Violet reached into her robe pocket to find her wand as she followed behind Bella, glad for once of the large, billowing robes every student had to wear. She'd adjusted, gradually, over the years, but still, sometimes she missed not having them. Right now though, she wasn't sure she could trust herself not to ogle Bellatrix's ass. She didn't have any memories of it, but she was rather certain it was lovely, just based on the rest of the girl. Robes helped mitigate that.

She wasn't sure why Bellatrix was having this effect on her. She'd always been able to handle being around pretty girls before. Even Fleur, with her moderate Veela allure, hadn't shaken her. Maybe it was just a matter of aesthetic. Nobody she knew quite looked like Bellatrix after all.

She shook her head and pulled out her wand. Sadly it was not her holly and phoenix feather wand, and she felt a pang of sadness. She supposed it made sense, it was hardly likely that Fawkes had donated his second feather the same year as the one in Voldemort's, with the other wand just sitting there for fifty years or so. Possible, but not likely she didn't think.

No, instead she found a wand made of a rather reddish wood, probably 3 centimeters longer than her old one. The memory of a visit to Ollivander's struck her abruptly. Cherry wood with a dragon heartstring core, 31 centimeters. She made a small hum and put the wand back in her robe pocket. The extra length would take some getting used to she rather thought, but it felt right to be holding it all the same. She chose to take that as a good sign, and was rather happy when she finally sat down across the table from Bellatrix as a result.

"So, what shall we do today?" Bellatrix asked brightly, dishing herself some potatoes. Violet shrugged, grabbing some bacon as she tried to remember if 'Ravenna' had had any plans. As it turned out, she had.

"Well, provided his House mates haven't managed to poison him entirely against Slytherins in the last twelve or so hours I'm supposed to take James on a tour of the castle, point him in the general direction of things." She said. Bellatrix wrinkled her nose.

"Better you than me."

"You took Andromeda and Narcissa on tours." Violet pointed out. She blinked. Tonks' mom was two years younger than her at the moment. Weird. All of this was weird of course, but being older than the mother of a girl who was older than her by seven years (and whom she'd had a crush on, but unless she made it back to her time that was irrelevant) was somehow a bit weirder than just being older than her parents. Her brain was strange that way.

"My sisters are several times better behaved than your brother. And they're not Gryffindors." Bellatrix said, shuddering dramatically with the last word and getting a chuckle and a head shake from Violet.

"Well, regardless, after that I was wondering if maybe you'd like to duel?" Bellatrix perked up, then frowned.

"You always say no when I ask, what changed?" Violet shrugged.

"Father made some comments about how I might want to brush up a bit on things beyond just DADA lessons." She said. "And by some I mean a lot." It wasn't even a lie, though Violet didn't know if they were the result of the trunk's magic changing things again to provide her with an excuse or if they were 'natural'. It was entirely possible that her grandfather (father now) was just a perceptive man who noticed the state of the world and was worried about his daughter and heir. "And you're probably the best duelist who's not on staff."

"What do you mean probably?" Bellatrix huffed indignantly.

"Well, I hear some scary things about the Hufflepuff…" Violet began, but had to dodge a roll before she could finish the sentence.

"Oh, I'm going to make you hurt for that you little bint." Bellatrix growled. "And I know just the place for it! Meet me back in the Common Room once you're done giving the brat a tour." Violet blinked, then nodded.

"Alright, fair enough." She chuckled, rubbing the back of her head.

"Try to suggest a Hufflepuff might be better than me at something again and I'll put a body bind curse on you and let Narcissa have a go at trying to tame the Potter hair." Bellatrix said firmly, which made Violet promptly pull her hand away. Her hair had remained more or less the same in a stubbornly messy bob, which was nice at least.

"Duly noted." She said, nodding. "A little unnecessarily mean, to both Hufflepuffs and me, but noted."

"One day one of us is going to pin you down and get that hair taken care of." Bellatrix warned. "Probably Narcissa, but annoy me enough and I might get there myself."

"So you've been threatening for...a while." Violet chuckled, taking a bite of some mushrooms.

Breakfast went on for a few more minutes like that, with Bellatrix occasionally muttering about Hufflepuffs under her breath, but they split after that, Bellatrix headed one way while Violet wandered off to the Gryffindor table, soon finding her father...little brother now, wolfing down food with baby Sirius. She felt a pang, seeing them happy and healthy and young like this, then wandered over, stealing some bacon off of her...brother's plate.

"Hey!" He snapped, before looking up and grinning. "Raven!" Violet felt like her eye was going to twitch if people kept using that particular name as how to address her, but that seemed to be locked in rather stubbornly, at least for her family and Bellatrix. Maybe she could sway Sirius? Not that she disliked 'Ravenna', it was just a bit too...pureblood for her tastes.

