked into the Common Room.

Ron walked up to them and said, "Hey, you guys are finally back. You should have been here! Katie totally blew up at Fred and George for nearly messing up our game. I really wonder what they could have been fighting about...Ginny and I were really surprised because we've never seen them fight like this before."

This is when Ron noticed that the both of them were noticeably subdued.

"What's up? Did you find anything out from Violet, herself?" Ron said, slightly concerned.

"No." Harry said simply.

"No? But you guys were gone for a rather long time. You didn't go off snogging or something, did you?" Ron said, cracking a smile.

"No." Harry said again, "Look, I don't feel like talking right now. We'll talk later, okay?"

Harry then walked up to the boy's dorms leaving Ron in confusion.

"Hey, what's wrong with Harry?" Ron asked Hermione.

"I don't know if I should tell you...I think Harry would like it better if he could tell you himself." Hermione said.

"What's with everyone today!? Is this 'keep information from Ron' day?!? First Ginny refuses to tell me anything of what Violet told her about the other guy, and now you refuse to tell me what happened to Harry!!" Ron said in frustration.

"So, Ginny didn't tell you anything at all?" Hermione said, attempting to change the subject.

"No...all she said was that I wouldn't like to find out who it was." said Ron.

"How strange...who could it possibly be?" Hermione mused.

"Well, I know I wouldn't like to find out that it was someone in my dorm." Ron said.

"Yeah, that would be pretty weird..." Hermione replied.

"It can't be Harry of course...and it can't be Seamus either...if only it was, then I could get his scrawny little neck!" Ron said, getting sidetracked.

"Ron, let's focus here. Harry and Seamus are out of the picture, so this just leaves Dean and Neville in your room." Hermione said.

"It can't be Neville...so it must be Dean!" said Ron.

"Hey, wait a second! Why can't it be Neville?" asked Hermione, confused.

"Oh, come on...how could it be Neville?" Ron said matter of factly.

Hermione just shook her head.

"I think that you should give Neville more credit. It could be Neville just as much as it could be Dean." Hermione said.

"I really don't think it's Neville." Ron said, refusing to change his mind.

"Oh, fine. Since you're so sure it's Dean, maybe you should talk to him about it." said Hermione.

"Yeah, I think I will." Ron said with determination.

"You know Ron...I think you should go talk to Harry now...I bet he'd want to talk to you." said Hermione.

"I guess I'll go do that right now." Ron said, "I'll see you later, okay?"

"Okay." Hermione replied.

With that, Ron walked up the stairs to the boys dormitories.

Harry just sat on his bed and thought about everything he just heard. He was still processing everything, and still didn't know how exactly he should be feeling.

My mother was in Slytherin?! I still can't believe it. How could my mother have been in Slytherin? Everyone that knew my mother said that she was kind and caring. Those are things that Slytherin is definitely not famous for. And she was against Voldemort...another thing that is definitely not Slytherin. But then how could the Sorting Hat have put her in Slytherin? It puts you in a certain house if you have some quality in you that is more obvious than other qualities of which that house is famous for...well, at least that's why the Hat wanted to put me in this mean that my mother might have actually had a dark side? If someone like her actually did have a dark side, it's not entirely impossible for me to have one too...no, it couldn't it? Harry thought broodingly.

Ron then walked into the dorm. He saw Harry was sitting facing the window on his own bed.

"Hey, Harry, what's going on? I asked Hermione why you were upset, but she told me to talk to you."

"My mother was in Slytherin." Harry said, numbly.

"What?! How can that be?" Ron asked in absolute shock.

"Violet told me. She was in Slytherin." Harry repeated, getting slightly more upset.

"Wait a second...how could Violet have known something like this?" Ron asked, refusing to believe it.

"I'm not exactly sure what happened, but I think that Violet had some kind of vision where she was telling me things that my mum told my dad when they were both still at Hogwarts." said Harry.

"Are you sure she wasn't just playing some sort of joke on you? I mean, we've seen Trelawny give these so called 'visions', and we've seen that they're just a load of crap." said Ron, very skeptically.

"I'm sure of it, Ron. She kept calling me James, and she told me things about my parents that she couldn't have possibly known." Harry explained.

"Wow...that really is weird..." Ron replied.

"That's not all I found out though. I found out that Snape not only was a Death Eater, he might be a killer!" Harry said.

"What?!?!" Ron exclaimed.

"He might have killed this family with the rest of the Death Eaters! I'm not exactly sure if he did or not, because Violet had only mentioned it briefly in the vision." Harry said.

