~Violet and Sirius' fifth year at Hogwarts~

Remus jumped as someone slammed their schoolbag down onto the desk next to him. He looked up from his book, Magical Magnifications and the Wizards Who Invented Them, to see his fellow Gryffindor and friend, Sirius Black, pull up a chair beside him. Sirius slumped into his seat and let his head fall onto his bag as he prepared for a traditional library nap. As their fifth year was beginning, so was the stress of their OWL exams, unhelped by the fact that Sirius had managed to find himself in detention in the first week of term.

"That bad?" Remus asked and Sirius gave a muffled answer from somewhere in the folds of his bag. "What?" Sirius lifted his head a little and turned to look at Remus.

"Another hour with McGonagall and I would've cursed myself." He sighed and ran a hand through his hair wearily. As his black locks fell back into place, he spied someone sat on a window ledge at the end of the corridor of bookshelves. Through the evening light of the library lamps, he could just about see someone sitting cross legged on a cushion she had placed on the windowsill. Dressed in black jeans and a silk white shirt, she looked every bit of an aristocratic wizard's daughter. He hadn't seen her for-

"Just learn to be patient with…who is your partner again?" Remus interrupted Sirius' thoughts and he dragged his eyes away from her and back to his friend. It took him a second to figure out what Remus was talking about.

"Adams."

"Oh." Remus put an apologetic hand on his friend's shoulder. "You probably get more done in detention alone than in a lesson with her." Sirius sat up straight, shut his eyes in exasperation and leant back in his chair. He idly murmured a charm and pointed his wand in the direction of the ground to prevent himself from falling.

"This is the fifth year I have to be partnered with that moron. Fifth year!"

"Who is that?" Sirius turned his head to Remus quickly.

"Who?" He asked quietly as Remus narrowed his eyes on the figure sat on a window ledge.

"Over there. I thought you knew, you've been looking at her since you got here."

"It's Violet Demetrius," answered Sirius, realising he couldn't get out of it, and when Remus raised an eyebrow he rolled his eyes, "I keep looking to hope she doesn't notice me." Remus looked unimpressed.

"Why don't you want her to notice you?"

"Moony, just drop it ok?" Sirius' annoyance flared up and he spoke before Remus had even finished his sentence, annoyed that his friend didn't believe him. Remus ruffled his already messy hair and shook his head.

"No, I won't drop it." He said sternly. "She's the only girl who doesn't follow you and James around, the only one you refuse to talk to, the only one you're always looking at and the only one you seem to have a problem with." Sirius grimaced. "I just figured all this childishness would end…" Remus added in a whisper. Sirius sighed with defeat.

"My parents know her parents; we are forced to meet every Christmas holiday, every wedding, every birthday." Sirius spoke with bored grey eyes, wondering if his friend, who had entirely different difficulties in life, would understand. "I want to get away from that world; you know how much I can't stand it. I want to get away from everything that reminds me of my God forsaken home and that includes rich little bratty witches who think I am interested in them."

"So stop looking."

"What?"

"She'll ignore you if you ignore her." Remus shrugged and picked his book back up, disregarding Sirius' apparent disgust with the girl. "I haven't seen the two of you talk since second year anyway. You've always got something to say about how annoying she is when I don't ever see the two of you interact." Sirius wasn't going to back down.

"You don't know the kind of girl she is. Her, Irma, Wainwright, they're all cut from the same cloth. Spoilt, pure-blood poison."

"Why does that give you a right to judge them all the time?"

"Prongs is into her-"

"Scared you're going to lose your best friend to a girl?"

"No. he just doesn't know what kind of girl she is-"

"Gentlemen, place your bets on who will be made Gryffindor Quidditch Captain this year." Sirius and Remus had been looking at each other quite intently; Sirius shocked at his friend's lack of understanding of how grave the situation was and Remus was apparently completely disinterested. They turned their heads to James slowly. "Did I miss something?" James asked, looking from one to the other. Remus shrugged.

"No, Prongs. My bets are firmly placed with Meredith Douglas." Remus answered quickly and quietly added: "everyone knows Alden fancies her." James seemed to forget the moment before hand and sat down opposite the other two boys.

"How was detention, Padfoot?" He asked and as Sirius opened his mouth, he saw James shoot a concealed look down the corridor.