"Hey hey James." She said, ruffling his hair and stealing a second piece of bacon. "Huh, your guys' bacon is better, must be because Dumbledore likes you." She said playfully.

"Stop stealing my bacon!" James protested, while Sirius looked on in bemusement that had a depressing air of longing to it. Was he not allowed to tease Regulus? Her memories rather regularly depicted Bellatrix being playful and kind to her little sisters (albeit mainly in private unless she was going for teasing), and she was fairly certain that wasn't solely her influence.

"Fine." She told James, shrugging and snagging his goblet of orange juice, chugging it.

"Hey!"

"You only said to not steal bacon. Now c'mon, I said I'd give you a tour and the longer it takes the longer I'll be making Bellatrix wait which...not a good plan." James rolled his eyes as she put the goblet back down but nodded.

"Can Sirius come?" He asked, glancing at his new friend. Violet shrugged.

"Sure, why not?" She couldn't think of a good reason not to let him come, and maybe she could help tamp down on the bullying. Not that bullying excused everything of course, but less of it could only help in making Snape less of a prick.

"Are you friends with my cousin Bellatrix?" Sirius asked curiously, speaking up finally. Violet nodded.

"Yeah, she's my best friend, we shared a compartment on the train together our first year and just sort of stayed close. I'm Violet, nice to meet you." To her surprise Sirius shook his head.

"Nuh-uh, Bellatrix wrote me a guide list for Hogwarts and one of the first things she said was that her best friend was named Ravenna but kept trying to get people to call her by her silly middle name and that if I encouraged you she'd let Narcissa redesign my wardrobe." Violet definitely felt her eye twitch at that.

"Well, you're in Gryffindor, so it's not like she can get at your clothes." She pointed out.

"Bellatrix would find a way." Sirius said bluntly, and Violet sighed.

"Yeah, probably. Alright, this way firsties." She said, waving a hand as she headed for the exit, muttering under her breath about meddling goths and pretentious purebloods the whole time.

The tour of the castle itself was fairly uneventful, though she did her best to be comprehensive. They started in the dungeons, though she avoided the Slytherin dormitory in favor of Slughorn's classroom and the kitchens. The latter was mainly just to keep them from asking about the Slytherin dorms, but still. No need to be showing the pranksters in the making exactly where the House they already had some issues with slept.

From there the tour took a bit longer, but she was able to show them a couple of passageways that helped bypass the stairs. Some she knew from the map they'd eventually make, others Bellatrix had shown her...or shown Ravenna rather...technically. That was confusing her still, but she tried to push past it. She showed them each of the required classes, and the fastest ways to get to each, as well as which staircases were most fond of popping out trick steps and which floors were most likely to conjure up fake doors.

"Thanks Raven." James said finally when she deposited them back at the Gryffindor dormitory. She chuckled and ruffled his hair.

"Any time dwarf." She said brightly. "You ask me anytime you need something, okay? Different Houses doesn't mean we're not siblings anymore. And Sirius, you can ask too, okay? Never hurts to ask for help, and even if we're not family you're James' friend and my best friend's family, so that's like...cousins or something." Sirius looked at her a little strangely. She knew she wasn't exactly behaving like the proper heir of one of the richest and oldest pureblood families ought to, but she didn't exactly care. She wondered if she was making him rethink what being an heir meant for him, or if he was just thinking she was weird and wondering what her parents were like.

"I don't think that's how that works, but thanks." He said finally, giving a small grin. Violet grinned back and waved before heading back down. In the scheme of things keeping the two biggest rival Houses in Hogwarts literally as far away from each other as possible was probably for the best, but damn if it didn't make things annoying.

As she headed down to the dungeon, she ran through 'Ravenna's' memories, looking to see if there were any spells she'd learned that she didn't already know. To her slight surprise there didn't seem to be. She paused, realizing that much as she kind of had bland relationships with most people, she had kind of bland school performance. She raised her eyebrow, wondering, then decided that she was really good at Potions. A moment later she rocked on her heels, as everything changed. It was like she had a...a photographic memory, at least when it came to potions class and texts. She hesitated, then decided that she was really good at Defense still and also Charms. The same thing, only more so. Though she noticed dimly that there were still no new spells. Just a better grasp at learning them and a better handle on how.

She pursed her lips, then decided to leave it at that. She wasn't terrible at any subject, and truth be told she didn't particularly feel like she was cut out for Hermione's level of brilliance. Settling for three O's and some E's and A's was enough. Taking Ancient Runes instead of Divination was going to be interesting though.