"We already knew Snape was bad! I don't put it past him to kill people!" Ron replied angrily.

"I agree that Snape is pretty horrible...but a killer?" Harry said, "No matter how much we hate him, that is a really big accusation...I still don't know what to think about what I just heard. How could my mother have been in Slytherin? It doesn't make any sense...everyone that knew my mother said she was so nice..."

"Look, Harry...your mum might have been in Slytherin, but you're in Gryffindor! You're not like any of those scum bags in Slytherin..." Ron said with conviction.

"So this means that my mum was bad?" Harry asked with slight annoyance, but still not knowing what to believe.

"Oh, no...I didn't mean that..." Ron said, now at a loss as to what to say, since he still strongly believed that Slytherin was all bad.

"They don't put you in a certain house for no reason, Ron. What quality did my mum have that made the Hat put her in Slytherin?" Harry asked in weak disdain.

"I really can't think of what it could be..." Ron replied slightly apologetically, "But it really doesn't matter why the Hat put her in Slytherin anyway. Your dad was in Gryffindor, and he didn't see her as all bad."

"Yeah, that's true..." Harry replied reluctantly.

"You know, let's not think about this anymore. I bet Hermione is waiting for us in the Common Room. Why don't we all play Exploding Snap!" Ron said, trying his best to make Harry feel better and getting up to go to the Common Room.

"Yeah, okay." Harry said, glad to get his mind off of the whole situation.

Ron and Harry then walked back down to the Common Room.

Even after several weeks had passed since the Valentines Ball, Draco still felt significantly depressed, convinced that Violet now hated him since he told her the whole truth about his family and their connections to Voldemort. He stopped being loud, obnoxious, and bossy as he regularly was, and he also stopped showing off as much as he once did. The change in him was so drastic that even his Slytherin housemates picked up on it, except Crabbe and Goyle, who had difficulty picking up on much of anything. Pansy Parkinson, who'd finally forgiven Draco for insulting her in the beginning of the year decided to approach him the Saturday morning after the Hufflepuff-Gryffindor Quidditch game. She saw he was sitting on the big couch in their Common Room.

I guess he was just in some sort of bad mood when I talked to him in Hogsmede...I still don't know why he took that stupid Ravenclaw git to the Ball though...I bet he was just trying to make me jealous! I'll show him that it didn't get to me...that way I'm sure he'll come to his senses and stop playing so hard to get. Pansy thought as she approached Draco in their Common Room.

Draco was so deep in thought about Violet, he did not even see Pansy coming up to him.

"Draco! Draco!!" Pansy said, waving a hand in front of his face to get his attention.

Draco shook his head when he realized that someone was right in front of him, realized it was Pansy, and then said with little enthusiasm, "Oh. Pansy."

"What's wrong with you, Draco? You're not your usual charming self." Pansy said playfully while putting a hand on his shoulder.

Draco was really glad that he didn't have the truth telling spell on him now because he'd have replied with something like, "Yeah, but it seems that you are your regular annoying self." He decided that he should be careful with his words this time, or else he might inspire the same reaction from her as the last time he had insulted her.

"I'm just in a bad mood..." Draco said.

"Why's that?" Pansy asked, taking a seat next to Draco much closer than he would have liked.

"Ahh, well...I asked my dad to buy me a Firebolt, but he said that he didn't want to waste his money on something like that..." Draco made up, hoping that Pansy would soon get off of his back.

"Oh, I'm so sorry..." Pansy said overly sympathetically, still keeping her hand on Draco's shoulder.

It took all of Draco's will power not to bat her hand away and tell her off.

"Don't worry about it..." Draco said, feeling the annoyance in him growing to an almost intolerable level.

"Well, Draco...our next Hogsmede visit is in about a month...would you like to come with me?" Pansy asked slightly nervously.

This forwardness from Pansy surprised Draco.

"Uhhh...well...I don't think I'm going to the next Hogsmede visit...I have to catch up on my school work..." Draco said awkwardly.

Pansy then looked at Draco in disappointment and said, "Oh..."

"Yeah...well, I'm going to go up to the Great Hall to get breakfast. See you later." Draco said coolly, "Come on, Crabbe, Goyle!"

With that, Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle got up and went to the Great Hall, leaving Pansy looking after them. Few minutes after they'd gotten some food to eat, Draco noticed one of his family's owls flying up to him at the table.

There's no parcel, so this can't be from mother...Draco thought as he detached the letter from the owl.