"Boring, although I did manage to work on the map a bit more." He said through a yawn. The map to which Sirius referred was a creation of the four friends; after working on it for almost two years Sirius was putting on the final touches.

"And you wonder why you're always put in detention in the first place," Remus muttered.

"Lighten up, Moony." James interjected, "that map will come in handy the next time a full moon's out." Remus looked around, alarmed that someone might be listening. "Relax, the only other person here is Violet." James jabbed his thumb in her direction. The three friends continued to sit in silence for a few minutes; Remus went back to reading, Sirius to napping and James to stealing glances over at the window. "I'll be right back." He said suddenly, got up from the table and ruffled his hair for luck.

James adjusted his school robes and loosened his tie as he made his way down the aisle in the library. He narrowly missed the Fat Friar who was discussing a magical revolution with a fellow student. Violet seemed engrossed with her book, her dark curls falling into the pages in her lap. She pushed her hair around to one side of her neck in order to read on. James and Violet had been friends since third year; a hex he cast on a entirely deserving Severus Snape had accidently rebounded onto her and she had not hesitated to return the favour. When James saw her courage, he immediately befriended her very much to the dislike of his best friend. As James approached, she flicked her violet eyes up at him and raised an eyebrow.

"What's up, James?" She said sweetly as he arrived before her. James had always known that Sirius had a problem with Violet, and the other girls she was friends with, but to James she had always been kind and smart, if a little standoffish. Students would often see her on her own; there was something particularly cold about her that made her ivory skin seem like porcelain.

"Are you going into Hogsmead on Saturday?" He asked, running a hand through his hair. Violet bit her lip in thought.

"I'm helping a second year with Charms in the afternoon so I figure there's not much point." She smiled a little at him with rose-red lips as he went to retrieve something from his pockets. Violet was known throughout the school for being good looking and smart, sorted into Ravenclaw in the first year, she was easily near the top of James' list. For a year he had been debating whether or not he should ask her out and, as Lily Evans had made her feelings clear, he guessed now was as good a time as any. Moreover, as one of the most popular boys at the school, he thought it were best that he should be with a girl that everyone talked about. Even if they talked about how isolated she could sometimes be, it was made up for with how little animosity she really had for anyone. When James had realised the thing he wanted wasn't actually in his pocket, Violet spoke up: "you know there's no innocent third year for you to hex around here so did you want something in particular or can you piss off?" James shook his head at her.

"I'm not a complete arse like I was last year."

"I never thought you were a complete arse." Violet interrupted, "pampered, only-child, Backstreet Boy wannabe, perhaps?" She suggested and James sneered before thinking about what she had said.

"What's a Backstreet Boy?" He asked, nonplussed.

"They're a muggle boy band…oh don't worry." Violet responded and went back to reading.

"Jesus, you make it so difficult for someone to ask you out." He retorted and Violet shook her head.

"Depends on who's asking." She said without looking up. After a heartbeat's silence, Violet looked up and fluttered her eyelashes at him. "James, we've been friends for ages, why would you be asking me? You never seemed interested before!"

"Come on," James replied, "for four years you were a tomboy, we were friends because you liked duelling and now you come back into fifth year looking like this with the same lovely personality," Violet rolled her eyes, "that made us friends in the first place and you expect every guy you ever knew to treat you the same?" Violet seemed to consider.

"Well I suppose people change. I'm not so cynical anymore and you're not as much of a berk." She began to create a small plait in her hair by twirling her wand. "To be honest, James, I never wanted to ruin our friendship."

"It won't," James said quickly, "besides there's not much to lose; you were always a shit friend."

"Stop talking," she said with a smirk and jumped down from the window ledge. "Sure," she said quietly and walked up to him. Violet leant into him and went to whisper in his ear, "your friends have put unchecked books in your bag so the alarm goes off when you leave," she murmured in a deliciously sultry way that made James shiver. As she pulled away James looked down into those violet eyes and almost stepped back in surprise as she went to kiss his cheek. She softly kissed the corner of his mouth and moved away. "Bye." Violet had changed and James firmly decided that he liked it. As she left the library he turned back to his friends and walked over to their table with an air of triumph.

"What was that all about?" Moony enquired and James beamed.

"Never mind that, you guys think you guys are hilarious don't you?" James said and pulled out the unchecked books from his schoolbag, much to the disappointment of his friends.

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