The lack of any new spells was puzzling to her, until she figured out what was going on. Learning new magic wasn't purely mental. Otherwise Hermione would have graduated by third year probably. There was more to it than just knowing the proper incantation and the proper way to wave the wand, otherwise more students would excel. It was part instinct, and part knowing how to properly shape your magic and use it to achieve the desired result. That wasn't something she could just remember without experience, not really.

Though now that she thought about it, there was one brand of magic that was all mental. She closed her eyes, bracing herself, and decided that Ravenna had been taught Occlumency. A moment later the knowledge hit her, and she was struck by how easy it seemed, recalling Fleamont's lessons (she'd have to get used to thinking of him as Father, lest she stumble into the opposite potential problem she had with James) and how clearly he'd laid it out. Then again, she could concede that she had been a rather shitty student for Snape. He hadn't made things easier, and she wasn't sure she'd do things differently if she got to do fifth year over, but she could admit there'd been fault on her end too.

She shook her head, wondering if Ravenna was smarter than her or just better at applying herself, and entered the Slytherin common room.

"Finally!" Bellatrix huffed, hauling herself out of her chair. "I was wondering if you'd decided to show them the bottom of the Lake and the Forest too." Violet chuckled.

"Patience is a virtue." She said playfully, chuckling as Bellatrix responded to this by cuffing her shoulder. "So, where are we going, outside?"

"Nope, seventh floor." Bellatrix said brightly, heading for the exit. Violet spluttered, then groaned.

"I was just at Gryffindor tower!" She protested. "Why'd I have to come back down here if we were going back to the penultimate floor?"

"Because you made me wait so you could show your brother around." Bellatrix called back smugly. "Now hurry up, before I levitate you there." Violet groaned again, following her friend.

She was so busy being grumpy and exasperated about marching back up the castle again that it didn't occur to her where they were going until they stopped in front of a blank wall and Bellatrix started walking back and forth. She blinked. Obviously she wasn't the first student to make more than accidental use of the Room of Requirement, but she'd be lying if she said she hadn't expected that she'd have to be the one to introduce it to others.

"What's this?" She asked, raising an eyebrow and doing her best to look surprised when a door appeared.

"This is...well I don't know what to call it. This used to be my pacing hallway, since there's no classes or anything up here. It was where I'd go when I needed to work off steam. Then one day this door appeared and I've been using it ever since." Bellatrix opened the door and it revealed a wide, long, marble hall, with a marked off duelling arena in the center.

"Rules?" Violet asked as she closed the door behind her, noticing it vanish. Bellatrix must have made a point of not wanting to be interrupted. She wished she'd thought of that back with the DA.

"Nothing lethal, no unforgivables, try not to go for the hair or the clothes." Bellatrix said calmly, stepping into one end of the arena. Violet nodded, moving to the other end.

"Fair enough. Count of Three?"

"Nope!" Violet's eyes widened as the other girl snapped out her wand, casting a spell without speaking, and barely got a shield charm up in time to block the blast of red light.

"Expelliarmus!" Violet snapped, lashing out. To her dismay Bellatrix managed to block it with a wordless shield charm. Dammit, they hadn't started learning those yet, how did Bellatrix already know silent casting?

The duel went on like that for some time. Neither girl managed to score a solid hit on the other, but Violet was the only one speaking, and wound up having to repeat spells more than once, though she tried to change up her tactics and where she aimed as much as possible.

"Okay, no, stop." Bellatrix said finally, putting a shield between them and looking frustrated.

"What?" Violet protested. "I can't be that bad."

"Why are you casting verbally?" Violet blinked.

"Because we haven't learned that yet?" She said, as if it should be obvious. Bellatrix blinked at her, frowning.

"And the fact that you're only using the standard DADA spells?"

"...what else would I be using? Hair growing charms?" Bellatrix stared at her for a long moment.

"Violet, are you trying to tell me that you're not learning any new spells over the summer?" She demanded finally, with an almost Hermione-like expression on her face. She thought this was a bit unfair though. This wasn't her putting off homework or practice, this was her not breaking the law.

"Well, yeah...it's illegal to use magic outside of school, isn't it?" She asked. Bellatrix gave her a long look. "I learned Occlumency this summer!" Bellatrix kept looking at her. "What?"

"Nothing, nothing. Okay let's...this is now spell lessons, until I figure out what the fuck to do about your parents."

"W...why would you have to do anything about my parents?"

"Don't worry about it. Now, this is a floor softening charm, great for tripping up your opponents and buying you some time. It's the least dangerous, and you favor quick finishing spells besides, so we'll start with that to expand your repertoire." Violet blinked, but quickly nodded, watching Bellatrix demonstrate the proper wand movements. She had no idea what was going on, but she wasn't going to pass up on a new spell.