As the owl flew away, he opened the letter. He found that it was from his father.

Draco,

It is imperative that we speak as urgently as possible. I will come to visit you in your Common Room fire this Friday at Midnight. I sincerely hope that you have something interesting to tell me when we meet.

Father

Draco read the letter over about five times before he realized what this meant. He would need to find some information about Sophia or her necklace within five days.

What am I going to do?! Father will have my head if I have nothing to tell him on Friday! But I refuse to betray Violet by doing this! She already thinks I'm horrible enough, and I really don't want to work for Voldemort anymore! I really don't see any way I can get out of this though...I'll just have to tell father something, and deal with this later...Draco thought broodingly.

During the same week, Violet had avoided Harry, Hermione, and Ron since the incident in the forest. Harry realized that this must be because she felt very uncomfortable around them since she, herself didn't know exactly what she said and did that made Hermione and him so upset. Harry decided that he should probably go talk to her about it. In Transfiguration, Violet had sat far away from him, Hermione, and Ron. When class ended, she began to leave without even looking at them. Harry thought that this was a good opportunity to talk to her.

"Hey, guys, I'm going to go talk to Violet now, okay?" Harry said, walking after Violet quickly.

Finally catching up to Violet on the grounds, Harry said, "Hey, Violet! Wait up!"

Violet stopped and waited for Harry to catch up to her. When he came up to her, she didn't look him in the face.

"Look, Harry, I'm really sorry for whatever happened...I really hope Hermione wasn't too mad." Violet said while avoiding Harry's eyes.

"No, don't be sorry...it was just really...strange..." Harry said, "And Hermione isn't mad at you...she was just a little shocked that's all...we all were just wondering why something like this could have happened."

"This actually isn't the first time I've done something like this...I've done things like this at Notalans too..." Violet said, memories of such events coming back to her suddenly, "I'd be with Lydia, or Arian, or both in one place, and then all of a sudden I'd be somewhere else and I didn't know how I got there and they would be looking at me kind of strangely. When I asked them what happened, they told me that I had talked to them like I was someone else."

"Really?" Harry said in surprise.

"Yeah, all of that stuff began when I started going to Notalans. Somehow I seem to be able to pick up on the past psychic vibrations of people...I'm guessing that I pick them up because whatever was happening in that time for those people was a particularly emotional time for them. As far as why I do it, any guess would be a good one. This may be a reason why I've always been particularly good at Divination..." Violet replied.

"Wow...hey, well, I just wanted you to know that none of us are mad at you. The reason why I was a bit upset was because in the vision, as my mother, you told me that you were in Slytherin. I had no idea that my mother was in Slytherin...this basically changes my whole idea of her person...according to everyone that knew her, my mother was the nicest person they'd ever known, but now I'm not so sure what to think since I found this out." Harry said.

"Well, everyone in Slytherin can't be bad, could they?" Violet asked, remembering her conflicting thoughts about Draco in that very moment.

Harry just looked at Violet in slight disbelief that she could have said something like that and said, "I don't know how it was at Notalans, but Slytherin is definitely the evil house at Hogwarts. I have yet to see one decent person in Slytherin...that's why I just don't know what exactly to think about my mum."

"I don't think that just because a person is in a particular house that they are automatically a bad person." Violet said stubbornly.

"You're saying this after your numerous confrontations with Draco?!" Harry said with some surprise.

"I don't know...maybe Draco is just misunderstood or something..." Violet said, unintentionally defending Draco.

Harry gave her a very strange look and said, "No. He's just an evil, spoiled, little git. Why are you so intent on defending him anyway?"

This is when Violet realized her mistake. A slight amount of color came to her cheeks, but luckily this went unnoticed by Harry.

"I'm not! I think he's just as much a...git...as you do. I just want you to realize that your mom probably wasn't bad just because she was in Slytherin. You've always got bad individuals in every house. That doesn't make the whole house bad, does it?" Violet replied, hoping that she covered up her defending of Draco good enough.

Harry thought about that a moment and said, "You know, that's actually true..."

Harry started feeling better than he had in days after he'd first heard the vision from Violet.

"Hey, Ron, Hermione, and I want you to stop avoiding us! We were all going to go up to the Common Room to study for a little for the O.W.L.s. No, I take that back. If Hermione is involved in this at all, we're going to be at it for a while." Harry said with a little smile.

Violet smiled back. They walked up to Ron and Hermione and then they all went up to the Gryffindor Common Room.